Statting Up Our Own Monsters

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Statting Up Our Own Monsters
« on: November 22, 2015, 01:03:09 PM »
Vincent,

I'm looking at the Bestiary and trying to see if there are guidelines we should follow for assigning stats to monsters (and NPCs).

Generally speaking, it's not a big deal - we've all probably done it before in various games. However, I have two specific questions:

1. Is there anything in particular we should know about Harm ranges and choices, other than what we can glean by imitating your own choices in the Bestiary as provided? (Some monsters have a large range at one end of the scale, others at another range.)

I'm guessing this is not crucial, we can just fool around with different options "by ear".

2. More importantly, how do we distinguish between assigning a Monster a Violent score and a "Bonus to Spend"? They seem somewhat like overlapping concepts (both add to your ability to spend on the Fighting move), so I'm not sure if they "map" to anything concrete in a reliable way.

Thanks!

Re: Statting Up Our Own Monsters
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2016, 12:40:51 PM »
Curious if anyone has thoughts on this!

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Rafu

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Re: Statting Up Our Own Monsters
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2016, 05:53:08 PM »
I've only once statted up a monster - going by ear, of course - but I have yet to deploy it in play, so there's really not much I can add. Violent situations in my game so far have overwhelmingly concerned humans.

Re: Statting Up Our Own Monsters
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2016, 11:48:19 PM »
Don't humans use the same stats as monsters, though?

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Rafu

  • 71
Re: Statting Up Our Own Monsters
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2016, 04:14:41 AM »
Yeah, but they're totally straightforward. You know what the range of Violence score means (-2 is a frail child, 0 is average, +3 is a champion of arena combat) and you know how to assign them a bonus to spend: 1 if they master the art of sword-binding, 0 if they don't, plus possible help from ghosts or other magic. Weapons and armor, too, are straightforward: 1-armor for thugs, bodyguards and other professionals, 2-armor for a soldier at war, no armor otherwise; 2 harm for any real weapon, 1 harm for backup weapons or improvised weapons.
This means the only decision you have to make is how prepared to violence this person is - their violent score. Everything else is obvious from their fictional circumstances.

Re: Statting Up Our Own Monsters
« Reply #5 on: October 11, 2016, 12:05:38 PM »
Great answer! Thanks.

If you have further thoughts on monsters, I hope you'll share them here. :)