Silhouettes XI

Here are two more classic monsters:

Snake

Crocodile

And some more animals to roam your plains:

DIY Miniatures II

So almost a year ago I posted about the upcoming possibilities for 3D printing and rpg miniatures.  It's getting interesting fast.  Imagine you walk into a gaming convention, they scan you, and print a miniature to use in the games while you wait.  It's coming.  The big change here appears to be the commodity scanners with the Kinect.  Of course the resolution is still pretty crappy, but that seems like an obvious place for the tech to improve in the next few years.  Read the story on Boing Boing, and make sure to follow their links to see a movie of the printer in action.

Silhouettes X

Two more classics for the original encounter tables:

Roc

Pixie

And here are two on the house:

Peryton

Flying Monkey

And more herd animals:

So, three of those I cobbled together myself from different source materials.  And working in the abstracted silhouette form illustrates well why most mythic creatures are made up of "parts" from other animals.  When I think of an animal it pops into my head in an abstracted form, so it's easy to tap into that and say: "The monster is a snake with a woman's head on the end." 

The flying monkey may look too similar to the roc when shrunk to map size, but I just had to make it.

Here have another fighter too:

Some of these came from a book with silhouettes in it, so it was easier for me to churn them out.

Creepy Combat Commentary

Thanks to Welcome to Dungeon! in the comments of my Stitcher monster I had the idea of pursuing weird ways creatures might talk in combat.

The monster that apologizes as it continues to attack is just wrong.  I wanted to see if I could think of any more.  One thing I think is true about tone is that you can easily shift it.  So these could be creepy, corny, or campy depending on your tone of voice, attitude, or choice of vocabulary.

Anyway, here are sixteen types of combat commentators you might try:

Can you think of more?

Silhouettes IX

Okay friends, I put a zip file of all the silhouettes I've made so far in the sidebar to the right.  Crappy or rough, these are something you might be able to build on.  As I make more I'll showcase them on the blog but add them to that archive too. I also plan to add them all as svgs, but in time.

So I blogged about using symbols on a map to let players know stuff about your world about a year ago.  But recently, I decided making my own silhuouettes is the only way it's going to happen.  So, I took a look at the terrestrial wilderness encounters from OD&D to see how many monsters that baseline would require.  Looks like ~70 depending on whether you want to use dinosaurs and prehistoric beasts.  Anyway, here are three classic beasties:

Hydra

Centaur

Sabertooth

And your choice of scorpion:

I posted one for the cockatrice previously (it's in the zip file), so that means only about ~65 to go!  And here are some herd animals in case you want to allow for hunting or hobbit-trampling: