Monsters

Most published adventures contained one or two unique monsters not seen anywhere else—custom creatures and denizens of the deeps that could threaten players in some way they hadn’t encountered before. Take a look through the adventure and make sure you’ve caught them all. Many monsters will already have statistics noted in Dungeon World and you can, if you’re happy with them, just make a note of what page they’re on in your fronts and move on from there. If you want to further customize the monsters, or need to create your own, use the rules to do so. In this step, try to avoid thinking about “balancing” the monsters or concerning yourself too much with how many HP a monster has or whether its armor rating matches what you expect. Think more about how the monster is meant to participate in the world. Does it scare off hopeless adventurers? Is it there to bar their way or pose a riddle? What is its purpose in the greater ecology of the dungeon or adventure at large? Translating the spirit of the thing will always give you better, more engaging results. If the monster has a cool power or neat trick you want to write a custom move for, do so! Custom moves are what make Dungeon World feel unique from group to group, so take advantage of them where you can.

In my adventure, the monsters run the gamut. I’ve got a scary naga with some mind-controlling powers, an evil priest with divine snake-god magic, a bunch of ruffian cultists, a dragon turtle and a few miscellaneous lizards, crocodiles and snakes. Most of these I can pull from the monster settings, but I’ll create custom stats for the naga and the cultist leader, at least. I want them to feel new and different and have some cool ideas for how that might look. I use the monster creation rules to put them together.

Direct Conversion

If you run across a monster that you haven’t already created and which you don’t know well enough to convert using the monster creation rules you can instead convert them directly.

Damage

If the monster’s damage is a single die with a bonus of up to +10 keep it as-is. If the monster’s damage uses multiple dice of the same size roll the listed dice and take the highest result. If the monster uses multiple dice of different sizes roll only the largest and take the highest result.

HP

If the monster’s HP is listed as Hit Dice take the maximum value of the first HD and add one for each additional hit dice. If the monster’s HP is listed as a number with no Hit Dice divide the HP by 4.

Armor

If the monster’s AC is average give it 1 armor. If the monster’s AC is low, give it 0 armor. If the monster’s AC is high give it 2 armor, 3 armor for beasts that are all about defense. If it’s nearly invulnerable, 4 armor. +1 armor if its defenses are magical.

Moves and Instinct

Look at the special abilities or attacks listed for the monster, these form the basis for its moves.