[DF] More Monster Prefixes?

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

First off, I'm happy you guys like the idea of prefixes from Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1 to make more.

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton

there is currently no mark of balance between them, or even a suggestion that one might be desired.

Quite on purpose. I can say that at no time Sean nor I brought up the idea of "balancing" or "power level designation" for prefixes. These things very deliberately draw on video games, where sometimes the bad guy has extra DR and sometimes every time you hit the bad guy lightning shoots out and auto-kills your hardcore guy.

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton

Does a creature with three modifiers relate to the same creature with three different modifiers? Should it?

It'll either be more powerful, less powerful, or about the same, depending on the monster, the prefixes, and the situation it is encountered in.

I come from the very old school idea that monsters are meant to kill you, challenges aren't meant to be easy to rate, balance of choices is good but balance of power is a will-o-the-wisp not worth chasing after.

Prefixes are like that.

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton

When one roll up might produce something that isn't too much worse than the base creature, while another makes something that is eight times the fight... then its very difficult to know what you're getting before you get it!

Two things:

1) Rolling isn't in the book. Bruno wrote a very cool table of random prefixes, but the assumption in the book is that you are hand picking them.

2) If you ARE rolling, you're accepting that you don't know what you are going to get. It's the essence of random rolling - "I might get any of these results. Let's see which one I get."

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton

Of cause you can still hand pick them, have an area where all creatures have the same modifiers to keep a theme and the players may note that Chaos creatures are much scarier than Ravenous ones because they get to see the differences more... but your mileage will vary...

Yep.

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton

Either way, here's some much neglected suffixes:@

I actually have a few suffixes (and more prefixes) lined up for a future project, so I won't add any here. But yeah, suffixes are good too.

And worrying about balance in DF is, in my opinion, a waste of time. This isn't level-balanced "appropriate for our party size and level" gaming, it's beer-and-pretzels monster killing. Stick some prefixes on to toughen things up, and let the chips (er, pretzels?) fall where they may. IMO, anyway.

My players still haven't figured out that some of the monsters they fought had prefixes. One in particular . . . but they'll figure it out.

[PseudoFenton]

Originally Posted by Toadkiller_Dog

Rolling isn't in the book. Bruno wrote a very cool table of random prefixes, but the assumption in the book is that you are hand picking them.

Oh, In which case I think I've internalised Bruno... I must have read her roller and assumed it was always meant to be there. It is a very old school approach and one I like to use on occasion myself.

I actually have a few suffixes (and more prefixes) lined up for a future project, so I won't add any here. But yeah, suffixes are good too.

Woo, looking forward to them! Is said project a sequel/pyramid article or something else entirely?

And worrying about balance in DF is, in my opinion, a waste of time. This isn't level-balanced "appropriate for our party size and level" gaming, it's beer-and-pretzels monster killing. Stick some prefixes on to toughen things up, and let the chips (er, pretzels?) fall where they may. IMO, anyway.

No I agree, I was just pointing out that asking for something with so few criteria for its creation (due to them not being balanced or designed around any specific metric of improvement) can be a little silly. Anything can be a prefix, as I illustrated with my suffixes you can slap a name onto any powerful ability or concept and hey presto it's a monster modifier!

Therefore it begs the question of if there should be some sort of balance or scalar of improvement which can be conveyed to the user. Ie this monster modifier will make your monster different while this one will make it better and this one will make your players cry themselves to death.
I'm not saying it needs it, I happily threw out three very different "power level" improvements after my little ramble, but it is something I think needs to be addressed once you start compiling a list larger than your memory capacity. Its also a handy trait for a roller if you choose to use one, different modifiers go to the low numbers and lord of the seventh hells like suffixes go to the high numbers.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton

Oh, In which case I think I've internalised Bruno... I must have read her roller and assumed it was always meant to be there. It is a very old school approach and one I like to use on occasion myself.

I was clearly channeling the zeitgeist... or something.