Need a new villain? Why not Hollowtooth, the viking vampire orc pirate chieftain king?
Need a new villain? Why not Hollowtooth, the viking vampire orc pirate chieftain king?
GM Tip I wish I’d thought of 6 months ago #32:
GM Tip I wish I’d thought of 6 months ago #32:
If you’re having trouble creating, describing, and giving life to monsters, just look at some magic cards.
I did a little math, and the numbers CAN be used to estimate attack/armor, but the better option is to look at the picture, read the lore, and run it through the dungeon world monster creator:
http://codex.dungeon-world.com/
This is also a great way to ensure detailed descriptions. Your players never need to see the card. you can just describe what you see, and they will interpret it in their imaginations.
Here’s one for the card below, for example:
http://codex.dungeon-world.com/monster/5641332169113600
Reya Dawnbringer
Group, Magical, Divine, Organized, Intelligent, Cautious
Divine Gladius (b[2d10+2] damage 1 piercing) Close, Near
12 HP 5 armor
The Reya are the elite force of angels created by an ancient and nameless God. They enforce justice, and ensure that the evils of the world are kept in check. The Dawnbringer is the captain of this angelic force, and a dangerous foe to reckon with. Instinct: to enforce justice
Flying attacks
Summon Legion
My first swag at creating a monster with custom moves. Feedback appreciated please.
My first swag at creating a monster with custom moves. Feedback appreciated please.
I’m sure someone has done this already, but in the spirit of the holidays, here you go:
I’m sure someone has done this already, but in the spirit of the holidays, here you go:
The Krampus
Solitary, Devious, Intelligent, Cautious, Planar, Terrifying
Horns and chains (d8 damage)
Close, Reach
12 HP, 2 Armor
Special Qualities: Bestial Visage
From a ways off I thought the thing was just a satyr moving house; a black-furred goatman all alone and carrying a bulging burlap sack on its back. Easy pickings. Rodger knew a shortcut through the woods and the three of us set up an ambush. The thing made an odd jangling and clinking sound as it approached, but I didn’t notice all the chains until we’d dropped from our tree branch to surround it. By the gods! That face! Like something out of a nightmare. Blood red eyes and a pointed lolling tongue down to its waist. It slowly pointed at Clem and told him he’d been bad. Clem just started laughing until the thing lunged at him. Quick as a flash and that poor bastard is being shoved head first into the thing’s sack. Which I suddenly notice is squirming and making these sobbing, mewling sounds. Like it’s full of crying babies or something. That’s when I dropped my sword and ran. I dunno what happened to Rodger, but when I finally went back a few day later, the thing’s hoofprints just… stopped. Like it disappeared into thin air. Instinct: To carry naughty children back to Hell.
Moves:
– Make a racket by swinging its rusty, bell-laden chains.
– Stuff someone who’s been bad into its sack.
– Open a portal to the Nine Hells.
Has the Beholder been done?
Has the Beholder been done?
Made a super-basic guide to putting monsters into the wiki.
Made a super-basic guide to putting monsters into the wiki. Right now, just import monsters, no playbooks, items, or moves. Soon!….soon
http://www.dungeon-world.com/librarium/index.php?title=Category:Monsters
Any advice or assistance would be helpful. Let’s fill this thing with monsters, gents!
http://www.dungeon-world.com/librarium/index.php?title=Category:Monsters
Hireling Creator!
Hireling Creator!
I’ve just released the Hireling Creation Guide for Pirate World, and will be taking community content until the 24th December! The best Hirelings will go into Pirate World’s book, assuming you’re cool with that, with full credit to you and a DTRPG link if you’d like. As I can’t run a competition with Kickstarter, it’s not a competition and I can’t offer any rewards. Sorry!
If you’ve missed it, the Pirate World kickstarter is here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2041872302/pirate-world-the-explosive-dungeon-world-fate-sour
Still figuring out how G+ works….excuse the awkward sharing.
Still figuring out how G+ works….excuse the awkward sharing.
Originally shared by David Schirduan
I hope to contribute an actual Compendium Class to #rangerweek at some point, but here’s something that has made my ranger very, very happy:
Monsters with useful properties.
What I mean is, when you make a big monster, or some cool boss, let your ranger harvest its parts and make something cool out of it. Weapon, item, potable, etc. Also, check out this Monster Hunter styled class by Boing: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B94zELwEwdHsUzFyZXRpaVlmRGM/edit
Here are some of the monsters and properties I used:
-Icthus – http://codex.dungeon-world.com/monster/688001 – Your ranger can harvest the flame sacs from the fish in the pool, and the skin of the Icthus can be used to repel water, or it’s mouth can be used as a suction device. The flame sacs can be turned into fire potions, or attached to ranged devices.
-Sandshark – http://codex.dungeon-world.com/monster/636010 – The skin has sharp spikes on it, and is really rough. Can be used as a light armor, firestarter, or anything requiring lots of friction. The teeth absorb the liquid from their victims, and when turned into darts can drain the blood.
-Manticore – http://codex.dungeon-world.com/monster/38012 – The skin of the manticore is resistant to fire, the poison from the tail can be harvested, the wings turned into a simple glider, or parachute.
-Sandblaster – http://codex.dungeon-world.com/monster/1810006 – The sand pouch can be used to create bullets/pellets from dirt/sand. It’s throat can be turned into an effective blowgun, slingshot, or other ranged weapon.
Have fun with it! Let your players use one monster’s abilities against the next!
This is what i want my Druid to transform into!
This is what i want my Druid to transform into!
Monsters on the fly?
Monsters on the fly?
Do you have a shorthand method for generating monster stats quickly, in the middle of an encounter?
I really dig the fiction-first Q&A method described by the book, but I like to maintain eye-contact with the players as much as possible. I come from playing Tunnels & Trolls, which shares with Dungeon World a fiction-first notion of monster abilities, without formal moves and tags. But monsters in T&T have a single stat, called a Monster Rating, which makes it super easy to make them right when you need them.
Up to now, I’ve always found the stats I need for impromptu encounters right in the rulebook: It’s not hard to grab a monster and change one or two moves and the description as needed. But unless the page is bookmarked, it’s not much faster than using the questions.
Maybe there is no faster way. I understand that the description alone may be enough for a session or even a whole campaign, depending on what the players do. If you have a strong image of the monster and it’s goals and behavior, you don’t need a formal list of moves and tags to wing it. The stats are the choke point—not because there are a whole mess of numbers to worry about, but because they each depend on the whole gamut of questions.
This isn’t much of a problem, I’m just curious what other GMs do! 😉