I’ve nearly completed my first full read through of the alpha. I’m so excited to run a game with some folks that I play a variety of RPGs with. That being said, I want to make sure it’s as fun as possible. Namely, how to keep combat interesting and dynamic, especially with a somewhat limited list of adversaries.
My first thought is to simply use the same stats for a wider variety of creatures, namely orcs and trolls. These monsters can fight very differently even if their stats and abilities are on paper the same. I saw mention in another thread of spiders, which I hope make it into the final cut, since they’re mentioned multiple times, but also because they add a really neat element to any forest or mountain encounters.
But, I’ve also had in my mind the stretch goal of the Nameless Things. We’ll get to build our own, which is awesome! But my hope is we can use some of these mechanics to build our own typical adversaries. What if we want a wraith that has some degree of authority, but is under the dominion of the Witch-King? What if there’s a Beorning gone bad who crossed over the mountains, or a rogue clan of dwarves whose ancestors served Sauron? What about the possibility of dragons coming from the Northern Wastes?
All of that is to say, I hope that with this stretch goal we’ll have the ease of sprinkling in our own creations, without having to blunder our way through the process.