Brain Collectors - Predacious Scholar, Scholastic Predator

Abaldo staggered away in horror as the immense bulk of the abomination became clear, skittering towards him slowly on crab-like legs. Its unblinking eyes regarded him as one might regard an insect on a pin as tentacles around its face writhed and strange mounds on its body pulsated. To the swordsman's amazement, he heard a voice, or more precisely a chorus of differently pitched voices speaking as one, "Cease thy confusion, small one, this body seeks knowledge. Before thou dost become one with us, utter thy emotional state. 'Tis for the purposes of research."


Brain-collectors is what they have been dubbed by the adventurous souls who have encountered them and lived, and by the more down-to-earth scholars. In their own language (utterly untranslateable) they are neh-thalggu.

Research and experience has shown that the personality (if it can be called that) of a collector seems to vary with each telling. Some survivors describe them as ravenous beasts, desperate for cranial sustenance, whereas some texts speak of them in terms that depict them more as explorers and investigators, a perverse mirror perhaps for the human adventurers they encounter.

It has been theorised that the more bestial specimens are juveniles, whereas the more erudite are elder individuals. The truth is unknown.

Into the Odd stats

STR 20 , DEX 16, WIL 19, hp 5d6+10, Armour 1

Attacks for 2d6 damage.

Brain-collectors have a terrifying power; they are able to use the brains they hold as Arcana. Each brain grants the neh-thalggu a random Arcana power of no greater level than the number of brains plus 10.

Artist Focus - Terry Dykstra

Watch it, Frodo...

Get out of my shared imaginative space, get into my chariot







A proud banner-waver of the facial hair tradition of D&D.

Now, Dykstra seems to get a fair bit of stick from some people online. I must confess that I don't like some of his work, but I can say that about luminaries like Brom and DiTerlizzi as well.

Terry Dykstra's art provided my first exposure to the D&D game. The elf opposite manages to be beautiful and bad-ass (even if she is the super-short D&D elf). The halfling conveys that although he's not a fat hobbit, he's still not the greatest warrior.



Dykstra (or the art director for the Rules Cyclopedia) is to be applauded for the racial variety therein. That and super-hot thief chicks.

It ain't D&D without face fungus

Yes, your player is 14 years old

Now, the more po-faced grognards despise this picture, and yet I see laments day after day for more humour in the D&D game "like the old days". Seems you can't win. Well, anyway, it made me chuckle.

Nerd-Rage of the Rakasta

Just to get it out of the way, I'm talking about these guys:

Mystaran cat-dude chillin'

NOT these guys:

Evil tiger-spirit in the Temple of Doom

The rakasta first appeared riding their sabre tooth cats in X1 The Isle of Dread, and have become one of those breakout hits of D&D (albeit in a niche manner). They went on to get their own moon kingdom (Japanese inspired) orbiting the world of Mystara (the Known World and Hollow World of BECMI), as well as a kingdom on the Savage Coast (a Merrie Olde England parody). They have gone from B/X to BECMI to AD&D 2E and still have many fans online. Why am I going on about them?

Polyhedron 101. Roger E. Moore wrote a short article brainstorming an OA campaign set on the rakasta moon of Myoshima. It was a really fun thought experiment and although some people despise anthropomorphic animal characters, I think they can be interesting if done well.

Can I get the rakasta (or some very similar being with a name change) into my work on "OA for LL"? Just maybe.