>You wrote: > >"The SRD is missing all the very valuable artwork and >most of the background of the MM. Try to imagine >playing D&D with the SRD, having never seen an >illustration of any of the creatures." > >Is that a joke? You thinkwe cant play D&D without >descriptions and pictures? You have to be kidding.
the above is overstated. how about "if there are no common descriptions/pictures, there is a high likelihood that any two groups will have incompatible interpretations of the monsters." whether or not this is bad is a matter of opinion. but it certainly doesn't lead to plug-n-play scenarios. >I can do that easily. Its called Original D&D. There >were no illusrtations for most monsters. > >Here is the mermen entry: > >"Mermen are similar to Berserkers in most respects, >but they fight at -1 on land. They are armed with >tridents and darts (50/50). Armor Class is equal to >leather." > >They dont describe mermen or give pictures. Why not? >Because people know what they look like. So what if >you imagination led you to a different picture of a >merman. and we're back to what "matters". IMHO, if i joined a new campaign and mermen were decadent art-loving Roman patricians (with legns,not tails), but with the usual stats, i'd feel like it was a different creature. if i joined a new campaign and mermen looked and behaved as above, but had 5 more HD, 20% MR, and the AC of platemail, i'd think of them as "mermen". the point? IMHO, the part that you need to keep consistent for it to be compatible is the description, but that's exactly the part that you are forced to either change or tread carefully with. >Oh, and here is the mind flayer from Eldritch Wizardry >supplement, where they first appeared: > >[snip] >That was (c) 1976. > >Guess what, people played with that description of >mind flayers for years. > >Here is the SRD description: > [snip] i'm not sure what you're trying to point out with that last comparison. all i got out of it was that even the original Eldritch Wizardry description was more complete than the one in the D20SRD. and that the "required" info to make up a useful description is pretty minimal, as is evidenced by Eldritch Wizardry (or the AD&D2 MC, or even the D&D3E MM). -- woodelf <*> [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://webpages.charter.net/woodelph/ If any religion is right, maybe they all have to be right. Maybe God doesn't care how you say your prayers, just as long as you say them. --Sinclair _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
