How The Keller Machine Works ? - A Breakdown

[Escher]

It's not clear at first, from the game write-up in the Third Doctor Sourcebook, how to use The Keller Machine. Technically, it's all there but it's not immediately obvious. Particularly younger players and GM's (and old grumps like me) may get a bit lost so here is a breakdown. Any input or corrections are more than welcome.



1. It reads it’s victim’s mind to find their greatest fear.


When a victim is in visual range of the machine (as per Psychic Trait rule) The parasite attempts to read it’s victims greatest fear.
The machine rolls its Resolve + Awareness (6+6), adds +2 for it’s Empathic Trait to Read others, and also adds +4 for Psychic Trait and +2 for Psychic Training Trait (Total 20 + 2D6)

The victim can attempt to resist it’s attempt to ‘read them’ by rolling Resolve + Ingenuity.  Traits like Indomitable and Psychic may add bonuses.



2. If successfully armed with knowledge of it’s victim’s greatest fear, it strikes fear into its victim.

If the machine succeeds in reading them, it conducts the attack as per the Hypnosis/Possession rules (social attack) It rolls Resolve + Convince (6+6). +2 for Hypnosis Trait, +4 for Fear Factor bonus (Total 18 + 2D6) against the victim s Resolve + Convince. Add any bonuses from Traits.

The victim takes [2/5/7] lethal damage to their Resolve, plus extra damage equal to the Keller Machine’s current Fear Factor (starting at 2).

On every following successful attack, its Fear Factor increases by 1 causing it’s bonus to attack and damage increase cumulatively by +2 and +1 to damage, respectively.


Everyone concur?

[infinitydoctor]

It doesn't read as that complicated to me, to be honest. The ability to call a fear to the surface and use it as an attack is all one ability, not two. The victim rolls Resolve + Convince (plus any of their own bonuses) against a Difficulty of 20 + the machine's roll, the 20 being made up of:

Resolve 6
Convince 6
Empathic +2 (it knows how to use your fears against you)
Fear Factor: +4
Hypnosis: +2

The victim is in the grip of that fear until they manage to shake it off. Succeeding on the initial attack increases the Fear Factor by 1 after damage is applied. Failing to shake off the fear in subsequent rounds increases the Fear Factor by 1. Damage starts at 4/7/9 (base plus Fear Factor of 2). You don't roll for the machine after setting the initial difficulty, only the victim rolls.

Just to illustrate: Amanda Hollis, companion to the Timelord August Rain (both PCs in my own game), has the misfortune to be exposed to the Keller Machine. She starts to see shadows moving all around her, slowly resolving into hideous, monstrous spiders.

Amanda has Resolve 4 and Convince 4, but unfortunately also has the Minor Trait Phobia: Spiders, hence the machine's form of attack.

I roll for the machine and get 2 + 1, for a total value of 23. Amanda's player rolls 4 + 3, adds 4 for Resolve, 4 for Convince, but loses 2 for her Phobia, gaining a total of 13. This is a disastrous failure for her. The base damage for the machine is 2/5/7, ramped up to 4/7/9 by its Fear Factor of 2. Amanda is going to take 9 damage to her Resolve. With the Lethal Damage rule that the machine has, Amanda is about to die of sheer terror, swarmed by spiders!! Fortunately, she has Story Points....

Following a successful attack though, the Keller Machine now has a Fear Factor of 3 where Amanda is concerned, with its damage rating now becoming 5/8/10.

[Escher]

Jun 15, 2014 20:00:30 GMT infinitydoctor said:

It doesn't read as that complicated to me, to be honest. The ability to call a fear to the surface and use it as an attack is all one ability, not two. The victim rolls Resolve + Convince (plus any of their own bonuses) against a Difficulty of 20 + the machine's roll, the 20 being made up of:

Resolve 6
Convince 6
Empathic +2 (it knows how to use your fears against you)
Fear Factor: +4
Hypnosis: +2

The victim is in the grip of that fear until they manage to shake it off. Succeeding on the initial attack increases the Fear Factor by 1 after damage is applied. Failing to shake off the fear in subsequent rounds increases the Fear Factor by 1. Damage starts at 4/7/9 (base plus Fear Factor of 2). You don't roll for the machine after setting the initial difficulty, only the victim rolls.

That's how I saw it until the pedantic GM in me pointed out that the Psychic attempt to 'read' a target should be a seperate action. This is exactly why I posted. Going literally by the book, it should be, but I too prefer the faster method.

Since it's never explained exactly how you should run the machine in the game I think it needs clarifying.

[infinitydoctor]

I guess its down to interpretation, but for me, I'd say that it doesn't need to read the victim's mind with a separate roll, Their Worst Fear has it covered. No one seems to be able to hide their fears from the machine in the TV episodes themselves (Barnham doesn't have any), although they can resist the fear based attack. The parasite is telepathic, however, hence the Psychic Trait. It might try to read the PCs minds to discern the details of a plan they have for dealing with it, for example.