The Accursed

The Accursed -By Mr. Scorpio

Some heroes are cursed with the inability to control the very powers that make them who they are. They are the werewolves who are at the mercy of the moon. They are the unfortunate few who are trapped in an altered form living their lives as a walking, talking statue. They are often a danger to themselves and all those around them. Another side effect of this lack of control is that the Super Abilities are usually more powerful than those of others who have control of their abilities.

Accursed chareacters can be either Experiments or Mutants (player choice).

Step One: The Usual: Determine the normal Eight Attributes, Hit Points, SDC, Alignment and Optional Rounding Out of Your Character as you would any character.

Step Two: Hit Points & SDC

Hit Points: Roll to determine as usual. Add up the character's PE attribute number and an additional +1d6 per level of experience.

Structural Damage Capacity (SDC): Accursed heroes get a base amount of 40 SDC points, plus any bonuses provided by physical skills.

Step Three: Unusual Physical Characteristics or Side Effects: Roll on the appropriate tables in the Experiments and Mutants sections.

Step Four: Determining Powers: Roll on the appropriate table to determine the number and type of powers (Except where noted) and then subtract one Major Super Ability or two Minor Super Abilities. The character will receive one Major Super Ability from the list below to make up for it. The hero has no control over this power and cannot turn it off. To keep the power under control, the character will have to use a Power Control Unit. Roll on the following table or choose the most appropriate type.
Note: If the SDC of any of the Altered Physical Structure forms listed here is depleted, the character will temporarily revert to his normal flesh and blood form until 10% of the SDC of the APS form has regenerated, at which time he will automatically change back to his altered form.

01-10: Alter Physical Structure: Solids - Crystal, Ice, Metal, Plant,Putty, Rubber, Sand, Stone and Wood. Bonus: +10% to SDC.

11-20: Alter Physical Structure: Liquids - Liquid, Acid, Lava and Oil and Tar (a full containment suit can be used to allow the character to more easily interact with the world around him). Bonus: +10% to SDC.

21-28: Alter Physical Structure: Semi-Intangible - Shadow, Smoke or Mist, Vapor or Fog and Void (a full containment suit will be necessary to keep the character from dissipating; can leave the suit for one full minute per point of Mental Endurance. Beyond this time limit, the character will lose 1d6 from dissipation per melee round the character remains outside the suit).

29-37: Alter Physical Structure: Energy - Electricity, Fire, Plasma, Light (Either a Power Control Unit or full containment suit will be necessary for the character to safely interact with the world around him). Bonus: +10% to SDC.

38-47: Copy Physical Structure: The character will automatically copy anything he touches with his bare skin for more than one melee round (A Power Control Unit will allow the character to retain his normal physical form). Bonus: +10% to the SDc that the character gains from copying any substance.

48-52: Essence Thief: Special: Do not roll for Super Abilities. This power seems to be a strange mix of the Major Abilities Borrow Power and Mimic and the Super Psionic power Mind Bond; however, the character has no control over the power at all (it works on everyone the character makes physical skin-to-skin contact with). By absorbing a part of the victim's life essence, the character automatically drains ALL of the powers and attributes of anyone they touch, as well as gaining the benefits of a kind of one-sided Mind Bond (temporarily gaining all of the memories and skills of the victim). The victim gets the normal saving throw vs. the Borrow Power Major Ability (16 or higher +ME bonus). A failed save means that they are left unconscious for the full duration (until their essence is returned).

Max Number: The character can safely absorb the essences of one person per 5 points of his true ME attribute. Attempting to absorb more essences is dangerous to the character and there is a chance of developing a random insanity as a result. If the maximum number of victims is exceeded then there is a 10% chance per victim that the character will develop some kind of insanity (roll once on the Random Insanity table in HU2, page 28).

Duration: 1d4+4 melee rounds at level one, plus 1d4 melees at levels 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15.

Dangerous Limitation: There is also a risk if the essence thief maintains physical contact with a victim for too long. If, for example, the victim makes several successful saving throws and instead of releasing him the essence thief were to hold on, then there is the very real chance that the transferal could become PERMANENT! For every attack/action after the first that the Essence Thief maintains contact with the victim, there is a 5% cumulative chance that the transfer of power, attributes and memory will become permanent. If this happens, roll once on the Random Insanity table (HU2, page 28). The unfortunate victim will probably remain in a coma for the rest of their life.

53-62: Animal Metamorphosis: The character cannot regain human form on his own (A Power Control Unit will allow the character to retain his normal physical form).

63-72: Lycanthropy: This power works automatically during a full moon or solar eclipse, but the character has no control over it and cannot use it at any other time. The character has normal access to his other Super Abilities. Bonus to Lycanthrope form: +5 to PS, +10% to SDC.

73-82: Super Energy Expulsion: The character's Super Energy Expulsion power is either always on or out of control, and he requires a Power Control Unit (in the form of gloves, goggles or a containment suit) to keep it in check. In either case, the power output is increased and uses the Super-Blast damage (1d6X10 +1d6 per level/+30 for charactrers 6th level or higher) instead of the normal damage, and the character cannot reduce the amount of power of his blasts.

01-50: Power is always on.

51-00: Power is out of the character's control. Without a Power Control Unit the character can attempt to use his power but must roll a successful save vs. Psionics (ME bonuses apply) to deactivate it. A failed roll means the energy continues to flow from the character (until he makes the save), doing damage to anything in its path.

83-92: Bio-Ghost: The character cannot control his power and will absorb the bio energy of anyyone (friend or foe) he comes into physical contact with. A Power Control Unit is required for the character to be able to have any physical contact with other living beings.

93-00: Spirit or Entity: Much like the Immortal sub-category Astral Being or Ghostly Spirit, the character has become an invisible and intangible entity and is unable to interact with other people and the physical world unless they take on some kind of physical form.

01-35: The character has the Transferral/Possession Major Ability. Special: Do not roll for other Super Abiilities.

36-70: The character has the ability to form a body from inorganic material or energy (roll for one of the Alter Physical Structure abilities). The character must have a substantial amount of the material or energy he uses to form his body.

Duration: The physical body can be maintained for 1d6 hours +1 hour per level of experience, every day.

71-00: The character has the ability to spontaneously create a human physical form (identical to the Immortal sub-category Astral Being or Ghostly Spirit ability). Roll for other powers normally.

Step Five: Power Control Unit: One aspect of the Accursed is that many of them require some kind of Power Control Unit, be it a belt, harness or either a streamlined or bulky containment suit. These essential items come from a variety of sources. The units can be repaired or replaced by whoever built it (or almost any Hardware character), though they may demand or ask the character to do them a "favor or two" in return. The character starts with 1d4 of the appropriate units/suits.
Roll on the following table or choose the most appropriate type.

01-25: Private Industry

26-30: Independent. The character (or a buddy) built the device.

31-60: Military/Government

61-85: Scientific Research Facility

86-00: Super-hero (good or evil)

Belt/Harness/Backpack/Goggles/Gloves: These Devices offer no protection (the unit itself has AR:16 and 50 SDC)

Containment Suits: These suits are for containment only and provide little in the way of protection.

Streamlined Containment Suit: No AR, SDC:30

Bulky Containment Suit: Like a space suit or Haz-Mat suit. AR:!), SDC:45

Other Stuff

Hand-to-Hand Combat: Combat skills are not gained automatically. They must be selected as a learned skill.

Attacks Per Melee: Accursed characters automatically get two Hand-to-Hand attacks per melee round. Additional attacks are developed through Hand-to-Hand combat and other combat skills or Super Abilities.

Experience Levels: Use the Bionics and Implants experience chart in the back of HU2 for level advancement.