By Kevin Kulp

Swords of the Serpentine adversaries are designed to be easily tweaked and modified. But what if you want a foe that’s quite different from those in the core rules? This month we are going to walk through creating a non-human adversary, then look at how to create variants of it. When you do this for your own game, you may find great value in using the online adversary builder at https://monstar.co.nz/matt/sotstools/ with it, you can save your own monsters and load existing adversaries to edit later.

Since the core rules don’t have stat blocks for many standard animals, let’s build a shark as a SotS adversary. This is a deadly shark that you’d expect to find in a pulp sword and sorcery novel (as opposed to real sharks, which are quite nice, and an over-the-top cinematic sharks; more on those later.)

Scoping Out a Shark

When you’re building any adversary from scratch, start by asking yourself what defines the creature. That will give you a roadmap for the monster design. In the case of our deadly shark:

• They swim.

• They go chomp and can bite off limbs.

• They’re not especially brave unless in a feeding frenzy.

• If scared off, they’ll likely return later.

• They’re good at smelling blood in the water and noticing prey.

• They’re hard to kill, but not ludicrously so.

Starting the Process

The template for building adversaries is on p. 155 of SotS; it is immediately followed by guidelines on how to adjust danger and effectiveness.

We start at the top with roleplaying adjectives. Adjectives for a deadly shark are probably something like hungry, relentless, and savage. You pick three adjectives that best define the foe so that you can glance at those adjectives and instantly understand how they’ll act during the game.

Defenses

There are two types of Defenses: Health and Morale.

The shark’s Health Threshold is 4. Let’s give it some armor: Armor 2, maybe? And enough Health to withstand four or five normal hits. That’s about 12-15 Health. It seems like regular deadly sharks shouldn’t be that hard to defeat, so we’ll go with Health 12. This part of the stat block looks like:

Defense — Health: Health Threshold 4, Armor 2, Health 12

Note that the shark would need a Health of about 20 if we wanted it to survive three or four hits and it didn’t have armor. We occasionally use armor because it makes Heroes with the Spot Frailty ability feel really good about their tactical choices.

Here’s the math: Average Hero damage with no crits or Investigative spends is 1 die +1, or 4.5 points of Health damage per successful attack. That drops to 2.5 after the shark’s Armor, with the minimum damage rising if Heroes spend more Warfare on their attack. So it will take four or five attacks to reach 12-15 Health damage, fewer attacks if someone gets a critical hit or uses an Investigative spend for extra damage.

What about Morale? Real sharks don’t have great Morale, but they keep coming back when chased away; we’ll represent that by saying that their Morale regenerates fully between scenes even if defeated. They’re also much bolder and harder to chase away in a feeding frenzy (which we’ll define below).

You can represent these with:

Defense — Morale: Morale Threshold 4, Grit 0 (Grit 4 if in a feeding frenzy), Morale 6. [Special: a deadly shark fully Regenerates Morale between scenes]

With a low Morale, it will take one or two attempts to chase away a deadly shark, but it will be back later to stalk you again. If you know that you’re using the shark only in this one encounter, you may want to give the shark Grit or raise its Morale so that they provide a fun challenge to the Heroes.

Attacks

Real sharks aren’t great hunters of people, and shark bites do a lot of damage. To model this we will make our deadly shark fairly inaccurate and give it a high damage modifier. Sharks can grab and drag their prey, so let’s also give it the Restrain maneuver.

Sharks can also bite off a limb. Monsters that sever limbs are definitely the exception in SotS; instead of creating complex rules around severing body parts, it’s most elegant to say that if a Hero is defeated by a deadly shark then they lose a hand, foot, or limb in the process. That’s unlikely to slow down most Heroes in the long run if they aren’t devoured by the deadly shark, and makes for a memorable and lasting injury to anyone who survives.

A deadly shark doesn’t need a Morale attack (cinematic sharks would get one!) and definitely no Sorcery attack, so the attack portion of the stat block reads:

Offense — Warfare: +1; Damage Modifier +3 (Chomp!) or the Restrain Maneuver; may sever a limb if the attack defeats a foe

Malus and Special Abilities

Consider the number of Special Abilities before you determine Malus. You want enough Malus to power interesting combat for at least three rounds, plus for more dangerous foes enough Malus to raise combat accuracy on a few attacks.

What special abilities do sharks need to have? Not necessarily Extra Damage – that’s why we gave them a +3 Damage Modifier. Swimming, definitely. We want something in there to account for a feeding frenzy. And Regenerate (Morale), as discussed above. Keep the quantity of special abilities as low as possible just to make the monster easier to run.

If you are going to have only one Special Ability, make it Monstrous Ability (cost 3). This says “want to do something vaguely overpowered but really in character for the adversary? Spend 3 Malus and make it happen.” The effect of the Monstrous Ability should be about what an Investigative ability spend would get a Hero: something cool and in-character, but seldom long-lasting.

This leaves us with three special abilities, only one of which we have to pay for. We still need something for Feeding Frenzy. No existing special ability fits here, so we will create something unique and list it under “Special”.

Malus determines how many tricks the bad guy has up their proverbial sleeve; in this case we want enough Malus to power several special abilities and ensure a single critical hit. We’ll pick Malus 9, enough to give the shark terrifying attacks without being overpowered.

We also account for perception and stealth in this section. You can ignore these if the foe isn’t exceptional, but deadly sharks are slightly sneaky and very good at sensing blood and movement. Our stats will reflect this. This section of the stat block looks like:

Abilities: Malus 9

Special Abilities: Monstrous Ability (cost 3), Regenerate (Morale only, after every scene), Swimming

Misc: Alertness Modifier +3, Stealth Modifier +1.

Special: Feeding Frenzy: if 3+ sharks are in Medium range and blood has been spilled, the shark can pay 3 Malus to enter a feeding frenzy. Grit rises to 4 and it gains access to the Extra Attack special ability.

Refresh Tokens

The deadly shark isn’t a mook and has over 1 Health and Morale, but doesn’t have a name, so by default it gives 3 Refresh Tokens upon defeat. If the fight is a difficult one, increase this amount.

Variants

There are scores of cinematic sharks with unusual abilities: land sharks, ghost sharks, sand sharks, snow sharks, multi-headed sharks, toxic sharks, gigantic sharks, flying sharks, etc. Increase Malus to power special abilities as needed; raise Refresh tokens as deadliness increases.

• Bigger and tougher than normal? Add Strength; change Health to 5, 10, or 15 (or more) per Hero depending on its size.

• A megalodon? It’s impossible to kill the monster through sheer damage, but a vulnerable spot that can be targeted with difficulty (identified with Know Monstrosities) has a Health rating. Traditionally this involves attacking the megalodon from inside its own stomach.

• Particularly crunchy teeth? Add Armor-Piercing.

• Defending a human Adversary it’s bonded to? Add Bodyguard.

• Primeval and armor-plated? Add Defense Boost or raise its Armor.

• Multiple heads? Add Extra Action.

• Particularly large and deadly? Add Extra Damage.

• Freaking terrifying? Add Fear.

• Can float or fly? Add Flight.

• The shiver of sharks are mentally linked or coordinated? Add Hivemind.

• The shark carries a toxic disease that turns humans into shark zombies? Add Infection.

• The ghost of a dead shark that can materialize anywhere there is water? Add Insubstantial and Teleport.

• Perfectly camouflaged? Add Invisibility.

• Particularly speedy? Add Lightning Speed and Seize Initiative.

• Can possess humans? Add Possession.

• The statue of a shark come to life? Add Stony.

• Venomous, possibly with a toxin that paralyzes or makes the prey particularly tasty? Add Venom.

• Can travel through sand, snow, lava, or on land? Adapt Swimming to the appropriate element.

Remember, it’s better to have a few Special Abilities that you use often than have a lot of Special Abilities that don’t fit your theme.

You can create additional variants. If you wanted an undead vampiric shark, for example, you’d probably increase Health to 5 or 10 per Hero, increase Grit to 6 (0 if the Morale attack involves a holy symbol or prayer), and add Special Ability: Monstrous Ability (Vampire abilities, including Healing 1 Health for every 1 damage inflicted through a bite).

Final Results

The final Deadly Shark stat block looks like this. Use it well and eat your adventurers!

DEADLY SHARK

Hungry, relentless, savage

Defense — Health: Health Threshold 4, Armor 0 (2), Health 12

Defense — Morale: Morale Threshold 4, Grit 0 (Grit 4 if in a feeding frenzy), Morale 6 (Special: a deadly shark fully Regenerates Morale between scenes)

Offense — Warfare: +1; Damage Modifier +3 (Chomp!) or the Restrain Maneuver; may choose to sever a limb if the attack defeats a foe

Abilities: Malus 9

Special Abilities: Monstrous Ability (cost 3), Regenerate (Morale only, after every scene), Swimming

Misc: Alertness Modifier +3, Stealth Modifier +1.

Special: Feeding Frenzy: if 3+ sharks are in Medium range and blood has been spilled, the shark can pay 3 Malus to enter a feeding frenzy. Grit rises to 4 and they gain access to the Extra Attack special ability.

Refresh Tokens: 3 (or higher if the fight is particularly challenging)

Variants:

• Bigger and tougher than normal? Add Strength; change Health to 5, 10, or 15 (or more) per Hero depending on its size.

• A megalodon? It’s impossible to kill the monster through sheer damage, but a vulnerable spot that can be targeted with difficulty (identified with Know Monstrosities) has a Health rating.

• Particularly crunchy teeth? Add Armor-Piercing.

• Defending a human Adversary it’s bonded to? Add Bodyguard.

• Primeval and armor-plated? Add Defense Boost or raise its Armor.

• Multiple heads? Add Extra Action.

• Particularly large and deadly? Add Extra Damage.

• Freaking terrifying? Add Fear.

• Can float or fly? Add Flight.

• The shiver of sharks are mentally linked or coordinated? Add Hivemind.

• The shark carries a toxic disease that turns humans into shark zombies? Add Infection.

• The ghost of a dead shark that can materialize anywhere there is water? Add Insubstantial and Teleport.

• Perfectly camouflaged? Add Invisibility.

• Particularly speedy? Add Lightning Speed and Seize Initiative.

• Can possess humans? Add Possession.

• The statue of a shark come to life? Add Stony.

• Venomous, possibly with a toxin that paralyzes or makes the prey particularly tasty? Add Venom.

• Can travel through sand, snow, lava, or on land? Adapt Swimming to the appropriate element.

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Kevin Kulp (@kevinkulp) and Emily Dresner (@multiplexer) are the co-authors of Swords of the Serpentine, out now in hardback and PDF. Kevin previously helped create TimeWatch and Owl Hoot Trail for Pelgrane Press. When he’s not writing games he’s either smoking BBQ, watching dubious shark movies, or helping 24-hour companies with shiftwork, sleep, and alertness.