DeathBySurfeit/Warpball

Warpball

I had an idea for an artifact, and it turned into an idea for an alternate setting.

The Warpball

“If you can dodge a goremaul, you can dodge a warpball!” - Scorchmaster Iron Patch
“What?” - Heaven's Rain
*thunk*

When the first warpball was rediscovered in the Second Age, the intrepid scavenger lord assumed that he had stumbled across a siege weapon of horrific power: an orichalchum-plated globe four feet in diameter, studded with glowing inlays, intricate iconic carvings and indented nodules. He wasn't expecting it to be a piece of sports equipment.

But a warpball is not used for just any sport! This mighty artifact is the focus of none other than the SUPER CREATIONWIDE ORICHALCHUM CHAMPIONSHIP (SCORCH), the epic First Age tournament that pitted Exalts and magical beings from across Creation and beyond in a spectacular season-long orgy of athleticism, publicity-mongering, violence and montages!

These unparalleled events of (occasionally un-) sporting entertainment took place in tailor-rigged venues, found wherever the Exalts could reach. Audiences revelled (and occasionally died in transit) when a match was hosted atop the Imperial Mountain, deep in Malfeas, at the bottom of the Western ocean or (on one memorable occasion) in Elsewhere. Constructed for maximum dynamism, risk of sudden death and potential for native intervention, Warpball arenas are seldom recognised today as more than just meaningless collections of glyphed ruins, but back in the First Age, those glyphs really meant something. They were advertisements.

The warpball itself would be custom-made for its bearer, trying to evoke the artificially inflated personality of its owner – for warpball was as much about the players as the sport, as rivalries and romances were played out in all-caps before the crowd. Anyone good enough to become a professional warpballer could look forward to untold fame, thousand of rabid fans and an ever-present possibility of having to retire due to being dead.

The artifact is built around an earth-tether manipulation engine, a potent piece of magical machinery capable of generating, ignoring and distorting a gravitic field at its bearer's behest. It can be thrown, punched or batted with a daiklave farther than any mundane projectile, and would return at a mental twinge from its bearer. Clever throws will let them orbit, slingshot around objects or bounce off scenery with equal ease. At heart, however, it is indeed a weapon, for warpball matches would continue until only one side remained conscious; to this end, inertial transfer nodes studded on its exterior allow it to strike with tremendous force.

||Weapon||Speed||Accuracy||Damage||Defence||Rate||Range||Minimums||Cost||Tags|| ||Warpball||5||+2 ||+15B/5||+2||1||100||Str ••, Dex ••||•••••||O,P||

Flexibility: The wielder of a warpball may attack using Melee, Thrown or Martial Arts, as they please.

Recall: The bearer may reflexively call the warpball back to him; it bounces frantically off available surfaces until it can make a beeline back to him. Unless something definatively blocks its way, the warpball will return in one tick.

Intercept: With an appropriately described stunt, the bearer of a warpball may intercept any material attack in sight with a ranged parry. Apply the bearer's Parry DV instead of the target's, if it is higher. This may be used only once between each action, barring use of an appropriate Charm.

Inertial blast: Double the damage of the warpball for the purposes of determining knockback and knockdown, and increase the difficulty of resisting knockdown by 2. If the subject of a warpball's strike suffers knockdown, the bearer may elect to stick it to the warpball itself! They remain there at -2DV until they perform a miscellaneous action (Speed 5, -1DV) to make a Strength + Athletics check (difficulty equal to the wielder's Essence) to free themselves.

Concussion: Due to the essence distortion nodes set along its edge, any foe hit by a warpball will be paralysed when they take bashing damage sufficient to knock them out, even if they have some means to otherwise remain conscious.

Synergy: As the gravitic field can be used for all kinds of strange and wonderful effects, an appropriate stunt will allow the warpball's bearer to add his Essence to any athletics roll.

Magical material bonuses: Rather than follow the normal rules for magical material bonuses, warpballs benefit from their construction as detailed in the table below. In addition, all of them have a unique minor power tailored to their desired wielder; this should not be more powerful than a two-dot hearthstone or one-dot artifact.

||Material||Bonus|| ||Orichalchum||Orichalchum warpballs bear no unusual apparatus, but are the lightest and most punishing of their kind. Deduct one from their Speed, and add one to their accuracy, damage and defence.|| ||Moonsilver||Moonsilver warpballs have extremely intricate gravitic controls, allowing a tremendous degree of finesse. Their attacks ignore cover bonuses, and the bearer may throw themselves along with the ball.|| ||Starmetal||Starmetal warpballs have destiny prognosticators, being designed to always be in the right place at the right time – their Rate is increased by two due to their potential to rebound, and they receive an extra free ranged parry.|| ||Jade|| Jade warpballs are manipable by the Exalt's allies, allowing them to build up devastating rebound smashes. The bearer designates an ally and makes an attack roll as usual, noting successes – this is a 'pass' to them. The ball may be rebounded on in turn as often as desired, until one ally decides to 'smash'; they make an attack roll as normal, and add the successes from all previous passes.|| ||Soulsteel||Soulsteel warpballs are built with contacts designed to disrupt attunement; every time they successfully parry a magical weapon, that weapon's wielder must spend motes equal to the Exalt's Essence or the weapon is instantly deattuned.||

Comments

See what you think - if there's demand for it, I'll write up full rules for warpball matches, some arenas, sample teams, etc etc. Clue: think wrestling crossed with dodgeball crossed with the superbowl...DeathBySurfeit