My latest session of Monster of the Week ended rather anticlimactically. My players tracked down the Krampus to its lair and blasted it to pieces. It scored a few hits, but the fight wasn’t particularly close. It ended with the Krampus running for cover from the Divine followed by the Professional blowing it away with a grenade launcher. Oof.
In this post I’m going to explore what we can do to make monsters more frightening, dynamic, and more interesting. If you have any tips for making Monster of the Week combat encounters more engaging, please message me over on Mastodon: @[email protected]
How Our Monster Fell Short
For our last session I came up with a Krampus and set a story around the monster trying to steal a child. My players had fun with the story and especially enjoyed roleplaying against the child in question, who was a brat. When it came to the monster however, the team made a couple investigation rolls, learned its weaknesses, did some magic to locate the creature, and dispatched it in about two rounds of combat.
During our after-session chat, a player asked if we could have more combat in the upcoming sessions. Interestingly, the same player had said there was too much combat following a previous session. That tells me I need to make the monster fights more interesting.
After some reflection I think the monster was too passive vis-à-vis the party. The Krampus should have tried to stop the team from learning its weaknesses–maybe even tried to kill the team before they were ready.
A New Formula
My MotW sessions share a basic outline. The players first investigate the monster indirectly, such as by examining the aftermath of an attack. The investigation yields clues which let them track down the monster and uncover its weakness. Finally, they confront the monster–usually for the first time–and slay it. Since the hunters come prepared with the monster’s weaknesses, the fight isn’t particularly scary. I want to change the formula.
Here’s a possible new formula: investigate – monster attack – complete investigation – final showdown. Throwing in an early monster attack when the players aren’t yet capable of defeating it will increase the tension and give urgency to the players’ quest to find its lair and weaknesses. The final fight should be cathartic as the players get payback for the earlier attack.
Applying the Formula in the Next Session
Let’s sketch out the beats of an adventure that fit the new formula for our next session. To avoid having the monster lurk at the end, we’ll make the Monster take an active role throughout the adventure. I think we need a traitor NPC to be the monster’s agent before it reveals itself. A Renfield-type who secretly works for the monster.
The traitor recruits the players to find a McGuffin. The monster wants the McGuffin but for whatever reason cannot retrieve on its own. Once the players accomplish a preliminary step, such as discovering a map, the monster shows up. It bats the party around, tries to steal the map, and departs. The party is then alerted to the real danger–the monster finding the McGuffin. They must hunt down the Monster and dispatch it before it gets the McGuffin.
There we have our four beats from the previous section: investigate the McGuffin, an early monster attack, investigate the monster and what it wants with the McGuffin, and then the showdown.
In the next post we’ll add some meat to these bones. Our task will be coming up with an adventure that incorporates our character backgrounds and advances our campaign arc. In the meantime, if you have any advice on making combat more exciting in Monster of the Week, please reach out on Mastodon @[email protected]
Feature Image “Mystic Subdual” by Filip Burburan copyright 2020 Wizards of the Coast