Spes Magna Games

Still at home due to Hurricane Harvey. I report back to work this coming Tuesday. One hurricane homebound activity included watching Tall Men, a 2016 slow-paced psychological thriller starring Dan Crisafulli as Terrence Mackleby and Kay Whitney as Lucy, Terrence’s sort-of girlfriend. It’s not a bad movie. Quirky in a way reminiscent of David Lynch. To keep it brief, after Terrence declares bankruptcy, he applies for the Card, impressed by its low interest rate and his compulsion toward debt. Terrence buys a new car, and then his first bill comes due. He can’t pay, and it turns out not reading the fine print has some pretty serious consequences, enforced by the movie’s eponymous tall men.

Here is a version of the tall men for The Cthulhu Hack.

Tall Men
Hit Dice: 2
Nota Bene: Tall men, some sort of lesser servitor race perhaps, appear very much as one would expect. Dressed in suits, always somewhat disheveled and often stained by dirt, these creatures stand at least seven feet tall, but their height seems to vary, as if they can grow taller at will. Their faces are never clearly seen, either obscured by shadows or else wrapped tightly in gray cloth. They never speak. Tall men are remarkably strong. Strength saves against tall men are made with disadvantage. Tall men are not particularly fast, but they move with stealth (Wisdom saves to notice them are made with disadvantage), and these creatures can somehow disappear and reappear as long as they are not viewed directly.

Tags: horror, monsters, The Cthulhu Hack

Today’s mash-up smooshes together From Unformed Realms and Mutant Future. I let the randomness of the former determine the mutations from the latter. The results ended up being two mutants because that just seemed like a fun idea.

Vertebral Dominator
Number Encountered: 1d6+1 (3d6+3)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 60′ (30′)
Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: 3+3
Attacks: 1
Damage:
Save: L3
Morale: 7
Hoard Class: IX, XVIII
XP: 170

Mutations: Dual Cerebellum (limited), Natural Armor, Pain Sensitivity, Parasitic Control

A vertebral dominator resembles a disembodied spinal column that slithers much like a snake. Thick, bony body segments provide good protection against attacks. Nerve clusters at its head approximate normal senses, but the mutant’s exposed nerves make is very sensitive to pain. Fortunately for it, a vertebral dominator can parasitically control a host organism. While latched onto its host, the vertebral dominator controls the hosts actions and reactions. The merged parasite-host creature enjoys the benefits of having two cerebellums.

Scolopendra
Number Encountered: 1d4+1
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 150′ (50′)
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 9
Attacks: 1d4+1 (pincers or thrown spines)
Damage: 1d10 or 1d6
Save: L5
Morale: 9
Hoard Class: None
XP: 3,800

Mutations: Aberrant Form (20 legs), Aberrant Form (pincers), Spiny Growth (medium spines), Toxic Weapon (Class 11)

A scolopendra is a large, predatory arthropod whose body is divided into ten segments, each segment sporting two legs, half of which end with powerful, tripartite pincers. The mutant’s chitinous exoskeleton is covered with sharp spines, each two to three feet long. It can break off these spines and hurl them like daggers, attack in melee with its pincers, or a combination of the two attack forms, making 1d4+1 attacks each round. Against creatures to its rear or rear flanks, a scolopendra may spew forth of a gout of toxic fecal matter in a cone 30 feet long and 15 feet wide at its base. Those hit that fail their saving throws are paralyzed for 2d6 rounds, while those who make their saves move at half speed for 1d6 rounds. Vertebral dominators prefer scolopendrae as host organisms since they appear especially suspectible to the vertebral dominator’s control.

Tags: monsters, Mutant Future, The Cthulhu Hack

I continue to enjoy From Unformed Realms. This morning, I’ve gone deep into my collection and pulled out Bloodshadows by West End Games. I need to run a Dinner & Gaming night with this system.

Ophidian Sentinel

We smelled them before we saw them. Rico gagged, choking like something was caught in his throat. A stench like a backed-up septic tank choked the air. They slithered out of the darkness, thick black tongues flicking. Eyeless and seeking, they resembled thick-bodied serpents covered with knobby, overlapping scales the color of spoiled olives. Each one was longer than I am tall.

Agility 10
Climbing 13, Dodge 12, Stealth 12, Unarmed Combat (bite) 15
Dexterity 5
Missile Weapons (vomit) 7
Strength 7
Endurance 10
Toughness 10 (14 with armor)
Intellect 6
Perception (smell) 12, Tracking (by scent) 12
Mind 8
Confidence 8
Charisma 5

Ophidian sentinels, blind and single-minded, guard unholy sites. These monsters communicate with each other by means of scented secretions, most of which humans find highly offensive.

Natural Tools: Ophidian sentinels have dense scales and bones (armor value equals Toughness+4/14). They bite with strong jaws sporting dozens of sharp teeth (damage value equals Strength+3/10). These monsters also have the following abilities.

* Accelerated Healing: Gains a +3 bonus to all Endurance rolls when healing. Heals one shock per round.

* Euphoric Vomit: An ophidian sentinel may attack at range by expelling a gob of vomit. Treat as a throwing knife for ranges. A target struck by the gob must generate an Endurance or resist shock total equal to attack’s power value (usually Endurance+10/20), modified by any result points of the attack. If the target fails, he is rendered senseless by the vomit’s tranquilizing properties, and the target remains this way until he makes a successful Confidence or willpower total (one check per round).

Tags: Bloodshadows, monsters, The Cthulhu Hack

More fun with From Unformed Realms, this time using TSR’s Marvel Super Heroes.

Adventure Hook: The heroes receive an unexpected invitation (perhaps from a medical or science contact) to watch the demonstration of a new biotech trauma care system. Unfortunately, the Mad Thinker has tampered with the project as part of a scam to hold the technology hostage in hopes of sizable ransom. The Mad Thinker is holed up in an abandoned military bunker. When the biotech system is activated, it overloads and explodes. Several people are caught in the blast. They are transformed into chitinoids, which are motivated by basic instinctual drives.

Chitinoid
From the smoke and fire stagger several people, doctors, technicians, and nurses. They transform rapidly, flesh becoming metallic, covered with thorns and razor edges. They stagger about, clicking and humming, eyeless and inhuman.

Primary Abilities: F Gd, A Gd, S Ex, E Rm, R Fe, I Rm, P Ty
Secondary Abilities: Health 70, Karma 38, Resources Fb, Popularity 0
Powers: Body Armor (Rm), Claws (Ex), Lightning Speed (Ex), Slashing Missile (Ex), Sonar (In), Transformative Nanobots (Rm), Wall-Crawling (Ex)
Nota Bene: Chitinoids are blind. A living target that suffers a Stun or Kill result from a chitinoid’s Claws or Slashing Missiles must make an Endurance FEAT check against Remarkable intensity or else become infected with transformative nanobots. Every 1-10 rounds, the victim suffers a -1CS to Reason. When Reason reaches Feeble, the target turn into a chitinoid. Before transformation is complete, only highly advanced medical care or superhuman recuperative powers stop the process. The Mad Thinker’s ransom demands include the claim that he has the cure for “chitinoidism”. The stats above are for a typical human turned into a chitinoid. It’s up the Judge what abilities and powers a transformed superhuman might have.

Tags: Marvel Super Heroes, monsters, The Cthulhu Hack

Have I mentioned how much fun From Unformed Realms is? Well, it is much fun, and it’s system-neutral, which means with some thought it can be used for pretty much any game. For example, Barbarians of Lemuria:

Adventure Hook: A chance reunion with an old friend leads to some wooded hills in a frontier region. There the woods are currently being cleared by refugees seeking escape from the punishing taxes of their homeland, but the settlers’ activities have attracted the attention of a murkling swarm.

Murkling
Its gray flesh hung in tatters, covered with gaping sores, glistening with moisture. It dropped from two legs to all fours, and we heard its bones snapping, shifting, adapting to this new form of locomotion. Before it resembled somewhat a man, somewhat an ape, but now it appeared more like a great, obscene rodent. Three more emerged from the burrows, their limbs jointed oddly, unevenly. Unthinkingly, I stepped away, just one step, but still a sufficient number to press my booted heel onto a dry twig. The closest monster jerked and hissed at the twig’s popping, and the creature’s entire body swelled up, its flesh distending, a cloud of dewy particles shaking into the air around it.

Attributes
Strength 0
Agility 2
Mind 0

Combat Abilities
Move 35 ft.
Attack Bite +0 (1d6-1 damage plus possible poison and infection)
Defense 2
Protection 0
Lifeblood 10

Nota Bene
Diseased: Murklings all carry a bizarre disease. A Hero bit by a murkling must make an Easy (+1) task check using Strength. Failure results in infection that sets in after 2d6 hours. The victim suffers joint pains and dizziness (increase Action Difficulty by one step). After 1d6 days post-infection, the victim loses control of one or more limbs, which seek to kill the victim (weilding weapons against him, running him off a cliff, et cetera).

Inflation: Murklings can inhale rapidly and inflate their extremely elastic lungs and stomachs, swelling to a spherical shape. This causes hundreds of short, sharp spikes to protrude from its skin as well as shakes loose of cloud of toxic sweat particles.

Mobility: Murklings move quickly and with agility despite their awkward appearance. They swim, climb, and burrow as well. Due to their adaptive skeletons, murklings can often squeeze through spaces smaller than one would expect.

Toxic Sweat: Heroes that come into contact with murkling sweat must make a Tricky (-1) task check using Strength. Failure results in poisoning. Every 1d3 minutes after exposure, the victim loses 1 point of Strength and Agility. Paralysis sets in when both abilities reduce to less than -1, and the paralysis lasts for days.

Tags: Barbarians of Lemuria, monsters, The Cthulhu Hack