# Antagonist Concept: Blood Root ## Preface There has been many a discussion about conversion antagonists on /tg/station, a mix of negative and positive. In the main creative vision, we've decided that any new conversion antagonist would need to fit the following criteria: - Simple to learn so anyone can be useful - While also not being a copy of revs While its true that isn't a lot of criteria, I have not seen many ideas thrown around that fit said criteria (except bringing Shadowling back, Shadowling 2023 wooooo). A while back, I had a weird dream about a round on /tg/ that never happened, featuring an antagonist who does not exist. This design document is the antagonist from my dream, given further detailing and fleshed out to fit on a design document. It primarily plays as a stealth conversation antagonist, whose unique oddity is that it need not lift a finger to convert others to its team. It is a master subtlety, and naturally progresses into a big threat as the round reaches its climax, while having an identity that no other antagonist shares. Its temporary name is Blood Root. ## Abstract Paranoia is something I feel modern /tg/ greatly neglects in its antagonist design. Regular players get a lot of escape goats to avoid most threats who should otherwise have them dead to rights, or our antagonists who do have the power to kill announce themselves too loudly for paranoia to ever sit in. So, I came up with an mainround antagonist who not only would cause great paranoia within players at almost all times, but also shows a different avenue to create a conversion antagonist that is simple to learn but also not revolutionaries. ## Goals 1. Create an antagonist who adheres to our desires about new conversion antagonists, namely being easy to understand but also not revolutionaires. 2. Create an antagonist that causes paranoia amongst the crew with great efficiency. 3. Create an antagonist who is unique enough from the current cast to stand out and be an enjoyable experience. 4. Attempt to create something akin to a horror experience within SS13. ## Non-Goals 1. Create revolutionaries 2. 2. Create an antagonist who is ultimately unfun for crew and itself. 3. An antagonist where someone gets converted and immediately starts going around murderboning. ## Content ### Overview The Blood Root is an infection which progresses in tiers. All tiers have a passive infection radius around them which will slowly infect uninfected players. Infection is completely undetectible. Passive infection on the uninfected decays over time when not within radius of an infected. Passively sharing infection becomes more difficult as infection tiers increase, which make it harder for the infected to blend in with everyone else, but gives benefits in other regards. The Blood Root wins if enough players become infected and the infected then complete their currently undecided final objective, while the crew "wins" if they manage to mitgate the threat. ### The Blood Root Roundstart At roundstart, one or two players are chosen to be infected with the strange and dangerous flora known as Blood Root. The infected at the start have access to a single power, a hivemind chat akin to aliens. Those infected by blood root initially do not have anything which would give them away as being infected by blood root, however they are capable of seeing fellow infected via a HUD element akin to revs or cult. The infected's sole job during this time is to spread Blood Root to other crewmembers, which is done through proximity. Instead of needing to flash players or stun and convert them via a structure, infected need only stay within a certain radius of other players in order to pass on the infection. Infected can also see a percentage value on non-infected players, showing said crews' basic infection progress before they're taken over and also made an antagonist. Passive Blood Root infection will decay over time after not being progressed for a certain amount of time, and there is no indicator to players on infection in progress. The idea is that conversion should be easy enough for even a new player to perform. Also, by having conversion be slient, crew can never be certain about the circumstances they find themselves in. ### Blood Root Mechanics At the beginning, Blood Root infection is relatively quick (possible time initially starting around 1 1/2 minutes maybe?), however for every organism infected with Blood Root, the time to progress Blood Root is increased. Unique to Blood Root as well, players with mindshields are also susceptible to Blood Root, however their infection rate increases at half the current rate for anyone else. Blood Root-infected individuals can be implanted with mind shields, however this has no effect. Wearing a gas mask or having internals also prevents airborne infection entirely. Certain antagonists also have resistance or immunity to BR. As Blood root is the infection and replacement of the blood in the body of an animal, some form of blood is required to infect a target. As such, some races are immune to infection (Plasmamen, golems, etc...). Blood of an infected individual may also be placed by a source of heat to cause a reaction that will oust the infected. ### Stage 2 After a time of being infected with the first true stage of Blood Root (this event occuring is also sped up by infecting more players, default is something roughly like 10 minutes or so? Times would need testing, and like infection times, we can adjust the numbers by the amount of infected), the infected will receive a warning that their form is shifting, causing some noticable changes to their appearance. Their eyes might shift a few pixels from where they should be, limbs might elongate or shorten, or other noticable deformities might occur. Players will be given time to conceal themselves before these visual effects occur from the warning, so that they can assess the damage and plan accordingly. Phase 2 also comes with an added weakness to burn damage. Plants aren't fond of fire. However, the second stage is not without its benefits. The BR growing through the body grants its host some stun resistance and passive healing due to their more rigid internal structure, along with the ability to coat their arm in barbs of BR. Hitting mobs with their barb-covered arm has a chance to embed fragments of BR into the victim, greatly increasing infection whilst the BR is embedded. This allows it to be used as as tool to quickly infect someone on the verge of turning, or forcing the more aware members of the crew to back off from an infected to give it some room to breathe. Barbs can be pulled back into the body as well, and can also be shot as a projectile. Shooting or unequipping the barbs will cause them to go on cooldown for a time. Barbs also have the unique effect of working on corpses. Corpses infected with barbs will seek a ghost to control them if not previously owned and then ressurect the corpse with Phase 1 infection. A break-in into the morgue can prove fruitful, so long as the corpses have somewhere to run to. Coroners beware. Throughout Stage 2, the infected will receive additional warnings about their appearance decaying, always giving a warning 30 seconds to a minute before the change occurs. After several bouts of this, the infected will then go into Stage 3. ### Stage 3 Stage 3 is total and utter destruction of the infected's prior self and becoming what is essentially a humanoid form of the Blood Root. The final phase transforms the species of the infected into a BR monster. Phase 3 infected become even more resistant to stuns and gain further passive healing to compensate for their inability to blend in, while also being even more susceptible to burn damage. Phase 3 infecteds also retain the barb ability of Phase 2, and also see it buffed in regards to infection rate and cooldown times. Phase 3 infecteds can also corrupt floor tiles into Blood Root tiles, which build up infection on uninfected players and heal those who are infected. Phase 3 infected generally tend to take the form of monsterous humanoids, and there would probably be several subtypes. A good inspiration to pull from for this would be something like Dead Space, and these different forms would have different abilities. Ideally, the average crewmember should be very scared to go against them. ### The Endgame At this point, a good portion of the crew should be infected and the remaining survivors are likely aware of the threat. After a specific threshold of infected individuals is passed along with a possible time gate (30 minutes?), the infected gain access to a final objective to which I have not come up with anything solid yet. Some thoughts on what their endgame would look like: - Merging together into one giant monster, which then has to accomplish some goal - "Singing" (screeching) as a group to summon some sort of horrible monstrosity (too close to cult I reckon) ## Simple and Basic Mobs In addition to infecting humanoids, BR could also affect simple/basic mobs. Infecting would work as normal, and a full infection would allow that mob to be ghost-possessed and give them the additional ability to transform into a Blood Root beast or something similar. Get close to the HOP as Ian and then spring a nasty surprise on them! Non-organics, like Beepsky and other robots, would be immune, along with some other logical exclusions (blobbernauts, revenant, megafauna, etc...) ### How to Stop the Infected In order to combat the threat from the crew perspective, they'll need to be alert and pay attention to anyone showing odd behavior, being very suspicious of anyone who seems to be consistently hanging out too close to them. Mind shields will be useful for security to safeguard important individuals from infection, however having no guarantees if they manage to slip away for too long. Nobody can truly be trusted, but you'll have to make some calls about who your friends are. Killing an infected will suffice to stop them under normal circumstances. Remember that corpses can be revived by BR barbs, however. Phase 3 infected would also generally self-revive after some time unless burned. In order to cure someone of Blood Root, their blood needs to be drained. Upon losing all of their blood, an infected individual will be cured, however they will also likely be dead as well and need to be revived. Phase 3 infected cannot be cured, however. ## Antagonist Power Level On paper, this antagonist would probably be very strong, and would probably need to be wizard-tier rare. However, if and when it comes to exist, maybe that won't prove to be the case. ## Alternatives - Instead of body part displacement for Stage 2, maybe like strands of blood root appearing on the outer body which can be concealed with clothing. - Burning the corpse to remove infection as opposed to draining all the blood out. - Picking a not-blood related name, as Blood Cult already exists and there's a sentient blood antagonist being made still (I think?) ## Potential Changes - Give stage 2 and 3 infected different strenghs/weaknesses. Stun resistance seems like it would be an interesting way to shake up how problems usually get solved, but maybe it will be too strong. - Maybe something to prevent infected from just going around slaugtering people with free antag and in Stage 2 stun resistance. Only a thought though, not sure what I would do yet.