Below are four examples of racial templates.
A winged, fire-breathing “lizard,” as smart as a man, and around 20 feet long excluding its tail. It can be good or evil, but it always lusts for treasure. This is a young dragon, but still a fierce foe for a group of adventurers. It might even be suitable as a PC in a high-powered game. Some dragons are reputed to have other abilities, including Alternate Form (Human), Indomitable, Terror, Unaging, and Unfazeable.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+15 (Size, -20%) [120].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM +2; Will+3 [15]; Per+3 [15].
Advantages: Burning Attack 4d (Cone, 5 yards, +100%; Limited Use, 3/day, -20%; Reduced Range, x1/5, -20%) [32]; Claws (Talons) [8]; Discriminatory Smell [15]; DR 6 (Can’t Wear Armor, -40%) [18]; Enhanced Move 1/2 (Air) [10]; Extra Attack [25]; Extra Legs (Four Legs) [5]; Flight (Winged, -25%) [30]; Longevity [2]; Magery 0 [5]; Night Vision 8 [8]; Striker (Tail; Crushing) [5]; Teeth (Fangs) [2].
Disadvantages: Bad Grip 3 [-15]; Gluttony (12) [-5]; Greed (12) [-15]; Horizontal [-10]; Miserliness (12) [-10].
Dwarves might be only 2/3 as tall as humans, but they are much longer-lived, with a nose for gold and a flair for all forms of craftsmanship. Dwarves often live in underground halls, and their eyes are adapted to dim light. Many dwarves have Greed or Miserliness, but these are not racial traits.
Attribute Modifiers: HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM -1; Will+1 [5].
Advantages: Artificer 1 [10]; Detect Gold (Vague, -50%) [3]; Extended Lifespan 1 [2]; Night Vision 5 [5].
“Cat people” often appear in science fiction, fantasy, and horror settings. This is a typical felinoid: humanoid, but with a number of catlike features, including a tail. This could also be the “were-form” of a human with the Alternate Form advantage.
Attribute Modifiers: ST-1 [-10]; DX+1 [20].
Advantages: Acute Hearing 2 [4]; Acute Taste and Smell 1 [2]; Catfall [10]; Claws (Sharp) [5]; Combat Reflexes [15]; DR 1 [5]; Teeth (Sharp) [1]; Temperature Tolerance 1 [1].
Disadvantages: Impulsiveness (12) [-10]; Sleepy (1/2 of the time) [-8].
Features: Purring Voice; Tail.
This is a “Bram Stoker”-style vampire. It possesses some, but not all, of the powers and weaknesses that fiction ascribes to bloodsucking undead. Notably, horror-movie vampires often have Supernatural Durability instead of Unkillable (increases cost by 100 points).
Attribute Modifiers: ST+6 [60].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+4 [8]; Per+3 [15].
Advantages: Alternate Forms (Bat, Wolf) [30]; Doesn’t Breathe [20]; Dominance [20]; Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30]; Injury Tolerance (Unliving) [20]; Insubstantiality (Costs Fatigue, 2 FP, -10%) [72]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Speak With Animals (Wolves and bats, -60%) [10]; Unaging [15]; Unkillable 2 (Achilles’ Heel: Wood, -50%) [50]; Vampiric Bite [30].
Disadvantages: Dependency (Coffin with soil of homeland; Daily) [-60]; Divine Curse (Cannot enter dwelling for first time unless invited) [-10]; Draining (Human Blood; Illegal) [-10]; Dread (Garlic) [-10]; Dread (Religious Symbols; 5 yards) [-14]; Dread (Running Water) [-20]; Supernatural Features (No Body Heat*, No Reflection, Pallor*) [-16]; Uncontrollable Appetite (12) (Human Blood) [-15]; Unhealing (Partial) [-20]; Weakness (Sunlight; 1d/minute) [-60].
Features: Sterile.
* Except after feeding.
Choice Professions: Martial Artist, Scout, Swashbuckler, Thief.
Marginal Professions: None.
Cat-folk are the most common of the so-called “beast-men.” Their physical gifts make them exceptional adventurers. A catboy or -girl (as they prefer to be known) resembles a lithe human with classic feline ears, whiskers, teeth, claws, and tail. Cat-folk fur is short, often with rosettes, spots, tabby markings, or tiger stripes.
Attribute Modifiers: ST-1 [-10]; DX+1 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per+1 [5].
Advantages: Catfall [10]; Claws (Sharp) [5]; Combat Reflexes [15]; Fur [1]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Striking ST 2 [10]; Teeth (Sharp) [1].
Disadvantages: Impulsiveness (12) [-10]; Laziness [-10]; Phobia (Entering Water) (15) [-2].
Features: Tail (neither a manipulator nor enough of a problem to interfere with armor).
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Knight, Swashbuckler.
Marginal Professions: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Wizard.
Coleopterans are intelligent, upright beetles with hard carapaces, bulging eyes, and functional antennae. Natural delvers, they spend most of their time digging tunnels and warring against other underground species. Their appearance and high-pitched monotone make them disturbing adventuring companions, however.
A coleopteran has the height and weight of a human of his ST. No humanoid armor will fit a coleopteran, and the race – being hard-shelled – never wanted for protection and so lacks armorers. Thus, coleopteran PCs must make do with their natural DR 5.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+1 [10]; IQ-1 [-20]; HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per+1 [5].
Advantages: 360° Vision [25]; Damage Resistance 5 (Can’t Wear Armor, -40%) [15]; Extra Arms 2 [20]; Extra Attack 1 [25]; Teeth (Sharp) [1]; Vibration Sense (Air) [10].
Disadvantages: Appearance (Hideous) [-16]; Disturbing Voice [-10].
Features: Cannot learn non-insect languages above Accented level.
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Knight, Thief.
Marginal Professions: Bard.
Corpse-eaters are certainly in the running for the foulest “civilized” race. Individuals are often polite, respectful, and sophisticated… but, well, they look like bald vampires and eat corpses. At best, they’re confused with undead; at worst, they’re lynched.
Each day, a corpse-eater must devour 1.5 lbs. of flesh and bone from a sapient, living humanoid – elf, human, etc. – instead of rations or similar ordinary food. In theory, the corpse of an average man might suffice for up to 100 days, if preserved well enough not to disintegrate. In practice, corpse-eaters hunt considerably more often.
A corpse-eater cannot feed on animals, undead, slimes, and so on. He can eat orcs and similar creatures. Since such “monster” humanoids are frequent dungeon-dwellers, many corpse-eaters become delvers.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+2 [20]; HT+2 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Speed-0.5 [-10].
Advantages: Immunity to Disease [10]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Reduced Consumption 1 (Cast-Iron Stomach, -50%) [1]; Silence 1 [5]; Teeth (Sharp) [1].
Perks: Brotherhood of Ghouls* [1].
Disadvantages: Appearance (Ugly) [-8]; Restricted Diet (Flesh of other sapient beings, fresh or not-so-fresh; Very Common) [-10]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15].
* Brotherhood of Ghouls: Horde zombies and similar unnatural devourers of sapient beings (not ogres, man-eating tigers, etc.) will simply ignore a corpse-eater. They’ll see him, and shove him aside if he gets between them and their prey, but won’t go after him. He could walk right through a zombie army without disturbing them. This benefit ends if the corpse-eater personally takes any offensive action against any ghoul in sight – but his allies’ deeds have no effect.
Choice Professions: Cleric, Druid, Thief, Wizard.
Marginal Professions: None.
Dark ones claim to be distant cousins of elves, but it’s whispered that they’re really Elder Things that transformed themselves to resemble humans so long ago that they’ve forgotten their ancestry. Whatever the truth, they resemble humans… except for creepy pupils with vertical slits, “fingers” that are actually tentacles, an unhealthy familiarity with all things occult, and occasional bouts of bloody murder.
Advantages: Elder Gift 2* [10]; High Manual Dexterity 2 [10]; Night Vision 1 [1]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10].
Perks: Better Power Items† [1].
Disadvantages: Bloodlust (12) [-10]; Unnatural Features 2 [-2].
* Elder Gift: You have an uncanny gift for the arcane. This Talent adds to Alchemy, Hidden Lore (all specialties), Occultism, and Thaumatology. It’s available only to dark ones and elderspawn, who may buy up to two more levels at character creation. Reaction bonus: Elder Things – lucky you. 5 points/level.
† Better Power Items: Treat any artifact as worth 50% more for power-item purposes (e.g., a $2,000 jewel, normally limited to 11 FP, functions as a $3,000 one that can hold 14 FP), but double recharge cost ($10/FP). Only dark ones can have this perk.
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Cleric, Holy Warrior, Knight.
Marginal Professions: Martial Artist.
Dwarves are essentially hardy-but-stumpy humans who see well in the dark and like caves and gold. There’s doubtless much more to them than that, as any dwarf will argue if you foolishly say that aloud. “Bearded” and “likes ale” aren’t generally qualifications sought by adventuring parties, however.
When finding a dwarf’s height and weight, use the line appropriate to ST on the Build Table (p. B18), but multiply height by 2/3 and shift weight a column to the right (a Very Fat dwarf has maximum weight!). A dwarf’s girth offsets his height enough that he’s still SM 0. However, dwarves can’t wear armor fitted for humans (and vice versa).
Attribute Modifiers: HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: FP+3 [9]; Basic Move-1 [-5].
Advantages: Alcohol Tolerance [1]; Damage Resistance 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]; Lifting ST 2 [6]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Pickaxe Penchant 1* [5]; Resistant to Poison (+3) [5].
Perks: Dwarven Gear† [1].
Disadvantages: Greed (12) [-15]; Stubbornness [-5].
Features: Armor isn’t interchangeable with human armor.
* Pickaxe Penchant: You’re a natural at fighting, bashing, and mining with axes and picks. This Talent adds to Axe/Mace, Forced Entry, Prospecting, Thrown Weapon (Axe/Mace), and Two-Handed Axe/Mace. Only dwarves can have it, and may buy up to three more levels at character creation. Reaction bonus: Miners. 5 points/level.
† Dwarven Gear: 10% off the final price of gear qualified as “dwarven” – armor, rations, shields, weapons, whetstones, etc.
Nobody is certain how many kinds of elves there are, or exactly how they differ – and the fact that they’re haughty and won’t tell anybody doesn’t help – but most people have at least heard of gray, green, high, mountain, sea, shadow, winged, and wood elves. For a secretive bunch, they’re widespread. Whenever the players think they’ve finally figured out elves, the GM should invent a new sort.
These templates describe the varieties of elves likely to go adventuring with humans. All are slender (find height normally for ST, add 2”, and leave weight alone), magically attuned (Magery 0 primarily means “can sense magic items,” but does make it 5 points cheaper to play a wizard), and have Technicolor hair. They’re also long-lived, but this has no effect in dungeon fantasy – monsters with aging attacks always afflict victims in proportion to racial life expectancy. Thus, elf templates omit Unaging.
The majority of elves have Sense of Duty (Nature), which can be fairly limiting. It’s functionally equivalent to Charitable and Pacifism toward any plant or animal that isn’t actively in the process of eating the elf, and extends to beast-men, faeries, wildmen, and other non-technological races. If an elf plays against type in this regard, the GM is free to award him fewer points for the adventure.
Most (but not all) elves also have a special perk:
Elven Gear: 10% off the final price of gear qualified as “elven” – armor, rations, weapons, etc.
Finally, elves may buy up to four levels of a racial Talent during character creation (wood elves start with two levels):
Forest Guardian: You’re the product of eons of selective breeding for the task of sneaking around in the bushes, peppering litterers with arrows. This Talent adds to Bow, Camouflage, FastDraw (Arrow), Stealth, and Survival (Woodlands). Only elves can have it. Reaction bonus: Druids, faeries, and bunnies. 5 points/level.
Choice Professions: Scout, Wizard.
Marginal Professions: None.
Half-elves are the most common variety of “elves” encountered by common folk (which speaks volumes about the virtue of elves…). They resemble slender humans with vivid dye jobs. Elves don’t extend them the courtesy of elven gear, and half-elves reciprocate by kicking the occasional bunny.
Attribute Modifiers: DX+1 [20].
Advantages: Magery 0 [5].
Disadvantages: Social Stigma (Half-Breed) [-5].
Features: Any hair color but a reasonable human one.
Choice Professions: Bard, Druid, Wizard.
Marginal Professions: Barbarian.
High elves are the ones in splendid clothing who go about singing laments and being ominous. They like little better than to stride into the inn, pull back their hood, and say something deep and lyrical that puts a damper on the merrymaking. They do make good bards and wizards, though.
Attribute Modifiers: ST-1 [-10]; IQ+1 [20].
Advantages: Appearance (Attractive) [4]; Magery 0 [5]; Musical Ability 1 [5]; Voice [10].
Perks: Elven Gear [1].
Disadvantages: Sense of Duty (Nature) [-15].
Features: Gold or silver hair.
Choice Professions: Scout, Thief, Wizard.
Marginal Professions: None.
Mountain elves are reclusive highlands dwellers. They’re famed for their keen vision, sure feet, eternal glowering, and freaky blue hair. While fine-featured, they aren’t exactly attractive. Maybe it’s the hair.
Attribute Modifiers: ST-1 [-10]; DX+1 [20].
Advantages: Acute Vision 2 [4]; Magery 0 [5]; Perfect Balance [15]; Telescopic Vision 1 [5].
Perks: Elven Gear [1].
Disadvantages: Loner (12) [-5]; Sense of Duty (Nature) [-15].
Features: Electric-blue hair.
Choice Professions: Scout, Wizard.
Marginal Professions: None.
Sea elves have gills and webbed extremities, allowing them to function unhindered underwater – a useful gift for an adventurer. On the other hand, sea elves are so freaked out by fire that they won’t walk within 5 yards of torches, lanterns, etc. And the gills ruin their elven good looks.
Attribute Modifiers: ST-1 [-10]; DX+1 [20].
Advantages: Amphibious [10]; Doesn’t Breathe (Gills, -50%) [10]; Magery 0 [5]; Nictitating Membrane 1 [1]; Pressure Support 1 [5].
Perks: Elven Gear [1].
Disadvantages: Phobia (Fire) (9) [-7]; Sense of Duty (Nature) [-15].
Features: Pastel-blue or -green hair.
Choice Professions: Scout, Thief, Wizard.
Marginal Professions: None.
Shadow elves are probably the reason why dark ones (p. 6) can claim to be related to elves. Like dark ones, shadow elves are just a little unsettling, and tend to pursue creepy professions. Other elves normally avoid them. Rumors that they worship a scantily clad spider goddess from Hell are apocryphal, however.
Attribute Modifiers: ST-1 [-10]; DX+1 [20].
Advantages: Magery 0 [5]; Silence 2 [10].
Disadvantages: Callous [-5].
Features: Cobweb-gray or jet-black hair.
Choice Professions: Scout, Thief, Wizard.
Marginal Professions: Barbarian.
Winged elves possess the gift of flight – a truly wonderful thing for any adventurer faced with lava pits, diamond-encrusted statues in niches 50’ up a wall, etc. Wings have their drawbacks, though; see Winged Races (box). In addition, torso armor for winged elves must be specially designed, and isn’t interchangeable with armor for wingless folk.
Attribute Modifiers: ST-2 [-20]; DX+1 [20].
Advantages: Appearance (Attractive) [4]; Flight (Winged, -25%) [30]; Magery 0 [5].
Perks: Elven Gear [1].
Disadvantages: Sense of Duty (Nature) [-15].
Features: Snow-white hair. Torso armor isn’t interchangeable with human torso armor.
Choice Professions: Martial Artist, Scout, Thief, Wizard.
Marginal Professions: None.
This is the flavor of elf most monsters recall fondly when they think “elf”: attractive, nimble, green hair, likes bows and forests, etc. Wood elves are in fact the same thing as green elves.
Attribute Modifiers: ST-1 [-10]; DX+1 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Move+1 [5].
Advantages: Appearance (Attractive) [4]; Forest Guardian 2 [10]; Magery 0 [5].
Perks: Elven Gear [1].
Disadvantages: Sense of Duty (Nature) [-15].
Features: Green hair.
The so-called “faerie folk” are a diverse lot. Aside from a need for mana (losing 1 HP per minute without it) and an obsessive sense of stewardship over wild places (sharing the elves’ Sense of Duty; see p. 6), the faerie races have little in common, and often get along better with elves and druids than among themselves. Contrary to pernicious folklore, few abduct babies – that chestnut is the result of a misunderstanding involving a halfling drunkard, a nymph, and a cleric.
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Scout.
Marginal Professions: None.
Fauns resemble humans above the navel, goats below. A faun’s lower body features a short tail, wooly fur, and backward-bending legs ending in cloven hooves. The goatish looks don’t quite stop at the waist; fauns have horns and pointy ears, and males have a goatee. Note that last part – there are female fauns, and bringing up the myth that fauns and nymphs are males and females of a single species is an excellent way to start a fight.
Attribute Modifiers: DX+1 [20]; HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per+2 [10].
Advantages: Acute Hearing 2 [4]; Animal Empathy [5]; Claws (Hooves) [3]; Musical Ability 2 [10]; Striker (Horns; Crushing) [5].
Disadvantages: Dependency (Mana; Very Common; Constantly) [-25]; Lecherousness (15) [-7]; Sense of Duty (Nature) [-15].
Features: Leg and foot armor isn’t interchangeable with human armor. Tail (neither a manipulator nor enough of a problem to interfere with armor).
Choice Professions: Swashbuckler, Thief, Wizard.
Marginal Professions: Barbarian, Holy Warrior, Knight.
Leprechauns have rosy cheeks, bright eyes, and rotten dispositions. Their reasons for this last part are excellent – the number of leprechauns slain annually by adventurers looking for pots of gold is truly horrific. The world probably has a lot to answer for.
Find a leprechaun’s height normally for ST before adding the racial ST modifier, and then double it and convert feet to inches. For instance, a ST 7 leprechaun would have ST 11 before the racial modifier, and stand 10.8”-12.5” tall. Weight is 10-15 lbs. This makes them one of the strongest races out there, pound for pound, and explains why they often take up boxing. A leprechaun has SM -4, regardless of exact height; Tiny Tools (p. 8) applies to his gear.
Attribute Modifiers: ST-4 [-40]; DX+2 [40].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM -4; HP-2 [-4].
Advantages: Magery 0 [5]; Reduced Consumption 2 [6]; Ridiculous Luck [60].
Perks: Leprechaun Charms (x3)* [3].
Disadvantages: Bad Temper (12) [-10]; Dependency (Mana; Very Common; Constantly) [-25]; Sense of Duty (Nature) [-15].
* Leprechaun Charm: Each perk lets the leprechaun learn and cast one particular druidic or wizardly spell without regard for prerequisites (spells, Magery, or Power Investiture). He must buy and improve this like any other IQ/H or IQ/VH skill. If he has Magery 1+, he receives its usual bonus. He must specify the spell at character creation – although he need not buy it then – and cannot change it later. No leprechaun can have more than three charms.
Choice Professions: Bard.
Marginal Professions: None.
Contrary to common belief, nymphs come in both sexes and aren’t “female fauns.” The stories about nymphs that can merge with brooks, trees, and so on are true, but those nymphs can’t stray more than a few feet from home, which makes them unsuitable as adventurers. This template describes the errant kind.
Nymphs resemble mind-numbingly attractive elves (+10 to reactions!). Merchants often post “No Nymphs” signs, only to forget about them when a nymph walks in. A nymph in the party greatly increases the odds of successful negotiation with monsters and merchants – and of fist-fights between jealous party members.
Attribute Modifiers: HT+1 [10].
Advantages: Appearance (Transcendent; Universal, +25%) [25]; Charisma 5 [25].
Disadvantages: Dependency (Mana; Very Common; Constantly) [-25]; Sense of Duty (Nature) [-15].
Features: Blue skin, with hair like cascading water; green skin, with leaves for hair; and so on. Perky.
Choice Professions: Thief, Wizard.
Marginal Professions: Barbarian, Holy Warrior, Knight.
Pixies resemble tiny humans with colorful butterfly wings (see Winged Races, p. 7). They’re the smallest faerie folk who have any real chance of surviving a dungeon crawl. There are smaller “fairies,” but even with magic, they would likely be squashed. Anyway, since most loot is human-sized, delving isn’t especially attractive to moth-sized folk.
Determine a pixie’s height normally for ST before applying the racial ST modifier, and then convert feet to inches. For instance, a ST 6 pixie would have ST 11 before the racial modifier, and stand 5.4”-6.2”. Weight is negligible – 1-2 lbs., should it matter – which makes them fantastically strong for their size, a fact trumpeted by pixie warriors. Regardless of his exact height, treat a pixie as SM -6. This necessitates special rules for equipment; see Tiny Tools (p. 8).
Attribute Modifiers: ST-5 [-50]; DX+3 [60].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM -6; HP-4 [-8].
Advantages: Appearance (Attractive) [4]; Enhanced Dodge 1 [15]; Flight (Winged, -25%) [30]; Magery 0 [5]; Reduced Consumption 4 [8].
Perks: Pixie Shot* [1].
Disadvantages: Dependency (Mana; Very Common; Constantly) [-25]; Sense of Duty (Nature) [-15].
Features: Antennae. Torso armor isn’t interchangeable with that of wingless SM -6 creatures.
* Pixie Shot: 50% off the price of any nonmagical blade venom the GM allows in the campaign.
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Knight.
Marginal Professions: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Wizard.
A gargoyle resembles nothing so much as an ugly stone man with wings (see Winged Races, p. 7), claws, and a barbed tail. Gargoyles are stupid, dirty, and unsophisticated, but not uniformly evil – although some would pull the wings off a pixie. Mostly, they just like to eat and break stuff. Gargoyles stand as tall as humans of the same ST, but weigh 30 lbs. more than their height suggests.
Attribute Modifiers: IQ-1 [-20]; HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+2 [4]; Basic Speed- 0.25 [-5].
Advantages: Claws (Blunt) [3]; Damage Resistance 2 [10]; Flight (Winged, -25%) [30]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Striker (Tail; Impaling; Clumsy, -2 to hit, -40%) [5].
Perks: Stony* [1].
Disadvantages: Appearance (Ugly) [-8]; Gluttony (12) [-5]; Odious Racial Habit (Dirty) [-5].
Features: Torso armor isn’t interchangeable with human torso armor.
* Stony: Gets +2 to impersonate a statue if still and naked against a stone backdrop. This usually benefits trickery attempts using Acting, Camouflage, or Stealth.
Choice Professions: Cleric, Druid, Thief, Wizard.
Marginal Professions: Martial Artist.
Gnomes are diminutive craftsmen who are equally at home in rolling hill country and underground. They aren’t “runty dwarves,” but a distinct, proud race. Rumors abound of the “Hell Gnomes,” a tribe that went bad. Gnomes claim that this term refers to demonic imps, not proper gnomes (but don’t seem comfortable with the topic, all told).
Find a gnome’s height and weight using the line appropriate to ST on the Build Table (p. B18), but multiply height by 2/3 while keeping weight unchanged. A gnome has SM -1, regardless of height. Tiny Tools (p. 8) applies to his kit, but he’s big enough to wield human weapons at -1 to skill. He can buy off this penalty completely with a special perk, which isn’t part of the racial template:
Giant Weapons: You’re familiar enough with the clumsy weapons of big folk (SM 0) that you can ignore the -1 to use them.
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM -1; FP+3 [9]; Basic Move-1 [-5].
Advantages: Honest Face [1]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Resistant to Poison (+3) [5]; Widget-Worker 2* [10].
Disadvantages: Curious (12) [-5].
* Widget-Worker: Your deft hands and clockmaker’s mind help you locate parts and assemble and disassemble mechanisms – crossbow triggers, door hinges, locks, the lot. This Talent aids Armoury (Missile Weapons), Forced Entry, Lockpicking, Scrounging, and Traps. Only gnomes can have it, and may buy one or two more levels at character creation. Reaction bonus: Those who benefit directly from your skills. 5 points/level.
Goblin-kin are a whole gamut of ugly, borderline-civilized brutes that are as likely to be found glowering over a counter in town as cackling behind a cauldron of boiling oil in the dungeon. They have a reputation as “monsters” – thanks to frequent employment in that role by evil wizards – but are also avid delvers. The common threads seem to be money and fighting; so really, they’re not that different from other adventurers.
Goblin sub-races are almost as confusing as elven ones, but the distinctions mostly come down to matters of size and purity of blood. Any of these templates would be a cheap way to add combat-effectiveness to a character concept that doesn’t call for IQ. The Social Stigma and unpleasant looks somewhat balance this; see Almost Monster (p. 11).
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Knight, Thief.
Marginal Professions: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Wizard.
True goblins are the small, not-too-stupid ones with needlelike teeth and a cowardly disposition. They spend a lot of time being bullied by orcs and tossed around by angry hobgoblins. Still, they’re survivors, and deadlier on average than humans in a fight (but unless an orc or a hobgoblin is around, a determined human can intimidate a goblin with ease). Goblins stand 2” shorter than humans of the same ST, but are no lighter.
Attribute Modifiers: IQ-1 [-20]; HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+1 [2]; Will+1 [5]; Per+1 [5].
Advantages: Infravision [10]; Rapid Healing [5]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10]; Teeth (Sharp) [1].
Disadvantages: Appearance (Ugly) [-8]; Cowardice (12) [-10]; Social Stigma (Savage) [-10].
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Knight, Thief.
Marginal Professions: Bard.
“Half orc and half what?” It’s usually hard to tell, since few half-orcs are really half anything – they’re the product of generations of inbreeding among the offspring of orc rapine, mostly in elf and human communities, but also including the occasional half-ogre. This is the usual explanation for why they’re no less stigmatized than full-blooded goblin-kin, and just as resilient.
A half-orc has the height and weight of a human with one level more ST. This makes the average half-orc the size of a ST 11 human: 5’5”-6’3” and 125-195 lbs.
Attribute Modifiers: HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+1 [2].
Advantages: Acute Hearing 1 [2]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Rapid Healing [5]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10].
Disadvantages: Appearance (Unattractive) [-4]; Social Stigma (Savage) [-10].
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Knight.
Marginal Professions: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Wizard.
Hobgoblins are the big, ill-tempered, stupid ones that constitute the shock troops of a goblin-kin army. They’re tough, strong, and – despite major psychological drawbacks – dangerously strong-willed and alert. They also have boar-like tusks, and like to bite.
Work out a hobgoblin’s height and weight as if his ST were three levels higher. The average hobgoblin (ST 12) is as big as a ST 15 human: 6’2”-7’ and 170-270 lbs.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+2 [20]; IQ-2 [-40]; HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+3 [6]; Will+2 [10]; Per+2 [10].
Advantages: Infravision [10]; Rapid Healing [5]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10]; Teeth (Fangs) [2].
Disadvantages: Appearance (Ugly) [-8]; Bad Temper (12) [-10]; Social Stigma (Savage) [-10].
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Knight, Thief.
Marginal Professions: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Wizard.
Orcs are the medium-sized, not-too-stupid ones that bully the other sorts. They’re the officers of the goblin-kin legions, inasmuch as that’s anything to be proud of. Simple folk often identify all goblin-kin as “orcs,” which greatly peeves any orcs in earshot. And it’s hard to be out of earshot – orcs have twitchy, pig-like ears that hear everything.
Find the height and weight of an orc as if his ST were two levels higher. The typical ST 11 orc is as large as a ST 13 human: 5’11”-6’9” and 155-245 lbs.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+1 [10]; IQ-1 [-20]; HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+2 [4]; Will+1 [5]; Per+1 [5].
Advantages: Acute Hearing 2 [4]; Infravision [10]; Rapid Healing [5]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10]. Disadvantages: Appearance (Ugly) [-8]; Bully (12) [-10]; Social Stigma (Savage) [-10].
A “half-spirit” is the child of a mortal parent by an immortal spirit. These templates assume someone who’s half-human. Other half-breeds should add the traits on the relevant half-spirit template to those of another race’s template, as explained under Stacking Templates (p. B261) – although this can be tricky for inexperienced players.
While the immortal parent might have come from Heaven or Hell, half-spirits don’t have an intrinsic bias in either direction. Each makes his own moral choices. Of course, that does little to change people’s reactions to halos, cloven hooves, and unfortunate names (“I remember the last Damien…”).
Like elves, half-spirits are technically very long-lived, if not Unaging. Since this isn’t significant in dungeon fantasy, these templates don’t reflect that.
Finally, all half-spirit templates are expensive. Even more so than most races, these won’t suit every campaign.
Choice Professions: Cleric, Holy Warrior.
Marginal Professions: None.
Celestials are said to result from the earthly dalliances of beings known colloquially as “angels.” Some people believe that celestials exist for a Reason and are the Chosen. However, if divine servitors are forbidden to fraternize with mortals – as clerics claim – then it seems more likely that celestials descend from rebel angels, or that angels aren’t divine servitors. It is odd that despite celestials’ many gifts, they only wield holy powers when they happen to take priestly orders.
Celestials could pass for the lucky few humans who are attractive, fit, nimble, strong, and wise, if it weren’t for the golden or silvery nimbus. Some have more telling features, like wings.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+1 [10]; DX+1 [20]; IQ+1 [20]; HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Will+1 [5]; FP+1 [3]; Basic Speed+0.5 [10].
Advantages: Appearance (Attractive; Universal, +25%) [5]; Fit [5]; Spirit Empathy [10].
Perks: Celestial Nimbus* [1]; Divine Gifts† [1].
* Celestial Nimbus: You’re engulfed in a constant glow. This is as bright as a torch, eliminates darkness penalties in a twoyard radius, and can’t be concealed.
† Divine Gifts: You may start with certain exotic and supernatural advantages, or buy them in play, at their usual point costs: Doesn’t Breathe [20], Doesn’t Eat or Drink [10], Doesn’t Sleep [20], Extra Life [25], Flight (Winged, -25%) [30], Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30], Temperature Tolerance [1/level], Walk on Air [20], and Walk on Liquid [15].
Disadvantages: Divine Curse (Demons go after you first and worst, no matter who else is nearby) [-5]; Weakness (Cursed areas and areas of high or better sanctity to Evil gods; Occasional; 1d/minute) [-20].
Features: Functions and detects as Good, regardless of true morality, whether this helps (“Only the truly Good can wield this sword.”) or hinders (“Triple damage to beings of true Good.”). Gold or silver eyes and hair. Milk-white, blue, or other unnatural skin.
Choice Professions: Cleric, Thief, Wizard.
Marginal Professions: Barbarian, Druid, Scout.
Where dark ones (p. 6) are Elder Things, but Things so far removed from their own kind that they’re little better than mad elves, elder-spawn have a more recent connection: one parent is Unspeakable Madness from Outside Time and Space. The other is dead or insane.
This template is for passable specimens who can live among Man – perhaps to Man’s detriment. They look like humans (or whatever their other half is) but not quite right. In particular, they’re rubbery. This isn’t obvious until they are sliced open or attempt to squeeze through a narrow opening. Then it’s really unnerving.
Advantages: Double-Jointed [15]; Elder Gift 2* [10]; Injury Tolerance (Homogenous) [40]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10]; Slippery 5 [10]; Unfazeable [15].
* See description under Dark One (p. 6).
Disadvantages: Frightens Animals [-10]; Supernatural Features (Not Quite Right) [-5]; Weirdness Magnet [-15].
Features: Supernatural Features take the form of giving -1 to reactions from anyone who witnesses your racial abilities in action – and from any NPC who knows what you are – and +1 to all mundane or magical attempts to discover what you are.
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Knight, Scout, Thief.
Marginal Professions: Bard, Cleric, Holy Warrior.
Infernals are the offspring of unions – rarely willing – between mortals and demons. Given demonic predilections, infernals are unfortunately common. Theories abound as to the truth about these creatures. Most folk purport to feel sympathy for them, but secretly assume they’re in league with The Devil (which some are).
Infernals can’t pass as ordinary mortals. The vestigial horns, tail, and wings – while not strictly ugly – kind of stand out. Thus, their Social Stigma applies almost constantly; see Almost Monster (p. 11).
Attribute Modifiers: ST+2 [20]; DX+1 [20]; HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: FP+1 [3]; Basic Speed+0.5 [10].
Advantages: Claws (Hooves) [3]; Damage Resistance 1 [5]; Dark Vision [25]; Fit [5]; Spirit Empathy [10].
Perks: Infernal Gifts* [1].
* Infernal Gifts: You may start with certain exotic and supernatural advantages, or buy them in play, at their usual point costs: Doesn’t Breathe [20], Doesn’t Eat or Drink [10], Doesn’t Sleep [20], Extra Life [25], Flight (Winged, -25%) [30], Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30], Striker (Horns; Crushing or Impaling) [5 or 8]; Striker (Tail; Piercing, Large Piercing, or Impaling) [5, 6, or 8], Teeth (Sharp or Fangs) [1 or 2], and Temperature Tolerance [1/level].
Disadvantages: Social Stigma (Infernal) [-15]; Unnatural Features 2 [-2]; Weakness (Blessed areas and areas of high or better sanctity to Good gods; Occasional; 1d/minute) [-20].
Features: Eyes, hair, and skin are unnatural red and black tones. Functions and detects as Evil, regardless of true morality, whether this helps (“Enter, Son of Lucifer!”) or hinders (“Only injures beings of true Evil.”). Vestigial horns, tail, and wings.
The infused are people imbued with elemental character – the result of rare flings between mortals and elementals capable of taking mortal form. They’re probably the happiest of half-spirits, being neither creepy nor burdened with moral baggage. Their social problems are rarely worse than village kids bugging them to perform tricks.
Infused resemble humans (or whatever their flesh-and-blood parent is) with obvious elemental features. They aren’t unattractive, but only earth-infused can pass as anything but what they are. Specific abilities vary by elemental type and are generally Mana Sensitive (p. B34) – that is, they don’t work without mana.
Choice Professions: Martial Artist, Scout, Swashbuckler, Thief.
Marginal Professions: None.
Nimble air-infused can call on the aid of invisible air elementals to “walk on air” and break their fall. They also enjoy resistance to lightning strikes, whirlwinds, and similar attacks. Their actual control over air is limited; they’re surrounded by a light breeze that they can direct to minor effect.
Attribute Modifiers: DX+1 [20].
Advantages: Catfall (Mana Sensitive, -10%) [9]; Damage Resistance 5 (Limited, Air and Weather, -40%; Mana Sensitive, -10%) [13]; Reputation +3 (Air Elementals) [5]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10]; Walk on Air (Mana Sensitive, -10%) [18].
Perks: Puff of Air* [1].
* Puff of Air: Can blow a constant stream of air from a pointed finger. This is strong enough to blow poison dust off a trapped item or extinguish a candle at 2 yards, but has no combat effect.
Disadvantages: Unnatural Features 1 [-1].
Features: Luminous sky-blue eyes. Surrounded by a perpetual light breeze.
Choice Professions: Druid, Thief.
Marginal Professions: None.
Earth-infused are solid types who can walk right through earth and stone barriers… but only while naked. They’re also resistant to damage from falling rock, Stone Missile spells, and so on. They can’t truly become stone, but they can harden a fist for punching.
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+1 [2].
Advantages: Damage Resistance 5 (Limited, Earth and Stone, -40%; Mana Sensitive, -10%) [13]; Permeation (Earth; Extended, Stone, +20%; Mana Sensitive, -10%) [44]; Reputation +3 (Earth Elementals) [5]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10].
Perks: Stone Fist* [1].
* Stone Fist: Can make a fist rock-hard. It counts as brass knuckles (+1 punching damage), at the cost of Bad Grip 3. This takes a Ready maneuver to switch on or off.
Features: Chunky, square build.
Choice Professions: Martial Artist, Scout, Swashbuckler.
Marginal Professions: None.
The main ability of speedy fire-infused is fire resistance: subtract an extra DR 6 from fire damage, and then halve penetrating injury (e.g., 21 points of dragon’s breath would inflict only 7 points). This extends to heat; the average fire-infused is quite comfortable up to 200°. They can’t control fire, but can generate small flames for light and heat.
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Speed+1 [20].
Advantages: Damage Resistance 6 (Limited, Fire and Heat, -40%; Mana Sensitive, -10%) [15]; Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction 2; Limited, Fire and Heat, -40%; Mana Sensitive, -10%) [25]; Reputation +3 (Fire Elementals) [5]; Temperature Tolerance 11 (Mana Sensitive, -10%) [10].
Perks: Flaming Fingers* [1], Flaming Hair† [1].
* Flaming Fingers: Can emit a candle-sized flame – equivalent to a first-level Ignite Fire spell – from a finger. This can ignite lanterns, fuses, etc., but not injure enemies.
† Flaming Hair: Head burns with cool flame equivalent to torchlight, eliminating darkness penalties in a two-yard radius. Not concealable!
Disadvantages: Unnatural Features 2 [-2].
Features: High body temperature – every handshake is a warm one. Red, fiery eyes and flushed skin.
Choice Professions: Martial Artist, Scout, Swashbuckler.
Marginal Professions: None.
Lithe water-infused can operate unhindered in water of any depth for as long as they wish. They also enjoy superior resistance to water-based attacks: giant icicles, Dehydrate spells, and so on. Their control over water is limited to tricks like putting out torches in the mouth or flushing away acid on their skin.
Attribute Modifiers: DX+1 [20].
Advantages: Amphibious (Mana Sensitive, -10%) [9]; Damage Resistance 5 (Limited, Dehydration and Water, -40%; Mana Sensitive, -10%) [13]; Doesn’t Breathe (Mana Sensitive, -10%; Oxygen Absorption, -25%) [13]; Nictitating Membrane 1 [1]; Pressure Support 3 [15]; Reputation +3 (Water Elementals) [5].
Perks: Drench* [1].
* Drench: Can moisten body parts at will, providing enough water to extinguish small flames, rinse off gunk, etc.
Disadvantages: Unnatural Features 2 [-2].
Features: Damp footsteps. Swirling turquoise eyes and what looks like cascading water for hair.
Choice Professions: Scout, Thief.
Marginal Professions: Barbarian, Holy Warrior, Knight, Martial Artist.
Halflings are half human height, whence the name. They enjoy food, stealing, drink, sneaking, tobacco, and shooting things. While most are rosy-cheeked and good-natured, there are plenty of sallow, evil-tempered halflings. Given their natural predilections, they gravitate toward organized crime. Mobster halflings like little better than whacking rival gangsters, grabbing the dough, and enjoying a spaghetti dinner afterward.
Calculate height and weight normally for ST before applying the racial ST modifier, and then halve both. This makes halflings extremely stocky – the average ST 7 halfling is 2’7”-3’ and 57-87 lbs.! A halfling has SM -2, regardless of height, and is subject to Tiny Tools (p. 8). However, he’s big enough to wield human weapons at -2 to skill, and can buy off this penalty with a special perk, which isn’t part of the racial template:
Giant Weapons: You’re familiar enough with the clumsy weapons of big folk (SM 0) that you can ignore some or all of the -2 to use them. Giant Weapons 1 [1] eliminates -1; Giant Weapons 2 [2] removes the full -2.
Attribute Modifiers: ST-3 [-30]; DX+1 [20]; HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM -2; HP+2 [4]; Basic Move-1 [-5].
Advantages: Halfling Marksmanship 2* [10]; Honest Face [1]; Silence 2 [10].
Disadvantages: Gluttony (12) [-5]; Kleptomania (12) [-15].
Features: Hairy feet.
* Halfling Marksmanship: You’re a crack shot with ranged weapons. This Talent aids Bow, Sling, Throwing, and Thrown Weapon (Dart, Knife, and Stick). Only halflings can have it, and may buy up to two more levels at character creation. Reaction bonus: Archers and mobsters. 5 points/level.
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Knight.
Marginal Professions: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Wizard.
Minotaurs resemble hulking humans with shaggy, horned bull’s heads. This includes the females – comparing a minotauress to a cow is liable to mean going from bull to steer in seconds. Minotaurs are mostly honest farmhands, not monsters; their only major social barrier is their looks. However, they are dim-witted, ill-tempered berserkers, and if some hick accuses a minotaur of eating people, things can get out of hand.
Minotaurs stand 3” taller than humans of similar ST, and have the weight appropriate for their height. The horns make them seem even larger, and prevent them from using all but custom-made helmets. Beefy hornless folk can wear minotaur headgear.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+3 [30]; IQ-2 [-40]; HT+3 [30].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per+2 [10].
Advantages: Absolute Direction [5]; Acute Hearing 2 [4]; Damage Resistance 2 (Partial, Skull Only, -70%) [3]; Damage Resistance 2 (Tough Skin, -40%) [6]; Peripheral Vision [15]; Striker (Horns; Impaling; Limited Arc, Straight Ahead, -40%; Long, +1 SM, +100%) [13].
Disadvantages: Appearance (Hideous) [-16]; Bad Temper (12) [-10]; Berserk (12) [-10].
Features: Bull’s face and shaggy neck. Can’t wear most humanoid helmets.
Choice Professions: Barbarian.
Marginal Professions: Bard*, Cleric*, Druid*, Holy Warrior, Martial Artist, Thief, Wizard*.
Ogres are huge, misshapen humanoids with bloated eyes, warty skin, and a permanent filth layer. Some work as dungeon enforcers, but a few join adventurers of other races as delvers. Most eat children.
Determine an ogre’s height and weight from the Build Table (p. B18) by looking up ST before the racial modifier, increasing the associated height by 60%, and multiplying weight by five. The average ST 20 ogre is 8’5”-9’9” and 575-875 lbs. Ogres are badly stooped and considered SM +1 even if 9’+ tall.
Ogres are strong and tough. However, their pathetic intellect means they’ll regularly be turned against the party by mind control, their size doubles armor prices (Dungeon Fantasy: Adventurers, p. 28) and makes them difficult to heal (double energy cost for magical healing), their Magic Resistance makes healing even harder, and they eat people (hence the Social Stigma). It’s up to the GM whether these monsters are suitable as PCs; half-ogres are probably a better choice.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+10 (Size, -10%) [90]; DX-1 [-20]; IQ-3 [-60]; HT+3 [30].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM +1.
Advantages: Damage Resistance 2 (Tough Skin, -40%) [6]; Fearlessness 3 [6]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Magic Resistance 2 [4]; Night Vision 5 [5].
Disadvantages: Appearance (Hideous) [-16]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15].
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Knight.
Marginal Professions: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Wizard.
The rare ogre afflicted with lack of Magic Resistance can sometimes interbreed with an orc or a human thanks to the inherent magic of a dungeon fantasy world. The result is a half-ogre, which isn’t as huge, clumsy, or stupid as an ogre, and thus can pass as a big, dumb (mostly) human. A half-ogre’s Social Stigma applies even among those who don’t know his parentage – he’s clearly half-something, and wholly uncouth. Determine a half-ogre’s height and weight normally from modified ST.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+4 [40]; IQ-1 [-20]; HT+1 [10].
Advantages: Damage Resistance 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]; Fearlessness 1 [2]; Night Vision 3 [3].
Disadvantages: Appearance (Ugly) [-8]; Social Stigma (Savage) [-10].
“Reptilian” is the warm-bloods’ name for several distantly related races of intelligent, upright lizards. Not all are civilized. Smart delvers should assume that any reptilian met on the road or in the dungeon will try to eat them. Several varieties are noble, upstanding races that pay taxes and eat only bad guys (like tax collectors)… but all reptilians suffer from a severe Social Stigma just the same.
Reptilians have a special 0-point feature due to their long, toothy jaws:
Born Biter: You have an elongated jaw optimized for trapping prey. You can opt to hold on after you bite; thus, the bite doubles as a grapple. On later turns, you can worry, which counts as an attack but always hits – simply roll biting damage! If your victim’s SM is three or more greater than yours, you can only do this to an extremity (hand, foot, etc.), and the grapple is considered one-handed. If his SM is only one or two larger, you can target anything, and the grapple is treated as twohanded. The same is true if his SM is equal to or smaller than yours, but you can also attempt to pin him while standing! The catch is that foes get +3 to target your protruding snout, allowing them to attack your face (not skull) at only -2.
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Knight.
Marginal Professions: Bard.
Dragon-blooded claim to be the result of magical experiments performed by dragons back when Man started building cities. The dragons’ supposed goal was to raise an army of dragon-kin compact enough to battle the warm-blood menace building-to-building. Modern dragon-blooded do seem to be on remarkably congenial terms with dragons, but they mostly don’t swarm cities to eat people… mostly.
Dragon-blooded resemble scaly humans with claws and a small dragon’s head. Unlike most reptilians, they’re tailless. They cannot wear human helmets, but can use all other human gear. Determine height and weight normally for modified ST, and then add 15 lbs. to weight.
Like dragons, dragon-blooded can breathe fire. This is a jet. It functions like a melee attack in most regards, but can only be dodged or blocked – not parried – and has 1/2D 5, Max 10. Damage is 1d burning.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+1 [10]; HT+1 [10].
Advantages: Burning Attack 1d (Jet, +0%) [5]; Claws (Sharp) [5]; Damage Resistance 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]; Nictitating Membrane 2 [2]; Peripheral Vision [15]; Reputation +3 (Dragons) [5]; Teeth (Sharp) [1].
Disadvantages: Disturbing Voice [-10]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15].
Quirks: Trivial Vow: Never attack a dragon. [-1]
Features: Born Biter. Cannot learn non-reptilian languages above Accented level. Head armor isn’t interchangeable with human head armor. Ruby or emerald scales.
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Knight, Scout.
Marginal Professions: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Wizard.
Lizard men have long snouts and thick tails, and resemble little dinosaurs with hands. They’re stronger and faster than dragon-blooded, but not as smart. Most prefer hot places (on average, they’re comfortable between 47° and 135°), far from human habitation. The typical lizard man isn’t a man-eater, but subsists on giant swamp flies or desert beetles – a fact that seems to bug frou-frou elves more than man-eating would.
Lizard men have normal height for their modified ST, and weigh 30 lbs. more than humans of that height. Their physique prevents them from wearing armor fitted for humans (and vice versa). Some varieties are optimized for desert movement while others are at home in steaming swamp; select this Terrain Adaptation during character creation.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+2 [20]; IQ-1 [-20]; HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Move+1 [5].
Advantages: Claws (Sharp) [5]; Damage Resistance 2 (Tough Skin, -40%) [6]; Nictitating Membrane 2 [2]; Peripheral Vision [15]; Striker (Tail; Crushing; Clumsy, -2 to hit, -40%) [3]; Teeth (Sharp) [1]; Temperature Tolerance 3 [3]; Terrain Adaptation (Sand or Swamp) [5].
Disadvantages: Disturbing Voice [-10]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15].
Features: Armor isn’t interchangeable with human armor. Blue, brown, gray, or green scales. Born Biter. Cannot learn non-reptilian languages above Accented level.
Choice Professions: Scout, Thief.
Marginal Professions: Bard.
Many creatures are called “trolls,” but only a few are smart enough to become delvers. Only a small fraction of those will work alongside beings they find tasty (everyone but gargoyles, who taste like crud). The trolls best-suited to the adventuring life are the nasty little ones that play mean jokes, not the 9’-tall ones with 8’ arms and maggots for brains.
Trolls are nimble, perceptive, and tough, but highly vulnerable to fire. Flame causes double the usual injury, and trolls’ amazing natural healing can’t heal the burns. Trolls are also hindered by light, making it hard for them to function in a torch-carrying party.
Find height and weight for this kind of troll exactly as for a human of the same ST, and then subtract 3” from height.
Attribute Modifiers: ST-1 [-10]; DX+1 [20]; HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+1 [2]; Per+2 [10].
Advantages: Discriminatory Smell [15]; Regeneration (Regular; Not vs. Fire or Acid, -20%) [20]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10]; Teeth (Sharp) [1]; Universal Digestion [5].
Disadvantages: Appearance (Ugly) [-8]; Bad Temper (12) [-10]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15]; Vulnerability (Fire ¥2) [-30].
Features: Night-Adapted Vision (-5)*. Tufts of brightly colored hair (almost any color). Wrinkles.
* Night-Adapted Vision: You have a non-advantageous form of Night Vision. When the darkness penalty is -5 or worse, reduce it by -5; thus, -5 (night) through -9 (near-total dark) give you only 0 to -4. However, you have -1 per level brighter than - 5. When most folk would have no penalty (daylight, or in range of artificial light that cancels darkness penalties), you’re at -5!
Choice Professions: Barbarian, Knight, Scout.
Marginal Professions: Bard, Cleric, Swashbuckler, Wizard.
Some hypothesize that wildmen – who resemble big, furry humans – were the gods’ first crack at creating Man. Elves and faeries frequently opine that the gods should have stopped there, since wildmen don’t burn or build things. Others think wildmen are beast-men, like cat-folk. Wildmen themselves don’t theorize much, and prefer to thump things with clubs.
In dungeon fantasy, the wildman’s Low TL disadvantage works differently from usual. A wildman is restricted to TL0 starting gear. He cannot start out with special orders, concoctions, or magic items from Dungeon Fantasy: Adventurers. If he later obtains a higher-tech weapon, he wields it at a penalty equal to its TL; e.g., a spear (TL0) isn’t a problem, but a long spear (TL2) gives -2. Arm or torso armor gives a TL penalty to all combat skills; e.g., -2 for mail (TL2). If multiple penalties for weapons or armor apply, use only the worst.
Determine height and weight normally for modified ST.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+2 [20]; IQ-1 [-20]; HT+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per+3 [15].
Advantages: Animal Empathy [5]; Arm ST 1 [5]; Brachiator [5]; Fur [1]; Temperature Tolerance 2 [2].
Perks: Call of the Wild [1].*
* Call of the Wild: You don’t suffer the usual -5 to use Animal Handling, Disguise (Animals), Mimicry (Animal Sounds), or Musical Influence on giant or dire animals. Animal Empathy is a prerequisite for this perk; if a wildman somehow loses that advantage, he also loses the perk. Non-wildmen can’t have this perk.
Disadvantages: Appearance (Unattractive) [-4]; Low TL 3 [-15]; Social Stigma (Savage) [-10].
Features: Apish looks.
This is a composite horror-movie ghoul: clumsy, stupid, slow-moving, and with few special gifts beyond being unswerving in its drive to eat brains (or skin, or guts…). It won’t endure forever or become a walking skeleton; it will rot away after a couple of years, and may well perish of starvation long before then. Waiting out such zombies is a problem, though – they never, ever rest, and people exposed to them tend to become new zombies (details below). Fortunately, they’re easily detected by their moaning, and can be dropped with a headshot.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+1 [10]; DX-1 [-20]; IQ-2 [-40].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+4 [8]; Per+2 [10]; Basic Speed-0.75 [-15]; Basic Move-1 [-5].
Advantages: Night Vision 2 [2]; Rotting Corpse (p. 69) [24]; Single-Minded [5]; Unfazeable [15].
Disadvantages: Cannot Learn [-30]; Dependency (Human Flesh; Common; Illegal; Daily) [-45]; Incurious (9) [-7]; Inhuman (p. 70) [-45]; Legally Dead (p. 70) [-45]; Mute [-25]; No Doesn’t Eat or Drink [-10]; No Unaging [-15]; Short Lifespan 4 [-40]; Uncontrollable Appetite (Brains, Flesh, etc.) (9) [-22]; Vulnerability (Headshots ¥4) [-60].
Quirks: Involuntary Utterance [-1].
Features: Infectious; Won’t Become a Skeleton.
There are a few popular variations on this basic theme. Each form of reanimation creates its own kind of zombie.
The best-known variety of B-movie ghoul is reanimated by some sort of sci-fi pathogen. Anyone it kills will become a plague ghoul in just a second or two. People it merely injures are fated to reanimate after they die of whatever kills them; reanimation takes (HT - 10) minutes, minimum one minute. While “whatever kills them” could be old age, it’s much more likely to be a septic wound.
Advantages: Fast Reanimation (p. 52) [6].
Perks: Pestilent Wounds [1].
Disadvantages: B-Movie Ghoul [-351].
The earliest kind of B-movie ghoul was born of Cold War nuclear fears. Just being around it is dangerous (1d rads/second) – and as it’s completely immune to radiation’s metabolic effects, and suffers structural effects at 1% of the usual rate, it’s often found in dangerously radioactive places. If destroyed, the cadaver counts as radioactive waste that delivers 1d rads/hour for six hours to anyone who gets even a little grue on him. Living people who absorb so much as 1 rad from such a ghoul will become ghouls (HT - 10) minutes after death, minimum one minute, whether they die of radiation poisoning (unlikely, as it’s a low dose) or of other causes after exposure (even a heart attack 40 years later).
Advantages: Background Radiation (p. 53) [6]; Radiation Tolerance 100 [30].
Perks: Toxic [1].
Disadvantages: B-Movie Ghoul [-351].
The rarest kind of infectious B-movie ghoul is brought back to life by toxic waste rather than by deliberate injections (which rarely lead to contagion). It enjoys no special attacks or defenses, but if destroyed, the resulting corpse counts as toxic waste. Anybody accidentally drinking water contaminated by it or breathing smoke from its incineration suffers toxic damage; see Toxic (p. 57). People who take any such injury will become ghouls (HT - 10) minutes after death, minimum one minute. This is true whether ghoul poison kills them or they die from unrelated causes later on.
Perks: Toxic [1].
Disadvantages: B-Movie Ghoul [-351].
There’s a lot of variety within this category! Any of the above archetypes might have one or more of these additional special characteristics taken from movies:
Brains GOOD: Add IQ+2 (Trigger, Brains, -60%) [16]. Notes: The ghouls lose their IQ penalty after feasting. Shortly after dining on at least two victims, they’re as smart as ordinary people – and with average Per 12, better hunters! 16 points.
Chatty: Remove Bestial, Involuntary Utterance, Mute, and No Sense of Humor. Notes: The ghouls can converse and play evil pranks (“Send more cops!”), though their antics won’t be terribly sophisticated without an IQ boost. 46 points.
Fresh: Replace Rotting Corpse with Intact Corpse [40]. Notes: Only people killed by ghouls are infected (no delayed-action zombies), but they rise soon enough to avoid rot and are preserved somewhat by the process, so they look human – sort of. 16 points.
Horror Movement: Replace Basic Move-1 with Basic Move+2 [10]. Notes: The ghouls seem slow but always catch up; average Move is 6, not 3. 15 points.
Mass Mind: Modify IQ penalty with Mitigator, Horde, -60% [24]; add Telesend (Broadcast, +50%; Racial, -20%; Reliable 6, +30%; Vague, -50%) [33]. Notes: Where there’s one zombie, there are soon lots – and the more there are, the smarter they get. 57 points.
The Zombies Won: Replace Legally Dead with Social Stigma (Monster) [-15]. Notes: In an apocalyptic scenario where nobody has legal personhood or a bank account, this adjustment gives a fair cost. 30 points.
They’re Learning: Add Danger Sense (Twice Shy, -20%) [12]; remove Cannot Learn and Incurious (9). Notes: The ghouls learn skills, try to solve problems, and almost never fall for the same trick twice. 49 points.
Trial by Fire: Add Unkillable 1 [50]; remove Fragile (Unnatural) [-50]; change Vulnerability from Headshots x4 to Heat/Fire x4. Notes: Like any other toxic waste, the zombies must be burned (or nuked) to ensure destruction. Anything else, like ordinary physical violence, is liable to fail! 100 points.
Constructs vary more than any other class of zombie – they’re often one-off creations, better treated as individuals than as “races” with templates. However, some mad wizards and scientists do seem to be bent on raising armies of the things. What follows are a few examples to prime the GM’s imagination.
This monstrosity is a mass of decaying body parts sewn into vaguely humanoid form, stitched inside a tanned human-leather exterior, treated with alchemical preservatives, fitted with scythes of bone on its arms, and given unlife through powerful magic. It would cost 300 energy points to enchant with the Golem spell (GURPS Magic, p. 59). A swift and deadly warrior, it obeys its creator’s orders unswervingly, and cannot be suborned. Often used as a guard, it’s capable of warning intruders with a chilling, unnatural voice. It has built-in combat skills, and can flawlessly memorize orders and preprogrammed speeches (however complex), but possesses no capacity to learn.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+5 [50]; DX+2 [40]; IQ-2 [-40]; HT+2 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+5 [10].
Advantages: Claws (Long Talons) [11]; Damage Resistance 2 (Tough Skin, -40%) [6]; Inexorable (pp. 69-70) [65]; Photographic Memory [10]; Rotting Corpse (p. 69) [24]; Striking ST 5 [25].
Disadvantages: Automaton (p. 69) [-85]; Cannot Learn [-30]; Dependency (Mana; Very Common; Constantly) [-25]; Disturbing Voice [-10]; Reprogrammable [-10]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15]; Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25].
Skills: 4 points in combat skills, typically Brawling (E) DX+2 [4].
Features: No Mental Skills; Taboo Traits (Social Position); Won’t Become a Skeleton.
The hulking (9’-tall) galvanoid is a true artificial life form, surgically assembled from both human and animal body parts, and animated using electricity. It must eat, drink, and breathe. However, it can consume almost anything in order to generate the electricity that courses through its body in lieu of blood. This bizarre physiology makes it tough (insanely so, with Unkillable 1) and slow to wear out, and enables it to heal on its own, but it isn’t immune to illness, poison, or the ravages of time. A further consequence is that it’s almost fatally susceptible to electricity.
The galvanoid is not its creator’s servant. That unfortunate individual made the grave error of giving his construct a mostly intact brain with neither the gift of language nor a grasp of emotion. His creation punished him by tearing him to bits and loping off into the world, where it lurks in shadow, eating carrion and slaying anyone who provokes it.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+20 (Size, -10%) [180]; DX- 1 [-20]; IQ-1 [-20]; HT+2 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Will+1 [5]; Per+1 [5]; Basic Speed-0.25 [-5]; Basic Move+1 [5]; SM +1.
Advantages: Doesn’t Sleep [20]; Hard to Subdue 4 [8]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Injury Tolerance (No Blood) [5]; Reduced Consumption 4 (CastIron Stomach, -50%) [4]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+8) [15]; Temperature Tolerance 10 [10]; Unkillable 1 [50].
Disadvantages: Appearance (Monstrous) [-20]; Bad Temper (9) [-15]; Berserk (9) [-15]; Cannot Speak [-15]; Electrical [-20]; Low Empathy [-20]; No Sense of Humor [-10]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15]; Vulnerability (Electricity ¥2) [-30]; Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25].
Features: Affected as Living; Sterile; Taboo Traits (Social Position).
Zombots are corpses reanimated by weirdscience technology. They resemble the living, but their pallor and tinny voices betray them. Under their skin whir motors that enhance strength and speed – motors that can be overdriven in emergencies, although maintenance is required afterward. While zombots aren’t indestructible, and eventually (and abruptly) wear out, they can last a human lifetime with proper upkeep.
The secret of zombot animation is etheric fields. The construct’s head contains a transceiver for these uncanny energies, and inbound signals bring both commands and power – whoever controls the central transmitter is master of the zombots. Strong electromagnetic fields can jam these broadcasts, causing the zombots to grind gears and short-circuit. Zombots also use etheric waves to coordinate with their allies, and these emissions aren’t entirely harmless to small living things.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+3 [30]; IQ-2 [-40].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+2 [4]; Basic Move+2 [10].
Advantages: Damage Resistance 2 [10]; Inexorable (pp. 69-70) [65]; Intact Corpse (pp. 68-69) [40]; Lifting ST 4 [12]; Telesend (Broadcast, +50%; Racial, -20%; Reliable 6, +30%; Vague, -50%) [33].
Disadvantages: Automaton (p. 69) [-85]; Cannot Learn [-30]; Dependency (Weird Energy; Occasional; Constantly) [-100]; Disturbing Voice [-10]; Lifebane [-10]; Maintenance (1 person; Monthly) [-2]; Not Unaging [-15]; Reprogrammable (Symbol of Authority, +50%) [-15]; Self-Destruct [-10]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15]; Weakness (Strong EM Fields; 1d/30 minutes) [-5]; Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25].
Features: Extra Effort Costs HT; No Mental Skills; Taboo Traits (Social Position); Won’t Become a Rotting Corpse.
These supernatural zombies walk not because of magic spells (compare Necromantic Reanimates, pp. 99-101) or Generic Fantasy Evil™ (as with Fantasy Monsters, pp. 95-96), but as a consequence of the more traditional and nuanced variety of curse. Common examples are the evil person doomed to join the walking dead as punishment, the dead soul sent back to punish the sinful living, and the innocent-but-weak-willed individual turned into the still-living slave of a demonic force. Whatever the case may be, such zombies ought to worry would-be monster-hunters on a moral level.
What defines the cursed zombie more than any other feature is a perverse drive to uphold whatever cursed it. A free-willed being would treat this as Extreme Fanaticism (p. B136). For these creatures, it’s expressed as a -15-point Zombie Motivation, which is a disadvantage of identical severity and which the GM may opt to handle using the same game mechanics.
Some claim that during the End Days, the dead will be sent back into the world to punish sinners. These are Judgment’s Legionaries. They’re solidified spirits with the outward appearance of the deceased’s current form: flyblown corpse, crispy burn victim, cut-up autopsy subject… anything goes, provided that the visuals are monstrous. Such zombies mindlessly exact whatever their divine master deems fair reckoning – typically in a grossly physical way. Of course, this might not seem particularly just to mortals. But once in a rare while, these creatures remember life, which may give victims a moment to flee.
Judgment’s Legionaries can function only where their master’s power reaches. This would normally be Dependency (Sanctity; Common; Constantly) [-50], but in worlds overrun by zombies in the End Times, it’s safe to say that spots consecrated such that this actually presents a problem will be rare indeed! Thus, sanctity is considered “Very Common.”
Attribute Modifiers: ST+2 [20]; DX+2 [40]; IQ-2 [-40]; HT+2 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP-2 [-4]; Per+2 [10].
Advantages: Damage Resistance 5 [25]; Detect (Sinners) [20*]; Inexorable (pp. 69-70) [65]; Solidified Spirit (p. 69) [59]; Terror (Always On, -20%) [24].
* Priced identically to Detect (Humans) because in settings where this matters, we’re all sinners but for those who have -20 points or worse in “good” disadvantages such as Charitable, Honesty, and Truthfulness.
Disadvantages: Automaton (p. 69) [-85]; Bloodlust (9) [-15]; Cannot Learn [-30]; Dependency (Sanctity; Very Common; Constantly) [-25]; Disturbing Voice [-10]; Frightens Animals [-10]; Legally Dead (p. 70) [-45]; Zombie Motivation (Do the work of Judgment, marching silently into oblivion if so commanded) [-15].
Quirks: Glimpses of Clarity [-1].
In many belief systems, gods, demon lords, and similar powerful spirits are bound by a body of complex rules – often a treaty ending a theomachy, or the pronouncements of a supreme creator on a higher plane – which prohibits direct intervention in the world. However, such laws may give them leave to manifest indirectly via cults, artifacts of power, and so on. Legalistic divinities, particularly unpleasant ones, often exploit loopholes that permit them to dominate living people. Their ideal victims are those whose willpower has been compromised by brain injury, drugs, or mental illness, and who have consequently fallen between the cracks of human society in a way that means odd behavior goes unremarked (whence the Social Stigma).
These individuals spend most of their time standing around tirelessly – day and night – staring blankly and awaiting orders. However, they can speak normally, learn, etc. if their personal faculties and remaining IQ allow. The sole physical sign of their affliction is a small hallmark of their possessor: stigmata, buzzing flies, etc.
Attribute Modifiers: IQ-2 [-40].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Speed-1.00 [-20]; Basic Move+1 [5].
Advantages: Doesn’t Sleep [20]; Immunity to Mind Control* [30]; Indomitable [15]; Night Vision 2 [2]; SingleMinded [5].
* Except for their dominator’s control, of course!
Disadvantages: Automaton (p. 69) [-85]; Dread (Anything holy to an opposing power; 1 yard) [-10]; Social Stigma (Second-Class Citizen) [-5]; Unnatural Features 1 [-1]; Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25]; Zombie Motivation (Serve the master blindly) [-15].
Quirks: Glimpses of Clarity [-1].
Features: Affected as Living; Taboo Traits (Social Position).
This is the remnant of someone who either broke an oath – probably one sworn in his god’s name, typically to defend some cause to the death or otherwise accept death before dishonor – or made a pact with diabolical forces to linger for self-interested reasons such as wreaking vengeance. It’s doomed to wander in a horrific material form, a tormented slave to its wrongs, until the situation is resolved: it fights a final battle and moves on to its reward, it has its revenge and is summarily consigned to Hell, or something similar. While willful, it lacks free will. Its curse determines its actions, and it’s a slave to a Higher (or Lower) Power in most ways that matter.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+3 [30]; HT+2 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP-3 [-6]; Will+2 [10]; Basic Speed+0.50 [10].
Advantages: Indomitable [15]; Lifting ST 3 (Grip ST, -30%) [7]; No Fragile (Unnatural) [50]; Single-Minded [5]; Solidified Spirit (p. 69) [59]; Unfazeable [15]; Unkillable 1 [50].
Disadvantages: Cannot Learn [-30]; Destiny [-15*]; Disturbing Voice [-10]; Frightens Animals [-10]; Hidebound [-5]; Incurious (12) [-5]; Intolerance (The Living) [-10]; Legally Dead (p. 70) [-45]; Lifebane [-10]; Low Empathy [-20]; No Sense of Humor [-10]; Vulnerability (Blessed Weapons ¥2) [-10]; Zombie Motivation (Seek closure at any cost) [-15].
* Adjust cost for more- or less-realizable Destinies.
Quirks: Can Be Turned By True Faith [-1]. Features: Functions and Detects as Evil.
These zombies exemplify the sinister, free-roaming lesser undead ubiquitous in fantasy RPGs. Unlike necromantic reanimates (pp. 99-101), they aren’t servitors and are intrinsically evil. This has several ramifications:
It’s convenient to collect the traits behind these properties as a meta-trait:
Unholy Dead: Desecrator [1]; Intolerance (The Living) [-10]; Vulnerability (Blessed Weapons x2) [-10]; Weakness (Healing Spells; 1d/minute) [-20]; Weakness (Holy Water; 1d/minute; Variable, -40%) [-12]; Can Be Turned By True Faith [-1]; and Functions and Detects as Evil [0]. -52 points.
Occasionally, undead with this meta-trait can’t exist without the unholiness of one particular dungeon or burial place. That’s Dependency (Sanctity; Rare; Constantly) [-150], lowering template costs by 150 points. Adding this disadvantage enables heroes who are losing the battle to survive by fleeing, and explains why fantasy towns aren’t overrun by hungry ghouls following adventurers’ scent trails.
This walking corpse resembles a grossly overweight person. In fact, it’s puffed up with toxic gas. On sighting the living, it waddles toward them with no thought to defense, attempting to slam – and anyone in close combat with it must roll at HT+1 to avoid disease. It’s so rotten that it takes double injury from all blows, not just blessed weapons, and explodes for 6dx2 crushing damage if destroyed. Those wounded by the blast have to roll to avoid disease, if they haven’t already, and roll at HT-1 or suffer 1d toxic damage repeating at hourly intervals for six cycles.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+1 [10]; DX-1 [-20]; HT-1 [-10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+9 [18]; Basic Speed+0.50 [10]; Basic Move-1 [-5].
Advantages: Inexorable (pp. 69-70) [65]; Infravision [10]; Rotting Corpse (p. 69) [24].
Perks: Pestilent Presence [1]; Toxic [1].
Disadvantages: Berserk (Battle Rage, +50%) (9) [-22]; Cannot Learn [-30]; Fragile (Explosive) [-15]; Hidebound [-5]; Legally Dead (p. 70) [-45]; Low Empathy [-20]; Mute [-25]; No Sense of Humor [-10]; Unholy Dead [-52]; Vulnerability (Blessed Weapons x2 becomes All Physical x2) [-30].
Features: No Mental Skills; Won’t Become a Skeleton.
The ghoul looks superficially human, but unpleasant differences become apparent up close: claws, flesh-rending teeth, and the stench of decay. It must feed daily on the living or perish. Its strength, speed, and keen senses let it accomplish this with disturbing ease – and being clawed or even touched on bare skin paralyzes the victim (HT roll to avoid), whereupon the ghoul may start eating at once. The rare survivor is still in danger; ghoul wounds are prone to infection (HT roll or be diseased). Ghouls can learn and may develop high levels of Brawling, Stealth, and Tracking; however, this is animal cunning, as they possess no trace of humanity.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+3 [30]; DX+2 [40]; HT+2 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+2 [4]; Per+2 [10]; Basic Move+1 [5].
Advantages: Claws (Blunt) [3]; Discriminatory Smell [15]; Infravision [10]; Inexorable (pp. 69-70) [65]; Intact Corpse (pp. 68-69) [40]; Paralyzing Scratch (p. 50) [25]; Striking ST 2 (One Attack Only, Bite, -60%) [4]; Teeth (Sharp) [1].
Perks: Pestilent Wounds [1].
Disadvantages: Bad Smell [-10]; Dependency (Human Flesh; Common; Illegal; Daily) [-45]; Disturbing Voice [-10]; Inhuman (p. 70) [-45]; Legally Dead (p. 70) [-45]; No Doesn’t Eat or Drink [-10]; Uncontrollable Appetite (Flesh) (9) [-22]; Unholy Dead [-52].
Features: Won’t Become a Rotting Corpse.
Lurchers are old-fashioned zombies that get up and start walking around when there’s enough evil in the air. Their noteworthy traits are great strength and an uncanny ability to lunge forward with surprising speed to close the gap with fleeing victims. They’re also willful and difficult to turn. While menacing enough as unarmed fighters, many are former warriors, and possess combat skills and above-average physical attributes.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+4 [40]; IQ-2 [-40].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+1 [2]; Will+4 [20]; Basic Move-1 [-5].
Advantages: Enhanced Move 1 (Ground) [20]; Inexorable (pp. 69-70) [65]; Infravision [10]; Rotting Corpse (p. 69) [24].
Disadvantages: Bloodlust (12) [-10]; Cannot Learn [-30]; Hidebound [-5]; Legally Dead (p. 70) [-45]; Low Empathy [-20]; Mute [-25]; No Sense of Humor [-10]; Unholy Dead [-52].
Features: No Mental Skills; Won’t Become a Skeleton.
The infected are living zombies made mindless by plague – often one contracted in a top-secret facility, from a test subject (human or animal), or even from human remains sealed in an ancient tomb. They’re driven to bite and eat the living, but their condition weakens them enough that their attacks are unlikely to kill. They only take flesh sufficient for a meal, leaving a wounded victim who has good odds of becoming infected himself.
These zombies are nobody’s slaves and have no ties to the supernatural. In theory, science might even be able to cure them. Regardless, their disease has effectively turned them into a species different from humanity – perhaps literally, as it seems to alter DNA.
All infected share a basic template, which can be used as a meta-trait when creating new subtypes.
The infected are sickly and dull, with no motivation beyond biting chunks out of uninfected humans (missed meals cause slow starvation, not rapid HP loss; see p. B426), though sometimes they appear to be captivated by a building or a person. While of little danger individually, it’s rare to encounter just one – their condition drives them to shriek hideously upon sighting prey, bringing nearby infected stumbling to dinner, groping as they try to bite off a mouthful. Dissuading them is difficult, as they don’t experience pain and tend to survive horrific wounds.
Observation suggests that the infected don’t sleep as such but mill around in some sort of daze between meals, which appears to serve a similar purpose. Beyond the behavioral signs, they’re easily recognized by their red eyes, green-gray skin, and staggering gait (not to mention the smell of their last meal rotting between their teeth). The condition is known to kill within a year, and all attempted “cures” have proven fatal.
This affliction is of course contagious. Bites that reach flesh start the infection process, visible as a spreading “spider web” of black veins. Anybody with unhealed wounds from bites or the ensuing infection (Plague Bite) – from one or several infected – must roll vs. total HP of injury from these sources upon awakening from any sleep. Subtract 3, 8, or 15 from injury for Resistant to Disease (+3), (+8), or Immunity to Disease, respectively. Any “success” means the victim wakes up infected!
Attribute Modifiers: ST-1 [-10]; IQ-2 [-40]; HT-1 [-10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Speed+0.25 [5].
Advantages: Acute Hearing 2 [4]; Hard to Kill 3 [6]; Hard to Subdue 3 [6]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Plague Bite (p. 53) 1d [9].
Perks: Penetrating Voice [1].
Disadvantages: Bad Smell [-10]; Bad Temper (9) [-15]; Cannot Learn [-30]; Disturbing Voice [-10]; Inhuman (p. 70) [-45]; Restricted Diet (Human Flesh) [-20]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15]; Terminally Ill (1 year) [-75]; Unnatural Features 5 [-5]; Weakness (Cure; 1d/minute; Difficult to Administer, Injection, -50%; Irreversible, +100%) [-15]; Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25].
Quirks: Glimpses of Clarity [-1].
Features: Affected as Living; Infectious; Sterile; Taboo Traits (Social Position).
Basic infected aren’t that daunting for people in armor or who are athletic enough to stay ahead of mobs. Some cinematic interpretations are scarier! Add one or both of these lenses to crank up the terror. Such modified zombies might be the standard variety (as in many films) or unusual subtypes.
The infection’s standard lifecycle is “a weak zombie bites someone, who’s left alive to sicken and then infect many others before dying.” This calls for aggressive, inhuman behavior, but not ripping victims apart. The enraged variant deprives the infected of all concern for their own survival as they violently tear into prey. It’s either a less successful strain or one that selects for the fittest carriers.
Advantages: Indomitable [15]; Striking ST 6 [30]; Unfazeable [15].
Disadvantages: Berserk (Vicious, +0%) (9) [-15].
More useful to the pathogen’s success is an enhanced ability to run down and bite prey.
Attribute Modifiers: DX+1 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Speed+0.75 [15].
Advantages: Enhanced Move 0.5 (Ground) [10].
Two further options could fit any infected:
Returner: Add Extra Life (Reanimation, -20%) [20]; remove Terminally Ill (1 year). Notes: When the infected die, they’re back a few seconds later as undead – perhaps as plague ghouls (pp. 90-91). 95 points.
The Zombies Won: Remove Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25]. Notes: Since wealth won’t matter in an apocalypse, apply this adjustment to get a fair cost. 25 points.
Zombies created by parasites fall into two sweeping categories. The larger of these classes involves microscopic organisms; such zombies are almost indistinguishable from the infected (pp. 97-98), and use the same stats. Then there are the interesting ones caused by macroscopic things that peer out of eye-sockets or boil from bodily orifices when the unfortunate host is finally destroyed. Such zombies may be living or undead, depending on whether the critters control their subject or bodily replace him beneath his skin.
Buzzing Corpse 54 points This is a cadaver colonized by beetle-like “corpse-bugs” that cooperate to run the dead body as a mobile nest. The host provides the outermost skin, as well as a skeleton for rigidity (thus, his build influences the zombie’s strength), while the densely packed bugs provide motive power and secrete chemicals that preserve the corpse. The hive feeds by sending out workers to fetch rotting waste and carrion, but this is unrelated to how it spreads…
Buzzing corpses hunt live people to turn into fresh cadavers that will house daughter hives. They can locate prey by movement alone, and attack viciously by swinging fists and sending a few soldiers outside to bite. Once the victim is well-murdered, a cohort of corpse-bugs moves in and starts eating and reproducing. Left undisturbed, a new buzzing corpse will rise in about a month (2d+20 days). Existing ones seem to “guard” their kill, so it’s possible to encounter several at once.
A buzzing corpse doesn’t have its victim’s mind. The new tenants consume the brain, but all they absorb from this is a basic grasp of how to manipulate the body. Still, while individual corpse-bugs are barely sentient (IQ 1), colonies possess a respectable collective intelligence – especially if the brain was large and bright enough. And unlike many low-IQ zombies, they can learn.
Buzzing corpses could be deemed “undead” by virtue of being walking cadavers, but the creatures inside are alive – they eat and breathe, breed and heal. They show as much will to live as any human, and can use extra effort. While tough, they’re still susceptible to hazards such as poison gas and high temperatures. In campaigns where magic exists, they’re subject to spells that affect insects, not ones that target the undead.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+10 [100]; IQ-5 [-100]; HT+2 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+20 [40]; Will+5 [25]; Per+5 [25]; Basic Speed+0.50 [10].
Advantages: Doesn’t Sleep [20]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Indomitable [15]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10]; Injury Tolerance (Homogenous, No Blood) [45]; Reduced Consumption 4 (Cast-Iron Stomach, -50%) [4]; Unaging [15]; Unfazeable [15]; Vibration Sense (Air) [10].
Perks: Swarm (Crawlers) [1].
Disadvantages: Appearance (Horrific; Universal, +25%) [-30]; Bad Smell [-10]; Bloodlust (6) [-20]; Inhuman (p. 70) [-45]; Legally Dead (p. 70) [-45]; Mute [-25]; No Sense of Smell/Taste [-5]; Numb [-20]; Zombie Motivation (Make new homes for new hives) [-10].
Quirks: Sexless [-1].
Features: Affected as Insects; Won’t Become a Rotting Corpse or a Skeleton.
The infester is a living person whose brain has been occupied by something resembling a pallid, needleheaded worm. This organism drives its subject to do the mindless minimum necessary to stay alive – speech is beyond him, and he’s in no state to uphold his social position, though the GM may wish to game out the slow slide to the street or loony bin (especially for hosts with high Status and Wealth). The victim’s behavior is the sole sign that he isn’t an ordinary human; there’s no weird coloration change or visible decay. When the worm reproduces through fission, which occurs at intervals of 2d days after infestation, the zombie goes in search of an uninfested human.
A hunting infester will try to grapple its prey, after which the home-seeking worm will erupt from the mouth and thrust its way into the victim’s body; treat this as a bite, rolled at DX. If this does any injury, the victim gets a single HT roll, at -5 if the infester targeted the face (DX-5) or -7 if it targeted the skull (DX-7). Failure means that he’ll become an infester in (HT - 10) full days, minimum a day, unless the worm is surgically excised in the interim (a Surgery roll, at -3 for the head or chest). Once an infester has succeeded at its task, it will try to flee – though it will fight back robotically, preferring All-Out Defense, if need be.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+4 [40]; IQ-4 [-80].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP-4 [-8]; Per+4 [20]; Basic Move+1 [5].
Advantages: Hard to Kill 2 [4]; Hard to Subdue 2 [4]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Indomitable [15]; Lifting ST 4 (Grip ST, -30%) [9]; Striking ST 4 (One Attack Only, Bite, -60%) [8]; Teeth (Sharp Beak) [1]; Unfazeable [15].
Disadvantages: Cannot Learn [-30]; Cannot Speak [-15]; Incurious (6) [-10]; Inhuman (p. 70) [-45]; Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25]; Zombie Motivation (Do the minimum needed to survive, but seek hosts relentlessly when the time is right) [-15].
Features: Affected as Living; Infectious; Taboo Traits (Social Position).
These are undead servitors animated by low-powered necromancy. In the standard magic system, that means the Zombie spell (GURPS Magic, p. 151) – although these templates differ somewhat from the ones in Magic, mainly because they assume “Very Common” mana. Other varieties of magic might raise similar zombies. Simply replace Dependency (Mana) with a more suitable disadvantage:
Alchemical Animates: Replace Dependency (Mana) with Dependency (Elixir; Rare; Monthly) [-30]. Notes: The zombie requires monthly infusions of an elixir. -5 points.
Shamanic Summons: Replace Dependency (Mana) with Maintenance (1 person; Daily) [-10]. Notes: The zombie weakens without daily sacrifices to appease the spirits. 15 points.
Theurgic Thralls: Replace Dependency (Mana) with Dependency (Sanctity; Common; Constantly) [-50]. Notes: The zombie cannot function for long in areas inimical to the god behind the “clerical” magic that created it. -25 points.
Game-world details of how reanimation is accomplished can vary, too. Some rituals call minor spirits (not the soul of the body’s original owner!) to occupy and animate the corpse. If these spirits are demonic, add Functions and Detects as Evil [0]. In other cases, magic alone physically moves the body around and gives the appearance of intelligence, much like a Create Servant spell. Regardless, these kinds of servitors cannot normally be “turned” using True Faith. In all cases, necromantic reanimates are well-behaved thralls, not vicious monsters with sinister appetites (compare Fantasy Monsters, pp. 95-96). The magic that empowers them preserves them moderately well – they’ll last indefinitely, although walking corpses will rot into skeletons – but adds little in the way of extraordinary capabilities. On the other hand, they lack special flaws beyond the customary undead problem of falling to bits at -HP, and are completely fearless. Moreover, they’re “clean,” in that the energies which limit natural decay are hostile to infection.
This fleshy, unembalmed corpse will eventually become a reanimated skeleton; see below. It’s sufficiently intact to speak, but not to taste or smell (although it stinks well enough).
Attribute Modifiers: ST+1 [10]; IQ-2 [-40].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+4 [8].
Advantages: Inexorable (pp. 69-70) [65]; Rotting Corpse (p. 69) [24].
Disadvantages: Automaton (p. 69) [-85]; Cannot Learn [-30]; Dependency (Mana; Very Common; Constantly) [-25]; Disturbing Voice [-10]; Legally Dead (p. 70) [-45]; No Sense of Smell/Taste [-5]; Reprogrammable [-10].
Features: No Mental Skills.
This well-preserved cadaver has carefully embalmed organs.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+1 [10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+4 [8].
Advantages: Inexorable (pp. 69-70) [65]; Mummified Corpse (p. 69) [40].
Disadvantages: Automaton (p. 69) [-85]; Cannot Learn [-30]; Dependency (Mana; Very Common; Constantly) [-25]; Disturbing Voice [-10]; Legally Dead (p. 70) [-45]; Reprogrammable [-10].
Features: No Mental Skills.
This zombie is all bones – the flesh has rotted away, taking with it the capacity to speak, taste, or smell.
Attribute Modifiers: ST-1 [-10]; DX+2 [40]; IQ-2 [-40].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Speed+0.50 [10]; Basic Move+1 [5].
Advantages: Claws (Blunt) [3]; Inexorable (pp. 69-70) [65]; Skeletal Corpse (p. 69) [13].
Disadvantages: Automaton (p. 69) [-85]; Cannot Learn [-30]; Dependency (Mana; Very Common; Constantly) [-25]; Legally Dead (p. 70) [-45]; Mute [-25]; No Sense of Smell/Taste [-5]; Reprogrammable [-10].
Features: No Mental Skills.
Not all zombies are obvious monsters or undead. Ordinary living people might end up mindless or crazy in ways that make them behave in a slavish or frightening manner. Such unfortunates have a meta-trait that’s otherwise uncommon among zombies:
Asocial: Disturbing Voice [-10]; Low Empathy [-20]; Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25]; Glimpses of Clarity [-1]; and Taboo Traits (Social Position). Notes: A severe psychiatric problem prevents you from functioning socially. You can neither grasp emotions nor inflect your voice to disguise this reality. This behavior has cost you everything that requires regular interaction with people (job, possessions, etc.), and when you occasionally “snap out of it,” your confusion over this matter only makes things worse. These difficulties often lead to Odious Personal Habits and Social Stigmas. You’re also likely to have several of Bestial, Cannot Learn, Hidebound, Incurious, Killjoy, and No Sense of Humor, but that isn’t automatic – you might appreciate deranged humor and show a sophisticated interest in disturbing events and pursuits. -56 points.
Crazies are infected (pp. 97-98) of a sort whose illness isn’t terminal (for them . . .), doesn’t drive them to eat flesh, and lends them no special physical power. What’s scary about them isn’t their strength or special abilities, but their madness: they kill without reason and are difficult to stop, as they ignore pain, can’t be reasoned with, and never sleep. What’s truly terrifying is the fact that merely being around them puts you at risk of joining them!
The crazy virus (if it’s genuinely a virus) seems to be transmitted via coughing or contact – especially if lots of bodily fluids are involved. Make a HT roll after each 24- hour period during which you got within two yards of crazies or people who’ve failed this HT roll but haven’t turned yet. This is at +2 if you just let one get close, +1 for an actual touch, no modifier if you wrestled, -1 if you were spat on, -2 if you were bled on, or -3 if you had more intimate contact (hopefully with someone who isn’t crazy yet!). Use the worst modifier that applies for that interval. Failure means catching the disease, becoming a crazy in (Will + 14) hours.
Advantages: Doesn’t Sleep [20]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Indomitable [15]; Unfazeable [15].
Disadvantages: Asocial [-56]; Bloodlust (N/A) [-25]; Zombie Motivation (Kill, kill, kill!) [-15].
Features: Affected as Living; Infectious.
“Face-eater” is a derogatory term for a drug addict whose poison of choice has turned him into a savage murderer who gnaws on the living. The latter habit isn’t a need but a frightening symptom of drug-induced psychosis; face-eaters aren’t true cannibals, and must eat ordinary food. What the face-eater does require is the drug, which causes psychological dependence. Withholding that makes him crazier – start by worsening Bad Temper and Berserk. Face-eaters exhibit hysterical strength, speed, and pain resistance, and attack everyone (including each other!) on sight. They can be recognized by their bloodshot eyes, and by the sound of growling and tooth-grinding.
Face-eaters are a distortion of real-life abusers of dangerous drugs. Marginally more plausible than most other zombies in this book, they might just work in a quasi-realistic campaign.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+4 [40]; HT-1 [-10].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP-4 [-8]; FP+2 [6]; Basic Speed+1.25 [25].
Advantages: Hard to Kill 3 [6]; Hard to Subdue 3 [6]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Indomitable [15]; Less Sleep 4 [8]; Unfazeable [15].
Disadvantages: Addiction (Psycho Drug) [-25]; Asocial [-56]; Bestial [-10]; Bad Temper (9) [-15]; Berserk (9) [-15]; Odious Racial Habit (Eats Humans) [-15]; Overconfidence (9) [-7]; Unnatural Features 2 [-2].
Features: Affected as Living.
This take on the Vodou zombi assumes that the victim is alive but drugged. He has “died” and been buried, as far as society knows, but that was a deception facilitated by potent paralysis-inducing neurotoxins. The bokor who did this to him has since exhumed him (or more likely had zombies do that), and now controls him with daily doses of yet another evil concoction.
Vodou zombies are workers, not warriors. They’ll attack if so ordered, but they won’t be especially effective at it. Per traditional belief, the taste of salt will lay them to rest permanently – perhaps it brings on a sudden heart attack that overloads their weakened constitution.
Attribute Modifiers: DX-1 [-20]; IQ-2 [-40]; HT-2 [-20]. Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: FP+2 [6]; Basic Speed-0.25 [-5].
Advantages: Doesn’t Sleep [20]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Night Vision 2 [2]; Reduced Consumption 2 [4]; SingleMinded [5]; Temperature Tolerance 2 [2]; Unfazeable [15].
Disadvantages: Addiction (Mind-Control Drug) [-40]; Asocial [-56]; Cannot Learn [-30]; Duty (Bokor; 15 or less) [-15]; Hidebound [-5]; Incurious (6) [-10]; Killjoy [-15]; Slave Mentality [-40]; Social Stigma (Dead) [-20]; Weakness (Salt; 1d/minute; Difficult to Administer, Ingestion, -100%; Irreversible, +100%) [-20].
Features: Affected as Living.
Whisperers have had their minds reprogrammed by a neurolinguistic virus that drives them to spread the meme and reprogram other people… by talking. Their mad babbling can be heard at great distances, but not clearly; their name comes from the fact that the meme spreads most successfully when whispered at close range. While whisperers will give chase, they’re not interested in attacking – they just want you to hear what they have to say. When there’s nobody but whisperers around, they eat, drink, and sleep normally, and chatter among (or to) themselves.
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Move+1 [5].
Advantages: Acute Hearing 2 [4]; Indomitable [15]; Memetic Zombification (p. 52) [76]; Single-Minded [5]. Perks: Penetrating Voice [1].
Disadvantages: Asocial [-56]; Hidebound [-5]; Zombie Motivation (Spread the meme) [-15].
Quirks: Involuntary Utterance [-1].
Features: Affected as Living.
Some high-tech zombies aren’t constructs (pp. 91-93) assembled from bits and brought to life or unlife, but intact bodies – living or dead – engineered into mindless menaces by well-meaning research gone wrong . . . or less-than-well-meaning mad science gone terribly, horribly right. The sky’s the limit here, because such zombies tend to be irreproducible results. Attempts to recreate them seem doomed to turn out atrocities that are almost but not entirely different, and inevitably scarier.
This is a normal-looking living person enslaved through electronic brain implants (visible only on an X-ray or MRI scan). The surgery involved hacks out individuality and intellect, leaving a lobotomized shell with the sophistication of a 1980s video-game console, subject to the authority of whoever holds the remote control. Neuroids must eat, drink, and breathe – though they can thrive on mush and sleep hanging in racks – and their only remarkable talents are a computer’s programmability and flawless recall. These last two traits mean that, in theory, their brains can be updated with new skills (explaining the absence of Cannot Learn).
Neuroids are the work of crude superscience. They would fit well in a setting that features TL7^ or TL8^ conspiratorial weirdness. Any random face in the crowd could belong to a “convert”!
Attribute Modifiers: DX-1 [-20]; IQ-8 [-160].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per+8 [40]; Basic Speed+0.25 [5].
Advantages: Digital Mind [5]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Photographic Memory [10].
Disadvantages: Automaton (p. 69) [-85]; Electrical [-20]; Klutz [-5]; Maintenance (1 person; Weekly) [-5]; Reprogrammable (Symbol of Authority, +50%) [-15]; Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25].
Features: Affected as Living; Taboo Traits (Social Position).
The ReViv™-ified are dead people resuscitated by experimental nanomachines. The treatment was developed to save the terminally ill, arrest aging, or something equally high-minded, but the outcome wasn’t quite what was intended: All the test subjects died, and when they returned to life a few days later – famished because nobody had bothered to feed them – they dined on lab technician. However, they aren’t vicious, merely animalistic and incapable of grasping morality; in theory, they can be “tamed.”
ReViv™ nanotech imparts powerful self-repair mechanisms, rendering the subject nearly immortal, barring serious physical accidents. The nanites also seem to be self-replicating – a dead body that comes into contact with a carrier is revived in 1d days. However, the machines have limits; notably, they don’t cope well with other nanotech. They also can’t seem to get eyes right – the ReViv™-ified see the world through a pair of shiny black orbs.
These zombies’ capabilities are (barely) consistent with TL10 bio-tech, though they’re weird and suggest superscience. They work better as futuristic monsters than as modern-day ones. The real monsters might be their creators – perhaps the research’s true goal was to recycle the dead as a source of cheap, durable labor.
Attribute Modifiers: IQ-2 [-40]; HT+3 [30].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: HP+6 [12]; FP+3 [9]; Basic Speed-0.75 [-15].
Advantages: Extended Lifespan 2 [4]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Longevity [2]; Reduced Consumption 2 (Cast-Iron Stomach, -50%) [2]; Regeneration (Slow) [10]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10].
Disadvantages: Cannot Speak [-15]; Inhuman (p. 70) [-45]; Legally Dead (p. 70) [-45]; Odious Racial Habit (Eats Humans) [-15]; Unnatural Features 1 [-1]; Unusual Biochemistry [-5]; Vulnerability (Nanotech Weapons ¥2) [-10]. Features: Affected as Living; Infectious; Sterile.
The Soldier X treatment was meant to create a faster, stronger, more aggressive infantryman. An utter failure in that regard, it had the curious effect of preventing the recipient from dying of severe trauma. Mortal wounds catalyzed the serum, rendering the subject capable of surviving almost any injury. The catch? Those it saved awoke in a permanent altered mental state where everyone they met was “the enemy” and in need of killing. Back to the drawing board…
This is mad science with no specific place in the TL hierarchy. The serum could as easily be the TL6^ invention of Nazi doctors as alien tech discovered by TL12 starfarers. There should be an equally weird antiserum awaiting discovery, though major force may prove to be the more expedient solution.
Attribute Modifiers: ST+4 [40]; DX+4 [80]; HT+4 [40].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per+2 [10]; FP+4 [12]; Basic Move+1 [5].
Advantages: Combat Reflexes [15]; Doesn’t Sleep [20]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Indomitable [15]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) [10]; Temperature Tolerance 5 [5]; Unaging [15]; Unfazeable [15]; Unkillable 1 [50]; Very Fit [15].
Disadvantages: Bloodlust (N/A) [-25]; Delusion (“Everyone else is The Enemy”) [-15]; Disturbing Voice [-10]; Low Empathy [-20]; No Sense of Humor [-10]; Weakness (Antiserum; 1d/minute; Difficult to Administer, Injection, -50%; Irreversible, +100%) [-15]; Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25].
Features: Affected as Living; Taboo Traits (Social Position).
Some fiction – particularly video games – includes zombies that are bigger or smarter than average. If zombies can create other zombies, such a boss might be “zombie zero”: first of its kind, perhaps the origin of the curse or infection. And some bosses live up to their title, influencing lesser zombies directly, even exerting control over the zombifying disease or magic.
A boss can be a unique variety of zombie – design a high-powered template with lots of special abilities and turn it loose. However, most examples appear to be of the same general type as lesser zombies, just with significant improvements. Below are several major overhauls to apply to templates to generate boss versions of those zombies. It’s quite possible for a boss to boast two or more of these “lenses.”
The “bossiest” boss ability – only occasionally seen in fiction – is commanding other zombies. This is easily arranged: choose a zombie template and add Mind Control with Zombie Command; e.g., Zombie Pheromones [48] or Target Marking [88] (both p. 54). For zombies of the boss’ baseline type, the condition that only zombies with cheaper templates are affected will always be met by virtue of the boss template costing extra thanks to this ability’s point cost.
Remember that this facility is modified Mind Control. Would-be minions must lack Immunity to Mind Control, which rules out bloated carcasses, corpse golems, ghouls, Judgment’s Legionaries, lurchers, possessed thralls, zombots, and all necromantic reanimates – that is, Inexorable monsters and other zombie-masters’ servants. Alternatively, the GM can change their Immunity to Mind Control to Immunity to Mind Control From Non-Zombies, for the same value. Likewise, Zombie Pheromones can’t affect zombies with No Sense of Smell/Taste, which further eliminates the buzzing corpse.
Controllers often have some of the traits described in Communication (p. 88), even if lesser zombies of their class don’t. For the purpose of the Racial limitation on Telesend and Mindlink, they’re considered members of the same “race” as zombies built using the original, non-boss template. When adding acoustic communications abilities to a boss whose baseline template has Cannot Speak [-15] or Mute [-25], it’s necessary to buy off this disadvantage as well.
Controller often occurs alongside Smart, Summoner, and Zombie Zero.
The GM wants each buzzing corpse (pp. 98-99) to be the domain of a queen corpse-bug who answers to the empress who rules the boss zombie in a horde. The buzzing corpse lacks a sense of smell and can’t have Zombie Pheromones, but the GM decides that it’s sensitive to insect pheromones which activate different receptors, and gives the empress Target Marking [88]. As well, because corpse-bugs have Vibration Sense (Air), it seems logical that the empress might communicate that way; the GM removes Mute, adds 0-point Ultrasonic Speech (ultrasonic speech only), and decides that buzzing corpses don’t “hear” sounds other than Vibration Sense and their boss’ commands. These adjustments add 113 points to template cost (54 points), for a Controller boss template cost of 167 points.
Often, the boss is simply huge. Perhaps it ate lots of brains (or entire people), or was mutated by its condition, and kept growing. Maybe it started out that way thanks to the efforts of a mad scientist, a wizard, or a god. Beginning with any zombie template, follow these steps:
1. Add +1 to SM if it towers over ordinary zombies or is as tall as it is wide. Add +2 to SM if both conditions are true. Bigger bosses are unlikely, but these rules still work for them.
2. Consulting the Size Modifier Table (p. B19), divide “Longest Dimension” in yards for the new SM by that for the old SM to get a scale factor (SF); e.g., when going from SM 0 to SM +1, SF is 1.5.
3. Multiply racial average ST for the original template by SF to get the boss’ ST.
4. Turn this ST into a ST modifier by subtracting 10.
5. Multiply racial average HP for the original template by SF to get the boss’ HP.
6. Turn this HP into a HP modifier by subtracting the boss’ ST.
7. Multiply any Arm ST, Damage Resistance, Lifting ST, or Striking ST level by SF to find the boss’ level.
8. Price any ST bonus, HP bonus, Arm ST, Lifting ST, or Striking ST at -10% for a final SM +1, -20% for SM +2, and so on up to -80% at SM +8 or more.
9. Add a Basic Move bonus equal to the SM increase to reflect longer legs: Basic Move+1 [5] for +1 SM, Basic Move+2 [10] for +2 SM, and so on. This isn’t realistic biomechanical scaling – huge zombies are rarely fast. Round fractional levels up – this is a boss!
The GM wants a colossal Judgment’s Legionary (pp. 93- 94) to lead Judgment’s armies; SM +2 seems about right. Going from SM 0 to SM +2 gives SF 5/2 = 2.5 The original template specifies racial ST 12, HP 10, and DR 5, which scale up to ST 30, HP 25, and DR 13! Thus, the ST bonus goes from ST+2 [20] to ST+20 (Size, -20%) [160]; the HP modifier changes from HP-2 [-4] to HP-5 [-10]; Damage Resistance 5 [25] becomes DR 13 [65]; and the boss acquires Basic Move+2 [10]. These adjustments add 184 points to template cost (3 points), for a Humongous boss template cost of 187 points.
Many bosses are remarkable for retaining their unzombified intellect and capacity to learn and adapt. This is most suitable for zombies that lack Reprogrammable and Slave Mentality. Starting with a fitting zombie template, follow these steps:
1. If the original template has an IQ penalty, however large, then omit it for the boss; the zombie is as smart as it was prior to zombification. For one with no IQ penalty, give the boss IQ+1 [20] – the zombie plague or curse grants “alpha zombies” inhuman cunning.
2. If the original template’s racial average Will is 10 or less, then the boss has no Will modifier; Will equals IQ. If racial average Will is 11+, subtract 10 from this and give the difference to the boss as a Will bonus.
3. Repeat the previous step for Per.
4. Remove these racial disadvantages that hinder cognition: Cannot Learn, Confused, Hidebound, and Incurious. Remember, Automaton includes Incurious (6), and both it and Inhuman include Hidebound. Do not remove other mental problems – smart servitors remain slaves, brainy Bestial zombies are still animalistic, and so on.
5. If Will changed, adjust any remaining disadvantages that have self-control numbers so that these numbers remain close to Will as explained in Zombies and Self-Control (p. 60).
This lurcher (p. 96) might be found leading a band of undead warriors. The original template gives racial average IQ 8, Will 12, and Per 8. The IQ-2 [-40] goes away. Next, we subtract 10 from Will 12 and assess a bonus of Will+2 [10]; this replaces the original Will+4 [20]. Since Per on the original template isn’t 11+, no modifier applies – Per is equal to IQ. The lurcher also loses Cannot Learn [-30] and Hidebound [-5]. Its only disadvantage with a self-control roll is Bloodlust (12), but because the boss’ Will is 12, this doesn’t change. These alterations add 65 points to template cost (-61 points), for a Smart boss template cost of 4 points.
Bosses can often conjure lesser zombies. This involves adding some level of Zombie Conjuring (see Allies, p. 50) to the baseline template. While most suitable if the template lacks Reprogrammable and Slave Mentality, that isn’t a hard-and-fast rule.
Zombie Conjuring’s built-in “Up to 25% of summoner’s points” requires finesse to interpret for a boss whose point total is zero or less – a common problem with templates with extreme negative costs. At this juncture, it’s helpful to consider what p. B10 says about “100- 200 points being typical for career adventurers.” At the low end of that (100 points), the Ally point totals expressed as percentages on p. B37 could be read as 25, 50, 75, 100, and 150 points. That is, these Allies would have the purchasing character’s 100 points adjusted by -75, -50, -25, +0, or +50 points, respectively; e.g., a “25%” Ally would be identical to one worth 75 points less than its summoner. Thus, for zombie summoners, replace the normal Ally power table with the following:
| Point Total | Cost |
|---|---|
| (Summoner’s Total)-75 | 1 point |
| (Summoner’s Total)-50 | 2 points |
| (Summoner’s Total)-25 | 3 points |
| Summoner’s Total | 5 points |
| (Summoner’s Total)+50 | 10 points |
This interpretation remains relatively fair below 100 points, and doesn’t misbehave at zero or fewer points. Thus, it’s balanced to require Summoner bosses to be worth at least 75 points more than their minions. There are numerous ways to accomplish this. Beyond the cost of Zombie Conjuring itself, consider adding further boss options (particularly Controller and/or Smart), removing Reprogrammable or Slave Mentality to get a boss that’s clearly more master than slave, and giving the boss superior personal abilities – better ST, IQ, skills, etc.
Minion zombies should usually be of a variety similar to the boss, but they needn’t be the same. Boss fantasy monsters (pp. 95-96) might call necromantic reanimates (pp. 99-101), while a boss Judgment’s Legionary (pp. 93-94) could raise whatever walking dead its divine patron (as personified by the GM) wishes.
The bloated carcass (p. 95) is rather pathetic in a fight, but would be scarier if it could spew corpse gas that conjures 10 zombie slaves from the ground! The original template is worth -150 points, and the GM wants it to summon reanimated corpses (pp. 100-101) with no abilities beyond their -143-point template. The 75-point rule means the bloater should be worth -68 points or more, so it needs 82 points of improvements. Zombie Conjuring (10 zombies) [45] is a good start. The GM decides that the boss is also Smart, adding another 62 points, which is more than enough.
In some cases, all zombies of a given type can infect, but the boss can manipulate the zombification process to turn victims almost instantly! Choose a template that has Infectious but not Dominance (p. 51), and then add some variety of Dominance; e.g., Fast Reanimation [6], Infected Touch [61], Cloud of Infection [90], or Memetic Zombification [76]. The form should suit the template’s theme. Dominance added to a template rather than included in it from the start does not create zombies with the boss template, but zombies built on the baseline template (the one without Dominance). In most cases, the boss should remain Infectious – if Dominance fails, it can still make zombies the slow way.
This modification often accompanies Controller or Summoner.
The infected (p. 97) normally turn those they bite only if the injuries are severe and the subject has slept, allowing the plague to alter his unconscious brain. The GM is fond of the idea of this contagion originating from a boss that delivers a stronger, more effective dose. Reviewing the Dominance options, he rules out Fast Reanimation (it requires killing the victim, but the infected are living) and Memetic Zombification (wrong kind of infection!). Cloud of Infection and Infected Touch both fit the infection theme, and the GM picks the latter because it involves physical contact. This capability adds 61 points to template cost (-285 points), for a Zombie Zero template cost of -224 points.