Bestiary of Cidri

[Mallen the dark]

My vote also is for NEW creatures. While the format sounds good, I don't want rehashed creatures unless the new format will greatly improve on available knowledge of the creatures and this being the first in a series of books.

[hcobb]

If the book is loaded up with new diseases for the players to catch will you split health from size so that the weakest Giant PCs aren't automatically much much healthier than the hardy halflings? (I've written an easy fix in my house rules of course, but I'm interested to see how this is resolved.)

[DarkPumpkin]

Originally Posted by ColBosch

Ah. Well, that makes it a hard pass for me. I can do my own world-building. I want breadth over depth. I want lots of new toys to fill out my own corners of Cidri, not more information on stuff I've already bought.

I agree. Not a "hard" pass maybe, but I want a lot more new creatures, not more info on the same old ones.

I'd also be a little disappointed if we're getting the same images three times, in the book, on cards and on counters. (For one thing, an image that works as a tiny counter is not going to be more than a stylised overblown icon as 1/4 page illo). I understand what an art budget is, but this hobby is full of products where the art makes you go wow! and it would be nice if SJG at least was competitive in that area.

[JohnPaulB]

Originally Posted by gpoehlein

Probably not going to be a huge number of additional entries beyond what is already in ITL.

I'll be very disappointed if this is the case. Right now there is about 30 pages of beasts, races and monsters in ITL. What size are you expecting it to be. I'll take 100+ pages.

Originally Posted by gpoehlein

Instead, each entry will be expanded with more information.

Expanding the information is good.

Originally Posted by gpoehlein

I plan to start out by standardizing each entry (right now, stats aren't always in the same order, they may be spread out, or given at the beginning or end).

That would be wonderful.

Originally Posted by gpoehlein

There will be a section for general information that describes things like what it looks like, special abilities, and any other game info about the creature.

OK

Originally Posted by gpoehlein

There will be a section on habitat, that describes where one would find the creature, and what type of environment it prefers.

This is good.

Originally Posted by gpoehlein

There will be a section on predators, parasites and pathogens, that describes what might prey on the creature, what its natural enemies might be, what diseases it might carry and such.

I'm not happy with having diseases in this book unless its just to give the name (like Malaria). I think to do diseases justice, it needs to be in a Book of Diseases article listing the disease, symptoms, TFT affect, duration, termination of disease or patient, cures, etc.

Predators and their prey are good.

Originally Posted by gpoehlein

Finally, there will be a section that describes the creature's relationship with humans, if there are any body parts that are usable in potions or magic, and whether the creature can be bargained with, made a pet of, or anything else.

Good.

So, ultimately, the idea is to flesh out all the entries with more background and useful info to spark campaign or adventure ideas, and to make encounters more lively or realistic.[/QUOTE]

However, to get everything in a uniform order and all in one book seems ok. with cards and chits as add-ons or stretch goals.

[larsdangly]

Personally, I wouldn't expand entries substantially, unless you are thinking about material that is usable at the table. I'm not sure what that would be; the stat blocks in TFT are modest. Perhaps you could add a list of suggested talents or spells, but I'm not sure what else could be added. If the idea is to write an additional half or quarter page of text for each creature then I'm not into it - my opinion is that most-to-all of the creative writing in roleplaying games is just filler.

[Shadekeep]

First off, I really like the idea of the cards. But then I love bestiary illustrations in general.

As for the book being an expansion of the ITL materials, I can see merit in that, but I think it needs to be more than just that. There should be new material as well. If the book is going to be a Kickstarter, you could open it up to submissions from backers. That's what other bestiary books I've backed have done, and the results have been quite good.

[RobW]

I agree with sentiments above that reorganising and elaborating the material currently in ITL would not be a must have for me.

If this is the plan, I still would be interested in the counters, if in a style consistent with the current counter sets.

[larsdangly]

If you run out of ideas, you could do worse than creating TFT stat blocks for another couple dozen natural animals and a couple dozen knock-offs of the funner classic D+D monsters.

[Shadekeep]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

If you run out of ideas, you could do worse than creating TFT stat blocks for another couple dozen natural animals and a couple dozen knock-offs of the funner classic D+D monsters.

Honestly, even easier (and less legally contentious) would be stat'ing many of the classic mythological beasts that aren't in TFT - gryphon, minotaur, harpy, cyclops, kappa, tengu, kirin, hippocampus, gorgon, etc. That's the lowest hanging fruit.

Also, am I misremembering, or didn't there used to be Dire Wolves and Dire Bears somewhere in the game?

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by Shadekeep

Also, am I misremembering, or didn't there used to be Dire Wolves and Dire Bears somewhere in the game?

ITL94 and the Care, er Cave Bears are ITL91