What's Your Monster Palette?

[Rune]

I personally believe that undead should always be the most unnatural, frightening thing a player will ever run accross (maybe not as frightening as a dragon. Maybe) and, consequently, only rarely include them in my games. And I make sure that they're scary when they do show up.

I don't use dragons, either, largely because the only way my players ever survive encounters I throw at them is by outsmarting me. I don't think they'd outsmart a dragon, even one run by me.

 

[Piratecat]

I'm currently using the Lovecraftian palette: ghouls, decadent and hideous abominations of nature, that sort of thing. Fun!

 

[SHARK]

Greetings!

Hmmm...I suppose I use many different types, really. I have developed my campaign world for over 14 years, and my world is roughly the size of Jupiter. That means that I have enormous seas, and numerous continents. It provides for lots of room to do many different things. In some ways, it's like a restaurant category. Depending on the area, there are different offerings. For example:

(1) In the Celtic Island group, the theme is more Celtic/Arthurian Myth. There are Fomorians, Humans, Faeries, Unicorns, Nymphs, Dire Animals, and such.

(2) Arathan: The most western part is a continuation of a Celtic/Faery Myth theme. The eastern area opens up more, and is demarked by a 2500 mile long mountain chain that is larger than the Himalayahs. The eastern slopes of these mountains, there are Chaos Beastmen, bizarre monsters, and Giants. Occasional Dragons can also be found.

(3) The Far North: Humans, Giants, Dragons, and Orcs.

(4) The South-East: Giants, Undead, Orcs, and Hobgoblins.

(5) The South: Humans, Giants, Undead, and different kinds of animal-people.

(6) The Far East: Undead, Humans, Yaun-Ti, Lizardmen, Tiger-men, and some Dragons.

There are others, but the dimensions are so vast, sometimes the players in one campaign, will never get out of one particular area, because of the opportunities and so on. Different campaigns have been centered or focused on different areas with different themes. Thus, there's a good deal of variety, and maximum flexibility. Yet, within the specific campaign area, there is a dominant theme that is maintained.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[jdfrenzel]

Mythic Persia!

Arabian Nights type stuff: Efreet and djinn, evil sorcerers, monstrous scorpions, serpents and spiders, and scimitar-wielding mariliths!

--- John

 

[Altin]

A couple of old stand-by's that no-one's pointed out yet:

Gothic: vampires, ghosts, golems and warecreatures (Ravenloft, anyone?)

Post-apocolyptic: 'mutated' humanoids (orcs seem like the natural option but almost any humaniod from the MM will do), dire and fiendish versions of standard animals, magical constructs (remnants of the 'golden age') and so forth.


Yours,

Altin

 

[Ace]

I got a little crazy with my monster Pallette in my game world.

I actually have 14 different accesable sub worlds, 4 elemental planes. heavens, hells the seven "color gates" and the void which is basically Cuthulu space.

In addition there are spells to make a monster to account for all the abominations running about. So I guess thats 15 Palletes Wow.

It was designed this way to allow me or another DM to use any monster in any reference without ruining the consistency of the world.
I D&D unlike some of other games I play has a lot of good crunchy bits and I never know when I might want to use them.


Only three kinds of monsters are really common however

1-Fae creatures (from the Violet realm) including Elves (very nasty not like Tolkien Elves)
2- Demons. This includes all Undead (which are demons inside corpses) except Ghosts Ghouls, and Ghasts(which are a disease) and Banshee

3- Orcs. These guys have a rather detailed culture and are incredibly nasty opponents. Fortuantely they are restricted to one area and mostly hemmed in by a wall.

The players did meet a Cuthuloid Horror once but it was a fluke.

On my Pseudo Earth there are only three types of monsters Spirits including Fae, Demons, and Angleic types (who are pretty rare)

BTW This thread is excellent, My occasional GM and world building buddy discussed this very topic at some length a while back and came to the conclusion that when gaming Less Is More.

A focus on a few types of critters (I usually do Fae, Demons, Undead, and the occasional other) really improves the game and gives a world more versimilitude.

 

[mmadsen]

(1) In the Celtic Island group...Fomorians, Humans, Faeries, Unicorns, Nymphs, Dire Animals, and such.
(2) Arathan:...Chaos Beastmen, bizarre monsters, and Giants. Occasional Dragons can also be found.
(3) The Far North: Humans, Giants, Dragons, and Orcs.
(4) The South-East: Giants, Undead, Orcs, and Hobgoblins.
(5) The South: Humans, Giants, Undead, and different kinds of animal-people.
(6) The Far East: Undead, Humans, Yaun-Ti, Lizardmen, Tiger-men, and some Dragons.

SHARK, You seem to be a big fan of Giants. They're not just tucked away in some glaciers to the north; they're everywhere!

By the way, when I first read your Celtic monster palette, I thought, "Did I miss the Irish fairy tale with giant ants?" Then I realized it was "Fomorians" and not "Formians"... (Hill Giant stats?)

 

[mmadsen]

Since I've been discussing Pendragon so much lately:

• King Arthur -- knights at bridges, knights at tournaments, knights everywhere; fey knights (magically "buffed" knights); fey sorceresses (evil Clerics?), damsels in distress (who are really evil sorceresses); unicorns, lions, griffons; giants (ogres).

 

[Arani Korden]

John Carter, Warlord of Somewhere Strange palette: Yrthak, Destrachan, Girallon, and all those other "what the heck?" monsters.

Pulp and Steam-pulp palette: Grimlocks (Morlocks), Derro (Dero), Dire Apes, Awakened Apes (with theirown city), Mummies, Iron Golems, etc.

 

[Vuron]

A fun scenario/setting might be a fantasy version of one of the old SciFi standbys The puppeteers or the invasion of the bodysnatchers. The psionicist handbook has a creature that could be used for this.

Another interesting idea might involve being trapped in a demiplane or alternate world that has a lost world feel. No technology beyond stone or maybe bronze weapons, lizardmen and bullywugs warring against each other using dinosaurs and dire animals.

More Fun: Settings were the climate makes wearing armor unrealistic or deadly: intense heat and/or humidity

Protogith: The histories of the illithid and the gith races speak of a time when great illithid empires ruled whole planets until the gith rebelled. A setting where the gith are freedom fighters against illithid overlords would be fun. Lots of psionics and martials arts etc. Maybe the illithid empire is under pressure from other monstrous races such as orc slaves of a mighty beholder empire.