GITP Monster Competition XIV Voting Thread (CLOSED)

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Voting For Gratuitous Gore



The contest has ended and voting begun. See the entries below to vote for your choice.
(Note: As the poll option is still down just post your choice in this thread.)

Like all the GITP Monster Competitions, voting is open to any and all.

Voting will end on Midnight of Halloween night (EST).

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List of Horrors

Blood Ooze
Butchery Golem
Cruor Skeleton
Empress of Rot
Gorshk
Gut Snake
Headhunter
Sentient Tumor
Skin Spiders
Slaughterfreak
Sycophantic Specter
Tosurak
Vascula
Violence

[Thunderbuckets]

My (slightly biased) vote is for the Headhunter, created by Kellus. Gory, creepy, icky, and I helped him design it. Only in the conception phase though. Skin Spiders were a close second.

[littlechicory]

Put my vote down for Skin Spiders.

[The Glyphstone]

My first (not so slightly biased) vote would be for my own Butchery Golem. If it's tacky to vote for your own thing, though, I'd choose the Slaughterfreak.

[BisectedBrioche]

My vote goes to the Headhunter.

[osyluth]

definitly the sentient tumor

[Dallas-Dakota]

(just a notice, with headhunter, how'd MITD would have pounced Miko out of the tower so hard with a strength of 6?)

[The Glyphstone]

..what? What does the MITD have to do with Headhunters?

[Kellus]

..what? What does the MITD have to do with Headhunters?

Absolutely nothing.

Incidentally, I'll cast my vote for the Skin Spiders. I wouldn't feel right voting for my own entry in something like this.

[LotharBot]

I'm putting in a somewhat biased vote for my wife's Skin Spiders. Second place is the Gorshk, with the Headhunter in third.

[Yo_Landa]

I've also got a slightly biased vote for the Headhunter. I like the picture.

...mostly 'cause I drew it.

[oloknotwise]

The headhunter gives me nightmares, so it gets my vote.

[Jaerc]

My uttery biased vote goes to the Empress of Rot.

If one cannot vote for one's own work; I'll gladly throw my hat in for the Headhunter.

[Kai-Palin]

I'm voting for the Vascula.
For a second choice, I'd have to go with the Skin Spiders. My ideal was a creepy, disgusting enemy/monster that could be commonly found, so despite the awesomeness of the Empress of Rot, I prefer the idea of a plague of skin spiders.

[Maerok]

Hehe, I'd have to go for Tosurak. :D

[Kyace]

I vote for the Slaughterfreak.[/bump]

[Skelengar]

The headhunter is really cool, but i can't resist massive acts of violence. Thus, I vote for violence.

both will probably end up in my campaign.

Edit: after reading the breakdown below, I have decided that I agree with his analysis, and while I like Violence better, The headhunter fits with the theme better, and thus it gets my vote (if I can change votes).

[Dove]

My vote is for: Headhunter

Full breakout.

I scored monsters in each of five different categories.
Cool concept: Scary, interesting, engages the imagination.
Gory concept: Disgusting, vile, gory, makes our bile rise. 8 = Nightmare-quality monster.
Clean execution: Mechanics cleanly and simply represent a core concept. 8 = No complaints or cruft. Higher scores require clever integration of core concept into simple rules.
Tactically Novel: Functions as a unique, new, and interesting gameplay element. 8 = MM3 quality.
Playable:Well thought out, easy to run, well statted out, balanced. 8 = Can run cleanly as is. Higher means bonus material, tactics, etc. provided.

Each category is on a scale of 1 - 10. Here are the results:

Skin Spiders (43)
Cool concept: 8
Gory concept: 9
Clean execution: 9
Tactically novel: 8
Playable: 9
Final Comment: I don't want to praise my own work too much, but I think these little bugsies are both scary and tactically interesting. I'm really proud.

Headhunter (43)
Cool concept: 8
Gory concept: 8
Clean execution: 8
Tactically novel: 9
Playable: 10
Final Comment: This is a brilliant and really well thought out monster. There's enough here to establish them well in a dungeon and gaming ecology, and the visuals are terrifying and top notch. My only real beef is . . . aren't these things straight out of Half Life?

Gorshk (41)
Cool concept: 8
Gory concept: 8
Clean execution: 8
Tactically novel: 8
Playable: 9
Final Comment: The lore on these monsters is simply wonderful, and they themselves are absurdly disgusting.

Empress of Rot (41)
Cool concept: 8
Gory concept: 7
Clean execution: 9
Tactically novel: 8
Playable: 9
Final Comment: Simply magnificent. Wonderfully enchanting yet vile concept; very well executed. The abilities are poetic, and I particularly like the death condition. Great boss. Probably will appear in a campaign of mine sometime. Sheer awesomeness.

Tosurak (36)
Cool concept: 6
Gory concept: 7
Clean execution: 8
Tactically novel: 7
Playable: 8
Final Comment: Wonderful B-movie quality to these monsters—over the top blood and guts, together with a lot of interesting slightly-ranged melee abilities. A solid and interesting monster.

Cruor Skeleton (34)
Cool concept: 7
Gory concept: 7
Clean execution: 6
Tactically novel: 7
Playable: 7
Final Comment: I really like this monster. I think he looks cool, has some interesting abilities to bring to the table, and is generally memorable.


Blood Ooze (33)
Cool concept: 6
Gory concept: 6
Clean execution: 8
Tactically novel: 6
Playable: 7
Final Comment: Coherent, if simple. The resizing is neat, but too slow to be combat relevant. Solid idea.


Butchery Golem (33)
Cool concept: 6
Gory concept: 5
Clean execution: 8
Tactically novel: 6
Playable: 8
Final Comment: Clean concept. I like the random wounds as fluff and a random thing.


Gut Snakes (33)
Cool concept: 5
Gory concept: 6
Clean execution: 8
Tactically novel: 6
Playable: 8
Final Comment: These are cute and entertaining in a way nothing else in the competition is. They are an amusing and memorable monster, easily worth a few laughs at the table.

Violence (33)
Cool concept: 7
Gory concept: 4
Clean execution: 8
Tactically novel: 6
Playable: 8
Final Comment: This is a really cool big boss monster, with lots of sweet heavy melee abilities. Unfortunately, I just don't feel that he fits the theme of the contest well.


Slaughterfreak (32)
Cool concept: 6
Gory concept: 6
Clean execution: 7
Tactically novel: 7
Playable: 6
Final Comment: The frankenstein look of these beasts would be a sight to behold, and the modular monster approach is interesting—though perhaps a lot of work for the DM.


Sycophantic Specter (31)
Cool concept: 7
Gory concept: 5
Clean execution: 7
Tactically novel: 7
Playable: 5
Final Comment: Perfect Halloween monster. Not for the monster itself (it's not that scary), but for its effect on an area. If one is running a creepy campaign, a graveyard infested with these would allow the DM to run wild with creepy imagery. Most promising/underrated monster in the competition. My favorite underdog.

Vascula (30)
Cool concept: 6
Gory concept: 6
Clean execution: 6
Tactically novel: 5
Playable: 7
Final Comment: Interesting visuals and tactics. I liked the barbed veins and grappling, and find the way it moves creepy. Like a smaller version of the Cruor Skeleton.

Sentient Tumor (24)
Cool concept: 5
Gory concept: 6
Clean execution: 4
Tactically novel: 5
Playable: 4
Final Comment: The concept here shows promise, but struggles under the weight of many loosely related abilities. This monster could use some direction and focus.

[DracoDei]

I am STILL trying to figure out which entry to vote for.

I have to agree that the Sycophantic Specter looses out of the contest for being TOO high quality... we were asked for a mindless (or not so mindless...) bloodbath and he gives us a monster made for a slow build of the creepy factor that could easily be worthy of Stephen King (the books not any movie...) in the hands of the right DM... I nominate that one for a special prize! Seriously!


Oh, and Dove: THANK YOU for the breakdown of the entries... that sort of feedback is what allows a homebrewer to hone her/his craft!

That having been said:

These are cute and entertaining in a way nothing else in the competition is. They are an amusing and memorable monster, easily worth a few laughs at the table.

"cute"? "amusing"? "easily worth a few laughs"?
Even with "...in a way nothing else in the competition is." and "memorable" that shows that I may have a long way to go in my abilities to evoke a given mood with my descriptions (the tone I took with the introductory dialog may have been an especially poor choice for fitting them into the contest theme one)... but at least you are saying that I have some decent core concepts and a good grasp of making everything flow together (8's in Playability and Clean Execution). I guess it would have been hard to pull anything higher than those with a mindless undead! (Even if I DID list having them used as whips or spiked chains... which is INTERESTING perhaps... but not terribly EFFECTIVE...)

[Vrel]

I vote for the headhunter.

Used them and the skin spiders in my game several days back.. headhunter has a ton of flavor and is very versatile. My players loved it and so did i.

[Dove]

Oh, and Dove: THANK YOU for the breakdown of the entries... that sort of feedback is what allows a homebrewer to hone her/his craft!

That having been said:

"cute"? "amusing"? "easily worth a few laughs"?

Well, bear in mind that even with an analytic approach, this stuff is all subjective. I thought they were more funny than scary; explosive pooping definitely extreme "ha ha" material for my group, and zombies--while scary and gross--aren't too terrifying. (Other entries whose "gory" derived from zombie/animated body parts also didn't score high for me.) I guarantee if I ran these, it'd be poop jokes for 30 minutes straight.

But reactions vary. The guy who responded to the original thread said of your entry, "Dude, you really take hte scary gross thing to hte max don't you, great job."

'tis a matter of taste.

[LotharBot]

I vote for the headhunter.

Used them and the skin spiders in my game several days back.. headhunter has a ton of flavor and is very versatile. My players loved it and so did i.

How'd the Skin Spiders play? What was the setup?

explosive pooping definitely extreme "ha ha" material for my group.... if I ran these, it'd be poop jokes for 30 minutes straight.

I can vouch for the truth of that statement. This is, after all, the group that created "Filthy Ike", and IIRC has defiled evil altars with all manner of *ahem* organic waste products. Poop seems to move from "icky gross" to "funny gross" once you've changed enough diapers.

-----

I'm seriously considering replacing my not-so-clever BBEG with the Empress of Rot in my current epic (22) game. If I do, I'll make sure to post how it went. Looks like it'll be difficult to run, but then, most epic encounters are!

[DracoDei]

Ah, thank you, good point. That makes me feel better.

[Jaerc]

Dove. I really like your criteria and critique style. If you do end up using the Empress let me know how it goes. As a personal question (please feel free to PM me), would you be willing to go in-depth on your idea of "gory concept"?

Kai-Palin, thank you for your acknowledgment.

LotharBot, I look forward to hearing how it goes. One note; the Empress should actually be easier to run than most Epic monsters, as each of it's Aspects are none-to-complicated and you only have to deal with one at a time.

[Arakune]

Violence

He so spell Jason.

[Fax Celestis]

My vote goes to the Skin Spiders. I do love an elegant, inventive mechanic such as the inclusion of "skin HP".

[Enzario]

The Headhunter is just too full of awesome to garner anything but my top vote. I love springing stuff like this on PCs (like the intellect devourer), and this makes that all the more fun.

[Kellus]

Just wanted to say, that's a really nice critiquing method, Dove! I love getting helpful feedback like that!

I'm afraid I've never played Half-Life. I should get one of those little disclaimer thingies saying something like "any resemblance to head-eating tentacled monstrosities, real or fictional, is entirely coincidental".

[Nelphine]

heh Kellus, i didn't even think of the half-life monster. i thought of the vargouille from the fiend folio (or possible the mm 2) from 1st ed AD&D

incidentally, I too much appreciated the critique by dove, and my vote goes to the Skin Spider (those little guys are just creepy) and my own Gorshk.

[BisectedBrioche]

The HH didn't make me think of headcrabs at all. Plus they don't really eat their host's head as much as perch on it.