Category: The Dungeon World Tavern: New Monsters

I’ve been working my way through the required creatures for a “Kingdom of Ghouls” conversion (Dungeon #70, by Wolfgang Baur), and am addressing something worse than the base ghouls, an intelligent army of ghouls lead by a exarch of death.

Take a look. Please comment if you are interested. I have scrubbed the move “Command over hunger and death.”

I’m thinking “Bestow ravenous hunger” would be one in which “You are ravenously hungry, even your hands look good, what do you do?” And to not eat would most certainly be defying danger.

(Consider this a 1st Draft)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10oVxv_vE-87BbzpuYdZMHak2QZiTaAmffPcSA0Hdghs/edit

As I work through an adventure conversion, I keep stumbling upon creatures that are part of the D&D mythos that don’t have a counterpart in Dungeon World. So tonight, the Drider.

Drider

Intelligent, Solitary, Devious, Large, Stealthy

Poison bite (d10+1) 16 HP           2 Armor

Close, Reach

A drider is the twisted remnants of a supplicant who once tried to prove his worth in the eyes of a malignant god…and failed. His legs and abdomen is that of a gigantic spider, and his torso, arms, and face are twisted reflections of the drider’s original humanoid form. But with this curse, comes great power…powerful spells, a chitinous hide, and a powerful poisonous bite.

Cursed and outcast from his native lands, a drider must make due in a world in which he no longer belong. Eventually, most driders come to embrace their curse, though they are still filled with a burning hatred for the society which cast them out.

Instinct: to exact revenge on even the smallest transgression

– Weaken with poison

– Cast spells of illusion and malice

– Silently skitter along the walls and ceiling

I’ve been looking into making new monsters – adventure conversion tends to do this – and have traditionally thought that each monster should have three moves (its what Dungeon World typically has, so why not take advice from the master).

However, there exists a tension as I work to explain the Ichtha-Gogs, an interpretation of Kuo-Toans, and their important racial “moves”. In the case of Ichtha-Gogs, they are all extremely slippery…to the point of being able to slip out of most any bindings.

Does it make sense to do this via a Special Quality or a Custom Move?

The tension becomes in limiting the number of moves to 3 (I suppose I could go up to 4).

Also, in the case of Ichtha-Gogs, the “slip any bind” is a weaksauce move, but in thinking about True Ghouls and their ability to spawn new True Ghouls, I have to wonder if that should be a Special Quality.

Thoughts?

Well damn, I was going to write up about a True Ghoul for Dungeon World but instead wrote a different monster: the Ichtha-Gog Slaver

Ichtha-Gog Slaver

Devious, Intelligent, Group

Spear and bite (d8), 6 HP, 3 Armor

Reach, Close, Thrown

Special Qualities: Amphibious, Immune to poison

The Ichtha-Gogs are almost entirely forgotten by the surface dwellers who once sought to eradicate the “fish men” for their appearance and diet. Their paunchy bodies are scaled and extremely slimy. More notably, the heads of an Ichtha-Gog is that of a carnivorous fish with huge eyes long since accustomed to dwelling in the dark depths of the world below.

Perhaps from a long standing taboo on nets, the Ichtha-Gog instead prepare their leather shields with an alchemical concoction that is extremely sticky; A trait that is immensely helpful in their slaving efforts.

Instinct: To capture slaves, food, and sacrifice

– Stick an item or person to its shield

– Slip from all bonds

– Carry off the helpless