Not all paragon places are actively generated by human choice and action, some are defined by unconscious reflection on natural occurrences and reputation. For example, a house might gain a reputation as haunted after a couple of unfortuitous deaths and regardless of whether it actually is this reputation will haunt the place on its own. The Bermuda Triangle is the product of scandalous press, confirmation bias and bad weather more than anything unnatural. No Man’s Land is inhospitable environment empowered by reputation.
The adjuncts for no man’s land are dangerous rather than helpful. This is deliberate, it doesn’t follow the conventional rules for paragon places. Unnatural phenomenon and objective juicing are the same but adjuncts activate automatically when people intrude, associated and resonant avatars may reroll any results at normal frequencies. Beyond the usual occult uses the dangerous nature of no man’s land lends it to being exploited for security or used as a trap.
Taboo: Occupation and development. No man’s land is defined by active resistance to human influence and safety, yoking it to civilized purposes undermines its uncontrolled danger and “otherness” even if it is manmade.
Associated Avatars: The Outsider, the Shaman, the Tamer.
Resonant Avatars: The Explorer, the Survivor.
Symbols: Long falls onto sharp rocks or through collapsed floors, bad weather, isolation from civilization, urban legends and true stories of grisly fates.
Adjuncts
1%-50%: Foreboding. Once per person per week, a successful roll acts like a negative cousin to a hunch. The value rolled opposes a single stress check or roll to avoid injury, rolling equal to or below it inflicts a normal failed result (except on a crit).
51%-70%: Stranded. There’s no help coming, cellular coverage is dead, the roads are out and no one knows where you are and there’s so little you can do alone. Identities with the Therapeutic or Medical features either lose the ability to be flip-flopped or suffer a -20% shift from sheer unnaturally powered hopelessness in no man’s land.
71%-90%: Part of no man’s land’s danger is its unpredictability. One of these channels can apply to each visitor at a time (for ease of use I’d stick to using the same one for everyone, but you do you). If someone survives a dangerous encounter in no man’s land and later returns the same one cannot apply twice in a row.
- Better: The earlier foreboding now ceaselessly dogs their steps. The effects of the first channel apply to all relevant rolls of an odd number until they leave. This place wants them dead.
- Faster: Things can turn foul unexpectedly and without warning and with this adjunct they’ll do so far more frequently. Inflict damage equivalent to a minor blast or a rank 5 stress check relevant to the danger of the environment apropos of nothing.
- Cheaper: Preparation and technology are how we overcome our environment. Here they fail, at some point a piece of equipment is automatically destroyed or malfunctions in the face of dire peril.
91%+: Even magick can’t protect you. All rolls on avatar channels, adept spells and gutter magick rituals intended to guard against the danger of no man’s land are at a -20% shift. Worse, protective magicks put in place before you enter are automatically rerolled for with the penalty.
99%: No man’s land only maintains a reputation if it has victims. Once every so often it can dangle a lure to draw people in, the archetypal haunted house drawing in victims every seven years. A side effect is that this can pay off if you manipulate the symbolism correctly, horror tropes like final girl and hereditary curse inform the way this channel interacts with people. Overcoming it in a symbolically appropriate way is good for an extra +10% to an identity or objective on top of any regular benefits of survival.
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