BLUEHOLME™ Compleat Monsters

[Vile Traveller]

This is the current list of additional monsters to be included in the Compleat Rules, based on various references in related writings:

Holmes Blue Book

• Ape (1st edition alignment chart, sample dungeon)
  
• Assassin (additional character classes)
  
• Bat, Huge (vampire description)
  
• Bear (giant description)
  
• Brigand (dungeon mastering as a fine art)
  
• Centaur (additional character classes)
  
• Crab, Giant (sample dungeon)
  
• Cyclopia (british edition image)
  
• Demon (1st edition alignment chart)
  
• Dragon , Blue (1st edition alignment chart)
  
• Druid (additional character classes)
  
• Elemental (Protection from Evil spell description)
  
• Fairy (pixie description)
  
• Fish, Large (pixie entry)
  
• Half Elf (additional character classes)
  
• Illusionist (additional character classes)
  
• Lizard, Giant (1st edition wandering monster)
  
• Lammasu (1st edition alignment chart)
  
• Leprechaun (1st edition wandering monster)
  
• Monk (additional character classes)
  
• Octopus, Large (sample dungeon)
  
• Paladin (additional character classes)
  
• Piercer (1st edition wandering monster)
  
• Ranger (additional character classes)
  
• Rat (vampire description)
  
• Scorpion, Giant (poisoned weapons)
  
• Sarcophagus Skeleton (sample dungeon)
  
• Snake, Giant (sample dungeon)
  
• Spider, Enormous (sample dungeon)
  
• Toad, Giant (1st edition wandering monster)
  
• Weasel, Giant (1st edition wandering monster)
  
• Wereleopard (lycanthrope description)
  
• Wereshark (lycanthrope description)
  
• Wolf (giant & vampire description)

Dragon #12 Cthuloid Monsters

• Byakhee
  
• Deep Ones
  
• Great Race
  
• Old Ones (Antarctic)
  
• Mi-Go
  
• Shaggoth

Dragon #31 Trollshead

• Black Elf
  
• Half Orc

Dragon #46 The Sorcerer’s Stone

• Lich

Dragon #52 Holmes Basic D&D vs. Moldvay Basic

• Dreenoi

Dragon #58 In the Bag

• Writhing Roots

Confessions of a Dungeon Master

• Gremlin
  
• Naga
  
• Raven

Fantasy Role Playing Games

• Enchanted Statue
  
• Flower Stalks
  
• Gila Monster, Giant
  
• Tentacled Maw

The Maze of Peril

• Crab, Giant
  
• Frog Men
  
• Golem, Flesh
  
• Golem, Stone
  
• Wereshark
  

[machpants]

Flower Stalks
Gila Monster, Giant
Tentacled Maw

Not seen those ones so interested in them especially

[stevemitchell]

I hope you will add the Old Ones (South Polar variety) from Dragon #12 to your roster of Lovecraftian monsters.

[Vile Traveller]

I think Zenopus posted his interpretation of the giant gila monster somewhere. I am thinking about using the ERB trope of reptiles that just keep on growing, so the classification system of normal, large, giant, huge etc. might be used to integrate this.

I'm not certain yet on the IP status of the Mythos monsters. That will bear further investigation before I consider adding them.

[Zenopus]

May 1, 2013 22:37:28 GMT -6 Vile Traveller said:

I think Zenopus posted his interpretation of the giant gila monster somewhere.

Yes, there's a link to it over in the New Monsters thread in the Holmes forum. Also an Ancient Builder, my take on the South Polar Old Ones (from Lovecraft via Holmes in the Cthulhu in D&D article) that Scott mentioned above.

[owlorbs]

Very cool. Has any one done up a Dreenoi stat block or a character class?

[Vile Traveller]

Not yet. I contacted John McEwan and he awesomely gave me permission to use Dreenoi, when I get to the monsters chapter I'll go through the StarGuard rules again and wok out how to BLUEHOLMEsify them.

[thorswulf]

I'd give them a good AC, due to their chitinous bodies, and a decent bare-handed damage and bite attack, Their racial telepathy and the ability of the brain bugs to read other minds is a must too!

[Vile Traveller]

I've posted an updated Compleat list of Creatures on my blog: dreamscapedesign.net/2014/01/05/ye-compleat-list-of-creatures/

The list is basically built of the monsters mentioned but not statted out in the Blue Book, plus creatures mentioned elsewhere in the writings of John Holmes. I do not intend to expand the list beyond this in an effort at completism. However, I'm sure many of the eminent posters on this board can spot some missing links in that list (I've just seen a few by looking at the earlier posts in this thread).

1) If you can point me at a reference that I've missed, I'll be very grateful and your name will go into the big acknowlegments list.

2) If you actually want to give me a set of stats and a brief description - in your own words - you will become a contributor and qualify for one of those sought-after contributor's copies of the Compleat Rules PDF when it is published.

[machpants]

What actually needs writing up? Most are in the Prentice set, I guess.

[Vile Traveller]

I didn't include that many extras in the Prentice Rules beyond what was already included in the Blue Book. By the way, I've just been given an excellent list of what looks like almost every monster ever mentioned by Holmes in his writings. I've added them to my blog post, so it looks like the list is pretty complete now.

The ones that would need writing up would be any that are not on this updated list:

dreamscapedesign.net/2014/01/05/ye-compleat-list-of-creatures/

[Vile Traveller]

Thanks to that fine gentleman known as Hawklord on these forums, I have what seems to be a very comprehensive list of my missing Holmesian monsters:

Allosaurus – (ALC1)
Angel – (COADM)
Byakhee - (LOVECRAFT)
Cat-Man - (FRPG)
Dagon avatar (animated statue?) –(MOP)
Deep One (listed as "phibians" on your list) – "Frog-Heads" (MOP) called “the Deep Ones” by Ebeneezer on page 105 (LOVECRAFT)
Dolphin, talking - (ALC2)
Dragon Turtle – (ALC2)
Flower Stalks - sprays anesthetic pollen (FRPG)
Gorgon - (BAG)
Great Race, The - (LOVECRAFT)
Kraken, Giant - (AGC)
Kraken, Tiny - (ALC2)
Lamia - (AGC2)
Lammasu - (FRPG)
Lilliputian - (BAG)
Lion (Cat, Great?) - (FRPG)
Lizard, Giant Chameleon - (AGC)
Lizard, Giant Gila Monster - (FRPG)
Lizard Folk King - (FRPG)
Mammoth - (FRPG)
Mermaid - (ALC2)
Mi-Go – Fungi from Yuggoth (COADM) (LOVECRAFT)
Mummy, Atlantean - (ALC2)
Old Ones, The – a.k.a. Primordial Ones in DDG (LOVECRAFT)
Pellucidar denizens – stats for Mahars, Sagoths and Thipdars in A&E #18
Piercer - (FRPG)
Sand-shark – sand tiger shark? (MOP)
Satyr - (MOP)
Shaggoth (a.k.a. Shoggoth) - (LOVECRAFT) (REBUTTAL)
Spawn of Cthulhu – (ALC2)
Tentacle - (FRPG)
Tree Root Monster things – (BAG)
Triceratops – (ALC1)
Troll, Sea –(ALC2)
Turtle, Giant - (ALC2)
Tyrannosaurus - (FRPG)
Water-nymph - (FRPG)


CITATIONS

FRPG – Fantasy Role-Playing Games
WFH – Warrior-For-Hire (Alarums & Excursions #11)
MOP – Maze of Peril
WS – Were-shark (Alarums & Excursions #13) Chapter 2 of MOP
AGC – The Adventure of the Giant Chameleon (Alarums & Excursions #14)
ALC1 – Adventure of the Lost City: Part One (Alarums & Excursions #17)
ALC2 – Adventure of the Lost City: Part Two (Alarums & Excursions #19)
TH – Trollshead (Dragon #31)
TSJ – The Sorcerer’s Jewel (Dragon #46)
BAG – In the Bag (Dragon #58)
COADM – “Confessions of a Dungeon Master” (Psychology Today v. 14, no. 6 (Nov. 1980))
LOVECRAFT - "The Lovecraftian Mythos in D&D" (Dragon #12)
REBUTTAL – “A Rebuttal to ‘The Cthulhu Mythos Revisited’ by Gerald Guinn” (Dragon #16)

[Vile Traveller]

Now, some of the above will probably not make it into the Compleat Rules, for various reasons:

The monsters in "The Lovecraftian Mythos in D&D" from Dragon #12 will only get in if I'm reasonably sure there are no IP issues, otherwise only some analogue thereof will be possible.

Lilliputians are too tied to a articular tale, so they too will have to be genericised in some way before they get into the book.

The specific creatures (chameleon, gila monster, lion) are already covered under the generic versions like great lizards and great cats. There is a section at the end of the creatures chapter about adding specific traits to creatures (such as oil/dung/fire/tiger beetles, etc.), which this sort of thing fits into nicely.

[Vile Traveller]

I'm happy to report that, with the kind permission of that fine scholar Zenopus, that green grabbers will also be making an appearance in the Compleat Rules.

[kersus]

I've often wondered if Amazons get Darkvision..... And are Cyclopean females Elf sized as they can hardly be distinguished from them?

Do Pixies lose any abilities when they become PCs? I can handle an invisible PC, just curious what anyone else did with them.

[Vile Traveller]

Speaking for myself (which is all I ever do, as one of the core principles of BLUEHOLME™ is that ambiguities are left to the referee to arbitrate):

• Amazons do not have darkvision, they are simply a human matriarchy.
• Female cyclopeans are indistinguishable from elves (except by actual elves), although astute observers will note their hair is very very very very dark green, not black.
• PC pixies keep their invisibility power. rredmond ran a fun game in Thieves' World with a pixie PC (which I had to bow out of because I kept falling asleep). I've had invisible PCs all my refereeing life - it's a neat trick which adds tactical options for the party, but it's not a game-breaker by any means. Flying pixies make a noise, too, a very noticeable one.

[rredmond]

Hey kersus! Good to see you!

I don’t remember running that game Vile Traveller maybe I fell asleep too! Ha ha. Nah I’m no good DMing anything to far afield OD&D or 1e, I’m thinking it wasn’t me.

[Vile Traveller]

May 29, 2022 15:26:33 GMT -6 rredmond said:

I don’t remember running that game Vile Traveller maybe I fell asleep too!

Oops, don't know how I managed that. I meant ffilz, of course!

[ffilz]

May 30, 2022 15:35:52 GMT -6 Vile Traveller said:

May 29, 2022 15:26:33 GMT -6 rredmond said:

I don’t remember running that game Vile Traveller maybe I fell asleep too!

Oops, don't know how I managed that. I meant ffilz, of course!

Yes, the game is still going though we had to kick out the pixie player for repeated non-showing without any warning on top of other issues.

My Thieves Guild pixies don't have invisibility, but flight is really helpful, on the other hand they're tiny... I am using the Game Lords Thieves Guild/Haven setting with RuneQuest 1st edition rules.