[Curseborne] Adversaries #2

Qualities and Dread Powers

Since our blog on Red Riding Hood – a very popular idea for a Curseborne adversary, it seems – we’ve had a lot of questions about how adversaries function in the game. Let’s keep our focus on Red Riding Hood for a moment and explore the powers that particular creature has available to them. 

Special Note: With the information in this blog, the prior blog, and the Curseborne Ashcan, you’ll be able to incorporate Red Riding Hood into a Curseborne game! Time to mix up the Champagne Room scenario in the Ashcan with a blood-(or skin)-thirsty Red Riding Hood scourging the city. Maybe your friend went missing not because of the enchanting nightclub, but because this horrible hunter was prowling around on the lookout for Accursed…

Qualities

Each adversary comes with a set of Qualities that makes them formidable opponents for the Accursed. These Qualities occasionally mimic the Accursed’s own abilities, but others are unique adversary effects. Qualities are passive abilities that do not require activation.

Adversaries do not require special Qualities to enable movement. Instead, they can move on foot, burrow through the earth, swim, or fly as the Storyguide sees fit.

As examples, Red Riding Hood had the Qualities of Feral, Noxious Blood (Moderate), Regeneration (New Moon), so let’s see what they do:

Feral

Whether ferocious or docile, the adversary’s mind is alien to the characters’ thought processes. Influence actions against it incur a Major Complication, where failure to buy it off indicates the creature reacts badly, misinterprets orders, or flees without paying attention to what it might step on.

Noxious Blood

Acid, mercury, or another hazardous substance runs through the adversary’s veins. When picking this Quality, select a Complication rating. Whenever characters strike the adversary in close combat, they must buy off the Complication to not take 1 injury.

Regeneration

The adversary regains 1 injury each turn, up to its maximum. The adversary still dies if reduced to injuries 0 unless otherwise specified. When picking this Quality, select one or more sources of injury or times/environments where the Quality doesn’t apply. Any time the adversary suffers damage from that source or within that time or space, they don’t recover any injuries in their next turn.

Nightmares regain 2 injuries each turn. At Storyguide’s discretion, Terror, Shattered Space, and Nightmare adversaries regain injuries even when reduced to 0, unless they’ve taken damage in accordance with their weakness since their last turn.

Dread Powers

Where Qualities represent innate features requiring no conscious effort to manifest, Dread Powers are terrible effects the adversary chooses to activate. Some require the wielder to have a specific template rating or higher (Shiver/Fright/Terror/Nightmare/Shattered Space) before they can be used.

While some Dread Powers are simple actions triggered just as player actions are, others are reactionary responses. For example, some adversaries may have special self-destructive Dread Powers that only activate when they’re reduced to 1 injuries. A creature may respond to social manipulation with a hypnotic assault but would not do the same against a physical strike.

These reactions are represented as Complications on an action against the adversary. If the character fails to buy off the Complication, then the adversary’s attack or action hits. If they do buy off the Complication, they successfully divert or defend against the action. Either way, that instant of the Dread Power is used up. Adversaries may have multiple instances of a Dread Power available for use each scene . Once they’ve used this Dread Power the stated number of times, they cannot activate it again in the same scene. At the start of the next scene, these figures are replenished unless a power blocks this recovery from taking place.

Complications on Shiver and Fright Dread Powers are Minor, Terror and Shattered Space Dread Powers are Moderate, and Nightmare Dread Powers are Major.

Many Dread Powers impose status effects and area effects that can be bought off in the ways described under each effect. They also end if the adversary leaves the scene (voluntarily or not) or the scene concludes.

Dread powers are broken down in the following way:

Prerequisite: This indicates if the Dread Power requires a certain adversary template to use. If any template can use this power, this line will be missing.

Injuries: Some Dread Powers require an adversary to be at certain injuries levels to activate. Full requires the adversary to have taken no damage. Half (round down if they have an odd number of injuries) requires their injuries to be at half its value or lower. The last is 1 remaining, which means the adversary must be down to their last injury.

Type: This indicates if the Dread Power is a reaction or an action the adversary takes. For example, a specific attack will be denoted as Simple Action, while a reaction to a melee attack will be denoted as Complication (Melee). The severity of the Complication is determined by the adversary template (Shiver and Fright: Minor, Terror and Shattered Space: Moderate, Nightmare: Major).

Red Riding Hood had the Dread Powers of Cannibalize ×1, Devastating Blow ×2, Elemental Teleportation (Woodlands) ×1, Shapeshift ×1, so let’s get into them:

Cannibalize

Prerequisite: Fright, Terror, Nightmare, Shattered Space

Type: Simple Action

The adversary can absorb and project an Accursed’s power back at them. If it successfully inflicts 1 damage in close combat, the adversary gains access to any one (Storyguide’s choice) of the character’s powers and denies the character access to their power until it’s used, the adversary is dead, or the scene ends. If this power has a dice pool requirement for use, the adversary uses their primary pool to activate it. The adversary never has to make an expenditure, such as in the case where powers require curse dice. The absorbed power can be used once within the scene and must be absorbed again for a subsequent use. For each new use of this Dread Power, the adversary can steal a different power.

Devastating Blow

Prerequisite: Terror, Nightmare, Shattered Space

Type: Complication (Melee)

The adversary hits a character so hard that she immediately gains the Taken Out status effect. As examples of this power, a giant bat may swoop down and kidnap a character, while a Sorcerer might magically pull a house down on top of another.

Elemental Teleportation

Prerequisite: Fright, Terror, Nightmare

Type: Move Action

When picking this power, select a natural element the adversary relates to, like fire or ice. The adversary may teleport from an instance of this element in close range to one within long range of it. If that element is covering the area, such as a frosty cave or a lightning storm, the adversary can move instantly to whatever range band they wish.

Shapeshift

Type: Simple Action

The adversary changes their body to resemble another creature or individual. The transformation results are perfect and undetectable, although characters who have reason to doubt can expose the truth with an Empathy action against the adversary’s Integrity. While the adversary maintains their dice pools, Qualities, and Dread Powers when transformed, the Storyguide can grant it additional Qualities to reflect its shape.

Adversaries with this Dread Power can only transform into creatures of equal or smaller size. Returning to the adversary’s original shape is a reflexive action and does not take up a Dread Power use. While Shapeshift allows one to turn both into animals and people, some adversaries are limited to a category.