The Thing in Hero Terms

[LouGoncey]

Yo folks,

I'm messing around and decided to create The Thing (the monster from the 1982 John Carpenter film based off the old John Campbell story "Who Goes There?) Any ideas from the Hero fans on the boards?

[McCoy]

Re: The Thing in Hero Terms

 

Shape shifting with disguise skill, Duplication, Massive VPP, automation powers doesn't bleed & takes no stun. Life support, cold (goes inactive if drops below freeezing but does not take any harm from it). Don't know if I'd go with a vulnerability to fire or 75% Damage Reduction vs PD.

[L. Marcus]

Re: The Thing in Hero Terms

 

Shape shifting with disguise skill' date=' Duplication, Massive VPP, automation powers doesn't bleed & takes no stun. Life support, cold (goes inactive if drops below freeezing but does not take any harm from it). Don't know if I'd go with a vulnerability to fire or 75% Damage Reduction vs PD.[/quote']

I'd say no Damage reduction and no vulnerability, just a high PD and a low ED.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: The Thing in Hero Terms

 

Well, it was basically invulnerable to bullets (right?), so a high resistant PD is a must. Dogs could tell the Thing from...uh...the real thing (IIRC), so the shapeshift doesn't affect the scent group.

 

Man, the more I think about it, the less I'm sure about what happened in that story. I should go out and try to rent it.

[austenandrews]

Re: The Thing in Hero Terms

 

Regeneration. Maybe Distinctive Features to cover the "live blood" and similar characteristics.

[Curufea]

Re: The Thing in Hero Terms

 

No hit locations (if using them for everyone else). It has no vital organs, but is actually a hive-mind of single cell animals. Each single cell Thing can change colour, shape and form to imitate any animal cell in function. Infection spreads exponentially.

 

I would link BODY damage to function. The less mass it has, the less it can do - and the less intelligent it becomes until at the basic smallest size that it can remain mobile (around the size of a hand or so) - it only knows animal instincts (fight and flee). Smaller than than it seems to be inert and relies on animals touching it.

[JTesla]

Re: The Thing in Hero Terms

 

I caught some of this movie yesterday, great flick. Kurt Russell always went at it with flame throwers, some died easily, one decided to run outside while burning so it could be dynamited. I would probably give it vulnerability to fire. I would also throw in extra limbs and stretching, for the tentacles or extra legs. I would let them bleed, as that was one of the detection tests.

 

There are two more complex parts that I see: the infection, transforming variable creatures into "Thing" like creatures with relative ease. The other complex part can be covered by McCoy’s suggestion of Duplication – where limbs or the head of the victim can operate independently of the rest of the creature even if it has been burned to a crisp. For instance in one part the body was burned, but the head decided to wander off.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: The Thing in Hero Terms

 

It didn't actually transform anything into the Thing, did it? I was under the impression that it would eat people and dogs, and take their form as a disguise, but not that they were transformed. Except, I suppose, in the way that I'm transforming some eggs into Captain Obvious right now.

[JTesla]

Re: The Thing in Hero Terms

 

I got the impression that it was similar to an infection. One person had been chest deep into it, even though he was still alive, they torched him. The doctor also sabotaged the bases transportation because he calculated the rate of spread if it were to get out.

[Susano]

Re: The Thing in Hero Terms

 

I have wanted to do a character sheet for THE THING for some time. I recently bought the new "deluxe edition" and had the following thoughts about it:

 

1) Duplication -- At one point they burn man's corpse and the head pulls away and tries to crawl off.

 

2) Shape Shift -- It can look, feel, and sound like nearly anything. This being a game and not the movie, the shape shifting can be a lot faster, not the drawn-out process seen in the film.

 

3) No Hit Locations -- As stated, it is a mass of single-cell organisms and has no real vital areas. It also has Does Not Bleed. It bleeds alright, but doesn't lose BODY when doing so.

 

4) Transform -- Living target into another "thing." It spreads like an infection in some ways, although Carpenter has stated the computer model seen in the film is incorrect. This might be a totally Invisible Power Effects ability, as it is suggested people who have been taken over don't know until The Thing decides it is time to act.

 

5) I like the INT based on BODY/Mass, as it helps define the collective intelligence. The only problem is the scene where the blood and other fluids drip from the apparent corpse and take over the one scientist in the storage room (the one who runs outside mostly transformed). This seems a step above "fight or flight" reflex.

 

6) Extra Limbs, Stretching, HKA -- these all represent the assorted tentacles, claws, arms, and mouths the creature and produce at will. You also can consider Increased Arc of Perception and PER bonuses.

 

7) Possible extra BODY "Only To Not Be Dead" yet, Damage Reduction versus Physical Attacks, and (maybe) Regeneration.

 

8) Growth based on "consuming" additional mass. See how big the final form was after two men where killed and taken over.

 

9) Increased STR, CON, and possible DEX. Its SPD is pretty good too, since it often got the jump on the humans.

 

10) Trivia -- Kurt Russell played his role as if he was human throughout the entire movie. John Carpenter never had, or has forgotten the sequence of events in which the various characters are taken over (i.e. no one knows who is taken first).

 

That's it for me.

[AlHazred]

Re: The Thing in Hero Terms

 

Man, that was a great movie. That was probably one of the two best reimaginings of a 50s movie for a modern audience*. One thing that really tells how well it was made is how well it holds up today, twenty years after it was made. I always thought they left themselves room for a sequel - remember the spacecraft buried in ice?

 

*The other is the movie Aliens, as a remake of Them!

[Susano]

Re: The Thing in Hero Terms

 

Man, that was a great movie. That was probably one of the two best reimaginings of a 50s movie for a modern audience*. One thing that really tells how well it was made is how well it holds up today, twenty years after it was made. I always thought they left themselves room for a sequel - remember the spacecraft buried in ice?

 

*The other is the movie Aliens, as a remake of Them!

 

There is THING computer game that is a sequel.

 

Also, Carpenter mentioned doing a modern remake of THEM, which I'd love to see.

[L. Marcus]

Re: The Thing in Hero Terms

 

There is THING computer game that is a sequel.

 

Also, Carpenter mentioned doing a modern remake of THEM, which I'd love to see.

Oooo, yes!

 

I love the original! It had James 'Zebulon Macahan' Arness as a FBI agent . . .

[austenandrews]

Re: The Thing in Hero Terms

 

Man' date=' that was a great movie. That was probably one of the two best reimaginings of a 50s movie for a modern audience*. One thing that really tells how well it was made is how well it holds up today, twenty years after it was made. I always thought they left themselves room for a sequel - remember the spacecraft buried in ice?[/quote']

It wasn't really a reimagining, but a second adaptation of the original story. For my part, I hope they don't make a sequel. Leave it as a standalone work. I respect the film too much to want it regarded as a "property."

 

*The other is the movie Aliens, as a remake of Them!

*heh* I never thought of it in those terms. I'll have to re-watch Them! with that in mind. (I always regarded Aliens as mostly a beat-for-beat copy of Alien, but escalated.)

 

I'd rate Alien, the remake/ripoff of It! The Terror From Beyond Space, in your list.

[Southern Cross]

Re: The Thing in Hero Terms

 

I wish somebody would do a writeup for the creature in It! The Terror From Beyond Space.

And I've always thought the was a connection between the two species of alien monsters,as acid blood would be a great defense against a space vampire.Perhaps the creatures in the Alien movies were intended as a countermeasure against It!,but proved to be uncontrollable.

And in the original story the Thing had Persistent telepathic abilities,as it was sending thoughts to Blair while it was still trapped in the ice.