Custom Insect Swarm Power

[ways and means]

I am probably going to have the bugs wipe out a Mega City probably one so close to the heart of the red court that the white council probably won't get involved.  I am probably going to toss a coin to decide if the Warlock is from the White Council acting in a way he thinks is best for the world by magically enhancing these bugs to attack the red court or if the warlock is just insane. So the party is going to have to deal with billions of bugs, dozens of swarms and a poltical global nightmare the sorts of which will change the balance of power in the entire world, I love escalation.     

[Michael Sandy]

Ok, there is submerged, and there is, "I have a boat and I am collecting two of every species" power level.  Holy freaking apocalypse, destroy a major city just as Background?  Yoicks!  High stakes escalation indeed!

[Sanctaphrax]

Yeah, the area poison bit is nasty. That's why I called it "Custom Stunt Of Even More Questionable Balance".

I shot high on the power level because I remember some old post where ways and means made his group sound ludicrously powerful. Truth is, these guys are mostly good at wearing out lots of weak enemies over time. A short, brutal fight with small numbers of powerful opponents will end badly for them (assuming some way to satisfy the catch on the Physical Immunity).

By the way, ways and means, how strong is your group? Can you post their stats?

I have the Senior Council at 30+ refresh, and I don't know if this game remains viable past 18 refresh. I'm quite interested to find out how high the system can go before breaking down.

[Michael Sandy]

Well, at high levels there is no real cap on thaumaturgical ritual power.  You get a bunch of people with discipline 6 pumping 2 power an exchange into a spell, and the HUGE number of declarations they can have, and you could have a circle of 3 wizards pumping out unstoppable death spells in less than an hour.

At high levels, wizards can just waltz through mortals.  Strength 9 personal veil that I can see out of?  No problem.  Then extend it for another 10 exchanges for 1 stress?  A strength 10 block would stop pretty much anything a mortal could throw.  The mortals could put maneuver aspects on the environment, but never hit the wizard themselves, provided the wizard was aware of the threat vector.

Not to mention, at high levels they can probably do a sponsored magic short ranged teleport if there is no threshold blocking, provided the wizard has a map of the building or area to use as a link.

Just designing the world become tricky when you have such powerful applications in the hands of the PCs and their peers.

[ways and means]

Actually what has utterly unbalanced my campaign hasen't actually been the characters who are at 15 refresh it has been the ritual, because the the PC are almost all either evil or amoral (scion of chaos, kemmlerite necromancy, death addicted pyromancer, changeling assassin) and because they are working for the red court who is involved heavily in people trafficing and drugs with their resources they have access to as many sacrafises as they could possible want, which has lead to a main base with 100 shift wards, a spell to kill an entire division of chinese solider by using the uniforms of captured soliders a similcrum for the entire units uniforms and then torching them and other ridiculous things mostly involving zombies.

Other than that the necromancer has control 14 power 10 base evocationish attacks, the pyromancer has control 12 power 12 base evocation attacks, the changeling assassin has a fantastic lore artificer build with toughness and speed powers and the scion of chaos has Shard of Chaos (all thing equal before god sword) 8 accuracy, chaotic guardian, supernatural speed, mythic toughness (downgraded from PI once I got bored of constant mental stress), supernatural strength and a stunts or two. This is from memory as my characters keep their sheets due to me having lost them in the past. It is not a balance campaign mostly the party just win in the way which causes the most collateral damage.     

[Sanctaphrax]

The thaumaturgy rules are slightly broken. But if you don't exploit that, I think that it's possible to run a balanced campaign at the power level that ways and means describes.

I've been running a game on the PbP forums for a little over six months at 18 refresh. It works fine, and I feel as though I've challenged the players appropriately.

Sure, they could easily destroy the city that the game is set in. But they don't want to. They're trying to protect it, and protection is harder than destruction.

In other news, it seems that the swarm isn't overpowered at all. That group can handle it.

PS: @w+m: The powers that you mention the Chaos Scion having add up to 16 refresh including the IoP bonus and not including stunts. What's up with that?

[ways and means]

I forgot the +2 ravens blood catch, it used to be a Sword of the Cross with PI but when he switched I let him change it for refresh purposes. 

[Drachasor]

Hey, wouldn't this be a great way to use Fractals?  The "poison" itself would be like a weak creature attached to whomever was infected.  If the host dies, then it becomes a standard swarm.

Edit:  Also, they should be bees.

[Sanctaphrax]

I don't own Strands Of Fate or whatever other book fractals are from. I cannot comment.

[UmbraLux]

I don't own Strands Of Fate or whatever other book fractals are from. I cannot comment.

I think they're talking about the concept of FATE mechanics as fractals - using the same mechanics across different scales.  See here and here for a couple potentially relevant posts.

Though I do have to admit the overuse of jargon doesn't really help get the point across.  :/

[Sanctaphrax]

Thank you, UmbraLux.

I suppose it could work, but it seems overly complex.

What benefits would using a fractal provide that using ordinary poison rules + GM fiat-based monster spawning wouldn't?

[Drachasor]

Thank you, UmbraLux.

I suppose it could work, but it seems overly complex.

What benefits would using a fractal provide that using ordinary poison rules + GM fiat-based monster spawning wouldn't?

Here's what you might do instead of going with even having poisoned claws:

If the Swarm inflicts a Consequence, then the Consequence is Swarm Infection, which is a fractal (e.g. essentially a creature).  How powerful it is depends on the severity of the consequence.

It has a skill rating equal to the shifts in the consequence.  So either 2, 4, 6, or 8.  An infection through a minor wound isn't as bad as one transferred as a major hit.
It will have stunts, and we can use them to define how it uses its skill.  We might have:

• Difficult Movement:  The illness due to infection makes it difficult to move about, it creates a zone border for the infected character equal to the infection strength.
• Worsening Condition:  If the infectee takes a more severe consequence than this infection, then he insteads chooses a consequence to replace the infection, and the infection moves up to the more severe level.
• Attack!:  The Infection attacks the target at the end of each scene, using its skill defended by endurance (by default).  Or, it can choose to make Mental or Psychological attacks, and inflict consequences to alter the behavior of the infectee (e.g. making him run away from those trying to help him).
• Resilient:  Swarm Infection will not heal own its own.  It must be killed.  It defends itself from all attacks uses its skill.

Stress Boxes:
The Infection has its own stress boxes, equal to the severity of the consequence it is placed in (2, 4, 6, .

It might have the aspects:
Revolting Parasite
Bees.  My God.

Why do this?  Because it makes the infection bigger and more significant.  It makes it more thematic.  It also means it is something the players are going to actually spend more time dealing with and confronting.  Think of the SG1 Episode where Teal'c gets infected by a thing similar to this.  The WHOLE Episode is about the infection.  So a system like this is appropriate if you want someone being infected to be a big deal in a story sense, rather than a big deal in a just a first aid sense.

[Sanctaphrax]

Okay, that could work.

Although I'd probably ditch Difficult Movement, since it's a really really severe penalty. Maybe replace it with something that lets the poison attack every exchange in combat, since part of the point of the original design was to maximise the number of attacks per round.

[Drachasor]

Yeah, it was just meant to be an example that can be modified as needed.  Difficult Movement is nasty there, I agree.  Other options might be to change it so it is half as effect except in the direction the Infection is trying to make you go (so the GM can go, hey, if you go down that Dark Alley there's no border!).

Here's a webpage where they talk about fractals for consequences.

Edit:  One thing you can do with an infection like that, which is pretty neat is tag "Bees. My God" when doing something particularly effective on insects (maybe a treatment that is a cold attack).  Hmm, not sure if you'd want a stunt cover some attacks like that affecting the patient or not -- you could probably handle that by using a compel on the character's consequence to be hit by an appropriate attack to (but in the case of a cold attack, only the infection would get hit by the +2 bonus on the attack).

[UmbraLux]

Thank you, UmbraLux.

I suppose it could work, but it seems overly complex.

. Sure.  The fractal concept works well for aspects.  I'm less convinced it's a good fit for stunts / powers.