[Savage Menagerie] Octoshark

No. Enc.: 1 (1)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: Swim: 240' (80')
Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: 15
Attacks: 7 (bite, six tentacles)
Damage: 4d8, 2d8, 2d8, 2d8, 2d8, 2d8, 2d8
Save: L9
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: None

An Octoshark is a viciously violent giant sea creature with the head of a shark and the body of an octopus. It is often confused with the sharktopus, which is thought to only exist in Ancient "B-movies." But whereas the sharktopus is nothing more than the imaginings of a fevered movie director, the Octoshark is quite real in the Mutant Future.

Octosharks are incredibly large, able to use their monstrous tentacles to pull up and out of the water to attack large ships and coastal villages. They are water-breathers, so they cannot stay out of the water for very long before needing to submerge again to breathe. However, they have a voracious appetite and will consume nearly any animal life it encounters. When a favored fishing spot becomes empty, anglers sometimes worry that an Octoshark has nested nearby.

An Octoshark attacks first by trying to grasp an opponent with one of its six tentacles. Because it has so many of them, it is not unusual for an Octoshark to grab and hold multiple victims during combat. Once held, a victim will suffer 2d8 of crushing damage each new combat round. It can also bite for 4d8 points of damage, preferring to bite a captured victim. On a natural 20 on a "bite" attack, an Octoshark will swallow a victim whole. The victim will then suffer 4d8 hit points of drowning/acid damage per round from the creature's stomach acids until he either dies or is able to somehow escape. It is fortunate that an Octoshark has no mutations as the creature is more than a challenge to an unwary party as-is.

Mutations: none

[Thundarr Thursday] Savage Menagerie: One-Eye

No. Enc.: 1d2 (1d4)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 90' (30')
Armor Class: 4

Hit Dice: 12
Attacks: 1 (hand or weapon)
Damage: 2d8 or weapon

Save: L9
Morale: 9
Hoard Class: VII

A One-Eye is a classic giant cyclops straight of of Jason and the Argonauts. However, in the Thundarr universe, the One-Eye is is often found under the thrall of a Wizard who is commanding it to do his bidding.

A One-Eye is nearly 30 feet tall due to its gigantism mutation. It is covered with matted brown fur, has a set of sharp teeth and -- of course -- one large eye in the center of its forehead. Due to the lack of depth perception, a One-Eye has a -1 To Hit penalty. However, due to its size and strength, a One-Eye gets a +2 damage bonus if it hits in combat. One-Eyes prefer to use a club in combat. However, this club will be the size of a large log, dealing 2d10 hit points of crushing damage if it hits.

When dealing with a One-Eye, the party will have one other advantage other than the creature's inability to see well. One-Eyes are notoriously stupid with a very basic animal-like intelligence. It will get confused easily during combat, and a clever fighter will be able to use this slowness to his advantage. One thing to avoid is being caught and lifted by a One-Eye. If they are able to grab an opponent, 50% of the time they will immediately hurl them into the distance. Upon doing so, they will turn their attention to those who are left to fight.

Mutations: gigantism

NOTE: This creature was inspired by episode "Fortress of Fear" from the Ruby Spears post-apocalyptic cartoon series "Thundarr the Barbarian." Stay tuned for more of Thundarr Thursday!

Post-Apocalyptic Ruined City Map Generator

One creative endeavor I've been frequently seeing on other RPG blog sites are dungeon geomorphs. These nifty little squares can be randomly fitted together in a variety of ways and -BLAM- instant dungeon map ready for delvin' into. But I didn't think the post-apocalyptic genre lent itself to this kind of map generation.

Happily, I was proven very wrong.

Blogmeister Djeryv over at Djeryv's Graveyard has produced a Post-Apocalyptic Ruined City Map Generator using a set of Blasted Earth geomorphs created by Amanda Michaels of the Cartographer's Guild. According to Djeryv, there are 50 geomorphs that can be flipped and rotated, creating about 400 different layouts. Lay them next to each other, you have a ready-made map of an Ancient ruined city. The default size is a 10 by 10 map, but you can grab a screenshot of the dimensions you need for your game. And if you want to use the entire randomly generated map, you have a whole city to explore. Click below for an idea of the scale -- keeping in mind this map is reduced to about 15-20% of its full size.

A Massive Manifest Of Malformed Missives

Hi there! Miss me? Sorry for the incredibly light posting history since the beginning of the year. Blah blah reason, blah blah excuse. Let's breath some life back into this radioactive region of the 'Net, shall we?

Even during my downtime, I've been keeping an eye out on Ye Olde Blogosphere, compiling those posts and links that offer something new and exciting for your Mutant Future campaigns. Here are some recent offerings of note:

** You can always count on Dyson Logos' A Character for Every Game to provide something of use to the Ruined Earth survivor. And what better way to trudge the wastelands in style than to be outfitted in a set of Encased IPS Armor? The IPS armor was used by police forces in urban centers to maintain peace, particularly in the years leading up to The End.

** And while outfitted in their shiny new powered exoskeletons, Dyson offers a similarly armored foe: CyberCrabZilla! This armored 8-hit-dice, electricity-blasting behemoth should prove a challenge for your Future Mutants...

** Blogmeister Blair over at Planet Algol has been hard at work on Issue One of his new RPG zine, The Jewel Throne, which will focus on sword and sorcery, weird fantasy, science fantasy, post-apocalyptic, and science fiction gaming. He offers a bit of a sneak-peek at one article in "War...War Never Changes," a selection of Wasteland and Fallout inspired equipment, with a focus on firearms for use with Mutant Future, Gamma World, and other similar games.