Monster Entries Inspired by Dragonbane

As I compile information for my fantasy setting into a document for tabletop use, I find inspiration in the Dragonbane Bestiary entries. Instead of merely listing stats and descriptions for each monster, I'm incorporating quotes from in-game characters about the monsters. My rough drafts for each monster in the setting are ready, but I'm considering adding multiple quotes to some entries to showcase diverse experiences. Not all encounters must escalate to combat; alternative perspectives can illustrate positive interactions. Perhaps a character has negotiated a trade or received unexpected aid from a creature. Below are some examples of what I've compiled.

Graxian Cultists
  "The offers of peace and unity from the Graxian Cultists are seductive lies. Their peace comes from fear and intimidation. Their unity comes from blind obedience to the tenets of their dark lord. They offer a life bound to service of the world snake – not to convert followers but to CONQUER! Be mindful and wary of these charlatans. Do not entertain their offers and stray from the true faith. It will cost you everything - up to and including your very soul!” - Thomas Salinas, High Priest Church of the One God

Slarn
"I’ve never seen one, but my uncle has – I KNOW they’re real! It wasn’t in this small town. He was in the capital on a job and worked with one of them. He says they’re like us – not really like us but if a lizard looked like us. They walk like us and talk like us but don’t wear armor because their skin is tough as steel. He even shared a meal with one of them. We don’t see many of them because they keep to their own places mostly. Even more so than the Elves. At least that’s what my uncle said.”- Serafina Ericson, young local girl (gossiping with her friends)

Goatrils
“Pa says they ain’t all bad – he even trades wit’ some uv ‘em from time to time. He says they look scary at first but ya get used t’seein’ their goat heads un fur the more ya see ‘em. Out here ‘way from the big city ya have t’ trade wit’ those ya can. We don’t have the lux’ry uv nearby merchants. Pa also says t’ stick t’ the one ya trust. Some uv 'em ARE jus’ as foul as they look.”- Abby May, rural girl (talking to a friend)

The three quotes will exemplify my goal. Currently, I have created about 10 monsters, but I aim to design 20 to 30 by the time I complete all the entries. I'm undecided whether to use Delving Deeper for the actual statistics or another system.  

Do you incorporate similar elements in your games? How do you approach it differently?

2024 is Going Fast...

Between work and other life demands, this year is going by so quickly.  I aimed for a weekly posting this year, but I haven't been able to maintain that with any regularity so far. In fact, I completely missed the month of July so consider this post a bit of catch up around here. 

I finished reading The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee yesterday. I really enjoyed this epic fantasy novel.  I took a chance on this previously unread author just from his YouTube videos.  I'm ordering the next two books in the series and will continue reading. This brings my total reading for 2024 up to five out of a goal of eight, so I still have plenty of time to reach my goal. 

I started reading Night Shift by Stephen King.  It wasn't on my planned reading list for this year, but I bought it when I saw at the bookstore.  There were two main reasons for purchasing and reading this book now. First, 'Salem's Lot if probably my favorite King tale and this book has two stories related to it - one being a prequel and one being a sequel.  Second, this book is a collection of short stories, and I believe it is an underappreciated storytelling form.

I still owe several posts about the Cha'alt trilogy from the kickstarter.  I went all in, and I've found the books interesting and entertaining.  I just need to make time to post about them.  I also picked up the Dragonbane boxed set, Bestiary, and some accessories. I really dig this game, and it has served as inspiration on some of my own stuff. 

I have a few creative projects underway as well.  I've assembled some guidelines for alternate layout system for detailing characters and monsters in many of the old school style games.  It's not really hard rules but just some statistics and guidelines for use in a generic sort of way rather than tied to a specific game system. Yes, it's been done by others several - many? - times before but it's just something I wanted to experiment with and see what developed.  I'm also assembling all of my house rules and world information into my own old school style supplement.  Of course, there is no hard and fast timeline for this, but it will show up sometime.

June 2024 in a Nutshell

This month has been somewhat of a wash.  Early in the month, a tornado passed through this area.  Tornadoes are a pretty common occurrence here in Oklahoma, so it seemed like this would be a case of "another storm, another alert".  When the sirens sounded, I tried looking out of my window, but all I could see was total darkness. The nearby transformer blew, and I could hear metal dinging that I thought was a neighbor's shed flexing in the storm. We did our best to take cover in the house and ride it out until the morning.  Eventually, my son and I dozed off at some point in the night.

When I woke up the next morning, I realized how close the tornado had been.  The metal clanging I heard was a neighbor's barn scattered around my backyard.  A tree had also split and fell on the privacy fence on the west side of the lawn, so the fence came down between that and the high winds that were coming off the tornado. The craziest thing I saw was a piece of my fence that had been blown around and then forced into the ground.  I would let it stay for a few days just to see how long it would stay.  A week later, I pulled it out of the ground and a solid foot of that board had been shoved into the ground.  It wasn't easy to get out and took several minutes of pushing and pulling that board back and forth to get it out. 

We were without power that morning and remained so for the next ten days.  Most of the town was without power but it was slowly restored during this time.  We were fortunate that we had a place to stay with power after the first 3 days due to a friend on the other end of town getting their power back.  I discovered we were only 6 blocks away from the main path of the tornado, but it did zig and zag around so that's why all the damage occurred nearby.  Fortunately, our house wasn't damaged at all.  I'm very thankful for that.

I did get a little reading done this month after everything calmed down.  I'm almost 50% complete with The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee.  I am confident that I will buy the other two books in this trilogy because I'm digging the story and I want to see how it ends.  More to come on that.

Something else I will cover in a future post is the Dragonbane game. I bought the boxed set and was so impressed that I went back a few days later and bought the Bestiary and the Monster Standees as well.  this game has really captured my attention and I plan on buying the supplements and expansions as they are released.  More to come on this also.  

What about you?  Have you been impacted by a tornado or some other natural disaster?  What are you playing?  What are you reading?