September 5, 2008

Core Lists: MONSTERS

So, in continuing my obsession with data collection and entry - I'm sharing my 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Monsters list I whipped up via Google Documents. What you may find interesting is that I have merged the 'lost' 3E terrain data with the new 4E monsters, so that you might use this info to create your own wilderness / random encounter tables. I've also added an interactive table that lets you home in on just the data you want. My longer term plans are to develop an online tool that organizes this data into random encounter tables on the fly using Google Gears and the Google Documents API. In the meantime, the low-fi crunchy version might still be helpful to some of you... click link below


I've also crammed a version of the document into this blog page below as a preview. The full window view is way better.



My Core Lists: Rituals is also available.

Please let me know what you think! Should I continue doing this? Useful? Useless? Call for feedback.

Also - I'm a novice javascript coder - but I have about 10+ years with PERL and mySQL - so I'm thinking its just a matter of syntax (=easy). But, if anyone would like to collaborate on a project using Google Gears and the Google Documents API, please contact me.

5 comments:

  1. Dude...the coolness seeps from the edges. Thank you!

    Half the time it takes to DO anything with 4e these days is trying to remember where (in a new and unfamiliar book) you saw it at.

    Stuff like this REALLY helps! Especially when i am so darned time constrained.

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  2. Thank you, sir...this is going to be an immense help to me and my game...

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  3. Please continue. I am halfway in making index cards for the monster manual monsters (4x6) in powerpoint and was going to do something similar next. You will save me a great deal of time. Is it downloadable?

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  4. How did you come up with the data?

    e.g. the white dragon says it prefers cold climates, but does not say anything about the type of terrain it's found in, but you've listed only mountains (I'd say it's at least as likely to be found in a cold desert/tundra).

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  5. @asmor : While I might agree with you, I got the terrain data from the 3rd Edition terrain data for all the monsters in the MM at the time. I also gathered data on other monsters from all the 3E expansion books; and then in the rare cases where a monster was truly new - i just guessed. The 3E terrain data (i.e. the white dragon is on there) is part of the document; just change tabs to the one titled "3E Terrain Data" and you see it - its straight from the 3E DMG.

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