Making a Monster

Body-snatching jungle aliens called the Kelledros roam the prehistoric, stone-punk of Planegea, a new setting for D&D 5th Edition by Atlas Games and designer Dave Somerville. Learn how identity and mystery shape the nature of horror in your D&D game. Read the transcript and get more from the show: https://scintilla.studio/monster-planegea-atlas-games/ Get stat blocks, bonus content, and ot...

Amy Vorpahl is the voice of Fizban, multiverse-spanning god of dragons, in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. We discuss this character's view of the world, how to write for D&D, and whether Fizban is fun to hang out with. Spoiler alert: he is. Read the transcript and get more from the show: https://scintilla.studio/monster-fizbans-treasury-of-dragons-with-amy-vorpahl Get stat blocks, bonus content...

Amy Vorpahl couldn't resist adding a cute little Pokémon to her Candlekeep Mystery. Here's more about the skitterwidgets, what Pat Rothfuss could gain from a little more magic, and how to stay motivated while writing. Read the transcript and get more from the show: https://scintilla.studio/monster-amy-vorpahl-candlekeep-mystery Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstrous perks: www.patreon...

Fun City is the best Shadowrun actual play podcast on the Internet, and its two GMs, Mike Rugnetta and Taylor Moore, crafted a beautiful, dimension-spanning arc with the most thought-provoking villain this show has featured yet. Making a Monster: GM Edition asks actual play podcasters how they use the monsters in their games. Read the transcript and get more from the show: https://scintilla.studio...

Chosen Ones is a visual-novel style D&D podcast on YouTube with an all-artist and LGBT+ cast. DM Cassiroll and I discuss playing too much D&D, too little combat, and the window between heroism and villainy. Making a Monster: GM Edition asks actual play podcasters how they use the monsters in their games. Read the transcript and get more from the show: https://scintilla.studio/monster-chose...

The First Watch is a cinematic actual play podcast making the most of genre-based storytelling. DM Andrew Coons and I discuss the seven types of conflict in literature and how heroes make the courageous, if stupid, choice. Making a Monster: GM Edition asks actual play podcasters how they use the monsters in their games. Read the transcript and get more from the show: https://scintilla.studio/monst...

The Last Tapestry is a tech-noir, Eberron-inspired actual play D&D podcast. DM Dan Locke and I discuss "monster monsters" and the definition of villainy. Making a Monster: GM Edition asks actual play podcasters how they use the monsters in their games. Read the transcript and get more from the show: https://scintilla.studio/monster-the-last-tapestry/ Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other m...

Nikki Yager makes D&D podcasts. Like, a lot of D&D podcasts. Like a lot. Her favorite villains are the ones who think they're the hero. We talk about heroism and villainy on a dimmer, and the many, many times gamers seem to end up at Denny's. Making a Monster: GM Edition asks actual play podcasters how they use the monsters in their games. Read the transcript and get more from the show: ht...

Avatar Legends brings the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender to your tabletop as an RPG. The game has a balanced take on what it means to be a villain and a monster. Join designers James Mendez Hodes and Sharang Biswas and discover how the Apocalypse World engine becomes a faithful representation of the show. Read the transcript and get more from the show: https://scintilla.studio/monster-avatar-...

Roll20's exclusive sci-fi RPG Burn Bryte asks you to jump in to a galaxy where an adorable teleporting mischief fox could just walk right into your ship. It's also a game where hope wins. Learn more about Burn Bryte and get 3 monsters from My Dad's Monster Manual on the episode page here: https://scintilla.studio/monster-blipp-burn-bryte Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstrous perks: w...

Roll Play Lead uses Dungeons & Dragons to teach social skills to teens in Colorado. Kids and teens use monsters to explore the obstacles in their own lives. You can support Roll Play Lead Directly, use Jamie's adventures in your home game, or check out her TEDx Talk at the links here: https://scintilla.studio/monster-roll-play-lead-social-skills-dnd Meet my guest Jamie Flecknoe: https://twitte...

Leading unsuspecting adventurers to the Feywild with a gentlemanly hand, the tamlin combines the Scottish folk tale with the literary trope of the white rabbit for a planes-hopping, swashbuckling good time. To read the transcript and find out what a "gish" is visit the show's website: https://scintilla.studio/monster-tamlin-feywilds-white-rabbit Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstrous...

As one of D&D's very few Celestial monsters, Varadrel is an agent of divine justice best compared to the personified disasters of Japanese kaiju. To read the transcript, check out "Titans of Faerun", or see the full-color, "be not afraid" illustration of Varadrel, visit the show's website: https://scintilla.studio/varadrel-the-kaiju-angel/ Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstrous pe...

The shattered kalashtar asks questions about dealing with trauma, and lets other players participate in the answers. It expands D&D's Eberron campaign setting with a psychic dystopia reminiscent of Neuromancer and Brave New World. Download the stat block and read the full transcript here: https://scintilla.studio/monster-shattered-kalashtar-eberron/ Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other mo...

Andrew Grondin wrote a tabletop game that combines European fairy tales and Lovecraftian existential horror. Inside that Venn diagram is a surprisingly encouraging message about power and who has it. Read the transcript and get more from the show: https://scintilla.studio/shakespeare-lovecraft-combine-delirium Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstrous perks: www.patreon.com/scintillastud...

Nils Hintze is the lead writer of Vaesen, a Nordic horror role-playing game by Free League Publishing. In this game, fairies and other monsters manifest the anxieties of a rapidly-urbanizing 19th century Sweden. Read the full transcript here: https://scintilla.studio/free-leagues-vaesen Read the transcript and get more from the show: https://scintilla.studio/monster-planegea-atlas-games/ Get stat...

The true and actual* origins of D&D's displacer beast with A. E. Van Vogt, author of science fiction short story Black Destroyer. *This episode was released April 1st. Celebrity voices were impersonated, even mine. Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstrous perks: www.patreon.com/scintillastudio Join the conversation: www.twitter.com/SparkOtter Acting credits: Lucas Zellers: Caleb Cur...

Keith Ammann, author of Monsters Know What They're Doing, shows us how to decode a monster's game mechanics to discover its intended use. We also get into how culture makes monsters, both in game and out. Read the transcript and get more from the show: https://scintilla.studio/monster-keith-ammann/ Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstrous perks: www.patreon.com/scintillastudio Join the...

The Cherokee myth of the Raven Wizard is retold in Connor Alexander's Coyote and Crow, a tabletop role-playing game set in an alternate future of the Americas where colonization never occurred. Full transcript: https://scintilla.studio/monster-coyote-and-crow-raven-wizard/ Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstrous perks: www.patreon.com/scintillastudio Join the conversation: www.twitter....

From the Bard College of Silence by Kai Linder comes Vo the Voice Snatcher, an aberration capable of stealing the voice from your throat and adding it to its own. It's a kind of creepy that stays with you long after the fight is over. Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstrous perks: www.patreon.com/scintillastudio Join the conversation: www.twitter.com/SparkOtter Meet my guest Kai Linder...

Dvati is a race option for D&D to play 2 characters at once. An extra-long bonus episode 20 years in the making, bringing together the original Dvati designer, the 5th edition homebrewer, and maybe the only person to ever play Dvati twins in a long-running campaign. Read the full transcript here: https://scintilla.studio/monster-dvati-race-dnd/ Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstro...

"They're capricious little scrap robots, and I love them." The Wizmos from Dark Matter (a sci-fi D&D conversion by Mage Hand Press) are just doing the best they can, and it isn't very good. Get one-page-RPG Wizmo Havoc here: https://scintilla.studio/wizmos-dark-matter-mage-hand-press/ ‎ Support the show and get even more cool stuff: https://www.patreon.com/scintillastudio Join the conversation...

What if the Kraken is too big to release? Niels RPG Toons uses cartoon-style fantasy art to tell vibrant, expressive stories, including one about a tentacle monster so big it's an ecosystem unto itself. Get monster stats, lore, and papercraft miniatures for monsters from the Stars and Sea campaign bundle at https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-download-43834622 Read the transcript and get more from...

The Melusine is one of the oldest mermaid legends in the world with so many tails in our modern cultural heritage that you've probably seen her even if you didn't know her name - much like the work of a good spymaster. Chris Hopper is a freelance writer for Realmwarp Media and student of Arthurian lore who updated the melusine for the Cities of Myth D&D setting. Get the stat block for the Melu...

What happens when the monsters level up too? Matthew Whitby, host of the Dungeon Master's Guild House, shares a goblin with power enough to be more than a level 1 punching bag. Get the full transcript and see the art of Grikk the Many here: https://scintilla.studio/monster-boss-goblin-matthew-whitby Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstrous perks: www.patreon.com/scintillastudio Join the...