Achievement Unlocked: Thirty monsters later, and this blog’s dungeon is starting to look like a proper hoard!

This place still feels like one of those books in the dungeon that a lot of adventurers haven’t rolled high enough to find, yet. But sooner or later, people are going to tap that wall in the corridor, realize it sounds a little funny, and venture into the comments, discovering a whole hoard of encounters waiting for them. Building an audience takes time, and that’s true for any online endeavor. But when it happens, I’m really looking forward to hearing how other DMs have used these monsters, and whether these ideas have been helpful to them.

So you might be asking yourself why I’m celebrating at thirty monsters? Well… why not thirty? There’s something to be said for persistence, I think, and being able to keep this going on time, twice a week for three months is not too bad – especially considering all the other projects that I’ve tried that have found themselves languishing after only a short while. I’m looking at you, Knitting.

I want to give myself this chance to take a broader view of this blog and know that yes, I did something. I haven’t yet been, say, contacted by Wizards of the Coast and offered a plum work-from-home gig that’ll keep me set for a long time, but hey. I can dream.

Here’s what thirty monsters have taught me:

• Every stat block hides a story – even the Mule.
• Non-combat encounters can be just as interesting as combat encounters.
• Monsters aren’t just stat blocks and hit points; they’re worldbuilding tools.
• And finally, planning is clearly my love language, with Google Sheets and Obsidian folders to prove it.

I even got to do collaboration with someone else, which was great! Go check out Foe Foundry and see what they have – we worked on Merrow together, and I hope we get a chance to team up again sometime.

And, outside of just the blog entries, it’s given me a chance to get into a regular writing habit again, something that I had been letting lie fallow for a while. It also really played well to my weird habit of treating “planning for the thing” as part of “doing the thing,” and if you could see my Google Sheets and Obsidian vault, you’d know what I mean. For a certain type of person, laying down the scaffolding for a project can be just as much fun as doing the project itself.

Next up: the march to 50 monsters! When we get there, that’ll let me come up with a Top Ten (because if there’s one thing the internet loves, it’s ranked lists). I also want to put up some encounters or adventures and have them available here for you. That’s something I’ve never done before, so expect some fun experiments along the way.

And, of course, I’m looking forward to exploring the weirder, darker, less traveled-by corners of the Monster Manual. Give me your aberrations, your monstrosities, your weird undead, yearning to devour adventuring parties.

If you’ve read this far, thank you. What monsters do you want to see before we hit 50? Put it in a comment and I challenge you: make it weird!

Twenty more creatures to go. I’m heading back into the dungeon with my ten-foot pole and a pocket full of ball bearings.

Wish me luck–roll initiative!