Horses Aren't Medieval Motorcycles

[Blood Legend]

If I'm looking for the Man-eating Mold, I'll be using the Index to find it regardless, skim all the way down to the M-section and find the exact page it's on. When I'm looking through the pages I just want to skim through. No tables required. If the Man-eating Mold ends up TPKing, I can just flip the page back 2 and use the Man-gnawing Mass instead. The book itself would already be organized by those groups.

...

I really want a bestiary now.

[gruundehn]

Regardless of how it is organized in terms of finding the creature, what I want is a listing of the basic creature and a list of reasonable add-ons that I can use to customize the basic creature.

[JCurwen3]

I'm not so much a fan of grouping the entries... I like the alphabetical order.

But in the PDF form, I don't see why the Bookmarks can't be used to list them both ways. So, have a bookmark header for "A-Z" and then "By Type" (with sub-headings for the various types, like "Undead"), and then in each relevant area have a copy of a bookmark directing to the appropriate monsters.

This also solves a major problem of sorting by "type" - sometimes an entry may be a member of multiple groups (a dracolich should be listed under "D", "Dragon", and "Undead"... and if there's a category based on being gigantic, there too).

But, agreeing with Bruno, the main content should be sorted on the "key", which in this case will be the names, thus alphabetically. That said, it'd be fantastically useful if they did the work of building the PDF's Bookmarks so that they form ready-made "queries", grouping entries by things like monster type membership.

I've done this manually with PDF's in the past, and I'd end up doing it if one or more Bestiary volumes were published. It's not so much work, but the main problem is if a new version (with errata fixed, for instance) gets posted to e23, and then having to do it all over again.

I think that'd be helpful in future updates of other supplements like Basic Set, having a separate "TABLES" heading in the PDF Bookmarks at the end, with a named bookmark for each table in the PDF. Often, tables will be scattered throughout, adjacent to their relevant sections, which does make sense, but why not use the Bookmarks to present this alternative handy lookup?

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Undead berserk slime from HELL!

That's the killer for me - it's like the fundementals proper database design. The key value is the unique value, the thing that is unique to that record/monster/whatever. You always sort on the key.

If you need other organizations that require the key value to appear in multiple places, that's a secondary listing (a query, a table that refers back to your key value and all its data, etc).

We could go full digital. PDF is so 2009!

GURPS Bestiary requires GURPS Basic Set and an indepth understanding of SQL databases.

A lookup table is the print equivalent of a database query. In this case, the index might have a listing of types (plant, slime, undead) with each entry listed under the type or types it has. If something has more than one type, it appears more than once in the table. But each appearance only points back to its "real" listing in the body of the book.

And in pdf, you can make those listing links!

[Grouchy Chris]

I want to see a bestiary book, or a bestiary series, either one. I can't imagine a sorting order that would keep me from buying it. If the creatures were purposefully arranged so that their initials spelled out vile, demeaning insults directed at me personally, I would still buy the book. Or series.

My preference would be for a series along the lines of what Blood Legend has described, but with horses granted their own supplement. But really, I just want to have the material available, in whatever format.

[Humabout]

Originally Posted by Grouchy Chris

I want to see a bestiary book, or a bestiary series, either one. I can't imagine a sorting order that would keep me from buying it. If the creatures were purposefully arranged so that their initials spelled out vile, demeaning insults directed at me personally, I would still buy the book. Or series.

My preference would be for a series along the lines of what Blood Legend has described, but with horses granted their own supplement. But really, I just want to have the material available, in whatever format.

I'd love to see a book of domesticated animals with information on maintenance, care, and pricing. Horses should definitely have sufficient information to make them easily and accurately used in a game, although, I suspect this wouldn't take up enough space for an entire book. Frankly, if a one-entry-per-page layout is used, like in DFM 1, I'd think each entry could easily contain such information and drop the critters in any volume you want. If that's the approach used, I could see horses getting a rather large chunk of a book in order to cover the various types.

Originally Posted by RyanW

We could go full digital. PDF is so 2009!

GURPS Bestiary requires GURPS Basic Set and an indepth understanding of SQL databases.

I love it! But seriously, a self-contained database of stuff (monsters, advantages, skills, spells, equipment, etc.) isn't a bad idea, as long as it doesn't require any special software to run, which I believe--I'm not SQL savvy, so don't shoot me for this--isn't difficult. No idea how it would affect sales, though.

[Blood Legend]

Just saying, as OP, I don't mind this change of topic. Carry on.

[Crakkerjakk]

Just from reading the thread title, now I want to make *Vroom vroom* noises next time I'm on a horse.

[Blood Legend]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Just from reading the thread title, now I want to make *Vroom vroom* noises next time I'm on a horse.

Make sure it's a Mustang.

[Brandy]

Originally Posted by Blood Legend

Make sure it's a Mustang.

<rimshot>

(A part of me wonders if you started this thread just for this. ;))