Killborg: The first two humans to ever disagree beat each other to death with sticks and stones, each one pitting it’s own body against the other, contesting the strength of their sinew. As the eons passed, we changed our weapons, we changed our tactics, we even invented new reasons to kill each other, but we still used the same old bodies that had first started lobbing bones. Incredible anyone managed to die at all really - we’re long past such things now.
You’re a Killborg, a biomechanical cyborg literally built for combat. You may have started out human, or have been grown in a vat - it’s impossible to tell now. Some institution did this to you, and you probably worked for them for a while, but your term of service is up now - you escaped, somehow, were discharged for poor conduct or obsolescence, or just had whatever body you were serving collapse. The marks of your service still weigh heavy on your body and mind - literally in the former case.
Starting Items:
Discharge papers, one 2-handed gun (your choice, any off the list), additional large weapon (other 2-handed gun, 2-handed melee weapon, or tactical shield), gun an ordinary person would need to use a mount to for (machine-gun, anti-materiel rifle, infantry mortar), a shitload of ammo
Starting Skill:
- Murderin’
- Slaughterin’
- Butcherin’
- Ending lives
- Extinguishing the flame vital, cutting short the golden thread, stopping hearts and quieting brains
- Killin’
A: Cybercop, Murderbot
B: Juice Cleanse OR Moonshine
C: Deprogramming OR Sovereign Citizen
D: Reach Heaven OR Through Violence
Cybercop- There are a set of rules. You understand them, deep in your five artificial hearts, because they made you understand them. Deep enough you need a CHA roll to disobey any of them, actually. Gain 50 XP whenever you succeed on a CHA roll to disobey one of these commands.
- Destroy evidence of wrongdoing by the Worthy Three - the Company, the State, and the Soldier (other Killborgs).
- Follow the commands of the Worthy Three, unless it would immediately harm you, harm your finances, or return you to their service.
- Respond to any provocation with immediate and exaggerated violence. Show not a shred of mercy to those outside the Worthy Three.
- Do not accept advice nor pay respect to those outside the Worthy Three. Go out of your way to do the opposite, actually.
Murderbot- You were made into a tool, more machine than man. Literally, by weight most of your body mass is artificial, all those composite plates and hydraulic muscles and rare-earth batteries are really godammn heavy.
- You have [the maximum armor for non-vehicles] and can make yourself immune to poison, vacuum, and drowning by sealing your breathing valves - which is convenient because you sink like the 600 pound amalgamation of metal and ceramic you are.
- Your CON is 18, you can hold your breath for 15 minutes, and you never tire of exertion - as long as you consume your daily 5 gallons of Certified Acceptable™️ biofuels. Note that the latter might be difficult to acquire as they’re somewhat of a controlled substance, and if you get a criminal record you won’t be able to purchase it anymore.
- Your STR is 18, and you can carry any weapon as if it were a size smaller (a rifle in one hand, or a tripod-mounted machine gun in two) - though your overwhelming strength limits manual dexterity, you can’t even use
Juice Cleanse- You’ve gained the ability to live off of regular sugary beverages instead of military biofuels, and gained just a bit of understanding of non-Three scum, enough to show a bit of respect for them them and their advice. The poorer diet has unfortunately negatively affected your abilities though - reroll your Constitution score, change your HP to match, and remove your immunity to exertion. You can now hold your breath for up to an hour though so that’s a positive.
Moonshine- You’ve broken the corporate leash of your own metabolism - no longer do you need special military biofuels, you can now digest any old thing so long as it’s also biofuel, like the stuff algae farms use to run tractors. You’ve also learned to be able to actually listen to the advice of ordinary people instead of disregarding it out of hand - not that you’ll show it, still need a CHA roll to outwardly display respect to anyone, even, no, especially the Three.
Deprogamming- The so-called “honor” code which bound you to serve Evil and hide it from the public is gone, you’re free at last. As a symbol of that freedom you’ve come out of your shell - literally, the tracking chips in it meant you had to pry it off, the outer hard layers at least. The inner padding that remains is only enough to give you a natural armor of [shitty armor class], but shedding the weight of all that means you’re now actually lighter and more agile than an ordinary human - your DEX is now 17 if it wasn’t already higher, and obviously you no longer have to deal with sinking.
Sovereign Citizen- You’re no longer enslaved to serve the interests of anyone save yourself, no more protecting and serving the big Three- though you are literally forced to serve your own interests, you’re incapable of any kind of purely altruistic endeavor - gotta be something in it for you. You had to damage your armor a bit to pry out their bugs and the vacuum-seals no longer work but it still grants you a natural armor of [next-best armor class].
Reach Heaven- Your hands are no longer mere tools of destruction, you’ve bent your artificial muscles into something capable of actual creation, of drawing an image and sculpting a pot and typing up a manuscript. Nor are you psychologically bound to destruction - not only do you need not retaliate, not only can you now forgive and forget, you can expertly maintain calm during the most heated of arguments and have Deescalation as a skill. The flip side though is that you’re no longer nearly as proficient in the dealing of death, incapable of firing a mortar from over your shoulder and other such feats - in fact you’re no longer even capable of violence at all except in self-defense.
Through Violence- You’ve freed yourself entirely from the will of lesser men, no provocation can force you to act unless you will it. In fact, nothing and no-one can force you to act except at your own leisure - should a gun be pressed to your temple, you will not, can not do what is asked unless you want to - impending death does not justify action, only positive reward. Your artificial muscles decay, slightly from lack of maintenance - your STR score is now only 17 - but you gain Resilience as a skill.
Painted Devil: You’re a Painted Devil - a knight of the underworld, an outlaw soldier who marks their profession by extensive body modification. No two of your kind look the same, but the combined image is unmistakable
Starting Items:
Customized synthleather jumpsuit, one two-handed weapon of your choice, two one-handed weapons of your choice, 2d4 boxes of ammunition, fuel, or batteries as appropriate to prior weapons, thousands of ₱ in cosmetic surgery
Starting Skill:
- Heraldry (gang signs)
- Equestrianship (motorbikes)
- Music (music)
- Calligraphy (graffiti)
- Liturgical latin (old-earth spanish)
- Tea ceremonies (The “tea” in question being more akin to Ayahuasca than matcha)
A: Looks of Lucifer, Style of Satan, +1 to-hit
B: Eye of Ibis, +1 to-hit
C: Devil’s Due, +1 to-hit
D: Ahriman, +1 to-hit
Looks of Lucifer- You’re a Painted Devil, and look the part - you bear an extensive array of cosmetic surgeries that makes both you yourself and your choice of profession unmistakable. You win automatically the enmity of corpo, cop, fed, and the rest of the “law”, and the respect (and fear) of everyone else. Walk alone, at night, in the most dangerous part of the worst slum and nobody will give you shit - can’t say the same if you walk into city. hall. Any kind of organized criminal is obliged to offer you parley, and is likely to offer you a job. Also, of course, your look is distinct, personal, unmistakable - choose how you look, what modifications you’ve had done and what you look like as a result - and gain double XP for every 100 nupesos you spend on additional cosmetic surgery.
Style of Satan You are a student of the art of killing. You get a +[template]s bonus to-hit (already marked in the templates of course) and know two Styles - that is, some kind of fancy combat technique, like martian chainsaw juggling or freefall jiu-jitsu. A list of such is provided below. You gain 10 XP every time you learn another Style.
Eye of Iblis- You may now Recognize Styles. You Recognize any Styles you already know yourself, as well as any used by someone you’ve already defeated in a fair fight. Note that even if someone doesn’t know a capital-S Style of the type with actual mechanics, anyone with any sort of combat training will be using some sort of style which you can Recognize if you’ve defeated them before - kill one marine and you can Recognize anyone using the MCMAP, for instance. Attacks or Maneuvers against you by someone currently using a Style you Recognize have Disadvantage. Whichever Style someone last used is considered the one they’re currently using for all Attacks and Maneuvers, unless they choose to switch to another Style. To be clear you should write down what Styles you Recognize.
Devi’s Due- You’ve advanced further in the art of killing. +3 to any Attacks or Maneuvers by you against someone using a Style you Recognize. You may now attempt to Recognize a Style you don’t already know while it’s being used against you in combat, with a successful INT roll granting Recognition.
Ahriman- You’re now a true master of the art of killing. You now immediately know and can use any Style you Recognize, adding it immediately to the list of those you know.
Styles: Not a complete list, but a bunch of examples. Note that these are not Painted Devil Styles, they’re Styles which Painted Devils have collected - GM’s should be giving these styles to regular NPC’s who fit the bill of the Style’s users
Halogen knife-fighting: A “dirty” close-quarters style originating among Atlantean maintenance divers, focused on tactical use of light sources to stun opponents and create openings for knife attacks. You have +[templates] to any Maneuver to blind someone with your flashlight or headlamp or what have you, and when you succeed on such a Maneuver you may immediately make a melee attack against them with advantage.
Martian chainsaw juggling: A gimmicky style from the underground bloodsport scene of the Mars. Users can juggle up to six-hands (three two-handed, six one-handed, one two-handed and four two-handed, etc) worth of chainsaws or other similar powered blades (ie buzzsaws and such). Anything being juggled can be thrown as an attack - treat as equivalent melee attack with the weapon, just with longer range. Requires at least moderate gravity to work, since you can’t juggle in freefall.
Freefall jiu-jitsu: A melee style developed in the terran langrage-point stations for fighting in zero gravity - its techniques only work in frefall. Users move twice as fast while “climbing” or pushing themselves along and whatnot in zero-g and on successful melee attack can sweep their target into an aerial spin- anyone spin-pinned can’t move unless they have like, thrusters or wings or something and have disadvantage all rolls until they can grab hold of a surface and stablize themselves (dex roll).
Lunar gun-jumping: Developed by outlaws on the lunar colonies, a style that exploits the recoil of one’s own weapons in low gravity-environments as a mobility method. You can sort of fly by just shooting at the ground repeatedly, but you’ll run out of ammo pretty quickly. Also you can try to dodge attacks by shoot-jumping in the air (DEX roll, don’t take damage on success). .
Pygmy Spacer: You come from a long line of spacers, tracing your descent back to the first rock-rats of the modern late 21st century. Spacer instincts have been stamped into your blood and drilled into your mind, and you’ll boast as much. Sure, you’re a bit shorter than average - the result of selection for those capable of fitting in the cramped quarters of the early days of space travel - but your ego isn’t nearly as small as your frame.
Starting Items:
Cheapest space-suit available, flight-suit bearing your family crest, (probably baseless) claim of descent from some pygmy tribe, tools of whatever your skill is
Starting Skill:
- Life support technician (basically just a fancy way of saying plumber)
- Engineer (in the engine maintenance sense, not the machine design sense)
- Programmer (for physical machines, ships have computerized systems obvs)
- Astrogator (like navigator but in space)
- Gunner (includes lasers and missiles, not just ballistics)
- Pilot (self explanatory)
A: Small, Spacer instincts
B: Vacuum-hardened
C: Family ties
D: White whale
Small- You’re less than 4’10 feet tall, and as a result you need less air, food, water, and living space, and can wriggle through crevices and such, but you’re less strong (-3 to your STR score) and have only half (1/2) the carrying capacity of a normal person.
Spacer instincts- You have a 2+[templates]-in-6 chance to sense stuff like deadly radiation, carbon monoxide, and leaks in the hull immediately whenever you enter a room or craft or compartment in which such flaws present themselves. Gain 100 XP whenever you totally humiliate someone through demonstration of your superior spacer knowledge.
Vacuum-hardened- You treat your rolls as [templates] lower for saves against damage from decompression, carbon monoxide poisoning radiation, microgravity damage, and claustrophobia-induced psychosis. (roll-under)
Family ties- Whenever you’re in a major spaceport and you have a vaguely space-related job you need you have a 1+[templates]-in-6 chance to get a cousin who just so happens to have the exact skillset needed for the job. Cousins are like hirelings but they’re also one template Pedigree Spacers and since they already have family loyalty they’ll be willing to do more for you, like not running away, selling you out, and helping out in firefights and such, but if you get too many killed or like sell them into slavery or whatever your family will shun you and you can no longer hire more cousins until you make amends, probably via a lot of very expensive gifts.
White whale - Whenever you’re next crewing a spaceship, you get a blip on the sensors that you recognize - a signal from a family stake-beacon, placed on some orbital object. You know this one, from family stories. It’s famous, the one that got away, a huge haul one of your ancestors came across, marked, and then lost forever. It’s within your grasp, now - if you can catch it, you’ll be rich beyond your wildest dreams, but fail and you’ll never see it again. . Also it’ll maneuver in wacky ways even though it doesn’t have thrusters because it’s on a really fucked up weird orbit, and it’s guaranteed to be on a path right through some sort of hazard, like a radiation belt, a cluster of micrometeoroids, or a bunch of space pirates.
White whales (d4)
- A deep-space observation telescope, the antenna meant to control the thing snapped when it launched and it’s been spiraling through space for like a decade but it’s still carrying a bunch of really expensive scientific instruments and shit, Moore’s law has been dead for centuries so stuff obsoletes slower
- A 21st century spaceship, VOL Nederlands written on it’s side in sun-bleached letters. Though it’s hull is breached and it’s engines broken, it the historical artifacts remaining inside - especially the mummified corpses of it’s crew - would be worth a fortune to the right collector.
- A snow-white comet, streaking through the heavens in a trail of sharp dust - spectroscopy shows immediately that the “white” is because the comet’s regolith is 80% composed of rare-earth oxides - honestly like, geologically this probably shouldn’t be possible but you’re not complaining.
- A life-support pod, still sealed, still functioning.. inside is an albino neocete of exceptional size, custom-grown in Ganymede’s seas by a biotech firm as an experiment in superintelligence through brain-enlargement - they or anyone else
Quack: For much of history, the vast majority of medicine was derived from natural life - medicinal herbs, poultices made of crushed insects, bezoars from the bellies of the Ox. Earth’s biodiversity has long been exhausted - most of it annihilated by climate change and pollution and habitat loss, etc, etc, and what survived quite thoroughly studied and catalogued. Europa’s rich ecoystem’s, then, presented an incredible opportunity for medical pioneers, drawing in visionaries from across the system. As it turns out though, not everyone manages to hack it in the ultra-competitive “institutional” research sphere - quite a few end up as itinerant doctors, developing their own… “unique” treatments while muttering to themselves about how they’ll show all those small-minded doubters. You’re one of them.
Starting Items:
Plastic goggles, box of rubber gloves, fake-looking lab uniform, a suitcase filed with basic chemical equipment (graduated vials, pipettes, tongs, thermometers, hot-plate and centrifuge and still and such), and 2d6 doses of your first Treatment
Starting Skill:
- Science fiction (writing, genre knowledge)
- Philosophy (self help brand)
- Theology (broad range, inaccurate knowledge of most religions)
- Theology (specific religion - choose - heretical personal interpretation)
- Traditional medicine (as opposed to working medicine)
- Actual medicine (somehow)
A: Alternative medicine, Naturopathy
B: Accept no Substitutes
C: Goat Glands
D: Patent medicine
Alternative Medicine- You’ve developed a Treatment - some kind of incredible elixir, a drug of your own devising with some effect on the body when ingested, injected, inserted as a suppository, or whatever other delivery method you’ve chosen. This drug has some desirable effect, some neutral or negative side effect, and some rare, unique ingredient you used to create it. Because of the “experimental” nature of your Treatments, whenever you administer them, you must roll for Complications whenever it is used. Any Treatments you have the recipe for (have already made yourself or have stolen from another Quack) you may attempt to produce again, if you can obtain another sample of whatever ingredient was first used, but as it won’t be an exact copy and won’t have the exact characteristics of the original blend, this requires an INT check. Total failure means the new batch just doesn’t work at all, total success means it works the same as last time, partial success (succeeding but with a margin of 3 or less) means the new batch works but already has an extenuating circumstance on it.
Naturopathy- If you obtain some interesting, exotic base material - wastewater dripping from the hull of some old ship’s reactor, a delicate crystal from an Ionian lava-flow, or the venom of some Europan spider - you may attempt to develop a new treatment with it as the base material. This process takes 1d4 weeks, and requires an INT check at the end of the process to determine whether or not the treatment actually has any effect. If you do succeed, you produce 2d6 doses of your new Treatment. As they say, you learn more from failure than success - gain 100 xp at the end of a failed research process, and 50 at the end of a successful one.
Accept no Substitutes- You’re no longer limited to copying the Treatments of other Quacks whose recipes you’ve taken. You can now attempt to reverse-engineer normal, professionally-made pharmaceuticals, with a decent sample of the drug, a week of study, and an INT check - still have to roll Complications whenever their taken due to your less-than-professional manufacturing, but if they work they’ll have the same effects as the normal stuff.
Goat Glands- Following in the tradition of the old greats of your profession - such as Brinkley and Voronoff - you have taken not only to the temporary miracle of the pill and elixir, but to more permanent enhancements. You can now, in addition to producing Treatments, perform Operations - surgically implanting some foreign organ into them in order to enhance their natural abilities. Whatever your subject is, a process that takes several hours and requires 1d4 weeks of rest to recover from. Your subject, the canvas for this work of art, must make a constitution check then, and then again at the start of each new month for 1d4 months, or suffer some effect of Rejection (consult the table). Following that, it adjusts and they’re fine, if they’re still alive.
Patent medicine - Choose one of your Treatments. You stumble on a method of producing and administering it in a stable and reliable manner. You no longer have to roll for complications whenever the new stuff is used unless there’s Extenuating Circumstances or serious faults in the manufacturing process. If you can set up an actual factory for the stuff you’ll be able to actually market it, maybe even be acquired by a real pharma firm, in which case you’re set for life.
Complications: d12 + [templates] - 1 for every Extenuating Circumstance
- Immediate death from heart attack or brain aneurysm or something
- Severe allergic reaction, will die in a few minutes without immediate medical attention
- Side effect magnified to dangerous proportions (dm interpretation)
- Has exactly the opposite of intended effect
- Just straight up doesn’t do anything at all
6-12. Works as intended
Extenuating Circumstance: Basically anything which might cause complications with the Treatment. An incomplete list of extenuating circumstances (gm can and should come up with more if relevant to situation)-
- Treatment has been stored in poor conditions, or is really old
- Administered by someone with zero medical knowledge, or who is mentally compromised (ie inebriated, distracted, etc)
- Recipient is already under the effects of another Treatment
- Recipient is of abnormal body-size (messes with dosage obvs)
- Recipient is not human or lab-rat
- Recipient is, in addition to not being human, not even like a mammal or anything
- Recipient is, in addition to not being neither human nor mammalian, not even of earthly origin, but is of an alien with vaguely compatible biochemistry (ie Europan)
Rejection: For Operations, of course, if the subject fails their Con check. roll 1d6 and suffer the effects if they do.
- Implanted organ fails to take, dies, severe allergic reaction will kill recipient within minutes unless immediate medical attention given
- Implanted organ fails to take, dies, starts rotting and will cause sepsis if not removed quickly
- Implanted organ fails to take, dies, starts being absorbed by body
- Implanted organ takes, but severe allergic reaction saps energy and causes breakouts of rash and such, recipient is bedridden for 1d6 days
- Implanted organ takes, but allergic reaction causes constant pain, inflammation, Disadvantage on anything that requires concentration until rash goes away (1d6 days)
- Implanted organ takes, but integration is hampered - cannot benefit from ability for 1d6 days
Example Treatments:
Dr. Wang’s Wunderfuuuul Carotenoid Elixir:
Ingredient: Tuber of a century old Europan “anemone”
Effect: Improved night-vision, aiming, advantage on ranged weapon attacks in low-light conditions
Side-effect: Eyes glow in the dark
Dr. Wang’s Incredible Revivifying Serum:
Ingredient: Salt-crystal crystalized and fished out of an abandoned reactor pool
Effect: Injected into intact corpse dead for less than an hour, prompts immediate reanimation for a period of 1d6 minutes
Side effect: Ressurectee incredibly, violently, and permanently enraged
Dr. Wang’s Miraculous Nootropic Suppository :
Ingredient: Radiotrophic fungus growing on the corpse of a spaced mummy
Effect: Recipient feels like a genius, mind instantly works out a solution to any problem. Said solutions are generally impractical, of poor quality, and based on fundamental misconceptions as to the nature of said problem.
Side-effect: Insanely addictive, single dose will have you hooked for life.
Example Operations:
Rhesus monkey ovaries implanted in thigh, hormone release alters muscle tone such that DEX score counts a 3 higher for any roll involving dancing, climbing, feces-flinging
Tongue replaced with proboscis of Europan Shell-Demon, can shoot tiny darts containing lethal neurotoxin (Small ranged attack w/ range of 10’, no damage but if hit target has heart attack in 3d6 minutes)
Additional whole human arm partially sewn onto base of existing arm, recipient now 3 armed - no dex bonus or extra attacks or anything but can like, hold three one-handed items at once or one two-handed and one one-handed and such
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