[Torg] Torg Dr Who: regeneration skill

[Saxon Brenton]

Hi.  I've been noogling around producing some stuff for my Young Timelords campaign, and wrote up this version of the Regeneration skill over the past few hours during evening shift.  I'll need to check with my rulebooks at home for Difficulty Numbers, and on the mechanics for how characters who are on the verge of regenerating can hold it off (IIRC, I think it's an application of the Macro skill).

Anyway, see what you think of this:


Regeneration (Mind)
     Use: Can be used unskilled.  Can be used as a Macro skill.
     The process of regeneration happens more-or-less automatically whenever a Time Lord begins to die either due to critical injuries or old age.  The body recreates itself by reshuffling its cells into a healthy configuration - effectively creating a new person whose physical appearance and personality is an anagram of the old one.  Normally the outcome of this process is random within the limitations of gender and, to an extent, ethnicity.
     The skill of Regeneration allows some measure of control over this process.  By making a successful roll the Time Lord can by force of will influence what sort of appearance and/or personality his or her new incarnation will take.  Consult the success chart below to determine how well and how many traits the Time Lord can influence - keeping in mind that, like sculpting or painting a likeness, not all characters will necessarily have the ability to fully shape the appearance they have envisioned.
     Additionally, a successful skill roll will allow a Time Lord to initiate a regeneration even if their body is not otherwise on the point of death.  For example, in 'The Twin Dilemma' Azmael, who is in his final incarnation,  deliberately initiated a regeneration in order to kill both himself and the slug-like Mestor who was possessing him.
     The converse is also true, such that a Time Lord suffering from prolonged degenerative condition which will imminently but not immediately cause death, such as slow chemical or radiation poisoning, disease, or old age, can delay the regeneration process - something the tenth Doctor did 'The End Of Time', and which the first Doctor failed to maintain in 'The Tenth Planet'.  Moreover, a dying Time Lord can make the attempt to deliberately not regenerate, thereby forcing themselves to permanently die, as the Master did in 'Last Of The Time Lords'.
     Finally, there is the option for a Time Lord to create a projection of their next incarnation.  This is a (probably psychic) construct that nevertheless exists physically as an independent, free-willed individual until the time for the Time Lord's regeneration, at which point the dying incarnation will merge with/assume control of the projection, bringing the next incarnation into physical and temporal actuality.  In addition to initiating a projection with a successful skill roll, the Time Lord may also shape the projection's appearance and personality in the same way as when they are actually regenerating.  Projections may be relatively unformed (as the Watcher was in 'Logopolis', probably because he was created hastily in the fourth Doctor's moment of crisis just before death and then projected back in time) or may be entities who are indistinguishable from other people (such as the Abbot K'Anpo Rinpoche's projection Cho-Je in 'Planet Of The Spiders', who was probably created at leisure well in advance of the Abbot's regeneration).

Level of Success:
 * Minimal: Can influence a small number (about 2-3 each) of broadly described physical and personality traits.  Eg, 'tall', 'stocky build', 'dark hair', 'gregarious', 'secretive', 'cowardly'.
 * Average: Can influence a average number (4-6 each) of moderately described physical and personality traits.  Eg, 'cauliflower ears', 'roman nose', 'pale, freckled skin', 'angered by abuse of power', 'fond of cats', 'prefers wooden furniture over plastic'.  The likeness is near enough to what was envisioned that it could pass as a close relative.
 * Good: Can influence a large number (7+ each) of well described physical and personality traits.  The likeness is so very close to what was envisioned that it could pass as an identical twin.
 * Superior: All details are as desired, up to any limits that the character would normally have to create or reproduce a likeness.
 * Spectacular: All details are exactly as desired.  Even limitations the character would normally have in creating/reproducing a likeness do not keep this instance from producing something as the character imagined them.

---
Saxon Brenton
tV trOpes wiKi  *HUnGeRS*  and wAnts to EaT all yoUr frEe time


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