Q: Nice to meet you, Bat-Face! Please tell me the process of how a monster comes together. I’m just so interested.

A: Having not detected your sarcasm, here’s how it works:

Step 1: Deciding what to make.

The World, Content, and System teams all meet in a room together where we calmly and rationally discuss what types of monsters we would personally like to see in a new region. Each group firmly, but politely, raises their concerns about the monsters mentioned. World is usually concerned about balancing aggressive monsters with passive monsters. Content is usually concerned about the Lore-appropriateness™ of the monsters and how they’ll affect the different quests they make. As Systems, I’m mostly concerned with the mechanics of the monsters and how exactly their skills will work. (“So, let me get this straight: you want a dude on top of a mammoth who throws spears while the mammoth attacks and then you want the mammoth to go into a rage and buck the rider off and then it will attack on its own…” ‘Yes!’ “*sigh*… I’ll see what I can do…”)