New Mid-Round Antagonist - Slasher

[D&B]

And now... the darkness holds dominion – black as death.

A mid round antagonist intended to spice and move things on in a round, a Slasher main motif would be to spread chaos, destruction and death on the station.

As soon as a Slasher spawns, all lights in the station blow up as the normal short circuitry NT message appears. They would spawn in maintenance or a random chosen room that has no personnel around it. As the darkness that heralds their arrival spreads, the Slasher begins his dark walk, hunting for their next victim.

They would have shadow walk (the one genetic mutation that makes you invisible in darkness) and thermal vision, plus hulk. Their weapon of choice would be permanently grafted to one of their hand, and they cannot be affected by poison or ointment alike. The light affects them, slowing them down immensely and dealing high burn damage to them, while the darkness and consuming the bodies of their carnage would heal them and empower them.

Their modified weapons would be chosen at creation, and they deal high brute damage and high dismember chance:

-Scythe and a black hood
-Chainsaw arm and a pig mask
-A bloodied meat hook, and a disfigured face
-A changeling arm and a bloodied swat helmet.
-A machete and a hockey mask
-A fire axe and a nice dark suit.
-A spear and an alien mask

The more they kill, the more powerful they become. They can absorb bodies just like a changeling absorbs DNA, and with this they can buy more abilities that help them in their hunt.

-1 kill will buy them a heightened sense of vision, allowing them to sense the blood of their victims as it is pumped by their hearts (xray vision.)
-3 Kills will allow them to scream their pain into their victims (changeling scream)
-5 Kills will allow them move across their carnage more easily (bloodcrawl)
-7 Kills will allow them to cause victims in the vicinity to suffer from horrible nightmares (hallucinations in an AOE)
-10 Kills will send the Slasher into a frenzy (Attack delay greatly decreased.)

If a Slasher passes too much time without killing, they explode in a shower of gore and acid, greatly injuring and destroying the ambient in which they decide to rest.

[Armhulen]

Give them a pinpointer to other players

[Super Aggro Crag]

Wherehaps yon welder?

[Dagdammit]

-What if it was thermals instead of x-ray vision?
-Alternately, what if they had darksight but couldn't see well in areas that were BRIGHT? So fully lit tiles appear as pure whiteness to them?
-What if they could a growing field of shadow, that basically reduced the effective amount of lighting the tiles around them have?
-It'd be good to have SOME kind of ongoing emp or anti-light capability, even if it's just a random uncontrolled emp burst/revenant decay effect (maybe when they level up?)

This definitely gives me alot of ideas. White Wolf's old Slasher RPG supplement had alot of interesting mechanics, I pored over that for a while.

-I would have slasher progression reward damage inflicted rather than just death. Hell, even just benefiting from damage inflicted to nearby players regardless of whether they directly caused it. A slasher feeds on pain and blood. I'd even say give slasher some desirable perk (steady, gradual healing? Small speed boost?) so long as someone within 15 tiles is either bleeding or in crit. Something to incentivize throwing a live victim on a meatspike and leaving them to squirm.

-I would definitey give slashers slower movement speed than a healthy target, like golem tier or lower. Make a critical consideration be trying to prevent your target from escaping:
--Corner them through stealth, and/or deliberately chasing them in directions you've already turned into dead ends.
--Maybe give them the ability to make bolas, bear traps.
--A cooldown-using special attack that makes them bleeds and slows them?
--Banana peels. (The most potent weapon of a the clown slasher, who also always wears clown shoes)
--Some kind of fear mechanic that dizzies targets, kinda like being hit by watcher eye beams. So you struggle to move away from the slasher while they slowly come at you.

[D&B]

-I would suppose damage or stuff like that would be harder to track. The whole point of a Slasher spawning is that they're meant to be triggered under circumstances that move the round forward (everyone has a 3 tier virus and antags aren't doing anything/lings recall hell/etc.) Since their mechanics are based around death, it would make sense the crew either unite against it, or call the shuttle and try their hardest to survive.

-Slowdown would be a great addition actually, since their weapons do high brute damage. The high dismember chance and bleed procs would certainly give each landed hit that OH SHIT factor on onlookers and other survivors. For example, if a Slasher chose the meat hook, they would be REALLY slow, but god help you if the hook hits.

-Yeah i mentioned thermal vision as a starting passive, but maybe changing it to an upgraded thermal vision would be better.

-I suppose an invisble Slasher based around traps would be something doable too. Something like hiding bear traps by making them look like mouse traps, or being able to prime stuff like explosive holoparasites to induce hemorrhages on the targets.

-The whole point of bleed and slow is that it's something caused as an effect of their high brute damage. I could agree with giving them a disorient scream like a changeling has, but giving them a ranged slow+bleed would push them into the broken state.

Overall rather than one set Slasher, there could be kits chosen at creation referencing real villains. Machete+Mask+Ability to teleport from maint to maint, Suit+FireAxe+Ability to transform into any random person from the station at will, ChainsawArm+PigMask+Bloodcrawl.

[Armhulen]

Could we have one with the bloated human suit and a cleaver? He can eat anything raw and heal from it, but cannot heal from the grab changeling thing

so like the butcher could cut off an arm and eat it

[D&B]

Could we have one with the bloated human suit and a cleaver? He can eat anything raw and heal from it, but cannot heal from the grab changeling thing

so like the butcher could cut off an arm and eat it

Of course, it reminds me of the usual cannibal family trope.

Even better if they scream in gibberish and can punch harder with tard strength (ala powerfist.)

[danno]

good ideas in here

[Armhulen]

this is a goodthread now, only goodposters can patricipate

[Armhulen]

posting this from the terrible ideas thread because it's related

Sounds like you'd want a list of Slashers with different strengths and weaknesses so it's harder to have a hard counter strategy to every Slasher. Like, one slasher might be damaged by the light, another might have an easily recognisable soul jar and yet another might only be harmed by specific types of weapons/damage. I tried to think of a few slashers.

All slashers in the following list have no-drop acid/fire/freon immune clothes and signature weapons, as well as night vision, unless stated otherwise.

Slashers
The Welder

Spoiler:

• Strengths
• Immune to all flashes and flashbangs
• Space Immune
• No lungs or need to breathe
• Recognisable as Human by AIs and cyborgs
• Chems are metabolised extremely quick (But is not immune to their effects)
• Immune to toxin damage
• If killed, may stand back up again with all injuries healed after 10 seconds
• Can resist out of restraints in a few seconds
• Can teleport, like the Wizard spell, but only while not being observed
• Disease and genetics immune
• Can use their weapon to force a door open after a few seconds

• Weaknesses
• Not immune to knockouts or stuns, being tasered or stunbatoned will make him stand still for a second + drop anything in his hand except his weapon (Disablers have no effect)
• No built-in regeneration abilities
• Has a bulky and obvious soul jar. If destroyed, The Welder drops dead and cannot revive. The Soul jar will slowdown its carrier, the Welder will be instantly alerted if it's picked up (it cannot be dragged) or damaged and can only be destroyed by lasers, fire, incineration or being tossed into a singularity
• Weapon comparatively weak to other slashers
• Cannot use guns
• Takes extra damage from fire
• Mute

The Shadowling

Spoiler:

• Strengths
• Weapon can be toggled between armblade and arm-tentacle a la Changeling
• Short-range Jaunt
• Variable Night+Thermal vision
• Quick-grabs
• Blinding Smoke spell
• Light-disabling spell on a quick cooldown
• EMP spell on a long cooldown
• Space immunity
• No lungs or need to breathe
• No blood
• Regenerates injuries quickly while in darkness
• Immune to tasers/disablers/stunbatons

• Weaknesses
• Weakness to light, will take brute and burn while standing in starlight or brighter
• Double damage from burn weapons
• Inability to understand Human language
• Extremely obviously non-Human to AIs and cyborgs
• Flashes will deal knock-down in addition to their usual effect. Same effect as flashing someone with thermals
• No revivification

Tunnel Clown

Spoiler:

• Strengths
• Immune to all forms of stuns and slips
• Has an unremovable indestructible ID with theatre and maintenance access
• Can summon "props" to an unoccupied hand, props include:- A squirt flower with larger capacity and strong acid instead of water, banana-themed caltrops that slip and embed when stepped on, throwable acid cream pies, a one-use airhorn that confuses, deafens and disorientates everyone in a 7-tile radius, barbed wire bolas that deal a small amount of brute per tick when trying to remove them, balloons that when used will pop and spread blood in a short range around where it is popped and a bikehorn that does the same as the airhorn except to only those it hits
• Recognisable as Human to AIs and cyborgs
• Outfit resembles a normal clowns but looks more bedraggled and has unremovable blood-stains.
• Has a passive, ongoing heal
• If killed, can re-appear somewhere randomly in the station's maintenance after a short amount of time
• Regenerates blood very quickly, metabolises chems just as quick
• Signature weapon is very weak, dealing ~15 damage, but ignores all armour
• Has a quick cooldown blink spell
• Can bloodcrawl
• Immune to projectile weapons
• Can slip out of restraints extremely easily
• Shoes are no-slip and don't have the slowdown normal clown shoes have
• Clown outfit has the same armour values as body armour

• Weaknesses
• Takes double damage from "security" weapons (I.E. Taser pistolwhipping, stunbatons and the HoS's laser gun)
• Needs to breathe and is harmed by the cold and low pressures
• Can be stunned (however the clown recovers very quickly)
• When speaking, random words will be replaced by "HONK"
• Is harmed by the Mime's Nothing reagent and will react as though it is acid if splashed. If injected, is treated as cyanide and mutetoxin
• Cannot revive if the body is destroyed before he is able to "respawn"

[Drynwyn]

this is a goodthread now, only goodposters can patricipate

so uh what are you doing here then

[Armhulen]

this is a goodthread now, only goodposters can patricipate

so uh what are you doing here then

STOP

[Luke Cox]

Sounds pretty damn good to me

[PKPenguin321]

So it's just a roided out shadowling that you've managed to make even edgier by making it required to constantly murderbone

3.5/10 might be fun once and can already be done with pretty basic admin editing

[Lumbermancer]

Traitors should be the only mid round antag. Debate me.

[PKPenguin321]

Traitors should be the only mid round antag. Debate me.

Morphs are funny

[TheColdTurtle]

Will Shia lebouf be a slasher?

[Armhulen]

what about abductors? they're interesting.

[Luke Cox]

They really are. I wouldn't mind an antag type where a bunch of secondary antags spawn

[Lumbermancer]

Ayys are round start antag.

[Armhulen]

that's where you're wrong kiddo

like really wrong they just start by random chance and were removed from the roundstart chances a long time ago

[bandit]

slasher with clown mask when

[D&B]

There's the Tunnel Clown Anonmare posted but just imagine

>You're minding your own business in medbay or whatever.
>All the lights in the station blow up
>You hear a faint squeaking noise, and distorted bike horn noises.
>One of the blood puddles in the floor starts bubbling
>A bloody cluwne jumps out, distorted laughter numbing your senses as sheer terror keeps you paralyzed.
>He throws a pie at you that starts dissolving your flesh.
>Stabs you once with a honk render, and drags you back into the pool of blood as the laughter demons sounds start playing.

But maybe we should make slashers conversion based around blood contracts so they depend on a whitelist and they become not used ever

[Armhulen]

>conversion based

[captain sawrge]

isn't this just welder

[Screemonster]

Make one of them a green-clad manlet and another some freaky fucker with pain-resistance and a shitload of hooks. Because space.

[D&B]

>conversion based

I was poking fun at conversion modes

[Armhulen]

the best conversion mode we had was coderemoved

[D&B]

I think monkey fever is still in though?

[oranges]

Wherehaps yon welder?

At least someone remembers

[Luke Cox]

I'm fine with primary antags being conversion-based, but never for secondaries.

[Armhulen]

I think monkey fever is still in though?

stop

monkeys can't even into hardsuits?

[Jacough]

Taking damage from light seems like it'd make them too easy to counter with flares or some stupid shit like that.

Also not sure if this is doable but what if instead of having x-ray and thermal they have the ability to see injured people and blood through walls and in the dark instead? Basically like they're picking up the scent of spilled blood

[D&B]

Could vary from slasher to slasher.

A predator based slasher with a spear and other goodies would be weaker to acids and resistant to light, for example. Having high light areas should be the crews way of having designated safe areas rather than a combat option, since slashers would be balanced around stealth kills or direct combat of groups.

[Dagdammit]

Taking damage from light seems like it'd make them too easy to counter with flares or some stupid shit like that.

Also not sure if this is doable but what if instead of having x-ray and thermal they have the ability to see injured people and blood through walls and in the dark instead? Basically like they're picking up the scent of spilled blood

I'd say have slashers take EYE damage when in bright light. Staying in the light too long and it blinds them for a while.

Seeing blood through walls is interesting- for a minute I was stumped as to why it'd matter, but one clear case would be someone (who wasn't otherwise visible) leaving footprints after stepping through a puddle of blood. If this something relatively easy for coders implement I'd say go for it.

Conditional thermal vision is a cool concept. I was thinking it might be tied to fear (more on that later), but having it be tied to damage could work (so long as it was specifically brute damage that mattered). It does seem a little annoying to have there be an added punishment for not seeking healing every time you're at slightly less than 100%. One alternative for the same concept: What if they could see anyone with bloodstains on their body or the clothing they wear? That way slashers can also see those who inflict violence, and pools of blood gain an interesting strategic value of sorts (anyone who steps in one becomes visible to you thereafter)

One interesting concept in white wolf's Slasher book is Grisly Scene, making displays out of your victims that function as fear traps for those who later find them. I like the idea that slashers build meatspikes and hang victims from them, with a small additional reward if the victim is still alive. And the idea of fear being a critical gameplay element slashers want to inspire is interesting. What if there were multiple ways to cause fear, and multiple tiers of cumulative effects?

Thing that give +1 fear:
-Being within 4 tiles of a slasher, if your fear was currently at 0.
-Slashers have a Menace ability on a 15-second cooldown, where they do some loud action (determined by their schtick: rev their chainsaw, give an inhuman shriek, slam their fists against the hull, honk their bike horn) that gives +1 fear and a text description of the sound to anyone in a 6-tile radius.
-Seeing a body on a Slasher Meatspike (each body can only affect you once)
-Being hit by any of a slasher's attacks.

Fear effects: (not sure how much Fear would be needed for each effect)
-Level 1: "Your heart begins to pound." (Characters with no heart get no text notification) The slasher is able to see a HUD element showing your level of fear (and also revealing your onscreen location). When your fear reaches 0, you get another text notification saying "Your heart's not pounding so badly anymore."
-Fear level 2: Mild disorientation, i.e occasionally moving in a random wrong direction.
-Fear level 3: "Your hands won't stop shaking!" ("Your can keep your hands steady again.") 10% chance to drop an item to the floor instead of equipping it. You also stammer when you speak.
-Fear level 4: Severe disorientation, every other movent is in a random direction.
-Fear level 5 (max): "You can't think straight!" ("You struggle to get a hold of yourself.") Every attempted attack has a 25% chance to say "you freeze up!" instead.

[Screemonster]

thermal-style vision that only shows the blood overlay would be interesting.

[Dagdammit]

thermal-style vision that only shows the blood overlay would be interesting.

If the blood overlay was on a person's sprite, it could show a silhouette (like with drone vision) and then the blood overlay on top of it.

[D&B]

Those fear effects seem nifty.