Traverse Fantasy

My homebrew heartbreaker Cinco is looking right at home with a non-granular " hits-to-kill " measure for opponents in violent encounters. Besides keeping things simple, it also redirects attention away from raw numbers, towards the fiction. Here are what " abstract monsters " look like now: Bracket Hearts Damage Minion (M) 1 ½ Grunt (G) 2 1 Elite (E) 4 2 Boss (B) 8 3 So, let's talk about dragons. A dragon could be one hulking mass with 8 hearts that deals 3 damage on a single landed hit. This definitely keeps it simple, but is that super interesting? Why not split its 8 hearts between 3 parts: its body and two clawed wings? Each wing functions as a "grunt", having 2 hearts and dealing 1 damage—easy enough to stand up against, but not really the brunt of the beast. The dragon's body, however, has 4 hearts and deals 2 damage. This means the dragon will bite and kill anyone who faces it head-on. This is less about de...

FIVEY uses brackets to place monsters in one of five categories: mooks, grunts, elites, lieutenants, and bosses. This makes it really easy and quick to come up with a monster and basically speak it into existence! You just need a bracket, a defense class, and some abilities. Monster Brackets Bracket HD GA D/A Mook (M) 1 +1 2 (1d4) Grunt (G) 2 +2 3 (1d6) Elites (E) 4 +3 4 (1d8) Lieutenants (L) 8 +4 5 (1d10) Bosses (B) 16 +5 6 (1d12) Your monster's bracket determines their hit dice (HD), their general ability stat (GA), and their average damage per action (D/A). Hit dice are used to determine or randomize their total hit points: you can roll that many d6s, or just multiply by 4 if you're in a rush. The general ability stat is the monster's base stat for stat checks or contests, which is doubled for tasks at which the monster is considered skilled. Damage per action is basically self-explanatory, especially if you use the example dama...

I think RuPaul is fucking hilarious, sue me about it. My brain can't resist the punny potential between drag and dragon , especially when villain characters are so often played out to be extremely gay and campy (because gay people are evil, of course!). The more I thought about it, the more I got really into it. So, without further ado. See the FIVEY monster rules if you need help interpreting the stat block! Though it's pretty bog-standard. Roople, Dragon Queen ( Boss ; HD 16, DC 20, GA +5, MV 8/16) A draaagon queeen? I am the QUEEN OF DRAGONS! Now, sashay... away. Roople, about to annihilate a disrespectful bard. Roople is an ancient dragon with prismatic scales and a silver tongue. She finds beauty in things that reflect her image, and her lair is (in her eyes) the most beautiful thing of all. She hoards fine dinnerware and sculptures made of glass, and the very walls of her lair were carved out from the inside of a ginormous amethyst geode. Many people fear Roople fo...

What is there to say about a nekoblin ( D4, A1 )? They're extremely little. And stupid. They love to scream and shout. They have a ravenous hunger but are too helpless to do anything about it themselves. Nekoblins are the perfect minions to throw at a problem over and over again until it goes away. The best part is that for as feisty as they are, no one really wants to hurt them. They're just cute and silly and stupid. What are you going to do about it? Should you find yourself dealing with a nekoblin, you won't have too hard a time: they're food-motivated and easily distracted. It's much worse when you have to wrangle a bunch of them together, in which case they're going to keep each other distracted and make you frustrated. When a nekoblin pounces at a target as far away as their maximum movement, they add their maximum grit to damage dealt. I guess I need movement rates now. Ummm 4? Like 4 squares? Their full statblock is (D4, A1, M4) now. DAM!

Using the simple monster scheme : D(anger) and A(rmor). Slimes come in three sizes: small (D2, A1), medium (D4, A1), and large (D8, A1). Small slimes do little harm, especially if one were to wear decent-enough armor. A small slime is funny. A medium slime is annoying. A large slime is dangerous. They are all pretty slow, jumping and jiggling around, so they are easy to run circles around. More likely, however, is that they will block passages and require you to deal with them anyway. When a large slime would take damage due to a bladed or blunt weapon, it will instead split into two medium slimes. Likewise, a medium slime splits into two small slimes when it would otherwise lose flesh to such a weapon. Small slimes will just perish. Missiles (or pointy things in general) don't do anything against medium and large slimes. Sometimes they shoot right through, other times they get stuck inside. Common sense kind of thing. The good news is that slimes are highly flammable. Burning...

12 is always a wizard, because all of our games could use more wizards in them. Because wizards are the coolest, fuck you wizard haters. Nick LS Whelan, “ Structuring Encounter Tables, Amended & Restated ” (2022-07-22) Wizard is an animal of danger 12 and armor 3 , three-legged and as large as a farm pig . It is white-skinned and hairless except for its hind leg ; its epidermis has been characterized as a membrane . The hat on its head is part of its body , and is dangerous to the touch , though physiologically it is just a hat . Wizards grow indefinitely, and stop for nothing but themselves . They are generally gentle and docile but also prone to fits of violent rage ; they are feral animals , after all. However, this is mostly directed at other wizards as a form of play. They will not attack human beings unless provoked, and will remain calm if not approached . Let them come to you. They can teleport at will to escape harm (i.e. on their next action after being harmed), or...