We’ve got the description (part 1)and we’ve got the advantages (part 2). Now our beast needs it’s metadata.
The metadata in a 6d6 character is about how much potential the character has. A character uses their advantages by spending potential on them. Our Smog Devil has plenty of advantages at the moment, but doesn’t have any potential.
Dynamic Potential – This is used on the simpler advantages, things that are common tasks or innately part of our being. A good starting point for this is what you expect it’s most powerful attack will be. The Smog Devil can put out a 5d6 attack with Brawn, Death Blow, Long Limbs, Manual Dexterity and Rend Flesh. This gives us 5 dynamic potential to start. I’m going to give an extra 3 potential for follow up actions and resistance actions (such as defending itself), a total of 8.
Static Potential – These are for advantages that are based on memory or are complex tasks requiring greater concentration. The Smog Devil doesn’t have a lot of static ability advantages, but it does have lots of paths. Most of these paths can be used to give it another 1d6 for nearly all its possible actions. We also want to make sure that it has enough static potential to use its ‘special moves’ – Corpse Hug and Gas Blast. Thus I’m going to give it 4 static.
Recoup – This is the amount of potential the character can recovery in a turn. This defines a character’s speed. A high recoup allows it to use large numbers of dice more often. With a low recoup, to make its 5d6 attack it will need to wait several rounds, rounds in which the players will be attacking. I’m going to start with a recoup of 4. This is high enough to allow it to make solid attacks every round but low enough that sustained attacks will cause it to run out of potential. Running out of potential can be thought of as becoming tired or running out of energy. With a potential of 4, this monster will tire over the course of the fight, giving the players more of a chance if they can survive its punishing blows.
Free Resists – poetically, these are used by a character to resist attacks for free. The more of these a monster has, the more difficult it is to both harm it and tire it out. It takes less damage because it’s rolling more dice in defence and tires more slowly as it’s not using as much potential to defend itself. I want the Smog Devil to be a tough enemy that resistant to a lot of different attacks. To resist physical attacks: Fire Skin and Tough Hide. To resist any mental attacks: Cold Heart and Corruption, which should also help to protect it against magic.
The final task is to spend a little bit more character points on it as at the moment all the advantages are at 1d6+0. All of the free resists are increased to 1d6+2 to aid in defence. Also increased to 1d6+2 are the 5 advantages used in the smog devil’s primary physical attack. It’s three static abilities (Corpse Hug, Drop Attack and Gas Blast) and exploding death are all increased to 1d6+4 to make the special moves extra nasty.
I hope over these three parts I’ve been able to give you some good insight into monster creation in the 6d6 system. Please comment if you have any questions, suggestions or requests.
Art by Rabbiteyes, all rights reserved.