Forget the Monster Mash: Why Humanoid Enemies can be Just as Scary as Monsters

Nothing quite compares to the euphoric rush of revealing that CR 16 Iron Golem you’ve been saving until the end of the dungeon. A hulking metallic monstrosity with the incredible strength, and of course all the damage immunities they could ft on the page. A great foe for any party to be certain, but what makes it so scary? It’s terrifying because it’s hard to kill, but it can’t really out-think the players. Even a monster with supreme intelligence, like a beholder, is going to have limitations there. Once the players leave the dungeon, many of these creatures cease to be threatening. Now, you could always alter your world in a way that allows for these creatures to openly mingle in society, but the fact remains that a standard world, whether published on homebrew, operates under the assumption that this isn’t the case.
Fighting monsters is a lot of fun, and an integral part of Dungeons & Dragons, and many other tabletop roleplaying games, but after having played games like Legend of the Five Rings, and Vampire the Masquerade, I’ve noticed that monsters lack a certain intimidating intelligence that humanoid enemies provide. Generally, the campaign’s villain, and a few lackys, provide most of the intelligent opposition, with the rest of the enemies being either aberration creatures or a few dummy thicc ogres that all share the same brain cell. These enemies have a place, but I see them used in places where I think intellectually superior enemies would fit better.
Take a dungeon filled filled with mindless ghouls for example. Yes, they’re scary, but once the ghouls are dead, there isn’t much more they can do to hurt the players. Now let’s consider another undead, like a vampire. The party marches into the keep and toasts him, end of story. Maybe someone even had to use a healing potion. But is it over? What if the vampire has friends in another court that will seek revenge on the party? What if the vampire is able to maintain control over his thralls even after death? Ghouls don’t have friends (sorry ghouls), and they don’t have the power to make thralls. Making intelligent enemies isn’t new, but I think they’re underutilized in most of the games I’ve either seen or heard stories about.
Using more intelligent, humanoid enemies that can not only match the players in fight methodology and tactics, but also serve as social and political rivals simply requires a loser grip on the “meat grinder” campaign that I know so many people love. If you want a story to be compelling for your players, I would suggest threatening them with more than just their lives. Character death should not be the only motivating force for players to do anything or to be afraid of something. Have an enemy whose a merchant who wants to frame the players for his insurance scam, or a corrupt guard captain that whose covering up a plot to assassinate his lord. Have some fun and be creative with your story telling instead of having your players kill giant rats for 6 hours a week.

Mind The Gap: Playing Games with Enormous Player Level Disparities

You’ve just joined a new roleplaying group! Mother of Gruumsh this is going to be fun! You walk into the dingy basement of your new acquaintance’s house (or maybe his parent’s house, we’re not here to judge). You sit down at the table, as you are introduced to the other players at the table. Steve! Who plays a level 13 Wizard from the sword coast! A wicked smart spell caster, and just so happens to be devilishly handsome as well! (Is he single? Stop it Goluptious Geek! You can’t afford another heartbreak…). Next is Aaron! The level 14 barbarian that can left an adult dragon and throw him across the room! Look at those MUSCLES! Now on to Sarah. The ever so sneaky level 14 rogue! You’ve never seen someone so stealthy! (Wait a minute…). Now it’s time to make YOUR character! Are you excited? Me too!

 

“Now make a level one character”

 

Wait…What? Level one? But Sarah’s level fourteen! (But not as cute as Steve <3). How the hell are you going to play with a level one character in a party of…like… really strong people? With tremendous difficulty I’d suspect! You see, that’s how this group plays. They start everyone off at level one so that way everything is “fair”. What’s that, you want to leave? You don’t want to sit there with your thumb up your butt while everyone else plays the game?

Whether this has happened to you or not, you can probably see why it might be a problem. There are actually quite a few groups that choose to play this way, and at the risk of alienating them as potential readers, I’m going to tell you why it isn’t a good way to introduce people into the hobby of tabletop roleplaying.

First of all, no one wants to be useless. The severity of how useless you’d be varies from game to game. Games like D&D have a very large power gap between levels, especially earlier editions of the game. This is mostly because in D&D you’re given abilities for reaching a certain level. Rather than reaching a certain level BECAUSE you spent experience on those abilities. You might feel like a badass being the level 17 guy in a party full of level 2s, but for them it sucks. Like… a lot. Every encounter suddenly becomes either too easy for you, or too difficult for them, and the GM is forced to choose between the two.

The next reason is because it doesn’t make people want to return to the game. Which… kind of sucks. We want more people in this hobby, not less. Don’t scare people away from tabletop gaming with your elitist douchebaggery (They really need to add that to the dictionary. If you work for Webster’s, get on it). I played one a game like this in the FFG Star Wars system. It’s a DAMN good thing I was already a role-player, or I would’ve had a pretty terrible view of tabletop gaming form that point on. When I joined this game the other players had 500 experience points beyond me. If you haven’t played in that system (and I don’t really recommend it to be honest), 500 is A LOT. Like, A WHOLE LOT. This is the equivalent of forcing someone to play at level 1 in an epic level party in 3.5 D&D. It sucks for the one guy who isn’t a demigod.

Finally, it completely obliterates the balanced mechanics of most games. Most of these games were designed to be balanced (I said MOST. *squints eyes and looks at Pathfinder*). The balance of these games stops working when the party, wait for it, ISN’T BALANCED! Games like Call of Cthulhu, where everyone is expected to lose their character rather quickly, are intended to accommodate players of vastly different progression level. However, the standard Call of Cthulhu character also isn’t an orc who can crush building between his thighs.

Now I should clarify. If you want to do this in your game, you have every right to. It is YOUR game after all. If you do this in a game and invite new players, who then leave, who you then get mad at because they left, then YOU were likely the problem, not them. It isn’t unreasonable to want to actually play a game that you’ve taken time out of your day to be involved in. If you’re not sure where you should fall on this issue, just remember the easiest advice. Don’t be a dick. And also remember the GM has final say, but you don’t have to play. Also, just tell Steve how you really feel! Have you ever had a gaming experience like this? Tell me about it in the comments!

 

 

• Goluptious Geek