Symbiont R.C.C.

Created by Admiral Kordeth
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This is just a little something I threw together after seeing SPAWN. I started thinking that the powers Spawn had in the movie were more akin to Marvel Comics’ Venom (The fourth coolest villain in the world, after Darth Vader, Doctor Doom, and Carnage) than the comic book Spawn’s. Then I started thinking about some rules for such a symbiont for Heroes, Unlimited, and figured I’d write them down before I forgot them. So here they are.

The Symbionts

The race of symbionts evolved on an unknown world,but have since migrated to Earth’s moon. A few were brought to Earth by members of the V.I.P.E.R. organization for attempted use as an ultimate weapon, but these four symbionts either escaped, wee set free, or stolen. They quickly found human hosts, and banded together to form the Shadow Corps, an elite group of assassins-for-hire (Char. sheets coming soon). Any symbionts (hereafter reffered to as “suits”) found by the PCs would have to be found on the moon, or on a newly returned lunar expedition from NASA, etc. The suits, at first, seem to be some kind off highly evolved technology, but are later revealed (catastrophically) to be sentient life forms.

Appearance

When not on the character, the suit appears to be a puddle of tar. However, when the command is given, the suit crawls up the character, forming around him into a protective shell. (Picture a steel figurine encased in wax. Now picture videotaping the wax melting off, and replaying it in reverse. You get the idea.) Appearance varies, but some things remain common:

Abilities of the Symbionts

The symbionts, trying to make themselves valuable for the host, have developed an uncanny amount of powerful abilites stemming from their pseudo-liquid form. These include: * Denotes power only usable after bonding **If the character has already bonded with the suit, safety net is automatic. Otherwise, have PC and GM roll initiative. If the player wins, he stops his fall. If the GM wins, the character is street pizza (normal fall damage and look really stupid when the webs pop out 5 seconds AFTER he/she went splat!)

In addition, the suit gives an A.R. of 10. This should be considered natural AC, as the suit takes NO damage except from sonic attacks (FYI: the suitn has an S.D.C. of 3D6x20). The GM is encouraged to allow unique applications of this power (i.e. if a character is being grappled, forming nasty spikes out of the entire suit could be nice).

Yes, these abilities are powerful. That’s why the character gets no bonus skills. Also, the suit will NOT bond with cyborgs or robots. The dangers of being “bonded” are also a deterrent, if the PCs realize it.

Dangers of the Symbionts

For the first 1D4x2 weeks, the suit will obey every mental command its weaer gives it. During this time, it is slowly reading and integrating itself into the host’s DNA, preparing for a total takeover (discussed below). However, its abilities are slightly sluggish, with a -2 to initiative (this doesn’t include attribute enhancements). This penalty disappears after bonding. In addition, over the four days after the time limit set above, there is a 25% chance (cumulative) that the suit will refuse to come off when ordered. If this check fails at any time, the bonding has begun. After bonding, the suit does not come off at all, rather, it forms an exact replica of any clothing the character desires. If the suit does come off for any reason (i.e. the character wants a shower), he suffers all the penalties for being totally drunk as per HU standard rules. The character is disoriented from the loss of heightened attributes and senses, and distraught over the loss of his friend, the symbiont (the character always thinks of the symbiont as a friend, regardless of what happens). This does not apply to removing parts of the suit (i.e. the mask, gloves, boots, etc), only to total removal.

Bonding

Bonding is what makes these symbionts so dangerous. After reading the host’s DNA, the symbiont attempts to rewrite it, integrating itself into the DNA coding. This results in total takeover of the host’s body, though his mind remains as a counselor (you’d be suprised how many symbionts come to like their hosts, and rely on them for advice. The symbiont is still in charge, however). At this point, the character should be given over to the GM (IF the GM is feeling generous, the host and the symbiont had similar goals and alignments, and if the player can role-play a drastic personality change, the GM MAY allow the player to keep the character.) Fortunately, there is a way to resist this process.

Resisting the Bonding

Resisting is not easy, and only characters with an M.E. of 16 or higher can even attempt it. There are two methods for resistng the bonding; the quick method and the detailed method. The quick method is very simple. The character must roll below HALF of his M.E. on 1D20 one out of two times, and under his normal M.E. two out of three. If he succeeds, the symbiont has bonded with the character, but he remains in control (if this happens, bonding is a GOOD thing. Just look at all those powers marked with an “*.”) The detailed method is a bit more in-depth. The player drudges up some horrible event from his character’s past, and must relive it (i.e. service in ‘Nam, the witnessed murder of a loved one, etc). If the player role-plays correctly, and the GM feels that he has “won,” bonding is resisted and the character is in control. This encounter should involve combat as well as role-playing. Beyond that, I’ll let the GM figure out the rest.
Well, that’s it. If you wish to send comments, questions, hate letters, etc, direct them to travis97@gte.net or find me at http://home1.gte.net/travis97/index.htm on the Web. I hope you like the rules! --Adm. Thaelin Kordeth Chancellor, Aries Confederation C-in-C, Aries Confederation Military