“Since they never appear again, and don’t affect anything, we’re left with what basically amount to one of McCracken’s brainfarts put on paper.”

“It is the Antichrist of role-playing games, and it wasn’t until I gave serious attention to the rules that it began to slowly rape my mind of any idea of what a good RPG is like.”

* Flying Chicken
* Flying Ostrich
* Flying Penguin

I am feeling extremely inspired by this!

My next game will feature a giant flying grizzly bear. There might even be a reason for it, I’m not sure yet.

So, is the bear with laser eyes different from the giant flying grizzly bear, or does a single bear both fly and have laser eyes? (According to the book, that is. I think mine will have both.)

Thanks for the inspiration, Martin.

My enduring favorite is the shops. There’s one for each class, selling the specific equipment needs of each class. Said shops are run by (if memory serves) 19th level NPCs of the appropriate class. Sounds semi-reasonable so far, right? But 19th level is, effectively, one or two adventures shy of godhood. That’s right, in town you will find not one but several individuals who, after facing down giant mutant fire clams and laser bears to the very doorstep of divinity decided “Screw this, I’m going into retail!”

I agree, though, I’m fascinated by Synnibarr in the train wreck kinda way.

I think I can empathize with what the writers of the game were experiencing. After a while, with all the material cranked out by the many writers for established games like D&D, it can seem like every source of inspiration has been throttled, shackled and trotted out on the slave-block already. For proof of how far this goes, I ask you to consider the Wolf-in-Sheep’s-Clothing, a creature that I believe resided in the original Fiend Folio, a monster that looked for all the world like a friendly bunny standing on a tree stump. All of mythology has already been plumbed. Where to go for inspiration?

If you work at it, you can still come up with original things and ideas, but I for one am not opposed to the idea of a mad wizard out there, somewhere, putting wings on common creatures for his amusement (or just to tick off the local druids, who keep Warp Wood spelling his door for kicks. I once used a wizard that gave every creature in the area burrowing and tremorsense (and boy, did my players freak out at that). Temporal were-wraiths do sound kind of cool in a visceral sort of way, but steer clear of the Giant Mutant Fire Clams.

You guys (and gals) have to come and see Graham’s 4e stats for the Giant Mutant Fire Clam and Laser bears (plus special appearance of the Game Designer in 4e stats!)

All this and more, here!