Batteries Not Included Unofficial Expanded Content!

Batteries Not Included is a game by Spwack of Slight Adjustments (and formerly Meandering Banter) that I instantly fell in love with. I have not had a chance to play it yet for myself, but I nonetheless felt compelled in my foolish ignorance to write a series of hacks and expansions for this game! I have a very rough setting idea and if it ever comes together I'd like to try it out.

I had posted a review a while back about Gamma Knights, an expansion for Gamma World which added power armor. I had said that I felt it was perhaps a bit too crunchy and fiddly for my tastes, but had some cool ideas, and that I would like to conceive in the OSR / DIY fashion a stripped down version of Gamma Knights for power armor and mechs. And then I never did. And then Spwack did it better than I ever could have anyway.

So below I outline suggestions for how to play the game without cards (I love the card idea but don't like being obligated to do work like print out cards!), how to integrate BNI into a more traditional OSR-style game as a sub-mechanic, and an adaptation of some Gamma Knights concepts using BNI rules. I was originally also going to include a Weird & Wonderful Hack with a set of modules using my own ideas, but I might save that for a future post instead.


One last side note: I was recently featured on the titorpg blog and I wanted to give him a plug now because that was super awesome of him. I would like to give him a more dedicated plug down the line because he deserves it, but for now hopefully this will suffice. He has produced a few books available on drivethrurpg such as sacrebleu, an open-ended module with WW1 weapons and plenty of Weirdness, for the OSR-adjacent game Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells which you all know I'm a fan of. One of my favorite posts from his blog is Bargain Bin Mindflayers. I had intended to do a followup post of it but almost a year later I still have not done so, so if I can find the inspiration I will try to make that a priority.



Anyway, on to BNI!

I love Evangelion and recently got addicted to an eva mobile game

No Cards Hack

This isn't so much a hack, as just a list of suggestions for how to play BNI without cards.

• Randomly roll a die or use a random number generator on the modules list(s) for randomly rolling modules, oracle rolls, or treasure.
• If you want to add my module lists to the full module list, you can either append the numbering from Spwack's list or roll first to determine which table to roll on and then a second roll for that table.


• Track Damage and Heat for each module on character sheet using pips, in a text chat if playing online, written on a table-facing index card, or with dice.
• For dice, use two dice for each module, one for tapped/damaged and one for Heat. Ideally use the same size dice for all Damage and Heat, and different colors for each module.

OSR Compatibility Hack

This hack is intended for using the mechanics of BNI for Power Armors or Mechs in an OSR-style game. It's not necessarily going to be compatible with all versions of OSR or OSR-adjacent games, and has not been playtested (I haven't even played BNI!). It could maybe also be used for a BNI robot class. This is just a proof of concept.

• Power Armors are considered Large, Mechs come in various sizes greater than large. 
• Power Armors and Mechs will be referred to as BNIs going forward.


• BNIs cannot be damaged by non-BNI creatures of their size or smaller unless special circumstances e.g. a character has a special anti-mech rifle, or they're made of super magic.


• BNI attacks always succeed. Treat OSR attributes or equivalent as modules, where BNI attacks deal damage to those attributes by their Damage Track, starting where 0 Damage (ramming or "unarmed" attack) = 5 attribute damage, and increase by 5 attribute damage for every step up the BNI Damage Track.
• How does a BNI attack do charisma damage? I dunno don't worry about it. You're clever you'll come up with something sensible. It hurts their morale and by extension their outward disposition? Whatever it's just to make the fucking game work.


• For non-BNI creatures capable of attacking BNIs, attacks automatically succeed and treat every 5 points of damage as a BNI Damage Track. If the creature would deal less than 5 OSR damage, they deal no BNI Damage, if they would deal OSR 5-9 damage, they deal BNI Damage 0, OSR 10-14 damage deals BNI Damage 1, etc.


• As a robot PC class, use the same way except ignore the rule that only larger non-BNI creatures can damage them, and also robot PCs may be of any size. Robot PCs get no traditional advancement; advancement works by acquiring or enhancing modules.

Qubeley, one of my favorite mecha designs from Gundam

Gamma Knights Hack

This hack adds some modules or mechanics from Gamma Knights, the Power Armor expansion for Gamma World. It is also intended to be compatible with the OSR Compatibility Hack above. Note that some of these assume there is a pilot, as opposed to being a robot, so just ignore those if you're playing as a robot.

Also just a caveat, it's been t least a couple weeks since I first read BNI, and while I've discussed it with Spwack, especially having not played it, I may be misremembering or misinterpreting certain rules, or there may be certain modules here which are redundant with ones on the original list that I somehow missed. If you catch any mistakes please let me know!

• If you roll Sensor Array or Tracking Array on the BNI modules list (22 and 23 respectively), re-roll for below:

1. Spectrometer (light and energy use, 1P)
2. Telescopic Lens (distance and close-up, 1P)
3. Infrared Scanner (infrared and heat, 1P)
4. Life-Scan Array (amalgam of sensors trained by computer models to scan for life signs, 1P)
5. Motion-Sensor Array (amalgam of sensors trained by computer models to scan for motion, 1P)
6. Radar Scanner (radar, 1P)
7. Radiation Array (amalgam of sensors scanning for various kinds of radiation, 1P)
8. Sonic Scanner (sound, 1P)
9. Ultraviolet Scanner (ultraviolet, 1P)
10. Underwater Array (fish-eye lens and sonar, 1P)

• If you roll Energy Shield on the BNI modules list (88), re-roll for below:

1. Energy Force Field (for each P used on the force field, mitigate up to 2D. Persists until cumulative D taken exceeds P used)
2. Kinetic Force Field (for each P used on the force field, mitigate up to 1D. Persists until a single attack's D exceeds P used)
3. Repulsion Force Field (-1P, mitigate all 0 or 1 D)

• Additional new modules

1. Cloaking Device (invisible in the visible light spectrum, 1P and 1H)
2. Computer Scrambler (scramble a computerized device, 1P)
3. Ejection System (cockpit ejected from BNI as an escape pod, 1P)
4. EMP Generator (shuts down all computer systems in short range, including self, maxP)
5. Energy-Emission Filter (makes the BNI invisible to any kind of energy sensor array and protects occupant from energy or radiation attacks, 1P)
6. IR Absorption (protection from infrared radiation and heat to the occupant, 1P)
7. Life Support System (provides air, temperature control, pressure control, etc. for occupant for 1 week for large BNI, 1 month for huge BNI, 4 months for gargantuan BNI, and 1+ years for colossal BNI, 1P)
8. Light Filter (darkens dangerously bright lights and +1 defense against light attacks, 1P)
9. Medikit (treat minor injuries of occupant as Cure Light Wounds, 1P)
10. Autosurgeon (treat occupant who has suffered grievous injury, maxP)
11. Radar Scrambler (scramble radar, 1P)
12. Radio Scrambler (scramble radio or microwave signals, 1P)
13. Self-Destruct Mechanism (an explosion which deals maxP in D to all creatures up to short range, completely destroying the BNI. 1 in 10 chance it fails)
14. Silencer (+1H to make a loud weapon quiet)
15. Smoke Generator (generate vision-obscuring and noxious smoke, 1P)
16. Sound Filter (attenuates loud sounds and +1 defense against sonic attacks, 1P)
17. Suit Sealant (protection in harsh environments such as underwater or outer space)
18. UV Absorption (protection from ultraviolet radiation to the occupant, 1P)
19. Water Circulation (can filter water to produce fresh, drinkable water, 1P)
20. Flying Blade Launcher (1D, silent, area range, one-time use per combat)
21. Fusion Rifle (3D against non-Force Field protected targets, 1D against Force Field protected targets, 1F, 1H if used twice in a row, 1P)
22. Gravity Gun (use anti-gravity to manipulate an object, 1P)
23. Lamprey Disk (when attached to a target module, drains 1 from maxP from target BNI per round cumulatively unless removed by tapping the module, accruing 1H, damaging the module, or detaching/destroying the module. After removal, full maxP is restored next round)
24. Micromissile Array (1D, homing, 1A, 1P)
25. Jet-Assisted Jump (ballistic long-range jump, 2P)
26. Rocket (Takeoff into outer space 3P, maneuverability in space 1P) NOTE: Not a Gamma Knights module but I still wanted to include this
27. Computer System (automatizes a given module and increases its efficiency, giving it one benefit per turn such as -1P to use, allowing it to be used while tapped, auto-reloading, etc.)

Meandering Thoughts About Combat

I mentioned recently how I was feeling creatively empty, which gave me a bit of a creative burst, but I appear to have run out of steam and can't seem to finish my Martians setting even though I have a bestiary post already 75% drafted and would like to make some Martian Mechs for TNT by way of Mechs & Monstrosities and Gamma Knights. But that probably won't happen unless I will it to happen by mentioning it here.

On a theory level, I've been thinking about combat in tabletop RPGs, and how to handle it. While I actually do find character builds and tactical combat in games like D&D 3.+ compelling when I've done a sufficient amount of research into them, I prefer that style of play in videogames, not tabletop. I've come to respect that style of game design a bit more again. By integrating all of the mechanics together, a relatively crunchy game can be made much more streamlined (as opposed to many of the overly complex bolt-on mechanics of D&D 2e and other games from that era, see Star Frontiers Advanced which I should but probably won't write a review of bc tbh I was a little disappointed that my Gamma Knights review didn't make it on the thought eater humpday blogarama). However, it also becomes much less modular, so unless you want to redesign the whole game any time you want to hack something, you're pretty much stuck with what you've got. Which is great if you lack the time, creativity, or general inclination to make stuff yourself. But at that point, I'd rather just play a videogame.

Anyway, that was an unintended tangent, this is a bit stream of consciousness. I've been thinking about this stuff because of games like TNT and Gamma Knights. I don't necessarily prefer opposed rolls to hit vs. armor type combat systems, but I do find them interesting, and I wish more OSR people would look to TNT for inspiration even if they aren't interested in switching systems. I like how in TNT ranged weapons have fewer damage dice but can bypass the opposed roll, or how rolling a six on any damage die gives 1 spite damage that also bypasses opposed rolls, such that a sufficient number of weak monsters can still make a mark on player characters, without necessarily being an hyper-deadly game. Likewise, while I generally don't like character builds and tactical crunch in tabletop, I do like the idea of that being a differentiation between regular PCs and mechs or power armored PCs. If I were playing a whole mech game I wouldn't bother, I'd just reskin any other game, but there is something kind of appealing to me that I can't fully articulate about the different sensors and power management and force fields and computerized systems in Gamma Knights (or maybe it's more generally related to the point I will be making below, which is supposed to be the main point of this meandering post).

That being said, in practice, I almost always prefer to minimize combat, or add saving rolls or other non-combat mechanics into combat scenarios. I don't find GMing combat fun, I only kind of find being a PC in combat fun, if the GM did a good job setting up the encounter, and anecdotally, I find that a lot of the fun leaves the table when things get too solely combat-driven. It could just be that I'm not a good combat GM. Or it could be that good combat encounters should include non-combat actions, and I'm doing it correctly after all.

While I haven't played it, I find the Pyrrhic Weaselry, Or At What Cost? system so intriguing because it's willing to defy the norm of combat systems in an otherwise D&D-style game space, and is really conscientious of fictional positioning and how to leverage that to create interesting encounters. I think the term fictional positioning gets thrown around a lot by storygame people, but frankly I've found that many of the people who sling that term around don't really understand what it means, or haven't thought it through all the way, just making common sense needlessly pretentious (this statement is not intended as an attack on all storygamers or all storygames! I'm not one of those obnoxious anti-storygame people! In fact there are many things I like about FATE and PbtA!). Anyway, If you really want to understand what fictional positioning means, read Pyrrhic Weaselry (we've had some good conversations about it on the underutilized SWORDDREAM_unofficial subreddit). I do genuinely think FATE and PbtA do good fictional positioning as well, and also deserve credit for abstracting away combat as not fundamentally different from other mechanics; it's more that I think other people sometimes reduce it to something less meaningful.

Despite all of what I just said, the idea of a combat-less system just seems... wrong. I want a combat system! I don't care that I generally don't like it, or that my players generally don't like it, or that I usually try to minimize its use as much as possible, I still want it there! In small doses it's nice. Just knowing it's there adds to the experience. Maybe that's crazy, but such is life.

That got me thinking though, while there are certain things I don't like about FATE, one thing I really do like about FATE is how it re-constructs tactical combat in a way that doesn't remove combat mechanics altogether, but abstracts them into different kinds of actions that play into the fictional positioning system (aspects). Skills can be designed flexibly for any setting, and can be used as either an attack, defense, to overcome an obstacle, or one other thing that I'm forgetting off-hand because I haven't played it in a while and also I may be getting some of this terminology wrong. That in tandem with the two kinds of stress tracks (one more physical, one more mental, I think called Will) and the ease with which one could hack in more stress tracks, allows you to have your cake and eat it to when it comes to tactical combat vs. fictional positioning. I actually think it's a shame how FATE has to some extent become a victim of its own success, because personally I think FATE is much more interesting, flexible, and DIY than PbtA, which I think has become (or by its nature is) really just the D&D of storygames (for better and worse), but that's also post for another day (I should really be keeping track of these tangents...).

So I don't have a concrete idea at the moment, but I'd like to think about how to, rather than remove combat altogether in games like TNT and OSR, abstract it across other mechanics or situations in ways that are both tactically and fictionally interesting. How could one bend combat to social conflict, or fire fighting, or ghost hunting with a proton pack, or to cooking a dish / line cooking as a team during the dinner rush? I suspect creating a FATE bolt-on to TNT or OSR, or a TNT or OSR-inspired hack of FATE, will play a part in this, but I don't want to commit to anything yet.

I've created TNT character types such as the War Dogs or Warlord that add more fictional-positioning Saving Rolls to combat, but I'd like to maybe try coming up with some character types or general mechanics that go the other way, adding combat-like mechanics to scenarios that are not combat per se. The idea isn't so much to increase the overall amount of combat, but to smooth out the delineation between combat encounters and everything else.

Fitting for this post, I'm going to end on yet another tangent that is dubiously related to the intended point of this post. I've also been thinking about a Poker combat-type mechanic for TNT, inspired partially by the poker mechanics in Deadlands. Because of how TNT uses D6s, I think TNT lends itself better to this kind of mechanic than OSR, but there's no reason why it couldn't also be bolted on to OSR. But again, that's a post for another day...

Gamma Knights Review

I am terrible at writing reviews, but even so, I think I'm going to try. This is my review for Gamma Knights, a supplement for Gamma World 4e. Gamma Knights includes new content for Power Armors in Gamma World 4e, in addition to being its own wargame. Below are a few caveats for the review (in addition to me being terrible at writing it).

• This review is just for the RPG supplement content, not the wargame content. It seems like it might be a fine wargame, that just doesn't interest me personally at the moment and I didn't read it thoroughly. 
• This review is of the pdf, purchased on drivethrurpg during the 2019 black friday / cyber monday sale.
• I have not read Gamma World 4e in a while, which I also purchased as a pdf on drivethrurpg at some point, but from what I vaguely remember it is more or less compatible with D&D 2e and by extension most OSR. 
• I have not played this supplement nor any version of Gamma World, although I have incorporated some elements of Gamma World into my campaigns at various points, most notably in my first Phantasmos campaign. In other words, this review is not from in-use experience, just of the book and my impressions of how it might play.

What is Gamma World?

For those of you who don't know what Gamma World is, it's a post-apocalyptic (arguably post-post-apocalyptic) science fantasy setting, arguably THE post-apocalyptic science fantasy setting. It's usually tongue in cheek, with plenty of references to the real world. You have mutants of all kinds, uplifted animals and plants, robots, and high-tech humanoids. It's Weird & Wonderful and it's a shame that it's never come close to the same level of popularity as it's sibling D&D (it was originally created by TSR and is currently owned by Wizards of the Coast). It's inspirations can be felt all over the OSR though, and even videogames like Fallout or Borderlands.

Visuals, layout, and pdf quality

Sometimes the pdfs of these older games are really low quality scans. Granted I read it on my brand new microsoft surface pro 7 which I also bought for black friday because I'm that guy, but it ran well and looked good. The text has been parsed from the page and can be searched and copied, not sure about bookmarks and stuff since I don't really bother with that anyway (I have a onenote file where I keep all my bookmarks anyway).

The layout is nice. It's simple and a little dense, but that's pretty typical of books of its era, or so it seems to me. I was pleasantly impressed by the art. It's black and white and has that old school cartoony charm, but it's well done and the designs were more interesting than I expected. Even though Gamma World is in many ways the archetypal post-apocalyptic science fantasy, I do think it has a certain unique identity of its own, and it comes through in the Gamma Knights art.

Writing and Clarity

It's a bit dense and overwritten, sometimes obfuscating important information with needless detail or getting deep into minutia or blending discussion of mechanics and setting in ways that I personally dislike. That being said, I generally found it to be well written and relatively clear. Despite the mechanics being a bit more fiddly than I'd like, they do a good job of explaining how it all works and making it make intuitive sense. All of the parts of the power armors are explained, with light mechanical explanation, before really getting into the meat of things, which I think was smart. That being said, I would have preferred if they had included an even higher-level overview, very briefly explaining all the parts and how the power armors work in one concise section, maybe a few paragraphs at most.

Mechanics

The mechanics of the power armors are a little more fiddly than I'd like, but I'm intrigued. A lot of the faux-realism fiddlyness can be easily ignored, and most of the mechanical fiddlyness that is there seems logical and fun. While I generally prefer rules-light games that stay out of my way and don't pack all that my character can do in a tight build, I do like to "build" a mech, and it's a nice way to differentiate mechs / power armors from regular play.

They provide a reasonable number of pre-made power armors (Standard Armor Suits) which can be used as a good point of reference. They don't explicitly have a section for different power armor chassis which seems weird, but one can simple take the chassis of the pre-made power armors and re-spec the slots.

The power armors have a base AC and a number of slots, for head, left arm, right arm, front plate, back plate, left leg, and right leg. Certain mods (I don't think they ever provide a specific terminology for all gear so I'm calling them mods, but I could be misremembering) can only be placed in certain locations, and also any given mod must be able to fit within the entirety of that location (e.g. a mod that requires three slots can't be placed on the back plate if there are only two slots left). In addition, most mods require power, so the power armor must have quantum processing units (QPCs) to power those parts. A power armor doesn't need to have enough QPCs to power all their mods at once, they can switch them on and off. The slots system is exactly what I want from a mech supplement, and the power part at first seemed like the kind of thing I'd find annoying, but actually the impracticality of having all mods powered at once, and having to think about when to switch them on and off, actually seems like it could be fun and not just fiddlyness for the sake of fiddlyness.

Tables

While there are some useful tables in the back, and also for the mods for each section, there is annoyingly not a section where all the mods tables are collected together. Also, while the pre-made power armors include the location and power demand of each mod, they don't include the number of slots for each mod. Maybe it was a formatting thing that they couldn't fit it, but it's very annoying that it's not there. This issue with the tables is probably my single biggest issue with the book, but even so it's not too bad, it just could be better. Note that the tables at the front of the book are for the wargame, not the RPG (or at least, so I can tell...).

The "Mods"

The mods are broken into sensors, which generally provide sensory and attack bonuses, defensive options which provide defensive bonuses and healing/repair, weapons (melee, ranged, missile, grenade), locomative assist options which give movement bonuses, and strength enhancements which provide unarmed damage bonuses and increased carrying capacity.

The mods are all surprisingly interesting, both in terms of flavor and mechanics. The autosurgeon defensive option seems to predict research in neuroimmunology that I don't think existed yet when this book was written. There are multiple kinds of force fields and they have various benefits and flaws and counterbalances that all seem tactically interesting and evoke a sense of being in a power armor. As do the mechanics for computer systems and computer-assisted actions. The weapons are also surprisingly interesting; the flavor text for the Mark XII Blaster elevates it to something more than just a generic scifi gun.

All of that being said, this all seems like the kind of thing that could just... not work. Like, it reads well on the page and sounds interesting, but in practice I could see it being really difficult to plan for as a GM, difficult to keep track of as a player, and slow down combat or any tactical maneuvering to a boring crawl, like the grating of rusting metal plates against each other. I don't think I can say for sure without trying. If nothing else, it's all inspiring.

So What Do I Think About Gamma Knights?

If nothing else, it was an entertaining and inspiring read, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in incorporating power armors into their OSR game. They suggest that power armors should be rare and limited within the Gamma World setting, but this begs to be at the center of a campaign. Given how powerful the power armors are, one could easily scale up these power armors into mechs, without even necessarily touching the mechanics, besides maybe just units of measurement for movements.

I am skeptical about whether or not some of the mechanics like the force fields or computers would actually be fun, but they're also some of the more interesting ideas. However, if nothing else, this book makes me want to play / run a Gamma Knights game, or at least make a power armor / mech OSR or TNT hack inspired by this, but stripped down. If you've played this or have read it and have thoughts of your own, please let me know! I hope this review inspires others to check it out and give it a shot, or make something like it.

Four "10 Monster Settings"

I really liked the idea of this challenge by 3toadstools and decided I'd take a go at this! #tenmonstersetting

TL;DR Setting 2 and setting 4 are my favorites, but let me know what you think!

So I've decided I'm going to do a few of these, each using bestiaries from different games. I wanted games that are somewhat Kitchen Sink fantasy, but with some kind of twist, and then develop a new setting with a more narrow focus. For any given setting, I roll a random number to pick a monster (with possibly some vetos), and try to assign it to a role from the below list, and if I can't figure out how to make any available role fit without radically changing the monster, then scroll through until I find the next best fit.

This list is based on Chris Hall's suggestion in the linked 3toadstools post, except that rather than mythological being specific to monsters from real-world mythology, instead I'm interpreting it as being that the monster must fit into some kind of metaphysical, mythological, or divine aspect of the setting.

There are a few bestiaries in particular that I love, but that feel already so unique, or so singular or cohesive in their vision, that I didn't think it made sense to use them for this challenge (as much as I would have liked to). Those include (but are not limited to) Fire on the Velvet Horizon, Veins of the Earth, and Lusus Naturae.

Also, I really wanted to do a scifi setting, but none of the scifi books I own seem to have actual bestiaries :(. Most of the enemies are just humanoids, or random roll tables, which I think makes sense for a spacefaring campaign especially, but is still a little disappointing. Any suggestions for a scifi bestiary would be appreciated!

Since I couldn't find a scifi bestiary to my liking and already did two science fantasy settings, I decided to compromise and do a fourth setting with elements from Gamma World, Spelljammer, and the Gith from Planescape / Forgotten Realms. Given that the other two science fantasy settings lean more on the fantasy side, I figure one leaning on the scifi side would be novel enough.

In addition to picking 10 monsters based on the list below, I also explain why I chose the bestiaries that I did, provide a brief description of the setting, and then a more detailed setting description after the monster lists.

In a few cases, I included additional creatures besides just what I rolled for, but I tried to keep it all fairly tight in scope.

Semi-intelligent humanoid:
Undead:
Ancient Fey:
Giant/Ogre/Troll:
Great Wyrm / Lizard:
Aerial:
Lurks in the Water:
Extradimensional:
Mythological:
Foul Crawly Underworld Thing:


Setting 1: Dying Zothique
Source: Ninth World Bestiary 1, Ninth World Bestiary 2
Inspiration: I love the cypher system and the numenera setting. I think it's a really cool kitchen-sink science fantasy setting, but if there's one complaint I have, it's that it's just a little too unfocused. I don't necessarily mind it in the sense that I only run my own settings anyway, so it's more a toolbox for inspiration, but I think the lack of any kind of cohesion or through-line arguably keeps it from being a "classic" setting, even if it's intentionally done that way so that GMs can make their own through-lines. So I attempted to remedy that here by coming up with a more narrow setting using elements from the Ninth World Bestiaries.
Brief Description: Even further in the future of Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique Cycle, a Stonepunk world that has basically devolved into the stone age, with some technomagical artifacts of prior eras.

Semi-intelligent humanoid:  Grush (Mutated morlocks)
Undead: Rorathik (blue cloud transforms humanoids into blue Predator-like super-killers)
Ancient Fey: Roummos (purple insect cloud-like extra-dimensional space, reinterpreted as insectoid pixie cloud)
Giant/Ogre/Troll: Culova Protectors (Spider humanoids)
Great Wyrm / Lizard: Terror Bird (T-Rex bird)
Aerial: Navarac (Man-sized flying lizards with moth-like patterned wings and two sets of vertically-positioned black eyes around their wide, crocodile-like toothy jaws)
Lurks in the Water: Kroth (mult-legged, multi-eyed, mossy, amphibious ambush predator with sticky digestive enzyme on it's stone-like back)
Extradimensional: Erulian (floating brain with one cyclops eye and brainstem-like appendage)
Mythological: Torlethis Companion (Eel-like symbiants that give humanoids supernatural physical abilities as well as the ability to summon dazzling bursts of holy light, viewed as angel-like stigma)
Foul Crawly Underworld Thing: Jesanthum (Wildflower Panther reinterpreted as fungus)

Setting Description:

It is the far, far future, on the last habitable continent in the world, Zothique. Whereas human civilization as we know it has continually advanced, Zothique has continually regressed. Once a technological wonder, little by little it receded, into a superstitious world of swords and sorcery, and eventually to little more than stones and savagery.

There is a tear in the fabric of the world, where things from another universe leak into our own like a diffusive membrane. The tear brings with it life energy that had been lost in Zothique, and so massive dinosaur-like creatures and other monstrosities of life have evolved. The amphibious kroth lurk in the primordial swamps, the jesanthum packs stalk the caves and dark places, the navarac scout in the skies, and much of humanity has split off into the monstrous, mutated grush and other abhumans. Worst of all are the terror birds, like the T-Rex of the far ancient past. For as dangerous as the world is, for as out-classed as humanity has become, there is life, at least, something which had been thought long lost in the world of Zothique.

Then, there are the outsiders. The roummos, the insectoid manifestation of the tear itself, a purple pixie cloud of life energy and mutation, are the triggers of primal fear, like the spiders and serpents of the past. Those who do not flee become rorathik; blue-skinned monstrous abhumans with four-pronged jaws filled with rows of teeth, the ultimate hunter-killers, mind-controlled by the floating extra-dimensional cyclops brains known as the erulians.

Most of the surviving humanity is at the mercy of nature and those from outside, surviving as psychic-slaves to the erulians, or at the mercy of the culova protectors; hulking, cunning but simple-minded, predatory spider-men that spare humanity, at the cost of the occasional sacrifice.

And then there are the wizard-kind, those blessed with a torlethis companion. While some believe that these eel-like symbiants that provide supernatural physical abilities and dazzling powers of holy light, are themselves outsiders, this is considered taboo. Humanity believes in the altruism of the companions, because they must, if they have any hope of surviving, and those blessed are revered as heroes and demi-gods. Whereas most humans wield crude stone, the wizard-kind have the innate ability to carve and smooth the stones, to channel magical abilities through them, and slowly they work to bring civilization back to humanity.


Setting 2: Record of Machine War
Source: Anima Beyond Fantasy: Those Who Walked Amongst Us
Inspiration: Unfortunately, this system is no longer available on drivethrurpg, but if I remember correctly, it was an interesting collaboration between a Spanish creator and a Japanese creator. The game itself wasn't really to my tastes, waaay too crunchy, but the setting was very interesting, with a rich and politically-oriented mythology. It's kind of a science-fantasy setting, but much less overtly than Numenera. Anima felt consistent to me with Japanese versions of western medieval fantasy, where it has some of the tropes of traditional fantasy, but isn't afraid to put its own spin on things, add its own ideas, or randomly throw in science fiction elements.
Brief Description: Gothic horror science fantasy, somewhat inspired by the Diablo videogames, but could also be compared to Castlevania. There are heavenly and demonic factions, including a "second-wave" of fallen angels, and the factions are all morally ambiguous. I imagine it as being a medieval-esque setting, but could also work as a modern surrealist urban fantasy thing as well.

Semi-intelligent humanoid: Children of Baal (bat-like humanoids who have passed through the Gate of Hell)
Undead: Type-005 (alchemically enhanced super-zombies with bone weapons)
Ancient Fey: Shinigami (valkyries of hell)
Giant/Ogre/Troll: Humbaba (monstrous stone golems connected by floating rocks with long horns and spikes)
Great Wyrm / Lizard: Lord of the Dead / Beast of Beleth (draconic-demonic skeletons with humanoid head, scythe-appendages, sharp ankh-like tale, long horns, covered in spikes)
Aerial: Globe Frog (basketball-sized green and blue frog-like creatures with lizard wings that can inflate their belly to take flight)
Lurks in the Water: Balzak (ancient amphibious reptilian humanoids with chitinous plates, frond-like appendages on their backs, and elongated, creepy, mask-like faces)
Extradimensional: Etrian Gnosis (swirling black void with many arms and a glowing blue-indigo eye at the center)
Mythological: Praetorian (angelic insectoid cyborgs created by the queen bee-like Machine God)
Foul Crawly Underworld Thing: Lapsia (spider-flowers)

Setting Description: 

The All Father had many children, long before humanity, but his favored son was not one of his creation, but one adopted by his primordial foes. Loki the frost giant, Loki the trickster, Loki the cunning.

Loki, who defied the All Father, who gave humanity wit, and knowledge. Loki, who taught humanity the ways of fire.

Loki, who went to war with All Father, perhaps justly, but nonetheless failed. Loki, ruling the netherworld in his incarnation Hela, who threatens the tree of life with knowledge in his incarnation Jormungandr, who taught humanity the strength of social order in his incarnation Fenris.

The humans have all but eradicated the Frost Giants, and Loki's demons, and the beasts. They war now with the balzak, the amphibians of the swamplands, worthless to humanity except for extraction of magical essence. Their globe frogs and lapsia flower creations a guerrilla nuisance more than anything else. They hunt the remaining humbaba golems left behind by the Frost Giants for sport. Loki's remaining lords of the dead in the middle realm, the Beasts of Beleth, are the only true opponents to human civilization left (here be dragons).

Meanwhile, all is not well in heaven. Athena, the favored of All Father's children after the fall of Loki, the goddess of craft and wisdom, showed such promise. As sharp as Loki, but decidedly slower, and contemplative. Only once, Athena overstepped, she built a machine she could not control. It was supposed to be a gate to the netherworld, an attempt to open communication with Loki and bring peace to the lower and higher realms. Instead, she opened the gate to the Null, the Etrian Gnosis. Her soul was sucked from her physical vessel, into the vacuum of Null, leaving her little more than a cold, heartless machine.

And so now Athena, the inadvertent Machine Goddess, lives only to replicate, to spread homogeneity, to craft war for its own sake, for the base thrill of destruction, to fill the absence of soul with hot animal urges, underneath her cold metal exterior. She has come to the middle realm, a true threat humanity is not prepared for. She reanimates the dead with her alchemically enhanced Type-005 bio-machine zombies. Her angelic, insectoid praetorians are harbingers of destruction, every bit a match for the Beasts of Beleth.

Loki, seeing the carnage, has reopened Baal, the gate of hell, flooding the world with Baal's demonic children, and the shinigami death valkyries, to revel in the carnage.

Clearly out-classed, some believe it would behoove humanity to discuss an alliance with Loki, who must also be threatened by the Machine Goddess. Of course, Loki is known for his arrogance, in addition to his cunning, and would likely take offense at the claim that he could only defeat the Machine Goddess with the assistance of humanity. And of course, there are still many humans who do not believe in peace, who seek to continue to war with the balzak even as Loki's devils return and the Machine Goddess brings metal terror to the middle realm. Will arrogance and violence be the hubris of the organic and divine alike, or will cool heads prevail?


Setting 3: Oceans & Orkas
Source: Zweihander
Inspiration: I wanted at least one setting that felt a little more rooted in traditional fantasy (even if it's really more so rooted specifically in Warhammer). The system is a bit too crunchy for my tastes, although seems functional enough, and the setting was more interesting than I expected it to be, but warhammer / 40K has always impressed me whenever I dig into it.
Brief Description: Despite the fact that I chose Zweihander to do a more traditional fantasy setting, I actually think Record of Machine War ended up fitting that bill already, and with these monsters, I thought it made more sense to do more of a pre-industrial naval / pirate fantasy setting. I'm imagining the main human kingdom being like the Spanish or Portuguese. Despite leaning into the fantasy of naval travel, the world is still Grim & Perilous in Warhammer / Zweihander fashion.

Semi-intelligent humanoid: Kobold Fanatic (goblin assassins)
Undead: Havoc Conjurer (abyssal, infernal humanoids in black robes)
Ancient Fey: Fomori Huscarl (chitinous humanoids with insect mandibles and cyclopean eyes)
Giant/Ogre/Troll: Bog Thing / Grey Men (mossy swamp monsters)
Great Wyrm / Lizard: Hydra (giant many-headed fire-breathing reptiles)
Aerial: Air Sylph (insectoid pixies)
Lurks in the Water: Siabra (reptilian sea-elves)
Extradimensional: Tlaloc (technomagically advanced frog-men)
Mythological: Zoatar (gorilla-centaurs, an ancient people that have mostly passed on to the Overworld)
Foul Crawly Underworld Thing: Filthy Nightmare (massive slug-like creatures wreathed in flies)

Setting Description:

While the kingdom itself prospers, the commoners do not. Crime is rampant, and one must be harsh in order to survive. Whether seeking the riches of the oceans for a better life, or conscripted against their will, many choose to abandon the land, serving as sailors or privateers working nominally to better the kingdom.

In the open oceans, they face pirates (or become pirates themselves), the monstrous orkas and their unassuming, serpentine kobold fanatic companions, and the Wild Hunt of the siabra, the dark elves of the sea.

They face other threats as well, like the insectoid swarms of air sylphs in migration, the massive sea slug monsters known as filthy nightmares that portend the outbreak of disease, the chitinous monster-men of the depths known as the fomori, their huscarl warriors, and the abyssal havoc conjurers that harness the geothermal power of deep ocean infernos, servants of Mother Hydra and King Dagon, the god-royalty of the fomori and all creatures of the depths.

So far the kingdom has only claimed one island colony, on the other side of the world. They continue to struggle against the threats of nature on the island, like the bog things and grey men of the swamps, or the native tribes of zoatar. However, the nearby continent is the home of the tlaloc, technomagically advanced frog-men, who do not take kindly to the encroaching apes from across the ocean...


Setting 4: Song of Astralad (Song of the Astral War)
Source: Gamma World 4e, Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix I, Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix II
Inspiration: I wanted a true scifi bestiary but couldn't find a good one, and I wanted to do something with Gamma World and Spelljamers (and the Gith) but already had two science fantasy settings, so I figured I'd combine these left-overs into a more scifi-oriented science fantasy setting.
Brief Description: This is basically the Star Wars or Guardians of the Galaxy of these settings. The most significant feature is that the gith, rather than humans, are the primary species.

Semi-intelligent humanoid: Lensman (beholder humanoids with simian body, starfish-like arms and legs, tentacle sprouting from back, big eye in torso, toothy maw underneath)
Undead: Bionoid (necro-cyborg rastipede / gith hybrids)
Ancient Fey: Rastipede (intelligent insectoid-humanoids with bipedal upper body and arthropoid lower body)
Giant/Ogre/Troll: Hoop (large, monstrous rabbit-men)
Great Wyrm / Lizard: Blight (large white wyrm with draconic face and wings capable of invisibility and producing flashes of blinding / stunning light)
Aerial: Space Swine (boar griffon)
Lurks in the Water: Fens (fish-men that can transform into fish-like birds capable of space travel)
Extradimensional: Astro Sphinx (lion body, bronze scales, black bat wings, humanoid front limbs, head like a goat skull with thin layer of skin, empty eye sockets with small pupils of violet light)
Mythological: Yexil (intelligent orange-furred lion-bats with human-hand pincers at the ends of their wings, insectoid mandibles, and the ability to shoot lasers from their eyes, claim to be harbingers of the space gods)
Foul Crawly Underworld Thing: Asteroid Spider (globular body, ten legs, wormy eye-like sensory organs)

Setting Description:

The gith lost their homeworld long ago, having been taken from their world and ensalved by the illithids. Countless generations later, the physically hardened and psionically advanced gith rebelled, becoming the war-like githyanki. They freed themselves from the illithid, and built up their warships in the astral plane. Within the astral plane, civilizations harden from existential threats within crystal spheres, manifestations of their psionic will, sustained in the phlogisten aether of mind and matter.

The githyanki god-queen is an immortal necro-cyborg lich, in a political marriage to Tiamat, the multi-headed queen of red dragons (although it is an open secret that they are, in fact, deeply in love). Together they have bred the Duthka'Gith, red dragon-githyanki hybrids.

The githyanki have become slavers themselves, incorporating the psidhe (psionic fey) rastipedes into their empire, working them to death and then mutating their exoskeletons into necro-cyborg bionoid power armors.

With their army of red dragons, githyanki psych-sorcerers, bionoids, hoop and badder mercenaries, and Duthka'Gith elite troopers, the githyanki were able not only to maintain their independence, but to hunt the illithids seemingly to extinction, and conquer a galaxy-wide swath of the astral plane.

Many of the githyanki suffer under the cruelty of the empire as well, and although the god-queen clutches her empire tightly, rebellion is not unheard of. There are space smugglers, pirates, and vigilantes, who do what they can to free the astral-galaxy, riding the phlogisten waves in stealthy ships.

These rebels must fend against beasts of space such as the stalker-predator asteroid spiders, herds of aggressive space swine, murders of draconic blights, and gangs of beholder lensman.

The rebels are led by the githzerai, an order of gith monks and templars who wield the psionically-powered silver astral swords, capable of cutting the cord between living things and the aether itself.

They seek to organize the thri-keen, mortal cousins of the rastipedes, the giff, the hippopotamus people with the only military able to match the githyanki, the physically weak but hardy and mobile fish-men known as fens, and even the crimelord-slaver neogi, in order to overthrow the evil empire.

The tragedy of it all, is that for all the unforgivable things the empire has done, trapped in her phylactory is a loving, merciful soul, the soul that empowered the god-queen in the first place. Tiamat, too, is not truly evil, she simply has no context for mortal concerns. Long ago, as she first learned the concept of love from the god-queen, there was a possibility that all of dragon-kind would change for the better. But something happened, something that changed the god-queen forever, and set her down a dark path. And so Tiamat put those feelings behind her, a novelty to be forgotten.

Meanwhile, within the phlogisten aether, there is another war, between the extra-dimensional astro sphinxes and the yexil, the self-purported harbingers of the space gods, a celestial war on a scale beyond the comprehension of githyanki or giffs or any of the other phlogisten-faring peoples. If they have any hope of surviving in the middle of this war of gods, they'll need to put their own differences aside and raise a unifying crystal sphere of pure psionic love.