HOST (Character Creation)

The Ministry of Parahuman Affairs
The Ministry is the department called in when paranormal shit hits the fan.
If the principal of the school is possessed by an archdemon and has taken the school hostage or a serial killer is leaving signs of inhuman capability, then a cell of MPA field operatives are sent to seize control of the situation as quickly and quietly as possible.

MPA field operatives have extra-dimensional symbiotes implanted within them to provide parahuman capabilities. When hunting monsters it helps if you are a monster.

Character Creation
Origin
What was the character's life like before joining the MPA?

Recruitment
How did you end up as the host of an extra-dimensional symbiote and an agent of the MPA?

Motivation
What keeps your character going, what drives him. Sum it up in one word.
If you can relate your roll to your motivation you get an extra die to add to your dice pool.

Relationships
Who or what does your character have his strongest relationships with? Who or what does he love the most?
You have two Relationships at character creation with one die each.
When you act in a way that directly involves a relationship, you add an extra die to your dice pool.

Attributes
MIND - Perception & Intelligence
FOCUS - Self Control & Inner Strength
RAPPORT - Social Influence & Interaction
BODY - Strength, Agility & Stamina

Every Attribute starts at 2. You have 4 more points to spread between the four attributes or you can spend two points to start with a second symbiote.
The following are some things to take into consideration when spending points on attributes.
FOCUS is used to successfully activate symbiotes and maintain control of yourself, RAPPORT allows the host to rid themselves of accumulated STRAIN and is used in social interactions, MIND represents the characters intelligence, awareness and determines who goes first when initiative is important and BODY is the attribute used for physical combat.

ENDURANCE - Health & General Well Being

ENDURANCE starts at 12.

Abilities
Adds to Attributes if a roll comes under the Ability's purview. Abilities are your character's talents and specialities, the skills he excels at. They should not apply to every roll, neither should they be so narrow they are near useless.
You have one to three Abilities at character creation and 3 points to spread between them.

For clarity here are three terms used regularly in the hybrid system.

Dice Pools: A dice pool is an attribute plus any applicable modifiers (abilities, motivation, relationships) rolled as six sided dice.
Rolled Dice: After the dice pool is rolled, the six sided dice are referred to as rolled dice.
Dice Total: Add the two highest rolled dice together, this is the dice total.

Unopposed tasks and actions
Roll your dice pool, if your dice total is 7 or higher you have succeeded.
If a gauge is needed for the quality or speed of the action or task note how much the dice total exceeded 7.
8 means it was accomplished slowly or without flair, a 12 means it is as close to perfect as possible and done as quickly as humanly possible.

Opposed tasks and actions
All characters involved roll and compare dice totals. The one with the highest total succeeds those opposing the roll fail. Again the margin of success can be determined by the difference between the opposing dice totals.
If someone was helping the character who achieved the highest roll, his made a difference if he also exceeded the opponents dice total. If he equalled or rolled lower then his help was ultimately of little help to the successful character.

Combat
Combat is treated as a series of opposed rolls.
All of the characters roll BODY + any relevant modifiers. Damage is equal to the difference between the dice totals + weapon damage.

If a character's ENDURANCE drops below half (rounded down) then all future dice pools have one less dice until healed. If ENDURANCE drops below quarter of its normal rating all dice pools are -2 dice.

Weapons
Damage/Range/Weapon
1/close/ knife, pipe, nightstick.
2/close/ sword, axe.
1/short/ arrow.
2/short/ pistol.
3/short/ shotgun, submachine gun.
4/short/ grenade.
3/long/ rifle.
4/long/ assault rifle,

All hosts start with one symbiote unless they spend two attribute dice for a second one.
Symbiotes are wicked powerful when active, they allow the player to bend the rules and can be activated at any time, before or after the dicepool is rolled, and activation doesn't count as an action.
The only limitation of a symbiote, aside from strain, is that it's intended effect must be described and make must make sense in the context of the scene.
When the host attempts to use the organism he rolls FOCUS, if he succeeds, he can;

*add another dice to the dice pool before a roll
or
*add another rolled dice to the dice total
or
*reroll a rolled dice.

If the roll fails the symbiote immediately gains a point of STRAIN.
When a macro-organism acquires four points of STRAIN, all dice pools that dont involve a macro-organism have one less dice. STRAIN maxes out at 5 points and the penalty becomes -2.
Every point beyond five is instead taken away from ENDURANCE points.
If the host loses 5 points of ENDURANCE due to STRAIN and it doesn't kill him, he loses his sense of self and is possessed by his symbiote becoming as monstrous as those he once hunted.
Rogue hosts are known as Reavers, due to their gruesome practice of tearing out hosts symbiotes and assimilating them.

Quality Time
Every organism has some activity that its host can perform that helps the two synchronize. If the activity can be maintain over a certain amount of time a point of STRAIN is lost.
The Host rolls RAPPORT if successful, subtract the dicetotal from 24. This is how many hours of quality time the symbiote will need before the point of STRAIN is lost. If the host cannot devote the time, the point of STRAIN will not be erased.

Gestation
If a host has been erasing a lot of STRAIN from a symbiote with quality time, then eventually the organism will enter a reproductive cycle.
Spores are produced within the host, but only one will remain within to become a symbiote of a different type. Since the symbiotes exist in multiple dimensions simultaneously, it is theorized that the other spores are released into other realities.
It not unheard of for one of these psychomorphic spores to be caught up on a memetic vector.
Someone humming a catchy tune a the same time as the host may be enough to pass it on.


Knitter Hive
You have become a breeding colony for the knitter organisms. They swarm through your vitals accelerating cellular regeneration and performing other far more mysterious functions you dont understand within your body.

Black Halo
This implant looks like a network of dark veins just under the surface of the arms and chest. When stimulated the veins generate the black halo effect, absorbing light and sound rendering you invisible and silent.

Whisperer Nest
Having a nest of whisperers living and feeding on your thoughts and memories isnt so bad, they let you hear the subvocalizations of others. All those things they say to themselves in their heads are obvious to you.
It does get distracting when the tiny creatures get restless though and start crawling along the inside of your skull.

Phobogen
You have a small triangular organ attached to the inside of your sternum. When active it hyperstimulates the fear centres in anyone that looks at you triggering intense flight/fear responses. People have been scared to death because of this symbiote.

Flenser
Black razor sharp tendrils lair in your mouth. Their reach is impressive, easily able to tear the flesh from a person across the road.
Unfortunately you can never get rid of the taste of blood, whether it's another's or from the cuts in your mouth.

Phaseworm
A phaseworm is a long slender symbiote with lots of little legs like a millipede. Once implanted it latches on to the underside of your spine. The legs connect it to your nervous system and once the two of you finally get along, you can ask it to create localized spatial distortions around you. These fields can let you compress, stretch or sidestep distance.

Pheromone Nodes
You have extra glands that allow you to emit a whole buffet of psychoactive odours that make people mere putty in your hands.
Some make them more suggestible, some make them like you, another gives them a buzz. But when they dont work properly they itch like mad.
[u]

This system is in desperate need of play testing.
So when we finish the Perthocalypse I was wondering if we could convert your characters and their symbiotes over to Host's system and try it out.

we should just swap systems at a logical rest point, and convert the characters, and just play the new system from then on. Unless the system is to different to convert.

The system and setting are very compatible. The biggest difference os the emphasis on the symbiotes they have more support from the system and some darker drawbacks. I was thinking we should play out the current game, then convert the surviving characters.

It will be one year later and they will be agents of the MPA.
Anyone who wants a new character can make one then and turn their old one over as an non-player character.

A character sheet will look something like this;

Name:
Origin:
Recruitment:

MIND:
WILL:
FACE:
BODY:

Motivation:
Relationships:
Abilities:

LIFE: 12

EdS (Extra-dimensional Symbiotes) and STRAIN

Name: Church
Origin: Crippled Veteran
Recruitment: The MPA offered to replace his missing limbs.

MIND: 3
FOCUS: 4
RAPPORT: 3
BODY: 2

Motivation: Protection
Relationships: Desert Eagle, Street people
Abilities: Recon 1, Firearms 1 , Following Orders 1.

ENDURANCE: 12

EdS (Extra-dimensional Symbiotes)
Knitter Hive

Name: Tristan the nerd
Origin: IT for ZipZapIT
Recruitment: Encounter with Zombie like creatures at the perth airport terminal
Motivation: survival, no other option.
Relationships: the internet, online character in wow call Mork.
Abilities: computers 1, electronics 1, Quick learner 1

MIND: 6
FOCUS: 2
RAPPORT: 2
BODY: 2
ENDURANCE: 12

EdS (Extra-dimensional Symbiotes) and STRAIN
Flenser

A few changes of terms. They are more true to the attributes role in the game.

WILL becomes FOCUS
FACE becomes RAPPORT
LIFE becomes ENDURANCE

Here is what I have so far for Dyls character conversion-

NAME: Dylan the Psycho
Origin: NZ
Recruitment: Survived a zombie outbreak

MIND:
FOCUS:
RAPPORT:
BODY:

Motivation: Murder
Relationships:
Abilities: Homicidal rage

ENDURANCE: 12

Symbiote:

I think I will cap attributes at 4 and abilities at 2. Relationships are getting scrapped and abilities are getting 4 points at character creation.
Dont worry about converting your characters, the hosts system needs some more tweaks, we will keep using Dead of Night.