Enemies
The PCs need something to kill, and those are the enemies. Enemies in LUMEN are represented with reduced statblocks, and require three things:
♢ Health: Tracked the same way as PC Health
♢ Harm: Damage the enemy can do to the PCs
♢ Moves: 3 actions, reactions, tactics, and more than reflect the enemy
Here is an example enemy from LIGHT:
Loyal foot soldiers
They obey commands, but look for opportunities to ascend.
Health: 2
Harm: 1 Harm, Close/Mid
Moves:
- Duck behind cover for a moment
- Summon an arcane turret
- Obey commands
Health
Not much to say here, enemies have Health just like the PCs. There are really only two big things to consider when designing enemies in terms of Health.
First, don’t give them a lot of it. Combat in which two sides are just hitting each again and again and again and again is boring. What makes an enemy interesting isn’t how much damage they can take, but what they do with the short life that they have. Want a recommendation? Don’t go over 10.
Second, you might have other features in your game that supplement Health. I mentioned using things like shields or armor earlier, and so enemies could have access to these as well. If you’re going to give enemies three different stats to track, you’re going to slow down combat. So be selective in giving enemies access to this stuff.
Harm
Believe it or not, the enemies can in fact hurt the PCs. When they do, they deal their Harm. Rather than designing specific weapons that the enemies use, LUMEN enemies just have a flat amount of Harm they deal, with specifics in terms of at what range they can deal said Harm.
For example, I might have an enemy with the following Harm text:
Harm: 2 at Close, 1 at Near
This enemy specializes in hurting people up close, can at least do something nearby, but has no way of hurting people at Far range. What weapons are they using? That’s up to the GM to decide. This enemy might have a shotgun, good up close and getting worse with distance. Or maybe they’ve got a super sharp knife for melee fighting, and a cheap pistol for range.
By leaving the Harm as just a value and range, we give the GM the freedom to play around with what the enemies are using in combat. You may also include some tags (we’ll cover those soon) in the enemy Harm descriptor. For example, adding the AOE tag shows that this enemy deals some sort of splash damage when they deal Harm.
Moves
These are what truly define an enemy, giving it life. Moves represent the tactics they use, the types of actions and reactions most commonly seen in combat, or just generally their disposition on the battlefield.
Each enemy has 3 moves. Keeping it to three allows the GM to quickly decide how an enemy might act during the fast-paced combat, without needing to consult a long list of options. How are they used? Great question.
Enemies in Combat
The GM wields the enemies during Battles. While the GM has their turn they take at the end of the round, they are also acting during the player’s turns. Whenever a PC acts and their roll has some sort of complication or consequence (any roll between 1-4), the GM activates one of the enemies.
When using the enemies, the most common action the GM does is dealing their Harm to the PCs. That’s not always possible, or doesn’t fit narratively, and so the GM can also use any of the enemy’s Moves to have them act in a believable way during the fight.
When it is the GM’s turn, not only are they making a big change or update to the Battle, but they can do so by consulting the moves of the enemies and activating a bunch of them. It’s recommended that you codify this in some way when describing your LUMEN game’s GM Turn. Perhaps the GM gets to make an update, as well as activate 3 enemy moves. In doing so, the GM isn’t entirely reliant on the PCs rolling poorly in order to use the enemies.