My blog's evilness ==

This site is certified 38% EVIL by the Gematriculator

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Number Appearing

On the whole "close to the bones of AD&D" thing - one experiment that has always appealed to me is to treat the number appearing entry of things in the Monster Manual as absolute maximums. This is already the case with the most powerful creatures therein, they are unique. So do this with all of the monsters - since you can encounter 10-100 pilgrims according to their Men entry, that means there are but 100 pilgrims in the whole world. Ah, but wait! There's 5 alignment groups of pilgrims... so there's 500 pilgrims in the whole world! 400 elves & orcs, 4 dragons of each type (I only use green, black, red & white, so there'd be 32 dragons, 1 of each color and age...), 6 barbed devils, etc...

I know! Big deal! Still, this is a setting I would like to play with more. There's 1 lich, 100 sprites, 6 ogre magi... I'll append to this post later the total population list I culled from the MM (it's on a different computer) so I don't lose it.

The only way I'd diverge off the ridiculously strict read with a little Holmesian thing I've never been able to shake - the way that the alignment for many creatures is listed with options (dwarf LG or N, giants & dragons too... must revise my dragon # again... gah!) - more creatures in the Holmes book are listed as being possibly neutral, and I adopt that because I really like neutral! So this could boost the number of demi-humans, unless the differences are within the already established total population (are there 400 LG dwarves AND 400 neutral dwarves, or 200 of each?)...

Anyway - it makes for a small world, or creates the sense of it, because these numbers are smaller, but still not small. They do become more manageable and comprehensible to me though. And interesting points come up all over the place - in the issue of pets & guard animals. Dwarves, elves, goblins, gnolls - several demi-human and humanoid species have animals - stone giants w/cave bears, etc... Given the # Appearing for the cave bear, chances are that these are the only cave bears in the world. Another decision point comes up with the issue of the classed-types that show up with the Men groups - should these then be the only classed beings in the whole world? Should the PCs have to be drawn from this pool of pre-existing classed characters?

It definitely reinforces humanocentric AD&D, men far outnumber any other race. Again, I'll post the numbers in a minute.

EDIT:

1 aerial servant, beholder, demon prince, succubus, arch devil,
ice devil (11 HD), pit fiend devil (13 HD), djinni (7+3 HD),
dragonne (9 HD), efreeti (10 HD), elemental (8, 12, or 16 HD),
gelatinous cube (4 HD), ghost (10 HD), golem, homonculous (2 HD),
hydra (5 to 12 HD) , imp (2+2 HD), invisible stalker (8 HD), lich (11+ HD),
mimic (7 to 10 HD),morkoth (7 HD), neo-otyugh (9 to 12 HD), night hag (8 HD),
nightmare (6+6 HD), pseudo-dragon (2 HD), quasit (3 HD),gynosphinx (8 HD),
sylph (3 HD)
1-2 cave bear (6+6), bulette (9 HD), barbed devil (8 HD), bone devil (9 HD),
megalosaurus dinosaur (12 HD), otyugh (6 to 8 HD), purple worm (15 HD),
rust monster (5 HD), shambling mound (8 to 11 HD), giant constrictor
snake (6+1 HD), titan (17 to 22 HD)
1-3 black bear (3+3 HD), catoblepas (6+3), “typed” demon (8 to 11 HD),
erinyes devil (6+6), horned devil (5+5), gray ooze (3+3), medusa (6 HD),
spirit naga (9 to 10 HD), ochre jelly (6 HD), roper (10 to 12 HD),
giant amphisbaena snake (6 HD), water weird (3+3 HD), will-o-wisp (9 HD),
wind walker (6+3)
1-4 basilisk (6+1 HD), black pudding (10 HD), chimera (9 HD),
ceratosaurus dinosaur (8 HD), dragon (5 to 11 HD), ettin (10 HD),
storm giant (15 HD + 2-7), gorgon (8 HD), jackalwere (4 HD),
giant fire lizard (10 HD), werebear (7+3 HD), manticore (6+3 HD),
mind flayer (8+4 HD), nymph (3 HD), rakshasa (7 HD), giant scorpion (5+5 HD),
sea hag (3 HD), criosphinx (10 HD), hieracosphinx (9 HD), phase spider (5+5),
umber hulk (8+8 HD), vampire (8+3 HD)
2-5 displacer beast (6 HD), giant owl (4 HD), owlbear (5+2 HD),
salamander (7+7 HD), giant poisonous snake (4+2 HD), giant spitting
snake (4+2 HD), unicorn (4+4)
1-6 anhkheg (3-8 HD), axe beak (3 HD), brown bear (5+5 HD), carrion
crawler (3+1), cockatrice (5 HD), dryad (2 HD) , ghast (4 HD),
cloud giant (12 HD + 2-7), green slime (2 HD), jackal (½ HD), giant
subterranean lizard (6 HD), ogre mage (5+2 HD), spectre (7+3 HD),
wyvern (7+7 HD), yeti (4+4 HD)
1-8 fire giant (11 HD + 2-5), frost giant (10 HD + 1-4),
stone giant (9 HD + 1-3), giant minotaur lizard (8 HD), minotaur (6+3 HD),
giant spider (4+4 HD), giant poisonous toad (2 HD)
2-8 carnivorous ape (5 HD), giant boar (7 HD), hell hound (4 to 7 HD),
wereboar (5+2), mummy (6+3 HD), satyr (5 HD), shrieker (3 HD),
winter wolf (6 HD)
1-10 hill giant (8 HD + 1-2)
1-12 wild boar (3+3 HD), huge spider (2+2 HD), giant toad (2+4 HD), troll (6+6)
2-12 griffon (7 HD), harpy (3 HD), giant lizard (3+1 HD), wraith (5+3 HD)
3-12 bombardier beetle (2+2 HD), fire beetle (1+2 HD), doppleganger (4 HD),
dire wolf (3+3 HD), worg wolf (4+4 HD)
2-16 gargoyle (4+4 HD) , hippogriff (3+3 HD), wight (4+3 HD)
4-16 blink dog (4 HD), brownie (½ HD), manes demon (1 HD), wild dog (1+1 HD)
3-18 boring beetle (5 HD), pteranodon (3+3 HD), giant killer frog (1+4 HD),
werewolf (4+3 HD)
1-20 giant eagle (4 HD), leprechaun (½ HD +1), treant (7 to 12 HD), giant wasp (4 HD)
2-20 flightless bird (1 to 3 HD), ogre (4+1 HD), shadow (3+3 HD),
large spider (1+1 HD), wolf (2+2 HD)
5-20 pixie (½ HD)
2-24 giant centipede (¼ HD), ghoul (2 HD)
3-24 zombie (2 HD)
4-24 centaur (4 HD), wererat (3+1 HD)
3-30 skeleton (1 HD), stirge (1+1 HD)
5-30 lemure devil (3 HD)
6-36 bugbear (3+1 HD)
5-40 giant frog (1 to 3 HD)
10-40 larva (1 HD), lizard man (2+1 HD)
5-50 giant rat (½ HD)
10-60 triton (3 HD)
20-80 nixie (½ HD), sahuagin (2+2 HD)
1-100 giant ant (2 HD)
10-100 berserker men ((1+1 HD (d6)), cave men ((2 HD (d6)),
pilgrim men (1 HD (d6)), sprite (1 HD), troglodyte (2 HD)
10-120 tribe men (1 HD (d6))
20-200 elf (1+1 HD), gnoll (2 HD), hobgoblin (1+1 HD), bandit men (1 HD (d6)),
brigand men (1 HD (d6)), merman (1+1 HD),
30-300 nomad men (1 HD (d6)), orc (1 HD)
50-300 merchant men (1 HD (d6))
40-400 dwarf (1 HD), gnome (1 HD), goblin (1-1 HD), kobald (½ HD)

No comments: