I don't mean the Ever-Lovin Blue-Eyed Thing of the Fantastic Four. I mean the Thing , also the Thing from another world, or the "Who" in "Who Goes There?" The shapeshifting alien baddie from the classic 80s John Carpenter film, that mimics anything it assimilates, assimilates everything it comes across, regenerates, shapeshifts, splits itself into multiple pieces if need be, can assume giant nasty combat forms if pressed, and is generally unpleasant.

I've used it in a game before, and I kind of want to follow up on the idea, but that was back in OCR/RCR, so I really have no idea what to do with it in FFG terms.

Key points:

It's difficult to hurt. Each individual cell is basically its own living organism, so Things don't have vital organs that can be damaged to shutdown. The only reliable way to kill it is to burn it sufficiently that all the cells die (acids and other things that would destroy large amounts of cells easily would probably also do the trick).

Related to the above, it's what TvTropes calls an "Asteroids Monster." Cut it in half, you have two smaller ones, each wholly independent and capable of ruining your day.

It assimilates other beings, infecting them like a virus, consuming or transforming their cells into its own (the PCs and significant NPCs for the adventure aren't going to get infected. . . but they don't know that, evil laugh).

As a result, it can split parts of itself off from the whole, to try and escape and spread or attack from multiple vectors, or can merge multiples of itself into larger colonies to create large and powerful monsters for the party to fight.

So. . . any ideas on how to approach this?

Sure... Give it a special talent. Something like, when reduced to zero wounds make an average resilience check. If successful recover half wounds and the creature splits in two. If failed still recover wounds but are staggered for a turn. *cannot recover wounds inflicted by radiation, fire or corrosive chemicals.

5 hours ago, TheShard said:

Sure... Give it a special talent. Something like, when reduced to zero wounds make an average resilience check. If successful recover half wounds and the creature splits in two. If failed still recover wounds but are staggered for a turn. *cannot recover wounds inflicted by radiation, fire or corrosive chemicals.

I think that means blasters firing host plasma are the order of the day... gimme a some serious bad *** armor with vacuum seals and the amphibious mod for 5+hours of air so it can't touch my skin and a sidewinder heavy repeating blaster hooked up to a trusty gunk droid side kick and I'd mow the thing down.

Except, even powerful blaster weapons destroy pretty small overall areas. Just looking at the film, the pretty much leave tiny little scorch marks and shallow craters.

Hmm. I'm almost thinking the Thing just doesn't take more than one Wound except from certain sources. Actual fire, of course, and the last time I did this I gave the group a Tenloss disruptor rifle (one that specifically had a "disintegrate" setting) so they had at least one tool they could actually use effectively against it.

Is the Gen'Dai statted anywhere?

They'd be pretty close to the Thing when it comes to in-game mechanics.

Hmmm...I've been trying to figure something out for this year's Halloween game(s). This might fit the bill for one of them (Or, maybe both. One campaign is 250 years after the other. I've never explicitly said they're in the same continuity, but have sort of assumed it. Run the one set earlier, with an ambiguous ending, then have the second group encounter the same creature.)

Watching this thread and also getting my brain engaging to see what ideas I can come up with.

What I did the first time around was call it a Yuuzhan Vong bioweapon, designed to inflitrate, infect, and weaken a population before the Vong proper came in to conquer, and the players fought it off on an ice planet (befitting the Antarctic setting of the film).

This time, the idea is that (1,000 years after the Vong Wars) some nice Vong shapers are trying to reclaim Honoghr (the Noghri homeworld) after it's devastation in the Clone Wars and perpetuated by the Empire. But this thing got loose (no one knows how) and has consumed a lot of the biomass the Shapers were using try and reclaim the planet, so there's shapeshifting monsters (and things that might be shapeshifting monsters, but you won't know until its too late) all over the place. Kinda like Simon R Green's Hellworld , if anyone but me has read that.

16 hours ago, ErikModi said:

Except, even powerful blaster weapons destroy pretty small overall areas. Just looking at the film, the pretty much leave tiny little scorch marks and shallow craters.

Hmm. I'm almost thinking the Thing just doesn't take more than one Wound except from certain sources. Actual fire, of course, and the last time I did this I gave the group a Tenloss disruptor rifle (one that specifically had a "disintegrate" setting) so they had at least one tool they could actually use effectively against it.

Point of "industrial strength" autofire (the sidewinder has the rotating barrels specifically to keep it from overheating) and a gonk droid powering it is you can spray it for almost forever, basically hose it down and it melts under a rain of hot plasma, kind of like evil oz witches vs. a fire hose.

I'm thinking he's looking for something more interesting, than the Heavy hosing it down round-after-round-after-round. This is a creature you would avoid at all costs, flee from.. except that it is vitally important that the party accomplishes (*whatever*) first! Characters may be forced to fight at times, but it would be mostly strategic withdrawals while seeking their objectives.

When the mission is complete, nuke the ****** from orbit.

edit: the heavy hosing it down, while the rest of the team is doing their thing, would be legit!

Well, and the random shapeshifting, assuming whatever form is best for it at the moment. Splitting in multiple creatures then recombining into one massive one, all that stuff.

So, had a thought, see if anyone but me can follow this (edited for clarity):

Base Statistics: A Thing has no "default" or "natural" form, instead imitating another organism. Every Thing is thus based on the organism its imitating, copying that organism's statistics, including Characteristics, Wounds, Strain (if the base organism has no strain, such as by being a minion, the Thing gains a Strain Threshold equal to its Wounds) Silhouette, Skills, and Talents. It does not copy the organism's equipment (though may be able to pick up, wear, and operate equipment dropped by the being it assimilated), but will copy any natural weapons or attacks the base creature possessed. Wound Threshold for a Thing represents the amount of biomatter making it up, and is not altered once it mimics an organism (see Subdivision for an exception).

Shapeshifting: Once it has imitated an organism, a Thing may shapeshift to defend itself or make assimilating further prey easier. A Thing gains Pool equal to its Wound Threshold. Pool may be spent to increase Characteristics at a cost of 1 Pool per increase, and a Thing may likewise decrease a Characteristic to gain 1 Pool per point a Characteristic is lowered. Ranged and Melee Defense may be bought separately at 1 Pool each. Lastly, 1 Pool may be spent to gain access to a natural weapon (assuming the base creature doesn't have any, or to add more if it does). These weapons are conceptually limited by other creatures the Thing has assimilated (see Genetic Memory), but in actuality the only limit is the GM's imagination, so go nuts. Natural weapons start at a damage of 1+Brawn, but additional damage may be bought for 1 Pool each. A natural weapon may strike out to Short range for 2 Pool. Shapeshifting is generally an Incidental, though spending more than five Pool in a turn requires a Maneuver, spending more than seven requires an Action. If more than ten Pool is spent in a single turn, the Thing cannot do anything that turn except Shapeshift. Any spending of Pool alerts any observer to the Thing's true nature, with the changes almost always being grotesque in nature. A Thing may revert any changes and reclaim the Pool spent on them as an Action.

Genetic Memory: A Thing contains a record of all other creature it has assimilated, and passes this record on to any new Things it creates via assimilation or subdivision (see below). As such, everything Thing technically possesses all Skills, Talents, and so on of any creature assimilated before it was, and Things can share this information by sharing cells between them. This also means that Shapeshifting (see above) can utilize any forms or abilities of other creatures the Thing in question has knowledge of. In practice, GMs are encouraged to limit Things to only the capabilities of the base creature, plus upgrades purchased by Shapeshifting, though adding extra skills and talents to a suitably Nemesis Thing is certainly possible.

Damage: Things are extraordinarily resilient, since each individual cell is its own self-contained organism, able to restart infection all over again. Things have no vital organs, no central nervous system, no vulnerable points to attack to rapidly incapacitate or kill them. As a result, Things take only 1 Wound from any attack, with the exception of hazards that can efficiently destroy large amounts of individual cells very rapidly. Exactly what qualifies is up to GM discretion, but fire and acid are both good starts. Explosives can work for this purpose as well, since heat and pressure can kill individual cells over a large area, but the explosion also risks simply blasting the Thing into many smaller Things. A Thing is immune to Critical Injuries (though players can still spend Advantage equal to a weapon's Crit Rating to inflict them, see Subdivision). When a Thing exceeds its Strain Threshold, it cannot spend or reclaim Pool. When a Thing sustains Wounds greater than its Wound Threshold, it is functionally dead (though individual cells deep within the body may remain functional, and could potentially spread the infection again). If a Thing exceeds both is Wound and Strain Thresholds, all cells making it up are dead.

Subdivision: If a Thing suffers a Critical Injury, a part of its body is cut or blasted off (as appropriate to the type of attack). The Thing's Wounds and Pool are reduced by the amount of damage the attack would have done, and a new Thing is created at Engaged range with the original Thing, having the Wounds and Pool lost by the original Thing in the Critical Injury. Characteristics are divided between the two new Things as the GM sees fit. A Thing may Subdivide into two Things as an Action (deciding how many Wounds, Pool, and Characteristics to give up to the new Thing), and may Subdivide into three Things by spending an additional Maneuver (again, choosing how to divide Wounds/Pool/Characteristics between all three). A Thing may combine or recombine with an Engaged Thing as an Action, or two Engaged Things by spending an Action and a Maneuver. When Combining, the Wounds/Pool/Characteristics of all combined Things are added. If an explosive attack does not reduce a Thing to zero Wounds, the Thing is subdivided into a number of Things equal to the Wounds remaining after the explosive attack, each with 1 Wound, 1 Pool, and 1 in all Characteristics.

A bit exhaustive, but I think it's workable.

Edited for clarity. First draft was kind of a word vomit at work just to get the ideas out while they were fresh.

Darn, I was thinking we were getting stats for

That's easy. Five ranks in "Snapping Fingers" skill.

I can't see "weird and pissed off" anywhere in the above descriptions?