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Post by tcarknight on Jan 4, 2010 1:45:20 GMT
(Reading Olivier LeGrand's review on RPG.net I liked the idea he mentions of a 'Demi' Time Lord, one who has one Time Lord parent and another of some other race. I'd love a collaboration on improving and making this a playable trait. Thoughts, comments? Time Lord Heritage (Special Good Trait)One of your parents or grandparents had a secret. They weren't human but a member of a alien race calling themselves 'Time Lords' or some such nonsense. Then again, maybe it isn't such nonsense. You've always felt 'out of place' and even been told by doctors that some of your anatomy is somewhat 'unique' (especially that you have two functioning hearts, something which got you written up as a case study in a couple of medical journals). Effect: For the cost of 1 character point and a reduction of maximum Story Points by 2, the character has some of the Advantages of a full Time Lord, but still has some of the disadvantages as well. The character gains +1 to Ingenuity, a Minor Gadget at no cost, and have at least the Minor Code of Conduct. The Character may choose to take the either Vortex or Feel the Turn of the Universe traits, but if they do then they must take an additional Bad trait as well. Someone with the Time Lord Heritage has the Regeneration ability, Disease resistance and Respiratory bypass abilities. They may also choose to have Two Hearts and Radiation resistance as additional abilities but must choose an additional Bad Trait for each ability.
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Post by kaemaril on Jan 4, 2010 1:51:32 GMT
The Character may choose to take the Vortex or , but if they do then they must take an additional Bad trait as well. or ... ? Feel the Turn of the Universe? Personally, I'd say a half-timelord probably wouldn't have all this stuff. I'd leave it at: 1) Extra long life/seems to age more slowly 2) Feel the turn of the Universe. Physiologically they shouldn't be too different from their 'host' species, or if they're unlucky they'll end up the subject of dissections instead of learned studies. That's IMHO, anyway. YMMV, obviously
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Post by tcarknight on Jan 4, 2010 2:35:32 GMT
The Character may choose to take the Vortex or , but if they do then they must take an additional Bad trait as well. or ... ? Feel the Turn of the Universe? Whoops! I corrected that. Yeah, FtTotU is the trait I meant Personally, I'd say a half-timelord probably wouldn't have all this stuff. I'd leave it at: 1) Extra long life/seems to age more slowly 2) Feel the turn of the Universe. Physiologically they shouldn't be too different from their 'host' species, or if they're unlucky they'll end up the subject of dissections instead of learned studies. That's IMHO, anyway. YMMV, obviously I can see where's you're going. However, if paying CP and SP for the Trait, it feels like should have a bit more going for the character. There is the theoretical possibility of two hearts developing in a person (due to starting as two separate halves at birth and later joining together for the four chambers), so someone with two functioning hearts might just get a serious article in the Medical journals and some close watching by interested groups, I wouldn't say dissection would be the result And the disadvantage of those could surely be represented by Bad traits.
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Post by The Handyman on Jan 4, 2010 2:51:03 GMT
Very nice. Have a Karma Point In the audio of "An Earthly Child", Susan's son only has one heart, so maybe the two hearts thing is another thing that could be added for an additional -1 Story Points or an additional Bad Trait? Allen
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Post by Null and Void on Jan 4, 2010 14:33:54 GMT
I read somewhere... possibly some fanwork... That the second heart only develops after the first regeneration. This explanation was made up to explain why when people checked the heartbeat of the Hartnell Doctor, there was only a single beat, but in the subsequent incarnations, there were two.
So, a half--human might STILL only have a single heart.
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Post by tcarknight on Jan 4, 2010 16:52:13 GMT
Thanks Handyman! I included that at the end where the Two hearts or Radiation resistance is the cost of a Bad trait each.
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Post by Siskoid on Jan 5, 2010 20:11:03 GMT
I love this idea. A campaign based on just the Time Lords' progeny (who found disused TARDISes) could lead to recreating the race on a New Gallifrey... Now you've got me thinking.
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Post by da professor on Feb 23, 2010 20:23:18 GMT
Could also apply to a certain cute blonde genetic anomaly.
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Post by Bob the Rutan on Mar 3, 2010 1:29:49 GMT
Mmm... Jenny...
I ran a campaign using the old FASA system wherein the "Time Lord" character was a half-breed with the surname "Campbell," so I'm all for this trait.
Great job!
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Post by theseer on Jun 2, 2010 19:46:55 GMT
Hello there,
I just stumbled across this post and thought I'd reply as this is the exact kind of story I've been running. In our 'RPG Tale' one of the characters is kidnapped by a strange being called 'The Collector'. The Collector tells the character that unknown to him he had a Time Lord father, a renegade from his race who knew there was a good chance he would fall 'In the last great Time War' so impregnated a Earth Women (which The Collector says must have been an 'appalling experience for the Time Lord') so his DNA would survive. The Collector wants the character for his exotic, unique and rare collection of various beings and artifacts. The Collector runs a scan on the character which activates the DNA and makes him aware that he is a half Time Lord/Human.
It's at this point he gained several abilities. Now I didn't create any new traits or indeed get bogged down in rules. For me it's about the role playing not number crunching. I didn't want to give the character regeneration, or two hearts or immunity to radiation etc, etc, If I did that he may as well just play a Time Lord, I simply notched his Ingenuity from 3 to 5, gave him 'Feel the Universe' and 'Vortex' (After all I did want him to 'acquire a time vessel and be able to pilot it, so I used the fact that he 'instinctively' knew how to pilot time vessels) and I said he had mild telepathy so I gave him Empathy.
The character later escapes thanks to the aid of his two friends (the other players) and destroys The Collectors valuable collection as revenge in the escape process. The characters escapes in a Chula Time ship in The Collectors museum owned by a former 'Time Agent' (nudge, nudge wink, wink. Captain Jacks, which was never seen destroyed in 'The Doctor Dances', I used a Timey Wimey techno babble explanation to explain how The Collector acquired it)
Returning to Earth, he realizes his Mother was brainwashed into having a false memory of the night he was conceived. Note as well we still hadn't even given him a 'Time Lordy type name'. I then gave the players free reign in the next story to tell me what they would use the Time Vessel for. Naturally they all won the lottery, brought themselves smashing houses, and what completely threw me was one player married a supermodel using wealth to get her! Being set in the Dr Who universe however I had the money make them all miserable to show them greed doesn't pay, and I named the one player his supermodel wife Ashlee Cole (He he he) who was thick as two short planks and was caught in a scandal involving sending pics of herself in her underwear to other men, forcing him to divorce her. At this point the 2nd adventure kicked off with our Time Lord/Human character being overcome with wanderlust and a desire to find out who his father was. Over the next adventure he gave himself the name The Seer (for a while it would have been The Savant for reasons later explained) and after the conclusion of the 2nd adventure was given a sonic screwdriver and psychic paper once belonging to his father.
This was to lead the players into thinking his father is the Doctor, however halfway through the story arc it'll be revealed his father is in fact an evil renegade who betrayed his people in an important battle with the daleks. The story arc concludes with him meeting the 'essence' or 'shade' of what is left of his father and with the revelation his entire life has been manipulated into this meeting, the evil Time Lord having planned this all along as a back up in case he died, he can now take over The Seers body thanks to it's Time Lord DNA and live fully once more. This ends with a climatic battle as the Seer is forced to overcome his despair at these revelations and kill his own father.
So that's my story. Sorry if I waffled I just wanted to show that the story I have in mind for my players is on the same theme of this thread and I focused more on the story telling than worrying about 'what trait should I use' and so forth.
In short we've been role playing The Seer as a kind of idiot savant (hence the name). Ingenuity 5 gives him a bit of an intellectual edge, but we made his knowledge sketchy. To put this into the rules we gave him knowledge of Tech 5 and 10. Which seems odd, but basically he's familiar with 21st century technology and Gallifreyan but his knowledge, as he's not a full Time Lord, of other technology is there but it's vague and always 'at the back of his mind' so he receives the appropriate -2 penalty with the different technology levels. The traits mentioned earlier give him a Time Lord edge but he still feels human enough. Also this stops his character 'overpowering' the others in story terms (especially as one character is a nurse and the other an ex soldier making them more proficient in other areas than The Seer is).
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snowman
2nd Incarnation
Can't stop
Posts: 23
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Post by snowman on Jul 13, 2011 20:51:33 GMT
I was just pointed to this topic (I had posted a question about partial Gallifreyans) and I had some points to contribute. - Gallifreyans and Time Lords are different things: River Song is a Time Lord, but she is a Human. Outsiders were Gallifreyan, but not Time Lords.
- Time Lords are Time Lords because of exposure to the Time Vortex, so the progeny of a Time Lord would probably not be a Time Lord themselves unless they did a significant amount of time travel while in utero.
Gallifreyans - even those who are not Time Lords - have two hearts, but a half-Gallifreyan could conceivably go either way (two hearts for Jenny, one heart for Alex Campbell). It's possibly, going by these examples, that this trait comes from the father. Regeneration is much more difficult, and is likely Time Vortex-related. My opinion would bend towards the long lifespan & resilience side of the spectrum, rather than regeneration. Just look at the Doctor: he can withstand a lot more than a human, even without regenerating. Use that as a basis (probably tone it down a bit, or require story points to resist specific events), and you're golden.
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Post by Marnal on Jul 15, 2011 4:56:06 GMT
Here are my compete notes on REGENERATION (aka Face-Lift, Telebiogenesis)... Several sources claim that Time Lords are the only Gallifreyans who are capable of regeneration. But several other sources show normal (ie non-Time Lord) Gallifreyans regenerating without anyone considering it unusual.
Regeneration was created to extend the already amazing Gallifreyan lifespan. Gallifreyan bodies are filled with self-replicating biogenic molecules (sometimes known as the Immortality Virus, the Legacy of Rassilon or nanites) that work ceaselessly to repair and prune damaged and malformed cells. Because of this it takes hundreds of years for a Gallifreyan to show signs of aging. These biogenic molecules are a variation of symbiotic nuclei and (probably using sonic waves) gives all Gallifreyans a symbiotic self-renewing cell structure. Time Lords actually use their symbiotic nuclie to govern regeneration. If a Gallifreyan's symbiotic cell structure was ever deactivated they will not be able to regenerate. The biogenic molecules allow the body to dispose of foreign objects and implants fairly quickly. They usually recover from unconciousness faster than humans. By "retreating" into a healing trance most injuries (such as burns and diseases) can be healed in a day. While extreame pain or a sufficiently strong audio-visual barrage will automatically induce a healing trance some training is required to enter one voluntarily. The biogenic molecules are aided by temporal platelets which cluster around any wound, accelerating time in that area to speed the healing. A broken leg can heal in anywhere from a few hours to 4 days depending of the severity of the break. Most nonlethal bullet wounds heal in a day (the bullet is ejected from the body). Bullet grazes heal in a few hours. A combination of a bullet hole through the frontal lobe, a broken nose, jaw, femur, and collarbone will take a Gallifreyan 6 months to heal. These rates of healing can be enhanced if the Gallifreyan is kept near (or inside) a TARDIS.
While in the healing trance, they will appear dead to most humanoids, but other Gallifreyans can tell they're alive. Their body temperature will drop so far below zero that that frost sometimes forms on the body and the mind will essentially switch off. Despite this one heart will continue to beat about once every 10 seconds. While in the trance they can metabolize many types of poisons and drugs using Detox. Using the trance, a fall from over 200 feet can be survived without losing conciousness or seriously breaking any bones. This is accomplished by a combination of bone relaxation and cellular break down and regeneration (similar to what happens in larval pupa). Gallifreyans have even been know to survive lightning strikes. They can selectively regenerate specific organs while in the trance and (given several months) a Gallifreyan can grow a new heart (should one of their originals be removed). It might be possible for them to grow new limbs. If kept alive, a Gallifreyan’s severed body part can be used to detect whether that specific Gallifreyan is in the area.
If the body is subjected to great stress such as a severed limb, extream illness, (or perhaps extreme boredom) the the Limbic (or Lindal) Gland releases the hormone Lindos to trigger Regeneration. As the hormone travels throughout the Gallifreyan's body will begin to feel weak (especially if this is his first regeneration) As the body prepares to lose solidity the Gallifreyan there will always be a moment of hallucination. Ideally all regenerations should take place within a low-grade telepathic field (like the inside of a TARDIS).
At this point the permanently carried self-replicated biogenic molecules heal the body of its wounds. Gallifreyans who are exposed to the vacuum of space for several minutes, have had both their hearts punctured, or suffer a direct hit by a Dalek Neutraliser can not regenerate. It is possible to regenerate from a glancing hit by a Dalek Neutraliser. Gallifreyans are educated in how to control their regenerations at their chapter's academy. It is also possible for some (all?) Time Lords to will their own regeneration without stress or injury. Chemical and telepathic signals can be used to force regenerate someone who is badly wounded (but not somebody who is concious and refuses to regenerate). In most cases, once all the cells have been healed, the regeneration of the body will proceed. However, by enacting the proper meditative techniques a Gallifreyan can temporarily delay the completion of their regeneration for several hours and (if their will is great enough) several days. This assumes they don't die first. If a Gallifrey the regeneration was triggered by an injury, and a suitble bio-matching receptacle (a spare hand that had been amputated for example) is availible, they can abort the Regeneration after the healing process is complete by siphoning off all the extra energy into the receptcal. This is a rare occurance as regeneration was never intened to be used to heal injuries (and bio-matching recepticles are rarely availble).
After healing, the regeneration proceeds and the subject's body (and to a lesser degree the mind) will be completely restructured. The extra third strand of Gallifreyan DNA was added by Rassilon to make Regeneration possible. This strand stores the regenerative information within the Gallifreyan's Bio-plasmic Fields that surrounds their bodies. With out these feilds of cronon energy regeneration would be impossible and a Gallifreyan would age and die. These fields of chronon energy also protect a Time Lord as they travel from one time stream to another. These fields have to be very active to adapt to the trauma of Regeneration. So much so that if a member of a lesser speices is exposed to a Gallifreyan for several months the bio-fields will 'infect' them providing the same protection from the timestream, rejuvinating their cells, and replace their telemeres. As a result the primitive will age very slowly and live for centuries. If this alien was to leave Gallifrey they will start to age at the rate of a year for every day. During regeneration this information is conveyed from these fields to the biogenic molecules via a bio-language called Nucleolingua Symbiotica.
When a regeneration does occur the permanently carried self-replicated biogenic molecules rebuild the body in a violent biological eruption of Artron Energy. Normaly this energy comes from the Lindos hormone, though other sources of artron energy can be used as well. Using this energy every molecule in every cell is adjusted, displaced, rearranged causing a complete renewal and healing and consuming the rest of the Energy. Regeneration also restructures the biodata of the subject, thus it could affect the subjects past as well as its future. Regeneration is an exihilerating experiance akin to driving a car very very fast. A blinded Gallifreyan will regain their sight after after a regeneration if the neural pathways controlling his sight are intact. Even damaged synapses are repaired and a Gallifreyan who regenerates after decapitation will grow a new head (that will probably have the same memories as the original). At the first regeneration the nanomachines are programmed to build into the new body a number of improvements and backup systems including a new heart. For this reason the first regeneration is usually the most painful. At the end of the regeneration the comatos Gallifreyan is awakened with by an automatically triggered electroencephallic shock.
It takes about 10-60 minutes for the body to "gel" completely which allows Gallifreyans of New Blood Houses some time to try various forms. Occasionally two Gallifreyans will end up with bodies that look the same. This has been witnessed on at least 1 (or 2, or 3) occations. This could mean that the looms have only a limited number of bodies stored in their data spirals. The new body will often have a different personality that expresses a different aspect of their fundemental personality. A copy of the previous personality is stored in the memory space for eventual transfer into the Matrix. Each copy is kept "sleeping" in a "room with no doors." The past incarnations often resent being locked away and wish they could have lived longer. Some Time Lords of the first rank can achieve Retro-Regeneration and temporarily summon the skills and personality of a former incarnation. A TARDIS's Telepathic Circuits can help a Time Lord acheive this. While Regeneration often causes temporary memory gaps the new body does have the same memories. However, because of the new personality, he will tend to draw different conclusions from those remembered experiences. While many skills remain the same, it appears that many dexterity based skills need to be "relearned" (at a fairly quick rate) due to the differance in body design. A Gallifreyan's handwriting remains more or less the same throughout all of their incarnations.
Until recently Regeneration was still a relatively risky procedure. While regenerating a Gallifreyan's body might incorporate any foreign biodata it comes in contact with allowing them to change species. Thus a Gallifreyan could regenerate and find himself to be half human. This problem was only corrected within the last several thousand years. Gallifreyans from Newblood Houses have amazing control over there regenerations. This allows them to try on several different genetic templates (and appearances) during a regeneration. This techniquie can be taught with some success to other Gallifreyans. Some are even capable of temporarily shifting their genetic makeup enough to fool some types of gene scanners without inducing a regeneration. It is possible for a Gallifreyan's gender to change during regeneration if they regenerate by commiting sucide. This illegal procedure is known as a Sex Change Regeneration. It is also possible for them to regenerated in an animal like a dog.
Within the first 15 hours of regeneration a Gallifreyan will still have enough risidual cellular energy to regrow a severed body part, such as a hand. The new body part might be designed to prevent what ever caused the loss of the original. Shortly after regeneration Gallifreyans will often experience bursts of superhuman strength and speed while the new body stabilizes. They can also experiance Ambient Complexity which causes erratic and volatile mood changes. Its worth knowning that extreame heat combined with adrenalin can temporaily stabize a newly regenerated mind. In most cases the Gallifreyan's mind will synchroniz properly within 4 days returning their strenght, reflexes, and personality to normal (for their new incarnation). In some cases Post-Regenerative Trauma can cause severe personality instability. Some times in the absence of a Zero Room the subject never sychronizes properly. Both Metamorphic Symbiosis Regenerators and Zero Rooms can assist with regenerative trauma and ambient complexity. Anaesthetic can delay or destroy the regenerative process and cause amnesia.
For all these reasons regenerations are usually planned months to years before the actual event. Gallifreyan technology (such as a TARDIS) or assistance is essential to ensure survival during a regeneration especially if the subject has suffered radiation damage. Without technological assistance (such as a TARDIS) a Gallifrey runs the risk of the rengeneration aborting halfway through leaving the subject looking like some sort of multi-limbed monster. It is very dangerous for Gallifreyans who haven't passed First Maturation (ie teenagers) to regenerate. For this reason it is usually forbidden for Gallifreyans to regenerate until they are 500 years old. Some seedy Gallifreyan Cardinals hang themselves to get rid of extra regenerations. This is considered to be a dangerous hobby. For these reasons their's a fair amount of "regeneration politics" among certain factions on Gallifrey. These focus on issues of class, gender, and species. A “Sex Change Regeneration” is forbidden and is considered to be a worse crime then stealing a TARDIS and interfering in other time zones. The standard punishment is for the Time Lord to be locked inside their TARDIS forever. Their only escape is to activate the de-materialization switch with will remove them from History turning them into a neverperson. Public discussions of regeneration among Gallifreyans appears to be similar to sex amongst humans (i.e. not good table manners).
A single body can last over 1000 years but the subject's body will atrophie until he's only a few feet tall and he will require a wheelchair for mobility. Each body is refered to as an "incarnation" or a "life-span." After 12 regenerations the biogenic molecules begin to decay naturally. Gallifreyans are limited to 13 bodies because their minds and bodies can only withstand the strain of twelve regenerations. Each body can last centuries and Gallifreyans only need to regenerated every thousand years or so. However the last few incarnations generally don't last as long as the earlier bodies. If a Gallifreyan suffers a severe enough injury in his 13th body a regeneration will be triggered, but its inevitable failure will kill the subject. Triggering a 13th Regeneration might be the accepted way that Gallifreyan's end their lives. It is possible to "recharge" a regeneration cycle, but this can only be done with the permission of the High Council and requires a massive amount of Artron Energy. It probably involves a Metamorphic Symbiosis Regenerator. Occasionally a Gallifreyan renews his regenerative cycle by "Jumping Looms" (being reborn into a new Family).
A Sonic Micro-Field Manipulator appears to use the same principles of regeneration only the technology is external to the subject. It can use hypersonic sound waves to create a state of resonance which destablizes the subjects cell structure. A metegenic program can then hack into the subjects genese, manipulate the coding in the protein strands, and program them to regenerate. This technology can also be used to prevent regeneration hyper age a Gallifreyan. It can be built into a Laser Screwdriver to be used as a weapon. A Distillation Chamber can be used to collect up a Gallifreyan’s lifeforce (and thus steal their future regenerations) if it is applies as soon as the Gallifreyan begin to regenerate.
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