Ecological Organization

I'm no fan of monster manuals or bestiaries. Especially when large amounts get released. Why? Because it fills up the world too much. The problem is that monster manuals have loads of short entries, part, if not most, of it being devoted to mechanical statistics, and very little is said on how the monster fits into the world. It's lifestyle, where it lives, a bit of history perhaps. It's like looking at several hundred half-page applications for the next antagonist to use, with everybody giving very little information, and everybody trying to nudge in front of the others. There's too much color, too much variety, that it's very easy to lose focus. If the characters faced off against every single monster, they'd learn that there are a lot of creatures in the world, but there is no depth behind that. It's the very essence of fantasy kitchen sink.

It's just that I like my settings nice and tidy. I can do without fifty or more intelligent humanoid races, if all they're going to do is pop up for two fights and then never be heard of again. I read through the entries for the Dark Creeper and the Dark Stalker in the Pathfinder Bestiary, and it was basically screaming "I'm just a faceless mook to be mowed down by a level 4 party of adventurers!" They seem interesting, so I'd rather they have a really nice backstory, notes about how they live, where they live, their interactions with the rest of the world, how people see them, things like that. Yes, I know that their entry includes some of that info, and yes, I know that I can create these things myself. But there is a long list of many more monsters just as interesting also vying to be included. I'd have to pick and choose. Which means I'm only using a small part of the book.

Really, I've probably never run a combat before where the enemy did not belong to one of the iconic monster types. You know, orcs, goblins, gnolls, perhaps an owlbear thrown in for good measure (and because it was a published adventure).

In the end, it comes down to the fact that I prefer lots of depth to ridiculous amounts of variety. I'd rather have two handfuls of monster types, but each one worked out in detail, especially intelligent humanoid monsters capable of forming societies. Because having every single orc tribe being able to substitute for another get really boring really fast. Enough to fill a good bestiary entry in a campaign guide, as opposed to an entire stand-alone book. But that's just me.

Qi