Why we need new monsters

[wingsandsword]

Flumphs are LG. They aren't supposed to be scary.

LG doesn't mean nice or safe. . .

"The creature before you stands almost ten feet tall and seems made of solid muscle, with emerald-toned flesh that glistens with oil and sweat and a severe, bald countenance that is staring at you with burning eyes. Those eyes look like they are staring into your soul, judging you for everything you've ever done and silently accusing you of every tiny sin you ever committed. In his hands is a greatsword that's bigger than you are, clad in countless glyphs and runes you do not understand and faintly humming with ominous power. Massive wings of gleaming metallic feathers wrap around him, wrapping around him like a an ornate mithril cloak. A faint smell of burnt hardwood lingers in the air around."

Just because a Planetar is an Aasimar/Angel does not mean it's warm and fuzzy.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I think it's agreed upon by most of the posters in this thread that it just comes down to how you describe the monsters/creatures to your PCs that will make their reaction to it much more in tune with being "scary." I'd just take the advice of most everyone here and work on your descriptions and storytelling abilities to paint the picture and flesh out the scene so that you get the desired reaction from your PCs.

 

[Wycen]

Funny that the OP's name includes the word paradox, because here is a problem with new monsters.

Jon: "You see a short shaggy monster stalk over toward the party. As it gets closer you see [whatever]."

Chad: "Oh it's probably just an xvart or something".

Jon: says nothing but looks at Chad with a glare.

Later same game day.

Jon: "These jellied blobs shimmer with a purple light".

Chad: "Must be strange gelatinous cubes".

Jon: "Dammit Chad!"

So in other words, somethings variant or new monsters are cool, but you might have a jerk who ruins it because he either knows too much or is taking educated shots in the dark, thus negating the "mystery factor".

 

[Rune]

Funny that the OP's name includes the word paradox, because here is a problem with new monsters.

Jon: "You see a short shaggy monster stalk over toward the party. As it gets closer you see [whatever]."

Chad: "Oh it's probably just an xvart or something".

Jon: says nothing but looks at Chad with a glare.

Later same game day.

Jon: "These jellied blobs shimmer with a purple light".

Chad: "Must be strange gelatinous cubes".

Jon: "Dammit Chad!"

So in other words, somethings variant or new monsters are cool, but you might have a jerk who ruins it because he either knows too much or is taking educated shots in the dark, thus negating the "mystery factor".

The appropriate response to both would be no response. Jon should not let Chad know if he's right or wrong, if he wants to maintain a sense of mystery. Chad may think he has the monster pegged, but he won't know it unless the DM confirms. Educated guesses are fine and players' "knowledge" can and should be used against them.

 

[Niccodaemus]

Lots of good comments in this one. As someone who started playing D&D before there were any computer RPGs, let me relate my experience.

I was a magic user with 4 hit points. I was terrfied no only of goblins, which were quite alien to me (other than reading Tolkien, in which they were pretty much bad asses you wouldn't want to mess with) and pirates. There was a very real sense that with any swing of a weapon, I could be killed.

Eventually, when I started DMing and became familiar with the monster manual, monsters became just a series of stats. HP, AC, Alignment. The game became more of an abstraction than an immersive theatrical experience.

I'll just confirm what many posters have already said. Never describe monsters by their name unless is is a very recognizable race in your world, like orcs.

The first time a peasant sees an orc, he would have no certain idea what he was facing. Few but rangers should be able to tell the difference between a hill giant and a mountain giant. The first giant you encounter would seem a LOT bigger than it actually was.

Describe monsters in terms of physical traits, and if they can speak, let them! Taunting, threatening, pleading, what have you.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I think there are too many monsters, to be honest. I'd rather have a few more options of the common monsters, just so I can surprise the players when an orc, goblin or whatever comes charging at them out of the darkness.

I generally try to describe the monsters when first encountered based on their physical appearance - "you hear screams in the crowd ahead as several hooded 4 foot tall creatures speed through the people in the crowded square. The people shriek in terror and quickly part to let them pass, grabbing children to get them out of the way. The hooded creatures brandish wicked looking swords and cleavers that lash out at the crowd as they attempt to run. The one nearest to you turns and you can see dark greenish skin on the arm carrying the cleaver, and under the hood you see an oversized mouth filled with sharp pointy teeth and glowing red eyes filled with hate. You see leather armor underneath the hooded cloak as it raises its cleaver to throw it at you."

But, I agree with a lot of what was said above - just vary the description. There is no reason that every goblin should look the same - The Dwarfkiller clan of goblins wears black robes decorated with a bright yellow half moon and carry spears or short swords they made themselves; while the Neck Slasher clan is known for wearing red leather armor and carrying blades that are painted black; while the Grim Death clan is known for its war cry of "Kill Burn Kill", but are generally wear a hodgepodge of armor and carry all sorts of weapons because they're more scavengers than the Dwarfkillers.

 

[NewJeffCT]

double post

 

[Celebrim]

It just occurred to me that the most familiar monsters aren't scary anymore. Take zombies for example. How can any player who has been alive for the last 30 years since Night Of The Living Dead came out be truly shocked at the sight of a walking dead person who wants to eat him? The same thing goes for that other horror staple, vampires; they have "officially" been a part of our popular culture for over 100 years and they've been a facet of folklore for more than a dozen cultures for at least 1000 years. So, who is going to see a bloodsucker and actually get scared? For that matter, most people I know giggle when I mention Cthulhu!

We need more monsters, scarier ones.

Won't work.

It's got nothing to do with D&D either.

Back in the 1950's, The Creature from the Back Lagoon prompted the audience to scream in terror and young girls to faint. Now, if I showed it to my six year olds - who are hardly the most worldly 6 year olds in the world when it comes to media consumption - they'd probably giggle.

In the 1930's, when Bela Legosi played Dracula, there was serious discussion of the film being too intense and horrifying. Even with a toned down monster that never reveals his fangs, it still left its audiences in real and palpable terror. Now, it's less intense and monstrous than your average children's cartoon.

The problem isn't with the monsters. It's with the audience. We are now in that period of a civilization which is called 'decadent'. We've all become jaded and blaise from overexposure. You can't scare people with their imagination anymore because they've just been exposed to so much of that and nothing terrible resulted from it. You might as well try to scare a ghoul that grew up in a mausoleum with the horrors of old bones.

Fear is like a valley. People are only afraid of those things that they have no experience with - snakes for most city dwellers, for example; or, of things that they've had such intimate experience with that its resulted in severe trauma (maybe haven't actually been bitten by a snake). We're in the middle, having been exposed to fire continually but never having been burned. So, of course we can't make monsters scary.

Now, if all you are trying to accomplish is make the players fear losing their characters, or to make them choose to run away, then that's fairly easy. But if you want the monsters to actually be scary, well good luck with that. You'll need to wait a few years until people have been burned more.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Won't work.

It's got nothing to do with D&D either.

Back in the 1950's, The Creature from the Back Lagoon prompted the audience to scream in terror and young girls to faint. Now, if I showed it to my six year olds - who are hardly the most worldly 6 year olds in the world when it comes to media consumption - they'd probably giggle.

In the 1930's, when Bela Legosi played Dracula, there was serious discussion of the film being too intense and horrifying. Even with a toned down monster that never reveals his fangs, it still left its audiences in real and palpable terror. Now, it's less intense and monstrous than your average children's cartoon.

I had a similar discussion with my cousin's husband last year around Christmas - his two boys are a Senior in High School and a sophomore in college and he mentioned how when Jaws came out in 1975, it terrified millions of people and many were afraid to go for a swim in the ocean for years - my other cousin had weeks of nightmares of a shark tugging on her leg. However, he said, because the kids had seen so much and their horror movies were more intense (non stop action) and more visual, they don't think Jaws is scary at all.

So, that is part of it as well.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

Won't work.

It's got nothing to do with D&D either.

Back in the 1950's, The Creature from the Back Lagoon prompted the audience to scream in terror and young girls to faint. Now, if I showed it to my six year olds - who are hardly the most worldly 6 year olds in the world when it comes to media consumption - they'd probably giggle.

In the 1930's, when Bela Legosi played Dracula, there was serious discussion of the film being too intense and horrifying. Even with a toned down monster that never reveals his fangs, it still left its audiences in real and palpable terror. Now, it's less intense and monstrous than your average children's cartoon.

The problem isn't with the monsters. It's with the audience. We are now in that period of a civilization which is called 'decadent'. We've all become jaded and blaise from overexposure. You can't scare people with their imagination anymore because they've just been exposed to so much of that and nothing terrible resulted from it. You might as well try to scare a ghoul that grew up in a mausoleum with the horrors of old bones.

Fear is like a valley. People are only afraid of those things that they have no experience with - snakes for most city dwellers, for example; or, of things that they've had such intimate experience with that its resulted in severe trauma (maybe haven't actually been bitten by a snake). We're in the middle, having been exposed to fire continually but never having been burned. So, of course we can't make monsters scary.

Now, if all you are trying to accomplish is make the players fear losing their characters, or to make them choose to run away, then that's fairly easy. But if you want the monsters to actually be scary, well good luck with that. You'll need to wait a few years until people have been burned more.

I have to agree and disagree with you here. Yes, we have been over stimulated with intense images of progressively scarier monsters as the times have changed, but at the same time the ability to be scared hasn't changed. I feel that if you throw a 1950's Creature from the Black Lagoon at a group of players they wouldn't be scared, but if you flavor it right and make it menacing with your descriptions. My thinking on this is to play to their senses. Don't give anything away with light hand-waived descriptions like "you see a black creature emerge from the lagoon," go more in-depth, "rising from the murky depths very slowly you see a midnight dark creature, it's eyes glowing a horrid green, moss covers its body in an almost armor-like fashion, claws the size of small daggers spring forth out of its hands, you can smell its fetid breath reeking of rotten carrion from 20 feet away as it opens its mouth and emits a terrible screech that deafens your ears, it springs forth with unnatural speed and attacks!" MORE DETAILS! Get the players involved, get them invested, get them immersed in your story. That's my feeling.

People still get scared at the movie theaters, they just need "more" to do it, better makeup, better special EFX, better sound, and better picture quality (high definition/3D). So if DMs take a bit more time to give their "audience" of players "more" they can achieve the same thing.