Monster Manual II

[coyote6]

Personally, I'm very happy that they aren't using three-hole punched sheets. Ring binders seem to take up more space than a book with an equal number of pages, and the pages get damaged more easily. I'd rather have books.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Why on earth are they reprinting monsters from Creature Collection 1? That smacks of rip-off to me. I don't want reprints (unless they put in the MoP ones), I want classic monsters... I don't want lame new monsters like the Yrthak, Destrachan, Athach, Siv, Mohrg, Twig Blight, Tomb Tapper, etc. I've seen very little creativity on the part of WoTC monster designers so far. They seem like they are just creating things to fill niches (elemental, sonic monsters, more undead, more monk type monsters, etc.). I'm not concerned with filling niches so much as filling them with something cool. If they aren't cool, leave the niche alone. Don't mean to rant, just was dumbfounded to hear they were reprinting stuff (and not even good stuff, like the MoP critters). Argh!

I'm much more excited about Scott's Creature Catalogue. That's got all the good stuff in it and it's free (by good I mean 1e and 2e classic monster conversions). His homebrew board also has some nice stuff in it from Boz, Krishna and the gang. Don't know how good his soon to be published version will be (but I am hopeful). I haven't bought any monster books except Creature Collection 2, MM, and MoF. The others I've seen from MEG, Bastion, S&S, etc. did nothing for me. There were *maybe* ten cool monsters between all these other books, IMO. Creature Collection 2 had 35% cool stuff, and I wouldn't have bought it except I saw it had some critters that were perfect to spring on my players the night I bought it. Had to run home and frantically swap out the monsters I had lined up and replace them with the CC2 ones. Worked out well, but the book has only been used once since (Carrion Hounds--which ended up being tougher than owlbears but worth less XP!!!). I don't really trust the ability of most of these third party designers to create *balanced* monsters. They are either too weak or too strong, rarely "just right."

Just my two cents.

 

[Grazzt]

trust me Kaptain, the upcoming Creature Catalog book will be well worth it.....

 

[BronzeDragon]

I don't want lame new monsters like the...Athach, Tomb Tapper...

Those monsters are hardly "new".

The Tomb Tapper (I prefer Thaalud) has been around at least since 2E, and I believe the Athach exists since 1E.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Those monsters are hardly "new".

The Tomb Tapper (I prefer Thaalud) has been around at least since 2E, and I believe the Athach exists since 1E.

I've been playing D&D over twenty years and I've never heard of 'em. That makes 'em new (at least for me!).

 

[Lizard]

Had thought I had seen Hide in Tome and Blood but can't find out now since let player borrow it and MagF :x. Could be wrong.

Although I had thought that wizards was exempt from conforming the ogl restrictions due to the license actually being owned by them.

This means they can publish all the game-rule content they want and not make it open, while other companies who are deriving their game rules from open content (the SRD) must open their content in turn.

If they wish to reuse someone ELSES Open Content, they're bound by the same rules as everyone else regarding the OGL. They are NOT bound by the STL, because they're the ones licensing the trademark.

 

[Lizard]

Why is thze reprint of CC monsters use of OGC?

I would have thought if you use stuff from other books, WITHOUT reprinting it, that would be the case.
Like publishing new traps under FFG's T&T system.

Not publishing that system, again.

Berandor

Reuse of open content can include reprinting text verbatim, deriving from it, or reprinting it with editorial changes. (i.e, I see a cool system for doing 'blah' that is open content, but it was originally written for a fantasy setting and I'm writing cyberpunk rules. I take the text, but change the fantasy references and examples to cyberpunk references and examples. My resulting modified text is open, as well, because it is a derivative work of the original.)

 

[Orcus]

I think you all will be happy with the published version of Scott's Creature Catalog.

Here are a few things:

*New Name: The Tome of Horrors (subtitle: A Fiendish Folio of Creatures)
*hardback
*Over 400 total monsters (thats right)
*Single page layout per monster (for all monsters except animals and hazards, etc)
*Over 40 new monsters not even on Scott's site
*There will be NO overlap with the MM2. We are working with WotC and there wont be anything in ours that is in theirs, and vice versa.
*All original monsters from Necromancer Games products (about 20) will be there.
*It will all be open content with instructions on how other publishers can use the monsters and do the legal stuff properly
*All original authors will be credited and a nod will be given to original source material.
*Chock full of juicy 1E goodness bringing conversions of all your favorites that WotC left out of 3E from the original MM2, the original MM, the original FF and even some from some old modules.

Clark

 

[MerricB]

I think you all will be happy with the published version of Scott's Creature Catalog.

Here are a few things:

*There will be NO overlap with the MM2. We are working with WotC and there wont be anything in ours that is in theirs, and vice versa.
*Chock full of juicy 1E goodness bringing conversions of all your favorites that WotC left out of 3E from the original MM2, the original MM, the original FF and even some from some old modules.

Clark

Now, that sounds cool.

Congratulations, Clark - I might forgive your lapses with Prisoners of the Maze long enough to check this out.

Hang on... I can hear the monsters calling me...

Change that - I'll definitely forgive the PotM rules blunders for this. Working in co-operation with Wizards also helps!

Cheers!

 

[Grazzt]

I've been playing D&D over twenty years and I've never heard of 'em. That makes 'em new (at least for me!).

Athach was an OD&D monster and the Tomb Tapper was in Dragon #41.