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Post by Finarvyn on Oct 10, 2020 7:40:45 GMT -6
NOTE: I'm going to cross-post this to Dragonsfoot. Maybe the Comeback Inn board, as Arneson used classic movie monsters as one of his original inspirations.
I'm going to run a Halloween dungeon for my group soon. I found a nifty little boardgame called "Horrified" that has several (unpainted) minis.
(1) Dracula
(2) The Mummy
(3) Frankenstein and the Bride
(4) Creature From the Black Lagoon
(5) The Wolf Man
(6) The Invisible Man
I have no idea if the game is any good or not, but I do like the minis and I thought these would go well on a D&D battlemat. The minis are, I think, slighly larger than regular RPG figures, but the size isn't significant and I think that if they are slightly larger that's okay because it might make them look more intimidating.
I can make up stats (the Frankenstein monster, for example, is a flesh golem. Dracula is a vampire. The Mummy is ... well, you know.) but I wondered if anyone has done this already for classic monsters. I'm actually interested in OD&D and 5E stats, as I haven't decided which system I want to run the session, so anything you have would be great.
So ... anyone stat up classic movie monsters?
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Post by jeffb on Oct 10, 2020 8:27:33 GMT -6
Can't help you, other than to say check out the Ravenloft MC's for AD&D stats. Great books to own- Halloween or not.
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Post by captainjapan on Oct 10, 2020 9:07:18 GMT -6
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Post by captainjapan on Oct 10, 2020 9:54:55 GMT -6
That looks like a cute game. Lately, I've been toying with the idea of writing some procedure to stat any miniature figure, just on sight. This might be difficult for some of the Universal Monsters minis, if you just picked them up out of a toy bin never having seen the movies.
Not every kid could be a Gary Gygax, grabbing out of a bag of china-made dinos and saying, " this is a Bullette and here are it's stats." The thing to do would be what Hero System calls, ruling from effect. It means, to decide on a general effect of the figure's weaponry. Then, look it up in the book. Score it's power, somehow. Finally, give the weapon/ability a whatever specific name you want (this step has no in-game effect). This procedure would codify that next step, after choosing your handful of interesting minis from the bin.
Aren't the figures the impetus for the entire hobby? Gygax, HG Wells, RL Stevenson.
Why not open up roleplaying to start with any mini, doll, or action figure that a kid already owns?.
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Post by captainjapan on Oct 10, 2020 16:08:12 GMT -6
FYI, if you have a Dollar General store close to you; they're stocking 54mm skeleton and mummy soft plastic minis for Halloween. I got about 80 of them for ten bucks.  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2020 17:56:09 GMT -6
For my 3lbb game most of these are relatively straight forward, stat wise.
I have a particular fondness for Dracula so here's my take on him.
Vlad Dracula Tepesh is a Vampire, obviously. Not a typical one but a named and legendary one. His hit dice would be fully loaded and his penetrating gaze would impose definite disadvantages on saving throws (say a minus 2). The location of his coffin would be a closely guarded secret and in typical novel and movie fashion he'd have many underlings, both charmed and ensorcelled mortals, lesser vampires (his three brides are a must) and supernatural wolves, bats, spiders and lesser undead.
His most unique feature would be his ability to cheat death even beyond being disposed of fully in the classical sense. As we know, the Hammer Films and Universal versions of Dracula came back from the dead in many creative ways, as do his modern incarnations. As an aristocrat in "the old country" of Transylvania, if he successfully flees back overseas after being threatened by a powerful party, he'll be much more heavily guarded in his ancestral castle, with the terrified and downtrodden peasantry defending their dark master out of some deranged Stockholm Syndrome.
Castle Dracula is also a death trap - a true fun house dungeon in the old school sense. Ravenloft eat your heart out, literally. There's no form of monster or supernatural trap the Count hasn't accrued in his centuries of life. He has an arsenal of magical items including a vampiric magic sword with a mind of its own, cursed after it drank the blood of many Saracen innocents. If he has his preference, he'll divide the party and hunt them down in the dark one by one.
He will always target Clerics first and has a severely negative Reaction penalty to them. He finds Demihumans fascinating as they remind him of his youth in an older world and he will attempt to coerce or charm them into his service if possible. He finds magic heretical but fascinating and has collected a large occult library. Magic-User spellbooks and scrolls make fine trophies. Fighting-Men remind him of his youth as a crusader and defender of the faith. He gives them a proper burial and displays their armor and weapons in his armory.
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Post by Finarvyn on Oct 10, 2020 18:08:32 GMT -6
I've been toying with the idea of writing some procedure to stat any miniature figure, just on sight. This might be difficult for some of the Universal Monsters minis, if you just picked them up out of a toy bin never having seen the movies. I saw a small-market press miniatures game once that did that. I think it was called "Toy Wars" but for some reason the word "Destruction" comes to mind also, so I may have the title wrong. FYI, if you have a Dollar General store close to you; they're stocking 54mm skeleton and mummy soft plastic minis for Halloween. I got about 80 of them for ten bucks. I will have to go hunting for those. They look pretty cool. Another decent source is the original ZOMBIES!!! board game by Twilight Creation, which comes with 100 plastic zombies. Those are pretty neat if you want a horde of zombies for characters to wade through. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2020 3:27:56 GMT -6
For a quick solution to your question, maybe consider the classic Ravenloft "Realm of Terror" box for 2e. (Or Domains of Dread, though that one is considerably more convoluted.) Ravenloft basically does all Universal Monsters characters, and reverse (or otherwise) engineering the stats especially from the first few supplements should be a matter of a few minutes. Myself, you know that I hold Ravenloft - or, rather, my experiences while running it, as the "formational" part of gaming. While this stuff is often not even good, and while it has gotten fairly old with the inclusion of more modern concepts of horror, it's still arguably the best treatment of stock-trope horror.  Myself, I always find something in there that I can use, to this day. |
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Post by tdenmark on Oct 11, 2020 8:25:05 GMT -6
Ravenloft Domains of Dread is hands down one of the best 2e products. This thread makes me want to pull it out and run a Halloween game for my kids.
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Post by jeffb on Oct 11, 2020 9:36:41 GMT -6
This is my fave Halloween time module I should note I am totally not into Zombie anything like most people are these days- this is just a good creepy module. RQ1 on Drive Thru |
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Myself, I always find something in there that I can use, to this day. 