When I read the Monster Manual, I found that the backgrounds in the MM generally did a good job at describing the essence of each monster.
What I didn't appreciate until I started to flip through to random monsters later was the boldface text in the backgrounds. If the backgrounds describe the essence, the boldface text provides the essential essence, as it were.
The background for gnolls, for example, has "demonic origin," "nomadic destroyers," and "thirst for blood" in boldface text. If I were to refer to the MM after seeing a gnoll stat block in a module, I'd only need to glance at those phrases to get a sense of how to play the gnolls. That's a handy feature.
My favorite boldface text: the wraith's "bereft of body." I just think that's a cool description. To me, it conveys a sense of loss better than, say, "bodiless." It also reminds me of Monty Python's parrot sketch, so there's that, too.
What I didn't appreciate until I started to flip through to random monsters later was the boldface text in the backgrounds. If the backgrounds describe the essence, the boldface text provides the essential essence, as it were.
The background for gnolls, for example, has "demonic origin," "nomadic destroyers," and "thirst for blood" in boldface text. If I were to refer to the MM after seeing a gnoll stat block in a module, I'd only need to glance at those phrases to get a sense of how to play the gnolls. That's a handy feature.
My favorite boldface text: the wraith's "bereft of body." I just think that's a cool description. To me, it conveys a sense of loss better than, say, "bodiless." It also reminds me of Monty Python's parrot sketch, so there's that, too.
