Body Parts: Aliens Fake Being a Human
Goal
Body Parts takes a group of players, turns them into small aliens, and puts all of them in control of one body. The goal of the game is two-fold:
- Build or find a way to get back to your home planet, and
- Complete ordinary, every day challenges without being caught
Materials
- Stack of note cards or sheets of paper
- One pencil or pen per player
- At least one d6
Character Creation
All players are part of some alien race. The name of the alien race is the first letter of everyone’s last meal in one word (for example, if the meals were lasagna, pizza, hot dogs, and steak, the race could be shlp). Each alien
- is telepathic and can communicate with the others one at a time, and
- is small, weak, and defenseless outside the human robot.
Telepathy
Conversations happen in real time, and anything players say out loud is (generally) said by the human robot. However, aliens can communicate telepathically with each other one at a time.
In order to speak telepathically to another alien, tear off a portion of the note card given to you at the start of the game, write down the message, and hand it to the other player. The GM does not need to see the message, but if you wish to contact another player, you must tear off more of the note card and write the message. All of this happens in real time, so be careful when you take a long time to communicate telepathically to your comrades.
Your telepathy power can also be used instantaneously, although at great cost. In order to communicate to all players simultaneously, the player communicating must destroy the entire card. The player then has 30 seconds to speak to all players freely; however, the other players cannot communicate back.
Once a player’s card is gone, that player can no longer use telepathy for the rest of the day (in game time). After an appropriate amount of rest, the player should be given a new card.
Body Parts and Powers
Each player should select a body part of the human robot to control. Each body part should have some external function or consequence (i.e., you can’t control the heart unless it would serve some function for the game). Body parts that come in pairs where each individual part is controlled by a single player can function in unison normally, but the players must contribute towards any strenuous actions (e.g., if two players control the legs, walking down the sidewalk is easy, but jumping over a barricade might not be). Each body part also comes with a special power or ability. If a single player controls both parts of a pair, pick one power and apply it to both body parts. Below is a table of sample body parts and powers, but feel free to divide the body in any other fashion with other powers.
Sample Body Part Table
| Body Part | Special Power |
|---|---|
| Hair | Radio antenna |
| Eyes | Xray vision |
| Left Arm | Energy weapon |
| Right Arm | Secret storage compartment |
| Left Leg | Pogo stick extension |
| Right Leg | Radio jammer |
Using Powers
Unlike the telepathy power, which is individual to each alien, the robot body can attempt to use its powers as often as possible until the body part experiences a major power failure. To use a power, the player rolls a single die and attempts to hit or exceed a target number. The starting value for this target is 3 for each limb. On a roll equal to or greater than the target number, the attempt succeeds without issue. If the roll is less than the target value, the attempt can succeed, but the target number is increased by the difference until the robot body is repaired or recharged. On a roll of a 6, the target number is reduced by 1. The target number can never be reduced below 3.
If the target number of a system would ever go above 6, other players may siphon power from their systems to the player’s system, effectively absorbing the excess damage to their own systems. The original player’s target number raises (or remains) at 6, and everything left over is divided amongst the other players as they wish.
If the target number is ever greater than 6, the system shuts down for the day. For ever 8 hours the robot is not in use, the target number for all systems decreases by 1 but can never go lower than 3. After 24 hours of uninterupted rest, the robot’s systems all reset to a target number of 3.
For example, Billy is controlling the eyes and is attempting to use the xray vision. He needs to roll at least a 3 but instead rolls a 2, but he decides he wants the power to succeed. The target number then raises to 4 (3 - 2 = 1 added to the target number of 3 to make 4). Billy uses the power again, and this time rolls a 1. Billy still decides the attempt must succeed, so the target number goes to 7 (4 - 1 = 3 added to the target number of 4 to make 7) and blows out the xray vision power for the day. Tom, another player, could have saved Billy’s xray vision power by offering to take 1 point from Billy’s last roll to his own system, but decided not to.