tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4991466972552879988.post3218736607981021968..comments2024-03-03T00:18:41.899-08:00Comments on Rachel Bonuses: Monster LoreRachel Ghoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04765944479141792643noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4991466972552879988.post-75994284534332276722013-09-01T13:06:53.427-07:002013-09-01T13:06:53.427-07:00Charles Ryan had a great post on his blog about &q...Charles Ryan had a great post on his blog about "5 Things Everybody Knows" that really got me thinking on this topic. His idea was to have an index card with 5 things everybody knows for monsters, cities, important people, etc that you could give/read to the players. What I would really love to do though is have a computer program where I could shuffle around the monster stats (to break the player knowledge) and print out a short "5 things" booklet for my PCs (giving extra things to the guy who took the monster lore skill(s) - I do like skills). Would be a chore to write and prep, but still feels like the best way to customize a setting and shake up the players.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15632176589503480466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4991466972552879988.post-7909800913374774952013-08-15T18:35:08.340-07:002013-08-15T18:35:08.340-07:00Plus there were all those "Ecology of ...&quo...Plus there were all those "Ecology of ..." articles in <i>Dragon</i> to take advantage ofHolly Oatshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01703437987958922954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4991466972552879988.post-6361335112902202612013-08-15T10:00:40.562-07:002013-08-15T10:00:40.562-07:00Ah, this takes me back. The first house rule I eve...Ah, this takes me back. The first house rule I ever implemented for AD&D (2e, as was the style at the time) was to create a "Monster Lore" proficiency. The better your roll, the more you knew about a given monster. It worked well, since the monster format for 2e was so jam-packed with information.David Larkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04133630988557116729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4991466972552879988.post-32033807322046104982013-08-15T05:28:05.770-07:002013-08-15T05:28:05.770-07:00This whole character vs. player knowledge divide i...This whole character vs. player knowledge divide is part of why I got fed up with the newer editions. Players stop playing a game and begin acting according to social expectations. I can rationalize alot of their knowledge as coming from common lore, especially in the case of such iconic monsters as Medusa. To balance things out, don't give them any knowledge-related boons like a background in architecture or whatever. I might also make it harder to identify monsters, at least when first encountering a species, through description rather than naming the beast<br /><br />I will say, this is far simpler than 3.5's approach of dividing monsters among six or seven different Knowledge skills, or Kalamar's single Knowledge (monsters) skill that required you to first identify a monster (DC 20) before determining such things as special abilities or trade value of parts (DC 20-30)Holly Oatshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01703437987958922954noreply@blogger.com