Converting Horror Powers, For ED Conversions Options

[FrostyNSO]

Last week, I ran my group against a Wormskull (found somewhere around here) for shits and giggles. The players had great fun!

Anyways, I'm working over some quick and dirty conversions from ED to Shadowrun (3rd Edition, which I'll post up here later on if I finish them), and was having some difficulties with how to implement some of the special powers that some horrors have.

So basically, does anybody have anything that they've tried, or even just suggestions on how to work their powers?

edit: Also looking for suggestions on converting damage codes. So far have been comparing ED melee weps to their SR equivs and using that as a baseline.

[Mortax]

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?act=...&f=7&t=6052&st=
This has things about that if memory serves.

[FrostyNSO]

Yeah, I've gone through that one, but I'll go through again for anything I missed. I think I might just make up my own crazy crap, but I'd rather do a conversion...for effect. I don't have all the ED books available though so some of the powers I'm like "Whuh? Sounds cool, but what is it?"

[FrostyNSO]

Actually stumbled on an idea on my second go through that thread. Giving the Horror an essence rating and porting in critter powers that fit. Still up a creek for some of the ones where i don't know what the hell they do, but hey, whatcha gonna do?

edit: Unless I can get a "1-liner" of what the power does, then can make 'er work.

[PenAgain]

Give me about 20 minutes here and I'll give you a run down on all major Horror Powers which you can then convert till your heart's content.

--PenAgain

[PenAgain]

First up, Core Horror Powers (from the ED1 CD-ROM version of the rules- a good thing to have for any SR player, at a great price- it's free! Well, maybe not any more, but once upon a time...)

Horror Powers
All of the Horrors demonstrate powerful magical abilities. No one knows if the Horrors have these powers through their use of the magical energies of the world, such as spells or talents, or if the Horrors are actual manifestations of astral energy.

As in the case of dragons, not every Horror has every Horror power. The powers listed below are those most extensively documented; as far as anyone knows, the Horrors may have any number of additional, fearsome abilities.

Animate Dead: Makes zombie slaves.

Corrupt Karma: This power allows the Horror to alter another being’s use of Karma.

Cursed Luck: Many of the Horrors can bring bad luck to opponents.

Damage Shift: This power allows a Horror to shift damage it has taken onto a target character.

Horror Mark: This terrible ability allows Horrors to mark victims, thereby linking the Horror and the target character.

Karma Points: All major Horrors have Karma Points.

Karma Tap: This ability allows a Horror to suggest actions to characters.

Skin Shift: This gruesome ability allows the Horror to mutilate a target’s body.

Spells: Horrors often learn spells from sentient captives who follow a particular spell Discipline.

Terror: Terror allows Horrors to instill intense fear into their targets.

Thought Worm: This power allows a Horror to create a telepathic link between itself and a target.

Unnatural Life: This ability allows a Horror to give a corpse the “gift” of unnatural life. Such creations are vastly superior to Cadaver Men/Zombies, and free-thinking.

--
Here's some brief descriptions of Horror Powers from the Horrors book (actually I'm using the updated Scourge Uneneding 2E book because it is in slightly better shape than my poor and well-used Horrors book.)

Aura of Awe
Makes the Horror loveable!

Corrupt Reality
Drive someone mad by altering reality around them.

Disrupt Magic
Can jam any kind of magic, including threads (Bonded Foci, for instance)

Dream Shape
Control target's dreams

Forge Trap
Creates an underground labyrinth loaded with traps. Can add traps to any place, and like magic, BAM. Trap. WHat's that pit trap doing in Mitsuhama's Secretarial lounge?

Horror Thread
Horror Mark only more powerful/harder to notice/harder to break/omnipotently evil. Whiel woven, Horror gets stronger and stronger versus the victim.

Karma Boost
Lend Karma to target, but each time he accepts he slowly becomes a monster! (A great plot device!)

Karma Drain
Steal Karma from targets.

Suppress Horror Mark
Bury Mark so its telltales are not detectable (ie target can still make things of beauty)

All Horrors have the following Inate Abilities...

-Astral Sight
-Dual Natured (and in some, their two natures can exist seperately of one another!!!)
-Energy Drain (feed on Emotions)
-Forge Horror Constructs (Monster Maker Pro!!!)

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

--PenAgain

[nick012000]

So... let's see...
ED power= SR power
Spells power= Sorcery power
Terror power= Fear power
Energy Drain power = Essence Drain power
Unnatural life= bring someone back to life w/ Regeneration, Horror looses 1 box of Physical damage until person dies.
Dual Natured= duh...
Astral Sight= redundant

EDIT: Why'd you cut so much out of your post?

[PenAgain]

The cool thing about the Dual Natured aspect of many greater Horrors is their ability to seperate and act on both planes independently of one another, or at least consecutively. Furthermore, you have to kill them on both Planes to actually end them... I love it.

As for the Astral Sight/Dual Natured Redundancy... I never thought about that, but yeah. Hrm. Because of the damaged nature of ED Astral Space, a lot of what we take for granted with SR Astral mechanics is non-functioning. I would love to see some new ED material that actually made Astral Projection viable for low-Circle characters...

Oops. I hijacked. Sorry.

[Grinder]

[nick012000]

[Grinder]

"Must call Aina to help me out. And where's Dunkie right now? Ah well, that can be a problem. Back in the old times, everything was easier."

[FrostyNSO]

Awesome, PenAgain!

I'll get right to work!

[FrostyNSO]

Ok, for my first conversion, I'm going to shell out Aazhvat Many-Eyes to see how this works.

Aazhvat Many-Eyes

<insert cool description here>

B: 21/20 Q: 6 S: 8 C: 15 I: 18 W: 15 E: 10a R: 12
INIT: 22+1d6 (E+R+1d6)
Attacks: (None Listed) <uses Sorcery skill in astral combat, inflicting (CHA)M>
Powers: Desire Reflection, Karma Drain <treat as essence drain, substitute karma pool for essence>, Sorcery 10 <as grade 10 initiate, focused on manipulation, combat, illusion>, Horror Mark <?, opposed test between horror's essence and target's willpower. If horror wins = marked, acts as link to target for powers/spells>

Ok, so there's the rough and dirty. Any thoughts?

[Velocity]

[FrostyNSO]

Any requests for which one to do next?

[SpasticTeapot]

Things like this make me happy that I'm the GM, as opposed to a player.
Yikes, them things be nasty.

[Herald of Verjig...]

[FrostyNSO]

You know, that's what I was thinking too but wasn't sure. I also seem to think he's dead, but bleh. I swore he could "pop out" (or materialize, if you will) if he wanted to, but now that I think of it, I don't know where the hell I came to that idea.

What's the essence tag for astral-only?

Oh, and as an aside, my throwing in "Fading" was more or less arbitrary...think I ought to nix it?

[Herald of Verjig...]

Well, they can go to their home metaplane, that's just an effect similar to what any spirit is capable of. Maybe include some minor mention that everything with a name can go home at whim, but will usually avoid doing so.
It's "A" for astral native. I recall the tales describing that items it marked would appear like an eye or eye bundle when being used to mark a victim, but that Aazhvat was one of the ones who could only materialize at or near peak mana.

[FrostyNSO]

I thought they came from someplace else entirely rather than a "home" metaplane. Obviously, we don't know where this plane is?

Eh, I'll drop fading for now. Also, changed "z" to "a", which I'm assuming most if not all will probably fall under.

[Herald of Verjig...]

Bone Crown, Druistadt, Giftbringer, Joie, and Ubyr at least possess physical form in Earthdawn mana levels. They may all be bound to a purely astral form in Shadowrun mana levels.
There are also some who do not retain an astral presence when they take a physical form. This includes petty annoyances like gnashers, but can also include a few named (possibly even some of the named above).

[FrostyNSO]

Eh, I'll just go ahead and plot those as "z" for now and we'll let the GM's sort it out. For now, looking to pick a mid-level bastard a good group of PC's could handle.

Thanks for the info by the way! ;)

[Hoondatha]

Aazhvat is dead, it's stated in Scourge Neverending. That said, I think it's a good conversion.

For another, maybe Nebis? As I recall, he was the weakest of the named horrors in the book. The problem is that a band of ED adepts tend to be more powerful (not to mention knowing who they're fighting) than a similar band of SR runners. Especially when you consider that modern runners would likely inlcude people (riggers and deckers especially) who would be of absolutely no help against a horror.

[emo samurai]

Um... how hard is it to build a kaer?

[Hoondatha]

Well, there's the easy, and there's the hard. The easy part is to dig real deep into very thick stone. Find a mountain and carve a city into it. It needs to be entirely encased (and probably the deeper embedded the better) in stone, preferably with only one, narrow way up to the surface.

That's the easy part. The hard part is all of the enchanting, for which there isn't enough magic yet in the world (and won't be for more than a thousand years). From ED fluff we know that the enterence tunnel and doors were covered with powerful runes, and it's likely that the entirety of the inside was as well.

A kaer wasn't connected to anywhere other than the surface (no tunnels to other underground realms). It's quite simply a really effective hole to hide in.