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Running a Monster Campaign
sain
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I offered to DM for a group of new friends, I generally run fairly straightforward homebrew campaigns with a small number of books from which the players can draw their classes from. These guys are pretty set on playing a monster campaign, which I'm okay with.
I'm having some doubts/concerns though
1. I've never played with them before, although they say they like an even balance of story/combat. None of them like dungeon crawls.
2. Two of them strike me as power gamers, the other is more interested in role playing.
3. I'm not exactly sure how I can reasonably say a bunch of monsters would be palling around.
4. I'm not sure what source books would be appropriate.
Any advice? Seriously, it would be much appreciated.
I'm having some doubts/concerns though
1. I've never played with them before, although they say they like an even balance of story/combat. None of them like dungeon crawls.
2. Two of them strike me as power gamers, the other is more interested in role playing.
3. I'm not exactly sure how I can reasonably say a bunch of monsters would be palling around.
4. I'm not sure what source books would be appropriate.
Any advice? Seriously, it would be much appreciated.
sain on
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Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
So, Savage Species was the first 3.5 sourcebook and it was about running Monsters as PCs. It's not fantastic to be honest. It tends to overestimate the ECL, but there are problems beyond that. Monsters gain more specific power than the usual races, so they will be amazing a few niche bits and pieces. You need to cater for this. Don't neuter the players, but don't let them play the same win card in every encounter.
Are these going to be good monsters or evil ones? Evil campaigns tend to be problematic due to players often interpreting evil as stupid.
What's the setting?
What type of monsters are on the cards here? Obviously, if they want to play dragons, then that is different to a group of goblins or a group containing an illithid, a minotaur, a winged half-fiend and a fawn.
Do you have any thoughts about story? The usual one for this type of game is monsters escaping from some kind of arena, but it's easy to play variants on that.
It won't be an evil campaign, I lifted some of the alignment requirements, with the exceptions of monsters that are cleary pure good/evil.
The setting is your typical fantasy fair. When I homebrew, I start with a vague idea and just let the world grow as the story goes along because I don't want to force the players into anything. I've drafted a map of a large island with a few cities/settlements. Politcally, the cities are governed by powerful famies, and there could potentially be some conflict between them. Geographically, there's a large swath of land called "the wound" that has been tainted by corrupt magic, or possibly a tear between the planes.
Those aren't especially over the top for race picks, as in they could be used quite easily in a relatively normal setting. So that makes your job easier.
off the top of my head:
- orcs, goblins, bugbears or other goblinoids waging a guerilla war against the ambitious "heroes" seeking to drive them from their homeland. get your "waagh" on.
- gangs of trolls fighting one another to control as many bridges as possible... and of course fighting those pesky knights who keep trying to cross them. fucking knights, they think they're so cool.
- few remaining kobold survivors from an attack by humans trying to seek out some dragon eggs and train the hatchlings over time so that they can get some winged fire breathing revenge
- duergar and drow driving invaders out of the underdark in shadowy "urban" warfare through a maze of tunnels, mines, and forgotten cities.
- giants, trolls, ogres, etc ramping up for frikkin ragnarok. step 1: teach them elves, dwarves, and humans a lesson in asskicking. praise loki.
- tauric monster bandits in like an "old west" version of Ebberon. just think about it for a sec... a centaur version of jesse james is out to get revenge on the magic railroad barons and magic pinkertons for example :P
- shapeshifter gangs in an urban setting vie for control of the streets and of course... stickin' it to "the man".
- evil fey creatures must prove their worth to their corrupted eladrin or bralani patron by stealing babies, causing toothaches, and getting those stupid humans into all kinds of trouble.
- for something even more cliche, bloodsuckers vs. lycanthropes