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[Neonivek]

Undead from spesific kind of deaths would make a replenishing source of properly motivated monsters too. For example, if monsters rose from people who suffocated in full leather outfits, the monsters would then try to strangle people wearing full leather while ignoring those incompatible with its requirements.

Monsters assembled with severed bodyparts would most likely numerous enough to form larger hives into sites of bloodshed. Dark caverns under bloody battlefields would be a fit premise for longer adventures of cleansing the area from evil. Somehow I'm picturing an ant queen-like entity protected by her frankenstein-esque drones along this one.

Japanese are full of these "different types of death makes different undead" and some undead are created quite deliberately and gruesomly (self-canibalisation for example)

As for Faeries the problem mostly comes from the Renaisance and forward.

Medieval and earlier faeries while not always exclusively evil, were a wide variety of creatures many of whome were vicious monsters.

[Jeoshua]

I know what this game needs.

Right now we have procedurally generated types of monsters, like Demons or Night Critters or Titans.  But what we need are procedurally generated types of monsters.  Maybe this time attacks you in your sleep, this kind lives on cavern layer 2, and this other one only lives in the catacombs.

Think about it.

[Solace]

Maybe not entirely what you're looking for, but how about something like zombies or bogeymen, something universally hostile, but which won't attack members of their own group. Maybe killing some and covering yourself head to toe with clothing made from their leather would prevent them from attacking you, but of course as far as any other threat is concerned, you're just wearing basic (and possibly shoddily made) leather armor.

EDIT: And if you did get attacked and, say, lose a glove, they would attack only that body part.

[harborpirate]

Procedural creatures are the way to go, but I think what this thread is searching for are novel, non-typical pieces that could be used in that procedural generation. Already there are tons of great ideas for toady to mine out of here.

[loose nut]

Monsters that possess sentient beings (including dwarves naturally). The event would look just like the strange mood of course. The monster could vanish or die upon possession. The goal of the possession could be: to eat all of a particular type of food, to make an artifact and then run off with it, to steal an existing artifact, to tunnel into the depths to free its brethren, to possession-hop until it controls the highest ranking dwarf it can find, to impregnate another dwarf with a monstrous incubus, to build a monument (possibly in an inconvenient spot) at which point the being reaches apotheosis, or, obviously, to kill kill kill every dwarf in sight.

[NW_Kohaku]

Procedural creatures are the way to go, but I think what this thread is searching for are novel, non-typical pieces that could be used in that procedural generation. Already there are tons of great ideas for toady to mine out of here.

Yes, this.

Basically, a creature behaviors or quirks or driving motivations that can be used with a procedural set of creatures, so that we would wind up with creatures that seem like ones out of myth.

[NW_Kohaku]

I'll talk about another creature as an example... 

Spoiler: Long off-topic discussion about what kitsune actually are (click to show/hide)

Kitsune literally just means "fox" in Japanese, but Kitsune as mythological creatures are shapeshifters with powers over illusion, and behave a little like medieval-era fairies that have sometimes bizarre powers and motives, and are alternately villains and heroes, depending the story and the individual Kitsune.  (Kitsune are common in Chinese and Indian myth, as well, but are almost invariably evil in China or India.  In Japan, one of the major deities of harvest, Inari, was closely associated with kitsune after a myth where a family of kitsune swore to be the servants of the deity in return for protection, and this association may have much to do with the more positive image. Or maybe the good kitsune are all the descendants of those kitsune? Many people with supposed spiritual powers are supposed to be descended from unions with kitsune as the source of their powers, including the Emperor.) 

Many Japanese and Chinese creatures are supposedly normal creatures or objects left out in the light of the moon (the source of magic) for one hundred years, which is supposed to bestow magical sentience upon any non-sentient object.  Kitsune start as foxes that become sentient after 100 years of moonlight.  For every hundred years after that, their natural fox forms gain another tail, and new powers, until they have 9 tails.  Upon a hundred years with 9 tails, they are supposed to ascend into Nirvana, as a part of a reference to Buddhism.



Kitsune possess the ability to shapeshift into human form, and create illusions, sometimes using leaves or other natural bits lying around as part of elaborate illusions.  Tanuki, another shapeshifter, is more known for the trick, but they can cast illusions over leaves to make it appear like paper money.  In elaborate hoaxes, they can convince people to live in false homes for years, and when Kitsune finally leave, the person wakes up having spent years of their life in the dirt, naked. 

Kitsune also have other magical powers, are credited with the ability to create rain even on sunny days, and can have healing magics or the ability to create fox-fire or outright infernos if they are powerful enough.

One story of kitsune I remember is of a man meeting a kitsune (who apparently wasn't even hiding what he was) while he was on a long journey.  The kitsune asked the traveler if he'd like some companionship and a drink, and the weary traveler said he would, since he had been tired and alone for days, and apparently wasn't going to let a little thing like having his drinking buddy being a supernatural trickster stand in the way of having a good time.

The kitsune asked the man to close his eyes and walk with him for a short while, and when he was told it was alright to open his eyes, the man found himself on a balcony overlooking a local drinking hall.  The kitsune snuck in beer from the men below, who didn't seem to notice at first, until the traveler, getting a bit drunk, called out to them, and started inviting them up onto the balcony, a few at a time, to join in their once-private party with the kitsune, who had by now taken on human form. 

Eventually, all but one man in the tavern were up on the balcony, enjoying the party and tricks that the kitsune was performing and the stories he was telling. 

The one hold-out, however, bothered the traveler.  Unlike the others, he had apparently never seen the kitsune or heard the traveler no matter how often he was called out to.  So the traveler asked his newfound kitsune drinking buddy what was the deal with the one hold out.

The kitsune responded that the problem was that virtuous men were completely immune to the illusions of a kitsune, and as such, he couldn't see any of the partying that was going on.

The traveler, then, once it seeped through his alcohol-soaked mind, realized the implication of this: that his partying in an illusion proved he was not a virtuous man.  The realization shocked him enough to make him lose his balance, and when he fell backwards, he fell straight through the floor of the balcony he had been partying on, and looked up to realize that the party had taken place upon the rafters of a tavern that was only one story tall. 

The traveler then ran out of the village, and renounced his worldly possessions to become a Buddhist monk, and vowed to regain his lost way on the path to a virtuous spirit.


I really like it because they aren't evil, aren't hostile, nor are they fountains of incorruptible pure pureness.  They're just dudes with cool magic powers who want to have fun on the edges of society even though they won't ever be entirely accepted into society.  (Or maybe the kitsune was trying to make a point?)

In-game, having an oddball fae encounter, where you aren't necessarily forced into combat, but are forced to guess as to whether the fae have hostile intentions or are trustworthy, or just playing a harmless enough prank that simply trying to put on a brave smile and bare with the humiliation is the best way to deal with things. 

It's just a matter of being swept up in a strange situation when you meet a stranger alone on the road who takes you to some illusory fae circus...

[GreatWyrmGold]

If we just give monsters random goals, it will deem like alien intelligence. Especially if all relate to one thing. it doesn't have to make sense-we aren't alien to ourselves.

[NW_Kohaku]

Yeah, but random goals have to at least be programmed in. 

Going through some more kitsune-related myths...

In one of the myths I've read before, a man comes across a beautiful woman searching in the woods.  He is immediately smitten with her, and so he agrees to help her with what she was looking for.  She gives him money, and asks him to go to the lord who is hunting in the forest, and bring back the body of the fox that the lord had just killed in the hunt.

Although both the man and the lord found it very strange, the man is capable of convincing the lord to take the money in exchange for the dead fox, and upon taking the body to the woman, she reveals herself as a kitsune, and tells the man that the dead fox was her father, and the rest of her kitsune family take the body away for a proper burial.

I unfortunately forget a large chunk of the story that comes after this, but at one point, the man falls severely ill, and the kitsune he had helped in the past comes back to give him medicine and save his life.


Kitsune are often involved in myths as "shapeshifter lovers", a fairly common type of myth around the world, where female creatures with shapeshifting powers marry (or just seduce) a man who doesn't realize what she is, and only after years of marriage and children (or just a one-night-stand) the husband somehow finds out what she really is (typically because he did something he was told never to do, like look at her when she is in the bath).  What happens after that point depends on the general hostility of the creature and the myth, though.  Kitsune are typically of the more benign variety.

In the Japanese Tales book, there is a story of a man who finds yet another supernaturally charming woman along the side of the road.  He strikes up a conversation with her, and she is at first charmed, and happy for the company. However, as it becomes more and more clear that he isn't interested in just conversation, she becomes troubled.

"The woman tried to hold him off. "Now that you've gotten this far," she said, "I'd like very much to go all the way.  But you see, if we do, you'll die!"

"Much too excited to listen, the man kept pressuring her until she gave in. "I really can't refuse you," she said, "since you insist so urgently.  Very well then, I'll do whatever you wish and die in your place. If you want to show me gratitude, copy the Lotus Sutra and dedicate it for me."

"The man seemed not to take her seriously, and he finally consummated his desire. They lay in each other's arms all night long, chatting like old lovers. At dawn the woman got up and asked the man for his fan.  "I mean what I said, you know," she told him, "I'm going to die instead of you.  If you want proof go into the palace grounds and look around the Butoku Hall.  You'll see." Then she left.

"At daylight the man went to the Butoku Hall and found there a fox lying dead with his fan over its face.  He was very sorry.  Every seven days after that he finished a copy of the Lotus Sutra and dedicated it for the fox's soul.  On the night following the forty-ninth day he dreamed that she came to him, surrounded by angels, and told him that thanks to the power of the Teaching she was to be born into the Tori Heaven."

(Japanese Tales Royall Tyler, 115-116)


In another story, an old man who liked to philander when his wife was out of town did the usual routine of falling in love with a mysterious girl he just met, going to her magnificent house with servants, getting married, and having children with her.  He completely forgot about his old family, he was so happy there.

The man's son (from his original family), believing his father had died, had a statue of a god carved to lead them to the body of his father so that a proper burial could take place. 

At that time, the statue burst through the illusion of the kitsune, and the old man, nearly starved to death, crawled out from the crawlspace under the storage shed at his own house.  He had been missing for thirteen days, although to him, it had seemed like thirteen years.  He had been living under the crawlspace of the storage shed of his own house, although it seemed like a luxurious mansion filled with servants to him.  He declared to his son as soon as he saw him that he had fathered a new heir to the household, and yet when he tried to show his (human) son the new heir, there was a litter of young foxes that quickly fled out into the woods. 


As for weaknesses of a kitsune, dogs are their natural enemy (because dogs will hunt a fox).  In one story, the way a kitsune wife (one who had been married for many years, and had children) was revealed was when hunting dogs caught her scent and started chasing her, causing her tail to appear in her panic to run away, (the tail or ears are the most common components of a glamour failure for kitsune) and revealing her identity.  (In the end of that story, she couldn't remain in the village, but the husband still loved her, and there were also her children, so she lived outside the village, and the family snuck out in the middle of the night to go and see her.)

[CatalystParadox]

A few ideas:

This: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valravn

It already comes up in world history that sometimes sentient beings will begin worshipping creatures like Titans.  What about creatures that seek worship specifically and primarily (over such concerns as food/hoarding)?

Invisible creatures (perhaps visible only under special circumstances, or their location can be inferred from other evidence with close attention and then targetted if you find the EXACT square.) - perhaps very weak otherwise but having a single annoying/interesting power or trait, whether that is poaching an item from your stockpiles such as food or booze or even hoarding items, or even going around giving your dwarves a very specific unhappy thought, or even weakening and slowly killed dwarves in your hospital, to name a few examples.

[NW_Kohaku]

Pulling open Bullfinch's Mythologies, so as not to focus too much on any one area...

The nymphs and dryads of Greek Myth are always interesting. 

Dryads, as far as I can figure out are actually a specific kind of nymph.  Nymphs are daughters of gods whose power is more dilute, and who only have general powers over nature in a specific area, and are born of that specific type of nature, be it a river or a mountain spring or patch of flowers or a bay or a forest, and dryads are just the specific nymphs that are particular to forests. 

Pomona was a hamadryad (a specific sub-type of dryad that is born of an oak tree) who is noted as peculiar in that she didn't love wild forests, but preferred orchards.  She especially loved apple trees and grape vines, and grew these.  She scorned love, and turned away the various gods and satyrs and human suitors, but would allow common field workers into her orchards to help maintain and harvest the fruit she grew.

(The rest of the story is about how a harvest god actually manages to convince her to marry him, by talking about how the vine depends upon the tree and the apple tree upon the bees and such, but that's not really relevant to the game until we get something like marriages and the ability to marry supernatural creatures into the game.)

A friendly nature spirit that lives in the local orchard, and allows for hospitable interaction, so long as certain rules particular to that one spirit demands that people abide by would be a way to introduce some interesting interactions to the game.

[Bohandas]

posting to watch.

[Mountain-King]

based on the development updates night creatures and other monsters are being realized via a "curse" system. it would be cool if some of those monsters were originally normal creatures that were placed under curses because of some historical event. like in the valravn example above where ravens eat a dead king and become evil spirits. or like La Llorona, who drowns her kids and isn't allowed into heaven and becomes a crazy undying ghost who kidnaps children that stray too far from home. or like an elf betrays the laws of his race and kills and eats an animal and is cursed to become a flesheating ghoul. or like a demon dies in a battle and his blood spills on a tree and the tree turns into a giant hell ent.

i am also in favor of mischievous or benevolent monsters. like say some kind of mimic that disguises itself as an everyday object and then pops out and scares someone and runs away. or lares-and-penates-type household spirits who intervene once in a while in an unobtrusive way. the kind of thing that wouldn't be controllable and wouldn't have any real effect on gameplay, but would still be a really cool thing to have happen once in a while.

[NW_Kohaku]

i am also in favor of mischievous or benevolent monsters. like say some kind of mimic that disguises itself as an everyday object and then pops out and scares someone and runs away. or lares-and-penates-type household spirits who intervene once in a while in an unobtrusive way. the kind of thing that wouldn't be controllable and wouldn't have any real effect on gameplay, but would still be a really cool thing to have happen once in a while.

Well, again, the classic Chinese/Japanese style of myth holds that almost any form of creature or object can turn into a "monster" after 100 years of moonlight.

This includes normal foxes turning into kitsune that are trickster spirits, but it also includes inanimate objects.

Objects like old pots or umbrellas that gain life and sentience because of magic are classic types of monsters.  These are called tsukumogami, and the umbrella-creature, called a karakasa is the most emblematic, appearing as an umbrella with a single large eye that hops around on its one leg/handle and tries to lick people with its oversized tongue. 

Typically, they aren't hostile, and are at worst pranksters, enjoying scaring people by pretending to be common household objects before startling people with their ability to move and speak. 

In some modern stories (basically, anime), the weird kid/loner freak actually lives with harmless forms of youkai/monsters who like to scare most humans, but shelter the loner and consider him/her "one of them".  (These stories often revolving around a new kid getting sucked up into the world of the supernatural because of association with the Loner Freak when they Just Want To Be Normal.)

Exceptions exist, however, for objects which were thrown away or abandoned or abused, which specifically want revenge upon their former owners (or humans in general) for their abuse or neglect.  (Of course, there's only so much damage a paper umbrella can really do...)

[CatalystParadox]

based on the development updates night creatures and other monsters are being realized via a "curse" system. it would be cool if some of those monsters were originally normal creatures that were placed under curses because of some historical event. like in the valravn example above where ravens eat a dead king and become evil spirits. or like La Llorona, who drowns her kids and isn't allowed into heaven and becomes a crazy undying ghost who kidnaps children that stray too far from home. or like an elf betrays the laws of his race and kills and eats an animal and is cursed to become a flesheating ghoul. or like a demon dies in a battle and his blood spills on a tree and the tree turns into a giant hell ent.

Excellent point re: curses.  That brings to mind the Wendigo - adventurers, if hungry enough, will eat sentients.  Does this ever happen for historical figures in worldgen under any circumstances? (excluding elves, of course)