All cultures have heroes they look up to, those who represent all that they can be and can become. Why should your monsters or players be any different?
In any group of creatures or people, there will be immediate differentiations- who is fastest, who is wisest, who represents the group best. That will happen within Player Character groups, but it's usually delineated to being someone's role (class, etc.)- the smart one has to be a wizard because wizards have to be smart; the strong one should be a warrior because it makes sense for the warrior to be the strong one, and so on. So why are most Orcs just 1-HD thugs? Where's their diversity, their variety, their culture? Who represents them? Is it just the 2-HD guy with the masterwork axe? And what does that say about who they are? Sure, Orcs kind of make sense- they're from a Chaotic Evil culture, where the strongest rules for as long as they can intimidate and beat others, so it makes sense that the biggest and angriest is generally the champion, and has the best gear. But what about Hobgoblins, for example? Hobgoblin culture is still martially-oriented, but they're Lawful Evil, so their champions are those who are skilled warriors, not just berserkers. They're going to think cleverly, they're going to call out their opponents' champions and try to win glory for their people. They're going to defer to their clerics to chose who their targets are, and those aren't likely to be the biggest targets they can find, they're going to be clever. So look at some Samurai stories for the way Hobgoblins might behave- proud, honourable, and focused on rightness. Goblins who serve Maglubiyet value cleverness and quick thinking, as well as defeating much stronger enemies by trickery. Look at some of the Russian tales of Ivan outwitting a variety of enemies much stronger than he is, by outwitting them and tricking them into traps. So their champions are more likely to be Rogues or even Bards, inspiring their allies while beguiling their foes into making deadly mistakes. Doing this means that the rules will follow the lore a little more closely, and people will start to remember that Orcs have big, rage-y champions, while Hobgoblin ones are more likely to be generals or essentially paladins of their own type of culture. When your players start making plans around in-lore reasons ("we'll raid at Dawn because that's when the Orcs start getting light blindness, and get our Rogue to slay the Orc warlord in his sleep, because we really don't want him taking the field, he'll clean us all up!"), you've won as a Game Master! Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 17 April 2019. Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
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