WizarDru said:
OK, I gotta ask....why are people so attached to the Modrons, anyhow?
In AD&D, they were (iirc) the goofy shape-people, right? The ones shaped like different polyhedrons? Did anyone actually like/use them?
In 2e, under Planescape, I guess, they became....what? Steampunk, Clockwork, Robotic versions of the same? Can someone explain to me what their appeal is? Is it just the law aspect? Some folks seem really attached to them, and I'm trying to understand the appeal.
The appeal is that they are an alien faceless horde that is difficult to deal with. They are a "race" with no individual iniative or desire and where members of a certain rank are functionally identical to each other (in fact they have no individuality at all). They move about the universe doing alien things for alien reasons and they make for fun roleplay because they force players to think outside of the box.
Even demons, as murderous, chaotic and evil as they are can be negotiated with and be understood within the context of what they are. They are chaos and evil to the extreme. As loathsome as they are, they embody qualities that mortal races understand (avarice, envy, rage etc.) because all mortals have ether experienced or encountered such qualities before.
Modrons embody only order on a cosmic timeless scale. This is something mortal races don't trully understand, at least not on the level modrons practice it. This leads to massive "misunderstandings", which is where the fun comes in. Sometimes a modron's task is funny to watch or brings great benefit to those around it, other times it brings great woe. Their activities appear random to non-modrons but to the modrons themselves, those seemingly random tasks are part of a cosmic plan set down by Primus, their leader. Small disruptions of the great pattern (like mortals being in their way) don't matter to them because those disruptions are only a blink in time.
The PCs can be travelling across the Outlands on a frantic mission of mercy to a plague stricken town and suddenly encounter a group of 1 decaton, 5 pentadrones and 20 quadrones who have built a 50' stone wall around the town to which they are travelling. (In fact orders have come down from Regulus that in 50,000 years the modrons will need this town as a fortification and Primus (the prime modron) has decided that it would be efficient to start fortifications early.)
Attempts to bypass the wall demonstrate that the modrons have blocked teleportation into the town and closed all the portals in and out and they relentlessly attack anyone who tries to break through or fly over their wall. For each modron destroyed, an identical one arrives within a round and they replenish their numbers to precisely 1
20. The issue now becomes how to convince the modrons to let you in on an urgent mission of mercy when they have no concept of urgency (being timeless beings that don't eat, sleep, get sick or age) and no concept of mercy and you can't fight your way past them.
As I said, I like modrons because they force PCs to think outside the box. You can't appeal to their emotions, you can't bribe them, charm them or otherwise force them to move from the task they are carrying out except by beating them at their own logic. All of the PCs power, magic, wealth and charm mean nothing to them. Dealing with them all boils down to figuring out WHAT they are doing and WHY, and then trying to convince them that YOU want them to do is a logical extension of their goal.
Tzarevitch
