Comments on: Socialist Monster Design

By: Kristopher

Kristopher — Sat, 04 May 2013 16:58:48 +0000

to hit monsters can better be addressed by changing enchantment spells, like Magic blade, to last the battle. This encourages working with others at lower levels (caster for the spell, melee type for higher damage), and empowers high level self-buffers to be able to enter the fray without a permanent weapon. In both cases resources are used, which lends to the value of craft skills (for scrolls), or buff-type spells. Both of which add to the game without remotely shaking power levels or encounter scaling.

By: אלרט פיי

אלרט פיי — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 13:41:52 +0000

I have been checking out many of your posts and it’s clever stuff. I will surely bookmark your blog.

By: fresh heir

fresh heir — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:51:46 +0000

I strongly dislike flat damage reduction as it adds another layer of arithmetic to every weapon swing. Flat DR is good for tabletop and computer games, but the pace of LARP combat is too fast for it.

By: Davydd

Davydd — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 23:02:43 +0000

flat Damage Reduction # (take # off the top) in place of Threshold (doesn’t kill newbies) or Damage Cap (doesn’t invalidate earned levels).

By: Daniel Burke

Daniel Burke — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 16:39:03 +0000

There was a similar type of monster back at NERO NH – where it would ‘pump up’ based on the # of people fighting it. So 2 people could fight it relatively safely, more than 2 and it would just hulk, more than 4 and it quickly become apparent that you needed to get back to 2 VERY quickly. Lead to a lot of round robin ‘tag me in!’ moments, and was interesting to fight against.

By: Jyn

Jyn — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:01:16 +0000

Love the title, and the concept. Reasonable damage cap is a great equalizer, and has the bonus effect of making damage casters more effective, rather than watch their spells dwarfed by ever-escalating monster body. I’ve also seen people use plot mechanics and circumstantial statting to give lower-level characters room to shine.

In one game I play, there are certain NPCs who are particularly aligned with the inexperienced for IG reasons, and will give them boons or hook special encounters to them, that are tied into the overarching plot. Or sometimes, if a plotline required 3 or 4 tasks/mods to resolve, one of those tasks can only be undertaken by a group of low level characters. It can be overdone, but it really helps when there is something special that lowbie characters bring to the table.

I’ve also seen people design encounters where certain monsters were very visibly differentiated and intended to be fought by lowbie characters. During the prep before the fight, the NPC hook explained to us that these monsters would magically adapt to their opponents. As long as only inexperienced people fought them, they were beatable, but if they were attacked by experienced folk, they would become exponentially more powerful until that opponent was down.