In response to This Thread I have put together an idea for the rules for running a hive mind. This would be used for a hive mind of lower-level monsters, not for things like dragons!

The summary of it is that the Hive Mind learns from its encounters with the party, and quickly learns how to counter their moves.

These rules were put together for a single dungeon crawl against a hive mind - get in, kill everything, and then kill the "central core" of the hive mind. It also has a "Slower Learning" rule for more sinister hive-mind plots, where the hive mind is a recurring enemy in a game  spanning many sessions.

What do you think? I intend to write up a dungeon for this at some point for a one-shot, so I'd like to know what you all think about the learning system!

I like it. Only thing I might change is spells. I can't quite explain why, but it feels like the learning bonus for spells shouldn't be by individual character but for the spell itself. E.g. if two players use fireball, the first puts it on the board, and the second increments by 1. Possibly ranged weapons the same. Melee weapons still by individual.

Maybe it's more to do with the ranged vs melee combat than magical vs physical. In ranged combat you're avoiding a projectile that has been loosed and over which the individual has no further control. Melee you're dealing with an opponent that is reacting to you, so you need to learn not just the weapon, but the individual.

Quote from DeltaMikeDeltaLima >>

I like it. Only thing I might change is spells. I can't quite explain why, but it feels like the learning bonus for spells shouldn't be by individual character but for the spell itself. E.g. if two players use fireball, the first puts it on the board, and the second increments by 1. Possibly ranged weapons the same. Melee weapons still by individual.

Maybe it's more to do with the ranged vs melee combat than magical vs physical. In ranged combat you're avoiding a projectile that has been loosed and over which the individual has no further control. Melee you're dealing with an opponent that is reacting to you, so you need to learn not just the weapon, but the individual.

I see what you're getting at there. My initial thoughts were for the Hive Mind to be learning based on the individual players fighting styles. I know that Wizards with Fireball write their own notes, sometimes in their own language, as to how to cast it - I imagine each wizard's methods of casting each spell to be different, with the same results. One might weave their hands around and Haiduken the fireball at them, the other might just snap their fingers and shout "Boosh!". Similarly, one ranged character might always aim for the head, and another might aim for the body, meaning it will have to learn how to counter these separately.

Quote from ThorukDuckSlayer >>

Quote from DeltaMikeDeltaLima >>

I like it. Only thing I might change is spells. I can't quite explain why, but it feels like the learning bonus for spells shouldn't be by individual character but for the spell itself. E.g. if two players use fireball, the first puts it on the board, and the second increments by 1. Possibly ranged weapons the same. Melee weapons still by individual.

Maybe it's more to do with the ranged vs melee combat than magical vs physical. In ranged combat you're avoiding a projectile that has been loosed and over which the individual has no further control. Melee you're dealing with an opponent that is reacting to you, so you need to learn not just the weapon, but the individual.

 

I see what you're getting at there. My initial thoughts were for the Hive Mind to be learning based on the individual players fighting styles. I know that Wizards with Fireball write their own notes, sometimes in their own language, as to how to cast it - I imagine each wizard's methods of casting each spell to be different, with the same results. One might weave their hands around and Haiduken the fireball at them, the other might just snap their fingers and shout "Boosh!". Similarly, one ranged character might always aim for the head, and another might aim for the body, meaning it will have to learn how to counter these separately.

That's fair. Aside from anything else, I imagine that treating ranged and melee differently would feel arbitrary to the players, regardless of how it's justified.