subject42
2010-09-29, 09:54 AM
The important bit
I'm building up a special Halloween episode for my weekly gaming group
(3.5/PF, more or less) and I'm looking for advice and suggestions. I've included a WALL OF TEXT below. If anyone has suggestions on how to make it better, I'd love to hear them.
The background
My homebrew setting is something along the lines of a collaboration between Lester Dent (Doc Savage), Robert E. Howard (Conan the Barbarian), and H. G. Wells (the time machine).
The game world is colonized more or less entirely by humans (they are the only playable race) and intelligent, non-human, sapient beings are incredibly rare and usually a BIG DEAL. Ruins are scattered all over the landscape, and more remote ones, or ones on "the new continent", tend to be full of fabulous wealth, lost technology, horrifying security measures, and other unknown perils.
Technological development across ranges from early Neolithic to "Anachronistic Victorian". Railroads are starting to show up in some of the more densely populated areas, hot air balloons are available to the adventurous, and one of the most powerful nations has just launched its first steam ship.
D&D style magic is essentially non-existent. A +1 sword is something akin to an artifact. Analogs to potions and oils (ie: single use items), however, are abundant.
Vancian casting does not exist. Divine magic does not exist. Gods, if they exist, are not active in the affairs of mortals. All classes are homebrew variations derived from Psionics, ToB, MoI, and ToM.
The rough idea
A local crime underlord/robin hood figure that has aided the players in the past asks them for a favor. He would like them to deliver a locked, ice-packed box and a chest of money to a Mr. Deepak Varmus in a city that is about a week's ride from their current location. Players might notice that he has a large square of gauze on his back, as if he has recently undergone surgery.
During the trip, the players learn from villagers that there is governmental unrest and rebellion simmering in this new city.
Upon arrival, the players deliver their package to Dr. Varmus, who excitedly takes the box and asks if the players are also investors, since the weight of the box far exceeds the payment that he expected for a single person. If asked, the Dr. explains that he is working on a "REVOLUTIONARY SERVICE IN THE FIELD OF EMERGENCY REVITALIZATION".
It turns out that Dr. Varmus has developed a means through which he may construct a perfect copy of an investor's body out of a sample of their flesh and a vial of each of their four Vital Humors. During the tour, Varmus shows hundreds and hundreds of sealed chambers holding unconscious bodies. The players will notice that there are only four or five unique faces on the bodies, and that they are clones.
Varmus then goes on to explain that all current investors carry an "ORGONE CAPACITOR" with them on all times, and in the event of their death the capacitor will "capture the signature of their unique ORGONE WAVEFORM and preserve it for reimplantation". This is done by means of a "UNIVERSAL VITAL MAGNETISM PROJECTOR ARRAY" that is in the national capital.
The end result is that if you die, somebody can return the rock that is housing your consciousness and you get brought back to life.
This obviously sounds too good to be true, which is where the plot starts.
During the night, an insurgent breaks into facility and activates all of the clones without the implantation process.
The clones break out and immediately begin mutating into zombie-like creatures. The Dr. explains that without a proper animating vital force, there is nothing to regulate Humor Imbalances that naturally occur, leaving the clones to devolve into monsters.
Even worse for the PCs, people who are bitten are afflicted with a similar humoral imbalance that will kill them and also turn them into zombies.
The outbreak spreads quickly, and the PCs need to simultaneously contain the infection and travel through zombie infested back-country on the way to the capital to fire up the "UNIVERSAL VITAL MAGNETISM PROJECTOR ARRAY".
The core question
How would you folks portray this kind of zombie? What would they do, besides eat the flesh of the living? What kind of effects would the various humoral imbalances have on them?
OMGWALLOFTEXT/TL;DR (Aka: the ADD block)
How would you make pseudoscience zombies in a quasi-victorian not-really-steampunk-but-has-elements-of-fantastic-science setting?
I'm building up a special Halloween episode for my weekly gaming group
(3.5/PF, more or less) and I'm looking for advice and suggestions. I've included a WALL OF TEXT below. If anyone has suggestions on how to make it better, I'd love to hear them.
The background
My homebrew setting is something along the lines of a collaboration between Lester Dent (Doc Savage), Robert E. Howard (Conan the Barbarian), and H. G. Wells (the time machine).
The game world is colonized more or less entirely by humans (they are the only playable race) and intelligent, non-human, sapient beings are incredibly rare and usually a BIG DEAL. Ruins are scattered all over the landscape, and more remote ones, or ones on "the new continent", tend to be full of fabulous wealth, lost technology, horrifying security measures, and other unknown perils.
Technological development across ranges from early Neolithic to "Anachronistic Victorian". Railroads are starting to show up in some of the more densely populated areas, hot air balloons are available to the adventurous, and one of the most powerful nations has just launched its first steam ship.
D&D style magic is essentially non-existent. A +1 sword is something akin to an artifact. Analogs to potions and oils (ie: single use items), however, are abundant.
Vancian casting does not exist. Divine magic does not exist. Gods, if they exist, are not active in the affairs of mortals. All classes are homebrew variations derived from Psionics, ToB, MoI, and ToM.
The rough idea
A local crime underlord/robin hood figure that has aided the players in the past asks them for a favor. He would like them to deliver a locked, ice-packed box and a chest of money to a Mr. Deepak Varmus in a city that is about a week's ride from their current location. Players might notice that he has a large square of gauze on his back, as if he has recently undergone surgery.
During the trip, the players learn from villagers that there is governmental unrest and rebellion simmering in this new city.
Upon arrival, the players deliver their package to Dr. Varmus, who excitedly takes the box and asks if the players are also investors, since the weight of the box far exceeds the payment that he expected for a single person. If asked, the Dr. explains that he is working on a "REVOLUTIONARY SERVICE IN THE FIELD OF EMERGENCY REVITALIZATION".
It turns out that Dr. Varmus has developed a means through which he may construct a perfect copy of an investor's body out of a sample of their flesh and a vial of each of their four Vital Humors. During the tour, Varmus shows hundreds and hundreds of sealed chambers holding unconscious bodies. The players will notice that there are only four or five unique faces on the bodies, and that they are clones.
Varmus then goes on to explain that all current investors carry an "ORGONE CAPACITOR" with them on all times, and in the event of their death the capacitor will "capture the signature of their unique ORGONE WAVEFORM and preserve it for reimplantation". This is done by means of a "UNIVERSAL VITAL MAGNETISM PROJECTOR ARRAY" that is in the national capital.
The end result is that if you die, somebody can return the rock that is housing your consciousness and you get brought back to life.
This obviously sounds too good to be true, which is where the plot starts.
During the night, an insurgent breaks into facility and activates all of the clones without the implantation process.
The clones break out and immediately begin mutating into zombie-like creatures. The Dr. explains that without a proper animating vital force, there is nothing to regulate Humor Imbalances that naturally occur, leaving the clones to devolve into monsters.
Even worse for the PCs, people who are bitten are afflicted with a similar humoral imbalance that will kill them and also turn them into zombies.
The outbreak spreads quickly, and the PCs need to simultaneously contain the infection and travel through zombie infested back-country on the way to the capital to fire up the "UNIVERSAL VITAL MAGNETISM PROJECTOR ARRAY".
The core question
How would you folks portray this kind of zombie? What would they do, besides eat the flesh of the living? What kind of effects would the various humoral imbalances have on them?
OMGWALLOFTEXT/TL;DR (Aka: the ADD block)
How would you make pseudoscience zombies in a quasi-victorian not-really-steampunk-but-has-elements-of-fantastic-science setting?