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I saw this on Twitter today and I spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about how to do RQ Noir: https://twitter.com/PulpLibrarian/status/910951103898046464 The idea of Heroquesting with pulp/noir tropes is as far as I got, though. Trying to project Glorantha into a 20th-century Earth analogue seems like it would get kind of tasteless kind of fast.
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Sep 22, 2017 01:40
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ZeroCount posted:as far as I can tell, neutral evil and chaotic evil are more or less the same thing "The law enables me to be enough of an rear end in a top hat" / "I am an enough of an rear end in a top hat" / "The law prevents me from being enough of an rear end in a top hat" e: Kwyndig posted:That's the problem with the 9 point alignment, it's hard to really pin down the differences with the neutral alignments on the law chaos axis But yeah, this for good/evil too. I guess the neutral alignments are supposed to encompass people where you'd say they're (eg) neither autoritarian nor libertarian. That doesn't work very well for the "these are comsic forces" idea, and it works even less well for settings with ways to observe whether someone/thing is objectively good or objectively chaotic or whatever. Unless you need to be X goodness "up" from neutral for the detector to go off or something, but that's somehow even dumber. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Sep 22, 2017 |
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Sep 22, 2017 01:47
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Kai Tave posted:Uh, are you thinking of Dark Sun? That's the swords (made of bone) and sorcery (which is outlawed by all but the Sorcerer-Kings) setting. Eberron is basically post WWI recovery 1920's-esque fantasy. I mean yes, if you want to take literally the most cynical approach possible you can argue that since Eberron is an attempt at making a vaguely more "real world ish" fantasy setting that of course its power structures will be inevitably corrupt, but Eberron's take on shades of grey cuts both ways. The Queen of Aundair is a generally kind and noble sort of person and Aundair is presented as a pastoral, idyllic sort of nation, and she very much wants to restart the war where it left off because she genuinely believes that Aundair could (and should) be the victor, meanwhile the vampire ruler of necromancy-practicing Karrnath who's impersonating his own grandson and I think locked his actual son away in prison to keep the charade going is adamantly anti-war, not for any sinister agenda but because his country weathered the war poorly and he realizes that a return to hostilities would result in even greater casualties and he loves his country. Breland is a monarchy with a pretty decent king that's nonetheless beginning to undergo a push towards a parliamentary system of representative government, with all the benefits and potential corruption that entails. Then you have the nation of Droaam which is comprised entirely of "monstrous races" (gnolls, goblins, medusas, harpies, trolls, etc) united by an extremely sinister and powerful trio of hags, whose goal is to...get Droaam formally recognized as a sovereign nation by the other major powers instead of a big space on the map labeled "Here There Be Monsters." Nah, I'm not thinking of Dark Sun. All the 4e material that I read about Eberron strongly emphasized cloak and dagger stories, betrayals, and people being in secret cults and grasping for power. The Eberron conversion of Keep on The Shadowfell even makes some of the minor town NPCs secretly evil. Seems like a pretty different interpretation of "shades of grey" than what you're describing. I know about Droaam and all that stuff, but the vibe was pretty different.
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Sep 22, 2017 02:04
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Cease to Hope posted:A big difference of Eberron compared to a lot of the other published settings - esp FR which was then the flagship - is that power structures can be corrupt in the first place. There's no personal intervention on the part of Mystra or whoever to strip power from corrupt or heretical clergy. There's plenty of corrupt power structures and religions in the Realms? And there's lots of heresies, theological differences, and so on. Please actually read about the Realms before you spout off about them.
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Sep 22, 2017 02:07
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Lurdiak posted:Nah, I'm not thinking of Dark Sun. All the 4e material that I read about Eberron strongly emphasized cloak and dagger stories, betrayals, and people being in secret cults and grasping for power. The Eberron conversion of Keep on The Shadowfell even makes some of the minor town NPCs secretly evil. Seems like a pretty different interpretation of "shades of grey" than what you're describing. I know about Droaam and all that stuff, but the vibe was pretty different. Okay, well you have a pretty personal interpretation of Eberron then because it is absolutely not a setting about the inevitable corruption of everything and how everything sucks forever, sorry.
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Sep 22, 2017 02:14
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I like Eberron because it has robots
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Sep 22, 2017 02:16
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Blockhouse posted:I like Eberron because it has robots Everything is better with robots.
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Sep 22, 2017 02:20
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Kai Tave posted:Okay, well you have a pretty personal interpretation of Eberron then because it is absolutely not a setting about the inevitable corruption of everything and how everything sucks forever, sorry. I'm really not invested in that perception of the setting.
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Sep 22, 2017 02:26
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some loving LIAR posted:
Given that a chunk of Glorantha in-setting fiction from back in the day were Damon Runyon Pastiches set in Pavis (All the Griselda and Wolfshead stuff) and noir-y detective stories set in the temple of Lankhor Mhy in Notchet, it's not like you need to work that hard to do Glorantha Noir.
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Sep 22, 2017 03:18
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Lurdiak posted:...where power structures are inevitably corrupt or at the very least self-serving and untrustworthy. I mean, that's just life. Eberron tends to have at least a corrupt something somewhere in most power structures because, well, nothing is perfect, but also because you want plot hooks for stuff. Basically, one of the biggest I guess "points" of Eberron is that it is not the setting of capital E Evil fighting capital G Good. There are places where that happens, but by and large, most of the truly horrible individuals in Eberron are way more banal little e evil. While there are antagonists like the EMERALD CLAW which you're supposed to punch off trains and steal artifacts from so you can put them into museums, there are far, far more antagonist groups like the Aurum - literally just a capitalist secret society with all that entails. No special magic, no occult connections, no evil gods meddling about, just a group of extraordinarily wealthy people who want more. In fact, one of the biggest background points in Eberron is just how horrifically bad the people who should be capital G Good can be, in the lycanthrope purge. That wasn't the result of people being corrupt or untrustworthy, it's the result of idealism sallying forth and then being horrifyingly crushed by the far more cynical reality of the situation, and then settling into sheer desperation. Eberron might seem like it's more shady then something like Forgotten Realms where, yes, there are secret cults and corruption and whatnot, but those are intended to represent "wrongs" that stand out in otherwise peaceful settings, but that's because it wasn't written with high fantasy in mind, it was written with post-war capitalism and politics in mind. It's not a cynical setting, but it's also not a very optimistic one.
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Sep 22, 2017 04:37
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Eberron does have an ongoing theme of civilizations eventually falling due to a mixture of ego and corruption, with periodic alien invasions being the final killing blow. The drow of Xen'drik even point to the long history of failed empires as proof that organizing into nations naturally drives people insane (all the crazy giants around them don't help that perception). The difference this time, though, is that the PCs are there to stop things from going to hell... or push them that way, like most other potential catastrophes Eberron sets up for characters to bumble into.ProfessorCirno posted:In fact, one of the biggest background points in Eberron is just how horrifically bad the people who should be capital G Good can be, in the lycanthrope purge. That wasn't the result of people being corrupt or untrustworthy, it's the result of idealism sallying forth and then being horrifyingly crushed by the far more cynical reality of the situation, and then settling into sheer desperation. Well, it is implied that the Shadow in the Flame also drove the lycanthrope purge to genocidal extremes it never would have reached otherwise. Nuns with Guns fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Sep 22, 2017 |
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Sep 22, 2017 04:58
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Nuns with Guns posted:Well, it is implied that the Shadow in the Flame also drove the lycanthrope purge to genocidal extremes it never would have reached otherwise. Far as I know, Baker's done the opposite. The lycanthrope purge was what it was because of entirely mortal reasons. The situation was just thirty kinds of hosed. I mean, had the Silver Flame NOT stepped in, it legit would've gone full zombie apocalypse, but with more body hair. You had these guys going down to fight the good fight against evil, filled with hymns and stories of saints, and by day two they'd've had to kill their own companions who got bitten or scratched to save them from turning, and also, the things you are fighting sure do look a whole loving lot like those tiger demons your religion was literally founded on killing. And a single werewolf or wereboar is a whole lot stronger then a single templar, no matter how brave they are. And then, during the day, they could be anyone. The farmer who stared at you suspiciously. The druid who always goes inside when they see you. Oh, but they're monsters. The barman who winked at you. The blacksmith who helped with the dings in your armor at no cost. The farmer who invited you for dinner. It could especially be that Shifter who lives out in the woods by themselves and who always hated the people of the village. Hated your friend, the one who you had to put down last night, because it got him along the side, not even a fatal wound, but deep enough to get in his blood.
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Sep 22, 2017 06:00
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There was a modern noir version of HeroQuest published a while back, called Nameless Streets.quote:Nameless Streets is a game of mysteries and the paranormal beings who investigate them. Powered by the flexible and dynamic HeroQuest game system, players take on such roles as a famous vampire detective, his werewolf muscle, and the necromancer who helps to solve murders. Set amidst the narrow, rain-soaked streets of Portland, Oregon, Nameless Streets handles classic mysteries, like the Locked Room, and more esoteric struggles with equal ease. You might locate a missing person one week, and get caught in the crossfire between warring sorcerer guilds the next. It has paranormal stuff because RPG, but it seems like you could snip that out and just play straight Chandler/Hammett style games with no problem
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Sep 22, 2017 06:02
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FMguru posted:There was a modern noir version of HeroQuest published a while back, called Nameless Streets. A quick Google search reveals it to be completely out of print and not for sale at the moment due to the contract reverting publishing rights back to the author. This thread here has some details, and apparently the author is attempting to repackage it as its own standalone game, but the last post was in June so who knows what sort of progress is being made.
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Sep 22, 2017 06:26
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Eberron is not meant to be "ooh everyone has a dark past" it's just meant to be pulp adventure in postwar like the roaring 20s. It isn't any more a cynical setting than Spirit of the Century is - they operate in pretty much the same setting tropes, Eberron just also has dragons in it.
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Sep 22, 2017 10:22
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ProfessorCirno posted:Far as I know, Baker's done the opposite. The lycanthrope purge was what it was because of entirely mortal reasons. The situation was just thirty kinds of hosed. I mean, had the Silver Flame NOT stepped in, it legit would've gone full zombie apocalypse, but with more body hair. You had these guys going down to fight the good fight against evil, filled with hymns and stories of saints, and by day two they'd've had to kill their own companions who got bitten or scratched to save them from turning, and also, the things you are fighting sure do look a whole loving lot like those tiger demons your religion was literally founded on killing. And a single werewolf or wereboar is a whole lot stronger then a single templar, no matter how brave they are. And then, during the day, they could be anyone. The farmer who stared at you suspiciously. The druid who always goes inside when they see you. Oh, but they're monsters. The barman who winked at you. The blacksmith who helped with the dings in your armor at no cost. The farmer who invited you for dinner. it gets played up a lot more in the 4e update, where the book more directly says Bel Shalor is still within the flame and uses it to corrupt some of its followers: Eberron Campaign Guide posted:While he is bound. Bel Shalor has little ability to directly influence t he world. His power is one of insidious inspiration, of whispers in the dark. He has turned his prison against his captors, reaching through the bars of the Silver Flame to touch the minds of the faithful. Some followers of the Flame have been corrupted to actively worship Bel Shalor. His strength is his ability to trick good people into performing evil deeds. something he has accomplished all 100 often over the millennia. I prefer the interpretation that the purge would have happened and been terribly no matter what because of human(oid) nature but different writers take it in different directions
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Sep 22, 2017 12:38
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Nuns with Guns posted:The drow of Xen'drik even point to the long history of failed empires as proof that organizing into nations naturally drives people insane (all the crazy giants around them don't help that perception).
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Sep 22, 2017 13:49
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Xen'drik is awful and I don't like being there EDIT: Daelkyr can also suck a gently caress gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 14:23 on Sep 22, 2017 |
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Sep 22, 2017 14:12
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I actually don't know a lot about eberron other than warforged so the phrase "several continent wide curses" may be the best thing I've read all week
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Sep 22, 2017 14:18
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Blockhouse posted:I actually don't know a lot about eberron other than warforged so the phrase "several continent wide curses" may be the best thing I've read all week Xen'drik is great because it's the D&D map you made when you were 12; no rhyme or reason to anything, the desert is right next to the frozen wastes, weird monsters all over the place solely because they look cool, and so on. The place was ground zero for a shitton of magic back in ancient history, and the continent is still feeling the effects of it centuries later. Eberrowns.
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Sep 22, 2017 14:25
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Eberron is cool and I still have the 3.5 book but whenever I tries to run it IRL people wanted other settings and online no one plays it :/
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Sep 22, 2017 14:50
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gradenko_2000 posted:Xen'drik is awful and I don't like being there quote:EDIT: Daelkyr can also suck a gently caress 
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Sep 22, 2017 14:58
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Plutonis posted:Eberron is cool and I still have the 3.5 book but whenever I tries to run it IRL people wanted other settings and online no one plays it :/ What settings are popular in Brazil?
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Sep 22, 2017 15:01
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Lightning Lord posted:What settings are popular in Brazil? Tormenta (original setting) and Forgotten Realms (only one that got translated as far as I know).
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Sep 22, 2017 15:08
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Evil Mastermind posted:Xen'drik is great because it's the D&D map you made when you were 12; no rhyme or reason to anything, the desert is right next to the frozen wastes, weird monsters all over the place solely because they look cool, and so on. The place was ground zero for a shitton of magic back in ancient history, and the continent is still feeling the effects of it centuries later. Also the most important part is that the geography literally shifts around which means maps are useless.
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Sep 22, 2017 16:34
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Kai Tave posted:Also the most important part is that the geography literally shifts around which means maps are useless. 
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Sep 22, 2017 16:51
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I have a 5 year old son (6 in October) that I think would get a kick out of the role-playing in tabletop RPGs. But I have zero experience with tabletop RPGs (although I have tons of experience with video games, and a fair amount with modern board games). Is there an RPG that would work well for a family like this (my kid, me, my wife)?
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Sep 22, 2017 16:55
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Kai Tave posted:Also the most important part is that the geography literally shifts around which means maps are useless.
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Sep 22, 2017 17:12
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Cicero posted:I have a 5 year old son (6 in October) that I think would get a kick out of the role-playing in tabletop RPGs. But I have zero experience with tabletop RPGs (although I have tons of experience with video games, and a fair amount with modern board games). Is there an RPG that would work well for a family like this (my kid, me, my wife)? Hero Kids No Thank You Evil (the system is pretty terrible but groups I've read about have still had fun with it) Costume Fairy Adventures (but might be a bit "girly" for a 5y boy)
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Sep 22, 2017 19:43
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Cicero posted:I have a 5 year old son (6 in October) that I think would get a kick out of the role-playing in tabletop RPGs. But I have zero experience with tabletop RPGs (although I have tons of experience with video games, and a fair amount with modern board games). Is there an RPG that would work well for a family like this (my kid, me, my wife)? Golden Sky Stories E- if the Japanese countryside setting is too out there for a five year old, there's also the Fairy Skies variant. Nuns with Guns fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Sep 22, 2017 |
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Sep 22, 2017 19:55
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Nuns with Guns posted:Golden Sky Stories nooooooo
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Sep 22, 2017 19:58
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Cicero posted:I have a 5 year old son (6 in October) that I think would get a kick out of the role-playing in tabletop RPGs. But I have zero experience with tabletop RPGs (although I have tons of experience with video games, and a fair amount with modern board games). Is there an RPG that would work well for a family like this (my kid, me, my wife)? Fall of Magic
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Sep 22, 2017 20:49
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hyphz posted:Hero Kids I had fun with NTYE, with 9, 7, 2 adults. System is definitely not A+ though, and book organization is sad.
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Sep 22, 2017 20:58
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Mice & Mystics is maybe a good intro, maybe not what you're looking for. Kind of a board game RPG hybrid aimed at kids?
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Sep 22, 2017 22:12
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There's a third-party publisher that does kid-appropriate Pathfinder adventures. It's good to get them started with the usual that way they know what's up with gaming.
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Sep 22, 2017 23:09
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Yikes
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Sep 22, 2017 23:23
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Arivia posted:There's a third-party publisher that does kid-appropriate Pathfinder adventures. It's good to get them started with the usual that way they know what's up with gaming.
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Sep 22, 2017 23:28
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please don't advocate for child abuse
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Sep 22, 2017 23:28
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dwarf74 posted:PF is a poo poo way to get started on gaming. My middle school (11-12 yo) friends and I learned tabletop gaming on 3.5; we taught ourselves. I wouldn't call it a good system for kids, but people in TG often radically underestimate how much kids can understand, and overestimate how much they want to actually roleplay, rather than basically play a cooperative video game made by their friend.
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Sep 22, 2017 23:44
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Arivia posted:There's a third-party publisher that does kid-appropriate Pathfinder adventures. It's good to get them started with the usual that way they know what's up with gaming. Yeah, no. This is patently false. Even ignoring all the trap options that an enthusiastic kid an fall into because they sound cool, no 5 years-old is going to want to sit thorugh PF's character generation.
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Sep 22, 2017 23:46
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