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Boss Monsters? I Just Say No!
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7758054" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>"Boss monster" is just a new term for a very old concept. You would be hard pressed to find an old school module that doesn't have a boss monster in some fashion in it.</p><p></p><p>B2: Keep on the Borderlands - The minotaur, the priest of chaos, the chieftain of each tribe. Basically, every lettered section of the map has the expectation that investigation concludes with a fight against a potent adversary. Many of these would be vastly too powerful for a starting party if they just plunge ahead recklessly.</p><p></p><p>I6: Ravenloft - Strahd obviously. And Strahd even fits the definition you give of a video game 'boss monster' in that almost certainly they will not beat Strahd the first time, but instead will face him again and again as they strive to defeat him. Now, IMO, Strahd actually is too dangerous for the suggested level of play, because he's a Level X monster with every possible advantage of 'home turf' against a party that probably shouldn't even face a Level X in a fight for a level or two, but that hasn't stopped I6 from being a very popular module.</p><p></p><p>I3: Pyramid - The embalmed priest at the top of the pyramid.</p><p></p><p>I4: White Palm Oasis - The Efreeti noble.</p><p></p><p>T1: Village of Homlett - Lareth the Beautiful</p><p></p><p>S1: Tomb of Horrors - Acererak. Like Strahd, Acererak defies you assumptions about TRPG play by being an adversary that in general most parties are expected to lose to. In describing TRPG play, you are in fact describing a certain sort of TRPG play, and you've neglected the sort of competitive play scenarios that many of the old school modules were meant to provide. If your goal is to produce a winner, then having a boss monster that will winnow out the majority of groups that reach it is perfectly reasonable.</p><p></p><p>G1-3: Against the giants - Each of the titular giant chiefs.</p><p></p><p></p><p>There are a few points you make that I agree with.</p><p></p><p>First, it's much easier to make satisfying climaxes with a group of creatures than with a single boss. In fact, in most examples you could site, whether from TRPGs or cRPGs, the boss isn't encountered alone, but with a number of minions or 'adds' that serve to provide distraction and tension to the fight. Certainly this is true in even many of the example I cited above, as for example each of the giant chiefs in the G series is encountered with one or more lesser giants, and the chieftains in B2 usually have bodyguards and allies with them (the Bugbear and the Minotaur being obvious counter-examples of solo bosses). But this is not usually because a single tough boss is too difficult for a D&D party, but on the contrary because a single tough boss often goes down like a chump against the combined novas of a D&D party, getting buried under the parties avalanche of advantage in the action economy and forced to try to survive not only a massive burst of focused damage but repeated save or suck challenges. It's only recently that D&D designers have ever really focused on what it would take to make a single powerful monster an effective but not overwhelming challenge considering the resources a party of PC's has.</p><p></p><p>And secondly, in general with most groups you play a TRPG on what would be a video games 'easy' mode, with the expectation that the players will face roll most of what they encounter. This is because restarting from death is usually (but not always) a very unsatisfying trope in a narrative. With very experienced players that 'step on up', have high system mastery, and so forth, you might ratchet up the difficulty, but only to keep that norm of deaths being relatively rare. In a video game, usually narrative is a relatively unimportant aesthetic of play - 'step on up' is all you've got - and so most players prefer to ratchet up the difficulty. Some however prefer to face roll the content just to experience the narrative or the sensations of play.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7758054, member: 4937"] "Boss monster" is just a new term for a very old concept. You would be hard pressed to find an old school module that doesn't have a boss monster in some fashion in it. B2: Keep on the Borderlands - The minotaur, the priest of chaos, the chieftain of each tribe. Basically, every lettered section of the map has the expectation that investigation concludes with a fight against a potent adversary. Many of these would be vastly too powerful for a starting party if they just plunge ahead recklessly. I6: Ravenloft - Strahd obviously. And Strahd even fits the definition you give of a video game 'boss monster' in that almost certainly they will not beat Strahd the first time, but instead will face him again and again as they strive to defeat him. Now, IMO, Strahd actually is too dangerous for the suggested level of play, because he's a Level X monster with every possible advantage of 'home turf' against a party that probably shouldn't even face a Level X in a fight for a level or two, but that hasn't stopped I6 from being a very popular module. I3: Pyramid - The embalmed priest at the top of the pyramid. I4: White Palm Oasis - The Efreeti noble. T1: Village of Homlett - Lareth the Beautiful S1: Tomb of Horrors - Acererak. Like Strahd, Acererak defies you assumptions about TRPG play by being an adversary that in general most parties are expected to lose to. In describing TRPG play, you are in fact describing a certain sort of TRPG play, and you've neglected the sort of competitive play scenarios that many of the old school modules were meant to provide. If your goal is to produce a winner, then having a boss monster that will winnow out the majority of groups that reach it is perfectly reasonable. G1-3: Against the giants - Each of the titular giant chiefs. There are a few points you make that I agree with. First, it's much easier to make satisfying climaxes with a group of creatures than with a single boss. In fact, in most examples you could site, whether from TRPGs or cRPGs, the boss isn't encountered alone, but with a number of minions or 'adds' that serve to provide distraction and tension to the fight. Certainly this is true in even many of the example I cited above, as for example each of the giant chiefs in the G series is encountered with one or more lesser giants, and the chieftains in B2 usually have bodyguards and allies with them (the Bugbear and the Minotaur being obvious counter-examples of solo bosses). But this is not usually because a single tough boss is too difficult for a D&D party, but on the contrary because a single tough boss often goes down like a chump against the combined novas of a D&D party, getting buried under the parties avalanche of advantage in the action economy and forced to try to survive not only a massive burst of focused damage but repeated save or suck challenges. It's only recently that D&D designers have ever really focused on what it would take to make a single powerful monster an effective but not overwhelming challenge considering the resources a party of PC's has. And secondly, in general with most groups you play a TRPG on what would be a video games 'easy' mode, with the expectation that the players will face roll most of what they encounter. This is because restarting from death is usually (but not always) a very unsatisfying trope in a narrative. With very experienced players that 'step on up', have high system mastery, and so forth, you might ratchet up the difficulty, but only to keep that norm of deaths being relatively rare. In a video game, usually narrative is a relatively unimportant aesthetic of play - 'step on up' is all you've got - and so most players prefer to ratchet up the difficulty. Some however prefer to face roll the content just to experience the narrative or the sensations of play. [/QUOTE]
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