Counterpart to this thread. What (non-homebrewed) stuff shows up in your games more often than not?
Personally, I don't think I've ever run a campaign that didn't feature Orcs, undead, or fiends of some type at least once. I will probably think of more later.
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2nd on the Orcs. Its mostly cause I am dating one.
Had a GM who threw golems at us every chance he got.
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I'm guilty of using Undead way more often than a rational DM should.
Since haunts were introduced, every campaign or one-shot has at least one.
Humans and non-standard human-touched races (tieflings, dhampir, aasimars) are mainstays as player races, NPCs, and enemies. Catfolk and ratfolk seem to be taking this route as well.
For some reason, there's always a scene or NPC that involves one or more talking animals. It's been pointed out often, but I always tend to bounce back to that.
Mechanics-wise, my groups make heavy use of:
- Map grids and player tokens/miniatures
- Attacks of opportunity
- Combat maneuvers
- Teamwork positioning
In terms of encounters, I use lots of:
- Intelligent humanoids (humans, giants)
- Evil outsiders (particularly ones that can blend in amongst humanoids)
- Undead (typically created as tools of the above enemy to waste resources and demoralize foes)
- Traps (and sometimes puzzles)
- Rival/enemy adventuring parties
- Monsters with class levels and templates
- Vampires
- Assassins
- Constructs
- Diabolists and evil spellcasters
- Opportunities for redeeming opponents
- Situations that are probably best-solved other than by violence (i.e. killing/destroying the problem may make things worse)
- Situations where terrain and/or moral concerns limit options and force hard choices
- Fights involving multiple factions
- Patrols and reinforcements showing up in response to how the party is affecting the environment (or perhaps waiting in ambush)
orcs, animals and vermin lot of low level classed npcs.
Monsters with class levels!
same =)
Encumbrance rules and common sense regarding carrying capacity.
"No, you can NOT fit 500,000 copper coins into your backpack."
"No, even if you could somehow actually lash that many sacks onto your body, you still cannot fight at full bonuses while waltzing around with a half-ton of copper coins in tied-off sacks dangling from all over you. Speaking of which ... how are you even MOVING with that much encumbrance again?"
Something(s) that eats faces and/or brains. Wendigo at the top end, zombies/ghouls at the bottom, although the rare carnivorous Small race NPC crops up from time to time...
As several others - monsters with class levels!
Behir. I always stat one form of behir or another for each campaign. I often don't get to USE them, however.
At least a token Cthulhuvian nod.
At least a token Cthulhuvian nod.How is "something that eats faces" NOT Cthulhuvian?
Animals eat faces (carrion eaters), as do vermin, oozes, etc. Usually as an aftertought.
I don't view zombies/ghouls as being particulalry Cthulhuvian. Although the latter are oft-attributed to Lovecraft.
Now, moonflowers very likely meet both criteria. :D
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Turin, you are mad...
I should hope so. ^__^
When I first started DMing I would always through in giant bugs at some point in the session. Usually giant spiders and centerpedes.
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Love giant insects and arachnids. Especially the giant scorpion.
I had a player years ago that suffered greatly from Arachnophobia, so much so that it affected him during the game...
There were many giant spiders in the campaigns he played in!
Later, that player bought a tarantula IRL and was able to "cure" his fear of spiders...
I still love useing giant spiders however...
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He seemed fine through the process, but a few days later (real-time), he told me he had nightmares about being locked up in a crate.
Counterpart to this thread. What (non-homebrewed) stuff shows up in your games more often than not?
Personally, I don't think I've ever run a campaign that didn't feature Orcs, undead, or fiends of some type at least once. I will probably think of more later.
If you make a thread in opposition to mine, does it mean we're bitter enemies now and a gentlemen's duel is called for? 'cause I totally need an excuse to buy those german pistol-axes I saw on eBay the other day.
More on the topic, things that are stapple on my games:
-Beholders: Seriously, I love these bastards. They are featured in every single campaign I have ever ran (save for the occasional single-session module), usually as either the bad guys, friends to the bad guys, or random passer-bys who happen to also be bad. Our first TPK ever was, in fact, caused by an eye tyrant. The one time I put a band of good beholders, the party collapsed a building on top of them before even speaking a word. I guess I can't blame them.
-Undead: Though I don't have a particular favourite (I've always liked standard zombies and skellies, and liches are always fun to throw in for the melodramatic dialogues), I always put at least one kind of undead in my games. That's perhaps why there is almost always a paladin in the group.
-Crafting: I love when players create things, so I try to entice them to craft whenever possible. Thus, crafting is always featured in one way or another.
-Three NPCs that, regardless of the game we're actually playing (or even the setting), always show up: A merchant by the name of Mosheem, who's always going to try and scam the party but when pressed has just the thing they need; a cartwheeler/sea captain/space trader/steam-powered skyship opium smuggler called Sergio the Honest, who really is honest and has a tendency to lend his property to the party and end up losing it three out of four times; and Loth the Magnificent, who can show up as either a friend or foe, usually in charge of some kind of thieve's den/fighting pit/midnight market (although once he appeared as the animated skull of a long-dead bard. The party kept him in a bag, and he would sing to Inspire Courage when needed), who always seems to remember the party from another life.
-Elements: I mean directly as Prime Elements, since I guess every campaign has dirt or at least air of some kind. The Inner Planes have always been one of my favourite things in the D&D cosmology, and I always make sure to include them, either through straight trips to said dimensions, by weaving them into the plot somehow or, at least, by featuring an elemental-themed dungeon of sorts.
If you make a thread in opposition to mine, does it mean we're bitter enemies now and a gentlemen's duel is called for? 'cause I totally need an excuse to buy those german pistol-axes I saw on eBay the other day.Counterpart to this thread. What (non-homebrewed) stuff shows up in your games more often than not?
Personally, I don't think I've ever run a campaign that didn't feature Orcs, undead, or fiends of some type at least once. I will probably think of more later.
Counterpart, not opposite. Like I'm the Batman to your Superman. Or something.
-Three NPCs that, regardless of the game we're actually playing (or even the setting), always show up: A merchant by the name of Mosheem, who's always going to try and scam the party but when pressed has just the thing they need; a cartwheeler/sea captain/space trader/steam-powered skyship opium smuggler called Sergio the Honest, who really is honest and has a tendency to lend his property to the party and end up losing it three out of four times; and Loth the Magnificent, who can show up as either a friend or foe, usually in charge of some kind of thieve's den/fighting pit/midnight market (although once he appeared as the animated skull of a long-dead bard. The party kept him in a bag, and he would sing to Inspire Courage when needed), who always seems to remember the party from another life.
Hahah, I have these. One is Nurn, the Slaad ally NPC from Bastion of Broken Souls, who alternates between enemy and ally depending on his needs. Another is named Lighthawk, whose class, appearance, and purpose varies every time but personality - a loose cannon and somewhat unstable fellow with a smarmy grin - pretty much remains constant. Thirdly is The Informant, an information merchant in the main town of my homebrew session, who usually has access to knowledge the party will eventually require, but never deals in coin - what she knows must be acquired by trading other new knowledge, performing a favor, or earning a debt from her somehow.
In Nurn's case it's literally the same guy every time.
For as long as I have DMed, in every one of my campaigns, at some point... There's an encounter with stirges. And I don't know why. lol..
Also, it hasn't happened in a while, but I used to always put (one per campaign) an item, chair, throne, (or whatever), that would force players to roll a d% when activated (or sat on) and randomly see what happens. It would raise and lower stats, give or take away stuff, give followers or throw demons at the party, etc... Kind of like a Deck of Many Things, but with less drastic concequences. Always was very popular when I did that.
Ultradan