Do you like modrons?

[avin]

It wanders entirely between normal (for an organized army of beings) and silly (especially the whole random marching for no explicable purpose thing)

Fear comes from unknown. If an army marches on 4th july you know what's going on. If a foreign army marches on your streets without further notice... well... is this just "normal"?

Now imagine you never seen a modron and they just start marching on your little town streets and all you have seen in your life is humans.

So it's silly just because you don't like them and find them silly.

The army argument makes sense.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

My mind is boggled that some people dont liked em? What is wrong with you people.

Now I go off to lovely reread my planescape stuff.

 

[jdrakeh]

They are a race. Humans are a race. Elves and dwarves too.

Sorry, I should have been more specific. They're a race of monsters.

 

[avin]

Sorry, I should have been more specific. They're a race of monsters.

Why? Maybe it's my approach from D&D, but I don't see inteligent races with social ties (even if strange as modrons are) as monsters...

If modrons are monsters humans they should consider humans monsters too...

 

[phloog]

Do I like modrons?

Why? Did they say something about me? I thought modrons was taking Beth Ruggles to the Homecoming dance - did she turn him down?....I guess modrons is kind of cute, depending on his configuration. When he's six-sided he seems a little square, but when he's twenty-sided he's just to die for.

Can you talk to him and see if he really likes me? - - because Froghemoth wants an answer from me by Thursday.

Ahem...Modrons are like almost any other creature in the game - if done right they can be interesting, so long as they fit the character of your campaign - putting them into a REHoward S&S thing would seem silly, but the range of viable campaigns is near infinite, and I'm sure there are campaigns where they will work. Frankly, though I've used ALL of these in the past (and will in future campaigns), any of these creatures is stupid in my current gritty campaign (off the top of my head): Bulette, Stirge, Darkmantle, Cloaker, Lurker Above, Trapper....probably >50% of the MM

 

[Nebulous]

I like the Jim Holloway modrons of MM2 1e. Not so much the DiTerzelli, but they're still pretty cool. I prefer "weird" to "cute."

And according to the poll, by far most of the people lurking here on Enworld think modrons are great. So who was Wizards talking to that gave them the overall impression that gamers didn't want them around? (Not that EW represents every gamer)

I think it was just that the designers didn't like them, and that's all it takes to cut them from 4e completely.

 

[jdrakeh]

Why? Maybe it's my approach from D&D, but I don't see inteligent races with social ties (even if strange as modrons are) as monsters...

Because, by default, that's how they're portrayed in AD&D. Just like orcs, bugbears, trolls, gnolls, etc. In AD&D such potentially social creatures are reduced to a cookie cutter alignment template with an HP quotient and an XP reward earned for killing them.

 

[avin]

I think it was just that the designers didn't like them, and that's all it takes to cut them from 4e completely.

Maybe the 1337 4E players hate them... oh wait, I play 4E too and people who start on 4E can't hate them because they don't know it...

I'm more inclined to agree that this is a design decision and fan base hasn't spoken.

 

[Dausuul]

The idea of modrons as a supremely ordered, alien race, the "angels" of pure law, is cool, but I think the implementation as "dice with legs" (or "spheres with legs") is just stupid.

Get rid of the limbs, make them levitating crystalline polyhedrons that move stuff by telekinesis, and I might be interested; it's still not entirely my style, but I can at least tolerate the idea.

And to those who bring up gelatinous cubes and destrachans and owlbears and the like... I think those are stupid too. What's your point?

 

[kenmarable]

Fear comes from unknown. If an army marches on 4th july you know what's going on. If a foreign army marches on your streets without further notice... well... is this just "normal"?

Now imagine you never seen a modron and they just start marching on your little town streets and all you have seen in your life is humans.

So it's silly just because you don't like them and find them silly.

The army argument makes sense.

Not to mention as Shemska alluded to - it's the higher ups that would order thousands of monodrones and other lower modrons to march on and level a town. For those low caste modrons, they won't relent, they won't hesitate or question, they won't be bribed or distracted - they just have orders to destroy the town. There is no malice as well as no sympathy. Just the orders. If they are ordered to destroy a town, none of them will turn back until every single wooden plank in that town is shattered and there is nothing but a barren field. The only way to stop a lower caste modron army in that situation is to kill every single one of them (or deal with their bureaucracy in getting the orders rescinded, but good luck with that). That's very frightening in a borg/replicator sort of way (admittedly, both of those are sci fi concepts, so I can understand with thinking they don't fit in a fantasy setting for that reason even if I disagree).

I think it was just that the designers didn't like them, and that's all it takes to cut them from 4e completely.

Heck, that's all it took to have them pretty much cut from 3e despite fan interest!