CANNIBAL CRUSADE. is a setting made using the ideas found in my I Am The Weapon Pitch: KAMEN ENEMY. Check out the IATW Core Rules.
CURSE: Reliance on sapient brains. Enemies must consume at least 1 sapient brain a week. If this is done to an innocent human or Enemy, the consumer loses all current XP. There are no innocent Wishers.
THEME: Enemies are a physiological response and/or adaptation to the setting's Antagonist group: The Wishers.
AESTHETIC: Enemies are the marriage between id and ego; flesh and spirit brought together in grotesque fashion. The Enemies refer to their monstrous super-form as their Nature and their human form as their Nurture. When transformed, they appear to be a manifestation of the Enemy's addiction, interest, phobia (whatever is the strongest/most important to the person's identity.)
A pyromaniac punk’s skin turns to ash and they pop and crackle like a walking firework with a constant aurora-vibed mohawk-shaped smoke cloud looming overhead, an arachnophobe cheerleader turns into a gross arachnid-woman with several crooked leg-like spikes sticking out her back - all topped with adhesive pseudopod flesh pom-poms.
GIMMICK: Enemies can obtain a "Revealer;" a sheet of milky liquid crystal that, when placed on wrapped on an Enemy's body part, partially reveals that Enemy's monstrous form. There exist methods of developing "Hard-Revealers," gloves tailor-made to reflect and be worn on the Enemy's right hand. This can be used to tear an Enemy's skin off and trigger a full, temporary, transformation.
ANTAGONISTS: The Wishers were ordinary people given the ability for a single wish to come true and, regardless if there were once good people among them, their moment of absolute power corrupted them completely. Their power now ranges from benign and silly to overwhelming and world-defining based on their insight in the moment of wishing. A pervert who wished for an army of women to worship them may just well have that and be able to spawn them forever up to a certain number; they would be relatively insignificant compared to the person who wished to be on top of the world and puppeteers all of China at a political and geographic level from inside their secret North Pole base. It's a monkey's paw in the favor of the Wishers to the detriment of the rest of the world.
The Wishers own the world and know that the Enemies exist to undermine them. They have enacted the global Common Enemy act and have unified all human organizations, government and private, to hold frequent Revealing Sessions on their citizens, customers, and employees. There is mass hysteria in the streets and simply accusing someone else of being an Enemy or consorting with them is enough for one to be taken away or killed on the spot. The Wishers can always make more people.
RIGHT-HANDS: CANNIBAL CRUSADE.'s form of Sidekick. Right-Hands are people who have seen the horrors of the Wishers and have been convinced that the quest of the Enemies is the noble course of action. They live to help feed their bound Enemy and benefit from a few powers. The process of becoming a Right-Hand involves both the Enemy and the prospective Right-Hand severing their right arm up to the elbow and the Enemy eating the Right-Hand's severed sacrifice. The Enemy's severed limb then dissolves in a pit of black goo but quickly grows back, now capable of transforming into a Hard-Revealer at-will. The Right-Hand's sacrifice does not grow back but is replaced by an ethereal version of their Enemy's Hard-Revealer. Despite its appearance, it is solid and acts as a normal hand. It's also an eyesore and marks you as a filthy Enemy-sympathizer. Be discreet.
Right-Hands are available as a playable character option and can be chosen as a Contact but they will not be actively assisting you in battle. Instead they are your caretakers, drivers, medics, researchers, scouts, etc, when between Wisher Hunts.
ADVANCEMENT: XP can only be earned by the killing & eating of Wishers. It cannot be spent on the purchase of new powers, only improving existing attributes, skills, and powers. Instead, an Enemy must consume the corpse of a rival Enemy whole in order to Assimilate their power-set. Doing so also makes the Enemy multiplicatively more voracious. If an Enemy owns 2 Power-Sets, they must consume 4 sapient brains every week. 3=9; 4=16; etc. If an Enemy Assimilates a power they already own, then its Power Level is now equal to the higher of the two + 1. If the Assimilated Enemy possessed multiple Power-Sets, it only counts as 1 when Assimilated into the Assimilating Enemy. You may starve yourself. Lose a level in Calm for every day that passes after the 7th without getting your fill. At 0 permanent calm, you have lost your mind to your hunger and the Enemy becomes Feral. Make a new character.
REVEALERS: While they are often grown from the bonding of Enemy & Right-Hand, there exist rumors of Hard-Revealers being artificially manufactured in Wisher Revealer-Tech labs. There is always a slight addition to all Hard-Revealers that isn't present on the typical Enemy's inherent Nature: tiny retractable hollow hooks at the tips of the fingers. One may hook into the flesh of an Enemy and pump milky Revealer Fluid just slightly beneath the skin. This permeates the entire body, making the Enemy's Nurture appear to be a giant walking blister ready to pop. The hooker then tears away this veritable skin-suit, Revealing the whole of the Enemy's Nature for a number of minutes equal to the Revealed Enemy's Calm. Enemies recharge their Natural Revealer Fluid once a day but can force-recharge it by consuming a sapient brain or drinking a canister normally utilized by artificial Hard-Revealers. Eating a standard Revealer sheet will do nothing to recharge this fluid. A standard Revealer sheet reveals a body part for 1 minute before becoming inert.
CHARGEN:
ENEMY.
As I Am The Weapon but:
All Enemies have the Secondary Form AND Armor - Husk (Secondary, Roll for Level.) If you randomly get either Powers during character creation, you can choose to reroll the result. If you take Husk a second time, it always upgrades to Primary. Describe the appearance of your Nature and what part of your body needs to be Revealed in order to use a Power at its full strength for every Power. When not Revealed, that Power operates at its minimum Power Level as written. If you rolled its minimum Power Level, increase it by 1 for its Revealed level. Your entire body must be Revealed in order to benefit from your Armor - Husk. Without a Hard-Revealer, it is impossible to undergo a full transformation.
RIGHT-HAND.
You are bound to an Enemy. You always know approximately where they are and are them for the sake of super or magical senses tracking or learning about you. Feral Enemies may not want to slurp your shit if you smell like a badass.
Who is your Enemy?
Another PC? Alright. Pick one of their powers and roll for level. If you rolled higher than your Enemy's Power Level, they raise their level to meet yours.
An NPC? Why are they not with you? Have the Wishers captured them and you're trying to get them back? Either roll on the First Round Starting table for your Enemy-given Power or build your NPC Enemy with the Host and choose a Power from their list.
When/if your Enemy Assimilates a new power set, pick 1 of your Enemy's newly obtained Powers to add to your list & roll for its level.
Have you failed and let them die? You are a Black-Hand and do not have Enemy-given Powers anymore. Black-Hands are effectively ghosts; their ethereal right hand having grown a spider-web of black veins to signify their failure, they cannot be tracked by mortal or super means and cannot not age but have inherited their Enemy's brain consumption (whatever the Enemy's Rate was upon death.) Failing to do so means death.
Both Right and Black-Hands have the Telekinesis power. In their case, they force their ethereal hand from their body and use it to do Telekinesis things.
.png)
HUMAN.
Sure, play a normie. Have 2 boosts. You can spend 1 or both of these on Gimmicks instead. You always suffer a lost throw when resisting the powers of the Wishers. Good luck.
