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Author Topic: New AMPC templates: Discussion  (Read 978 times)

Iridni Ren

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New AMPC templates: Discussion
« on: June 18, 2019, 10:08:44 AM »
Firstly, I'm very heartened to see the two new templates proposed of Werecrocodile and Red Widow. I hope we have several more to come!

Some thoughts:

* I like the idea of monsters fitted to other areas than the Outskirts, such as the werecrocodile is clearly meant to be. I think many places on the server could be made much more exciting by the unexpected appearance of an appropriate monster. One of the reasons I found Calehan particularly scary was he travelled all over the place. Whether an individual runs into the monster when alone and in a relatively safe place, or a party gets attacked on a dungeon run they thought was going to be predictable, with resting and warding by rote, AMPCs along these lines have a good chance at adding to the server's atmosphere. I wasn't there, but the positive comments about the sudden appearance of a DM troll recently is another example. In balancing these AMPCs, however, I hope Devs consider the relative strength of parties likely to appear in such areas of the server. Otherwise, a werecroc based near Sobek will have a short life span much like a mummy I recall that tried to operate out of H'ar Akir.

* Along those lines, I hope new monsters have some ways of augmenting their power by minions when appropriate or at least being faction friendly to some of the other creatures in their environment. Sheer numbers matter so much in this game. When I played a dread revenant and was not able to have any summons, I still stayed near places where I knew packs of friendly undead were that I could use to run interference at least if I needed to retreat. And that way when I logged in I was more likely to find a friendly than hostile reception as "safe areas" for AMPCs are much different from those for normal PCs.

* The Red Widow is very intriguing and I think a lot of players would like to try their hands at this one. Seems like a very good one-time monster, but I hope ways are found of creating a variety of stories with the template. Being "consumed by a biological drive to feed and breed" could lead to a limited choice of behaviors, unless players are creative and find ways of developing more complex motives...and being allowed to play them (i.e., not having their applications rejected for failing to understand the monster's motivations).
« Last Edit: June 18, 2019, 10:10:26 AM by Iridni Ren »

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modderpunk

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Re: New AMPC templates: Discussion
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2019, 02:33:15 PM »
In Tales of Ravenloft there is a story featuring a Red Widow for those seeking inspiration.



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