Monster-free? Monster-lite?

[alsih2o]

Have any of oyu run a D20 monster-free campaign. Maybe even a low-monster campaign?

Imagine a campaign with no MM. Elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, humans and all their variants. There is plenty there for an interesting story.

I am specifically thinking something not monster-free, but low-monster. Maybe a few huge and legendary monsters, but most of the drama and conflict being being provide by human-like peoples. (just like history?)

If the entirety of a campaign is centered around humanoids imagine the power of finally seeing a troll or ogre or some such.

Any thoughts?

 

[Ibram]

This is how my campaigns usualy run. the players encounter creatures with a +0 level adjust (mostly humans/orcs/halflings with some elves and dwarves). every now and again they will encounter a "real" monster, and it is always strange and terrifying.

This helps keep with the low magic feel of my campaing because now the party doesnt need a ton of magic items and spells to get through an encounter. It also keeps the game from devolving into a "monster of the day" kind of game.

 

[Psion]

I don't intentionally go for monster free but have always used intelligent races as opposition more than rampaging monsters.

 

[Gez]

I own the Monster Manuals (3e, 3.5, 2), the Fiend Folio, the Monsters of Faerûn monster compendium, all three Creature Collections, both Tomes of Horrors, the Draconomicon, Oriental Adventures, and other monster-rich books.

If I ran a low-monster campaign, I'd feel cheated out.

Besides, there's too much cool critters around for me to not use them.

However, I use classed characters a lot, too. Sometimes, they're monsters.

 

[The_Universe]

I'd say my campaign is low-monster in concept, despite being high-monster in content. I use a *lot* of monsters, usually based around a common theme. However, I tend to make the monsters more humanlike, and barring that, place them under the direction of a humanlike mind.

As such, the characters may fight draconic/reptilian monsters...but rather than being rampaging random encounters, they'd be part of an invading army, directed by an insane dracolich teamed up with a mad human king or something.

 

[GlassJaw]

Besides, there's too much cool critters around for me to not use them.

Yeah but if your campaign is just an assembly line of monsters, they become less cool.

I'm going to be scaling back the monsters in my next campaign (which is low-magic using Grim Tales). I went through the various monster books (MM1-3, FF, Tome of Horrors, etc) and picked out the ones that fit my world. I took a couple of really nasty creatures and gave them a larger role. So instead of Monster XYZ behind every turn, there are fewer creatures but they have a more prominent role.

The creatures that the players will face will be unique and the encounters with them more important.

 

[The_Gneech]

I ran a Fantasy Hero campaign like that for years, and enjoyed it immensely. No dwarves, gnomes, hobbits or orcs ... elves existed but were hiding and traveled incognito among humans; the PCs were all the equivalent of fighter/rogues (although one was a wolf-shifter), and most of the fights were against bandits, thugs, pirates, and cultists ... with the occasional sorcerer or Thing From Beyond for spice. It was sort of a cross between Conan and The Three Musketeers, and everybody enjoyed it immensely.

That worked much better in HERO than it would in D&D, I suspect, just because there's so much magic and "monster diversity" in the inherent assumptions about the core classes. In a game like that one, the ranger's "favored enemy" ability wouldn't be terribly useful unless you could use categories like "bandit, thug, pirate, and cultist," for instance. You could possibly use the d20 Modern ruleset successfully, tho, but if you're going to do that anyway, why not just stick with HERO?

-The Gneech

 

[I'm A Banana]

You know, my main obstacle to doing this is a lack of easy MM-style statblocks for different classes, races, styles, etc. Trying to come up with a good 8-10 NPC's is significantly more effort than looking at 8-10 monsters of an appropriate CR.

I don't use templates or classed monsters much for this same reason, but it's really a shame. The humanoids definately are antagonists, but the party rarely comes to blows with them, because I just don't have the time in a week to whip up a force of elf Hexblade/Necromancers, or even just straight human fighters.

Sure, the charts in the DMG help, but even buying equipment is spending a lot of time, and then there are racial adjustments....IMHO, a bugbear rogue shuold *play* significantly differently from a halfling rogue.

If I could buy an MM full of NPC stats as evenly distributed in types, categories, and CR's as your average MM, I'd be stoked. Where each entry was it's own type of unique creature, not just a formulaic use of variants....I'm not thinking of an MM filled with goblin warriors 1-20, I'm thinking of maybe including an entry for Elf Archer, assigning it a CR, then developing it....I suppose I could start buying the minis for these, but pheh.

In fact, I think I'm going to write that, publish it, and enjoy. At least if no one else beats me to the punch...

 

[der_kluge]

the campaign I'm devising would be like this. I've removed orcs and goblins (and gnolls, and hobgoblins, and kobolds) from the world, so those are out. I'll probably have the occasional dire animal, and *maybe* lycanthropes, but for the most part, the nemesis will be humans, and more often foot soldiers and evil clerics, and maybe necromancers. The other villain will be lots and lots of undead, which will be mostly fallen soldiers of the kings army.

I still intend to have the different races, but it will be set primarily in a human land.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Conan, Nehwon, and most other sword & sorcery settings are like that as they tend to be low magic.