Monsters

Monsters are active dangers—things that the PCs can fight (or at least fight off ). They are usually animate and sentient, or close enough. It's a game term more than anything else, covering beasts and people, constructs and spirits, and actually monstrous foes.

At left is an example monster, fully prepped, with its individual elements called out.

Whenever you prep a threat or an expedition, and you identify something that the PCs are likely to fight, either find its monster entry in the almanac or create the monster yourself.

As I've planned my first adventure, I've identified a number of monsters that the PCs might encounter: crinwin, nailadd, feathered drakes, and of course the swyn itself. All of these monsters have writeups in Book II*, so I'll just use those.*

However, I've decided that Sajra the swyn's lair is a mostly-intact Green Lord tomb, and that the final entrance to the burial vault is guarded by some powerful Fae servants. I flip through the Fae entry in Book II*, but none of the examples fit the bill. I'll need to create these Fae guardians from scratch!*

To create a monster:

• 1) Conceptualize it
• 2) Name it
• 3) Give it tags
• 4) Calculate hit points
• 5) Calculate armor
• 6) Calculate damage
• 7) Write special qualities
• 8) Write its instinct
• 9) Write its moves
• 10) Describe it
• **11)**Write any appropriate optional elements: lore, player-facing moves, etc.

If you're improvising a monster during play, just quickly conceptualize it (step 1) and then calculate its HP, armor, and damage (steps 4-6). Use your standard GM moves to run it for now. Write it up in full between sessions, if it still matters.