This is a post in three parts, all gathered together right here for your convenience.

You see, I was very rushed for time when completing last week’s article on exotic creatures for TTRPGs, and almost immediately, afterthoughts started coming to me – things that would have been added if I’d had a few more hours.

But, if I had done that, some of Part 2 and all of Part 3 of this article would have gone into my “too short” file, and never seen the light of day (or VDU, to be more accurate). So, serendipity strikes again!

It would probably be helpful if you have at least skimmed that previous post, especially the sections “Skin”, “Sinew”, “Bone”, “The Reskinning”, and “Fur, Hair, and Textures”. This is roughly the first quarter of the article, so that shouldn’t take too long. If you don’t have time, you can still read what’s below, but might not get as much out of it. I’ll keep this post to about 1,000 words less than usual to leave time for everyone to catch up or refresh their recollections.

This combines elements of the image from my previous post (loggerhead turtle by David Mark with an underwater swimmer Image by Engin Aakyurt, both from Pixabay, with compositing and digital magic by Mike. How big do you think the turtle is now? (The largest known real-life specimen measures 84 inches (213 cm) in length). And yes, I did think about hiding a mermaid somewhere in the image!

Further Thoughts On Exotic Creations, Part 1

I need to start with a couple of links that I was remiss in omitting. The first is to the previous time I looked at this specific subject in any detail – more than ten years ago – which was in Building The Perfect Beast: A D&D 3.5 online monster generator when I reviewed a software tool for the creation of NPCs/Creatures and used it to construct a species, the Leonines, that I needed for my Shards Of Divinity campaign.

Next, I should have pointed readers looking for further information to my three-part series from 2013, Creating Ecology Based Random Encounters. Part one focuses on the “random encounters” part of the subject, Part two looks at creating smarter “random encounter” tables by creating a simplified ecology that the table contents then reflect, and Part 3 expands the principles to encompass Urban & Dungeon encounters and other special circumstances (“wandering monsters”).

Finally, I should have pointed people to an article looking at incorporating a specific and very popular breed of creature into a game world: A Population Of Dinosaurs and the impact on RPG ecologies. This relatively technical and math-heavy article focuses on a way to calculate how many species or variants of a base creature there will be, revealing some surprising and very important factors for the GM to consider along the way. For example, I calculate that there were probably 33,100 species of dinosaur, of which we have (correctly) identified about 666.

Let’s go back to that first article, though. Paul of Dingle Games has been a valued supporter of Campaign Mastery ever since it was published, and we still send a steady stream of traffic his way (and get a steady trickle back). The final link that I should have included in the previous article was to Dingle’s Games.

So, why are the generators there better than any others around? Because they let you choose the development path you desire for the creation. It’s done the way you would do it with pencil and paper. And you can change your mind. A lot of other generators let you select options but not see what the effects are.

Currently, for free, you get access to the NPC Generator to a Max 5th Level (OGL / 3.5); a separate NPC Generator, again to a Max of 5th Level (Pathfinder); a Treasure Generator (OGL / 3.5); an Encounter Generator (OGL / 3.5); and a separate Encounter Generator (Pathfinder RPG).

If you subscribe, the limits are raised from 5th level to 30th (OGL / 3.5) or 20th (Pathfinder), and multiclassing is permitted. And you can Save & Edit Unlimited NPCs / Monsters, and a whole lot more. Most significantly, you get access to the Monster Creator enabling creation of your own monsters and templates (Both OGL / 3.5 and PFRPG). Currently, you can get 30 non-consecutive days of access for $15.

But one of the most valuable assets that you get access to is Paul himself – if there’s a bug or a problem, or a request for an addition, he’ll put it on his to-do list. Though there only seem to be bug fixes since 2014.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m familiar enough with the 3.5 game system that I can translate any creature or character created using it to whatever is needed more-or-less on the fly. So this is a page that’s definitely worth your bookmarking.

Fish navigate the halls of this vision of Atlantis provided by Image by Simon H. (aka Schoggimousse) from Pixabay.

Further Thoughts On Exotic Creations, Part 2

The process described in last week’s article is all well and good when you have a clear concept in mind – but what if you don’t? What if you only know that you need something, but have no idea what that might be?

The answer, of course, is to create a clear concept, and then use it as your guide through the process. But that is usually a lot easier said than done.

Fortunately, I’ve offered many tools for solving this problem (and for solving many similar ones, as well).

  • Parts 2, 3, and 4 of the Characterization Puzzle series contain three such tools: The Thumbnail Method, The Inversion Principle, and The Window Shopping Technique. The first part looks at NPC characterizations in general, and the final part is about how to select from amongst the three tools. Of these tools, for the most part (more on that, later), The Thumbnail Method and The Inversion Principle are the most easily adapted to the creation of Creatures.
  • I offered a fourth NPC generator in Inversions Attract: Another Quick NPC Generator. Again, it needs a little adaption to be used for creating Monsters instead of Characters, but the basic principles still stand.
  • A fifth technique that can be adapted is described in Backstory Boxes: Directed Creativity. I generally use it for generating character and campaign Backstories, but there’s no reason you can’t use it in a more focused manner.
  • Finally, my 6-part series on Writer’s Block is chock-full of techniques for getting through this and similar problems.

So, simply employ one or another of these techniques and the world will fawn at your feet, right? If only it was that easy!

Before you can find your way to the right answer, you need to ask the right question. And that’s not easy if you don’t know what the right question is about!

Normally, your subconscious identifies the question and the answer pops into your head as the “clear concept” that was assumed in last week’s article. The absence of such a concept is a sure indicator that this process has gone astray – and the process itself is so simple that there aren’t many places to look for the problem. If you’ve got the right question, the techniques given above will help you with some free association from which to identify an answer, and you can proceed from there, so the second of the two possible problems has been dealt with.

The Fundamental Question

What you need, in order to identify the leading question, the “right” question, is to answer the still more fundamental question, what is the purpose of this encounter?

There are some basic answers to this question: Information, Action, Roleplay, Misdirection, Resource Gain, Resource Loss, Intimidation, and Specific-Function.

  • Information usually means giving the PCs information, but it can also mean giving some NPC the chance to acquire information about the PCs. The first is, essentially, a roleplaying encounter; the second is, at its’ heart, an Action encounter.
  • Action – Some players require a regular dose of action in order to really enjoy their gaming. Even if your players number none of this type, genre and/or realism will still demand the occasional action sequence. Action is targeted either at the group as a whole or at a single individual, even if the whole group are involved in the Action. Your key to unlocking the concept you need is to find an idea that will especially impact on the target – so that can be something that does lots of damage in one hit, or a number of somethings that do less damage individually, or that has an interaction with a specific trait of the target PC. An encounter to “get the Mage to use up his Sleep Spells” or “Make the Telepath run short of Psionic Potential” or whatever is a perfectly valid expression of the ‘right question’.
  • Roleplay is a far broader category than most people realize. The mere sight of a particular creature can inform the party, causing a roleplaying interaction between themselves. An encounter with a “wanted” poster can qualify as a roleplaying encounter, in the same way. Repeated attacks by creatures with a particular vulnerability – once that vulnerability is identified – are a strong hint that none of the other local residents can target that vulnerability, instructing the party on the best tactics to employ. An encounter with a “wanted” poster can qualify as a roleplaying encounter, in the same way. The purpose of the encounter is to put certain information or choices in front of the PCs (and hence the players) but it doesn’t have to be as straightforward as someone answering or asking questions. So the valid “right question” is, “What encounter can deliver these facts, choices, or emotive directions (as appropriate) to the PCs in an interesting manner?”
  • Misdirection If you can provide direction with an encounter, you can provide misdirection – especially if the whole encounter is planned in advance by some third party (in-game).
  • Resource Gain – the purpose of this type of encounter is to bolster the PCs ability to handle future encounters (or to hobble it, if someone especially clever is manipulating things behind the scenes). For example, in my Shards campaign, you gained a huge bonus to scrying/divination abilities if the target had something belonging to the caster for the spell to focus on, or vice-versa. When a mage wanted to be able to find someone easily, he either employed a thief to grab something personal from the target, or arranged a ‘chance encounter’ to sell the PCs something. Players often assess the viability of a potion, they rarely think to assess the container that it comes in. What you need in this case is a Justification for the resource that is to be gained to be found/gained as a result of the encounter. The “right question” is, therefore, “What type of creature might have such a resource and not need it during an encounter with the PCs?”
  • Resource Loss Similarly, there can be encounters that are designed to do nothing more than bleed resources from the party. The simplest and most common example is inflicting hit point losses on the party to use up their healing capabilities for the day. The often-neglected part of the requirements are that the party not be able to replenish those resources by simply resting. The loss, in other words, has to “stick” – unless your purpose is simply to give one character a chance to demonstrate that he has such abilities, in which case you aren’t concerned with replenishment. The “right question” is usually, though, “What type of creature would require the party to use such a resource and have the loss ‘stick’?” This doesn’t have to be as tricky as it sounds – consider an encounter with a creature that the PCs can defeat, but which will inflict enough harm that resources will be depleted in the process, then have the party discover amongst the creature’s effects a patrol schedule that shows that pausing to rest will result in an encounter with many of this creature, or even worse, with a group of something tougher. Sometimes, it’s not what the encounter is with, it’s how you use it!
  • Intimidation encounters are intended to convince the players that a particular direction or approach is too tough for them, at least at the moment. For example, a bunch of goblins fake up a series of Demonic skulls and mount them on poles, with warnings (in some language the Goblins have learned that is used by something tough, such as Bugbears) to “Turn back” or “Here be Demons”, etc. An illusory demon of high type completes the intimidation – so long as the PCs don’t see through it. This might well result in the Red-Finger Goblin Clan steering prospective attackers to the camp of the Grass-Foot Goblin Clan and leaving the Red-Fingers alone. Note that the DM is not trying to steer the PCs – he doesn’t care if they press on, regardless – it’s an NPC who is responsible for the “Intimidation Encounter”. A kingdom that taxes those on it’s out-lands disproportionately highly (while secretly subsidizing them) will create the appearance of poverty in a “buffer zone” around their wealth, perhaps persuading potential thieves and marauders to look elsewhere for a quick gold piece. This is just as much an “intimidation” encounter as the earlier goblin example. The right question is, “What could reasonably be there to cause the party to go in direction X instead of Y?”
  • Specific-Function encounters are a bit of a catch-all category for whatever’s left – they are designed to achieve some specific effect on the party or the environment. For example, you might want to force the Wizard to cast a lightning bolt for some reason, or you want to inflict a specific kind of harm on a specific character, or you want to trigger some change in the environment that will either help or hinder the PCs going forward. Usually, if you are far enough along in your thinking to have a specific function need in mind, you will already have formulated a correct “right question” – “How do I get character A to do B?” or “How do I do B to character A?”.

The key is to identify what you need the encounter to do, either at a metaplot level or at a game level, and then design the encounter to have that effect. If you need to, use the idea-generation techniques listed earlier to devise an answer to the specific form of the general question, “What can achieve what I need the encounter to do?”, then use the techniques of last week’s article to construct what you have devised.

Which brings me back to the caveats applied to some of those solutions. The techniques are great at characterization of NPCs – that being their purpose – but they can be used to create solutions to some of the specific types of problem described above. They are not so useful outside of that limitation.

That still covers much more range than many people will realize. Just as personality traits are often described using animalistic terminology, so personality traits can be applied to describe the natures of such creatures. “Playful”, “Sly”, “Subtle”, “Sneaky”, “Cowardly” etc can be used to define the personality of a new creation. You then need only to choose a social structure that either reflects or encourages this trait, and you are on your way.

This exotic image comes courtesy of Artie_Navarre from Pixabay. It’s not the sharks you have to worry about, it’s the Aquaents (Aqua-ents, get it?)

Further Thoughts On Exotic Creations, Part 3

I was reflecting on what I wanted to say in the preceding section when a still broader thought presented itself for consideration. It started with something more specific, though.

Sometimes it’s more useful to make choices guided by a desired interaction with one or more specific PCs. For example, you might want to shine the spotlight on a character that is due for some “love”. Designing an encounter whose primary purpose is to give that character something important to contribute achieves this purpose. For example, a creature that shunts its’ prey into some kind of Shadow Realm in which the ability to attack is available in direct proportion to how well you can hide in shadows – an ability with which it is a master – would thrust the rogue into the spotlight, while leaving most Wizards and Fighters and Clerics flailing, unable to land a solid blow with weapon or spell.

In time, that reminded me of a maxim that I have long used: Encounter design should be driven by verisimilitude and plot function, first and foremost.

Plot Function is a metagame consideration; I make no bones about it. But it’s also a pathway to identifying the traits that you need an encounter to have, a pathway to function. Where that pathway intersects with the capabilities of one or more characters, the very nature of the encounter compels the creature to carry out their Plot Function in the meta-realm.

This is as abstract as it gets. It suggests that Every encounter should have a Plot Function, i.e. an identifiable purpose within the adventure. Even if that purpose is only to delay the PCs, or create a sense of Realism, or sustain an impression of the game world, or fill time in the real world because the GM hasn’t been able to get as much prep done as he needed to – and was able to recognize this fact in time to do something about it.

Identify the need, the plot function, and you are one step closer to creating an encounter that will carry out that plot function and satisfy that need for you. Last week’s article, and the links and content above, give you the exact tools that you need.

A Broader Tool

But it’s an even more powerful way of viewing the whole encounter situation than that.

It is sometimes said (in fact, I said it last game session) that “No GM’s plan survives contact with the Player Characters” – more in jest than in seriousness, it must be admitted, though there’s an uncomfortable grain of truth buried in that joke somewhere.

If you have designed your encounters with a specific, articulable, Plot Function in mind, you can avoid some of the worst of that unpalatable aphorism, and become less inclined to dictate the path of the PCs with railroad tracks: because you know what the purpose was, if it doesn’t work out the way you wanted to, you can identify the consequences (and do something about them) more readily.

From the GM’s point of view, this failed plot function is but the first domino to fall, with the next being whatever the reason was that this plot function was considered necessary to the overall plot. That in turn will have a consequence, connecting it to the next domino in the chain.

When you can identify the end result of a chain reaction, you can determine whether you need to stop it, or can let it play out. The results may not be what you originally envisaged, but that’s all right – they don’t have to be. By giving you a tool to understand what the ultimate consequence will be, you begin the process of assimilating that destination into your thoughts and planning. And that’s the first step with being able to cope with it, from a game/campaign standpoint. Often, you will find that it wasn’t so critical, after all. Much of the time, even when it is that critical to the broader plot, you can identify a future point where the chain reaction can be snuffed out – its always better to do so in a different adventure, because that lets the PCs enjoy the fruits of their success.

The more you get used to doing things, to thinking about things, in this way, the less stress you will feel when the PCs depart from your planned script, and the more readily you will be able to just keep on playing, taking events in your stride.

It might still be true that “No GM’s plan survives contact with the Player Characters”, but you won’t care. Whatever plans you had were just a first draft, after all, to evolve in response to the changed in-game circumstances. This is liberating in more ways than the obvious one – because this loosens the reigns of prep demands, and that leaves more time for the things that really matter. Every aspect of your GMing can benefit from this change in perspective!

Which is the last place that I expected this subject to lead, when I started writing last week…

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