Ecological vs. Mythological

some monsters are ecological. they eat, they sleep, they shit and get eaten. goblins are ecological. kobolds, usually. giant spiders.

some monsters are mythological. their existence is a contrivance, artificial. they exist to serve a purpose, and do nothing outside of that. the necromancer raises skeletons to guard their floating fortress. the sirens sit upon their island to kill adventurers. the sphinx.

making mythological monsters ecological is possible and cool, but it's not very natural, and takes a lot of good thought. what do skeletons eat?

making ecological monsters mythological is actually pretty easy, and usually just involves invoking a "story" aesthetic. (goblins out of fairy tales, shelob from LotR, plague of rats, etc.)

some monsters you have to choose. dragons. most big baddies actually. faeries. ghosts and spirits. not choosing puts them in sort of a weird pseudo-real spot. is the dragon attacking the town because it is hungry? or because the townsfolk haven't paid enough tribute? do spirits naturally arise under certain circumstances? or are they here because this castle is haunted?

deciding if the monster is ecological or mythological will answer these sorts of questions.

this doesn't have much in-game bearing. i've just been thinking about it recently.

SKELETONS!

    i think skeletons are great, wonderful enemies. spooky undead without the gore and grossness of zombies. love that stuff.

    i love it when people take "regular" enemies and treat them as significant and scary! a lot of people do a lot of good work on that front. Im gonna try and do the same!

    I don't think skeletons should be normal enemies.

---~~~---

    normal enemies is like bandits. it's like, goblins and kobolds, (ecological ones, not mythological ones. see this post.) people know they exist. they make regular incursions into ordinary life. goblins raid caravans, attack the fringes of civilization. they are natural.

    skeletons are UNDEAD. a reanimated human, subject to dark magic. unless you have a necromancy friendly society, but if that's true, then you already have your own strong opinions on skeletons. a walking representation of our animal fear of death! SUPERNATURAL PHENOMENON. i think they would be (to the people of a game world) SCARIER than goblins or beasts or even something completely alien like an ooze. again, this is just low level stuff we're talking about here. of course that howling writhing flesh ooze the Thing monstrosity is scarier than a skeleton.

• ordinary folk are deathly afraid of skeletons. they just run, screaming. this includes hirelings who are ordinary folk (the one the pcs hired to take care of their horses, or that farmer who took them to where the dungeon is)
• hirelings who have a little more backbone should save vs. fear, morale check, save or run screaming, whatever your system uses. torch bearers. loot holders. crossbow reloaders. those kinds of folk.
• pcs and hirelings who fight don't need to save. it's still a low level enemy, even if it's a scary one.

    i don't think you need to particularly try to describe them in a scary way. they're scary in the world, but i don't think they should be to the players. easy to figure out, easy to deal with once figured out. 

 ---~~~---

skeletons take 1 damage from any slashing, cutting sort of attack. straight up tell your players this.

"I hit the skeleton with my sword. Oh nice, i hit. rolling damage."

"Naw, you don't need to roll. you do one damage."

"Wait, what?"

"yeah, your sword smacks into the skeleton and like, it bonk against it but it doesn't cut anything. What would there be to cut?"

    skeletons take no damage from arrows. ofc if your pcs have special bludgeoning arrows or guns or something then that's a different story.

    adjudicate piercing damage according to common sense. dagger? no dice. war pick? probably will work, just not as effectively as it would be against fleshy targets.

    bludgeoning weapons do damage as normal.

---~~~---

    skeletons don't have ligaments or shit like that. their bones are held together by DARK MAGICS. if the pcs get cheeky and knock an arm off or something just have the skeleton reattach it. describe how they can see the magical energy pulling the bones back together. maybe even some magical rune/sigil/spell goodness carved into the bones.

    don't forget to inject a little goofiness in there. always gotta balance spooky with goofy. describe the clattering noise they make as they walk around. describe how the pc bops a head off and it goes bouncing away. just the bottom half, ineffectually walking around.

    if you want them not to reassemble you better start crushing shit.    knocking their head off is a good tactic only because skulls are more likely to shatter than other bones.

---~~~---

     the defining trait for skeletons, in my eyes, should be "hard to kill" same category as oozes. they don't do much damage. they're not very fast. they're either there for flavor or as a frontline while something more annoying harasses the players. they don't have special abilites like oozes though! unless:

some weirder skeletons:

• animal skeletons. use animal skeletons. use monster skeletons. i'm begging you they're cool.
• ranged skeletons. put them somewhere hard to reach if you want to be nasty. archers who can't be shot is very funny.
• magical skeletons. don't have skeletons cast magic. have skeletons be the locus for magical effects. give your skeleton a magic necklace that dehydrates things in a radius. stuff like that that doesn't affect skeletons. locusts or something. localized sandstorms.
• skeletons that combine into a bigger skeleton. After the players dispatch the skeletons have the bones recombine into a huge skelemonster. same rules, more hit die, more damage. 3+ arms for sure.
• skeletons that have been put together funny. 4 arms means twice the attacks. works great with monster skeletons.
  
• crystalized skeleton. does more damage. takes more damage. anti-magic, absorbs spells thrown at it to heal
• fire skeleton. we love ghost rider.
• explodo skeleton. bones explode when broken. bone shard shrapnel. describe how they move "jerkily, shuddering, like they're under a lot of pressure."
  

 ---~~~---

    put your skeletons in:

• coffins. the classic
• in water. the PCs are riding a boat over said water.
• cages/hanging from chains. they look like normal skeletons at first...
• on wheels. also a classic.
• in the dirt.
• in bone piles. "the bones start to shuffle around..."
• in oozes. destroy the ooze and out pops the skeleton
• just walking out and about. nothing wrong with that.
  

    skeletons shouldn't say things unless they're like, super scary liches or something especially dark and especially magical like that. but if you want your skeletons to Skeletor "NYEEEEH" then by all means. love that shit.

hostile architecture

    making dungeons really work against the players, down to the bones. this isn't about traps that do things to the players. alone, these things shouldn't pose a challenge (i.e. without any pressure, this wouldn't require a roll), which is why you throw enemies at the players while they're navigating it.

the classics:

• rickety rope bridge over chasm
• shooty enemies pop up when you're halfway across. i'm not a huge fan of "uh oh that monster is sawing through the ropes!"
• maybe even just a chasm, no bridge. something tasty is on the other side. the players can figure it out.
• various traps to divide the players:
• from matt colville: chute trap sends a few of them sliding away from the party. they are now Somewhere Else. the party must reunite. send enemies at one group.
• also from matt colville: portcullis slams down and divides the party. send enemies at both groups. portcullis because players can see eachother and reach through the bars.
  
• "press both pressure plates to activate the door." send enemies at both groups.
•  if you can't decide which group of players to send monsters at, the answer is always the squishier one.
• tall, tall ceiling, can't see what's up there!
• i like catwalks. enemies can harass the party (especially if they fly) but the players can get up there too.
  

    then there's stuff for locations that weren't quite built for people to use. the pyramids are an example. no one is going to be using the space after its built, so the architecture can get weird without breaking verisimilitude. "what do you mean how were people supposed to get around in this place? they weren't." strange alien spaces that reject humanity.

• verticality. forget slopes. forget stairs. any time you would have a slope or a staircase, have the higher and lower passages connect with a vertical shaft. i'll draw a picture cuz it's hard to explain with words.
• doing it for every slope might be too much!
• don't forget to throw enemies at the party while they're trying to get up or down. have them knock down the players' ladder, or cut their rope.
• can go even further. vertical shafts. nothing to climb. big pit. something nice at the bottom.
• or maybe don't forget slopes. steep smooth slopes are fun. slide into something dangerous?

like this.

• small passages. you gotta crawl through it. can range from hands and knees to on your stomach.
• some PCs might not even fit! there's gotta be a different path though.
• don't forget to throw small crawly enemies at the party while they're trying to go through.
• for extra fun, make the heavily armored character have to take off their armor to fit.
  
• thin walkways. no guardrails of course.
• shooty enemies. or ones that can drag/push the PCs.
• protrusions from the walls or ceiling. chest height, make weapons harder to use.
• probably pair with something that doesn't attack using arms.
• not from the floor, that's just called cover.

    weirder stuff. problem with these is that it feels mostly like "i, the dm, put these here as a challenge for you, the players." and not "yeah someone built this." maybe you can execute these in a way that works better.

• playgrounds are great for physicality. seesaws, jungle gyms. great for less serious adventures just gotta spice em up and give them that dungeon flavor.
• spikes on the ground. not a problem to walk through, the spikes are short and widely spaced enough. combine with enemies who are trying to knock you over, and don't suffer from being knocked over themselves, like skeletons.
• strange materials, pitch black stone, invisible walls, ice, gel, etc. haven't figured out a great way to use these yet, but there's potential.