Monster Manual project

[James Holloway]

Oh, and while we're here, let's check out a new episode, featuring the Gorgon, Grey Ooze, Green Slime, Griffin, and Groaning Spirit. Whew!



https://goo.gl/reR8vZ

[Hobgoblin]

Just listened to the last two. Great stuff again - I really liked your contrasting of 'golem aggregation' with 'goblin differentiation': a very good point.

I dimly recall that there was an illustrated children's book of mythology published in the 60s or 70s that probably provided the missing link between Gygax's gorgon and Topsell's (i.e. it showed the gorgon as a fire-breathing bull, like one of the khalkotauroi). I'm sure I've seen the illustration from the book floating around somewhere on the internet.

[James Holloway]

Golem aggregation is a great term.

Just a reminder: it's the last day to vote in the Monster Man contest! So many great monsters, including some by LAF regulars, so definitely check it out:

http://gonzohistorygaming.blogspot.co.uk/p/monster-man-contest-voting.html

[Severian]

Finally found time last night to start listening to this series. Enormous fun! Thanks for doing this. I still have my copy of the original MM and enjoyed your commentary greatly.

(My copy is from 1979, and describes itself as "4th edition", but as far as I can tell it's identical to what you quote, so maybe it's actually 4th impression or printing rather than edition, but that's by the by.)

I'm about ten episodes in so far and looking forward to more. Keep them coming!

[James Holloway]

Finally found time last night to start listening to this series. Enormous fun! Thanks for doing this. I still have my copy of the original MM and enjoyed your commentary greatly.

(My copy is from 1979, and describes itself as "4th edition", but as far as I can tell it's identical to what you quote, so maybe it's actually 4th impression or printing rather than edition, but that's by the by.)

I'm about ten episodes in so far and looking forward to more. Keep them coming!

Thanks! I actually don't know what year this copy is from, but my understanding is that unlike, say, Deities and Demigods, the various printings aren't that different.

Today's episode features Halflings, Hellhounds, Harpies, and Herd animals! I'm actually pretty sure I have some models for Hellhounds and Herd animals somewhere, but I haven't had time to take a photo, so you'll have to be content with this Reaper Bones halfling.

http://monsterman.libsyn.com/episode-27-halfling-to-herd-animal



My Bones models seem to attract lint; I'm gonna have to dust them.

Also! We have top 8 finalists in the Monster Man contest, which will be going to our panel of judges today!

http://gonzohistorygaming.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/the-monster-man-contest-finalists.html

[SotF]

I think I have those other goblins, at least the single character, around here somewhere, but just never got around to painting them. That is the problem with goblins, of course -- to do them effectively you need lots. I suppose I have a load of the old Warhammer Fantasy Regiments goblins, which did have the advantage of being free.

The single one is pretty definitely a character one.

Between the sets from Reaper and the one from Wizkids (Deep Cuts) there's 12 sculpts, 11 of which are more general looking and can work for conversions. The numbers go up with the Gremlins if those match as they look a lot like them in their pic, but I haven't gotten them.

There are also the prepainted pathfinder goblins...a lot of them have some pretty good sculpts and you'll either luck out with a decent paint job, or just strip and repaint how you want

[James Holloway]

And we're back! This one's got the Hippocampus, the Hippogriff, the Hippopotamus, and the Hobgoblin! I turn out not to own a model of any of these. I used to have loads of Uruk-Hai, but I gave them away before a move back in the early 2000s, I think.

http://monsterman.libsyn.com/episode-28-hippocampus-to-hobgoblin

[James Holloway]

Bit of a cheat in this episode, since the monster I chose to represent was ... the horsey.



Anyway, this one has the homonculus, the horse, the hydra, and the hyena, so it's pretty good. I read some poetry in it, even, but it doesn't rhyme so it's cool.

http://monsterman.libsyn.com/episode-29-homunculous-to-hyena

[James Holloway]

Today's episode polishes off the I section at one go.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DR9tE42W4AAuPQB.jpg

This imp is another GZG model, I think? I got it from a friend who had already painted it. I was going to base it on a 20mm round base, as you can see, but I never got around to finishing it. Another thing on the to do list, I guess!

[James Holloway]

Only three monsters in the J chapter, and realistically two of them are jackals. Still, I'm pretty happy with how this episode came out, and pretty happy with the jackalwere I painted for it. It's a Grenadier miniature, and I tried to replicate the colouring of the black-backed jackal in painting it.



http://monsterman.libsyn.com/monster-man-episode-31-jackal-to-jaguar

[James Holloway]

We have a winner in the Monster Man contest -- but in my eyes, they're all winners. Check it out:

https://goo.gl/nyz8wd

[James Holloway]

We're heading into a stretch where I don't have as many models, but I quickly painted up this Grenadier Medusa type to stand in as a Lamia!



http://monsterman.libsyn.com/episode-33-lamia-to-lamprey

[James Holloway]

I've been ill, so please excuse infrequent updates. Episodes have been going up, but I haven't been posting about them here. Still, I'm on the mend, so here's today's show. I thought I would talk a lot about the lich, but I turned out to have a surprising amount to say about the leucrotta. Or leucrocotta. or crocotta. Or kynolykos!

http://monsterman.libsyn.com/episode-35-leucrotta-to-lion

Here is a picture of a lich, though, since I definitely don't own a leucrotta model. This is a Reaper Bones figure, and I got so frustrated painting it that I just kind of slopped it and moved on. When I took it out of the D&D figures case, its arms and horns were bent to hell too. I assume this was originally a metal model, and some of those don't make the transition to the Bones material well. Eh. Cheap though.

[Hobgoblin]

More great stuff!

On the hobgoblins and their link with apes/monkeys: I'm sure I read somewhere (and I think you can trace in any case) that there was conscious a stage in the development of D&D humanoids from "synonyms ranked in power" to "each assigned an animal to resemble". So, in the first instance, they're all just goblins of various stature. But then kobolds become dog-like, orcs pig-like, gnolls hyena-like, bugbears bear-like and hobgoblins mandrill-like (those blue noses!). In some cases, illustrators took the resemblance further than Gygax had intended. So, if hobgoblins are a bit like large monkeys, one can sort of see why they might keep close(ish) relatives around to guard their lairs.

There's a kind of echo of Christina Rosetti's Goblin Market in these animal-like goblins, though I doubt that was an influence. But who knows?

I really enjoyed your discussion of the leucrotta. Have you read Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun? There's a terrific and rather eerie encounter in the third volume (The Sword of the Lictor) with the alzabo, a creature that is clearly based very closely on the leucrocotta. It's the perfect primer for a GM wanting to run a gaming encounter with the beast. Wolfe comes to it via Borges, I think, as the crocotta and leucrocotta are inlcuded in the latter's The Book of Imaginary Being (and Wolfe is clearly a big Borges fan).

[James Holloway]

More great stuff!

On the hobgoblins and their link with apes/monkeys: I'm sure I read somewhere (and I think you can trace in any case) that there was conscious a stage in the development of D&D humanoids from "synonyms ranked in power" to "each assigned an animal to resemble". So, in the first instance, they're all just goblins of various stature. But then kobolds become dog-like, orcs pig-like, gnolls hyena-like, bugbears bear-like and hobgoblins mandrill-like (those blue noses!). In some cases, illustrators took the resemblance further than Gygax had intended. So, if hobgoblins are a bit like large monkeys, one can sort of see why they might keep close(ish) relatives around to guard their lairs.

Hm. Interesting! Also, none of them really took, other than gnolls and bugbears, which have stayed pretty close to their original sense. Orcs in today's D&D just look like, I dunno, slightly toned down GW Orcs, kobolds are very explicitly lizardlike (and they're a bit lizardy in 1st) and Hobgoblins just look like ... hobgoblins, I guess. In the case of kobolds, that's clearly a direction they chose to go with them, but with the others I wonder if they just couldn't shake the pervasive cultural influence of Tolkien and subsequent products that included Orcs.

There's a kind of echo of Christina Rosetti's Goblin Market in these animal-like goblins, though I doubt that was an influence. But who knows?

I really enjoyed your discussion of the leucrotta. Have you read Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun? There's a terrific and rather eerie encounter in the third volume (The Sword of the Lictor) with the alzabo, a creature that is clearly based very closely on the leucrocotta. It's the perfect primer for a GM wanting to run a gaming encounter with the beast. Wolfe comes to it via Borges, I think, as the crocotta and leucrocotta are inlcuded in the latter's The Book of Imaginary Being (and Wolfe is clearly a big Borges fan).

Yeah, I thought of the Analeptic Alzabo when I was recording that segment, actually! Wolfe plays with the idea there that the creature actually takes on something of the *mind* of its victims, rather than just their voices? I don't remember the precise details, but it makes sense, since the whole series is about identity and Severian is constantly meeting people who are in some way his double or reflection. What exactly is it that makes you *you*? I think one of the reasons the leucrotta is a little more of a horror monster than some of the other classical fantastic wildlife is that we don't like things that threaten the boundaries of our identities.