Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 05-18-2019, 11:17 AM   #1
Bruno
 
Bruno's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Default 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?
__________________
All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table
A Wiki for my F2F Group
A neglected GURPS blog
Bruno is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-18-2019, 11:27 AM   #2
Bruno
 
Bruno's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Default 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.
__________________
All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table
A Wiki for my F2F Group
A neglected GURPS blog
Bruno is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-18-2019, 11:37 AM   #3
Brandy
 
Brandy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Nashville, TN
Default 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.
__________________
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.
Brandy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-18-2019, 03:47 PM   #4
evileeyore
Banned
 
evileeyore's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
Default Re: Do you use some kinds of monsters more?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
Do you have "old standards" you like to fall back on?
Nope.

I was once accused of "using too many Orcs", but to be fair in that campaign the PCs went into the Orc lands one a single adventure and then never left and it was their own choice, so, tough.
evileeyore is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-18-2019, 04:57 PM   #5
martinl
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Default Re: Do you use some kinds of monsters more?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
Do you have "old standards" you like to fall back on?
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.
martinl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-19-2019, 10:40 AM   #6
Dalin
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
Default 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.
Dalin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-20-2019, 01:10 PM   #7
Black Leviathan
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Default 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.
Black Leviathan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-20-2019, 01:25 PM   #8
evileeyore
Banned
 
evileeyore's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
Default Re: Do you use some kinds of monsters more?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Black Leviathan View Post
I use what I have good miniatures for, which is a slim stock.
Another reason I switched to paper minis. Do you know how many awesome looking monsters I've got on my hard drive I've never gotten around to printing and using?
evileeyore is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-21-2019, 09:09 AM   #9
Bruno
 
Bruno's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Default 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.
__________________
All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table
A Wiki for my F2F Group
A neglected GURPS blog
Bruno is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-21-2019, 09:40 AM   #10
Yssa
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Default Re: Do you use some kinds of monsters more?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brandy View Post
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.
I have the same problem -- Orcs are people too, after all.

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. . .
Yssa is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:04 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.