Playing AS monsters?
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sevenbastard
Legend
I mean actual physical monsters? A few time.
Moraly corrupt and reprehensible individuals. A bunch.
In the late 80s Dungeon Magazine had a 1e
adventure where you played orcs, goblins, and such but it was done for laughs. I've seen other " momster " one shots. Im sure the Forgoten Realms box set for the Drow city Mezaba....whatever had rules for all "monster" parties
Moraly corrupt and reprehensible individuals. A bunch.
In the late 80s Dungeon Magazine had a 1e
adventure where you played orcs, goblins, and such but it was done for laughs. I've seen other " momster " one shots. Im sure the Forgoten Realms box set for the Drow city Mezaba....whatever had rules for all "monster" parties
Depends on how you mean "monster".
As non-traditional races that may not be allowed in some towns? That's pretty easy. Especially is D&D 5e. In the current game, all species are really just rubber-forehead humans anyway. You can be a goblin, orc, devil, undead, whatever, and most of the game barely even notices. One of my (minor) gripes with the game is that monster PCs really aren't monster enough for my taste, but that also makes it fairly trivial to have a monster party.
As evil PC's? I've tried it a couple of times over the years and never had good luck. The games always technically fell apart for reasons unrelated to being "evil". But I also feel like all the evil campaigns I've played in had a much lower inherent level of cooperation that played a significant factor in the things that lead to the game breaking down.
For playing monsters that are really monstrous, one of the best books I know is the D&D 3e book Savage Species. It had great rules for playing high level monsters as PCs. The balance was a bit wonky and it wasn't perfect, but it was a lot of fun. I would highly recommend it for ideas even if you're not playing that game.
As non-traditional races that may not be allowed in some towns? That's pretty easy. Especially is D&D 5e. In the current game, all species are really just rubber-forehead humans anyway. You can be a goblin, orc, devil, undead, whatever, and most of the game barely even notices. One of my (minor) gripes with the game is that monster PCs really aren't monster enough for my taste, but that also makes it fairly trivial to have a monster party.
As evil PC's? I've tried it a couple of times over the years and never had good luck. The games always technically fell apart for reasons unrelated to being "evil". But I also feel like all the evil campaigns I've played in had a much lower inherent level of cooperation that played a significant factor in the things that lead to the game breaking down.
For playing monsters that are really monstrous, one of the best books I know is the D&D 3e book Savage Species. It had great rules for playing high level monsters as PCs. The balance was a bit wonky and it wasn't perfect, but it was a lot of fun. I would highly recommend it for ideas even if you're not playing that game.
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
A bit, mostly one-shots. Everything from goblins and orcs, through to Ghosts to Movie Monster style monster squads (Snake-Lamia, Flesh golem, Werewolf and Mummi)
I even played a Willowisp psion once (does that count as a monster?).
They are all on the "good" side though even if they arent good people. Actually participating an Evil campaign were PCs act monstrously doesnt appeal (despite violence and murder being a core of fantasy adventuring
I even played a Willowisp psion once (does that count as a monster?).
They are all on the "good" side though even if they arent good people. Actually participating an Evil campaign were PCs act monstrously doesnt appeal (despite violence and murder being a core of fantasy adventuring
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James Gasik
We don't talk about Pun-Pun
Back in 3e, I tried to run a Savage Species game. The resulting characters were extremely lopsided, with massive strong points and weak points. This might sound balanced, but generally what happened in most encounters was that the character whose weak points were hit just imploded, and the strong suits were beyond the ability for most enemies to handle unless specifically tailored for the job (something I tend to avoid doing as a DM as much as possible).
In 4e, for one season of Encounters, we played a Drow-centric game. There was a status mechanic that was easy to game (be a female Drow) and special "betrayal cards" you could use on your allies/rivals to mess with them.
One player adamantly refused to play anything other than the Human Druid he'd made. The DM ruled his character was a slave to the Drow, forced to do their bidding. The player agreed to this, then complained bitterly every time he was treated as a servant.
In the final session he went out in a blaze of glory to defy his "masters".
Generally when I pitch the idea of playing all monster races (I had this idea where everyone belonged to a humanoid tribe which was decimated and scattered to the winds by a horrible calamity- adventurers! The game would revolve around the survivors struggling to make their way in a world where they were seen as the "bad guys", gain power, get revenge on the adventurers and reclaim their home (I later found out this is basically the plot of the Goblins webcomic).
Nobody seemed too interested, with one refusing to get it, not seeing the value of flipping the script on who the heroes and villains were. /shrug
In 4e, for one season of Encounters, we played a Drow-centric game. There was a status mechanic that was easy to game (be a female Drow) and special "betrayal cards" you could use on your allies/rivals to mess with them.
One player adamantly refused to play anything other than the Human Druid he'd made. The DM ruled his character was a slave to the Drow, forced to do their bidding. The player agreed to this, then complained bitterly every time he was treated as a servant.
In the final session he went out in a blaze of glory to defy his "masters".
Generally when I pitch the idea of playing all monster races (I had this idea where everyone belonged to a humanoid tribe which was decimated and scattered to the winds by a horrible calamity- adventurers! The game would revolve around the survivors struggling to make their way in a world where they were seen as the "bad guys", gain power, get revenge on the adventurers and reclaim their home (I later found out this is basically the plot of the Goblins webcomic).
Nobody seemed too interested, with one refusing to get it, not seeing the value of flipping the script on who the heroes and villains were. /shrug
Quite often.
Groups of all drow are common enough. Plenty of players read a Drizzt book and say "wow I want to play that!"
2E had the Complete Book of humanoids, so I've had groups of kobolds, goblins, and such.
D&D(aka BECMI and eventually Mystara) REALLY had a lot of monster books: The Orcs of Thar, Tales of the Wee Folk, Top Balasta, Sea Peoples, Red Steel, and the Chronicles of the Princess Ark. This is where Tortles come from.
Orcs of Thar is an Amazing book to play some monster characters.....
And then you have Spelljammer with all it's wacky races
And many of these races have been in each edition afterwards.....but I would use them regardless.
Groups of all drow are common enough. Plenty of players read a Drizzt book and say "wow I want to play that!"
2E had the Complete Book of humanoids, so I've had groups of kobolds, goblins, and such.
D&D(aka BECMI and eventually Mystara) REALLY had a lot of monster books: The Orcs of Thar, Tales of the Wee Folk, Top Balasta, Sea Peoples, Red Steel, and the Chronicles of the Princess Ark. This is where Tortles come from.
Orcs of Thar is an Amazing book to play some monster characters.....
And then you have Spelljammer with all it's wacky races
And many of these races have been in each edition afterwards.....but I would use them regardless.
There are entire games dedicated to playing vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demons and angels....
Sacrosanct
Legend
Yes, as one-offs. I even wrote a few adventures several years ago where you are the "monsters", getting your revenge on the murder hobos taking over your lands. One of the illustrations I had done for it by the talented Brian "Glad" Thomas:
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