[XRP] Monster Geographica: Underground

[jgbrowning]

We're pleased to announce our latest project, the Monster Geographica Series and it's first product Monster Geographica: Underground.

Each Monster Geographica will contain 200 OGC (not SRD) monsters for a particular environment. Each book will be digest-sized (pocket-sized) containing only text, and will retail for a very easy $20. The monsters are arranged according to challange rating (with an alpha in the front for a quick lookup), thus allowing quick off-the-cuff random encounters and making adventure design easier: no more looking through dozens of monsters to find one that fits your environment as well as your challange rating.

The first book, Monster Geographica: Underground has 200 monsters, of which just under 100 are conversions from 3.0 to 3.5 by none other than EN World's favorite Creature Cataloger, Mr. Kevin Baase or has he's probably better known around here, BOZ.

200 monsters, $20 bucks.

Monster Geographica: Underground will be available in August in FLGS everywhere (and at our booth at Gen Con!). The others will follow every three months: Marsh & Aquatic, Forest, Hills & Mountains, Plains (desert and arctic included), and finally Cities.

Hope you'll pick one up and throw something new at your players. And hope you enjoy the cover art preview by Ravindra Rana. It's always nice to be able to fly.....

Joseph Browning
Expeditious Retreat Press

 

[JoeGKushner]

This sounds very promising. I look forward to it. Any solid info on what monsters will be in it? I know that Goodman Games first monster book would be great for this (can't remember the name) and Bastion's Into the Dark has some quality stuff.

 

[DaveMage]

Are there any original monsters in the series, or is the intent an encyclopedia of what's available sorted by environment?

 

[Cergorach]

Are there any original monsters in the series, or is the intent an encyclopedia of what's available sorted by environment?

Very kewl!

 

[Voadam]

Will there be a pdf version as well?

 

[jgbrowning]

Right now we're using sources from over 20 different works. Some of them used multiple sources as well so our section 15 is pretty big. The intent of the work is to compile existing creatures into a single book that's designed for adventure building. As to what particular books, I can't advertise using their works. But we will post the section 15 shortly at our website.

When I make adventures I'm looking out for environments first and then challange ratings. The Monster Geographica is arranged with this thinking in mind. It's a pure utility based creation. The monsters, instead of being alphabetical in the book, are arranged by ascending challange rating. This has the added benefit that if you need a wandering monster of CR 7, you just flip and go. All the appropriate monsters are right next to each other, as opposed to being spread out in the entire book.

Right now, all the monsters are previously published OGC, but none of them are coming from the SRD. Everyone has those monsters already. BOZ is doing conversions from 3.0 to 3.5 and editing all monsters to correct errors. I don't think there will be any new monsters. Our conversion rate for Monster Geographica: Underground is around 50%.

It's pocket-sized, designed to be very useful and only $20. We think it's going to carried around for a lot of games. There will also be a PDF version available. We're not quite sure yet just when.

EDIT: The OGL is available here.

Joseph Browning
Expeditious Retreat Press

 

[JoeGKushner]

Since this is going to be a smaller book, will it be illustrated?

The image in the sig, is that a prototype for the cover? If so, you might be better off going with a symbol and color scheme to represent the different environments. It looks pretty crowded.

 

[jgbrowning]

Since this is going to be a smaller book, will it be illustrated?

There won't be any illustrations, it'll be text only beside the covers. We were thinking about doing illustrations, but the pocket size isn't very condusive to them and the retail price would then have to increase proportionally.

The image in the sig, is that a prototype for the cover? If so, you might be better off going with a symbol and color scheme to represent the different environments. It looks pretty crowded.

The image is the cover for the Underground book. Each book will have a separate image and a border (that's not shown) so they'll all have a trade dress. The look is like a daguerreotype.

Here's the back cover image in the raw, showing our illustrious explorer and his primative guide.

Joseph Browning
Expeditious Retreat Press

 

[DaveMage]

Heh.

That's a serious Section 15!

It reads like an encyclopedic monster book bibliography.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

That's a great idea: a kind of Field Guide to the Monsters of the Open Game License! I look forward to the others in the series & would be honored to have my own OGC re-used in this way.

I know you support the idea of citing the sources of OGC from your post the d20 Bubble Burst thread. I fully support your use of releasing the Section 15 as a way of working around the OGL restrictions on using PI titles in your marketing of the book, and I was glad to see you kept some of the source attribution from Necromancer Clark Petersen's Tome of Horrors. Any chance you'll be using a similar workaround to link the monsters in the text to the OGL source in Section 15, along the lines of 2WS Steve Petersen's example or his other suggestions for improving the ease of citation?

This could be an important opportunity for you to market your book as not just a meta-manual for DMs but also a standard reference work for creators who want an index of monsters by ecology that makes it easy for them to not only drop the monsters into their adventure, but also accurately compose their own Section 15.

You could also print an informal request or "legal-light" limited license asking/allowing creators to use your PI title to credit "Original source for this monster was X by author Y, converted to 3.5 by [y'all] and published in [your book] available from [your website] or at better stores near you!" in their text.