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Post-Apoc Creatures


Super Squirrel

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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. :D

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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.

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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.

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:)

 

List of cards here:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/generic/cardlists/Ice_Age_Checklist.txt

 

Card description here:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/generic/cardlists/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.

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Discovery Channel

 

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.

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Re: Discovery Channel

 

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.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Re: Post-Apoc Creatures

 

Originally posted by Super Squirrel

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. :D

 

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?

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Re: Re: Post-Apoc Creatures

 

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.
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Re: Re: Re: Post-Apoc Creatures

 

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

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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.

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Metamorphosis Alpha

 

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".

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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.

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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. :D

 

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

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Re: Metamorphosis Alpha

 

Originally posted by Just Joe

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".

 

Actually, the Starlin comic (written and drawn) was called Metamorphosis Odyssey. And it was serialized in Epic Magazine, collected into a graphic novel, and then became the Dreadstar comic. Not to pick nits or anything, but there you go.

 

Gotta love something with a character named 'Syzygy'.

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Metamorphosis Alpha / Odyssey

 

Originally posted by Blackout

Actually, the Starlin comic (written and drawn) was called Metamorphosis Odyssey . . . Not to pick nits or anything, but there you go.

 

You are absolutely right. As I indicated, I was straining my feable memory. I appreciate the correction.

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The Future is Wild: the book

 

Originally posted by Super Squirrel

If anyone knows when [The Future is Wild] will rebroadcast, please let me know. I really want to catch it on tape.

 

I don't know about a rebroadcast, but Amazon.com tells me the book is out. It's called "The Future is Wild". Dougal Dixon is listed as one of two authors. If you need the other, I'm sure I can track down his name.

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Originally posted by keithcurtis

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

That is what a "will" is for. Put me down there please under arren@winds.org

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I did a post-apocalyptic setting and game, I'd have to go put my hands on the animal listing but it was fairly extensive. Many were frankly a little boring, but here's the ones I liked that I can remember off-hand in no particular order:

 

Vicious Flying Squirrels - of course they could fly rather far and they could "dive bomb" adventurers in the woods; they roved in great packs and were quite a threat in larger masses

 

Vicious Deer - very big deer with sharpened massive antlers and a fighting disposition; a few were domesticated in the great city-states' armies; those few city-states that had stores of "ancient" machineguns that functioned had vicious deer-mounted machinegunners that were terrifying

 

Talking Bluejay - I'm fixated on this one as such a mutation exists in my current superhero campaign, but anyway in the woods of the post-apoc world these talking bluejays would give advice and take things; the advice might be very good or very bad; you had to cultivate a relationship with them

 

Vicious Rabbit - as in Monty Python, just couldn't pass it up

 

Skunk - aside from being noxious enough to knock people out, they would more importantly rob people blind as they slept or were knocked out by fumes

 

In the "dungeons" (ancient industrial and business sites) more bizarre animals existed. There were a few monster classes comprising of plastic, glass, metal, and other such materials. I'll have to dig out my encounters charts/descriptions to find what else there was.

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Originally posted by zornwil

IVicious Rabbit - as in Monty Python, just couldn't pass it up

My hell hares make monty python rabbits look easy. They are a combination duplication/summon. They are normally encountered as a standard hare with a large jaw bite. However, they can recombine by swallowing another hare. This causes them to double in size and most charactistics. There are usually 16 hares in a pack making for one very large rabbit.

 

It was a 600+ pt. creature with a 3d6 Penetrating HKA.

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gotta add:

 

"The Mote in God's Eye/The Gripping Hand" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Post-apocalypse and recovery and apocalypse and recovery.... The main alien race has had time to evolve in space and develop gadgeteering as an instinct (and branch out into role specific forms, e.g. warrior, mediator, etc...) Contains critters evolved for life in destroyed cities amongst other things.

 

Kind of cheesy, but a good array of critters, "Midworld" by Alan Dean Foster. There is also a second book where Flynx visits Midworld.

 

Originally posted by 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.

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Originally posted by Greenstar

"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.

 

There was a sequel called The Unforsaken Hiero which came out in 1983. The first book came out in 1973. I remember being excited when I found the sequel in the stores, and thinking, "Wow, just have to wait another ten years and he'll come out with the last one in the trilogy." How could I realize that was wishful thinking?

 

Unfortunately for gamers, Gamma World is considered the "baseline standard" for post-apocalypse game settings; I say unfortunately because GW is a really high-fantasy, wierded-out setting, and it shouldn't be the baseline for these things. It is basically a rewrite of the older Metamorphosis Alpha rules with some adaptations to make it similar to AD&D, which had just exploded on the gaming scene. Other games have been produced in the setting, but GW is the most popular - it's gone through four editions from the first in 1978, to the latest one in the early 90s. With the demise/transformation of TSR, it's really unclear whether it will ever be redone.

 

A list of post-apoc RPGs would include: The Morrow Project (Timeline, Inc., 1980/1983 - probably the best post-holocaust game), Aftermath (FGU, 1981), Living Steel (Leading Edge, 1987), After The Bomb (Palladium, 2001), Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (GDW, 1990), and the famous Tribe 8 (Dream Pod 9, 1998).

 

Games I've heard of but never seen include: The End (Scapegoat Games, 1997), Mutazoids (Whit Productions, 1989), Age of Ruin (Cutting Edge Games, 1990), 9th Generation (Jeff Siadek Enterprises, 1986), and Blood Dawn (Optimus, 1996).

 

[Edit - I forgot one of the first such games, Twilight: 2000, which has also gone through a number of editions and spawned a spinoff game, Traveller: 2300. Better late than never.]

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