This is probably a stupid question, but I'm writing an adventure involving bandits, and I just want to throw in whatever races sound dangerous, interesting, or dangerously interesting. However, my very rigid, hidebound subconscious says I can't create a Human bandit with a Bugbear lieutenant and a Firbolg, a Tortle, and an Illithid in the mix. Within my own game, sure, I can get away with that sort of nonsense, but if I want to publish something like this, my brain balks at it because the lore says a Bugbear could never be a trusted, energetic lieutenant, a Firbolg would never leave the forest with a group like this, a Tortle would rather enjoy life than cause such harm to others, and an Illithid would probably see itself as above the petty activities of a group of bandits.
So since I'm working on the adventure for next month's RPG Workshop and would like to see it published, here's my question: how important is it that what I write adhere to the lore as described in the books?
The Wizards published adventures are full of motley crews and other "unexpected" mixes ... it's actually almost cliche at this point. That said, your instincts are right that the mix does need some sort of story plot point "glue" to hold them together. There's already at least one evil Tortle in D&D current edition lore, even has an official WizKids mini. I think you're only really problematic choice would be your Mind Flayer unless the Illithid is a sort of "invisible hand" who puppet masters the rest and only reveals itself when necessary. If you just want something at the Mind Flayer level but just part of the brigand crew, I'd do a switcheroo for one of the Gith species ... they'll be in the crew for "reasons" that make perfect sense to the Gith's multiplayer agenda even though anyone else on the prime material plane would be left scratching their head if the Gith bothered to explain.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Thanks for the reply. The examples cited were made up on the spot. Despite having only run one campaign, I am just already tired of having yet another band of orcs ravaging the countryside and would like to change it up in writing an adventure for the DMs Guild, if I can.
Like I said, if you read through the Wizards adventures, changing up monsters that push the lore is pretty common. There's also a significant amount of 3rd party content (Kobold Press has a some good ones) that published alt monsters where the PCs think they're knowing what they're dealing with, but then the table gets flipped. Can't use 3rd party materials in DMsGuild though.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The way i see it, Wizards shows you what is common in the world every now and then shows you the weird ones to show you that oddities exist. The combo you gave is fairly possible strangely enough, the Human may have stumbled upon each one of them in strange scenarios like for example, the bugbear may have been enslaved by other group of bandits and the human freed him and with time the bugbear have gotten a lot for respect for the human joining him in battle, the illithid on the other hand might be been an exile from it's people and the human had promised it to learn more about the arcane through their journey and so on forth...
Basically turn them something close to the band of misfits joined together under one goal.
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Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
In my professional opinion, the lore of that wizards puts forward is only as important to the story you write as you want it to be. Your bandits could literally just be another group of adventurers, think how diverse a party can be, who all came together just because they can but have turned to a life of crime as opposed to a life of adventure
As a player I LOVE encountering rag-tag-oddball-mixed bag groups of enemies. If I saw a bugbear, mindflayer, firbolg, human, etc. all teamed up I would know we are in for a dangerous fight.
As for "verisimilitude" - If I saw that group I would assume it's the mind flayer in charge and the others are all thralls.
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This is probably a stupid question, but I'm writing an adventure involving bandits, and I just want to throw in whatever races sound dangerous, interesting, or dangerously interesting. However, my very rigid, hidebound subconscious says I can't create a Human bandit with a Bugbear lieutenant and a Firbolg, a Tortle, and an Illithid in the mix. Within my own game, sure, I can get away with that sort of nonsense, but if I want to publish something like this, my brain balks at it because the lore says a Bugbear could never be a trusted, energetic lieutenant, a Firbolg would never leave the forest with a group like this, a Tortle would rather enjoy life than cause such harm to others, and an Illithid would probably see itself as above the petty activities of a group of bandits.
So since I'm working on the adventure for next month's RPG Workshop and would like to see it published, here's my question: how important is it that what I write adhere to the lore as described in the books?
The Wizards published adventures are full of motley crews and other "unexpected" mixes ... it's actually almost cliche at this point. That said, your instincts are right that the mix does need some sort of story plot point "glue" to hold them together. There's already at least one evil Tortle in D&D current edition lore, even has an official WizKids mini. I think you're only really problematic choice would be your Mind Flayer unless the Illithid is a sort of "invisible hand" who puppet masters the rest and only reveals itself when necessary. If you just want something at the Mind Flayer level but just part of the brigand crew, I'd do a switcheroo for one of the Gith species ... they'll be in the crew for "reasons" that make perfect sense to the Gith's multiplayer agenda even though anyone else on the prime material plane would be left scratching their head if the Gith bothered to explain.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Thanks for the reply. The examples cited were made up on the spot. Despite having only run one campaign, I am just already tired of having yet another band of orcs ravaging the countryside and would like to change it up in writing an adventure for the DMs Guild, if I can.
Like I said, if you read through the Wizards adventures, changing up monsters that push the lore is pretty common. There's also a significant amount of 3rd party content (Kobold Press has a some good ones) that published alt monsters where the PCs think they're knowing what they're dealing with, but then the table gets flipped. Can't use 3rd party materials in DMsGuild though.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The way i see it, Wizards shows you what is common in the world every now and then shows you the weird ones to show you that oddities exist. The combo you gave is fairly possible strangely enough, the Human may have stumbled upon each one of them in strange scenarios like for example, the bugbear may have been enslaved by other group of bandits and the human freed him and with time the bugbear have gotten a lot for respect for the human joining him in battle, the illithid on the other hand might be been an exile from it's people and the human had promised it to learn more about the arcane through their journey and so on forth...
Basically turn them something close to the band of misfits joined together under one goal.
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
In my professional opinion, the lore of that wizards puts forward is only as important to the story you write as you want it to be. Your bandits could literally just be another group of adventurers, think how diverse a party can be, who all came together just because they can but have turned to a life of crime as opposed to a life of adventure
As a player I LOVE encountering rag-tag-oddball-mixed bag groups of enemies. If I saw a bugbear, mindflayer, firbolg, human, etc. all teamed up I would know we are in for a dangerous fight.
As for "verisimilitude" - If I saw that group I would assume it's the mind flayer in charge and the others are all thralls.