Discordia Inc. - RPGs - Shifter - Chapters 9, 10 and 11

9. Behind Skills

9.4 Shifter Abilities

The use of most Shifter abilities are fully described in Chapter 4. However, Gamesmasters wishing to find guidelines for setting Difficulties for Splicing and Lashing will be relieved to find that these rules actually do exist, unlike most of the Gamesmaster's rules.

9.4.1 Splicing

The main element in determining the modifier of a Splicing Task is the degree of anachronism caused (that is, how out of place the object is after being spliced in). To determine this, work out how many Epochs difference there is between the object's `home' Epoch, and the Epoch it is being spliced into.

-1 for no change in the Epoch or for an effective `increase' in Epoch level (i.e. Red to Blue).
-2 for one Epoch lower down the scale.
-3 for two Epochs lower.
-4 for three Epochs lower.
-5 for four Epochs lower.
-6 for five Epochs lower.
-7 for six Epochs lower.
-8 for seven or more Epochs lower.

In addition, large items are harder to splice. Use the following additional modifiers:

+0 for hand held or smaller.
-1 for man size items, or thereabouts.
-2 for anything up to house size.
-3 for anything up to the size of a battleship.
-4 for anything up to the size of a reasonably large spacestation or a town.
-6 for huge chunks of countryside.
-8 for countries.
-10 for continents.
-20 for whole planets.

The minimum Difficulty is always -2, but there is no maximum. Shifters who wish to try splicing two universes together do so at their own peril. You should feel free to add additional modifiers if the object is not being Spliced from the Stack, but from a variant, particularly if the object is of special significance to that variant.

9.4.2 Lashing

When Shifters are Lashing in the field, they are always taking the entire universe back in time; the only question is how far back in time they are going:

-2 for anything up to about ten or twenty seconds.
-3 for anything up to about one or two minutes.
-4 for anything up to about ten or twenty minutes.
-6 for anything up to an hour.
-8 for anything up to six hours.
-10 for anything up to a day.
-20 for anything up to a week.

As with Splicing, there is no upper limit. Shifters who wish to attempt Lashing back the end of time to the beginning of time should prepare for premature deletion, however.

10. Emergency Gamesmaster Instructions

In the event of you being too wasted or to confused to know what is going on, congratulations. To cover this eventuality we are proud to present the Emergency Gamesmaster Instructions. To use, draw a card and follow the written instructions:

Any suit 2:: draw a card and look aimlessly through the rules for a table that doesn't exist. Then smile, frown, tut or laugh in a maniacal way.
Any suit 3:: Instruct one or more of the players to draw a card and appear to write something down after thinking for a moment.
Any suit 4:: Ask to look at one of the player's Shifter sheets. Search for something at random and then nod knowingly.
Any suit 5:: Write something inconsequential on a piece of paper and pass the resulting Paranoia Note to the player of your choice.
Any suit 6:: Go and get something to eat or drink.

Hearts: Random Variant Effects (Bad)

7:For no apparent reason, there is a ripple in time or time is lashed back a few minutes.
8:Some unusual weather condition occurs, like a storm cloud that only rains on the characters or it starts raining doughnuts.
9:Some strange cinematic effect occurs, like everything seems stretched with black lines at the top and bottom of everyone's vision, everything goes out of rack (and the bottom of everything appears at the top) or everything turns black and white.
10:One of the characters turns into a crustacean or some other random object.
J:The current variant collapses.
Q:The current variant goes into Shuffle.
K:All characters lose 5 Stability for no good reason.
A:The most annoying player, or someone at random, loses 10 Stability, or their character if you don't have reality altering powers.

Diamonds: Rogue Shifters

7: Rogue Shifters put down a lockout against one of the characters.
8: A Rogue Shifter appears, looking for trouble.
9: As above, but the Shifter looks like one of the players, or one of the characters.
10: A team of Rogue Shifters appears looking like Elvis, or someone else famous.
J-A: As J, Q, K and A for Hearts, but caused by a Rogue Shifter.

Clubs: Random Variant Effects (Good)

7: The person or object the characters are looking for is just around the corner, or rides by on a horse.
8: Chalk arrows are found on the ground leading to the person or object the characters are looking for.
9: The voice of the Goddess is heard saying "Everything is fine. Let there be slack! Keep the lasagne flying." or something equally useful.
10: A disembodied voice tells the characters what to do.
J: The characters are randomly shifted to where they should be instead of where they are. It has to happen sometime!
Q: Whatever the desired outcome for the current variant, occurs spontaneously.
K: All characters gain 5 Stability for no apparent reason.
A: The most amusing, interesting or attractive player's Shifter gains 10 Stability.

Spades: Astonishing Discoveries

7: `Excalibur' or some other legendary object appears.
8: Have a gratuitous car chase or other action sequence.
9: Have the players find a random clue. A few minutes later have them find another one, and then a third clue. All the while, hum the investigative tune from `Scooby Doo'.
10: An interspatial door-to-door salesbeing appears and tries to sell someone `Flying Peon' brand vacuum cleaners.
J: All players get a free Focusing.
Q: `Dungeon Master', Yoda or some other wise being appears to give scholarly, incomprehensible advise. Be sure to use reverse syntax for Yoda (`Shifters, greetings. To your aid I have come.')
K: The bad guy turns out to be the father of one of the characters.
A: Appoint one of the players as the Gamesmaster and take over their character. Don't give them any notes or rules though.

These is also an associated sidebar to peruse...

11. Answers to the Preliminary Exam

11.1 Section I: History

11.1.1 Question 1

Metal, or metallic tools is worth 2 marks. Tools, or some similar answer is worth 1 mark.
Mechanical systems, steam or combustion, is worth 2 marks.
Powered systems, trains or some other incomplete answer is worth 1 mark.
Special relativity and atomic power is worth 2 marks.
The atomic bomb or some similar answer is worth 1 mark.
Variant physics is worth 2 marks.
Time travel or some similar answer is worth 1 mark.

11.1.2 Question 2

Red Epoch is worth 1 mark.
Yellow Epoch is worth 1 mark.
Blue Epoch is worth 1 mark.
Violet Epoch is worth 1 mark.

11.1.3 Question 3

The Grey Epoch (1 mark), because it can occur at any point in the sequence (1 mark).

11.2 Section II: Variant Physics

11.2.1 Question 11

The Draper Limit is worth 2 marks; something close is worth 1 mark. Shuffle is worth 1 mark as well, but only if they have failed to mention anything close to the Draper Limit.

11.2.2 Question 12

The Mayron Condition is the state of entropy (1 mark) such that the variant's entropy is low compared to its surrounding variants (3 marks) such that it enters collapse/ceases to continue (2 marks/1 mark). Up to 6 marks total.

11.2.3 Question 13

VAriant Co-ordinate Set, for 2 marks. 1 mark for something close.

11.2.4 Question 14

Spacial Reference Co-ordinates or SRC or Where for 1 mark.
Chronological Reference Co-ordinates or CRC or When for 1 mark.
Quantum Reference Co0ordinates or QRC or Which for 1 mark.
1 extra mark for using the full form in each case.

11.2.5 Question 18

A variant that leads to Nexus for 2 marks.
Something similar, but less specific, for 1 mark.
A variant that collapses into another for 2 marks.
A collapsing variant, or something similarly incomplete for 1 mark.
A variant that breaks into multiple variants for 2 marks.
Something similar, but less specific, for 1 mark.
A divergent timeline that breaks into a large number of timelines (1 mark), usually by dividing several times in succession (1 mark).

11.3 Section III: Variant Effects

11.3.1 Question 21

Gathering Stochastic Potential, or something else mentioning Stochastic Potential, for 2 marks.
Something close for 1 mark.

11.3.2 Question 22

Synch the variant (1 mark) and host into an appropriate body (1 mark). Determine how many assassins are present (2 marks), using psionic abilities or surveillance techniques (1 mark).

Kill or incapacitate the assassins if they are acting independently (1 mark), preferably by going to a point earlier in their lives and killing them accidentally (1 mark), or infiltrate the organisation(s) behind the assassination and sabotage the plans (2 marks). If anything goes wrong, lash back time and try again (1 mark).

Alternative answers should also be considered, and other inventive solutions should score highly.