Watts-MacLeod sub-strains

The Watts-Macleod virus comes in a variety of different sub-strains. When you gain the infection you choose one of the following strains for your infection. This determines the nature of the infection and its influence effects over you.

Architect Sub-Strain
Beast Sub-Strain
Haunter Sub-Strain
Stranger Sub-Strain
Xenomorph Sub-Strain

The Architect

Your infection possesses a distinct curiosity and sense of intelligence. You often see things from a perspective that is different. It drives you to delve into the inner mechanics of things and examine how they work — whether they be machines or biological entities. The urges push beyond exploration and learning — you are often compelled to build and construct new things: architecture with inexplicable functions, strange devices, or even new forms of life. Though the virus’s exact motivation and intent remains unclear, it leaves you with an unmistakable sense of purpose.

Influence effects

These effects may be triggered by the MC by spending hold generated by a failed The Infection Advances move. Unless otherwise noted all influence effects last until the end of the current scene.

Take the damage move
Arrogance You have it all figured out. You are convinced that you are incontrovertibly right, that your plan is the best plan, and that you know exactly what is going on. You sneer at anyone who thinks otherwise.
No Relaxation There is no time to rest, you have too many things to do!
Expose inner workings You become hyperfocused on the most interesting person, thing, or mystery in your immediate vicinity. This might be an unusual morph, a high-tech device, an unsolved puzzle, or something you have never experienced before. If nothing stands out, you fixate on the nearest person or thing that is newest to you. You are compelled to learn all about the subject by tinkering with it, testing it, taking it apart, and examining it piece by piece
Create You are obsessed with an elusive idea for a new creation. This may be a sculpture, a robot, a neogenetic life form, or something weird. The nature of the design relies on your skills and available resources. It might also require components or resources that are unusual (blood, bones) or hard to find (uranium, antimatter). The idea itself may not be fully formed or realised in your head — you may not understand even after you finish it. If you are unlikely to complete the design before the compulsion ends, you will be inclined to secretly store it and pick up the project again the next time you are compelled.

The Beast

Your infection is a ravenous, bloodthirsty monster, yearning to break free. You struggle to keep it in check, placated or distracted, else the desire for carnage and mayhem overwhelms you.

Influence effects

Take the damage move
Aggression You are unnecessarily hostile. You respond to any challenge, threat, or provocation with intimidation or violence
No Remorse You are oblivious or ambivalent to the negative repercussions of your actions on others.
Domination You will do what is necessary to gain the upper hand. This can mean defeating your rivals, assuming leadership of your pack, or otherwise proclaiming and defending your superiority
No Quarter You refuse to flee or surrender, even if the odds are overwhelming. You also refuse to spare your enemies or show mercy
Frenzy Within the next 24 hours, you frenzy if blood is spilled near you. You gain armour+1 and ap1 on your melee attacks, even unarmed. However, you cannot use a ranged weapon against a target in melee range or restrain yourself from attacking anyone brandishing a weapon or otherwise hostile

The Haunter

The low-level dread of incomprehensible terror, flittering at the edge of perception, is your constant companion. Sometimes it is the crushing weight of the uncaring dark void that makes our extinction a near certainty, sometimes it is a more palpable, unnameable presence, an entity so beyond your ken that you are insignificant in comparison. You are plagued by unrest and unease, taunted by nightmares and a sense that reality is not always as grounded as you would like

Influence effects

Take the damage move
Avoidance You acquire an intolerance for a specific type of sensory input: smells, sounds, light, darkness, etc. You will go to great lengths to avoid it
Mistrust You are convinced that nothing is as it seems. The signs of conspiracy, of falsehood, of wrongness are everywhere. Your allies may be compromised without their knowledge. Everything is suspect
Cut ties Relationships are pointless at best, a detriment at worst. Better to rid yourself of excess baggage.
Isolation You are disgusted by the presence of others and called by the desire to embrace the void. You will seek to isolate yourself from others and meditate with the silent voices in the dark. You may even go so far as to barricade yourself in, hide where you cannot be found, or take a spacewalk to commune with the dark universe
Hallucination Within the next 24 hours, you experience a full-sensory hallucination. The GM describes a scene to you as if were real, and you respond accordingly. The hallucination may be as subtle as seeing something crawling under an NPC’s skin to as immersive as suddenly finding yourself in an alien environment, but it lasts no more than a few minutes. If you have cause to disbelieve the illusion, you may make an roll+Intuition to spot the falsehood; even if successful, however, the hallucination will still play out. Some hallucinations may just provide unnerving or horrifying experiences, a sign that the universe is unraveling around you. Others may provide obfuscated insights, reveal hidden connections, or hint at things to come.

The Stranger

Your infection is the shadow at your side, the whispering chant of its unusual desires echoing just below the limits of your perception. It is omnipresent but patient, waiting for moments of vulnerability to steer you towards its inscrutable ends. Though its motivations are hazy, it seems to enjoy testing your limits — and those of transhumanity at large.

Influence effects

Take the damage move
Deceit Truth becomes uninteresting, you lie just to get the thrill of manipulating others, no matter the consequences. You avoid blatant mis-truths, but take pleasure in misleading others, even with trivial details. The rush when seeding doubt and uncertainty, even if it casts aspersions on others, is intoxicating
Self-Sabotage You are your own worst enemy. You choose the worst options for yourself and always take the wrong path
Foil Plans You delight in spoiling the designs of others. You go out of your way to ensure that people fail their obligations, agendas self-destruct, and things do not go as planned
Manipulation You get a thrill at steering people into actions and behaviours that fit your plans.
Test Limits You like to see how far you can get things to go. You might bypass an opportunity to quickly resolve a conflict, ignore fast solutions in order to drag an emergency out, or intentionally spread misinformation that you know will aggravate tensions between already near-hostile parties. You will press buttons, fan the flames, exploit vulnerabilities, reveal horrible truths, push boundaries, and stir things up, even if it puts you and your comrades at risk

The Xenomorph

An alien presence lives inside of you. Your instinctual responses are different from those of your original phenotype and you occasionally find yourself acting in ways more fitting to a physiology different from yours. You might feel a weird compulsion to burrow into sand, lay eggs, eat non-nutritious or dangerous substances, or clean phantom appendages that aren’t part of your current anatomy. You may even seek out morphs that better accommodate these omnipresent urges. You sometimes express an outlook that other transhumans find strange, just as you are occasionally confused or mystified by transhuman cultural practices. When the infection expresses itself strongly, these omnipresent urges seem quite normal, but the transhumans around you seem more and more bizarre and alien. While some asyncs report this sub-strain as adhering to a specific alien anatomy (i.e., they often feel insectoid or aquatic), others clearly feel that the alien presence within transforms and changes over time

Influence effects

Take the damage move
Non-verbal communication Words become less important. You prefer conveying intent by posture, expressions, threat displays, and similar physical emotive cues
Cliquishness You are rude, mistrustful, and hostile to outsiders, but supportive to your pack.
Transform Environment You’d prefer an environment conducive to the alien presence within you. So you create one or establish a nest. This may require complete darkness, burrowing underground, warmth (> 100 F/38 C), cold (< 0 F/−17 C), or submerging an area in water or a similar liquid. This favoured environment may always remain the same or it may change randomly or according to conditions.
Control Territory You must free an area you control from outside threats. You may be inclined to stock provisions, set traps, and otherwise protect your space from intruders.
Express true form You are no longer satisfied to dwell in inferior physical forms. You will go to great lengths to modify yourself, whether sophisticated or crude.