Search options

Dear Crunk

Thanks for addressing the main issued head on.

I see, so the forthcoming LotFP monster book is intended to be the pinnacle of monsters in the LotFP game, sort of aspirational monsters, and not just routine bread-n-butter type monsters.  That at makes more sense.  A bit like a haute couture dress is to the fashion industry.

It seems to me that the exclusion of orcs (and the like) in the LotFP game harkens back to the Talislanta RPG, which had the tagline "No elves".  However with LotFP this concept has been expanded to include even more creatures, i.e. most commonly known/used monsters in RPGs.

To be fair, I'm not sure the problem with jaded players is a problem with the monsters per se, but rather with the quality of DM’ing/GM’ing.  I wonder how often the phrase: "You enter the room and see a group of orcs drinking and gambling, they see you and attack …". A truly creative DM/GM should be able to make an orc encounter interesting for players …

The other problem is players that insist on getting monster books and memorizing all of the creatures. I can’t believe than even the most experience AD&D player has encountered every monster in the MMI, MMII and FF! Are these players going to resist getting the LotFP monster book – if not you are rapidly back to square 1!

I think new monsters are great, and in the end the old school AD&D modules always tended to contained a few new ones. Then some of these got assembled and published (e.g. in MM2 and FF).

The new monsters being put in these modules to spice things up (at the moment I can only think of the ‘Decapus’ in the Palace of the Silver Princess), i.e. to be creatures the players would not have met before.   

To my mind, there is a place for monsters like orcs in RPGs, they are like the Storm Troopers in Star Wars movies. They are the canvas that makes the big baddy like Darth Vader look better.  If every Storm Trooper was a Darth Vader then where do you go from there?  Likewise, you can't have a comedy that is one punchline after another, and where each punchline must be funnier than the last.

Personally I think it is debatable if it is necessary to force DM’s/GM's to think outside of the box by the simple mechanic of depriving them of the most commonly used/known monsters. However, if it works and makes life more exciting then more power to you! 

Ironically, it seems if you really want to surprise a LotFP player, use an orc - they'll never see that coming!

Again, Crunk thanks for taking the time to explain the ethos of the game to me!

LotFP “No orcs”!!

GHench

PS – Dragons do give me joy!!

Shame more people didn't post their non-accepted monsters, it would have been interesting to see them. There's still room below ... !!

I thought mine were pretty good (posts 14 and 15 above - the 'Man Fisher' & 'Eye Glog') - but I would,  because I wrote them!

If I may be permitted a well-meant word of dissent:
I've been reflecting on the whole exercise - in it there seems to have been a huge emphasis on being almost beyond creative. It has made me wonder if going forward (when the monster book is eventually published), will this actually act as a creative vice on GMs/DMs.  If there is an unwritten expectation that monsters in this game must satisfy the expectation exemplified in the LotFP monster book, then will this stifle a normal (but 'merely' good) level creativity. If good is not good enough then you might as well pack up and go home?

Also, if the likes of my 'Man Fisher' and 'Eye Glog' above are not good enough, then what place is there for the lowly orc in the game, and can there be any joy in deploying the mighty (but not overly unique) dragon?

I know little about this game so maybe I'm speaking out of turn ...

GH

I also sent in a second creature, I sketched it out pretty quickly, but here it is:

:: Eye Glog - this bladder-sized creature floats above a group of humanoid victims and simultaneously shoots a long hair-thin barbed tendril into and trough the pupil of each victim. A brief burst of pain is all that is felt, a bit like a piece of salt or grit hitting the eye.

The silk strong tendril rapidly seeks out and bores into the optic nerve of the victim. Once it has made a connection with the optic nerve the Glog is capable of manipulating what each of its hosts can see.

Firstly it removes any visual presence of itself, including for example any shadow it may be casting. The hair thin tendril then begins to draw nutrients from its victims and it passes waste products back to the hosts through the same tendril.  Host tend to feel weak and are prone to sickness over time.

The Glog needs many hosts to thrive because the feeder tendrils are so thin.  The tendrils are so fine that even accidental brushing against by the victim will only give the impression of brushing up against a misplaced hair (if noticed at all). The tendrils can be easily moved by the Glog to avoid detection, and if broken it will rapidly insert a new replacement feeder tendril.

The Glog is only interested in feeding from its victims, and so might change the appearance of the surrounding that its victims can see (e.g. erase or cover over obvious exits, or create a fake barrier blocking the path) so that the host group it is feeding from gets disoriented/lost, and is forced to stick together. The eye leach is certainly not interested in getting harmed by getting mixed up in combat situations, so will steer the host group away from harmful situations and might even magnified the number/size/type of any hostile creatures encountered by the host group, so as to scare the host group off from fighting.

A large (cow-sized) Glog is quite capable of feed off a small rural hamlet undetected for years and has feeder tendrils that can stretch about a mile.

Visitors like taxmen might be permitted to enter the hamlet and leave again, but they will be eye-spiked on the way into the hamlet and unspiked when safely away from the hamlet again (that way preventing discovery of the Glog). If threatened by a visitor, the Eye Glog might make a visitor look 'evil/hostile' perhaps making it look like a wounded lycanthrope (perhaps holding a victim), and provoke the villagers into attacking and killing the innocent visitor.