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www.play-board-games.com blogs about How DnD 4th Edition is like a board game
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<blockquote data-quote="Aegeri" data-source="post: 5239234" data-attributes="member: 78116"><p>First, it's taken me a couple of posts to realize what you're actually getting at here and now I'm with you I can certainly understand your dilemma. In fact, I run into this problem even now in my current 4E games in numerous ways. I have to be very careful when I use the same token art for two monsters in my games. If my players recognize the creature, they will assume certain things about it that get them into trouble.</p><p></p><p>The best example was when I used the same canoloth art for a minion version and a regular version. The confusion that resulted almost would have seen a PC throw a daily power at a bunch of minions (not a worthwhile usage). As creatures don't have fixed levels, but can have multiple types like a canoloth tracker being a minion and a canoloth bloodhound is a pretty powerful brute that can cause issues.</p><p></p><p>I found two things here helped:</p><p></p><p>1) Description of creatures always ensured the PCs knew it was different. Trackers I've described as being lean, less armoured and generally not as vicious. Bloodhounds are much bigger, have black iron plates with spikes on them and have even longer more ichor covered tongues than trackers. </p><p></p><p>2) Making sure that I used a different token art for each monster. When PCs see something that looks different as well as my description of it being different, they assume it's a new monster they haven't seen before.</p><p></p><p>Varying levels aren't really the problem: the problem is being consistent with what creatures you use. If you're consistent then PCs will recognize that and adapt their expectations accordingly. If you make every single ogre exactly the same description and recycle the same art/minis or whatever, then your PCs are going to get very frustrated very fast when what they thought was X was Y.</p><p></p><p>This is also why I like demons and devils. There are so many variations on the art of these monsters that I can easily have more than <em>six</em> variations of one demon and yet be able to clearly present and describe them as being different to my players.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aegeri, post: 5239234, member: 78116"] First, it's taken me a couple of posts to realize what you're actually getting at here and now I'm with you I can certainly understand your dilemma. In fact, I run into this problem even now in my current 4E games in numerous ways. I have to be very careful when I use the same token art for two monsters in my games. If my players recognize the creature, they will assume certain things about it that get them into trouble. The best example was when I used the same canoloth art for a minion version and a regular version. The confusion that resulted almost would have seen a PC throw a daily power at a bunch of minions (not a worthwhile usage). As creatures don't have fixed levels, but can have multiple types like a canoloth tracker being a minion and a canoloth bloodhound is a pretty powerful brute that can cause issues. I found two things here helped: 1) Description of creatures always ensured the PCs knew it was different. Trackers I've described as being lean, less armoured and generally not as vicious. Bloodhounds are much bigger, have black iron plates with spikes on them and have even longer more ichor covered tongues than trackers. 2) Making sure that I used a different token art for each monster. When PCs see something that looks different as well as my description of it being different, they assume it's a new monster they haven't seen before. Varying levels aren't really the problem: the problem is being consistent with what creatures you use. If you're consistent then PCs will recognize that and adapt their expectations accordingly. If you make every single ogre exactly the same description and recycle the same art/minis or whatever, then your PCs are going to get very frustrated very fast when what they thought was X was Y. This is also why I like demons and devils. There are so many variations on the art of these monsters that I can easily have more than [i]six[/i] variations of one demon and yet be able to clearly present and describe them as being different to my players. [/QUOTE]
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