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The Neutral Referee, Monty Haul, and the Killer DM: History of the GM and Application to 5e
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8707695" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>Going back to the Monty Haul part of things for a moment...</p><p></p><p>The thing I always experienced and remembered with regards to Monty Haul was that it was mostly a thing in the AD&D era, due to two major factors-- almost every monster in the MM having a Treasure Type letter in their statblock... and the random treasure tables in the DMG that corresponded to all of these monster treasure types. Those of us who were kids at the time of AD&D saw glory in the randomness and potential windfalls that came with those two things. And I know for myself and my friends... before the idea of stories and characterization and long-term plots were a thing in AD&D... it was almost always just quick dungeon crawling adventures-- "Go into a dungeon, when you enter a room the the DM pulls out a monster (either by choice or by using a random monster encounter chart), the party attacks and defeats said monster, and then the players then all roll on the random treasure tables, gaining anything and everything that showed up.</p><p></p><p>There was no thought about having the dungeon "make sense" or there being a reason why all these disparate creatures would be found so close together in chamber after chamber and without obvious water or food sources... it was all just "Give us a bunch of monsters to kill, and then let's see all the different kinds of loot we get!" And that's why it was called "Monty Haul"... because you never knew what the treasure was going to be behind Door #1 or in the box being brought down the aisle, but you knew it could be something awesome or something complete crap. And you had no way of knowing until you opened the door / lifted the box (IE rolled the dice on the random treasure table). And when you ran into another kid whose characters all seemed to have +5 weapons and armor, powerful staves, multiple rings on each finger and dozens of miscellaneous magic items, you knew they were a part of a Monty Haul game.</p><p></p><p>"Why did that ettin have a Vorpal Sword in the chest in its room?" "No idea! But I rolled it randomly, so now it's mine!" <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 8707695, member: 7006"] Going back to the Monty Haul part of things for a moment... The thing I always experienced and remembered with regards to Monty Haul was that it was mostly a thing in the AD&D era, due to two major factors-- almost every monster in the MM having a Treasure Type letter in their statblock... and the random treasure tables in the DMG that corresponded to all of these monster treasure types. Those of us who were kids at the time of AD&D saw glory in the randomness and potential windfalls that came with those two things. And I know for myself and my friends... before the idea of stories and characterization and long-term plots were a thing in AD&D... it was almost always just quick dungeon crawling adventures-- "Go into a dungeon, when you enter a room the the DM pulls out a monster (either by choice or by using a random monster encounter chart), the party attacks and defeats said monster, and then the players then all roll on the random treasure tables, gaining anything and everything that showed up. There was no thought about having the dungeon "make sense" or there being a reason why all these disparate creatures would be found so close together in chamber after chamber and without obvious water or food sources... it was all just "Give us a bunch of monsters to kill, and then let's see all the different kinds of loot we get!" And that's why it was called "Monty Haul"... because you never knew what the treasure was going to be behind Door #1 or in the box being brought down the aisle, but you knew it could be something awesome or something complete crap. And you had no way of knowing until you opened the door / lifted the box (IE rolled the dice on the random treasure table). And when you ran into another kid whose characters all seemed to have +5 weapons and armor, powerful staves, multiple rings on each finger and dozens of miscellaneous magic items, you knew they were a part of a Monty Haul game. "Why did that ettin have a Vorpal Sword in the chest in its room?" "No idea! But I rolled it randomly, so now it's mine!" ;) [/QUOTE]
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The Neutral Referee, Monty Haul, and the Killer DM: History of the GM and Application to 5e
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