I find a great way to engage PC imaginations is to routinely use monsters as NPCs. The new Dungeons and Dragons 4e Chromatic and Metallic Dragons Guides have some good ideas on how to use powerful dragons as recurring NPCs and plot starters. The Monster Manual has guides for Monster stats as PCs and NPCs, to help with game mechanics. This post relates more on ideas on creating odd and memorable NPC monsters that PCs will talk about long after the campaign is one, years after.

1.) Pick A Beast
Flip through the monster manual and find a creature you have never heard of. If you have all the rule books in your bathroom and read them for hours a day while...multitasking.....you can go search old versions of monster manuals, our lovely internet, or your local library's mythology section.

2.) Give It A Personality You Know
Pick your favorite villain, hero, teacher, someone real or fictional that you know very well. This helps when you PCs do something you have not planned for. You can think, "What would my evil step sister do if someone double crossed her?". A good personality can lead to many random and most creative adventures!

3.) Name The Beast
This comes after the personality because it is easier to name something we know. That is why it is difficult to name a baby but easy to name Joe "Too Tall Joe" due to his stature.

4.) History
Tie your beast in to your campaign through politics, local legends, even a nursery rhyme. Then fill in the gaps as you go.

5.) Game Mechanics
Follow the monsters as NPCs rules, or not. Sometimes it is fun to keep players guessing. Maybe that Female Minitaur Captain seems streaky in encounters when really she just has a curse and gets a berserker frenzy during "that time of the month".

I use this as a template for NPCs aswell, I don't discriminate against any race and take all the help I can get when entertaining my PCs!

Remember use the mouths of your NPCs to describe your world. Refugees will be glad to unburden on those willing to listen, so make it worth the party's time to stop and listen. Take some time to craft a bit of scripted dialogue to add flavor to your monsters. Monsters are scenery in your world so be colorful and try to build them up as the party goes. Rummors, children's stories, tales of chance meetings all add an air of aloofness and anticipation your players will enjoy.

Example:

"Her presence is often described as tangible fear. That doesn't begin to describe the way my body shutdown the first time I met her. Muscles freezing as my heart seized, pulse beats hours apart as the air evaporated in the vacuum of her majestic malevolence. My eyes stuck open as if trying to consume the entirety of her beauty in one glance. The ruby colored scales heaving with each breath, the sound of countless treasures of log forgotten kingdoms crunching between her talons. The sheer awe of her size several leagues high and disappearing in to the cavern behind. Tendrils of smoke wafting forward from her nostrils carrying the sent of recently charred flesh."
"Then a "harrumph" and a smile, if she could smile, showing an army of pointed teeth in random rows."

Remember to work these types of narratives in to a few sessions before they actually meet the monsters. Use the players' memories to build their characters' memories.

You ever get stuck in a rut and not know how to get out of it? That catch phrase, "Think outside of the box", will usually come to mind. The best way to get out of the box is to use a portal to someplace else, ANYPLACE else. You don't have to change the box walls, interior, anything. Just make a gateway to someplace else that frees you from the constraints you have placed upon yourself in your current world. Remember portals can work both ways, so let some crazy in to your campaign or let your campaign in to some crazy!

Some suggestions:

Portal to the Abyss

Who doesn't like killing demons? There are tons of great things needing deadening in the Abyss that even the most Lawful Good player would kill without a second thought. Spice up your play with a random vortex of power that dumps denizens of hell on unsuspecting PCs. Nothing funnier than waking up to find a Quasit on your chest!

Portal to the Planes

A vacation to another plane of existence always keeps PCs on their toes! Send them to Sigil for a day or two on a limited quest to find some artifact. Throw your PCs in to an elemental plane where some scrying NPC just happens to be waiting for them with gear to "loan" them so they can explore that plane and complete some quest they may not even have known they were on.

Portal to the Bottom Of The Ocean

My favorite. How did that crazy Kraken get in to the pond? Some long dead magic user openned a portal to the wrong place and lost control of it. Or maybe that magic user openned a portal and died before he could close it again. Or maybe that magic user openned the portal to let loose chaos on the land from the sea! Or maybe...

You get the idea. Anchor one end of a portal in your campaign and let the other end go wild!

I do have to say that the Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition Monster Manual is a wealth of fantastical information on individual monsters. Ideas abound on powers, abilities, features, description, and artwork to spark the imagination. Those observations aside, I don't feel this BOOK is CORE to any RULES the 4th Edition of the most widely recognized role playing game ever created. Page 4 of this book, however, is CORE to the game, as well as the few pages that define what you find on page 4.

Page 4 of the Monster Manual is the most important page simply due to the monster template found there. The rest is just made up fantastical beasts that the game creators say are "CORE RULES" but really are just fantasy beasts forced in to the game rules for 4th Edition D&D by way of the monster template on page 4. I have been playing D&D for over a decade. I have friends that have been playing since that old red boxed set. There are endless monsters to be found in my own past not to mention the infinite amount of monsters to be found online.

The mechanics of how to make a monster are very well laid out in this book. Then Wizards of The Coast precedes to list over 300 exemplary examples of how to work these mechanics of monster creation for use in the 4th Edition rules. For $35 US I expected more. Pages 4-7 define the sections of the template and 284-287 is a glossary of terminology used to fill in the various sections of the template found on page 4.

Those eight pages could be a VERY short chapter in the thinnest CORE RULEBOOK of the three, the Dungeon Maters Guide. Add a few monsters in to that section for examples and help people use their imaginations to create even more monsters that work with their campaign worlds. That would be a better use of mine and others' money. My recommendation for this book is to go read it at the bookstore, copy down the monster template (or download the SRD as it is in there on page 55, too) and learn pages 4-7 and pages 284-287. Don't limit yourself to just the list of terminology in the glossary. Create your own features and work them in to the template. The template is great, just not $35 great.

Wizards of The Coast would like to sell you on these main features:

The Monster Manual presents more than 300 official Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game monsters for all levels of play, from aboleth to zombie. Each monster is illustrated and comes with complete game statistics and tips for the Dungeon Master on how best to use the monster in D&D encounters.

• Core Rulebook: The Monster Manual is the third of three core rulebooks required to play the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game.



• Quick and easy play: The improved page layout and presentation enables novice and established players to learn and understand the new D&D rules quickly.



• D&D Insider: The Monster Manual will receive enhanced online support at www.dndinsider.com.

1.) I really do have to argue that the 4th Edition Monster Manual it is required to play. This is a GAME. I require to have fun. That is it.
2.) As I stated, those eight pages are easy to understand and get you up and going. Put that in the DMG and save me $35 US.
3.) D&D Insider is a good tool, but that doesn't come with my book. I don't even get a trial. So why do I need a feature, that I have to pay extra for, to enhance my support. I didn't know I needed support to create a monster to kill my PCs?

The 4th Edition Players Handbook and the 4th Edition Dungeon Masters Guide are the only real CORE RULEBOOKS needed to play this latest edition of D&D. There are plenty of monsters in the world, I work with a few, just put their stats in to the template and go slay them!