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In the spirit of the recent thread about mythological creatures needing a boost by looking back at their origins, I suggest we look at a real life (extant or extinct) beasts and see how their game equivalents can be improved. Your starters: 1) Snails (& slugs). If you frequent the "Off Topic"...

Don't tease. It's not nice.

The American Heritage Dictionary - and that's high praise, considering I'm British! Simply the best encyclopaedic dictionary I've ever found. Well laid out with good illustrations. Also, if you're a linguist, worth it for the Indo-European and Semitic root appendices alone (which, incidentally...

Admit it, you're thinking of the bonnacon aren't you? The cow which sh*ts flaming dung?

Gorgons come in two varieties - high and low. High gorgons look human, but have an opening in their stomachs, out of which come tentacle-like snakes. Low gorgons are more beastial, being reptilian quadrupeds. They serve the high gorgons. Manticores have been made humanoid. They're tribal pack...

I've been tracking down books about more obscure mythologies, beyond the Greco-Roman, North European and Middle-Eastern ones most FRPG monsters come from. So far I've got good stuff on West Caucasian (the Narts sagas) and Albanian mythology - many of Greek monsters have parallels in those...

Not the Great Wheel cosmology, but this lot of old D&D modules take place on parallel planes, or involve time travel (which amounts to the same thing, adventure-wise) X2 - Castle Amber DA1-4 - The Blackmoor series CM6 - Where Chaos Reigns M1 - Into the Maelstrom (this one's REALLY weird) M5 -...

Part of said intensive training would involve getting one level of warrior. They'd still be common people. Repeating, not hand. Picky. Okay, "Ignoring all rules except feat choices". I didn't want to start discussing changing how the weapons actually work, just "would it feel right if..."

Ignore any rules considerations about range, damage and rate of fire. Consider the historical facts: The longbow required intensive training to use properly The crossbow, even in its repeating form, is easy to use Should the longbow be made an exotic weapon, and the repeating crossbow a...

My wife is a translator. She translates Chinese advertisments into English for market research purposes, but she's not a technical person (I am). Chinese and Singaporean advertising standards are, to put it mildly, laxer than European and American ones. So she'll translate something literally...

It would make me smile if it had happened.... The slugs returned to eat my rocket, then moved on to the runner beans before the heat wave forced them back into hiding. If it rains again, I might take up my neighbour's suggestion of hanging around after dark with a pair of secateurs :] Silver...

Oh yes, that always does it for me. Non-mathematicians can't appreciate this, but struggling for weeks on a problem, and the coming with a brilliant, beatiful solution is a wonderful experience. The other day, I proved two difficult problems. Never mind that they've already been solved - I'd...

Monsternomicon for me. Great art, excellent background and plot hooks, and lots of attention to detail. Plus, I have a signed copy :D

Best of this series yet! Anyone get the feeling that Martha's being set up for a fall? By the writers I mean, not the Doctor. There've been several moments when the Doctor has: a) Placed his life in Martha's hands and b) Been nasty to Martha All it would take is a mention of what happened...

You missed a few: Deciduous or evergreen (Runequest Aldryami) Spikey and tortured (Earthdawn) Arrogant psychopaths (Discworld) Psychic psychopaths (Saga of Exiles) With tails (Nyambe and certain anime/manga styles) Pterodactyls with high tech weaponry (Artemis Fowl)

Quite. Some say that the only thing the Sun gets right is the date. Anyway, I've a feeling that RTD's just going to bring his big Time War plot arc to an end next season, then move on to something new. So someone else will take over Doctor Who. It's happened quite a few times before.

Nah. The Arabian Nights are full of them too.

I found Pullman's attack on Lewis distasteful as well. Both are first-rate authors, but until Pullman's written something as good as Out of the Silent Planet or The Screwtape Letters, he should shut up. I'm going to wait for the initial reviews to decide whether to watch the film. I hope that...

Relative terms. By sci-fi conventions, it's really easy to get into and not at all weird. The episode I saw focused on a Korean couple. Some people were trying to make a raft. There were lots of flashbacks. Can't remember much else.

(Disclaimer: I only watched one episode and hated it) Chose either: Soap opera split into easily digestible chunks for non-soap viewers who want a whole story in one episode. or: Sci-fi with the weird stuff spread thinly and non-threateningly across the season so as not to put off the...