Your opinions on a monster book idea

[acorania]

Sounds interesting...

As for file size a 32 page pdf with line art that is setup and distilled properly could be smaller than a megabyte. The color version could be significantly larger depending on the resolution and print sizes of the images...

I am VERY familiar with laser BW printing, but not so familiar with ink BW printing (except on high end, oversized printers). Do you know how a half tone screened BW image would print on most common inkjet printers? I know it would print nicely on laser and still be very small files (bitmap mode and saved as TIFF with LZW compression), but I also know the look HORRIBLE on screen.

So I guess my answer is that a seperate BW and color version are very good ideas and it may be possible to pull that off well without having to make new peices of line art, but maybe then you would need a third screen viewable version that is 72 dpi and has a small file size for those who want all the color and none of the file size.

Sean Mahoney
mahoney76@hotmail.com

 

[s/LaSH]

As an artist, I know my techniques lend themselves fairly well to both B&W line art (fairly printer friendly), which is then turned into coloured art by computer. The effort I need to put into creating a B&W version of one of my pictures (without grayscaling) is less than a minute.

That said, not everyone works like that. The effort put into a book roughly defines the price, right? (In an ideal world, at least.) The effort needed for making the book with those illos would be minimal. Thus I'm in favour of the idea, as it makes the product that much more desirable.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Being that I generally transcribe or (with pdf) copy/paste what I use into my own house-rule files, it doesn't really matter.

However, if I didn't do that, B&W would indeed be nice.

 

[cyferwolf]

sounds very useful. i'd pick it up.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I would use it.

Oh, how about size compairson chart like Monstericom. Love that.

 

[Olive]

sounds like a good idea for how to produce the book... whether or not i'd buy would depend on the book of course (theme etc.)

 

[Prothall]

I like the idea, though as many before me, I would like some sort of hook... Actually, even though I own many monster books and have looked on the internet, I've seen very few creatures of CR 14-16 or so... If this book had many of those, count me in right now.

 

[wighair]

sounds like a good idea.

I'd also....

1) Make em two separate files in one zip

2) Make sure the PDF has an index that can be used to navigate

3) Maybe offer a "landscape" version for viewing on screen, as opposed to "portrait" for printing.

 

[LordFair1969]

Well, not to be rude, but...

Don't we have enough Monster Books already? In my group we have MM, MM2, Monsters of Faerûn, Tome of Horrors, CC, CC2, Monsternomicon, and Fiend Folio on order. Oh, and Beasts of the Id, Book of Templates, and all the monsters from Wizards.com and every module seems to have at lest one.

Unless the book had a theme and an easy to use niche area that wasn't already well covered, I doubt I would bite.

That having been said, the addition of counters and B/W versions is good. Options is always good.

--
LordFair
A just and fair despot, ruling since 1969

 

[Zaukrie]

I like the idea of counters and both color and black and white. It would make me more likely to buy the product. I'd like to second the a couple of requests. One monster per page, it makes it easier to only use the pages you want. I also want the size comparison charts. I really miss the monster descriptions that say how tall something is. Yes, I can/do make it up for myself, but as a guy with two kids that want my time, other hobbies, a wife and a job, any work that I can get done by others is helpful.