SteelCold Posted February 22, 2017 Report Share Posted February 22, 2017 Back to Turakian Age, one of its kingdoms has been ruled for nearly a thousand years by a wizard king, who for almost half that time has been an undead lich. Only he's a benevolent lich who maintains the same just policies he did in life. Kal-Turak's spin doctors must really be hard at work to clean up his public image. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phydaux Posted February 22, 2017 Report Share Posted February 22, 2017 you can build an entire campaign where the central threats are other humans; they don't have to look monstrous to be monsters on the inside That is the entire theme of The Walking Dead - We're surrounded by zombies, but it's the PEOPLE who are the monsters (Negan, the Governor, the crowd at Sanctuary, etc..). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelCold Posted February 22, 2017 Report Share Posted February 22, 2017 As for choosing monsters, I'll go with the consensus of adapting them to the environment though I usually don't bother too much with ecologies. I'm not running National Geographic Simulator nor am I playing Sesame Street:The RPG. Monsters were meant to be killed. (Sorry Elmo). One can do with the idea from the Dragon Age video games which has various races tainted with the Darkspawn Blight. So Shrieks came from elves, genlocks from dwarves or goblins, hurlocks from orcs or humans, Ogres from the giant races etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdamnhero Posted February 22, 2017 Report Share Posted February 22, 2017 Right: monster vs. NPC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 22, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2017 Interesting discussion however for me and this game, its for my boys and we still are going to have lots of combat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDarkness Posted February 23, 2017 Report Share Posted February 23, 2017 So you're actually perfectly fine with all evil species, you just want them to be supernatural. There's nothing more moral to having all-evil undead than it is to have all-evil orcs. Not to digress too far, but how I handle it in my game. Zombies are not so much sentient, as dead flesh animated by evil forces. Skeletons are the same, just not worried about head shots. Vampires are like a photograph of a particularly evil person whose moment of death, in addition to being a point in their evil, is shaped by the choice of being bitten and becoming a vampire. No sparkly vampires, no moment of redemption, as they aren't truly beings, just the constant repetition of the sorts of evil that person was in life given supernatural power. The actual person ceased to be at the moment of death, the vampire itself is merely a tribute to that evil, and, as such, vampires can only be made from those willing, and, if the original person is in there at all, they, in gaining all power based on the wish to continue their evil, lose all choice in actions where they are not in keeping with that evil. They are essentially trapped in a centuries long loop of repeating their worst behavior. Same with liches. Other undead are, essentially, different forms of one or the other. Dragons, I tend to not tie motivation to their color. What sort of dragon it is is defined by it and its motivations. Question for ninja-bear: it might be easier to come up with ideas if we had some background to the type of world or story you are working with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 23, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2017 The Darkness the story is as old as time, good (the pcs) versus evil (aka monsters). Its very Black and White. There will be heriics though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 23, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2017 Also I don't want to lock myself in so that if I see a cool mini, I can't use it either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDarkness Posted February 23, 2017 Report Share Posted February 23, 2017 If I want a lot of monsters of different kinds, I'll usually try to take things subterranean. Maybe have my players trying to get to an ancient dwarven city to find some tome, this way they can end up having to go through kobold territory(and it doesn't matter whether good or evil, kobolds will take joy in lobbing SOMETHING at the players if they are foolish enough to go through their lair), there can be giant blind worms, undead dwarves from the great battle that destroyed that particular dwarf kingdom, ghosts, all sorts of things. That's the nice thing about subterranean tunnels that stretch for miles in all directions, it makes a nice self contained place that explains why all these monsters don't disperse a bit, and a place where all sorts of unsavory NPCs who don't want to be found can be found. Occasional balrogs with faulty understanding of what a bridge can support as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted February 23, 2017 Report Share Posted February 23, 2017 Choosing what monsters are available in a campaign world is something that I have rarely thought about. If I want it, it goes in. Sometimes. I tend to have an unwritten two-axis scale. One axis determines the level of realism vs. fantasy and the other one deals with cohesion of elements vs. free-for-all inclusiveness. D&D is free-for-all fantasy, for example. Tuala Morn would be fantastic, but closer to realism and have a certain amount of thematic exclusivity. Choosing the actual monsters then comes down to the theme. For a fantasy ninja hero, I'm breaking out Surbrooks Asian Bestiaries. For something like Arabian Nights, I'm sticking more closely to things like Efreet, Djinn and ghouls. On the nature vs. nurture side of things, for me it depends on the campaign. Orcs in Tolkien's Middle-Earth were corrupted beings and were designed to be evil. Sauron had no use for weakness, generosity or kindness and orcs are a reflection of his evil. Orks in Warcraft are another thing altogether. They remind me of Klingons from Star Trek and therefore they are not necessarily evil. They just have a society that applauds physical strength and combat prowess. Whether I use an all-evil species depends greatly on whether or not the campaign theme calls for it. Humans/closely related humanoids, are my favorite bad-guy. Everything is ambiguous when you meet a new human. We are all familiar with that feeling. Sometimes we get along great. Sometimes we don't. Sometimes we think we are getting along when something unexpected happens. That ambiguity is very easy to translate into role-playing terms and also pays rather large dividends, from a storytelling point of view, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted February 23, 2017 Report Share Posted February 23, 2017 Nitpick Of The Day: the Orcs of Arda were not designed by Sauron, but by Melkor, Morgoth Bauglir. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted February 23, 2017 Report Share Posted February 23, 2017 It depends. I try to keep creatures to an area reasonable to it; so a dragon doesn't show up in a 10x10 room in a monastery, and undead aren't sitting around the king's palace dinner table. Hmm... Clearly it's an Asian-type dragon in human form, seeking enlightenment. I don't see why Count Dracula and Countess Bathory wouldn't be found around the King's dinner table. Or, for that matter, why you wouldn't find a ghost there, or the animated remains of the King's ancestors, or... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted February 23, 2017 Report Share Posted February 23, 2017 Kal-Turak's spin doctors must really be hard at work to clean up his public image. The benevolent lich has been acting oddly lately, often staring off into the distance for hours and ignoring everyone around. What the players aren't supposed to know at first is this is the result of Kal Turak trying to extend his influence over the benevolent lich and corrupt him. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says what will they think of next - sparkly vampires? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted February 23, 2017 Report Share Posted February 23, 2017 Nitpick Of The Day: the Orcs of Arda were not designed by Sauron, but by Melkor, Morgoth Bauglir. Absolutely correct and something I should have remembered. Probably would have if I hadn't dozed off a couple of times while writing that. The point remains that their origins were steeped in evil power. Probably more so because Morgoth was the greater evil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted February 23, 2017 Report Share Posted February 23, 2017 My mom's church has a guest pastor sometimes named Calvin Melchor. Pronounced, yeah, like him. It always cracks me up when I hear that name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted February 23, 2017 Report Share Posted February 23, 2017 Kal-Turak's spin doctors must really be hard at work to clean up his public image. In this complex modern world, with all of its problems and shortcomings, omnigenocide is the only progressive alternative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted February 24, 2017 Report Share Posted February 24, 2017 I almost voted for Sweet Meteor of Doom last election. It would have solved all our problems, along with wiping out all life on earth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted February 24, 2017 Report Share Posted February 24, 2017 I almost voted for Sweet Meteor of Doom last election. It would have solved all our problems, along with wiping out all life on earth. Not all life. At worst, only all multi-cellular life. The vast majority of life is unicellular, or not cellular at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted February 24, 2017 Report Share Posted February 24, 2017 Well plus cockroaches, and Keith Richards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2017 Btw I will have evil dwarfs and elfs. I like the idea of tainted creatures and thinking that different goblinkin are the result of the various races being tainted. I think someone else posted a simiular thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2017 is it wrong I don't like centaurs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted February 24, 2017 Report Share Posted February 24, 2017 is it wrong I don't like centaurs? Not at all. Though they do make a good necromancer. I had one with a Bodybag of Holding once. (Short version: Reincarnation and a less than serious GM. He liked the gag that my character was a walking (or galloping) hearse.) I personally don't like multiple headed creatures, with the exception of the hydra. Ettin or two-headed ogres or whatever, not going in my world. Or, if they are, they would be like conjoined twins and be somewhat fragile. Sooner slayed, the better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2017 Nolgroth I also dont like ettins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2017 Some things I know I am going to limit animals that are found in Europe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cantriped Posted February 24, 2017 Report Share Posted February 24, 2017 Btw I will have evil dwarfs and elfs. I like the idea of tainted creatures and thinking that different goblinkin are the result of the various races being tainted. I think someone else posted a simiular thought. The Kingdom of Grischun (the sample FHC Campaign Setting) has goblinoids being magically corrupted or mutated versions of existing species. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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