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Hipster Occultist posted:It really saves time doesn't it? Who needs to worry about planning for the players getting off track, after all.
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Mar 26, 2021 21:21
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You've seen railroading, so how about trying emotional railroading?
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Mar 26, 2021 21:31
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In Thy Blood, Chapter 3, Part 4 Our tale resumes with the PCs arriving back in Lucatore after finding Fenerex, with a warning to deliver. The PCs arrive at the Commission House, where the servant Dana informs them that Dr Ferro has been looking for them every day since they left, and is waiting at the Cold Stores for them. Apparently the good doctor can’t wait 24 hours for news. Anyways, they go to see Ferro because they don’t have much else to do at this point. He ushers them into a large barn, where the slab of the monk who died via exsanguination lies cut open on a large slab of ice. He points out that this man has the typical signs of a heavy Burn user, a large white growth crawling up the windpipe and into the pharynx. However, he does not have the stigma upon his chest, which has Ferro stumped. He looks at the PCs for answers, while some of them may have guessed that there's a special burn-infused oil being made here, nobody would really have a concrete idea of what really goes on in the mills yet. Once the PCs tell him about Barghest, he’s immediately horrified and pissed that the Anabaptists let this happen. He grabs a nearby Spitalian messenger, and tells him to ride to a nearby Hellvetic stronghold, and that they need to come in force along with a Preserver Corps as well. However, none of this matters because like 5 minutes later the messenger bisects himself and his horse on a line of Filament.  This happens within line-of-sign of the characters too.Oh, if they tell him about the encounter with Neva and the Romanos, he has this to say. ”Carmine Ferro” posted:Romanos? This Emmisray has more to answer for that just her husband’s murder. What else does Ferro think she did? Associating with the wrong kind of people is hardly a crime. Anyways, Ferro wants to see if the route to Eden is still open despite his messenger turning into a bloody cloud not two minutes ago, so he tells the PCs to go ask Ennio Benesato to help. The PCs have long since learned how this adventure works, so they do as they’re told. While they’re en-route, they stumble across Ambroggio and Siphon (the two drunken Anabaptists from the tavern brawl) beating the poo poo out of Domingo Benesato, the young nephew and bodyguard of Ennio. You can intervene to save him, otherwise he gets his head caved in. It’s probably not a hard fight, but that might depend on how hosed up they are from previous encounters. Healing in Degenesis is really slow and lovely. Assuming the PCs win, a Int+Medicine (1) roll will stabilize Domingo so he can breathe. They’re told that they can’t do anything else for him, and the only possible further aid that they can provide is to hide him and hope that nobody takes the opportunity to kill a helpless man. Moving and hiding him requires a combo roll of Int+Medicine and Agi+Stealth. Given that this guy is the loving Nephew of the man that they were on the way to see, I’m not sure why you can’t just loving carry him to actual saftey. The Benesato Estate is oddly quiet from the outside, the door’s open, the PC’s don’t see anyone, etc. Once they enter the estate proper they hear some muffled voices coming from the upper floors. Assuming they go to investigate, they find Ennio and Gala along with four swordsmen and Pace Benesato, the other nephew. There’s also six dead Orgastics lying on the floor. Apparently poo poo has really gone down hill in like the day or two the PCs spent in the woods. Ennio himself is pretty defeated and looks all worn out, and basically unprompted he sits down and tells the PCs some stuff. Its clumsy exposition time folks! He tells the PCs about Vikal, how he was a pale, hairless, sickly thing and no true heir for a Baptist. He tells them that six months ago Altair told him that Vikal died of pneumonia, which is insane when Ferro is your family physician. He’ll go to say that this is bullshit, he believes that Vikal is still alive and kept hidden away (duh). Once storytime is over, Gala Lombardi’s guards will lead the family out of Lucatore, leaving the PCs to their business. Once they’re gone, the book says that if the characters look out the window, they see a terrifying sight. Two torchlit processions march towards the town square, one from the south, the other from the east. I’m not sure why this terrifying, foreboding maybe? Anyways, like always if the book writes it, the PCs go there. The book actually does give you the choice of stepping outside and checking this out, but the rest of the book assumes you do as the plot here is a very straight and rigid line.  The first procession is the one from the south, lead by Scirocco the Sinner and his flayers. He is being carried atop a wooden throne adorned with barbed wire, and a little boy holding a severed ear on a gold-embroidered pillow sits on this lap. Along with the flayers, he has a bunch of villagers with him. The folks coming in from the east arrive next, these are the Anabaptists armed with melee weapons, along with the rest of the villagers. There’s a lot of tension between the two groups, the Anabaptists want to arrest the Flayers, while Sciocco and Co want to continue their particularly crazy brand of religious bullshit. Scirocco is here to save your souls, and how is he going to do that? By dragging up a confused and scared woman, stripping her naked, and accusing her of fornicating with the Demiurge. He then tosses her in front of Westing, a bald Aesthetic and leader of the Anabaptist procession. If the PCs want to see any of this, there’s a bunch of actually kinda difficult rolls they have to make to force their way through the crowd, otherwise they just have to listen.  Anyways, right now Westing is primarily concerned with how powerful Scirocco is at this moment, and the need to essentially regain control of the religious narrative here. Otherwise the Flayer might plunge the entire town into chaos. He proclaims that Anabaptists do not side with evil, they destroy it, and they show this little harlot what for! The PCs can roll INS+Empathy or CHA + Expression (3) to see that Westing is using hand signals to guide his men into position, and is stalling for time. They chain the woman to the broken cross, and Westing puts on his best fire and brimstone voice. It doesn’t go so well though, Westing plays the spectacle up for the crowd at first, but ends up yanking his arm back from the barrel and dropping the bowl of water. It’s full of tapeworms! Hundreds of big-rear end tapeworms start flopping around and moving towards the crowd, which breaks into a panic. Meanwhile, Scirocco is loving all of this. ”Scirocco the Sinner” posted:BEHOLD THE LAST SIGN! THE WORM WILL BE IN ALL WATERS! Personally, I’m a little unimpressed by his after-the-fact prophecies, but that’s just me. Most of the villagers switch sides at such a display, and surround the Anabaptists. Things do not look good for our local monks, and Scirocco is able to more or less take total control of the situation. He stops the mob from killing them, and instead proclaims that they must be offered a chance to save their souls from the Demiurge. For some reason he rams a crown of thorns onto Westing’s head, who just stands there all dumbfounded. He then has the next “harlot” brought to him, and it’s none other than the Touched One, Venera! Apparently she’s guilty of carrying decaying water for the Anabaptists, and has lain in the lap of evil or some poo poo. Anyways, the only way they can cleanse her sin is with some good ol blood sacrifice.  A little late on the title card drop there. That droning is the insect army Barghest has been breeding, surprise suprise. Millions of gadflies and mosquitos the size of a grown man’s palm zoom around feasting on the blood of the crowd, and its full-blown panic time now.  Scirocco, even in the midst of a couple million flying insects, is really determined to slit the throat of this servant girl for daring to serve people that do not follow his particular brand of religious orthodoxy. He’s got the sacrificial dagger at her throat, ready to slit it at a moment's notice. We are told that this is the last chance that the PCs have to save the girl, if they choose to do so. Like many of the other “choices” in this module, the book assumes you do so and all other content in the book assumes you do save here. I don’t think that anyone is going to lose too much sleep over killing Scirocco, but honestly this fight is kinda hosed. The PCs are at a -6D penalty for all actions right now, due to the raging swarm of insects all around them. A relatively new combat focused character at this stage (unless you’ve done a bunch of other poo poo first) will have 10D, meaning they now have to fight this guy with 4D. Characters focused moreso in other areas might not get to roll dice at all, or they’ll roll less at least. The PCs can roll INT+Focus/Primal, with each success and trigger on that roll taking 1D off of the penalty. However, this roll is still subject to the -6 penalty, and there’s a fairly good chance that will mean for some that it's impossible for them to succeed on this roll. Finally, as a cherry atop the poo poo sundae, characters have to get 3 successes on a PSY+Faith/Willpower roll to actually stand and fight Scirocco, or they run away in a panic. Keep in mind, this is while you’re possibly afflicted with a serious dice penalty. If you fail the roll, you can fight Scirocco by burning 1 eo point a round, running out means you flee. So you rescue Venera as the book bids, and then you have to make your way towards the cloister.  It seems kinda weird that the swarm doesn’t inflict damage or do anything beyond a single point of spore infestation, and there are no mechanics for battling or moving through said swarm. Fast forward a bit (there’s not much on the way other than an AGI check to avoid taking 6 damage that ignores armour from a runaway horse cart) and the PCs escape the swarm by moving up the hill towards the Cloister. They run into our good friend Dr Ferro again, who informs them that the Psychonaut has totally cut them off from the outside world, they are trapped. They have no way to get word to anyone that can help. Venera will then pipe up and let the PCs and Ferro know that the monks keep a flare rifle that can signal the Hellvetics in the Cloister. The stables are nearby, and with a couple fairly easy rolls the PCs can tame some horses for the trip. When the PCs arrive at the cloister, Venera opens the gate with her key but they’ll all have to make a roll combo of perception and stealth to hide before 4 Aesthetics come running past. I guess the book assumes everyone will make a Int+Perception (3) roll followed by a Agi+Stealth (2) roll, because I don’t think it properly considers what will happen if they fail. The PCs are within earshot of Abacus who’s ordering all the various monks around, getting them setup to use Spirfires on the oncoming swarm. He’s got about 40 Aesthetics in the Refractory with him. If the PCs get discovered, this is a TPK. Full stop. Abacus orders that 20 join Lucio on the walls, while the other half will come with him to protect the oil mill. Also, apparently the last that they’re supposed to do is use the rifle, because Abacus does not want a battalion of “self-righteous Hellvetics” coming to the Cloister. This man certainly has his priorities. The book tells us that the PCs are able to escape the Refractory after the monks leave to take up positions, and then the PCs creep up onto the walls. There they see two monks, with a long metal box between them, it’s the flare rifle! Ferro will direct them to take out one monk, while he takes out the other. It’s once again a combination of rolls to do this successfully, with no mention of what happens should the PCs fail one of these rolls. Anyways, the PCs easily kill the monks, and pop open the case. It’s an Int+Artifact Lore (3) roll to figure out how to load and use the thing, but if nobody does it Ferro can easily fire the drat thing. After the shot, a bunch of monks notice it and start yelling in confusion, wondering who shot the rifle against orders. Then, a sudden bang from the other side of the Cloister rings out above the yelling of the monks. Carmine Ferro has been shot! He staggers backwards, says he’s been shot in the heart, and collapses in a heap. Lucio himself comes up from the armoury to the battlements, trying to figure out just what the hell is going on. As this happens, the PCs can see a blue flare in the distance. The Hellvetics have answered.  Keep in mind, they’ve known this guy “professionally” at best for a week at most. In Thy Blood, Chapter 4  Why is this a new chapter when we’re still in the middle of things?   Um, do these people know what surprise is? A squad of heavily armed monks making no attempt at stealth while rushing the PCs counts as a surprise round? Okay I guess. Not that it matters though, because after those attacks another shot rings out and pegs Lucio, this time the PCs can apparently tell that it’s coming from Neva’s rooms. Lucio screams in anger, clearly not understanding the motives of a deranged widow who murdered her husband to save her cursed child. Neva can be seen leaving her room for some reason, taking up a position in the Arcades before firing another shot at the petrol container of an Orgastic. The PCs then have to make an Agi+Mobility (3) check or take 14 explosive damage. The flames also cut off their only direction they might have been able to escape, and while its temporarily blinding Neva it won’t for long, as she looks for a better firing position and fires pot-shots at the PCs. So the PCs are trapped on a burning wall, the only way out is a 30 foot drop, and a madwoman is shooting at them. Neva does take a break to reveal that she’s pissed at Lucio for forcing her to hire the Romanos to kill Altair, he should have had the guts to do it. Also, he was supposed to kill the PCs, so she’s real mad at him. She’s about to kill him with her Bienhander (after her rifle jams), when Vikal finally has his moment and explodes the tower he was kept prisoner in for months. A skeleton frame is all that is left of the tower, but the strain is too much for Vikal and the boy collapses. This isn’t the only large explosion that will rock the Cloister today though.   After doing some divine and conquer with the Swarm, Barghest has arrived. We get treated to a page or two of him screaming about stuff and killing monks with his Psychonaut abilities. Yawn. This is what I come to the table for, to listen to my GM use one NPC (with powers I’m not allowed to have) slaughter a bunch of other NPCs. Anyways, he’s here for Vikal because he feels that the boy is basically his son. Neva is having none of that, and is trying to kill Barghest with an anti-tank rifle. Its not going well, but she is distracting him. Barghest’s entrance collapsed part of the wall and left a staircase of debris that leads down into the oil mill, so that’s where we’re headed. Its that, or burn to death on the battlements or get killed by Barghest. Anyways, the PCs head down into the Mills. There’s a skill check to push a couple monks down some stairs as they try to rush the PCs, if these fail they’ll have to fight’em. Once the monks are dealt with, the PCs go down further and see Abacus ordering a bunch of monks around in the midst of sume really huge machinery. He orders them to pack the Burn up into crates, along with the oil. Then there are several loud claps of thunder, and part of the roof collapses as Barghest descends into the Mills, holding onto Vikal.  Witnessing Barghest in such close quarters triggers a sort of primal fear in the PCs, and they have to make a PSY+Faith/Willpower check to avoid being paralyzed by fear or fleeing in panic. He does have a couple weaknesses. He cannot stand his mirror image, and his reflection with transfix him for a few moments, during this time he loses the initiative and cannot maintain his filament force field. If he’s coated with Elysian Oil, he loses his connection to the Earth Chakra and thus cannot control his swarm. He still gets his sick-nasty powers though. For some reason Venera rushes at Barghest and screams “VIKAL!” Barghest goes to kill her, but stops because of the necklace she’s wearing. Altair gave her this for some reason, it's a seed from a Fractal Forest and it contains a great deal of mysterious power, the nature of which even the GM is not told of. Barghest knocks her aside and kills some more monks, while inhaling Burn from spare crates. (He needs the spores to revive Vikal, and also feels that the Burn is his stolen property) After this, a shot rings out, but it is not aimed at any of the PCs or the NPCs, instead a hole appears in one of the copper vats holding the Elysian oil. Fenerex is back my dudes. The rest of the battle plays out like this. First, Fenerex tosses the PCs a bag full of mirror shards, and directs most of the PCs to head towards the largest vat. While one or two PCs throw shards to distract Barghest, Fenerex sneaks around and shoots him with his Lupara, while the other PCs work to topple the last vat. If the PCs gently caress up the throwing rolls, they need to make a difficult stealth roll or Barghest notices them and deletes their rear end with his gravity laser. That’s not even a joke, they’ll probably just get one shot. Assuming everything goes as planned, Barghest gets covered in oil, screams that he hates humans, and then flies away with Vikal. Venera is also missing again, all of sudden. poo poo is getting real bad in the Mills, basically everything is collapsing. Fenerex runs up to the PCs and tells them that there’s no longer an exit, when suddenly they hear Venera scream. A shirtless Abacus has her, and he’s showing the signs of being a full-on Leperos. He’s got a knife to her throat, and is screaming at Venera for ruining everything he’s worked for. If the PCs make the wrong move, he kills her. He walks backwards towards a formerly hidden supply tunnel, but stops to cough up a bunch of white flakes. This is the one round the PCs have to save Venera and kill Abacus. For what seems like an eternity, the PCs crawl through the shaft. Fenerex and Venera are with them. Eventually the tunnel empties out into the now-abandoned Romano camp, where they see this guy.  Our good friend Decoy 5. He’s searched through some stuff in a tent, his back to the PCs. He’s pretty ashamed to get caught without his mask up, but the PCs will recognize Decoy 5 as Custus the Scrapper. He’ll offer them a golden disk in exchange for his life and keeping his identity secret. You’d better take the disk, because it's the macguffin that links these three books together. Basically, as far as the overarching plot is concerned, nothing aside from the PCs acquiring this disk actually matters. Decoy 5 shows up as a major npc in the next book, but aside from that and maybe some hints that Venera and Fenerex will show up again later, most of the “plot” is relatively self-contained. I’m not kidding when I saw that this item is basically the one thing that ties the 3-book series together.  This is Jehammed’s disk, an incredibly important and valuable artifact. An Int+Artifact Lore (5) roll will reveal that it is some sort of receiver, and that it is missing two parts. There’s two more books. Coincidence? Here’s the funny thing, if you want, you can give it to the Jehammeds and they’ll love you forever, but then the rest of the series doesn’t work, and your PCs will miss out on acquiring perhaps the one thing that might make them more important than all of SMV’s pet npcs. Anyways, Epilogue stuff. Gala marries Ennio, and clan Lombardi takes over Lucatore after he dies in a few years. The Hellevtics come and help people rebuild. A death squad of Arianoi called “The Horned Nine '' found and killed all the Romanos after they fled, recovering all of the Jehammed treasure, aside from the disk. Barghest and Vikal are still out there somewhere. Lucio survives, but spends the rest of his life in Anabaptist prison as a parapalegic cripple. And Neva’s corpse is never found. Then there’s the experience rewards, and possible clan reputation rewards depending on your actions. For example, if you tell the Spitalians that the Anabaptists were making burn oil, you get some nice benefits from them. However, it tanks your rep with all Anabaptists and now squads will start tracking you down. Don’t worry though, none of the future adventures seem to really take this into account. And that’s In Thy Blood. Up next, The Killing Game
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Mar 27, 2021 00:22
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Love the the three times you have to save a woman (well, a random woman and a standard magical spectrum teen) from religious zealots, because 1) nobody would care to save a man 2) you can have some sick rear end art of titties in danger, which shows how adult dark mature your game is Love the multiple chances for TPK, especially with the exploding orgiastic flamer tank Love how the religious melee group suddenly has a crack shot with an anti-tank rifle Love the pointless boss fight that doesn't resolve anything Love the surprise Jehammedan elite killteam you don't interact with Love reading "your players feel emotionally engaged"
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Mar 27, 2021 08:51
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JcDent posted:Love reading "your players feel emotionally engaged" Revulsion is an emotion tho. Also 'orgiastic flamer tank' sounds way more fun than this thing makes it out to be.
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Mar 27, 2021 08:54
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion >Games > Traditional Games > FATAL & Friends 2020: thanks, Mario Puzo! Chapter 8: Bazaar, pt. 13  Degenesis Rebirth Katharsys Chapter 8: Bazaar Collecting Mania This is the natural, logical place to introduce the rules for looting ruins. The Right Place A successful once-daily INT+Legends (+Network for Scrappers – neat!) check allows you to find a lootable spot. Doesn't say how much actual time it takes in the field.  Here are the difficulties: Borca - 2 Franka - 5 Pollen - 4 Balkhan - 4 Hybrispania - 5 Purgare - 3 Africa - 5 Notice how the highest difficulty is for places that Africans have already harvested? Purgare is the only 3 because the western part is currently hosting STALKER: Call of Castiglione.  Open Your Eyes Oh poo poo, it's rules I don't think I can write them out in a way that's less annoying than the original, so here's the dev summary: quote:One Action roll on INS+Perception per hour  Got Something! And now, for the Tech level of the find: Tech III + (Triggers/2) – you take Triggers from the previous Action roll to find poo poo. I forgot if the game has a general attitude towards rounding up or down, so it may be the case that you can’t find scrap of a level lower than IV. The book says that the GM determines what's the highest possible level of finds in the ruin, “usually it's V.” In the end, you find 1D kilos of scrap! And now, for a large series of side-sections! Routine A side section outlining that this scrap hauling is basically downtime work (except that you still need to go out into the wilderness?), but micro-scenarios with traps and enemies could be more interesting. Collectors You may have noticed that it's impossible to find Tech I and II scrap. That's because wood and stone are plentiful, you can spend 6 hours to find 2D kilos of Tech I and 1D of Tech II poo poo anywhere.  Dragging Five kilos of scrap is Encumbrance 1 – so if you can extrapolate this for the rest of the poo poo, you can probably find some hilariously overweight weapons. Selling For selling scrap you don't need, see “Services” section – this is probably the most useless side-section in the drat book.  Modular Did you know that you don't have to build all the gun mods by hand? Some exist in the wild and/or can be purchased!  But did you know that they still take up a slot when installed? Don't be afraid: the slot can be freed up by uninstalling them. ...I don't know how smooth your brain must be for this side-section to be of any benefit.   Looking this cool as a Scrapper is not mechanically supported by the rules Lots of Scrap Anyways, done with the side-sections. You can sift through the scrap, and Minecraft-combine it to upgrade its Tech level to the next one. For Tech I-III scrap, the roll is AGI+Crafting, for IV-V, it's INT+Engineering. The difficulty is 2x the new level, so, ugh, good luck getting those 12 successes if you're trying to build some Wonderland nanite swimming trunks or whatever. If you succeed, you transform 5 kilos of Tech X scrap into 1 kilo of Tech X+1 scrap. It takes (5 - Triggers) hours (minimum 1). Now, even after all that work, scrap is just vendor trash. But with the right skills and rolls, you can actually use it to make the poo poo you already own better!  Manufacture quote:When a Scrapper weighs a weapon in his hands, he’s already imagining himself standing at his workbench refining the Trigger mechanism, exchanging the musket barrel for a rifled barrel, and attaching a sight. From a snaggy shooter that was more likely used to beat enemies to death than to shoot them he creates a precision rifle. He sees the possibilities and seizes them. I'm quoting this for that random capitalization of “Trigger” in an inappropriate place. I don't need INS+Perception roll to detect the smell of find+replace editing! Anyways, mods do poo poo. The more powerful the mod, the more slots it takes, up to 3. For every 3 slots modded, the weapon's tech level rises by 1. It also becomes more expensive. Preparation Finally, all the sepsis (the regular, not space kind) you got while rooting through Furby graveyards and abandoned teledildonics factories to gather scrap is about to pay off. To mod weapons, you need 5 kilos of scrap of matching Tech level (higher level scrap brings dice bonuses equal to difference in Tech level). For armor, it's 10 kilos. Is it per slot the mod will use, or a general tax? Probably the latter, but the book won’t say it, because :degenesis: Possibilities A loving useless section that telling you that you can't modify slotless stuff, that simple mods take 1 slot, and special quality-conferring mods take 2 or more. Wow. Hard Work AGI+Crafting for Tech I-III, INT+Technology for higher.  The difficulty is Tech level + mod slots already taken up. The time needed equals difficulty. A success means you applied the mod successfully. Each Trigger rolled saves 1 kilo of scrap (but at least 1 is used up). Failure means you ate the scrap or something, and it's lost. I want to know how you can fiddle with 10 kilos of Tech V scrap to the point of utter uselessness/dissolution of molecular bonds. If you Botch, you destroy an empty mod slot as your gun is now festooned with useless electric toothbrushes and bent screwdrivers. Passion If you're a dumb Scrapper player, you can get dumber to make items. That’s right, you spend 10 x “number of the new slot” (so, you know, 2 for 2nd slot) XP to install new slots on weapons. This book. Alright, time to tacticool bubba some guns! Next time: making sawn-off flame throwers or something
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Mar 27, 2021 13:29
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JcDent posted:
One of them does eventually show up in Black Atlantic, he's a mostly naked guy with a Ram Skull Helmet fitted with nanotech and fights with a white katana You can't make this poo poo up folks
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Mar 27, 2021 17:40
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 Buck Rogers XXVc: The 25th Century No Humans Allowed The Gennie PC: There's No Rule Says a Dog-Man Can't Play Basketball  This chapter’s short but it’s pretty vital and i can comment more on the mechanics presented. In some ways it seems to be deliberately “fixing” something the designers decided went wrong in the boxed set, and is focused on opening up the possibilities for gennie PCs as a whole. It doesn’t address all the issues but the fixes it makes were much-needed and I appreciate it for that. It starts with class restrictions. They start by listing the allowed careers for gennies in the box set. Spacers can only be Rocketjocks or Warriors, Terrines can only be Warriors, and Stormriders can’t be anything at all. So here they offer an alternative “for the referee to consider”- basically, only using the actual stat modifiers gennies are given, and the stat requirements for each career, to decide what careers are off limits. Under this system- well, almost everything’s open. It’d be simpler to say what’s not available. Ringers can’t be Rogues, a Devastator can’t be a scientist (and yes, some of the gennies we haven’t seen described yet), Ringers can’t be Rogues, Sharcs can’t be Rogues or Scientists, Oberon Sidhes can’t be Rocketjocks or Rogues, Mark 1a Terrines can’t be Scientists, and Workers can’t be Scientists or Rogues. That’s it. The noble Stormrider can be anything they want to be. This is pretty big for the time. AD&D still held to racial class and level limits as a way of “balancing” nonhumans and keeping them rare within game worlds, and while XXVc isn’t quite throwing all that out the window, it goes a lot further than you’d expect. Granted other games weren’t doing this sort of thing at all for the most part, but hey, TSR slowly catching up to the zeitgeist was the best you could manage. There is one error I see, in that I think the table is even more restrictive than the stat requirements would suggest. An Oberon Sidhe has a -5 to Dex, which means that the highest you can roll for Dexterity is a 13- but that does just meet the minimum for Rocketjocks and Rogues. Similarly the Rogue is off limits for the Ringer, but their one penalty- to Charisma- doesn’t lock them off from the stat requirements. Going strictly by numerical possibilities, only the Sharc, with its -6 to Charisma, is locked off from the careers which need a 13 Cha. This is a minor nitpick, though. The game even suggests that you should be able to swap around attribute numbers one point at a time to try and meet the requirements for a desired career. PC gennies ignore their genetic Hit Die Type and use what’s appropriate for their Career. A section on Career Skills and General Skills sums up the info that was a little scattered in the original Characters & Combat book, but doesn’t make any changes. There’s then a section on THAC0 which actually does make a certain revision/correction. In the core rules, the way THAC0 progression was split up, Medics, Engineers, and gennies with d6 hit dice end up actually getting better at combat more efficiently than Rocketjocks and Rogues, at least after the first three levels. (At level 3 a Rogue will have a THAC0 of 19 and a Medic will have one of 20, but at 4 a Rogue’s will still be 19 and the Medic’s will be 18, and is a bit faster from then on.)  This book presents a new table for THAC0s of all the careers (including Scientists) and gennies/creatures, and it goes all the way to level 39! Rocketjocks and Rogues’ THAC0 drops more consistently now, though Warriors and Scouts are still best. The “1 is an automatic miss” rule is still in effect. We get a movement table for all the gennies in this book, including animal types. There’s also a new summary of the Saving Throw rules, again not changing anything but presenting the information in a slightly more concise layout. Finally there’s a big rear end table for all the racial modifiers to saving throws using all the human gennies in this book, including some special resistances and other situations where characters are outright immune to some conditions. (Ringers can’t be suffocated or suffer from toxic gas because they’re cyborged into their suits, for example.) Since this book was one of the last products released for the line, I do wonder if they were not only fixing some rules but aware the end was near, and wanted to present a few final changes and summations for the sake of players who had stuck with them. There is an emphasis on making gennies more playable but it’s also sort of a soft revision/reorganization and I like that they were paying attention to those details. And this sums up the chapter. So! Soonish, we will finally be getting into the reason I wanted to do this book first- the Bestiary, starting with Human Gennies!
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Mar 27, 2021 17:59
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quote:The Right Place quote:
As far as the scrap disappearing, I've been playing enough Dyson Sphere Program ("if you dismantle the storage tank, the fluid will be devastated") to chalk this up as a mistranslation of whatever terminology they intended to use. "You broke anything of value in the scrap so it's not worth resale", preventing the obvious idea of trying to use every piece of scrap you get and then just selling it if you fail your rolls. Doing that to twenty-odd pounds of carbon fiber and microelectronics to the point where none of it works is a bit difficult but a flat rule is easier to implement I guess. Hipster Occultist posted:One of them does eventually show up in Black Atlantic, he's a mostly naked guy with a Ram Skull Helmet fitted with nanotech and fights with a white katana Both surprised and completely unsurprised that the katana as the best sword ever shows up in Degenesis. Very 90s, completely on brand. There's almost entirely no Asian visual influence in the game but all of it that does show up (Enemoi armor has that theme I believe) is Bygone cutting edge tech, so we're apparently playing in the "wow cool robot" cyberpunk collapse. And of coursw the Horn doesn't actually have to match the pseudo Abrahamic faction using it, because Bygone. SkyeAuroline fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Mar 27, 2021 |
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Mar 27, 2021 18:11
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If you're putting katanas in game I better see some naganitas and wakizashis too, baka gaijin!
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Mar 27, 2021 19:24
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By popular demand posted:If you're putting katanas in game I better see some naganitas and wakizashis too, baka gaijin! That's a negative. Just katanas. BTW, they weren't kidding, tracked down Aries' art and... 
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Mar 27, 2021 19:27
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Ram helmet? Check. Black fleece? Check. Horn dagger, literally the artifact they're presumably named after? Dropped for RG Nanite Katana. I dunno how I missed Borca being the most pristine looting ground despite housing the largest established civilizations outside Africa. As for the XP spend, you'd think that spending the night in concentrated work to find a way to squeeze out more capability out your weapons would lead to self improvement - alas! Of course, we all know that it's only gated behind XP spend to prevent the players from just slamming slot after slot into a musket to the point where you can mod it into a Trailblazer.
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Mar 27, 2021 21:13
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JcDent posted:Ram helmet? Check. Don't forget Borca is also the only one untouched by Primer and has less barriers to salvage too. quote:As for the XP spend, you'd think that spending the night in concentrated work to find a way to squeeze out more capability out your weapons would lead to self improvement - alas! Of course, we all know that it's only gated behind XP spend to prevent the players from just slamming slot after slot into a musket to the point where you can mod it into a Trailblazer. Oh, I'm not saying it's a perfect mechanic, a better approach would tie it to skill directly. Just that "you're spending resources and time to do this one thing better" isn't a totally absurd setup. It should let you use the extra slots on any given instance of that item though, at least. (Maybe that makes it too easy to have your scrapper be an XP battery to boost the poo poo out of everyone else.)
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Mar 27, 2021 21:22
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SkyeAuroline posted:That's a negative. Just katanas. I forgot about the fleece, that's also nanotech.
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Mar 28, 2021 03:19
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Black Fleece being the only other Tech VI armor is good storytelling via stats. You know what isn't? Depicting Arianoi as some morlock clanner with a katana.
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Mar 28, 2021 07:30
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I think Aries looks cool.
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Mar 28, 2021 09:13
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The Maze of the Blue Medusa - A Retrospective, part 1 A few years ago, I'd been running 5e for a group of friends for several months. At this point I hadn't yet grown tired of 5e, but I had grown a little tired of this campaign. One of my players had just picked up a "little indie title" with very intriguing art and offered to run it while I took a break from being behind the DM screen. None of us knew much about the adventure, and the DM asked us to make a group of characters who were all part of a prominent thieves' guild. We obliged, assembling a cadre of professional opportunists complete with goals and backstories in preparation for a campaign of skullduggery. At our first session, we were on our way back from a successful heist when we were trapped by guards in an abandoned warehouse. The painting we were stealing happened to be hit just so by the light of the moon, creating a portal into another world. And so we escaped into... The Maze of the Blue Medusa.  To cut to the chase, the Maze is a mess. In some ways that's intentional, given that it started as an art piece and was adapted over time into a mega-dungeon. But in other ways it's inexcusable. Characters will possess necessary information that the GM is told they will never reveal. Plot-relevant NPCs only ever appear as random encounters. And a lot of the plots are just really goddamn creepy. From what I've seen and read Zak S is (at best) a wretched bastard and Patrick Stuart is (at best) a creative writer but a very poor judge of character. This book has both their names on it, and I'm not going to sieve through old blog posts to figure out who wrote what, so when I have complaints about the writing I will simply blame "the author." This will happen frequently. For example, I consider them both to be at fault for this:  There's also a non-illustrated map that's heavily hyperlinked, but this version is the one that originally made me think this was going to be a really cool adventure so this is the one you have to look at. The overall idea of the Maze is that it's the extradimensional lair of the Blue Medusa Psytharella, an immortal being who imprisons immortal threats in her living labyrinth. The three most dangerous prisoners, the Torn sisters, were once the heart of a cruel empire and were trapped in the Maze by their ministers, all of whom had their own motivations. We'll see more of the Torn sisters as we meander through the Maze, but for now we'll leave them with this quote from the text: "Once, there was an Empire ruled by three perfect women. One time would not touch— she would never age or die. One was loved— everyone who met her eyes would want nobody else. And one stopped harm— no one who kissed her could hurt another being. Perfection drives man mad. Beyond its inner court, the Empire was murderous, evil, and insane, but the sisters at its heart would never age and no one who met them would, or could, ever do them harm. The Empire could not end, only change hands. So the world was hosed."  No, the sisters' powers don't really explain why the empire around them would necessarily fall to sadistic ruin. The empire was bad, the ladies are hot but not evil, and you'll just have to live with that. Periodically throughout this review I'll be sharing my personal experience with stuff from the Maze. Obviously my GM sometimes interpreted things differently than other GMs would, and our random encounter experience changed how some of the rooms would work compared to other runs. I'll be explaining the room as-written first and then popping in with my commentary. Also a big thank-you to Wapole Languray for assistance and encouragement! This adventure is bad, and Wapole is good. Next Time: Overview and History
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Mar 28, 2021 15:15
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Oh hey, another property I have firsthand experience with. Maze is the one module I've ever successfully run for a group, not long after it came out (and well before Zak's actions really hit center stage), and there are still bits of it my group references from time to time. It's... Yeah, a bit of a mess. Eventually you get a feeling for where Zak and Patrick wrote respectively (hint: Zak did the Gardens which I had to almost completely cut). e: warn me before you post about Overdose, I've got art for you for that one thanks to an almost TPK we had SkyeAuroline fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Mar 28, 2021 |
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Mar 28, 2021 15:22
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LET THE ALLEGED PANTS making GBS threads COMMENCE!
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Mar 28, 2021 19:41
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I followed Stewart's blog for a while and he seems to have done the majority of the writing based on concepts and art fed to him by Zak. As Skye has noted, you do get the feel for which bits came from which author after a few chapters. I remember thinking the dungeon's core plot is very easy to solve if your party just talk to the NPCs. Stewart is, as others have again noted, a good writer but a poor judge of character at the time this was written. He did publicly cut ties with Zak and generally did the right thing when word about Zak got out, and he shared a few horror stories of his own. I am thus inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. There's good ideas and good material in Maze, but you have to hack through a lot of cruft to reach it.
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Mar 28, 2021 22:08
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Red Markets: a Game of Economic Horror Part 13: Getting Better and Getting Out Short one because I’ve been falling behind on these, and also it turns out I stopped a few pages short of a "chapter" end. Character advancement in Red Markets is kept very simple - it’s just bounty. Flat 10 per Potential point, bounty equal to the next level of your skill to advance to it. That’s it. I’ve probably used more words in this paragraph than the actual book spends on it. Red Markets is way more concerned with the equipment being used and… The Retirement Plan One-shots don’t have retirement plans. Campaigns do; it’s your goal. Every Taker is out here to make their dreams happen, and the universal dream is to get the hell out of the Loss and get their dependents to safety. So just about every character is going to put together a plan to get out, following the dream that keeps them going. Not everyone is required to have one, but it’s strongly encouraged and characters without them are doomed. This is your alternative to “getting out” by way of dying. It won’t come cheap. By default, retirement plans are three milestones, twenty bounty a piece, and you probably will never see that money again (we’ll get there). Each milestone brings in roleplay, too, whether that’s dealing with criminal elements to get across the border or convincing an old friend to shelter their kid. But once you get through all three, you’re just about out. Of course, sixty bounty is a hell of a lot to work with, and if a job goes badly or someone’s hurt, you’re going to need to pull some money somewhere… yup, that’s the “probably” coming back. Risk your retirement plan and your Stress and pull a little out of what you’re putting in towards forged papers, and you might make it another day. But if you play your cards right, and get lucky as hell, you’re all clear. ...sort of. You can get out of the Loss. You’ll be grinding away at the Recession’s business grindstone instead of risking your life, and you’re certainly not getting any class mobility here. Want that? Time to make a bet on Mr. JOLS. Just One Last Score, the big “capstone” for a character getting out. You’ve got a wild idea for a job, the Market can lay out the biggest risks they can pull out, and it’s all-in on getting everyone out. Every other character gets all their expenses paid, before and after the job - the retiree makes it out with a fortune. Assuming nobody stabs them in the back. There’s also group retirement plans for people who want to maintain a single cast. It works pretty much the same, except everyone stays until it’s time for Mr. JOLS and cashes out together. This is the way I’d take it in any given group - one of the rare times Stokes has accurate insight on his potential players is when he points out “retiring a well-established character because of success can feel like undeserved punishment”. The capstone effect of JOLS wears off if you have to run five of them five different times for everyone to manage to get out, and while the double-cross opportunity is interesting, even the group plan can manage that fine. Letting everyone share in the capstone experience, and letting it provide a definite end to the game, has its benefits for sure. Extended play also wants you to create an enclave for your Takers, but is so kind as to put the actual rules for it 200 pages later in the GM section, so we’ll eventually reach that. Character creation wraps up with a handful of premade Moths to show how it all comes together. Next time, Materialism - and we might even get as far as the single rule that sold me on Red Markets, No Budget, No Buy.
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Mar 28, 2021 22:22
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Tontine JOLS best JOLS.
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Mar 28, 2021 22:36
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In reference to the Blue Medusa authorship debate, Zak himself contributed via an attempted harassment campaign against yours truly! In essence, I said that the Gardens were him being creepy about women, the Gallery is him being pissy about the art world, Patrick probably made the Wedding because it's the least bad part, and the rest is random traps and NPCs and rooms smashed together in vague ways. Zak responded by trying to get people to publicly correct me over Discord by making a giveaway of whatever his current lovely zine is for doing that. Nobody bothered, but he did passive aggressively defend himself in the dumbest way possible: He basically said Patrick Stuart did everything and he just did art and editing and some minor changes. By trying to prove me "wrong" he accidentally made Patrick the primary creative mind behind the whole thing. Mind I don't loving believe this one bit because Patrick Stuart has made several other dungeons and they are nothing like MotBM, and the worst stuff here is 100% Zak poo poo, and exists in his other awful adventures. So I'd say blame the Authors plural, as there's definitely two, I suppose. Loxbourne posted:I remember thinking the dungeon's core plot is very easy to solve if your party just talk to the NPCs. Point 1 is sadly impossible as written: The NPCs will either never actually tell you about their problems, will lie about them, or in the case of any of the core plot the solutions literally don't exist within the module. Point 2 I'd argue against because while some stuff can be evocative pretty much everything falls apart hard the second you try to think about it or use it in play without heavy GM editing. Wapole Languray fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Mar 28, 2021 |
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Mar 28, 2021 22:45
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Wapole Languray posted:Point 1 is sadly impossible as written: The NPCs will either never actually tell you about their problems, will lie about them, or in the case of any of the core plot the solutions literally don't exist within the module. I'm thinking about making some kind of counter for when the text outright instructs the GM not to have an NPC tell PCs their motivations. Lots of NPCs have nothing that indicates how they'd talk to players, but there are a good big chunk who will not or cannot express their wants or desires. We're a ways away from her, but there's an NPC who not only does not tell PCs what she wants, she will always lie about what she wants, using random lies rolled on a big chart.
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Mar 29, 2021 02:22
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Just Dan Again posted:We're a ways away from her, but there's an NPC who not only does not tell PCs what she wants, she will always lie about what she wants, using random lies rolled on a big chart. This is sounds like it might be a really wild expression of misogyny as game mechanics and I'm excited to see just how much of a mess it is.
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Mar 29, 2021 03:09
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Just Dan Again posted:We're a ways away from her, but there's an NPC who not only does not tell PCs what she wants, she will always lie about what she wants, using random lies rolled on a big chart. Well I’m guessing we don’t have to wonder who wrote THAT character based on his world view of women.
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Mar 29, 2021 03:35
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This being the Pants Shitter Game Boy (as opposed to Pants Shitter Gun Girl), that NPCs name? Nandy Norbid.
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Mar 29, 2021 05:53
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JcDent posted:This being the Pants Shitter Game Boy (as opposed to Pants Shitter Gun Girl), that NPCs name? Nandy Norbid. Bwahahahah how did anyone ever take this douchebag seriously creatively?
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Mar 29, 2021 14:21
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Asterite34 posted:Bwahahahah how did anyone ever take this douchebag seriously creatively? Because that's not the actual name. It's Sophronia Wort, the Lying Lich. (Her name, minus the title, is called out as the only true thing she'll ever tell you. The table of lies is explicitly labeled as intentionally-flawed lies so that players don't even try to trust her. She's behind about 2/3rds of the things that have gone wrong in the Maze, besides what the other two liches did as her partners in conspiracy.) e: there is plenty objectionable in this module from a creative standpoint that actually exists, there's no point in making more poo poo up is all. Other poster was very visibly joking but since nobody else is reading the actual module... wires are going to get crossed. SkyeAuroline fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Mar 29, 2021 |
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Mar 29, 2021 15:05
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SkyeAuroline posted:Because that's not the actual name. It's Sophronia Wort, the Lying Lich. (Her name, minus the title, is called out as the only true thing she'll ever tell you. The table of lies is explicitly labeled as intentionally-flawed lies so that players don't even try to trust her. She's behind about 2/3rds of the things that have gone wrong in the Maze, besides what the other two liches did as her partners in conspiracy.) My issue with the way that the text handles the "obviously flawed lies so the players won't try to trust her" angle is that because she always lies, the PCs learn that they can't trust her but they don't wind up getting anything of use out of her either. It's a setup with no punchline. Also yeah, I don't think Sophronia is supposed to be an "all women are liars!" thing. I have plenty to write about without trying to armchair diagnose Zak's pathology.
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Mar 29, 2021 17:34
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Just Dan Again posted:My issue with the way that the text handles the "obviously flawed lies so the players won't try to trust her" angle is that because she always lies, the PCs learn that they can't trust her but they don't wind up getting anything of use out of her either. It's a setup with no punchline. There is the old standby of "if they always lie then that least narrows down the truth". It's been half a decade or so since I ran the module, my quick check for her name didn't extend beyond that page, and I don't think my group ever met her so I don't really know how feasible doing anything with her is or isn't off hand.
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Mar 29, 2021 18:08
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Age of Sigmar: Idoneth Deepkin Prince Namar Namarti are identified at birth by the Soulscryers by the fact that their souls are withering. Only by receiving a new soul transfusion will they survive even a year after birth...and with it, they still have a very short life. Not just by aelven standards - in general. The average Namarti only lives for 30-40 years without additional infusions. Less than a quarter of the lifespan of the average full-souled Idoneth and far less than those of other aelves. They are second-class citizens, marked not only in the soul but also the body. Each has an iron collar and a half-soul rune burned onto their forehead as part of the ritual that transfers souls into their bodies. (Obviously the collar must then be enlarged multiple times over the course of childhood and adolescence, which frequently leaves scars and marks.) Further, their eyes are removed as part of the ritual, the flesh of their face covering over their eye sockets. Fortunately, their other senses typically develop massively to compensate. Childhood for Namarti is focused on learning how to deal with their lack of vision and how to operate under the basic labor expectations of their caste. Young Namarti are not permitted to study martial arts or attend the schools of the upper castes, though when they reach adolescence they are permitted to choose a trade to study or go into physical labor. Only those who are most physically able are allowed to pursue military instruction as teens, training under Akhelian guidance. They are not conscripted, but few turn down the chance to join the military. After all, it's their best chance at gaining a second soul infusion. The Namarti Thralls form the majority of a phalanx's Namarti troops, and they have all the grace and physical talent of the average aelf, moving with perfect poise. They serve as the main infantry of a phalanx and work to screen their leaders from enemy fire and lock foes in place. This allows the Akhelians to strike at their leisure - and it's a very dangerous job indeed. Thralls die often, but it's a risk they accept. Most are resentful of their low caste status in Idoneth society, but they know that more successful raids are the thing that is most going to help their fellow Namarti. Souls are used first on any newborn Namarti, but once that's handled, any remaining souls are assigned to adult Namarti based on their perceived merit to the enclave. That means that Thralls are often very enthusiastic and eager in battle, hoping to capture as many souls as possible. They favor heavy weapons - scythes, poleaxes, massive two-handed swords - because their weight and size is useful for driving off sea creatures as well as cutting apart enemies.  The Namarti Reavers are the scouts and archers for the phalanxes. Akhelian tactics recognize the need for recon and massed fire, but these tasks are seen as less honorable...and further, they aren't what Akhelian cavalry forces are trained for. Therefore, they are left to the Namarti - specifically, the fastest and most acrobatic ones. They are taught how to aim and fire their whisperbows, which make no twang when an arrow is launched, and how to fight with short blades defensively. It is a testament to their skill that they can do archery while blind. They move fast, striking quickly to test enemy defenses and then focus on the vulnerabilities they reveal. They draw attention from the enemy, allowing devastating Akhelian charges. Their amazing accuracy is due to their ability to sense pressure changes and electromagnetic pulses in the ethersea, an ability similar to that of sharks. Indeed, their sense for archery is so great that they can make shots most people would deem impossible. However, while their accuracy is remarkable, their senses do not reach out as far as vision would, so they are unable to engage outside of a certain range so they can actually perceive their targets. The End! While Soulbound's Bestiary dropped today, it's not a book that works well with my review style. I'll just say: they statted up just about every unit in the wargame for you to fight if you want, and now you can have a pet octopus that can count, read textbooks and hit people. What do you want to see next? I have removed Legions of Nagash from the list on the basis that it's soon to be entirely outdated, between the new and very good shifts from Broken Realms: Teclis and the upcoming Soulblight Gravelords army book. Chaos: Beasts of Chaos, Blades of Khorne, Disciples of Tzeentch, Hedonites of Slaanesh (New Mortals Update), Maggotkin of Nurgle, Slaves to Darkness Death: Nighthaunt Destruction: Orruk Warclans, Sons of Behemat Order: Daughters of Khaine, Fyreslayers, Lumineth Realmlords (Hurakan/Teclian Nation Update), Sylvaneth
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Mar 29, 2021 18:13
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Mors Rattus posted:Age of Sigmar: Idoneth Deepkin That seems like a stupidly uncomfortable gorget, to the point of injury. Also while searching for 'gorget' I encountered this item of fashion:   that is all.
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Mar 29, 2021 18:42
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Mors Rattus posted:
Lets do the Mortals Update for Slaanesh. Also I have not looked at the Bestiary yet. (Which I did not expect today along with the final adventure for Shadows in the Mist.) But it has a great smug looking cat. 
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Mar 29, 2021 19:08
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Here is the Table of Contents for the Bestiary for anyone curious.
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Mar 29, 2021 19:15
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The mindstealer sphyranx is an awesome miniature (and so is 90% of the stuff that comes from Warcry), and GW painting saint Louise Sugden painted (and converted) the best one: Blades of Khorne please, I want to see how the least sustainable Chaos faction makes a living.
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Mar 29, 2021 19:20
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I love these quotes about the Beasts of Chaos from the Bestiary.quote:‘A storm dwelled in Azyr before the God-King, and one day that storm will break you.’
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Mar 29, 2021 19:47
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Wait, so beastmen are distastefull to the SElves and worship some dead god?
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Mar 29, 2021 20:03
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JcDent posted:Wait, so beastmen are distastefull to the SElves and worship some dead god? All elves are hypocrites, even underwater.
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Mar 29, 2021 20:05
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 21:18 |
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JcDent posted:Wait, so beastmen are distastefull to the SElves and worship some dead god? The Gavespawn worship Morghur the Corruptor, a minor Chaos God who began life as a Beastman lord in the old world.
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Mar 29, 2021 20:08
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