Introduction:
-------------

Welcome and thank you for asking for the Net.Monstrous.Compendium (MNC).

This guide will help you print up your own LaTeX NMC, show you how to add
your own monsters, and how you can submit monsters to be added to the NMC.

Table of Contents:
------------------
1. How to Extract the NMC.
2. To Submit to NMC.
3. Editing the NMC.
    a) The NMC.tex file
    b) Format of the NMC
    c) Style of NMC
    d) After the Stats
    e) Deleting an Entry
4. For ASCII people.
5. Corrections, Ideas, Credits, Submissions, Etc.

How to Extract the NMC:
-----------------------

Note below is the general idea how to extract a file, some system may have
slight varations of the commands.  To be sure check with someone who has
used the uudecode and compress facilities at you institute if you are not 
familiar.

You have the complete guide if you have all the following files:

Guide    NMC.tex  e-h.tex  m-q.tex  u-z.tex
Mname    a-d.tex  i-l.tex  r-t.tex

If you do not have all these files then contact the compiler Robert Christian
at robertc@garfield.cs.mun.ca.

Currently all the files should have the extensions .Z.uu.  To get rid of these
extensions type "uudecode [filename]", and then "uncompress [filename]".  Wild
cards (at least on my system) doesn't work for uudecode but does for 
uncompress.

After obtain all these files simply type "latex NMC" and you should be on your
way.  After latexing this file all other will have been included.  You may
view or print up the manual as you see fit.  See section on editing the file.

To Submit to the NMC:
---------------------

Please if you have monsters that you wish to add to the NMC, please send them
in ASCII or LaTeX format (2nd Edition only) to:

Robert Christian
Compiler of the NMC
robertc@garfield.cs.mun.ca

Submission should be your own creations or you must have consent from the
person who created the monster for it to be added.  Monsters that are copies
of works from the 1st edition Monster Manuals or Fiend Folio or and creature
that was posted in a Dragon magazine or other fantasy magazine or publication
will not be accepted for submission and any monsters place in the compendium
will be removed if evidence is brought forth stating the monster to be a 
plagerized work.  Creatures inspired by novels, or other works, that are
created from scratch is acceptable.

Editting the NMC:
-----------------

The NMC is your manual and you should edit it to suit your world and DMing
style.  The following section explains how the LaTeX file can be editted if
desired.  If you have any helpful hints or better ways to do this manual
then please write Robert Christian at robertc@garfield.cs.mun.ca.

  The NMC.tex file:

  \monster  - this command gives all stats from the monster's name to his
              alignment on the monster sheet.  This is use when only one
              type of monster exist.  (Non-muliple variants like horse or
              dogs in the MC's).  All does all picture designs for this
              type of sheet.

  \vstats   - this gives all the vital stats from frequency to special
              defenses.  This is for non-mulitple variant sheets.

  \fstats   - gives information on magic resistance, size, moral and xp value
              for defeating the creature.  This is for the non-multiple variant
              monster sheets.

  \mmonster - This is for multivariant monster sheets.  All it does is prints
              the monsters names and sets up the picture for the sheet.   Note
              no box is created to draw the creatures picture in.

  \mname    - This gives all subnames for the multivariant creature and all
              sats up to and including alignment.

  \mvstats  - same as \vstats but for multivariant monster sheets.

  \mfstats  - same as \fstats but for multivariant monster sheets.

  These commands also contain the information to change the font size on the
  monster sheets.

  \Com      - This command is placed at the beginning of the Combat paragraph
              and will take care of puting the word Combat: at the beginning
              of the paragraph.

  \Hab      - Similar to the \Com command but does for the Habitat/Society.

  \Eco      - Similar to the \Com command but does for the Ecology paragraph.

  \Bre      - This is used for dragons and other creatures that have 
              a section called Breath Weapons/Special Abilities.

  \Var(x)   - This command is used when you have a variant of some type of
              creature and the following paragraphs are only for that variant.
              The x is the name of the variant.  An example of a variant name
              in the MC's is Eastern Vampires or Juju Zombies.

  \id       - indents and item by 0.2 inches.  This is mainly used in XP Value
              when you have variant experiance points.

  \x        - is used to created the math times symbol.

  \TM       - puts a TM at the of a name to indicate the product is a trade
              mark of some company.

  \superDag - creates small dag symbol

  \superDDag- creates small ddag symbol

   Format of NMC:

   a-d.tex <- this file contains monsters whose name begin with the letter
              between a and d inclusive.  (Gee how did I think up this
              ingenius system).


  To enter the stats of a creature each item must be filled by containing
  them with thes { } backets.  An entry should be no more than 32 characters
  long (with some exception).  If it is then you going to need multiple lines
  for a category.  To do this you must type { then the info followed by \\ when
  you want the information to and type & then more information for the next
  line if still not enough room type another // and begin the next line with
  & and continue the information until done.  You can have as man of these
  & \\ lines as you want but the final line must begin with & but end with }
  instead of \\  The example below shows how this works.

  Example:

  {Sub-tropical to Temperate \\
  & mountains and forest near \\
  & river beds}			%%% Terrain
  {Rare}			%%% Frequency

  The TERRAIN entry requires 3 lines instead of the usual one.  Therefore
  it must specify column seperators (&) and end of lines (\\) for all
  information inbetween the the beginning and end.  This is clearer when
  we look at how the information is passed back to NMC.  Information in
  square brackets is from the infomation above.

  {\bf CLIMATE/TERRAIN:}  & [Sub-tropical to Temperate \\]
                         [& mountains and forest near \\]
                         [& river beds] \\
  {\bf FREQUENCY: }       & [Rare] \\

  Notice how the information keeps every thing lined up.  If the & were
  missing then we would get the information place under the Climate/Terrain
  information instead of in the appropiate column it is suppose to be in.

  This also is beneficial when you need to add variant experiance points at
  the end of the xp value column.  For example if you wish the following:

  XP VALUE:              20,000
    female               18,000
    children             10,000

  It would look as follows in the tex format.

  {20,000 \\
  {\id female & 18,000 \\
  {\id children & 10,000}

  The \id is described above.  This is sent back as:

  {\bf XP VALUE: }         & [20,000  \\]
       [female            &  18,000  \\]  %%% Info on hspace omitted.
       [children          &  10,000] \\
 
  For multiple variant monster sheets the & must be specified all the time
  (except for the very first) but other than that it is much the same.
  Every single entry (one line) must have 3 &'s giving a possible 4
  variants as follows:

  { varaiant1 & variant2 & variant3 & variant4}

  If more than one line is need then we can do the following.

  { v1 & v2 & v3 & v4 \\
  & v1 & v2 & v3 & v4 \\
  & v1 & v2 & v3 & v4 }

  If 4 variants are not use then just leave a column blank.

  { & v1 & v2 & v3 }

  Style of NMC:

  I look through compendiums 1,2 and 8 and try to determine what the most
  consistant way TSR did things.  The following is the style I try to adhear
  to.

  - emphasis of any name of spell or magic ability.

  - If creature has different HD or a HD range then information such as THAC0
    and XP Value should put the HD value in the same column as the rest of
    the information.  Such as

    XP VALUE:            5 HD: 10,000
                         6-7 HD: 20,000
                         9 HD: 30,000

  - All colons should have no spaces before it.  Thus it is HD: not HD :

  After the Stats:

  Once the stats of the creature is done then the paragraphs of the creature
  have to be written.  The information on appearance should be typed in
  normally.  When a paragraph is finished there shoud be a space between
  it and the next like they ones found here.

  Don't forget the to put \Com, \Hab, \Eco before the paragraphs that begin
  these sections.  General format I use is as follows:

  \Com
  Paragraph(s) on combat begin here.

  \Hab
  Paragraph(s) on habitat and society are here.

  Deleting an Entry:

  This is simply done by deleting all information between the \newpage
  of the previous monster to the \newpage of the monster you whish to delete.

  Note a \newpage may appear for formating purposes only but it should be
  labeled as such with a comment (%).

For ASCII people:
-----------------

The LaTeX NMC was designed before any ASCII version therefore there does
not exist any ASCII form of this file (yet).  However, the file is easily
readible after a little while and it should be fairly easy for anyone to
make and ASCII NMC if they wished.

Corrections, Ideas, Credits, Submissions, Etc.:
-----------------------------------------------

If you have any ideas on how to improve the NMC, or this guide or if you
have corrections to make to the NMC (spelling, typos, credits for a monster,
etc.) or if you would like to make a comment or submit a new entry then
write to :

Robert Christian
compiler NMC

robertc@garfield.cs.mun.ca
