Slayers Creator Kit

by Spencer Campbell, Gila RPGs

In a City that is constantly shifting in shape, all manner of people and monsters walk
these streets. The core rulebook of Slayers gave you a glimpse of some of those
districts, monsters, factions, and even Slayers themselves, but it certainly didn’t cover
everything.
That’s where you come in. Nice to meet you, Architect.
What is This?
Think of this as a workbench, covered in blueprints, tools, templates, and generally
anything you might need to build your own material for the Slayers RPG. Slayers was
published with a Creative Commons License 4.0, meaning you can create, alter, hack,
chop, modify, add, subtract, whatever you want with the game. Not only that, but you
can sell your creations if you want!
My goal in providing this Creator Kit is to give you everything you’ll need to do just
that. Have an idea for a cool class or monster you’d like to see in the game, but aren’t
sure where to start? Maybe you have some ideas already, and want to make sure they
match up with the expectations of the system. Or maybe you want to take the premise
of Slayers and throw it into an entirely new setting or genre. Hopefully you’ll find
what you need to accomplish that in these pages.
One thing I noticed the longer I wrote this is that it is also a GM advice document.
Typically the GM is going to be the person making things like monsters, districts, and
Hunts, so I hope you find the additional insight on designing and running the game
useful!
For Fun, For Money
You may be designing content for Slayers for your own personal campaign or use,
and that’s awesome! Go do that, and have lots of fun with it.
You might also be interested in making something, and then putting it out there for
the world to consume. You may even want people to pay for your hard work (do this,
you deserve pay for your work). Well have I got good news for you. Slayers was
released with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. What does
that mean for you? You are allowed to adapt, hack, build on, create for, or any other
thing you want with the game, so long as you provide attribution with your creation.
Worried about how that works? Don’t worry, I cover that later in this kit, and will
provide you with the specific words you need to include!
THE TWO THINGS
No matter what you want to do with the Slayers RPG, there are two core principles
of the game that are essential to the experience. Changing or removing these isn’t
recommended, but I’ll talk more about easy and difficult changes later in this kit.
Number 1. Slayers was designed to serve as a truly asymmetrical RPG. That means
that every class in the game has a different mechanic in combat. Whether it's the type
of dice, how they are rolled, or anything like that, a class must be different than the
others. Ideally you’re not just slapping a random mechanic onto a class just because
it's unique, but because it fits the class. The resource management of the Gunslinger
fits the feel of the character, because each die literally represents a bullet loaded in the
gun. So go big and bold, but most importantly, GO UNIQUE.
Number 2. The Rule of 4 sits at the center of the game, and is the “core” mechanic if
I had to name one for Slayers. Everything, all dice rolling, regardless of size or
amount, is resolved with a 4+ being a Hit, and anything else is a Miss. This rule is
super important for two reasons. First, non-combat and combat in Slayers are really
different, so having a mechanical principle that unites them helps players switch
between those modes. Second, since every class is unique, and monsters don’t have a
standard stat block, every character needs a simple way to tell if they are succeeding in
combat. The Rule of 4 is ESSENTIAL to Slayers.
Balance
One last thing to consider before hopping into the practical advice. Balance. It’s
something that a lot RPG and board game players crave, and even expect. I am not an
advocate of finding mathematical balance in an RPG. If you do that, you enter the
realm of finding the “best” build for a class, and min/maxing. Instead, perceived
balance, the idea that the players feel like the game is balanced, and more importantly
are having fun, is the goal. Don’t worry about balance when designing your Slayers
material. Don’t worry about roll distributions when determining if the monster
you’re creating should have 9 HP or 8. Throw your creations onto the table, try them,
and change them if they don’t “feel” right, not because a math equation told you to.
How to Create
Time for practical advice! In this document, I will include guidelines, advice, and
templates for making your own:
• Classes & Class Variants
• Districts
• Monsters
• Hunts
After that, I’ll give some advice on doing a full-blown hack of the game. Like the idea
of Slayers, but would rather see it in another genre? Well, let’s make that happen.
First things first though, some vocabulary. If you are making material for the core
Slayers game, you are going to want to make sure the wording is consistent between
your stuff, and the main rulebook. Here are some common keywords in the rulebook:
• Hit: Any dice that roll a 4 or above. What would be considered a successful roll.
• Miss: Any dice that roll less than 4. What would be considered a failed roll.
• Distance/Range: It’s abstract in Slayers, but make sure you’re using the same
labels.
• Engaged: Within melee distance or a step away.
• Near: A short sprint away.
• Far: Anything beyond Near.
• Action: Usually an Attack or Quick action, though some classes may have unique
types of action depending on how you build them.
• Damage: Most damage is described as “per Hit”.
• Speed: The value used to determine the turn order.
• Turn Order: Basically don’t call it initiative.
 Creating Classes
So you want to make a class for Slayers? Awesome! They are probably the most
exciting part of the game. Each class approaches combat in the game totally different
from the others, from the types and number of dice they use, to how those dice are
rolled (if at all).
To make a class, you’re going to want to start with a “type” of character it is meant to
represent. Look to your favorite media for archetypes, and find one that you would
love to go monster hunting with. Once you have the type of class in mind, it’s time to
start designing.
Class Core Mechanic
The “core” mechanic of a class is usually best represented by their Attack action,
though this isn’t always the case as seen in classes such as the Tactician. The core
mechanic is what makes the class unique, the thing they do with dice that nobody else
does. For the Blade it is exploding dice, for the Gunslinger it’s managing a pool of 6
bullets/dice throughout the fight.
What I want to emphasize is that this mechanic should fit the class type you’ve
chosen. You basically have two ways of doing this:
• Start with a cool mechanic idea (e.g. stacking dice). Think about what types of
characters that mechanic fits, and choose the type that best matches it.
• Start with a type of class you want to make, and create a mechanic that is
thematically in-line with that class type.
This is super important. With the dice stacking example, it’s an interesting idea, but
would fit poorly if I tried to use it with the Blade class. The Blade is meant to
represent fast combat, and building up combos of hits. Stacking dice doesn’t “feel” like
the Blade, but it could feel right for a class that is building up some pool of power,
that can either get really big and pay off, or come crumbling down and ruin their day.
Other Actions
You’ve got your core mechanic, the unique thing, time to fill out the other actions.
Each class in the core book has an Attack and Quick action. The Quick action is
usually meant to supplement or support the core mechanic of the class. Your Quick
action should either help ramp up the class to be more effective, or help relieve it of
some pressure that is building as a result of their core mechanic.
If you want, you can include other action types as well, but I caution against going too
far with it. You don’t want to make a class that has 5 different Attack Actions, 3 Quick
actions, and a Passive. That’s a lot of layers, and will inevitably slow down what is
supposed to be fast and snappy combat.
Starting Stats
The starting stats are highly class dependent, but at the very least each Slayer needs
starting HP, and a Speed die they use to determine the turn order. Anything beyond
that is unique to the class. Blades and Gunslingers have a damage value because they
deal damage on a “per hit” basis. The Tactician always only deals 1 damage if they use
their attack action, and the Arcanist might not even have any spells that do damage,
depending on what they chose. Some rules of thumb for starting stats:
• HP shouldn’t be greater than 10
• Speed die shouldn’t be greater than a d10
If you go past these, your character is likely going to feel “overpowered” compared to
the other classes. You might remember I said not to worry about balance before, but
you also want to feel some tension in your monster hunt right?
Advances
Two things to keep in mind right away with advances:
1. Each class in Slayers has 12 advances. A new character in the game starts with 2
Basic advances, and you get one after each Hunt, which means a character’s
lifespan if they survive is 10 Hunts, and then they are “max level.”
2. Advances are divided into Basic and Expert advances. Expert advances aren’t
available to the player until they have 5 Basic advances.
If you decide to change the total number of advances, you are changing the clock of
your class compared to all the others. That is ok if you want a character that lasts a
long time, or burns out quickly. Slayers get pretty powerful the more advances they
have, so if your class has 20 advances, your GM might start to struggle with
challenging you.
Generally speaking, Expert advances include a better version or improvement of
some of the Basic advances. Or, they help trigger the core mechanic of the class more
consistently or more powerfully. For example, the Blade eventually gets the ability to
start their attack with 2d6 instead of 1d6, effectively doubling their chances to get the
combo going.
Class Variants
Maybe you don’t want to build an entirely new class on your own, but instead want
to create a variant of an existing class. That’s a great way to start! When doing so, you
are going to keep the “core” mechanic of the class the same, and will update the
advances, stats, and possibly Quick action to accommodate.
Let’s do a quick example. You like the idea of the Blade, this combo fighter that uses
exploding dice. But, you want to make someone that swings a big-ass warhammer,
building up momentum with each swing. That little d6 just won’t do, so you change
the weapon die to a d8, or maybe even a d10. What does that do? Well, the Rule of 4
is still in play, meaning the odds of you getting a Hit just jumped up with the size of
the die. That’s exciting, but also something to keep in the back of your head while
moving forward. What else? The stance based Quick actions work well with a rapier-
type weapon, so maybe you’ll want to change those to fit the bigger fighter you are
making. Starting stats, you might increase the HP a little, but bring the Speed way
down to show you’ve got a lumbering fighter on your hands.
That’s not everything, obviously we would need to comb through the advances and
make changes so that they better match the theme of our class variant, but it’s a start.
Other examples would include an Arcanist that focuses on a certain type of magic,
and so only has spells of a certain type (can you say time wizard?). Or a Gunslinger
that uses something other than a six-shooter revolver, but still has to manage the
resource of ammo throughout the fight.
Creating Monsters
The core book for Slayers comes with some advice on how to create monsters, and so
some of this will reiterate those points, and some of this will expand into new ideas.
Minion vs. Standard vs. Boss
I sort monsters into these three categories when creating them, though these aren’t
codified or used in the book itself. They are helpful labels and provide a starting point
when creating the monster.
Minions, or mobs, are weak monsters that usually appear in groups. A group of
bandits, a swarm of skeletons, anything where there are ~5 or more of them at a time.
These monsters typically have a small amount of HP, between 3-5. This is small
enough that a few Slayers can kill one with a single Attack action, and so you can
throw waves of them at the Slayers to not only keep them occupied, but also feel cool
because they are killing so many monsters! The Speed of a minion monster should be
small as well. This is mostly because monsters of the same Speed all take their turn
together. If you have 10 skeletons marching on the Slayers, and those skeletons have
a Speed of 9, well...the Slayers are going to get pretty roughed up before they even get
a chance to act. Slower Speeds means the Slayers can bring the number of minions
down to a manageable amount before the monsters get to take their turn.
Standard monsters usually appear in really small groups, 2 or 3, or by themselves.
These are monsters that may hold some power over minion monsters, or are just a
sizable threat on their own. A Clockwork Killer or Wight are good examples of
standard monsters. On their own they are a threat, and a small group will make for an
interesting challenge, especially if there is a small group of minions with them. HP of
standard monsters should approach 10, and maybe go a little past that depending on
your group size. The odds a single Slayer can kill it in one shot are very low, and it
will take a coordinated effort. Even still, Slayers can deal a lot of damage quickly, so
it’s important that standard monsters have some other threat with them, or they
won’t feel dangerous. Standard monsters have a Speed of 4 or more, meaning they go
at the average Slayer Speed roll or faster.
Boss monsters come in two flavors. Big, terrifying monsters, that don’t need anyone
else with them to be dangerous. Or a slightly stronger standard monster with a big
horde of minions and some special tricks up their sleeves. If going the latter route,
you can use the same conventions for standard monsters when coming up with the
HP and Speed. You’ll want to increase them a little, to ensure your scary boss monster
doesn’t die too quickly. The big scary solo monster should have a lot of HP, around
18-20, and a fast speed. The action economy in Slayers can be tricky with solo
monsters. You either need to give them a lot of actions on their own turn, or lots of
reactions/ongoing effects. I really don’t recommend going into the 40+ range for HP
unless you’re into that kind of combat. You’ll end up having each side just keep rolling
their attacks again and again until someone dies, and that isn’t fast or snappy combat.
Ongoing, Action, Reaction
While HP and Speed are the starting spot for monsters, they aren’t interesting until
we give them actions. There are three types of action:
1. Ongoing: These are ever-present effects the monster has. They are passive, and
don’t require “activation”, though some ongoing effects may turn on or off
depending on contextual factors.
2. Action: The things a monster can do during its turn.
3. Reactions: Actions a monster takes during other character’s turns, based on a
triggering situation. Monsters can only make one reaction per turn, unless
allowed by a special rule.
Ongoing actions are a helpful way of balancing out an encounter, and the action
economy of Slayers because they don’t eat up the monster’s turn in order to be used.
Minions are especially good targets for ongoing actions, because they can lean into
the swarm mentality of the monster type. Common ongoing actions allow for
monsters to be more effective or dangerous if there are a lot of them in the same
place or doing the same thing.
Actions are the options the GM gets to choose from when it’s the monster’s turn.
Typically monsters will have ~2 actions they can take, so that the GM isn’t thinking
too long about their options, but also to keep the monster from doing the same thing
again and again. An action for a monster is made of the die the monster rolls to use
the action, the range of the action if needed, and the effect of the action. Monsters
follow the same Rule of 4 as the Slayers, meaning their actions are successful on Hits
of 4+ for all numbers and types of dice. If the monster doesn’t need to roll, it is usually
because the action calls for the Slayer to roll to avoid the effect, rather than the
monster rolling to Hit the Slayer.
Reactions are most commonly seen on standard and boss monsters, as a means of
balancing the action economy. Minion monsters with reactions can lead to confusion
of who is reacting, and can overwhelm the Slayers if suddenly 10 skeletons are all
reacting to a Slayer’s single action. Monsters usually have 1 reaction, because having
more than that will complicate and slow down the combat. If after each Slayer action
the GM needs to consult a list of possible reactions, things are going to crawl.
You’ll notice I’m not providing you with a list of actions/reactions/ongoing effects
that you can plug into your monster stat block. That’s because, like a Slayer, the
actions of a monster should be designed to fit the feel of a monster. You are
encouraged to make actions that are entirely unique to that monster, that you don’t
find anywhere else. If I gave you a list, all of our monsters would end up being the
same thing, but with a different coat of paint on it.
A word of caution on actions. Avoid giving a monster too many of any of these. A
typical monster, regardless of type, has about 3 actions total. This prevents the GM
from thinking too long about all their options with a monster when its turn comes
up, and keeps the action moving. Even boss monsters will have around 5 actions
maximum, again, to keep things fast and exciting.
Special Actions & Rules
Boss monsters usually have a Special action, or a rule that makes them behave even
more differently than other monsters. Sure, monsters are supposed to have unique-
ish actions, but a boss needs to stand out.
Typically the boss monster is what the Slayers are trying to find in their Hunt, and so
it needs to be a dangerous and memorable fight. The example Hunts in the corebook
give examples of monsters that have their own list of actions, but also a special rule
that allows them to stand out. Drauzhal, in the Lord of the (Un)dead Hunt, gains
more power at the start of each round as sacrifices are made to him. He has a unique
stat, Power Level, that no other monster in the book has. That stat changes the way
he acts during this turn, and changes how his actions function as his Power Level gets
higher.
A boss monster should have some form of special action, that is highly unique, or a
rule that allows them to do things that no other monster can. Think about the feel
and theme of the monster when creating it. If your monster only appears in a very
specific location, it should have a special rule that allows it to do cool things when in
that location. If your monster is a threat that is going to get too big if the Slayers don’t
act quickly, make that apparent with a rule.
Balance
One last thing about monsters: don’t try to balance them. I’ve given some general
advice here for numbers like HP and Speed, but those are just guidelines. You might
find that the Slayers in your group are really lethal, and you need to up the numbers a
bit. Or, maybe you only have 1 or 2 players in your group, and so you need to tone
down the numbers to make it fair. Don’t take any stat in the rulebook as gospel,
change them as best fits your table. You won’t find a magical number that lets you
know if a fight is fair or not, because monster hunting isn’t a fair business.
 Creating Districts
The City of Slayers is ever-expanding towards the horizon, with new districts
popping up and disappearing overnight. A district is a neighborhood, but it’s also a
microcosm. It is a bubble location, filled with architecture, people, food, and other
cultural touchstones that are unique to it. Districts very much have a “feel” to them,
and that feeling should be seen in the places Slayers go, the people they talk to, and
the things they interact with.
Generally speaking, the “time period” of Slayers is what we usually think of as
industrial revolution era. This means that there aren’t huge skyscrapers, cars, or a lot
of the modern expectations we have for a city, but it’s also not a medieval town.
There is some degree of technology, and the book even calls for the existence of a
hybrid between magic and tech. I say this just so that you have a tonal touchstone
when designing a district. It’s not a hard rule of course, if you want to make a modern
day district that is neighbors with an ancient times district, it’s your City. But I think
Opaline is an excellent example of taking the modern ideas of showbiz, Broadway,
and Hollywood, and bringing them back to the tech and time period of The City.
Ok, got your idea for your district? Here’s what you need.
Description
Every district needs a nice descriptive paragraph that sets the stage. This should
include some of the obvious sights and sounds Slayers will notice upon arrival, some
of the customs of the district that might be common knowledge outside of it, and a
hint as to what really goes on here. You want to draw the Slayers in, make them want
to wander the streets talking with people, looking for opportunities. What makes this
district different from the ones next to it? What’s it’s “thing”?
Locations
You will want ~3 locations for the district. These typically are places you expect the
Slayer to visit, either because they are a part of a Hunt, or because they would be part
of the investigation or introduction/wandering around we see when Slayers first
arrive. Common locations include a gathering place for the locals, a location not
easily accessible, and something truly unique that you wouldn’t likely find in another
district.
Factions
Not all districts require factions, but you might find it helpful to have them. If you are
going to make factions, you should make at least two. That way when the Slayers
arrive, they will have some options as to who they will be helping. It helps if the
factions don’t see eye-to-eye with one another about some core issue at the heart of
the district. Because districts are so unique, the factions within them usually are too.
You don’t find them in the neighboring districts, and they serve a very specific role in
the community. If you want some continuity, there are some factions in Slayers, such
as the Wanderers, who have a presence in multiple districts. Having factions like this
pop up helps remind the players they are in the same City as the last Hunt they did.
NPCs
If you don’t have factions, it is nice to have a few notable NPCs for the Slayer to meet
and interact with. These are typically the people that will give Slayers work to do
when they arrive, or will help/hinder their investigation once the Hunt has begun. If
you are including factions in your district, you should include one notable NPC from
that faction, so the Slayers have a go-to point of contact for the faction.
Rumors
I believe that the single most important thing about a district is the description. If
you’re used to making things up as you GM, then locations, factions, and NPCs will
pop up as you need them rather than pre-planning them. The second most important
thing, are the rumors. These are things that the Slayers may have heard before they
arrive, that brought them to the district, or things they pick up after arriving and
talking with a few people. Rumors are your plot hooks, and the start of your Hunts. I
typically have each rumor represent a different Hunt, but you could string together a
series of rumors and Hunts to create a sort of min-campaign within a single district, if
your players are really enjoying their time there. I would recommend having ~3
rumors per district, because it’s always nice to have options. A rumor should give a
hint to the monster that is involved, but not make it obvious. You want the Slayers to
do some investigating once they choose a Hunt.
 Creating Hunts
Hunts are the play cycle of Slayers. Typically the group will hear rumors about a
district in need, or will travel to a district and hear rumors, or some variation of that
idea. Either way, people in districts need help with their monster problems, and so a
Hunt begins.
The Client
I use the word client here because this is the person who is giving the job to the
Slayers, but the concept of “paying” them isn’t really a thing. That’s because we don’t
track things like money in Slayers, but you will want to think of some reason to
incentivize the Slayers.
The Target
This is the monster that the Slayers need to kill/remove/subdue. Targets should be
monsters that make sense to the district, that have been created or modified to fit the
unique features of their environment. Clients should have some idea of what the
target is, but probably shouldn’t have all or even most of the details. This is because
the Slayers have some investigation work to do once the Hunt begins. When picking
a target, either build a boss monster from scratch, or choose an existing monster and
modify it so that it is both a dangerous threat, and fitting to the district.
A Hunt in Three Acts
In Act 1, the Slayers are introduced to the district, the client, and begin their
investigation. Slayers will spend a lot of time in Act 1 asking for information,
investigating scenes of action where the target has been, etc. There isn’t necessarily
going to be any fighting in Act 1, but if there is it will be low-stakes, as a means of
testing the Slayers combat abilities, and introducing some factions or key NPCs.
Act 2 is a continuation of the investigation, but begins taking the Slayers into more
dangerous environments and putting them in the way of threats. Ultimately Act 2
lasts until the Slayers know where to find the target, and have a decent idea of how to
take it down. There are more conflicts and fights in Act 2, either continuing the
threats demonstrated in Act 1, or introducing new threats to show the scale at which
this Hunt affects the district.
Act 3 is the final act, and will culminate in the fight against the target. It usually takes
place in a unique or specially designed location, one in which the target feels safe and
powerful. This is an excellent opportunity to choose one of those set piece locations
you designed for the district and make it the place for the fight. Act 3 doesn’t start
right away with the fight, but should have signs of the dangerous situation the Slayers
are getting themselves in. Once the Slayers feel confident in taking on the target is
when the fight should begin.
Creating Hacks
So, you’ve decided the ever-expanding City of Slayers just isn’t the setting for you.
You like the idea of asymmetry, and keeping things simple with the Rule of 4, but you
want a new coat of paint on it. Sounds like you want to make a hack.
Typically, a hack for an RPG takes the core rules of a game, and brings them over to
an entirely new setting. Yeah, you’re going to need to change some things along the
way, but the rules are still recognizably the original. I did this when I released Corvid
Court. That game uses the Resistance system found in the RPGs Spire and Heart. If
you’re familiar with those games, and read Corvid Court, you’ll instantly understand
what I’m doing with those rules.
Ok, let’s bring it back to Slayers. If you want to make a hack of Slayers, first off,
awesome, super excited to see where you take it. You’re going to need to keep two
things in mind when doing so (and these should sound familiar at this point):
• Rule of 4
• Asymmetry
I’m not going to go into detail about why these are important, because I’ve already
done that in the core book, and earlier in this document! Long story short, a Slayers
hack is focused on highly asymmetrical classes that approach the game differently,
and that’s all possible because the hack runs on the Rule of 4.
I can’t go into all the details about how to make a hack, because I don’t really think
that’s possible. There are a lot of approaches you can take. You could literally keep
everything in the game as-is, and just reskin it to another genre. The Blade becomes a
combo fighting “lasersword” fighter, but has all the same actions and advances, and
you just change “monster” to “imperial bootlicker”. You might have to get creative
with the reskinning, but it’s possible.
More likely you are going to want to build entirely new material for your hack, just
keeping the two things I mentioned above. That means a setting, classes, a cycle of
play, and opposition.
Setting
This, I’m really not going to spend too much time on, because it’s your world, make it
whatever you want. I made The City because I like collaborative world building, and I
like the idea of campaigns that take place in cities. But you don’t need to have your
own version of an ever-expanding setting. You could box it up, put borders on your
setting and it would work just fine! Choose the setting that excites you, and use the
practices of world building that are best suited for you, and your play group.
Classes
You see all that stuff I wrote earlier about making classes? Follow that advice for your
new setting. Not much more needs to be said.
Cycle of Play
Slayers works under the cycle of play called the Hunt, which as described above, is a 3
part adventure that involves both investigation and fighting monsters. I have found
that to be the cycle that works best for Slayers, but you may want to change that up.
For example, you may prefer a sandbox approach to RPGs, where players are able to
roam the setting and just encounter events, people, and stories along the way. It’s a lot
less episodic than the Hunt approach, and is one of my favorite ways to play RPGs.
But, what does character advancement look like in a sandbox game?
In Slayers, there is no experience (XP), you just get a new advance after a successful
Hunt. If you are changing the cycle of play from episodic, to more freeform, then you
are going to need to figure out how characters advance or improve in your version
(assuming you are using advancement in the first place, maybe you’re not!).
Opposition
Slayers is a monster hunting RPG, which means the opposition is monsters. So who
is opposing your players in your hack? Even if they aren’t “monsters”, you will
probably need to create actions and stats for them, and you should use the advice
earlier in this document.
On Violence
I want to say that it is entirely possible to design a hack of Slayers that isn’t about
combat, you don’t have to be killing things. For example, let’s say you really like the
Ace Attorney video games and want to make something based on that. Each class
could be part of the legal team, and use very different mechanics for making and
breaking cases. The opposition isn’t monsters, you aren’t murdering people in court
(hopefully). But you could think of creative ways to use the ongoing, actions, and
reactions of monsters in Slayers as an opposition force in a legal battle.
New Mechanics
You’ve read the document, you have all these ideas in your head that you want to use,
but wait, “Spencer didn’t tell me how to use a deck of cards in Slayers!” Well,
yeah...because I didn’t design the game to be used with a deck of cards. BUT, that
doesn’t mean it’s impossible, right?
One of the more satisfying parts of game design for some people is coming up with
new mechanics for existing games. How could I take this system, and glue on
something entirely new to it. I mean, that’s what Slayers is. I took mechanics from
multiple RPG products I was working on and glued them together using the Rule of 4
as my adhesive.
So how do you add stuff to the game? I’m going to go over some things that you
might consider adding to the game, and talk about how practical they are. A few
disclaimers:
• I definitely will not be covering all the new mechanics you could incorporate
• Just because I think a mechanic would be difficult to add doesn’t mean it’s
impossible, or that you shouldn’t try
XP/Advancement
This is highly dependent on the cycle of play. If you are making stuff for the core
game of Slayers, then you don’t really need to touch advancement, it’s all part of the
Hunt. But some people like XP systems.
I think an XP system is certainly possible to add if you’ve changed the cycle of play to
something a bit more sandboxy. Even if you kept it to the Hunt, you just need to
determine what happens when you get enough XP to “level up”.
New Skills
The core game of Slayers has 10 skills that the players use throughout the game.
Adding more skills is possible, especially if they are relevant to a particular class or
setting for a hack, but you’ll want to keep in mind a couple things. During character
creation, characters get 1 skill at a d10, 2 at d8s, and the rest at d6. If you double the
skill list size, you’re going to change how many skills should be advanced at the
beginning.
Are you adding a skill because it’s specific to a class you’re making? If so, will any
other Slayers use it? If not, try to incorporate that skill into the class’s actions instead!
During advancement, classes get to boost one skill die up a size. If you have double
the skill list size, then most skills won’t ever get a boost. That may feel right for your
setting, but something to keep in mind.
Armor Class
Listen, I tried doing AC in Slayers, back in one of the earlier versions. I wrote a whole
blog post about my adventures with that. At first I tried static ACs, and that wasn’t
fun, so I made this version where your turn order score (what we call Speed now)
was equal to AC. It was interesting, but I ditched the idea for a couple reasons.
It was so hard to figure out how each of the classes would try to hit their target’s AC,
with their unique mechanics. It was one more thing that you had to learn, coupled
with the fact that I was using variable damage at the time. It was not fun.
You can try it, and maybe you’ll solve the riddle. If you do incorporate AC, you’re
ditching the Rule of 4, which I’ll say again, is essential to Slayers.
Removing Turn Order
This one is doable! You may come from an RPG background that doesn’t use turn
order or initiative scores. Instead, you use what makes sense based on the narrative,
and fictional positioning. Enemies in those games tend to be more reactive than
active, and when they do act it is to forecast an incoming threat.
If you want only the Slayers to have “turns”, then you just need to reframe the actions
of monsters into reactions. Thinking of “If, then” statements of how monsters might
react when Slayers act in particular ways, or when they roll Misses. It can certainly
make for a more cinematic feeling combat, and shines the spotlight on the Slayers.
No Dice and/or Dice Alternatives
I like rolling dice, and I like that in Slayers you roll lots of different types of dice, in
different amounts. But dice aren’t for everyone, or might not be practical with your
setup, so what can you do?
Welllll, that one I don’t have good advice for. Slayers works under the Rule of 4, and
so if you change the mechanics over to using a deck of cards, what does that mean? If
you just use 2-10, and have the face cards mean something else, you approach having
a d10 essentially in cards, so you’re getting close to something that can mirror the
Rule of 4. But what do the face cards do then?
If you want to create a class that doesn’t use dice, you’re going to immediately have
trouble playing in a game where the other Slayers are rolling dice. There are a
number of hurdles to overcome to make that work, and I can’t map out how to jump
them in this document.
But, if you’re making a hack, it is possible if you start with a foundation that doesn’t
use dice. You can still lean into asymmetrical classes, but instead it’s how people
interact with a deck of cards, or pull blocks from a Jenga tower, or any number of
other dice alternatives out there.
After You Release Your Stuff
After reading this, I hope you feel inspired to try to make your own content for
Slayers. If you’re just making stuff for your own personal use, then you don’t need to
read any further. But if you’re interested in releasing your content to the public,
maybe even selling it because you put work into it, then let me tell you about my goal.
If you make something based on Slayers for the public, I ask that you include the
following attribution text:
This work is based on the Slayers RPG (found at gilarpgs.com), product of Gila RPGs,
developed and authored by Spencer Campbell, and licensed for our use under the Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
City Chronicle
I want there to be a lot of Slayers content out there for people to enjoy. Classes to try
out, Hunts to go on, districts to explore, and new monsters to slay. There are
websites out there like itch.io for releasing RPG content, and I cannot recommend
enough that you put your stuff out there, and put a price tag on your hard work.
In order to help people find Slayers content, I want to try to and get it all listed in a
centralized location. So here’s what I would ask. If you release your content on itch.io,
reach out to me on twitter @GilaRPGs and let me know! I’ll add your content to the
Slayers Third Party Content Collection, which will be listed on my itch page, and
linked from my website.
That way, anyone looking for Slayers 3rd party content can find a huge directory of it
all in one place. They’ll find your cool thing, click on it, and support you by buying it.
Tuesday Knight Games does this with Mothership content created by fans, and I
think it’s an excellent idea, so I’m using it.
That’s it, that’s all the advice I’ve got. You’ll find included in this Creator Kit templates
in multiple formats for many of the things I discussed. Feel free to use them as much
or as little as you like. I can’t wait to see what you make, and thank you again for
supporting Slayers!