How to handle the Foretold in a game?

[misterharry]

One of the few monsters from Peter Capaldi's first series that didn't make it into the current version of the core rulebook is the Foretold from Mummy on the Orient Express, one of Series 8's better stories. But I was wondering how prospective GMs might handle its abilities in a game.

For a number of reasons, the Foretold needs special consideration before it's introduced in an adventure. For one thing, there's a set time limit of 66 seconds from when it first appears to when it strikes. From what we've seen, it's not very fast, so what's to stop its victim from just fleeing (or using the 66 seconds to blast it to pieces)? And when it does actually strike, should it automatically do Lethal damage (which is what seems to happen on screen)?

Apart from the practical issues of how to simulate the Foretold's abilities in the game, do people think it has much potential for a scenario? If the players have seen MotOE, they'll know how to deal with the Foretold. And even if not, with its appearances limited to just 66 seconds a time, is there a way of framing an interesting adventure around it?

[misterharry]

No suggestions on this?

Having given it a bit of thought over the weekend, I'm leaning towards the Foretold's ability being covered by a special trait requiring its own rules (in a similar manner as the Weeping Angels' and the Silence's unique powers). I haven't got as far as setting out any details yet though - for example, how many rounds would represent 66 seconds in this case?

[starkllr]

From what we've seen, it's not very fast, so what's to stop its victim from just fleeing (or using the 66 seconds to blast it to pieces)?

It can teleport, so fleeing doesn't really do any good. And bullets didn't harm it (or even hit it, apparently). Maybe heavier weapons would have an effect, but probably not. Presumably the fact it's out of phase would protect it, or it could just teleport out of the way.

The way I'd use it in a game is to have it be a different Foretold, with a different origin and method of selecting victims, and a different way to make it stop. Logically, it probably wasn't the only one of its kind to survive the war that it was created for.

Even if the players have seen the episode, the "we surrender" trick doesn't have to work with another member of its kind. Maybe your Foretold is a spy rather than a soldier, and it picks victims based on who has the biggest secret (rather than the most guilt). And the way to stop it is by revealing a truly damaging enough secret to it. So the adventure will be the players working out the common factor among the victims. And then coming up with a juicy enough secret to satisfy it (and convincing the secret keeper to reveal it, which should be an equally big challenge!)

Also in using it, don't gave it attack a player until the end of the scenario. Have it pick off NPC's instead.

[misterharry]

Having a different Foretold is an excellent idea.

How would you deal with its "death touch" in game terms. It's not a standard combat attack, but is it an automatic death at the end of 66 seconds, or does the victim get a roll to resist? The former seems harsh but reflects what we see in the story, and the latter option would dilute the Mummy's effectiveness.

And how many rounds would you allow to represent the 66 seconds? Of course, with a different Foretold it needn't be 66 seconds.

[starkllr]

I think for an NPC, I'd make it automatic death. For a PC, if they had a trait that could somehow explain why that character can fight off the death touch, or otherwise not be affected by it, I'd let them roll. Maybe Psychic Shield, Resistance, or one of the various Alien traits could allow a PC to have a chance of survival. Or, if they've figured out how the Foretold kills (but not why), you could allow them to rig some technological means of defeating it. Since it drains the energy of the victim, maybe if you hook the victim up to a generator and channel extra energy throguh him/her into the Foretold, that would overload the creature and kill it. Of course, it might kill the victim, too, but that's what Story Points are for!

As for how many rounds, I think that probably the players should get one chance to do whatever they're going to do to stop it. It's not a traditional combat. Of course, if the players don't know the episode, you could play out their attempts to fight it off and save the first NPC victim with as many rounds as you like and let them learn that they can't fight it in a conventional manner.

But I was thinking more about this last night, and I think the most interesting thing to do with the Foretold - especially if the players have seen the episode - is to let them use that player knownedge and defeat it right away. Let them think they've outsmarted you and thrown your whole session off the rails. And then you hit them with the fakeout. Think about it...the Doctor stopped the Foretold by surrendering to it, and the Foretold crumbled to dust in front of them because its war was over. But usually when someone surrenders on the battlefield, that's not what happens. Usually, when you surrended on the battlefield, the other side takes you back to their territory as a prisoner of war...

So the Foretold has a secondary teleporter. It's a single-use device, programmed to take any prisoners back with it to its home planet. Just because we didn't see anything like that it the episode doesn't mean anything, after all. So the players surrender, they're congratulating themselves - and then with a flash of light, they're all zapped away to some distant alien world where they materialize in a prison cell.

From there, you can play it any way you like. Maybe the war really has been over for thousands of years as the episode had it. In that case, possibly your players are now stuck on a dead planet full of weird alien ruins, and the episode becomes a survival story. Can they cobble together some means of getting back to their TARDIS before they are killed by the alien wildlife, the elements, or semi-functioning booby traps that might still be there? Or maybe there are no people, but there are still a lot of automated systems functioning, and other leftover soldiers like the Foretold roaming around, still fulfilling the orders given to them 8,000 years ago.

Or maybe someone else came to the planet long after the war and is using the leftover tech and surviving soldiers for their own purposes (whatever you decide those might be). It could be the Master. It could be a rogue Time Agent. It could be Davros, using the Foretold as a test - capturing anyone clever enough to figure out the puzzle because anyone that smart would make a great New New Dalek. Really it could be anything you want it to be.

[Corone]

I'd agree that using story points to avoid it are what they are there for.
But I'd also add that encountering the foretold doesn't mean seeing it yourself.
Its a classic NPC killer.
The fear of the encounter is not being able to see it until you are targeted.
So the encounter is about watching the NPCs drop like flies and trying to figure it out before it comes for the PCs.

It would need adaptation for use in a game, not so much due to its deadliness,
but because anyone who has seen the episode will know how to deal with it.
So if you change that aspect you can change how deadly it is.

But generally, the PCs should be doing their best to avoid being targeted,
not queuing up to get targeted so they can defeat it.
An adventure where they never see it but manage to get away from it and save lots of other people from being targeted is still a win.
This also has the added bonus of leaving them wondering if it really existed at all...

[misterharry]

Thanks for all the useful suggestions. I do like the idea of the Foretold just being in the service of another, hidden foe. That would give the GM a little more flexibility in how it behaves, rather than it just continuing its killing spree.

Also, the fact that the PCs may not even see the Foretold as it goes about its deadly business means that, even if the players have seen Mummy on the Orient Express, they may not guess what they're up against even when the NPCs start dropping around them. There's a mystery to solve before they even start to think about how to stop it.

[starkllr]

Also, the fact that the PCs may not even see the Foretold as it goes about its deadly business means that, even if the players have seen Mummy on the Orient Express, they may not guess what they're up against even when the NPCs start dropping around them. There's a mystery to solve before they even start to think about how to stop it.

That's a great point. You could go even further with it, too. Have the first few victims be killed totally off-screen, and with no witnesses. The players might discover one victim dead in his quarters, and a second one in her office and a third one in a storage room. None of them have any obvious wounds, and a couple of them died in a room that was locked from the inside. All the players know is that several people on the base/ship/wherever have dropped dead for no logical reason. Even viewing security camera footage won't help (especially if there's no audio), because all they'll see is the victim standing there, screaming and pointing, or frantically running in circles, and then suddenly stopping and keeling over.

They might still guess it's the Foretold if they've seen the episode recently, but they might equally guess it's a disease or a parasite causing sudden madness followed by death (probably by heart attack). Or they might have other, more outlandish theories (after all, there are other Whovian beasties that can turn invisible or insubstantial or teleport into and out of a locked room and kill leaving no evidence behind).

[misterharry]

And a little misdirection or obfuscation by the GM will go a long way to keeping the Foretold's identity hidden for a little longer. Could there be something just off the picture on the security monitor that the victim is screaming at? Do the lights flicker and fail at just the wrong moment?

And when the players think they've worked it out, perhaps the next NPC victim tries to surrender to their unseen assailant... only to be killed anyway!