nemodye
1st Incarnation
writing a game for a group and would love some people to test it on or anyone to give some advice
Posts: 1
Favourite Doctors: the tenth
Traits: i am kind, creative, and talkitive so if anyone ever needs to talk im open
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Post by nemodye on Nov 14, 2017 18:19:02 GMT
hi i recently started to make a campaign for a group i have and i was wondering if anyone had advice on how the weeping angels would work and how i would do any other aliens and monster i would do. i am fairly new to this game but i'm still trying to work out how to do this, any and all advice would be very helpful thank you!
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Post by Stormcrow on Nov 15, 2017 16:49:37 GMT
Mostly just make stuff up. People on this forum like to try to use the rules to create monsters as characters, but it's really not necessary.
Story Points: Do this first, because it's the most important. How important is this monster to the adventure? How much can it affect the plot? Say, 0 for nobodies, 1-3 for expert minions, 3-6 for henchmen, and more for major adversaries.
Attributes: Make up all the monster's attributes, because any attribute might be the subject of a roll or the target of an conflict by the players. Keep in mind the ranges: 1 is feeble; 2 is kinda weak; 3 is average; 4 is pretty good; 5 is damn impressive; 6 is pinnacle of human achievement. 7 and above is superhuman.
Skills: Only bother with skills you know you'll use. If other skills come up that you haven't assigned, just make something up on the spot. Remember that 1 is a novice, 2 is somewhat trained, 3 is a professional, 4 is an expert, 5 is a well-known expert, 6 and above is amazing. You can include areas of expertise if they make sense.
Traits: Only bother with traits that have numbers you'll need to use. Make a note of Fear Factor, because the creature may make use of it, but don't bother with Alien Appearance, because that's obvious from your description. You're not trying to balance character points, so only write down what's important.
Most importantly about traits, don't restrict yourself to the list of traits in any book. Just make something up. If you want a creature that can turn top hats into fireballs, don't look for a trait that does that, just have him turn top hats into fireballs. If you kind of remember that there is a trait that lets you run really fast, but you can't quite remember which one it is, forget about it and just let the alien run really fast.
If you want books to help you with this, Aliens and Creatures has a lot of good advice on creating aliens, and the Gamemaster's Companion has a lot of recommendations for creating villains.
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misterharry
Dominus Tempus
Dalek Caan's Lovechild
Posts: 3,235
Favourite Doctors: Second, Third, Fourth, Eleventh, Thirteenth
Traits: Empathic, Face in the Crowd, Insatiable Curiosity, Stubborn, Phobia (Heights), Unadventurous
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Post by misterharry on Nov 16, 2017 12:50:49 GMT
Yeah, if you're only designing monsters for your own use, there's no need to go into the nth level of detail in terms of stats. The way I approach it is to get an idea of the creature and its abilities in your mind first. Then look at the traits and so on to see what fits around the concept. If it's a particularly tough monster which the players are going to have a hard time defeating, don't forget to build in a weakness that they have a chance of discovering, or place something in the adventure that they can use against it. But really, don't get too hung up on the stats.
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Post by Escher on Nov 16, 2017 14:02:16 GMT
The way I approach it is to get an idea of the creature and its abilities in your mind first. Then look at the traits and so on to see what fits around the concept. This. And if you want a particularly lethal monster, make sure you have plenty of 'NPC victims' around to show off what it can do (e.g. kill horribly). Weird deaths are especially good: shrinking, desiccating, fungus-ridden, molecular degradation, all the plasma removed, etc. More esoteric deaths are especially creepy: having the ability to love or dream sucked out of the victim, exiled to another dimension, being wiped from reality. Go to town.
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misterharry
Dominus Tempus
Dalek Caan's Lovechild
Posts: 3,235
Favourite Doctors: Second, Third, Fourth, Eleventh, Thirteenth
Traits: Empathic, Face in the Crowd, Insatiable Curiosity, Stubborn, Phobia (Heights), Unadventurous
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Post by misterharry on Nov 16, 2017 14:46:01 GMT
Oh, and if there aren't any suitable traits to cover something you want your monster to be able to do, then create a special trait for it. Don't feel constrained to use only the traits in the rulebook.
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Post by Stormcrow on Nov 16, 2017 15:05:48 GMT
Oh, and if there aren't any suitable traits to cover something you want your monster to be able to do, then create a special trait for it. Or just say the monster can do such-and-such. There's no need to formalize everything into traits. Blob-monster: Awareness 1; Coordination 1; Ingenuity 1; Presence 1; Resolve 6; Strength 3. Fighting 3; Survival 2. Story Points: 3. Vaguely sentient. Just wants to eat flesh: engulfs victim and dissolves them in one minute. Immune to impact damage like bullets, clubs. If chopped up, no damage, and separate pieces ooze back together. Starts the size of a small beanbag chair; each victim adds its own volume to the blob's volume. Traits? Who cares about traits? Traits are for player-characters. I just made all that up off the top of my head.
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NurseRani
2nd Incarnation
Days like crazy paving
Posts: 132
Favourite Doctors: 4th, 10th, 11th
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Post by NurseRani on Nov 20, 2017 18:54:04 GMT
Mostly just make stuff up. People on this forum like to try to use the rules to create monsters as characters, but it's really not necessary. I just do the same. And, then, I'll keep a few notes during play. If I really need to write up a bit of a dossier on the creature later, I'll use those notes and expand on them. Encase the monster comes back for another episode. Aliens and Creatures is a must-have (in my opinion) for creating monsters, as well as alien species that can be major good guys, or bad guys. In the game we're playing now, we started out with one shape-shifting alien. Now we have a bunch of them invading Earth in the 1930s. I'd love to know how you game plays out.
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