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Why A GM Can Never Have Too Many Bestiaries
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7690704" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>Oooohh... now that's interesting. I'm not sure I fully agree, and I think you can argue that the best monsters fall into multiple categories, but I love the concept here. </p><p></p><p>In particular, I agree with you that most D&D monsters are simply chupacabras and thus boring. However, I would like to amend that to add that the quality of a chupacabra is determined by how interesting and novel it is tactically to engage with it, because really that's their whole point. This fits into my idea that typically in a bestiary what I'm attacted to is the presentation of creatures with novel mechanics that aren't simply substitutions for other things that are out there. If the undead is simply a reskinned Wight with some minor variations in appearance and lore, it's not worth paying for that idea. If its an undead that acts like artillery on the playing mat, then that might be something I'd be interested in and which might be something I'd feel helped me imagine something I wouldn't have imagined without the help, or ideally something I can just use as is.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That can of course be a great help, particularly since most of these novel Chupacabras lack any mythic resonance (and often rhyme or reason). But I've seen that well intentioned idea go disastrously wrong in Bestiaries as well. In fact, some of the least useful Bestiaries I've ever seen were Bestiaries where all the monsters were dull and predictable mechanically, but the author had lavished lots of time thinking about how the monster behaved, the role it had in the ecology, and how the DM might integrate the monster into an adventure. Unfortunately, the problem here is that the author spends so much time lavishing lore on the monster, that all the things of value about the book are intimately tied to his own homebrew setting and not necessarily portable to anything else. So now I find myself in a situation where to use the monster I'd have to adapt the lore, but I have no compelling reason to use the monster because aside from the lore, it's got nothing going for it. </p><p></p><p>The problem with being highly creative is that often as not, you end up creating something that is ONLY adjusted to your own tastes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7690704, member: 4937"] Oooohh... now that's interesting. I'm not sure I fully agree, and I think you can argue that the best monsters fall into multiple categories, but I love the concept here. In particular, I agree with you that most D&D monsters are simply chupacabras and thus boring. However, I would like to amend that to add that the quality of a chupacabra is determined by how interesting and novel it is tactically to engage with it, because really that's their whole point. This fits into my idea that typically in a bestiary what I'm attacted to is the presentation of creatures with novel mechanics that aren't simply substitutions for other things that are out there. If the undead is simply a reskinned Wight with some minor variations in appearance and lore, it's not worth paying for that idea. If its an undead that acts like artillery on the playing mat, then that might be something I'd be interested in and which might be something I'd feel helped me imagine something I wouldn't have imagined without the help, or ideally something I can just use as is. That can of course be a great help, particularly since most of these novel Chupacabras lack any mythic resonance (and often rhyme or reason). But I've seen that well intentioned idea go disastrously wrong in Bestiaries as well. In fact, some of the least useful Bestiaries I've ever seen were Bestiaries where all the monsters were dull and predictable mechanically, but the author had lavished lots of time thinking about how the monster behaved, the role it had in the ecology, and how the DM might integrate the monster into an adventure. Unfortunately, the problem here is that the author spends so much time lavishing lore on the monster, that all the things of value about the book are intimately tied to his own homebrew setting and not necessarily portable to anything else. So now I find myself in a situation where to use the monster I'd have to adapt the lore, but I have no compelling reason to use the monster because aside from the lore, it's got nothing going for it. The problem with being highly creative is that often as not, you end up creating something that is ONLY adjusted to your own tastes. [/QUOTE]
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