Hello fellow GMs, GM shake hand and secret greeting.

So as a starting topic for our meeting, I propose what is your favourite monster?

I like spiders. I love spiders. I absolutely love spiders.
If I can, I will stick spiders into another thing that I am tossing at my players. If I can rework a challenge the players are facing into a spider's web and SPIDER, so I shall.

Best part about spiders is the lasting damage of poison, the constant reminder, that the wilderness is not friendly.

i don't play TRPGs (too social of an activity, too many potential complications) but i really, really love monsters. my favourite monster is the undead because of how much liberty you get as a worldbuilder when going into the rules behind how the undead operate. they could be the result of some widespread microbial/parasitic attack (if you're boring), or they could be controlled by mysterious otherworldly forces, or they could have been left behind by a necromancer. they could be slow and primitive, like the zombies in the film "night of the living dead", or they could be intelligent (as in, able to navigate difficult terrain or to use weapons), emotional, reactive, but not fully sentient, like the undead in the video game "exanima".

my take on an undead-centered campaign: following the deaths of most of the population of the country due to a complete economical breakdown (leading to infighting and starvation) which took place over the course of a couple of decades after the natural death of the benevolent king who once ruled, magical forces from the otherworld have caused the non-buried, recently departed to rise from the ground on which they lay, in search of fresh human flesh. the cause of these reanimations is unknown. some, once branded as fools, weirdos, strangers (when such things as social norms were still upheld), argue that this event is the result of some lower being from the otherworld toying with us. the monks, safe in their fortress on the highest peak, believe that it is a punishment for man's boundless cruelness to man. most plainsfolk, the closest to the horror, haven't had much time to come up with beliefs. some have been too preoccupied with their own survival. some have turned to prophecies of old for guidance. some have gone mad. witnesses have reported the undead to be nearly silent, the only noises coming from them being the crunch of dirt under their feet and the rustling of their clothes. the few who have had the guts to face the monsters in combat and the constitution to come out alive have reported that the undead are seemingly immortal, and blessed with inhuman strength. the undead kill by tearing people apart, mainly using their hands, by blunt force trauma or by strangulation. rumours tell of a mercenary, who served a now defunct merchants' guild, who fought bravely to protect his employer's wares, but the monsters would not fall, no matter how many times he cut them. his remains were seen roaming the southern trade roads, as if he were still defending the caravan of goods, which has remained untouched. as of now, there is no clear way to put an undead to rest, but there are ways to stop one permanently. the undead's body is similar to that of a human, and it can be broken in similar ways. the undead do not bleed. cuts and stabs do nothing to one. bone fractures, dismemberment and fire are methods currently recognized by most as being "good" at dealing with the undead. note that decapitation is ineffective at stopping the monsters, as multiple travellers have reported seeing "headless corpses" stumbling in fields or near roads. live humans who die by any means will come back to haunt the remaining ones, but measures can be taken to prevent their reanimation. a proper burial, at least a man's height deep, ought to be enough, but if there's no time for that, butchery or burning will work too. the players are a band of foreign travellers looking for treasure or glory, who know very little of the cataclysm that affected these lands, but who are aware of what an undead is (clueless survivor trope not allowed. the PCs are by no means veterans. they've heard tales of reanimated corpses but have never witnessed one firsthand.), and of the general state of disrepair that the country was in before the undead began tearing through it. the players should be completely unaware of the fact that the undead can't be killed before engaging in combat with one for the first time, but they should be told that the undead are "tough" and "strong".

p.s.: in my world, players can only be human, and "magic" is innately off-limits to humans. they can acquire magical items (tools or trinkets left behind by ancient, extinct races) and use them depending on how complicated the operation of the specific item is and how intelligent and perceptive they are but they cannot create magical items or conjure up magical forces to do their bidding. i like keeping magic out of human hands, because in scenarios like this one humans would be able to overpower the undead very quickly if they had a band of magicians, and because it makes no sense in my mind for humans to be in control of powerful but poorly understood forces when we're barely in control of forces that we actually understand (or at least we think we do), but also because i think that human weakness and frailty is the most interesting aspect of any game that represents it properly.

good to see fellow ttrpg people on here. i usually play more minimalist indie ttrpgs, that dont have things like "poison effects" or "damage resistance." if i had to pick a traditional rpg monster that i find cool, its the golem, and other constructs. its interesting to think about how its powered and programed, and you can get creative with what their pre-programed goals are and how they carry them out. skeletons are also cool. whats cooler than a person with no meat who wants to kill you? very few things.

more often than not, i think other people are the most interesting obstacle to throw at a rpg group. its not a pack of wild animals that just attack and then maybe flee, they arent mindless rabble that constantly spams their one best attack. theyre thinking feeling actors just like PCs, so there is so much room for dynamism in interacting with enemy people. if youre playing things right, they are going to have their own wants and needs, and want to stay alive as much as the PCs do. opens the floor for interesting conflict that isnt just "i kill the monsters"