The Bounds Of Invention Let Loose
It’s my contention that with every encounter, the canny GM will expand on the lore surrounding the creatures encountered.

This monster image is by mohnad Al-Hamdani (mohnadyyyyu) from Pixabay
I’ve been plugging away steadily at the next part of the Trade In Fantasy series, in which a lot of the elements discussed start to come together into a coherent picture of the processes, but it’s not quite ready for prime-time yet. Since it was 50-50 whether or not I would get there before deadline, I’ve chosen instead to put together this relatively short piece to buy more time.
About the title: I was trying for a play on words based on “The Hounds Of Hell Let Loose” – but I don’t think it quite comes across until that gets pointed out (I hate it when that happens).
Lately, I’ve been reading “Dr Who: The Key To Time”, which is a 21st-anniversary behind-the-scenes of Dr Who (which, of course, has now been around a lot longer than 21 years), and one of the comments made by a new producer struck me: “I hope to be able to show something new about them” – who the ‘them’ were that was being referred to doesn’t matter.
I suddenly realized that there was an iron-clad meta-law in my Dr Who campaign that I had put in place subconsciously without ever making a deliberate decision:
No established creature / race shall appear without their canon being expanded.
Some Examples
The current adventure, for example, has included:
- More information on the Dalek Replication problem and Dalek Xaol’s attempts to solve it.
- Information the Dalek concept of Racial Purity which explains their behavior in a later appearance.
- How it can be manipulated by them to create variations and specialist Dalek types.
- That, when on their own with (they think) only their own kind around them, Dalek foot-soldiers bitch, moan, and gossip just like any other soldiers.
- The Skaro Degradations – mentioned by name but not described. And how it ends up in the Black Archive.
- The Secret Origin of Ogrons.
- The Secret Theology of the Dalek Asylum, where surviving Daleks bested by the Doctor and unable to cope with their failure go to scream out their insanities.
- The fact that the Daleks even have a Theology.
All this while advancing the main plotline, which explains why the Doctor chose to become The War Doctor – taking the character’s psychological state from the playful state of Paul McGann in the telemovie to the point of being willing to end everything if he had to to stop the Dalek Time War against Gallifrey.
Don’t worry if you lack the context to extract full meaning from the examples, enough of it is obvious from what I’ve written.

The body language and expression on the face of this monster suggests that there’s more to it than just another slimy horror. It almost feels like it has a story to tell. Image by Jim Cooper (jcoop12) from Pixabay
Applying the principle more widely
Just what is the Monster Manual, anyway? Is it a collection of hard facts that have been rigorously translated into game mechanics, ready for use? Is it religious writ, not to be altered, changed, or amended in any way?
That last one is easy to dispose of – absolutely not. GMs are encouraged to treat individual representatives of a given species as unique individuals. That means that at best, the ‘official’ content is a generalized overview.
This gives the GM great latitude for creativity, and they usually respond by tweaking the individual in terms of the game mechanics, so as to make an encounter more challenging, more distinct, and/or more appropriate to the environmental setting.
Every GM that I know assumes that players have read the Monster Manual cover to cover, and know the contents at least as well as they do.
What if the Monster Manual is a generalized summation of what is commonly known or believed by the PC Races (and appropriate experts) about the creatures described therein? Half of it is myth (but with some resemblance to reality), half of what’s left is outright wrong or taken out of context.
Under this interpretation, the GM not only has the right to customize every creature that appears, but the obligation to do so.
How accurate would it be?
Creatures that are frequently encountered would at least have the basics right. The more exotic the creature, the further from the mark it potentially is.
So Orcs remain Orcs, and Goblins, Goblins – more or less. Bugbears? Trolls? The entries are probably no more than half the story, and half of what’s there is a fictionalized invention by the Society in-game to explain the rest – within the limited boundaries of their own culture, knowledge, prejudices, and beliefs.
On top of that, there would be inherent cultural distortions. If the only source of information on a creature that you have is Dwarven, that information will have a Dwarven perspective – right or wrong. This is certain to introduce gaps and errors.
This sort of thing goes on in the real world all the time – the source of information has to be taken into account when assessing the reliability of intelligence.

I couldn’t decide which composite featuring Troll-6878233 (Image by Dina Dee (DeeDee51) from Pixabay) that I liked best – so I’m offering three of them as variations. The first uses village-7258991 as a background – Image by Christel (ChiemSeherin), also from Pixabay.
Look beyond the mechanics
The greatest impact of this change of perceptions is that it opens the creatures up to inspection and variation in ways other than game mechanics. Social and cultural differences become more important, and those can challenge players in ways that replacing fire-breathing for a thunderbolt never can.
But more importantly, it makes the creatures encountered inherently more interesting and more plausible. And it drives plotlines beyond the simple dungeon-bash.
A process
The process of implementing all this is extraordinarily simple. Every time a creature appears – whether it be by plotline or random table – the GM needs to answer four questions:
- How reliable are the primary sources?
- What can I add to what is known about these creatures?
- How can I enable the PCs to discover this information?
- How does this impact the encounter?
This should only take seconds, but as usual, the more that is done in advance, the more depth you can create.
How reliable are the primary sources?
You might think I’ve covered this already, because I have, but it’s an important point to be specific about.
The more reliable the information provided, the closer the GM should adhere to it, and the more the emphasis should be on social / cultural surprises.
What can I add to what is known about these creatures?
Once you know the scope available for rearranging things, the constraints, it’s time to get creative within the limits of those restrictions.
- “Some Gargoyles breathe fire.”
– Okay. - “Some Orcs paint to relax.”
– Not Bad. - “Ogres always look for any excuse to go to war with Bugbears.”
– Interesting. - “There’s a variety of Troll who lives in and around Volcanoes and only regenerate when exposed to heat/flame.”
– A traditional but still fun variation that turns a weakness into an asset. Make sure the PCs know there’s a Troll around in advance.

The second of three composites featuring Troll-6878233 (Image by Dina Dee (DeeDee51) from Pixabay) uses street-7116489 as a background – Image by icecube11 (icecube11) from Pixabay.
How can I enable the PCs to discover this information?
Sometimes, the answer is going to be self-evident – the Gargoyle and Troll examples are of this type.
Other times, you will need the PCs to see or overhear something before the actual encounter begins. These cases open the door to a non-combat resolution, and can even be footsteps along a path to alliance – or, at least, peace.
You hear muttering and vile deprecations about the light coming from somewhere up ahead. The voice is guttural and promises mayhem if the owner could only get his hands on whoever’s responsible. The language is Common, and the accent sounds almost Orcish. A different voice replies, “Shut up, Grumsh. The light is the same for all of us.”
Two voices = at least two present. “…all of us” implies more. Caution is warranted.
You cautiously move a branch out of the way and behold something you would never have expected to see – an Orcish landscape painting class, being taken by the largest, ugliest, most brutish, most unkempt, most homicidal Orcs that you’ve ever seen.
The GM is warning the players, these guys will be tougher than regular Orcs while offering a tantalizing glimpse of Civilized Orcish behavior.
Most of the paintings are crude, but there is one that takes your breath away. It captures the very essence of the valley and the mountains and how big they are, and how humbling it is to be so small in comparison, and evokes an air of the beauty and wonder of nature. One of the other Orcs also complains about the light, he can’t quite get the colors of his paint to match it. The second voice replies, “That’s all right Brajj. If you can’t capture the image of what you see, try to capture the feeling, and let it relax you. You’re all here because Chief Duargg is tired of your hot tempers sparking trouble within the tribe. The process is what matters, not the result.”
Orcs, practicing Anger Management?! By Landscape Painting? The boundaries of Orcish Culture have just enlarged, enormously. Suddenly, these are a people, not a statistic.
There are broader implications. Attack these Orcs and the whole principle of non-violent resolution of issues amongst their population might die with them. That principle lays the groundwork for cultural exchanges and the possibility of finding common ground, leading to peaceful relations. That presents the PCs with a choice, and a profound one. But, just in case the point is lost:
From the far side of the clearing comes an angry shout, and four humans ride into the clearing, firing short-bows at the Orcs before dropping the bows and drawing swords. You can take sides, or leave the Orcs to be potentially wiped out. What are you doing?
Regardless of how it pans out, this encounter is a darned sight more interesting than a simple “You find a band of Orcs in a clearing – bigger and meaner-looking than usual.”
How does this impact the encounter?
Sometimes, it won’t. But sometimes, the impact will be profound.
But even when there is no immediate impact on the encounter, there is a larger, more subtle, impact. What the GM is telling the players is “There is more to life in this world than what’s written in the Monster Manual. It’s richer and more complicated and more interesting than you may have thought.”
And that’s a shift in mind-set that will impact the PCs in every encounter. It immediately raises expectations and enriches story-telling. It engages more than the PCs testosterone. And that’s a very good thing.

The last of the three composites featuring Troll-6878233 (Image by Dina Dee (DeeDee51) from Pixabay). This sets the troll in a greener space: village-7802717 by Nanne Tiggelman (ArtSpark) from Pixabay as the background. I applied some color tweaks because the setting is clearly a sunrise or sunset.
Long-term Implications
Most of these revelations will carry long-term implications.
Take that Orcish encounter. If the PCs intervene against the Humans (who are attacking just because the targets are ‘filthy Orcs’), that could be a second step toward peace. If the PCs then buy the fabulous painting for what it’s actually worth, that could be a third step. But there will be those who oppose peace with the Orcs, quite vehemently – if it becomes known that the PCs are involved, they will be the targets of secondary prejudice.
If the PCs let their own prejudices speak, not only will the chance for peace be squandered, the Tribe might swear a blood feud against them (blaming them for the whole encounter), or may raise war banners and send 1,000 Orcs to raze the village to the ground in revenge. Everywhere that the PCs go, they find the consequences of Orcish attacks – men and women slaughtered, children orphaned, simply because they might offer aid to the PCs.
Either way, the PCs are now a part of the game world – and in it, up to their necks. This might be just one of many pivotal moments in this campaign – but it’s certain to be a memorable one.
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December 21st, 2024 at 6:00 pm
“The Bounds of Invention Let Loose is such an intriguing concept! It suggests that when we push past conventional limits, creativity and innovation can truly flourish. It’s exciting to think about what breakthroughs might emerge when we allow ourselves to think beyond boundaries!”
December 22nd, 2024 at 2:39 pm
**The Bounds Of Invention Let Loose**
Creativiteit kent geen grenzen wanneer de geest vrij is om te verkennen. Innovatie ontstaat door het loslaten van conventies en het verkennen van nieuwe ideeën, waarbij grenzen worden verlegd en de verbeelding onbeperkt de leiding neemt.
January 8th, 2025 at 4:58 pm
“The bounds of invention let loose bring forth endless possibilities and creativity. When innovation is freed from limitations, new ideas and breakthroughs emerge, pushing the boundaries of what we thought was possible.”