Post-Apoc Creatures

[Super Squirrel]

For the past month or so, including much of the time that HeroGames was down, I have spent a ton of energy developing various creatures that I plan on having my characters encounter in the Chronicles of the Wishes game. There most recent encounter is the Snow Lyon which is an evolved bobcat that has been fused with ice magic (a subdivision of water magic) from the arctic region. I discovered that this creature has been incredibly lethal, much more than I anticipated.

First, the creature is powerless without snow nearby. This is only a -0 limitation on powers because the creature has the ability to summon up a megascaled blizzard that is blinding. I had no idea how much this was going to cripple the party. It gave the Snow Lyon a phenominal edge to the point he was able to take down an NPC and nearly kill one of the players. Another character is likely to find herself at at least half BODY as soon as I get one more post.

The encounter brought me to realize just how to build superb post-apoc creatures. Take your average animal and enhance a couple aspects of it. Then give it an unusual, but lethal power. In my case, I took a bobcat, enhanced STR, BODY, CON, gave it an extra d6 for the bite and gave it the ability to use ice magic. It has Ice Prism which is a 3d6 EB beam and the snow storm mentioned above.

As always, I'm looking for good ideas to make lethal creatures for this futuristic world. Write-Ups or basic info are greatly accepted and appreciated.

[Old Man]

As much as I was bummed to leave, I'm happy I'm gone.

Since they're in an arctic region, you could introduce Crystal Oozes, Yeti, ...what am I saying??

Look through a list of "Ice Age" Magic the Gathering Cards. I'm sure there are a load of suggestions right there. Many of which are kind of gross.

[Super Squirrel]

Unfortunitely, I sold all my Magic the Gathering cards a while back except for a couple of sentimental value. Actually, the gang isn't in an arctic region. The monster has, for whatever reason, migrated south for food. In what is highly amusing, the players missed a couple of subtle clues that there was a monster on the loose. One good one was when an NPC mentioned that currently there was no where in town to buy any ranged weapons or ammo. There are about six hunting parties that went out after the thing and didn't come back.

The Chapter is about to come to an end with a scene that is practically taken from the movie "Hamburger Hill". I originally saw Irami being the only one capable of being ultra effective and now she's gone.

I suspect that Chapter 3 will take the party north into Canada (also known as the Acda Region). I'll probably use that idea then.

[Old Man]

List of cards here:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/generic..._Checklist.txt

Card description here:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/generic...ts/Ice_Age.txt

Unfortunately I don't know where you can find the art. But I guess that doesn't really matter if you're mainly looking for ideas. The power/toughness ratings also help give a rough guess on how powerful the critter should be.

[Blackout]

I'm not going to be much help, because I don't remember much in the way of details (though I'm sure there's someone out there who does), but...

There was a special on (I think) the Discovery Channel that dealt with future evolution of life on Earth, and there were some seriously nasty and vile beasts in that.

Two that stick out were a sabre-tooth wolverine that weighed about 80 pounds, and some bizarre mega-seal that spewed out acidic, partially digested fish as a "breath weapon" defense mechanism.

Weird, creepy and nasty. And something I'd love to track down.

[Just Joe]

Originally posted by Blackout
I'm not going to be much help, because I don't remember much in the way of details (though I'm sure there's someone out there who does), but...

There was a special on (I think) the Discovery Channel that dealt with future evolution of life on Earth, and there were some seriously nasty and vile beasts in that.

Two that stick out were a sabre-tooth wolverine that weighed about 80 pounds, and some bizarre mega-seal that spewed out acidic, partially digested fish as a "breath weapon" defense mechanism.

Weird, creepy and nasty. And something I'd love to track down.

This came up in the corresponding thread on the old boards. The show was called (The?) "Future is Wild". I THINK it was produced by the BBC. I KNOW Dougal Dixon was associated with it in some form or another. He has written three cool books involving imaginary evolution. "After Man" has essentially the same premise as the TV show you saw. "The New Dinosaurs" imagines that dinosaurs as a whole never went extinct (though most individual dinosaur species did). "Man After Man" involves human genetic engineering of humans, followed by natural evolution after humans and human society as we know them have become extinct.

[Super Squirrel]

If anyone knows when that show will rebroadcast, please let me know. I really want to catch it on tape.

[BasilDrag]

Originally posted by Super Squirrel
<snip>
The encounter brought me to realize just how to build superb post-apoc creatures. Take your average animal and enhance a couple aspects of it. Then give it an unusual, but lethal power.

{snip}

As always, I'm looking for good ideas to make lethal creatures for this futuristic world. Write-Ups or basic info are greatly accepted and appreciated.

Metamorphosis Alpha would give you a ship-load ()of ideas.

Or Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega, its descendant. I think Gamma World is a spin-off from Metamorphosis Alpha

--
OK, so who's this strange Ian the Cthulhu fans are always talking about?

[Super Squirrel]

Originally posted by BasilDrag
Metamorphosis Alpha would give you a ship-load ()of ideas.

Or Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega, its descendant. I think Gamma World is a spin-off from Metamorphosis Alpha

--
OK, so who's this strange Ian the Cthulhu fans are always talking about?

Is this a book or a movie or a website or some sort of TV show I don't know about? I haven't heard of it before.

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by Super Squirrel
Is this a book or a movie or a website or some sort of TV show I don't know about? I haven't heard of it before.

Metamorphosis Alpha was an OOOOLD RPG. Basically, it was a lost generation ship with all kinds of mutated beasties.

Gamma World was a Post-Apoc RPG with a real High-fantasy feel.

Both were very similar to D&D in basic approach.

Keith "Old-timer" Curtis

[Super Squirrel]

Thanks Keith.

Someday you will tell us all the dirty secrets to your Reavers so we can add them to the list.

[BNakagawa]

If you want to really wierd out your players, get hold of a book called

Expedition written and illustrated by Wayne Barlow (the guy who did the Barlow's guide to extraterrestrials)

It's a fictional account of a manned expedition to a world inhabited by absolutely alien life forms, all meticulously detailed.

[Just Joe]

Originally posted by keithcurtis
Metamorphosis Alpha was an OOOOLD RPG.

Coincidentally, or so I assume, there was an illustrated sci-fi story ("comic") with the same title. I am straining my memory here, but I think it appeared in Epic magazine (or possibly Heavy Metal), was written by Jim Starlin, and later evolved into "Dreadstar".

[Greenstar]

Just have to mention a couple of books that give some great ideas for post-apoc critters and such:

"Heiro's Journey" By Sterling Lanier. A surprisingly good read, too, though more thna a bit over the top. The world just *begs* to be made into an RPG, though.

"The Jungle" by David Drake. Lots of VERY nasty plants and such. Ditto "Redliners" by the same author.

"Deathworld" by Harry Harrison. It's actually a trilogy, as I recall.

"Hothouse Planet" by Brian Aldiss. Another set of VERY nasty mutated plants.

"Beowulf's Children" by Pournelle and Stirling, I think. Just the one critter, but it's a doozy.

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by Super Squirrel
Thanks Keith.

Someday you will tell us all the dirty secrets to your Reavers so we can add them to the list.

That's always one of the problems to world creation. If you have a world whose origins are lost to antiquities ("The Before Times") you can never TELL anyone what's really going on, or it destroys the mythic quality.

Keith "Silly player, can't you recognize a plot device?" Curtis