[GODLIKE] Animate Dead talent

[Hallucigenia]

Hey guys,

I'm in the process of planning a Godlike campaign. After chatting
about it for a bit with my friends, one made an interesting but
somewhat stumping request: he wants to animate the dead.

It's a great idea... imagine how awful trench warfare is already
without your dead brother-in-arms suddenly wake up next to you and
turn his gun on you. Very flavourful. Handy too, especially if he adds
some Hypercommand (wth the Flaw: Only on Undead) or some other
Attached Miracles. I recommended the flaw Uncontrollable to balance it
and reduce the cost; he likes the idea.

I'm just not sure how to go about creating it. By my reckoning it
Attacks, is Robust and Useful Outside of Combat, thus having a cost of
[4/8/16].

But even for this score, isn't this a tad powerful? With no other
limitations he can end up with a small army at his command. Should I
simply add flaws without treating them as actual Flaws (ie. reduces
the cost)? Some ideas could include:

- duration (number of hours equal to the miracle's dice pool)

- zombies attack the nearest living things, including you and your
allies. Requires successful Command to stop them

- "dies" again if head or torso full of lethal (this seems more like a
given than a flaw).

Any help would be hugely appreciated.

[Allan Goodall]

On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 3:46 AM, Hallucigenia <ashi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey guys,

I'm in the process of planning a Godlike campaign. After chatting
about it for a bit with my friends, one made an interesting but
somewhat stumping request: he wants to animate the dead.

Animating the dead is essentially the Control cafeteria miracle on page 62. In this case the target of the control is "dead bodies".

The Frequency is "Regular" (I'd put it as uncommon after the war, but on a battlefield where you can "make your own" dead body, I'd leave it as regular. I wouldn't put it down as common only because in commando missions you may have to sneak into a town where there are no ready-to-animate corpses lying in the street, or you might have to attack a radar installation on the coast without there being a corpse until the character or his buddies dispatches someone.)

Now, how many corpses does this reanimate? It doesn't matter.

Let's say he wants to attack an ubermensch with his "zombie army". The player rolls his "control dead bodies" dice pool. He does width in shock and killing to the ubermensch. Now, how many zombies is that? It doesn't matter. The number of bodies is really just a special effect. It could be one recently dead zombie who has most of its body intact. It could be a dozen body parts swarming over the enemy ubermensch. Mechanically it doesn't matter. You don't have to tell the player that, though... *grin*

If he wants to attack more than one target, he's going to have to roll multiple actions. If he had two successes, he can attack two ubermenschen with his zombies, which could be two zombies or a herd of body bits. You get the idea.

If he truly wants to affect everyone in a big area with a true zombie army, he could buy an extra to that effect (like the Area extra for Harm) and probably Doubler (from Will to Power) to boost it.

But even for this score, isn't this a tad powerful? With no other
limitations he can end up with a small army at his command. Should I
simply add flaws without treating them as actual Flaws (ie. reduces
the cost)? Some ideas could include:

- duration (number of hours equal to the miracle's dice pool)

- zombies attack the nearest living things, including you and your
allies. Requires successful Command to stop them

You don't really need this. His attack only goes off against one target. Even if he has 10d in this zombie power, if all he rolls is 2x2 his "zombie army" did two points of shock and killing to a single target's leg. This is the same as a character with a 10d "blast sight" like with Cyclops from the X-Men.

If he really wants to be able to raise a true zombie army that can wipe out a battalion, he's going to have to pay, and pay dearly, for an extra that would allow him to apply his attack roll against multiple targets at once. If you're going with the default Godlike power level, start him slowly and allow him to buy an extra that extends his ability with experience. It will take many sessions before he can wipe out whole platoons, though.
 

--

Allan Goodall            http://www.hyperbear.com
agoo...@hyperbear.com
awgo...@gmail.com

[Hobbes]

Control (Dead Bodies) is certainly one way to model it, but couldn't
you also do it with Sidekick and add a replaceable focus flaw of one
dead body? The reason I suggest that is that the mechanics for that
miracle already cover the sidekick's ability to act separately from
the character. Add levels for multiple sidekicks if he can control
more than one, and attach powers as necessary to show the new undead
properties of the body. An extra stating that the sidekick has the
body's gear might also be a nice touch.

[Allan Goodall]

On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 12:27 PM, Hobbes <hobbese...@gmail.com> wrote:

Control (Dead Bodies) is certainly one way to model it, but couldn't
you also do it with Sidekick and add a replaceable focus flaw of one
dead body?

That would work, too. Good idea.

One thing I love about Godlike and WT is that there are many ways to skin a cat.

[Kevin L. Nault]

On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 11:54 AM, Allan Goodall <awgo...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 12:27 PM, Hobbes <hobbese...@gmail.com> wrote:

Control (Dead Bodies) is certainly one way to model it, but couldn't
you also do it with Sidekick and add a replaceable focus flaw of one
dead body?

That would work, too. Good idea.

One thing I love about Godlike and WT is that there are many ways to skin a cat.

Low hanging fruit!  A(4) oughtta do it, with Engulfs, at at least a -2 for the target limitation...

Oh, wait, Metaphor.  I get it now.


--
Religion, or the duty which we owe our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force and violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience.
 -- James Madison

[ZenStorm]

I imagine you could also build this as Minions with If/Then (Must have
sufficient number of dead bodies available.)

But, ultimately, which option you chose would depend on how the player
intends to use it. Are we talking about raising the dead one corpse at
a time, as in the type of dead raising we see in most Hellboy comics,
or are we talking about the wholesale raising of undead hordes?

On Nov 26, 12:09 am, "Kevin L. Nault" <prof.morb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 11:54 AM, Allan Goodall <awgood...@gmail.com> wrote:

> > On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 12:27 PM, Hobbes <hobbesexmach...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> >> Control (Dead Bodies) is certainly one way to model it, but couldn't
> >> you also do it with Sidekick and add a replaceable focus flaw of one
> >> dead body?
>
> > That would work, too. Good idea.
>

> > One thing I love about *Godlike *and *WT* is that there are many ways to

> > skin a cat.
>
> Low hanging fruit!  A(4) oughtta do it, with Engulfs, at at least a -2 for
> the target limitation...
>

> Oh, wait, *Metaphor*.  I get it now.

[Hallucigenia]

Thanks for your help Allan.

I considered Control: The Dead... combatatively you're right, it's a
very elegant and mechanically smooth idea, but the only problem is
that it doesn't really deal well with the zombies outside of battle.
This will actually be a relatively low-combat campaign with a lot of
roleplaying, and one of the more interesting aspects to this talent is
how the team will deal with the zombies when they don't have Nazis to
sick them on. They will be useful labourers outside battle (making the
question of 'how many' more important), but even aside from that,
having a small regiment of zombies nearby would create for some
excellent tension and roleplay fodder.

For these reasons I had hoped to create a power that individualizes
the zombies more.

Modifying the Sidekick power is one means that occured to me. My quick
thoughts on building it based on Sidekick, using Extras and Flaws to
approximate the cost...

---

Sidekick [5/10/20]

Extra: Multiple Sidekicks (+5/+10/+20)
You may have a number of sidekicks up to your dice in Sidekick
(maximum 10). This works exactly like "reforming" your sidekick every
hour, however it can of course be done even if other sidekicks are
already present.

Flaw: Need Corpses (-3/-6/-12)
You may only "summon" or "reform" a sidekick with a corpse present.
All wounds the corpse had upon death remain.

Flaw: No Mind (-2/-4/-6)
Sidekick has no mind of its own and only functions under your orders.

---

This puts us back at [5/10/20]. I'm thinking it also needs an Extra
equivalent because the zombies won't simply go "poof" if they get hit;
on the other hand, they're visible and thus wouldn't reduce attacks
against them by Width 2.

How does this sound?

On Nov 24, 8:07 pm, Allan Goodall <awgood...@gmail.com> wrote:

> If he truly wants to affect *everyone *in a big area with a true zombie

> army, he could buy an extra to that effect (like the Area extra for Harm)

> and probably Doubler (from *Will to Power*) to boost it.

>
> But even for this score, isn't this a tad powerful? With no other> limitations he can end up with a small army at his command. Should I
> > simply add flaws without treating them as actual Flaws (ie. reduces
> > the cost)? Some ideas could include:
>
> > - duration (number of hours equal to the miracle's dice pool)
>
> > - zombies attack the nearest living things, including you and your
> > allies. Requires successful Command to stop them
>
> You don't really need this. His attack only goes off against one target.
> Even if he has 10d in this zombie power, if all he rolls is 2x2 his "zombie
> army" did two points of shock and killing to a single target's leg. This is
> the same as a character with a 10d "blast sight" like with Cyclops from the
> X-Men.
>
> If he really wants to be able to raise a true zombie army that can wipe out
> a battalion, he's going to have to pay, and pay dearly, for an extra that
> would allow him to apply his attack roll against multiple targets at once.

> If you're going with the default *Godlike *power level, start him slowly and

> allow him to buy an extra that extends his ability with experience. It will
> take many sessions before he can wipe out whole platoons, though.
>
> --
> Allan Goodall            http://www.hyperbear.com

> agood...@hyperbear.com
> awgood...@gmail.com