(Another kind of) "Monster Types" by "Treasure Types"

[Red Baron]

A while back, Simon came up with a great way of assigning treasure to different monsters. The great thing about this was that elves would have flutes and wines, berserkers would have spears and furs, and a lamia or griffon might have paintings and perfumes and potions, or even deeds to land.

Nov 1, 2010 7:57:14 GMT -6 waysoftheearth said:

A Art (paintings, sculptures, costumes, etc.)
B Brilliants (gemstones, pearls, bibelots, trinket, etc.)
C Copper (coins, metals, worked metals, etc.)
D Documents (scrolls, maps, missives, tomes, writing stuffs, etc.)
E Estate (furnishings, fixtures, trappings, habiliments, etc.)
F Furs (furs, pelts, skins, teeth, ivory, etc.)
G Gold (coins, metals, worked metals, etc.)
H Hardware (tools, ropes, lanterns, shovels, firewood, carts, etc.)
I Ingredients (rare earths, herbs, liquids, and so on for the alchemist, apothecary, etc.)
J Jewellry (rings, broaches, necklaces, tiaras, bracelettes, etc.)
K Mixed Koins (3:2:1 cp:sp:gp)
L Livestock (chickens, pigs, goats, sheep, etc.)
M Musical instruments (pipes, whistles, lutes, drums, horns, etc.)
N Niceities (soaps, perfumes, mirrors, combs, handkerchiefs, snuff, tobaccos, etc.)
O Ore (coal, iron, copper, silver, gold, mithril, etc.)
P Plantstuffs (flowers, seed, timber, yew, mistletoe, wolvesbane, etc.)
Q Queeriosities (pets, grand designs, information, projects, diaries, etc.)
R Rations (ale, meat, fish, fruit, bread, vegetables, etc.)
S Silver (coins, metals, worked metals, etc.)
T Textiles (fabrics, carpets, tapestries, clothing etc)
U Utensils (glassware, kitchenware, cutlery, goblets, candelabra, etc.)
V Victims (remains, prisoners, slaves, etc.)
W Weaponry (armour, shields, helms, weaponry, etc.)
X eliXirs (ale, wine, mead, brandy, spirits, remedies, etc.)
Y Young (eggs or younglings to be catputred, sold, tamed, etc.)
Z Zilch!

This gave me an idea. This table could be used to redefine each type of monster into bizzare things by using the first 6 letter of their name as the interests of the monster.

Mummies for example, starting with MUMMIE are now really into musical instruments and fine cooking.

HUMANS, our stock race for adventurers, have at least a basic civilized technology (H, U), are cultured (M, A), and affluent (N, S).

Depending on your spelling, the elfs or elves now have livestock and either victims or furs. Either way they are a barbaric and hostile people. Their estate is most likely large wooden halls with huge bonfires and tapestries depicting legends. I don't think anyones done evil elf-vikings before.

I hope that made some sort of sense.

[coffee]

That did make sense, have no fear. It gives us another way to look at old familiar things, which is always good.

I don't think anybody has done evil elf-vikings before either, but what do our Norse scholars have to say on the matter?

[kesher]

That's freaking awesome!

If you went with MUMMY instead of MUMMIES, then mummies could lay eggs...

[archersix]

Dinosaur Mummies, why not??

And I'm not a Norse scholar by any means, but the Elves in the Thor movies are pretty bad ass and kind of 'viking' :-)

[jdjarvis]

Clever way to use Simon's expanded letter code. Goblins become a pretty choice target.

As for savage or viking elves there is fictional precedent with the Wolfriders and Goback tribes of the old Elfquest comic. One can also of course have Sylvan Elves and Grey Elves as opposed to just elves you can even range further and call them sidhe, firbolg, or alfar to mix things up.