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CORELINE (D20 Modern/D20 BESM Setting).
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<blockquote data-quote="marcoasalazarm" data-source="post: 2885939" data-attributes="member: 26698"><p><img src="http://tn3-1.deviantart.com/fs9/300W/i/2006/152/b/b/Time_Traveling_Hobos_by_pirpintine.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> </p><p><strong>When they hit, they hit, irregardless of who stands in the way. Case in point, this is a depiction of Timeline Collision and Omake Shift Instabilities at work.</strong></p><p><strong>Needless to say that the Doctor was embarrassed when it ended.</strong></p><p><strong></strong> </p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><u><strong>DIMENSIONAL INSTABILITIES</strong></u></p><p></p><p>Though rare and never of a permanent duration, these instabilities are nevertheless very disconcerting. The reason behind them was because the CLULESS Virus re-wrote the reality on the immediate surroundings of any infected computers during the Hours in order to accept the Fictions. It was not, however, a delicate job. It was somewhat more akin to hitting the fabric of reality with a sledgehammer and then step back and see what happened, and there’s of course the fact that some infected computers didn’t triggered yet…</p><p>The Coreline Humans (especially the Pre-Vanishing ones) are immune to the effects themselves, but the Fictions surrounding them… well, they’re another story.</p><p></p><p>The following are nothing but a tiny example of the bundle of instabilities that are common. Some others exist, but they are even more rare.</p><p>As an additional note, the GM must remember that these instabilities are mostly there for the sake of annoyingness and ‘comedy’. </p><p></p><p><strong>RULES: Whether deciding to apply a dimensional instability, roll a D10.</strong></p><p><strong>RESULT:</strong></p><p><strong>1-2: </strong> Linguistic Fracture.</p><p><strong>3-4: </strong> Subtitle Fracture.</p><p><strong>5-6:</strong> Omake Shift.</p><p><strong>7-8:</strong> Continuity Fracture.</p><p><strong>9-10:</strong> BGM Fracture.</p><p>The instabilities have a range of (d100) meters from an active CLULESS-infected computer. The effect lasts (d20) minutes, and they immediately end once the time is up, characters leave the area, or the computer is destroyed or shut down. Multiple computers might have enabled instabilities, so the averaged ‘middle’ of the rolled areas of effect will have both effects running, with the longest roll and shortest roll having the stronger effect in their respective areas.</p><p></p><p><em>“Well, I think /que necesitamos que/nanita suru yo!”</em></p><p><em>“Si, pero…/what can we do?/Kare wa totemo tsuyoi da naa…”</em></p><p><strong>+Linguistic Fractures:</strong> For reasons unknown, the most common type of dimensional instability affects the linguistic knowledge of those in the area, causing them to speak a different language without even realizing it. English seems to be the most common, though Spanish, French, Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese and others have been encountered at times. This normally goes unnoticed unless someone inside tries to speak with someone outside the instability-or worse yet, two instabilities occur simultaneously within earshot of each other.</p><p>It’s possible to communicate somewhat normally under these conditions, usually by using pantomime or relying to a broken version of English for a method of communication. This requires an Int roll (DC 15) each turn to remain coherent.</p><p></p><p><em>“/Damn! My car’s ruined, and I had 30 payments to go on it…/”</em></p><p><em>“Uh… Miss? I can read what you’re thinking…”</em></p><p><strong>+Subtitle Fractures:</strong> A variation of the linguistic instability, it instead displays subtitles (in possibly a random different language, although they do appear sometimes in the same language as the character’s-like ‘Close Captions’) in a location close to the character (for example, at chest level when he’s talking, but at times by knee or ankle level). This normally is nothing more than a visual annoyance-but sometimes, the subtitles display the character’s thoughts, as if they were on a ‘soliloquy’ moment in a series.</p><p></p><p><em>“WhEEEEEE!!!!!”</em></p><p><strong>+Omake Shift: </strong> Another type of Instability is called an ‘Omake Shift’, whereby a perfectly ordinary group in the area will have a very brief episode of extreme sillyness. On some Fictions, this also makes them change to Super-Deformed (SD) proportions. More often than not, the events of an ‘Omake Shift’ can only be remembered only hazily, and apparently haven’t happened in the normal level of existence.</p><p>Rules-wise, whether an Omake Shift happens, all characters obtain a temporal Intelligence/Wisdom Drain of 1d4 (this will never become fatal, resisting roll of DC 15), all attacks become subdual damage (regardless of the kind of weapon) that is immediately healed after the Shift is over, and on some cases (50%), the characters become SD, obtaining a +2 to Charisma (is almost blasphemous to think of an ‘ugly’ SD), and their size becomes Small, regardless of their real size, until the Shift is over.</p><p></p><p><em>“Uh, girl… she’s your worst enemy. She wants you dead, you want her to stop annoying you.”</em></p><p><em>“What are you TALKING about? Me and her come a long time back… no better gadgeteer to be watching my back.”</em></p><p><em>“And you’re both <u><strong>SUPPOSED</strong></u> to be <strong><u>SCHOOLGIRLS</u></strong>!!!!”</em></p><p><strong>+Continuity Fracture:</strong> And this is where things get outright annoying. A Continuity Fracture scrambles time itself for the Fictions in the area, changing the present and the past as it applies to those in it. People are always pretty much the same in terms of looks, personality, and abilities, but the background and current situation are generally completely changed. Some of them might change looks in some way, but this is the more extreme of cases.</p><p>Some of the more geeky of Pre-Vanishing Humans have compared this to suddenly switching from a given TV series to its OAV or manga versions.</p><p>The GM has the final say on the exact changes to a given Fiction character inside the instability (‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’), and there’s a 10% of the continuity changes becoming permanent on the character.</p><p></p><p><em>“Somebody please tell me I just didn’t heard the ‘Jaws’ theme…”</em></p><p><strong>+BGM Fracture:</strong> It is called ‘BackGround Music’ precisely because when it’s active, any and all characters inside it can hear the themes and background music as a viewer watching a series would. As all soundtracks, there’s situational music, character themes, music ‘inspired on’ and some other things. This is most definitely an annoyance most of the time, however it makes smart characters very hard to catch by surprise, since they’ll invariably hear the music building up well before an opponent is ready to strike.</p><p><strong>RULES:</strong> Characters in a BGM Instability can make Listen and Knowledge rolls (DC changes by volume of the actual music, distractions and surrounding noise, GM’s call). Success of the roll can give them the following information:</p><p>-Character currently ‘in action’ (by the ‘character theme’);</p><p>-Fiction Series currently ‘ruling’ the area (by series theme or situational music);</p><p>-Incoming danger (by background music buildup or character theme). This latter can give them a +1 to response rolls during surprise rounds, or can get to negate them altogether.</p><p></p><p><em>“’Poke, poke, poke, yawn’, yeah, yeah, yeah…. <strong>QUIEEETTT!!!”</strong></em></p><p><strong>Dunn-omatopoeia</strong></p><p>A particular trademark of the art of Ben Dunn is his use of onomatopoeias for the most absurd, quiet actions that happen in the panel. They can be small notes (‘quiet’ onomatopoeias) or large words (‘loud’ onomatopoeias) on the panel. A few times over the series people have managed to ‘hear’ these words.</p><p>In Coreline, the ‘Dunn-omatopoeia’ is represented, when active, as an unearthly voice that sounds off from nowhere whenever an action happens. It can be quiet or loud, depending on the severity of the action (for example, during a sneak action, it would whisper ‘sneak, sneak, tip-toe, tippy-toe’, or during a transformation, it would say aloud ‘Trrrannsssfoorrrmmm’, during the kicking of a door it would shout ‘KICK!!!’, and so on). Usually, it only locks onto a small number of character actions during its duration, but nevertheless, it can be annoying and even endangering, since it can be heard from a long distance.</p><p><strong>RULES:</strong> The ‘Dunn-omatopopeia’ will make all actions that the GM deems to be sounded off with said ‘unearthly voice’. Said voice will make the action easy to hear from a distance, and so, a step lower in DC to hear and pinpoint (DC 15 becomes 10, etc). If multiple voices are sounding off loudly at the same time, they are also be hard to hear over and could break concentration.</p><p></p><p><em>"Yes, I know you’re me, and I’m you. Now QUIT IT, man, I’m TRYING to THINK here!!"</em></p><p><strong>+Timeline Collision:</strong> At times, the CLULESS virus re-opens the dimensional portals, but for the sake of crazyness, it goes for a different approach: it locks on to a single life form in the immediate area and brings forth multiple dimensional Alternates of him or her. Sometimes, these Alternates are so much alike, they might as well be clones. At times, the changes are so radical, that it’s hard to believe that, deep down, it’s the same subject.</p><p>This Instability brings forth 1d10 Alternates of a character (GM selects at random), which remain for the duration of the Insability, and disappear once it deactivates. The GM has the final call of how radical the changes are in each Alternate, but as a rule of thumb, the Alternates should have the same CL as the selected character.</p><p></p><p><em>"A friend of a friend told me that a three-block area of Queens was engulfed in a powerful reality decay field today, causing the deaths of several dozen Fictions and putting some 700 people into comas. That friend of a friend is a physicist, and he's baffled by the size of the event...."</em></p><p><strong>Reality Decay: </strong> The breakdown of the barriers between the thousands of realities was not an easy or stress-free process. And sometimes, it's too much even for a robust healthy reality to take. When everything in an area gives way, Fictions and the Vanished are the ones who suffer. Fictions simply disappear (Fortitude DC 35 to drop to -1 hp instead) and the Vanished have their minds Fracked over backwards (Will save DC 30 or take 4d6 Wis damage) . Needless to say, this is not considered a nice thing by any stretch of the imagination.</p><p>(Note: This particular Dimensional Instability is not on the table because of its oh-so-obvious lethalness. GMs be advised to use only to reflect drama).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="marcoasalazarm, post: 2885939, member: 26698"] [IMG]http://tn3-1.deviantart.com/fs9/300W/i/2006/152/b/b/Time_Traveling_Hobos_by_pirpintine.jpg[/IMG] [B]When they hit, they hit, irregardless of who stands in the way. Case in point, this is a depiction of Timeline Collision and Omake Shift Instabilities at work. Needless to say that the Doctor was embarrassed when it ended. [/B] [CENTER][U][B]DIMENSIONAL INSTABILITIES[/B][/U][/CENTER] Though rare and never of a permanent duration, these instabilities are nevertheless very disconcerting. The reason behind them was because the CLULESS Virus re-wrote the reality on the immediate surroundings of any infected computers during the Hours in order to accept the Fictions. It was not, however, a delicate job. It was somewhat more akin to hitting the fabric of reality with a sledgehammer and then step back and see what happened, and there’s of course the fact that some infected computers didn’t triggered yet… The Coreline Humans (especially the Pre-Vanishing ones) are immune to the effects themselves, but the Fictions surrounding them… well, they’re another story. The following are nothing but a tiny example of the bundle of instabilities that are common. Some others exist, but they are even more rare. As an additional note, the GM must remember that these instabilities are mostly there for the sake of annoyingness and ‘comedy’. [B]RULES: Whether deciding to apply a dimensional instability, roll a D10. RESULT:[/B] [B]1-2: [/B] Linguistic Fracture. [B]3-4: [/B] Subtitle Fracture. [B]5-6:[/B] Omake Shift. [B]7-8:[/B] Continuity Fracture. [B]9-10:[/B] BGM Fracture. The instabilities have a range of (d100) meters from an active CLULESS-infected computer. The effect lasts (d20) minutes, and they immediately end once the time is up, characters leave the area, or the computer is destroyed or shut down. Multiple computers might have enabled instabilities, so the averaged ‘middle’ of the rolled areas of effect will have both effects running, with the longest roll and shortest roll having the stronger effect in their respective areas. [I]“Well, I think /que necesitamos que/nanita suru yo!” “Si, pero…/what can we do?/Kare wa totemo tsuyoi da naa…”[/I] [B]+Linguistic Fractures:[/B] For reasons unknown, the most common type of dimensional instability affects the linguistic knowledge of those in the area, causing them to speak a different language without even realizing it. English seems to be the most common, though Spanish, French, Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese and others have been encountered at times. This normally goes unnoticed unless someone inside tries to speak with someone outside the instability-or worse yet, two instabilities occur simultaneously within earshot of each other. It’s possible to communicate somewhat normally under these conditions, usually by using pantomime or relying to a broken version of English for a method of communication. This requires an Int roll (DC 15) each turn to remain coherent. [I]“/Damn! My car’s ruined, and I had 30 payments to go on it…/” “Uh… Miss? I can read what you’re thinking…”[/I] [B]+Subtitle Fractures:[/B] A variation of the linguistic instability, it instead displays subtitles (in possibly a random different language, although they do appear sometimes in the same language as the character’s-like ‘Close Captions’) in a location close to the character (for example, at chest level when he’s talking, but at times by knee or ankle level). This normally is nothing more than a visual annoyance-but sometimes, the subtitles display the character’s thoughts, as if they were on a ‘soliloquy’ moment in a series. [I]“WhEEEEEE!!!!!”[/I] [B]+Omake Shift: [/B] Another type of Instability is called an ‘Omake Shift’, whereby a perfectly ordinary group in the area will have a very brief episode of extreme sillyness. On some Fictions, this also makes them change to Super-Deformed (SD) proportions. More often than not, the events of an ‘Omake Shift’ can only be remembered only hazily, and apparently haven’t happened in the normal level of existence. Rules-wise, whether an Omake Shift happens, all characters obtain a temporal Intelligence/Wisdom Drain of 1d4 (this will never become fatal, resisting roll of DC 15), all attacks become subdual damage (regardless of the kind of weapon) that is immediately healed after the Shift is over, and on some cases (50%), the characters become SD, obtaining a +2 to Charisma (is almost blasphemous to think of an ‘ugly’ SD), and their size becomes Small, regardless of their real size, until the Shift is over. [I]“Uh, girl… she’s your worst enemy. She wants you dead, you want her to stop annoying you.” “What are you TALKING about? Me and her come a long time back… no better gadgeteer to be watching my back.” “And you’re both [U][B]SUPPOSED[/B][/U] to be [B][U]SCHOOLGIRLS[/U][/B]!!!!”[/I] [B]+Continuity Fracture:[/B] And this is where things get outright annoying. A Continuity Fracture scrambles time itself for the Fictions in the area, changing the present and the past as it applies to those in it. People are always pretty much the same in terms of looks, personality, and abilities, but the background and current situation are generally completely changed. Some of them might change looks in some way, but this is the more extreme of cases. Some of the more geeky of Pre-Vanishing Humans have compared this to suddenly switching from a given TV series to its OAV or manga versions. The GM has the final say on the exact changes to a given Fiction character inside the instability (‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’), and there’s a 10% of the continuity changes becoming permanent on the character. [I]“Somebody please tell me I just didn’t heard the ‘Jaws’ theme…”[/I] [B]+BGM Fracture:[/B] It is called ‘BackGround Music’ precisely because when it’s active, any and all characters inside it can hear the themes and background music as a viewer watching a series would. As all soundtracks, there’s situational music, character themes, music ‘inspired on’ and some other things. This is most definitely an annoyance most of the time, however it makes smart characters very hard to catch by surprise, since they’ll invariably hear the music building up well before an opponent is ready to strike. [B]RULES:[/B] Characters in a BGM Instability can make Listen and Knowledge rolls (DC changes by volume of the actual music, distractions and surrounding noise, GM’s call). Success of the roll can give them the following information: -Character currently ‘in action’ (by the ‘character theme’); -Fiction Series currently ‘ruling’ the area (by series theme or situational music); -Incoming danger (by background music buildup or character theme). This latter can give them a +1 to response rolls during surprise rounds, or can get to negate them altogether. [I]“’Poke, poke, poke, yawn’, yeah, yeah, yeah…. [B]QUIEEETTT!!!”[/B][/I] [B]Dunn-omatopoeia[/B] A particular trademark of the art of Ben Dunn is his use of onomatopoeias for the most absurd, quiet actions that happen in the panel. They can be small notes (‘quiet’ onomatopoeias) or large words (‘loud’ onomatopoeias) on the panel. A few times over the series people have managed to ‘hear’ these words. In Coreline, the ‘Dunn-omatopoeia’ is represented, when active, as an unearthly voice that sounds off from nowhere whenever an action happens. It can be quiet or loud, depending on the severity of the action (for example, during a sneak action, it would whisper ‘sneak, sneak, tip-toe, tippy-toe’, or during a transformation, it would say aloud ‘Trrrannsssfoorrrmmm’, during the kicking of a door it would shout ‘KICK!!!’, and so on). Usually, it only locks onto a small number of character actions during its duration, but nevertheless, it can be annoying and even endangering, since it can be heard from a long distance. [B]RULES:[/B] The ‘Dunn-omatopopeia’ will make all actions that the GM deems to be sounded off with said ‘unearthly voice’. Said voice will make the action easy to hear from a distance, and so, a step lower in DC to hear and pinpoint (DC 15 becomes 10, etc). If multiple voices are sounding off loudly at the same time, they are also be hard to hear over and could break concentration. [I]"Yes, I know you’re me, and I’m you. Now QUIT IT, man, I’m TRYING to THINK here!!"[/I] [B]+Timeline Collision:[/B] At times, the CLULESS virus re-opens the dimensional portals, but for the sake of crazyness, it goes for a different approach: it locks on to a single life form in the immediate area and brings forth multiple dimensional Alternates of him or her. Sometimes, these Alternates are so much alike, they might as well be clones. At times, the changes are so radical, that it’s hard to believe that, deep down, it’s the same subject. This Instability brings forth 1d10 Alternates of a character (GM selects at random), which remain for the duration of the Insability, and disappear once it deactivates. The GM has the final call of how radical the changes are in each Alternate, but as a rule of thumb, the Alternates should have the same CL as the selected character. [I]"A friend of a friend told me that a three-block area of Queens was engulfed in a powerful reality decay field today, causing the deaths of several dozen Fictions and putting some 700 people into comas. That friend of a friend is a physicist, and he's baffled by the size of the event...."[/I] [B]Reality Decay: [/B] The breakdown of the barriers between the thousands of realities was not an easy or stress-free process. And sometimes, it's too much even for a robust healthy reality to take. When everything in an area gives way, Fictions and the Vanished are the ones who suffer. Fictions simply disappear (Fortitude DC 35 to drop to -1 hp instead) and the Vanished have their minds Fracked over backwards (Will save DC 30 or take 4d6 Wis damage) . Needless to say, this is not considered a nice thing by any stretch of the imagination. (Note: This particular Dimensional Instability is not on the table because of its oh-so-obvious lethalness. GMs be advised to use only to reflect drama). [/QUOTE]
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