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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6205118" data-attributes="member: 2067">Let me start with something that apparently Mearls would find shocking: that ink spilt over the ecology and biology of these monstrous creatures was not wasted ink. The 2e Medusa entry, under Habitat/Society, gives me the following gameplay information:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Lair Info: Setting my  medusa encounter in a shallow cave or shadowy ruin is key. It is suggested that visibility play an important tactical role: PC's or medusae in shadows can't be seen. Deception is key for this encounter. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Pre- and Post-Combat Info: The encounter area should be strewn with rubble, and perhaps a few "statues," but not many. The Medusa will probably destroy characters that don't make "interesting" statues, making retreival of the petrified body unlikely.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Special Tactic Info: Mirrors are useful weapons against a medusa -- they keep none in their lair.  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Plot Hook/Encounter Tone Info: A man petrified in his own bed may be a victim of a medusa out looking for a mate. If the PC's discover the lair, they may find a "momma bear" style medusa who is protecting her offspring. The moral grey zone about what to do with the children helps define the tone of the PC's: are these mercenaries, heroes, or something a little greyer? </li> </ul>So, not a waste of space or effort at all, really.  That info is useful in gameplay, it just needs significantly better organization. And for my next bit, I get to bang this drum I have again. The Medusa story they offer is nice. It'd make a good medusa story. I'd use the heck out of it.But it is only a medusa story and it is silly for the most recent designers of this 40 year old game to act like it should be the Medusa Story that D&D presumes. Lets make an easy change:I'd totally run that adventure. I even think it kind of supports the 2e setup (which was probably something that they were going for!). But I'd also run a campaign where biological Amazon-Medusae serve as petrifying assassins in the employ of the nefarious baron and where a teenage medusae has a legitimate claim to the throne, being the first-born daughter of the king and all, which Mearls's idea pretty much torpedoes. And I'd also run a campaign where Medusa is one of the three Gorgon Sisters and lives on an island and basically is a monstrous Other. I think his problem is here:That's not entirely, true, though. Just the change from "basically biological race of nefarious snake-women" to "cursed beauty-seekers" changes the nature of the stories that WE can tell through it, and the nature of the worlds we can build. If the latter is the default, it changes what our own games are about by default. And it's not a zero-sum game: there can be both. We can have Turathi medusae living alongside assassin medusae and nearby have a mythic medusa. If the stat blocks are small enough (4e-style!) we could maybe even fit them all in one book a la 4e's half-dozen goblins. One designed to be masterminds, one designed to be fast-striking murderers, one designed to be a Big Bad Evil Snakelady. We can have one of them in the MM without ruling out the other ones, but the other ones don't have to be ruled out.  There's a D&D that empowers me to make my own fantasy story for me and my friends, and still gives lazy DMs (often, like me) something they can use right away without much thought, and what Wyatt and Mearls have been on about isn't that D&D, and I don't yet understand why. Maybe to them, the D&D brand isn't about imagination and inventiveness, it's about canon and branding and new IP?</blockquote>

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