[Dog Variants] The Azümchefe Climbing Dog

In the steaming jungles of Azümchefe live many human tribes. These peoples breed a strange type of dog that seems almost as much a simian as a canine; it is unlike any type of dog found in any other human society.

Climbing Dogs have thick, dark green fur and long prehensile tails, but their strangest feature are their forepaws, which are hooked like the feet of a sloth. This unique adaptation allows them to climb trees and even leap from branch to branch in the high jungle canopy with great speed and agility. The tribesmen use them to hunt monkeys in much the same way that other cultures use dogs to flush birds or deer; once a group of monkeys is on the run from a pack of Climbing Dogs it is a simple task for the hunters to trap or slay them. But Climbing Dogs are equally capable on the forest floor, as their hind legs are still doggish and built for running.

Very rarely, Climbing Dogs can be found for sale in some locations surrounding Azümchefe. They are valued by the wealthy for their novelty, and by wilderness explorers for their versatility in forest surroundings.

Climbing Hound of Azümchefe

Armour Class: 5
Hit Dice: 2
Move: 150' (50')
Climb: 120' (40')
Attacks: 1 bite
Damage: 1d6
No. App: N/A
Save As: F2
Morale: 8
Treasure Type: N/A
Intelligence: 2
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 20

[Dog Variants] The Ghost Hound

Those who spend a lot of time with animals often suspect that the creatures can see things that humans cannot. Cats, dogs, and other beasts in the household can often be found staring deeply into space, or starting at something when there has been no apparent noise.

Speculation that these animals are really seeing ghosts, spirits, or invisible entities is generally bunkum. Yet a very rare breed of dog, the Ghost Hound, in fact does have the invisibility to see non-corporeal and invisible beings, be they ghosts, spirits, or even magic-users who have cloaked themselves in unsight.

Ghost Hounds are grey in colour, and long-limbed and rangy. Their fur is short and soft, and their muzzles are long. Their eyes are a deep emerald green. When sitting up straight - their favourite position - they remain entirely motionless, sentinel-like, until they see, smell or hear an intruder.

Usually they are trained as guard dogs, but their ability to alert their owners by barking at invisible intruders elevates them far above the norm.

Ghost Hounds can see invisible.

Ghost Hound

Armour Class: 6
Hit Dice: 1+1*
Move: 180' (60')
Attacks: 1 bite
Damage: 1d6
No. App: N/A
Save As: F2
Morale: 8
Treasure Type: N/A
Intelligence: 4
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 19

[Dog Variants] The Dungeon Terrier

When dungeoneers venture into the underworld, be it natural caverns, ancient temple complexes, or ruined castles, they are often accompanied by dogs. One specialised breed of dog that is highly sought-after by adventurers is the Avenillish Cur - or, more popularly, the Dungeon Terrier. Originally bred for the purposes of hunting Jermlaines in narrow subterranean tunnels, these dogs have found widespread use as scouts, fetch-and-carriers, and burrowers, in the 'employ' of adventurers.

These dogs are typically small, sturdy and tough in physique, and fierce and snappy in personality. They tend to have a mongrellish appearance, with a wide variety of different coat colours and patterns. They have a number of abilities which aid them in dungeon scenarios, including excellent darkvision (infravision to 10') and all-round senses (they are only ever surprised on a roll of '1' due to their excellent hearing and sense of smell; human companions, by keeping a close eye on their terriers, can also benefit from this).

Dungeon Terriers also have a natural and typically terrier-like propensity to attack small prey with great savagery. Foes shorter than 2' will be gripped in the dog's jaws and vigorously shaken; on a 'to hit' roll that succeeds by +4 above the required result, double damage is done and the victim must save versus death.

Dungeon Terrier

Armour Class: 5
Hit Dice: 1*
Move: 180' (60')
Attacks: 1 bite
Damage: 1d6
No. App: N/A
Save As: F1
Morale: 8
Treasure Type: N/A
Intelligence: 2
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 13

Educating Noisms

I have a nuts-and-bolts question: my Monster Manual PDF is close to completion, but the unedited version is 2200 pages long and around 8 MB in size. The final version will likely be even longer.


Can anyone recommend a good, preferably free, file hosting service to which I can upload it?


SUPPLEMENTARY EDIT: Seeing as this is a 'meta' sort of post, I'll take the opportunity to say that I'm catching up on 'following' all the blogs that I subscribed to manually via the RSS feed on Google Reader. So if I suddenly appear as one of your 'followers', it's not that I haven't been reading your blog for years; it's that I was doing it in alternate form.

[Dog Variant] The Basilisk Hound

In the Tafilalt desert, where basilisks are common, the local tribesmen breed a dog known as the sijil masabaq, or 'eyeless dog'. It is usually known to outsiders as the Basilisk Hound, because its special use is the hunting of those beasts.

Despite their original name, Basilisk Hounds do have vestigial eyes, but are entirely blind. This is thanks to a deliberate process of selective breeding that has continued for centuries, and the reason for it is obvious - it allows the dogs to resist the main threat of the basilisk: its ability to petrify those who meet its gaze.

Basilisk Hounds are rangy and tough, but they are hounds, not fighting dogs. Their task in the hunt is to distract and harass the prey, drawing its attention (and its gaze) away from the human hunters, who can then approach and attack from the rear with long spears. The hounds have an excellent sense of smell and hearing which guide them in the chase; but this does not entirely compensate for their blindness, so they typically do not approach within striking distance. Instead they circle, dart, bark and snap out of arm's reach. (They suffer a -2 penalty to their attack rolls.)

Basilisk Hounds are not usually sold, but are sometimes given by tribesmen to outsiders as gifts, or traded for opium, which they prize.

Basilisk Hound

Armour Class: 6
Hit Dice: 1+1
Move: 180' (60')
Attacks: 1 bite
Damage: 1d6
No. App: Never appear in the wild
Save As: F2
Morale: 8
Treasure Type: U
Intelligence: 2
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 15

[Dog Variants] The Orc Mastiff

The Orc Mastiff is a large, powerful type of fighting dog specially bred for hunting and killing orcs. They are large and muscular, often weighing over 200 lbs, and are covered with thick, coarse black hair.

These dogs are prized for their ability to both detect and fight orcs. They have an excellent sense of smell and are usually raised from puppyhood to recognise the scent of orcs and distinguish it from other humanoid beings. This allows them to detect orcs at a range of 120', and also means that they can track the creatures if their trail is less than a week old (70% chance if the trail is a day old or less, 60% for two days or less, and so on.) Their thick black fur insulates their body heat against infravision during the night or when they are underground; all infravision is ineffective against them, allowing them to operate in near-invisibility when in an orcish lair. Finally, they are highly intelligent and assertive, and can be trained to fight against armoured humanoid opponents; a favourite tactic is to grab an ankle and pull an enemy to the ground before attacking it at the neck.

Naturally, Orc Mastiffs are extremely expensive. A single one will cost 75 gold pieces or more, so that a pack of a dozen or so of these dogs may cost 1,000 gold pieces; and typically they will also be given special padded armour by their owners, which costs a considerable additional sum (25 gold pieces per dog). But noblemen in remote and uncivilised areas which orcs frequent will often have ancestral packs, bred by their families down the generations. These packs are rarely used in open battle but instead as guards or terror weapons for rooting out and killing orc females and children, or hunting and slaying males routed in a fight.

Orc Mastiff

Armour Class: 6 (4 with padded armour)
Hit Dice: 3+3*
Move: 180' (60')
Attacks: 1 bite
Damage: 2d4
No. App: Never appear in the wild
Save As: F3
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: U
Intelligence: 4
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 75

But the Dogs, Well They're Only Dogs

Having just read this piece, in which a modern-day war-dog (a Belgian Malinois) plays a starring role, I got to thinking about dogs in RPGs. As any old schooler knows, dogs are indispensable to an adventurer - especially to magic-users. They give muscle, an extra set of eyes, an extra nose, and, if push comes to shove, meat. Forget hirelings. No 1st level character should ever leave home without a dog or three.

They're also historically accurate. Real-world D and D parties - for instance, bandeirantes and conquistadors - were constantly surrounded by dogs and pigs wherever they went. Dogs were used for hunting and fighting (the conquistadors used armoured mastiffs specially trained to disembowel their semi-naked native American adversaries), and pigs were slaughtered for food (it is believed that escapee pigs were one of the major disease spreaders in native populaces). It would be extremely unusual for a group of roguish adventurers in a fantasy world to venture out into the wilds without a pack of hounds.

I've always been fond of the AD&D 2nd Edition DMG's 'Horse Personality' table, which allowed you to randomly determine a set of traits for any given horse (from being a good jumper to being a notorious biter). So without further ado, here's the equivalent for a conquistador's best friend:

Dog Personality Table

A dog will have d2 traits, randomly determined from the following table (roll 1d12); if the dog is expensive (+10% cost), add +1 to the roll, and if it is particularly expensive (+25% cost), add +2 to the roll; corresponding negative penalties should be applied to the roll for cheap and particularly cheap dogs respectively.

-2: The dog is extremely bad tempered. It will attack anybody except for the owner who approaches within 5 feet.
-1: The dog has only three legs. It moves at half rate.
0: The dog is very bad tempered. There is a 25% chance it will attack anybody except for the owner who approaches within 5 feet.
1: The dog is a coward. Before a fight it has to check morale (10) or it will cower behind its owner.
2: The dog is stupid. It cannot be trained to do anything, though it will attack enemies of its owner and is generally docile otherwise.
3: The dog has an unfortunate body odour that doesn't seem to go away. The stench can be detected within 15 yards.
4: The dog is easily distracted. It will try to chase anything fast-moving that it sees.
5: The dog is a nipper. Anybody except the owner who tries to touch it will be bitten (roll for attack as normal; damage is 1 hp).
6: The dog has a strange taste for a certain type of food (player's choice). It will try, remorselessly, to eat this food if it ever comes across it.
7: The dog is greedy. It will eat uncontrollably at any chance it gets, and if it kills an opponent will stop to feed rather than continue the fight.
8: The dog is very intelligent. It can pick up new tricks very easily (+3 bonus to Animal Training proficiency checks).
9: The dog is very tough (maximum hit points).
10: The dog is very fast (+2 to initiative rolls).
11: The dog seems to be a very good judge of character (will growl at any evil human it comes across).
12: The dog is extremely brave and loyal (always passes morale checks).
13: The dog has animal perception (can see invisible things on a 25% chance).
14: The dog is immensely powerful (+4 damage)

The Most Mammoth rpg.net Bestiary Related Thread(s) Ever; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Ankhegs

Once upon a time there was an Englishman sitting in an office in Ichigao, Yokohama. It was a boring office and he was a very bored Englishman, so approximately once an hour he would visit rpg.net in an attempt to get some sort of creative and intellectual input into his life. What he mostly found were a lot of very pretentious people talking about 'doing' Cyberpunk 2020 with Spirit of the Century using ORE mechanics. But he also discovered that there was a large and silent majority of very interesting people indeed.

The bored Englishman noticed that every so often somebody on rpg.net - usually on the DandD Spotlight forum - would post a "Let's Read" thread. These threads, often insanely long, usually halted before ever reaching their goal, consisted of a single poster 'reading' an RPG text and posting their thoughts as they went along, with other posters chiming in and a dialogue developing. The bored Englishman liked these threads. He thought there were a capital opportunity to pontificate at length with ready-made starting material, and the Englishman was fond of pontificating.

He had also recently got his hands the ADandD 2nd edition Monstrous Manual from a fellow ex-pat fleeing Japan and heading back to Canada, and overcome with feelings of nostalgia and childish excitement (because it was the first RPG book he had ever bought - from a shop in Tel Aviv, no less) he decided to write one of these threads. Every day he would post a new 'entry' - a comment on one single monster entry - and invite readers to offer their thoughts. He was expecting perhaps one or two people contributing their thoughts each day. What he got was something entirely different: over 5000 posts spread over 5 separate threads, spanning nearly 2 years. Those 5000 posts are quite literally some of the best bad craziness that RPG geeks can offer, a smorgasbord of creative, unique, and often silly ideas that no self-respecting DM should be without.

The threads are here: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. But the Englishman is currently undergoing the arduous process of editing them all into one big fat PDF file for the enjoyment of the reading public. Watch this space for details.

Count 'Em

Somebody has counted the number of games of each RPG booked in to be played at Gen Con this year.

Normally I couldn't give a flea-sized shit about what goes on at Gen Con, and we should be wary of sample bias - people who go to Gen Con are by definition among the strangest and silliest people on earth - but I found some of these results interesting. For instance:

• AD&D (1st edition) is the second most popular variant of D&D after 4E, with 3.5 and 2nd edition some way behind. 2nd edition is the least popular by a considerable distance - which is not altogether surprising, if regrettable in my eyes. Of the other games, HERO seems quite popular, along with Savage Worlds (depressingly).
• Indie RPGs are even less popular than I would have expected, with only 20 games being played in total, as opposed to 97 of Shadowrun and 98 of Call of Cthulu alone. Given the prevalence of one-shot-based games within the 'Indie' community, I find this especially surprising: you would have thought such throwaway systems would be perfect for convention play.
• Rolemaster is now so unfashionable that there appears to be no sign of it at the convention at all. Thankfully, it seems White Wolf games are seeing a long-awaited decline in popularity, though this is off-set by a strong LARP showing. (There will be nearly 8000 people LARPing at Gen Con, a figure which staggers me from numerous directions. How do these people even tie their own shoelaces, let along get it together enough to make their way to Indianapolis?)
• There is a bit of a showing for the OSR, but not much.

Gen Con is not a representative sample, but food for thought, nonetheless.

Back in Action

Hello like before, Monsters & Manuals. I'd never have come here if I'd known that you were here. I must admit though, that it's nice to see you, dear...

I've missed writing this blog. It's been a long time since the heady days of 2008/2009 when updates flowed daily. They've since slowed to a slow drip. But, to continue this rather hackneyed metaphor, there is a melting glacier of good ideas at the top of the mountain, and it's about to come pouring downstream.

Picture yourselves, dear readers, as a hydroelectric dam of role playing, ready to be re-energised by all that water.

Or something.

Anyway, to everybody who hasn't deleted my RSS feed; thanks. To everybody who has; I'd say fuck you, but you won't be reading this anyway. To anybody who is new: this blog was great once. Read through the archives and see. It'll be like that again.