At one point back in the 60s, the editor of DC comics had to make special guidelines to how often artists could put Apes on the cover of their comics, because it had come to be demonstrated that putting a gorilla on the cover automatically raised sales of the book.
So apparently, people really love anything with Gorillas in them. Intelligent gorillas, funny gorillas, good gorillas, evil gorillas, etc etc.
That leads me to think that what the RPG industry really needs is more Gorillas. The question is how to add them?
What can be done to add more Gorillas to D&D?
To Traveller?
To Vampire?
To Amber?
To any other RPG?
RPGPundit
PS: Forward... to Adventure! has a picture of a Gorilla in its "monster" section. I'm strongly considering recommending that Clash put a Gorilla on the cover of the upcoming FtA!GN! sourcebook, and any future edition of FtA!
In my post in the "what people ACTUALLY Play" thread, i mentioned the pulpy Four Color game we just started. My guy is "Professor Ape". I stole the idea from (i think) Baileywolf on TBP. He was talking about a character for Two-Fisted, and i couldn't get the concept out of my head.
basically a superman'ish background... chased out of the hollow earth by the saurians and his people decimated, his parents exited through a cooling fissure and entered the "Overworld" somewhere near St. Joseph, MO. They settled in a deserted farmhouse and his father developed the belief suspension device that would allow them to walk among the hairless apes. yadda yadda yadda, young high school ape becomes undergrad ape, leaving the farm and excelling at science and physics at ivy-league university.
with the aid of his superhuman intellect (dad kept lots of crystals that imparted the entire knowledge of his ancestors to him at puberty) he helps his new-found comrades fight the minions of Der Fuhrer during their early (and heretofore unknown) operations in the united states, stealing artifacts to power the growing nazi menace in Europe.
Pics: Ma & Pa Ape (http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/8964/mapaapern2.jpg) (with Pa in the ancestral Fez, since passed down by Ma to Prof. Ape when Pa died in the Prequel.)
Grad-School Ape @ MIT (http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/852/profapetelescopekj1.jpg)
Undegraduate Ape's weird experiments (http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/6997/profapeexperimentel3.jpg) made him somehwhat of an outsider at university
in closing: Apes make everything better. especially an Ape in a Fez. with superhuman intelligence.
Carniverous apes from ye olde monster manual are terrible foes. Make them intelligent and they would be even better...
Hell, Grodd them up with some psionics...
A clan of Gorilla Vampires? Worse yet, a dozen or so clans of Gorilla Vampires. That might be the only way to get my group to play vampire...
Four armed intelligent Gorillas from the 10th level of the abyss!
Quote from: RPGPunditWhat can be done to add more Gorillas to D&D?
To Traveller?
RPGPundit
The
GURPS version of
TRAVELLER has them. I believe its in the Solomani Rim book somewhere. They are either "uplifted" Apes and Gorillas or cyber-enhanced somehow.
- Ed C.
AT-43 is sporting some mind-bogglingly awesome uplifted gorillas in power armor. They would look awfully pretty on a Traveler table! :)
Quote from: SgtSpaceWizardCarniverous apes from ye olde monster manual are terrible foes. Make them intelligent and they would be even better...
This was exactly my thought. They wouldn't even have to be all that smart -- maybe just on a scale of 2d6 instead of the human 3d6. Wily, mean, carnivorous apes.
In
Traveller, uplifted apes. If the Ancients could have done it with the Vargr, why not gorillas? In fact, I seem to recall that the Suerrat, a Minor Race branch of humaniti, were described as looking much like orangutans.
!i!
Quote from: RPGPunditWhat can be done to add more Gorillas to D&D?
They're already there. And since Conan OGL is compatible with D&D 3.x, you can use the gorillas/apes prevalent in Conan's world too (since Conan loved fighting them).
Quote from: RPGPunditTo Traveller?
And alien race.
Quote from: RPGPunditTo Vampire?
A Gangrel bloodline or something out of the Skinchangers book.
Quote from: RPGPunditTo Amber?
Not familiar with the game but I bet McGyver could make them fit with some chewing gum, a toothpick, and a ball of string.
Quote from: RPGPunditTo any other RPG?
Hackmaster already has them and they're pretty nasty (and intelligent). I can see a Gorilla-looking worshipper of Khorne all decked out in bleeding plate armor for WFRP. Traveling circuses in Aces and Eights might have one and you know it'll escape long enough to fight the PCs or cause them some kind of grief.
-=Grim=-
Quote from: stu2000AT-43 is sporting some mind-bogglingly awesome uplifted gorillas in power armor. They would look awfully pretty on a Traveler table! :)
HEROSCAPE had an expansion pack that had three Gorillas toting High-tech looking guns and they had cyber eye enhancements on them as well.
I'd like to think that a few of those creatures were the extra muscle that the Pirate ship
Marcucci took onboard right before the Big Battle with the
I.M.S.Margaret Thatcher.
- Ed C.
Quote from: kregmosierin closing: Apes make everything better. especially an Ape in a Fez. with superhuman intelligence.
OMG OMG, those photos are hi-larious.
Quote from: Pierce InverarityOMG OMG, those photos are hi-larious.
Thats it.
Jayne Cobb of the
Serenity has to meet some uplifted apes in an encounter.
- Ed C.
Even The World of Synnibarrhas apes in it, along with ninja, pirates and zombies. (Hell, one of the Ninja Gods is also the God of Heavy Metal.)
Obviously, gorillas work best with pulp. They can be villains,
(http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/Gorilla%203.jpg)
or they can be heroes!
(http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/Gorilla%207.jpg)
Quote from: KoltarThe GURPS version of TRAVELLER has them. I believe its in the Solomani Rim book somewhere. They are either "uplifted" Apes and Gorillas or cyber-enhanced somehow.
- Ed C.
They exist in other versions of Traveller too. Earth/Solomani Rim has several uplifted species, including apes and dolphins.
In Traveller, there are also a couple hundred minor human races seeded by the Ancients. One of them could have adapted to have several ape like features.
Quote from: RPGPunditAt one point back in the 60s, the editor of DC comics had to make special guidelines to how often artists could put Apes on the cover of their comics, because it had come to be demonstrated that putting a gorilla on the cover automatically raised sales of the book.
So apparently, people really love anything with Gorillas in them. Intelligent gorillas, funny gorillas, good gorillas, evil gorillas, etc etc.
That leads me to think that what the RPG industry really needs is more Gorillas. The question is how to add them?
What can be done to add more Gorillas to D&D?
To Traveller?
To Vampire?
To Amber?
To any other RPG?
RPGPundit
PS: Forward... to Adventure! has a picture of a Gorilla in its "monster" section. I'm strongly considering recommending that Clash put a Gorilla on the cover of the upcoming FtA!GN! sourcebook, and any future edition of FtA!
Awright, now you're talking. I'm a fan of the big apes too. In one of my previous AD&D/Gamma World hybrid fantasy campaigns, I had Gorillians. They were originally an artificially-engineered slave race of gorillas with human-level intelligence. Some had latent psionic abilities, and most had the ability to speak. They were good, bad, and everything-in-between, just like us humans.
Gotta love them big apes! :haw:
In the 30's tramp steamer game I ran for a couple sessions. The group encountered an island. Lured by the possibility of treasure. They encountered carnivorous apes, protecting said treasure.