In addition to crafting stories and characters, the CQ StoryHammer role-playing game system provides tools for creating custom creatures and monsters, referred to as bioforms. You can use this system to craft specific organisms but the Bioform Crafting System takes it one step further as you craft templates for species, which allow for custom individuals within the species (similar to how you can create individual characters using the Character Crafting System). In fact, a template for humans can also be created using the Bioform Crafting System and the result is the same character sheet that is in this book.
To create your own bioform, you will start by establishing a common name and concept, along with identifying the kingdom and family it would best belong. You will define its structure, and determine the habits, behaviors, and abilities. Finally, you establish the perks, proficiencies, and subsystems required for the species.
Before starting, you should think about why you are creating a new bioform. How is the new bioform integral to the story? Is the species a man-eating predator, native to the Wilds that the players will be exploring? Is the species a beautiful song bird that populates the ledges in town? Is the species that of burrowing monstrosities, wreaking havoc on the foundation of the settlement? Consider the purpose of the bioform, how the players should feel about the species, and how it might best naturally fit in the setting.
In order to craft your bioform, Imbue comes with rules to guide you in establishing your concept and fleshing it out. It is recommended that you make copies of the biocrafting worksheets in the Appendix of this book or download and print them from cryptiquest.com. Alternately, you can use paper to mimic your own versions of the biocrafting worksheets.
Identity and Structure
Concept
The concept is a two to three word description that explains the gist of the bioform. These words do not need to (and infact should not be able to) encapsulate all the aspects of the species. For instance, the bioform known as a Roarshach could be described as murky moth man or flying fear screecher or pitch fairy empathavore. There is more than one way to describe the bioform, but you should choose the one that best suits the story. Using the above sample, the player decides that the best option is murky moth man. This gives the players a physical description while keeping some of the surprise elements (such as “fear” and “empathavore”) hidden.
In order to come up with your concept, you may want to answer some questions about your bioform. Will this new bioform interact with the protagonists or will they just live in the background, adding flavor to a setting (e.g. the mockingjay in the Hunger Games)? How does the species interact with protagonists – as predators, obstacles, innocents, or allies? What kind of feeling should the bioform invoke in the players? Fear? Wonder? Disdain? What kind of creatures live in the environment featured in the setting?
For instance, long haired, blubbery beasts tend to be native to cold climates, while creatures in desert settings tend to be lighter, slimmer. You don’t have to answer all of these questions in order to come up with your bioform’s concept but doing so might help you to better visual the bioform.
Kingdom and Family
The kingdom that a bioform belongs to depends on its cellular makeup. The plant kingdom, for instance, consists of rigid-based, multicellular eukaryotes while the animal kingdom consists of blob-based multicellular eukaryotes. Customized kingdoms are also able to be created. For example, the pitch kingdom consists of polahycarbic-structured multicellular eukaryotes (which are based on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbonic chemicals found in pitch, tar, oil, etc.).
The family that a bioform belongs to depends on the types of distinct organ systems such as skeletal and integumentary. For instance, reptiles consist of bioforms with a cold-blooded vertebrates with a scaly exterior while cephalopods are invertebrates with a distinct head and tentacles.
Feel free to create your own family if one does not fit your bioform. For example, family Faeslick consists of pitch hexapods with inky exteriors and wings.
Refer to the tables below for a list of kingdoms and families.
| Kingdom | Description |
| Animal | Blob-structured, multicellular eukaryotes |
| Fungus | Flexible-structured, multicellular eukaryotes |
| Pitch | Polahycarbic-structured, multicellular eukaryotes |
| Plant | Rigid-structured, multicellular eukaryotes |
| Family | Description |
| Reptile | Cold-blooded vertebrates with scaly exterior |
| Avian | Warm-blooded vertebrates with feathers and beaks |
| Mammal | Warm-blooded vertebrates with furry exterior |
| Arthopod | Cold-blooded invertebrates with segmented exoskeleton |
| Celephapod | Invertebrates with distinct head and tentacles |
| Cnidarian | Invertebrates with mesoglea bodies |
| Faeslick | Narcissistic-force vertebrates with oily exterior |
Structure & Size
The structure of a bioform refers to the shape of its body, which is helpful to know when picturing the abilities and traits of the new bioform. For instance, choosing a structure with wings might make for a better choice when designing a bioform that can fly.
The size of the bioform refers to the average amount of space an individual specimen takes up. Refer to the following chart for creature sizes.
| Size Category | Min | Max | Familiar Examples |
| Mountainous | 100m+ | No Max | 4 Blue Whales |
| Colossal | 50m | 100m | 2 Blue Whale + 1 Sperm Whale |
| Mega | 20m | 50m | Blue Whale |
| Grand | 10m | 20m | Sperm Whale |
| Huge | 5m | 10m | Killer Whale |
| Large | 2.5m | 5m | Elephant |
| Human | 1.5m | 2.5m | Human |
| Medium | 30cm | 1.5m | Red Fox |
| Small | 2cm | 30cm | American Bullfrog |
| Tiny | 3mm | 2cm | Common Pillbug |
| Diminished | Just visible to the naked eye | 3mm | Little Black Ant |
| Microscopic | No Min | Just invisible to the naked eye | Bacteria |
Once you choose one of the structures, you can use the provided space to draw the shape of the creature if you so choose. Refer to the list of structures below. If the structure you desire isn’t provided in the list, you can customize your own using the Structure crafting rules on page X.
| Structure | Description |
| Humanoid | Bilateral biped with two human arms and a round, human head |
| Jellybellion | Radial bell head with no body but has several tentacles from below. |
| Saurian | Bilateral biped with a tail, flipper type arms, and a reptilian head |
| Faerinoid | Bilateral biped with moth-type wings |
Species Traits
Habits
Habits are the descriptors that define the species. These traits may describe behaviors, natural habitats, and defensive features. Habits not only serve to describe the bioform but might also affect how status conditions affect the bioform.
For example, the “Carnivore” habit is a behavior describing how a bioform alleviates hunger – in this case, through the consumption of other living creatures. The “Nocturnal” habit is a behavior that describes when the biform is most active. The “Heliophile” habit explains that the natural habitat for the bioform is in sunny areas. And the “Amphibious” habit explains that the bioform can breathe in both air and water.
The list provided is not comprehensive. Feel free to invent your own habits. As you can see, habits have a name, definition, and list of sub-habits. Fill these out in order to create your own ability.
Abilities
Abilities are the action sets that are possessed by the species. These traits define what kind of actions an individual within the species is capable of performing. In game, when a character attempts an action, they will draw a number of cards equal to their score in the ability.
For example, Move is an ability that describes the means to traverse 3D space. Humans can naturally walk, run, crawl, climb – etc. These are the default ways in which humans can traverse 3D space. You can assign the Move ability to other bioforms that traverse 3D space in the same manner. However, if a species were to traverse 3D space in some other manner – such as a floating in the air – then you should not assign the Move ability to that bioform.
All of the abilities that appear on the protagonist sheet (which are discussed in chapter 3: Communicate, Labor, Move, Operate, Sense, Surge, Think, and WIll) are established for the human bioform. Sometimes these abilities will also work for other bioforms and sometimes they need to be redefined. For instance, Sense describes how well the human can hear, see, smell, taste and feel. A bat will also have Sense as an ability. But since bats have poor vision and advanced echolocation, the definition of sense that works for humans will not work for bats – or bat-like creatures.
The list provided is not comprehensive. Feel free to invent your own abilities. Remember that an ability is a set of actions, not an action (Tail Swipe might be an action, but it is not an ability; rather Tail Swipe would fall under Operate: Tail instead) As you can see, abilities have a name, definition, and scope. Fill these out in order to create your own ability.
Individual Traits
Perks
Perks are descriptors that serve to define individual bonuses of creatures within the species. These descriptors add special abilities to perk cards. For example, “Strong” allows any face card to be spent in order to increase the value of a draw by 2 for any Labor draw; “Empathetic” allows any King card to be given to a willing character in exchange for any other Perk card.; and “Hyper-reflexive” allows the Jack of Diamonds to be spent in order to add the “Flowstate” condition for three turns.
Perks are not automatically granted to every member within the species. They must be “purchased” using perk points during the creature crafting process (much like during the character crafting process). Because of this, it is beneficial to assign as many perks to the bioform as possible as long as they make sense. For instance, bats might not be known for their strength, but if a bioform is capable of performing Labor actions then it’s recommended to add Strong as a perk anyway.
The list provided is not comprehensive. Feel free to invent your own perks. As you can see, perks have a name, definition, and cost. Fill these out in order to create your own perk.
Proficiencies
Proficiencies are skills, contacts, and knowledges that can be acquired through education and/or experiences. This includes techniques, behaviors, and/or expertise. For example, “Drag and Drown”, a dastardly method of snagging prey from land and holding them underwater until they go limp, is one skill a marine bioform may develop; the contacts, “Packmates”, may call forth some allies if the bioform’s calls out and they are within earshot; and “Local Region” is a knowledge that means the bioform has learned about the local area enough to know which areas are safe and which to avoid (which may help to flee pursuants or lead them to traps).
While bioforms attain proficiencies through experience like protagonists, the types of experiences they garner relies heavily on how the bioforms are integrated into the setting. For instance, imagine that we just created a large, flightless bird-like beast. In the setting of one story, this beast might hunt humans in packs while in another story the creature might be worshipped and cared for by the settlers. The experiences with humans by the former are much different than the experiences with by the latter. The former may have developed skills to give chase, split up and then surround the humans for better advantage which the latter, who see humans as food providers (rather than food) would never develop that skill.
The list provided is not comprehensive. Feel free to invent your own proficiencies. As you can see, proficiencies have a name, definition, and scope. Fill these out in order to create your own proficiency.