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Conrad

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Blog Entries posted by Conrad

  1. Conrad
    My latest game setting is a post apocalyptic mutant filled superhero game, set on a new continent called Pacifica. The creation of the continent by a geological anomaly caused huge changes to the planets weather due to large scale vulcanism and the dumping of dust and sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere. A limited nuclear war has raged due to the famines caused and attempts to annex resources to build arcologies for the remaining populace to live in. The date is 2060, and Americans fleeing the radiation in their blasted country have created a new city on the continent of Pacifica. But the new land holds secrets of its own.
    And why is the superhero cyborg known as Kron weaving a huge sphere of carbon nanotubes around a nuclear weapon? Is the Tech Guardian priesthood being infiltrated by some dangerous cult? And will Neo Nihon be able to defend itself against the huge reptilian monster when someone has stolen the megamecha that is their only line of defence? (Thanks to Seneschal for his sentai team write up, it came in handy). Who stole it and why?
    I'd answer these questions but my players would read them and it wouldn't be fun playing in my game.
  2. Conrad
    I've been running a game with some Vancian aliens in it, and thought that I'd post some of my conversions to BRP of the aliens in Planet of Adventure by Jack Vance.
    Race: Green Chasch Planet: Unknown. Now resident on Tschai.
    Average.
    Str: 5d6 17 -18
    Con: 4d6 14
    Siz: 2d6+7 14
    Int: 3d6 10 - 11
    Pow: 3d6 10 - 11
    Dex: 2d6+5 12
    App: 3d6 10 -11
    Move: 9 Hit Points: 17 -18 Damage Bonus: +1d6 Armour: 5 points of platelike scales.
    Powers: Keen Sense: Smell/Taste+20% Mind Shield , Telepathy both at POW X 3. These Psychic Abilities are only used with other Green Chasch. With other races they are at POWX1 to communicate.
    Skills: Knowledge: Survival 60% Hunting/Tracking 50% Boadsword 50% Catapult 50% Ride (massive beast) 70%
    Spot 50% Knowledge: Tactics 50% Lance 70%
    Notes: Green Chasch are seven to eight feet tall, massive and thick limbed Their scales clearly defined and of a glistening metallic green. Their faces are small, brooding, and wickedly ugly under the massive jut of their scalps. They wear crude leather aprons and shoulder harnesses, in which hang huge swords, battle-picks and catapults (use sling stats in the BRP book, page 248). They become torpid at night, and huddle in grunting masses until daybreak.
    Green Chasch are a telepathic race. They do not talk, and use coloured flags to announce their moods to outsiders. Yellow and black flags on their lances, signify that they are in a bad mood and are to be avoided.
    Lesser Zants are a tribe of Green Chasch with protuberances on each side of their heads. Greater Zants do not have this mutation.
  3. Conrad
    I've saved the best for last. The Dirdir are starting to be the main villains in my campaign, as they begin a new expansion into the realms of the upstart humans.
    Race: Dirdir Planet: Sibol
    Average.
    Str: 3d6+1 11-12
    Con: 4d6 14
    Siz: 2d6+7 14
    Int: 3d6 10-11
    Pow: 3d6 10-11
    Dex: 2d6+5 12
    App: 3d6 10-11
    Move: 12 Hit Points: 14 Damage Bonus: 1d4 Armour: 2 points of skin.
    Powers: Keen Sense: Hearing +20% (minor). Dirdir also have antennae that glow when they are excited, so Luminesence (minor) may be appropriate.
    Attacks: Bite 30% 1d4+ db Claw 50% 1d6+ db
    Skills: Hunting/Tracking 60% Brawling 60% Knowledge: Survival 50% Pilot: Sky raft 60% Navigate 50% Plasma rifle 50% ( see page 256 of the BRP book) Dodge 40% Half shield 50%
    Notes: Dirdir stand approximately human height, and move with sinister quickness, like lizards on a hot day. Their dermal surfaces suggest polished bone; their crania raised into sharp blade-like crests, with incandescent antennae streaming back at either side, known as effulgences. The contours of the faces are oddly human, with deep eye-sockets, the scalp crests descending to suggest nasal ridges. They half-hop, half-lope, like leopards walking erect; it is not hard to see in them the wild creatures which hunted the hot plains of Sibol. They speak in sibilant lisping voices, which suggest the absence of a larynx. Their skins are cold and somewhat flexible, like tortoiseshell. Dirdir do not sweat, converting the heat in their bodies into light from their effulgences. They are Difficult to detect with infra red vision or sensors.
    Dirdir like to hunt for sport, and eat their prey. They enter into a more feral state when in combat, or on the hunt. When in such a state all mental skills are Difficult, and all physical skills get a 20% bonus. Dirdir enjoy being in the old state and have to make a Difficult Luck roll to avoid entering it while under stress.
    Their hunting language is composed of odd squeaks and grunts.
    The Dirdir mating processes are complicated: there are 12 types of male sexual organs; fourteen of the female. Only certain pairings are possible. For instance, type one male is compatible with only types five and nine female. Type five female adjusts only to type one male, but type nine female has a more general organ and is compatible with types one, eleven and twelve male. Each male and female style has its specific name and theoretical attributes, which are very seldom realised - as long as an individuals type is secret. These are the Dirdir ‘mysteries’. Should an individuals type become known, he is expected to conform to the attributes of the type, regardless of inclination, he rarely does so, and is constantly embarrassed on this account. There are several methods of mating, trial marriage, ‘dark gatherings’ and anonymous notices.
    Dirdir females are shorter and less resilient and less flexible. The head is wider at the scalp and pointed at the ‘chin’, and somewhat darker in colour; a pallid grey subtly shaded with mauve.
    Long ago when the Expansionists held sway and Dirdir ships went out to many worlds. Now the Dirdir are quiescent. Contact with technologically advanced humans from Earth, as opposed to the humans the Dirdir brought to Tschai millenia ago may change this situation.
  4. Conrad
    I needed some atmospheric damage rules for my last space opera game, and so found something in GURPS Space that I adapted to my game. These rules are fairly loose and need a lot of GM disgression.
    A slightly toxic atmosphere requires a CON roll every hour or so. Damage should be in the order of 1 to 2 points, either automatically, or after failing against a toxicity level of 4 to 6 on the resistance table.
    Toxic atmospheres need a CON roll every Full Turn, for the milder atmosphere, to every Combat Round for the deadlier types. Damage is 1d8 either automatically or after failing against toxicity level 16 on the resistance table.
    Deadly toxic atmospheres would need a CON roll every Combat Round, if the GM is feeling generous, or a luck roll. Damage would be 1d10 upwards plus possible heat (page 223-4 in the BGB) or acid (page 211) damage as well. The toxicicity level on the resistance table should be at least 25, possibly more.
  5. Conrad
    Here are the stats for the most frightening creatures on Tschai, the Phung.

    Race: Phung Planet: Tschai

    Average.
    Str: 2d10+15 26
    Con: 5d6 17-18
    Siz: 2d6+7 14
    Int: 2d6+6 13
    Pow: 3d6 10-11
    Dex: 3d6+6 16-17
    App: 3d6 10-11


    Move: 12/ 13 jumping Hit Points: 16 Damage Bonus: 1d6 Armour: 8 point carapace

    Powers: Keen Sense: Hearing +20% (minor), Night Vision. Hardy towards cutting weapons. These mad beings are also insensitive to pain and do not fall unconscious when their hit points fall below 2.


    Skills: Spot 60% Brawling 60% Knowledge: Survival 60% Jump 60% Hide 50 % Grapple 60%


    Notes: Mad relatives of the Pnume. Phung are larger than Pnume, and characterised by an insane behaviour which makes them frightening even to the Green Chasch. They appear as gaunt man-shaped figures, seven or eight feet tall. They cover their heads with a soft hat with a drooping brim, and wear long black boots, unlike the Pnume. A cloak hangs from their shoulders and they have gnarled half-human, half-insect features, like a giant grasshopper in magesterial vestments. Arrows won’t harm them, swords rarely cut them, and they are very strong. On a critical Grapple roll the Phung has torn a victim’s limb from their body. They can parry swords with the brachial plates on their forearms.
    Even when decapitated a Phung’s head will live for half it’s CON in days, until it dries out.


    Despite having some lethal weaponry my players live in fear of the Phung!
  6. Conrad
    Here is another alien race from Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure series. These unfortunately named amphibious aliens have human servants to help them, called Wankh men. My players started to refer to them as Wankhers, and we fell about laughing whenever a Wankh man npc appeared!




    Race: Wankh Planet: Unknown

    Average.
    Str: 2d6+8 15
    Con: 3d6 10-11
    Siz: 3d6+6 16-17
    Int: 3d6 10-11
    Pow: 3d6 10-11
    Dex: 2d6+2 9
    App: 3d6 10-11


    Move: 8/10 swimming Hit Points: 13-14 Damage Bonus: 1d4 Armour: 3 points of skin and blubber.

    Powers: Adaptability: Breathes air and water, and adapted to cold (both minor). Dark Vision.


    Skills: Pilot: Spacecraft 60% Navigate 50% Swim 80%


    Notes: Wankh are large black amphibious creatures, with a heavy torsos and squat heads from which two black lenses flick at half-second intervals. The legs are short, with splayed webbed feet, and they prefer to stand upright, rarely sitting down. They communicate by emitting chimes from a sound organ at the base of the skull. Wankh perception is peculiar, as their brain works in pulses. They see in pulses and they think in pulses. Because of the pulses of radiation, they need no light to see.
    Psychologically, the Wankh are slow to anger and are relatively indifferent to human society on Tschai. They are on Tschai to counter the Dirdir threat.
  7. Conrad
    Race: Old Chasch Planet: Zoor

    Average.
    Str: 2d6 7
    Con: 2d6 7
    Siz: 3d6+4 14 - 15
    Int: 3d6 10 - 11
    Pow: 3d6 10 - 11
    Dex: 2d6+5 12
    App: 3d6 10 – 11


    Move: 9 Hit Points: 11 Damage Bonus: None Armour: 2 point ivory scaled skin.

    Powers: Keen Sense: Smell/Taste + 20% ( minor)

    Skills: Insight 60% Etiquette 60% Fast Talk 60% Science: Botany 60% Science: Pharmacy 60% Science: Biology 60% Medicine 60%

    Notes: Old Chasch resemble large humanoid silverfish. Their skin is like ivory satin, almost imperceptibly scaled; they seem to be fragile beings, unlike the Blue and Green Chasch. Old Chasch have eyes like small silver pellets, independently swivelling and in constant motion.
    Decadent remnant of a once-powerful race, they are fond of playing ‘tricks’ on visitors. These can be mere mischiefs, such as trapping a victim in a maze, or dosing them with and essence that will cause them to exude a nasty odour for weeks. But if they become excited, or feel particularly humorous, the tricks may be cruel or fatal.
    The Old Chasch are the race from which the Blue and Green Chasch evolved, when they settled distant colony worlds.
    In my scenarios they are distantly related to the Dolf from the Worlds Beyond setting.

    Race: Blue Chasch Planet: Godag

    Average.
    Str: 4d6 14
    Con: 2d6+5 12
    Siz: 3d6+6 16 - 17
    Int: 3d6 10 - 11
    Pow: 3d6 10 - 11
    Dex: 2d6 7
    App: 3d6 10 -11


    Move: 9 Hit Points: 14 -15 Damage Bonus: +1d4 Armour: 4 points of platelike scales

    Powers: Keen Sense: Smell/Taste +40% Pheromones (only active against Blue Chasch and geneered Chaschmen)

    Skills: Bargain 50% Blaster Rifle 50% Fast Talk 50% Pilot: Sky Raft 60% ( use stats for the skyskimmer in the BRP book, page 271) Greatsword 60%

    Notes: Blue Chasch have short heavy legs and move with a stiff legged strut. They are massive and powerful, scaled like a pangolin with blue pointed plates, the torso is wedge shaped with exoskeletal epaulettes of chitin curving over into a dorsal carapace. The skull rises to a point, and a heavy brow juts over the eye holes. They have glittering metallic eyes and a complicated nasal orifice.
    The Blue Chasch smell as accurately as we see, they have noses of astonishing sensitivity. They can smell the food a person has eaten and separate Dirdir from Wankh, marshdwellers from steppe-men, rich from poor. They can smell salt air in a persons’ lungs if he has been near the ocean, they can detect ozone on a man coming down from the heights. They sense if you are hungry, or angry, or afraid; they can define your age, your sex, or the colour of your skin.
    Blue Chasch communicate in fluting glottal cries and by emitting pheromones.
    They’re as subtle as the Old Chasch, and as savage as the Green Chasch. Blue Chasch love to bargain, though they prefer to cheat. They also have a sense of humour – captives are made to walk on metal rods over a pit full of filth or scorpions. The Chasch heat the rods, or send electricity through. Or they put victims into a glass maze with a tormented Phung.
    They wear little metal armour as they possess forcefield generators as personal protection against kinetic weapons( use energy armour from the BRP book but only defends against kinetic attacks, page 259).

    Race: Pnume Planet: Tschai

    Average.
    Str: 2d6+8 15
    Con: 2d6+4 12
    Siz: 2d6+6 10 -11
    Int: 2d6+8 15
    Pow: 3d6 10 - 11
    Dex: 2d6+6 13
    App: 3d6 10 -11


    Move: 11/ 12 Running on all fours Hit Points: 13 Damage Bonus: +1d4 Armour: 6 point chitinous skin.

    Powers: Keen Sense: Hearing +20% (minor) Night Vision and Hardy to cutting weapons (minor)


    Skills: Spot 60% Command 50% Climb 60% Knowledge: Tschai History 60% Stealth 60% Research 80% Hide 60%


    Notes: Pnume stand about the height of a man and within their black cloaks seem slight, even frail.
    Pnume skin is hard and cool and they possess an inhuman strength for their build. A black hat shades their eye-sockets; their heads the cast and colour of a horses skull. Under the lower edge of the face a complicated set of rasping and chewing parts surrounds a near-invisible mouth. The articulation of the Pnume’s legs work in reverse to that of a human. The narrow feet are bare and mottled with dark red and black. The three arched toes on the feet are as articulate as their bony fingers.
    Pnume live underground and preserve items taken from the various alien occupations of Tschai over the past millions of years.
    These creatures are not fighters and will attempt to flee if encountered on the surface of Tschai. The planet has many hidden entrances to their underground civilization which they will utilize to escape from pursuit.


    Remember, space is the place!
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