With my group slowly having to break for a temporary moment I have three players who've done their share of adventuring. A Engineer whose explored the ruins of red redoubt of Karamoss and explored the ruins to the Shory flying cities as well as a necromancer whose obsessed with Eox. A dread whose powers come from a Old One though has fluffed his character to be a unnatural psionic and became a conduit through technic tinkering. They're all interested in apprenticeship under the Technic League thinking they might gain benefits from being part of their strange arcane teachings. The player playing the Engineer is a 'worshiper' of Azathoth in a sense believing he powers his creations with the primordial energies like the Shory had done with their flying cities, while the necromancer is a follower of the whispering way. I've already talked to them about possible benefits of their membership including strange spells and access to materials to construct machine/robots like he encountered in red redoubt and spells and materials to create augmented undead.
Question is how do I test them? Makes the engineer construct a creature and combat another? Make the necromancer go upon the bonding process of fusing metal to his own skeleton? I want to work with them and need ideas of how to do so without going overboard
...I'm thinking about this.
Thanks Cheapy and I'm looking forward to your ideas. They think presenting the artifacts they found in Red Redoubt to the League is a good enough excuse though after carefully explaining they would all die horribly for 'possibly' stealing Numerian tech. I also went back through some notes and they have some mi-go technology as well from a little...side trek while at Red Redoubt. So I might toss that into a mix, the Leauge might like a brain jar or two.
Perhaps disassembling and reassembling their weapon/invention while explaining it's inner workings to an upper level member. This is a small one, but it may be an opener to allow for bigger tests.
Typically PC tests tend to go something like this:
Test giver, "Well, normally we have new recruits do X, but you're unique and we have this problem with Y that needs to be taken care of. Go take care of the Y problem and you're in."
TCG I was tempted to toss that as the basis of the first test though the necromancer doesn't deal with the craft skill well. The Dread and Engineer took some good amount of craft feats between them. I'm tempted to have the dread and engineer repair several constructs and incorporate their own numerian artifacts into the design. Then possibly make them combat it in a arena style fight or make them fight another group of haywire constructs or rogue eidolons/engineered monsters resulting of weird science.
Ideas?
Here's a thought for the Necromancer test:
How about the Necromancer "tries" to put a soul into a construct. He doesn't have to build the construct, but since he brings back the dead (as it were) he can try to place the soul/essence/whatever "into" something instead of re-animating the form of a skeleton/shriveled humanoid husk/skull etc.
From the GM's viewpoint/Role Playing aspect:
Regardless of success OR failure, the Technique League accepts the Necromancer into their organization because the concept/process of a "ghost in the machine" is worth exploring. At the very least the attempt is very "outside the box" thinking!
Putting a soul into a machine MAY give a certain level of A.I. ranging from basic obedience to self-thinking/problem solving and or maybe possible glimpses why some of the League's automatons "randomly" disobeys an order and/or goes rogue.
That'll be 2 cents please.
Rom
I like that idea Rom, I hinted that Karamoss was building a item called a Geist Rig and it was attached to a construct calling itself a Disciple of Karamoss and had spell casting abilities so this might be a nice return of that style of play. Possibly place a fallen league members 'soul' into a construct because like karamoss he got to close to something that lead to his destruction. The resulting 'ghost in the machine' would either be haywire due to the soul being unstable and insane or slowly becoming aware of who it is that inhabits the machine and either wants to remain dead or wishes to share its inner secrets of the power within silver mount.
This is a good way to think out of the box Rom, I'm loving the idea for the necromancers test.
With the Advance Race Guide coming out soon you maybe able to make a Construct NPC to boot!
Adding a "soul to a machine" has a wide range of outcomes:
The movie Robocop comes to mind as well as the Ghost in the Machine anime series.
Then there is, of course, Alphonse from Fullmetal Alchemist anime series! "Transference" into a suit of armor THUS animating it versus having a power source/clockwork gadgetry is itself a puzzle to work out.
A great plot device is when the "transference" into a construct goes berserk/amuck/rogue into the populace and the PCs have to deal with the situation. (As you have mentioned).
Oh, what a tangle web a GM can weave!
That'll be 2 cents please.
Rom
True and I'd probably go with the Alphonse archetype of a sentient shell possessed by a 'soul' who remembers very little but slowly remembers the truth. Possibly even play out with others like it gone haywire due to muddied magic of the league.
I went out today to pick up some books from Barnes and Noble and I ran across Distant Worlds and figured I'd pick it up to help out the Eox obsessed necromancer and I actually like what I've found out about the Bonesages and the ecology of Eox. Though I like the Aballonians as a possible second test for the Engineers test, I can customize them as I see fit and they will do for a Machine Cyst in another game. I'm also thinking of forcing the necromancer to go into a no air environment until he blacks out or consumes the 'fluids of silvermount' so its a life or death situation.
Though I'm still wondering about the Dread, I want something to make his reality twist and even inflict him with more of a warped mind after peering into the dark and hearing the mad whispers of the old ones. Any ideas? Throw him to Aucturn for a brief moment or simply make him drink hypnotic fluids making his mind be 'tossed' into the void?
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I had players that joined out of lust for treasure.
the standard application process was...
1. be a spellcaster
2. swear an oath of alligence
3. drink the mixed gunk that comes out of the mountian into a little cerimonial pool.
4. survive 3
5. get branded
6. do what the leauge tells you.
the players made it to four before choosing to be thrown out of the city and sneaking into the silver mount
So far I have two test for the engineer as well as the necromancer. The engineers first test will to take apart a broken gearmen or other skytech construct then take apart a piece of skytech and give his analysis of a alternate power source of the shory technology using energy spawned from Azathoth. The Necromancer will be given the supplies and must produce a spell to place a soul in a machine and make it permanent and second challenge is being placed in a environment similar to Eox where he'll have to fight several tech enhanced undead with little oxygen. The Dread is something I'm stumped on, might expose him to Aucturn so he mutates and builds up a immunity to it. His second challenge may be surviving horrors untold or fighting a Aberrant prisoner.
How does that sound?
Sir Freedom 16,
What class is a Dread again?
Differing payment of two cents until further analysis has been made.
Rom
Dread is from Psionics Unleashed...uh...Master of Battle?
Ah That explains it. I don't have the Psionics Unleashed book.
(Tries to see if internet search fu skills still works)
Still withholding two cents until further notice.
Rom
The Dread is essentially a psionic class that uses fear against you, the character backround is based on unnatural psionics induced by technic league selective breeding and exposure to certain compounds. The characters mind is essentially a a conduit for outside influence from the great old ones/old gods which is why I've thought of exposing him to Aucturn and mutating him some.
Well I've talked to the dread and he wants 'surgery' to remove a few levels of dread in place for soulknife levels. This does play out as his 'benefit' of being a league member and he'll gain a weapon from it in the end.Does this sound like a good idea? If it does the dread will give up his mi-go tech for study.
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Well I've talked to the dread and he wants 'surgery' to remove a few levels of dread in place for soulknife levels. This does play out as his 'benefit' of being a league member and he'll gain a weapon from it in the end.Does this sound like a good idea? If it does the dread will give up his mi-go tech for study.
In my opinion, it's almost always best to let people do rebuilds if they're not happy with their current class/feat/whatever choices. He's given you a nice story 'out' to explain it, so I'd definitely let him.
Maybe have the League install some crazy circuits/gems that force his energy into blades or just expose him to crazy chemicals from inside the mountain.