Monster generator spark cards

I made a small 12-card deck monster generator today. Draw two and combine!

The contents as a d12 table:

1.     Ooze	acid, rust, pseudopod, subdividing, natural, lab-grown, medicinal, (a)morphing, mutating
2.     Skeleton	mausoleum, holding shit, bone weapons, femur, teeth, display, pirate, giant, monster, necromancy, skeleton key, grave robbing, tomb
3.     Fungus/Plant	flowers, seeds, pods, tendrils, roots, crawling, stationary, fluorescent, growth, poison, psychoactive
4.     Robot	laser, prosthetic, tracks, lights, hologram, armor, clockwork, steam, replicant, android, mecha, production
5.     Lizard	scales, amphibious, rainbow, reptiloid, swamp gas, thunder, toad, prehistoric, conspiracy, rending claws, running
6.     Ghost	immaterial, haunting, fear, hunger, bound, eerie, screams, want, swamp, chains, murder, fog, treasure
7.     Parasyte	symbiotic, infectious, mind control, autonomous, slow transformation
8.     Octopus	tentacles, floating, sepia, ink cloud, grabbing, reef, alien, weird, unsettling, slimy, suckered, jelly, genius, mastermind
9.     Elemental	air, fire, earth, water, outer planes, transformation, void, harmony, balance, alchemy, philosophy
10. Avian	wing, shriek, egg, flock, claw, migration, dive, beak, nest, sky, plumage, navigation
11. Beast	tail, sentient, cub, mythical, bipedal, fangs, armored, quadraped, uplifted, horns, tribal, magical, camouflage, mutated, hoofs, armed, nocturnal, centaur, cryptid
12. Psychic	mind blast, oracle, clairvoyance, hypnosis, telekinesis, voice, illusion, pyrokinesis, vision

 

Quick examples:

BEAST + ELEMENTAL = a tribe of fire-worshipping pigmen

PSYCHIC + AVIAN = giant bats that navigate using telepathy

OOZE + PARASYTE = jelly that replaces a humanoid’s brain and spinal fluid

FUNGUS/PLANT + OCTOPUS = a tree with lots of grabby roots

GHOST + ROBOT = a malevolent gremlin that possesses machinery

SKELETON + LIZARD = dinosaur on display in museum reanimated

And a drawing by my wife, a PLANT + SKELETON combo which she interpreted as a dried husk of a plant with teeth:

[Monster] Trying out Rook's Kaiju generator: The 100-legged Serpent

All hail random monster generators!

Rook over at the blog Foreign Planets wrote a good one (with a great selection of Japanese prints), let's give it a spin!

Appearance: combination of 1 animal and 1 monster: Centipede + Dragon

Traits: 1 feature, 1 power

Feature: huge horns

Power: special bond with an individual human couldn't quite work it into the concept, so re-rolled and got Napalm Breath

The centipede + dragon combo instantly reminded me of the Chinese carnival dragons, which are carried by many people! The horns fit the theme as well.

The 100-legged Serpent

HD 10

AC as chain

Move as unencumbered human

Attacks: horns (as spears), napalm breath (30' cone dragon breath), constriction

An adult 100-legged serpent reaches the length of around 80'. It moves with eerie speed, its hundred legs shuffling and clicking. It can climb on vertical surfaces and ceilings. Its hoard consists entirely of spherical objects (pearls, gold beads and globes, scrying orbs, eyeballs), with its spherical eggs hidden between them.

The Amazing Inspirational Animal List (a cheap trick, detailed)

One of my refereeing "tricks" is to use a list of animals as an all-purpose inspirational source. I have a couple of such lists (e.g. the hybrid beast generator from The Gardens of Ynn, or the DMG) and alternate between them. But here's a consolidated d30 list. I think it has a good range, covers different types of creatures with a range of possible connotations, symbolism, powers, features, appearances, habitats...

1. Ant
2. Ape
3. Bat
4. Bear
5. Buffalo
6. Chameleon
7. Crocodile
8. Deer
9. Eagle
10. Eel
11. Elephant
12. Frog
13. Gecko
14. Goat
15. Horse
16. Jellyfish
17. Lion
18. Octopus
19. Owl
20. Peacock
21. Porcupine
22. Rat
23. Salmon
24. Scarab Beetle
25. Shark
26. Snake
27. Spider
28. Toad
29. Vulture
30. Wolf

And some examples, some more obvious/on-the-surface, some based on primary or secondary free associations:

• NPC quirk: relies heavily on body language (Ape), always in motion (Shark), sniffs and snorts (Porcupine)
• NPC behavior: controls a lot of pawns (Octopus), lounges while others do the hard lifting (Lion), creates very symmetrical art (Spider)
• Monster power add-on: scaly armor (Crocodile), see in the dark (Owl), camouflage (Chameleon), hive mind (Ant), long jump (Frog)
• Hybrid beast: a flying monster that creates cloud-like webs (Eagle + Spider), giant ape with paralyzing tentacles (Ape + Jellyfish), nocturnal toad with big creepy eyes (Owl + Frog)
• Object: ivory comb (Elephant), bat-shaped belt buckle (Bat), soft transparent acid sack that explodes on impact (Jellyfish), shaggy hat (Buffalo), net coated with poison (Spider), chitinous helmet (Ant), coat-of-arms: three stylized golden horns on a green field (Goat)
• Spell ingredient: giant spider eggs (Spider), last breath of a wolf (Wolf), peacock feathers, one of each pattern (Peacock), blood of a person gorged by deer antlers (Deer)
• Location: Quill Canyon (Porcupine), The Webbed Forest (Spider), Bat Hill (Bat), Rainbow Bridge (Peacock), Twisting River (Snake), Eagle Creek (Eagle), Brass Tower (Scarab Beetle), Phantrin (Elephant), Shimmering Sewers (Rat + Peacock)

Die drop table!

[Monster] Tarot-based weird encounter generation

Captain Ahab's Leg posted a wonderful evocative system for generating unusual encounters based on Tarot cards. I love random content generation, I have a Tarot deck, so... here we go!

The Form: Eight of Pentacles

A craftsman chisels pentacles on golden discs – perhaps these creatures (because there are several of them) are constructs.

The Human: The Fool

Perhaps these monsters can be underestimated at first…

The Inhuman: Death

…but then they present a significant threat. The image shows Death as a mounted knight. A high priest in a tiara stands on the ground before the knight. Maybe praising him, but maybe trying to barter with him. In any case, the knight towers above him, subdues him just as he’d subdued an enemy previously. So perhaps the creatures have some sort of awe-inducing mind control power.

The Cycle:

The Larva: Six of Wands

The wands are carried, not mobile on their own. In their initial state, the creatures need an outer force to propel them forward. Maybe tumbleweed? They roll in, surround the enemy, and then build up into something unified and bigger.

The Pupa: Queen of Swords

Majestic and bellicose… But the Queen sits upon a throne, doesn’t fight. She towers over the enemy, and prepares to unleash the final attack.

The Imago: Nine of Pentacles

Pentacles again, but at a higher value than the Form, so I interpret this as a growth in power. The image shows a falconer, so maybe the great monstrous attack (the “awe-inducing mind control”, see above) is a swift, targeted thing.

The Encounters:

First Encounter (Eight of Pentacles, The Fool, Death)

An abandoned workshop, eerily silent, dead bodies lying around it – no evident cause of death. Inside lie eight golden discs with pentacles engraved on them. A priest kneels in the middle of the room, mumbling “please don’t hurt me, oh most magnificent one… please don’t hurt me!”

Second Encounter (Six of Wands, Queen of Wands, The High Priest)

The priest suddenly snaps out of the condition and starts arranging the discs in a specific shape.

Third Encounter (Nine of Pentacles, Ten of Wands, The Judgement)

A force of magnetism starts pulling together the discs, they gather, lift up from the ground, and form a sphere mid-air. They shine gold and bright, majestic… And now one person of the party is struck with awe – they must serve the sphere.

[Monster] The Pale Menace!

More random monster generation! This time using the article "Random Monsters" by Paul Montgomery Crabaugh, which appeared in The Dragon #10 (link to the annarchive pdf). So already in 1977 the problem of jaded players knowing all the counters to all the monsters in the book existed, and Crabaugh wanted to spice things up with unexpected creatures. The generator is a simple affair, but perhaps it set the framework for latter sets of tables.

The Pale Menace

Intelligence: Highly intelligent

Alignment: Neutrality

HD: 6+1

AC 4 [LotFP AC: 17]

Move: 12"

Attack: claw for 1-10 or bite 1-10 and 1-6 poison

Special attack: Magic Missile as Magic-User 4, once per day

Special defense: regeneration, 1-4 hits per turn

Slim and gaunt, pale and wrinkled, like a hairless bear, but with the fangs of a saber-tooth tiger. Its four eyes are located equidistantly around its head, like a band of glowing red jewels (once per day, it can shoot 4 laser beams; treat as Magic Missile). 

The Pale Menace is a lesser servitor to Ithaqua. Its body irradiates coldness. If damaged, its wounds quickly get covered in hoarfrost and heal (regenerates 1-4 hits per turn). 

Lame art by me

My original rolls:

Intelligence: Highly intelligent

Alignment: Neutrality

Type: Mammal

Speed: 12”

AC: 4 [LotFP AC: 17]

HD: Dungeon level +3 (Mod: +1) [I gave this creature 6 HD]

Specials: 3

                Bite is poisonous 1-6 damage

                Regenerates 1-4 hits per turn

                Has Magic Missile

Damage: 1-10

Characteristics:

                4 eyes

                Unusually long fangs

Size: Medium (3-12’)

Limbs: 2 legs, 2 arms

Cover: Skin

Coloring: White