Why? I like low-fi basic stuff and I am intrigued by the thematic settings that may emerge out of these limited palettes. This is just a “lonely fun” experiment but it could be useful to generate local biomes. Well, I guess this link to my love of biomes too.
So for our basic palette I thought of six basic boring monsters types:
- Flying harrowers: bats, birds, flying bugs
- Slow and slimy ambushers: frogs, slugs, snails, leeches
- Poisonous predators: snakes, centipedes, spiders, scorpions
- Smart scavengers: rats, crows, monkeys (ants?)
- Stubborn turtlers: crabs, beetles, turtles
- Formless dissolver: slime, ooze, jelly, moss (plants could be fun too)
- Bats
- Frogs
- Snakes
- Rats
- Crabs
- Slimes
- Fireflies
- Anemone
- Centipede
- Hyena (a bit too big for a basic monster but let's try it)
- Trilobites
- Jellies
(I put exemples in broad order of HD in parenthesis)
- Humanoids (goblins, orcs, burbears, ogres, giants, titan)
- Domesticated beasts (pets, messenger, hunting, burden, war, mount, cattle)
- Ferocious packs, lone predators or territorial grazers (wild beasts, from small to gigantic)
- Strange chimera (satyrs, harpies, centaurs, pegasus, griffons, manticores)
- Artificial construx (animated statues, clockwork beings, golems)
- Nature spirits (sprites, faes, blinking, nymph, unicorn, elemental, swampthing)
- Watchful guardians (skeletons, gargoyles, medusa, minotaur, sphynx, naga, mummies, beholder)
- Creatures of the night (zombies, ghouls, shadows, werebeasts, ghosts, vampires, demons)
- Monstrous hoarders (hydra, abomination, dragon)
- Mimics (doppelgangers, carnivorous traps, parasites, shapeshifters)
Now the idea is to mix our palettes of monsters with these special flavors. I think that I would generate 6 creatures for each step of HD.
Generic palette
1HD
Whimsical palette
1HD
2HD
Maybe I could use this to generate the biome of the Potoo Island.
- Hunting Bats (trained to hunt giant bugs)
- Tiny Faes riding on Frogs
- Cameleon Snakes
- Ratfolk Carpenters
- Collector Crabs
- Slimes Hounds
- Clockwork Bats
- Clawed Frogs
- War Snakes (warbeasts)
- Wolf-Rats
- Mule-Crabs (beasts of burden)
- Coins slimes
- Bat maidens
- Work Toads (beasts of burden)
- Snakemen shapeshifters
- Ghoul Rats
- Mace Crabs
- Ectoplasmic Slimes
- Blind giants with batlikes features, live deep underground.
- Titan Toads (grumpy but gentle giants)
- The Watcher of the Ivory Tower (100 eyes giant snake)
- The Eater of the Deads (gigantic many headed humanoid rat queen)
- Old Molten (gigantic steam breathing Crab)
- War shamblers (gigantic slimes mind controlled for war)
Whimsical palette
1HD
- Blood Fireflies (drain blood with their light)
- Shoulder Anemone (pets)
- Temple’s Centipede (ivory carapaces)
- Laughing sticks (hyena made of tied sticks by witches)
- Trilobites Tribe (humanoids)
- Jellies Gloves (jellies that wrap around hands)
2HD
- Fireflies-Mentis (dog sized nasty hybrid)
- Guarding Anemone (dog sized crawling anemone)
- Rollers (centipede who roll on itselves and hunt in packs)
- Thirsty Watchers (hyena with eyes on their fur, must be summoned)
- Mermaid’s Masks (trilobite that sing like mermaids, their shell look like a woman face)
- Butterflies-Jellies (shimmering flying faery jellies, dissolve hopes)
- Ghost Fireflies (their ghostly light lure people like will-o-the-wisps)
- Shadow-Anemone
- Centipede-Gargoyles (take a lot of patience to sculpts the legs)
- Trap Jaws (clockwork big jawed hyena who eat metal bits)
- Crawling Masons (big land trilobites colonies who form stone structures)
- Jellies Ruffs (graft around neck to control host)
- Balefirefly (demonic firefly that eat souls with it light)
- Anemone-Naga (guardian giant anemone-headed snake with multiple women heads hidden inside the anemone)
- The Horde (fire breathing giant centipede, named for it thousand legs)
- The Laughing Mother (giant centaur hyena woman)
- The Elder (Gigantic fossilized undead Trilobite)
- Carmina Jellies (vampire jelly that can take a humanoid form)
Maybe I could use this to generate the biome of the Potoo Island.