Saturday, June 28, 2014

Projectors, a Player Race for Synthexia


Projectors

A female projector is called a projectrix.  Their heads are black prisms.  They cannot speak, but they can communicate by playing back video recordings and audio clips, picked up from echoes of ancient Earthling video waves.  Each projector tends to develop a preference for a particular type of media.  One might communicate mostly through songs by the Cramps; another might prefer late-night infomercials.  Either way, it can be a disturbing thing to hear when they're disemboweling you with a laser-axe.

The most famous projector in Synthexia is Prismax the Unblinking, a powerful wizard who lives in an artificial mountain made of mirrors.  Since he is, technically, one of those "evil wizards" everyone keeps talking about, he's a pretty polarizing figure in projector society.

Projectors are born when gravity-quakes occur within the Infinite Mountain.  As everyone knows, gravity-quakes cause huge chunks of the Infinite Mountain to calve off and break apart, sometimes revealing newborn projectors.  And then the Infinite Mountain grows, bursting at the seams to thrust more black crystals into the air, now taller than it was before.  That's why they call it infinite mountain.

Some projectors live near the Infinite Mountain.  They are called "uncut" by their more urbane peers, and regarded as country bumpkins.  They are genderless.

Some projectors go to the cities, where they invariably seek out a sculptor to carve their body into an aesthetically pleasing likeless.  Some want to be seen as males, and so will pay to be carved into hypermasculine herculoids.  Others wish to be seen as female, and so will chisel themselves into hourglass figures.  Because of this, they hold sculptors in high regard, and some sculptors make a living by carving uncut projectors and projectrices.

Getting oneself carved is quite expensive, and many projectors adventure to raise money for this exact purpose.

  • +1 Con, -1 Wisdom
  • Cannot speak.  However, the player can bring a laptop to the session and communicate via (publicly available) audio and video recordings.  
  • Can redirect light.  Lasers cannot damage you as long as you choose to redirect them in a different direction.  If you are hit by light-based magic (e.g. prismatic spray), you can immediately counter it and redirect it.  Spells cannot be redirected more than 2x in this way.
  • You can shed light as bright as a torch.  However, the light shed is blacklight (borderline ultraviolet).  You can activate and suppress this ability with a thought.  Wikipedia.
  • The first time you die, you shatter into a smaller projector.  In effect, you are being instantly returned to life at half HP, and with the additional quality of being Small (i.e. halfling-sized).  Small characters must used weapons and armor that are sized for them (or suffer a -2 penalty) but can can fight in cramped areas unhindered.  
  • The second time you die, you shatter forever into 1d20 shards.  Each shard will forever project an image from a scene of your life if a light is shined through it.  Resurrection is impossible.
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Anyway, here's a bunch of art from Zhichao Cai.














1 comment:

  1. "Cannot speak. However, the player can bring a laptop to the session and communicate via (publicly available) audio and video recordings."

    That is beautiful!

    ReplyDelete