I just started playing D&D again after a VERY long hiatus. To put that into perspective, I'm 50 yrs old. When I played, it was Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. I had the fiend folio for cripes sake! 5th edition? Wow. So much has changed. When I played, the internet didn't even exist. (Don't judge me) Now there's all these new and exciting resources available. We don't play on a table anymore, We play on Zoom since all the players in my group live all over the world. All the minis now are plastic, ours were pewter, and heck, you can even have custom ones made now that perfectly fit your character.. how sweet is that? And they're much cheaper now! I'm still getting used to having my character sheet online, but this site seems to make character creation much easier, which I totally dig. But I digress.. On to my point in making this post.
I really love this site and all it offers, BUT as the guy who always ends up being the DM (which isn't totally horrible, as that's how it was for me back in the day), I do have a gripe maybe you can help me with. I purchased a bunch of sets of dice, A DM's screen, the player's guide, the DM's guide, the monster manual, Xanathar's guide to everything, and Tasha's guide to everything thinking that would be good enough to get us going. I found a few web sites to help me create maps (which I gotta say is WONDERFUL after having to spend hours drawing maps on graph paper), and watched tons of youtube videos to give me ideas for my new campaign. I set off on creating a new world for my players (home brew is what I think you refer to it as now). After about a week of hardcore preparation, I thought I was ready.
But when I got into the game, and started yanking monsters out of the monster manual, I almost immediately noticed something very disturbing. There's NO descriptions of the monsters. Sure there's really nice pictures of them, but NOTHING in regards to habitat, history, what they eat, why the do what they do etc.
Look, I get it, this game revolves around imagination. But as a DM, I'd really like some sort of resource to refer to that let's me know when I place a statue in a dungeon of a demon, and my players decide to do a history check on it, (as happened to me last night).. That I won't be caught with my pants down and have to whip up some ridiculous answer for them. The AD&D monster manuals always had descriptions listed for the monsters which made my job as a DM much easier. DM's have so much to keep track of; It would just be easier if there was some resource out there to find the info I need like that.
Is there anything out there that provides this info? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
same here on the age, though I never stopped playing TTRPG games. 😊
As BigLizard says, there are some books, like Volo's Guide to Monsters, and Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, that do a deep dive on the culture and ecology of some of the monsters, but mostly that sort of information isn't provided and is left up to the DM to decide.
I miss that level of info too, as it could be a really cool way to provide hooks into adventure.
Though I do agree with you, 5e is kind of a strange beast. On the one hand, the community is firmly in the "narrative first" side of the game, yet, most of the books offer very little in the way of narrative support. Most of the writing is pretty weak in the modules, the DMG is all but useless in that area and the monster manual is basically just stat blocks.
I have to agree with that. As a new player/DM, I find it hard to understand the mentality and the mannerisms of the monsters just going by a statblock. I'd much prefer it if they would just put a paragraph on the page with a brief description of how they behave and act. It would make it much easier to describe them (being someone without that background in flavour in D&D) and make encounters more immersive. And if I don't like the way that WotC describes them? No biggie, I can just ignore them and do what I think is best - which is what I'm forced to do at the moment.
This has really screwed me over with the adventure I'm doing now. We had an unexpected session so I was bluffing my way through it, and Star Spawn Manglers turned up. No idea what they were, didn't know how they behaved and didn't even know what they looked like (no picture on the app). I gathered that they had claws, and that's about it.
It would be nice to have more depth than just the statblock and the occasional picture. It would really help new DMs in particular to get a feel for how to present the various creatures.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Thanks for the suggestions. I will absolutely look into all of them. It's good to know that one, I'm not the only gen X'er still playing the game, lol.. and two, that at least SOME of the old school stuff is still usable in the new generation of the game. Don't get me wrong, I really like a lot of what they've done to make the game easier for newer players. Some of the people in my new campaign are brand new to the game, and some are old school vets like me. So we often talk about how certain aspects of the game now are much easier, even if it is a little tricky for us old school guys to adapt to. It's just that the lack of info in the MM has led to me me worrying more about making up certain aspects of the encounters, and in doing so failing to take care of more concepts.. like making saving throws for my monsters when the party starts tossing spells at them, or giving the monster the extra attacks or bonuses they are given in the stat blocks.
I think that when you start forcing the DM to make up more stuff on the fly to keep the encounter fun, you are inadvertently making the game harder for the DM to keep interesting, and in some cases bogging things down. especially in combat. I've found on some websites, instances where players are more or less, recreating the MM adding the info that's missing back in one monster at a time, but unfortunately, I dont have the time to do that, or catalogue what they've accomplished to this point. So taking the info you guys have supplied me with will most definitely be a huge help.
People can say what they want about the TTRPG community, but one thing that this type of community has that many others don't are people who are more than willing to help others out, and for that, I am immensely grateful. It's good to be back. Now if I can only get my wife to let me drop the coin on getting into the miniature aspect of it... all will be well with the world. ;)
Though I do agree with you, 5e is kind of a strange beast. On the one hand, the community is firmly in the "narrative first" side of the game, yet, most of the books offer very little in the way of narrative support. Most of the writing is pretty weak in the modules, the DMG is all but useless in that area and the monster manual is basically just stat blocks.
I have to agree with that. As a new player/DM, I find it hard to understand the mentality and the mannerisms of the monsters just going by a statblock. I'd much prefer it if they would just put a paragraph on the page with a brief description of how they behave and act. It would make it much easier to describe them (being someone without that background in flavour in D&D) and make encounters more immersive. And if I don't like the way that WotC describes them? No biggie, I can just ignore them and do what I think is best - which is what I'm forced to do at the moment.
This has really screwed me over with the adventure I'm doing now. We had an unexpected session so I was bluffing my way through it, and Star Spawn Manglers turned up. No idea what they were, didn't know how they behaved and didn't even know what they looked like (no picture on the app). I gathered that they had claws, and that's about it.
It would be nice to have more depth than just the statblock and the occasional picture. It would really help new DMs in particular to get a feel for how to present the various creatures.
My point exactly. What you described happening to you is exactly what I find myself running into. I'm notorious as a DM for throwing in a spur of the moment, random monster encounter when I feel like things are starting to drag a bit for my players. So having a quick reference with some little tidbits to spice it up would be a huge help.
The thing you always have to remember is that while there are different editions of D&D.. at the end of the day, D&D is D&D. For the most part, the narrative flavor of settings, monsters, magic items, spells and stuff like that is pretty much edition agnostic. The 2nd edition AD&D monster manual for example is one of the most thorough ever written for the game, every monster gets a full spread of detailed information. In addition, you can use the 2nd edition AD&D morale system (which is missing in 5e) without actually changing anything else in the 5e rules, it transitions perfectly as well as treasure types. It all translates without adjustment really well. I've been using the 2e monster book since 3rd edition in each adaptation of the game and its always worked fine for me.
That's good news. Looking at the 5e books, the game was almost unrecognizable to me until I started digging into it. It's good to know that a lot of the old stuff is still usable!
The thing you always have to remember is that while there are different editions of D&D.. at the end of the day, D&D is D&D. For the most part, the narrative flavor of settings, monsters, magic items, spells and stuff like that is pretty much edition agnostic. The 2nd edition AD&D monster manual for example is one of the most thorough ever written for the game, every monster gets a full spread of detailed information. In addition, you can use the 2nd edition AD&D morale system (which is missing in 5e) without actually changing anything else in the 5e rules, it transitions perfectly as well as treasure types. It all translates without adjustment really well. I've been using the 2e monster book since 3rd edition in each adaptation of the game and its always worked fine for me.
That's good news. Looking at the 5e books, the game was almost unrecognizable to me until I started digging into it. It's good to know that a lot of the old stuff is still usable!
It is and if you want to do old stuff in the new edition, like old adventure modules, Goodman Games does all the classic 5e conversions like Isle of Dread, Keep on the Borderland, Temple of Elemental Evil etc.. so you really can have a pretty old school experience using 5e with the right source material. If you want the game to have that old-school deadliness, their is a supplement available on RPG DriveThru called 5e Hardcore Mode. Pretty simple rules adjustment that turn 5e into a proper old school D&D experience.
awesome! I'm definitely going to look into this as well.
The monster filters are very good on this website, but perhaps a filter for monsters that have a description would be useful for the purpose of finding the more fleshed out monsters.
Thx so much. I really appreciate all the help. Coming from the video gaming community, which is totally overrun with toxicity.. this is most refreshing and welcome indeed.
I just started playing D&D again after a VERY long hiatus. To put that into perspective, I'm 50 yrs old. When I played, it was Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. I had the fiend folio for cripes sake! 5th edition? Wow. So much has changed. When I played, the internet didn't even exist. (Don't judge me) Now there's all these new and exciting resources available. We don't play on a table anymore, We play on Zoom since all the players in my group live all over the world. All the minis now are plastic, ours were pewter, and heck, you can even have custom ones made now that perfectly fit your character.. how sweet is that? And they're much cheaper now! I'm still getting used to having my character sheet online, but this site seems to make character creation much easier, which I totally dig. But I digress.. On to my point in making this post.
I really love this site and all it offers, BUT as the guy who always ends up being the DM (which isn't totally horrible, as that's how it was for me back in the day), I do have a gripe maybe you can help me with. I purchased a bunch of sets of dice, A DM's screen, the player's guide, the DM's guide, the monster manual, Xanathar's guide to everything, and Tasha's guide to everything thinking that would be good enough to get us going. I found a few web sites to help me create maps (which I gotta say is WONDERFUL after having to spend hours drawing maps on graph paper), and watched tons of youtube videos to give me ideas for my new campaign. I set off on creating a new world for my players (home brew is what I think you refer to it as now). After about a week of hardcore preparation, I thought I was ready.
But when I got into the game, and started yanking monsters out of the monster manual, I almost immediately noticed something very disturbing. There's NO descriptions of the monsters. Sure there's really nice pictures of them, but NOTHING in regards to habitat, history, what they eat, why the do what they do etc.
Look, I get it, this game revolves around imagination. But as a DM, I'd really like some sort of resource to refer to that let's me know when I place a statue in a dungeon of a demon, and my players decide to do a history check on it, (as happened to me last night).. That I won't be caught with my pants down and have to whip up some ridiculous answer for them. The AD&D monster manuals always had descriptions listed for the monsters which made my job as a DM much easier. DM's have so much to keep track of; It would just be easier if there was some resource out there to find the info I need like that.
Is there anything out there that provides this info? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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D&D Beyond FoundersHey there imying72,
same here on the age, though I never stopped playing TTRPG games. 😊
As BigLizard says, there are some books, like Volo's Guide to Monsters, and Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, that do a deep dive on the culture and ecology of some of the monsters, but mostly that sort of information isn't provided and is left up to the DM to decide.
I miss that level of info too, as it could be a really cool way to provide hooks into adventure.
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I have to agree with that. As a new player/DM, I find it hard to understand the mentality and the mannerisms of the monsters just going by a statblock. I'd much prefer it if they would just put a paragraph on the page with a brief description of how they behave and act. It would make it much easier to describe them (being someone without that background in flavour in D&D) and make encounters more immersive. And if I don't like the way that WotC describes them? No biggie, I can just ignore them and do what I think is best - which is what I'm forced to do at the moment.
This has really screwed me over with the adventure I'm doing now. We had an unexpected session so I was bluffing my way through it, and Star Spawn Manglers turned up. No idea what they were, didn't know how they behaved and didn't even know what they looked like (no picture on the app). I gathered that they had claws, and that's about it.
It would be nice to have more depth than just the statblock and the occasional picture. It would really help new DMs in particular to get a feel for how to present the various creatures.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Thanks for the suggestions. I will absolutely look into all of them. It's good to know that one, I'm not the only gen X'er still playing the game, lol.. and two, that at least SOME of the old school stuff is still usable in the new generation of the game. Don't get me wrong, I really like a lot of what they've done to make the game easier for newer players. Some of the people in my new campaign are brand new to the game, and some are old school vets like me. So we often talk about how certain aspects of the game now are much easier, even if it is a little tricky for us old school guys to adapt to. It's just that the lack of info in the MM has led to me me worrying more about making up certain aspects of the encounters, and in doing so failing to take care of more concepts.. like making saving throws for my monsters when the party starts tossing spells at them, or giving the monster the extra attacks or bonuses they are given in the stat blocks.
I think that when you start forcing the DM to make up more stuff on the fly to keep the encounter fun, you are inadvertently making the game harder for the DM to keep interesting, and in some cases bogging things down. especially in combat. I've found on some websites, instances where players are more or less, recreating the MM adding the info that's missing back in one monster at a time, but unfortunately, I dont have the time to do that, or catalogue what they've accomplished to this point. So taking the info you guys have supplied me with will most definitely be a huge help.
People can say what they want about the TTRPG community, but one thing that this type of community has that many others don't are people who are more than willing to help others out, and for that, I am immensely grateful. It's good to be back. Now if I can only get my wife to let me drop the coin on getting into the miniature aspect of it... all will be well with the world. ;)
My point exactly. What you described happening to you is exactly what I find myself running into. I'm notorious as a DM for throwing in a spur of the moment, random monster encounter when I feel like things are starting to drag a bit for my players. So having a quick reference with some little tidbits to spice it up would be a huge help.
That's good news. Looking at the 5e books, the game was almost unrecognizable to me until I started digging into it. It's good to know that a lot of the old stuff is still usable!
awesome! I'm definitely going to look into this as well.
The monster filters are very good on this website, but perhaps a filter for monsters that have a description would be useful for the purpose of finding the more fleshed out monsters.
This always helps as well: https://www.themonstersknow.com/
Thx so much. I really appreciate all the help. Coming from the video gaming community, which is totally overrun with toxicity.. this is most refreshing and welcome indeed.