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<blockquote data-quote="Steverooo" data-source="post: 2711810" data-attributes="member: 9410">Rust Monsters and...?The AD&amp;D Rust Monster has always seemed silly, to me.&nbsp; I can understand its uses (to scare the Fighters), but the Giant Rust Monster in one of the Greyhawk novels just made things even worse...So I asked Gary Gygax, one time, if you had all these rust monsters eating all the metals and ores in the world, then why was there any left, at all?&nbsp; He poo-poohed the idea, saying that one battleship could feed all of them for a hundred years, but this is obviously not the case...&nbsp; They can eat a handful of spikes, or a sword, shield, or suit of armor in a single round, and not be filled!&nbsp; If they can eat 60 pounds of fullplate in six seconds, a battleship won't last ALL of them a century!&nbsp; So how is there any metal left?Somewhere, deep below the surface of the earth, there must also be a race of metal- uh -spitters, who eat rock, and spit up metal, to replace it.&nbsp; Thus, metals exist because they are constantly depositing new veins of it.And what do they eat?&nbsp; Why, Rust Monsters (and their offal), or course! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />&nbsp; Giant, Elemental entities that carve their way through the world, depositing high-grade ores within the living earth!&nbsp; As they age, they delve deeper, and the materials they deposit change.&nbsp; The younger, smaller versions make tiny tunnels, and deposit copper.&nbsp; The sub-adults tin, iron, manganese, etc.&nbsp; The adults move deeper still, and deposit higher-grade iron and the mysterious &quot;Cold Iron&quot;, moving on to silver.&nbsp; The elders deposit gold, mithral, and eventually adamantine.Hence, the Rust Monsters have an eternal supply of metals to eat, and the Dwarves have eternal veins of ore to mine.&nbsp; The Metal-spitters eat rock, and occassionally get to munch on a Rust Monster who ventures too deep, in search of their ores...&nbsp; It solves the &quot;problem&quot;, and creates a new miner which can tunnel through solid rock (and has a motivation to do so!), connecting all of those Underdark realms!Need your Balrog bound in a vein of Mithril?&nbsp; Call in an Elder Metal-spitter! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Steverooo, post: 2711810, member: 9410"] [b]Rust Monsters and...?[/b] The AD&D Rust Monster has always seemed silly, to me. I can understand its uses (to scare the Fighters), but the Giant Rust Monster in one of the Greyhawk novels just made things even worse... So I asked Gary Gygax, one time, if you had all these rust monsters eating all the metals and ores in the world, then why was there any left, at all? He poo-poohed the idea, saying that one battleship could feed all of them for a hundred years, but this is obviously not the case... They can eat a handful of spikes, or a sword, shield, or suit of armor in a single round, and not be filled! If they can eat 60 pounds of fullplate in six seconds, a battleship won't last ALL of them a century! So how is there any metal left? Somewhere, deep below the surface of the earth, there must also be a race of metal- uh -spitters, who eat rock, and spit up metal, to replace it. Thus, metals exist because they are constantly depositing new veins of it. And what do they eat? Why, Rust Monsters (and their offal), or course! ;) Giant, Elemental entities that carve their way through the world, depositing high-grade ores within the living earth! As they age, they delve deeper, and the materials they deposit change. The younger, smaller versions make tiny tunnels, and deposit copper. The sub-adults tin, iron, manganese, etc. The adults move deeper still, and deposit higher-grade iron and the mysterious "Cold Iron", moving on to silver. The elders deposit gold, mithral, and eventually adamantine. Hence, the Rust Monsters have an eternal supply of metals to eat, and the Dwarves have eternal veins of ore to mine. The Metal-spitters eat rock, and occassionally get to munch on a Rust Monster who ventures too deep, in search of their ores... It solves the "problem", and creates a new miner which can tunnel through solid rock (and has a motivation to do so!), connecting all of those Underdark realms! Need your Balrog bound in a vein of Mithril? Call in an Elder Metal-spitter! ;) [/QUOTE]

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