[Sweet, Euroesque] Prophet

File: 1487823080503.jpg (158KB, 650x925px) Image search: [Google]

158KB, 650x925px

>What is a Prophet

Humanity has become a multi-solar-system Earth Empire. Prophet refers to the John Prophets, genetically engineered soldiers of the human empire. Thousands upon thousands (millions, maybe?) of Johns, ruthless and genetically programmed for loyalty, took over planets, entire galaxies, expanding imperial rule over thousands of alien races.

Until one day came Old Man John Prophet, legendary soldier of the Empire who rebelled against his rulers and war broke out between humanity and the many alien races it had enslaved, with Great Grey Grandfather Old Man John Prophet as a leader of the rebellion. The war was won, the Empire purged, the rebel warriors went their spearate ways in the peace that followed.

It's been many years since the war, and the Earth Empire is moving to rise again. Imperial John Prophets everywhere are awakening from hybernation, their mission to reinstate the Earth Empire ingrained into their genes.

How was the empire purged?

File: 1487954214859.jpg (1MB, 3919x2136px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 3919x2136px

Johns have a caste-structured society, each caste created for a specific task. For command, for scouting, infantry grunts... even a pleasure caste.

Because they can be so varied in shape and abilites, instead of coming up with classes/kits for each caste, the system is a point-buy giving players freedom to custmize their Johns.

Points can be spent on:

>stats
We're struggling on this. We're already kind of set on how they'll function. Each stat is a dice pool that you roll for whatever task your John is trying to accomplish. The GM will determine a relevant stat and target number for the roll, depending on your John's purpose. One die above target level is a success, but barely; with additional successes meaning a gradually better performance at the task.
The problem we're having is which stats should Johns have? It'd be good to have narrative/descriptive stats, like Apocalypse World's array of Cool/Hard/Hot/Sharp/Weird, but we haven't settled on adjectives that'd be appropriate for the setting.

>powers
There are Johns with extra limbs, Johns with special senses, Johns with psychic powers, Johns with superhuman strength, Johns with resistance to cold, to heat, to the vaccuum of space. It depends on the John's purpose and it'd be impossible to codify everything, but we need to come up with at least a sample list.
Powers are bought with points, in this rate:
If you have a power that functions fully; that is to say, without a limitation, it costs two points. If you buy it with a limitation, it costs only one point.
Say you want your John to have Tolerance to Temperature, that would cost two points; but if you want him to have only Tolerance to Heat, that would be one point.
If you want your John to have a prehensile tail, that would cost two points; if his tail is not prehensile, only one point; if his tail is not prehensile, but has poison-secreting glands, that would be two points again; if its poison only affects a certain type of creature, it costs one point.

File: 1487871438154.jpg (2MB, 3839x2868px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 3839x2868px

>>52089298
Old Man Prophet and his allies waged open war against the Earth Empire, until there was no planet, no race under imperial rule.
It actually wasn't purged exactly, in the sense that there were numerous survivors from imperial days, which prompts the starting arch of the comic; but it was dismantled and went into a long period of dormancy.

File: 1487873352182.jpg (551KB, 1819x2025px) Image search: [Google]

551KB, 1819x2025px

Eating

Prophets have an enhanced metabolism that makes it possible to accomplish superhuman tasks, but also requires that they be eating all the time.

In mechanical terms, there is a numerical measure of how much a John has eaten, called Energy Points, and a non-numerical measure of time, called Scenes.

Energy points are gained from creatures Johns kill and eat; depending on their size and constitution, they give a certain number of energy points, which can be used to perform Herculean feats, above the usual capacity of your John. Every time you choose to spend Energy, you get a bonus to your roll, to the rate of one Energy to one extra die.

Also, Energy is depleted over time, with each Scene consuming one energy point. The duration of a scene is not fixed. If the group engages a Krun raiding party, that combat is a scene. If they decide to make camp for the night, the time spent around the fire/sleeping is another scene. Each scene consumes one energy point from each John involved, even though one takes three minutes and the other, 5 hours.

Every creature Johns kill can be consumed for Energy points. Johns are shown to be able to eat anything, unless the creature is not organic in nature (robotic, crystaline, composed of energy) or if it's poisoned/rotting/corrupted in some form.

You could also determine your John has a more specific diet. In exchange for points to spend on powers and stats, you John is unable to eat and gain Energy from whatever life form he encounters, having to seek out his specific food source.

File: 1487819676325.jpg (395KB, 1739x1069px) Image search: [Google]

395KB, 1739x1069px

Equipment

In addition to their powers, Johns are issued various items for each of their missions.

To minimize bookkeeping, each John has an ammount of equipment points. Each piece of equipment is revealed when the player chooses to use it, spending one point to have that specific item.

Equipment bypasses a test for what it was revealed; and, depending on player creativity, can grant a bonus for other uses.
For instance: upon finding he has to climb a mountain, John can reveal a piece of equipment to be a climbing filament. So, he can climb safely without rolling the dice. There might be all sorts of creatures on the way up, but that's another matter. The climb itself is no problem for John.
But say, at a later time, John is hungry from climbing. He needs food and decides to hunt one of the fungus spiders he's seen to inhabit the mountain. He dscribes how he's using his climbing filament to make a trap to catch a spider. If that's plausible, it gives him an advantage on the test, but not an automatic success because that's not what the filament was revealed for.

File: 1487827625579.jpg (327KB, 1911x1069px) Image search: [Google]

327KB, 1911x1069px

But, like I said, it bypasses a test "for what it was revealed", not "for what it was designed". Those aren't necessarily the same thing.
Say John's locked behind a hatch in a spaceship. He needs to break out and rush to retrieve his Mother's body before the Bleed-pirates feed her to the spaceship's sentient energy core. John reveals one piece of equipment to be a set of liquid oxygen capsules. Six of them, let's say. Since liquid oxygen is highly pressurized, John wants to use the capsules and his flint-strike to blow the hatch off its hinges. The Mother rules out that he'd need to spend two capsules to blow it off.
Now, John thought ahead when choosing the liquid oxygen. He knows he'll need it to endure the poisonous atmosphere inside the ship. The liquid oxygen capsules are designed to help Johns breathe in extreme conditions like those. However, the remaining four capsules don't grant him an automatic success to endure; just an advantage, because that's not what John revealed them for.

File: 1487827319033.jpg (409KB, 1762x1808px) Image search: [Google]

409KB, 1762x1808px

Mothers

While Johns are the soldiers of the Earth Empire, Mothers are leaders and commanders. What you see in the page is a psychic projection of the Mother, from inside her womb-ship. Prophets rarely interact with Mothers face to face, instead being guided by their psychic forms.

Mothers are vastly powerful psychics and form a sort of control network over the Empire; they connect their minds to one another and to the Johns, consolidating their control over the soldiers.

Two things to notice, though:
- Mothers don't have absolute control over Johns. They have a strong influence, what with their psychic powers and Johns' genetic disposition for loyalty to the Empire; but they retain their free will and can make their own decisions.
- even though they're connected as a sort of hive mind, Mothers don't agree on everything. In fact, they seem to bicker a lot and be looking out much more for themselves than really for the Empire.

"Mother" is also what the GM is called in the game.

File: 1487820522386.jpg (354KB, 1746x1397px) Image search: [Google]

354KB, 1746x1397px

Oh, one thing I forgot: DolMantles

DolMantles are symbiotic beings the Earth Empire uses to help Johns survive in dire conditions. They can adapt to any environment, except maybe the vaccuum of space.
Because they are so powerful, DolMantles are not pieces of equipment. It can be bought as a power, found during a mission, or issued by the Mother in each session.

File: 1487826019792.jpg (356KB, 1735x1383px) Image search: [Google]

356KB, 1735x1383px

Here we see just how overpowered the little guys are. The DolMantle adapts to give John a breathing mask, extra lungs, nutrient pods and even a replacement for his left arm, made from the bones of a creature he killed and the DolMantle's own tissue.

Mechanically, each DolMantle has a certain number of points, representing its symbiosis. Each time a player uses his DolMantle as a tool, limb or organ it consumes 1 point. These points are regained by eating, in the same way as a John's Energy Points.

In this image's case, the DolMantle would have spent one point for the mask, one for the lungs, and one for each nutrient pod. Before the climb and while in the lower altitudes, John had been killing other beings, feeding himself and the Dolmantle, and storing Energy Points for the highest altitudes, where food and oxygen are scarce.

File: 1487870743170.jpg (2MB, 3897x2993px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 3897x2993px

As you've seen, there's still a lot of work to do, both in mechanics and detailing the setting. If any anons want to contribute, please, feel free.

If you haven't read Prophet yet, you can find the Graham issues here:
https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/10752860/Prophet_(v1_-_v3___Extras__amp__021_-_045)_(1993_-_2014)
Don't worry about anything before Prophet 021, it's Liefeldian garbage. Unless you're into that.
This torrent's missing the final arch, Earth War, but you can get the issues here (I think):

https://florenfile.com/o2xfdsuiwxfm
https://florenfile.com/u7c5rmgdvkrq
https://florenfile.com/ar6z18nmiuag
https://florenfile.com/l1mtmt18b77k
https://florenfile.com/ce15zwuq9lqm
https://florenfile.com/zol9dusnwfeo

>>52090301
>found during a mission, or issued by the Mother in each session.

Considering that they can substitute for any tool, food, material, organ or even weapon, they really shouldn't be a PC item at all, IMHO. They're basically Do-Everything super-powers which look cool in the comic but would utterly break any RPG more than Wizards break D&D 3.5E.

>>52092810
They're not quite Do-Everything. They do have some limitations and maybe I've gone overboard when describing them. DolMantles are squishy slimy creatures and can't harden their bodies; you couldn't make them into armor or a weapon or, say, lockpicks or a grappling hook.
They're very adaptable, but they can't actually do everything. It's up to the Mother to veto when a John is trying to twist things and exploit the DolMantle. Besides it pretty much doubles a John's need for food; in the comic that doesn't really come into question, but in the game it could be a way to prevent players from abusing the advantage they give.

But you still might be right.

>>52089138
This looks like a cool comic, OP!
Thanks for the tip!