Athasian genies and centaurs?

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

methvezem

Nov 18, 2004 6:29:29
I was wondering if anyone has used genies and desert centaur in their DS games. The genies have been present on the list of appropriate since the first boxed set and the desert centaur (which appeared in the Al-Quadim MC) was added later to the list in the Dragon magazine 185,in the same article that first presented the baazrag, drik and ruktoi, among others. Now, the genies are still present in the list of acceptable monster in ToA, but the desert centaur was not converted anywhere to my knowledge.

I'd like to know how you envisionned them for the athasian setting and how you used them, if at all. I found an image of what an athasian centaur would look like (it's a kamunik from the BD Valérian). I envisionned isolated pocket of these centaurs losing a long lasting battle against the kreen because they competed for the same resources and ecological niche. No ideas about the genies or their place on Athas, beside their relations to the elemental planes and powers.

So please share your experience on the subject or your ideas.
#2

Pennarin

Nov 18, 2004 7:22:42
The link doesn't work.

I'd say anything horse-like is non-athasian. As simple.
#3

methvezem

Nov 18, 2004 7:29:51
I just tried the link and it brings me to the image I linked The addess is http://www.haabet.dk/centaur/artists/j-c_nezieres/

You'll see, this centaur is not you're ordinary centaur, it's a quadruped but more like an insect. If it hadnt looked like it would fit on Athas, I would'nt have talked about it. ;)
#4

Pennarin

Nov 18, 2004 9:33:15
I guess if the centaur didn't have hooved feet but some other thing that on close inspection would look absolutely different, that the rear part wasn't an actual horse but something similar in shape but of different cosmetic properties, and the upper body itself was not a straight human but something as different as an athasian elf his: long face, tusks, several long but thin twisted horns that point backward like hairs, bony plates protecting the sternum and spine, that kind of stuff, THEN I would accept centaurs on Athas.

Now to do all of that we need an artist working for us, and a damn good one at that.
#5

pringles

Nov 18, 2004 11:48:41
I dont use all the thing from the monster list. As exemple, the dog is listed, but there no dog in my Athasian campaign. People use either a Jackar or Cilops for hunting. As for the Genie, you cant rarely encounter them alone in the desert. You must summon them with magic.
#6

methvezem

Nov 18, 2004 13:10:54
It seems that some monsters never were very popular on Athas. I'll think about a version of the centaur you described, Pennarin. Maybe I can come up with a description and a picture of it.

It's also true that it is easier to keep the priginal flavor of the setting by using "real" athasian creature to replace those we know.

Genies are a different case because I always wondered why they were included in the original encounter tables : stoney barrens (dao), snady wastes (djinn) and rocky badlands (efreeti). Perhaps at first they didn't have enought monster to populate their encounter tables or maybe the genies are devolved and stranded on Athas since untold generations just like the drakes.
Questions, questions...
#7

jon_oracle_of_athas

Nov 18, 2004 14:26:54
You do know that the remorhaz, which lives in arctic climate is also on that list of so-called appropriate creatures?
#8

bommmel

Nov 18, 2004 16:27:09
I deleted Centaurs from my campain. They are similar to the wemics in appearance and the wemics were 1 target in the cleansing wars. If there would have been centaurs, they are either very isolated or exterminated imo.
-->no centaurs in my campain wemics are enough of this kind of "monsters"
that lived on athas in the past.
#9

methvezem

Nov 19, 2004 0:11:31
You do know that the remorhaz, which lives in arctic climate is also on that list of so-called appropriate creatures?

Yes, but it seems to me that if they hadn't presented it as an arctic monster, it would have been a perfect DS monster (appearance, heat generation and general bad disposition) burrowing thru sand and earth instead of snow and earth.

no centaurs in my campain wemics are enough of this kind of "monsters" that lived on athas in the past

.

That's true that the niche of this kind of creature (half-humanoid/half-quadruped) seems filled with the wemics and that if ordinary centaurs had existed, they would have been on the Champion's "to annihilate" lists.

What appearance a genie would take on Athas? The same as anywhere else? New powers? What were the doing trekking in the wilderness in the first encounter tables? Some others humanoid creatures would have been ok, why genies? I keep asking myself.
#10

zombiegleemax

Nov 19, 2004 0:39:02
You do know that the remorhaz, which lives in arctic climate is also on that list of so-called appropriate creatures?

I put Remorhaz in the mountian peaks. When the PCs needed to go to the mountain top to commune with the Avangeon, I used them as gatekeepers.

I have used Desert Centaurs with great effect in my games too. I placed them on the other side of the Ringing Mountains rubbing elbows with the Pterrans. They are quite fast and can match the speed and almost match the endurance of the invading Thri-Kreen scouts. The way I have it set up in my campaign is that the only reason the Thor-kreen scouts are not signalling an immediate invasion is that fact the the Desert Centaurs along with the Pterrans and the Ruhl-than make such a good barrier of deadly skirmishers.

I also let centaurs take the Thri-Kreen killer kit/prestige class depending on the rules you use.

You want to rip on these guys being unsuitable to a DS campaign? What about Dolphins???? Athasian Dolphins????

Hmmm.. let me post a picture...

http://www.cs.uno.edu/~jpfeil/DSArt/centaur.jpg
#11

methvezem

Nov 19, 2004 6:16:03
They are quite fast and can match the speed and almost match the endurance of the invading Thri-Kreen scouts.

The Hinterlands are a good place for desert centaurs since they are largely unexplored and visitors could go throught them without encountering a single living souls. The centaurs from the image I posted earlier where also at war with the kreen. Never thought of giving them the kreen slayer PrC but made them use the bug crusher, a double weapon with a ball of stone at each ends, destroying exoskeleton right and left.
#12

zombiegleemax

Nov 19, 2004 15:11:37
I put together a book with Xeroxes of EVERY creature that was 'approved' for Dark Sun. Did you know they approved Yugoloths, Demons and Devils? (Actually aren't they Ta'anari and Baatezu now? I dunno.. those Chaotic Evil and Lawful Evil guys! :P ) In fact there is a stranded Baatezu in Dragon's Crown.

I included every elemental beast I could find, and even included some that weren't included that were likely oversights... I occassionally consider a pdf of it, but the whole thing is 2E D&D. Besides... the thing is THICK!

It is funny how in the higher level adventures you start runnign into creatures from standard Fantasy games. I think in the Dregoth adventures the PCs can run across a Kobold...
#13

jon_oracle_of_athas

Nov 19, 2004 15:57:45
What about Dolphins???? Athasian Dolphins????

You don't have to tell me they don't fit. I tried to convince the Monsters Bureau to make them Lawful Evil in Terrors of Athas, but "Noooo". :P
#14

zombiegleemax

Nov 20, 2004 2:27:44
What about vicious psionic mind-enslaving dolphins at least...

I mean happy dolphins?

Flipper?

...

Frickin' Flipper?

The whole Mind Lords of the Last Sea plays out like a Star Trek episode anyway, all you'd need is Kirk to beam down and either have them rediscover love and decide their time was past or destroy the computer behind the wall with illogic.

I have yet to play MLotLS on my players, there are no Water Clerics in the party and I feel that if the Half-Elven Bard, Mul Ranger, Half-Giant, and Human Sword fighter get a glimpse of dolphin, they would be salivating so badly I don't think the rest of the adventure would go very well.

(My campain is not one of heroics, but one of survival, I don't think the campaign will ever get much farther than the trade route between Balic and Tyr)
#15

jon_oracle_of_athas

Nov 20, 2004 12:21:36
What about vicious psionic mind-enslaving dolphins at least...

That's what I pushed for... and with BIG POINTY TEETH!
#16

greyorm

Nov 20, 2004 12:46:13
The whole Mind Lords of the Last Sea plays out like a Star Trek episode anyway, all you'd need is Kirk to beam down and either have them rediscover love and decide their time was past or destroy the computer behind the wall with illogic.

ROFL! That is so true.

"Captain, it is illogical for dolphins to have evolved and survived in this climate."

"I...know that...Spock. We are...at the mercy...of TSR's R&D department. Bones...quick...come up with a dues ex machina...to save us...and end this...terrible episode."

"Damnit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a script editor! We would need a miracle or a game designer to get rid of this ridiculous section of this setting!"

"Regardless...I'm going to go make it with...that hot Mind Lord -- Lady -- whatever."

"Captain! There's a giant meteor full o' sleepin' halflings coming doon on top o' your position! Its impact is gonna destroy the entire region! I've got ta beam ya out noo before it's too late!"

"Scotty! I haven't made it with the hot, alien, chick...yet! We...need...more...time!"

(Ironically, the Mind Lords could just send them all back in time...hahahahahaha...so, once sent to the past...)

"Spock, Bones. Tell me...should we...tell...the Mind Lords' past selves...about...the meteor?"

"I believe that would be a mistake, captain. The sudden and unforseen annihilation caused by the crash-landing of the halfling meteor-spaceship in the Last Sea region is the only event capable of ending the region's inherent temporal and disbelief-suspension instabilities."

"Then...we must allow...this meteor...to strike!"

"But Jim, think of the loss of lives! We have a duty to these people to preserve and protect them. And what about the setting integrity?"

"I know...Bones...but think of the cost...to the fans of the setting...if we don't! These...people...here...in the Last Sea...are just poorly written shells, at the...mercy...of an underpaid development staff...from...a bankrupt...game publishing company. This...is a better end...for them. Scotty...beam us...up."

"Besides, doctor, setting integrity went out the window when half the Sorcerer Kings were killed at the end of the Prisam Pentad."

"Why you heartless, green-blooded machine..."

(--whhhheeeeeeeee-- transporter noise...roll credits...)
#17

methvezem

Nov 20, 2004 14:19:27
:heehee Fitting end.
#18

Pennarin

Nov 20, 2004 14:26:06
That makes the #1 funny DS-post list!
#19

zombiegleemax

Nov 20, 2004 16:47:44
Look up the Star Trek episode named Return to Tomorrow and you tell me if the writers of MLotLS were plagiarizing a bit. :D
#20

jon_oracle_of_athas

Nov 21, 2004 15:44:44
Good one, Raven. :D