Chaos Feature Competition News
71 entries so far, from 24 people. Interesting responses: some serious, some wacky, some as big as your 'ead, some fabulous one-liners.
This group has 493 members though, so we have a while to go. I will post the competition every so often so people so it doesn't get buried under other posts.
What it's all about
Here's the challenge and the list of entries, as it stands (ordered to obfuscate authors' names):
Chaos Feature Competition.
Write three *new* chaos features that you think should go on a Top 10 Chaos Features of All Time list. Interested in Glorantha on *any* level? We are interested in your entries! From Glorantha's creator to the person reading this list for the first time, from your kid sister to your great granddad, no entry is too great or too small! It doesn't have to be clever, funny, canon (in fact it shouldn't be) or anything like that - YGHV already! This is chaos - let your mind take a walk on the wild side (just see the entries below for examples :).
When enough people have entered the contest, there will be an anonymous vote and the Top 10 Chaos Features of All Time, as voted by members of this list, will be posted. [I have constructed a private web page to accept votes; I will open it for a limited time to accept people's votes].
Don't worry if you don't want to post your entries to the list - send them to me off-list and we will enter them for you. Nobody's name will be next to their creations unless they want it to be. The Top 10 will not have names in it.
We're not looking for masterpieces or the ultimate in coolness or necessarily 'something better than the RQ lists'; we're just after things you like/have used/think is entertaining/could create story in people's games etc
THE ENTRIES SO FAR
Only susceptible to indirect attacks. You can write down or draw damage, but not harm it with a weapon.
Takes damage from insults. words *will* hurt it, sticks and stones don't
Conduct to the Ultimate. Will make illuminated and occluded characters face a major crisis, and might illuminate others.
Appears closer to you than it actually is. Whenever you try to touch it you realise that it's too far away. If you turn around and it's behind you then *IT IS OMG BASICALLY BREATHING IN YOUR EAR* Possibly the most dangerous missile weapon user in the world...
Slick, entangling hair covering body. Weapons might slide off or get entangled.
Vomits Fruit. Vomits up perfectly edible (non-chaos tainted) fruit when frightened.
Emits clouds of powerful hallucinogenic gas. To which it is not immune
Smokey skin. This creature has skin that is like dark smoke. It drifts sluggishly and you're not sure what it is but you *don't* want to touch it. Its greatest use is sneaking into steads - it doesn't reflect or gleam, it blends into shadows and it disguises movement. Its feel causes dread.
Invisible tentacle. Think about it, don't YOU want one now?
Two or more souls in one body. They struggle for control if they disagree
about what action to take. Mind affecting magic affects only one at a time
(unless it would affect multiple targets.)
Bowels of Chaos. The Void exists where your bowels are.
Only Visible in Reflections. The chaotic can only be seen by his reflection in other objects. You can glimpse him in that puddle or in that metal bowl on the table or perhaps a polished sword and shield.
Devours Emotions. The chaotic can feed on and relishes emotional energy, and in doing so removes the capacity for that emotion from its victim (I would leave recovery options up to the story).
Self Cannibalism. The chaotic appears with bite marks all over it, some healed, some partially so.
Deadly sonorous eructations or flatulation. The bodily emissions of the creature are extremely loud and dangerous in some way, belches emit deafening noise like a super huge cathedral organ, and musical farts emit toxic gas or flame....
Can temporarily absorb disease spirits. The being can cure any disease by absorbing the spirit into itself. The spirit is apparently banished or destroyed, being no longer detectable. After a while (which is shortened for every absorbed spirit) the spirits are released, first infecting the being (inflicting symptoms but causing no permanent harm) and quickly spreading to the surrounding population.
Any Chaos Feature You Haven't Thought Of. Thanks Grant Morrison.
Imitation. Takes on the looks of someone else in the battle, may be friend or foe
Emotion Vacuum. Sucks the emotions from a person. Games like HeroQuest or Pendragon would work best mechanically, as they quantify emotions. The effect is like an aura - come within X yards/meters of the creature, and it automatically "feeds" on your emotions. It's a always-on, area effect Tap [Any Emotion].
Rebellious Limbs. Subject's limbs are somewhat self-aware - and self-interested! In extreme cases they may actually hold a plebiscite and depart the body en masse. In lesser cases mistreated members of the limb classes may attempt to secede alone - typically while the subject is sleeping.
Turns To Jelly At Slightest Provocation. Subject turns to a basically indestructible chaos ooze when prompted by *something*.
Emotional Vision. Subject suffers from a kind of aphasia, combined with the ability to perceive visually the emotional makeup of others.
Rubber away soul Touch feature. Spirit combat by touch.
Scolding voice. Sounds just like your Mother when speaking.
Skill Swap. Randomly determine 1d8 skills and swap them.
Aphrodisiac Ingredient. Random body part becomes easily recognised as the principle ingredient in a much desired aphrodisiac or similar potion.
Plague of Altering Size Breath. Plague of Altering Size Breath
Inconceivable People cannot accurately describe the creature to others.
Rubber Soul. Other spirits that engage you or are engaged by you in spirit combat simply bounce off. i.e., you're immune to spirits.
Devour Words. Or Reverse Meanings of Words in a Radius, if you prefer.
Part physical, part spirit/soul/essence. Only part of the beneficiary is corporeal. The other part is purely insubstantial.
Half-a-creature. Only 1/2 of the creature is present in the physical world
(the other is...somewhere else). For Example, if it's a broo, then you have
the right side of the broo, and a view of his insides at the "split".
Gestalt Body Sharer. One soul spread among two or more different physical bodies. Mind- affecting magic (or mind-affecting anything, really) that affects one affects all.
Elastic tendons. Most obviously allows jumping like a grasshopper. But also consider the application to thrown weapons and escapology (not sure why anyone would tie up a Broo but if they do...).
Magic Birthmark Companion. Meet my brother. He's called 'Strawberry'. Careful he may bite!
Limbs Detachable. May be traded with others like you.
Disassociated. Limbs and organs are only loosely connected and may swarm apart.
Reincarnated in you. Its killer/eater becomes the creature. Its memories may be transferred.
Doppelganger. It takes the form of the last being it has eaten, but not its size we can have very short dinosaur or very large humans ...
Hollow shell of skin. Interior filled with hundreds of crawling poisonous vermin that fly or scuttle out when skin is ruptured, while spiders try to sew it back together again from inside
Born after death. In infant form back at the nearest chaos pit but remembers how it died. It has to grow up again and suddenly, a few years on in the campaign, IT RETURNS! "I know you. We killed you!"
Cause stammering. I-In range we h-had t-trouble speaking.
Tap Sanity. If it touches, you might start seeing/hearing things, believing strange contradictory ideas or even laughing a bit too long after the joke is over.
Amalgamation. If it loses a body part, may replace it from a victim. If you want something really gross, combine this with the above feature.
Two random body parts are made of gorp. If abdomen or chest, can excrete or vomit micro gorp. If limbs can elongate, attach, whip, throw micro gorp etc etc (depending on gorp type). If head, becomes 'Brain of Gorp'.
Can't move when anyone is looking at it. However it can't be physically or magically harmed while anyone is looking at it. Add it to lightening fast speed for extra plagiaristic goodness :)
Left and right reversed. Hit its right arm, the left takes damage.
Sprout New Dialect every minute. Highly contagious at hearing.
Completely hollow. Handy for storage.
Goey Flesh. Flesh becomes goo, all the skin and muscle of the creatures becomes a sack of transparent goo, which shifts and oozes to reveal bones and internal organs.
Causes excessive body hair growth. Exposure to this chaos monster causes excessive body hair growth.
Causes sunburn. Exposure to this chaos monster causes acute sunburn.
Radiate Acceptance. Everyone within range receives a warm and fuzzy feeling when the chaotic is around.
It is your child. Everyone else who can see it knows exactly what it is but to you it is your child. You carry it with you, suckle it (regardless of whether or not your female) you love it and care for it and can bear to see no harm come to it. When you finally die, worn out and shrivelled, it will be someone else's child.
Weaken separation to Otherworlds. Encounters with the creature tend to move in and out of Otherworlds, for which this creature suffers no Otherworld penalties. Struggles that move into, and then back out of, the Spirit Plane can also shift the combatants across long distances. Those that flee the fight might find themselves in some alien Hell. Hopefully heroes can hold out until they intersect with the Hero Plane (and, ideally, a HeroQuest that they know).
Able to absorb the skill of anyone in their presence. E.g. can use a swordsman's skill at their ability, only lasts while person is in their presence.
1000 Arms. Disturbingly, also possessed by some Mystic beings...
Eyes shifted into spirit/gods/essence plane. Disturbing hollows in sockets
Changing visage. Creature's facial features constantly undergo a slow morph. Time to completely change features could be minutes
Everything you touch turns invisible. Clothes, weapons, armour etc
Reversed digestive tract. Censored.
Legs facing the wrong way. Cannot walk forwards.
Gift of Colour. Anything touched changes permanently to its complimentary colour. The players find an apple tree with blue apples (blue being the complimentary of red). A track of magenta grass is found crossing a field.
Sticky skin. Anything that hits the skin of the creature adheres (with some high strength needed to tear object away - and if it's your flesh that's stuck, then you're going to leave some behind!)
Look like you Anyone that sees/touches/interacts with the creature senses the creature as a duplicate of themselves. Multiple targets would see/hear/sense completely different things, but that's the way with chaos, isn't it? This is not an illusion of any sort. It's more like simultaneous physical mimicry that breaks all the rules.
Merges with Mount. Any creature that the chaotic can sit on or ride becomes an extension of the chaotic, if the 'mount' is intelligent then there is a continual power struggle for dominance between the two parties requiring concentration and strength of will.
Changes colour. Another less extreme version of Changing Visage.
This monster uses D&D rules. All characters must be converted for this encounter.
Sneezes balls of explosive snot. Achoo! Whizz! Bang!
Changing features. A less extreme version of Changing Visage.
Edible Excretions. +10 Camping for your companions.
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