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Old 12-31-2014, 04:48 PM   #1
ericthered
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Default Monster Hunters: Justice (OCC)

I'm starting up a Monster Hunters campaign. It will have a lot of Dresden files influence, but with even less lovecraft.

Heroes motivations should be such that they hunt down supernatural atrocities because that's what they do. Foes will consist mostly of fae and other spirit monsters, vampires, creations of curses, rouge humans, and powerful ancient undead called immortals. Supernatural organization is fairly high: many slain creatures will be noticed if slain, and evading detection and suspicion is an important element. Government involvement in the supernatural is non-existant, at least organizationally. Individuals can and will be wise to the supernatural, from detectives who specialize in the right kinds of serial killers to congressmen who leverage supernatural skills to maintain worldly power.

All the characters should live in the same city (Portland) and many adventures will be centered there, but the plot will range all over the united states, and possibly the world. Gates will be provided for travel. 'Other Dimensions' will focus mainly on faerie and pocket dimensions, but Heaven and Hell are around (for 20 energy, not 10) and its worth remembering that faerie is a BIG place.

Cursed Humans:
Curses are not contagious, though they can be hereditary. They also don't have to be purely negative, nor maliciously granted. They do have to have aspects that are difficult to control or have dehumanizing supernatural aspects. The classic version is turning into a wolf at the full moon (other werewolf aspects may or may not be kept -- except contagion, which is not). A 'positive' example would be a man cursed to die only of old age: he has regeneration, regrowth and immunity to metabolic hazards, but using them puts him in extreme agony and gives him bestial for a while afterwards, or is conditional on consuming the liver of another. Or someone who can read the mind of another, but aquires some of their personality traits in doing so.

The Fae:
Fae are powered by human concepts and emotions emotions. Some require specific emotions or environments to survive, but most only crave them. They are usually fairly simple-minded creatures, focused on their one driving force. Most of the time mortal causalities are bystanders caught in crossfire or the result of faeries hired as thugs. The fae have a large variety of shapes, forms and motivations. Examples include , trolls that try to stake out gateways and control supernatural access to them, and invisible creatures obsessed with finding out secrets. Fae generally are either subtle in getting what they want from mortals ('Cupids' thrive on romance [not lust or sex, romance] setting up couples), do not need mortals directly (an elf lord who gets his sustanance from commanding other fae, a fire spirit who merely wants to relax in the local power plant), or are not able to enter the mortal realm on their own (Battle fae consumed with blood lust).

Immortals:
Former humans how have gained immortality by living off others in some way. While similar to vampires, immortals are unique, tend to have more varied weaknesses, are typically much better at blending with humans, wealthier, and harder to keep dead -- most of them have unkillable 3 of some sort or the other. Mummies and liches are typical immortals. Every Immortal is a cold blooded murderer.

Vampires:
There are many different strains of vampires, and none of them are the default. Almost all of them require the life energy of intelligent beings -- pig's blood doesn't cut it. Each bloodline has its own method of feeding. While each kind has its own weaknesses, very few require staking and while sunlight tends to reduce their powers or even cause damage most of the time its not deadly. Vampires are reasonable social creatures and recognize each other as kin, but tend to associate with their own blood lines and never forget the other side is competition. All vampires can intentionally create more of their own kind, though the processes differ.

Angels,Devils, Gods and Demons:
These are quite rare. Gods and devils will always act through agents, and most of these will be mortal. Devils must be invited into the mortal world and even then have difficulty taking overt power. An angel is used only when a mortal won't work, and even then the angle will usually remain in the background. Any Angel, Devil, or God is a foe to be feared if they appear in their full form. Demons are a different matter. Demons are a subset of the fae with a cruel and nasty streak. They can't get to the mortal world on their own, and thus require help. They may be used much as in monster hunters.
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Old 12-31-2014, 04:50 PM   #2
ericthered
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Default Re: Monster Hunters: Justice (OCC)

Character Creation:
All Characters:
  • MH templates are highly suggested, but not required.
  • All characters should have the rounded quality of the templates in MH: they should all have good combat ability AND mental skills.
  • IQ, Per, and Will are separate
  • Build is 450 points with -75 disadvantage limit (including quirks). Please note as mental attributes cost more, do not simply take a MH template and add 50 points -- substract cost of Per and Will first.
  • Regrowth is 10 points.
  • Indefatigable (can sprint and fight without penalty without spending FP, new trait) is 30 points.
  • Negatively adjusted attributes do not count against disad limit. However, see the note about being well rounded.
  • Wild-cards are legal but must be bought at the 12 point level or more.
  • Talents are greatly encouraged, and will be liberally accepted, as long as they are thematic. The DX/IQ barrier will be largely preserved.
  • Combat talents will be accepted as long as they are bundled with other combat talents of the same type, good combat support skills (stealth), or a single combat skill not of the type and appropriate (Riffle and knife is fine, Riffle and sword is not).
  • Making up new abilities is welcome, but this is a MH game, not a supers game: flavour and choose accordingly. GM reserves right to agressively modify final form.
  • A different Limitations scheme is used: if the limitation is greater than 50%, halve the cost and subtract -50% from the limitation. Do this until the limitation is under -50%, then figure the cost with the new numbers. For example, a 20 point advantage with -70% has a limitation of over -50%, so we halve the cost (20 becomes 10) and subtract -50% from the limitation (-70%--50%=-20%), then apply it normally: 10*.8 = 8. If Instead the numbers were 100 and -140%, we halve (50 and -90%) and halve again (25 and -40%) before finally applying the number 25*.6=15.
  • Hidden Lore (Gates) allows one to travel throughout the world. Take an area class (as in area knowledge). The first step of penalties is ignored. For example, a character with Hidden Lore (Gates, United States) is at no penalty to go from any one state to any other, but if he wants to get from Cleaveland to Columbus he is at -4 (he went two steps down each way), has a -2 to get to India (without specifying where in india), and so forth. Some supernatural practitioners will sell routes from one place to another. Gates tend to shift around, and are mildly unpredictable: use range modifiers (reading yards as days) for a route in the future. Trying to work out a route from a previous route requires another roll, modified by the distance to the previous route and the distance the previous route was calculated in advance. A Lore roll modified by the location and at +4 grants a +2 bonus.
  • Characters have levels of involvement in the occult community:
    • Inducted -- such a character has contacts, occult friends, and is a full and connected member of the society (5 points)
    • Empowered -- The character has access to the supernatural, but it is limited: they have it themselves, have a limited and specific number of contacts, and so forth
    • Aware -- The character has knowledge of the supernatural in general, but extremely limited actual access. (-5 points)
  • Houses lived in and religious buildings have threshholds. These are effective against almost all types of the supernatural, weakening magic, holding out many supernatural creatures and impairing those that can make it through.
Crusader Characters:
  • Voodoo Characters do not exist
  • Individual powers and role of crusader need very solid backstory.
Inhuman
  • Most templates as written are not valid
  • Lycanthropes don't work that way. Ask GM to create cursed template.
  • A cursed player can have many forms. Feel free to ask the gm if ideas are valid and to suggest types.
  • Vampires are more diverse and the generic vampire does not exist. Most vampires cannot work as monster hunters. Feel free to suggest template ideas for the GM to flesh out
  • Angel PC's do not exist: you will likely not see angels at all.
  • Demons are valid and also have expanded variety as fae. Consider if you really want a demon or if a fae creature is more appropriate.
  • Valid Vampire Types include:
    • Zorstan Line (Hyper-Vampire): flies, lives off of supernatural beings rather than humans, weaker than most, Destroyed by sun.
    • Gorzani Line (Pyschic-Vampire): Can blend in with humans, lives off of strong emotion, mind powers, weak to opposite of emotion.
    • Papuan Line (Flesh-Vampires): Can live off of any animal or human, Addictive vision, Can repulse as true faith, Infra-vision, Counts as alive for many purposes.

Witches/Sages
  • Ritual Symbols is valid variant. In general it allows more power but takes longer.
  • May buy alternate on magery: 10 energy reserve per magery level but may only spend magery level of reserve on one spell.
  • Magic as powers is available, particularly with gadgets. Costs energy is -20%+5%/level for a long spell, double that for a short one. Total spent on a single effect is limited to 40 points. GM oversight is required.
  • Experiments
Experiments are quite legal, but should consider if they want a supernatural or biological ORIGIN. the powers remain the same (barring additional powers keyed to magic), but the background changes markedly. It can also be used as the basic template of a cursed character.
Psis do not exist

Required Character Background:
How they are connected to the supernatural world
A list of family and friends. This need not be long, nor represented on the sheet as anything else.
What they do for work, including basic location and setting if its a company, and if they are self employed how they find new work.
Where they live -- house, appartment, pocket dimension, ect.

Organizations:
Crusaders: Crusaders can have religious organizations associated with them. Most crusaders with organizations either deal with equals in an order or are the special forces of a larger organization.
Witches/Sages: Magicians are extremely found of mystic orders, and there are lots of them. Most of the time they are united by style of casting, history, and culture. While organizations that recruit only the most powerful exist, they are a minor part of arcane society. It should be remembered that PC's will be in the upper echelons of their order as far as power goes. Many schools have codes of honor, but they differ widely in the details.
Experiments: Experiments can be found in any organization or none at all, but the magically created ones have a tendency to be found in mostly mage organizations.
Inhumans: Vampires and Fae are usually less part of a formal organization and more part of a group of kin. These include not only their closest allies but also their fiercest competitors. Cursed ones usually have either family, those with similar curses, or still associate with the beings who 'cursed' them.

Ethics of Magic:
Mages being mages, this is a common topic of contention. Every order has its own standard, with wings of the argument. The most common arguments are center around two fields:
Necromancy: At least something resembling a soul exists in this setting, and binding a corpse to it after it has died definitely damages it. The debate centers around whether this is the actual soul, and situations in which it is not immoral to damage it (animals and criminals are central to this).
Mind Control: This comes in all flavors. Some forbid it entirely, some distinguish between reading and surgery, some advocate extreme skill and care, and some don't see anything wrong with it.
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Last edited by ericthered; 01-04-2015 at 03:43 PM.
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Old 12-31-2014, 04:50 PM   #3
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Default Re: Monster Hunters: Justice (OCC)

I'm down for this one!
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Old 12-31-2014, 04:56 PM   #4
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Default Re: Monster Hunters: Justice (OCC)

Me too....laying claim to a Bioenhnaced super solider....

Will need several days to come up with something.
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Old 01-01-2015, 07:18 AM   #5
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Default Re: Monster Hunters: Justice (OCC)

I'm up for it but I've never played any monsters hunter game.
Is magic an important part of the game? I bought the RPM book some time ago, I'd love to play a modern day wizard. Does that fit the campaign?
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Old 01-01-2015, 09:26 AM   #6
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Default Re: Monster Hunters: Justice (OCC)

The Hermit
Updated 1/16
Charecter Sheet
Spoiler:  




Gear
2 decks of Egyptian (Toth deck matchs Paths) style Tarot cards
Full set of expensive (+1) Tokens $41,600
Akashic Lantern (3 lbs.) $2,600
Grimoire; Hall of Records +4; Written Symbols for +1 and 2 minute gathering time.
This is an ornately carved iron lantern with glyphs carved and gems placed inside it for focusing.

A number of items with symbols written on them for specific Rituals which lets him gather energy at 1 minute per attempt.
Triple Amulet Written Symbols (Ghostly Movement; Fleetness of the Raven; Fools Balance)
Mages Staff Banish; Behold; Necrosis; Shadow March; Snickersnack (staff); Spell Ward
Wand of Ennui Ennui
Wand of Fear Terrify
Intercom Ring (Left) Intercom
Bracelet (Left) Swing and a Miss!
[I]Knife[/] Snickersnack; Also has conditional drawn on blade
Card plaques for each ritual in spell list stored in a mahagony box.

Background
The Hermit is a reclusive Mystic who lives in a cave deep in the woods.
He was taught by another mystic so far in the past no one really knows where or when he started (and he isnt telling).
He keeps himself young using Hibernate spells and comes to town or seeks out those in need of guidance when the cards or other signs tell him to.
the ritual is a closely guarded secret and questions abound on if he is human, some kind of Immortal (and how he must feed) or supernatural creature or even
more intriguing if has some powerful immortality spell.
He delibertely works on being mysterious to cultivate caution and restraint in his opponents as he prefers to avoid direct combat.
He is regarded as one of the best at Divination and learning secrets. His travel magic is also talked about and it appears as if he is always in flux, leading
to more speculation as it seems as if he is always connected to a gate.
He can not drive and doesnt understand modern technology (though he is aware of its dangers) and uses Gate Lore and Crossroads to get around.
He uses a Tarot deck for most of his rituals and natural materials for many conditional ones.

Appearance: An average looking black man, no one can mistake him for entirely human due to a shifting and disturbing haze that seems to hang about him.
Plot Intro:
He woke up a few months ago after sleeping since the 60s when he was awake for about a year. The cards and signs tell him of a potential Champio in the Portland
area and he is evaluating prospects. He encountered Marcus Savage after watching him for a bit. He thought he was hidden but Marcus somehow noticed him and then approached him after querying his
friends on who or what seemed to be stalking him.
Mr. H (alias he uses) has since provided minor magical aid.
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Last edited by Refplace; 01-16-2015 at 02:06 PM.
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Old 01-01-2015, 07:30 PM   #7
ericthered
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Default Re: Monster Hunters: Justice (OCC)

Quote:
Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker View Post
I'm down for this one!
Be aware its getting a good character in that saves your spot...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skullcrusher View Post
Me too....laying claim to a Bioenhnaced super solider....

Will need several days to come up with something.
A super soldier is fine. Be aware its actual character submissions that save spots. Be sure to consider were your soldier came from, including if he is purely a scientific creation, if his genetics were modified by magic, or if he has magic built into him.

Quote:
Originally Posted by soulnafein View Post
I'm up for it but I've never played any monsters hunter game.
Is magic an important part of the game? I bought the RPM book some time ago, I'd love to play a modern day wizard. Does that fit the campaign?
You're welcome to come change that.

Magic is a core part of the game, and I expect at least one mage among the team. Please take note of the options for RPM listed under 'witch/sage' (RPM adepts are called witches in MH, and the sage template lacks adept). We are using MH grimoire prices.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Refplace View Post
considering a Witch specialized in Mind and Crossroads.
Thats a good start. Please take a look at the options above. Higher Purpose (Magical Style) is highly suggested. Please also consider the state of mind magic in the arcane community.
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Old 01-02-2015, 01:39 AM   #8
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Default Re: Monster Hunters: Justice (OCC)

Standard Conditional and Charm load
Spoiler:  

Hermits Favorite Spells

Primary and Custom Rituals:
Spoiler:  



Clear Vermin
Control Mind to have them leave the area.

Iron Fist
Bestows a Bonus to punch damage.
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Last edited by Refplace; 01-21-2015 at 02:59 AM.
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Old 01-02-2015, 12:24 PM   #9
ericthered
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Default Re: Monster Hunters: Justice (OCC)

Solid Concept.

Notes:
  • You may want put one point each in all of the 13-level paths to raise them to 14's. Just from an optimization point of view.
  • Your talents haven't been factored into your skill levels yet. They give you chance-19, mind-19, crossroads-18
  • True Traveller swaps physics with Hidden Lore (Gates and Dimensional Theory). Which means your hidden lore (gates) are at 17 each from talent. I thought this was a fairly obvious switch.
  • The youth spell will not keep him perpetually young. Anti Ageing magic only extends life to about 200 years before it starts failing. Thats kind of a campaign switch (and the reason for immortals universally being murderers). To achieve immortality you must steal the lives of others.
  • The Destiny can either be used as Basic or with Destiny points (which is standard for MH). Please let me know which.
  • I am planning on using the Fortune-telling skill for the oracle advantage. It requires two rolls, one Per-based and the second IQ-based.
  • Skills you are not sure on: Fortune-Telling IQ/A+2 -17 [1],Climbing DX/A - 12,Survival (mountain) per/A+2 - 13
  • If he is that unaware of Modern Technology he should have Low Tech as a disadvantage.
  • Psychology needs a specialization. The most useful are Human, Fae, Vampire, and Immortal.
  • The overlap on the two Hidden Lore (Gates) is pretty substantial, but it will get rid of of a number of penalties.
  • I'm not sure what's up with the increased cap for chance. It isn't your highest skill, all the bonuses to it (+4 and potentially +6) automatically increase your cap, and you have a level of magery thats only being used for energy at the moment. You CAN increase your magery and caps with earned points.
  • Theology (sacred places) is conspicuously absent. is this intentional?
  • Please note if he merely has access to his own magic or if he knows the locations of grimoire shops, were to find a vampire, and so forth. If he is integrated into mystic society its 5 points. If not please note it as a feature.
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Old 01-02-2015, 04:19 PM   #10
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Default Re: Monster Hunters: Justice (OCC)

Standard spells
RPM Spells
Spoiler:  


Pyramid 3/56
Spoiler:  


Pyramid 3/48
Spoiler:  





Unseen
Obscure with Stealth and Defensive and a limitation that its ignored by people you attack.


-------------------------------
Armored Duster
Altered Traits (DR) + Subject Weight + Strengthen Matter.
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My GURPS fan contribution and blog:
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My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items)
My GURPS Wiki entries

Last edited by Refplace; 01-16-2015 at 02:10 PM.
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