Statting Up Worm Characters

[Caesar]

I was just re-reading the thread when I reached the Crawler entry. Sancta is right that Mythic Recovery doesn't really cover his regeneration but it occurs to me that you could probably model it with Physical Immunity and a Catch of things that effect him on a molecular level.

[Sanctaphrax]

Maybe, but PI makes attacking completely pointless. Shredding the Crawler at least slows him down.

I guess you could include that in the Catch or a Limitation or something, though. Or maybe you could represent all attacks on him as maneuvers.

Actually, that sounds like a good idea.

Hmm. I just thought Cauldron was interested in her because her power, despite being a fluke, was almost ridiculously versatile and destructive. I never considered her being able to directly damage an Endbringer. The Siberian would probably rip one of them to shreds until she hit the point where their bodies start to break universal laws on how matter works.

Forgot to address this before, but Cauldron never actually said they thought she could take apart an Endbringer. A reader mentioned the idea and I just sort of assumed they were right, because how else could Shatterbird take down Behemoth?

And while the Siberian could probably tear up an Endbringer in close combat, I doubt (s)he could get close without dying.

Okay, given the recent Interlude, the Simurgh and possibly a few of the other Endbringers might deserve some stuff beyond Thaumaturgy. Spoiler thing below.

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They all deserve Pack Instincts, possibly with upgrades, Simurgh has the ability to cause hallucinations, and possibly a Trouble referencing the fact that she can't perceive the present in any way.

The hallucinations could be an Incite Effect or an application of her aura. Or maybe Telepathy.

I dunno about Pack Instincts, but the Simurgh does need some method of communicating with the Endbringers long-distance. Maybe she also deserves a LEADER OF THE ENDBRINGERS Aspect, since the others seem to obey her.

I might just give a power that lets her ignore "X" shift borders.  I mean, she walks through/over pretty much anything.  Just say that she can go through any 8 shift zone border with no problems.  Assume there might collateral damage based on how she to go through it (whether she's walking though walls or jumping over a wall).  Her ability to do that kind of thing really has nothing to do with Strength anyways.

Well, if you had enough Strength I'd let you knock down walls as a supplemental action while sprinting. But I guess the Siberian goes beyond that...if Alexandria dropped a 10-shift grapple on the Siberian, it would accomplish nothing at all.

Maybe an upgraded version of Teleportation?

You give the character the option of applying them however they like, any time they like to whatever's relevant (though it seems to only work on the physical based things). You're also TAKING AWAY shifts from your opponent as you wish. You're manipulating the actual game rules or "physical universe," recreate the actual power rather than the effect of added strength, speed, yadda yadda yadda. In short, come up with a base package and just allow her to add or subtract from her or whoever's touching her. That way it's an elegant effect without having to haggle over every stat.

I guess you could do something like that, but writing a new Power that does something that new to the game would be a lot of work.

More Siberian thoughts next post.

[Sanctaphrax]

Here's my list of things that make the Siberian hard to stat:

1. Limitless strength.

Mythic Strength is almost enough to represent this, but Mythic Strength doesn't let you totally ignore blocks and theoretically it is possible to encounter a lifting roll with a difficulty above what Mythic Strength makes easy.

I'm thinking always-on ACaEBG and maybe a new Teleportation upgrade that lets you ignore blocks by smashing them rather than teleporting through them. If the Siberian encounters something (s)he can't lift, it's probably too big for them to make invulnerable so (s)he just tears it up if (s)he tries to move it...but maybe a -1 Power building off of Mythic Strength would be worthwhile anyway.

2. Two bodies, one a projection.

There's nothing in canon that lets you be in two places at once. Some homebrew comes close, though.

This requires a new Power. Fortunately it would be pretty easy to write that new Power. I'm thinking a -1 Power that lets you project a second body. Taking actions with both would require you to use spray attack rules. The projection would be created near you, but could move up to maybe a mile away. It would share your stress tracks, but any stress it takes would hit your mental track. You could dismiss it as a supplemental action, so it'd be easy to run if your projection lost a fight.

3. Ability to share invulnerability.

Power sharing doesn't exist in this game.

I don't really want to write Power-sharing. My last attempt wasn't very good. So I think I'll just ignore this if and when I write up the Siberian.

[Caesar]

On the Crawler thing: regenerating most of his upper anatomy took him like second, IIRC. Also, the Noose seems to grant Nicodemus ridiculous regen and that's statted as PI. Attacks as maneuvers does sound like a good idea, though.

[finnmckool]

It's true that she's gotta be pretty homebrewed for 1 and 3, but I think the basic mechanics exist, it's just finding the right way to utilize them into a terrifying ability. But above all, don't be balanced! If anything, Worm's all about how unfair powers are.

As for 2, I agree wholeheartedly. It's not that 2 places at once is impossible, to my way of thinking, but that we have no idea how vulnerable

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Manton

is while he's controlling Siberian. How present is he? He seemed to be driving a van and operating her at the same time but how hard was that? So that's where it gets sticky. Can you distract him to lose control? It's hard because it seemed NO ONE knew Siberian had a handler until the S9's came to Brocton, so there's nothing to go on.

[Taran]

When I mentioned ignoring block, I was specifically thinking of a re-skinned teleportation.

Power sharing and 2 bodies:
Couldn't she just have an aspect that people invoke for effect?  Like thaumaturgy.  She spends a FP for each one she wants to protect, or they can spend their own.  It's hard, though...most of these villains don't have FP's.

I wonder if Thaumaturgy isn't the best solution for Siberian, given what she is.  Maybe use some of your complicated summoning rules.

[Hick Jr]

Note that i'm basically going to go full spoilers regarding the Siberian from here. If you aren't past Prey, you might want to skip this post.





What, that Manton can perform one extremely specific Summoning, only for this one creature? That's a little silly. If he could summon a bunch of Siberians, that would make more sense.


If you meant the Companion rules, that's slightly more workable. Writing up William Manton using those rules would allow him to have all the skills and such of one of the world's foremost specialists in parahumans, and also be the Siberian. Ironically, he'd be a super-beefed up version of your writeup of Bitch.

[Taran]

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Siberian isn't a creature.  It's the equivalent of an automaton created out of ectoplasm...to use a dresden-verse comparison.  So if it dies, you just summon a new one.  The problem with the thaum solution is that he can whip one up very fast, I think...so not the best.

*throwing random idea*

Thinking about sharing powers:

What about a stunt or power that lets her defend against effects using "x" skill.  The defense sets up a zone-wide maneuver that other people can tag for effect.  Use spin rules to have extra shifts add extra tags.

Example:  The giant fire-ball comes towards Siberian, Bone-saw and Jack.  Everyone rolls to defend.  Siberian rolls to defend but that defense sets up an aspect.  If she rolls higher than the attack it means she's managed to get to Bone-saw and Jack fast enough to protect them with her immunity. Mechanically, Jack and bone-saw's players invoke for effect the aspect created by Siberian.

Failure to get enough tags represents the Siberian not getting there on time or, perhaps, the other characters unable to compensate for her abilities...like when Cherish and Jack use Siberian's powers to jump off a building and cushion the landing.  Cherish wasn't quite used to it.

Edit:
Or let her forgo her defense and grant it to someone else.

[Hick Jr]

So basically, the Siberian has a stunt that lets her reflexively create an aspect that can be tagged by others that lets them use one of her Powers. I like it.


Incidentally, that might not be a bad basis for a power-granting power.

[Sanctaphrax]

Power sharing and 2 bodies:
Couldn't she just have an aspect that people invoke for effect?  Like thaumaturgy.  She spends a FP for each one she wants to protect, or they can spend their own.  It's hard, though...most of these villains don't have FP's.

I wonder if Thaumaturgy isn't the best solution for Siberian, given what she is.  Maybe use some of your complicated summoning rules.

You can do everything with Invokes for Effect. Literally everything. If you removed Skills and Stunts and Powers and dice from this game, you could still a run a working game just with invocations.

But invocations are a bit of a crude tool. They don't have the reliability or the interesting interactions that Powers have. It's not good to rely on them.

And Thaumaturgy is way too flexible for the Siberian. Manton has one trick, and Ritual provides hundreds of tricks.

If you meant the Companion rules, that's slightly more workable. Writing up William Manton using those rules would allow him to have all the skills and such of one of the world's foremost specialists in parahumans, and also be the Siberian. Ironically, he'd be a super-beefed up version of your writeup of Bitch.

That could work, but the companion rules were intended to limit one's control over one's companion. Which is inappropriate here.

Also, I don't like the companion rules very much.

Thinking about sharing powers:

What about a stunt or power that lets her defend against effects using "x" skill.  The defense sets up a zone-wide maneuver that other people can tag for effect.  Use spin rules to have extra shifts add extra tags.

Example:  The giant fire-ball comes towards Siberian, Bone-saw and Jack.  Everyone rolls to defend.  Siberian rolls to defend but that defense sets up an aspect.  If she rolls higher than the attack it means she's managed to get to Bone-saw and Jack fast enough to protect them with her immunity. Mechanically, Jack and bone-saw's players invoke for effect the aspect created by Siberian.

Failure to get enough tags represents the Siberian not getting there on time or, perhaps, the other characters unable to compensate for her abilities...like when Cherish and Jack use Siberian's powers to jump off a building and cushion the landing.  Cherish wasn't quite used to it.

It's an interesting idea, but totally no-selling an attack often won't be a fair use of a tag. So with this idea, either the GM would have to let tags be used for too much effect or the Siberian's power would have to be unreliable.

I think this idea would fit another character better.

Edit:
Or let her forgo her defense and grant it to someone else.

I like this idea. The Siberian is invincible, so if they sacrifice their defence it doesn't matter. And they can take hits for other characters endlessly, without actually getting hurt.

(The main appeal of this approach is that it doesn't require a Power-granting Power.)

[Sanctaphrax]

I was talking about writing a projection Power for Siberian (and Genesis, and everyone else with that trick), and now I'm doing exactly that.

PROJECTION [-2]
Description: You can create a second body out of nothing and control it like a puppet.
Skills Affected: All.
Effects:
Projection. As a full action, you may create a projection. A projection is a second body that may move away from your main body. Your projection shares your skills and Stunts and Powers, but doesn't necessarily have to look like you. It does have to have a consistent appearance unless it can shapeshift, but that appearance can be just about anything. If you want to act with both your main body and your projection in a single exchange, you must divide up your shifts as if making a spray attack. Your projection must say within a mile of your main body or it dissolves. You can dissolve it intentionally as a supplemental action. You can only can have one projection at a time. Your projection has its own physical stress track, but you share mental and social stress tracks as well as consequence slots.
Multiple Projections [-1]. You can have up to 6 projections. One action suffices to create them all.
Skilled Projection [-1]. You and your projection(s) have different skills. Draw up a projection skill pyramid using the same number of points as your regular pyramid, in accordance with your skill cap. Your projection(s) may not be better than you at any knowledge or social skill, but they may certainly be more perceptive or more physically adept than you. If you want your projection(s) to have Stunts/Powers you don't or vice versa, use Limitation.

Not thrilled with the wording, but I guess it'll do.

Upped the cost to 2 because sitting safely in your house while attacking people is a pretty sweet deal. Changed my plan w/ regard to stress, since the previous idea interacted weirdly with Toughness.

Feedback would be fantastic.

[Hick Jr]

I was talking about writing a projection Power for Siberian (and Genesis, and everyone else with that trick), and now I'm doing exactly that.

PROJECTION [-2]
Description: You can create a second body out of nothing and control it like a puppet.
Skills Affected: All.
Effects:
Projection. As a full action, you may create a projection. A projection is a second body that may move away from your main body. Your projection shares your skills and Stunts and Powers, but doesn't necessarily have to look like you. It does have to have a consistent appearance unless it can shapeshift, but that appearance can be just about anything. If you want to act with both your main body and your projection in a single exchange, you must divide up your shifts as if making a spray attack. Your projection must say within a mile of your main body or it dissolves. You can dissolve it intentionally as a supplemental action. You can only can have one projection at a time. Your projection has its own physical stress track, but you share mental and social stress tracks as well as consequence slots.
Multiple Projections [-1]. You can have up to 6 projections. One action suffices to create them all.
Skilled Projection [-1]. You and your projection(s) have different skills. Draw up a projection skill pyramid using the same number of points as your regular pyramid, in accordance with your skill cap. Your projection(s) may not be better than you at any knowledge or social skill, but they may certainly be more perceptive or more physically adept than you. If you want your projection(s) to have Stunts/Powers you don't or vice versa, use Limitation.

Not thrilled with the wording, but I guess it'll do.

Upped the cost to 2 because sitting safely in your house while attacking people is a pretty sweet deal. Changed my plan w/ regard to stress, since the previous idea interacted weirdly with Toughness.

Feedback would be fantastic.

Okay, this is really goddamn powerful. It's an excellent power for the Siberian, but I have no idea how this works with Genesis. Does she have Variable Abilities, using the Discount Omnipotence and the General Shapeshifter list, along with the Limitation(s) that they only apply to her projections and she needs to be asleep to project? That's how I would do it.

-Sharing non-physical stress tracks is smart.

-You may or may not want to price up Multiple Projections, because that gets exponentially more powerful the more Refresh you spend on Powers for the projections. Additionally, do the spray attack rules regarding controlling your main body and your projection in the same exchange apply if i'm trying to control multiple projections? For example, WM triggers again and can now project three Siberians. If he tells one to punch Alexandria in the face, one to do the Single Ladies dance, and the other one to juggle cars, without taking any actions himself, do any of the projections take a penalty? I feel like they shouldn't.

-Okay, good to have the Beast Change caveats on Skilled Projections. If i take that sub-Power more than once, can I get more than one pyramid for my projections? What if my projections have True Shapeshifting?

[UmbraLux]

Feedback would be fantastic.

Given the way both Siberian's and Genesis' powers worked, you might add a discount (perhaps +1 or so) for each power that only applies to the projection.  Perhaps even a requirement for powers to apply only to the projection if you're emulation those two characters.

[Sanctaphrax]

Does she have Variable Abilities, using the Discount Omnipotence and the General Shapeshifter list, along with the Limitation(s) that they only apply to her projections and she needs to be asleep to project? That's how I would do it.

Something like that, yeah. I'll probably give her True Shapeshifting and no Discount Omnipotence though.

-You may or may not want to price up Multiple Projections, because that gets exponentially more powerful the more Refresh you spend on Powers for the projections. Additionally, do the spray attack rules regarding controlling your main body and your projection in the same exchange apply if i'm trying to control multiple projections? For example, WM triggers again and can now project three Siberians. If he tells one to punch Alexandria in the face, one to do the Single Ladies dance, and the other one to juggle cars, without taking any actions himself, do any of the projections take a penalty? I feel like they shouldn't.

They all have to do their actions using the same pool of shifts. Honestly, they'd probably be better off just having one Siberian punch Alexandria while the other two stood still.

Multiple Projections is not meant to be a multiple action Power. It's meant to be a "be in five places at once" Power.

Now that I think about it though, it might be overpowered. Send in one projection to attack, it gets killed. Then do it again. Heck, you might even be able to do that with the base Power.

I should do something about that possibility...the Power isn't supposed to work that way.

-Okay, good to have the Beast Change caveats on Skilled Projections. If i take that sub-Power more than once, can I get more than one pyramid for my projections? What if my projections have True Shapeshifting?

You can only buy it once. True Shapeshifting makes it useless.

Given the way both Siberian's and Genesis' powers worked, you might add a discount (perhaps +1 or so) for each power that only applies to the projection.  Perhaps even a requirement for powers to apply only to the projection if you're emulation those two characters.

Oh, hey. I didn't know you read Worm.

Anyway, I'm inclined to use Limitation for that. Lets me do less Power-writing.

[Hick Jr]

So...UmbraLux.


Are you interested in GM'ing?


*coy glance*