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<blockquote data-quote="Yora" data-source="post: 8309442" data-attributes="member: 6670763">For something to be weird, it has to break out of the players' expectations and defy categorization in the system they are familiar with. This is something that D&amp;D out of the box is particularly poorly suited for, as it's brand identity, especially since the start of 3rd edition, is all about familiar categories. Alignment as it has become established certainly didn't help, but having creature types and fully detailed rules for the creation of magical objects went a lot further than this. Monster Manuals are of course cool, but they entrench the shared definition of how things really are and how they are supposed to be. It's serving the brand very well, but is unsuited to produce weird adventures and campaigns.To get weird, you have to ditch the formalized rules for monsters, spells, and magic items. Weirdness is created by facing the players with things that defy the rules as they understand it.When you go through Lovecraft's Yog-Sothery stories, one thing that may not jump out immediately but is very consistent and deliberate, is that he never used any monsters twice. There is one Cthulhu story. One Deep Ones story. One Mi-Go story. Once the audience know what they are, they are no longer useful to create a weird mystery.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Yora, post: 8309442, member: 6670763"] For something to be weird, it has to break out of the players' expectations and defy categorization in the system they are familiar with. This is something that D&D out of the box is particularly poorly suited for, as it's brand identity, especially since the start of 3rd edition, is all about familiar categories. Alignment as it has become established certainly didn't help, but having creature types and fully detailed rules for the creation of magical objects went a lot further than this. Monster Manuals are of course cool, but they entrench the shared definition of how things really are and how they are supposed to be. It's serving the brand very well, but is unsuited to produce weird adventures and campaigns. To get weird, you have to ditch the formalized rules for monsters, spells, and magic items. Weirdness is created by facing the players with things that defy the rules as they understand it. When you go through Lovecraft's Yog-Sothery stories, one thing that may not jump out immediately but is very consistent and deliberate, is that he never used any monsters twice. There is one Cthulhu story. One Deep Ones story. One Mi-Go story. Once the audience know what they are, they are no longer useful to create a weird mystery. [/QUOTE]

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