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Let's make a Grue!

Haven Walkur

By Haven Walkur
in Champions

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Haven Walkur Proficient

Haven Walkur

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I imagine all of us er...mature-aged people remember that lethal haunter of the dark, the Grue. [From the Infocom text game "Zork", for all you whippersnappers out there.] Doctor Anomaly once imported one of the horrid creatures to attack the PCs in an Amber diceless game -- and that almost proved fatal for him, once we worked out what we were facing! But it was a very effective monster, even versus princes of the universe.

 

The Grue is a fascinating menace with an interesting vulnerability, and more people should be attacked by them.

 

So let's write up a Grue for Champions!

 

Massive HKAs, dark vision, maybe even dark-generating powers and a massive vulnerability to light...and more. What do you think?

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sinanju Mentor

sinanju

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Re: Let's make a Grue!

 

You can't stat out the Grue, dammit! That's sacrilege!

 

The Grue is, by definition, mysterious and enigmatic. Nobody ever sees it. Nobody ever meets it except moments before their terrible death. The whole thrill of the Grue is that you can imagine it as whatever horrible thing haunts your nightmares. Any given form, no matter how inspired, is going to be a let-down.

 

The Grue isn't this or that. The Grue just IS. It's a force of nature, a GM "kill the PC with impunity" plot device. It doesn't need stats because YOU CAN'T ESCAPE. Period.

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incrdbil Mentor

incrdbil

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Re: Let's make a Grue!

 

Seems Grues were more of a disadvantage. I dont know if it would be a hunted (14-, more powerful, limited area --only where its dark)--but then you have to stat the thing up anyway. Physical Limitation (Character Dies if they travel in the GUE w/o light)?Susceptibility (6d6 Body per segment when travelling w/o Light)?

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Dr. Anomaly Grand Master

Dr. Anomaly

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Re: Let's make a Grue!

 

Okay, guys, are we going to take a serious approach to this or not? Haven asked for a write-up, so let's see if we can come up with one. A serious one, okay?

 

First, in regards to stats: I could make a case either way...it should have "uber" stats, or it really doesn't need anything higher than a 10 in most things. I suppose in the end it will come down to just how the grue takes out its victims.

 

For now, why don't we put a 20 in each stat and go from there?

 

Okay, now about its relationship to darkness.

 

Obviously it needs to be able to see in the dark, so we could either go with Nightvision or if we wanted to get really effective, N-Ray Vision (Only for seeing through Darkness). We wouldn't want our grue to be "blinded" by a "blackout field" or a "darkness bomb" (Darkness to Sight Group power), would we? Doesn't seem right, I think you'll admit.

 

It's stealthy, because you can never tell when one is near, until it eats you. So...a high Stealth roll, probably Invisiblity to Sight and Hearing Sense Groups, No Fringe (Only in darkness), and probably Invisibility to Danger Sense as well, just for good measure.

 

Now...how does it kill (eat) someone?

 

And let's not worry about point costs, Active Point caps, or anything like that, okay?

 

I like Alice's suggestion of NND Does Body on its attack, with the defense being "there's light around, shining on, or coming from the victim".

 

So...how big an attack do we want?

 

If it needs to be able to take out a human, even one with max stats, in one swipe...we need to to 40 BODY in one blow. If we go with Standard Effect (+0) on the attack so we'll know that we always get that, we need 14d6 Killing. Yikes! But like I said, let's not worry about point costs!

 

Actually, with a STR of 20 (1d6+1 to a HKA) we only need 12d6 HKA in order to get 40 BODY every time.

 

So: 12d6 HKA, NND Does Body. 540 Active Points.

 

Hmmm. I know I said "let's not worry about Active Points" but let's explore some other options, shall we?

 

X-Dim Move: to grue's stomach has also been suggested, and would be quite a bit cheaper.

 

Any other suggestions?

 

And we also need Disads, too: Susceptibility to Light, 3d6 per Segment for example; probably a buttload of Psych disads, too.

 

Well?

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AmadanNaBriona Grand Master

AmadanNaBriona

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Re: Let's make a Grue!

 

Okay' date=' guys, are we going to take a serious approach to this or not? Haven asked for a write-up, so let's see if we can come up with one. A [i']serious[/i] one, okay?

 

First, in regards to stats: I could make a case either way...it should have "uber" stats, or it really doesn't need anything higher than a 10 in most things. I suppose in the end it will come down to just how the grue takes out its victims.

 

For now, why don't we put a 20 in each stat and go from there?

 

Okay, now about its relationship to darkness.

 

Obviously it needs to be able to see in the dark, so we could either go with Nightvision or if we wanted to get really effective, N-Ray Vision (Only for seeing through Darkness). We wouldn't want our grue to be "blinded" by a "blackout field" or a "darkness bomb" (Darkness to Sight Group power), would we? Doesn't seem right, I think you'll admit.

 

It's stealthy, because you can never tell when one is near, until it eats you. So...a high Stealth roll, probably Invisiblity to Sight and Hearing Sense Groups, No Fringe (Only in darkness), and probably Invisibility to Danger Sense as well, just for good measure.

 

Now...how does it kill (eat) someone?

 

And let's not worry about point costs, Active Point caps, or anything like that, okay?

 

I like Alice's suggestion of NND Does Body on its attack, with the defense being "there's light around, shining on, or coming from the victim".

 

So...how big an attack do we want?

 

If it needs to be able to take out a human, even one with max stats, in one swipe...we need to to 40 BODY in one blow. If we go with Standard Effect (+0) on the attack so we'll know that we always get that, we need 14d6 Killing. Yikes! But like I said, let's not worry about point costs!

 

Actually, with a STR of 20 (1d6+1 to a HKA) we only need 12d6 HKA in order to get 40 BODY every time.

 

So: 12d6 HKA, NND Does Body. 540 Active Points.

 

Hmmm. I know I said "let's not worry about Active Points" but let's explore some other options, shall we?

 

X-Dim Move: to grue's stomach has also been suggested, and would be quite a bit cheaper.

 

Any other suggestions?

 

And we also need Disads, too: Susceptibility to Light, 3d6 per Segment for example; probably a buttload of Psych disads, too.

 

Well?

 

Hmm....

I agree with the Invisiblity to Sight, Sound & danger sense.. (probably add a few common detects in there as well... magic, life that sort of thing), and the Nray vision is just waht the doc ordered too.

I don't see its attack as having to be standard effect instant lethal... If we actually wanted to make this a nauseatingly powerful monster, but one that COULD be used in a game, I'd go with a suite of powers that would effectivly render most every character helpless and rapidly dead without extreme power effects.

Maybe leave the HKA NND(or AVLD), Does body, cap the damage around 5-6 dice, but add autofire and continous. That way it just lays into you and you sort of disassemble into a cloud of component parts

Add in some sort of paralysis effect maybe (frozen in terror), give Mr. Grue a lot of levels and ouch.

As a thought... maybe the Invisiblity SHOULDN'T be only in the dark? Maybe in addition to the invisibllity, our grue should have A NCC Desolid, only in light?

IIRC, you NEVER got a chance to see the bugger, even if you struck a light at the last moment.

 

For some reason when I think of the Grue, the mental image that comes to mind is like an undead thing that looks like a cross between the Alien and the Shrike (From the Hyperion Cantos books). Lots of carapace and spiky bits everywhere, with limbs all over the place and enough teeth to make a Las Vegas Dentists Convention pass out in collective glee.

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