Monsters is a general term for all NPCs who attack PCs and, when killed, usually drop loot. Furthermore, when you kill a Monster, you get some XP and some money. When an NPC dies, he either drops an item on the floor or, if he drops multiple items, these items are contained in a special container called the NPC body and which looks like a pile of bones. Those death boxes work like Lockers in a private home, which means you can open them and get the items, but you can not store items in them. Also, when you close the locker dialog, the death box disappears, so don't leave anything in the locker that you want to loot.
Monsters may also decide to rape your character instead of attacking him. This usually happens when your character has a low sex urge satisfaction. While having a low sex urge satisfaction can be beneficial for example for succubus cultists because it allows them to take advantage of their special features, it may also attract rapists.
A special sort of monsters are the so called gangs(not to be confused with PC gangs) or renegades. A gang is a group of wandering NPCs which appears randomly in the city and then marches toward a room with a public terminal. Since these terminals often attract PCs to do their business there, Gang members march towards these terminals. Fortunately they are observed closely by the King's scouts and news about gangs and their route are broadcasted through Gryphons. Whenever a gang member is killed by a PC, the Gryphons also announce that to keep the population informed. Killing a gang member gives an extra number of Valor points and is therefore a good way to work up your valor, should it be low and therefore attract a number of special "friends". Beware that gang members may decide to rape a character regardless of his sex urge satisfaction! these guys are usually tough to fight and brutes, so expect no mercy from them.
There are also special NPCs called Fighters. These fighters only attack characters of opposite morality alignment. They are of the dynamic kind and they spawn only in districts that match their alignment. So for instance, the "Holy Warriors" only respawn in districts of high morality value and attack only characters of low morality, thus making a stroll in a district of opposite alignment somewhat dangerous, which is why PCs often stick to those districts that match their personal morality. there are of course also NPCs in low morality districts which attack only characters of high morality. Once a district changes it's alignment at server restart, the type of NPCs spawning in this district changes to the other side, which makes life difficult for characters who live there because of the old alignment.
Another type of those dynamic NPCs are prostitutes and prostitute customers which only spawn in low morality districts. Although not monsters in the strict sense of the word, since they don't attack unless attacked first, they are still regular NPCs. Hookers are often used by Inquisition cultists to rise their morality when they kill them on an altar, while prostitute customers are used by PC hookers to make some XP and money.
Whenever you kill an NPC you will get some money and XP for the killing. If multiple characters attacked the NPC during his lifetime, the part of the damage that is done by every character is stored in the NPC and the money and XP is divided according to each characters contribution to the death and awarded to each PC. This is an implicit party system so that a group of characters can go on an NPC hunt together without having to set up and dissolve a formal hunting party. Hunting NPCs in a group yields better returns for all involved and is generally recommended when hunting gangs/renegades
(c) 2005, Sociolotronics LLC