Well, I'd like a drepnir (an eight legged horse, some variations have wings, horns, claws and fangs), the badger for a project I've been doing, a big cat, a white raven, a virile bull. I'm not sure what the market is like. I've seen one raven, a few cats, no drepnirs, a steer or two ... But I really like your monsters -- heck, I've got five renders of the Nightguant on line as I type. I've got more to get done. ( http://adrr.com/story/demons.htm to see what I've got to finish up yet). Hmm, I'd better upload the update now.

Oh, and my assumption with any animals that you do is that they would be slightly stylized, kind of like the humans are, and that part of what one is paying for is the je ne sais quois of a Sixus1 product.

drepnir? :ahem: So what is a drepnir? Sleipnir is the name of Odin's 8-legged horse. It is a singularly specific animal, not a species. Loki (a male god and major troublemaker) got pregnant and produced 3 monsters... Sleipnir, Fenrir, and the Midgard Serpent. Aside from the 8 legs and a speed like the wind, Sleipnir has no other oddities. (No fangs, no horns, no claws, no wings.) Sleipnir was fertile (unlike many singular monsters) and is the ancestor of Grani (Sigurd's horse, who had the courage to jump through a wall of magical fire). Draupnir is Odin's ring (again singular), magical, cursed, got from a dwarf hoard... yeah, and you can trace the ancestry from Volsunga Saga to Nibelungenleid to Wagner's Ring cycle to Tolkien's One Ring to Bind Them All... and a thousand years from now someone will spin a tale of a cursed ring which causes all to lust after it.... So, knowing this, what IS a drepnir? We'll just have to invent one: a magical golden 8-legged steed which runs in a circle chewing its own tail, and every ninth night, it drops 8 other little golden steeds. :wide evil grin: Carolly

Actually, I think Les could make great poser versions of creatures from the Edgar Rice Burroughs "Martian Series" A Thoat, Banth, 4 armed green man, and Great white ape of mars would be quite nifty...

A drepnir is a creature that comes up in the Runequest Grandfather Horse theme. It is the horse that Inora, the White Goddess, chased from the Hill of Gold to her thane and is part of the Hill of Gold Cycle for the White Princess. Grandfather Horse, of course, lost his fangs, claws, wings, extra legs and horn in various encounters, and those who escaped or recaptured parts of him have honrs, wings, extra legs, etc. Anyway, I use the drepnir as a magical species, but I've been involved with Stafford and Runequest/Heroquest since the 70s and you will find my name splashed across credits for all sorts of Chaosium products. Cheers, Stephen http://adrr.com/hero/

Oh, I'm also the same Steve Marsh that was involved with TSR, and the various Planes of Reality materials are finally going on auction. To quote the guy factoring them for me ... The auction is going to launch next Sunday at 8:30 CST. There are currently 27 lots and perhaps more will result from subdivisions of material. I'd like to have a chat with you one night this week, Tuesday or Thursday night works well for me after 8:00 PM. I just have a few more questions for you about Mistworld, Cupric Text, and Verdigris Testament. Here is a sample of the Authentication letter I'll be mailing for you to sign (comment if you wish): ****************** ****************** Buyer, The ___________________________________________________ you now possess comes from the collection of Stephen R. Marsh. These items were acquired during the last 30 years of Stephen's involvement in RPG design and development, one year of that time spent as an employee of TSR, the company that founded the roleplaying game industry. Stephen began working on his own FRPG as early as 1969 in Las Vegas as a side note to the military boardgames he was playing. What followed was a series of eminent contributions to the RPG industry. His early correspondence with Gary Gygax gave us materials on the Elemental Plane of Water (which became the underwater encounter section of Blackmoor) specifically sahuagin, ixitxachitl, catoblepas, and many more marine beasties, created a plane traveling character class (the mystic, which became the psionic powers in Eldritch Wizardry), came up with the concept of the good-evil gloss on the alignment system, and introduced the model of the planes of reality. He also designed TSR's first minigame, Saga, helped playtest several modules and TSR's Star Frontiers roleplaying game, and was the lead editor on the D&D Expert Set. Perhaps Stephen's most significant TSR RPG work was a proposed new AD&D hardcover, The Planes of Existence. Co-written and co-designed with Gary Gygax in the late 70's and early 80's this was meant to be the original rulebook for running adventures in the multitudinous planes of existence. Also, the two collaborated on a series of adventures set in the Outer Planes. Sadly, Gygax was forced out of TSR in 1986 and all projects he was involved with were terminated and the RPG world was poorer because of it. Steve also participated in the development and playtesting of several non-TSR RPG's, including, Heroquest, and American Gothic, ultimately becoming Call of Cthulhu. His further contributions include the design of the original specialist magic-users, acid-based mages, and other elemental, some Hero Games approaches to using Champions-based rules for fantasy gaming (which resulted in official credits in early editions), and the D&D adaptation for Thieves World. He is also know for his prolific contributions to the classic fanzines, Alarums and Excursions and The Wild Hunt. Stephen's oft unheralded but groundbreaking designs and concepts are woven through the very fabric of D&D, AD&D, and the RPG industry as a whole. A fine legacy indeed. Now you have the opportunity to be a curator of a portion of this legacy, care for it well and enjoy! Authorized Auction Agent, Paul J. Stormberg

:chuckle: I know Gregg. And Steve Perrin (and his wife). I've gamed with Steve. I've also gamed with George MacDonald and most of the guys involved with the Hero system. I've gamed with a lot of the guys from TSR. I've also gamed under (gasp) Arduin rules with half the crew from that system, but not, alas, Dave himself. I've role-played since 1978 (D&D), but prefer to game master under Hero System. I've made my own worlds. You'll find *my* name on the AD&D Core Rules Vol 1 CDROM (a couple hundred inventory items). One of the reasons I was chosen to do the inventory items is that I'm a stickler for authenticity. You'll also find my name listed as artist and designer on a few dozen other games and game products over the last 15 years. My degree (with honors) is a Special Projects Major in Early Scandinavian Culture. I don't mind people raiding my cultural background, as long as they know what they are doing. Carolly Hauksdottir

Neat. Greg Stafford's blog is interesting, the sudden change to teaching English as a second language was a trip. The "real" Steve Martin has been a good steward in Greg's absence (and isn't a bad house guest either). I'm not familiar with the CDROM, but I flow in and out of TSR stuff with Gary, old alliances die hard. Do you know Scott Bennie? I really liked his Hero Games material, not to mention the Fenris Wolf that they did ;) Currently I play a little Runequest once in a while. I should get over to the game group more often, but with my wife's schedule and our four year old (she is almost five!), the sixteen year old and I have a hard time getting loose. Visit my stories at http://adrr.com/story/ and the RQ related material at http://adrr.com/hero/ -- I think you will like some of it. http://adrr.com/hero/wildhunt/slm005X.htm for example, is a part of a hero games scenario. Other parts include http://adrr.com/hero/wildhunt/slm0ERO.htm ( http://adrr.com/hero/wildhunt/index.htm is the index to various zines from TWH [rendered to HTML a long time ago, using an automated system that, on retrospect, sucks rocks], including the sequence that includes my Genvax Cthulhoids). Guess we are ok on the drepnir -- it was just too much fun to work into Glorantha. BTW, what is Steve Perrin doing these days? I lost track about the time I buried the first child and by the death of the third, was completely out of touch with he and his wife. Life goes on, I'm glad to have found 'rosity and Sixus1.

Should have given you Greg's blog http://www.weareallus.com/ Mine is at: http://ethesis.blogspot.com/