Y is for Yuan-Ti

"Yuan-ti Anatomy Study" by Chris Quilliams

These last few letters of our Roman alphabet are always the hardest. Therefore, I have used tenuous connections at best to discuss concepts in abstracts. So, please bear with me. :)

 

Last week, I briefly mentioned that some gamers want to exclude influences derived from Tolkien in their AD&D game. Maybe the idea is to create a more Lovecraftian or Howardian feel something that excludes orcs and the like (for that I cannot help but recommend Realms of Crawling Chaos). In my mind, that is what the Yuan-ti represent. If one peruses the monster books of AD&D, especially Fiend Folio and Monster Manual II, one will find plenty of what 3.5 calls "abominations" and "outsiders." There is plenty to use in a grittier non-Tolkien game.

 

Let's examine the Yuan-ti (MM2, p. 130). Inhabitants of tropical jungles...well that can be changed. While Lovecraft focused mostly on marine life (deep ones!), Howard's Cthulhu tales had serpent men under England and Oklahoma! They were a degenerate race from prehistorical times that hates the "monkey races" that have since dominated the surface of the planet. The weakest are the 6 HD (!) purebloods. They can pass as human 80% of the time and have some minor reptilian features such as scaly hands or forked tongues. Also, "Purebloods normally handle affairs with the outside world and may travel far and wide doing so." This brings to mind the "strange monks" (robed Draconians) in the first Dragonlance novel, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, and also the degenerate inhabitants of Innsmouth with their batrachian appearance. Sinister and mysterious, they could lure heroes to their doom as in the opening story to the first edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. The half-breeds have a single snake-like feature: a snake's head, the lower body of a snake, whatever. Here is where the horror begins. And finally, the abominations are all snake or have, at most, a single human feature. Note that the race has innate spell abilities as well.

 

A whole campaign could center around the return of the "snake-men," taking the party into the Depths of the Earth to confront the yusn-ti's bleak temples and end their horrid rites. The polymorph other ability could be used to transform victims into half-breeds or even abominations to bolster the ranks of their growing armies. A desperate fight into the dark places of the world, possibly by adapting the Vault of the Drow or a similar adventure.

 

Bullywug Warrior.

 

 

There are other creatures that are not necessarily abomination could be tweaked as such. I direct you to a April, 2011, post on the bullywug that in which I tweaked the description for a more dark feel. This can be done with several races. Take that stock horror the owl bear. Describe it's clacking beak and its fiery eyes to the players. Make them feel its hot breath and hear its shriek of rage. Another something that is not Tolkien. :)

 

 

 

In all, the ability to excise Tolkien from the game is not difficult; it merely takes a little research and some substations. Oh, and imagination, always imagination.  Until tomorrow, gentle readers, when I wrap up the 2013 A-to-Z Challenge!

U is for Unholy Warrior

Frank Frazetta's iconic 'Death Dealer."

 

I have long held an, shall we say, unholy fascination with the concept of the dark knight, the cavalier that is a noble warrior (possibly) but who allies with the side of Evil rather than that of Good. Let's face it: we all do to some extent. Vader or Yoda, who's "cooler?"Isis the cool outfits or the feeling of power? Here's someone who will take what he wants, conventions be damned.

 

That said, in AD&D I have longer cringed at the "anti-paladin" and, from 0E, the "anti-cleric." The anti-paladin from the pages of Dragon was a travesty: he was the exact opposite of the paladin. Not very original there. One would think that the forces of evil would be a bit more. . . . intelligent in how they grant power to their champions, and, yes, they should have champions. Why should the forces of Law and Good get the only champions in existence? Actually, the novel  Dragonlance: The Second Generation gave players the "Knights of Takhisis," a group of (apparently) Lawful Evil cavaliers pledged to the service of the Queen of Darkness and Evil.

 

3.5 gave us the Blackguard but the prestige class was best used to represent the fallen paladin and note a dedicated servant of evil. The best treatment was in the Unholy Warrior supplement by Green Ronin. That book has the distinction of being the only 3.5 supplement (I actually, I believe it was for 3.0) that I purchased outside of WotC's core rules and splat books. (Oh, and the Everquest books, but then I was a big EQ nerd.) One of these days, I will adapt the class as presented for AD&D, or possibly S&WC.

 

One of the problems is that the gods of Evil rarely work together; one of the tenets of the Kyrnn setting is "Evil will always turn on itself." Another is that, while they are somewhat different, the Lawful Good deities tend to have the same portfolio: crusading warfare, chivalry, protection of the innocent, etc. Even among deities of the same alignment, such as Chaotic Evil, the portfolios could well be vastly different: Disease, Decay, Destruction, Undead, Death, Insanity, Butchery, etc. Unholy Warrior realized this and gave a variety of specialized classes depending on who the unholy warrior's patron was. Of course, this makes it difficult to standardize and tends to become the sort of thing that each individual DM must tailor to his table, even more so than deities and their relationship with clerics.

 

Until tomorrow, gentle readers, when we shall examine villains more closely.