Quote from: This Guy;531886I like it, although I think a lot of people would balk at having only a dozen or so examples, and at having to buy decks of monsters for the sake of expanding without creating one's own material.  Even though this is roughly the same as buying a new MM in textbook format, for some reason it feels like it would be a different kind of purchase because of the deck format.

Ah ha a reply

The reason I really thought of it was that I never use Monster books I just make them up, normally based on a nice bit or artwork.
I don't really understand why people think it's a lot of work because you can literally do it on the fly. Hmm I think i will populate this forest with satyr like creatures... give them a handful of foresty type spells, AC 5 3HD you don;t actually need anything else and that took 4 seconds.

So for me a set of cards tied to a type of terrain, forest, mountain, swamp whatever, with a random monster table if I didn't want to just draw from the deck would be sweet. An ivoccative picture and the stats on the back. The DDI provides the ecology detail for those that want it.

You could always package these as books after the event.

Remeber that if you have the toolkit then you can just create all your own stuff. So all of this is optional.

From a business perspective it also provides a nice revenue stream without it being a treadmill of stuff you have to get as its all optional.
the fold out map is a nice touch because it can link back to their settings, its a nice prop, and I got the idea when I folded out the 'playmat' they provide in a magic 'Commander' deck.

The more I think about it the more I think I might have to tell Mike Mearls

Quote from: jibbajibba;531899So for me a set of cards tied to a type of terrain, forest, mountain, swamp whatever, with a random monster table if I didn't want to just draw from the deck would be sweet. An ivoccative picture and the stats on the back. The DDI provides the ecology detail for those that want it.

Collectible cards and firewalling traditionally core material behind the DDI paywall?

It's impossible for that post to be anything but a troll.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;531901Collectible cards and firewalling traditionally core material behind the DDI paywall?

It's impossible for that post to be anything but a troll.

I disagree of course because a monster builder toolkit removes the need to buy any monster books at all.
Oh and the cards are not 'a variety of stuff all mixed up' like a CCG, they are a set of known monsters for a particular terrain. So a deck of cards is just like buying a monster book (although a deck of cards woudl be $9:99 and a monster book would be $34:99 although it would have more monsters arguaby.... )

The change is just one of format. Giving you access to full colour illustrations and a simpler and easier transport mechanism.

Quote from: Opaopajr;531619Dude, that's super Xtreme! So cool, it's like... Beef Supreme!

Marbledmuscle cowlord!

Quote from: Marleycat;531863And it looks terrible on a shelf or fits horribly in a plastic storage bin.

Yeah, they do take up a lot of storage room too.

Quote from: Drohem;531954Yeah, they do take up a lot of storage room too.

unlike decks of cards which are great.

Jib, I like your ideas individually, but I'd have them as sort of add ons to the normal format (instead of a replacement).

Card based monsters would be great in a boxed set, especially if you could just put monster and loot cards face down on the map for random dungeon generation. I'd avoid random sets of cards here though. Getting more than one of the same thing would be bothersome, for example.

Monster building kit would be great in the MM, but even better under something like a character builder software (so stats and level-based bonuses get automatically plugged in with no looking stuff up). Character builder was probably one of their cooler ideas in 4e and I don't think they expanded on it enough.

I remember the old AD&D monster cards (friend of mine had them); those were pretty cool.  I agree monster cards are best as an add-on, rather than the main monster reference.

It would definitely be a great accessory and it isn't even one that requires a grid. Win win situation to me.

Going back to the Monstrous Compendium style would be cool, if as others have said they used heavier weight paper for their printing (and offset the extra cost by having it be black and white, or whatever). I wouldn't mind just having another Monster Manual, though. However, I'd prefer if they didn't bloat the line with monsters spread out across multiple books - I'd prefer to have one, maybe two, weighty hardbacks than two thick hardcovers and multiple thinner hardcovers at roughly the same price for filling in arbitrarily blank spaces.

If I had my way I would like something like the Monsterous Manual probably about 3 total and if they wanted they could do something like JibbaJabba's card thing for the hardcore.

Fuck cards.

Quote from: Dodger;532116Fuck cards.

My uncle had a deck of those.  We found them gathering dust alongside Parcheesi and Yahtzee and such, down in his basement rec room.  At the time, it was quite the find!  (I think I was in 6th or 7th grade, at the time.)

Quote from: Philotomy Jurament;532142My uncle had a deck of those.

Either we had the same uncle, or those decks were popular with men of a certain age.

More diversity.  The MM needs more black people in it.  I'm sick of my players only murdering white men.