#gargoyle week

Artwork by Abrar Ajmal

This week is all about gargoyles! For the next week, I’ll do my best to find as much necromancy-related(ish) gargoyle content as I can (harder than I thought it was gonna be, but expected since they aren’t part of D&D PC tradition).

What is a Gargoyle?

I’m making a tabletop RPG, and I want to hear from you: What do you think a gargoyle is? What defines them as a species? What makes a gargoyle a gargoyle? What comes to mind when you think of them? What mythologies do inspire your interpretation of gargoyles?

Some clarifications I feel should be brought up based on previous Species Weeks:

The origin of Species Week

I’ll be saving my own thoughts on Gargoyles for the final days of Gargoyle Week. The point is to hear your feedback!

“They’re like [X other fantasy species] but [adjective]-er” is not helpful feedback. The comparison doesn’t mean anything to me unless you also explain what you think [X other fantasy species] is too!

My game focuses on the biological traits of a species when it comes to their stats - their physiology; like their size, diet, metabolism, appendages, senses, and other physical traits. Cultural ideas - like favorite pastimes, societal attitudes, alignment, personality traits - can be interesting, but are unhelpful in this context. This post elaborates on this more.

Before I end Gargoyle Week proper, I’d like to do a quick poll.

How integral is the idea that gargoyles turn to stone during the day/in sunlight, and re-awaken at night?

Super important, they wouldn’t be gargoyles otherwise! This also makes them a bad choice for a PC species.

Very important, but they’d still make great Player Characters!

Not that important, I’ve heard/imagined gargoyles differently. But I still think they should not be a PC species.

Not that important, and I wanna be able to play as one!