A couple months back we had a thread about bioweapons and I wrote up a series of random tables to roll up Resident Evil/Parasite Eve style bioweapons and we had a ton of fun making a gigantic carnivorous tree that puppeted corpses around with parasitic seeds. I've tweaked around with the tables some and I'd like to test them out again, so let's make some monsters!
First I'll need someone to roll 1d100 for our Method of Creation/Infection. This covers anything from the more traditional RE style virus or mutation, to intentional genetic or implanted design, all the way up to supernatural interference or pure happenstance.
>Fungus Our parasite is fungus-based, which I think actually works well with the chimeric nature of this thing. It could be the "glue" that holds together the smaller animal and the humans. Any ideas for what that smaller animal should be?
Next I'll need 1d10 for our bioweapon's body type. Is it a shambling monstrosity, a lithe hunter, or a immovable blob?
>Any ideas for what that smaller animal should be? A cute puppy, have them go "AAAW" before they go "AAAAA"
Kevin Reed
Rolled 4 (1d10)
Lizards seem appropriately common for a widespread monstrosity. Could be that the parasite has multiple stages of life, and it rides the lizards to get to the humans.
Jack Torres
.. I have a massive boner for lists like that. Can you please post the full list/table?
Daniel Richardson
...
Eli Hall
It isn't actually! I can't believe I forgot insect, I'll need to add that to the table. Assume that insect is part of the small animal category for this run through. When in doubt, attach puppies. It works well for PR.
>More-Than-Quadrupedal In any case our creature has many limbs. Pick a number more than four and try to picture how horrifically it shambles across the ground.
Besides the number of limbs though, I'll need 1d100 for our creature's intelligence.
Six limbs, four for moving around and two for doing monster shit.
Michael Moore
Ooh, that's an interesting concept as well. I'll leave it up to you guys for the moment, but remember whatever it is is also attached to a human.
Noah Powell
Rolled 65 (1d100)
>More-Than-Quadrupedal I want to believe it has legs sprouting from its chest, stomach, shoulder and back and rolls like a zombie wheel.
Matthew Morgan
Make the smaller animal a vector for the parasite to spread and control, a crow, owl or simple pidgeon would do wonders since flying animals are best for spreading spores or carrying your entire organism(which being fungus based makes it light enough)
Thats phase 1, for phase 2 make the animal integrate with the subject by promoting agresive behavour in the infected avian specially against human targets(pheromone, form or maybe marking from another infected) and phase 3 results in the total metamorphosis by which the subject will try to reach high, exposed places and form the reproductive body to spread to further avians.
The humans are just the intermediate part, but in needing to make sure that the intermediate carrier reaches an optimal place the parasite forces changes that result in a reorganization of the body(reabsorption of the reproductive system that the individual won't need, reduction of the digestive system, endocrine system becomes substituted by the one of the parasite and part of the nervous system gets overtaken only in the spine so the superior functions still work) to destine more energy and matter into that specific task(making it harder to die, stronger and maybe capable of developing other organs/structures to make sure that the fungus keeps spreading)
I guess we can also add a sexual cycle in which the infected humans mate with each other so now we add anotherr layer of competition and selection so the fungus acts fast and energetically in a race for reproduction before his host dies from the changes(there is so much that changing a body to eat itself and employ it's reserves in auberaccelerated metabolism can do).
Anthony Mitchell
Wouldn't most people freak out if they see a lizard? I think it should either be something capable of getting close to people without being detected (insects, really small animals like a rat, etc) or something so common that no one would find it weird (dogs, cats, etc).
Grayson Brown
>Base Cunning Our creature is not fully intelligent, but is wily. It can learn patterns and rudimentary tool use. Potentially, it is a clever girl/boy/monstrosity.
Next I'll need 1d20 for it's diet/method of sustainence.
Frogs and toads can suffer from a variety of parasite/chemical exposure that causes them to grow shitloads of extra limbs. I like the idea of a similar thing happening with people. Plus fungus = toadstool.
I like this guy's autism, I'm chaning my vote () to this. A pidgeon would be the best choice.
Mason James
Rolled 8 (1d20)
Christopher Anderson
here's hoping for metal or something weird like that
Hunter Bennett
Maybe it's because I live away from the city, but these little bastards are everywhere and nothing to freak out about. Able to climb up walls or on ceilings too, so sometimes you don't even notice them.
This is super fucking cool, though importantly the nature of the creature's reproduction is a roll further down on the table so we'll have to postpone the actual sexual cycle addition until we figure out if it can actually have sex. That's super freaky. I love it. A pidgeon seems like it could be a good idea, though really we just need some kind of small, relatively stealthy animal to sneak up to people.
>Blood For whatever else our creature potentially CAN eat, it needs blood to survive and likely has some means to ingest it more effectively than just a mouth.
Our creature, while potentially populous, is still locked to a specific kind of environment. For whatever reason, it can't survive well outside of its natural habitat. This might work well with the frog, since it might require humidity to sustain both itself and the fungal parasite.
Next, I'll need 1d100 for the creature's intended purpose. As much as our not!Umbrella does things for no reason besides that they can, they do need to spin the creature in some manner to their investors.
Swamps, jungles and tropical forests all work well for both frogs and fungus, as long as there as some shady spots to go with the humidity. Swamp abominations are all pretty great, but tropical monsters aren't as common so there's more potential for creativity there.
Brody Ross
The tropics sound like they could be pretty cool. Really it could be a matter of the parasite being introduced to an area and interacting with the wildlife in a wildly unforseen way.
>Medical/Medicinal Usage In a shocking twist of spin doctoring, this creature is primarily promoted for its medical or medicinal abilities (or at least the parasite is). In some manner it was intended to be used medically, likely before it infected the frogs and created this nightmarish hybrid.
I'll need 1d10 for its main sense next. This doesn't preclude it having other senses, but it does show where they're weighted for the creature.
> it needs blood to survive and likely has some means to ingest it more effectively than just a mouth.
Fungus tend to be capable of digesting anything, from metals, to plastics, but mouths are... kind of essential, you either have a mouth or absorb it.
Blood tends to be interesting to organisms because iron tend to be a limiting factor, so as I stablished that phase 2 is an intermediary, I will say that the fungus has developed two distinct mechanisms.
First, to keep itself agile and extent it's limited time by hunting other animals and extending it's micelia over their dead bodies, to both digest mainly the iron in the blood and carry them over the back to buy more time.
Second, the most succesfull reproductive bodies are the ones that have deloped a mechanism over which they relase aromatic compounds that make the infected susceptible to bring livestock around the reproductive body, if it's fresh enough the reproductive body will extend its micelia over the livestock and make an enzymatic digestion to grow bigger and stronger and spread even further beyond.
The biggest reprodcutive bodies form towers in which pidgeons can put their nests and get protection and something like 40% of the pidgeon population become carriers, effectively making them unstoppable because they protect and promote the pidgeons they will use to spread.
Austin Peterson
Rolled 2 (1d10)
Colton Price
Am I a freak for finding this hot?
Chase Powell
Maybe it was originally intended to be used as a way to regrow lost limbs, hence why it needs blood and grows limbs out of control. It was intended to be a sort of symbiote but instead rapidly took control of people it was implanted in.
Ryan Torres
Maybe they tried to create a biologically modified fungus that could be compatible with mamalians, spread to the body and form a symbiotic relationship by strengthening the inmune system, acting as a way to filter toxins and pathogens and allowing to digest things that couldn't be digested otherwise like celulose, this would also allow to use the fungus to other things like acting as a medicine dispenser or even using it to direct it's growth againts cancerous cells.
The initial fungus people where the original vectors, and seemed like transhumans with amazing capabilities and resistant to damage.
Elijah Cox
As long as you are not a furry everything goes.
Kevin Collins
Wow that's cool. A nightmarish idea, considering I live in a city filled with pigeons, but still cool. I mean, hot zombies taking scantily clad selfies. It's hard not to find hot. I like that, though I think the actual catalyst could be it's introduction to the animal that changed it so much. It was formulated for use on humans and the second it found another creature that it could almost work on, it caused lots of problems.
>Smell This hybrid uses scent as its primary means of navigation and understanding the world. Maybe the fungal parasite has caused its other senses to atrophy?
Next I'll need 1d8 for the creatures outward skin/surface type. Considering its a hybrid, it can get pretty wonky.
Sadly not! Instead it is >Skinless These things are fucking horrifiying! Some interaction between the parasite, the fungus, the frogs, or perhaps just its own biology has given it the appearance of lacking skin!
Next I'll need 1d100 for the creature's size, which is relative to the base organism.
Maybe it lacks skin because it's actually a weakness, it doesn't get well with the Sun and radiation and heat in general limiting it to humid and covered places where disecation is not a problem, but taking a human or other animal as a host allows it to expand to other swamps.by using another animal skin as protection.
David Hall
Alternatively it could replace its lack of skin by wearing bodies/foliage/stolen skin.
>Large This creature is larger than the base organism, comparable to a Tyrant as compared to a human. In this particular creature's case it's probably mostly fungal matter, frogs, and possibly coverings to keep its lack of skin safe from the sun.
Next, I'll need 1d6 for the creature's method of reproduction.
>Oviposition. Alright, nightmarish Surinam Toad flashbacks aside, this creature reproduces via eggs. Maybe it hosts these parasite eggs in its fleshy tissue for that surinam toad aesthetic? I will refrain from posting one though, because seriously fuck those nightmare animals. Have a regular toad instead.
To figure out how it gets those eggs though, I'll need 1d4 to determine the nature of its actual reproduction. Is it autogamic or allogamic?
Could be it has skin, of a sort, but's gotten all translucent. There are some frogs like that. Would also be really disgusting to watch the thing drink blood and see it fill up its body.
Huh, could be that it does the Surinam toad dance in uninfected humans. The eggs hatch, but instead of ever leaving the body the frogs fuse with their host permanently. That would explain the chimera element.
Asher Barnes
OP don't disappear now, you haven't even shared the tables.
I like that actually. It gives it a really unsettling look, as well making it look fantastic when it drains blood. That could be really cool, and might actually work well with this second part.
>Allogamic These eggs are produced via sexual reproduction. HOWEVER, since we have the idea of the eggs and frogs fusing with the host, perhaps the frogs could be the ones producing the eggs? It creates its own colony of parasitized frogs inside its own body.
In any case, it's now time for the best part of the monster-making process: The weird powers! First I'll need 1d10 for the number of mutations we have present within the species as a whole, and then that many d100's to see what we get.
If I did, I would only rise again as some kind of horrific zombie.
Now, we need 7d100! These powers don't necessarily need to show up all at once, and can show different strains and variations on the monster based on environment and subspecies.
Whooh, we got some weird ones. >Masked Rider (Acts as a suit of armor or vehicle for a smaller organism) Works with the infected toads honestly, though it could also be expanded upon. >Chemical Factory (Can synthesize chemicals inside its body) Seems good, especially if someone breaches the egg-bubble-surinam toad sac. >Endothermic (Body runs at cold temperatures) Perhaps that's why it needs the humidity and tropical environment besides the fungus. Cold weather makes it sluggish. >Hyper Regeneration (Can regenerate lost limbs in seconds, very difficult to kill) That works really well with the idea of the medical nature of the fungal parasite. As long as it's got the materials to do so, it can fix itself. >Chameleon (Can become invisible to the eye by blending in to the background) Maybe this works best with its environment, naturally camoflauging itself instead of doing so with color-changing. >Stretchy (Some portion of its anatomy is highly elastic) Also fitting, and kind of adorable. >Hyperdense (Muscles and organs are highly compact, making it heavier but smaller) Beefy toad. >Axolotl Blood (Exists perpetually in a childhood state, unless conditions are met) Now this one. This is the one that could mean some real shit. The idea that this creature is still a juvenile in terms of its biology means that its adult form could be one hell of a monster.
Harolds Toad, named for the researcher responsible for creating such a nightmare.
Tyler Cox
Do you still have the tables? I could use something like that for my own games.
Landon Rodriguez
Owned an Anole for a while. Killed him on accident. Put a live spider in his pen for food. Spider managed to kill him.
Charles Perez
That's terrible.
Brayden Davis
Remarkably underwhelming, but in a good way. It's the kind of thing where you see the name and think "oh, that's not that bad". It's like Head Crabs. The name sounds kind of goofy, the result is very much not.
I'm actually working on editing them up for the Pastebin right now, alongside some changes this thread has given me. I'll post them soon!
Alright, here's the tables as they currently stand. I'd like to expand and refine them a bit more, but for the moment here they are.
Harold's Toad was pretty cool though! Should we roll up another monster, and start up the toad and it as the early creations of a new Umbrella-esque bioweapon company?
>Implants Alright! This one is created via implants of some kind! Whether cybernetic, biologic, or something else, this is a lot more surgical in its creation.
>Chimeric AGAIN! Damn, that could be this company's schtick in terms of bioweapon creation. They're all about inter-species genetics. Since this is implant-based, they could be just grafting on bits.
Roll two more d8s. If we hit 8 again, we just keep rolling until it's DNA is biosoup.
Eh wait, nevermind. If it's your same roll I'll go with it.
Awesome user! Thanks, this'll be a lot easier to post in future threads.
>Large Animal >Human The real quesetion is, did we start with one or the other? Is this a case of putting human bits in an animal, or animal bits in a human?
o.k So my criticisms on what you have created so far are as follows.
>The starting options seem to need a little bit of specifying and general tidying.
Method of Creation/Infection is something that essentially is just the thing's purest form, in which case you are sorely missing out on possibilities. Plants, Siphonophorae animals(Look it up they are cool), Something cellular. I think the section's name is way more complicated then it needs to be as well.
'Method of Sustenance' and 'Base organism' i also take issue with mostly because they can start meshing together really quickly. I think the two should be re-worded/change to 'What it infects' and 'What it wants'
Thanks for the feedback. I'd argue that siphonophorae count under aquatic animals, and cellular works in mutation, but you are very right in that it needs clarification and expansion. I'll work on tweaking it some.
Again we are fungus based, which actually works great for these being made by the same company. They made the frog things by accident, but these are by design using the same principles.
Neat how the results from these tables sync up isn't it?
Daniel Hernandez
Rolled 9, 8 = 17 (2d10)
D'oh shid
Noah Nelson
It is cool, isn't it? I love it when tables do that.
>Hybrid >Swarm Based >Tauric
So this is a swarm of human-bugs of some kind? they've got the general centaur-shape, but maybe they're made of lots of little ones that form into a bigger one, glued together with fungus parasite?
>Base Cunning Same as last time, but I think that works well. They haven't figured out how to make smart monsters yet, just hybridized ones. For the future perhaps. I could see them trying to throw together animals with high intelligence and humans to make it work.
>Combustible Material Welp, we got something pretty different! They eat something widly combustable or flammable. Perhaps straight gasoline, or burnables of some kind? I could see them being designed originally as some kind of anti-vehicle thing, a little swarm of bugs that eats your fuel and leaves you stuck.
