Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
The New Design Philosophy?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 2981156" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>When you think about it for a second, it's very interesting.</p><p></p><p>If a player makes a one trick pony character, we typically consider that a bad thing. Most DM's will chuck in stuff to show why being a one trick pony PC is not good. At worst, we tend to lump such players together with epithets like "powergamer" and "twink" or even "munchkin". </p><p></p><p>Why should monsters be any different? Why should we have a single monster for every niche instead of several monsters that can fill several niche's? </p><p></p><p>As a comparison, take rust monsters vs babau. Both are capable of destroying equipment. Yet, a babau is capable of many, many more things, from being an assassin type villain, leader of a cult, sneaky bastard, straight up thug, etc etc. So, if I need a "remove PC wealth" monster, I have the choice of using a rust monster or using a babau.</p><p></p><p>From an adventure design point of view, which encounter is going to be more interesting? My vote is for the babau simply because it's a heck of a lot cooler than a big bug that eats your sword. It's a demon after all. Demons are cool. Whacking demons is what D&D is usually all about. And, at CR 8 (IIRC), I can use a babau in a very wide range of encounters.</p><p></p><p>The new design approach seems to be centered on the idea of pushing creatures out of their niches and giving them a much broader utility. The MMIV seems to be geared in this way as well. Instead of a book full of niche monsters which may or may not ever see play, it works as a template book for how to use creatures in a broader sense. Sure, there are still niche creatures, after all, if you don't use dragons very much, you aren't going to use spawn.</p><p></p><p>OTOH, now that you have spawn, you can use dragons a little more easily. Instead of the dragon sitting in his lair on a pile of gold, now he has a ready made army of thralls to send out and do his bidding. </p><p></p><p>Personally, I run Scarred Lands, so MMIV has very little use to me (no dragons), but that doesn't mean its a bad book. I think the new approach has some serious merits.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 2981156, member: 22779"] When you think about it for a second, it's very interesting. If a player makes a one trick pony character, we typically consider that a bad thing. Most DM's will chuck in stuff to show why being a one trick pony PC is not good. At worst, we tend to lump such players together with epithets like "powergamer" and "twink" or even "munchkin". Why should monsters be any different? Why should we have a single monster for every niche instead of several monsters that can fill several niche's? As a comparison, take rust monsters vs babau. Both are capable of destroying equipment. Yet, a babau is capable of many, many more things, from being an assassin type villain, leader of a cult, sneaky bastard, straight up thug, etc etc. So, if I need a "remove PC wealth" monster, I have the choice of using a rust monster or using a babau. From an adventure design point of view, which encounter is going to be more interesting? My vote is for the babau simply because it's a heck of a lot cooler than a big bug that eats your sword. It's a demon after all. Demons are cool. Whacking demons is what D&D is usually all about. And, at CR 8 (IIRC), I can use a babau in a very wide range of encounters. The new design approach seems to be centered on the idea of pushing creatures out of their niches and giving them a much broader utility. The MMIV seems to be geared in this way as well. Instead of a book full of niche monsters which may or may not ever see play, it works as a template book for how to use creatures in a broader sense. Sure, there are still niche creatures, after all, if you don't use dragons very much, you aren't going to use spawn. OTOH, now that you have spawn, you can use dragons a little more easily. Instead of the dragon sitting in his lair on a pile of gold, now he has a ready made army of thralls to send out and do his bidding. Personally, I run Scarred Lands, so MMIV has very little use to me (no dragons), but that doesn't mean its a bad book. I think the new approach has some serious merits. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
The New Design Philosophy?
Top