Monster Origins

[leon]

The intent of this file is to collect information about monsters referenced in BFRPG:

• The BFRPG book where they first appeared
• By whom and when they were created (origin)
• Any references to "prior art"
• A suggested substitute monster in use in the most recent version of BFRPG

BFRPG books referenced are the Core Rules for Edition 3, the three Field Guides and the forthcoming 4th edition of the Core Rules. Names are given both as entry name in the book (Ant, Giant) and name as it might appear in a sentence (Giant Ant).

The origin of many monsters are part of history, science, and folklore. Others were imagined by novelists and game designers.

When possible, links to prior art are provided. Most invented monsters can be traced to references old texts. Some are understood to have appeared in games books from the 20th Century. This information may be interesting with regard to copyright and the free use of such information.

I will process posts to this topic into the spreadsheet. If it fills out, we can turn the information into something more like a reference text with more commentary. I hope it will be useful for anyone working on game rules.

[Dimirag]

"My" monsters:
Field Guide 2:
Bloodshroud, Gellybone, Gorophont, Grave Dancer, Living Candlestick, Living Graveyard: All original content.

Lobizon: Based on South American myths.

Sand Salamander, Wind Salamander: Original content, if the Salamanders change name (specially the cold/ice one) these should be renamed.

Field Guide 3:
Hay Golem, Spellgoat: Original creations.

[leon]

Release 2 has your edits, Dimirag, plus more stuff I picked up with searches.

I've searched on Google Books for prior art. Some monster names match common terms. For instance, Black Pudding is a sausage. I thought I'd the monster was inspired by the movie The Blob. Another example is carnivorous ape, a term commonly used to describe humans or prehistoric species like Homo erectus.

[Boggo]

Another example is carnivorous ape, a term commonly used to describe humans or prehistoric species like Homo erectus.

or Baboons!!!! sorry I'm still obsessed with Baboons

[TPFox]

Any of these might do if the game needs something different:

caveman · cave dweller · paleolithic man · stone age man . Neanderthal . primeval human

[Solomoriah]

Caveman has origins far, far older than TSR. It's things that TSR might have done for the first time that we are looking out for.

[Boggo]

Caveman has origins far, far older than TSR. It's things that TSR might have done for the first time that we are looking out for.

This site may help there

http://www.hahnlibrary.net/rpgs/sources.html

[leon]

Yes! Excellent resource, Boggo! I will find time to run through it and fill in more spreadsheet cells.

Yes, of course, Baboons would be an obvious inspiration for carnivorous apes. And the idea of a caveman is just part of natural history. As we've seen with kobolds, there are unique spins on monsters in other games that aren't necessarily from traditional use, ie being reptilian. Resolving this will come in later analysis. First, I'd like to fill out inspiration and examples of pre-1974 usage.

For my own reference: comments on https://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2017/08/ ... -ages.html suggest that Black Puddings are described in a Clark Ashton Smith story.

It's quite tempting to spend all day on this, but I do have to get some billable work done.

[Bumblepig]

or Baboons!!!! sorry I'm still obsessed with Baboons

We all are Boggo... we all are...

As for black puddings, I always thought there must have been some inside joke connecting the monster with the Scottish/Irish food of that name.

[Solomoriah]

For my own reference: comments on https://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2017/08/ ... -ages.html suggest that Black Puddings are described in a Clark Ashton Smith story.

OOH. I'll look at that soon!