Puppet Master O.C.C. This O.C.C. was inspired by the Pinnoccio and Puppet Master movies By: gminser@erols.com " A strange old man came into town tonight. He claimed to run a puppet show with puppets that moved on their own. He asked to be allowed to pay for his room with a puppet show. I agreed for some reason I can't fathom. " " I took my children to the puppet show tonight. It was wondrous. The puppets, they really did move without strings. It was awe inspiring. At first I refused to believe it, looking around for some source of manipulation. Seeing none, I thought that a wizard was moving them, but there was none. I don't know what motivated those puppets, but there was something. Most strangely, even for their wooden bodies, there was something about the puppets, something almost human. Later, I went to see if the old man needed anything. Stopping outside his door, I could hear him talking, to his puppets I guess. I looked through the keyhole, and what did I see but the puppets moving about as if alive. Suddenly one of their wooden little faces appeared in the keyhole starring at me with a look most sinister. Scared out of my wits, I ran down the hall as fast as I could. I fear it would be best to usher this old man and his odd puppets " -Unfinished journal entry found next to dead hotel manager The Puppet Masters are an odd lot. Part craftsman, part showman, and part wizard, they are among the most mysterious of magic practitioners. While most arcanists have a thirst for adventure, knowledge or even power, these individuals seem to care only about entertaining, and bringing life to their beloved puppets. Their whole lives revolve around traveling from town to town putting on shows with their little puppets, often in exchange for room and supplies. There are two groups of arcanists, Gapetoans and Toulans, named for two Pre-rifts Puppet Masters who are believed to be the first Puppet Masters. The Gapetoans carve the body and then pray over the new puppet. They believe that it is a benevolent being that infuses their puppets with life but in reality, the puppets come to life because the Puppet Master has transferred some of his own life into the puppet. The Gapetoans are unique among Puppet Master in that they can actually bring their puppets not just to life but also to flesh and blood. However, this needs an enormous amount of power often requiring a nexus. What many Gapetoan Puppet Masters realize is just how much magic energy they have. In fact few arcanists start with the power Gapetoan Puppet Master do. The Toulan Puppet Masters are almost as strong, though their practices don't require them to be as strong. The Toulan Puppet Masters use a different method of animating their wooden actors. The Toulan Puppet Master will often find a volunteer or victim, though they prefer the words candidate or subject, kill them, and transfer the life force of the dead into the puppet. While they can not bestow flesh on to their puppets as the Gapetoan Puppet Masters, they also do not suffer from reducing their life force. Puppet Master Abilities: I. Gapetoan Abilities 1.Animate Puppet - The Gapetoan Puppet Master, having fashioned the body, prays for several minutes, 1D20, over the puppet asking for it to be infused with life. There is no particular individual that Gapetoan Puppet Masters must pray to, although many prefer to pray to Gapeto. During this time of prayer, the puppet will begin to glow with growing intensity. At the peak there is a bright blinding flash, -5 strike, parry, and dodge for those looking at the puppet, -3 for those within 5'-10' of the puppet, and the Puppet Master expends 200 PPE while transferring 10 SDC or 5 HP into the puppet. MDC creatures transfer 5 MDC. A few minutes, 1D4, after this culmination of prayer the puppet will begin to show signs of it's new life. 2.Flesh Puppet - A Gapetoan Puppet Master has the ability to cause a puppet to become flesh and blood. That is, it will no longer be a animated wooden puppet, but a living, creature of flesh. To do this, the Puppet Master prays for his creation to become real. However this time the experience is much more intense and the Puppet Master must pray longer, 2D20 minutes. -10 strike, parry, and dodge to those watching and -6 to those within 10'-15' of the puppet. If the Puppet Master is praying for an already animated puppet, he only expends 400 PPE and transfers 20 SDC or 10 HP into the puppet. MDC creatures transfer 10 MDC. If the Puppet Master is praying for a puppet not yet animated, he expends 600 PPE and transfers 30 SDC or 15 HP / MDC into the puppet. Within several minutes, 2D4, the puppet will undergo a transformation where it's body turns to flesh from top to bottom although it will retain the size and shape of it's puppet form. 3.Generate Creation - Perhaps the most awesome of a Gapetoans abilities is the ability to have a puppet not just come to life, but to come to life at it's real size. This is perhaps the most taxing of abilities for the Gapetoan and is rarely preformed more than once or twice in a lifetime by them as that few have the strength to endure more than one or two. The Gapetoan starts his prayer which may last as long as an hour, 3D20. The culmination flash of this Gapetoan prayer is strong enough to harm, 1D10 SDC / 1D4 MD, most creatures damaged by sunlight and blinding to those without proper eye shielding, -15 strike, parry, dodge to those looking at the puppet and 35% chance permanent blindness, -9 to those within 15'-20' of the puppet. It is at the time of the flash that Gapetoan expends 600 PPE and transfers 40 SDC or 20 HP / MDC for a puppet that is flesh and blood, 1000 PPE and 60 SDC or 30 HP / MDC for an animated puppet, or 1200 PPE, 70 SDC or 35 HP into the puppet. Soon thereafter, the puppet will begin to grow to real-life proportions. Because of the amounts of energy need, this prayer often said on or near a Ley Line Nexus. Because many Gapetoans have noticed that this prayer seems to work better in groups, they have organized a calender of gatherings at various places and times of the year where Gapetoans may come together to assist one or more of their kind in this ceremony. 4.PPE - 1D6 x 100. Increase by 1D6 x 10 every other level II. Toulan Abilities 1.Animate Puppet - In order for a Toulan Puppet Master to animate his puppets by infusing them with life, he must capture a persons soul and their PPE as well as remove a gland from the back of their neck. Then he creates a solution with the gland, PPE, and life force which is spread over the puppet. At the same time the Puppet Master expends 150 PPE and completes the transfer of life into the puppet. The puppet will come to life soon thereafter, 1D4 minutes. 2.Capture Life Force - The Toulan Puppet Master has the ability to capture a persons soul and life force. Capture Life Force: 45% + 5% per level. If fails within 5% of skill level, captures either PPE or life force but not the other, GM's discretion. 3.Store Life Force - The Toulan Puppet Master that has capture someone's life force and PPE can store it indefinitely in an air-tight container. 4.Telepathy - The Toulan Puppet Master can communicate with his puppets telepathically. 5.PPE - 1D4 x 100 + 50. Increase by 1D4 x 10 every other level. III. Puppets 1.The Puppets can be made out of any material but most often are made of wood or soft metal. 2.Attributes - NPC Puppets: Gapetoan puppets attributes reflect their puppet master. Toulan puppets reflect the attributes of the dead person whose soul inhabits the puppets body. Players who wish to play a puppet use the attributes of the race that most closely resembles their puppet character, i.e. A dragon puppet would use dragon attributes (hatchling in most cases) and a human puppet would use human attributes. 3.SDC / HP: NPC Puppets: Gapetoan puppets have whatever SDC or HP that was transferred to them from their puppet maser plus the SDC of the material they were fashioned from. If MDC was used instead of HPs, convert each MDC into 1 HP or 2 SDC. Toulan puppets have as much SDC as the material their bodies were formed from. Players with Gapetoan puppets use the SDC and HP of the race that most closely resembles their puppet. If a MDC race is picked, SDC equals MDC and HPs equals half of MDC. For example: if the race had 300 MDC, the Puppet would have 300 SDC and 150 HP. Players with Toulan puppets use the SDC of the material their bodies were made of. 4.Magic & Psionics: None. 5.Combat: Starting number of attacks is half number of limbs Example: 2 arm puppet starts with 1 attack, 4 arm puppets start with 2 attacks, etc. 6.Skills - Domestic: Dance & Play Musical Instrument; Military: Demolitions; Physical; Technical: Art; Weapon Proficiencies. All skills are at toy equivalent. For instance, the toy equivalent of Demolitions would be using firecrackers and the toy equivalent of Weapon Proficiencies as seen in the Puppet Master movies (Six-Shooter is one example), however, modern weapon proficiencies can only be used with weapons designed for the puppets. Also if a vehicle is designed for the puppet, then the puppet gets appropriate Piloting skill and any Pilot Related skills for that vehicle only. Toulan Puppets (NPCs) get any of the above skills from the dead whose soul inhabits their body. Gapetoan Puppets (NPCs) can learn any of the above skills by choosing any Men-of-arms OCC but without bonuses and half the skills. Players Select any four skills at level 1, and another skill 7.Equipment - Start with 1D6 toy items. may tend to collect small things from time to time. O.C.C. Skills: Dance - (+10) Play Musical Instrument - (+10) Sew - (+10) Disguise - (+10) Anthropology - (+10) Chemistry - (+10) [Toulan Puppet Masters only] Math: Basic - (+10) Art - (+20) 2 Language Skills - (+15) 2 Literacy Skills - (+15) Lore: Demon & Monster - (+10) Lore: Faerie - (+10) Writing - (+10) Carpentry - (+25) O.C.C. Related Skills: Select 5 skills and another two at levels 4, 7, 10, & 13. Radio - Radio: Basic only Domestic - (+10) Electrical - Basic Electronics only Espionage - Wilderness Survival only Mechanical - None Medical - First-Aid only Military - None Physical - All except Acrobatics, Boxing, Gymnastics, & Wrestling Pilot Skills - All Pilot Related - All Rogue - All Science - (+5) Technical - (+10) Weapon Proficiencies - All Wilderness - All Secondary Skills: Select 5 skills and another two at levels 4, 7, 10, & 13 without bonuses. Equipment: A few sets of clothes, a toolkit for fashioning puppets, paint kit, 1D4 non-living puppets, 1D4 living puppets, combination storage case and stage set, backpack, tent, notebook, digital disk audio / visual recorder / player, sunglasses, heavy SDC or light MDC body armor, 1 energy weapon with 1D4 E-clips, 1 ancient weapon, 10% of all Puppet Masters have a vehicle like a car or jeep. Money: 1D4 x 100 credits, 1D6 x 1000 Black Market Items Cybernetics: Tend to avoid cybernetics.