So the next leg or two of our campaign is going to involve a rural monster hunt.  The basic premise has been nailed down.  I've got the basic tropes covered (I think): sketchy details of the monster that can be misinterpreted/misidentified, and a time limit with consequences if the PCs fail to focus on the task (not end of the world consequences, though.  Things just get...more complicated.).

But really what I don't want this to be is a "successful tracking rolls = boss fight".  That seems to be what the "monster hunt" generally boils down to.  So I'm trying to inject as much fun as I can without the scenario becoming a complete game of chance.  So I thought I'd pitch the question: what have you done to make monster hunting in your game more fun for your players?  What tricks and techniques have paid off for you?  What do you avoid like the plague?  What sounded really good at first, only to blow up in your face in play?  How do you maximize player agency?  Tell me of your success stories!

Tom

one thing i have seen done is the target turning out to be fey. (never found out if that party survived)

it could be fun to have the target attack them after a while

Quote from: Blusponge;831245So the next leg or two of our campaign is going to involve a rural monster hunt.  The basic premise has been nailed down.  I've got the basic tropes covered (I think): sketchy details of the monster that can be misinterpreted/misidentified, and a time limit with consequences if the PCs fail to focus on the task (not end of the world consequences, though.  Things just get...more complicated.).

But really what I don't want this to be is a "successful tracking rolls = boss fight".  That seems to be what the "monster hunt" generally boils down to.  So I'm trying to inject as much fun as I can without the scenario becoming a complete game of chance.  So I thought I'd pitch the question: what have you done to make monster hunting in your game more fun for your players?  What tricks and techniques have paid off for you?  What do you avoid like the plague?  What sounded really good at first, only to blow up in your face in play?  How do you maximize player agency?  Tell me of your success stories!

Tom

Don't make it all about tracking rolls if you want to avoid "successful tracking rolls = boss fight". Inject some points of investigation into it, flesh out the area where the monster hunt takes place so you can give players details on the ground (Survival rolls are great for avoiding getting lost and such but if you are not giving players concrete details they can use it all kind of happens in a vacuum).

You have a timeline which I think helps a lot. One thing I did recently was I randomized my timeline. This was for an investigation but it also had monster hunt elements. So I rolled 1d10 each day to see who the bad guy killed (keep in mind the result has to make sense, player behavior may require you change results or play out a particular battle).

I learned a little about tracking so my tracking rolls include little clues/ information.

Well with hunting the idea is usually the thing hunted is trying to get away, so chase scenes can be fun but hard to simulate because I think they are a more visual thing.

I think the best plan would to build suspense with sitighings as the monster flees etc. If it has a lair they are seeking then make it frightening or creep with signs of how powerful the monster is.

Someone is protecting, buffing and healing the monster.  Perhaps there is a conspiracy in behind the monster sightings.  Different PC agendas.

Either the monster is very tough, very stealthy, or the PCs can't get it out in the open so they can't "nuke it till it glows".  In deep woods or other difficult terrain, it's very easy to get split up, lost, fatigued.

Don't just describe hit point attrition.  Describe wounds.  Make combat confusing and dangerous for the PCs.

Just killing it isn't enough - it must be captured.  Depending on the game you're playing, casting a single Sleep or Charm spell shouldn't be the easy option.

Split the party at every opportunity.  Giving the monster Fear/Terror effects helps.

The PCs need to do more than just hunt the beast - maybe they have to persuade the villagers to help.

Tracking rolls should mostly give solid clues, but there will be times when the information is misleading or offers different options.  Make the players think - from their clues, what kind of a beast is it?  Where might they find it?

Magic is a great equalizer for PCs, but that works both ways.

Time limits.  Resource limits.  Lotsa penalties as things fall apart.

Good movies/books - Alien and Aliens, Predator 1&2, Hound of the Baskervilles, Maneaters of Tsavo (filmed as The Ghost and the Darkness), Brotherhood of the Wolf, The 13th Warrior (-ish).  

The Descent, a movie about a bunch of women cavers trapped in an unknown cave system, is good for the limited resources/total freakout/party falls apart vibe that can be hard to pull off in RPGs, where PCs tend to behave like a SWAT team.  Torchbearer might give some good ideas on what happens when PCs get spooked, angry, hungry, injured and tired.

Really think about the capabilities of the monster. An intelligent monster can provide an entertaining game of cat & mouse. A typical beast is just going to come down to tracking it and killing it- so to be a worthy adversary the monster has to be something more than that.

Custom monsters with unorthodox abilities & skills work best. A fine example is the hunter from Predator. Here we have a group of highly trained badass fighters that have to deal with something their training couldn't possibly prepare them for. The hunt was exciting, because once the game was on they were hunting each other.

Think of the monster as being similar to a serial killer. Depending on how clever it is and how good it is about covering its tracks, it could take some time until it makes enough mistakes to zero in on it.

The movie Brotherhood of the Wolf is an excellent resource to mine for ideas on this.

1. It's not the monster they need to worry about, it's who is behind its rampaging.
2. They need to present a body for "the people" to see.
3. Not all their "friends" want it stopped in fact, many different groups profit from it existing.
4. Someone else has already "dealt with it" and proving that they haven't is a danger of its own.
...

There are some great ideas here. Here are some thoughts and elaborations from my experience. As Brendan suggested, a timeline is good. Also be prepared to adjust the timeline. If the monster realizes the PCs are hunting it, have the monster take action to counter the PCs. Depending on the type and intelligence of monster it may take a number of actions.

• Target one or more PCs (picking the toughest PC to show dominance, the weakest or most vulnerable PC if the attack is predatory – predators pick the weakest member of a herd).
• Conceal itself, either move to a hidden location or delay predation (if it has the intelligence and willpower to do so).
• Fortify its lair – setting traps (if intelligent and able), setting ambushes, and summoning minions.

Quote from: Momotaro;831265Just killing it isn't enough - it must be captured.

The recent Werewolf of Soissons adventure in Honor+Intrigue the local governor ordered the PCs to capture the creature so he could study it. (He's an alchemist and possibly a mad alchemist.) This complicated the player's actions, but did motivate them to create a big iron werewolf cage garlanded with wolfs bane.

QuoteSplit the party at every opportunity.  Giving the monster Fear/Terror effects helps.

Rough terrain helps with this. So can failed perception rolls making PCs think they saw or heard something in the distance. Also consider whether mist or fog could be present. Fog both conceals and distorts sound.

In a previous monster hunt for the "monster" was a madman who thought he was a werewolf. He set numerous traps in the woods around his lair and in his hunting grounds. The traps (which were not fatal due to the Fortune Point rules in H+I) combined with the terrain and weather effectively split up the party.

QuoteThe PCs need to do more than just hunt the beast - maybe they have to persuade the villagers to help.

Getting villagers or local militia/police to help in the hunt provides the ability to search a larger area quicker and also provides 'red shirts' or targets for the monster to attack. Thereby showing how dangerous the monster is and furnishing additional clues as to its nature. The PCs after the Werewolf of Soissons got help from the Governor's Guard, but the help came with the stipulation that they capture the beast.

QuoteTime limits.  Resource limits.  Lotsa penalties as things fall apart.

A timeline with additional victims if the monster is not stopped provides a defacto time limit and penalty for delay.

QuoteTorchbearer might give some good ideas on what happens when PCs get spooked, angry, hungry, injured and tired.

Honor+Intrigue includes Terror ratings which provides penalties to actions other than flight. Mechanically this pushes the PCs into acting less like a well oiled and fearless SWAT team.

One other thing I did was in the two end scenes (the werewolf escaped from the first 'final' boss fight) I created detailed maps so that the players could see the scene more clearly. The final, final boss fight occurred in a cave for which I used an actual map of a real cave which I then cut up into room sized mini-maps to show the players what their PCs could see. This made the players feel more confused and claustrophobic which made the final scene more memorable.

Don't know if you're familiar with CAS' The Beast of Averoigne?

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/11/the-beast-of-averoigne

Might give you some ideas, short story, good read.

Quote from: Bilharzia;831276Don't know if you're familiar with CAS' The Beast of Averoigne?

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/11/the-beast-of-averoigne

Might give you some ideas, short story, good read.

Since CAS based Averoigne on the real French province of Auvergne his Beast may have been inspired by the real life Beast of Gevaudan which stalked Auvergne in 1764-1767 and killed over one hundred people. King Louis XV eventually sent two successive sets of hunters in attempts to kill the beast.

Chill? Cryptworld?

Wow guys, thanks for the feedback. I think I'd been wandering pretty far afield in the "game" sense and was leaving huge chunks of "story" at the wayside.

Familiar with Brotherhood of the Wolf and the Beast of Gevaudan that inspired it.  Haven't had any luck finding CAS's anthologies at the library or HPB, so thanks for posting that link, Bilharzia.

QuoteJust killing it isn't enough - it must be captured. Depending on the game you're playing, casting a single Sleep or Charm spell shouldn't be the easy option.

Well, those spells aren't really an option.  So putting the beast on ice is going to be tricky.  But this has given me an fun.  The beast would make one helluva weapon to be turned against French or German forces once the military campaign resumes (this is late-1689, and the War of Grand Alliances is heating up).  I already had plans for miscreant hunters pursuing the beast, but having a group of secret professionals hunting it to turn it against their enemies is something I hadn't really considered before.  Now, how to do it without making it too cheesy...

Quote from: Matt;831287Chill? Cryptworld?

Witch Hunter: The Invisible World.  Similar premise: organization(s) working to protect innocents from the ravages of those things the haunt the night.  Very strong Solomon Kane-vibe.  Horror, swashbuckling adventure.  All the tools for both are built in.

I'd post a more detailed description to what I have planned, but you never know when players are watching.  Maybe after its over.  

Tom

Quote from: Blusponge;831245But really what I don't want this to be is a "successful tracking rolls = boss fight".  That seems to be what the "monster hunt" generally boils down to.  So I'm trying to inject as much fun as I can without the scenario becoming a complete game of chance.

I agree. Taking a step back to address skill checks in general, I had a very dumb situation where a tech character in SWN was tasked with repairing a stargate. I made it best two out of three rolls, and the margin of sucesses indicated how much of their spare resources were consumed.

In hindsight, that was me putting a cost on randomness, with no player choice involved. He had to make 2 out of three rolls, no matter how much resources were consumed. So it was still "Roll dice to proceed with the game" Bleargh.

So, my first thought is to set up a branching path scenario where the margin of sucess determines where they're likely to find the creature. A low, failing roll means they track it to an environment where the creature is at a huge advantage. A high, sucessful roll means they track it to a good place for trapping, like a dead-end ravine. The players could decide that going for an aligator monster in a swamp is probably a bad idea, and wait till it comes out. Good tracking rolls would give interesting information, like what kind of food the creature prefers, how often it moves, what it's preferred habitat is, if it's nocturnal, stuff like that.

The skill rolls should open up more information on the monster, and ways to use the environment to their advantage.

Quote from: Bren;831272Getting villagers or local militia/police to help in the hunt provides the ability to search a larger area quicker and also provides ‘red shirts’ or targets for the monster to attack.

And have your players take turns controlling any NPC that the monster attacks. Great for getting some dice rolls going at the table, and to get some tension brewing!