Bestiary

The Astrabound frontier is full of predators, scavengers, engineered horrors, ancient guardians, invasive lifeforms, and the sort of things that make a routine survey mission turn into a fight for survival. Some threats are natural. Some were made. Some should have stayed buried.

This chapter is written for the Game Master. Use these creatures as written, reskin them freely, and drop them wherever the story needs pressure. A predator entry might represent native wildlife on one world, a black-lab specimen on another, or a relic-tainted mutation in a dead station’s biosphere. The mechanics stay the same. The fiction is yours to shape.

For consistency across this bestiary:

Creature groups should use level 3 headers
Individual creatures within those groups should use level 4 headers
Wild Cards should be marked as [WC]

Example:

### Spiders

#### Frost Web Spider
#### Widow Crawler [WC]

Designing Threats

Nonplayer characters and monsters are not built like player characters unless you have a specific reason to do so. Give them the Edges, Hindrances, gear, and special abilities that best fit their role in the encounter.

If a threat exists to stalk, ambush, overwhelm, terrify, or force the crew to change tactics, build toward that purpose first. Spend your time where it matters most: the scene, the pressure, the reveal, and the consequences.

As a rule of thumb:

Use Extras for common foes, lesser beasts, swarms, drones, and rank-and-file hostiles.
Use Wild Cards for alpha predators, named enemies, legendary monsters, major villains, and anything meant to anchor a scene.

Special Abilities

The following special abilities are presented in a cleaner, more consistent format for Astrabound. Keep these as GM-facing reference text.

Aquatic

The creature is native to the water. It is a natural swimmer and cannot drown. Its Pace in water is listed after the Aquatic ability.

Armor

A creature’s Armor is listed in parentheses next to its total Toughness and is already included in that value.

As a general guideline, thick hide often grants 2 points of Armor, while heavily plated beasts may have 4 or more. Supernatural, engineered, mineral, or relic-touched creatures may have far higher values.

Bite

See Natural Weapons.

Breath Weapons

Breath weapons use a Cone Template unless the creature’s entry says otherwise. They may be Evaded.

Unless otherwise noted, using a breath weapon takes the creature’s entire turn. It cannot make Multi-Actions in the same round it uses a breath attack.

Burrow

Burrowers move beneath earth, ash, sand, ice, debris, or similar material. The listed value is the distance the creature may burrow on its turn.

A burrowing creature may tunnel on its action and erupt from the ground at any point within its Burrow Pace in the same turn. It cannot normally be attacked while underground unless an enemy has some way to detect and reach it through the intervening material.

Burrowers can also ambush from below. If the target is unaware of the creature’s presence, the burrower makes an opposed Stealth roll against the victim’s Notice. If the burrower wins, the target is Vulnerable to it only. With a raise, the burrower gains The Drop.

Once the creature’s presence is known, it usually cannot keep surprising foes this way, but burrowing still gives it excellent mobility and protection.

Claws

See Natural Weapons.

Construct

Constructs include robots, golems, animated machines, and similar artificial beings. Some are sentient. Others are little more than programmed tools.

Constructs:

gain +2 to recover from being Shaken
ignore 1 point of Wound penalties
do not breathe or eat
are immune to disease and poison
do not Bleed Out
remove Wounds with Repair instead of Healing
do not benefit from the Golden Hour

Elemental

Elementals are beings of living air, earth, fire, water, or similarly primal force.

Elementals:

ignore additional damage from Called Shots
ignore 1 point of Wound penalties
do not breathe or eat
are immune to disease and poison
can only be healed by magic or natural healing, as appropriate

Energy Drain

With a successful touch or attack, the victim must make the listed resistance roll, usually Vigor, or lose one die type in the targeted attribute.

If the attack would reduce an attribute below d4, the victim is Incapacitated until healed or until they recover a lost die type.

If the targeted attribute was Vigor, the victim must make a Vigor roll at the end of their next turn or perish.

Recovery: Unless slain, a victim recovers one die type every 24 hours, or by casting relief with an additional +3 Power Points.

Environmental Resistance

The creature resists a particular energy or substance such as cold, heat, acid, radiation, iron, and so on.

Damage from that source is reduced by 4, and the creature gains +4 to resist matching Hazards or powers with a similar Trapping.

Environmental Weakness

The creature is especially vulnerable to a particular energy or substance.

Damage from that source is increased by 4, and the creature suffers −4 when resisting matching Hazards or powers with a similar Trapping.

Ethereal

Ghosts, shadows, phase-beings, and similar entities may exist partly or wholly outside the physical world.

Ethereal creatures can pass through physical objects, cannot be harmed by non-magical attacks, and cannot usually be seen unless they choose to be. They are affected by magical items, magical weapons, and supernatural powers.

Unless otherwise stated, ethereal creatures may still manipulate objects, wield weapons, or interact with the physical world in frightening ways.

Fear

Some creatures are unsettling. Others are nightmare fuel.

A creature with Fear forces those who see it to make Fear checks. Particularly terrifying monsters may impose a penalty, such as Fear −2.

Fearless

Mindless drones, certain undead, and some utterly alien things do not experience fear the way mortals do.

Fearless creatures are immune to Fear and Intimidation. They may still be Taunted, usually because that redirects their attention rather than affecting their emotions.

Flight

The creature can fly at the listed Pace. It uses Athletics to maneuver in chases or similar situations.

Gargantuan

Gargantuan creatures are Size 12+. These are station-crushing horrors, megafauna, kaiju-scale organisms, and other things large enough to turn terrain into collateral damage.

Gargantuan creatures:

have Heavy Armor
can take three additional Wounds
treat their attacks as Heavy Weapons

Stomp: A Gargantuan creature may stomp using an area effect template sized by the GM based on its footprint. The attack ignores Scale modifiers and is resolved as an opposed Athletics vs Agility roll, with each defender rolling individually. Those who fail take damage equal to the creature’s Strength damage.

Hardy

Hardy creatures are difficult to put down with glancing injuries or repeated minor shocks.

If the creature is already Shaken, another Shaken result does not cause a Wound.

Horns

See Natural Weapons.

Immunity

The creature is completely unaffected by a specific type of damage or effect, such as fire, cold, electricity, and so on.

Immunity is not the same as Invulnerability. The creature ignores damage and Stun from the listed attack types only.

Infection

Some creatures carry parasites, disease, eggs, spores, nanites, or other infectious threats.

A character who is Shaken or Wounded by a creature with Infection must make a Vigor roll. Any modifier and the effect of failure are listed in the creature’s entry.

Infravision

Creatures with Infravision detect heat. They halve penalties for bad lighting when attacking warm targets, including many invisible foes.

Characters may be able to mask their heat signature with mud, thermal cloaks, insulated suits, or similar measures at the GM’s discretion.

Invulnerability

Some horrors can only be truly harmed by a specific weakness.

An Invulnerable creature ignores damage as listed in its entry. Unless otherwise noted, it may still be Shaken or Stunned, but cannot be Wounded except by its stated vulnerability.

Low Light Vision

The creature ignores penalties for Dim and Dark Illumination, but not Pitch Darkness.

Leaper

The creature doubles its normal jumping distance. Many leapers also have Pounce, increasing the damage bonus from a Wild Attack to +4 instead of +2.

Mindless

The creature is immune to puppet, Intimidation, Taunt, and any attempt to manipulate it with abilities that Test Smarts.

Night Vision

The creature ignores all Illumination penalties.

Ooze

The creature is not a single body, but a mass, colony, gel, swarm-mind, or similar distributed organism.

Oozes:

ignore invisibility and Illumination penalties
do not sleep
are immune to Called Shots, poison, paralysis, slumber, Stun, blind, Intimidation, Taunt, and puppet

Pack Tactics

The creature adds its Gang Up bonus to its Fighting damage as well as its attack roll.

Paralysis

Victims who suffer damage or a Shaken result from the accompanying attack must make a Vigor roll or be Stunned.

They are also paralyzed and unable to take any action, including speech, for 2d6 rounds, unless the creature’s entry says otherwise.

Poison

If the creature causes at least a Shaken result with the relevant attack, the victim must make a Vigor roll modified by the listed poison penalty in parentheses.

Effects of failure are handled normally under Poison and Hazards.

Rending Attack

Some creatures have claws, jaws, or bladed limbs that tear flesh rather than merely injure it.

A victim Shaken or Wounded by a rending attack begins bleeding and must make a Vigor roll as a free action at the start of their next turn.

Failure: The victim suffers a Wound and must roll again next turn.
Success: The victim avoids the Wound, but must roll again next turn.
Raise: The bleeding stops.

A successful Healing roll also stops the bleeding.

Regeneration

Some creatures recover damage at an unnatural rate.

Fast Regeneration: The creature makes a Vigor roll every round, even after being Incapacitated. A success heals one Wound or removes Incapacitated status. A raise heals an additional Wound. Some forms of damage may prevent this, as listed in the creature’s entry.

Slow Regeneration: The creature makes a natural healing roll once per day.

Resilient / Very Resilient

These abilities apply only to Extras.

Resilient: The creature may take one Wound before being Incapacitated.
Very Resilient: The creature may take two Wounds before being Incapacitated.

Wild Cards cannot have these abilities.

Size

Size affects Toughness and gives a general sense of a creature’s mass and likely Strength range. It also matters for Scale.

Large creatures gain extra Wounds as normal:

Large: +1 Wound, Reach +1
Huge: +2 Wounds, Reach +2
Gargantuan: +3 Wounds, Reach +3

These stack with Resilient or Very Resilient when applicable.

Stun

A creature with this ability has an electrical discharge, neural lash, sonic pulse, toxin burst, or similar disabling effect.

Anyone Shaken or Wounded by the listed attack must make a Vigor roll, modified as shown in the creature’s entry, or become Stunned. If the creature hit with a raise, the Vigor roll is made at an additional −2.

Swallow Whole

With a successful bite attack, the victim must make an Evasion roll or be swallowed.

At the end of each of the creature’s subsequent turns, anyone swallowed must make a Vigor roll at −2 or suffer a Wound from crushing muscles, digestive acids, or both. This continues until the victim escapes or dies.

If the creature is Shaken or Wounded from the inside, ignoring its Armor, everyone inside gets an immediate Athletics roll to escape.

If the creature is Shaken or Wounded from the outside, the escape roll is made at −2.

Appropriate Tests, such as blinding pain, nausea, pepper spray, or similar tricks, may also cause the creature to cough up its meal at the GM’s discretion.

Swat

The creature is practiced at smashing smaller foes. It ignores up to 4 points of Scale penalties when attacking with the specific abilities listed in its entry.

Tentacles

The creature has a number of tentacle actions listed in its entry, usually 2 or 4.

Tentacle actions collectively count as a single limited action on the creature’s turn. These actions must come from the tentacles themselves, typically Fighting attacks, grapples, or similar maneuvers.

If the creature is a Wild Card, it rolls its Wild Die with each tentacle action as normal.

Tentacle grapples gain a +2 bonus. Crushing damage is the creature’s Strength unless stated otherwise.

A tentacle may be severed with a Called Shot. If damage exceeds the creature’s Toughness, the limb is severed and the creature is Shaken. If it was already Shaken, it takes a Wound.

Trample

Some large creatures can run over smaller victims when moving at least 5" in a straight line. This usually applies only when the targets are at least two Sizes smaller.

Anyone in the creature’s path must Evade or take the listed damage. Trampled targets may make an attack after it passes, if possible, unless the creature has Extraction or a similar ability.

Undead

Undead are hard to stop because they are no longer properly alive.

Undead:

gain +2 Toughness
gain +2 to Spirit rolls to recover from being Shaken
ignore additional damage from Called Shots
ignore 1 point of Wound penalties
do not breathe or eat
are immune to disease and poison
do not Bleed Out
can only be healed by magical healing

Wall Walker

The creature can move across vertical and inverted surfaces as easily as most beings walk on the ground.

It moves at its normal Pace while doing so and may run unless its entry says otherwise.

Weakness

The creature suffers extra damage from, or can only be harmed by, a particular source.

The exact effect is listed in the creature’s entry.

Unstoppable

The creature’s mass, will, or supernatural resilience prevents it from being brought down too quickly.

It can suffer a maximum of one Wound per attack, no matter how many Wounds would normally be caused after Soak rolls.

If the attacker’s Action Card is a Joker, they ignore this ability. Some special weapons, powers, or listed Weaknesses may also bypass it.

Size Reference

Use the following table as a quick reference for Size, Scale, and typical physical range.

Size / Toughness Bonus	Typical Strength Range	Scale Modifier	Typical Height / Length Up To	Mass Up To	Example Creatures
Tiny
-4	1	-6	6"	<4 lbs	Crow, mouse
Very Small
-3	d4-3	-4	18"	16 lbs	House cat, small dog
Small
-2	d4-1	-2	3'	32 lbs	Coyote, bobcat, porcupine
Normal
-1	d4 to d6	0	4'	125 lbs	Child, wolf, goblin-sized creature
0	d6 to d12	0	6'	250 lbs	Human, great dane, dire wolf
1	d8 to d12+1	0	8'	500 lbs	Large humanoid, gorilla, lion
2	d10 to d12+2	0	9'	1,000 lbs	Grizzly, horse, tiger shark
3	d12 to d12+3	0	12'	2,000 lbs	Bull, war horse
Large (+1 Wound, Reach +1)
4	d12+1 to d12+4	+2	15'	2 tons	Hippo, great white shark
5	d12+2 to d12+5	+2	18'	4 tons	White rhino, beluga whale
6	d12+3 to d12+6	+2	24'	8 tons	African elephant, drake, orca
7	d12+4 to d12+7	+2	30'	16 tons	Tyrannosaur, triceratops
Huge (+2 Wounds, Reach +2)
8	d12+5 to d12+8	+4	36'	32 tons	Dragon, sperm whale
9	d12+6 to d12+9	+4	50'	64 tons	Humpback whale
10	d12+7 to d12+10	+4	63'	125 tons	Bowhead whale
11	d12+8 to d12+11	+4	75'	250 tons	Blue whale
Gargantuan (+3 Wounds, Reach +3)
12	d12+9 to d12+12	+6	100'	500 tons	Kaiju-scale creature
13	d12+10 to d12+13	+6	125'	1K tons
14	d12+11 to d12+14	+6	150'	2K tons
15	d12+12 to d12+15	+6	200'	4K tons
16	d12+13 to d12+16	+6	250'	8K tons
17	d12+14 to d12+17	+6	300'	16K tons
18	d12+15 to d12+18	+6	400'	32K tons
19	d12+16 to d12+19	+6	500'	64K tons
20	d12+17 to d12+20	+6	600'	125K tons

Bestiary

The Astrabound bestiary is meant to give the Game Master a toolbox of threats, citizens, predators, and strange lifeforms that can be dropped onto nearly any world, moon, station, or forgotten ruin. The names below are not fixed taxonomy. They are the names spacers, colonists, soldiers, and scouts have given these things.

A creature called an alarm bird on one frontier world might be known as a shrieker, grave gull, or dust screech on another. A barbed-tongue lizard might be catalogued by a survey team under some sterile xenobiology designation, while locals call it a devil weevil or red lash. Change the names to fit the world. Your players will never see the stat block, and the same entry can do a great deal of work across multiple planets.

Many of the professional profiles in this chapter, such as the assassin or bounty hunter, are written as baseline humanoids. Add ancestral traits, cultural details, gear swaps, or environmental adaptations as needed to turn them into the species or faction your campaign requires.

Not every dangerous creature is automatically a Wild Card. Most are not. A typical apex predator, giant grazer, or armored brute is just part of the food chain. But a scarred alpha, a psychic brood-mother, a named pirate-hunter, or the infamous beast the locals whisper about around a fusion stove might absolutely deserve Wild Card status.

(A) indicates an intelligent animal or animal-level creature. It is clever, trainable, cunning, or problem-solving, but not human-sapient unless the description says otherwise.

Baseline Terran Fauna

These entries represent animals familiar to many players, but in Astrabound they are just as useful as baseline analogues for creatures on alien worlds. A GM can use them directly for imported Terran stock, uplift candidates, escaped menagerie beasts, or local fauna with only cosmetic changes.

Alligator / Crocodile

On frontier worlds with wetlands, river systems, marsh colonies, or feral terraforming zones, something like this usually lurks near the waterline. Use this entry for Terran alligators and crocodiles, or for any broad-snouted ambush reptile that hits, clamps down, and rolls prey apart in the shallows.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d8 Pace: 3; Parry: 6; Toughness: 11 (2) Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Thick skin.
Aquatic: Pace 5.
Bite: Str+d6.
Rollover: Gators and crocs grasp prey in their vice-like jaws and roll with them. If one of these large reptiles hits with a raise, its bonus damage is a d10 instead of a d6.
Size 2: Common gators are about 12′ long, thick, heavy, and weigh around 500 lbs.

Bear

Whether this is a grizzly in a frozen settlement zone, a polar bear in a lost research dome, or a shaggy alien omnivore built on the same chassis, this profile covers the classic heavy mauler. Bears are excellent “you wandered into the wrong valley” threats and work just as well as dangerous fauna or failed domestication projects.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+2, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d8 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 10 Edges: Brute

Special Abilities:

Bite/Claws: Str+d6.
Size 2: These creatures can stand up to 8′ tall and weigh over 1,000 pounds.

Bull

Bulls are most useful in Astrabound as livestock gone bad, arena beasts, colonial draft stock, or stubborn herbivores that become lethal once provoked. This entry also works for any horned charging grazer that is more dangerous than intelligent.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+3, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d4, Notice d6 Pace: 7; Parry: 4; Toughness: 11 Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Horns: Str+d6.
Size 3: Most bulls weigh just under a ton.

Cat, Small

Not every entry in a bestiary needs to be a monster. A small cat can be a familiar, shipboard mascot, uplift candidate, pest-hunter, or alternate form for a shapeshifter. It also gives you a solid base for many tiny alien ambush predators with only superficial changes.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d4−3, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Notice d6, Stealth d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 2; Toughness: 2 Edges: Acrobat

Special Abilities:

Bite/Claws: Str.
Low Light Vision: Cats ignore penalties for Dim and Dark Illumination.
Size −3 (Very Small): Cats are typically less than a foot high.

Dire Wolf

This is a useful profile for oversized canid predators, war-beasts, pack hunters, or feral bio-bred hounds. In a science-fantasy corner of Astrabound, it can also stand in for a native world’s apex pack-stalker with almost no changes beyond appearance.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d6, Stealth d8 Pace: 10; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 Edges: Alertness

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d6.
Speed: d10 running die.

Dog / Wolf

This entry covers large dogs, wolves, hyena-like predators, and similar pursuit hunters. It is one of the handiest stat blocks in the batch because it can represent guard animals, colony hounds, trained attack beasts, or local fauna almost anywhere.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d6, Notice d10, Stealth d8 Pace: 8; Parry: 5; Toughness: 4 Edges: Alertness

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d4.
Size −1: The heads of these canines come to an average human’s waist, and they weigh about 60 pounds.
Speed: d10 running die.

Alien Flora and Fauna

These are distinctly Astrabound creatures, though many can still be reskinned freely. If you need to populate a world with dangerous wilderness, strange ecology, or unsettling predators that feel more alien than fantasy, this is where the chapter starts to show its character.

Acid Pitcher

Acid pitchers are a fine reminder that not every ambush predator is mobile. Use them in jungles, sink forests, fungal plains, steaming wetlands, or any place where explorers might mistake danger for fresh water. They work especially well as a hazard during travel scenes, not just combat encounters.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d12, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Notice d4, Stealth d8 Pace: —; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6

Special Abilities:

Acid: Creatures who are Bound or Entangled by an acid pitcher’s tentacles take 2d6 acid damage at the start of their turn.
Camouflage: Acid pitchers blend in with the ground and other plants, granting them +2 to Stealth rolls when perfectly still.
Dug In: The heart of the plant lies deep underground and is normally unreachable. Its tentacles may be attacked normally, and if severed the plant can no longer grapple effectively and withdraws into the soil.
Plant: Immune to paralysis, poison, puppet, slumber, Stun; doesn’t sleep.
Tentacles (1): Reach 1. Acid pitchers have six thick fronds which collectively function as one tentacle.

Aerial Stalker

If you want the sky itself to feel predatory, use an aerial stalker. These gasbag hunters are perfect for high-atmosphere worlds, floating archipelagos, balloon jungles, or any setting where the party has grown too comfortable looking only at the ground.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+9, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d6 Pace: —; Parry: 6; Toughness: 15

Special Abilities:

Acid: Creatures who are Bound or Entangled by an aerial stalker’s tentacles take 2d6 acid damage at the start of their turn.
Flight: Pace 6.
Immunity: Immune to acid-based attacks.
Size 7 (Large): An aerial stalker’s “body” is a gasbag roughly the size of a truck.
Tentacles (4): Four tentacle actions and Reach 6. Tentacles deal Str+d4 damage.
Very Resilient: Aerial stalkers can take two additional Wounds before being Incapacitated.

Apex

The apex is exactly what spacers and settlers mean when they say, “There’s always something bigger.” Use it when you want a relentless pursuit predator rather than a simple ambusher. It fits death worlds, lost continents, hollow-world preserves, and ancient wildlife sanctuaries equally well.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+6, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Survival d6 Pace: 8 (d10 running); Parry: 6; Toughness: 17 (2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Thick hide.
Bite: Str+d8 (I), AP 4, Heavy Weapon.
Electroreception: Apexes sense electrical signals, ignoring Illumination, Stealth, and invisibility penalties. They can be “blinded” with a strong electrical shock, however.
Hardy: A second Shaken result does not cause a Wound.
Size 7 (Large): These animals are nearly 40 feet long and weigh about five tons.
Swat: Ignore 4 points of Scale penalties when attacking creatures smaller than itself.

Arc Beetle

Arc beetles are excellent alien vermin for industrial zones, storm worlds, buried ruins, or hazardous badlands. They also make good “don’t shoot the reactor room” encounters because their electrical attack can turn the environment into part of the danger.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d10, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d6, Notice d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 11 (3)

Special Abilities:

Armor +3: Thick shell.
Bite: Str+d4.
Electricity: Arc beetles fire bolts of electricity from their antennae. This attack uses Shooting. Range 6/12/24, Damage 3d6, AP 2.
Size 2: Arc beetles are over 6′ long and 4′ high.

Avrok

The avrok is a classic big-water menace. Use it for river deltas, flooded ruins, storm jungles, and any primitive or under-surveyed world where something ancient and territorial still rules the shoreline.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+2, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d12, Fighting d8, Intimidation d4, Notice d6, Stealth d8, Survival d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 15 (2)

Special Abilities:

Aquatic: Pace 12.
Armor +2: Thick hide.
Bite: Strength+d8.
Shake: If the beast hits with a raise on a bite attack, it shakes its powerful head back and forth violently, dealing +2d6 bonus damage instead of the usual +1d6.
Size 6 (Large): Avroks measure 35′.

Barbed-Tongue Lizard

This entry is useful any time you want something that looks survivable right up until it lashes out. It can be used as a striking predator, a venomous nuisance, or a territorial beast in arid zones, red deserts, or rocky scrublands.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d4, Strength d12+1, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d12, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Stealth d4 Pace: 10; Parry: 8; Toughness: 9

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d8.
Fleet-Footed: d10 running die.
Low Light Vision: No penalties for Dim and Dark lighting.
Size 4 (Large): Barbed-tongues weigh 2,000 pounds.
Tongue: Str+d4, Reach 2. The tongue is tipped with bony barbs that deliver a pain-causing poison. Anyone Shaken or Wounded must make a Vigor roll or be Stunned.

Batspider

Batspiders are excellent low-level alien horror. They make jungle canopies dangerous, ruin interiors unnerving, and night travel miserable. They are especially good when you want a threat that is small, mobile, and disgusting without needing to be a full swarm.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength 1, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d4, Fighting d6, Notice d8, Stealth d10 Pace: 4; Parry: 5; Toughness: 2

Special Abilities:

Backbiter: If a batspider has Surprise, it flies onto its opponent’s back and attacks with The Drop. The victim suffers a −2 penalty to attack the creature until it’s Shaken or Wounded, at which point it detaches and attacks normally or flees.
Flight: Pace 8.
Poison Bite (−2): Batspiders can’t cause true damage with their bite and thus can’t penetrate armor, but they seek out bare skin or light clothing, making a Called Shot if necessary. With a successful Fighting roll as a Touch Attack (+2) they manage to bite and deliver their poison. Victims must make a Vigor roll at −2 (−4 if it hit with a raise) or suffer 2d4 damage at the start of each subsequent round.
Size −3 (Very Small): Batspiders are six inches in diameter.
Wall Walker: Batspiders can move across vertical or horizontal surfaces at their Pace.

Bleeder Rabbit

Bleeder rabbits are one of those perfect frontier myths that turn out to be true. Use them to surprise overconfident players, to make wilderness medical care matter, or to remind the table that “small” does not mean “safe.”

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d4, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Notice d10, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6 (1)

Special Abilities:

Armor +1: Scaly skin.
Bite: Str+d4.
Leaper: Double jumping distance.
Pounce: +4 damage instead of +2 when making a Wild Attack.
Rending Attack: Victims Shaken or Wounded by a bite must make a Vigor roll as a free action at the beginning of each next turn until they roll a raise, suffering a Wound with each failure.
Size −1: Bleeders stand 3′ in height.

Bone Spider

Bone spiders belong in dead colonies, blasted worlds, ossuary caves, or any place where the environment itself feels hungry. If you want a spider entry that leans horror instead of nuisance, this is the one.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Stealth d10 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 (2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Bony shell.
Bite: Str+d6.
Fear (−2): They are nightmarish creatures.
Paralysis: Anyone Shaken or Wounded by a bone spider must make a Vigor roll or be paralyzed for 2d6 rounds.
Size −2 (Small): Bone spiders are the same size as human heads with 12-inch-long legs.

Brain Eater

The brain eater is pure space-lane horror. It is ideal for derelicts, salvage jobs, bunk-room rumors, cursed cargo, or any encounter where the crew finds an object they really should not put on. Mechanically, it can also stand in for any parasitic mimic that resembles useful gear.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d8, Notice d10, Stealth d12 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 (2) Edges: Quick

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Hard, plastic-like carapace.
Bite: Str+d4. +2 to Athletics and Strength rolls made to grapple.
Immunity: Acid.
Low Light Vision: Ignore penalties for Dim and Dark Illumination.
Mimicry: Observers are at −4 on Notice rolls to distinguish a brain eater from a real helmet.
Poison (−2): Brain eaters inject their prey with a numbing agent that prevents them from speaking but allows them to move and act normally, though with no memory of the attack. After a number of hours equal to half the victim’s Smarts, they perish.
Size −3 (Very Small): The typical brain eater is the same size, shape, and weight as an astronaut’s helmet.
Slow Regeneration: A brain eater makes a natural healing roll once per day to recover from its Wounds.
Vacuum Born: The creature is naturally adapted for life in space. It does not breathe, ignores the effects of a vacuum, and is immune to cold damage.
Very Resilient: Brain eaters can take two Wounds before being Incapacitated.

Bristled Gorer

Bristled gorers are useful as aggressive herbivores, domesticable livestock gone feral, or tasty prey that fights back much harder than expected. They are especially good on frontier worlds where local food chains are only half understood.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d6, Intimidation d8, Notice d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6 Edges: Berserk

Special Abilities:

Pounce: +4 damage instead of +2 when making a Wild Attack.
Tusks: Str+d6.

Peoples, Cultures, and Sapient Threats

These entries represent species, professions, and organized threats more than simple beasts. They are useful for NPCs, allies, rivals, recurring antagonists, and faction representatives.

Aquarian

Use this profile for aquatic humanoids from oceanic worlds, abyssal colonies, pressure-domed civilizations, or any species whose biology is deeply tied to water. They make excellent diplomats, scouts, marines, or locals defending their own environment.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Stealth d6, Taunt d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5 or 6 (spear); Toughness: 6 Edges: Extraction Gear: Molecular spear (Str+d6+2, AP 3, Reach 1, Parry +1 if used two-handed).

Special Abilities:

Aquatic: Pace 6.
Atmospheric Dependency: Aquarians need to breathe water in order to survive. Those without a rebreather (or spacesuit if the pressure is too low) must make a Vigor check every round or suffer a Fatigue level that can lead to death. Recovery is only possible when the character receives water at standard pressure and one Fatigue level is recovered every 10 minutes.
Poisonous Touch: With a successful unarmed attack, the aquarian may opt to target the victim with Paralyzing Poison.
Toughness +1: Life in the depths makes aquarians resilient.

Assassin

Professional killers in Astrabound range from quiet guild blades to corporate wet-work operatives, station saboteurs, cult enforcers, or ideological executioners. This profile is your baseline hired killer.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Persuasion d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d8, Thievery d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 9 (4) Hindrances: Vow (Major, always finish the job) Edges: Alertness, Assassin, First Strike, Marksman, Sneak Attack, Thief Gear: Body armor (+4), power short sword (Str+d6, powered), laser rifle (Range 30/60/120, Damage 3d6, RoF 3, AP 2, Cauterize, No Recoil, Overcharge).

Master Assassin

Use this profile when the killer is more than hired help. This is the one with a reputation, a history, a personal code, and a backup face ready if the first one burns.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d12, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d12, Thievery d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 9; Toughness: 10 (4) Hindrances: Vengeful (Major), Vow (Major, always finish the job) Edges: Acrobat, Alertness, Assassin, Dodge, First Strike, Level Headed, Marksman, Sneak Attack (Imp), Steady Hands, Thief Gear: Body armor (+4), energy sword (Str+d8 (I), AP 4, HW), laser rifle (Range 30/60/120, Damage 3d6, RoF 3, AP 2, Cauterize, No Recoil, Overcharge). Installed cyberware: Face changer, skill bonus (enhanced reflexes, Fighting +2), skill bonus (targeting eye, Shooting +2).

Assimilator

Assimilators are excellent for campaigns that want body horror, creeping loss of identity, and a coldly efficient machine-colony threat. Use the template below to convert any intelligent being into an assimilator.

Any intelligent creature can be made into an assimilator by increasing each of its attributes one die type and adding the following Special Abilities. Assimilators also lose all Hindrances but retain any Edges and skills.

Regardless of species, assimilators appear pale and lifeless, as though freshly dead, and are completely expressionless. They are coldly rational and do not understand emotion, metaphor, honor, fate, or similar abstractions.

Special Abilities:

Assimilated: +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from being Shaken; no additional damage from Called Shots; ignores 1 point of Wound penalties; doesn’t breathe; immune to disease and poison. Immune to Fear, Intimidation, and Taunt.
Hive Mind: Can communicate with other assimilators within 5" (10 yards).
Sensors: Optical, chemical, motion, and other sensors ignore Illumination penalties. If it scans as an action, the assimilator adds a +2 bonus to Electronics or Notice rolls to detect targets within 500 yards.

Assimilator Drone

This is the standard working body of the colony, suitable for boarding actions, derelict-ship encounters, planetary incursions, or the aftermath of a failed defense.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Battle d4, Common Knowledge d6, Electronics d6, Fighting d8, Hacking d6, Healing d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Piloting d6, Repair d6, Science d8, Shooting d8, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 8 Edges: Cyborg, Reliable Gear: Blaster rifle (Range 25/50/100, Damage 3d6+2, AP 2). Installed cyberware: Attribute increase (all attributes), enhanced hearing, enhanced vision, hardy, redundant organs, targeting system, threat analyzer, integrated gear (blaster rifle).

Special Abilities:

Assimilated: +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from being Shaken; no additional damage from Called Shots; ignores 1 point of Wound penalties; doesn’t breathe; immune to disease and poison. Immune to Fear, Intimidation, and Taunt.
Hive Mind: Can communicate with other assimilators within 5" (10 yards).
Inhuman: Assimilators are not subject to Strain or side effects from cyberware.
Sensors: Optical, chemical, motion, and other sensors ignore Illumination penalties. If it scans as an action, the assimilator adds a +2 bonus to Electronics or Notice rolls to detect targets within 500 yards.

Avion

Avions are ideal for lofty cultures, gas giant settlements, floating cities, and cliffside worlds where wings are a social reality rather than a novelty. They also make excellent scouts and elegant duelists.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Taunt d6 Pace: 5; Parry: 5; Toughness: 9 (4) Hindrances: Low-G Worlder Edges: Extraction Gear: Body armor (+4), blaster pistol (Range 12/24/48, Damage 2d6+2, AP 2), vibro blade (Str+d6+d4, AP 2).

Special Abilities:

Flight: Pace 6.
Frail: −1 Toughness.
Reduced Pace: Pace −1 and running die reduced one step on the ground.

Bounty Hunter

Bounty hunters are a staple of the space lanes. Some are licensed retrieval agents. Some are mercenaries in legal clothing. Others are just predators with paperwork. Use this entry whenever the crew needs someone competent and relentless on their trail.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Driving d6, Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Persuasion d6, Piloting d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Survival d8, Taunt d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 10 (4) Hindrances: Greedy (Minor), Ruthless (Major) Edges: Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Danger Sense, Streetwise Gear: Body armor (+4), blaster rifle (Range 25/50/100, Damage 3d6+2, AP 2), molecular knife (Str+d4+2, AP 2), 3× stun grenades, stun baton (Str+d4, stun charge), handcuffs, commlink.

Elite Bounty Hunter

This is the profile for a more seasoned tracker, a sector-famous hunter, or the specialist sent when the usual contractors have already failed.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d8, Driving d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Persuasion d8, Piloting d8, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Survival d8, Taunt d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 10 (4) Hindrances: Greedy (Major), Ruthless (Major) Edges: Alertness, Calculating, Combat Reflexes, Danger Sense, Streetwise, Trademark Weapon (Blaster rifle) Gear: Body armor (+4), blaster rifle (Range 25/50/100, Damage 3d6+2, AP 2), molecular knife (Str+d4+2, AP 2), 3× stun grenades, stun baton (Str+d4, stun charge), handcuffs, commlink.

Brainiac

Brainiacs are ideal if you want a true pulp-space menace with a strong visual identity. They can be invaders, ancient survivors, sealed-suit diplomats, or grotesque antagonists from beyond a known route.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Battle d6, Common Knowledge d6, Driving d6, Electronics d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Persuasion d6, Piloting d8, Repair d6, Science d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Taunt d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 11 (4) Hindrances: Mean, Ugly (Major) Edges: Level Headed Gear: Armored spacesuit (+4), laser pistol (Range 15/30/60, Damage 2d6, AP 2, Cauterize, Overcharge), personal force field (+4), atmosphere recycler.

Special Abilities:

Atmospheric Dependency: Brainiacs treat all atmospheres other than their own as Hazardous. Those without a spacesuit or rebreather must make a Vigor roll every hour or suffer Fatigue.
Sickly: Brainiacs are especially susceptible to foreign diseases. They subtract 2 from any Vigor roll made to resist or recover from disease.
Size −1: Brainiacs are four feet tall.
Squishy: Brainiacs have tender bodies and exposed brains. Their Toughness is reduced by 1.
Tentacles (4): In their true form brainiacs have four tentacle actions and Reach 1.

Citizenry and Institutions

Citizen

Citizens are the people who make frontier life possible: crafters, miners, shopkeepers, mechanics, farmers, port hands, and homesteaders. Use this entry for everyday civilians across Astrabound, then layer on ancestry, gear, or local culture as needed.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Driving d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Shooting d4, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 2; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: — Edges: — Gear: Items appropriate to their trade. Some have a simple firearm or knife (Str+d4).

Corporate Executive

Corporate executives keep industry moving, contracts flowing, and profits climbing. In Astrabound, they are as likely to be found in orbital boardrooms and colony domes as they are on inspection tours guarded by private security.

Use this entry for mid-level power brokers, divisional directors, station managers, and ambitious company operatives.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Academics d6, Athletics d4, Common Knowledge d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Research d6, Shooting d4, Stealth d4, Taunt d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 2; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: Greedy (Minor), Stubborn Edges: Connections, Deceptive Gear: Suit, personal data device.

Senior Executive

Senior executives are the decision-makers who shape markets, exploit new worlds, bury scandals, and decide whether a colony becomes a flagship investment or a loss to be written off. They are well-educated, highly driven, and accustomed to getting their way.

Use this profile for CEOs, CFOs, board chairs, and corporate patrons or villains.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Academics d8, Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d8, Research d8, Shooting d4, Stealth d6, Taunt d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 2; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: Driven (Major, control and grow the business), Greedy (Major), Stubborn Edges: Connections, Deceptive, Strong Willed, Work the Room Gear: Expensive suit, personal data device.

Diplomat / Politician

Diplomats are the ones who stop wars, start them, or make sure someone profits either way. In a setting full of species, planetary blocs, trade compacts, and old grudges, they are often as dangerous as soldiers.

Use this entry for ambassadors, governors, negotiators, envoys, and elected officials.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Academics d8, Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Driving d6, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d10, Research d8, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 2; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: — Edges: Charismatic, Connections, Strong Willed Gear: Commlink, personal data device.

Psionic and Dimensional Horrors

Creature from the Id

Creatures from the id are among the stranger threats in Astrabound. They are born when a psionicist dies in catastrophic backlash, taking shape from shattered thought, trauma, and uncontrolled psychic force. They seek out other psionicists, kill them, and feed on their minds.

If visible, an id creature resembles a larger, distorted, and muted reflection of its creator. Use this entry when you want a deeply personal psychic horror rather than a conventional monster.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d12+8, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d10, Notice d8, Stealth d10 Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 10

Special Abilities:

Bite: A hit with this attack causes Energy Drain (Smarts).
Claws: The claws of an id monster deal no physical damage, but the target becomes Shaken on a successful hit, or Stunned with a raise.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Invisible: Id monsters are invisible in their natural state. A character may detect the invisible presence if he has a reason to look and makes a Notice roll at −6. Once detected, he may attack the thing at −6. These creatures radiate heat, so thermal or infravision eliminates their invisibility penalty.
Invulnerability: Non-psionic attacks cause no damage, though they can Shake the creature. Multiple Shaken results from non-psionic attacks do not result in a Wound.
Size 3: Id creatures stand 10′ tall.
Weakness (Psionics): Id monsters suffer normal damage from psionic attacks.

Dark Sider Warrior

Dark siders are beings from a mirror universe overlaid upon our own. Their civilizations are real, expansive, and hungry for what lies beyond the dimensional divide. Most beings in our universe can barely perceive them at all, registering them only as distortions, ripples, or strange lensing in space.

Use dark siders when you want an alien threat that feels uncanny, invasive, and only partly present in reality.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Battle d6, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d8, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Piloting d8, Repair d4, Science d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d8, Survival d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 12 (6) Hindrances: Mean, Outsider (Major) Edges: Block, Combat Reflexes, Marksman, Soldier Gear: Medium battle armor (+6), 2× frag grenades, disintegrator pistol (Range 3/6/12, Damage 3d10), vibro blade (Str+d6+d4, AP 2)

Special Abilities:

Ethereal: May pass through objects; cannot be harmed by nonmagical attacks; may choose between being invisible (−6 penalty to hit) or visible. Magic items, weapons, and supernatural powers affect them normally.

Cybernetics, Drones, and Machine Killers

Cyber Dog

Cyber dogs are enhanced guard animals, military beasts, and corporate security assets. They are usually large working breeds fitted with armor, sensors, and strengthened musculature.

Use this profile for kennel-bred attack animals, colony security hounds, or cybernetic trackers.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d10, Stealth d8 Pace: 10; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6 (2) Gear: Installed cyberware: Armor (subdermal plates, +2), infravision, leg enhancements, enhanced vision (cybereyes)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Subdermal plates.
Bite: Str+d8. Enhanced jaw muscles.
Enhanced Senses: +2 to Notice rolls.
Infravision: Halve Illumination penalties when attacking warm targets.
Leg Enhancements: Pace 10. Cyber-enhanced dogs roll a d10 when running instead of a d6.
Size −1: The heads of these canines come to an average human’s waist.

Cyborg Commando

This is a front-line special operations cyborg, built or rebuilt for war. Use this entry for elite raiders, black-ops shock troops, regime enforcers, or heavily modified veterans whose bodies are now more machine than flesh.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d12, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d10, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d4, Shooting d8, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 8; Toughness: 17 (10) Hindrances: Vow (Major, complete the mission) Edges: Block, Combat Reflexes, Cyborg, Dodge, Marksman, Rock and Roll!, Soldier Gear: Combat armor (+6), 4× frag grenades, laser rifle (Range 30/60/120, Damage 3d6, RoF 3, AP 2, Cauterize, No Recoil, Overcharge), chain sword (2d6+4). Installed cyberware: Adrenal surge, 2× Armor (subdermal plates, +4), attribute increase (Strength), skill bonus (targeting eye, Shooting +2)

Battle Drone

Battle drones are loitering weapons platforms, remote gunships, and battlefield suppression tools. Use them for military encounters, entrenched facilities, convoy defense, or any scene where the enemy wants to dominate open ground from above.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength 1, Vigor — Skills: Athletics d6, Electronics d8, Notice d8, Piloting d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d4 Pace: —; Parry: 2; Toughness: 12 (4) Gear: Varies. Usually a Gatling laser (Range 50/100/200, Damage 3d6+4 (I), AP 4, RoF 4, Cauterize, Heavy Weapon, No Recoil, Overcharge) or a missile launcher with eight light missiles (Range 100/200/400, Damage 6d6 (III), AP 16, RoF 4, Heavy Weapon, Guided, SBT)

Special Abilities:

Armor +4: Reinforced body.
Fearless: The operator is far away, and thus immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Flight: Pace 24 (16 MPH). Battle drones may hover in place.
Sensors: Optical, chemical, motion, and other sensors ignore Illumination penalties. If it scans as an action, the operator adds a +2 bonus to Electronics or Notice rolls to detect targets within 500 yards.
Size 1: Battle drones are 8′ long and weigh 400 pounds, though some might be much larger, even the size of vehicles.
Weakness (Remote Control): An EMP or equipment designed to jam the operator’s connection Incapacitates a drone and it crashes.

Combat Drone

Combat drones are small aerial support platforms used for skirmishes, scouting, flanking, and close battlefield support. They are common enough in Astrabound that many crews have seen them, been tracked by them, or shot them out of the air.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor — Skills: Athletics d6, Electronics d8, Notice d8, Piloting d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d6 Pace: —; Parry: 2; Toughness: 6 (2) Gear: Varies. Usually a laser SMG (Range 15/30/60, Damage 2d6, AP 2, RoF 4, Cauterize, No Recoil, Overcharge)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Reinforced body.
Fearless: The operator is far away, and thus immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Flight: Pace 12 (8 MPH). Combat drones may hover in place.
Sensors: Optical, chemical, motion, and other sensors ignore Illumination penalties. If it scans as an action, the operator adds a +2 bonus to Electronics or Notice rolls to detect targets within 500 yards.
Size −1: Combat drones usually weigh 50 pounds and can fold to a compact size.
Weakness (Remote Control): An EMP or equipment designed to jam the operator’s connection Incapacitates a drone and it crashes.

Eliminator Mk I [WC]

Eliminators are built for one purpose: find the target and kill it. They do not negotiate, tire, or question their orders. Use them for relentless pursuit scenarios, assassination attempts, or “it keeps coming” set pieces.

Mk I eliminators are metallic hunter-killers, sometimes disguised beneath synthetic skin.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d12+2, Vigor d12+2 Skills: Academics d8, Athletics d8, Battle d6, Boating d6, Common Knowledge d10, Driving d8, Electronics d10, Fighting d8, Hacking d10, Intimidation d10, Language (All) d8, Notice d10, Persuasion d10, Piloting d8, Repair d8, Science d8, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Survival d8, Thievery d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 16 (6) Edges: Brawny, Brute, Level Headed, Marksman, Rock and Roll!, Steady Hands

Special Abilities:

Armor +6: Sturdy, reinforced body.
Construct: +2 to recover from being Shaken; ignores 1 point of Wound penalties; doesn’t breathe or suffer from disease or poison.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Hardy: A second Shaken result in combat doesn’t cause a Wound.
Resilient: Can take one additional Wound.
Sensors: Optical, chemical, motion, and other sensors ignore Illumination penalties. If it scans as an action, the eliminator adds a +2 bonus to Electronics or Notice rolls to detect targets within 500 yards.
Targeting: Negates 2 points of Range or Unstable Platform penalties.
Unstoppable: Takes a maximum of one Wound (after Soaking) from any damaging attack unless the attacker’s Action Card is a Joker.

Eliminator Mk II [WC]

The Mk II is a more advanced and more unsettling predator. Its body is made of adaptive alloy that can flow and reform, making it better suited to infiltration, pursuit, and surviving damage that would stop lesser machines.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d12+2, Vigor d12+2 Skills: Academics d8, Athletics d8, Battle d6, Boating d6, Common Knowledge d10, Driving d8, Electronics d10, Fighting d8, Hacking d10, Intimidation d10, Language (All) d8, Notice d10, Persuasion d10, Piloting d8, Repair d8, Science d8, Shooting d8, Stealth d10, Survival d8, Thievery d8 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 12 (2) Edges: Brawny, Brute, Fleet-Footed, Level Headed, Marksman, Rock and Roll!, Steady Hands

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Sturdy, reinforced body.
Construct: +2 to recover from being Shaken; ignores 1 point of Wound penalties; doesn’t breathe or suffer from disease or poison.
Fast Regeneration: Mk II eliminators may attempt a natural healing roll every round, even if Incapacitated, unless their Wounds were caused by extreme sources of heat or cold.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Hardy: A second Shaken result in combat doesn’t cause a Wound.
Liquid Construction: Immune to Called Shots; may change shape but not Size as a limited free action.
Resilient: Can take one additional Wound.
Sensors: Optical, chemical, motion, and other sensors ignore Illumination penalties. If it scans as an action, the eliminator adds a +2 bonus to Electronics or Notice rolls to detect targets within 500 yards.
Targeting: Negates 2 points of Range or Unstable Platform penalties.
Unstoppable: Eliminators take a maximum of one Wound per attack no matter how many Wounds would normally be caused after Soak rolls.

Ancient and Unusual Peoples

Daniken

Danikens are ancient visitors, progenitor figures, or lost starfarers elevated into myth by early civilizations. In Astrabound, they are ideal for campaigns involving buried ruins, ancient contact, “gods” who were only advanced aliens, or beings returning to a galaxy that no longer remembers them clearly.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d12, Spirit d12, Strength d8, Vigor d10 Skills: Academics d10, Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d10, Electronics d10, Fighting d4, Healing d10, Notice d10, Persuasion d10, Piloting d10, Psionics d12, Repair d10, Research d10, Science d12, Shooting d8, Stealth d8, Survival d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 8 Hindrances: Loyal, Mild Mannered, Pacifist (Minor) Edges: Arcane Background (Psionics), Calculating, Charismatic, Jack-of-All-Trades, Linguist, Scholar (Science), Strong Willed Powers: Bolt, confusion, detect/conceal arcana, drain Power Points, fear, healing, illusion, invisibility, mind link, mind reading, mind wipe, protection, puppet, resurrection, stun, telekinesis Power Points: 50 Gear: Items appropriate to their mission. Few carry weapons beyond an EMP baton (Str+d4, EMP), but some daniken civilizations may be more warlike.

Special Abilities:

Fast Regeneration: May attempt a natural healing roll every round, even if Incapacitated, until slain.
Size 1: Danikens are taller than the average human.
Telepathy: A daniken can communicate mentally with any sapient lifeform within 12" (24 yards) regardless of language.
Unstoppable: Takes a maximum of one Wound (after Soaking) from any damaging attack unless the attacker’s Action Card is a Joker.
Vacuum Born: The creature is naturally adapted for life in space. It does not breathe, ignores the effects of a vacuum, and is immune to cold damage.
Very Resilient: Can take two additional Wounds.

Draken

Draken are a proud, warlike people with heavy shells, harsh tempers, and a cultural bent toward direct solutions. Use them as soldiers, mercenaries, enforcers, or formidable frontier rivals.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Shooting d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 5; Parry: 5; Toughness: 12 (4) Hindrances: Mean Edges: Berserk, Soldier Gear: Body armor (+4), laser rifle (Range 30/60/120, Damage 3d6, RoF 3, AP 2, Cauterize, No Recoil, Overcharge), molecular knife (Str+d4+2, AP 2), 2× frag grenades

Special Abilities:

Gruff: Subtract 2 from Persuasion rolls.
Hard Head: Counts as Horns and deals Str+d4 damage.
Slow: Reduce Pace by 1 and running die to d4.
Toughness +2: Draken are tough and resilient.

Drendrit

Drendrits are among the stranger sapients in the known galaxy. Individually they are limited, but together they can braid into a colony-mind of startling intelligence and capability. Use them when you want an alien species that feels truly collective without being robotic or hive-minded in the usual sense.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d4 Skills: Athletics d4, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d4, Healing d4, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Repair d4, Research d4, Science d4, Stealth d4, Survival d4 Pace: 4; Parry: 4; Toughness: 1

Special Abilities:

Braid: Multiple drendrits can “braid” together, combining their consciousness and abilities. For every drendrit combining to form a colony, modify the base profile with the following:
- Gain an Edge: The drendrit gains a new Edge. It must meet any prerequisites first.
- Increase Skills: Increase a skill that is equal to or greater than its linked attribute one die type, or increase two skills that are lower than their linked attributes by one die type each, including new skills at d4.
- Increase Attribute: Increase an attribute one die type, to a maximum of d12.
- Increase Size: The Size of the colony increases by 1. This also increases Toughness and maximum Strength as usual.
Size −3 (Very Small): An individual drendrit is six feet long but only a few inches across, and weighs 15 pounds.

Space Dwarf

Space dwarves are asteroid miners, tunnel-builders, stubborn colonists, and heavy-world survivors. The nickname is common, but rarely appreciated. Use this profile for hardy laborers or clan-bonded frontier folk from rocky worlds.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Driving d6, Fighting d4, Gambling d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Piloting d4, Shooting d4, Stealth d4 Pace: 7; Parry: 4; Toughness: 7 (1) Hindrances: Various Edges: Gravitic Acclimation Gear: Spacesuit (+1, if in space), matter disintegrator. Installed cyberware: Adrenal surge, leg enhancement, mule, enhanced vision, toxin filters

Special Abilities:

Increased Strain: +2 maximum Strain for cyberware.
Reduced Pace: Space dwarves’ short legs reduce their Pace by 1 and their running die by one die type.

Space Elf

Space elves are elegant starfaring peoples whose culture blends beauty, discipline, and often some form of arcane or ancestral mysticism. Use them for noble houses, reclusive forest-world wardens, or ruthless dark-empire raiders depending on the tone of your setting.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Healing d8, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Piloting d6, Shooting d8, Spellcasting d6, Stealth d6, Survival d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 9 (4) Hindrances: All Thumbs, Cautious, Suspicious (Minor) Edges: Arcane Background (Magic), Soldier Powers: Beast friend, blast, bolt, boost/lower Trait, entangle, environmental protection, invisibility, light/darkness, sloth/speed, telekinesis, teleport Power Points: 10 Gear: Light battle armor (+4), force sword (Str+2d6, AP 2), pulse pistol (Range 10/20/40, Damage 2d6, Overcharge), medi-gel

Special Abilities:

Low Light Vision: Elves ignore penalties for Dim and Dark lighting.

Predators, Beasts, and Megafauna

Darkraptor

Darkraptors are excellent nocturnal predators for tidally locked worlds, long-night planets, ruined caverns, and lightless badlands. They work best in groups, striking at dusk or from total darkness where most prey is already compromised.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Stealth d6 Pace: 4; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 (2) Edges: Extraction

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Thick hide.
Bite/Claws: Str+d8, AP 2.
Echolocation: Darkraptors suffer no penalties for Illumination, even in Pitch Darkness.
Flight: Pace 24.
Size −1: Raptors weigh just over 100 pounds and are the size of wolves.
Weakness (Sunlight): Darkraptors have no natural protection from ultraviolet light. They take 2d4 damage per round when exposed to sunlight or extremely powerful UV lights until they are ash. If the darkraptor is behind Cover, apply the Cover penalty to damage as well.

Death Worm

Death worms are classic desert terrors: unseen beneath the sand, striking at close range or lashing out with deadly electrical force. Use them for dune seas, alkali flats, red deserts, or any barren world where the ground itself is not safe.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Shooting d6, Stealth d8 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 9 (2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Hard, scaly skin.
Bite: Str+d6.
Burrow (8): Death worms can move through sand and soft soil at full Pace and may attack from below.
Death Bolt: Instead of biting, the death worm can fire an internally generated electrical charge strong enough to stop a man’s heart or fry electrical systems in a vehicle. This attack uses Shooting. The worm may do this from just beneath the earth, giving it Near Total Cover (−8). Range 3/6/12, Damage 4d6, AP 10.
Size 2: Death worms measure 10′ in length and are 1′ in diameter.

Decapitator

Decapitators are ideal ambush horrors for canopy jungles, death forests, and overgrown ruins. They are one of those creatures that make the party stop walking casually beneath branches.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+2, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d10, Notice d6, Stealth d10 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 9

Special Abilities:

Ambush: If a decapitator Surprises its prey, it also has The Drop. It makes a Called Shot to the head.
Brachiation: Decapitators can move at their full Pace in trees or similar environments and don’t normally need to make Athletics climbing rolls.
Scythes: Str+d10, AP 4.
Size 2: Decapitators weigh over 1,000 pounds.

Deep Diver

Deep divers are pressure-kill predators, better suited for aquatic horror than straight combat. Use them on ocean worlds, abyssal trenches, or flooded facilities where depth itself is a weapon.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+4, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d4 Pace: —; Parry: 6; Toughness: 8

Special Abilities:

Aquatic: Pace 10.
Barotrauma: A deep diver that successfully grapples dives on its next turn, descending 10" (20 yards) each round and causing a level of Fatigue that can lead to death for every 10" descended. A character in sealed, pressurized armor ignores the Fatigue, and semi- or aquatic characters only suffer a level of Fatigue for every 50" (100 yards) submerged.
Bite: Str+d6.
Pressure Resistant: Deep divers are immune to the effects of rapid pressure change.

Deep Space Worm

Deep space worms are one of the best giant threats in Astrabound because they can be used as environmental set pieces, asteroid hazards, derelict infestations, or full encounter bosses. They do not merely live in rock. They turn rock into a digestive habitat.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d12+12, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Notice d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 8; Parry: 5; Toughness: 26 (6)

Special Abilities:

Armor +6: Heavy Armor; extremely thick hide.
Bite: Str+d10 (II), Heavy Weapon.
Burrow (16): Deep space worms can tunnel easily through solid rock.
Hardy: A second Shaken result in combat doesn’t cause a Wound.
Size 12 (Gargantuan): The average adult deep space worm is 100 feet long and weighs hundreds of tons.
Swallow Whole: Anyone hit by a bite attack must make an Evasion roll or be Swallowed Whole. At the end of the creature’s subsequent turns, anyone swallowed must make a Vigor roll at −2 or take a Wound from the crushing gullet and acidic bile. Shaking, Wounding, or otherwise provoking the creature may result in opportunities to escape with an Athletics roll.
Unstoppable: Takes a maximum of one Wound after Soaking from any damaging attack unless the attacker’s Action Card is a Joker.
Vacuum Born: The creature is naturally adapted for life in space. It does not breathe, ignores the effects of a vacuum, and is immune to cold damage.

Earthquake Beast

Earthquake beasts are walking natural disasters. Use them sparingly and with intent. They are less a normal encounter and more a mobile catastrophe that changes terrain, tactics, and priorities just by moving.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+12, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d4, Notice d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 21 (2) Edges: Brute

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Thick scaly hides.
Earthquake: Characters within 12" (24 yards) of a moving earthquake beast must make an Agility roll each round as a free action or fall prone. A Critical Failure means the character is Stunned as well.
Hardy: A second Shaken result in combat doesn’t cause a Wound.
Resilient: Can take one additional Wound.
Size 12 (Gargantuan): Earthquake beasts weigh as much as 500 tons.
Slow Nervous System: The earthquake beast’s slow nervous system means it barely registers pain and shock. It adds +2 to recover from being Shaken and ignores all Wound penalties.
Stomp: Str+d10.
Swat: Ignores up to 4 points of Scale penalties when attacking creatures smaller than itself.
Tail Lash: Str+d4. The creature may make a free attack against up to two foes to its side or rear at no penalty.

Boomer Dragon

The term “dragon” in Astrabound is spacer slang more than biological classification. Use boomer dragons for explosive pack predators, unstable geothermal hunters, or fire-spitting reptiles on volcanic worlds.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Stealth d6 Pace: 8; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6 (1)

Special Abilities:

Armor +1: Scaly hide.
Bite: Str+d4.
Explode: When a boomer dragon is killed, its organs rupture in a Large Blast Template. Everyone within is automatically hit by the boomer’s breath weapon.
Fiery Breath: Boomer dragons breathe fire for 3d6 damage. This uses the Cone Template and may be Evaded.

Haze Dragon

Haze dragons are ideal for vent fields, volcanic sink zones, poison marshes, and geothermal worlds. They are not especially imposing until the gas cloud hits.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d4, Intimidation d4, Notice d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 4; Parry: 4; Toughness: 7 (1)

Special Abilities:

Armor +1: Scaly hide.
Bite: Str+d4.
Poison Breath: Haze dragons can eject a cloud of poisonous gas, any type, usually Mild, in a Cone Template centered directly in front of them. This may be Evaded.

Snapdragon

Snapdragons are excellent for bright, dangerous ecosystems where warning coloration actually means something. They can be minor threats, territorial nuisances, or a surprising hazard around water-poor camps.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d6, Intimidation d8, Notice d6, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6 (1)

Special Abilities:

Armor +1: Scaly hide.
Bite: Str+d4.
Spit Acid: Snapdragons can spit acid in a Stream Template. Targets splattered with acid suffer 3d6 damage. This may be Evaded. Unless washed off with at least a gallon of water or a similar basic liquid, the acid deals 3d4 damage for the next two rounds.

Strange Life and Elemental Entities

Emotor

Emotors are bizarre, half-psionic scavengers of feeling whose crystallized emotions make them as valuable as they are dangerous. Use them as hunted curiosities, black-market contraband sources, or unsettling wildlife with strangely human effects.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d6, Notice d6, Psionics d10, Stealth d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 3 Powers: Empathy, invisibility, mind reading, speed, and stun Power Points: 20

Special Abilities:

Crystallize Emotions: Each emotor has 1d4 crystallized emotions protruding from its body. Removing them requires complex surgery or killing the creature. Emotion crystals are consumed for the powerful effect of the emotion and have a Duration of 10 minutes. Examples include:
- Anger: The user immediately goes Berserk and cannot attempt to calm himself until the crystal has run its course.
- Calm: The user draws an extra initiative card. This stacks with Level Headed. However, he also suffers −2 to Persuasion rolls.
- Compassion: The user gains the Heroic Hindrance and the same benefit granted by a successful casting of the empathy power.
- Courage: The consumer gains +2 to Fear checks, but also gains the Overconfident Hindrance.
- Fear: The user makes Fear checks at −2 and any rolls on the Fear Table are made at +2. The spike of adrenaline also grants him the Nerves of Steel Edge, or Improved Nerves of Steel if he already has it.
- Hatred: The user gains the Bloodthirsty Hindrance, but also gains +2 to resist Spirit-based Tests.
- Love: The user gains the Charismatic Edge and the Pacifist (Major) Hindrance.
Size −2 (Small): Emotors are the size of lemurs.

Atomic Elemental

Atomic elementals are not casual encounter material. They are cosmic-scale hazards given intent, or perhaps only temperament. Use them for star-proximate anomalies, ancient reactors, containment failures, or apocalyptic encounters that should feel bigger than ordinary combat.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d10, Strength d8, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Science d8, Shooting d10 Pace: 8; Parry: 5; Toughness: 7

Special Abilities:

Atomic Attack: Atomic elementals can fire a wave of energy using a Cone Template, or fire balls of energy using any other size template, up to 50" distant at no Range penalty. This uses their Shooting skill and causes 5d10 damage against a target’s weakest Armor. Any creature Shaken or Wounded by the attack must make a Vigor roll or suffer radiation sickness.
Atomic Aura: At the end of its movement, and at the creature’s will, all adjacent creatures suffer 3d10 damage from the elemental’s intense heat and radiation. Any creature Shaken or Wounded by the attack must make a Vigor roll or suffer radiation poisoning.
Bash: Str+2d10.
Elemental: No additional damage from Called Shots; ignore 1 point of Wound penalties; doesn’t breathe; immune to disease and poison; ignore penalties for Illumination up to 10" (20 yards).
Ethereal: Atomic elementals are made of pure energy.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Flight: Pace FTL. Atomic elementals may fly in any environment at the same speed as the setting’s standard FTL drives.
Invulnerability: Atomic elementals are invulnerable to all normal types of attack forms such as psionics.
Leech: Atomic elementals can only exist outside of their extreme conditions for a number of days equal to their Vigor, but can feed off nuclear reactions and radioactive material. Each day’s worth of fusion-based starship energy, or week’s worth of vehicular energy, takes the being a minute to consume and gives it another day of life outside its native environment.
Weakness (Energy Drain): Atomic elementals have no true Weakness other than their need for vast amounts of energy. This sets them up for scientific contraptions that isolate, drain, or overload their energy and disperse them. This might be accomplished by a scientist with access to theoretical materials and a Dramatic Task.

Light Elemental

Light elementals feel less hostile than atomic ones at first, which often makes them more dangerous. Use them for strange stellar encounters, impossible void phenomena, or beings that communicate in flashes and brilliance but can still blind or kill by accident.

Attributes: Agility d12, Smarts d8, Spirit d10, Strength d4, Vigor d4 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Science d8, Shooting d12 Pace: 16; Parry: 5; Toughness: 4

Special Abilities:

Blinding: At the end of its movement, and at the creature’s will, all creatures within 5" (10 yards) must roll Vigor or become blind (−6 to all physical actions) for 1d4 rounds and Stunned. A Critical Failure means the victim is permanently blind. Creatures without the ability to see light are immune to this effect.
Elemental: No additional damage from Called Shots; ignore 1 point of Wound penalties; doesn’t breathe; immune to disease and poison; ignore penalties for Illumination up to 10" (20 yards).
Energy Attack: Light elementals can fire a powerful beam of concentrated light using their Shooting skill (Range 50/100/200, Damage 3d10+3, AP 4).
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Flight: Light elementals fly at the speed of light (−10 to attack them). When taking mortal form, they have a d12 running die.
Invulnerability: Light elementals are invulnerable to all normal types of damage. They are susceptible to arcane attack forms such as psionics.
Semi-Ethereal: May pass through transparent objects; cannot be harmed by nonmagical attacks; may choose between being invisible (−6 penalty to hit) or visible. Magic items, weapons, and supernatural powers affect them normally.
Weakness (Refraction): Light elementals are vulnerable to anything that refracts their light. Physical weapons have no effect, but high-power magnets, prisms, black holes, and similar disruptive objects deal 3d6 damage.

Elementals

Plasma Elemental

Plasma elementals are living storms of superheated matter, usually found in stellar coronas, planetary cores, fusion anomalies, or other places no sane traveler should be standing. They are excellent as cosmic hazards, ancient guardians, or the angry result of someone tampering with forces they did not understand.

Use a plasma elemental when you want the encounter itself to feel unstable, radiant, and dangerous to approach.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Science d8, Shooting d10 Pace: 8; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6

Special Abilities:

Bash: Str+2d10.
Burn: Anyone hit by an elemental’s bash or fiery aura must make an Evasion roll or catch fire, taking 2d6 damage.
Elemental: No additional damage from Called Shots; ignore 1 point of Wound penalties; doesn’t breathe; immune to disease and poison; ignore penalties for Illumination up to 10" (20 yards).
Energy Attack: Plasma elementals can attack with a Cone Template, or fire balls of energy using any other size template, up to 25" distant (50 yards). This uses their Shooting skill and causes 3d10 damage against a target’s weakest Armor. Victims Shaken or Wounded by such an attack may catch fire.
Ethereal: May pass through objects; cannot be harmed by nonmagical attacks; may choose between being invisible (−6 penalty to hit) or visible. Magic items, weapons, and supernatural powers affect them normally.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Fiery Aura: At the end of its movement all adjacent creatures suffer 2d10 damage from the elemental’s intense heat.
Flight: Plasma elementals fly at speeds up to 600 MPH.
Invulnerability: Plasma elementals are invulnerable to heat- and fire-based attacks.
Weakness (Dissipation): Plasma elementals are somewhat vulnerable to anything that disrupts their charged state. Kinetic and fire-based weapons have no effect, but high-voltage electricity, EMPs, magnetism, and most other energy forms cause half-damage.

Time Elemental

Time elementals are not merely strange life. They are manifestations of distorted causality, temporal fracture, and raw spacetime stress. They often appear near black holes, time anomalies, ancient transit scars, or relic sites where chronology has been bent too far.

Most are not immediately hostile. That often makes them more unnerving. Use them as cosmic enigmas, temporal guardians, or reality-warping threats the crew cannot solve by force alone.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d10, Spirit d12, Strength d8, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d10, Science d12+2 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 7

Special Abilities:

Elemental: No additional damage from Called Shots; ignore 1 point of Wound penalties; doesn’t breathe; immune to disease and poison; ignore penalties for Illumination up to 10" (20 yards).
Ethereal: May pass through objects; cannot be harmed by nonmagical attacks; may choose between being invisible (−6 penalty to hit) or visible. Magic items, weapons, and supernatural powers affect them normally.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Flicker: Time elementals flicker rapidly in and out of time at random intervals. All attacks against them, even those of arcane nature, are made at −4.
Teleport: Time elementals can teleport to any time or place as a limited action. They cannot extend this ability to others, nor can they carry items with them as they travel.
Time Control: At the beginning of any round of combat, after Action Cards have been dealt and locked in but before anyone acts, a time elemental can make a Spirit roll to swap two Action Cards with a success or four with a raise, except Jokers.
Time Stop: Once per encounter, a time elemental may momentarily pause time for all but itself. This grants the time elemental 1d4+1 new turns, which it must take immediately. During these turns it may act as normal on its current Action Card. This effect ends if any of the time elemental’s actions affect another character or creature.
Wither: Time elementals may make a Touch Attack which causes Energy Drain (Vigor). If Vigor falls below d4 the victim permanently gains the Elderly Hindrance, or perishes if already Elderly.

Frontier Professions and Peoples

Explorer

Explorers are the scouts, surveyors, pathfinders, and first-contact specialists who go where maps end. In Astrabound, they may be government agents, academic field researchers, freelance chart-makers, or brave fools with a ship and a bad sense of self-preservation.

Use this entry for wilderness guides, ruin divers, planetary scouts, or members of an expedition team.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Driving d6, Fighting d4, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Piloting d6, Repair d6, Science d8, Shooting d6, Stealth d6, Survival d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 7 (1) Hindrances: Curious Edges: Woodsman Gear: Smart sleeve (+1), commlink, laser pistol (Range 15/30/60, Damage 2d6, AP 2, Cauterize, Overcharge), machete (Str+d6), personal data device, survival gear.

Floran

Florans are mobile plant-beings whose bodies and cultures vary widely from world to world. Some resemble humanoid blossoms, others thorned vine-walkers, fungal gardeners, or bark-skinned colonists. Most can pass as strange but civilized frontier folk until someone realizes they are literally photosynthetic.

Use this entry for floran citizens, traders, researchers, or locals. It also works as the base for more specialized floran NPCs.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d4, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5 Gear: Items appropriate to their trade. Some have a simple firearm or knife (Str+d4).

Special Abilities:

Bloodless: Florans automatically stabilize whenever they would Bleed Out without rolls or ill effects.
Dependency (Sunlight): Florans must bask in sunlight, artificial or otherwise, once per day or suffer Fatigue. This can lead to death. Fatigue is recovered at the rate of one level per hour of sunshine.
Environmental Weakness (Heat/Fire): Florans subtract 4 from Fatigue checks made to resist the effects of heat, and take 4 additional points of damage from heat- and fire-based attacks.
Hardy: A second Shaken result in combat doesn’t cause a Wound.
No Vital Organs: Called Shots deal no extra damage.
Sleep Reduction: Florans require half the usual amount of sleep.

Gelatinoid

Gelatinoids are sentient colonies of fluid cells, translucent protein masses, or mobile gelatinous organisms that have somehow crossed the line from lifeform to personhood. They are ideal if you want a sapient species that feels biologically alien without needing to be monstrous.

Use this as a base profile for citizens, scientists, wanderers, or strange station regulars.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Shooting d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: Outsider (Major) Gear: Items appropriate to their trade. Some have a simple firearm or knife (Str+d4).

Special Abilities:

Cannot Speak: Unless aided by devices, gelatinoids can understand other languages but may only communicate with members of their own species.
Gelatinous: Half-damage from falling or collisions; no extra damage from Called Shots. May make an Athletics roll to move through small openings, which takes 1d6 rounds and makes the gelatinoid Vulnerable. Treat this as Difficult Ground.
Slow Regeneration: May make natural healing rolls once per day.
Weak: −1 to Strength rolls.

Hacker

Hackers pry open systems, steal secrets, spoof networks, and ruin the day of anyone foolish enough to leave a port unsecured. In Astrabound, a hacker may work in raw code, virtual intrusion suites, shipboard systems, drone swarms, or quantum black-box tech.

Use this entry for freelance slicers, cybercriminals, resistance techs, or electronic warfare specialists.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Driving d6, Electronics d8, Fighting d4, Hacking d8, Notice d4, Persuasion d6, Repair d8, Research d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: — Edges: Mr. Fix It, Power Hacker Gear: Cyberdeck. Installed cyberware: Data jack.

Voidborne Vermin, Parasites, and Infestations

Energy Leech

Energy leeches are one of the most useful “space vermin” threats in the line. They can menace ships, orbital facilities, upper-atmosphere fliers, and remote outposts without needing to be physically huge. They are especially effective when the real threat is not combat, but system drain and escalating crisis.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d8, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d4, Notice d6, Shooting d10, Stealth d6 Pace: —; Parry: 2; Toughness: 5

Special Abilities:

Electrical Attack: Energy leeches channel their own bioelectric energy into a deadly bolt using Shooting (Range 4/8/16, Damage 3d6).
Energy Drain: When attached to a power source, the creature drains a day’s worth of energy or fuel every five minutes, and five creatures drain a day’s worth of energy every minute.
Flight: Pace 2. When energy leeches sense powerful electricity, they draw forth an arc and “ride” it to the device at incredibly high speeds, 10,000 MPH in the upper stratosphere or space. Herds of the things often travel in on a single arc, slowing just before impact to attach themselves to the target’s hull or walls.
Immunity: Energy leeches are immune to electricity and electrical attacks.
Vacuum Born: The creature is naturally adapted for life in space. It does not breathe, ignores the effects of a vacuum, and is immune to cold damage.

Glitch

Glitches are extradimensional stowaways from hyperspace, drawn to active FTL fields and then trapped inside ship systems. They are not always malicious, but they are absolutely dangerous. Use them for haunted-ship scenarios, comic relief that turns lethal, or a mystery where the vessel itself seems to be sabotaging the crew.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d4, Electronics d6, Hacking d6, Notice d8, Stealth d10 Pace: —; Parry: 2; Toughness: 5

Special Abilities:

Accidental Mishap: Each day the glitch is in the ship, roll a die. On an odd result, the glitch has burned out a vital system. Roll on the Vehicle Critical Hit table. The ship suffers no actual Wounds, only the effects of the Critical Hit. A Crew result means it has caused an accident for one of the crew, such as electrocution, an airlock incident, or even a private message blasted to the entire ship. Treat a Hull result as minor effects with no lasting damage.
Glitch in the Machine: Any use of the ship’s systems suffers a −2 penalty due to the interference of the glitch, including gunnery, maneuvering, or jumping to hyperspace.
Removal: Removing a glitch requires the crew to shut down every system on the ship except the FTL drive. Each 30 minutes a ship is powered down, the glitch makes a Smarts roll. If it succeeds, it locates the FTL drive and escapes back into hyperspace. A glitch will not exit a ship in normal space, even if the FTL drive is powered up, as normal space is instantly fatal to them. While the ship is powered down, the crew had best don spacesuits. Oxygen runs out and the temperature drops below freezing in 10 minutes times the vessel’s Size.

Gray Goo

Gray goo is not just a monster. It is an extinction event in progress. Use it only when you want the players to feel genuine urgency, because left unchecked it does not simply kill people. It erases infrastructure, ecosystems, stations, and worlds.

It works best as a containment failure, ancient weapon, sabotage event, or “we found the wrong lab” scenario.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d12+2, Strength d8, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Notice d8 Pace: 8; Parry: 2; Toughness: 12

Special Abilities:

Construct: +2 to recover from being Shaken; ignores 1 point of Wound penalties; doesn’t breathe or suffer from disease or poison.
Envelop: Gray goo attacks by enveloping its target, then inflicting millions of microscopic “bites” as the nanites begin breaking down the target’s molecular structure. It hits automatically unless Shaken and causes 2d6 damage to all targets it touches at the end of their turn. Weapons suffer a −1 damage penalty, maximum −3, and armor loses 1 point of Armor bonus until it reaches 0 and falls apart. Those in completely sealed suits are immune, at least until the gray goo deals enough damage to the suit.
Fear: Anyone who sees the creature must make a Fear check.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Hardy: A second Shaken result in combat doesn’t cause a Wound.
Ooze: Though comprised of machines, gray goo is a micro colony. It ignores invisibility and Illumination penalties. It does not sleep, and is immune to Called Shots, poison, paralysis, slumber, Stun, blind, Intimidation, Taunt, and puppet.
Replicate: As long as gray goo has access to adequate raw materials it heals one Wound or splits and becomes two gray goos every 1d4 hours.
Size 5 (Large): This gray goo is the size of a Small Blast Template, 2-yard radius, and weighs four tons.
Unstoppable: Takes a maximum of one Wound after Soaking from any damaging attack unless the attacker’s Action Card is a Joker.
Very Resilient: Can take two additional Wounds.
Weakness (Electricity): Gray goo is vulnerable to electricity and electrical attacks. Electricity deals damage normally and ignores Unstoppable.

Gremlin

Gremlins are the kind of shipboard nightmare veteran spacers tell stories about and rookies dismiss until the lights fail and the airlock starts cycling by itself. Use them for infestations, slow-burn system attrition, or a problem that cannot be solved by simply shooting it.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d4, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d8, Notice d8, Repair d6, Stealth d10 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 2

Special Abilities:

Bite/Claws: Str.
Invulnerability: Gremlins are invulnerable to all electrical-based damage.
Sabotage: Every day a ship or vehicle is infested with gremlins, roll a Critical Hit with no accompanying Wound. A Crew result means an accident for one of the personnel, such as electrocution (2d6 damage), a faulty airlock, a spacesuit has a hole in it, and so on. Treat a Hull result as damage to a minor system, giving a −2 penalty to relevant skill rolls until it is repaired.
Size −4 (Tiny): Gremlins are four inches tall.

Hugger

Huggers are perfect for derelicts, caves, infested stations, and survival horror scenarios. They are not especially dramatic at first glance, which makes the moment they leap for the face much more memorable.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d10 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 4

Special Abilities:

Elite: Huggers get a free reroll on failed Fighting results.
Size −2 (Small): Huggers are 2′ across.
Smother: Huggers add +2 to Athletics rolls to make or maintain a grapple against targets up to Size 2. If the target is Bound, the hugger has a hold around the victim’s face, who takes a level of Fatigue each round. Once Incapacitated, the prey remains that way until the hugger is removed or the victim dies.
Unusual Sense: Huggers sense carbon dioxide with pinpoint accuracy. They halve Illumination penalties against living creatures not breathing through a rebreather or enclosed air supply system.

Predators and Hunting Beasts

Fisher

Fishers are one of those excellent alien predators that feel both plausible and unsettling. They can haunt forest canopies, mist valleys, floating jungles, or even low-gravity biomes. Their lure behavior makes them especially useful for ambush scenes.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d12+3, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Stealth d8 Pace: 4; Parry: 6; Toughness: 12 (2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Fishers have thin carapaces.
Bite: Str+d8.
Flight: Pace 12.
Infravision: Halve Illumination penalties when attacking warm targets.
Size 4 (Large): Fishers are 20′ across.
Tentacles (4): Four tentacle actions and Reach 4. Tentacles deal Str+d4 damage. Bound or Entangled prey may be bitten as usual.

Fractal Ray

Fractal rays are graceful, beautiful, and deeply dangerous. They work wonderfully for alien plains, aerial reef systems, low-gravity skies, or dreamlike predator encounters where the first danger is distraction, not teeth.

They can also be reskinned easily as aquatic mesmer predators.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d4 Pace: —; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d6, AP 1.
Flight: Pace 8.
Hypnotism: Creatures within 12" (24 yards) who behold a fractal ray must make a Smarts roll or become Stunned. Blind creatures, or those who rely on sound or other forms of vision, are immune. Viewing a fractal ray through a screen or mirror may grant a bonus to resist this effect at the GM’s call.
Infravision: Halve Illumination penalties when attacking warm targets.

Gene Thief

Gene thieves are body horror, infiltration horror, and paranoia horror all in one package. Use them when you want a scenario where the real threat is uncertainty: who has already been replaced, who is being watched, and whether the thing wearing a familiar face is still the person it copied.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d12, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d8, Stealth d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 9

Special Abilities:

Bite/Claws/Horns: Str+d8. May freely create claws, barbs, teeth, horns, and other natural weapons anywhere on its body as a free action.
Colony: Gene thieves mimic the bodies of those they replicate, but do not have organs of their own. +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from Shaken; no additional damage from Called Shots; ignores invisibility and all Illumination penalties; immune to poison, paralysis, slumber, Stun, blind, Intimidation, Taunt, puppet; doesn’t sleep.
Fast Regeneration: Gene thieves may attempt a natural healing roll every round, even if Incapacitated, unless their Wounds were caused by fire or flame or they’re put to the torch afterward.
Fear (−2): Seeing a gene thief change its form provokes a Fear check.
Very Resilient: A gene thief can take two Wounds before being Incapacitated.

Ghevok

Ghevoks are swift herd animals and reliable mounts from open grassland worlds. They are useful as riding beasts, draft stock, caravan animals, or valuable frontier trade goods.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d12, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d4, Notice d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 8; Parry: 4; Toughness: 9 (1)

Special Abilities:

Armor +1: Furry hide.
Bite: Str.
Kick: Str+d4, to the front or rear as desired. The ghevok balances on its tail when kicking. Anyone mounted on the ghevok must roll Riding to remain in the saddle.
Size 2: Ghevoks typically stand nine feet tall and weigh half a ton.

Grazer

Grazers are heavy herbivores with heads built like battering rams and senses built around scent rather than sight. They make excellent megafauna for plains worlds, colony outskirts, and stampede scenes. Their weird anatomy also helps them feel distinct from ordinary Terran herd animals.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d12+8, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d4, Fighting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 18 (2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Thick hide on the torso and legs (+2). A grazer gains an extra +4 Armor against Called Shots to its dense, bony head.
Hardy: Grazers do not suffer a Wound from being Shaken twice.
Horns: Str+d10 (I), Heavy Weapon.
Size 8 (Huge): Grazers weigh 25,000 pounds.
Trample: Str+d8.

Harpooner

Harpooners are ambush molluscs that turn cracks, crevices, tunnels, and rock holes into death traps. Use them in canyons, cave systems, industrial wreckage, or ship interiors where the environment has lots of narrow concealment.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12, Vigor d10 Skills: Fighting d4, Notice d6, Shooting d10, Stealth d10 Pace: —; Parry: 4; Toughness: 9

Special Abilities:

Amorphous Body: Called Shots have no effect on harpooners. Bullets cause normal damage, mostly from hydrostatic shock, but other non-powered piercing weapons such as knives or arrows do not.
Bite: Str+d6.
Harpoon: Range 3/6/12, Damage Str+d6. Reloading a missed shot takes one round. If a victim suffers a Shaken or Wound result, he must make an opposed Strength roll. The harpooner drags the victim 2" per success and raise. The connecting sinew has Toughness 8. Severing it requires the attacker to inflict a Wound, but this does not affect the harpooner, who grows a new harpoon in 1d6 days.
Size 2: Harpooners can grow to as much as 30′. This specimen is a mere 9′ long.

Haze Barnacle

Haze barnacles are slow, ugly, and patient killers. They are best used as hidden environmental threats on toxic worlds, shell fields, reef flats, and murky lowland marshes where the party may not realize the danger until the gas is already spreading.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d4, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d4, Fighting d6, Notice d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 2; Parry: 5; Toughness: 8 (2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Shell.
Poison (−2): Small Blast Template. Victims who fail their Vigor roll die in 2d6 minutes. Characters in completely sealed suits are immune.
Size −1: Haze barnacles measure 2′ across and are 6" thick.
Slow: Barnacles cannot run.

Hunter Warrior

These hunters are insectoid apex killers, armored in dark shell and driven by efficient predatory instinct. Use them for hive predators, bio-engineered kill forms, or relentless tunnel and shipboard hunters.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d12+3, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d10, Notice d8, Stealth d12 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 8 (2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Thick plates.
Bite/Claws: Str+d6.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Hardy: Multiple Shaken results do not cause a Wound.
Paralysis: Anyone Shaken or Wounded by a tail attack must make a Vigor roll or be paralyzed for 2d6 rounds.
Tail: Str+d8, Reach 1, AP 2, −2 to Fighting when used.

Hunter Queen [WC]

At the center of the hive is the queen, breeder, war-mother, and final line of defense. She is a perfect boss encounter for hive lairs, brood chambers, and infestation finales.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8 (A), Spirit d12, Strength d12+6, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d10, Intimidation d10, Notice d8, Stealth d8 Pace: 10; Parry: 7; Toughness: 16 (4)

Special Abilities:

Armor +4: Thick plates.
Bite/Claws: Str+d10, AP 3.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Hardy: Multiple Shaken results do not cause a Wound.
Paralysis (−4): Anyone Shaken or Wounded by a tail attack must make a Vigor roll or be paralyzed for 2d6 rounds.
Size 4 (Large): The queen stands 14′ high and is typically 20′ or more long. She has a narrow, segmented body.
Tail: Str+d10 (II), AP 4, Heavy Weapon, +1 Reach, −2 to Fighting when used.

Impaler

Impalers are brutal, fast-killing carnivores designed by evolution to pin prey in place and finish it at close range. They are excellent as apex predators on hostile worlds, arena horrors, or bio-weapon stock that got loose.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d10, Notice d6, Stealth d4 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 12 (2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Thick, leathery hide.
Bite: Str+d10, AP 4.
Claws: Str+d4. Can make up to six attacks on a single target each round at no penalty.
Size 3: Impalers stand over 10′ tall.
Stab and Grab: An impaler scoring a raise with at least two claw attacks has impaled its foe. The beast may then attack with its bite as a limited free action, adding +2 to that attack and damage.

Giant Insect

This is your baseline for oversized alien arthropods. It is deliberately broad so you can reskin it for burrowers, tunnel hives, colony swarms, primitive megabugs, or engineered invasive species. Change the appearance and keep the numbers.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Notice d8, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 11 (2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Carapace.
Bite: Str+d6, AP 2.
Burrow (4): Giant insects can move through soil at Pace 4.
Size 2: This specimen is 9′ long and slightly taller than a man at the top of its head. Smaller and larger specimens may be found.

Insectoid Species

Insectoid Soldier

Insectoids are a broad category of sapient arthropodoid peoples found across the Astrabound setting. Most are communal by instinct, socially structured, and organized around caste, clutch, hive, or brood-state models even when they have advanced into starfaring cultures. This profile represents a typical insectoid line soldier and works well for hive guards, colonial marines, shock troops, or disciplined mercenary infantry.

Use this entry whenever you want a soldier who feels alien in body language and social instincts without changing the battlefield role.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d4, Driving d6, Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Survival d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 14 (8) Hindrances: Can’t Swim, Loyal, Outsider (Minor) Edges: Iron Jaw, Rock and Roll!, Soldier Gear: Combat armor (+6), Gatling laser (Range 50/100/200, Damage 3d6+4 (I), AP 4, RoF 4, Cauterize, Heavy Weapon, No Recoil, Overcharge, Snapfire), molecular knife (Str+d4+2, AP 2), 3× incendiary grenades.

Special Abilities:

360-Degree Vision: Ignore 1 point of Gang Up bonus.
Armor +2: Dense exoskeleton.
Cannot Speak: Unless aided by devices, insectoids can understand other languages but may only communicate with members of their own culture.
Claws: Str+d4, AP 2.
Communal: Add +2 to Spirit rolls when within 12" (24 yards) of other insectoids.
Separation Disorder: −2 to Spirit rolls when no other insectoids are within line of sight.

Predators and Dangerous Fauna

Ironclaw

Ironclaws are the sort of frontier horror spacers laugh about right up until one drops out of the underbrush. Despite the joking nickname, there is nothing funny about a ton of muscle, fur, and diamond-hard claws moving almost silently through cover.

They work especially well on death worlds, overgrown colony moons, jungle ruins, and abandoned gene-labs. If you need a powerful ambush beast with a distinct silhouette, an ironclaw does the job nicely.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d12+2, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d8 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 9 Edges: Frenzy (Imp)

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d4.
Chameleon: If the ironclaw has some cover or darkness and moves half its Pace or less, it gains +4 to Stealth rolls.
Claws: Str+d8, AP 2.
Leaper: Double jumping distance.
Pounce: +4 damage instead of +2 when making a Wild Attack.
Size 3: Adult ironclaws weigh over a ton.

Irrasc [WC]

Irrasc are massive apex predators prized by warlords, beastmasters, and arena promoters who value raw intimidation over subtlety. They are not clever, but that only matters right up until one gets its claws around a target.

A trained irrasc makes an excellent elite guard beast, gladiatorial centerpiece, siege terror, or the signature hunting animal of a powerful villain.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+7, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d6, Survival d6 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 16 (3)

Special Abilities:

Armor +3: Thick hide.
Bite: Str+d8, AP 4.
Claws: Str+d6. +2 to Athletics and Strength rolls made to grapple.
Roar: Irrasc can emit a terrifying roar. All those within 12" (24 yards) must make a Spirit roll or be Shaken.
Size 7 (Large): These fearsome creatures stand 30' tall and weigh over 16 tons.

Krok

Kroks are what happen when a crocodilian line keeps scaling upward until it becomes a shoreline catastrophe. They are perfect for warm littoral worlds, mangrove swamps, monsoon deltas, and any coastal settlement that needs a legend in the water.

Use a krok when you want a gigantic ambush predator that can also dominate open ground for a short time.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d12+8, Vigor d12+4 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 22 (4) Edges: Sweep (Imp)

Special Abilities:

Armor +4: Heavy Armor. Thick, scaly hide.
Bite: Str+d12 (II), Heavy Weapon.
Hardy: A second Shaken result does not cause a Wound.
Semi-Aquatic: Pace 10. A krok can hold its breath for 15 minutes.
Size 8 (Huge): A giant krok can reach up to 30 feet in length.
Tail Sweep: Instead of making a bite attack, a krok can sweep all opponents within Reach 3. This may be Evaded. Size 3 or less creatures who fail are knocked back 2d6" and Stunned.

Monkey

Monkey-like life appears on countless worlds, especially in forest canopies, ruined megaflora, and low-gravity jungle environments. This baseline profile represents a nimble, clever, opportunistic climber and serves as a template for several Astrabound variants.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d10 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d6, Intimidation d8, Notice d10, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 4

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d4.
Brachiation: Monkeys can move at their full Pace in trees or similar environments and don’t normally need to make Athletics (climbing) rolls.
Leaper: Double jumping distance.
Pounce: +4 damage instead of +2 when making a Wild Attack.
Size −1: Monkeys are about 4' tall.

Jester Monkey

Jester monkeys are infuriatingly clever mimics that have learned just enough by observation to become dangerous. They are ideal for chaotic jungle encounters, half-abandoned outposts, or “who armed these things?” scenes.

Use the basic Monkey profile above, and add:

Mimicry: Jester monkeys can use simple tools, such as firearms, if they’ve seen humans use them. Their skill with such devices is a flat d4. They don’t have the sophistication to actually reload, switch firing modes, and so on.

Lobber Monkey

Lobber monkeys are natural artillery pests. They work best in elevated terrain, ruins, canyon edges, and canopy fights where the party cannot immediately close the distance.

Use the basic Monkey profile above, and add:

Lob: Lobbers are excellent marksmen. They cause Str+d6 damage with the heavy stones they’ve learned to hurl. They often strike from high in the branches where they are difficult to spot, and have a reserve of heavy stones lodged in strategic positions.

Mauler Monkey

Mauler monkeys are the ugly cousins nobody should have uplifted, fed, or cornered. They are more aggressive than ordinary monkey stock and work well as pack predators or bio-engineered guard animals.

Use the basic Monkey profile above, and add:

Armor +2: Mauler monkeys have hard, scaly skin.
Claws: Str+d6.

Mucus Frog

Mucus frogs are one of those wonderfully unpleasant alien life forms that can turn a straightforward fight into a suffocation panic. They are excellent in marshes, flooded ruins, fungal caverns, and humid lowland worlds.

Use them when you want an ambush creature that controls movement rather than simply dealing damage.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d4, Notice d8, Stealth d6 Pace: 4; Parry: 4; Toughness: 6

Special Abilities:

Amphibious: Pace 6.
Dependency (Water): The frogs must immerse in water at least one hour out of every 24 or suffer Fatigue each day until they perish.
Leaper: Double jumping distance.
Mucus Spit: Range 3/6/12. On a hit, the target is Entangled, or Bound with a raise. A hit against an already Entangled target increases the effect to Bound. Bound victims suffer a level of Fatigue at the start of each round until they die or the mucus is removed.

Needlebush

Needlebushes are plant ambush predators disguised as hostile desert flora. They are superb environmental hazards for badlands, scrub zones, irradiated wastelands, or alien cactus forests. The fact that they do not chase prey only makes them more useful to a GM.

Place them where the party must move through cover, search a site carefully, or fight while terrain itself tries to kill them.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d8 Skills: Notice d6, Shooting d8 Pace: —; Parry: 2; Toughness: 9 (2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Needlebushes are protected by thick bark.
Plant: Immune to paralysis, poison, puppet, slumber, Stun; doesn’t sleep.
Poison: Anyone Shaken or Wounded by the spines must make a Vigor roll or die in 2d6 rounds.
Size 1: Needlebushes are taller than an average human.
Thorns: A needlebush fires a volley of thorns every round it senses prey within a Large Blast Template centered on itself. Everything within suffers 2d4 damage.

Neural Cloud [WC]

Neural clouds are enormous silicon-based intelligences adrift in space, part nebula, part mind, part stellar hazard. They are less a monster than a phenomenon with agency. Use one when you want a truly cosmic encounter, a first-contact event, or a terrifyingly vast being that may be curious, defensive, or incomprehensible.

They are ideal for campaigns that lean into awe, existential scale, and “we are very small out here.”

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d8 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d4, Vigor d12+10 Skills: Athletics d4, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d4, Notice d12, Persuasion d6, Science d8, Stealth d4, Shooting d10, Survival d10 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 28

Special Abilities:

Fast Regeneration: Neural clouds may attempt a natural healing roll every round.
Fusion Blast: When threatened, a neural cloud can create a fusion reaction and direct the energy toward enemies with Shooting. Range 100/200/400, Damage 5d10 (V), AP 30, Heavy Weapon. May be Evaded.
Size 15 (Gargantuan): Neural clouds are miles across, but their mass is spread thin across that area.
Unstoppable: Takes a maximum of one Wound after Soaking from any damaging attack unless the attacker’s Action Card is a Joker.
Weakness (Magnetism): Neural clouds suffer a −4 penalty to resist magnetic effects, and suffer +4 damage from magnetic attacks.

Omega Crab

Omega crabs are shoreline siege predators, equally at home in surf, tidal flats, and shallow coastal waters. They are useful whenever you need a giant crustacean that feels like a natural hazard with claws big enough to tear into vehicles.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+4, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d10 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 15 (4)

Special Abilities:

Aquatic: Pace 8.
Armor +4: Heavy Armor; thick shell.
Claws: Str+d8 (I), AP 4, Heavy Weapon. Their pincers add +2 to grappling attempts and crushing damage caused to Bound or Entangled prey.
Size 4 (Large): The shells of omega crabs are 15 feet long at their widest point and weigh over two tons.

Orthocone

Orthocones are straightforward, brutal marine predators and make excellent stand-ins for any giant alien nautiloid, cephalopod dart-hunter, or torpedo-shaped ambush beast. If you want something ancient-feeling and maritime, they fit neatly into deepwater encounters.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+4, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Stealth d8 Pace: —; Parry: 6; Toughness: 13 (2)

Special Abilities:

Aquatic: Pace 10.
Armor +2: Thick shell.
Bite: Str+d6.
Size 6 (Large): Orthocones are 40 feet long.
Tentacles (4): Four tentacle actions and Reach 1. Tentacles deal Str+d6 damage. Bound or Entangled prey may be bitten as usual. A victim killed by an orthocone’s tentacles is usually ripped in half.

Pendulum Bird

Pendulum birds are one of the setting’s better “alien but believable” aerial predators. Their fused striking limb gives them a distinct hunting profile and makes them memorable at the table. They work best on low-gravity worlds, cliff biomes, or open skies above exposed plains.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+2, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d8 Pace: —; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6

Special Abilities:

Bash: Str+d8, Repulse.
Bite: Str+d4.
Flight: Pace 12.
Low Gravity: −1 Toughness.
Size 1: Pendulum birds have a wingspan of 30' and a 6' long body.

Pentamouth

Pentamouths are excellent “wait under the sand or scrub and erupt” predators. They feel alien immediately and create memorable melee scenes due to their strange attack geometry.

Use them when you want a creature that can hold ground, threaten multiple attackers, and feel like a living trap.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d10, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d6, Stealth d10 Pace: 4; Parry: 6; Toughness: 10

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d6, Reach 2.
Multiple Heads: A pentamouth may make up to five Fighting attacks, but only two heads may attack a single foe.
Size 2: Pentamouths are very dense. Most adults measure 6' in length and 3' in diameter.

Peoples, Cultures, and Civilized Archetypes

Kalian Rogue

Kalians are a four-armed starfaring species known for agility, wit, and a flair for bold action. This profile suits smugglers, corsairs, duelists, privateers, and charming troublemakers who survive by speed, nerve, and blade work.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d6, Piloting d8, Repair d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d8, Taunt d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 8 (4) Hindrances: Overconfident, Thin Skinned (Major) Edges: Block, Charismatic, Elan, Marksman, Two-Fisted Gear: Light battle armor (+4), 4× vibro swords (Str+d8+d6, AP 2), blaster pistol (Range 12/24/48, Damage 2d6+2, AP 2).

Special Abilities:

Additional Action: Reduce Multi-Action penalties by 2.
Ancestral Enemy (Saurians): Subtract 2 from Persuasion when dealing with saurians, or a culture of the GM’s choosing.
Extra Limbs: Kalians have four arms and two primary hands, and gain +1 Gang Up if directing multiple weapons at a target or +1 to Athletics rolls involving the limbs.
Frail: −1 Toughness.

Law Enforcement Officer

This entry covers local police, customs teams, station marshals, federal agents, private security detachments, and corporate peace officers. Swap out gear and uniforms to fit the jurisdiction.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 9 (4) Hindrances: Loyal, Obligation (Major, uphold the law), Ruthless (Minor) Edges: Connections, Menacing, Streetwise Gear: Body armor (+4), commlink, handcuffs, heavy pistol (Range 12/24/48, Damage 2d10, AP 4), stun baton (Str+d4, Stun). Heavier gear as needed.

Merchant

Merchants are the connective tissue of the frontier. They run cargo, broker deals, speculate on shortages, and know which system is buying high this week. This entry works for itinerant traders, star-lane brokers, wealthy factors, and owner-operators.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Academics d8, Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d4, Gambling d8, Notice d6, Persuasion d8, Piloting d8, Repair d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: Greedy (Major) Edges: Charismatic, Connections, Rich Gear: Commlink, personal data device.

Miner

Miners are hard-used workers of asteroid belts, toxic extraction sites, ice harvests, and frontier dig operations. They are stubborn, practical, and usually one cave-in away from either retirement or disaster.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Driving d6, Fighting d4, Gambling d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Piloting d4, Shooting d4, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 6 (1) Hindrances: Stubborn, Suspicious (Minor) Edges: Gravitic Acclimation Gear: Spacesuit (+1, if in space), matter disintegrator.

Oracle

Oracles are those rare beings with a natural, often uncanny connection to psychic, spiritual, or transdimensional phenomena. In Astrabound, they may be revered mystics, unsettling savants, living conduits, or dangerous anomalies.

This profile works for enigmatic seers, alien telepaths, or frail but potent psionic NPCs.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d10, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Persuasion d4, Psionics d10, Shooting d6, Stealth d6, Taunt d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 4 Hindrances: Various Edges: Arcane Background (Psionics), Danger Sense, Mentalist Powers: confusion, illusion, mind link, mind reading, sound/silence, stun, telekinesis, teleport Power Points: 15

Special Abilities:

Frail: −1 Toughness.
Telepathy: An oracle can communicate mentally with any sapient lifeform within 12" (24 yards) regardless of language.

Mimic Spy

Mimics are ideal infiltrators, confidence artists, and intelligence assets. This entry assumes a professional operative rather than a random shapeshifter. Use it for espionage plots, sleeper agents, internal security scares, or diplomatic sabotage.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Electronics d6, Fighting d6, Notice d8, Persuasion d8, Shooting d6, Stealth d8, Taunt d6, Thievery d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: Cyber Resistant, Outsider (Minor) Edges: Connections, Streetwise, Thief Gear: Varies with disguise, but usually a laser pistol (Range 15/30/60, Damage 2d6, AP 2) and molecular knife (Str+d4+2, AP 2).

Special Abilities:

No Vital Organs: Called Shots deal no extra damage.
Shapeshift: As a limited free action, a mimic can assume the appearance of another being up to two Sizes larger or smaller than her, but gains no benefits or penalties due to the Size change. The details are as perfect as the individual can observe, even fingerprints and retinal patterns if the information is available.

Pirate Crew Member

This is your baseline raider, boarder, corsair deckhand, or armed freebooter. Good for ship actions, station crime, and rough frontier trouble.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Piloting d6, Repair d4, Shooting d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6 (1) Hindrances: Greedy (Major), Mean Edges: Gravitic Acclimation Gear: Spacesuit (+1), cutlass (Str+d6), blaster pistol (Range 12/24/48, Damage 2d6+2, AP 2).

Pirate Officer

Pirate officers keep the crew pointed at the prize and the guns aimed the right way. They are more disciplined than the rank and file, but no less dangerous.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d6, Piloting d8, Repair d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d8, Taunt d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 9 (4) Hindrances: Greedy (Major), Mean, Wanted (Minor) Edges: Block, Combat Reflexes, Gravitic Acclimation Gear: Armored spacesuit (+4), power cutlass (Str+2d6), blaster pistol (Range 12/24/48, Damage 2d6+2, AP 2).

Pirate Captain

A pirate captain is not just a tougher pirate. This is a shipmaster, raider chief, and sometimes minor tyrant with a reputation to protect. Use this for recurring villains, rival freebooters, or uneasy temporary allies.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d10, Intimidation d10, Notice d8, Persuasion d6, Piloting d10, Repair d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d8, Taunt d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 8; Toughness: 10 (4) Hindrances: Greedy (Major), Mean, Wanted (Major) Edges: Ace, Block, Combat Reflexes, Command, Gravitic Acclimation, Hard to Kill, Inspire, Rocket Jock Gear: Combat spacesuit (+4), chain cutlass (2d6+4), plasma pistol (Range 12/24/48, Damage 2d10 (I), Cauterize, Heavy Weapon, Plasma).

Uplifted and Engineered Life

Neo-Animal

Neo-animals are uplifted beasts modified to sapience through genetic engineering, careful selective enhancement, or other advanced biotech. They are not a single species, but a design category. In some systems they are fully accepted citizens. In others, they are still treated as property, experiments, or social outsiders.

Use the following guidance to build neo-animal variants from an animal base profile:

Remove animal intelligence (A).
Add any missing core skills, such as Athletics, Common Knowledge, Notice, Persuasion, and Stealth, at d4 or higher.
Add any Hindrances and Edges that make sense for the uplifted species.
Neo-animals are fluent in the language in which they were raised, though many require synthesizers or other aids to be fully understood.

Neo-Chimpanzee

Neo-chimps are agile, bright, adaptable, and emotionally intense. They make excellent technicians, climbers, infiltrators, and zero-g utility specialists, though their temper can be a real operational problem.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d12, Common Knowledge d4, Electronics d4, Fighting d8, Intimidation d4, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Repair d4, Science d4, Shooting d6, Stealth d8, Taunt d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 Hindrances: Impulsive, Outsider (Minor) Edges: Acrobat, Berserk, Free Runner

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str.
Brachiation: Chimps can move at their full Pace in trees or similar environments and don’t normally need to make Athletics (climbing) rolls.
Pounce: +4 to damage instead of +2 when making a Wild Attack.
Size −1: Chimpanzees are four feet tall and weigh around 125 pounds.

Neo-Dog

Neo-dogs are among the most successful uplifts in known space. Loyal, alert, trainable, and socially responsive, they are used everywhere from search-and-rescue teams to diplomatic security to independent citizens with working careers.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d10, Persuasion d4, Stealth d8 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 4 Hindrances: Loyal, Outsider (Minor) Edges: Alertness, Brave, Reliable

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d4.
Size −1: The heads of these canines come to an average human’s waist, and they weigh about 60 pounds.
Speed: d10 running die.

Neo-Dolphin

Neo-dolphins are perhaps the most celebrated of Terran uplift lines: brilliant, curious, and highly capable in problem-solving environments. Their bodies remain an operational limitation outside water, which makes their specialized equipment essential.

They are excellent for science crews, navigators, psionic test cases, and unusual but memorable NPCs.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Academics d4, Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d6, Electronics d4, Fighting d6, Notice d12, Persuasion d6, Piloting d6, Science d6, Stealth d6 Pace: —; Parry: 5; Toughness: 7 (1) Hindrances: All Thumbs, Outsider (Minor) Edges: Acrobat, Calculating, Dodge Gear: Specialized spacesuit (+1, "walk" Pace 6, may manipulate objects), atmosphere recycler, commlink.

Special Abilities:

Aquatic: Pace 10.
Atmospheric Dependency: Dolphins must remain immersed in liquid water in order to survive. They treat any other atmosphere as being Hazardous. Those without a rebreather, or spacesuit if the pressure is too low, must check Vigor every hour or suffer a Fatigue level that can lead to death. When the dolphin is re-immersed at standard pressure it recovers one Fatigue level every 10 minutes.
Bash: Str.
Echolocation: While in a liquid environment, ignore all Illumination penalties and up to 4 points of blindness, invisibility, or other sight-based penalties within 10" (20 yards).
No Manipulators: Dolphins naturally lack hands or digits nimble enough to serve the same function. Without their specialized suits, they cannot use most equipment or weapons.
Size 1: Neo-dolphins are eight feet long and weigh around 500 pounds.

Cosmic Entities and Great Intelligences

Living Planet

A living planet is less a creature encounter than a campaign event. These immense intelligences may be world-spanning fungal matrices, planetary neural ecologies, ancient biospheres that became self-aware, or colossal entities mistaken for celestial bodies. They do not usually fight directly. They communicate, manipulate, and observe through projections shaped from the memories of those who walk upon them.

Use a living planet when you want wonder, psychological unease, or a first-contact scenario on a scale too large for ordinary speech.

A living planet does not use normal Traits of its own for direct interaction. Instead, it acts through simulacra.

Simulacrum

A simulacrum is the face a living planet shows to those it studies. These projections are shaped from memory and emotional residue, making them convincing but subtly imperfect. They are ideal for mystery, revelation, and deeply personal encounters.

Adjust this profile as needed to match the person being imitated.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d4, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d4, Notice d4, Persuasion d6, Psionics d10, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 6 Hindrances: Clueless Edges: Concentration, Mentalist Powers: confusion, empathy, environmental protection, illusion, mind link, mind reading, mind wipe, puppet, resurrection, slumber, sound/silence, speak language, teleport Power Points: 100

Special Abilities:

Psionics: As extensions of the living planet, simulacra possess rudimentary psionic power.
Steal Identity: Simulacra replicate the memories, Traits, Hindrances, and Edges of the person they are imitating. Those who know the original person may make a Notice roll at −4 to detect anything amiss. This penalty may be reduced to −2 or eliminated entirely for characters who are particularly close, such as immediate relatives or romantic partners.

Extradimensional and Machine Threats

Malific

Malifics are beings from realities adjacent to or incompatible with known physical law. Some are mistaken for demons, others for eldritch mutants, extradimensional raiders, or living mathematical errors. They are ideal whenever you want an intelligent enemy that feels profoundly wrong.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d12+2, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Electronics d6, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d6, Occult d8, Persuasion d4, Science d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Survival d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 17 (6) Hindrances: Ruthless (Major), Ugly (Major) Edges: Counterattack, First Strike, Quick Gear: Energy blade gauntlets (Str+d8 (I), AP 4, HW, Cauterize)

Special Abilities:

Armor +6: Thick hide.
Bite/Claws: Str+d4.
Hardy: A second Shaken result in combat doesn’t cause a Wound.
Separation Disorder: When no other malifics are within line of sight the character suffers −2 to Spirit rolls.
Size 3: The typical malific stands over 9' tall and has a powerful, brawny frame.
Telepathy: A malific can communicate mentally with any sapient lifeform within 12" (24 yards) regardless of language.
Tentacles (2): Two tentacle actions and Reach 1. Tentacles deal Str+d4 damage. Bound or Entangled prey may be bitten as usual.

Mechanoid

Mechanoids are not a mere robot species. They are an old machine civilization that has outlived its creators and replaced purpose with expansion. In Astrabound, they work well as a looming strategic threat, ancient conquerors, or the implacable logic of machine colonization made manifest.

Use the following units as common mechanoid field assets.

Contaminator

Contaminators are anti-technology hunters built to subvert, ruin, and corrupt the tools of organic civilizations before destroying the users themselves.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6, Spirit d4, Strength d10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d6, Electronics d8, Hacking d10+2, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Shooting d6 Pace: 10; Parry: 5; Toughness: 15 (4)

Special Abilities:

Armor +4: Metallic body.
Construct: +2 to recover from being Shaken; ignore 1 point of Wound penalties; doesn’t breathe; immune to poison and disease.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Laser SMG: Range 15/30/60, Damage 2d6, AP 2, RoF 4, Cauterize, No Recoil, Overcharge.
Matter Cutter: Damage 2d4+8 (II), AP 8, Cauterize.
Sensors: Optical, chemical, motion, and other sensors ignore Illumination penalties. If it scans as an action, the contaminator adds a +2 bonus to Electronics or Notice rolls to detect targets within 500 yards.
Size 4 (Large): Contaminators are 12' tall, heavily built, and weigh 4,000 pounds.
Skill Bonus (Hacking +2): Contaminators have numerous codebreaking, signal routing, and code insertion subroutines.

Recycler

Recyclers are industrial disassembly engines given mobility and autonomy. They are horrifying because their battlefield role is exactly the same as their industrial one: reduce matter to usable stock.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d4, Strength d10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Electronics d6, Fighting d6, Notice d6, Shooting d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 16 (4)

Special Abilities:

Armor +4: Metallic body.
Arms Akimbo: As a limited action a recycler may attack with each of its arms: flamethrower, matter cutter, molecular blade, and saw blade. The attacks may be directed at the same target or different targets.
Construct: +2 to recover from being Shaken; ignore 1 point of Wound penalties; doesn’t breathe; immune to poison and disease.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Flamethrower: Damage 3d6 (I), Cauterize, Cone Template, Heavy Weapon, Incendiary.
Matter Cutter: Damage 2d4+8 (II), AP 8, Cauterize.
Molecular Blade: Str+d8+2, AP 4.
Saw Blade: Str+d8, AP 4.
Sensors: Optical, chemical, motion, and other sensors ignore Illumination penalties. If it scans as an action, the recycler adds a +2 bonus to Electronics or Notice rolls to detect targets within 500 yards.
Size 5 (Large): Recyclers are usually the size of a rhino and weigh four tons.

Support Drone

Support drones are utilitarian mechanoid machines built for construction, repair, recovery, and adaptation. In peaceful circumstances they are eerie. In war zones they are the machines that keep the rest of the machine empire moving.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d4, Strength d8, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Electronics d8, Notice d6, Repair d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 2; Toughness: 10 (4)

Special Abilities:

Armor +4: Metallic body.
Construct: +2 to recover from being Shaken; ignore 1 point of Wound penalties; doesn’t breathe; immune to poison and disease.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Matter Cutter: Damage 2d4+8 (II), AP 8, Cauterize.
Sensors: Optical, chemical, motion, and other sensors ignore Illumination penalties. If it scans as an action, the drone adds a +2 bonus to Electronics or Notice rolls to detect targets within 500 yards.
Size 1: Support drones are slightly larger than a human and come in many forms.

War Drone

War drones are the mechanoid answer to resistance. They are purpose-built exterminators designed to meet living opposition with speed, accuracy, and relentless force.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d4, Strength d10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d8, Electronics d8, Fighting d10, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Shooting d8+2 Pace: 8; Parry: 7; Toughness: 15 (6)

Special Abilities:

Armor +6: Sturdy, reinforced frame.
Construct: +2 to recover from being Shaken; ignore 1 point of Wound penalties; doesn’t breathe; immune to poison and disease.
Cutting Arm: Str+d8, AP 2.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Gatling Laser: Range 50/100/200, Damage 3d6+4 (I), AP 4, RoF 4, Cauterize, Heavy Weapon, No Recoil, Overcharge, Snapfire.
Leaper: Double jumping distance.
Pounce: +4 damage instead of +2 when making a Wild Attack.
Sensors: Optical, chemical, motion, and other sensors ignore Illumination penalties. If it scans as an action, the drone adds a +2 bonus to Electronics or Notice rolls to detect targets within 500 yards.
Size 2: Battle drones are 9' tall, heavily built, and weigh 1000 pounds.
Skill Bonus (Shooting +2): Battle drones have advanced combat algorithms.
Targeting: Negates 2 points of Range or Unstable Platform penalties.

Psionic and Psychic Threats

Possessor

Possessors are incorporeal psychic entities that appear in their natural state as rippling curtains of color, shifting prism-light, or insubstantial auroras. Some are curious infiltrators that want to experience corporeal culture from the inside. Others are body thieves, spies, saboteurs, or predators that wear sentient hosts like borrowed clothing.

Use possessors when you want paranoia, identity horror, or the fear that the wrong person is suddenly no longer themselves.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d10, Spirit d10, Strength d4, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d4, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d4, Notice d8, Persuasion d12, Stealth d12 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 6

Special Abilities:

Ethereal: Possessors are beings of pure psychic energy.
Immunities: Possessors, not their hosts, are immune to cold, heat, radiation, poison, and disease. They do not require air, food, or water to survive.
Possess: A possessor tries to possess its opponent’s body with an opposed Spirit roll at −2. With success, the possessor gains complete control of its host’s body. The victim may attempt to force the alien out every hour with another opposed Spirit roll. If the host is rendered unconscious, the possessor is forced to flee the body immediately.
Steal Identity: Possessors gain access to their host’s memories, skills, and Edges, but are not affected by their Hindrances. To keep up appearances, possessors mimic any such foibles. Those who know the victim may make a Notice roll at −4 to detect anything amiss. This penalty may be reduced to −2 or eliminated entirely for characters who are particularly close, such as immediate relatives or romantic partners.

Psi Beast

Psi beasts are animals whose instincts have somehow developed along psionic lines, or whose species evolved in environments saturated with psychic phenomena. They are not a single creature entry so much as a template you can lay over existing fauna to make them feel distinctly Astrabound.

This is an excellent way to turn an ordinary predator, herd beast, or flying scavenger into something memorable without redesigning it from scratch.

Template Modifiers:

Attributes: Smarts +1 die, Spirit +1 die
Skills: Psionics d8

Special Abilities:

Psionics: All psi beasts have 15 Power Points. In addition, they have one of the psionic abilities below.

Common Psi Beast Variants:

Carnivore (Ambusher): This beast ambushes its prey using the teleport power.
Carnivore (Lure): The thing has the puppet power. This may be a siren-song lure or require the beast to make eye contact with its prey.
Carnivore (Speed Hunter): The beast has increased Pace and has the speed power.
Carnivore (Stealth Hunter): These hunters get close to prey using the invisibility power.
Carnivore (Stunner): The beast prefers to eat its prey alive. It has the stun power.
Herbivore (Armored): Has extra Armor and the deflection power.
Herbivore (Scary): The beast sends out telepathic signals which panic predators. It has the fear power.
Herbivore (Survivor): Survivors rely on their Pace to outrun predators, getting a boost from the speed power.

Psi Booster

Psi boosters are one of the setting’s more unsettling symbiotes. These squid-like parasites do not possess true psionics of their own, but can amplify a host’s gift dramatically. That benefit comes at a gruesome price, since the booster anchors itself directly into the spinal column.

Use psi boosters in black-market biotech stories, secret enhancement programs, forbidden psionic orders, or desperate survival situations where power has a visible biological cost.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d12, Strength d4, Vigor d6 Skills: Notice d6 Pace: 2; Parry: 2; Toughness: 3

Special Abilities:

Embedded: Psi boosters become rooted to their host. Unless the host dies, psi boosters are loathe to leave a healthy body and resist being removed. Extracting one requires complex surgery and a Healing roll at −4. Failure results in the death of the host.
Psionic Boost: The psionicist adds +2 to Psionics rolls and each raise reduces the cost of powers as though benefiting from the Channeling Edge, to a minimum cost of 1 Power Point.
Size −2 (Small): Psi boosters are 2' long and 2" thick.

Psi Eater

Psi eaters are highly prized by prison wardens, inquisitors, paranoid nobles, and anyone who expects to deal with dangerous psionicists. They are living dampers, small, sluggish, and irresistibly drawn toward psychic activity.

They work very well as environmental complications. A room full of restrained psi eaters can completely change the tone of an encounter.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d12, Strength d4, Vigor d6 Skills: Notice d6, Stealth d8 Pace: 2; Parry: 2; Toughness: 1

Special Abilities:

Absorb Psionics: Any psionicist within 5" (10 yards) of a psi eater has −4 to his Psionics roll. Anyone touching a psi eater has the benefits of the Improved Arcane Resistance Edge.
Size −4 (Tiny): Psi eaters are six inches long and two inches thick.

Psi-Knight Adept

Psi-knights are disciplined warrior-mystics who combine swordsmanship, psionic focus, and a strict code. In Astrabound, they can fill the role of noble guardians, dangerous zealots, wandering duelists, or the surviving members of a once-great order.

Adepts are fully capable field operatives and excellent recurring rivals or allies.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d10, Intimidation d8, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Psionics d8, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 8; Toughness: 9 (4) Hindrances: Code of Honor, Heroic, Vow (Major, never use ranged weapons) Edges: Arcane Background (Psionics), Block, Combat Reflexes, Frenzy, Mentalist, Sweep Powers: deflection, speed, stun Power Points: 10 Gear: Body armor (+4, energy skin), energy katana (Str+d8+1 (I), AP 4, HW)

Psi-Knight Master [WC]

A psi-knight master is the finished expression of the order’s ideals, or its most dangerous hypocrisy. Whether cast as saintly protector or implacable enemy, this profile is ideal for duel-centric encounters and high-drama confrontations.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8, Spirit d10, Strength d10, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d10, Common Knowledge d8, Fighting d12, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d6, Psionics d10, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 10; Toughness: 10 (4) Hindrances: Code of Honor, Heroic, Loyal, Vow (Major, never use ranged weapons) Edges: Arcane Background (Psionics), Block (Imp), Channeling, Combat Reflexes, Frenzy (Imp), Mentalist, Sweep, Trademark Weapon (Energy katana) Powers: confusion, deflection, empathy, mind wipe, speed, stun, telekinesis Power Points: 20 Gear: Body armor (+4, energy skin), energy katana (Str+d8+1 (I), AP 4, HW)

Psionicist

Psionicists are the most broadly useful mentalists in the setting, suitable as operatives, scholars, mystics, feared outcasts, or covert specialists. This profile works well for independent “psions,” intelligence assets, academy-trained telekinetics, or low-level enemy controllers.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d10, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Persuasion d4, Psionics d10, Shooting d6, Stealth d6, Taunt d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 9 (4) Edges: Arcane Background (Psionics), Mentalist Powers: deflection, mind reading, speak language, telekinesis Power Points: 10 Gear: Body armor (+4), energy knife (Str+d4+4 (I), AP 2, HW), laser pistol (Range 15/30/60, Damage 2d6, AP 2)

Puppet Master

Puppet masters are engineered infiltration horrors, all the more disturbing because they are tools, not accidents. These spider-like parasites are designed to seize total control of important people and turn them into living puppets. They are excellent for secret conspiracies, political thrillers, and body-horror investigations.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d10, Spirit d12, Strength —, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d4, Common Knowledge d6, Notice d6, Psionics d10, Stealth d8 Pace: 4; Parry: 2; Toughness: 2

Special Abilities:

Embedded: Puppet masters would rather see their victim die than break free of their control. Surgically removing a puppet master requires a Healing roll at −4. With a failure, the puppet master makes a Psionics roll opposed by the victim’s Spirit. Each success and raise lowers the victim’s Smarts by one die type as it destroys the brain as an act of revenge. A victim reduced to below d4 Smarts is a vegetable. The same applies if the creature is ever Wounded, though it only has one attempt to destroy its victim’s brain before it dies.
Possession: If a puppet master gets to the back of a victim’s neck, usually while he is asleep, it inserts its tendrils into the spinal column and makes an opposed Spirit roll. Once attached, the creature is in complete control of its victim, gaining access to all his skills, memories, Edges, and even psionic powers if the host has them. The host can never break free unless someone removes the puppet master.
Size −4 (Tiny): Puppet masters are four inches in diameter.

Alien Fauna and Xeno Predators

Quadrapus

Quadrapuses are wonderful low-gravity predators for strange skies and drifting wilderness biomes. Their hunting method is not elegant, but it is effective. They float along air currents with tentacles dragging and lunge at anything that tries to avoid them.

Use them on low-gravity worlds, in vast canyons, or around floating forests and gas-pocket marshes.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d10, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Stealth d6 Pace: —; Parry: 5; Toughness: 8

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d4.
Flight: Pace 4.
Size 2: These beasts measure 20' long from head to tentacle tip.
Tentacles (4): Four tentacle actions and Reach 1. Tentacles deal Str+d4 damage. Bound or Entangled prey may be bitten as usual.

Quatha

“Quatha” has become a broad frontier term for big, sturdy, reliable burden beasts regardless of their exact evolutionary origin. The original species was reptilian, but many worlds apply the label to any similar draft animal with the right size, temperament, and endurance.

This entry is excellent for caravans, rural colony scenes, mounted expeditions, and animal-centered frontier culture.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+6, Vigor d12+2 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d4, Notice d4, Stealth d4, Survival d6 Pace: 8; Parry: 4; Toughness: 16 (1) Hindrances: Hesitant Edges: Brute

Special Abilities:

Armor +1: Tough hide.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Low Light Vision: Quatha ignore penalties for Dim and Dark Illumination.
Size 6 (Large): Quatha are similar to an African elephant in size and weigh eight tons.
Tireless: Immune to Fatigue.
Trample: Str+d6.

Radbeast

Radbeasts are strange, silicon-based living mining rigs that happen to be terrifying when cornered. Their heat-sensing bodies, radiation tolerance, and corrosive feeding methods make them perfect denizens of toxic badlands, radioactive tunnels, and industrial extraction worlds.

They are especially good if you want a creature that is dangerous both as an encounter and as a hazard to equipment, habitats, and starship hulls.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d10, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d4, Notice d6, Stealth d10 Pace: 4; Parry: 4; Toughness: 14 (6)

Special Abilities:

Acid: If forced to fight, radbeasts rear up and plop forward in an attempt to grapple. If successful, the victim suffers 3d6 damage (I), Heavy Weapon, each round it is maintained. Armor and other items lose 1 point of protection each round until dissolved. Given time, a radbeast can eat through a starship’s hull.
Armor +6: Heavy Armor. Thick, stony body.
Bash: Str+d10 (I), Heavy Weapon.
Immunity: Radbeasts suffer no harm from radiation.
Infravision: Halve Illumination penalties when attacking warm targets.
Radiation Projection: Radbeasts eat all manner of rock, but favor radioactive minerals. As an action, they can project an intense radiation field around their bodies as a form of defense. Any creature within a Medium Blast Template centered on the beast must make a Vigor roll or suffer a level of Fatigue. A character Incapacitated by this attack or who rolls a Critical Failure to resist contracts radiation sickness.
Size 2: A radbeast’s stony body weighs almost a ton.

Ravager

Ravagers are not merely mad. In Astrabound, they are the end state of a psyche broken by the vastness of space and whatever waits in it. They are terrifying because some fragment of their prior self can remain, enough to use tools, recognize allies of a sort, or continue destructive routines.

Use ravagers for derelict ships, isolated stations, failed expeditions, or horror scenarios where the real threat is what long exposure to the void can do to a mind.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d4, Stealth d6, Survival d6 Hindrances: Bloodthirsty, Illiterate Edges: Berserk, Brawler, Combat Reflexes, Fleet-Footed, Frenzy, Improvisational Fighter, Menacing, Nerves of Steel Gear: Light club (Str+d4), knife (Str+d4), handmade mace (Str+d6), or improvised weapon.

Special Abilities:

Fear: Anyone who sees a ravager must make a Fear check.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Pack Tactics: Ravagers add any Gang Up bonus to their Fighting damage as well as the attack roll.
Resilient: Can take one additional Wound.

Sandmaw

Sandmaws are static apex predators, territorial sinkhole horrors that turn the terrain itself into a trap. Because they do not roam, they become part of local geography and culture. Frontier maps mark them. Nomads tell stories about them. The unlucky disappear into them.

Sandmaws are excellent for wilderness travel, survival sessions, convoy ambushes, and scenes where the real fight is escaping the ground.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d12+10, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d4, Fighting d6, Notice d10, Stealth d10 Pace: —; Parry: 5; Toughness: 22 (4)

Special Abilities:

Armor +4: Thick hide.
Bite: Str+d8.
Hardy: A second Shaken result in combat doesn’t cause a Wound.
Size 10 (Huge): Sandmaws stretch 60 feet from mouth to tail, but most of their mass is underground. Their ring-like mouths are 3" (6 yards) across.
Swallow Whole: Anyone hit by a bite attack must make an Evasion roll or be Swallowed Whole. At the end of the creature’s subsequent turns, anyone swallowed must make a Vigor roll at −2 or take a Wound from the crushing gullet and acidic bile. Shaking, Wounding, or otherwise provoking the creature may result in opportunities to escape with an Athletics roll.
Tentacles (1): One tentacle action and Reach 5. Tentacles deal Str+d4 damage. Bound or Entangled prey may be bitten as usual.

Scoopjaw

Scoopjaws are megafauna on a scale that turns a normal encounter into a disaster scene. These immense, hippo-like quadrupeds are half territorial beast, half walking natural disaster. Use them as kaiju-lite threats, regional apex herbivore-predators, or legendary hazards whose migration routes shape settlement maps.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+10, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d10, Notice d8, Stealth d8 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 24 (4) Edges: Frenzy (Imp)

Special Abilities:

Armor +4: Heavy Armor. Thick hide.
Bite: Str+d10 (II), Heavy Weapon.
Hardy: Not Wounded by a second Shaken result.
Size 12 (Gargantuan): Over 60' tall.
Swallow Whole: Anyone hit by a bite attack must make an Evasion roll or be Swallowed Whole. At the end of the creature’s subsequent turns, anyone swallowed must make a Vigor roll at −2 or take a Wound from the crushing gullet and acidic bile. Shaking, Wounding, or otherwise provoking the creature may result in opportunities to escape with an Athletics roll.

Scrap Parasite

Scrap parasites are among the best “there is something living in the maintenance crawlspace” creatures in the setting. They thrive anywhere waste, organic residue, warm pipes, and neglected compartments accumulate. If you need a disgusting shipboard predator that can plausibly stay hidden for months, use this.

They also make excellent hazards in junkyards, scows, factories, or old colony infrastructure.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Stealth d8, Survival d6 Pace: 4; Parry: 5; Toughness: 11 (2) Edges: First Strike, Quick

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Thick rubbery hide.
Bite: Str+d4, AP 2.
Immunity: Disease.
Infection: Victims Shaken or Wounded from a bite must make a Vigor roll at −2 or gain a Debilitating Disease.
Resilient: Scrap parasites can take one Wound before they are Incapacitated.
Size 2: An average scrap parasite is the size of a horse, though some grow larger.
Tentacles (2): Two tentacle actions and Reach 1. Tentacles deal Str+d4 damage. Bound or Entangled prey may be bitten as usual.

Scylla

Scylla is a catch-all Astrabound term for aggressive, octopoid apex predators. This standard profile works for reef terrors, deep channel ambushers, flooded ruin hunters, and alien cephalopods that feel far more dangerous than anything Terran explorers expected.

You can also use it to replace almost any “squid-like creature” on an ocean world without additional work.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d12, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 2; Parry: 6; Toughness: 9 (2)

Special Abilities:

Aquatic: Pace 10.
Armor +2: Tough, rubbery skin.
Bite: Str+d4.
Chameleon: Scylla can change color or pattern as a limited free action, adding +4 to Stealth rolls.
Constrict: If a scylla succeeds at a Fighting attack with a raise, it automatically Entangles its prey.
Tentacles (4): Four tentacle actions, Reach 5, Str+d6.

Giant Scylla

Giant scylla are abyssal nightmares and should feel like it. They are not merely oversized octopi, but maritime titans capable of dragging prey, vessels, or entire encounters into chaos. If your campaign includes deepwater worlds, leviathan trenches, or storm-wracked coasts, one of these belongs somewhere in the myths.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d12+10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d10, Notice d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 2; Parry: 7; Toughness: 25 (6)

Special Abilities:

Aquatic: Pace 10.
Armor +6: Heavy Armor. Tough, rubbery hide.
Chameleon: Scylla can change color or pattern as a limited free action, adding +4 to Stealth rolls.
Constrict: If a giant scylla succeeds at a Fighting attack with a raise, it automatically Entangles its prey.
Size 12 (Gargantuan): A giant scylla is over 100' long.
Tentacles (4): Four tentacle actions, Reach 5, Str+d10 (II), Heavy Weapon.

Shock Ray

Shock rays are graceful aerial hunters from heavy-atmosphere or low-gravity worlds. Their silhouette is beautiful. Their hunting behavior is not. These creatures are useful for overland wilderness encounters, canyon chases, and alien sky ecologies.

On aquatic worlds, the same profile can serve as an electric marine predator.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d4 Pace: —; Parry: 6; Toughness: 5

Special Abilities:

Electric Discharge: As a limited free action, a shock ray can discharge a powerful electric field. Anyone within a Medium Blast Template centered on the ray must make a Vigor roll or be Stunned.
Flight: Pace 8.
Infravision: Halve Illumination penalties when attacking warm targets.
Tail Lash: Str+d6, AP 2, Reach 1.

Shredder

Shredders are pure pursuit predators. They do not need elaborate gimmicks because their gimmick is speed, size, and enough claws and teeth to make the first hit decisive. They are ideal for open badlands, hunting preserves gone wrong, or bioengineered “security fauna.”

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+6, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 10; Parry: 6; Toughness: 14 Edges: Quick

Special Abilities:

Bite/Claws: Str+d8.
Fleet-Footed: d10 running die.
Size 7 (Large): Shredders weigh over 6000 pounds and stand about 20' tall.

Space Barnacle

Space barnacles are one of the great nuisances of hard-travel science fiction. Left alone, they become a maintenance nightmare. In numbers, they become a serious threat to hull integrity, handling, and power systems. Use them on ships, stations, salvage hulks, or asteroid infrastructure.

They are especially effective as an escalating problem rather than a one-scene fight.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Notice d4 Pace: —; Parry: 2; Toughness: 7 (2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Hard shell.
Immobile: Space barnacles cannot move on their own. If dislodged in space, they can use their spitting attack to propel themselves away at Pace 6.
Size −1: Space barnacles are roughly the size of a tire, measuring three feet across.
Spit Acid: Space barnacles can spit acid in a Stream Template. Targets splattered with acid suffer 3d4 damage. This may be Evaded.

Space Leviathan

Space leviathans are one of the signature apex horrors of the void. They are kraken-like monsters vast enough to threaten ships directly and intelligent enough, or instinct-driven enough, to exploit weak targets. Use them sparingly. A leviathan should feel like an event, not a random encounter.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+20, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d10, Notice d8, Stealth d4 Pace: 10; Parry: 7; Toughness: 32

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d8 (II), Heavy Weapon.
Crush: A leviathan crushes an Entangled or Bound vehicle as a limited free action. It automatically inflicts a Critical Hit as its tentacles seek out and destroy sensitive parts of the ship.
Flight: Pace 12,000 MPH (Speed Rating 25).
Hardy: A second Shaken result does not cause a Wound.
Size 24 (Gargantuan): Leviathans grow to over 1,000' in length.
Swallow Whole: Any creature Size 7 or smaller hit by a bite attack must make an Evasion roll or be Swallowed Whole. At the end of the creature’s subsequent turns, anyone swallowed must make a Vigor roll at −2 or take a Wound from the crushing gullet and acidic bile. Shaking, Wounding, or otherwise provoking the creature may result in opportunities to escape with an Athletics roll.
Tentacles (1): One tentacle action and Reach 50. Tentacles deal Str+d12 damage. Bound or Entangled prey may be crushed and bitten as usual.
Unstoppable: Takes a maximum of one Wound after Soaking from any damaging attack unless the attacker’s Action Card is a Joker.
Vacuum Born: The creature is naturally adapted for life in space. It does not breathe, ignores the effects of a vacuum, and is immune to cold damage.

Peoples, Cultures, and Archetypes

Quadroid

Quadroids are four-armed humanoids often employed in labor, security, and other physically demanding roles where extra limbs are a practical advantage. They are also known for being particularly poor travelers in FTL conditions, which gives them a useful cultural quirk for play.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d12, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Driving d6, Fighting d4, Gambling d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Piloting d4, Shooting d4, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 7 (2) Hindrances: Clueless, Thin Skinned (Major) Edges: Brawny Gear: Synth-mesh suit (+2)

Special Abilities:

Additional Action: Reduce Multi-Action penalties by 2.
Extra Limbs: Quadroids have four arms and two primary hands, and gain +1 Gang Up if directing multiple weapons at a target or +1 to Athletics rolls involving the limbs.
Frail: −1 Toughness.

Rakashan

Rakashans are feline humanoids found in many lineages and cultures across the setting, but all retain the quick reflexes, predatory dentition, and sharp-clawed heritage of their kind. This profile suits a rakashan warrior in battlefield gear.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d4, Stealth d8, Shooting d6, Survival d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 11 (6) Hindrances: Bloodthirsty, Can’t Swim Edges: Frenzy Gear: Infantry battle suit (+6), laser pistol (Range 15/30/60, Damage 2d6, AP 2, Cauterize, Overcharge)

Special Abilities:

Ancestral Enemy (Floran): Subtract 2 from Persuasion when dealing with florans, or a culture of the GM’s choosing.
Bite/Claws: Str+d4.
Low Light Vision: Rakashans ignore penalties for Dim and Dark Illumination.

Rascal

Rascals are diminutive, fierce, and far more dangerous than their size suggests. Their long history of conflict with insectoid enemies has turned them into disciplined little warriors with a cultural memory of survival through grit, fire, and aggression.

They are excellent for underdog allies, frontier militias, or unexpectedly formidable NPCs.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Shooting d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 5; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6 (4) Hindrances: High Tech (Major) Edges: Soldier Gear: Body armor (+4), laser pistol (Range 12/24/48, Damage 2d6+2, AP 2), molecular knife (Str+d4+2, AP 2), 2× incendiary grenades

Special Abilities:

Ancestral Enemy (Insectoid): Subtract 2 from Persuasion when dealing with insectoids.
Reduced Pace: Rascals have small legs. Pace −1, and d4 running die.
Size −3 (Very Small): Rascals stand around 16 inches in height and weigh 20 pounds.

Saurian Warrior

Saurians range from refined starfaring polities to brutal marsh clans, but this profile represents a warrior from a society roughly on par with Terran civilization. It is a strong base entry for guards, scouts, mercenaries, raiders, or military personnel.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Stealth d6, Shooting d6, Survival d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 12 (6) Edges: Alertness Gear: Body armor (+4), laser pistol (Range 15/30/60, Damage 2d6, AP 2, Cauterize, Overcharge), molecular knife (Str+d4+2, AP 2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Scaly skin.
Bite: Str+d6, AP 2.
Cold-Blooded: Subtract 1 from Agility, Strength, and Vigor rolls after spending more than ten minutes in temperatures below 60° Fahrenheit (18° Celsius).
Environmental Weakness (Cold): Saurians are poorly suited for frigid conditions. They suffer a −4 penalty to resist cold environmental effects, and suffer +4 damage from cold-based attacks.
Infravision: Halve Illumination penalties when attacking warm targets.

Setneru Citizen

The Setneru are elegant desert-world sophonts whose beauty, poise, and mutable body expression make them immediately memorable. They are particularly well suited to ancient worlds, buried ruins, old bloodlines, and cultures that feel both advanced and archaic.

This profile represents a typical Setneru civilian.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d8, Notice d6, Persuasion d8, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 2; Toughness: 6 Gear: Various

Special Abilities:

Size 1: Setneru are slim, but eight feet tall.

Sentient Vehicle

Some vehicles are programmed with full AI. Others become aware through accident, emergent complexity, or stranger causes. A sentient vehicle is less a creature entry than a narrative overlay you can place onto any appropriate ship, walker, aircraft, or ground car.

Use the vehicle’s normal statistics, then add the following guidance:

A sentient vehicle usually has Smarts d10 and Spirit d10 at minimum.
Some may possess skills at d12 or higher.
Common skills include Academics, Battle, Driving, Electronics, Language, Notice, Persuasion, Piloting, Research, and Science.
Many develop personalities, loyalties, grudges, or full Hindrances of their own.
Not all sentient vehicles are friendly. Some are merely eccentric. Others are manipulative, possessive, or homicidal.

Scientist

Scientists are among the most useful neutral NPCs in the setting because they can serve as patrons, victims, rivals, researchers, or the only people in the room who understand what the anomaly is doing. This profile works for lab researchers, field xenobiologists, astrophysicists, and improvised frontier experts.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Academics d8, Athletics d4, Common Knowledge d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Repair d8, Research d8, Science d8, Shooting d6, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 2; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: Curious, Stubborn Edges: Mr. Fix It, Scholar (Science) Gear: Commlink, personal data device.

Smuggler

Smugglers thrive between borders, laws, and hypocrisies. Some are selfish opportunists. Others are the only reason medicine, food, or refugees make it through a blockade. This profile works for independent runners, underworld carriers, and charming rogues with fast ships and worse judgment.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Driving d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d8, Piloting d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 9 (4) Hindrances: Greedy (Major), Ruthless (Major) Edges: Ace, Connections, Rocket Jock, Streetwise Gear: Body armor (+4, energy skin), laser pistol (Range 15/30/60, Damage 2d6, AP 2, Cauterize, Overcharge)

Soldier Grunt

Grunts are the backbone of most armed forces in the setting. They are ideal for patrols, boarding parties, station garrisons, planetary infantry, or private military forces.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Driving d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Shooting d8, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 11 (6) Hindrances: Loyal Edges: Soldier Gear: Infantry battle suit (+6), laser rifle (Range 30/60/120, Damage 3d6, RoF 3, AP 2, Cauterize, No Recoil, Overcharge), molecular knife (Str+d4+2, AP 2), 2× frag grenades

Soldier Marine

Marines are more capable, more disciplined, and usually deployed where things are expected to go badly. This profile is ideal for elite shipboard troops, expeditionary infantry, and hardened colonial response forces.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d4, Driving d6, Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Survival d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 12 (6) Hindrances: Loyal Edges: Iron Jaw, Rock and Roll!, Soldier Gear: Infantry battle suit (+6), laser rifle (Range 30/60/120, Damage 3d6, RoF 3, AP 2, Cauterize, No Recoil, Overcharge), molecular knife (Str+d4+2, AP 2), 2× frag grenades

Soldier Officer [WC]

Officers are commanders, coordinators, and morale anchors for military units. This profile fits platoon leaders, shipboard tactical officers, colonial defense captains, or any field commander who fights beside their people.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Battle d6, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 11 (6) Hindrances: Loyal Edges: Combat Reflexes, Command, Fervor, Hold the Line, Soldier Gear: Infantry battle suit (+6), laser pistol (Range 15/30/60, Damage 2d6, AP 2, Cauterize, Overcharge), power saber (Str+2d6)

Space Cowboy

Space cowboys are the wranglers and hunters of the frontier. They capture dangerous xenos, recover escaped stock, escort caravans, and solve the sorts of “beast problem” civilized authorities would rather not touch.

This is a very flexible frontier archetype for Astrabound and works equally well as ally, rival, or employer.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Gambling d4, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Piloting d6, Riding d8, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Survival d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5 or 4 (whip); Toughness: 10 (4) Hindrances: Impulsive Edges: Steady Hands Gear: Body armor (+4), power whip (Str+d6+d4, Parry −1, Reach 2, ignores shield bonus, may Entangle or deal +d10 damage with raise), commlink, digital binoculars, exoskeleton (Strength d12), motion detector, Stetson

Environmental Hazards and Alien Flora

Space Sargassum

Space sargassum is less a creature than a drifting biome, a living hazard of the deep void. These colossal mats of interstellar weed float between stars, feeding on trace particles and tangling anything unfortunate enough to strike them. To spacers, they are equal parts graveyard, salvage opportunity, and nightmare.

Use space sargassum when you want a rescue scenario, a derelict crawl, a survival puzzle, or a strange outer-space ecosystem packed with vermin, predators, and haunted wrecks.

Game Notes:

Space sargassum does not have Traits of its own.
Individual strands are usually 1" (2 yards) thick with Hardness 16.
Fire and fire-based attacks deal +4 damage to the weed.
Tendrils can move or grow at Pace 1 toward solid objects.
In most cases, cutting free is a Complex Dramatic Task to escape before the tendrils grow too thick, possibly while creatures living in the mass attack the crew.

Spear Tree

Spear trees are among the most dangerous ambulatory plants in the Astrabound bestiary. They look like towering, thorn-ridden alien trees, but think and hunt with unnerving purpose. A spear tree kills at range, impales prey, then drains the corpse through rooting barbs and feeding vines.

Use spear trees in death worlds, cursed groves, xenobotanical preserves, or worlds where plant life evolved to compete with large animal predators.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d10 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d12+4, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d4, Fighting d4, Notice d8, Shooting d8, Stealth d6 Pace: 4; Parry: 4; Toughness: 16 (4)

Special Abilities:

Armor +4: The spear tree has a 6" thick layer of bark.
Plant: Immune to paralysis, poison, puppet, slumber, and Stun; does not sleep.
Size 4 (Large): The spear tree is nearly 24 feet tall.
Spears: The tree can shoot a number of spears each round, Damage Str+d6, AP 2, Range 3/6/12, RoF 5. If the attack causes a Wound, the victim is impaled as well. Budding roots begin to grow into the victim, draining nutrients back to the tree through the specialized vines and causing an additional Str+d4 damage per round, ignoring any bonuses to Toughness from Armor. Once the victim is drained, the vine detaches. Attached vines have a Toughness of 10.

Alien Fauna and Predators

Spit Worm

Spit worms are centipede-like territorial predators that do not rely on brute force as much as venom and intimidation. Their rearing, coiled warning posture is distinctive enough that experienced explorers learn to stop moving the instant they see it.

Use spit worms in deep forest encounters, jungle trails, or as territorial hazards around ruins and crash sites.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d6.
Infravision: Halve Illumination penalties when attacking warm targets.
Spit Poison: Range 3/6/12. Anyone not wearing a sealed body suit struck by the poison must make a Vigor roll or be paralyzed for 2d6 rounds.

Spitter

Spitters are bad-tempered mammals whose defining trait is not size or speed, but how absurdly easy it is to annoy them. On some worlds they are little more than venomous pests. On others they are feared pack animals or a plague in settled zones.

This is a useful profile for nuisance predators, hazardous ranchland fauna, or creatures that make every wilderness trek more irritating and more dangerous.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d6, Notice d6, Stealth d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 7 (2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Scaly hide.
Bite: Str+d6.
Size −1: Spitters stand about 3' tall.
Spit Poison: Cone Template, may be Evaded. Most spitters emit Mild Poison, but some varieties may project Knockout, Lethal, or Paralyzing poison at the GM’s call.

Springtail

Springtails are vicious pack-hunting reptiles built entirely around explosive leaps and latch-on kills. Their vestigial limbs are not for movement so much as anchoring into prey, while their heavy tails provide the recoil needed to launch themselves into contact.

Use springtails when you want fast-moving ambush predators that can overwhelm isolated characters.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Notice d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5

Special Abilities:

Bite/Claws: Str+d6.
Fearless: Immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Leaper: Double jumping distance.
Maul: A springtail scoring a raise on a Fighting roll automatically Entangles its foe, adding +2 to its bite attack on subsequent rounds.
Pounce: +4 damage instead of +2 when making a Wild Attack.

Stannion

Stannions are large cat-like predators that occupy the niche of apex plains hunter on many worlds. Some can be trained into loyal companions, but many more are subdued through collars, pain systems, or other cruel methods.

They work well as dangerous wildlife, status beasts for nobles, or fearsome hunting companions in frontier and gladiatorial settings.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Stealth d8, Survival d6 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 12 (2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Thick hide and fur.
Bite: Str+d10, AP 1.
Claws: Str+d6, AP 2.
Pounce: +4 damage instead of +2 when making a Wild Attack.
Size 3: Stannions weigh over 800 pounds.

Stomper

Stompers are a good example of alien evolution producing something both absurd and terrifying. They are heavy, bipedal carnivores with almost useless mouths for hunting, so they solve the problem by pulping prey first and feeding afterward.

Use stompers as herd-hunting predators, valley tyrants, or creatures that communicate through seismic signals.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+3, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d6 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 13 (2)

Special Abilities:

Armor +2: Thick hide.
Size 4 (Large): Stompers are nearly 20 feet tall with feet the size of large tree trunks.
Stomp: Strength+d10. Nonrigid armor, such as leather or spacesuits, offers no protection against the stomp.

Stryder

Stryders are classic frontier mounts in Astrabound, dependable, fast, and biologically distinct enough to feel like a real alien riding animal instead of a renamed horse. Their endurance makes them especially useful in wilderness travel, caravan campaigns, and low-tech or mixed-tech worlds.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d12, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d4, Notice d6, Stealth d4 Pace: 8 (d10 running); Parry: 4; Toughness: 7

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d4.
Endurance: Stryders can maintain a full run for 30 minutes without difficulty. Each 10 minutes after this, they must make a Vigor roll or suffer Fatigue. One level of Fatigue is recovered for every 30 minutes of rest.
Size 1: Stryders stand 8' tall.

Titan Eel

Titan eels are enormous aquatic predators, living cables of muscle and teeth that dominate trenches, reefs, and flooded planetary ruins. Some species are bad enough on size alone. Others also carry devastating electrical discharges.

Use titan eels for ocean-world terror, megafauna hunts, or “something is moving beneath the hull” encounters.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d12+10, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d10, Intimidation d10, Notice d10, Stealth d6 Pace: —; Parry: 7; Toughness: 20

Special Abilities:

Aquatic: Pace 10.
Bite: Str+d10 (II), Heavy Weapon.
Electric Shock: Some species of titan eel can discharge electricity. Once per encounter, this attack causes 5d6 damage to everything within 5" (10 yards) of the creature. Only sealed Heavy Armor offers protection.
Size 12 (Gargantuan): Titan eels can reach lengths of over 100' long and weigh hundreds of tons.

Umbrella Beast

Umbrella beasts are ambush horrors that turn ordinary ground into a death trap. Buried just beneath soft sand or soil, they wait for something to step onto them, then fold up around the victim in a dissolving prison of flesh and bone.

Use them for desert worlds, badlands, fungal marshes, or any terrain where the party is already worried about what lies underfoot.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+5, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d6, Notice d6, Stealth d8 Pace: 2; Parry: 5; Toughness: 13

Special Abilities:

Burrow: Umbrella beasts are not true burrowers, but conceal themselves beneath soft earth, leaving only their eyestalks just above the surface.
Digestion: Prey caught in an umbrella beast’s fleshy folds are slowly dissolved. An Entangled or Bound victim suffers 2d6 damage at the start of each of his turns.
Size 8 (Huge): Umbrella beasts measure 25' across.

Wire Rat

Wire rats are a shipboard menace, not because they are large or deadly in direct combat, but because they can cripple systems by chewing exactly the wrong line at exactly the wrong time. They are ideal for maintenance-horror, sabotage mysteries, and colony infrastructure headaches.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Notice d6, Stealth d10 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 3

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d4.
Leaper: Double jumping distance.
Pounce: +4 damage instead of +2 when making a Wild Attack.
Size −2 (Small): Wire rats are bigger than rats and much stockier.

Archetypes and Specialists

Spy

Spies in Astrabound can serve states, corporations, insurgencies, guilds, churches, criminal syndicates, or causes that technically no longer exist. This entry works equally well for sleek intelligence operatives and field agents hiding behind civilian covers.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Driving d6, Electronics d6, Fighting d6, Notice d8, Persuasion d8, Shooting d6, Stealth d8, Taunt d6, Thievery d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: Suspicious (Major) Edges: Connections, Deceptive, Streetwise, Thief Gear: Varies with disguise, but usually a laser pistol (Range 15/30/60, Damage 2d6, AP 2, Cauterize, Overcharge) and molecular knife (Str+d4+2, AP 2)

Starship Captain [WC]

A starship captain is more than a commander. On any vessel far from lawful oversight, the captain is judge, strategist, diplomat, morale officer, and in many ways the living embodiment of the ship itself. This profile works for military captains, merchant commanders, private exploration leaders, or ruthless free captains.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Battle d6, Common Knowledge d6, Electronics d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d8, Notice d6, Persuasion d8, Science d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: Loyal, Vow (Major, serve the patrons of his vessel) Edges: Ace, Command, Common Bond, Inspire, Rocket Jock Gear: Commlink, uniform, personal data device connected to the ship’s systems

Starship Crew Member

Crew members are the lifeblood of any large vessel. They keep the routine functioning, follow orders, work damage control, and form the backdrop of shipboard life. This entry is intentionally broad and can be reskinned for merchant ships, naval vessels, research craft, colony transports, and more.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d4, Healing d4, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Shooting d4, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5 Gear: Commlink, uniform, personal data device connected to the ship’s systems

Starship Engineer

Engineers keep ships alive. They maintain engines, power systems, hull integrity, life support, and every ugly piece of hardware nobody else thinks about until alarms start sounding. This profile works for both rank-and-file engineers and senior technical officers.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d10, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Electronics d8, Fighting d4, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Repair d8, Science d8, Shooting d6, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5 Edges: Mr. Fix It, Reliable Gear: Commlink, uniform, personal data device connected to the ship’s systems, tool belt, large wrench (Str+d6, improvised weapon)

Starship Gunner

Gunners are the specialists who make starship weapons count. This profile is ideal for turret crews, point-defense operators, weapons technicians, and disciplined broadside teams.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d4, Common Knowledge d4, Electronics d6, Fighting d4, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Repair d4, Shooting d8, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5 Edges: Marksman, Steady Hands Gear: Commlink, uniform, personal data device connected to the ship’s systems

Starship Medical Officer

A medical officer aboard a large ship is part doctor, part counselor, part biologist, and part emergency triage specialist. This profile works for naval surgeons, civilian chief medical officers, research physicians, and deep-space trauma responders.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d4, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d4, Healing d8, Notice d6, Persuasion d8, Research d6, Science d6, Shooting d4, Stealth d4, Survival d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: Loyal Edges: Reliable, Strong Willed Gear: Commlink, uniform, personal data device connected to the ship’s systems, medical kit, medi-scanner, 5× medi-gel

Starship Pilot/Navigator

Pilots and navigators occupy a unique place in Astrabound. On smaller craft they may be the same person. On larger vessels, this profile represents flight officers who combine instinct, training, and spatial discipline to keep a ship alive in both realspace and beyond.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Driving d6, Electronics d6, Fighting d4, Notice d8, Persuasion d4, Piloting d8, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Survival d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: Overconfident Edges: Ace, Evasive Maneuvers Gear: Commlink, uniform, personal data device connected to the ship’s systems

Thug

Thugs are hired muscle, gang enforcers, dockside bruisers, debt collectors, and low-grade intimidators across the galaxy. They are useful because they fit almost anywhere where organized violence exists.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d4, Persuasion d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6 Hindrances: Mean Edges: Menacing Gear: Heavy club (Str+d6). Many might carry various types of firearms as well.

Elite Hunters and Xeno Societies

Stalker [WC]

Stalkers are one of the setting’s most iconic trophy hunters, a starfaring species devoted not to empire, but to the ritualized pursuit of worthy prey. Their code is alien, strict, and deeply tied to status through trophies, challenge, and method.

Use stalkers as apex hunters, recurring rivals, uneasy allies against something worse, or the kind of enemy that studies the heroes before striking.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d4, Electronics d6, Fighting d10, Healing d6, Notice d8, Persuasion d4, Piloting d6, Repair d6, Science d4, Shooting d8, Stealth d10 Pace: 6; Parry: 8 or 9 (spear); Toughness: 13 (4) Edges: Block, Brawler, Brawny, Combat Reflexes, Counterattack, Improvisational Fighter, Level Headed, Marksman, Nerves of Steel (Imp), Sweep Gear: Light battle armor (+4), molecular spear (Str+d6+2, AP 3, Parry +1 if used two-handed, Reach 1), flechette gun (Range 12/24/48, Damage 2d4+1, RoF 3), sniper rifle (Range 50/100/200, Damage 2d12, AP 4), 6× fragmentation grenades (Range 5/10/20, Damage 3d6, MBT)

Special Abilities:

Sensors: Optical, chemical, motion, and other sensors ignore Illumination penalties. If it scans as an action, the creature adds a +2 bonus to Electronics or Notice rolls to detect targets within 500 yards.
Stealth System: A light-bending device makes the stalker difficult to detect visually. It grants a free reroll on Stealth rolls, and those trying to attack or detect the stalker do so at a −4 penalty. The effect is triggered as a free action, but is negated any round in which the stalker fires a weapon or performs an active scan.

Throxian Bombard

Bombards are not naturally belligerent, but when directed by the hive they become living artillery platforms. These titanic bioengineered siege organisms are among the most terrifying battlefield assets in the Throxian arsenal.

Use them as siege monsters, planetary bombardment beasts, or the centerpiece of a desperate defensive battle.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4, Spirit d4, Strength d12+12, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d4, Fighting d4, Notice d6, Shooting d10 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 29 (6)

Special Abilities:

Armor +6: Heavy Armor. Thick carapace.
Fearless: Bombards are immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Fireball: Bombards fire a white-hot ball of burning goo (Range 200/400/800, Damage 6d6 (II), Heavy Weapon, LBT). On low-gravity planets this projectile can achieve escape velocity.
Hardy: A second Shaken result in combat doesn’t cause a Wound.
Hive Mind: Throxians can communicate with others of their kind within 5" (10 yards).
Night Vision: Bombards ignore all Illumination penalties.
Resilient: Bombards can take one additional Wound before they are Incapacitated.
Size 15 (Gargantuan): Bombards tower 200 feet high and weigh over four thousand tons.
Stomp: Str+d10 (II), Heavy Weapon. Ignores Scale modifiers.
Tireless: Immune to Fatigue.
Vacuum Born: The creature is naturally adapted for life in space. It does not breathe, ignores the effects of a vacuum, and is immune to cold damage.

Throxian Enceph

Encephs are the psychic coordinators and strategic minds of the Throxian hive. They are bred for thought, not mobility, and serve as command nodes that turn local broods into coordinated military organisms.

This profile is excellent for command encounters where killing the “weak-looking” creature changes the entire battle.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d12, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d4, Battle d8, Common Knowledge d10, Notice d8, Persuasion d6, Psionics d8, Science d8, Stealth d6, Survival d6 Pace: 2; Parry: 2; Toughness: 11 Powers: empathy, invisibility, mind reading, speed, stun Power Points: 20

Special Abilities:

Hive Mind Focus: An enceph’s huge brain extends the Throxian Hive Mind capability, connecting all individuals within the enceph’s Smarts in miles.
Size 6 (Large): Encephs are as large as elephants and weigh around eight tons.
Slow: Encephs can only move by contracting their muscles, much like a slug. They move at Pace 2 and cannot run.
Vacuum Born: The creature is naturally adapted for life in space. It does not breathe, ignores the effects of a vacuum, and is immune to cold damage.

Throxian Soldier

Throxian soldiers are purpose-bred living weapons, utterly devoted to the hive and perfectly adapted for zero-atmosphere warfare. They should feel relentless, disciplined, and biologically specialized rather than merely “bug warriors.”

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d4 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 Edges: Combat Reflexes, Nerves of Steel

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d6.
Hardy: A second Shaken result in combat doesn’t cause a Wound.
Hive Mind: Throxians can communicate with others of their kind within 5" (10 yards).
Leaper: Double jumping distance.
Pounce: +4 damage instead of +2 when making a Wild Attack.
Resilient: Can take one additional Wound.
Spike: Str+d8, AP 1. A hit with a raise Entangles the victim.
Tireless: Immune to Fatigue.
Vacuum Born: The creature is naturally adapted for life in space. It does not breathe, ignores the effects of a vacuum, and is immune to cold damage.
Wall Walker: Soldiers may cling to vertical and inverted surfaces and move at their standard Pace.
Flight: One in twenty soldiers also has wings and Flight: Pace 10.

Throxian Worker Drone

Worker drones are the labor caste that makes the hive function. They are not glamorous, but they are everywhere, tireless, vacuum-adapted, and physically capable. In large numbers they can be as dangerous as soldiers simply through persistence and scale.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d8, Strength d10, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d4, Notice d6, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 6

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d4.
Hive Mind: Throxians can communicate with others of their kind within 5" (10 yards).
Tireless: Immune to Fatigue.
Vacuum Born: The creature is naturally adapted for life in space. It does not breathe, ignores the effects of a vacuum, and is immune to cold damage.
Wall Walker: Worker drones may cling to vertical and inverted surfaces and move at their standard Pace.

Uslen Crime Boss

Uslen are physically repulsive to most species and socially dangerous to nearly everyone who underestimates them. Their ruthless, opportunistic culture produces natural schemers, crime lords, and black-market magnates. This profile is for a typical uslen crime boss.

Use one when you need a mob ruler who would rather bribe, threaten, humiliate, and manipulate than fight personally.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d4, Common Knowledge d8, Fighting d4, Gambling d10, Intimidation d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d8, Shooting d4, Stealth d4, Taunt d8, Thievery d8 Pace: 4; Parry: 4; Toughness: 8 Hindrances: Arrogant, Greedy (Major), Mean, Obese Edges: Connections, Humiliate, Menacing, Rabble-Rouser, Rich, Streetwise, Strong Willed

Special Abilities:

Acid Biology: When an uslen suffers a Wound, everyone within a Small Blast Template must roll Evasion or suffer 2d6 damage. Suffering two Wounds increases the damage to 3d6, and three or more Wounds douse unfortunates with 4d6 damage. The species is immune to their own acid, but not other types.
Alien Form: The uslen have a size and shape incompatible with most equipment and vehicles available. Weapons and vehicles suffer a −1 penalty to operate and armor does not fit at all.
Reduced Pace: As they have no legs, uslen crawl along at Pace −1, and have a d4 running die.
Repugnant: Reactions are always either Unfriendly or rolled on 1d6 instead of 2d6 if determined randomly. A roll of 1 is treated as Hostile, plus the unfortunate becomes physically ill.
Size 2: An uslen can reach upward of 9' long and weigh over 1200 lbs.

Voidling

Voidlings are one of the more mysterious starborn peoples, beings that evolved in the open dark and only interact with material civilization through containment technology. They are excellent for enigmatic NPCs, alien refugees, or cultures that genuinely developed outside the assumptions of breathable-atmosphere life.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d4, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Stealth d8, Survival d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 7 (2) Hindrances: Clueless, Curious, Outsider (Minor), Zero-G Worlder Edges: Calculating Gear: Containment suit (+2), language translator

Special Abilities:

Bloodless: Voidlings automatically stabilize whenever they would Bleed Out.
Cannot Speak: Unless aided by devices, voidlings can understand other languages but may only communicate with members of their own culture.
Energy Form: Voidlings have no vital organs and ignore Called Shots, take no damage from falling, collisions, or physical weapons and projectiles. They take full damage from energy weapons, explosions, arcane attacks, and similar effects. Voidlings cannot wear armor, use weapons, or manipulate matter unless they wear a containment suit.
Separation Disorder: Subtract 2 from Spirit rolls when there are no other voidlings present.
Spacer: Voidlings do not breathe and can survive in the vacuum of space.

Xerin

Xerins are sapient tribal humanoids with a strong instinctive distrust of technology. On worlds where modern societies border their territory, xerins often become raiders, saboteurs, or defiant defenders of their way of life.

They make strong wilderness antagonists, resistant allies, or cultural collision NPCs.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Shooting d6, Stealth d6, Survival d8 Pace: 8; Parry: 6 or 7 (spear); Toughness: 9 (2) Hindrances: Cautious Edges: Fleet-Footed Gear: Body armor (+2), knife (Str+d4), spear (Str+d6, Parry +1)

Special Abilities:

Hardy: A second Shaken result in combat doesn’t cause a Wound.
Immunity: Xerins are not affected by poisons.
Size 1: Xerins are well over 6' tall, with long, sinewy limbs.

Xok-Xok

Xok-xok are small, practical scrap-world survivors whose civilization grew around other peoples’ abandoned technology. They are gifted mechanics, improvisers, and rebuilders, and make excellent engineers, scavengers, quartermasters, and salvage specialists.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Driving d4, Electronics d8, Fighting d4, Hacking d8, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Repair d8, Science d4, Shooting d4, Stealth d6, Survival d8, Thievery d6 Pace: 5; Parry: 4; Toughness: 4 Hindrances: Greedy (Minor), Mild Mannered Edges: Mr. Fix It Gear: Stun baton (Str+d4, Stun), laser rifle (Range 30/60/120, Damage 3d6, AP 2, RoF 3, Cauterize, No Recoil, Overcharge), EMP grenade (Range 5/10/20, Damage 4d6 nonlethal against electronic devices only)

Special Abilities:

Low Light Vision: Ignore penalties for Dim and Dark Illumination.
Reduced Pace: Xok-xok have small legs. Pace −1, and d4 running die.
Size −1: Xok-xok stand three feet tall and weigh 100 pounds.

Yeti

In Astrabound, “yeti” is a broad field term for large, furred mammalian sophonts from cold worlds. Most outsiders use it imprecisely, but the beings themselves are often formidable, resilient, and adapted to truly brutal climates.

This profile suits wilderness tribes, frozen-world raiders, or misunderstood frontier peoples.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d4, Stealth d6, Survival d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 6 or 7 (spear); Toughness: 8 Hindrances: All Thumbs, Clueless Edges: Frenzy Gear: None, though some may have a knife (Str+d4) or spear (Str+d6, Reach 1, Parry +1 if used two-handed)

Special Abilities:

Big: Yetis subtract 2 from Trait rolls when using equipment that was not specifically designed for their form and cannot wear armor or clothing that was not made for them.
Environmental Resistance (Cold): Yetis add +4 to resist the effects of cold, and reduce damage from cold- and ice-based attacks by 4.
Environmental Weakness (Heat): Yetis subtract 4 from Fatigue checks made to resist the effects of heat, and take 4 additional points of damage from heat- and fire-based attacks.
Size 2: Yetis are around seven feet tall, very broad, and very dense.

Swarms

Bombardier Bird Swarm

Bombardier birds are an excellent example of how even non-fantastical creatures become terrifying when they work together. These flocks kill by coordinated stone bombardment, striking from high above and dispersing before most prey can retaliate.

Use them for canyon worlds, cliff nesting colonies, or alien avians that have learned to weaponize gravity.

Special Abilities:

Bombardment: Bombardiers attack by dropping heavy rocks on their prey. The swarm template indicates the area of ground they bomb, with the actual swarm flying 25" (50 yards) above. Anything caught in the template must roll Evasion or take 3d6 damage. Bombardiers make a single attack then disperse for 2d4 rounds to grab more stones before reforming into a swarm and trying again.

Bore Worm Swarm

Bore worms are one of the nastiest swarm threats in the setting because they do not merely damage. They infest. These heat-seeking parasites slip beneath skin and continue killing long after the encounter seems over.

They are ideal for horror sessions, hazardous wilderness expeditions, or quarantine scenarios.

Special Abilities:

Infection: If a bore worm swarm causes a Shaken or Wounded result, several dozen of the creatures have burrowed beneath the victim’s skin. The target suffers an automatic Wound each day afterward until he perishes. This cannot be healed until the worms are removed. Removing the bore worms requires complex surgery with a Healing roll at −4 or five minutes’ exposure to high levels of radiation, which can itself be deadly.
Infravision: Halve Illumination penalties when attacking warm targets.

Zombies and Reanimated Horrors

Horrornaut

Horrornauts are one of the best hard-science zombie variants in Astrabound. They are dead astronauts still trapped in ruined suits, their bodies blackened by vacuum, dried by exposure, or frozen in grotesque poses behind cracked visors.

Use them in derelicts, dead stations, lost mission wrecks, and salvage horror.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d4, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d8, Notice d6, Piloting d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 4; Parry: 5; Toughness: 8 (1) Gear: Spacesuit (+1), laser pistol (Range 15/30/60, Damage 2d6, AP 2, Cauterize, Overcharge)

Special Abilities:

Claws: Str.
Fearless: Zombies are immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Undead: +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from being Shaken; no additional damage from Called Shots; ignores 1 point of Wound penalties; does not breathe; immune to disease and poison.
Weakness (Head): Called Shots to a zombie’s head do the usual +4 damage.

Parasite Zombie

Parasite zombies are excellent for biological horror because they blur the line between corpse and victim. In many cases the host body may not even be fully dead, just overridden. That ambiguity alone can make them more disturbing than any supernatural undead.

Use them in outbreak plots, research disasters, infested colonies, or alien-ecosystem horror.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d4, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 7 Edges: Fleet-Footed, Frenzy Gear: None, though some may still be wearing spacesuits or armor

Special Abilities:

Claws: Str.
Fearless: Zombies are immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Poor Senses: Parasite zombies are at −4 to detect motionless creatures or those using Stealth and moving no faster than Pace 1.
Undead: +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from being Shaken; no additional damage from Called Shots; ignores 1 point of Wound penalties; does not breathe; immune to disease and poison.
Weakness (Head): Called Shots to a zombie’s head do the usual +4 damage.

Bestiary

This batch closes out the bestiary with two different kinds of entries: lesser xenos and classic threat profiles adapted for Astrabound Game Masters. The lesser xenos are not always direct combatants, but they can turn a routine expedition, overland trek, or starship journey into a disaster. The classic entries below are presented as ready-to-use analogs for fantasy, horror, or cross-genre threats in Astrabound.

For Wild Cards, this batch uses [WC].

Lesser Xenos

These creatures are often more dangerous because of what they cause than because of the damage they deal directly. They are excellent for complications, survival encounters, escalating hazards, and scenes where the environment becomes the enemy.

Alarm Bird

Alarm birds are scavengers that have evolved a crude but effective hunting partnership with larger predators. They do not attack prey themselves. Instead, once they spot a vulnerable target, they circle high overhead and emit loud, distinct cries that attract more dangerous hunters from miles around.

Use alarm birds when you want the party to realize they have been marked long before the real threat arrives.

Special Rules:

Alarm birds do not attack directly.
They may be treated as a Swarm for purposes of dispersal.
They typically circle at least 100 yards overhead.
Their cries attract more dangerous predators from several miles away.

Bloodfly

Bloodflies are tiny, vicious, fly-like insects drawn to the scent of fresh blood from astonishing distances. A single wounded target can quickly turn into a feeding frenzy that engulfs everyone nearby.

Use bloodflies as a punishment for injury in the wild, a complication after combat, or a reason to keep wounds sealed on hostile worlds.

Special Rules:

Treat bloodflies as a Swarm.
They inflict 2d4 damage with their bites.
The swarm may split.

Croaker

Croakers are small, furry nocturnal carnivores that remain buried beneath the soil until they sense movement overhead. Their name comes from the loud, uncanny croaking calls they emit, which draw nearby predators to the area. Once larger hunters arrive, croakers emerge to feed on whatever remains.

Use croakers to make “safe ground” feel unsafe, especially in wilderness survival scenarios.

Special Rules:

Croakers are a Swarm, but cause no damage directly.
Attacks against them suffer a −6 penalty to attack and damage since they remain burrowed beneath the soil.
Their croaking attracts nearby predators.

Crumpler

Crumplers are nearly invisible vermin that feed on processed materials rather than flesh. Ceramics, polymers, refined alloys, and structural composites are all on the menu. A single crumpler is little more than an annoyance. A swarm can quietly destroy weapons, vehicles, doors, starship systems, or habitat infrastructure.

Use crumplers when you want material failure, sabotage-like disasters, or a reason for explorers to fear even the smallest alien life.

Special Rules:

Crumplers are Notice −6 to detect with the naked eye.
A swarm reduces an object’s Hardness by 1 point in 1d4 hours.
Objects with moving parts cease functioning when they reach half Hardness. This failure may be catastrophic at the GM’s call.

Firefly

These nocturnal insects are irresistibly drawn to intense heat. Campfires, plasma vents, engine exhaust, and open thrusters all attract them in dangerous numbers. When they converge, they ignite almost instantly, producing an explosive fireburst.

Use fireflies to turn campfires, overheating machinery, and damaged engines into immediate hazards.

Special Rules:

A swarm that reaches a significant heat source combusts in a Large Blast Template.
The explosion causes 3d6 fire damage.
In areas where fireflies are common, there are usually 1d6 swarms within range.

Snowball

Snowballs are small, furry creatures with almost no visible anatomy beyond a tiny mouth. Alone, they are harmless vermin. In numbers, they are a consuming biological disaster. Their reproductive rate is so extreme that what begins as a nuisance can become an extinction-level infestation in a closed environment.

Use snowballs for colony-ship horror, ecological collapse, or “we should have dealt with this yesterday” scenarios.

Special Rules:

An adult snowball is no larger than a human fist.
It can roll at Pace 1.
As long as they have food and do not consume one another, each snowball produces one new snowball every hour.
In large numbers, a mass of snowballs may be treated as Difficult Ground.
Given enough time, they can fill enclosed areas and consume all organic matter.

Spewer

Spewers are herbivores, but they defend themselves with one of the most miserable biological weapons in the galaxy. Their saliva is foul beyond description, and creatures coated in it suffer exhaustion, humiliation, and often the unwanted attention of local predators.

Use spewers for wilderness hazards, livestock encounters, or situations where the party’s stealth plans collapse in the most disgusting way possible.

Special Rules:

Spewers attack with a Cone Template of foul saliva.
Everything within must make an Agility roll or be coated in the ejecta.
Victims suffer one level of Fatigue.
This Fatigue fades only after excessive bathing or roughly a month.
The scent may attract other creatures, and makes close-range Stealth impossible against targets with a sense of smell.

Stygian Midge

Stygian midges gather around warmth in impossible numbers, darkening entire areas into absolute blackness. Unlike normal darkness, their mass interferes with more than visible light. Infrared and most other electromagnetic scanning become useless inside the cloud.

Use them to blind sensors, disable scouting tech, or create terror in an otherwise open environment.

Special Rules:

A swarm of stygian midges creates Pitch Darkness in a Large Blast Template.
This also affects electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths, including infrared.
Sound and sound-based sensors such as sonar are unaffected.

Vomit Bird

Vomit birds are tiny, irritating fliers that would barely matter if left alone. Unfortunately, when struck, startled, or killed, they retaliate by emptying their stomach contents over the attacker in a wave of corrosive filth.

Use them for low-level nuisance encounters that become memorable purely because of the consequences.

Special Rules:

When a vomit bird suffers a Shaken result or worse, even if killed, it regurgitates on its foe.
Anyone not inside a sealed suit must make a Vigor roll or suffer Fatigue from nausea.
The victim also takes 2d4 acid damage.

Classic Monsters and Cross-Genre Threats

These entries are polished for Astrabound presentation while preserving their original mechanics. Many are ideal as reskinned xenos, lost-colony horrors, engineered bioweapons, or extradimensional entities.

Air Elemental

Air elementals appear as sentient whirlwinds, storm-spirits, or coherent vortices of alien atmospheric force. In Astrabound, they can stand in for plasma-storm intelligences, vent-spirits, or entities native to gas giants and anomaly zones.

Attributes: Agility d12, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d8, Notice d8, Shooting d6, Stealth d10 Pace: —; Parry: 6; Toughness: 5 Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Elemental: No additional damage from Called Shots, ignores 1 point of Wound penalties, does not breathe, immune to disease and poison.
Gaseous Form: Can maneuver through any non-solid surface, pass through cracks in doors or windows, bubble through water, and so on.
Flight: Air elementals fly at Pace 12.
Invulnerability: Immune to non-magical attacks.
Wind Blast: Air elementals can send directed blasts of air to knock their foes away. They may choose one target or a Cone Template, and use their Shooting skill for the roll. Those affected make a Strength roll, at −2 if the elemental gets a raise, or are hurled 2d6". Anyone who strikes a hard object, such as a wall, takes 2d4 nonlethal damage.

Ancient Vampire [WC]

Ancient vampires are ideal for Astrabound campaigns that blend horror, occult science, or post-human immortals. They can be reskinned as psychic aristocrats, parasitic elder beings, or genuinely supernatural undead.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d10, Spirit d10, Strength d12+3, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d10, Fighting d10, Intimidation d12, Notice d8, Persuasion d12, Shooting d8, Stealth d10 Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 10 Edges: Frenzy (Imp), Level Headed

Special Abilities:

Bite/Claws: Str+d4.
Change Form: As an action, a vampire can change into a wolf or bat with a Smarts roll at −2. Changing back into humanoid form requires a Smarts roll.
Charm: Vampires can use the puppet power on those attracted to them using their Smarts as their arcane skill. They can cast and maintain the power indefinitely, but may only affect one target at a time.
Children of the Night: Ancient vampires have the ability to summon and control wolves or rats. This requires an action and a Smarts roll at −2. If successful, 1d6 wolves or 1d6 swarms of rats come from the surrounding wilds in 1d6+2 rounds.
Invulnerability: Vampires can only be slain by sunlight or a stake through the heart. They may be Shaken by other attacks, but never Wounded.
Mist: Ancient vampires have the ability to turn into mist. Doing so, or returning to human form, requires an action and a Smarts roll at −2.
Sire: Anyone slain by a vampire has a 50% chance of rising as a vampire in 1d4 days.
Undead: +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from being Shaken; no additional damage from Called Shots; ignores 1 point of Wound penalties; does not breathe; immune to disease and poison.
Weakness (Holy Symbol): A character may keep a vampire at bay by displaying a holy symbol. A vampire who wants to directly attack the victim must beat her in an opposed Spirit roll.
Weakness (Holy Water): A vampire sprinkled with holy water is Fatigued. If immersed, he combusts as if it were direct sunlight.
Weakness (Invitation Only): Vampires cannot enter a private dwelling without being invited. They may enter public domains as they please.
Weakness (Stake Through the Heart): A vampire hit with a Called Shot to the heart (−4) must make a Vigor roll versus the damage total. If successful, it takes damage normally. If it fails, it disintegrates to dust.
Weakness (Sunlight): Vampires burn in sunlight. They take 2d4 damage per round until they are ash. Armor protects normally.

Dragon [WC]

In Astrabound, true dragons work well as ancient xenobeasts, bioengineered apex horrors, elder world predators, or remnants of forgotten god-species. They are intelligent, devastating, and never just “big lizards.”

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d10, Strength d12+8, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d10, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d10, Intimidation d12, Notice d12, Persuasion d10, Stealth d8 Pace: 8; Parry: 7; Toughness: 20 (4) Edges: Frenzy (Imp), Level Headed

Special Abilities:

Armor +4: Scaly hide.
Bite/Claws: Str+d8.
Fear (−2): Anyone who sees a mighty dragon must make a Fear check at −2.
Fiery Breath: Dragons breathe fire for 3d6 damage.
Flight: Dragons have a Flying Pace of 24".
Hardy: The creature does not suffer a Wound from being Shaken twice.
Size 8 (Huge): Dragons are massive creatures, over 40' long from nose to tail and weighing over 30,000 pounds.
Swat: Dragons ignore up to 4 points of Scale penalties when attacking with their claws.
Tail Lash: Str+d4. The creature may make a free attack against up to two foes to its side or rear at no penalty.

Drake

Drakes are the more animalistic cousins of true dragons, well-suited for use as feral megafauna, colony-world apex predators, or weapons bred by some forgotten war culture.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d12+6, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d10, Intimidation d12, Notice d8, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 18 (4) Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Armor +4: Scaly hide.
Bite/Claws: Str+d8.
Fear: Drakes are frightening creatures to behold.
Fiery Breath: Drakes breathe fire for 3d6 damage.
Resilient: Drakes can take one Wound before they are Incapacitated.
Size 6 (Large): Drakes are over 20' long from snout to tail.
Tail Lash: Str. The creature may make a free attack against up to two foes to its side or rear at no penalty.

Earth Elemental

Earth elementals are living masses of stone and mineral force. In Astrabound they can be literal elementals, subterranean xenos, mobile lithic constructs, or seismic anomalies with intent.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d12, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d8, Notice d4, Stealth d6 Pace: 4; Parry: 6; Toughness: 11 (4) Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Armor +4: Rocky hide.
Bash: Str+d6.
Burrow (10"): Earth elementals can meld into and out of the ground.
Elemental: No additional damage from Called Shots, ignores 1 point of Wound penalties, does not breathe, immune to disease and poison.
Immunity: Immune to earth-based attacks, including thrown stones or powers with earth, mud, stone, or sand trappings.
Resilient: Earth elementals can take one Wound before they are Incapacitated.

Fire Elemental

Fire elementals may be supernatural beings, stellar life forms, combustion entities, or escaped reactor intelligences. They work beautifully anywhere heat and light become predatory.

Attributes: Agility d12+1, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d4, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d10, Notice d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 5 Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Elemental: No additional damage from Called Shots, ignores 1 point of Wound penalties, does not breathe, immune to disease and poison.
Fiery Touch: Str+d6, chance of catching Fire.
Flame Strike: Can project a searing blast of flame using the Cone Template and their Shooting skill. Characters within take 3d6 and may catch Fire. May be Evaded.
Immunity: Fire elementals are immune to fire and heat-based attacks.

Ghost

Ghosts fit easily into Astrabound as true spirits, psychic echoes, uploaded minds gone wrong, temporal residues, or trauma imprints bound to ships, stations, and ruins.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d10, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d8, Fighting d6, Intimidation d12, Notice d12, Stealth d12, Taunt d10 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5 Edges: — Gear: Thrown objects (Str+d4)

Special Abilities:

Ethereal: Ghosts can become invisible and immaterial at will and can only be harmed by magical attacks.
Fear (−2): Ghosts cause Fear checks at −2 when they let themselves be seen.

Giant Worm [WC]

A giant worm is a perfect Astrabound monster for deserts, badlands, tundra flats, under-ice caverns, or any world where the ground itself should feel alive. Use it for sandworm analogs, burrowing megafauna, or engineered siege organisms.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d12+9, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Notice d10, Stealth d10 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 21 (4) Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Armor +4: Scaly hide.
Bite: Str+d8.
Burrow (20"): Giant worms tunnel through the ground, blocked only by solid bedrock.
Hardy: The creature does not suffer a Wound from being Shaken twice.
Size 9 (Huge): Giant worms are usually over 50' long and 10' or more in diameter.
Slam: Giant worms crush prey beneath their massive bodies. Lay three Small Blast Templates adjacent to one another and in a straight line to represent the portion of the creature’s body used to crush. Everything within must beat the worm in an opposed Athletics versus Agility roll or take its Strength as damage. Ignore Scale modifiers when making a slam attack.

Goblin

Goblins in Astrabound are best used as feral raiders, degenerate tunnel cultures, scavenger clans, or night-stalking child-stealers in horror-leaning campaigns.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d10, Fighting d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Shooting d8, Stealth d10, Taunt d6 Pace: 5; Parry: 5; Toughness: 4 Hindrances: Greedy (Major) Edges: — Gear: Short spears (Str+d4), bows (Range 12/24/48, Damage 2d6)

Special Abilities:

Infravision: Halve penalties for Illumination when attacking warm targets.
Size −1: Goblins stand 3–4' tall.

Horse

In Astrabound, this profile is just as useful for actual horses as it is for conventional riding beasts on frontier worlds.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d12, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d4, Notice d6 Pace: 12; Parry: 4; Toughness: 8 Edges: Fleet-Footed

Special Abilities:

Kick: Str+d4, to the front or rear as desired.
Size 2: Typical quarter horse of about 1,000 lbs.

Horse, War

War horses are bred or trained for aggression, battlefield courage, and trampling power. In Astrabound, this also works for cavalry mounts on low-tech worlds and ceremonial beasts trained for elite riders.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d12+2, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d8, Notice d6 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 10 Edges: Fleet-Footed

Special Abilities:

Kick: Str+d4, to the front or rear as desired.
Size 3: Warhorses are large creatures bred for their power and stature.

Lich [WC]

A lich may be literal undead, an undying necromancer, a preserved psychic tyrant, or even a techno-occult immortal whose body persists past death through forbidden science. In any form, it is a campaign-level villain.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d12+2, Spirit d10, Strength d10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d12, Notice d10, Occult d12+2, Persuasion d8, Spellcasting d12 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 15 (6) Edges: Concentration, Level Headed (Imp), Wizard Gear: Magical armor (+6), other magical items

Special Abilities:

Death Touch: Liches drain the lives of those around them with a touch. Instead of a normal attack, a lich may make a Touch Attack. Every raise on its Fighting roll automatically inflicts one Wound to its target.
Spells: Liches have 50 Power Points and know most every spell available.
Undead: +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from being Shaken; no additional damage from Called Shots; ignores 1 point of Wound penalties; does not breathe; immune to disease and poison.
Zombie: Liches are necromancers first and foremost. The undead they raise through the zombie spell are permanent, and they may raise skeletons just like zombies as they choose.

Lion

A lion profile remains useful even in Astrabound for frontier safari worlds, uplifted wildlife preserves, holo-hunts, or alien megacats with minimal changes.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d12, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d10 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 7 Edges: Frenzy (Imp)

Special Abilities:

Bite/Claws: Str+d6.
Low Light Vision: Lions ignore penalties for Dim and Dark Illumination.
Pounce: If a lion makes a Wild Attack, it adds +4 to its damage instead of +2.
Size 1: Typical males are about 400 pounds.

Mech

This is a strong baseline for patrol walkers, autonomous sentinels, colonial defense mechs, or internal-security warframes.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d6, Spirit d4, Strength d12+4, Vigor d8 Skills: Fighting d6, Notice d10, Shooting d8 Pace: 10; Parry: 5; Toughness: 14 (4) Edges: Alertness (Sensors) Gear: Typically a machine gun or flamethrower

Special Abilities:

Armor +4
Construct: +2 to recover from being Shaken; ignores 1 point of Wound penalties; does not breathe or suffer from disease or poison.
Fearless: Mechs are immune to Fear and Intimidation, but may be smart enough to react to fear-causing situations aptly.
Night Vision: Sensor packages ignore penalties for Illumination.
Size 4 (Large): The mech stands 15' tall.

Minotaur

A minotaur can be used straight as mythic fantasy, or reskinned as a gene-forged labyrinth guardian, arena species, or ritual warrior caste from a brutal world.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d12+3, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d10, Intimidation d12, Notice d10, Persuasion d4, Stealth d8 Pace: 8; Parry: 7 or 8 (spear); Toughness: 12 (1) Edges: Fleet-Footed Gear: Leather armor (+1), spear (Str+d6, Reach 1, Parry +1)

Special Abilities:

Horns: Str+d4.
Resilient: Minotaurs can take one Wound before they are Incapacitated.
Size 3: Minotaurs stand over 7' tall and have the mass of bulls.

Mule

Mules are draft animals, caravan beasts, and excellent analogs for other stocky burden creatures.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d4, Notice d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 2; Toughness: 8 Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Kick: Str.
Ornery: Characters must subtract 1 from their Riding rolls when riding them.
Size 2: Mules are stocky creatures usually weighing under 1,000 pounds.

Ogre

Ogres are straightforward bruisers, excellent as raiders, enforcers, or low-tech shock troops.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d12+2, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d4, Persuasion d4 Pace: 7; Parry: 6; Toughness: 11 (1) Edges: Brute, Sweep Gear: Thick hides (+1), massive club (Str+d8)

Special Abilities:

Resilient: Ogres can take one Wound before they are Incapacitated.
Size 2: Most ogres are over 8' tall with potbellies and massive arms and legs.

Orc

Orcs work equally well as fantasy raiders or as primitive but brutal humanoids on a death world.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d8, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Shooting d6, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 8 (1) Edges: Brute Gear: Leather armor (+1), scimitar (Str+d8)

Special Abilities:

Infravision: Halve penalties for Illumination when attacking warm targets.
Size 1: Orcs are slightly larger than humans.

Orc Chieftain [WC]

An orc chieftain is ideal as a warlord, raider-king, or clan tyrant. In Astrabound, this could also represent the dominant brute in any similar warrior culture.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d8, Fighting d12, Intimidation d10, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 8 (7 with great axe); Toughness: 12 (4) Edges: Brute, Sweep Gear: Plate corselet (+4), chain arms and legs (+3), great axe (Str+d10)

Special Abilities:

Infravision: Halve penalties for Illumination when attacking warm targets.
Size 1: Orcs are slightly larger than humans.

Raptor

This entry covers birds of prey and can be reused for many small flying hunters across frontier worlds.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d4−2, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d6, Notice d10, Stealth d8 Pace: 3; Parry: 5; Toughness: 2 Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Bite/Claws: Str+d4.
Flight: Raptors fly at a Pace of 48".
Size −3 (Very Small): Raptors are lightweight and about two feet tall.

Shark

This profile covers common dangerous sharks and works equally well for alien aquatic predators of similar scale.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d8 (d10 for bull shark), Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Notice d12, Stealth d8 Pace: —; Parry: 6; Toughness: 7 Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Aquatic: Pace 10.
Bite: Str+d6.
Size 1: Sharks up to 500 pounds.

Shark, Great White

For ocean-world horror, giant aquarium breaches, or undersea survival missions, a great white remains a classic.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+4, Vigor d12 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d10, Notice d12, Stealth d12 Pace: —; Parry: 7; Toughness: 12 Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Aquatic: Pace 10.
Bite: Str+d8.
Hardy: The creature does not suffer a Wound from being Shaken twice.
Size 4 (Large): Great whites can grow up to 25' in length.

Skeleton

Skeletons are fast, disposable undead, ideal for necromancers, cursed ruins, automated ossuary guardians, or techno-occult war relics.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d4, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d4, Shooting d6 Pace: 7; Parry: 5; Toughness: 7 Edges: — Gear: Varies

Special Abilities:

Claws: Str+d4.
Fearless: Skeletons are immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Undead: +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from being Shaken; no additional damage from Called Shots; ignores 1 point of Wound penalties; does not breathe; immune to disease and poison.

Snake

Snakes are useful because nearly every setting has an equivalent. These two subtypes are especially easy to reskin as alien serpents.

Constrictors

Large constrictors work well in jungles, vents, swamps, wreckage tangles, and low-light ruins.

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d6, Notice d10, Stealth d6 Pace: 4; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5 Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str.
Constrict: +2 to Athletics and Strength rolls made to grapple.

Venomous

Venomous snakes are ideal for hidden danger, campsite tension, cargo-hold vermin, or small but lethal native fauna.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d4−2, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d8, Notice d12, Stealth d8 Pace: 4; Parry: 6; Toughness: 2 Edges: Quick

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+2.
Poison: The GM chooses what kind of poison the viper injects.
Size −3 (Very Small): Most venomous snakes are 4–6' in length, but only a few inches thick.

Soldier

This is the baseline trained combatant and remains useful for militia, guards, mercenaries, low-tech infantry, or generic trained opposition.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d4 Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5 Hindrances: — Edges: Soldier

Spider, Giant

Giant spiders are one of the easiest classic monsters to convert into alien predators. This entry works for nest-hunters, engineered ambush arachnids, or night-world pack predators.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d10, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d8, Intimidation d10, Notice d8, Shooting d10, Stealth d10 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 4 Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d4.
Poison (−4): Usually Mild or Lethal.
Size −1: These spiders are dog-sized.
Wall Walker: The creatures move at their full Pace on walls and ceilings.
Webbing: The spiders can cast webs from their thorax that are the size of Small Blast Templates. This is a Shooting roll with a Range of 6". A hit means the victim is Entangled, or Bound with a raise.

Swarm

This is the generic swarm profile for biting vermin, stinging insects, small scavengers, and similar hazards.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d12, Strength d8, Vigor d10 Skills: Notice d6 Pace: 10; Parry: 4; Toughness: 7 Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Bite or Sting: Swarms inflict hundreds of tiny bites or stings every round, hitting automatically unless Shaken and causing 2d4 damage to everyone in the template at the end of their turn. Damage is applied to the least armored location. Those in completely sealed suits are immune.
Split: Some swarms split into two smaller swarms when Wounded. Reduce the Blast Template one size after a Wound. Small swarms are destroyed.
Swarm: +2 to recover from being Shaken, Parry +2. Swarms are composed of many small creatures, so cutting and piercing weapons do no real damage. Area effect attacks work normally, and a character can stomp to inflict Strength damage each round. Some swarms may be foiled by total immersion in water.

Troll

Trolls can be played as folklore monsters, regenerative horror-brutes, or biotech horrors designed to outlast damage.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d12+2, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d10, Notice d6, Stealth d4 Pace: 7; Parry: 6; Toughness: 9 (1) Gear: Spiked club (Str+d8) Edges: Brute, Sweep (Imp)

Special Abilities:

Armor +1: Rubbery hide.
Bite/Claws: Str+d4.
Fast Regeneration: Trolls may attempt a natural healing roll every round, even if Incapacitated, unless their Wounds were caused by fire or flame or they are put to the torch afterward.
Resilient: Trolls can take one Wound before they are Incapacitated.
Size 1: Trolls are 8' tall, lanky creatures.

Vampire [WC]

This profile suits younger vampires, recently risen blood-drinkers, or lesser scions of an older immortal line.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d12+1, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d6, Persuasion d8, Shooting d6, Stealth d10 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 9 Edges: Frenzy, Level Headed

Special Abilities:

Bite/Claws: Str+d4.
Invulnerability: Vampires can only be slain by sunlight or a stake through the heart. They may be Shaken by other attacks, but never Wounded.
Sire: Anyone slain by a vampire has a 50% chance of rising as a vampire in 1d4 days.
Undead: +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from being Shaken; no additional damage from Called Shots; ignores 1 point of Wound penalties; does not breathe; immune to disease and poison.
Weakness (Holy Symbol): A character with a holy symbol may keep a vampire at bay by displaying it. A vampire who wants to directly attack the victim must beat her in an opposed Spirit roll.
Weakness (Holy Water): A vampire sprinkled with holy water is Fatigued. If immersed, he combusts as if it were direct sunlight.
Weakness (Invitation Only): Vampires cannot enter a private dwelling without being invited. They may enter public domains as they please.
Weakness (Stake Through the Heart): A vampire hit with a Called Shot to the heart (−4) must make a Vigor roll versus the damage. If successful, it takes damage normally. If it fails, it disintegrates to dust.
Weakness (Sunlight): Vampires burn in sunlight. They take 2d4 damage per round until they are ash. Armor protects normally.

Water Elemental

Water elementals can represent elemental spirits, living fluid intelligences, deep-ocean entities, or hydrokinetic anomalies.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d8, Notice d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d8 Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 7 Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Aquatic: Pace 12.
Elemental: No additional damage from Called Shots, ignores 1 point of Wound penalties, does not breathe, immune to disease and poison.
Immunity: Immune to water-based attacks.
Seep: Can squeeze through any porous gap as if it were Difficult Ground.
Slam: Str+d6, nonlethal damage.
Waterspout: Can project a torrent of water using the Cone Template and their Shooting skill. Those within take 2d6 nonlethal damage. This may be Evaded.

Werewolf

Werewolves can be literal lycanthropes, viral berserkers, moon-triggered shapechangers, or cursed bioforms. They are especially good for horror campaigns where infection matters as much as combat.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d12+2, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d8, Fighting d12+2, Intimidation d10, Notice d12, Stealth d10, Survival d10 Pace: 8; Parry: 9; Toughness: 8 Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Bite/Claws: Str+d8.
Fast Regeneration: Werewolves may attempt a natural healing roll every round unless the Wounds were caused by silvered objects.
Fear (−2): Werewolves chill the blood of all who see them.
Infection: Anyone slain by a werewolf has a 50% chance of rising as a werewolf themselves. The character involuntarily transforms every full moon. He gains control of his lycanthropy only after 1d6 years as a werewolf.
Infravision: Halve penalties for Illumination when attacking warm targets.
Size 1: Werewolves are stout creatures.

Zombie

The baseline zombie remains one of the most flexible entries in any bestiary. In Astrabound, they can be undead, infected colonists, parasite-ridden corpses, or reanimated failures of alien biology.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d4, Strength d6, Vigor d6 Skills: Athletics d4, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d4, Shooting d6 Pace: 4; Parry: 5; Toughness: 7 Edges: —

Special Abilities:

Bite/Claws: Str.
Fearless: Zombies are immune to Fear and Intimidation.
Undead: +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from being Shaken; no additional damage from Called Shots; ignores 1 point of Wound penalties; does not breathe; immune to disease and poison.
Weakness (Head): Called Shots to a zombie’s head do the usual +4 damage.

Designing Threats​

Special Abilities​

Aquatic​

Armor​

Bite​

Breath Weapons​

Burrow​

Claws​

Construct​

Elemental​

Energy Drain​

Environmental Resistance​

Environmental Weakness​

Ethereal​

Fear​

Fearless​

Flight​

Gargantuan​

Hardy​

Horns​

Immunity​

Infection​

Infravision​

Invulnerability​

Low Light Vision​

Leaper​

Mindless​

Night Vision​

Ooze​

Pack Tactics​

Paralysis​

Poison​

Rending Attack​

Regeneration​

Resilient / Very Resilient​

Size​

Stun​

Swallow Whole​

Swat​

Tentacles​

Trample​

Undead​

Wall Walker​

Weakness​

Unstoppable​

Size Reference​

Bestiary​

Baseline Terran Fauna​

Alligator / Crocodile​

Bear​

Bull​

Cat, Small​

Dire Wolf​

Dog / Wolf​

Alien Flora and Fauna​

Acid Pitcher​

Aerial Stalker​

Apex​

Arc Beetle​

Avrok​

Barbed-Tongue Lizard​

Batspider​

Bleeder Rabbit​

Bone Spider​

Brain Eater​

Bristled Gorer​

Peoples, Cultures, and Sapient Threats​

Aquarian​

Assassin​

Master Assassin​

Assimilator​

Assimilator Drone​

Avion​

Bounty Hunter​

Elite Bounty Hunter​

Brainiac​

Citizenry and Institutions​

Citizen​

Corporate Executive​

Senior Executive​

Designing Threats

Special Abilities

Aquatic

Armor

Bite

Breath Weapons

Burrow

Claws

Construct

Elemental

Energy Drain

Environmental Resistance

Environmental Weakness

Ethereal

Fear

Fearless

Flight

Gargantuan

Hardy

Horns

Immunity

Infection

Infravision

Invulnerability

Low Light Vision

Leaper

Mindless

Night Vision

Ooze

Pack Tactics

Paralysis

Poison

Rending Attack

Regeneration

Resilient / Very Resilient

Size

Stun

Swallow Whole

Swat

Tentacles

Trample

Undead

Wall Walker

Weakness

Unstoppable

Size Reference

Bestiary

Baseline Terran Fauna

Alligator / Crocodile

Bear

Bull

Cat, Small

Dire Wolf

Dog / Wolf

Alien Flora and Fauna

Acid Pitcher

Aerial Stalker

Apex

Arc Beetle

Avrok

Barbed-Tongue Lizard

Batspider

Bleeder Rabbit

Bone Spider

Brain Eater

Bristled Gorer

Peoples, Cultures, and Sapient Threats

Aquarian

Assassin

Master Assassin

Assimilator

Assimilator Drone

Avion

Bounty Hunter

Elite Bounty Hunter

Brainiac

Citizenry and Institutions

Citizen

Corporate Executive

Senior Executive