Playing AS monsters?

The game Wicked Ones exists to create the play space of classic dungeon denizens doing the sort of stuff that would show up on a Hero’s Wanted poster. In fact, Adventurers are the scariest opponents they’ll face - showing up as a consequence of your actions and storming your stronghold/dungeon /etc.
 

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Within D&D, I started playing a Drow Rgr/Dr/MU- YEARS before the first publication of Drizzt- after an article was published in Dragon Magazine. I continued playing him (and other Drow) in 2Ed, and tried others with the publication of The Complete Book of Humanoids. My fave was a Minotaur.

I continued playing others when 3Ed+ blew up.

But I’d also been playing other “monsters” in other systems, like Vampires: the Masquerade, RIFTS, GURPS and assorted supers campaigns (mostly HERO). In Monster of the Week, I designed- but never got to play- a fallen angel.

And before ALL of that, I ran a campaign for a couple of friends in which they played young dragons.
 


Pre-5e we tried playing something with all reincarnated PCs as monsters. We had a few goblins and a bugbear hanging out with a lizardfolk. It started out ok with townsfolk hiding children and attacking us and eventually the DM started skipping this to get more adventure in and it fell apart.

Now with the new rules, it seems like the designers have more of an anything goes and townsfolk are ok with lizardfolk, snakefolk, and bugbears walking around and waving hello to the farmer as they meet in the coffee shop.
 

Has anyone ever run a game where the players are actual monsters? Like, a party of orcs, or drow or something? I know AD&D metiones this possibility in one of the core books, but I'm curious how often--if ever--people play this way?
Ran a party through the Goodman 5e B1/B2 a few years back where the keep.was.controlled by a bunch of humano-centrists who thought they found a legal loophole to seize the surrounding land, and the party couldn't be any of the classic demi humans (they all had rings of long term appearance altering that let each one have a demi-human alter ego).
 

Has anyone ever run a game where the players are actual monsters? Like, a party of orcs, or drow or something? I know AD&D metiones this possibility in one of the core books, but I'm curious how often--if ever--people play this way?
Yep, I've done it a couple of times.

Most recently, the player characters fell through a portal into the Feywild and were transformed: for the duration of their stay there, they would have the form of a Fey creature. They would change back to their normal forms when (if?) they returned home, but in the meantime they would be monsters.

I let them choose any Fey creature they wanted with three stipulations: it had to be the same size as their current character, it had to be CR 3 or less, and nobody could choose the same one twice (the characters were all 6th level.) So the rogue chose Quickling, the druid chose Dryad, the warlock chose Green Hag, the fighter chose Satyr, and the paladin chose Darkling (Elder). They used the NPC stat block and character sheet in Roll20 for their "Fey-form" character, and away we went. It was interesting watching them learn how to use their new abilities and equipment to find their way home.

On another occasion, my niece (age 9 at the time) wanted to play D&D with us, and she wanted to play a unicorn. So I just copied the MM stats onto a standard character sheet, filled in the gaps as best I could, and ran with it. I think I posted about it already a while ago...yep, here's the link.
 

I've never run it, or played it this way, but I've been noodling an Underdark campaign for some time now, and I thought, what if...
I don't play 5e (no offense intended!)
One campaign Ive thought about is doing Birthrights King of the Giant Downs from the monster perspective - ie PCs respond to the call from the Asweign Ghuralli to help unite the monster tribes and resist encroachment by the Rjurik settlers and murderous 'Adventurers'.
 

"ADVANCED D&D is unquestionably "humanocentric", with demi-humans, semi-humans, and humanoids in various orbits around the sun of humanity. Men are the worst monsters, particularly high level characters such as clerics, fighters, and magic-users — whether singly, in small groups, or In large companies." - E.G. Gygax

So if you've played as a human male

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I'm still waiting for the opportunity to play a dragon or doppelganger ...
 
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I did get reminded the other day of Council of Wyrms, which has a similar scenario- you play as Wyrmling Dragons struggling to build a hoard and grow stronger, all while being told horror stories of "Dragonslayers", ie, humanoids from across the sea who were armed to the teeth with enough power to kill dragons- your typical mid to high level adventurers, basically.
 

Has anyone ever run a game where the players are actual monsters? Like, a party of orcs, or drow or something? I know AD&D metiones this possibility in one of the core books, but I'm curious how often--if ever--people play this way?
Yes, using T&T's sibling, Monsters! Monsters! Since its 80% T&T (it omits 15%), it was largely a T&T feel, except for what was looted.

And Kobolds are my Baby.
And Vampire.
 

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