Monster Recovery Effort Is the Result of a Collaborative Project Completed on Rpggeek

Sample file Introduction

The inspiration for this project comes from “One Hundred Monsters Ancient and Modern” - specifically from the book “Konjaku Hyakki Shūi”, by the 18th century ukiyo-e artist Toriyama Sekien.

The source book is available online at https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/78693 and is released under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

This derived work is released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

"Konjaku Hyakki Shūi (今昔百鬼拾遺, ‘Supplement to The Hundred Demons from the Present and the Past’) is the third book of Japanese artist Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō tetralogy, published c. 1781. These books are supernatural bestiaries, collections of ghosts, spirits, spooks and monsters, many of which Toriyama based on literature, folklore, and other artwork. These works have had a profound influence on subsequent yōkai imagery in Japan. Konjaku Hyakki Shūi is preceded in the series by Gazu Hyakki Yagyō and Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki, and succeeded by Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro." (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konjaku Hyakki Shūi)

Monster Recovery Effort is the result of a collaborative project completed on RPGGeek. Based on the images from the book, users of the RPGGeek forum created the descriptions collected here. Despite the influence of the source material in Japanese culture, Toriyama's prints are little known among RPG players from North America and Europe. His creatures haven't had the chance to bend, spindle, or mutilate player characters for too many years. They want to come out and play. They want to eat fighters, skewer magic-users, and frighten children. Some want to spice up your settings and backdrops, hiding behind the whispered tales they leave in their wake. Others want to roar, skulk, leap, and strut their stuff. Monsters change and grow and surprise, so we allowed them to enter our imaginations and become something new.

We’re re-using the artwork as a source of inspiration to create new monster and creature concepts for roleplaying. However, we do not intend them for any particular game or style of play. You will not find numerical stat blocks, and not every entry in this bestiary should be treated as an opponent for an adventuring party looking for experience points. While the original Japanese text is still in the images, Monster Recovery Effort provides new descriptions for these creatures - much like a contrafactum in which new text replaces lyrics for an existing piece of music. We hope you will enjoy bothSample Toriyama's work as well as ours. file

Credits

Illustrations: Toriyama Sekien

Toriyama Sekien (鳥山石燕, 1712 – September 22, 1788) is the pen-name of Sano Toyofusa, an 18th- century scholar, kyōka poet, and ukiyo-e artist of Japanese folklore.

Contributors: Mark Wilson (mawilson4); Casper M. (secretfool); Steve (sdonohue); Alain (Karkared); ges ges (gesged46); Suzana (lucsen); Mario Silva (shiva666); Rae Zin (taen); Eric Dodd (Red Wine Pie); TTDG (ThroughTheDeckGlass); Farydia Pseudo (Farydia); Eric Miller (govmiller); Clark Timmins (ctimmins); Shardra the Castrator (Shardra); Jonas Richter (jasri); Quaid Slauson (Quaid Slauson); Kerry B. (Birmy); Shawn McCarthy (shawnmccarthy); Jessica (Albia); Jonathan Sullivan (sullijo); Michael Lawing (lawingm); Cindy McDaniel (Siren); Caroline Berg (adularia25); The Minister of Sinister (Mulligans); Hans Messersmith (skalchemist); Chuck Dee (chuckdee68)

Cover Image: Mario Silva (shiva666)

Modded Art: Shardra the Castrator (Shardra); Mario Silva (shiva666); Shawn McCarthy (shawnmccarthy)

Factotum: Clark B. Timmins (ctimmins)

Sample file

Trigger/Content Warning

Some of the entries contain descriptions of body horror. Some of the entries describe malevolent entities interested in killing, assaulting, kidnapping, and performing violent or illegal acts.

System-Agnostic “Stat” Block

The entries are presented as system-agnostic descriptions following the inspirational image. Many of the following monsters use a “generic stat block” similar to:

• Outlook: (intelligence, disposition, what it wants, how it reacts)

• Environment: (where, how many, does it keep/have stuff?)

• Combat: (fight or run, how tough, armored?, how it attacks)

• Appearance: (size, color, brief description)

• Description: A long description and flavor text.

Sample file Table of Monsters

The Dream Clam 1 Beast Spirit 72 Tree of Souls 4 Ryōshi no Yūjin 75 Kaiju Oni 6 Draping Husk 78 Imposter Ghosts 8 Wild Giant 81 Frode Troels 12 Hebi Ori, the Loom Serpent 85 Kroak-k 14 Floragetti 87 Primatomorpho 17 Bibbiner 90 Toudaiki 19 Aruki-Horô-Sha 92 Bell Dame 22 Deer Leopard 95 The Weaver 25 Rot Gale 98 Cyclops Ghouls 29 House Fairies 100 Maramaris, Lady Serpent 32 Shan-Dim 103 Unhold 35 The Demon Gamer 106 The Jester 38 The Forlorn Army 110 The Shadow of the Fire of Ashes 41 Claw Leaf Spirit 112 Guardian House Spirit 43 Swisswush 115 Sentient Carriage 46 The Mourner 117 Pirës Epshor 49 Well Haunt 120 Kishinoguchi 52 Shoblek Meie 122 Jen/Jon 55 Tree Geist 125 Hidari no Gaki 58 Amoebic Facial Awakening and Migi no Gaki 59 Detachment Syndrome 127 Homewrecker 64 Angel Attire of Bakemono’s Bride 131 Buresusukin 64 Hathud 133 Gargu 69 Baize 135 Demonfish 69 Money Rats 137 Sample file Sample file