{"id":7078,"date":"2023-04-10T04:00:13","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T08:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/?p=7078"},"modified":"2023-03-26T08:20:08","modified_gmt":"2023-03-26T12:20:08","slug":"crashs-course-ep-10-reskinning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/2023\/04\/crashs-course-ep-10-reskinning\/","title":{"rendered":"Crash&#8217;s Course Ep 10: Reskinning"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_681\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-7078-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/cogwheelgaming\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/CrashsCourse_Ep_10_Reskins.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/cogwheelgaming\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/CrashsCourse_Ep_10_Reskins.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/cogwheelgaming\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/CrashsCourse_Ep_10_Reskins.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/cogwheelgaming\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/CrashsCourse_Ep_10_Reskins.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/?powerpress_pinw=7078-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/cogwheelgaming\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/CrashsCourse_Ep_10_Reskins.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"CrashsCourse_Ep_10_Reskins.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/CrashsCourse.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4404\" src=\"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/CrashsCourse-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/CrashsCourse-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/CrashsCourse-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/CrashsCourse-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/CrashsCourse-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/CrashsCourse.png 1400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Hello and welcome to Crash\u2019s Course, a short form podcast where I share my thoughts and advice on playing and running tabletop role playing games in roughly about 5 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Today I\u2019d like to talk about an invaluable tool in my arsenal: reskinning. The term comes from video games, but it\u2019s essential to how I run my TTRPG sessions.<\/p>\n<p>When I\u2019m running adventures, I like to tailor encounters to match the theme of the session. While I frequently can find a monster stat block that fits the occasion perfectly, thanks to the number of source books I\u2019ve purchased (no I don\u2019t have a problem), sometimes that\u2019s just not possible.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>To fix this, I\u2019ll find a stat block that&#8217;s more or less doing what I want it to do, and ignore the appearance and lore descriptions completely.<\/p>\n<p>For example: In a recent session of my home D&amp;D game, the party went to a farm where the resident kobolds ran daily sheep races and everyone was shocked to discover gambling was involved. When combat broke out, it was in the form of a giant sheep that\u2026 broke out of its pen. Enraged, it immediately attacked.<\/p>\n<p>Now, \u201cgiant, angry sheep\u201d is not a stat block I expect to find, so I didn\u2019t even try to find it. Instead, I thought about the attributes that would be relevant to the situation.<\/p>\n<p>1. I wanted something strong enough that it would be a challenge to the party at their current levels but not utterly crush them. If the damage, health, and armor of this thing are too out-of-bounds, it\u2019s less a fun encounter and either a campaign-ender or a situation where the players ask why they had to roll for initiative.<\/p>\n<p>2. I wanted it to be big. This implies larger damage and health numbers, surely, but sometimes size adds other features, like being able to swallow an adventurer.<\/p>\n<p>3. Sheep aren\u2019t known for being the most intelligent of animals, so I wanted something that also wasn\u2019t very bright. It\u2019s not to hard to take points off of a creature\u2019s mental stats, but smart monsters frequently have supernatural abilities, and I really just wanted this to be a sheep, but big.<\/p>\n<p>Naturally, I settled for a Tyrannosaurus Rex.<\/p>\n<p>Now of course, a T-Rex has nothing to do with a common sheep. In regards to fluffiness, it could even be considered an anti-sheep. The being you introduce if you have a sheep surplus, to even things out.<\/p>\n<p>With that said, players don\u2019t normally get to see the stat blocks you\u2019re using. A T-Rex is not known for their intelligence, is a challenge for the party at their current levels, and its size adds some nifty attributes to its bite attack. None of these are things I needed to change. I kept the tail attack but changed the name to \u201cstomp.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If we were running theater of the mind, I\u2019d have stopped there. As we did have a virtual tabletop (in this case, Foundry VTT). I went one step further and added a T-Rex onto the map before the game. (It\u2019s in the SRD so this was trivial.) With that done, I changed the name to \u201cOvis Aries Rex\u201d (ovis aries being the scientific name for sheep) and added art of the cutest sheep I could find on OpenClipArt.org.<\/p>\n<p>This is far from the first time I\u2019ve done this. Well, OK, it\u2019s the first time I threw a giant sheep at the party, but I\u2019ve reskinned a lot of monster stat blocks. I\u2019ve used beholder stats for powerful wizards, Earth elementals for piles of enchanted gold, and once used a Stone Defender as a suit of magical power armor.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t have to end there, either. Once, when someone wanted to play a goblin but the rules for goblins as a playable race weren\u2019t available, we went with the gnome rules and changed the names.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s all for this episode, subscribe to just this podcast on Mastodon at <a href=\"https:\/\/is.aaronbsmith.com\/@CrashsCourse\">is.aaronbsmith.com\/@crashscourse<\/a> or subscribe to all my TTRPG podcasts at <a href=\"https:\/\/is.aaronbsmith.com\/@cogwheel\">is.aaronbsmith.com\/@cogwheel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Music is <a href=\"http:\/\/modarchive.org\/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&amp;query=169788\">Deadly Windmills by JAM from modarchive.org<\/a>, used with permission, as it\u2019s public domain.<\/p>\n<p>This podcast is distributed under a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/\">CC-BY-NC-ND<\/a> license.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Follow this series on\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#x25b6; Patreon: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/cogwheelgaming\">https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/cogwheelgaming<\/a><\/li>\n<li>&#x25b6; RSS: <a href=\"https:\/\/is.aaronbsmith.com\/@CrashsCourse.rss\">https:\/\/is.aaronbsmith.com\/@CrashsCourse.rss<\/a><\/li>\n<li>&#x25b6; Google Podcasts: <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9hYXJvbmJzbWl0aC5jb20vY29nd2hlZWwvZmVlZC8\">https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9hYXJvbmJzbWl0aC5jb20vY29nd2hlZWwvZmVlZC8<\/a><\/li>\n<li>&#x25b6; Apple Podcasts: <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/cogwheel-gaming\/id1291681389\">https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/cogwheel-gaming\/id1291681389<\/a><\/li>\n<li>&#x25b6; Mastodon (Just this podcast): <a href=\"https:\/\/is.aaronbsmith.com\/@CrashsCourse\">https:\/\/is.aaronbsmith.com\/@CrashsCourse<\/a><\/li>\n<li>&#x25b6; Mastodon (All podcasts): <a href=\"https:\/\/is.aaronbsmith.com\/@cogwheel\">https:\/\/is.aaronbsmith.com\/@cogwheel<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>MP3 Download: <a href=\"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/CrashsCourse_Ep_10_Reskins.mp3\">Crash&#8217;s Course Ep 10: Reskinning<\/a><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone\"><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=6006674\">Keep us ad free by supporting us on Patreon!<\/a><br \/>\nThanks to our current Patreon Patrons (as of this upload&#8230;): Chris, Cindy<span class=\"sc-AxirZ bmNQcS\" data-tag=\"user-details-full-name\"> (Patron Emeritus)<\/span>, Ellie, Erik<span class=\"sc-AxirZ bmNQcS\" data-tag=\"user-details-full-name\">, ShanShen, and Walter!<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello and welcome to Crash\u2019s Course, a short form podcast where I share my thoughts and advice on playing and running tabletop role playing games in roughly about 5 minutes. Today I\u2019d like to talk about an invaluable tool in my arsenal: reskinning. The term comes from video games, but it\u2019s essential to how I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/2023\/04\/crashs-course-ep-10-reskinning\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Crash&#8217;s Course Ep 10: Reskinning&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[312,293],"tags":[362,318,295,327],"class_list":["post-7078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podcast","category-ttrpg","tag-crashscourse","tag-dnd","tag-dungeons-and-dragons","tag-ttrpg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7080,"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7078\/revisions\/7080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}