GITP Monster Competition Chat Thread

[RTGoodman]

Fey seemed the most appropriate type. Nobody was going to go humanoid, monstrous humanoids have...issues...in humanoid cities and fall into the same trap humanoids do in nonhuman cities, giants...yeah.

Aberrations were a good fit, as were plants. Animals and vermin, both boring. Elemental was a surprise, and a welcome one. I'm surprised at the lack of magical beasts. And dragons... dragon might have been fun to try.

But yeah - fey love to meddle with people... not surprised that was the highest showing.

I agree for the most part. I think some monstrous humanoids or giants or something could have worked out, but I couldn't think of anything that I would have designed of those types. Vermin or animals the same thing. Dragons... someone should have through of that - a City Drake or something that makes deals with city leaders in exchange for residence and steel to horde or something like that.

Just because something is epic doesn't mean it's not usable. We've run two contests soley for epic creatures in fact.

Yeah, but it's a LOT more work! My original idea was to do a sort of Elder Evil Mimic that was a super-epic mimic that disguised itself as whole cities. Needless to say, with just a few days left by the time I got around to starting, it was a little late for that (though the theme did manage to stay).

Really, I just like the idea that cities aren't as organized and safe as they look at first glance. It's a very... pastoral idea, I guess.

[afroakuma]

Well, I think there could have been some ridiculously great dragon concepts; look at 2e's Steel Dragon, which loved integrating with humanoid societies but had to re-dragon once a month to snack.

Vermin I generally get annoyed with, just because there's a limit to what is really a vermin, I feel. Maybe because I first read a monster creation guide back when Beast and Shapechanger were types...

As for animals... I always thought that some sort of enormous crane would be a great Pokémon so I kind of liked Tribble's thought there. But again, at some point I feel it stops being an animal and starts being a magical beast.

Giant, like I said, would just be somewhat puzzling without allowing it to alter self or what have you; same applies to many possible monstrous humanoids, unless you're going the vermin lord route. It's by no means impossible, but unless you want to go the disguise route it probably ends up covering territory that's been trod time and again. That's what I was really referring to; you look at "monstrous" and it implies "doesn't look like it would pass aboveground."

[Lappy9000]

I was surprised how many fey ended up being in this competition. I was actually expecting more constructs and elementals, but that may be because that was gonna be my plan before the idea fell through.

[afroakuma]

You expected elementals? I personally found that to be a surprise. Welcome one, though.

As for the fey, well, they're not getting any love. Serves us right for not going the construct route.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Just to let you all know the next contest is likely going to be a few days late. Currently without a personal comp, but hopefully get it back soon.

As a taste of what's to come...

[Vaynor]

Ooh, can't wait.

[Lappy9000]

Yee! Just in time for Halloween too, hip-horray!
(I imagine that was intended)

[Bhu]

Hmm....might be a tuff one for me. I almost always do undead as templates

[DracoDei]

Favor that too, most of them they make much more sense that way. Note that I can't say I actually DO it because my major theme in undead is something that usually breaks that rule (since for most purposes, a stomach is a stomach is a stomach). In any case the contest will probably be written to allow more creative interpretation than that... I suspect incorporeal fae may be your best choice... but without seeing the specifics of the rules I can't be sure.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

New contest is up

[Owrtho]

Gah, that picture makes me want to post the idea it gives me for a monster. Dangit, I was hoping to avoid doing any contests for awhile (not to mention I'm not particularly good with statting monsters). Ah well, I better get to work on it...

Owrtho

[DracoDei]

Well, before the official thread was up, I was already working on my "Free Spirit". Basically an Outsider that just wants to observe new and interesting things and is purpose-made to be able to do so, with a host of immunities, senses to make a dragon jealous, at-will Plane Shift and Teleport, Greater, and flight speed of 500(Perfect).

My only real worry is that this is certainly something that ignores walls and other barriers... but it isn't "spooky" per se... do people think it might tend to lose votes because of that? I may go ahead and enter it anyway if I don't come up with something even better, and think I can finish both of them in a reasonable period of time (I am leaving too many projects unfinished of late).

[Owrtho]

Well I posted the spirit gate. In general its a sencient gate between the material and ethreal planes made out of spirits. It is also able to have the spirits making it fracture off to defend it or steel the souls of others to be converted into more spirits to make it up. Also it was based entirely off the picture in the first post.

Owrtho

[Vaynor]

Entry is up. And yes, it is a good-aligned undead.

[DracoDei]

Have you considered the Deathless type instead of the Undead type?

[Vaynor]

Have you considered the Deathless type instead of the Undead type?

Don't know what that is, but I don't think it'd work, it is undead. (unless deathless means good-aligned undead )

[RTGoodman]

Don't know what that is, but I don't think it'd work, it is undead. (unless deathless means good-aligned undead )

Yeah, that's pretty much what it is. It's in the Book of Exalted Deeds and I think was reprinted in a couple other places.

[The Rose Dragon]

Deathless does not mean "good undead", but "unliving animated by positive energy". Just like undead can be good without being deathless, so can deathless be evil without being undead. They are just very rare.

[Bhu]

COuple questions:

DOes the critter have to be permanently incorporeal? i.e. can they become solid under limited circumstances?

Can I do something for d20 Cthulhu for this? I had a Minor Old One in mind as a possibility.

[Owrtho]

hmmm. You wouldn't happen to be talking about the creatures from "From Beyond" would you? They certainly would seem to fit the contest well. But then I didn't think they were minor old ones. Oh well.

Owrtho

[Lappy9000]

Hey Owrtho, you really need to use a spell check on your entry. Normally, I would have done the work for you, but the program crashed 3 times when I was trying to fix everything.

That's probably not a good sign

[Vaynor]

Hmm, well, I don't have that supplement. So I think I'm just going to leave it as an undead brought back by positive energy.

[Lappy9000]

Hmm, well, I don't have that supplement. So I think I'm just going to leave it as an undead brought back by positive energy.

That probably implied that you're not interested, but the only difference is that they can be turned by evil clerics, rebuked and commanded by good clerics, and healed by positive energy. Everything else is the same.

[Owrtho]

Hey Owrtho, you really need to use a spell check on your entry. Normally, I would have done the work for you, but the program crashed 3 times when I was trying to fix everything.

That's probably not a good sign

Didn't crash for me... But yeah, thats probably cuz I didn't have access to a spell checker when I made it. Anyways, it's fixed now. Didn't seem to be any major errors anyways.

Owrtho

[Lappy9000]

Didn't crash for me... But yeah, thats probably cuz I didn't have access to a spell checker when I made it. Anyways, it's fixed now. Didn't seem to be any major errors anyways.

Owrtho

Dunno. It was kind of funny, actually. I'd hace about half done on Microsoft Word before the dang thing would freeze and 'Recover' the program after. Note that the recovery was just what I had copied/pasted from the boards, with none of the editing

[Owrtho]

Kinda strange. Maybe your word was just having trouble.

Owrtho

[Vaynor]

That probably implied that you're not interested, but the only difference is that they can be turned by evil clerics, rebuked and commanded by good clerics, and healed by positive energy. Everything else is the same.

Well I mention that almost exactly in the "Special" section next to their special abilities. I think it's fine as is.

[DracoDei]

VT gave a link to where you can find information about Deathless in the "Hearth and Home" era on this very same thread.

[Syne]

Can I submit templates to the contest?

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Can I submit templates to the contest?

You can submit a template as an addendum as it were to your entry. For example if your creature can turn other creatures into things you could add a template to the entry, but no templates as the actual entry. Have to have a unique, singular creature.

Might have a contest in the future though for only templates.