One of the most enjoyable storytelling tools you can put to use is to show a radically different perspective and scene in your campaign’s ongoing story.
Even better, one of the most engaging things you can do is play out that scene with your players still being the stars of the scene or encounter.
A monstrous vignette is also a great opportunity to unveil a few secrets of the story and world as well as an opportunity for your players to play a refreshingly different character – or monster!
A few months ago, I had my players participate in a monstrous vignette I created so they could learn more about the world and story, plus take a break and play something completely different: winter wolf minions. The feedback was fantastic: my players loved it! And I enjoyed creating a change-of-pace encounter to add a new layer of life to the campaign.
Want to run a monstrous vignette of your own? Here’s a step-by-step guide so you can do it tonight:
The Monstrous Vignette in 8 Quick Steps
1. Choose a group of monsters. Use monsters the party has heard about recently, already encountered or expects to encounter soon.
2. Minionize them. Take the monster stat blocks and use the Adventure Tools or a similar method to turn them all into minions. Remove complex powers or abilities; replace them with simpler ones or buff other powers and abilities slightly.
3. Pass Out Minion Stat Blocks. Make sure every player has one. If the monster is a pack of similar monsters, label them in some way, such as by name or even color.
4. Pass Out Miniatures. Let the players choose which mini catches their eye. If the monsters are similar, label them in some way (see #3).
5. Set the Scene. Pretend it’s the start of a new adventure, and the opening aspects of a new encounter need to be shared, including what the monsters did some time ago and what they are up to right now. As alluded to in #1, set the scene in a place the party has heard about, been to, or expects to explore soon.
6. Make the Mission Clear. While most party fights tend to boil down to total annihilation, be sure to add a different kind of motivation to your monsters. This lets the players realize that even on the other side of the table, not every monster is out to kill indiscriminately. They have complex lives and rich dreams too.
7. Fight! Sit back and let the players enjoy their simplified new character sheets – their monstrous vignette minions! For players who do not DM, this is a big treat as they get to see how monsters work and the sorts of abilities and powers they have.
8. Reveal a Secret. Be sure to reveal at least one major clue or secret about the adventure or world during the combat or at its end – right before the scene fades to black and the players return to their characters for more adventure!
Your Best Vignette?
Have you used vignettes before? Have you created a full encounter out of them as described above? Share your story with your fellow DMs and players below. I’d love to hear your ideas and how you executed them!
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Kilsek
My one and only vignette was pretty good. The party came across an abandoned village and found the minutes of the last elder meeting. I then gave them all names and motivations for their particular adgendas and they argued it out and arrived at the reason for leaving the village and gave them a direction to explore in.
It was pretty fun for all.
An immediate mystery – or simply a “what’s our next move?” situation – for the party solved by the vignette! Very cool, herrozerro, that does sound like a great time. Vignettes make for very flexible encounters of all kinds, well done.
This is a GREAT idea!
I have so many thoughts running through my head right now… I am starting a WFRP campaign soon (in the next two weeks), which will span a significant time in game and which will deal with some pretty earth shattering events. This tool will let me feed the players insight into the enemies whilst not having the BBEG as the centre of attention from mission 1.
Plus, I can explain it away with magic: the player characters ARE actually seeing these events, through prophesy dreams being sent to them.
This is brilliant, and I can’t stress enough how awesome this is going to be to try out!
Hi Ben and welcome to Leonine Roar!
Glad you like the idea! Your dream sequence idea is a perfect fit for the vignette. Another great tool you can use to share more of what’s “behind the scenese” to tell a richer, deeper and more engaging story. Good luck – and let me know how your vignette experiments go!