hancock.tom Posted September 17, 2006 Report Share Posted September 17, 2006 Aside from using MMM and the HERO Bestiary, what do most folks do for their non-recurring protagonists? I have been supplementing the published hero monsters with quick and dirty conversions of monsters from old D&D materials. Anyone using the asian bestiaries yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jkeown Posted September 17, 2006 Report Share Posted September 17, 2006 Re: Monsters I use my Monster Guides located here: http://www.geocities.com/jephkay@sbcglobal.net There are no hard and fast rules in there, but I think the underlying philosophy is sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted September 17, 2006 Report Share Posted September 17, 2006 Re: Monsters I've used the heck out of the Asian Bestiaries. Great stuff, very worth getting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted September 17, 2006 Report Share Posted September 17, 2006 Re: Monsters I've a low monster setting (hundreds of years of civilisation). The majority of badguys are human. I haven't gone outside of the first two quoted sources yet for the rare monster. However I will be using the Asian Bestiary if they journey east of the Western Shores (I don't have the second Asian Bestiary) Oh, and I converted 40K aliens into monsters. That too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted September 17, 2006 Report Share Posted September 17, 2006 Re: Monsters Haven't been able to afford the Asian Bestiaries yet. So many other HERO books still waiting in the queue. OTOH I have long availed myself of Susano's numerous and diverse quality creature writeups on his website: http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionscreatures/creatures.html Of course my RPG conversion list (link in my sig ) leads to a host of races and beasties from many sources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted September 17, 2006 Report Share Posted September 17, 2006 Re: Monsters I tend to look at previously done write ups and alter them to taste tocreate what I want. For example, when I wanted Gwythaints (from Lloyd Alexander's Prydain), I took the basic Griffin write up and then altered the basic stats to eliminate any feline traits and reinforce the avain ones. I have to second Mikes site... he does great work. Just the World of Kong critters are enough to provide a whole ecosystem of nasty monsters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hancock.tom Posted September 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2006 Re: Monsters I put in an order for the asian bestiaries today. I'm not sure how much I'll use them, since most of the critters will have to be de-asianed for my games, but I'm sure they'll make good templates and there will probably be several I just have to change the names on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted September 17, 2006 Report Share Posted September 17, 2006 Re: Monsters I put in an order for the asian bestiaries today. I'm not sure how much I'll use them' date=' since most of the critters will have to be de-asianed for my games, but I'm sure they'll make good templates and there will probably be several I just have to change the names on.[/quote'] From what I've seen of the ABs, many of the creatures therein are so exotic, bizarre and unlike anything seen by most Westerners that almost no one will identify them as "Asian." Some could easily be used as aliens in sci-fi games, or as "elder horrors" for Lovecraftian settings. More than a few would make formidable opponents for superheroes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters When I need an antagonist, I make one to suit. It usually only takes about 5-10 minutes per 100 points, or less. Here are a couple of pages that have some advice: http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/Conversion3e/Conversion3eOpposition.shtml http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/Conversion3e/Conversion3eMonsters.shtml They're in the context of converting from D&D, but the Templating concept discussed is usable in almost all genres. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thia Halmades Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters I also use the Asian Bestiaries (and got them signed at HeroCon, which was very cool). I've found a lot of stuff in there that's dead useful, and of course being HERO, easily modified as necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters I put in an order for the asian bestiaries today. I'm not sure how much I'll use them' date=' since most of the critters will have to be de-asianed for my games, but I'm sure they'll make good templates and there will probably be several I just have to change the names on.[/quote'] From what I've seen of the ABs' date=' many of the creatures therein are so exotic, bizarre and unlike anything seen by most Westerners that almost no one will identify them as "Asian." Some could easily be used as aliens in sci-fi games, or as "elder horrors" for Lovecraftian settings. More than a few would make formidable opponents for superheroes.[/quote'] Yup. Some of the Japanese and Indian monsters in particular are useful as templates for traditional Fey Folk, needing only a name change and minor tweaking to have a very nicely authentic feel. KS is correct in that you can always knock off your own beasts quickly enough. I'm much better at running characters in combat I've designed myself than at using another person's write up; the design process itself helps me figure out how a given creature or character will work in play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters KS is correct in that you can always knock off your own beasts quickly enough. I'm much better at running characters in combat I've designed myself than at using another person's write up; the design process itself helps me figure out how a given creature or character will work in play. Unfortunately I'm not very creative at coming up with new character concepts , so I really appreciate being able to work with designs from people who are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters Unfortunately I'm not very creative at coming up with new character concepts ' date=' so I really appreciate being able to work with designs from people who are.[/quote'] Which is where something like the Asian Bestiaries come in handy. I do not see the approaches as incompatible; starting with a well researched and reasonably statted out template makes it that much easier to fine tune things as you want them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hancock.tom Posted September 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters When I need an antagonist, I make one to suit. It usually only takes about 5-10 minutes per 100 points, or less. This is essentially what I do, using old AD&D2 monster compendiums and other various fantasy supplements as idea mines. Sounds like the AB will be both usable on its own and good for monster idea mine as well. My monster needs should go down very soon since my group is feeling ready to go back to a more story driven campaign, although we've been doing beer & pretzels hack-n-slash type of stuff the last few weeks. Something about college football season makes people want to play old D&D type games I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters I'm not good at making up monsters. Anyone know of any on-line resources? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters I'm not good at making up monsters. Anyone know of any on-line resources? A guy named Surbrook did something once. His site is here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters A guy named Surbrook did something once. His site is here. Oh, cool! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters I'm not good at making up monsters. Anyone know of any on-line resources? Sandbagger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters Sandbagger You lost me on that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters I was just going to poke my tongue out at Susano ;p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters Man... make one little joke.... Okay, seriously -- I found the Chaosium CoC books, specifically Dreamlands, to have some nice ideas for monsters. Also, After Man, The New Dinosaurs (Dougal Dixon), World of Kong, and Barlowe's book Expedition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters Not really totally on topic, but not totally off topic either... Saw a show on Animal Planet last night called Chased by Sea Monsters that was rather well donel. The premise was basically a time traveling crew of marine researchers and appropriate support crew, aboard an 80 sailing vessel named The Ancient Mariner, visiting the most dangerous waters in the history of the world in order to study the apex predators of each age. The Liopleurodons were particularily well done. Susano has a write up on his site of them, which is how I'm justifing menntioning it in this thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters Aside from... what do most folks do for their non-recurring protagonists? I use Player Characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters Man... make one little joke.... Okay, seriously -- I found the Chaosium CoC books, specifically Dreamlands, to have some nice ideas for monsters. Also, After Man, The New Dinosaurs (Dougal Dixon), World of Kong, and Barlowe's book Expedition. On that note - I've also found the various art books of Wayne Barlow and Tim White to be quite inspirational. White did some of the covers for the CoC omnibi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted September 18, 2006 Report Share Posted September 18, 2006 Re: Monsters You lost me on that one. sandbagging: To downplay or misrepresent one's ability in a game or activity in order to deceive (someone), especially in gambling: sandbagged the pool player by playing poorly in the first game when stakes were low. I.e. -- someone that has produced a ton of "monster" writeups -- published no less -- saying "I'm not good at making up monsters. Anyone know of any on-line resources?" That's pretty much the epitome of sandbagging -- meant in good fun, of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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