Odds and Ends pt.1

I 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!


Tribe 15:  When I rebooted the campaign on the world of Celestia 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.

 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.

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...

Albert's Constructs - Albert's Eyes and Killballs:  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 link between Celestia and my 4e campaign world...

Albert's Eye (tiny construct)
HP:1
AC:-4
MV:240' (magical flight, can hover, total maneuverability)
Attacks as 10 HD Creature
AT: 1 (50' stun ray or 10' electric shock )
DMG: stunned for 1d4 rounds / 5d6
Saves as a 20 HD Creature, no damage for effects that would do half damage with successful save

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.

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.

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).

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.

Killball (medium construct)
HP: 100
AC:0
Movement: 180' (magical flight, good maneuverability)
Attacks (as 10 HD creature): 3 x longsword AND battleaxe / 3 x machine gun (see below)
Damage: longsword: 2d8+3 / battleaxe: 2d8+4 / machine gun: 2d10 +6

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.

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).

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.

Don't Cross The Streams

In 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.

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:

"I'll flip some switches."

The DM pauses and thinks back on what he had just heard.

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?"

TILANDRIEL:  "I'll flip some switches."  (poker face)

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

(there is a delicate balance between finding the correct information in your notes and just keeping the game moving)

(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.)

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."

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)

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 Fantasy Quirks supplement for Mutant Future) can sense a sudden and strong influx of magical energy.  Go ahead and roll three more times."

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.

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."

The Upshot:  The streams have been crossed!

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.

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.

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.

More to be said on that after next Friday's game...

The Surface of Celestia

This is a page from my notes with a nice cutaway view that shows the surface of Celestia.  I gave a brief overview of Celestia in this post.  Click to see a non-clipped version.

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.

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!):
(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)

 Click to see a non-clipped version:

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.

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 Fantasy Quirks character creation supplement for Mutant Future) 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.

The numbered circles in the room are matched pairs of teleporter pods.  They function similarly to the teleporter pods in the movie The Fly with Jeff Goldblum (one of my wife's all time hollywood crushes and on her top five to do list).

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.

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.

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.

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.

New Campaign World and New Rules

Man, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

I also introduced a new houserule into play that proved to be terribly exciting and an instant winner.

"Let it Ride" or "Double or Nothing"

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.

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.  With HP being based solely on Constitution, I have a hard time buying the usual "HP do not represent physical damage" jazz, 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..."