Mike Mearls
. http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx ... l/20140317 .
We want to add inspiring, interesting stories to our monsters. But at the same time, we want to make it so that you aren't forced to use the details we create unless they make sense for your game.
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This approach makes creatures more cohesive and grounds them in a distinct identity.
So you aren't forcing people to use anything, but you are forcing them to deal with stupid ass connections that James Wyatt thinks are cute for his retarded bible-thumping children?For instance, we expanded on hags to make them monstrous fey with a whole network of other creatures that serve or ally with them. They create animated scarecrows, use a horrid curse to turn those who betray them into redcaps, and hire mercenary yugoloths when dealing with truly formidable enemies.
I love how they fail, or always take the wrong thing from something...
How many monsters have a clusterfuck of things like hags, ettercaps, pixie parts, scarecrows, etc? I don't know shit dealing with the 4e product, but here is a reason things WORKED in 2E.Taking a cue from the 4th Edition Monster Vault and the 2nd Edition Monstrous Compendium, we're providing more information on each monster's personality, ecology, goals, and place in the world.
monsters have, even the not so smart ones; a certain habitat they live in. That is it, all you need. How they mingle with each other and shit should be either:CLIMATE/TERRAIN defines where the creature is most often found. Climates include arctic, sub-arctic, temperate, and tropical. Typical terrain includes plain/scrub, forest, rough/hill, mountain, swamp, and desert. In some cases, a range is given; for instance, "cold" implies arctic, sub-arctic, and colder temperate regions.
Copyright 1999 TSR Inc.
a) something the DM decides
b) something from a published setting or adventure
There is NO reason to give excess shit in the core generic game to get in the way or fuel the rules lawyers to force the game to say ettercaps are masturbating your hags with pixie parts. if there is no inspiration to use the ettercap without having it be a herder of giant spiders that fucks hags, then maybe the monster jsut isnt that interesting to begin with, not that you need to add shit to make it so. for those that already find it interesting, then adding the ettercap/spider/hag orgy is likely to uninspire them, unless it is the "D&D with porn stars" crowd.
yes, 2e had society, but it was how the orc society was made up, the orc entry didnt go nto detail about other races because that is the OPEN part of an RPG that allows DMs to be able to decide how their world works.
this "story" shit shouldn't exist in the core, but is what settings or special cases in published adventures are for.
As long as you fucking twats keep trying to BRAND D&D you will never be able to make it, because the point of it is so that is NOT Gary's Game, NOT Dave's game, NOT Zeb's game, NOT Steve's game, NOT Frank's game, NOT Tweet's game, NOT Noonan's game, NOT Mearls' game, Not Wyatt's game; but the people-in-that-small-group-that-are-playing-it's game. This story shit fails on the concept of "get older edition players back" as they want an OPEN game, not a WoD clone that is forced into one world view.
The reason WoD was never as big as D&D is because everyone didn't want the shitty story attached to it, same with Shadowrun, Rifts, etc. trying to emulate failures like these jsut to be "less generic and more branded" are only going to cause you to emulate their failure as well (see 4th edition D&D). When you finally embrace the strength that D&D had that was being open and allowing for ANY story from those who enjoy it, then you will again be able to understand D&D. Those people unable to be inspired by the fantasy genre and just having a little bit about orcs, without having anything about dragons or crocodiles mentioned in the orc monster entry will find something else to do, as the odds are they already are doing multiple game systems and not loyal to any ONE enough to design your market around them.
Whose story is it? HASBROs and they can keep it. summon scarecrows, really? D&D monsters have all turned into MtG thallids and just spawn more because it works in D&D? Seriously, go make a MtGRPG and get the fuck out of D&D since you don't understand it. EVERYTHING WotC has tried to do with D&D would have better served an MtGRPG anyway and those people would have enjoyed it more with the "story" of Phyrexia, Mishra, Urza, Jayce, etc.
Someone needs to take the HASBRO execs, WotC execs, WotC designers from the past decade al together bend them over and give them a taste of what they have done to D&D, by branding them with a hot iron with the D&D logo. See if then they could understand how this concept of "branding" probably isnt how to make a good game, or actually how to make ANYTHING because you have n reason to be making it other than just to use the logo.
DDN cross-stitch patterns and wood-burning kits coming this fall from HA$BRO and Wot¢!