World of Xoth NPC's for USR Sword & Sorcery

Off and on I have been putting together a Bestiary. Saving the stats of the animals and people I had to come up with as my online players chewed through the campaign world over two and a half years of play.

The PC's thrashed their way from the forgotten city of Akhlat the Cursed, to the tea shops of Taikang City and probably saw more Deep Water Belly Fish then they cared to.

Here is a sampling of some of the NPC's the players have come across in these past adventures...

Town & City NPC's

Agrapurian Thugs,
A8 W6 E4 H07
S. Hand to Hand +1A, Intimidate +1W.
Leather Vest, +1DR. Club +1A.

Now this is a tough mountain town (ripped from the pages of REH) found on the Khazistan side of the Kharjah Pass and the PC's had just survived a hard seven days march through wasteland. The only reason they didn't get their ass handed to them is because they went straight to the fate of carousing heavily and they rolled well and the Crypt Keeper's NPC's rolled poorly.

Ghazorian Town Guard,
A8 W6 E4 H07
S. Hand to Hand Combat +1A, Authority +1W.
Leather Vest +1DR, Small Shield +1DR. Spear +1A, Knife +1A.

In the pay of Sea Lords the PC's made fools of them when hired as assassins. They left town before retribution could be exacted by the next paying pouch of gold.

Corrupt Sorcerer,
A6 W10 E8 H09
S.Ancient Lore +3W, Bind Demon +2E, Move Silently +2A, Connections +1W.
Dagger +1A,

Once again the PC's channeled the Conan vibe of this Sword & Sorcery campaign and struck quickly against a formidable foe. It is hard to command your giant snake and female vampire slaves with your head blown off by an ancient ray gun.

Khazabad Pit Fighting Champion, A10 W6 E8 H10
S. Unarmed Combat +3A, Intimidate +1W.
Leather Arm Band and Greaves +1DR. Spiked Knuckles +1A.

The PC in the pit straight up rolled better than the NPC. That is what I liked best about adapting the USR rules to try a simultaneous combat method and a critical hit table. I as the Crypt Keeper never new how any combat was going to play out. I felt I had the best of both worlds. A combat could end quickly in unmitigated savagery or turn into a brutal exhausting contest. Another PC bet heavily on the right side of this fight.

Dipurian Flesh Peddler,
A6 W10 E6 H06
S. Connections +2W.
Robes and oils.

There is so much hate in this crowd towards the PC's they will never know it unless they return to the Grand Inquisitor's city.

There is a bunch more scattered throughout the three ring binders of campaign material I generated during the run. I want to keep working on compiling them into a "Monster Manual" for USR Sword & Sorcery but I am a bit weepish about stripping them of their World of Xoth trappings because it is not a campaign setting of my own creation. It has the best name for a Sword & Sorcery campaign setting by far. I took the small map and superimposed it on a modified map of Venus with much of the surface covered in water. Irregardless of my world building I was smart enough just to spend time on where the PC's were currently exploring and making that important. I was extremely gratified to see my judgement validated by the Tales To Astound post about making the action where the PC's are at. I didn't know that was what I was doing at the time, it was done out of necessity. But it gelled so well. It made sense cause it was built adventure by adventure and all I did was feast off of the player's actions and acceptance of the genre tropes.

So a USR Sword & Sorcery Bestiary is worth it and should be seen through to the bitter (roll 1D10) end.