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I don't even understand why they tried to say Beasts were stand-ins for outsiders and the LGBTs and all that. Why would any of them want to have unrepentant monsters represent them? You figure something like Demon or Changeling or Promethean would suit them better, what with the themes of rebellion, escaping abuse, and finding peace with yourself that those lines have, plus the fact that you can play as a good guy in those lines instead of an abusive jerk.
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Jun 6, 2015 21:28
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Part of me now wants to get a copy and run a game of it with the weird narrative dissonance tossed out. Openly play a game of terrible abusers.
Gumball Gumption fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Jun 6, 2015 |
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Jun 6, 2015 21:34
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SunAndSpring posted:I don't even understand why they tried to say Beasts were stand-ins for outsiders and the LGBTs and all that. Why would any of them want to have unrepentant monsters represent them? You figure something like Demon or Changeling or Promethean would suit them better, what with the themes of rebellion, escaping abuse, and finding peace with yourself that those lines have, plus the fact that you can play as a good guy in those lines instead of an abusive jerk. It's trying to be Nightbreed: the roleplaying game. It doesn't quite pull it off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-EYyYEu0LY
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Jun 6, 2015 21:37
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So someone pointed out elsewhere that if you just reverse who makes who, Beast almost works. Heroes occur naturally. They're basically a sort of variant proto-slasher. But when they go looking for a monster to slay, to vindicate their urges, sometimes, somehow, they make one. Maybe it's a blessing from the dark mother or whatever, but their helpless victim becomes a monster who can stand against them.
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Jun 6, 2015 23:22
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unseenlibrarian posted:So someone pointed out elsewhere that if you just reverse who makes who, Beast almost works. Heroes occur naturally. They're basically a sort of variant proto-slasher. But when they go looking for a monster to slay, to vindicate their urges, sometimes, somehow, they make one. Maybe it's a blessing from the dark mother or whatever, but their helpless victim becomes a monster who can stand against them. Was thinking something like this -- specifically, that the Hero carries around a narrative, and that when they want to kill someone but can't justify it to themselves, the narrative makes them a monster so that the Hero can justify killing them. It's just that being a monster comes with scales and weird-colored blood, but also fangs and radioactive breath. The Beast's story is about whether they're willing to own the role of Monster -- whether they glut themselves on fear, despite the fact that feeding necessarily involves hurting people and actually being a Monster instead of just getting called Monster, or reject it, and thus become weaker and less able to fight Heroes, but maintain their narrative agency and humanity. Endgame would probably be something about breaking the narrative -- you're not the Real Hero whose heinous actions are all justified by the douchiness of your enemies or the Villain who deserves to be put down, you're just a person who is entirely sick of being treated like a monster, and you're not playing the Hero's bullshit game any more. (Being full makes all your mystic mojo stronger, but requires some heinous poo poo to maintain and lets Heroes inflict Anathema on you, since you've totally bought into being the Monster. Starving yourself makes it harder for Heroes to find you, but also makes you vulnerable, since you're not acting like a Monster and have less access to the power associated with that role.)
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Jun 7, 2015 00:38
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I don't understand how that isn't how this game presents itself already. I'm sitting down to read it front to back now because it feels wrong to judge the book on anything but it's own text. The idea above is alarmingly close to an idea I was spitballing called Gorgon: The Aegis, a WoD game entirely around rebooting the incredibly terrible depiction of the Black Furies in Werewolf. Knowing my own writing skills I'd probably have hosed up exactly this badly and created a game that was precisely the opposite of intentions too.
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Jun 7, 2015 00:52
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quote every stupid thing that makes you feel alive quote every stupid thing to try to drive the dark away Basically I have extreme reservations about Beast but i have downloaded the pdf, and I will make an honest effort to read this entire thing and approach it with an open mind. My qualifications are that I run a game of Vampire and am possessed of sound mind and body. Let's start quote:”I remember a time or two way out on the prairie ... I’d get the feelin’ somethin’ was behind me. Somethin’ waitin’ for me to become it." Well, whatever. That's a freebie. quote:You don’t suffer nightmares. Okay quote:You were normal, once. At least more than you are now. You got up and went about your daily routine like anyone else — work, school, family, friends — with the same petty complaints and ambitions as anyone else you knew, except that you never quite fit in. It always felt like you stood apart from the rest of the herd; no matter how much you tried to be good, no one could argue that you had a cruel streak that ran bone deep. Okay. A little overwrought but this is the line's corebook, so a non-self-aware declaration of power and ~badassery~ is par for the course quote:In Beast: The Primordial, you play one of the Children, a human being with the Soul of one of the great monsters of legend: dragons, gryphons, giants, kraken, and worse. All your life you’ve had the same nightmare, one of the classics so common to human nature. Hunted by a relentless predator. Dragged into the murky depths. Dropped from great heights. Held under the thumb of something huge and powerful. Or simply the inescapable dread that comes from knowing that some nameless, shapeless thing out there in the dark was stalking you. It was nothing human beings haven’t suffered since the dawn of civilization, except that you weren’t content to remain That's cool. Gryphons are cool. quote:This is the life of the Children: Preying on humanity while living within it, walking the mortal world and the worlds beyond as they fulfill the needs of their Soul, tending their Lair as they guard their territory, moving freely between mortal society and supernatural cultures as legends in both. Humans might think they know how a monster’s story ends, but Beasts refuse to accept the role they’ve been given. They write their own stories, letting no human — or Hero — dictate how it ends. That's fair. Even nightmare spawning creatures of dark myth want to live quote:In order to understand a bit more about the characters in Beast: The Primordial, here are some common beliefs and how they align with the Begotten: The splat I have the most familiarity with is Vampires, and I don't think of them as necessarily evil, as their moral nature is decided by their own free will while have full control of their actions. The bolded portion makes sense. quote:• Beasts are immortal: False. While a Beast with a well-established Lair can live for a very long time, they eventually perish of old age, assuming no Hero or other hazard gets them first. Haha wait...what?? You're a legendary creature of primordial darkness and terror...whose soul exists in the nightmare dream realm...who will eventually just fuckin' die of old age. O-kay. quote:Regardless of the truth, all Beasts recognize her as not only the first of their kind, but also the first of all monsters. As far as the Begotten are concerned, vampires, werewolves, changelings, and other stranger things are simply younger siblings, branches of the family tree that have diverged but still share common roots. While other beings may scoff, Beasts have powers and abilities that seem to back their claim. I cannot believe that the response to this from any self-respecting splat would be anything except "gently caress off" or "I didn't vote for her" quote:What do her children do? If Beasts can be said to have something close to a single purpose, it is to feast. Linked as they are to the Primordial Dream, the place where all nightmares are spawned, Beasts remind humanity and even other supernatural creatures that everyone has something to fear. A Beast does this by feeding her Hunger, which sates the primal part of her Soul, the great monster that dwells in the nightmare realm. If she does not indulge her Hunger, the Soul begins to wreak havoc in the minds of mortals around her, starting with her closest friends and relatives and quickly attracting the attention of Heroes bent on the Beast’s destruction. Hm quote:What do her children do? If Beasts can be said to have something close to a single purpose, it is to feast. Linked as they are to the Primordial Dream, the place where all nightmares are spawned, Beasts remind humanity and even other supernatural creatures that everyone has something to fear. A Beast does this by feeding her Hunger, which sates the primal part of her Soul, the great monster that dwells in the nightmare realm. If she does not indulge her Hunger, the Soul begins to wreak havoc in the minds of mortals around her, starting with her closest friends and relatives and quickly attracting the attention of Heroes bent on the Beast’s destruction. quote:• Beasts are inherently evil: False. While Heroes like to think of the Children as absolutely evil, the truth is that a Beast is only as evil as her actions. Hmm. quote:Anyone can become a Beast. The potential to slide back into the first darkness and join the ranks of humanity’s nightmares made flesh dwells within every human heart. Still, the process of actually becoming one with the Soul and becoming a true Beast begins early, sometimes even in early childhood. Wait, you just said- quote:• Beasts aren’t human: True. Beasts are born like humans and seem human until their Homecoming, when they discover a spiritual link to nightmare monsters — their Souls. That is when they truly become Beasts, but even before that they are not really human. quote:Of course, with relief comes horror, as the Beast realizes her terrible Hunger must be fed to keep the Soul appeased. Everything a Beast has learned since she was a child tells her the monster is By...not doing evil things? quote:All Beasts have a primal drive called Hunger, which they must indulge to sate the appetite of the Soul. Hunger can be a very simple, direct thing, such as a drive to stalk and kill prey, or it can be more abstract, such as a need to punish others for their transgressions. Though the primal drives are the same, how Beasts interpret them can vary — instead of literally hunting prey to consume them, for example, a Beast might more metaphorically stalk a target and “consume” their trust. Okay, but they need to do bad things. Spreading nightmares is bad. And if you don't, even worse things happen. quote:Where monsters hunt, Heroes follow. As a Beast grows in power, she inevitably attracts hunters, who follow the nightmares she leaves in her wake like tracks left in the dust. Okay, so Beasts make Hunters as part of their mythological cycle. quote:Ultimately, Beasts recognize that the Hero cycle is as much a part of their nature as their Lair and their Soul. Humanity fears Beasts — that’s the intrinsic truth of what they are — and what humanity fears, it invariably attempts to destroy. Beasts quickly learn that they can’t become angry that people have that reaction; it’s reasonable. At the same time, though, the Children know that they have a right to exist. The world is a terrifying place, and the monsters in the dark are there for a reason. The dominant narrative may be “Hero arises, kills the monster,” but the Begotten see past that and know that it doesn’t have to be that way. Heroes, on the other hand, never question their own heroism — and that is why Beasts hate them. Wait, what? How hosed up is that? Who cares if they're self-aware? You made them!
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Jun 7, 2015 01:15
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Calde posted:I don't understand how that isn't how this game presents itself already. I'm sitting down to read it front to back now because it feels wrong to judge the book on anything but it's own text. The idea above is alarmingly close to an idea I was spitballing called Gorgon: The Aegis, a WoD game entirely around rebooting the incredibly terrible depiction of the Black Furies in Werewolf. Knowing my own writing skills I'd probably have hosed up exactly this badly and created a game that was precisely the opposite of intentions too. Beast-as-written wants to subvert the Monomyth, but it basically just flips it on its head by making Beasts the Protagonists Who Can't Be Blamed For Anything and Heroes the Totally Unsympathetic Antagonists. What I'm going for is something where becoming the Ultimate Amoral Monster is something you have to do to some extent, because being a genuine monster makes you strong enough to not get murdered by Heroes, but it doesn't give you the moral high ground, and your endgame is about not having to be the villain any more where Beast-as-written is about being the Biggest Villain. Also, "Heroes make Beasts" gives us a reason to actually feel like Heroes are douches instead of people who fight dream-violating torture demons. (Alternatively, in this formulation, Heroes would be unrepentant, self-righteous monster-slaughterers because remorse, pity and doubt weaken the Hero role, and that makes it easy for the Beasts they inevitably generate to eat them alive.) EDIT: Sort of inconsistent. Patched up. Poltergrift fucked around with this message at 01:25 on Jun 7, 2015 |
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Jun 7, 2015 01:17
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quote:Sowing nightmares is not their only purpose, however. Beasts also consider themselves the keepers of the Primordial Pathways and possess a great natural affinity for the worlds beyond. Even in the strangest spirit realm, the Children blend in as easily as they do among mortal populations and supernatural societies, scarcely provoking comment unless they call attention to themselves. Quite a few Beasts become devoted to traveling between worlds, bringing the fear of the Soul to the spirit realms just as their siblings do to the mundane world. This is really funny, too, because it means Beasts not only essentially have no problem whatsoever blending into and co-opting mortal power structures, but that they're basically free to just wander around as they please through the Shadow, the Hedge, Arcadia itself, etc., because not only are they extremely potent power-wise, the very nature of all everywhere is conducive to them poking their noses into everyone else's business to talk more about themselves.
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Jun 7, 2015 01:26
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It's just so unbelievably, pathetically lame that the consequences you suffer for not sating your Hunger is... your soul throws a temper tantrum. An imaginary temper tantrum that manifests solely in other people's dreams. I really do think that the principle, fundamental problem with Beast is that everything Beasts do and are is cosmetic and perceptual. If you actually had to eat people - rather than "eat" people - you could at least build some interesting conflict off that. But noooo, instead you're playing Changeling: the Dreaming, Epic Badass Edition. Actually, here's my loving question. If all Beasts do is subvert narratives, and Beasts are the oldest kind of monster... where did the narrative come from in the first place? How does there exist a thing for them to rebel against?
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Jun 7, 2015 01:29
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The open mind didn't last long. This is even dumber than previously indicated.quote:Atavisms lol okay, so the Beasts get to keep their human forms AND be terrifying badasses, and also they know which splat everyone else is, because the Dark Mother is real, and every other splat's origin fluff just had rank pulled on it for some reason. quote:Inheritance The loss condition for this splat, beyond just dying, is losing access to your tvtropes phone app quote:Inspirational Material quote:Bill Willingham’s Fables comic series is fairytale oriented, but many of the concepts behind Beast are still there: magical Lairs, journeys between fantastic worlds, monsters in human forms, the mythic cycle as a very real factor in day-to-day life, and a whole lot of inverted stories going in unexpected directions. In particular, Bigby Wolf would make an excellent Beast, a great wolf that walks like a man and whose Soul is the North Wind itself, as well as a reformed “villain” who must suppress his Hunger to hunt in order to fit in with the world around him. That's cool, because I remember reading about Fables, and thinking "this is stupid" after I found out that Goldilocks was a bad caricature of leftism and feminism, and seeing a panel from it where Bigby Wolf praises the heroism of the state of Israel in standing up to its various enemies quote:When a Beast finally stops resisting the nightmare, and chooses instead to embrace it and become the monster in the dark, she realizes what she really is. That moment of Homecoming might be horrifying or revolting, but for the most part, it is a relief — the Beast finally understands. quote:Then came the day when you came face to face with the monster inside you, and suddenly it all made sense. You didn’t fit in with other people for the same reason a fox doesn’t fit in with a room full of poodles. It wasn’t cruelty in your nature: it was Hunger. Now you knew just how to feed it. Maybe it’s not pretty, sating these drives, but you don’t have a choice. It’s not your fault you’re what you are; since you can’t go back, you might as well make the best of it. Okay, so the latter was wrong, and it's explicitly your own choice? On to the Families! quote:The little people won’t hold you back anymore. They have their petty concerns: their debts, their hates, their loves. You tower above those petty concerns, a pillar of strength and unstoppable force. All your life you knew you were different—greater. You just didn’t realize how literal that was.You might say that your enemies are like toys in your hands, but that would mean you could even count anyone as an enemy. They’re not, not really. They’re mice standing up to cats. When they even bother to stand. Nothing screams sympathetic monster like embittered sociopathy!
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Jun 7, 2015 01:33
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Crion posted:This is really funny, too, because it means Beasts not only essentially have no problem whatsoever blending into and co-opting mortal power structures, but that they're basically free to just wander around as they please through the Shadow, the Hedge, Arcadia itself, etc., because not only are they extremely potent power-wise, the very nature of all everywhere is conducive to them poking their noses into everyone else's business to talk more about themselves. The ur-beast is a sealion.
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Jun 7, 2015 01:36
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Crion posted:This is really funny, too, because it means Beasts not only essentially have no problem whatsoever blending into and co-opting mortal power structures, but that they're basically free to just wander around as they please through the Shadow, the Hedge, Arcadia itself, etc., because not only are they extremely potent power-wise, the very nature of all everywhere is conducive to them poking their noses into everyone else's business to talk more about themselves.
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Jun 7, 2015 01:46
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quote:For all that they can express dominance by other means, the Anakim are creatures of force. Its use and abuse come naturally to them. Once per scene, they can break through any physical obstacle in a single turn. A physical obstacle enhanced by magic or supernatural power requires the player to expend a point of Satiety. That's an innocuous turn of phrase, until you get to the stereotype quotes. Also, let's take a second to pour some out for stereotype quotes from other corebooks . They're always obnoxiously smug and blinkered, but at least they're not as bad at these ones. Anyway! quote:Vampire: Control isn’t love. Trust me. Oh man! You know why that sounded weird? Because, it turns out, that you're a huge loving creep. Also, aren't Beasts supposed to get along with the other splats? Also, hilariously, there aren't any stereotype quotes about other Beasts. They're solely for other splats. quote:Often only a single feature of the Lurker is visible in the dream; shining eyes, an animal stench, the scratch of claws on a bare leg. The Eshmaki is a nightmare’s nightmare, a thing that avoids form except when it leaps out for the kill...which is of course when the prey wakes up. quote:• Beasts are inherently evil: False. While Heroes like to think of the Children as absolutely evil, the truth is that a Beast is only as evil as her actions. Nice. quote:Werewolf: You watch boundaries. I violate them. Let’s be friends. ?????????? quote:Mage: Met one once. His dreams smelled of old knowledge, ancient and true. So I ate him. Please stop. quote:It’s her freshman year in high school, and some of her friends feel like they’re drowning. There’s more homework, more people, more of everything that makes life hard. She only wishes she was drowning. The water’s where she feels alive. Swim team would help, maybe. But who’s got time? She can’t help lashing out from time to time, letting her real self rise to the surface. She’s afraid someone will notice, but sometimes she wants them to. Sometimes she wants people to know that she’s different and that they should be afraid. Nice. quote:When you were young, you were quiet. People said still waters ran deep. You wouldn’t know. For you, the waters have never been still, even in their darkest depths. You were always set apart. Maybe you lived near the water, maybe not. It didn’t matter. The rush of the tides was always in your veins. And now that you’ve come into your own, you’re both the force of the waves and the thing they hide, the shadow from the deep that claims wary and unwary alike. smdh. Did no one learn the lesson of Aquaman? I guess they kind of did, because they get a grappling bonus. quote:She sculpts statues of famous people. Even other Beasts think it’s an affectation, a callback to the Medusa myth so well-known and well-beloved by the Namtaru. Even so, it’s hard not to notice that the ones she keeps in her studio instead of selling them to the public are twisted in expressions of fear and agony. Truth is, she’s working up her courage with every hammer of the chisel. It’s not a collection. It’s a hit list. Here you can actually see the exact moment in the pdf where the writers were like hey so we kind of made these guys sound like insane assholes, better make some of them tolerable. But remember to keep in that they don't take anybody's poo poo!!! quote:Vampire: You take the ground, I’ll take the sky. By morning, it’s all ours. Good golly. Poor changelings.
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Jun 7, 2015 01:52
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So, would it be bad taste to put a review in the Fatal and Friends thread before the book even comes out?
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Jun 7, 2015 01:55
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quote:Tyrants are Beasts who crave power, feeding off the act of besting someone and proving their own superiority. They bask in the fear, respect, and trembling worship of those beneath them, whether the Beast is standing at the top of the pyramid or controlling things from the shadows while their subjects tremble at the thought of their unseen king.  quote:A Tyrant hunts in as many ways as there are people to master. A literal hunt provides the quickest route towards satisfying the Hunger for Power on short notice. Finding some drunken thug in a bar and pinning him against a brick wall in the back alley while forcing him to beg for his life is usually enough to satisfy a Tyrant’s immediate cravings, but many consider this a rather inelegant approach to feeding. quote:A Beast is always more than merely human; a Tyrant thrills in reminding those below him just how powerless tiny mortals really are against the stuff of nightmares. Should a Tyrant fail to find proper subjects during his waking hours, his Soul stalks through the dreamscape and brings them subjugation while they slumber. I feel gross. I can't believe someone took the worst and most upsetting part of the Vampire metaphor even further.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:00
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quote:Changeling: I wish I could just carry you away. But that would bring flashbacks, wouldn’t it? If Beast's writers are willing to go this far, they really should just be honest about the kind of characters they're writing and have them openly mock the concept of triggering by name.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:07
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quote:Not all of those who hunger for Power are so straightforward. If a Tyrant considers himself above such brutish displays, he’ll find other sources for what he needs. A corporate Tyrant might feed by orchestrating his own promotion over that of a hated colleague, delighting as he forces his former equal to polish the nameplate on the door of the Beast’s new corner office. A Tyrant lawyer could find herself working in criminal law, feeding from those moments where the opposing attorney realizes he’s lost the case against her superior skill, regardless of whether the accused is guilty or innocent. If his talents don’t lend themselves towards climbing the ladder of power within an institution, a Tyrant will seek out opponents to best through competition. Competitive sports work nearly as well as physical violence, as long as the opponent is invested enough in the outcome to feel the sting and shame of defeat. A more cunning Tyrant may propose matching wits with his victims through puzzles or games of skill instead, engineering situations where he can prove his superior intelligence. Haha, gently caress off. You can't write the Tyrant introduction and then try and pull the Adamantine Arrow Lawyer out of your rear end. quote:Jo doesn’t tower over her prey — she’s short, but she’s all muscle. She enjoys letting other people challenge her, especially men. The challenge isn’t always or even usually physical. Sometimes they try to test her knowledge on topics they think she shouldn’t understand, or try to explain things to her that it’s obvious she knows. She destroys them; she knows what they know and she pokes holes in their beliefs and their facts, showing them sides of the topic they never considered. Secretly, though, she relishes the rare times when a man gets so mad he tries to touch her, because then she can beat him in a way that leaves no room for argument. This is like a mean parody of feminist power fantasies. Who made this, my god quote:Reynold is a health inspector for the city. When his Soul hungers, he dons rubber gloves and tests everything. He quizzes employees, he looks for the slightest bit of mold or dirt, and he happily provides miles of appeals forms to the owner. He refuses bribes and dutifully reports any attempt. He isn’t after money, after all. He’s after the frustration and defeat in their eyes. No comment. No comment. No comment. No comment. No commWHO WOULD WANT TO PLAY AS THIS SAMPLE CHARACTER quote:Makara Tyrants enforce their rule with the very Lairs in which they dwell: as masters of the depths, they have an entire sea of nightmares at their back when they hunt. The victim of such a Tyrant may not even recognize an intelligent force behind his misery when the world starts to work against him, only to find out at the last minute that a keen and malevolent mind has plotted to take him out of his element and into hers. The Makara Tyrant’s Soul rules her nightmarish oceans with the same subtle menace, forcefully reminding her victims of how powerless they are in the Beast’s waters. Stop quote:Ari drives a cab. He goes to the parts of the city that the other cabbies won’t. He knows every bit of the city — the poor neighborhoods where everyone looks out for each other and the rich neighborhoods where everyone’s a stranger. When he feels his Hunger, he picks someone up and drops them in a place they’ve never seen before, a place where just walking down the street will get them arrested or jumped. He never lets anyone die, though. He just wants each little fish to know how far from its home pond it has strayed.  quote:No one wants to get sent to the principal’s office, but especially not with Ms. Blaise there. Ms. Blaise is the assistant principal, but the real principal is just as scared of her as the kids. She has a pet scorpion in a tank on her desk. She always feeds it when she’s talking to a kid in trouble. Sometimes kids cry, sometimes they mumble apologies, but no one gets sent to Ms. Blaise twice. That’s actually a problem for Ms. Blaise — she needs kids to misbehave. She’s hungry, and so is her scorpion. *screams*
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Jun 7, 2015 02:08
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Kavak posted:So, would it be bad taste to put a review in the Fatal and Friends thread before the book even comes out? I'd give it a few days. See if McFarland or Rich T make any kind of official statement about this.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:18
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quote:Hunger for the Hoard The Collectors quote:• Beasts are inherently evil: False. While Heroes like to think of the Children as absolutely evil, the truth is that a Beast is only as evil as her actions. ♫ So, extremely ♫ quote:Zmei is a burglar...of a sort. He doesn’t creep in quietly or slip through windows. He walks in, takes what he wants (he’s partial to silver), and leaves. If the homeowner wants to try and stop them, they’re free to do so. If they can stop him, Zmei feels, they deserve to keep their belongings. ♫This has ♫ ♫ no coherent sense of tone or self-awareness ♫ ♫ my god it's dumb ♫ ♫ remember that the beasts are the ones you'll be playing ♫ quote:Yin found a little hollow just off the coast. She swims out there once a day with a plastic bag. She always has something heavy in the bag, and she always comes back to the beach without it. Once, someone from her neighborhood decided to grab the bag and peek in, but no one’s sure what happened after that because a storm blew up out of nowhere. Next time anyone saw Yin, she was walking into the water with two bags. This isn't the worst sample character. But holy poo poo it's the most pointless quote:Anya owns an apple orchard. Each tree has a ribbon tied around the top. Some of them are red, some are yellow, some are green, and most people who visit the orchard and buy her apples assume the ribbons correspond to the specific type of apple the tree bears. But that isn’t it. Anya goes out into the orchard at night and checks the ribbons, reminiscing about the day each tree was planted. The ribbons don’t match the apples. They remind Anya what she buried when she planted the tree. Red for something stained with blood, yellow for something stolen, green for something never touched or tasted. Anya only buries things that will nourish her trees, though. You know what? This one is cool. quote:Humans think that they’re on top of the food chain, preying on animals that are bigger and stronger than they are. But some part of them remembers a time before they were the ultimate hunters, and knows more fearsome creatures see them nothing more than the next meal. Predators remind the world’s self-declared alpha predators that when you catch one of them alone at night, they’re nothing more than helpless, hairless monkeys. So, you might have picked up a certain..enthusiasm for something, in this game. I will let you draw your own conclusions. quote:Darius took his name and his hunting style from a werewolf he met once. He chases down his prey and breaks a bone — arm, leg, neck, doesn’t matter, as long as he can hear the crack. He inflicts pain and fear in his prey and leaves behind a crippled, terrified person...or sometimes just a corpse, depending on how loudly his Soul howls. There was this weird part in the Werewolf 2E book where it talked about a bunch of Hunters in Darkness going to the Rockies every so often, picking a country road, and just straight up slaughtering anyone they found. Weird! i thought, but I get it, because they're protagonists, and not necessarily heroes. They made this entire book out of that one section, and then gave them an antagonist you're forbidden to sympathize with.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:20
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quote:Jo doesn’t tower over her prey — she’s short, but she’s all muscle. She enjoys letting other people challenge her, especially men. The challenge isn’t always or even usually physical. Sometimes they try to test her knowledge on topics they think she shouldn’t understand, or try to explain things to her that it’s obvious she knows. She destroys them; she knows what they know and she pokes holes in their beliefs and their facts, showing them sides of the topic they never considered. Secretly, though, she relishes the rare times when a man gets so mad he tries to touch her, because then she can beat him in a way that leaves no room for argument. Theoretical PC Jo here deserves special mention for the way she duel-wields the master's tools against the master's house
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Jun 7, 2015 02:22
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tatankatonk posted:I feel gross. I can't believe someone took the worst and most upsetting part of the Vampire metaphor even further. Except they don't do anything! They have to make people feel dominated but don't actually have to dominate. Beasts are Israel's post-modern military strategy, which makes the invocation of Fables all the more apt.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:23
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*writes a sample character that mechanically and demonstrably gets off on psychologically abusing children in her care in tyool 2015* For real though these are the good guys and you should be friends with them, everyone.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:23
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So Beasts aren't evil because sometimes they don't kill people. They just literally feed by being abusive and horrible people.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:24
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Luminous Obscurity posted:I'd give it a few days. See if McFarland or Rich T make any kind of official statement about this. An official statement like "Thanks for taking us 27k over our goal with 25 days to go!"?
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Jun 7, 2015 02:25
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You know what? All of these Hungers so far are pretty lovely and hurtful. But there's hope on the horizon. quote:
Cool. Finally. Retributive justice is ultimately harmful and less useful than restorative justice, but go ahead and beat up some rear end in a top hat murderers or rapists or whatever. Okay? Fine. quote:Patrick and Ahmed are a Makara Collector and a Makara Nemesis, respectively, who fell in love. Patrick placed his treasures at the bottom of Ahmed’s lake, and Ahmed resolved to punish all those who would dare to steal his lover’s hoard. People come to the lake to almost every week, looking to dive down and take the “abandoned treasure.” Of course, Patrick makes sure to spread the rumors about the treasure. That way people come looking, and his lover gets to punish them. FFFFUCK OFFF
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Jun 7, 2015 02:26
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Swagger Dagger posted:An official statement like "Thanks for taking us 27k over our goal with 25 days to go!"? Good point. Go for it.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:26
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Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:*writes a sample character that mechanically and demonstrably gets off on psychologically abusing children in her care in tyool 2015* For real though these are the good guys and you should be friends with them, everyone. Not only that, you're mechanically forced to like them if you're supernatural. Swagger Dagger posted:An official statement like "Thanks for taking us 27k over our goal with 25 days to go!"? I'm going to be really blunt and say I'm actively disappointed and kind of ashamed this is getting the kind of money it is. Either the majority of people backing it have no critical reading skills, or there are a whole lot of people who see nothing wrong with flat out lionizing abusers.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:27
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quote:Anya owns an apple orchard. Each tree has a ribbon tied around the top. Some of them are red, some are yellow, some are green, and most people who visit the orchard and buy her apples assume the ribbons correspond to the specific type of apple the tree bears. But that isn’t it. Anya goes out into the orchard at night and checks the ribbons, reminiscing about the day each tree was planted. The ribbons don’t match the apples. They remind Anya what she buried when she planted the tree. Red for something stained with blood, yellow for something stolen, green for something never touched or tasted. Anya only buries things that will nourish her trees, though. Pretty sure this is a description of a Changeling tending to her Hedge garden that somehow migrated over from the CtL 2E core.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:30
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Daeren posted:Not only that, you're mechanically forced to like them if you're supernatural. Third and fourth options: They haven't read the pre-release text because they don't want to spoil it, and they back anything with an OP logo out of brand loyalty/a desire to have the shiny deluxe copy even if it's crap. Some people are busy and some people just collect poo poo.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:32
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quote:Hunger for Ruin Just shovel more garbage into my brain quote:A Ravager must destroy to feed, and he must destroy something that others value. It’s not exactly the act of violence that he feeds from, it’s the change it causes in the humans who notice. When someone witnesses the destruction caused by a Ravager, or its results, they are suddenly aware of how fragile they are and start to wonder just exactly what will be destroyed next. That state of uncertainty and fear is what satiates a Ravager, leaving those in the wake of his rampage wondering what could have caused so much damage and when it might be back. I love Heroes. I unironically will hoot and holler for any story of Heroes destroying Broods of Beasts. How could you imagine it any other way? How could you not see this? I am baffled. quote:Ravagers can unleash their fury in any number of directions. Most Souls who Hunger for Ruin aren’t particularly picky about their meals. A Ravager might burn down a state-of-the-art nightclub one day and take a sledgehammer to the priceless antiques at an auction house the next without his Soul becoming upset by the disruption. Many actually prefer the chaos caused by such wildly varied hunts, planning their meals such that no one will ever know where they’ll strike next. The easiest way for a Ravager to ensure his desired reaction is to target some symbol of security. Destroying a home almost invariably leave its inhabitants shaken and lost, but leaving gashes in the brick walls outside of a police station might have the same effect over a whole community of people. The Ravager needn’t target a structure, either. Smashing a woman’s laptop might leave her feeling just as exposed as destroying her house, while setting fires in public areas quickly creates the necessary state of panic and confusion. Do you understand what makes Vampires interesting? That it's the tension between the urge of hurting people that they can't control, in the form of needing to drink blood, and the urge to retain their own humanity? That the workarounds and justifications and excuses and striving towards fixing yourself make drama and pathos? Beast does not understand this. This is a broken, petty, parody of nWoD. quote:Namtaru Ravagers do not so much destroy as pollute. Their Souls are pestilent monsters that poison the air and cover everything they pass in vile sludge, or swarms of insects and other vermin. Their human selves create the same sort of ruin, infecting the world around them and feeding as people discover that something once clean and safe has become dangerous to even approach. Their ruin is insidious, because it can resurface long after people think they’ve repaired what was lost. Namtaru Ravagers don’t merely destroy whole forests or fields, they turn them to salt that poisons the earth for decades to come. LITERALLY A CAPTAIN PLANET VILLAIN THIS IS BEYOND UNDERSTANDING, BEYOND MORALITY, BEYOND SANITY
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Jun 7, 2015 02:34
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spectralent posted:Third and fourth options: They haven't read the pre-release text because they don't want to spoil it, and they back anything with an OP logo out of brand loyalty/a desire to have the shiny deluxe copy even if it's crap. Some people are busy and some people just collect poo poo. Pretty much this. I've already seen a few backers on RPGnet and the OPP boards who reflexively backed it right out the gate being shocked at the content and pulling their money.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:35
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quote:Reynold is a health inspector for the city. When his Soul hungers, he dons rubber gloves and tests everything. He quizzes employees, he looks for the slightest bit of mold or dirt, and he happily provides miles of appeals forms to the owner. He refuses bribes and dutifully reports any attempt. He isn’t after money, after all. He’s after the frustration and defeat in their eyes. Wait, so you can satiate your hunger by being as petty as possible? Is it possible to satiate yourself by not tipping your waiter? Is that what we have going on here?
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Jun 7, 2015 02:44
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Mr.Morgenstern posted:Wait, so you can satiate your hunger by being as petty as possible? Is it possible to satiate yourself by not tipping your waiter? Is that what we have going on here? If you're at low satiety (but not 0) you can feed by being an impulsive petty rear end in a top hat. At high hunger you basically need to enact the plot from Saw, unfortunately doing that will also probably kick you up to 10 which is stupid and dumb for it's own reasons.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:51
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It's seriously bizarre to me how the authors don't see how the "No the victim is evil because they are supernaturally compelled to fight because they are psychologically weak, so if you have sympathy for them you are a bad person" aspect comes off. Like if Vampire had whole sections devoted to how anyone victimized by a vampire deserved it because they were weak rear end babies who can't handle reality I'd be pretty horrified by that, too.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:51
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I do love the almost explicit mention that playing as a serial killer that derives sexual release from strangling women is fine, and here are the rules for that, but if you want to play an internet troll? That is a bridge too far sir, they would never stoop to allowing that sort of behavior. By nature that makes Heroes the least empathetic group in the entire nWoD that is still nominally human. Possessed by a demon, slaughter people for blood to stay young forever, eat babies? Whatever, that's cool. Are regressive and stupid? gently caress YOU, YOU MONSTER, YOU WILL NEVER BE ACCEPTED IN THIS PLACE! Delenda est bestia. Or something, I think it's supposed to be dative. Latin has too many loving declensions.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:51
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Seems like a pretty cool game for emotional terrorists, though
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Jun 7, 2015 02:52
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Beast almost seems like it might work better as a book about Changeling's keepers coming to our world for a Hostel-esque vacation.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:56
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Loomer posted:Beast almost seems like it might work better as a book about Changeling's keepers coming to our world for a Hostel-esque vacation. That's it. That's what these motherfuckers are. They're the True Fae that got "left behind" on Earth. Their myths and heroes are storycrafting or whatever it's called, it all makes sense.
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Jun 7, 2015 02:59
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| # ? May 8, 2024 06:33 |
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Here's an eerie though: Make Beast crossover friendly, but rather than teaming them up with the Kindred and Mages, Beasts prefer to team up with their more menacing antagonists such as the Strix and Banishers or the more menacing counterparts like the Pure or Loyalists to better feed off of their "prey" since the interests between Beasts and those groups seem to be more in line with each other than with the protagonists of those splats.
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Jun 7, 2015 03:00
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