Domino Writing Games

You’ve read my take on zombies and vampires already, but what about the remaining classic creatures of the night, or at least a few of them?

Golems

Frankenstein’s monster, the original clay golem of Jewish folklore, living statues, and other creatures made of organic material are all types of golem. They’re usually supernaturally strong and tough, and almost always under the control of their creator. In USR terms if created as a character, they probably have a +2 or +3 toughness bonus as a regular Specialism (above and beyond any armor bonus they’re assigned by spending Combat Gear points). But their Ego stat is usually low, and they’re easily ordered around by more forceful personalities.

Werewolves

• A hero that can shapeshift into an animal (and possibly also into an in-between, hybrid wolf-man state) is really created as several characters:
• The standard human, created like any other Domino Writing-style character
• The in-between creature, which starts like the human character — but a player can adjust its bonuses from Specialisms to better reflect the character’s hybrid form. In other words, a human hero with a Computers +2 Specialism would lose that Specialism when shifted into the hybrid form, but it would gain a Bite +1 attack, and a Scent +1 Specialism as well. The character’s Action, Wits, and Ego stats stay the same. Create one set of Specialisms for each form.
• The animal form, which is a type of monster, usually Power Level II or II (but maybe as low as I or as high as IV).

Ghosts

Call them phantoms, apparitions, spirits… they all have the ability to appear and disappear at will, and phase through solid matter. A ghost character gains the ability to interact with the living at will. As in most ghost lore, a ghost that accomplishes a particular goal it was trying to achieve in life will move on. But if it’s slain by some other means, it dissolves into nothingness, or is sucked into a horrifying dimension where it has no identity of its own, and is just fuel for the mad whim of a greater terror.