The Devil You Know

This week let's take a look at one of the significant changes to the Menagerie that has developed during the playtesting process. Identifying monsters has a pervasive presence throughout Realm of Runes. Many character abilities either help with identification, or have their effects triggered based on having successfully done so. While these effects help characters in specific mechanical ways, the actual results of identifying monsters, that is what knowledge is gained from doing so, has always been something quite nebulous. It has always essentially been up the GM to determine what it is that you learn when you pass the check, or critically succeed at it.

Since monster identification is such a big part of so many characters, though, it became a natural fit to design the Menagerie with the process firmly integrated. Throughout the book, each monster stat block is also presented with a section offering Recall Knowledge results appropriate to that creature. This section provides ready-to-read information for basic success, as well as the sorts of things that a character might know from critical success. This information is presented with the players in mind and conveys the gist of important monster abilities without getting too specific. Essentially, every bit of information included is written from a diegetic perspective, rather than a mechanical one.

By presenting the information this way, it prevents players from having the sorts of specific technical knowledge that can ruin the immersion of a scene by laying bare the inner workings of the game. It also helps cover for adjustments. Since monster statistics are written in a level-agnostic format, some things that a character might know might not always be consistent throughout the level spectrum. It also gives a bit of flexibility to the GM, as the non-specific nature allows for the information to be generally correct from a player standpoint even if the GM has done some tinkering.

So, let's look at an example from the Menagerie to see how this looks in practice. If your party were fighting large canines that seemed to be somewhat on fire, someone in the party is probably going to try to figure out what they are. If they have the correct knowledge specialty, that would entail a check to Recall Knowledge. If they don't, they would use Recall General Knowledge instead. The results are the same, but the latter is a much harder check. Getting success on this check correctly identifies the creatures, yielding the following information:

Success: This smoldering mastiff is a fiend called a Hellhound. These Devils are infernal trackers and attack dogs, often found in the service of Erinyes. They delight in terrorizing mortals and can find those in breach of an infernal contract wherever they try to hide.

Now you know what you're dealing with and have an inkling of some other threats you might also have to worry about. But simply knowing that they're Hellhounds by itself is not necessarily particularly helpful, though it might be if you have one of the many character options whose effects are based upon having identified them. But basic success is not the end of what a character might know. For each critical success increment reached, a character gets to learn some more useful information. This additional information is presented as a list of category options, with the character in question getting to choose one for each critical success increment reached. For Hellhounds, these are the critical success possibilities in the Menagerie:

Defenses: Hellhounds are durable creatures. They resist all types of physical damage, and are immune to fire, but are weak to good. They like to demoralize foes at the outbreak of combat and when they critically hit with their attacks. Creatures that cannot see a Hellhound directly cannot overcome their fright.

Offenses: Hellhounds rely on their fiery, tripping jaws in combat, and frequently charge into a fight with reckless abandon. They often fight in packs, can deal extra damage to targets that are flanked, flat-footed or scared, and have a few useful divine powers.

Special: Like all Devils, Hellhounds deal additional evil damage when they deal fire damage. They are naturally invisible to any creature with greater than animal intelligence without the outsider trait, unless that individual is bound by an infernal contract. This invisibility only applies to vision, not to any other sense, and can be circumvented with magic that reveals invisible creatures, but is not magic and cannot be dispelled.

Senses: Hellhounds can see in the dark as well as they can in bright light and have an exceptionally keen sense of smell. They can also hear, but not well enough to rely on as a precise sense.

This aspect of the Menagerie helps to interface the Recall Knowledge effects in the rules with the actual monsters statistics. It helps provide knowledge

able characters with good information with which to make informed plans, but without overloading them with too much meta information. This type of information formatting will be used throughout the Menagerie itself, and any sequels to it, as well as any smaller, adventure-specific menageries, like those in the inaugural first-party adventure, while we'll introduce next time. So, stay tuned!