[Mastercraft] Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy

[snake]

Some while ago now, I ran a fun PA campaign using the Spycraft rules. Many of the ideas in that game came from some fantastic brain-storming (by several of you SC gurus) on a thread called "End of the World (as we know it)".

Now that FC is out, I'm thinking of converting the campaign to Mastercraft and seeing what happens. I guess you'd call it Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy. Its a bit of Planet of the Apes, Waterworld, Terminator etc all rolled into one.

The campaign isn't grim and gritty PA but more like a Fantasycraft world with intelligent Animal Species, fantasical psychic powers and ancient technology treated as Magic items. Weapons range from clubs to crossbows to Muskets to lasers.

Mutations and Psi powers replace magic. FC monsters are used but their abilities are due to mutations rather than magic.

Anyway, here's what I'm thinking of so far for Species:

Species

Ape (Species Feats: Chimpanzee, Orang-utan, Gorilla)

Bugbear

Catfolk

Gnoll

Human

Mutant (Species Feat: Fishman)

Ratlings

Saurian

RootWalker (Species Feat: Plantfolk)

Unborn (Species Feat: Android, Cyborg)


As you can see, I'm really impressed by a lot of the Species already created by forum members and with your permission would like to use them with my players.

If anyone has any ideas or comments, as always please feel free to dive in. Thanks.

[Wolverine]

Sounds good.

Are you going to be using the Magic rules to represent Psi powers? Maybe a little tweaking to make them fit the flavour.

[snake]

Thanks.

I'm toying with the idea of using the Psionics rules converted by Aegis form SFA. But I'll keep a eye on the magic rules too.  

Now lets have another look at the species. I think SilverCatMoonpaw created an excellent humanoid ape species (see below) so I'd like to use that as the base Ape Species (with your permision) 

Ape: [7]
Medium Folk [ 0 ]
Str +4, Dex -2, Con +2 [3]
Restricted Actions: Kick attacks, Swim and Disable actions [-1]
Enlightened Athletics [1]
Enlightened Intimidate [1]
improved sense (scent) [1]
superior climber I [0.5]
sterner stuff [0.5]
Bite I [1]

Looking at it, I guess its based on a Gorilla. So if a species feat isn't applied to the base species then "..........you're a Silverback"

In PA fantasy, may look something like this:

http://www.cinema.com/film/3924/planet-of-the-apes/gallery/page_27.phtml

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

I think SilverCatMoonpaw created an excellent humanoid ape species (see below) so I'd like to use that as the base Ape Species (with your permision) 

If I didn't want people using it I wouldn't have posted it so publicly.

Looking at it, I guess its based on a Gorilla.

It's based on the Ape entry from the core FC book, which I assume is based on Pulp Sword & Sorcery style gorillas.  Then I trimmed it to the most important parts.  It's not supposed to be humanoid: I chose Folk because gorillas actually have hands and can do hand-type stuff, they just probably don't have human-level manual dexterity which is simulated by the Dex penalty and the restriction on Disable actions.  You should decide before you continue with it whether you want your humanoid apes to have clumsy hands.

[snake]

Thanks for the insight into how you created the Species, SilverCatMoonPaw. I understand it better now.

Hmmm, I think I'll keep the clumsyness for the basic Species (as it is for a Gorilla) and I'll create Species Feats to remove the Dex penalty and Restrictions for the Chimp and Orang.

In PA movies like Planet of the Apes, the Humanoid Gorillas still have less manual dexterity than man. Just so long as they can handle swords, axes etc and maybe fire a crossbow too. Not known as marksmen without lots practice.   

Need to think a bit more about it. Also there's a Pathfinder supplement on its way called Warlords of the Apocalypse so I might wait a bit and see how they handle things, maybe borrow some ideas. Back Later.  

[snake]

Sorry, just want to drop Deral's excellent Ratfolk into the PA Fantasy mix, whilst I think about it.

Ratfolk
Size/Type: Medium biped Folk (1x1, Reach 1)
Attributes: +2 Intelligence, +2 Any, -2 Any
Qualities:
-Base Speed: 40ft
-Cat Fall: You suffer 1 less die of damage from falling
-Darkvision II: You ignore all ambient light penalties.
-Inquisitive Mind: You gain 2 additional interests
-Iron Gut: You gain an insight bonus equal to your Con modifier on saves
against poisons and diseases
-Light Sensitive: Any time you enter a more brightly lit area, you take 20
points of flash damage.
-Reviled: The disposition of non-ratfolk toward you decreases by 5
-Sharp Ears:Your hearing range increments are equal to your Wisdom score
x10ft. Also, you may always act during a surprise round unless deafened.

Ratmen show up quite a bit in PA and would be a good Species for PCs:

http://www.comicvine.com/kamandi-the-last-boy-on-earth-year-of-the-rat/37-12713/

http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/gall_c10.htm

http://paratime.ca/gamma/?p=52

[Catodon]

So these plantfolk, giant GW style venus flytraps?

[MilitiaJim]

So these plantfolk, giant GW style venus flytraps?

Perhaps a bit more Petey Piranha from Super Mario.

[snake]

So these plantfolk, giant GW style venus flytraps?

Perhaps a bit more Petey Piranha from Super Mario.

LOL, MilitiaJim. Good to hear from you again. http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=petey+piranha&hl=en&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=UkaWTbCiF8rDswajkaWyCA&sqi=2&ved=0CC4QsAQ&biw=1008&bih=557  

Very close, Catodon  . To be true to the genre I think the basic version of RootWalkers for PA fantasy would indeed be giant mutant plants. Maybe Triffid-like with stingers, mobile thorn bushes or flytraps (Species Feats ??)

This sort of thing http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7762438.stm

The Plantfolk species feat I think would cover more human/plant hybrids, like the ones below:

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/mintjule.htm

http://www.comicvine.com/mint-julep/29-36653/

"Even Hiero, trained hunter and accustomed as he was to forests and silent movement had never seen anything like Vilah-ree's people. Like lovely pale ghosts, they slipped through the lofty ferns and over the huge-moss hung logs, never distrurbing a leaf and making less sound than a hovering moth." - Hieros Journey by Sterling Lanier.

I'd plumb for the Plantfolk being humanoid, green-skinned, human-sized beings. From Rootwalkers, keep the Plant type, gain the Folk type, change size to Medium, keep the Camoflague and other qualities, lose the Lumbering quality and make very good scouts. What do you think ? Could it be done ?

[snake]

Here's my stab at it:

Plantfolk (RootWalker Species feat): [2]

The Elinoi people of the trees are smaller than their mutant plant cousins but what they lack in size, they make up for in grace and stealth.

Your size changes to Medium [-1]
You lose the Lumbering quality [1]
You gain Natural Elegance [1] and Enlightened Skill (Sneak) [1]
You retain the other abilities of a Rootwalker
 
BTW can a species have two types ?? If its a human sized, humanoid plant, is Folk or Plant type ??

[snake]

Speaking of PA fantasy..................

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1615091/

Spotted this on DVD the other day. Anyone seen it ?  

[snake]

Heres the world background I'm using for my PA Fantasy game. Its based on the WOTC Setting which appeared in the D20 Apocalypse supplement:

PLAGUE WORLD - CAMPAIGN IN BRIEF

In the not too distant future, Earth is subjected to an alien invasion. Terrible insectlike creatures from another world, the spanthi, arrive in a vast fleet of massive, genetically engineered, biologically based space ships and attack all the nations of the world. Their weapons easily neutralize Earth's crude satellite defenses and knock out the world's global communication system. Billions of biological nanites are released into the atmosphere. These creatures destroy the Internet, chew through vast numbers of advanced technological components, pollute and ruin vehicle fuel of all kinds, and unleash dozens of lethal diseases that target only humanity.

This initial onslaught lasts several years. The spanthi are in no hurry. Indeed, most of their number are in cryogenic sleep, with only a skeleton crew operating their weapons. The spanthi seek to colonize humanity's homeworld, not simply subjugate it. Once Earth's ability to strike beyond its own atmosphere is eliminated, the alien fleet is content to attack humanity's infrastructure from a safe distance. The aliens' weaponry tears down much of humanity's technology, but does little to harm the planet's environment. In fact, many of the viruses and bacteria they release are designed to clean up the poisons humanity has dumped into the world's air and water.

More and more spanthi begin making scouting missions and landing troops in areas ready for conquest. A few spanthi are defeated and a little of their technology falls into human hands, but the trend of the war is clear. Humanity cannot win without resorting to weapons so terrible they may make the planet uninhabitable.

As the governments of Earth begin to fail, a few visionaries realize that the use of atomic weapons and biological agents against the invaders will soon become inevitable. Fearing the holocaust such warfare will bring, these visionaries use cryogenic suspension technology taken from the spanthi to create Rip Van teams--groups of experts cryogenically frozen and hidden in bunkers, ready for revival when the war is over. Rip Van teams are equipped with the training and gear to either rebuild society, or fight a guerilla war against victorious spanthi overlords.

In some ways, these fears prove unfounded. The spanthi, well aware of Earth's weapons, take steps to neutralize humanity. In addition to the nanite weapons they use to destroy human technology, the spanthi seed the most advanced nations with retroviruses and mutagenic viruses. These materials mutate Earth's creatures into monstrosities, creating widespread panic and chaos. This attack on the very DNA of the Earth could not be overcome with bombs or poisons, and as a result only a few nuclear weapons are ever launched against the spanthi. Riots break out worldwide. Cities burn. Governments collapse. The spanthi proclaim victory.

The victory, such as it was, turned out to be short-lived. As the spanthi land their ships and begin mopping up the remaining cells of human resistance, they fall victim to mass mutation as well. Their own biological weapons have mutated in the Earth's biosphere, and the spanthi are no longer immune to their effects. On top of that, the biologically based technology of the spanthi begins to sicken, mutate, and die. Within weeks, most spanthi warships, vehicles, medical supplies, and gear are useless. Only a few wire-and-battery devices are immune to the biological weapons, and the spanthi have too few of these to overcome the hundreds of millions of surviving humans.

The war deteriorates to one of small squads of infantry attacking each other with increasingly primitive weapons. The physically frail spanthi, in desperation, genetically modify themselves into armored killing machines. The process works, but it also saps the great intellect of the spanthi. A few trueblood aliens avoid this intellectual degeneration, but most of the alien forces slowly become reavers--mindless eating and killing machines.

A single spanthi mothership avoids becoming infected and remains in orbit around Earth. Lacking the fuel and resources to leave the solar system, the ship's crew has no choice but to watch the degeneration of the spanthi stranded on the ground. For as long as communication remains possible, the mothership advises the ever-shrinking number of thinking spanthi, but it cannot give them a sufficient advantage to overcome the human defenders. As decades pass, the shipboard spanthi die off, leaving only automated systems aboard the mothership. Within a hundred years, the alien vessel is a derelict, silently orbiting the world it came to conquer.

The lone spanthi mothership manages to stay aloft for three hundred years until its orbit decays and it disintegrates and burns up in the Earth's atmosphere. Because the cryogenic systems were set to detect when the last of the spanthi fleet had left orbit, that event triggered the reawakening of the Rip Van teams.

The teams have slept through centuries of war and, eventually, progress. While a few teams were awakened early as a result of malfunctions, most aren't brought into the world until the war they sought to outlive is long since over.

Earth has weathered three hundred years of starvation, feudalism, barbarism, warfare, and collapse. New societies have begun to develop, though most are limited to Iron Age technology No old governments remain, but a few modern strongholds take the names and symbols of ancient nations. The spanthi remain one of the greatest known threats; their primitive descendants have bred profusely and now form omnivorous hordes that can denude vast areas of land. Even the most carefully stocked and guarded bunkers are generally little more than caves now, their ammo and fuel long since spent. The once-proud cities of humankind are twisted spires of metal jutting out from dangerous wildernesses. Disease, mutation, vermin, and clouds of poisonous nanoweapons bring plagues upon the land, and humanity's existence is threatened once again.

ROLE OF THE HEROES

In a typical Plague World campaign, the heroes are members of a Rip Van team emerging from cold sleep after three hundred years. In most cases, the Rip Van teams entered suspended animation after the spanthi attacked, but before the full extent of the oncoming disaster had become clear.

The mission of the Rip Van teams is to restore order, give aid to the remaining legitimate government, and fight any remaining spanthi. Of course, the world situation makes at least some of those goals impossible, but the heroes are still the last vestiges of real civilization. They face a world plunged back into primitivism, one in which only they have the education and means to affect a real change in how the new nations that arise shall be formed.


I've entended the pool of heroes to include friendly mutant human, mutated animal and Plant types. Also some android or cyborgs from advanced experiemental installations.

[vardeman]

This sounds very cool!  Would love to see more about it.

V