05-18-2019, 11:17 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Do you use some kinds of monsters more?
When I GM, I lean pretty heavily on humanoids, Elder Things, classic Gigaxian bizarre monsters, and too many giant animals to really be useful in a DFRPG game. I also tend to just put them in an underground dungeon, classic style.
How about you? Do you have "old standards" you like to fall back on?
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All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table A Wiki for my F2F Group A neglected GURPS blog |
05-18-2019, 11:27 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Do you use some kinds of monsters more?
Also, why?
I like humanoids because you can have them doing anything, you can change them up with lots of skill sets and equipment sets for variety while keeping with the theme, they're bread-and-butter foes. I like Elder Things because you can also have them doing anything... and they don't even need to have some kind of motivation. Which is fun! It's really just a metacategory of "people and animals and weird monsters, but skinned by HP Lovecraft and HR Geiger". I was raised on Lovecraft, so that's got warm fuzzy feels for me. Gygaxian weird things are nostalgic - I got started in D&D, so that's also got warm fuzzy feels for me. Giant animals is some sort of bad habit.
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All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table A Wiki for my F2F Group A neglected GURPS blog |
05-18-2019, 11:37 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Nashville, TN
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Re: Do you use some kinds of monsters more?
I have in the past leaned pretty heavily on undead. I'm a little uncomfortable with the trope that "all creatures of type x are evil and so not worthy of restraint or mercy" when those creatures are thinking beings.
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I didn't realize who I was until I stopped being who I wasn't. Formerly known as Bookman- forum name changed 1/3/2018. |
05-18-2019, 03:47 PM | #4 |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: Do you use some kinds of monsters more?
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05-18-2019, 04:57 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Re: Do you use some kinds of monsters more?
I'm fond of "quirky NPCs" and "reskinned" monsters.
The quirky NPCs because they give the PCs options about how to handle things, are fun to play, and hard to read. Is the crazy old guy in the dungeon some sort of dungeon bum, a disguised monster, or a mondo-powerful old guy? It's always interesting. Ilove reskinning because so many monsters change dramatically in feeling if you jut present them a little differently. Karkadann become "man-eating cows" with no changes to stats, that "Roidgoblin" in the goblin line is an Ogre with berserk, and the "Ogrish Slobberbeast" is a dire wolf stat wise. This sort of thing adds variety and fun,keeping the monsters feeling fresh. |
05-19-2019, 10:40 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
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Re: Do you use some kinds of monsters more?
Since beginning with DFRPG last year, I've been mostly running published adventures, so I use whatever they have. When I improvise, though, I am often drawn toward weird monsters. As absurd as they might be, I started gaming with things like rust monsters, shriekers, otyughs, and displacer beasts, so I love falling back on that sort of thing. I sometimes link them to elder things or other reality-warping elements which lead naturally (unnaturally?) to the sentient cultists (whether human or humanoid) who serve the same forces.
I tend to avoid too many humanoids (though they were a central feature of Mirror of the Fire Demon, which was a lot of fun). They often lead to large numbers which makes for big, slow melees. I don't love slogfest battles. (Edit: And I have trouble keeping them evil-enough-to-murder-at-whim over a longer campaign.) Last edited by Dalin; 05-23-2019 at 02:23 PM. |
05-20-2019, 01:10 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Sep 2018
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Re: Do you use some kinds of monsters more?
I use what I have good miniatures for, which is a slim stock. I have a ton of skeletons and a fair supply of orks and goblins and some nice exotic monsters, including some Illythid-looking guys, some Lamia figures, handful of demonic-looking guys, a few werewolves and the Rancor Beast from Return of the Jedi.
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05-20-2019, 01:25 PM | #8 |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: Do you use some kinds of monsters more?
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05-21-2019, 09:09 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Do you use some kinds of monsters more?
I've been making a conscious effort to shake up my habits. Because I play online I have a good stock of token artwork (and I have no shame using human skeletons for two-headed death dogs or whatever in an emergency) so I really have no good excuses for limiting myself.
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All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table A Wiki for my F2F Group A neglected GURPS blog |
05-21-2019, 09:40 AM | #10 | |
Join Date: Mar 2019
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Re: Do you use some kinds of monsters more?
Quote:
I also struggle because I like like coming up with giant animals, but then I get attached to them and I don't really want to put them into risky situations. And humans are tricky to, cause how many of them are actually really truly evil? Good thing my players are up for navigating a swamp of grey-area rather than bashing skulls every day. . . |
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