Many, many monsters...

[Scorpion13]

How many monsters do you all normally have in your games?

I usually have one or 2 a sesson, but there are times when I have none at all, or more even.

I thought about this when I was reading my copy of Sahdizar, and had seen that the Jatte and those little lizard guys had been written up. I recognized them from a Jordan Conan novel I was reading, but lost interest in.

I thought it was interesting that they were written up for the game, seeing as how they would be much, much more at home in a Dungeons and Dragons setting then in Conan. It got me to thinking about how many monsters people use intheir games, and how they are treated.

 

[Spectator]

I am a big fan of 'no monsters.'
I always thought that Conan's biggest adversaries were humans, as opposed to Demons. I also think it is do deedle-dee to have a good old fashioned humano-centric 'kill the monsters' campaign. Now the treacherous Kozaki leader, the skulking Darfari cannibal, the skilled Vendhyan assassin, or the good old Stygian Necromancer are all very worthy and 'Howard-ian' adversaries. Howards genius to his writing is 180 degrees from Roland Green's D-N-D monster splatter books that somehow C.P.I. allowed to get published, the brilliance of REH was that he limited his supernatural foes, which does not mean to say his human foes did not have access tospells, but rather his monstrous foes barely ever over 1 per story. The use of a giant spider here and there or non-monstrous but nasty APE things, eg: gray apes, or Bit Yakins Apes from the 'Jewels of Gwahlur' are classic bad guys, but more natural than supernatural.

I would argue that taking on a band of level Darfuri Barbarian Cannibals with filed teeth is pretty damned 'mostrous.'

Just my 2 cents (remember when they had the 'cents' symbol on the typewriters?).

 

[Lord Jolly the Scribe]

I feel the same. Leave the monsters for DnD, cause humans are more dangerous, unpredictable, and thoguthful. A Stygian sorcerer asnd his temple guard or a group of Kezankian hillmen, or even the vicious Picts are more my taste than a one shot monster.

 

[mouthymerc]

I found that many of the creatures in Conan stories were secondary to the conflict or relationship of the humans in the stories. I think that it is good to have the creatures, but they should be there to emphasize another point such as the group working together or the treachery of what the group thought was their friend. There were good stories where they were the focus, though.

 

[Evil_Trevor]

Now the treacherous Kozaki leader, the skulking Darfari cannibal, the skilled Vendhyan assassin, or the good old Stygian Necromancer are all very worthy and 'Howard-ian' adversaries.

Hang on thats my players characters your talking about........

 

[Evil_Trevor]

Seriouslyish I do think a nasty thing, here and there, isn't out of keeping as long as it never gets to the level of yet another band of Goblins (or whatever) where everybody knows what to expect, that just gets dull after the first five years or so,

 

[Krushnak]

the only monsters ive thrown at my pc's are undead- some zombies, some ghouls and a vampire sorceror who is currently their 'patron'- and a black fiend that a stygian summoned up to kill them. and some beastmen(abominations) that were being created by a sorceror who used to be a fellow apprentice with the groups vampire master.

mostly though its been human enemies. picts, darfari, pirates, bandits etc.

 

[rgrove0172]

I guess my vision of Hyborian adventure keeps monsters to a minimum as well. Trying to capture the Lovecraftian aspect of Hyborian horror is tough but worth the effort. When a monster raises its head in a game it should be "scary", and not just another "bug hunt". Sometimes this takes some additional scripting and narrative effort on the part of the GM. For example in a recent game I introduced some Ghoul like denizens of a remote gorge in the Kezankians. With the primary action involving the Hillmen pursuing the player characters I slowly introduced the possibility that there might be something else out there in the rocks dogging the party. By the time the first ghoul appeared, they were pretty uneasy and jumping at every shadow. I had to purposely sabotage Spot checks and such to maintain the suspense for a while so that when the attack finally came it was suitably creepy and threatening and not just another monster attack.

 

[Scorpion13]

The monsters I use are mostly the large animal types: Giant snakes and spiders. Giant spiders are also my favorite monster, so it works out well.

Oh, and animals too. An encounter with a pack of wolves or a grizzly, when played right, can be almost as effective as any demon.

The only time I had more than a few monsters was when my players went to one of the Haunted Pyramids. That one had about 8 giant spiders in a nest, a Son of Set guarding a treasure room and 4 priests of Set who had become vampires. Oh, and the horrible mummy sorceror the freed when they spilled blood on his sarcophagus.

The thing is, none of those things were what really did the most damage. A few of their followers were killed by the spiders and the degenrate hillmen surrounding the pyramids, but what took almost every single follwer away was a simple trap that none of them saw coming.

Thatll teach em to grave rob without a proper thief!

 

[Aelric]

Well I must say I use mostly Humans as well,I have had afew risen dead in a lost temple in the high moutains but other than that it was humans they where dealing with.HAd even a Stygain Scholar in there that had taken something from the temple and made an escape with the use of and Item I found in the stygian source book.

 

[slaughterj]

Most if not all adventures I have run have had human adversaries present at least at some point, if not mostly, and some of those have been sorcerors. Regular animals have appeared a couple of times (panthers, lions), and monstrous animals have appeared as well (man-ape, giant snake, giant spider, giant scorpions). Monsters have appeared some, zombies twice, a mummy, weird plant creature on a wall, wolf spirit (might be more in the supernatural animal category?), maybe something else.

But no matter the adventure, there is always something weird / monstrous / supernatural present at some point, whether it is a sorceror (several times) or a monster (some times). Otherwise you're not really playing Conan fantasy to me.

 

[rgrove0172]

Otherwise you're not really playing Conan fantasy to me.

I know what you mean, and I would agree, but this has always been an interesting topic of discussion between some of my buddies who are also Conan fans. Almost every story involves some sort of supernatural element, yet Conan and those arouind him seem genuinely shocked/mystified/horrified each and every time. It would seem then that there are a lot stories we arent hearing about where there wasnt anything supernatural going on. During those in-between periods when life was more mundane there were probably some real adventures too, they just didnt make print. When we play Conan, we tend to play some of these out. Conventional battles without sorcery, thieving without curses or monsters, temptes without critters etc. I plan to maybe introduce something supernatural maybe once every 5 games or so, to try and keep it the rare and wonderous thing it should be.

 

[Auggie]

Very few 'monsters' have visited my campaign. After almost 3 years, I think I threw a ghoul, several undead and a giant spider at my players. Humans are monsters enough during the Hyborian Age...

 

[slaughterj]

Otherwise you're not really playing Conan fantasy to me.

I know what you mean, and I would agree, but this has always been an interesting topic of discussion between some of my buddies who are also Conan fans. Almost every story involves some sort of supernatural element, yet Conan and those arouind him seem genuinely shocked/mystified/horrified each and every time. It would seem then that there are a lot stories we arent hearing about where there wasnt anything supernatural going on. During those in-between periods when life was more mundane there were probably some real adventures too, they just didnt make print. When we play Conan, we tend to play some of these out. Conventional battles without sorcery, thieving without curses or monsters, temptes without critters etc. I plan to maybe introduce something supernatural maybe once every 5 games or so, to try and keep it the rare and wonderous thing it should be.

I understand what you are saying. I consider the in-between periods to be fairly mundane matters and do not rise to the level of adventures though (which is why they didn't make print), as a matter of the genre as well as personal preference (i.e., I'm not interested in an authentic medieval/ancient game bereft of at least some fantastic element). Because there are all those downtime in-between stuff, that is the typical daily events Conan faced, so when he does face the fantastic in adventures, it is meaningful. The point is that these things should generally be present in every adventure in order to be in-genre and entertaining, but PCs should understand that the reason they are playing out these times is because they are the fantastic moments. It may be easier for those of us who run more episodic-style campaigns to do this, e.g., stringing along each adventure by saying "weeks have past since you fled the ruined Acheronian temple, and you have drifted south into Shem, when all of a sudden..." and the adventure starts typically in media res. If you run a continuous sort of campaign, that is less in-genre and may require running these mundane sorts of sessions.

 

[Scorpion13]

Otherwise you're not really playing Conan fantasy to me.

I know what you mean, and I would agree, but this has always been an interesting topic of discussion between some of my buddies who are also Conan fans. Almost every story involves some sort of supernatural element, yet Conan and those arouind him seem genuinely shocked/mystified/horrified each and every time. It would seem then that there are a lot stories we arent hearing about where there wasnt anything supernatural going on. During those in-between periods when life was more mundane there were probably some real adventures too, they just didnt make print. When we play Conan, we tend to play some of these out. Conventional battles without sorcery, thieving without curses or monsters, temptes without critters etc. I plan to maybe introduce something supernatural maybe once every 5 games or so, to try and keep it the rare and wonderous thing it should be.

I understand what you are saying. I consider the in-between periods to be fairly mundane matters and do not rise to the level of adventures though (which is why they didn't make print), as a matter of the genre as well as personal preference (i.e., I'm not interested in an authentic medieval/ancient game bereft of at least some fantastic element). Because there are all those downtime in-between stuff, that is the typical daily events Conan faced, so when he does face the fantastic in adventures, it is meaningful. The point is that these things should generally be present in every adventure in order to be in-genre and entertaining, but PCs should understand that the reason they are playing out these times is because they are the fantastic moments. It may be easier for those of us who run more episodic-style campaigns to do this, e.g., stringing along each adventure by saying "weeks have past since you fled the ruined Acheronian temple, and you have drifted south into Shem, when all of a sudden..." and the adventure starts typically in media res. If you run a continuous sort of campaign, that is less in-genre and may require running these mundane sorts of sessions.

I agree.

No offense, but my way of thinking is that if the story isnt written, then it isnt worth hearing about.

 

[Faraer]

The Conan stories all have weird elements, as well as historical adventure elements, because they were written for and published in Weird Tales. Farnsworth Wright would have rejected ones that didn't. As a GM, it's legitimate to emulate either the stories as published or the world they imply.

 

[rgrove0172]

The point is that these things should generally be present in every adventure in order to be in-genre and entertaining, but PCs should understand that the reason they are playing out these times is because they are the fantastic moments.

There we disagree. If you make the supernatural evident in every adventure it loses the wonder and thrill its supposed to present. Simply explaining to the players that "Its been months since youve seen a real wizard, so your mystified by the sight" is not going to do the trick. If you want magic, monsters and such to be rare and wonderous, you have to make them rare and wonderous. I absolutely disagree that you have to have a wizard or demon for the story to be in-genre and entertaining.

It may be easier for those of us who run more episodic-style campaigns to do this, e.g., stringing along each adventure by saying "weeks have past since you fled the ruined Acheronian temple, and you have drifted south into Shem, when all of a sudden..." and the adventure starts typically in media res. If you run a continuous sort of campaign, that is less in-genre and may require running these mundane sorts of sessions.

Granted if you are running an episodic campaign you will probably not want to link months if not years of adventures sans the supernatural, but you have to have at least a bit of mundane activity so the players dont instantly jump to the conclusion that once again things have turned "Wierd". I think the whole genre loses something this way.

Now and then, or more often than not (your choice) I believe you have to have a conventional explanation for something or a false alarm. The haunted pass turns out to be haunted by bandits, nothing more. The cursed temple is spooky, but empty etc. Playing the game is different from reading the book, some of that in-between mundane living is necessary so that the really cool moments have the proper impact.

 

[slaughterj]

The point is that these things should generally be present in every adventure in order to be in-genre and entertaining, but PCs should understand that the reason they are playing out these times is because they are the fantastic moments.

There we disagree. If you make the supernatural evident in every adventure it loses the wonder and thrill its supposed to present. Simply explaining to the players that "Its been months since youve seen a real wizard, so your mystified by the sight" is not going to do the trick. If you want magic, monsters and such to be rare and wonderous, you have to make them rare and wonderous. I absolutely disagree that you have to have a wizard or demon for the story to be in-genre and entertaining.

That's certainly your choice, but I wouldn't enjoy the game, because I'm looking to experience elements from the Conan stories, and with the fantastic present *at some point* in the adventure, then it just wouldn't do it for me. You might want to check with your players as well, as it might not do it for them either. Might as well play d20 Medieval or something.

It may be easier for those of us who run more episodic-style campaigns to do this, e.g., stringing along each adventure by saying "weeks have past since you fled the ruined Acheronian temple, and you have drifted south into Shem, when all of a sudden..." and the adventure starts typically in media res. If you run a continuous sort of campaign, that is less in-genre and may require running these mundane sorts of sessions.

Granted if you are running an episodic campaign you will probably not want to link months if not years of adventures sans the supernatural, but you have to have at least a bit of mundane activity so the players dont instantly jump to the conclusion that once again things have turned "Wierd". I think the whole genre loses something this way.

Now and then, or more often than not (your choice) I believe you have to have a conventional explanation for something or a false alarm. The haunted pass turns out to be haunted by bandits, nothing more. The cursed temple is spooky, but empty etc. Playing the game is different from reading the book, some of that in-between mundane living is necessary so that the really cool moments have the proper impact.

The one-off con is something I thought of and might be fine at some point for an adventure, but being repetitive with that would get annoying. One especially good way to use that would be for someone to do something and "con" that it is magic, only then to be faced with the real thing (some movies have done this).

As for having some mundane, I do. Most every adventure has regular humans that the party interacts with, fights, etc. But the interesting part of the adventure is the way those things coincide with the fantastic element that eventually appears. Otherwise the adventure may well be mundane in every sense of the word.

 

[Yogah of Yag]

I guess if your players are tired of the "Humanity is the true monster" theme you could always throw an Old Skool beastie at 'em:

http://www.enworld.org/cc/converted

They've got some great conversions of 1e and 2e critters revamped a la 3e and 3.5e. :shock: :twisted:

My players are younger (early teens) and at that age they love a good creature feature.

 

[rgrove0172]

Thats probably the part of our group dynamic that is effecting my game as well. We are all approaching or just passing the 40 mark, so we've done a bit of monster hunting in our time. We are looking for something more in the game.