J is for Jabberwocky

Really short post. Got a big exam tomorrow. Don't know who did the top picture but the bottom one is by Alex CF http://alexcf.com/blog/?page_id=6 , he has got some really crazy cool art. It will be possible to make a Jabberwocky using my legendary creatures rules, they will most likely be built under the dragon entry. Night.

Legendary Creatures pt 5

Alright, so I`m home so I had access to all my old D&D books, I went through my AD&D monster manual and knocked out a list of possible Legendary Creatures. Some of the entries on this list are consolidated groupings of similar creatures.  Feel free to let me know if you I think I missed anything.

Giant Ape
Bulette
Chimera
Giant Crocodile
Giant Beetle
Giant Blob, Ooze, Slime
Dinosaur
Dragon
Dragon Turtule
Elemental Giant
Mastodon, Mammoth
Giant, Ettin,Cyclops, Titian,
Giant Gar,Giant Fish
Giant Golem
Gorgon
Greater Griffon
Hydra
Manticore
Deamon (Any big demon or devil)
Greater Minotaur
Giant Worm (Purple Worm)
Remorahz
Roc
Giant Spider, Giant Scorpion
Giant Shark
Greater Shambling Mound
Giant Serpent
Giant Squid, Kraken
Treant
Great Troll
Great Ogre
Whale,
Wyvern (Probably stick in with Dragon)
Yeti 

So yeah, I`m going to break this list down into individual entries and go from there.
(I`m watching Jurassic Park 3 right now, very inspirational). 

Legendary Creatures pt 4

Liam vs Snake
Mouse Guard Fall 1152

-Liam Kenzie and Saxon are investigating the disappearance of the grain peddler. Suddenly they are attacked by a giant black snake.
- Saxon strikes at its mouth with his sword and chops off a fang.
-Kenzie smacks the back of its head with his staff  exclaiming "I can't hold it! we need to retreat!"
-Liam spies a knothole in a nearby tree, the party hides within for a little while.
-Liam is shaken, he thinks its impossible to fight anything as big as that snake.
-Kenzie calms and inspires Liam by reminding him of one of the guards mottos "Its not what you fight- but what you fight for."
-The party emerges from the tree, the snake is gone but they discover a nest full of snake eggs.
-Kenzie and Saxon enter the nest to destroy the eggs while Liam stands guard.
-Suddenly the black snake returns forcing Liam to face it alone.
-As the serpent strikes Liam leaps into its mouth and stabs his sword straight through and out the back of the snake's head.
-Monster slain.

In game terms:
1- Snake surprises them but fails attack roll.
2- Saxon scores a hit.
3- Kenzie hits.
4- Liam sees a safe place. perception or something.
5-Party evades snake and all 3 make it to the hiding place.
6- Kenzie inspires Liam using lore, probably some kind of bravery bonus here.
7- Snake is gone so party emerges.
8- They split the party to destroy some eggs, good idea but- NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY!
9- Snake comes back, youngest hero stands strong.
10- Liam full out charges, no thought to his own defense.
11- Crictical strike to snake brain.
12- XP all around!

Notes:
I like the lore element, Conan used it and it also features in The Hobbit regarding Smaug a bit.
Like Conan -Liam does not fight the snake till he really has to, and like Conan he charges at the things face, in this case literaly into its mouth. Its an all or nothing attack, I hate to think what would happen if it failed.
To make an attack like that the hero would have to allow the monster a full attack against them with no saves, maybe auto crit or something if successful, but terrible damage to the hero if he doesnt kill the monster.

Next up: Smaug the Magnificent

Legendary Creatures pt 3

Case study, Conan vs the Dragon God
 From Red Nails

- Conan and Valeria hear the horses being ripped to shreds,
- they go investigate and see the dragon lizard, it starts coming after them.
- they run like hell back up the crag.
-It becomes a waiting game the lizard is sure to win.
-After a little while Conan thinks to cleverly make a spear out of a a bunch of thin branches and his poniard.
- He coats the blade in the lethal poison of a nearby fruit.
-Conan swears at and provokes the Lizard making it rear up and snap at him, giving Conan a chance to thrust the spear into its open jaw.
-The beast is enraged but leaves to get water as the poison sets in, it is now blind.
-Conan and Valeria take their chance and run toward the city, but the wind changes and the beast is after their scent.
-Realizing the beast is about to overtake them Conan throws Valeria out of the way and leaps back toward the monster with his sword in hand.
-Conan leaps at the monsters face and strikes with his sword but is then thrown clear by the impact of the beasts charge.
-The Dragon is slain by a combination of poison, sword trauma to face, and running into a tree.


Ok, so breaking this down into kinda how I think the legendary creatures fights should go:
1-Combatants see each other, both surprised,
2- Conan gets initiative, out maneuvers (evades) the Dragon, runs up crag.
3- Dragon cant get up the crag, he waits.
4-Though use of special clever tactics -knowledge local plants- craft spear- etc. Conan makes a cool weapon.
5-Conan provokes the Dragon using a bluff check or maybe knowledge animals or something of the sort. Dragon rears up exposing a weak spot.
6- Conan successfully attacks weak spot and aided by Valeria doesn't fall.
7- Dragon backs off (is now blind as well).
8- Conan and Valeria run like hell but fail to evade-stealth- etc, the wind changes and the Dragon is right after them again.
9- Conan turns to fight, meeting its headlong charge with his own, no attempt to fight defensively.
10- Monster slain

Notes:
Its hard to say how big exactly the thing is, Conan later says its about as big as a Mastodon- so yeah hard to say. I guess pretty big and scary.
Conan is a pretty reckless guy and even he runs like hell from this thing, I like that, this goes with what I'm saying about fighting legendary creatures- I really can`t see how even the most heroic character could stand there and have a grindfest duel with one of these creatures.

Up next Liam vs Snake. Maybe a Krone update soon.

Legendary Creatures pt 2

What I really want is a system for both creating unique monsters and also a built in system for fighting large special creatures.  Any reference relating to a hero slaying a great monster is full of special moves and tactics, sometimes the hero exploits the monsters single weakness in a clever way (Brand vs Smaug) , sometimes the hero stands and lets the beast make its attack- facing certain doom with grim determination - but then at the last moment the hero thrusts his blade through the roof of the creatures' mouth and into its' brain (Liam vs Snake).

The stories are full of particular reference to specific body parts that the hero targets. I think that is important.  A regular D&D opponent - an Orc- has a fixed hp amount total, a reasonable figure which represents the number of times he can withstand a sword blow or a magic missle before being taken out of action, killed, etc. This is all well and good for an Orc, but for a Dragon I think it falls apart, that a fixed number should say a Dragon can suffer x amount of spear thrusts is really weak in my opinion.

I think that there are two primary ways a great monster can be killed; in pieces or all at once.  I also suppose a beast could be slain in pieces and then  all at once.  That is to say I believe a hero should be able to target specific parts of the monster, which individually have an hp amount - say that The Great Black Dragon has two front claws, each with 50hp, once a claw is reduced to 0hp it is out of action and unable to attack or be of any further use until healed. This way heroes have choices during fights with Legendary Creatures- the fighter can try to fend off the claws while the archer stays back and tries to put that critical instant-kill arrow into the beasts left eye.

I have alot more to say about this. I realize most of what I say above seems like a weird jumble of wish list crap, but I have actually been working on how all this will work and I think it will work better in practice than it sounds here as I try to explain it.  My main problem is that I am developing this at the same time as Im trying to come up with my own BX inspired ruleset (which I will post on here as it comes to me).  I think for the meantime as I post the rules for Legendary Creatures I will keep the rules non-system specific.

I think for the next Legendary Creatures update I will use a case study featuring everyone's favorite barbarian squaring off against The God Lizard. Cheers.

Legendary Creatures pt 1

Combat in Dungeons and Dragons is pretty good at representing small pitched battles in dark caves, what I feel has always been a weakness of any D&D system is running battles between the party and large powerful creatures, also how these creatures are presented in general has been a weak spot in the system (in my humble opinion).  I am planning on writting my own personal re-imagining of BX for personal use.  I've done a bit of it already and laid some groundwork.  This weakness regarding powerful creatures is one of the things I hope to address, and I have quite a bit to say about it, and I will be returning to this subject many times as it develops.

One problem I have is that fighting say a dragon is not really all that different from fighting a goblin, sure one has more special rules and better stats- but fundamentally the game treats them the same.  I can see why this came to be from a design standpoint, they created a system that everything can fit into, that's not bad in itself. I argue though that creatures like Giants, Dragons and Purple Worms should be treated differently, that fighting a Brigand and fighting a Roc are 100% fundamenatlly different situations and I believe they should be treated that way in the rules.

Fighting a legendary creature should be a unigue and complex challenge, not an HP grindfest with some extra rules thrown in.  I am looking at games such as 'Shadow of the Colossus' 'God of War' and the recent 'Castlevania Lords of Shadow', as well as various fantasy and adventure films and popular fantasy literature to draw inspiration for the rules I'm writing.  More on this later.