My Games

Sunday, December 23, 2018

Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Automatic Character Generator

As part of my continuing series of content for the awesome, OSR-esque, rules-light tabletop RPG Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells, here is an automatic character generator!

If this makes you interested in SS&SS, or you were already interested in SS&SS, I would encourage you to check out my SS&SS Automatic Monster Generator, an automated version of the monster generator available in the Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Addendum (with one additional monster nature of my own design).

You can also check out my Micro-Setting post The Glass Desert, a setting built around10 monsters created using the aforementioned SS&SS automatic monster generator.

I'd also like to thank Angus Warman, whose OSR character generators I used as a point of reference for this character generator.




This cool demon-dragon on the cover of SS&SS gives you a sense of this awesome game!

Generate Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Character
NOTE1: For level > 1, the chosen attribute for the improvement roll is a random attribute less than 18 that is not either of the primary attributes
NOTE2: Coinage (in silver) is multiplied by level
NOTE3: For random archetype, the archetype is chosen based on the highest of the average of the primary attributes, e.g. if the average of physique and agility is higher than the average of agility and intellect or intellect and willpower, the archetype will be assigned to Warrior, since physique and agility are the primary attributes for Warrior. If there is a tie, an archetype is randomly selected from the tied averages.

Choose a level (or leave blank for random) 


Choose an archetype (or leave blank for random)



Thursday, December 13, 2018

High Level Games: 3 Ways to Modify Any Game



I'm breaking my "posting only every other week" rule to share that high level games has posted my next article! In the article, I discuss, in very broad strokes, a handful of system-neutral ways to modify games. I think if you're reading this blog there's a good chance you're already familiar with my suggestions, but even so, my discussion of dice probabilities and how modifiers affect different dice or how dice can affect character progression may be interesting if you have not given that much consideration.

You can read the article here!

Sunday, December 9, 2018

Enter the Cancerverse: 1d20 Weird & Wonderful Undead

It's crazy that it's been two weeks since my last post! I've got several posts queued up (look out in two weeks for my SS&SS full character generator!), but I also have legitimately been busier and needing to slow down, so I think this was the right decision, even though it's been tough holding back on posts.

Anyway, it's been a while since I've a "Traditional" Fantasy Table! In the past I've done (in reverse chronological order): Anathema, Vampires, Goblins, and Elves. As with my post of monsters designed using the Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Automatic Monster Generator, which incidentally led to the micro-setting The Glass Desert, I decided to bake a micro-setting into this table as well. This is still first and foremost a table of Weird & Wonderful Undead, and many of these entries hold up on their own, but several of them refer to a micro-setting I'm tentatively calling The Cancerverse. I'm definitely stretching the concept of "undead" here, because that's how I do, but hopefully people can appreciate it for what it is. I've already done Vampires which you can throw in here, and at a certain point I could do skeletons, golems, ghouls, etc., so I was ok with this being a bit more abstract.

I realize that cancer is a major, very serious, and often deadly medical issue and I don't mean to make light of it, or be un-conscientiously macabre about it. That being said, there is this fascinating relationship between the concepts of life and death and cancer and undead, in a very abstract sense. Cancer is a mutation, one of the principle features of organic life and the same mechanism as adaptation and evolution. It's the indefinite, automatic growth of cells. It's the result of degeneration of DNA, a self-propagating error, it is mindless and it spreads like a zombie. So, by extension, a cancerverse is a place of endless, regenerating life, but life that is degenerative. It is both the opposite of undeath, but also not all that unlike it. So I thought that might be an interesting take on the concept, but like I said, I've got plenty of other ideas in there if that doesn't appeal to you.


More Zdzislaw Beksinski! This could be a Genocide Golem...

Scroller / Randomizer

Click through the list of undead:

Go to undead by number (1 through 20):

Pick a random undead

Full Table


UndeadDescription
Abyssal MageTheir name is a misnomer; they are not limited to the abyss, but are highly specialized water mages. Humans and many other lifeforms are composed mostly of water, and abyssal mages specialize in the manipulation of the waters within living things. They can fatally distort or extract the waters from an organism, or transmute them into water elementals that tear the organism from the inside-out or occupy their dried husk. They can freeze the waters inside their prey, and use various necromancies or apoptomancies to cryo-metamorph the organism or preserve their carcass for the highest-grade undeath.
Beast with two backsWhen two people love each other very much, and commit themselves to a toxic relationship, sometimes their individual bodies and souls die, and they merge together in undeath. They become like a centaur, where one partner is the upright top, and the lower body is the partner, prone. The top is generally demonic in appearance or covered in black armor, while the bottom is pale or rabid like a zombie, and usually naked or dressed in gimp leather. They move spasmodically, gyrating and undulating, seemingly clumsy and inefficient, yet supernaturally quick. They harness a genuine but twisted form of codependent love, sex, and life magics, not unlike anti-paladins.
BoglingBoglings are borne from plant matter, or peat. They are dark, smelly, and dry, and come in various shapes and sizes. They are like a significantly lesser form of petroloid, although much more abundant and more likely to develop naturally. In large quantities, boglings can be sacrificed for petrolmancy in a pinch, and can also be sacrificed by necromancers to preserve and mummify bodies for undeath operations.
Death KnightOur world is not the first cycle of creation and death. Some believe there have been four, others nine, and others still believe there have been countless prior worlds. The death knights are survivors of one (or more) of these worlds. They usually incarnate as one of the dominant intelligent lifeforms, but have a pall of undeath or otherness about them and even in full armor tend to stand out. They have varying knowledge, powers, or artifacts from the prior worlds, and can temporarily take their original form for immense power, at an immense cost. Most of the death knights are singular in their desire to remake or somehow return to their original world. However noble they may have been in life, after countless eons, or as a result of their reanimation, they have mostly all gone mad, making it difficult to acquire any meaningful knowledge from them.
Frost WyrmSerpentine, draconic creatures with a large, singular orifice full of rows of teeth like a lamprey or hagfish, hailing from the Cancerverse. Not undead per se, but they emit a cold, dark energy which provides sustenance to undeath, like gods or demi-gods of undeath.
Genocide GolemA giant, modular, mobile city-structure and any number of smaller modular skeleton golems constructed from the reanimated remains of a genocided people. No regard is paid to the original forms, and bones are carved or snapped or in some other manner warped or treated to support the structure or skeleton golem drones. They emanate a sense of shame, drawing out hate, denigration, and the insecurities of the peoples in their vicinity or peoples who allowed this inhumanity to happen, obfuscating that the golem was always the victim.
Kabuto AsuraThey come in many varieties, sometimes humanoid and sometimes monstrous, but always like armored soldiers or weapons of war and reminiscent of horseshoe crabs. They are the karmic demons of soldiers who died unfulfilled. In some cases they are frustrated beings, misled or coerced to fight a futile or unjust war or to commit war crimes. In other cases, they themselves reveled in the carnage and inhumanity of their actions, and remain on this mortal plane only to commit more violence. The former are pitied, and those who hunt them do so to free them of their karmic curse. The latter are considered a shame against their people and feared.
MutateVaguely humanoid creatures from the Cancerverse. It's not clear if they evolved in that environment independently, or if they were migrants from the world of the living, like some kind of afterlife. They are misshapen and covered in cancerous tumors and teratomas. Because they cannot die, their cells mutate and replicate indefinitely. Many mutates degenerate into virtual nothingness, blending into the cancer-mass of the cancerverse itself. A rare few mutate into giant, monstrous, or otherwise unique and powerful beings.
NepheshimDue either to a botched soul-transfer, or a random mutation, occasionally a lich will develop a new soul, like a cancer. As the soul metastasizes, the lich's organic body redevelops, although not always as the same gender or even species, let alone same person they once were. If the new soul grows to maturity, they will lose their lich powers, but otherwise retain most of their former knowledge and abilities. Meanwhile, their original soul remains trapped impotently in its phylactory. Their personality will also change, and in some cases they will develop dreamy memories, knowledge, or skills from the new soul. While most liches fear these cancerous mutations and attempt to remove them at all costs, some intentionally contract and incubate souls within themselves, sometimes many at a time. They can provide new perspectives, knowledge, and insights, can be a fun diversion from the ennui of immortality, like a hobby, or can be cultivated and consumed for various powerful soul magics.
OverdeadAs the spirits of mortals transmigrate into various spirit realms or are reincarnated, there are other planes, dimensions, or universes full of spiritual life, and sometimes our world is their afterlife. Overdead are often ethereal, mistaken for fey or djinn, nature spirits, or ghosts (or perhaps they are the origins of these entities in this setting). Some take more physical forms, or are incarnated within lifeforms of our world. They do not all come from the same world, nor follow the same rules, nor operate in the same manner. Some seem eldritch, aberrant, or divine, while others are remarkably similar in appearance or psychology to beings of our world.
PetrolmancerA sub-discipline of necromancy focused on the summoning and binding of the most ancient mass-dead. They bring life to decomposed biofuel, or petroleum. More powerful petrolmancers practice various chronomancies as a means of producing their own stores of petroleum, or use time travel to mine the past or future for its rich stores of death. In order to leverage such powerful but costly magics, they organize genocides across time and space, and create life farms merely for the sake of culling death and decomposition.
PetroloidThe lowest petroloids are simply amorphous petroleum elementals or slimes. The more advanced specimens flow through contraptions of carcass, wood, metal, or whatever materials or technologies were available to the petrolmancer. They are petroleum-powered zombies, skeletons, golems, siege engines, or even bio-magical computers.
PteraghulSlightly smaller than humans and disturbingly humanoid in appearance, they are vulture-like pterasaur ghouls with a mottled, hair-like pycnofiber coat. They are carrion-feeders of intelligent lifeforms, but will also consume cancerous or mutated living flesh. They are believed to be the descendants of a species of ghoul that somehow crossed into the cancerverse, and still they can be found migrating between the mortal plane and the cancerverse.
The Black HiveA remarkably prosperous hive of undead bees (or zombees, if you will). They are white and violet colored, their stripes broken into a skull-like pattern on their backs. Rather than consuming nectar, they violently collect the fermenting juices of fallen fruit, often destroying the seeds in the process. For this reason, in areas where the Black Hive is present, it is considered a taboo to leave fruit to rot. They produce a milky-white, rotten-smelling, putrid honey that provides sustenance to the undead akin to the black energy of the Cancerverse. Additionally, despite its awful smell, the honey makes for a perfect preservative, tastes otherwordly, and provides an exhilarating psychedelic stimulation. However, it provides no sustenance, and long-term consumption leads to self-pickling and undeath.
The Wild HuntDepending on the setting, they may be of one species, or a collection of known or unknown species. They are advanced; magically, technologically, biologically, or aberrantly, with resources and abilities beyond the understanding of the predominant mortal civilizations. They are elves or dwarves or fey, neanderthals or dinosaurs, or other species long gone or nearing the end of their era. They are the resistant living, undead, or extra-dimensional refugees; the clingers-on. They hunt for fun or spite, they incite terror, they ravage villages and cities, but they can only bridge to the mortal realm for so long before being auto-magically banished back to their purgatory nether realm.
UnlivingThey are almost like the living, but lack a soul. This rarely occurs naturally; more often they are grown from stem cells or miscarried fetuses that are treated by necromancers or apoptomancers. They are generally dull, with little personality or motivation, and with a child-like intelligence. They are often pale or albino, with pigmentless or cataract-like blue eyes. Although more time consuming and costly to create than a typical undead skeleton or zombie, they are generally more capable and longer-lasting, and are the foot soldiers of the most elite lords of metamorphosis or undeath.
Vermilion KarkinosThey were once a mundane species of crab, bottom-feeders of the ocean floor. That is, until they stumbled upon a massive hydrothermal vent of immense magical power; perhaps an abandoned power plant of the deep ones, an artifact of the Elder Things, or the gate to R'lyeh or the Cancerverse (where they are the most predominant lifeform, after the cancer-mass itself). Whatever the case, the karkinos were transformed, no longer living organisms, the energy calcified them into undead fossils, and they became unable to sexually reproduce. Some became immortal kaiju, always hungry, feeding on the mineral energy of the planet core, or travelling to the surface if there is a sufficient concentration of energy. Others became microscopic magical beings, more like viruses than animals, vampires feeding on the blood of organisms and asexually replicating within them like leukemia. They have developed into other sizes and shapes as well, some even humanoid. Their exoskeletons are usually patterned with vermilion and white, or occasionally more aquatic colors, and an aura of heat or even flame surrounds them. Although some are intelligent, even superhuman, most are so obsessed with hunger that it clouds any rational thought.
Zombie FlowerAmorphophallus-like flowers, ranging in size from about a foot to twenty feet tall. They smell of carcass, attracting scavenging animals and pollinators. They do not photosynthesize, but have pale pigments meant to attract animals or fool them into a false sense of normality. Their flesh and nectar induce zombification, and their seeds spread and germinate from the droppings of zombified creatures. It is believed that the Black Hive are the second independent species to have developed from the effects of the zombie flower.
ZymoformThe creations of the zymomancers. Sometimes pickled and preserved, appearing somewhat as they did in life except for some amount of decay, wet and slimy, and with a sour, bitter, or umami scent. Others dissolve and consume the host carcass, becoming amorphous slimes of various hues and properties.
ZymomancerNot necromancers in the truest sense, they breed colonies of yeast and bacteria suited for the fermentation of carcasses for the purpose of reanimation. The host carcass is still dead, but new life animate or are borne from the carcass.

Sunday, November 25, 2018

The Glass Desert: 10 Monsters using the SS&SS automatic monster generator

NOTE: Given by big update, I think I'm going to move to a bi-weekly (every other week, not twice weekly!) schedule. Hopefully this way I can queue up enough posts before the shit hits the fan that things will be seamless, and once things are less hectic for me I can switch to a weekly schedule or semi-weekly schedule, hopefully without any dead spots.

I had originally intended for this to just be a table of monsters generated using the SS&SS Automatic Monster Generator, with Weird & Wonderful flourishes. However, as I was coming up with the monsters, I incidentally started running with a micro-setting through-line for these monsters, the Glass Desert. This is actually the Quenduin Desert of my Phantasmos setting, but I think it could totally work as a standalone setting with post-post-apocalyptic science fantasy and sword and sorcery elements akin to Conan, Barsoom, and Dark Sun, which I think is in-line with the SS&SS aesthetic.

I would also like to thank Kyana for providing some excellent monster writeups as well (with some editing by request), provided as BONUS material at the end!

While not quite how I imagine the Qlippoth Tree or the Glass Desert, Zdzislaw Beksinski's art has had a major impact on me over the years, and is definitely one inspiration for the Glass Desert. He also has a painting that is somewhat evocative of my Phantasmos Mythic Being Mother at the Gate, but that's for another time...

1. Jabbers
Monster's Nature: Beast
Form: Torso of one animal and legs of another.
Animal Parts: Alligator, Cockroach
Elements: Glass
Powers:
Extra Senses: The creature has an additional sense like thermal vision, sonar, E.S.P., aura vision, etc.
Weaknesses:
Aversion to some substance or object

Water-dwelling reptiles, mutated with chitinous exoskeletons over their cockroach-like legs. They lurk in the fetid bodies of water in the Glass Desert, the closest thing to oases in such a hostile terrain. They have the ability to sense any reflections within or just outside the circumference of their body of water; a useful ability in an environment of sun and glass. They are to the Jabberwocky as drakes are to dragons.

2. David
Monster's Nature: Mythological
Characteristic: Like a baroque statue or wearing baroque armor
Elements: Earth
Powers:
Immortal: The creature cannot die naturally and a condition must be met for the creature to be truly killed.
Weaknesses:
Vanity

Like a Greek statue of a perfectly sculpted humanoid in ornate, white and gold armor. It has the ability to summon blocks of stone and marble, and with a single tap sculpt the blocks into supernaturally functional items, objects, and even minions. It cannot be killed under normal circumstances; if its body is destroyed, it will immediately emerge from the closest block of stone or marble large enough for it to be sculpted from. However, it is vein, taking absolute pride in its sculptures. If challenged to a sculpting contest, it will almost always accept, even if it would be disadvantageous or time consuming for it to do so. Usually it plays for high stakes, assuming it cannot lose. If it loses an honest competition, it will honor its bet, but will experience suicidal despair afterwards, and will commit suicide unless its ego is sufficiently stroked.

3. [Varies]
Monster's Nature: Aberration
Form: Pyramid
Characteristic: Hundreds of mouths of different sizes and shapes cover the creature's body and spew a disgusting goo.
Elements: Magma
Powers:
Induce Rage: Targets within nearby range must make a willpower test or be driven into a rage, attacking anyone within close range in the most violent way they can for a number of rounds equal to the creature's HD.
Weaknesses:
Simply knowing its True Name makes it weak

A glowing hot, floating pyramid that spews bio-phlogisten. It's goo is both literally and metaphorically hot, burning and inducing rage in others. It's True Name is an unusual anomaly, being the same as whatever is the most common name in the setting. Although generally beyond mortal comprehension, the two aspects of its psychology shared with mortals are shame, and the impotent rage that comes with overcompensating for ones shame. If it's True Name is spoken, it will immediately apparate to another dimension, plane, or universe.

4. Copper-bugs
Monster's Nature: Technological
Form: Artificial animal form (Protozoa)
Material: Copper
Elements: Sand
Powers:
Regenerate: Regenerates a number of HP per round equal to its HD.
Reproduce Sound: Can imitate any sound heard in the last HD days.
Weaknesses:
Need to feed constantly

Techno-organic copper micro-machines, one of the first species to adapt to the glass desert. They are nearly impossible to kill given how quickly they regenerate, and can integrate the sand and glass dust into their distributed network of activity, barraging and choking invaders. The copper makes them conductive, which they use as an electrical defense, but also to transmit information and organize as a distributed network, and can perfectly digitally encode and reproduce any sound they've recently transduced. The indigenous peoples of the Glass Desert have developed a symbiotic relationship with some species of copper-bug, using them to develop simple electronics and communications networks. However, they require quite a bit of energy, especially for the largely barren Glass Desert, and as a result only the wealthiest and most successful peoples can maintain a copper-bug colony.

5. Qlippoth Tree
Monster's Nature: Magical
Trait: Tree branches grow from the creature's body.
Form: Living energy
Elements: Wood
Powers:
Disease: Causes grave and potentially deadly disease (referee may impose attribute damage, negative dice and loss of HP). Victims can make a willpower test to resist it.
Invoke Ally: Can summon a similar creature of the same amount of HD. A character can make a luck roll to avoid this effect.
Weaknesses:
Powerful enemy

A gigantic tree made of spiritual energy, covered in numerous branches like eldritch tentacles. The tree is an impossible organism drawing sustenance from extra-universal impossible light. It bears perfectly spherical fruit which hatch like eggs when they fall, producing subservient spirit-tree-men. If the fruit grow large enough, eventually they will root and grow into a new qlippoth tree. The fruit provides sustenance and the tree itself ample building materials, but causes terminal illnesses, all of which induce madness or depression, like syphilis. The eldest of the qlippoth trees wages a slow war with the eldest sephiroth tree just outside the glass desert.

* NOTE: The Qlippoth Tree could be seen as a variant of the Fey Wood and Qhuaos Quince from my Phantasmos campaign setting, which were already part of the Quenduin Desert, the Phantasmos-version of the Glass Desert.

6. Steeling Gazers
Monster's Nature: Technological
Form: Millions of nanobots
Material: Steel
Elements: Light, Steam
Powers:
Duplicate Appearance: Can assume the appearance of a touched target for up to HD days.
Turn to Stone: Victims that look into the creature's eyes must make a physique test or be turned to stone.
Weaknesses:
Fears its own reflection

These nanomachines do not feed, but seem to be an artifact of whatever glassed the Glass Desert. They are solar-powered and can harness solar energy offensively, but can also combust coal for steam-power if necessary. They often take the form of drifters. When they meet eye-to-eye with other drifters in the desert, they enter the eye through the optic nerve like light itself, converting the entire organism at the atomic level into inert material like glass or stone, and then take their form. It is unknown why they do this, nor why they only convert intelligent organic life facing them eye-to-eye. It is known that they fear their own reflection, as they seem to be compelled to convert anything they meet eye-to-eye, even if themselves, in their own reflection. For this reason, it is common for travelers to carry at least one shard of looking-glass from the Glass Desert itself. Even if one can avoid their stare, they are as strong as steel, and will become violent if their stare is avoided.

7. Aesthetobites
Monster's Nature: Humanoid
Appearance: Colorful skin (Purple)
Culture: To produce art is the greatest deed an individual can accomplish.
Elements: Rock, Mucus
Powers:
Animate Dead: Can animate up to 2 times its HD of undead minions. They last until killed again.
Psychic Attack: All enemies within nearby range must make a willpower test or suffer a damage die 1 step lower than normal and receive a negative die for all actions for HD rounds.
Weaknesses:
True beauty

Humanoids with skin like obsidian, capable of harnessing elemental magics of the minerals in the Glass Desert. They can produce a mucus-like substance capable of preserving organic tissue in obsidian, and can psychically reanimate these mummies to do their bidding. They believe in art and aesthetics at the expense of all else, and take much care in how they taxidermy and mummify their undead minions, often transforming them into exotic, beautiful, and horrifying chimeras. Although generally hostile to other living beings, seeing them as little more than raw materials, they will honor any individuals they believe have or can produce True Beauty.

8. Bony Chaos Fiends
Monster's Nature: Humanoid
Appearance: protruding bones
Culture: Transformation and constant change are essential to save Chaos from the tyranny of Order.
Elements: Acid, Fire
Powers:
Command animals: Can command a number of animals up to the creature's HD.
Scale Surfaces: Can move over walls, ceilings and other non-horizontal surfaces like a spider.
Weaknesses:
Hubris

Fiery, solar-powered humanoids covered in protruding bones. Much of the bone exoskeleton is relatively soft and spongy, more like the cell walls of plants, and has a greenish or purple hue from photosynthesizing agents. However, the hard protrusions, treated with natural acids that calcify them, are harder than normal bone, able to penetrate even iron armor. They use the solar energy to grow new protrusions over the span of days, and use natural acids to dissolve older protrusions. They believe in absolute chaos, and change their bony appearance regularly as a manifestation of this belief. They are also excellent climbers, using their protrusions as hooks, broken protrusions as picks, and even micro-protrusions as spider-like grips. They believe in their doctrine absolutely, and often to a fault. They see any intelligent lifeforms that do not believe in absolute chaos as profane, and will slaughter them without hesitation. While excellent improvisational tacticians, those who are systematic and can survive their onslaught may exploit their lack of order with good strategy. They also have one other ability; they develop a special acid, stored in broken off protrusions which, when struck into unintelligent animals, hijacks their nervous system and slaves them to the bony chaos fiend. They become quite angry when called out for this act of control over nature, given their chaotic doctrine.

9. Qlippoth Claymore
Monster's Nature: Magical
Trait: Translucent body.
Form: Living weapon
Elements: Poison, Wood
Powers:
Ethereal Form: Can assume an ethereal form, becoming immune to physical attacks and can enter hard to reach places.
Create Barrier: Creates a barrier to hinder or stop movement. Barriers can also inflict damage with thorns or blades. To overcome a barrier, characters will need to make a physique or agility test.
Weaknesses:
Addiction

A powerful translucent claymore sword of qlippoth wood carved from the first branch of the eldest Qlippoth Tree. It cuts as hard and sharp as Damascus steel but is as light as air. Its cut induces disease and madness similar to the Qlippoth Tree itself. The weakest Qlippoth Trees or Qlippoth Fruit in the area will be subservient to the wielder, while the more powerful, or those under direct sway of the eldest Qlippoth Tree, will try to avoid the wielder at all costs. The blade is keyed to the wielder, and will be ethereal and untouchable to anyone else unless the wielder is killed. The blade can also harness the power of impossible light to create damaging hard-light barriers. As a blade of impossible light, it induces an epistemological distortion of self and perception, and it is easy to become addicted to the feeling of power and lack of self-awareness that comes with impossible light.

*BONUS: Qlippoth Claymore stats using the Weapon Hack 2.0

Base Form: Heavy (1d8 damage, two-handed)
Total Cost: 6
0 Cost Qualities:
Plant: Made of or contains elements of plant life or is a living plant (excludes normal Wood).
1 Cost Qualities:
Bonded: Weapon only usable by owner, cannot be removed from person without consent.
Concealable: Can be hidden from view.
Elemental (Wood): Has properties related to wood/plants (e.g. benefits to gardening, nature traversal).
Magical: Has general magical properties.
Poisonous: Can cause poisoning.
Unique Appearance: May be a well known item or associated with a well-known person or faction.

10. Mobius
Monster's Nature: Daemonic
Characteristic: Incredibly filthy
Elements: Magma, Diamond
Powers:
Time Travel: The creature can travel to the past or the future of its location.
Drain Magic: Up to HD targets within nearby range become unable to cast spells if they fail a willpower test. This lasts for HD turns.
Repulsion: Makes it hard for creatures of a certain type (referee's discretion) to approach. Characters can resist with a willpower test.
Weaknesses:
Obsession

A true diamond-in-the-rough. A daemon of molten diamond birthed from the event that glassed the Glass Desert. It is a vaguely humanoid, vaguely bestial chimera, covered in dead copper-bugs and other small dead things and slime molds. Only its glistening diamond eyes and the glowing-hot lines around them belie its unfulfilled beauty. It feeds off the radiation and magical energies of the Glass Desert, and produces an impossible-light radiation field around itself, repelling impossible organisms and impossible substances. It is trapped in a mobius time loop starting from the moment the Glass Desert was glassed, up to some synchronous event in the past, future, or adjacently in multi-dimensional hyper-time. It is obsessed with breaking from the loop, but has yet to meet an organism with sufficient knowledge and domain over hyper-time that is not hostile, and can be communicated with. It is mostly mortal-like in intelligence and cognition, except for its innate understanding of hyper-time, and as a result would make for an excellent ally or font of knowledge to any who can help it with its obsession. However, it has no tolerance for anyone who gets in its way.

* NOTE: Hyper-time as described here is basically the Paraverse in my Phantasmos campaign setting.


Kyana BONUS!

Monster's Nature: Magical
Trait: The creature levitates just above ground, having a supernatural lightness.
Form: Giant eye with bloody veins
Elements: Ashes, Mucus, Steam, Air, Earth
Powers: 
Spread Shadows: An aura of shadows extends up to nearby range, blocking the vision of anyone within this space. 
Weaknesses: Addiction

Giants are bigger than any man and the magic of giants is bigger than any mortal magic. It pumps through their blood, it courses through their hearts, it looks at you from their eyes. When a giant dies some parts of them don't fully die the way the mortals do. An eye tears itself free and soars, its nerves and veins trailing like a macabre peacock tail. The gift of foresight for which so many giants are known for is still here, but death inverts its meaning: in the presence of the eye all kinds of vision becomes obscure, and all knowledge becomes occult. Words erode from the books, eyesight darkens, memory clouds, clairvoyant and prophetic visions perceive at best lacunae about everything that is in vicinity of the eye. Surrounded by darkness, both literal and metaphorical, the eye hunts for arcane blood. Sometimes a bold sorcerer seeks such eye to bind it as a familiar or weapon, but wherever the eye exists the air turns to hot ashen steam, and earth seeps with mucus not unlike the putrid liquid from decomposing corpse which makes such familiar obvious after a while.

It is because the binds of giant magic is stronger than of any mortal sorcery, and the giant is never fully separated from their eye, and just like their magic the giant never truly dies but sleeps instead in death dream to one day reawaken.


Monster's Nature: Daemonic
Characteristic: Morbid obesity
Elements: Mucus, Blood, Glass, Light, Lightning
Powers: 
Turn to Stone: victims that look into the creature's eyes must make a physique test or be turned to stone.
Dominate: can dominate the mind of a number of creatures equal to its HD. Victims can resist with a willpower test.
Weaknesses: Aversion to some substance or object

At first you see something like a huge pigskin sack, packed to the point of bursting with some unseen angular things that push and press against the leather, forming odd bumps. The pigskin sack is disgusting but, like a car crash, there is a certain gravity in its appearance, the one that binds your interest and makes its harder to look away. If you do manage to look away very quickly the danger will never come to be, and the sack remains nothing more than a disturbing image in a mind, as the the creature doesn't come to being unless observed. The blood of sorcerers, the one that obscuring eye so longs for, will protect you, as long it is out of veins and smeared all over your own skin, as the creature will fade from the field of view peacefully and simply wait for another victim.

If you keep staring a couple of seconds later you'll notice the dripping red-foamed slime, full of tiny, hot-white sparks – thin, vein-like rivulets of slime are seeping from wounds left by shards of stained glass that pierce the sack at oddest angles, as if the church window exploded into it. Then tiny lightnings that dance between these shards. Then you notice the maw, full of blunt, crushing and all too big teeth, and then the eyes, and then the you'd see nothing, as brief pain envelops you and you turn to stone.


Wednesday, November 21, 2018

BIG UPDATE: Good news / Bad news

This is not a content post, just an update. Without giving my whole life story, basically I was just offered a major opportunity that will involve me moving from Colorado to New York and starting a new career, all of which will involve many major lifestyle changes. I need to be in New York for work by mid-January, meaning really I need to be in New York in like a month, and on top of that I will probably be very busy with work stuff for several months afterwards.

It's possible that I've made this enough of a regular part of my life that even amidst all the chaos I will be able to keep up with the blog, but likely I will have to scale back significantly, posting less frequently and less ambitiously, and certainly I will have to be less active in the community.

My hope is that once things settle I'll be able to be more involved again, and again without going into all the minutia, this new career should put me in a position to do things I am not currently able to do, like commission more art or maybe fund a book. So that's exciting!

Anyway, I knew there was a good chance this would happen so I've been trying to restrain myself and slow down my posting, and I've been working on building up a backlog so that the transition will be more seamless. Maybe I'm overestimating how all-consuming these changes will be and there'll be no discernible difference. I just wanted to put this out there so that if, over the winter, it seems like I'm receding or disappear, you all know I'm ok and hopefully not gone forever!

Thank you all so much!

Sunday, November 18, 2018

Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Mythological Characteristics

This post includes a table for Mythological Characteristics for my Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Automatic Monster Generator, which is an automated version of the monster generator found in the SS&SS Addendum. It's a fun, rules-light, OSR-style system and I would recommend you check it out!

The generator in the book listed "Mythological" as one of the natures, but it's not actually in the book! This is my attempt to fill that gap by coming up with my own "Mythological Characteristics". This table has also been added to the automatic generator so follow that link if you want to make mythological monsters!





d20Mythological Characteristics
1Angelic wings and halo
2Aura of light
3Ichor-tinted skin (blue blood)
4Like a baroque statue or wearing baroque armor
5Unusual skin (1d4: 1 - Metallic; 2 - Pastel; 3 - Stone or marble; 4 - Iridescent) - skin type may indicate resistance to certain types of damage
6Wears or is encircled by holy beads or stones
7Wears, wields, or is made of advanced-looking magi-tech
8Melodic voice
9Produce sounds like a masterwork instrument
10Wears, is encircled by, or is made of holy flowers
11Has a pack of spirit animals or is a spirit animal
12Carries many books or tablets of a holy or legal nature
13Fey-like butterfly wings, pointed ears, large eyes, and sparkles
14Like an expressionist painting come to life
15The platonic form of beauty
16Rides on or is surrounded by clouds
17Summons and surfs on shooting stars
18Is a living planet, star, or other celestial body
19Is a living dimension
20Is unassuming (roll another nature, appears as that)

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

High Level Games: 5 Ways to Make Interesting Characters




Two posts in one day! Whoops! Well, the awesome HLG blog posted my new article today, 5 Ways to Make Interesting Characters. My other posts there, 5 Ways to Make Fantasy Worlds Fantastical Again and 5 Steps to Make Monsters that Matter (A Halloween Special) have been more about worldbuilding, so it was exciting to talk about something slightly different. Please give it a look!

Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Automatic Monster Generator

I'm currently playing in a science fantasy game run by z_bill and we're using this cool, OSR-like system called Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells (hereafter referred to as SS&SS). The SS&SS Addendum includes a cool monster generator, and this is an automatized version of that generator. Both books are available for PWYW so I hope they don't mind me making this available publicly, but if not I'll pull it down. Hopefully people find this useful and it draws attention to this cool game. I may create a follow-up to this if it's well received, but for now it's a mostly straight translation of the generator from the book, which I would strongly encourage you to buy! If this post encourages you to check out the game, please comment below!

Note that some of the text refers to mechanics specific to SS&SS, but most of it can be easily converted to OSR or other systems. For instance, positive/negative die just means roll twice and take the better/worse result.

Frank Frazetta is the king of Sword & Sorcery Art
Generate Creature

Note that I have removed amalgam options and certain other options from the autogenerator for the time being but they are in the below tables. Additionally, the book lists a 'Mythological' Nature but I'm not finding it in the book, either because I'm going crazy 0.o or they forgot to include it or forgot to remove it, so I have added my own set of Mythological Characteristics.

Number of Elements:
Number of Additional Powers:
Number of Weaknesses:




d12Monster's Nature
1Humanoid
2Beast
3Plant
4Prehistoric
5Undead
6Magical
7Technological
8Alien
9Aberration
10Mythological
11Daemonic
12Amalgamation (mix 1d3+1 natures)

d20Humanoid Appearance
1Elongated limbs (can make melee attacks to opponents within nearby range)
2Giant head
3Shortened limbs (slow movement)
4Elastic limbs (can make melee attacks to opponents within nearby range)
5Extra pair of arms (can act one more time per round)
6Extra pair of legs (can move twice per round)
7Extra heads (receives a positive die to mental actions)
8Scaly skin (-1d of damage reduction)
9Colorful skin (1d8: 1 - Yellow; 2 - Orange; 3 - Red; 4 - Purple; 5 - Blue; 6 - Emerald; 7 - Gray; 8 - Transparent) - Color may indicate resistance to certain types of damage
10Without body hair
11With flashy hair or fur
12Small body (positive die to hide)
13Large body (positive die to physical actions)
14No distinction between genders (or without genders)
15Skeletal body
16Corpulent body
17protruding bones
18extra eyes (positive die on perception tests)
19Eyeless (augmented senses)
20Traits of other nature (roll again on the monster's nature table, ignoring the humanoid result)

d20Humanoid Culture
1Praises brute strength above all else and dominates inferior races.
2The search for knowledge moves this race through the cosmos.
3Carnal pleasures are all that matters.
4The search for spiritual growth is the most noble quest of an individual.
5Hoards riches at any cost, even taking it from weaker races.
6To reproduce and spread to all corners of the cosmos.
7Dominate intellectually all other cultures.
8To produce art is the greatest deed an individual can accomplish.
9Technological development is the most noble cause to pursue.
10Sorcery is a stain that must be cleaned from the world.
11The accumulation of magical power is the only way to secure our superiority.
12To bring our god to this world is our main task.
13To remain isolated from other races is our main safety guarantee.
14Hunt the most powerful beast to prove your worth.
15Never suppress your primal instincts as savagery is the purest state of being.
16The quest for the promised land is the main task of our people.
17To obey all the wishes and desires of the Queen-Mother, whatever they may be.
18Only by the end of the world as we know it we can build a better one.
19Life has no meaning and is empty, nothing and no one can alter this truth.
20Transformation and constant change are essential to save Chaos from the tyranny of Order.

d12Bestial Form
1Torso of one animal and legs of another.
2Head of an animal, limbs of another and the body of a third.
3Multiple animal heads with the body of another.
4Humanoid body with an animal head.
5Body of an animal, tail of another and wings of a third.
6Headless animal with many mouths of second animal around their (changed from he) body.
7Winged head of an animal
8Body of an animal and extra arms of another.
9Animal body with a humanoid head.
10Animal with 2 torsos of different animals and no lower body.
11Humanoid torso and lower body of an animal.
12Animal mixed with other creature (roll to determine the second Monster's Nature).

d100Animals
1Bee
2Jellyfish
3Eagle
4Spider
5Baboon
6Whale
7Cockroach
8Beetle
9Goat
10Buffalo
11Hound
12Crab
13Chameleon
14Horse
15Snake
16Owl
17Crocodile
18Dromedary
19Elephant
20Scorpion
21Squirrel
22Starfish
23Falcon
24Seal
25Ant
26Rooster
27Ferret
28Grasshopper
29Goose
30Heron
31Cat
32Giraffe
33Dolphin
34Gorilla
35Raccoon
36Hyena
37Hippopotamus
38Iguana
39Alligator
40Jaguar
41Boar
42Boa Constrictor
43Centipede
44Caterpillar
45Gecko
46Lizard
47Lobster
48Lion
49Leopard
50Snail
51Dragonfly
52Wolf
53Worm
54Squid
55Monkey
56Moth
57Earthworm
58Bat
59Fly
60Adder
61Oyster
62Urchin
63Sheep
64Panther
65Duck
66Peacock
67Swordfish
68Penguin
69Piranha
70Octopus
71Pigeon
72Pig
73Hedgehog
74Sloth
75Protozoan
76Lynx
77Fox
78Frog
79Rat
80Deer
81Rhinoceros
82Nightingale
83Salamander
84Manta Ray
85Serpent
86Anteater
87Turtle
88Armadillo
89Badger
90Tiger
91Mole
92Bull
93Shark
94Bear
95Vulture
96Moose
97Mule
98Maggot
99Wasp
100Zebra

d12Plant Form
1Mushroom
2Mold
3Vines
4Grass
5Roots
6Tree
7Flower
8Fruit
9Shrubbery
10Leaf
11Algae
12Amalgam between Plant Form and other Monster's Nature

d12Plant Attacks
1Sharp thorns
2Bladed leaves
3Poisonous spores
4Crushing branches
5Strangling roots
6Explosive fruits
7Blood sucking roots
8Acid sap
9Scorching pollen
10Inserting a seed inside a victim's heart
11Scorching sun ray reflected by flowers
12Hypnotic perfume

d8Prehistoric Characteristics
1Reptilian
2Gigantic with small head
3Protruding bones
4Highly muscular with small brain
5Unicellular
6Protruding teeth and claws
7Amphibious
8Reinforced carapace

d10Undead Form
1Incorporeal, appearing as it was when alive
2Incorporeal, cadaverous appearance
3Incorporeal, gaunt appearance
4Incorporeal, foggy or deformed appearance
5Shadow
6As alive, with cold skin and white eyes
7Appearance as the moment it died, wounds still bleeding
8Appearance as a rotting corpse
9A floating head with incorporeal body
10Skeletal

d12Feeds Upon
1Blood
2Flesh
3Brains
4Vitality
5Will to live
6Dreams
7Memories
8Anger
9Fear
10Beauty
11Eyes
12Time left to live

d12Magical Traits
1Static energy radiates from the creature, lightly shocking whoever comes close.
2The creature levitates just above ground, having a supernatural lightness.
3The creature's head or body hair is always under the influence of elements (on fire, wet, blown by the wind, full of dirt).
4The creature's skin emanates a soft glow.
5The creature's eyes reflects the soul of whoever gazes at it.
6Little energy crystals are scattered throughout the creature's body.
7The creature's skin changes color according to its humor.
8Translucent body.
9Small energy spheres orbit around the creature.
10The creature appears different for every person who looks at it.
11Strange runes and symbols cover the creature's body.
12Tree branches grow from the creature's body.

d12Magical Form
1Sphere
2Cube
3Concentric rings
4Giant eye with bloody veins
5Living energy
6Living fog
7Constant changing geometric figure
8Floating pyramid
9Living weapon
10Flying crystal
11A horde of glass insects with collective intelligence
12An amalgam of 1d4+1 Monster's Natures

d20Technological Form
1Artifical human form
2Artifical animal form
3Flying computer
4Brain inside translucent sphere
5Sphere with many monitors and mechanica arms
6War tank
7Wheeled vehicle
8Flying saucer
9Helicopter
10Oven
11Meat grinder
12Rubik's cube
13Bulldozer
14Concrete mixer
15Tripod
16Monocycle
17Millions of nanobots
18Lamp
19Telescope
20Bundles of wires and cables

d12Material
1Plastic
2Iron
3Mercury
4Steel
5Wood
6Glass fiber
7Glass
8Acrylic
9Gold
10Leather
11Textile
12Copper

d12Technological Level (all B.C./A.D. changed to B.C.E./C.E.)
1Stone age (prehistory and before)
2Bronze age (3500 B.C.E.)
3Iron age (1200 B.C.E.)
4Middle ages (600 B.C.E.)
5Age of discoveries (1450 C.E.)
6Industrial revolution (1730 C.E.)
7Mechanical age (1880 C.E.)
8Nuclear age (1940 C.E.)
9Digital age (1980 C.E.)
10Microtechnology age (nanotechnology and other amazing advances)
11Space age (space travel and colonization)
12Time age (time travel)

d12Means of Travel
1Meteor
2Black hole
3Portal opened by sorcerer-king
4Dimensional storm
5Astral projection
6Cavern complex with extra-planar connections
7A bridge extending to another world
8Magical ship sailing on cosmic currents
9Winged creatures that ride the cosmos
10Space ship
11Teleporting device
12Intersecting planet

d12Specific Purposes
1Harvest natural resources.
2Colonize a new world.
3Escape the destruction of their original world.
4Search for ancestors that visited this world.
5Dominate this new world.
6Conduct scientific experiments.
7Warn natives of an incoming doom.
8Eat all that it can find.
9To reproduce with another species.
10Gather slaves for an important task.
11To learn and collect information.
12To prevent a catastrophic event they have foreseen.

d12Aberrant Form
1Amorphous
2Oval
3Sphere
4Conical
5Cylinder
6Pyramid
7Ring
8Icosahedron
9Bidimensional
10Tetradimensional
11Similar to another Monster's Nature
12Mixture of 1d4+1 Monster's Nature

d12Aberrant Characteristics
1Hundreds of eyes of different types and sizes cover the creature's body.
2Hundreds of mouths of different sizes and shapes cover the creature's body and spew a disgusting goo.
3Body covered by irregular thorns that inject hallucinogenic poison.
4Body covered with small lips that keep pronouncing alien poetry which drives listeners insane.
5Several tentacles cover the creature's body.
6Faces of several different beings in agonizing expressions cover the creature's body.
7Bubbles expelling nauseous smells forms all over the creature's body.
8Hundreds of clawed hands form and dissipate over the creature's body.
9Hundreds of genitalia cover the creature's body.
10The creature's body is covered with holes expelling feces.
11Gelatinous and transparent body, exposing all the bizarre organs inside.
12Roll 1d4 times.

d20Daemonic Characteristics
1Goat horns
2Shadow body
3Goat legs
4Empty eye sockets
5Flame eyes
6Forked tail
7Fangs
8Bat wings
9Skeletal wings
10Blood covered body
11Crawling with insects
12Morbid obesity
13Incredibly filthy
14Mucus covering the body
15Body covered with dark thorns
16Crawling with serpents
17Extremely beautiful
18Horrendous
19Guttural voice
20Melodic voice

d20Element
1Earth
2Water
3Fire
4Air
5Rock
6Magma
7Ashes
8Sand
9Wood
10Mud
11Steam
12Blood
13Metal
14Mucus
15Acid
16Poison
17Lightning
18Light
19Glass
20Diamond

d100Powers
1Acid Attack: Acid deals a die of damage 1 step below normal for the creature's HD for HD rounds.
2Acid Blood: When an attacker inflicts damage in close range to the creature they must make an agility test or suffer a damage die 1 step below the normal for the creature's HD.
3Cause Blindness: Blinds a target for 1d4 rounds per HD. The target receives 2 negative dice for any action that relies on vision.
4Imprison: The creature imprisons a target in a viscous substance, requiring the victim to make a physique test to escape.
5Earthquake: Causes an earthquake up to far range, collapsing building and causing other damage. Creatures in the area must make an agility test or are knocked to the floor.
6Tunneling: Can move through solid earth as normal.
7Destroy Metal: Metal objects that touch the creature's body are damaged and become useless. When an attacker hits the creature, they must make a luck roll to see if their weapon is ruined.
8Destroy Wood: Wooden objects are destoyed if they come into contact with the creature's skin. When an attacker hits the creature, they must make a luck roll to see if their weapon is ruined.
9Lacerate: After the attack, the target receives a negative die to all physical actions for HD rounds.
10Corrode Minerals: Rocks and other minerals can be dissolved by the creature, allowing it to pass through walls.
11Animate Object: Gives a life to inanimate objects, transforming them into monsters under the creature's command. The creature can animate a number of objects equal to its HD.
12Suffocation: Drains the air from its victims' lungs.
13Repulsion: Makes it hard for creatures of a certain type (referee's discretion) to approach. Characters can resist with a willpower test.
14Bleeding: In addition to normal damage, this attack causes bleeding, making the target lose a damage die 1 step below normal for the creature's HD per round until the wound is treated.
15Necrosis: This attack causes necrosis and the victim loses 1 point of physique or agility per day until a cure is found.
16Disease: Causes grave and potentially deadly disease (referee may impose attribute damage, negative dice and loss of HP). Victims can make a willpower test to resist it.
17Incubation: An egg or seed is inserted inside the target and it will generate another monster in a set amount of time, leading to the victim's death.
18Drain Attribute: Victim loses 1d4 points of a specific attribute. The target can usually resist with an appropriate attribute test.
19Power vortex: Summons an energy storm that affects all creatures in nearby range who suffer a damage die 1 step lower than normal, unless they make an agility test for half damage. The storm lasts for HD rounds.
20Confusion: Makes victim confused and disoriented, receiving a negative die to all actions for a number of rounds determined by the creature's damage die.
21Freezing Attack: In addition to normal damage, targets must make physique tests or are frozen, imprisoned and incapable of moving for HD rounds.
22Command plants or animals: Can command a number of plants or animals up to the creature's HD.
23Curse: Curses a victim who can resist with a willpower test. The referee will come up with the curse effect (which can have mechanical and narrative effects). Additionally, the target's luck die is lowered by 1 step until the curse is broken.
24Create Barrier: Creates a barrier to hinder or stop movement. Barriers can also inflict damage with thorns or blades. To overcome a barrier, characters will need to make a physique or agility test.
25Instant Death: Kills target instantly unless it passes an appropriate attribute test.
26Slow Death: Target acquires a malady that kills them slowly. They suffer a damage die or loss of attribute points daily and cannot heal this unless a cure is found.
27Drain Life: Causes a damage die 1 step lower than normal but the creature regains the same amount of HP.
28Dimensional Confinement: Imprisons a target in an extra-planar space. The victim can only be freed by killing the creautre.
29Multidimensional: The creature exists in multiple plans, hopping from one to another in the blink of an eye, Every time the creature is hit, the attacker makes a luck roll to determine if the creature did not hop to another dimension the moment it was being hit, avoiding damage.
30Drain Memories: Target loses memories, making it harder to remember information. A luck roll is made to determine if a particular subject or spell was forgotten. One memory is forgotten per attack. This effect is permanent.
31Electric Damage: When hitting a target with this ability, creatures within close range must make a luck roll or suffer a damage die 1 step below normal.
32Electric Creature: Electricity runs through the creature's body and those carrying metal objects that touch it must make a luck roll or take a damage die 1 step below normal.
33Magnetic Field: Weapons and armor made of metal that make contact with the creature can becomes tuck unless the attacker makes a physique test.
34Scare: Forces targets that see the creature to make a willpower test or suffer a negative die on all tests against it.
35Dominate: Can dominate the mind of a number of creatures equal to its HD. Victims can resist with a willpower test.
36Induce Rage: Targets within nearby range must make a willpower test or be driven into a rage, attackig anyone within close range in the most violent way they can for a number of rounds equal to the creature's HD.
37Cause Apathy: Causes apathy in up to HD targets (who can resist with a willpower test). Those afffected must make a willpower test to act each round.
38Cause Ecstacy: The creature's touch causes ecstasy, paralyzing victims with pleasure for HD rounds, unless they pass a physique test.
39Sleep: Can put to sleep all opponents within nearby range. Targets can resist with a physique test.
40Incendiary Attack: This attack can set a target on fire, causing the same amount of damage on the following rounds unless the victim makes an agility test to dampen the flames.
41Flaming Body: Anyone within close range receives a damage die 2 steps below normal for the creature's HD.
42Explosion: Causes an explosion that deals 1d6 points of damage per HD to anyone within close range. An agility test can reduce this damage to half.
43Hallucination: Alters the target's perception, making him believe in things that are not there. Targets can resist with an intellect test. This lasts for HD turns.
44Project Illusion: Affects an area up to far range, creating an illusion that affects all senses. Can be resisted with a willpower test.
45Freezing Aura: Affects an area up to nearby range, dropping thee temperature to a level below freezing. Targets need to make a physique test to avoid being frozen into place.
46Crush: Target is crushed by the creature and can make a physique test per round to escape or suffer a damage die 1 step lower than normal.
47Immobilize: Targets within nearby range must make an appropriate attribute test or cannot move for 1d4 rounds per creature's HD.
48Induce Insanity: A target up to far range must make an intellect test or acquire a madness relating to the creature. To cure himself, the character will need a number of years equal to the creature's HD.
49Cause Stupidity: Affects on target per creature's HD if they fail an intellect test. The affected become stupid and unlearned, incapable of taking intelligent actions, remembering languages and spells. This usually lasts for HD hours.
50Spread Shadows: An aura of shadows extends up to nearby range, blocking the vision of anyone within this space.
51Shadow Step: The creature can travel through shadows, covering great or small distances.
52Ethereal Form: Can assume an ethereal form, becoming immune to physical attacks and can enter hard to reach places.
53Augmented Senses: The creature has sharp senses, sensing slight changes in its surroundings. Character's receive a negative die when trying to deceive it.
54Extra Senses: The creature has an additional sense like thermal vision, sonar, E.S.P., aura vision, etc.
55Multiple Attacks: Can make additional attacks per round up to their total number of HD.
56Bad Luck: Double the chances of random encounters for up to HD creatures who fail a willpower test for HD days.
57Drain Magic: Up to HD targets within nearby range become unable to cast spells if they fail a willpower test. This lasts for HD turns.
58Telekinesis: The creature can move objects or beings (physique test to resist) with its mind and can make attacks with this power.
59Steal Memories: Steal the memories of up to HD targets, becoming able to assume their personalities. Can be resisted with a willpower test.
60Duplicate Appearance: Can assume the appearance of a touched target for up to HD days.
61Fly: The creature can move through the air with freedom, avoiding obstacles and hazards.
62Scale Surfaces: Can move over walls, ceilings and other non-horizontal surfaces like a spider.
63Amphibious: Can live and act freely on land and water.
64Impair Movement: A target up to nearby range needs twice as much effort and actions to move unless they pass an appropriate attribute test. This lasts for HD turns.
65Open Portal: Open portals to other places and planes that can last for up to HD turns.
66Poison: The creature's attack is poisoned with a substance with an intensity equal to its HD.
67Animate Dead: Can animate up to 2 times its HD of undead minions. They last until killed again.
68Enlarge or Reduce: The creature can increase or decrease its size, improving or reducing its HD and damage die 1 step. Some creatures can use this power on other targets. Can resist with a physique test. Lasts for HD turns.
69Reproduce Sound: Can imitate any sound heard in the last HD days.
70Sonic Attack: Can emit a specific frequency capable of damaging living beings and/or structures within nearby range/ Those who fail an agility test suffer the normal damage for the creature's HD. Success indicates half damage.
71Spell Casting: Can cast spells as a Magic User. Treat as having a willpower of 10 + HD and knowing a number of spells equal to its HD.
72Regenerate: Regenerates a number of HP per round equal to its HD.
73Cause Deformity: A target touched by the creature is deformed unless it passes a physique test. The deformity can have various effects, from social rejection to attribute damage.
74Animal Form: Can assume up to HD different animal forms.
75Energy Ray: The creature can fire an energy ray that does 1d6 points of damage per HD to a terget up to far range that fails an agility test.
76Reinforced Carapace: Grants damage reduction of -1d or -2d on the dice chain.
77Invisibility or Camouflage: The creature can become invisible or can use camouflage, requiring an intellect test with a negative die to be detected.
78Immunity to Mundane Attacks: The creature can only be harmed by magical attacks and weapons.
79Magical Immunity: The creature is immune to magical attacks and weapons.
80Variable Immunity: The creature is immune to a certain type of attack (fire, metal weapons, electricity, etc.).
81Magical Resistance: Receives a positive die to resist magical effects.
82Divide: The creature can divide itself into several copies, splitting its total HD between them. The copies keep all other stats normally and attack as if having its total HD.
83Reflect Attacks: Can reflect a number of attacks per round equal to its HD. The creature makes an attack against the attribute used in the original one to hit the target.
84Invoke Ally: Can summon a similar creature of the same amount of HD. A character can make a luck roll to avoid this effect.
85Immortal: The creature cannot die naturally and a condition must be met for the creature to be truly killed.
86Teleport: The creature is capable of moving through space with just its thoughts, changing locations instantly. This can be used a number of times equal to its HD per day.
87Thorns: The creature has thorns over its body, making everyone within close range make an agility test to avoid taking HD points of damage. Some of these creatures can expel these thorns up to nearby range, causing normal damage according to its HD.
88Read Minds: Can read the minds of everyone within far range, making it impossible to surprise this creature in combat. Additionally, it receives a positive die in its attacks and imposes a negative die on attacks against it.
89Absorption: Can absorb the energy of a specific type of attack (kinetic energy, magic, fire), transforming the potential damage into healing.
90Swallow: On a critical hit (or by taking the target to its mouth with another attack), the creature swallows the victim, who will suffer the normal damage of the monster per round automatically. The target can escape if he inflicts the number of HD the creature has in damage in a single attack.
91Disintegrate: Can disintegrate matter within far range with a ray up to HD times per day. If used as an attack, the ray kills any creature who fails an agility test. Those who succeed suffer 2d6 points of damage per HD.
92Duplicate: Can generate up to HD illusory copies of itself. Copies can be distinguished with an intellect test.
93Improved Damage: The normal damage of the creatures HD is increased by 1 step on the HD table.
94Psychic Attack: All enemies within nearby range must make a willpower test or suffer a damage die 1 step lower than normal and receive a negative die for all actions for HD rounds.
95Silence: A point affecting an area with nearby range has all the sound silenced. This lasts for up to HD rounds.
96Turn to Stone: Victims that look into the creature's eyes must make a physique test or be turned to stone.
97Create Matter: Generates matter of a specific type (wood, stone, gold, crystal) of a volume equal to a cubic foot per HD per day.
98Time Travel: The creature can travel to the past or the future of its location.
99Foresee Future: The creature can see into the future up to HD decades.
100Combine two abilities into one.

d20Monster's Weakness
1Vanity
2Stupidity
3Vulnerable special part
4Can't distance itself from a specific place
5Need to feed constantly
6Life depends on a specific item
7Vulnerable to certain type of attack
8Aversion to some substance or object
9Methodic compulsion
10Honor code
11Circumstantial weakness
12Powerful enemy
13Addiction
14Obsession
15Vulnerability in another dimension
16Simply knowing its True Name makes it weak
17Weakness after a ritual
18Fears its own reflection
19Hubris
20True beauty