PROTOSTARS!

It's been a while since the last PROTOSTAR! so here's another blog I think deserves many more followers than it has, a blog with a simple concept but a very high quality.

It's A Field Guide To Doomsday, home of some very odd creatures, designed for Mutant Future, but excellent inspiration for any setting in terms of likely characteristics.

The blog is mostly one pulp mutant per post, often a hybrid of existing creatures. Especially interesting for me - although admittedly rather horrific - are the mantipede, shockroach and brainwhale, perhaps for seeming just a little more believable.

Another good generic idea, for all kinds of fictional settings, and one I assume is less of a hybrid, is the dunestrider.

The verman is something - or maybe someone - Warhammer fans might recognise as a distant relative of a Skaven, while the labwrath both of them would want to watch out for.

Here's one of the posts which break this pattern, one for the modellers in particular, featuring a girantula made almost real. The 'Designer's notes' tag has more on good sources.

The latest post is also in this vein, a couple of links on real-life apocalyptic scenarios and contamination. Here's a quote from the first of the two, an article in The New York Times:

"It is a very grim read," Mr. Younkins said. "This is for potentially very grim situations in which difficult decisions have to be made."

That, beyond the vivid colours, is a A Field Guide To Doomsday too.


The earlier PROTOSTARS! are also well worth a visit.

• ix
• Confessions of a 40K addict
• Super Galactic Dreadnought
• Fire Broadside!
• Blighty Waaagh Boys, including the intro to the series 

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