When did we leave the awe of gaming behind for a steaming pile of stat blocks? A couple weeks ago, I recieved my weekly newsletter from Drivethru RPG and noted the free product of the week:
Infamous Adversaries: Raxath'Viz, the Creeping Rot
Wow!!! That sounds very interesting. It reminded me of Moander from the Forgotten Realm Setting, or even a bit of Jubilex from Classic D&D. This was put out by the good people of Total Party Kill Games for the Pathfinder system. Then I kept reading:
RAXATH'VIZ, THE CREEPING ROT - CR 15, Male Kobold (Black Bloodline), Cleric (Hidden Priest) 10, Divine Scion 3, Rogue (Trapsmith) 3.
And that pretty much diffused my interest in the 'entity'. The mystery of a creature called 'The Creeping Rot' has so much potential, and breaking it down to a bunch of class levels is very anti-mysterious in my opinion. Nothing against the good guys at TPK games. This is more of a development of the gaming industry where everything must be defined before hand; less and less of the game is left to the imagination. I have played in several games where the fight between an entity has degenerated into a lengthy discussion on how a certain abilities are to be used, instead of Old Ionic fight between good and evil.
I recalled the first time a troll sprung up from regeneration unbeknownst to the party and we had to figure out that it was shying away from the character holding the torch. But now the norm seems to devolve into "Can I roll a knowledge check to see how to kill the creature?" and "Let me read this discription form the book."
Of course, if this accepted by everyone in the party and you're having fun, that's all that really matters. I would just enjoy a little more wonder and mystery in my games.
