Kid Charlemagne
I am the Very Model of a Modern Moderator
el-remmen said:Neville, Nigel. . .whatever. . . some name Americans don't use a lot anymore. . .
Pish posh.
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Shadow Demon, Qullan, Stunjelly
- Thread starter Quasqueton
- Start date
Pish posh.
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
Subject line got my attention
First, the name: I'm N. Alex White - FF credits me as Neville White, but about 8 years ago I decided to switch to using my middle name as my primary name for various reasons. Anybody I've met in the last 8 years will only know me as Alex (so El-Remmen is in the clear!).
All of the creatures were originally submitted to the 'Fiend Factory' in White Dwarf; none of them were playtested, they were all just a matter of inspiration in one form or another. I've never owned a Fiend Folio (it was too expensive for me to buy when it came out!), so I can't be sure of the text of stuff, but I'll tell you how each originally came about, and what my 'inspiration' was in each case.
Stunjelly first.
Back in 1e days the 'clean up crew' were common dungeon hazards - the grey ooze, ochre jelly, black pudding, gelatinous cube and so forth. There were also a number of 'trap' monsters - ear seekers that assaulted those listening at doors, rot grubs that attacked those searching corpses.
As a DM, I'd noticed that whenever PCs were confronted by a long corridor with a dead end at the bottom, they would always go and search it. I theorised an evolutionary equivalent of the gelationous cube, although with the ability to mimic the colour and texture of nearby walls, silently and slowly sweeping along corridors, paralysing and digesting all that came into contact with it. I called this the 'living wall', it got renamed Stunjelly for copyright reasons.
Qullan
I liked the idea of mad raging tribespeople infecting others with their own madness, hence the short radius confusion effect that surrounded them. I similarly liked the idea of their insane insights giving them the ability to craft marvellously sharp non-magical weapons. But I didn't want anyone else getting those secrets, hence the feedback effect that kills them if they are charmed (which also gave a nice 'trick' for handling them too).
And in a metagaming move of champions, I guessed that there wouldn't be many entries starting with 'Q'
Shadow Demon
My favourite. I drew a picture one evening of this night-black demon, with heavily clawed forelimbs and hind limbs that was equally at home on two legs or on for. It only had small wings so it wouldn't have true powered flight, but could make prodigious wing-assisted leaps. It was actually composed of shadow, so it's power would wax or wane according to the prevailing light conditions. Finally, it had the ability to merge itself with someone and possess them, because I've always liked that kind of thing.
Although I sent my picture in, to White Dwarf, it appeared with a completely appallingly awful attempt by 'Polly' who did a lot of the illustrations in those days - she completely misread it. It had a much better illustration in the Fiend Folio, and if the Book of Vile Darkness picture of a Shadow Demon is 'my' one too, that is an excellent rendition.
In truth I've got no idea how much my original text was edited in each of the three cases - it was over quarter a century ago, after all!
I certainly killed a couple of party members with the living wall (aka stunjelly), I can't remember whether anyone met qullans and I know that although I placed a few Shadow Demons, nobody actually encountered them... to date
Any help?
First, the name: I'm N. Alex White - FF credits me as Neville White, but about 8 years ago I decided to switch to using my middle name as my primary name for various reasons. Anybody I've met in the last 8 years will only know me as Alex (so El-Remmen is in the clear!).
All of the creatures were originally submitted to the 'Fiend Factory' in White Dwarf; none of them were playtested, they were all just a matter of inspiration in one form or another. I've never owned a Fiend Folio (it was too expensive for me to buy when it came out!), so I can't be sure of the text of stuff, but I'll tell you how each originally came about, and what my 'inspiration' was in each case.
Stunjelly first.
Back in 1e days the 'clean up crew' were common dungeon hazards - the grey ooze, ochre jelly, black pudding, gelatinous cube and so forth. There were also a number of 'trap' monsters - ear seekers that assaulted those listening at doors, rot grubs that attacked those searching corpses.
As a DM, I'd noticed that whenever PCs were confronted by a long corridor with a dead end at the bottom, they would always go and search it. I theorised an evolutionary equivalent of the gelationous cube, although with the ability to mimic the colour and texture of nearby walls, silently and slowly sweeping along corridors, paralysing and digesting all that came into contact with it. I called this the 'living wall', it got renamed Stunjelly for copyright reasons.
Qullan
I liked the idea of mad raging tribespeople infecting others with their own madness, hence the short radius confusion effect that surrounded them. I similarly liked the idea of their insane insights giving them the ability to craft marvellously sharp non-magical weapons. But I didn't want anyone else getting those secrets, hence the feedback effect that kills them if they are charmed (which also gave a nice 'trick' for handling them too).
And in a metagaming move of champions, I guessed that there wouldn't be many entries starting with 'Q'
Shadow Demon
My favourite. I drew a picture one evening of this night-black demon, with heavily clawed forelimbs and hind limbs that was equally at home on two legs or on for. It only had small wings so it wouldn't have true powered flight, but could make prodigious wing-assisted leaps. It was actually composed of shadow, so it's power would wax or wane according to the prevailing light conditions. Finally, it had the ability to merge itself with someone and possess them, because I've always liked that kind of thing.
Although I sent my picture in, to White Dwarf, it appeared with a completely appallingly awful attempt by 'Polly' who did a lot of the illustrations in those days - she completely misread it. It had a much better illustration in the Fiend Folio, and if the Book of Vile Darkness picture of a Shadow Demon is 'my' one too, that is an excellent rendition.
In truth I've got no idea how much my original text was edited in each of the three cases - it was over quarter a century ago, after all!
I certainly killed a couple of party members with the living wall (aka stunjelly), I can't remember whether anyone met qullans and I know that although I placed a few Shadow Demons, nobody actually encountered them... to date
Any help?
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
There were probably quite a few others - I used to have a card deck of new monsters, half of which I'd cribbed from other sources and half of which I'd made up to torment my players with! As I said, with the passage of time I've now got no idea what they might have been though
Garnfellow
Explorer
The living wall, for what it's worth, appeared in WD 7.
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
Garnfellow said:
I'm impressed that you've got those early White Dwarfs to hand
I think the fiend factory only started in Issue 6, so I was in there pretty early, I guess!
Garnfellow
Explorer
Well, to tell the truth I cheated and used the White Dwarf Monster Index over on the Creature Catalog forums. But since I'm working on an ongoing project to convert some of the lost Fiend Factory monsters, I do usually have a stack of WDs close by. The flymen are next, if I can ever figure out how to best convert a Fine humanoid.Plane Sailing said:I'm impressed that you've got those early White Dwarfs to hand
I think the fiend factory only started in Issue 6, so I was in there pretty early, I guess!
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Keeper of Secrets
First Post
The Shadow Demon was one of my favorite creatures of all time. Of course, it is even better that he got to be Vengar's lackey in the cartoon.
Personally, as I looked at the Shadow Demon again, recently for a game I am running, it seems to stay true to the original concept presented in the Fiend Folio.
Personally, as I looked at the Shadow Demon again, recently for a game I am running, it seems to stay true to the original concept presented in the Fiend Folio.
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