Dungeonautica
Monsters

Some creep, some crawl, some fly, some dig. But they all squirm on the end of your blade.

Of course, some squirm because Dungeonauts give them indigestion....

D51: Monster Teams

Monster Teams are a handy shorthand just like Grunt-Squads (Risus p.3). The only option you may want to exercise is using Funky Dice (Risus p.6) for larger or tougher monsters. Me, I just make one bad-ass monster with lots of unique Clichés. To each his own, though.

D52: Monster Clichés

Saying that a monster is a Lonely Orc Shaman [4], Desperate Sweepstakes Player [3], Scantily-clad Temptress (orc-style) [2], Orc Historian [1] is darn funny, but can be exhausting if you expect the Dungeonauts to wade through dozens of encounters. I propose a little sleight of hand. Monsters have a best Cliché (in the case of our Orc, it's 4). Using a spread of x, x-1, x-2, assign numbers to the elements in this list until you run out. The order is up to you.

  • Fighting
  • Moving
  • Thinking /Special Effects
  • Searching
  • Charming

Don't worry about assigning clever names to the numbers that correspond to these abilities unless you feel funny, feel inspired, feel guilty, or your players force you to.

D53: Monster List: Acid Lasher to Zoom! Zoom!

Watch for ongoing additions to this section.

Acid Lasher

This 100 pound sewer dwelling monstrosity is basically a giant rat with a tongue coated in highly acidic saliva. Every time someone loses a Cliché die, the rat has licked some of their gear. A random item is destroyed. Yes, if the random item "your coins," then all of your coins are destroyed. Sometimes their lairs contain an acid-proof item or two.

Assilisk

The little known cousin of the somewhat better known Basilisk and the all too familiar Medusa. An Assilisk is able to appear in a variety of forms, humanoid and otherwise, but all have the same petrifying attack. The Assilisk drops its drawers to reveal its spectacularly ugly posterior. If at any time during an encounter with the Assilisk the DM rolls a '1' on any die, the Assilisk reveals its "true colours." This provokes a Saving Throw using the most appropriate Clichés for any Dungeonaut whose player can't convince the DM that she would have been looking the other way. Note that this is one of the times when ostensibly negative Cliché descriptors like inattentive, near-sighted, or distracted can really come in handy.

Any Dungeonaut who fails the Saving Throw suffers the condition Petrified. Petrified characters are turned to stone and cannot move. This is a pretty severe condition, but it has some counterbalancing perks; the character is able to pose for family photos with almost endless patience, and becomes an expert at holding up hats and holding down papers. If your Dungeonaut has purely mental special powers, charitable DMs may allow her to use them. The only cure for Petrification is Fleshification, and the only thing we know for sure about Fleshification is that it doesn't involve Assilisk rumps.

Zoom! Zoom!

Zoom! Zoom!s are ultra-fast imps that tear about dungeons making life miserable for the "velocitally disadvantaged." They look and sound like dust-devils. They can do very little on their own, but form teams of 1 Zoom! Zoom! per die. Their attacks fling Dungeonauts about like rag dolls, bouncing them off of walls, ceiling, and floor.

This Thousandpress page © Vincent Diakuw 2004. Risus © S. John Ross 1993-2000.