Monsters without the Monstrous Stats

When I first started storytelling the mistake I almost always made was building my own monsters from the ground up. I worried about every number on their stat card adhering to the rules and double checked my math as though Gygax himself would come smite me in my sleep if I didn't. Eventually I overcame this compulsive statistic suicide and started designing my monsters with what the players would encounter.

No matter what game your playing, so long as you create a challenge it doesn't matter if the math adds up. Monsters only need the following information when dealing with players:


I Attack the Orc. No, the OTHER Orc!
This tip is a bit on the obvious side but you would be surprised how often this simple thing is easy to forget. You don't need to give every orc NPC you ever make a unique name, but if you have a nick name for the orcs with the swords vs the orcs with the bows then its a bit easier for you and your players to identify who is being attacked during a fight. Its also a good idea to list any sub types they have if the party happens to still have that goblinoid bane weapon you handed out 4 games ago.

The Bugbear boldly swings his 'Sparkling Mace of Unicorn Dust' at you with his next attack!
Every bad guy needs attacks and powers, but you don't need to do all the math. You generally know what will hit your PC's and what wont (your rulebook usually provides example challenges and attack curves you can steal stats from as well). Most monsters should always have about a 50% chance of hitting, 75% if they don't do much damage, but also have some sort of hindering effect on the PC's, and about 40% if they deal critical damage or deadly attacks. Attacks that will knock a PC immediately into a death count should only hit about 10% of the time and should always allow for the PC to save or use an extra defense against it.

And When it Comes to Spellcasters!
You don't need their entire spell list, just the highlights will do, and make sure you write out the stats for these. If you have to grab the rule book every time you cast a spell your combat will come to a screeching halt. Its okay to add a few cantrips with one sentence descriptions to this list as well. Use Light, and Detect Magic are a given success unless the PCs interrupt the spell somehow.

Health? Check. Mana? Check.
Your monster's core stats are not their strength, intellect, wisdom, and luck. You don't need these because the likelihood that they will come into play are very low. What you do need are how many hit points they have, what their armor and other defenses are, and any sight or perception bonuses they might have. Everything that has to do with the PC's finding and hitting them and everything it will take for them to hit the PC's back. When setting armor values the PCs should hit the basic monsters 70% of the time, elites 50% of the time and bosses 40% of the time. If you want a monster to last longer or seem tougher give them more hit points instead of lowering the PC's hit percent (you might even increasing the hit chance and double their health). Alternately if you want to simulate a fast or well armored monster give them the lower hit percent but also lower their hit points.

Now What?

by now you should have something that looks like this:
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Orc Bonebreaker Shaman (Oni, humanoid)
Health Points: 30, Mana Points: 15 
Heavy Armor +12, Block +10 (or whatever your game uses for defenses)

Perception +10; Low-Light Vision
Speed 6

Battle Axe
Attack +12; Damage 2d8+4

Blinding Hex (3 Mana, Casting Time 3)
Attack +15; Damage: 1d4+2 & Blinded until end of Next Turn.

Jolt (5 Mana, Casting Time 5)
Anytime someone attacks you with a Melee attack they take 5 points of Electricity Damage. This effect lasts 2 rounds.

Other Spells: Light (Casting Time 1), Detect Magic, See Invisibility (Casting Time 2).
Other Skills: Athletics +15, Mental +5, Intimidate +15, Social +5, Spell Save +10
Loot: 30 copper, 1 silver, simple battle axe, ruined leather armor, and 1 hex bag.
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This example was an easy 10-minute monster that could be recycled if you rename the fluff and tweak the stats for your desired party level. Keeping a binder (or file if you prefer computers) full of "prototype" monsters is a great way to always be prepared for a game.

You will notice I also added generalized skills and loot at the bottom. The skill lists are a catch-all if the PC's do something that requires the monster to use something not listed on the sheet. Also, note the loot is not what they will receive every time they kill this monster but a list of optional treasure and the maximum amount of coins you should ever award.

-Adam

Learning to Tell a Story: Part III

Bringing everything home can be tough. The climax is supposed to be the most memorable part of a game, right? I cant think of how many times my old players have recounted their battle with the "Warden of Dis", the battle on the roof of a sanitarium with an undead black dragon, or the time they faced off with a mind flayer shadow dancer.

All of these were excellent encounters  however some were hours of planning while others had happened by circumstance. It seemed entirely up to random chance and not up to the amount of work I had put into the encounter. I began to make a mental list of my most successful and least successful encounters and applied it to a new group of players that had never played Dungeons and Dragons before.

I cleaned up and altered the fluff of my top three boss fights and weaved them together into a new story. I planned the players would face a boss once every 2-3 sessions which lasted anywhere from 6 to 10 hours. For the first time I worked backwards and created a story and background for each villain. Next I worked out from them to their minions and the reasons they were minions. Finally, I designed how it would effect the world around them and what the PC's would encounter to lead them back to the villain.

As I kept notes, I realized what made these games great and ultimately the climaxes great was the party's anticipation leading up to the Big Evil Bad Guy. All three villains were different but they all had some form of identity to the party from the begging of the adventure.

Villain number one was a necromancer with a handful of instabilities, the party had to stay on their toes, but were able to use some of his strange ticks to their advantage and eventually foil his plot.

Villain number two was a common human who stayed as a shadow, a mad bomber that they discovered through "random chance" and assisted the city guard in disabling his magic explosives before the finale.

Villain number three was a bit of a red herring since they had faced off with her in the first adventure, but the final boss was a pure and simple monster fight that gave the party their victory while telling a dark and twisted story of dark elves grabbing for power in the underdark.

The thing that all three shared was they stayed consistent with the theme of the adventure and could be followed back to the hook. They were organic villains. So my only advice for the climax is to aim for the heart and stay logical. Even if you have to change something last minute, make sure that you end the adventure with the tone of your storytelling intact. The climax is where the bad guy only has to act natural and do the evil dance.