I've been, yet again, on a Dungeon World kick lately. I discovered and quickly fell in love with the game last Summer and came back to it recently. In the past month or so I've ran two Dungeon World one-shots and have plans for many, many more. In short, it's the game I've been seeking for a long time when it comes to fighting dragons and exploring dungeons.
Now, that doesn't mean I still don't have love for D&D (4e, 0e, whatever edition strikes your fancy) or even Barbarians of Lemuria, I do. Great love. But for now at least, Dungeon World is my jam.
A few weeks back I was perusing Netflix bored, as I am often wont to do, and happened across a pretty fantastic (both in terms of quality and genre) film I'd not seen in awhile: Beowulf. Now, wherever you stand on the whole mo-cap debate is fine, it's largely irrelevant. What matters here is that this big screen adaptation was penned by Neil Gaiman and does a great job of making the Beowulf saga a cohesive story. As much as I love the tale of Beowulf in written form, accessible it is not. The film very much is.
So having just picked up and consumed Grim World, a Dungeon World dark fantasy supplement, I was inspired to use some lessons learned to stat up old Grendel himself.
For my stating up of ol' Grendel, I went with how the movie portrayed him. A massive, tumor-covered man-thing with exposed ear drums. The last bit is important. You see, Grim World introduces something called "vulnerabilities" to most monsters and creatures. It's exactly as it sounds. The knowledge of these vulnerabilities will give the party of characters the upper hand. Well, at least ideally. Sometimes finding this knowledge is a quest of its own which opens up some more exciting possibilities.
You can find Beowulf's Grendel stated up here in convenient pdf format. For added convenience Grendel's stats are included below in plain text:
GRENDEL 16 HP 2 Armor
Solitary, Large, Semi-Intelligent, Terrifying
Giant Arms and Hands (d10+5 damage, 1 piercing - close, reach, forceful, messy)
Special Qualities: Son of an ancient power; Misshapen man-flesh and gold-skin
Vulnerability: Sensitive to loud noises; Exposed ear drums
Instinct: Seek out the loud noises of man and stop them at all costs
- Rip and rend those who hurt you
- Scare with screaming and yelling
- Create magical blue flame to burn and incinerate
Treasure: The Dragon's Horn (see pdf for details)
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I have some more Dungeon World stuff to post in the future, namely some rules for tournaments and jousting. They still need a little work, but they are all but complete.
Additionally I'll likely post the two fronts used in the aforementioned Dungeon World one-shots I ran.
In the meantime, check out Dungeon World for free here. And consider buying it as it's an awesome game.
Also, I made something! The Baron of Blood: A Dungeon World Adventure Front is chock-full of my art and contains a number of adventure fronts for a small frontier region, as well as rules and suggestions for fleshing out the region for more sandbox-themed play. You can buy it in print and in pdf from Lulu.
Until next time,
-blob
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