Monster Hunter Pregens

Back in 2016, I created a series of characters for monster hunters. The goal was to see how well characters with powers, wildcards, or inhuman templates did in various adventures. I never finished the full set of games, but my conclusion was that the easiest group to build, and funnest to play, were the inhumans. They had strong character identities, were better rounded, and always seemed to have both something to do and some amusing limitation getting in the way. They were not particularly efficiently built or optimized, but I think that was part of their charm. At any point in the game, everyone had something to do.

I've written up these characters as pregens, and generated some faces for them with artflow.ai. Each character has a sidekick template from Gurps: Monster Hunters 4, plus a monstrous template to add an inhuman race. Their inhuman templates are drawn from pyramid, blogs, and one is even from the original book. Most have their two templates contrasting each other rather than complimenting: that's part of the fun. I hope you find the pregens useful in some way: I've found the characters to be a lot of fun. 

• Ernest Clay, Whitecoat Golem
• Dan White,Vampire Muscle
• Wesa, Ghostly Brother
• Michael Issac Babbage, Android Geek
• Aaron Emersol, Immortal Fixer
  

I've really enjoyed these characters. I hope you enjoy them as well!

Vanishing Scout Bush

Vanishing Scout Bushes are a strange breed of creature used as scouts and spies. When they're not fighting, they appear pretty much like a large bush a little bigger than a person, all told. They can even stand up to a little investigation, though it will quickly become apparent that this is no ordinary bush: they have nasty spikes and the woody core of the creature is much thicker than it needs to be.

When they stand up for combat, they have a roughly humanoid shape, but covered in thick vegetation. Their fists are tipped in long wooden spikes, and getting hit by one tends to hurt a lot. That said, they really don't like fair fights. They can retreat quite rapidly, and they will do so if faced with serious danger: they're scouts, not warriors. They are cunning enough to appear directly behind foes to strike from behind though.

Vanishing Bushes are designed as servitors for some villain. They work well as Fae or as the creation of a wizard. They can also be used as demons or as forest servitors, all with minor adjustments.

ST	25	HP	25	Speed	6.5
DX	14	Will	14	Move	6
IQ	8	Per	14
HT	12	FP	12	SM	0
Dodge	9(12)	Parry	10	DR	8 (hardened 1)

Thorny Fist (14): 2d+3 impaling

Teleportation (12): Vanishing Bushes can simply leave their locations, appearing at another. This is utterly silent, and they can do so quickly. They can ignore up to -5 in range or time penalties. They cannot, however, leave an area within 10 yards of any part of a fir tree. A handful of dry needles or a branch of the tree will suffice, but a single needle or old twig will not. If one attempts to teleport into an area with a branch, it will be stunned until it can make an IQ check (yes, that's going to take a while), and then the dread will effect it.

Camoflauge: Vanishing Bushes look pretty much like bushes: motionless and quiet. A bystander who isn't on the lookout for non-human foes is at -5 to spot them, and even a wary adventurer looking for general trouble gets a -2 for potentially over looking bushes. Conversely, +2 can be gained by a successful Biology, Naturalist, Gardening, or appropriate hidden lore roll. If the onlooker is familiar with the area, an Per check will reveal the additional bush. A Typical example would be the neighbor's front porch.

Traits:  360 degree vision, Chameleon 2 (effects sight and sound), Dark Vision, Doesn't Breath, Doesn't Eat or Drink, Doesn't Sleep, Dread (fir trees), Immunity to Metabolic Hazards, Injury Tolerance (Homogeneous, No Blood), Social Stigma (monster), Warp (blink, weakness: fir trees, no signature, penalty cancelling 5, reliable)

Skills: Brawling - 14, Stealth - 16*, teleport - 12, body sense -14, observation -15
*includes +2 from chameleon. If the bush is not moving, this bonus is doubled, and the bush has stealth -18. See the camoflague entry.

Build Notes

This monster was created using the Monster Hunters Foe Generator, off the seat of my pants. Most of the time I take a bunch of time when using the generator. On Tuesday I needed a monster off the seat of my pants, and built the monster pretty much during play. Its based on the weak demon from monster hunters 3, plus the special abilities given. I don't think any of the players noticed, because they were busy looking through the park for the demons. I really like the way it turned out.

I beefed up the warp a lot, uncapping range, adding blink, and emphasizing the silence. I also dropped the leech (standard) I got in the roll, because it didn't really fit -- though blood sucking plants are a staple of dungeon fantasy.

The penalty cancelling 5 is the reliable enhancement, with the condition that it can't actually raise skill. I did this because I didn't want their blink defense to be sky high.

I kind of bent the rules with Chameleon. Chameleon has an "extended" enhancement that's normally supposed to apply to infravision, not sound. There is an almost identical advantage called "Silence" that applies to sound. But I wanted both Chameleon and Silence without actually stacking their bonus, so I used the extended enhancement. I'm still looking at how that worked, but I'm feeling happy with it at the moment.

Blog or Treat: Remembrance Thief

Perhaps one of my favorite posts on this blog is also my oldest: Demons and Fae. It examines the demon variety chart in Monster Hunters 3 (page 19) and talks about how it can  expanded and used to create Fae. It also talks about how a single monster concept can be used for multiple monster types, and it inspired me to actually write an expanded table and build a generator so you don't have to roll 50 dice to get answers.

This monster was generated using those tools and posts, but this time I'm not picking a monster type: I'm showing how the monster can a demon, an evil fae, or a type of vampire. I hope you find the monster evocative.

The monster is focused on Monster Hunters, as the original posts and the book that inspired the creature are focused there, but it can fit in variety of campaigns, particularly standard horror.

Monster Hunters: Between Man and Wolf

While the classic werewolf of legend is a man that turns into a wolf, there is another tradition: that of a monstrous creature that is neither a man nor a wolf, but the animalistic features of a wolf framed on hunched, powerful frame of what's mostly a man. This is a modern take, but no less of a legitimate one.  Monster Hunters provides us with  several animal templates, but not much in the way of wolf-men. Or rat-men. We technically have the feline template in basic, but lets do a proper monster Hunters template as well.

The most important thing to remember here is that the points should total up to 125. Its also worth noting that unlike a wolf, bear, or eagle, this creature is monstrous, and will be reacted to as such -- a wolf may draw calls to animal control, but a monster will generate even more extreme reactions.

Basic Man-Monster [125]
ST +2, DX +2, HT +2, Speed +.5, Teeth (sharp), Claws (sharp),  Night vision 5,  Damage Resistance 4 (tough skin), fur, Social Stigma (Monster), Ham-fisted, spoken language drops to accented, 32 point animal lens

were-men tend to have a lot of similarities: Teeth, claws, fur, and an animalistic fury. They're bodies are pretty much in a monster shape rather than an animal form, and the focus is really on building a monster, not an animal. The spoken language at accented reflects an appropriate animal voice, and while it doesn't drive people away (your looks already do that, and you can turn it off whenever they want) it can make it difficult to communicate with teammates.

Because we retain the human shape, a lot of the statistics are lower. But we keep fine manual dexterity, which means the character can use weapons and open doors freely. These types of monsters are made to use weapons, be they guns, blades, or something more exotic, and that can make these things terrifying. Night vision 5 is the higher than any of the natural animal templates. Once again, this is because this creature really isn't half-man half-animal, but a monster.

The remaining points spent on a combination of senses and movement abilities, flavored for the appropriate animal. While these abilities are only about a quarter of the point total, they keep the monster tied to its animal roots.

Animal Lenses [32]
Wolf-man: Acute hearing 3, Enhanced Move (ground) .5, Discriminatory Smell, Penetrating voice
Cat-man: Acute Smell 1 , Perfect Balance, Discriminatory Hearing
Rat-man: Discriminatory smell,  Perfect Balance, Night vision raised to 7

Other animals are quite possible, and should be appropriately themed. Smaller animals are particularly appropriate, as they can be made into a monster capable of making up for the animals natural small size.

More than one Template
Adding another template to a were is an additional 27 points. This is a big investment, but its also a very powerful one, giving a very different set of capabilities to the lycanthrope. The template taken should almost always be an intermediate or completed form of the creature. The lycanthrope should also specify which form is reverted to during the full moon.

As a Monster

ST 20       HP 20        Speed: 8.25
DX 15      Will  12     Move: 8
IQ 5          Per 13       Weight: 150-200
HT 16       FP 16        SM: 0

Dodge: 12    DR 6 (tough skin)

bite (15): 2d-2 cut, reach C, -1 to defense
claw (15): 2d-2 cut, reach C, -1 to defense
Improvised Club (14) 4d+1/2d+1 cr, reach 1

Its worth noting this sort of Lycanthrope is weaker than the classic forms -- unless it can get its hands on something. This monster is more dangerous in an urban or semi-urban enviroment than in the wilderness proper. Although the IQ is low, these monsters are quite willing to pick up an object and beat their foe with it.

This sort of were is most dangerous as the semi-rational or rational head of a larger pack -- one with multiple forms, and who has combined human and animal into a single monstrous form using the benefits of both. While all weres are more dangerous in this form, half-men get particularly more dangerous, as they are able to take full advantage of weapons.

 Last Howl

I hope you find this useful ... I certainly wished someone else had done this for me on occasion!

Monster Hunters: Cononel Rush, Mad Scientist

I was playing around with Collaborative Gamer's Adventure generator using my rules for Monster hunters, and got the following plot idea:

Hook

A bunch of previously deathly ill and weak patients at a hospital go berserk, smashing equipment, trying to bite people, and making bestial noises.

The players may have to restrain the patients themselves, or they may arrive after they are all restrained (or dead). Investigation should reveal at least some of the following facts:

• This is an Zombie Virus
• Its not infectious, at least not via biting 
• These symptoms are characteristic of zombies associated with one Colonel Rush, a mad scientist and rouge super soldier who has declared war on 'God'.
• Colonel Rush seems to create zombies for some unknown purpose
• One of the medical staff wandering around was faking his identity -- he looks like Colonel Rush
• Each of the Victims had the same quasi-diagnosed symptoms
• There was one more victim with the same symptoms -- and she's missing from the hospital
• Colonel Rush took the girl

Further clues should lead the hunters on a chase to rescue the girl before the colonel dissects her or worse.

The Colonel

Built as a Techie with the criminal lens and the overman power up.
ST 13  HP 17
DX 14  Will 18
IQ 18  Per 18
HT 14 FP 14
Traits:  Injury Tolerance (unliving), Neural Computation Matrix 2, Cerebral-motor multitasking, Enhanced Time Sense, 3 gizmos, High Pain Threshold, Serendipity, Unusual biochemistry
Skills: Inventor!-19, Medic!-18, Tactics - 18, Weird Science- 17, Liquid Projector (Sprayer) -16, Guns (riffle) -16, Saber -13, Throwing-13, Acrobatics-14, Wrestling - 15, Acting-18, Intimidation - 18, Traps-18, Lockpicking-18, Urban Survival -18, Streetwise-18, Forced Entry-15, Driving -14 (and others)

The Colonel is a coward at heart -- this is a rescue and capture mission, not a fight mission. The guy is slippery -- perception rolls are typically all at 23 (ETS gives +5 if time is an issue),  Maneuvering him into a corner requires beating him at tactics, He's not bad in a fight, and he can steal cars, set or disarm traps at the drop of a hat, and he tends to be quite well equipped. Play him as a very prepared foe as well a very intelligent one -- he will always have an exit planned. He's also not afraid to take hostages to trade his way out of a situation.

The Colonel carries several aeresol spray 'bombs', filling an area with a chemical or biological agent. Some of these are duds! others contain nasty chemicals or biological agents. These aren't just thrown, he will also use them in traps. Unless specified, two successful resistances or a failure makes the target immune in the future.

Rage Gas: A biochemical agent that causes madness. Inhaled, HT-4,  10 second onset, failure results in target going berserk for a full minute. This can be used in a crowd to slow down hunters or loose himself in the chaos, but if he wants to hurt them, he'll need to get a champion to fail his HT roll.
Sleep Gas: Inhaled, HT-2, 10 second onset, failure results in unconsciousness
Zombie Spores: Inhaled, HT, 60 second onset, failure results in victim becoming unconscious for 5 minutes and then a slow zombie for 1 hour.
Placebo: Does nothing, but looks different and can be quite useful
Hallucinogens:Skin Contact, HT-4, 20 second onset, Hallucinating
Nerve Gas: Skin Contact, HT-6, no onset, 1d6-2 over six one minute cycles
Death Spores: HT-4, 8+1d*2 minute onset, 1d6 damage per cycle, 10 cycles of one minute

This is not the limit of the list. If you use this adventure feel free to come up with more ideas for his bombs.

Colonel Rush also uses zombies. If he is given an hour with a subject, he can turn them into a fast zombie that obeys his commands. If he is rushed, 10 minutes is sufficient to prepare a slow zombie or a fast zombie that doesn't follow commands at all!

Colonel Rush's file is not hard to get, but you do need to be in the know, and often people don't have time to grab gas masks before heading out to face him.

MH: Android as Inhuman

Monster Hunter's 5 had four inhuman templates. But the race I wanted to play the most was actually the android, given just a single box of its own and barely mentioned otherwise. So I had to make one.

The android given is actually really close to 400 points -- as they said, roughly equivalent to a hunter. I was aiming for a 200 point template. The creation actually turned out a lot more customizable than I was expecting: the android's way to mental freedom determines a lot of things about it, and I left ways to get back the traits that were dropped that an individual might feel are really crucial to their version of the idea.

What is the techie for?

I was looking at monster hunters and realized that I had absolutely no idea how to GM or play a techie. I was unsure how to empower a gadgeteer without granting world changing superscience or Ultra tech. Then I gathered my thoughts a little, and came up with a few principles to playing a techie. And then I came up with powerful things to do with a techie that utilize these options. This article focuses on the gadgeteering aspect, not the side skills.

Monster Hunters Foe Generator

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