tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16162867967277569152024-03-06T00:50:17.730-08:00Warning - Mutagenic SubstanceThis horribly mutated blog is likely to achieve some sort of terrible autonomous consciousness and ooze out of the internets in search of uncorrupted flesh to devour. Until then, it will have to mutely sit by as I dump bits and pieces of my Mutant Future campaign into it.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.comBlogger107125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-18903854507689543992016-03-28T11:18:00.000-07:002016-03-28T11:18:17.377-07:00Fungus Forest - Pay What You Want .PDF<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">
Fungus Forest - Pay What You Want</h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Fungus Forest is <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/178717/The-Fungus-Forest" style="color: #7c93a1; text-decoration: none;">available now as a Pay What You Want .PDF on DriveThruRPG.com</a>. Check it out and download now!</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Fungus Forest is an OSR Compatible adventure location designed for use with Original, Basic and Advanced Editions of the world’s most popular fantasy role-playing game (and their modern simulacra).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Pay what you want for this sprawling 100+ cave complex suitable for low level play. Please download for free if you cannot pay anything; we want this thing in the hands of gamers, not mouldering away on a DriveThru bookshe</span>lf.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Features:</span></h3>
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<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Unique creatures and magical items</strong>, including six feuding Fey factions that will try to pit the party against their rival factions.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Compatible</strong> with most editions of the game; stats are provided in a simple, system-agnostic format with both ascending and descending armor class listed. </span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Maps:</strong> 2-Page overview map spread of the caverns; four quadrant maps of sections of the caverns; inset map of the Tiny Tunnels of the Dark Fey; printable black & white single page version of the overview map.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Full Color </b>art and layout. </span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Ready Reference Appendices</strong>: Formatted in black and white with printable margins to enable home printing for easy in-game reference; Appendix I - Random Fungus Generator; Appendix II - Magic Mushrooms of the Fungus Forest; Appendix III - Fungus Forest Bestiary (30+ unique entries); Appendix IV - Printable Fungus Forest Map.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Bookmarked & Hyperlinked:</strong> Fully bookmarked .PDF with a clickable Table of Contents</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Two Formats Available: </strong>2-Page Spread or Single Page .PDF formats available for download.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Print Edition Coming Soon:</strong> The Fungus Forest is currently .PDF only but a print edition is in the works, loaded with more art!</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks to <a href="http://osrcompatible.org/" style="color: #a33737; text-decoration: none;">osrcompatible.org</a> for the "OSR Compatible" declaration, used under a Creative Commons <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/" style="color: #a33737; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="CC-BY">CC-BY</a> license.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">OSR Logo by Stuart Robertson used under a Creative Commons <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/" style="color: #a33737; text-decoration: none;">CC-BY</a> License</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-55934902287708663912015-11-30T00:00:00.002-08:002015-11-30T00:00:27.367-08:00MFL Mutant Football LeagueThe priesthood of the Beast operates The League, an outgrowth of the old National Football League. Each sect of the priesthood controls a team, recruiting and training players to participate in the spectacle. The field has been doubled in dimensions and each player rides a death chariot pulled by a small wyrmling. The rules are complex and changed often, but one constant is that sacrificial victims are released at the line of scrimmage before each down. The offense tries to hurl or carry victims into the defense's end zone to sacrifice them there while the defense attempts to decapitate the victims before they reach the end zone. If a decapitation results in the head flying into the offense's end zone, a safety results and the defense scores two points. Under certain circumstances it is allowed to knock members of the opposing team from their death chariots (different rules apply here for offensive and defensive players). Any player down on the field is fair game for decapitation. The games are refereed by a special sect of the priesthood that does not control a team. New punishments for rules violations are an expected part of the thrill of the league. <div>
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Every Sunday the League games are played from sunup to sundown and viewership is mandatory for all who bear the Mark of the Beast. <br /><div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-8248928993442690172015-05-13T03:27:00.001-07:002015-05-13T03:35:45.122-07:00Mark of the Beast<div style="text-align: left;">
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<b>Revelation 13:16-17</b></h2>
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16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:<br />17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.</h3>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">The Number of the Beast is 666 - William Blake</span></td></tr>
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I am moving forward with my End of Days Mutant Future campaign idea. I hope to start playing sometime in the next few weeks. <br />
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The eastern seaboard of the US and the islands of Japan were largely spared from the horrors visited on the rest of the world, and a dark mockery of civilization remains centered on these two areas. The beast from the sea rules in Tokyo and the beast from the earth rules in New York City. Within the confines of these two kingdoms the mutagenic dust from the Wormwood meteorite has no effect (suppressed by the powerful telepathic abilities possessed by both beasts). All mutations within these kingdoms are caused by the beasts instead. The kingdom of the beast from the earth (hereafter just "the beast") will serve as an evil empire backdrop in my campaign, with the PCs being from a nearby area.<br />
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The beast can speak like a dragon; charming or destroying those who hear it and bringing inanimate objects to life simply by uttering words in a terrible voice. <br />
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The beast has animated a huge idol of a dragon that the populace worships (and which destroys any who disobey the beast). All members of the beast's kingdom must bear the mark of the beast (666) on their right hand or their forehead. The mark causes 1-2 mental mutations and also allows line of sight telepathic communication between those with the mark. Speaking out loud for anyone except the priesthood is a sin against the beast punishable by death. All communication must be done telepathically through the mark.<br />
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The mark of the beast is normally invisible, but it glows brightly if a mental mutation is used or if the beast has taken direct control of the mark's bearer. The beast can use its dragon voice once through the mouth of a controlled person (destroying the person utterly in the process). <br />
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The beast has created a priesthood which bestows the mark at birth. All aspects of society are tightly controlled by the priesthood, which rigidly enforces the beast's constantly changing laws. The priesthood is selected by the beast from the populace; priests and priestesses are usually selected at puberty. The initiation ceremony is painful and sometimes fatal; it causes 1-2 physical mutations and 1 mental mutation. These mutations are viewed as the blessing of the beast (even non-beneficial mutations). Once initiated into the priesthood all ties with former family are expected to be cut, and the priests live only to carry out the wishes of the beast and to be initiated into mystery after mystery of the beast. The priesthood has an intricate hierarchy with each level requiring a new initiation into a deeper understanding of the beast. The beast loves to give conflicting directives to the different levels of initiates, adding to the confusion and terror the priesthood causes.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-60966650659102178422015-05-02T12:52:00.002-07:002015-05-02T12:56:45.890-07:00The End is NearI am thinking about starting up a new Mutant Future game in the near future. My D&D 4e campaign has been on hiatus since the birth of my son Leo last November and I have been growing less and less inclined to start it back up again. Today some Jehovah's Witnesses came to my door bearing the inspiration I needed, a new direction for a post-apocalyptic campaign. The May 1, 2015 edition of "The Watchtower - Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom" has a killer cover image depicting a few bedraggled survivors making their way across a rubble strewn area while the city burns behind them. Brilliant beams from heaven pierce the thick cloud of black smoke overhead. The cover asks the question, "Is the end near?<br />
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The answer in my game is yes. I will set my game in the very near future, with the apocalypse loosely as described in the Book of Revelation. The game will take place after much of the earth is destroyed and while demonic entities rule most of the survivors, before the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armageddon">final battle at Armageddon</a>. Mutations will be a result of a comet called Wormwood that impacts the earth, poisoning water worldwide with alien mutagenic compounds.<br />
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Some cherry picked descriptions of the apocalypse lifted straight from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Revelation">Wikipedia Book of Revelation entry</a> including the verse notations):<br />
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<li>Hail and fire, mingled with blood, are thrown to the earth burning up a third of the trees and green grass. (8:6–7)</li>
<li> Something that resembles a great mountain, burning with fire, falls from the sky and lands in the ocean. It kills a third of the sea creatures and destroys a third of the ships at sea. (8:8–9)</li>
<li> A great star, named Wormwood, falls from heaven and poisons a third of the rivers and springs of water. (8:10–11)</li>
<li> A third of the sun, the moon, and the stars are darkened creating complete darkness for a third of the day and the night. (8:12–13)</li>
<li>A "star" falls from the sky (9:1).This "star" is given "the key to the bottomless pit" (9:1). The "star" then opens the bottomless pit. When this happens, "smoke [rises] from [the Abyss] like smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky [are] darkened by the smoke from the Abyss" (9:2). From out of the smoke, locusts who are "given power like that of scorpions of the earth" (9:3), who are commanded not to harm anyone or anything except for people who were not given the "seal of God" on their foreheads (from chapter 7) (9:4). The "locusts" are described as having a human appearance (faces and hair) but with lion's teeth, and wearing "breastplates of iron"; the sound of their wings resembles "the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle" (9:7–9).</li>
<li>The four angels bound to the great river Euphrates are released to prepare two hundred million horsemen. These armies kill a third of mankind by plagues of fire, smoke, and brimstone. (9:13–21)</li>
<li>A great, fiery red, seven-headed dragon drags a third of the stars of heaven with his tail, and throws them to the earth. (12:3–4). </li>
<li>A seven-headed leopard-like beast emerges from the sea, having one mortally wounded head that is then healed. The Dragon grants him power and authority for forty-two months. (13:1–5)</li>
<li>Another beast appears, but from the earth, having two horns like a lamb and speaking like a dragon. He directs people to make an image of the beast, breathing life into it, and forcing all people to bear "the mark of the Beast" </li>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-73723756239686229432015-03-10T00:55:00.000-07:002015-03-10T00:55:16.179-07:0015 Robot Features - Alphabetical<span id="docs-internal-guid-82402911-02ac-ba8d-63c3-625129804086"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">15 Robot Features - Alphabetical</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Advanced Alien Alloy: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An extremely rare material was used to fabricate the outer layers of the robot. +2 to Constitution, +2 Bonus to AC, ½ damage from cold or heat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 2:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Firmware upgrade takes advantage of the alloy’s unique properties to extrude spikes when a current is applied. All melee attacks add +4d6 spike damage to their normal damage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 3:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> An expensive radiation curing process allows the metal to become flexible, adding +2 to Dexterity (double normal GP cost to level up this feature to this level).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blades</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: +2 to Strength. Pop-out blades can be hidden in the durndest places (to be determined by the player). Roll 1d6:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">two melee attacks for 2d8 damage</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2-4:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> two melee attacks for 2d10 damage</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> two melee attacks for 2d12 damage</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> four melee attacks for 2d6 damage</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 2: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The blades are energized, doing double damage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 3:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Blades can be launched as a ranged attack with a range of 50’. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Catbot</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: +1 to Strength and Dexterity. Inspired by the old Terran wild cats, this sleek body modification doubles movement rate and enables pounces of up to 100’. Three melee attacks (claw/claw/bite) for 2d4/2d4/2d10 damage. When pouncing, a single melee attack is allowed for 6d10 damage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 2:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> An add-on vocal modulator recreates the famous lion’s roar in the form of a sonic attack. 50’ cone range, Willpower attack – 3d6 damage and temporary deafness for 1d4 rounds. If this attack does more than 12 damage it knocks the target to the ground.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chains: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The robots torso is wrapped in motorized chains that can be used to assist in locomotion, in defense or as a choking attack. Movement rate is increased by 50%, +2 bonus to AC, and a Dexterity attack with range of 15’ can be made to to do 3d6 constricting damage and hold the target motionless. Held targets automatically take 3d6 damage each round and up to three targets can be held at once. A held target can attempt a Strength attack to break free instead of performing any other actions on its turn.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 2: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hardware Upgrade: +1 to Strength, +1 to Dexterity, constricting damage is now 4d6 each round.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dozer: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">+2 to Strength. Scoop attachments and hydraulic lifters enable the Dozer to lift and move up to 2000 pounds. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 2: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Software update allows the scoop to be used defensively. +2 bonus to AC.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Elegant:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> +2 to Dexterity and Charisma. Sleek lines and graceful movements make onlookers forget that the possessor of this feature is a robot. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 2: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ballet Flurry: Three graceful Dexterity attacks per round for 2d12 damage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Multi-Purpose Bot:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> +1 to Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence. Featuring multiple arms and tentacles, fine manipulators and heavy graspers, wheels and legs, this model can be programmed out of the factory for hundreds of different jobs. The Multi-Purpose Bot should receive a bonus determined by the GM when attempting tasks that can normally only be performed by a trained professional (open heart surgery, for example). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Multi-Section Design</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: The body of the robot can come apart into several independent sections. The hands and head are detachable and can fly using embedded micro-repulsor beams. Each has audio and video inputs and can be remotely controlled to a range of 1000’. A detached hand can manipulate objects weighing up to 15 pounds. The head has two tentacles that dangle from it which are used to connect the head to the body, and which also serve as manipulators when the head is detached. These tentacles can lift up to 30 pounds. The main positronic brain of the robot is located in the torso. It is capable of processing input from both hands and the head while simultaneously directing the movement of the main body. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 2:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This feature grants the ability to make attacks with both hands simultaneously at no penalty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Peacemakers: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">+1 to Dexterity. Wrist mounted energy blasters, Peacemakers are widely used throughout the galaxy because of their reputation for reliability in extreme conditions. Two ranged attacks for 5d6 damage each. The Peacemaker Energy Cell is the industry standard and has a lifetime guarantee (each cell good for 100 years of continuous firing).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 2:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Software Hack: Overriding the factory safety settings ramps up the damage to 10d6 each. On any attack roll of a natural 1, the Peacemaker overheats causing 10d6 damage to its wielder.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 3: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Peacemaker Bomb Hack: As a last resort the Peacemaker Energy Cell can be tampered with in a specific way to create a time bomb with up to a 24 hour delay. The energy cell explodes in a small nuclear reaction, completely destroying organic life forms within 1d6 x 100’ of the blast and doing significant structural damage as well. The explosion will blind anyone looking directly at it without eye protection.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reflective Armor</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: +1 to Dexterity. This military upgrade is an integrated automated reflector system that sends incoming fire back to its source. It only works on energy and explosive weapons (projectile weapons receive +2 to each damage die) but it allows the robot to make a simultaneous ranged attack against the first opponent to attack it during each round. If this simultaneous attack hits, it reflects the opponent’s attack and does ½ the regular damage of the reflected attack to the opponent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rocket Eyes:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The eyes of the robot can detach and fly up to 100 MPH propelled by miniature rockets. They can be controlled independently and transmit visual data back to the robot with a communication range of 2 miles and 2 hours energy charge. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 2</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: +2 to Dexterity. This hardware upgrade and firmware update outfits each eye with a laser attack. Each eye can make a ranged attack independently of the other each round. The laser has a range of 100’ and does 5d6 damage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 3</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Cloaking devices for the eyes enable them to turn invisible at will. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Space Flight:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This robot is capable of flight with a maximum speed in a planet’s atmosphere of 800 MPH and capable of continuous acceleration to much greater speeds in outer space. For small scale purposes the robot’s movement rate is 240’ with poor maneuverability. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 2:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> +1 Intelligence, +1 Dexterity. This hardware and software update allows for much better close-quarters maneuvering. The robot can hover in place and perform difficult aerial stunts. A melee attack made while flying does double damage with rocket power behind it. In addition, better navigational computation allows for inter-stellar travel in half the time it took before.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spiderbot:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Most robot making civilizations evolved variations of the spiderbot independently across the universe. Many legged metal monsters are a familiar sight no matter where the inter-stellar traveller goes. Grants the ability to climb at full speed up walls and across ceilings. Extra limbs are also extremely useful in holding off attackers; this feature grants a +2 bonus to AC and +1 to Dexterity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 2: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Battle Spider Modifications add a vicious bite melee attack for 3d12 damage and a custom venom: (roll 1d4) Save vs. Poison or suffer the following effect:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Paralyzed for 2d4 rounds</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Permanent Insanity (Intelligence and Willpower reduced to 4)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> False Death – the target appears dead to most medical exams but can be revived by the spiderbot for up to 2d4 days after the poisoning, at which time the target truly dies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Truth and Suggestibility Serum: The target must tell the truth, and anyone can make a Willpower attack against the target to make them carry out a verbal suggestion. This can include suggested actions that directly harm the target.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Translator Module: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">+2 to Intelligence. This combines a constantly updated database of the known languages of the universe with a predictive algorithm to allow for even previously unencountered languages to be translated. The robot can understand and speak any language. Codes and secret messages can be translated if an intelligence attack against the intelligence of the creator of the message is successful. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unique Energy Core: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> A strange energy source powers this robot. It could be of alien or magical origin, it could be from the future... +2 to Constitution and +25% Movement Rate. Unarmed melee attacks do 2d8 damage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Level 2: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hardware Modification: The energy core is harnessed to provide an energy blast ranged attack that does 6d8 damage (100’ range).</span></div>
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</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-41983811384642857642012-09-05T02:19:00.001-07:002012-09-05T02:25:10.342-07:00Actual Game Prep ReportThere are lots of actual play reports floating around the intertubes but not a whole lot of actual game prep reporting going on. Most DMs who blog like to present a slightly more polished product than their private notes. The result of actual gameplay is distilled and refined and published on the blog, but the actual "product" that allowed the gameplay to happen, the DM's notes, the lifeblood of any campaign, are rarely seen. There are of course exceptions, and I always thrill to see the idiosyncrasies of another master of the dungeon when I am lucky enough to encounter some scans of notes. <br />
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As it has been over a year since my last post, I finally had the flash of insight that I should just scan in some of my campaign notes and post them as is rather than waiting for some magical epoch when I have all this free time and I get to do a million little projects that are simmering on the back burner. I do hope to annotate this post at a later date to explicate my often arcane scribbling. <br />
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Click on the Pic to see them in their entirety<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-83832612286726589152011-07-16T17:17:00.000-07:002011-07-16T17:17:46.146-07:00Odds and Ends pt.1I am going through my big three ring binder full of crap from my Mutant Future campaign today. I pulled out a few of the gems to share with y'all in a series of posts, hope you enjoy!<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Tribe 15</span></b>: When I <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-campaign-world-and-new-rules.html">rebooted the campaign on the world of Celestia</a> and included magic in the mix, the party ran across a few members of this group; a little goblin that could teleport and a giant ogre proved particularly troublesome. Tribe 15 is named after 15 sets of paired glowing spikes designed to be inserted into the eye socket. The spikes are octagonal in cross-section at their base, and would be totally transparent if not for the intense glowing white light they produce that makes it difficult to look at them directly. Once both spikes from a matched set are inserted into the eye sockets of a subject, the subject loses normal sight but gains magic detection, x-ray vision, regular vision and heat vision out to a one mile range (telescopic and microscopic only for regular vision, microscopic down to 32x magnification). The eye spikes can also be used at will to make a ranged attack within 100' for 6d6 damage (energy blast). In addition, the subject now has a telepathic link (willing or not) with all other members of the tribe.<br />
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Each set of paired spikes has a personality, intelligence and even a spirit bound within, and the spikes constantly attempt to assert dominance over any user. Once per day, even when just being handled, either spike of a pair may attempt a Willpower attack (WIL 15) to dominate a target in physical contact with the spike. The spikes were created by the techno-mage known as Mad Albert in the darklands, and basically form a self-perpetuating magic item collection team. When members of the group fall, the remaining Tribe 15 members search for new "recruits" to stick with the free spikes. Once dominated by the spikes, the new members meld seamlessly into Tribe 15's unending quest to scour the darklands for magic items and technology to bring to Albert. The 15 distinct personalities of the spikes fulfill different roles in the group, from squad leaders to melee bruisers to sneaky scout types.<br />
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Tribe 15 in play: The party was really creeped out to discover they were being tailed by a group of mixed creatures with glowing eyes. All attempts by the party to lose or hide from the pursuers failed (1 mile range xray vision is a bitch!). When the teleporting goblin isolated a party member and it became clear it was trying to blind the party member with glowing crystal spikes, the party REALLY started freaking out. This was a great encounter, the powers of the spike, especially x-ray vision and telepathy within the group, really made it hard for the party to run, hide or even effectively engage their opponents. After a tense combat that ranged up and down the sides of ruined buildings and across a large area of the dark surface, the party managed to escape with one set of these spikes in tow... <br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Albert's Constructs - Albert's Eyes and Killballs</span></b>: The creator of the Tribe 15 spikes also created a number of other constructs that the party heard rumors of but never encountered. Interestingly, my 4e group HAS encountered these next two, reinforcing the<a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2010/11/dont-cross-streams.html"> link between Celestia and my 4e campaign world</a>... <br />
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<b>Albert's Eye</b> (tiny construct)<br />
HP:1<br />
AC:-4<br />
MV:240' (magical flight, can hover, total maneuverability)<br />
Attacks as 10 HD Creature<br />
AT: 1 (50' stun ray or 10' electric shock )<br />
DMG: stunned for 1d4 rounds / 5d6<br />
Saves as a 20 HD Creature, no damage for effects that would do half damage with successful save<br />
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Albert's Eyes are tiny magical constructs that resemble large marbles with a glowing red "A" suspended in the middle. They can project a 2-dimensional image on any surface out to 50', with the size of the image depending on the distance it is thrown (up to 15' wide at 50' range). They can also project sound (of volume equivalent to a dozen people being loud) out to 50'. Objects within 1' can be telekinetically manipulated with 15 pounds of force.<br />
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Intelligence: While not "intelligent" in the true sense, Albert created sophisticated magical artificial intelligences into each eye. Separate combat avoidance and movement centers allow the eye to fly unharmed while directing other constructs with the impressive battle algorithm that Albert created to enable the eyes to be tiny commanders of his battle machines. Scouting and tracking modules enable an eye to perform nearly any task Albert needs done in the darklands.<br />
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Senses: detect all lifeforms within 50'; telescopic and microscopic regular and heat vision out to three miles; x ray vision to 1000'; hearing augmented to incredible levels with sophisticated magical intelligence filtering out background noise to allow targeted listening of human speech or equivalent at ranges of 1d4 miles (roll once per use, terrain and other conditions result in the variation). <br />
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In addition, Albert's Eyes act as a direct conduit for Albert. Linked to him at creation, he can see and hear through them at any range. Albert can take direct control of an eye, and by extension, any other constructs that the eye is currently controlling. It is rumored that Albert can also cast magic through an eye that he has direct control over, but this has not been verified.<br />
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<b>Killball</b> (medium construct)<br />
HP: 100<br />
AC:0<br />
Movement: 180' (magical flight, good maneuverability)<br />
Attacks (as 10 HD creature): 3 x longsword AND battleaxe / 3 x machine gun (see below)<br />
Damage: longsword: 2d8+3 / battleaxe: 2d8+4 / machine gun: 2d10 +6<br />
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A Killball's HP are divided into half, with 50 HP belonging to a spinning metal ball with three swords for tripod extremities and 50 HP belonging to a metal ball with a battleaxe and heavy machine gun. Once at least 50 HP damage is taken, roll randomly to see which half is destroyed. The killball then loses the attacks of that half (either three longsword attacks or the battle axe / heavy machine gun combo). The two halves of the killball are connected with an invisible magical "tether" that can stretch up to 10', allowing the two halves to potentially engage in melee with two different targets.<br />
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The Killball receives +3 bonuses to attack rolls made with the longswords+3, +4 bonus for the battleaxe+4, and +2 bonus for the magical heavy machine gun+2. These items can be recovered from a downed Killball. The heavy machine gun has 120 rounds in a belt (40 rounds of continuous fire at 3 shots per round). <br />
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Killballs come equipped with a very limited set of pre-programmed actions, including guarding a defined area against intruders, pursuing a target, attacking a target and taking evasive maneuvers. When within 50' of an Albert's Eye, however, a killball can make use of the eye's combat brain and becomes a very cunning foe.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-74251405208521742482011-06-20T18:27:00.000-07:002011-06-20T18:29:36.338-07:00The End (for now)After a glorious run of either 54 or 55 sessions (I found a scrap of paper that would appear to be the experience awards for a forgotten "true" first session which would make the numbering I have used all along on this blog off by one) I have decided to cancel my biweekly Mutant Future game. <br />
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This is not the end of this blog; I actually hope to resume my <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/search/label/2e%20tuesday">2e Tuesday posts</a> in the near future and I have a TON of material that I generated for the game that I can post now as well! <br />
<br />
Incidentally, this also marks the official end of my <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PZMwXMWsizsUXVnxeolmfq_Q_NxmcQhaE2UGTw3afiY/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CLf60rgJ">developing a supplement compatible with Mutant Future</a> that I had hoped to self publish someday. I had fun making a "fantasy genre" character creation bolt-on for Mutant Future, but it really just whet my appetite to make my own complete game (which I am doing). Honestly, the play test that I conducted (14 sessions with all new characters rolled up using the Fantasy Quirks rules playing side by side with the surviving Mutant Future characters) was a success. The new characters with fantasy quirks held their own with but did not overshadow the old characters with mutations. The magic system worked pretty well in my opinion, and that is considerably more than I say about any published edition of D&D to date.<br />
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I am going to leave the<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PZMwXMWsizsUXVnxeolmfq_Q_NxmcQhaE2UGTw3afiY/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CLf60rgJ"> free text version of Fantasy Quirks</a> up forever, all the OGL crap is filled in and correct and the entire thing is open game content. I was actually quite pleased with the devilish pacts (one way to gain magical powers in Fantasy Quirks is to make a pact with a specific devil, based on "real life" devils drawn from the <a href="http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/delirium/demon_goetia.asp">Goetia</a> - I presented a v<a href="http://backscreenpass.blogspot.com/2010/08/8-devils.html">ersion of this adapted to D&D on my other blog</a>). I feel good about adding some more open game content into the great Internet soup. I hope that somebody will find something of use in it.<br />
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I am still <a href="http://backscreenpass.blogspot.com/2010/02/first-time-dming-4e.html">DMing my other game</a> and playing in my friend Carter's <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/">awesome campaign</a>. And like I said, I'm not giving up on this blog. <br />
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Carry on!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-5708414349931958422011-05-15T02:38:00.000-07:002011-05-15T02:44:34.212-07:00Dance Party! (session 54 recap)Last Sunday's Mutant Future / <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PZMwXMWsizsUXVnxeolmfq_Q_NxmcQhaE2UGTw3afiY/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLf60rgJ&pli=1#">Fantasy Quirks</a> session at my place unfolded like an 80's movie. There has been a big social event on the horizon for several sessions now, the annual Spring Stomp dance held in the Sottles (south hills) of post-apocalyptic Eugene, OR. The citizens of Spanky Butt and the matriarchal Sottle clans come together in a massive grange each spring to feast, drink and dance the night away, culminating in a Line Dance Faceoff between the Sottle folk and the townfolk. James Bomb, international man of mystery, ladies man and the self proclaimed "face man" of the party, had been invited to the dance as the date of Elise Baumgartner, the beautiful young daughter of a progressive and wealthy Spanky Butt family. <br />
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As I have been terribly remiss in posting on this blog, some key bits of back story must be filled in here. As mentioned in my <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2011/03/force-cage-death-match-session-51.html">Force Cage Death Match post</a>, the Sottle women chew a strange black berry that stains their lips dark red, keeps their teeth white, their breath minty... and allows a rage filled demon known as a Blarg Beast to possess them should they lose their cool. The Sottle menfolk are kept in a drugged stupor by the hurkool leaf they chew, which makes them move terribly slowly but also allows them to become hulk-like combatants if pressed. The Sottle women seem to be in league with a secret faction of the Knights of Genetic Purity known as the Men of Santo (their symbol, as revealed by a tattoo discovered on the chest of one of Chaplain Squaldorf's slain deacons, may be recognizable to you:<br />
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</div>The party has seriously messed with the biofuel production which is apparently the primary result of the labor of the massive herds of drugged menfolk, first stealing several 50 gallon fuel drums after a refinery and storage facility was left unguarded in the wake of Hag the Beastmaster (a party member created using my <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PZMwXMWsizsUXVnxeolmfq_Q_NxmcQhaE2UGTw3afiY/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLf60rgJ#">Fantasy Quirks</a> supplement to Mutant Future) sacrificing an entire Sottle enclave to an unknown demonic entity in exchange for great personal power, then blowing up a storage depot with six completely filled 300 gallon tanks waiting to be helicoptered off by members of the Knights of Genetic Purity directed by the Men of Santo (this last bit of information was revealed by a captured KoGP mechanic who was interrogated at length following the destruction of the fuel depot). <br />
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Hag the Beastmaster also was responsible for destroying a section of the fortified wall which surrounds Spanky Butt town and blowing up portions of the Brown family residence, a very wealthy and xenophobic/anti-mutant Spanky Butt family. So in short, the party in general and Hag in particular were in bad standing with both the Sottle folk and the townfolk.<br />
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But on the other hand, the party had also just managed to finally destroy Julius Corple and the ziggurat of doom (definitely a subject for another post), so they were also local heroes to some. People either loved 'em or hated 'em. One of the younger members of the Brown family, a lad whose name escapes me at the moment, has developed a bit of a schoolboy crush on Kazumi, the halfling samurai who has been serving as James Bomb's bodyguard. The night before the dance, this boy took a considerable risk by sneaking out and warning Kazumi that he had overheard his father planning to kidnap any party members that attended the dance. The dance is supposed to be neutral ground, and Mr. Bomb had been assured by his hosts, the Baumgartners, that nothing untoward would happen on the festival day. <br />
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So, forewarned is four-armed, as they say in the Mutant Future.. some party members scouted out the location of the dance during the night and discovered some trap doors leading below ground, and the Hag's beast (which is now intelligent and possessing a photographic memory because it was fed several "soul cubes", sugar cubes containing a captured human spirit...) was able to identify the scent trails leading into the trapdoors as being members of the Brown family. <br />
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Beyonce Chai parachuted down onto the roof of the grange from her giant eagle mount and set up position with her sniper rifle, while the other party members either waited out in the brush or arrived in the parade convey that left from the town, firing guns into the air the entire way (as is apparently the tradition at this sort of thing). <br />
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Three separate assassination attempts were foiled by the careful planning and reconaissance of the party; first, a party member cloaked in shadow (Brent's new character, whose name I also cannot remember without my notes in front of me; he was rolled up at the start of the session after Braziere the half-orc died rapidly last time fighting some advanced terminator bots buck naked for some reason) observing the dance hall from a vantage point inside, saw a number of young toughs associated with the Brown family excuse themselves from the feast and venture outside to the bathrooms en masse. Beyonce used her remote controlled dragon fly robot's camera to observe what they did; they snuck out into the brush and visited a previously undiscovered trap door, and met a knight of genetic purity there who handed off several small bundles to the scoundrels. These bundles were pocketed and the posse returned to the dance. <br />
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Beyonce radioed in this information to Mr. Bomb and the Hag, the only two party members who had openly attended (the Hag caused quite a stir when she showed up wearing a dress of glowing energy draped over her hunchbacked form). They were thus not caught unawares when the Brown family henchmen tried to bump into them and brush a soaking wet handerchief across their faces. Mr. Bomb tried to turn the tables on them and inject one of the incoming ruffians with a strong sedative he had prepared in syringes for the event, but he accidentally stabbed a comely town lass who he was dancing with at the time (damn those critical failures!). He did, however, manage to grab one of the handkerchiefs from an attacker and save it for future analysis. Realizing Bomb and the Hag somehow had gotten wind of the plan, the scallywags beat a retreat. It was later revealed that the chemical covering the handkerchiefs caused anyone inhaling it to get terrible diarrhea. The dastardly plot was to force Mr. Bomb and the Hag outside to the restrooms, where they would be jumped and drug off into the night. <br />
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The second assassination attempt was foiled by Beyonce Chai's decision to hunker down on the roof for the entire dance. A slender person dressed in ninja garb attempted to use a grappling hook to gain access to the roof, intending to sabotage the machinery that operated the grain elevators and drop a massive platform down onto James Bomb as he participated in the one on one dance offs that took place between the lines of townfolk and Sottle folk in the Line Dance Face Off that was the culmination of the dance. Beyonce simply lifted the grappling hook up, threw the ninja out into space and blasted him/her with her laser pistol as he fell down! He barely survived the blasts and fall and disappeared into the night... but he/she will be heard of again, I promise Beyonce that!<br />
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The last assassination attempt was foiled by my bad luck at dice rolling. I had devised a dice pool gambling mechanic to resolve the individual dance showdowns that were the centerpiece of the dance, and James Bomb got lucky when I used my nightly d30 roll on a high bet by his adversary in the dance off, one Georg of the Hilldancer Clan (a group of Sottle men who apparently were not kept drugged by the womenfolk, and who wore distinctive kilts - the dance was the first the players had seen of this faction). I rolled something terrible, and James ended up winning both that showdown, and eventually, the title of Spring Stomp Champion! <br />
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Only fit men and women participate in the individual dance face offs, because the combined mental energy of the two lines of line dancers and the live band actually causes 5d8 damage to be dealt to the loser of each faceoff. Mr. Bomb knew this risk, but had plenty of HP to deal with the eventuality of a defeat if it came to that... but what he did not know was that old man Brown, that fascist mutant hater, was actually a mutant of considerable power in his own right, and was planning on sending a mind bolt to strike him dead at the exact moment the collective crowd energy dealt him damage if he lost the danceoff. Alas, the dice did not fall well for me, and all three assassination plots came to naught.<br />
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The Hag did, however, detect Mr. Brown's mental mutations through the use of her Detect Magic ability (I had to answer the question right off the bat when I started using my <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PZMwXMWsizsUXVnxeolmfq_Q_NxmcQhaE2UGTw3afiY/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLf60rgJ#">Fantasy Quirks supplement</a> if Detect Magic could detect mutations... as I have explained the power source of both mutations and magic as coming from what I call the shadow world, I reasoned that Detect Magic would work, but would only reveal a very faint trace of magical energy in the presence of mutations; the Hag used her d30 roll to detect the mutations and rolled a 28, so she lucked out and got some powerful leverage against old man Brown...) and ended up blackmailing him with this potentially damning revelation to get him to stop his continual attacks against the party.<br />
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All in all, it was a great session! Oops, I just realized that I missed the part where some party members killed a few guards that were posted at the trapdoor where the Brown family thugs got the drugged handkerchiefs from, with Bozko the shape shifting plant flying in his iron man suit 2.0 (the glargore version recently constructed by the mice in mech suits) to dispose of the bodies far away. Everyone was too chicken-shit to venture down into the trapdoor, because Hag's beast had smelled a hideous spider-mutant-monstrosity down the hole, and the party had heard that the Brown family kept a mutated spider in their dungeons to use as an interrogator Maybe next time...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-83137753773196427042011-03-15T22:20:00.000-07:002012-02-19T01:43:18.753-08:00Force Cage Death Match! (Session 51 Report)<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>That Wascally Wabbit</b></span></div><div><br />
</div>I am falling farther and farther behind the rabbit. I still haven't finished session recaps from months ago that explain campaign changing events that are shaping the current game. Tonight I decided to bravely soldier on ahead, damn the torpedoes, and recap last Sunday's game without sidetracking myself with endless digressions to explain the previously unmentioned. So this may be a little strange and incomprehensible (even by the standards of my admittedly over-the-top, GONZO!!! Mutant Future / <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PZMwXMWsizsUXVnxeolmfq_Q_NxmcQhaE2UGTw3afiY/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLf60rgJ">Fantasy Quirks </a>campaign...).<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>Only six players showed up for the game this week, as James Bomb's player was travelling cross-country to Eugene on Sunday, Bozko's player had a ride fall through, John Doe's player had finals coming up and long standing scheduling conflicts prevent some of our original players from attending. </div><div><br />
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Verisimilitude Be Damned!</b></span></div><div><br />
</div><div>One of the greatest strengths of my Mutant Future campaign is also its greatest weakness; from the beginning, I stressed that it was perfectly OK as a player to drop in and out of the game. I wanted to encourage new players to drop in without feeling like they had to make a huge commitment; I wanted to encourage friends who might have one weekend free in a blue moon to drop in and play as a one shot character; I wanted to make this game as low pressure as I could by requiring as little commitment as possible from players in general.</div><div><br />
</div><div>On the pro side, this has led to me introducing a dozen brand new pen and paper RPG players to the hobby, and has led to me refereeing sessions with over ten players for the first time in my DMing career. This has also led to some strange situations where PCs pop in and out of existence, because I always let everyone present at the start of a session play even if there is no logical way that they could suddenly appear in the action. Usually I just wave the magic DM's wand and be done with it, but this week I had a meta-game conversation with the players present and asked that they not take actions to advance the game time past the big dance on Saturday that James Bomb had been invited to by the daughter of a leading Sottle socialite. It was Wednesday in the game, so that gave the players two full days to play around with.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Of Mice and Men</b></span><br />
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The session started with a trip to the <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2009/12/mice-in-mech-suits.html">Mice of Camelot</a> to pick up three mech suits (one custom built for Kazumi the halfling samurai and two of the generic mech models the mice use converted for human occupants, a Galahad model and a Robin Hood mech) and four suits of <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2009/12/session-24-recap-dog-boys-and-near-tpk.html">dog boy armor</a> that were supposed to settle a long standing debt the mice owed the party. While there the party had some liquid analyzed that had been swiped last session from a religious revival in the Sottles. Chaplain Squaldorff, a long time nemesis of the party that first came to their attention as the religious leader of the group of <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/search/label/knights%20of%20genetic%20purity">Knights of Genetic Purity</a> that invaded the Willing Mate valley a while back, conducted the religious revival and first dosed the usually placid and drugged out hillfolk men with an incense that appeared to be some form of amphetamine, then whipped their emotions up to a frenzy, and presented them with a communion of bread and "wine".</div><div><br />
James Bomb drank some of that wine last session, and now the party (sans Mr. Bomb) learned what it was: a very potent male fertility drug. Its effects: Semen can survive nearly indefinitely without perishing; chance of fertilization is greatly increased; chance of the egg splitting into twins, triplets, quads or even more is over 50%; and offspring are at least 80% sexed male. <br />
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Further analysis revealed that James Bomb's semen could now survive even in the vacuum of outer space! Party members snickered at the thought of what future sessions will surely bring...</div><div><br />
</div><div>The party had also left some alien technology with the mice for them to examine; the <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2010/11/surface-of-celestia.html">teleporter pods and repulsor carts</a> looted from Celestia. The mice made a major breakthrough with the teleporter pods (I let the party roll the mice's tech roll, and BJ used his d30 roll and got a 9 (on a roll low, d100, Mutant Future-style tech roll). The mice had both identified <i>how</i> the teleporters worked (a mycelial tissue that generated linked portals with a "skin" of the shadow world between them), and had figured out that they could hack a pod to link to a different pod besides its original mate. </div><div><br />
</div><div>The broadcast power units in the hovercarts that both powered the repulsors and served as a shield and environmental manipulator had also been reverse engineered to an extent by the mice, to the point that they added a strap-on repulsor flight system to the dog boy suits the party had ordered. Most interesting to Tilandriel was that the broadcast power seemed to travel through the shadow world, but the machinery interacting with the shadow world was neither biological (like the mycelial tissues used to open wormholes by the Oozyxphg or the similar tissues in the teleporter pods) nor magical in nature. The shadow circuitry seemed to be entirely created and sustained through controlled frequency and vibration modulation in an enclosed sound chamber.<br />
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The shield technology, a way to extend the forcefields that the mice already used on their mechs out to a scale that could be useful for the party's hovercraft, had been difficult for the mice to crack but they did succeed to an extent. The Swamp Orca now has an omni-directional 50 HP forcefield that refreshes at the beginning of each round. This shield could be focused down to a minimum of 90 degrees arc of protection, at 100 HP forcefield per round. A control seat was added so that a party member could take direct control of the forcefield and sacrifice her actions that round to take total control of the shield. </div><div><div><br />
</div><div>After the party had spent a good chunk of time with the mice, it was remembered that Beyonce Chai had obtained some strange dark berries from the purse of one of the well kempt Sottle women who seemed to be in charge of the herds of drugged men. Talandriel examined the berries and discovered that the seeds seemed to be linked to the shadow, a one way connection that would allow something to enter this world from beyond. Eager to test out another new piece of equipment (the result of an ongoing and fruitful collaboration between the mice and their technology and Tilandriel's elven magic), Tilandriel put on the scanning microscope attachment and turned his mind's eye inwards, looking back through the shadow portals that have replaced his eyes into the shadow world. He traced the connections back from the seeds and soon realized that some sort of demonic beast could emerge to possess anyone eating the berries.<br />
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Someone had the bright idea that maybe the party could use the berries as a focus to gate in some of these demon-beasts so the party could test out the new mech suits in combat!<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Force Cage Death Match!</b></span></div></div><div><br />
</div><div>Beyonce Chai was initially reluctant to go along with this plan, even though everyone else was quite taken with the idea. Once Hag the hideous beastmaster offered to construct a magical force cage to act as a summoning circle, so that the party members who wanted to take place in the combat could be sealed in before the demons were even summoned, Beyonce agreed to give up a few of her berries to use as demon-bait. Hag is a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PZMwXMWsizsUXVnxeolmfq_Q_NxmcQhaE2UGTw3afiY/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLf60rgJ">magic shaper</a>, and last session she sacrificed an entire village of Sottle women (long story) to a demonic entity to double her Constitution, the stat which her force based magic relies upon. As a result, Hag now has a lot of magical energy, and she successfully constructed a force cage summoning enclosure linked to the berries so that anything drawn through would be unable to leave the enclosure. Some spiked walls and areas of floor that would trigger columns of fire were added to the force cage, and Tilandriel set up a magical trap that would drain some energy from the beasts as they passed through the portal.<br />
<br />
Death Match, round one! (Hag scouted around the ruined landscape and found a nice big Nash Rambler hubcap to bang on before each summoning...)<br />
<br />
A single Blarg Beast came through, and Tilandriel successfully drained some of its energy, suppressing the time ripple effect that would normally surround the beast. Inside the force cage, Brazier the giant half-orc hefted his new sword (a converted mech weapon, a force great sword with an 8' blade) and stood shoulder to shoulder with Kasumi in her new mech. <br />
<br />
Danny's new character (can't remember his name right now), a dragonborn sorcerer made using 4e rules (yes there is a 4e character in my Mutant Future game), hid behind a wall in the force cage in the Robin Hood mech and readied its grenade launcher.<br />
<br />
The first beast died before it got to take an action, there was much congratulating all around, and the decision was made to do it again!<br />
<br />
Death Match, round two! Ding!<br />
<br />
This time, four blarg beasts came through. Luckily, Tilandriel again managed to suppress their time ripple fields with his magical trap as they came through the portal. <br />
<br />
With four targets, the party only managed to drop one of them in their surprise round. Now we had a real battle on our hands! The beasts have three arms, which they used to slash and grab their victims; a second slavering mouth emerged from their stomachs when they successfully grabbed someone. They also had the ability to leap fifty feet up into the air and then shoot down like an arrow at a target, making a <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2010/12/target-10-system-for-chart-less.html">DEX 15 attack</a> for 6d12+36 damage. The first beast to do that would have killed Brazier, but he s<a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2010/12/scavenging-armor-in-mutant-future.html">acrificed his armor</a>, leaving him standing naked in the arena wielding his giant sword. He did not run as his comrades urged him to do.<br />
<br />
Danny's character was also dive-bombed, and he had to sacrifice the brand new suit of +5 wooden chainmail that Tilandriel had made/grown and enchanted for him to survive the massively damaging attack. He then found himself behind the wall of cover that he had been using, engaged one on one with a blarg beast. Hag switched the force spikes from one side of the wall to the other, and Danny used a power that pushed the beast back into the spikes, just killing it. <br />
<br />
The terrain hazards worked well, as another blarg beast was charging at Danny when Brazier used his wind controlling abilities to slam the beast into the force spike wall just as Hag caused the spikes to extend toward the beast.<br />
<br />
The third beast abandoned Kazumi as the samurai mech had proven very difficult to hit and Kazumi's Dexterity is so high that the beast had little chance to land its divebomb attack. It turned its attention to the naked half orc, who again narrowly avoided death when the beast nailed him with all three claws - which would have killed him, but his nictitating field saved his ass this time (a forcefield that flickers in and out of existence, giving a 50% chance of reducing each incoming attack by 10 damage) and prevented twenty damage, giving him just enough time to slaughter the beast with his greatsword next round.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Teach Your Children Well</span></b><br />
<br />
Tilandriel divided up the magical energy siphoned from the beasts between himself, the artificial soul that he rescued from one of Corple's failed experiments, and the devil Seere (who he contacted last session and negotiated a complicated deal to obtain the devil's help and patronage in return for the soul of one of the telepathic hackers, if the party could free the souls from Mad Albert back in Celestia).<br />
<br />
Tilandriel's player has been talking to me about raising the artificial soul and intelligence like it was his child, and has taken several steps toward that. The shadow cube that houses the intelligence and the shadow circuitry that makes up its soul can also manifest a physical body out of shadow stuff, and when the party defeated one of Corple's shadow panthers a few sessions ago, Tilandriel was able to salvage some of its "shadow modules" (the shadow circuitry that allows the shadow panthers to take different forms and absorb mutations) and install them in his child.<br />
<br />
This session, he actually sacrificed 3,000 XP that he was awarded to raise his artificial child up to 1st level. He told me he is grooming the child to be his next character! I love it.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-92012611860302109222010-12-29T21:36:00.000-08:002010-12-29T21:36:44.231-08:00I love scheming. And plotting.I don't get to spend much time prepping for my weekly games. I scribble in my notebook on the bus to and from work. I grab fifteen minutes here or there, but I never actually sit down for extended prep sessions anymore like I used to think I had to do.<div><br />
</div><div>I used to think I had to spend hours creating a fully fleshed out place for the PCs to explore BEFORE the session (heck, before the campaign even started!). I treated it like an art project; I was creating a four-dimensional sculpture, and a lot of the time, I ended up creating tons of stuff that never saw the light of play. </div><div><br />
</div><div>What I do now is a lot more like studying for a test than creating an art project. After a campaign has been going for a while, it generates enough content that you really don't have to create much. It creates itself. You just have to sprinkle in some new spices and stir the ingredients around a bit to keep it from burning and sticking to the bottom of the pot. I look back at my notes from past sessions and refresh my memory with plot hooks that have slipped through the cracks. I think about new ways to connect all the things that have happened into a coherent framework. I think about what the logical responses would be to the PCs actions; responses from the other sentient actors on the scene, responses from the plant and animal life, responses from the land.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I have been getting to do a LOT of plotting and scheming lately, because both of my games took a couple week break over the holidays. On top of that, I got to fast forward time by a year and a half in my Mutant Future game as a result of some extra-dimensional portal hopping and <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2010/12/teleporting-in-4d.html">4-D teleporting</a> done by the party. <br />
<br />
A year and a half is <i>FOREVER</i> in game terms. My Mutant Future game has met for 48 sessions, and only a few months of game time has passed... until now! The party ended last session having just been reunited with <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2009/09/all-hail-glargorion.html">Daybrak and the badders</a>, and soon enough they will find out what Julius Corple has been up to underneath the ziggurut that he built on top of the military complex during the party's absence.<br />
<br />
All I can say is it is going to be fun.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-8008390128926678212010-12-28T14:28:00.000-08:002010-12-28T14:32:58.079-08:00Target 10 System for chart-less Attribute Attack ResolutionMutant Future contains a chart based resolution mechanic for Willpower attacks. Many mutations call for a Willpower attack rather than a melee or ranged attack roll; the chance of success in a Willpower attack is determined by cross-indexing the attacker's and defender's attribute score on a chart to get a "to hit" number for a d20 roll.<br />
<br />
I took this idea and ran with it, coming up with the general idea of attribute attacks. Any attribute can be the basis of an attribute attack; just like Mutant Future's Willpower attack, there are Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, Strength and Charisma attacks. I used this a lot while writing the "quirks" (mutations by another name) for my <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PZMwXMWsizsUXVnxeolmfq_Q_NxmcQhaE2UGTw3afiY/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLf60rgJ">Fantasy Quirks</a> character creation supplement for Mutant Future. I created a version of the Willpower Attack Table found in Mutant Future for any attribute attack:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><img height="340" id="internal-source-marker_0.3629831844009459" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/njRgU2SKW30kc5qBYq_QubLvDK-eD1YeWwe-NdtRPCTje0B_0eqYCAypY_oSNzs68qozb-zaPfsigSU8zi9E9zG_VPdxqx7S8kPbdZD_iVQeOO_WWyRgDGxbEnZPm7w" width="640" /></div><br />
There are two things that I like about attribute attacks; they do not gain potency while leveling up unless the ability itself increases, so 1st level characters with high attribute scores can contribute meaningfully alongside high level characters in combat; and (more importantly to me) it makes each attribute a defense. It makes the random attribute increase that is the result of leveling up 80% of the time in the Mutant Future a much more valuable thing. In a similar fashion to how 3e and 4e took saves and made defenses out of them, this gives me as a DM an easy mechanic to use for all sorts of attacks against the PCs. Demonic possession? A Willpower attack with the demons WIL of 15. A run of the mill pit trap? Dexterity attack with an attacking DEX of 10. I would write the previous example using the following shorthand: DEX10 ATT 3d6 (meaning if the Dexterity attack succeeds against the character, the character takes 3d6 damage).<br />
<br />
A cloud of gas? CON15 ATT, 5d6 dmg save for 1/2<br />
<br />
Bribing an official? Obviously a Charisma attack situation. I don't always (or even most of the time) call for rolls when players attempt to do things, but it is nice to have an easy and unified mechanic to use when I do. When I don't know the attribute of a creature or situation (in the case of a pit trap or other inanimate attacker or target), I generally use 5/10/15+ as a good guide: If the creature is not known for that attribute, or if the challenge is easy, I use 5. If the creature has no reputation for that attribute, good or bad, or if the challenge is moderately difficult I use 10 as the target attribute. For a creature known for the attribute in question or a difficult challenge, I will use 15 or more.<br />
<br />
Today, I looked at the chart a little closer and realized that I could express the attack resolution in very simple terms to allow attribute attacks on the fly without having to look up a target number on a chart.<br />
<br />
I realize that many people love looking up numbers on charts. In my case, it is often one of the only times I have to refer to a book at all while running my Mutant Future game, and I would just as soon not have to break my stride to look at the attribute attack chart one more time.<br />
<br />
So here it is: <br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.9164620593655854" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The “</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-size: x-large;">Target 10</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">TM</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” system for chart-less attribute attack resolution .</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Target 10</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">TM</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Carl Nash 2010)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">d20 roll + (Attackers Attribute - Defenders Attribute) ≥ 10 = Success</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In words: Subtract the defender’s attribute from the attackers attribute. The result (positive or negative) is the modifier to the d20 roll. A modified result equal to or greater than 10 is a success.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Example: </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An attacker with CON 13 makes a CON attack on a defender with CON 15.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Attacker’s CON - Defender’s CON = -2</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-2 is the modifier to the d20 roll</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The attacker would have to roll a 12 or better (12-2=10)</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-80617789190920122592010-12-24T21:08:00.000-08:002010-12-24T21:20:07.728-08:004e Gamma World online character builderI have been really curious about the 4e Gamma World game since I first heard about it.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPtKcNunSs2SbsxblJOExA0q2aoL6aOWde9jiJJ5aYSjYpRZr6vHWniafeEr_dCrVPW2HksVTKsT5C1mWCLASDxkXYd6TWLIRw4r02Q0fjpQqIfIEu4YRFQiN7c7JsQmCc3QP5__B1csY/s1600/Gamma+World.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPtKcNunSs2SbsxblJOExA0q2aoL6aOWde9jiJJ5aYSjYpRZr6vHWniafeEr_dCrVPW2HksVTKsT5C1mWCLASDxkXYd6TWLIRw4r02Q0fjpQqIfIEu4YRFQiN7c7JsQmCc3QP5__B1csY/s1600/Gamma+World.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Of course, my wedding and honeymoon this summer have left me broker than I have ever been as an adult person, and my student loans are in repayment, and I have so far resisted the urge to buy all the booster packs. Because I have to confess, I am not one of those people who got all aghast about the use of cards and the inclusion of extra cards in booster packs. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZA7cMmHTS-qB6NKaDV11JaNUdkhiMj6-NcNrE2Qpj1mwE5n-zYHthwRywIDhSP90mYsbSUYsp2qPyQ328FaSr84aPGWx4xeTmgf9H22pIF34h2uOFNOffNMbtNSIq_iGEBa1DrTXV27w/s1600/d-d-4e-gamma-world-roleplaying-game-8-card-booster-new_160503083175.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZA7cMmHTS-qB6NKaDV11JaNUdkhiMj6-NcNrE2Qpj1mwE5n-zYHthwRywIDhSP90mYsbSUYsp2qPyQ328FaSr84aPGWx4xeTmgf9H22pIF34h2uOFNOffNMbtNSIq_iGEBa1DrTXV27w/s320/d-d-4e-gamma-world-roleplaying-game-8-card-booster-new_160503083175.jpg" width="244" /></a></div><br />
I love cards. I used to play and collect Magic the Gathering back in high school, and while I haven't played that game in years I still get a kick out of the cards. All that glorious art... I could run many an awesome session of D&D using nothing but a bunch of Magic cards randomly dealt to me as a DM to give me inspiration. Come to think of it, I should do some Magic the Gathering inspired monster and magic posts over on my<a href="http://backscreenpass.blogspot.com/"> other blog</a>. But anyway...<br />
<br />
In a rare display of doing something other than sticking their collective heads farther into their collective arseholes, the good folks at Wizards have given us this.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://wizards.com/dnd/article.aspx?x=dnd/4news/20101221">http://wizards.com/dnd/article.aspx?x=dnd/4news/20101221</a><br />
<br />
Follow the link and read the brief article if you want a discussion of how to use the character builder. It is free, totally awesome and I love it. It does not include the tech cards or the Alpha Mutations (the mutation that changes randomly with a card deal at the start of each session, if my sketchy understanding of 4e Gamma World is correct) that would be dealt to you at the game table and which are not permanent parts of the character.<br />
<br />
Here is the link straight to the Character Builder for those of you who are American by gum and don't read instructions:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/blank.aspx?x=dnd/4dnd/gwsheet">http://www.wizards.com/dnd/blank.aspx?x=dnd/4dnd/gwsheet</a><br />
<br />
I am going to stop typing so I can go play around on this now.<br />
<br />
Merry Christmas!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-56521242793160464822010-12-22T23:04:00.000-08:002010-12-23T03:51:02.595-08:00Powered Armor in varying states of repairMy <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2010/12/scavenging-armor-in-mutant-future.html">last post about destructible armor and damage reduction</a> has gotten me thinking about powered armor.<br />
<br />
I want to extend these rules to this fertile ground, but with more options than a simple loss in base AC bonus when soaking up damage into a suit. My initial thoughts were to divide a suit up into sub-systems: AC Bonus; propulsion (if any); weapons; defense (if any); carrying capacity/strength. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz_sVNm8zXvHZPCG_Qn1LA52AtAgoWs3kQLbeh2woqVkwPCD8s8WekEn6QMy55oM5YaSqizxaKCUV1qDVMpgsxHALI8AoEu5mOEk8pNBcJaJY56J7NtqfFVXAqj1lqhsSb9cWWdL2g_-Q/s1600/iron+mann.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz_sVNm8zXvHZPCG_Qn1LA52AtAgoWs3kQLbeh2woqVkwPCD8s8WekEn6QMy55oM5YaSqizxaKCUV1qDVMpgsxHALI8AoEu5mOEk8pNBcJaJY56J7NtqfFVXAqj1lqhsSb9cWWdL2g_-Q/s320/iron+mann.jpg" width="205" /></a></div><br />
For example, the Iron Man suit in my campaign has a base AC bonus of +8 (AC of 1); repulsor tech propulsion enables flight up to 1200 MPH (James, the player in my campaign who controls the iron man suit, may pop in here and correct me on that, I don't have my notes in front of me and I can't actually remember top flight speed right now...); 2 x Repulsor Beam attacks per round for 4d6 damage, or a Repulsor Beam cone, +4 to hit against all targets in a 50' long 15' wide cone, doing 2d6 damage to those hit, or a mini-missile at +4 to hit with targeting computer lock, doing 7d6 damage in a 15' blast radius; 50 HP per round force field; 2 ton lifting capacity/1 ton carrying capacity in flight.<br />
<br />
If damage was soaked into the suit, I would roll 1d5 (d10 / 2) and go down the line of sub-systems to see what got messed up. I would rule that you could soak the entire damage of an attack by suffering damage to a random subsystem. I would probably base the severity of the damage on the total HP being soaked, so absorbing a 127 HP explosion would definitely completely destroy whatever sub-system was rolled.<br />
<br />
Like armor, powered armor can be repaired. This requires a successful tech roll and some raw materials (wiring, circuit boards, pipes, metal sheets, blow torch, etc.). A sub-system can only ever be restored to half functionality; in the Iron Man suit example, if the weapons sub-system had been completely destroyed, I might rule that the mini-missile launcher was a total loss but the repulsors could be restored with some hard work; if flight capability was lost, it could be restored, but only up to 600 MPH max speed and at greatly reduced maneuverabilities.<br />
<br />
I am kind of excited about this. I have been thinking about how to make my Mutant Future game a little more Mad Max in flavor, and the scavenging and scrounging of weapons and armor and robotics is going to go a long way towards achieving that. More so, I look forward to seeing what kind of Frankenstein creations my players come up with after a while of adding on random junk to their rapidly disintegrating mech suits.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-14899582891345326602010-12-22T02:31:00.000-08:002010-12-22T02:49:23.478-08:00Scavenging Armor in the Mutant Future<a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-campaign-world-and-new-rules.html">I mentioned my "Let it Ride" house rule a little while back</a>, which has served to both speed up combats and make them much more exciting for everyone involved. At this point, combat in the Mutant Future is finally humming along at the pace and lethal tone I like without having to rely on grenades and laser blasters. Nothing wrong with those, mind you, I just want the guys with the lead pipes and hockey sticks to be able to mess someone up as well.<br />
<br />
I am also introducing a simple damage reduction mechanic, which I think will resolve a long standing frustration of mine with the way D&D AC works. This was inspired by the Shields Will Splinter houserule, that my friend <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/">Carter</a> is using in his <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2010/11/in-spirit-of-everything-old-is-new.html">Labyrinth Lord campaign</a> (and which I know he got from another blogger in this small blogoworld). Shields Will Splinter allows you to sacrifice your shield to prevent the damage from an attack, and I have used it several times to save my dwarf's neck in Carter's campaign. I basically took this concept and ran with it, applying it to any type of armor. My hope is to see characters running around with half destroyed armor, looking for stop signs and car doors to patch themselves back up with.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE09CU26fVfcukXeNg4-byz8KEZVrMxOBrREBfdwDSdsFQxaBZmjo76Z_FrCTaWJQNaDAs8Us31L47HU7w-DmAFpXnUTOPlfcZiimvInTuOlkG2v95zH7ZpLMw58meBq9aMs9fdaGuznY/s1600/iron+man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE09CU26fVfcukXeNg4-byz8KEZVrMxOBrREBfdwDSdsFQxaBZmjo76Z_FrCTaWJQNaDAs8Us31L47HU7w-DmAFpXnUTOPlfcZiimvInTuOlkG2v95zH7ZpLMw58meBq9aMs9fdaGuznY/s320/iron+man.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Armor Will Crumble</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"> </span></span></span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 15px;">(Mutagenic Houserule)</span></span></span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.6667967096436769" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When a character takes damage, her player has the option of soaking up some of that damage into her armor. Damage can be soaked in 10 HP increments, with each 10 HP soaked reducing the base bonus of the armor by one. For example, a character wearing chainmail takes 15 HP of damage from a laser blast. Soaking all of that damage into her armor would reduce its base bonus by 2, resulting in her chainmail having a base AC of 7 instead of 5. </span><br />
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.6667967096436769" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unarmored: AC 9 </span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Current AC: 9 - current armor bonus - Dexterity modifier</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Armor Type:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Base Bonus:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Current Bonus</b></span><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shield<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>+1</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cloth<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>+1</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Leather<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> +2</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Studded Leather <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>+3</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chainmail<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>+4</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scale Mail<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>+5</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Plate Mail<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> +6<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Full Plate Mail</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">+7</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Magical Armor: If a player chooses to soak damage into magical armor, the player rolls a Save vs. Energy Blast for the armor as if it were a character of a level equal to twice its magical bonus (+5 armor saves as a 10th level character). If the save is successful, the damage is negated and the armor is unscathed. If the save fails, the attack does double damage and the armor is completely destroyed.</span></span><br />
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This will require a minuscule amount of record keeping for the players, but only if they choose to use the houserule... and that will probably only be in a situation where it saves the character's bacon, so I don't envision any complaints...<br />
<br />
All a player has to do is say how much of the damage they just received they are soaking, reduce the amount of incoming damage accordingly, and then adjust AC and current bonus of armor.<br />
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For every two points of AC bonus lost to damage soaking, one point could be restored by scavenging material and taking the time to repair the armor. This also means that you can only repair leather or better armor, and that repaired armor will be only half as effective as new armor... but hey, its much better than nothing! <br />
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I think this houserule will encourage a kind of hording mentality that I think actually would exist in the Mutant Future - I imagine if you found an extra suit of armor in the wasteland, you would lug it around with you if you could...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-16890130369153741532010-12-21T01:35:00.000-08:002010-12-21T03:55:03.920-08:00Teleporting in 4DI have been thinking a lot about time travel lately as it relates to portals, teleporting and dimensional shifting.<br />
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One of the things I have been kicking around is the idea of linked portals both advancing through time. The simplest example is two portals linked together and advancing through time at the same rate. So you step through a portal and pop out five years in the past (these portals may or may not also travel through physical space or dimensional space, regardless of being linked temporally). You spend a year farting around in the past, then step back through the portal and find that you have missed a year in your original timeline.<br />
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A slight wrinkle is to have the two portals advance through time at different rates. This is what happened recently in my Mutant Future campaign, when despite experiencing just a few weeks as the party experienced time, the characters found that almost two years had passed when they passed back through a dimensional portal into their original home (and home dimension). This allowed me to make some changes to the swampy home they have come to love, such as the disturbing tendency of recently killed things to rise up from the dead and stumble around looking for brains, and some major reshuffling of the local power players (most noticeably the <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/search/label/knights%20of%20genetic%20purity">Knights of Genetic Purity</a> withdrawing from the valley and a major increase in <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/search/label/Julius%20Corple">Julius Corple</a>'s activities and influence).<br />
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Anyone else ever played around with this? I first got the idea when a new character in the campaign got the Plane Shift mutation and I was coming up with a list of some random destinations in case it was ever used. One of the destinations I wrote down was in the past of the campaign world, before the apocalypse. <br />
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That destination came into play because I just couldn't resist it... I had decided that the first time the mutation was used, it was opening to the present. I had gleeful visions of a mutant party crashing through Eugene, looting the army installation by the fair grounds and then jetting with the military in hot pursuit. The first time the mutation was used, the party was in a desperate struggle against a Xiticix Killer (a great monster that I stole from a wonderful Rifts book called <i>Lone Star</i> which I actually wrote a <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2009/12/rpg-library-rifts-lone-star-world-book.html">review of</a> on this blog - I highly recommend Rifts as inspiration for Mutant Future DM's, even if you just look at the pictures...)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqgtnhVEz17ZmW5WHeNgD1m22phZOA7HiI-zPvRKH9W0XbvEboLNgTV9xhbGCGbW4B589YqFdN8_88P7ZBQuO65Ex-bx-tP3shKgZ3XaeCXyNYDAga8TicvnSKBZL-DeyWiLkFEKgwyvM/s1600/xiticix+killer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqgtnhVEz17ZmW5WHeNgD1m22phZOA7HiI-zPvRKH9W0XbvEboLNgTV9xhbGCGbW4B589YqFdN8_88P7ZBQuO65Ex-bx-tP3shKgZ3XaeCXyNYDAga8TicvnSKBZL-DeyWiLkFEKgwyvM/s320/xiticix+killer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
In a sudden flash of inspiration, the player with <i>Plane Shift</i> opened a portal to random destination behind the creature and the rest of the party bull rushed it and forced it into the portal... to a busy intersection in west Eugene on the evening that I was playing the game with my friends in real life. Only of course, we didn't hear about the national guard being called in to deal with an alien monster that night...<br />
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I recently picked up Transdimensional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which is more or less an entire book of possible destinations for time portals as well as advice for running exactly the kind of time and dimension-spanning game that I have come to love! <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikHwndM7UmEfcilT0ep2vydBX00GKN1nZhXVs8l1vbtLeylr2QtVpXc5gZp8PSmcxaWLtS-KuNN2f8hMuKF1fz8lwMQ5xNSjjbIlD3tmjMbvt2n2Pu15L3tYcpJFcgmLjbzIaiAWk_ZYA/s1600/transdimensional-tmnt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikHwndM7UmEfcilT0ep2vydBX00GKN1nZhXVs8l1vbtLeylr2QtVpXc5gZp8PSmcxaWLtS-KuNN2f8hMuKF1fz8lwMQ5xNSjjbIlD3tmjMbvt2n2Pu15L3tYcpJFcgmLjbzIaiAWk_ZYA/s1600/transdimensional-tmnt.jpg" /></a></div><br />
So of course, I recently had the players discover a "portal tree" with 18 twisted columns of energy intertwining around each other, each leading to a different destination if stepped into.<br />
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They have learned what is on the other side of about half of the portals. They very nearly dropped everything else they were doing and went exploring a giant temple of the snake men on an apparently abandoned planet, and they stuck their heads out in my 4e campaign world (two players who cross-over between my campaigns were duly impressed, and got to feel like they were in on a joke). But what is on the other side of the other nine portals? Or when?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-12114239755610032962010-12-17T13:21:00.000-08:002010-12-17T13:21:06.167-08:00Stars Without NumberWow. Just simply wow. Check this out right now. Author Kevin Crawford has released a <a href="http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=86467">free .PDF of his amazing retroclone</a>, Stars Without Number, which is not released under the OGl and thusly does not claim any direct compatability with any system... but it is pretty much compatible with any pre-3e edition of D&D with minimal changes. The coolest thing is that this looks suspiciously like B/X crossed with Traveller. <br />
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No, I lied. The coolest thing is the equipment list. No, the world building tips. No, the easy to read layout and the concise but evocative writing.<br />
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I am going to hork the equipment list and make a few random tables out of it so that new starting characters in my Mutant Future campaign can have something cooler than a short sword to kill things with at 1st level!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-9371203819119596052010-11-23T01:24:00.000-08:002010-11-23T01:50:56.372-08:00Don't Cross The StreamsIn the real world I run two RPG campaigns simultaneously, am the general manager of a local natural grocery store with 40 employees, try to be a good husband to a beautiful goodwife, and keep up a busy musical and social life. I am good at juggling things. I see connections everywhere, ways of integrating different aspects of my life to achieve new heights at every endeavor. It is only natural, then, that my two RPG campaigns should coexist in a single coherent worldview and could even, if the conditions were right, directly impact each other.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmtJVE33N8CvLhCKCyDITW5pYjQIkDy9Nj35B9xcWNc65dBC88jDlVHAASysSQKxNC2Wc2tfHKe4A34ANujfMGp6g0WNqJz1sQwTR2uFlvxQSUPlWrU_zPBikb-GqjANl6yT9uAbYv14Y/s1600/crossed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmtJVE33N8CvLhCKCyDITW5pYjQIkDy9Nj35B9xcWNc65dBC88jDlVHAASysSQKxNC2Wc2tfHKe4A34ANujfMGp6g0WNqJz1sQwTR2uFlvxQSUPlWrU_zPBikb-GqjANl6yT9uAbYv14Y/s320/crossed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Well, the moon was in the correct phase, the planets aligned, the stars froze for 73 milliseconds and a transmission escaped from one of my campaigns into another. A player, looking bravely into the face of the unknown in the form of a direct nervous system interface with an alien computer system, facilitated by the animated liquid-metal quadrapus-harness robot that had attached itself to him, said the following immortal words:<br />
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"I'll flip some switches."<br />
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The DM pauses and thinks back on what he had just heard.<br />
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DM CARL: "The only thing you can understand about this interface is that there are certain 'programs', or complex sequences of energy pulses in various frequencies, that can be activated by the central singularity container. You have no way of telling what the effects are going to be. The only way you can even tell that these are 'programs', is that one was recently activated by the liquid metal centipede that you guys destroyed last time. That program activation is what provided the energy for all the compartmentalized charged gas brains, started the alien egg bath glowing pink and restored the dead embryos to a rapidly growing life. So when I said that basically you had a bunch of switches, that you could flip on or off, I was trying to stress that you had no idea what flipping the switches would do. Are you SURE you want to flip some switches?"<br />
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TILANDRIEL: "I'll flip some switches." (poker face)<br />
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DM CARL: "OK... pause... I have to find that list... pause shuffle shuffle... where the FUCK is that chart of random possibility outcomes... OH WELL<br />
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(there is a delicate balance between finding the correct information in your notes and just keeping the game moving)<br />
<br />
(I at least remember the gist of the chart, which is that an 85 or higher is a result observable within the chamber, 1-84 is an activation of one alien facility or another on the planet, or the activation of a certain subroutine in an alien robot, and a roll of 100 on a d100 was the total, immediate and utter destruction of the universe with no savings throw. Thats what you get for fucking with a goddamn singularity contained inside alien technology that you don't even pretend to understand.)<br />
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DM CARL: "OK... I can't find the chart, but go ahead and roll 4 times. That is how many 'levers' you can flip in one round of actions. I will record the results. I remember enough about the chart to tell you the general results, if you can see any at all, of your actions. You can roll 1d100 four times if you really want to."<br />
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TILANDRIEL: shake shake shake ROLLLLLLLLL 86 (oooohhhhhhhhhh...... I will go with one of the results that I remember well because it is a really bad one, but it is easily observable in the chamber)<br />
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DM CARL: "The complex pink and purple pulses that have covered the central singularity container stop and a dull orange glow replaces them. Everyone with a magical quirk (see my <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PZMwXMWsizsUXVnxeolmfq_Q_NxmcQhaE2UGTw3afiY/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLf60rgJ">Fantasy Quirks </a>supplement for Mutant Future) can sense a sudden and strong influx of magical energy. Go ahead and roll three more times."<br />
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SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE ROLLLLLLL ----- the last three rolls were under 85, no 100's, the world did not end, and three of the four levers caused effects that the party could not observe. Still, the party DID have one observable effect to contend with back on Celestia.<br />
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DM CARL: "No longer is the singularity container simply broadcasting energy out across Celestia; now, several intense streams of magical energy seem to be manifesting and streaming INTO the singularity, which swells and grows as the orange glow becomes more intense. At the same time, the plasma brain baths are instantly shut down and you lose your interface. You no longer have any contact with the alien computer or the singularity container."<br />
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The Upshot: The streams have been crossed!<br />
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The players have already suspected that the alien technology they are encountering on the surface of Celestia is related to the "snake men" that reside in an obsidean crater in a city of gold in my 4e campaign. These suspicions will probably be confirmed next Friday when my 4e game next meets, as there will be noticeable impacts of the levers being thrown in that game world.<br />
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The alien facilities that pepper the landscape of Celestia in a peculiar pattern the cause of which the party has not yet determined are not only created by the same race of snakemen that reside mysteriously aloof in their golden city in my 4e campaign, but these facilities are directly linked to the huge meteorite "battery" that the golden city sits on top of. <br />
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The players unwittingly activated an energy transference subroutine that was not supposed to be activated until very near the end of time in my Mutant Future universe. This subroutine begins the transference of stored energy from the snakemen's meteorite battery in my 4e universe to the snake men's singularity container in my Mutant Future universe, for purposes that are still unclear to my players, not to mention the effect that starting the energy transfer billions of years too earlier might have on whatever plans the snakemen have laid throughout time and multiple dimensions of reality.<br />
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More to be said on that after next Friday's game...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-71245426782179825002010-11-08T23:38:00.000-08:002010-11-09T00:09:10.016-08:00The Surface of CelestiaThis is a page from my notes with a nice cutaway view that shows the surface of Celestia. I gave a brief <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-campaign-world-and-new-rules.html">overview of Celestia in this post</a>. Click to see a non-clipped version.<br />
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The party has been stumbling their way across, over and under the dark ruined surface of Celestia for six sessions now. In that time they have come across quite a few oddities, a few of which I have scanned in from my campaign notes.<br />
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The last two sessions have largely focused on this room (including an epic battle last session [Mutagenic Substance Campaign Session #45!] against a liquid-metal robot centipede golem!):<br />
(Top View, scale is at the bottom: The circular thing in the center is an alien machine of some sort. A dome on top of it opens into what appears to be a controlled singularity, the creation and distruction of a/the universe contained within it somehow for an as yet unknown purpose)<br />
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Click to see a non-clipped version:<br />
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View of the circular thing in the center of the chamber: This emits intense energy in every possible form that energy can be emitted, apparently broadcasting to numerous receptors around Celestia. Everything in this chamber that is powered (the egg foam, the teleporter pods, the lift, and the "cars") runs on broadcast power emitted by this thing.<br />
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The party became aware of this strange chamber, totally incongruous amidst the lowest service levels of an ancient subway line, when Tilandriel (an elf made with my <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PZMwXMWsizsUXVnxeolmfq_Q_NxmcQhaE2UGTw3afiY/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLf60rgJ">Fantasy Quirks character creation supplement for Mutant Future</a>) gained access to the memories stored inside the Dr. Octopus-like tentacled liquid-metal-harness that had attached itself to him. Intrigued by the alien contents of the chamber as revealed to Tilandriel in a 3-Dimensional scan of the subway line, and by some glowing tablets of energy they had previously found which appeared to be related, the party reversed their stolen subway train and headed back to look for the alien chamber.<br />
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The numbered circles in the room are matched pairs of teleporter pods. They function similarly to the teleporter pods in the movie <i>The Fly</i> with Jeff Goldblum (one of my wife's all time hollywood crushes and on her top five to do list). <br />
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The door of the pod opens from the center at any touch of at least one pound pressure, and will not shut if anything at all is breaking the plane of the door. If at least 1 oz of matter is inside a pod and nothing is breaking the plane of the door, the door shuts and the pods channel the singularity inside the big machine in the center of the room. The contents of the two pods with the same alphanumerical designation trade places in spacetime, instantly, no matter the intervening distance, with no effect that can be observed by anything thus transported, and the door opens in the new location. If the door on one matched pod is open, the door on its mate will not open until the first door is shut. A glowing iris in the center of the door is an omni-directional camera that broadcasts its feed to a screen inside the pod's mate. In this manner, the area in front of the destination pod can be viewed before teleporting.<br />
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The pods crossed out with an "X" and numbered 1-3 lead to the corresponding destinations labelled 1-3 at the bottom. The pods that are all the way blacked out are the mated pairs to the pods labelled 1-3 and are consequently missing from the chamber.<br />
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Two pods (bottom left corner) are loaded onto a sort of "car" that is parked on top of a working lift that goes up to the subway line. Three more cars, each capable of loading two more pods, are parked along the wall.<br />
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Two pits contain mounds of alien eggs, covered in a solidified foam that resembles a spit-bugs nest. The foam is super-charged and delivers a 5d20 damage shock (save vs. Energy attacks for half damage) to anyone foolish enough to touch it. The eggs contain dead embryos, similar in form to mammals in early development, but obviously of a slightly divergent alien evolutionary history.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-57919726277332545292010-09-17T02:15:00.000-07:002010-09-17T02:18:52.035-07:00Fantasy Quirks Beta Test Version 0.9.4As mentioned in my last post, I recently have written a supplement for Mutant Future that allows random mutation style character generation in a fantasy vein. Not necessarily your normal D&D fantasy vein, but a fantasy vein nonetheless. <br />
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I just updated this blog to include a permanent link to the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1PZMwXMWsizsUXVnxeolmfq_Q_NxmcQhaE2UGTw3afiY&hl=en&authkey=CLf60rgJ">Google Docs version of this supplement</a>. In many ways, this is already an outdated version but it will be couple of weeks before I release the .PDF version of the official public beta version playtest. <br />
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The official playtest will be hosted on the forums over at the<a href="http://eyeofthevortexonline.com/"> Eye of the Vortex,</a> so stay posted for news of that.<br />
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Any feedback, almost especially negative feedback, is encouraged. Let me know what you think!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-18326446500713529812010-08-16T19:21:00.000-07:002010-08-16T20:25:35.077-07:00New Campaign World and New RulesMan, last night's session was a doozy. It might take too long to explain exactly how this all transpired, but the PCs now find themselves on the dark surface of a planet that is entirely surrounded by a metal ball. The surface of the planet itself is really the crumbling upper level of layer after layer of ruined cities that stretch uninterrupted across the world. Occasional light oases (an oasis of light) exist where radiation spills from the underside of the metal shell that covers the planet; this is usually heat exhaust, but in at least one place a malfunctioning fusion reactor in the metal shell is shedding light comparable to the setting sun over a good swath of the land. <br />
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The group has sort of fallen in with a passive resistance movement called the Upward Thinking Gentle Beings, who pride themselves on still being aware of the galaxy of interstellar intrigue that exists on the other side of the metal shell that covers the world. The Upward Thinking Gentle Beings split away from the Old Republic of Celestia because they found the brutal methods of the old government to be distasteful. The mutant race of telepathic computer hackers that had been enslaved by the government escaped with the Upward Thinking Gentle Beings, making tracking down the runaways the number one priority for the Republic, because without the Hackers the death machines used by the Republic to keep order are beginning to go haywire.<br />
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Last night's session, in addition to being somewhat of a campaign reboot in a new location (much more of the world of Celestia to come in future posts), marked the first official playtest session of a supplement I am working on for Mutant Future.<br />
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Basically, I have come up with an entire new set of physical and mental mutations that I call "quirks", that enable anyone to roll a random character with powers similar to and compatible with Mutant Future's mutations and mutants. The difference is that instead of being post-apocalyptic flavor, these characters taste like the particular strange version of the fantasy genre that exists in my imagination. <br />
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Players who have characters die and new players in the campaign are now making characters using these rules, and playing them alongside the regular Mutant Future characters. So far so good - the new characters and quirks meshed seamlessly with the old mutants and mutations. As soon as I finish getting the Open Gaming License and the Mutant Future License filled in correctly, I will post a free public Beta version of these rules if anyone else wants to get in on the playtesting fun!<br />
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I also introduced a new houserule into play that proved to be terribly exciting and an instant winner.<br />
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"Let it Ride" or "Double or Nothing"<br />
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Whenever a successful melee or ranged attack is made, the attacker can choose to let it ride - this involves throwing a second attack roll. If this is also successful, the attack does double normal damage, but if it fails, the attack does no damage at all. This can be attempted a third time if the second roll is successful, for quadruple damage with a success but again, no damage at all with a failure.<br />
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In play, this made combat WAY more exciting, fast and deadly. A guy with a sword or bow and arrow can now do some serious damage in a single round; it is just much harder to get the hit in. When Dis, a vampire character made using the new rules, was making his escape in the back of a purloined jeep, a Republic soldier drew careful bead and BAM, I rolled a 19. Solid hit with the rifle. So I let it ride... 15. Hit. So I let it ride again... the party hangs in suspense... 19! Dis takes a quadruple damage rifle shot and ends up with 3 HP. Ouch!<br />
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Of course, what is good for the goose is good for the gander, and the party got some awesome super high damage shots in using this rule - and also wasted several hits by pressing their luck. The most dramatic moment was when Gar the dark elf (another fantasy quirk character, I combined race into the random quirk package so that both race and powers are determined randomly during the char gen process) decided that he was going to go for broke and double up an attack twice. He rolled all three d20's at once, and the first two stopped rolling before the last one... 20! 20! Two 20's sitting on the table (a 20 is a double damage attack in my game, which stacks with the doubling and quadrupling from the Let it Ride rule, so we were looking at a possible 16 or even 32 times damage attack if the last die ended up a hit or a 20 as well) and the last one finally stops rolling on a 4. Wiff! <br />
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The group erupted in howls of laughter as poor Rorey (Gar's player) had to pick up his dice, knowing he just wasted double 20's without even landing a hit!<br />
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I personally loved the feel of the rule, combining the excitement and risk taking of gambling with the rolling of the dice. Even though an individual attack round might take a little longer using this rule, the whole group was very into each roll and soon began chanting "Double It! Double It!" when a party member landed a successful hit. The overall effect was to actually speed up combat, because a few quadruple damage hits landed that dramatically changed the balance of power on the battlefield.<br />
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It also neatly solves a longstanding problem I have had with the Mutant Future rules, which is that the equipment table was lifted straight from Labyrinth Lord with its d8 damage for a longsword intact. <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2010/01/hp-in-mutant-future.html">With HP being based solely on Constitution, I have a hard time buying the usual "HP do not represent physical damage" jazz</a>, so I want a sword to be able to do some serious damage. Maybe not as easily as a laser cannon or a rifle, but a 1st level character shouldn't be able to just stand there laughing while someone hacks at them round after round with a measly d6 damage shortsword. Just for shits and giggles, the next time I roll a nat 20 on an attack roll, I am going to calmly say to the group... "Let it ride..."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-89511408190991701222010-07-21T01:37:00.000-07:002014-01-28T23:15:07.836-08:00Some plant-tending robots.This motley assortment of robots was encountered by my PCs in the alien spaceship that turned out to be nearly filled with a powerful plant organism. The robots, designed by the plant organism and created using the ship's science labs, tended to a small forest of young flowering bodies (small Death's Head Trees, with little severed heads as fruit). The sketches are lifted out of my notes from running the game, and are pretty hasty to say the least.<br />
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<b>Sensor Balls:</b><br />
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All of these robots can be controlled by little flying balls called "Sensor Balls", one of which is depicted flying over robot 2 below. These little flyers usually take no actions beyond hovering in a position that gives them a good field of view (and they can see in all directions and spectrums) and directing the other robots. They will take evasive maneuvers if necessary and can use a short range laser meant for precision trimming and pruning work in combat as a last resort. As long as any one Sensor Ball is in the vicinity, it commands the other kinds of robots with great intelligence. Left to their own devices, the robots can only respond with pre-programmed aggressions to anyone disrupting their routine.<br />
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<b>Movement</b>: Flight (35 MPH), instant acceleration, perfect maneuvering including the ability to hover<br />
<b>HP</b>: 12<br />
<b>AC</b>: 1<br />
<b>Attack</b>: 2' Laser Beam, attacks as a 14 HD monster (these little balls have amazing processing power and when they combine it with their terrific sensory inputs they can attack with cold precision), 4d6 damage, can cut through metal slowly.<br />
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<b>Forcefield</b>: 20 HP per round (the Sensor Ball ignores the first twenty damage it takes every round, this refreshes at the beginning of the Sensor Ball's next turn).<br />
Each Sensor Ball has 6 "eyes" that have 2 HP each; one eye is lost for every 2 damage the ball takes. <br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">The Plant-Tending Robots:</span><br />
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All the robots below share at least one common design element: the ball shaped "fingertip" at the end of each "finger" and "toe". Each of these balls is covered with a multitude of tiny manipulators that can fold upon themselves to create attraction much like a gecko's foot. These fingertip balls are capable of firmly grasping almost any surface, and when five of them on the ends of opposable fingers are combined, these robots are extremely nimble and dexterous when it comes to fine manipulation of objects. <b>This feature means that all robots that possess it can walk on walls and ceilings just as easily as the floor</b>. Use this to your advantage! PCs often forget to look up...<br />
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The numbers refer to the numbers next to the robots on the drawings above.<br />
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<b>Robot 1</b>: This is a mobile vacuum cleaner, essentially. It stands four feet off the ground with a neck that can extend out to ten feet. <br />
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<b>Movement</b>: This thing cannot go faster than a slow jogging pace, and its normal movement speed is a slow walking pace as it snuffles up debris and keeps the plant chambers clean.<br />
<b>Attacks</b>: As an 8 HD monster, it can attack with its powerful suction hose to a range of 15'. This attack causes no damage but holds objects weighing less than 2,000 lbs firmly suctioned against the hose mouth as if it had a strength of 20. It can carry 500 pounds and drag up to 2,000 pounds at half its normal speed.<br />
<b>HP and AC</b>:<br />
Main Body (the vacuum bag, which can expand out more than twice as wide as the robot is tall, and the disc shaped power source and legs): HP: 100, AC: 5<br />
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Neck/Vacuum: HP:30, AC: 3<br />
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Disabling the body destroys the robot; disabling the neck or vacuum eliminates its only effective means of defending itself.<br />
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<b>Robot 2</b>: This is a flying plant trimmer. The main body is 14" across and each arm is a smooth plastic that can extend out to 3 feet. It has a hand that can gently manipulate a plant and a wicked pruner that can slice straight through a ten inch tree trunk if the blades are fully extended.<br />
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<b>Movement</b>: Flight up to 30 MPH, excellent maneuverability<br />
<b>HP</b>: 30<br />
<b>AC</b>: 3<br />
<b>Attacks</b> as a 7 HD monster. AT:1, DMG: 2d6 pruner, 2d10 if pruner fully extended (takes 1 round to extend)<br />
Can grab and carry an object in its hand as if it had a strength of 18. It can fly with up to 200 pounds and drag up to 400 at half its normal movement.<br />
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<b>Robot 3</b>: This is a robot plant mister and fertilizer and insecticide dispenser. Your general all in one watering can swiss army knife type robot. It can stand anywhere from 2 feet (the height of its reservoir tank and power disc) to over 7' tall when all five segments are extended on each leg. <br />
<b>Movement</b>: as a human<br />
<b>Attacks:</b> The robot attacks as a 8 HD monster. See spray attacks below.<br />
<b>HP and AC</b>:<br />
Reservoir Tank: unless otherwise specified, all attacks are directed at this area. HP: 60 AC:4 - if the Reservoir Tank is destroyed, the pressurized gases inside explode for 5d6 damage in a 10' radius.<br />
Legs (4): Each leg has HP:20 and AC:3 At least two legs are required for the robot to effectively move, although it can certainly drag and hop along on one leg.<br />
Misters (2) Each mister has HP:10 and AC:4. At least one mister is required to for the robot to make a spray attack.<br />
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Spray Attacks: 2 sprays (15' range, single target each) or one area attack spray that automatically hits any opponent within 6' (or close melee range).<br />
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Damage: (many different sprays) 2d6 acid (ongoing 1d6 damage for two rounds unless washed off), or save vs. poison for 5d6 damage (poison gas lingers in the same area for another round, anyone still in the area a turn later must save again if they have not taken any damage), or save vs. poison or fall unconscious for 1d4 rounds or no damage (special): smoke cloud, limits visibility to 5'<br />
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<b>Robot 4</b>: This is a mobile plant nursery capable of transporting up to a 3' tall baby Death's Head Tree (or your choice of other valuable plant type thing). It is a beefy robot designed to be able to traverse rugged environments. It also can act as a controller for the other robots, although it is not as intelligent as several Sensor Balls acting in concert.<br />
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The section of the drawing above labelled "4B" shows how each large metal sphere that independently powers two of the robots legs can descend downwards on a pole up to 15'. If any one of these three two-legged balls survives, it can maneuver the robot around at full speed if not full agility. 4B also shows how each leg can itself extend out to a total of five jointed segments (only two are pictured extended in the main drawing, and none of the three balls that mount the six legs are pictured extended down at all).<br />
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The five circles that appear around the edge of the main disc like body of the robot are portals through which eye-tentacles can emerge. There are ten of these eye tentacles in total. The very front of the robot is a multi-purpose panel that can serve as a monitor for displaying images and also functions as a forward facing viewpoint.<br />
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<b>Movement</b>: Can run up to 50 MPH over even terrain, and up to 30 MPH over broken terrain and even up a cliff. These are extremely powerful and rugged robots. <br />
<b>HP and AC</b>:<br />
Everything but the dome (the main body, the extendable balls and the legs): HP: 150 AC: 0<br />
The Dome: HP: 50 AC: 0<br />
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<b>Forcefield:</b> The dome is surrounded by a 50 HP forcefield (the dome ignores the first 50 HP of damage it receives each round).<br />
<b>Attacks</b>: as a 20 HD monster: 2 kicks for 4d6 damage each. If a kick does more than 12 damage, it knocks the victim backwards 10' and requires a dexterity check to remain standing.<br />
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Destroying the main body of the robot does not disable the forcefield around the dome or make it any easier to penetrate the incredibly hard clear plastic surface of the dome. The interior of the dome will maintain a livable environment for its plant for up to 7 days after the robot is destroyed with the tanks of compressed gases and stores of water and nutrients inside the dome.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-66857264584225224662010-06-22T23:41:00.000-07:002010-06-22T23:41:22.290-07:00I love poorly translated Japanese comments on my blog!The following is an unedited (except for where I made the line breaks) excerpt from the babelfish translation of a Japanese spam comment on my last post. For more hilarity, <a href="http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2010/04/holy-crap-i-have-time-to-write-">scroll down and read the other badly translated porn spam</a>.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Found Poem</span></b> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">a one hitting javelin</div><div style="text-align: center;">unevenness</div><div style="text-align: center;">electric shadow institute love</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">love</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">single leaf feeling</div><br />
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I am mystified by and remain hopeful that another commenter is legitimate, because the translation of this short comment seems to perfectly sum up my entire Mutant Future campaign in an abstract sort of way: <i>"The impossible left and right heaven - yes from here reforming - feelings"</i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-7905891254836610862010-04-27T01:11:00.000-07:002010-04-27T01:15:20.494-07:00Holy Crap! I have time to write a post! (Mutant Future sessions 34 - 37)Well folks, looking back at my last post I see that I drastically overestimated my ability to keep up on this blog. Not a single 2e Tuesday post. Sorry!<br />
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My weekly Mutant Future game has become an every other week affair, but the players are taking the campaign in interesting new directions. I want to briefly outline what has happened since the players <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2010/03/mutant-future-goes-travelling.html">stole an alien spaceship in an alternate dimension that they were visiting</a>. This is still going to be a very long post even if I skip a lot of the details.<br />
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Sessions 34 - 37 have all taken place on the ship, although at the end of last nights session the main body of the ship was destroyed and the party barely escaped in the detachable flying saucer top of the space ship. The flying saucer was heavily damaged and the party more or less crash landed it on a rocky <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">planetoid</span>.<br />
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The party took a while to feel out the ship. A character death had necessitated that Danny roll up a new character during the session that the party stole the ship (alas, <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Rok</span> was decapitated during a duel with an Elf Champion), and he made a robot using the optional rules I introduced <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2010/03/android-features-android-substitute-for.html">here</a> and <a href="http://mutant-future.wikia.com/wiki/Android_Features">here</a>. I let him roll twice on the optional Industrial and Civilian feature chart and once on the mental mutation table and he got the Plane Shift mutation. Of course, this meant that he had just used his ability to materialize within the alien ship the day before the party stole it. He had been working on interacting with the ship's computer the entire time, and spent much of the next two sessions pursuing this strategy. His ability to <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">wirelessly</span> interact with the computers within 50' of him (thanks to that handy optional chart) let him attempt to do the job of a crew of humans on the bridge. He spent a lot of time doing tech rolls and coming up with new and creative ways to use the ship's computers and attempt to wrest control of the computer systems from an unknown super-computer that was manipulating the ship's data feeds. <br />
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One thing that the party learned right away was that one quarter of the ship, a large wedge, on two levels, had been completely disconnected from the ship's systems. What lay in that large area, behind sealed bulkheads, the party had no way of knowing. <br />
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Other party members familiarized themselves with the large weapons control deck and the robotics control deck. Bob the mutant human had a great deal of success in figuring out how to remotely control what turned out to be a veritable legion of robots of many different varieties. <br />
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An army of robotic minions was sent out to explore the ship when it was discovered that the optical feeds coming in from the ship's cameras were being tampered with by an unknown super-computer that appeared to have direct access to the ship's bridge. It gradually became apparent that there were "invisible" creatures stalking around the ship (at least two of them were confirmed by reconnaissance squads in different locations simultaneously), but as they were cloaked from visual detection and the feed from the ship's sensors was being manipulated by the unknown computer the only way of detecting them was relying on the sensors of the robots directly controlled by Bob the mutant human in the robotics control center. Attempts to engage the invisible creatures led to the destruction of numerous robots and no further knowledge of the invisible assailants<br />
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Amusingly, <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Shazaam</span> attempted to "figure out" the weapons control system. This was a complex touchscreen interaction with visual tracking that allowed the user to pull up enormous targeting windows along the outer wall of the deck. Having already failed to understand the interface, he informed me that he was going to "press some buttons". I had him roll the dice. He rolled the worst possible result that he could of. Everyone in the party stopped as I laughed and told them what happened next. <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Shazaam</span> had activated an emergency defensive sub-routine meant to be used as a last resort when taking intense enemy fire. He diverted all available power to the ship's shields and the weapons systems. The ship shut down all non-occupied areas, powering off life support and diverting everything to the shields. <br />
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The party held its breath, looking at monitors depicting an inky black ship. Over in the bridge, <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Volcom</span> (the plane shifting robot computer tech) managed to restore the ship to its normal operating parameters but multiple alarms demanded his attention.<br />
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Entire decks of <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">cryo</span>-chambers had opened, releasing a bizarre horde of part plant, part animal monstrosities. <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Stang</span>, the giant mutant wasp with four defective paranoid brains, <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">leapt</span> at the chance to rush into action. <br />
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I probably shouldn't go into detail with the battles that raged across the ship, first with the newly awakened abominations (this battle was actually mercifully short thanks to grenades and an entire legion of robotic defenders activated by Bob to aid the party) and later with the invisible assailants. These turned out to be <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">shapeshifting</span> plant-toads that walked upright and had enormous gaping mouths (I used the Grey <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Slaadi</span> stats from the Fiend Folio, with a few tweaks: 150 HP, flame strike does 15d6, and they could transport themselves with/transform themselves into their "ball of lightning" ability which I left at 8d6+6 damage). The creatures proved to be quite formidable. One showed up in the bridge in the guise of a holographic doctor that had been activated during the accidental ship-wide power shutdown. <br />
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The party was all too eager to believe in the holographic doctor, especially as he told them a lot of information that made sense. Eventually, the ruse was revealed and the toad-thing attempted to slay the party in the bridge as another attacked the party members that were down in the lower decks. Nothing the party tried seemed to be able to hurt the creatures. Even mental mutations seemed to work only infrequently (I applied the Grey <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Slaadi's</span> 55% magic resistance to mental mutation attacks and the party wasn't trying the "magical" weapons they had, two long swords +3 of light from the elves and several <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/2009/09/all-hail-glargorion.html"><span class="goog-spellcheck-word">glargore</span> weapons from the <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">badders</span></a>). At one point James Bomb received a wound and an egg pellet was implanted in his arm by the toad-plant. He panicked and fled, tying off his arm above the wound and blasting his own forearm off with his laser pistol as he retreated to the med chambers. The elevator let him off in a strange, plant covered chamber and it took all his wits to evade another toad creature that came looking for him. Back in the bridge, <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Shazaam</span> had realized that his elvish Light Sword could injure the creature and the tide of battle turned. The <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">toadstrosity</span> retreated.<br />
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I have to mention one epic moment: a later battle pitted <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Shazaam</span> one on one against another <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Slaadtastic</span> Plant Toad. Dr. Hops the mutant were-rabbit lay dead at his feet, victim of the <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Slaadi's</span> <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">flamestrike</span> which thankfully <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Shazaam</span> had succeeded in his saving throw against. The <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">slaad</span> traced a strange symbol in the air and projected energy through it - <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Volcom's</span> player Danny made a specific point to mention that <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Volcom</span> was watching this symbol closely over the monitors from the bridge - and <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Shazaam</span> and <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Volcom</span> promptly became blind. In the case of the robot <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Volcom</span>, his optical sensors were still working but his processors had lost the capacity to crunch the visual feed and he had no image to work with. <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Shazaam</span> hefted his Light Sword and made a called shot to the neck, an attempted decapitation, acknowledging my admonition that he would be at a severe penalty to hit due to his <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">BLINDNESS</span>, and... rolled a natural 20. He cut the thick head off the shoulders of that thing, and then stumbled off to the med labs.<br />
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Several sessions slowly revealed that the entire ship was riddled with a single organism, an immense plant that had filled the ventilation systems, the spaces between decks, and presumably had a main body in the section of the ship that was sealed off from the party. Sorties into this sealed section revealed rooms of robot plant cultivators tending to small "sapling" versions of the death's-head tree the party had encountered at the elven castle.<br />
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The party had also been experiencing symptoms of a physical ailment, symptoms that manifested for some of the party members as bloating and discomfort in the bowels and in others as sinus pressure or a sore throat. Eventual scans revealed that an alien organism was growing inside most of the party members (<span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Bozko</span> never ate any elvish food and <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Volcom</span> arrived in the spaceship without contacting the elves at all). It appeared to be forming a second nervous system that was intertwining itself along and around the nervous systems of the infected party members. Of course, many methods were tried to remove the organism but it was too closely linked to vital nerves to allow for any surgical extraction and the robot doctors warned strongly against even attempting it.<br />
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The party gained access to what appeared to be several thousand years of ship's medical logs - apparently, the ship had been cruising around space for over 5,000 years acting as the host of the parasitic alien plant-creature. The plant creature infected the original crew of the ship and once the alien nervous systems grew inside the crew members, the plant-creature sent out signals that activated the alien nervous systems and seized control of the crew members' bodies. <br />
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I wish I had time to go into the biology, philosophy and survival adaptations of the alien creature and its offspring because it is really fascinating but I don't.<br />
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Long story short: A violent struggle for control of the ship broke out between the alien plant-creature that filled the ship and the party, who holed up in the bridge. The bridge and the other three important main decks were all located in a detachable portion of the spaceship, a large flying saucer that also contained the weapons systems but not the <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">hyperdrive</span>. The party eventually cleared the entire flying saucer level of the alien plant creature and achieved a stalemate of sorts as both sides waited for the ship to complete its jump and come out of hyperspace.<br />
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The second the ship returned to normal space <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Volcom</span> initiated the detach flying saucer sequence. The party had prepared for this moment by hacking into a section of the ship's life support code and eliminating the barrier on how hot the internal temperature could be raised to. Then, the party had activated the sprinkler system and filled the hallways with mist. As soon as the flying saucer was clear, <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Volcom</span> was cranking the heat inside the main body of the spaceship up to nearly 1,000 degrees. The plan was to steam the vegetable, as it had been proven earlier that head dried up and killed the <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">mycelium</span>-like tissue of the plant-creature. <br />
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The plant-creature proved to be a wily adversary as well, jettisoning four large sections of the ships hull that opened into the sealed plant-sections of the ship and revealing four enormous "arms" of plant matter, that reached out thousands of feet and snagged the flying saucer as it was attempting to fly away. Twisting and turning, pulled by the long plant-tentacles, the flying saucer and its crew blasted away with the pulse-laser cannons and soon succeeded in destroying the arms that bound the ship. <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Volcom</span> steered the flying saucer a safe distance away and the rest of the party remained in the weapons control deck, manning pulse cannons and missiles aimed at the ship "just in case". <br />
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Soon, two cloaked <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">slaadi</span> flew out after the flying saucer. Impossible to detect except as a void where background radiation should have been coming through, the <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">slaadi</span> proved difficult to target with the pulse cannons and were dangerously close for missile fire. The <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">slaadi</span> took advantage of this moment of confusion and transformed into lightning ball form and travelled at the speed of light to directly outside the saucer's hull, from whence they sent lightning balls inside the ship to attack the party.<br />
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The <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">slaad</span> attempted to tunnel in to the ship, but <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Stang</span> picked one of with the pulse cannon, overcoming its energy resistance (55% magic resistance) and utterly obliterating it with something like 780 damage done with the one shot (the ship-to-ship pulse cannons do 1d100 x 10 damage). The second <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">slaad</span> made it into the walls of the ship and was eventually stopped, but not before severe damage was done to the computer and life support systems in the bridge. <br />
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<span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Volcom</span> piloted the crippled saucer back close enough to the mother ship to be able to <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">wirelessly</span> tap into its computers (the transmitter in the saucer had been damaged beyond repair and the party had lost all feeds from the mother ship). Once the party had access to the feeds again, it became apparent that the plan was working. The alien flesh was being slowly cooked, and it looked like within five or six more hours the middle of the alien creature would be "done". <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Mmmm</span>, roasted alien <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">mycelial</span> networks. <br />
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Suddenly, a huge ball of the creature shot out from the spaceship and began hurtling away into space, apparently making a break for it. As the astonished party swung their weapons toward it, they saw it preparing some kind of energy charge that it was aligning toward the main body of the ship.<br />
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<span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Volcom</span> diverted all of the shields to directly between the flying saucer and the main body of the ship, just before a nuclear explosion happened in the chamber recently vacated by the plant-creature. The ship was ripped to shreds and then disintegrated, but the alien creature had readied a shield of energy to "surf" off the explosion and accelerate away.<br />
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Luckily, the shields held because of <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Volcom's</span> last second maneuver, but the power resources of the flying saucer were almost completely drained. The party did manage to destroy the alien creature with pulse-laser fire as the explosion was happening, and then eventually <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Volcom</span> armed a missile with a planet buster and sent it off after the creature. Once it got within a few hundred miles it detonated and annihilated the plant.<br />
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<span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Stang</span> remarked that she kind of missed the plant now, because she had really gotten to know the tricky creature after several sessions in a row of fighting against it.<br />
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<span class="goog-spellcheck-word">Volcom</span> piloted the saucer to a nearby rocky <span class="goog-spellcheck-word">planetoid</span> that the party had previously scanned. It contained a robotic automated mining station but no life forms. <br />
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And there you have it folks, the extremely brief version of what has been going on in my Mutant Future campaign!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1616286796727756915.post-11295416978644766602010-03-23T23:05:00.000-07:002010-03-23T23:07:24.267-07:002e Tuesday and General AnnouncementsHowdy Blog Readers! Events in my life necessitate that I cut back on some of my game related activities. I think I am going to make my Mutant Future game a bi-monthly occurrence, and continue to blog sparingly about it. I will at least try to keep up on the 2e Tuesday posts because I think having Gamma World monsters for Mutant Future is a noble cause. <br />
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For anyone curious, I am getting married on June 5th and now that my betrothed has graduated from the University of Oregon our wedding planning is going to get much more serious (i.e. I will have to spend a lot of time helping my sweetie out doing wedding-y things). <br />
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I am also a member of a band (<a href="http://myspace.com/telepathicdumpster">Telepathic Dumpster</a>) and I have been slacking on my duties as band sound engineer; two CDs are waiting for nothing but my time spent doing a final mix down to release, and I owe it to my bandmates to spend some time on them soon. <br />
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My duties over at the <a href="http://www.eyeofthevortexonline.com/">Eye of the Vortex web site</a> are increasing a little bit because I agreed to be an editor over there and help get articles ready to publish. I also run a weekly 4e game and play in a weekly Labyrinth Lord game - something is going to have to give, so I think I will also cut back on my participation in the Labyrinth Lord game and see about possibly shifting the 4e game to an every other week kind of thing. Thus ends probably the most intense period of D&D activity that I have ever had in my life. I have never ran and participated in three weekly games simultaneously, and I certainly have never spent so much time blogging and writing about gaming. It has been a lot of fun! I will still keep up on my <a href="http://backscreenpass.blogspot.com/">Back Screen Pass blog</a>, as I want to slowly publish a game setting of mine on that blog.<br />
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And now, on to the Gamma World Goodness!<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Today's creature is...</div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Oriens</b></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">No. Enc: 1d4-1</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Alignment: Lawful</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Movement: 120'</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Armor Class: 6</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Hit Dice: 12</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Attacks: by weapon</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Damage: by weapon</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Save: L10</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Morale: 7</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Hoard Class: Unique (1d4-1 any Technological Artifacts)</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">These 8' tall, two headed, four-armed giants are surprisingly intelligent and peaceful. They have an average Intelligence of 14 and an average Willpower of 17. Technologically advanced, Orlens can modify armor to fit their unique build and all adults carry at least one technological artifact that they have mastered the use of. They will equip themselves with armor (hence their AC of 6, which should be adjusted downwards if they are wearing better than the equivalent of Studded Leather Armor) and swords if they have no weapons among their artifacts. Despite their physical strength, size and willingness to wield weaponry, Oriens will harm no one that does not harm them first. They will use their telepathic abilities to communicate with strangers, and will attempt to use telekinesis to restrain attackers without harming them before turning to combat as a last resort in self defense.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Mutations: Neural Telepathy, Neural Telekinesis, Ability Boost (Willpower only)</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><i><br />
</i></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I like the idea of big scary looking two-headed giants wielding laser rifles that turn out to be a peaceful and civilized race. Things are not always as they seem in the Mutant Future.. </div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07648499022366444265noreply@blogger.com4