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How would you build Dr. Morbius?


Jaxom

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Yeah, yeah, so I'm old.

 

Dr. Edward Morbius was the guy from Forbidden Planet who had used the alien technology and was sending out, unbeknownst to himself, a pure psychic construct of the id.

 

I figure I have two options... My initial thought was that I would build the "monster" as a Henchman and take some pretty serious limitations with him. I've thought this one through much more thoroughly than my other option but would love to see ideas for this one anyway. I figure the other option is to build him as a power framework (built around Duplication?) of some kind but I am much less familiar with some of the more obscure possibilities there.

 

The SFX goals are:

* Separate entity which can be targetted, attacked and suffer damage (Easy with a henchman, is it even possible with a power framework?)

* Linked entity which will cause serious feedback if it is killed but minimal feedback until then (I would expect to retire the character as a vegetable if his id were destroyed)

* Invisible Brick build of power comparable to the PCs (Dr. Morbius himself is intended to be a low-grade mentalist and skill master by comparison)

* Partially controlled? I get to say what I want it to do, the GM can over-rule me at any point that he wants (I trust my GM here and I know I am giving him carte blanche to do nasty things here but I expect him to tell a good story if he decides to go this route)

 

 

I should mention that at this point I am not terribly concerned about the actual powers for the monster... Just how you would go about building the initial framework so that the monster comes up at about 90-100% of PC point values with Dr. Morbius in the 30-70% range if possible. (A true Henchman build would mean Dr. Morbius at 70%, monster at 100% (20%*5) and leave 50% (10%*5) to build Morbius' daughter Altaira but that seems way munchkin unless you guys can come up with some good limitations for me to put on the monster so I'm not just building my own superteam...)

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Re: How would you build Dr. Morbius?

 

Yeah, yeah, so I'm old.

 

Dr. Edward Morbius was the guy from Forbidden Planet who had used the alien technology and was sending out, unbeknownst to himself, a pure psychic construct of the id.

 

I figure I have two options... My initial thought was that I would build the "monster" as a Henchman and take some pretty serious limitations with him. I've thought this one through much more thoroughly than my other option but would love to see ideas for this one anyway. I figure the other option is to build him as a power framework (built around Duplication?) of some kind but I am much less familiar with some of the more obscure possibilities there.

 

The SFX goals are:

* Separate entity which can be targetted, attacked and suffer damage (Easy with a henchman, is it even possible with a power framework?)

* Linked entity which will cause serious feedback if it is killed but minimal feedback until then (I would expect to retire the character as a vegetable if his id were destroyed)

* Invisible Brick build of power comparable to the PCs (Dr. Morbius himself is intended to be a low-grade mentalist and skill master by comparison)

* Partially controlled? I get to say what I want it to do, the GM can over-rule me at any point that he wants (I trust my GM here and I know I am giving him carte blanche to do nasty things here but I expect him to tell a good story if he decides to go this route)

 

 

I should mention that at this point I am not terribly concerned about the actual powers for the monster... Just how you would go about building the initial framework so that the monster comes up at about 90-100% of PC point values with Dr. Morbius in the 30-70% range if possible. (A true Henchman build would mean Dr. Morbius at 70%, monster at 100% (20%*5) and leave 50% (10%*5) to build Morbius' daughter Altaira but that seems way munchkin unless you guys can come up with some good limitations for me to put on the monster so I'm not just building my own superteam...)

 

I repped you one this, bc I'm old also.

 

Ok now to helping you do this. What about doing the monster as a summon, and give it mind link, psyhic bond, limited to only unconsious desires, needs (you and your GM figure out the lim on that), plus a few other lim's, (I don't have my book in front of me so you need to look them up). Dissapears when mentalist/summoner is KO'ed. Add feedback to the summoner when the monster is damaged, I'd make it a culimitive mind control--that makes the summoner want the monster to stay or hurt more than the one harming it.

 

That's all I have now.

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Re: How would you build Dr. Morbius?

 

I'd say the simplest way is a Summomn :Monster of the id, No con. controll make it slavishly loyal to your dark desires and the stat out the id monster as needed...of course the original had acess to the infinate power of the Krell instermentality...so you'll need to tone it down a little...:)

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Re: How would you build Dr. Morbius?

 

I'd say the simplest way is a Summomn :Monster of the id' date=' No con. controll make it slavishly loyal to your dark desires and the stat out the id monster as needed...of course the original had acess to the infinate power of the Krell instermentality...so you'll need to tone it down a little...:)[/quote']

Yeah, that would probably be close...

 

Basically, a very talented normal, with greatly enhanced intellect:

Dr. Edward Morbius

 

Val Char Cost Roll Notes

10 STR 0 11- Lift 100.0kg; 2d6 [1]

10 DEX 0 11- OCV: 3/DCV: 3

10 CON 0 11-

10 BODY 0 11-

25 INT 15 14- PER Roll 14-

25 EGO 30 14- ECV: 8

20 PRE 10 13- PRE Attack: 4d6

14 COM 2 12-

 

2 PD 0 Total: 2 PD (0 rPD)

2 ED 0 Total: 2 ED (0 rED)

2 SPD 0 Phases: 6, 12

4 REC 0

20 END 0

20 STUN 0 Total Characteristic Cost: 57

 

 

Cost Powers END

171 Summon 1500-point Monster of the ID, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Loyal (+1/2) (600 Active Points); No Conscious Control (-2), Arrives Under Own Power (-1/2)

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Re: How would you build Dr. Morbius?

 

Honestly, I don't think there should be any feedback on the the doctor from destroying the ID Monster. It's been a while since I've seen the movie, but it seemed to me like the Monster wasn't his ID (he has his own ID after all), but a manifestation of his ID's will, powered by the alien technology.

 

I'd probably build it as either Duplication or Summoning, with No Conscious Control, and Inobvious Inaccessible Immobile Focus (The alien power-plant).

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Re: How would you build Dr. Morbius?

 

Honestly, I don't think there should be any feedback on the the doctor from destroying the ID Monster. It's been a while since I've seen the movie, but it seemed to me like the Monster wasn't his ID (he has his own ID after all), but a manifestation of his ID's will, powered by the alien technology.

 

I'd probably build it as either Duplication or Summoning, with No Conscious Control, and Inobvious Inaccessible Immobile Focus (The alien power-plant).

 

Allow me to add a "me too," to this suggestion.

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Re: How would you build Dr. Morbius?

 

I'm going to be the lazy one who says that this is a classic case of a plot device. The monster is effectively unstoppable and can increase its power to whatever is needed. I'd handwave the mechanics and just give him the Power Dramatic. (ie. he fights until I say otherwise).

The real drama of Forbidden Planet is the uncovering the mystery. As a combat scenario, the Earth folks don't stand a snowcone's chance on Mercury.

 

Keith "Of course, the players don't need to know that." Curtis

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Re: How would you build Dr. Morbius?

 

I'd give him average Characteristics except for a good Presence and Comeliness, Ego in the 20s, and Intelligence in the 40s. Add a lot of Knowledge and Science Skills concerning the Krell, some gadgeteering skills or powers, and...

The Robot would be a very expensive Follower

Altaira a DNPC claiming to have useful skills

The Monster of the ID would be a Hunted (or Watched, but I'm not sure wiping out the colony, attacking the starship crew, and finally turning on about everyone are the actions of a Watcher.)

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Re: How would you build Dr. Morbius?

 

Since this got resurrected I figured I'd say that I decided that there were some fundamental problems with the concept that needed to be reworked. Instead of using Dr. Morbius exactly I decided a couple of things...

 

First, the id is too low-level to present any real master-mind kind of character... See the anime file Akira for the fundamental reasoning... It's too selfish and into immediate gratification to allow for the monster to actually do things that would represent deep planning. As a result, he can't really be from the id... He'd have to be a conscious manifestation to fit a complex campaign.

 

Second, if I want point values to be meaningful (for record keeping purposes when I go to build other characters), the way to build the "group" would be to use a target character point value to build the monster and then give up about 10% of *his* points to build Dr. Morbius and Altaira as henchmen/DNPCs.

 

The idea that I could "handwave the mechanics and just give him the Power Dramatic (ie. he fights until I say otherwise)" would work but doesn't satisfy the desire to actually explore the building mechanics (to better my fundamentals).

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