Five Earths, All in a Row

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

How much detail do you the readers think is needed on who and what is going on the third Operation Pencil Sharpener expedition, given that I plan to have a space battle going on when they get to the Earth 2 universe?

How you did it, last time, was pretty good, I thought. If you go with not just Orders of Battle, but also talk about the weapons and how they're used, that would be pretty cool.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

How you did it, last time, was pretty good, I thought. If you go with not just Orders of Battle, but also talk about the weapons and how they're used, that would be pretty cool.

That may take a while, but I can at least try. My lack of progress on it was one of the main reasons for the delay on August, 2014, but that was mostly me not working on it because I wasn't sure how much of a point there was (and I've been very distracted by everything else). There's a non-zero chance that I'll have something useful by Christmas, but it's more likely to be after New Years.

One of the Five Earths-related distractions is the creation of a Vampire Slayer template for Earth-2 (which needs to start out stronger and father than the average Earth-2 vampire), but that's not a really high priority, right now.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

That may take a while, but I can at least try. My lack of progress on it was one of the main reasons for the delay on August, 2014, but that was mostly me not working on it because I wasn't sure how much of a point there was (and I've been very distracted by everything else). There's a non-zero chance that I'll have something useful by Christmas, but it's more likely to be after New Years.

One of the Five Earths-related distractions is the creation of a Vampire Slayer template for Earth-2 (which needs to start out stronger and father than the average Earth-2 vampire), but that's not a really high priority, right now.

That may not be a high priority, but I think it would be fun. :)

You'd have to make some pretty granular choices about point-costs and power levels, that's for sure, as well as growth paths.

How powerful is a 300-year-old vampire such as Angelus/Angel, as compared to a newly-turned teenager, or someone such as Darla, who was several hundred years older, or the Master, who was older still?

Moreover, when it comes to the Slayers, they're absolutely terrifying. After all, when Faith Lehane showed up in L.A., after being a Slayer only about two years, she bounced Angel around a room so effortlessly that he barely made it out, alive.

The only one who could stop Faith physically was Buffy, and even then what finally took care of her was an emotional crisis and collapse.

Slayers are genuinely badass, and the fact that Buffy could run an entire Spec Ops team around until she got bored enough to clobber them, testifies to that.

That'll take a lot of care to build, and the implications for the setting are pretty significant.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

That'll take a lot of care to build, and the implications for the setting are pretty significant.

Very true. Slayers have high physical stats, enhanced senses, Regular Regeneration, bonuses to Basic Speed and Move on top of that, dream-based precog, and a thing I'm having trouble defining, where they 'learn' each opponent, thus getting a bonus when facing them later (like when Buffy meets the Monster of the Week, does badly in the first fight and either escapes or forces a retreat, and then dominates the second fight). A lot of them develop other psychic abilities, if they live long enough.

Common Demonic Vampires (the BtVS/Angel variety, in other words) are strong and fast, but generally a bit stupid, and are common not because they're powerful, but because they have a quicker and easier reproductive strategy than is average for Earth-2 vampires, and pass as humans well at night. These vampires do not have souls, with the unique exception of Liam O'Connor, who is employed by the US Army's Demon Research Initiative. Other types of vampires may be more dangerous, but they still don't do terribly well against a prepared Vampire Slayer, because Slayers are scary.

[dcarson]

It is possible that the speed and percentage of vampires rising is Hellmouth only. That elsewhere it takes several days and only works some of the time.

[Prince Charon]

Common Demonic Vampire, Work In Progress

Attributes

ST +10 (Without HP; Psychokinesis, -10%) [70]; IQ -1 [-20]

Secondary Characteristics

Will ; Per ; FP ; Move +5 [25]

Subtotal:


Advantages

Doesn't Breathe [20]
Injury Tolerance (Unliving; <limitations>) []
Night Vision ? [?]
Unaging [15]

Perks

Subtotal:


Disadvantages

Bad Temper []
Infectious Attack [-5]
Laziness []
Lecherousness []
Vulnerability (Fire; x4; Common) [-60]
Vulnerability (Sunlight; x4; Very common) [--80]
Weakness ('Holy' objects; 1d cor per minute; Common) [-40]
Weakness (Sunlight; 1d burn per minute; Very common) [-60]

Quirks

Subtotal: -


Skills

Subtotal:

Total:

Notes

Vampires of this type do not have souls (save in the unique case of Liam O'Connor, currently employed by the US Army(2)'s Demon Research Initiative). When applying the template, examine the host's mental disadvantages. 'Positive' mental disads like Code of Honor and Pacifism are often lost entirely in the conversion, or are twisted into something evil, or reduced in intensity or scope. Phobias may be lost or reduced in severity, or they may not be, depending on how appropriate they are (fear of fire is very fitting for a vampire, for example). 'Negative' mental disads other than phobias tend to either stay the same, or get worse. Remember that the person who used the body before death is a different character from the vampire that rises from the grave.

Currently trying to decide whether I want to give these vampires disads and/or or quirks corresponding to each of the seven deadly sins. Some are easier to justify than others.

Not sure how good their Night Vision should be; 5, maybe? They cannot see in total darkness, and they don't see as well as the Slayer (who also cannot see in total darkness), but they see much better than humans do.

These vampires are common not because they are all that powerful, but because they have an easy reproductive strategy, and pass as humans well. The presence of 'tainted' or 'corrupted' psychic energy ('evil/demonic' Aspected Sanctity) can help with this, but even when away from such, this form of vampire tend to reproduce faster than most other varieties, on top of the fact that relatively few of the other vampire types are able to accelerate their reproduction in this manner.

The IQ of a vampire is the average of the IQ of the human whose body it is using, and the IQ of the blood demon (which average around 8, though some may be better or worse). Vampires usually have fairly decent memories of their hosts' lives, and thus it is not unreasonable to boost the five-to-ten IQ skills that the host used the most often back to the level they were before the loss of intelligence.

I need a way to express the fact that vampires are easily penetrated by piercing and impaling damage, especially from wood and such, but normally do not take much damage from it if the heart isn't penetrated by hard organic material, or the central nervous system isn't seriously damaged. Some sort of modifier on Injury Tolerance (Unliving)? A vampire can be staked by its own rib if hit correctly.

The combination of sunlight being both a Vulnerability and a Weakness that does burning damage (which tends to set the vampires on fire, activating that vulnerability) is a GM call that not everyone would allow, but works given the combustion speed that vampires have. The effective damage from direct sunlight is thus 8d per minute. Vampires that are under water are not damaged by sunlight, and this needs to be noted in the disad line. Might end up replacing this disad combination if something better is suggested, but BtVS vamps are very flammable (apart from old, tough ones that don't go up in smoke immediately, possibly indicating that they bought down the Vulnerability a little, or bought up HP), and do appear to catch fire in sunlight.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

(SNIP)

...a thing I'm having trouble defining, where they 'learn' each opponent, thus getting a bonus when facing them later (like when Buffy meets the Monster of the Week, does badly in the first fight and either escapes or forces a retreat, and then dominates the second fight).

(SNIP)

I'm not sure this is a "slayer" thing so much as it is a "Buffy" thing, or perhaps a "Buffy trained by Giles" thing.

Once Faith got her head on straight, she started to do it, too, but Spike at one point acknowledged that Buffy was rather unlike any other slayer he'd ever fought.

Kendra certainly didn't seem to possess it, and neither did the only other one we saw much of, Nikki Wood.

So, maybe Faith could do it because she was trained by Giles and mentored by both Buffy and Angel, none of whom had any interest in beating out of any slayer the ability to think both independently and creatively?

Call it a quirk or feature that allows them to learn a "style familiarity" limited to any being they've fought at least once.

Maybe the character background must include "non-standard training," since the Watchers' Council seems intent upon turning slayers into obedient little killers?

[maximara]

I have got the raw 3e information from GURPS WHo's Who 1 into the GURPS wiki and am working my way through them converting to 4e. If the character has a 4e total and a picture the conversion is done.

Characters that are relevant to the Five Earth setting that have been converted so far are:

Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Howard Phillips Lovecraft (dead in OTL 1937, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler (dead on Dieselpunk Earth in 1941), and Robert Ervin Howard (dead in OTL 1936)

When I get to him, Sir Richard Burton is going to have a totally insane point total as using what Language skill levels meant in 3e he has 43 Language at native level which alone costs 252 points (first language is free). Even if he can only speak those languages you are still talking 125 points. Then you have his attributes clocking in at 200 points. He could easily be the most expensive real life character per 4e rule in GURPS Who's Who.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by maximara

When I get to him, Sir Richard Burton is going to have a totally insane point total as using what Language skill levels meant in 3e he has 43 Language at native level which alone costs 252 points (first language is free). Even if he can only speak those languages you are still talking 125 points. Then you have his attributes clocking in at 200 points. He could easily be the most expensive real life character per 4e rule in GURPS Who's Who.

There's probably ways to make that cheaper, but other than using (arguably abusing) the Alternate Abilities rules or Modular Abilities, all I can think of is to give him Language Talent, which I'm not sure existed in 3e.

[dcarson]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

There's probably ways to make that cheaper, but other than using (arguably abusing) the Alternate Abilities rules or Modular Abilities, all I can think of is to give him Language Talent, which I'm not sure existed in 3e.

Omnilingual from Supers is 40 points to know every language that you happen to need to. So I'd say that with a -10% to -20% for a fixed list.