The Future of the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game?

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Nov 20 2018

A Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game Bestiary?

They've got my money!

[GM Joe]

I'm so, so happy they're exploring not only a bestiary, but also the possibility of reprinting the box set.

DFRPG may yet arise from the dead!

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Nov 20 2018

A Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game Bestiary?

And to crib from my remark on GURPS Group North America:

To give a semi-official answer to the inevitable "Why these monsters?" and "Can I contribute?":

Art we've already sourced is what would decide what monsters appear. We would be creating new monsters to match existing art; we would not be reusing monsters from GURPS and/or using freelance contributions (neither of which is likely to happen to match the art we already have in hand), and then commissioning art. Doing things this way is what would make the project affordable enough to consider.

TL; DR: We wouldn't be taking requests. We'd be looking at our grab-bag of art and delivering a matching grab-bag of monsters.

[voodoo54]

I'm ready to buy this now!

[Dalin]

Is it available today? <drool>

[Ulairi]

I hope you guys take it to KS and give us a chance to have a stretch goal for more card boards tokens.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Ulairi

I hope you guys take it to KS and give us a chance to have a stretch goal for more card boards tokens.

I was going to suggest the same about the Cardboard Heroes miniatures. It'd be great to see those as an option. Given the book's premise of "only monsters for which artwork exists", though, I wonder whether some monsters might have artwork that's not well suited to a miniature.

Anyway, the only other off-hand suggestions I have are:

• Best to title it Monsters II, if it's a follow-up to the existing Monsters...
• ...Unless Bestiary is just a better name, for whatever reason. (In which case, a page or few with mundane beasts – horses, dogs, oxen, deer, etc. – would be great. For those, we don't need artwork!)
• 64 pages sounds good, matching the existing book. Then again, nobody's going to complain over even more pages and monsters...
• Any way to give each monster some rough measure of "challenge level"? An indication of how many monsters might challenge how many PCs, or whether a monster should be considered fodder, worthy, or boss (or how many of the monster would take an encounter from fodder to worthy, etc.)? I know, a meaningful rating is dependent on so many factors, it may not be worth the effort... But it's a thought.
• Would this new book be the perfect place to bring in the "Monster Prefixes" section from DF's Monsters 1 book (mods to turn a monster Elemental, Juggernaut, Undead, etc.)? Surely, I say!

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by tbone

I was going to suggest the same about the Cardboard Heroes miniatures. It'd be great to see those as an option.

This brings up an excuse for me to again suggest that SJG reprint Cardboard Heroes as a Kickstarter, and do it like the DFRPG box.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Kromm

We'd be looking at our grab-bag of art and delivering a matching grab-bag of monsters.

For the curious, these are all in Cardboard Heroes and are not in DFRPG or DFM3 (which would need only a modicum of work and has artwork):

Kobold, Alligator, Wolf, Giant Weasel, Panther, Giant Frog, Giant Beetle, Giant Crab, Great Ape, Mummy, Wight, Ghoul, Golem (bronze, crystal, flesh, iron, clay, rag, wood), Imp, Octopus-Man, Succubus, Satyr, Weretiger, Werebear, Wereboar, Wererat, Titan, Ogre Mage, Giant (hill, fire, cloud, storm, frost, two-headed), Witch (would work as a hag), Death.

There’s also a bunch non-threatening animals (dogs, cats, Bill Gates—well, maybe a little more threatening than Bill Gates) and NPCs (nobles, bandits, evil wizards).

I presume there is some other artwork at hand. I’m a little surprised there’s no wraith in Cardboard Heroes given that there’s a template in GURPS Magic, 3e and 4e. I guess there’s something at hand for them. I think there’s a centaur in GURPS Banestorm. The giant Venus flytrap from GURPS Bestiary likely also has something handy. Other things possibly at hand are catoblepas/gorgon, giant fly, giant lizard, hippogriff, pegasus, rukh, and unicorn. Does someone know for sure, from old GURPS books?

[Tom H.]

Originally Posted by Kromm

We'd be looking at our grab-bag of art and delivering a matching grab-bag of monsters.

I always wanted to ask . . .

Why wasn't the existing Dungeon Fantasy monster artwork inserted into DFRPG Monsters?

All I have speculated was:

• It was not in color
• Page count was already high
• Licensing issues

Or something else?

Adding more existing art to Monsters would have really made it more tangible. Can any of that be reused for the Bestiary with or without color?