Monstrous Mondays: A Basic Bestiary Update - Of Sorts

 This is the first Monday in more than a month I can sit down and write something about monsters. As it turns out.  I got nuthin. 

Well...that is not entirely true. It could be said I have too much but lack a clear direction.

Here is my issue as it stands right now.

I have a lot of monsters done. Not as many as I want, but a lot. Enough to easily fill a book. But I also have all this other material here that can go with it. Spells. Gods. NPCs. 

Since I am supposed to be developing a SWOT analysis rubric for an MBA course I am developing now, I may try that out here with my current problem. My feeling is it is going to tell me things I already know. That is why these work best with teams. 

Click for Mural SWOT board

I could add more, but this is enough to keep me going.

This does justify my desire to keep moving on this project, but not the direction I should be taking.

Maybe I am biting off more than I chew here.

One of the directions I took early on was to split my Basic Bestiary idea up into three groups of monsters. Maybe I should go a step further and break it down into smaller units and combine it with my Monstrous Maleficarum; smaller sized publications that would allow me to buy more art for future ones.

I could do all Basic-era monsters, then re-combine them all at the end for an "Advanced-era" hard-cover.  That way people who like Basic-era could just get those, and the people who like Advanced monsters (and hardcovers) could just get that.

With these I am going to go with "Basic-Era" and "Advanced-era" compatibility and not stick too close to any single retro-clone in particular. There are a lot of clones out there now, and to be honest, the differences are mostly trivial.  

The limiting factor, of course, is art. But this at least addresses many of the issues I have above. 

So I guess I need to see what art I have now, a figure out how many monsters per publication would be worthwhile.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 18

 The room across from the previous on it set up in a similar manner. 

This room is empty. There are also no books here.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 17

 Going down the hall another 50 feet there is another set of double doors on either side. The doors on the left are locked. As before there are three separate locks that need to be opened in the proper order.

The top, the lower left then the lower right. This can be figured out with divination magic or by making three successful Find Traps rolls. Inside this room is a coffin on a dais. There is a desk and many books about vampires.  Inside the coffin there is a vampire chained down with silver chains. 

The vampire has been experimented on for centuries. The tomes nearby detail every experiment done. Whoever was doing this was looking for a way to make vampires even more powerful. 

This vampire was a failure.

After a few minutes, the vampire will stir and then begin to scream.  The vampire begs the party to kill him.

Killing the vampire is not difficult. He is completely immobile, so no rolls to hit are needed, and the vampire only has 6 hp. A wooden stake will end him.

If the vampire is released then he will attack the party for blood. 

--

GMs should not grant full XP for killing this vampire. But XP can be given for finding and reading the vampire books.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 16

 Moving across the hall opposite of the stairs (and to the left as walking down the hall) there is another door. This one is not locked and is easily opened. 

Inside the party will find a horse. This horse is obviously demonic. It is red, has small flames leaping off of it, and its eyes are glowing. It is busy eating the corpse of a long-dead elf.

The horse looks at the party and keeps eating. If the party continues to watch the horse the horse will stop eating and ask if the party wants any of the elf to eat.

The horse is demonic and it doesn't take a "Detect Evil" spell to see that.  The horse does not attack but instead it gates out if/when it is attacked in an explosion that does 4d6 hp of damage in fire and concussive blast. Save for half.

--

The horse is here due to the magical flux still effecting this tomb.

Kickstart Your Weekend: Cottages & Cerberus

Last year my family and I were playing a D&D 5e game, and we got to talking about our other 5e game. I had asked them what they wanted for their characters "after level 20."  My youngest wants to take over a town and fill it with artificers and build a community of "makers." My oldest wants his Dragonborn to build a mighty temple to the Platinum Dragon in his role as the "Sword of Bahamut."  When they turned around and asked me what I wanted for my NPC/GMPC witch character I said I wanted her to retire with her cat, have a garden of about 1000 different herbs, drink tea, and live that 100% Cottage-core life.  I had done all the "big endings" before.

Well it turns out that you can do that as well.

Cottages & Cerberus

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cottagesandcerberus/cottages-and-cerberus-new-system-pf2e-5e-support?ref=theotherside

This game is described as "A new monster hunting cottage core TTRPG system with PF2 & 5E compatible bestiary."

Sounds fun for the right groups really. 

Honestly I am happy that game designers are taking leaps and doing new things with their RPGs. This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but for someone out there this is the perfect game.

Given the number of pledges it has so far it seems like there is a pretty good market for this. 

The art looks great and there are all sorts of add-ons to enrich your current game. I am considering both the D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2e digital versions.  It might be worth it just for the stats of the "Leviathanus Rex." Imagine a Godzilla-sized narwhal. 

There is a 63-page preview and a character sheet.  I rather like the idea of "spoons" as a personal resource.

They are doing great so far and I wish them the utmost success.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 15

 Traveling down the Room 14 hallway, there is a secure door on the party's right half way down.

The door is barred with a huge lock in the center and two more auxiliary locks. Three different Open Locks rolls or Knock spells are needed.

Once open there is a wave of necromatic magic that hits the party. They all need to make a saving throw vs. Detah or take 2d6 hp of damage.

This is a stairwell down to Level 10.

Review: SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide, Cthulhu Sourcebook

 Continuing my exploration of Bloat Games' modern horror/monster hunting RPG, SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide. Today I cover Part 2 of the two books, the Cthulhu Sourcebook.

SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide: Cthulhu Sourcebook

220 pages. Black & White cover and interior art.
$9.99 PDF

A while back I once said, rather snarkily, that a game can get instant sales by slapping some Cthulhu on it. One the surface this could look like that, but it doesn't do that at all. 

Also, I compared What Shadows Hide to the classic RPG Chill. So the logical comparison here is this is Bloat Games' version of Call of Cthulhu. But it is not quite that either.

What is this game supplement? Easy. Remember the first season of True Detective? It was a great detective show with a cult and some crazy guy talking about Carcosa. Turns out it was all just normal, though very evil, human agents. 

Well, what if Carcosa had been real in True Detective? What if those human agents/cultists interacted with real Elder Gods from beyond reality?

That is what this game is.

This book gives us some new classes for What Shadows Hide. Archeologist, Priest of the Darkness, Priest of the Light, Priest of the Mother, Priest of the Old Ones, Priest of the Protean Path, Priest of the Void, Psion, Warlock, and my favorite, Witch. Some of these we have seen before, but that is fine, not everyone will start with the same book or buy everything in their line (you should, but I see why you might not).

There are new spells, new skills, curses, and psychic powers.

Why put these into this book? It keeps these more powerful classes out of the hands of the Players and squarely in the Game Master's hands. 

We also get a bit about Cosmos Cats (fun!).

The bulk of this book is dedicated to the monsters the characters will encounter and the cults they will likely have to deal with. There is even a good section on creating your own cults.

This book has more utility than just "Book 2" of What Shadows Hide. This book can be easily used with other Bloat Games' RPGs like We Die Young or Vigilante City. There is also enough here for anyone who wants to add some cults to their Fantasy OSR games.

There is even an index.

Both books make for a great game, and a worthy addition to the Bloat Game catalog and the Survive This!! line.