I think mindflayers work best in a spelljammer or science fantasy setting. I don't remember which edition it was, but the *dimension door* spell required the caster to have knowledge of the target destination. Then you have mindflayers, who coincidentally can both cast dimension door and draw out memories from their victims. I envision a group of astronauts being found and ingested by the mindflayer fleet, followed by the start of the invasion of their homeworld. Maybe the party must hurry to prevent the flayers from consuming this knowledge.

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah! Wow, that’s a cool hook!

@TheGreatDanish

Жыл бұрын

Absolutely. I did an Old West themed game where the big twist was the planet they were on was a giant civilization sized free range farm for Mind Flayers. Periodically, they abducted billions of people to reproduce more Mind Flayers and then with the last 10000 or so people, they seeded a new civilization. Once my players found the Secret, They stole a planetary shuttle after figuring this out, attacking a station full of minflayers, and then started to prepare for the reprisal from the rest of the empire, but... It would never come. They figured out how to use the systems on the station, tried to ping the greater galaxy and got dead silence. The galaxy was empty. The Mindflayers who were such a massive threat to them for the whole game turned out to be the last scattered remains of a once powerful species. They were alone in the galaxy. And they had no idea why, because they had plenty of evidence of a larger society beyond the bounds of their solar system, star charts, news, and logs of ships coming and going from places on that star chart. It was just all quiet.

So, so good. Let me say I would pay good money if you put out your own monster manual

@tsvallender

2 жыл бұрын

Also I'd love to see your take on unicorns and centaurs.

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much!! I’m talking with a designer about that, actually! I’m trying to figure out if it would be better to do a KIckstarter for a book, or a Patreon for maps and monsters.

@tsvallender

2 жыл бұрын

@@mapcrow Well that's super exciting! Would definitely sign up to a Patreon but nothing beats a proper book

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

T S Vallender Right on! If/when there is an announcement, it’ll happen here!

@JValerianS

2 жыл бұрын

@@mapcrow This got me super excited! Been going through your videos for the last two days while inking my own dungeon tiles, and it's such a treasure trove. Thank you!

I love the idea of "plug and play" mind flayers. A fantastic encounter would be a room full of bodies, the mind flayer can switch up tactics to counter the players by spitting out a body and picking up another one. Love the jellyfish design!

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! I love the term “plug and play” here! Hahah

@adamjchafe

2 жыл бұрын

@@mapcrow perhaps a really powerful mindflayer has two, or even three USB (Universal Squishy Brain) ports and can have more than one skill set!

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Adam Chafe hahaha!!

One of my favorite things about mindflayers comes from how they're portrayed in Spelljammer. They have an interstellar empire, they engage in peaceful trade with other species, and aren't even the most hated bad guys around. The mindflayers we are familiar with from Toril or whatever single planet are looked upon by their fellows in space like we would regard the antagonists from The Hills Have Eyes.

I love the idea of it sorta puppeteering the still-twitching bodies it's eating underneath itself, so creepy and so cool. I imagine getting eaten/attached to would feel like being grabbed by an exposed nerve

Really an amazing design, i love it ! Yeah the designs they have in the game (basically an human with an octupus with angry eyes on the head), also the fact they are wearing dress just like actual human, it makes them look actually not so strange and not so different as they are supposed to be. But this one, wow, this one is jaw-dropping !

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much!! “Octopus with angry eyes” is my new favorite aesthetic!! Haha

Yesterday I used some of your ideas. Large mind flyer researching some ancient mystery under the forgotten temple. He was just a large octopus from space chilling in his lab while chewing some wizard, while the party found him. Barbarian, ranger, and cleric failed. Lots of fun :D

I’m building out a campaign with mindflayers infiltrating a Dwarven city and I think I’ll definitely be stealing your ideas when the players actually meet the mindflayers. I love the art btw, makes me want to draw with colored pencil more

My favorite creatures are Lizardfolk and Bulette, those would be cool to see reimagined... or the Tolkien-esc races: Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Halflings? :)

This is such a cool redesign!

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!!

I'm loving this series of "building better monsters". Thanks for sharing your ideas and processes Kyle! :) At some point, I'd like to see your reinterpretations of traditional D&D races. It frustrates me that they are just exaggerated stereotypes of humans, especially linked to the reproduction of a Eurocentric beauty standard.

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! Yeah, I really want to do more about elves and drow and dwarves, but I really want to get those right, so I’m taking my time.

Heh, I redesigned Mind Flayers for a sort of satirical DnD spinoff campaign I’m working on. Their whole mind takeover and parasitical way of life reminded me a lot of cordyceps, which are a family of fungi that can be parasitical to insects and other fungi, usually with very creepy results! Of course, the Mind Flayers I made were a very lighthearted and jokey design, beings abandoned by their mothership because of an intense obsession with sandwiches. Still, I think fungal Mind Flayers are a super cool concept and can also be horrific in a very visceral way.

Such a great redesign! Will use that concept on my next call of cthulhu story :)

Incredibly underrated channel you've got here. Your art and creative process are fascinating to behold!!

I really love how you twist, spin and bend ideas that have already seen much use! Also the feet. Oooh let's draw like 4 or 5 little lines and bam! a foot! I really like your approach to drawing it seems you draw without fear and doubt. Because you know that the image will tell you what it needs to become, you just have to follow the path. Great work!

God, I love this series, I hope you do more

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

I will for sure get back to this soon!!

This redesign gave me some metroid vibes. Incorporating the aggressive adaptive morphology that metroids and xenomorphs possess could really extend the base monster type out in some crazy ways and also tie it more into the cosmic horror genre. Maybe with a setting/location adaptation paired with a specialization or random roll off of a table. Perhaps the development of their offspring is guided to suit a certain need akin to some insects?

I know I'm about a year late, but I just discovered this channel. 🙂 Where have these videos been my whole life?? I love your take on the Illithids! Also, nice Prismacolor pencils, you have there. 🙂I've happily subscribed to your channel.

@mapcrow

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much! There are several more videos in that series now, and I am also working on a book release for these designs and many more!

I just found this channel. This is so cool!

We need a glow up on the invisible stalker!

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

I wonder if that isn’t just a spell or curse more than a monster. The faultless tracking is something that don’t really make sense without a cause for it. But if I think of a good twist, I do it! Thanks!

@spider00x

2 жыл бұрын

@@mapcrow OH you are wrong Kyle lol, check out the 2nd ed Monsters Manual, flip to the invisible stalker lol. Its an extra planer being I believe, its sentient. But if your truly looking for something difficult thats my challenge to you, that or subsequently a classic "gelatinous cube." Im loving it homie!

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Eric Alsandor | Spider00x right on! Yeah, someone else as mentioned the gelly cube, so we’ll see what we can do about that!!

Love the art and ideas, very inspirational for my own game. Definitely going to steal the glass octopus to reskin a sea-hag I've got coming up.

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Glass hag sounds like a great idea!! And yes, please steal my ideas, that’s why I made the channel!! Cheers!!

I remember you did an episode of 'building better monsters' with Goblins, you gave them beaks and fur and overall found a unique take, but I can no longer find reminisce of that video anywhere.

@mapcrow

5 ай бұрын

I took it down. People were getting really hateful towards me in the comments.

This video alone has earned my subscription to your channel. It's just marvelous. I hope this* is the main type of this channel's content. By * "this", I summarize as thus: Invocative RPG ideas accompanied by equally wonderfully inspiring imagery to go with it. Thank you.

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much!!

I mean Cthulhu does actually wake up. A Norwegian rams him with a boat after he kills some dudes.

Man, I need to bust out my colored pencils again.

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Heck yeah! They're fun!!

Here is my idea for a mindflayer. We have an elven necromancer who lost an arm. Now he has a mindflayer growing out of the stumb. Tilting his body to one side.

Maybe when the mindflayer eats the npc the next time it speaks will be in that npcs voice? That would be creepy as hell.

I think this is an amazing idea, but I feel it would work best for a solo mind flayer that broke away from the elder brain. I believe a lot of the horror from the original mind flayers comes from the lore where they are all part of the same colony. Where werewolves and vampires have their free will, they also have conflicts. Mind flayers have perfected society itself, and when it comes down to it, they could all deliver the same one-liner all at once. With the right setup and good roleplaying from the GM (as in really, REALLY managing to sell the insane intelligence and egotistical narcissism of the illithid), the original mind flayer can work more than perfectly. Love your vids, but I gotta say I prefer the original.

I'm absolutely loving the content! Both what you say and what you draw. |'m currently running (I guess you could call it 'standard') D&D adventures by using the published books and modules. I'm pretty happy about it but my problem with it is that The Forgotten Realms is not something I feel like I completely understand (with all the lore and so, so many wiki pages). Because I want my players to explore and become attached to a world that they matter in, I want to design my own world. But making such a world (and moreover, stories) is tricky, and I would not like it to be a 'Forgotten Realms-but-different'. I deeply appreciate the content you've made regarding monsters. It makes me enthusiastic to make my own interpretations of these classic creatures. I have a question besides my appreciation, can I download or purchase the monster drawings (and other art) you made somewhere? I looked at your patrion but only saw maps there. I might have missed something.

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for watching! These images are not posted anywhere at the moment. They might be used for a project later, so I don’t really want them circulating like that right now.

@davidwoek3041

2 жыл бұрын

@@mapcrow Very understandable :)

I think it was Veins of the Earth that had this idea: they had a perfectly decent civilization until they discovered creatures with brains and the whole thing collapsed into a nightmare of pathetic addicted squid.

The Mind Collector!

Well now I have an idea for a future Call of Cthulhu monster...

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!! This would also be a solid Building Better Yithian video, kinda!

Genius

I am not an artist aesthetically, but the list at the beginning inspired me to create my own monster stat block. I'm a left-brain/numbers person, so this is my type of creativity... aka, playing with the numbers and attributes to get something new. Mine is "Brass Demon" so of course my first thought its to combine a brass dragon with a demon... perhaps a brass dragon is possessed by a demon? But a brass dragon is just like a gold dragon except he has fire breath that is a LINE not a CONE... ooo, how different... No. As you have said before, lets get away from elemental damage and make something that is more allegorical in nature. I'll get back to you.

@mathsalot8099

Жыл бұрын

Ok, with more research, bronze is harder, more durable, and has the same benefits that brass does on everything except its flexibility, so for centuries, bronze has usurped brass. About the only thing brass was used for was aesthetic purposes (fake gold) until the 18th century when its predictable flexibility could be used as a way of tracking time. One of the best applications for brass is intricate watchmaking and clockwork. You see where I'm going with this, right? Time manipulation is so much more dynamic than elemental damage in my opinion.

@mapcrow

Жыл бұрын

Heck yeah!! This makes me so happy!!

Finally! Someone who acknowledges that Mindflayers are just Vampires from Spaaace!

Wonderful, Kyle. Do you have any tips on drawing paper minis? I want to start making some for skirmish games. :)

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!! Check out my most recent video for some help with mini drawing!

A player becoming a mindflayer? Nah they lose their ego and become something entirely alien to what it once was and joins a hive mind and have no control. It's basically death. Now it is slightly similar to vampirism except they become a thrall for the vampire and can possibly escape with external help.

@h3lblad3

2 жыл бұрын

The hive only expands about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the Elder Brain. There's no reason you couldn't have a playable Mind Flayer who specifically refuses to follow the party to some places solely because it puts them within 5 miles of a secret hive and they don't want pulled back into the hive mind now that they're independent.

YESSSSSSSSSS

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Hahaha! Glad you like it!!

@batmenic365StopMotion

2 жыл бұрын

@@mapcrow I would be so excited if all of these monster designs got collected into a zine, not even heavy stats or anything, just a print collection cause the art is amazing and the ideas are so rich

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Formal Lens Archives Thank you! Yeah, I’m talking with a designer about doing just that!!

Shardminds

So what would happen if a mindflayer eats a warlock brain? Will it now take over been the patrons mining or what?

How do you draw the blue sketches you paint over? Is it a soft blue pencil?

@mapcrow

Жыл бұрын

It’s a color called “Non photo blue”. It’s an erasable pencil too!

The classic "You walk into the laboratory of the missing alchemist, and a squizard drops onto your head." Or, steal from... Jurassic park: "You walk into the laboratory of the missing alchemist, and the body of the alchemist swings down in front of you." The Exorcist(?): When a player looks up, they find a creature crawling on the ceiling, its head turns and they look into the soulful eyes of the one alchemist squizard.

I’m gonna shamelessly stole some of this stuff and using it in an Aboleth for an adventure I’m making

I love this series and your videos (as well as this redesign!) but I think I'd politely disagree with your read on Mind Flayers as being purple space wizards. In most systems they tend to do things that other monsters don't. A mind flayer **grunt** is running around with party wide stuns (that are almost guaranteed to get at least a few party members), super high level spells and potential instakill attacks. The connection they've got to all this weird alien tech (to apocalyptic levels; an old module gives them the ability to shut down the sun, and they're running around with space age ships and time travel technology where most settings have guns as being a big deal) and the fact that they've got built in variations in kinds of mind flayers (mind flayer: beholders/dragons/vampires/ropers/ect all exist) makes them incredibly diverse/weird to fight, on top of having an inbuilt justification for having other monsters with them. You basically need to approach a mind flayer colony very differently as a party for how you would with another group (because if you don't you're getting stunned and brain eaten or thrall'd), and they could be up to literally anything from creating a matrix esque simulation for experimentation to planning to shut out the sun. Also elder brains are sick! By far my favourite creatures to come out of DND.

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

I think you make some good points. My statements are largely about the appearance of them. Whatever their tactics and abilities, they are purple squid men in robes and opera cloaks. They are one of my favorite DnD monsters too, and frankly, I wouldn’t change them at all for my game. However, I doubt that describing a Mind Flayer as written would have the impact on a new player who doesn’t know how dangerous they are. I enjoy the challenge of fixing things that aren’t broke, but a series called Building Slightly Different Mind Flayers doesn’t have the same ring to it.

@lawrence4301

2 жыл бұрын

@@mapcrow I completely agree and love this series, I just enjoy any chance to talk about Mind Flayers and having the ability to see alternative takes or interpretations on a classic monster is fun. Really love your art style also. Would you consider Beholders in the near future?

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

Mitchell Heck Yeah, bud! I really appreciate the commentary on Mind Flayers and the kind words! Beholders are like Daleks, if you redesign them too much, they lose what makes them wonderful. BUT, I’ll add it to the list and see if inspiration strikes! Cheers!

Have you thought of redoing giant spiders?

@mapcrow

Жыл бұрын

Yup! That’ll be in the book collecting these ideas!

Ngl, I always hated the OG mindflayer; it felt too humanoid, and it felt like it just using generic overpowered pysonics, because they didn’t really have anything unique or that made sense for them, and the way they reproduced felt really lazy. This is so much cooler, and so much more alien, and feels like it’s power is more justified and sensical, and seems like it’s actually a boss like it should be. I like this so much

I always ditch the Lovecraftian aspect because it is simply not there and go whole hog on the "alien invader" concept. aliens invading a fantasy world is just cool

Is there a stat block for this guy?

@mapcrow

Жыл бұрын

Howdy! We are in the process of turning some of these videos, and a whole lot more, into a book for next year! At the moment, no stat block, I'm sorry to say.

Why would you make them transparent, they have nothing to do with ocean life in dnd lore.

@mapcrow

2 жыл бұрын

It's fun to draw ugly monsters with transparent skin. The point is to have fun by mixing things up and trying new things.

@IrvineTheHunter

2 жыл бұрын

They do though, they have octopus heads, they start as tadpoles and perhaps most significantly they are SUBTERRANEAN. Not true ocean life for sure, but they READ as a being from the depths, translucent skin is also common in cave fish as aren't exposed to the sun. Again tying it back to the whole deep sea themes.

Bro calling them just essentially squid vampires that feed easy is a huge disservice and feels like you havent gotten to read anything about them beyond surface 5e material and how they look, like even your comparisons to Lovecraft aren't really valid