busyYou want to find examples of, or inspiration for, desert-themed monsters.
First, look in traditional Middle-Eastern sources. Mythology is full of awesome monsters -- D&D filched Tiamat out of Babylonian myth, for instance. Try 1001 Arabian Nights for adventure ideas, monsters, and artifacts. Sufi poetry and parables are also great. Also remember that not all weird creatures are antagonistic; I'm partial to the buraq, a sort of angelic horse. A few possibilities appear in the Monstropedia page of Middle Eastern mythology.
Second, look at the environmental and cultural context. Monsters are based on people's fears. What does the environment create as challenges? In a desert, there is the hot sun, the cold night, and the scarcity of water. So you will have monsters that are burning hot, monsters that steal heat, monsters that lurk in wells or oases, etc. Then there are cultural motifs. If people normally cover themselves head to foot (common in desert climates) then they are vulnerable to humanoid monsters concealing monstrous traits under all that cloth. If they think a particular body part is vulgar, there will be monsters with that part exaggerated.
Remember variety -- create some shock-troop monsters and some small, annoying ones. Not many hikers come face-to-face with a bear, but everyone has had miserable encounters with mosquitoes and most people have been spooked by a snake. Wait until the characters have bedded down and then have some kind of vermin crawl into the sack with them! And they should definitely get stung if they forget to shake out their boots, or if they reach a hand under a rock, etc.
With gaming, you can take a monster manual and sort through it for most of your encounters. Write down the ones you can use as-is, followed by ones you can use with a little tweaking to customize them for a specific setting. Then add just a handful of original monsters, and people will perceive your setting as fresh and memorable.
October 9 2010, 20:18:17 UTC 10 years ago
There are even those which wax and wane as cities themselves change. Fire, a terrifying demon when 90% of buildings were wood and tar, has now been largely supplanted by things like chaos, decay/entropy, distrust, blackouts, and economic collapse. Disease has been largely confined to the rare epidemic, and even that is more fear than actual mass sickness.
Vampires and werewolves have been reinvented for modern times. Gargoyles have made several stabs at it. Things which feed off or manipulate human emotions, and creatures which can disguise themselves as human, are always going to be around in one form or another.
Sci-horror's an interesting genre. Where do the monsters go, when humans have been upgraded to see in the dark, lock out physical and psychic attacks, see through each other's eyes, call a hundred miles for assistance, and generally have defenses against the most common fears and their manifestations?
Thoughts
October 9 2010, 20:58:33 UTC 10 years ago
Yes, that's true. There are parts of Detroit where the wild-jungle and the concrete-jungle are merging with rather alarming effects.
>>Things which feed off or manipulate human emotions, and creatures which can disguise themselves as human, are always going to be around in one form or another.<<
Hungry Corners leap readily to mind: places where a road or intersection consistently causes wrecks, enhanced by some entity that feeds on the death and misery.
>>Sci-horror's an interesting genre. Where do the monsters go, when humans have been upgraded to see in the dark, lock out physical and psychic attacks, see through each other's eyes, call a hundred miles for assistance, and generally have defenses against the most common fears and their manifestations?<<
All technologies have drawbacks, and that's an opportunity for horror -- even if the drawback amounts to "Many people desire immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon." I've also written a poem or two exploring how lack of privacy can be horrific.
*ponder* If you like this branch of exploration, feel free to toss out stuff like this as prompts during my Poetry Fishbowl, whenever the theme seems relevant. I usually do something horror in October (which was earlier this week, on vampires) and SF typically comes up once or twice as well.
October 9 2010, 20:56:44 UTC 10 years ago
I had a very long-running campaign based on Greyhawk, with the actual maps and books and such... except, there being no internet or mass media in that world (of course) - the actual denizens of the various areas were often nothing like what was believed. The books were my baseline for what people believed, not what actually *was*. Monsters were almost always significantly different from the "common knowledge" descriptions.
So, a lot of it was based on what the books said, but with various and sundry differences - some minor, some extremely major. They could get some small idea of what they might be facing from the books, but what they got was unique from any other Greyhawk-based campaign.
Thoughts
October 10 2010, 17:12:32 UTC 10 years ago
Yeah, me too.
>>The books were my baseline for what people believed, not what actually *was*. <<
*laugh* That is so clever! In my first game, I provided some notes on character knowledge -- but there were a few places where characters had different opinions or information from each other.
October 10 2010, 00:12:58 UTC 10 years ago
I own the book in question, and the section on environmental hazards has two pages of tables (about 12 total), each one for a different environment. There is one table for the desert, full of creatures which might be encountered in the environment. Roll on the table, and you have an encounter.
It might be useful for examples of desert creatures. Also, Paizo has a number of African-inspired cultures in their setting, some of them in deserts, and sells player and GM guidebooks for the settings. Again, flipping through in a local store may inspire.
If your friend likes to play with minis, Reaper has a number of great desert-inspired ones, and a whole boxed set of them.
Thoughts
October 10 2010, 18:59:53 UTC 10 years ago
That's actually where the conversation started, that and Al-Qadim.
Re: Thoughts
October 10 2010, 19:39:56 UTC 10 years ago
Neat! It's definitely a brief chart, and not enough to build a campaign around. Not every bit of Paizo's setting resonates with me, but they clearly made efforts to put in something for everyone. Their desert countries seem well done.
Reaper boxed set:
http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/Boxed%20Sets/latest/10028
October 10 2010, 00:50:48 UTC 10 years ago
The party was quested to follow the vampire through the portal into the parallel universe, right what wrongs they could, and return with proof of the vampire's demise. The parallel was the then current US. I made two small changes to the standard D&D monster description. First the vampire could, with difficulty, stand direct sunlight. Secondly, vampiric charm worked through the medium of broadcast television. Can you say elected political office?
*laugh*
October 10 2010, 19:01:14 UTC 10 years ago
I love it!
October 10 2010, 02:30:58 UTC 10 years ago
Oooh, ooooh: I read recently that kiwi birds are learning to kick weasels in self-defense. Add a poison spur, it becomes a monster. :-D
Thoughts
October 10 2010, 19:04:32 UTC 10 years ago
*laugh* Good idea, yes. I make carnivorous plants that way.
>>I read recently that kiwi birds are learning to kick weasels in self-defense. Add a poison spur, it becomes a monster.<<
O_O
I like keas. They're trouble enough without enhancement, though. I think it I were going to make them monsters, I'd give them ... opposable thumbs.