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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Why A GM Can Never Have Too Many Bestiaries
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7690684" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>For me, believable constructs (as in, someone would actually pay to build and own one), undead variants, novel oozes, natural spirits of various sorts, freaky plant or fungi monsters, small fey, and various oversized fauna tend to have the most immediate utility because you can put them just about anywhere without impacting the overall zeitgeist of the world, and without having to do a lot explaining regarding how they came to be or how they survive where they are. Monsters that can just be hanging around in any given dungeon room even if its been sealed for a long time are almost invaluable.</p><p></p><p>Big flashy monsters that have a huge impact on the game world around them are of very limited utility - giant predators for example not only lack utility in a low level campaign but ought to have an epic impact on the world. If there is a giant voracious predator anywhere within 50 miles, surely it ought to be legendary and attracting considerable attention already. And in terms of inspiring, nothing is worse than a new skin on a bag of hit points with a claw/claw/bite routine. </p><p></p><p>More subjective is whether or not a monster is corny or campy. Humor monsters, sci-fi monsters, and wacky monsters I find just have very little utility. </p><p></p><p>The least utility of all for me is a new sentient species. I can imagine running a game where that wasn't true, and you had 500 sentient species all coexisting happily in cosmopolitan cities and it was a common trope of an NPC that they were 'the' member of that species (that was part of the story). But not only do I not run that game, I've never been in that game (outside of say Star Wars).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7690684, member: 4937"] For me, believable constructs (as in, someone would actually pay to build and own one), undead variants, novel oozes, natural spirits of various sorts, freaky plant or fungi monsters, small fey, and various oversized fauna tend to have the most immediate utility because you can put them just about anywhere without impacting the overall zeitgeist of the world, and without having to do a lot explaining regarding how they came to be or how they survive where they are. Monsters that can just be hanging around in any given dungeon room even if its been sealed for a long time are almost invaluable. Big flashy monsters that have a huge impact on the game world around them are of very limited utility - giant predators for example not only lack utility in a low level campaign but ought to have an epic impact on the world. If there is a giant voracious predator anywhere within 50 miles, surely it ought to be legendary and attracting considerable attention already. And in terms of inspiring, nothing is worse than a new skin on a bag of hit points with a claw/claw/bite routine. More subjective is whether or not a monster is corny or campy. Humor monsters, sci-fi monsters, and wacky monsters I find just have very little utility. The least utility of all for me is a new sentient species. I can imagine running a game where that wasn't true, and you had 500 sentient species all coexisting happily in cosmopolitan cities and it was a common trope of an NPC that they were 'the' member of that species (that was part of the story). But not only do I not run that game, I've never been in that game (outside of say Star Wars). [/QUOTE]
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