"What folklore creatures would you like to see?" Topic

Howdy folks

So, I'm putting together a large expansion and also stand-alone boxed game for Blackwater Gulch called Curse of the Skinwalker. The overall theme will be teams of wild west heroes fighting off a horde of werewolves and other were-things, along with a lot of Native american and general US folklore creatures. Some might not be "Western" per se, but we'll give them a western spin whenever we can. As far as the game itself goes, main rules for the game won't change, so if you just want to play normal human vs human gangfights like now, nothing is stopping you and you're current rulebook won't become instantly obsolete like other games do…

Anyway.. In the current game we have Infamous characters that are gang leaders and hired guns as the toughest men around, followed by professionals and then henchmen are the weakest. A beast pack will be similar, lead by an Alpha skinwalker or other large Monsters, followed by normal skinwalkers that will be as tough as Professionals, all based on different wild animals (werewolves, werebears, were-mountian-lions, etc). You will also be able to add cursed human henchmen to your beast pack or minions that are as tough as henchmen and basically wolf-sized creatures.

So far, for big monsters, I'm planning to eventually do models for: Sasquach, Sheepsquach, Wendigo and Barrens Devil (like the jersey devil, only cooler) along with Alpha versions of each skinwalker animal aspect.

For minions, I have: Chupacabra, Jackalope, Hodag, Cactus Cat, Tremorworm (like the worms from the movie Tremors, only smaller), Shunka Warakin and the Montauk Monster.

Mostly taking stuff listed here and adding a couple extras
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_folklore_legendary_creatures and also here
mythicalcreatureslist.com/menu/North+American

Anyway, just thought I'd throw it out there.. are there any other folkloreish creatures you'd like to see models for? If so speak up, and provide links to info too if you can :) I know there's tons of stuff out there that I probably never heard of, so any help would be appreciated :)

What about creatures from Irish Folk lore, since a lot of Irish went west why not the monster they believed in as well.

What about the Appalachian folklore creatures from Manley Wade Wellman's Silver John stories? I'm sure their legends probably went west. There's a recent reprint of everything from Paizo, "Who Fears the Devil?" that I've been slowly working through and savouring.

Here's a bestiary: link

Razorback Pigs! Maybe Were-boars as well.
I would call the Tremorworms something else, perhaps "Hell-worms" or such; this for intellectual property reasons.

Ron

since a lot of Irish went west why not the monster they believed in as well.

Leprechauns!
Lots of little green mischeif makers.
…And a pot of gold.

I thought about stuff from other countries, and did read some myths about coal miners being scared of leprechauns, but I was going to lump that all into a later mine/dungeon crawler type of game along with Tommyknockers too. Kind of like Space Hulk or Warhammer Quest, but westerny. I was also going to have Shonokins in that too as the main villain race.

There will be wereboars :) really were-anything. Going to start off with were wolves, cats, birds and bears, and move on to other things like insects (mothman?), bats, crocs, bison (like a minotaur, with a bison head), snakes (like medusa). Lots of different animals we can expand to as time goes on.. Most of them will be like 30mm for a standard skinwalker, and larger for an alpha, maybe 40mm or so tall? most of the other monsters will be bigger sized too. One guy asked about having asian themed skinwalkers too, like a chinese rail worker would turn into a more chinese dragon looking werebeast, instead of a plain old werewolf. So I might try and explore that too, but I still want to keep the weird & wild west theme.

some good ideas from Mr. Wellman too. I already read about the shonokins as an ancient human-hating race and was gonna use them eventually.

How about the 'Ge-no'sqwa', or 'Stone Giant'? These originally would have lived east of the Mississippi, but why not have them move west as the settlers come in and take over their former lands.

The 'Ge-no'sqwa' were giant hairy cannibals. The stone part comes from their habit of saturating their hair/fur with silt from streams and rivers which would become hard like armor when dry.

Jackalope stampedes.

It's probably outside your zone of interest, but there are tons of Inuit mythological critters that would make interesting figures, very few of which have been made by anyone to date.

What about the Appalachian folklore creatures from Manley Wade Wellman's Silver John stories? I'm sure their legends probably went west. There's a recent reprint of everything from Paizo, "Who Fears the Devil?" that I've been slowly working through and savouring.

Seconded – Wellman's John the Balladeer stuff is a great source, although some of the critters might be hard to realize in minis form.

Incidentally, the Paizo reprint (while excellent and long overdue) is only the short stories, there are several full-length novels as well that aren't included in the compilation. The whole body of work should be must-reads for fans of US folklore and light horror/supernatural stuff, but they've become very hard to track down in print.

I read a book about Native American mythology when I was a kid, and it had a little line drawing of a skeleton archer. It was named Nik'n Fiktik or something like that, and I believe it was a plains Indian legend. The book was geared toward young readers, maybe 5th-6th grade.

I don't recall the title, and I have been searching for this book for over a decade. I've not read about a skeletal archer in any other Native American mythology book and have not been successful in tracking down any other source for the legend.

I guess you could say its one of my few remaining Holy Grails.

I remember reading about skeletons also, not sure where now. I'm hoping to do an undead expansion later on too.. kind of like the Walking Dead, but with cowboy zombies. Will have a bit of a voodoo theme too, also thinking about having vampires in it also, but more like the vicious "30 days of night" vampires, not the snooty Anne Rice kind. Been trying to find some indian vampire legends but so far haven't had much luck. Maybe they were always more of a european thing?

If you want something really exotic, how about a "Jiangshi"?

These are the Chinese 'hopping' vampires. Maybe one arrived with the Chinese laborers working on the Transcontinental Railroad?

I'll have to check out what you come up with, I'm starting a Monster Hunters International project in 15mm, and for creatures scale can be less relevant, so some might work for that.

You could also get a copy of this book it should have everything you want.

link

Argh! I read something about Indian vampires just two weeks ago and now I am wracking my brain trying to figure out where I read it. The gist was that there was no direct analogue to a Vampire among Native Americans.

The conclusion was that the Wendigo was the closest thing the Natives had to a vampire myth, in the sense that (1) they fed on humans, (2) normal humans were corrupted and transformed into them, and (3) they were hard to kill, if not outright immortal.

Now I'm going to go nuts until I remember where I read it.

Anyway, I left my ideas on the Dakkadakka forum.

How about a Rango style "Walking Cactus" or Commanche Cannibal Owls.
Or a bone monster based on the fossils early pioneers found on the prairie, in dread of "seeing the elephant"?

An elephant headed bone giant would be spot on!

Island of the Dead type fly swarms – plenty of Indian or civil war graveyards to breed them.

link

Here's a silly one: Paul Bunyan, Legendary Lumberjack.

He'd be a human model, but disproportionately huge to fit on a 40mm base… like, the size of a Warhammer Ogre. Even though Paul is technically a "Monster" character, he can only be hired by human gangs.

Nessie.

Here's a silly one: Paul Bunyan, Legendary Lumberjack.

He'd be a human model, but disproportionately huge to fit on a 40mm base… like, the size of a Warhammer Ogre. Even though Paul is technically a "Monster" character, he can only be hired by human gangs.

Not so silly, but he deserves better than a mere 40mm base – the guy can carry a full-grown tree over his shoulder with ease, after all. And you'd need Babe the Blue Ox, as well. Both should be unfeasibly huge for metal, but maybe in resin?

Along the same theme but more practical, how about Pecos Bill, mounted on a cyclone? Don't forget the rattlesnake lasso & whip, of course.

Of course, if you're not concerned about staying family friendly, there's the remarkably dirty Ballad of Eskimo Nell to draw characters from. Might even be a market for them – GZG sure sells enough of those fool "Gentlemen's Collectibles" minis. :)

Any scary stuff in the Book of Mormon?

I am sure some Trolls would have migrated to the states at some point as there are an awful lot of bridges to toll.

Ben-and-Frankensteins monster and the sunnydale vampire master and minions.
Buffy enemies had some lovely back stories could some be 'evolved ' from it? This thread needs more deamons.

How about an island of Dr moreau gang?

Dr. Moreau could work, a crazy old timey doctor experimenting on skinwalkers? Don't really know much about that story other than there was some kind of animal/people experiments?

Never really watched Buffy back in the day, but the GF did so I'll see if she has any ideas there for when we get around to undead. What I'm kind of shooting for is a western version of the TV show Supernatural, but less about organized religion and more about just all kinds of monsters in general. I thought sticking to more like folklore things would work best, since the heart of the game is still a wild west shootout skirmish game. But it's the same idea, monster hunters are mostly drifters going from town to town following rumors and hunting down monsters that regular folks don't even believe exist until they're about to get eaten by something. In the game monster hunters will get a bonus when they attack supernatural creatures.. but not all monsters will be supernatural, some are just rare animals.

<<Don't really know much about that story other than there was some kind of animal/people experiments?>>

Yeah, that was pretty much it.

I would pay a few dollars for a New Jersey Devil figure.

Planning a Jersey Devil :) But I was going to call him the Barrens Devil since new jersey isn't anywhere near out west :)

A Piasa Bird would be nice

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piasa

Cool, didn't really know there were too many native american dragons.. and giants and ogres too. learning a lot lately :) I think some things could end up being a little too tough for mere mortal gunslingers. But we could probably do some special big things and treat them almost like a whole small gang as far as toughness goes.. they get multiple activations in a game turn, and you might attack an arm or tail or other apendage the way you would attack a single model? Knock it out and it can't attack with that anymore..

Thats kind of how I was thinking of handling tanks or other vehicles if I ever did game in a different time period

link

The "Underwater Panther" is cool. Maybe that's something you can use in the undead expansion as a swamp creature.

The doormouse, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare
The Sheep, the Wolf, and the Bale of Hay.
The Irishman, the Jew, and the Italian who are always walking into the bar at the start of each joke.
The traveling salesman and the farmer's daughter.
Li'l Orphant Annie.
The Villiage Smithy
The Tar Baby

and of course…

Ole' Dry Fry, (EVERYONE knew ole' Dry Fry.")

Each Uisge?