Boneless Demons?! Let's Make A Shadowdark Monster!

Kelsey, you are so freakin' good at making TTRPGs accessible and appealing.

I for one, look forward to implementing the patented Shadowdark "Can this monster beat up an elephant" method of encounter balance. Call me old-fashioned, but if it ain't got bones, it ain't a demon, it's a marinaded fiend nugget. And you're supposed to eat them bleu cheese, not ranch dressing. They shouldn't even sell them at Demon Stop.

I love the monster creation system in your book. I had an amazing time creating rival monsters contesting a sprawling cave complex: magic-resistant shark-like brutes who will mindlessly attack their own reflection, vs. snake-goblins who can turn near-invisible unless they get wet. I would never have thought of these on my own but it just took a few minutes to flesh out these prompts.

First boneless chicken wings and now boneless demon claws! All red, oily, and very spicy. I like it! But bones would've been preferred.

"Cartilage deforms more than bone so he can, with time, work his way through spaces that in human scale would be little bigger than a letterbox mouth, about the size (relative to you) of an A4 book. ... He will eat you, chewing well, equipment and all, to get you out of the way. He could come into your house though the front door. He could slowly squeeze his body up your stairs, filling the stairwell with his flesh, then send one questing hand through your bedroom door. He could squeeze his head into your room and look at you." - Patrick Stuart; Deep Carbon Observatory

"Sure, you could fit under a door, but could you fit within my water skin (which I conveniently have empty and uncorked)?

So throwing together a monster from the various tables could be called .. a monster mash?

That has to be one of the best walk-throughs for monster creation I've ever seen. Thank you. And yes, I'm a proud backer of Shadowdark. Can't wait for the physical copy. Well done!

I've got a theory that it's a demon! A stealthy demon? No something isn't right there...

Awesome monster! A lot of cool, not to mention frightening possibilities. I'm looking forward to using it. Thank you.

Thanks for the amazing content! I'll be launching my RPG channel soon and I'll be starting with a Shadowdark Campaign, I love your work keep it up!

Thanks Kelsey, great video! For your “Bind” power I mistakenly read it as “Blind.” I thought, how cool, a vain demon who could not look in mirror to see he was a pile of jelly, lol! Excited for my books to arrive!

19:17 I love the way English blends sounds sometimes, I saved my copy of the PDF as "Cool Ass Demon.pdf"

Thanks for doing this! I'm working to publish some Shadowdark Adventures. I'm still building a following for my channel, but I figured selling adventurers would expand the brand.

When I've created demons in the past I've always included some sort of quirk. Mostly some sort OCD trait or intellectual vanity. It gives a demon more to play other than a horrific otherworld creature. And they are fun to play. Love that you included it in your creation. Well done.

I was picturing a fleshy puddle occupied with stretching itself over “beautiful shapes” that gave it internal structure: creatures, objects, whatever, being boneless but not a strict shapeshifter, perhaps to out-compete its kin in “fashionable forms”. Perhaps it would reward a party that offered it choice shapes to stretch around...

Is that a print master? Production copy? Cool!

Yay, would love to see more monster creation videos, this was very interesting and useful!

Yes, this! This right here is super useful. Im so happy you did this. It's great to get your perspective on how ShadowDark works. Thank you! Looking forward to the next one.

Love it! Thanks for sharing your insight Kelsey!