The interesting thing about Anpanman is that almost every character who ever appears is a unique, named individual. According to wikipedia, in the first 980 episodes and 20 films there are 1,768 distinct named characters - and most of them recur from time to time in the vast range of merchandised products available to waste your money on, ranging from snacks to bikes to nappies to stationary. For a sample of this, here are some random pictures from an Anpanman iteration of the Where's Wally? idea.
As you can perhaps see from these photos, this lends the Anpanman universe an unusual atmosphere: half-Star Wars cantina, half-small town in which everybody knows each other. The characters are in one sense a throng, but in another are portrayed as distinct persons each with their own goals, desires, hopes and fears. What they are definitely not is just "orcs" or "storm troopers" or "klingons" or whatever. They are people. Most children's TV series and books are a little like this, but Anpanman is unique in the scope and range of characters appearing in it.
I very much like the idea of a D&D campaign in which not just every NPC is a distinct, named individual (this may be one of the best bits of advice in Apocalypse World, actually), but in which every single monster is also a type all of its own. I don't just mean that every orc in the group of 6 you've just encountered has a name; I mean that you didn't just encounter a group of 6 orcs - you encountered a group of 6 individual beings, allied together but all of their own individual kind. This requires time and effort (or a really big and detailed random table) but would I think be worth it - because it would make every single encounter, every single lair, an event and a surprise.
The artwork is cute, I get Busy Town vibes from it.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to build such a world, I would probably just use each and every entry from the Monster Manual, MMII, FF, etc. until I ran out of monster supplements. Maybe the campaign takes place inside some kind of celestial time capsule or design archive that the gods built to preserve the blueprints for every creature in the world before a cataclysm. Only one of each species exists: the living, magically-distilled essence of their kind. The tragic thing is that even a minor military skirmish breaking out in such a world results in potentially dozens of species going extinct in a matter of minutes.
I didn't think of it until you mentioned it but you're right. There is a Busy Town feel to them.
DeleteI like that idea. I am a fan of high concept campaign ideas like that.
In distinguishable clusters of individuals, or cultures, or Orcs say, there is a perfectly satisfying variety among the group, recognizable to group members.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be saying that for people outside a culture coming into that culture everyone seems similar. Yes because they don't understand the culture.
Your solution is multiculturalism, the faux glitter soup of weird looking individuals where no-one has any deeper-than-individual understanding of each other.
I much prefer the artistry of creating and distinguishing between orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, gnolls, bugbears, ogres, trolls than a myriad of randomly mutated humanoids.
As if humanoids grew up in a megapolis and could pretend they were self invented beings rather than massively culturally programmed, feigning community with other nerds into Deep Learning, or bondage.
I like this idea a lot. The random tables don't need to be that large to give the impression of near-infinite variety. Four d10 tables (e.g. Phylum, Colour, Size & Hat) gives 10,000 combos.
ReplyDeleteYep. I love how your table would create a world of 10,000 uniques, 9,999 of whom would be wearing hats.
DeleteThis is pretty much what Runequest has always done. If you look at classic Gloranthan settings like Pavis and the Big Rubble or Griffin Mountain, there's no distinction made between sentient monsters and other NPCs; they all have complex motivations, quirks and personalities.
ReplyDeleteIf you were to compare (say) the broo gangs of the Big Rubble with just about any orc group in any D&D module, you'd see a glaring difference in the way they're detailed and presented. The broos are hugely individualised, have all the stats that a PC would, and have a full set of motivations and attitudes.
I think that is partly also a function of crunchiness? The crunchier the system, the more time it takes to create an NPC or monster, and the more thought has to go into it. So there is a bias towards more fleshed-out NPCs.
DeleteYes, definitely. And a function, too, of a system that's not only crunchy but also mechanically dangerous. There are no 'safe' fights in Runequest, so the default assumption is that interactions are likely to be more than stand-up combat encounters. And that requires more NPC depth.
DeleteIt's also partially a reflection of Glorantha's "monsters are people too" approach - exemplified by the likes of Trollpak.
I immediately thought of Runequest when I read Noism's post! Endless, endless named-NPC/monster stat blocks...
DeleteThis is a big part of what a lot of people love about One Piece/JoJo/My Hero Academia/One Punch Man/etc; the intense individualism of every individual. It's never "got attacked by five bandits" it's always "got attacked by five guys who could shoot fire, eat snakes, control milk, remember oats, and cut steel"
ReplyDeleteRemembering oats is big.
DeleteThere's a great book called 'The Goblins of Labyrinth' or 'The Goblin Companion' by Brian Froud and Terry Jones (God, I'm missing him already). It has dozens of sketches of different, unique goblins, each with a name and a bit about their character. You definitely get the impression that each goblin is its own distinct species rather than just another representative of a group.
ReplyDeleteI definitely lean in the Labyrinth direction for goblins. Mutants are always fun too. Unique characters make combat much clearer, since you can talk about 'the one with its eyes on stalks' or 'the huge one with a baby's head' rather than just 'the third orc'.
Terry Jones did some great stuff after Python - but then again I think basically everybody in Python did great stuff after Python, which I've always hated.
DeleteI really like this. I've tried it a couple of times but my players have only ever seemed confused or uninterested in the concept. They just wanted to know if they had successfully stabbed/shot/cursed the "bad guys" or not.
ReplyDeleteMaybe time to get some new players.
I think giving them names helps. Even just in passing.
DeleteI have long felt the most of the Fey/Devils & Demons in the various monster books should be treated as Unique entities.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about making every mook in a monster band unique, or every person in a village? That sounds like a ton of work that wouldn't be noticed so much.