Instant hero / villain?

[cosmicfish]

I have been working for some time on a campaign where the PC's will be tasked with hunting down a set of "bad guys" who were essentially (they eventually find out) ordinary people transformed into weapons of destruction. I have a few related threads but am trying here to just make a list of all the OCC's and RCC's where a person is given a new class without training. Basically, you take a person, something happens to them, and they have this new set of skills, abilities, and perhaps powers. No training, it just happens.

The only ones I can immediately think of are:

1) Apok [Wormwood]
2) Cosmo-knight [Phase World]
3) Sea Inquisitor [Underseas]

Are there any others that I am missing? I am not sure if I want to use a published transformation or create a new one "in the mold" of a published transformation.

And please note that I am specifically trying to avoid any that have explicit or implicit training - Juicers and Anti-Monsters, for example.

[Glistam]

The Book of Heroes will imbue people with powers - some of those powers are granted skills, which replace a character's current skills.

Vampires fall into this category. 'Borg's do as well.

[cosmicfish]

The Book of Heroes will imbue people with powers - some of those powers are granted skills, which replace a character's current skills.

Vampires fall into this category. 'Borg's do as well.

Book of Heroes I will look into. Vampires (if I recall correctly) retain some skills from their old life and then slowly add more as they gain experience. And borgs may get a shiny new body instantly, but like Juicers they still acquire all their skills the old-fashioned way!

This is the problem, I am really looking for things like the Apok and Cosmo-knights where someone essentially goes to sleep a civilian and wakes up the next day as a fully-trained fightin' man! I want this to be something that was done to them without their consent (preferably) as opposed to something that they participated in.

Think of the monsters created by the Gene-Splicers - ordinary people, physically transformed and set loose on the world. I am looking to do something similar, but these people should look "normal", but possessed of great ability and programmed to do certain things with certain (new!) skills.

[eliakon]

Heroes Unlimited is made of this trope Several of the classes are basically 'instant super, just add mundane' Mystic Imbued, Empowered, Symbiotic all come to mind.

Mindwerks has a brain programing M.O.M. implant that can be used to grant skills, will ye or nil ye.

[cosmicfish]

Heroes Unlimited is made of this trope Several of the classes are basically 'instant super, just add mundane' Mystic Imbued, Empowered, Symbiotic all come to mind.

Yeah, I'm hoping for more Rifts-y answers. HU basically ignores mechanics for becoming super, and instead focuses more on being super. I want something that starts in Rifts, not refugees from the HU universe.

Mindwerks has a brain programing M.O.M. implant that can be used to grant skills, will ye or nil ye.

I already had the implants filed under "things to do to these guys" on a case by case basis, but there are several distinct OCC's in there too that I had neglected. Good catch!

[Glistam]

This is the problem, I am really looking for things like the Apok and Cosmo-knights where someone essentially goes to sleep a civilian and wakes up the next day as a fully-trained fightin' man! I want this to be something that was done to them without their consent (preferably) as opposed to something that they participated in.

The Apok won't work for this, they're reborn through a conscious choice to face their evil past and repent. The Cosmo-Knight is perfect. The Book of Heroes is similar, but only a few of the abilities will probably meet your needs.

Things like the 'Borg, the Juicer, and the T-Men certainly imply that there is training involved, but by the rules of the book you literally become that O.C.C., with old skills frozen and new skills instantly starting at level 1 independent of any training. Yes, it's implied, but it's not specific. You could consider them Plan B.

The Cold Blooded from Mercenary Adventures may be close to your needs as well.

Becoming a Transferred Intelligence Robot R.C.C. from would be an incredibly rude surprise to wake up to as well, though you keep all your old skills.

[drewkitty ~..~]

I have been working for some time on a campaign where the PC's will be tasked with hunting down a set of "bad guys" who were essentially (they eventually find out) ordinary people transformed into weapons of destruction. I have a few related threads but am trying here to just make a list of all the OCC's and RCC's where a person is given a new class without training. Basically, you take a person, something happens to them, and they have this new set of skills, abilities, and perhaps powers. No training, it just happens.

The only ones I can immediately think of are:

1) Apok [Wormwood]
2) Cosmo-knight [Phase World]
3) Sea Inquisitor [Underseas]

Are there any others that I am missing? I am not sure if I want to use a published transformation or create a new one "in the mold" of a published transformation.

And please note that I am specifically trying to avoid any that have explicit or implicit training - Juicers and Anti-Monsters, for example.

1&3 are are just empowered char templates, the text just says they get the powers of the CC, noting about the CC's skill being gained *wiggles fingers* mystically. I would take it that if those chars were made without making up the 'old CC' first, that the skills presented in the Apok and SI CC's to be skills from their old CC's or gained from training.
2..the powers are bestowed also.....no mention of the skills being bestowed also....so they would fall within the "They are gained threw Training" default position when talking about CC's.

Another empowered char template is the mystically bestowed power cat in the HU main book.

Having the char gain skills without going threw any training to gain them...there are very few ways written into the PB game book texts.

Yes, 1, 2, & 3 and the MB the powers are gained with a single event.
The powers from "the book of heros" is gained threw reading the book. I don't <think> it gives the read any skills. (it has been a while since I read HotM.)

Being turned into a vampire put the char under the dominion of the master vamp.
Borgs, juicers and most MOMs still need to train to use their implants to the fullest.

Wympires (NBMB) are 'not quite full vampires) undead that are independent of any master vampire.

Gene Sp. creations and Bio-Wizard creations gain their modifications in one event but are also often changed in unexpected ways.

In conclusion, unless the text specifically says the char get skills with the powers, the the skills of a CC are training and acquired separately from the mystically bestowed powers.

Bestowed skills
The only mundane way that I can think of off hand is what Eli mentioned...some of the Mindwerks MOM implants.
There is at least one spell that gives a skill for a time.
magic proficiencies: one of these from the rifter's selection of them gives a skill from <somewhere>
From rifter1 it is possible to get skills from significant past lives.
deific powers from the Dragons and gods book I think can be used to give followers a skill. Someone would have to check.

[cosmicfish]

1&3 are are just empowered char templates, the text just says they get the powers of the CC, noting about the CC's skill being gained *wiggles fingers* mystically. I would take it that if those chars were made without making up the 'old CC' first, that the skills presented in the Apok and SI CC's to be skills from their old CC's or gained from training.

For the Apok, it explicitly says that their old skills are wiped away, and given that they have a rigid skill set, no described training (or indeed, any organization to do it!), a host of other magically granted abilities, and that they are "reborn as a first level Apok" (as in NOT "first level once they get some training Apok"), I really think that their skills are gained *wiggles fingers, adds jazz hands* mystically.

As to Sea Inquisitors, I'll give you that the description there favors a combination of old skills added to "as available" training.

2..the powers are bestowed also.....no mention of the skills being bestowed also....so they would fall within the "They are gained threw Training" default position when talking about CC's.

Cosmo-knights are similar to the Apok ("the skills of his past life are lost and the character is reborn") but there is at least a chance of some organization doing the training. Still, what is the point of magically wiping away skills if you aren't going to magically replace them?

[drewkitty ~..~]

I will stand corrected, if that was what the Apok text said.....
*shrugs* truth be told I don't think I've cracked the WW book this year.

[eliakon]

There is a Primal Deific power that turns a person into a lesser demon/devil with all the natural abilities of said creature.
While this is normally done on worshipers it doesn't have to be. And since all Alien Intelligences in Rifts now have Primal Deific Powers this might be useful.
True it may or may not give them all the R.C.C. skills depending on how you interpret the text, but even a farmer with the ability to track by smell, breath fire, a hand full of innate spells, MDC skin, Supernatural PS, and a Horror Factor is going to cause some serious problems...even if they are using H2H: None.

[dragonfett]

Here's a question in regards to the OP, why are you looking for OCC's for these NPC's? You could always just give them the abilities and skills that you want with the explanation basically being "because the GM said so".

[cosmicfish]

Here's a question in regards to the OP, why are you looking for OCC's for these NPC's? You could always just give them the abilities and skills that you want with the explanation basically being "because the GM said so".

Because I want the players to figure things out. I don't really want the bad guys to be totally unique to my campaign, I want the good guys to see the influences, recognize them on their own, and figure out what is going on. I don't want the players to necessarily defeat them so much as decode them. Does that make sense?

I ideally want them to realize that these people/creatures/whatever were created, programmed, and manipulated, and that is a lot easier if I am using canonical methods of creating, programming, and manipulating than if the origins are locked in my head.

Plus, I would rather not reinvent the wheel. If it exists, why not use it?

[Crow Splat]

Bio Borg is another option. Get kidnapped by Slavers and thrown in a tank of green goo. Wake up a murder machine with a possibility of mental instability.

To a lesser extent, an illegal genetic experiment by Desmond Bradford in Lone Star.

Perhaps the original person is actually dead. Killed by ARCHIE. He could make a mechanical double and send out into the world for whatever reason.

[Daniel Stoker]

Why not go with a tattoo man? Just take whatever OCC they were and have them be given a ton of magic tattoos, I think the only thing there that'd change would be they'd start as a level 1 tattoo man exp wise and use that chart.


Daniel Stoker

[cosmicfish]

Why not go with a tattoo man?

I had another thread where I asked for and received a comprehensive list of the ways to modify a person without modifying their OCC, and I plan to use a lot of that already. What I am looking for right now is really ways to program a person. I want a factory that takes in ordinary people at one end and produces trained killing machines at the other, without taking months and years to accomplish it, and ideally without the consent of the ordinary people! Stick a bunch of magic tattoos on a domestic housewife and you have a domestic housewife who can summon a sword and fly.

Right now the Apok and Cosmo-Knights fit the bill pretty well but are only created as good guys and I am looking to create bad guys*. Mindwerks does a decent job but they are a little obvious and are essentially just a new type of Crazy, and that isn't ideal either. The Cold-blooded are decent as well, similar to the Apok but more morally ambiguous. There are several "witch-like" options, but I don't want them to be puppets of some supernatural power - brainwashing is okay, direct control is not.


*: Yes, Cosmo-Knights can fall but I want them pre-fallen, as it were.

[Daniel Stoker]

What about the Chang-Ku Dragon tea that gives super powers? Doesn't that allow the creator to control their minds over time? If not I'm not sure what else there really is to fit that criteria short of a Gene-Splicer rewiring their mind and body.


Daniel Stoker

[drewkitty ~..~]

What about the Chang-Ku Dragon tea that gives super powers? Doesn't that allow the creator to control their minds over time? If not I'm not sure what else there really is to fit that criteria short of a Gene-Splicer rewiring their mind and body.


Daniel Stoker

That Elixir of power and Deceit is essentially a potion. It doe not inherently change the character's powers. Within the HU power cat. format it would fall under the Imbued Power cat umbrella.
Yep, the elixir does enchant the drinker to be subservient to the maker, but it can be countered or reversed as per the ways depicted in the text.

[cosmicfish]

What about the Chang-Ku Dragon tea that gives super powers? Doesn't that allow the creator to control their minds over time?

It gives powers, not skills and definitely not a new OCC. And it controls their minds indefinitely, although I could just say that their master died...

If not I'm not sure what else there really is to fit that criteria short of a Gene-Splicer rewiring their mind and body.

Gene-splicers cannot instill skills or OCC. They are already on my general modification list, they just don't solve this problem.

I am a little surprised that Rifts does not have more things like this. Brain programming would seem like an interesting subject for the game.

[eliakon]

What about the Chang-Ku Dragon tea that gives super powers? Doesn't that allow the creator to control their minds over time?

It gives powers, not skills and definitely not a new OCC. And it controls their minds indefinitely, although I could just say that their master died...

If not I'm not sure what else there really is to fit that criteria short of a Gene-Splicer rewiring their mind and body.

Gene-splicers cannot instill skills or OCC. They are already on my general modification list, they just don't solve this problem.

I am a little surprised that Rifts does not have more things like this. Brain programming would seem like an interesting subject for the game.

AHHH but a Gene-Splicer CAN implant skills...you just need to be creative.
Gene-Splicers can explicitly create a genetic equivilant to a M.O.M.
M.O.M.'s can have up to two of the skill implants as part of their package as they are an additional M.O.M. implant
Ergo.....

[cosmicfish]

AHHH but a Gene-Splicer CAN implant skills...you just need to be creative.
Gene-Splicers can explicitly create a genetic equivilant to a M.O.M.
M.O.M.'s can have up to two of the skill implants as part of their package as they are an additional M.O.M. implant
Ergo.....

I've thought about that, and it is one partial solution, but there are some issues with this: you can only get one implant with 5 skills, it ALWAYS has some substantial penalties, and it isn't explicitly clear that Gene-Splicers can replicate Mindwerks products (not a big issue that one, just an uneasiness). It doesn't give you a new OCC, it just gives you a handful of skills while taking a big chunk out of all your other skills.

[drewkitty ~..~]

AHHH but a Gene-Splicer CAN implant skills...you just need to be creative.
Gene-Splicers can explicitly create a genetic equivalent to a M.O.M.
M.O.M.'s can have up to two of the skill implants as part of their package as they are an additional M.O.M. implant
Ergo.....

I've thought about that, and it is one partial solution, but there are some issues with this: you can only get one implant with 5 skills, it ALWAYS has some substantial penalties, and it isn't explicitly clear that Gene-Splicers can replicate Mindwerks products (not a big issue that one, just an uneasiness). It doesn't give you a new OCC, it just gives you a handful of skills while taking a big chunk out of all your other skills.

I would say that while GMs can do so...players...unless giving a background story to cover why the char has it good enough to the GM for the GM to okay it....could not.

In other words it takes a GM fiat to make it stand up and work.
-------
I would also make it so that the mimicking could only replicate mundane MOM implants.

[Library Ogre]

Witches are a good option, and they can cover a lot of ground... while there's the default options for powers, a Gift of Power witch could conceivably be anything, and a Gift of Union witch is a frightening powerhouse who's essentially been possessed by part of a demon lord.