How do Y'all decide how to make new monsters or races in your fantasy writing?

[A_the_king_of_all]

Till now as a newbie author who used to be a DM before his players got their lives. I was curious how do Y'all decide how to make your monsters or races.

If you ask me i normally Open my spin a wheel with every country the then spin the wheel then read their folk Lore, then i think about modifying it to make it fit my narrative or just the back of my notebook where I make lore for my doodles and make them monsters (like the example attached, ignore the fakemon above the lore and that random date on top)

 

[foxes]

The best way for everything is to come up with a separate story for it that will become the justification and background of the world.

 

[tiaf]

The monsters are made according to the environment they appear in.

 

[Corty]

 

[HomiesexualWitch]

It depends on if I'm in an ecology mood or a monsterfucker mood. I proceed from there. Ecology mood is basically this is a creature that needs to function in the world in a natural way so it's basically just an animal+ so I start with what animal I'm using as a base for it and then work from there. So I need to think about the environment it exists in, what the closest sapients are, if there's anything worth taking from their environment which would cause them to be wary/hostile to said sapients. For example, not on here but I've got a low magic setting that's got goblins in it. they're basically just horned baboons with fur that makes them highly resistant to slashing attacks.
Monsterfucker is exactly what it sounds like: fuckable monster. This changes based on who you are and what you're into. But I'm not a fake so no I don't count anything that's just a human with a some slight changes, my baseline is werewolf/lizardman/tentacle monster.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Your players got themselves lives?!?!?!

I try not to create monsters anymore. Most of the time their names comes out as a random mash of mumbling syllables. But, when I did try, I went with humanoid uncanny valley type of things. The folklore that you mentioned was the main reason. People seem to ignore how many monsters weren't Cthulhu inspired things but just people being born WRONG. The past were cunts. Uncreative cunts now that I wrote that down. It's a person!!! But all shifty looking!!! THE HORROR!!!! Bring the fire hanz!

 

[DaelyxLenAuphydas]

I have a nice big list for fantasy that I add to as I get inspiration to. I kinda group them up into a few categories and try to flesh out the ones I dont have as many of. Plant monsters, elementals, draconids, ferocious animals, spectral/mana creatures, automata. Most of it ends up coming from Heartlands lore even if I'm not writing something in Heartlands at the moment. Sometimes I'll find a monster I like, so I make a Heartlands variation of it that fits the metaphysics of that setting. I generally have far more monsters than I'll ever actually need so its never really an issue unless I dont have access to my lists to remember them all.

I dont like just grabbing existing monsters without any modification generally. The closest I do to that is that is the ones which are just straight up from mythology. Unicorns, dragons... That sorta thing. But those tend to be the minority.

 

[RepresentingPride]

I just create them when I feel like it. Monster are different than intelligent races who interact with other. Since my story include multiple planets, it common that new monster appear everywhere.

 

[badomen]

I look for inspiration in myths and folktales from different cultures. Sometimes from art books and games. Browsing artists' portfolios is also good for that.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Copy paste from other mythos.

D&D. Chinese crap, Greek and Norse thingies. Now trying to see if Africa has anything for me to steal.

As for making anything original... lol these days nothing is.

 

[Plantorsomething]

Till now as a newbie author who used to be a DM before his players got their lives. I was curious how do Y'all decide how to make your monsters or races.

If you ask me i normally Open my spin a wheel with every country the then spin the wheel then read their folk Lore, then i think about modifying it to make it fit my narrative or just the back of my notebook where I make lore for my doodles and make them monsters (like the example attached, ignore the fakemon above the lore and that random date on top)

Mythical creatures wiki

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

An idea comes in. Write it up.

 

[Bartun]

I look at the creatures of the past and think about how they might have evolved under different circumstances.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Have been making new monsters since 1983. Some are parodies of real people, additions to folklore, strange stuff that popped into my head, or even weirder things (like the Pickerberry bush - a shrubbery that picks pockets; the Grapes of Wrath - cursed grapes that can use weapons or hurl themselves explosively at targets; Were-Wuppets - designed based on a toy given out at a local fast-food chain, A&W IIRC,), monsters pulled from various games (usually into other games; never ran my Genestealers in D&D scenario...), or slightly tweaked standard monsters (like the Ghiyol - a Hackmaster Gnole - or D&D Gnoll - with slightly better magical affinity; The Gratch - orcs who do stuff that other orcs say "that's too disturbing for US...."), or monsters pilfered and tweaked from mythology (have used Strigoi in a story as a vampire variant, and in a Doctor Who game as a Time Lord who was infected by the Great Vampires from the "State of Decay" serial).

So... everywhere.

 

[Zagaroth]

Most of my 'wild' species/creatures are copied within variation from various myths and common fantasy archetypes. Occasionally a variant, such as a clan of mixed oni and lycans/wolf-shifter bloodlines caused by a small clan of each being trapped together in a valley for sufficient generations to make intermarriage common.

I am also running with a variant of dungeon core, and there I simply play withing what feels appropriate for the dungeon and floor/zone. The first dungeon has rabbits, and they have bats, so use the information from bats to evolve some of the dire rabbits into rabbats. Both the 'normal' dire rabbits and the rabbats get various elemental attacks like breath weapons.

The library zone has bookwyrms (tiny origami dragon constructs, complete with paper-fletchette breath weapons), biting words (yes, books that bite), and bunbrarians: Powered up rabbit-people with giant hammers who show up to enforce silence on you if you make too much noise.

Shade Tails: magical black squirrels who can use their tails to lob shadow/void energy attacks.

Hex wolves: Wolves that have six tentacles growing from their shoulders and sides that inflict random hexes if they hit you.

They end up with a population of pixies, somewhat by accident, and later on an ocean-themed zone is gifted with mer-pixies, who are always delighted to be 'helpful'. To their credit, they are actually trying to be helpful. But, well, pixies.

One of the bosses of this zone is a giant jellyfish with electric powers in top of its toxins, and the electric powers are the basis for some psychic powers as well.

For a different dungeon that is a bit more focused on direct combat trials, it has gorrilla-taurs, basically centaurs with Clydesdale+ sized horse bodies with gorillas instead of humans for the upper torso. Also, they are just as good with bows, and the bows are upsized to match in power and size. And some hippo-boars that are upscaled and have reinforced boar-bristles on top of hippo hide and supernatural resilience.

Earlier in the same dungeon, there are some gorillas who are warrior monks, complete with ki-based powers.

So yeah, I just run with fun ideas when it comes to dungeon creatures, because there is a person who is literally designing these and presumably having fun.

 

[SirContro]

I'm creative. I draw things and then go, that's pretty cool. Imma put that in my story.