Is the Owlbear spanish?

Looks like an Owlbear, but its a Bú!

 I like Owlbears; it's probably my most used monster straight from the book. I love that, without having powers, they are big and terrible, and make players fear camping out at night in the woods. I rule that they can be easily stunned by flashing lights, as their pupils are so used to the dark.

 I've heard the tale of Gary Gygax making up the monster around a cheap toy he found on some shop:

 

 

Yesterday, researching some myths, I heard about a creature from a spanish region neighbour to mine: The Bú (maybe coming from the first syllabe of Búho? Thats how you say Owl in spanish) 

 

This page has some good lore about it (in Spanish). It is believed that it has it's origins on an ancient god, maybe even older than our celt/iberian/celtiberian past. I'll translate some of the descriptions:

 

"A hunchbacked person of bloated face and open feet"
"A bird of great size and terrifying aspect, of the likes of the owl and the barn owl"

"Gargantuan owl of enormous red eyes"

"Dark and sinister bird"

My favorite: "A big and black owl's body, great silent wings, plate-sized red eyes, a menacing beak and claws as big as traps for wolves"

 

It was said that on this villages the monster used to appear on the night sky, searching for kids playing on the streets after sunset. Mothers and Grandmothers called upon the Bú to scare the children when they didn't want to sleep:

 

Duérmete mi niño,

Que ya viene el Bú.

Que se lleva a los niños.

Así como tú.

 A castillian lullaby that translates to "Sleep my children, for here comes the Bú, that takes the children just like you" (perfect rhyme even in english!). But there are enough mountains and other landmarks dedicated to that monster to incite me to believe that, for the locals, it was a little more than a mere kid's tale. 

 

 

Sex scenes

 Related to this post, but not actually about that. 

I am working on a magic system outlined in here, which works by calling forth magical spirits instead of casting the spells, and I was thinking on the incubus-like nature of ifrits. 

I don't know about how often do sexual themes or scenes appear in your games. Its not something I bring to the table on purpose (or so I think), but feel that sometimes they appear on their own and I have to work to circunvent them. 

From D&D, B/X: Nixies are 3' tall water sprites. They look like small beautiful women, and their skin is light blue, green, or gray-green. They avoid combat, but may try to charm an adventurer. Ten nixies can cast one such charm, and if a save vs. Spells is not made, the victim will enter the water and serve the nixies for a year. (Each nixie can cast a water breathing spell on her slave, but this must be renewed every day.)
If forced to fight, nixies use small tridents (treat as spears) and daggers, and each will summon a giant bass to aid them. Nixies dwell in rivers and lakes, making their lairs in the deepest part of the water.

You can try to make up whatever you want, but the logic on nixies is that they are obvious rapists of men. It makes sense they do it like this to reproduce, as their own race has no males. The charm, their attractiveness, the myth of nymphs and sirens and even the implied sensuality of water play into this story too well as to not use it. 

It think its appropiate to have Ifrits play a specular role, being smug fire devils that like to molest women. An ifrit taking/burning the clothes off a sorceress as a drawback from a partial success could work so good on the paper. Or granting strenght to a male caster, but also filling him with an unbearable lust. 

 The problem is that what makes sense on the worldbuilding aspect may be a little weird to pull on an actual game, like if you were pushing your rape fetish or suddently doing ERP with your friends. Sometimes the sexual option is the most valid: I've pulled out nixes straight, but also bandits who kidnap women to make them serve in brothels. My shadowrun elf was a gay samurai who prostituted himself a couple of times to advance plot (lol!). Never described actual sex scenes beyond the classic "roll a d20 to see how you perform" and that is OK. Its not something I search for itself, but I do sometimes think that its a shame to actually deprive a world from the sexual dimension, which is so important in both our world, our history and our myths. From monsters that look a suitort to classic rapist bandits, they are expressions of human emotions and sometimes trying to tone them down is funny and childish; other times are bland and artificial, specially if they contrast with the tone the players assumed in your campaign.

 

6 Attributes and what are they used for.

In a way that they are important for everybody regardless of their "class". They are randomly generated, and there is a random chance to improve your chosen one at level ups!

1. Strength: Improves HP; Improves damage with some weapons, defines maximum load. Can be used to test something when you want to kick a stuck door. 

2. Dexterity: Check this when you want to spend your turn dodging an attack, checking if you do something fast, silently or when doing a risky jump; but it doesn't improve ranged attacks, or any other kind (see the Weapon attribute)

3. Intelligence: Defines how many times you can pull a Flashback scene per adventure (in the Blades in the Dark sense). This includes producing an object you didn't have. Specialist objects must suit your background (choose one at some point); and you can use it to do checks when applying your background too. 

4. Magic: this defines your Mana Dice and your skill using magical items or checking for magical awareness. 

5. Charisma: As I am using Cohorts (Blades in the Dark again) this is what you check when leading them (or even aquiring them). Wizards also use this to command spirits, while kobolds will use this to bind and manage animal companions.

6. Weapon: A bonus on this attribute means you have bonus skill on a given weapon (sword, maces, bow, fists). Not all weapons are trainable in this way, some are too crude. A penalty on this attribute means you cannot fight effectivelly, with a corresponding disadvantage. 

On my notes right now, you cannot pick a class; but you can swap two attributes, so use that to analogically choose one (getting some magic will make you a caster, and getting dexterity or intelligence might make you some sort of thief)

There are only two races: Humans and Kobolds (hobbits by other name). The latter get a bonus on dexterity, but half the strength. 

At some point, the character must roll the overall importance and status of his/her clan or equivalent (it determines available money) 

 

 

Abstract wealth

Because I've never liked beancounting on games for multiple reasons; I can't remember what I did with my last abstract wealth rules. Let's rewrite them. But first, let's break the wealth tiers, even if just for having a reference:

Tier 0: You are broke. You suck dicks to survive. You must roleplay how you get your food and shelter 

Tier 1:  You have some silver coins. You can afford basic adventuring gear, cheap weapons such as axes or spears, some food and some nights at the inn until your GM says so.

Tier 2: You have some gold coins. You can afford a decent sword with a sheath, hiring a specialist/gang for one job (use common sense, GM's), a rare item that requires a specialized artisan; reagents or alchemical products (typically, alchemical products will be one tier more expensive than the reagents they use, but this might have exceptions)

Tier 3: You have some gemstones, jewels, or a stash of gold. You can afford plate armor, a warhorse, hiring an elite professional/warband for a job, extremelly rare reagents or alchemical products. You can commission the building of ship or a house, though this may require multiple "successes" depending on its size

Tier 4: You have a great treasure. You can afford building many ships or a castle (multiple rolls needed)

It's up to the GM to conceptualize other items or services on this table. If a PC wants to buy a plot of land, for example, think about the quality of said land and what does it represent for the owner. 

* PCs can buy whatever they want that is under their Tier Level
* PCs can buy some items of their current level. They roll 1d6, if they roll equal or under the items they bought, their Tier goes down. 
* PCs will occassionally find items for sale below their usual Tier, the GM will make up why and how (or randomize it). PCs can also try to trick or convince sellers to lower their prices.
* One (1) piece of gold or (1) gem can represent one use of their respective tier, or as having the tier below, as needed. 

 

not much related but here it is, an old drawing of a couple of hobbits paying the bridge tax to a troll

I started an NSFW webcomic

 And it's here: 

 https://phylacteryquest.thecomicseries.com/

Two adventurers are sent on a quest through an average jrpg land; It's sort of related to this blog because I can't help doing tons of OSR meta-references. I'm having a lot of fun doing it. Just Tome I for now (with surprisingly no female nudity yet), I expect to do the II this month, and honestly if there is enough interest, I have an actual epic plot in mind. (Please consider dropping a comment in there if you like it)