The Blood in a fantasy setting

[Mr. R]

Aaron Allston in his campaign had a group called the Blood.  It was a means to add to the backstory of a few of his PCs.

 

Basically they were humans that were magically mutated and thus became the ruling class of their pre historic tribe.  When the tribe left earth, the Blood were set up as the nobility.  (oh and it breeds true--- a Human/ Blood pairing is a Blood)

 

As far as abilities, 

15 str

20 dex

15 con

 

6 pd as base

6 ed as base

 

4 Spd

 

X Ray vision

 

Flight or Tport

 

EB or RKA at 40 AP

 

 

So have any of you ever had a similar group in your campaign?

 

I am just curious, I am not planning to add a similar group to my campaign!

[Old Man]

That's way OP for any of the FH campaigns I've been in, though I suspect Mr. Allston's campaign was closer to supers if The Blood are able to leave Earth.

 

In my own vaporware campaign, magical mutation is the cause of several PC races.  None of this inherent teleport ability type stuff though.  Jesus.

[Lord Liaden]

Deleted.

[Sketchpad]

It's an interesting idea. I might de-power them a bit to bring them into fantasy, unless you're running a pretty epic campaign. Could they fit in? Sure. I'd use them similar to the Nine Princes of Amber or a hidden species that players slow evolve into.

[assault]

I haven't done anything of the sort but...

Obviously they were originally designed for a superheroic campaign, but they wouldn't be too overpowered for the right kind of FH game.

I'd replace the X Ray Vision with something with a more magical feel.

I'd consider some limitations on their other abilities, but I might not be too strict.

I'm not too fussed by their power level. They would be burning a lot of points just on their basic stuff alone. That wouldn't leave a lot for everything else.

[DShomshak]

I know of the Blood only from the early Champions supplement The Blood and Dr. McQuark and from Mr Allston's Strike Force. I assume he never meant it for anything but Champions.

 

That said, super-powered lineages have a place in Fantasy. The Amber series has already been mentioned. Let me add the game Exalted. One of the types of Exalted characters are the Dragon-Blooded, whose elemental powers are heritable. (With some complications that don't matter here.) The largest group of Dragon-Blooded are the Scarlet Dynasty, the aristocracy of the Scarlet Empire, a.k.a. the Realm. Over the 700+ years of her reign, the Scarlet Empress married leading members of all the Realm's Dragon-Blooded lineages, so all the Realm's Dragon-Blooded are her kin either by true descent or as a legal fiction. Much smaller lineages exist in other parts of the game setting.

 

Dean Shomshak

[SCUBA Hero]

I had a concept like this that was well-received by the gaming group, but never got off the ground.

 

Fantasy Hero.  You have a race (like the Blood).  And normal humans.  And Blood-human Offspring.  A feudal setting; the Blood are the high nobles, humans commoners/serfs/slaves, and Offspring the equivalent of Knights.

 

The key mechanic is that Blood have 12 DCs of Damage Negation and the equivalent of 12 DCs of Deadly Blow - except with both Normal and Killing attacks and in all circumstances.  Offspring had 6 DCs.  Humans, zero.  (There were other powers as well, like RKAs.)

 

This has the effect that each type affects itself normally, but a human attacking a Blood needs at least a 4d6+1K or 13d6N to even have a *chance* at affecting them.  Offspring-Blood and human-offspring, 2d6+1K or 7d6N.

 

The players would all have been Offspring, each having their own fief.

[Lord Liaden]

A variation on this is a significant part of Hero's The Atlantean Age fantasy setting. The Atlantean gods, inspired by the gods of classical Greece, have the typical godly taste for mortal flesh. So it's not too uncommon for heroes to have divine blood, and the setting provides templates of abilities typical for the offspring or descendants of specific gods. That also applies to scions of the ten demigod sons of Poseidon who rule Atlantis (who, being easier to interact with than full gods, are probably closer in conception to the Blood).