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JcDent posted:Oh poo poo, I'm ready to play a giant angry cyborg just crushing my way through everything.
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Apr 12, 2021 19:28
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JcDent posted:As for the #1, doing the opposite and making a popular nerd thing good and positive would be more original, yet harder, because... well, if it's all good and positive, then why do you still have to fight all these traitors and heretics? In fact, where are those traitors and heretics coming from if it's all good?! It gets boring on the fringes of the Imperium. People set up cults and worship the Chaos Gods as a laugh, everybody in town diligently pretends to be horrified at Dave from Accounting drunkenly stumbling around in a Khornate berserker costume hitting trees with his big scary axe. Eventually the Inquisition shows up, makes a big show of chasing him around, gives him a night in the drunk tank as "penance," and then drops the charges 'cause he was clearly mind controlled and has now returned to the light of the Emperor, or whatever, no harm done, eh?
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Apr 12, 2021 20:18
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  Part 3: Adventure Time The final non-appendix section of this book details advice on running superhero-flavored adventures in 5th Edition along with 3 sample adventures. Chapter 9: Running Supers Adventures This slightly brief section is all fluff, suggesting sample campaign styles. The first are Teen Heroes, which involves setting up common premises (are they part of a school? Do they have mentors?) along with a suggested campaign arc that focuses on personal development as they come to terms with their place in society. How they measure up against or differentiate themselves from the older generation of superheroes is another important aspect. The second suggestion is the typical Superteam a la Avengers or Justice League. Beyond asking whether the PCs are part of, allied with, or replacing the Portaleers, it also asks questions like who is a PC’s archenemy, a time they saved the city, and the life they have beyond superheroing. The final suggestion is Grimdark Heroes, which beyond the typical scene-setting advice suggests that players have “more freedom to lean into blatant parody or satire.” quote:Having the heroes of this campaign be exaggerated versions of an already established hero can help add humor to what has the potential to be a darker campaign, and skilled roleplayers may be able to explore archetypes from new perspectives to add thematic depth to their heroes. I dunno about this one chief. Rob Liefeld can be pretty amusing and cringy, but if your gaming group wants to do a serious Watchmen-style game it may not be very fun having a PC named Bloodpouch spoiling the mood.  Chapter 10: Secret Origin! Moving on to adventures proper, we have a 1st level adventure dedicated to introducing our players to Beacon! Equal parts investigation and action, the backstory is that a pair of scientists researching the effects of mind control on brain chemistry had a falling out when they both had different ends for their means. Professor Faulkner wanted to use it for psychological aid to help alleviate the guilt of mind control victims by proving objective evidence that it wasn’t their fault, while Professor Alder wanted to pursue this research to gain power over others. The research project ends up scuttled of funds once Faulkner shared his worries with an ethics board, propelling Alder to take ever more drastic means of completing his work by turning himself into a ghost and discovering means of possessing multiple bodies at once. He plans on submitting his findings to Beacon’s various criminal masterminds to gain the power, money, and recognition he so craves. The adventure has three major Issues, or sections of plot and the PCs level up after each one’s completion. The first issue opens up with an ancient red dragon mind-controlled by one of the Ghost’s devices attacking Argentum Square. The Portaleers are already on the case, fighting the wyrm while collateral damage threatens civilians below. The PCs (once they find a convenient excuse to slip out of their secret identities if they have any) face a variety of challenges, from falling glass shards to opportunistic looters to people trapped in a burning building. None of these challenges have any suggested damage/saves/skill DCs, unfortunately. The PCs do get to fight a dragon wyrmling who has a mind-controlling device on its neck that can be spotted by a passive Perception of 10 or more and can be targeted and damaged on its own (but have 4 rounds to do so before it flies away). PCs who fail to notice will have one of the Portaleers quickly call out the weak spot while passing by during their fight with the bigger dragon. After this encounter, the ancient red red dragon falls into a crater and the Portaleers call for the PCs to help take it down. The adventure mentions that the dragon may try to attack and even kill the Portaleers, but we don’t have stats for said heroes which is a rather big oversight. The PCs have 4 rounds to remove or destroy the mind-controlling before it takes to the skies and retreats. If the beast is freed, he’ll introduce himself as Carl (I love that name for a dragon) and be horrified at the damage he caused, offering to help with the rebuilding. In the aftermath, Intellect of the Portaleers gives praise on the PCs’ quick and brave actions during the chaos and asks them to meet at the Atrium of Lights tomorrow. And then they level up. I’m not a fan of this opening. 1st level is a terrible one to start at for a superhero-style campaign, and it feels rather anticlimactic to be fighting a baby dragon while the ‘real heroes’ are dealing with the greater danger above. Beyond the stats already provided in the Monster Manual this Issue has no useful mechanics for dealing with the collateral hazards or stats for the relevant Portaleers. Furthermore, the fight with the ancient red dragon will either be a non-issue (as the GM pulls their punches) or can end up killing one or more PCs as the creature is CR 24 and even a single attack with a minimum damage roll can cause Instant Death to the average 1st-level character. Issue 2 has the PCs meet with the Portaleers at their headquarters. The level of Paragon’s Peak can provide worldbuilding infodumps on Ghaistala if the PCs need it via guided tours, and they can socially interact with Intellect. As the rest of the Portaleers are busy reinforcing city defenses for a future attack, Intellect asks the PCs if they can help follow leads as to whoever was controlling the dragons. There are 3 people and locations the PCs can check out: the Green Dragon Gang who recently stole items that can create such technology, Professor Kedrick Faulkner who was researching mind control, and Doctor Amano who is an ally of the Portaleers and can find out useful information about any technology the PCs find. The Green Dragon Gang hangs out at a seedy jazz club in Lowcity, and the crime lord Ed Jorino can tell the party that they accepted a burglary job from a new supervillain known as the Ghost for a future terrorist attack on Beacon. The PCs can get this information either by beating up his goons, by offering to take out a rival up and coming mob boss (who has Gladiator stats and will be a big challenge for 2nd level PCs), or some other manner where they pull a fast one on Ed. Informing the Portaleers of this plan will help reinforce the city further, minimizing casualties in the climax. The second lead is in Argentum Square where the party meets Faulkner, whether on campus or his home or somewhere else. He can tell the PCs about his history with Alder as well as his home address in Lowcity, asking for the PCs to retrieve any research notes they find as they can help stop whatever scheme he’s up to. The PCs can find more clues there, but will be attacked by Alder. He will exit his own body astrally as the Ghost if the PCs subdue him or find a special collar device which is keeping his body and soul attached. If the PCs lose the fight Alder will destroy his notes (but not the collar) and escape, but PCs who manage to secure the notes can get special protective devices from Doctor Amano that give them advantage on saving throws vs the Ghost’s powers. At this point the PCs advance to 3rd level. Doctor Amano can reverse-engineer the collar found in the lab to act as a tracking beacon to find the Ghost’s hidden lair deep in the Ivory Wilds forest. Arriving there, the PCs will have to fight possessed animals (ranging from apes to black bears) along with a giant guardian plant monster known as That Which Lurks at the entrance to the base. Mind-controlled civilians are building collars, and PCs must take care to subdue them with minimal injury; those who are careless can cause them to end up heavily injured, and they may lead a campaign to turn public opinion against the heroes in the future. There’s also a giant scrying projector being watched by three mastermind-style characters (CEO of Asha Trading Company, Count Abramovich, and the Marquis of the Shattered Sons), viewing a scene of mind-controlled dragons attacking Beacon. The Ghost is showcasing his work to them in another room, and the trio won’t interfere with the PCs; the Ghost is a newcomer to the world of supervillainy, and is still in the process of being judged.  I have a few minor complaints about this. First off, it is totally within the PCs’ rights to go “you’re all under arrest” and try to take down the three masterminds. But the Count and the Marquis are quite high CR; even if they prioritize escape, a few of their attacks can put a dent on PCs when the party’s at a level where resources and spells are more precious than ever. Additionally, the Marquis is Chaotic Good; it seems quite out of character for him to be okay with widespread civilian casualties. I can get the idea of “break a few eggs to make an omelet” mentality, but in such a case he wouldn’t be well...good-aligned in a typical comic book morality, or at the very least be persuaded to take down the Ghost. The PCs can fight the Ghost in a final battle. Such a clash is timed, for the longer the party takes to dispatch him the greater the casualties mounted on Beacon. PCs have various means of resolving this. If Professor Faulkner and Doctor Amano are present they can help the PCs appeal to the Ghost’s better nature and call off the attack, instill doubt in him during the fight (manifesting as disadvantage on his next attack or saving throw), or help free one character from the Ghost’s control or outright damage the Ghost by operating the lab’s machinery to shock him with lightning. Statwise the Ghost is a CR 6 humanoid who can move in an incorporal manner, as well as take over people as thralls and fire Ecto Blasts from their line of sight. PCs who manage to stop the Ghost’s plans win the gratitude and sponsorship of the Portaleers, earning one of their number as a patron. So my thoughts about this adventure are mixed. It has the good set-up of a typical superhero plot, with the right mixture of action and investigation. I like the concept of the Ghost, and how the adventure’s nonlinear style provides additional boons for successful investigations (fewer casualties, protective devices, etc) rather than stopping the party in their tracks if they fail to find some clue. That being said, the low-level nature hurts things more than it helps, even if the party is gaining levels at a rapid rate. I wonder why the adventure didn’t just start at 3rd level, at a time when classes earn their archetypes. The business of the Portaleers is answered regarding the dragon attacks as to why they’re not doing the adventure themselves, but even so it stretches credibility when the PCs are so...well, hapless against some of the threats. There’s even an optional encounter of the party having to hide from a purple worm in the Ivory Forest, which doesn’t feel very superheroic.  Chapter 11: A Study in Life The next adventure is a significant bump from the last one, starting at 10th level and advancing to 13th over the course of 3 Issues. Presumed to take place at a time when the party are now respected and established superheroes, the party is attending the funeral of the superhero Lifewake. But she is brought to undeath by unknown means and starts attacking everyone present! It’s clear that there’s internal conflict going on, as during the battle a confusion-style d8 random effect table causes her to struggle against herself, manifesting uncontrolled necromantic attacks, or doubling over in pain while screaming for help among other regrettable results. During the fight, a successful Insight check detects that she looks over to Heart frequently, and if the PCs point this out then said Portaleer can lead her away into a more desolate battleground to minimize civilian casualties. PCs can also insta-KO her by ridding her of her pained emotions with the appropriate ability or spell. Once Lifewake collapses, Intellect and Heart asks the PCs to investigate why this happened, including a list of her known associates. During their investigation they learn that a craftsperson known as Jon was stalking Lifewake a week before her death. They also learn that she was last seen near the docks upon suspicion that three of her friends were press-ganged into service at sea. Jon is in fact Lifewake’s father, and is resentful of the Portaleers encouraging her into the dangerous lifestyle of a superhero. He does mention that he spied her meeting with what appeared to be Docent, the Portaleers’ golem assistant, somewhere down at the docks. All the while, the PCs are being spied on as they investigate. An airborne scrying sensor shadowed by a robe gives the appearance of a ghost-like cloaked figure which the PCs will see in the street outside. Following it causes the scrying spell to abruptly disconnect, the cloak falling to the ground. As all leads point to the docks, the PCs will find a warehouse that is actually one of XX’s safehouses. One of his creations, Docent 2.0, is a near-perfect facsimile of the Portaleers’ construct, only evil and now in an upgraded stone golem body. Inert bodies hooked up to equipment will transform into ghasts during the fight. The final Issue puts the PCs on the trail of XX the Sciencelich, and is open-ended in how they confront him. The adventure suggests placing NPCs who mysteriously disappeared over the course of the campaign as undead thralls, and if the PCs are in danger of a TPK then Intellect will swoop in to fight alongside them. This time we have stats for the one of the Portaleers: Intellect’s an Assassin but with 20s in various ability scores and 3 more special abilities: he can Disengage/Hide/Dash as Legendary Actions, can Slow Fall as a Monk, and can Stun creatures if they fail a Con save whenever he sneak attacks them. PCs victorious over XX can discover through his research notes that he was trying to find ways to create arkwave-empowered individuals at will rather than waiting every 20 years, and Lifewake was the greatest key to his experiment. PCs will be rewarded with guild coins that can be redeemed for magic items and/or services up to 10,000 gp, 10,000 gp in actual money, and membership as honorary Portaleers if they aren’t already. I like this adventure better than the first, even if it is a bit shorter and more straightforward. I like that Lifewake’s battle had alternative means of winning, and making use of one of the cooler supervillains in Supers & Sorcery is another plus.  Chapter 12: Hatred of the Hyper-Demon The final adventure is a 20th-level one where the PCs have to save not just Beacon, but reality itself, from a demon lord who seeks to reawaken Nul! After the Portaleers mysteriously disappear, the Hyper-Demon’s giant spherical orb-fortress floats above the bay, accompanied by a kaiju known as Cavsoi* the Wavemaker who is being controlled by the Hyper-Demon. The first Issue involves shepherding civilians from the quickly-flooding Lowcity docks, while the second Issue involves breaking through the orb’s outer layer into the Hyper-Demon’s lair. These tasks are rather open-ended given the powers and abilities possessed by high-level PCs, but the orb’s defenses (both inside and out) are well-detailed with contingent traps. *the text also calls him Cavois, don’t know which one’s correct. Throughout the lair the Hyper-Demon will taunt the PCs, indirectly informing them of his evil plan with sample lines. In a processing room filled with paragite-infused water the PCs can find the fate of the Portaleers: trapped and unconscious within Wall of Force-sustained glass pods. The Hyper-Demon will pretend to be angry and fearful as the PCs enter, trying to trick them into thinking that interacting with glowing panels will help free them but in reality is intended to make them waste their time, magic, and resources. The Hyper-Demon may even cause a single pod to open up to further reinforce the ruse. During this time hordes of demons will pour into the rooms to fight the heroes in waves, starting with a lot of weak demons at first but then smaller numbers of stronger ones. There’s also an illusion-guarded secret control room the PCs can find, which contains machinery the PCs can use or sabotage to rescue the Portaleers and set the kaiju free of the Hyper-Demon’s control. Issue 3 begins when the PCs manage to rescue the Portaleers, shut down the lair’s defenses, or otherwise happens at a dramatically appropriate time. The entire fortress starts tearing apart and falling through the sky in irregular-sized and shaped chunks. The tears in reality and their counter effects cause much of the debris to fall far slower and/or be pushed back up in a loop, and the PCs come face to face with the Hyper-Demon. The PCs have 12 rounds to stop the supervillain before he summons Nul to the world, resulting in an Instant Game Over. Every time the Hyper-Demon uses Energy Drain an additional round is lost, and he’ll use this whenever he can. It’s a rechargeable move on a 5-6 on a d6, so it’s entirely possible that PCs will have much less time to defeat him due to factors out of their control. But beyond this, the Hyper-Demon also bears a Control Rod which he can use to make Cavsoi attack the PCs. PCs can disarm or destroy it, causing the kaiju to turn his wrath on the Hyper-Demon or retreat back into the oceanic depths respectively. Cavsoi has no stats but he’s given a list of damaging attacks performed on initiative count 20 on every round. The Hyper-Demon also positions himself under paragite-infused water that heals him every round but nobody else (and the waterfall comes from an extraplanar portal that can be dispelled). Stat-wise the Hyper-Demon is a CR 23 humanoid (not fiend strangely) who has two forms. His first regular form has a variety of radiation-themed attacks, from a Plasma Blast to an Atomic Fist and an exhaustion-inducing Energy Drain attack. He also has Legendary Actions including an AoE pulse of Nul energy dealing necrotic damage. Once he’s reduced to 0 HP he willingly lets a piece of Nul into his soul, gaining 300 hit points* along with new Legendary Actions that can reduce a target’s maximum HP, blind multiple targets for one turn, and an AoE glimpse of a damage-dealing nightmarish hellscape. *he had 241 in his first form, so 541 total. Hatred of the Hyper-Demon has a very cool set-up, although I don’t like the swingy nature of the “countdown combat” where rolls of a d6 may very well make it impossible for PCs to win. Besides the final fight the only other bit of combat are the waves of demon hordes which may be tedious, and the gauntlet of traps may also be equally tiresome as they’re very clearly meant to whittle down the party’s resources. I get the fact that it’s a climactic adventure where time is of the essence, but it could have benefitted from more variety in enemy types. It also doesn’t take into consideration the possibility of dealing with the kaiju first independently, making the lack of appropriate stats even more of a glaring omission. Thoughts So Far: The adventures are a mixed bag for me. A Study in Life is one that I like overall, although Secret Origin left a cold taste in my mouth and Hatred of the Hyper-Demon could use more variety. Secret Origin has a good plot and adventure structure set up, which on its own is perfectly fine. But within the confines of low-level 5th Edition it is a very poor fit for the superhero genre. Join us next time as we wrap up this book’s final chapter and appendices, covering magic items, lairs, and kaiju!
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Apr 12, 2021 20:31
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I’m not sure how different Supers & Sorcery is from stock 5e D&D? Like I don’t know how putting another cape on a Wizard and renaming Fireball into Atomic Blast even changes the genre. Post-2e D&D had always been rife with superhero tropes, especially at high levels. You look at the second panel of the first comic and I’m not sure how these characters are in any way distinct from your usual 5e party. It’s like the creators were raised in a world where fantasy comics don’t exist.
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Apr 12, 2021 20:39
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AmiYumi posted:I can’t tell if I’d rather play the Final Fantasy hack of Spire as Teen Titans or Josie & the Pussycats; tabletop roleplaying is a hot gay mess and I’m here for it. I wasn't quite sold but now I'm interested in looking closer than just the review. So good job.
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Apr 12, 2021 20:45
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megane posted:It gets boring on the fringes of the Imperium. People set up cults and worship the Chaos Gods as a laugh, everybody in town diligently pretends to be horrified at Dave from Accounting drunkenly stumbling around in a Khornate berserker costume hitting trees with his big scary axe. Eventually the Inquisition shows up, makes a big show of chasing him around, gives him a night in the drunk tank as "penance," and then drops the charges 'cause he was clearly mind controlled and has now returned to the light of the Emperor, or whatever, no harm done, eh?
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Apr 12, 2021 20:49
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Halloween Jack posted:Fire on the Velvet Horizon and Veins of the Earth are much, much better books than this. I still have this issue with VotE where it seems that many of the monsters have both a weird metaphysical gimmick and weird motivations that are not likely to be made clear to the PCs unless they research them somewhere else. Fully agreed - Veins of the Earth in particular is an incredible piece of writing but so many of the monsters are like, "It's a moth that eats skulls but also it's from a dying universe and needs to steal memories from resonant skulls to rebuild a temple to the God-That-Remembers. It cannot speak or communicate in any way because its intelligence is so alien." Hell, the author is doing a series on his blog right now with suggested hooks and encounters for the Fire on the Velvet Horizon monsters to make them more useable because so many of them are just... hard to actually use in most games. e: The city-sized millipede in Veins that collects only Good Art (as it defines Good Art) is a much better take on the Cannibal Critics "debate art in D&D" joke.
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Apr 12, 2021 21:08
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I would legit play 40k if it's more like this rather than "You have to be fash to survive"
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Apr 12, 2021 21:12
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I ended up grabbing a copy of Our Stormy Present through Itch, thanks for the writeup. I'm hoping I can get my group to give it a try, I tried with Spire as well but that's a tougher sell because of the setting.
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Apr 12, 2021 22:25
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JcDent posted:I was going to make a joke one day about a new RPG plot twist: the monolithic organization your started the game serving... are actually good? This would blow a JRPG player's mind. This does lend itself to "procedural" style "cleaning up the messes," in case the problems rest in a bad manager or division leader or something. You could also have it be that the PC group is good but that there are other people who have, so to speak, jurisdictional overlap as well as major methodological differences, which would be a great way to have conflict that does not necessarily engage the combat rules. You can also just ultimately have these guys be the space heroes against the dark tentacular evil of Brainotron or whatever. Not everything has to be secretly a dystopia in the back room.
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Apr 12, 2021 23:20
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Nessus posted:You can also just ultimately have these guys be the space heroes against the dark tentacular evil of Brainotron or whatever. Not everything has to be secretly a dystopia in the back room. Huge jerk, that Brainotron. Hate that guy.
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Apr 12, 2021 23:39
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Night10194 posted:Huge jerk, that Brainotron. Hate that guy.
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Apr 12, 2021 23:57
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megane posted:It gets boring on the fringes of the Imperium. People set up cults and worship the Chaos Gods as a laugh, everybody in town diligently pretends to be horrified at Dave from Accounting drunkenly stumbling around in a Khornate berserker costume hitting trees with his big scary axe. Eventually the Inquisition shows up, makes a big show of chasing him around, gives him a night in the drunk tank as "penance," and then drops the charges 'cause he was clearly mind controlled and has now returned to the light of the Emperor, or whatever, no harm done, eh? Carry On Guardman
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Apr 13, 2021 02:18
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megane posted:It gets boring on the fringes of the Imperium. People set up cults and worship the Chaos Gods as a laugh, everybody in town diligently pretends to be horrified at Dave from Accounting drunkenly stumbling around in a Khornate berserker costume hitting trees with his big scary axe. Eventually the Inquisition shows up, makes a big show of chasing him around, gives him a night in the drunk tank as "penance," and then drops the charges 'cause he was clearly mind controlled and has now returned to the light of the Emperor, or whatever, no harm done, eh? My idea was that Chaos is like capitalism, and it keeps finding people who really think they can make it to 1% (Daemon-prince) instead of building the common good via collective effort and their job at the skull factory.
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Apr 13, 2021 06:28
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Continuing with Last time our party just had time to get locked in and beaten up a bit, now they start exploring the rest of the dungeon.  With everyone functional again, the party goes east as that looks like there's only limited options in that direction. Room 5 - Guestroom The door is locked, but Alex manages to pick the lock. If he'd failed, there are keys discoverable later on. This is a comfortably decorated room, with fair carpets and furnishings and a pair of beds. Beside each bed is a small table with a lamp, a goblet, and an urn. The west wall has a tapestry showing elves frolicking in the wood-lands. There is a brass gong on a stand by one bed. The tapestry and goblets are worth 300gp combined, and there's the 75gp gem under one of the pillows. The only gotcha in this room is that if someone rings the gong, you immediately check for a wandering monster I'm amused by this dungeon having nice comfy places for the adventurers to rest, even though they're still going to want to do things like post a watch, but it does match the idea that this was Karvoquian's lab rather than the lair of an evil wizard. Though I do wonder why he had guestrooms downstairs? Maybe he had wizard guests that were unsuitable for polite company? Moving on, it's Room 14 - Small study The GM section of the description opens with the rather alarming sentence "This room is lit by a chandelier similar to that in location #7, which is not going to attack, however." So that's something to look forwards to. The door is again locked. Inside the room are a couple of Phase Stingers that have a 50% chance of phasing through the door and attacking whilst the party try to get the door open. If they do, they attack the second rank, which in this case are Colin and Mikhail as Alex is at the door trying to open it. If they do this, they have a 5/6 chance of surprising the party, which they do. Another fight ensues. It ends with Mikhail knocked out for an hour and two smashed up phase stingers. If the party had managed to get into the room they'd have found some rare books, vellum, rare ink, and a desk with a trapped drawer. The trap is paralysing gas again. There's a couple of useful potions (healing and invisibility) and 60 platinum plus change in the desk. Starting to get annoyed by the Stingers and realising that most of their time down here has been spent waiting for people to recover from paralysis, the party attempt to enter Room 13 - The Bathroom The door is locked, so Alex once more tries to pick it, and once more fails. This is in fact a blessing in disguise - above the door is a Green Slime which will drip on to anyone who enters - the basic D&D one is similar to the AD&D one - same vulnerabilities, same gently caress You, you’re slime now effect if the characters get hit and don't manage to get it off in time. There's a bit of treasure in the bathroom, most notably a gem worth 100gp. All in all no great loss for not managing to get in. Having exhausted the east wing of the basement, the party continue up the corridor to Room 7 - the Dining Room There's a softly glowing magical chandelier in this room and the description advises the DM to allow/ask for Intelligence checks to see if any of the characters notice the light and think to look under the door. Today our party are a bunch of geniuses (even Int 6 and 7 Adventurine and Magda) as they all pass their check and have the same bright idea, though all they're really going to see are the legs of a dining table and 6 chairs. Satisfied that there aren't any creatures in there, the party enter the room. This is clearly a dining room. There is a large table with six chairs around it, and six place settings of silver and china. A painting of an imposing old wizard hangs on the west wall. A side-table with glasses, a bowl, and vases of long-dead flowers rests under the painting. A splendid crystal chandelier that glows with a soft, magical light is mounted on the ceiling above the table. There's a smidgen of quite heavy treasure in the room, and the painting (which is of Karvoquian) is noted as being worthless, which doesn't feel quite right, but I guess that paintings of obscure wizards aren't worth that much, and it would be of sentimental value to Kaerin, so it would be a pretty heartless party to claim it as loot. Apart from the low level of loot, the room is a bit of a trap. A round after the characters enter (a minute, so just enough time for them to start poking at things) the chandelier flashes brightly and casts the Light spell at a random character, potentially blinding them for 4 rounds. At the same time, the Zombie kitchen staff (eughh! In room 8 also attack. They have thick leather gloves to prevent food contamination and meat cleavers (1d8 damage) ) Mikhail is the lucky recipient of this round's Light spell and fails his save, being blinded for 4 rounds. A surprise check has the party not surprised by this at least, and zombies always lose initiative, so the party get to go first, ignoring Mikhail's curses. Alex is going to attack with his crossbow, whilst Magda and Adventurine hit the zombies. Colin will try to turn them at the end of the round before their go. He does barely any damage to #2, but Magda and Adventurine slaughter #3 between them. Colin manages to turn 3HD of zombies, so one of the two remaining ones - #2 starts shambling back towards the kitchen, whilst #1 whacks Adventurine with its cleaver, doing 4 damage. In round 2 Colin is targeted by the chandelier, but makes his save. Alex and Colin attack it with missile weapons destroying it (requires 10 damage, AC9) whilst the other two finish off the zombies. As well as the XP from the zombies, there's 50 bonus XP from destroying the chandelier. Having defeated the dastardly chandelier and zombie kitchen staff, the party cautiously investigate the room the zombies came from and discover Room 8 - the Kitchen It's a kitchen with kitchen stuff, and if the party didn't trigger the dining room ambush, the three zombie cooks. The module explains that whilst Kavoquian wasn't Evil, he wasn't above re-animating enemies as servants. To which I say, FFS, at least use skeletons rather than zombies in the kitchen. The most important thing in the kitchen is a ring of keys which will open every locked door in the place, but takes 2d6 rounds to find the right key. For the purposes of the write up the PCs aren't going to backtrack right now to the two locked rooms they gave up on. They decide to finish exploring the north wing before heading down the stairs that lead to 15, bringing us to Room 11 - Weapons Room; there's a description to be read before the party try to enter the room. The door here is unusual. It is made of a glossy black wood with iron hinges, and there is a plaque affixed to it, bearing an etched warning: "Do not enter! Guardian is hostile and very dangerous! K. The party is pretty close to full strength at the moment, so they're going to risk it. The door is locked, which is where their ring of keys comes in handy. Unluckily for the PCs, the guardian is a Gargoyle; notably they're immune to Sleep and Charm spells, and non-magical weapons; the adventure text doesn't point this out - you have to go back to the rulebook (which to its credit does warn the DM against using gargoyles if the party doesn’t have magical weapons). If this was the party's first adventure they might be screwed, fortunately Magda, Colin, and Alex all have +1 weapons. Many weapons line the room on shelves and in racks. The guardian is a horrid thing, a horned and fanged winged monster with raking talons. Its skin is made of stone, and it streaks through the air straight at you!  Fortunately, unlike the one in the picture, fire breathing isn't one of a gargoyle's attacks. The group isn't surprised, and wins initiative; Colin and Alex both attack, with Colin hitting, but doing nothing. Mikhail tries his sleep spell, which also does nothing. Magda swings and misses, Adventurine swings, connects, and does nothing. She yells at Colin to step in or give her his mace, which Colin will do next round. The Gargoyle has four attacks - it uses one claw on one character, then the other three on the other, and has a Thac0 of 16. Both Adventurine and Magda get slightly mullered by the Gargoyle. In Round 2, Colin gives his Mace to Adventurine, Alex tries to hide to prepare for a backstab, and Mikhail preps his oil flask for throwing if it all looks like it's going to go terribly wrong. Adventurine hits, nearly taking out the Gargoyle in one blow. The Gargoyle for its part focuses on her, but fortunately all attacks miss. In the third round Magda takes the thing out, and the party breath a sign of relief. Adventurine asks to keep hold of the Mace if Colin isn't going to be using it, and as he knows he can trust her (due to her being Lawful) he agrees that she can borrow it. Searching the room they find what can only be the sword that Kaerin has tasked them to find: One of the two-handed swords has gems set into the hilt and pommel, and is obviously the sword Kaerin wants. It is a magical two-handed sword + 2. - Magda swings it around a bit and decided to use it for now. Apart from the sword there's a magical crossbow in the room, and behind the secret door to the north is a suit of Dwarf-sized plate +1. There's no clues about the secret door; this is somewhere where I might have had the two thief NPCs have been ahead of the PCs and left the door open behind them, but they just don't make a lot of sense to be here in the first place. We'll say that Alex notices the nice Crossbow and decides to replace his standard one, but the party don't think to look for secret doors. This room may also come in handy later due to one of the dungeon inhabitants yet to come. They go around the corner and enter Rooms 9 & 10 - the stores Most of the supplies in here are no longer edible, but they find some dried fruit which is still edible. If they were to do a really thorough search of room 10, they'd find a silver sugar bowl with filigree work which is worth 50gp. Our party do not do a very careful search of room 10. Having run out of places to explore here, they go down to Room 15 - The Coal Hole; Alex listens at the door, but hear nothing unusual, so they open it. This room appears to be largely filled with coal. A pair of large shovels are half-buried in the stuff, which is heaped up toward the eastern end of the room. There are squeaking noises coming from under a pile of empty sacks in the north. The party pauses. Mikhail looks at the squeaking pile of sack and lights his oil flask, and then before the rest of the party can react, lobs it towards the area. Two burning rats flee out of the out of the pile of sacks, whilst the other 8! expire with a terrible cacophony of squeaks and smell of burning fur. The two remaining rats are dispatched. If the coal was a wooden structure, it would have a 15% chance of catching alight (rules from the Cyclopedia, 5% per point of damage) but since coal is inherently more flammable, I double that. The party are lucky, and nothing catches in the two rounds that the fire burns. This encounter is potentially pretty nasty if not cheesed with pre-emptive fire or a sleep spell (and the sleep spell may not work if the DM doesn't do joined up thinking, realise that the 7 Hit Dice the rats are listed as having is obviously a typo and double check in the rulebook - they're supposed to have 1/2 a HD each.) Ten giant rats themselves are potentially able to do serious damage to a party through attrition if nothing else, additionally two of them are diseased - if a character bitten fails a Poison save they now have a sickness that will kill them in four days unless cured.  If the players are on the ball they'll realise that none of the fires they've seen use coal, this room is obviously some sort of ruse. Points to Karvoquian for using actual coal rather than illusions, I guess. The area in front of the secret door that leads onwards has suspiciously little coal in front of it, so it makes sense that the party will find the secret door sooner or later. It is both locked, and trapped. Alex does not find the trap, and so Magda, Adventurine, and Mikhail get a lungful of paralyzing gas when they go to open the door. Magda sucumbs and will be out for 3 hours. The party retreat to one of the comfy rooms to wait it out, fortunately they have no encounters. Next time, the end of this dungeon and the reveal about why the two thieves who're supposed to already be here make no sense. Angrymog fucked around with this message at 08:04 on Apr 13, 2021 |
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Apr 13, 2021 07:28
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Black Atlantic, Chapter 1  Hello folks, and welcome to one of the worst RPG books I’ve ever read. PurpleXVI probably has me beat with the Chris Fields stuff, but this book still has some truly heinous poo poo in it. It’ll be a little while until we get there however, as this book is a bit longer than the others. As you see from the map pictured above, Black Atlantic takes place in Briton, formerly Brittany, the northwestern-most region of Franka (France). Why they changed the name to Briton but kept Britain’s name is something I don’t really understand. The first chapter is as always in these books, a mix of setting background and a gazette. If this review seems kind of disjointed, it’s because that’s how the book presents this information. Some of you may have noticed that aside from one crazy old man raising an army of child soldiers, there were no Anabaptists in Southern Franka, where our last adventure took place. That’s because they all went here, to Briton. Outside of Pugare, this is where the Anabaptist cult is strongest. While King Oppulus and his Britoni clansmen technically rule the region as a secular monarchy, the church has a lot of power and influence here. That’s mostly because of what happened 12 years ago. (I think it was 12, it’s around there I believe). The Anabaptist warrior-hero Vicarent slew a Pheromancer King in a single blow, without losing a single man in battle. This type of victory is simply unheard of. When the Spitalians slew Marakaunt (also a Pheromancer king), it took a ton of resources and casualties to get it done, one guy with a sword doing the same thing is insane. So what actually happened? Well, about a little over a decade ago The Pheromancer King Garaness was on the move, enslaving the people of Briton and tainting the land as he went. For a few reasons, the Spitalians couldn’t come to the aid of the Anabaptists and the Britoni, so they had to face him on their own. Because the situation was so desperate, Vicarent made use of a powerful Anabaptist artifact called the Starfire. The Starfire is a piece of pure primer, carried to Earth on the Colossus asteroid 500 years ago. The Anabaptists believe it to be a piece of the Demiurge, kind of like if you had Satan’s fingernail in your safe deposit box. Even just brushing against the smoke wafting off of the rock will kill a human in seconds as it breaks apart their molecular structure, dissolving them into primordial soup. When faced with the choice of being enslaved or fighting the devil using the devil’s tools, he chose the latter. He sharpened his sword on the Starfire itself. He also had his nasal cavities burned out while he was anointed with Elysian oil, figuring that would be enough to allow him to resist Garaness’s pheromones long enough to get close to him.  Turns out that did the trick yeah. One stab was all it took. Garaness was severely crippled and posioned by the Primer, and basically unable to resist as Vicarent tore his fuckin’ head off. However, ever since news of that victory reached them, the Spitalians have been nosing around. The leader of the Spitalians in the region is a dangerous woman by the name of Doctor Vega, she’s very pro-Preservist and wants to both militarize the cult and secure the Starfire for its potential use in the war against the Psychonauts. The head of the Preservers in Justinian has sent the Red Pack, a dangerous group of Preserves to adi her in securing it for the cult, by force if necessary. The Anabaptists in turn have hidden the artifact, and have been telling the Spitalians to get bent.  Next we get a short story involving the main villain of our adventure, the Sleeper Prophet Helios. Helios was awoken years too early in Britain by agents of Argyre, and kept enslaved by a collar that controlled his nanites. Luckily for him, he was freed by a Halo named Arnika. Halos are a special rank of Palers, the guys who turned Ablino from centuries in the RG Sleeper bunkers and are memetically engineering to think of the Sleepers as gods. Halos are Palers that have in some fashion broken that conditioning, recognized the Sleepers as false gods, and adopted one of the Sleeper Prophets as a ture god instead. Anyways, they’re sailing across the channel to Briton for reasons. Helios has the spear of Jehammed, the last piece the PCs need to complete the Will. The Britoni themselves are kinda like French-Celtic hunters and sailors I guess? The Walrus is a cultural symbol as well a commonly hunted animal, and they do a lot of cool stuff with the ivory from their tusks. They’re not all that interesting tbh.  They do hunt whales with Jetskis and harpoons, which is kinda neat I guess. The laws of the Britoni are basically Anabaptist laws now, they’ve drifted into a sort of symbiosis. Murder gets punished with the same, Blasphemy is punished by a chance to recant followed by forced conversion in the Anabaptists, or death. Burn usage or trade gets you beaten half to death, after which you get sent to a special monastery where you’re deliberately starved to death. Depravity (such as adultery) has a whole host of punishments which are usually not fatal, but includes stuff like having stones sewn into your belly while you’re draped over the nearest defensive wall for days. Then there’s a bunch of stuff around the former drones enslaved to Garaness. Basically, they’re not enslaved or getting directions from things anymore. If an Idol Bearer (a drone that served as a relay) is nearby sometimes they’ll slip into old patterns of making Chakra symbols and such, but they’re mostly okay now. Going back to their old lives is pretty tough though. All the stuff about what they fish for is boring so I’m not goona talk about that. The Spitalians are paying in drafts for any sightings of Black Water, black oily patches riddled with nettles and fractal streaks that float near the coast of Briton. Nobody knows what the hell they are exactly, but the Spitalians have some ideas and have told the Scrappers raiding Britain to report if they see any mandalas near the shore. I’ma just spoil it now, these are the first signs of the sixth type of Psychonaut, the Levithianics. Previously there were only 5, these ones are kinda late to the party, about 500 years late. There’s 3 oil rigs off of the coast of Briton. Petroleum is typically the domain of the Neolibyians, so the Chroniclers that control these 3 rigs keep them extremely secret. The Scrappers that work them for the Chroniclers are richly rewarded, both in drafts and intelligence on possible future scrap finds. Recently the Atlas rig has gone dark, I’m sure that has nothing to do with the new variety of Psychonaut. West of Briton lies the gauntlet, which stretches down south from the coast down past Parasite (Paris). The Spitalians used to have an outpost and a passage north to Briton, not anymore. The Gauntlet is so thick with spores and insects it’s basically no-mans land, don’t go there.  Mont Saint-Michel lies here the coast used to be, but has since retreated farther north. It’s massive fortress ringed with salvaged cannons and fire catapults, and serves as the primary stronghold of the Anabaptists in the region. As far as fortresses go, its pretty much impregnable and has no equal in Franka. Vicarent lives here. Morlaix is a basically slapped together water wheel power plant that provides power to the coastal cities. It’s owned and operated by the Salt Wolves, a small but clever group of Scrappers famed for their clever engineering skills. Carhaix is like 12 cabins and a lovely Inn. However, beneath a deserted cabin and under a hidden trap door lies a cache that Factor set up. If the PCs played the killing game and kept Factor’s transponder when they killed them, they can use that to open this place up and loot the poo poo outta it. However, if they do that you’re on your own as a GM, as they couldn’t be bothered to maybe hook you with loot or traps to stuff within it. Vannes is basically where a bunch of wood comes from, and it’s also the location of the House of Atonement. Anyone who uses Burn (or makes a pact with the Demiurge as they call it) is locked within an old Bygone bunker and left to die. Carnac is primarily a shipping port, but it's mostly known for its field of nearby megalithic stones where folks go to meditate and get trippy visions. Said visions often contain common elements and symbols shared amongst various peoples of different backgrounds and beliefs, but nobody really knows what’s going on. The Forest of the Druids is kinda neat. Sometimes AUSUMOS develop sentience and independence. One particular robot-man did so in this region, and has grown quite fond of nature and the humans that dwell within the forest. They worship him as Cernunnos, god of the forest. He’s pretty gentle and laid back, so long as you don’t gently caress with the people he protects. There’s a good reason no Pheromancer has ever stepped foot in these woods for long, and that’s because a combat robot with no sense of smell tears them to pieces.  His followers have a lot more tech know-how than you’d expect, and are able to keep him going power and maintenance-wise.  Rennes is the fortress city of the Spitalians in Briton. They do Spitalian stuff there. It’s pretty well-developed tech wise so its a good place to trade and stuff I guess. There’s not much else that’s interesting to say about it, aside from the fact that they chose to defend this city rather than ride to the aid of the Anabaptists and Vicarent years ago. Thus, relations between the two cults have gotten worse.  Saint-Brieuc is a coastal city that sprung up around the scrap trade in Briton. Since most of the good stuff is either in the swamps or has already been looted by the Neolibyians, if you still want good scrap you gotta dive and search the shipwrecks off of the coast for it. That, or you raid Britain for it. The latter coming with the risk of being caught and killed by Argyre’s Pictons. It’s mostly a lawless place with no real government, but there’s good loot to be found as well as a bustling scrap and artifact market if you’re into that. It gives us rules for diving in a suit and finding scrap, but going by the difficulties you’re better off scavenging in Borca on land and not risking drowning/death by shark. Aquitaine is the site of the largest and most important Cluster that’s not the Central Cluster in Justinian. A rare tech-level 5 city, the Chroniclers have a lot of good poo poo here. However, their fuckup with Toulon is costing them dearly. The Neolibyians have declared a trade war with them, and it’s not going well for the nerds. The Africans buy up and counterfeit Drafts while Scourgers “encourage” Scrappers to do business with the Neolibyians instead. Trade is rerouted and hijacked, and were it not for their oil rigs and a few remaining allies like Toulhouse, Aquitaine would be hosed. It’s also the place where the Chroniclers sent several ships they hijacked via hacking their signal, and then proceeded to loot the poo poo out of all of the Free Spirit tech inside. There were rumors that the ships with this strange symbol were from across the Atlantic, this is not the case. We get some information regarding Britain itself next. Basically, there’s good loot but don’t go there because it’s a pretty good chance these guys will find you.  Those are the Pictons. Argyre educates them with memetics in the London underground and then sends them across Britian in maglev trains looking for Sleepers. Those he doesn’t drain for Ambrosia, he enslaves. He uses a device called a Yoke (it fucks with their nanites, and can cause their blood to literally turn into crystals) to force them to work against the Recombination Group as part of his revenge. Helios' escape has put him in an especially bad mood, and he’s sending his Pictons across to Briton to find the fucker. Next is just more metaplot stuff I’ve already covered, except for one thing. After Altair exchanges a vial of pure primer for the golden seed with the clone of Vasco, his whereabouts are reported to the Spital by an Anabaptist. They find him dead and the vial empty, but among his notes they find some speculative information regarding the Levithianics. They’re keep it secret for now, because it’s mostly conjecture and they don’t know what to make of it. After that we’re back to Briton, and the Britoni capital of Brest. Yes, I giggle when I read that word, because I’m a literal child. King Oppulos of the Britoni rules in this tech-level 3 city. They grow crops and hunt whales and poo poo here, if you want to be more than a fisherman, farmer, or hunter, you join the Anabaptists. Not much to say about the city itself, but we do get a bit more on the King. Apparently he’s actually a pretty wise man, so much so that the Anabaptists genuinely value his advice and support him militarily because of it. Vicarent and his brother Barringer were found in the woods as babes, Oppulos took them in and raised them until they were 13, before giving them to the Anabaptists. He loves them more than his own twelve kids, whom he regards as disappointments. If you’re wondering who Barringer is, he doesn’t get mentioned much yet, but he’s guarding the Starfire at its hiding place on a small island off the coast. He’s bored and just wants to throw the drat rock in the sea so he can go do something else. The next few bits is mostly just purple prose describing the various districts of Brest (heh). I mean, it’s not objectively terrible and maybe adds some color or detail to the setting, there’s just nothing really noteworthy here, nary a plot hook to be found.  See what I mean? That’s stuff you’d put in a novel if you're telling a story, but how does a vignette about some young Anabaptist necking with a local girl help me write plot for my PCs? Next we come to the Isle of Ushant, where Barringer has sworn to guard the Starfire along with 60 Orgastics. Life pretty much sucks, and they spend most of their time making the island into a trap-filled obstacle course. They’re allowed to go ashore for one week a year so long as they keep to a vow of silence regarding the island.  Personally, if I wanted to keep something this important safe, I’d at least dig a big rear end hole and put something heavy on top. Just leaving it out in the open, guarded by primitives with no regular contact with the outside world seems kinda dumb. The rest of Chapter 1 is just rumors and such, which I’ve said time and time again should be at the beginning of Chapter 3. It seems so fuckin’ dumb that they’d put something that calls for rolls two chapters before the actual adventure.  This isn’t relevant, but I think it’s a cool picture so I’m sticking it here. Chapter 2 Chapter is mostly NPC statblocks so I’m not going to cover that, I’ll provide the nesscary background for those folks come up in the story. Next time, chapter 3 and the adventure!
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Apr 13, 2021 13:04
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The Combat Robot-Druid Buddy Film is like the first good idea I've seen in Degenesis.
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Apr 13, 2021 13:11
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Night10194 posted:The Combat Robot-Druid Buddy Film is like the first good idea I've seen in Degenesis. Cernunnos is on my list of "good ideas Degenesis had to salvage elsewhere". There's quite a few of those, it's just a matter of filtering out all the chaff and... well, what we're about to see.
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Apr 13, 2021 13:56
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Hipster Occultist posted:His followers have a lot more tech know-how than you’d expect, and are able to keep him going power and maintenance-wise. "Welp, the sun's up, time to do maintenance on the god of these woods, who I worship"  quote:Cool illustration. I bet the rules are absolutely atrocious out of fear that the players might do something cool with the diving suit. quote:Next we come to the Isle of Ushant, where Barringer has sworn to guard the Starfire along with 60 Orgastics. Life pretty much sucks Did they forget that Orgiastics are named that way for a reason? Between building traps, guarding a literal piece of Satan, and the potential for a 60-body orgy, they should never ever be bored. quote:This isn’t relevant, but I think it’s a cool picture so I’m sticking it here. A wise choice, I absolutely agree. SkyeAuroline posted:just a matter of filtering out all the chaff Well, first, you scrap all the rules and...
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Apr 13, 2021 14:36
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Blue Rose 2e Dance Dance Revelation So! Let's start out with one of the issues of Blue Rose as a book. Blue Rose is not well organized as far as teaching about the setting; it does everything in chronological order, rather than, say, leading off with 'hey you made your PC, what do PCs do?'. The short summaries of the setting in chapter 1 and the culture bits in character creation are actually pretty good, but as soon as we're into setting history we go right to the mythology and creation myth and then into the whole history of the Old Kingdom and Empire of Thorns and the Shadow War and the Great Rebellion and don't get into the structure of Aldis or anything until Chapter 6. We even have a long list of Aldin sovereigns before you really know enough about Aldis to care. This is a problem because there's actually a ton of good material and interesting seeds buried in this, but the organization makes it read pretty dull, as does the actual writing. The writing isn't bad. The actual concepts and ideas are really good! There's tons of fun things buried in all this history, it's just presented in the most dull, textbook 'here's a pile of fictional kings before you have a reason to give a drat' style. I suspect some of this is because they have enough problems with bad faith readings of the setting that they really didn't want to deal with the ambiguity of in-setting or in-character writing and wanted to write from a clear 'this is how things be' perspective. But it can be easy to catch your eyes sliding off the page and stuff doesn't pop or stick very well since the writing doesn't really have much pep or fun to it. 'Fun' writing can be pedagogically important, goddamnit! People remember stuff a lot more if they're engaged and enjoying themselves, and fun writing makes for going over things looking for connections or ideas because you want to read it again. Like, take Feng Shui. Feng Shui's setting sticks in peoples' heads so much not just because the material is fun, but read the core book with its breezy, conversational style like it's letting you in on a cool thing it's sharing with you and you'll remember what you saw. Whatever I might think about the design Robin Laws is an excellent writer. Blue Rose doesn't have anything similar. There's no flair to the prose itself, nothing to really grab you. It's a considerable issue for the book because again, the material is good, even excellent in some places, but the lack of highlighting or style hurts the readability. Similarly, it can be a little difficult to see where the book is putting emphasis. Like take what's coming up: The Gods aren't important. They're really not a huge part of an Aldin's life. I'd honestly say (and I don't mean this in any sort of insulting way, I find this interesting) your average Aldin would describe themselves as 'spiritual, not religious' because there are major spiritual concepts in their religion but the Gods just don't come up much outside of festivals. It's even completely justifiable, per the book, for a PC to be an atheist and think this is all made up. Gods just plain don't interfere directly in Aldis, nor are they viewed like they would be in a 'real' polytheistic society because a lot of the position that a priest would take up is filled by Adepts; you want someone to bless your crops or ensure the weather isn't too awful, you don't pay a priest to be the specialist to intercede with the Gods for this, you hire a wizard. More importantly, the story is just not about them. It's about you. Similar for the Exarchs, the demon lords of the seven deadly sins. They aren't that important! The Shadow is. They aren't. They mostly matter from what their cultists think of them and what that makes them do; they're not out there giving marching orders to their demons and cults directly. Religion is really only important to one country and they're basically heno-bordering-on-monotheist (believe one God is the best, edging towards saying the others might not be Gods) and to give things fancy fantasy names, which is an important genre marker. So I'm going to go in their order, because it's how things are written, but if I was editing this book I'd put The Kingdom of Aldis Today (at least enough to introduce what PCs do) before all this. Note also this version of the story is explicitly the dominant/best understood version in Aldis. It is not definitive and other lands might tell it differently. Way back when, nothing existed yet, like it does. There was only the Eternal Dance, one of the actual important spiritual concepts. In the Eternal Dance, all souls were without gender, species, divinity, mortality, anything. All simply danced together, beyond possibility. Four souls came out of it, curious about the possibility of the uncreated universe, and discovered names for themselves: Anwaren, Braniel, Maurenna, and Selene. They danced so hard that matter came to be out of possibility, and they liked it. They danced more, each taking a part as the king or queen of one element as they worked together to weave the world into existence, creating elemental spirits to help them. They danced and scattered seeds and waters, mountains and rivers, spinning and sprinkling the star with skies as they crafted a jewel they called Aldea, a planet. As they looked at their labor, other souls were drawn from the Dance, curious about this new thing that existed. They danced in the beautiful new world, praising the first four for their work in creating it and marveling at Aldea so much that some of them began to become mortal to experience it further. The Primordial four were pleased; praise was new! And then the Problem happened. Anwaren, King of Earth, found he adored the praise he received even more than working with his hands. He was jealous of how the others were praised, too; he felt he had been the lynchpin of creation and he wanted more. He grew more envious as he felt his work was dishonored, the others praising the creators of life or the beautiful skies above his rocks and loam. So he cast his gaze outward from the world, looking for the secret knowledge he thought might exist beyond that would elevate him above the others and gain him the honor he desired. And he found something. The Shadow snared the King of the Earth, lurking in the darkness and waiting for one who sought disparity. Doubt, limitation, and the idea of death seized Anwaren as the Shadow bound him, and in that darkness he gave birth to the Exarchs, creatures who embodied his lust for power and honor through Pride, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, and Greed. Pride was the first of them, and he gave names to himself and the others, calling himself Gravicious. They began to spawn the Darkfiends, other monsters like themselves, lesser creatures not born of the Dance who knew nothing but emptiness and darkness and sin. They began to attack the souls dancing upon Aldea, trying to drag them into Shadow as they had snared Anwaren, and the other Primordials opposed them, but they were not enough. New souls emerged from the Dance and took on form and personality to oppose this Shadow and support the creators of Aldea in trying to prevent its binding and enslavement. As more and more souls took form upon the world amidst the echoing battles of Gods, these new souls had no memory of their time in the Eternal Dance. Now they saw themselves as male, female, or other identities. (it's an accepted religious thing in Aldis that identities like non-binary are valid and a normal part of their idea of gender) Now they saw themselves as Vata or Human or Rhydan or others. To keep the Shadow from claiming these precious mortal souls, Selene created a great wheel of rebirth; souls would pass through it, perfecting themselves over and over through many lives, failing or succeeding, falling to Shadow or being guided to their destiny of Light, until they had taken their fill of the world and remembered themselves and returned to the Eternal Dance. One of the Exarchs damaged the wheel, though, creating Undeath, a terrible condition that is often mistaken for power or eternity by twisted Sorcerers. The Undead are shorn from the Wheel, until they are laid to rest. What a monstrous Lich sees as their terrifying destruction is their liberation, back to the Wheel they fear and their progress back to the Eternal Dance. But the darkness was not defeated by the shining swords of the Gods. Blessed fire and terrible scourge did not defeat the Exarchs. What bound and chained them was love, and forgiveness; the Gods found Anwaren, weeping and going mad at what he had wrought, and rather than striking him down, two of them took him into their arms, kissed him on the forehead, and bore him away from his nightmare to see to him. In this the Exarchs were chained, the other six screaming at Pride for having failed to bring the victory he promised them, as Anwaren wept and confessed his sin before the other Gods. He swore he would never again lose himself, and to mark his pledge, he took much of his own power, binding himself to the mortal fate of Aldea. He would now live, die, and rise again, over and over, sharing the cycle of the seasons of his beloved earth. The others celebrated their victory and the return of their prodigal companion. And so it was that the first of the created gods, Hiathas, placed a great Light in the sky to remind the world that it had triumphed over Shadow by Light, not by fire or sword. And thus the sun was born alongside Selene's moon and time could begin in full. It's fairly generic, but I do like Anwaren. He's the one I usually remember among the Gods. His quest for something to set himself apart, for secret knowledge that brought disparity into the world and snared him in Shadow, and the fact that the others found him weeping for what he'd done and brought him back from darkness establishes what you're going to reflect in game quite well. As does the fact that the Exarchs remain jerks! Also, the Eternal Dance is our Actually Really Important idea, and indeed, the central faith of Aldis speaks entirely of being 'of the Eternal Dance'. The idea that all souls are souls, that the soul is a thing that might have taken on a body with gender and species but that it likely takes on multiple genders, species, etc while dancing through the world is critical to Aldin egalitarianism. You are you, and you have likely been many yous. You will fail, you will triumph, and in all of it you will dance through this world, reflecting on other souls, laughing and singing together until the day you have found what you wished and return to the great Dance, possibly to come back in another age. Such is one of the most important concepts in Aldin spirituality. And that's the bit that matters. The forgiveness, the joy of creation, the great struggle of Light and Shadow within all souls. The list of Gods and their deeds is not especially important. And from there we can go to the Old Kingdom, which is important, and one of the most interesting bits to me! Next Time: A golden age?
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Apr 13, 2021 14:53
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JcDent posted:"Welp, the sun's up, time to do maintenance on the god of these woods, who I worship" So, it says that you move underwater with AGI+Mobility, but not when to call for these tests and why. Do I need one roll to move from like A to B, or it just meant for like clambering around a shipwreck?  Despite having an air hose linked to the boat you dived from, it's said you only have enough air for 10 actions, you'd think it would be a certain amount of time. If you botch a roll, your air is running out and you gotta get to the surface asap. However, we're told that in critical situations the Trash Whales (Scrapper divers) will be there to rescue the person so I guess there' no real risk involved? A page ago it talks about all the marine life (like sharks) that makes this so dangerous. Go ahead and guess if they included any rules for these marine animals, or even any stats/rules for fighting off said animals in your suit. Go on, guess. You can only dive twice a day, any further dives inflict 1 trauma per as a result of diving sickness. Tech III Scrap requires 1 AGI+Mobility (1) roll, finds d6 kilos of scrap Tech IV Scrap requires 2 AGI+Mobility (3) rolls, then BOD+Force (2) to extract the artifact, finds d6 kilos of scrap Tech V Scrap requires 3 AGI+Mobility (4) rolls, then BOD+Force (4) to extract, finds d6 kilos of scrap It gets a little MAD, plus its potentially quite dangerous depending on how your GM interprets these unfinished rules. There's better and easier ways to get scrap.
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Apr 13, 2021 15:58
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Chapter 13: Magic Items This short 4-page chapter is far from sparse, with 23 new magic items. Quite a few are obvious shout-outs to superhero characters and tropes, such as a self-replenishing 3-use Creature Repellent that wards off a single creature if it fails a Wisdom Save, a Grappling Hook which can pull the character 20 feet to another location or pull an unattended item to the user, a Jump Jet which grants a 30 foot fly speed,* a Powered Gauntlet and Knuckleduster of Demonic Strength which boosts a user’s unarmed strike damage to 1d6 or 3d10 respectively, a Utility Belt with 6 extra-dimensional pouches that can hold up to 25 pounds/16 cubic feet each, and a returnable Throwing Shield which can act as a 1d6 thrown weapon that deals an additional 1d6 damage at 5th, 11th, and 17th level. There’s even a Lesser and normal Cape of Flying: both can take the form of any typical type of clothing and don’t need to be attuned to the wearer. The former grants a flight speed equal to the wearer’s walking speed but makes them fall like a Jump Jet, while the regular Cape of Flying grants a true flight of 50 feet. *but the user starts to fall if they end their turn in midair. Quite a few of these magic items have the Common level of rarity, and only the rarer ones require attunement. Even the ones granting vertical mobility such as the Grappling Hook and Jump Jets are Common, with the Lesser Cape of Flying Uncommon and the regular Cape being Rare. This means that it’s not so hard for a gadgeteer-type PC to stock up on these magic items or for low-level characters to not be limited by spellcasting and flying mounts in order to take to the air.  Appendix B: Lairs & Strongholds The following are eight sample lairs which serve as mini-dungeon adventure locations. Most are tied to an existing supervillain, although a few are not. Each one has a suggested party level along with maps and listed rooms, and a few have suggested adventure hooks. Cloud Castle is a floating fortress hanging from the underside of a mobile stormcloud. Owned by an elderly cloud giant, he devotes a fair portion of his domicile to obstacle course purposes for the training of superheroes. Beyond such accommodations there are a set of eight portals linked across various locations in Ghaistala. Clouded Eye Courthouse is the Edgecutioner’s headquarters. It hovers high over Beacon, magically invisible to outside viewers. The solar sometimes teleports people into the area, where the wronged party and a set of randomly-chosen “jurors” are subject to a trial by combat to the death. Beyond the Edgecutioner and his gynosphinx sidekick there are deva guards and an armory of angelic weapons which deal 6d8 bonus radiant damage to the target if they hit (or the same damage to the wielder on a miss). The Hall of the Forgotten Sun is one of Count Abramovich’s safehouses, containing various magical items he’s procured over the years. It is occupied by dozens of vampire Underlings, a gelatinous cube, and the Count himself and his Slayer lieutenant. The Scriptorium is a fabled demiplane library outside the normal confines of time and space. Any tome, scroll, book, tablet, or any object with written words taken in spawns a copy within the seemingly infinite archives, making it a valued place for forgotten knowledge. The ruler of the Scriptorium is a sphinx known only as the Librarian, and is also home to a would-be conqueror warmage of a long-dead civilization searching for knowledge to take over his homeworld...which is deliciously ironic given that the text states how people can end up “lost in time” for spending too long in the Scriptorium’s deepest archives. Scroungers’ Crater is a write-up of the Crater, and can house all kinds of opposition depending on the Villain of the Week. The Scroungers have various retractable buildings and tunnels they can use for safe cover, and there’s even a set of bleachers where they can watch battles and place bets on who wins. PCs who manage to help out the Scroungers in some way can gain one of their number as a sidekick in addition to typical material rewards. The Silence Dread is the personal ship of the Pirate King. It is the odd man out as the only Lair without a map, and its location descriptions are rather hum-drum typical ship stuff. Trieye Co-Op is the beginning of Idyllia’s planned utopian society. Currently a small neighborhood in Lowcity, it is oddly clean and quiet, and newcomers are encouraged to drink from the central fountain’s magical water in an attempt to bind them to the community. Their current major building project is a large waterpark, and Idyllia’s lair resides at the bottom of an underwater sinkhole that the rest of the Co-Op is discouraged from inspecting due to safety concerns. It is a sinkhole, after all. XX’s Abstrusatorium is one of the Sciencelich’s primary research labs. The complex is guarded by an array of AI defenses in addition to mechanical and magical traps. The sample adventure hook has the PCs face off against the Dead Ringers, evil cloned versions of themselves via the Simulacrum spell. The complex has various traps as well as a Hyper Beam cannon that can be shot as a Lair Action by XX. Fortunately several areas marked on the map are “blind spots” in which the PCs can use to take cover.  Appendix C: Kaiju The two primary sources of giant monster attacks in Beacon are XX’s failed experiments and Kaiju that managed to breach the natural defenses of the Protectorate Peaks. In the latter case, we have four sample creatures in this appendix. Without exception each of them is an Epic Tier foe, with all but one having a Challenge Rating of 30 (the odd one out is 27). They all generate Regional Effects which alter nearby terrain and life forms as an ominous foreshadowing of their approach. Blodynbren, the Lotus Mother is a rather pacifistic entity of nature, only aggressive when her groves are endangered. She’s a gargantuan fey that takes the form of a fox-plant hybrid, and can generate radiant solar rays, gusts of wind, and giant petals that can deflect ranged attacks. Golgomarauth, the Dread Hand of Death is a sea serpent capable of limited flight. It has a powerful Megaton Punch attack which can hit multiple creatures at once as well as a line of pressurized steam as a ranged attack. It can also absorb spells and cast them if it bites a spellcasting creature, and can fire a Paragite beam that can make a creature lose the ability to cast spells. Which is rather odd on account that Paragite’s initial entry mentions it only affects those whose abilities come from arkwaves. Karyu, the Terror from Beyond the Stars crash-landed in the Grey Wastes* on a comet, residing at the bottom of a sinkhole before being awakened by the ambient energies of Beacon’s portals. Drawn by interdimensional energies for sustenance, Karyu is aggressive in feeding off of such things and has managed to gather a group of fringe cultists who become empowered with air elemental essence for their devotion. Karyu has no real physical description beyond having claws and pedipalps along with a stinger tail, indicating a bug-like form. It can fly at a rapid 220 feet per round and is fond of hit and run tactics. It has innate spellcasting of lightning and thunder-based magic, and lightning damage “overloads” it in the form of granting temporary hit points as well as new attacks. It can also change radiant, thunder, cold, or fire damage to lightning damage as a reaction. *I don’t know if they actually meant the Nul Wastes, as a CTRL + F search for “Grey Wastes” reveals this entry as the only mention in the entire book. Xort, the Warm Embrace is actually two organisms: a gigantic earth elemental known as Xai and a slime mold known as Orthax. The slime discovered that it was incapable of eating the elemental, so the two of them settled in a truce and combined their powers. Like Karyu, this kaiju also attracted a cult who can polymorph into oozes as their granted power. Xort appears as a rather straightforward combatant, wading into the thick of things and making multiattack slams. Once it takes enough damage, Orthax is vomited out and covers up the carapace’s cracks, regenerating hit points in a ‘second form’ with new attacks and abilities. Xort can also subsume creatures it grapples and kills, spitting out cloned thralls of such slain beings. Unlike the other kaiju, Xort has no ranged attacks or alternate movement speeds, which like the Tarrasque makes it vulnerable to enemies that can keep out of its range by flight. Thoughts So Far: I like the new magic items, and the kaiju have cool abilities. The use of a “second form” for half of them is a pretty nifty idea, and is something I’ve seen repeated throughout this book (the Resolute feat, Count Abramovich’s vampire hunter sidekick, Harlan/the Ghost, and the Hyper-Demon). I like this as a game mechanic in the “you haven’t even seen my final form” way, which also does a good job of emulating some superhero stories. The Lairs I don’t have any strong feelings for one way or another. They’re mostly meant to be battle scenes for the book’s super-villains, while a few felt rather uninspired. Final Thoughts: Supers & Sorcery is a great book, but mostly in terms of setting. It doesn’t shy away from said RPG’s more fantastic and high fantasy aspects in achieving a more “superheroic” feel, and there’s plenty of grist for the mill in coming up with conflict and adventures. The various characters in the book make for interesting foes for a party’s rogues’ gallery, and I can see myself using the material therein for an unconventional campaign. That all being said, and I hate to say it, but the system it’s using is just not ideal for superheroes in the broadest sense of the term. 5th Edition just doesn’t hit that higher tier of power level you see in works such as Justice League or Superman, and the emphasis on resource based dungeon crawls doesn’t line up with the typical structure of a comic book adventure. Even house rules designed to push past bounded accuracy are a halfway measure, for the emphasis on weight tracking, the foot by foot dimensions of abilities and movement, and other such specifics cannot bring the system up to the lofty heights of superheroes who can fly between cities in seconds and punch meteors out of the sky barring very generous GM Fiat. Supers & Sorcery can emulate fantasy superheroes on the lower end of the power spectrum, but that isn’t the intended feel I get from this book. New material for players feels similarly incomplete. Instead of discussing ways of how characters can keep their identities safe from diviners and other such measures, we merely have new Backgrounds for their ‘normal’ lives. We don’t get a “build your own powers” approach that so many other superhero RPGs do, instead given a few new archetypes, spells, and equipment which can mimic a few known Marvel/DC characters but falls short of a more holistic system. When I read such material it feels more like “spot the reference” rather than a means of making one’s own heroes in a four-colored D&D world. Furthermore, there are aspects of the book that indicate the need for a second editing pass, which I touched on in the prior chapters. As such the book feels like it’s missing material even though it is for all intents and purposes a “complete” setting. On the one hand, I understand that many self-publishers need to publish 5e material in order to get noticed, so I cannot begrudge the writers for going this way. But on the other hand I cannot help but notice the poor fit system-wise, and have to be honest in my judgement of the product. I would love Supers & Sorcery more if it was published for another system better suited to superheroes, or made more radical changes for character creation a la the new 5e Spheres of Power or Beowulf: Age of Heroes. But as it stands, it’s a book full of cool ideas that I wouldn’t run as is at the gaming table, and the time and effort spent converting the material to my system of choice would be better spent making my own material instead. Thank you to all those who read this far. I’m currently in the works of writing up another Let’s Read, but as I’m unsure when/if I’ll be done with enough drafts I don’t want to make any promises yet.
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Apr 13, 2021 17:27
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Blue Rose 2e The Definition of Empire So now we're getting into the bits I find clever, though I'm fond of the Eternal Dance and I'm going to have an entire update on The Shadow eventually because it's The Shadow, the main antagonist, and I think it's a good one. But now let's talk about the Old Kingdom and the Empire of Thorns. Once again, the actual prose is extremely dry: "This happened, this happened, unfortunately that happened." No flavor, really, no tone. But what it's describing is cool when you drill down. The Old Kingdom is the predecessor kingdom to Aldis, located in roughly the same geographical area as its center. Modern day Aldis (being located on a bigass lake and at the center of a large river network, there's no way there wasn't going to be a city there) is still in the same location as the old capital. The Old Kingdom was ruled by a 'Council of the Wise', made up of (supposedly) the best of every major trade (especially magic) in the Kingdom. People were chosen for these positions in contests every midsummer, which seems like a rather inefficient way to run a government but you do you, Council of the Wise. The problem came because almost everything in the Old Kingdom came back to magic, which meant the Council of the Wise was a magocracy over time. Said magocracy became more and more interested in its own projects, using the public treasury mostly for the benefit of Council members and using their power to remain on said Council. They constructed all kinds of vast and powerful magitek using mystic crystals, Shas Crystals, which are going to come up a lot. You knew there'd be shiney magic crystals, I knew there'd be shiney magic crystals, we're all here for it. The Old Kingdom maintained itself because it built a massive teleportation network out of things that the modern world calls Shadowgates, but I strongly suspect had a different name in the Old Kingdom. Heck, for my game (and because I can't resist the reference) I'll probably say the Old Kingdom name was World Knots or something. This allowed instantaneous messages and high value transit, which is extremely useful! However, the reason the world calls them Shadowgates is because Adepts eventually reached beyond instead of across with these things. If you remember what happened to Anwaren, this was not a good plan. Well, it was good for the Adepts, as long as they didn't mind delving into and discovering Sorcery. But it was bad for everyone else, because now those Adepts had powerful demonic servants known as Darkfiends. Worse, the Old Kingdom and its Wise were the kind of people who looked at Sorcery, a kind of magic fueled entirely by being willing to use evil and the will to dominate, and immediately assumed 'well I can employ this for good'. Normally I'm sympathetic, but in this case what makes something Sorcery is so defined by evil intent that while I certainly see value in understanding it, wielding it is another matter. Worst, the ones who thought they were heroes bringing order to the world were far harder to find than the cackling tower wizards. The Hard Men making Hard Choices (despite the world being relatively peaceful and prosperous) burrowed deep into the government. They reasoned: We are the Council of the Wise, chosen for our glorious wisdom and power. We are the greatest, the best. And the Shadow nodded knowingly and took them into its confidence, whispering 'Yes, you are. I am the secret knowledge that will bring you above the others, as you know yourself to be'. At least that's what I imagine happened; the book is really bland on it and just talks about them being harder to ferret out. But c'mon, considering Anwaren and the original lies it told to ensnare him and force him to create the Exarchs, it was obviously feeding the Wise the same line. Considering they assumed their status meant they could control it. Meanwhile, as this spun towards disaster, the Old Kingdom grew ever more unstable. Plots were hatched against its outer provinces, taxing them heavily to fund the 'essential' projects and interests of the Wise. When the provinces objected, the Shadowgates were used to send in the troops. Policies grew increasingly oppressive. Taxes spiraled upwards, but only on the provinces, extracting their resources to fuel the 'great wonders' of the center. The army grew and grew to unprecedented power, backed by arcane weaponry and fantastical devices. Secret police were established. An engine of oppression and Empire had already formed long before they called themselves an Empire. When Delsha the Dark murdered the rest of the Council of the Wise and declared herself Empress of Aldis, the Empire of Thorns was merely an acknowledgement of what the Old Kingdom had become. This is important because Aldins tend to look at the wonders of magitek from the Old Kingdom and call it a golden age, destroyed by the wicked Delsha, the Sorcerer-Empress. But from the description it's clear it had hollowed out and become a dark Empire well before she came along; she just pulled the trigger faster than the others on the Council. The Rhydan and Vatazin (Super-elfs) stood against her, and she exterminated the latter and tried to exterminate the former. Being better at hiding, the forest critters retreated to plot how to resist as she put bounties on their pelts and tails. I imagine she then had a lot of problems with people bringing in like, normal pelts and tails, which is probably also why she couldn't exterminate the magic critters. She was Empress for a long time, holding everything together with an iron fist until mishap or assassination (it's not sure which) wasted her. And thus began the Shadow Wars among her lieutenant and apprentices, as I talked about in post 1. Now, the slow collapse of the Old Kingdom out of pride, the Empress merely being a formality that acknowledged how things had become, etc is all GOOD MATERIAL, but it's told with absolutely no passion. There's no tone, no enthusiasm. It's just 'the Kingdom had X, but then Y happened'. And here, this is a problem, because Aldis explicitly claims to be the New Kingdom as a pillar of its legitimacy and self-definition. The people who will Do It Right. Jarzon, meanwhile, says that trying to emulate the Old Kingdom will end the same way, and this is like the one place they might have a point. You have the neat issue where Aldis has constructed a golden age brought down by a singular evil when the truth is this place was brought down by its council of rulers selfishly pushing for their own power and arrogantly assuming that of course, they were called the WISE, they could handle whatever they dealt with and if they had to crush the poo poo out of the provinces for their own good and their magical advancement, where was the harm? Aldis is already better than the Old Kingdom but it's blinded a little by their flashy flying machines and lightning trains. That's some good stuff for adventure scholars and stuff to delve into. But they don't make any of these connections, they don't put in like 'Here's some plot threads or hooks for adventures about the ruins of the Old Kingdom!' beyond a little 'there are many relics and artifacts left with real power that have to be treated carefully'. It needs less dry textbook writing and more passion in describing the slow corruption and fall of the Old Kingdom into a Dark Empire before that became formalized by Delsha. Delsha, similarly, doesn't even get a hint of a character beyond 'she's p bad', but she's a far back enough figure that that's probably fine; more contemporary people get sidebars and motives and such. It's good material, it just needs to be told better! Have some fun with it, Blue Rose. Next Time: At Last! DEERMOCRACY COMES!
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Apr 13, 2021 17:34
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Age of Sigmar: Lumineth Realm-Lords Tyrionic the Hedgehog The Vanari Lords Regent are the commanders of the Vanari, exemplars of the Tyrionic ideal of skill, charisma and speed. Each one is appointed by Tyrion himself, and each one is chosen equally to be Tyrionic's diplomats to the Teclian nations. Their advice can be vital in keeping the mages of the Teclian nations from making bad decisions about war, and they often have veto rights over war plans. Most Lords Regent find this tiresome and prefer to avoid getting involved in the debates of the Teclian courts, which they often see as a waste of time. They feel far more at home on a training field or in battle, where they can display the skill that earned them their rank. Each Lord Regent must survive a set of tests set forth by Tyrion, and they are not easy. First, they must travel to Haixiah and become enlightened - which, as we've discussed before, is very dangerous and difficult. After that, the would-be Lord Regent must outwit and tame a lightcourser, a unique beast from the northern parts of Hysh. They are agile creatures who never rest, energized by their own physical activities as a sort of living dynamo. Even when a lightcourser is stationary, it will paw at the ground and fidget constantly, eager to begin moving again. They absolutely hate being bound or tethered, so tame lightcoursers are allowed to wander freely. The bond between steed and rider is strong enough that they will always return at the sound of their master's summons. Lightcoursers are also easy to take care of, because they heal exceptionally fast when exposed to direct sunlight. They aren't especially ferocious beasts, but they are capable of very powerful and fast kicks that can knock over just about anything in their way. At full speed, a lightcourser can cross a battlefield in seconds, allowing the Lords Regent to reinforce flanks or take charge of situations wherever they are needed. They are even able to keep up with the wind-graced treerunners of the Hurakan. The Lords Regent must be expert riders to be able to handle them, and each one trains hard to be able to deflect arrows and maintain a solid defense even at massive speed. They strike swiftly and precisely, using their sunmetal blades to strike at the gaps in armor. Each is an expert in channeling Hyshian power through the weapon, converting sunmetal into pure light that can pass through armor or flesh with ease. The most famous of the Lords Regent is Lyrior Uthralle, the Lord Regent Supreme and the Voice of the Lord Phoenix. He is the figurehead that sits atop the entire Vanari edifice, serving as the spokesman for the Tyrionic nations and Tyrion himself when they must deal with the Teclian nations. He is well known for his calm and logical demeanor even by Lumineth standards, but that's actually just a public facade. He has three Cathallars assigned to him exclusively so that his emotions do not rage out of control on any given day, and even then, they aren't truly able to handle him. He maintains his calm only by taking private time each day and, when he is certain he is absolutely alone, screaming his grief into the void. See, Tyrion once asked him personally to go to Tor Limina in Ymetrica and save it from a Flesh-Eater invasion. He did...but in doing so, he had to leave his home city, Muavheil, undefended against the Waaaagh! Gorondrog, and the orruks burned the city to the ground. He blames himself still for the death of his family, including his wife and children. Those who are close to him believe that his intense sense of duty is the main thing that has stopped him from abandoning his rank and station in order to seek vengeance against the forces of Destruction.  Under the Lords Regent are the symbolic forces of the Lumineth, the Vanari Bannerblades. Each one carries a brilliant standard woven from pure solarsilk. Solarsilk is a unique material - it blocks and catches the light of the sun, but wind, rain and snow can pass through it as if it was not there. Solarsilk is a very difficult material to work with - nearly weightless and closer to an illusion than a physical thing. Only the magical skill of the Syari crafters allow the world banners of the Vanari to be created, coated in sacred images and symbols of the power of the aelven species. The greatest of these icons, the Eclipsian, is a figure of symmetry and purity that is commonly found on the world banners. The Eclipsian symbolizes the unity of the solar and lunar ways, and some Lumineth believe that Tyrion and Teclis were once united as a single being and will one day unite again as the Eclipsian, reaching the true perfection of their potential. While this may or may not be actually true, the symbol is exceptionally resonant among the Vanari, and the Scinari Loreseekers carve it on their staff as well to symbolize the balance they seek. A Bannerblade's standard not only shows the Eclipsian to honor the sun and moon, but also the aelementiri runes, to honor the aelementors. It is meant to be an inspiring symbol of all parts of Lumineth civilization. This inspiration isn't just symbolic, either, as a Bannerblade is able to speak sacred words that cause Hyshian light energies to flow out of the banner and their own body, dazzling foes and empowering allies. The world banners are considered sacred, and to allow one to fall is absolutely unacceptable. A Bannerblade would die before ever letting the artifact touch the bloody earth, and most are horrified by the very concept. Therefore, all Bannerblades study the Ollirathai school of fencing, which roughly translates as 'Shield of Swords.' Each one is able to defend against six foes at once without ever allowing their standard to move an inch. Their focus on defensive combat makes them experts at disarms and counterattacks, dismantling their foes piece by piece. If a Bannerblade ever allows their banner to fall before they themselves die, they go into self-imposed exile and pilgrimage to Haixiah in an effort to burn out their own spiritual weakness in the light of the Perimeter Inimical. So far, no Bannerblade that has performed this pilgrimage has ever returned. Vanari Bladelords are considered odd by most Lumineth. They are a Tyrionic order, focusing on martial over philosophical matters, but their home is in the Teclian nations, and they wear the icons of the Scinari. They study causality and frcctal mathematics alongside learned mages, and they never complain about it. They work as bodyguards for the Scinari, keeping them safe on the battlefield. Many ranking Vanari aspire to their ranks, as they are the finest of fencers in the Lumineth nations. Some claim their constant practice and masterful skill is to ensure that wars end quickly, while others say it is sought out for its own sake as a form of self-actualization. The one feeling which Bladelords are forbidden to enter combat iwth is the boastful pride of the kill. They are artisans of the blade, after all, and while they may take quiet pride in their work, they must always allow it to speak for them, never bragging or seeking fame deliberately. In battle, the Bladelords fight in total silence, focusing every bit of their minds towards the best way to fight, combining skill, aggression, speed and the physical aspects of their blade and body into the perfected mathematics of death. Their studies of causality and math flow through their movements, unconsciously ensuring that they always calculate the best angle of attack and always strike true. They make only the minimum required movements to avoid enemy attacks, moving in perfect unison with their targets and watching for the chance to strike. They use not only their swords but their feet, knees, elbows and other body parts to strike at foes, manipulating their bodies with expert skill. Bladelords head into battle wearing ancestral helms that have been with the order since its foundation, and they were back-banners that prove they have passed the strict testing required to join the Bladelords. Most carry only one weapon - a sunmetal greatblade etched with runes of strength, honor and law. A rare few leaders exchange these for paired blades engraved with runes of doom, allowing them to strike with blinding speed. Most favor the perfect balance of the lightweight greatblades, however, which combine speed with the force needed to pierce most armor. Their fighting style is one of swooping arcs and circular motions, all timed to match enemy reactions. Their concentration, reaction time and ability to predict movements through the twitching of muscle are all key to making best use of this fighting style, and masters can cut arrows from the sky harmlessly. They easly siwtch between flurries of attacks against hordes of weak foes to slower but more precise strikes against greater enemies. The greatest Bladelord champion is Yliana, the White Mantis. She moves so quickly as to become a blur in battle, and it is said that as a child, she slew shard-scorpions with a cooking knife, hunting them by lying and wait and allowing them to attack so that she could dodge back and strike with deadly counters yet remain unharmed by their poison. as an adult, she considers this youthful hunting to have been a shameful act, a one-sided fight that served only foolish bloodlust. Now, she kills only when absolutely necessary...though this is all too often, by her reckoning, thanks to the attacks of Chaos and other enemies. She fights to protect the Ymetrican Scinari in their efforts to bring order to the Mortal Realms, and consoles herself by saying that anyone she has to kill is someone who was trying to kill her charges. At the end of each day, she washes the blood and gore from her armor and weapons, then meditates to cleanse herself of the anger of battle, returning to a state of balance and peace so that she will be at full strength the next day. Few can tell, besides her closest companions, that her composure is breaking and the pain of having to keep fighting is becoming too much for her. Last up for the Vanari, we have the Starshard Ballistas. These artillery pieces embody the philosophy of the Vanari fighters - speed and accuracy over raw power and destruction. They are light and made from strong but supple dreamwood found throughout Hysh. They essentially resemble extremely large, multi-string compound bows, similar to those wielded by the Auralan Sentinels but on a larger scale and mounted on a swiveling tripod. They fire long bolts two at a time, trailing glowing rays of light as they fire. The artillery crew are chosen from the Sentinels, selecting those with the best eyes and steadiest hands so that they can target foes at massive distances accurately. They wait for a clear shot before firing, and they almost never need more than two shots to kill a target. (Not one, because they fire both at once.) Each bolt is tipped not just with a sharp blade buit also a glass reservoir of aetherquartz-infused water. These shake and shatter on impact, releasing a blinding blast of light, which can send nearby enemies into chaos as they are blinded or distracted by the sudden burst. The same idea was used to develop aetherquartz lanterns which get planted in the ground around each ballista. These are there to ensure the safety of the crew. If an enemy gets too close, the lanterns blaze with sudden brightness, dazzling them long enough to reduce the impact of their charges and allow the crew to survive long enough for reinforcements to arrive and save them. Next time: The Hurakan
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Apr 13, 2021 17:36
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I love the alpacas, they look goofy and awesome at the same time.
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Apr 13, 2021 17:49
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I'm liking the dude who has three people sucking out his negative vibes and still needs to go scream into the void once a day.
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Apr 13, 2021 17:58
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Night10194 posted:The Definition of Empire Anyone else getting strong "Empire of Wyrms Friends" flashbacks with this? I keep half expecting someone to declare this a magical pyramid scheme.
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Apr 13, 2021 18:48
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Benagain posted:I'm liking the dude who has three people sucking out his negative vibes and still needs to go scream into the void once a day. Elf PTSD is a very real problem.
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Apr 13, 2021 18:58
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Talas posted:I love the alpacas, they look goofy and awesome at the same time. Yeah they are cool looking.  
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Apr 13, 2021 19:09
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Josef bugman posted:Anyone else getting strong "Empire of Wyrms Friends" flashbacks with this? I keep half expecting someone to declare this a magical pyramid scheme. That depends on if the whole thing ended in a cultural Utuma ritual. Or if you can conceptionalize it as a bunch of dragons vomiting up an empire, except backwards.
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Apr 13, 2021 19:22
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Josef bugman posted:Anyone else getting strong "Empire of Wyrms Friends" flashbacks with this? I keep half expecting someone to declare this a magical pyramid scheme. If you found your Kingdom on 'most powerful wizards' that's just asking to get it ruled by wizards practicing unethical wizard juicing.
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Apr 13, 2021 19:34
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Night10194 posted:If you found your Kingdom on 'most powerful wizards' that's just asking to get it ruled by wizards practicing unethical wizard juicing. -snorts a fresh line of warpstone- POWER OVERWHELMING. Also I do like the idea of sorcery doing three things: 1) Making cool "cackling evil monsters in a tower for heroes to stab". 2) Creating a good way to run Sauron in an RPG, which I think is missing in a lot of places. 3) Giving people the opportunity to use power and then be loving horrified by what they have done.
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Apr 13, 2021 19:42
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Josef bugman posted:-snorts a fresh line of warpstone- POWER OVERWHELMING. Yes, the important thing is like, there's just as much room for someone to go 'I'll do this for good- OH NO! OH gently caress NO!' and then have to make up for the consequences and redeem themselves. You're never truly irrevocably tainted by touching darkness.
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Apr 13, 2021 19:55
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I really like how you legit can talk down a paranoid warlord or sorcerer by referring to that time that God hosed up in the very same way: listening to the shadow and cutting himself away from the friendly people who can help. If God hosed up this bad and was redeemed then there's a path back for all of us.
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Apr 13, 2021 20:06
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By popular demand posted:I really like how you legit can talk down a paranoid warlord or sorcerer by referring to that time that God hosed up in the very same way: listening to the shadow and cutting himself away from the friendly people who can help. Of course if you want a proper Capital V- Villain, you can then also have them defy God and the declare themselves a shadow lord.
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Apr 13, 2021 20:07
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Sure and you would also meet villains completely uninterested in the gods and spirituality, but It's a very nice thing to have. Thankfully IRL actual unrepentant psychopaths that could never ever be integrated into a healthy society are very rare, fantastic worlds don't have to be full of them and they tend to be boring to the extreme.
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Apr 13, 2021 20:17
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Note that God hosed up and admitted it, but the Exarchs are still around and are just total bastards you must oppose. There's a dynamic. If people find you weeping over 'what have I done!?' things are probably good. If you're screaming "LET THEIR BLOOOOD RAIIIN FROM THE SKKKIEEEEEES!" it's probably clear to just stab you.
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Apr 13, 2021 20:21
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I hope that the Shadow is represented as some unknowable cosmic force as that would immediately explain why the Exarchs are so bitchy, not being complete souls they seem like the cosmic equivalent of spambots gone mad.
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Apr 13, 2021 20:26
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By popular demand posted:I hope that the Shadow is represented as some unknowable cosmic force as that would immediately explain why the Exarchs are so bitchy, not being complete souls they seem like the cosmic equivalent of spambots gone mad. I always like the idea of "Nothing" being not a conscious force but simply what happens when creation occurs and creates the division between Being and Not Being. The generative and degenerative force of entropy enacted upon life, but also the primordial wellspring of what was, warped and twisted.
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Apr 13, 2021 21:10
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my hard back copy of Veins of the Earth arrived! It is very pretty but much smaller than I thought it would be (10" x 6" maybe?). Imo the real draw here is the bestiary, and I'm in love with just about everything I've read; The Angler Liche is my current favorite but it is v hard to pick
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Apr 14, 2021 00:12
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