Converting creature or monsters from Heroes & Other Worlds to Blades & Black Magic is pretty straightforward–almost all characteristics transfer straight over. CR Brandon has done the majority of the work for us. Still, a few things need to be taken into account, though.
One attribute in HOW that is not in Blades is endurance, or EN. For practical purposes, this can be ignored.
Two other characteristics that are more problematic, though, are ST and damage. The creatures in HOW seem to have a higher ST value than I would have assigned them, based on the original article by Steve Jackson. What I have done is looked back at The Fantasy Trip to see if there were any comparisons to be made, and then used my process for determining ST from Hit Dice.
After that, I adjust the damage for the creature by looking at the HOW value listed, and change it based on the following table:
| HOW | Avg Roll | Blades |
|---|---|---|
| 1d6-3 | 0.5 | 1 hit |
| 1d6-2 | 1.5 | 1d6-2 |
| 1d6-1 | 2.5 | 1d6-1 |
| 1d6 | 3.5 | 1d6 |
| 1d6+1 | 4.5 | 1d6+1 |
| 1d6+2 | 5.5 | 1d6+2 |
| 1d6+3 | 6.5 | 2d6-1 |
| 1d6+4 | 7.5 | 2d6 |
| 1d6+5 | 8.5 | 2d6+1 |
| 2d6-3 | 4 | 1d6+1 |
| 2d6-2 | 5 | 1d6+2 |
| 2d6-1 | 6 | 2d6-1 |
| 2d6 | 7 | 2d6 |
| 2d6+1 | 8 | 2d6+1 |
| 2d6+2 | 9 | 2d6+2 |
| 2d6+3 | 10 | 3d6-1 |
| 2d6+4 | 11 | 3d6 |
| 2d6+5 | 12 | 3d6+1 |
| 3d6-3 | 7.5 | 2d6+1 |
| 3d6-2 | 8.5 | 2d6+2 |
| 3d6-1 | 9.5 | 3d6-1 |
| 3d6 | 10.5 | 3d6 |
| 3d6+1 | 11.5 | 3d6+1 |
| 3d6+2 | 12.5 | 3d6+2 |
| 3d6+3 | 13.5 | 4d6-1 |
| 3d6+4 | 14.5 | 4d6 |
| 3d6+5 | 15.5 | 4d6+1 |
This moves the damage more to the d6, and less from a massive DRM. Some items fall in between. In those cases, use your best judgement whether you want a little more or a little less damage at that end.
Another characteristic that was not listed in Blades, but was in HOW is that of size. I am adding those to my Bestiary, based on either TFT or wagging it from D&D.
Finally, there is the issue of magical abilities and defenses. My eventual goal is to explain these in terms of the magic system that Jeff Vandine and I are writing up for Blades. The idea is that creatures will have magical abilities that mimic spells, but come from an innate ability or source. It will be more like a controlled improv magic, not exactly a spell. Until I get that working, I plan to just call out spells from Wizard or HOW.
And that is really all there is to converting creatures from HOW to Blades!
