Fluff is more useful then stats. Take out all the fluff from a monster and it's just a set of numbers, with no identity. The fluff makes the monster what it is. Not the stats.
Not at all true. Strip away the names and lore and no one would mistake a Mind Flayer for a dragon, nor a beholder for a giant. One of the most common complaints about the 5e MM is how bland the monsters are, and you could craft a finely made novel spanning the history of the species, their culture, and their origins, but if that monster has a basic multiattack and nothing else it’s still bland and uninteresting, in my opinion.
On the flipside, a mechanically interesting creature can be interesting without regards to how much or how little you know about it. Plus, I would hazard a guess that it’s easier for people to think up fluff for things than it is to create comprehensive or smooth rules, so I’m firmly in the camp that less fluff and more crunch is the way to go. I can’t get too mad at Volo’s for this since it’s being sort of marketed on fluff as well, but with the anemic release schedule of 5e I feel for people pain when they want more.
The problem with every Monster Manual 2 is that you end up with 200 good must-have excellent monsters and 100 stinkers that are there to fill space or test out some new ideas. Adding other content instead makes sense.
Unless we end up with 50 good ones, 50 stinkers, and fluff for both. I feel quite certain there will be content in this book that is lacking, as is the case for most products. The reduced page count doesn’t help with this, either.
MM2 essentially means "More of the same". Maybe the math is better, maybe a few cool new monsters, but all the most popular monsters were in the MM unless they deliberately held things back to spread out and sell more books.
More of the same is not necessarily bad but it usually does little to improve the game in general. Sure there are some people who at least think that their enjoyment of actually playing the game will be substantially improved by simply adding more monsters in an official source book... but then this book does that too.
A different type of monster book has a greater chance of improving more people's games so I think it's a great choice and I am MUCH more interested in it than a MM2.
Definitely disagree. In other threads on what people want in MM2, users have posted hundreds of ideas they’d like to see. It’s also a great way for wizards to expand into new territory, since as you said, MM1 is pretty much reserved for the icons of the game. I harped on this earlier as well, but in terms of better math there’s definitely a subset of people on this very board who would like more dynamic encounters/monsters and better high-level threats, which are also great for a 2
nd MM.
I would also charge that this book is actually less likely to improve the game than a hypothetical MM2. With Volo’s, you not only have fewer creatures, but now you have a bunch of fluff pages you’ll have to re-write if you don’t play FR. It’s simultaneously more niche and less content heavy.
