The Common Enemy: Do you prefer one common type of enemy or lots of different ones.

Frostmarrow · Feb 16, 2007

In my Eberron campaign I use Order of The Emerald Claw a lot. Whenever I need some cannonfodder I throw them in. I like them. They are sinister and dumb and have a heavy hierarchy above the foot soldiers. They also have dubious loyalies which means they can act as hitmen for a wide variety of causes.

That's what I like. However it seems to me that most people (anecdotal evidence i know) enjoy different opponents in every fight. Looking at the chaotic mess that is DDM it certainly looks like most DMs do not rely on staple opponents.

The other day I had this idea of The Common Enemy. A box of 8-12 pre painted miniatures (or simply a pick and buy Ebay-raid) of the OoTEC kind. A box of enemies that can be used over and over again.

Of course the first obstacle to this idea is that the customers doesn't wish for this. Most custmomers wants to collect many different models and do not care if there are full squads in the collection.

Still, I kind of like the idea so I got to think about what could make it fly. So here it is: What if you followed the box of minis up with books with fluff (and crunch) to constantly evolve the minis in the box? Books (or pamphlets even) that are aimed to inspire the GMs to use their box of Common Enemies in new and different ways with interesting battlegrounds instead of weirder monsters.

Anyways, I'll start a poll to see what you think.

MoogleEmpMog · Feb 16, 2007

I like a mix; a common, overarching enemy for the campaign on the one hand, and lots of one-shot monsters to spice things up along the way.

I wouldn't be interested in Yet Another Miniatures Line unless you somehow got the Spelljammer license (or, heck, while we're dreaming, the Final Fantasy license) and pumped out mooks I couldn't get from Games Workshop, Privateer Press, Rakham, Anima/FFG, Dark Heaven, or Wizards of the Coast via the secondary market.

I might pick up a Mook Manual with monster-style stat blocks for classed minions of various types, however.

Wombat · Feb 16, 2007

Depends wildly on the campaign I am running.

Arnwyn · Feb 16, 2007

I prefer a variety, whether I'm a DM or player. (It may not be "realistic" or whatever, but that's not why I'm playing.)

Warehouse23 · Feb 16, 2007

Thematic enemies make for a coherent campaign, I find, whereas repetative enemies make for a dull campaign. Think about opponents faced in action movies or novels: baddies tend to come in one general flavor (cultists, fascists, criminals, insectoid aliens, etc.) with many sub-flavors (cultists with swords, smart cultists with traps, big cultists with fists; small quick aliens, big strong aliens, spitting aliens, psychic aliens). There's nothing worse than a random "dungeon ecology" in my mind, whereas knowing the general type of foe to be confronted provides the chance to plan, and the feeling of a continuous challenge.

Talic · Feb 16, 2007

I like to have a common enemy. Or at least a theme. And it doesn't have to be just a single recurring group, there could be 2 or 3 groups or themes that keep showing up. Just so long as it isn't exclusively an army of clones. Give a few of those Orcs levels, make some spellcasters instead of just slugging it out, etc.

I'm less thrilled with fighting my way through the monster manual. I don't care for it when the DM just picks a monster out that looks cool, or something random to match with the CR. They tend to feel shoehorned into the game. I'd rather the selections make some sort of logical sense with the location and/or story.

Bad Paper · Feb 16, 2007

I don't particularly care; I would love to fight our way through the MM. But as of late, it seems that the party in my campaign is doing whatever they can to piss off Lolth. So there's that.

Graybeard · Feb 16, 2007

In my campaigns I usually use a common enemy. That common enemy might be human most of the time but sometimes could be undead or whatever makes sense at the time. In my games, the BBEG starts using human underliings then will switch to hirelings or summoned creatures which they feel less empathy for.

Then there is always the random encounter while travelling through the woods.

Ed_Laprade · Feb 16, 2007

If you'd said Undead and Orks rather than Undead and Nazis I'd have voted. As it is, the quaestion seems to revolve around buying minis anyway. (I've got my old group of Orc lead minis that work just fine, thanks.)

Set · Feb 17, 2007

I like a theme.

If the party starts out fighting Kobolds, I'll try to drop some hints as to their draconic ties. Later, the party will end up fighting the Poison Dusk Lizardfolk that drove the Kobolds into raiding settled lands. Later still, the party will meet the Half-Black Dragon Lizardfolk Sorcerer behind this expansion. And finally, they'll meet 'daddy,' the Black Dragon who has been stirring it all up to expand his territory.