I'm thinking about taking the "source code" from the S&W Monster book and mashing it up a bit.
These are my ideas:
- Add in bits like "morale" that I really like
- Maybe add in some "Gygaxian Naturalism" for some entries
- Add "special" types of monsters like "Orc Chieftain" or "Orc Shaman" or even "Orc Berserker"
- Add in some of my 123 Hit Mooks rules and ABCD Monsters rules
- Plus some other surprises that I haven't thought of yet like original monsters or adventure hooks or something else
Does this interest anyone?
6 comments:
Throw in some example lairs and I might be really interested, yeah.
Everything needs morale rules. The lack of decent morale rules in the later editions of D&D bugs me.
One thing I like is making the weirder monsters explicitly unique - there's only one black dragon, for instance, and it might be an adult while the red dragon is adolescent and the only green dragon around is an ancient wyrm-god. Then (if they're from a family of similar-but-different creatures, like the dragons) give them all a special, unique ability or two beyond the usual breath weapon, movement and attacks. It works for more than dragons! Treant! Elemental! Well, elementals, one per element, and they're immortal, and their power or size changes over time to represent the balance between elements... Basically, I like the idea of lower-level games using more powerful monsters as unique beings, possibly divine, or at least worshipped by fearful followers. Use low-HD monsters (or ideally humans) for everything you can get away with.
That's more of a setting issue than a monster book issue, though. And I ramble too much.
Somehow I hadn't even realized S&W didn't have morale rules. How did that happen?? One of the main benefits of open source is to ensure people will keep improving upon the open material. For some reason people embrace this with computer programming but not with RPG rules... so in other words, go for it.
Sounds interesting, particularly points 1,2, and 5, with the other two a littl less so.
I read your ABCD monster rules. Yes and Yes.
Yes to Morale!
Also requested: % Lair & Hoard Class!
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