Today I bring you an excerpt from the Game Mastering chapter as it is currently seen in the playtest document my group has.
Creating Enemies
Whether you're sitting down to prepare enemies before a session or if you are coming up with them as you play along (as I usually do), you need to have a clear idea of what the monster looks like, its name, what it can do, where it lives and how is the enemy impacting its environment (or you can think about these things later if the player characters are going to kill it right away). Once you have that, all you need to do is choose its role which will determine its core stats, then, give it 2 or 3 special qualities if they are appropriate for the creature such as flying, swimming, or seeing in the dark. Give it at least one form of attack and you are set. We will go over below to help you make your own. Luckily, enemies on chapter XX are presented in a format that makes them easy to use right off the bat and which can also give you plenty of ideas of how you can make or modify your own enemies. Keep in mind that not all enemies match this formula 100%. Treat the steps below as guidelines rather than a strict form of creating enemies.
Enemy Name & Description
Think about what the enemy is commonly called in the world your game takes place in and write a small description about it's origins, white drives this particular enemy, where it lives and how is the enemy impacting its environment, and finally what it looks like. In settings where the creature type matters for the purpose of genetic tagging, magic item wielding, and powers and effects related to creature origin, it is best to give it a creature type such as animal, dragon, elemental, fey, humanoid, plant, and undead.
Enemy Role
An enemy can be classified as a Minion, Elite, or Boss. Each role while set their Attributes and Health. It will also give you other statistics like how much damage they do when they attack or for ongoing effects, the number of special traits it should have and of attacks. Choose an enemy role from the ones presented below:
Minion
Minions are enemies that alone don't pose much of a threat to a combat oriented character and usually go down with a well landed hit or two. However, in large groups minions can pose a thread towards characters of any tier. Minions usually have the following statistics:
- Attributes: 5, 5, 3 (distributed among Might, Agility, and Cunning).
- Health: 9
- Wounds: 4
- Special Traits: 1 or 2.
- Attacks: 1 or 2 forms of attack.
- Damage: +3 of the weapon's type. +3 for ongoing damage.
Elite
Elite enemies are tougher than minions and a single elite enemy can be a significant threat to any character. Elite enemies are usually found in pairs or leading a small group of minion enemies. Elites usually have the following statistics:
- Attributes: 5, 5, 7 (distributed among Might, Agility, and Cunning).
- Health: 12
- Wounds: 6
- Special Traits: Up to 3.
- Attacks: Up to 3 forms of attack.
- Damage: +4 of the weapon's type. +3 for ongoing damage.
Boss
Boss enemies are creatures capable of taking a group of player characters on their own. Boss enemies are tougher than all other enemies (save for other bosses), and have a large repertoire of traits and abilities. Bosses usually have the following statistics:
- Attributes: 5, 7, 7 (distributed among Might, Agility, and Cunning).
- Health: 15
- Wounds: 12
- Special Traits: Up to 4.
- Attacks: Up to 5 forms of attack.
- Damage: +6 of the weapon's type. +4 for ongoing damage.
Enemy Size
How big is your enemy? Choose a size from the ones listed below:
Diminutive
Diminutive creatures are only a few inches tall and usually pose a thread when they group to form a swarm. Diminutive creatures normally need to be on top of their target to attack in melee.
Tiny
Tiny creatures usually don't stand above 1’5’’ feet (0.4 meters) and don't weigh that much. Tiny creatures are usually unable to wield weapons not made for their size and carrying any object bigger or heavier than they are will prove highly difficult if not imposible. Tiny creatures normally need to be on top of their target to attack in melee.
Small
Small creatures usually don't stand above 4 feet (1.2 meters) and barely weigh more than 100 pounds (45 kilograms). Small creatures normally are not able to wield two-handed weapons.
Medium
Medium creatures usually don't stand above 7 feet (2 meters) and can weigh up to 500 pounds (226 kilograms).
Large
Large creatures usually don't stand above 15 feet (4.5 meters) and can weigh up to a ton or two. Large creatures generally have the following traits:
- Reach with their melee attacks against smaller creatures.
- +3 Health.
- +1 Damage.
Huge
Huge creatures usually don't stand above 30 feet (9 meters) and can weigh several tons. Huge creatures generally have the following traits:
- Reach with their melee attacks against smaller creatures.
- +6 Health.
- +2 Damage.
Colossal
Colossal creatures can stand above 50 feet (12 meters) and can weigh tens if not hundreds of tons. Colossal creatures generally have the following traits:
- Reach with their melee attacks against smaller creatures.
- +9 Health.
- +3 Damage.
Enemy Defense
What sort of protection does your enemy has? Choose one:
- Cloth or Flesh: 0 Armor.
- Light armor, casing, or hide: +1 Armor.
- Medium armor, casing, or hide: +2 Armor.
- Heavy armor, casing, or hide: +3 Armor.
- Magical or Power armor, casing, or hide: +4 Armor.
What can its armor protect it against? Choose all that apply:
- It can stop bullets: +Ballistic.
- It can stop energy weapons: +Energy.
Enemy Offense
How does the enemy usually attacks with? Choose all that apply for each form of attack:
- It can make melee attacks: + Ranged (Close).
- It's attack Keeps others at bay: +Reach.
- It can make ranged attacks (bows, pistols, powers): +Range (Near, Far, or Extreme).
- It's attacks are vicious: +2 damage.
- They can slice through rock: +1 Penetrating, +Messy.
- They can slice through thick rock and metal: +2 Penetrating, +Messy.
- They can slice through rock, metal, and high tech or magical armor: +3 Penetrating, +Messy.
Enemy Traits
What is the enemy best known for? Choose all that apply or make up your own.
- Adaptable: It has useful adaptations like seeing in the dark, flying, or swimming. Choose as many as the role suggests.
- Controller: It has a knack for crowd control. Write a special attack that helps it hinder its opponents.
- Defender: When it defends an object or place, attackers have Disadvantage while trying to get through it.
- Devious: It always has a trick up its sleeves.
- Immunity: It is immune to one or more types of damage. Creatures with immunities are usually vulnerable to other types of damage.
- Leader: It leads minions into battle. -3 Health. Write a special attack or trait that buffs its allies.
- Multi-Attacker: It can make up to three attacks to the same target or distributed among many.
- Powerful: +2 damage, +Forceful.
- Rechargeable: It has a powerful attack. Write a special attack that has a chance to recharge each round when you roll a 4 or higher on a
. The attack deals +3 damage of what the enemy is normally capable of or has a very strong effect.
- Resistant: It is resistant to one or more types of damage.
- Terrifying: It's mere presence sends its enemies into panic. Write a special attack to represent this.
- Vigorous: +3 Health.
- Vulnerable: It is vulnerable to one or more types of damage. Creatures with vulnerabilities are usually immune to other types of damage.
- Wielder: It can manifest powers. Write one or two powers it can manifest.
Enemy Tactics
Next write a short paragraph explaining how the enemy behaves when it find itself in particular situations such as when another creature grabs what it is trying to protect, when it grabs a target, when it becomes wounded, or what it does when outnumbered.
Putting It All Together
Lets go through the process of making an enemy step by step. For this example, I want to make a robot that serves as the guardian of a facility. I want it to be large and bulky enough that it can take the entire party on its own. Now that I have my enemy concept, lets jump right into the creation process.
Enemy Name & Description
I have decided to call my enemy Juggernaut Defender, it is an imposing, self explaining name in my opinion. The juggernaut will be in charge of protecting a large facility that the player characters will try to gain access to.
Enemy Role
Since I want it to be able to take an entire group of player characters, I will go with the Boss role. I am putting the two highest stats on Might and Willpower, the juggernaut is strong, has a well-encrypted computing system, and excellent surveillance equipment, but it is not that fast. Might (7), Agility (5), Willpower (7). Its Health starts at 15, and gets a Wound when it reaches 7 of Health. It can have up to 4 special traits and up to 5 forms of attack. Its damage starts at +6 of the weapon's type. and effects that deal ongoing damage coming from it start at +4.
Enemy Size
My juggernaut is exactly 15 feet tall and weighs almost a ton, so, I will go with the Large size. My juggernaut gains the Reach property, a +3 Health which brings it up to 18, and deals +1 Damage, bringing it up to +7.
Enemy Defense
My juggernaut has really thick plates that protect from all sort of attacks, I'll give power armor type of protection, it +4 Armor, +Ballistic, +Energy. There isn't anything going through that armor.
Enemy Offense
I'll give it a melee attack that I will call Punch, written down as follows. Punch; +7 Crushing, Range (Close). A fist of that size can definitely go through stone, so I will give it the it can slice through rock option which gives it +1 Penetrating, +Messy. I will also give it a ranged attack I will cal Wrist Laser, written down as follows. Wrist Laser; +7 Energy, Range
(close, near).
Enemy Traits
My enemy's role suggests it should have up to 4 traits so I will do my best to stick to that number. First, I think seeing in the dark is important for a guardian robot and also the ability to fly, for this reason I will give it Adaptable: Flight, Nightvision as special traits. Since it is a robot, I think it should be vulnerable to electricity (as seen in many comic, games, and movies). Thus, I add Vulnerabilities: Shocking Damage.
Since I am only adding a vulnerability without adding any sort of resistance or immunity, I'll go ahead and give my robot a powerful area attack. I don't want it to use the attack every round so I will choose the Rechargeable special trait that lets me write a special attack that allows me to roll a die each round to see if the attack recharges. Lastly, since my robot is meant to take a group of heroes on its own and defend a place, I will add the Defender trait.
Tactics
This section allows me to write how my enemy behaves in specific situations, be it a series of short phrases or a couple of long ones. The point is to give me as the GM cues as to how I should play this enemy and find interesting ways to describe how my juggernaut goes about applying them in the battlefield. I have written the following tactics for my robot:
- Blast a large group of opponent with Energy Blast before they scatter.
- Grab the weakest opponent and crush it in its fist, dealing damage each round.
- Use it’s Defender trait when one or multiple targets get close to the facility.
The Result
This is how my enemy looks like after adding everything together:
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