Systematic Creativity

I didn't call this post engineering monsters III because I realized you can use this to come up with spells or magic items too.

So, I thought more about factors in the game that we can work with for effects in-game.  I looked at the D&D combat sequence and even all the things on the character record sheet. 

Here is an image, print it out and trace lines from one thing to another.  These lines can represent relationships between the factors not just for monsters but magic items, curses, spells etc.

Some example ideas:

• a spell that allows a player to become stronger temporarily by stripping off all gear
• monsters that have a grudge and become more common on the encounter table each time players kill one
• a player cursed to only heal by eating gems
• a valuable creature that always appears at maximum encounter distance and then moves away (think questing beast)
• a creature of such saintly/devilish demeanor that attacks (or maybe just misses) by pcs of opposite alignment are always fumbles
• a pc disease-- any time you're hit in combat save or go unconscious
•  each successful hit on a magical creature maps part of the dungeon on its hide (and it's a nice creature, and you really don't want to hurt it . . .)
• a magic ring (Bully's Bane) - the more foes you face the more likely they are to fumble

If you like this kind of approach to generating ideas I forgot I posted something along similar lines a while back.  It's about combining classes of things (trap/monster, trap/treasure for example) to generate new ideas.

Also in the same vein is me thinking about how little we have to effect player characters in-game.  I think I discovered some others because of the thinking I did for that post.

Combining Categories to Generate

Okay, these little puppies thought up by Bulette, along with my own false fortune creature have got me thinking of items that aren't just one thing, but combine categories. What I mean is, the Gauntlets of Grasping are useful, so they're like a magic item, but they are potentially deadly, like a trap, and they are sentient, like a monster. The false fortune is a creature, but acts more like a cursed item. What if we push this and see what we can invent?

A) Hmm, magic items are treasure so how does this work? Maybe this would be something like a pouch that generates coinage. So emphasizing the value of treasure, it is a magic item which has magic that generates value.

B) The treasure trap, this is valuable but has a gotcha-- necklace of strangulation fits here I think.

C) The valuable creature, I think the goose that lays golden eggs fits here. Spiders that produce silk if you can capture them safely etc. Wait, no, these are more like magic items if they keep producing, hmm . . . It would need to be a creature valuable in and of itself.

D) The Gauntlets of Grasping are close. Wand of Wonder? I'm assuming it isn't as simple as a trap that uses magic (or this whole process would be pointless), no, a useful magic item that is also trap-like. Rings of invisibility, that keep you from becoming visible again. So mild curses, but the item must still be a boon. But, wait, shouldn't trap/hazard mean it can kill you? Hmm . . .

E) Wow. Again the gauntlets are close. This could be something like a bag of devouring, if you consider it a creature feeding, and the characters know what it is and use it to dispose of things. I suppose the false fortune could fall here too, if you consider a portable garbage disposal useful.

F) I think green slime fits nicely here. Envelopers and trappers too.

But my little matrix doesn't account for combinations of more than two, which is what got me thinking about this.

So how about:

G) treasure, useful magic item, trap/hazard
ex: a bag of coin production that will bury the user in suffocating coins if a key phrase isn't uttered.

H) treasure, trap/hazard, creature
ex: a foothold trap (think bear trap) made from the pale-rose ivory tusks of a creature that wants to digest you. Harvest the tusks and you're rich.

I) treasure, useful magic item, creature
ex: a snake that sheds silk each month. Or, a bird whose song polishes gems up to the next level in value.

J) useful magic item, trap/hazard, creature
ex: iron snake necklace which is alive but dormant until put around something. Then it awakes and will constrict, crushing anything it's put around (cutting through bars, smashing open small chests), but is bad news if you put it around your neck.

And now that my juices are flowing, lets try to invent for the first six:

A) treasure, useful magic item
ex: St. Hubert's Travelling Font: a three-legged, mithril bowl that produces holy water as fast as you can fill containers.

B) treasure, trap/hazard
ex: A sapphire that blazes up in a fiery flash the first time it's handled.

C) treasure, creature
ex: a rare dancing lizard, it "dances" to music, and displays its scintillating colors.

D) useful magic item, trap
ex: a portable pit-trap, opens under someone treading on it, but, knowing this, characters might use it as an awkward bag of holding.


Whew, that was fun! I don't think I explored the hazard part of the trap/hazard duo. Maybe I should have made it separate. My mind tingles with ideas of chutes and pools. Well, I leave that to another time. Do you have special ways to generate?

I think anything that comes at the topic "from a slant" would help. The slant can be arbitrary, like items dealing with liquids, or creatures that climb. Maybe more on these later.

If you try combining categories to generate, let me know how it goes!