In case you're just tuning in, this week I'm looking at the creatures published in White Dwarf magazine that almost made it into the pages of the Fiend Folio. Five of these passed-over beasties were published in issue #16, which I looked at yesterday. Issue 17 has six more critters. I'm going to show you pictures of four of them. The other two are the Heat Skeleton and the Goom. The Heat Skeleton is a five hit die undead that can cast heat metal. The Goom is a giant amoeba. Nothing wrong with these monsters, mind you. I just don't feel anything is gained by showing you a generic skeleton and yet another ooze. Anyway, on with the other monsters.
I love this little creep. Called the bodach, that name was later used for a much different critter in the Monster Manual II. Oddly, the weirdly-jointed legs on these guys allow them to run uphill faster than downhill.
The Night Riders are a non-undead take on the Nazgul.
Love the illo but this Green Worm is just a Purple Worm with fewer hit dice.
This Spice Worm is just as redundant as the Green Worm, but at least it makes no bones about its source material. As a side note, I love monster book illos that show PCs getting the business.
Tomorrow I'll share one more load of monsters the editors slighted to include crabmen.
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Ooh! I just love seeing those old Russ Nicholson illos.
ReplyDeleteKeep ’em coming!
Man, I love that bodach.
ReplyDeleteNiceee wow artworks come a long way hasnt it?
ReplyDeleteThe monsters from White Wolf are great... although the "Daddeh" (sp?) was pretty jokey. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff, I might have to hunt these issues down.
ReplyDeleteProving that any monsters can get love, I always liked Crabmen and made pretty good use of them in a lost on a deserted island campaign I ran once. The players were terrified of them.
Crabmen = Garthim = Awesome. :)
ReplyDeleteJeff, do you know who did the cover illustration? it's beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAngus McKie, according to the credits page.
ReplyDeleteThat cover image was also used in the book "Spacewreck: Ghostships and Derelicts of Space" (a Terran Trade Authority Handbook, according to the cover). i believe it's long out of print. It's full of, well, spacewrecks - paintings with short stories to go along with them. It left an indelible impression on my 10-year old imagination...
ReplyDelete"I just don't feel anything is gained by showing you a generic skeleton and yet another ooze."
ReplyDeleteI can't get enough oozes.
I'm not a fan of monster illos showing PCs. Nor the more recent trend of monster illos with multiple related monsters all posing for a family photo.
ReplyDeleteNor anything else that makes it more difficult to hold up an awesome picture and say, "You see this."
The Night Riders should all resemble Hasselhoff.
ReplyDeleteWow! That cover sure brings back memories... I had that Space Wrecks book that Brink mentioned and man the pictures in it were amazingly evocative. But that specific image that they used on the cover of #17 was tits. It was so....Alienesque to me. Still one of my top 5 sci-fi images.
ReplyDeleteLoving these posts!
ReplyDeleteThat is all.
> PCs getting the business
ReplyDeleteProbably the reason I buy Hackmaster stuff.
The cover is also the movie poster for some B sci-fi film...Defcom 5 maybe?
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