Another Stars Without Number xenobeast:
Castoran Salt Worm
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 2+2
Attack Bonus: +3
Damage: 2d4+2 bite
No. Appearing: 1
Saving Throw: 14+
Movement: 20 ft., burrow 10 ft.
Morale: 7
The Castoran salt worm is a solitary ambush predator that grows to lengths of 10 to 15 feet and weights of 75 to 125 pounds. It spends most of its time lurking in a vertical burrow just a foot or two beneath the surface. Its leathery, boneless body is covered with millions of sensory hairs that detect minute changes in pressure, such as those caused by a creature walking across the surface of the salt flats these worms prefer to lair in.
The Castoran salt worm’s lightning fast strike (+1 initiative rolls) as it erupts from its burrow has a 75% chance of gaining surprise. The worm attacks with its crushing bite.
Fortunately, Castoran salt worms are not especially aggressive or voracious. This xenobeast is likely to retreat if strongly opposed, and its slow metabolic rates require it to consume little more than half its body weight a month.
Tags: monsters, Stars Without Number
My first xenobeast for Stars Without Number:
Adharan Ghost Moth
Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 1
Attack Bonus: +2
Damage: 1d4
No. Appearing: 1d4+1
Saving Throw: 15+
Movement: 15 ft., 45 ft. fly
Morale: 8
Adharan ghost moths hunt in pairs or small packs. These insectile predators average about three feet long, and their wingspans are about twice that. They crawl slowly on the ground, but fly with impressive speed. A ghost moth attacks with its spike-tipped proboscis. This appendage can dart with blinding speed to a range of 10 feet. The proboscis can inject a crippling venom (Physical Effect or Luck saving throw to avoid).
Adharan Ghost Moth Venom: Toxicity 8, Interval 30 seconds, Virulence 2. At each interval, the victim suffers 1 point of damage. Two failed saving throws means paralysis for 1d6+4 minutes.
Tags: monsters, planetary tour, Stars Without Number
From the free version of Sine Nomine Publishing‘s Stars Without Number (page 59):
“One of the characteristics of old-school inspired games such as this one is the large number of unique, special-case systems that arise. A given alien beast might have a 20% chance of knocking a human prone with its attacks, for example, or a 1 in 6 chance of swallowing a person it bites. A forgotten research station might be glowing with a deadly radiation that drains away one point of Strength for every ten minutes the PCs stay inside. Players shouldn’t be surprised to face these situations. Part of the charm of the genre is that PCs can never be entirely certain of their chances, or wholly confi dent about what an alien creature or abandoned outpost might do to them. GMs should avoid creating such one-shot systems when more general systems would serve just as well, but they shouldn’t feel obliged to transform every peril into something that can be diced out with the rules in this chapter.”
My first response after reading this? “Amen!” I said to myself.
As I’ve talked about before, the GM doesn’t have to follow the same rules the players do. The GM needs to be fair, consistent, and not be a jerk, but otherwise the rules can be bent, ignored, and/or modified as the GM deems necessary to create a fun, involving game.
In other news, I completed my entry for the Secret DM’s contest (see the blogpost immediately below this one). There’s now little point in anyone else entering because of the sensational surprises in “The Sinister Silo”. Ergo, y’all might as well just let me win. Right?
Tags: Sine Nomine Publishing, Stars Without Number, The Secret DM
