One of the first things we decided about the Adversaries Book in Witch Hunter was that if the whole thing was just a big list of monsters, it really wouldn't stand out too much. Especially amongst the numerous other monster-type books in the market.
One Adversaries book that I always loved was the d20 Modern Menace Manual, for the d20 Modern system. The reason I loved that source book was because the designers could have really just phoned it in and created a Big Book of Monsters.
Well, they didn't do that. The Menace Manual has some monsters, but it also has bad-guy organizations, neutral organizations, and whole parties of antagonists complete with backgrounds and personalities.
That, too me, was a far more dynamic book that would get much more use from a GM rather than just a box full o' threats. Basically, the Witch Hunter Adversaries Book would feature not just creatures, but stuff about the actual World of Witch Hunter. By presenting rival organizations, we would be helping GMs start up their campaigns. When a whole organization is detailed for you, it should help the GM create a campaign by featuring a group that could be the main villains for an entire story arc, whereas a single monster is usually only good for an encounter or two. Occasionally, you might get a creature that will serve as a spring board for a campaign, but that's rare.
We also decided that Witch Hunter monsters would be broad categories with lots of different kinds of monsters underneath each category. For example, a vampire might be a savage beast with glowing eyes and massive fangs. Or, it might be something that looks exactly like a human, can walk under the light of day, but just needs to drink some blood from time to time.
This way, a vampire is not just a vampire. A werewolf is not just a werewolf. The GM would always be able to keep his or her game fresh and new with the different versions of the creatures at hand. That was something also decided from the very beginning.
Adding the Twists
When I started making the monsters for the Core Rulebook, I was pretty aware that what I was doing was pretty big. The design of the monsters would set much of the tone for the campaign. For example, if they were all tentacle-y and Cthulhu-like, that would definitely set a certain tone for the world. If the monsters were more "classic" then that would set a different tone as well.
Right away, I took Sean Molley's advice and tried to stay away from Cthulhu-type concepts with the Core Monsters. Call of Cthulhu is a great game, but it's its own thing. We weren't there to offer something like CoC. We were there to showcase something new and different.
So, the challenge was to try to put a new and fresh take on things like the vampire, werewolf, etc. That was hard, because those guys have been done to death. What I did was to go all the way back to the beginning - to look up the original myths and legends that spawned these creatures.
For werewolves, I made different types. Some werewolves were men who donned skins and became that animal, tying into Celtic and Native American legends. Some werewolves were the "classic" werewolves that most people know. And then I made up my own kind of werewolf that could infect people with its own personality, not just its lycanthropy.
With the wendigo, it was easy, because there were so many different versions of the wendigo in Native American lore anyways. Some wendigo were big, furry beasts with white fur. But others were creatures like looked like skeletons, or creatures made of ice.
Most of the Core Monsters turned out this way, with me trying to give them at least three different takes. At the same time, I didn't want each monster to be so different that it was unrecognizable. That was the real challenge. To make these iconic monsters something different - yet familiar at the same time.
As for the Baykok, when I found those creatures I thought they were pretty terrifying as they were. Skeletal beings that ran through the air firing invisible arrows. That's just awesome on its own. However, I wanted to kick it up just a notch, so I made the Baykok have deer skulls instead of regular human skulls for heads. In any case, the result was fantastic, because Pat Loboyko really came through on that one. He took the vision I had and made it far cooler and creepier than I had ever imagined.
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