My Infinite Macabre Goodies

[ErikModi]

Stuff from the old boards I wrote up for Infinite Macabre, reposted here for posterity.

There were other contributors in the various threads, but I have not posted their material. If they want to add it to this thread, I encourage them to do so.

[ErikModi]

Aliens

Daleks
The Daleks are a race of devolved, mutant monstrosities. Originally hailing from the planet Skarro, the Kaled people were engaged in generations upon generations of thermonuclear, biological, and chemical warfare. As a result of the complete devastation of their homeworld, the Kaleds were mutating into devolved, deformed cephalopods who would be unable to survive in any environment, much less the radioactive toxic soup Skarro had become. And so the planet’s most brilliant scientist, Davros, devised a way for his people to survive. He used genetic engineering to halt the mutations, bringing all Kaleds into a less than .0001% genetic deviation. He then constructed the machine that would make them feared throughout the galaxy: The Mark III Travel Machine. This self-contained vehicle could maintain the new breed of Kaleds in any environment, even the vacuum of space. It would allow them to move, interact with their environment (albeit in a limited fashion), and since the wars of Skarro were still raging, defend themselves.

But Davros had no intention for his creations to merely defend themselves. Kaleds were warriors, conquerors, and Davros made certain his children would be the most perfect conquerors the universe had ever known. While he was genetically engineering them to weed out unstable mutation, he removed any trace of compassion, empathy, mercy, remorse, or pity. His new race would never hesitate to kill, would revel in death and destruction. And he gave the Mark III Travel Machine all the tools necessary to commit death and destruction on an epic scale. His new race soon took to calling themselves “Dalek,” an anagram of their old race name, “Kaled.” The Daleks in their tank-like environment devices soon obliterated all opposition on Skarro, and then set out to the stars with one burning desire in their twisted, mutated hearts: EXTERMINATE!

Qualities
Physical: Mutation Resistance ··
Mental: Tech Brain (Computer) ···, Tech Brain (Crafts) ···
Social: Without Emotion ··
Cultural: Competitive Species ··

Imperfections: Immobile: Outside of their robotic platforms, Daleks are little more than a brain, eye, and tentacle-like appendages useless for anything but manipulating the controls of a transportation platform. They automatically fail nearly any physical action they attempt to perform.
Dalek Mark IV Travel Machine

The Dalek Mark IV (a few improvements over the original Mark III) Travel Machine is the primary life support system, combat vehicle, home, and the only place a Dalek will spend almost its entire existence, from the time it is decanted (as all Daleks are effectively clones) until the moment it dies. It is the single most terrifying personal conveyance ever designed.

The shell of the vehicle is made from Dalekanium, an alloy specifically designed by the Daleks for vastly superior strength and durability to any other metal. It is also designed to conduct certain forms of energy, allowing Daleks to perform some unexpected feats. The device moves via a zero-friction antigrav field that allows it to hover an imperceptible distance above the ground. In difficult terrain, the antigrav field can be empowered to allow hovering and flight to an effectively unlimited flight ceiling, as long as there is a gravity field to press against. When operating in zero-gravity, the propulsion unit switches to “omni-thrust” mode, generating gravity wells around the platform that it literally “falls into.” Both modes of operation can give the Dalek surprising speed and agility, though these are rarely needed.

The Dalek perceives the outside world through an “eyestalk,” a photoreceptive sensor mounted on a rod protruding from the center of the device’s top dome. The stalk can elevate up and down, and the turret-like dome can rotate a full 360 degrees, giving the Dalek an impressive range of perception. The eyestalk also contains numerous additional sensors, giving Dalek’s a tremendous edge when tracking their prey. Also mounted on the dome turret are two lights which flash when the Dalek speaks, presumably for the sole purpose of letting everyone know which particular Dalek just threatened to exterminate you.

The Dalek interacts with the world through two devices mounted on the front of the platform. The first is the gunstick, mounted on the left of the torso. As one might guess, the sole purpose of this device is to kill anything it is fired at, which is about the extent that most Daleks want to interact with any life form. The second is a plunger-like arm that is, in fact, an intricately-designed manipulator capable of interfacing with nearly any form of technology, as well as possessing some fatal capabilities in it’s own right. This second manipulator can be replaced with other, more mission specific arms as needed.

In addition to the Dalekanium armor, the platform is protected by a powerful energy shield that can deflect most forms of harm a Dalek’s enemies may see fit to heap upon it. Considering that Daleks are the declared enemy of every non-Dalek being in the universe, this is a quite substantial amount of harm.

Physical Statistics: Strength 4, Dexterity 2, Stamina 5
Size: 5
Speed: 10 “rolling,” 30 hovering/flying
Armor: 20. The eyestalk is relatively unprotected, having only an armor rating of 10.
Armament: 4 aggravated for the gunstick, 2 lethal for the manipulator arm. Other arms may have different damage ratings.
Sensors: The sensors provide a +4 bonus to perception checks. Targeting systems add two dice to any Dexterity-based attack dice pools.
Defense: The vehicle has a defense of zero, relying on its armor and shields to survive combat.
Emergency Temporal Shift: Daleks have discovered the secrets of time travel, and the Dalekanium shells of their travel machines allow them to channel the energy necessary to move through time. Usually, this is done while attached to the powerful generators and computers of their ships, but all Daleks have a last-ditch survival mechanism. Once per story, a Dalek may initiate an emergency temporal shift, escaping through time to preserve itself from its enemies. Where and when the Dalek winds up after an ETS is completely random.

[ErikModi]

Syreen
The Syreen bear a remarkable similarity to humans, having nearly identical physiologies. The only slight differences are in skin color (Syreen skin tones tend toward light blues), and a reflective membrane at the back of their eyes, allowing them to see well in dim light and causing their eyes to sometimes appear to glow (in actuality, reflecting light outward, like an earth cat.)

In the recent past, a cataclysm hit the Syreen homeworld of Syra, killing its entire population. Only the female Space Patrol was offworld at the time, meaning that the remaining Syreen race is entirely female. Using advanced genetic techniques, the Syreen have managed to make themselves genetically compatible with their closest genetic cousins: humans.

Syreen strive to repopulate their race through procreation with humans. Some Syreen operate Syreen Pleasure Stations, essentially large, spacegoing brothels where Syreen attempt to gain the genetic material they need to continue their race. Others pilot combat vessels in the stars, seeking to kidnap unwary human males to use as breeding stock.

There is something of a schism in Syreen society. Some believe that the all-female Syreen race is superior, and so use the same genetic modification that allows them to breed with humans to ensure that only female children are born. A small revolutionary group, however, wants to restore the male Syreen, and bring their species back into balance. These Syreen are small in number, and have yet to crack the genetic modification that will allow them to give birth to true male Syreen, but they are a growing, hidden movement.

Qualities
Physical: Low-light Vision ···
Mental: Skill Focus (Persuasion) ·
Social: Lyrical Voice ···, Pheromones (Lust) ·, Seductive ··
Cultural: Child of the Stars ··

Imperfections: Driven to Procreate: A Syreen must spend a Willpower point in any situation in which she has the opportunity to attempt to procreate, and chooses not to.

New Drug

Starhard: This drug was developed by the Syreen to ensure maximum procreative potential. It heightens male metabolism, keeping a human male erect for a full 24 hours, no matter how many times he is brought to orgasm. The metabolic effect also causes him to produce more sperm, keeping him fully fertile while the drug’s effects last. Unfortunately, a steady supply of the drug will ruin one’s health in short order. For every consecutive 24 hours after the first that a man is under the influence of the drug, he must make a Strength + Stamina roll. If the roll fails, he loses one point of strength or stamina permanently.

Syreen make quite a lot of money selling the drug recreationally, though it is also given to Syreen captives on an IV drip, so that they may spend the rest of their (probably short) lives attempting to fertilize as many Syreen as possible.

[ErikModi]

Wraith
The Wraith are a race of vampiric beings who have cultivated a massive territory in a distant galaxy. Unfortunately for the rest of the spacefaring community, Stygian Gates to this galaxy were recently discovered, and the Wraith along with them.

Wraith tend to be taller than humans, with light gray skin and long, white hair. Most Wraith belong to the race’s warrior caste, and tend to be quite burly (most Wraith warriors, in fact, look like professional bodybuilders.) The Wraith “aristocrats,” on the other hand, tend to be more slender than humans.

Wraith physiology is extremely different from most carbon-based life. Adult Wraith do not eat, and indeed their digestive systems shut down and atrophy as they reach maturity. Wraith children consume ordinary food for nourishment. A Wraith’s digestive system starts to shut down as a new feeding apparatus matures. A “sucker” on a Wraith’s right palm extracts “life force” from a human, causing aging and, eventually, death. This life force sustains the Wraith, and grants them superhuman resilience.

Wraith are clinically immortal, provided they feed regularly on human life energy (whether the life energy of aliens is suitable is largely left to the Storyteller, though a convenient rule of thumb would be that the less like humans an alien is, the less likely it is that a Wraith would be able to feed on it.) Wraith can also hibernate indefinitely, similar to a Kindred’s ability to enter torpor. In their home galaxy, the Wraith population has grown large enough that they must hibernate for extended periods of time, allowing the human populations of their galaxy to grow and expand into a suitable food source, before emerging to feed ravenously, reducing the human populations below a point where the Wraith “civilization” can be sustained. These relatively brief but violent periods of activity are known as “Cullings.”

Qualities
Physical: Feeding ···, Regeneration ···
Mental: Telepathic ····
Cultural: Competitive Species ··

Imperfections: Strange Requirements (Life Energy, as Deprivation, p 175, WoD Core)

[ErikModi]

Physical Qualities

Feeding (···)
This quality allows the Wraith to devour the life energy of humans. Doing so requires touching the target on the chest (and so armor applies against this touch.) Once this is done, the Wraith rolls Stamina. Each success reduces one of the victim’s Physical attributes by one. No attribute can be drained below 1 unless all Physical attributes have been drained to one, at which point the Wraith may, upon scoring three success, take his victim’s final Physical attribute dots, killing him. Feeding causes “old age,” as the character’s very life essence is being drained away. Extremely difficult medical procedures may be able to restore this missing life energy, as can some forms of magic.

Regeneration (· to ·····)
This quality allows an alien to regenerate wounds. Each dot in Regeneration allows the character to heal two bashing or one lethal wound each turn as an instant action. Each dot of Regeneration will also heal one aggravated wound every minute.

Low-Light Vision (· to ·····)
Your species eyes are adapted to see in lower light than normal. For each dot in this quality, you may reduce penalties related to dim lighting conditions by one.

[ErikModi]

Spaceships

Expanded Spaceship Construction Rules

Rather then the three categories of starship statistic available in regular Infinite Macabre games, this system allows for more detailed spaceship attributes, combat, and construction. The Starship merit still ranges from one to five dots, but each dot in the Merit provides five dots with which the ship can be built. Multiple characters can contribute multiple Starship Merits to the dot rating of a single starship.

Physical Attributes
Like characters, Starships have three Physical Attributes:

Strength: A measure of the ship’s physical power. Raw thrust, towing capability, hull integrity, and the like encompass a starship’s strength score.

Dexterity: The ship’s overall maneuverability.

Stamina: The ship’s durability, hull integrity, strength of manufacture, and overall ability to withstand punishment.

As with characters, these traits are rated between one and five dots. Starships (usually) do not have Mental or Social Attributes.

Derived Attributes

Other attributes are derived from the ratings assigned to physical attributes.

Defense: Equal to the ship’s Dexterity.

Durability: Equal to the ship’s Stamina.

Structure: Structure is equal to Strength + Stamina multiplied by ten. So a ship with two Strength and two Stamina has a structure of 40 (2 + 2 = 4, x 10 = 40.)

Speed: Equal to Dexterity + Strength x Speed Factor

Speed Factor: Speed factor acts as a multiplier to a ship’s speed. This represents additional thrusters, low-mass construction, hyper-efficient engines, or whatever else you think may make the ship go faster than normal. Speed Factor is rated between one and five dots.

Weapons Systems
Starships can come equipped with a number of weapons systems of varying types. Each type of weapon ranges from one to five dots; weapons with higher dot ratings deal more damage more accurately. To attack with Starship Weapons, roll Dexterity + Computers with a specialization in Weapons Systems. Subtract from this dice pool the target ship’s Defense and any other defenses it has which would apply to the incoming attack. Without the Starship Weapons specialization, the roll suffers a –3 penalty. Each type of weapons system has different game effects, detailed below.

Direct-Fire Weapons: This category consists of lasers, particle beams, plasma cannons, railguns, and other weapons which fire on a direct line-of-effect to an enemy ship. The attacks resolve instantly, with no significant delay between the time the weapon is fired and the time it impacts the target (if it impacts the target.) These are the most common weapons systems aboard starships, and direct-fire weapons systems to a total of three dots are perfectly legal in most sectors of space, while direct-fire weapons systems of combined ratings of four dots or higher are usually reserved for police, security, or military ships.

Seeking Weapons: Torpedoes, missiles, attack drones, and other weapons which home in on their targets fall under this category. Seeking weapons are slower than direct-fire weapons, causing a noticeable delay between the time the weapon is fired and the time it impacts the target. A seeking weapon will actually make its attack roll (and thus deal damage) a number of turns after it is fired equal to 1 per 100 miles of space between the targets, -1 per dot rating of the weapons system, minimum delay of one turn. So, a torpedo rated at two dots firing at a target four hundred miles distant would make its attack roll two turns after it was fired (whether the ship that had fired it was still around or not.) A torpedo rated at four dots firing at the same four hundred mile distant target would still make its attack one turn after it was fired. If a seeking weapon misses its target (the attack roll fails to achieve any successes), it may continue to attack for a number of turns equal to its dot rating – 1 per 100 miles it had to travel to reach the target. So, a torpedo rated at four dots attacking a target 200 miles away can make up to two more attempts to hit the target if the initial attack misses. Seeking weapons systems with a combined dot rating of two or higher are the only ones that can usually be fitted on civilian ships, while police and security vessels can mount seeking weapons of up to four dots. Only military ships mount seeking weapons of combined ratings above four.

Defensive Weapons: Point defense lasers, interceptors, singularity generators, and other weapons designed to shoot down incoming fire before it hits the ship. Defensive weapons are practically useless against other starships (you may only fire at a target less then one mile distant, which in space combat is practically trading paint), and the damage dealt after Durability is taken into account is halved (round down.) Against incoming attacks, however, defensive weapons are devastating. The operator of a defensive weapons system may roll his weapons system dice pool against one incoming attack. Each success he scores on his roll takes one success away from the attack, to a minimum of zero successes. Example: The operator of an interceptor turret fires his weapon at an incoming missile. The missile’s attack scored four successes, so the operator rolls his Dexterity + Computer (Weapons Systems) + the turret’s rating. The operator scores three successes, meaning that the ship takes only one point of damage. If he had scored four or more success, the missile would have been completely destroyed, and the ship would have taken no damage. Civilian ships can mount point defense systems with combined dot ratings of up to four.

Defensive Systems
Ships can, of course, mount an array of defensive systems to protect them from harm. These systems are also rated between one and five dots.

Armor: Reactive hull plating, energy shields, power absorber panels, gravimetric distorters, and other systems designed to prevent incoming fire from damaging the ship. Each point adds one to the ship’s Durability.

Countermeasures: Chaff, electronic jamming, stealth systems, and other systems designed to prevent enemy ships from locking on to or firing on your vessel. Each dot adds one to your ship’s Defense.

Other Systems
A variety of other systems may be added to starships to provide additional functionality, not unlike Merits provide individual characters with additional options and abilities.

Psionic Hypnosis Field (···)
Syreen ships frequently come equipped with this device, which allows the Captain to make a Seduction check against the crew of an enemy ship, with the following results:
Dramatic Failure: The crew resists the psionic call, and remains immune to it for the remainder of the scene.
Failure: The call fails.
Success: One crew member per success falls victim to the call, abandoning all duties and waiting for the Syreen to come and collect him.
Dramatic Success: The crew are so captivated by the song that they will actually leave the ship through the airlocks and attempt to reach the Syreen vessel, even if it means “cold-shirting” (leaving the ship without a pressure suit.)
The call is only effective when the Syreen ship is extremely close to her target.

Stealth System (· to ·····)
Whether it’s sensor bafflers, low-energy running mode, an honest-to-goodness cloaking device, or just a ship designed to look like a piece of space junk, your ship is harder to spot than most. Each dot in this system adds a +1 bonus to your rolls to avoid detection by another starship.

Sensors and Detecting other Starships
Usually, it’s pretty east to detect other starships. Space is pretty much a great, vast-y nothing, and starships by necessity carry all manner of equipment that generated electrical signals, heat, light, and all kinds of other emissions that are really easy to detect against the backdrop of the big black. To detect other ships, or indeed anything at all in space, a crewmember operating sensors rolls Wits + Computer, with a specialty in Starship Systems. Without the specialty, the character takes a –3 penalty on their roll.

Suggested penalties: Asteroid field (-1 to –5, depending on density), nebula (-1 to –5, depending on intensity), proximity to black hole, pulsar, quasar, neutron star, or other interference-generating stellar phenomena (-1 to –3).

Most often, only a single success is needed to detect the presence of another ship or other object. However, some ships take pains to avoid being detected. Going unnoticed in deep space is harder than it sounds, mostly due to the lack of anything to serve as hiding places, but there are tricks to making a ship harder to detect. A pilot attempting to have his ship go undetected rolls Dexterity + Stealth, with a specialty in Starship Piloting. Without the specialty the roll suffers a –1 penalty. This roll is opposed by the roll of the sensor operator on the opposing ship (or ships.)

[ErikModi]

Equipment

Photon Blaster
This weapon utilizes the force of photons to deal damage to targets. Unlike a laser, which fires a stream of photons at a specific wavelength, this weapon fires "pure" photon packets, which contain all possible wavelengths of visible light. Focused and concentrated, the energy of these photons carries remarkable punch. The weapon is particularly damaging to vampires, as it replicates the effects of natural sunlight against their skin.

Damage: 3 (aggravated to vampires.)
Ranges: 20/40/80
Capacity: 12 (uses a special high-capacity power cell not compatible with most energy weapons.)
Strength: 1
Size: 2/J
Cost: 3


Plasma Weapon Template
Plasma weapons function by firing electromagnetically contained "packets" of ionized gas. Most plasma is extremely high energy, burning with exceptional heat. As a result, plasma weapons create intense burns.

Any solid-shot firearm (not shotguns) can have the plasma weapon template applied to it. Plasma weapons inflict damage through tremendous heat, burning tissue with frightening efficiency. Thus, damage from a plasma weapon is considered to be damage from fire. The high heat and energy of the plasma bolt actually prevents flammable targets from igniting, as the burn happens too quickly. However, plasma sheds heat rapidly, reducing the range of plasma weapons. Reduce the short range of a plasma weapon by 10, and recalculate medium and long ranges as normal. Finally, plasma weapons require both an exceptionally powerful compact energy source and a reservoir of gas to be heated into plasma. Ammunition for plasma weapons requires Resources 2 (technically, 1 dot for power cells, and 1 dot for detachable gas tanks) per 20 shots.