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Community
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5e isn't a Golden Age of D&D Lorewise, it's Silver at best.
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<blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 8720723" data-attributes="member: 6801228"><p>I find it really interesting how much of this discussion focused on setting lore, and not monster lore. Because for me... man, it is a complicated bag. </p><p></p><p>On one hand, the 5e Hag lore about WHY they eat babies is golden and has inspired me many times. And there are a lot of times I'll watch a video that deep dives old lore on monsters from 2e, because I want to see if anyone ever answered the questions I have about monster X, or I get to learn about a monster I've never heard of. </p><p></p><p>But on the other hand... much of the time it is garbage I just want to ignore, or wish I'd never learned. </p><p></p><p>For example, I saw a video pop up about Ettercaps, and honestly I've used Ettercaps a few times, but other than "weird fey monster spiders" I've never thought much about them. So I turned on the video and was hoping for some good lore. There wasn't any. </p><p></p><p>What there was was their origin story. According to whatever source it was, Ettercaps exist because Druids turned into spiders (just like they turn into other animals) and they started acting like spiders (just like they act like other animals) but this was a problem, because spiders are cannibalistic (Not sure if this is actually true, but it doesn't matter). </p><p></p><p>And so the Druid's would engage in cannibalism, which offended the Gods of Nature because it was against Nature, and so they cursed the Druid's to be Were-spiders, which became Ettercaps. </p><p></p><p>The entire time I was listening to this origin (which went in a lot more depth) do you know what I was thinking? "How stupid are those gods? Cannibalism is EVERYWHERE in nature. Why the heck is cannibalism against nature? The entire point was that it was NATURAL for spiders to be cannibals, are spiders just super evil not nature creatures?" </p><p></p><p>Now, on one hand, I do get where the lore came from. Lolth was big, the spiders from LoTR are "destroying" the forest and are evil. The idea that spiders are evil was a big thing. But from a modern perspective... that's stupid, they are spiders. They aren't evil. </p><p></p><p></p><p>And this is the thing I've run into more than once. Many, many times I'll find something cool, or something I'm interested in learning more about, and I'll look into what the old lore was... and it sucks. Sometimes, very rarely, it is cool, but even the cool stuff gets a little repetitive, because they have many of the same tropes showing up over and over again. Quaggoths and Lizardmen both had a "intelligence is bad" thread in their origins. Cannibalism shows up a lot. "The Mindflayers did it" shows up a lot. So many evil creatures have so much lore put into why they are stupid, crude and disgusting. No thank you, I don't need to know that you can smell Ettins from miles away because they refuse to bath, and so their skin is crusted with filth. That doesn't give me anything I can actually use. </p><p></p><p>So, to wrap this up, on one hand I do want more monster lore. There are things I want to know and explore about a lot of creatures, things I think are missing from many more. But also... a lot of the lore we have is terrible and I'd never want to use it. And asking for "more" lore seems like it risks getting that stupid stuff far more than anything actually good.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Chaosmancer, post: 8720723, member: 6801228"] I find it really interesting how much of this discussion focused on setting lore, and not monster lore. Because for me... man, it is a complicated bag. On one hand, the 5e Hag lore about WHY they eat babies is golden and has inspired me many times. And there are a lot of times I'll watch a video that deep dives old lore on monsters from 2e, because I want to see if anyone ever answered the questions I have about monster X, or I get to learn about a monster I've never heard of. But on the other hand... much of the time it is garbage I just want to ignore, or wish I'd never learned. For example, I saw a video pop up about Ettercaps, and honestly I've used Ettercaps a few times, but other than "weird fey monster spiders" I've never thought much about them. So I turned on the video and was hoping for some good lore. There wasn't any. What there was was their origin story. According to whatever source it was, Ettercaps exist because Druids turned into spiders (just like they turn into other animals) and they started acting like spiders (just like they act like other animals) but this was a problem, because spiders are cannibalistic (Not sure if this is actually true, but it doesn't matter). And so the Druid's would engage in cannibalism, which offended the Gods of Nature because it was against Nature, and so they cursed the Druid's to be Were-spiders, which became Ettercaps. The entire time I was listening to this origin (which went in a lot more depth) do you know what I was thinking? "How stupid are those gods? Cannibalism is EVERYWHERE in nature. Why the heck is cannibalism against nature? The entire point was that it was NATURAL for spiders to be cannibals, are spiders just super evil not nature creatures?" Now, on one hand, I do get where the lore came from. Lolth was big, the spiders from LoTR are "destroying" the forest and are evil. The idea that spiders are evil was a big thing. But from a modern perspective... that's stupid, they are spiders. They aren't evil. And this is the thing I've run into more than once. Many, many times I'll find something cool, or something I'm interested in learning more about, and I'll look into what the old lore was... and it sucks. Sometimes, very rarely, it is cool, but even the cool stuff gets a little repetitive, because they have many of the same tropes showing up over and over again. Quaggoths and Lizardmen both had a "intelligence is bad" thread in their origins. Cannibalism shows up a lot. "The Mindflayers did it" shows up a lot. So many evil creatures have so much lore put into why they are stupid, crude and disgusting. No thank you, I don't need to know that you can smell Ettins from miles away because they refuse to bath, and so their skin is crusted with filth. That doesn't give me anything I can actually use. So, to wrap this up, on one hand I do want more monster lore. There are things I want to know and explore about a lot of creatures, things I think are missing from many more. But also... a lot of the lore we have is terrible and I'd never want to use it. And asking for "more" lore seems like it risks getting that stupid stuff far more than anything actually good. [/QUOTE]
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Community
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5e isn't a Golden Age of D&D Lorewise, it's Silver at best.
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