Monster Mash

Monster Mash

"1 part WBW, 1 part Flurbery, mix well and serve."

The Monster Mash is a 5-man team round robin shatter battle(?) tournament. Each team is comprised of monsters with a total of 10 quester/monster ratio. Each team must field all 5 players. All players must play monsters from the list below.

The playing field is a 60' by 20' area, with teams starting at opposite ends. Any enchantments are considered pre-cast.

Monsters are divided into three categories by "alignment", Good, Neutral, and Evil. No team may contain both good and evil monsters.

Reeves will be instructed to dole out minor bonuses to monsters who play In Character:

• Additional Lives (no more than %25 more, rounded down)
• Additional Natural armor (1 or 2 points)
• Improved Shields/weapons
• Armor of quality
• +1 level
• Various enchantments (protect, pro ailment)

All these bonus will take effect either on the player's next life or when the Reeve calls Speed Time because the other team has been wiped out.

Available Monsters

The monster list is made available in advance so people can start building their teams and quite possibly working on garb. One monster (Skirit) was added later, though several requests for additions have since been turned down.

The available monsters were selected with several goals in mind.

• Ease of Reeving: keep the list relatively short
• Avoid certain abilities: Very Strong, Incorporeal, Create Minion, and a few others
• Theme: "Classic" D&D monsters.
• Balance: The alignments should be relatively equal.
• Variety: A wide selection of powers and Q/M levels.

Each alignment has a variety of monsters to choose from. Fliers, casters, melee fighters, and ranged fighters (with a fair amount of overlap). Only good gets monsters that can Heal. Only evil has a monster that gets Tough (at 6th level: Basilisk). Evil has access to several monsters with regeneration, while good has none (though the Gryphon, a neutral monster, gains this trait at 3rd level).

Good

• Brownie 1/1
• Centaur 2/1
• Common Sylvan Elf 3/1
• Deva 3/1
• Dryad 1/1
• Dwarf 1/1
• Pegasus 1/1
• Unicorn 2/1

Neutral

• Gryphon 3/1
• Lizardman 1/1
• Minotaur 2/1

Evil

• Basilisk 3/1
• Deep Dweller Elf 3/1
• Goblin 0.5/1
• Harpy 1/1
• Orc 2/1
• Skeleton 2/1
• Skirit 1/1
• Troll, Regenerating 3/1
• Zombie 2/1

Monster Changes

Several "behavioral vulnerabilities" have been removed for the purposes of the Monster Mash:

• Deva: No longer Beneficent
• Zombie: No longer Slow

Monster Level

Each player's monster level is initially determined by (shocker) their monster level, as modified thusly:

• No monster garb: 1st level
• Excellent Monster Garb: +1 to +2 levels.

Future Plans

Lucas the Lost, inventor of the Monster Mash, plans to make this a recurring annual event, with various changes:

• Monster level shall be determined solely by Monster Garb Quality. Arts & Sciences will play a critical role in battlefield success.
• Allow any number of players over 5. 20 goblins? Go for it.
• There are two things that can be modified to help fit a Monster Mash into the available time based on the number of teams entering. First, the number of lives available to participants. 1/2, 1/4, or even "last life" are all available options. Second, the format: "round robin" can be dropped in favor of "double elimination" or even "single elimination".

History

The First Annual Monster Mash was scheduled for Saturday February 7th, 2009 at Siar Geata. The Lords of Thunder and Mud did not look kindly on this plan, and instead sent torrential rains. The attendees had a great time anyway, but there was no mashing of monsters to be found.

Lucas plans to further refine this event and host it at some point in the near future.