Monsters - A Dark Modern Game

[Fragmaster01]

So, my brain gave me an odd idea for a setting(it shouldn't do that. It needs things to eat, and it'll never grow up big if it gives all its ideas away). Not too ponderous on the system yet, but I wanted to throw the idea around, and see what sticks on people's heads.

Monsters - "You Shouldn't have Done That"

Outset The time is now. Now as in the modern world, not as in while you're typing. That would be odd. The place is wherever the DM decides(so fickle), but presumably a large city of some sort. You are a person, despite all odds. Not irredeemably crazy, but possibly a little nuts in the head. This is because, either from wanting to do it, being caught up in a fit of passion, or just sheer accident: you have done a Crime and/or Bad Thing. Did you murder someone? Steal lots of shiny things? Kidnap a child to keep them safe from Scary Folk? Whatever prompted your little escapade, it seems to have caught up with you. Not in the law sense, you've gotten away pretty cleanly on that end. No, for whatever reason, you don't seem to exist anymore. Your house is missing a bedroom, and family members are busy beating your face in with rolling pins for breaking in. People don't believe in your ID, the bank account is mysteriously vanished... ...and you seem to be a monster. That's always really awkward at parties.

Wait, What? To be fair, it does come with cool monstery powers. Breathing fire out your nose and such. And the people wandering around, as filled with a sense of "You Aren't a Nice Person" as they are, don't seem to notice the claws or wings. You certainly never did, while you were a Normal Chap. Still, such things always come with downsides. You're now frighteningly good at That Crime you Did, and feel a compulsion to keep up the habit, despite the fact that this is bad for your non-monsterisms(or getting shot by the cops). Also, other monsters have apparently existed for longer than you have, and feel the need to manipulate you like Vampire games are going out of style. And in annoying RPG fashion, the cooler your Monster Powers are, the more awkward the drawbacks are as well(you do so miss opposable thumbs).

So What Now? Depends on the DM and the Game. Whatever usually happens in World of Darkness style games. Trying not to get eaten is always a good one. There are thoughts on how to make a monster. Aside from a smattering of sample ones, it'll come with things you can buy, which have Icky Points and Cool Points. Icky points are drawbacks, Cool Points are powers/abilities to use. A campaign would come with a required amount of Icky points, and a limit on Cool Points, with the difference between the two in what you've taken spent on skills and stats.   You are an odd monster, who has the ability to Take something from people. Years off their life, food out of their stomach, intelligence and wisdom from their brains... The problem is you're constantly venting it, and need to Take that from people. Like food, except vampiric. The worse it is for you to be without, the more Icky Points it is. Likewise, the cooler it is to steal it from someone else, the more Cool Points you have to spend. In this example, stealing time from people would be higher value than stealing food, as they could just eat more to refill.

Thoughts? Harsh criticisms? Amusing ideas to implement? Throw them at my face, that I might eat them, and grow fat.

[Mal Radagast]

First thought? I would love to see you collaborate with kingmonkey on this.

[Andrew Ryan]

I'd join such a game. Just got done watching Chronicle and that would be an excellent example. Granted they had no physical characteristics, but weren't very good at hiding it once it got super human.

I got this from 1d4chan about the grim derp of world of darkness. It could be almost like this but perhaps with D&D abilities and monster features.

Vampire: You're the bad guy. Your friends are also villains.
Werewolf: You're fighting a war, and you're losing.
Mage: You're fighting a war you already lost.
Wraith: You lost, you died, and trying to avoid a fate worse than death.
Changeling: You're fighting a war and nobody is taking you seriously.
Hunter: You're fighting a war and everyone's out to get you and bigger than you.
Mummy: You're immortal. ... that's it.
Genius: You're a mad scientist. Sometimes you forget that you're mad.


Ever heard of libris mortis? This would be a good place to start with icky versus cool. The compulsion to feed/spawn, versus the ability too. They have terms "not required", "diet dependent", and "inescapable craving". Ironically the inescapable craving ones are usually just the urge to do the bad things like knock down your strength score with a touch attack.

This could be both grim dark, and slapstick. Perhaps with a more gag alignment system. "Cruel", "Mean", "Ruthless", and there's another one which I know will get starred out, but essentially we can call it "ridiculous". In Kill Puppies For Satan, it's the DM's job to determine what more so constitutes one over the other act. I would personally think cruel and ruthless kind of overlapse 90% of the time. "Mean" can just be petty and immature, and crazy is well... stuff man was not meant to see or do.

I don't know if you had intended on playing the grim darkness for laughs or not. But I got that vibe and I'd be right onboard with that!

[kingmonkey]

Not much time to post at this moment, but I suggest you take a quick look at White Wolf's book Freak Legion (actually by a subsidiary called Black Dog). It deals with almost this precise concept.

I'll give you more feedback later.

[Fragmaster01]

Originally Posted by Andrew Ryan

I don't know if you had intended on playing the grim darkness for laughs or not. But I got that vibe and I'd be right onboard with that!

My writing style tends towards one of silliness and willing lack of sanity(more fun that way). Obviously, it would vary by the DM, and could go either way.

Originally Posted by Andrew Ryan

Perhaps with a more gag alignment system. "Cruel", "Mean", "Ruthless", and there's another one which I know will get starred out, but essentially we can call it "ridiculous".

DM: "You have cut off someone in traffic for no reason other than 'it was fun'. Your alignment has shifted slightly towards Buttface."

[Fragmaster01]

TvTropes does not inform me of Freak Legion. I shall have to find Other Methods of research(alas).

 

Everyone's Mad Here: Turns out those feelings about the world being screwy were correct all along. Monsters all have their own idiosyncrasies, and it's really hard to make a riddle loving sphinx get along with face-smashing ogres. The monster society entirely revolves around trying to make what are essentially Kids with a New Toy get along, despite the fact they're all stark raving bonkers. Expect lots of slapstick and oddities. Best for DMs that are slightly loopy themselves.

Monster the Frightening: Everyone's magical here, and they've quickly realized that this gives them lots of leverage in a world that doesn't seem to notice their prowess. Ruling from the shadows is Fun, and you're the latest piece on the board. World of Darkness grimdark style, basically.

Brave New World: You're now magical, and the world awaits. While it's odd to discover that the local DJ is in fact a snake person, you're more concerned with the fact the DM is floating over your shoulder, ensuring that you're a weirdness magnet. Urban Fantasy sort of fare, with a bit of high power eldritch oddness. Cthulu, except you're one of the creepy things.

 

Meet Rynn, the sphinxoid. He's got a catbutt and catarms, along with odd ears and wings. He enjoys riddles, romps in the park, and occasional puppies to eat(it's an acquired taste). Slight magical prowess, but otherwise boring.

Name	Icky Points	Cool Points	Desc
Wings	2	3	Can fly, but makes equipment awkward.
Senses	0	2	Sniffles and good eyesight. Gosh.
Compulsion(Riddles)	2	0	Will saves to prevent playing riddle games with his food.
Magic(Movement 1)	0	3	Level 1 Telekinesisy magic. Whoosh!

In this case, our sphinxoid would have 4 icky points and 8 cool points. If the game requires more ick, he'd need more flaws(probably by being a full sphinx, with quadrupedal ickiness). If it needs more or less cool, he could add or subtract from magical skill for easy point meddling.

Here's the part where you throw ideas at my face. I have many thoughts, but I'm sure you have more. Together, we can I call the Left Arm.merge to become Voltron.

[Fragmaster01]

Here is boredom, reporting to you live from That Little Spot Behind your Eyeballs. It's not very comfy here, but we felt the need to report Live from The Scene. Today, we bring you Racial Oddities.
The Centaur

 

The centaur(Kentaroi, slangily Horsebutts) are widely regarded as a bizarre looking Waste of Space by scholars of monsterology. This is because most of these people spend their time reading old mythical texts, and never actually meet such people. Centaur are honored members of monster society for a number of reasons:

1. They tend to make reasonable, if tradition minded, rulers: a lack of inbred racial hatreds makes them the monster equivalent of "That cool guy at the bar".
2. While unwilling to give piggyback rides, it's not entirely out of the question, which amuses the less sanity-minded races.
3. They kick really hard. No, seriously, many take up a form of martial art that involves learning magic to make sure they kick with more horsepower than most cars. They may not penetrate a dragon's hide, but they will knock him out of the park, which is mildly inconvenient in both location and spleen consistency.

Pros: Big and strong. Very fast, with nice kicking power. No serious magical weaknesses.
Cons: Not the best at turning in close quarters. They don't fit well in cars. No notable magical talents.
The Gremlin

 

The gremlins(Imps, slangily Midgets) are small(3.5 feet on average) demonic critters born from human thieves and scalawags. Monsterologists suggest that they are more of a semi-demon than an actual one(and further inquiry reveals they are more of a hemi-semi-demi-demon, but this is awkward to say in casual conversation). Regardless, they serve as the Small critters of monster society. Not physically powerful, but very deft and nimble, with a penchant for elemental magic and a frightening lack of self-control. More than one gremlin has fallen into bad situations by underestimating their new childlike inhibitions towards Crime and Good Times.

Pros: Hard to hit. Elemental magic is useful for lighting cigarettes.
Cons: Fragile and underwhelming. Hard to shop at most clothing stores. Self-control of a sugar-filled puppy.
The Bugbear

 

The bugbears(Shadowbears, slangily Molehands) are gangly jet-black bears with large mole-like claws on their hands and feet, and a paranoia inducing ability to fit into spaces They Should Not. They are the archetypical "monster under the bed", and many a night-time Secret Meeting has been disrupted by the sudden appearance of a bugbear's glowing eyes from inside a nearby shadow. While not all that notable in casting magic, their passive abilities make them helpful spies and scouty folk, despite their size, and they do pack a wallop.

Pros: Tough and strong. Sneaky, despite their size. Fantastic hiders.
Cons: Not overly magically powerful. Molehands make dexterous tasks a nightmare.
The Satyr

 

The Satyri(Satyroi, slangily Goats) are mostly humanoid, save for the whole goatlegs thing, along with the fuzzy ears and horns. Pre-disposed with even less of a sense of self preservation than the Gremlins, Satyri are out to have a good time, regardless of whether such things are actually a Good Idea. Their humanish shape makes them very easy to shop for, though they're not as impressive as most races because of it. Satyri have a varying physical appearance, with the most common subrace involving long rope-like tails with little tufts on the end(the better to drag them around by). They are by far the most likely race for children to turn into, due to their main "crime" involving spur-of-the-moment theft or general hooliganism.

Pros: Physically well built. Easy to shop for.
Cons: Lack of magical talent. Inhibitions are similar to being constantly drunk, without the woozyness.
The Naga

 

The Naga(Snakes, slangily Wigglesnakes) are snakefolk, with arms and hair. They tend to be quite long, certainly enough to use themselves as bendy furniture. They have a tendency to be oddly colored, and are quite poisonous(though what their teeth actually do depends on the personality and crime of the snake in question). Naga tend to focus on magical studies, and don't shoehorn themselves into any one school of magic(though enchantment and poison are common). Under no circumstances should you let a Naga hug you if you are not sure they like you. Even if they do like you, your ribs may suffer.

Pros: Very bendy. Magically skilled. Magnificent grapplers and biters.
Cons: Take up a bit of room. Jumping is a foreign concept. Often lazy.

[Caput]

Awesome.

Needs some really horrifying monsters though, even if they're just the odd ones out that the other monsters are vaguely worried by. I'm imagining people with smooth featureless heads, slippery anaemic skin, multiple forearms, extendible tentacles growing out of their back and a weird mindset where they can't comprehend morality and instead people and acts solely by some other metric, such as politeness, their own freakish standards of beauty, or how interesting they find them.

[Fragmaster01]

Gosh. I shall have to get to such things. I work through my picture archive first, though, and the nicer ones are up front.
The Zombie

 

The zombies(Undead, slangily "AAAAAGH!") are odd among monsters for not turning in the usual way. Rather than being monstery after some sort of crime or heinous act, they are instead marked as Future Zombies at that point in time. Should they die relatively soon(within a month) afterwords, they rise from the dead to join the monster club. Unlike most monsters, effects of their life are still on display for the human crowd... it's just that everyone Knows that you should be dead, even if they didn't hear about it first hand. They're quite resilient(lacking a sense of pain), and constantly regenerate back to the state they were in when they were dead(thus death-induced gaping wounds and such will have to be stitched up, but new holes will "heal" nicely).

Humans have an innate sense that Something is Wrong with a zombie, but won't actually know what it is barring some obvious display of undeadism(like being impaled with a lightpole and still "living"). Most hypothesize that it's the smell, as zombies(once given a bath) do not have any of the normal smells a human should have.

Pros: Absurdly resistant to damage. Easy to shop for.
Cons: Needs food, preferably of the humanitarian variety. Creeps people out.
The Jabberwock

 

The jabberwocky(wock, slangily Lizards) are far more monsterish than your usual monster. While some monsters have teeth that bite, or claws that snatch, or horns to ram you with, most don't have all three, tied together in a freakishly colored lizardine body. While they are considered humanoids, the sheer amount of pointy implements on their body, not to mention the twin tails and exceptionally lanky build common to most wocks ensure that they are hard to clothing shop for regardless. They're most commonly associated with murderers, a not unfair assumption given the ease at which they can repeat this process.

Pros: Full of sharp implements. No need for a mechanical can opener.
Cons: Not all that magically skilled. Odd body type. Too many teeth for a good first impression.

[Fragmaster01]

It's time for more monstery goodness! (badness?) Today we have more critters, as well as a discussion of Eldritch Locations.
The Sphinx

 

The sphinx(colloquially sphinxes, slangily Birdcats) are an odd breed of demi-human, resembling what some monsterologists snarkily refer to as a lion that tried to eat a human. They are humans with the forearms, lower legs, tail, and ears of a lion, along with bird wings just because mythology says so. They are prideful, intelligent creatures, known for a predisposition to telekinesis and logic-based magic, as well as odd compulsions for hoarding and playing with their food.

A more common subrace in modern years is the demi-sphinx, so born either from people with a strong attachment to their former humanity, or(more commonly) a sphinx who boinks a human and somehow has a kid that isn't horribly deformed. They resemble humanoid sphinxes, who have the benefit of thumbs, but also the requirement to go out and get pants, because society doesn't want to Some would argue we do, but the revulsion of seeing Fat People dangly parts outweighs the benefits of attractive people naked.look at people's dangly parts. The demi-sphinxes are noted as being not as magically powerful, but this is probably because they don't get as much practice with their telekinesis. (Why bother, when you have workable hands?)

Pros: Catlike physique. Can glide about. Magically skilled.
Sphinx Cons: Awkward quadrupedal posture. Tend to be kooky mentally, with odd leaps of logic. Riddle obsession.
Demi-Sphinx Cons: They're not fuzzy in the places where it'd matter(head, vital organs). Not as magical as their quadrupedal parents.
The Gargoyle

 

The gargoyle(gargoyles, slangily gargables) are bulky, semi-lizard-like winged humanoids, originally thought to be derived from the gargoyles placed on cathedrals to ward off demons. Nowadays, these guys don't have much in common with their statue kin, and indeed, don't even have to be a statue during the day. It's just more comfortable to sleep that way, we're told, and since gargoyles are nocturnal creatures...

While not noted for their magical prowess, they can fly around despite their weight, and they're certainly well built. It's impressively rare to find a gargoyle that isn't at least toned, if not firmly muscled, and a lack thereof generally suggests some sort of horrible illness or curse. They have wonderful darkvision, and make excellent security guards, due to their strong sense of loyalty and desire to protect things. Most people who are turned into gargoyles do so from committing a crime for a good purpose, or for someone else's benefit, and thus it's not uncommon to see a gargoyle as some crime-lord's number 2.

Pros: Big and strong. Capable of prolonged flight. Great darkvision.
Cons: Lack of notable magical talent. Intimidating to look at.

Eldritch Locations: The Demiplane
Demiplanes(slangily Retirement Homes) are places of magic created by powerful Monsters to suit their needs. They're formed out of a person's will of what they Desire to Be(generally shortened to Desire), as well as a bunch of magic and life-force stored over a few months/years. Some less scrupulous Monsters just steal the life force from helpless saps, but this tends to have odd corpses and souls lingering about your demiplane, which isn't to everyone's taste.

The most important rule about demiplanes is simple: Do not go into a demiplane that is not yours. Some expand this to the collaries: It's okay if they're not home, and It's okay if you're sure they like you, though these are generally considered to be Pushing It. The main reason for this, aside from the fact a person is most prepared to Do Mean Things to You in a place they call home, is that the demiplane runs on their say-so. The creator of such a place, if they are present, can change the rules as they see fit. These rule changes do affect them too, of course, but if they decide to make gravity point up, and they know how to fly when you do not...

Well, the words Chunky Salsa come to mind. Taking away the atmosphere when the creator is a zombie is another popular deathtrap. Basically, don't push your luck.

[Fragmaster01]

I will cover you in monstery folk soon enough. They just need pictures. For the record, here's what I have lined up:

Angels(of the monstery sort)
Demons
Goofolk(splorch)
Harpies
Mantids(Because praying mantis monsters would be terrifying. One of those things that isn't too scary until it's the size of everyone else on the street, and then you realize it has scythe-arms and such)

The only one I have a proper picture of is the Harpy. I don't recommend looking for goofolk pictures on the internet. Poeple have odd ideas about what porn should be. I'd add merfolk to the list, but they're basically just naga with fins and gills(in this setting, they're eely people, rather than sharkish or dolphinoids). No need for a separate entry.