Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Big Eye Chungus Review

Full confession: I love *redacted*. They are one of my favorite monsters. They are powerful, flavorful, and creepy. My favorite is definitely the Xanathar. I don't think *redacted* get enough love. Then again one of the big reasons is because *redacted* are not open content and are part of WotC's IP. This means publishers can't really be show their creativity with *redacted*.


That's why Planet X Games newest Kickstarter Big Eye Chungus is so great. These spherical ocular tyrants definitely aren't *redacted* and are ready to be dropped into your magic elf games. 

 Here's a sample page:


If you're a regular hear at the Halls, you know that I absolutely adore Levi's writing style (and if we're going to be real, I adore Levi too). My man was cool enough to let me take a look at the pdf. A review wasn't requested, but it's such good stuff that I'm doing one.

Let's start with the name. Big Eye Chungus is absolutely ridiculous and I love it. Big Chungus was a meme I didn't get, but still enjoyed. Then again, maybe the best memes just need to be enjoyed and not understood. In its current form Big Eye Chungus is a 24 page pdf written by Levi Combs, with contributions form Cheese Haasselberger, Casey Christofferson, and Lawrence Hernandez.

The first three give an overview of the Chungus. We are given the lowdown, why they are badass (and they definitely are), and why they are dicks (mentioned above). We are then hit with variations of the big eye chungus. Speaking with Levi, the number could be increased, but these are the big eye chunges presented. There are stats given by they are pretty neutral OSR style (which means you can use this shit with little modification for pretty much any version of D&D).
  • Void Chungus - What happens when an eye tyrant combines with a Sphere of Annihilation? That question no one ever wanted to ask is the void chungus.
  • Nether Chungus - You got your lower planes in my big eye chungus. Well you got your big eye chungus in my lower plane.
  • Hive-Mind Chungus - This is a swarm of gazer size chunges that have banded together to make chungus swarm.
  • Chungus of the Waste - Possibly a singular big eye chungus, the Chungus of the Waste is a larger than normal and horrifying big eye chungus found (thankfully) only in the most desolate wastes.
  • Gas Spores - Not a true big eye chungus, adventures have been dealing with these creatures since the early days of the game.
  • Ioun Chungus - Hailing from a distance crystalline dimension, these big eye chunguses don't have eyestalks, but rather have Eye-oon stones that float around them. Yeah I hate myself for that joke too.
  • Blind Albino Chungus - No one is sure where this destructive variation came from, but they are feared for the carnage they can cause.
  • The Great Chungus - No stats are given for this planet-sized big eye chungus (which may or may not exist). Think Mogo or Ego... but more big eye chungus-like. *shudder*
  • Death Chungus - Undead variations of the big eye chungus exist and are hated by other chunguses.
  • Clockwork Chungus - a singular creation this big eye chungus feels like a modron-big eye chungus hybrid.
After the variations two pages are given to big eye chungus lairs. As hyper-intelligent abominations, these lairs should be deadly to even the best prepared party. There's also a selection of things found in their lairs (with illustrations). To make sure you big eye chungus encounters are formidable, a page of tactics is given. This is followed by a selection of "10 Impolite and Downright Rude Things a Big Eye Chungus Would Say Before It Kills (or Enslaves... or Petrifies...) You." This is *chef's kiss*. Seriously, things like this make me love Planet X Games content as much as I do. Content-wise the big ends with six big eye chungus adventure seeds. These are entertaining, brilliant, and often open ended.

The book ends with OGL and one of the phenomenal faux comic book ads that Planet X has made a part of their products. Again it's little things like that that are as the kids say.... dope as fuck. Okay maybe that's what I say and not the kids, but I digress.

If you like D&D in any of its variations, you really need to back Big Eye Chungus. I promise, you will not be disappointed. I know personally I'm going to take the content presented and use it in the Spelljammer game I plan on running to beef up the *redacted*. I might also use some of these ideas next time I use the Xanathar and Waterdeep.


1 comment:

  1. I love everything about this. In all my eyes I don't think I've ever actually run a or even run into one. But now I'm determined to find a place for them in the campaign I'm working on.

    And a planet-sized ? You know I'm onboard for that.

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