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JcDent posted:Degensis Stuff Are you planning on doing the metaplot adventure books? I'm reading through In Thy Blood right now, and uh, drat. Are these guys time travellers from the 90's?
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Mar 20, 2021 13:39
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Age of Sigmar: Idoneth Deepkin Mighty Mor'phann Power Rangers  The Mor'phann Enclave is by far the most insular and least understood of their kind, having settled in the depths of Shyish. Their name, Mor'phann, is a word that can either mean a thousand-yard stare or despair so strong it can kill. Even other Idoneth consider them reclusive and dour, rarely visiting their capital in the waters of the Great Quagmire. The Quagmire is an oily sea, coated in fog, and even when they emerge from it, the Mor'phann seem to shine with a strange light. They move with the silent and grim resolve of ghosts, and their Isharann are masters of soul magic, both in the reaping and the healing. When their Namarti fall in battle, they stand up quickly once more, as the Isharann channel the flow of souls into the dying bodies and revive them. Even more terrifying than their Soulrenders are their Tidecasters, however, who are able to call on the bone-chilling mist of their seas to freeze foes and slow their movements. They freeze the foe in place, allowing Mor'phann to emerge from the mists with little resistance. Their pale skin easily blends with the bleached white bone-sand of Shyish and their glowing eyes only reinforce the fear that comes with their freezing chill. Few survive a Mor'phann raid, but those who do recount the tales of their Akhelian going into terrible war trances, their eyes rolling back into their heads to show only the whites as they fight with inhuman power. The Mor'phann have had to reconsider their isolation, however, since the destruction of their offshoot enclave, the Aighmar, by the Skaven. Nagash has been pursuing them after sensing the souls released from the Aighmar chorrileum, and now that the Khaphtar Sea has been drained, he's more than aware of the Idoneth that once living within it. He has begun to hunt the Idoneth, seeking out the Mor'phann stronghold so that he can claim the souls they have stolen from him.  The Nautilar Enclave were originally Ionrach descendants who settled in Ghyran's Maithnar Sea to build the city of Galanaur. They had an essentially infinite supply of coral to work with in the Realm of Lfie, and they planned to use it to build a home that was greater than any other Idoneth city. What they didn't realize at the time was that they were building it not on the sea floor but on the back of a massive Great Scaphodon. These sea beasts are capable of growing to truly immense size, and even the small ones are on par with mountains. The Nautilar learned of what they had done only when the Scaphodon decided to stand up and wander off to Ghur's Atleus Ocean. This mobile lifestyle forced them to become more independent from the Ionrach, eventually formally seceding to become their own enclave. The Nautilar have molded the shell of their host to form great towers and defensive fortifications. (It's not wholly clear if the Scaphodon is a turtle or snail or whatever, but it has a shell!) The Tidecasters have mastered the art of using force bubbles to defend their home, calling on currents and wave blasts to drive off predators while the Akhelian and Namarti have mastered the art of the fighting retreat. Their symbiotic relationship with their Scaphodon has helped them to develop a more harmonious and peaceful society than most Idoneth, and they work together on a level few others can comprehend. Galanaur has recently been heavily damaged by Skaven siege attacks, and while it is being repaired, there's a lot to do. The Skaven were able to tunnel into the Scaphodon's shell in many places, and for the first time in centuries, the Nautilar have stopped all expansion of their city to focus entirely on repairs.  Briomdar Enclave is another Ionrach offshoot, having abandoned the Ionrach cities for the depths of Green Gulch in Ghyran's thickest deep forests. They now live in the city Crannstok, built into the deep-sea woodlands. They specialize in fighting in dense terrain, and they use their knowledge of it to bypass enemy defenses and even penetrate deep into Ghyran's forests to attack those who believe themselves safe. To do this, they rely heavily on their Isharann Soulscryers, who help them track targets even across vast distances. For the Briomdar, this is a task that is about far more than simple violence. The Briomdar have studied the soul in great depth, and they understand it better than most Idoneth. Their mastery of soul tracking is a side effect of this, and their raids that take them far and wide are part of an effort to get access to a wide variety of souls. They study these souls and especially how they can be healed and repaired. The goal of the Briomdar is as simple as it is ambitious: discover a way to not just repair the souls of the Namarti but ensure that all future births of the Idoneth are healthy and whole. Next time: Lords of the Sea
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Mar 20, 2021 13:55
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Hipster Occultist posted:Are you planning on doing the metaplot adventure books? I heard that Skye Auraline wanted to do them, so I'd be glad for them to take up the gauntlet. I want to finish Degenesis and move onto another bad (miniature) game, and then explore a game I hope is good!
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Mar 20, 2021 14:58
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JcDent posted:I heard that Skye Auraline wanted to do them, so I'd be glad for them to take up the gauntlet. I want to finish Degenesis and move onto another bad (miniature) game, and then explore a game I hope is good! Keeping the Red Markets writeup going on its own has been hard. Don't stop on account of me for a writeup I haven't even touched.
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Mar 20, 2021 15:10
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Hell, I'll do them if nobody else wants to. I keep having to go back and see if Mark Rein-Hagen wrote this thing.
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Mar 20, 2021 16:26
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Hipster Occultist posted:Hell, I'll do them if nobody else wants to. Just wait. Black Atlantic. Might be more McFarland then.
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Mar 20, 2021 16:54
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There's 170 pages of Katharsys left.  Ain't none of you holding me back by grabbing anything published after it!
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Mar 20, 2021 19:01
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Degenesis, In Thy Blood Welcome to my first F&F folks, let me be the first to tell you that this one is a doozy. I’ll be covering 3 (possibly 4) of the Metaplot adventure books for Degenesis Rebirth, the first of these being In Thy Blood, the second being The Killing Game, and the last being Black Atlantic. That is of course, if I don’t put myself out of my misery first.  A fourth book just came out covering Justinian, the capital of the Protectorate and it has a whole bunch of Metaplot in it too.A bit of a foreword first. I do like some of the setting of Degenesis (and I hate a lot of it as well), at least enough to wonder what’s really going on with all the setting mysteries, hence why I started reading these books. I kinda wish I hadn’t, because its just Vampire the Masquerade metaplot all over again. These guys have a story to tell, and for reasons beyond me they didn’t just choose to write a drat novel. They want to tell you a tale of epic characters, powerful nations, and mysterious forces clashing on a post-apocalyptic stage. You might think the PCs are meant to be amongst these characters, since its a game directed at them and all. You’d be wrong. The PCs are less movers and shakers, and more of a television crew, traveling from place to place to witness events and probably die while doing so. Survival means getting to watch more powerful NPCs affect the story while you get to make superficial changes at best. Stuff will just happen to you regardless of skill rolls or other PC actions, the very function of the skills themselves will be fudged far too often, and sometimes the GM will even tell you how you feel! When I say this is a railroad, I mean I’m pretty sure SIXMOREVODKA has a controlling interest in Deutsche Bahn. Chapter 1 gives us a brief summary of events and covers the location of the adventure with a lot of unnecessary detail (I’m not sure why the party would give a drat about its exports or trade routes), Chapter 2 gives us the full background to the adventure, Chapter 3 is the “Adventure” itself, and Chapter 4 is yet more adventure. Anyways, on with the show! Chapter 1, Oil and Fire  Our tale begins in the Alps of Pugare, post-apocalyptic Italy for those that might have forgotten. The Cloister of Lucatore is the center of production for the Elysian Oils, basically combat drugs you rub into your skin because why the hell not. There's a few different varieties that boost different stats, and you can even mix Burn into them if you're dumb enough and don't care about pissing off the only Doctors in the setting. Lucatore is the seat of power of the Baptist Altair (one of the Anabaptist’s head honchos). Altair rose from humble beginnings in the Benesato clan, converted to Anabaptism, discovered the secret of the Elysian Oils, and became a powerful warlord. He led the Anabaptists to many victories over the Jehammedans in the Adriatic Wars, before eventually suing for peace because this war had been going on for a hundred years and nobody really understood why they were killing each other any more. Dude was basically a messiah figure and beloved by all. Then one day someone plants a knee in his back and slits his throat while he’s alone in his garden. His much younger wife and fellow warrior Neva refuses to let the local Spitalian surgeon (or indeed anyone) examine the body, and it is buried the next day under a 10 ton boulder. Does the book say anything about this makes his wife obviously guilty in the eyes of any PC with a half a brain? Nope! As the death of someone so important threatens to seriously unbalance the power structure in Purgare, the PCs are ostensibly representatives of their cults sent to investigate the murder of Altair. The book does not give the cults any reason to work together on this, so its up to you as a GM to patch over that hole.  Lucatore is relatively safe. The Helvetics keep the passes through the Alps guarded, and Anabaptist warriors and missionaries have cleared away most of the Clans from the province. Aside from Clan Lombardi, which controls the largest city in Northern Pugare and has resisted conversion to Neognosis for decades. Lucatore has around 3000 people in the town itself, with about 10,000 in the surrounding province. It is still ruled by governor Ennio Benesato, brother of Altair but not a convert to Anabaptism itself. Altair’s widow really runs the show though, as she controls the guards and Ennio is the prime suspect in his brother’s murder. Aside from the Elysian oils, it's about what you’d expect from a medieval-tech level monk town. Its got a scrapper radio connection to Cathedral City, but aside from that its mostly water wheels and primitive pneumatics as far as tech goes. There’s some other locations outside Lucatore described that don’t really matter, mostly just outposts and the like. The only places of note are the Vivaco Sickbay and Bergamo. The former being the domain of the Spitalian surgeon Carmine Ferro, and the later being the seat of Clan Lombardi and a relatively large center of trade and commerce. As a side note, Clan Lombardi hates the Anabaptists and wants what they see as their ancestral lands back. They’re kinda right tbh. Then the book starts describing a bunch of locations within Lucatore itself. ”Degenesis In They Blood” posted:THE MANURE HILL: Trash, refuse, and dung are collected on the Manure Hill, waiting to be cut and brought to the fields by Aesthetics. When the wind blows in the wrong direction, its stink covers the entire city, sometimes for days at a time. Whew, dunno how I would have ran this murder mystery without knowing if the city randomly starting stinking like poo poo or not. Anyways, none of this poo poo is important or interesting, anything plot relevant aside from where you’re staying happens at the Cloister itself.  Basically the Cloister was a big ‘ol castle on top of a hill. For a while Clan Benesato held it while things were spicy in the area, but eventually poo poo calms down and they move into houses that don’t require experienced stonemasons for repair and upkeep. Then the Anabaptists move in, convert a whole bunch of people, and fix up the castle turning it into their cloister where they produce the Elysian Oils. So what are the Elysian Oils? Well, this section goes into detail about the dark secret at the heart of its production. You see, the first Baptist Rebus invented the oils, they’re an alchemical concoction that induce visions called Emanations and give you stat bonuses depending on which of the six types you make. Abacus (Altair’s alchemist buddy) discovered a new formula after coming across Marduk Oil in his travels. Yeah, he just added Burn and a couple other things to the mix. You know, the drug that makes you super high and is derived from the evil space mushrooms. The one where too much turns you into a carrier for the evil space mushroom plague, and turns any children you might have into disgusting mutants with powers. The drug derived from the very force the Anabaptists swore to fight with cleanse and purify-type zeal. You could mix burn into it before, but you suffered all the negative effects of it and risked setting off the Spitaliers. This new formula is like a stable form of Burn, and won't tip off the doctor cops. It's a lot stronger than the basic Elysian Oil found in the corebook, and as long as you keep taking it, its not as bad as Burn. You’re infected with Sepsis, but the oil forms a shield and the evil space mushrooms and thus they can’t connect to the Earth Chakras. It can’t be washed off, only flaked off as you shed your skin. In addition to recovering Ego Points equal to the level of the oil and having a vision lasting a number of hours equal to the grade, you cannot gain permanent Sepsis points and any temporary points fade by 1 a week. This is in addition to the stat buffs. However, you still get infested by Spores and if you hit twice your maximum score the oils stop working and bam! You’re a seed carrier. Mollusks will not sense you for reasons. Anyways, Altair wasn'tstupid, so aside from a few trusted folks who make the stuff nobody knows that Burn is in this. If they did, they’d have hell to pay from the Spitaliers. Some of you may have already guessed this is why nobody was allowed to examine Altair’s body, and you’re half-right. So Altair sends a sample to Cathedral City, they love it, and send him all the resources he needs to expand production so this can give this poo poo to all their soldiers on their various war fronts. They keep the real good poo poo for those in the know (the stuff with Burn), but they’re a major exporter of all the other types. Basically everyone has used some form of this drug at some point, and it's important enough that ensuring the Cloister keeps up production and doesn’t fall to chaos is the primary goal of any Anabaptist investigation. if they lost Lucatore, they'd lose most of their combat drug production, and thus would probably start losing battles all over the place. The rest of the chapter is short descriptions of various rooms in the Cloister which aren’t super relevant until later, aside from the Oil Mills and the Graveyard. Then we have some plot hooks that drag PCs into this whole mess, two chapters before the actual adventure chapter. Man, these guys really know how to gently caress up a layout don’t they? I’ll do those later, when it makes sense. So there we have it. A messianic Anabaptist Warlord and heretic drug user has been assassinated, Hipster Occultist fucked around with this message at 10:38 on Mar 21, 2021 |
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Mar 21, 2021 10:17
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Oh man, Degenesis Metaplot Adventures. This is gonna be good.
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Mar 21, 2021 11:05
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Why is Degenesis so obssesed with renaming everything?
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Mar 21, 2021 14:36
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Age of Sigmar: Idoneth Deepkin Avatars of a Dead God  The Eidolons of Mathlann are the most powerful weapons of the Idoneth, summoned forth from the ethersea in a flurry of silver light. The light takes on an aelven form, hovering over the ground and surrounded by surging wind and wave, appearing as the incarnation of the ancient sea god whose name they wear. They are not, however, divine beings. They are spiritual entities, but Mathlann is long dead and the Idoneth have no desire to resurrect him. They respect the god that fought Slaanesh for their souls...but he failed and he died. Rather, the Eidolons are formed from the souls of the Idoneth dead. See, the Idoneth are absolutely terrified that Slaanesh will reclaim them when they die. Therefore, when an Idoneth dies, their soul is captured and placed in a chorrileum, a sort of reef of living coral which protects and contains the souls the Idoneth take. Every enclave has at least one chorrileum, and often several. The oldest and most powerful contain the souls of the Cythai. When the need is great, Idoneth leadership permits the souls of the dead to be disturbed, and so they animate the Eidolons. An Eidolon is formed from the combined energies of all souls in chorrileum that can be roused to action. Each dead Idoneth gives only a tiny portion of their spirit, but the collective gestalt is incredibly potent. The Eidolons are driven by the ancestral memory of the dead Idoneth, fighting instinctively to aid their descendants and harry their ancient foes. Depending on what part of the psyche is drawn on, an Eidolon can manifest in two different ways. The Aspect of the Storm is invoked by calling on rage, pain and hunger for vengeance. These appear in a crashing wave of power, calling on the nature of the sea as a destroyer by focusing the anger of the long dead Idoneth. Their desire to destroy the foes of the Idoneth soaks through those around them, driving them on to greater fury, and they wield powerful fuathtar spears, phantom weapons made of pure electrical energy focused by thousands of years of rage. They also carry crulhooks, barbed weapons that they use to ensnare enemies and drag them in closer. They fly through the ethersea, rising up in the form of water and crashing down to attack over and over. The Aspect of the Sea is a calmer Eidolon, summoning the desire to protect and guard their descendants. It is more controlled and less violent, reflecting the Isharann nature more than the Akhelian, but it should not be mistaken for less dangerous. Rather, its stillness hides deep currents of power. Armed with a mystic sceptre, a Sea-aspect Eidolon can call forth concealing mists or healing waves of power as easily as it can send enemies to sleep or crush foes with despair and terror. The sheer magical energies these Eidolons can call on more than makes up for the lesser talents in direct violence. In either case, once an Eidolon's task is done, it collapses into water and its constituent spirits, returning to the chorrileum from which it was summoned. Should its physical avatar be killed, though, those souls are lost unless the Soulrenders can quickly harvest and protect them. The Akhelian Kings ride into battle on powerful deepmares, massive horned fish-beasts with vicious claws and fangs. To earn the title of King (and associated command of a phalanx), an Akhelian warrior must first prove able to defeat any other member of their phalanx in single combat. Martial skill is only the first step, however. They must also be judged to have a talent for leadership and a keen tactical mind, able to make judgments quickly and without hesitation and able to inspire the phalanx to fight its best. This judgment is vital, because they must be able to minimize any loss of life among their own while raiding - any Idoneth that falls in battle is a loss that must be calculated against the gain in souls, and ideally prevented. Further, the Kings must be skilled in politics, as they are expected to take part in ruling council of their enclave. Obviously, there's also the matter of taming a deepmare. Deepmares are exceptionally rare monsters, and only the greatest Akhelians are permitted to ride them. The Kings head into battle atop these creatures armed either with a long spear or a massive greatsword, and may carry either a shield in their offhand or a falchion. The Fuethan especially favor the aggressive dual-weapon approach. High King Volturnos is by far the most famous of the Akhelian Kings, the last living Cythai, created by Teclis himself. He, unlike many Cythai, survived Teclis' light and led the flight from Hysh. By the time Priom was founded, he was already earning a reputation as a leader and skilled fighter. He earned his title as King in the Battle of the Flotsam Isles, where his tactics were key in destroying several greenskin flotillas. As he fought, many of his fellow Cythai fell to battle, sea monster attack and even old age. Somehow, Volturnos never did. It's said that he was the first Cythai to be rescued by Teclis, and so extra time was spent designing him as the archetype from which the entire species would be molded. The Dhom-hain and Fuethan, among others, say this is all bullshit, and that Volturnos is merely a good Akhelian king and not some special snowflake. For the Ionrach, however, the High King is a near-sacred being, and they hold a day each year to mourn the loss of his eye in the Umbral Sea. The Nautilar still tell stories about how Volturnos led a coalition to help them break the worst siege in their history, and the Briomdar honor him as the Avenger for his willingness to aid them in punishing those who have harmed them. His deepmare, Uasall, is immensely powerful, and he wields the Astra Solus, literally the blade of light, which was given to him by Teclis and can carve through armor with ease. His shield, Cealith, is able to consume hostile magic, as well. Besides the Akhelian Kings, phalanx leadership is also handled by the Isharann. Tidecasters are those who specialize in conjuring the Ethersea, which allows air-breathers to survive in water and water-breathers to survive in air, each treating the same space as the one they prefer. Besides handling this admittedly vital task, the Tidecasters also are able to call on the repressed pain the echoes in the souls of the Idoneth, left over from their millenia of torment inside Slaanesh. This typically takes the form of crushing despair, hoeplessness and horror unleashed on enemy minds, which breaks their defenses and allows the Akhelian and Namarti to attack without fear. They can even cause these feelings to become so strong that their victims literally drown, believing themselves to be trapped at the bottom of the sea. Soulrenders are more rare and seen as strange by other Isharann, because they train to fight alongside the Akhelian and often act at the front of battle. They each wear a helm bearing a lurelight, a magic lantern that can attract and absorb the souls of both enemies and allies. Soulrenders collect the harvest on raids, and in times of emergency they are able to channel these souls into the Namarti who fall in battle, healing them and even returning them to life if only slain recently. Once they return home, the souls are transferred into the chorrileums or inserted into newborn Namarti. Soulrenders fight with hooked spears known as talunhooks, and typically they do so while surrounded by Namarti soldiers, reviving them with the abundant souls available mid-combat. To help them, they generally employ Rakerdarts, special fish that swim around and stab people with their sharp faces. Soulscryers rely on cyfar compasses and dowserchimes to chart out maps of both the world and the souls of those around them. They are navigators and the closest thing the Idoneth have to priests, as they can read the souls of their fellows and determine what they will be best at in life. They are tasked not only with divining caste in newborn Idoneth but also with tracking out routes to raid targets or new whirlways and with determining which foes in the field have the strongest souls (and therefore are primary targets). They defend themselves in battle with artificial claws made from Allopex teeth and are often guarded by shoals of Scryfish, vicious little etherfish that help them seek out life and also try to eat anyone that gets too close. The Soul Wardens of the Idoneth rarely go to war with their fellows, staying home to track and tally the souls of the chorrileums, with one major exception: Lotann, Warden of the Soul Ledgers. While he is Ionrach, he has been found in the field alongside every major enclave's forces at one time or other, charting out names in his catalogue of souls. He tries to track every captured spirit and every soul lost, because he's completely loving obsessed with his job. Indeed, his obsession is so great that it actually infects his magic, causing the ethersea around him to strengthen the will of other Idoneth - especially Namarti, who are driven to great heights of passion in his presence. While Lotann isn't really a fighter, he is more than happy to stab people with his bone quill if needed. He's also protected by his familiar, an exceptionally intelligent Ochtar - that is to say, a magical wizard octopus, which helps him count souls and also beats people up with a sharp blade and a heavy stick. Next time: Fish Cavalry
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Mar 21, 2021 14:50
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Mors Rattus posted:The Soul Wardens of the Idoneth rarely go to war with their fellows, staying home to track and tally the souls of the chorrileums, with one major exception: Lotann, Warden of the Soul Ledgers. While he is Ionrach, he has been found in the field alongside every major enclave's forces at one time or other, charting out names in his catalogue of souls. He tries to track every captured spirit and every soul lost, because he's completely loving obsessed with his job. Indeed, his obsession is so great that it actually infects his magic, causing the ethersea around him to strengthen the will of other Idoneth - especially Namarti, who are driven to great heights of passion in his presence. While Lotann isn't really a fighter, he is more than happy to stab people with his bone quill if needed. He's also protected by his familiar, an exceptionally intelligent Ochtar - that is to say, a magical wizard octopus, which helps him count souls and also beats people up with a sharp blade and a heavy stick. it's important to know that the mini owns 
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Mar 21, 2021 15:01
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Battle Mad Ronin posted:Why is Degenesis so obssesed with renaming everything? Mors Rattus, immediately thereafter posted:Age of Sigmar
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Mar 21, 2021 15:09
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lolz, of course the Idoneth have their own biology-powered Infinity Circuit
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Mar 21, 2021 15:50
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Battle Mad Ronin posted:Why is Degenesis so obssesed with renaming everything? The official line: something along the lines of "500 years of linguistic drift". The likely actual reason: well, yeah, same as AoS. Marko & co. want their multimedia franchise made out of an IP that has a lot of salvageable cool bits but comes together in a rather flawed (to say the least) whole. Police that IP and make sure nobody else borrows anything so they have to come to you for it. That, and the traditional "amateur worldbuilder" sentiment of "just using real world names is laziness and I will not be lazy".
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Mar 21, 2021 15:51
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SkyeAuroline posted:The official line: something along the lines of "500 years of linguistic drift". This incidentally is why I use real world names wherever I can get away with it, because it makes things easier on readers and helps the various actually necessary made up bullshit proper nouns stick when they aren't every goddamn thing.
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Mar 21, 2021 15:53
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The sloppiness when it comes to the lore on the Deepkin just irks me. You'd think once they realized they these spiritual avatars to call on the first priority would be figuring out how to give the weak souled a jump-start.
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Mar 21, 2021 19:01
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SkyeAuroline posted:The official line: something along the lines of "500 years of linguistic drift". Fair enough. Post-apoc settings really seem the one place where it not only makes sense, but downright fits as an integral part of the genre to keep the old names. It’s the same thing that annoyed me with Numenera’s approach, where everything becomes so detached from all context by being set in an unrecognizeable future that it ends up not mattering at all. I’d think it was down right better to set the game on an alien world somewhere, if you’re actually going to use the ‘earth’ part of setting your games on earth.
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Mar 21, 2021 19:24
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Pakxos posted:The sloppiness when it comes to the lore on the Deepkin just irks me. You'd think once they realized they these spiritual avatars to call on the first priority would be figuring out how to give the weak souled a jump-start. They could have at least justified it with "Nemarti souls can't be stored like this, and the honored souls need a 100 years to recover before they can be reused" or something.
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Mar 21, 2021 19:31
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Battle Mad Ronin posted:Fair enough. Post-apoc settings really seem the one place where it not only makes sense, but downright fits as an integral part of the genre to keep the old names. It’s the same thing that annoyed me with Numenera’s approach, where everything becomes so detached from all context by being set in an unrecognizeable future that it ends up not mattering at all. I’d think it was down right better to set the game on an alien world somewhere, if you’re actually going to use the ‘earth’ part of setting your games on earth. I will say that the 'dying earth' subgenre of distant futurity can do very well with almost no connection to the present - but you need to actually have a sense of that deep futurity, usually a picaresque one. Vance, Hodgson, and Wolfe* all have very much unrecognizable futures, and they do a lot with that. Numenera is just bad. *Wolfe is a special case, since you can figure out what South American geography the main character is passing through when you start to recognize the references, but they're carefully hidden under new names and implications. My personal favorite is the city where the narrative starts, called Nessus for the centaur whose blood was poisoned like the city's polluted river and poisoned land, where once it was known for the health and purity of its atmosphere. The actual name of the present-day city is never stated, but the implication is enough - Buenos Aires.
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Mar 21, 2021 19:32
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Pakxos posted:The sloppiness when it comes to the lore on the Deepkin just irks me. You'd think once they realized they these spiritual avatars to call on the first priority would be figuring out how to give the weak souled a jump-start. Tibalt posted:Yeah, as soon as I heard about the living reef full of honored souls I just gave a dejected little sigh. Namarti souls get stored in the reef too.
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Mar 21, 2021 20:21
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Yes, that's my point - as it is now, you've got a society built around stealing souls to stuff into newborns... but they've also got a giant vault of ABC souls sitting around because they're paranoid about Slaanesh. It's a pretty big "Giant robot fights over limited resources" kind of problem, where it's strains credulity.
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Mar 21, 2021 20:31
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Of course the adventure is dumb, the way the content is split into chapters is dumb, and it already does fluff conflicts as Elysian oils can be made by any Elysian anywhere by using random herbs and roots, provide stable and cool combat benefit for 4 hours, and are a lot better than the dumb Burn varieties as presented in Katharsys. Few things scream "dumb game designers" than "the pinnacle creation of one the core heroes of the world gets immediately one upped" and "OK, time to give players more ways to use Permanently Evil Matter without side effects, logic be damned."
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Mar 21, 2021 20:37
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Joe Slowboat posted:I will say that the 'dying earth' subgenre of distant futurity can do very well with almost no connection to the present - but you need to actually have a sense of that deep futurity, usually a picaresque one. Vance, Hodgson, and Wolfe* all have very much unrecognizable futures, and they do a lot with that. Numenera is just bad. Tibalt posted:It's a pretty big "Giant robot fights over limited resources" kind of problem, where it's strains credulity. Nessus fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Mar 21, 2021 |
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Mar 21, 2021 20:38
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Tibalt posted:Yes, that's my point - as it is now, you've got a society built around stealing souls to stuff into newborns... but they've also got a giant vault of ABC souls sitting around because they're paranoid about Slaanesh. Well they don't want to use their own souls of course.
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Mar 21, 2021 20:38
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So we have obsessive emotionally repressed elves who reached unimaginable power who fell due to excess of repression, and also wear magical jewellery. but the not-infinity circuit went to the nObLE undersea dark eldar who also have Wet Avatar Khaine - Now 100% Less Khaine, We Just Like The Name? Well, Malekith can still turn up as elf-soul manipulating death god of magic clowns!
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Mar 21, 2021 21:01
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if the fish elves are so smart why haven't they evolved into crab elves yet
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Mar 21, 2021 21:02
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Nessus posted:Are you sure they weren't just beefing with Hercules? They explicitly say the thing about 'beneficial atmospheres,' so...
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Mar 21, 2021 21:29
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Joe Slowboat posted:They explicitly say the thing about 'beneficial atmospheres,' so...
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Mar 21, 2021 21:45
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JcDent posted:Of course the adventure is dumb, the way the content is split into chapters is dumb, and it already does fluff conflicts as Elysian oils can be made by any Elysian anywhere by using random herbs and roots, provide stable and cool combat benefit for 4 hours, and are a lot better than the dumb Burn varieties as presented in Katharsys. It gets even dumber than that, just wait. 
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Mar 22, 2021 03:50
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 E: unrelated to anything: Some rats are born-spawned Made to wave the banner-thing JcDent fucked around with this message at 07:36 on Mar 22, 2021 |
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Mar 22, 2021 06:30
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Chapter 2, Sins of the Fathers Welcome back folks. Chapter 2 is mostly just the history of Altair and Co. Why is this chapter 2 and not chapter 1? I have no idea! It seems to be like you’d put background first, then describe the setting, and then plot the adventure, but then what do I know? Anyways, when Altair is 14 he signs up with the Anabaptists because he thinks they’re cool holy warrior guys. He’s a pretty good fighter himself, and by the time he’s 23 he’s a pack leader and has won some notable victories over the Jehammeds. He gets summoned to Cathedral City, where he meets up with Baptist Marcellus and learns how to do diplomacy and stuff for a couple years. He then hits the road and travels for a while. In those travels he comes across Marduk Oil while visiting Neolibyian coastal settlements, and somehow manages to convince them to sell him the formula. His Emanations then tell him that Marcellus is dying, so he goes back to Cathedral City, is named Marcellus’s successor, and fucks off to Lucatore. He calls in his scouts, and realizes that the situation on the Adriatic Front is fuckin’ dire. Too many folks are dying, and they’re losing a lot of ground to the Jehammeds. How could he turn the tide? ”Altair the biggest dumb idiot in the whole fuckin’ world” posted:In Franka he had seen people use Burn - could something similar bring success on the Adriatic Front?  We have all of these sick-nasty combat drugs that we can make from basically anything anywhere, but clearly the real ticket is to abuse the drug that infests you with evil space mushrooms. I mean yeah, Burn does buff some stats and can make you ignore stuff like stress or the cold, but like, even if he wasn’t supposedly a religious fanatic sworn to burn Sepsis from the face of the planet, the side effects alone make anyone abusing Burn a gigantic loving moron. Anyways, he imports some into the Cloister and he and his Monks get some crazy strong visions, but eventually Abacus invents the new formulas that will protect them from getting found out by the Spitaliers. He makes his young, non-Anabaptist brother Ennio governor of Lucatore and returns to the front, where he meets a warrior name Neva (20 years younger than him), they fall in love, etc. When he gets the first shipment of super oil, Neva is the first person he shares the secret with. So they fight on the front for 5 years, and after winning 3 significant pitched battles they’re able to bring the Jehammeds to the bargaining table. After a century of war, nobody feels like fighting anymore and a peace treaty is signed. Right around this time Neva and Altair disappear from public view on a retreat, because Neva is pregnant. It’s not a nice pregnancy either. She gets real sick, has crazy visions, goes a little insane, hears the voice of her unborn child, etc. When Altair’s son Vikal is finally born, it's clear that something is seriously wrong. He’s hairless, doesn’t really speak or react to the outside world very much, and is constantly suffering from various fevers. Some of you are probably ahead of me and have realized that this kid is an Aberrant. Turns out abusing space mushroom cocaine mixed with olive oil was a bad idea, who knew? Altair drifts apart from Neva, clearly disgusted and disappointed. This neglect further erodes her mental state, and what time they do spend together anymore is usually spent fighting. Finally, one day she sees stones and dust floating in circles around Vikal’s head, fully realizes what’s happened, and chains Vikal up in the Cloister’s tower. ”Neva” posted:Madness has crept into her, has engulfed her mind like oil. The only thing she can think of is saving Vikal.  In a grand tradition of a lot of lovely writers that cannot write women, Neva becomes a one-dimensional hysterical mother. She tells Altair the truth, and begs him to leave with the two of them in search of a cure. Altair can’t bear to look at her anymore, but says that the oil was more important than the child. He does promise to ask the Spitaliers for help though. At this point, Neva realizes that it was the oil that poisoned her. The book doesn’t outright say so, but given that any Spital “help” for an Aberrant would be a quick fiery death, she’s probably not interested in pursuing that avenue. She’s come to the conclusion that Altair must die if she’s to save her son. So she goes down to the local Ramano camp, a little ways outside Lucatore. They’re Romani stereotypes. Thieves, rapists, murderers, dressed in gaudy rear end jewelry, etc. They’re currently here literally just digging for treasure. There she meets this man.  That’s Papa Chicco. Basically he’s a fat ugly murderer and crime lord whose sole goal in life is to festoon himself with kitsch from the bygone era because he saw a cool Neolibyian once. I’m being a bit reductive, but that’s basically it. He’s a piece of poo poo that other pieces of poo poo look down upon is what I’m saying, besides being a racial stereotype. He was told that cool Bygone stuff is usually buried, so here he is with his underlings, digging for jewelry. Neva contracts him to assassinate her husband, and pays him in golden artifacts taken from the Jehammeds during the Adriatic war. She wanted the captain of Lucatore’s guard, Lucio Bastardo to do it, but Altair is his adoptive father and he can’t bear the thought. However, he’s hopelessly in love with Neva so he promises to hold back his guard for Papa Chicco’s attempt on Altair’s life. As you already know, Papa is successful and slits Altair’s throat while his two squires ran back into a building where they forgot their swords. Altair is buried by Abacus and Lucio beneath that massive boulder so that nobody can ever figure out what really happened. His brother Ennio is basically trapped in his estate after this. He’s still governor so he hasn’t been arrested or lynched yet, but a lot of folks think he did it. This is partly because he’s shacked up with Gala Lombardi, daughter of chief of Clan Lombardi. Ennio has no kids of his own, so the Lombardi plan is to marry the two families and when Ennio dies, Clam Lombardi gets its land back from those hated Anabaptists. They in turn don’t like Gala very much, because her clan refuses to convert. The rest of the chapter is a dramatis personae, but I’ll just intro characters and provide background as they come up in the adventure. Next time, the adventure! Well, the story they call an adventure at least.
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Mar 22, 2021 08:13
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Hipster Occultist posted:We have all of these sick-nasty combat drugs that we can make from basically anything anywhere, I can this stress this enough: this is literally true, you can't push an Elysian into a random patch of weeds without him emerging coated in fragrant no-downsides combat drugs on the other side.. I'm slowly editing my way towards that part, but Elysians make Spitalians and Anubites look like amateurs when it comes to making go-juice. quote:the side effects alone make anyone abusing Burn a gigantic loving moron. This is also true, as the two Burn-infested oils in the main book absolutely suck. quote:They’re Romani stereotypes. Thieves, rapists, murderers, dressed in gaudy rear end jewelry, etc. They’re currently here literally just digging for treasure. This is more of "Europeans talk mad poo poo about racist Americans until someone mentions the Romani" as we already have immoral thieves, rapists, and murderers dressed in gaudy rear end jewelry in the game, they're called Apocalyptics and you can play as one.
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Mar 22, 2021 08:39
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JcDent posted:This is more of "Europeans talk mad poo poo about racist Americans until someone mentions the Romani" as we already have immoral thieves, rapists, and murderers dressed in gaudy rear end jewelry in the game, they're called Apocalyptics and you can play as one. The funny thing is, he's not even an Apocalytpic. He's a Clanner, from Clan Romano.
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Mar 22, 2021 09:10
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Joe Slowboat posted:I will say that the 'dying earth' subgenre of distant futurity can do very well with almost no connection to the present - but you need to actually have a sense of that deep futurity, usually a picaresque one. Vance, Hodgson, and Wolfe* all have very much unrecognizable futures, and they do a lot with that. Numenera is just bad. I've read Vance and Wolfe, but not Hodgson. My take on Dying Earth and post-apoc fiction is that it Dying Earth specifically invokes how different the future of the setting is from the 'normal' earth, specifically to create a discrepancy between the future and the present. There's a grimness to painting a picture of a future that is so alien to us that we can't understand it. Wolfe's future makes this even more poignant by calling out that this is our world irrevocably changed by presenting a few esoteric clues, while Vance uses it for gallows humor in the attitude of the last remaining people's indifference to their situation. Both make the looming end of the world a significant threat that plays into the daily lives of everyone in the setting in some way or the other. Post-apoc on make the parallels explicit, to make the apocalypse seem close and personal and more realistic. It's two completely different approaches, and to me, Degenesis somehow sits between two chairs. It both tries to make the world seem close and personal with the trappings of post-apoc, but then swerves and goes completely off-the-rails with the silly renaming, that ends up putting a layer of distance between the game's setting and the real-world. So it's neither a world that seems close and personal or a world that's extra strange by being so dissimilar it's beyond recognition. In the other end of the spectrum, Numenera makes it's setting so detached from everything it just fails to matter. There's no looming threat at all, and nothing is recognizable, so you don't get either the personal dread of post-apoc or the inevitable end of dying earth. You just get a fantasy setting that is very obviously made explicitly for adventurers to go into dungeons with no stakes at all. I'm drifting off-topic here, I just find it relevant to sometimes examine the 'why' of using a genre for a thread where games featured very often don't know how or why to use a genre.
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Mar 22, 2021 14:18
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Battle Mad Ronin posted:games featured very often don't know how or why to use a genre. Ah, so most of the cyberpunk titles featured here.
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Mar 22, 2021 14:25
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Battle Mad Ronin posted:I'm drifting off-topic here, I just find it relevant to sometimes examine the 'why' of using a genre for a thread where games featured very often don't know how or why to use a genre. It's also why my preferred flavor of post-apoc is post-post-apoc, focusing on the rebuilding and the rise of a new world from the ashes of the old with all the problems and conflicts to go with it.
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Mar 22, 2021 14:46
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JcDent posted:This is more of "Europeans talk mad poo poo about racist Americans until someone mentions the Romani" as we already have immoral thieves, rapists, and murderers dressed in gaudy rear end jewelry in the game, they're called Apocalyptics and you can play as one. Reminder for the crowd that Degenesis's take is literally "our Romani stereotype laden faction are victims of a perverse memetic idea/culture that makes being a criminal part of their basic nature and everyone is right to discriminate against them because they basically will not give a poo poo about anything but getting high, stealing, loving, and killing". Along with pinning poo poo like the distribution of Burn on them to... tie regional disasters and disease to the migration of a nomadic culture pushed out of cities and marginalized by everyone else on the continent. Once again, gently caress Gerome Getrell, but also wow Apocalyptics are one of the "really lovely takes" centers. I've gone on at length about how transparently Degenesis comes through as a central European (not quite "just" German but not far off) supremacy story when you start picking the actual messaging apart, I'd maybe be able to track my more protracted analysis down again (been a while since I've revisited my books to rewrite it from scratch). Probably get yelled at for not continuing RM first. Speaking of, shitshow of a week ahead but I'll try and get at least the next post out.
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Mar 22, 2021 16:20
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Cythereal posted:It's also why my preferred flavor of post-apoc is post-post-apoc, focusing on the rebuilding and the rise of a new world from the ashes of the old with all the problems and conflicts to go with it. Yeah, same here. I noticed mecha anime goes to this well a LOT, just off the top of my head you've got four Gundam shows for sure, maybe a few more if you stretch it in various directions, Xabungle, Overman King Gainer, Big O (maybe), Gurren Lagann, Promare (sorta), and Getter Robo Armageddon. Ugh, another reminder I need to try and play Lancer with some people.
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Mar 22, 2021 16:29
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Chapter 8: Bazaar, pt. 12 Degenesis Rebirth Katharsys Chapter 8: Bazaar ARMOR Armor Qualities >Respected impresses people from a certain group and makes them you like more.  >First Impression gives a bonus to, well, first impressions. Would mean a lot more if the game had an encounter hostility chart a la Esoteric Enterprises – who knows, maybe it does! >Fire Resistant (x) means you never catch fire and that you defend from fire damage with X instead of the reg armor value. >Terrifying has a description as asinine as the one in the weapon section.  >Camo still means difficulty of identifying that this is, indeed, armor.  >Insulated means total immunity to electrical damage. >Bulletproof (X) is kinda like Fire Resistant (X) but for “projectiles fired from a gun.” Does... does that mean that doesn't do poo poo again arrows and thrown weapons? >Massive (X) is “Bulletproof (X)” for bladed and pointy weapons. In exchange, it's massively dumb about blunt: quote:On the other hand, massive armor is susceptible to damage from blunt weapons. A hammer can dent the material. It changes its shape and applies pressure on Even if war hammers and maces work like that IRL (I really doubt that blunt weapons are prized for their ability to beat armor into lethal shapes and not for being able to crush the armor in the first place), this still sounds super stupid. In effect, if the damage (and Triggers) scored with a blunt weapon are higher than the normal (non-Massive) armor, then FW are caused normally while Triggers cause Trauma. >Unstable (X) means that if you're dealt X damage in an attack, you lose 1 armor. If you have a kilo of scrap of appropriate level, you roll AGI+Crafting (tech level) to repair it. >Brittle (X) increases armor by 1, but it breaks if it gets X damage, it instead decreases armor by 1. quote:The difference from the “Unstable” quality is that “Brittle” is deliberately accepted when modifying the armor because of the higher Armor rating. 1. This is the kind of ESL poo poo I have to put up with. 2. THIS IS NOT A GOOD REASON TO HAVE TWO IDENTICAL RULES. 3. Is Brittle... impossible to repair? If so, why would you ever take that?!  > Sealed (X) automatically gives X successes when rolling to resist environmental contaminants. Some contaminants just list that Sealed automatically resists them, so... Armor >Salted Clothing is Unstable (4) armor that gives 1 defense in exchange for 20CD. Beggars should be choosers, as same-but-stable Fur Cape is 40. >Leather Coat is Armor 2 Encumbrance 2 Tech I armor with 2 slots that costs 120. Leather Armor is basically the same, but increasing to Armor 3 takes it to Tech II and 320. >Your squishier members will want that or to save up for a Kevlar Jacket that costs 650, but only Encumbrance 2 while giving Armor 4 and Bulletproof (7). >Scrapper Armor is Armor 4, Unstable (6), but hey, it has 6 mod slots! >Spitalian Suit is the only armor with Respected (Patients +1D), Chronicler Suit is the only one with First Impression. :effot: >AMSUMO casing is Armor 8, Massive (10), but only Encumbrance 3... why is robot armor here? Can you even wear it? I guess it should be balanced by the need to find and skin an AMSUMO to get it, as well as it being a Tech level V suit with a single mod slot. >Spitalian Armor generally isn't impressive – going from Armor 2 Encumbrance 2 doctor gimp suit to Preservist's Armor 3 Encumbrance 3. OTOH, with Sealed (4) (6 on the Hygienist suit), you can basically drop Chlorine Gas grenades at your feet as a self-defense measure, which I heartily encourage  >Hellvetic Harness is Armor 5 Fire Resistant (8) for 3 Encumbrance. >The terrible Heavy Duty NO FUN ALLOWED exo suit is Armor 7 Massive (9), so inferior to AMSUMO casing, but it has Fire Resistant (8) and 3 slots. So - unless you're walking through fire - trash. >Speaking of trash, Judge's iconic Hat and Coat is identical to Leather Armor, but more expensive. This continues the trend of their equipment variants being garbage. >Druchiinik Silk Armor is awesome for weedy gits (and Chroline Gas deprived Preservists) as it's Armor 3, but 1 Encumbrance!  >Scourger Flak Armor and Helmet is Silk Armor +1, as it's Armor 4, still encumbrance 1. It’s 200CD more expensive than Kevlar Jacket, which is Encumbrance 2 sure, but also comes with Bulletproof (7). >Simbas get hosed over: Flak Armor and Lion Helmet has the stats like above, but Encumbrance 2. Heavy is the head that wears the lion pelt. >Hey, remember the crazy Horn dagger? Well, the nanomachinesson Arianoi wielding it may also turn wearing a Ram Helmet (Armor 1, Encumbrance 1, Terrifying (3)) and Black Fleece (Armor 3, Encumbrance 1, Fire Resistant (8), Insulated, Terrifying (8)). Use guns. >The Black Fleece would be the most expensive armor at 16K if not for RG throwing its spacer tech hat into the ring again. Ceramic fiber combination (that’s… that’s the name) is Armor 5, Bulletproof (8), Sealed (1S) for Encumbrance 2 and 22K (so almost inferior to AMSUMO casing). >Composite armor loses Sealed, but improves Armor and Bulletproof by 1, all for a cool 6K increase in price. Bring a Preservalis sword and gas grenades. >Free Spirit make a return with Graph (I’m betting the original German meant “graf” as in “count”) combat suit: Armor 7, Bulletproof (10), Sealed (2), but Encumbrance 3. 60K in price. >It's not the only Tech level VI (Wonderland) armor. The other one? The Black Fleece. Now that's some storytelling in equipment stats! Shame it only happens once in 150 pages. In conclusion, armor seems to be balanced in a way where good ballistic armor is defeated by vigorous stabbing, and better weapons are meant to overcome the normal armor rating just by the stable damage part alone. Shields >Kinda boring, only Scourger Oval Shield and Hellvetic Tunnel Shield give passive defense bonuses. >Oval Shield is overall winner, since it gives +2D/+1 in exchange for -1D to handling, albeit at Encumbrance 2. SURVIVAL GEAR This is going to go dumb. Getting food quote:Traps can be used to procure dinner or to keep away unwanted guests. Looking for food in general is covered by an Action roll on INS+Survival. Oh, you thought we're starting with traps? You loving moron, this is about exciting implements for getting food that aren't traps. Incidentally, you find food by rolling INS+Survival, with difficulty depending on the region (I'm sure it's listed somewhere) and you get daily rations equal to 1+Triggers. How much time do you take? Who knows, but it says that a Scrapper specializing in lichen and roots takes 4 hours per roll. :eyesroll: >Getting Food equipment doesn't cost Encumbrance >Water flask holds enough water for 2 days. Traps quote:And now for the unwanted guest. A trap in the right place stops him from approaching unseen. You set and hide traps with an AGI+Stealth (2) roll. “Triggers raise the trap’s ‘hidden’ rating” says the book, feeling no regrets for having used up “Camo” for the “how hard is this item to hide” stat. Victim rolls INS+Perception vs. the hidden rating to spot. >Bear trap: Imagine you wanted to write about bear traps as if you were an rear end in a top hat. Specialty: “Full body armor reduces the damage; a Scourger’s flak jacket, however, offers no protection.”  The book doesn't state if, say, Salted Clothing, is full body armor, so good luck with Mother May I's. Takes BOD+Force (4) roll to open. >Pitfall:Damage depends on depth and whether you put spikes in the bottom. No rules for that here, maybe look into falling. On the other hand, if you declared a single set damage rating for pitfalls, you’d immediately summon five smug “rules as physics” assholes who’d dig endless pits to make for a fast, if slightly painful, elevator. >Tripwire: If you don't attach it to a bomb or something, you can make someone stumble and lose 1 Action. >Mines: What if grenades were sedentary and their explosions were centered on the person triggering it? >Bear trap does 8 damage, is hidden rate 4, only encumbrance 1 and costs 30. You should probably get a few. >Mine is basically the same, but the rules depend on what filling you're using (probably Chlorine Gas). >Pitfall is hidden 2, while tripwire is 5. Sources of Light/Fire >A Torch costs 3 and reduces darkness penalty by 1 for 30 minutes. >Oil Lamp reduces it by 2 for 2 loving hours, costs 40 base + 10 for oil. No mention of using oil for other nefarious burning purposes. >Sunburst does the same for 100 hours per E-Cubed. Considering it's Encumbrance 1 (oil lamps and oil are weightless), costs 1200 (and E-Cubeds are 1000 per), and is limited to disgusting capitalist Morlocks, it's trash. >No, there are no rules for using Sunburst as the mace the fluff implies it is. >Cyclops Eye is also bad, as it only eliminates darkness penalty for Palers. For others, it works like a lamp. For 14K, you can probably hire a bunch of Clanners to hold your lamps, carry the oil, and constantly tell you what a good boy you are. Orienteering/Tracking >Really boring. >Drop 15k for a Hellvetic Pathfinder, add 220 for a Compass, and 40 more for a Regional Map, and you'll rock +6D for INS+Orienteering if you’re playing in game that cares for that. Grab an Astrolabe... Climbing >Rope, 10m: “Necessary for many climbing endeavors.” >Climbing harness (400) needs rope (60) to give BOD+Athletics +1D, which is pathetic. Better use it to liven up your sex life or something. Overnight >Blanket/Sleeping Bag: “Restful sleep: recover 1 Flesh Wound per night.” Encumbrance 2, motherfucker. Remembering that AMSUMO skin weights the same, it says something either about pre-Eschaton metallurgy or post-Eschaton blankets. >Camo net: does not have the Camo quality, as this game is stupid. “For the resting place: harder to be spotted by enemies +2C.” >Either you don't use Encumbrance, or nobody is ever using this poo poo. Transportation >If you thought this is about horses or Koms, you're not a Degenesis developer. >Backpack: “Encumbrance -2 for everything in the backpack; can be set down” - I guess this means EVERY item you put in the bag? >Sleigh: Encumbrance -3, “can be left behind” which is the most DUH statement I have ever heard (unless some later lore section specifies that items left behind disappear as if in a video game). IN THE SHADOWS >Lock Pick allows you to pick mechanical locks, but doesn't help with that. You need either a Scrapper Keyring or Sesamite to get bonuses. OTOH, their rules only state the bonuses, but don't say whether they allow you to pick locks... >Camo paint: doesn't confer the Camo quality. Technology >Stream Drones and display costs 19K. >Pneumatic Metal Shears give BOD+Force +4D against metal obstacles, which implies that it's powerless against twigs, wet paper, dreams, etc.. >Throwing Pulsor costs 6K for the ability to destroy all electronics in 10 meters radius. Does the Black Fleece or any of the gnarlier weapons count as electronics? Sun Discs >Sun Discs are Encumbrance 1 each. Chronicler Suit Modules >The Source, the energy feed for the modules, is expensive (5K per level) and heavy (2 E) for something used by nerds. Heavy Duty Modules >FAAAAAAART Talismans/Insignia >Invest 150 into Clan Tattoos and 30 into Body (War) Paint to give party's moon-worshipping savage 3D in PSY+Faith/Willpower >Balancer costs 500 and the only effect is having a bonus for business dealings against the Neolibyan you stole it form. >If you dole out 20k to add a pocket calculator, the Balancer suddenly becomes useful to you as the owner as well. >Icons giving +2D to foreseen Action rolls or whatever implies that Islam is the light and the way. >Encumbrance 2, tho: Allah's blessing is heavy. Communication >Hellvetic Radio Backback costs 4 times as much as a radio, but offers 40 times the range at 200 km. Gasmasks quote:Every Scrapper knows stories about gas bubbles and ancient bunkers. Corpses are supposedly piled high down there. Stories about Scrappers who went down unprotected, breathed in once, and simply dropped dead. Had they worn a gas mask, they would be able to tell the story themselves, this time with a better ending. >Despite the claim that there are 3 levels of gas masks, there's no gasmask item per-se. >1st level item is Breathing Cloth, costs 5, gives +1S to rolls to resist nasty poo poo. >Breathing Apparatus is level 3 for an hour, then the air runs out, and it becomes level 2. >It's Encumbrance 2, get Sealed armor instead. Next time: we're stealing copper wire
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Mar 22, 2021 19:37
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