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Let's Read: Volo's Monsters
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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 7021242" data-attributes="member: 6787650"><p>Ah, I see what you mean. Strategically passive, not just passive in the moment. That doesn't really have anything to do with their being plant creatures though.</p><p></p><p>Your comment reminds me of Githyanki and Githzerai. If Githyanki had just been some random 3 HD creature in the Fiend Folio, with stats but no lore on motivations or goals, we'd have no interest in them today. Instead they got this cool rivalry with Githzerai and a vendetta against their ex-overlords the Mind Flayers, with a hint of a vast ancient Mind Flayer civilization; also a social organization centered around Knights with cool astral plane silver swords, and a lich queen, and alliances with red dragons, etc. There's no hint of a World Domination Plan but there <em>is</em> a hint of what Githyanki culture is like and what they want, and since what they want (silver swords and red dragons and killing mind flayers and Githzerai) is something cool, Githyanki come across as cool.</p><p></p><p>Volo's Vegepygmies are no Githyanki, I agree with that. I think Volo's does hint that they might be space travellers from the Barrier Peaks, and the Russet Mold connection is kind of interesting to me, and I can definitely see how Vegepygmies are interesting mechanically (an army or even a squad of Vegepygmy mercenaries would be very cost-effective), but first they need to have some kind of lore other than "jungle savages who might be from space." Personally I think I'd go with "autonomous avatars of a more intelligent creature; said creature is in hibernation after its incomplete, mostly-unsuccessful mutiny on a high-tech spaceship. Hibernation will last until the vegepygmy remote avatars complete their assigned task, which is aimed at securing re-entry to said vessel and defeating the original crew and taking control of the vessel." I don't know offhand whether the scenario is more interesting if the original crew are also a bunch of plant creatures, or if they are normal humanoid creatures and The Creature is more like the alien found in <em>Alien</em>, hijacking their vessel.</p><p></p><p>I think I'd make The Task be something biotech-flavored, since the vegepygmies seem to be into that kind of thing what with the Thornies. Ideally it's something that triggers off something the PCs do so that it's their fault when The Creature wakes up and begins making progress toward its goal: Nice Job Breaking It, Hero is what I'm aiming for. I'd search my old books on Athasian halfling bio-magic for inspiration; maybe The Creature has spawned an artificer unit which has been crafting a neural booster helmet for the past thousand years (used for cracking the cockpit access password interlocks via side channels) and the Vegepygmies provide security and raw materials (e.g. humanoid brains) to keep the artificer unit functioning. As for how to make that the PCs' fault, well, one obvious ploy that comes to mind now is to make the Vegepygmy home site have been taken over by Githyanki just as the artificer was on the verge of completing its task (say, within three months of completion). The Githyanki are carefully studying the site because of their own historical interest in biotech, and they've sequestered all the artificer's tools where it cannot reach them. They use their red dragons to keep the vegepygmies under control while they study, and they have the artificer unit locked up and interrogate it on a regular basis. A Vegepygmy finds the PCs and persuades them via pantomime to defeat the Githyanki and free the artificer in exchange for a reward, such as giving everybody in the party darkvision (a simple operation for the artificer).</p><p></p><p>Three months later, The Creature retrieves its neural booster and moves on to the next phase of its plan: it gains access to the cockpit but finds that the controls have all been sabotaged by the crew. To repair the ship it will need <em>lots</em> of artificers, which means lots of brains. So it unlocks the ship's arms locker using the neural booster and starts passing out laser weapons to Vegepygmy remotes, which it churns out by the dozens. It has to build a whole industrial civilization now which requires taking over <em>lots</em> of territory and eating <em>lots</em> of brains, and now the PCs are responsible for starting an interplanetary invasion.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 7021242, member: 6787650"] Ah, I see what you mean. Strategically passive, not just passive in the moment. That doesn't really have anything to do with their being plant creatures though. Your comment reminds me of Githyanki and Githzerai. If Githyanki had just been some random 3 HD creature in the Fiend Folio, with stats but no lore on motivations or goals, we'd have no interest in them today. Instead they got this cool rivalry with Githzerai and a vendetta against their ex-overlords the Mind Flayers, with a hint of a vast ancient Mind Flayer civilization; also a social organization centered around Knights with cool astral plane silver swords, and a lich queen, and alliances with red dragons, etc. There's no hint of a World Domination Plan but there [I]is[/I] a hint of what Githyanki culture is like and what they want, and since what they want (silver swords and red dragons and killing mind flayers and Githzerai) is something cool, Githyanki come across as cool. Volo's Vegepygmies are no Githyanki, I agree with that. I think Volo's does hint that they might be space travellers from the Barrier Peaks, and the Russet Mold connection is kind of interesting to me, and I can definitely see how Vegepygmies are interesting mechanically (an army or even a squad of Vegepygmy mercenaries would be very cost-effective), but first they need to have some kind of lore other than "jungle savages who might be from space." Personally I think I'd go with "autonomous avatars of a more intelligent creature; said creature is in hibernation after its incomplete, mostly-unsuccessful mutiny on a high-tech spaceship. Hibernation will last until the vegepygmy remote avatars complete their assigned task, which is aimed at securing re-entry to said vessel and defeating the original crew and taking control of the vessel." I don't know offhand whether the scenario is more interesting if the original crew are also a bunch of plant creatures, or if they are normal humanoid creatures and The Creature is more like the alien found in [I]Alien[/I], hijacking their vessel. I think I'd make The Task be something biotech-flavored, since the vegepygmies seem to be into that kind of thing what with the Thornies. Ideally it's something that triggers off something the PCs do so that it's their fault when The Creature wakes up and begins making progress toward its goal: Nice Job Breaking It, Hero is what I'm aiming for. I'd search my old books on Athasian halfling bio-magic for inspiration; maybe The Creature has spawned an artificer unit which has been crafting a neural booster helmet for the past thousand years (used for cracking the cockpit access password interlocks via side channels) and the Vegepygmies provide security and raw materials (e.g. humanoid brains) to keep the artificer unit functioning. As for how to make that the PCs' fault, well, one obvious ploy that comes to mind now is to make the Vegepygmy home site have been taken over by Githyanki just as the artificer was on the verge of completing its task (say, within three months of completion). The Githyanki are carefully studying the site because of their own historical interest in biotech, and they've sequestered all the artificer's tools where it cannot reach them. They use their red dragons to keep the vegepygmies under control while they study, and they have the artificer unit locked up and interrogate it on a regular basis. A Vegepygmy finds the PCs and persuades them via pantomime to defeat the Githyanki and free the artificer in exchange for a reward, such as giving everybody in the party darkvision (a simple operation for the artificer). Three months later, The Creature retrieves its neural booster and moves on to the next phase of its plan: it gains access to the cockpit but finds that the controls have all been sabotaged by the crew. To repair the ship it will need [I]lots[/I] of artificers, which means lots of brains. So it unlocks the ship's arms locker using the neural booster and starts passing out laser weapons to Vegepygmy remotes, which it churns out by the dozens. It has to build a whole industrial civilization now which requires taking over [I]lots[/I] of territory and eating [I]lots[/I] of brains, and now the PCs are responsible for starting an interplanetary invasion. [/QUOTE]
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