Kay, so I worked how boss horrors should work.
Boss Horrors
Whenever a player reaches the halfway point of accomplishing their motivation, usually by solving half their objectives, a boss horror may spawn. This is a unique horror that has a high amount of health, has unique traits, and will attempt to pursue the specific player that activated it. However, the good news is that it will only respond in self-defense against other players and will not pursue them if they run away.
Each Boss has it's own Perk and it's own drawback that are rolled for at the start. Here is a list of drawbacks and perks. They are also a specific type of horror, like Ethereal or Killer.
Perks
1 The Madness Spreads: Can roll a D20 turn a safe or normal zone into an infected zone. 10 and above results in the zone being made infected. It can also roll a D20 to break down the barricade of a barricaded safe zone.
2 I Count Six Shots, Idiot: When at half health or below, the boss may roll a D20 per fight to cause a player with a ranged weapon to find their weapon unusable for the rest of the fight due to them running out of ammo. 10 and above results in the weapon being unusable for the rest of the fight.
3 And I Brought All My Friends: During a fight, the boss may roll a D20 to call in a variable number of horrors that match their variety of infection.
1-9: No horrors arrive.
10-13: 1 horror arrives.
13-15: 2 horrors arrive.
14-16: 3 horrors arrive.
17-18: 4 horrors arrive.
19-20: 5 horrors arrive.
4 Right Behind You...: The Boss cannot be spotted until it wants to move to another room, harm a player, or if a player rolls a 20 in a dedicated attempt to search for it.
5 Lair: When the boss spawns, roll a die that has an equal number of sides to the number of zones. Whichever is landed upon is it's lair. It will gain a +3 bonus to attacking in that place but players will know when they enter it, perhaps due to the place being decorated with photos of the targeted player, half-eaten human remains, or just a bad feeling.
6 Lights Out: During a fight, it can make the lights go out for a turn. This will decrease accuracy by -2 and cause the risk of friendly fire if you roll a 2-5 instead of just a 1. The boss will not get these disadvantages.
7 This Isn't A Trap, Scout's Honor: When a targeted player is in a nearby zone and unaware of the boss horror's location, the boss may pretend to be another player, a civilian in need of help, or a supply of valuable items for the player to take. If the player takes the bait, they may attack them. If they don't, then the boss horror cannot attack them until they leave the zone for the boss's location or until they leave the area and allow the boss to reset the trap.
8 Your Terror Tastes Delicious: The more panic points a player possesses, the more bonuses a boss gets against attacking that player.
9 Not So Lucky No More: Every luck point spent against the boss in order to give it a debuff will in fact give it health.
10 AAAAAAAAAGH FUCK YOOOOOOU: When at the last health point, the boss gets +5 to it's attacks.
11 The Reports Of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: When killed, the boss can revive itself a turn later. It can do this two more times until it is finally permanently killed.
Drawbacks
1 No, The Light!: The boss cannot enter a safe zone and will lose pursuit of the player when they enter a safe zone.
2 The One True Weakness: Roll a die equal to the amount of items the targeted player has. The result means that the item given is it's only weakness when used against it. This will give +3 to attacks against it while the item is being used and -3 to it's attacks.
3 Fragile: The boss is half the health of a regular monster, putting it on the same level as a player.
4 Sentimental: Roll a die equal to the amount of players. Whomever comes up is important to the boss in some way, and it will stop attacking for a turn if the player is in the same zone, giving the targeted player a chance to run. The sentimental player will not be harmed in any way.
5 Very Slow: This boss sure likes taking it's time. It will take a turn to catch up with a player in a zone right next to the zone it's in, and it will give up the pursuit if the player's gone by the time it gets there.
6 Attention Deficit Dis-- Look, Clowns!: This boss's attention is easily divided. If the other players do something distracting like jumping up and shouting a lot, the boss will waste a turn staring at them.
7 I Like To Play With My Prey: The boss will never kill a player, even a target. They will reduce them to one last health point, then will move on until the player has healed up and is ready to go for another bout of horror.
8 Merciful: If the targeted player is about to be killed in a dishonorable or particularly pathetic fashion, the boss will give up and wander off until the player is in a better position.
9 Honorable: The boss will never harm an unarmed person. It will harm them if they have a melee weapon or a ranged weapon, but they will refuse to attack them otherwise.
10 I Have My Own Things To Do: The boss actually has it's own list of objectives it wishes to solve, it's just that the targeted player and the boss mutually conflict in their objectives. They will often prioritize the objectives above all else unless the player is actively impeding them. When they complete every one of their objectives, they will go after the player.
11 Attuned: A random player has a strange connection with the boss, be it supernatural, emotional, or simply able to psychologically analyze it. The player can always detect where the boss is by PMing the GM for the location of it during the turn.
And also I made a few examples of bosses to show how versatile you can make your bosses. These wouldn't show up if I was actually doing a game: you would have to figure out their perks and drawbacks.
Name: Biological Weapons Platform F616 "Darla"
Description: An attempt at creating the ideal supersoldier gone horribly bad. During the last days of the experimental government project Golden Light, budget was so low that this experiment was formerly the head scientist's teenage daughter, Darla, kidnapped and transformed in order to save money. However, due to an imbalance of chemicals and an already existing mental disorder, the experiment broke containment and is now killing everyone involved with Golden Light, down to the last man.
Appearance: BWP-F616 is a small, wiry creature with six arms and highly flexible insect-like plates instead of skin. Her head is elongated and has multiple mouths lined with piranha-like teeth. Her claws drip with blue poison. There is several signs she was once in captivity, the most obvious being a shock collar on her neck which has had the battery destroyed, preventing it's use against her.
Type: Biological
Perk: Your Terror Tastes Delicious
Drawback: I Like To Play With My Prey
Name: The Messenger
Description: A cult's attempt at summoning their God worked all too well. They brought forth the Messenger, an occult horror that is destined to summon the dark gods from their unholy realms to eat the souls of humanity and render this plane another one of their dominions. However, the Messenger does have a problem in that he is so alien he cannot translate some of the data he's receiving about the world, meaning he is easily distracted by fast motion.
Appearance: The Messenger is an extremely twisted version of a postman: how you would view them if you lived in another dimension. It is exactly average height, but it's legs consist of 70% of it's body and it's arms go down to it's heels. It's face appears to be a plastic imitation of a young man, but it splits open vertically to reveal a mouth full of tentacles lined with gnashing teeth. It appears to be wearing an extremely tattered version of a postman's uniform.
Type: Nightmare
Perk: The Madness Spreads
Drawback: Attention Deficit Dis-- Look, Clowns!
Name: Major Emery Wilkes
Description: One of the best special operatives in the US Army, he has handled some of the worst threats to America in the past 10 years alone. He is cunning and ruthless, yet always obeys his orders and will never stop a mission unless ordered to. However, due to his strict adherence to his commander's orders, anyone who knows the tactics of the commander can guess and work around them.
Appearance: Emery is dressed in a dark blue BDU that has some high-tech military gear that enables himself to easily slip from view. He wears a gasmask with implanted night vision and Land Warrior systems, experimental kevlar that blocks the majority of hits, and wields a M16 with laser sights and scope, with a side-weapon of an electrified sword able to stun and kill enemies.
Type: Killer
Perk: Right Behind You...
Drawback: Attuned
I also worked out a different way of doing GMing that prevents GM burnout. I think it might have been done before, and it'd be nice to know if how those attempts went.
Basically, you can ask for two positions. You can be a player or a GM. You can also ask to be both. The games would go in rounds, so the players and GMs could be switched out. The GMs would go down the list and be added at the bottom of it, like a succession game, but the difference being it eventually goes back to the first GM then back down again.
One thing I do need to work out is how safezones should be established... I'm not sure how to do that. So, yes. Thoughts?
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Topic: Gaming Block (Game Discussion Thread) (Totally Not Roller's Block) (Read 407259 times)