The Monster Manual 2 Cover is up on Amazon

[Silverblade The Ench]

Merlin The TUna,
hey, when you are THAT big, it doesn't matter which end he hits you with cause even the blade is so big it's more a case of SPLAT! than SLASH!

And that was a damned fine cover, I must agree. *he says in Agent Cooper style*
But the Fiend Folio, now that has never been beaten for yumminess!

 

[El Mahdi]

Tentacle-Baboons have your number and they are not happy with what you did to Orcus. . .

Come on, that's obviously just a simple 3E Orangutan Ettin / Wyvern Hybrid with an Outsider Template. No big deal. I use them all of the time in my games.

 

[Holy Bovine]

@Merlin the Tuna - I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that. That cover has bugged me for 20 years.

Anyways the cover really means little to me - I bought the 1977 Monster Manual for gosh's sake! I hope the content is great and I am also hoping some 3pp step forward and give us monster books before MM2 hits the stands. I can never have enough monster books.

 

[Shemeska]

I don't think this is one of the better illustrations of Demogorgon that I've seen. It's not bad except for two things that just really bug the heck out of me. I much prefer the one from the cover of Dungeon last year, or heck even the hyena headed one from the BoVD.

1) The blue mandril portions of his face are way too prominant versus his actual eyes. When I first saw the picture I mistook those patches for an insects compound eyes, and though they'd made an even bigger mistake in the art order than the hyena headed BoVD demogorgon or the MotP 4-armed nycaloth*.

2) I don't like that demogorgon is wearing what looks like tattered cloth barbarian underwear with metal studs. Not only does the prince of demons not wear any clothes, the prince of demons does not wear he-man's stolen pants.

*though admittedly, I rather like the 4 armed nycaloth even though it was a mistake on reading the description. I even bought the original artwork for it.

 

[Kunimatyu]

I thought Graz'zt would be cool, but do we really want a bestial Graz'zt to be forever immortalized on the cover of an MM? He is one of those demons who just doesn't, fit, the new art direction. Perhaps Pazuzu would be a better choice. After that, for MMIV at the latest I think they should switch to bad guys from the Astral Dominions. Maybe Glasya, with a somewhat overt stand in for Asmodeus (like a snake that stares straight towards you, while Glasya is actually looking away). That would be cool, in the creepy kind of sense I think.

I hope they keep finding subtle ways to work in demon lord covers:

MM3 - Yeenoghu with his triple flail
MM4 - Pazuzu (four wings)
MM5 - No idea, use Tiamat as a cop-out?
MM6 - six-fingered Grazz't

 

[carborundum]

1) The blue mandril portions of his face are way too prominant versus his actual eyes. When I first saw the picture I mistook those patches for an insects compound eyes, and though they'd made an even bigger mistake in the art order than the hyena headed BoVD demogorgon or the MotP 4-armed nycaloth*.

YES! Totally! I was staring at it for ages thinking he had mandrill bum-cheeks on his face.

 

[Mercule]

1) I hope that's stand-in art.
2) I hope Demogorgon is still the focus on the final cover.
3) Demogorgon is the only core demon prince to feature prominently IMC, and has since 1e. If he's in it, I'm buying it.

 

[Voadam]

You can never have enough monsters.

I'm a supplement whore--I have to be, for my job, but I would be even if I didn't--but even if there came a day where I cut drastically down on my D&D books, I would still likely get every major monster book to hit shelves.

Hi Mouseferatu, welcome to Monster Supplement Purchasers Anonymous. Its a friendly place full of compulsive pack rat gamers. Help yourself to donuts. Their over on the table near the stack of Chaosium's All the World's Monsters and Ye Book of Monsters volumes and before the Privateer Press Monsternomicons.

 

[Scribble]

I'll most ikely buy it. Probably in pdf form.

While it's easy to reskin and build your own monsters in 4e... I also like having other people's imagination working for me too. Someone might come up witha cool concept that just works well. Plus more monster powers to steal.

Now as far as that cover... Eh... I think it suffers from a problem I have with a lot of artwork... It's just a portrait.

By that I mean, it's just a picture of the character it wants to illustrate. Here is demogorgon. He's standing there making a face. He's not doing anything of any particular interest. There's nothing going on around him... He's not even standing anywhere particularily interesting. He's just hanging out making a face. (Well- making two faces.)

It just doesn't inspire a story in me.

The picture posted by Simon is an example of something that DOES inspire a story in me, if only because it's two guys fighting.

My mind wanders asking questions like what are they fighting over? Where is this forrest? Where was that knight going? Where was the giant going? Who's winning? Is there anything at stake (aside from their lives?)

All this stuff can weave together for me into a story that inspires other creative ideas that lead to better adventures. Which is a plus in a book designed to help me write adventures.

 

[Klaus]

I'm veering *this* close to making a Demogorgon picture myself, just to see what would come out. If I do, I'll certainly Cthulhify him a bit more...