I'm not really sure why, maybe it's that these monsters are usually Save or Die, but I don't like monsters like black puddings, gelatinous cubes, or yellow molds. They seem kind of 50's sci-fi, and not really fantasy creatures.
Pretty much the only setting I've seen that they make sense in is Carcosa, and that's just a giant lab experiment gone horribly, horribly wrong.
I'm not sure if anyone else has had great success with these monsters, but they just don't seem to fit in my style of games (European fantasy or Conan-style S&S).
9 comments:
There's nothing like a blob monster oozing out of the dungeons' walls to make a party seriously post a rotating guard while the others rest/sleep!
They have to be used infrequently and with a bit of subtlety for maximum effect. Otherwise, its just. . .
"Oh, its green slime. We torch it (yawn)"
Ciao!
GW
I think blob creatures are perfectly suited for dank dungeon/cave environments, and make sense in Conan-style adventures, too (there's a lot of HPL-esque stuff in Howard's stories).
You have to be a little creative with gelatinous cubes too. Remember, be subtle.
Describe the first thing the party sees as a skeletal warrior floating down the corridor at them. See how they react before they relize its boney remains suspended in a big, clear oozy living cube!
They are pretty sci-fi, but i feel like an ooze, properly translucent in grey light, moving with ectoplasmic grace, eerie rather than lumpy, possibly sentient, has some very medieval possibilities.
Though, yeah, the original ooze mechanics seem too simple.
Goo creatures' colors, properties and immunities should be generated anew in each campaign.
Otherwise - if you want straight up Medieval Fantasy stay away from them (and ropers, otyughs, etc.) - but they are an integral part of Weird Fantasy.
Honestly, I'm not really a fan of them either. In the game I play, my DM used a yellow ooze of enormous proportions. He had a magic crown allow an evil magic user to control it, and had a guy running around poisoning people by pouring small quantities of ooze into people's ears while they slept. Once they were infected in this way, the magic user that could control the ooze could control the people too. It would make them slow and dumb, and dripping yellow ooze from their mouths and noses.
I'm 99% sure he came up with the idea after I found out he'd never seen the movie "The Stuff" and recommended it to him.
On my original D&D/Anime Fantasy world oozes, slimes and such are a wee bit different from classic D&D.
Generally, when material of a supernormal nature rots aways and piles up it becomes (or can become) an ooze.
Creepy, dark faerie forest or bog? Good chance of green slime from decomposed magic plants.
Wizards lab left unattended for 50 years? Possibly a blue slime in some of the beakers and containers.
Grey Ooze is different on my world and is the result of destroyed undead.
Gelatinous Cubes are often formed on purpose out of left over material components and soured alchemical mixtures to clean out dungeons or similar places.
Like Zak mentioned, the key to give them a vague, unclear sense of sentience and vary the mechanics of their abilities.
That's a pretty cool idea.
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