O'l Chap Ettercap is a monster whose story grew in the telling, from meaningless

Download Ol' Chap Ettercap in every form a tabletop needs:

https://scintilla.studio/monster-ettercap-critical-crafting/

Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstrous perks: www.patreon.com/scintillastudio

Join the conversation: www.twitter.com/SparkOtter

Meet my guests:

Dillon Onley, Creative Director

Cameron DeFord, Marketing Director

https://www.critical-crafting.com/

Music by Jason Shaw at Audionautix.com

"Creepy Dungeon Ambience" by DrMinky from Freesound.org

Your 10 foot pole is broken.

You've lost your 50 feet of rope

and you're down to your last torch.

Its guttering light shows your

footprints in the muck of the dungeon

floor behind you and disappears

into the ominous darkness ahead.

Loot or no loot, you just don't have

the resources to make it much farther.

You hear the scraping of long claws

on rough stone and outta the darkness.

It appears a nightmarish fusion

of human and spider, six feet

tall and easily 200 pounds.

Long, gangly limbs hang from hunched

shoulders over a pale pot belly.

It's needle-sharp teeth are

hidden behind grasping, glistening

fanged appendages on its face.

As its beady eyes meet yours,

its mouth opens in a nightmare

smile in a raspy voice it says,

oh, jolly good, sir.

You've wandered right into my web.

Like what ho

Welcome back to

Spooktober on Making a Monster.

In this, the most monster-filled

month of the year, I'm bringing you

episodes with the monster creators

I met at GenConn 2022, leading up to

a couple of Halloween episodes I'm

really excited to share with you.

It has been the contention of this

show that monsters don't level up.

After all, that's what heroes do.

Gaining experience, abilities and

tactics is the defining element

of player characters in role

playing games and monsters are the

static stepping stones that let

characters reach those new heights.

And in that role, in this archetypical

story structure, monsters do and

don't do very specific things.

Occasionally though, I meet

designers whose monsters are

stories that grow in the telling.

I am Dillon Olney.

Uh, I am the creative director,

founder, writer of Critical Crafting.

And we put out 5E content every single

month, uh, on Patreon, normally between

15 to 80 pages of everything from

adventures and encounters, monsters,

classes, subclasses, items, spells, maps,

and I'm Cameron DeFord.

I am the, uh, co-writer and marketing

director of Critical Crafting.

Dillon focuses more on the

monsters and the items, spells,

feats, that sort of thing.

Um, I do our subclasses, our

classes, our player races and maps.

we started playing back

in 2017, maybe 16 or 17?

16, 17.

Um, Dillon was teaching most of us in our

group for the first time how to play D&D.

So We would play our D&D

games at Dillon's house.

We would play for four hours or so,

and then the game would wrap up.

We'd go upstairs and we'd get stalled

in the kitchen while we're talking

about the game we just played.

And we'd finally wrap up the conversation.

We'd move to the driveway,

we'd get talking again.

So a lot of our stuff was just the,

the early ideas of our content was

just coming out of these, Oh, that

was really cool, but it would've

been cool if this or if that.

So Ol' Chap

Ettercap, he's our mascot.

The original idea from him actually

came from, um, an old meme, people were

making fun of the fact that, uh, you

know, three five ettercap spoke common.

In the lore of Dungeons and

Dragons, an ettercap is a spider-like

humanoid that lives underground

and cooperates with other spider

creatures to set elaborate web

traps for passing adventurers.

First edition D&D, in 1981's Fend

"a

biped, roughly man-sized, with very

long arms, protruding potbelly, short

legs, and hairy skin, the ettercap

has clawed hands and two poison fangs

protruding from each side of its mouth.

Apparently it protrudes a lot.

In subsequent editions, ettercaps became

more and more like the spiders they

befriended, gaining eyes, pedipalps,

and fearsome claws as they went.

But they have always been presented,

as in the Fiend Folio, as "cruel,

cunning, and treacherous."

Now representing intelligence in game

mechanics is notoriously difficult, and

ettercaps have always fallen in that

especially problematic range between

what second edition called "Average Human

Intelligence" and "Semi-intelligent".

In 2003, Monster Manual 3.5 solved

this problem by giving ettercaps the

ability to speak Common, the language

shared by all player characters.

This decision has not been repeated

in any other edition of D&D.

And people were joking

around like, you know, Oh, jolly good

sir You've wandered right into my web.

Like what ho kind of a thing.

Like here's this ettercap, you know?

And we thought that's hilarious.

Like, that's so much fun.

And so I started introducing

Ol' Chap Ettercap.

And what would happen is when the players

were in like a bind, like they're in

the middle of a dungeon, they're low on

potions or whatever, like they're all kind

of like about to die kind of a thing.

Well, Ol' Chap Ettercap would wander into

the room with his, you know, top hat that

has a whole plane of existence inside full

of magical items in his shop and all this.

And it was a, you know, oh,

Tally ho boys, like, what's

going on with you, sort of thing.

And I'm just wandering through

this dungeon, selling my wares, cuz

where do you sell magical items?

In a dungeon, that's where

people need the most.

Uh, so that was kind of the idea.

And then he would do things.

You know, instead of just, Oh yeah,

you buy this stuff because the DM

wants you to like, not die here.

It was more like he could give you

fun little side quest, or it could

be a fun break from like some of

the serious stuff in the campaign.

And that's kind of where

he started initially.

Um, and then we decided to, to make him

into like an NPC in some of our adventures

for our Critical Crafting content.

And eventually we said, we gotta stab.

And when, when we decided to stat

him, the month that people had voted

on was called Cults of the Outsiders.

And the Outsiders are

are gods kind of a thing.

So we made them to exist

in any pantheon you want.

They can still exist in it cuz they exist

in their own little sort of pantheon.

But we didn't like that.

Five E did not have stat blocks for

gods other than Tiamat and technically

like Vecna, now, um, but we've always

found very lackluster as a stat block.

And we wanted god stat blocks

that felt like they were god's.

So we said, Well, if we're gonna

do a god stat block, who better

than Ol' Chap Ettercap to make

you know, the god of merchants?

Um, so that was kind

of how he got started.

The whole fact that

his, like Genesis was around the idea

of him just being able to show up

at the right place at the right time

and help the players out of a bind.

Um, the inside the hat, he has the store

and inside the store you can find magical

items you might need, but they're very

expensive, so he's gonna send you on

a quest instead and working it right

into the, the story in an organic.

Um, but so with that being the,

the concept behind him, um, we

just think, Okay, well if, if he

is a god who's gonna worship him.

Okay.

So he's the patron of merchants, of,

of, of, inn keepers, of anybody that's

working in that sort of environment.

And then we wrote the, the

warlock subclass around the fact that,

you know, he's the patron of merchants.

He has the, the Old Sports'

Society, which are the people

that worship him, essentially.

Those are all the guys sitting in the

smoking room drinking scotch and, you

know, uh, taking over the world with

their words or whatever kind of a deal.

Um, so Cameron wrote the, the

subclass for the warlock for people

that worship ol' chap, but kind

of the abilities that they get.

Um, so, and we wanted to give, like,

we did stat blocks too for, for his

minions, the, the old sports society.

And we had wanted to figure out a

way, like the other problem we had,

because we have some morally ambiguous

characters, is they come to the.

What's the first thing

that they try and do?

They try and rob the shopkeeper, right?

We said, Well, we wanna make sure

that we're making something that

makes sure that they don't want

to rob every shopkeep they see.

So if you mess around with one of the

shopkeepers that worships Ol' Chap

Ettercap, you can expect that you're

gonna be in some trouble pretty soon.

Whether it's ol' chaps showing

up, or the merchant, you know, old

sports society coming after you,

or just the fact that the merchants

themselves have special abilities that.

Basically knock people

unconscious, hold them in place.

Uh, they know the location

of like every item they own.

If it's stolen, they know who stole

it and where it is kind of a thing.

. So that's kind of some of

his domain stuff, I guess.

He's really not supposed

to be used in combat.

Uh, but he does have some,

some combat special abilities.

So, um, some of them are kind of funny.

I think he's got like, what, who

unhand me or something as one of

his, and it's something, I can't

remember the exact wording of it,

but essentially he can like teleport.

So, you know, you grab the ol'

chap, Ettercap the shop, keep you're

trying to rob him or whatever, and

he just, Oh, you're grappling me.

No, you're not anymore.

I just teleported over

here kind of a thing.

Um, so he is got a lot of

special abilities though.

He's got.

You know, like we said, he, he's

got his top hat that has an extra

dimensional space inside of it.

It's basically a whole plane of existence

that's all made of interconnecting rooms.

So he's got, uh, his shop kind of

on the main area, but then he's got

libraries and b theories and tea rooms

and rooms that he's forgotten for

so long that people who've been in

there have formed civilizations and

he's completely forgot they exist,

you know, all inside of the top app.

Uh, and then we gave him like a gold tooth

that basically lets him take anything

gold and if he touches it to the tooth,

Like transports inside the tooth and then

he can pull it out at any time he wants.

Uh, we gave him some spells,

uh, and like appraisal things.

So like being a god of merchants,

we're like, what's he do all the time?

He's gonna be appraising stuff.

He's gonna be looking at magic items.

So he has things that allow

him to identify magical items

just by looking at them.

Uh, probably his most powerful special

ability is that he can just summon

magical items at will of, I think

it's very rare rarity and lower.

So he can summon them at will and

he can attune to, Oh, I haven't read

the stat block in a while, but it's

something like 10 magic items at a time.

So when he shows up, if you're gonna

mess with him, you're also gonna mess

with at least 10 very rare magical items

that he can summon and attune to very,

very quickly . So, yeah, and I think

we made it so that he did not take a

long rest to attune to things either.

So in the middle of combat,

he could just be like, Boo

attune, boo attune, kind of a.

So the DM had a way, uh, to kind of

be like, Okay, the party's really,

you know, messing him up or whatever.

I need to get him outta here.

Well, I'm gonna give him, I don't

know, carpet of flying or whatnot,

and get him out kind of a deal.

Uh, we also gave him regenerative

abilities because why not?

So he's a god.

So if he's, if he's reduced to

zero hit points, essentially

him and his top hat vanish.

His top hat reappears in the nearest

marketplace to him, and then he

regenerates within a few feet of that top.

So that was a fun one too.

Ol' Chap Ettercap is

a meme that went too far.

Or you know what?

Maybe just far enough, but it

carries with it a certain satire of

the age of the gentleman explorer

that forms such an integral part

of the DNA of role playing games.

We kind of gave him that,

like the old British clubs, right.

The portly men with the cigars

and the scotch and all that.

And the whole idea being that there's

these very affluent people that can kind

of control whatever they want, right?

Uh, and so we kind of took that

and ran with it and kind of

made it into a bit of a farce.

He's a benevolent character, but at

the same time, like one of the big

things about him in our campaign is

that he really doesn't understand

how the common person operates.

So, like when he sends an adventure on a

quest, he'll, Hey, you know, Oh, what ho

I just need you to go deal with a few like

spiders that are in my, you know, shop.

Like, could you just

clear them out for me?

And the adventures that are lower level

go in there and there's like six beboleths

running around and they're like, Holy,

we're all gonna die, kind of thing.

And he's like, I don't

understand what the problem is.

Like, you know, so we, we kind of,

I don't know that we thought too

much on like commerce as a whole

with him being the god of it.

It was more we wanted him to

take something and kind of.

Take it, take it a little too far, right?

Like take it and blow it out

of proportion into sort of a

funny, fun sort of a character.

Uh, he's been a lot of

fun though, just because it, it's been

interesting the fact that he originated

in our actual home game and I, like, I met

him the first time as a player and he was

our, our ticket out of dying or whatever.

Um, then the, it came at a cost.

We had to go do a, a side quest

to be able to earn what we

needed, uh, from him or whatever.

Uh, but, so it's been cool now,

like getting to flesh him out now on

the other side, the creative side.

Um, and then just, yeah, like the, the,

the cool thing that kind of came with

it too was that, uh, once he was just an

NPC or a monstrous NPC or whatever, and

then seeing him grow into the, the god.

Like, at first it was just almost a joke.

Like, Oh well, Ol' Chap Ettercap,

where would he get a, a pocket

universe inside of a top hat, right?

Like, that's obviously something

that only like a god would have.

So, oh, actually why isn't he a god?

Let's make him a god.

And then so him growing into a god.

And then when we were for that

same month needing a, um, a player

subclass, and we thought, Oh, well

let's do a warlock patron because

we're doing four gods this month.

Like, oh, well, why not have

him be a warlock patron?

And so, I don't know, it's just

been cool just to kind of see him.

Yeah.

Flesh out and grow into what

he's become or whatever.

So he's started, like

Cameron saying, he started, you

know, in our home brew setting and

we were playing 3.5 at the time.

Uh, and he didn't have any

stats, like at that point I was.

I want a cool like, you know,

funny sort of ol' chap ettercap

guy to throw in at my players.

And, and it was, it was a running

joke too cuz I, I love ettercaps.

Like that's one of the,

I just, I don't know why.

I just love them.

And I always argued with another guy

cuz we were doing 3D sculpts and he

is like, nobody wants enter caps.

Like, nobody likes enter caps.

I'm like, but they're

going to like, just wait.

And so, you know, I'd wear, I'd,

you know, back then I had a shirt

that said, you know, ol' chap

enter cap on it and everything.

And uh, so he started out just, you

know, no stats, just an mpc and then,

I guess we officially put him into

content in October, so we stuck him

in our first release, Unhallowed Eve.

Um, essentially, you know, not showing

his divinity or anything like that.

He's just an mpc that essentially we

wanted, uh, a a, he wanted one of the

grandmas that was handing out candy.

There's like a trick or

treat thing in the town.

And his little like side quest is he

wants the candy from this grandma.

Let's say he's not a kid, she won't give

it to him, and so he hires the adventure.

To go pretend to be children in whatever

way they can and go and get this

candy right, and bring it back to him.

And of course he gives them like

awesome stuff if they do it.

Um, but, and the funny thing too with

that is like, he could totally do that.

Like he could get whatever he wants,

but he just sort of has fun messing

around with people all the time.

Right.

So he did that and then we

put him in our may release.

Um, and that version we put

him in like old Jurassic Park

kind of style or like a safari.

Uh, and we stuck him on an island.

So we called that one old CHP

ettercap's Dino Safari, and essentially

he's going on safari, but he's too

lazy to hunt the dinosaurs himself.

So he asked the adventures to go

do it for him so that he can mount

them and claim that he, you know,

well he's sponsored the hunt, so,

you know, he's the one who did it.

Uh, and he, he'll give them different

stuff if they bring them back alive

so he can put 'em in his, like

menagerie, um, or dead kind of a.

Yeah.

Um, so that one was fun.

And then in June we're like,

Well, we've done him twice,

but we never gave him stats.

It's time to finally stat him out.

It's been

really cool too, because

the, when we just played with him in

our game as an NPC, we would just like

theater of the mind that going inside of

his hat and what it looks like and stuff.

But when we then added him to

the game, we were like, Well, we

obviously need to make a map for it.

So we made a map that's just

a, a little tiny magic shop.

When you go up to him, you just

kind of hop right into his hat

and now you're in this shop.

And then as we've kind of like used

him more, we've like built off of that.

So, um, we then updated the map to

now there's a spiral staircase and he

has a tavern upstairs with some beds.

So if you're in the middle of a dungeon

and you need to crash somewhere,

sleep, you can sleep here, but

it's gonna cost you a lot of money.

So, um, we then, like Dillon said, we

used him for May for the Dino Safari.

So now there's an additional

floor that has a, basically like

a, a monster menagerie inside.

A little observation deck and then

different bios where he can put his

little dinos once you collect them.

So it's been fun just from that standpoint

too, just the, um, all the things that

are exist within this, uh, this top hat.

But, um, kind of along a similar

line though, when we were building,

because he's so like far out there and

just so like different, we wanted to

reflect that in the subclass we did.

And so we tried to, to come

up with similar things.

Uh, when you, when you choose the

subclass, when you make that patch

with the ol' chap, you select a

hat and so you pick a top hat or a

bowler, or we had a third hat, uh,

maybe like a trico or something.

But anyway, so you, you pick, you

pick one of three hats and now that

becomes your, your ol' chap hat.

And so right at first level it,

inside of it, it exists like a,

a two, a two by two, by two cubic

foot of, of like just a pocket.

And so you can just store

little things in there.

And as you advance throughout the

class, it gets bigger and bigger

and bigger just to emulate you

becoming a, a, a follower of his.

And, um, an ability where you

can spend a, uh, I think an hour

observing an inn or a tavern.

And, uh, you basically, essentially attune

yourself to this, this physical location.

And once you've done that, um,

you have advantage on any Charisma

check with the, the owner, the

proprietor of that location.

So if you're trying to gather intel, if

you're trying to, you're trying to haggle

on getting room prices from a place.

Um, you also then, while you're attuned

to it, you always, uh, magically know

the location of that place as long as

you're within a thousand feet of it

or a thousand miles of it or whatever.

So we, we came up with ways where it's

like warlocks are always seen as just this

eldtrich blast, rinse, wash, and repeat.

So let's take some really far out

there, ideas and injected into it.

So that's been really fun too.

Monsters grow in the telling

and the space where that narrative

growth overlaps with the mechanics

of the game is the unique joy of

tabletop RPGs for its players and

for me as a monster journalist.

So thanks for listening

to Making a Monster.

If you wanna fill your game with

charmingly lazy merchant spider

kings, you can get Ol' Chap Ettercap

in every form a tabletop needs

courtesy of Critical Crafting.

We actually still

have our freebie up on our.

Uh, so if you go to the website,

you can get the free STL for him

as well as his free, uh, NPC card.

So that has like some lower

like, role playing tips and

stuff and the art of him on it.

And then there's also a map of,

uh, one of his top hat rooms.

Uh, so you can get that

for free on the website.

Uh, if you want more than that, obviously

you can check us out on Patreon.

The time is now five o'clock, you

know, we'll be closing in one.

We have over 700 pages now.

It's all backlogged, so if you become a

patron, you get access to all of that.

Uh, so we're on Patreon under Critical

Crafting and Ol' Chap and a whole

bunch of other monsters are in there.

For the store with the Ol'

Chap Ettercap welcome pack

is, uh, critical-crafting.com.

And then you can find us on

Patreon as Critical Crafting.

And before we close this episode

of Making a Monster, I wanna ask you to

consider supporting me through Patreon.

Producing this show takes a lot of

time, commitment, and an increasing

amount of travel as I interview

experts on game design, literature

history, and conservation biology.

Just a few bucks a month can help keep

this show a part of my professional

experience and bring you new stories

and insights almost every week.

Plus it comes with fun bonuses,

like behind the scenes content snips

and clips from my interviews and my

own monster design work, the Making

a Monster Discord, and stickers!

If supporting the show monetarily

isn't an option for you, that's fine.

Consider following the show on

your podcast platform of choice,

and if you feel I've earned it,

leave me a five star review.

It's a small thing, one or two clicks,

but it does go a long way to helping

people discover the show, and it is a real

gift to me and the creators I feature.

Stick around for Spooktacular Monster

stories all through the month of October,

including more interviews from Gen Con

and Ghost Stories from the IUCN Red List

as the podcast explores the monsters in

my upcoming project Book of Extinction.

All the details are on my website

at scintilla.studio/monster.

That's S C NT L L a.studio/monster.