Hey guys and gals, I’ve had a bit of a dumb moment, but is there a MC resource for “stats” to give Threats in the game? In the book there is mention of Trolls and Fairies and other things that go bump in the night, but no example of them or their abilities, if any.
My group is from a D&D background and so violence is their #1 problem solving method, i wanna be prepared.
NPCs still have stats in the form of Harm ratings, drives and moves, Lex.
You can find harm guidelines on page 149. More general advice on NPCs can be found starting on 209. If you’re building them out as a significant Threat, just read the entirety of chapter 9: The Storm, it’s got a lot of good info on making them threatening.
The advice on making custom moves starting on 273 will also serve you well here, though for most NPCs you don’t need to worry about it. Really you don’t even need custom MC moves either; if you want to highlight their supernatural weirdness, just look at their faction moves and interpret appropriately.
Yeah, the only stats you need to worry about with them is:
Drives
What Harm they inflict if they inflict it.
Everything else, right down to the weirdest supernatural powers, is amply covered by the PCs response/resistance moves.
I would say that while preparing NPCs you can think in addition to things mentioned above about what is their core special.
So if it is a Troll – does it have supernatural strength and will be throwing cars and using lamp posts as improvised clubs or does it regenerates like super crazy when wounded by anything else than cold iron or both or more.
Then you can adequately present such enemy in fiction and wait for player response. “Before you get to unleash the second time you see that the wounds from previous strike has already closed, your weapon seems ineffective, what do you do?”
Game gives very little in regards to constraints about playbooks and fiction, so also feel free to ask your players “Why does most people leave Fairies alone? What horrible things have you heard them do to those that bother them?”.
If anyone plays Fae in your game they should be the main setting setter for fae stuff, but others can also throw in their awesome ideas.
I think it is important to talk with the players that US is not D&D, it is not a game about killing stuff but about politics and trying to get by in dark modern city.
Pawel Solowczuk I agree with your last statement, of course. But I’ll have to ease them into it. I’ve gamed with these guys for two years now, and I can say with no doubt that it’ll be a transition for them to drop the idea of “kill the problem” – so I want to have some stuff in my back pocket to toss in the ring when they get antsy and bloodthirsty.
Also: the book does mention throwing things of that nature at the Tainted and Werewolf to showcase their incredible power – which is why I thought i’d ask around.