Greetings, elegen/tg/entlemen and ca/tg/girls. I have been a lurker on this site for a long time now, and I wish to ask for your help.
I'm a big fan of both prehistory and fantasy games, so I wanted to try and combine the two; essentially, prehistoric versions of classic monsters, both from mythology and classic tabletop games.
So far, I've got fire-breathing gorgonopsids for hell hounds, nocturnal fanged blood-drinking heterodontosaurs for chupacabras, and gigantic carnivorous oviraptorosaurs for owlbears, but I need more ideas.
What do you guys think? Any ideas?
>>47931657
There are some prehistoric fantasy games out there you could build them for. Wolfpacks and Winter Snow is an excellent one designed by a kind resident of the OSR general threads.
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/181454/Wolfpacks-and-Winter-Snow
>>47931657
Ankylosaurus with a basilisk gaze. Predators wouldn't want to turn their prey into stone, so petrification makes more sense as a defensive adaptation.
Phase raptors.
Saber-tooth bananas.
>>47931657
Gigantic Sloth siege beast
Gigantic buffalo siege beast
Dodo bird shephards
I spent the last 5 min looking for a specific chart through google but I'm not invested enough to do a full search for you.
>>47931809
I'm not really looking to build them in any game; I'm more interested in the concept than the execution.
Not exactly specific to anything, but what about fucking with the horns on a Triceratops or something?
Triceratops + tentacle horns = ohgodwhy.jpg
![latest[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/fLUY2xh.png "latest[1].png")
>>47931657
You could potentially raid a few things from Monster Hunter - a few might fit the feel you're looking for. Especially Tigrex here, it's basically a tyrannosaur with short backlegs and well developed forelimbs, likes to charge around on all fours and roars loud enough to cause physical damage
>>47932778
That thing looks goofy. "This is why you don't skip leg day, bro!"
![latest[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/3bypeUl.jpg "latest[1].jpg")
>>47932827
The legs don't look quite so weird when it's not trying to rip your face off
>>47931657
I wrote a module for MiniSix for playing in Mesolithic/Neolithic-inspired fantasy. Might offer it as a suggestion if you're still looking for a suggestion.
You need the core rules of MiniSix, but you can get that for free online.
>>47933150
Thanks, but I'm not really looking for something like that. I'm looking for ideas for monsters.
We've already got owlbears, displacer beasts, chimeras, and all manner of creatures in roleplaying games that were born from wizards fucking around with animals. Why wouldn't there be something similar with dinosaurs? They're already pretty solidly established in a wide range of fantasy settings, from Eberron to Golarion; why wouldn't there be magical experimentation on them as well?
>>47932827
Once upon a time, this monster was one of the biggest terrors in the game it was in. It moves fast and is hyper aggressive. It ate new players by the thousands and showed no mercy. It's a great fight.
>>47933320
I didn't say it wasn't a tough fight, I said it looks goofy.
>>47933320
It's one of the only monsters where the variant is easier, toobecause Brute Tiggy doesn't charge 24/7
>>47933288
I agree with >>47932778's idea of ripping off some stuff from Monster Hunter--especially the tigrex--and don't be afraid to also get inspiration from the actual Ice Age. Giant woolly rhinos, dire wolves, short-nosed bears. There's a lot of cool stuff. Giant elks. Giant actual bugs.
Also rip off some fun stuff from good stone-aged games and film. The various creatures in Far Cry Primal are pretty neat, and you can also use the really big saber tooth tiger in 10,000 BC (shit movie that it was), which is like twice the size of the actual smilodon. Then there's also the terror birds, which are basically HUGE cassowaries.
Fuck, put cassowaries in. Your players will never sleep well again.
Aggresive gigantopithecus could be your standard ogre type monster, and fucked up, man eating neanderthals could work pretty well as orcs, dunno. Cool idea tho, I'm interested to see where this goes
>>47931657
Monster Hunter. Seriously, they've got a bunch of dinosaurs that are basically dragons, with a lot of variety.
>>47933807
This is true, but I think that the OP is asking for people to come up with original content here.
>>47931657
Giant Microraptor as wyverns, Spinosaurus as green dragons, Yutyrannus as white dragons, Quetzalcoatlus as blue dragons, Carnotaurus as black dragons and giant Yi Qi as red dragons.
Styracosaurus as a sphinx, with a human face engraved in the crest.
>>47934460
Alright, now we're getting somewhere. What's going to make these creatures unique, though? Just slapping wings on a dinosaur and giving it a breathe weapon isn't really original; it's more, well, lazy character design.
>>47934647
It's original enough for what OP is asking, just combining pre-historical beasts and monsters.
There's not much you can do to make dinosaur-dragons besides giving them wings and a breath weapon, you can change their usual behaviors based on the dinosaur I guess, like making the green spinos peaceful fish-eaters or something like that, but even then not everyone of them has something like that.
>>47931657
Bumping with a potential domesticated mount who's kit is made using neolithic technology.
>>47931657
What kind of cultures are you using in your setting, OP? What do the players play as?
>>47937976
You know that art is actually of a sapient dinosaur descendant. It's not a mount, it's a hunter
>>47931657
You should have archaic dinosaurs everywhere. Sauropods lurking in swamps, pterosaurs carrying victims away in their claws, tails dragging around everywhere etc.
>>47938531
I'm using a fairly standard fantasy culture; tech level is roughly equivalent to your standard D&D fare.
>>47940391
Now this is a good idea; I do have a weakness for retrosaurs.
>>47931657
Flying Migratory Liopleurodons
I call them Sun Racers, because they're essentially giantcliffracers
>>47941023
While Cliff Racers are the absolute bane of many an adventurers' existence, I think that this would work better as some kind of equivalent to a wyvern.
"Oh, you've got wee stinging dragons in your lands? Oh, that's cute; we've got giant flying murder-crocodiles."
Plus, I've always seen cliff racers as pterosaurs.
>>47941109
The cool thing is though, the really ancient Dire Sunracers gain the ability toshoot burning chemicals from their nostrils like a bombardier beetle
>>47941160
Why stop there? A hadrosaur with napalm snot would be a hilariously dickish thing to drop on PCs.
Perhaps instead the 'Dire Sunracers' (Name may be subject to change) could belch a load of glowing chemicals that basically feels like poison ivy x 100, while also painting a "Hey! Eat me!" sign on your back.
>>47939455
>You know that art is actually of a sapient dinosaur descendant. It's not a mount, it's a hunter
>sapient dinosaur descendant.
This. This needs to be in the game. A dying race that won't survive the end of the Neolithic/Copper (I forgot the name sorry) age.
>>47941242
>the more advanced and older Sunracers (colloquially known as Burning Skylords) breath massive amounts of caustic, adhesive, hallucinogenic gas. This gets you completely stoned out of your gourd, starts melting away at your skin, and acts as a pheromone to other Sunracers
>Also the Skylords have awesome patterns of chromataphores across their skin
>Are you a bad enough dude to perform a population cull on these dudes during their peak mating season atop the highest mountain range in the world? During Meteor Shower season?
>Wielding only the ceremonial habanero tipped seashell harpoons and a shield made from layered and hardened mats of alpaca fur?
>>47931657
Skull Tyrants: Midsized tyrannosaurs with the skin pulled so tight over their faces that their faces look literally skeletal, granting them a fear ability like a dragon. Maybe they could be the result of necromancers dicking around with tyrannosaurs, giving them some undead traits as well (Immunity to critical hits, paralysis)
Seeing as tyrannosaurs weren't really averse to eating really fucking disgusting carcasses as well as live prey, I'd say that they would probably already be immune to diseases and poisons.
Mistmesmer: A JP-style dilophosaurus that can shift and alter the color of the skin on its frill to form hypnotic patterns, leaving victims in a stupor while the dinosaur tears into the unlucky saps.
Maybe hadrosaurs could have some kind of psionic or hormone-based ability to tame other predators, using them like its own personal army.
Psifeaster: A colossal sauropod with psionic abilities whose gluttony extends not just to vegetation, but the very thoughts of lifeforms around it.
>>47941342
Two words: Fuck. Yes.
I imagine that half-dragon and half-fiend versions of these things would be quite common; seeing as both dragons and demons basically follow the WWZD? argument (What Would Zeus Do? - If something is cool/hot, turn into something that can fuck it!)
>>47941314
But why stop at just raptors? Every damn tabletop game involving dinosaurs has those things. Why not something with a bit more muscle behind it?
Take the megaraptorans. They were a side branch of the tyrannosaur family that lived in South America, Africa, and Australia. They weren't as big or as tough as, say, T-rex, but they did have one thing that made them utterly fucking terrifying:
BIG
FUCKING
ARMS
WITH
MOTHERFUCKING
THUMBS
But wait, there's more! These thumbs, unlike the pussy opposable ones that we have, were each tipped with a fuckhuge scythe-like claw so goddamn huge that when paleontologists first dug them up, they thought that they were the claws of a T-rex-sized raptor.
So we've already established that these things were badass, and their environment was equally kickass: these guys lived alongside Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and other carnosaurs, which were specialized hunters of sauropods, alongside some of the largest sauropods to ever live-we're talking kaiju-sized dinosaurs here. They also lived alongside Carnotaurus, a dinosaur that was basically a carnivorous battering ram that could outrun Usain motherfucking Bolt, Sarcosuchus, a crocodile big enough to eat dinosaurs, Kaprosuchus, a galloping crocodile with three freaking pairs of saber teeth that ate dinosaurs, and snakes that could reach over 80 feet in length. And yet even with so much competition in all of their habitats, these motherfuckers THRIVED.
Now imagine how deadly these badass, hyper-adapted killing machines would be if they managed to figure out how to use tools?
Pic related.
>>47931657
You know, a lot of dinosaurs are named after mythical creatures. Why not play that up?
Medusaceratops? Boom, snakes for horns.
Gargoyleosaurus? Boom, a humanoid ankylosaur with the ability to transform its fists, armor, and tail club into solid stone to further boost its attacks.
Anthracosuchus balrogus? Boom, a fire-belching crocodilian with coal-black hide and smoldering red eyes that swims through the rivers of Hell, occasionally popping through into lava lakes.
Ninjemys? You've just got some Dire fucking Ninja Turtles.
Siats meekororum? Deck it out in clown makeup, give it a fear effect and the ability to pull off some impossible shit (Teleportation so it can always show up in front of you wherever you run), and you've got nightmares incarnate.
Achillobator? Give that giant raptor naturally-forming bronze armor, maybe a helmet plume for extra snazziness.
Gorgonops? Blow it up to the size of a dire lion and slap a mane out of snakes on it, and you've got one hell of a supernatural prehistoric predator. Better yet, give it a long tail tipped with a stinger, then slap some quills on its back, and you've got a Paleozoic chimera!
>>47931657
>This shark
>Add more tooth-tentacle things to the lower jaw
>???
>Profit
>>47941555
Yeah, put some of those beefy arms on them for good measure.
>>47931657
Well, a lot of creatures in roleplaying games are crossbreeds with one another: the bulette is a snapping turtle mixed with an armadillo, and it's pretty obvious what the owlbear's a hybrid of. Why not roll with that?
>Wizards wanted to create the perfect aquatic guardian, combining the raw might of a tyrannosaurus with the aquatic versatility of an octopus.
>They were successful-TOO successful.
>>47934460
>Ice Tyrant (May need to change the name)
>Heavily-built denizens of the world's coldest places, lurking around the polar ice caps, atop the largest glaciers, and swimming in the coldest of seas.
>Long, powerful arms reach down to the ground, each hand equipped with claws like meathooks; the dinosaur can actually run on all fours like this
>The body is covered in a thick coat of silver-and-white feathers that's constantly caked in snow; oftentimes, the snow quickly hardens into rough, jagged ice after prolonged contact with the monster's natural magic, giving it a coat of magically strengthened armor
>The feathers are also waterproof like those of a duck's, while a layer of blubber lies beneath the skin; combined with the ice tyrant's laterally flattened tail, this serves as a great assistant for the dinosaur as it swims through freezing waters.
>Instead of the snowy blast of the white dragon, the dinosaur's breathe weapon is a shotgun-like blast of shards of ice, shredding through hide, leather armor, and flesh with little difficulty
>>47934460
>Forest Serpent (Again, needs better name)
>A serpentine monster with a long, sinuous body, neck, and tail, four legs, with the first pair sporting large, hooked claws, a short sail running from between the shoulder blades to the bast of the tail, and a crocodile-like head with jaws filled with razor-sharp teeth.
>Sly, cunning hunters, forest serpents are primarily found in woodland regions, particularly near bodies of water, and feed on both fish and large animals.
>Rarely seen when they don't want to be seen: forest serpents are capable of changing the coloration of their skin to perfectly match the environment around them, and they leave practically no trail to follow.
>Burrow through the earth and swim through the water in the same undulating motion, but some swear that they've seen forest serpents flying through the air in the same fashion
>Absolute monsters in combat, constricting with their long, snakelike bodies, slashing and tearing with their front claws, biting with their terrible jaws, and exhaling deadly clouds of acidic vapor capable of eating through solid steel armor
>Some villages have learned to live with these immense beasts, offering one or two of their cattle in exchange for protection from all manner of creatures; legends tell of orc invasions that were routed when a forest serpent exploded out of the woods when they approached a certain village, its terrible breath slaying them by the dozens before the army finally managed to flee
>>47934460
>Thunderwing
>Not related to dinosaurs, these sapphire-blue titans stand at a massive 25 feet tall, and make their homes in the desolate wastelands of the world.
>Two different varieties exist: the brilliant blue winged forms have enormous draconic wings, rivaling those of a roc in width, in the place of arms, with enormous beaks straight as javelins with deadly serrations in the place of teeth and hundreds of straight spikes jutting forwards on the upper jaw, while the ground forms have forsaken their wings for immense gorilla-like arms, each ending in five scythe-like claws with a particularly large claw on the fifth finger. The scales are much duller in hue than those of their skybound kin, but hatchlings are a royal purple in color.
>The flying variety is arrogant and proud, soaring over the desert sands confident that it is the metaphorical jewel in the region's crown. Anything that offends its colossal ego, be it something of comparable, or worse yet, greater beauty than it, or even adventurers 'trespassing' in its lands, are met with absolute hell; the great flyer dives down with all the force of a thunderbolt from the heavens, skewering foes on its tremendous beak, gulping down creatures the size of ogres whole in a single bite, and firing a blast of thunder and lightning from the many spines atop its beak.
>>47942878
>The ground-dwellers, on the other hand, are a good deal more humble, but they make up for this in sheer grumpiness. They view humanoids with no small amount of disdain, seeing them, as directly quoted by one thunderwing, "A buncha' half-witted talkin' monkeys wit' a bad habit o' stickin' their noses into business tha' ain't theirs."
>Nevertheless, ground thunderwings will tolerate humanoids going through their territories, provided that they don't make too much noise and don't take too much of the rocks that these flightless beasts like to live around.
>Both types of thunderwing are quite fond of gifts; flying ones value glasswork and cut gemstones the most, particularly ones of a similar color to themselves, while ground forms prefer uncut stones and metal ores, particularly varieties that they've never seen before, as well as well-wrought metalworks.
>Neither type of thunderwing gets along with one another: the flyers see their ground-bound kin as little more than pretenders to their own greatness, while the ground-dwelling ones see their winged kin as air-headed egotists with their beaks firmly wedged up their own asses (Which isn't entirely false)
>>47934460
What about using, say, Dimorphodon as the wyvern equivalent and plesiosaurs for black dragons?
>>47942134
>the bulette is a snapping turtle mixed with an armadillo
The bulette is a land shark, it was always meant to be a land shark, that's why it has the fin
>>47943246
In terms of lore, it has been pretty consistent that the bulette was born from a wizard crossing a snapping turtle and an armadillo, then infusing the crossbreed with demon's blood.
>>47941555
I feel a little ashamed about not thinking about that. I need to read about dinosaurs again.
>>47942948
>Swamp serpent (Name pending)
>A dim-witted brute of the darkest swamps with a seal-like body, four clawed sea turtle-like flippers, smooth, supple, jet-black skin, a long eel-like tail, and an even longer neck attached to a wedge-shaped serpentine head with whiskers like a catfish, enormous pupilless eyes, and a wide mouth full of incredibly long fangs that stick out of the mouth even while it's closed
>Perfectly at home both above the water and below it, these insidious beasts are the absolute masters of the marshes, preferring to draw their prey to them rather than go looking for it
>They can emit light from a line of coin-sized dots running down each side of their body, as well as from the tips of their whiskers; creatures that catch sight of these tiny flashing lights are mentally coerced into following them, oftentimes right into the swamp serpent's waiting maw
>Lazy as they are, however, these mysterious serpents are no slouches in combat: their serpentine jaws can unhinge to swallow objects the size of grizzly bears whole, and its elastic stomach lining can turn aside almost any blade; its silky hide secretes a viscous slime that neutralizes acids, and is a poor conductor of heat, making fire and acid next to useless against it, and it can vomit a barrage of pressurized bile, strong enough to eat through steel, with sufficient force to knock an ogre off its feet
>>47934460
Ooh, better yet, Yi qi could be a pseudodragon equivalent!
>>47945231
Why stop there? I could see Yi being a huge hit with fey, as well as being a popular subject of arcane testing.
>Fire-breathing Yi the size of eagles
>Butterfly-winged Yi who create clouds of sleeping dust with each flap of their wings
>Parrot-like Yi that can be taught to mimic the verbal components of specific spells
>Giant Yi designed for use as mounts.
It's glorious.
>Tentatops
>Great blind abominations that lurk deep underground, resembling pale eyeless ceratopsian dinosaurs with very tiny frills and long, grasping tentacles in the place of horns
>Omnivores, their sharp beaks are equally well-suited for crushing bones as they are at snipping cave fungi
>Their long tentacle-horns are used both to grab food and as defense-the tips each sport a razor-sharp bony spike that can be used as a piercing weapon
>Drow, troglodytes, and other subterranean races occasionally domesticate them as warbeasts and draft animals, but the dinosaurs take a very long time to raise from hatchlings, and they don't breed in captivity.
>>47931657
My orcs are based on things like Frazetta's men and those weird gorillas from the movie Congo. It doesn't know how to make fire or tools, but its metabolism takes care of that.
Big wildmen, whose scar tissue is made of bone. Every wound armors them, every strike or bite eventually develops teeth and claws, or even make the whole hand turn into a bone club. Ribs fuse into a cuirass, shoulders grow hard tips.
The alphas end up looking like bone golems, all carapace and no fur.the original eats iron which reinforce its bone tissue, but I don't know if that fits here
>>47947582
Yeah, it fits here; a lot of the things that have been brought up use magical abilities as well.
