Bring Back Modrons

[JohnRTroy]

The one thing I don't understand with the criticisms of the original non-clockwork concept is, why is a perfect geometric being "silly", and the cthulluesqe far-relam, chaos beasts, etc., are better. I never saw them as sily.

The key thing about Modrons as Gygax conceived them are they are alien, in the plane of absolute law and order. I find these concepts a lot more true to the concept than colonies of formorian ants (which were always intended to be an unnatural species on earth) and robotic golem-like creatures. Primal forces of Order should be just as alien as those of Chaos.

 

[Gothmog]

I always found modrons as presented in previous versions of D&D to be really stupid. They seemed very cartoonish, ill-conceived (look, dice with legs!), and in the few cases I used them, they drew laughs and derision from players. They are one of the few monsters D&D has produced I really can't see the appeal to (and yes, I even find the flumph, roper, and gelatinous cube appealing in some way).

However, the concept of beings of perfect order that are just as alien as Far Realms creatures is a cool one. For the last 15 or so years, I have used some modron-like creatures that are crystalline in structure, but don't have arms, legs, heads, or discernable anatomy. In fact, for the most part these creatures are immobile, they tend to "reorder" areas of the world (via crystalline growths), and they do their work using telepathic powers and domination of "lesser" creatures via infusion of some of their substance into other organisms. They also have more of a collective consciousness, and the more of them that gather in a vicinity, they more intelligent and potent they become. I've gotten MUCH better responses from my players using these creepy ultra-order beings than the rather laughable modrons.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

I see no objection to them, this is D&D we're talking about for goodness sake, jeesh

a) Absolute Law/Chaos as "powers" make perfect sense to me as much as Evil/Good do, in fact many cultures have more concept of Law/Chaos than Good/Evil you know.

b) Golems are NOT robots, gah!!!! No bloody circuits in 'em, isntead they are powered by magic, spirits or "steam punk" tech mixed with magic (like gnomish work).
Golems are old parts of fantasy long LONG before science, see Talos and "The Golem".

c) Clockwork modron DESIGN is fine, they aren't actually "clockwork", they just look that way. looks fun/interesting to me I liek monsters hwo look interesting, and their mechanicla design fits...Mechanus.
The stuff done in 3.5 for them, like the Great Modron march was awesome by the way!

d) I like flumphs, nilbogs, modrons,trappers...you name it. Who the hell wants to play against orcs/drow/gnolls ALL THE DAMN TIME, eh?
Throw in something weird and unknown and throw the players some brain jolts, make 'em work, make 'em afraid, muhaha!!
"Oh it's only a jellyfish beast, what's the threat in that!"
*slap slap BANG, TPW!!*
"WTH, ganked by a kung fu jellyfish?!"
"Flumph grand master monk, and don't you forget it!"

 

[Oryan77]

I've only used 1 Modron so far in my 3.5 Planescape game. He referred to himself as Unit 7926 of Sector 72 (7926 = my name on a phone dial and 72 is my initials). When he finally went rogue, people began calling him Boxy. Now he lives in Crux on Yggdrasil and thinks he's a bouncer at the local tavern.

So I made a miniature of him since he was an NPC party member for a bit:

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Eh, personally, if 4e did make modrons, I'd rather they kept the charm of the silliness. When they become grim and shaded super serious monsters, they just aren't modrons as far as I'm concerned.

We already have book on top of book of grim dark evil scary threatening monsters. Your game doesn't have to be super ultra hardcore dark and gritty serious all the time. Let loose. Have fun. Have some modrons pop in

The silly clockwork modrons fit Planescape perfectly. It wasn't mean to be all dark and serious all the time. Diterlizzi set the feel absolutely perfectly. In fact, to quote him directly:

"If you’ve had a chance to see the Planescape books (especially the early ones from ‘94), you’ll see something amazing that happened in RPGs: a new philosophy on how gaming booklets could be presented. It wasn’t just my art — it was the awesome concepts and story hooks, and the (then) state-of-the-art graphic design and production that made these gaming supplements stand out. It was about a great group of people who were really excited about creating something new and imaginative for gamers who were tired of the usual hack-n-slash dungeon crawl. And I was honored to be a part of it."

We already have tons of evil and menacing looking beasties for you to fill encounters with. Why not have something quirky for a change that you don't immidiately think "A monster? I fight it!"

 

[avin]

XP for you.

 

[Nikosandros]

We already have tons of evil and menacing looking beasties for you to fill encounters with. Why not have something quirky for a change that you don't immidiately think "A monster? I fight it!"

There is no need for silliness in this regard... my players interacted several times with the "non-silly" modrons and not even once did they even consider fighting the creatures.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

There is no need for silliness in this regard... my players interacted several times with the "non-silly" modrons and not even once did they even consider fighting the creatures.

I'm not saying you require silliness to have a non-fight. I'm saying that it would be nice to have an NPC that wasn't all about being a great big evil threatening monster.

 

[Nikosandros]

I'm not saying you require silliness to have a non-fight. I'm saying that it would be nice to have an NPC that wasn't all about being a great big evil threatening monster.

I agree, but my point is that the "non-silly" modrons are rather alien, but they aren't big and evil threatening monsters.

 

[Southern Oracle]

I've got 4E stats for rogue modrons as a PC race on my blog over at wizards.com: http://community.wizards.com/kajal_the_southern_oracle/blog/2009/09/03/modron_planescape_4e

I've also been working on restatting them as monsters for 4E as well for my online campaign, but I don't have anything posted online yet. If there's interest, I'll try and get them up.