This monster generator is exactly the kind of content I love to see for Genesys or really any RPG. It is highly useful for game prep, and wastes no time getting down to the business of making monsters. I used the product to generate half a dozen monsters before writing this review, three strictly with dice rolls and three choosing options at each step. They all turned out great, bizarre, and more than a little disturbing. I'll include one of those monsters at the bottom of the review to give an idea of what this product can help you to create.
Bumps in the Night is structurally similar to the playable species generator from Secrets of the Crucible and retains that design pattern's advantages: you only need a d100, and you can either roll or choose at every step along the way. The text wastes no words and encourages you to lean into the more bizarre combinations which are possible. It is definitely a tool for creating Nemesis level monsters.
I do wish that more of the steps had been arranged to fit on a two page facing spread, such that fewer page turns back and forth would be necessary when viewing the PDF on a widescreen monitor or printing it out for use. And I do find the inclusion of the Power Levels from the Expanded Player's Guide superfluous, though I found them superfluous when they originally appeared in that book. And they are easy to completely ignore when generating monsters (which I did).
To emphasize: this monster generator is a spectacular achievement and an easily justifiable purchase!
Sample Monster (Creation Steps)
- Form: rolled 98 (Hybrid, roll twice and combine best stats), rolled 37 (Bestial) and 72 (Hydrodynamic)
- Physiology: rolled 84 (Piscine, grants Wound Threshold +2 and Amphibious)
- Size: rolled 16 (Silhouette 0, grants Ranged Defense +1 and a rank in Stealth)
- Locomotion: rolled 41 (Flight, grants ability to fly, CRB p.100)
- Manipulation: rolled 84 (Tentacles, grants Ensnare 1 to Brawl and Melee attacks)
- Dominant Sense: rolled 60 (Tremorsense, does not add Setback dice due to darkness, smoke, or obscurment, but may add Setback dice due to intense or precisely pitched vibrations.
- Feature: rolled 85 (Symbiont, is composed of two creatures, grants Wound Threshold +4 and Strain Threshold +3)
- Temperament: rolled 91 (Alien, incomprehensible intent, grants WP +1, IN +1, and Strain Threshold +2)
- Mischief: rolled 53 (Strange Animal Behavior)
- Origin: rolled 28 (Prehistoric Holdover)
- Vulnerability: rolled 62 (Time)
- Attacks: rolled 26 (Ranged Ambusher, grants 2 attacks and Soak +2)
- Skill Kits: rolled 15 (Predatory Creature, grants Brawl 3, Coordination 3, Perception 3, Survival 2, and Stealth 3)
- Abilities: rolled 50 (Precise, add an extra Boost die when making the Aim maneuver)
I didn't really have a sense of the monster until I rolled Symbiont as a feature, then everything started falling together as I went. I can also see how you might move from rolling to choosing as you go from earlier to later steps, but everything worked out extremely well here. Prose at the bottom describing the monster is my own, based on the rolls in the above process.
Bogworm Colony (Nemesis)
- Characteristics: BR 3, AG 3, IN 3, CU 2, WP 3, PS 2
- Derived Stats: Soak 5, Wounds 19, Strain 17, Defense M1/R2, Silhouette 0
- Amphibious: breathes in and moves through water without penalty
- Tentacles: Brawl and Melee attacks gain the Ensnare 1 quality
- Tremorsense: does not add Setback dice due to darkness, smoke, or other obscurement, but may add Setback dice due to intense or precisely pitched vibrations.
- Precise: add an extra Boost die when making the Aim maneuver.
- Skills: Brawl 3, Coordination 3, Perception 3, Survival 2, Stealth 4
- Short Ranged Entangling Attack: Ranged; Damage 4; Critical 5; Short; Disorient 3, Ensnare 3, Limited Ammo 1
- Stunning Attack: Brawl; Damage +3; Critical 5; Engaged; Stun 4, Stun Damage
As the permafrost melts, ancient corpse-eating worms have risen from a frozen sleep. They reside in swamps and bogs, infesting any corpse or near-dead creature therein. Over a course of weeks, the worms grow from a tiny size as they feed, protruding from the host in unsightly clusters and appearing to be tentacles. They function together as a colony, with probosci intertwined throughout the corpse to will its muscles into motion. Individual worms can, with effort, launch themselves off the corpse and at a new target, though they die within a few minutes if they cannot attach to a new host with their mouths. Additionally, each corpse-colony will be completely consumed within a few days time. Bogworms push the body they control into rapid activity to spread themselves, and must consume their host rapidly to sustain themselves.
You'll note here I've ended up discarding Flying, though the worms themselves could conceivably fly when not infesting a corpse, and do throw themselves off a corpse at new targets. That was the only roll that ended up not fitting with the final monster. Silhouette 0 is also a bit odd, though it's easy enough to say the Bogworms are treated as the size of their host, and from here I'd probably design a Bogworm Swarm rival and/or an individual Bogworm minion to reflect the Silhouette 0 size of the worm half of the "symbiont."
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