Gremlin
Aug 18, 2022 23:05:44 GMT -6
Post by GuardianTempest on Aug 18, 2022 23:05:44 GMT -6
(That is a normal-sized hammer, by the way.)
There is a lot of diversity in the sapient races that populate the Great Wheel. From the imposing Aasimar and large Orks to the short Halflings and beautiful Dryads, but there are also outliers that don't fit the universal standard. The Goliaths for instance are largest known race, having survived thanks to their massive size, titanic strength, and unyielding constitution. What about the smallest race? Believe it or not, there were actually multitudes of them. Were.
The Great Wheel is not a nice place towards the small and vulnerable. So many miniature communities have been wiped out from natural disasters, unnatural disasters, local predators, armed conflict, freak accidents, titanic battles between Exalts, Malal wanting some stress relief, or even just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Through natural selection, only those pragmatic enough to abandon their previous customs and boundaries survived, gathering together no matter how incompatible they previously were.
Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 0.1-0.8m
Average Weight: 2-18 kg
Languages: Trade, any extra
Common Personality Traits: Observant, cautious, team-oriented, resourceful, cooperative
Common Physical Traits: Small size, cosmetic variety, light weight, dies easily, found in groups
Example Names: Habetrot, Olimar, Taterazay, Umaru
Racial Statistics
Characteristic Bonus: +1 to Wisdom or Charisma
Skill Bonus: +1 to Perception and Command
Power — Community Support: Never alone. Gain a dot in Contacts which represents a Gremlin community. You can use this for Acquisition tests instead of Wealth, ignoring Wealth Strain but only able to afford items with a rarity of Rare or lower.
Size: 1
Racial Feats
Might of the Masses
Gremlins together strong. Community Support allows you to recruit a mortal Gremlin as a Minion with a TN 10 Contacts roll plus another for every raise. Your Minions have a Threat Rating equal to your dots in Command, and a Damage Rating equal to your level for melee and half that for ranged (round up). The maximum amount of Gremlin Minions you can have is twelve times your level. If you buy this feat at Character Creation, you may have your Community Support provide two entire minion squads readily available.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse
"Small" doesn't always mean "weak". Gain additional Hit Points equal to your Level and a free raise to rolls that apply Strength. If you buy this feat at Character Creation, you may gain a Machinator Array from your Community Support.
Tiny Metal
To fight the monsters of the Great Wheel, your people built monsters of their own. If a Vehicle you're making or improving is Size 10 or smaller, you may permanently modify it for Gremlin use. Doing so gives it twice as many equipment slots, Control Systems take up half as many slots (rounded up), and miniaturizing a component only increases its cost by 50% of its base value. However it can only be occupied by Size 1 characters and cannot have any Accommodations. Armor and Void Shield values are halved (round down), same for a vehicle weapon's Penetration, range and static damage modifier (the +X after the damage roll). If you buy this feat at Character Creation, you may have your Community Support provide a pre-modified Size 5 vehicle worth 150 VP that's following the same guidelines.
Gremlin Classic
The more (technological) crutches you have, the more it hurts when they're kicked out from under you. Gain two raises on tests to hack, sabotage or otherwise interfere with non-sentient machines. If you buy this feat at Character Creation, you may gain a Good Quality ICE Pick and an Interference Dagger from your Community Support.
Pocket Pal
Your people survived by cooperating with the larger races in exchange for protection. Aid Another actions towards characters larger than you provide a static bonus equal to their Size. If you buy this feat at Character Creation, you may gain a Vexillum or a Markerlight from your Community Support.
Elder Lineage (Paragon Asset)
You've been at this for a long time and so you can weather the worst the Wheel has to offer. Your Hit Points are triple the sum of your Willpower and Constitution. Gain an additional bonus depending on which racial feat you bought in Character Creation, choosing only one option if you bought multiple feats.
- Might of the Masses: Add your Excellence to the size of minion squads you can command (maximum of 10), and twice that to the amount of Gremlin minions you can have at a time. Halve the raises and the Blast rating of an attack for determining the amount of Gremlin minions removed.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: You may spend Action Points to add rolled dice to rolls that apply Strength (e.g. melee damage and Bull Rush actions).
- Tiny Metal: Vehicles modified by this racial feat gain additional Hit Points equal to your Excellence.
- Gremlin Classic: Warforged, Prometheans, creatures with the Machine trait, vehicles, spelljammers, and other mechanoids (subject to SM discretion) get X checks on tests to resist your spell's saving throws and other effects like weapon properties, where X is half your Excellence rounded up.
- Pocket Pal: Gain the General Support feat. You can increase the bonus of your Aid Another actions by spending Pressure Points to add a static bonus, or Action Points to add rolled dice.
Physical Qualities
First and foremost, Gremlins are small, obviously. Outside of that big detail, they exhibit a broad variety of diverse traits depending on the species. For example you can find a horde of tiny blue-skinned brutes living in the same city as a colony of walking eyeballs that reproduce by large flower-like cloning chambers. On the other hand, species similar to each other congregate under convergent evolution, slowly becoming more compatible for the sake of survival. Thus Gremlin populations are rarely homogeneous.
For all those uniqueness, they have one thing in common: they die easily. Hit one hard enough and you can expect it to go pop. If an Ork were to accidentally step on one, the casualty (assuming he survives) will be crippled for the rest of his life. Vehicular accidents, animals on the loose, collateral damage when the Exalted do their thing, and even just the general environment can kill a Gremlin that's unsuited for it. On the bright side, the Gremlins have numbers on their side. An average person takes up as much space as four Gremlins, and although picking one off is relatively easy, the remaining three can kill you just as much.
Playing a Gremlin
As a whole, Gremlins live in a world where anything bigger than they are can kill them pretty easily. They have different ways of coping with the situation, depending on their species. Some group together for safety in numbers, swarming against threats in retaliation. Others make themselves useful to the other races, providing them with various services in return for protection. There are also those who would rather avoid it altogether, living in secret communities hidden from view and stealthily pilfering supplies from outside sources.
As individuals often band together for survival, either with other Gremlins or with members of a larger race, only the exceptionally powerful can live by themselves. Even then they still prefer having company. On the battlefield, Gremlins usually serve in supporting positions like maintenance workers, field medics, reconnaissance agents and even the occasional commander. Rarely will you see a Gremlin going toe-to-toe with the enemy, preferring to engage in swarms or being a painful distraction.
Differences between Gremlin species aren't maintained on a social level. Discrimination is a luxury they cannot afford. Their mongrel communities result in being as accommodating as possible to the other small beings with one notable exception: the Lilliputians. The exact details are disputed among the greybeards.
Gremlin Heroes
The Zigotons were going extinct as the Patapons continued their warpath across Earthend. Increasingly desperate tactics failed to stop the relentless onslaught. As a final gambit, Queen Kharma sold the souls of all remaining Zigotons to the Ruinous Powers...including her own, becoming a Daemonhost in the process. It didn't work, the tribe went extinct and Kharma was the sole survivor. Fine. If she can't protect her people then she will at least avenge them.
Fblthp has always been the unlucky one. First he was abandoned by the wizard who summoned him after a teleportation accident, and now he's totally lost somewhere in the Great Wheel. He's so small that crowds tend to be unaware of him, which sucks since they're likely to step on him by accident. Scared out of his wits, he stays awake in fear of anything that might kill him in his sleep, unaware of the power brewing inside him that grows stronger each day.
An enthusiastic master of dark sorcery, Veigar has embraced powers that few mortals dare approach. He longed to push the limitations of magic and turned to arcane texts that had been hidden away for thousands of years. By figuring out the secrets within, he somehow became a Witch. Now a stubborn creature with an endless fascination for the mysteries of the universe, he is often underestimated by others—but even though he believes himself truly evil, he possesses an inner morality that leads some to question his deeper motivations.