Even Monsters Have to go Poo

 



Image by upklyak at freepik.com

I totally understand that Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy game in a made up universe with made up monsters.  When I was 12 we'd design dungeons where the monster would sit in the same room 24/7, just waiting for adventurers.  Now that I'm 53 and again playing with people my age, I'm worried about keeping it "real."  One of the ways to keep it "real" is the fact that if it is nonmagical, not undead, and eats it is going to have to go to the bathroom.

Now, the concept of monsters going to the bathroom has opened up some great adventure plot lines.  

For example, in a goblin lair I set it up so that the goblins didn't care, they just went to the bathroom wherever.  This created two opportunities for me as the DM.  First, I said the smell was so bad that everyone was going to need to make a save or be at -1 to hit for the entire lair.  Second, anyone that fell on the ground was going to have to make a save or see if they now have either rot grubs or a nice parasite (there are lots of these in the DMG).

On the other hand, I had a dwarf fortress that was overtaken by derro and duergar.  The dwarves had technology, running water, and really nice latrines and public baths - which the derro and duergar continued.  I was able to use this by having NPCs who were captured by the bad guys and forced to clean the latrines all day (one PC who joined the party late also entered the adventure via this route).

Then occasionally this can be the seed for discontent between bad guys.  In the same fortress, the duergar's troglodyte allies were moving in.  Well they don't use latrines.  So they broke up the latrines, started drinking the water, and put their eggs there.  This infuriated their duergar allies which (like the dwarves they are) want perfection and neatness.  However, because the troglodytes went to the bathroom everywhere I made sure that the floors were slippery, which impacted melee, charges, and hand-to-hand combat.

It's also an area of exploration.  For example, our main city in my campaign does not have running water.  It does have grates where everything (hopefully) washes into, so there is a sewer system of sorts under the city.  This provides an opportunity for side adventures, exploration, and even some quests.

Point is, you can have a lot of fun with this smelly addition to your campaign!

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