The Goblins Fan Forum

A while back I ran a Monster Mash Battle Royale, where players took on the role of increasingly higher CR monsters as they slugged it out to be the last standing. I enjoyed it, but got real busy, and had allowed a few monsters into the mix whose primary strategy was just to hide... Doesn't make for engaging turns.

My idea for a reboot in that vein is to have players make characters that are on a team, and face waves of monsters I'd be running.

Initial thought is that we decide on a level, and all players can make a PC of whatever build they like using standard array for attributes, with a level appropriate budget to buy whatever magic items they'd like. Alternately, they could choose to be a monster of a CR =< that level.

It would be fairly story and RP light, the focus on fighting monsters and combat.

If you're interested, sound off, and give a vote for starting level/CR, 1-20!

Sure, I'm in. Hmm. CR 10 for starters, depending on how many we are on a team.

I'd probably cap it at 4-5, to start, but if there is lots of interest, can make it bigger, it do multiple runs.

Could one be a team of monsters that come together to that CR, or would that require cooperation?

There's definitely not a certain combination of monsters I've been wanting to try out...

Can be mix of monster and PC, or all monster if you want.

Right now has somewhat of an arcade game feel to it... This barbarian is on a team with a froghemoth. Why? No one knows.

Of course, if you want to spin backstories, you'd be welcome to.

Sure, should be fun. May be a good way to experiment with combat strategies on the player side as well. Are we picking and choosing the player mix or using predetermined? If we're starting with low levels I'll vote for CR 3-5.

Looking at things more, I think that if you go monster, we'd have to go with a CR less than PC level. A CR monster is generally more than a match for a player of the same level.

What you play is entirely up to you once we decide where we're starting!

A benefit to doing PCs is that they can be leveled up or down, as needed, can't do that as easy with monsters.

Yeah, CR is supposed to be equivalent of FOUR party members, right? So can't really do a one on one match.

I'd be more inclined to say "let's go pure monster mash", but whatever you prefer

Yeah, I'd been kind of basing my initial thoughts on polymorph...

"The new form can be any beast whose Challenge rating is equal to or less than the target's (or the target's level, if it doesn't have a Challenge rating)."

But beasts don't do anything too crazy, and cap out at CR 6. So the point that a monster is scaled to challenge a party of 4 is a good one.

I'm good either way, just thought I'd open it up more, if anyone had a PC build they wanted to test. Could be the one ranger and his 4 demon buddies as your team, of that's what you want!

Mixed parties might be a bit tougher to balance, but we'll make it work.

Could be interesting. And having more monsters would at least mean I don't have to worry about how the heck people build higher level characters. XD

That said, if we want to coordinate rather than just smashing together a team, I'm willing to take a support role.

Sounds like there is more of an interest in playing monsters than PCs? That's fine by me, as you suggest, it means less investment into learning a higher level PC and all the stuff they can do. We'll use CR as our metric then, and if someone wants to do a PC, we'll figure out what that means.

So far:

Lower level, CR 3-5 : Lurks
CR 10: Rodgeir

?? : M0rtimer & Dlover

So monster v. monster? I'm game. Either way actually.

Level 1 characters against insurmountable high level beasts in which everyone almost always dies... Is my vote.

I'll pick gladiator pits for area

Hm... 3-5 is a lot to choose from, so I think probably CR10.

I think Lurks was just suggesting somewhere in that range, so we could call it 3, 4 or 5, but you can vote for CR 10... guess I should look and see what's there at that level!

My suggestion would be a bit more complex: for now say that CR 5 is a good starting point, and then we can increase from there... But say that a team has 3 players on it - Rather than say that max CR per player is 5, the CR pool becomes 15. So then, if two players are for example happy playing a CR3 monster, one could play one of CR 9 instead. That should theoretically match..? And gives the advantage you could have a 2v3 matchup for example, with both just a pool of 15.

CR isn't quite scaled linearly, but is also only a general measure. Could be worth a try. Seems like we have interest, we just need to give something a go?

I think for any player creatures that are legendary, you would not get any lair or legendary actions, as you'd have allies, and not just be solo.

I guess we could let Coyote decide which level we started with.

I'd be fine with that if that's what you guys want to do. Benefit of starting smaller is that we can scale up, my original battle Royale had a mechanic like that, where you could earn 'points' that converted into CR bumps.

If there was interest, we could start low, and as you defeat monsters, you can take on their forms for later battles? If anyone is familiar with the Mistborn Trilogy, like kandra consuming bodies to use the bones to take on the original form?

For example, if you start out as a team of CR 1 monsters, and I toss a mix of CR 1 and 2 monsters at you, once you beat them, there would be some new forms available. You could decide as a group or by draft or lottery who gets to move up, and they take the bones of the new form, leaving behind their former, if someone wanted to switch to that?

Might make for an interesting connection across battles, and give a bit more of a goal?

ah, wait, it wouldn't be a versus thing, but a "us vs you" thing? That could work.

Yeah, I was picturing a you vs me type scenario. I think the bone swapping might allow for some interesting party strategies, as you get a feel for what works well and what doesn't with mixed parties.

Hmm... My one "issue" with that format would be that, if part of the fun is supposed to be "I want to try X creature", doing it in the "You have now unlocked X" method does not allow that.

...Unless of course, we can also suggest monsters. And then we gotta prove we can beat it first before we can use it...

edit: also, the story should obviously be that some mad god has put forth a challenge on the mortals, constantly reincarnating them... If they can make it all the way to the end of the gauntlet, maybe they'll be freed..?

Starting lower and gradually building up could be fun, true.

Not only the first Mistborn trilogy but also, arguably, the better Wax and Wayne trilogy! Maybe super doppelgangers?

I am up for trying nearly whatever. We can just start with something and see how it works and tweak as needed. A deathfest, however, is less appealing to me.