Comments on: Don’t Play Every Monster the Same Way

By: tito

tito — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:40:00 +0000

awesome site brotha

By: shent_lodge

shent_lodge — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:20:39 +0000

RPG Ike, I do have fun playing zombies like zombies and I do cover up mistakes like when I let a party paralyze a 3.5 dragon (technically you can’t) I played out that the dragon had some sort of mold and also had brittle scales. The dungeon that followed later with the PCs searching the dragons lair up the mountain side. It ended up being full of molds, oozes and jellies and was totally made up on the spot to help cover the fact that I let the party get a monster because I goofed. The group had a blast and never complained. They still talk of the time they found that dragon with the strange illness.

By: RPG Ike

RPG Ike — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:02:44 +0000

I hear ya, Shent, but I think there’s simpler advice to give: run your monster the way your monster would act. Roleplay the critter.

It’s a simple thing to do once you divorce yourself from being the pure antagonist and instead run the monsters like monsters. You won’t always make the best tactical choices that way, but then neither do your players (hopefully), and they won’t feel quite so stressed out about making mistakes.

Though, take all that with a grain of salt—I prefer a varied game style in and out of combat, and it isn’t my goal to dominate the PCs (unless I’m playing a critter whose goal is to do exactly that).

By: Shades of Gray in D&D | RPGCentric

Shades of Gray in D&D | RPGCentric — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:24:25 +0000

[...] Racism” tackled the idea that races in D&D are stereotyped unfairly. The second, “Don’t Play Monsters the Same Way“, deals with exactly what you’d think; not every enemy in D&D should be run the [...]

By: Gregor LeBlaque

Gregor LeBlaque — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:39:52 +0000

“don’t forget that some “Big Bads” can make mistakes under pressure and you should give the players the opportunity to see the weakness of their opponent”

I don’t usually pop into random posts to pimp my blog, but you might enjoy this story:
http://neartpk.blogspot.com/2008/09/shards-of-gate-of-darkness-part-6.html