Author Topic: Turning every day monsters into Eldritch Abominations.  (Read 2015 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

kurashu

  • Donkey Kong
  • ****
  • Posts: 719
  • K?
    • Androgynous Moose Hippy
    • Email
Turning every day monsters into Eldritch Abominations.
« on: February 02, 2010, 03:28:23 AM »
Inspired by the current run of Dungeoncraft articles -- about Greenbrier Chasm and all that mess.

How would you go about transforming every day monsters into horrible, twisted Lovecraftian beasts -- other than just slapdash adding some tentacles.

Somethings I've thought of:
  • Add the splitting ability to some creatures -- how do I make this horrific and not cartoony?
  • Add unusual abilities to the creature -- a slam that deals acid damage, a fear aura that penetrates even fear immunity, et cetera
  • Describe abilities in an unusual way -- i.e. a creature immune to slashing weapons, it's body hinges and opens up to avoid the attack
  • Changing how a creature is described -- using words like squamous, gibbous, loathsome, et cetera. This needs more, though.

What's some other ways?

kurashu

  • Donkey Kong
  • ****
  • Posts: 719
  • K?
    • Androgynous Moose Hippy
    • Email
Re: Turning every day monsters into Eldritch Abominations.
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2010, 12:07:24 AM »
*crickets*

Anything?

veekie

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 9034
  • WARNING: Homing Miko
Re: Turning every day monsters into Eldritch Abominations.
« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2010, 05:25:53 AM »
Mind affecting assaults are one way to go, especially gaze attacks.
The mind transcends the body.
It's also a little cold because of that.
Please get it a blanket.

I wish I could read your mind,
I can barely read mine.

"Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. At 2:15, it begins rolling up characters."

[spoiler]
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
-Ibuki Suika, on overkill

To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon.
Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei.
Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.
Khiliarkhou Astrape!
[/spoiler]

There is no higher price than 'free'.

"I won't die. I've been ordered not to die."

Prime32

  • Administrator
  • Organ Grinder
  • *
  • Posts: 7534
  • Modding since 03/12/10
Re: Turning every day monsters into Eldritch Abominations.
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2010, 11:49:36 AM »
Add the splitting ability to some creatures -- how do I make this horrific and not cartoony?
It doesn't regrow in the same way - if you cut off an arm, the wound sprouts screaming faces which fuse and meld into each other, then their tongues become spider legs. Its original body atrophies as it crawls around on them.
My work
The tier system in a nutshell:
[spoiler]Tier 6: A cartographer.
Tier 5: An expert cartographer or a decent marksman.
Tier 4: An expert marksman.
Tier 3: An expert marksman, cartographer and chef who can tie strong knots and is trained in hostage negotiation or a marksman so good he can shoot down every bullet fired by a minigun while armed with a rusted single-shot pistol that veers to the left.
Tier 2: Someone with teleportation, mind control, time manipulation, intangibility, the ability to turn into an exact duplicate of anything, or the ability to see into the future with perfect accuracy.
Tier 1: Someone with teleportation, mind control, time manipulation, intangibility, the ability to turn into an exact duplicate of anything and the ability to see into the future with perfect accuracy.[/spoiler]

PhaedrusXY

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 8022
  • Advanced Spambot
Re: Turning every day monsters into Eldritch Abominations.
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2010, 12:03:12 PM »
Ever seen The Thing? There are a LOT of good ideas to be mined from there. Give "the creature" the ability to absorb another creature, imitate creatures it has absorbed, and split itself after consuming a certain number of other creatures (maybe every time?). Just use the stats of the imitated creatures, but add a few weird things that can give you clues as to their alien nature, and then maybe have them sprout tentacles when they're injured and know the charade is over.
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]

kurashu

  • Donkey Kong
  • ****
  • Posts: 719
  • K?
    • Androgynous Moose Hippy
    • Email
Re: Turning every day monsters into Eldritch Abominations.
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2010, 01:37:47 AM »
Add the splitting ability to some creatures -- how do I make this horrific and not cartoony?
It doesn't regrow in the same way - if you cut off an arm, the wound sprouts screaming faces which fuse and meld into each other, then their tongues become spider legs. Its original body atrophies as it crawls around on them.

Ew. Sounds awesome.

Ever seen The Thing?

No, I'll have to rent it. Sounds like what I'm looking for, too.

veekie

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 9034
  • WARNING: Homing Miko
Re: Turning every day monsters into Eldritch Abominations.
« Reply #6 on: February 05, 2010, 02:19:04 AM »
One other way is for the creature to create 'Spawn of' subcreatures when wounded, so they aren't just fighting 2 of the same thing, the body part has it's own quirks and abilities.
The mind transcends the body.
It's also a little cold because of that.
Please get it a blanket.

I wish I could read your mind,
I can barely read mine.

"Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. At 2:15, it begins rolling up characters."

[spoiler]
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
-Ibuki Suika, on overkill

To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon.
Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei.
Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.
Khiliarkhou Astrape!
[/spoiler]

There is no higher price than 'free'.

"I won't die. I've been ordered not to die."

kurashu

  • Donkey Kong
  • ****
  • Posts: 719
  • K?
    • Androgynous Moose Hippy
    • Email
Re: Turning every day monsters into Eldritch Abominations.
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2010, 11:32:51 PM »
Good call on both of those thing -- spawn and gaze attacks.

I could do splitting for creatures commonly encountered and then create "Spawn Of X" for more powerful creatures or creatures encountered less often.

veekie

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 9034
  • WARNING: Homing Miko
Re: Turning every day monsters into Eldritch Abominations.
« Reply #8 on: February 06, 2010, 12:02:05 AM »
Heh, just imagined a big, regenerating monster which creates [body part] spawn when injured. And the spawn in turn have an ability that turns them into a swarm when they are killed.
The mind transcends the body.
It's also a little cold because of that.
Please get it a blanket.

I wish I could read your mind,
I can barely read mine.

"Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. At 2:15, it begins rolling up characters."

[spoiler]
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
-Ibuki Suika, on overkill

To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon.
Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei.
Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.
Khiliarkhou Astrape!
[/spoiler]

There is no higher price than 'free'.

"I won't die. I've been ordered not to die."

altpersona

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 2939
  • BG forum Emperor Ad Litem
    • Altpersona.net
Re: Turning every day monsters into Eldritch Abominations.
« Reply #9 on: February 06, 2010, 12:52:32 AM »
i saw this movie once...
The goal of power is power. - idk
We are not descended from fearful men. - Murrow

The Final Countdown is now stuck in your head.

Anim-manga sux.