Consuming a defeated Foe to gain his Power; It's the Demon Way.

[Shadowsoul]

Re: Consuming a defeated Foe to gain his Power; It's the Demon Way.

 

I have toyed with a similar idea in the past - A hell-world occupied entirely by demons who gain power by slaughtering each other. The idea was to have a sandbox roleplaying game, no plot as such, the players would simply be let loose to gain power as they saw fit.

 

I went for big XP awards as well. I think it was something like this - If a demon killed another demon which was more powerful than them then they gained the difference between their respective Character Points scores, divided by 5. So, if a 150pt demon killed a 200 pt demon, they would gain 200-150 = 50, divided by 5 = 10 xp.

 

If a demon killed a less powerful demon then they gained xp equal to that demon's CP divided by 100, rounding to the nearest 100. So, killing a weaker demon of 50 or less points would yield no xp at all.

 

You might find these ratios useful, or they might not provide enough speed for you. Perhaps the difference between the two CP scores divided by 2 would be more the kind of level you needed.

 

I did think about ways that demons could share kills, as well. Possibly they could be linked to each other through a ritual which allowed gained demonic power to be shared. This could give them reason to work together at first, to bring down powerful opponents and share equally in the power, but could cause them to turn on each other as they became stronger and started to resent sharing power.

[BhelliomRahl]

Re: Consuming a defeated Foe to gain his Power; It's the Demon Way.

 

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how I feel its been decided that someone else will run our Tuesday game as I am running a Monday at present. The friend running it is using a modified HARP system (by him). So far it seems to work.

However I will keep my notes and designs filed for use at a later date.

 

Heres what I have so far:

 

Characters starts on 50pts build with 10pts matching complication. Key note is that I have modifed the starting Characteristic. Most have been halved.

I have then all given them a template (Free) to represent there base character the Lemure (or the blob) Form a Lvl.0 Demon.

 

Demons ranges in Level form 1-10 with 10 being equivilant to godlike powers. Within each level their is a range of demon types (Concepts). I have started to represent these as templates.

Templates (Rough): Brute, Necromancer, Sorcerer, Succubus/Inccubus, Schemer, Controller, Infernal Crafter, etc. I will come up with better names and various ideas.

When the players reach a certain point of experience they will gain a new Demon Level and and a semi-random (Roll on a table with modifers determined by Roleplaying and what souls they have consumed) demon type template. Each template in a level will be build on the same points with Characteristic modifiers, powers, complications and points for skills. They will also gain some points to spend as they choose. All Template stack with the Lvl.0 Lemure Demon but replace other levels. Meaning that with each level players could loose or gain different powers and abilities. What this means is that players may not get the type of Demon they want.

So they have several choices:

1) Remain in their current Form and make it work for them.

2) Change form to a lower level which does what they want.

3) Gain experience rapidly to gain a new level and hopefully get a type better suited to them.

 

As the game progesses players will have several character sheets representing each of their level. (Or at least the ones they intend to use)

 

The main method for a Demon to grow in power is the consumption of the souls (the flesh is just a bonus) of Humans, animals, and demons. The potency of the soul depends on many things; Purity (of goodness, evil or rage), Honour, Magical Power, etc.

 

Death:

Usually with Demons when they are destroyed they are weakened and then banished to the void in their Lemure form, however the players have been bound to the material realm. What the results of the Lemure being destroyed I have not decided. The players will need to regain enough energy to be able to take a stonger form.

 

The demons powers are not new they are memories of previous existences. Throughout time they have been stepping stone to other and risen to godhood with dominion over all creation then have fallen to the void and the process begins again, this cycle has repeated countless times but this time is different.#

 

What do people think?

[Shadowsoul]

Re: Consuming a defeated Foe to gain his Power; It's the Demon Way.

 

Certainly sounds interesting. Would require a lot of playtime to get the full benefit. When it comes to level ups, how much of a change are we talking here? Will there be qualities such as the pattern of their scales or their psy comps that will remain the same? I think the players will be more fond of their characters if they have some continuity.

[Christopher]

Re: Consuming a defeated Foe to gain his Power; It's the Demon Way.

 

What do people think?

Just way to complicated. I once tried playing in a game that forced some other games structure on hero (FF with Changeable Jobs). It worked horobile too not at all.

Every single thing you hardcode in the rules, is a lot of freedom lost for the players.

 

I would just go to "consuming a Demon gives a XP boost" route and allow them to buy every power they aquire via devouring in a simple Multipower. They can cheaply add powers that way and can cheaply upgrade already existing powers.

When they really want to master some powers (like Flight or Resistant Protection) so they can use them togehter with other abilities, jsut allow them to sell back the slot and buy the power outside of the Framework.

[BhelliomRahl]

Re: Consuming a defeated Foe to gain his Power; It's the Demon Way.

 

Just way to complicated. I once tried playing in a game that forced some other games structure on hero (FF with Changeable Jobs). It worked horobile too not at all.

Every single thing you hardcode in the rules, is a lot of freedom lost for the players.

I don't plan to impose another system onto Hero, this Demons game has been running for over 15 years at different points. Their is a fleshed out world including different types of Demon. Every so often a new person is given the material and they write up a game using the system of their choice. Apparently its been run with; Uni-System (Witchcraft / All Flesh Must Be Eaten), Rolemaster, D20 and now HARP (modified) This game could be called the Legacy of the Club, seems like quite a repsonsability to be asked to run it. After the current game ends I am going to get the material myself. With a couple of years I would be interested to see what I can come with.

 

The Template Form of the Demons' is a standing practise. Now I have started to play, its become apparant that Demon Form/Level is independant of experience/character level. Each living creature has Mana and in the instant that a creature dies its mana leaves them, if a demon is close enough to the death or better still is responsible for the death they can absorb it. With enough mana a Demon Level can be purchased (Roll on d7, 1-6 is a demon type and 7 is a choice of the 6). If you are killed (Form Destroyed not Killed, you retain your mana) you return to you basic form but only need to pay a fifth of the mana to return to you an already possessed level. Each Level increase the maximium allowed characteristics. However you do not gain experience to develop yourself, that is done seperately.

 

I think with some work I could create a system within Hero which would work very well but only time will tell.

[Christopher]

Re: Consuming a defeated Foe to gain his Power; It's the Demon Way.

 

I don't plan to impose another system onto Hero' date=' this Demons game has been running for over 15 years at different points.[/quote']

From what I read It sounds like you try to do exactly that and I can only say those things rarely work out. But it's propable I jsut understand your intentiosn wrong.

 

Now I have started to play' date=' its become apparant that Demon Form/Level is independant of experience/character level.[/quote']

Hero is all about "tying powers usable to the amount of XP/Total Points you have" with the greatest possible amount to "mix, match and scale" powers.

 

When you say you untie them, then you in effect play Hero System without point-totals.

[BhelliomRahl]

Re: Consuming a defeated Foe to gain his Power; It's the Demon Way.

 

From what I read It sounds like you try to do exactly that and I can only say those things rarely work out. But it's propable I jsut understand your intentiosn wrong.[/Quote]

Whats important to the Demon game is the setting and thats whats been passed on, each person has used a different rule system to bring the setting to life, we can't even remember what system it started with. The key idea is that Demons grow in power by consuming the mana(lifeforce) of living beings and are evil sadistic monsters who enjoy pain and suffering.

 

Hero is all about "tying powers usable to the amount of XP/Total Points you have" with the greatest possible amount to "mix' date=' match and scale" powers.[/quote']

My fault, what I mean is that their is two different experience pools.

 

1) This experience is gain exclusively from consuming mana and is used to purchase a new Demon level which will randomly grant them a new form in that level or return to one previously lost level after destruction (When a demon reachs 0 Body his form is destroyed and he returns to Level 0, he then has to use this experience to return to that form, however only a fifth of the orginal cost is needed). Each form gives a different set of abilities, I have done this as templates. Each Template will be built on a set number of points for each level, so I will accurately know the power level of each player. However only one template can be used at a time. So some players may choose to remain a lower level because it grants abilities more suited to them until they gain enough experince to take a higher level.

 

2) I will also get each player to give me a list for the character and one for the group covering short and long term goals. Experience will be award from working towards or completing these goals. This

experience can be used for anything. Although their will be restrictions and limits on spending depending on Demon Level and Form.