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Making Monsters Matter - Everyday Evils
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<blockquote data-quote="Xethreau" data-source="post: 8694790" data-attributes="member: 57584"><p>So I've been having a lot of thoughts about monsters recently. The <em>Monstrous Menagerie</em> does a lot to help make monsters matter on a storytelling level. That said I still sometimes feel like I drop monsters into a scenario and they don't quite pop as they do in, say, my favorite scary stories, movies, and podcasts. Some of this has to do with my <em>limitations as a storyteller</em>, but in other ways <em>it has to do with our fundamental assumptions about monsters in our TTRPGs</em>. Over the next few threads, I want to share with y'all some of the ideas I've been working with and get your feedback.</p><p></p><p>In this thread, I wanted to present some monsters that I think could be made much better just by granting them a little bit more attention, namely monsters I categorize as <strong>everyday evils</strong>: ghosts, shadows, cultists, and other liminal entities.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>Liminal Entities</strong></span></p><p>[SPOILER]<em>You're driving down a dirt road in the middle of the night. Silent moonlit evergreens pass you by miles at a time. No cars this late, not in this part of the country. It's a little surprising you haven't passed any deer or raccoons tonight. As you turn the bend, you see something up ahead on the side of the road. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>For a moment it is unclear what it is. Is it a signpost, an animal, a person---or some sort of nightmare creature? </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>You roll Perception. Nat 20.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The signage for the national park comes into clear view before you.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>And as it does, the stark-white creature in front of the sign stands on spindly legs to an inhuman height. As it strides back into the woods, you can make out the spaces between its long spidery fingers. It looks over its shoulder back at you---briefly making eye contact with its featureless face---before disappearing through the darkling treeline.</em></p><p>[HR][/HR]</p><p>These types of encounters are some of my favorites in ghost stories. Your chance to glance at a liminal entity last only a moment, and you only have a fraction of a second to assess your danger level. Even if the creature is real, its nature remains unknown. Is it a ghost, a doppelganger, a troll--or something else altogether? I desire to bring these encounters to the table, but there are a few assumptions that get in the way.</p><p></p><p>One of the assumptions we make as players is that "it's either a fight or a fake-out" when it comes to scary monsters. Another is an encyclopedic all-or-nothing approach to monster knowledge. Encounters with liminal entities should challenge both these assumptions and bridge the space between. The sighting of a liminal entity must be all-too-real, and a character should find their ability to simply walk away to be entirely dreadful. <strong>(<em>Not </em>rolling initiative should <em>increase</em> tension!) </strong>Questions like "What was that?" "Where did it go?" and "What does it want?" should not be answered easily.<strong> A successful knowledge roll can provide hints and conjecture and agency---but never security.</strong> That is, immediately rolling Arcana or Nature against that thing in the woods might give me <strong>3 good guesses</strong> as to what it might be (as well as <strong>possible countermeasures</strong>)---but <strong>determining the entity's identity requires an active investigation</strong>.</p><p></p><p>Besides the above guidelines, encounters with established monsters can be made to feel more liminal by minimally adjusting or expanding lore. [/SPOILER]</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>Ghosts & Shadows</strong></span></p><p>[SPOILER]<em>You walk into a room. You see a ghost standing there. Roll initiative against the ghost.</em></p><p>[HR][/HR]</p><p>Boring. No amount of possession mechanics, fear effects, or damage resistance can make this encounter scary. The CR 4 ghost killed you? That's wild. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite11" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes :rolleyes:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /></p><p></p><p>I only say this because I've run such an encounter several times. I even had the misfortune of doing it on an actual play podcast. What I wish is that instead of saying "hey here's a monster, fight it," I had instead used some of the principles behind liminal entity encounters to <strong>fill the ghost encounter with more mystery and dread</strong>. </p><p></p><p>The <a href="https://a5e.tools/node/1627" target="_blank">A5e ghost</a> sets us off in the right direction with its Unfinished Business table/mechanic. It's honestly a great way of resolving a haunting without resorting to combat. But I don't love the combat tactics/stats. The ghost's combat tactics might work well for a thoroughly distressed ghost, but they do not resonate with the ghost stories or IRL spooky experiences I know. If I were to make some adjustments to the ghost, they would look something like this:</p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">They can look like a real, physical person at first.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Particularly ancient or evil ghosts can also look entirely inhuman.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The ghost's ability to communicate is limited. It can appear "corporeally" for a few seconds at a time.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">When spotted, instead of rolling initiative the ghost can alternatively retreat and hide in the Etherial Plane.</li> </ol><p>Additionally, a ghost can also be defined by its disposition and/or the object or person its attached to. According to folklore, some ghosts are kindly or protective spirits that help to protect a location or person (especially descendants). Also according to folklore, ghosts can also be attached to a person or object; for the ghost's Unquiet Spirit feature, a ghost without earthly remains could instead substitute a person or object to which it is attached. (This makes a great storyline of <em>remove curse</em> being cast on a person to cleanse them of a haunting.)</p><p></p><p><strong>1d6 Ghostly Disposition</strong></p><p>1 Kindly</p><p>2 Guarding</p><p>3 Following</p><p>4 Lost </p><p>5 Angry</p><p>6 Sadistic</p><p></p><p><strong>1d6 Ghostly Attachment </strong></p><p>1 Household item of fine craftsmanship</p><p>2 Jewelry or other personal item</p><p>3 Masterwork tool</p><p>4 Descendant</p><p>5 Someone who offended the spirit</p><p>6 Someone who spoke the spirit's name on the anniversary of their demise</p><p></p><p>Overall, shadows benefit from a similar treatment as ghosts---besides being a similar species of undead in-game, the principles of liminal entities demonstrate to us that it's actually a good thing if we can't tell a shadow and a ghost apart immediately. Shadows especially benefit from a folkloric treatment because of named shadows like the Babadook, Slender Man, Hat Man, and the like. Furthermore, shadows are great for staring menacingly at characters on watch during a long rest because you know--night terrors! </p><p></p><p>The seasoned salt for shadows is giving them the tiniest bit of personality. We see that in the named shadows: one characteristic like an extra long body or a horrible smile goes a long way! And as the <a href="https://a5e.tools/node/1787" target="_blank">A5e shadow</a> entry suggests, what horrible personality emerges from someone who dies alone in the dark? What's more, if we connect shadows to Jungian psychology we get another insight: the manifestation of the shadow side of our personality is an expression of something we know deeply to be true but we wish with all our heart not to be. To expose just the tip of this iceberg, here are a few "activities" which are innocent enough and horrible when done by a shadow.</p><p></p><p><strong>1d6 Shadow Activity </strong></p><p>1 Standing in the corner</p><p>2 It makes eye contact and tilts its head</p><p>3 Retreats out nearest exit (unless brightly lit)</p><p>4 It is crouched over a person or object, fixated</p><p>5 Facing away, it looks over its shoulder and slowly turns toward you</p><p>6 It repeatedly scratches a surface (window, door, wall, book, etc.)[/SPOILER]</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>Cultists</strong></span></p><p>[SPOILER]<em>It's a quiet night in the sleepy hamlet of Natulog. Comfortably at the inn, you set yourself down at the window-side table with an ale, candle, and the book you've been meaning to read for ages. The novel whisks you away from your worries as an adventurer--including your noisy companions now fast asleep. Hours pass with careless ease.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Just after midnight, you see movement on the street. It looks like a candle-lit procession. From most every front door in the village--even that of this very inn--step forth figures in long red robes. Their faces are obscured by their hoods, but thanks to the candlelight your elf eyes can see their faces. That is, you can see the blank, expressionless, wooden masks hiding each of their faces.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>In silence, they join in a single file. It's obvious where they're going---the stone ruins at the top of a nearby hill. But the barkeep told you that place was forbidden.</em></p><p>[HR][/HR]</p><p>Cultists are CR 1/8 monsters and unto themselves, they aren't that threatening in combat. </p><p></p><p>What makes a <strong>cultist</strong> <strong>scary </strong>are their<strong> membership roster, beliefs, rituals, supernatural benefactors, anonymity, and public influence.</strong> Even small cults (both in-game and IRL) can take a community through spiritual terrorism. Details too close to RL comfort will not make it to many groups' tables for <strong>obvious reasons</strong>. </p><p></p><p>That said, you can allude to all these factors quite easily by generating the cult's uniform and public rites. Players paying close attention to the cultists' uniforms will be able to infer (or catastrophize) many details about the cult. Indeed, the ability for characters to do that in-universe is a <em>design feature</em> of their uniform. Their public rites serve both to cow and to entice. They mark their territory with their special sign, proving their presence and influence even without a public appearance.</p><p></p><p><strong>1d6 Costume </strong></p><p>1 Black robe</p><p>2 White robe</p><p>3 Red robe</p><p>4 Rugged clothes / leather armor</p><p>5 Fine clothes / formal attire</p><p>6 Nude</p><p></p><p><strong>1d8 Mask </strong></p><p>1 Animal skull (with horns / antlers)</p><p>2 Humanoid skull</p><p>3 Wooden or ceramic face (emotive or expressionless)</p><p>4 Monstrous (troll, goblin, draconic, demonic, etc.)</p><p>5 Face paint (pigment or blood)</p><p>6 Plain ceramic or cloth, depicting cult symbol</p><p>7 None (hood up)</p><p>8 Capirote</p><p></p><p><strong>1d6 Public Rite </strong></p><p>1 Appeasement or blessing sacrifice</p><p>2 Vigil or procession</p><p>3 Vigilante execution</p><p>4 Induction or funeral ceremony</p><p>5 Theatrical dance or play</p><p>6 Seasonal or holy day observance</p><p></p><p><strong>1d6 Cult Symbol </strong></p><p>1 Ankh</p><p>2 Circled dot</p><p>3 Heptogram</p><p>4 Ouroboros</p><p>5 Unicursal Hexagram</p><p>6 Brimstone cross</p><p>7 Geometric shape (triangle, square)</p><p>8 Divine or occult sigil[/SPOILER]</p><p></p><p>So yes, these are some of my thoughts on how to bring a bit of spice to these otherwise forgettable, low-stakes monsters. Hopefully using these principles / expanded flavor options, these encounters will not only be much more exciting, but they will also contribute to a wider, scarier world! </p><p></p><p>Like, hate, have feedback? Leave a post!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Xethreau, post: 8694790, member: 57584"] So I've been having a lot of thoughts about monsters recently. The [I]Monstrous Menagerie[/I] does a lot to help make monsters matter on a storytelling level. That said I still sometimes feel like I drop monsters into a scenario and they don't quite pop as they do in, say, my favorite scary stories, movies, and podcasts. Some of this has to do with my [I]limitations as a storyteller[/I], but in other ways [I]it has to do with our fundamental assumptions about monsters in our TTRPGs[/I]. Over the next few threads, I want to share with y'all some of the ideas I've been working with and get your feedback. In this thread, I wanted to present some monsters that I think could be made much better just by granting them a little bit more attention, namely monsters I categorize as [B]everyday evils[/B]: ghosts, shadows, cultists, and other liminal entities. [SIZE=5][B]Liminal Entities[/B][/SIZE] [SPOILER][I]You're driving down a dirt road in the middle of the night. Silent moonlit evergreens pass you by miles at a time. No cars this late, not in this part of the country. It's a little surprising you haven't passed any deer or raccoons tonight. As you turn the bend, you see something up ahead on the side of the road. For a moment it is unclear what it is. Is it a signpost, an animal, a person---or some sort of nightmare creature? You roll Perception. Nat 20. The signage for the national park comes into clear view before you. And as it does, the stark-white creature in front of the sign stands on spindly legs to an inhuman height. As it strides back into the woods, you can make out the spaces between its long spidery fingers. It looks over its shoulder back at you---briefly making eye contact with its featureless face---before disappearing through the darkling treeline.[/I] [HR][/HR] These types of encounters are some of my favorites in ghost stories. Your chance to glance at a liminal entity last only a moment, and you only have a fraction of a second to assess your danger level. Even if the creature is real, its nature remains unknown. Is it a ghost, a doppelganger, a troll--or something else altogether? I desire to bring these encounters to the table, but there are a few assumptions that get in the way. One of the assumptions we make as players is that "it's either a fight or a fake-out" when it comes to scary monsters. Another is an encyclopedic all-or-nothing approach to monster knowledge. Encounters with liminal entities should challenge both these assumptions and bridge the space between. The sighting of a liminal entity must be all-too-real, and a character should find their ability to simply walk away to be entirely dreadful. [B]([I]Not [/I]rolling initiative should [I]increase[/I] tension!) [/B]Questions like "What was that?" "Where did it go?" and "What does it want?" should not be answered easily.[B] A successful knowledge roll can provide hints and conjecture and agency---but never security.[/B] That is, immediately rolling Arcana or Nature against that thing in the woods might give me [B]3 good guesses[/B] as to what it might be (as well as [B]possible countermeasures[/B])---but [B]determining the entity's identity requires an active investigation[/B]. Besides the above guidelines, encounters with established monsters can be made to feel more liminal by minimally adjusting or expanding lore. [/SPOILER] [SIZE=5][B]Ghosts & Shadows[/B][/SIZE] [SPOILER][I]You walk into a room. You see a ghost standing there. Roll initiative against the ghost.[/I] [HR][/HR] Boring. No amount of possession mechanics, fear effects, or damage resistance can make this encounter scary. The CR 4 ghost killed you? That's wild. :rolleyes: I only say this because I've run such an encounter several times. I even had the misfortune of doing it on an actual play podcast. What I wish is that instead of saying "hey here's a monster, fight it," I had instead used some of the principles behind liminal entity encounters to [B]fill the ghost encounter with more mystery and dread[/B]. The [URL='https://a5e.tools/node/1627']A5e ghost[/URL] sets us off in the right direction with its Unfinished Business table/mechanic. It's honestly a great way of resolving a haunting without resorting to combat. But I don't love the combat tactics/stats. The ghost's combat tactics might work well for a thoroughly distressed ghost, but they do not resonate with the ghost stories or IRL spooky experiences I know. If I were to make some adjustments to the ghost, they would look something like this: [LIST=1] [*]They can look like a real, physical person at first. [*]Particularly ancient or evil ghosts can also look entirely inhuman. [*]The ghost's ability to communicate is limited. It can appear "corporeally" for a few seconds at a time. [*]When spotted, instead of rolling initiative the ghost can alternatively retreat and hide in the Etherial Plane. [/LIST] Additionally, a ghost can also be defined by its disposition and/or the object or person its attached to. According to folklore, some ghosts are kindly or protective spirits that help to protect a location or person (especially descendants). Also according to folklore, ghosts can also be attached to a person or object; for the ghost's Unquiet Spirit feature, a ghost without earthly remains could instead substitute a person or object to which it is attached. (This makes a great storyline of [I]remove curse[/I] being cast on a person to cleanse them of a haunting.) [B]1d6 Ghostly Disposition[/B] 1 Kindly 2 Guarding 3 Following 4 Lost 5 Angry 6 Sadistic [B]1d6 Ghostly Attachment [/B] 1 Household item of fine craftsmanship 2 Jewelry or other personal item 3 Masterwork tool 4 Descendant 5 Someone who offended the spirit 6 Someone who spoke the spirit's name on the anniversary of their demise Overall, shadows benefit from a similar treatment as ghosts---besides being a similar species of undead in-game, the principles of liminal entities demonstrate to us that it's actually a good thing if we can't tell a shadow and a ghost apart immediately. Shadows especially benefit from a folkloric treatment because of named shadows like the Babadook, Slender Man, Hat Man, and the like. Furthermore, shadows are great for staring menacingly at characters on watch during a long rest because you know--night terrors! The seasoned salt for shadows is giving them the tiniest bit of personality. We see that in the named shadows: one characteristic like an extra long body or a horrible smile goes a long way! And as the [URL='https://a5e.tools/node/1787']A5e shadow[/URL] entry suggests, what horrible personality emerges from someone who dies alone in the dark? What's more, if we connect shadows to Jungian psychology we get another insight: the manifestation of the shadow side of our personality is an expression of something we know deeply to be true but we wish with all our heart not to be. To expose just the tip of this iceberg, here are a few "activities" which are innocent enough and horrible when done by a shadow. [B]1d6 Shadow Activity [/B] 1 Standing in the corner 2 It makes eye contact and tilts its head 3 Retreats out nearest exit (unless brightly lit) 4 It is crouched over a person or object, fixated 5 Facing away, it looks over its shoulder and slowly turns toward you 6 It repeatedly scratches a surface (window, door, wall, book, etc.)[/SPOILER] [SIZE=5][B]Cultists[/B][/SIZE] [SPOILER][I]It's a quiet night in the sleepy hamlet of Natulog. Comfortably at the inn, you set yourself down at the window-side table with an ale, candle, and the book you've been meaning to read for ages. The novel whisks you away from your worries as an adventurer--including your noisy companions now fast asleep. Hours pass with careless ease. Just after midnight, you see movement on the street. It looks like a candle-lit procession. From most every front door in the village--even that of this very inn--step forth figures in long red robes. Their faces are obscured by their hoods, but thanks to the candlelight your elf eyes can see their faces. That is, you can see the blank, expressionless, wooden masks hiding each of their faces. In silence, they join in a single file. It's obvious where they're going---the stone ruins at the top of a nearby hill. But the barkeep told you that place was forbidden.[/I] [HR][/HR] Cultists are CR 1/8 monsters and unto themselves, they aren't that threatening in combat. What makes a [B]cultist[/B] [B]scary [/B]are their[B] membership roster, beliefs, rituals, supernatural benefactors, anonymity, and public influence.[/B] Even small cults (both in-game and IRL) can take a community through spiritual terrorism. Details too close to RL comfort will not make it to many groups' tables for [B]obvious reasons[/B]. That said, you can allude to all these factors quite easily by generating the cult's uniform and public rites. Players paying close attention to the cultists' uniforms will be able to infer (or catastrophize) many details about the cult. Indeed, the ability for characters to do that in-universe is a [I]design feature[/I] of their uniform. Their public rites serve both to cow and to entice. They mark their territory with their special sign, proving their presence and influence even without a public appearance. [B]1d6 Costume [/B] 1 Black robe 2 White robe 3 Red robe 4 Rugged clothes / leather armor 5 Fine clothes / formal attire 6 Nude [B]1d8 Mask [/B] 1 Animal skull (with horns / antlers) 2 Humanoid skull 3 Wooden or ceramic face (emotive or expressionless) 4 Monstrous (troll, goblin, draconic, demonic, etc.) 5 Face paint (pigment or blood) 6 Plain ceramic or cloth, depicting cult symbol 7 None (hood up) 8 Capirote [B]1d6 Public Rite [/B] 1 Appeasement or blessing sacrifice 2 Vigil or procession 3 Vigilante execution 4 Induction or funeral ceremony 5 Theatrical dance or play 6 Seasonal or holy day observance [B]1d6 Cult Symbol [/B] 1 Ankh 2 Circled dot 3 Heptogram 4 Ouroboros 5 Unicursal Hexagram 6 Brimstone cross 7 Geometric shape (triangle, square) 8 Divine or occult sigil[/SPOILER] So yes, these are some of my thoughts on how to bring a bit of spice to these otherwise forgettable, low-stakes monsters. Hopefully using these principles / expanded flavor options, these encounters will not only be much more exciting, but they will also contribute to a wider, scarier world! Like, hate, have feedback? Leave a post! [/QUOTE]
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