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I'm planning on running a Black Crusade campaign in a few week and the general idea I have is for a fairly low level infiltration type game with the players representing a cult attempting to corrupt and bring down an imperial city from the inside.

However, reading through the various gifts and mutations most of them make the character vary obviously inhuman making the infiltration part of the plot difficult. Its hard for a player to have the ear of the local cardinal when as he 'levels up' he suddenly becomes a giant maggot from the waist down or his head becomes featureless.

Currently to try and counter this I'm ether going to: -

a) give all my players a lesser version of illusion of normality which reduces the effect of being mutant monstrosities most of the time or
b) Rewrite the chart to have more less obvious mutations and maybe keep the normal chart for specific 'punishments' from the gods for failing missions.

If anyone has already run a campaign, do characters become as obviously inhuman as quickly as I fear and if so can you think of any other way to deal with it and allow the infilrations part of my plot to be practical?

Bedlam wrote:I'm planning on running a Black Crusade campaign in a few week and the general idea I have is for a fairly low level infiltration type game with the players representing a cult attempting to corrupt and bring down an imperial city from the inside.

However, reading through the various gifts and mutations most of them make the character vary obviously inhuman making the infiltration part of the plot difficult. Its hard for a player to have the ear of the local cardinal when as he 'levels up' he suddenly becomes a giant maggot from the waist down or his head becomes featureless.

Currently to try and counter this I'm ether going to: -

a) give all my players a lesser version of illusion of normality which reduces the effect of being mutant monstrosities most of the time or
b) Rewrite the chart to have more less obvious mutations and maybe keep the normal chart for specific 'punishments' from the gods for failing missions.

If anyone has already run a campaign, do characters become as obviously inhuman as quickly as I fear and if so can you think of any other way to deal with it and allow the infilrations part of my plot to be practical?

This, essentially, is why the campaign I run on another board is more narrative driven than strict-RPG driven. Haven't done BC yet, we're working through a second mission of a DW campaign.

Haven't run Black Crusade yet, but there are some solutions to your problem.

1) Mutation rolls can be altered by the player's Infamy bonus, giving them some control of the results. Unaligned characters get two rolls and get to pick the one they want while Aligned characters can check Infamy to get onto their patron reward tables, which have a fair number of non obvious mutations.

2) A number of the physical modification mutations can be concealed (under robes, bandaged and past off as wounds, etcetera)

3) There's a couple options in Black Crusade (and some more in the Gamemaster's Screen) for changing/getting rid of undesired mutations/burning off Corruption points. There's a cost, but in most cases it's fairly reasonable.

4) Chaos magic. Amulets/Talismans/Sorcerous rites can be used to conceal the filthy heretics' infernal mutations. This also creates adventure hooks in the form of quests to do favors for the magician/gather ingredients for the rite/materials to forge the talismans.