>as adventurers level up, they need to select and retain monster

>>53917405

If you don't want any story progress because your players are chasing the monsters they need in order to get optimal stats, then sure.

>inb4 the GM can just put them in the story

If you're doing that then the mechanic is fairly pointless, apart from just being their for flavour.

>>53917405
That's a pretty common trope in the xianxia genre of fantasy fiction popular in China. Cultivators go out into the wilderness and fight weird monsters not just to train their skills but because those monsters either can be turned into chi-promoting elixirs or guard rare herbs that can be. It's pretty common to have entire plot arcs about acquiring ingredients and refining them into pills and potions, with there being specialized techniques just for processing a particular medicine. It can be pretty cool stuff, when done right. Done wrong it gets bogged down into endless training montages and power wank, but the potential is there.

Uhhh, GM? Can I just NOT be a furry? You know, just experience the stat gains and remain human?

>>53917498
That might be an issue with the special rare item bonus, but if it's just a matter of making sure to kill at least one creature that has a stat higher than the one you are trying to raise and to harvest one of its body parts, that should be easy enough to achieve between 2-4 levels of adventuring.

Some players might not enjoy having to resort to splicing themselves with otyughs or giant cockroaches though.

>>53917568
no

this is setting fluff

>>53917515
Problem is they do it in real life too.
Rhino horn and tiger dick are great things to collect in fiction, but pretty fucked up to take in reality just to try to help raise the red flag again.

>>53917405
Might be, but stat increases are so rare in D&D it feels like a lot of work for little gain. I think an idea like this should be one of the main focuses of the game or not be bothered with.

There's also the usual D&D weirdness where stats don't correspond to power very clearly, so you get strange results regarding what is and isn't a suitably valiant battle to splice yourself with.

>>53917498
>implying having a goal means no story
>implying these macguffins are any worse than regular loot
>implying loot being part of the story obsoletes the need for the loot
The fuck kind of games are you playing where +stat drops completely derail the campaign or might as well not exist?

>>53917568
You'll take your inhuman grafts and you'll like them.

>>53917515
Huh, sounds like the Witcher

File: Viper.jpg (32KB, 599x583px) Image search: [Google]

32KB, 599x583px

>>53917568
>he doesn't like cool monster shit
the plebbest post I've seen on /tg/ to date

>>53917568
What is anyone supposed to masturbate to then?

That's a pretty cool premise for a villain. Someone who started as a regular adventurer, saw the potential of such elixirs and now seeks to go Übermensch.
Most beings are inferior to him and he seeks more and more power, until the party catches his attention.

>>53917568
>cool monster body horror
>furry

>>53917686
>The fuck kind of games are you playing where +stat drops completely derail the campaign or might as well not exist?

Players will literally ignore every plot hook and story element if there's something else to do that gets them money, XP, and especially stats.

>>53917686
>The fuck kind of games are you playing where +stat drops completely derail the campaign or might as well not exist?
Most gamers nowadays will ignore any and all story elements within the campaign if they even whiff something that yields a greater return in terms of XP, gold, or stat boosts.

It's the same shit as those gamers who waste hours of playtime on some mini-game that has nothing to do with the story, except they take it to its logical conclusion and go out of their way to ignore plothooks just because "we can do it after gain more levels."

>>53917405
Could mix things up a bit by making some critters easier to absorb too. Makes the players go seek out a few things instead of just looking for the biggest, baddest monster they can currently take on.

I like the idea.

What about things that force a trade-off? Like they give big boosts but have extra mutations. Sure that Con increase is nice but the crab claws and becoming increasingly aquatic is a problem.

>>53917405
can easily be mistaken with magical realming, be careful

>>53917405
Can you harvest secondhand elixirs from other adventurers?

>>53917735
>>53921008
>a villain is born

>>53917405
Dude. That is a fantastic way to just get players to go out and slay some classic monsters.

Giants = Str
Displacer Beasts = Dex
Troll? Ooze? = Con
Mindflayer = Int
Lich = Wis
Mimic = Cha
Beholders = Saves

Dragon = All mental stats or all physical stats
Legendary Threats, Tarasque, Demon Lords = All stats

>>53920826
When are crab claws not a bonus?

>>53917405
A different picture attached to this might make less people think it's magical realming.

I think it sounds awesome. It'd have to be run as the focus of the campaign, as it'd definitely bog down most other arcs. It'd be kind of slice of life, where you're collecting slices of life.

>>53921144
Liches are Int since they're almost always wizards

>>53917851
>>53918047
If the players have a goal, you have a story.

File: 1444681546602.jpg (294KB, 570x800px) Image search: [Google]

294KB, 570x800px

>>53917568
Dehumanize yourself and face to bloodshed.

>>53917405
Not really the same, but extremely similar is a mechanic from Ragnarok Online.
All Monster have a 0,01% chance to drop a card of themselves. Then you can use that card to imbue an item with a special effect that is Always themed with the Monster itself.

There are also alchemist that take Monster drops to create various potions, but I guess that's way too generic.

>>53921911
It worked for Pokemon.

File: Final_Fantasy_Legend_III_Coverart.png (133KB, 256x257px) Image search: [Google]

133KB, 256x257px

>>53917405
yeah I played that game

>>53922681
HOW THE FUCK DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS GAME
ONLY I KNOW ABOUT THIS GAME

>>53923466

I played the 2nd one. Sod off Apollo, my laser spam is greater than your aegis!

CoC thread?

>No not that one... the OTHER one.

>>53917405
This is literally what a geomancer is

>>53923743
You know, I always went out of my way to stay a pure human without any mutations or corruption, smiting all the evil and only having consensual lewds. In retrospect, I might have played the game wrong.

This is just the plot of CoC.

Go on...

>that guy who keeps hunting nymphs

>>53917405
>>53922244
When you are harvesting Tarrasques for parts, it might be time to stop adventuring.

>>53921687
Any point where manual dexterity is needed

Like most situations

>>53917405
I like it. You might even play with the idea of these changes affecting the way they think. If you alter yourself to be too much like an Ogre, maybe you start yearning for human flesh?

>>53917515
>>53917684
I think the real kicker in OP's idea is that the PC's essentially dehumanize themselves, and literally grow closer to being monsters than humans. Quite the apt, little metaphor for that crazy chink magic leading them to plunder the natural world like a bunch of... well... monsters.

>>53917598
What would the market for adventurers selling the parts they don't need be like? What would they go for?

I had an idea for something like this a long time ago, but it wasn't mostly tinctures and elixirs: People would graft parts of monsters onto themselves to gain their powers.

Problem was some of the grafts would kind of resist each other, or they might be too well attuned to each other, and could cause a biological version of Shadow Run's cyberpsychosis. If too many grafts of opposing elements are used, the grafted individual warps into a bestial, inhuman monstrosity, a fusion of all the different kinds of creatures that they were grafted with; too many of the same type, and they turn into a bestial, but cunning, humanoid version of that creature. In both cases, the player loses control of what's left of their character. You have to ride that thin middle line between, "too many," and, "not enough," to get the most out of it.

There was also another faction that was basically a blue magic version of maneuvers, taking in the same kind of food the monster does, as well as tinctures of its blood, marrow, skin/scales/feathers, bones, etc, to be able to mimic its abilities.

File: FFLIII_Arthur_Japanese_Artwork.jpg (15KB, 144x245px) Image search: [Google]

15KB, 144x245px

>>53917405
I like it. I've been playing SaGa 3 lately and it has a really similar core mechanic, where monsters can either drop meat or cyborg parts and players can ingest/install them to alter their stats and appearance. You can easily go back to base form in that game (oddly enough by installing cyborg parts on a beast PC or vice versa, doesn't make much logical sense) though.
>>53922681
Shit, someone already mentioned the game.

File: 1373568466910.gif (3MB, 390x391px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 390x391px

>>53926876
>yfw no one wants to hire giant mutant killing machines for anything besides adventuring

>>53927876
That's what Savage Worlds Rippers does, basically.

>>53917568
I usually throw insults at r9bots, but this post made me want to do the anti-normie screech
10/10 bait

>>53917498
Unless the campaign is just about monster hunting. I could see it

>Party is a roaming band of monster hunters
>World is filled with scattered settlements, various monsters roam the unsafe lands inbetween
>Any town has a bunch of monsters that need to be killed at a higher priority
>While in town you could decide to go out hunting for a monster your fighter needs the left nipple of
>When you come back or when you get to it, turns out the one the cleric needed got killed by someone else
>Choose between moving on or getting involved with that party, either honorably fighting them, attacking brazenly, or killing them in secrecy

It could be fun.

>>53917568
Think its less furry and more like drinking an elixir made of gorilla teeth and your muscles get a bit denser. Graft a bit of bones from a demon onto your back and it leaves a little stain but increases your fire resists. Drink some distilled dragon piss and occasionally spit fire.

>>53917568
If you're willing to find bigger and stronger humans, likely adventurers, and kill and eat their corpses, sure why not?

File: mBaYkcC.jpg (287KB, 1365x2048px) Image search: [Google]

287KB, 1365x2048px

A thought; what if it's not only adventurers that can absorb monster essences?
As OP said, you can only use the elixirs when your body and mind are suitably prepared. But that doesn't preclude the possibility that a minor monster trait couldn't be taken at chargen.
Mildred the baker down the street has a fire salamander essence, she barely notices the heat in her kitchen! Frank's family used to be rich and they had a few essences bottled up, so he got this demon cat thing (the label was pretty faded) but I swear he can walk on gravel silently.

I assume only very minor monster essences could be absorbed at a low level, most commoners being fairly lucky to absorb two in their lives.
But it could be a coming of age thing in this society where you take on a minor monster trait. Rich fucks getting rarer monsters and commoners mostly getting giant rats and the like.
In any case, there'd be quite the trade in monster essences as people want the best for their kids, and those who manage to break through whatever ceiling prevents a second infusion then shop around for something to complement their current essence.

>>53927371
>party plans a heist on the monster auction house for a great wyrm heart
>then the arguments start on who gets to use it
I can dig it.

>>53932627
>use wyrm heart
>wyrm starts influencing your mind
>you want to track down the rest of its body and take the parts into yourself

Had a female rogue once who, for a spell component, had to steal the ovaries from a succubus. (The succubus wasn't happy)

>>53917405

mite b OP, mite jus b.

>>53932627
>dragon heart gives you a breath weapon and spell-like abilities of the dragon it comes from
>also gives you resistance to their damage type and +1 hp per hit die as though the size of your hit dice went up
>the older it is, the more likely there's lingering magic that hold its genetic memories

>>53932881
If it's a red, this makes sense. Reds have Locate Object, and they tend to be self-absorbed, believing that they're as close to perfect as you can get.

So, basically, the person it gets put into is a ticking time bomb; their heart is constantly pinging Locate Object, trying to find the rest of its body, and there's basically no chance they don't end up cannibalizing another grafter for their draconic parts and become a twelve foot tall, ravening mad, bestial, humanoid red dragon bent on killing everything that it can get to.

>>53933113
Nah, that's just another way new dragons come about in such a world. Once someone's consumed the entire thing, they've become a full dragon, all humanity replaced with a lust for treasure and raiding.
People keep being warned about it. It's foolhardy to take on a dragon. But someone always thinks they know better, that they can control it or only take ONE BITE, and it always ends up the same way.

File: 1413695803836.png (99KB, 886x390px) Image search: [Google]

99KB, 886x390px

>>53921687
>When are crab claws not a bonus?
>>53926933
>Any point where manual dexterity is needed
>Like most situations
Indeed...

>>53923743
>CoC thread?
>>No not that one... the OTHER one.
>>53924163
>This is just the plot of CoC.
>Go on...
>>53927001
>I like it. You might even play with the idea of these changes affecting the way they think.
Yes... yes....

>>53932979
>Had a female rogue once who, for a spell component, had to steal the ovaries from a succubus. (The succubus wasn't happy)
...The fuck was the DC on that, and what was her bonus on that roll?

File: Snek20.jpg (462KB, 811x891px) Image search: [Google]

462KB, 811x891px

>>53917405
>get female party member
>only level her up using snake monster parts
>get naga gf
feelsgoodman

>>53917405
>Be filthy min/maxing scum
>Decides to spend all first level hunting spiders and collecting spider webs
>Weaves the spider web into silk bundles
>Replace skeletal muscles with spider silk upon level up
>Instantly becomes 50 times stronger
>Just so happens to be the party meatshield
>Tank a shitton of damage
>Suture up all flesh wounds with spider silk
>Wounds heal over the spider silk sutured mesh and skin becomes bullet proof
>Bones keeps breaking under the enormous torque newly acquired spider silk muscles can generate
>Skims the coastline catching sea snails
>Replace all bones and teeth with iron mineralized limpet teeth
>Become a indestructible monstrosity before 4th level

>>53936207
Spider silk isn't a body part.

>>53936207
Don't spiders eat their silk to recycle it? Watch yourself around arachnids is what I'm saying.

File: 1462202686069.png (459KB, 544x610px) Image search: [Google]

459KB, 544x610px

>>53935661
I'm imagining narcissistic aristocrats hiring adventurers to kill certain monsters and grab their parts just so they can get cosmetic changes they find desirable.
>sirens are said to have beautiful eyes; I want you to bring me a pair
There'd probably be a few of them who develop a complex about it and graft more and more parts until they look bestial the same way some celebrities get too much plastic surgery.

>>53927880
i'm sorry you have autism

>>53937539
See NOW we're getting to something that resembles an interesting setting

And not just because it finally justified my monster girl fetish by proxy

It dovetails nicely with the nascent 'alchemypunk' idea i've been trying to cook up in the back of my head

>>53932881
>Wyrm steals YOUR heart
>ABANDON ALL DELUSIONS OF CONTROL

>>53937674
>>Wyrm steals YOUR heart
>bring it chocolates and flowers

>>53937674
I love me some dragon's dogma. That's probably the coolest dragon fight I've ever had in a game

Do you think there are essences that are forbidden to the populace?
Stuff that brings plague could be one. Or if, for instance, the nobility all use essences of a particular monster, then it's natural predator or counter? When all the nobility is spliced with displacer beast, they probably don't want to see blink dog gangs.

>>53937642
>alchemypunk
Tell me more.

>>53917498
you provide them but narrow it down, you can choose paths A B or C to get giant, fishman, or dragon parts respectively

>>53940201
>rival adventuring party
>DM rolls to see which one they go after
>sometimes they'll go after the party's target and they'll have to compete to be the first to claim the essence/corpse
>other times they'll take a different target and one of the rival party members will appear next with that monster trait
>party now has to consider taking sub-optimal targets to ensure their rivals don't get a particular ability

>>53927001
>I think the real kicker in OP's idea is that the PC's essentially dehumanize themselves,
and face to bloodshed?

>>53917498
>Start the game as low level heroes
>Eventually become full time monster hunters in order to gain power
>After years of slaughtering monsters and attaching them to yourselves you barely look human in any way
>You are so obsessed with power by grafting parts to you that your moral code is barely human

File: plas.png (2MB, 1534x1024px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1534x1024px

>>53932627
>Mildred the baker down the street has a fire salamander essence, she barely notices the heat in her kitchen! Frank's family used to be rich and they had a few essences bottled up, so he got this demon cat thing (the label was pretty faded) but I swear he can walk on gravel silently
So like Plasmids, but the ads actually tell the truth

>>53940385
Well, it was pretty great at first with plasmids. At first.
Give it a bit, maybe monster numbers start to decline due to overhunting

File: df866dccf90902465b0ed2b6534dd49d.png (514KB, 591x675px) Image search: [Google]

514KB, 591x675px

>>53940701
Naw, once the monster populations start diminishing the "Real Hunters" start turning up the difficulty level and start going after other hunters.

On the other hand, would eating humans grant bonuses or variations of one sort or another? Maybe a lot of slaughtered villages and lost travelers were just some too-far-gone adventurer's attempt to go back to being human.

>>53940968
>>53940701
>not creating factory farms of rare monsters
>not paying hunters in rare monster parts to capture or destroy rival farms, making the rare monsters even more rare
>not sucking every last ounce of essence you can out of these once mighty beasts

File: kraken.jpg (37KB, 800x800px) Image search: [Google]

37KB, 800x800px

>>53940251
Even with the best intentions, it quickly becomes difficult to interact with ordinary people once you start consuming legendary monsters.

>>53917498

Just give them a bounty list where they can pick between 3-4 monsters and they'll be fine.

>>53941080
>start out with monster hunter
>slowly morph into monsterpunk
>fantasy Shadowrun with monster-farm megacorps

>>53940385
I don't see how that's a lie.

File: 8a485e303be01010a150e32b8b577b37[1].jpg (973KB, 1920x1200px) Image search: [Google]

973KB, 1920x1200px

>>53940072
>Tell me more.
The gist being you replace a lot of the 'tech' in cyberpunk with 'fucking magic', albeit Hermetic Magic, and exploring the social and metaphysical ramifications of a high magic high fantasy world - where food crops can be magically grown and harvested by skeletons, textiles woven by swarms of sentient mystical spiders, etc. What happens to scarcity, what happens to the average person? When even their labor no longer has significance, what significance do people have?

Rather than cyber limbs, you have alchemically grown homonculis appendages, that can theoretically take any shape or appearance. So you could replace your arm with a giant crab claw for example.

But the more you deck yourself out in magical grown body parts, the less mundane and more supernatural you are, until you become a truly supernatural creature in your own right. What ramifications this might have isn't something I ever really got into.

Also it would take place in a giant medieval megacity like Gondor turned up to 11
>>53940385
kind of like this

>>53940701
>>53945080
So... if everyones going after, hunting and consuming monsters to "improve" themselves functionally, cosmetically, or both- what happens if people go to far? Obviously monster populations for attractive traits go down- but what if "hunters" realise those qualities are found in the previously-humans that consumed them and can be "recycled" via harvesting those post-humans just as they do monsters?

What if people want to go back to normal? Is consuming the essence of a regular human / humanoid a good way to get normal again? Would there be towns of folk desperate to become human again after disfiguring themselves via monster elixirs, more than wiling to cannibalize other, less afflicted, humans to become what they revere as "pure"? Therefore becoming less monstrous in form, but even more frightening in possibility. For example, if the elixirs are magical and not passed genetically. you could have couples consuming their pure infant children to "reset" their forms and possibly try different elixirs or recover from failed ones.

My mind races with ideas for such a setting.

>>53945191
My first thought is that perhaps Elixir of Humanoid just doesn't exist - or at least, it's not made in the same way as the monstrous ones. Doesn't stop people from trying, of course.
Someone who simply doesn't know and just assumes it works like normal murders someone only to find they did it for no reason.
Another hunts down the best examples of humanity in order to gain their traits, and insists it's working when it's not.
An alchemist repeatedly hunts down people, enhanced and pure, in an attempt to perfect such an elixir, believing it isn't that such is impossible it's just that only their own genius is capable of cracking the formula for getting it right where everyone else has gotten it wrong.

Perhaps this also extends to the the parts that have already been enhanced by said elixirs. Then you have such things as people hunting down a strange, unknown beast only to find it's a former adventurer, mutated to the degree that they're utterly inhuman, and nothing they made works.

>>53926876
and start the next adventure
http://www.saltinwoundssetting.com/2015/04/salt-in-wounds-overview-origin.html#more

>>53936207
>belatedly realize spider silk isn't muscle tissue
>be bedridden

>>53945080
Sounds like what Perdido Street Station ought to have been.

>>53945729
I think he's talking about the dragline support strands, the ones that could be used to make bullet resistant vests if we could harvest it efficiently enough. They stretch about as much as muscle does, and, theoretically at least, if bundled up, would behave much the same way as muscle.

The return wouldn't be fifty times - you'd need carbon nano-tubes for that - but if that theory is correct, then you would be stronger for how much muscle you showed.

>>53917405
Might b overcomplicated and ultimately annoying,

>>53917405
Great idea.
And you really have to play with corruption vibes. Like having a cult who flood elixir market with illegal elixirs made from parts of cosmic horror being. Cultists believes they are ascending humanity to higher state of being.

I like how this core idea can be taken in multiple directions.

In one, we have a fairly straight xianxia-like setting with monster spirits adding mostly benign mutations and powers.
In another, you've got alchemists trapping the blood of monsters within the body of man to make something greater and lesser at once in a grimy dark setting.
And in a third you've got Monster Hunter: TF fetish edition. Now with catgirls.

File: AlchemyProgression.png (13KB, 740x566px) Image search: [Google]

13KB, 740x566px

Humans are empty vessels for the Arcane. We lack the great power the beasts, but by consuming their essence we may take this strength for ourselves.
One should not overindulge in these drugs however, as with the might we also gain the savagery of beasts. While many people have to live with the fact that some humans just have tails or weird hair colors, those who recklessly seek power will soon find themselves nothing but the monsters they have hunted. Indeed, this is how many demihumans like centaurs or harpies came to be: Nations domesticating the beasts and feeding their population a single essence until they became something not human. And from the seer scale of these endeaveurs, stable populations of abhumans were left behind. So thanks young hunter, ya keeping the neigberhood from growing cow asses.
Of course we alchemists aren't happy with munching sphinx hair all day, so we set out to extract the different traits of the beasts. It's a harsh art that requires the balance of several components and meticulous rituals, but we can create potions that improve our characteristics while keeping the human form.
Or give you a horse penis, if you're into that.
Translating this into mechanics, we basicly got several different EXP bars that give you different things when you hit a threshhold. You fill these bars by consuming various items you obtain by hunting or traiding monster materials. Common items fill multiple bars at once so you need to be careful not to pick up unintended effects.

You can tweek the complexity of the system and the nature of the side effects to what your group prefers. Maybe there's just a few monster families, maybe you 500 species. If you want grim dark, succubus parts make you depending on eating souls, if you want EPR they make you really damn good at sex.

>>53949343
It's almost guaranteed that there's some adult game where this is a thing.

>>53949343
If I were going to do something like this, I'd try to incorporate it into the system.

In, say, 3.5, I'd have it convert a set amount of XP into XP towards a monster class. I don't play 3.5 anymore, though.

In Mutants and Masterminds, I'd just tell them that, if they overused something, their CP would get banked towards transforming into that thing, until they reached a set milestone of the progression towards becoming it, then they'd gain it all at once, as a lump sum.

>>53949398
Well, if it works. I couldn't think of another transformation mechanic that isn't '"play another stat sheet for a few rounds".

Anyway, this is just a progression system. If you want a decent game, you need to integrate this properly into the game loop, make an interesting world where this is integrated, but not warping everything else and you need your creatures to feel alive like they do in a Monster Hunter.

>>53949617
Been some time since I played DnD too, but maybe a way to streamline the system is to gain XP normally and then use the items to switch the xp over to the monster pool.
So players can say "on level 3 I need ten steaks to get feat A and seven horns to get feat B. But if get B via to cow path instead I can easily get another point in CON at level 4, even if gives me the stupid tail ".

You could probably have common foods that can be mixed into the basic classes and require rarer and more specific combinations to get extra effects or weird classes.
I think a possible issue is that this is inherently a classless system. Even if you do have high pressure to stay in a few paths, there's nothing stopping the player from just eating grass and fucking their character over.

File: flower_in_the_ocean_by_desmondwoot-d55b47t.jpg (286KB, 1280x640px) Image search: [Google]

286KB, 1280x640px

>>53945717
>the Tarrasque used to be an adventurer himself
>used to have friends
>as it turns out, his old friends were still human enough to come and help him
>and from how they're pursuing the survivors, it looks like they're still human enough to want revenge

I've been looking for a new direction to take one of my homebrew games.
Little did I know that both the mechanics and the fluff have supported this thread's ideas from the start.

>>53949343
>Table top CoC
I'd play it
As long as half the transformations weren't different flavors of dicks

>>53954456
This.
Everything became furry futa so soon in CoC....

>>53950182
>Anyway, this is just a progression system. If you want a decent game, you need to integrate this properly into the game loop, make an interesting world where this is integrated, but not warping everything else and you need your creatures to feel alive like they do in a Monster Hunter.
I'd probably default to something like replacing magic items with one use "upgrade" items, a set number of slots, can slot out ones you don't like but lose them forever, higher ones more monstrous you become collect a whole set and you become the monster

>>53917568
>Hey, GM, can I just completely ignore the campaign premise?

File: E-Ed...ward.jpg (31KB, 500x375px) Image search: [Google]

31KB, 500x375px

>>53945080
>>53945191
>>53945578
>people hunting down a strange, unknown beast only to find it's a former adventurer, mutated to the degree that they're utterly inhuman, and nothing they made works
>it's *not* worrkiiing... uhuhu... not wooRRRkiiing...
Ugh, I can just see it now.

File: Selectively_Breeding_GOD.png (387KB, 852x1250px) Image search: [Google]

387KB, 852x1250px

>>53941175
Gourmet Cells incoming

Now I'm imagining intelligent monsters offering body parts, hair or scales maybe, to people that impress them or as part of long-standing agreements.
>one mercenary band is well known for it's members all having at least one dragon part
>the source of their monster elixirs is a closely guarded secret among their inner circle
>the party is employed to find out, and they discover an old dragon in their stronghold
>this is pretty much as expected, what's less so is that the dragon is here voluntarily
>a very old, dying dragon who just likes to hear stories of battles and have help cleaning his scales he can't reach easily any more as he dozes by the fires
>potential plot twist, he vaguely remembers being an adventurer himself, so very long ago
>he drank deep of dragon blood, and lost himself in it for centuries
>now the body is decaying, his old memories resurface for a time

On the flip side however, you can have the equivalent of bile tapping with monsters kept just alive enough to regrow body parts to be harvested but otherwise be unable to resist.
See if the players stop and think about exploiting the hell out of farmable monsters for a second before doing it anyway as true murderhobos. And then overcharging for the product.

>>53956350
>old dragon that likes stories of dudes fucking things up with swords because he used to be a dude that fucked things up with swords
I like it.

File: black-dragon.jpg (353KB, 1219x914px) Image search: [Google]

353KB, 1219x914px

>>53956350
>a dragon is nearing the end of its life and wants to leave a successor
>kidnaps a princess to draw adventurers into its fortress
>after being defeated, it leads the party to its own alchemy lab and tells them to take everything from it
>the party gain a massive stat boost and a small dragon voice in their heads

>>53960755
>a dragon is nearing the end of its life and wants to leave a successor
>kidnaps a princess
>force-feeds her his own body-parts to transform her into a dragon
>sires a child with her

>>53917498
>If you don't want any story progress because your players are chasing the monsters they need in order to get optimal stats, then sure.
The players could simply tell the DM what monster parts they're after, and the DM could then incorporate the necessary monsters into the story. Problem solved.
You could even roleplay it as the PCs praying (and making offerings to) the gods of destiny or something.

>>53960755
>a dragon is nearing the end of its life and wants to leave a successor
>shapeshifts into a princess
>befriends a party of adventurers and seduces one of them
>pretends to be kidnapped
>has a mock fight and flees, resumes the guise of the princess
>gets "rescued" by her husbando-to-be, becomes their waifu
>gives birth to half-dragon kid(s)
>spends the rest of her life watching her successor and hoard - which was naturally picked up by the adventurers - grow

If the players are comfortable with it, a defeated or "defeated" dragon could even straight up offer to become a (sex) slave as an alternative to losing its life and hoard. What are a few decades to a creature who can live millennia? It might even be its magical realm. Half-Dragon template can, after all, be applied to _any_ living corporeal creature, and half-dragon oozes are canon, so dragons and humans is a match made in /d/.

>>53917498
>If you don't want any story progress because your players are chasing the monsters they need in order to get optimal stats, then sure.
Just make that plot of the campaign. A group of up-and-comming hunters out to become the become the best like no one ever was.

Studying the monsters, doing favors for officials to get the hunting licences, gathering skilled alchemists for their lab, edging out their share of the market against hart competition and occasionally cleaning the enviromental crisis in a monster species growing rampart or one guy turning into a giant abomination from consuming too much monster stuff.

>>53964393
Now I want to hash out some kind of humanity or essence system a la VTM or Shadowrun.

>>53917405
Wasn't this a thing from Hellgate that cultists did?

>>53964469
With every level you X points of humanity. Each item you use to change your form costs some amount of humanity. When your humanity falls below certain thresholds you gain various negative effects.
If your humanity goes to low, you go wild and become an NPC. If your party can restrain and take some of the monster essence out of you, your character recovers.
If not, your character will go feral and consume monster bits mindlessly until either getting killed or becomming a full blown monster.

Which opens another terrifying option: countries force-feeding criminals or prisoners of war with monster material until they loose their humanity to use them as beasts of war, cheap workforce or whatever.

>>53964976
Drinking elixirs made from human essence can reverse the humanity loss.

Thinking about where they came from can often accelerate it.

>>53965770
>Drinking elixirs made from human essence can reverse the humanity loss.

Ironic.

>>53964976
I'd also have it so elixirs are slightly randomised, you can use a refined version that reduces the chance of rolling a mutation, but also reduces the potential to increase your score.
Or you can go full unrefined and be nearly guaranteed a mutation but also nearly guaranteed a strong boost to your stats.

Basically two or more tables to roll on. One has a few mutations at the high end and is mostly filled with minor buffs with some good ones below the mutations, the other is half mutations and strong buffs.

Considering you can't use too many essences, there being some cap per level, it's a serious decision either way whether you value humanity or power.

File: 0600a8fad2afe22a6d8dcaff644c219a.jpg (413KB, 1280x719px) Image search: [Google]

413KB, 1280x719px

>ctrl+F "Soul Sacrifice"
>No results
Well it was a fucking Vita game so I guess I'm not surprised.

The basic plot of that game is that there was a horrible magic war in the past that created all sorts of monsters. Sorcerers are the only ones that can kill monsters, and killing monsters and absorbing their power makes the sorcerer more powerful. The problem was as you killed and absorbed more monsters you would lose your sense of self and become more at risk of becoming a monster yourself.

It's not exactly like OP's example, but similar enough that I'm surprised no one mentioned it.

>>53937674
>Wyrm steals YOUR heart
>"Take up arms, newly Arisen."

>>53966252
I thought of representing the effects with different dice. Common items have a single big dice for 3-5 categories and more refined elixirs have smaller dice with static modifiers and affect fewer categories. So if you only binge on cheap food, a few unlucky rolls might give you some nasty effects.

I guess the point-based approach is better if you want to base character progression on it, but if you want to augment an existing system the lood tables are more elegant.

File: 1438880418266.jpg (205KB, 1800x1231px) Image search: [Google]

205KB, 1800x1231px

>>53962075
>dragons never stop growing
>ancient dragon waifu is the size of a mountain and more powerful than ever
>they don't get old like regular creatures, they just blow up when their bodies can't contain the energy
>when she finally goes critical, the fallout contaminates the entire kingdom with dragon essence
>even the cows start breathing fire

>>53970030
>uncounted centuries later
>a few ships of brave explorers set foot onto unkown lands
>ships gets destroyed by local wildlife and troops are scattered

Are you a bad enough bunch of dudes to conquer the Land of Dragon?

>>53970030
>>53971225
That actually sounds like a pretty fun adventure idea

>>53954505
I mean, I don't mind futa, but why not just have some fun transformations that don't involve dicks?

>>53917405
>rare monster parts might also confer other small bonuses (powdered lich knuckles give resistance to necrotic damage for one round once per long rest).
Cool, cool, sounds like this could make a really neat alchemist class that starts out weak but gets a buffet of tasty bonuses...
>adventurers also end up with cosmetic changes from what monsters they splice themselves with, with higher level adventurers possibly looking very altered
No, I don't want to enter your magical realm. Get out.

File: 1490992580349.jpg (131KB, 867x674px) Image search: [Google]

131KB, 867x674px

>>53917405
>The witcher meets yiff-fags

>>53978688
>No, I don't want to enter your magical realm.
That's why a lot of people have brought up the refinement and alchemists. You can skip the whole furry stuff and do some worldbuilding around it.

Like rich people will only have specific features while the poor just grab what they can get for survival. The count's changes are mostly invisible but all his colors are just more vibrant than us mortals. Meanwhile the drafted farmers are mismatch of features from whatever monster the supply still had.

You can also have stereotypes of people having had too much changes as mindless beasts, so that you can hunt down furries with extreme prejudice while being perfectly in character and have world agree with you.

File: VYAt34p.png (421KB, 1000x1000px) Image search: [Google]

421KB, 1000x1000px

sounds like your TF fetish is showing and also go fuck yourself.

>>53980171
Why the fuck should you hobble your setting to satisfy a bunch of neckbearded naysayers on a Mongolian throatsinging forum? For fuck's sake, it's not even Magical Realm. It's a bunch of aggressive idiots making associations that aren't there. You're not making a setting for random idiots on the internet, you're making a setting for yourself and your players. If you take the dehumanizing aspect out, you take away the core of the idea.

And again, why? To please a bunch of rabid idiots who come into a thread just to post abunch of single-sentence complaints. Just let them fuck off back to their edgy """realistic""" Fantasy games where every woman is raped by virtue of being a woman.

>>53970030
>PC's ancient dragon waifu is about to blow up from excess power
>the party must recover legendary anti-magic artifact to keep her alive
>ride to adventure on the back of a gargantuan red dragon waifu
>she'll have to turn into human form to fit into various ruins, dungeons and such
>can't just torch everyplace with dragonfire because that risks the artifact
I think we have a decent adventure seed for high-level party here.

>>53980313
IT can go either way.
If the players don't like the idea of sprouting monster parts, you've got stuff already in place to say hey you don't necessarily have to.
If the players think that's awesome, you can go all out and drop that bit entirely or in part as you and they desire.
It's less 'satisfy neckbeards on Pakistani sandweaving forum' as it is 'here's options so it fits best with what your group is comfortable with and what works with your plot/world'

>>53980746
>occasionally have to deal with adventurers and sometimes armies who saw the giant dragon and assumed they were trying to conquer and/or destroy the world

>>53917405
I imagine the PCs would end-up like witchers. Occasionally needed but seen as aberrations by most and as such viewed with suspicion. Higher level adventurers who look more monstrous may be barred from most places at best or hunted at worst.

>>53981976
>your half-dragon daughteru uses magic to pass as a human
>takes a road trip
>mother gives her a ride back home
>a party of adventurers she befriended comes after the beast who abducted the fair maiden
>you can't kill your daughteru's friends
>you can't reveal the truth to people you don't know if you can trust
>you three have to fake a rescue operation
>your daughteru told them what great sorceress her mother('s human form) is, so she'll have to play both parts
>cue yakkity sax

File: xnew-featurette-godzilla-monster-planet-hits-web-22.jpg.pagespeed.ic.mfYpxIwqAW[1].jpg (60KB, 656x343px) Image search: [Google]

60KB, 656x343px

>>53970030
>>dragons never stop growing
>>ancient dragon waifu is the size of a mountain and more powerful than ever
>>they don't get old like regular creatures, they just blow up when their bodies can't contain the energy


May I suggest an Alternative?

File: 1425803820673.jpg (619KB, 1200x1245px) Image search: [Google]

619KB, 1200x1245px

>>53982745
Also good

>>53982704
>organize climactic battle with dragon
>partway through the fight, one of them realizes the sorceress is just an illusion
>dragon realizes he's realized and 'eats' him before he can say anything
>wrap up the fight quickly, drive her away and rescue the damsel in distress
>but now she has their other friend, and they all think she killed him

>>53982745
>>53983208
I dig it

>>53986305
>>but now she has their other friend, and they all think she killed him
Get him on your side then tell them he had a scroll of teleport on hand, just in case

>>53921911
>my story is about getting XP!!!!!

Yeah, great story.

>>53937539

Niiiice. Now between peasants having basic little bonuses, and this... I'm definitely getting some inspiration here.

>>53982745
>>53983208
>>53988474
>get so much power, so much mass, you can't fly anymore
>but you can swim through anything
>and you're tall enough that flying doesn't really matter anymore

Godzilla is the final form of dragon as dragons are apex monsters and Godzilla is King of the Monsters.

>>53990363
>I want to be the strongest
Done

>>53993953
Don't you mean
>I want to be the very best, like no one ever was

>>53945578
Elixir of Life from the Philosopher's Stone is what reverts people to baseline human. With post scarcity the whole lead into gold aspect is basically a parlor trick compared to the elixir. A max level wizard has one such stone in his castle, hidden behind a series of traps, tricks, and minions, with powerful anti monster wards keeping the higher level adventurers out entirely. None who have tried to retrieve it have returned alive.

>>53923937
It could be worse, at least you didn't try to avoid lewds altogether.

>>53917405
>I REALLY want to play CoC with my friends


Subtle.

File: 1462509496458.jpg (326KB, 661x935px) Image search: [Google]

326KB, 661x935px

>>53982050
>Higher level adventurers who look more monstrous may be barred from most places at best or hunted at worst.
They may not like it, but I think most people wouldn't pick a fight with someone who eats high level monsters for breakfast.

>>53917498
Not much different to making your wizard keep track of material components.

>>53932287
I like it.

>>53932979
>had to steal the ovaries from a succubus
Can't have been easy. Consider it stolen.

>>53940072
Fucking noble scum.

>>53994110
THE BIGGEST, THE BEST, BETTER THAN THE REST

>>53986305
>you have to arrange a second rescue mission
>tell them a human can potentially survive several days in a dragon's first stomach
>sneak inside dragon waifu's mouth while she pretends to sleep
>tell them not to attack anything or they might wake her up
>her sorceress illusion struggles to keep a straight face as you tie ropes around her teeth and slowly climb down her throat

>>53996239
>Dragoness actually paying for her meal
All things considered, that's probably the easiest way to keep adventurers off your back

Also source?

>>53996868
I'd play it

>YFW dragoness waifu can't help but add a bit more "excitement" to their adventure, acting like a light sleeper

Isn't there a pathfinder game advertised on /tg/ with this exact premise, except it's monster rape that gives transformations?

File: giphy[1].gif (2MB, 352x262px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 352x262px

>>53991922
Godzilla can fly though, he just looks stupid doing it

>>53932627
What if monsters absorb monster essence?

>>53997330
You can't really ask if something is exactly like something, and then note an important difference like that.

>>53998422
Then things would get insane. I think you need to be intelligent at the very least to absorb essence, it's not as simple as just eating a corpse.

Though the idea of a monster wanting to be a human could get interesting...

>>53998613
Maybe not to absorb essence, but definitely to go through the process of obtaining it, especially since most monsters wouldn't try to hunt stronger monsters.

>>53997330
That would require knowing what the pathfinder people are doing, and nobody but them visit their containment thread.

xd

>>53917405
I'd just keep pumping my female barbarian full of parts from the biggest strongest monsters.
I'd start off human size, then orc, and keep growing until I manage to rip out a giant's spine, and become twice as big. From then on its dragon-hunting, as I continue the search for any that remains larger than my character.

File: 1441422241862.jpg (318KB, 2000x1390px) Image search: [Google]

318KB, 2000x1390px

>>53998613
>monsters are always attacking humans because they want human essence
>they attack the PCs because they recognize that they are somehow special on a meta level and desire the favoritism NPC mooks don't get

>>53997228
From the artstyle, I suspect weremole.

File: 3rdGen-Ceadeus_Render_001.png (1MB, 1314x1112px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1314x1112px

>>53932627
Might be interesting.

We already have dangerous animals in real life that have received near-legendary reputations (ie. Mocha Dick, Gustave, Tsavo Maneaters).

What if we had certain monster individuals that, through luck or ability, managed to survive and consume long enough to greatly exceed the power of their lesser peers? Imagine an equivalent of Moby Dick in such a setting.

>>53998613
>Though the idea of a monster wanting to be a human could get interesting...
> PCs go after a group of monsters that slaughtered a small village
> track them to their cave
> Find a bunch of humanoid monsters playing "house", with stolen furniture, and acting like a cliched human family

>>54000715
Wouldn't they be monsteroid humans?

>>53996239
It isn't likely but I like the idea of a puritan-esque group of monster hunters.

>>54001174
No? They ate humans, in order to become more like them, so they're monsters with human traits. At least that's what I assumed.

File: Female_Apostle_1.jpg (218KB, 778x637px) Image search: [Google]

218KB, 778x637px

>>54001690
So, basicly monster form apostles from Berserk?

>>54000477
Thanks

>>53997590
If only he could reverse his digestive system like that dragon from Discworld.

>>53998422
Chimeras

>>53932627
Bunny essences would be popular with sloots or fertility priestesses.
>high libido, high fertility, strong legs, and possible bunny ears

>>54008184
>you can tell who the sluts are from their bunny ears and tails
I like this world.

>>54008184
Maybe, but what would that say about their husbands if all they can catch is a measly bunny?
Having a monstergirl wife can also be a way to show off your hunting ability.

>see a woman with feline features working on a farm
>think its just a typical catgirl
>suddenly she easily lifts up farm equipment that would be heavy for most men
>be amazed with the realization of what her husband went through to make her like that

Showing off, but with practical uses!

>>54009512
And then you've got vindictive people who force things on others - either literally or by doing some swapping of things when the time's right. Spike their drink with bunny elixir, for example.

>>54009780
Having a close to baseline human wife would probably be an asset so offspring aren't stuck with powers they're unsuited to.

>>54010028
Kids would have to be baseline humans, or everyone would already be a chimeraic mishmash of monsters.
Or else the monster infusion magic is a recent discovery...

>>54010028
I was assuming it wasn't hereditary

>>54010095
Alternately, the ability to pass on traits to children is a new discovery, and likely an expensive one.
But it's worth it to give your kids leg-up from birth, isn't it?
Alchemists and distributors not responsible for any complications that arise due to Passon Elixirs. Do not use Passon Elixir if you have a history of heart problems, missing organs, or cannot survive without your mutations. Side effects may include nausea, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea, increased rate of mutation in imbiber and offspring, inhuman mindset in offspring, loss of mutation, monstrous cancer, loss of appetite, and dizziness. Do not operate heavy magics while taking Passon Elixir.

>>53917405
Do you know how quickly a war would break out if elves existed in this world?
So many humans would want to kill them for their delicious longevity.

>>54010185
>can't survive without your mutations
Now I'm imagining a merfolk mutation undoing itself a five minute swim from air.

File: Final-Fantasy-Legend-III-1.jpg (99KB, 585x587px) Image search: [Google]

99KB, 585x587px

>>53917405
You should really play the SaGa series, OP.

>>53940072
>nobility making sure nobody can exploit their weakness.
Stolen

>>54008184
Also, they can jump straight up to the first floor of a building.

But what if it goes wrong? I mean, this method can't be perfect, and there are certainly bootleggers who don't make good elixers. What if, instead of the desired results, you just get buck teeth and a reduction in stature?

>>54012822
Traditionally people used to have all sorts of laws about the sort of clothing or other possessions different classes could have. And there was a practical reason behind it: Desirable goods were often imported, and rulers wanted to keep money in their own economy. A rise in nouveau riche could lead to some foreign empire's coffers getting a boost that should remain at home. The Romans famously outlawed purple clothing for everyone but the highest classes, for instance.