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Boss Monsters? I Just Say No!
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<blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 7758018" data-attributes="member: 467"><p>"Boss monsters" have been with D&D since the beginning, long before video games came about (remember: D&D was the inspiration for the first video adventure games, not the other way around!). Early classic modules had player characters moving up the chain of command, as it were, until they were facing off against the Fire Giant King or the Queen of Spiders or Acererak himself. It is a function of the way western storytelling traditions work, from Homer to Hollywood: the climax demands the biggest bang for your storytelling buck, and that means the villain of the story (the "boss") usually needs to be more powerful than their minions or henchmen.</p><p></p><p>All that said, the point about failure versus the boss is well taken: one struggle in tabletop RPGs in general is how to balance the needs for that powerful "boss monster" against the desire to create a compelling story for the PCs where they might just eek out a victory.</p><p></p><p>All this, of course, presumes a "story" in the first place, which is not a given at every table. Sometimes we play games that are exploratory in nature, without a structured plot -- an "open world" full of "side quests" to continue the video game analogy. I think, though, it is far more common for individual adventures to have structure, and usually that structure involves a villain, thereby making "boss monsters" an important consideration in adventure design.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Reynard, post: 7758018, member: 467"] "Boss monsters" have been with D&D since the beginning, long before video games came about (remember: D&D was the inspiration for the first video adventure games, not the other way around!). Early classic modules had player characters moving up the chain of command, as it were, until they were facing off against the Fire Giant King or the Queen of Spiders or Acererak himself. It is a function of the way western storytelling traditions work, from Homer to Hollywood: the climax demands the biggest bang for your storytelling buck, and that means the villain of the story (the "boss") usually needs to be more powerful than their minions or henchmen. All that said, the point about failure versus the boss is well taken: one struggle in tabletop RPGs in general is how to balance the needs for that powerful "boss monster" against the desire to create a compelling story for the PCs where they might just eek out a victory. All this, of course, presumes a "story" in the first place, which is not a given at every table. Sometimes we play games that are exploratory in nature, without a structured plot -- an "open world" full of "side quests" to continue the video game analogy. I think, though, it is far more common for individual adventures to have structure, and usually that structure involves a villain, thereby making "boss monsters" an important consideration in adventure design. [/QUOTE]
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