D&D General Monster Importance in Homebrews?

[TheFantasyHistorianYT]

Back with another question. When Homebrewing, at what point in the creative process are the monsters put into consideration?

For Example:
1. Towards the end: monsters fit into my already created world
2. At the start: I love creating worlds around my favorite monsters

Mainly I want to know how important are monster considerations when creating a homebrew. Are they more of an afterthought or at the core or somewhere in-between? I appreciate any responses, thank you!

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

My answer of course is "it depends." Sometimes a setting conception will have a signature monster or small set of signature monsters and I'll shape the world around their existence. Other monsters, or monsters in a setting without signature monsters will be fit into the setting after the world is created - and if a monster doesn't fit, it won't be used.

 

[Stormonu]

Both. As @Edgar Ironpelt states, there might be some important to the formation of the world (such as in my "Dragons Must Die" campaign), or may come as custom creations borne out of play or just wanting something that fits the world (Like the Maughtley - dwarves who became minotaurs due to their slaven worship of the war god Titanicus in my Amberos campaign, devised years after I started developing the campaign).

 

[GMMichael]

For Example:
1. Towards the end: monsters fit into my already created world
2. At the start: I love creating worlds around my favorite monsters

How different would Earth look without humans?

Your answer is 2.

 

[el-remmen]

For me it is an ongoing consideration that I make choices about from the very inception (dragons or giants or flumphs or demons or nilbogs might be a central part of what sets the setting apart), but continue to make those choices as the world grows and develops through play, esp. since I tend to adapt/incorporate pre-published material into my homebrew framework, which might lead to me to have to decide the role of beholders (for example) in the setting, if they even exist at all, and how to replace or change them in that adaptation process.

 

[cbwjm]

I did make a setting which has drqgons, giants, and elementals as a big part of the setting. Everything else was Schroedinger's monster, you never know if they exist until you start setting up an encounter.

 

[Chaltab]

I mean, I just assume that all monsters, even those not yet released, are on the table in some capacity. The monsters are as easy to modify as the setting, after all. If they're absolutely not something that can fit into the ecology of the world as already established, then they can be from another planet, moon, or plane of existence.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Back with another question. When Homebrewing, at what point in the creative process are the monsters put into consideration?

For Example:
1. Towards the end: monsters fit into my already created world
2. At the start: I love creating worlds around my favorite monsters

Mainly I want to know how important are monster considerations when creating a homebrew. Are they more of an afterthought or at the core or somewhere in-between? I appreciate any responses, thank you!

As a general rule, I wouldn't call them an "afterthought", as that implies they're unimportant, but I do think that monsters generally follow from setting conceits, rather than the other way around. Even in cases where a monster is used as a seed element early on, I find it's usually because the monster's concept is a setting conceit--e.g., Ravenloft is centered around darkness and undead etc. because it's thematically the horror-flavored setting for D&D, not because it was built around "I want to include vampires".

Of course, that doesn't mean it's not possible to have a setting that really was built around a GM wanting to include one or more specific monsters or monster types. I just find that monsters don't usually fill that role, and instead something else does.

 

[Tonguez]

Entirely depends on theme - for instance if I'm doing a Haunted England setting then obviously the monster palette matters and the encounter sites get built around them, if the setting is more generic then the locations and relationships get built first and the monsters plugged in later as added flavour