In honor of the launch of the Liminal Horror Halloween Monster Jam over on itch we wanted to take a dive into some of the formats and ways you can create your own monstrous NPC for the jam. This post adapts the Creating Horrors page from the Liminal Horror SRD and provides some additional context and advice that pertains to the jam itself!
CREATING HORRORS
Horrors is the term we use for the “monsters” within Liminal Horror. The term really encapsulates that while there may be something horrific or strange about these entities, they are not all inherently violent or mindless. Horror denotes a level of complexity while still standing firmly in the weird, strange, and scary when compared to normal life. Another framing we typically use is Monstrous NPCs as a way of encapsulating the complexity that monsters in the system can present. In this post we will use Horror and Monster synonymously.
Horrors are the crux point of the strange within Liminal Horror scenarios and set the theme and motifs that are used throughout the design. Horrors will impact the Fallout used, how normal spaces are twisted, and how NPCs relate to them and the world. Horrors set the specific tone for a scenario and influence the sub-genre(s) being highlighted.
Post Index for Quick Reference:
Types of Horrors
General Principles
Cheat Sheet
Basic Horror Templates
Structuring Entries
Subtables and Narrative Entries
1. TYPES OF HORRORS
We created a category system for the Horrors within our system setting. You are more than welcome to use these categorizations for your own Horrors, or fully eschew them for your own classifications. It does provide a great starting place when thinking about the scope
Lesser Horrors: Minor threats, more commons in number, that serve more powerful entities. These are horrors that are made, many of which were once human.
Greater Horrors: Powerful beings that have found their way into our world. These are major threats that seek power upon the material plane.
Resonant Horrors: Manifestations of energies and entities from other planes of existence.
Ritual Users: Humans that have gained access to rituals through dread means. Some enter into pacts while others have transcended mortality.
Dead Gods: Vestiges of powerful beings that still have a foothold on this plane.
2. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Attributes: These have a baseline of 10, and can be considered as such if not directly noted. Beyond that, 3 is deficient, 6 is weak, 14 is noteworthy, and 18 is legendary. Only god-like entities have Attributes above 18, but at that point numbers don’t really matter.
Hit Protection: HP is not a measure of Hit Points. It’s the ability to avoid serious harm, which includes skill, luck, drive, and resilience. 3 HP is average, 6 HP is sturdy, and 10+ HP is a serious threat.
Armor: This acts as physical resilience. The typical range is from 0 to 3. An entity can have armor that exceeds 3, but there may be other ways to represent the intended purpose of the exceedance through resistances granted by special abilities.
Stability: This acts as psychological resilience. The typical range is from 0 to 2. You generally won’t need to worry about this for adversarial entities, as the Investigators only deal Stress in rare instances, but it may be useful for NPCs that run the risk of encounters with the horrors.
Damage: Use d6 as the baseline damage for conventional and improvised weapons, including natural weapons such as claws and sharp teeth. Scale as needed, with d4 for unarmed attacks, d8 for two-handed or modified weapons, and d10 for specialized weapons or particularly brutal attacks. Damage of d12+ should generally be reserved for Enhanced attacks.
Stress: Particularly weird creatures or those that would try to corrupt or infect the Investigators should have an ability or attack that deals Stress. This is the primary way to threaten the Investigators with permanent change through Fallout. Use d6 Stress as the baseline and scale accordingly.
Special Abilities: Entities may also have abilities that trigger when dealing Critical Damage to an Investigator. While these will often be particular types of Wounds that are inflicted, they may also be additional actions taken by the Horror to leverage their advantage. The horrors may also have special abilities that trigger when they take Critical Damage, causing a physical or behavioral change instead of falling out of combat.
A list of Special Abilities and Critical Damage Triggers can be found in the Patreon Post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/special-and-140458063
Reinforcements: While abilities that simply deal damage are fine, there are other ways to threaten the Investigators, such as summoning allies or changing the environment.
Rituals: These are a good source of abilities, either directly as a Ritual or just as a natural ability. Note that horrors don’t take Stress for their use in the same manner as the Investigators.
Evocative Details: Above all, the numbers behind these entities aren’t going to be the things your players remember. A flavorful and stylish creature will often be much more effective at the table than one that is simply mechanically complex.
3. CHEAT SHEET
Is this entity able to avoid being hit or avoid serious harm? Boost its HP.
Can it soak up damage? Give it Armor.
Is it physically powerful or especially vicious? Give it a high STR or larger damage dice.
Does it have quick reflexes? Give it high DEX.
Is it particularly weird? Give it high CTRL or ability to deal Stress.
BASIC HORROR TEMPLATES
Presented below are four basic stat blocks that represent common types of horrors the Investigators may encounter. Use them as a template to aid in getting started and for the purpose of comparison, then expand upon them to make your creatures unique.
GRUNTSmall or weak entities that pose a limited threat when alone, but quickly become dangerous when amassed in groups.STR: 8 DEX: 6 CTRL: 3HP: 6Weak or Unarmed Attack: d4
BRUTEStrong entities or those with natural resistances. Typically a challenge when alone or in pairs, and are often supported by several Grunts.STR: 14 DEX: 10 CTRL: 8HP: 8 Armor: 2Weapon Attack (d8) or Area Attack (d6, blast)
Special Ability: Either a devastating ability that triggers upon dealing Critical Damage, or a behavioral change when receiving Critical Stress.
GHOULEntities that are physically weak, but have dangerous and powerful abilities. While dangerous on their own, they are a serious threat when paired with Grunts or Brutes.STR: 8 DEX: 12 CTRL: 14HP: 4 Armor: 1Weapon Attack (d6) or Corrupting Attack (d6 Stress)
Special Ability: An ability that causes corruption, hits multiple targets, or changes the environment in some manner.
Special Ability: An ability that either enhances its allies or creates new horrors.
TYRANTNear unstoppable killing machines, where running away is the best option and open engagement is quickly deadly.STR: 16 DEX: 6 CTRL: 16HP: 12 Armor: 3Weapon Attack (d8) or Area Attack (d10, blast)
Special Ability: Either a devastating ability that triggers upon dealing Critical Damage.
Special Ability: An ability that impacts how the creature moves, allowing it to ambush or get the drop on its targets.
Special Ability: An ability that provides an enhancement.
Special Ability: A specific physical change it undergoes when receiving Critical Damage.
5. STRUCTURING ENTRIES
With the jam we wanted to have it be open in terms of what entries can look like. There is no one right way to make a monster, and are excited to see what people come up with. That being said, I know I am the type of person that likes a little structure when going into thinking about how to present a thing. For that reason, we are going to highlight a few different ways you can format your LH entries.
A major inspiration for the Deluxe Edition entries was Skerples' The Monster Overhaul. It is a resource well worth checking out as it not only includes monster stats but subtables that expand on each entry.
This advice is going to use excerpts from the Liminal Horror Deluxe Edition (preorders are still open). A great tool to help you model after these excerpts is the Liminal Horror Design Templates for Affinity 2.0 (specifically pages 7 and 8). While the typeface is not exactly the same, they come from the same design foundation.
It is worth noting that these templates and examples are 6x9 in format (which is different than a typical zine format). Again, there is no specific structure prescribed for this jam, or end product (but we are open to the idea of something arising from it). If you aren't going to print your entry then the exact page size doesn't negatively impact the resulting product.
Here is the what the template looks like:
Partial Column, One column, One Page, One Spread
The biggest difference in these entries is the size of them. The size you choose really determines the amount of writing and content you make for the monster. There is no right length and often it comes down to the level of inspiration and complexity you are going for. A short entry can and often is as evocative as a long one.
Short Entries: In the original zine, the monsters fit multiple to a page, taking up a half to a third of a column and mostly had just the stats, a short description and maybe a special ability or two. This can be done easily as a text only entry and is a super valid way to engage within the jam.
One Column: These are slightly expanded entries that focus on a single monster. Each entry takes up a column. Typically we've used these for entries that do not have art associated with it, but you could have it take up a single column, with the art in the other column. Note that even what is included with each of the monsters varies, even though the format is the same.
Single Page: The single page entry is one of the main ones we utilized within the Liminal Horror Dev team. It gives more space to include extra tables, entries, and art if necessary (prior to determining which piece had art we would identify a space in layout that would either be a piece of art or another table).
One Spread: These were used for monsters that are more complex, that we had more ideas for sub-tables and variations to include. While any monster can be the focus of a session or scenario, regardless of length, a whole spread really gives room for extra resources and goodies.
6. SUB-TABLES AND NARRATIVE ENTRIES
The structure of entries often start the same: Name, Stats, Weapon, Special Abilities as bullet points, description. It is from that point that they veer off into having unique ways of representing the complexity and tools for each monster. The three biggest ways this is done are:
Art
Sub-tables specific to that monster
Paragraph entries with headings that talk about a unique feature of the monster.
Some common things that we included with multiple monsters were:
Variant Subtable: This table allowed us to showcase different modes and ways to augment the monster. This was one of our most common entries as it really allowed for a diverse array of monster types within the book (see Ghost above for an example).
Tactics: A common entry for some monsters as it allowed us to talk about the ways in which the monster will engage and encounter the Investigators during play (see Slasher above for an example).
Art: Even within the deluxe edition, not every entry got a piece of art. One of the things we didn't want for the jam is to include an art requirement as that can be a barrier for many. Art is always cool but is not something that should inhibit your entering into the jam.
Custom Reaction Tables: Reaction tables are a tool used for determining the reaction of an NPCs, monster, or random encounter. These have a long history in ttrpg, and there is a generic reaction table included within the Liminal Horror rules. Despite this, one of the easiest and most fruitful entries you can include is a monster specific reaction table for your creation. This allows you to tailor it to the nuances of the monster and is a great starting place. Many of the monsters in LH have custom reaction tables (they are often renamed something else to be unique, but that is the basis for them. For additional exploration on custom reaction tables you can read Luke's great entry Tailored reaction table: Leveling up statblocks over on Murkmail!
7. EXEMPLARS
So, a fun project I wanted to end this that may be helpful to some is to list the different subtables and entries for some of the Horrors in the Deluxe Edition. So stop here if you want to be surprised when it comes out. For those who are wanting some inspiration, look at the types of things we included for the monsters. Feel free to use and adapt them for your own (you'll notice many recur throughout the text). As a structure, I'll note the dice for any sub-table. If it doesn't have dx to start its a paragraph entry (with the listed phrase as its heading).
Note: This is only some of the entries from the Deluxe Edition and serves as an example of the type of subtables and entries you can include.
Reanimated Dead
d8 Variants
d6 Base Instinct
d6 How it was made?
Golloch
Prized Possessions
d6 Where was the host found?
d4 Variants
Warped
d6 How were they warped?
d8 Variants
O.R.C.
Missing Persons
What are they raiding for?
O.R.C. Priest
Ecclesiastic of the Damned
d8 What are they carrying?
Living Flame
Cult Affairs
d6 How were they bound?
Fallout - Phoenix
The Maimed
Perfectionism
d12 Body Parts
Grafting
Sarcomorphs
Otherworldly Origins
Unstable Offspring (sub-entry with stats)
The Flesh Was Once Yours
The Flesh Is Weak
Sarcomorph True Forms
d12 x3 table : Component A, Component B Component C
Therianthrope
Paranoia
The Cure
Killing a Therianthrope
d6 Variants
d6 What caused the affliction
d8 Transformation trigger
Dark Ones
Otherworldly Origins
Contamination
Bits & Pieces
Creeping Fallout - Possession
Possessed Appendage
Pact Warlocks
Fallout - Pact
Path to Power
d6 How they found their patron
d12 Boons
d8 Patrons
d10 Tribute
Stay Tuned!
The jam starts today. If you've ever had a monster you've wanted to write, now is the perfect time! No entry is too small, and while the advice above is provided to help support it is by no means the only way to approach!