A scrape around the corner cuts the silence. The party with grim determination readies weapons and prepares for a desperate last stand. Seeming to be spat from the blackness, a mob of orcs stomp into view.
The players at the table groan and roll eyes.
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Modern day monsters are boring and overdone. Let's face it, goblins, orcs, kobolds, beholders, dragons, ogres and most other creatures found within current TTRPG games are a bit long in the tooth.
With slight modifications we could change these monsters, give them a bit more oomph, a smidge of razzle dazzle, a little polish. Give the orcs another two arms and make them translucent, make the goblins centaur like with centipede bottoms, flightless dragons with leech heads. If only we had a book that helped with this process.
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Thankfully this book exists, the random esoteric creature generator by James Edward Raggi IV. This little cheat book helps me create one of a kind, genuine, freaks of nature to throw at my players. Creatures that my players have never and will never encounter again. Creatures fit to exist within the deep, dark places of the earth. Creatures that give us the same fear we shared with our our cave dwelling ancestors, the fear of the unknown.
The next time your players head into another deep dank dungeon don't have them fight the same old orc group. Have them stumble across a massacre, the site of a brutal one sided fight. Orc bodies stiffened eyes wide with terror, fingers curled up like spasms had wrung muscles, some with teeth shattered as they clenched jaws. Make them wonder "Who or what slaughtered this group of orcs".
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