Lazy GM Tips: The Art of Re-skinning Monsters

Hey everyone,

It's time for another dive into my "lazy GM" toolkit! As much as I love diving deep into complex systems and intricate lore, sometimes (okay, maybe often) I need quick, effective ways to prep engaging encounters without spending hours creating brand new stat blocks from scratch. One of my absolute favorite techniques for this is re-skinning monsters.

What is Re-skinning?

At its core, re-skinning is incredibly simple: you take the existing mechanics and statistics of a creature from your game's rulebook (or any monster manual) and just change its description to create something new and different for your players to encounter. The underlying numbers (hit points, attack bonus, damage, abilities) stay the same, but the look, feel, and theme are entirely transformed.

Why It's a Lazy GM's Best Friend:

1. Massive Time Saver: This is the big one. Designing balanced and interesting monster stats can be time-consuming. Re-skinning lets you bypass that almost entirely. You already have a working set of mechanics.
2. Keeps Players on Their Toes: Players who are familiar with the game's monsters might metagame a bit, knowing a "Goblin" has X hit points or a "Wolf" has Y attack. When you re-skin, they might think they know what they're up against based on the description, but the mechanics might surprise them (or vice-versa).
3. Fits Any Theme: Got a weird, homebrewed setting? Need a creature that perfectly matches a specific cult, alien planet, or magical anomaly? Re-skinning lets you adapt existing monsters to any theme with ease.
4. Expands Your "Monster Manual" Instantly: Suddenly, that one book of monsters you own has three or four times as many potential encounters.

How to Re-skin: A Few Examples

Let's say you need a quick encounter and the only stat block you have handy is for a Goblin.

• The Obvious Goblin: Small, green, pointy ears, crude weapons. Standard.
• Re-skin #1: Crazed Sewer Skulkers:
  • Description: Pale, hairless humanoids with wide, unblinking eyes and sharp, filed teeth, skittering through the city's underbelly, armed with broken bottles and rusty pipes.
  • Mechanics: Still Goblin stats. Their "scimitar" is now a "broken bottle," their "shortbow" is "flinging sharp debris."
• Re-skin #2: Animated Garden Gnomes:
  • Description: Small, porcelain garden gnomes, their painted smiles now sinister, wielding tiny but sharp pickaxes and garden shears, animated by a mischievous fey spirit.
  • Mechanics: Still Goblin stats. The "pickaxe" uses the scimitar stats, perhaps their "thrown rocks" use the shortbow stats.
• Re-skin #3: Venomous Swamp Imps:
  • Description: Tiny, bloated, frog-like humanoids with warty green skin that glistens with a thin sheen of poison. They attack with barbed, venom-tipped darts blown from reeds.
  • Mechanics: Still Goblin stats. Their "darts" use shortbow stats, and maybe you add a simple "poison" effect on a hit (e.g., the target has to make a basic constitution save or be disadvantaged on their next attack – keep it simple!).

Tips for Effective Re-skinning:

• Focus on Sensory Details: How does it look, sound, smell, even feel (if your players are unlucky enough to get that close)?
• Match Abilities to Description (Loosely): If the original monster had a "charge" ability, and you re-skin it as something slow and lumbering, maybe that ability doesn't make sense. But if it had a "pack tactics" ability, that could easily translate to many types of group attackers. Don't be afraid to ignore an ability if it really doesn't fit the new skin, or slightly tweak how it's described.
• Don't Overdo It: The beauty is in its simplicity. Change the description, maybe one minor special effect if you're feeling adventurous, and you're done.
• Steal from Everywhere: Movies, books, other games, mythology – inspiration for new "skins" is all around you.

Re-skinning is a fantastic way to get more mileage out of your existing resources, surprise your players, and significantly cut down on your prep time. Give it a try in your next game!

What are some of your favorite re-skinning successes or other "lazy GM" tips? Share them in the comments!

As always,
Michael Garcia a.k.a. TheCrazyGM