Summon Berserker: What do you get?

One of the kids in the kid’s campaign has this spell, so why not a list?

This started out marginally serious, wanting to be swords & sorcery & planets, but quickly took a turn for the goofy with cartoon/game/movie references.

  1. Common Vikings - horned helmet, leather, axes, beards, attitudes

  2. 9 foot tall green men - 4 arms, large tusks exuding from their lower jaws, fluted ears atop their heads

  3. 8 foot tall long-furred humanoids, a metallic sash across their chests

  4. Thick-muscled lizardmen with shiny silver eyes

  5. Humanoids in silver-fabric suits, with spherical round helmets. Golden faceplates obscure their features. Thick silver gloves and clunky boots spattered with a fine grey dust.

  6. Silent men in armor made from whole bones of various types.

  7. Bright blue men wielding long white tubes in each hand.

  8. Bearded men in khaki fabric and pith helmets, harrumphing at the apparent non-functionality of their metal-tube handled clubs, though they seem to swing fine.

  9. White-armored and helmeted troopers.

  10. Squat, armored men with impossibly wide, bald heads, and seemingly no neck.

  11. Cat-headed humanoids of various types; lions, panthers, etc; in harness

  12. Ridge-headed humanoids in leather; wielding a large crescent blade with handholds on the back

  13. A group of 4 persons greatly resembling 4 people in the caster’s party; but in fancier armor and clothes, and with well-groomed facial hair, if the party member it resembles is male and is clean-shaven (or cleanshaven if the party member is not)

  14. Thin lizardmen with rubbery skin and enormous black eyes

  15. Blue suited and helmeted humans, stylized red cobra on their chests.

  16. Long-clawed sloths which walk like men.

  17. Upright-walking insects resembling ants.

  18. Gaunt, blackskinned creatures with featureless oblong heads and a viciously fanged mouth dripping sizzling ichor.

  19. Potbellied, rat-faced creatures with membranous wings stretching between their arms and torsos.

  20. Pig-snouted, tusked, overmuscled green men with tusks and mohawks

  21. Hirsute, toga-wearing men with bestial faces and a single horn growing from their forehead

  22. Wild-eyed men in bamboo reed armor, poles with garish flags strapped to their backs.

  23. Intelligent looking, large-skulled grey apes in harness.

  24. Bipedel fungus, painted in pastel warpaints.

  25. 8 foot tall blue cat-men with prehensile tails, in harness.

  26. Humanoid in plate armor, with round glowing blue eyeholes in their helmet. Moves stiffly with slight mechanical noises.

  27. Clockwork men made of various low-value metals - copper, tin, etc.

  28. Confused, average looking human males in fake-looking armor wielding blunt weapons.

  29. A warrior bedecked in crimson armor, a valkyrie armored in azure, a dagger-wielding man in green leathers, and a golden robed elder with a staff. The warrior looks peckish.

  30. Men in black leathers wielding large, garishly bladed axes; with black-and-white facepaint.

OMG! Awesome. Tried to figure out the references.

  1. 9 foot tall green men - 4 arms, large tusks exuding from their lower jaws, fluted ears atop their heads - GREEN MARTIANS

  2. 8 foot tall long-furred humanoids, a metallic sash across their chests - WOOKIES

  3. Thick-muscled lizardmen with shiny silver eyes - GORN

  4. Humanoids in silver-fabric suits, with spherical round helmets. Golden faceplates obscure their features. Thick silver gloves and clunky boots spattered with a fine grey dust. - NASA ASTRONAUTS

  5. Silent men in armor made from whole bones of various types. - ???

  6. Bright blue men wielding long white tubes in each hand. - ???

  7. Bearded men in khaki fabric and pith helmets, harrumphing at the apparent non-functionality of their metal-tube handled clubs, though they seem to swing fine. - VICTORIAN EXPLORERS

  8. White-armored and helmeted troopers. - STORM TROOPERS

  9. Squat, armored men with impossibly wide, bald heads, and seemingly no neck. - WARHAMMER SPACE MARINES

  10. Cat-headed humanoids of various types; lions, panthers, etc; in harness - ISLE OF DREAD RAKASTA?

  11. Ridge-headed humanoids in leather; wielding a large crescent blade with handholds on the back - KLINGON?

  12. A group of 4 persons greatly resembling 4 people in the caster’s party; but in fancier armor and clothes, and with well-groomed facial hair, if the party member it resembles is male and is clean-shaven (or cleanshaven if the party member is not) - ???

  13. Thin lizardmen with rubbery skin and enormous black eyes - ???

  14. Blue suited and helmeted humans, stylized red cobra on their chests. - GI JOE

  15. Long-clawed sloths which walk like men. - ???

  16. Upright-walking insects resembling ants.- ???

  17. Gaunt, blackskinned creatures with featureless oblong heads and a viciously fanged mouth dripping sizzling ichor. - ALIENS

  18. Potbellied, rat-faced creatures with membranous wings stretching between their arms and torsos. - ???

  19. Pig-snouted, tusked, overmuscled green men with tusks and mohawks - GAMORREAN GUARDS

  20. Hirsute, toga-wearing men with bestial faces and a single horn growing from their forehead - ???

  21. Wild-eyed men in bamboo reed armor, poles with garish flags strapped to their backs. - ???

  22. Intelligent looking, large-skulled grey apes in harness. - ???

  23. Bipedel fungus, painted in pastel warpaints. - ???

  24. 8 foot tall blue cat-men with prehensile tails, in harness. - ???

  25. Humanoid in plate armor, with round glowing blue eyeholes in their helmet. Moves stiffly with slight mechanical noises. - ???

  26. Clockwork men made of various low-value metals - copper, tin, etc. - ???

  27. Confused, average looking human males in fake-looking armor wielding blunt weapons. - LARPers (LOL)

  28. A warrior bedecked in crimson armor, a valkyrie armored in azure, a dagger-wielding man in green leathers, and a golden robed elder with a staff. The warrior looks peckish. - GAUNTLET?

  29. Men in black leathers wielding large, garishly bladed axes; with black-and-white facepaint. - ???

Hilarious. And awesome.

Heh.

A couple aren’t references, actually.

But, now that it’s turned into a guessing game, I guess I’ll go with it :slight_smile:

#10 - not what I was thinking of, that’d work though.
#11 - Think 80s cartoon.
#13 - If you can guess Gorn, you can guess this one.
#14 - Bad children’s show, live action.
#20 - not what I was thinking of, that’d work though
#21 - A quick GIS tells me I messed this one up, it’s two horns, small and goatish. This might be pretty obscure.
#23 - As voiced by a prolific daytime TV actor.
#25 - Think Ferngully.
#30 - YOU ROLLED THE BEST, YOU GOT THE BEST

#16/#17/#19/#22/#24/#27 - not references, or could be, but I didn’t have anything specific in mind.

#11 - Thundercats.
#13 - Mirror Universe clones, by way of Star Trek.

I now have to create similar tables for such spells, probably one per setting I have, just for kicks & flavor…

#11 - There ya go. The original has faded with time, so I don’t recall exactly, but that newest series had some potential as a Carcosan-style “this humanoid type in this hex” sort of thing.

#13 - In which a DM sates his desire to insert a Mirror of Opposition without all the actual work involved.

Post it back over here if you get the urge, I was hoping for more - at least get up to a d100.

Now that I think I have the goofiness out of me I may do another more flavor-evocative set.

Also, #6 is not a reference.

#7 is tangentially related to #30.

#22: Just, like samurai or generic ancient Japanese soldier?

#25: Navi!

#14: Sleestak, perhaps?

Blue Man Group and KISS?

All you need now is to fit Lordi in there. Or GWAR. Or both.

Is #19 the Yazirian from Star Frontiers / Hadozee from Spelljammer?

I thought about GWAR. I wasn’t sure how to describe giant rubber spiked penises in a child-friendly way, though their dad would get a kick out of it.

#19, actually, was me Googling for what Burroughs had written in the Carson of Venus books. I didn’t find anything compelling in that instant, but one of the random illustrations for pulp-style covers that had come up during a GIS had something like that.

But I am totally down with the Yazirians being it.

Yep!

Also, yes, Blue Man Group (the only travelling band on Carcosa) and KISS.

Lordi would be slightly safer (at least until the kids actually discover their music…) - Mr. Lordi is a half-demon, Amen is a mummy (named for Amen-Ra), OX is a minotaur, Hella is a doll golem, and Mana is a necromancer.

#10. Made me think of Sontarans from Dr.Who.

Coming back to this - #26 is Cybermen from Doctor Who, I presume?

Correct, The Dark.

4 years on now? Time flies. I'm honestly not sure what #21 was supposed to be now - pretty sure everything else is solved.

#23 is ... mutliple, I guess, Ultra Humanites as depicted in the DCAU Justice League/JLU. I'm gonna guess my girls were binging the show 4 years ago and he was on the mind. Voiced by Ian Buchanan, a soap opera actor.

#20 would have been any style of Warcraft/Warhammer orc, I guess.

#10 was Sontarans, SpankyTaz got that one.

I don't think #16 and #24 were references.

Necro progression :P.  A couple more for the list  (was 21, Satyr?)

31. Four green humanoids in organic plate armour with different coloured masks

32. A hairsuit man with a staff, A second rotund man with pointy ears and a rake, a third taller man in dark clothes and skull necklace, and a boy in yellow robes

33. A man in red, a green skined woman, a burly tatooed man and a small fury humanoid with a pet tree

34. A man in full black armour and a boy in red and green

35. Knights in armour with a facination for small plants

36. A man with a jagged sword for a hand and a boomstick

  1. A man with a jagged sword for a hand and a boomstick

Sounds more appropriate for Summon Hero than Summon Berserkers

Another one for Summon Hero would be a blond woman in a yellow long-sleeved one-piece garment with a curved single-edged sword.