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Friday, May 6, 2011

Silhouettes XII

Here is a list of creatures I'm trying to cover:
I expanded my goal past just terrestrial monsters.  I think this list would cover almost all encounters in OD&D.  Except for some Men types (Lords, EHP, etc), but those will likely be very similar to character class archetypes, which I've also been collecting.

If you would like to help by pointing me to a source image or even making a silhouette yourself, feel free.  I'd like to keep the big package of silhouettes public domain, though. If you want to have a different license maybe we can include a link to point to your individual work.

But, I'll keep making these regardless.  It relaxes me in the way Dyson mentions mapping does for him.  It also lets me use that down time, where my brain isn't really engaged, to still make something.

Here are two more for your trouble:

5 comments:

  1. Lamias? Leucrottas?

    I'll get to work on some of these...

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  2. Cool.

    Those come in 1e. I'm trying to start at the beginning and work out. Next would be the supplements to the little brown books, then the monster manual. I'll take anything of course, but when I go looking, I'll look for something from the list above.

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  3. I feel the same way with regard to making my paper minis' silhouettes/art and designing PDFs for printing them out. To be honest, I really don't care if they have much (if any) use to others - just designing, printing, and constructing them is strangely satisfying.

    These two are of course appreciated. Certain creatures, due to their complicated nature, do not lend themselves to be represented as silhouettes as I've discovered. Or at least not at 20-28mm scale. I'd be happy to be proven wrong though.

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  4. As someone who's never actually seen the lbbs, that's an enlightening list. And there's orcs & balrogs, right there in 1st release, bringing back all my scepticism of EGG's/James M's claims.

    When did Balrogs become that giant thing seen in the LoTR movies? Was it D&D that did that? (note I'm not asking if it should have wings...) I imagine you're going for instant recognition here so alternative Balrogs should probably not supplant the popular model.

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  5. @zB: Yeah, I'm cherry picking the easy ones now. I'm not sure how to do all the humanoids or undead, except maybe with one single silhouette and a variable white number inside.

    @richard: Do you mean claims that Tolkien didn't influence the game? I think Mr. Maliszewski has written more nuanced views, that other sources were equally imoprtant etc. But yes, you can even go back a generation to Chainmail which has Hobbits, Ents, and Balrogs, too.

    I think it was Robert Conley that mentioned, back in the day, everyone wanted to recreate the Battle of Five Armies in miniatures and that was a primary way for Tolkien's influence to come in.

    I personally think you get the whole idea of an "adventure party" new from the Hobbit, the first D&D story.

    As for the description of the Balrog, I don't know, my copy of Monsters & Treasure which should have the description is a later edition where TSR had to remove the references. But if I remember, they're pretty badass, the only (?) early monster that has any chance of resisting magic. Essentially the game's first demon.

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