I’m not a big fan of anime. I mean, I don’t have anything against it, I just don’t follow the genre as closely as some people. But now and then I watch one that I like. Sometimes, I find ones that I really like, such as Guyver.

My first contact was with Guyver (OVA) and I was immediately hooked! Eventually, I came up with a campaign that was heavily inspired on that anime (which is itself based on the manga, but I never read it). Basically, Guyver with the serial numbers filed off. I called it Biomorphs!

Pitch

Bonded with organic power armors, the heroes must fight against a corporation or ally with it in order to find out the secrets of their powers’ origin.

Premise

Thirty millennia ago, an exomother seeded Earth with thousands of biomorphic probes. Their mission was to bond with local lifeforms creating specially designed hybrids that would prepare the ecosystem for the return of the exomother.

These probes, however, were defective because the exomother produced them after receiving major wounds in a confrontation in another system. Instead of actively searching for hosts, the probes remained dormant, only becoming active if encountered and touched by macrofauna and flora.

That wasn’t the only malfunction. In order to carry their orders of ecosystem replacement, the probes needed to bond with non-intelligent species that they could control. However, their host selection program couldn’t distinguish between acceptable hosts anymore and so allowed bonding with intelligent species. In effect, they gave those hosts all their abilities with none of the limitations.

As time went by, there were occasional bondings that gave rise to legends of monsters and supernatural creatures, but no connection was made between these events. Until 1923, when Shigeo Yamazaki, a young Japanese businessman, bonded with a Leader-type biomorph.

From that day on, Yamazaki dedicated all his resources to acquire and understand as many biomorphs as he could. He used this knowledge to increase his power and his company became the almighty Tairo Corporation that is behind much of the technological advancements of the 20th century.

Despite his greed, Yamazaki knows the planet is in danger. The return of the exomother will be an apocalyptic event and he must find allies wherever he can. If they are not willing to follow his orders, he will make them…

Who are the PCs?

They are regular people who happen to be vacationing in Japan. They can be accountants, lawyers, bakers, whatever, but they must have a reason to be on an excursion to mount Fuji. Make your players avoid concepts like “Navy SEAL or black ops commando”. The idea is that they are average joes. The cool powers will come form the biomorph.

During the ascent up the mountain, there is an explosion off the route. It’s not a fiery explosion, more like something came up from the ground ejecting a lot of earth in the process. When the group goes to investigate, they will find a collection of volleyball-sized spores – one for each PC. These will latch on to each character, bonding with them. Then, everything will go dark for the PCs.

They will wake up at a Tairo Corporation ward, where a corporate lawyer will try to convince them that the company is caring for them after their accident at mount Fuji. If they ask to speak with their families, the lawyer will deny, saying they need to rest. It will become clear that they are more prisoners, than guests.

If they try to escape, the security will go easy on them at first, because Yamazaki doesn’t want to hurt his new Leader types, but if their escape becomes a certainty, he will unleash his biomorphs to contain them. Faced with monsters, the PCs will unconsciously activate their own biomorphs for the first time.

The biomorph bunch

There are several types of biomorphs. Each one has a specific function in the ecosystem replacement mission, like genetic reconfiguration or native species extermination. However, the PCs will mostly engage with those devoted to battle and protection roles, of which there are many.

The descriptions below are all of human-bonded biomorphs. Although I give their general look, I don’t go into specifics about their forms, because I think it would be more fun for you to decide what they look like in your campaign. Even their designations should be changed in your game, maybe substituting for more Japanese-sounding ones.

Brutus: the basic muscle of the biomorph set, Brutus types resemble seven-feet tall gorillas. They can bench press half a ton and are the most numerous of the combat units at Tairo’s disposal. They don’t have armor per se, but their thick muscle layers double as protection against blunt trauma.

Draco: the heavy trooper of the biomorph army, the lizard-like Draco types are stronger and more resilient than Brutus ones. They posses enough armor to stop a .50 bullet and thermographic vision. Besides being able to bench-press a ton, Dracos come equipped with claws and the ability to exhale a flame blast. Dracos are usually found leading a Brutus squad.

Gorgon: a variation heavy trooper design, Gorgon types look like armor-plated dinosaurs. They lack the long-range offensive capability and enhanced senses of Dracos, but make up in defensive power: their armor can withstand light artillery.

Manticore: the main artillery unit among biomorphs, Manticore types come equipped with shoulder-mounted missile pods that can be configured for concussive or fragmentation damage. They are lightly armored and usually stand behind the army providing tactical support for the advancing units. A spiked tail complements their offensive capability.

Tengu: an elite close-combat fighter, Tengu types are sleek and superfast biomorphs that sport two vibroswords (like the Leader types below). They have enhanced coordination and superior fighting skills when employing their armor-piercing blades. They are as armored as Draco types.

How to be a leader

The PCs are bonded to Leader types. As their name says, these biomorphs function as command-level units and, unlike the other specialized types, Leaders can operate in any combat capacity. They have a set of basic abilities, but can develop a vast array of powers that far surpasses what is found in other types.

Leader-type biomorphs manifest as a suit of organic armor that completely envelopes the host. Unlike other biomorphs that adapt the host to their types’ baseline, Leader types adapt themselves to their hosts. That’s why Brutus look all the same, but Leaders have different heights and their armor may sport individual details.

A Leader type enhances all of a host’s physical abilities as well as his senses. In mechanical terms, a PC gains bonuses to strength, constitution, dexterity and perception attributes. For example, in Unisystem, the distribution might be STR +10, DEX +5, CON +5 and PER +5.

A Leader type should also provide a bonus to your system of choice’s hit points. Even if the attribute bonuses already do that, you should add a few modifiers to bring it up to a nice round number.

Right after bonding, the PCs will have access to the biomorph’s basic power suite, which includes:

Armor: at its base level, a Leader should have enough armor to stop a rifle bullet.

Gravity control: at first, the character has very limited control over this ability. It allows him to fall from great heights without taking damage, jump over considerable distances and levitate for short periods of time.

Laser blaster: a crystal set in the biomorph’s forehead can produce a high-intensity, but short-range laser beam. This weapon can only be used against foes that are at close-combat distance or less.

Leader telepathy: Leader types can communicate between themselves telepathically.

Regeneration: a Leader-type biomorph can regenerate his constitution in hits per turn. He can also regrow lost limbs with time and is immune to diseases and toxins.

Vibroswords: a pair of retractable, elbow-mounted blades that vibrate at supersonic speeds and can cut through steel like it was hot butter.

As I said, these are only the basic powers every PC will begin with. It’s only the start, however. You should choose what powers a Leader type can develop and give it a xp cost, so that the characters can acquire them as the campaign goes on.

New powers can be enhanced versions of the basic ones, like additional levels of armor and more extensive gravity control, or completely new abilities, such as additional attack forms and teleportation.

A reminder about power availability

Biomorphs bonded to non-intelligent species are permanently active. Those linked to intelligent ones are not, meaning that a human biomorph can activate and deactivate his hybrid shape at any time. However, a character only has access to his powers when his biomorph is active.

It is rumored that one of the abilities of Leader types is being able to force a biomorph to deactivate for as long as he wishes. In non-intelligent hosts, this would revert the bonding completely (possibly with lethal consequences for the host). In intelligent ones, it would force it to assume human form. A second command might also revert the bonding.

Tairo and choices

Tairo is the archetypical fictional corporation: far-reaching, powerful and full of secrets. In this setting, it’s the only organization in the know about biomorphs and it spends considerable efforts in remaining so.

Tairo aggressively acquires newfound unbonded probes and recruits recently bonded biomorphs. It also conducts extensive research on the physiology and genetics behind hybrid forms. Despite this policy, it has only one Leader type in its ranks – Shaitan, aka Shigeo Yamazaki.

Wait, you say. Wasn’t Yamazaki a 20-something in the 1920s? Yes, he was, but that’s another effect of the Leader types, they arrest aging. The centenary Yamazaki hides this fact by pretending to be his own great-grandson. His identity as Shaitan is also a secret known only by his top aides.

The cluster of Leader type probes that bonded with the PCs is such an unprecedented happening – Leaders are very rare by themselves and finding five or six of them together is like being struck by lightning twice – that Yamazaki is hell-bent on keeping them at Tairo.

So, despite the skirmish in the beginning of the campaign, Yamazaki will do and say anything to convince the PCs to work for Tairo in retrieving other biomorphs or troubleshooting situations where they are involved. He will even reveal details about the exomother, although he will only release enough information to convince the characters.

If the PCs accept, the campaign becomes more mission-oriented as they are sent all over the world to collect probes and biomorphs or destroy those that are threats. As the campaign proceeds, it should become clear that Yamazaki and Tairo are not exactly heroes fighting the good fight.

Any good deeds that results from their actions are unintended and their long-term goal of saving the Earth from the exomother is their only redeeming feature. But even that is more an excuse to do what they want than a true cause.

If the PCs refuse to work for Tairo, the campaign becomes one of fleeing from the corporation while trying to understand their new condition and finding allies. They might decide to blow the lid on the existence of biomorphs, but that might backfire as they become now hunted by governments or are locked in secret labs to be dissected.

Some Biomorphs seeds

I include details in these seeds to make them useful to you despite the type of campaign you are running.

The Grendel Awakes: The first intelligent being to be bonded with a Leader type wasn’t from our species, he was a Neanderthal. The Hunter in the Dark became a monstrous creature that peopled the early humans’ nightmares. He would travel the world always searching for his next battle and some Tairo scholars believe he might have been responsible for the extinction of a few species, like the saber-toothed tiger. One of Grendel’s special powers is the ability to hibernate for centuries, sometimes millennia. He wakes up from these long slumbers with a thirst for combat and will usually hunt the more dangerous creatures of the time. Grendel can also track other biomorphs and will consider them preferable targets: the higher up in biomorph hierarchy, the more desirable the foe. Grendel has awakened recently and is cutting a swath through Tairo’s biomorph troopers. The PCs are either assigned to deal with him by Yamazaki or find out through the grapevine what’s happening. They might think Grendel can be a powerful ally against Tairo. Unfortunately, the Hunter in the Dark is barely more than an animal with predatory instincts nowadays and any type of reasoning will fail with him. The only way to defeat him is either killing him or forcing him back into hibernation.

The Anti-Eden: Reports of strange creatures and monsters in southeast Asia reach the PCs (and Tairo as well). Investigating these rumors will take them to the jungles of Laos, where they will find out a genetic reprogramming biomorph probe has found a host in local wildlife and has been carrying its orders to change the fauna and flora to alien species. This biomorph has been at work for a while now and has already converted an area of four square miles. To get to the biomorph, they will have to track through the alien jungle killing everything in its path, be it animal or plant, until they reach the center of the transformed area. Of course, this would be simple, were it not for Tairo. If the PCs are fleeing from the corporation, they will find a biomorph team sent to acquire the genetic reprogrammer. If they are with Tairo, then make sure they realize that taking this thing alive will be incredibly dangerous, since it works by releasing DNA-rewriting virus that infect an organism and proceed to change it. Any mistake in containing it can result in a massive biological incident. Will the PCs allow Tairo to do it?

Prodigal Mother: The exomother has returned to the solar system and is on her way to Earth. As she approaches, she senses something is wrong with her seeds and repairs them telepathically. All the dormant probes activate and search for hosts. Suddenly, the PCs and Tairo find themselves having to face hordes of biomorphs. The exomother will also sense that many of her seeds, including the Leader types, have bonded with intelligent life and are resisting her commands. If she concludes they are a threat, she will send her Overlord types to confront these foes. An Overlord is to a Leader what a Leader is to a regular biomorph. Defeating them will probably require all the resources at Tairo’s disposal as well as the PCs working together with the corporation, even if they have been enemies before this. Everybody will soon conclude they have to take the fight to the exomother. Yamazaki will reveal (if he hasn’t done so yet in the campaign) his gate power and tell the PCs their only chance is to lead a strike team deep into the exomother and destroy her brain. The exomother is like an organic asteroid and to get to her brain the PCs will have to navigate her inner tunnels and confront all sorts of defense mechanisms, like minor biomorphs, illusions etc. If they fail, the campaign ends or becomes something completely different.

Inspiration

Here are some sources of inspiration for this campaign.

Guyver: obviously, the source material that inspired me is a good start. Although Guyver OVA is what got me hooked, I recommend trying to find the 2005 anime version Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor. It’s more faithful to the manga and has 26 episodes, instead of the 12 ones of Guyver OVA

Cthulhutech: the Tagers, one of the splats in this futuristic Lovecraftian RPG, is clearly inspired in Guyver.

Wild Cards: Aces High, the second book in this anthology, deals with the invasion of the Swarm. In case you haven’t read it or has, but didn’t noticed, the exomother is based on the Swarm Mother.

I hope you liked it. Feel free to share any comments, suggestion and criticisms on the forum. If you ever run this, let me know too.