Author Topic: Chased by xenos, monsters, aliens, extra-dimensional terrors, Zergs, Tyranids..  (Read 1614 times)

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Offline GMLovlie

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Yeah. Monsters. I need some monsters.  8)

Aside from the psychological terror my players are already feeling (introduction to first session is already posted,) the regret about not putting enough in perception, will save, running and hiding skills and weapons ...

I was planning on refitting some HARP Fantasy stuff, which should work ok as the difference should be negligible for an intense crazy encounter ... but have you made any cool alien threats, extra-dimensional visitors... alien monsters basically... like xenomorphs or zergs...

Which leads to the next part: How do you run chases? Counting meters is all well and good, but ... ... it doesn't really make it fast, fun, tense and great for the narrative or narration.
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Offline pyrotech

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I did a few adaptations from the Fantasy book in a post a while back:

A Harp SF Xenologists Guide would be pretty useful to me.  Mostly because the only creatures covered by the core book are sentient.  To some extent this makes sense because as my Bughunters game has proven time and again - even really tough monsters fall pretty easy in a HARP SF game if they don't have a ranged attack.  Lasers and machine guns really chew up Level 10 dinosaurs fast if they don't strike from ambush.  So the real threats in HARP SF are really the other sentients that also carry lasers and machine guns.  But having some dumb monsters to shoot up is pretty handy for my game.

For my Bughunters game I used/modified both the generic descriptions from the core book and the more detailed descriptions from M:aFG with about the same difficulty.  The Gorger for example is an almost drop in monster for a Sci-Fi game (and its armor piercing attack really helps against the high tech armor once it gets close enough to use it).  Whereas below you can see what I did with the more generic core book write-ups:

(click to show/hide)

I omitted some of the data in the above because it was basically a straight copy of what is in the core book.

So both worked for me

I know I've also threw out a couple unique race ideas (I've got a player that likes playing...... strange things).

They might help a bit.

Regards,
-Pyrotech

Offline GMLovlie

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Thanks, I found that old post archived through a Google search.

I've looked at some of the more iffy ones... my first session is based on various sci-fi horror films and mysteries - so I'm thinking of using some ghosts and/or other undeads to strike fear into their hearts (Event Horizon-style) and having a crazy alien xenomorph-like creature at the end - hopefully my players aren't lurking here, although they've probably guessed something along these lines from the introduction text.
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Offline GMLovlie

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1 or 2 Nightlords would make for an epic final battle wouldn't it, sort of the main beasties on a mysterious ship ... perhaps remove the teleport ability, or at least flavour it differently.

Kind of like xenomorphs, so perhaps add a quality of some kind with acid splash damage in some messy instances..?
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Offline pyrotech

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Well for big, bad, nasty monsters.  I've got two I've done for my bughunters game.  Unfortunately one of them isn't quite done and I haven't used on my Players yet.  The other I have - and they seriously attempted to genocide an entire colony - just to be sure there wasn't another one.

It was a Psi assimilator.  I can't find my write up for it at this time, but it was a level 15 (category 4) horror from space.  It had compartmentalized minds that allowed it to make a total of 4 actions per round (only one of them could be physical the others must all be mental/psychic).  It was immune to criticals (except from large aoe effects).  The write up I used had it have one action per category so smaller ones could exist.  Basically it was a slime that very slowly digested creatures (except their nervous systems) and integrated them into its mass.  Made from non-sentient creatures it was little different than a giant slime, but made from sentient creatures it could dominate and incorporate each ones skills and knowledge.  The one I used consisted of hundreds of slowly digesting and fully aware trapped individuals.  It had set itself up as the nucleus of a authoritarian religious cult dominating an entire large colony.  So after fighting their way through dozens of zealot guards at the cult's retreat they burst into the prophets audience room to find the next best thing to a lovecraftian horror.

When I described a melted childs face gasping  "Kiiilllll meeeeee" from the mass it really unsettled the party.  They obliged - the repeated psychic attacks, along with the attempted mental domination of their heavy weapons murder machine character also helped convince them.

As for the teleport ability of the nightlords, make them creature that can interact with "hyperspace" and travel through the warps of space-time.  That should be enough hand waving to pass it off in a SF game. 

Another good option is to put a different description text on trolls.  The party could put a few down, then turn around to find the "dead" bodies have disappeared to finish healing and be back later.  Against a low level party with good weapons available I would probably use one lesser troll per PC.  If they are going to be in a restrictive space without lots of distance I may cut those numbers down.  If the party is mostly using pistols, I would cut those numbers further.  I've found powerful ranged weapons are a huge equalizer against nasty melee monsters.

The hydra is another good choice.  For aliens style xenomorphs I may be tempted to start with the Large Cat entry, bump up the toughness to greater, and add a special feature that says it splashes acid (medium external poison crit) to anything within 1 meter whenever it receives a bleed crit.  I'd probably give the attack roll for the acid a +10 per point of bleeding the hit caused.  That would probably give you a pretty good facsimile.

Let us know what you come up with - I know I can use some more xenos for my games too!

Regards,
-Pyrotech

Offline GMLovlie

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That sounds awesome, and awful ... and ... poor players ;D Immune to criticals? How does that even translate, how do you off it? Large grenades only? Or would a spread burst from an assault rifle or autoshotgun suffice, if you take a -10 for one additional target?

Level 15 category 4? I'm not sure I follow.

I agree with the teleport thing, interact with hyperspace, nice. There's only one tech in the group, whose character would think like that, understand it, and be able to hypothesise about it. Nice. Thanks.

Trolls! Awesome idea!  :pirate: Same with the acid splash.  8)

As for making my own monsters, I hope to get time now over Christmas and before next session on Thursday. I guess I'll have to look at M:aFG for now, as the Bestiary isn't out yet, nor has there been much news on the SysOp's Guide front in a while, as far as I've noticed. Really looking forward to that one, as well as a martial law-type supplement or "translator" over to SF - for combat styles, martial arts, and perhaps, in the long run, hit location criticals for SF weapons :pirate:
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Offline GMLovlie

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Looking at trolls they come across as a good idea. Low DB, but high number of hits, as well as decent OB. Looking at the regeneration talents, I'm slightly confused. Instantly fatal wounds are not healed? Or not healed if caused by "exception"?

Also, regeneration is 1 hit per minute, for minor talent, except non-fatal injuries, which are basically double speed.

Clarification?
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Offline NicholasHMCaldwell

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Looking at trolls they come across as a good idea. Low DB, but high number of hits, as well as decent OB. Looking at the regeneration talents, I'm slightly confused. Instantly fatal wounds are not healed? Or not healed if caused by "exception"?

Also, regeneration is 1 hit per minute, for minor talent, except non-fatal injuries, which are basically double speed.

Clarification?

An instantly fatal injury say Foe dies instantly or just Foe dies. A Foes dies in xxx rounds is not instantly fatal.

A Limited Regeneration talent will specify certain attacks to which the regeneration does not apply. So attack a Mummy with fire or a Werewolf with silver etc.

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Offline GMLovlie

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Yeah, so a troll hit with fire won't regenerate any damage caused by fire.

If I get an instant "Foe dead" critical, not using fire, won't be regenerated either. Correct?

Any other not instant, but fatal injuries not caused by fire, will heal at normal rate? At half speed? And is this recovery related to the 1 hit per minute, or the normal natural healing recovery rate?
"What about the future...? We can only hope, we cannot however account for the minutiae of the quanta, as all accidents in an infinite space are inevitable."

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