Game Concept: Opherian Scrolls + Godbound

Of course, its another Godbound post. Because that's what I do.

So Blood of Pangea is pretty sweet and simple but I'm especially found of its supplement. For context, BoP is very clearly a not!Hyborian Age Sword & Sorcery game with a small attached setting which ticks all the Howardian fantasy boxes. Meanwhile, its supplement the Opherian Scrolls very much ticks all the Moorcockian dark fantasy boxes. Its basically very much Elric with the serial numbers filed off. As such I've decided to expand upon it and give it my flair and style, within the reasons and confines that I can't directly reproduce the content of the PDF.

This post is not complete without
a picture of THE White Wolf!

Options for Crossover

There are a few ways to combine a pre-existing game with Godbound, some mutually exclusive as I once outlined in the post on combining Red Tide and Godbound. Hell, go all 'cosmic' and combine all three. Add Yoon-Suin too! Go nuts! Bwahahaha...ahem, anyway:

• Blood of Pangea As Base: In this version, the BoP setting is the base for all the cosmos. There is an eternal struggle between Chaos and Law, Moorcock-style and everything. The 'Godbound' powers simply represent beings with God-like powers, such as (cursed) Champions of Chaos and Law, archmages who have mastered dread powers and possibly godlings and other super powered beings.
• Godbound As Base: In this version, the history and cosmos of Godbound form the base. The world of Pangea is a Realm somewhere in the fractured universe of Godbound. In ages past, the Opherian were posthuman (similar to those of Polyarchy of Kham but of different stock and of different origin) who ruled their decaying world before it reverted into absolute barbarism, taking away all traces of the advanced theotechnical wonders found in that world. The Opherian struck many bargains with the Uncreated pouring from the void to the point these beings began to change, becoming more interested in raw chaos and change than complete unmaking. These are the beings known as the Demons of Chaos. The Gods of Law, meanwhile, are all the divine beings of other origins who would very much prefer to rule a slightly-less-crappy Pangea rather than an eternal hellscape if the Opherian had their way long ago.

It is worth noting that the Opherian Scrolls mention that the Gods of Law include both gods of Good and Evil. As such their ranks would include all manners of creatures, from benevolent ascended beings to vile and brutal Parasite Gods who nonetheless are a slightly lighter shade of grey. Dark Fantasy isn't very happy, after all. That said, this made me think of an third option which is a variation of the second:

• Godbound is the PAST: In that version, the rough 'present time' of Godbound was anywhere between centuries to millennia in the past. In this grim future of the Godbound universe, the decay of the Celestial Engines was never remotely repaired. The Godbound appeared, challenged the old gods and in time replaced them. Much like the Made Gods before them they waged war for supremacy and the kinder, more reasonable Godbound were destroyed. Today, the dreadful Gods of Law are embittered beings who have formed their own Paradises (see the Deluxe version of Godbound for that). They try to influence beings in what may be the last remaining realm to still support normal life: Pangea.

Yeah that seems dark enough, doesn't it? This setup basically implies that, ultimately, the Godbound universe was cursed to endure a repeat of the war which destroyed Heaven, albeit likely as an even slower burn. Great magics and cosmic powers were used and ultimately lost, possibly forever.

Uncreated - The Demons of Chaos

Godbound established that there is such thing as the Uncreated: demon-like eldritch abominations, unliving, unnatural things. Horrific fusions of flesh and inorganic material or monstrous perversions and mockery of existing life. Uncreated seek nothing else than to unmake reality if they can. The Demons which Opherian made pacts with are the least horrible (but not by much!) of the Uncreated: the sort of wicked powers which seem more interested in the slow corruption and tarnishing of the world. Some Opherian and sages hold that there are Demons whose true motivation is to simply bring change itself and thus alter and eventually unmake existence to lead way to the next creation. Just what exactly is the truth (if there even is such a thing) depend on which option was chosen above.

Redesigning the Opherian

The book describe the Opherian as very much accurate to the appearance of the Melnibonean. Which is to say they look kind of like elves. Now that's fine and all but, personally? I think we can do better and make them stand out tiny bit more. Plus, 'evil elves' is a bit overplayed these days. As such, here is my proposed redesign:

Opherian are an hybrid race of a stock similar to Men. Taking cues from the Melnibonean being related to dragons, the Opherian (and hey their name vaguely rhyme with Ophidian!) posses serpentine and/or reptilian traits, albeit to a very vague degree. While they retain their elfin beauty, it is one which is cold and terrifying. Their skins are pale and their hair range in the white, gold, pale blue or pale green. They have piercing, exotic eyes which seem to never blink enough. Their teeth are pale and long, not completely fang-like but certainly a bit too sharp. Their skin is smooth, scarless and has an almost unnatural sheen. Their grace is almost alien, as if they have too many bones. Opherian women remain forever thin and the disturbing reason for this (that outsiders remain unaware of) is that they lay eggs and then nurse the hatchling. As such pregnancies are short. Eating the unborn eggs of a rival is a great way to insult them: Opherians care more about their pride and failure to protect their assets than the life of the child, however. Very few of them live anyway: sacrificing a child is a great way to earn dark favors.

Kain (from Legacy of Kain) is already an Elric-lite as it is
so its no surprise he's how I imagine a more deformed Opherian.

The Opherian Nobles display a bit more reptilian traits, a side effect of a combination of inbreeding., magical experiments and their connection to Chaos. Very few of them are completely and utterly deformed but those that are have truly terrifying visages. These individuals are shunned in Opherian high society yet their status as outsiders make them excellent spies, assassins and eccentric sorcerers. In time they either die or find ways to make themselves indispensable.

• The 'crown' mutation is a bony growth found on Opherian nobles, which form ridges and spikes above their eyebrows, which curve up into stubby and useless crowns of horns as they reach adulthood. Many of them enhance this deformity by jamming metal and gems into it, creating an organic crown of nobility. This is seen as a favorable mutation and is generally seen as very attractive to other Opherian.
• Eye mutations usually result in a more reptilian appearance but a few unlucky Opherians are born without eyes. Some are slightly more lucky and merely blind. The myths of the Younglings have given Opherian the ability to bring chaos and mutation with a mere glance, like some messed up Gorgon but this is likely the stuff of myths and tall tales. Or is it?
• Forked tongues, claw-like nails and colorful scale-like patterns exist within the Opherian bloodlines and these are seen as relatively normal. True freaks, however, are born misshapen, bald, with clove feet or bug eyes: the stuff of chaos wrought upon the flesh. These are often killed at birth which would appear paradoxical but, to the Opherian mind, they are offering the blackened souls of these blessed children to their true parent: the lords of Chaos.
• Other sickness are tolerate and accepted as part of the Opherian bloodline: deafness, myriad flavors of insanity and other forms of crippling are the norm and not the exception.

Words (and their Alignment?)

The Words of Godbound represent primordial and/or fundamental concept. As it is, there is currently no Word of Chaos or Word of Law, as Kevin Crawford once argued that such terms are so hard to define in any universal term that it would be impossible to make a suitably generic Word for either. In any case, here's some quick ideas on what Words would lean more toward Chaos or Law. Assume the others are Neutral and open to both alignment. These include some which were homebrewed by other people and can be fond here.

• Chaos: Fate, Shapeshifting, Entropy, Madness and Decay*.
• Law: Knowledge, Covenant*, Hearth* and Truth*.

* From the aforementioned homebrew document.

If anyone has better ideas, by all mean post them in the comments. This is the part of the post I'm the least satisfied with anyway.

Urban Fantasy: The Undead, Part 2

Undead are pretty scary creatures in spite of us being just out of a zombie overdose in pop culture. Anyone remember how big zombies got in the 2000? Anyway, feeling old aside: the Revenant type of the Undead is a dangerous opponent.

Purposeful and Dangerous

One key element which make Revenant-types much more dangerous than some shambling, decaying corpse is their sense of purpose. The transformation from human to supernatural being endow these creatures with a deeper metaphysical nature, which combine will, form and purpose as one. One must remember an Undead is an utter violation of entropy and yet it exist. It functions. It is no longer a fully material being but rather a metaphysical fact. An unliving nightmare.

Even the most insane or feral of Revenant is intelligent and driven by purpose, even if that purpose might just be murder and/or feeding. Where ghosts are ephemeral and have difficulties interacting with the world, corporeal undead lack such a weakness.They exist for a purpose and until it is fulfilled (if it can be!) that creature will never stop existing. If this description bring to mind images of indestructible, masked serial killers straight of 'slasher movies' this is entirely accurate and correct. If such a creature retain parts of or its entire memories and even personalities then the end result is a monster to be feared: a human devoid of mortality and fear, their mind entirely rewired toward purposes and goals. Remember this quote from the original Terminator movie:

"Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead."

Oddly accurate.

And while it may robotic and cold, the Terminator is definitely extremely intelligent. Its mind is not burdened by fears, likes and dislikes or human morality. It is an artificial intelligence, yes, but artificial or not that's still intelligence nonetheless. It is capable of adapting and lateral thinking yet also perfectly able to use its brute strength when it need. Keep in mind here we're talking of a baseline Terminator, however, and not those reprogrammed by humans toward more heroic goals and later taught to slowly become more 'human'. In its raw state it is an unfeeling killing machine.

Some Revenants aren't that detached, however. Indeed some of them are the complete opposite: utterly driven by their human passions, their rage, their sorrow or even blood lust. Where the previous type was a human mind liberated from frailties this one is...different. The failings of the human mind are warped and turned into an all-consuming passion almost elevated to an alien level. It feel fear, anger, love or pain but it doesn't feel them as we do, only as warped and twisted rush of adrenaline. Every challenge to its mission fuel its all consuming madness like a drug addict constantly injecting himself for a greater high.

Revenant Abilities & Some Stats

There is a near-endless variety of undead monstrosities, so consider these but a sample. The main inspiration behind them come from a very neat and very hand All Flesh Must Be Eaten supplement called Atlas of the Walking Dead. It describe undead creatures from all over the world and its various mythologies and folklore. Good stuff, excellent book and worth a read even if one isn't running AFMBE. First, however, some stat blocks: generally speaking unless they are the minions of some greater evil one could argue Revenant-type undead should be a main villain and thus a 'Nemesis'-type enemy. Even the dumber ones are expected to have that slasher villain level of threat factor. This plays into their higher HD, higher AC and morale but rather pitiful mobility and accuracy.

Name	HD	HP	AC	Atk	Dmg	Move	ML	Ski.	Svs.	Effort
Lesser Revenant	3 HD, no HP		16	+0	1d10	5m	12	+1	12+ (14+)	2
Revenant	3	12	16	+4	1d10	5m	12	+1	12+ (14+)	2
Mighty Revenant	5	19	18	+4	1d12	5m	12	+1	10+ (13+)	3

All the Revenants posses the following abilities by default:

• Unkillable Bastard: The Revenant has Saving Throws as if it had twice the normal amount of HD. However, keep in mind some Revenant might have a bane or weakness which treat their save as if the default value.
• Hardy Nemesis: A Nemesis Revenant has +3 HP by default and receive +1 additional HP every 3 other HD.

Some Revenants might have faster movement speed and/or better skills. These stats are the bare-bone of Revenants, with most of them in the lesser or ordinary category. Mighty Revenants are quite rare, either being very ancient beings or very pissed off powerful individuals in life. This category also include Revenants created from spirit possession. In terms of abilities, here's a sample of horrible tricks they might have up their rotting sleeves:

• Sense Murderer (Passive): This is most common for Revenant born of a need for revenge, granting them an innate ability to sense where their killer is. Generally speaking they always know the main direction no matter where that person is on Earth, losing only track of them when they are in another dimension. If within 60 meters they can Commit Effort for the day and gain some insane tracking ability which knows where their killer is at all time until the start of the next day. Think of it as a 'minimap pointer' in a videogame, telling the Revenant where to go.
• Sense Victim (Passive): Like the above but for less heroic reasons. In order to designate someone as their victim the Revenant must have attempted to kill said person (and obviously failed) in the last 24 hour. Slasher-like Revenant use this to track down those who evaded them.
• Pursuit (Passive): An ability which compliment the two above. When tracking someone using either Sense Murderer or Sense Victim, the Revenant triple its movement speed. Or, if you feel nasty, it move 'at the speed of plot' off screen.
• Shapeshift: One that is generally associated with Vampires nowadays. By Committing Effort, the Revenant can assume a different shape as long as the Effort remain committed. GM discretion is best used to decide if that form has any use beyond quick travel.
• Hard to Kill: The Revenant always take 1 point less of damage from attacks, except perhaps against something it might be weak to.
• Dread: This ability usually has some limitation or require some action, such as howling or weeping. By Comitting Effort for the scene, the Revenant inspire fear/madness/despair/whatever in humans. Those who can see/hear (depending on what action said Revenant use) must pass a Saving Throw or immediately flee the Revenant's presence.
• Paralysis: Similar to Dread except the poor bastard become unable to act, becoming either frozen in place by fear or having their minds ravaged by the madness of the undead.
• Long Tongue: This revenant has a long, flexible tongue which allows it attack in melee at a distance of up to 10m. This tongue usually deal 1d6 damage. In some cases, it might carry the Paralysis ability.

A Sample Bestiary

Here is a bunch of Revenants from folklore and mythology:

• Draugr: The drowned dead of Norse mythology are bloated, frost-bitten monstrous corpses. Some of them grow in size and strength while others have abilities related to the fog and cold. They have the Hard to Kill ability (except against fire) and can Commit Effort for the scene to lift any mundane object or destroy it, including walls. Draugr are generally inactive outside of the winter months.
• Egyptian Mummy: The classic Egyptian mummy might have a variant of the Sense X ability, but for those who stole its treasure. In addition they are weak to fire (they take double damage from it) and might be repelled with Egyptian funeral prayers or rite at the GM discretion. When exposed to such a thing they must either Commit Effort for the day or become unable to act for 1d4 rounds.
• Aztec Mummy: A variation of the above, except for Aztec (or some other Meso-american civilization which had pyramid-like structures because, hey, pop culture get so much wrong!). In addition they have the ability to Shapeshift, possibly into insect or spider swarms or giant bats.
• Penanggalan: Probably one of the most gruesome monsters out there, the Penangallan takes the form of a woman who can detach her head, flying off into the air as a monstrous head with entrails just dangling there. These creatures lack the Hardy Nemesis ability, being quite squishy (literally). During the day they appear as human beings and, should any kind of magical ability be used to try to detect them they cab Commit Effort for the day to register as a normal human woman. In their monstrous, true form they fly around at a speed of 40m, have the Long Tongue ability and they can use the Paralysis ability in some way or another, using it to feed. If exposed to sunlight in their true form they must pass a Saving Throw or die. They can also be destroyed if one, among other things, smearing ash and/or garlic on its separated body parts.
• Slasher: The most iconic undead of American pop culture, the slasher was likely a serial killer and/or a freak of some kind in life. They range in intelligence from dumb brutes to witty, almost funny quipster with a questionable sense of humor. They have the Sense Victim, Pursuit and Hard to Kill abilities.
• Vampyr: One of the many variations of the disease-ridden, bloodsucking fiends of European folklore. These creatures are usually Lesser or Average Revenant of questionable intellect, having been turned into blood-craving rotting corpses. Many of them have the Dread or Paralysis ability, possibly with the triggering effect being simply to see these horrible, bloated and sometimes monstrously deformed corpses. They usually transmit mundane (if still horribly disgusting and dangerous) diseases by touch. Some of them have the Long Tongue ability.

Five(ish) Games/Settings I need to play someday

Just a regular old filler post, with some thoughts on games and/or game settings I'd like to try some day but odds are will never get to change to experience as a player or Game Master.

1. Talislanta and Glorantha/Runequest

I'm putting these two together because of how similar they are: not so much as settings (granted you could easily argue they emerged from similar roots in Fantasy) but rather in terms of what they are as games. They're old games with oddball fantasy settings that have basically completely flown under the radar of modern fantasy gaming. Its the very opposite of mainstream and its boring-ass Forgotten Realms and Qel'Dorei or even Golarion (granted, that one has enough pulp love to have interesting elements).

2. Dark Sun

Another odd fantasy setting, this time one for Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Sun is another one of those bizarre settings which doesn't really register in the mainstream of fantasy in spite of having some top notch setting books for D&D 4e (which were arguably the best setting books of that era). What else can I say? I'd love to run it, its cool, its unique and its kind of horrific and depressing in the most metal of ways.

3. Battle Century G

What can I say with this one? I'm a mecha fan, even if it isn't a subject I've mentioned a whole lot on this blog, namely because there isn't much of an interest in the subject matter around the OSR and there's a clear lack of any good OSR-compatible mecha game. Closest that exist is the Mecha Hack, for the Black Hack. Anyway, Battle Century G is one of the few mecha games that seem to generally know what it is doing simply because the guy who worked on it was such a fan of the genre to begin with. The game is easy enough to mods in order to accomodate various style of mecha campaigns.

4. Star Trek Adventures

Now for something completely different: the still-in-publication current official RPG for the venerable (and much abused, sadly) Star Trek license. This one is as far removed thematically and mechanically from anything I've ever mentioned on this blog yet at the same time, having (almost completely, at least as of this post) binged through Deep Space Nine has made me want to run some Srar Trek stuff.

5. Maid RPG

....Because why not?

Urban Fantasy: The Undead, Part 1

We continue our look at the basics of various monsters for some suitably generic Urban Fantasy in the loose vein of the World of Darkness (both of them...but less stupid, I'd hope!), Kult or even TV shows such as Supernatural.

The Undead - Walking Corpses

The creatures which are part of the rank of the Undead need no introduction and neither does the concept: it is a corpse which, through defiance of reality and biology still keep ticking, from a rotting corpse to a monstrous abomination to an animate skeleton. While Ghosts are obviously a type of Undead they are very different because they lack such a body. There are two major categories of the corporeal, run of the mill Undead: the mindless animates and the self-willed (or alien-spurred) Revenant.

The Animates

Artist unknown.

The lowest form of Undead aren't true undead: they are merely empty corpses inhabited not by a a specific human (or inhuman) will but rather the arcane energies of something else: a necromancer, some cursed artifact or some form of Spirit puppeteering it from a distance through unusual means. By default, in my setting, the Romero-styled zombies are exceedingly rare as are animate skeletons. They aren't created unless some greater power wish for a dumb, perfectly obedient minion. These creatures don't spread like an infection: while they might carry diseases, being corpses and all that they do not spread a disease which create more of their kind. These creatures are generally not much of a threat unless they swarm their enemies. They are basic 1-2 HD generic monsters with no particular special power or mechanic.

The Revenants

This is the wide category of True Undead. Their origin, powers, motivations and weakness can vary immensely: some are by-products of mad science not realizing it is tapping into forces beyond conventional reality while others are born of curses. Others still are what happen when a human which would form a ghost end up with a strong enough link to its body to animate it. When this occurs, the energies which would create a Ghost merge with the body and become one being, infusing the deceased body with a form of permanency no corpse should ever have. Dead flesh somehow still work enough to allow the creature to move around often in utter defiance of its damaged state. Some can and will rot away into a skeleton (and not feel any bit weakened) while others are able to stave off entropy just enough to function but never quite to regenerate to full living function. Undead are an anomaly, death which live.

The rank of these creatures include but aren't limited to:

• The Hopping Vampire of Chinese folklore, called a Jianshi (or any alternate spelling). While its body is stiff to the point of having limited articulation, the hopping vampire make up for it with unusual abilities. These creatures feed on the life force of others.
• The Moroii begin life as cursed, vampiric humanoids with a few oddball abilities and a very good chance of being extremely tragic, cursed with inhuman hunger they despise or fully embracing their nature and being cackling villains. When they die their corpse reanimate as a full-fledge undead which hunger for warm flesh and blood.
• The Vampyr (not to be confused with True Vampires) is just one name and possible spelling for various creatures of European folklore, including alternate names and spelling such as Vrykolakas, Vyrolak, Tympanios, Ubour, Upior, Upir and Upyr. It is a disease-infested monstrous corpse.
• The Vetala is the ancient name given to a creature which exist beyond Indian folklore. It is the result of an impure Spirit animating a corpse and bonding with it, creating a permanent vessel for it as a Revenant. While it retain memories of its host body it is not that person but rather an evil, alien will.
• The ‘unhallowed dead’ or Wight are thought to be born of incorrect burial practice. However, in theory, they can rise from any form of dead which has a severe displeasure with its death and events following it. Wight eventually become angry and spiteful at the living.

Of course, these are but snippets of the entire menagerie of critters and their names taken from folklore. There are many more, such as Draugr and Pishtaco not to mention truly unique Revenants with abilities never seen before or after. There's also the ever infamous mummies of ancient Egypt but it would be wrong to assume every mummy is secretly sleeping undead. And even then, not every undead mummy is a Revenant.

(True) Vampires

So you've seen the walking corpse, bloated with freshly drank blood. You've seen the shriveled and stiffened monstrosity that sucks the life force of anyone it hops to. Truly you've seen the complete gamut of the Undead and conclused that either there is no such thing as capital-V Vampires or you've concluded they are simply a pop culture misunderstanding of rotting corpses that consume human life to sustain themselves. Case closed, right?

....Right?

In the immortal words of Lex Luthor: "WROOOONG!"

So why make Vampires their own thing if the (slightly more) mythologically accurate rotting corpse that feed upon living beings exist. The answer to that is both simple and extremely complex. While I’ve kept a lot of the stuff in here relatively setting-neutral there are elements in there which have grown purely from the setting Lore of my own game. For one thing, it was the earlier (and often discarded nowadays, but still canon) adoption of certain trappings from Anime and Manga. Japanese media have made Vampires a much bigger deal and way cooler than Western medias which have increasingly portrayed them as moody sparkling goth teenagers. Which brings me to the second point. Vampire: The Masquerade pretty much set the benchmark for the modern vampire, especially around tabletop. However, personally I hated these Vampires and their extensive cliques and networks of moody goth-punk edgelords with their nightclubs. What I wanted was a mixture of the zany insanity of the Vampires of the likes of the Hellsing manga mixed with the character which defined Vampires as we knew them: Dracula. Thus the resulting Vampire is a much more powerful being, with immense powers and surprisingly lacking the crippling sunlight weakness we associate. It's just my personal taste but I’m not a fan of ‘Sunlight=Instant Destruction’.

True Vampires are a form of Undead seemingly and confusingly unrelated to the lesser vampiric beings found around the world. Their lineage and history goes back to the primordial, murky depths of the universe. They are few in numbers, although they may have many varied minions (human, monsters and even lesser vampiric beings): each of them a powerful and dangerous creature. They were human, once, but their twisted existence has warped them physically and mentally through the ages.

They are stronger, faster and tougher than any human. They can see perfectly in pitch black darkness and smell the blood in your veins. They heal faster and cannot age. The life force they steal from others is slowly digested or burned to fuel their dark and eldritch blood manipulation powers. Are they invincible, however? Not even close. While sunlight does not kill them it weakens them: their superhuman strength and speed are sapped by sunlight and they find it difficult to heal when exposed to it. Over time they just grow tired of the warm touch of sunlight and how its burning sensation reminds them of their once-mortal selves. Fire will destroy them as it does anything else. Silver and iron, as well as other materials or tricks which repel supernatural and/or impure spirits can temporarily weaken them.

It is fortunate that their ancient minds become so utterly bored with reality because otherwise they might have taken over the world long ago, possibly covertly. Only the younger specimen, those old enough to have developed the full set of baseline abilities but young enough to still remember what its like to be human have an interest in keeping up the facade. These creatures do stalk dark alleys and haunt nightclubs but this is a temporary phase. And, even then, the nightclub part is a exaggeration: each has their own personality and very few really give a crap about goth or punk scenes. Some of them choose to stalk the wilderness and countryside, abandoning the trappings of civilization entirely.

Ancient Vampire by
Antonio Manzanedo

Can they take bat forms? Absolutely, but that is simply because they can shapeshift in any kind of the 'creatures of the night'; owls, insects and wolves were far more common forms before modern human pop culture put the bat under their radar. Very few vampires resemble bats in their true form, safe perhaps for a few rare strains and bloodlines which inhabited Mesoamerica and had ties to the deity Camazotz.

Their true forms reflect their inner nature: that of being a walking, parastic corpse and a monstrous predator of the night. None of them are beautiful in their true form (but shapeshifting and glamour can certainly help with sex appeal). Their flesh can appear intact (or even seemingly alive, even if not) or they can be almost ragged skeletons. Their faces are twisted and feral, with rows of teeth and a mish mash of animalistic features, but real and imaginary. Each is a unique but unmistakable nightmare, one which most vampires embrace. Their inner and outer selves are one and the same. Their dead flesh and spirit amalgamated into a self-sustaining unliving nightmare and plague upon mankind.

I Need To Play "Monsters Destroy All Cities"

This one is pretty new so it hasn't really collected dust as much. Well, what can I say about it? A DIY oldschool-styled wargame entirely centered around Kaijus: those giant, city-stomping rubber suit monsters of Japanese television and movies sounds pretty damn cool plus I happen to have a few monster Transformers action figures I could use in my collection, either as a kaiju or a monster-themed mecha. While it hasn't been the focus of this blog much I'm an absolutely fanboy of kaiju and mecha stuff so this one would be pretty fun to play.

As an added bonus, here's some fun ideas for unorthodox miniature ideas for all your Kaiju and mecha needs.

Breakout Beasts

That's totally a Red Dragon.

These are made by MegaConstrux formerly known as Mega Blox. They come in eggs filled with goo and the egg is reusable and have primarily a theme of dragons, which is very fitting since the most iconic kaijus are reptilian and/or draconic. They are also customizable as you can swap parts and with some point one could build their own custom critters. They are also roughly the size of a 'Large' miniature in D&D, meaning their size is fairly spot on for any young draconic monster or perhaps the mighty and terrifying steed of some black knight or evil sorcerer.

They come blind-packed in their egg but don't worry, you can at least avoid duplicates with a simple trick. Each different model has a code molded somewhere on the plastic egg so you can tell each of them apart if you're really interested. Of course, duplicates aren't a bad thing and you might want them if you plan on making a small squad of monsters.

Transformers Generations

In particular, the Battle Patrol already looks like
their alternate mode exist to shoot at Godzilla!

The long-going Generations line of Transformers is basically a 'classics' line, with modern updates to all the classic characters from the most basic and iconic to the utterly obscure. At smaller price points they currently have guys who are very small but still articulate. In particular the currently-being-released (as of this post, anyway) Micromasters, who are two-packs of tiny robots. Their vehicle mode make them well-suited to be used as regular army vehicles when you don't need robots. Meanwhile, the Battlemasters turn into weapons but they make good mechs and can hold their own guns. Same for the predecessor, the Prime Masters (who also happen to look like tokusatsu monsters!)

There is also, as mentioned, quite a few Transformers who look like mechanical monsters unleashed by some mad scientist to fight a cartoonish robotic superhero every saturday morning.

Mythical Realms (and other) figures by Safari

This guy totally look like he's going to fight Mothra
or something.

I've written about these guys before and even statted the Alien Dragon for shit and giggles. What else can be said? They're nice enough, they're a decent size and they look good. If one take time to browse their inventory they will find some suitably unorthodox and weird critters which is perfect because, for kaiju, the stranger the better. Sadly some of the cooler ones are sold out in many online stores you might need to hunt them down a bit. They also have figures of actual prehistoric beasts, including dinosaurs so that's also neat, since dinosaurs are a staple of Kaiju designs.