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Planegea, the Stone Age setting for D&D
Episode 925th October 2021 • Making a Monster • Lucas Zellers
00:00:00 00:35:08

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Body-snatching jungle aliens called the Kelledros roam the prehistoric, stone-punk of Planegea, a new setting for D&D 5th Edition by Atlas Games and designer Dave Somerville. Learn how identity and mystery shape the nature of horror in your D&D game.

Read the transcript and get more from the show: https://scintilla.studio/monster-planegea-atlas-games/

Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstrous perks: www.patreon.com/scintillastudio

Join the conversation: www.twitter.com/SparkOtter

Meet my guests:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/atlasgames/planegea

https://www.twitter.com/Planegea

https://twitter.com/AtlasGames

Music by Audionautix

www.audionautix.com

Transcripts

David Somerville:

You wake up to alien wailing and something's

David Somerville:

screaming in the jungle.

David Somerville:

You get up from your tent and you run past the clan fire, looking

David Somerville:

for the source of the noise.

David Somerville:

And as you move through the jungle, you come to a clearing where, peeking

David Somerville:

out from behind these trees, you see a roughly constructed ziggurat.

David Somerville:

Crooked-limbed creatures, humanoids with fungus-white skin and baby blue

David Somerville:

eyes, are crawling up it, dragging a bound saber toothed cat to the

David Somerville:

top where one of their kind waits.

David Somerville:

The cat is lifted onto an altar at the apex and held down while

David Somerville:

the waiting creature screeches and wraps its arms around the

David Somerville:

saber tooth in a ritual embrace.

David Somerville:

Just at that moment, you feel a dart sink into your neck.

David Somerville:

Three more of the creatures emerged from the forest around you.

David Somerville:

As you try to fight off the toxin, that's trying to put you to sleep.

David Somerville:

They grab you and drag you to the foot of the ziggurat.

David Somerville:

The creature at the top of the pyramid stands, but now it's taller and

David Somerville:

broader with shaggy white-yellow fur sprouting out of its wider shoulders

David Somerville:

and it bares two long, sharp canine teeth from its newly cat-like mouth.

David Somerville:

The Keledrosians have you.

David Somerville:

Now you have to escape or lose yourself to the embrace.

Lucas:

Let's play D&D

David Somerville:

Yeah, let's go!

David Somerville:

You can get out of there!

David Somerville:

Roll a Strength saving throw!

Lucas:

Ah, different podcasts.

Lucas:

Um, jeez.

Lucas:

Ooh.

Lucas:

Okay.

Lucas:

Hello, and welcome to Making a Monster.

Lucas:

I got an email this summer from Atlas Games about a Kickstarter project,

Lucas:

somewhere between Journey to the Center of the Earth and Horizon: Zero Dawn.

Lucas:

This is Planegea.

David Somerville:

I'm David Somerville and I created Planegea, the

David Somerville:

stone-age setting for Fifth Edition.

Lucas:

Is this your day job?

David Somerville:

Man, from your lips to God's ears?

David Somerville:

Uh, no, it would be great if it was my day job.

David Somerville:

No, I am a designer creative director for my day job.

David Somerville:

This is my very early in the morning job.

Lucas:

When did tabletop role-playing games become a part of your life?

David Somerville:

It was 2014.

David Somerville:

It was just before Fifth Edition dropped.

David Somerville:

I grew up very conservative, in a family that just assumed that like,

David Somerville:

if you played D&D you'd be like ushering demons into the house.

David Somerville:

So we didn't, because no one needs that stress and, uh, You know, I

David Somerville:

kind of knew was out there, but was pretty sure it was going to destroy

David Somerville:

my soul if I did anything with it.

Lucas:

Well, jury's still out on that.

David Somerville:

Yeah, that's true.

David Somerville:

Well, you know, we'll find out, uh, wait, waiting for the final grade on that one.

David Somerville:

But the, uh, but it's funny how many D&D-like things I did, it's almost like I

David Somerville:

was like searching for D&D my whole life.

David Somerville:

I have notebooks where I made basically a campaign setting and

David Somerville:

didn't kind of know what to do with it.

David Somerville:

Cause I didn't want to write a book about it.

David Somerville:

I just wanted the world to exist from like middle school and was really interested

David Somerville:

in like choose your own adventure and any kind of emergent narrative thing.

David Somerville:

We had a game that we played where we like sketch little medieval mazes

David Somerville:

that you went through and you had to find the key from over there and

David Somerville:

bring it to the door over there.

David Somerville:

And we had no idea that it was D&D, but it was, which didn't know it.

David Somerville:

Formally though.

David Somerville:

I grew up, I got a job in DC and I was hanging out with a nerdy crowd there.

David Somerville:

And I was like, looked around at everyone else one day and was

David Somerville:

like, we're all a bunch of nerds.

David Somerville:

Has anyone here played Dungeons and dragons?

David Somerville:

And none of us had, and I was like, we should probably, I

David Somerville:

feel like we should do that.

David Somerville:

Like, I feel like we need that badge as geeks.

David Somerville:

So we got together, we played a couple sessions of fourth edition.

David Somerville:

It was great.

David Somerville:

I was hooked and then fifth edition came out and I was hooked even more.

Lucas:

How did you go from " let's get that geek badge"

Lucas:

to, "let's write a game"?

David Somerville:

Yeah, well, it was from DM-ing really, I was,

David Somerville:

running a game for two friends.

David Somerville:

I had never really run a game before.

David Somerville:

You know, I was a young father of young children and didn't have the

David Somerville:

time or the people in my life to get together an in-person game.

David Somerville:

So I had a couple of friends on Twitter and I was involved

David Somerville:

in the board game space.

David Somerville:

Then I, I designed a game that was kind of popular for a few years

David Somerville:

called Vast the Crystal Caverns.

David Somerville:

So I had a bunch of like gaming interactions on Twitter, but

David Somerville:

totally over on the board game side.

David Somerville:

And two of the people who I had met over there were down to play a, basically a

David Somerville:

play by post D&D game in Twitter DMS.

David Somerville:

So for like a year and a half, we played just a two-player campaign in that space.

David Somerville:

And it didn't start as a world.

David Somerville:

It started as a cottage in the rain.

David Somerville:

And then as I was playing, I was like, well, I need the village nearby.

David Somerville:

Well, I need like bandits nearby.

David Somerville:

And it all grew out into this world.

David Somerville:

That's not the world that I'm working on now, but that, that bug of like, oh man, I

David Somerville:

love working on this, uh, hit pretty deep.

David Somerville:

And then I stumbled across Keith Baker's Manifest Zone,

David Somerville:

where he talks about Eberron.

Lucas:

Yeah.

David Somerville:

and I was outside of the hobby enough that I hadn't

David Somerville:

heard of the Fantasy Setting Search.

David Somerville:

I didn't know about Eberron or where it came from.

David Somerville:

And so hearing about him responding to this call for a world.

David Somerville:

I was like, oh man, what would that be like?

David Somerville:

Like what would I do?

David Somerville:

What if I had been like around them?

David Somerville:

I mean, I wouldn't have been Eberron, Eberron's awesome.

David Somerville:

but what would I have done?

David Somerville:

And the stone-age setting, Planegea that I've been working on is the answer.

David Somerville:

What really made it like, okay, I have to do this as I, I drafted up something.

David Somerville:

You know, a one-page description in a map and I posted it on

David Somerville:

Reddit and it completely blew up.

David Somerville:

Everyone was like, where can I find out more about this?

David Somerville:

Where are you sharing about this?

David Somerville:

Like, I want to plan this in this world.

David Somerville:

You have to start a subreddit.

David Somerville:

You have to start discord.

David Somerville:

I literally did not know what discord was.

David Somerville:

So people, other people made subreddits and discords for me, I was like, and

David Somerville:

they were like, come here, post here.

David Somerville:

And I was like, if you would say so so I did and here we are!

David Somerville:

Planegea is the Stone Age setting for Fifth Edition.

David Somerville:

It's a stonepunk world where there is no writing, there are no wheels,

David Somerville:

there's no advanced technology and metal literally doesn't exist.

David Somerville:

So it is a world that is permanently locked into a Stone Age.

David Somerville:

You have brilliant minds and immortal wizards and all of the

David Somerville:

like savvy, cunning, awesome heroes that you have in the world of D&D.

David Somerville:

In fact, you have everything that is D&D, but they're unable to escape the Stone Age

David Somerville:

because, uh, there is something out there called the Hounds of the Blind Heaven.

David Somerville:

And they have these, these taboos, which you dare not break.

David Somerville:

You can't write.

David Somerville:

You can't create the wheel.

David Somerville:

You can't create coins.

David Somerville:

There are these certain things that if you sort of like pass this very low

David Somerville:

technological ceiling, Something that happens and what that is is a mystery.

David Somerville:

But you, you cannot, you dare not break the Black Taboos.

David Somerville:

And so you have this world that would progress, but cannot, and

David Somerville:

is therefore having to find other ways to survive and develop.

David Somerville:

So it's full of factions and threats.

David Somerville:

The gods have not yet fully developed.

David Somerville:

You have "proto-gods" where, you know, you don't have the "god of fire", you

David Somerville:

have that bear over there on that hill who's lived there for so long that

David Somerville:

now the people fear and revere him.

David Somerville:

And because they've done that, he's gotten divine power.

David Somerville:

And so the gods are hyper-local and hyperphysical and they're just starting

David Somerville:

to turn into celestials and fiends.

David Somerville:

So everything is like at the beginning of time.

David Somerville:

The valley where mortals live is surrounded on all four sides by the

David Somerville:

empires of giants who are stronger and bigger and more sophisticated than them.

David Somerville:

So they're dealing in the shadows of these mightier fearsomer,and

David Somerville:

hostile civilizations, that act both as the boundaries of their world,

David Somerville:

but also protect them from the even scarier things that lie beyond.

David Somerville:

And so it's just sort of this Petri dish of adventure all

David Somerville:

set in this Stone Age world.

Lucas:

Love it.

Lucas:

I'm glad you're here.

Lucas:

You have however, done a thing.

Lucas:

There are a couple of things usually happens when people come on the show,.

Lucas:

One, they mention the name of Lovecraft, and I have a protocol for that.

Lucas:

You've done the other thing, which is.

Lucas:

you said punk, you know, steampunk, solar punk, X thing, punk.

Lucas:

I have an idea of what that means, but you said it.

Lucas:

So now you have to tell me why is it stonepunk?

David Somerville:

I will, I would love to tell you that.

David Somerville:

First off, it's not, it's not right.

David Somerville:

Like it is absolutely gamer jargon.

David Somerville:

And it doesn't mean what it once meant.

David Somerville:

Uh, I recently was super lucky enough to read Neuromancer for the first time.

David Somerville:

And that book is brilliant and it took me a minute to get into it.

David Somerville:

And then when I did, I was just in it And that's punk.

David Somerville:

I mean, cyber punk was like, fight the man, be a punk.

David Somerville:

Like it actually had that like punk, anti-authoritarian

David Somerville:

aesthetic, anti commercialism, like rage against the machine.

David Somerville:

And that was a real thing.

David Somerville:

And both of those words were meaningful.

David Somerville:

Cyber was meaningful and punk was meaningful and it meant the

David Somerville:

mashing up of these two things.

David Somerville:

I feel like in geek culture, punk has become a shorthand for this thing, but

David Somerville:

a lot of it and sort of exaggerated.

David Somerville:

So we're going to take whatever comes before punk and crank it to 11 and build

David Somerville:

all of our assumptions around that.

David Somerville:

So if you have pirate punk, it just means it's very pirates.

David Somerville:

And if you have, you know, whatever steampunk, it's very steam and it means

David Somerville:

that all the aesthetics are going to be exaggerated and intensified and It's it,

David Somerville:

I think it implies like a less safe world.

David Somerville:

Like I think whenever you have punk on there, there's sort of an

David Somerville:

implication that that those extremes are going to cause a lot of tension.

David Somerville:

So in that spirit it's stonepunk.

David Somerville:

And I think that.

David Somerville:

If I step back and ask myself, is it actually punk?

David Somerville:

It's, it's not very early on, not very punk.

David Somerville:

There is a rage against the machine kind of thing.

David Somerville:

in like, uh, being against the giant oppressors.

David Somerville:

I actually use the word tyrant a ton in the book, which I wasn't planning on, but

David Somerville:

I keep on going like, you know, tear down this tyrant or don't let that tyrant and

David Somerville:

it probably says more about me than about the setting, but I do think that there's

David Somerville:

something in there about like throwing off oppression and sort of surviving by any

David Somerville:

means necessary that that does feel kind of rebellious and punk, but it just mostly

David Somerville:

means a lot of stone age, cool stuff.

Lucas:

Okay.

Lucas:

Yeah.

Lucas:

Fair enough.

Lucas:

you held your own feet to the fire on that one and I appreciate it.

David Somerville:

I'm here to play.

Lucas:

Well, let's talk about the kelledros.

Lucas:

Who are these?

Lucas:

What is this?

Lucas:

What it do?

David Somerville:

Yeah.

David Somerville:

Good question.

David Somerville:

So, uh, these are the Kelledrosians, or the kelledros.

David Somerville:

The Kelledrosians are body snatching jungle aliens.

David Somerville:

They live in the wild, completely deadly jungle that surrounds sort of

David Somerville:

the heart of the world, in Planegea.

David Somerville:

And they are spreading like fungus out into the world and they are

David Somerville:

actively trying to steal the powers and beings and bodies of other

David Somerville:

creatures to strengthen themselves.

David Somerville:

They have a ritual called The Embrace.

David Somerville:

And if the Kelledrosians get you, then they are able to suck out your life

David Somerville:

force and add it to their own, in a very physical way and sort of become stronger.

David Somerville:

So it's this sort of mixed, mutated species that is, you know, onekelledros

David Somerville:

to another, one might look like a giant gorilla, one might look like a dragon.

David Somerville:

One might look like exactly like a human depending on whose, lifeforce

David Somerville:

they've been able to steal.

Lucas:

So obviously there's a couple of things that spring to mind when we

Lucas:

talk about body snatching jungle aliens.

Lucas:

And I don't think anything is derivative in like the pejorative sense.

David Somerville:

:

Everything is derivative.

David Somerville:

:

Everything is a remix.

Lucas:

Right.

Lucas:

So can you point to specific things that were your influences for this creature?

Lucas:

Or interestingly, can you point to things that definitely were not?

David Somerville:

Sure.

David Somerville:

Well, I've never seen invasion of the body snatchers, so I can tell you that that's

David Somerville:

not one of the direct ones, so, okay.

David Somerville:

Uh, the reason the kelledros exist is because in my first draft of this, I

David Somerville:

was running out the jungle andI was like, oh, and the yuan ti are there!

David Somerville:

The snake people from D&D and I was like, yeah, they're definitely

David Somerville:

down there because Planegea is designed to say yes to all of D&D.

David Somerville:

So everything that is in fifth edition should be in Planegea somewhere.

David Somerville:

Although it may be in a different form.

David Somerville:

So I was like, that's where they go, that's it.

David Somerville:

Then I learned about the Open Gaming License and what is and isn't allowed

David Somerville:

and yuan ti are not public domain.

David Somerville:

You can't use them.

David Somerville:

So I was like, all right.

David Somerville:

So something, something like the yaun ti.

David Somerville:

And here's what I knew about the yaun ti.

David Somerville:

I knew that they were sneaky.

David Somerville:

I knew that they were jungley.

David Somerville:

I knew that they had temples and I knew that they had different shapes of their

David Somerville:

bodies, like different versions of them.

David Somerville:

There's one, that's more snaky and one that's more person-y.

David Somerville:

And I did a thing kind of on purpose where I didn't read more about them.

David Somerville:

I was like, I'm that's all.

David Somerville:

I know.

David Somerville:

That thing is kind of the thing that I want.

David Somerville:

What can I make up?

David Somerville:

And I didn't read more.

David Somerville:

I don't want to step on their toes.

David Somerville:

And so the Kela DROS were the answer to that.

David Somerville:

So original inspiration is the idea as if your buddy had told you about the yaun

David Somerville:

ti that's about how much I know or less.

David Somerville:

So the, the broad idea of the yaun ti.

David Somerville:

I always gotta credit Space Jam as a, as a inspiration here.

David Somerville:

Those little shrimpy guys taking the power of, uh, the world's greatest basketball

David Somerville:

star as is definitely the vibe here.

David Somerville:

Like the yuan ti are not an impressive species.

David Somerville:

They look like, you know, the classic gray aliens small and weak and

David Somerville:

fragile, but they've figured out this way to suck the life force, the

David Somerville:

physicality of another creature out.

David Somerville:

And I don't know, like something about space damn is terrifying.

David Somerville:

Like that idea of like being able to just like rip that away and use

David Somerville:

it against a person is real scary.

David Somerville:

So Space Jam, man.

David Somerville:

Um, And then, uh, a third, I would say is Alien.

David Somerville:

The original, it's one of my top five movies.

David Somerville:

And I think later in the franchise, you see the xenomorphs.

David Somerville:

For anyone who hasn't seen it, they're very scary aliens and

David Somerville:

they basically infect you and then you hatch one of these aliens.

David Somerville:

But I think in later films it becomes clear that whatever they

David Somerville:

infect hatches a different kind of the same alien and there's that

David Somerville:

diversity through the creature.

David Somerville:

The parasitic element I think is from that and the idea of this

David Somerville:

race that takes whatever it needs from those around it to survive and

David Somerville:

be sort of as powerful as it can.

David Somerville:

So those are three of the big ones.

Lucas:

Great pulls.

Lucas:

What are some of the relevant game statistics that every kelledrosian has?

David Somerville:

It's a caste system.

David Somerville:

And, uh, the sort of base kelledrosians are in the bottom.

David Somerville:

And then you sort of have warriors and priests and arch priests, and

David Somerville:

then like the horrible monster that happens when everything goes wrong.

David Somerville:

you know, We build it intentionally from the bottom.

David Somerville:

So it's, we started with the base kelledrosian which is not impressive.

David Somerville:

It's a medium monstrosity.

David Somerville:

It is like got a minus two strength and charisma plus one to

David Somerville:

dex and zero to everything else.

David Somerville:

It's very much that like goblin, kobold.

David Somerville:

And really all it has going for it is it can do this embrace ritual

David Somerville:

and they're like, come preloaded with a blow gun and a net.

David Somerville:

And then what we did is we built from there.

David Somerville:

Based on assumptions about what it embraces.

David Somerville:

And we have different varieties.

David Somerville:

So we have and this is all like, again, credit to Daniel Gable who

David Somerville:

did the, the technical work on the monster design here and is just

David Somerville:

a complete artist of his craft.

David Somerville:

So created a few different approaches for, okay, well, let's assume

David Somerville:

it embraced a big, scary beast.

David Somerville:

It would look like this and you can kind of flavor that differently.

David Somerville:

Let's assume it embrace a spell casting creature.

David Somerville:

Here's what that looks like.

David Somerville:

And Daniel came up with this thing that I absolutely love.

David Somerville:

It's a feature called Embraced Weapons.

David Somerville:

And it says the kelledrosian has one or more of the following

David Somerville:

attack options provided it has embraced the appropriate creature.

David Somerville:

And then it has bite, claws, slam, and spit.

David Somerville:

And so you, as the DM can decide how you want this kelledrosian to behave.

David Somerville:

Has it embraced one of those like spitting dinosaurs from Jurassic Park?

David Somerville:

Alright, there it is.

David Somerville:

You got, this guy is totally different than something that's

David Somerville:

slashing you with claws or trying to sink its things into you.

David Somerville:

And that, embraced magic, embraced weapons, that continues

David Somerville:

through all of the varieties.

David Somerville:

And sometimes it says one or more, sometimes it says three.

David Somerville:

As the power scale levels up, they get access to more and more, and

David Somerville:

more impressive, versions of those.

David Somerville:

So by the time you're at the sort of the hybrid mystic priests, they

David Somerville:

have, you know, elemental orb and storm grasp which is a pretty far

David Somerville:

cry from, you know, bite and slam.

Lucas:

One of the things that makes D&D and their approach to, antagonists

Lucas:

narratively and monster specifically, is that they don't level up.

Lucas:

Heroes level up.

Lucas:

So you have to kind of create this family tree or this

Lucas:

Pokemon evolution chain of, of

David Somerville:

Yeah.

David Somerville:

That's exactly what it is.

David Somerville:

Pokemon evolution is a perfect way of describing this.

Lucas:

It hits a couple of my other questions too.

Lucas:

So let's take them as a group.

Lucas:

Cause I assume there's never just one.

David Somerville:

Yeah, if there's one by itself and something

David Somerville:

has gone very wrong with their.

Lucas:

Yeah, So let's take them as a group.

Lucas:

When a Planegea player encounters this monster, what do you want them to feel?

David Somerville:

Yeah, first.

David Somerville:

I want them to feel nothing.

David Somerville:

Because the first encounter they're going to have with them ideally would

David Somerville:

be, there's a stat block for a kelledros called an Infiltrator, which has

David Somerville:

specialized in looking like a person.

David Somerville:

The only way to tell a kelledrosian is, is one, is their eyes always

David Somerville:

remain this baby blue color.

David Somerville:

So if you are someone who, has been around the setting for a while, and you

David Somerville:

encounter someone with like bright blue eyes, you'll be like, oh, okay, hang on.

David Somerville:

But you know, if I, your DM and just like, oh yeah, and there's there.

David Somerville:

And then this person comes up to you and they have blue eyes and they say this, I

David Somerville:

don't want you to think anything about it.

David Somerville:

Except like, oh, that person's kind of charming and kind of interesting.

David Somerville:

And and then when that person is like, Hey, I have a secret to tell you, like we

David Somerville:

should take a walk and you're like, yeah.

David Somerville:

Okay.

David Somerville:

You seem cool.

David Somerville:

It's very much intended to be sort of a, an ambush an ambush monster.

David Somerville:

At its start the first time you meet them.

David Somerville:

One of the things I've done in the book is scripted out quest hooks

David Somerville:

at all four tiers of play for each threat, including kelledrosians.

David Somerville:

And so in the book is sort of like hints for how you could approach

David Somerville:

an entire kelledrosian campaign.

David Somerville:

So certainly that surprise thing only happens once.

David Somerville:

At the start, I think it's sort of like nothing, then

David Somerville:

surprise, trick, trapped, angry.

David Somerville:

And then I think as you deal with them more, and you sort of encounter this this

David Somerville:

theft of power and this total disregard for the rights of other beings or the

David Somerville:

identity of other beings, I think sort of this horror and repulsion, ideally.

David Somerville:

I have art of the kelledrosians where blanking on the name, the monster from

David Somerville:

Spirited Away that has the white mask?

Lucas:

Oh, No-face!

David Somerville:

No-face, yeah.

David Somerville:

So I have art of that, where it's a kelledrosian face that's attached to

David Somerville:

sort of this like much larger bestial, monstrous body with the blue eyes again.

David Somerville:

And I think that the, the feeling that you should feel as you're dealing with

David Somerville:

them and trying to solve the problem of the kelledros is just this, this

David Somerville:

overwhelming sense of they're everywhere.

David Somerville:

They can be anything and they have to be stopped.

Lucas:

What do you think makes it effective?

David Somerville:

It's that feeling of happening upon

David Somerville:

something that is so hostile to you and so doesn't care about you.

David Somerville:

I think that there's a deep sense of the kelledrosians that they.

David Somerville:

And I think this is one of the ways in which Alien influences it, like

David Somerville:

you just don't matter to them, right?

David Somerville:

It is that cosmic core that we were talking about?

David Somerville:

It feels like they just want what they want.

David Somerville:

They have no regard for life or identity or anything.

David Somerville:

And I think that the way to twist the knife is continually

David Somerville:

having them succeed, frankly.

David Somerville:

I think that there should be a feeling of, there are always more of them.

David Somerville:

They're always taking on new forms.

David Somerville:

This is not a threat with a single source that is going to be easy to stop.

David Somerville:

It's like when you're trying to get rid of pests in your house.

David Somerville:

And there's just like always another nest of them.

David Somerville:

I think there's always another nest of kelledros and it's just like a

David Somerville:

problem that isn't going to go away.

David Somerville:

It's also not going to stay the same.

David Somerville:

You know, we're living right now in COVID times and talking a lot

David Somerville:

about like the virus mutating.

David Somerville:

And I think that there's a bit of a feeling like that, right?

David Somerville:

It's like this thing is going to keep changing and keep being a problem.

David Somerville:

I think that's a very recent and very strong example of sort of the way that you

David Somerville:

get this to feel ominous and omnipresent.

David Somerville:

If you want that, right?

David Somerville:

If you want to have an extended campaign with it.

David Somerville:

If you just want a short, like one-time hit kelledros adventure, what you do is

David Somerville:

you load up like a pyramid of these guys where they get scary or you fight the

David Somerville:

little one and then the medium one, and then the boss one and then the crazy one.

David Somerville:

And it's like, well, how many forms does this thing have?

David Somerville:

I think that's the way to do it in a quick, like one shot, kind of a venture.

David Somerville:

Because Planegea has a very pulpy setting, right?

David Somerville:

It's meant to just be like, throw yourself off of the back

David Somerville:

of the mammoth, like axe raised!

David Somerville:

And so if you're just looking for a pulpy good time and you're not looking

David Somerville:

for horror, just play that and have fun, like dealing with all of the

David Somerville:

different, many forms of the thing and finding new creative ways to fight it.

Lucas:

I have to break in here cause I didn't really explain it

Lucas:

very well during the interview.

Lucas:

But this bottom up gauntlet of challengers is a story structure

Lucas:

that I first saw watching Bruce Lee's last and maybe most influential

Lucas:

film Game of Death with my dad.

Lucas:

It's completely opposite of the top down dungeon delve, more typical of D&D in the

Lucas:

seventies and eighties, which probably has something to say about Western and Eastern

Lucas:

attitudes toward power, I don't know.

Lucas:

Game of Death showed Bruce Lee's character fighting his way up the floors of a

Lucas:

pagoda, each one guarded by a master of a different martial arts style.

Lucas:

The last of these was NBA superstar, Kareem Abdul Jabbar who at seven

Lucas:

foot two made an other worldly contrast to Lee's five foot seven.

Lucas:

If you watch this movie more carefully than I did as a kid,

Lucas:

you can see Bruce Lee expressing his philosophy through his fights.

Lucas:

And maybe where I got the idea for Making a Monster in the first place.

Lucas:

The martial art Bruce Lee invented, Jeet Kune Do, rejected the rigid

Lucas:

traditional styles of martial.

Lucas:

In favor of a chaotic flexible style of know styles drawn from a wide variety of

Lucas:

athletic disciplines, including street fighting in game of death, you can watch

Lucas:

Lee read his opponents habits and then adapt countering slow hits with quicker

Lucas:

ones are closing inside and opponents superior reach professional players at

Lucas:

the top echelon of video game tournaments, like Tekken and Street Fighter,

Lucas:

call this adaptation "the download."

Lucas:

Which shows you just how extensive Bruce Lee's cultural influence actually is.

Lucas:

So David's kellodrosians create a deeply layered, but truly terrifying counterpoint

Lucas:

to D&D's established meta-narrative where only the heroes progress through

Lucas:

experience, but the monsters are limited to unchanging stat blocks.

Lucas:

What you've done with the kelledrosians is you set up something really scary,

Lucas:

which is they are learning from you.

David Somerville:

Yes.

David Somerville:

And if they don't have what they need to beat you they're going to go out

David Somerville:

and get it and then come back stronger.

Lucas:

We could do miles of work with this.

Lucas:

Uh, I think at some point we're going to spiral away from what it actually is.

Lucas:

So before we do that you mentioned a couple of these already.

Lucas:

What issues or questions does encountering a kelledrosian ask

Lucas:

your players to grapple with?

David Somerville:

I think there are a few, I think one is identity, the

David Somerville:

sense of body snatching and anyone could be one is a strong theme

David Somerville:

and paranoid fiction of all kinds.

David Somerville:

I think imperialism is one.

David Somerville:

I the formal name of the threat in the setting is Kelledros Ascendant and

David Somerville:

they consider themselves an empire and they are described as an empire and

David Somerville:

see themselves as taking whatever suits them and spreading through the world.

David Somerville:

Right.

David Somerville:

So there's a strong feeling of, I like that.

David Somerville:

It's mine now.

David Somerville:

If you wanted to explore imperialists themes, they are ripe with those.

David Somerville:

Also similarly I think ableism is in there.

David Somerville:

I think that the idea of the perfect body is weirdly mirrored here.

David Somerville:

Kelledrosians define themselves by their bodies and start in a place

David Somerville:

of loathing their natural form.

David Somerville:

The way they were born is the lowest level of their caste system.

David Somerville:

And it's all about how can I make myself more strong, beautiful, perfect,

David Somerville:

powerful, whatever I see myself.

David Somerville:

So that idea of like the body being the most important thing is in there.

David Somerville:

And then I think a final thing is jealousy.

David Somerville:

I think, or covetousness like kelledrosians are a race or species that

David Somerville:

inherently covets what other people have and are, and they stop at nothing to take

David Somerville:

it and don't care what gets in their way.

Lucas:

Okay.

Lucas:

That's meaty.

Lucas:

I mean, that's a lot.

David Somerville:

Yeah, and I don't think you need any of those

David Somerville:

things to enjoy playing with them.

David Somerville:

Right.

David Somerville:

They can just be like blue eyed monsters, and that's great.

Lucas:

I do want to give you a chance, cause I know there's going

Lucas:

to be someone in my audience.

Lucas:

Who's going to push back on this.

Lucas:

The idea that a race is predisposed to something, especially a

Lucas:

personality trait like covetousness.

Lucas:

That's gonna ring a few bells.

Lucas:

do you want to respond to that?

David Somerville:

I hear that.

David Somerville:

No, that's a good point.

David Somerville:

First I want to be careful with the word race here.

David Somerville:

I think I've used it accidentally a few times and that's just, I'm

David Somerville:

working to retrain my brain from the linguistics of D&D to the

David Somerville:

lingo of linguistics of society.

David Somerville:

So it's important for me to say, they are not a race, right?

David Somerville:

They're a species, they're a creature type.

David Somerville:

And I think there is a really great question that the RPG

David Somerville:

world is having right now.

David Somerville:

What is a monster?

David Somerville:

What is a person and how do the, what we've believed so long about one

David Somerville:

overlap to the other or vice versa?

David Somerville:

Here's what I'll say about the theme of jealousy.

David Somerville:

I think that the theme of jealousy is runs throughout their archetype

David Somerville:

and the abilities that they have.

David Somerville:

Right.

David Somerville:

Taking what someone else has, because you want it for yourself.

David Somerville:

is an archetypically covetous story, but I have drafted a kelledros player race.

David Somerville:

And haven'tplay tested it yet, but I fully anticipate, I mean, when

David Somerville:

I dropped this, the first thing someone said was "I want to be one!"

David Somerville:

And I think that there are a lot of really interesting stories to tell about

David Somerville:

about groups of kelledros who are not this, who walk away from this principle

David Somerville:

or individuals who, who are not that.

David Somerville:

It's fun and interesting when you're doing world design to create archetypes that are

David Somerville:

sort of like, here's the big paint brush.

David Somerville:

And you know, if you watch Bob Ross paint, he always starts

David Somerville:

with that big paint brush.

David Somerville:

Right.

David Somerville:

But Bob Ross, isn't done when it's got a blue sky, he's adding in those

David Somerville:

happy little trees and he's like filling in all of those details.

David Somerville:

So the big brush is like scary jungle body snatching aliens.

David Somerville:

And then the stories we tell with that, by definition in contrast

David Somerville:

to that backdrop make the picture.

David Somerville:

And I think that while it's really useful, in my opinion, for DMS to have

David Somerville:

like a starting place for monsters.

David Somerville:

And I think that.

David Somerville:

Some DMS will only ever be like, yeah, these are scary monsters.

David Somerville:

And they're just like bad.

David Somerville:

And there you go.

David Somerville:

I think if an, if a DM or a table wants to explore more nuanced story, there

David Somerville:

are a lot of them because I don't think there's anything inherently in the

David Somerville:

species that is like, and they're evil and they just take whatever they want.

David Somerville:

I think I think there are a lot more interesting versions

David Somerville:

of those stories to be told.

Lucas:

I do want to take this one step further, from this

Lucas:

grab bag of issues that a body snatching jungle alien can give us.

Lucas:

Is there any that you feel are useful toward navigating

Lucas:

the world that we live in now?

David Somerville:

I do.

David Somerville:

I think that It will be different things depending on what

David Somerville:

you're trying to bring to it.

David Somerville:

One thing that I think a lot about the Kelledrosians is as they're

David Somerville:

written, the mainstream of their culture is entirely inward facing.

David Somerville:

They are out for themselves as a people, again, not talking about every single

David Somerville:

member of the species, but the force that represents a threat in the game,

David Somerville:

which may not even be the majority of the kelledrosians, we don't know.

David Somerville:

It could just, just be a sect that's threatening, and maybe most of the

David Somerville:

kelledrosians live in peace and in the jungle or are enacting totally different

David Somerville:

stories, but the threatening part of them are spreading out into the world

David Somerville:

and they don't care about other species.

David Somerville:

They only care about themselves and they are convinced that they're

David Somerville:

right and have the right that they're to do what they're doing.

David Somerville:

And everyone who opposes them is just raw material to be consumed.

David Somerville:

And I think there is a total absence of emphasis.

David Somerville:

A complete lack of seeing other sentient beings as worthy of

David Somerville:

dignity and understanding.

David Somerville:

And I think what I take away when I think about the kelledrosians is how,

David Somerville:

you know, when we see others as stepping stones to make ourselves the way that

David Somerville:

we want to become in some ways, like there is a danger that we turn into

David Somerville:

monsters that reflect our own egos and the echo chamber in which we live.

David Somerville:

So Planegea was inspired by this question of what does D&D

David Somerville:

look like if it's not medieval?

David Somerville:

Planegea as a world and the kelledrosians as monsters come from that desire for

David Somerville:

like a big, pulpy, primal adventure.

David Somerville:

Right.

David Somerville:

It's just like, they're scary and they're out there and it's a jungle and

David Somerville:

oh no, there's a zigguratt and they're ripping your body out of your body!

David Somerville:

And I think that that's great!

David Somerville:

I think that that's great for those kinds of stories.

David Somerville:

And I think at the same time, the hobby is evolving.

David Somerville:

The stories that we're telling are evolving, they're getting smarter,

David Somerville:

they're getting better and more nuanced.

David Somerville:

And so I think that what I am hoping to create with these monsters and

David Somerville:

with everything else in this setting is a world that invites you into

David Somerville:

big meaty, raw edged, fire -burned adventure, and then adds on layers

David Somerville:

of, but what if, and, but what else?

David Somerville:

And, but why?

David Somerville:

And I think that a race that in so many ways is obsessed with pursuing

David Somerville:

its most perfect form at all costs but maybe not all of them do and maybe

David Somerville:

there's a much larger story that's buried just out of sight, hopefully

David Somerville:

those stories can be told I'm, I'm excited to explore them in my end games.

Lucas:

Thanks for listening to Making a Monster.

Lucas:

Planegea is live on Kickstarter until November 17th and it is smashing its

Lucas:

way through stretch goals after becoming fully funded in only 30 minutes.

Lucas:

It's a fully produced campaign setting, including the core source book, the GM

Lucas:

screen, adventures like In the Lair of the Night Thing and a stone-age soundtrack.

Lucas:

It's a long way from the middle school spiral notebook, where it began and

Lucas:

David's work on the kelledrosians is just the tip of the ice age.

David Somerville:

So the best way to find out more is to go to

David Somerville:

planegea.com, it's P L A N E G E A.com.

David Somerville:

That'll kick you over to the Atlas Games website.

David Somerville:

You can also just go there.

David Somerville:

And that has links to our setting, preview our Discord, Twitter the

David Somerville:

upcoming Kickstarter campaigns.

David Somerville:

Alternately.

David Somerville:

I'm also Planegea on Twitter.

David Somerville:

And, uh, yeah, I'm easy to find if you Google "Planegea" you'll find me.

Lucas:

If you want to go deeper with Making a Monster, I have some free TTRPG

Lucas:

extras from past guests to level up your games, including stat blocks for

Lucas:

monsters on the show and discount codes for top selling DMS Guild products.

Lucas:

Just go to scintilla.studio/monster that's S C I N T I L L a.studio/.

Lucas:

Monster and click on.

Lucas:

Yes, I want those there.

Lucas:

You'll also find a transcript of this episode and links to everywhere.

Lucas:

You can find Planegea on the web.

Lucas:

If you're willing to trust me with your email address, you'll also be the first to

Lucas:

know about my upcoming D and D releases, including something frankly incredible

Lucas:

I'm working on with Mage Hand Press- you know, the D'vati/Dark Matter/Wizmos/Valdas

Lucas:

Spire of Secrets guys?

Lucas:

It's going to make you believe D and D can be more than you ever thought it could.

Lucas:

And I'm really excited to share it with you.

Lucas:

If you really like what I'm doing, consider supporting the show on Patrion,

Lucas:

patrons, get bonus content like music.

Lucas:

I recorded for the show, extra conversations with my guests, live

Lucas:

episode premieres with other podcasting.

Lucas:

And believe it or not stickers, this show takes hours every week to produce

Lucas:

an edit and Patrion support helps offset the value of that time, as well

Lucas:

as allowing me to upgrade equipment and licensed new music for the show.

Lucas:

If supporting the show, monetarily, isn't an option for you.

Lucas:

Please share it with the people who play games with you.

Lucas:

There's a monster for everyone and your recommendation, lets people know they can

Lucas:

trust me with their time and attention.

Lucas:

It's a real gift to me and the creators.

Lucas:

I.

Lucas:

You can also rate and review the show on iTunes, Google podcast, or

Lucas:

you are a podcast app of choice.

Lucas:

I've been talking about that for a while, but even three dozen episodes

Lucas:

in five stars in a few words, help new listeners take the leap and join

Lucas:

the conversation with this show.

Lucas:

And I truly believe it's one of the most important conversations that

Lucas:

we're having in the TTRPG space.

Lucas:

So again, thank you for listening.

Lucas:

I will see you next week with a special announcement.

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