A big gift to my fellow DMs

[Kurt Kurageous]

What if someone (me) retyped (almost) the entire A to Z portion of the MM (less the epic ones with lair actions) over the course of the last 3 months in my spare time, including all of the NPCs in MM and VGM into half-page wide column highly abbreviated statblocks? Could you use it? Would you want it? What if I didn't charge you for retyping it so I don't have to hassle copyright vs open source license issues? Well?

They are suitable for dropping into your Word documents without taking up the usual half to third of a page. They are meant for a DM to run in game only and not plan encounters. I've incorporated changes (like putting effects in front of the save instead of behind the save) to the WotC format that are means to make the DM job easier. This is a sample:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzHVsiBMMb98YTdQMzJ3aVRBSzA/view?usp=sharing

I got tired of using snip tool to build specific adventure compendiums. It ticked me off to no end the WotC could have made and released tighter statblocks for (AL) or general DMing meant to be dropped into text documents. So I did. Not perfectly, but it is done.

I still have to type the beasties section of the MM and go thru all the releases I own to add all the non-setting unique creatures. I'm getting burned out and make no promises. No, I'm not doing a kickstarter. It's copyrighted after all.

PM me and say what if anything you've written to help others or anything we posted about together. If I recognize you (and maybe even if I don't) I'll send the PDF. If you've got an original adventure to share back, I like things like that. I've got a couple I've done in a scene format (per Angry DM) that I'd like to hear PEACH on.

I want to know who gives a rats, and this is the place I'm going to offer it as a means of thanking those still here who have helped me and so many others. And if someone wants to take over for the beasts, that would be great.

[JackPhoenix]

Well, I'm no legal expert, but you're talking about copyrighted material. Doesn't matter if you don't intend to ask money for it, I can't imagine something like that would be OK... you can't even post stat blocks of non-SRD monsters in DMsG.

[Kurt Kurageous]

Is the only objection to what monsters are exempted from the SRD? Easy fix.

[Addaran]

If i was still DMing, i'd be all over it. It would be amazing for when you use multiple different monsters in one fight. You wouldn't have to flip through the pages multiple times per turn.

Most have been a really long job to do, my hats off to you!

[Specter]

I hate to criticize free stuff, but the description could be a little more thorough. It's hard to read it without stopping for a second to understand.

But for what it's worth, good stuff!

[Kurt Kurageous]

I hate to criticize free stuff, but the description could be a little more thorough. It's hard to read it without stopping for a second to understand.

Fair criticism. I wrote it angry, so that's why. I will try again.

What I've done is type out the stat blocks from the Monster Manual (MM) less monsters with lair actions, all the generic NPCs from the MM and the additional NPCs from the WotC adventures I own, and the entire Appendix A from the MM into a highly condensed and abbreviated format that will fit efficiently in a half page Word document.

The purpose is to make it easier to include the stat blocks in your DM homebrew adventures, save the agro of either building separate compendiums by snip tool or juggling pages in the MM balanced on your knees while trying to DM.

I exempted the lair monsters because they should not end up just dropped on a page of an adventure like a kobold encounter .

I will now begin to add additional monsters to the MM file from the WotC published adventures I own. If I get more flack, I will remove the blocks of the non-SRD entries once I have completed my private version.

I'm angry because I thought that what I'd done would be appreciated by other DMs. I have reduced the MM from 338 pages of stat blocks to 35 pages. As of now, the zero requests received is telling me I over-valued my contribution to the craft of DMing. Heck, this thread was already drifting off page 1 before I made this update.

[pangoo209]

I don't understand why you're angry, someone already said it sounded cool. I'd love to check it out myself too. Not being here long though something I learned quickly is that there is ALMOST NO other DM's on here. Regardless, I'd love to see it, im sure it would help me a lot

[Reaver25]

I'll be honest. I don't care about copyright crap, you're not asking money for it. If you were giving that out, I'd love a piece of the pie. :D Also, thanks for doing that!

[Inchoroi]

I'd love it! I use abbreviated statblocks in my notes, for the sake of sanity, so just being able to copy-paste them would be awesome.

[draken50]

Sounds useful to me. I'd like a copy, but if you want something back I've got exactly jack and squat.

[Matrix_Walker]

Sounds like a hugely useful tool!

[Kurt Kurageous]

All I ask is you PM (private message) me on this board with your request, preferably with an email address. No, I don't sell email addresses nor write bad code. I just want to tally the number of folks this went to, as there is no counter for downloads.

And let me know how you like/use it, if you would. I've dropped them on the notes pages and found it wonderful to not have to look away to a bookmarked MM/VGM etc or have a multipage collection of monsters to sift to find the two in the current encounter on opposite sides of the page.

[Camman1984]

even if you aren't asking for money, reproducing the material is still bad juju. if everyone started doing this why buy the books? and if people don't buy the books, who pays for the continued support of our game.

while I applaud your hard work and I will just assume you had nothing but good intentions, I disagree with things like this and feel they can only hurt us in the long run :).

[Laserlight]

even if you aren't asking for money, reproducing the material is still bad juju.).

If it's only SRD stuff, then I expect it's fine.

If it's Product Identity stuff not in the SRD, then regardless of whether you charged for it, it would be a violation-- distributing it for free affects damages but doesn't keep it from being infringement.

Caveat: I Am Not A Lawyer and my copyright/IP law classes were 30 years ago.