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Playing an Alien can cram into the gaps. Everything else is up to you.
You Appear
not technically possess the same Skill sets as human be-
ings, in the mode of The Infinite Macabre space opera,
You have always played The Other. aliens still have humanoid qualities. An alien can hack
As a vampire, you are held fast to the darkness, and a computer, canvass a party, or stab you with a pointy
kept to the fringes by your cold hands and the hot blood implement.
in your mouth.
As a mage, you know things others do not, can
perform tricks that could crumple someones mind like Step Four:
a soda can under a heavy boot.
As a werewolf, you are a creature straddling worlds, Select Skill Specialties
equal parts spirit, animal, and man. Choose three Skill Specialties for any Skills your
Thats not even talking about Sin-Eaters, hunters, alien character possesses.
Prometheans or fae creatures.
You havent seen anything yet.
This portion of The Infinite Macabre is devoted Step Five:
toward letting you roleplay an alien being. Technically,
this is meant to be kept with the setting and themes Add Alien Template
of The Infinite Macabrespace opera as a concept is The alien template is a simple one: it is composed of
comfortable with the pulpier elements and motifs that Qualities, which are the elements that define your alien
best suit an alien character. That said, if you are inclined species. It is up to you whether or not these Qualities
to take characters built from this section and put them are meant to be singular to your alien character or rep-
in your modern-era World of Darkness game, go for resentative of his entire alien species.
it. The only person who can stop you is the Storyteller. As with Skills and Attributes, you must prioritize
(Alternately, the rules in here could easily be used to the categories for your alien characters Qualities. Except
create Nightbreed-style monster types, too, provided you here, you gain an additional category: Physical, Mental,
extract out any of the space opera trappings.) Social, and Cultural.
To be clear, most of this section is geared toward the You do not need to put these in the same order that
rules and character creation necessary to play an alien you applied to either Skills or Attributes.
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INFINITE MACABRE-SPACE OPERA IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS
Covered in Cilia ()
Physical Qualities The characters flesh is covered in small (or large,
if youre so inclined) ciliaor, to be more descriptive,
Bodiless ()
whipping tendrils. The character may choose a +1
The character has no body. How you interpret that
bonus at the time of character creation to either Initia-
is up to you: is he a cloud of vapor? A purely telepathic
tive, Defense, or Speed due to the tiny energy generated
entity? A spirit of sorts, kept only to the Shadow of the
by the constant movement of her cilia.
galaxy? Does his gaseous form lie trapped in some kind
of tank? However you determine it, the character has no Does Not Breathe ()
body to speak of and thus is given over to no Physical Oxygen? Who needs oxygen? Certainly not you.
existence. You gain life-giving sustenance from other sources:
What does this mean? First, it means no Physical perhaps you are driven merely by the kinetic energy of
Attributes or Skills. Cross them off the sheet. It also your bodily processes. Whatever the case, you can walk
means: no Physical advantages. The character has no on the exterior of a ship, you can wander underwater for
Size. It has a Speed equal to Resolve + Composure. Initia- hours on end, or you can waltz into a cloud of toxic gas
tive is equal to Intelligence + Wits. This may not seem because you do not breathe.
like a Quality (meaning, a benefit) until you recognize
that the character is virtually indestructible: while it Gazing Across the Spectrum ()
may make no Physical attacks, it also suffers no Physical The characters vision offers him a myriad of per-
attacks. Swing a vibrating blade through the character ception tweaks via gazing across multiple spectrums. He
andwhat? Nothing. No damage done. is able to gain visual input across infrared, ultraviolet,
The character has no Health score and instead tracks and thermal sight, compositing it with his normal mode
damage through Willpower. Choose one weakness from of vision. This offers him a +3 on all Perception-based
this list (or make up your own with Storyteller approval): rolls.
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PLAYING AN ALIEN
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INFINITE MACABRE-SPACE OPERA IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS
Telepathic ( or ) Pheromones ( to )
Vocalized speech is not absolutely necessary for The characters body exudes hard-to-detect phero-
every alien species: many are capable telepaths, able to mones that can affect the emotions of others. For each
communicate directly with the minds of others (two-dot) dot in this Quality the character may choose one over-
and read the surface thoughts of targets (four-dot). arching emotion (anger, love, hate, fear, compassion,
The two-dot version offers the character a one-way lust, sadness, etc.) and, with a Presence + Persuasion
avenue of communication: she can, with no roll, talk to roll (which is also granted a +3 bonus) affect all those
another characters mind. She cannot, however, hear around her (within a 10 feet radius) with that emotion.
their communication that comes backagain, its a Characters may actively attempt to resist feeling this
one-way street. To gain two-way communication, the emotion with a Resolve + Empathy roll, but can only
character must upgrade to the four-dot version. This do so if they believe themselves actively manipulated.
Quality allows the character both modes of telepathy. If they feel that the emotion is a natural response, they
She can hear the surface thoughts of others if they are not granted the option to resist until they gain some
will it to be so. If they, however, are not actively willing clue about the pheromonal manipulation.
their thoughts to be heard by the character, then such
telepathy constitutes a kind of mental theft and requires Seductive ( or )
a roll of Wits + Larceny (many have compared to, quite Sex is a critical part of this aliens habits, a casual
literally, picking a lock) versus the opponents Resolve component that is as fundamental as breathing, sleeping,
+ Composure. If the alien character succeeds, she can or eating. The two-dot version of this grants the character
hear any and all surface thoughts from the target for the a bonus to all Seduction rolls by allowing her to add both
remainder of the scene. She cannot, however, go deeper Presence and Manipulation to the roll to seduce (Seduction
than surface; think of it like a radio. One can tune in as an action is described on p. 84 of the World of Darkness
only to active frequencies, but one cannot use tune in Rulebook). The four-dot version allows the character to
transmissions from the past. bear fruit from her seductiveness: if she successfully has sex
with another character, she gains a measure of authority
Thought Into Action () over that individual. She gains a +3 bonus on all Social
The alien is an eminently fast thinker, and this rolls made to sway that characters actions or emotions.
translates into a fast actor. The character calculates This bonus fades at a rate of one die per week but may be
Initiative differently than human beings: instead of re-established with further sexual contact.
Dexterity + Composure, the equation is now [Highest
of Wits or Intelligence] + Composure. Soothe the Beast ()
No animal (or animalistic, non-sentient alien) will
Social Qualities attack the character. It could be something physiological
(a sweet-smelling sap exuded by the flesh) or something
Beast Whisperer ( or ) altogether ethereal (a calming aura). Either way, no
The character can implicitly understand the lan- animal will attack the character unless the character
guage of animals: a creature that barks, meows, caws, attacks first.
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ALIEN QUALITIES
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INFINITE MACABRE-SPACE OPERA IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS
Step Seven:
on a stardock). Maybe its because thats where the alien
was raised, or maybe because the character experienced
some manner of trauma on the ground or in the stars.
Choose ground or stars. If the character is comfortable on Determine Advantages
the ground, then whenever he walks among the stars he Now its time to determine the final Advantages for
suffers a -3 penalty to all Mental rolls and a -1 penalty to your alien character. The standard Advantages are calcu-
all Social rolls. If the character is comfortable among the lated as normal unless otherwise noted by the Qualities
stars, then the reverse is true: the penalties are applicable purchased for your character.
when he walks on terrestrial ground. It is up to the Storyteller to determine whether or
not Virtues and Vices are apropos to character creation.
Small In Stature
Virtues and Vices are explicitly bound to human culture,
The character is from a species that is smaller than
and thus may only apply to human (or once-human)
most other creatures: Size 3 instead of the normal Size
characters. It is reasonable to suggest, however, that aliens
5. This translates to a reduced Health track, but it also
that come from rich cultures likely have traits that are
lowers the species factor in terms of determining Speed
virtually analogous to Virtue and Vice. A good metric is:
(species factor of 3 instead of 5).
if your alien character has Cultural Qualities at primary or
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ALIEN IMPERFECTIONS
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INFINITE MACABRE-SPACE OPERA IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS