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SirPhoebos posted:Libertad!, unless I glossed over a post, other than Barovia all of the other Domains of Dreads appear to be new creations. Do these new books revisit the other Domains and Dreadlords from the 2E books? Yes, those sourcebooks I covered focus on new domains. There's no "old and new domain" mixture sourcebooks to my knowledge. If you want a good collection of classic domains revamped for 5e, Van Richten's Encyclopedia of Darklords & Domains is a 2 volume series that collects every pre-5e domain there is. It even takes domains that were detailed solely in novels or appeared just for one adventure, that's how comprehensive they are! https://www.dmsguild.com/product/385023/Van-Richtens-Encyclopedia-of-Darklords--Domains-Volume-1 https://www.dmsguild.com/product/387612/Van-Richtens-Encyclopedia-of-Darklords--Domains-Volume-2 Oliver Darkshire/Clegg made quite a bit of revamped domain sourcebooks, including an Epic Tier adventure in Forlorn: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Oliver%20Darkshire https://www.dmsguild.com/product/311016/Standing-Forlorn Edit: I haven't read Oliver's work yet, so can't say how good or bad it is. There are products on the DM's Guild which provide revised versions of existing domains. But those aren't in my review queue. As of now I have Van Richten Dies in Ravenloft (Death House remodel), the Barovia Gazetteer Collected Edition (Curse of Strahd DMing tips and expansion), Heorot: Beowulf's Domain of Dread (new domain), and Realm of the Blood Queen (new domain and adventure path). Besides Van Richten all of these are larger sourcebooks that will be broken up into multiple parts. If things go smoothly I'll have reviewed and posted all of those by October 28th. Still up in the air what, if anything, I'll review for the last 4 days of this month. I'm thinking of One Night Strahd, but that one is a biggie so I don't know how much I can tackle until I start writing for it. Everyone posted:I don't think a TPK is necessary as a precursor to running this adventure except in general terms. Figure there's been dozens of various NPC parties that have taken runs at Strahd over the centuries. Just run this adventure as an aftermath to one of them. Meanwhile, even if the Brides don't have a bunch of magic gear, aren't they also badass vampires and as such far more resistant/immune to a lot of stuff like level drain, fear, etc.? I'll admit to being unfamiliar with 5th edition AD&D (2nd ed is my style) so I could easily be wrong. That's fair. I'm writing from the assumption of it being not stand-alone. And no, the PCs aren't "add classes onto vampire spawn stat block." They use the Dhampir race which are basically half-vampires. They're detailed in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Oct 20, 2022 |
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Oct 19, 2022 22:45
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  Product Link Product Type: Adventure CoS-Required? No, but can tie into it. Curse of Strahd is one of the most well-known modules for 5th Edition, and the Death House introductory adventure is almost as well known among hapless newcomers. It is also a highly lethal adventure even by the standards of the campaign, which has led to a number of alterations and revisions over the years. Van Richten Dies in Ravenloft is an alteration to that module, albeit it removes the subterranean level in favor of remaining purely aboveground. The major change to the plot is that the hook for Death House is finding Rudolf Van Richten dead on the front steps, and the party ends up in telepathic contact with him once they pick up his Ring of Mind Shielding. Once they do that, Van Richten serves as a comedic narrator to help guide them through the dungeon with some helpful advice. In this version of Death House, the house is a sentient malicious being who happened to gain the journal of Rudolf Van Richten as a rare prize after causing his death. The PCs can obtain that journal, either by stealing it themselves and risking the House’s wrath or by making a deal to return to the House with Strahd’s journal as a fair trade. quote:This is the body of Doctor Rudolph Van Richten, a noted vampire hunter and writer of storied guides to creatures of the night. Most importantly: he’s dead. There is no discernible cause of death. He wears a hat of disguise and ring of mind shielding (Appendix A). In his bag, he carries two potions of healing (Appendix A). Because Van Richten died while wearing the ring of mind shielding, his soul is now housed inside it, and he can telepathically communicate with any creature wearing or holding it. The ring emits a soft, blue light that slowly pulses, the pulses getting closer together the closer a creature is to the ring. Once a creature touches the ring, they immediately hear the deep, rich voice of an older man, which—perhaps too cheerily—says, “Why hello there! I guess I’m dead, then.” The ring does not light up again unless Van Richten feels he is being ignored or has something urgent to relay, in which case it flashes rapidly. Already I’m spotting a potential problem. While it’s standard procedure for adventurers to grab valuable jewelry, there are some groups who may mistake the pulse for a trap and avoid the major change to the module entirely. They could also make the realization that a man just died, and being seen rifling through his belongings would be perceived by potential bystanders as evidence of guilt. A good portion of Van Richten Dies in Ravenloft is the same as Death House, but with several changes. The ghostly children of Rose and Thorn aren’t present, and the House’s monsters and traps are altered. The hunter’s den (room 3) conceals a bear trap, the kitchen (4) is home to an animated flying knife,* there’s a spear trap in the servants’ room (7), the secret room contains Van Richten’s journal instead of the letter from Strahd (9) and there’s no spell scroll treasure, a ghostly harp in the conservatory (10) can trigger ghostly applause on a successful Performance check or a collapsing bench dealing damage on a failed result, a suit of animated armor attacks the PCs in the balcony (11), the nursemaid’s suite (15) has been converted to a guest suite, the attic hall (16) has a tripwire trap linked to position crossbows, there’s no specter in the storage room (18), there’s a replica dollhouse in the playroom (20) which if examined via Investigation can reveal replicas of all the traps in the house and PCs advance to 2nd level when they find the key to the secret room (9), and the secret stairs (21) lead to other areas in the Death House rather than to the subterranean level. *The flying knife has stats similar to an animated knife, but has more hit points (17 as opposed to 12) and its basic attack deals more damage (1d8+1 vs 1d4+1). Upon gaining Van Richten’s journal, a loud scream echoes through the house, causing a nearby book to fall over and spelling out a warning by Death House. quote:Damned thieves! The treasures of this house are not yours. They are the history of this land and our dread lord, and you defile this archive with your clumsy fingers and footsteps. At this point the PCs can try to make a deal. If they agree to find Strahd’s journal, they will be allowed to leave the house as the bricked-up windows become open again and all of the remaining traps are disabled. But if not, they will need to escape like in the original module, with the doors being replaced by slashing scythe-blades and rooms with heating systems (oven, stove, or fireplace) are filled with poisonous black smoke. Additionally, unlike in the original module, destroying a 5 foot section of wall (which are now brittle) summons a specter to attack the PCs. PCs that manage to escape the house reach 3rd level. Strahd’s journal is in fact the Tome of Strahd. If returned, the Death House will be as good as its Lawful Evil word, and provide the PCs the original deed to the house. This effectively gives the party a place to stay, and the House will also give them free food for more tales of Ravenloft not yet archived in its library. The House can use its internal magic to perform all kinds of various domestic chores to make it a suitable living space. But if PCs make a deal and don’t or can’t uphold their end of the bargain, they’re plagued by restless sleep which imposes a permanent 3 levels of exhaustion until they uphold the oath. However the PCs solve the mystery, Van Richten will be willing to act as a mentor from then on out, and grants his leave for the PCs to keep the magical items found on his corpse (not that he had any means of enforcing this). He can also suggest they journey to find his protege Ez d’Avenir or otherwise find a means of resurrecting him. That is, if this module is being played as part of Curse of Strahd. At which point you may also wonder how Van Richten’s death affects the Artifact result from the Tarokka High Deck. In such a case, the PC’s ally against Strahd is Blinsky the toymaker, who is very obviously a huge downgrade from Van Richten for he has Commoner stats. Overall Thoughts: Van Richten Dies in Ravenloft is still a lethal dungeon crawl, particularly if the PCs don’t have reliable means of detecting or disabling traps. But it is shorter and less monster-filled than the original module and there’s quite a bit less treasure as a result, particularly for the more potent items such as the silvered shortsword, Cloak of Protection, and spellbook in the cultist quarters. It’s meant to be more light-hearted than the default module, including Van Richten’s surprisingly nonchalant response to his own death setting the mood, which may be a subjective taste. It can be run as a one-shot, although for a Curse of Strahd campaign I’m not too excited about the longer-term changes it would make. It gives the party’s Van Richten’s Journal far earlier than they would ordinarily get it, as opposed to finding it in his tower when they likely had more of a chance to interact with Rictavio in Vallaki and possibly Ez as a natural buildup. Secondly the great importance Madam Eva places on the Tome of Strahd means that a lot of groups may not wish to trade for it once they find out about it, at which point the 3 level exhaustion is far more of a debilitating drawback than the default Death House’s dangers. Additionally, the swapping of Van Richten as an ally for Blinsky is a letdown, and even if the PCs desired to have the legendary monster hunter alive and kicking the rarity of NPCs and treasure with access to resurrection in the module means it likely won’t happen any time soon. Join us next time as we learn useful tips and tricks for running a better Curse of Strahd in the Barovia Gazetteer: Collected Edition!
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Oct 19, 2022 22:58
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Libertad! posted:
I will note that while it might not be a +3 Sword or Wand of Lightning Bolts or whatever, as far as "treasures" go, to me, "sentient, lethal-to-intruders house as a very safe base of operations in Barovia in Ravenloft" makes for a pretty nice one. Plus, since the PCs have established a negotiating relationship with the house, they might be able to bargain to borrow the Tome of Strahd as needed in pursuit of gathering further exciting tales to entertain their new home.
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Oct 20, 2022 03:06
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Can the Evil House teleport to any place in Ravenloft, doomed nonetheless to return to its origin at the rise of the sun?
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Oct 20, 2022 04:53
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JcDent posted:The armor makes it look like they yassified a Tiberian Sun cyborg. I appreciate how blatantly the stats and description are based off the art there. Trying to explain away the scars and bare midriff by just saying "empowerment?????" with the tone of voice usually associated with a child getting caught with a hand in a cookie jar.
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Oct 20, 2022 05:05
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I don't think that's the case so much as just someone flying their fetish flag high. There is someone at Paizo with a thing for monster pregnancy given the nature of art commissioned.
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Oct 20, 2022 05:25
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Terrible Opinions posted:I don't think that's the case so much as just someone flying their fetish flag high. There is someone at Paizo with a thing for monster pregnancy given the nature of art commissioned. There's straight up porn of her in the re-release of Rise, some of which is in a handout for the PCs (her boyfriend draws phonographic art of her as a succubus and you find his journal). Also the goblins talk about all the public sex she has.
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Oct 20, 2022 15:40
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The nerds, they be horny. god damnit.
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Oct 20, 2022 16:28
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GreenMetalSun posted:There's straight up porn of her in the re-release of Rise, some of which is in a handout for the PCs (her boyfriend draws phonographic art of her as a succubus and you find his journal). Also the goblins talk about all the public sex she has. Is there any kind of option in Rise for the PCs to "defeat" her by getting her to a good therapist?
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Oct 20, 2022 18:45
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I've never understood why people need porn in their tabletop roleplaying games. You're already on the Internet; infinite free pornography is just a few clicks away.
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Oct 20, 2022 18:58
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Everyone posted:Is there any kind of option in Rise for the PCs to "defeat" her by getting her to a good therapist? No, and also: Since this was all said to have happened right after she 'came of age', she was fifteen (or the aasimar equivalent of it, but I think they age at the same rate as humans and just live longer) during the whole monster-pregnancy/being locked in her room while her father screamed REPENT at her non-stop thing.  The next adventure path, Curse of the Crimson Throne, is canonical with Rise (there's some crossover between the two) and confirms the 'fifteen is the age of consent' thing, when a character who is 'barely seventeen' is said to be an adult woman, and is described as 'coming of age' several years earlier.
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Oct 20, 2022 19:09
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I imagine some of the same reasons why people like porn games and ERP instead of just looking at pictures, because some kind of engagement (or the illusion of) makes it more titillating for them instead of just passively observing.
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Oct 20, 2022 19:10
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GreenMetalSun posted:No, and also: So the NPC's only options are 'dead' or monster pregnant? That's... a choice. Heroic but not TOO heroic, says Paizo.
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Oct 20, 2022 20:33
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And we're sliding back into the pit of F.A.T.A.L. I never picked up a single Paiso product in my life so I must ask if they were always like this.
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Oct 20, 2022 20:39
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Dawgstar posted:So the NPC's only options are 'dead' or monster pregnant? That's... a choice. Heroic but not TOO heroic, says Paizo. Not quite, she got pregnant with a monster baby, and her boyfriend and father's subsequent abuses made her go insane/'turn evil'. She burns down the church he held her captive in with him locked inside. The adventure takes place five years later, when she's twenty or so. I believe they have her commit some warcrimes/become the disciple of an evil god/give her an alignment with 'E' in it, so they can go the route of, 'Even though this person is clearly a victim and is right about everything, they need to be put down'. One of the weirder things in Rise is how present the 'totally evil' Goddess of Monsters is, and how she helps, shelters, and tutors Nualia and how the supposedly Good-aligned gods literally do not give a poo poo about her and are perfectly happy to let children be abused in their churches. EDIT: I believe if you let Nualia live/escape, the adventure specifies that she comes back at a higher level to kill you, or straight up becomes a demon and comes back to kill you. GreenMetalSun fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Oct 20, 2022 |
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Oct 20, 2022 20:56
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I’m confused as to what “monster” means in this context. Is her baby an orc? Damien from the Omen? A rust monster? A squid? A broo with the serial number filed off? The Xenomorph?
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Oct 20, 2022 21:55
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Mors Rattus posted:I’m confused as to what “monster” means in this context. Is her baby an orc? Damien from the Omen? A rust monster? A squid? A broo with the serial number filed off? The Xenomorph? I'm pretty sure it's a fiend/demon.
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Oct 20, 2022 22:01
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Halloween Jack posted:I've never understood why people need porn in their tabletop roleplaying games. You're already on the Internet; infinite free pornography is just a few clicks away. Can't speak for art of boob ladies, but the monster pregnancy stuff is dareyouentermymagicalrealm.jpg Plus if you're doing it as a writer/publisher they can't even punch you in the face for it!
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Oct 20, 2022 22:06
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Mors Rattus posted:I’m confused as to what “monster” means in this context. Is her baby an orc? Damien from the Omen? A rust monster? A squid? A broo with the serial number filed off? The Xenomorph? edit: or evidently not? It was just an unrelated other monster pregnancy. Yeah double checking the full text there is Jersey Devil monster pregnancy monster pre-existing in Sandpoint. Then Nualia gets her own evidently unrelated monster baby that was killed by the midwives, for no reason given besides that it was deformed. Terrible Opinions fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Oct 20, 2022 |
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Oct 20, 2022 22:26
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Making her an villain beyond hope or assistance is really just an incredibly poor choice.
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Oct 20, 2022 22:42
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There is quite a lot wrong with Rise of the Runelords.
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Oct 20, 2022 22:52
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Hypnobeard posted:There is quite a lot wrong with Rise of the Runelords. Is this stuff a thing in all the Erection of the Runelords campaign?
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Oct 20, 2022 23:07
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One of the primary antagonist groups in the third book are inbred hillbilly ogres.
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Oct 20, 2022 23:12
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If they didn't say directly in the adventure what her "monster" baby was, then glancing at the profile of Lamasthu on the Pathfinder wiki suggests it could've been anything from a "monstrous humanoid" type monster to a demon thing, or a random goop monster, or even just a baby with harlequinism. (Anyone unfamiliar: don't look that up, it's extremely unpleasant-looking.)
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Oct 20, 2022 23:28
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 Product Link Product Type: DMing Tools CoS-Required? Yes Just about every official megacampaign has online guides for how to optimally run it. Curse of Strahd’s popularity means that it has quite a number of such guides. The r/curseofstrahd subreddit has two notable ones, Fleshing Out Curse of Strahd and Curse of Strahd Reloaded. Many guides, including these, also give supplementary content not present in the original module. The Barovia Gazetteer by Marc Singer is a similar series, albeit a professionally-designed product on the Dungeon Master’s Guild. In addition to having its own material, the book makes reference to other online articles complete with embedded URL links for expanding beyond the contents inside. I like this touch, for it shows that the book wasn’t just one person’s thoughts in isolation but is pulling from a variety of voices for Curse of Strahd. Introduction outlines the Gazetteer’s mission statement: to provide dungeon masters with additional resources in the form of bonus scenarios, encounters, fleshing out of characters, and background information to allow for a more immersive campaign while making things easier for said DMs. The guide goes over typical stuff (session zero discussion on campaign tone, safety tools, etc), and to its credit it also mentions that given the outlander nature of PCs that players should avoid backstories that tie them too closely to non-Barovian settings. Instead it pushes them to more unanswered mysteries and being tied to other PCs. I like this, as I’ve heard one too often of players who expected CoS to take place in the broader Forgotten Realms or Eberron only to find that those settings’ institutions never come into play. It also goes over likely means of resurrection access in the campaign as written and how to handle character death given that the scarcity of high-level magic means that death has greater consequences. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the introduction is an alternate start; the author feels that the default hooks have various flaws (“drive the Vistani out of town” has Antiziganist overtones, Plea for Help treats level 1 PCs as famed adventurers, Creeping Fog is railroaded, Werewolves in the Mists can result in OP PCs receiving Harper equipment of silver weapons and spell scrolls). Instead, a hook is provided in the Faerunian town of Daggerford, where the PCs received word of an escaped murderer and cannibal known as Ghazlak Gorlu who has a bounty on his head. A rival group of adventurers, the Black Banners, are eager to snag the bounty and thus view the PCs as competition. They too will end up in Barovia, seemingly one step ahead of the party, but they are overconfident and will do various things one shouldn’t do when playing Curse of Strahd. The Black Banners basically act like a gaming group who decides to “murderhobo their way through the campaign.” A caravan of Vistani are fleeing Barovia and want nothing to do with Strahd’s schemes, and quickly become the scapegoat for the town’s woes as Arrigal was responsible for freeing Ghazlak from custody as part of a ploy to lure new adventurers into Barovia. The townsfolk are unaware that Vistani aren’t a monolith and find it all too easy to shift their anger to strangers from out of town. PCs can learn that another group of Vistani headed south with Ghazlak, and if they showed kindness to the innocent Vistani will be given a small token that serves as a signal to others of their kind that the party is to be trusted. This has an in-game effect too, automatically shifting the attitudes of non-evil Vistani one step up when displayed. The PCs have opportunities to find out more about Ghazlak’s escape and the surrounding environment, which has various hooks of people mysteriously disappearing due to the Mists of Barovia. After some encounters with gnolls fleeing the Mists and packs of wolves scavenging the body of one of the missing townsfolk, the PCs will be claimed by the Mists and reach 2nd level. The designer notes explain the various decisions of this new hook: the Black Banners serve as an object lesson and rivals to contrast the party’s actions, an opportunity to learn more about the Vistani on non-hostile terms, the opportunity to enter Barovia via a gradual buildup of “something’s not right” without feeling tricked out of nowhere. As for Ghazlak Gorlu, he’s not from Barovia nor an intentional servant of Strahd. He’s just a garden-variety depraved killer who upon fleeing into the Domains of Dread will serve as another (early to midgame) threat for the PCs to prove their heroism.  The Land of Barovia outlines the domain in broad terms. First off, the Gazetteer recommends enlarging the map so that 1 hex equals 1 mile (rather than ¼ mile). This way, travel between areas is longer and it doesn’t feel like the PCs can cross most of the land before the sun goes down. For certain places such as the Amber Temple, it forces the PCs to make camp outside the larger population centers, imposing the risky choice of forced marches to travel quicker at risk of reduced passive Perception and exhaustion. It also recommends using a variant natural healing rule where PCs don’t regain hit points at the end of a long rest unless they rest in town or a safe area, giving further incentive for PCs to plan out their trips. We also get new encounters to spice things up, such as a band of skeletal outlaw raiders who gradually increase their strength as the PCs level. By level 8 the party has a chance at fighting their leader, Red Lukas, and make the Old Svalich Road safer to travel from then on out. The next big portion of this section details the people of Barovia. Some of it touches upon existing material, but other things are expanded further. For example, the influx of outlanders means that there’s quite a number of foreign coins in circulation in Barovia’s economy. The calendar system is lunar due to needing to track lycanthrope appearances, and thus every month has some lunar-themed name: first month is Cold Moon, sixth month is Summer Moon, ninth month is Harvest Moon, etc). Due to the fear of vampires, it is traditional when having visitors over to hold the door open and see if they walk in unprompted once they arrive. The Gazetteer alters the historical events somewhat to make Strahd’s conquest of the valley to be one masked as liberation via wars against humanoid monsters (orcs, goblins, etc) known as the “beastmen.” Naturally there are in-game texts (also available as new PDF handouts) that expand on the history. The perpetual dusk/night cycle of Barovia, along with roving monsters, means that alternative food sources are used in spite of the valley’s fertile nature. Root vegetables which don’t need much sunlight are common, such as leeks and carrots, and mushrooms are a vital part of the Barovian diet. Flax is a staple crop most farmland is dedicated towards. Cows and sheep require too much land and thus make them easy targets for wolves and monsters, so goats, pigs, chickens, and hares are the primary domestic livestock. Times are still lean, so most meat comes from hunting, and many have taken to hunting wolves due to both them and humans having depleted most of the small game. Finally, the wines of Barovia have had their names changed (“du le stomp is terrible French,” “Red Dragon Crush sounds like something you buy out of a vending machine”) to names such as purpuric (grapemash), balorosu (red dragon), sangovin (blood wine), and tsuika (a plum brandy). The Wizard of Wines doesn’t serve champagne, but instead aszu which is a sweet dessert wine made by grapes infected with noble rot. We also get monetary values for barrels of wine given how important they are to the Barovian economy, and prices have changed for the Blue Water Inn and Blood of the Vine. The latter inn is farther from the Wizard of Wines, so they charge more. Death House explains that the adventure is highly lethal, and suggests some modifications so it’s still dangerous yet doesn’t risk a TPK too easily. First off, the Durst children are changed to be just one pair rather than two with different motivations. As the book explains, “there is a difference between playing a sincere character and playing a liar, and players can usually pick up on it. Don’t lie to your players when you need them to believe you.” In this case, the house is placed on the outskirts of Barovia so it’s the first place the party will see, ideally when it’s nightfall and they are seeking shelter. The children will be scared when the PCs approach, to make it seem like less of a trap, so the hook is that they know their baby brother is in trouble and don’t know where their parents are. This can serve as a hook for PCs to be more likely to want to help them. The Gazetteer calls out MandyMod’s Fleshing Out CoS guide for expanding on the Durst family history as well as other suggestions: removing the flying broom monster if it wouldn’t fit tonally (and help conserve party resources), changing the shambling mound in the final room to a gibbering mouther for a more reasonable “boss battle,” and the shadows in the Darklords’ Shrine attack one at a time rather than all at once due to being able to easily kill low-level characters.  The Village of Barovia mentions that the area runs very well as written, given that most of the content has existed since the original 1983 module and had plenty of time to be improved. But there’s still content for this book, as it serves as a vital “first impression” to the foundations of the greater campaign. We get “at a glance” information surmising important aspects (population, industry, leader, etc) in one-sentence outlines,* and a suggestion for a slower sense of decay by altering the random encounters for the contents of random houses. This is opposed to the default adventure, where it seems like the village is on the verge of collapse where zombies and rats outnumber human residents. A good amount of space is focused on role-playing Ireena: she can be made to be more useful than a “damsel in distress” by using sidekick progression rules from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and she can serve as an in-campaign “tour guide” in explaining aspects of Barovia to the fresh-out-of-the Mists PCs. Furthermore, Ireena is understandably angry at having lost her father and is about to lose the only home she’s ever known, so instead of taking it out on the party (“they’ll see her as an ingrate”) the book mentions she should run to the village square after a suitably emotional scene. She’ll call out other villagers for not caring for Donavich in his grief, not answering the burgomaster when he called on them for aid, and even curses the name of Strahd for killing her father and stealing the sun. Not only does this show that Ireena knows who to blame, it also illuminates to the party the true stakes of getting her to a safe haven and why Ismark wants to get her out of the village. Another suggested scene is to have her go sightseeing the marching dead at night, as she loved seeing the “ghost parade” since she was little. This shows that she is more than just a woman consumed by sadness while also illuminating how Barovians can find beauty of a sort even when living in gloom. Basically, make Ireena more of a living, breathing character than an escort quest stat block. *This is repeated for Krezk and Vallaki, too! There’s some other general notes, such as having Strahd showing up at the funeral of Kolyan Indirovich in paying respects to the late burgomaster. This is a good way to introduce him to the party without combat. The last big part of the Village of Barovia section is a suggested optional encounter to better put the party in Ireena’s shoes via a flashback encounter. In this case, the players take control of Ireena, Ismark, and Kolyan as the village’s mansion is assaulted by Strahd’s monstrous minions, and Kolyan risks an ever-more-likely heart attack under certain circumstances (taking the Dash action, any round he takes damage, etc). They must fight off 3 waves of enemies during the siege, although none will target Ireena. It’s also a good opportunity to insert replacement PCs for ones who died during Death House, for they could be present during the siege and thus be tied in to escorting Ireena out of the Village of Barovia. Tser Pool Camp and the Tarokka covers another vital area of the campaign. We get some general tips on portraying the Vistani: don’t portray them as thieving drunkards or jovial performers as those are equally stereotypical, remove the fact that Madam Eva is Strahd’s half-sister as it has no impact on the campaign, reuse Stanimir’s story from the Mysterious Visitors hook from the default adventure to explain how they were granted safe passage by Strahd, and read Van Richten’s Guide to the Vistani for more in-depth notes on their culture. As for the Tarokka reading, it suggests rigging the deck if it’s your first time DMing, and to remove certain cards in that there should be results to try and avoid. For the treasure locations, the 2 of Stars should be removed as it gives the PCs one treasure immediately with no effort, while the 7 of Coins makes the party backtrack to the River Ivlis crossroads which can take a lot of time depending on the map scale. We get some recommended locations for narrative strength such as Van Richten’s Tower and Sergei’s Tomb. The Gazetteer breaks convention from other guides regarding placing treasures in Castle Ravenloft, for it helps encourage exploration of different levels and PCs may still be able to go there early via a “social phase.” This phase is later covered under the Castle Ravenloft section of the guide proper. For Strahd’s Enemy, it’s suggested that when rigging the deck to pick an ally who balances out the party’s weaknesses. Certain cards are suggested to be removed, such as Innocent (Ireena is already with them) and Marionette (both allies are weak and Pidlwick II may not be encountered late in the game if at all). The Gazetteer recommends a half-dozen allies, notably the more popular and iconic ones such as Ezmerelda d’Avenir, Kasimir Velikov, and Davian Martikov. Finally, for Strahd’s Location it mentions that the Ghost or Raven cards pose risks as the magical barrier could end up splitting the party if not outright preventing them entry. It talks about how locations can force the party to explore more of Castle Ravenloft and what fits with the tone and theme of the campaign. Fighting Strahd in Sergei’s Tomb fits in well with the gothic tones of the villain’s sins, while fighting at the Overlook is a classic “fighting the bad guy on top of a castle while lightning strikes” climactic scene.  Old Bonegrinder discusses how the hags are notoriously difficult to fight, and can end up swinging one way or another in a near-party wipe or the PCs coming back at a time where they’re powerful enough to easily dispatch the hags. A good amount of text covers their ethereal nature and dream-haunting ability, and how to best make use of that and plan for them as a GM. Several tactics for confounding the hags are given, along with ways the hags can adapt to them (Leomund’s TIny Hut, the antimagic field of Van Richten’s Tower, St. Andral’s Church when the bones are returned, using a Magic Circle spell in a Glyph of Warding and what NPCs can prepare such spells). The book even provides a detailed sidebar of how the author’s own gaming group managed to outsmart and trap the night hags in play:  Thoughts So Far: The Barovia Gazetteer has a rather unfortunate name, for it implies less DMing tips for a module and more a setting expansion to Barovia. Which is a shame, for it contains some really good advice. I’m quite fond of the details for farming and livestock, as this is one of the most vital aspects of worldbuilding in that it provides plausible explanations for how people trapped in a perpetually dusky, monster-filled land would adapt to survive. I also like the addition of more “out of world” characters to Barovia such as Ghazlak and the Black Banners, showing that the Mists haven’t just claimed the PCs. The restructuring of Death House and applying Sidekick rules to Ireena (along with a sample progression in the rear appendix) are kind of obvious in hindsight, but really great suggestions for new DMs who may inadvertently get themselves tripped up by unexpected lethality in the module. Join us next time as we cover the Town of Vallaki, the fate of the Black Banners, and Rudolf Van Richten’s hate crimes!
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Oct 20, 2022 23:43
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Redeeming Nualia seems to be a common enough occurrence among groups that play this module that it's plainly obvious the writers' gross treatment of her as a character is way off the mark.
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Oct 20, 2022 23:44
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Runa posted:Redeeming Nualia seems to be a common enough occurrence among groups that play this module that it's plainly obvious the writers' gross treatment of her as a character is way off the mark. Wasn't RotR written back in the 90s?
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Oct 21, 2022 00:00
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Everyone posted:Wasn't RotR written back in the 90s? First book came out 2007 going by the PF wiki, so no.
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Oct 21, 2022 00:01
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Everyone posted:Wasn't RotR written back in the 90s? No, 2007.
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Oct 21, 2022 00:01
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Everyone posted:Is this stuff a thing in all the Erection of the Runelords campaign? It surfaces occasionally throughout the Adventure Paths, particularly the earlier ones. The more recent ones (say, PF2e on, at least) are generally pretty good in that regard. The chapter author is the big determining factor; the editors either don't have much say or don't care. Early on it's Mona and that bunch doing things, so it's "edgy" both because they're douches and because they were using that to distance themselves from the Dragon era stuff imo.
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Oct 21, 2022 01:02
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Cooked Auto posted:First book came out 2007 going by the PF wiki, so no. senrath posted:No, 2007. Ah well, so much for the "they were primitive screwheads who were examples of their ancient, poorly enlightened time" defense.
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Oct 21, 2022 04:49
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GreenMetalSun posted:(her boyfriend draws phonographic art of her as a succubus and you find his journal). Boy, would he be out for a treat once Lamanshu turns her into a Chaos Spawn. By the way, I liked the Red City write up, seems like you could run it in Hams - Kislev is large and full of princes doing whatever, so having a town cursed with CGI Artist For A Major Movie Studio syndrome wouldn't be too crazy.
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Oct 21, 2022 17:17
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The Barovia Gazetteer, Part 2  The Town of Vallaki is a long entry, and given the settlement’s prominence in Barovian politics this is hardly surprising. Instead of having 25% of the houses containing swarms of rats, the Gazetteer decided to make the town virtually at full capacity due to rural refugees fleeing the more dangerous wilds. This allows for a different sense of desperation as their resources are stretched to their limits. We get more detail on Vallaki being separated into geographic wards which cover local culture and industries along with some new notable NPC residents who can supply the characters with specific goods. Various places get expanded on, such as St. Andral’s Church getting a proper map, or how the Martikov children at the Blue Water Inn have a knack for finding secrets around town and can tip the PCs off to odd news of the day. When it comes to the Vallakoviches, Victor gets greatly expanded on, particularly if he’s a fated ally. The book provides for different interpretations of the character, from being merely a sullen and bitter teenager to outright evil. One such suggestion involves him not being guilty of Stella Wachter going insane; that was Lady Wachter who wiped her daughter’s own memory but blamed Victor to further drive a wedge between the two families. Additionally Strahd’s teleportation brazier is moved out of the coffin maker’s shop to the Wachterhaus instead, due to making more tactical sense given their family’s alliance with the Count. Just as importantly, we get a series of Special Events for Vallaki, including new ones and altered ones. They include the cannibal Ghazlak hiding out in the town, the Black Banners being the vampire spawn in the coffin maker's shop after Strahd killed them when they went directly to Castle Ravenloft. The fight against the Black Banners is a chase scene where the PCs must use the bones to reconsecrate the church while the vampire spawn attack the complex.* We also get alternative ways of resolving the tensions with the Baron during the Festival of the Blazing Sun, expanded clue-finding details for the quests involving tracking down the bones of St. Andral and the missing Vistani girl Arabelle, and how Vallaki’s politics change if the Wachters take over. In the case of the PCs causing political upheaval, the section also explains how Victor Vallakovich may go into hiding, and how Vallaki’s new government may develop if the Wachters are dethroned with a variety of options. One of which includes Ireena becoming the burgomaster! *A good excuse to have Rudolph Van Richten appear to aid the party. We have one last section, Vallaki in Flames, that serves as a late-game event where Strahd escalates things by having a monstrous horde assault the town in an event that will go down in Barovian History as the Night of Flames. All in all, a lot of additional details to bulk up Vallaki in making it a happening place PCs can find new stuff with on regular revists. The Wizard of Wines acknowledges that hordes of blights aren’t going to be a real threat to a 5th level party, so several suggestions are made to up the ante. For instance, heavy rain can grant the blights resistance to fire when outside, the Martikovs beg the PCs not to set fire inside the winery as that will destroy their livelihood, swapping out the druid spells with more combat and terrain control ones, having a few dozen needle blights engage in long-range attacks at the party as they cross the vineyards on the way to the winery, and one druid in the wine cellar using thunderwave to create an explosion of glass shards as an AoE attack. Alterations on special events include the druids poisoning the wine (delivering the wine without dealing with the poison will cause Barovians to blame the Martikovs for the inevitable deaths) and making the suggestion that the journey to Yester Hill is provided before the wine delivery so the PCs don’t miss the option to defend the winery from Wintersplinter. Yester Hill doesn’t have as much detail besides suggesting to scale down the map to 30 feet per square as the sheer size of the map ordinarily makes tactical movement a slog. Suggestions are made to fill the woods around with more overtly supernatural and corrupted animals reflecting the druid’s influence, such as perytons and manticores. The Gazetteer also suggests changing around the encounter order so that the Gulthias tree is encountered and fought before the druid circle, and makes Wintersplinter’s appearance a satisfying climactic finale. An alternate system for the Blood Spear of Kavan is provided, referencing Matt Mercer’s Corruption rules. Basically, the spear’s enhancement bonus and save DC improves with the wielder’s Corruption, which increases every time they kill a creature with the weapon and fail a Wisdom save.  The Village of Krezk heavily focuses on expanding and reworking the Abbot and the inhabitants. The insane mongrelfolk have problematic implications, both with the monsters being deformed from race-mixing and treating mental illness as akin to a freak show spectacle. Instead, the Abbot has miraculous healing powers, but his magic causes permanent deformations in the subjects. As they will be rejected by wider society, they more or less end up permanent residents of the Abbey, which gives the Abbot more power over them. By far the biggest change is the addition of a False Hydra, an aberration located beneath the Abbey in a cave (and a new map to boot) where its songs can cause people to forget the existence of itself as well as others. Krezk has a disturbing amount of inconsistent memories the PCs can pick up on which is the result of residents being killed by the Abbot or Hydra. The module suggests for an unconventional change of pace that Ireena ends up kidnapped by the Abbot, and the PCs have reduced resources as a result of a fight they no longer remember. Going through the Abbey, they can put clues together that will lead them to the truth. Note: I should note that the hydra idea was borrowed from the Goblin Punch blog, but when I clicked the link Malwarebytes threw up a Trojan warning and blocked the page. I did mention this on the product page on DM’s Guild, but also figured to repeat it in this review as a public service. The Werewolf Den is a rather out of the way location many gaming groups will miss. The Gazetteer notes that most PCs will be reluctant to aid either werewolf that is gunning for leadership. So in an alternate event, Zuleika Toranescu will feign surrender, asking the PCs to kill Kiril when he returns. She hopes that the PCs can do their dirty work for her, but as transporting a bunch of children is easier said than done this creates a weakness for the party: if they stay and plot in the caves, the werewolves can wait them out as provisions run low. If the party escapes into the woods with the captured children, Kiril and his pack will take advantage of guerilla tactics. The book suggests making this a skill challenge where degrees of failure can impose additional complications when combat starts. Lucky PCs may make it to the walls of Krezk where there’s no forest cover for the werewolves, and archer guards can attack the regular wolves. While failure may place the werewolves in advantageous ambush positions in the middle of the forest. We also get additional explanations on werewolves in Barovia and ways of running lycanthropy. As something for PCs, damage immunity is considered overpowered and instead suggests regeneration that doesn’t protect against silver weapons and spells, along with infected characters not gaining long rests during certain nights (full moon or every night depending on how merciful the DM feels). As for curing lycanthropy, a more complicated procedure is provided for those who feel that magical healing is too easy: a medically-applied dose of wolfsbane to cleanse the body, followed by a remove curse spell to cleanse the soul, along with lists of NPCs who are capable of doing this in the module. Van Richten’s Tower goes into detail not just about the location, but also about ways to handle Van Richten’s backstory and his anti-Vistani sentiments. This section discusses ways to tip the PCs off to visiting the tower, such as an invitation by Van Richten himself or a mention by an ally such as the Martikovs if the characters wish to seek out a monster hunter. As for Ezmerelda’s exploding wagon, the book highly suggests finding ways to explode it, but should use the average damage rather than random as it may very easily instantly kill a character or three. As for the tower puzzle, it mentions that the book’s description is ambiguous and how in online games this may cause additional complications such as mirrored video feeds. The book also suggests ways to spice up the fights in the Special Events involving vampires or werewolves laying siege to the building. For example, the werewolves may take advantage of the tower’s antimagic field by moving inside the structure to fight, the PCs can use the animated armor or clay golems to attack the enemies, Ezmerelda can arrive to the party’s aid if they’re in dire straits, and how the door trap can be triggered to collapse enemies inside the tower. The second half of this section goes over Rudolph Van Richten and his portrayal, namely how his plans to use a tiger to slaughter the Vistani in Vallaki which makes his role in the story rather villainous: quote:As written in Curse of Strahd, Rudolph van Richten is also a racist. There is no denying it; he’s trained a tiger to attack the Vistani on sight, and he murdered a Vistana just to get directions to Barovia, where he plans to kill more Vistani. Van Richten has become one of the monsters he battles, and that creates a horrible tension between how the characters are inclined to view him—how the players are inclined to view him—and how he behaves in the game.  While acknowledging that many DMs may not want to have a supposedly Lawful Good character and the mascot of Ravenloft go on a one-man, one-tiger hate crime, the book explains ways to narratively handle things if they do go that route. Namely, Van Richten will attempt to attack and kill the camp’s leadership, as well as the child Arabelle for her precognitive powers that will make her the next raunie (Vistani matriarchal leader) due to the clan’s alliance with Strahd. While Van Richten is privately disgusted with himself, he views it as a necessary evil, and if need be he’ll try to trick the party into going along with the plan either directly or by leaking information to the Martikovs. In such a case, he intends to convince them he only wishes to target the individual Vistani who are directly serving Strahd. Van Richten will use himself as bait bait to lure out Arrigal, using alchemist’s fire in a circus tent rigged to explode. Along with that and setting the tiger loose, this will occupy much of the Vistani and the dusk elves as he goes to kill Arabelle. But beyond the PCs, Ezmerelda can be a wild card due to her conflicted loyalties and knowledge of what Van Richten plans to do if rescued during the rampage. It’s also possible she may die in the alchemist’s fire trap, thus causing the famed monster hunter’s curse to inadvertently claim one of his few remaining allies. There are many ways this can go down, but a possible arc of Van Richten’s redemption may be that he hesitates upon seeing Arabelle, confronted with the enormity of what he set out to do. Additionally, his curse can be permanently lifted with the help of Arabelle: as Ezmerelda is the last survivor of the clan that laid the curse, only she can perform the Blood Rite. She never told Van Richten this because he never told her about the curse, for he’d have to explain how he got it in the first place. The Rite is a complicated magical procedure that transports Van Richten, Ezmerelda, and the PCs into an illusory psychic dreamscape operating on the nightmare logic of Van Richten’s past. Taking place in the camp of the Radanavich clan on the night Van Richten slaughtered them, the party, the Vistani, and the monster hunters must wade off waves of undead. The win conditions are if the party can save a child Ezmerelda from being killed. Yes, the book breaks convention with the 2020 retcon, in making the people who kidnapped Van Richten’s son Vistani. The Gazetteer notes that the retcon resulted in contradictory versions between Ezmerelda’s backstory and Van Richten’s journal. While the stereotype of kidnapping children is one that’s been use to justify violence against Romani people in the real world, it has unforeseen complications in making Ezmerelda (the most notable and heroic Vistani in the module) no longer Vistani by birth. It also has the complications of cutting out why Van Richten is willing to go to such dire lengths against the Vistani, which still exist in the 2020 version. The Gazetteer suggests that the Radanavich clan were expelled from Vistani society for their crimes as one possibility. The new version of the journal changes some things around, like the monster hunter not making a deal with Azalin, and that Ezmerelda didn’t lose her leg to a werewolf but instead inadvertently to Van Richten’s own recklessness. Argynvostholt mentions that its remote location means that most parties may not visit barring inherent wanderlust or a strong motivation. Sir Godfrey is warned against as an unbalanced ally who can take the spotlight from the PCs, and the Sunsword or Holy Symbol of Ravenkind are ideal treasures for this area. The book suggests that another hook may be an expanded version of the Arrigal’s Hunt special event, where Ezmerelda is being chased by the notorious assassin and several dusk elves. This turns the dungeon crawl into a more fast-paced multi-room fight, and it’s also suggested that Arrigal may be pursuing her for more than a stolen horse. Such as her refusal to recognize his leadership of the clan or being caught up in the feud between her mentor and the Vistani. Modifications are made to existing rooms and encounters in Argynvostholt in line with these events. As for lighting the beacon, the book mentions that the means of finding out how to light it rests on a single counter-intuitive clue of repairing a torn painting, so it suggests making multiple clues to lead them to the study along with a link to Justin Alexander’s Three Clue Rule blog post. The Ruins of Berez notes that this is a highly lethal area. As merely retrieving one of the Wizards of Wines gems may not be enough incentive on its own, the book suggests making it so that the Martikovs urgently ask the PCs for help in rescuing their children who were taken captive by Baba Lysaga. Additionally, placing the skull of Argynvost here in place of the hill giant’s skull is also recommended if a Tarokka treasure is in Argynvostholt. That way, this ties two out of the way locations together. Like Yester Hill, the grid-based map should be scaled down to 30 feet per square rather than 100; the book notes that the burgomaster’s mansion is bigger than Castle Ravenloft by RAW. Additionally, there’s advice on what kinds of hostile wildlife can be encountered on the way to Berez in line with its swampy nature, along with an expanded backstory and role for Muriel the wereraven. In noting she doesn’t share the same last name as the other Keepers while having a rather non-Barovian name, the Gazetteer gave her a proper backstory. Additionally, while the book applauds Curse of Strahd for introducing the first openly gay characters in a 5th Edition product, the authors saw an opportunity to add more LGBT diversity. The Gazetteer makes Muriel a transgender woman from the Forgotten Realms. She saw many of her adventuring companions die on an ill-fated expedition into Barovia in fighting the druids of Yester Hill. The Mariktovs found her dying, and gave her lycanthropy to save her life. As Muriel had not come out of the closet yet, her new life in Barovia allowed her to adopt her current name as part of becoming who she truly is. In fact, one of her old adventuring partners has settled down in Vallaki as a blacksmith, but she is too afraid how he’ll react if they meet again; if they do, he’ll be delighted to know that she’s safe and well. Muriel can tell the PCs how to reconsecrate the circle of standing stones to turn into a safe haven by putting the spirit of Marina Lurich to rest, who persists as an undead known as a drowned maiden. Reconsecrating the standing stone will break Baba Lysaga’s connection to the land and depower her of her magical protections. We also have info on handling the fight with Baba Lysaga, such as allowing Treebane (magic axe obtained in Yester Hill) to do its additional damage to her Creeping Hut due to that object being made out of wood, along with captured wereravens calling out warnings from their cages to the PCs. Merciful DMs wishing to avoid a TPK may make it so that Baba Lysaga polymorphs the PCs into goats to be penned for a future sacrifice. Thoughts So Far: The expansion of Vallaki is particularly welcome, especially regarding the revamping of the vampire spawn attack as well as going into detail on its political changes if the PCs end up causing the exile and/or deaths of the prominent families. Changing the Abbot’s patients to avoid unfortunate racist and ableist implications is similarly welcome, and it also further villainizes the Abbot and his twisted savior complex. The False Hydra and the “fight they don’t remember” is a cool idea, although as it takes away PC autonomy (“my character has a journal they record everything in!”) it requires a skilled DM to pull off well. I don’t feel that making lycanthropy harder to cure is such a great idea given the brevity of specialized healers in the campaign. PCs who have a character that can cast Remove Curse are making the conscious decision to be more self-reliant without having to find a helpful NPC. While I can understand wanting to make sense of a contradictory backstory for Esmerelda and Van Richten, going back to the “actually the people who kidnapped his son were Vistani” runs up a bit against the earlier advice about avoiding stereotypes. A better solution would’ve been to make up a new backstory for Van Richten’s curse, such as from a creature that features in the module like Baba Lysaga. He can still decide to attack the Vistani in linking them with Strahd, which can be reflected as a man hardened by decades of violence deciding that the unthinkable must be done to defeat the overwhelming evil of Strahd. Join us next time as we cover the rest of this product, from the two big dungeons to alternate endings for Curse of Strahd!
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Oct 21, 2022 20:59
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I'm going to be controversial and say that not everyone who puts the sex stuff in their games is *necessarily* doing so because they're into it- rather, I think it's a kind of nerdery that thinks "Well this is a logical consequence of (thing that has been in the setting)" as well as "sex and reproduction are major parts of normal life and affect people's decisions and social norms so therefore..." etc. and just not understand where to draw a veil as it were. Like obviously there ARE game designers who do this because they're horny for this specific thing they're doing, but we've all known that guy who just doesn't know when to shut up about certain subjects in polite company. I honestly think some percentage of these folks, however small, are the guy from the ITYSL sketch about the ghost tour.
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Oct 21, 2022 21:27
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Maxwell Lord posted:I'm going to be controversial and say that not everyone who puts the sex stuff in their games is *necessarily* doing so because they're into it- rather, I think it's a kind of nerdery that thinks "Well this is a logical consequence of (thing that has been in the setting)" as well as "sex and reproduction are major parts of normal life and affect people's decisions and social norms so therefore..." etc. and just not understand where to draw a veil as it were. I've fumbled across this line a time or three while running and playing games, feeling like I "had to" address a gross something as a logical consequence of a situation when I should've just shut up about twenty seconds sooner, especially since I wasn't going to feature that gross something anyway. So I do agree with you that this mistake exists from this line of "logical consequence" thinking. Specifically choosing a goddess of monster-birth for this bit, in this setting they were just then creating so everything was still maximally flexible, and putting the character in horny armor that tries to merge monster-goddess religious scarring (that happens to look like a viciously botched C-section) with sex appeal, with a lover who will emphasize further in his notes and drawings how totally hot she is... makes it feel a lot less like a fumble of that sort. I fully agree you've got a point, but I don't think Runelords in particular is it.
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Oct 21, 2022 23:01
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Maxwell Lord posted:I'm going to be controversial and say that not everyone who puts the sex stuff in their games is *necessarily* doing so because they're into it- rather, I think it's a kind of nerdery that thinks "Well this is a logical consequence of (thing that has been in the setting)" as well as "sex and reproduction are major parts of normal life and affect people's decisions and social norms so therefore..." etc. and just not understand where to draw a veil as it were. I think that's true, but also, I don't think that's the root problem. In theory if someone's really interested in something and puts it in all their works but it's treated well and doesn't detract much from the work, I don't necessarily think it's a deal-breaker if they're putting it in partially because it turns them on, any more than I think it's bad if someone puts a well-done romance plot in all their works because they enjoy that kind of thing. It might impact my interest in engaging with it, but that's true of any content. The issue here is that regardless of whether this turned someone on, it's going to turn a lot of people off in a way that's not ideal for a widely-targeted work like this, and specifically a lot of the people who it's going to drive away are people who already are frequently not welcomed in nerd spaces. It's further compounded by the deliberate choice to make the character a straightforward villain - it speaks to what the authors believe about how the players will react to this situation and a disconnect between them and I over what we want out of RPGs like this. I care a lot more about both of those things than whether someone thought this character was hot or not.
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Oct 22, 2022 01:27
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I'll also say this character isn't the only example of this - as soon as the goblins start hating and killing dogs I'm personally never going to find them comic relief or anything like that. But you're never going to get the exact same reaction from everyone about things like that, so you have to make some choices, and I think you're more likely to have people who like the goblins than who like the whole Nualia situation, and that you're not risking looking like a misogynist, so it's a much lesser issue.
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Oct 22, 2022 01:31
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Libertad! posted:If you want a good collection of classic domains revamped for 5e, Van Richten's Encyclopedia of Darklords & Domains is a 2 volume series that collects every pre-5e domain there is. It even takes domains that were detailed solely in novels or appeared just for one adventure, that's how comprehensive they are! I saw Kharkov's name in the preview, and I had to buy to find out just how faithful they were to the source for this particular Darklord... Van Ricten's Encyclopedia of Darklords and Domains posted:Kharkov was born a panther in Toril.  Just...god bless the devoted fan of Ravenloft that brought this bit of nonsense all the way to 5th edition. SirPhoebos fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Oct 22, 2022 |
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Oct 22, 2022 16:28
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Ultiville posted:I'll also say this character isn't the only example of this - as soon as the goblins start hating and killing dogs I'm personally never going to find them comic relief or anything like that. But you're never going to get the exact same reaction from everyone about things like that, so you have to make some choices, and I think you're more likely to have people who like the goblins than who like the whole Nualia situation, and that you're not risking looking like a misogynist, so it's a much lesser issue. https://youtu.be/Z3eNE4Gk-tA?t=93
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Oct 22, 2022 17:22
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Infinity RPG: Yu Jing Seeing The Word Nipponese This Much Is Weird The Yu Jing mistreatment of the Japanese produced resistance even before Great Japan's rebellion, most notably from the Tatenokai, who remain a problem, and the Kempeitai, who have become Great Japan's spy agency. The Tatenokai are a covert terrorist group that have waged a long and bloody guerrilla war on Yu Jing, mostly targeting ethnically Chinese citizens in protest of Japan's annexation. It was their attacks that most directly led to the declaration of ethnic Japanese as second-class citizens and many crackdowns on Maya access, rights to protest and similar were responses to Tatenokai attacks. These crackdowns, of course, fed the anger that led to the Uprising. What had once been the Japanese Sectorial Army for Yu Jing has now transferred its strong military traditions to the Nipponese Army, ranging from its Keisotsu Butai shock troopers and Aragato Senkenbutai combat bikers to the armored, samurai-esque Haramaki Zensenbutai heavy infantry. Because of course the Japanese have space samurai, what do you expect at this point? They had served Yu Jing well and ably, hoping to earn their people some respite, but when it became clear that this would never come, they joined the Uprising, and morale among the Nipponese Army is at an all-time high following Great Japan's declaration of independence. It is and has always been a wholly voluntary force, even before it left Yu Jing. The JSA never engaged in conscription, but military enlistment was a sign of status and cause for social acclaim, with even the lowest ranking soldiers considered to be higher class than the most wealthy salaryman. Recruitment by the Nipponese Army is considered to be on par with getting into a top-rank university, and applicants must pass rigorous physical and academic tests to be accepted, with the army focusing on elite training rather than large units. Nipponese Army testing is referred to as meiyo sheiken, or honor tests, and begin with a cultural test to determine the applicant's understanding of Japanese military traditions and cultural beliefs...and also bushido. Because holy poo poo this loving faction book. I do not like this! This is Orientalist as hell! Stop it! Applicants also have their family history examined to see if they're related to criminals or traitors, which would bar their application from being considered. If they pass this first set of exams, they move on to the academic testing under simulated stressful conditions, such as having to do a math test while a holographic battle is raging around the applicants, complete with loud shouting, commands and even manufactured scents of the battlefield. It is not especially rare for applicants to fail these tests due to disorientation or even nausea from the confusion and sensory overload. Finally, successful applicants will undergo a three-day trip to test their physical abilities. Before Japan broke away from Yu Jing, this was done on the Onibutai peninsula on Shentang, but now is performed at various locations in Great Japanese territory, most notably the island of Yakushima on Earth. Applicants must pass strict physical tests of their endurance, stamina, combat skill and mental fortitude. They are deprived of both food and sleep for these tests in order to determine their ability to adapt and learn under new and shifting circumstances, to limit the benefits of formal training in martial arts or survival skills compared to raw creativity. Those that manage to pass these trials are accepted as recruits. Yu Jing's generals tended to view the JSA with both contempt and some admiration, and still do. The admiration is mostly for the tenacity of the Japanese forces and their mix of combat excellence and willingness to die. This made them a massive asset in the field, but they were seen as a liability outside of conflict zones, given the JSA's strong national identity and, well, loyalties to their own people over Yu Jing. This meant the JSA was often used as front line troops who were treated as wholly expendable, which really just made the rebelliousness worse, especially because it meant the veterans who returned were heroes to their people and held a lot of influence in Japanese society. It also forged the JSA into a highly loyal force, bonded by their grueling circumstances and reliance on each other to survive. Since becoming independent, the Nipponese Army has retained the same tactics that they used as the JSA, despite the unsustainable casualty rates. They're proud of their work, after all...but it is quickly becoming clear to those outside the Army that there will need to be a massive shift in combat doctrine if they want to maintain the Army's existence. Japan is also home to its own organized criminals. The Yakuza maintained independence from the Yu Jing Triads, and Great Japan has tacitly given its approval to the Yakuza. They are allowed to arm themselves and perform various criminal activities out of a mix of cultural pride and reverance for their aid in the Uprising and, to a lesser degree, outright bribery and graft. The Yakuza were targeted by Yu Jing to be eliminated, possibly as a means of gaining influence over the Triads, and Yakuza members who have attempted to flee Shentang since the Uprising often disappear without trace. The modern Yakuza leadership operate out of Earth now, and specifically Tokyo. They are heavily involved in efforts to smuggle Japanese citizens out of Shentang, which is one of the other reasons Great Japan tolerates so much of their crime, and they are also serving as arms dealers to the Tatenokai and using what few Yakuza remain in Kuraimori to gather intel for the government of Great Japan. However, it is clear that they have profit motive as their main concern, and no one's really sure when refugee smuggling and arms trafficking will stop being a profitable effort. Once that happens, it is likely the Yakuza will unceremoniously stop supporting Great Japan's efforts in Kuraimori. Yu Jing entertainment often features the Yakuza cast into the role of villainous criminal scum, and it's a pop culture archetype that's only grown stronger since the Uprising. In most Yu Jing-controlled regions, they have a reputation on par with terrorists, feared and hated as dangers to everyone. However, in Great Japan, they are widely accepted as simply part of the culture. This is clearest in the intermixture between the Bosozoku biker gangs and the Aragato Senkenbutai combat bikers. Bosozoku bikers were relatively common in Kuraimori and are now common in Great Japan as a whole, thrill-seekers and hardcore street criminals backed by various Yakuza groups for use as muscle. The government rarely interferes with them, as they have traditionally recruited heavily from the Bosozoku to fill their armored biker regiments. Indeed, only the most dangerous and outrageous bikers make it big in the Aragoto Senkenbutai ranks, serving as advance scouts and wielders of audacious, often terrifying blitzkrieg tactics. The Yakuza operate in syndicates made from rigid hierarchies, with their own rituals of sake sharing and familial relationships, which attempt to maintain buffers of legality between various ranks, with the high-ranking saiko-komon administration kept insulated from direct involement in crime to be able to run the financial end of things. They report to the oyabun, who runs the criminal half of the organization by commanding the shateigashira and wakagashira, lieutenant ranks, who then command the kyodai, or big brothers, who command the shatei, or little brothers. Oyabun have their own ranking structure within the syndicates, with some holding higher ranks than others, but aech manages their own 'family' of criminals separately. Each syndicate is made of a number of families, each given their own territory to work in, and competition is usually between full syndicates rather than families within the same syndicate. Most Yakuza criminal activity is focused around gambling and smuggling, with the families as a whole controlling almost all illegal shipping in and out of Great Japan. Smuggling is by far the largest sector of criminal activity in the entire nation. These days, membership is also rarely hidden. Failures or breaches of Yakuza rules are punished by the severing of joints of the fingers, and now that Great Japan is independent, these wounds are rarely concealed with prosthetics or gloves, as they were under Yu Jing's rule. The other major criminals of Great Japan are, uh. The...the ninja clans. Yes, really. Ninja had stopped existing after the Meiji Restoration, to be sure, but the traditions of the ninja were resurrected when Japan was annexed by Yu Jing, as part of competition against the Chinese. The hostilities between the Japanese and Chinese under Yu Jing rule got pretty hot, and a lot of Japanese leaders turned to hiring spies and political assassins, which led to there being ninjas to fill that role. Since Great Japan's secession, the clans of ninja have largely split into two groups - those loyal to the Emperor of Japan and those loyal to the dollar. The three main clans are the Fukuro, Kosetsu and Onishi, plus many minor clans beneath them. Originally, they operated through legitimate business fronts, with the ninjas themselves able to be hired through a contact person, the Oniwaban. These three clans left with Great Japan, and now the rest of Yu Jing must make do with the minor clans rising to fill the gap left behind. They use similar methods, but have fewer resources and fewer skilled ninjas. They have to take whatever work they can get, without being able to rely on folks like the Oniwaban to hand-pick contracts for them. Most of the minor clans are in organizational chaos, but they have great opportunities to hit it big without the big three clans breathing down their necks any more. The Fukuro are officially Fukuro Security, a small security firm now operating out of Tokyo. They are hired to defend research institutions and tech designers, and their focus is on use of cutting edge technology to make each agent a deadly weapon. Fukuro ninjas are frequently hackers more than street fighters, using sabotage, trickery and information warfare to find their targets and steal information. They prefer not to engage in physical violence if at all possible, acting in the physical world only when truly necessary. This is very much not true of their competitors, Tencho Investment Services. Officially, Tencho is an investment firm managing money for the upper middle class and small corporations, now relocated to Kaseitochi. They certainly have plenty of corporate ties, and they wield social and financial power like a weapon for their masters, the Kosetsu clan of ninjas. Kosetsu ninjas specialize in kidnapping, theft, corporate espionage and interrogation, though most of the employees of Tencho never realize they're pawns of a ninja clan. The ninjas prefer it that way, making heavy use of cutouts and unwitting agents. Only in the final moments of an operation or in the moment of a kill do they come out in the open, revealing themselves and striking with terrifying speed. The Onishi operate through Rantan Services, a temp and manpower agency in Koritawa. They provide labor and temp management to industrial concerns and warehouses, and they are easily the most overt of the big three clans. Onishi ninjas are not afraid of direct combat, and often begin life as, well, industrial workers for Rantan before their physical power gets the attention of the higher ups. While not all such recruits become actual ninjas, they do see frequent use as muscle for distraction tactics or secondary assaults, allowing the actual operative to strike from behind enemy lines or attack from the flank. The Onishi specialise in physical sabotage, riot instigation and explosives, so their work is rarely especially subtle to begin with. Within Yu Jing, several clans have made a name for themselves in the absence of the three loyalists. The Koga Group are the front for the Kurokawa clan of ninjas, operating as the business managing several traditionalist bath houses throughout Tomari. Clients meet with their handler in the saunas, typically a young man or woman with a black flower tattoo. The Kurokawa specialize in extractions, and their agents are infamously difficult to capture or even notice. Most are expert hackers and focus on leaving no evidence of their activities, which makes them popular with clients that require utmost discretion. They're far more traditional than Sakuramochi's Sanada Outcomes, though. This private investigation firm is the front of the Miyoshi clan, a highly unorthodox group of assassins, saboteurs and information control agents. They have the most widespread and deep information network of the Yu Jing clans, and their skill at intricate deceptions exceeds even some of the Japanese-loyal ninja clans. They are experts in extortion, bribery and blackmail, making them very useful as hired puppetmasters, and they are willing to use any method at all to get the job done, even torture. Last up we have Kunai Solutions. Yes, really. This a small security business in Kume, serving as the public front of the Takemura clan. The Takemura ninjas are snipers first and foremost, eliminating targets with precision bullets in whatever setting the client requires. They're equally at home with public, messy kills and quiet, unnoticed ones. They view marksmanship as a form of art, trying to maximize the effect of each bullet in achieving the client's goal. Other ninjas often consider them a joke for their overreliance on guns, but most also recognize that trying to take on the Takemuras in combat is a fool's errand. Next time: Shentang, The Planet
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Oct 22, 2022 20:09
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