The (Incremental) Return of the Creature Catalog!

[freyar]

With many thanks to EN World admin [MENTION=52905]darjr[/MENTION], we now have a temporary home for the Creature Catalog. That means you can find CC conversions on-line again! Please note that this is a test site, so there might be some issues --- please report them here, so we can let darjr know about any problems to be addressed. It's also static, so we don't have a simple way to make corrections/updates to existing critters or add new monsters. As darjr has time, Cleon and I will figure out the best way to put that kind of ability back in the CC.

EDIT:
As Cleon says below, the updated Creature Catalog is at the following links:
Creature Catalog Conversions Index
Creature Crypt


The following are the old "test" links that are no longer updated, just for posterity's sake:
Overall site http://www.enworld.org/cctest/newcc/
Conversion index http://www.enworld.org/cctest/newcc/Conversions/%5B%20CreatureCatalog%20%5D.htm
Creature Crypt index http://www.enworld.org/cctest/newcc/Crypt/%5B%20Crypt%20%5D.htm

 

[Cleon]

[EDIT]Most of the following links are broken.

A zip folder of Creature Catalog completed conversions can be found in Enworld Resources.
[/ENDEDIT]

With many thanks to EN World admin @darjr, we now have a temporary home for the Creature Catalog. That means you can find CC conversions on-line again! Please note that this is a test site, so there might be some issues --- please report them here, so we can let darjr know about any problems to be addressed. It's also static, so we don't have a simple way to make corrections/updates to existing critters or add new monsters. As darjr has time, Cleon and I will figure out the best way to put that kind of ability back in the CC.

Without further ado, here are the links!
Overall site http://www.enworld.org/cctest/newcc/
Conversion index http://www.enworld.org/cctest/newcc/Conversions/[ CreatureCatalog ].htm
Creature Crypt index http://www.enworld.org/cctest/newcc/Crypt/[ Crypt ].htm

Great!

I was wondering when Darjr was going to say we were clear to unveil this.

It seems appropriate to add a word of explanation.

This archive contains most of the monsters from the old Creature Catalog from just before it went down. It's missing a few of the creature files, but most of the missing files are PDF versions of a monster there's an HTML version of - e.g. the Creature Crypt Xvart has an HTML (Xvart.htm) version but its PDF version (which would be at http://www.enworld.org/creaturecatalog.enworld.org/cc/converted/crypt/xvart.pdf if it wasn't missing) simply wasn't there when I archived the CC.

As well as the individual monsters files, the archive includes:

Creature Catalog Index
Creature Catalog Files List

Crypt Index
Crypt File List

The two Indexes are tables containing all the monsters in each category, alphabetically ordered under the names the original CC used. These indexes include all the information the CC had (CR, posting date, and so forth).

The monster's names in the Indexes don't always match the filename of the monster in the archive, because I edited them a bit for consistency - for example, the CC had a bunch of dragons with the naming format "Dragon, Type" as well as a bunch with the naming format "Type Dragon". In the archive, all the dragons use the "Dragon, Type" format for their filename.

The two Files Lists include a list of every archived file in each category. This includes a few monsters that didn't appear in the actual CC index, mostly slightly different older versions of a monster plus a few prestige classes. All the alternative/obsolete monsters have filenames starting with + or 0.

Since many of the monsters filenames have commas (e.g. the aforementioned "Dragon, Type"), the Lists also include shortcuts with the name the "right way round". All these shortcuts have names ending in ".lnk".

Thus, if you're looking for the "Dragon, Phase" you can also find it by searching the Creature Catalog Files List for the text "Phase Dragon", which wouldn't work in the Creature Catalog Index because the old CC only used the former name.

 

[infernus_dragon]

Awesome!! This is simply Divine Thank everyone involved

 

[darjr]

Going forward the old version will stay up while any new is being evaluated.

 

[Cleon]

Going forward the old version will stay up while any new is being evaluated.

Thanks Darjr, your labours are really appreciated!

I'm thinking that when we you get something more permanent up it'd be a good idea to add a "sticky thread" to the top of this forum who's first post includes links to the new CC.

Even if the new CC ends up using the web address of the old one, it'll still be nice to have a direct link to it from the head of the General Monsters Talk forum.

 

[Cleon]

As you may have noticed, enworld had a major database hiccup recently and had to revert to a backup from roughly 5 months ago.

Fortunately, this hasn't affected the temp Creature Catalog unveiled here since the current version predates the calamity.

Unfortunately we've lost a fair bit of work on the most recent of the conversions that hadn't been added to the CC yet.

Freyar and I are in the process of recovering as much of the recent conversions as we can find in google caches and our personal archive and we'll add them to the main forum in due course.

Once this is done I'll update the Creatures Awaiting Upload & Current Conversions with links to the recovered Working Drafts.

 

[Cleon]

Once this is done I'll update the Creatures Awaiting Upload & Current Conversions with links to the recovered Working Drafts.

I've updated the master Current Conversions List on the aforementioned thread with all the monsters that we had completed or were working on after the Great Database Hiccup.

Said monsters are marked [RESTORATION NEEDED] on the list and will be restored as much as I can from various personal and online caches.

EDIT: I've restored all the completed conversions. Hopefully creatures we were in the middle of converting will have their working drafts restored or part-restored over the next few days.

 

[Cleon]

I've updated the master Current Conversions List on the aforementioned thread with all the monsters that we had completed or were working on after the Great Database Hiccup.

Said monsters are marked [RESTORATION NEEDED] on the list and will be restored as much as I can from various personal and online caches.

EDIT: I've restored all the completed conversions. Hopefully creatures we were in the middle of converting will have their working drafts restored or part-restored over the next few days.

Update: all the working drafts that were mid-conversion have been restored as close to their previous state as I could contrive and we've started to continue them.

There are a few of the "original stat" post missing for said conversions which I haven't got around restoring yet. I'll repost them as necessary when we resume work on that particular conversion.

Finally, we're starting new conversions again! The first of them will be the Kyton variants on the Converting monsters from Tales From The Infinite Staircase thread.

 

[Cleon]

Darjr has created what will hopefully be a permanent home for the Creature Catalog and uploaded an updated version of the CC I've sent him.

It contains all the monsters that we converted before the Great Database Hiccup. There are a few monsters we've finished since then that should get added in the next update.

Relevant links are:

Creature Catalog Index
[FONT=&quot]Crypt Index[/FONT]

 

[graven13]

I can't help but ask, are there plans to convert this full list of 3e monsters to 5e? I would love that!

http://www.enworld.org/creaturecatalog/Conversions/( CCIndex ).htm

 

[freyar]

I can't help but ask, are there plans to convert this full list of 3e monsters to 5e? I would love that!

http://www.enworld.org/creaturecatalog/Conversions/( CCIndex ).htm

Well, the Creature Catalog's goal is to get every prior-edition D&D monster converted to 3.X (and eventually all to 3.5). And we've been working on that since 3.0 first came out! (Well, really, there's been a lot of turn-over in the people involved, but Cleon and I have been here for a while.) So no plans for 5e yet, even leaving aside any possible intellectual property issues (the CC founders made an agreement with WOTC long ago).

 

[Cleon]

Well, the Creature Catalog's goal is to get every prior-edition D&D monster converted to 3.X (and eventually all to 3.5). And we've been working on that since 3.0 first came out! (Well, really, there's been a lot of turn-over in the people involved, but Cleon and I have been here for a while.) So no plans for 5e yet, even leaving aside any possible intellectual property issues (the CC founders made an agreement with WOTC long ago).

Yes, I have no plans and little interest in converting the CC into 5th edition.

We've got enough to do with the remaining unconverted 3E monsters!

There were a few 5E conversions on the Monsters Homebrew forum but they all went AWOL when we had that database crash. Most of them are still scattered around elsewhere in the enworld forums but it'd be hard to track them down.

 

[Cleon]

A zip folder version of the Creature Catalog is now available in Enworld's Resources.

It will be updated periodically as new monster conversions are completed.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

Was the Arak (Shadow Elves) converted?

 

[Cleon]

Was the Arak (Shadow Elves) converted?

The Ravenloft ones? We don't have a conversion of those in the Creature Catalog.

Wizards of the Coast licensed that property to Arthaus's Sword & Sorcery line so I believe the Arak have officially-sanctioned conversions. If so, doing a CC conversion would be beyond our remit. Hold on a mo while I check…

Yup, there's stats for the Shadow Elves on page 15 of the 3.0 Denizens of Darkness (2002) and page 22 of the 3.5 Denizen of Dread (2004). Both sources cover the Powrie (Redcap), Shee, Sith and Teg varieties of. There's also the Gwytune Arak on page 141 of the 3.5 Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume 5 (2004) which also contains a bunch of cultural/regional info. There's more extensive information in Van Richten's Guide to the Shadow Fey (2004) which has stats for the Alven, Brag, Fir, Portune and Muryan breeds as well as the Powrie, Shee, Sith and Teg that were in the Denizens creature books.

How did I forget there was a whole Van Richten Guide on them? It's almost like I have too many RPG books. But that's impossible, there's no such thing as "too many books"…

Anyhow, if you can't get your hands on those products I would think you can cobble something together pretty easily. Maybe use the Seelie and Unseelie Fey conversions from the Creature Catalog as a foundation for the Shee and Sith? There's also a Red Cap in there.

 

[Big Mac]

With many thanks to EN World admin [MENTION=52905]darjr[/MENTION], we now have a temporary home for the Creature Catalog. That means you can find CC conversions on-line again! Please note that this is a test site, so there might be some issues --- please report them here, so we can let darjr know about any problems to be addressed. It's also static, so we don't have a simple way to make corrections/updates to existing critters or add new monsters. As darjr has time, Cleon and I will figure out the best way to put that kind of ability back in the CC.

EDIT:
As Cleon says below, the updated Creature Catalog is at the following links:
Creature Catalog Conversions Index
Creature Crypt


The following are the old "test" links that are no longer updated, just for posterity's sake:
Overall site http://www.enworld.org/cctest/newcc/
Conversion index http://www.enworld.org/cctest/newcc/Conversions/[ CreatureCatalog ].htm
Creature Crypt index http://www.enworld.org/cctest/newcc/Crypt/[ Crypt ].htm

All these links seem to be dead, sadly.

Has ENWorld provided a new home for these websites? Has the Creature Catalogue moved to an external home?

 

[Cleon]

All these links seem to be dead, sadly.

Has ENWorld provided a new home for these websites? Has the Creature Catalogue moved to an external home?

I refer you to a few posts upwards:

A zip folder version of the Creature Catalog is now available in Enworld's Resources.

It will be updated periodically as new monster conversions are completed.

A list or recent additions and conversions-in-progress can be found at the start of Completed Creatures Index & Current Conversions.