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Let's face it, crypt things really don't do much. They have a seriously cool name, but their thing is that they look like liches.
When the party predictably starts hurling fireballs and swinging +3 Holy Avengers, BAMF!, they teleport the characters elsewhere. It's not fatal - it never is - it's just an annoyance. If the party slows down and starts asking things like, "hey! Where'd you put our cleric?" the crypt thing tells 'em that the alive and well characters have been disintegrated. Sort of a one trick pony and only an okay trick.
The first edition Fiend Folio, though, sported an incredibly evocative illustration by the great Russ Nicholson. Instead of a kinda-interesting sorta-skeleton, he showed you this undead thing which could pass the long years, decades, centuries, in quiet reading and contemplation, until the day careless tomb robbers came to disturb its reverie. Cooooool!
Apparently I'm not the only person who was hooked by the pretty picture because, despite their kinda eh power, crypt things have shown up in every edition of AD&D/D&D since.
When the party predictably starts hurling fireballs and swinging +3 Holy Avengers, BAMF!, they teleport the characters elsewhere. It's not fatal - it never is - it's just an annoyance. If the party slows down and starts asking things like, "hey! Where'd you put our cleric?" the crypt thing tells 'em that the alive and well characters have been disintegrated. Sort of a one trick pony and only an okay trick.
The first edition Fiend Folio, though, sported an incredibly evocative illustration by the great Russ Nicholson. Instead of a kinda-interesting sorta-skeleton, he showed you this undead thing which could pass the long years, decades, centuries, in quiet reading and contemplation, until the day careless tomb robbers came to disturb its reverie. Cooooool!
Apparently I'm not the only person who was hooked by the pretty picture because, despite their kinda eh power, crypt things have shown up in every edition of AD&D/D&D since.
Category Artwork (Traditional) / Fantasy
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 900 x 1145px
File Size 108.6 kB
This would be perfect to whip out and show the players :)
There was a lot of evocative art in the old Fiend Folio, wasn't there? I wish I knew what happened to my copy... I really dislike the "trick" monsters, though (Gas Spore!). It's a style of playing I've never enjoyed, as a GM or a player.
There was a lot of evocative art in the old Fiend Folio, wasn't there? I wish I knew what happened to my copy... I really dislike the "trick" monsters, though (Gas Spore!). It's a style of playing I've never enjoyed, as a GM or a player.
Caves of Chaos syndrome.
Monsters are cool. Therefore more monsters are cooler. I think having the monster mash in D&D started as a result of Gygax as wargamer, who used monster diversity as a way of stepping up difficulty in opponents (or value of wargames units). So the progression isn't "okay, so you fought the gnoll skirmishers, and now that you fought gnoll front-line soldiers you're up against gnoll elites" so much as "okay, so you fought the kobolds, then you fought the orcs, and now that you're finished fighting gnolls, you're ready to fight bugbears." Linear, equivalent to the linearity of character and dungeon levels.
That gets less confused when you discard level mechanics - when a broo or duck can dent your veteran character as easily as during your first game, then the big reasons for using critters instead of human opponents really shift to story elements (in other words, "monsters are cool.")
You always have to have more and more varied monsters than could possibly make sense in any realistic ecosystem - otherwise you just have medieval Europe, and even Ars Magica and Pendragon needed monsters! But at some point it gets weirdly top heavy.
In the meta-game sense, more monsters are a good thing. The idea of throwing all these monsters at your players is completely thematically incoherent - if your game is about the secret plots of the aboleths, you probably want aboleths and aboleth-y monsters, rather than gleefully bounding between monsters with no unifying element. It's okay to not use the myriad slime, fungus, undead, humanoid with underbite, spindly astral people variants in your books because they've already served a valuable purpose in getting you thinking about cool stuff and story elements.
Monsters are cool. Therefore more monsters are cooler. I think having the monster mash in D&D started as a result of Gygax as wargamer, who used monster diversity as a way of stepping up difficulty in opponents (or value of wargames units). So the progression isn't "okay, so you fought the gnoll skirmishers, and now that you fought gnoll front-line soldiers you're up against gnoll elites" so much as "okay, so you fought the kobolds, then you fought the orcs, and now that you're finished fighting gnolls, you're ready to fight bugbears." Linear, equivalent to the linearity of character and dungeon levels.
That gets less confused when you discard level mechanics - when a broo or duck can dent your veteran character as easily as during your first game, then the big reasons for using critters instead of human opponents really shift to story elements (in other words, "monsters are cool.")
You always have to have more and more varied monsters than could possibly make sense in any realistic ecosystem - otherwise you just have medieval Europe, and even Ars Magica and Pendragon needed monsters! But at some point it gets weirdly top heavy.
In the meta-game sense, more monsters are a good thing. The idea of throwing all these monsters at your players is completely thematically incoherent - if your game is about the secret plots of the aboleths, you probably want aboleths and aboleth-y monsters, rather than gleefully bounding between monsters with no unifying element. It's okay to not use the myriad slime, fungus, undead, humanoid with underbite, spindly astral people variants in your books because they've already served a valuable purpose in getting you thinking about cool stuff and story elements.
Yes, I agree with this, and if I were ever to run a D&D campaign the first thing I'd do is get together with the players and decide where our focus would be, and we'd discard all the races, classes, monsters and supplementary material that had nothing to do with it. Less is more.
But that's just me; some people enjoy a "monster derby" approach :)
Also, less doesn't sell as much copy :) Coming up with new material is necessary to WotC/Hasbro's business model, and it's a pretty successful model so far. I actually don't think that's a bad thing. The gaming industry these days is hugely more vibrant and successful that it ever was.
It's fun to flip through all the new (and past) Monster Manuals, though, because every now and then I'll stumble across some critter that demands to have an adventure written around it. Which I think is related to your last point, and a very good point that is.
I would love to run or play the Caves of Chaos - from the monster point of view. Could you imagine being the kobolds, and having to broker peace deals and treaties with the other groups, with the ultimate goals of a) defending your homes against adventurers and b) getting rid of the Evil High Priest? :)
But that's just me; some people enjoy a "monster derby" approach :)
Also, less doesn't sell as much copy :) Coming up with new material is necessary to WotC/Hasbro's business model, and it's a pretty successful model so far. I actually don't think that's a bad thing. The gaming industry these days is hugely more vibrant and successful that it ever was.
It's fun to flip through all the new (and past) Monster Manuals, though, because every now and then I'll stumble across some critter that demands to have an adventure written around it. Which I think is related to your last point, and a very good point that is.
I would love to run or play the Caves of Chaos - from the monster point of view. Could you imagine being the kobolds, and having to broker peace deals and treaties with the other groups, with the ultimate goals of a) defending your homes against adventurers and b) getting rid of the Evil High Priest? :)
discard all the races, classes, monsters and supplementary material that had nothing to do with it
For a while now, I've really wanted to run Eberron with races limited to humans, halflings (as an exception - they're more "Eberrony" somehow), shifters, warforged... just really amp up the steampunk, lower the standard fantasy.
For a while now, I've really wanted to run Eberron with races limited to humans, halflings (as an exception - they're more "Eberrony" somehow), shifters, warforged... just really amp up the steampunk, lower the standard fantasy.
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