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Curated monster lists - world building
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<blockquote data-quote="Yora" data-source="post: 9238358" data-attributes="member: 6670763"><p>After deciding on a general style and feel for a setting, deciding on the creatures that populate it is always my first step. They are the main building blocks from which nearly everything else that makes up a setting is derived.</p><p></p><p>All the way back since I played Morrowind, I've been a huge fan of fantasy settings that are not a reimagining of medieval Europe in which magic is real. I really like the idea of fantasy settings as a planet that evolved on its own, with its own unique creatures and cultures. To keep the world still accessible, I removed common European animals like dogs and wolves, cats, horses, cows, boars, and bears, and replaced them with functionally comparable fantasy animals. Most of which are actually just touched up real extinct animals that are obscure enough to not pop out immediately as famous dinosaurs.</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Archaeopteryx (hawk)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Civet (dog)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Crocodile</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dicynadon (boar)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dinosuchus (giant crocodile)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gorgonops (wolf)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Hadrosaurus (bison)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Inostrancevia (dire wolf)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Megalania (advanced monitor lizard)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Megatherium (dire bear)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Pterodactyl</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Triceratops (rhinoceros)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Weasel</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wolverine</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dragonhawk (hippogriff)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Riding Deer (light horse)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Riding Goat (pony)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Swamp Eel (constrictor snake)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Swamp Beast (giant octopus)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ankheg</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Carrion Crawler</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dire Rat</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dire Weasel</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dire Wolverine</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Giant Bee</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Giant Praying Mantis</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Medium Monstrous Scorpion</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Monstrous Centipede (tiny to huge)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Owlbear</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Snake (tiny to huge viper)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wyvern</li> </ul><p>The next most important group are humanoids. PC races are mostly human and elf-like, as well as goliaths. I don't want to have the classic Tolkienian humanoids for the reasons given above. And I'm a huge fan of the Monsters of Faerûn book, so I settled on these. I also wanted to keep the list short, to give each people room to develop full cultures and places in the social structures and history of the world, rather than being faceless, low-level monsters. This is the list after it already grew out of hand. (Because they are all so cool.)</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Chitines</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fishmen (amphibious locathah)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gnolls</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Goblins (though reskinned very insect-like, like dromites)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Giants (half-ogers)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Grimlocks</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Quaggoths</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Raptorans</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Serpentmen (yuan-ti purebloods)</li> </ul><p>I like to have a cleat distinction between alien animals and supernatural monsters, with little middle ground in between. I settled on these for the later type.</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Annis Hag</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Bhuer Hag</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dark Tree</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Doppelganger (predatory carnivores)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dragons (black, bronze, deep, green, red, silver)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Elementals (air, earth, fire, water)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ettercap</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fey'ri (the main fey folk of the Spiritwold)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gibberling</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gloomwing</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Green Hag</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Green Warder</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Manticore</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Phase Spider</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Treant</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Unicorn (reskinned as an elk)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Werewolf</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Yuan-ti abomination</li> </ul><p>It took me a very long time to come to a decision to not have a hellish underworld plane in the setting, and that there's already enough going on with eldritch forest spirits and supernatural nightmare threats. Having outsiders as well would dilute their presence and distract from them. The role of fiends will instead be occupied primarily by aberrations that come from a dark, watery realm beyond the Plane of Shadows.</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Aboleth</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cloaker</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ethergaunt</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ghaunadan</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gibbering Mouther</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Grell</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Kraken</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mind Flayer</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Neothelid</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Thought Eater</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tsochar</li> </ul><p>And aside from the generic undead, that is it. Which I think is still a pretty long list. Ideally, I would like to have all creatures be interconnected with others and have them referenced in culture and history. But with this many this is already getting challenging.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yora, post: 9238358, member: 6670763"] After deciding on a general style and feel for a setting, deciding on the creatures that populate it is always my first step. They are the main building blocks from which nearly everything else that makes up a setting is derived. All the way back since I played Morrowind, I've been a huge fan of fantasy settings that are not a reimagining of medieval Europe in which magic is real. I really like the idea of fantasy settings as a planet that evolved on its own, with its own unique creatures and cultures. To keep the world still accessible, I removed common European animals like dogs and wolves, cats, horses, cows, boars, and bears, and replaced them with functionally comparable fantasy animals. Most of which are actually just touched up real extinct animals that are obscure enough to not pop out immediately as famous dinosaurs. [LIST] [*]Archaeopteryx (hawk) [*]Civet (dog) [*]Crocodile [*]Dicynadon (boar) [*]Dinosuchus (giant crocodile) [*]Gorgonops (wolf) [*]Hadrosaurus (bison) [*]Inostrancevia (dire wolf) [*]Megalania (advanced monitor lizard) [*]Megatherium (dire bear) [*]Pterodactyl [*]Triceratops (rhinoceros) [*]Weasel [*]Wolverine [*]Dragonhawk (hippogriff) [*]Riding Deer (light horse) [*]Riding Goat (pony) [*]Swamp Eel (constrictor snake) [*]Swamp Beast (giant octopus) [*]Ankheg [*]Carrion Crawler [*]Dire Rat [*]Dire Weasel [*]Dire Wolverine [*]Giant Bee [*]Giant Praying Mantis [*]Medium Monstrous Scorpion [*]Monstrous Centipede (tiny to huge) [*]Owlbear [*]Snake (tiny to huge viper) [*]Wyvern [/LIST] The next most important group are humanoids. PC races are mostly human and elf-like, as well as goliaths. I don't want to have the classic Tolkienian humanoids for the reasons given above. And I'm a huge fan of the Monsters of Faerûn book, so I settled on these. I also wanted to keep the list short, to give each people room to develop full cultures and places in the social structures and history of the world, rather than being faceless, low-level monsters. This is the list after it already grew out of hand. (Because they are all so cool.) [LIST] [*]Chitines [*]Fishmen (amphibious locathah) [*]Gnolls [*]Goblins (though reskinned very insect-like, like dromites) [*]Giants (half-ogers) [*]Grimlocks [*]Quaggoths [*]Raptorans [*]Serpentmen (yuan-ti purebloods) [/LIST] I like to have a cleat distinction between alien animals and supernatural monsters, with little middle ground in between. I settled on these for the later type. [LIST] [*]Annis Hag [*]Bhuer Hag [*]Dark Tree [*]Doppelganger (predatory carnivores) [*]Dragons (black, bronze, deep, green, red, silver) [*]Elementals (air, earth, fire, water) [*]Ettercap [*]Fey'ri (the main fey folk of the Spiritwold) [*]Gibberling [*]Gloomwing [*]Green Hag [*]Green Warder [*]Manticore [*]Phase Spider [*]Treant [*]Unicorn (reskinned as an elk) [*]Werewolf [*]Yuan-ti abomination [/LIST] It took me a very long time to come to a decision to not have a hellish underworld plane in the setting, and that there's already enough going on with eldritch forest spirits and supernatural nightmare threats. Having outsiders as well would dilute their presence and distract from them. The role of fiends will instead be occupied primarily by aberrations that come from a dark, watery realm beyond the Plane of Shadows. [LIST] [*]Aboleth [*]Cloaker [*]Ethergaunt [*]Ghaunadan [*]Gibbering Mouther [*]Grell [*]Kraken [*]Mind Flayer [*]Neothelid [*]Thought Eater [*]Tsochar [/LIST] And aside from the generic undead, that is it. Which I think is still a pretty long list. Ideally, I would like to have all creatures be interconnected with others and have them referenced in culture and history. But with this many this is already getting challenging. [/QUOTE]
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