I have
played Dungeons and Dragons for more than 15 years. Lately, I have not had access to any other
players and so I have just been kicking around ideas that normally would be in
a game and instead I am just going to post them on my blog. This is going to be a reoccurring thing as I
just keep hammering out things and not all of them can be turned into elements
in my “random fantasy novel ideas” folder.
Last Time
Last time I started talking about the idea of making monsters (particularly humanoid monsters)
different in such a way as to make them more alien to the players without
having to alter the rules of how those creatures play.
Creating
new statistics can be arduous, especially to new GG’s, what is more, focusing
on one particular set of rules tends to make these discussions of Dungeons and
Dragons and fantasy writing in general less accessible (at least, that is the
excuse I give for why part 3 of the “Defense” series has fewer views than any
other entry in all of my DnD blogs).
But, let me just say something quickly about new mechanics or
statistics.
Something Quickly about Mechanics and Statistics.
And easy
way to make a monster unique is to give them an ability that sets them apart
from the rest of the encounters in a game.
The boss that not only has lots of hit points and devastating attacks
but the encounter happens in a unique location (lava castle), has an attack
strategy that forces the players to rethink how they attack (you need to learn
how to gun parry and dodge forward or the side if you want to beat Father Gascoigne in “Bloodborne”, his attacks move him forward enough that dodging
backward does not remove you from the area he is attacking), or the villain has
a particular weakness that needs to be exploited (use the Light Arrows to blind
and the Master Sword to kill Ganon at the end of “Ocarina of Time”).
I unironically recall thinking graphics would never get better. |
These
alterations challenge the players to master mechanics and skills beyond what
they would typically be expected; to recognize that strategies that have worked
before are not working; and to shift resources and effort toward something that
shows an impact.
As a
general rule, you ALWAYS need a story reason to justify why a creature or
character has abilities previously unseen in its kin. If the Gelatinous Cube is flying thru the
air, be ready to offer an explanation, “It swallowed a spice rack full of
potions, one of those potions granted flight, the bottle stopper has either
just now dissolved allowing the monster to fly or the Cube’s biology has been
permanently altered by the potion to allow flight.”
In contrast
to that rule, you DO NOT ALWAYS need changes in statistics to reflect a change
in in the story. Sometimes the
acquisition of an artifact or the uncovering of an important archeological site
does not result in a change in a character’s ability to hit things with a
sword. For instance, let’s say that
Thomas the Hobgoblin is a Captain in his army and discovers the lost homeland
of his people, numerous statues, documents, art, and cultural history make him
a “powerful” force in hobgoblin society, but he is just as easy to kill as any
other Hobgoblin. Sometimes the only
“statistics” that change are how many minions they command or how devastated their
people would feel if you were to kill them.
Colonel
Thomas the hobgoblin might be a capable officer who thru luck, intelligence, or
intuition did something important, but it didn’t give him super strength,
magical powers, or an invulnerability to everything but weapons that are
painted blue. He is still just a guy who
can be pummeled to death. Don’t make the
mistake thinking that all the boss monsters have to be “special” in the sense
of rules, and do not make the mistake of not explaining why “special” bosses
have their strange abilities, even if it is just BS no one will be able
replicate ever again.
On to
pointing out instances of weirdness in fiction.
Warhammer and Warhammer 40K: “Our (insert monster here)
is different.”
While one
could point to each of these properties as being a kitchen sink approach to
their respective genre, they do this with such bald-faced sincerity and a
gung-ho immunity to self-awareness that I can’t help but kind of love them.
Warhammer
has their derivative elements, they have their imaginative elements, and they
have REALLY EXPENSIVE BOOKS AND TOYS.
Fucking hell Britain, why do you need all this nerd money? Is it for Brexit? Did Games Workshop foresee Brexit and get as
much geek coinage as they could while the getting was good?
I digress….
I found two
creative parts of these properties, one each and figured I would point to them
as yet another example of how you can do a society with a totally different
social order can be utilized in a game’s lore.
Not pictured: Lizardmen breeding. |
In
Warhammer, there are the Spawning Pools of the Lizardmen. Slann, Saurus, Skinks, and Kroxigors are all monstrous
humanoids that emerge in mass from sacred pools aligning with astrological
timing. Tadpoles plop out of these pools
after days of spawning and eat bugs to balloon their growth as quickly as
possible, emerging completely once they have fully developed as lizardmen.
In the dark
millennium of 40K, Orks are psychic fungus… Good lord that sounds silly… That
bud off of large plant like masses and grow into the various flavor of
ork. Thru a constant state of war…
Excuse me, “WAAAARRRGH!” … Only the
strongest of Orks grow to be true warlords, and among the strongest and most
dangerous of monsters in the galaxy.
Ork growth
is boosted by the psychic power of their peers.
A self-fulfilling prophecy, as an Ork survives battle after battle they
become looked up to and revered by the other orks and thus becomes powered up
by their psychic energy, making them tougher and able to survive more fights, and
more revered, and more psychically powered, and bigger, and so on.
I point to
both of these because they are not straight up manufacturing of creatures like
my examples from last week, but instead have a distinct communal
interaction. There is a social order at
work that gives a physiological imperative to its members.
The spawning
pools of the Lizardmen need to be protected to be spawned into, the pools
require numerous environmental factors to function properly, and they create a
social gathering point that must be protected for the safety of the
species. They can’t just move that shit
to the frozen north or to a desert.
Their biology requires certain conditions.
On the
contrast, orks can go anywhere and they do spill out across the galaxy invading
everywhere and fighting everyone, but they are powered up by other orks and
emboldened via that hostile action. More
“WAAAARRRGH!” means more chance for glory and more growth to wage more “WAAAARRRGH!” It is a biological imperative that would
explain the Orcs of Dungeons and Dragons being the go to opponents of most
civilized society far better than them just being barbaric and violent. It would also provide an in-game explanation for
making more powerful orcs beyond giving out class levels. Such a change would have the side effect of
getting rid of half-orcs… Which honestly could be jettisoned without losing too
much, I personally do not see their inclusion as critical, but that is just me.
Lord of the Rings: Working in the Slime Pits of Isengard
I consider
the “birth” of the first Uruk-Hai, Lurtz to be an iconic moment in the “Lord of
the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”.
These are movies built on iconic moments and that scene still sticks out
to me. It instantly establishes that
this monster birthed of filth and violence is a powerful and menacing opponent
that will pursue the heroes.
The
creation of the first Uruk-Hai in the movie is seen as some kind of experiment
and Lurtz is fully formed, not entirely clear of self and purpose, but
possessed of a singular instinct toward killing. This is a spin from the books in which the
Uruk-Hai were more traditionally bred for war, but as Peter Jackson was working
with a compressed time scale for the movie he chose to have breeding pits
creating monsters.
"We must seize the means of production." |
I like this
change. I generally like all the changes
made for the movie. I was never able to
get thru the “Lord of the Rings” books (if you want to know the furthest I ever
made it I can answer you with a link to this song). The creation of monsters makes them more
alien, more apart from the natural world they are destroying with their war,
more of a threat to the natural world beyond the sight of Saruman’s Tower. This goes back to last week’s discussion of
othering, as these guys are about as “Othered” as they can be.
The
Uruk-Hai are still humanoid, they still use weaponry, they have language, and
can be understood as a thinking/feeling/planning threat. They are however, so dirty, violent,
thuggish, simple, and driven by base desires of hunger and fear that the
audience doesn’t have to feel bad watching them be slaughtered by the train car
load.
Having the
bad minions born from ooze of pure evil is perhaps the easiest possible way to
establish that they can be killed without concern for the moral implications. Which is good because they are on the
receiving end of a freaking genocide by all the prettier (white) races of
Middle Earth at the end of the series and… Let’s not go into the eugenics esc
subtext of Tolkien’s world.
Would have been that hard. Just take one guy from the bad guy races and have him be a good guy. Heck, have a bunch, have them all be worthy of going to the Undying Lands at the end. Redemption for the ORCS! |
My Own: How I integrated some of these ideas
How I do
Giants is a little different. In my
self-created world Giants are a manifestation of the planet’s natural magics.
The natural
energies of the world, Mana flows thru the world along the ley lines, a well-known
of but often misunderstood lattice that patterns the planet. Druids map these paths and have a habit of
building conduits into this energy for the purposes of studying the pattern of
the lines, they call the ley lines, “Life Web”.
Sometimes
this energy pools in particular areas. More
often just causing things like fairy circles to appear, maybe even an elemental
to pop into our world. But, a
particularly large pool forms into the birth of a giant.
The type of
giant is based on the environment the energy pooled in. Tundra produces Ice Giants for instance. Hills, mountains, rocky steppes, or the bottom
of the sea all of these places filter and concentrate different mana to birth a
giant which rips up out of the ground blessed with some awareness but mostly
living like Enkidu the wild man until their full senses and ancestral memory
takes hold.
Giants have
an awareness of the world via their connection to the Life Web and eventually
grow savvy to their surrounding via this preternatural sense of the world. They recall weapons and crafts and language
and eventually transform into full-fledged living and thinking beings. The process takes less time if they are found
and taught by others of their kind.
And over time, they will become even more a manifestation of the elements. |
This
invading nation was known for their civil engineering, architecture, and
roads. Roads are the “Life Web” of
urbanism, cities, and the tamed world, when they are built long enough and
strong enough can cause disruptions in the world’s ley lines. Too many roads can prevent mana from pooling
in enough quantity to make a giant and can inhibit their connection to their
ancestral knowledge.
This
alteration to giants was done to explain their diversity and it would explain
why they need to come into conflict with particular groups of humans. They have a biological instinct to combat the
construction of cities and roads. They
have a vested interest in keeping the world wild and dangerous to humanoids
because that is the realm that they dominate.
This is why
Hill Giants are typically the dumbest and weakest of giants, hills are
relatively friendly to construction by small humanoids and thus the Hill Giants
were being driven into a state of weakness and might go extinct. Meanwhile the frozen or mountainous areas of
the world rarely had any paths that were not buried or destroyed by snow falls
and avalanches, so their ley lines were free and flowing. That also explains the non-existence of
Plains or Flatlands Giants.
Giants are
not without civilization in my game though.
There were instances of Giants building cities, but their architecture
made note of any ley lines and could even direct the energy more efficiently to
pool and generate more giants.
I like Giants
as an image. Powerful, enigmatic, and
chilling out. The Giants of “Skyrim” are
kind of my quintessential example of what I am looking for when I don’t bother
to integrate them into the rules of DnD.
That the massive humanoids stick to their own thing, you don’t see any
of their children, any gender roles, and all of their language and art is
simple and swirling patterns that are not conveying anything to the smaller
races, but might have substantive meaning to them.
Instances
in which the Giants come into conflict almost always involve them defending
their territory/livestock or you are helping a backstabbing orc try to curry
favor with a demonic patron. I like how
these creatures at once feel completely a part of the world and yet are kept at
a distance from all of the regular humanoid events. They are like deer or flowers; they are a
part of the terrain.
Visit and support a rando on deviantart. |
The Beg for Attention:
These
giants and last week’s goblins are all I have for now in regards to making
monsters a bit stranger, I think these ideas are good places to start from as
both of these monster types are encountered in numerous games, one at low
levels and the other at middle to higher levels, the players would be able to
see the differences but not all at once which might alienate them. Gotta ease them into the strange.
If you have
any suggestions for other monsters you would like to see changed, or other instances
of monsters in pop-culture or myth that require unusual conditions to exist
share in the comments, I feel this is the easiest topic in the world to expand
upon and will almost certainly return to it.
Regardless
of strangeness feel free to just write one or two monsters you enjoy in the
comments. Have fun.
First impressions of 5th Edition
I contrast
my vision of Giants with what I have seen of them in 5th Edition so
far, I hate how Dungeons and Dragons is utilizing Giants now. Strict deference given to some kind of
hierarchy not based on any ideology, need, desire, or threat? What is the point of saying “Hill Giants
always defer to Frost Giants”? What is
the point of having Giants be united as some sort of racial caste system? How does that help any story? I can’t believe I am saying this, but 4th
Edition did it much better as giant would eventually grow into titans of the
elements they embodied, that fits with my ideas near perfectly.
Can I ask why they made Fire Giants look so much like Ganondorf? |
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