Blog On Hold For A Moment

Gentle followers, the blog will be on hold for a moment due to some extenuating life circumstances.  Please bear with me.  More monsters to come, but life must be sorted out first.  Will elaborate in the future.

More Monsters Coming Soon

Sorry the blog has been silent for a couple of weeks, my friends.  More monsters coming very, very soon.

I Gotta Get This Off My Chest - Old Fantasy vs. New Fantasy

Alright, I normally don't like "rant" posts, because they're little more than self-serving.  However, I decided to indulge my selfish side and get this message out, because I think it needs said, and you may agree or disagree freely.  I will not take offense.  It's the view I hold, and here it is.

I've been spending a lot of time with old paperbacks, like the one pictured, old pulps from the '40s, and material from the sword & sorcery genre written well before the inception of D&D.  Here is my observation:  too much of modern fantasy is informed by what D&D brought to the world as an implied fantasy setting, and is too informed by modern political correctness.  Where is my proof?  Well, just off the top of my head (like I said, this is a rant, not a dissertation), Jim Butcher wrote a role-playing group turned werewolves into his books about Harry Dresden.  Dragonlance still sells.  And how many Forgotten Realms novels are there?  A billion, you're right.  (We'll get to PC influence in a minute.)

Most big-name fantasy tomes, and I use the word tomes to purvey a sense of the page count of most of the epics coming out these days, are Tolkien-esque imitations.  There is little in the way of the manly and un-politically correct heroes of yore who exist in a world that is just plain old out to get them.  Sure there are a few authors still writing this kind of thing, but just like everything else these days that has suddenly become mass-marketable (I'm looking at you D&D), the things masquerading as heroic fantasy or sword & sorcery usually aren't the kind of visceral, imagination-inspiring, sword-wielding, death-escaping stories of yesteryear.  Too often I see "sensitive" heroes, or the author dwelling on how things make the character "feel."  We've lost the action, the adventure, and the sense of wonder because fantasy has become commonplace.  I'm not saying that every hero has to operate in the same moral gray area as Conan or his ilk, but the action, atmosphere, and wonderment in those stories far surpasses a lot of what is written today.

I think the crux of the problem is this:  fantasy and science fiction literature used to be outsider entertainment, just like roleplaying games.  Both the stories and the games are much, much, much less so these days due to the huge movies coming out and succeeding (the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings adaptations for instance - which I love, oddly enough), and the onslaught of sci-fi/fantasy video games of the last two decades spurring the genre into the national consciousness.  

It's good in that it will never, ever go away and that there will always be a market for fantastic imagination, but it is heavily diluted with marketing.  Decisions are made to tame things down in stories because it might offend people, and that was rarely ever a concern of the pulp fantasy writers even up through the 1970s because of how society was at the time (white-centric, male-centric).  I totally get why companies do it, but I think people are offended far too easily, especially today in 2012.  Quentin Tarantino is getting things right with his movies - push the limits!  Challenge what people think.  Smack them in the face with something.  Rattle their stupid post-modern cage.  That's what the original S&S stories did.  They were vivid, lurid, and in-your-face.  They sold exactly because they were shocking!  The words popped off the page, even in some of the poorly written stuff.  I'm just so sick of reading about nature-loving elves, mountain-dwelling dwarves, dragons, paladins, and worlds that aren't weird.  That is normal now.  I don't want a normal fantasy novel.  Ever.  I wish Quentin Tarantino would take a shot at sword & sorcery.  He'd get it right.

Now get off my lawn.

(Addendum:  Sometimes I think the above thoughts are what really rankles a lot of us in the old-school gaming community.  We desire what the game was before it was marketed and diluted.  Of course, it is in OUR hands to take back that feeling.  And it's what the OSR has been doing all along.  It can only be done in a niche of a niche today.  This whole thing is why so many of the monsters I've put up here on the blog have that old pre-D&D pulp fantasy feel to them.  The rules serve my world, not the other way around.  You can even do that with 4E and Pathfinder - remember Rule Zero.  We shouldn't have been at war with the rule set, we should have been at war with the marketing.)

The Witch - A Plug and A New Monster

Over at The Other Side, Tim is having a little contest.  Go here to read about it.  While you're there, make sure you check out the preview of his book The Witch (for Basic era games).  I thought his contest was not only a cool idea, but the notion of cross-trafficking that bloghop with his own Monstrous Monday bloghop was pretty novel.  I decided to take that novelty a step further and enter his contest along with bringing you a brand new monster that fits the concept and the season.  And yes, this one totally violates Wheaton's law, or so my players will say.  I am indeed a fan of Tucker's kobolds, just so you know.  Hey, they get multiple saves before they die... 

Monstrous Monday Post Roundup on Hit Adjacent Ally

I've posted a lot of monsters over the past month (and there's more to come since this has been so good for me creatively).  Here is a link roundup to all the posts on this blog.

THE MONSTERS OF HIT ADJACENT ALLY SO FAR

Ape of Tuzun Thune

Banshee-Raider of the Red Moon

Black Hornet of the Green Moon

Chameleon-Men of the Jungles of Gath
Charnel Ape of Pit-bottom

Clockwork Devil of Taltun

Denizen of Leng

Devourer of Aktenshepset

Fetchling

Kanaima Tribesman

Leng Spider

Mistman of Phyrgilus

Monkey Swarm
Necropolis Spearhound

Negalu-Man

Spiderborn

Swarmonids of the Fell Pass

Thuggi Cultist

Vomiting Spirit of Voor

Voor-Men

Vulkanite
Wax Mockery

Monstrous Monday: 3 New Monsters

In addition to the monsters I've posted throughout the month, I wanted to finish strong, so I've given you all three more monsters today.  However, I have many more ideas, and at least seven more write-ups.  Expect them to keep coming indefinitely for a while.

Chameleon-Men of the Jungles of Gath

Hit Dice: 2

Armor Class: 12

Attacks: `1 weapon (1d6 + weapon modifier) or psychic disorientation

Saving Throw: 16

Special: Psychic disorientation, hide in shadows (jungle only) 95%

Movement: 9

CL/XP: 3/60

The chameleon-men of the Jungles of Gath are savage and vicious men, appearing much as any human being, but with distinctive gray skin that, when in the midst of jungle foliage, mottles and blends into the background, much like an actual chameleon.

Chameleon-men have the ability to psychically disorient their foes. They can focus this ability on one target each round, and the victim must make a successful saving throw or be afflicted by a loss of balance, equilibrium, and direction (gaining the sickened condition for 1d4 rounds). A target may only be affected by this disorientation again if the effect has expired. Otherwise, chameleon-men may attempt to disorient a foe as many times as they wish if they are not successful.

 

Swarmonids of the Fell Pass

Hit Dice: 2

Armor Class: 12

Attacks: `1 swarm (2d4 + distraction)

Saving Throw: 16

Special: Distraction, ½ damage from slashing/piercing weapons, automatic damage, cannot be flanked

Movement: 9

CL/XP: 4/120

Lurking in the Fell Pass, the only easy way into and out of the City of Sages, Taltun, are the swarmonids. They are permitted to waylay those travelers as they see fit, so long as they do not attack those in the employ of the Sages, or those on official business to the city. Anyone not flying a banner of the city is at risk when traveling through the pass.

The swarmonids are small, 2 ½ to 3 feet tall at most, and they attack in rabid swarms – sometimes with bare hands, sometimes with tiny weapons. They are treated as a swarm in every case, as they are never encountered in groups of less than twenty. They resemble small green men with black hair and pointed ears.

A swarm must move into an opponent's space to attack them, but it deals automatic damage without need for an attack roll. When a swarm damages an opponent, they are distracted unless they make a successful saving throw. If the save is failed, a character is considered nauseated and suffers a -1 to all attacks, damage, saving throws, and ability checks for 1 round from the distraction. A swarm cannot be flanked or backstabbed, and it suffers only half damage from slashing and piercing weapons.

Monstrous Monday: Black Hornet of the Green Moon

 

This one's going to be a real pain-in-the-you-know-what for the PCs.  Let's hope they never find a way to make it to the green moon they see in the night sky.  However, they seem to always find a way into certain death...

BLACK HORNET OF THE GREEN MOON

 

Hit Dice: 2

Armor Class: 13

Attacks:  1 bite (1d3) or 1 sting (1d6 + poison)

Saving Throw:  16

Special: Poisonous sting, attach

Movement: 4, Fly 16

Challenge Level/XP:  4/170

On the green moon of Negalu, even insects take on a life-threatening and sinister aspect.  The black hornets of the Green Moon make their nests in the tree-tops of the Negalan jungles, spending the majority of their time foraging for food and growing their nests.  Since it never winters on the moon due to its proximity to the sun, black hornets are always active.  They are notoriously hostile, often attacking for no larger reason than their victim crossed into their flight path.  They are nearly three feet long, and incredibly fast when flying.  Even the warlike Negalu-Men fear them, for their sting often means agonizing death.

Black hornets will always attack with their bite first.  On a successful attack they deal 1d3 points of damage and automatically attach to their victim, dealing instant sting damage.  The victim of the bite is considered grappled, with all relevant modifiers applied, and removing the hornet is resolved with a grappling contest.  As long as the hornet is attached, it may deal automatic sting damage each round.  Black hornets may use their poison in combat every 1d4 rounds, a roll of 1 indicating the very next round.  Victims of the sting will take 1d6 points of damage and must make a successful saving throw or suffer the effects of a particularly virulent poison.  It has an onset time of 1d4 minutes, after which the victim will sustain 1d6 points of damage for 1d4 rounds.  A sting from an attached hornet will always do 1d6 points of damage, whether it can use its poison in that round or not.

Quick Note:  My monsters will make use of my house rules.  Most often referred to will be Conditions, which I converted to S&W from Pathfinder, and put out Condition Cards for you in the blogosphere to have a look at (see link in the right bar).  Also, very few spells will match their standard counterparts in S&W as far as names go - for instance, curse of chaos and disorder is confusion.  I just like how it sounds better.  Plus, it makes use of conditions - so substitute in your own stuff if you feel like it.  All the artwork above is "found art" on the internet, so if it winds up being owned by you and you don't like it being here, just say so and I'll take it down.  These are pictures that inspired me, and they're used out of respect.  No infringement intended.