Not to be confused with an "evil" campaign, basically trying to think of a good premise for a campaign where the players play as a loose group of monsters like Kobolds, Goblins and Ogres ect brought together by strange circumstances and a mutual desire to survive in a world that is trying to kill them.
Also not sure how to run such a game, whether to limit it to the sidekick class rules with maybe a few adjustments? Limit the creature types that they can select or even create more fixed character archetypes for the players to select from? Or just use the regular class rules with the regular monster race options and some homebrew options? How would you run such a game?
The all powerful imperial empire of humanity, dwarves and elves is expanding into no man’s land, off the map. Into the forests, mountains etc. the creations that live in this wilderness and call it home, perhaps living in nomadic tribes of goblins, kobalds etc are in danger of being wiped out and all out war. The players represent different tribes who have come together to investigate these intruders and assess the threat?
1 -- Why can't goblins, orcs, bugbears, Kobolds, and so forth be any of the regular classes? If they are players, they use character sheets, not stat blocks.
2 -- If they are unable to use the normal classes, what stops the from having their own classes?
You ask how I would do it:
I would create a set of four Classes (Priest, Rogue, Mage, Warrior). I would be unlikely to do subclasses, myself, but whatever.
I would create a base Species using the Stat Block as a guideline.
I would have them roll up as normal, otherwise (and I would probably tweak the hell out of the equipment tables).
I have a general hard line: if it is a Player run being, it is a character, uses the character sheet. If I run it, it is an NPC, and uses the Stat Block.
I can say this is how I would run it because that's how I've done things since 1e, lol. Every major sentient group has some variant of class stuff (I write it up differently for my use, as it is how I build up Stat blocks for different kinds of that monster). They have a whole way to climb up the CR system that is similar to that of the PCs and their Levels.
It is one of my tools for how I can have a goblin group with the ability to grow alongside and become foils for the players over the long campaigns I run.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Your easiest option is to limit PCs to the options in Monsters of the Multiverse (which includes most obvious humanoid options) and use the regular class rules. Handling nonhumanoids and creatures with exotic abilities may involve quite a bit of homebrewing, however.
1. I think the idea I am going with would be that the players would be playing characters not from your typical adventurer background, they would not have had much exposure to the more civilized societies of the world and thus starting class and equipment options would be a lot more limited, obviously classes like Paladin or Wizard would be a lot harder to justify as viable options for such characters
2. There would have to be some sort of class option, if they did not have access to the regular classes I would go with something kind of like the sidekick rules from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything where they at least have some sort of class and level progression system. That said I am not sure what would be best, I am probably leaning towards more keeping the regular class rules, just maybe limiting the options a bit and adding more than a bit of homebrew.
That said I kind of want to open the option up for them to play larger creatures like Ogres and proper large Minotaurs as well.
Really more at the brainstorming stage and don't really have anything concrete, was thinking that the starting premise would be that the players are an odd group of monsters, they are outcasts from their tribes and have formed a group with each other out of a mutual desire for survival with each player using the unique strengths of their race to work together and achieve goals. Not exactly sure what the story would be whether it be that they get to close to a human settlement and become the target of hunters or if they find a powerful but chaotic and unpredictable magical artefact and see what they do with it, or if they are to become an unlikely group of heroes.
There’s a webcomic called goblins that’s like this. A group of goblins survives an attack by adventurers and then goes off and becomes adventurers. It might give you some ideas. It started like one of those that gently pokes fun at D&D conventions, like one of the goblins asking why they don’t actually use the gear in the poorly locked chest in the center of the village. But it really gets pretty interesting with the way they’re treated by the humans, and stuff like who’s really the monsters here.
That said I kind of want to open the option up for them to play larger creatures like Ogres and proper large Minotaurs as well.
That's the point at which you'll need to be doing quite a bit of house ruling; you'll most likely need to reinvent Savage Species from 3.5e... which isn't impossible but is a lot of work.
That said I kind of want to open the option up for them to play larger creatures like Ogres and proper large Minotaurs as well.
That's the point at which you'll need to be doing quite a bit of house ruling; you'll most likely need to reinvent Savage Species from 3.5e... which isn't impossible but is a lot of work.
Maybe run with humanoid species up front and, every now and then, do a special night where it's Ogre / Minotaur mission, etc. It could be that the characters being played have to convince the larger creatures to do the special event. That way it's there, fun, doesn't need much rules or balance, and creates a motivation for the players.
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Not to be confused with an "evil" campaign, basically trying to think of a good premise for a campaign where the players play as a loose group of monsters like Kobolds, Goblins and Ogres ect brought together by strange circumstances and a mutual desire to survive in a world that is trying to kill them.
Also not sure how to run such a game, whether to limit it to the sidekick class rules with maybe a few adjustments? Limit the creature types that they can select or even create more fixed character archetypes for the players to select from? Or just use the regular class rules with the regular monster race options and some homebrew options? How would you run such a game?
The all powerful imperial empire of humanity, dwarves and elves is expanding into no man’s land, off the map. Into the forests, mountains etc. the creations that live in this wilderness and call it home, perhaps living in nomadic tribes of goblins, kobalds etc are in danger of being wiped out and all out war. The players represent different tribes who have come together to investigate these intruders and assess the threat?
A couple questions for you to get you thinking:
1 -- Why can't goblins, orcs, bugbears, Kobolds, and so forth be any of the regular classes? If they are players, they use character sheets, not stat blocks.
2 -- If they are unable to use the normal classes, what stops the from having their own classes?
You ask how I would do it:
I have a general hard line: if it is a Player run being, it is a character, uses the character sheet. If I run it, it is an NPC, and uses the Stat Block.
I can say this is how I would run it because that's how I've done things since 1e, lol. Every major sentient group has some variant of class stuff (I write it up differently for my use, as it is how I build up Stat blocks for different kinds of that monster). They have a whole way to climb up the CR system that is similar to that of the PCs and their Levels.
It is one of my tools for how I can have a goblin group with the ability to grow alongside and become foils for the players over the long campaigns I run.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Your easiest option is to limit PCs to the options in Monsters of the Multiverse (which includes most obvious humanoid options) and use the regular class rules. Handling nonhumanoids and creatures with exotic abilities may involve quite a bit of homebrewing, however.
1. I think the idea I am going with would be that the players would be playing characters not from your typical adventurer background, they would not have had much exposure to the more civilized societies of the world and thus starting class and equipment options would be a lot more limited, obviously classes like Paladin or Wizard would be a lot harder to justify as viable options for such characters
2. There would have to be some sort of class option, if they did not have access to the regular classes I would go with something kind of like the sidekick rules from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything where they at least have some sort of class and level progression system. That said I am not sure what would be best, I am probably leaning towards more keeping the regular class rules, just maybe limiting the options a bit and adding more than a bit of homebrew.
That said I kind of want to open the option up for them to play larger creatures like Ogres and proper large Minotaurs as well.
Really more at the brainstorming stage and don't really have anything concrete, was thinking that the starting premise would be that the players are an odd group of monsters, they are outcasts from their tribes and have formed a group with each other out of a mutual desire for survival with each player using the unique strengths of their race to work together and achieve goals. Not exactly sure what the story would be whether it be that they get to close to a human settlement and become the target of hunters or if they find a powerful but chaotic and unpredictable magical artefact and see what they do with it, or if they are to become an unlikely group of heroes.
There’s a webcomic called goblins that’s like this. A group of goblins survives an attack by adventurers and then goes off and becomes adventurers. It might give you some ideas. It started like one of those that gently pokes fun at D&D conventions, like one of the goblins asking why they don’t actually use the gear in the poorly locked chest in the center of the village. But it really gets pretty interesting with the way they’re treated by the humans, and stuff like who’s really the monsters here.
That's the point at which you'll need to be doing quite a bit of house ruling; you'll most likely need to reinvent Savage Species from 3.5e... which isn't impossible but is a lot of work.
Maybe run with humanoid species up front and, every now and then, do a special night where it's Ogre / Minotaur mission, etc. It could be that the characters being played have to convince the larger creatures to do the special event. That way it's there, fun, doesn't need much rules or balance, and creates a motivation for the players.