Gestalt - Fusion
Sept 14, 2019 17:38:05 GMT -6
Post by Traskus on Sept 14, 2019 17:38:05 GMT -6
Although the vast majority of the wheel is unaware of fusion, civilizations and pantheons who do know of it have almost unanimously forbidden it's practice for their own reasons. The Tau believe that is disrupts the caste system and the majority of the lawful pantheon view it as an abomination or are otherwise unwilling to speak up about it.
Despite this, fusion is one of the easier crimes to get away with as most law enforcement personnel do not of it's existence, much less its legal status. A handful of crystal spheres have come to consider fusion as a way of life as a result, viewing it as the closest possible connection between two people and holding it with as much sacredness as others hold marriage. When these type of Clueless leave their native Sphere they are often disgusted to find that it is outlawed or worse, used as a simple tool for more power.
There are two reasons that a fusion is created. The first is the most obvious and most common: the participants want to combine their efforts in the most efficient way possible and become stronger. It's why fusion is sought out 99/100 times and it satisfies every time. A Gestalt presents an out of context problem for anyone that opposes it, and no one ever believes a witness to one's effects. The average Gestalt just amplifies whatever power they already have, but every now and again they present an esoteric problem. If nothing else, it presents a disguise of sorts to thwart suspicion.
The other reason is more peaceful: the participants feel an emotional connection and want a physical one to match. They feel that physical contact is nice, but insufficient for the feelings they have for one another. Philosophers and bards tell stories of Gestalts in one context or another and those Gestalts all have this motivation in common.
Gestalts are usually thwarted from fusion by the dance needed to form a fusion. Combining traditional martial arts poses with water ballet, the fusion dance is a silly looking but necessary part of fusion that gives the two participants a mutual "rhythm" with each other. The rhythm acts as a kind of symbolic synchronization, preparing the participant for the exact moment of fusion where the it goes from being a symbolic idea to being very literal and possibly life threatening if done wrong. Many more potential Gestalts have been thwarted due to one of the partners losing their rhythm by a fraction of a second and being turned into a writhing abomination as their bodies begin and finish fusing at different times. After many fusions, a pair may become so in sync that they no longer need to follow the steps of the fusion dance and instead make their own rhythm to synchronize to.
What it feels like to be fused has been described differently by everyone who has tried it, but some consistencies have been found. When two people who are incredibly like minded fuse they have described it as just being "Me, but bigger", where as people who are complete opposites feel themselves completely disappear. Most reports describe fusion as a mixture of the two above, but are unable to elaborate any further. People who have an incredibly strong bond together may decide that they literally never want to be apart and fuse together until their Gestalt gains its own independence, effectively fusing them together forever.
A Gestalt's personality is easy to describe as both the personality traits of the participants mashed together, but the reality is much more complicated. Even in it's infant stages a Gestalt is more than just the participants steering it like tiny pilots in it's brain. It is best described as personality that is inspired by the personalities of it's participants, but not locked to their specific traits and mannerisms. For example, a Gestalt made up of a quiet and dignified Water Caste diplomat and her brash Fire Caste bodyguard would be cool, confident, and direct rather than somehow being hotheaded and calm at the same time.
Creating a Gestalt
Creating a gestalt is like creating a character, except moreso. Treat it as such. A gestalt may only be formed in combat after the initial build, physical or social.
The value P = the number of participants.
Step 1. Know the technique
To gain the knowledge of the fusion technique is a bit of a trial. To know the technique (as in, the proper steps to correctly form a gestalt) requires a TN 20 forbidden lore roll on the part of all participant each time they seek to form a gestalt. If a character fails, they cannot join this fusion at this time.
Take note of the character with the lowest number of raises to pass the test and how many raises they got. Do so each time the gestalt is formed and add them up for reference. This number is K. If all participants are of the same race, K is increased by P -1.
Step 2. Perform the dance
The fusion dance is a TN 20 performer roll on the part of all participants each time they wish to form a gestalt. This is a full action on behalf of all participants in structured time, and 10 seconds in narrative time. This is performed at the lowest initiative of all participants, and all participants must declare intent to form a gestalt at the beginning of the round. If a character fails, the fusion fails and no gestalt is formed.
Take note of the character with the lowest number of raises to pass the test and how many raises they got. Do so each time the gestalt is formed and add them up for reference. This number will be D. If all participants are of the same exaltation, D is increased by P -1.
If all participants are artificial beings (prometheans, warforged, programs, etc.), they may all (all-or-nothing) use tech-use in place of perform to fuse.
Step 3. Allocate stats
This is the time-consuming part. Treat it as a character creation workshop.
The characteristics, skills, level, and power stat of the gestalt are equal to the highest such base statistic of all participants (ex. if the highest power stat of the participants is 4, the gestalt's power stat is 4). Temporary statistical modifiers already in effect apply to the gestalt instead of the participants (if a participant has +2 strength, the gestalt is formed as though they didn't and instead the gestalt has +2 strength themselves). Temporary bonuses to the same stat from the same source (such as two instances of animal power both affecting strength) do not stack.
The gestalt has all the background dots, items, and miscellaneous belongings of the participants. If multiple participants have bionics installed to the same body part, the less rare bionic is instead installed to a body part that does not have one. If the gestalt has more bionics than places to put them, the rarest ones take priority and the less rare bionics are inaccessible until the gestalt has more available relevant places to put them (like missing limb sockets). If they are equal rarity, it must be selected the first time the gestalt forms. If an ability such as a promethean's superlative constitution prevents a bionic's installation, the gestalt simply does not have that bionic.
The size of the gestalt is either the size of the largest participant or that size +P -1, at sm discretion. This choice is made when the gestalt is first formed and cannot be changed.
The gestalt knows all spells, spell combos, sword techniques, and trick shots of its participants. The gestalt has all racial powers, feats, specialties, assets, traits, and class completion bonuses of its participants. Numerical benefits from feats, class completion bonuses, racial powers, assets, and the like do not stack by default (see below) except sound constitution. Powers such as a werewolf's shifting ability does not provide more than +2 strength/constitution in warform no matter how many werewolves participate in a gestalt.
If the gestalt has two mutually exclusive feats such as decadence and addictive personality from its participants then one of them must take priority.
The gestalt uses its own stats to calculate things that reference character stats (level for weapon proficiency rolled die, strength+dexterity to calculate speed, etc.). The gestalt uses their unity in place of any reference to power stat (blood potency, excellence, etc.) and harmony in place of any reference to resource stat (vitae, action points, etc.).
The gestalt's levels in each technique school it has are each equal to that of its highest participant, plus one per participant that has at least one level in the same technique school. If this raises the levels in magic schools, they gain a spell (at sm choice) as normal (this spell cannot be changed after selection).
The alignment and devotion of the gestalt is that of the participant with the highest devotion at the time of fusion. If there is a tie, one takes priority until there is no longer a tie that includes the one chosen.
The gestalt has the highest of all insanity points and corruption points of its participants. The gestalt has all degenerations, derangements, and mutations of its participants. The gestalt has all hindrances of its participants unless at least one other participant can compensate for them (if a participant has a missing arm while at least one other participant has an arm in the same place on their body, the gestalt has that arm).
Exaltation
Exaltation with a gestalt is a bit different than most other characters. The power stat of a gestalt is called unity and their resource stat is called harmony. The unity of a gestalt is equal to the highest power stat of its participants. (Ex. a unity 5 gestalt made of a promethean with 2 generation and a vampire with 5 blood potency will also have access to the promethean's generation 3, 4, and 5 powers while fused.). If all participants of the gestalt have the same power stat (gnosis, feral heart, etc.) , its unity equals the number outlined + P -1.
Try to keep up because this is going to get intense. Find the largest resource pool of the participants. Use the resource point calculation with the gestalt's stats to calculate R.
The harmony of a gestalt is equal to unity + R - P. Pressure points are calculated with the gestalt's stats.
The gestalt has all the background dots, items, and miscellaneous belongings of the participants. If multiple participants have bionics installed to the same body part, the less rare bionic is instead installed to a body part that does not have one. If the gestalt has more bionics than places to put them, the rarest ones take priority and the less rare bionics are inaccessible until the gestalt has more available relevant places to put them (like missing limb sockets). If they are equal rarity, it must be selected the first time the gestalt forms. If an ability such as a promethean's superlative constitution prevents a bionic's installation, the gestalt simply does not have that bionic.
The size of the gestalt is either the size of the largest participant or that size +P -1, at sm discretion. This choice is made when the gestalt is first formed and cannot be changed.
The gestalt knows all spells, spell combos, sword techniques, and trick shots of its participants. The gestalt has all racial powers, feats, specialties, assets, traits, and class completion bonuses of its participants. Numerical benefits from feats, class completion bonuses, racial powers, assets, and the like do not stack by default (see below) except sound constitution. Powers such as a werewolf's shifting ability does not provide more than +2 strength/constitution in warform no matter how many werewolves participate in a gestalt.
If the gestalt has two mutually exclusive feats such as decadence and addictive personality from its participants then one of them must take priority.
The gestalt uses its own stats to calculate things that reference character stats (level for weapon proficiency rolled die, strength+dexterity to calculate speed, etc.). The gestalt uses their unity in place of any reference to power stat (blood potency, excellence, etc.) and harmony in place of any reference to resource stat (vitae, action points, etc.).
The gestalt's levels in each technique school it has are each equal to that of its highest participant, plus one per participant that has at least one level in the same technique school. If this raises the levels in magic schools, they gain a spell (at sm choice) as normal (this spell cannot be changed after selection).
The alignment and devotion of the gestalt is that of the participant with the highest devotion at the time of fusion. If there is a tie, one takes priority until there is no longer a tie that includes the one chosen.
The gestalt has the highest of all insanity points and corruption points of its participants. The gestalt has all degenerations, derangements, and mutations of its participants. The gestalt has all hindrances of its participants unless at least one other participant can compensate for them (if a participant has a missing arm while at least one other participant has an arm in the same place on their body, the gestalt has that arm).
Exaltation
Exaltation with a gestalt is a bit different than most other characters. The power stat of a gestalt is called unity and their resource stat is called harmony. The unity of a gestalt is equal to the highest power stat of its participants. (Ex. a unity 5 gestalt made of a promethean with 2 generation and a vampire with 5 blood potency will also have access to the promethean's generation 3, 4, and 5 powers while fused.). If all participants of the gestalt have the same power stat (gnosis, feral heart, etc.) , its unity equals the number outlined + P -1.
Try to keep up because this is going to get intense. Find the largest resource pool of the participants. Use the resource point calculation with the gestalt's stats to calculate R.
The harmony of a gestalt is equal to unity + R - P. Pressure points are calculated with the gestalt's stats.
4. The Extras
This section is for gestaltation qualities in the periphery.
Gestalt power benefits
As characters continue to form the same gestalt over the course of a game, the gestalt grows in power as they are formed from greater synchronization. Refer to the list below.
| (K+D)/2 (rounding up) | Benefit gained |
| 1 | The gestalt's dots in each skill its participants have trained are increased by 1 per participant in the fusion after the first with at least 1 dot in said skill (P-1, but a participant with 0 dots does not count toward it). |
| 2 | The quality of all equipment the gestalt has are increased by D/2. If that is 4 or more, they instead gain generic artifact qualities and lose quality modifiers. |
| 3 | Redundant feats (such as weapon specialization (same choice), appearance, hatred (same choice), unarmed warrior, peer, etc.) are additive. For example: having three instances of diamond body stack for a total of +12. On the other hand, wholeness of body and perfect self don't stack. Weapon or armor proficiency (even the squat kind) is not eligible for redundancy. |
| 4 | The gestalt's level is increased by P - 1. The gestalt may refund any and all gear items to calculate an inheritance (the background) value to buy new items with. This refund and repurchase only applies to the gestalt while the gestalt exists. |
| 5 | The gestalt's dots in each characteristic are increased by 1 per participant in the fusion after the first with at least 1 dot in said characteristic (P-1, but a participant with 0 dots does not count toward it). |
| 6+ | The gestalt's time limit for existing before splitting is increased by P. The gestalt may refund its artifacts to gain dots in artifacts equal to the value refunded. The gestalt may use these dots to purchase new artifacts. This refund and repurchase only applies to the gestalt while the gestalt exists, and all must meet sm approval (like when trying to get artifacts that are truly unique). |
These benefits are cumulative, a lower level benefit is kept even after gaining higher levels of benefits. If, for whatever reason, the values of K and/or D decrease to the point the average no longer meets or exceeds a benefit target value, the benefit is lost until the average meets or exceeds the prerequisite value again.
5. Quirks
As an extra, gestalts can have quirks. You can skip this step if you want. It's just for fun, not a necessary part of gestaltation. The first time a gestalt is formed, roll on this table. This can be done up to P times. You may also reduce K or D by 1 to roll on the table again.
| D100 roll | Quirk | Effect |
| 01-05 | Unique Appearance | The gestalt looks absolutely nothing like its constituent characters. A male human in casual wear and a naked, sentient pop rock could fuse and look like a female pop singer. There are no patterns but the SM's madness while keeping exaltation features intact. |
| 06-10 | Meld | You hear my words, you see my visions. You are beauty, made in my image. The gestalt gains the Fear (1) trait. If the gestalt already had it, it is instead increased by 1. |
| 11-15 | Extra Eyes | The gestalt has two more eyes than that of the participant with the most eyes. This grants the Heightened Senses (sight) feat. |
| 16-20 | Extra Arms | The gestalt has 2 more arms. This grants the Secondary Limbs racial feat, which is additive with other instances of it. It allows them to do things that having two extra arms would generally allow, and they treat their strength as 2 higher for purposes of swimming, climbing, and grappling. This quirk may be rolled multiple times, stacking its effects. |
| 21-25 | Bigger | The gestalt's size is increased by 1. |
| 26-30 | Stable | The gestalt can last 1 round longer or 5 minutes longer depending on time keeping before splitting. |
| 31-35 | Telling | The gestalt's tell always starts at the 1 level. |
| 36-40 | Harmonious | K is increased by 1. |
| 41-45 | Leg Up | The gestalt has the quadruped trait. If they already did, increase their ground speed by 2. |
| 46-50 | Voice of Nightmares | The gestalt's voice is literally all the voices of its constituent characters speaking in unison. It's intimidating and causes a -1k1 penalty to social skill rolls, but a +1k1 to intimidate while speaking. |
| 51-55 | Fading Light | The participants gain 1 Insanity every time they fuse, the loss of self too traumatic to bear. |
| 56-60 | Reinvigorated | When the gestalt separates, all participants have one less fatigue and one more resource point (up to their maximum). |
| 61-65 | Broken Blade | The participants all take a level of fatigue after the fusion ends. |
| 66-70 | Psychic Phenomena | Each time the gestalt is successfully formed, it causes psychic phenomena. |
| 71-75 | Unharmonious | D is reduced by 1. |
| 76-80 | Crisis of Faith | The gestalt has the lowest of the characters' Devotions and all of their alignments simultaneously. |
| 81-85 | Chittering Host | The gestalt takes a +1k1 modifier to social skill rolls and a -1k1 to intimidation when speaking. |
| 86-90 | Unstable | The gestalt lasts 1 round or 1 minute less. |
| 91-95 | Wall Eyes | After separating, the participants lose the use of spending one hero point this scene. |
| 96 | Plato's Symposium | The gestalt's parts are physically incomplete when not fused. Characters forming the gestalt skip rolling and automatically fuse whenever they touch and have to roll the rolls to gestalt to separate. This ignores time limits but otherwise keeps to limits of fusion. |
| 97 | Mugen Silhouette | You may discard one derangement, degeneration, or mutation the gestalt has. This only applies to the gestalt. |
| 98 | Unique Alignment | The gestalt has an alignment that none of the characters forming it. |
| 99 | Go, Thanks | The gestalt either has the fat bastard or skinny as a rail hindrance, and its skill/characteristic dots are all the lowest of its participants. |
| 100 | My Own Person | The gestalt is permanently fused, the characters forming it are functionally dead, and the gestalt is under SM control. The characters can come back if the gestalt is forcibly separated or if they each burn a hero point. |
Playing a gestalt
Congratulations, you have completed the unity of the closed fist! That wasn't so bad, was it? How long did it take? An hour?
A gestalt is considered to be a single character, separate from its participants while it exists.
A gestalt forms with hp equal to their maximum - the amount of hp missing from the most damaged participants' pool and a full pool of harmony. The gestalt may reduce its harmony pool to increase their hp and/or reduce their fatigue by the amount of harmony lost upon formation. The gestalt starts with fatigue equal to the highest level of fatigue of any of its participants unless they are somehow immune to it. The gestalt does not form with critical damage.
A gestalt starts able to exist for five rounds in structured time and five minutes in narrative time. Benefits outlined above can increase or decrease this time limit. If the gestalt reaches 0 harmony, they split into the constituent characters. A gestalt may choose to lose 1 harmony per turn to maintain form. Characters have the same hp, resolve, resource, etc. as when they formed the gestalt -P. A person may only successfully participate to become a gestalt once per session.
Yo dawg, can a gestalt participate to form another gestalt? Why yes! A gestalt can gestalt, even with other gestalts to form even bigger gestalts (if gestalt still registers as a word to you I'm impressed). The time limit of a gestalt with a participant gestalt is limited by the lesser of the participant gestalt/s and the resultant gestalt (if a gestalt has a time limit of 10 rounds while its two participant gestalts have a time limit of 5 each, its time limit is five rounds).
Gestalts are controlled by the players of the participant characters. If the players disagree on a course of action for the gestalt, it loses 1 harmony.
If a gestalt were to take critical damage, they instead lose 1 harmony per critical damage taken.
Any insanity points, corruption, derangements, degenerations, mutations, the gestalt gains only apply to the gestalt. Gestalts do not gain and cannot spend experience points.
Destabilizer (artifact 4)[Destabilizers were commissioned by a king in ages past to weaken his foes that relied on fusion. Not many exist, and they are rarely sought out. A destabilizer is a daiklave. Gestalts wounded via a destabilizer lose 1 harmony per hit and per wound inflicted.
Polymerization
Transmutation/Biomancy 3
Transmutation/Biomancy + Wisdom
TN: 20
Action: Full Action
Keywords: Somatic
Duration: instant
Lore? Dancing? Who has the time to learn that? You learn magic and use that like a normal person. This spell may be cast in place of the forbidden lore roll and the perform roll to form a gestalt.
De-Fusion
Transmutation/Biomancy 4
Transmutation/Biomancy + Wisdom
TN: 30
Action: Half action
Keywords: attack, saving throw, somatic, touch
Duration: instant
It starts with an "f" and ends with an "n", and you learned this spell because you don't much care for it. A gestalt affected by this spell may resist with an arcana+willpower test. If the gestalt loses, they lose (transmutation/biomancy) harmony, plus (transmutation/biomancy) per two checks to resist.
