Make Monsters Unique

Check out Rise of the Lazy Gamemaster coming soon to Kickstarter! Describe monsters instead of labelling them so every encounter with a monster is a unique and fresh experience. Ogres are scary. Even if a player watched previous characters battle ogres twenty times before, the first time they face an ogre with a new character, that character would be right to be terrified. We lose this terror if we simply call it an "ogre" and jump to rolling the dice. Instead, use flavorful and distinctive descriptions to bring back the terror of facing such a foe. Ogres are big. Ogres are powerful. They might have gory scars or terrifying tattoos or chipped tusks. Their weapon may be a runed femur with a spiked skull on the end. They might have filed their teeth into points or shaped their mohawk out of the dried blood of their enemies. With the right description, every creature in our RPGs can be unique among all others. Every monster can be scary again, even if our players faced them dozens of…