NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GMMichael" data-source="post: 6321044" data-attributes="member: 6685730">Beasts!The Bestiary chapter is wrapping up.  I put a couple more monsters in there, will add a few more still, but the juicy part, chapter demo:Greg (GM): there’s no sign of the brood-mother.  Nor any of her offspring.Chris (Number 2259): why am I here by myself again?  Oh yeah.  No common sense.  “Hello?”Greg: (rolls a die – red herring.)  In the weakly-pulsing red emergency light, you see many dried bits of alien across the floor.Chris: motion goggles?  (Rolls detect, just in case.)Greg: nope.  Nothing.  You definitely do not detect an alien brood-mother.  But you hear some shifting or sliding coming from the airlock in the floor ahead.Chris: I.  Freeze.  In.  My.  Tracks.  But I still move my eyes.  Any vacuum-bags lying around?Greg: (rolls difficulty for spotting the bag in the back of the room.  Difficult for an average person, +8).  Nope.  Wait.  That lump in the back could be your bag.  It’s sitting on the airlock door, which hasn’t opened completely.  A slimy tentacle flops out near there, and worms around.Chris: But!  My bag!  This pulse-grenade launcher had better be worth the credits.  I aim at the tentacle.Greg: as you do, another tentacle appears on the right side of the airlock, 80 feet away.  The door isn’t fully closed on that side, either.Chris: woah!  There’s TWO aliens in there?  Okay, I can only shoot the one on the right, because I don’t want to blow up my bag.  Aim and fire! Greg: roll initiative.  (Rolls for NPC initiative.)Chris: 6?Greg: Too slow.  The two tentacles push, fully opening the airlock door.Chris: I shoot the tentacle on the right!  (Rolls fight-missile and damage.)  16 and 9 damage!Greg: The tentacles push the door open.  Whatever was sitting on the floor in the corner falls into the airlock, the door having slid away.  You fire a grenade at the right and the room shakes.  The tentacle splatters.  Your opponent’s next action is to bodily enter the room (grins).Chris: Um.  What does that mean?Greg: the Brood-Father raises itself out of the airlock.  Its head goes up to the ceiling, its shoulders reach across the entire airlock, and three large tubes sprout from a massive chest growth.  The openings of these tubes are about three feet in diameter, and undulating.Chris: PLEASE let me check knowledge as a non-action!  (Rolls knowledge-scholarship, and drops a hero point on it.)  13 total.Greg: why not?  That’s a pretty weak roll, but you vaguely remember something about the Arcovian spawn-shooter from your studies.  It wasn’t actually called “spawn-shooter,” but that was your nickname for it.Chris: well, for my second action, unload the clip!Number 2259, level 3 (Chris's character)Physical: 15, mental: 8, metaphysical: 10Skills:Fight-missile +4 (+2)Knowledge-scholarship +0 (+1)Defend-parry +5 (0)Perks: specialize (parry +3), diehard, dodgeGear: pulse grenade launcher (d12), recursive trans-molecular blaster (d8), homefront shell armor (spacewalk) (d10), motion-tracking goggles, 100K transmitter/receiver, nano-toolConcept: a human bred for war, he has instincts and reflexes, but lacks common sense.  The majority of his programming involves exterminating alien species, but Five-Nine harbors a secret love of consumerism, due to the glimpse of an advertisement that he caught between programming sessions, featuring a child holding a beverage-package and a pinwheel and walking happily with his parents.  He spends hero points making knowledge contests to dig up info on aliens, and on parry contests to avoid getting fried.Designer notes: Five-Nine is now well equipped to handle physical threats, but the nastier aliens in the galaxy can make mental attacks as well as physical attacks.  As he encounters the weaker ones, he can start training his body and mind to confront new, mental threats, with perks like stubborn and enlightened.  He could also branch out to a spell like awaken, to recover mental health quickly.</blockquote>

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