Creatures of the Chaos

it’s as big, as wide, as long, or as high as...

2-3. a hand or kitten

4-6. seven large bananas, tip to tip, preferably unpeeled

7-9. a christmas tree

10-11. ...well, think of how high a basketball hoop is, then fill it out!

12. ...what’s the largest thing you’ve ever seen? ...Err...

 

the max health of each is...

easy. 1+ party’s total max health

hard. 6 + party’s total max health

oh boy! 12 + party’s total max health

 

its ‘to hit’ is...

easy. ±0

hard. +1

oh boy! +2

 

the damage each can do is...

easy. 1d6 - 1, or 3

hard. 1d6 + 1, or 5

oh boy! 1d6 + 6, or 10

 

its grit score is...

easy. 2d6, or 7

hard. 2d6 +2, or 9

oh boy! 2d6 + 3, or 10

 

decide how many there are, or there’s...

3d6 of them, if each one’s easy, 2d6 if they’re hard, 1d6 if they’re totally bad ass & don’t need help! Read the moment, add more or have some bolt if you’d like to balance the scenario.

 

it might attack (1-5) once or (6) twice each round, by...

2. animating the inanimate, by mind or magnetism

3. bludgeoning or head-butting or barrelling

4. consuming or sucking or scraping or deafening

5. drilling into the mind and strangling or influencing what’s there

6. freezing or burning or radiating inside or out

7. fusing with the elements and bending them to its will

8. natural spikes or darts or spores or splashes or spills

9. piercing or possessing the soul

10. poisoning or infecting or corroding inside or out

11. teeth, claws, or by whatever’s natural or attached to it

12. wielding or projecting a weapon or more of your choice

 

it protects itself with...

2. nothing (±0)

3-4. armour scraps (-1)

5-6. another’s flesh or bone (-2)

7-9. natural organics (-3)

10-11. arcane magicks

12. incorporeal shifts

 

creature features

Now you have their basics, let’s flesh ‘em out!

 

HOLD ON THERE!!! I hear you - where’s the creature traits scores? Yep, well spotted. So rather than rolling up creatures’ traits, only roll them up if they’re needed in the moment. For example, if there’s a contested roll or something needs avoided, just roll 3d6 to get the trait, and then another 3d6 to see if they manage to roll under it and succeed. Character(s)' traits are all varied & rolled up at random, reflecting that everyone’s unique in The Realm, and so the same goes for creatures - each one will vary in traits if the question comes up...but more often than not, to check how a creature reacts, remember rapid rulin’? - you could just roll the odds and see what the Fate of the Realm dictates...

 

As for what to call your creations, the first time the character(s) see one, they won’t know what the heck it is. So let them name it. Let them flesh out what it looks like to their character(s). Beyond that...

 

aside from attack or defend, it can also...

2. be real tricky to catch or to find or to hear or to see

3. cast arcane magicks it’s marked or burnt or infused with

4. give you the strange feeling that you’re actually elsewhere

5. glue together with others and harvest their energy

6. grab you in its thrall if you’re not careful

7. grapple, restrain, suffocate, engulf, or can even turn you mad!

8. look entirely like something else, or like someone else, until...

9. nullify or minimise or deflect or mimic arcane effects

10. regenerate its health, even if it’s fallen

11. seem like it knows in advance what you’re about to do or to say

12. spread fear or stress or blindness or paralysis or exhaustion

 

unless it’s obvious or its grit results suggest something, or if you’ve no other ideas, right now it needs to...

2. complete its unfinished...business

3. defend its territory or its kin or something as yet unknown

4. destroy or control all in its path

5. escape imprisonment, shackles, tethers, commands

6. escape or distract a threat that’s yet to present itself to the party

7. find a new purpose, victim, master, friend, soul, host

8. find what it’s looking to hoard, eat, or drink

9. follow the command of its master, who may be en route

10. learn or adapt or to survive this new environment around it

11. mate or assimilate or implant

12. trade or swap something the party has or might be able to find

 

final notes - death, loot, minions

As for death, you’re free to say that when a creature’s health falls to zero, it’s a gonner, or if you prefer, to use the lastin’ wounds process and the like as you do for characters.

 

For creatures’ loot, try to think what might naturally be there, what’s likely there given their needs or the location, or use The Swag deck or some other random tables you like the look of.

 

Oh, and if you’d prefer to quicken things up even more and make a bunch of your creatures into a minion group or pack that acts together in a more abstract way in fights, just add up & combine their max health, and they’ll act and attack as one in each round but with a + modifier based on how many of them there are left, also maybe adding something cool they can do if in a pack.

 

oh, and err, most creatures see fine in the dark - soz players!

 

ready to bake creatures

 

boneplasm totem

one of many in the realm, varies in height, harvested from bones of the fallen, may sense movement, cracking open, letting veins, viscera, and eyeballs sluice out in a long, rapid, pulsing deluge.

no. of them 1 | max health 9 | armour - 3 (organic)

to hit + 2 | damage 1d6 + 1 (acidic) | grit score none (mindless)

can also spray boiling blood, reform and suck its contents back in.

needs to guard something of import nearby.

 

frother

disfigured monstrosity, human-sized, mouth of yellowed froth, with putrid grey flesh, patches of blood-darkened fur, twisted limbs of varied size, loose flesh & boils, some of which bear teeth.

no. of them 2d6 | max health 6 | armour - 2 (thick skin)

to hit +1 | damage 1d6 + 2 (teeth & claws) | grit score 9

can also grapple & teleport nearby, infect victims with mutation.

needs to spread its plague, and will try to divide & weaken its prey.

 

karrion drone

hideous, partially inside-out, child-sized insect, undead, feasting on fresh corpses but leaving behind a smear of nectar with healing qualities, heavy in the air but notoriously hard to catch.

no. of them 1d6 | max health 3 | armour - 1 (internal exo-bone)

to hit + 0 | damage 1d6 (sting, poison) | grit score 5

can also pollinate healing nectar, phase into the ethereal plane.

needs to carry its rotten nectar to the hive, and its gyne & brood.

 

screebies

tiny mechanical construct hive mind insectoids released in swarms, seek to burrow under the skin to lay ‘eggs’ which hatch more that eat the initial swarm and secrete their remains in the host.

no. of them 3d6 | max health 2 | armour - 1 (exo-carapace)

to hit - 1 | damage 1d6 - 2 (bite) | grit score 7

can also connect the host to the hive for symbiotic control.

needs to find a host before their internal circuitry fails.

 

shift mimic

taking the form of anything it likes, glare at this and before long, you’ll realise that you’ve traded places, trapped, watching it now glare at you before it moves off, in your form, with your friends.

no. of them 1 | all else per host’s stats | grit score 10

can also automate host to protect itself (GM discretion).

needs to survive, to persuade others it is the host.

 

volcartek

large earthen elemental, coated in volcanic ash, spilling out molten lava from cracked black rock, usually dormant unless disturbed, tethered as guardian to subterranean pyroduct tunnel entrances.

no. of them 1 | max health 15 | armour - 4 (rock)

to hit + 2 | damage 1d6 + 4 (slam or burn) | grit score 11

can also expand, glide over lava, sense & generate tremors.

needs to guard against passage through tunnels.

 

creature broiler

Using this nifty creature maker, you can rapidly emulate this creation process in the game for pulling together a creature on the fly. It takes all the tables above and spurts out the sauce you'll need to cook up your creature. Remember to get the players to name what it is once you've described what it looks like & what it does, and to export to PDF in case you'd like to use it again.