5e Thoul

I was screwing around with the 5e system, to get a better understanding of the mechanics. For most people, its about CharGen and character-building, but I also like to toy around with custom monsters. So I decided to make a Thoul (from Moldvay's Basic rulebook) based on the Ghoul, Hobgoblin, and Troll stats form the free Dungeon Master’s Basic Rules (version 0.2) file. Here is what I done:

Thoul
Medium humanoid (goblinoid), lawful evil
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Armor Class 16 (natural + chain mail)
Hit Points 33 (5d8+10)
Speed 30 ft.
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-STR --- DEX --- CON --- INT --- WIS --- CHA
14 (+2) - 13 (+1) - 12 (+1) - 8 (-1) - 10 (+0) - 8 (−1)
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Skills Perception +1
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages Common, Goblin
Challenge 1 (200 XP)
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Keen Smell. The thoul has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.

Regeneration. The thoul regains 3 hit points at the start of its turn. If the thoul takes acid or fire damage, this trait doesn’t function at the start of the troll’s next turn. The thoul dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points and doesn’t regenerate.

Actions______________________________
Thouls can ether be armed or unarmed.

Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) slashing damage, or 7 (1d10 + 2) slashing damage if used with two hands.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) slashing damage. If the target is a creature other than an elf or undead, it must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for  1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

A Thoul is a magical combination of a ghoul, a hobgoblin, and a troll. It is rumored that they are the result of a twisted experiment by an unknown wizard trying to create an army of inhuman super-soldiers. To all but goblinoids, thouls look exactly like hobgoblins. Anyone who are familiar with goblinoids could tell them apart. They usually from into bands of mercenaries, but sometimes they serve as bodyguards of a powerful hobgoblin ruler.

Datafortress 2020 is Back!

For those who don't know, Datafortress 2020 is the best damn Cyberpunk 2020 site on the net! The guy who runs it, Wisdom000, had over the years put a lot of effort and love into the site, with some help for the CP2020 community. It is full of great articles and supplements. It covers a wide range of topics, and includes a wide assortment of new goods, environments and inspirations to be used in CP2020, or even your own cyberpunk game, including Shadowrun.

Beyond just the cyberpunk genre, the Nomad culture from CP2020 had always maintain a Mad Max vibe about it. For those post-apocalypses fans who like there post-apocalypses fiction to be hard-edged and styled like an '80s Road Warrior-clone — bikers, big hear, assless-chaps and all — I highly recommend checking out Dust in the Wind, The Nomad Market and Shop the Nomad Market. There are so much you take form them!

If you have the time and printer ink, you can download the sourcebooks. If some of the pages go to dead links, don't fret. It is a large site being moved into a new domain, and Wisdom000 is still getting the kinks out. Also be forewarned that some pages might still be graphic-heavy (this was changed by using smaller images), and there are no shortage of risqué art (just harmless T&A pics).

I hope you guys enjoy the site? Enjoy!

Deviant Database 2.0 Teaser Art

Sniderman released another book of mutants in the second installment of the Deviant Database for the Mutant Future role-playing game. He needed some art, and I submitted four. This time around, a dozen artists came to his call. The Deviant Database 2.0 list over forty mutants, with most of them illustrated, a few even have two pics to them.

Here is a teaser of what I did, and soon I would add the pics to my DeviantArt gallery.

The mutants I drew (from top left to bottom right) are the Whorebeast, Mako, Bog Ghoul,  and Clotted One (AKA “Scab”).

I have been reading them on and off. So far, they are great! They would really keep the players on their toes.

Its Hotter than a Witch's Tit...

...while dressed as a topless Amazon! ;p

Enjoy this nice OD&D mockup. I hope this makes summer a little more bearable for you guys?

Gamma World and Mad Max Don't Mix

One odd issue I have with how people (mostly artists) try to portray Gamma World, and by extension Mutant Future, is how people try to make it look and feel like a Mad Max movie. Now don't get me wrong, I like the '80s-glam, Mad Max-inspired style of post-apocalypses movies (including all the clones that came of it), but to me it is a poor fit. That is, what you look past all leather-clad bikers and over use of hairspray, it is largely a serious, hard-edge genre that relies on there being an apocalypses sometime in the near future. The ecosystems have collapsed to nuclear fallout, once civilized people look like malnourished people from a hard-hit Third World country, animals are so scarce, people are having to eat diseased rats, and it uses a lot of modern technology — especially guns and heavily modified “Road Warrior” cars. Given the desperate, hard-edge nature of this genre, I tend to call it “Rat-Eater” fiction. I even call the future scenes from The Terminator movies “Rat-Eater” segments.

Now, Gamma World has always been called out for being silly and goofy, but most people do not understand the nature of the setting. Gamma World was the product of the era of Silver Age of Comic Books (1950s-'70s). For those that don't know, the Silver Age of Comics was an era of dramatic super-science, strange scenarios, weird worlds, and lots of campy elements. To think of how this relates to Gamma World, imagine if the first edition was illustrated by Jack Kirby. Let that sink in for a second... This is the guy who took the basic outline of Planet of the Apes and turned it into Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth, and turned the comic book adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey into a crazy-ass acid trip... More so then the end of movie. Gamma World takes place after the people of a Jetson-styled future blew themselves up. The aftermath was a world where green-glowing radiation gave people and wildlife comic book-like mutations. Imagine a world with anthropomorphic animals, plant-men, mobile sentient plants, three-tittied bimbos, people that would make the X-Men look quaint... All in a world littered with the ruins of a once super-technological civilization, engulfed by the growth of ever mutating ecosystems!

Why settle for just three? ;p

So yeah, they both have their cool aspects, but in the end, one is oil, and the other is... Well...? The Colour Out of Space. You can put some aspects of Gamma World into Rat-Eater, but it would loose its gritty, hard-edge feel. You can put some aspects of Rat-Eater into Gamma World, but they would quickly get overtaken by everything else. I mean, you could add leather-clad bikes with modern gear, but they would not stand a chance against all the mutants and tech-users that haunt such strange world such as Gamma World. On top of that, the Rat-Eater elements would just be seen as another odd element. That is, the leather-clad bikers would use high-tech gear (hover-bikes and blasters) and have leather-clad three-tittied bimbos with them. In other words, mothafuckin' Lobo!

Yeah, like that, but with the chick form the above pic.