Nemesis Systems Do(n't) Matter

A weekly blog post?! Egad! Don’t look now but I may have actually beaten the rut. From my previous musings on adding modifications to the Underclock you may have seen my interest in the Stalker type enemy endemic to a lot of modern Survival Horror and how that type of foe seems like an obvious fit to way of handling random encounters. So I tried it and it felt a bit…crowded. I wanted lesser creatures that roamed between the buildings, environmental traps, and other dungeon delving horrors which took up quite a bit of space. Somehow I was also supposed to find a way to resurrect locality effects that I had missed from the overloaded encounter die. It was all just a bit much to also add in a chase sequence as an option on the list so I went back to the drawing board. I needed to separate the Nemesis (My big bad unstoppable beasty) from the Underclock without vastly increasing the cognitive load in running a complex hunter creature amidst all the other workings of my dungeon. Then I remembered the one Liminal Horror mechanic I hadn’t been able to properly deploy for my dungeon; The Doom Clock.

For those who don’t know the Doom Clock is a pacing tool found in pretty much every Liminal Horror module that helps to escalate tension as characters move through the investigation and the situation becomes more dire. Sometimes this amounts to making formerly safe locations dangerous or even NPC’s to become kidnapped by the antagonists. The Doom Clock keeps the story moving along so the players never truly feel safe. Now, the primary reason I felt as though it wouldn’t work for me is the linearity of it. Event A then Event B and so on until the final stage is essentially a game over or climactic final scene which I’m normally on board with. But, with my current project being a tad more open ended it felt like the Doom Clock would make my players want to take less time exploring and more time just pushing through which if nothing else would really harsh the vibes. I was fine with building towards a climax just not the fun to be over afterwards. The last step of the clock needed to reset the cycle rather than end it entirely. Enter the Nemesis Clock.

The Nemesis Clock

This idea truly spawned from the Shadowing in Under Ashen Skies. When enough cycles passed in the world it would essentially be invaded with a terrifying shadow that changed everything making survival extremely difficult. I wanted something similar but not as fiddly and I wanted to happen much more often bringing smaller changes first before going complete nightmare mode. The Nemesis Clock begins just like the Doom Clock events that transpire during play move events forward with time or inaction being the primary motivators.

The Nemesis Clock ticks when:

• The Underclock Die rolls above 10 in a single roll. (My Alert rule from Modding The Underclock.)
• Transitioning between floors or completing major objectives.
• Resting or exiting from the Safe Room.

The Nemesis Clock can tick up to five times with each time it ticks introducing an Omen drawn from a list. Here’s an example list for my monster the Strix who I’ll describe in more detail another time. Your Omens should be hints at what the monster is capable of or as much representations of it’s themes as the creature itself.

Omens of the Strix

When a given result is rolled again the effect escalates as shown in the S.

1. Drown. Pipes burst throughout the building drenching the halls in ankle deep water. Moving through becomes hazardous and slow.

   S. The drenched hallways become clogged with refuse and furniture impeding you even further. Running here is now impossible and Backtracking only allows you to clear one room without rolling the Underclock instead of three (Refer here for Backtracking rules).

2. Strobe. Every time you move between rooms the lighting changes causing dark rooms to become light and vice versa. Your flashlight, phone, and other electronics begin to malfunction as well requiring a Die of Fate to determine whether they work without complication.

   S. Lights constantly shift causing a migraine inducing strobe effect across your vision. Focusing on details or aiming attacks quickly becomes almost impossible. You are Blinded and your Saves are Deprived until you take an action to focus while exploring or in combat

3. Trapped. Entering a room has a 50% chance of causing the door to shut behind you and become stuck. Stuck doors must be forced or pried open.

   S. Elevators immediately move to a different floor upon your exit and hallways become stretched out and winding causing 1d4 Stress when you enter the same room more than once a cycle.

4. Wrath. One Monster in every encounter becomes their more powerful Nightmare variant.

   S. Twice the amount of foes appear in Random Encounters. If the Nemesis is rolled it appears entering your room from the closest entrance taking you by Surprise.

5. Silence. Darkness causes sounds to become low and drowned out while sounds coming from within the light are much louder.

   S. Monsters no longer make noise unless you are actively observing them.

6. The apartments become sallow and sinking from water damage. Swollen floorboards and leaking ceilings can cave in with enough force causing you or your foes to come crashing through or falling down to a lower floor.

   S. Silverfish and faucet flies swarm over items and echoes throughout each room that must be cleared before you can scavenge anything useful.

These Omens work at introducing the themes of the Nemesis and clues as to ultimately what it’s abilities will be. They map primarily to things like Dungeon Shifts from Knave or locality triggers from the Overloaded Encounter Die so if you want to trigger them another way by all means. How ever you get there once five have been triggered a Hunt begins and the Nemesis finally shows themselves.

The Hunt

When the final fifth tick occurs the Nemesis begins to actively pursue the characters and the hell of the nightmare it guards emerges with it. It will pursue the quickest path towards the characters using what ever abilities or tactics it has at its disposal. Additionally all rolled Omens are upgraded to their Nightmare forms and the Nemesis emerges 1d6 rooms away from the characters. To make matters worse for the duration of the Hunt each Safe Room on every floor becomes inaccessible until the hunt is resolved with the characters deaths, the Nemesis being subdued, or the Tension clock reaches its maximum.

Maximum? Don’t you mean 0? No. Unlike during normal gameplay the Tension clock will not be counting down but up from 0 during a Hunt. Instead of rooms explored or loud sounds triggering rolls you instead roll the Tension clock die when the characters take steps to actively escape, block, trap, or otherwise fight the Nemesis. Player character ingenuity in thwarting the Nemesis should be rewarded their efforts with an Enhanced die roll just like with any well chosen attack. A Nemesis will usually have some kind of exploitable weakness that can also be used which we’ll outline on their profiles later on.

The Hunt Subsides

At the conclusion of the Hunt the Nemesis recedes back into its lair and the Tension clock resets back into its normal function. In addition, the Nemesis clock resets as well rolling a fresh Omen to start the process over again. With Safe Rooms back and most of the Omens gone a quiet lull should return to normal play as the players lick their wounds and think about how to prepare for the next one. Unless of course they are making new characters and making fun of each other for dying.

With this system I hope to keep things tense and interesting when exploring a vast locale or when playing more intimate adventures revolving around something like a slasher villain. I could see you using a framework like this instead of a full on encounter table or with something like the voidcrawl for clues and the like. Before we wrap up completely here is a sample Nemesis and their Omens that you can use as a framework to make your own if you decide to use the system. Who else but THE Nemesis from Resident Evil.

The Nemesis

HP: 18 Armor: 5

STR 18 DEX 14 CNTRL 10

Unstoppable: Will toss burning vehicles, vault across rooftops, and break straight through brick walls just to gain on it’s target. Nowhere is safe.

Alpha Parasite: Other creatures do not notice Nemesis and those infected by the parasite will alert him to your presence.

Weakness: Acid burns away its regenerating flesh at an alarming rate leaving it vulnerable.

Haymaker: D6 Pushes target away. If knocked into an object the attack is Enhanced.

Tendril Whip: D6 Pulls target towards the Nemesis

Throttle: D6 Grabs a target restraining them in its grip while they choke.

Rocket Launcher. D8 Blast. Takes time for it to aim and must be reloaded between shots.

Critical: Parasite Injection. Launches a viscous tendril that injects a parasitic virus that will slowly kill a character without an antidote. Death means transformation into a monstrous thrall of the Nemesis.

Omens of the Nemesis

1. Desolation. Broken fire hydrants, gasoline fires and exposed electrical wires threaten side streets and alleyways making navigation dangerous.

   N. Large armored cars block shortcuts and flammable barrels are stacked in choke points.

2. Infested. One in every group of zombies is infected with the Nemesis Parasite gaining +1 Armor and the Tendril Whip attack.

   N. Two zombies in every group become infected and they now also gain the Throttle attack.

3. Lockdown. Security cameras lock in on your position while electronic doors lock or deploy shutters. Nothing gets in or out.

   N. Security cameras gain weapon turrets and alarms trigger when you breakdown doors alerting anyone nearby.

4. Hunted. You know it’s still out there and the thought is as omnipresent as the fear. Alerts now not only trigger the Nemesis clock but cause the Nemesis to emerge to attack the characters. It will not pursue beyond the immediate area and flees sooner if it takes critical damage.

   N. When it emerges downed enemies in the area are resurrected by the parasite.

5. Inferno. Buildings are slowly engulfed in flames causing Stress to characters who linger too long.

   N. As gas mains rupture streets and rooms affected by fire periodically explode after a shrill warning.

6. Exposed. Once per Cycle Nemesis aims and fires his Rocket Launcher from a distance at the characters.

   N. Nemesis’ rockets become incendiary setting anyone and anything in the blast radius on fire.

Do you have any creature you’d like to turn into a Nemesis? Do you think Omens would be better put elsewhere or are they unclear in the way I’ve presented them? Is this too much interaction for the end of a blog post? Please let me know here, discord, or in the true desolation that is Twitter. Thanks for reading.