Horn of the Kraken, a Norse fantasy Viking
adventure, based on the Fate of the Norns Ragnarok role playing system.
Middy and Mjolnir cartoon = a twist on
Norse myths.
Showing posts with label Monster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monster. Show all posts
Sunday, 20 December 2015
Middy and Mjolnir - Every Family Has One
Horn of the Kraken, a Norse fantasy Viking
adventure, based on the Fate of the Norns Ragnarok role playing system.
Middy and Mjolnir cartoon = a twist on
Norse myths.
Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Middy and Mjolnir # 2
Middy and Mjolnir #2
Horn of the Kraken, a Norse fantasy Viking
adventure.
Middy and Mjolnir cartoon = a twist on
Norse myths.
Monday, 14 December 2015
Middy and Mjolnir #1
Horn of the Kraken, a Norse fantasy Viking
adventure.
Middy and Mjolnir cartoon = a twist on
Norse myths.
Tuesday, 20 October 2015
More on Monsters
Ok, I know I write
fantasy and a lot of leeway has to be given, but let’s play with making a
monster real for a moment. I’ll take the Giant Spider because I’ve spent a lot
of time thinking about this one. Hay, I’m not slamming your hobbies, am I? :-)
Actually, I spent
a lot of time thinking of how to up-scale anthropoids when I wrote War of the
Worlds 2030 since the alien invaders used genetically modified earth life forms
as their troops.
Bugs make good
monsters in large part because of their psychological effect on humans. They
seem almost like aliens on our own world with their body plan and exoskeleton.
A lot more goes
into making a giant spider viable than just upsizing it though. First you hit
the oxygen transfer limit. Anthropoids breathe through their skin as such they can’t
get too large and still supply the oxygen needs of their body cores. If you
want to upscale a spider, an arachnid, part of the anthropoid group, you have
to deal with this. More oxygen in the atmosphere is one way, which was the case
in the Devonian period, adding some kind of a lung or blow through vents to the
body is another.
Next you run into
the limitations of an exoskeleton. An exoskeleton may be built in armour, but
it is not as useful for supporting a creature structurally as the solid pole
construction of an endoskeleton. So if you want a giant spider you must A –
reinforce the material of the skeleton. This process is useful in fantasy
because it makes a more powerful beast. Or B – add an endoskeleton. This would
make cutting off limbs even harder.
You might want to
look at adding additional hearts when you upscale a spider as well to keep the
blood flowing.
In the Fate of the
Norns Ragnarok gaming system the giant spider is highly intelligent, which means
a large, complex brain. The thing to keep in mind is that for life on earth the
size of the brain is less important that the ratio of brain size to body size.
A T-Rex had a
fairly large brain, but in relationship to its body size it wasn’t that
impressive.
This is only a
start. When making monsters for fantasy and books a little understanding of
biology coupled with a lot of imagination and problem solving is a very useful
mix for getting it right. One thing that often bugs me on the show Face Off, I
really enjoy the show but nothing is perfect, is some one will be tasked with
making an alien or monster and what they come up with seems to have no relationship
to any conceivable environment. Evolution trims away the superfluous, go back
to the T-Rex and the stubby arms, and keeps the useful. A pragmatic approach to
survival in an ecological niche is, in my opinion, the best place to start when
designing a monster. Undead are a notable exception to this as they operate
under rules that may step outside the natural environment. Then again the Draugar
in the Fate of the Norns cannon are fairly straight forward as they are corpses
possessed by a spirit and juiced up with extra power.
Until next time.
Wednesday, 9 September 2015
THE TRUTH ABOUT MONSTERS YOU MAY NOT KNOW
. Often in fantasy
the non-human or non-demy-human creatures are little more than something for
the heroes to kill. In Horn of the Kraken I wanted to steer away from that. Intelligent
creatures will presumably operate from a position of self interest. Hopefully,
enlightened self interest where they recognised that a favour earns a favour
and that cooperative action can accomplish their goals. This shaped much of how
I wrote my Norse, fantasy adventure. I wanted to give the ‘monsters’ something extra
to steer away from the whole Viking kill theme.
Thus, late on in
the book I have Vidurr form an alliance with several creatures. Working in tandem
they each achieve their desired goal. To call them friends would be a misnomer,
but allies fit.
Often language forms
a barrier to this form of cooperation in fantasy, but with the Snow Serpent the
Fate of the Norns Ragnarok system offers up a solution to that issue.
One caution about communication,
I think people should pay heed to the dentition of the speaker. It is likely
that cats and dogs could speak human language mastering one to two hundred
words except they lack the vocal structures to do so. When looking at a
“monster” one needs to give some thoughts of what its vocal range would be. An intelligent
spider may have a complex language, but it would likely be made up of clicks
and clacks because of the structure of the spider’s mouth.
Amazon buy link for Horn of the Kraken: http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-B.-Pearl/e/B00FEOLLIC/
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