Revisiting the Fiend Factory Mite and Embracing the Pathetic Aesthetic
If you're looking for monster inspiration you could do much worse than the old (pre-Warhammer) White Dwarf. Personally, there's something about UK D&D that really hits the spot for me. I think part of it is that they were always happy to embrace the "pathetic aesthetic". As Andy Bartlett put it in his Known World, Old World blog: "Pathetic [pəˈθɛtɪk] adj. - arousing pity, sympathy or compassion, - arousing scornful pity or contempt, - miserably inadequate, - affecting of moving the feelings. From the Greek pathos : suffering . Now that I have your attention, are you ready? Ok? Ok. What I am arguing is this; old-school D&D, WFRP1e, early WFB, W40K1e, and other old school fantasy games, hell even Fighting Fantasy, all have a healthy dose of the ‘pathetic aesthetic’ running through their design." Note that UK projects are over-represented in the quote. US D&D of the same era sometimes seems to stumble into a Pathetic Aestheti...