Re: [DL] Monster Survey

[Phadris@aol.com]

Howdy --

>No this is not a really big survey, this is a quick
>question on how people handle monsters.  

Personally, I like using a monster once in front of my players.  Sometimes 
you need the Weird West equivalent of "orcs", but I prefer to reset my 
thinking to "real bad men" instead of making a monster something you take for 
granted.  I think Walkin' Dead should be really scary, not just another 
minority you try to woo in the next elections.

I like the sense in Deadlands of "it was just a mountain lion".  I like the 
world to be mostly normal with an evil overture of weirdness lurking in the 
background.  I like the idea that most folks wouldn't believe your stories of 
Devil Bats, and most people would throw rocks at someone caught Hexslingin'.

GRW painted a different picture, of legions of wolves and Gatling-armed 
troops.  Although it made for a fun game in it's own right, I don't like the 
influence it's had on the atmosphere of Deadlands.  You just shouldn't find 
an Automaton in the parking lot, topping off his boilers and swapping stories 
with a steam wagon jockey.  I know, the source books run somewhere between 
these two extremes, but I still prefer my West to be a bit more Wild than 
Weird.

So when I trot out a monster, I like it to be some twisted manifestation that 
the characters have never seen before.  I like the games to feel more 
Cthulhu-esque than D&D-esque, but that's just my personal preference.

Tom "we don' neeed no steenking hobbits!" Huntington
The Truth Is Yonder