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 Neotech 2 Part 4: It’s a hard knock life  This is so 80’s it hurts. Seeing as there was no real interest in a Drawbacks list we'll be moving right along then. With the attributes and all that out of the way we’re moving onto the overall step 2 (in actuality step 25) where we start working on the characters background a bit more. But first we’re introduced to this game’s term for experience points: Units. Rather underwhelming name if anything. Edit: Turns out I was wrong after I wrote this part up. Units aren't experience points and just points used during character lifepaths and careers. Either way, the book goes into the relative costs of raising skills during character generation. It’s 2 units to raise a skill that already doesn’t have a basic value of 5. After that its a 1 to 1 cost to go from 6 to the max rank of 10. Then there is also a rather weird mention of “Raise to a level in the range” on the relevant table that isn’t explained beyond that it’s not possible to raise any skills to ranks above 10. All characters start with a modest sum of money that they’ve managed to save up in their life. The amount of money you get is based on your social status as well as random events in your life. You can start the game being in debt thanks to these as well. We now move onto character life paths and if you like random rolling tables you have come to the right place because we have a whole bunch of them here. All of these random encounter tables are based on social status and come with the following things: -A number of units and list of skills that the character might have learned as they grew up. -Educational skills that the character might have learned in school alongside a very small number of units to spend on these on. -Starting money, which Ob3D6 x 10/50/100/1000/10 0000 based on your status. Worth mentioning that Homeless is the only status rank that doesn’t start with any units to spend on educational skills. But they also start with the most growing skills units. 30 compared to 15 for everyone else. Meanwhile everyone, with the exception of homeless and underclass, gets 15 units to spend on educational skills. The underclass rank only gets 5. With that noted down you then roll twice on the D100 event table to see what you get. The results can vary from various contacts or enemies that usually come 1D6+value resources. In some rare cases it can affect your attributes in a positive or negative way, but those are restricted to the lower ranks and the general events table. If you manage to roll extremely well you run the chance of being able to either roll on the encounter table for the rank above you or the general events table. The events in this case are a bit broader in scope where you can in some cases gain extra units to spend on specific skills. But expect to usually lose a lot of your starting money and maybe end up in debt. Climbing the career ladder. Once the life events have been finalized the character is considered to be 18 years old and we enter the career stage. Which also comes with its own skills, gear, money and events. We also get introduced to a bevy of new things that needs to be take into consideration. Firstly the characters background career consists of three employment periods. They can all be different ones each time or you can go for the same one each time. The only thing you need to is to pass the requirements. The book mentions that you can either spread yourself wide to know a lot of things or focus on one career to get as far as possible in it. Usually the first period is used on a university career to make the other two easier to enter. Then it mentions a voluntary rule that if GMs want more unexperienced and younger character they should use less employment periods. But it also at the same time stresses that all players should then be given the same number of them to keep things fair. Which is a good suggestion in general unless you want to have someone to play an older mentor. 21 different careers are available to choose from. But three of those are special and can never been picked on their own and can only happen through events. We’ll talk about those in more detail later. So in order to get anywhere within your career you need to roll a success roll 3 times. This is usually a normal difficulty check against either an attribute or a skill. There might however be some special requirements as well. Then on top of that you have general requirements to be able to start the career. Such as having a higher degree of education or not having a criminal record. How well you succeed in your career is dependant on how many rolls you pass. If you pass all three rolls it means that the character has made a stellar career. If you pass two rolls it means the character has made average progress. If you pass one roll it means you have failed and are not allowed to pick the same career for the next employment period. If you fail all three roles you the chosen career gets automatically switched to either unemployed if your starting capital is more than 0 or homeless if it’s below zero. Home and Unemployed are two of the three special careers in this case. The book then mentions a voluntary rule about using contacts or money to improve your rolls. But it also says that you can’t use this to coast through all three rolls and can only be used for one of them. You also have to decide before you roll if you either want to use a bribe or a contact for this.  I didn’t know Interview with a Vampire got a sequel. Careers will also bolster your skills and here we get an expansion for the previous unit costs. For skills between rank 11 to 15 it costs 2 units per rank, then that cost goes up to 8 units per rank in the 16 to 20 bracket. As for rank 21 to 25 it’s 20 units per rank. Then you can also buy skill specializations for 1 unit. Depending on how well you rolled you’ll get an x|y|z value of units to spend. For example if we only passed one roll we’ll get 15 units to spend while increased successes would net you 20 or 25 units. You are free to spend these on any of the career skills as you like, including ignoring ones you don’t feel are important to you. Any unspent units can then be used for optional skills. With the exception of Combat Experience. Speaking of which, I mentioned before that Combat Experience is a rather special skill. Because you can’t use regular units to increase ranks in this skill but you have to use special ones handed out by various careers. But if you then have left some special units left over you can use them on optional skills. This whole feels like a bit of a mess. This by the way is not the end to various special rules attached to this skill. You can also be promoted, this is also based on an x|y|z ratio or it can happen through events. Much like the lifepath before you can either gain or lose money during your careers based on what events you might roll. All the careers have starting gear, but what you get is dependent on how well you’ve rolled. Any duplicates are discarded. But it’s all written out in special reference codes. For example here is the entry for the first class, the Businessman: Failed: A2-A4, B2, K3. Normal: A2-A7, B3, F7, K4, TM9, TR3/TR4/TR5 Successful: A2-A8, B4/B6, F8, K5, TM9, TR3, TR4, TR5. So what you need to do in this case is reference yet another table for what these all means. Using our example we get: Failed: ID-card, bag and keys, Charge card, pocket knife, handkerchief. Normal: All of the above plus Sunglasses, mobile phone, pocket computer, suitcase, business card, advertising leaflet, apartment, Pickup, cash terminal, Store/Warehouse/Office. Successful: All of the above plus an attache case, villa (makes a special mention that you have your amortization left), Van, cash terminal, Store, warehouse, office. This game is really keen on handing out a lot of very unrelated and minor things to the player. Any gear that begins with the letter I or T means that its either illegal or part of your service equipment. You are however not forced to accept all this, so if you don’t want to have any illegal weapons you are free to say no. Once the character have gone through all three of their employment periods they then need to decide, in conjunction with the GM, if they want to retain their last employment or not. There are three options: Employed: You get to keep all your equipment. But only the career equipment from the last career they went through. They’re obviously not allowed to sell it. On leave: You get to keep all of their equipment but can’t use any of it until you’ve gone back to their job again. Not employed: You get to keep all your equipment except for any career specific ones. Lastly there are a couple of special cases when it comes to equipment. Gone to jail: All equipment is lost barring a few categories. If you’re caught with an illegal weapon you get 1D6 year extra on your sentence. Criminal records: If you have a gun with a license you lose that if you go on the criminal record. Service weapons not included in this. But they’re also unable to gain any new weapons through legal means if they’re on record. Homeless: You lose all your equipment. Gaining a residence: If you get a house somewhere you need to establish where it is. In what country, city and district. Gaining a new residence: You are only allowed to have one and if you were to get a new one you have to pick which one. At this point we’ve reached step 40 and are done with character generation. Phew, glad to be done with that because it’s a slog. Although I’m struck with one big question at this point. Just what are the player characters supposed to do in this game? At no point during this procedure has there been any inclination as to what the characters might be doing. In fact it all seems like they’re meant to have stable jobs of some kind with all the accoutrements that come with it. The equipment listings for each class are exceedingly thorough with giving you all what you need to actually live a normal life. There doesn’t seem to be much of a flavour or anything set so far and as we’ll find out next time the various careers go all over the place as well. Maybe I’ll find an answer to this question once the lore section starts. In about 200 pages time. Next time: An officer, a playboy and a Gangster walk into a seedy cyberpunk bar. Cooked Auto fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Apr 2, 2019 |
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Apr 2, 2019 19:52
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Robindaybird posted:Oh yeah, Ninja Scroll only noticeable because it's the best of it's lot that got brought to the west. The late 80s/early 90s anime scene in America was pretty bad and full of a lot garbage - there were of course gems, but mostly trash that was cheap to license. Yeah, it was visually impressive for the time and easy to get a hold of compared to everything else. Congrats on starting in the early 90s anime boom, now watch anything else. Or don't. Either's good.
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Apr 2, 2019 20:01
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Yikes, Neotech has a Traveller-level lifepath system built on top of its really weird mechanics.
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Apr 2, 2019 20:02
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 Dhampir, Part 1 This is where we get our first hit of White Wolf Fiction, which isn’t very interesting and involves a vampire throwing a hissy fit at a Dhampir, who does something that isn’t well explained that spooks him. So, Dhampir. The chapter proper starts with a particular eye-rolling paragraph saying that they aren’t just a watered down vampire, they are “whatever [they] say [they are], and gently caress you for thinking you know better.” This tells me nothing at all about what they actually are, so I’m left feeling pretty cold. Thankfully, this is immediately followed by asking an interesting question: Why would a Vampire create a Dhampir? It notes that accidental Dhampir are basically impossible, as creating one requires both means and motivation. The motivations are varied, the examples given range from the earnestly wanting a family, to “gently caress you, you can’t leave me we’re gonna have a kid”, to having a useful pawn in Vampire Politics, to “gently caress it I’m sure I can use this for Vampire Science!”. So far, so Vampire. There’s also rules for a roll to prevent yourself becoming attached to your new half-vampire baby in between the Means and Motive. The only interesting thing is that an Exceptional Success on this roll causes an immediate crisis of conscience, whereas the regular success doesn’t. So, we know why they would make a Dhampir, but how do they do so? Content Warning: Here be Sex stuff, as well as discussion of things that can cause miscarriages. Nothing that immediately makes me go “oh god that’s awful” but if you don’t wanna read about Sex and Pregnancy Stuff, skip the rest of this post. Honestly, the first time I read this section back in 2017 I said to myself “I need other people to know about this because this is both incredibly dumb and really funny to me.” The first method described is just simple plain Missionary Sex For The Purpose of Procreation. Sometimes it works. It’s very rare though. The second is embracing a woman who is pregnant, and it explicitly says the later you do so, the better the chances of the baby surviving. The next bit discusses the reverse situation. Supposedly, if a man impregnates a woman and then is turned into a vampire, it can cause his sperm to retroactively become vampire sperm and the baby to be a Dhampir. This was the bit that made me have to stop reading for a bit because the idea of Retroactively Magical Vampire Baby Batter made me laugh enough to draw me out of things. Apparently, ghouling the mother or just injecting the father’s vampire blood into the foetus can help this too. The following paragraph then immediately contradicts the first one, saying that no you can’t just have regular sex with a Vampire, you have to do weird stuff. This is partially a prelude to introducing Cruac and Theban Sorcery rules for creating a Dhampir, but it just seems odd to me that you have the text contradicting itself on the same page. So, thoughts. A lot of this is very interesting from a reader’s point of view, but it begs the question: Why? Maybe this is my own personal biases coming through, but I find the idea of saying at the gaming table “Yes I want to have vampire sex for the purpose of procreation for [insert reason xyz], now gimme dice I gotta cast my sex magic.” If I was going to be playing a Dhampir, I wouldn’t need to know the methods used to birth me. The motivations bit is far more reasonable, as it can inform player backstory and relations with the setting, but the rest just seems a tad gratuitous, especially since it contradicts itself. I’d say this is one of the weaker parts of the Dhampir section, but from what I remember, it gets better from hereon out. Next time: gently caress You Vampire Dad Part 2: Covenant and Clan opinions
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Apr 2, 2019 20:14
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Halloween Jack posted:Yikes, Neotech has a Traveller-level lifepath system built on top of its really weird mechanics. Yeeeaaaaah, thankfully you can't die from and at worst you'll end up in prison for a couple of years or you gain some attribute damage of some kind. Or go into debt.
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Apr 2, 2019 20:18
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Hm, what modern anime is a good fit for Exalted? Rokka no Yuusha has a very fitting aesthetic with its Mesoamerican look.
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Apr 2, 2019 20:20
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Jojo?  Although I'm kinda stumped for a more serious answer because the last series I watched was Pop Team Epic and I haven't really kept up with the times all that much.
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Apr 2, 2019 20:25
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Rand Brittain posted:Hm, what modern anime is a good fit for Exalted? Some long-running shonen that has completely lost track of the original point and now really only exists because people keep buying it when it should have ended fifty arcs ago?
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Apr 2, 2019 20:35
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PurpleXVI posted:Some long-running shonen that has completely lost track of the original point and now really only exists because people keep buying it when it should have ended fifty arcs ago? Exalted would be vastly improved by rules for sulking about having to spend time with your wife and child on vacation, though.
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Apr 2, 2019 20:41
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PurpleXVI posted:Some long-running shonen that has completely lost track of the original point and now really only exists because people keep buying it when it should have ended fifty arcs ago? Limit breaks based around letting horrible mass murdering tyrants go free so you can fight them again later?
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Apr 2, 2019 20:44
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trouble with rokka no yusha for exalted is it's mostly about locked room mysteries and not actually doing interesting adventure poo poo
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Apr 2, 2019 21:10
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Cooked Auto posted:Yeeeaaaaah, thankfully you can't die from and at worst you'll end up in prison for a couple of years or you gain some attribute damage of some kind.
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Apr 2, 2019 21:55
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Rand Brittain posted:Hm, what modern anime is a good fit for Exalted? Depends on the splat, but Infernals should totally be Berserk and ironically, Naruto for Dragon Blooded. I'd add a splash of One Piece for Solars, ironically, because it hits adventure right and how Haki and fights function.
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Apr 2, 2019 22:09
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Zereth posted:poo poo, if I'm doing a lifepath I'd probably rather have my character die and need to start over than take a permanent penalty. Kind of yes, even if there are some ways to mitigate that. Or at least when it comes to some of the attributes. But that's a couple of updates away.
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Apr 2, 2019 22:13
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Rand Brittain posted:Hm, what modern anime is a good fit for Exalted? Yuru Camp
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Apr 2, 2019 22:25
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Mors Rattus posted:Exalted 3rd Edition: HORSE I actually ran a Socialize supernal character, and it's more fun than it sounds, buuuut... a lot of it hinges on having the one charm that forces people to make Read Intentions rolls on you, which is garbage by itself, but useful if you have a bunch of other charms that ensnare them if you do. The Persona charms were my focus, of course, and they're pretty fun in concept, but they just die in the details. I have to share the pain I went through with this, so here goes. Persona Charms: A Cautionary Tale
*deep breath*
One, last, time.
 (My ST let me skip training times.)
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Apr 2, 2019 22:28
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It turns out Mirror Flag's amorality is just revenge on a world that made being Mirror Flag such a goddamn pain.
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Apr 2, 2019 22:31
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...I didn't know Exalted had a rule that could make me hate training times more.
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Apr 2, 2019 22:38
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Sometimes it sounds like CharOp is the main gameplay loop of Exalted.
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Apr 2, 2019 22:42
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And bear in mind to even get to this point you have to be like a dozen charms deep in Socialize, I forget how many and I'm not looking it up right now. That 75% / 66% divide is just sadistic. It's bad enough that your starting abilities aren't recursive - if you start with less than 25 dots in a persona you're just stuck that way - but the fact it can lead to tracking three XP values per persona for your XP formula is... it's enough of a headache to the point my ST was just "... I'm trusting you with this, there's no way I'm double-checking your math."
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Apr 2, 2019 22:51
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I can vaguely understand it, in that a character that fully optimizes the persona thing can literally do everything given the slightest chance to swap personas, but jesus christ this is way too much work.
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Apr 2, 2019 23:16
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Why does Sail contribute to your persona's stats. Why are none of these effects retroactive. Why do you need to buy four different charms to let you have an alternate identity.
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Apr 2, 2019 23:18
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you don't, you need 4 to have an alternate identity that has its own sheet, with different stats and charms than your sheet
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Apr 2, 2019 23:24
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Mors Rattus posted:I can vaguely understand it, in that a character that fully optimizes the persona thing can literally do everything given the slightest chance to swap personas, but jesus christ this is way too much work. Well, the XP and ability limitations generally keep your personas shallow in my experience. You end up with purpose-built roles that are solid in what they do but aren't going to remotely threaten somebody who's cornered a niche. It also eats the hell out of your main XP pool. Oh, and the reason you want all your personas to have Socialize 5 is Fugue-Empowered Other, which lets you take Limit to activate abilities and charms from personas you don't have active. That's what lets you do everything. Of course, it also makes you a broken jigsaw puzzle psychologically over time, but I don't necessarily see getting to ham it up as a drawback.
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Apr 2, 2019 23:39
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megane posted:Why does Sail contribute to your persona's stats. Sail contributes because its a caste ability of the Socialize guys. Same as why Ride is in there. Personas are a lot of work, but they eventually become like 75% of a character that grows at 2/3 the rate of a full player character so like Mors Rattus says you can eventually do everything given the chance to switch persona so they're really super duper strong. Some of the hoops are there so you can't make a guy with no combat skills and then flip to All Combat No Social without already having the combat skill in your original form so you don't just go "I'm 75% a Dawn, lets go" but holymoly could it have been done way easier without a bunch of nonsense, especially the 66%/75% stuff. Alien Rope Burn posted:Well, the XP and ability limitations generally keep your personas shallow in my experience. You end up with purpose-built roles that are solid in what they do but aren't going to remotely threaten somebody who's cornered a niche. It also eats the hell out of your main XP pool. I'm not sure I understand, how do they eat your main XP pool? I thought they just earn their own extra XP which they use to buy their own charms and abilities (if you have the thing that lets you do that)?
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Apr 2, 2019 23:53
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PurpleXVI posted:Okay so wait wait wait are you telling me that he made female freelancers write a loving essay while male writers just, what, had to provide a sample of their writing or something? Really? That is some loving cartoon villainy bullshit. Rand Brittain posted:Hm, what modern anime is a good fit for Exalted? e: Though I guess with all this alternate ID poo poo the real answer is "Cutey Honey"
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Apr 3, 2019 00:03
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NutritiousSnack posted:Depends on the splat, but Infernals should totally be Berserk and ironically, Naruto for Dragon Blooded. I'd add a splash of One Piece for Solars, ironically, because it hits adventure right and how Haki and fights function. Yeah definitely Berserk. Also Fist of the North Star for Solars and Sidereals, Jojo for Getimians (although Kars is definitely an Elder Lunar), Princess Mononoke for Lunars, Evangelion for just about anything involving Limit Breaks, etc etc.
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Apr 3, 2019 00:10
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Princess Mononoke is about a Lunar... and an Abyssal, since Ashitaka is absolutely a heroic Abyssal. Lady Eboshi is Dragon-Blooded. And rad. I guess there's a Chosen of Battles as well, but Jigo could also be just a mortal Guild Factor. You can run the entire thing in the East of Creation and you really don't need to change anything except the presence of gunpowder.
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Apr 3, 2019 00:29
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I mean, firedust is already magical, it can work however the GM needs it to.
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Apr 3, 2019 00:30
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I remember a very non-committal, short conversation where I made what I thought was a pretty strong case against weird XP costs and shenanigans for Charms and poo poo, and boy was I not listened to.
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Apr 3, 2019 00:31
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I am going to note, the core book Martial Arts are way more fun to read than any of the Solar trees. They're nicely contained, they all provide an interesting combat suite, and they do stuff that's much more interesting than generic die tricks most of the time.
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Apr 3, 2019 00:32
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Thesaurasaurus posted:Yeah definitely Berserk. Also Fist of the North Star for Solars and Sidereals, Jojo for Getimians (although Kars is definitely an Elder Lunar), Princess Mononoke for Lunars, Evangelion for just about anything involving Limit Breaks, etc etc. lol I really did consider FotNS and Ninja Scrolls, but I went by the 'recent' anime. I'd say Sidereals and Solar both do First of the North Star kung-fu with Solar's getting weirder Ninja Scroll Novels and Inyushasi stuff and One Piece Haki bullshit, while Sidereals get YuYu Hakusho "I'm throwing down spirit and fate magic now!" to split them up. Everything else though, dead on. Though JoJo's Hamon does seem Solar flared...
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Apr 3, 2019 01:29
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Mors Rattus posted:I am going to note, the core book Martial Arts are way more fun to read than any of the Solar trees. They're nicely contained, they all provide an interesting combat suite, and they do stuff that's much more interesting than generic die tricks most of the time. It's almost like they're written by someone else. Who later went on to take over the line.
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Apr 3, 2019 01:40
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EthanSteele posted:I'm not sure I understand, how do they eat your main XP pool? I thought they just earn their own extra XP which they use to buy their own charms and abilities (if you have the thing that lets you do that)? Getting there requires a fair amount of XP spends from charms to rounding out whatever necessary abilities you didn't start with at 5. Just getting the ability to do it once you have all the prereqs effectively takes 2 charms (unless you're content with getting the XP snarl noted above), and then you're spending 2 charms per persona beyond that. So, if you want just two other personas, that's 48 XP on top of a very heavy Socialize investment that isn't directly doing anything for your core persona. Granted, Fugue-Empowered Other lets you end-run around and draw off your other personas, but it's limited. It can be very effective but it's a very heavy opportunity cost.
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Apr 3, 2019 02:00
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Mors Rattus posted:I am going to note, the core book Martial Arts are way more fun to read than any of the Solar trees. They're nicely contained, they all provide an interesting combat suite, and they do stuff that's much more interesting than generic die tricks most of the time. If I ever decided to play Ex3 again I'd be sorely tempted to just strip out the native charm sets and run the game using only martial arts, sorcery, and evocations.
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Apr 3, 2019 02:57
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 The Rifter 9½, part 3: "Anyone who has so little regard for your feelings as to let a character like Erin Tarn get killed (whether intentionally or not) in the fashion you destribe is not a team player and probably not the kind of person you that you want to be associating with." Silly answers to some silly questions By Though a "joke" article, some of the answers are earnest and legit answers! Proof? Do I have proof? I've covered over thirty Palladium Books, there's your proof! The Rifter 9½ posted:Warning: Some of these questions and answers may be considered in poor taste. As as for being humorous. Um, humor is in the heart of the beholder? Yeah, that's the ticket. Fun Fact: 95% of these questions were actually asked by real people (you know who you are). First off, we get a correction- some first printings of Rifts have a reference to the leader of the Coalition being "Emperor Tromm". This was a typo based on the character's working name, which later became Prosek. The Rifter 9½ posted:We find this both amusing and puzzling since where are only about 10,000 copies of Rifts® with the mention of "Tromm" buried in one, lone paragraph out of a 254 page book done in 9 point text, and there are over 140,000 copies of Rifts® with the correction. You'd think the name "Tromm" would have been forgotten by now. Look, Rosenstein, there are plenty of typos, the fandom can't focus on them all. Next, we get a question of whether or not the space battleship SDF-1 (of Robotech) could blow up Chi-Town, to which we mainly get finger-wagging over why you'd want to murder so many "innocent" people. Only their leaders are bad!  Also, if it has to fight a Greater Old One wearing Mount Nimro as a suit (that's Palladium Fantasy minutae), it the old one would have 410,565 M.D.C., but it doesn't matter because the Reflex Cannon of the SDF-1 can blow up anything.A player claims they have an issue with a human PC who keeps rolling natural 20s and performing the Boxing knockout blow on ridiculous targets like giants, robots, and gods. Technically, this is a literal interpretation of the rules, so we get some "guidelines" (which are actually rules) that only Mega-Damage creatures can do knockout punches on Mega-Damage creatures, the puncher has to be of comparable size, and robots and energy beings are immune to it.  Save us all from Coalition Funko Pops. A fan asks whether or not they can give official stats for Pokemons, and what the Coalition would know about them. Palladium answers that they can't. The Rifter 9½ posted:Seriously, Palladium does not have the license for Pokemon, so we cannot offer any "official" stat or assistance in that respect, even if we wanted. Moreover, we do NOT have time or resources to provide free game rules, character stats, etc., upon request. Hey, creating characters for "your game" is YOUR job. So if you want to run a Coalition-based Pokemon game, it's now official. Well, it's like the song says: pre:I want to be the very best, Like no one ever was. To catch them is my real test, To train them is my cause! Otherwise I'll be drafted, Into the Coalition Army. Sent to the frontline, And get shot by an Octoman. Pokemon! All hail Emperor Tromm! The Rifter 9½ posted:Question: This is really embarrassing, but I have a problem I could use some advice with. I recently started going out with this girl who knew nothing about gaming. So, to get her involved in my Rifts® game, I let her play Erin Tarn as a character. Unfortunately, after a recent argument, she deliberately had Erin Tarn go toe-to-toe with a squad of Undead Juicers and go her killed. She claims that she was just playing in character but I suspect she got Erin killed out of spite. My other players are indignant about this because they do not want to be known throughout the gaming community as the group that let Erin Tarn get killed. It's mentioned that perhaps a god from the Pantheon of Light could resurrect her, or that she could have just been a doppleganger or "a poor misguided woman with brain damage and a striking resemblance". Then again, it suggested that maybe she should break up with her instead because anybody who would get Erin Tarn killed is a big jerk. The Rifter 9½ posted:(If I may interject. My unofficial, smart aleck response is: Are you crazy?! Who in their right mind would like their girl friend - or anybody - play a pivotal, ongoing character like Erin Tarn in the first place? Don't you know how fragile relationships are? Don't you know that there is nothing worse than the wrath of a woman scorned?! Of course she killed Erin Tarn out of spite!! Just make sure you aren't next on your hit list, buddy!! - [ No, you may not interject! Rosenstein's writin' here, pal! How rude is that? The next question strikes me as probably fake, as a reader talks about the funny names his group has come up with the Xiticix as "City Chicks", Atlantis as "At Land This", and... Phaeton Juicer as "Fat on Juice, Sir". Ha ha. Ha. Hahahaha. Ha. I say it's probably fake because "City Chicks" is one Kevin's referred to before. But in truth, I can't say. But I just did say. It's fake. Probably. Also I have a hard time believing anybody but the author thought "Size Talker" was funny. We get a question as to whether or not spit or pee count as "running water" for the purpose of injuring vampires, but it turns out that it's not the water itself but the "cleansing power and purity of the liquid that hurts vampires". Man, if you want cleansing power and purity, I'd think bleach would be better... The Rifter 9½ posted:And if you think an vampire gets angry from being spit on, you ain't seen nothin' until you've seen a vampire with a wet yellow streak running down his leg! Look out! We're informed angel pee would be effective, if angels peed. Angels do not pee, however. A gamemaster asks how to deal with an evil Paladin who has seven rune swords as a player. Suggestions include having the weapons engage in harem-anime level antics of jealous shenanigans. Alternately, have him go up against a good paladin with eight rune swords.  But how much S.D.C. does a burger have? I mean, a bite does... 1d4? 1d3? Hm. The Rifter 9½ posted:Question: Why don't you have rules for "luck" in your game? Wow, shots fired, Basic Role-Playing, you gonna take that? We get a player who wants to use the Air Warlock spell dissipate gases to destroy people because they're mostly water, and water is part hydrogen and part oxygen. The Rifter 9½ posted:I have an uncle who is a walking gas bag - but the answer is still no. We have a gamemaster running Heroes Unlimited asking a question. Now, in Heroes Unlimited, each character has only one or two power categories, but he has a player coming in from a different campaign who wants to bring in a character who has five power categories. It's suggested he prohibit the character, and that though they're open to people changing the game "characters like the one you described tend to be a bit ridiculous and are not much fun to play." A reader asks if the Algor giants or the god Algor (from Palladium Fantasy) are named after Al Gore. They are not. The Rifter 9½ posted:However, now that you have brought this to our attention - oh, the possibilities. A monster named rossperot, hmmmm?). I think we've had enough monsters in the White House during my lifetime, thanks. Another gamemaster has run into the issue where since successful skill rolls in Palladium are worth 25 XP, a player has just been having his characters backflip repeatedly (using the Gymnastics skill) for XP. We're informed skill rolls should only be worth XP when used to achieve a goal in the context of the game, and that normally a gymnast should be flipping as part of their basic practice anyway, which isn't worth anything. Another player suggests, since there's a game based on professional wrestling, how about badminton or another game? Which feels fake, but you never know. They say no. Another player inquires about what to do when characters hit 15th level, which, uh, inspires a a classically Siembieda rant. I mean, it could be Rosenstein, but the tone of some of these answers has me suspicious... The Rifter 9½ posted:Answer: First of all, the reason that most (the vast majority) O.C.C.s and R.C.C.s is that we do not see many characters ever surpassing that. Ever here of an athelete reaching his "peak" level of performance, or the "peak of his career?" After a certain point, any additional improvements are incremental and barely noticeable. Additionally, in the real world, most atheletes begin to slow down from age (at the young age of 30-35, no less!) and/or suffer the effects of physical wear and tear on the body. Even superstars like Michael Jordan begin to tire a bit more quickly, slow down and become more prone to injury toward the end of their careers. Given it takes the average Palladium character over 10 years to hit level 15 RAW, I'd stop taking people at their word about hitting it. Save the sports analogies for another day. I wonder why Palladium gamers are so focused on high-power gaming, though? Could it be the games that inspire and encourage that sort of thing? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMqZ2PPOLik Lastly, we get a question as to why gamers eat snacks and get fat, which seems like the fakest of questions, but okay. Anyway, they suggest exercise. I feel like at least some of this had to been ghost-written by Siembieda, or born out of conversations between Siembieda and Rosenstein. It just has so much of Siembieda's... je ne sais quoi. Next: Friend-insertion Fiction. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 10:18 on Apr 3, 2019 |
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Apr 3, 2019 09:49
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Neotech 2 Part 5: Everybody’s working for the weekend No art this time, there’s not even a single career related picture to be found anywhere in this part. Just D100 event tables and career descriptions. Alongside a smattering of setting information as well. This will also show just how different the various careers are from each other and enforce my point at I’m not really sure how all of this is supposed to work together in the end. This is also a great way to show how many skills this game has ahead of looking more closely at them in general. The careers’ various event tables are a mix of highs and lows events where you might gain money or contacts/enemies or lose a lot of money. Or some other bonus or penalties. The capstone is that you can roll on the general events table. If there’s one thing the book likes to have as an entry I’ve noticed it’s trips abroad. Our first career is the Businessman. Despite mega corporations there are still smaller businesses around. The description goes on to list various aspects of the career for characterisation purposes, something which will be the case for a lot of these. Do you want to be a producer? A trader or a broker? Maybe run your own store or simply be a consultant? Entry requirements: PSY. Economy skill. A starting capital above 10 000 euros. Career skills: Administration, Economy, Law, Leadership, Media, Psychology, Social Performance, Valuation and Persuasion. If you succeed extra well you gain 1D6 extra media status. The Worker is next. You’re a cog in the machinery that makes the world go around. Despite the automatisation of the future the corporations still need manpower. The book hammers in the point that life as a worker, especially an industrial worker is terrible with the corporations demand loyalty and if they can’t perform there are five unemployed people on the street waiting to take their job. But as it then lists the various benefits you get, like healthcare and so on, only helps to downturn all the doom and gloom a little. Another big thing mentioned here is that the unions are almost all controlled by the mafia. Entry requirements: TÅL, RÖR, VIL. Career skills: Electronic, Dexterity, <Craft>, Climbing, Drive truck, Drive Forklift, Mechanics. If you perform well and decide to continue as a Worker you will automatically succeed on the next career roll of your choice. Unemployed is one of the three previously mentioned careers that you can actually pick and will only be available if you fail on all of your previous career rolls. Life as an unemployed in the year of 2059 isn’t fun. Not that it won’t give you the chance to learn some things that might come useful later. Career skills: Gambling, Information Searching, Cooking, Music, Boozing, Underworld. There are obviously no promotion options here but the constant rejections will leave their mark and you gains 1D6-1 psychosis marks per employment period they spend in this career. (Gee thanks for that one. Hit a little bit too close to home there.) The Artist are meant for those who seek fame or want to entertain people. This career includes everything from actors to musicians or tv anchors. However, life can be hard and fast, fame and recognition can disappear in the blink of an eye. But success can mean you live well for the rest of your life. Here we get some flavour with a namedrop of some major artists: Slash Dalmations, Johnny Uganda and the Screaming Nosferatus as well as simstim being a thing for movies. So in order to become the new shining star the entry requirements are: PER, Media status and a related Talent skill. Either Acting, Dancing, Media, Music or Singing. Career skills: Acting, Dancing, Disguise, Media, Sing, <Language>, Style & Taste, Persuade. Every time you take this career as one of your employment periods your media status will increase by 1. Each successful period increases your status by 2D6. The Prisoner is the second of the three special careers. But this one you can only reach if you manage to roll it on the event table of another career. It has however a special rule in that if you manage to go to prison on your last employment period it means that you need to do an extra one. This is the only way possible to do four of them instead of three. It’s also one of the few careers with the most flexible time spent as it’s dependant on what the event sentence is instead of a simple 1D6 with maybe a minor bonus to the roll. Career skills: Dexterity, Gambling, <Knowledge>, Melee fighting, Melee knife, Underworld, Persuade. You also get two units to spend on Combat Experience. Spending time in prison is also mentally challenging which means that you get 1D6-1 psychosis marks per period in jail. The Corporate Man is the cog in the machinery that drives the mega corporations. There is a chance you might actually get nice promotion but to do that you need to work. Your main two focuses are your companies continued existence and your own career. So one needs to be adept to kick downwards and asskiss upwards to get anywhere. Kickbacks are common but one wrong step will see you replace by someone else hungering for your position. Of course, if you manage to get your boss to screw up then you might actually get to sit in their chair the next day. Entry requirements: PSY, Economics skill, a graduation from a University. But also no marks in their criminal records. Career skills: Administration, Diplomacy, Economy, Information searching, Law, Leadership, Psychology, Social performance, Style & Taste, Valuation, Persuade. If you perform well your media status is increased by 1. This career also perhaps the best way to earn a lot of money as promotions also include a hefty bonus where a CEO can get 3 000 000 euro on top of their regular starting funds. But that will also requires that you spend all three attempts and then achieve maximum results. The Gangster is part of a very large and very rich family. The organized crime families are virtually untouchable and have their fingers in every illicit activity imaginable. As well as controlling many legal ones as well. The mooks may not be as untouchable but they’re still protected to a certain extent if they’re loyal. It’s here I think the game flubs a little because it starts listing the most well known criminal organisations and all we get are: the Italian Mafia, the Yakuza, the Triads, the Organizatsija or Russian mafia and the Cartels. The only new one amongst all these is the Nigerian Mafia. Lost opportunity for some unique flavour here. But then again I’m getting a growing hunch that was never the intended goal here in a sense. Entry requirements: PSY, PER and Underworld skill. Career skills: Economy, Interrogation techniques, Gambling, Law, Drive Car, Leadership, Melee fighting, Melee knife, Pistol, Underworld, Persuade. The career has Combat Experience units. Performing well means that your media status as an infamous criminal increases by 2. Sadly failing spectacularly doesn’t mean you die or get imprisoned. One of the events mentions involves going to jail and implies that you can be a gangster again but only if there is an employment period left to pick. Which seems to ignore the special rule mentioned in the prisoner career. Weird oversight. The Gang Member is a part of the many gangs that exist in 2059. Drawn together by a sense of community and belonging but maybe also a need for protection or forced in by circumstances. The player is instructed to come up with the gang they belong to and all the accoutrements that come with that like symbols, colours and also territory. The book provides a list of some kinds of gangs like Booster Gangs that deal with cybertech or Fence gangs that deal with theft and robbery. While I’m pretty sure a lot of these are borrowed heavily from Cyberpunk 2020 there is some interesting flavour like the Poser or Style gangs that either try to imitate someone as far as possible or joined together by their style. Then there are Kicker Gangs that strive to best their ‘enemies’ in honorable close combat and often know martial arts as a result. Or Inquisitor gangs that want to purify mankind of something. It’s not much but it’s at least some flavour to things. Entry requirements are: STY, Fight skill and Cool. Career skills: Dexterity, Search, Drive Car, Melee Knife, Melee Fighting, Pistol, Boozing, Underworld, Persuade. The career has Combat Experience units. The ranks deserve as special mention: Gang-banger, LT, Ace-kool and Chief. Not sure what being an Ace-kool entails in this case.If you perform well and decide to continue as a ganger you will automatically succeed on the next career roll of your choice. The Hacker spends all their time on the Net, it’s an integral part of who they are and what they do. Their life is dominated by looking for information and programs from different places, if it’s actually legal is not something they usually care about. Their main justification for their illegal actions is that all information should be made free for everyone. Players are instructed to come up with a suitable alias that they use on the net. It’s here we can see the greatest number of influences from elsewhere. The first archetype suggested is the Cowboy, or Sneaker, who specialise in breaking into data systems to steal information and sell that to the highest bidder. Then there’s the Netheads or Netrunners, an eccentric bunch of people who think that cyberspace is far more interesting than the real world. Most of the money they earn from selling information to other hackers go to making sure their body is safe and has what it needs. Entry requirements: PSY, Hacking, Information Searching Career skills: Data technology, Electronics, Forgery, Hacking, Information Searching, Mathematics, Programming, Read/Write, Underworld, Persuade. If you succeed extra well you gain 1D6 extra media status. The Homeless the last special career and can only be attained if you have failed all your career rolls and also that your starting capital has reached zero. There is a slight “check page ooo” goof here in reference to the unemployed career. Life as a homeless is hard, food and lodging are never a surety and everything you own might be in stolen shopping trolley or plastic bags. Conditions are primitive and sometimes even repulsive, and no one really wants you around. Career skills: Search, Hide, Gambling, Melee Fighting, Sneaking, Boozing, Underworld, Survival, Persuade Due to the mental pressure of being homeless you gain 1D6 psychosis marks per employment period they spend in this career The Criminal is not a member of one the big syndicates, but instead prefers working on their own or in small groups. This carries its own risks but at the same time you can reap much greater rewards. The crime rate has increased over the years, mostly because no other doorways are open for some people and it’s an easy life to live. But not without its own risks, other criminals, armed victims and not to mention the police all seek to make life harder for you. If you get caught, expect long prison sentences. Entry requirements: PSY, Cool, Underworld Career skills: Lock Picking, Dexterity, Forgery, Hide, Climb, Drive Car, Melee Knife, Pistol, Sneaking, Surveillance, Explosives, Security Systems, Underworld, Valuation, Persuade. The career has Combat Experience units. If you perform well and decide to continue as a Criminal you will automatically succeed on the next career roll of your choice. The Media Worker knows what everyone suspects, the corporations and the government are lying. It’s their job to let the people know exactly what is going on. Nothing is too dirty to be revealed, nothing is holy in the fight for viewers and readers. Of course, things are far less glamorous in reality, you need to be fast at both finding something worth reporting and then edit it together before someone else does it. But it’s not all bad, sometimes you get to meet famous people or visit other places around the world. Not to mention you get your voice and opinion out to the people. Entry requirements: PER, Media, Information Search Career skills: Acting, Photo & Film, Interrogation techniques, Media, Read/Write, Social performance, <Language>, Style & Taste, Persuade. Depending on how well you roll you will either get +1 or 1D6+1 to your media status. If you are looking to lead or administrate a military unit the Officer is the career for you. This is one of the first careers with very specific entry requirements aside from just attributes or skills. To be able to go down this path you either need to have completed a high school education, which usually means you’re from the middle class or above. Alternatively you have managed to achieve the rank of Sergeant while taking the Soldier career previously. A clean criminal record is necessary as well. Entry requirements: TÅL, PSY, Leadership. Career skills: Automatic Fire, First Aid, Rifle, Throw, Leadership, Navigation, Melee Commando Training, Pistol, Liaison, Swimming, Sneaking, Surveillance, Explosives, Strategy, Tactics, Survival, Persuade. The career has Combat Experience units. An excellent success results in a medal of some kind. The player can either decide what it is or roll 1D6 on the given list. Of interest is that one of the events results in the character surviving a nuclear attack and gaining 1D6 gy (gray). Because that is also a thing you have to keep track on your sheet. There is always people that has too much money and have no idea what to spend it on. The Playboy is that kind of person, they’ve either been born into the money or inherited a massive sum of it and have no real idea what it’s worth. The Playboy usually has a hard time understanding poor people, usually considering that they only have themselves to blame. Most people tend to scorn them but there’s always enough people attracted to their wealth and personality that it doesn’t matter. Entry requirements: PER, Mediastatus, birth or wealth. The latter means that if a roll is to be considered successful the character must either be part of the social elite or have a starting capital of at least 100.000 euro. Career skills: Dans, Seduction, Hunting, Gambling, Art Knowledge, Media, Social Performance, <Language>, Style & Taste, Persuade. Depending on how well you roll you will either get +1 or 1D6+1 to your media status. Regardless of whether the police's client is a company, the state or someone else, the Police have the task of preserving and enforce the laws and regulations of their employer. It’s not uncommon for them to be corrupt but it’s not as the public contemptuously believes. Entry requirements: PSY, Underworld, Interrogation techniques. Also a clean criminal record. Unlike most other careers the police has a locked time expenditure of 4 years. Career skills: Administration, Interrogations Techniques, Search, Rifle, Information Search, Law, Drive Car, Leadership, Melee Police training, Pistol, Liaison, Surveillance, Tracking, Underworld, Persuade. The career has Combat Experience units. The Space Race is on again, but now it’s mainly the big corporations wanting to gain access to the wealth of resources available out there. There are major bases on the Moon, on Mars and in orbit at the lagrange points around earth. Even forays into the asteroid belts have been made. For all this you obviously need manpower and this is where the Space Worker comes in. It’s well paid work but comes with great risks and long bouts of social isolation. But that hasn’t stopped people. Entry requirements: TÅL, PSY, Cool. Career skills: Astronomy, Data technology, Electronics, Freefall, Physics, Geology, Mechanics, Navigations, Pilot spacecraft, Space suit, Liaison. If you rolls succeed well enough you can raise your Cool by 1. There’s always a need for highly trained medical personnel. The Medic is always sought after. From poor city hospitals to rich private clinics call for their interest. Despite long and arduous working hours it can be a stimulating job and there’s always chances for advancement. Either within or simply moving on to a hospital with a higher status. Entry requirements: PSY, Medicine, Specialisation. Choose from either, First Aid, Surgery, Psychology or Cybernetics. Career skills: Administration, Biology, Cybernetics, Dexterity, First Aid, Gentechnology, Chemistry, Surgery, Medicine, Psychology, Persuade. If you rolls succeed well enough you can raise your Cool by 1. Wars are always being fought and that is where the Soldier comes in. In 2059 they come in three different types of flavour: Government, Mercenary or Corporate. Entry requirements: STY, TÅL, Combat Experience. Career skills: Automatic fire, First Aid, Rifle, Hide, Throw, Leadership, Melee knife, Liaison, Swim, Sneak, Surveillance, Tactics, Teaching, Survival, Persuade. Leadership, Liaison and tactics can only be learned if you have been promoted to Sergeant. The career has Combat Experience units. An excellent success results in a medal of some kind. The player can either decide what it is or roll 1D6 on the given list. It also comes with the same nuclear survivor event. Technically you could, if you go into officer and roll 1 to 5 there as well, be a survivor of two nuclear strikes. Which makes me wonder about how warfare is conducted in this setting. The Solo (now where have I heard this term before?) is a freelancer doing all kinds of shady jobs. Most Solo’s sell their services to make money, there are some rare cases who have more altruistic motivations. Those are usually called Ronins. Solo’s are pretty much the catch all moniker for things like bounty hunters, hitmen and bodyguards among others. Entry requirements: PSY, Cool, Underworld Career skills: Lock picking, Disguise, Interrogation techniques, Information searching, Climbing, Drive Car, Melee knife, Melee Fighting, Liaison, Pistol, Photo & Film, Rifle, Sneaking, Surveillance, Tracking, Security Systems, Underworld, Persuade. The career has Combat Experience units. If you perform well and decide to continue as a Solo you will automatically succeed on the next career roll of your choice. The technological development in 2059 has run rampant, creating a massive amount of highly complicated equipment. That is why the Technician is around to repair, modify them. But also to make them as well. As a technician you’re always in high demand and can demand high pay as well. But because there’s so many fields they always tend to be highly specialized. Entry requirements: PSY, BIL, University exam. The latter must involve at least one of the following: Cybernetics, Data technology, Electronics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Mechanics or Programming for the roll to succeed. Career skills: Administration, Cybernetics, Data technology, Electronics, Physics, Information searching, Chemistry, Leadership, Mathematics, Mechanics, Programming, Persuade. A successful career means that you have taken out a patent in your name. No, the book doesn’t say what this means for the character as it doesn’t even include a media status bonus for this accomplishment. A proper education is important, even in the far future of 2059. If you want to get a deeper knowledge into a field you need to go to a University to gain a higher academic education. As we have seen it’s an important requirement for some of the more technical careers in the game. When you start this career you pick two different knowledge skills you want to focus on. Unless you fail all your rolls, or roll badly on the event table for that part, you are considered to have gained an exam in those particular skills and get to spend the x|y|z number of units gained on them. You can’t apparently take this one second time to gain even more skills as the book mentions that any further attempts at this career is only to deepen your knowledge and attain the rank of Professor. This career path also has a set time length of 4 years. Entry requirements: PSY, BIL, Information Search. But also a High School education, meaning that you come from the middle class and above. Or have an officer rank. Career skills: Information search, Read/Write, Teaching, <Language>, Persuade. A successful career means that you have had your thesis published in famous magazine which increases your Media Status by 1. Why wasn’t that mentioned for the technician though? Outside of a possible lack of space since all of these entries are exactly one page. So that’s all of the career choices available in the game. Once again I’m left wondering how they’re even supposed to work together. Especially when you consider that the game has the option to have the character still be working in their chosen career. I can’t see a feasible way for say an Officer, a businessman and a space worker being in the same party without things feeling weird or forced. Not to mention the fact that you most likely want at least one dip into a combat career for those Combat Experience points for the best boost to your initiative. I guess this game is for really narrow campaign styles like a playboy and his bodyguard and corporate lackey going on adventures. Now that I can see working instead of letting people pick whatever they want. If that idea actually holds water we’ll have to see later on. Next time: Skills for kills, agent.
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Apr 3, 2019 12:01
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"Hey babe, do you want to play this elderly bookish woman with a Wilk's laser pistol and wearing leaves for armor?" "DO I? Marry me, you fool!"
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Apr 3, 2019 14:06
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Exalted 3rd Edition: Dynasty Warriors Style White Reaper Style is designed to use weapons with a long reach, like scythes or spears, to take on multiple foes at once. Its practitioners love to fight while outnumbered, and they are at their best when surrounded and dealing with huge amounts of foes. While it isn’t weak in single combat, it excels against battle groups. Users are surrounded by a corona of white Essence that grows and weakens as they slaughter their foes and use it to fuel powerful Charms. White Reaper is compatible with scythes, spears, staves and unarmed strikes that emulate their wide reach and whirling blows. Unarmed attacks enhanced by White Reaper Charms can always be stunted to deal Lethal. White Reaper is compatible with any armor. Before the form, you can boost your attack damage and turn your onslaught penalties into onslaught bonuses. White Reaper Form lets you double 10s even on Decisive damage rolls and lets you treat battle groups as if they had lower Drill than they do for Defense, lets you move through them without spending Initiative and generates an Essence halo whenever your defeat or Crash a non-trivial foe. Each Halo adds to your Resolve. You can auto-activate the Form when you begin your turn in Close range of 3+ non-trivial foes or inside a battle group. After the form, you can get increased damage dice tricks, especially against battle groups, plus extra accuracy per halo at the cost of losing your halos, or you can get automatic successes on damage that hurt battle groups more and do more damage per halo at the cost of losing all halos, or you can attack two foes at once (plus extra foes per halos, at the cost of your halos), or you can get extra Parry with bonuses per halo spent, or you can increase your armor based on your halos. The ultimate technique lets you absorb your halos to heal yourself, reduce wound penalties, terrify battlegroups and trade halos for Initiative during the scene. There are 9 Charms in White Reaper Style, ranging from Essence 1 to 3. Ebon Shadow Style is an assassin’s style, meant to fight from stealth and dodge into cover before launching unexpected blows. Not all of its users are wicked killers, however, and the style originated in the hands of heroes who wished to teach evil to fear the dark. Ebon Shadow uses fighting chains, unarmed blows, sais, tiger claws and knives, aiming for vital areas such as the jugular, solar plexus and similar. Unarmed attacks enhanced by Ebon Shadow Charms can always be stunted to deal Lethal. It is incompatible with any armor whatsoever. It also wants you to be good at Stealth, obviously. Before the form, you can give a penalty to people opposing your Stealth checks, you can fake your own death after being hit to get out of a fight, and you can bypass armor partially, especially with unexpected attacks. Ebon Shadow Form makes your anima dark and shapeless to conceal you, and anyone that fails to spot you stealthing losing Initiative, and you get bonus Initiative after Decisive Attacks, plus a minor Defense boost. If you die while in Ebon Shadow Form, your body evaporates into smoke entirely, leaving no remains. You can auto-enter the Form if you make a Stealth check in combat that beats all opponents. After the Form, you can force an opponent to have to make two attack rolls against you and use the lower, reduce Decisive damage, lunge between shadows without being noticed, or turn damage dice into automatic successes (and incidentally destroy the bodies of victims if they die of it). The ultimate technique lets you turn your stealth rolls into bonus damage on Decisive attacks. There are 8 Charms in Ebon Shadow Style, ranging from Essence 1 to 3. Crane Style is a defensive style meant to emulate the crane in avoiding foes. It teaches not only how to fight, but how to care for your enemy and speak to them, to end a fight without violence. However, its restraint is no weakness, for the style is also master of devastating counterattacks against those that will not see reason. Crane Style usually relies on a war fan and hook sword, but can also be used with powerful kicks and chopping hand blows. It is incompatible with armor. It also suggests that you want to have decent Presence, Performance or Socialize to help, y’know, end fights peacefully. Before the Form, you can boost attacks against anyone that’s attacked you or people you are protecting with Defend Other, and it can boost your Parry when using Defend Other. Crane Form boosts your Parry, prevents your long, flowing sleeves from being torn or stained in combat, reduces Initiative cost for Full Defense actions and lets you make counterattacks when attacked while Full Defending or Defending Other. You can auto-activate it whenever you successfully defend against an attack that makes your foe’s Initiative drop past yours. After the Form, you can make a Martial Arts check to store successes which you can then use to boost defenses or make counterattacks, you can reflect ranged attacks back at foes as a counterattack, you can jump, glide and hover through the air to move your Defend Other buddy or to attack people, you can make your counterattacks also instill positive Intimacies by commenting and educating your foes, you can get bonus damage and penalize enemy defenses at the cost of never doing Lethal damage, and you can get special weapon-based bonuses to counterattacks. Its ultimate technique lets you wield your enemy’s own Initiative as a bonus on Decisive counterattacks and force them to accept positive Intimacies as above, at the cost of being unable to kill your foes. There are 10 Charms in Crane Style, ranging from Essence 1 to 4. Silver-Voiced Nightingale Style is an esoteric martial art, which wields the voice as a weapon. It practices strict breath control, circular breathing and special chants to allow powerful kiais with the strength to kill. Its practitioners are also performers, masters of song (or musical instrument, or rapping) that strengthen allied morale and break enemy bones with their music. While the style is in theory named after its founder in the ancient First Age, almost no one outside of Exalted whose past life memories date back that far use it; for most, it is just Nightingale Style. Its attacks are made unarmed, each blow accompanied by a kiai, or with Essence-laden vocal power. It is incompatible with weapons besides this. It is compatible with light armor, and obviously you want to also be good at Performance. Before the form, you get the core Charm that lets you wield your voice as a light weapon which can be flurried with Performance actions without normal flurry penalties, plus you can boost your Join Battle and that of allies and help them resist fear, and you can terrify foes and force them to retreat from you. Silver-Voiced Nightingale Form boosts your Evasion and increases your Withering vocal damage, plus gives you Initiative when someone resists your social influence. You can auto-activate it when you successfully socially influence a non-trivial foe. Above the Form, you can boost your Evasion and read intentions on folks you dodge, synchronize with a foe to get better Evasion against them and rush or disengage them with a bonus and also gain Initiative when they do, you can induce despair in foes to penalize their Defense, you can make sonic environmental hazards, you can boost allied damage, and you can give allies Willpower to resist social influence with or boost their actions. Its ultimate technique lets you delay enemy actions and deal extra damage, plus anyone you kill with it is turned into a cloud of discordant sound as their heartsong is torn apart and their body decoheres. There are 10 Charms in Silver-Voiced Nightingale Style, ranging from Essence 1 to 3. Next time: Righteous Devil, Black Claw, Dreaming Pearl Courtesan, Steel Devil
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Apr 3, 2019 14:31
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| # ? May 26, 2024 03:53 |
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Zereth posted:poo poo, if I'm doing a lifepath I'd probably rather have my character die and need to start over than take a permanent penalty. Of course, there's nothing to stop you from remaking precisely the same character and trying again. Maybe your PC's tragic backstory is that you and your siblings Larry Allen, Gary Allen, Harry Allen, and Mary Allen all got super-speed and you're the only one that survived.
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Apr 3, 2019 15:19
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