D&D 5E We need a Monster Manual II

[Blue]

My desire for a MM2 is primary for inspiring monster illustrations. Numbers don't excite me. The DMsG won't be a source of much inspiring art - at least legally.

So hit a site like Deviant Art where you can be inspired. Many of the pieces have licenses that allow private use if you want to print ou to show to your players, and if there is no license you can always ask.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Yes, agreed, but see my point above about the potential disincentive for creating source/monster material. To develop those points further, there's nothing to stop multiple authors from publishing Monster Manuals. It could easily be the case that there are two DMsGuild products that are both guides to Baldur's Gate that contradict each other. Or there could be multiple versions of monsters not yet in 5e print. Not an ideal situation.

So you want WotC to publish their second Monster Manual so that you know which monsters to NOT include in yours (so you don't have your invalidated?)

Why not just make up completely new monsters? People do it all the time and that way you don't have to worry about WotC doubling up on you. Heck, there's a dude named 'StoneStrix' over on the /r/monsteraday reddit subforum that made 100 completely new monsters for 5E and they all looks fantastic.

And as far as detailing out certain parts of the Forgotten Realms... almost every single part HAS been detailed in some form or fashion over the last 5 editions of the game, so you'd basically just be updating a particular area or city to current 5E canon era. Seeing as how we only just got a book that made ever-so-slight details about areas of the Sword Coast... you can pretty much probably go anywhere else and do an update with little fear of it being undone cause who knows when WotC would ever get around to it? Especially considering WotC themselves have said that they are willing to actually buy the works of DMs Guild members if the products are good enough. So if you decide to make a Chult book for the 5E era... there's a chance that they might just lease your work from you and incorporate what you came up with into their canon rather than re-writing the area themselves.

So in truth... you don't want to wait for WotC to detail areas of Faerun... you want to write such awesome stuff that they just ask to use your work and PAY you for it so that they don't have to do their own.

 

[BMaC]

The monsteraday material is fabulous, but can it be used in a DMsGuild product? By posting it to DMsGuild you are giving the IP to WoTC. This is why you cannot use CC-BY-SA material.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The monsteraday material is fabulous, but can it be used in a DMsGuild product? By posting it to DMsGuild you are giving the IP to WoTC. This is why you cannot use CC-BY-SA material.

Well, no... but why do you need to? If you're looking to make new monsters that won't get duplicated by WotC... then make new monsters and you don't need the ones from monsteraday. Or if you are looking to update areas of Faerun that won't get duplicated by WotC, you wouldn't be including monsteraday monsters in your updates anyway because those updates are fluff and wouldn't include monster statblocks.

I'm not sure what your issue is, unless it's merely that you want WotC to write these books rather than DMs Guild members doing it instead.

 

[Will Doyle]

I'd love a second monster manual. The first one is brilliant, but it needs more "stock monsters" for higher levels.

The DMs Guild openly encourages the creation of monsters, especially conversions from older editions. They also say that good submissions to the Guild could open your work for "additional publication opportunities".

Who's to say they're not planning to crowdsource part of the next Monster Manual through the DM's Guild?

 

[jodyjohnson]

So hit a site like Deviant Art where you can be inspired. Many of the pieces have licenses that allow private use if you want to print out to show to your players, and if there is no license you can always ask.

Secondary is the stats, tertiary is official, and quaternary is that it is in a book a can fondle lovingly (ooohhh Bestiary 5 how I love thee).

 

[Riley]

Who's to say they're not planning to crowdsource part of the next Monster Manual through the DM's Guild?

That would be awesome, and very old school:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiend_Folio
http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/6613/fiend-folio-sources-uses

 

[Valador]

I've enjoyed my copy of Fifth Edition Foes and I'm really looking forward to my Tome of Beasts to arrive.

 

[Blue]

Secondary is the stats, tertiary is official, and quaternary is that it is in a book a can fondle lovingly (ooohhh Bestiary 5 how I love thee).

Okay, but the 13th Age Bestiary. It's official (just for a different game), it's got stats (easily convertable to 5e), and oh can you fondle it.



Official is pretty hard for anyone outside Wizards to help you with. Are there any among the licensed products? That might be hardcover as well.

Reddit did a Monster a Day including art that has surprisingly high production values. Here's a link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzjax1-rJLokcTRGbDJ5RW9WdVU/view

Good luck.

 

[steeldragons]

A second manual of monsters is almost surely in the offing. It should be called the Fiend Folio. I just hate the idea of "Whatever Manual 2" books when you have perfectly good, traditional titles you could use. If, for whatever reason Fiend Folio is not owned, rights wise, by WotC, then come up with something else! "Whatever Book 2" is a complete cop-out. And yes, I am aware there was an MM2 in 1e. Wasn't any better then. There are enough synonyms for "Monster" and "Manual" that "2" should never have to appear on any cover ever. Same goes for PHBs and DMGs.

"Crowd-sourcing" (with a page of credits for the lucky bastards) from the DmsGuild is a great idea and would be very much in keeping with the original FF.

I think, however, that regardless of original DmsGuild material, there is no shortage of critters from previous editions (including the MM2 and FF) that could easily fill up a second monster book.

Personally, I'd like to see...

• Animals: pick another 10 to 20 normal/more unusual animals and draw them up.
• Faye: a lot to work with here that hasn't been covered. Leprechauns, Swanmaidens, Nereids (I would support the continued elimination of the generic "nymph" and instead, as with the Dryad, have the tree nymphs, water nymphs, mountain nymphs, etc... as separate [fae] creatures), nixies, redcaps, spriggans, fossegrim, brownies! TONS of fae to choose from. Let's say, easily, they do 10 fae.
• Elementals: just a few (even just 2) beings or creatures for each element: sylph, pech, fire bats, fire newts (always an abundance of fire types, aren't there?), undines ("grown up" water weirds?), some other water-elemental-based humanoid, etc... Really probably don't need more than 4-8 here.
• Dragons: Gem dragons. That's, what? 4 or 5 types? In the MM, a dragon entry is taking 3 pages. There's 12-15 pages right there.
• Humanoids are really broadly and completely covered in the MM. The only things I can think of adding would be the Dark Creepers/Stalkers. But they might not even necessarily be categorized as humanoids...they could be dark fae or extraplanar/shadow beings or something. But, yeah, as far as monstrous humanoids/ye olde "giant class" stuff, they're all there already.
• Lycanthropes/Shapeschangers: Were[hawks/eagles/falcons], Werefox, Selkies...weresharks, seawolves? There's got to be a half dozen people could come up with easily.
• Aberrations: I'm really not familiar enough with these creatures, but seems they've covered a good amount in the MM. Maybe another 1-3 things that would be classified as an aberration.
• Demons/Devils: I think they have these sufficiently covered. Even the "periphery" lower planes creatures (night hags, succubi, nightmares, etc...) are already done. There's really nothing more that needs doing here other than nobles/lordly types. They could, I suppose repeat/reprint all of the demonlord stuff from OotA. Would be nice to have for those of us not necessarily buying all of the adventure paths, though I personally think they are more appropriately included in a Deities & Demigods/rulers of the planes style book.
• Giants: same as Demons/devils. They have the iconic ones all done, and the ogres and ettins and trolls...so "giant-kin" is really pretty finished. We don't need the "corner case/shoehorn" ones (mountain, swamp, fog...really?! Fog?!...giants, etc...) from the old MM2 or FF.
• Other Extraplanar things: I'd like to see some Archons or other celestial beings besides angels and modrons. The Moondog (though I feel like I've seen a write up for these guys before)? Maybe even an aasimar as a monster/npc sidebar?

That's somewhere, including animals, in the 65-70 creatures range. That's a hearty manual of stuff. I'm sure with more than cursory thoughts off the cuff, even just a perusal of the previous edition manuals, we could get that up to 100 easily. How many are in the 5e MM?

Point is...a second monster book is surely coming. Be patient...and pray that it won't be called "Monster Manual 2."