Underwater Adventures?

When I was a little kid, like real little, I somehow heard of marine biologists and wanted to be one. Then it was paleontology, then at some point actuary. Probably others in there too.
Anyway, I love how the ocean is kind of a different planet entirely.

I've heard great things about subterranean adventuring in Veins of the Earth, though I haven't purchased it (yet), but making something similar for aquatic encounters sounds interesting.
  • Cephalopods are a potential option for player race/classes:
    • They're smart
    • They have arms, so it's reasonable that they could use weapons and shields and investigate dungeons
    • Many cephalopods can change color. This adds a potential new source of magic component (you have to wave your tentacles like this, and be just the right color mauve to get this one right!)
    • You can fart inky sneezes!
    • I think a roughly human sized squid such as the Humboldt Squid (Dosidicus gigas) works best for this idea
    • Most species of octopus and squid have 8 arms, there are 8 schools of magic, I'm thinking that cephalopods were/are the first wizards
  • Crustaceans are another possibility; they're armored and have claws
    • Something like a hermit crab could be neat, that way you have upgradeable armor
    • The boxing crab uses anemones as weapons!
  • Warlocks could have pacts with entities like Ctulhu or other unsavory entities
  • Cymothoa exigua, the tongue eating louse could be used as a way to replace a tongue to turn someone into a sorcerer. This is probably more interesting with humanoids
  • I'm not sure if a traditional race-as-class B/X style system, a class/race split, or even a classless system a la Knave is most interesting
    • Might have to find a replacement for traditional armor?
  • I'm not super interested in sea elves/sahuagin/mermaids/cecaelia...ok maybe that last one. Just being like 'I'm a Squid Wizard!' is neato. Hence username.
  • Traps could just be like sea anemones/coral

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

life

 I posted nearly 4 years ago that I hoped to be posting more regularly. Grad school. My cat dying. Grad school . COVID. Bipolar diagnosis. Psychosis. Mental hospital. My partner's cat dying. My snakes dying. Life is what it is. I still have one class left. I may or may not complete my degree. Life is nothing but smoke and shadows, nothing you can hold in your hand. Solidity is an illusion provided by pills that I fucking hate taking. It's odd living with a chronic disability. What my mother calls a catastrophic illness. We have a life expectancy 7-10 years less than normal people. Suicides in part, but we also have faster. Like, not just metaphorically in the world wear sense but literally in our cells. Add onto that the fact that bipolar is a neurodegenerative disorder -- each episode makes the chances of future episodes more likely, and each episode gets worse. Some of us end up with dementia.  I'm privileged to have good health insurance. I'm privileged to have a fam...
Read more

Witches, Wizards, and Warlocks

The difference between Witches, Wizards, and Warlocks is often stated to be a matter of gender. That's not interesting. Here's an alternative split. The Witch and the Wizard will be a separate post. WARLOCKS Warlocks are mortals who gain supernatural power as a result of a Pact with a Patron. (Yes, I'm using D&D 3.5/4E/5E terminology to simplify things. Deal with it.) The Patron is a powerful supernatural entity. A high-ranking demon, one of the fairy queens, an ancient vampire or lich. A typical prospective Warlock has to do the following things: Summon/Call the Patron Make a Pact with the Patron Follow-through on it SUMMON The Pact typically starts with a ritual to summon the Patron. For some Patrons, the Patron is not summoned but the ritual instead gathers their attention. These entities are too powerful to be summoned, too vast to enter our world without breaking it. Instead, the ritual may summon a proxy, or perhaps an avatar of the Patron, or...
Read more

Hypnophage

This post brought to you by two weeks of insomnia. Hypnophage (base): Feeding form: an indistinct, human-shaped figure with waxy, opalescent skin. Resting form: a hard,opalescent plaque-like film with a waxy finish AC (base +/- HD)  HD (varies, starts at 1)  Att  pseudopod THACO & saves: as fighter The Hypnophage does not want your gold, your flesh, your blood, or your soul. It feeds on your sleep. Or rather, it feeds on your capacity to sleep in the future. It attacks and feeds using pseudopods which emerge from it's chest and stomach. Combat: On a successful attack roll the Hypnophage grapples and immobilizes the target.  The target can attempt to escape on it's turn on successful save vs paralysis. If the target is still immobilized on the Hypnophage's next turn, it feeds. Feeding: The Hypnophage deals 1d8 sleep damage to the target and gains the same amount in temporary hit points.  Once the Hypnophage's temporary hit points equal it's...
Read more