GM’ing the Cacogen
All attributes, stats, and descriptors can be randomly determined.
A given Cacogen may be physically invulnerable or delicate as steam, and these
attributes are not necessarily fixed.
Communication should be a slow, tortuous affair. Cacogen have
translators, and are smart and well informed about or Solar System and its
inhabitants, but it is difficult to bridge such different minds.
Below are some tools for simulating an alien state of mind.
Consult when considering both how the Cacogen receives a communication and how
they respond. If needed, run their reply through Google translation a few
times.
Random table of primary senses/mode of communication
1.
color
2.
light
3.
scent
4.
temperature
5.
high frequency sound (painful to anyone with
better than normal Hear Noises)
6.
palpitation
7.
gesticulation
8.
equilibrium (their conversation requires a
Fortitude save or fall over)
9.
magnetism
10. electrical
impulses
11. absence
of sound/light/scent
12. mathematics
13. pressure
differentials
14. pain
and pleasure
15. illusion
projection
16. exchange
of soul fragments
17. exchange
and consumption of effluvium
18. time
19. reversed
time (this Cacogen remembers the future, but is blind to the past)
20. reality
(anything this Cacogen says becomes true)
Random table of primary motivations and blind-spots
1.
Acceptance
2.
Acquisition
3.
Aesthetics
4.
Compensation
5.
Consumption
6.
Curiosity
7.
Hierarchy
8.
Honor
9.
Ideals
10. Independence
11. Knowledge
12. Oblivion
13. Order
14. Perfection
15. Physical
activity
16. Power
17. Reproduction
18. Society
19. Tranquility
20. Vengeance
Roll twice.
The first result is this entity’s primary motivation. It is
such an ineradicable concern that the Cacogen cannot even question its primacy.
The second is a motivation that the Cacogen cannot
comprehend at all. Any statement relating to this motivation will be ignored as
meaningless babble.
Conversation Effects
Table
If characters have a successful conversation with a Cacogen
(defined by spending more than three rounds speaking with them without becoming
violent or ill), they will be marked by an otherworldliness for the rest of
your life.
For each successful conversation, they permanently lose one
point of Charisma, and roll on the table below:
1.
Take half damage from back stabs, because your
vital organs are no longer where one would expect them to be.
2.
You see things that aren’t there. Detect
Invisible once per day.
3.
You have a new perspective on everything. +1 to
Wisdom.
4.
+1 to AC when unarmored because you become
slightly insubstantial when alarmed.
5.
Digestion changed. You eat unusual things (soap,
strips of leather, small pebbles, candles), and cannot abide regular food.
Immune to poisons.
6.
The patterns of this world are so much clearer
to you, now. Read Languages at 80%.
7.
You are attuned to the energies of the world
around you. Detect Magic once per day.
8.
Your voice does not entirely emanate from your
body. Ventriloquism twice a day.
9.
Black Puddings love you. Treat all black
puddings encountered as charmed.
10. You
are dimensionally unmoored. Mirror Image once every other day.
11. You hear things that haven’t been said. ESP
once every other day.
12. You feel disconnected from your body. +1 hp
and +1 to resist pain effects.
I absolutely LOVE this! If you don't mind, I'll probably use a modified version in my OD&D campaign world.
ReplyDeletePlease do! That's what the blog is for! And I'd love to hear how it goes.
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