I reckon the fire department is full of competent people who can't do their job due to the brain-dead legislation of California. With wotc the problem goes all the way down.
Monster attacks civilization. Hero journeys to civilization. Hero hunts down and kills the monster. Then a) Civilization betrays or banishes the hero and the hero returns to the barbaric wilds until civilization needs him again; b) Hero marries the princess, settles down, has a family, becomes corrupted or softened by civilization, and then is killed by a new monster that arises. I think you should do a series of videos that discuss different myths and the lessons they teach.
male Medusas (Maedar IIRC) were in 2nd edition. People didn't complain because they weren't just gender-swapped, they didn't have snakes for hair or anything, they were tall bald guys (think like Mr. Clean lol) and could turn stone to flesh, so they would break statues the medusa petrified back to flesh so they could eat. Kinda shows the difference here. They made sense. The male dryad is stupid, it's literally a dryad but male, not even creative enough to make it something that's a male "equivalent" but not a dryad. Persoanlly I'd make them almost like elves with leaves for hair and beards or something.
Male Dryads existed in Discworld as a sort of joke in the first book, but they were huge buff guys as handsome as Dryads were beautiful, sturdy like an oak. "Of course we come in both male and female. Where do you think acorns come from?" The protagonist was still surprised since he'd just always assumed their species was exclusively female.
Not everyone in the Monster Manual capable of talking needs to be a selectable race! In fact, most shouldn't be. I'll even go further and say the Drow, Orc, and Tiefling shouldn't be.
@@RoninCatholic I prefer humancentric stories myself. All these other races make me feel like Bob Hoskins in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, or one of the human characters in a Muppets movie.
This shift to materialism has been happening since the 90s. I first noticed it in Dragon Magazine with the Monster Ecologies which were my favourite part of the Dragon mags (that and Bazaar of the Bizzare). In the 80s monsters had a more mystical or magical origin or they were just personifications of ideas/emotions (like the satyrs) but, during the 90s everything was explained through "evolution" or some other materialitic mechanism. I did not like it as it robbed the world of its magic and myth.
I won't begrudge materialist evolution-believers trying to shoehorn their own theology onto imaginary worlds, except that A) they do it by retconning and homogenizing IPs that existed before they toucehd them and B) they make it BORING That'd be like if I were in charge of D&D and turned all the settings monotheist. It wouldn't work, and it would ruin fun for other people to no benefit and rob the worlds of distinction. Making new settings in accord with my beliefs makes sense, and that's what I do.
In actual greek mythology, the female counterpart to the satyrs were the Maenads. But the Maenads were not part-animal. They were women, overwhelmed by lust for Dionysus, they would simultaneously be overwhelmed by their lust and yet destroy men in a violent frenzy. They wore animal skins but weren't half-animal like the Satyr. I think it might be because it was meant to suggest that the maenad state is not some kind of extreme that removes someone from their humanity, it's something with the normal range of female behavior. Or in other words, B*tches be Crazy.
Creators like you are why I'm not to worried about WOTC jumping the shark. The whole monsters are people to are such tripe - I've never taken a learned man perspective on it like you successfully explain in this video. Every gaming session I gripe about Mexican orcs now. They were never racist until this edition - they literally created what they set out to supposedly "STOP". Flee Mortals by Colville is a great monster manual, if anyone is looking for actual stat blocks and interesting monster mechanics that are vastly superior to what's coming from Wizards.
I appreciate you saying that about me. I hope you've checked out some of my games, which definitely do NOT have the "monsters are people too" concept, quite the opposite. Spread the word, share the video!
Because screw finding out the background of the monster raids in one or two adventures, right? Just tell them, who they are immediately, so no snowflake is offended by fantasy stereotyping.
Well, that's a good point; mainly because it shows the lie that this is about "better storytelling" or some nonsense like that. If you made the adventure starting with looking like the orcs are just horrible monsters but later you find out its because evil white colonizers burned down all their tortilla trees, that would be a problematic premise right at the start because even the appearance of a monster (stand in, in Wokist eyes, for a non-white person, which is telling) being the villain would be offensive to them.
I would love a monster book for Lion & Dragon / Baptism of Fire. Make it a book that has over 700 monsters , just to out do wizards of the coast again.
Well, I think there's pretty complete collections of monsters in L&D, Baptism of Fire, and Sword & Caravan (plus Arrows of Indra). I think that making hundreds of monsters is also counter to the purpose. Monsters, to be fantastical, should be at least a little uncommon.
The idealism and metaphysics vs moral relativism, guess who will win? One makes you believe in heroism, the other incentivises nihilism, solipsism, materialism and hedonism. Guess who will win? Guess who actually cares about justice, honor and masculinity?
@@RPGPundit Either we achieve honor and virtue enough and we turn into a far more advanced age, or we collapse into dictatorship and barbarism, and depopulate onto only 20% of the current number, and achieve a kind of honorable, almost chivalrious, barbarian society, where men and women are really valued, but this relationship is based on justice instead of equity, and the government, if any, at least respects the well armed populace, because they may well overthrow it in a single day at wish!
For people who harp on about cultural appropriation and colonialism - they have no problem taking mythology from other cultures and repurposing them to match their cosmopolitan west coast modern ideology.
That's for sure, because fundamentally they believe their postmodernist degenerate culture is actually the pinnacle of human accomplishment. Spread the word, share the video!
This reminds me of the time I ran an E-mail RPG, and some of the moronic ideas people came up with. One person's character concept was "a male Amazon". I wrote back "that's just a soldier..." he didn't get into the game. Some people like to think they're clever, even when all evidence shows the opposite.
I must admit, given how much space is given to frankly useless LGBTQ chapters in recent Chaosium products, like Cthulhu by Gaslight, I did not expect you would ever get a SP conversation. That´s great!
A monster in the game is: ATK #, DEF #, Health #, Movement #, Extra; Something that messes with numbers. Players should not ask what a creature is, their first response should be to kill it. D&D is long gone, make your own game, and your own monsters.
Well, if you check out my own games (which are OSR, which is to say based on old-school DnD) the monsters there are based on old medieval myths and legends, and have very interesting details to them. But yes, they are alien, and most are dangerous to mankind.
That mindset is why when someone doesn't know a gazebo is a type of building, his first instinct upon spotting one is to attack it presuming it's a monster and, if a monster, must be hostile and dangerous.
@RPGPundit it's as if they know that there is a problem but they ignore it because they don't understand the problem enough to have an opinion but they also dismiss or censor anyone who brings it up and wants to have a real discussion about it. Unfortunately, D&D has a big enough market of consumers who ignore it or defend it that WoTC doesn't have to address it in any real capacity outside of calling those of us who criticize them a derogatory word. It's a pirate's life for me then.
I've no idea what D&D 2024 has done for male medusae but, to be fair, they were present in AD&D 2e as "maedar". The "maedar" were, I believe, introduced in the Monstrous Compendium Volume III Forgotten Realms Appendix I (1989) - 6 HD, AC 5, 2x 2d4 damage. They lacked the petrifying gaze of the females but their touch could turn stone to flesh and they could pass through stone at will. They were also immune to petrification and paralyzation effects (including slow and hold). They used their stone to flesh ability to break chunks off of their medusa mate's victims and change them into flesh so it could be devoured. A "maedar" could also transfer their life force into a rock crystal that could then be used to animate a golem. They were classified as Very Rare.
Ordered and on my way to me companion vol 1&2 and from Amazon Heroes and Villains and 101 Sarmatians On a side note I had this product called Lionheart(sort of Historical reference) by Columbia Games I used Lion and Dragon to run a scenario set in the 1180s Disappointing thing is Columbia where going to do other books in this range Tancred (Norman Sicilly) but never continued the line
I'm fine with satyrs as a humanoid race similar to goblins (see Theros), but they lose their mythological identity as basically living, mini versions of Dionysus
Wasn't there something in 2nd ed that was a male medusa? It was bald, and was immune to being turned to stone and I think it could do stone to flesh once a day or something?
@@RPGPundit I only know about it, because of a gaming story. A friend played one, got captured, and spent a few days turning bits of the stone floor into food because they didn't feed him! lol!
There turning the frogs gay or in this case there turning the kids gay. When you have D&D 1st, 2nd and 3rd editions all made by heterosexual and suddenly the game turns woke you get 5th edition and its just getting gayer and gayer and gayer by the book release. Its wild AF!!
I have every edition of D&D from OD&D, all the basics, AD&D, and WotC's. So of course I bought this new edition, being the nerd I am, and wow is it dogshît. I got the PHB, DMG, and now it pains me to consider getting the MM to complete the collection. WotC may have just managed to finally kill it, even for a completist like me.
Probably a 70s creation. Back in those days they loved to add peas to aspic dishes. Wouldn't take much creativity to view one of those things as a monster digesting a poor adventurer after eating a turkey / peas / carrot jelly mold.
It fits in the 'lol so random!' category; it's remembered not because it has any meaning, but because it's both a puzzle shaped like a monster (something most slimes/oozes/jellies share) and because it was so obviously artificial, even from an in-game perspective. It helps that transparent cubes are easy to draw on primitive computers, so they were popular with early dungeon crawlers.
@@RPGPundit This is what AD&D 2e had to say about medusae procreation. "Maedar are the little-known male version of the medusae. They are extremely rare, however (far more rare than the frequency would indicate), and few medusae ever find a maedar spouse. Most medusae typically mate with human males. This cross produces two to six eggs that hatch into fledgling, human-like females, who mature into medusae. The cross insures the continuation of the medusae species. When a medusa finds and mates with the extremely rare maedar, the eggs hatch into human infants, 25% male and 75% female. Only 1% of the males born of these matings are actually maedar; the remaining males and all the females are normal human infants who die at the sight of their mother."
The "concept" of practically anything exists. That doesn't mean it should be included in a bestiary of mythological beasts. Including the fringe as mainstream is a classic communist method.
I think the best monster book you could pick up is the The Monster Overhual. Covers pretty much every monster you would want in a "D&D" game and roll tables, lots of roll tables. For the ecology/lore info, pick the Creature Decks System Neutral decks by Inkwell Ideas or Bestial Ecosystems Created by Monstrous Inhabitation.
@@RPGPundit Oh yeah forgot about that. I did pick that up, wish it wasn't out of print though. I also have Teratogenicon, another monster generator/modifier. And there is Random Esoteric Ceature Generator by James Raggai, something I also need to pick up.
I forgive the female satyr as they've been an art motif for a very long time, perhaps connected to female onocentaurs which are more common. I cannot think of any appearances of them in folklore though. I don't think classical or neoclassical art is why WOTC did it though. The others are pretty inexcusable. If you wanted to treat some monsters like Star Wars/TV sci-fi aliens in your setting no one was stopping you before anyway.
They have no appearances in folklore, at least not classical folklore. They did not exist in ancient Greece, they were invented by renaissance artists exploring creative limits in the 16th century. So, not that long ago.
While I dont really care about genderflips for a lot of stuff, and i think you could do a fun male Medusa (King Midas is pretty close after all), the art for that male Dryad is just... At least try to make it look dangerous? They *are* monsters.
I'm not too surprised by the male dryads, in WOTC's other cash cow Magic the Gathering there's cards with a male dryad and female satyrs that came out a while ago.
Hey, Pundit. I was watching the like button flip and each time it flipped it was 111. This happened about 5 times before it flipped to 112 where it did the same about 3 time before getting to 113. Is YT trying to get peoples attention to hit the like button or are you getting ripped off on likes?
I have no idea, but I don't worry too much about what TH-cam does. I kind of assume I'm not going to be on any favored algorithm and just proceed accordingly.
Not quite sure how it is "gnostic" in this particular case at least. You could argue that the idea that a Paladin could be devoted to nothing, or to himself, is a gnostic concept. But the idea that monsters are just people who look weird and behave like people and have 2024 era gender definitions is strictly post-modern. Contrary to what James Lindsey thinks, "gnostic" has a very specific kind of meaning.
@@RPGPundit Seriously, I was really irritated when he lumped Gnosticism and several other schools of thought (eg Hermeticism) as more or less interchangeable. A lot of the features of Gnosticism he criticizes are not in the others. It is very sloppy.
I have to disagree with you here Pundit. The main issue with 2014 Monsters manual is the monsters were not tough enough. The greatest complaint among 5th edition DMs is monsters are not enough of a challenge under the official rules. 2024 MM is addressing that. It's made the core monsters have teeth and provides a challenge for the game. That's what's important. Whether or not there's a male dryad or meduas is less important than gameable statistics for a campaign.
Putting all woke nonsense aside, It looks like you simply don't like when mythical creatures are made less mythical and more like "just another race". I guess you are not a big fan of Warcraft-like settings, where orcs are people with its own culture and not darkspawns or fallen from grace degenerated elves corrupted by some dark evil stuff.
@@RPGPundit I don't know how it is done in modern DnD, but in good modern fantasy the difference is not only in funny skin, but also in culture and other things. It's okay to prefer classics. But I can't agree that other interpretations are automatically worse only because they are "less traditional". I also assume, that your are living is USA or other western country, so IRL stuff also affects your preferences. Too much "wokeness" (or whatever you westerners call it), leads to people seeking sanctuary in conservatism. You know, "old things good, new things bad". I live in Russia. There is no wokeness at all. Never was. And, probably, never will be because of cultural reasons. At least, not in the same way as in USA. But currently we have too much of this conservative BS like "old things good, new things bad". And guess what? I am fine with male dryads or female satyrs. I mean, yes, it is kinda weird. But for me, it does not feel as forced as it does for you. You probably see just another woke propaganda in this, because this is a mainstream for you. For me it is not a mainstream, so I see this as an opportunity to tell a different story outside of traditional paradigm, which I am full of in real life. By the end, we are the same, kinda. Roleplaying is an escapism, but we are escaping from different things.
There are degrees of "mythical". Games where everyone, including the monsters, act like 2025 Seattle hipsters is just about the furthest away from any degree of mythical wonder.
Nyxads are still always female. they get around this by reproducing empathically Athena style or Asari style. but Nyxads are more adventurous, curious, and well, closer to a maiden explorer than most feminine archetypes. because eternally young race whose curiosity never dies. but they temper it with experience. a race with no lands of thier own, but an ethnic district on every metropolis. a close comparison is to think of them like a more team friendly substitute for halflings and gnomes. representing thief as explorer, rather than thief as kleptomaniac.
@@RPGPundit its not. it is one of my adapted nymph types. at least anime culture is willing to keep nymphs entirely female. even if Nyxads are the kind of Nymph Eos would like. resembling the perception of fresh, petite maidens of the time. with the lithe wiry form for optimal maneuverability. being they evolved from the Sylph, as Night Nymphs who evolved from Sky Nymphs. so a bit of that anime loli vibe but it works. nyxads are curious, perceptive, quick, and fast observant learners. but also weak and frail because of their lithe frames. by PF1e standards, they would be +2 to Dexterity, Intelligence and Wisdom, -2 to Strength and Constitution. but small because of weight rather than small because of height, despite being faster on foot than wood elves with the coveted 40 foot movement. and before you say strength is a vestigial penalty, intelligence is an equally vestigial bonus. and generally needing custom fitted armor because of how lithe they are.
No. Wrong. The thing I condemn the designers of the edition for is treating orcs/goblins as just humans in cosplay. And the "not black/white" is found in the humans, not the monsters.
@@RPGPundit how is that different from roleplaying dwarves/evels/halflings? By that stance how are they noy humans in cosplay? I've played RPGs since the 1970s - RuneQuest had trollkin, Fantasy Trip had player goblins and orcs back then too. DnD stood out as the odd one out
I don't care. Gender of mythical creatures is sacrosanct? Get out of here. You sound like a Jordan Peterson wannabe. Good work on the companion and congratulations for your success. I hope you sell tons of copies. Have a nice day.
More incompetent: WOTC staff or the leadership of the LAPD fire department?
Twist: WotC is staffing the LA fire department
LOL. Hard to say, though obviously the LAPD fire department, and LA government, and California's governor, have done more harm to real people.
@@3Scalpel 🤣
I reckon the fire department is full of competent people who can't do their job due to the brain-dead legislation of California. With wotc the problem goes all the way down.
LAPD has a fire department?
Monster attacks civilization. Hero journeys to civilization. Hero hunts down and kills the monster. Then a) Civilization betrays or banishes the hero and the hero returns to the barbaric wilds until civilization needs him again; b) Hero marries the princess, settles down, has a family, becomes corrupted or softened by civilization, and then is killed by a new monster that arises. I think you should do a series of videos that discuss different myths and the lessons they teach.
Not a bad idea! Spread the word, share the video!
If you haven't given Lion & Dragon a chance, you should. It's fun. Deadly, but fun.
Thanks! I appreciate that. Same with Baptism of Fire!
male Medusas (Maedar IIRC) were in 2nd edition. People didn't complain because they weren't just gender-swapped, they didn't have snakes for hair or anything, they were tall bald guys (think like Mr. Clean lol) and could turn stone to flesh, so they would break statues the medusa petrified back to flesh so they could eat.
Kinda shows the difference here. They made sense. The male dryad is stupid, it's literally a dryad but male, not even creative enough to make it something that's a male "equivalent" but not a dryad. Persoanlly I'd make them almost like elves with leaves for hair and beards or something.
Also it was an attempt to take an mythic idea like an Medusa and try to make it more like pulp or sci fi by giving it an echo system.
The male counterpart of a dryad is a satyr.
Yeah, I heard. But that's not this.
Male Dryads existed in Discworld as a sort of joke in the first book, but they were huge buff guys as handsome as Dryads were beautiful, sturdy like an oak. "Of course we come in both male and female. Where do you think acorns come from?"
The protagonist was still surprised since he'd just always assumed their species was exclusively female.
Monster manual turned fruit cake recipe.
Spread the word, share the video!
monsters are not people.
Exactly! Spread the word, share the video!
Racist!
Not everyone in the Monster Manual capable of talking needs to be a selectable race! In fact, most shouldn't be. I'll even go further and say the Drow, Orc, and Tiefling shouldn't be.
@@RoninCatholic I prefer humancentric stories myself. All these other races make me feel like Bob Hoskins in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, or one of the human characters in a Muppets movie.
This shift to materialism has been happening since the 90s. I first noticed it in Dragon Magazine with the Monster Ecologies which were my favourite part of the Dragon mags (that and Bazaar of the Bizzare). In the 80s monsters had a more mystical or magical origin or they were just personifications of ideas/emotions (like the satyrs) but, during the 90s everything was explained through "evolution" or some other materialitic mechanism. I did not like it as it robbed the world of its magic and myth.
I enjoyed the monster ecologies as well.
Absolutely agreed. Spread the word, share the video!
I won't begrudge materialist evolution-believers trying to shoehorn their own theology onto imaginary worlds, except that
A) they do it by retconning and homogenizing IPs that existed before they toucehd them and
B) they make it BORING
That'd be like if I were in charge of D&D and turned all the settings monotheist. It wouldn't work, and it would ruin fun for other people to no benefit and rob the worlds of distinction. Making new settings in accord with my beliefs makes sense, and that's what I do.
@ 👍
Do non-binary Medusa have blue snakes for hair? Or do they shave one side of them off?
A really important question. I guess we'll see in the art. Spread the word, share the video!
I absolutely love Sandy Peterson.
His TH-cam channel is called Sandy of Cthulhu.
I have a strong feeling the RPG industry is going to be one of the last bastions of the woke
I don't know if you watched my "5 predictions" video from a few days ago, but that was precisely one of my predictions. Check it out if you haven't.
@RPGPundit I watched that one when it came out. Let's hope a certain African American decides to buy himself a new company
I enjoyed the Feast Of The Circumcision one shot! will you be writing one shots for other holidays on the Medieval Calendar Year?
Quite possibly. Meanwhile, the next Pundit File will be another Medieval Authentic adventure you might like, called The Bones of St. Florian.
@RPGPundit sounds great. Just bought the calendar and the dead city, so I'm definitely jonesing for more content.
"Female satyrs"
Hot.
In actual greek mythology, the female counterpart to the satyrs were the Maenads. But the Maenads were not part-animal. They were women, overwhelmed by lust for Dionysus, they would simultaneously be overwhelmed by their lust and yet destroy men in a violent frenzy. They wore animal skins but weren't half-animal like the Satyr. I think it might be because it was meant to suggest that the maenad state is not some kind of extreme that removes someone from their humanity, it's something with the normal range of female behavior. Or in other words, B*tches be Crazy.
Creators like you are why I'm not to worried about WOTC jumping the shark. The whole monsters are people to are such tripe - I've never taken a learned man perspective on it like you successfully explain in this video. Every gaming session I gripe about Mexican orcs now. They were never racist until this edition - they literally created what they set out to supposedly "STOP". Flee Mortals by Colville is a great monster manual, if anyone is looking for actual stat blocks and interesting monster mechanics that are vastly superior to what's coming from Wizards.
I appreciate you saying that about me. I hope you've checked out some of my games, which definitely do NOT have the "monsters are people too" concept, quite the opposite. Spread the word, share the video!
I've got some bad news for you then, WOTC jumped the shark back in 2012. Now we're just swimming around in the water that shark took a dump in.
Because screw finding out the background of the monster raids in one or two adventures, right? Just tell them, who they are immediately, so no snowflake is offended by fantasy stereotyping.
Well, that's a good point; mainly because it shows the lie that this is about "better storytelling" or some nonsense like that. If you made the adventure starting with looking like the orcs are just horrible monsters but later you find out its because evil white colonizers burned down all their tortilla trees, that would be a problematic premise right at the start because even the appearance of a monster (stand in, in Wokist eyes, for a non-white person, which is telling) being the villain would be offensive to them.
I would love a monster book for Lion & Dragon / Baptism of Fire.
Make it a book that has over 700 monsters , just to out do wizards of the coast again.
Well, I think there's pretty complete collections of monsters in L&D, Baptism of Fire, and Sword & Caravan (plus Arrows of Indra). I think that making hundreds of monsters is also counter to the purpose. Monsters, to be fantastical, should be at least a little uncommon.
Perfect for a snowy day. Our dnd night got snowed out so plotting and planning continues.
Spread the word, share the video!
Excellent clarity. I'm all BRP and I know you do a lot o OSR, (I love Castles & Crusades too, though), but this isn't about that. Just excellent.
Spread the word, share the Livestream news!
Holy balls! You landed Sandy?!
Yup.
@ hot damn! I’m be gaming with my boys when the show hits but I’ll definitely check it out after the game.
The idealism and metaphysics vs moral relativism, guess who will win? One makes you believe in heroism, the other incentivises nihilism, solipsism, materialism and hedonism. Guess who will win? Guess who actually cares about justice, honor and masculinity?
There's no question who will win. The real question is whether modern civilization can be saved before that win.
@@RPGPundit Either we achieve honor and virtue enough and we turn into a far more advanced age, or we collapse into dictatorship and barbarism, and depopulate onto only 20% of the current number, and achieve a kind of honorable, almost chivalrious, barbarian society, where men and women are really valued, but this relationship is based on justice instead of equity, and the government, if any, at least respects the well armed populace, because they may well overthrow it in a single day at wish!
For people who harp on about cultural appropriation and colonialism - they have no problem taking mythology from other cultures and repurposing them to match their cosmopolitan west coast modern ideology.
That's for sure, because fundamentally they believe their postmodernist degenerate culture is actually the pinnacle of human accomplishment. Spread the word, share the video!
Sorry , i was one of the people who talked him into coming back.
I told him i was also about to start doing videos on his books.
It's OK, we like Venger. Glad he's back. Won't stop me from making Last Sun parodies of his works.
The game definitely needed asexual succubi! 😆
Bound to happen in some future product. Spread the word, share the video!
*cough cough*
How Dare you Misgender Me!!!
Signed, Dryads and Succubus
Spread the word, share the video!
This reminds me of the time I ran an E-mail RPG, and some of the moronic ideas people came up with. One person's character concept was "a male Amazon". I wrote back "that's just a soldier..." he didn't get into the game. Some people like to think they're clever, even when all evidence shows the opposite.
I must admit, given how much space is given to frankly useless LGBTQ chapters in recent Chaosium products, like Cthulhu by Gaslight, I did not expect you would ever get a SP conversation. That´s great!
You don't know Sandy. You're in for a big surprise!!
A monster in the game is: ATK #, DEF #, Health #, Movement #, Extra; Something that messes with numbers.
Players should not ask what a creature is, their first response should be to kill it.
D&D is long gone, make your own game, and your own monsters.
That's what I did. Folk DnD!
Well, if you check out my own games (which are OSR, which is to say based on old-school DnD) the monsters there are based on old medieval myths and legends, and have very interesting details to them. But yes, they are alien, and most are dangerous to mankind.
That mindset is why when someone doesn't know a gazebo is a type of building, his first instinct upon spotting one is to attack it presuming it's a monster and, if a monster, must be hostile and dangerous.
@@RoninCatholic dang were houses and them being able to transform into item spitting monsters!
D&D youtubers really call this book the best one yet, lmao. I dont get it; they're actual sycophants.
They're mostly shills, yes.
@RPGPundit it's as if they know that there is a problem but they ignore it because they don't understand the problem enough to have an opinion but they also dismiss or censor anyone who brings it up and wants to have a real discussion about it.
Unfortunately, D&D has a big enough market of consumers who ignore it or defend it that WoTC doesn't have to address it in any real capacity outside of calling those of us who criticize them a derogatory word.
It's a pirate's life for me then.
@panzer00 they are gradually declining in sales, actually actually not that gradually.
Picked up Ch'or't ! , well done sir !
I'm very glad that you enjoyed it! I think it was really good.
And people wonder why I've dropped D&D
Spread the word, share the video. And if you haven't yet, check out the OSR, especially my stuff!
I've no idea what D&D 2024 has done for male medusae but, to be fair, they were present in AD&D 2e as "maedar".
The "maedar" were, I believe, introduced in the Monstrous Compendium Volume III Forgotten Realms Appendix I (1989) - 6 HD, AC 5, 2x 2d4 damage. They lacked the petrifying gaze of the females but their touch could turn stone to flesh and they could pass through stone at will. They were also immune to petrification and paralyzation effects (including slow and hold). They used their stone to flesh ability to break chunks off of their medusa mate's victims and change them into flesh so it could be devoured. A "maedar" could also transfer their life force into a rock crystal that could then be used to animate a golem. They were classified as Very Rare.
not the same thing at all.
That's not what they're doing here, I assume.
Ordered and on my way to me companion vol 1&2 and from Amazon Heroes and Villains and 101 Sarmatians
On a side note I had this product called Lionheart(sort of Historical reference) by Columbia Games I used Lion and Dragon to run a scenario set in the 1180s
Disappointing thing is Columbia where going to do other books in this range Tancred (Norman Sicilly) but never continued the line
Awesome, thank you!
I'm fine with satyrs as a humanoid race similar to goblins (see Theros), but they lose their mythological identity as basically living, mini versions of Dionysus
That's the problem, because that's the most interesting thing about them.
@RPGPundit For WotC purposes, Beastmen work better than satyrs
Wasn't there something in 2nd ed that was a male medusa? It was bald, and was immune to being turned to stone and I think it could do stone to flesh once a day or something?
Apparently yes, but in like, the Monstruous Compendium III or something. Very obscure. And as you say, it was different from the medusa.
@@RPGPundit I only know about it, because of a gaming story. A friend played one, got captured, and spent a few days turning bits of the stone floor into food because they didn't feed him! lol!
There turning the frogs gay or in this case there turning the kids gay. When you have D&D 1st, 2nd and 3rd editions all made by heterosexual and suddenly the game turns woke you get 5th edition and its just getting gayer and gayer and gayer by the book release. Its wild AF!!
No worries. I already have a policy to not pay for nonsense, so there is no chance I'm buying anything the current wotc people put out.
Good job! Spread the word, share the video!
Myth, while not factually accurate, is true nonetheless.
Correct! Spread the word, share the video!
I have every edition of D&D from OD&D, all the basics, AD&D, and WotC's. So of course I bought this new edition, being the nerd I am, and wow is it dogshît. I got the PHB, DMG, and now it pains me to consider getting the MM to complete the collection. WotC may have just managed to finally kill it, even for a completist like me.
Don't. Break the habit. Buy something good instead. It doesn't even have to be one of my books, there's lots of good OSR books.
what does a gelatinous cube symbolizee then
Probably a 70s creation. Back in those days they loved to add peas to aspic dishes. Wouldn't take much creativity to view one of those things as a monster digesting a poor adventurer after eating a turkey / peas / carrot jelly mold.
It fits in the 'lol so random!' category; it's remembered not because it has any meaning, but because it's both a puzzle shaped like a monster (something most slimes/oozes/jellies share) and because it was so obviously artificial, even from an in-game perspective.
It helps that transparent cubes are easy to draw on primitive computers, so they were popular with early dungeon crawlers.
Ummm...Colonialism!
If you mean in a classical sense, there were notions of evil slimes... representative of corruption caused by sin.
@@RPGPundit it's a bit "cubic" and geometrically perfect for that
I think male medusas existed since at least 2e - probably very different from 5.5 male medusas though.
Did they? I don't recall. Anyways, it's silly. Medusas as a species are a bit silly for that matter.
@ I assume they needed a way for the medusas to reproduce. (I would have said they poison a young woman and she turns into one).
@@RPGPundit This is what AD&D 2e had to say about medusae procreation.
"Maedar are the little-known male version of the medusae. They are extremely rare, however (far more rare than the frequency would indicate), and few medusae ever find a maedar spouse. Most medusae typically mate with human males. This cross produces two to six eggs that hatch into fledgling, human-like females, who mature into medusae. The cross insures the continuation of the medusae species.
When a medusa finds and mates with the extremely rare maedar, the eggs hatch into human infants, 25% male and 75% female. Only 1% of the males born of these matings are actually maedar; the remaining males and all the females are normal human infants who die at the sight of their mother."
Not to be that guy, but a the concept of a female Satyr/faun (a Satyress/fauness) existed since the Renaissance.
The "concept" of practically anything exists. That doesn't mean it should be included in a bestiary of mythological beasts. Including the fringe as mainstream is a classic communist method.
You're technically right, but that's largely just a product of artistic creativity by 16th century renaissance artists.
I think the best monster book you could pick up is the The Monster Overhual. Covers pretty much every monster you would want in a "D&D" game and roll tables, lots of roll tables. For the ecology/lore info, pick the Creature Decks System Neutral decks by Inkwell Ideas or Bestial Ecosystems Created by Monstrous Inhabitation.
That sounds good. Another one that's useful is The Monster Alphabet, written by my old Inappropriate Characters co-host Jobe Bittman.
@@RPGPundit Oh yeah forgot about that. I did pick that up, wish it wasn't out of print though. I also have Teratogenicon, another monster generator/modifier. And there is Random Esoteric Ceature Generator by James Raggai, something I also need to pick up.
Are there male nymphs?
There were male sea-humanoids in greek myth. Tritons, for example. But no, nymphs were female.
I forgive the female satyr as they've been an art motif for a very long time, perhaps connected to female onocentaurs which are more common. I cannot think of any appearances of them in folklore though.
I don't think classical or neoclassical art is why WOTC did it though. The others are pretty inexcusable. If you wanted to treat some monsters like Star Wars/TV sci-fi aliens in your setting no one was stopping you before anyway.
They have no appearances in folklore, at least not classical folklore. They did not exist in ancient Greece, they were invented by renaissance artists exploring creative limits in the 16th century. So, not that long ago.
While I dont really care about genderflips for a lot of stuff, and i think you could do a fun male Medusa (King Midas is pretty close after all), the art for that male Dryad is just...
At least try to make it look dangerous? They *are* monsters.
It's pretty pathetic. Like the other two books, the Monster Manual has a lot of cutesy-poo art that devalues the whole idea of heroic fantasy.
I'm not too surprised by the male dryads, in WOTC's other cash cow Magic the Gathering there's cards with a male dryad and female satyrs that came out a while ago.
That's where the poison first came from, I guess... Spread the word, share the video!
Hey, Pundit. I was watching the like button flip and each time it flipped it was 111. This happened about 5 times before it flipped to 112 where it did the same about 3 time before getting to 113. Is YT trying to get peoples attention to hit the like button or are you getting ripped off on likes?
TH-cam added a feature that when it detects the video mentioning the like button the button 'waves' at you to show you where it is.
I have no idea, but I don't worry too much about what TH-cam does. I kind of assume I'm not going to be on any favored algorithm and just proceed accordingly.
DnD is postmodern gnostic myth.
Please elaborate?
Not quite sure how it is "gnostic" in this particular case at least. You could argue that the idea that a Paladin could be devoted to nothing, or to himself, is a gnostic concept. But the idea that monsters are just people who look weird and behave like people and have 2024 era gender definitions is strictly post-modern. Contrary to what James Lindsey thinks, "gnostic" has a very specific kind of meaning.
@@RPGPundit Seriously, I was really irritated when he lumped Gnosticism and several other schools of thought (eg Hermeticism) as more or less interchangeable. A lot of the features of Gnosticism he criticizes are not in the others. It is very sloppy.
I have to disagree with you here Pundit. The main issue with 2014 Monsters manual is the monsters were not tough enough.
The greatest complaint among 5th edition DMs is monsters are not enough of a challenge under the official rules.
2024 MM is addressing that. It's made the core monsters have teeth and provides a challenge for the game.
That's what's important. Whether or not there's a male dryad or meduas is less important than gameable statistics for a campaign.
Putting all woke nonsense aside, It looks like you simply don't like when mythical creatures are made less mythical and more like "just another race".
I guess you are not a big fan of Warcraft-like settings, where orcs are people with its own culture and not darkspawns or fallen from grace degenerated elves corrupted by some dark evil stuff.
That's correct, I'm not. If monsters are just people with funny skin, a lot of the "fantasy" is lost.
@@RPGPundit I don't know how it is done in modern DnD, but in good modern fantasy the difference is not only in funny skin, but also in culture and other things.
It's okay to prefer classics. But I can't agree that other interpretations are automatically worse only because they are "less traditional".
I also assume, that your are living is USA or other western country, so IRL stuff also affects your preferences. Too much "wokeness" (or whatever you westerners call it), leads to people seeking sanctuary in conservatism. You know, "old things good, new things bad".
I live in Russia. There is no wokeness at all. Never was. And, probably, never will be because of cultural reasons. At least, not in the same way as in USA. But currently we have too much of this conservative BS like "old things good, new things bad". And guess what? I am fine with male dryads or female satyrs. I mean, yes, it is kinda weird. But for me, it does not feel as forced as it does for you. You probably see just another woke propaganda in this, because this is a mainstream for you. For me it is not a mainstream, so I see this as an opportunity to tell a different story outside of traditional paradigm, which I am full of in real life.
By the end, we are the same, kinda. Roleplaying is an escapism, but we are escaping from different things.
Your points are well taken, but very few tables have ever played D&D as a mythical game.
There are degrees of "mythical". Games where everyone, including the monsters, act like 2025 Seattle hipsters is just about the furthest away from any degree of mythical wonder.
Nyxads are still always female. they get around this by reproducing empathically Athena style or Asari style. but Nyxads are more adventurous, curious, and well, closer to a maiden explorer than most feminine archetypes. because eternally young race whose curiosity never dies. but they temper it with experience. a race with no lands of thier own, but an ethnic district on every metropolis. a close comparison is to think of them like a more team friendly substitute for halflings and gnomes. representing thief as explorer, rather than thief as kleptomaniac.
I'm assuming that's not from the new Monster Manual though...
@@RPGPundit its not. it is one of my adapted nymph types. at least anime culture is willing to keep nymphs entirely female. even if Nyxads are the kind of Nymph Eos would like. resembling the perception of fresh, petite maidens of the time. with the lithe wiry form for optimal maneuverability. being they evolved from the Sylph, as Night Nymphs who evolved from Sky Nymphs. so a bit of that anime loli vibe but it works. nyxads are curious, perceptive, quick, and fast observant learners. but also weak and frail because of their lithe frames. by PF1e standards, they would be +2 to Dexterity, Intelligence and Wisdom, -2 to Strength and Constitution. but small because of weight rather than small because of height, despite being faster on foot than wood elves with the coveted 40 foot movement. and before you say strength is a vestigial penalty, intelligence is an equally vestigial bonus. and generally needing custom fitted armor because of how lithe they are.
you've defended old myths as not black/white, yet condemn the new gamers for NOT seeing orcs/goblins as black/white
The point being that new gamers are not gamers but circus freaks expecting a DM to narrate their alternative life style.
No. Wrong. The thing I condemn the designers of the edition for is treating orcs/goblins as just humans in cosplay. And the "not black/white" is found in the humans, not the monsters.
@@RPGPundit how is that different from roleplaying dwarves/evels/halflings? By that stance how are they noy humans in cosplay? I've played RPGs since the 1970s - RuneQuest had trollkin, Fantasy Trip had player goblins and orcs back then too. DnD stood out as the odd one out
I don't care. Gender of mythical creatures is sacrosanct? Get out of here. You sound like a Jordan Peterson wannabe.
Good work on the companion and congratulations for your success. I hope you sell tons of copies.
Have a nice day.
I'm not surprised at the resemblance. I was taught by some of the same teachers he had.
Aww! Poor baby! Triggered much?