So, I tried my hand at a statless monster. I hadn’t intended for it to be statless, but I wanted to create something that acted like a virus or a poison, but is otherwise harmless. I realized that giving it stats thus made no sense.
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Flikers
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Flikers appear as the shimmer of the sun on waters, as the sparkle on snow on a bright day, as the glitter cast by a young woman’s sequin dress, and anywhere else light twinkles. Usually they pass through the air harmlessly. But when infused with light, they gain the temporary ability to enter the eyes of anyone looking directly at them. Once inside the body, they disrupt the host’s senses, slowly driving them insane. The afflicted have run off cliffs, clawed out their own eyes, and dumped boiling water over their head. Only extreme measures or luck will save them. Administering a cure can be dangerous, as the Flikers often appear as the glint in their victims’ eyes and thus spread to another.
Instinct: To infect and spread
Poisonous, Minuscule, Infectious
No HP, Armor or Damage Die. See special moves.
Special Moves:
Get inside you and confuse your senses
Slowly make you go insane
Spread to someone else
https://herethestorybegins.wordpress.com/2016/07/17/flikers/ (My blog post is the same thing but has a longer fluff introduction if you are interested in that kind of thing)
https://herethestorybegins.wordpress.com/2016/07/17/flikers/
I love
starlessstatless monsters. Legacy has a lot of these things where monsters/threats just list the harm they deal and it’s up to the players to come up with a plan to defeat them.Aaron Griffin I dont love “starless” monsters, you cant see them lit up in the night.
So how will the players defeat this?
All kinds of ways. A magical ritual, iron will, a holy cleansing, recovering a magical artifact, etc. It’s not meant to be a goblin-like monster that you just hack and slash at for a couple of dice rolls. This is a plague, a curse, or maybe just bad luck. How hard it is to cure is up to the GM. You could use this monster to afflict a PC/hireling after a failed roll, but then make the cure fairly easy (100 gold for the antidote?), or you could use it as a jumping off point for a quest. An entire kingdom is afflicted and the PCs need to gather the ingredients scattered through the four corners of the world for the Wizard to complete the magic ritual that will save everyone. Or something in between.
Wouldn’t it be better as a,fromt or danger? Then you would have grim portents either about what happens when you get it or ehat happenes,to the world when it is infected
It could be written as a danger or a front if the GM wanted to incorporate it into their adventure. Maybe I’ll do that, or if you’d like to try to write this as a danger, that would be cool. I wrote it as a monster since I think those are a bit more versatile than fronts/dangers and I think of viruses acting more like monsters than dangers. I’m not sure what category of danger it would fit: Ambitious Organizations, Planar Forces, Arcane Enemies, Hordes, Cursed Places. I guess you could make a new type called “Plagues” or “Blights”?
james day I don’t see why it’s problematic to have a statless monster that’s not part of some specific Front. It’s no different than a pit trap. How many HP does a pit trap have? How do you defeat it?