Building Monsters with the Metamorphica!

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Building Monsters with the Metamorphica!
« on: July 24, 2012, 05:52:09 AM »
Taking inspiration from Ego at The Log Book Project and his alien creations, I'm playing with Johnstone's inimitable Metamorphica as a "really intense monster-designing machine".

I'm more interested in a Dungeon World monster more than an alien from outer space. My first shot produced the Spiniphant (a.k.a tusked tumbler.)

Here it is in it's full glory as a DW stated Monster. Next post I put details about how I used the metamorphica. Or check out my G+ post here


Northern spiniphant (a.k.a. tusked tumbler) 
Small, Group
Tusks (d8 damage, 1 piercing) Close, Messy
10 HP  1 Armour

Calm and plodding creatures, Northern spiniphants are slow to react and not particularly social; preferring to feed off the winds that blast and tumble them across the stony tundra; preferring to exchange tales with the wind than with stiff bald bipeds. They have twelve limbs or thereabouts, oriented all around their body. Combined with their copious and eerily prehensile hair, they look like dread-locked soccer balls; albeit with huge tusks that emerge from their hairy depths when scratching frozen moss off a rock. Or when you punt one between two rocks and break some of its legs. and you notice the tusks of its gang flying at you in a screaming blood rage—screeching across the sky like savagely pointy meteors with great red-brown manes and trails of hair and legs. That is until your eyes are blinded by muddy brown light, and blood, and you run and they pursue and pursue and run 'til you die or they do. Instinct: to roam
- Leap great distances
- Flash muddy brown light, disorienting and blinding


Greater northern spiniphant (a.k.a. fucking huge tusked tumbler) 
Large, Solitary
Tusks (d10+1 damage 2 piercing) Close, Reach, Messy
14 HP  2 Armour

Unless you're a stone giant, hopefully by now you know not to kick one. Instinct: to roam
- Leap great distances
- Flash muddy brown light, disorienting and blinding
- Capture and strangle with masses of knotted prehensile hair?

Re: Building Monsters with the Metamorphica!
« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2012, 05:53:05 AM »
I went with 2 Form mutations, 2 Body mutations, 2 Mind Mutations, a Supernatural Attribute mutation, an overall Power mutation and one total random. And one reroll.

2 x Body: Form 1-200
58 - Fangs. This mutant has dangerous teeth. Roll 1d6 for type of fangs: 6 - Tusks
109 - Multiple legs. This mutant has more legs than is normal for its species. Roll 1d10 for number of additional legs: 2 - 2d6 extra legs = 8 extra legs

Tusks are so sweet. This makes me think of some lumbering beast. But how many frickin legs do you want. I'm was assuming bipedal as default, so 2 arms and 10 legs. Blimey! 

2 x Body: Function 201-400
252 - Fragrant. This mutant exudes a noticeably pleasant odour that most others of its species find attractive and/or relaxing. Choose a fragrance or roll 1d12 here: 9 - Honey
227 - Decreased metabolism. This mutant’s reactions are slightly slower than normal. It may also suffer from a weakened immune system, an increased susceptibility to cold, brittle hair and nails, constipation, dry skin, irregular menstruation, poor memory, and unexplained weight gain.

Decreased metabolism actually makes me think of cold climate hibernators. That's kind of exactly what it's not, but hey! Hmm, fragrant, I might reroll that one.

2 x Mental mutations 401-600
407 - Blood rage. This mutant is prone to rages whenever it is harmed or injured. If enraged, the mutant will fight against the perceived cause of its injuries until either the threat or the mutant is neutralized.
557 - Increased mental capability. This mutant has mental capabilities far greater than the average specimen of it type. Roll 1d4 to determine increased mental capability: 4 - Willpower
Roll 1d4 to determine the amount of increase: 3 - +1/3

I'm imagining rather plodding beasts, calm and well-spirited, until blood is drawn. Kind of goes well with their increased willpower. Crazy bastards. The willpower also fits with the whole frozen landscape vibe I'm going for. 

1 x Supernatural 701-1000
796 - Energy absorption. This mutant absorbs harmful radiation, electricity, heat, and lasers directed at it and converts them harmlessly into light, psychic emanations, radio broadcasts, or some other effect. Roll for amount of energy absorbed and converted: 3 - x1/3

I'm going with non-harmful energy too. I'm imagining this big creatures, I mean tusks are for big fellas, who can survive in an arid tundra by absorbing wind energy or something.   

1 x Power 601-1000
727 - Aura of light. This mutant glows with an strange aura of light. Choose a colour, or roll on either the basic or extended colour table. 3 - Brown. Roll 1d10 for trigger: 10 - Stress-induced

I'm figuring this is some kind of defence mechanism; like a squid's ink, to confuse and conceal while they make good their escape. But combined with blood rage, maybe they blind folk who hurt them and then go bat-shit crazy

1 x Overall 1-1000
600 - Weather sense. This mutant always knows what the weather will be like, often days in advance.

So yeah, they just know where to go to best absorb the winds, even before the winds change.

Reroll - scratching Fragrant
335 - Prehensile Hair. This mutant’s hair can move and grasp objects at the mutant’s direction.

Ah ha! This would definitely help them absorb wind energy.

If we take them as having 12 legs then could be a perfect dodecahedron; filled with prehensile hair on; like a spinifex or tumble weed.

Alright, I'm calling them…

SPINIPHANTS (a.k.a. tusked tumblers)

They live on the wind-blasted, stony tundra of the north. They are usually no bigger than a dog and are often found in loose groups. Some claim to have seen ones bigger than horses. They have many legs, surprising thin and ending in large cross shaped foot with four toes. Their legs are positioned all around their central mass: a fleshy, egg-shaped head body conglomerate. They're covered in red brown hair; thick and matted on their feet; long and bedraggled from their central body. Their hair is prehensile and they use much like an elephant uses their trunk: for foraging, drinking and a whole myriad of other things.

They prefer being blown by the wind, tumbling, sailing and bouncing across the frozen tundra they call home. They can roll or even waddle under their own power but they prefer to rest when the wind is down , if they feel secure.

They absorb wind energy for sustenance—using their prehensile hair as sails—whilst they are blown to the next moss-covered rock. They use their tusks to slowly scrape rocks clean of all moss, plants clean of leaves, bones clean of flesh. They always seem to know then the winds will drop before they show any signs of doing so; almost as if the wind tells them its plans. So they always seem to have find a nook to rest in til the wind returns.

Slow moving, slow eating, slow growing, and slow to react; but woe betide any who should take them for an easy target. When injured, they will pursue their attacker blindly, even suicidally. And with the wind at their back, tumblers move fast! When in this blood rage, their body flashes with muddy brown light, confusing and blinding all around them. They are little effected because they rely so little on their sight.

Though not unintelligent, there is no evidence of any writing or even a collective dialect; spiniphants society is largely unorganised, lacking notions of hierarchy or property rights. Their tenacity and forbearance in the face of a brutal harsh land is remarkable, however; especially if you make one bleed.