Now of course, everyone has their favourites and their pet hates
Anyway, rather than make another poll I want you to let me know what Darklings you like and why. I am just interested in getting some feedback and opinions from our loyal fans, as it will prove useful during our continuing revision of the game to know what you think.
Lee Williams.
"Superstition is the name the ignorant give to their ignorance"
I like those minions that do not receive alot of coverage, such as the Pale, Ifrits, cobra People, and the like. The main reason I do this is to keep my players guessing. Since most of them have glanced over the Minion section of the books, and read about the published modules, they are fairly familiar with Bloodkin, Fey, and Nukids. Not that I don't use Nukids alot. They are just so fun.
The cobra people for me have always been a source of great inspiration. I have had the party do various types of investigations where they find everything from 'baby farms' to meeting places at some asian style bath houses. They even got to sit in on an autopsy once....that was very cool to see their reactions as one of their contacts showed them things that were a little "peculiar" (retractable fangs, unhingeing jaw, cool body temp, etc).
Of course the camping trip where they ran into an ogre was a lot of fun also .
The one thing that I do not play up is the ET's. I just could never get my mind around having little grey/green men running about. Of course when I shifted the party into another dimension those lil buggers became quite fun .
"Hey guys did you hear that scraping sound? guys? GUYS?!"
Morthrai wrote:
Anyway, rather than make another poll I want you to let me know what Darklings you like and why. I am just interested in getting some feedback and opinions from our loyal fans, as it will prove useful during our continuing revision of the game to know what you think.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: INSECTOID ETs. There's just something horrible about a man sized, intelligent cockroach. And their kids are worse. I have a hard time believing they were ever on the side of the good guys like the other aliens were.
I always liked the look of the Ravagers: Scaly bipedal goats on steroids. Had a bit of a problem believing such blood crazed creatures would be smart enough to develop a changeling skill though. But...I suppose in their native dimension it could be an ability that evolved to help them stalk whatever unfortunate animal forms their main prey.
"There's a lot of dignity in that, isn't there? Going out like a raspberry ripple."
I always found myself wanting a more traditional vampire. Not a full on dracula, but sort of like the one in the Stackpole novel. Other than that I have to second most f what has been said here already, though there is a special place in my heart for Gremlins and Moss Zombies...everybody needs a little zombie apocolyse every now and then.
Ivan Dobski wrote:
I've said it before, I'll say it again: INSECTOID ETs. There's just something horrible about a man sized, intelligent cockroach. And their kids are worse. I have a hard time believing they were ever on the side of the good guys like the other aliens were.
Yeah, thought you might mention them again!
Ivan Dobski wrote:
I always liked the look of the Ravagers: Scaly bipedal goats on steroids. Had a bit of a problem believing such blood crazed creatures would be smart enough to develop a changeling skill though. But...I suppose in their native dimension it could be an ability that evolved to help them stalk whatever unfortunate animal forms their main prey.
Oh, they are definitely staying in.
Lee Williams.
"Superstition is the name the ignorant give to their ignorance"
One thing that occurred to me was that some of the monsters could do with some more background detail i.e. where they come from or how they were created e.g the Medusa in the main rulebook is described as a person with these strange attachments to their head. It doesn't really say why they'd have such a thing done to them. Is it a fashion thing, voluntary augumentation, ET experiment or what?
The other example that springs to mind is the Ogre. As written it seems to be a straight crib from a fantasy game which I think is a bad idea. I've never liked the mixing and matching of sci-fi and fantasy that you get in Shadowrun. I'd suggest that Ogres could be defined as some sort of atavistic branch of the human evolutionary tree and possibly one of the sources of Big Foot legends?
"There's a lot of dignity in that, isn't there? Going out like a raspberry ripple."
Ivan Dobski wrote:
The other example that springs to mind is the Ogre. As written it seems to be a straight crib from a fantasy game which I think is a bad idea. I've never liked the mixing and matching of sci-fi and fantasy that you get in Shadowrun. I'd suggest that Ogres could be defined as some sort of atavistic branch of the human evolutionary tree and possibly one of the sources of Big Foot legends?
I always imagined the Ogre like a cousin to Big Foot. This was the more plausible explanation for its existence. For descriptive purposes I always described the ogre as having thick coarse hair with an almost fur like quality but not as thick as fur.
I would like to see more of the ecology of these critters as well. How about a star chart showing where the ET's are coming from?
"Hey guys did you hear that scraping sound? guys? GUYS?!"
What's better and more horrifying to your party to never really KNOW who's on your side and who's out to get you until they act.
Bob
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" What you have there is what we refer to as a focused, non-terminal, repeating phantasm; Or a Class 5 full roaming vapor. .... Real nasty one too!" ~ Ray Stantz, Ghostbusters
I love the anti-shadowrun approach of DC. Other games tend to have too much (useless) information. Stats, abilities and a general description are enough. I can make up all other details myself if I think I need them. I have no particular favourite amongst the monsters. I like the diversity DC offers. Humans with guns are the most dangerous of all creatures. I like it if the players are surprised by the opposition. I prefer the classic vampires and werewolves so I changed the world in that way. I also make up new darklings frequently. Either based on other monsters or…well…based on something else.
Does anyone remember the Skinless Ones from "Dusted" by Dan Snuffin (from Challenge 71). For those who don't they were humanoid in appearance and, you won't be surprised to learn, completely devoid of skin. Their flesh was composed of red jelly in which it was possible to discern their internal organs and other gubbins. Their natural weaponry consisted of clawed hands and feet which they used to rip people open so as to extract their interior bits which the Skinless Ones would then drape over their bodies rather like jewellery. Their home dimension was a desert realm mostly composed of yellow dust. If followed back home they'd use their empathic abilities to mould the dust into rocks which they would then lob at any interlopers. Prior to gutting them of course.
I'm not a great fan of specially invented for the adventure monsters but I thought the Skinless Ones were rather good. Really nasty and bestial. Any chance of them turning up in the new DC? Possibly you'd need Mr Snuffin's approval?
"There's a lot of dignity in that, isn't there? Going out like a raspberry ripple."
Ivan Dobski wrote:I'm not a great fan of specially invented for the adventure monsters but I thought the Skinless Ones were rather good. Really nasty and bestial. Any chance of them turning up in the new DC? Possibly you'd need Mr Snuffin's approval?
Hmm, I remember them all right I guess we could try and get hold of Mr Snuffin but that was quite a while ago. On the other hand though, I did manage to find Jonathan Turner when I was with Demonground so we could reprint his old stuff from Role Player Independent, and now I can't get rid of him!
I'll see what I can do
Lee Williams.
"Superstition is the name the ignorant give to their ignorance"
.
I guess we could try and get hold of Mr Snuffin but that was quite a while ago. On the other hand though, I did manage to find Jonathan Turner when I was with Demonground so we could reprint his old stuff from Role Player Independent, and now I can't get rid of him! 
