Monster Manual project

[James Holloway]

Demons already?  are you sure you haven't sneaked a couple of extra episodes in there somewhere  

Well, it does come out twice a week. Three times in this coming week, in fact, since I have some time off and I thought it would be fun to release a bonus episode for Dinosaurs. I'm still pretty daunted by the scale of it, though!

Great fun series, thanks for taking the time to do this.

I'm glad you're enjoying it!

[James Holloway]

If it was Demons last time, that means this one is Devils!



The pillar and I theeenk the altar are from Reaper, the warlock is a Reaper Bones model, the lady with the spear is a Metal Magic figure, and the devil himself is a lightly repainted HeroClix Kid Devil.

Anyway, give it a listen: http://monsterman.libsyn.com/episode-11-devils

[James Holloway]

A bonus episode to celebrate my birthday! This one co-stars my lovely wife, Allison, who has some opinions about dinosaurs.



http://monsterman.libsyn.com/episode-12-monster-man-and-wife-special-dinosaurs

[James Holloway]

And we close out the week with some miscellaneous D-monsters, including this Djinni from ... I want to say Grim Reaper? The characters are from Reaper and Lance & Laser.



http://monsterman.libsyn.com/episode-13-displacer-beast-to-doppelganger

[James Holloway]

A big name today -- dragons!



I got this toy dragon in a charity shop for £9. His crude black paint job is already flaking off the glossy plastic, but he worked for the game I needed him for. He even roars and stomps his feet.

http://monsterman.libsyn.com/epsiode-14-dragons

[James Holloway]

Here he is in action:

https://youtu.be/TWWj9UD4qP4

[James Holloway]

It has begun! It's time for the first Monster Man Contest, in which listeners make monsters out of cheap toys, write them up for their favourite RPG, and win prizes donated by generous sponsors! Tell your friends! Enter the contest! Sponsor it if you would like to! For more details, read on:

Monsters are great. Making monsters is doubly great. Making monsters while saving money is triply great. And making monsters, saving money and winning fabulous prizes? Has such felicity existed before now?

The first Monster Man contest celebrates the spirit of creative improvisation and adaptation that is such an important part of role-playing games. It's something I've talked about on previous episodes of the Monster Man podcast (http://monsterman.libsyn.com), and now it's time to put it into practice!

Here's how it works:

1. Find a cheap toy

When Gary Gygax needed inspiration for a new monster, he turned to the cheap plastic toys he could find in any dime store. The Bulette, Rust Monster, and Owlbear all come from these little monster models.

So head down to the pound shop (or dollar store, or flea market, or dusty corner of the attic, or wherever) and get yourself some cheap toys. These are going to be the starting point for your monster.

2. Let your imagination work

Use the toy as inspiration to create a cool monster. You can modify the toy if you like, but this isn't a conversion contest: you won't be graded on modelling skill. Expert sculpting isn't any better than sticking on a new head with hot glue, adding evil eyes with nail polish, or making spikes out of toothpicks.

3. Write up your monster

Create a Monster-Manual-style entry for your creature. It should have a description of the thing's habitat, behaviour, and so on. You should also create stats for the monster in your favourite game. It doesn't have to be AD&D -- that's the game the podcast is about, but part of the point of the show is that the Monster Manual is inspirational and informative for any gamer.

4. Submit your entry

If you have a blog or website, put your entry up there and send in a link via email, Twitter or what have you. If you don't have a blog, email me the writeup and I'll post it on mine. I'm @gonzohistory on Twitter and my email address is the same thing at gmail. You have until Sunday, 26 November to submit your entry!

5. Vote for the finalists!

Check out the contest entries and leave a comment or send an email or tweet telling me your two favourites, in no particular order.

6. Finalists go to the judges

I and my team of volunteers will total up the scores, identify the 8 finalists, anonymise them and send them to the judges. Our judges will select winners for 1st through 3rd place.

7. Win fabulous prizes!

Every finalist will receive a finalist's goodie bag including a PDF scenario from Chaotic Henchmen Productions plus a bunch of other fun stuff (watch this space for further prize announcements).

The third-place winner will receive a print scenario from Chaotic Henchmen (or a selection of PDF scenarios if that's their preference), plus a £10 gift certificate from Otherworld Miniatures.

The second-place winner will receive a print scenario from Chaotic Henchmen (or PDFs as above), plus a copy of the Secrets of Shandisholm core rulebook and Barrow Ring Burning supplement from Oakbound Studios and a £20 gift certificate from Otherworld Miniatures.

And the grand prize winner will receive a print scenario and a £30 Otherworld Miniatures gift certificate. The winner will also have their creation sculpted by Geoff Solomon-Sims of Oakbound Studios!

Do you make games or game-related products? Would you like to support the creativity of Monster Man's listeners? Get in touch! You can email me at gonzohistory@gmail.com or send me a message on Twitter @gonzohistory .

This contest is made possible by the generosity of our sponsors:

Chaotic Henchmen Productions: http://www.chaotichenchmen.com/

Oakbound Studios: http://www.propworkshop.co.uk/oakbound/

Otherworld Miniatures: http://otherworldminiatures.co.uk/

Listen to Monster Man for announcements, future contests, and more fun stuff: http://monsterman.libsyn.com

[James Holloway]

Contest is still going on, with great prizes to be won, so if you like making monsters get cracking!

But the real news today is that I finally have an episode with miniatures in the photo and not just toys (well, I guess there are always adventurers). Today's ep includes Dwarfs, so here are some:



From left to right, these are from Grenadier/em-4, not sure, Citadel (Lastro Lupintal, a really great and characterful sculpt. What eyebrows!) and Essex. The Essex paint job is old, but I think these are great models. That gnarly Bob Olley quality just works so well for them.

[Neunfinger]

I find your project very inspiring. I've been thinking about converting some cheap toy monsters for generic fantasy creatures for a while now. It's great to see so many cool and often simple ideas. I will watch this with interest.

Also, could you tell me who makes the maiden with the sword, bottom right in the picture?

[James Holloway]

That is a model of Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, one of a line of models of women from history you can find at http://www.colonelbills.com/15.html (warning: small, not-great photos of miniature boobs). As you can see, most of the line isn't useful for me (and I kind of question who it is useful for), but there are one or two good ones. You can buy both the Belt Fed version and a version of Aethelflaed by Bad Squiddo here: http://badsquiddogames.com/shop#!/Dark-Ages/c/20887902/offset=0&sort=normal

I'm glad you're enjoying the project!

[MachinaMandala]

I'll get in this contest if I can find something good.

[James Holloway]

I'll get in this contest if I can find something good.

Please do! And don't feel too constrained by the limitations. We've had a contestant who made a monster out of Play-Doh and another who's using an image of the toy he has in mind because he can't find a physical one. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

[Hobby Services]

Hmmm.  Does the contest entry have to use toys as such?  I'm a big fan of Reaper Bones for kitbashing stuff, and it's certainly pretty cheap compared to a lot of things I could monsterize.  Got a fair number of random bits and pieces laying around from previous hack jobs too, which wouldn't hurt any.

[James Holloway]

That might be a different contest in the future, maybe! The core idea of this, though, is miniatures that aren't miniatures -- although I agree with you that Bones are actually cheaper than a lot of other things, especially for overenthusiastic Kickstarter backers like me. But not for this one, I think.

[James Holloway]

And we're back! It's a grab bag of E-monsters today, from the Eagle, comma, Giant, to the Efreeti! The zoo gift shop strikes again.



https://goo.gl/ges6ux