What Systems Can Make Clockwork Oozes

[unseenmage]

Once upon a time I figured out how to build clockwork oozes in PF, but it required a 3rd party template.

So the joke is, a friend insisted we play 5E D&D because he could build some neat thing or another (full plate wizard IIRC) and I asked if the system would let me build clockwork oozes. No, no it won't.

Then we noted that not even 3.x D&D nor PF allows for it without 3rd party stuff.

So now the question has become, in what game systems can a player build clockwork oozes?
It's a bad measuring stick, but an amusing one to be sure.

So far all we've come up with is Exalted. Because of course you can build clockwork oozes in Exalted. They're made of heroin. Because of course they are.

So, any other tabletop rpg gems that would allow for my weirdness?



Exalted

[Khedrac]

To be honest, for most systems you have to first answer the question "what do you mean by a clockwork ooze?"
Without knowing that the answer could be no systems or every system.

[unseenmage]

To be honest, for most systems you have to first answer the question "what do you mean by a clockwork ooze?"
Without knowing that the answer could be no systems or every system.

An ooze made of clockworks. For PF it was a Clockwork Creature template (one of the two up on PFSRD) applied to an ooze. We use the Price by CR guidelines so we can build any construct.

As for how we justified it, alchemically treated rice paper molds of exotically shaped gears filled with alchemical gelatine of varying... gooiness. With conical gears a lot of neat non standard clockworks become possible. Alchemically calibrated adhesiveness on each gear was another idea.
The ooze's engulf attack merely 'crushed' you in its gear filled insides.

That help?

[Telok]

GURPS

HERO

Rifts (probably, given all the lol-random in the splats)

That's three I can think of off hand where you can play them as characters.

[JustIgnoreMe]

Mutants and Masterminds
FATE
Nobilis

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Any CofD game, though it'd be especially appropriate in Demon: the Descent as a type of Cryptid.

[Particle_Man]

Don't Rest Your Head. You would only need to set the Pain level (how much trouble it would cause the PC(s). Clockwork Oozes would even be thematically appropriate for the setting.

[flond]

Mutants and Masterminds
FATE
Nobilis

Clockwork Ooze is a pretty good Actual in Nobilis, honestly.

(Also Chuubo's, and Risus. Probably Dungeon World, trivially too)

[Willie the Duck]

My Maker character is definitely going to try to make one in my Invisible Suns game this weekend.

[Friv]

Question - are you looking for game systems in which specifically players can create specifically characters who then build clockwork oozes?

Or are systems in which players can be clockwork oozes sufficient? Or, for that matter, are systems in which the GM can create clockwork oozes sufficient?

For the moment I will assume the first.

Pretty much any system that is largely narrative, or functions along a narrative mechanic set, will allow for it. As noted above, Nobilis could have a divine entity that creates clockwork oozes, and I can think of a half-dozen ways to do it in Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine. "Clockwork-Ooze Builder" would be an acceptable design for Mutants & Masterminds, or a power stunt for a more general power set. GURPS could probably do it, although I'm not up on how good it is at minion building. You could probably build one in Blades in the Dark by riffing on the rules for Hulls, although it would be a real process to assemble the various parts through your alchemy and occultistism.

You could do it in Fate or most of its variants, although it would take a lot of GM buy-in and there wouldn't be a lot of sturdy mechanics for what your minions look like. They'd be functional Assets in most Cortex games. I don't think many of the CofD games would actually have mechanics for players to do it, although as noted they could be a monster so you could create mechanics however you wanted.

[unseenmage]

My Maker character is definitely going to try to make one in my Invisible Suns game this weekend.

Please do let me know how it goes! Am always glad to see my madness get into other peoples games. :smallsmile:


Question - are you looking for game systems in which specifically players can create specifically characters who then build clockwork oozes?

Or are systems in which players can be clockwork oozes sufficient? Or, for that matter, are systems in which the GM can create clockwork oozes sufficient?

...
Systems in which players can build characters capable of building clockwork oozes.

Bonus points if either their clockworkiness or their coziness is of some mechanical benefit. Extra bonus points if both.

[Friv]

Please do let me know how it goes! Am always glad to see my madness get into other peoples games. :smallsmile:


Systems in which players can build characters capable of building clockwork oozes.

Bonus points if either their clockworkiness or their coziness is of some mechanical benefit. Extra bonus points if both.

Yeah, then Chuubo's works. Here, I will demonstrate. Long post spoiler-blocked.

So, for those unfamiliar with Chuubo’s, I’m only going to get half-points for most of these. The thing is, actions in Chuubo’s are based around narrative permissions. So the ooziness or clockworkness of a clockwork ooze is an advantage over, say, a giant bull made of infernal flame, inasmuch as if I say “I send my clockwork ooze seeping under that door” the GM will nod knowingly, and if I say “I send my giant infernal fire bull seeping under that door” the GM is going to blink and say, “How are you keeping it from obliterating the door and probably also setting the house on fire, infernally-speaking?”

But! I promised a half-dozen options, so here I go! Note that anything in Bold is your "arc", which is basically your character class in Chuubo's. There are twenty-four Arcs in the game.

The simplest approach is to create a Clockwork Ooze using “Nightmare Science”. This is a skill that allows you to take parts from a nightmare, and assemble them into technology-creature-horrors in the real world. You can then use them to do stuff. Productively! An ooze made out of oozing, wibbly clockwork is the sort of thing that might exist in a nightmare, so you can just… build it. Provided you have a power to access nightmare materials relatively easily, and those aren’t hard to come by. Such oozes will generally be productive as long as you stick to doing oozey things with them. They probably are particularly good at dissolving enemy mechanisms and using them to grow larger.

WARNING: Do not allow your clockwork ooze into the Science Wing of School. It will not end well.

Possibility #2 - As a Keeper of Gardens, you could be the proud owner of a strange Ooze Land, where oozes of various types and forms breed and grow. You could use your miraculous powers to create Ooze Guides, Ooze Guardians, and even Ooze Symbiotes, giving various objects ooze-like natures. If you take a clockwork device into the Ooze Gardens and imbue it with Ooze, it will become a helpful clockwork Ooze. In this case, the clockworkness is mainly a structure, and the ooze-ness is mainly your permission state; the real value of the ooze lies in the power it has to deliver information via absorption, or to fight other people.

Possibility #3 - As a Gatecrasher, you could be part of the Secret World of Ooze Farming. You compete with other Ooze Farmers to create the best and strangest oozes, and your Clockwork Ooze is one of your most impressive plot devices! It oozes into machinery and takes it over by replacing key gears with itself. It couldn’t do this if it couldn’t slip through gaps and cracks, and then turn its ooze into mechanical parts.

Possibility #4 - A slight reach, but if you are on Become Somebody, you could be a literal Ooze, who oozes over things and makes them oozier. Using your Truth, you can ooze over clockwork devices to make them more like you, imbuing your ooze into them. This… doesn’t really provide you with benefits, directly. The ooze is its own reward. (You yourself have a lot of ooze-based powers, though.)

Possibility #5 (I’m reaching a bit more) As a Primordial, you could be obsessed with Evolution, and talk to people about what evolution means to them, then extrude an ooze representing that concept which provides you with a new skill or power. After speaking to the clockwork spirit of the Wish-Granting Engine, Lilimund Cartaign, you extrude an ooze made of clockwork and steam which can ooze over devices and improve them. The problem is, it does that a lot! The ooze acts as a Bond, “I Must Repair and Improve Mechanical Devices”, which usually helps you do just that, but occasionally gives you magic power in exchange for getting in trouble improving things that should not be improved.

Possibility #6 - (Now I’m really reaching) If you are a robot, you could be Indomitable or Troubled, cursed with your cool robot nature. In that case, you could manifest parts of your nature as spirits and use them as servants. If you were feeling infected by feeling, you might manifest that as an ooze which is still clockwork and technological, oozing all of the feeling out of you and sending it into the world. It could ooze into people, and make them a bit more technological, or steal their magic and return to you, oozing into your ooze chamber and slotting in to empower you. Gross, but effective!

And there we go!

[Friv]

I am a little sad that no one else posted clockwork ooze-makers from their own favorite systems, so I'm bumping this.

[Beleriphon]

I am a little sad that no one else posted clockwork ooze-makers from their own favorite systems, so I'm bumping this.

M&M is easy enough. You pick a standard construct setup, give it appropriate slithering movement, maybe extra limbs, Insubstantial at Rank1 (it makes the character/creature) liquid. Think like a guy that turns into water, or something about that.

[unseenmage]

Yeah, then Chuubo's works. Here, I will demonstrate. Long post spoiler-blocked.

...
Thank you for such detailed examples. Very cool.

[Rhedyn]

Savage Worlds new core book plus Superpowers companion.

You do not need to be playing a Super hero game, but your race will reference it for one ability. You want need Construct and then the Altered Form (from SPC) racial abilities and then a lot of negative racial mods to balance it out. After that you have a regular player race that is both ooze-like and a construct that can be trapped as clockwork.

[emeraldstreak]

Numenera sounds appropriate.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I'm... not exactly sure what being a "clockwork ooze" would entail, but STaRS (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/268061/STaRS-The-Simple-Tabletop-Roleplaying-System) almost certainly can do it. Minor Power (Sqooshy) and Minor Power (Immune to poison and disease stuff type) should get you most of the way there and still leave you with some initial XP left over.