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Fantastical beasts: natural or wizard experiment?

Started by BoxCrayonTales, October 23, 2017, 03:10:14 PM

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RPGPundit

#15
November 01, 2017, 03:25:02 AM
Quote from: Dumarest;1004572Real folklore is always better and weirder than anything people make up for RPGs so that should be interesting. Are you going to include conflicting accounts?

Not really, I'm going the same way I did in Arrows of Indra, where I'm choosing one particular interpretation. Otherwise you could have a whole book just of monsters, which would have some monsters that had the same name but were completely different, and then a dozen versions of the same monster with just slight variations.

Of course, some of the variations may appear in RPGPundit Presents issues in the future.
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BoxCrayonTales

#16
November 01, 2017, 09:02:25 AM
Quote from: RPGPundit;1004865Not really, I'm going the same way I did in Arrows of Indra, where I'm choosing one particular interpretation. Otherwise you could have a whole book just of monsters, which would have some monsters that had the same name but were completely different, and then a dozen versions of the same monster with just slight variations.
I am trying to include monsters from medieval bestiaries in my setting and I ran into this same problem. For the slight variations it was easy enough to treat as natural variation within species, but the in-name-only monsters are more difficult. I toyed around with making them different forms of the same species.

The gorgon, for example, is a family of monsters including the catoblepas and medusa. What was neat was that while researching Greek myth I stumbled upon the "Gorgon Aex," a male gorgon sometimes credited as the father of Medusa. His name could mean "goatish" and he was identified with the ewe Amalthea. So the idea of a cattle-like gorgon actually predates Topsell's conflation of the catoblepas and gorgon.

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#17
November 03, 2017, 02:01:16 AM
I'll note also that most of my bestiary will focus on English Medieval monsters and the interpretations thereof. I also include a few older ones from the Anglo-Saxon and Dane/Viking occupation era.
LION & DRAGON: Medieval-Authentic OSR Roleplaying is available now! You only THINK you\'ve played \'medieval fantasy\' until you play L&D.


My Blog:  http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/
The most famous uruguayan gaming blog on the planet!

NEW!
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Dark Albion: The Rose War! The OSR fantasy setting of the history that inspired Shakespeare and Martin alike.
Also available in Variant Cover form!
Also, now with the CULTS OF CHAOS cult-generation sourcebook

ARROWS OF INDRA
Arrows of Indra: The Old-School Epic Indian RPG!
NOW AVAILABLE: AoI in print form

LORDS OF OLYMPUS
The new Diceless RPG of multiversal power, adventure and intrigue, now available.
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