Reaper OCC WIP
Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 12:08 am
This is mostly background and work in progress for a variant host armor based on Slappy's Swarmlord. I came up with the idea while running a campaign earlier this year. At gencon, me and one of my players had the pleasure of meeting Chuck Walton and his excitement for the setting renewed my interest and stoked the ole intellectual fires. That being said, lemme introduce you to the idea behind the Reaper.
Developed by a minor house to fill a rather strange role, both as a spiritual icon linked with their views on life and death, and as way to make the impact of inter-House warfare less of a resource drain, this House created a variant of their Swarmlords. By tweaking the metabolism and changing some fundamental aspects of the armor, they created a horror to behold. One that was seldom seen, but for the most dire circumstances. The Reapers oversee the introduction of genetic material to the Genepool and protect their Engineers and fledgling Saints.
In a seedling or other settlement, outside their host armors, a Reaper pilot has a strange role. They oversee the rites of the dead and their introduction into the bio-mass of Genepool.
Reaper armor differs from a Swarmlord in a few different ways, most notably is the lack of a swarm. The hive is replaced by a rookery. Unlike the falconer's more flexible Warhawk, the Reapers rookery holds a myriad of single purpose birds. Another major change is the fact that Reapers are always Carnivore, Vampiric, or Parasitic in Metabolism.
While Reapers see some field time against the Machine, they are primarily fielded as shock weapons against other human Houses to keep them in line. After battle, they scour the field, gorging themselves and their Ravens on the bodies of the dead. While much of this fuels the rapacious demand of the Rookery and Armor, the excess is stored in fat cells for later deposit into the Genepool.
The minor house, was based somewhat on Celt mythology, and as far as the way I used them, they had eventually been absorbed by a House based on Nordic myth.
As these guys were boogie men in my campaign, I only have the barest idea of stats and such. I am planning on using the Swarmlord as a template, or make it a template that you lay over the Swarmlord. They are big, hulking, and scary. They wield a scythe as badge of office and some have access to a splicer's-tech upgrade to their armor that gives them a cloak that literally soaks up blood and the like as it brushes the dirt. As said, these guys are boogie men.
This is the basic stats and such for the Reapers. I used the Swarm Lord by Slappy as a template.
Alignment: Any, but typically Aberrant or selfish.
Attribute Requirements: I.Q.: 13, M.E.: 14, and P.S.: 14 or higher.
Attribute Bonuses: +1 to I.Q., +1D6 to M.E., and +2D4 to P.S.
O.C.C. Bonuses: +2 to save vs. insanity, and +6 to save vs. horror factor.
Base S.D.C.: 50, plus any from Physical skills.
Common Skills: Standard.
O.C.C. Skill Program: Basic Military (+20%), Athletics (+10%), Bio-Technology (+10%), and Infantryman (+10%) or Medical Coroner (+10%).
Elective Skills: Select any one Wilderness Skill and three Electives from the following list at first level. Select another two Elective Skills at levels 2, 4, 8, and 12. All new skills start at level one proficiency.
Communications: Any (+5%)
Domestic: Any (+10%)
Espionage: Any (+5%)
Medical: First Aid only.
Military: Any (+5%)
Physical: Any
Rogue: Gambling and Find Contraband only.
Science: Any (+5%)
Technical: Any
Transportation: Any, except Pilot Wing Packs.
Wilderness Survival: Any (+10%)
W.P.s: Any
Secondary Skills: The character gets to select four Secondary Skills at level one and one additional skill at levels 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15. These are additional areas of knowledge that do not receive any special O.C.C. bonuses.
Reaper Aerie Armor: The Reaper receives an experimental Host Armor design known as The Aerie, the Bio-Tech equivalent of living power armor, brimming with weapons, Bio-Enhancements, and a special organic nest that continuously spawns powerful Bio-Tech avians. The Reaper is genetically bonded to one specific Hive Armor.
Step One: Standard for Host Armor, except for the following changes: M.D.C. of the Nest is 2D6x10+30, speed and leaping ability is reduced by 15 percent, and weight is increased by 4D4x10 lbs.
Step Two: Determining Metabolism. Aerie Armor is is either Carnivore or Vampiric. All aspects are identical for normal Host Armor, except that Aerie Armor must consume twice the usual amount of food each day. This is necessary to sustain the various types of avians that grow within the aerie.
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Step Three: Available Bio-Energy points for the Reaper is M.E. attribute number, +P.E. attribute number, +1D4x10 points, plus points from their chosen metabolism. These Bio-E points can be used to purchase Bio-Enhancements from any category except Ranged Bio-Weapons. In addition, the Reaper starts with 5D4x10 Bio-E points that are used to purchase Avains for the character’s personal murder. Each level of advancement, starting with level two, the Reaper gets an additional 1D6 Bio-E to add to the capabilities of the actual Host Armor, and 1d4x10 Bio-E points to be used to strengthen the Aerie. These Bio-E points can be spent as soon as they are acquired or saved and combined with points from subsequent levels of experience.
If the Reapers Hive Armor is destroyed, another will be bonded to him. It will only have the most basic Bio-Enhancements, but it will have 5D4x10 Bio-E points available to purchase Avians. Reapers are just too rare, and the Resistance does not want to squander their training.
Step Four: Biological Enhancements, Weapons, and Avians. Bio-E points allocated for Bio-Enhancements and Avians must be spent separately. Selections can be made from any of the categories, except Ranged Bio-Weapons. The energies of the suit are dedicated to manufacturing Avians, and trying to create ammunition for other Bio-Weapons proves to be just too much for the suit (and the pilot) to handle. Besides, Reapers consider their Avians to be far superior weapons to any Bio-Weapon available for “lesser” suits of Host Armor, so they do not see this as a limitation at all.
Special Aerie Armor Bonuses: +6 on initiative and the pilot cannot be surprised from behind, +1 to strike and parry, and +5 to Horror Factor. Avians will also attack anything that threatens the Aerie Armor. Any robot, drone, animal, or even human that attacks the Hive Armor in hand-to-hand combat will be assaulted by any Avian currently perched in the Aerie every time the opponent successfully strikes the armor (just select the most abundant Avian in the character’s personal murder in order to determine damage) .
Avian Generation: The organic Aerie constantly spawns new Avians to replace birds that die in combat or from old age. The amount of Avians the Aerie can create is proportional to the total size of the character’s personal murder. They can replace half their murder in 24 .
Penalties: As the character adds more Avians to his murder, the organic Aerie mounted on the armor grows larger as well. For every 4 Avians, add another 4D6 M.D.C. to the aeire and 50 pounds to the weight of the armor. The increased weight decreases speed and leaping ability by 10 percent. For every 8 Avians, the Reaper suffers additional penalties of -2 to parry and dodge. Once the swarm reaches 16 Avians, the Aerie becomes so heavy it forces the Hive Armor to hunch forward in order to support the weight. When the armor is forced to assume this posture, all penalties from increasing the size of the swarm are doubled. At this point, most Reapers enhance their Aerie Armor with Elongated Arms in order to keep the suit more stable (future penalties are not doubled, they increase at the standard rate).
Standard Equipment: Military fatigues, dress clothing, survival knife, utility belt, first-aid kit, Face Wrap, tinted goggles, hatchet for cutting wood, one light or heavy Bio-Weapon of choice and one weapon for each W.P. with appropriate ammunition for heavy combat, tent, knapsack, backpack, two water skins, two week supply of emergency food rations, and some personal items.
Money: Has 1D6x100 credits in precious metals, relics or trade items, as well as 6D6x10 in available credits. Money can be spent now on additional equipment or saved for later.
Developed by a minor house to fill a rather strange role, both as a spiritual icon linked with their views on life and death, and as way to make the impact of inter-House warfare less of a resource drain, this House created a variant of their Swarmlords. By tweaking the metabolism and changing some fundamental aspects of the armor, they created a horror to behold. One that was seldom seen, but for the most dire circumstances. The Reapers oversee the introduction of genetic material to the Genepool and protect their Engineers and fledgling Saints.
In a seedling or other settlement, outside their host armors, a Reaper pilot has a strange role. They oversee the rites of the dead and their introduction into the bio-mass of Genepool.
Reaper armor differs from a Swarmlord in a few different ways, most notably is the lack of a swarm. The hive is replaced by a rookery. Unlike the falconer's more flexible Warhawk, the Reapers rookery holds a myriad of single purpose birds. Another major change is the fact that Reapers are always Carnivore, Vampiric, or Parasitic in Metabolism.
While Reapers see some field time against the Machine, they are primarily fielded as shock weapons against other human Houses to keep them in line. After battle, they scour the field, gorging themselves and their Ravens on the bodies of the dead. While much of this fuels the rapacious demand of the Rookery and Armor, the excess is stored in fat cells for later deposit into the Genepool.
The minor house, was based somewhat on Celt mythology, and as far as the way I used them, they had eventually been absorbed by a House based on Nordic myth.
As these guys were boogie men in my campaign, I only have the barest idea of stats and such. I am planning on using the Swarmlord as a template, or make it a template that you lay over the Swarmlord. They are big, hulking, and scary. They wield a scythe as badge of office and some have access to a splicer's-tech upgrade to their armor that gives them a cloak that literally soaks up blood and the like as it brushes the dirt. As said, these guys are boogie men.
This is the basic stats and such for the Reapers. I used the Swarm Lord by Slappy as a template.
Alignment: Any, but typically Aberrant or selfish.
Attribute Requirements: I.Q.: 13, M.E.: 14, and P.S.: 14 or higher.
Attribute Bonuses: +1 to I.Q., +1D6 to M.E., and +2D4 to P.S.
O.C.C. Bonuses: +2 to save vs. insanity, and +6 to save vs. horror factor.
Base S.D.C.: 50, plus any from Physical skills.
Common Skills: Standard.
O.C.C. Skill Program: Basic Military (+20%), Athletics (+10%), Bio-Technology (+10%), and Infantryman (+10%) or Medical Coroner (+10%).
Elective Skills: Select any one Wilderness Skill and three Electives from the following list at first level. Select another two Elective Skills at levels 2, 4, 8, and 12. All new skills start at level one proficiency.
Communications: Any (+5%)
Domestic: Any (+10%)
Espionage: Any (+5%)
Medical: First Aid only.
Military: Any (+5%)
Physical: Any
Rogue: Gambling and Find Contraband only.
Science: Any (+5%)
Technical: Any
Transportation: Any, except Pilot Wing Packs.
Wilderness Survival: Any (+10%)
W.P.s: Any
Secondary Skills: The character gets to select four Secondary Skills at level one and one additional skill at levels 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15. These are additional areas of knowledge that do not receive any special O.C.C. bonuses.
Reaper Aerie Armor: The Reaper receives an experimental Host Armor design known as The Aerie, the Bio-Tech equivalent of living power armor, brimming with weapons, Bio-Enhancements, and a special organic nest that continuously spawns powerful Bio-Tech avians. The Reaper is genetically bonded to one specific Hive Armor.
Step One: Standard for Host Armor, except for the following changes: M.D.C. of the Nest is 2D6x10+30, speed and leaping ability is reduced by 15 percent, and weight is increased by 4D4x10 lbs.
Step Two: Determining Metabolism. Aerie Armor is is either Carnivore or Vampiric. All aspects are identical for normal Host Armor, except that Aerie Armor must consume twice the usual amount of food each day. This is necessary to sustain the various types of avians that grow within the aerie.
.
Step Three: Available Bio-Energy points for the Reaper is M.E. attribute number, +P.E. attribute number, +1D4x10 points, plus points from their chosen metabolism. These Bio-E points can be used to purchase Bio-Enhancements from any category except Ranged Bio-Weapons. In addition, the Reaper starts with 5D4x10 Bio-E points that are used to purchase Avains for the character’s personal murder. Each level of advancement, starting with level two, the Reaper gets an additional 1D6 Bio-E to add to the capabilities of the actual Host Armor, and 1d4x10 Bio-E points to be used to strengthen the Aerie. These Bio-E points can be spent as soon as they are acquired or saved and combined with points from subsequent levels of experience.
If the Reapers Hive Armor is destroyed, another will be bonded to him. It will only have the most basic Bio-Enhancements, but it will have 5D4x10 Bio-E points available to purchase Avians. Reapers are just too rare, and the Resistance does not want to squander their training.
Step Four: Biological Enhancements, Weapons, and Avians. Bio-E points allocated for Bio-Enhancements and Avians must be spent separately. Selections can be made from any of the categories, except Ranged Bio-Weapons. The energies of the suit are dedicated to manufacturing Avians, and trying to create ammunition for other Bio-Weapons proves to be just too much for the suit (and the pilot) to handle. Besides, Reapers consider their Avians to be far superior weapons to any Bio-Weapon available for “lesser” suits of Host Armor, so they do not see this as a limitation at all.
Special Aerie Armor Bonuses: +6 on initiative and the pilot cannot be surprised from behind, +1 to strike and parry, and +5 to Horror Factor. Avians will also attack anything that threatens the Aerie Armor. Any robot, drone, animal, or even human that attacks the Hive Armor in hand-to-hand combat will be assaulted by any Avian currently perched in the Aerie every time the opponent successfully strikes the armor (just select the most abundant Avian in the character’s personal murder in order to determine damage) .
Avian Generation: The organic Aerie constantly spawns new Avians to replace birds that die in combat or from old age. The amount of Avians the Aerie can create is proportional to the total size of the character’s personal murder. They can replace half their murder in 24 .
Penalties: As the character adds more Avians to his murder, the organic Aerie mounted on the armor grows larger as well. For every 4 Avians, add another 4D6 M.D.C. to the aeire and 50 pounds to the weight of the armor. The increased weight decreases speed and leaping ability by 10 percent. For every 8 Avians, the Reaper suffers additional penalties of -2 to parry and dodge. Once the swarm reaches 16 Avians, the Aerie becomes so heavy it forces the Hive Armor to hunch forward in order to support the weight. When the armor is forced to assume this posture, all penalties from increasing the size of the swarm are doubled. At this point, most Reapers enhance their Aerie Armor with Elongated Arms in order to keep the suit more stable (future penalties are not doubled, they increase at the standard rate).
Standard Equipment: Military fatigues, dress clothing, survival knife, utility belt, first-aid kit, Face Wrap, tinted goggles, hatchet for cutting wood, one light or heavy Bio-Weapon of choice and one weapon for each W.P. with appropriate ammunition for heavy combat, tent, knapsack, backpack, two water skins, two week supply of emergency food rations, and some personal items.
Money: Has 1D6x100 credits in precious metals, relics or trade items, as well as 6D6x10 in available credits. Money can be spent now on additional equipment or saved for later.