Undead in Dark Fantasy X

Undead need a bit of a refresh in Dark Fantasy X, but maybe not Hack Fantasy X. Undead in my rules are basically lifted from the way that they are presented in games like Microlite 20 Purest Essence or Microlite74, i.e., they're D&D Undead.  Which is fine, especially for Hack Fantasy X, which is supposed to be more D&D-like, rather than Dark Fantasy X, which is supposed to be more specifically tailored to the Dark Fantasy X setting. But there's more than that; although the D&D interpretation of many of these Undead is pretty traditional, it's not the only approach. It's not even the only traditional approach, as my recent review of the Warhammer Undead books has shown (to be fair, I already knew this. But I'd never really deep dived into it before.)

While there aren't really any changes that I want to make specifically to incorporate Warhammer Undead-style monsters on the monster list, I think that I do want to rewrite the Undead entries for several of them, based on my review in a more indirect fashion. It just prompted thoughts in my mind about different ways to do it. 

There are three changes in particular that I intend to make, and maybe a fourth:

• I think wights and mummies are redundant. While the imagery associated with each is different, it's really just cultural. Wrap a wight in bandages and put him in a sandy climate, and how is it really at all different than a mummy? From a stat perspective, they are somewhat different, and certainly have a different special ability. I just have to decide which I like better, or put them both in as alternatives that a GM can pick from.
• The Undead traits are really just one trait right now; immunity to mind-affecting spells. I want to also add a few more, although I need to think carefully about exactly what it ends up being.
• Ghoul hounds and flesh hounds might be redundant too. I probably don't really need both. Although maybe I keep them both anyway just for variety.
• Vampires will be significantly rewritten to have an a la carte ability list, sort of like how ghosts are done now. From a setting perspective, vampires will be an evolution of ghouls, but they can go essentially down two parallel paths. I'll probably rename one of those paths vampire, and it will be ghouls who have clawed their way into lucid, civilized (somewhat) behavior and appearance. The other path will be more monstrous, bat-like flying monsters. Maybe I'll call them gar-ghouls or something. I dunno. Draugr? Bloodsaunger? I'll play around with this.

I should probably do something similar for some of the other monster categories, and have a more tailored rather than legacy monster list, but that's a whole nother thing; I'll wait a bit longer. This undead monster list upgrade will move Dark Fantasy X from version 1.0 to 1.1.