Topic: Vampire-like Mutation - Help/Advice Needed

[Mungo]

Hi,

In my campaign, one of the PCs was infected by a DNA changing virus, which - in my vision - should give him vampire-like abilities (and the player doesn't know it).

In rule terms this means that I have raised his level and use the gained DPs to pay for the mutations.

As I do not want to spend too much for him, I came up with the following:

- Regeneration (Minor)
- Heat Vision
- Blazing Speed
- Poison Sac (Teeth)

The idea is, that he can use Regeneration only when he drinks human blood, but that he can regenerate also other damage than hit points (to balance it). Poison Sac is used to paralyze the victims, Heat Vision to find them, and Blazing Speed to overtake them.

a) What do you think?

b) My problem: to be rule consistent, he needs for the bite attack also Natural Weapon and Martial Arts (Bite). He then has to make an attack and if he scores a critical, he can use Poison Sac and so on. But (with 10 ranks in MA) this is another 50 DP - which I would like to avoid to spend. Does anyone have a cheaper idea how to handle the Bite in rule terms?

One idea I had was changing his profession to "Soldier", as this would nee only 41 DP to reach the same result.

BR
Juergen

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

If the *player* does not know that the character has these abilities, I wonder if you should be charging DPs at this point. Player/character control of the abilities such as Heat Vision could then be charged for in due course. Likewise you could simply rule that the character has an instinctive +50 bonus or whatever to Bite but *no* control of who he bites (i.e. you decide and make the roll). If the player/character actually wants some control on this (whenever he/she finds out) DPs could then be spent.

It just seems odd to be charging DPs for abilities the character (and the player) never asked for. If you've raised the level of this character (which has an effect on skill ranks maximum, level bonuses, etc.), what have you done to/for the other characters?

Best wishes,
Nicholas

[Mungo]

Hi,

a) My current solution is that I just developed 3 ranks in MA Bite, as  with Surprise and Rear Attack he can make a Critical quite early (58 net result in RMSS) - and I assumed that he avoids people in armor....

b) The story is, that all of them lost 7 years of their memory. So I raised everyone 3-4 levels, only touching their stats and giving them talents and skills they did not have yet. So the only thing the players see is that the are a little bit better in some areas (because of higher stat boni) and have additional capabilities (so far they only discovered their new language skills). And as I am generous with XPs, they will not suffer in longer waiting times from having a higher level.

What did I do to all of them?
- The pilot is now also an Engineer with a lot of useful Talents (Fast Fixer, Gadgeteer,...).
- The Fusion:Spy does actually not know about his "Fusion" part (because I never told them about the new ruling, he believes he is a normal Spy) and has now a few PSI disciplines from the Extrasensory Perception Field
- The Entertainer see above. And with Heat Vision I rule that he can switch it on and off consciously. He currently has just forgotten that he can do it.
- The Dillettante (Soldier/Scientist) has become a Paladin of the Knight Hospitallers, i.e. he has a Neuralware Implant with Pain- and Stunblocker, EMP Biofeedback, Cryptocomms and the appropriate Engineering Skill with 10 ranks. This gives him access to quite a lot of resources of the Church (only that he is now on a planet that was conquered by an enemy religion...)

Remark: I used at every level nearly the max. allowed DPs (20) to raise their stats.

I know that its not realistic that in 7 years they did not improve the skills they had developed at lvl 1, but at the moment we are all having a lot of fun - and thats for me the most important thing.

I will send you both versions of their character sheet (i.e. theirs and mine), most likely on Monday or Tuesday...

BR
Juergen

[markc]

It seams to me that you have balancd thier abilities and DP expendature quite well. But I am not an expert in HARP character gen.
You might also want to give the char a bonus to MA:Bite such as +10 ect.

Does the vampire have trouble with sunlight?

MDC

[Mungo]

Hi,

I thought long about the sunlight part, but decided against it for 4 reasons:

1) There are no flaws in HARP, so I did not know how to "price" it
2) It would be a give-away to the players, as it is very "klischee" (English word)?
3) Its due to a DNA mutation that was intended as benefit to humankind by its creators, not because of the mythology. So I decided that it has no real drawbacks. Also the blood is only needed for regeneration, not to substitute normal food.
4) It would restrict the party too much. In the story they are a kind of hand selected special forces team destined to fight the enemies of humanity against overwhelming odds (thats also the in-game reason for their much more than average hero capabilities). So I thought they should not have in-party restrictions added to that.

BR
Juergen

[markc]

I agree on the flaw point. Comming from RM sometimes I miss them and other times I do not.

MDC

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

b) The story is, that all of them lost 7 years of their memory. So I raised everyone 3-4 levels, only touching their stats and giving them talents and skills they did not have yet. So the only thing the players see is that the are a little bit better in some areas (because of higher stat boni) and have additional capabilities (so far they only discovered their new language skills). And as I am generous with XPs, they will not suffer in longer waiting times from having a higher level.

That makes sense then. I thought it had been an unfortunate accident to one character, rather than a party-wide change.

Best wishes,
Nicholas