From the Nightmares of Thieves: An Alternate Troll for Savage Worlds Campaigns

The first sessions of the Der Hexenkessel campaign (played before we were recording actual plays) concerned a very simple monster-hunting mission. As an introduction to the setting of an Early Modern, quasi-historical Germany, I wanted the antagonist creatures to be prominent monsters from European folklore. I selected trolls.

Now, the Savage Worlds core rulebook provides perfectly fine stats for trolls. However, because a) I was a little worried that the rulebook's trolls, as written, would be too tough for a group of Novice PCs even singly, let alone in numbers, and b) because I can never leave any published RPG material well enough alone, I made up my own version of the good old troll.

I retained, from the SW rules and from countless other FRPGs, the notion that trolls can regenerate normal damage and are vulnerable to fire. To the SW version, I added vulnerability to sunlight as well. I also developed my new troll in both a lesser and greater version--the former to be encountered initially, and the latter to serve as the climactic Boss.

Furthermore, I thought a little about what one might call the ecology of the Der Hexenkessel troll. The campaign premise is rooted in the idea that the immense misery, fear, and loss of life of the Thirty Years War is--somehow--related to the increase in monster activity in the countryside. This implies that monsters can be quite literally "born out of fear".

Consequently, in designing my troll I decided that they would not be naturalistic creatures that are the product of some dark-fairy branch of evolution, with standard biological means of reproduction. Instead, greater trolls are spawned, fully formed, from the nightmares of thieves. Lesser trolls are then spawned, via a sort of "podding", from the bodies of greater trolls.

Without further ado, then, here are the stats for the Der Hexenkessel troll. Perhaps you can find a use for this monster (or some version of it) in your own SW campaign.

-Chris

Lesser Troll

• Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d8

• Skills: Fighting d6, Intimidation d8, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Throwing d6, Climbing d8.

• Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 7 (1)

• Size +0: Lesser trolls are approximately human-sized.

• Special Abilities:

– Armor +1: Rubbery hide.

– Darkvision: Can see just fine in natural pitch darkness (not magic darkness).

– Claws: Str+d4 (d8 + d4)

--Agile Mover: Ignores penalties for movement through difficult terrain.

– Weaknesses: Fire, sunlight.

-- Fast Regeneration: Trolls may attempt a natural healing roll every round unless their wounds were caused by fire, flame, or sunlight. An Incapacitated lesser troll returns to action if it heals itself (and is not Shaken--even if it was before being Incapacitated).

Fire vs Lesser Trolls: A Wound caused by flame causes troll to go up in flames and burn down to the bone (bones crumble to dust). If the troll has been beheaded and the troll's body is consumed by flame, the head will remain intact. If a lesser troll is Shaken by flame, it catches on fire and takes 1d10 damage each subsequent round (unless a 1 is rolled on the damage die, in which case the fire goes out on its own).

Sunlight vs Lesser Trolls: If a lesser troll is exposed to sunlight, the troll immediately catches fire and is destroyed.


Greater Troll (Wild Card)

• Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d10, Vigor d10

• Skills: Fighting d10, Intimidation d10, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Throwing d6, Climbing d12

• Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 10 (2)

• Special Abilities:

– Armor +2: Rubbery hide.

-- Size +1

– Darkvision: Can see just fine in natural pitch darkness (not magic darkness).

– Claws: Str+d4 (d10 + d4)

-- Agile Mover: Ignores penalties for movement through difficult terrain.

– Weaknesses: Fire, sunlight.

-- Fast Regeneration: Trolls may attempt a natural healing roll every round unless their wounds were caused by fire, flame, or sunlight. An Incapacitated greater troll returns to action if it heals itself (and is not Shaken--even if it was before being Incapacitated).

--Sweep: May attack all adjacent targets at Fighting -2.

--Spawning: Each night, roll 1d6. On a roll of 6, a greater troll will spawn 1d3 lesser trolls over the course of the night. A greater troll can never spawn more lesser trolls than the number of humans it has eaten. While a lesser troll is being spawned, it will slowly emerge in a sort of troll-shaped pseudopod from the greater troll over the course of the night. This may give the greater troll the appearance of having multiple heads, or similar.

Fire vs Greater Trolls: If a greater troll is Wounded by flame, roll d6: on 5-6, the troll catches on fire (as per a "Spot Fire") and is subject to further damage on subsequent rounds.On each subsequent round, roll d6 again: on 1-2, the fire goes out on its own. On 3-4, the fire stays at the same level (see the "Fire Damage" table in the SW rulebook). On 5-6, the fire increases by one level. If the troll has been beheaded and the troll's body is consumed by flame, the head will remain intact.

Sunlight vs Greater Trolls: If a greater troll is exposed to sunlight, the troll immediately catches fire (as a "Spot Fire") and immediately takes 1d10 damage. The fire will automatically increase by one level each subsequent round, and do damage accordingly, unless the troll is able to retreat from the sunlight.