The Halls Untoward YZE conversions

THE HALLS UNTOWARD - 

            "Centuries ago, an underground road pierced the Strielwal mountains, carrying trade in both directions. The halls grew from a humble waystation at the mid-point, but soon sprouted hostels, workshops, trading posts, and shrines.             When war with Grinvolt sealed the western end, the halls were abandoned, though rumor held that some remained behind. Now that peace reigns once more, visitors have set out to find plunder, opportunity, or the lost route through to the West. But what has become of the Halls Untoward during their strange century of evolution in the dark?"

Michael Prescott, 2-page dungeon-maker extraordinaire, and mastermind behind Trilemma Adventures put out a crowd-sourced dungeon a while back called the Halls Untoward. It’s still pay what you want on DTRPG and is packed full of his illustrations and fits really well into my favorite fantasy setting of Forbidden Lands. The dungeon is fully described and as can be expected from Michael has its own internal logic, and fun if weird locations.

I worked with Michael to turn the creatures he designed for his 2-page adventures, contained in the Trilemma Compendium, into useable monsters for fantasy games using the Year Zero Engine. This companion bestiary book became Trilemma: Servants of Memory and is specifically compatible with Forbidden Lands from Free League Games (we were given permission for a disclaimer in the front of the book).

Whilst working on the kickstarter we workshopped some ideas for stretch goals and one of the ideas that I threw into the mix was an add-on for the bestiary which would have covered creatures included in The Halls Untoward. Now, some of the creatures from the collaborative dungeon are already included in Servants of Memory but this would have added 6 additional entries and would have forced me to flex my creative muscles as most of the other entries in Servants started as conversions of 5E material (by now you should know I am fond of conversions!).

Although this idea was ultimately rejected, mainly due to trying to reconcile the YZE OGL with the CC-BY-NC that Halls' is released under, I still think its something worth looking at. As my contributions to another top secret project I am working on may be coming to an end, I thought that I would resurrect this idea for my poorly provisioned blog.

If this goes well, and doesn't take me years to complete, as you know I haven't been very active, then I may move on to the magical items that can also be found in the dungeon, and anything else that takes my interest.

Over the next few weeks I will start working through the list below, and see how far I get. Please feel free to contribute in the comments for each entry:- 

All Monster Names and Descriptions are taken from The Halls Untoward by Michael Prescott et. al. which is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC license v4.0

All Monster Stat Blocks and Attack Descriptions are copyright Craig Atkins 2022.

• APOCALYPSE LARVA (Trilemma: Servants of Memory pg 9, stats by Craig Atkins)
• CAVE SQUID (Trilemma: Servants of Memory pg 26, stats by Craig Atkins)
• CAVE STITCHER (Trilemma: Servants of Memory pg 28, stats by Craig Atkins)
• CARREG (Trilemma: Servants of Memory pg 24, Kin Talents pg 184, stats by Craig Atkins)
• DEEP-SHRIMP
• DRADKIN (Trilemma: Servants of Memory pg 44, Kin Talents pg 184, stats by Craig Atkins)
• DREAD REAVERS
• DUNGEON BARNICLE/CIRRIPEDE
• FIRE BEETLES (Trilemma: Servants of Memory pg 56, stats by Craig Atkins)
• JORN (Trilemma: Servants of Memory pg 88, stats by Craig Atkins)
• MURK STARS (Trilemma: Servants of Memory pg 105, stats by Craig Atkins)
• PSEUDOSCION
• RICALU (Trilemma: Servants of Memory pg 122, Kin Talents pg 185, stats by Craig Atkins)
• ROCK WORMS
• SANDPUFFER
• TCHETH (Trilemma: Servants of Memory pg 148, Kin Talents pg 186, stats by Craig Atkins)
• WHIP SCORPIAN (Trilemma: Servants of Memory pg 167 stats by Simon Bokvist)

All Monster Names and Descriptions are taken from The Halls Untoward by Michael Prescott et. al. which is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC license v4.0

All Monster Stat Blocks and Attack Descriptions are copyright Craig Atkins 2022.

GELATINOUS CUBE

 GELATINOUS CUBE

This will probably be my last old school conversion for a while as I think I have covered the main requests from the community and I have some other ideas to keep me busy, and I have some ideas for some new content that I will start working on over the coming weeks. I hope you have enjoyed this look at how D&D mainstays translate to Forbidden Lands. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Many moons ago I did some work helping to convert a Black Pudding, so I may recycle some of that work - https://forum.frialigan.se/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=5100&start=30

I am using the most recent iteration as my starting point - 5E GELATINOUS CUBE stat block. The stats convert easily using my conversion guide, a GELATINOUS CUBE doesn't really need WITS or EMPATHY, and only uses its STEALTH skill to remain hidden.

Gelatinous Cubes are always only found in dungeons or subterranean passageways, the creatures attacks are tailored to this environment. I like the idea of this being one of the most dangerous creatures, as per the previous editions, so I have added back its paralyzing poison special ability from editions prior to 5th. If this proves to be too powerful for your group, feel free to drop the poison from all attacks.

There was an interesting suggestion on the fb post of the gelatinous cube getting a taste for a specific adventurer and following them no matter where they go until either they are digested or the cube is defeated. Whilst I really like this idea I think it fits more as flavour, and can be used by any GM to maintain the threat of this classic monster.

If you have ideas for other attacks, questions,or spot any typos or errors, please comment below.

The gelatinous cube is the byproduct of the demon incursion into the Forbidden Lands, originally of demon origin used to cleanse the demon realm of detritus, their shape and substance transformed as they came into contact with the mix of natural that everyday kin task for granted. With an aversion to open spaces, the newly reformed cubes sought refuge in dungeons and caves where they could continue their primal instincts of digesting everything in their path, inanimate or adventurer.

ATTRIBUTES

STRENGTH 15, AGILITY 1

SKILLS: Stealth 5

MOVEMENT: 1

ARMOR RATING: 0 (only takes 1 damage from pointed or blunt weapons)

OOZE CUBE: The cube fills its whole space and cannot be passed. If someone enters this space they enter the creature and suffer the full effects of the ENGULF! attack. A creature within ARM'S LENGTH of the cube can attempt to pull a creature or object out of the cube, by making a successful MIGHT check. If their arm is not completely encased in metal armour they will immediately take 1 damage from the cube's acidic interior, and must resist against a paralyzing poison with Potency 10.

TRANSPARENT: Until a gelatinous cube moves it is very hard to spot. Any adventurer within NEAR range of the cube must succeed at an opposed SCOUTING roll to notice the creature. This may be affected by any bones, equipment or treasure currently floating within the cube. Because of this the cube will generally get in a surprise attack at the start of any attack any combat.

BLINDSIGHT: A cube can sense the movement of any creature within SHORT range, however they cannot sense anything beyond this range.

MONSTER ATTACKS

D6	ATTACK
1	PSEUDOPOD LUNGE!  A watery pseudopod reaches out to grab one adventurer within NEAR range. Make an attack using 5 Base Dice and Weapon Damage 1 (blunt force), the adventurer is GRAPPLED and lifted from the ground. (STRENGTH 5 to BREAK-FREE). If not completely encased in metal armour they will also immediately take 1 damage from the cube's acidic interior, and if they have take STRENGTH damage must resist against a paralyzing poison with Potency 10.
2	ENGULF! The cube surges forward, using its bulk to fill the passageway to engulf any adventurers unlucky enough to be in its way. All adventurers in front of the creature and within ARM'S LENGTH must succeed at a MOVE roll or be sucked into the cube's jelly like interior. Any adventurers that are unsuccessful take 1 point of damage from acid, must resist a paralysing poison with Potency 10, are GRAPPLED, and immediately start to drown. They also take 2 points of acid damage each round whilst inside the creature. Any adventurer that remains awake whilst surrounded by the digestive substance can attempt to BREAK-FREE against a STRENGTH of 6. Anyone that successfully makes the Move roll can retreat to NEAR range.
3	TASTING PSUEDOPOD! Many small slimy psuedopods stretch from the body of the cube, testing the environment ahead, searching for potential prey. All adventurers within ARM'S LENGTH suffer an attack using 4 Base Dice and Weapon Damage 1 (blunt force). If not completely encased in metal armour they will also immediately take 1 damage from the cube's acidic interior, and if they take STRENGTH damage must resist against a paralyzing poison with Potency 10.
4	JELLY DISCHARGE! Around the base of the creature a puddle of ooze begins to form, seeping towards the feet of any unwary adventurer. Each adventurer within ARM'S LENGTH must first succeed at a SCOUTING check to notice the exuded substance and then a MOVE check to step out of its way. If any adventurer fails either roll they immediately take 1 point of acid damage and if they take STRENGTH damage must resist against a paralyzing poison with Potency 10. Metal armour will fully protect against the acid. This puddle remains until the cube next moves forward.
5	WHAT FATE AWAITS! With sickening realisation each adventurer fully comprehends the end that awaits them if the gelatinous cube successfully engulfs them within its jelly-like bulk, a numbed death of either acid erosion or drowning as the creature digests them. All adventurers within SHORT range suffer a fear attack using five Base Dice.
6	INDIGESTIBLE PROJECTILE! Something the cube has previously engulfed has been found to be wholly indigestible, the cube has opted to eject it to make space for one of the adventurers. Make a ranged attack against one adventurer within NEAR range using 4 Base Dice and Weapon Damage 1 (stab wound). Roll a d6 to determine the object; 1: D8 silver coins, 2: A short sword, 3: A broken femur, 4: A sharp rock, 5: A Great Helm, with a pointed crest, 6: D6 Gold Coins. This attack can be parried with a shield.

MIMIC

MIMIC

It has been a while since I even looked at converting creatures and beasts from D&D to the Forbidden Lands stat blocks, so this one might be a bit trickier. I have opted not to have a separate WIP as that seemed to take more time than the actual conversion. So I will just work through and edit as I go.

I am using the most recent iteration as my starting point - 5E Mimic stat block. The stats convert easily using my conversion guide, a Mimic doesn't really need WITS or EMPATHY, but it does have a Stealth skill.

Mimics are an early creation Zygopher as part of his initial experimentation with the demon substance of mog. The grafting of an inanimate object and the amorphous form of a lesser demon created monstrous beings that could alter its form, texture and appearance to fool unwary adventurers, acting as hidden guards of Zygophers most valued treasure or artifacts. Of course Mimics can rarely be trained or kept in one place so some took their leave of their creator and now reside in other dungeons, caverns or crypts to await anyone foolish enough to approach.

ATTRIBUTES

STRENGTH 11, AGILITY 1

SKILLS: Stealth 4

MOVEMENT: 1

ARMOR RATING: 2 (tough hide) (takes no damage from acid)

INANIMATE DISGUISE: The mimic can use a fast action to alter its shape into an inanimate object or back into its true, amorphous form. Until the Mimic moves or attacks it is a perfect replica and its deception cannot be spotted by unwitting adventurers. Its statistics do not change. Equipment worn or carried by it is not transformed.

STICKY: Any object or person that either touches or is touched by a Mimic in their disguised form are held fast by the sticky residue that coats all of its surfaces. Anyone caught is effectively GRAPPLED, as the adhesive substance has a STRENGTH of 3. Alcohol has been known to weaken the hold.

WALL CLIMBER: Due to their adhesive coating Mimics are able to move across walls and ceilings without any issue.

MONSTER ATTACKS

D6	ATTACK
1	PSEUDOPOD SLAP! An elongated appendage reaches out from the object/creature to slap one adventurer within ARM'S LENGTH. Make an attack using 7 Base Dice and Weapon Damage 1 (blunt force).                  If the mimic is in object form, the target is also subjected to its STICKY special ability.
2	SURPRISING BITE! The object contorts to reveal a gaping maw surrounded by jagged teeth, which the thing uses to take a bite out of an adventurer within ARM'S LENGTH. Make an attack using 7 Base Dice and Weapon Damage 1 (slash wound). Any successful attack will also suffer one additional point of acid damage per round for D3 rounds.
3	CRUSHING TENDRILS! A searching pseudopod wraps itself around one adventurer within NEAR range, tightening to crush the very life from them. Make an attack using 6 Base Dice and Weapon Damage 1 (blunt force), the victim is also GRAPPLED. The pseudopod has a STRENGTH of 3 to break free, plus an additional 3 if the creature is currently disguised due to its STICKY ability.
4	RAVENING MAW! If on the Mimics turn any adventurer is unlucky enough to be held in the Mimics CRUSHING TENDRILS! the Mimic will quickly pull them towards it, stretching its waiting mouth in anticipation. The adventurer can attempt to break free from the tendril, as above, but will then be plunged into darkness as the Mimic swallows them whole. The victim will take 1 point of damage each round from digestive juices. A Mimic has no armour on the inside.
5	TONGUE LASHING! Just as the release of the bow string can propel an arrow forward with deadly speed and accuracy, the Mimic releases its tongue muscles, which allows its tongue to spring forward and make multiple stabbing strikes at one adventurer within ARM'S LENGTH. Make three attacks using 5 Base Dice and Weapon Damage 1 (stab wound).
6	WHERE DID IT GO? The mimic lets out a deafening and horrendous and throaty, mucus filled, scream/howl/roar, shaking to spray gastric acid flying. All adventurers within NEAR range suffer a fear attack with five Base Dice and must succeed at a MOVE check or suffer 1 point of acid damage for D3 turns. After all of the pandemonium the Mimic has gone. It has either darted out a nearby door, climbed across the ceiling or otherwise maneuvered to take up a new position in this room or further away. Only adventurers that were not affected by fear and did not attempt to avoid the acid can track the creatures whereabouts.

GIANT SPIDER (not quite but nearly finished)

 GIANT SPIDER

Giant Spiders come in a variety of forms depending of their nature, are they just enlarged spiders, prehistoric monstrosities or demons from another dimension?

The traditional Giant Spider Attacks are listed in attack 1 and 2, and other suggestions have been added to give a full list of six attacks. Special thanks to Brian Leybourne and an Unknown commentor for their suggestions.

ATTRIBUTES

STRENGTH 6, AGILITY 5

SKILLS: Stealth 4, Scout 4

MOVEMENT: 1

ARMOR RATING: 2

SPIDER CLIMB: The spider can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, and ignores movement restrictions caused by webbing.

WEB SENSE: While in contact with a web, the spider knows the exact location of any other creature in contact with the same web. Stepping over a web without touching it requires a MOVE roll.

MONSTER ATTACKS

D6	ATTACK
1	BITE! The hideous arachnid uses its sharp edged jaws to bite one adventurer within ARM'S LENGTH. Make an attack using 7 Base Dice and Damage 1 (slash wound).
2	WEB SHOOT! The spider shoots its sticky web at one adventurer within SHORT RANGE. Make an attack using 7 Base Dice, if the attack its the victim is GRAPPLED and pulled one range closer to the spider each round. The webbing has a STRENGTH of 6.
3	PARALYZING BITE! As the BITE! attack above but if the attack does damage the adventure must also resist a paralyzing poison with Potency 6
4	LEAP! The large creature springs from its current position, leaping on one adventurer within SHORT RANGE. Make an attack using 6 Base Dice, if the attack is successful the victim is knocked prone.
5	COCOON! Using its two front legs the spider reaches out to grab the nearest paralyzed adventurer within ARM'S LENGTH. Make an attack using 6 Base Dice. If the attack succeeds the adventurer is pulled under the creature where it starts to wrap them in its smothering web. In the next turn the victim begins to DROWN. The webbing has a STRENGTH of 6. If no adventurer is suitable re-roll the attack.
6	SPIDER SPAWN! The spiders extended egg sac pulses and disgorges 1D12 eggs at its current location. The eggs are quite fragile and have a STRENGTH of 3. In the each following round 1d6 of the baby spiders will hatch and rush towards any adventurer within NEAR RANGE. The baby spiders are harmless on their own with only 1 STRENGTH and 2 AGILITY, but immediately form a swarm that attacks with a total STRENGTH equal to the size of the swarm. Any attack against the swarm will only kill one creature.

Giant Spider WIP

Giant Spider

The Giant Spider is a mainstay of fantasy fiction, with one of the most famous depictions being Shelob from Lord of the Rings, that very nearly ended the quest for our brave Hobbit. I am sure that some of that depiction will influence my design decisions.

For this beast I have had to change my online source for the 5E spider stats, go here to see what the beast looks like in the current version of D&D - 5E Giant Spider

I will again rely heavily on my conversion formulas found here as a spreadsheet - 5E to Fbl conversion guide.

STEP 1: STRENGTH - As ever the first question, Is it a Monster? Categorically Yes! So we use the HP multiplier to determine Forbidden Lands Strength. 4d10+4 = 4x1.25+Constitution Modifier of +1= 6, which is pretty low for something this legendary.  It also doesn't have any immunities or resistances, so the Strength isn't modified further.

STEP 2: AGILITY - Agility is easy, just convert the Spider's Dexterity of 16 to a Fbl Agility of 5, it is an agile critter.

STEP 3: WITS AND EMPATHY - It doesn't need Wits or Empathy as its only semi-intelligent.

STEP 4: SKILLS - This is the first monster to have skills listed. It has a Stealth of 7, in D&D this would be made up of a proficiency and its Dexterity Modifier. In my conversion document I have listed all of the 5E skills and their Fbl counterpart, Stealth converts to Stealth, just subtract the Dex Modifier as this will be added to the creatures Agility in play. 7-3=4, so Fbl Stealth = 4.

It also has Passive Perception which would use its Wisdom Modifier, so look up the Base Dice increase of the Wisdom Attribute of 11 to convert to WITS of 4.

STEP 5: MOVEMENT - Speed/30 = 30/30 = 1, if its climb speed was different I would add that as well but this ability will be covered as a special ability.

STEP 6: ARMOR RATING - Looking at the 5E armor ratings (and Formulas), this gives me a number of options. The Spider has a Natural Armor of 4, and this either includes all, some, or none of its Dex Modifier of 3, depending on how tough I think it is. Which would give me possible Armor Ratings of 1 (14-10-full Dex Modifier) or 2 (14-10-Max Dex modifier of 2), or 4 (14-10, no Dex modifier included). This is where I loook at the Armor ratings listed for monsters in the Legends and Adventurers booklet, and compare the options. My gut says 4 is too high, but 1 is too low, so let's go with 2 (equivalent to thick fur, or for the spider I would say thick hide).

STEP 7: TYPICAL GEAR - None.

STEP 8: IMMUNITIES, RESISTANCE AND VULNERABILITIES - None Listed

STEP 9: SPECIAL ABILITIES - The spider has a number of special abilities listed:

• Spider Climb. The spider can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.

This is very straightforward, I would just remove the last section as its irrelevant.

• Web Sense. While in contact with a web, the spider knows the exact location of any other creature in contact with the same web.

Again, just use as written.  There might be a possibility for an adventurer to make a roll to avoid the webbing?

• Web Walker. The spider ignores movement restrictions caused by webbing.

I would add this into the Spider Climb ability above.

STEP 10: CONVERT ATTACKS - The Spider has the following attacks listed:

• Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: (1d8 + 3) piercing damage plus (2d8)poison damage. The target must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw, taking the poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. If the poison damage reduces the target to 0 hit points, the target is stable but poisoned for 1 hour, even after regaining hit points, and is paralyzed while poisoned in this way.

This one is based off the creatures Strength, so look at the conversion guide for the Base Dice increase in-line with its 5E Strength Attribute of 14, which gives an Base Dice increase of 2, for a total of seven Base Dice and Weapon Damage 1 (as it does less than 20 average damage). In 5E this does piercing damage but it makes sense to have this as a slash wound in Fbl, as a bite can remove limbs like a sword cut. Range is ARM'S LENGTH as it is within 5ft.

This attack also has a paralysing poison included. The potency is devised by taking the saving throw and subtracting 10, to leave a Potency of 1. This seems really low, so I might need to revise my conversion formula to how I work it for Fear attacks, which is saving throw halved?

• Web (Recharge 5-6). Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 30/60 ft., one creature. The target is restrained by webbing As an action, the restrained target can make a DC 12 Strength check, bursting the webbing on a success. The webbing can also be attacked and destroyed (AC 10; hp 5; vulnerability to fire damage; immunity to bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage).

The Web attack can only be used once every 5 or 6 rounds and ends in the victim being GRAPPLED. The initial attack is based off of the creatures Dexterity, so look across from its DEX of 16 to see what its Base Dice increase is, in this case it’s 2, increasing the attack to seven Base Dice. Range is SHORT and the Webbing has a STRENGTH of 6 ( which is half the STR save of 12).

STEP 11: ATTACK DESCRIPTIONS - The attack descriptions are pretty straight forward. The Bite is quite brutal and obviously has a poison attack. The description of the Web attack will include its innate stickyness.

STEP 12: NEW ATTACKS - This is where it gets interesting as I asked for some feedback on possible attacks and ended up getting quite a few suggestions, so I decided to write them all up and then you can choose which four you would like to add in to make up the six. I have grouped some together to cover a certain creature that harasses halflings.

STEP 13: FINISHING TOUCHES - Not much to add now, this was quite straight forward, it’s just a shame it took so long for me to complete.

Year Zero Bestiary Kickstarter

Over the past few weeks I have been a bit preoccupied, and my work on the Giant Spider has sadly remained unfinished, hopefully I will get back to my conversions soon.

But as many of you know I have been working alongside other contributors to develop a fantasy bestiary for the Trilemma Adventures Compendium (available here)! The work on this is now and on 4th August we will be launching the kickstarter for this Year Zero Engine edition! To follow along and make sure you are notified of the launch please click here.

Making the Rust Monster - WIP

The Rust Monster

Over the next few days I will type up my work converting the D&D rust monster. I will start by looking at the 5E stat block, found here - 5E SRD - Rust Monster

I will again rely heavily on my conversion formulas found here as a spreadsheet - 5E to Fbl conversion guide.

STEP 1: STRENGTH - As always the first question: Is it a monster? Well, it has MONSTER! as part of its name so definitely a monster. This means we use the Rust Monsters HD to determine its Fbl Strength. Because of this we also need to look for any immunities or resistances as this will affect the conversion multiplier. No immunities so 5D8 +5 converts to 5 * 1 (as a D8 hit has a conversion multiplier of 1) + 1 (the creatures Constitution Modifier) Giving a total of 6, which is quite low for a monster but this critter has additional protection with its rust ability, so it should be fine.

STEP 2: AGILITY - Agility is pretty straight forward, take the creatures Dexterity score and plug into my conversion table. 12 converts to 4.

STEP 3: WITS AND EMPATHY - Its a monster, and its 5E Int, Wis and Cha are too low to worry about, so lets skip this.

STEP 4: SKILLS - No skills listed, so we can move on.

STEP 5: MOVEMENT - 60ft / 30 = 2, its quicker than an average human, as it should be.

STEP 6: ARMOR RATING - The Rust Monsters AC is 14, subtract 10 gives us 4. This is the point where 5E head scratching comes in, as the armor rating could be modified by the creatures Dex modifier of +1, or it might not be, depending on how the AC is calculated. As we want the Rust monster to be a bit of a threat, lets just keep the full 4.

STEP 7: TYPICAL GEAR - Rust Monsters don't generally carry items, so we can skip ahead.

STEP 8: IMMUNITIES, RESISTANCE AND VULNERABILITIES - Nothing listed for any of these, which means it will take damage from all attacks but anyone using metal weapons is in for a surprise (unless they are old school D&D players, then they should not be surprised at all).

STEP 9: SPECIAL ABILITIES - The Rust Monster has two special abilities -

• Iron Scent: The rust monster can pinpoint, by scent, the location of ferrous metal within 30 feet of it. 

This is pretty easy to translate, just change 30ft to SHORT range, this is a bit longer as its up to 25m but that should be fine. I might add a description about how it would choose a target amongst a group of adventurers.

• Rust Metal: Any nonmagical weapon made of metal that hits the rust monster corrodes. After dealing damage, the weapon takes a permanent and cumulative -1 penalty to damage rolls. If its penalty drops to -5, the weapon is destroyed. Nonmagical ammunition made of metal that hits the rust monster is destroyed after dealing damage. 

This one is a bit trickier due to how weapons work in Fbl. My instinct is to make this immediately reduce Gear Dice but there is a little bit of me (probably my left eye) that wants me to only reduce Gear Dice if a 1 is rolled when attacking. For now I will go with my initial thought. I will add that the weapon also cannot be repaired to recover this lost Gear Dice.

STEP 10: CONVERT ATTACKS - The Rust Monster has two actions listed that can be converted to attacks. I will work through this tomorrow.

• Bite: Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d8 + 1) piercing damage. 

This one is easy to convert. The range is ARM’S LENGTH because of its 5ft reach. Cross reference the creatures Strength attribute of 13 with the conversion table to find the Base Dice increase, in this case it’s 3, and add this to the +3 to hit. The creature rolls six Base Dice to bite, and as it’s damage average is less than 20 it does Weapon Damage 1 in Fbl. Although it states piercing damage, in Fbl bites are usually slash wounds. The reason for this I think is that a bite has the ability to severe limbs, but a stab would only pierce a specific hit location.

• Antennae: The rust monster corrodes a nonmagical ferrous metal object it can see within 5 feet of it. If the object isn’t being worn or carried, the touch destroys a 1-foot cube of it. If the object is being worn or carried by a creature, the creature can make a DC 11 Dexterity saving throw to avoid the rust monster’s touch. If the object touched is either metal armor or a metal shield being worn or carried, its takes a permanent and cumulative -1 penalty to the AC it offers. Armor reduced to an AC of 10 or a shield that drops to a +0 bonus is destroyed. If the object touched is a held metal weapon, it rusts as described in the Rust Metal trait

This one is slightly more complicated as it’s not written up as an attack in the 5E version. Usually for something like Poison or Disease I make the strength of it it equal to saving throw DC -10, and I think this fits to show how accurate the attack is. But rolling one dice for an attack is pretty pointless in Fbl, so I will add in the creatures adjusted Strength as well (as above). This gives a total of four Base Dice for the attack. The damage is something special that I need to think about, it probably causes 1 point of Gear Dice damage per success for whatever object it attacks, armor or weapon. I would also think this attack can be parried but that just specifically damages the weapon.

STEP 11: ATTACK DESCRIPTIONS - This is where your imagination comes in, try to make the attacks sound interesting. For the bite I think it would have mandibles, due to being insectoid. The antennae attack is going to be a frenetic rubbing type of attack.

STEP 12: NEW ATTACKS - The first thing to decide here is how many attacks should it have? Animals or small creatures can have just a couple of attacks that are described in the main stat block, large creatures always have six but my rule of thumb is that monsters with less than 8 Strength have three attacks, modelling the Stone Raven from the Bitter Reach. This is just a general guideline and depends on how creative I can be with the attacks, if I can come up with six I will use six. For the Rust Monster I had two immediate ideas.

• The Rust Monsters tail is said to also corrode but I think that does it by hitting the target, I would say it is somewhere between the bite and Antennae attacks in regards to base dice, so let’s put it at five Base Dice and Weapon Damage 1 (blunt force) due to the way it can club its target. It also looks quite long, so let’s increase the range to NEAR. It will also corrode like the antennae.

• I did think the Rust Monster would barrel through anyone not carrying metal to get to a target it could feed off, with the ability to knock the target prone as well whilst knocking them aside. Let’s call this RUSH ATTACK! until I can come up with something better, it has the same attack chance and damage as the bite but as (blunt force), the target also needs to make a MOVE roll or end up prone.

• Maybe a disarm attack versus anyone brandishing a metallic weapon, same base dice as the tail but it grabs the weapon and the victim must make a MIGHT roll or the weapon is pulled from their grip, the rust monster will then stop and devour the weapon.

• To be honest I’m now struggling a bit for the last attack, any thoughts? It could use its tail to swipe at all adventurers within NEAR range, maybe?

STEP 13: FINISHING TOUCHES - I think it is pretty much done now but I think adding something to the description to fit it in with the setting would be good, I will see what I can do.

I will post up next week.

New, old, monsters for Forbidden Lands

New, old, Monsters for Forbidden Lands

A while back I put a poll up on FB - Old School Monster Poll and also asked questions on Reddit about what classic monsters people would like to see written up for Forbidden Lands RPG.  My original intention was to start writing these up weekly, but life got int he way. But bow I have a bit more time and new enthusiasm for this project.

I think D&D has a lot of interesting, weird and dangerous monsters to pit against adventuring parties.  Forbidden Lands has a good crop of monsters but has a finite list of monsters for the GM to fall back on. I am not aiming to recreate all of the Classic Monster Manual entries, but provide a good crop of monsters, creatures and critters to surprise your players.

Here is the art from the original AD&D Monster Manual -

Here are the monsters currently on my list, I will update this as I post up my versions.  If you would like to add to the votes, or suggest other monsters you would like to see then please drop me a comment below.

MONSTER

GOLEM converted to Fbl (37 votes)
RUST MONSTER converted to Fbl (20 votes)
GIANT SPIDER converted to Fbl (20 votes)
MIMIC converted to Fbl (18 votes)
GELATINOUS CUBE converted to Fbl (17 votes)
BULETTE/LANDSHARK (4 votes)
OTYUGH (4 votes)
OWLBEAR (2 votes)
ACTAEON (2 votes)
VAMPIRES (2 votes)
BEHOLDER (1 vote, from Reddit)
MIND FLAYER (1 vote from Reddit)
SHAMBLING MOUND (1 vote from Reddit)

There has been other work on creating and adapting monsters to Forbidden Lands.  This excellent Monster File by SpandexAndy on the forbidden Lands Forums has guidance for creating monsters and has a lot of creatures to just drop into your game.  The file can be found here - Monster File.  If you have your own monsters you would like me to feature drop me a message.

CONVERSION GUIDELINES

A while back I worked up some conversion guidelines for converting 5E Monsters to Forbidden Lands, I will be using this as I work through the conversions.  Here is the file - 5E to Forbidden Lands Conversion Guidelines - I will work this up as a post over the coming weeks.

And here is a quick converter (also created by SpandexAndy), using my conversion guidelines.  I might work this up to cover monster attacks as well but that will take some working out. - To use it you will need to save a local copy - 5E to Fbl Conversion Spreadsheet.

QUICK AND DIRTY MONSTERS

For quick and dirty monsters I created this random monster generator - fl-monster-generator. It uses the monster creation rules in the Legends and Adventurers pamphlet with a few additional attacks to make it more varied.