For as long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by the sometimes-weird words we use for Groups of Things. In my youth, I came across the book An Exultation of Larks or, The Venereal Game by James Lipton and was smitten with the terms therein, both real and imagined, that provided me with terms for those gaggles, mobs, pods, murders, drays, unkindnesses, and so forth.
My interest in these terms was recently rekindled by a conversation on bluesky, and while I’m far from the first to try and provide some Collective Nouns for some of the Monsters and Encounters that appear in these games, I decided to give it a go. I am very certain that some of the terms that I spied elsewhere over the years have become so internalized that they ended up here as well. Please bear in mind that some of the denizens presented below do have pesky pluralization!
It has happened to all of us who enjoy the Procedures of these earlier presentations: You throw those two dice for that Oracular Reaction Roll and are greeted with Box Cars. While the triangular distribution is designed to make this rather rare, a plucky Player Character with a higher Charisma Score can also often increase the frequency.
Suddenly you have a “Friendly” Reaction Roll and sometimes this might leave you at a loss. Up until that toss, these were potentially Dangerous Denizens! So how do we interpret that sudden shift in the situation?
Here is a table with some ideas for why that Monster might be Friendly. I decided to keep this at 36 entries with a d66, since that 2d6 thrown for the Reaction Roll is more likely to be closer to hand and faster to re-roll. This might see a re-visit at some point to pad it out to a complete d100.
As always, some might require a little tinkering to work with certain Foes, but occasionally those results that seem incongruous on the surface can be a springboard to more interesting places. Even just keeping a few of these in the Referee’s back pocket “just in case” might help inform this kind of emergency improvisation.
When I was much younger, we dissected a smallish Shark as part of a very educational Science Class. Imagine our Surprise when our careful cuttings revealed another, even smaller Shark inside of it! We dutifully dissected that one too, and found a Fish, which was then also carefully quartered, but sadly the marine Matryoshka Marveling ended there.
Although it doesn’t seem as common these days, I do recall a big part of Play in the Past involved finding some of the Treasure inside of certain Monsters after slaying them. This grisly task would be perfunctorily performed, just in case, to make sure absolutely nothing was missed or overlooked. It usually came with a Cost (taking a few extra Turns was a common one, and this Risks Wandering Monsters), but I also recall often calling for various Saving Throws or other Tests since I envisioned the process as quite smelly and stomach churning.
When this would come up more recently, I would sometimes quickly roll on my Random Impedimenta table for a starting point, sprucing the results up a bit as necessary and sprinkling in a smattering of coins or such. I decided a dedicated Table might be a little more useful though.
Many Monsters may not carry Treasure on their Person, or have a Happy Hoard to hole up with, so this table might inspire some ideas for what to reveal in those bulging bellies after diligent dissection. Since there are a few weird and wonderous things in these (especially in the bigger beasts, but those likely would have had a lot more Hit Dice to whittle down!), I’d likely ascribe a small chance, prior to rolling, or potentially tweak any extant Treasure Awards accordingly.
Often when Referees seek out explanations for the many Foes and Fiends that can be found in the various manuals of Monsters at our disposal (or when minting our own!) we’re sometimes only given a few relatively similar and somewhat terse explanations concerning the circumstances that led them to be part of a Setting or World. Usually these tend to err on the side of the shrug-inducing “A Wizard Did It,” though sometimes we might see the occasional digression into an armchair ecological or evolutionary explanation.
I’m a firm believer that it’s sometimes fun and fruitful fodder to imagine where those Monsters might come from as this can inform a Setting in intriguing ways. This Table might be said to lean a little more into the Superstitious/Hearsay angle for these Origins, but I am fond of a more Folkloric approach in my games. Some of these might very well be the methods by which a Monster is Made, while others might be more akin to Admonishments, Fables, or those Cautionary and sometimes Frightening Tales spun for Children. Hopefully they inspire a few more unconventional angles one could consider for whatever the process might be through which a Monster comes into being.
When Telegraphing or Foreshadowing Encounters, sometimes other senses can be employed. Thinking about this led to another fun Table that had my imagination working overtime! I tried not to consult my prior Three Hundred Smells Table for this one, but I’m quite certain there might be a bit of overlap here and potentially with my Spoor & Sign or Tracks & Traces by Type Table as well.
Naturally, since our musty Monster Manuals don’t come in spectacular “Scratch & Sniff” these are all fanciful speculation and conjecture. I suppose that’s a good thing too, as I’m not sure I’d really like to experience a Troglodyte’s signature Stench ability!
Going through some of my Tables, I found one that did not get published when it was finished quite some time ago. It is a simple affair: Just a d100 list of Monster Defenses and Other Special Abilities that might work well in conjunction with my Monster Special Attacks Table or even my Fairy Tale Weaknesses. My intent was to whip up a perchance generator at some point that just spits out Monsters using these tables to see what shakes out, but I obviously became distracted from this goal and it languished in my drafts folder.
So here it is, ready to finally see the light of day. I have not given up completely on the idea of a Monster Generator, however, but that may have to wait until I finish a few more Tables that can contribute to other, less mechanism focused things that I tend to find useful in Monster Descriptions.
Proponents of Overloaded Encounter/Hazard Die might sometimes find themselves in a bit of a bind or at a loss for some of those Telegraphing Traces, Perilous Percepts, and Obvious Omens when these results deign to show their face on the die. It seems frightfully easy for some of these to become rather “samey” over time after all, and while an adjunct roll on the Encounter Table might provide some additional raw ingredients, wouldn’t it be lovely to have some convenient and more specific things to pull from as well?
One of the hidden drawbacks and sneaky pitfalls of these Overloaded Encounter/Hazard Dice is how they do require this sort of spontaneous improvisation or increase in cognitive load on occasion. I find they tend to Rob Prep Peter to Pay Play Paul in a way: You’ve reduced some of the scutwork associated with preparing interesting situations or granularly tracking resources and deferred this to the dice, but one needs to be fast on their feet interpreting what may sometimes be repetitive or slightly incoherent results. Scribbling an adjunct column to your Encounter Tables ahead of time for these Tracks/Traces is another option of course.
These were some of the things on my mind when I started plinking away at a d100 table for these types of Creature Clues. Very quickly however, I realized that genericizing them in this way left a lot to be desired. Different Denizens leave distinctive tells in their wake, so I decided to take the approach I used in my Monster Miens tables: Discrete d12s for broader Encounters by “Type Classification” to hammer the results into something a little more contextual.
These are semi-weighted: Lower results (or using a single, smaller-faced die) are intended to produce the more ephemeral and temporary types of spoor, whilst higher ones (perhaps with a modifier, such as d6+6) will tend toward the more durable sign. One could just as well give that lonely d12 a little love though, it seems to be relegated for so few tasks and is quite pleasing to set in motion.
Another option that I’ve availed myself of before is using my Encounter Activity Tables in a slightly different way. Instead of rolling on the table to find out what a particular Monster is “up to” right now, I’ve used them more like a window into the past: This is what the Monster was doing here a relatively short time ago. I’m often able to glean a few interesting details this way to set a better scene and I’m always happy when I can re-use tables a bit outside their intended purpose!
Hope these provide a little inspiration or at the very least cut down on some of the repeat results that might be occurring!
How conveniently color-coded those standard Dragons are! Telegraphing their offensive and offensive capabilities so! This can sometimes demystify these majestic Monsters a bit, so here’s a table that might provide some additional inspiration to surprise and bewilder by eschewing that predictability. Should you need an unusual shade for their scales to shimmer see the perchance generator below.
Naturally, one should assume that any standard effects and procedures associated with being doused in Dragon Breath should apply. These are merely adjuncts. Coupled with my prior post on Monster Special Attacks, I suppose this could also be used for foes of a less draconic nature should this be your bag.
Here’s a quick table that has somehow managed to evade posting for some time now. This itemizes some of the Monster Special Attacks found within the B/X and OSE rulesets. I’ve found it useful in conjunction with a standard Stat Block (such as the classic “Just Use Bears”) for creating new and unexpected Monsters for the players to face off with. Reconciling these abilities can sometimes lead to interesting physical traits, which in turn can influence the description of the Creature 😊.
Confession Time: I’ve always found myself to be very fond of Spell Components, even though tracking such things is often a bit too fiddly for the tastes of most tables. Rather than making them a necessary requirement to cast a given Spell these days, I find that they can still serve a purpose if used in conjunction with standard casting by boosting the effect, duration, range, or modifying other mutable parameters of an appropriate Spell. By making them desirable instead of mandatory, players seem to enjoy amassing and keeping track of them a little more. They also serve as a great hook for potential Adventure: If rumors swirl about a particularly powerful ingredient for augmenting Magical Might, some Wonder Workers will immediately start scheming towards its acquisition. Knowledge of these also makes for a handy Treasure or Reward for Referees to dispense occasionally.
Another use for these that we’ve adopted is tying these elements to Magical Research and Manufacture. I usually handle this by offering a discount on either Time or Cost if the appropriate additive is applied during the process. If Spell Acquisition in your game is limited to Mentors/Magical Research Only, this provides a pretty powerful incentive for a Magic User to consult those Tired Tomes and Stuffy Sages in order to identify that certain special something that might make this process swifter or less expensive. Some Magical Items also receive similar reductions in outlay if the proper Reagents are used during the creation process: Scrolls, Potions, Wands, and other sundry Wonders that incorporate these constituents are more easily produced.
To create some of these materials, I often use some of my generators: Magical Herbs & Plants or even feathers from one of my Remarkable Birds, but one of my favorites is having them harvestable from Monsters, because this makes them more of a byproduct of play for the entire Party and less of a goal for an individual party member.
Here’s a list of One Hundred Monsters with some of their Parts of interest, alongside some potential Thaumaturgical Interactions. As an added wrinkle, not all require butchery to acquire. The keen eyed may notice a glaring omission in the form of the Monster who directly contributes to the namesake for most of these games, but fret not: I intend to devote an entire table just to them with 100 Uses for a (Dead?) Dragon.
Folk and Fairy Tales abound with foes that can’t be bested in conventional ways. Some of the standard Monsters have a few hints of this quality: Lycanthropes and their susceptibility to Silver, the traditional Vampire vulnerabilities, etc. These all help grant things a more folkloric feel and generate minor puzzles/mysteries for the players to solve.
Occasionally, it might be interesting to provide a Monster with a special Weakness or Achillies Heel, some form of flaw that might be exploited or sometimes serve as the only method of defeat. So, here’s a list of One Hundred Fairy Tale Weaknesses that might be useful. Sometimes discovering such secret things can even lead to adventure along the way. Some of these feature a little bit of ludic bleed (relying on things like Die color, or other things at the table itself), but I find that can sometimes be rather fun in moderation.
Here’s something I’ve been adding to sporadically: A collection of Monster Character Classes (along with atrocious art by yours truly!). These should be usable with BECMI or B/X (and the other assorted games that treat Demihumans as separate Classes) without much tinkering.
So far, we have the Arenea, Living Statue, Harpy, Gnoll, Tortoisefok, Flutterlings, and the Lizard Man. I have been tempted to go through one of my favorites, the venerable Creature Catalog, and craft some Classes for each of the stranger sentient beings in there.
Open to any suggestions of other Monsters that you might like to see given this sort of treatment!
Here is a table with some Monster Miens, inspired by the lovely Troika! Method of attaching a tiny table to the denizens of adventures in order to give them a little personality. While I adore the ones that are bespoke for each individual creature, I figured it might be useful to have something like this in a slightly more generic form.
It uses the d12, because that die seems unloved and rather lonely. It is ostensibly arranged to work alongside the standard 2d6 Reaction Roll if you wish (although those results will be weighed accordingly). Still mulling over a more extensive “d36” one that directly interfaces directly with some of the dice metadata for that lovely table.
I was reminded today about the existence of Safari Cards. Here’s the commercial from the early 80s that some of you may remember:
As a child, I positively adored these things. I obsessively read, filed, and re-filed them. I think some of the first mail I received addressed to “me” alone were little packets containing these cards (though I have no idea how my parents were suckered into subscribing to them, probably under the laudable auspices of the cards being “educational.”)
I remember convincing a teacher to let me do my “book reports” on animals that she would draw randomly from a pile (I think I still have one of these somewhere on the terrific Jackson’s Horned Chameleon). I’d get to write down the name, and she’d keep the card while I scampered off to the school library and immersed myself in the reference sections. It was always fun “checking my work” versus the card.
So, the information presentation on these was actually pretty interesting and could have some application for rendering Monster/Encounter information in a compact format. Let’s take a look at the front and back of a card (these were 4¾ by 5 inches):
While the front is dominated by the photograph of the animal in question (prime real estate and size for a monster illustration you could show to the players), the top bar is usefully dense. You have the creature name above a series of icons. I believe these were used for filing/organizing the cards within their storage containers (there were dividers), I think they map to Class/Order/Family, but we could just as easily have a set of icons for Monster Type: Undead/Aberration/Dragonkind, or other types of Monster classification icons (maybe solitary/group, treasure type?, etc). Next is a nifty line illustration of the type of terrain it’s typically found in (especially relevant for Overland Encounters, but a “Dungeon” terrain could exist) which was also used for organizing the cards, and a map with the geographic region. This format seems pretty pilferable (insert your fantasy world hex-map over the Mercator projection, with hexes highlighted). I believe the color of the top bar also was different depending on the climate the animal preferred.
On the back, we have two columns of information (monster fluff goes here, ecology, etc), and a lovely little table at the bottom with some additional interesting information (this might have varied a bit from critter to critter). I think a stat-block could easily fit in here, or maybe keep some of this box (the measurements are neat, and gestation information is woefully under-represented, other “fun facts” could also be presented here, I am a sucker for having any collective nouns/terms of venery at the ready for instance) and reduce the amount of text in the information/ecology section to add another few rows for simple, broadly compatible stats.
The card format could be useful for quickly building a “deck” for random encounters within a region/terrain/climate to have the monster statistics and relevant information handy, not necessarily as a generator (frequency isn’t really represented here), but as reference with all the necessary information in one place and a quick way to locate/re-file the monsters as necessary.
Just another idle idea. Perhaps I might eventually find the time to create some templates or example cards for this.
Another entry for my ever-growing “Goblin Project,” this time we have some seemingly servile Frogfolk.
Forced into a sad state of serfdom by the stringent Storkfolk, don’t be fooled into thinking even for a fleeting moment, that this once wondrous salientian society is content with their awful lot in life!
Here's another attempt at wrangling unruly layouts and the “Just Use Goblins” concept into something useful for handling encounters and descriptions at the table.
This time, I've taken some of the feedback from the previous post and replaced most of the “stat-block facts/lore dumps” with Rumors that harness that old workhorse: The Requisite Reaction Roll. You can choose to have even/unshaded numbers be True or False, or they can be deemed accurate on a case-by-case basis through direct interaction with these pesky thesps during play. It ends up doing quadruple duty by also determining the factions (my line of thinking here is that some are more likely to be friendlier than others) and even provides some sample descriptive assistance in addition to setting the traditional disposition of the encounter with the good ol’ bell curve.
I don’t mind how this seems to work on the surface, but as always feedback is greatly appreciated. I probably wouldn’t have hit on this specific line-of-thinking without the gracious and helpful observations of HDA from My Terrible Sorcery Is Without Equal In The West and Anne from DIY & Dragons. Thank you both ever so much!
I’ll let you in on a little secret: I’m a huge proponent of Just Use Bears when it comes to monsters and have been exploiting this chicanery for ages. Like many DMs that have been running games for a significant amount of time, I don’t always need to refer to a shiny new custom stat-block to adjudicate a memorable encounter on-the-fly, and hacks like this can be extremely useful to keep in mind.
There’s been an interesting compatibility development recently when sharing statistics to keep them system neutral, especially for Armor Class which can vary significantly between versions and reinterpretations. Seeing AC expressed with “as Chain” makes me happy, because I know instinctively what this works out to be in just about all the flavors I frequent. So for a while now to save space, I’ve just been expressing the Monster Stat-block with “as Goblin” or “as Ogre” with a few scribbled exceptions to emphasize utility. These are some monsters that I most frequently re-skin, and have grown to know the blocks pretty much by heart.
I’ve begun to take this trick to another level and I’m in the early stages of devising a supplement/tool tentatively titled “Just Use Goblins.” All it should require is access to, or a fair amount of familiarity with, the traditional Goblin Stat Block for the clone system of your choice. By reskinning one of the most frequently cast standbys we can eke a little more mileage out of them and even still steer things in a more fantastical direction (or simply just keep foes fresh and unpredictable). Players may be confident in their ability to thoroughly mess up a malignity of generic Goblins, but just might hesitate a bit when confronted with a tittering cluster of strange humanoids with Sea-Urchins on their shoulders instead of heads.
Here’s a sample spread/prototype page. It’s kind of dense, and I’d dearly love to squeeze in some art/illustration somehow eventually.
What would you modify to try and free up some space? The tables will likely vary somewhat for each re-skin. Is this intuitive? Too crowded? Are some features less than useful to have on a single spread and perhaps better served as a separate section/appendix?
I was really drawn to the concept from Middenmurk of overloading the assorted rolls associated with encounter generation (HD, No. Appearing, etc) wherever possible as a time-saver. Since one is rolling them anyway, let them perform some additional duties. But do you think this is actually something feasible to use during play, or only somewhat helpful during preparatory work?
I’d love to hear any feedback. Just something to work on periodically when I grow a little weary of staring at Hex Tables and need to recharge my creativity by distracting myself with something else. :)
