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Post by mahrundl on Sept 20, 2009 18:52:01 GMT -5
Hmmm. After a 4 1/2 year hiatus, it looks as if there's a chance that my T & T campaign may be restarting soon. There's a twist, though - instead of the plain vanilla fantasy world that I had previously, there seems to be some interest in post-apocalyptic fantasy. Areas of magical 'fallout' instead of radiation, magical mutations, that sort of thing. I'm hoping that the wacky will be strong with this one... ;D I have various ideas on how to do things, but I'm open to suggestions, if anyone cares to contribute ideas. It sounds as though Gamma Trollworld could be a reasonable basis from which to work - other than the fact that I don't yet own a copy... I may be better off doing it my own way, since a lot of it is likely to be ad-libbed.
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Post by Toad-Killer-Dog on Sept 20, 2009 20:30:06 GMT -5
Wacky huh?
Here are a few monster ideas that spring immediately to mind.
Jigglers
Looking for a cheap, stable and plentiful form of dessert for the vast armies that fought the cataclysmic war that led to the apocalyptic world the characters find themselves in a mage created a flavorful jelly like creature that would regenerate it's mass almost as fast as was removed.
Unfortunately the magical radiation spawned by the massive war spells cast back and forth by rival nations caused a random mutation in some of the "Jello" creatures to gain a rudimentary sentience and aggressive hunting tendencies.
The only way to kill a Jiggler permanently is to expose it to great heat which will keep it from growing back to it's full size or expose it to acid which it is particularly vulnerable to.
Even stomach acid will dissolve the fruity horror and many are the tales of whole villages forced to eat to bursting to rid their lands of the jiggle giants.
The different "Flavors" of jiggler have different abilities.
Strawberry Jigglers attract prey with it's pleasant aroma and feed manly on small rodents and birds.
Lemon is among the most aggressive and will silently stalk it's prey for days on end & their touch burns by passing an opponents armor.
Lime lays in wait and will never leave the vicinity if it suspects it's prey is hiding from it. Lime is also immune to all magical spells of compulsion or control.
Cherry is the most bloodthirsty of the jigglers and likes to ambush it's prey from above. Cherry is vampiric and any successful attack from it will temporally drain 1 STR point from one of it's victims a turn.
Orange is the most deadly & rare of them all and has the singular ability of being entirely inedible. No one can stomach Orange and it always seems to escape to stalk and slay again.
One of the most valuable finds in the post mage wars world is an unmutated Jiggler & entire communities have been built around military grade Jigglers for is it not said "Their is always room for Jigglers".
Holocaust Ghosts
OF all the horrors unleashed by the massive war spells the Holocaust Ghosts are among the most terrible.
Holocaust Ghosts are the spirits of those caught at ground zero of a war spell, the wild magic released by such a powerful spell has fused the spirits of those killed into a single seething mass of anguish & pain unable to pass on as the various souls are each pulled forever in opposing directions.
Holocaust Ghosts can be found in almost all large cities that were targeted by war spells and even more than the wild magic radiation keep all but the bravest or most foolhardy from the rich pickings of the ruins.
If encountered the Holocaust Ghosts are best dealt with by hiding, the ghosts eternal pain makes it careless of it's surroundings. However if the Holocaust Ghosts become aware of living sentients in it's vicinity it will purse them relentlessly until it is banished or driven off.
Holocaust Ghosts are immune to all non-magical damage, but may be driven off by fire ( treat all non-magical fire damage as subduing damage ).
Holocaust Ghosts Always stay within areas of wild-magic radiation feeding on the same magic that trapped them in their nightmare existence.
In combat the Holocaust Ghosts will sweep over characters and inflict them with the memories of their death pains.
If the Holocaust Ghosts manages to render a character unconscious with pain it will then absorb their spirit and then bombard them with it's collected pain until the new spirit becomes part of the Holocaust Ghost collective growing in power.
While the Holocaust Ghosts are inflicting it's pain on a new spirit it is temporally relieved of it's torment and will enter a torpid state.
Some unscrupulous individuals take advantage of this by using the torpid state of the Holocaust Ghosts to scavenge the ruins after feeding it a helpless victim.
The Holocaust Ghosts will remain torpid for as many combat turns as the victim has IQ points.
However this only leads to more and more powerful Holocaust Ghosts as with every victim it grows in power and some surmise that if a Holocaust Ghost were to grow large enough it might be able to leave the ruins and rage across the land.
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Post by mahrundl on Sept 21, 2009 21:04:04 GMT -5
TKD, the Jigglers are brilliantly silly!
The Holocaust Ghosts are nasty, and may well find a place in the campaign, if that's OK with you.
In any case, have an Exalt!
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Post by Toad-Killer-Dog on Sept 22, 2009 1:21:24 GMT -5
Thank you for the exalt and please menace and terrify your players with my monsters! ;D
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Hogscape
11th level Troll
Stalwart of the Trollbridge
It's not the years, it's the mileage.
Posts: 2,126
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Post by Hogscape on Sept 22, 2009 3:05:08 GMT -5
I like the idea of a creeping magical 'fallout' taint that mutates those exposed to it.
How about: the GM secretly accumulates a number of 'taint points' (or whatever) as the players are exposed. When the number of accumlated points reaches certain thresholds, 'things' start to happen...
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machfront
11th level Troll
Stalwart of the Trollbridge
"Let's go dark!"
Posts: 2,147
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Post by machfront on Sept 22, 2009 5:32:27 GMT -5
What a cool idea. Even though you'll likely not be playing it as such, it has real potential to be creepy as heck. Magical fallout. Awesome. Just awesome. It may interest you to know that there was recently released an rpg that is a take on 'what if a high fantasy world had it's own apocalypse?'. Not a mixture of what we understand as post-apocalypse and high fantasy. But rather a standard, high fantasy world that suffers an earth-shattering near end. The PCs in the game deal with the aftermath. www.desolationrpg.com/the Jigglers are brilliantly silly! I swear I've heard that phrase before...but I believe it was in a slightly different context. ;D
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Post by ProfGremlin on Sept 22, 2009 6:45:36 GMT -5
I have various ideas on how to do things, but I'm open to suggestions, if anyone cares to contribute ideas. I wonder if Earthdawn would offer you any inspiration. The game takes place after most of the peoples of the world emerge from hiding for 400 years. The world is greatly changed due to the Horrors that roamed it.
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Post by mahrundl on Sept 22, 2009 21:25:35 GMT -5
What a cool idea. Even though you'll likely not be playing it as such, it has real potential to be creepy as heck. I suspect that some of the stuff that the players will come up with will creep me out a bit... Thanks for the link; I'll check it out. In Australia, the Lipton brand of tea used to have Jigglers (for cups) and Danglers (for pots). There was much adolescent humour relating to those advertisments, let me tell you. ;D Hogscape, did they have those ads in your part of the country?
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Post by mahrundl on Sept 22, 2009 21:26:55 GMT -5
I have various ideas on how to do things, but I'm open to suggestions, if anyone cares to contribute ideas. I wonder if Earthdawn would offer you any inspiration. The game takes place after most of the peoples of the world emerge from hiding for 400 years. The world is greatly changed due to the Horrors that roamed it. I've never really looked at Earthdawn, Prof. I shall take a look. Thanks for the tip!
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Post by ProfGremlin on Sept 22, 2009 22:38:21 GMT -5
You're quite welcome. I have the rulebook somewhere around here if you wanted anything more specific. On another note, every time I catch this thread I'm reminded of the CGI movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. It's probably the post apocalyptic theme combined with the idea of the Phantoms. Of course, there's also the Gaia theme. I wonder... if something damaged the Gaia equivalent in your game world it would have caused the magical fallout. Either that or maybe the Gaia is simply resonating differently in different areas - the Gaia spectrum is out of balance and creating horrors and wonders in an unforeseen and unexpected manner. Perhaps the use of magic, drawing on and manipulating the Gaia energy field, has actually destabilized the field leading to the apocalyptic effects the world now experiences. Hmm.. this actually sounds like it could be fun
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Post by mahrundl on Sept 23, 2009 22:39:34 GMT -5
You're welcome to join in, if you can get here on Saturday afternoons...
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Hogscape
11th level Troll
Stalwart of the Trollbridge
It's not the years, it's the mileage.
Posts: 2,126
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Post by Hogscape on Sept 24, 2009 9:41:16 GMT -5
The free retro d100 game 'GORE' from Goblinoid games has some nifty stuff on radiation and mutation that might be worth doctoring...
Mahrundl, any chance of a brief campaign report to let us know who the game pans out?
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Post by ProfGremlin on Sept 24, 2009 12:07:31 GMT -5
You're welcome to join in, if you can get here on Saturday afternoons... Hmm... always possible. Anyone know where I can pickup a TARDIS transit token?
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Post by mahrundl on Sept 24, 2009 20:03:13 GMT -5
Mahrundl, any chance of a brief campaign report to let us know who the game pans out? Of course. Assuming it does happen, which it may not. 'How hard can it be to get half a dozen people together on a Saturday afternoon?', I thought. Well-nigh impossible, it turns out... I'll keep trying though - I want this to happen!
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Hogscape
11th level Troll
Stalwart of the Trollbridge
It's not the years, it's the mileage.
Posts: 2,126
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Post by Hogscape on Sept 24, 2009 22:47:51 GMT -5
Fingers crossed Mahrundl, I hope it does happen. Hey, which ruleset will you be using?
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