GLoG: The Master Rat
Background: 1 Sewer Rat | 2 Ship Rat | 3 Wood Rat
Equipment: A random human host (see Mastery)
| A | Rat, Mastery |
| B | Away Mission, Mindreader |
| C | Rat Skill |
| D | Master Pilot |
Rat
You are a rat. You are roughly a foot long with sensitive whiskers and a great sense of smell. Your bite deals d4 damage. Your HD are d1s. Reroll your starting max HP.
You can speak a human tongue in a sort of chittering rasp. Most humans find this (and you) deeply upsetting.
Mastery
You have mastered the delicate art of puppeting humanoids. By latching onto their scalp, pulling on their hair, and massaging their temples you can compel their bodies to perform precise instructions.
An unwilling host can only perform jerky movements and may save each round to shake you off.
With a day of work, you can always find some willing host in a human settlement. Roll for a Failed Medieval Career. You've promised them greatness in that field, sprung them from jail, or otherwise have leverage on them.
Away Mission
You can send your human host to do activities without you. They have a [Templates]-in-6 chance of being successful. Add +1 if you can communicate with them via spoken or written command. On a failure, the human activates a trap, alerts a guard, trips and rolls their ankle or otherwise fumble. (If combat breaks out, a test is warranted, or any other mechanics interfere, resolve those after the X-in-6 roll.)
Remember that humans are insensitive, clumsy, and easily distracted by shiny baubles. You can send them to gather information, but they will only report back the most interesting things they saw or useless speculations: "I think it used to be a church...?"
Mindreader
When you are in contact with a humanoid's scalp, you can read their surface level thoughts and emotions in the quivering of their skin. For a sleeping humanoid, you can get a glimpse of their dreams.
Rat Skill
Gain one of the following skills: Cheat, Climb, Flee, Gnaw, Hide, Tinker, Tumble, Swim.
When you are mounted on your host, they gain access to your skills.
Human Ace
You have become so adept at piloting that you no longer need a sentient creature. A corpse, an armature, a large piece of ginseng - anything humanoid will work.
When you mount an unwilling host, you may perform precise movements. (They may still save to buck you each round).
When you mount a willing host, you may perform superhuman feats of agility and contortion. The human takes d6 damage for each feat attempted.
GM Notes
Inspired by CarrionGod's remaster of the Goblin Punch classic. I was particularly struck by this (hanging?) clause:
Because rats are stupid, lazy, easily confused, and terrible at passing messages along.
I have not actually seen Ratatouille, but I imagine its something like this.
As a GM, I'd suggest playing up the Faustian relation between the Master Rat and their host. The human isn't brainwashed; they want something and should reasonably ask for it from time to time or try to leave.