Breadth of Popsanity: Killer Plants - Maximum Frondage - Part 3 of 3

Aspects of Killer Plants:

The main reason I have been compiling plants is to find what overall aspects are defined.

Alien and the Unknown: One of the things I noticed as looking over the various killer plants is they represent the alien and the unknown. The lion's share of killer plants from myth seems to come from explorers diving off the map and running into something unexpected. This makes them fairly alien as they usually don't have a magical aspect in this regard, but something definable. Hence why I consider them alien, but familiar.

Focal point of the Ecosystem: While there are exceptions, plants are pretty much responsible for life. Their ability to generate oxygen is the main reason we live. This can be subverted in your killer plant as they will have an effect on the area merely for existing.

Guardians: Often Killer plants are guardians of some sort. Whether it's something as protecting a castle, tomb or chest, or more esoteric as "mother nature's revenge." Somebody did something wrong, even if it was invading their territory, and this is a reaction from a higher power that can not be defined. Other times its essentially done by a crazy gardener who wants you off their lawn. Knowing who did it really can help define why the killer plant was grown.

Instinctual: Killer plants are usually not smart. If they aren't merely a straight instinctual action, they are usually about as smart as a dumb animal with the truly intelligent ones being the exceptions.

Relationship Gone Wrong: Killer Plants represent a change in a relationship. Normally plants are passive, is the provider of oxygen, food and building materials. Killer Plants upset this relationship by being active and a threat. Instead of being devoured, they become the devourer. This is also increased by when a plant takes over an animal or insect and turns it into a minion, slave or zombie.

Slow: Even when animated, plants don't generally move at the same speed as animals. Often they are rooted in place and when they move, it's time-consuming.

Sturdy: Many plants are very sturdy and are composed of the material that is ether tougher than their animal counterpart or more tensile. Nutshells, tightly knit vines or roots, or good old fashion wood

How Plants Attack

I'm using this as a means to list ideas of how killer plants attack in order to make yours more interesting.

Branches/Vines: These are easily the most common attacks in fiction. Branches are often just a simple battering attack, but vines constrict and often have a strangling aspect. Vines have been used as a "jaws of life" to rip apart a vehicle, not unlike a can opener.

Combustible: Plants are usually susceptible to fire. However, some plants use fire as a means to reproduce. It's not that hard of a stretch to get a plant that has an immediate reaction if burned.

Digestive Enzymes: Plants don't have stomachs as a rule, so they instead break prey down with digestive enzymes, not unlike an insect. This can easily justify some sort of acid attack.

Nuts/Pine cones: In nature, nuts and pine cones can be fired to grow another tree. In fiction, it has the velocity of a weapon. It can be stimulated by action, movement or even fire.

Pheromones: Plants can attract/repel creatures with pheromones released from it. This often creates symbiotic relationships with other creatures like bees and flowers, but it can be subverted as a means to attract prey with killer plants.

Pollen: Many plants use this to generate future generations and anybody who's had a hay fever day. It is a great way to give a killer plant an attack that causes sneezing and choking, and may even be poisonous.

Solar Energy: Plants live from photosynthesis and it's not that hard a stretch for the killer plant to focus this energy into a laser-like weapon.

Toxins: This is one of the most common defense mechanisms in the real world. Many plants are toxic to varying degrees in order to ensure they won't be eaten. It's not that far of a stretch to make it venomous by giving it a delivery system. It can often be farmed by local populations for hunting or war

Spikes: From Cacti to Ironwood, many plants are naturally spiked and it's not that far a stretch to have them swing it at a target. It can be used to simulate jaws if designed in a specific way.

Other Ideas:

How plants are intelligent?

I would probably handwave it, but it’s not that hard a stretch to assume that their internal cord is lined with the plant equivalent of neurons.

Another idea is to make them sentient, but only when their flowers bloom, thus creating a seasonal sentience.

Perhaps one plant isn’t smart, but a group of trees has interlocking roots creating a communication field that spawns intelligence.

(NERDS!)

Plant Mobility

Most plants do not move at a speed that is interesting, but it’s fun to extrapolate how they would move. The most common is to assume their roots are able to be uprooted and it simply walks or runs. They might even pull themselves into the roots and travel into the ground.

If it does move far, it may need to return to being planted to “rest” as it hasn’t eaten all day (carnivorous plants aside).

Mobility is more common amongst their seeds. Sometimes they use the wind dispersal system (ranging from gliding, spinning, helicopters that spin) that allow their seeds to fly further, and it’s not much of a stretch to treat them as full-fledged flight. Some are propelled by fire so could be extrapolated by monster design to have a plant monster with essentially chemically propelled rockets. Perhaps they are almost parasite like and burr onto a target and then take them over.

Water plants may end up having tentacle-like roots and/or an organic sail to use the weather to travel.

Plants as Traps

If you are using a killer plant, but it's not a key aspect, treat it as a trap, rather then a monster.

Use survival instead of thief tools and suddenly your ranger feels way more useful.

Dark Revelations – the Role Playing Game.

When we wanted to use plants, we wanted them to be different. One of our greatest monsters is that of the Damnation Eater. It is a large mobile vine that is the garden between earth and adjacent realms. Fiends fear this monster as it will consume its essence not allowing it to return to its respective realm upon death.

However, what is noteworthy when compared to standard myth is we decided that plants would have a psychic component. In the northern parts of Canada, there is a race known as the Harvesters that can best be described as evil mastermind farmers (even if they look somewhat like humanoid zucchinis). Highly intelligent and masters at manipulating genetic material, they grow the majority of plants monsters for their own purposes. These are known as Treannials.

We also wanted to originally test out the 3rd edition rules and allowed plant pcs. Besides Harvesters being allowed as player characters), we also have a race known as stumpies. Imagine sentient, stubborn tree folk that look like a sentient tree stump.