|
I've been thinking recently....
In Aubrey's Eberron campaign, we had to go up against some ginormous evil talking wolf......there was a great deal of speculation as to what exactly this thing was. It was a wolf that talked. A big wolf.
A big evil wolf.
Now,....there's a few things that could be....is it a dire wolf? Well, it talks....maybe it's a big worg. Maybe it's a druid. Vampire. Druid fiendish vampire. Awakened minion of a druid. Vampire.
I mean, damn. It's a big wolf....or is it?
I loved it because the simple suddenly became not so simple. It became the unknown. And that's where primal fears lurk.
I think corporeal undead are cool from this standpoint...is that a zombie? Well it is kinda lurching along there; well, could a vampire kinda lurch along like a zombie just to fake you out a little bit?
What are all those bats doing there, by the way? Dayum, what is this thing anyhow? Okay, it killed real easylike. Musta been a zombie.
Hey, why is it getting back up?
Any other mystery monsters you either like, or dread?
I've been thinking recently....
In Aubrey's Eberron campaign, we had to go up against some ginormous evil talking wolf......there was a great deal of speculation as to what exactly this thing was. It was a wolf that talked. A big wolf.
A big evil wolf.
Now,....there's a few things that could be....is it a dire wolf? Well, it talks....maybe it's a big worg. Maybe it's a druid. Vampire. Druid fiendish vampire. Awakened minion of a druid. Vampire.
I mean, damn. It's a big wolf....or is it?
Heath, I shall tell you what it was that you encountered....
You were looking at your reflection in the mirror!
|
My only concern is that afterward the players feel cheated somehow, or set up; were they pissed after the fact?
I as a player find a certain glee in the paranoia inspired by these almost "bait-and-switch" beasties....is this just an orc, or a 5th level barbarian? Oh, maaaan...
And you have to be ready for the players on this one. I mean, if you judge their reactions correctly, then you can choose to do it again.
By the by, I love this method. I attempt to play characters that have no idea what they are fighting most of the time, so to have the whole group reacting that way is so much fun.
Naah....the thought crossed my mind.
But his hair was scraggley, not perfect like mine.
I had a vision, your coming down with mange.
Wikipedia says:
Mange (from Middle English manjeue, from Old French manjue, from mangier, meaning to eat)[1] is a parasitic infestation of the skin of animals. Common symptoms include hair loss, itching and inflammation, all of which are caused by microscopic mites. Mange is most commonly found in dogs and other canines, but it can occur in other domestic and wild animals.
Similar skin infestations in humans are not usually called mange but Demodicidosis which may have a rosacea-like appearance.[2]
The mites embed themselves in the hair follicles or skin, depending on the type. Both detection and treatment can be difficult and generally require consultation with a veterinarian.
Two types of mites produce canine mange, and each type has characteristic symptoms.
|
I dunno, I mean, it's great to describe the monsters well and have the PCs squirm a little the first time you describe "your" abc's: aboleth, bugbear, and cockatrice (3 great variable descriptives). But every subsequent abc becomes obvious again.
Except oozes. In the same campaign, the same Dungeon even, you can describe Ochre Jellies, Grey Oozes, etc. in many different ways. The PCs can never be sure which ooze is in front of them.
On another note, to make my campaigns better, I redo almost ALL of the stat stuff in the Monster Manual at the beginning of a campaign. This is good stuff.
I was always annoyed that metagame knowledge of monsters can't help but ruin the early levels. 1st Lvl PCs (w/out the Knowledge check) CAN NOT know the stuff about these nasties. So I change it.
Cockatrices make you Deafened instead.
You kill Brown Mold with fire.
Hobgoblins have racial SR.
Skelitons reanimate until their creator is destroyed.
By doing this, each first time is a special moment. The PCs are nervous and sometimes clumsy. Not the experinced $1 whores that they become after years and years of hustling monsters.
Wait, I think that's another subject.
-W. E. Ray
I've been fortunate in regards to players reacting to monsters in accordance with their characters' knowledge, rather than their own. This past summer, I was DMing a game with Sexi Golem as the player. They encountered a basilisk. "All right, I charge," he said, moving his fighter up to the thing.
"What?!" came the astonished reply of the other player.
"Look, there's no way I could know this is a basilisk. So I'm charging." To me, he continued, "Tell me when I need to make my save."
Of course, he failed and turned to stone. But I was very happy with the roleplaying. :)
On the flip side, I have to admit I've been guilty of metagaming as a player in the past, to negative and humorous consequences. We were in a dungeon room that had a lot of water rushing in, but there was a hole as well. A bigger concern was the sea cat that was attacking us. We were trying to get out quickly, don't remember why, and needed someone to hold the sea cat back; the cleric was in the best position, but didn't know what a sea cat was and was unwilling to go into combat with it (the player has a history of paranoia and expecting the worst, to the point of inaction many times).
"Don't sweat it," I say, "it's just a sea cat. It's like CR 4." We were quite a bit higher level than that. The DM, Sexi Golem, shot me a look, but said nothing. Well, the cleric finally mustered up the resolve to go toe-to-toe with the thing while the rest of us beat a retreat.
Then the sea cat started ripping him a new one. We eventually resolved the issue with no loss of PCs, but when it was finally over, Sexi nearly slapped me.
"You idiot!" he said, "I advanced that thing's Hit Dice out the wazoo. You could have gotten him [the cleric] killed!" Knowing Sexi, he was more upset that I had metagamed than that the cleric was in danger. And since I can say "knowing Sexi" at all, I should have known he altered the sea cat; he changes all the monsters around and makes up new ones left and right.
But it was still funny.
...Sexi nearly slapped me.
"You idiot!" he said, "I advanced that thing's Hit Dice out the wazoo. You could have gotten him [the cleric] killed"...
Ouch.
A lot of times, if I can't find what I'm looking for, I just make a monster. Honestly, I find it eaiser than adding class levels or templates. No matter how much your PCs metagame, if you just made it up, they have no clue.
I've been thinking recently....
In Aubrey's Eberron campaign, we had to go up against some ginormous evil talking wolf......there was a great deal of speculation as to what exactly this thing was. It was a wolf that talked. A big wolf.
A big evil wolf.
Now,....there's a few things that could be....is it a dire wolf? Well, it talks....maybe it's a big worg. Maybe it's a druid. Vampire. Druid fiendish vampire. Awakened minion of a druid. Vampire.
I mean, damn. It's a big wolf....or is it?
Are you playing in The Never Ending Story...?
Fizz
Any other mystery monsters you either like, or dread?
My campaigns always include at Grue.
It's stats are inscrutable.
|
|
I've been thinking recently....
In Aubrey's Eberron campaign, we had to go up against some ginormous evil talking wolf......there was a great deal of speculation as to what exactly this thing was. It was a wolf that talked. A big wolf.
A big evil wolf.
Now,....there's a few things that could be....is it a dire wolf? Well, it talks....maybe it's a big worg. Maybe it's a druid. Vampire. Druid fiendish vampire. Awakened minion of a druid. Vampire.
I mean, damn. It's a big wolf....or is it?
Could it be a Yeth Hound? Two games ago our group encountered one, but the DM described it to us, and we're all thinking: "A big, mean doggie?"
Of course, he realized that it was a little out of our league when Kip(my Monk, and the party's only tank) hit the Yeth Hound for maximum non-critical unarmed damage(1d8 + 2 STR) and still could not overcome its DR, while our Cleric and Sorcerer were almost out of spells.
The whole fight essentially degenerated into a standstill between Kip and the mutt because I couldn't overcome his Damage Reduction and he couldn't hit me reliably due to my insane AC for a fourth level character.
|
I don’t think my players have come across a "stock" monster in the last 10 years. I always change them somehow because my players have a huge amount of knowledge there characters do not.
Fun WTF! Monsters:
Gibberlings - I describe them as I describe werewolves, and there are 20 of them. Players soil themselves. They are basically werewolf looking goblins. 1HD, no lycanthropy, no DR/silver
Eye Pod - (Not IPod, not sure if I made this one up or if it’s out there somewhere) Looks like a small beholder, its a 1 HD warning monster like that eye critter in Big Trouble in Little China.
Vampires! - Not really, I have a group of 3 humans walk into the parties camp dressed in dark cloaks and they have bits of hay in there teeth to make them look like fangs. They try and scare the party off to take there stuff or tell them to leave with there lives but leave there stuff.
"Its just a kobold" - Google "Tuckers Kobolds" or read the 2nd ed campaign "Dragon Mountain". Yeah they have 4 hit points, but the party fears the kobolds more than the dragon at the end.
Back in 2e, I was running an FR right after the Time of Troubles. I had joke to one of the players of introducing a group of kobolds with the phasing ability of phase spiders.
He said it was a silly idea.
Well, one game session, the party ran into my "phase kobolds." The little buggers would pop in and attack with bows on one round, then attack and pop out on the next. The party finally beat them, but it was a rough fight.
The memorable quote from that game was uttered by the same player who thought the monsters were silly; "If you want to be healed, get under the wagon with me!"
|
|
Wow, I totally forgot about this Thread and I really liked it.
"Look, there's no way I could know this is a basilisk. So I'm charging. Tell me when I need to make my save."
Sure, Saern, we can do this -- and it can make for some funny times -- but the metagame knowledge still ruins it, at least, fear/anxiety wise. And that's Far more important.
Think about it, we'll never have a hard time coming up with funny things in the campaign. But it is hard to get players afraid, anxious -- even intrigued.
Running into "Sterling Edge's" Gibberlings for the first time -- that sounds scary. (Oh boy I'm gonna use this; Thanks!)
Remember when templates first came out and we started learning how to use them creatively? Even your old CR4 Sea Cat is all-the-sudden a heartbeat skipper for the PCs.
That's good stuff.
-W. E. Ray
It's harder to do nowadays, but it's always good to try to get something your players don't have. While running my last campaign, I asked the players (only a couple of which DM other games anyway) to not buy Heroes of Horror till the campaign finished and all were cool with it. I got to use all kinds of new stuff without them knowing what it was. It's not hard to just make up new things - heck, give those orcs platemail (with full visored helms) and greatswords and watch players cry.
One little point to note here
If you try to confuse players with these creatures and there happen to be high knowledge wizards, bards or archivists in the party well you could run into a problem since it's likely that players will get ranks in knowledge skills like (arcana, dungeoneering, nature, local, religion and the planes) so that they can identify a creature before going to pummel it out of existence