I'm Bringing Tasmanian Back!

[mrloucifer]

The supernatural Tasmanian Devil from the “Boxed Nightmares” book holds a special place in my heart. Seventeen years ago I was new to role playing and tried running a BTS game. However I was too young and too new to the game to be a decent GM much less a horror game GM.

However, one of the few things that did go right was using the Tasmanian Devil adventure. This adventure became very impactful on me in how I play the BTS game, how I see the BTS world and what the game is all about. If you don’t have your own copy of the sourcebook, you’re missing out on some great adventure ideas (you really are). As an employee of eBay I’m compelled to remind you that I see it for auction regularly as it’s worth the coin.

In my way of honoring Kevin’s grand idea of a monster and adventure, I plan to revamp the states for BTS2 and update the notes of that adventure to hopefully see print in the Rifter some day. This is an work in progress that your getting now, but the stats are completed enough to where you can use the little beast now.

The Tasmanian Devil (V 2.2)
Updated by Steven Dawes, based on the Kevin Siembieda’s original design from the “Boxed Nightmares” sourcebook
The supernatural Tasmanian Devil is a superhuman predator that dates back to prehistoric times. According to the Lazlo Agency files, their first documented sighting of the Tasmanian Devil was in 1990, found in the contents of a letter sent by a Professor Everett Charles Gaines to his friend and colleague Dr. Carl Mavak, a Zoologist and assistant zoo director. This letter had accompanied a crate that was sent to Dr. Mavak which gave a detailed account of a mated pair of strange predatory primates Professor Gained discovered and captured in the wilds of Tasmania, Australia and then shipped to him.

Tragically the little devils escaped the crate and savagely killed Dr. Mavak before escaping the zoo, fleeing into the city. What happened to the mated pair is uncertain. There is a reported rumor that the creatures were both creatures were found and destroyed, but there are other rumors that say the male was found and destroyed but the female had fled and was never sighted again. The female was believed to have been pregnant and it’s theorized that she gave birth and raised her young on her own.

If this rumor is true, it explains the continual string of reported sightings and confrontations with the Tasmanian Devils since the early 1990’s. Those who believe in the rumor of the pregnant female sees Professor Gaines as delivering his own personal Pandora’s Box to the United States and unleashed what have been labeled “The sewer rats of the supernatural”. It’s doubtful that the truth of these rumors will ever be fully discovered.
What is a known however is that the Tasmanian Devil has become a competitor for the most commonly sighted supernatural creature in the United States, and is picking up speed in both Canada and Mexico. The creature is unique looking and hard to mistake by the various eyewitness reports, making the extreme number of reported sightings reasonably accurate. In Professor Gaines letter he gives a very detailed description of the beasts and they are copied as follows;

“I can not put into words my feelings of elation over the capture of this animal. I have never seen anything like it. To call it an ape is most definitely inappropriate as the animal cannot be classed as any known species of ape. Certainly it has many of the characteristics of the primates, but it is no ape or monkey. The feet are neither human nor ape-like, though more human than ape. The creature can stand erect (about four and a half feet tall) and can walk erect on legs and feet developed for roaming the ground. Still, the animal runs in a loping movement, using all fours. The powerful hands greatly resemble a human’s, with fully developed HUMAN features. The body is mostly hairless except along the back and pelvic regions. The body is thickly muscled and the animal is easily twice as strong as a man. It has a long hairless tail that resembles the devil’s right out of catechism. The head is that of a goblin’s, with a pair of huge, pointed ears, large, flattened nose (somewhat ape-like), tiny, round eyes spaced widely apart and pronounced eyebrow ridges. It has virtually no forehead which curves into a long, sloping cranium. Its mouth is large and filled with teeth that are neither ape nor quite canine.”

The Tasmanian Devil
Also known as the Hounds of Hell
Alignment: Always Miscreant Evil
Attributes: I.Q. 1D6 (high animal intelligence), M.E. 2D6, M.A. 1D6, P.S. 2D6+20,
P.P. 4D6, P.E. 4D6, P.B.1D6, Spd 4D6
Armor Rating (A.R.): 7; any attack less than 8 does no damage even if it hits.
Hit Points: 1D4 x 10
S.D.C.: 2D4 x10
Discorporation: When slain, the Tasmanian Devil’s body immediately begins to liquefy into a primordial soup of base elements. If examined this soup contains various elements of biological life such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, carbon and so on. Besides the bizarre nature of the soup itself, there will be nothing unusual about its contents.
Threat Level: x4; Supernatural Predator, a Lesser Demon
Horror Factor: 9
Size: 4 to 5 feet tall plus tail
Weight: 90+ lbs
Average Life Span: Unknown, probably immortal.
P.P.E.: 3D6.
Natural Abilities: Nocturnal predators (who usually hunt together in mated pairs), track by smell 65%, good nightvision (600 feet), sees the invisible, can leap twenty feet across and ten feet straight up and bio-regenerates 1D6 S.D.C. or Hit Points per hour.
Produce Offspring: In an unusual trait for supernatural creatures, a mated pair of Tasmanian Devils will bear offspring every 12 months. Once impregnated, the female will give birth to 1D4 young in five or six weeks. She will stay at the lair with them for the following eight weeks, until the young are ready to join the parents on hunting expeditions. Until then, the male will hunt small prey and bring it to the lair. The young reach full maturity within one year, but must fend for themselves after eight months. Until then, reduce normal stats/attributes, hit points and abilities in half.
Vulnerabilities: 1. Man-made weapons that penetrate its A.R. inflict full damage, as do fire, magic, psionics and physical blows.
2. They are very territorial. Once they have selected a lair, they will stay there until driven out by hunters or other threatening conditions. They will prey on animals and humans with in a 20 mile radius of the lair, seldom venturing beyond.
3. When the female of a mated pair is pregnant, she will stay in the lair while the male does all of the hunting. While this can create an opportunity of singling them out for easier exterminating, the male will ALWAYS be near and will be very protective of his mate. The male will always fight to the death if his mate is captured or killed. If the male is killed, the female will flee the lair and search for a new one elsewhere to birth and raise her young alone.
R.C.C. Skills or Equivalents (do not improve with experience): Climbing and Rappel 70%, Prowl 66% and Land Navigation 80%.
Equivalent Level of Experience: Not really applicable.
Attacks per Melee: Four physical or psionic attacks per melee.
Damage: Claws inflict 1D6 damage plus P.S. bonus while their bite does 2D6 (no P.S. bonus). Never uses weapons or tools.
R.C.C. Bonuses (in addition to attribute bonuses): + 1 Strike, Parry and Dodge, +3 Perception rolls, +4 save vs Psionics, +2 save vs Magic and +10 save vs. Horror Factor.
Magic: None.
Psionics: Needs a 12 or higher to save vs. psionic attacks. I.S.P.: 2D6 x 10
Limited Psi-Powers: Healing Touch (6), Increased Healing (10), Impervious to Fire (4), Impervious to Cold (2), Empathy (4), Sixth Sense (2) and Summon inner Strength (4)
Enemies: Humans; considers them to be both their prey and their predator. They recognize weapons and understand what they do.
Allies: Tasmanian Devils are known to sometimes become pawns of other supernatural forces, cults and practitioners of magic.
Habitat: As they are fiercely territorial they tend to spread out over far distances and have found the modern day city habitat to be an excellent environment to survive and breed in. The city offers them plenty of hiding and hunting grounds like high up on rooftops, below in sewers and basements, in abandoned buildings, along dark streets and alleyways and among the more familiar trees and underbrush of parks and neighborhoods.