D&D 5E Who's In Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters?

Having just sent the final three entries to layout - Nessie, Lucifer, and Peter Pan - this book is pretty much done! All that's left to do is the table of contents, lists of entries by CR appendix, that sort of thing. Then I'll be getting a hardcover proof copy made and, if that looks good, we'll be able to think about launching that Kickstarter!

Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters for D&D

A beautiful D&D hardcover tome of legendary figures from Achilles to Robin Hood, Thor to Dracula, King Arthur to Baba Yaga!

www.kickstarter.com

So here's a list of the entries which made the final cut (this isn't the actual contents page - just a quick list I knocked up to share).

The book is a compilation of Mike Myler's ongoing weekly column, which presents mythological figures and monsters on a request basis. If there is a figure you'd like to see be sure to ask Mike to include it in a later edition of the column!

 

[Mike Myler]

Absolutely.

I'm an architect and would total go for a Legendary characters version of Corbusier, Mies, or FLW. I guess we could go back to Imhotep if we had too. @Mike Myler , can you add one to the list?

Fictionalized versions of real people are great IMO. Have you seen Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter?

No less than five people tried to buy me a copy of the novel (which was better than the movie btw). I think including him as a vampire hunter would be at best a gray area. I'd be down for some Teddy Roosevelt vs. aliens though I think that's fair game.

Also this column is request driven and as mentioned elsewhere many times includes characters from history and literature as well. Since we're talking fun and expensive pieces of paper I'll share mine: I have one for Classics (aka Mythology)! Every myth, somewhere along the line, has roots in a real person real event, or major shared narrative be that popular literature, epic poems, etc. If you find any of these entries troubling, pretend that we've pierced the veil of time, figured out the original mythos sources, and name them whatever seems fitting.

 

[Morrus]

Tesla was in Doctor Who earlier this year! Then again, most everybody has been featured in Doctor Who at some point. And Elon Musk called his car Tesla. And it's the name of five different companies other than Elon Musk's. And the name of crater on the moon. Tesla isn't a protected name in any moral or ethical sense of the concept, and neither are engineers.

 

[Ulfgeir]

Tesla was in Doctor Who earlier this year! Then again, most everybody has been featured in Doctor Who at some point...

As well as "The Time Tunnel" if I recall correctly from the episodes I did see of that old show. Know Merlin showed up and thought their computers were toys.

Were a few of the entries I did not recognize, so will be interesting reading up on those indviduals/beings...

 

[DEFCON 1]

I count fourteen that have also appeared in Epic Rap Battles of History, so they are in good company!

Your next set of characters should include Shaka Zulu, William Wallace, and Lewis & Clark.

 

[Tonguez]

So, Billy the Kid, Cleopatra, Confucius, Genghis Khan, George Washington, Harry Houdini, Nikola Tesla and etc are considered “mythological figures”? These are historical figures with possble elements of exaggeration. Even the inclusion of David is a stretch especially for those of Judeo-Christian faith

I think there are plenty of other mythological and fictional characters that could have been used In their place.

Human society is built on a foundation of story, as people retell the deeds of their ancestors and later generations overlay memories with wonder and symbolism.

David, Genghis Khan, George Washington as historic rulers were remembered and revered by later generations and thus became symbols of national identity.
But the story of George Washington confessing to cutting down the cherry tree is probably exaggeration - a culture myth to exemplfy his virtue, and while the story of David and Saul certainly has particular virtuous truths, I’m sure a lot of the detail about Davids training to go up against Goliath were glossed over in the retelling.

Equally with Tesla, people tell a lot of stories about the things he was suppose to have invented - they have become memes in their own right and when translated into Pop culture often have Mythic qualities (see for instance the weaponised Tesla Coil).

Personally I can trace my ancestry directly to Maui but I’m not going to get offended by people protraying his act of capturing the sun as myth.
Hell my great great grandfather came over on a Whaling Ship from Nantucket but was stranded when their ship got stuck on a sandbank - the story of our great great grandmother going down to save him from the river mouth has become somewhat mythic in my family...

I'm an architect and would total go for a Legendary characters version of Corbusier, Mies, or FLW. I guess we could go back to Imhotep if we had too.

I used Marcus Vitruvius as an NPC architect in one of my games. He was a master Geomancer and builder of non-Euclidian architecture

 

[Mike Myler]

Equally with Tesla, people tell a lot of stories about the things he was suppose to have invented - they have become memes in their own right and when translated into Pop culture often have Mythic qualities (see for instance the weaponised Tesla Coil).

David Bowie as (basically techno-) sorcerer Tesla right over here --> The Prestige (2006) - IMDb

 

[JediSoth]

Stories of the old west are American Mythology. Nnot to be confused with actual native American mythology, such as story tellers from the Lakota, Hopi, Iriquois, et al might talk about... like Bear, who is featured in Oneida and Algonquin myths, or Coyote, featured in almost all all Native American cultural traditions, or Kokopelli, the flute player featured in many American Southwest legends.

With the right resources and consultants, those would be FANTASTIC to include.

 

[Morrus]

Stories of the old west are American Mythology. Nnot to be confused with actual native American mythology, such as story tellers from the Lakota, Hopi, Iriquois, et al might talk about... like Bear, who is featured in Oneida and Algonquin myths, or Coyote, featured in almost all all Native American cultural traditions, or Kokopelli, the flute player featured in many American Southwest legends.

With the right resources and consultants, those would be FANTASTIC to include.

The book's pretty much done so we're not adding new things. But yeah, we're using the right consultants!

 

[Zander]

If you ever do an MF&MM 2, it would be great if you included entries associated with ones from MF&MM 1 such as from Arthurian legend (Sir Gawain, Sir Percival), Robin Hood lore (Maid Marian, Sheriff of Nottingham, Ivanhoe, Will Scarlet, Alan-a-Dale), Biblical sources (Samson, Goliath), Beowulf (his mother) etc.

 

[Mike Myler]

If you ever do an MF&MM 2, it would be great if you included entries associated with ones from MF&MM 1 such as from Arthurian legend (Merlin, Mordred, Sir Lancelot), Robin Hood lore (Maid Marian, Sheriff of Nottingham, Ivanhoe, Will Scarlet, Alan-a-Dale), Biblical sources (Samson, Goliath), Beowulf (his mother) etc.

Also, heroes of Greek myth (Heracles, Perseus, Odysseus, Achilles, Jason) would be cool. I realise they have already been done elsewhere but it would be convenient to have them from the same authors as the other figures so they can be used together.

Added Mordred, Sheriff of Nottingham, Ivanhoe, Will Scarlet, Alan-a-Dale, Samson, Goliath to the queue (all the others are already in the book, and Maid Marian/Jason are in line )