lucius@tardis.UUCP (Lucius Chiaraviglio) (05/06/85)
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I was reading some old Dragon issues the other day, and noticed that
some people noticed that dragons needed improvement to make them more than
2-dimensional monsters. I think some other monsters are in need of some
revision also. For example, the ghosts in the Monster Manual are, while quite
dangerous, too mundane to be subjects of a good supernatural setting. Let
spectres take care of aging you 10-40 years (or maybe less, since spectres
aren't supposed to be so difficult), and make ghosts into a more awesome
force. I have been in a Justice, inc. game for a few weeks now, and the first
adventure in there was a ghost story, and that showed me what a ghost should
really be like: a force of awesome power, unseen except by its own choice,
terrorizing residentss and guests of the haunted house for extended periods,
taking over the minds of residents of the house, and capable of killing on a
few seconds' notice. This thing was conjuring up storms, toppling trees,
firing lightning bolts, giving off a terrific aura of fear, snapping people's
necks with its telekinesis, and posessing people. You could not hit this
thing, period. It was a force of malevolence derived from a slain master of
sorcery seeking revenge on the family of the man who had killed him 200 years
ago. The only way to kill it was to remove the body of the sorceror, which
had grown into something straight out of H. P. Lovecraft, from the well into
which it had been thrown after death and which was preserving it. We did
that, but it was a close call -- especially since during most of the time we
had to deal also with an evil member of the family who was trying to kill off
other heads of the family to get the family money and estate.
Granted, D&D characters are much tougher than Justice, Inc. characters
by the time they start getting to ghosts, but this is what a ghost should be
like. Let a ghost age people 10-40 years and magic jar people if it wants
to -- but don't make this the only thing ghosts can do, and don't make them
all the same power -- ghosts are more varied even than the people they came
from.
Let's see some other people's opinions on what monsters should be
revised and how. Give demons and devils a little more character, anyone? And
by the way, feel free to post opinions on how monsters for any game other than
AD&D should be modified also, or monsters that you think should be added in.
--
-- Lucius Chiaraviglio
{ seismo!tardis!lucius | lucius@tardis.ARPA | lucius@tardis.UUCP }