Should we, as designers, take our inspiration for Monstrous Enemies from:

1) Mythology
2) Historic Nature (Dinosaurs, Extinct Creatures)
3) Current Nature
4) Fiction of others

Thoughts???

Yes.

Quote from: rway218;939069Should we, as designers, take our inspiration for Monstrous Enemies from:

1) Mythology
2) Historic Nature (Dinosaurs, Extinct Creatures)
3) Current Nature
4) Fiction of others

Thoughts???

5) The Players in your own Game Group.

Yes and

6) Own imagination, dreams, nightmares...

Quote from: Skarg;939079Yes and

6) Own imagination, dreams, nightmares...

This.

I didn't mean to imply these are the only areas to look

sorry bout that

I'll be less vague. If I want to know what my players want as their standard antagonist in game and what monsters they want to combat in game, then I need to know my players. This is why I prefer to have a pre-campaign geek-together so that we can shoot the shit and I can learn more about the people I am going to be GMing for, thus giving them a better RPG experience. More often than not, I either already know the players or am in no position to pre-game things. That is just how it usually goes in life but I'd still like to go for the ideal situation.

Quote from: rway218;939069Should we, as designers, take our inspiration for Monstrous Enemies from:

1) Mythology
2) Historic Nature (Dinosaurs, Extinct Creatures)
3) Current Nature
4) Fiction of others

As CRKrueger says:

Quote from: CRKrueger;939073Yes.

It depends on the setting and how you want to play/design the setting.

A game set in Medieval Europe might have monsters based on real-world creatures, with a few from medieval legends.

A game set in the Old Stone Age would have a lot of prehistoric creatures and, maybe, some made up supernatural creatures.

A game set in modern-day USA would have real-world creatures and some classic supernatural creatures.

A game set in the world of a series of novels would have monsters based on those that appear in the novels.

Some settings might have a mish-mash, so normal creatures, some prehistoric creatures, some from mythology and so on.

Word of advice from someone whos piblished and worked with others.

Dont base too heavily on someone elses IP. It WILL be spotted and someone WILL take issue with it and a decade later people will be calling you out on it.

Brealt over at Palladiun used to get flack for cribbing designs from anime. Games Workshops been called out for and possible sued for ganking from obscure asian techno-horror movies, and a few TSR artists have been called out for cribbing from older art or movie stills.

Not to mention that if your depiction is too recognizable it can lead to legal trouble.

Otherwise look around and research, daydream, ask others. Dont limit yourself to just one source of inspiration.

D&D itself drew from things like mythology, legends, science fiction, and even toys. The Owl Bear, Rust Monster, and Bulette were inspired by some plastic monsters in a toy set.

Quote from: Omega;939267Dont base too heavily on someone elses IP.

'Too heavily' being the key factor. Like, GW's genestealers and tyranids are pretty obviously 'inspired by' Giger's Alien designs... but nothing about them is really close enough to cry foul (the stuff they lifted from 2000AD was closer, IME).

The toys TSR copied for critter ideas were obscure, but their resemblance is blatant once you see the originals... so I guess they just got lucky.

QuoteMonstrous Enemies Inspiration Table

1) Mythology
2) Historic Nature (Dinosaurs, Extinct Creatures)
3) Current Nature
4) Fiction of others
5) The Players in your own Game Group.
6) Own imagination, dreams, nightmares...

"Roll a d6 ... roll a d6"

Quote from: Simlasa;939290'Too heavily' being the key factor. Like, GW's genestealers and tyranids are pretty obviously 'inspired by' Giger's Alien designs... but nothing about them is really close enough to cry foul (the stuff they lifted from 2000AD was closer, IME).

The toys TSR copied for critter ideas were obscure, but their resemblance is blatant once you see the originals... so I guess they just got lucky.

Early on the Genestealers were more like gribbly lizard/greys than Giger Aliens. But over time GW has made them more and more an Alien rip-off. The Tyrranids went from cool space dinosaurs to boring Giger-Rip-offs. Why they didnt litigate is anyones guess. But most likely A: They werent blatant rip-offs originally, and B: By the time they were blatant rip-offs enough time passed that no one cares or notices. C: The Giger Alien was itself taken from Voyage of the Space Beagle and the SF movie It!

The TSR critters were themselves knock-offs of some superhero TV shows. And while GW can and will sue you for ripping off their rip-offs. Others wont because that opens the door for themselves being taken down. And some of these rip-off companies are so short lived that theres no one around to take action even. Manufacturing in China is a total mess. Before they went down Palisades related to us all the hassles they had with working overseas and others chipped in their own experiences.

Standing on the shoulders of giants ...

Many authors have based creatures on existing creatures, whether the source was mythology, old stories or new ones.

It all depends on what you are taking.

Using Vampires is fine, as vampires have been in stories for centuries. Having sparkly vampires that can go out in cloudy weather, or vampires with a daylight ring that allows them to walk around in broad daylight probably infringes on somebody's works.

Deconstruct some well known monsters from fiction and cinema, and you will see that a lot of them are just re-skinned, or re-imagined creatures and legends. The Ringwraiths were just banshee's in all respects, and they're iconic. Heck, Jim Butcher managed to make the Billy Goats Gruff into critters that worked in the story (Dresden Files).

But match your monsters to your setting. Players like to see things that have internal consistency in your setting. D&D right out of the core is like a grab bag, kitchen sink toolkit that too many GMs just upend entirely into their world (yes, there are Gith as well, oh, and definitely Drow, and I should include Aboleths...). One of the things I will credit Wheel of Time for is that the Trollocs, right out of the gate, felt like they existed for a reason. They were a mysterious monster race that clearly worked for the enemy, was of the enemy, made by the enemy.

My 2 cents.

All of the above, I would say.