Well, here’s my write-up for the N-Forms – apologies for the length of this post! I have to say that it’s been quite a challenge to sort out all of their abilities and I hope I’ve done them justice. They are indeed extremely powerful as they’re so difficult to kill. I’ve included a couple of suggestions for making them slightly more manageable, but I’d still advise caution. If they’re to be used as an ally, then they could easily unbalance an adventure. If they’re to be used as the enemy, I’d suggest that the GM needs to think through how the characters are going to defeat them and incorporate (and signpost!) some suitable means within the adventure.
I’d also suggest that N-Forms could be used a lot more subtly than their appearances in the novels might suggest. An N-Form with its core intelligence intact is highly intelligent and can form strategies. Killing individuals in a homicidal rampage isn’t the most efficient way to destroy a planet. But if the N-Form has control of a human, it can sit in its pocket dimension and use the human as a puppet to prepare the way, getting access to missile silos, launch codes, whatever, before the N-Form itself is ready to act.
N-FORMSFirst appearance:
Damaged Goods (Virgin Books)
SPOILER WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Virgin New Adventures
Damaged Goods and
So Vile a Sin.
“If the N-Form decides the human race has a Vampire inheritance, then its instructions are clear. To destroy the world. The War must be fought, the War must be won.”The N-Forms are ancient Gallifreyan weapons built in the Dark Times during the war against the Vampires. They were constructed in secret by the Patrexes after Rassilon forbade their use. The N-Forms are machines that were scattered across the Universe, secreted in pocket dimensions waiting to be activated. N-Forms have no fixed form, adapting to their environment and sprouting metallic arms, legs, tendrils, spikes and blades, even buzz saws and scissor-like weapons. They can further mutate themselves with shocking rapidity to meet any new threat. They are programmed to destroy their enemies, even if that means destroying entire planets. N-Forms are also programmed not to harm anybody with the Gallifreyan genotype, including Gallifreyan Vampires.
Following the Vampire War, the N-Forms’ central intelligence cores were downloaded and they lay dormant for millennia. N-Forms can be accidentally activated by TARDIS distress signals, or deliberately by broadcasting the correct codes. Once activated, an N-Form’s first priority is to check for evidence of the Vampire waveform, the psychic footprint of the Vampires. Unfortunately, the mental signature of certain psionic powers of other species can be similar enough to register as a Vampire, so mistakes have been made: one N-Form detected psionic abilities in a human in 1987, concluded that humanity were the Vampires’ descendants and tried to destroy the Earth. During the Last Great Time War, the N-Forms were revived and programmed for use against the Daleks.
Hidden away in its pocket dimension, each N-Form is anchored to an object in our Universe at a molecular level, creating engrams – scars with more than three dimensions. If the engrams are within a living brain, the N-Form can exert control over its victim in order to prepare for its eventual attack. But the main use of the engrams is to form a microscopic rift to drag itself through, immediately bursting half a ton of metal into the Universe. In the 1987 incident, an N-Form had attached itself to a batch of cocaine, which was then distributed across London by drug dealers. This allowed the N-Form to open rifts in the brains of every person who had used the cocaine, and an extrusion of the machine burst through each of the users’ heads, forming thousands of N-Forms. In most cases, the N-Form will not have been able to use this trick and only a single machine will appear. But enterprising GMs could have a scenario featuring infected food, water, drugs, etc – something that could be distributed around a planet, or a sizeable proportion of a planet anyway. A single N-Form is probably deadly enough though.
N-Forms have very few weaknesses and are extremely hard to destroy – as they are created from Block Transfer Computations, they are impervious to most forms of harm. It is theoretically possible to try to reason with them, but they are pretty single-minded. A weak spot is in the Time Lord codes that lie at the heart of the machines’ programming. Termed Patrexian Numbers, these can be used to stall an N-Form, control it or even shut it down. The problem is that manipulating them requires mental interaction with the N-Form itself. In the 1987 incident, the Doctor used some of the N-Form infected cocaine to form a link, but other means could be used: psychic abilities being an obvious option, techno-viruses another. Physical destruction of the N-Form – even if possible - has to be absolute to stop it from regenerating its body. Considering ways to render an N-Form helpless may be more practical: teleporting it into a sun’s gravity well or locking it in a time-loop for example. Roz Forrester trapped one under a million ton slab of dwarf star alloy, crushing it completely (and presumably disabling its Teleport ability in the process).
ATTRIBUTES:
Awareness: 4
Coordination: 4
Ingenuity: 6 (or 2 if central intelligence core removed)
Presence: 4
Resolve: 6
Strength: 12
TRAITS:
Adversary (Major): Originally the Vampires. During the Time War, it’s the Daleks.
Alien Senses (Minor): N-Forms can detect the mental waveform and genotype of creatures, to determine their species. They can even do this from within their pocket dimension.
By the Book (Major): N-Forms strictly follow their programming and are difficult to persuade otherwise.
Environmental (Major): N-Forms can survive in any environment, including the Vortex and other dimensions.
Fast Healing (Special): N-Forms recover from damage at a rate of 1 point per minute.
Fear Factor 3 (Special): The savagery of an N-Form attack provides a +6 bonus to cause fear.
Immortal (Major): N-Forms do not age; they will last forever unless destroyed.
Immunity (Major): N-Forms are impervious to practically all damage and are therefore very difficult to destroy physically. They are built in the same manner as the outer shell of a TARDIS, so only something that could harm a TARDIS could damage an N-Form. [Generous GMs might want to introduce a flaw in the N-Form design and add an appropriate vulnerability or two, or maybe replace Immunity with several levels of Armour.]
Natural Weapons (Minor): Whipping tendrils, crushing arms, cutting blades, etc all deliver Strength +4 damage.
Networked (Major): N-Forms are in contact with all other active N-Forms.
Possess (Special): If an N-Form can create an engram within a living brain, it can attempt to control that victim while still within its pocket dimension.
Robot (Special): N-Forms are living machines. Though they can control a human body, they are obviously robotic in their natural form.
Size: Huge (Minor): N-Forms are half a ton of murderous metal growing to huge size: this gives them +2 Strength (included in the above Attributes), +1 Size, +2 to be hit, +4 to be seen. Some N-Forms can be larger and have the Major version of this trait.
Special Trait – N-Form Replication (Special): See below for full description.
Teleport (Major): N-Forms can “teleport” into our Universe from their pocket dimensions. They can also teleport around within our Universe by opening up dimensional rifts. Heavy subspace interference can hamper this ability.
Weakness (Minor): N-Forms are programmed not to harm Gallifreyans.
Weakness (Major): Manipulating the Patrexian Numbers at the core of an N-Form’s programming codes can control them or even shut them down. However, this usually requires a mental interface to be established with the N-Form, or some means of accessing the codes remotely. This can only be attempted by somebody with Tech Level 10 or above, and appropriate Technology rolls would be required.
SKILLS:
Fighting 5
Knowledge 3
Subterfuge 1
Technology 3
TECHNOLOGY LEVEL: 11 (N-Forms are Dark Time technology)
STORY POINTS: 3-5
N-FORM REPLICATION (SPECIAL GOOD TRAIT)If an N-Form anchors itself to a substance that can be divided and spread over a wide area, it can create multiple engrams in our Universe. The result will be that when the N-Form enters our Universe, it can emerge through all of these engrams simultaneously, effectively creating multiple versions of itself. In
Damaged Goods, this resulted in thousands of N-Forms running amok in London, so this is clearly a very powerful ability, one which the GM should think very carefully about before utilising. There are two drawbacks. Firstly, if the engrams are too close together, the effect of opening up the rifts in close proximity could cause a dimensional collapse, so an N-Form may have to limit itself to opening a single engram. And secondly, as all the resulting N-Forms are essentially the same individual, manipulating the Patrexian Numbers in one will affect all. I think the best way to consider this trait is similar to using any other monster: how many N-Forms does the GM want in a scenario? If one will suffice, ignore this trait; if you want an army, then use it but be aware of the risks.
As always, comments and suggestions are welcome!
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