Troll Lord Games

MONSTROUS MONSTER TOME

Well, that was unexpected. Steve has jumped all over the idea of a massive castles and crusades monstrous monster tome. Omg, almost all monsters... - just got this from Steve

Our goal is to tighten things up just a little and make one massive reference book for you to use at your table. To do that, we need to round up all the monsters from the extensive C&C library and bring them into one book. This is what we have in mind: Monsters & Treasure, Classic Monsters, Mystical Companions, published adventures like Shadows of a Halfling Hall (looking at you, Bag-o-Bones!), Codex Celtarum, Codex Germania, Codex Nordica, Codex Classicum, Codex Slavorum, Haunted Highlands and all the other manifold publications where monsters creep and crawl, fly and charge from the pages and put them into one monstrous Full Color book. ---From TLG post on FB, or was it G+? Either way.... YES!!

Yeah, I saw him belly aching about having to look in different books to find the monster that he wanted when writing an adventure.

R-

If he incorporates M&ToA, I'll be buying a copy. If he prints it in digest size, my head will explode with happiness.

You know what that means, right? Coming soon: Castles & Crusades Tome of Treasures. You heard it here first.

~O

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How about the Domesday monsters?

How about taking some submissions for totally new monsters?

Knights of the Crusade has Critters too?

We do want this to be able to be lifted by your average CnC player???

I presume it will include stuff from Tome of the Unclean Sounds like the C&C version of Tome of Horrors Complete, which is one of my favorite monster books of all time.

This is better than any Tome of Horrors....

This is official -- final -- giganto-list-o-book of monster from C&C written in C&C for C&C.

Really cool.

Will it include the treasure tables and magic or just the monsters? I would prefer to replace my M&T with this monster book. Need the treasure in the back.

I'll remain skeptically optimistic. We still haven't seen the revised Tome of the Unclean yet...

All in baby, full support, offering to write more and research forgotten creatures from historic bestiary.

I like the 3 ring binder thing. I'd like all the books that way so I can slip in my own stuff.

Aergraith wrote:I like the 3 ring binder thing. I'd like all the books that way so I can slip in my own stuff.

Agreed. I'm in at $75 for that very reason.

If this was a month later, I'd probably be in on it, but I just can't afford it right now and, unlike Steve, I'm perfectly fine using my seperate monster books.

R-

Seeing as it won't in fact be complete, I'm sitting this one out. For me the whole point is to get it all in one book even if most of the MTA stuff is not that useful. And given that we're still waiting on the Adventurer's Backpack, no thanks.

I think this is a good move, but it's not a book I need unless it comes out in digest size.

I'm a dead-tree sort of gamer. But I don't like carrying around a dozen books at all. I like the combined effort, and I'm even OK with them leaving out Tome of the Unclean and M&ToA, but there needs to be some serious consideration given to editing these creatures together, with a proper index and all that good stuff. I hope the Trolls understand this isn't simply a cut 'n paste sort of book for easy money. If I'm going to invest in one of those nice shiny new D-Lux volumes, the editing and layout need to be crisp! I'm watching you Trolls. Don't let me down.

~O

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Omote wrote:I'm a dead-tree sort of gamer. But I don't like carrying around a dozen books at all. I like the combined effort, and I'm even OK with them leaving out Tome of the Unclean and M&ToA, but there needs to be some serious consideration given to editing these creatures together, with a proper index and all that good stuff. I hope the Trolls understand this isn't simply a cut 'n paste sort of book for easy money. If I'm going to invest in one of those nice shiny new D-Lux volumes, the editing and layout need to be crisp! I'm watching you Trolls. Don't let me down.

~O

I completely agree!

My earlier fears were this would be a book of books. Meaning that the smaller books would be placed in sequentially. In a conversation, Snoring Rock pointed out there are differences in the abilities across books and within books. Hopefully this is cleaned up across the board.

-T1

Right on. I hope you trolls are reading this. In fact, it would be nice to acknowledge so. Hello? Echoes..hello, hello, hello...

From the Kickstarter page:

This is where you come in. This is going to be a massive task. Right now, Monsters & Treasure is a color book, and needs to remain one. However, all those monsters that we want to include in it are black and white, we need them to be given the full color treatment. This means lots of work for several artists. Monsters that are duplicates or near duplicates will have to be reconciled. This is a lot of work for content editors. Everything will need to be laid out again. This is lots of work for graphics guys! And we want to include more art, some of these pictures need replaced, others need art!

So they acknowledge they need to reconcile differing source material.

I hope the Gnome gets one look, not a pig, not a long eared fox, but a "classic looking gnome". Just me I guess..

For my part, I prefer Peter Bradley's take on the gnome 'as is' in the M&T and PHB. I never liked the classic style. What one likes or dislikes in this context is totally subjective, so I guess we're all correct in our opinions and the trolls will probably continue with the style they've already chosen.

Captain_K wrote:I hope the Gnome gets one look, not a pig, not a long eared fox, but a "classic looking gnome". Just me I guess..

Maybe gnomes start out, er 'normal' but get more animalistic as they age over the centuries? In any case, I don't mind artists trying something new and different.

I'm in for the monster kickstarter, but am curious what people value in the binder? To me, seems bulky and prone to falling apart as opposed to a quality hardback.

spudeus wrote:Maybe gnomes start out, er 'normal' but get more animalistic as they age over the centuries? In any case, I don't mind artists trying something new and different.

I'm in for the monster kickstarter, but am curious what people value in the binder? To me, seems bulky and prone to falling apart as opposed to a quality hardback.

Well, you definitely cannot stack a hundred pounds of other books on them, thats for sure. You'll likely be OK with 20 pounds or less, but I still suggest not risking it. The Trolls said they are going to use the heaviest paperstock available, but I still know they will eventually tear. So the best way I found with my 2E binder sheets to prevent tearing wasn't those stupid eye hole things, but to take 3M packing tape and tape it on the side, half on front, half on back, then hole punch through the tape. The 3M packing tape is far tougher than any paper or any eye holes. Plus, when it does start to tar, you just slap a new piece of 3M tape over it and repunch it.

If you want to keep it collector prisitne collection, just put it up and never touch it. If you want to actually use it, then do what I do.

Rigon wrote:If this was a month later, I'd probably be in on it, but I just can't afford it right now and, unlike Steve, I'm perfectly fine using my seperate monster books.

R-

I'm there with you. I'd love to get into the KS, but the money isn't there ... stupid real world getting in the way !

I'm second guessing this one for myself with a bunch of different questions:
1) It sounds like a good idea but do I really need one big book?
2) Behind the one big book, if I can wait until September 2018, why buy it now.
3) They have a lot of work in their queue.

It funded rather nicely. Some nice bonus material too!

T1Hound wrote:I'm second guessing this one for myself with a bunch of different questions:
1) It sounds like a good idea but do I really need one big book?
2) Behind the one big book, if I can wait until September 2018, why buy it now.
3) They have a lot of work in their queue.

1. It depends upon whether you use the other monster books or not. Personally, more options is usually better.
2. The Trolls usually do Kickstarters to gauge interest. You can certainly wait, but if everyone waited Monsters & Treasure 5 might end up as "just" another reprint and not a wholesale consolidation / expansion.
3. I totally admit that the workload they have could be a concern, however, it could be worse. While it seems like a lot, the Trolls' workload doesn't even come close to Game Designers' Workshop, who released products at an average rate of 1 per 22 days over a span of 23 years.