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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 4876620" data-attributes="member: 80487">The problem was recognized at least as far back as 1976, when it was noted in the foreword to Supplement III. Random powers for artifacts were introduced therein. Magazine articles offered tables for rolling up random monsters, and Jon Pickens's method for demons was revised as Appendix D in the DMG.Tunnels & Trolls (at least as of 5th ed.) has no list of magic items, and the closest thing to "official" treatments of the special powers of (e.g.) vampires or werewolves would be found in the separate game Monsters! Monsters!. The sample monster ratings are explicitly not definitive.There are good points to a bit of standard issue; not everyone is up to plunging headfirst into something as unfamiliar as Empire of the Petal Throne. "But," as Tim Kask observed in 1976, "somewhere along the line, D & D lost some of its flavor, and began to become predictable."Many seem to like it that way, and many others just to take for granted that ringing the same old changes is the way it's done (except for changing mechanisms with each new "edition"). Even now, it's probably not such a problem for a novice, to whom the whole thing is new, as for an old hand who really has seen it all before.The way to break the mold is to start with ideas -- images in particular seem most commonly useful -- and then translate them into game terms. Depending on how much imagination one wants to put into it, that could range from "re-skinning" stock elements, or using them in unusual roles, to creating entirely new ones; from the occasional "special" to a whole distinctive world. I would note that although Greg Stafford's Glorantha is populated with Dwarves and Elves, Trolls and Dragons, they have qualities that set them apart from those in other mythologies. He has "little people", too, but Ducks are definitely different from Hobbits!</blockquote>

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