Magic Hat Reload idea

[Shannow]

I have sculpted this figure



I know he's not brilliant, but I do quite like him.

At the moment I like the idea of him belonging to a sinister sort of circus that is the front for a haemovore cult and he is the ringleader. As he is he has a shock staff and a needle pistol, but I wanted to create an interesting rule for his reload ability.

I can't remember where I read it, but someone came up for rules for a character that just has his pockets stuffed with ammo, and I wanted to do something similar with the hat but perhaps a bit funny.

I know its grim dark, but I was thinking along the lines of rolling a D6 and on 2-5 he gets a reload for his gun, on a 6 he gets a frag or something extra nice perhaps and I was thinking on a 1 he pulls out a rabbit....

Well not an actual fluffy rabbit, but perhaps a little grot/mutant/nasty thing that immediately bites him for D6/D10 damage to his main hand then runs off attacking any other poor bugger it meets.

Not sure how much that sort of comedy/oddity would be acceptable to you guys, but just an idea...

Rob

[MarcoSkoll]

Amusing, but it would need at least a little explanation.

If you want to do that, I would suggest making him a psyker with only moderate control over what he's actually doing. He hides this behind the appearance of being a conjurer - pulling various oddities out of his hat in front of the crowds.
Perhaps he needs the hat because his powers are hampered by light sources - he needs the darkness of its depths to actually be able to keep even moderate control.

... what his power actually could be left deliberately vague. Perhaps it's a teleportation power with him randomly summoning the resources from somewhere else in the universe, or perhaps he's managing to shape warp energy into actual physical objects.

The question of how acceptable conjuring tricks might be in the 41st millennium is up for debate of course, but I figure it's not too far fetched that someone might get away with it.

[Shannow]

That is an excellent idea and one I hadn't even considered in the slightest (which says a lot about my intelligence...), I will have a play around with that and hopefully come back with something soonish.

Thanks a bunch marco

Rob

[Holiad]

The imperium has a lot of very rich and bored nobles in need of diversion, so it seems entirely plausible that some of them might turn to conjuring tricks. Plus, the guise of an incompetent conjurer would be a good way for a psyker to avoid suspiscion-a brilliant conjurer might well be accused of cheating, but so long as he isn't any good at it he won't arouse much suspiscion. Of coarse, pulling a grenade out of his hat while entertaining the planetary governor's inner circle is liable to cause problems of its own. As for whether such a comedy element fits the 40K theme, I think it could. Presented appropriately, a hat which anything might crawl out of can be a very menacing and sinister object.

[Kaled]

Why not make pulling something out of the hat a Risky Action with a D10 table of bizarre (and dangerous) outcomes should it be failed?

[Shannow]

In light of Kaled's idea with the D10 risky action table, which sounds very workable to me; do you guys have any idea for what might go on there? Obviously they're not going to be good for my character health but I'd like a few that are bad for everyone else's too

Certainly I want one to be a small imp come out and runs havoc, but as I'm having a very intensive lab week right now with long 12 hour experiments my minds a bit burnt out so can'y come up with much more!

So ant help from your own twisted minds would be much appreciated

Rob

[MarcoSkoll]

Well, here's my off the top of my head suggestion:

1 - Spit of Warpfire: take a hit from a hand flamer to whichever arm he used.
2 - Mysterious glowing Orb: has effects of a plasma grenade, but has to be used quickly, as it has a 50% chance of spontaneously going off at the end of every turn after the one it was summoned.
3 - Sea of despair: his hat starts flooding from an unknown water source. No damage, but he has created a large water slick around his present location. Any movement over this area faster than a walk is a risky action - failure results in the character falling prone.
4 - Smoke: Thick smoke pours out of his hat. Treat as a smoke grenade on his location. He must also pass an Sg test, or lose his bearings.
5 - Small imp. Must pass a I test, or takes D6 damage to his arm of choice. If he passes the test, he may immediately attempt to throw it at someone else instead... (-20% Acc, Range E, D6 damage.)
6 - Ouch! Some blighter bit... Pretty lights... like little angels! Something bites his hand... whatever it is, its bite is poisonous. He must immediately make a resistance test against Hallucinogen.
7 - Something's got my hand! While ultimately harmless, he cannot use the hand in question until he pulls free by passing a S test. (Probably at 1/2 S for a single arm)
8 - "Where the feth did he pull that from?". Unexpectedly, his hand closes around the grip of a (roll another D10):
  1-3: Revolver
  4-6: Stubber
  7-9: Autopistol
  10: Pump action shotgun
He has no extra ammunition for this new weapon. (I would normally suggest Revised Armoury rules, but this is only a rough suggestion.)
9 - Delayed reaction... nothing seems to happen - until after he puts his hat back on, and some heavy-ish object falls out of its depths. Must pass a Toughness test or be stunned for a turn.
10 - String of handkerchiefs. While pretty, ultimately useless.

[Shannow]

All absolutely fantastic ideas and I think the ones I will use, though I may alter the imp one slightly but only if I come up with something thats easy to work in a game.

Many thanks once again Marco!

Rob

[MarcoSkoll]

No problem.

If you do use that table, you'll need to sort out a couple of things. The extent of the water spill for #3 being one of them (I might suggest D6 yards out from his current location).
It was only the work of a couple of minutes of "winging it". Fortunately, I'm very, very good at winging it.

[Vladimir]

This is genius. I take it he's going to end up as the grimdark Tommy Cooper?

[Shannow]

Indeed you winging is fast becoming a handy resource Marco, now if only we could hook up your dreams to a computer....

@Vladimir, yup thats the basic concept albeit hopefully more creepy in the end, I have also been contemplating for a while, trying to make a voodoo Baron Samedi with some cool powers

Should get some more solid sharpening of Marco's idea done this weekend as my lab experiment finishes today so will have waaaay more spare time and much shorter days.

Thanks for all the help and comments so far guys

Rob