D&D General Players: Do You Care From Whence Your DM Gets His Monsters/Challenges?

[ezo]

I’m genuinely intrigued now - in a game that runs from rats in the basement to dryads in the woods to gothic vampires to Mimics to Spawn of the Elder gods, what creatures make it "D&Dish"?

You had me up to "Spawn of the Elder gods".

Seriously, the traditional core creatures (too numerous to list) all qualify to one degree or another. But creatures like Star Spawn or the Lonely and such ilk do not seem D&Dish to me. They seem more Cthulhu, not so much medieval fantasy adventure. Horror certainly has its place in D&D (mostly via the undead IMO), but many creatures do fall into a category of "beyond" D&Dish.

Certain settings, such as Spelljammer, will never be D&Dish to me, as well. If I want fantasy in space, there are other games for that.

We all have our preferences of course, and if I was in a game where the DM introduced the Starspawn or Sorrowspawn (?) as "new" creatures invading the "D&D realm" and the goal was to stop them, I could probably go with it provided the traditional creatures were there as well--even if the alien invaders were killing them off.

If the world itself seems sane and mundane and normal, monsters only exist in the dark corners -- the exact places where the insane, arcane and esoteric PCs are constantly poking their heads.

Not necessarily. It depends on what you mean by "monsters". There can certainly be strange and (relatively) unique creatures popping up in a game. The Underdark is a great setting for such. But a lot of it depends on how "explored" your world is. We're discovering new species on Earth all the time (granted less frequently), so encountering something "new" once in a while in a typical (for me) setting is fine.

But where encountering the new happens more often and in regions where it doesn't make sense for such a creature to be unknown? No, that breaks immersion for me and lacks sense in world-building.

In a typical D&D game is a dragon a "monster" or a creature? In my games, they are still monsters (albeit sometimes good ones...).

 

[ezo]

To me, D&D is about what the characters DO, not what list of creatures inhabit the world. The right Gamma World game is more D&D than the wrong Forgotten Realm campaign.

Which is fine for you I suppose, but taking on its surface this statement is entirely wrong for me.

Interacting with the world and the fantasy (part of what characters DO) depends on the creatures that inhabit that world. A D&D world, for example, without dragons (as in they NEVER existed!) would not feel very D&Dish to me.

But as I said, it is my preference.

 

[Reynard]

Not necessarily. It depends on what you mean by "monsters". There can certainly be strange and (relatively) unique creatures popping up in a game. The Underdark is a great setting for such. But a lot of it depends on how "explored" your world is. We're discovering new species on Earth all the time (granted less frequently), so encountering something "new" once in a while in a typical (for me) setting is fine.

But where encountering the new happens more often and in regions where it doesn't make sense for such a creature to be unknown? No, that breaks immersion for me and lacks sense in world-building.

In a typical D&D game is a dragon a "monster" or a creature? In my games, they are still monsters (albeit sometimes good ones...).

I am speaking more hypothetically -- a setting that for all intents and purposes seems mundane on the surface but holds secrets and magic just out of site. it is a very common trope in more modern settings, but there is no reason you could not do it in a more traditional late medieval D&D setting.

 

[ezo]

I am speaking more hypothetically -- a setting that for all intents and purposes seems mundane on the surface but holds secrets and magic just out of site. it is a very common trope in more modern settings, but there is no reason you could not do it in a more traditional late medieval D&D setting.

To be clear, by mundane and modern do you mean more "real world" (as in lacking magic and fantasy)?

 

[Reynard]

To be clear, by mundane and modern do you mean more "real world" (as in lacking magic and fantasy)?

By mundane I mean "appears to lack fantastic elements" so much more low fantasy -- until you follow those stairs down in the old ruins and pass through the veil to the Underworld.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Just an idle curiosity.

If you are playing D&D (any edition, but 3e on have more options in this regard), do you care about where your DM is getting their monsters and stuff? in other words, do you expect or desire your DM to use official monsters? Do you have concerns if they are using 3rd party monster books? Homebrewing monsters? Does it matter if they are using Grimtooth's traps or similar?

If so, why?

If not, is that universal or are there sources that would worry you?

Thanks.

I don't see why I would care about that as a player, and it would hypocritical of me to do so anyway, as I use monsters from a very wide variety of sources myself.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Doesn't bother me so long as the encounters are fun, fair and balanced.

For the record, I don't care if the encounters are fair or balanced. I care if they have a setting reason to be there, but that's about it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Somewhat interestingly (to me at least) I find that i really don't care where players get their character building stuff. I mean, it is nice if they run it by me, but if we are playing 5E I don't care if players want to use a 2014, A5E, ToV or 2024 version of a class or whatever. It isn't like everything in the core book is properly balanced. Normally, though, I am running on Fantasy grounds and what player facing books I own on that platform are what choices they have access to.

Yeah, I don't really care about that stuff either. My primary metric for all content on either side is if it makes setting sense to be there. If it does, I can be very forgiving.

 

[ezo]

By mundane I mean "appears to lack fantastic elements" so much more low fantasy -- until you follow those stairs down in the old ruins and pass through the veil to the Underworld.

Well, if I am understanding you correctly, the "mundane world" above would not be D&Dish. Once the PCs "pass through the veil" it might become D&Dish, but that depends on the creatures they encounter (among other things).

FWIW, this could be a D&Dish world "above" but changes to not "D&Dish" after passing through the veil if the realm beyond lacks the creatures and aspects which make the above world "D&Dish". This is an example of the PCs being transported to an alien realm and encountering alien monsters. Depending on how it is done, it might easily stop feeling D&D to me and more "horror" or "science fiction" than fantasy.

 

[cranberry]

No, I don't care about the source. It's actually fun to fight a monster that you know nothing about.

A lot better than pretending that you don't know about trolls and fire, for example.