What do you look for in a monster book?

[roytheodd]

What do I look for in a monster book? Huh. When it comes to buying I buy pretty much all of them, but the bulk of them get shelved and stay there. Most of them don't really have a lot of use to me because of their content. Here's what I like in terms of content:

1) Few to zero humanoids listed in the book. Humanoids really can't just be tossed into an ongoing game if you want to keep the illusion of disbelief with your players.

2) Flavor descriptions of the monsters. I find that flavor description (by which I mean little stories) tend to give me a better idea of how the monster operates and lives and gives me minor plot hooks - very good info to have. Monsternomicon nailed this one perfectly and others are now trying their hand at it (like Goodman Games). A good trend.

3) I like monsters that both do and do not fill niches. I like monsters that dwell near graves or in mines as they are good specific monsters, but I find that there are never enough niche monsters to fill the niche I'm looking for. Therefore I also like monsters that can fit generically anywhere. I like the ability to just drop a monster anywhere I need one. What I'd really like to see are books that focus on a terrain and provide monsters for that terrain type - even to the point of cross-referencing those monster in the Core Books that would be found in that terrain. That would be a HUGE use to me.

4) I like monsters that aren't just a new take on an old monster. Shapeshifters are tired, lycanthropes are tired, dragons are tired (well, not really, but they really don't need new varieties in every book).

5) I like monsters that can survive in dungeons. Too many of them need food and water and thus couldn't really dwell where they are. On a related note - if you're going to make a new monster that is created by a magic-user, then give directions on how to create it!!

6) I like nice artwork, but that doesn't mean color artwork per se. I want a monster to look believable to my eyes, unless it's purposely some outsider or aberration (the new Fiend Folio monsters suck in this regard). I like to see what the critter looks like because all too often the text description is lacking.

7) A low range of CRs. I don't play Epic Level and I don't intend to play it. Yeah, I know folks do, but I don't and this is about what I like. I like CRs under 10.

8) Free of the shackles of a campaign world. Yeah, campaign worlds need their own monster books and I'm not arguing with that, but those books will not get used in the least by me. I want books where the baddies aren't tied to a specific world or location.

9) No more templates. We've got enough. Yours aren't really that clever or useful so quit trying to sell them to me.

 

[knight_isa]

IMO, the Monsternomicon is a wonderful place to start. It has great art, the relative size thing, backstory, good stats. The monster lore checks are great. I think it's a fantastic book, but it really needs indeces (one by CR, one by type, and maybe one by climate/terrain). So don't forget the indeces.

 

[Aeolius]

...someone is sure to come along and say "In Volume XVIII of the Synnibarr Monstrous Compendion, there was a sea-cucumber template that could be added to anything, and gave it x-ray laser eyes too."

It's...an ALASKAN BULL WORM!!!!

 

[blackshirt5]

IMO, the Monsternomicon is a wonderful place to start. It has great art, the relative size thing, backstory, good stats. The monster lore checks are great. I think it's a fantastic book, but it really needs indeces (one by CR, one by type, and maybe one by climate/terrain). So don't forget the indeces.

OK, I've got the Monsternomicon, this is actually the book that I'm gonna model mine after. I wanna meet or beat it in terms of quality; a tough thing to do, but I think it's doable. Does anybody know if the monster lore part of the book is OGC or closed content, I love that idea and want to incorporate it into my book.

And thanks for the tip about the indeces. Anybody else wanna weigh in on that subject?

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

I look to be inspired by a creature. I can't use all the critters that haunt the pages of my many monster books, but I keep buying these books.

What "inspires" me? Well, that's hard to quantify.... I guess it usually requires something that is original yet still plausible.

Artwork is therefore very important for me. It has a large part to do with inspiring me: allowing me to visualize how this beastie might fit into my campaign. Aside from the great B&W artwork, Monsternomicon's size charts really helps me transport the creature from the page to my mind. When Meduim is 4'-8', and Large is 8'-16', there is a lot of room for guesswork. I think the only monster books I have passed on were the ones that had inferior artwork... I can think of no other book type where the art is of paramount importance. I'll spend time fixing ( er... changing ) a monster's mechanics to suit my needs if otherwise inspired.

New special abilities are always welcome too, or at least a good combination of them ( ie : a poison that lowers your con before you need a fort save vs something else like paralysis)

I agree with much that has already been said - other things I like to see in monster books are:

Stats for using a monster as a PC race if appropriate ( Level & ability adjustments etc... )

Go ahead and list spells / items unique to the species

When in doubt, include more. Yes, if they summon a monster or beast, list the basics !

typical possesions should be listed

lairs & societies should be described as/when applicable

tactics: ok, this monster has all these special abilities: what does he use first & how?

PS- I love the narrative idea ( again as per Monsternomicon ) for describing the beasts. It makes reading the book as a whole more pleasurable, and lends a certain sense of continuity. That being said , it may be an approach that works best for a specific setting.

 

[Number47]

Pictures of topless girl-type creatures, mostly.

 

[BOZ]

let's hear it for the 1E monster manual.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Something I have never really seen is a break down of creatures by zones. By zones I mean, coastal, plains, hills, mountains, air, water, underground. Then build an ecology around them.

 

[Olive]

Monsters.

beat me to it!!!

seriously:

good stats are crucial. make sure they're compliant.

good art is nice, and helpful. Back story is good, but to specific a back story is worse than none at all for me. for me, if it has a long convoluted back story that is campaign specific then i'll never get it out of my head. if it has some vague paragraph, then it might spark soemthing for my campaign.

new rules beyond the monsters help sell me on a monster book. i really like the FF for that reason: fiend PrCs and symbiots rock my world.

 

[ced1106]

Web support: I don't buy monster manuals b/c I don't want to lug around extra books. Instead, I'd rather have a page (no more than one monster on a page!) I can print out and tuck into an adventure or write notes on. Ideally, MM publishers would all do this, so I can have one alphabetically (or however else organized) binder with monsters from more than one company.

Lairs: Wishful thinking, but also, I'd like to see a "Book of Lairs" format back. A monster's stat block doesn't help if the PCs are going after its lair -- what's a typical lair like? How do I make an ogre cave different from an ettin cave? That sort of thing.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^