WARNING!
This post has been written at some cursed part of the morning in which no man should be awake, so I can't promise you it'll be as coherent as it is in my head. Or at all, actually. Infact, I can promise you quite the opposite. This will suck to read, but hopefully the point gets across even if you don't read my post in it's entirety. Fuck, even my warning is a ramble.
=============
This post has been written at some cursed part of the morning in which no man should be awake, so I can't promise you it'll be as coherent as it is in my head. Or at all, actually. Infact, I can promise you quite the opposite. This will suck to read, but hopefully the point gets across even if you don't read my post in it's entirety. Fuck, even my warning is a ramble.
=============
I made a thread recently in which I detailed my concept for the perfect monster hunter campaign are the Supernatural franchise. Part of my minimum requirements for my vision was there had to be variety in the monsters, and the hunting. This lead me to a conclusion:
There really isn?t much variety in monsters at the moment.
Admittedly, the conclusion is neither interesting nor is it particularly insightful. It did give me the idea for this thread, which I now realise I?ve spent too long getting too. Sorry, sometimes that point thing eludes me. There, I did it again. Two more sentences and I?m still not at the damned point. Look I?ll just give it to you without further set up before I it gets lost in the unfiltered stream of conscious thought which has been the rest of this post. Fuck. Here it is:
What monsters would you like to see used more often?
It doesn?t matter how frequently it is used, how popular, whatever. If you really want to see more zombies, feel free to share. Just tell us why the current crop of zombie material isn?t sufficient ? and what else they have to bring to the table. You can make one up if you feel like it, though please tell me it?s made up before I say something stupid. Bonus points for give it an awesome names.
Various details which you may/may not wish to add in an attempt give your answer some context:
* Why that monster?
* Where would you like to see it used? Books, games, movies?
* Give us a brief description of the monster!
* How would you like to see that monster implemented? E.g. - Do you want to see Twilight with a kraken?
* Where does the mythology behind your creature originate from?
...all the monsters? Can that be my answer? No. Right, has to be more specific, I?m going to say... shape shifters! Totally not because it?s the first thing I thought of when I tried to think of monsters with powers that would make interesting game play but becaus-
Wait, that?s exactly it. I can already imagine the shock when you find out a recurring character in your game has been replaced by Shape shifter and realising all the hints you?ve missed. Here?s the set-up:
You?re a monster hunter, and when being introduced to some of the lore you?re told about shape shifters ? and it doesn?t come up again afterwards. Except a character has been replaced, and subtle hints are dropped throughout the game that this has happened. Later, if you haven?t figured it out you find the characters body ? but you know it?s still alive. Uh-oh.
So now you?ve got to figure out how to approach this ? do you look through the lore, trying to figure out what?s up? Do you confront the character about it? Trap the character, and interrogate it? Just decide to stab the fuck out of him, because fuck you ? violence! If you decide to talk it out ? make killing it a morally ambiguous scenario for extra awesome. Make it claim ? perhaps unverifiable ? that it only tried took the form of the character because it was already dead. Or something, hire actual writers ? I?m not your *****.
Do you know what?s cooler? You actually figured it out before finding the body, and you can act on it! Obviously you can?t use any current dialogue system ? except maybe to ask some seemingly random questions which you can reference with earlier conversations to see if the character really is still the character - without revealing the twist, but the lore has details on how to trap a Shape shifter which is unique to the creature. Doing so will let you interrogate it, bringing this plot arch back to the same place as if you didn?t discover it early.
There are other cool things you could do to narrow down what could be causing the character to act differently ? and added red herrings!
* You?ve encountered a character early who was possessed without you (probably) knowing it (hey, having a possession at the start of the game would be some great paranoia for the rest of the game ? what if somebody else is?), so you trick it into walking into a Devil?s Trap. Or read an exorcism in front of it. Or just throw holy water on it. Obviously the more overt the action the more likely you are to tip your hand, prompting the creature to take pre-emptive action.
* Maybe the character just isn?t feeling okay ? presumably the character is a person, so having signs things aren?t alright in other areas would be cool. Maybe have it drink more than the character use to, or something.
* So, perhaps it?s still the same person but now he?s a monster. You know, it?s a Vampire! He hasn?t been out in the daylight recently, now you think of it, so maybe he?s acting strange because he got bit. Perhaps putting a steak through the heart is a little rash (though hilarious if you can?t actually kill the shape sifter that way) so you try to get it to go out into the daylight. Or, I don?t know, cut yourself in front of it. See what it does.
And so on, and so forth.
As for which particular brand of shape shifter? I don?t particularly care ? it?s more the general, incoherent, idea above that I?m interested. Perhaps that cheating, considering the question. Fuck you, just be happy if you can comprehend what I?ve written.
It?s pretty lame in narratives where the audience has no agency. Waiting an entire book/comic/season/movie for the rather obvious pay off is boring. It?d be just as bad if the game gave you no method to act before the ultimate reveal as well.
Wait, that?s exactly it. I can already imagine the shock when you find out a recurring character in your game has been replaced by Shape shifter and realising all the hints you?ve missed. Here?s the set-up:
You?re a monster hunter, and when being introduced to some of the lore you?re told about shape shifters ? and it doesn?t come up again afterwards. Except a character has been replaced, and subtle hints are dropped throughout the game that this has happened. Later, if you haven?t figured it out you find the characters body ? but you know it?s still alive. Uh-oh.
So now you?ve got to figure out how to approach this ? do you look through the lore, trying to figure out what?s up? Do you confront the character about it? Trap the character, and interrogate it? Just decide to stab the fuck out of him, because fuck you ? violence! If you decide to talk it out ? make killing it a morally ambiguous scenario for extra awesome. Make it claim ? perhaps unverifiable ? that it only tried took the form of the character because it was already dead. Or something, hire actual writers ? I?m not your *****.
Do you know what?s cooler? You actually figured it out before finding the body, and you can act on it! Obviously you can?t use any current dialogue system ? except maybe to ask some seemingly random questions which you can reference with earlier conversations to see if the character really is still the character - without revealing the twist, but the lore has details on how to trap a Shape shifter which is unique to the creature. Doing so will let you interrogate it, bringing this plot arch back to the same place as if you didn?t discover it early.
There are other cool things you could do to narrow down what could be causing the character to act differently ? and added red herrings!
* You?ve encountered a character early who was possessed without you (probably) knowing it (hey, having a possession at the start of the game would be some great paranoia for the rest of the game ? what if somebody else is?), so you trick it into walking into a Devil?s Trap. Or read an exorcism in front of it. Or just throw holy water on it. Obviously the more overt the action the more likely you are to tip your hand, prompting the creature to take pre-emptive action.
* Maybe the character just isn?t feeling okay ? presumably the character is a person, so having signs things aren?t alright in other areas would be cool. Maybe have it drink more than the character use to, or something.
* So, perhaps it?s still the same person but now he?s a monster. You know, it?s a Vampire! He hasn?t been out in the daylight recently, now you think of it, so maybe he?s acting strange because he got bit. Perhaps putting a steak through the heart is a little rash (though hilarious if you can?t actually kill the shape sifter that way) so you try to get it to go out into the daylight. Or, I don?t know, cut yourself in front of it. See what it does.
And so on, and so forth.
As for which particular brand of shape shifter? I don?t particularly care ? it?s more the general, incoherent, idea above that I?m interested. Perhaps that cheating, considering the question. Fuck you, just be happy if you can comprehend what I?ve written.
It?s pretty lame in narratives where the audience has no agency. Waiting an entire book/comic/season/movie for the rather obvious pay off is boring. It?d be just as bad if the game gave you no method to act before the ultimate reveal as well.
