Special thanks to Spwack for the generator generator here: https://slightadjustments.blogspot.com/p/generator.html
Click the button below for a monster of your very own:
Special thanks to Spwack for the generator generator here: https://slightadjustments.blogspot.com/p/generator.html
Click the button below for a monster of your very own:
"This monster is called Kronbo's Breaker.
ReplyDeleteIt is the child of Tragedy and Treachery.
Its form is that of a vulture with legs that taper to spikes instead of feet, a body marred by extensive scarring, and a spaded tail.
This monster can return from death unless cut into five pieces, each of which must be cast into a different river, but during the new moon it's shrunken into a harmless critter.
It is most infamous for ruling a fallen city-state as its ravenous despot."
Your generators have a way of spitting out excellence on the first click. The child of Tragedy and Treachery is a cool line!
This feels evocative of things like the LotFP Summon Spell or the Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Monster Generator, but notably of course more mythic.
ReplyDeleteIt's in the Child Of and Infamy sections- the former especially because of how the mythic monsters are children of mostly abstract concepts, which in tandem with all the others, lends itself to a kind of abstraction, symbolism, and liminality.
Often when people attempt to create these things, they either don't give enough thought at all to those sorts of things and default to uninspired tropes, or they overthink it and still end up just boxing themselves in.
The attempt to find some kind of coherent pattern or meaning in these, even when it is necessarily true that none exists, they are randomly generated, can easily yield interesting results.
One could easily build a whole cosmology just from those spurious connections, the self-induced psychosis of your mythic monsters.
I like the results:
ReplyDeleteThis monster is called The Shade of Anonaus.
It is the child of War and Plague.
Its form is that of a man with skin made of bronze, eyes that flash like lightning, and a lumpy, asymmetric skull.
It can breath out a wave of diseased blood, but it must ask permission before crossing a river. It is most infamous for reducing a once-verdant region to wasteland
These tables are amazing - a few folks have said it already but I'd like to add my voice to theirs, it's really evocative and excellent. I rolled up a couple here are some of my favorite little combos:
ReplyDelete"It is the child of Strife and Torment. It can become invisible, but can't cross a line of its victims tears."
"It is the child of Hunger and Vengeance. Its form is that of a monkey with eyes that flash like lightning, a body covered in thick warts, and a spaded tail. This monster can inject a poison that muddles the mind, but it can't resist trying to kill singing birds."
Just lovely!
Wonderful, really wonderful!
ReplyDelete