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<blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 9692975" data-attributes="member: 11760">I don't know if it was IP building so much as a design tendency that I think even homebrewers can fall into: Building stuff because of interesting mechanics, not because of the fiction is interesting.We see a lot of this in WotC D&amp;D with &quot;well, we don't have enough attacks using X energy type or we need to offer players the chance to shine if they chose Y playstyle.&quot; It's not an inherently bad idea, but it requires good fiction to go with it.When there's not, you get the silly stuff from the 3E monster books, where a monster will have 12 templates slapped on it and they call it a day. Compare to what [USER=77670]@Nixlord[/USER] has been doing recently, with templated 5E monsters, but they're combinations that make sense in the fiction and tend to be compelling creatures in their own right, even if (as I suspect) the initial impulse was first &quot;what can we do with this 3E-style template and 5E monsters?&quot;You even see this some in the OSR space, where third party creators (typically lesser lights, in my experience) put out monster books that consist largely of &quot;what if standard monsters, but undead&quot; or &quot;what if standard monsters, but dragons?&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Whizbang Dustyboots, post: 9692975, member: 11760"] I don't know if it was IP building so much as a design tendency that I think even homebrewers can fall into: Building stuff because of interesting mechanics, not because of the fiction is interesting. We see a lot of this in WotC D&D with "well, we don't have enough attacks using X energy type or we need to offer players the chance to shine if they chose Y playstyle." It's not an inherently bad idea, but it requires good fiction to go with it. When there's not, you get the silly stuff from the 3E monster books, where a monster will have 12 templates slapped on it and they call it a day. Compare to what [USER=77670]@Nixlord[/USER] has been doing recently, with templated 5E monsters, but they're combinations that make sense in the fiction and tend to be compelling creatures in their own right, even if (as I suspect) the initial impulse was first "what can we do with this 3E-style template and 5E monsters?" You even see this some in the OSR space, where third party creators (typically lesser lights, in my experience) put out monster books that consist largely of "what if standard monsters, but undead" or "what if standard monsters, but dragons?" [/QUOTE]

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