Sunday, April 25, 2021

Movie Monsters In-Game

We try to avoid actually mentioning content that isn’t our own this directly, but any pretending to dance around it would be silly.  So:  We love the idea of the predators, the yautja.  Mandibles, plasma cannons, spears and claws - love them all.  But how do we bring them into a fantasy game?

Let me introduce you to the Legend Quest version of the formorians:  We tried to return to the original source material for most of the LQ monsters, but one thing you’ll learn about Irish myths (or have learned) is that they aren’t exactly consistent.  So trying to tie together things we thought we knew, we made the kobolds, formorians and firbolgs all a subset race of the Fairie (which obviously includes the elves).  Here is the write up on them from the Omnibus book:

The formorians are a race of giants.  They are cunning, but cruel.  They accept only victory, and any that fail are dishonored and considered worthless in the future.  It is this constant testing and disposal of those less than perfect that keeps those formorians that survive at the peak of their abilities.  The formorians are the eternal enemies of the firbolgs, who they regularly defeat in battles.  The formorians are much more intelligent than the firbolgs, and they use this cunning to plan ambushes that often give them victory over their firbolg cousins.

The best known myth about the formorians is when a champion (sometimes human or orc or elf) gave the formorian chief a beautifully crafted sword and said he deserved it because he was the most powerful warrior.  Well, the other formorians in the war party took objection to this and felt they deserved the sword.  Next thing you know the arrogant formorians had killed each other in a series of duels and assassinations, leaving one heavily wounded giant behind, who was no match for the hero.

Maybe you don’t see it yet, because we’ve never treated them like predators.  I have never dove down deep into their warrior culture and how or why they compete in this way.  Sure, their god is highly competitive and brings it out in them, but that’s a bit too easy.

So, ignoring the fact that now I feel like I need to figure out their culture, I am looking at formorians in a new light.  They have always been great to use as giants - huge hulking monsters who can dish out damage like nobody’s business, and they are somewhat intelligent (human level).  But now I’m seeing them as more than raiders and ravagers.  Now I see them as hunters, seeking out different types of prey to test themselves.  They will go after firbolgs to show they can best strength with strength.  They will go after dragons to prove they can withstand fire and wings.  And they will go after human champions to prove they can beat clever and resourceful humans despite their magic and other gadgets.

Just starting on the culture - They keep their numbers (at least the numbers of their men) small, typically a “father” and two or three “sons” or apprentices.  This way they can be actively hunting without the adult worried that he is in constant danger of being challenged for his supremacy.  These bands of killers can hunt for glory and plunder, bringing home the spoils of these hunts for the women folk.  And don’t forget - bringing home the trophies too!

Are you thinking, how can these giants possibly be predators?  They bring home trophies.  Those trophies can be slaves, like slave weapon smiths, armorers, enchanters, or alchemists.  These giants are cruel taskmasters.  They are exactly the kind of beings that would promise to torture and kill your wife and children if you didn’t do what they asked.  In fact, they might even let their women folk keep your women folk.  Professional killers or not (and it should be not), the formorian females can crush a human woman easily.  Now all of a sudden, these small formorian families have access to magic, like camouflage armor, possibly invisibility potions, poisons, and some really cool enchanted missiles.

If you’re looking for something smaller but possibly more dangerous (because they are smarter), check out our hearrsmon.  They have a whole culture based on this type of slavery.  Only they call it being the lord of the castle and feudalism instead of slavery.

This post was written as part of the recently released Carnage Amongst the Depraved aka All About Big Stupid Monsters, the latest in our Small Bites editions.  Each Small Bites book looks deeply at one subject, a character archetype, a race/monster, a style of questing, or some other role-playing/world building subject.  This one details everything having to do with those monsters that are typically huge, super strong, but also not so bright, and how this will affect their actions and tactics, as well as other game mastering tricks, but within a fully defined mission showing both the stats for point-based characters (like in Legend Quest) and class-based characters like in most of the die-20 games.

 

We hope we’re getting you interested.  If you want to see the World Walker edition for FREE!! click the link here.  If we’ve hooked you and you want to get the full 59 pages of content in the Game Masters’ edition, click here.

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