Parahumans

By Brice Daury (cubeball@citytel.net)

Prologue

Johnny kept running, trying not to think about the fact that he had never been away from home for so long before, of the fact that he no longer had a home to go back to . . .

"Stop running boy, we'll catch ya and then you'll get the same thing you're gene-trash parents got..." The voice was that of Sam Mathison, formerly his parent's best friend and also their business partner, co-founder of Colton & Mathison Designs, the architectural firm they had formed together. But none of that mattered now, now he was just the hunter and Johnny was just the prey, just like his parents had been...

Johnny had watched the man that was his godfather torch his parent's home and order the others to shoot his parents in the back of their heads, all because Johnny was different. Not different in any really noticeable way, though, unless of course you happened to watch Johnny pop out those claws of his or recover from a gunshot that should have killed him in minutes instead of months like a normal person.

But suddenly, Johnny wasn't running anymore, he just stood there, stock still and waited for the hunters "He's acceptin' his fate like a man..." thought Sam, almost proud of the boy he once called his godchild, how could he have been so fooled? Approaching slowly, the men raised their assortment of weapons, most of them for hunting of a different sort, and prepared to end the teen's life.

"MMMMMMUUUURRRDDDEEERRREEERRRSSS!!!", screamed the child as he lashed out at them, lashed out with hands that were now talons and teeth that were now fangs, ripping through their ranks before they could catch their bearings. As the first of their number fell, the rest tried to cut Johnny down, firing round after round into his body, not even slowing him down. As the smoke cleared, Sam soon realized that all the rest of his men were down, not all of them dead, but they were likely praying for that sweet release. Sweat broke out on the man's neck as he was filled with an almost instinctual terror of the child that now was no child that walked towards him ...

"You're the reason this happened, their blood is on your hands Sam." the child said. "And now yours is on mine!", screamed Johnny, as he lashed out with his clawed hands and tore the heart out of the man he considered a second father, stopping to show Sam the heart's final reflexive beat just as the life left his own eyes.

"You tore out my heart, seems only fair that I return the favor...", and with that, Johnny died and something sinister was born.

Introduction

The Journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
-- Ancient Saying

I know others have already touched this subject, superheroes in the World Of Darkness, but none of them seems to fit my idea of superhuman and so now I take my own stab at it. These rules are intended to make superhumans compatible with others in the World of Darkness without letting them run roughshod over the others.

The main problem with having superhumans in the WoD is that they have powers that are largely unchecked by the forces of reality, or are they? All the other factions have both established struggles of their own (Ascension War, Masquerade/Jyhad, Garou's War for Gaia, The Gathering, The return to Arcadia, etc.) and also certain controlling bodies that hold their actions in check, but they also have the knowledge that there is strength in numbers and that there are means to 'erase' any sign that they exist from the memories of mankind as a whole. Para(or super if you prefer)Humans have no such guarantee -- they have no inherited social structure, such as the clans or traditions or tribes to rely upon, few are those who manage to learn anything of their history and even fewer still who find others to act as mentor to them until they are ready to make their own way in the mean and heartless World of Darkness. This then is the balance in playing parahumans -- no rules (or Paradox), but also no starting social system to fall back upon.

History

Once Upon a Time...
-- Any Fairy Tale ever written

The true origins of Parahumans are unknown, even to them. They have no common link except for the urge to be with others who can understand them, their own kind. This sometimes causes them to seek out and unite with others of their kind, both for companionship and mutual self-preservation(safety in numbers, so to speak). Those who even bother to contemplate their origin believe that they are the next step in human evolution, the logical progression from Homo sapiens to Homo sapiens mutatus, or parahumans, as they call themselves. The rest just know that they are hated by most humans and the ones who know about the other factions of the World of Darkness realize how much those beings would like to get their hands on the Parahumans (for study, ghouls, or worse). What is also known is that the Parahumans have only recently started coming out of the shadows, but they have been around for awhile and though they know little about themselves, they have learned quite a bit about the other WoD groups and beings.

Description

"And partly it's just that he's nine foot tall, green, and almost invulnerable"
--Jube the Walrus, Wild Cards 2: Aces High

The Parahuman character can have, literally, any physical description , from one giant floating eye to the gentleman in the quote (Troll), who's 9' tall, superstrong and covered in hair-tufted armor plates of green hide. This means that the character concept must be quite defined since there are no real archetypes to fall back on. This may mean that this type of character will be too much for the starting player to handle, but that's okay too. Many times, it is only imagination and creative role-playing that will allow these beings to hold their own with some of the supernaturals.

Character Concept

"So then why? Why help people who'd rather see you dead?"

"Because once... ... A long time ago... ... I got so wrapped up in Myself... ... that I lost ... everything."

--Marrow and Spider-Man

So, now the hard part:the concept. Have a favorite comic, or a hero you've always dreamed of being? Then you have a concept for your character. Name, costume (clothes worn) and powers, you must choose all of these with the concept in mind.

Character Creation

Attributes: 9/6/5 (Note on Appearance: These beings seem to either have very good looks or horrible disfigurations and therefore, they either start with Appearance 2 or can get the ten extra points by taking Appearance 0.)

Abilities: 14/10/6

Backgrounds; 8

Record Willpower: 5

Record Reserves: (1/2 Will + Sta)

Record Mutations: Start with ten points to spend on mutations that can take a number of forms, see below for more information.

Freebies: 20

Attributes	5
Backgrounds	1
Willpower	2
Abilities	2
Reserves	3
Mutations-	3

Mutations

"With Great power comes great responsibility."
-- Ben Parker

The following are mutations buyable for Parahumans with their mutation points and freebie points:

Works exactly as the Garou rage with regards to extra actions and the healing of wounds, also recovered the same ways (i.e.. getting pissed-off), frenzies are possible. This mutation costs the owner one mutation point for each point of rage in the pool, maximum of ten and the rage can never go over the character's pool limit. Should the character ever meet a Gurahl, they may be trained in the use of rage to add auto-successes to strength rolls (Storyteller's discretion).

This mutation works exactly like Kindred blood pool in regards to attribute enhancement, healing and such, but does not infer any disciplines (though these may be learned or bought later on, none to start). The mutant must drain blood from others to regain blood pool dots spent or recovers one point per day. The parahuman is not affected by kindred weaknesses either, but if they have no blood points, they cannot access these powers. Every 2 Mutation points spent pushes the character's 'generation' down one on the background chart(cannot buy as normal background), up to limit of 9th Generation for ten points.

This may seem unbalancing, but just wait. For every 3 mutation points spent, the character can buy one level of any of the following spheres:

Correspondence: May only pick one effect from each level they have a dot for.

Entropy: One effect per each level of this sphere purchased, as with Correspondance

Forces: User may use any effect from the level he or she has, but only with one form of energy, costs 2 points per level for ability to energy blast only (damage equal to forces)

Life: The character can perform any function of the levels they have, but must purchase separately to affect self and others and cannot create life!

Matter: Can use any effects from level one to three, but limited to one material (or any, for the expenditure of +10 mutation points), to purchase the Transmutation power costs 20 mutation points(or 25 for the level five of matter).

Mind: All effects possible at the user's level are allowed, costs 4 points per level

Prime: None

Spirit: Character can use any effects of the levels they have, but costs 4 points per level instead of three.

Time: All effects are possible, but this power costs 6 points per level due to its effectiveness as both offensive and defensive power.

This is the category under which many find themselves falling, those with increased attributes, beyond the normal human limit (maximum of ten). Every 2 points spent on an attribute does the following: Strength: Acts as one level of Potence

Dexterity: Acts as one dex auto success.

Stamina: Acts as one level of Fortitude.

Charisma: Acts as one level of Presence.

Manipulation: Acts as one level of Dominate.

Appearance: Adds one auto-success to all appearance-based rolls and generally makes those of the same sex hate you while those of opposite sex want you, bad!

Perception: Acts as auto-successes on the character's perception rolls and on related skill-rolls(such as tracking, shadowing, alertness, etc.)

Intelligence: Acts as auto-successes on the Int rolls and can also be used as the Dream Background to access unknown Knowledgesor Skills(not talents).

Wits: Acts as one level of Celerity.

This one is self-explanatory; you're real fast. Each Level costs 3 Mutation Points.

*	You can run at speeds up to 75 MPH and have one extra action per turn
**	You can run at speeds upto 150 MPH and have 2 extra actions per turn
***	You can run at speeds upto 300 MPH and have 4 extra actions per turn
****	You can run at speeds upto 600 MPH and have 6 extra actiions per turn
*****	You can run at speeds over Mach One, maximum of 900 MPH and have 8 extra actions per turn. Note: movement at this rate will cause a sonic boom, a unidirectional soundwave that will strike all within 100' radius as stun attack (does 4 damage dice; each success rolled does one health level damage and 3 health levels stun damage. If stun takes you to incapacitated, you're out for (6-Sta#) hours, minimum of 1. Diff 6 to soak, non-aggravated)

Note:With level 3 or higher in this power, you can make a dex+speed roll to run across water(diff8, three successes needed), don't botch this one!

This costs 1 point per level and grant the following:

*	Your senses are very acute, you can make sensory rolls at -2 difficulty
**	Senses are superior to garou and you make all sensory rolls at -4 difficulty(no lower than diff2)
***	Sense are superhuman; at this point, you can hear the heartbeat of another to tell when they lie/track by scent(and smell fear)/see in complete darkness/read newspaper by touch/ discern the ingredients in anything tasted(can tell poison by taste without ingesting enough to take serious damage), all are at Diff8 to perform(no bonuses) and have Max range of 200'(except taste and touch of course)
****	Has honed superhuman senses to the point that the enhanced sensory abilities are now at Diff6 to perform and the range increases to 500'
*****	Senses are so sharp that superior sensory abilities are now Diff5 to perform and the character can see through substances, hear the thoughts of those within range, listen to telephone conversations by feeling vibrations in phone line, track superhuman/natural powers by scent , and diagnose others by tasting their body fluids(sweat, blood, etc.) all of these are Diff 7 to perform.

Note: The character must buy each sense up separately or all for 4 points per level.

This power costs the owner 3 points per level.

*	You heal one health level per hour or one aggravated per day and broken bones heal in one week, you can soak aggravated damage with 1/2 your stamina.
**	You heal one health level per 10 minutes or one aggravated per 6 hours and broken bones heal in one day. Reduce soak difficulties by one. Immune to colds/flu.
***	You heal one health level every minute and one aggravated level every hour. Broken bones heal in 6 hours and you can roll vs. diff8 to recover lost limbs/organs (3 successes for hand, eight for giant hole in chest, can add cumulative successes, each roll costs one point of reserve to use-no reserve and you're SOL), takes one minute per success needed to regrow, can use full stamina to soak aggravated. Immune to viruses.
****	You heal one health level per turn and one aggravated per 10 minutes. Bones heal in hours and the diff for both soak and limb regeneration is reduced by one.
*****	They couldn't kill you by dropping an asteroid on your head. You recover one health level every turn and one aggravated per minute. Bones heal in 10 minutes and the diff for regenerating limbs/organs is now 6. Add two extra dice to your soak pool to represent your toughness and this counts vs. aggravated too. Immune to all diseases (could inject themselves with HIV for fun!).

Note: Those with this power may be sought out to use their blood for cure to many types of disease (and since they heal so quick, vampires love them too...)

This power costs the user 8 points and allows them to do aggravated damage with hand to hand and melee attacks, but not with arrows or guns. The field also allows user to soak aggravated damage as normal, though they don't heal any sustained damage any quicker.

This allows the user to absorb kinetic energy from those around themselves, increasing their speed or strength and damaging power. Costs the user 6 points for touch-range power or 10 points for the ability to siphon kinetic energy from those within 50' of user. Roll Will vs.trait to be siphoned and the successes are the number of levels adds to user, maximum of target's level (cannot siphon 7 dots of strength from someone with strength 5). This works against Potence and Celerity, Speed of Thought and related abilities as well.

This is the power to move through solid objects. The character can spend (Sta #) of minutes in this state and can pass through following materials:

*	Paper and light (balsa) wood
**	Normal wood
***	stone, petrified wood and thin (6" or less) steel
****	Regular steel and most objects
*****	10' of steel plate, can penetrate almost anything

This power cost the user 2 points per level and adds the current rank in auto successes to the user's soak rolls due to intangible state.

This allows the user the ability most dreamed of by humans, the power to fly without mechanical aid. The power costs 3 points per level and gives following:

*	Can fly at speeds up to 125 MPH.
**	Can fly at speeds up to 250 MPH and can now hover in place.
***	Can fly at speeds up to 500 MPH and has one extra action per turn.
****	Can fly at speeds up to 800 MPH (just over Mach One) and has the ability at this level to turn thrust into lift- for each 100lbs to be lifted/moved, decrease the speed of flight by 75 MPH.
*****	Can Fly at speeds upto Mach Two (1540 MPH) and has all the previous powers, as well as three actions per turn while in flight.

This costs the user 2 points per level and each level provides the character certain advantages:

*	You don't need to sleep and are immune to attacks that induce that state (ie KO gases)
**	You don't need to eat or drink on a regular basis and can go weeks without either (cannot be starved or dehydrated). Immune to ingested poisons/toxins.
***	No longer eat or drink and can hold breath in hazardous areas for (Sta x 5) minutes.
****	Can hold Breath indefinitely and is immune to all gases and cloud effects.
*****	Totally sealed unto yourself, you can survive in outer space and are immune to radiation and disease as well as the previous conditions.

This power costs the user 4 points per level and can be quite handy when used properly. Any creature the character can assume the form of, they can also assume the Natural abilities of. This means they can get Garou's healing and shapechange forms, but not their gifts or steeping sideways power(part of their gnosis) and cannot take magick spheres by copying mage. But they can take vampire's blood pool(13th generation, would need real good explanation for raising this).

*	Can assume shape of creature +/-50% of own size, natural creatures only, diff7 to change
**	Can assume the shape or powers of animals +/-90% of own size and can take small advantages of form without complete change(claws or gill, for example) on Sta + Int roll vs. Diff8.
***	Can Assume the shape of any natural animal and partial transformation diff becomes 6.
****	On a Sta + Int roll vs. diff9, the character can assume the form of supernatural creature that is within same somatotype as them (i.e.. humanoid or not). Must score 3 or more successes to change properly, anything less is useless. Every five times the character successfully changes into a form, they get -1 to diff, to a minimum of Diff5 for any form.
*****	Have you ever seen a dragon? Then you can become one! Any non-humanoid form requires roll vs. Diff10 and the number of successes needed is five. It takes ten changes into non-humanoid form to lower the difficulty.

This must be bought separately for self and others. Allows for change into non-organic form. Each dot adds to character in manner dependent on type of matter changed into:

Solids: Dots add to potence, fortitude and body levels (plus one per level, are OK levels)

Gases: Dots to celerity, each dot is two dice of air blast(or other damage for, say, chlorine gas) and the character can fly at (Dots x5 MPH) speed and is immune to physical attacks.

Liquids: Dots to celerity and water/fluid blast(2 dice per dot), immune to physical attacks. The character can also add one additional dot to these for every ten gallons of like fluid they come into contact with while in this form.

The Power costs the user 3 points per level or five per level if they want to buy all three states at the same time.

This allows the user to create duplicates of himself that are exact in every detail (except for this power). The power costs the user four points per level and works in following way:

Roll Wits + This power vs. Diff8 and every success indicates one duplicate that turn. A botch causes all created dupes to disappear or if there are no dupes created yet does one health level of damage to power user. At levels *** or more, the character may 'designate' certain dupes by naming and equipping them and these will be the first to appear always, fully equipped with whatever they were previously stocked with. Until this level, the dupes appear with nothing but duplicates of the character's own clothes. Can 'designate' one dupe per combined point of Int + this power.

This power allows users to negate all non-human abilities of those they touch (at 5 point per level) or those within 10' radius( for 7 points per level) on a roll of Power vs. target's willpower, one success reduces these abilities to 1/2 while three negates them altogether. This includes spheres, gifts, blood pool, disciplines, powers, etc. All abilities beyond those of normal humans are affected (including Numina and Faith!).

Each level of this power costs the user 3 points and has the following effects: Adds one auto success vs.kinetic attacks, adds two to diff to knock character down (may go above ten, this means moving impossible and adds one auto success to damage from the character's ram/charge attacks due to gathered momentum.

Each level of this power costs the user 3 points and adds a temporary point of attribute addable to any one attribute for one scene. It also allows one extra point of the character's current attributes to be shifted per level. In effect, this allows the character to shift around two attribute points per level for one scene at a time, though half of the shifted points must be taken from character's other attributes and half comes from the pool.

This is a somewhat disturbing, but useful power that allows tcharacters to alter their bodies in beneficial (and sometimes bizarre) ways:

*	Can add Int to Dodge pool, as the character's body becomes pliable to avoid damage (or can be added to soak roll to emulate character thinking up other ways of making body damage-resistant).
**	Can stretch the body over long distances (ten feet per success on Sta + power roll vs. diff6)
***	Skin can be hardened to provide (power level) bonus to soak vs. aggravated damage or create a weapon of flesh (does str+3 damage and has diff 5 to use)
****	Skin whip/choke or bones extended to form external claws (skin whip is diff7 and does str+5 damage upto 6' away while the choke is touch-range and does str+1 aggravated as character forces their skin down target's throat, diff6 roll) (Claws do Str+2 damage and are diff 6 to use)
*****	Bone exoshell adds five levels to soak (vs.aggravated) and +3 to attacker's diff to damage character, bone spurs and jagged bone claws do Str+2 aggravated damage with diff6 to strike in hth.

Power costs 4 points per level to buy.

New Merits and Flaws

"It's not easy being Green"
-- Kermit the Frog

The possibilities for new merits and flaws for these beings are large indeed, but here are a few to get you started:

3 point Merit

Use whatever justification you like. This is an extra bruised health level and can be bought more than once.

3 point Merit

These allow for Str+1 damage bite attacks and Str+2 claw attacks that, for the 5 point merit, do aggravated damage. Otherwise, treat as normal damage.

4 point Merit

This character takes no penalties from wound level until they reach incapacitated, since they feel NO pain! Not always good, as they can set themselves on fire or break bones without realizing it and then continue to aggravate the wound, such as running on a broken ankle for three miles.

4 point Merit

This is best explained by superhuman intelligence, but other possibilities exist. This is the ability to get your hands on super-tech (like cutting-edge technomancer stuff, or better!) and use it in the game. Check with Storyteller on what he will allow, don't expect to come into the game with Ultimate Nullifiers or the like!

6 point Society Merit

Though unlikely, it is possible the character has Immunity from prosecution for their actions. Storyteller, be warned, this one can get out of hand real fast!

10 point Merit

OK, you can be killed, it's just that your spirit will not leave the body and almost any half-baked scheme can lead to you being brought to life, such as using the jumper cables and the truck to 'kickstart' your heart and bring you back. However, the longer you're out, the better the method of resurrection has to be to work. People with this merit love mages; they can come up with so many easy ways to bring them back (Life 3 can resurrect these goofballs). These types tend to be somewhat nonchalant about dying and are usually somewhat crazy to some extent.

7 point Flaw

Something affects you very well, doing 1 health level aggravated damage to you per turn in contact with it or minute within 10' of it. This damage cannot be soaked and even if you're Joe Indestructible, this stuff will mess you up bad. This could be an incredible source for campaigns, as the character tries to overcome his weakness.

3 point Flaw

Memory implants, amnesia, whatever reason you can come up with. Anyways, you don't know the character's real background, but the storyteller does and can bring this fact up to haunt you whenever she feels it is appropriate. Many campaigns could revolve around the character seeking his true origins.

5 point Flaw

Somehow you came here from a parallel world where things were similar, but different. Maybe there were different presidents or maybe Hitler won WWII and still rules the world through his mastery of life-extending magick! Any time you need to know about your surroundings or history, you are pretty much screwed! Find some friends to teach you fast or you won't likely last long.

6 point Flaw

Someone wants you dead, for reasons you don't know and who they are is also unknown; it could be your best friend or the trusty butler who knows your secret identity. This flaw could be lethal or just damn annoying, since you know nothing about your advesary and the Storyteller can set the power level high, low or whereever in between they want, that's the price you pay.

2 point Flaw

Cannot take this if you have Arcane, since this would cancel it out. You have either a physical feature or mannerism that makes you unforgettable (and therefore, easier to track down). This could be anything, but it makes attempts to hunt you down -2 to their difficulties. This could be bad for someone with a secret identity.