My first skin, sorry for any misspelling.

My first skin, sorry for any misspelling.

My first skin, sorry for any misspelling.

The Alien Mind

Strange. Collective. At once social and solitary. Seductive, but without humane standards. It will take from others the control for their minds and bodies, and forge them into weapons for its grand design.

The question for the Alien is Identity. In its natural state, is more than any single body. It is a purpose, bigger than life, uniting legions being no one. But its also formless. Anonimous. Impersonal. Transcending the “illusion” of human identity, there’s a meaningless carcass beyond the words of greatness.

But your body isn’t you. That’s an illusion. You’re far more, far stranger than the people that can really give you meaning. How to live among the masses you should guide? Can you know between them, who are you? Can you live without them, in the void?

You define your nature and infection with The Hive. Contagious Disease and Purulent Skin are two facets of the same thing: contagion through violence.

Migraine is a mental condition that makes you the mind of the Hive. while Parasitic Infestation defines you as more than your body, apart from it. Tempting and scary at the same time.

Inhuman Objective gives a sense of meaning to your existence. But, in the end, is just a hollow couple of words, giving you equally hollow tasks that entertain you just enough to negate your own self-destruction.

I Am Many, Specialyzed Minions and Madness Network make you able to work through your Hive, using them as an extension of the disease you are.

See My Children, Hive Queen and Inhuman Horde make you able to work with others, but in a hollowed manner: behind a seemingly united group, there are only you. A collective creature ultimately alone.

Body-Jumper is the ultimate invasion, making your Hive an extension of yourself by the cost of loosing them and yourself to the maelstrom of changing identities.

SEX MOVE:

When you have sex with someone, they gain the Condition INFECTED. While the Condition remains, they count as part of your Hive.

DARKEST SELF:

Spread, thrive and act. Enough of trying to accept this cancer on the face of Earth called Humanity. What the world needs is the next stage on evolution, and you are here to bring it. More than that. You ARE it. Live by your Inhuman Objective or take opportunities to spread yourself, whatever seems the best right now.

You leave your Darkest Self when something or someone make you remember that you are an individual, and that a world made only of you is a change for the worst.

ORIGIN:

Zombie Infection; Alien Parasite; Memetic Virus; Contagious Madness; Legion Demon.

STATS:

Hot +1

Cold -1

Volatile -1

Dark +1

BACKSTORY:

Name three characters that are part of your Hive. You have 1 String on each of them, and each of them have 1 String on you.

There are someone that can be either a boon or a threat to your Inhuman Objective, and you studies that person. She takes 1 String on you, and you takes 2 Strings on her.

—GIVEN THE HOUR, I’LL PUT THE MOVES LATER—

17 thoughts on “My first skin, sorry for any misspelling.”

  1. MOVES:

    You start with The Hive and Inhuman Objective. Choose one more:

    THE HIVE

    You’re the mind behind the infection, and it is spreading. As their minds tends toward you, the infected count as a gang. Choose one of the following symptoms for your Hive:

    –>Contagious Disease: The Infected show symptoms of a contagious disease. Those symptoms are usually easy to hide and don’t seems to be particularly dangerous. Maybe ligh cough and sneeze, or bleeding froom the teeth now and them. When things got violent, such symptoms can grow to profuse bleeding from the fingernails or a coat of muccus on the face.

    When a member of the Hive does Harm to someone, roll with Dark. On a 10+, the target get the condition Infected; on 7-9, the target get the condition Infected, but you suffer the condition Deprived. As long as the target have the Infected condition, count him as a member of your Hive.

    –>Migraine: The Infected suffer mental symptoms, like headaches or mild hallucinations, or just hear a constant low pitch. It isn’t enough to impair them, and with a few hours or day they get used to it.

    You have a telepathic connection with your Hive members. You can always hear their emotions and fears, and can try to hear specific thoughts and memories throw gaze into the abyss. Also, you can reverse the connection to send thoughts. In a 10+, you can talk and send images without effort, and can use a Move against a target so contacted. In a 7-9 you can do the same, but suffers the condition Deprived.

    –>Purulent Skin: Light skin symptoms cover some of the Infected’s body, like paleness or something. But if harmed the skin ruptures to give way to purulent secretions.

    When a Hive member suffer Harm, roll with Dark. On a 10+, anyone that caused the Harm gets the condition Infected; on a 7-9, the same as above, but you suffer the condition Deprived. As long as the target have the Infected condition, count him as a member of your Hive.

    –>Parasitic Infestation: The Infected suffer from constant or recurrent mild symptoms like fever, constipation or any other signal of virus or worm parasitism.

    Those symptoms are really mild and he can live a normal life, at least until you die. Them one victim among the Infected worsens suddenly, so bad she dies in a couple hours, but this death goes unnoticed. To the eyes of witnesses, she got better as suddenly as got ill. You are the one in charge of the body, now. When you dies, roll with Dark. On a 10+, you (the player) choose an NPC in your Hive to be the victim, and once you are ressurrected in this body it transforms into your original body in a couple minutes. In a 7-9, the MC choose the victim and the transformation takes all night. In a failed check the MC can put whatever consequences on your return, including the transformation taking place only if and when he wants, and you comming back in your Darkest Self.

    When you get an Advancement, you can buy another effect of The Hive instead of a gang.

    INHUMAN OBJECTIVE

    Be it your specie’s nature, programmed ideology or simple madness, you have a picture of a better world, a plan that is greater than yourself. Tough you have no compunction to act for it every time, in your Darkest Self you gets +1 to any roll whyle following this objective. Some samples include: to destroy this civilization (not necessarily its people, but its culture), to spread madness, to build a New World Order of your liking, to follow an ideal through carnage.

    I AM MANY

    Your gang members can roll against someone for you. If that happens, use your stats and get the prize. When one of your gang members has sex with someone, it triggers your Sex Move.

    SEE MY CHILDREN

    When you’re with your gang, you can roll with Dark for Shut Someone Down and Hold Steady. You get the condition Scary.

    HIVE QUEEN

    You have +2 to roll Hot against people with the condition Infected. Also, you can spend Strings on others through the members of your Hive.

    INHUMAN HORDE

    When you’re with your Hive, you get +1 to Volatile. Other players get -1 to Volatile against your Hive.

    SPECIALYZED MINIONS

    You can spend a String on a member of your gang to make him roll against someone for you. If that happens, use your stats +1 and get the prize. Use your stats +2 if you also have I Am Many.

    MADNESS NETWORK

    You can send a mental command to all of your Hive at the same time. Roll with Dark. On a 10+, all your Hive carry one forward to execute the command, and you can offer them 1 XP to follow through without a String cost. On a 7-9, you can only offer XP to them, and all Hive members get the condition Hallucinations. Every time you use this Move, you get the condition Hallucinations yourself, regardless of the result of the roll.

  3. Well, a lot I found, at least as much as any other skin could be. Personal and group identity are teenage issues that I found a lot.

    But seriously, in a game where the trope of a detached teenage is played by an undead bloodsucker, why so much concern about this skin?

  4. This skin seems to make an assumption that the world is a large scale thing, where your intentions are grand scale. But these are teenagers we’re talking about, large scale to them is like PROM or Homecoming or someshit, not NEW WORLD ORDER…. Also I disagree with the concept of infecting people to do your bidding/obey you.  And there is NO WAY I’d ever let Body Jumper as a move. Screw Player Agency, amiright? 

    Overall, I think this skin is trying to be a big bad for a game. And in the hands of a person with a strong personality this skin would be a nightmare for MC’s… And seems for alot of it’s end goal to be about removing Player Agency. I’d be very concerned of this skin and it’s use. 

  5. David Ryan Dude i do not think you know teenagers very well,most teenagers that i know (myself included) see what is wrong with the world and want to change it at any cost,they want to find like minded people so they can bash their heads on the wall of tyranny in the hope of one days taking it down. So yeah,i short i think that the idea of making a skin focused on making people join your way of thinking and assist you on some large scale action is a valid idea.

  6. Hahaha. Just reread this and realized with Body Jumper, you can 2 strings and a 10+ roll into “The player targeted is locked in a coffin in a warehouse forever”

  7. Screw with player agency isn’t the point, and I admit Body Jumper is kind of a concern, it should say clearly your options include NPCs only, I forgot to add this. The other Moves are a bit more intruding tha the Queen’s ones, but I don’t think so much. The idea is that the skin rely on them to socialize, but in the end these people keep their freewill and there are very few things it can do against it. No more than you could do anyway just with Basic Moves.

    As Gabriel Bello said, a LOT of teenagers do have this kind of large scale thinking. You can argue if they have a real notion of what is this large scale, but they do have.

    The skin itself don’t assume a larger scale to the game. It assume a bit of megalomania for the kid, but just as a background for his take on socializing. Nothing larger than PROM have to happen.

    If you see something in the Moves really hurting Player Agency, tell me. It is a first draft, I do need some input. I just wanted a skin for a character based on identity issues and ideological extremism, and how those things plays on her personal life.

  9.     I do not know a single teenager who wants to change the world at any cost. They’re too interested in themselves for anything like that, with maybe some backseat activism going on because they think everyone’s already “SOLD OUT MAN”…. ideological extremist teenager sounds interesting. but to me this skin is aiming more towards cultish. but even then you’re reading into the skin as opposed to having the skin read into the alienness…. but yes Body Jumper is a complete Nono

    Also, here’s another issue. you get bonuses off condition Infected. what stops you always giving infected when on a 7-9 fail or so on? 

  12. David Ryan It’s not a matter of what you want,its a matter of what makes sense in the game logic,and the skin that the dude Jorge presented to us makes sense.

  15. I fail to see where the theme of the skin hurt so much the game. The mechanics are surely a valid issue, and I will rethink how much it should benefit of a single Condition.

    And WTH his avatar have to do with anything!? Sure, I’m probably not on same grounds with him politicaly, but we’re not talking about politics, are we?

    The skin plays on the concept of indoctrination and extremism (on the part of the PC, not of all his gang) as a way to define self-identity. A way ultimately fultile (on what it concerns to self-identity).

  16. In some hours I will revise the Moves. Maybe rethink the benefits of the Infected Condition, tough many of them are meant to affect only the Hive, and the Condition only makes the target a member of the Hive in some situations.

    Body-Jumper is almost surely out. I would like to know if the two symptoms that turn people to the Hive in a change of Harms are broken and what to pu in their place if so. Never liked them myself, but thought someone could be interested in this kind of character.

  17. Moves revised, Body-Jumper is out. I’m not sure about Contagious Disease and Purulent Skin. All the other Moves are about the Hive members, not anyone with Infected, so only these two symptoms and the Sex Move can bring people under its influence.

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