So I THINK the image title was likely intended to mean a human body is used to generate energy of some kind.
BUT when I first read the title and saw the image I thought it meant it was generating humans.
So then I started picturing a 3D printer-esque scenario. A machine prints human organs, tissue, it generates a mind from AI or mental scans of real people. It generates “life” and sends that creation out into the world. Is it human? Is there such a thing as a “soul” to be missing in this creation? Why was it made? What will it do?
Followinga conversation I had on Reddit the other day, I thought I’d share a quick insight into how I run combat (especially in D&D, which doesn’t have any mechanics for increasing tension or making combat more dynamic like other games might).
Basically…
If something new doesn’t happen every 2-3 rounds, the combat will be boring.
Now here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of new things that can happen:
A new enemy arrives
An enemy dies or flees
An enemy reveals a new ability
An enemy dramatically changes their tactics (moves to a new spot, starts targeting a different PC, switches from melee to ranged or to spellcasting or w/e)
A PC dies/goes down
Reinforcements arrive for the PCs
The environment changes (a surge of lava flows through the battlefield, a crack opens in the floor, a locked door opens, etc)
A new “ticking clock” starts (a bomb is about to go off, the enemy is charging up a devastating attack, an innocent person is in danger, the room is collapsing, etc)
A new goal for the PCs arises (an object to grab, a ritual to foil, a lengthy spell to cast, a location to reach, etc)
An NPC reveals something related to the plot (“I am your father”, “This fight is just a distraction!”, “This is actually a simulation”, “I never wanted to fight you”, “If you call this fight off and let us leave, I’ll tell you what you want to know”, etc)
The more “organic” you can make these new things the better, which is a skill you will develop as you DM more (also, some of these will just happen naturally, especially #2 and #5). At the start, just focus on the first 5 points since they’re the easiest to implement at short notice. #7 is also a good one if you have ideas for it. Your goal is to force the players to adapt to new circumstances as they arise! If something new happens but the players don’t need to change their own behaviour to match it, then it may as well not have happened at all.
Basically, be creative and be fairly brutal (as brutal as is tolerable for the players!) and you will find your combats will have a lot more punch than if you play it safe.
[The Starfinder monsters I’m most interested in are the ones with weird xenobiology: some of the writers got really into designing alien ecologies and weird behaviors. Like the crest-eater, which wants your delicious calcium to make solar panels. One thing in Starfinder that I don’t mention below, because it works better with the advanced tech levels of that game, is that kasatha technology is built around solar collectors that are biomimetics based on crest-eater anatomy. That’s super cool.]
Crest-Eater CR 4 N Magical Beast This creature is a horned, reptilian beast the size of a bison. It has three sets of legs—the middle pair is held aloft and tipped with sharp claws. It has long, elaborate horns growing from its head and spine—sails of tissue grow between the horns and hold them fast to the skin. It has two pairs of beady black eyes, and a mouth full of large, crushing teeth.
Native to the harsh deserts of Kasath, crest-eaters are powerful creatures that inspire both reverence and fear in the kasatha that live there. A crest-eater is so named because, when they prey on a kasatha, typically tear open the head, devour the bony crest, and leave the rest of the body behind for scavengers. A crest-eater’s primary goal is calcium, which they incorporate into their elaborate horns and shells. These in turn act as solar panels, giving the crest-eater their main source of energy. These horns wax and wane in size as the crest-eater forages, shrinking in lean times and growing to extravagance when it is well fed.
Crest-eaters have a social organization similar to elephants, with females and juveniles living in herds organized around the oldest female, and males living solitary lives for much of the year. Members of a herd are devoted to each other, sleeping in shifts and fighting together to oppose hunters or avenge their fallen relatives. They are tolerant of smaller predators, which clean up their kills and often have sharper eyes and ears than the crest-eaters do. Solitary males are the individuals most likely to attack a village or other settlement, and they have an outsized place in kasatha folklore.
Some crest-eaters have been exported to other planets, where they are often surprisingly docile compared to their violent behavior on Kasath. If a planet has an oceanic past, large deposits of chalk and limestone serve as food just as readily as bones, and are more convenient to harvest. A crest-eater is of nearly human intelligence, and training them has more in common with teaching a child than handling an animal. They make good, loyal bodyguards if fed well, and are especially valued by those that fear necromancers and their skeletal armies. Kasathas are known to make wickedly sharp bone cestuses using the horns of a crest-eater, and these weapons are often treated as heirlooms and badges of honor.
ALT
