| From: | David Buehrer <dbuehrer@****.ORG> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Highlander Immortals |
| Date: | Wed, 9 Apr 1997 06:58:25 -0600 |
|
| The "Quickening" will actually be karma received from a slain immortal.
| Possibly an amount equal to the "rep" or total karma awarded to slain
| character. A way to figure this for NPC's would have to be designed,
| perhaps something based off their threat rating.
First, I'm basing my feedback off of the first movie, and the series. Not
the second and third movies :)
There's a couple of ways you could go. You could base the karma earned on
the age of the slain immortal. You could assign a "Quickening" stat to
immortals and base the karma earned on that (there's a Web site with rules
for Immortals in WoD games that uses this). Or award a percentage of their
total karma.
| The rule of not killing on Holy Ground could stem from the fact that the
| background count of such places disipitates the "Quickening" so no reward
| comes from the death. Perhaps some of the killer's own Karma would drained
| in the process.
I would say that it disipates the quickening of the slain immortal *and*
sucks some of the victor's karma in the process. Or, based on a Watcher
legend, the holy ground amplifies the quickening and a catastrophic event
occurs that kills the victor (volcano, earthquake, freak storm, meteor
strike, Rosanne Barr, etc).
| To keep things balanced, PC immortals wouldn't be completely immortal.
| Maybe they'd have a form of regeneration akin to that of a PC shapeshifter.
| Or perhaps any damage taken would automatically be staged down a damage
| category (like vehicles reducing damage). Or perhaps yet, they get immunity
| to normal weapons per the critter ability.
Immunity to Age. Limited Immunity to Poison and Pathogens (it can affect
them, but they will recover). I wouldn't stage damage down. McLoud(sp?)
on the series has been shot, hit by a car, and fallen, and he's taken as
much damage as a normal human in each case. He's just healed any damage
taken. Also, damage wasn't healed instantly, as per the Regeneration
Power, but rather at a very accelerated rate. Maybe use their Quickening
(either a stat, or a percentage of total karma) as a number of automatic
successes when figuring their rate of healing.
| I'm also thinking that for any physical damage other than decapitation,
| they would have a physical damage overflow equal to double the Body
| attribute, but for decapitation there is no physical damage overflow (they
| die at a deadly wound).
Decapitation definitly aces them. Also, severed limb body parts (from
fingers to arms) do not regenerate. Any wounds to the throat do not
completely heal and scar.
| I'm toying with requiring an immortal to have a Magic attribute, primarily
| physads with a handful of magicians and other adepts. In doing this, I
| would have the physical damage overflow figured off the Magic attribute
| rather than Body.
I don't know about this one. On the other hand that depends on whether you
plan on being true to Highlander or just using it as a basis for the idea.
| The regenerative abilites of immortals does not allow implantation of
| Bio/Cyberware (another reason for being a physad or magician).
Agreed.
| An Immortal is sterile and cannot reproduce.
Ditto.
And, in another post you mentioned the idea of immortals gaining
karma at half the normal rate. I would propose that immortals use a
varient of the SOTA rules, in that they must keep up with the pace of
the world or fall behind. I.e., they gain as much karma as anyone
else, but they must periodically make upkeep payments every few years
to maintain their skill levels (mainly knowledge skills). And if
they're old make them take a lot of skills that are no longer
relevent in today's society (firebuilding, tanning, blacksmith,
etc).
Hope that helps :)
-David
--
/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\ dbuehrer@****.org /^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\
"His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking
alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free."
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