I feel like skeletons have kinda lost their luster in a lot of games, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. They’re often used as obvious tableau monsters–skeletons at a table playing cards? They’ll get up and attack you; skeletons laying down in beds? They’ll get up and attack you. At one hit die and easily turned by priests, they just never seem like that big a threat unless they can get economy of action on you. And even then, they’re often mundane mooks; players aren’t really scared of them. Then I remembered…
Skeletons are supposed to REEEEEEEEEEEE!
None of the games I’ve been in have done this, and I’ll admit I’ve failed to include it myself. But when skeletons attack, they are supposed to shriek for up to three rounds. And during each of those three rounds, there’s a 50/50 chance that a wandering monster will come check out what the hell is going on.
So, you go from a blah encounter with a few skellies that the clerics turn and the fighters hack to bits to a cascading nightmare as the dungeon’s alarm system has just alerted half the dungeon to your presence.
Edit: Oops! Looks like I screwed this up! The picture for skeletons are under the entry for Shriekers. No wonder! But hell, why not have skeleton shriekers?
It’s interesting – in recent years zombies have been done and redone and overdone. As a result, we’ve gotten a variety of takes, including runners and screamers and spitters and all that. Maybe it’s time for skeletons to get a similar treatment?
Ooh, I just remembered at one point I think I statted Hammer Haunts from Thief
https://cirsova.wordpress.com/2016/04/22/haunts-more-thief-inspired-bx-undead/
One of the few highlights from the Tor Conan pastiches was Conan teaming up with a troop of skeletons.
If I was a jerk, I would say that even the spoopiest skellyton does not have lungs, so it cannot properly REEEEEEEEEEEEEE
But, I love the idea of their commotion alerted nearby critters…like a canary in a coal mine.
Instead of poison gas, they detect those pesky adventurers.
I think there’s some screaming skeletons in Rappan Athuk…
Dude, I totally believed you until I got to the end. That’s amazing. I’m using shrieking skeletons next chance I get.
Turns out, I was really sleepy when I was writing stuff up (I was rolling up an undead dungeon till 2 in the morning the saturday before I wrote up the post, and thought I had an epiphany).
Also, I had been playing Daggerfall, where the skellies sound like this:
All that noise is coming from like 1, maybe 2 skeletons.