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Post by scottenkainen on Oct 9, 2015 15:13:45 GMT -6
This is a position I've slowly evolved on this past year. Before then, I treated monster children much like most other DMs did -- like human children. This started to change, with the medusa's daughter.
We were playing in a Pathfinder campaign when we encountered the medusa and her daughter. After we killed the mother, one of the players was taken -- if not obsessed -- with the idea of raising the medusa's child as her own. The thought was that nurture would overcome nature and that the medusa would not turn out evil. And yet...other than living in a dungeon, what nurturing was this child missing? It wore dresses and played with toys just like a human girl.
We DMs do tend to take shortcuts and treat monster cultures like what we know, but then we have supposedly evil monster races nurturing their children the same way we nurture ours.
In my Verbobonc campaign, I wanted to move away from that. Monster races are evil by nature, so they're born evil. Goblin children, for example, aren't just miniature noncombatant goblins, they're semi-larval, feral goblins that skitter or curl up and roll around like pillbugs. Near mindless, they bite and scratch any non-goblins they encounter (though they only have 1 hp and can do no more than 1 pt of damage).
I'm thinking of doing something similar with monster women too -- goblin females being immobile, swollen cows meant only for reproduction.
Thoughts, sirs?
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Post by derv on Oct 9, 2015 18:13:58 GMT -6
Have you been reading Eerie comics Scott?  |
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Post by strangebrew on Oct 9, 2015 18:21:10 GMT -6
The campaign world for the game Harnmaster has something similar for goblins. From what I remember, they're all male, maybe with one female queen per hive. These are the only real monster race, beyond the unique monsters created by some odd god who I think lived in a lake. Kind of a weird bit for a game that was otherwise a realistic Brythonic/Norse Britain analogue.
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Post by tetramorph on Oct 9, 2015 18:57:33 GMT -6
@theperilousdreamer has an interesting answer to this.
Most monsters (especially "fell" races) are the result of abiogenesis or some form of spontaneous generation.
There is no procreation. No young. No whelps.
This is great, as it kills any moral temerity about exterminating chaotic babies: there aren't any!
Also, it fits well with the idea that they are chaotic: no families, no ties of affection, no experience or understanding of it.
This works better for me.
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Post by bestialwarlust on Oct 9, 2015 19:17:39 GMT -6
@theperilousdreamer has an interesting answer to this. Most monsters (especially "fell" races) are the result of abiogenesis or some form of spontaneous generation. There is no procreation. No young. No whelps. This is great, as it kills any moral temerity about exterminating chaotic babies: there aren't any! Also, it fits well with the idea that they are chaotic: no families, no ties of affection, no experience or understanding of it. This works better for me. This is pretty much how I run most of mine. |
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Post by scottenkainen on Oct 9, 2015 20:13:06 GMT -6
Have you been reading Eerie comics Scott? This is the first I've heard of it, Derv. |
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Post by derv on Oct 9, 2015 21:30:03 GMT -6
This is the first I've heard of it, Derv. You're pulling my leg, Scott. I use to buy Eerie and Creepy comics when I was a kid. Dark Horse Comics recently ( in the last 10 years or so ) republished a bunch of the original stories and also put out an anthology. What I was really trying to say is that the skittering pill bug/larva young and bloated cows conjured up some weirdish images of horror for me. It's getting close to Halloween I guess. |
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Post by tkdco2 on Oct 9, 2015 23:54:03 GMT -6
The Ork! rpg has young orks sprouting from a mature one like spores that germinate. There are no ork females in that game.
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Post by Porphyre on Oct 10, 2015 6:09:55 GMT -6
The Ork! rpg has young orks sprouting from a mature one like spores that germinate. There are no ork females in that game. Warhammer 40.000 orcs also are (if my memory serves well ... ) also are some kind of overgrown fungi that reproduce by sporulation. About the females, I am big proponent of extreme sexual dimorphism. Most monsters are single-sex species, and reproduce by mating with other-sex members of another. The more "animalistic" ones (think pig-headed orcs or hyena headed gnolls) can also mate with animals. |
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mindcontrolsquid
Level 4 Theurgist
"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man..."
Posts: 118 
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Post by mindcontrolsquid on Oct 12, 2015 22:08:43 GMT -6
It is odd that the LBBs do give at least some cursory attention to the family units of monsters other than the "man-type" enemies; dragon family units are described, and lycanthropes are specifically stated to travel in "family packs," and their behavior in combat implies something at least resembling human familial affection and instinct with regards to their mates and their young. I do find the notion of turning traditional schools of thought about the life-cycle of demihuman races on their head to be an interesting experiment in world-building, though. Perhaps Chaos is not capable of independent creation and must therefore transform and corrupt already-existing creatures into more monstrous forms (much like in Tolkien's works)? This could be a reasonable explanation to avoid the topic of monster young altogether; they could be "made," not born.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 13, 2015 18:36:49 GMT -6
Other ideas for humanoid monster generation: (1) Adult humanoid monsters emerge fully grown from egg/pods/cocoons. See Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies. (2) Humanoid monsters are all minor demons that have assumed a twisted human form. Possibly bloodless and disappear (or explode!) when killed. (3) "Monster Generators" as in Gauntlet. PCs can destroy these and put a halt to monster spawning. (4) Monsters are created by the dungeon itself in response to intruders, feeding on the energy and fears of the human mind, ala Mythago Wood. See Fearsome Monsters for more on this. |
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Post by tetramorph on Oct 13, 2015 19:26:32 GMT -6
Zenopus, that is just awesome. And, you know, any of the 4 could be combined to freakish affect. Really helps better to support the approach of dungeon as mythic underworld. Rad
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Post by Porphyre on Oct 14, 2015 0:15:18 GMT -6
there is also Talysman's idea of "summon monsters" spells actually creating the monsters ex-nihilo. 9and30kingdoms.blogspot.fr/2011/05/simple-humanoid-solution.htmlI remember that the late Mystara Supplement "Elves of Alfheim" had teh concept of magical nodes , some good , some evil, with the evil ones having monsters "popping up" now and then and constituing a menace for the elven kingdom.I was rather disappointed wheb I eventually read the whole material (including the DM's section), and found out that it just did teleport existing monsters frome other palces. . |
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Torreny
Level 4 Theurgist
Is this thing on?
Posts: 171
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Post by Torreny on Oct 14, 2015 15:47:11 GMT -6
@theperilousdreamer has an interesting answer to this. Most monsters (especially "fell" races) are the result of abiogenesis or some form of spontaneous generation. There is no procreation. No young. No whelps. This is great, as it kills any moral temerity about exterminating chaotic babies: there aren't any! Also, it fits well with the idea that they are chaotic: no families, no ties of affection, no experience or understanding of it. This works better for me. This is pretty much how I run most of mine. And I as well follow the spontaneous model for much of the dungeon denizens. Like mice from moldy hay, I like kobolds, knockers, hobs, gobblings, orks and what springing from dark, evil bends. (4) Monsters are created by the dungeon itself in response to intruders, feeding on the energy and fears of the human mind, ala Mythago Wood. See Fearsome Monsters for more on this. Pathways into Darkness features an example of this I just love. |
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