Thursday 10 January 2019

EMO Monster book?




































So some readers have asked me to do more on this topic.

Had some nice feedback on my emo rule book and some good things about how that came to be. Basically had a big hit of free time lone and new laptop and doing lots of design and writing a book, 3 dungeon zines and almost finishing a book that feels like a millstone. The book was my EMO house rules for my players use. Dungeon zines on my patreon now.

Digest size is good to work with for idea-bytes and to design. Writing out spells as I did I was happy with also. Some of the topics i did can be expanded on later. Designing it and re-posting online often was good for some in progress feedback. Not intending it to be profitable was nice too. 36-43 pages is nice to do and I can print up some zines for play easily. It was good to have players using them and seeing them.

So a second book will expand some stuff like 12 character classes, druid spells 0-3rd, and some other stuff. Monk, Sorcerer, Bard, Druid classes for humans, dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling demihumans, then giants, tako, abhumans or spirit folk. I have a rough book started and still playing with it. A book with all spells plus nature and mind spells up to 7 or 9th level. A skill book would be nice too with more detail. But interest in a monster book has been main response as if I could do something new or interesting. A space book will have mutants, robots (golems), mystics (psions) and outsiders.

I have done lots of monsters in the past and variants of monsters. Recently i made a nice format that could generate variant monsters and example scenarios of the monster. That would be my ideal format for every monster but this work brevity is part of the point. So the current monster book is doing spreads detailing monster types from several eds of game but not put together in a single work. I like some BX monsters and 1st ed versions. Monster groups in first book will be most common especially animals humanoids, humans, demihumans, beetles, lizards, canines, felines, plants, slimes, undead, bears, rats and others. A later monster book will be more hybrid mythical monsters like griffons, dragons, heraldic beasts, with spreads on ogres and giants (trolls get a whole spread). A later still book would be supernatural and planar beings. Animal types go in groups obviously. Later books would have more detail as monsters more complex and have more powers. I guess demons, elementals and devils could be made my own. Heck deities and Demigods was basically a monster manual and a god book extending from that would work. I want spirits and trolls to be more interesting beings and part of my setting. Dinosaurs and Pleistocene mammals book? I like making dinosaurs some kind of primitive dragons of domestic beasts of serpentmen.

A good thing about doing these digests I can easily compile new books like spells from several separate works. They are easy to do one spread at a time, comparable to the effort of a blog. Anyway that's my current projects. I will try and have book and my dungeon zines printed for use on sundays game and the following sunday. Several players taking bards made me develop them faster than planned. I just added some extra songs and will add more.

EMO Book Here
Draft of Expert Book

Dungeon above book one of three new ones. Still a few errors i'm finding but updating as I go. Desert Ruin, Gnome hall and Wizard cave are all recyclable dungeons populated with random tables and describe factions and changes to the dungeon over time. Previews on my patreon as always and Im having a catch up on last few months.

2 comments:

  1. This sounds cool Chris! You mentioned a basic template that allows you to generate critters and scenarios involving them. Is this generic chart/generator going to be included in the books? Thank you as always for the great works sir!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. if you go back a few weeks when i was doing heraldic monsters i did some monster that use up a a5 book spread and include chances of unusual features. There was a d10 or something scenario seeds using the monster

      but what you suggest is kinda genious and fit my current setting well as every monster the gods spawn is to avenge the gods of guard something forbidden...

      Delete

I love and welcome feedback but not spambots
Good feedback and suggestions inspire me to write more