• 2,261 words for #nanowrimo already! Unlike my MC, my week is off to a good start.
• 4,607 words for #nanowrimo and the fun is about to begin for my main character.
• Adding “Write 2000 words” into Epic Win as a daily task is motivating. Also add this optional daily task: “Write 2000 more words” #nanowrimo
• RT @Riesetheseries Don’t forget RT this message to possibly win an EXCLUSIVE #Riese prize pack! Watch Riese: Kingdom Falling on @Syfy.com/riese
• Lamest/coolest lycanthrope ever: the werecrossbow.
• I was going to try 4E again once Character Builder got the Essentials update, but I have unreliable Internet so a web-based CB rules me out.
• After watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang again, I have to say that Robert Downey Jr. would make an incredible Harry Dresden.

I’ve talked about it, I’ve tweeted about it and now here it is: my first post in a series about reskinning monsters. I think this is one of the simplest and most powerful tools in the GMs toolbox. Put plainly, reskinning means to take the stats of a creature and describe it differently. It’s when your PCs encounter a long serpentine crocodile with a red lion-like mane, but you use the stats for a generic wolf. If the wolf can trip, your crocolion can chomp down on character’s legs and snap them to the ground. If the wolf has some sort of howling ability, make it a fearsome roar instead.

Most of the time, your players will never know the difference and they’ll be entrance and in-awe of this weird new monster they’ve never seen in all your monster books and supplements. It also has the benefit of them not getting the upperhand on you through player knowledge. “Oh, watch out guys, wolves can trip you”. If it doesn’t look like a wolf, they won’t immediately know its abilities.

There’s a lot more to it than that though. You can have a lot of fun with it and step-by-step build up an unique monster with ecology, tactics, weakness and strengths actually quite different that the base creature. In this post, we’ll take a look at the basics and reskin a creature as we go. I’ll follow up this article with a deeper look at other aspects of reskinning.

• Wife has become the #minecraft master. Sky stairs now have spiral waterfall that takes you down from highest square to sea level. Proud
• #Dexter and salt-and-pepper chicken fingers… Life is good!
• #RibbonDrive arrived today http://bit.ly/9zAavr Looks sweet! Reading while listening to the included CD. Thanks @mcdaldno

I think we’ve stumbled across RPG rules before that we really wished worked differently. And everyone loves free stuff, right? Playtesting RPGs is a great way to get a nearly complete game or supplement for free. It also allows you to provide feedback directly to the creators of the game so that they can consider the problems you find.

That’s the great thing too, it’s not just typos and calculation errors you can report on, it’s how powers and abilities work, how a certain rule plays out in game, how things are balanced, and so on. Right now there are some great free playtest PDFs you can get your hands on, letting you try things out early and help shape the way the final products work. Let’s take a look.

In fantasy games, taverns are often full of patrons drinking and playing cards. It strains our suspension of disbelief when we hear them draw the King of Hearts or play a game of Spades or Blackjack.

While it would be nice to have a fully developed deck quite different than our standard 52-card deck, it would not be compatible with most of the games we know, so we would also have to come up with new games. Some have the time (or money) for that, but most of us don’t.

Instead, a simple re-skinning let us draw the Empress of Arrows or play a game of Shields or Black Knight, adding a little bit of fantasy flair while still keeping the real-world cards and allowing us to play the games we know.

You might also be interested in reading...

• Monster MashUp Contest Update
• Nevermet Press Monster MashUp Contest
• Tweets of Doom for the week ending 2010-11-07
• Entumbled (Or, I Also Have A Tumblr Now; Or, Welcome to Worldforge)
• Reskinning Monsters: An Introduction

You might also be interested in reading...

• Monster MashUp Winners
• Nevermet Press Monster MashUp Contest
• Tweets of Doom for the week ending 2010-11-07
• Entumbled (Or, I Also Have A Tumblr Now; Or, Welcome to Worldforge)
• Reskinning Monsters: An Introduction

You might also be interested in reading...

• Tweets of Doom for the week ending 2010-11-07
• Reskinning Monsters: An Introduction
• Tweets of Doom for the week ending 2010-10-03
• Free Playtest RPGs
• Fantasy Playing Cards for Your Game