Bring Back Modrons

[maddman75]

I always hated the planescape "reboot" of these creatures.

The original MM2 shows them as geometric shapes, not clockwork robots. I thought it was a lot weirder and more original than going to the clockwork/steampunk cliche. Biological creatures of order so alien the masses appear as near-perfect geometric shapes, while the leaders are humanoids that can't pass the Uncanny Valley.

If they were ever to come back, I'd like them to consider this aspect.

I think you're looking too deep. I really don't think it was anything more than 'dude, what if there were monsters that looked like dice!'

Not a modron fan. They're nearly as dumb as gelatinous cubes, piercers, and mimics.

 

[Nikosandros]

I always hated the planescape "reboot" of these creatures.

The original MM2 shows them as geometric shapes, not clockwork robots. I thought it was a lot weirder and more original than going to the clockwork/steampunk cliche. Biological creatures of order so alien the masses appear as near-perfect geometric shapes, while the leaders are humanoids that can't pass the Uncanny Valley.

If they were ever to come back, I'd like them to consider this aspect.

Indeed. I love the Modrons and I've used them to good effect, but in their original version as presented in the MM2 as alien geometrical creatures. Never liked the silly clockwork version.

 

[avin]

Now, now, now... bring the torches, there's some heretic 'round here...

 

[Shemeska]

Given some of the folks currently on the 4e design team, I doubt that we'll see Modrons in 4e. They didn't show up in the 3.x Planar Handbook written by a number of the 4e designers, and there were some thinly veiled allusions to killing them off therein, and in its online chat.

And when someone describes modrons as inherently silly (not a direct quote, I'd need to check my email to find it), that generally doesn't make me think they're a fan of the creatures.

Of course, I could be wrong, but if we did see them, given the 4e penchent for completely rewriting prior concepts and altering them to conform to 4e PoL defaults, I'm not sure if it wouldn't be better to skip them in 4e (and the 3.5 Dragon article by Ken Marable, and illustrated by Julie Dillon was seriously awesome, very well written, and easy to convert over if you wanted).

 

[ScorpiusRisk]

frabk barret

I currently have Modrons placed in my 4th edition world though they have not been fully written up yet. Basically, my explanation is at the end of the Divine War (which was responsible for many of the changes between 3rd an 4th ed) a young god of law and pacts, who did not yet have his own dominion, saw that mechanus was slowly being destroyed by the shifting of the planes.

Working in tandem with the current Primus the god managed to salave a fair chunk of the plane, raising into the Astral Sea and making it his dominion. The Primus expended most of his energies in the process and died. As Mechanus was now the gods Astral Dominion the title of Primus passed to him.

You could use this as an excuse to make the upper levels of Modron more humanoid in appearance and behavior if you wanted.

 

[Wycen]

I missed the Modrons so much that it inspired me to do a 3d cinematic still of my own version of Quadrones:


I entered this image in a statewide contest but was not the winner.

Hah! Modrons, finding a cluster of eggs, not knowing mom or dad is lurking nearby. I almost wish one of them had two broken egg halves in their hand with the yolk running out!

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

Oryan77
lol great image!! that Bryce or Lightwave?

 

[kenmarable]

Of course I'm biased, but I'd love to see modrons make an appearance in 4e (almost as much as I'd love taking a hand in that appearance!) I also always loved the concept of Dark Modrons and wished I could have done more with them.

Having them from a dominion on the Astral Sea would definitely be the easiest way to integrate them as is.

Although, with some of the ideas above, I can easily see them being from a sort of "anti-Far Realm" - bleeding in from some other reality that operates on the strictest rules of physics and trying to impose order upon the chaos of this "mortal reality". Whether spared from a prior reality or from Someplace Else that is so alien as to be incomprehensible to mortals, they are unceasing in their efforts to convert the mortal realm into order. Most see them as silly little pests, but those who pay close attention notice that their numbers are growing... and growing exponentially.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Given some of the folks currently on the 4e design team, I doubt that we'll see Modrons in 4e. They didn't show up in the 3.x Planar Handbook written by a number of the 4e designers, and there were some thinly veiled allusions to killing them off therein, and in its online chat.

And when someone describes modrons as inherently silly (not a direct quote, I'd need to check my email to find it), that generally doesn't make me think they're a fan of the creatures.

But Modrons are inherently silly. It's one of their most endearing qualities.

And I hated them until they were envisioned as clockwork beings.

 

[Oryan77]

I almost wish one of them had two broken egg halves in their hand with the yolk running out!

Actually the 2 in the back are supposed to be wearing each half of a broken egg on their heads and the blob at their feet is the yolk
I'm not too happy with the broken shell. I didn't mean to leave the orange part on the bottom half of the broken shell and rendered it before I realized it. I had submitted the pic before realizing it and never bothered to fix that.

Oryan77
lol great image!! that Bryce or Lightwave?

I used Maya to do all of it. Man it is a tough program to learn.