One of the things that I always do when I am dming is make a small table for each monster characters encounter, or at least the ones i am planning for. Having a quick table that could be duplicated and filled was one of the things I knew I wanted right away for Enchanted Kingdoms. Obviously this is still in developement but here is what it looks like so far:
Now as you can see its currently very generic but the point is for it to serve 3 functions. 1 is what I said before easy to use and duplicate for encounter tracking. The second is that it simplifies making new enemies for the people using the game. It boils down into it's simplest form what makes a creature and allows a person to quickly put a monster together, on the fly or in advance.
The third thing has to do with the last two columns. As a player I have long lemented the inability to know things about monsters. You either know about the monster out of character or you dont. I have had DM's try and make it possible for a character to roll and see if they know anything about the creature but it was never a simple thing, and usually didn't yeild useful results; even with a high roll. That table comprising of the last 2 columns allows players to roll and see what they know about a creature. This will allow players to use out of character knowledge without "meta-gaming" if they roll high enough, or know something potentially useful in character even if they don't out of character. Also this table ties into one of the Hunter's class talents; . If a hunter takes this talent they add a dice to their roll? Are treated as if they were one step higher on the table?
So lets see what all of this looks like in action:
So this is not the final version of the Sabertooth Tigershark but I just threw this together as an example. I am planning on using it as a monster mascot that will show up semi regularly. Not for any other reason than that Ilike the idea hahaha. Anyways you can see conceptually that it has its abilities info listed in an easy to access manner. The Wound bubbles can be marked off as the enemy takes damage, and the basic result of a player trying to know something about what they are facing is quick and easy as well.
The only problem will be including the lore and ability descriptors, but it would not take much to jot down those below the table.
As I said in my last post i also want to talk about The Tranformers and The Gobots. When I was a kid I had toys from both properties. Thanks to a baby book containing notes that my mother kept I know that I loved tranforming robots from the time I was 3 to today. I have been thinking about this because I have been watching some videos produced by the good folks at Retroblasting. The host of that youtube show? Channel? Wwhichever, has fairly negative thoughts on transformers and the way that the cartoon models did not match the toys themselves. They also talk about how for them the magic of the toys were in part imagining the robots hiding all around them, in disguise. It may be because i was younger than him but this was not the fun for me. It was having 2 toys in one. And the inherent coolness of robots. He talks about how bad the cartoon was too but for me the Transformers cartoon was great because it wasn't all camp like many of the cartoons at the time were. It definitely was a cut above the Gobots cartoon.
Essentially the concept of transformation was what I really liked. My other favorite toyline as a kid was M.A.S.K. which had transforming vehicles. In fact if you look at my favorite Transformer, Mask Vehicle, and one of my favorite Gobots they have some commonalities. Here we have the Autobot Tracks, Gobot Stinger, and the Mask Raven.
Now they are all seemingly different from this view but if we change them to their standard car modes you will see what i mean.
Corvettes! As a kid I was a huge fan of corvettes! Tracks is extra cool because he was like part mask car and had a "flying car mode." One thing people rightfully complain about with the transformers were that they were fragile. Iam going to have to agree with this. I remember someone in my family begrudgingly bought me a second Tracks for my birthday after Broke my first one in half. My gobots faired better as far as durability and survivability. Plus they were significantly cheaper to replace when the were broken. For the most part. By the time I was old enough to be more carefull with my toys, you know like fine motor control, Transformer figures were more thick quality plastic. I never had the original Optimus Prime, but I sure loved my Powermaster Prime.
I never understood the hate for gobots, I mean the transformers show was way way better, but the toys were fun. My mom liked the Gobots show way better though. She still says "they have nicer faces." That is probably because they were made by Hanna Barbera, who was still thinking of cartoons being a more lighthearted affair. Also Sunbow which was responsible for the Transformers cartoon was working with Toei, a japanese animation studio. They had a better style, and were more edgy. Thats a plus for a kid, and a minus to a parent haha.
The thing for me was I didn't want to re-create the scenes from the shows, I wanted to make my own adventures. Honestly it didnt really matter to me what side a character was supposed to be on, if I liked the toy they were a good guy. I didnt care if I mixed the toys from different properties. I never had a Sideswipe, but I did have a Spoiler. That was fine for me. Really, I usually renamed my toys anyways, so that I could do what I wanted with the new "character."
Now as you can see its currently very generic but the point is for it to serve 3 functions. 1 is what I said before easy to use and duplicate for encounter tracking. The second is that it simplifies making new enemies for the people using the game. It boils down into it's simplest form what makes a creature and allows a person to quickly put a monster together, on the fly or in advance.
The third thing has to do with the last two columns. As a player I have long lemented the inability to know things about monsters. You either know about the monster out of character or you dont. I have had DM's try and make it possible for a character to roll and see if they know anything about the creature but it was never a simple thing, and usually didn't yeild useful results; even with a high roll. That table comprising of the last 2 columns allows players to roll and see what they know about a creature. This will allow players to use out of character knowledge without "meta-gaming" if they roll high enough, or know something potentially useful in character even if they don't out of character. Also this table ties into one of the Hunter's class talents; . If a hunter takes this talent they add a dice to their roll? Are treated as if they were one step higher on the table?
So lets see what all of this looks like in action:
The only problem will be including the lore and ability descriptors, but it would not take much to jot down those below the table.
As I said in my last post i also want to talk about The Tranformers and The Gobots. When I was a kid I had toys from both properties. Thanks to a baby book containing notes that my mother kept I know that I loved tranforming robots from the time I was 3 to today. I have been thinking about this because I have been watching some videos produced by the good folks at Retroblasting. The host of that youtube show? Channel? Wwhichever, has fairly negative thoughts on transformers and the way that the cartoon models did not match the toys themselves. They also talk about how for them the magic of the toys were in part imagining the robots hiding all around them, in disguise. It may be because i was younger than him but this was not the fun for me. It was having 2 toys in one. And the inherent coolness of robots. He talks about how bad the cartoon was too but for me the Transformers cartoon was great because it wasn't all camp like many of the cartoons at the time were. It definitely was a cut above the Gobots cartoon.
Essentially the concept of transformation was what I really liked. My other favorite toyline as a kid was M.A.S.K. which had transforming vehicles. In fact if you look at my favorite Transformer, Mask Vehicle, and one of my favorite Gobots they have some commonalities. Here we have the Autobot Tracks, Gobot Stinger, and the Mask Raven.
Now they are all seemingly different from this view but if we change them to their standard car modes you will see what i mean.
Corvettes! As a kid I was a huge fan of corvettes! Tracks is extra cool because he was like part mask car and had a "flying car mode." One thing people rightfully complain about with the transformers were that they were fragile. Iam going to have to agree with this. I remember someone in my family begrudgingly bought me a second Tracks for my birthday after Broke my first one in half. My gobots faired better as far as durability and survivability. Plus they were significantly cheaper to replace when the were broken. For the most part. By the time I was old enough to be more carefull with my toys, you know like fine motor control, Transformer figures were more thick quality plastic. I never had the original Optimus Prime, but I sure loved my Powermaster Prime.
I never understood the hate for gobots, I mean the transformers show was way way better, but the toys were fun. My mom liked the Gobots show way better though. She still says "they have nicer faces." That is probably because they were made by Hanna Barbera, who was still thinking of cartoons being a more lighthearted affair. Also Sunbow which was responsible for the Transformers cartoon was working with Toei, a japanese animation studio. They had a better style, and were more edgy. Thats a plus for a kid, and a minus to a parent haha.
The thing for me was I didn't want to re-create the scenes from the shows, I wanted to make my own adventures. Honestly it didnt really matter to me what side a character was supposed to be on, if I liked the toy they were a good guy. I didnt care if I mixed the toys from different properties. I never had a Sideswipe, but I did have a Spoiler. That was fine for me. Really, I usually renamed my toys anyways, so that I could do what I wanted with the new "character."
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