Sunday 17 November 2013

30 Page Monster Manual for Oldschool DnD

Esoteric Bestiary project for Octopus and Elfmaids

I have made 30 monster type distinctions for my game. Will record data for all monsters of type on one sheet if possible.

Earthborn
1 Amorphous - Algae, slime, jelly
2 Fungi - mould, mushrooms,
3 Plant - trees, vines, flowers, herbs
4 Invertebrates - insects, spiders, scorpions, trilobites, lobsters, crabs, worms
5 Aquatic - fish, whales, seals,
6 Amphibian - frogs, toads, axolotls, newts, salamanders
7 Reptilian - lizards, dinosaurs, saurian hoinids
8 Mammal - herbivores and carnivores
9 Avian - birds
10 Humanoid - goblinoids, humans, giants, trolls, ogres

Supernatural
1 Dragon - many unique types, draconian
2 Undead - astral phantom to zombie

3 Lycanthrope - many types of horrible shapshifters
4 Faerie - many spiecies dwell on borders of worlds
5 Beastlords - magical divine rulers of the common beasts

6 Abomination - hideous mutants, experiments and hybrids
7 Chimera - hideous magical hybrids from the gods
8 Spirit - magical beings dwell in several worlds

Otherworld
1 Elemental EAFW (Any alignment, mostly neutral)
2 Heaven LG Angelic

3 Nirvana NG Archonic
4 Arcadia CG Devaic
5 Abyss CE Demonic
6 Hell LE Diabolic
7 Underworld NE Cthonic
8  Primal Law Modronic
9 Primal Chaos Slaadic
10 Cosmic Balance
11 Middle Way
12 Gods

Screw dolphins getting a whole page
Screw at least 4 different fish men
Screw alt orks and goblins with only a few slight differences

6 comments:

  1. Sweet! This reminds me of how LBB Traveller did animals based on their role in the environment: chaser, grazer, pouncers, etc.

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  2. Change - put worms and arthropods together so will be invertebrates - doing amorphous now and realizing i have been running some critters wrong for 30 years

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  3. finished amorphous section of adnd MM
    pretty good so far...

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  4. Consider assigning the elementals an alignment

    AIR = chaos,
    intelligent and unpredictable
    A sustaining breath or a devastating hurricane

    FIRE = neutral ,
    concerned with itself,
    Will serve any master if and only while contained
    . .. .
    WATER = neutral good,
    biological life cannot exist without it
    . ..
    EARTH = order and predictability are supreme,
    change is seldom, but occurs with great violence, i.e., earthquakes
    robots are savants of earth, hydrocarbon and ore
    . . .

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  5. I like having elements as place where outer planes feud over and influence like prime material - id like all alignments loose on elemental planes but most basic more like simple lifeforms without alignment - id like evil fire demons and benevolent holy flame spirits that kill undead and evil slime

    I will toy with this bit by bit as needed in my game

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