Susano

Originally posted by steriaca

My question is: Mike, are you going to follow the Hero System Beastery path, and print only non-intelegent and semi-intelegent beast? That can be problmatic, for even in legions, even the most lowly monster can comunicate with humans.

The Asian bestiary will have all sorts of stuff, both intellgent and non.

Hear is a short list of sourses for you to try.

 

(SNIP)

 

Of course, this list is nowhere complete. And, chances are, Susano has seen most (if not all) of the items on the list before. Anyone else want to add something to it?

The problem here, is that these are mostly gaming resources, which I want to avoid. I want to get to the original sources. Here is my current list of sources:

Aldis, Stephen, ed. Japanese Ghosts & Demons.

Allan, Tony and Charles Phillips. Land of the Dragon: Chinese Myth.

Allan, Tony, Michael Kerrigan and Charles Phillips. Realm of the Rising Sun: Japanese Myth.

Barber, Richard and Anne Riches. A Dictionary of Fabulous Beasts.

Borges, Jorge Luis. The Book of Imaginary Beings.

Bryant, Anthony and Mark Arsenault. Sengoku.

Coleman, Loren and Jerome Clark. Cryptozoology A to Z.

Coleman, Loren and Patrick Huyghe. The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti, and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide.

Davis, F. Hadland. Myths and Legends of Japan.

Drnnys, Nicholas B. The Folklore of China.

Gould, Charles. Mythical Monsters.

Grate, Lane. GURPS Blood Types.

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits.

Hardin, Terri, ed. Myths and Folktales from Around the World.

Hogarth, Peter and Val Clery. Dragons.

Iwasaka, Michiko and Barre Toelken. Ghosts and the Japanese.

Kane, Thomas M. GURPS China.

Hearn, Lafcadio. Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things.

Knappert, Jan. Indian Mythology.

Knappert, Jan. Pacific Mythology.

Mack, Carole K. and Dinah Mack. A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subversive Spirits.

Mackenzie, Donald A. Myths of China and Japan.

Melton, J. Gordon. The Vampire Book.

Nigg, Jospeh. The Book of Fabulous Beasts.

O’Sullivan, Stephen. GURPS Fantasy Bestiary.

Page, Michael and Robert Ingpen. Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were.

Piggot, Juliet. Japanese Mythology.

Rose, Carol. Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth.

Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia.

Ross, Catrien. Supernatural and Mysterious Japan.

Shucker, Doctor Karl. Dragons: A Natural History.

Spengler, Egon. Tobin’s Spirit Guide.

Steiger, Brad. The Werewolf Book.

Turnbull, Don, Ed. Fiend Folio.

Originally posted by Prince_Bejita

Wow. That's really awsome. But, there are a few things that are incorrect as far as my knowledge of DBZ goes.

Hey, I did the best I could, all things considered.

Originally posted by urbwar

Mike,

 

Do you have this:

 

Jikininki

In Japanese myth, jikininki are demons, corpse-eaters, who eat dead human bodies. These demons are often the spirits of dead men or women whose greed prevented their souls from entering a more peaceful existence after death. They continue a half-life by devouring corpses. A particular myth tells of a strong-willed priest called Muso Kokushi who once kept watch near the body of a deceased person. Suddenly a jikininki arrived to devour it, but the priest's prayers liberated the demon's soul.

They are on the list of "things to write up."

I recently found (on line) a big list of things from the Philippines, and am really trying to find some "offical" material on them...

BTW -- if anyone has any good references for Asian monsters, ghosts, dragons, and assorted creatures, please let me know.

If you have anything you can send me, that's even better!

Re: Re: Re: ?

Originally posted by TLOshel

You mean 2004, don't you?

Oh no, 2003. I am a master of time and space after all.

Originally posted by Enforcer84

Susano, is this going to be a print book or an E-Book?

E-book AFAIK.

Try this:

http://www.devermore.net/surbrook/dbzhero/dbzhero.html

Originally posted by urbwar

Still, it doesn't matter if the book has them hop, though I would suggest you should at least mention it. I mean, even if it's cinematic, wouldn't you want to mention that for people who want to run cinematic games? It does fit.

I've done so. Thanks.

All the material I could find on the Chiang-Shih (also known as a ch'ng-shih, jiang-shi, kiang-shi, kyonshi, kyuketsuki, or a qing-shi) mentioned nothing about them or any other vampires hopping. At least one reference said the HK film industry started the whole "hopping vampires" look.

So, based on what I could find, in various references, I wrote up the Chiang-Shih the best I could.

Originally posted by steriaca

Uebwar asked, if it dosen't hop, then what's the point. Well, some oriental vampiers don't hop. Some float around in the air, and can never touch the ground at all.

 

And I remember other monsters.

 

Will we see the Yamato No Oricih, the infamous 8 headed giant snake which your screen name namesake killed in legends? How about lesser Orichi?

 

There is also a japanies monster/demon of war called Ashura, which also never touches the ground (if what I read is true).

As I said, I'll be including write-ups for anything and everything I can get a decent amount of information on. Nothing is too big or too small to be included in the book.

Originally posted by urbwar

Is that the Hopping Vampire, also known as the Jiangshi?

 

If so, are you going with their actual feeding practice (stealing breath), or the cinematic version of drinking blood?

Yes it is the Jiangshi, no, it doesn't hop.

And I give several options for the vampire.

I saw later in your post you mentioned vampires. I take it that means other vampires from asia, like the detached head fliers (Pennagulan I think is the name?) and others?

Oh yes indeedy. And man, some of this stuff is very, very, cracked...

Re: ?

Originally posted by Fur Face

What a teaser! I have been waiting for years for a book like this! And to have Mike do it guarantee's quality and authenticity! When is the projected completion date"?

Jan-Feb 2003.

Originally posted by NuSoardGraphite

Don't forget about the TENGU! (or are those already in Ninja Hero? I don't have Ninja Hero yet...forgive me)

No, there is no tengu in NINJA HERO.

Originally posted by steriaca

There are a few beast of intrest to me.

 

1) The Baku, also known as Dream Eaters. I asume that thay "eat" dreams via Transformation (prehaps a major one, since thay only "eat" one night of dreams, not take your dreams away forever).

The eat bad dreams. I'm still working on this one.

2) Anything on Youma? Great sourse for them is the anime called Youma (better know to us in the US as Cures Of The Undead Youma, and another title). By the way, a flesh eating horse shows up in Youma. Oh, and who can forget the first seasion of Sailor Moon.

Youma/Yoma is a generic name for all sorts of Japanese creatures from "yomi," the netherworld. So... in effect... yes.

3) There was this lion headed eagle with a snake tail in the book Sandman: The Dream Hunters, but I can not remember the name of the beast. Anyone know?

That's a nue.

4) And, finaly, there should be the Draconous Oriental, better known as the oriental Dragon.

There are around 3300 words on the kioh-lung alone.

Re: Kuei

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

Susano, are you aware of the approach taken to the kuei by Dean Shomshak in The Super Mage Bestiary? If you're interested, these would seem to be the items from his bibliography most pertinent to his research on the subject:

 

Cavendish, Richard (ed.) Man, Myth and Magic: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Supernatural.

 

Thompson, Stith. Motif-Index of Folk Literature.

No, I haven't seen the The Super Mage Bestiary (maybe I should???). But I'll look up these other two titles. Thanks!

For a while I was running an anime-inspired ghost-hunters game (and hope to restart it real-soon-now![tm]). Think HELLBOY mixed with HELLSING.

Anyway, the cast was a mixed bag of characters, including Lin Foo Wong the ghost, Mack Williams ex-NYPD, Yuki Hari the ghost-hunter, and Alexander Maxamillian the sorcerer.

Some lines I noted down as amusing:

Lin Foo Wong: "I'm glad I'm not a superstitious ghost."

Yuki's player, responding to unwanted comments: "Shut up! I'm being cinematic!"

Uncredited (but about a villian I think...): "Special, as in 'mommy thinks I'm special'."

Agent Thompson [indicating blue-skinned and white-haired Lin]: "Who is she?"

Mack: "One of our agents."

Agent Thompson: "*What* is she?"

Belinda: "And acrobat from Peking."

Mack also made me break up by telling a talking corpse: "You're dead! What do you need treasure for?" Which just so happened to be virtually Hellboy's same exact line in the HELLBOY story I swiped the plot from. He got +1 EXP for that.

NINJA HERO has a lot of suggestions for such a character. Also look at the sample wuxia characters -- specifically the hero.

Re: two quotes...

Originally posted by MechaGM

Matt: okay, I can polymorph myself into any monster I have seen, right?

Sam (DM): Right...

Matt: Alright, I'll turn into an invisible stalker and slink away.

Me: Matt... have you ever *seen* an invisible stalker?

Matt: Err....

The Warner Bros version:

"You're not a Labrador Retreiver."

"Yes I am. Show me a Labrador and I'll retreive it."

"There's no such thing!"

"Oh yeah? Have you ever seen a Labrador?"

"Uhm... no."

"Than shaddup."

It works for me. It's like calling your character "ronin," "paladin," or some such.

Of course, "wuxia" is more of a calling than anything, so you might want to amend it with something else to set yourself apart from all the other wuxia out there (example -- Marvel's "Silver Samurai" or "Black Knight").

Donald Brook -- a brick with Growth and Brawling. His name many not make any sense until you switch over to his nickname. "Donny." [if you still don't get it... look up "donnybrook"]

Bandit, Racoon of the Future! -- pulp-era animal sidekick. Only heard about him, but have loved the name ever since.

A.P.E. (Algernon Patrick Emerson) -- because every campaign needs an intellagent gorilla.

Johnathan Morganthall Nightshade -- one of my longest (and favorite) SIDs ever.

Depends on what you mean by "demon."

I mean, I'm putting in everything I can find a decent amount of information on. So far, I have (demon wise), the Chiang-Shih, the Pishacha, the Rakshasa, the Oni, and some other strange creatures (still trying to pin down the Kuei...).

The book will also have dragons, serpents, ghosts, ghouls, vampires, 100-foot-long centipedes, foo lions, 700-mile-long catfish, flesh-eating horses, fish-elephants, flying heads, shape-shifting sorcerers, and beastmen.

Oh, and one enormous [deleted by sysop].

Oops... Guess you'll have to read the book to find that one.

I don't own any of the new SF products HERO has been putting out besides STAR HERO. However, I've been developing something that might go into Digital Hero, so I was wondering: what format is used to describe an alien race as a whole (as opposed to a single character) in something the TERRAN EMPIRE?

Is it a simple variant of the creature layout seen in the HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY?

Re: Re: How Big is Big?

Originally posted by altamaros

You're trying to build Jishin Uwo in Hero terms ?

Maaaybe.

I am working on a pan-Asian bestiary, after all.

Originally posted by SleepyDrug

[b1) Do you have a guestimate of when the symbol font mess up will be corrected on the vampire page? I can't seem to do anything with it.[/b]

Well... Hmm... I just started a new job, so I'm not sure when... but this weekend is looking real good.

Originally posted by Monolith

I would guess that there is probably a version of this character on Mike Surbrook's site. I do not have the url, but I am sure someone can post it.

Yeah, someone did it a few posts earlier.

And yes, Kayli the Destroyer was my "DBZ on a budget" entry for NINJA HERO.