The Monsters Know What They're Doing

The Monsters Know What They're Doing PDF Author: Keith Ammann
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982122684
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Book Description
From the creator of the popular blog The Monsters Know What They’re Doing comes a compilation of villainous battle plans for Dungeon Masters. In the course of a Dungeons & Dragons game, a Dungeon Master has to make one decision after another in response to player behavior—and the better the players, the more unpredictable their behavior! It’s easy for even an experienced DM to get bogged down in on-the-spot decision-making or to let combat devolve into a boring slugfest, with enemies running directly at the player characters and biting, bashing, and slashing away. In The Monsters Know What They’re Doing, Keith Ammann lightens the DM’s burden by helping you understand your monsters’ abilities and develop battle plans before your fifth edition D&D game session begins. Just as soldiers don’t whip out their field manuals for the first time when they’re already under fire, a DM shouldn’t wait until the PCs have just encountered a dozen bullywugs to figure out how they advance, fight, and retreat. Easy to read and apply, The Monsters Know What They're Doing is essential reading for every DM.

The Monsters Know What They're Doing

The Monsters Know What They're Doing PDF Author: Keith Ammann
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982122684
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 560

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the creator of the popular blog The Monsters Know What They’re Doing comes a compilation of villainous battle plans for Dungeon Masters. In the course of a Dungeons & Dragons game, a Dungeon Master has to make one decision after another in response to player behavior—and the better the players, the more unpredictable their behavior! It’s easy for even an experienced DM to get bogged down in on-the-spot decision-making or to let combat devolve into a boring slugfest, with enemies running directly at the player characters and biting, bashing, and slashing away. In The Monsters Know What They’re Doing, Keith Ammann lightens the DM’s burden by helping you understand your monsters’ abilities and develop battle plans before your fifth edition D&D game session begins. Just as soldiers don’t whip out their field manuals for the first time when they’re already under fire, a DM shouldn’t wait until the PCs have just encountered a dozen bullywugs to figure out how they advance, fight, and retreat. Easy to read and apply, The Monsters Know What They're Doing is essential reading for every DM.

MOAR! Monsters Know What They're Doing

MOAR! Monsters Know What They're Doing PDF Author: Keith Ammann
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982171340
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description
From the author of The Monsters Know What They’re Doing comes a follow-up strategy guide with MOAR! monster tactics for Dungeon Masters playing fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Keith Ammann’s first book based on his popular blog, The Monsters Know What They’re Doing, unpacks strategies, tactics, and motivations for creatures found in the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. Now, in MOAR! Monsters Know What They’re Doing, he analyzes the likely combat behaviors of more than 100 new enemies found in Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. Your campaign will never be the same!

Player vs. Monster

Player vs. Monster PDF Author: Jaroslav Svelch
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262047756
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
A study of the gruesome game characters we love to beat—and what they tell us about ourselves. Since the early days of video games, monsters have played pivotal roles as dangers to be avoided, level bosses to be defeated, or targets to be destroyed for extra points. But why is the figure of the monster so important in gaming, and how have video games come to shape our culture’s conceptions of monstrosity? To answer these questions, Player vs. Monster explores the past half-century of monsters in games, from the dragons of early tabletop role-playing games and the pixelated aliens of Space Invaders to the malformed mutants of The Last of Us and the bizarre beasts of Bloodborne, and reveals the common threads among them. Covering examples from aliens to zombies, Jaroslav Švelch explores the art of monster design and traces its influences from mythology, visual arts, popular culture, and tabletop role-playing games. At the same time, he shows that video games follow the Cold War–era notion of clearly defined, calculable enemies, portraying monsters as figures that are irredeemably evil yet invariably vulnerable to defeat. He explains the appeal of such simplistic video game monsters, but also explores how the medium could evolve to present more nuanced depictions of monstrosity.

Tome of Beasts

Tome of Beasts PDF Author: Wolfgang Baur
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781936781560
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Whether you need dungeon vermin or a world-shaking personification of evil, the Tome of beasts has it. Here are more than 400 new foes for your 5th edition game--everything from tiny drakes and peculiar spiders, to demon lords and ancient dragons."--Back cover.

Fight Write

Fight Write PDF Author: Carla Hoch
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1440300739
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Whether a side-street skirmish or an all-out war, fight scenes bring action to the pages of every kind of fiction. But a poorly done or unbelievable fight scene can ruin a great book in an instant. In Fight Write you'll learn practical tips, terminology, and the science behind crafting realistic fight scenes for your fiction. Broken up into "Rounds," trained fighter and writer Carla Hoch guides you through the many factors you'll need to consider when developing battles and brawls. • In Round 1, you will consider how the Who, When, Where, and Why questions affect what type of fight scene you want to craft. • Round 2 delves into the human factors of biology (think fight or flight and adrenaline) and psychology (aggression and response to injuring or killing another person). • Round 3 explores different fighting styles that are appropriate for different situations: How would a character fight from a prone position versus being attacked in the street? What is the vocabulary used to describe these styles? • Round 4 considers weaponry and will guide you to select the best weapon for your characters, including nontraditional weapons of opportunity, while also thinking about the nitty-gritty details of using them. • In Round 5, you'll learn how to accurately describe realistic injuries sustained from the fights and certain weapons, and what kind of injuries will kill a character or render them unable to fight further. By taking into account where your character is in the world, when in history the fight is happening, what the character's motivation for fighting is, and much more, you'll be able write fight scenes unique to your plot and characters, all while satisfying your reader's discerning eye.

Terrorists As Monsters

Terrorists As Monsters PDF Author: Marco Pinfari
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190927879
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
From the chilling threats of the "ISIS vampire" to the view of al-Qaeda as the "Frankenstein the CIA created," terrorism seems to be inextricably bound with monstrosity. But why do the media and government officials often portray terrorists as monsters? And perhaps more puzzling, why do terrorists sometimes want to be perceived as such? This book, the first of its kind, examines the use of archetypal metaphors of monstrosity in relation to terrorism, from the gorgons of Robespierre's "reign of terror" to the dragons and lycanthropes of anarchism, the beasts and blood-licking demons of ethnonational terrorism, and the hydras and Frankenstein's monsters of Islamic jihadism. Marco Pinfari argues that politicians frame terrorists as unmanageable monsters not only in an effort at cultural "othering" and dehumanization, but also to secure popular backing for rule-breaking behavior in counter-terrorism. The book also explores the way that terrorists themselves impersonate monsters, showing that several groups have pursued such a tactic throughout the history of terrorism. It contributes to a number of ongoing public debates by highlighting how, even when actors like the Islamic State present themselves as mad and irrational, their tactics remain in essence rational. Pinfari also provides an original historical outlook on the roots of monster metaphors and discusses several types of terrorism, including state terrorism, left-wing terrorism, anarchism, ethnonationalist terrorism, and white supremacist groups. In unpacking the functions played by monster metaphors and by their impersonation, Terrorists as Monsters helps the reader understand the political processes that hide behind the fangs.

Me & My Monsters: Monster School

Me & My Monsters: Monster School PDF Author: Rory Growler
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141971711
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description
Eddie can't believe it when he finds THREE FURRY MONSTERS living in his basement. Fiend, Haggis and Norman are the stinkiest, craziest friends he could wish for! Eddie's school report is due and he's determined to stop his mum and dad from reading it. Luckily, his parents are too busy teaching the monsters (who have suddenly decided to improve their minds) to notice. Will Eddie be able to intercept his school report? And can Fiend, Haggis and Norman really learn anything useful...

Monster Hunter Siege

Monster Hunter Siege PDF Author: Larry Correia
Publisher: Baen Books
ISBN: 1625796013
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 506

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Book Description
#6 in multiple New York Times bestseller Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter series. GO BIG OR GO HOME When Monster Hunter International's top hunter, Owen Zastava Pitt, was given a tip about some hunters who had gone missing in action, he didn’t realize their rescue mission would snowball into the single biggest operation in MHI's history. Their men are being held prisoner in a horrific nightmare dimension, and the only way to reach them is through the radioactive ruins of a monster-infested war zone. As if that wasn't bad enough, it’s also the home base of the powerful creature behind the devastating attacks on the Last Dragon and Copper Lake. It turns out ancient gods of chaos really hate trespassers. But this god picked a fight with the wrong crew, and now MHI wants payback. Calling on their allies, a massive expedition is formed, and with the odds stacked against them, a legion of hunters goes to war. It’s D-Day at the City of Monsters. About Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter series: “[E]verything I like in fantasy: intense action scenes, evil in horrifying array, good struggling against the darkness, and most of all people—gorgeously flawed human beings faced with horrible moral choices that force them to question and change and grow.”—Jim Butcher “…once it grabs a hold of you it can be a tough fight to put [it] down.” –iGeekOut “[A] no-holds-barred all-out page turner that is part science fiction, part horror, and an absolute blast to read.”—Bookreporter.com “If you love monsters and action, you’ll love this book. If you love guns, you’ll love this book. If you love fantasy, and especially horror fantasy, you’ll love this book.”—Knotclan.com “A gun person who likes science fiction—or, heck, anyone who likes science fiction—will enjoy [these books]…The plotting is excellent, and Correia makes you care about the characters…I read both books without putting them down except for work…so whaddaya waitin’ for? Go and buy some…for yourself and for stocking stuffers.”—Massad Ayoob “This lighthearted, testosterone-soaked sequel to 2009's Monster Hunter International will delight fans of action horror with elaborate weaponry, hand-to-hand combat, disgusting monsters, and an endless stream of blood and body parts.”—Publishers Weekly The Monster Hunter Series Monster Hunter International Monster Hunter Vendetta Monster Hunter Alpha Monster Hunter Legion Monster Hunter Nemesis Monster Hunter Siege Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge The Monster Hunters (Omnibus contains Monster Hunter International, Monster Hunter Vendetta, and Monster Hunter Alpha) **

Daikaiju!3 Giant Monsters Vs. the World

Daikaiju!3 Giant Monsters Vs. the World PDF Author: Robert Hood
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
ISBN: 0809572338
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
The second exciting sequel to the award-winning anthology Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales. Stories of impossible dimension, startling invention and big-budget spectacle by an international line-up of authors!

Monsters and Monstrosity in Media: Reflections on Vulnerability

Monsters and Monstrosity in Media: Reflections on Vulnerability PDF Author: Yeojin Kim
Publisher: Vernon Press
ISBN: 1648898629
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
As monstrous bodies on-screen signal a wide range of subversive destabilization of the notions of identity and community, this anthology asks what meanings monsters and monstrosity convey in relation to our recent circumstances shaped by neoliberalism and the pandemic that have led to the intensified tightening of border controls by nation-states, the intensive categorization of (un)identifiable bodies, and subsequent forms of isolations and detachments imposed by social distancing and the rapid transition of sociality from reality to virtual reality. Presenting various thinkings along the lines of the body and its representations as cultural text, together with popular or recent media productions showing various bodies deemed to be monstrous as they either cross conventionally held borders or stay in liminal spaces such as between human-animal, human-machine, virtual bodies-corporeal flesh, living-death, and other permeable borders, this volume looks into the on-screen constructions of the monster and monstrosity not only as they represent notions of difference, perceived (non)belongings, and disruptions of traditional identity markers, but also as they either conceal various vulnerabilities or implicitly endorse violence towards the labeled Other.