Carpenter's The Thing

[Doc Tough]

Doc sez...

 

I know this post also belongs elsewhere, but I'd like to hear if anyone has used the aliens from the The Thing movie in their campaign and what they've done with them?

 

I very much like the movies and the original story and thought they represented a more insidious alien threat than other more recent juggernaut alien killers.

 

Doc Tough

[Egyptoid]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

well first you have to design a power that nets you the character points of what you kill to add to your own. "Permanent" Drain?

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

I'm thinking that making the Thing from another world would be an interseting exercise in HERO-fu.

 

Basic constructs...

A really mucking big multiform. Git jiggy with it and you can use it both for the shapeshifting and the "permenant drain" aspects.

 

Duplication &/or summon for the whole "bits are fully functional critters of their own" concept.

 

Hmm.

 

I'll have to ponder this a bit more.. don't have the time to do it right, right now

[Susano]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

I have been debating working on The Thing now that UMM has been released. While it doesn't fully explain how to build The Thing, it does offer a lot of good suggestions. Anyway, The Thing is on my list of "things" to do.

 

At minimum, The Thing has Shape Shift (into anything) with such Adders as Cellular and Mimic. It also has a small suite of powers or a VPP to represent its shape shifting (i.e. HKA, Stretching, Extra Limbs, and so on). It has Damage Reduction versus most physical attacks, but none versus fire, laser, or (probably electricity). It has major Life Support, probably against cold, heat, pressure, and the like, as well as the ability to remain frozen for thousands of years and still "live." It might even have Regen from "death."

[Curufea]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

And the size of the creature determines its intelligence. The smaller, the more animalistic and instinctive it is (ie the blood samples).

 

I'd treat the infection as a gradual effect HKA - because it does always kill the target. Then you could have a triggered summon.

[Egyptoid]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

I'd treat the infection as a gradual effect HKA - because it does always kill the target. Then you could have a triggered summon.

 

stop it. you're turning me on with talk like that.

[Susano]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

And the size of the creature determines its intelligence. The smaller, the more animalistic and instinctive it is (ie the blood samples).

 

I'd treat the infection as a gradual effect HKA - because it does always kill the target. Then you could have a triggered summon.

 

Right... the build needs progressive INT based on size class.

 

I was thinking of a Transform, but since you can't heal from the infection... HKA works much better (NND of course).

[Curufea]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

Defense being "not organic"

[Lucian]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

Im wondering how you would design a creature who can change into such a perfect copy of its target that the copy doesnt even know that its a copy.

 

If you watch the movie, some of the thing creatures didnt seem to realise that they were "things" until they were exposed. For example the guy who had a heart attack.

 

Essentially you would need some sort of false disguise personality and memories over the real personality. The "real" personality could take over at any time but the false personality would be used to blend in. That would imply telepathy or something while the target is being eaten / assimilated.

[Curufea]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

That doesn't need rules for it. It's part of the nature of the summoned Thing (if you choose that route). Summoned things have all the memories and personality of the original, unless their survival is threatened.

[Lucian]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

You think so? I would have though that the ability to act *exactly* like the target right down to memories and personality was a pretty big advantage.

 

I mean anything in the Hero system that gives a significant advantage is supposed to be worth points isnt it?

 

It seems to me that giving a copy the memories and personality of its "template" for free is going way beyond the idea of a special effect.

[Susano]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

You think so? I would have though that the ability to act *exactly* like the target right down to memories and personality was a pretty big advantage.

 

I mean anything in the Hero system that gives a significant advantage is supposed to be worth points isnt it?

 

It seems to me that giving a copy the memories and personality of its "template" for free is going way beyond the idea of a special effect.

 

Well, Mimic and Cellular go a long way to answering this question. Also, some sort of Cumulative Telepathy to absorb memories and the like, linked to the HKA.

[Curufea]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

Ah well - each to their own. But I wouldn't stat it out, because of the nature of the Thing as antagonist. I tend not to stat-out anything that could be more easily handled with GM-fiat, because I don't need the numbers. I frequently never writeup bad guys, just base their stats on the PCs and give them a plus or minus.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

Well' date=' Mimic and Cellular go a long way to answering this question. Also, some sort of Cumulative Telepathy to absorb memories and the like, linked to the HKA.[/quote']

hmmmm....

Well, if you go back to the Transform model rather than the KA+Summon, then you don't need to worry about sucking out the memories. I don't seem to remember the thing leaving dead bodies around after its "converted" someone, but its been a while since I've seen the movie.

 

The whole initial model of Transform was based off Killing Attacks, so it seems a bit bass ackwards to me to model a textbook Transformation as a Killing Attack + Summon.

 

I'm still uncertain if I'd handle the cellular awareness & ability to form smaller and bigger critters as a Summon or as a tweaked out Duplication.

[Susano]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

hmmmm....

Well, if you go back to the Transform model rather than the KA+Summon, then you don't need to worry about sucking out the memories. I don't seem to remember the thing leaving dead bodies around after its "converted" someone, but its been a while since I've seen the movie.

 

The whole initial model of Transform was based off Killing Attacks, so it seems a bit bass ackwards to me to model a textbook Transformation as a Killing Attack + Summon.

 

I'm still uncertain if I'd handle the cellular awareness & ability to form smaller and bigger critters as a Summon or as a tweaked out Duplication.

 

Well, you're supposed to be able to heal from a Transform, so a KA resolves that issue. And no, the Thing doesn't leave bodies behind, it takes them over.

 

The ability to become different sized creatures is.... Hmm... UMM might show it as Duplication. I'll need to check.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

Well, you're supposed to be able to heal from a Transform, so a KA resolves that issue. And no, the Thing doesn't leave bodies behind, it takes them over.

 

The ability to become different sized creatures is.... Hmm... UMM might show it as Duplication. I'll need to check.

you've got a point of the Healing back/reversal conditions. Thats one part I'm more likely to handwave, depending on the game I'm using the Transform in. I have no problems with making the reversal conditions nigh impossible to meet if it fits the scenario... I still have the designers notes from C3 in the back of my head that reasoned "If you do enough damage to something to kill it, you should be able to change it into something else" (more a paraphrase than a literal quote, BTW)

[Lucian]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

I think I would go with a transform too, with the healing conditions practically impossible to acheive. I really dont have a problem with doing that if it makes sense.

 

As others have pointed out, theres no problems with the "copy" having the target's memories, language and personality as a disguise since the copy still *is* the target (at least in game terms).

[Curufea]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

Until triggered - usually by survival instinct. The film never got into communication/social behaviour between Things. They also seem to have genetic memory - as it remembered how to build a spaceship, even after it spent a considerable amount of time in a form with limited intelligence (the dog).

[Susano]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

Until triggered - usually by survival instinct. The film never got into communication/social behaviour between Things. They also seem to have genetic memory - as it remembered how to build a spaceship' date=' even after it spent a considerable amount of time in a form with limited intelligence (the dog).[/quote']

 

Ah... but just because it has the form of a dog, does it have the dog's intelligence? I don't think so. I think the dog had almost human intelligence (or even equal to), based on its actions. The dog "knew" what it was doing.

[Lucian]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

Maybe there's only 1 thing and its able to simultaneously operate in seperate forms (like with duplication). Certainly in the end of the film it was able to pull enough biomass together (presumably by merging several smaller forms) to result in a massive shape.

[Curufea]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

It may have got the extra mass from the food stores as well - presumable the base was well stocked.

[Susano]

Re: Carpenter's The Thing

 

Maybe there's only 1 thing and its able to simultaneously operate in seperate forms (like with duplication). Certainly in the end of the film it was able to pull enough biomass together (presumably by merging several smaller forms) to result in a massive shape.

 

I believe the large monster seen at the end of the film is due to the Thing absorbing two people (uhm... the white security guy and the black cook). So I do think the Thing can divide and recombine at will.