Non-Fantasy True20 Bestiary

[joela]

Review of the True20 Bestiary. Comments afterward are telling: the supp is virtually no use outside of a fantasy setting. I'd definitely be interested in 3PP products covering creatures from other genres (hint hint)

[ValhallaGH]

... You've never re-skinned a D&D Troll as a monstrously-hulking cyborg warrior? Because that size, strength, durability, and regeneration really freaked out my players when they encountered it.
Such uses have generally made that book useful when I'm running settings besides high fantasy (except for gritty modern, which is just a bunch of human Narrator Characters).

I found the mechanics to be largely acceptable. The OGL SRD port was a dull but I'll forgive that. Regeneration was unnecessarily clunky but it was the same in the base book, so I won't blame the monster book.
The weapons list is flatly banned from my games; the listed longbow stats are vastly superior to assault rifle and sniper rifle stats, with other similar imbalances, and that isn't cool with me.


All that said, I won't object to a publisher putting out a non-D&D-fantasy book of foes. I would be surprised if it was much different from A) what we've already got or B) a big book of human NCs. I hope it would be, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is not.

[bryan.mullins]

... You've never re-skinned a D&D Troll as a monstrously-hulking cyborg warrior? Because that size, strength, durability, and regeneration really freaked out my players when they encountered it.

See, this is why I love the helpfulness and level of GM experience available here. Do any of you have more suggestions for this type of thing? I have done a little of this in the few games I have run, but I would love to see a list of inspirational ideas or suggestions for RE-using stat blocks or tinkering with the "trappings" of a monster to make it both un-recognizable and scary.

>WBM

[iwatt]

For sci-fi games, the dire animals work well for xeno-predators.

Wyvern as a huge wasp critter also a good fit.

Basically remove the serial numbers and use the stats as is.

[ValhallaGH]

My general pattern is 1) Question, 2) Answer, 3) Similar, 4) Flavor text.

Question:
"What do I want this encounter to do? What do I want it to feel like? What cool thing do I want the enemies to do that freaks out my players?"

Answer:
Answer the questions as appropriate to the campaign. For the cyborg "Challenge them with a couple powerful cyber-warriors designed to effectively ignore small-arms; heavy cans that can weather a storm of assault fire and keep coming."

Similar:
Am I aware of creatures that already do what I'm looking to do?
"Yes, I am aware of Golems and Trolls. Now, which to use. Hmmm. You know, I like the horror of seeing the wounds inflicted heal before your eyes more that I like the invulnerability. Trolls it shall be."

Flavor Text:
Describe appropriately.
"The blast doors grind open and three massive pillars suddenly move into attack postures! A closer look reveals them to be massive cyborg warriors; some kind of heavy can model with impressive dermal plating. They move with a suicidal disregard for incoming fire that is convenient but disturbing."
Later, after they'd hurt one, "Your jaw drops in horrified amazement as the crippled cyborg touches the stump of his arm to a service panel and a new arm begins assembling before your eyes."


As iwatt said, dire animals make good alien predators.
I've never used a wyvern as a giant wasp, but it fits perfectly (flight, poisoned tail, very strong, etc); great idea.
I've used a dragon for a war wagon (once); it worked pretty well, and mechanically it justified the squad of infantry that poured out as a Summon spell.
Beholders as anything else. So mean, so fun, so freaky for your players. (I realize True 20 doesn't have Beholder stats.)
Use elemental stats for theme-mages (Ice, Wind, Fire, Earth, etc). So much simpler (and more powerful) than picking spells / powers.

Good luck.

[razorwise]

Hiya!

What Screams Are Made Of, a Horror Bestiary, should drop later this year. It's written by the one and only Matt Kaiser and, while slanted for Agents of Oblivion, certainly provides a variety of things that go bump in the night...

Regards,

Sean

[joela]

Hiya!

What Screams Are Made Of, a Horror Bestiary, should drop later this year. It's written by the one and only Matt Kaiser and, while slanted for Agents of Oblivion, certainly provides a variety of things that go bump in the night...

Regards,

Sean

Sweet! Colour me interested.