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mellonbread posted:I didn't know there was a 2e scenario pack with the same name. One Shots was a 1e scenario pack, which I think was the very first supplement for UA. It included five adventures: * Jailbreak which is a PvP convention one-shot in which a group of convicts holding hostages attempt to take refuge in the home of an elderly mechanomancer with history. Yes, I did say PvP - all those roles are PCs. * Strange Days in which the PCs play an investigation team sent by Alex Abel to investigate a bizarre rain of barbecued fish in a village which ends up as a sandboxy McGuffin contest. * Joy and Sorrow in which the PCs are pulled into a bizarre ritual involving two supernatural entities. This was I believe retconned by Statosphere into being a room of the House of Renunciation. * Fly to Heaven in which a renegade Cliomancer fabricates an identity as "Apu al Sayid" and attempts to suicide-hijack a plane in order to ascend as The Terrorist. Of course, the PCs aren't what he's expecting, including one who is an Avatar of The Mother. Know the whole "mama bear" thing? Yea, it's that. (And this book came out in 1999, so it wasn't a really horribly inappropirate thing to have in the book at the time.) * And I Feel Fine in which PCs awaken in a remote town to find that the rest of the world seems to have ended. It's essentially a multiple-murder mystery with a choice of three potential antagonists. One of the choices of playable PC is named, no kidding, Rebecca Borgstrom. I don't know if it's that Rebecca Borgstrom (ie, Jenna Moran) but the character background doesn't relate to the real person so probably not. (Again, 1999, so the only Nobilis available was the old salmon hardcover.) I think it's still available online as a scan, although the quality is very variable. It also has the odd tonal discrepancies that were common in 1e, with the OACOWA and BOHICA rolls, etc. hyphz fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Mar 21, 2023 |
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Mar 21, 2023 21:08
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UNKNOWN ARMIES 3E BOOK FOUR: EXPOSE PART 5: STATOSPHERIC SELVES PART 3 This the last post for Book Four of Unknown Armies 3e. We’ll go over some locations that have supernatural powers. CLAIMS OF THE CLERGY The Invisible Clergy are the top tier Avatars who embody the Archetypes, beings of Godlike power. There’s only one ascended Avatar for each Archetype, and the actual process of ascension is a cosmic level objective, fighting for recognition from the universe that you resemble the archetype more closely than the incumbent. When someone ascends, the location where it happens is enchanted by leftover magick power, and becomes a Claim of the Clergy. This concept appeared in Unknown Armies in the 2e module Ascension of the Magdalene, a dungeon crawl through a zone suffused with magick energy by the ascension of a legendary painter. That module had some cool content in it, but overall sucked because it was a 3.5 dungeon with Unknown Armies stats crudely stapled onto all the filler combat encounters. There aren’t a lot of Claims of the Clergy in the world. There are less than 333 Archetypes, and no one knows whether a new Claim of the Clergy spawns every time someone ascends and displaces a previous incumbent, or if a new Avatar ascending to take over the seat removes the enchantment on the previous location. The two Unknown Armies factions that know about Claims of the Clergy are the burger warriors of Mak Attax (now splintered into the various special orders successor conspiracies after the ‘03 war) and the sex cultists of the Sect of the Naked Goddess. We’ll get to why in a second. If an Avatar knows where the Claim is for their Archetype, they can make a hajj to that location and gain a handful of mechanical benefits. Meditate for five hours in your particular Archetype’s special location, and you get a handful of mechanical benefits. Your feeling of inner peace and attunement to the universe erases a failed notch from one of your stress meters, grants you a permanent 5% increase to your Avatar identity (up to a cap of 98%) and prevents you from grinding your Avatar score for one week after visiting. Each claim has special magickal properties beyond just the benefits it grants to Avatars who visit that place. The splat gives us four examples.  THE GODDESS’ BASEMENT The Goddess’ Basement is the room in Los Angeles where the Naked Goddess ascended to Godhood during a pornographic video shoot. The Naked Goddess is the most famous Avatar from Unknown Armies, along with her worshipers in the eponymous Sect of the Naked Goddess. This sex cargo cult believes that they can get supernatural powers by slavishly imitating the sex acts performed by the Goddess in pornographic videos while she was human. They’re actually correct about this, and the resulting Adept school Pornomancy is one of the iconic schools from the older editions. The Sect is still around in the present day, though further sectarianism has split them into three separate factions. The basement where the Naked Goddess ascended is in a decommissioned church, which was purchased after the ‘03 war by a trio of camwhores who knew the real money was in the real estate business. The church is in a lovely neighborhood, but they still make good money charging magick users for access to the basement. Besides Avatars of the Naked Goddess visiting to grind their identity score with the hajj mechanic, the basement has a unique supernatural property. To activate it, you get a video camera and pan from left to right while in the basement. Once you do this, you get the ability to tank the next stress check inflicted by a sex act that you would normally find distasteful or unpleasant. This is a pretty niche use case and we get a couple examples of what people do with it. There’s an unlicensed therapist who uses it to help couples with incompatible sex preference tolerate each other’s desires, and a handful of orthodox Pornomancers who use it to tank stress damage when they act out the more demanding Naked Goddess tapes for significant charges. I can see this getting used in an actual game, maybe if a character needs to do sex for quid pro quo/blackmail purposes but isn’t really into it. There are other, cheaper ways to buff stress defense though and I would expect them to come up with a different plan entirely before resorting to this. THE MERCHANT’S CHAMBER The Merchant’s Chamber is a room of the Navigator’s Club, a secret club in London that was built in 1983 on the site of an older structure. The shipping insurance firm that ran the original place (before it was destroyed in the blitz) had a fireplace that let them talk to demons, and the trio of Merchant Avatars that own the Navigator’s Club had the exclusive gaming lounge rebuilt as an exact replica of the original. You have to be well connected and aristocratic to get into the Navigator’s Club, you have to offer the Merchants who own the place a favor to use the Chamber, and you have to put a big pile of money into the fireplace to talk to a demon. It has to be enough money to hurt, which means it has to be enough money to knock you down one rank of Status - effectively giving you a hardened notch in your Isolation meter. The fireplace is special because demons summoned in it can’t escape and can’t possess you, all they can do is talk. If you’ve got magick powers that let you do other stuff with demons, like put them in bottles or drain energy from them, you can do that with the fireplace demon. Talking to demons is useful because they often know new rituals, which are difficult to find anywhere else. The demon can lie to you and otherwise put you in danger by convincing you to do dangerous poo poo. The Merchants who own the club will not let anyone who is not white, not wealthy, not male, and not a Merchant use the special fireplace. The book doesn’t say it, but the other traits are not a big impediment to someone who is a Merchant, because the Avatar of the Merchant is loving busted. We’ll dig into exactly how it works when we tackle Book Five, but for now, know that Merchant powers let you buy and sell physical and intangible traits like social status, race and gender from other people and add them to your own character sheet. If you don’t have the right combination of old money traits to get into the Navigator Club, you can just buy them from an impoverished aristocrat. Money is the least valuable thing in the world to a Merchant, a springboard to a world of trading supernatural powers, exotic organs, identity points and abstract social advantages. The three Merchants don’t get a writeup or character sheets, but the book says they’re extremely afraid of the Ordo Corpoulentis, a rival cult of wealthy cannibal fatmen from the United States. The Ordo get a writeup in the UA3 corebook, and they have their own form of ghost manipulation that they get by enslaving the remnant psyches of the people they eat. THE TAMER’S MOUNTAIN The Tamer’s Mountain is a peak in the Aksai Chin mountain range, up by the China/India border in Tibet. It’s the place where the first Kyrgyz falconeer trained a golden eagle in the year 1,000 BC. Besides giving the Tamers the hajj bonuses described earlier, the Tamer’s Mountain is used by the mountain people of this isolated region for the Tamer’s Plummet ritual. The book gives a short descriptive text by fictional UK mountaineer Frances Merrick from 1975, when she climbed up the mountain with a handful of local guides who showed her how to do the ritual. Find the special ledge, jump off, and you gain the power of flight for about thirty minutes. It works if you believe, which means anyone who jumps off gets the power but being pushed just kills you. Flying around inflicts an Unnatural shock on yourself, which means if you fail and freak out you can end up flying in a random direction and either crashing or getting stranded in mid air when the effect runs out. This is a fun one, but the utility is limited. The location is super isolated and the effect doesn’t last long enough to be useful outside the obscure mountain peak where you get it. Last claim. WARRIOR CAVERN Comanche Cave is a small gypsum cave in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma. In ancient times, all the way through to the 1870s, the Comanche used the cave to buff themselves before they went on raids. The way it works is, two people go in and fight barehanded until one of them gets killed, knocked out or grappled and submitted. Whoever wins the fistfight, regardless of what Avatar they are or if they’re even magickal at all, gets to ignore damage from the next attack that hits them. Whether it’s a thrown rock, a bullet, a knife or a hand grenade, they take zero damage. Then the protection disappears. It procs on the first attack that deals damage, so backhand slapping someone doesn’t do anything but cutting them with a razor does. It also doesn’t protect against damage that doesn’t come from attacks, so car crashes and falls are still deadly. The Warrior is an Avatar from the 3e corebook, who dedicates their life to fight for (or against) something. The cave’s power is an abbreviated version of the Warrior’s top level channel, which makes the Avatar immune to damage from anyone who opposes their cause. The only people who know about the cave now are Lance Corporal Herve Escarrá and his pals in Mak Attax. Again, technically this should be the Scottish Rite or one of the other successor conspiracies, since Mak Attax was destroyed in 2003 according to the UA3 core set. I like this cave. It’s short, straightforward and mixes interesting flavor with good mechanics. The damage mitigation could be useful for everything from an actual combat to a Green Knight style ritual exchange of lethal blows. ANALYSIS Of the four locations on display, I think the Comanche Cave is the best, with the Navigator Club in second place and the other two bringing up the rear. I understand why they included the Naked Goddess Basement, even though the use case is too niche to see much use. That’s a canonical location from previous editions where we know an Avatar ascended to the Statosphere, so when you discuss locations where people ascended it’s the logical place to start. In Ascension of the Magdalene, the ascension of the painter Carravagio as the Artist unleashed a floodtide of power that brought a bunch of dead things and inanimate objects in the surrounding area to life - probably because he was working on a painting of Mary Magdalene and Christ when he was yanked up to space. Some of the resulting creatures are cool, but there’s a lot of mindless hacking and slashing through taxidermies and anatomical specimens crawling out of jars. The idea with the Claim of the Clergy is that you can come up with your own Claims of the Clergy for the other Avatar Channels in the book, or from Unknown Armies generally. The obvious pull is a Claim for the Avatar of the Mother, at the prehistoric cult site in Malta where they found all those MILF statues. A roadhouse where True King Dion Isaacs held bloodrites with his biker gang, the sauna where a drunken Savonian sweated herself into Godhood as the Shaman… Of course the challenge is coming up with special buffs for all these locations to apply to pilgrims. WRAPUP Look at that, we got through the book! Everything after the Claim of the Clergy is media reviews and Greg Stolze’s bumper fiction, which we aren’t reviewing today. I might review GODWALKER another time, since I know some people are interested in RPG tie-in novels. This was fun for me because I had not actually read every entry in this book cover to cover until now, and I had misconceptions about the entries that I did finish. Let’s do a quick ranking of what we covered. mellonbread’s ultimate Unknown Armies 3e Book Four: Expose Tier List posted:Invisible Clergy Tier hyphz posted:* Joy and Sorrow in which the PCs are pulled into a bizarre ritual involving two supernatural entities. This was I believe retconned by Statosphere into being a room of the House of Renunciation. mellonbread fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Mar 21, 2023 |
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Mar 21, 2023 22:59
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Merchant Avatars are and always will be the most powerful thing in UA.
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Mar 21, 2023 23:10
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mellonbread posted:Joy and Sorrow appear in the 3e scenario Bring Me the Head and the presentation there makes it seem like the reader is supposed to recognize them. I assumed they were from a module somewhere, and now I know which one. I suspect it's been kept quiet for a while as it's a pretty crummy scenario/concept. Joy is a little girl who lives in a library, and archives the joys of the world. Sorrow is her mum, who can't enter the library, and spends her time trying to convince mortals to drag Joy out of the library and bring her to Sorrow so that she can forcibly tattoo her with miserable events. Her main method of convincing people is to tell them that if they cut out and eat the existing tattoo of their own worst sorrow, history will be rewritten so it doesn't happen. Someone whose joy is archived in the library can't do this, for some reason, so Joy is keen to get people to do that to keep herself safe. Eventually Joy grows up and is horribly messed up by this happening to her, leaves the library voluntarily, becomes the next Sorrow, and shags the Comte de Saint-Germain to give birth to the next Joy. Rinse and repeat. So the scenario is just that each of 6 PCs get to make a choice: have their greatest joy archived forever for the world to enjoy (which requires the player to write a full-page description of it, with no detail in the pregens about what it was - and they have to do it in sequence, so the other players get to sit and twiddle their thumbs while the others are writing), or have their greatest sorrow removed from their life and history rewritten so it never happened. Except that also means helping a monster maim a 10-year-old girl so I think this might be the evil choice guys, and as it's a one-shot it's not like we actually get to play their better life so who cares? So it's a creative writing exercise. The only action is that when the final PC is writing their story, Sorrow gathers a bunch of security guards and convinces them to rush the library door and go get Joy, saying Joy's been kidnapped by the PCs. So the PCs get to duff up a bunch of security guards who are just doing their jobs, except for the one PC who got to write last, who gets to spend the entire one-shot waiting for the other players then writing their story and then it's the end.
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Mar 21, 2023 23:32
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PurpleXVI posted:I honestly got so tired of missing every loving attack roll that I just started blowing IP's on elemental shards and using them as my main source of offense. Man, I really wish I could sympathize with the situation, but I've not experienced anything like a strong of luck that bad. Hopefully, your experience will go better in the future, if you're even still playing that campaign. Mecha_Face fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Mar 22, 2023 |
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Mar 21, 2023 23:45
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I hosed up, because the Sorrows do actually appear in Book Three of the core set. They get a paragraph or two of expository text laying out essentially what you just said. Bring Me The Head works the same way. The Joy shows up in your car randomly in Act Two, and then the Sorrows show up to grab her, and they explain the whole tattoo/library mechanic. You get the same choice of chowing down for personal gain, or giving the Sorrows the boot. There's similarly no reason to sell the kid out because you're playing a bunch of pregens with uninteresting motivations, and the Sorrows fold and run away if you have a source of magick damage.
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Mar 22, 2023 00:04
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mellonbread posted:I hosed up, because the Sorrows do actually appear in Book Three of the core set. They get a paragraph or two of expository text laying out essentially what you just said. So they made it only a part of the larger scenario instead of the whole thing, which deals with half the problem. Sadly, they left in the "00s videogame morality" (I was going to say Bioshock morality but One Shots come out 8 years before Bioshock and also I feel old)
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Mar 22, 2023 00:21
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 Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Second Edition, part Thirteen, The ranger's not going to like this, Yogi Long, long ago, in the days of yore, the Ranger first shows up in the pages of The Strategic Review, the predecessor to Dragon magazine. It's credited to Joe Fischer, one of Gygax's players. That's a bit further back than I'm willing to dig so I just imagine it looks something like this:  The ranger returns in the AD&D Players Handbook, a subclass of the fighter. They are required to be any Good alignment, and are one of the harder classes to qualify for; while the paladin needs that 17 charisma, along with a 12 strength and 13 wisdom, the ranger needs 13s in strength and intelligence, and 14s in wisdom and constitution. Besides being good, they can't hire basically any NPC until 8th level, can't have more treasure than they and their mount could carry, and no more than three can operate together. That last one points to D&D at Gygax's table/in the 70s was a different game from what many of us would play. How often have you had two characters of the same class in a group, much less four or more? I've always assumed this had a practical application, in that Against the Giants was the first series of AD&D adventures, and the first ability of rangers is the Giant-class bonus. We called this the "dedicated death list" and it meant the ranger added their level to damage against giant-class creatures, which meant orcs, kobolds, goblins/hobgoblins/bugbears, gnolls, ogres, trolls, and giants. Unearthed Arcana expanded this list to just about anything humanoid that wasn't like a demon, devil, or undead. Other abilities included being more likely to surprise; tracking, with dungeon tracking more difficult (this was not level-dependent, a 1st level ranger was just as good as a 10th level); gained druid spells up to 3rd level and magic-user spells up to 2nd level (druid makes sense as the two are thought of as the nature classes, but I couldn't tell why magic-user spells, maybe it's an artifact of letting a player design their own class); and at 8th level could use any non-written magic items which pertain to clairaudience, clairvoyance, ESP, and telepathy, like, you know, a crystal ball. The really wild thing was with followers. The ranger didn't build a fort and gather an army like the fighter. Instead they attracted 2d12 followers. These might be humans and demi humans with classes, but the lower the number of followers, the greater the modifier for what the follower was. At the higher end, you could gain an exotic mount, like a griffon or centaur. You might gain a wild animal as a friend. Or you may get a major monster, like a storm giant or brass dragon.  Unearthed Arcana gave specialization to rangers, something otherwise unique to fighters. Then along comes 2nd edition, putting rangers and paladins on even footing for hit dice and experience. Mind you, the Paladin had +2 on all saves, an aura of protection making evil creatures attack at -1, immunity to disease, and lay on hands. The ranger got... move silently and hide in shadows, as long as they didn't wear anything heavier than studded leather. These worked like the thief abilities and started at 15 and 10%. Around the time you hit 6th level, you're close to a 50% chance of success. Rangers also got tracking, as a bonus proficiency, or following the proficiency rules even if the DM chose not to use those. They'd learn cleric spells up to 3rd level, though only from plant and animal (magic-user spells were no more; paladins could get spells up to 4th level, from a wider variety). The giant-class bonus was gone, replaced with a favored enemy. This was a simple +4 to hit, and a -4 on reaction rolls. You chose a single species; I'd spent a long time thinking these was very narrow, like you had to choose Frost Giants, but "giants" is given as an acceptable target. I think Forgotten Realms Adventures had messed up my memory, as there you do have to chose a specific color of dragon if that's your choice. That you're making this choice at first level... do you choose something like orc or goblin, that you're reasonably certain you're going to run into early on, but probably won't see later on (and a +4 bonus quickly becomes meaningless against low level foes). Or do you choose something like giants or dragons, and sit on the bonus until the day you're high enough level to fight one? And of course it's all up to the DM whether you ever encounter your favored enemy. 2nd edition is also where a defining trait is added to the ranger: two-weapon fighting.  I've often seen it as accepted wisdom that the guy above is the reason for it. The Crystal Shard, Drizzt's first appearance, was early 1988, and 2nd edition kicked off in 1989. And I'm not sure if Drizzt was the big hit right from the start. Was there enough time, was there enough popularity, that the designers stuck in two-weapon rules for the ranger ahead of publication? At any rate, originally Drizzt's two-weapon prowess was because he was a drow, not because he was a ranger. (two-weapon fighting also required studded leather or lighter armor; I guess the woodsman archetype didn't mesh with someone suiting up in plate armor). The follower table was toned down a bit, but you could still gain bears, wolves, great cats, a pegasus, and there was a 1% chance to score a treant or a werebear. The rules call out that the ranger doesn't gain any ability to communicate with them, so they may just hope they can convince the bear to follow a plan. 3rd edition introduced a very front-loaded ranger, a popular class to dip into for 1 level of goodies. The 3.5 revision spaced things out. Favored enemy was still a thing, but now offered a damage bonus, along with various skill bonuses. Still subject to the whims of the dungeon master, that you added a new one every five levels (and improved the bonuses against one enemy) meant you could hopefully catch something. Tracking was another part. Two-weapon fighting was an option, or archery feats. The ranger also gains an animal companion, similar to the druid, but not showing up until 4th level, with the ranger's effective druid level treated as 3 lower than actual level. Pathfinder would add favored terrain for the ranger, and widen the feats available via their combat style.  The 2nd edition Pathfinder ranger has the expected 10 HP of a fighting class. Expert in perception, fortitude, and reflex. Trained in nature, survival, and 4 other skills, puts them on par with the bard for skill knowledge. Trained with martial weapon and up to medium armor. Instead of Favored Enemy, the ranger can take an action to Hunt Prey, focusing on a creature they can see or that they're tracking. Seems closer to 4E's hunter's quarry, the ranger never needs to worry "are we going to face my favored enemy?" It provides a bonus on perception and tracking with survival. Additional, there's a Hunter's Edge option that improves combat. Flurry knocks the multiple attack penalty way down, to -3/-6 with the second and third attacks, instead of -5/-10. Precision adds an extra d8 damage on the first hit each round, increasing to 2d8 at 11 and 3d8 at 19. Outwit gives some skill bonuses, and a +1 to AC against the prey's attacks. At 17th level, these abilities further improve, with the flurry penalty dropping by 1 and 2, while Precision now adds the damage on additional attacks, and Outwit doubles the bonuses. There are no anathema for rangers, nor designated subclasses. Under feats, 1st level is where you can pick up an animal companion. There are feats allowing you to make two attacks with a ranged weapon, or two strikes with two-weapon fighting. Or if you prefer the crossbow, a feat tries to make it not terrible. Later levels will improve ranged or two weapon combat, or play around with favored enemies and terrain. Near the top, Impossible Flurry uses three actions to make three strikes with each melee weapon. You do have to use the maximum attack penalty, which I'm not sure if that's -10 for the six attacks, or if you could gain the Flurry bonus, making it 6 attacks all at -4 against your prey. That seems the top end two weapon feat. For bow rangers, legendary shot lets you ignore up to 5 range increment penalties when shooting at your prey. At a glance, Pathfinder did right by rangers, and certainly better than 5E managed ("rangers will be kings of the exploration pillar, whoops, that not going to be a real pillar of play").
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Mar 22, 2023 08:31
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I want to say that I like the "historical" retrospectives for each class you do. They're genuinely interesting.
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Mar 22, 2023 09:03
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Ah yes, the ranger. The class that took Wizards in 5e two attempts to make right, and then they barely succeeded from what I can remember as well.
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Mar 22, 2023 12:48
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PurpleXVI posted:I want to say that I like the "historical" retrospectives for each class you do. They're genuinely interesting. I don't know if Drizzt inspired the TWF ranger--the timing doesn't seem to work out. But it definitely wasn't Aragorn. The real tactical role of the ranger in 1e was to use their ambush ability and a bow to get in free kills at the start of combat--especially when the game is throwing huge numbers of orcs and goblins at you.
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Mar 22, 2023 14:18
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srhall79 posted:
  With bonus first appearance of the Roper!
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Mar 22, 2023 14:56
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These people and their loving polearms. Just stick with the halberd! Anyway, I found an ENWorld post which makes a good case that Zeb Cook adapted his own ideas from the Kensai class to the ranger. I remember I used to read a lot of people assuming that ranger TWF comes from Aragorn using the broken Narsil as an off-hand weapon. Which I'm quite certain never happened. It's kind of funny that OD&D/AD&D don't have better, simpler rules for off-hand items, since it's got to be reasonably common for a PC to be holding a torch or lantern in their off hand. Not everybody made much use of hirelings. Random thought: I enjoy the pseudo-Gnostic mythology of Sword World. God is a magic sword and there have been a series of increasingly debased emanations of God, which are weaker and weaker magic swords. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Mar 22, 2023 |
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Mar 22, 2023 15:06
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Soulbound: Era of the Beast New And A Bit Alarming Kodzodon is the name of an ancient godbeast and also the name of the Ghurish city that exists within its skeleton. It is one of the only Ghurish cities to have survived the Age of Chaos intact, largely thanks to the highly defensible skeleton. The mystic nature of the godbeast still lingers in it, causing other predators to avoid the skeleton out of fear. According to local legend, the city was first founded due to the relic known as the Hunting Horn of Kresh'ta, which could open a portal-pit from anywhere in Ghur to the skeleton. The city's location is known mostly to the local tribes, which is another reason it has never fallen to conquest. However, the place is being scouted by bands of Gor-kin, who suspect its existence, so its defences may soon be tested. The Krondspine Range is the largest mountain range in Thondia, named for the legendary godbeast Krond, who supposedly was killed and had his backbone used as the foundation of the mountains. Krond is generally depicted as a mixture of wolf and snake, but there isn't a lot of preserved lore on him in the first place. The local Gor-kin and dragon ogors are said to know more, but they're not communicative sorts. Most of what's known is that the beastmen of the Krondspine revere wolf and reptile mutations more than other kinds. During the Age of Chaos, many refugees attempted to flee into the Krondspines, and most of them died at the hands of Chaos forces. Their bones gathered in piles in the mountain valleys, and while they have eroded away or been eaten for the most part, the mountains have been haunted by restless souls even before the Necroquake. Now, every night in the mountains is full of the shrieks of the dead. The ghosts, orruks and beastmen war constantly for control of the mountains, as do a few ogor and human tribes that still try to make their homes there. Most of the human groups are Chaos-worshippers, though not all. The beastmen are the ones who are most active since the Era of the Beast began, with many claiming that the wolf-headed Doombull warlord Varhowl has returned to slaughter all others in the mountains. At the southern tip of the Krondspines is Krondskol, a gigantic fanged skull that may or may not be Krond's head. The mountain valleys and caves around it are heavily inhabited by gargant clans that love fighting and brawling with each other, and the other inhabitants of the Krondspines tend to avoid the area and its gargants unless trying to hire them to help for a specific fight. Krondskol gargants are occasionally willing to help for a payment in food, if the fight sounds fun. The area's suffering a bit of a power vacuum, however. See, a lot of the Krondskol gargants headed to Excelsis with Kragnos, and none of those returned alive. With so many gargants dead, new leaders are arising. The most infamous is a Warstomper Mega-Gargant by the name of Bannog Hollowguts, leader of the Stoneboots Stomper Tribe. Rumor has it that Bannog once caught and ate one of the living spells called a Wildfire Taurus, a burning fire-bull that still rages within his gut. This makes him insatiably thirsty. This is a problem for everyone, but especially the Dawnbringers, because Bannog has learned that when humans set out to settle a new town, they sometimes bring floating metal islands with them that flow endlessly with Aqua Ghyranis. Bannog really, really wants to drink that magic water, and so he's made a deal with some local orruks to point him at a Dawnbringer caravan when they spot one. That way, he may get a chance to get his own aqualith. The largest inland body of water in Thondia is Lake Everglut...though it's more a solid chunk of ice than a lake most of the time. It's practically a frozen inland sea, surrounded by the Krondspines and fed by icy rivers. Strange winds blow over it, and legend has it that the wind carries secrets from distant lands. The Ghurish ogors, regardless of culture, consider Lake Everglut to be a sacred place, blessed by the Gulping God. Butchers will go on months-long pilgrimages to get chunks of Everglut ice for use in their stews, and recently, many have been drawn by visions of an island on the lake that is full of rare and potent spices. It is the beginning of a Gollop, a divinely ordained convention of Ogor priests and wizards trading recipes and worshipping the Gulping God. While this is not in itself necessarily a bad thing, the gastromantic magic released by a Gollop in such a sacred location will likely awaken the land itself into a predatory frenzy of consumption. Given how angry the spirits of Ghur in general and the Krondspines in specific are right now, this is likely to cause a lot of problems for everyone nearby. That said, stopping a bunch of deeply religious ogors on a quest for their god is not exactly an easy task, though redirecting them to somewhere less volatile might be possible for a particularly violent or clever group. Mangrel Isle is a moderately sized island in the northern Clawing Sea, once home to a mighty kingdom that resisted the Dark Gods in the early Age of Chaos. However, while the island had great wealth and power, it did not have enough. Decades of resistance and lack of trade began to wear on its resources, and the people of the island were reduced to eating poisonous creatures to live, which drove many to madness. Eventually, they even had to eat their own dead - and in their poisoned fog, they turned on each other and fought over the meat. Now, the island is home to the Bileblood Court of Flesh-Eaters, led by the Abhorrant King Marrowblade. Marrowblade frequently leads his forces out on hunts against what he perceives as the many terrible beasts that threaten his kingdom. They head out in...well, the ghouls think of them as grand galleons, but it's more like a fleet of bone and sinew rafts, and they attack anyone they run into in the belief that whoever they meet is either a tyrant of Chaos or a wild monster. They're currently mostly engaged in fighting with Chaos tribes and orruks, though, not the forces of Order. This offers a rare opportunity - a brave group of envoys might be able to head to Mangrel Isle and plead their case with King Marrowblade. If they play into his delusions and make it clear they share common enemies, the ghouls could make for powerful allies...but there is always the risk of being eaten or being infected by Marrowblade's delusions if you aren't careful. Ghurish tradition holds that all of the lands of the realm are alive, with a predatory nature and consciousness all their own. These spirits are stretched thin, however, covering vast lengths and unable to perceive or interact with smaller beings easily...though possibly with the rise of the Krondspine Incarnates that's changing. However, not all lands of Ghur were ever stretched thin in their awareness. The Mar, for example, is undoubtedly sentient and definitely able to perceive human-scale beings. Indeed, hunters often swear the Mar tries to talk to them. Many local legends speak of normally vicious beasts calmly leading hunters to strange glens where the wind blows through tall rocks and forms words - words that inevitably question their intrusion and demand sacrifice as payment. Those who hunt the Mar attempt to remain in its favor by tossing part of their kills into the Marblood, a red-flowing river that runs from Ursricht's Kill through the center of the Mar and then out to sea. The truth of the matter is that the voice of the Mar is not the land itself, quite. The Mar is a prison for a daemon of the same name, trapped and bound by ancient geomantic magic. The daemon poses as the spirit of the land, demanding sacrifices from anyone that encounters it so that it can slowly gain enough power to break free. The Morruk Hills, some weeks southwest of Excelsis, are marshy and full of sharp and deadly rocks for folks to fall on, alongside poisonous (if pretty) wildflowers. The area is a haven for the Kruleboyz orruks, and the Grinnin' Blades in particular hold it as a sacred place of power. They claim that Gorkamorka fought a massive, highly venomous Godbeast there, and that his blood and the beast's poison intermixed with the mud. They claim that it is from this mixture that the first Grinnin' Blades emerged. While one might expect orruks to be fractious over territory - and one would normally be correct - the Morruk Hills are the undisputed domain of Gobsprakk, the Mouth of Mork and Prophet of Kragnos. It is he who suggested the plan of poisoning the leylines of Thondia so that the continent would react by trying to devour the remnant landscape of Donse to heal itself, which would cause Kragnos to become enraged at the loss of his homeland and go on a further rampage. The plan failed, but the poison in the leylines has festered, allowing the Drowned Lands to expand and consume once fertile meadows. Gobsprakk has been using this to expand his influence, but it has also given the forces of Order an important bit of information. Specifically, they have learned that the land and spirits of Ghur can be deliberately altered and encouraged to move in specific ways by the use of magic. Now, the mages of Izalend and Excelsis seek brave heroes who are willing to enter the Morruk Hills and seek the geomantic lore the Kruleboyz have, so that a cure for the leyline poison can be developed and, perhaps, some of the wild spirits can be tamed. Next time: Mountain squids, snake rivers and bugs.
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 Joylessdivisions World of Dorkness Presents: Digital Web 1.0 Part 3 Sphere Ratings and Effects Correspondence 1 Providing the structure of the Web, Correspondence magic is believed by some to have been the trigger that allowed for exploration of the Web. All Mages within the Web gain a +1 in Correspondence to a maximum of their Arete score or 5, whichever is lower. This does not carry over when the Mage returns to reality. Landscape of the Mind (L1) automatically functions inside the Web. A Mage with 1 dot of Correspondence entering the Web bumps to 2 dots and can now use Correspondence Sensing (L2) but only on locations within the Web. Correspondence range limitations still apply per the chart below.  Restricted areas are not accessible with Correspondence; however, they may use this power to reach the gates of a restricted sector, they cannot use it to enter. Use of vulgar magic to circumvent this rule is possible but will trigger some alarms. Immediate Spatial Perceptions (L1) allows for complete awareness of an entire sector with Landscape of the Mind. Everything in a restricted area, however, is not immediately perceptible. Correspondence Perceptions (L2) can be used coincidentally to scan conduits and any access points to the Web can be reached with coincidental use of Correspondence Perceptions. Staring out of a computer monitor or security cameras (that are linked to a computer) is coincidental, however the field of perception is limited to the screen or camera’s lens. The range chart limits the distance that perceptions can be sent. Extending perception into restricted areas or out of the Web triggers Paradox. Shift through Space and Co-Locality Perception (L3) allows a Mage to coincidentally transmit themselves at near light speed to other locations in the Net, limited only by the range chart and Restricted Areas. Co-Locality can also be used coincidentally in Free sectors, however, every turn it is used, the Mage must make a Stamina roll (difficulty 8) or take a level of Health damage for overwhelming sensory input. Vulgar effects are caused by extending perception outside of the Web or by violation of Restricted Areas. Blend Localities/Co-Locate Self (L4) can be performed within the Web, with the only limitation on coincidental use being the affected area must be accessible to the Mage. Mages at this level can also create conduits with the range chart determining the number of successes required to reach the target sector. Five dots allow for the altering of spatial relations within one area (a single sector) of the Web. This also allows for “shuffling” of conduits or moving a sector. Co-locating two or more sectors, however, is vulgar and will cause both areas to derez. Entropy 0 Everything breaks down, even programs. Typically, when a structure decays in the Net, it breaks down into crystalline reflective fractals. Examining such a shape reveals near infinite amounts of smaller fractals, to the limits of perception. Entropy can also be used to play with the randomizers of a program, causing everything from winning a game with Sleepers to changing the directives of an enemy program. Perceive Entropy allows for the detection of weakness in the fabric of the Net and its residents, including the amount of decay that has occurred in a sector. This power also allows for the perception of Paradoxical effects online through the disruptions in electronic reality caused by Paradox. Attempts to use the power from within the Web to the outside or to inaccessible sectors is vulgar. Control Randomness (L2) is very useful in the Digital Web, as it allows the Mage to manipulate the variables within a program, including entry into restricted sectors by causing the Mage’s password to be accepted. Because bugs are frequent in both software and hardware, this effect is considered coincidental. Diffuse Energy/Destroy Matter (L3) allows for the disintegration of electronic objects found in the Web as well as the adjustment of an Icon at the Mage’s whim. Wither Life (L4) works differently in the Web than in real space. The effect only works if the user knows where the target’s life pattern is located, so those who only sensory project are safe right? Not so fast. Wither Life allows for the creation of holes, vortices or black throwing discs (a special effect taking vulgar form) that on impact with a target deals damage as if the caster were using Wither Life normally. Objects and beings destroyed in this manner are lost, with some claiming they’re dumped in the Trash Sector while others believe they are cast into the Deep Umbra. Either way, mental travelers cannot return to their bodies if killed this way. You can make Tron discs. Hell yeah  Intellectual Entropy (L5) allows for the alteration or creation of parameters in a Virtual Realm, including the content (landscape) and context (the laws) of a realm. Data clusters can also be affected in this way. The Paradox side effects cause whiteouts that deposit the Entropy master into their own Paradox Realm somewhere near the Digital Web. Forces The Sphere of Forces acts like the Matter and Life Spheres do in real space, as everything is based around electronic representations. Perceive Forces allows for the easy discernment of patterns of the Web. Control Lesser Forces (L2) allows the Mage to shape objects in the net like the effects of Matter 2, however no Prime is required to stabilize created patterns within a single sector. Items created in this manner are stable if they are contextually appropriate to the sector in which they are created. For example, weapons created near the Crater. System Havoc (L2) is extremely powerful in the Net. The number of successes determines the area of effect and all Icons within must roll Willpower (difficulty 8) to avoid taking damage equal to the caster's successes. System Havoc is always considered vulgar when used in the Net, however if it is used on a computer linked to the net, then it is coincidental. Discharge Static can also be used in the Net to cause objects near a target to explode in a mysterious blast of energy. Spawn Lesser Forces (L3) allows for the generation of energy and creation of objects that conflict with the context of a Realm. 3 dots in Forces allow for the use of Forces 2 effects to be generated with more damage as well as allowing a Mage to fire beams of energy coincidentally within the Web. Otherwise, all other Forces 3 rules apply as if in real space. The telekinetic powers of Forces 4 carry over to the Web and are considered coincidental, and while Major forces have little meaning in VR, Forces 4 does enhance all previous levels of Forces used in the Net. 5 dots in Forces allow for the destruction of entire sectors, generating effects like a tactical nuke on Earth, though this does tend to have the side effect of not only wiping out the target but the caster as well. Five successes against a difficulty of 8 (+ the number of parameters in the sector) will turn it into a Junkland. This has the potential to trigger a Whiteout strong enough to cause massive system crashes in Earthbound information systems. System Havoc can also be used from within the Web to affect networks in real space through coincidence at this level, with an Intelligence + Computers roll (difficulty depends on the Mage’s familiarity with the target network and if it is protected or not). Failure means the power dissipates harmlessly, while botching means the power has been directed at the wrong network (even the Mage’s own Icon). One success is enough to knock out a small system while five could scramble a telecommunications company. Life 0 Life magic is limited within the Web because there is nothing organic existing in the Net, and only holistic travelers bring their Life pattern into the Web with them. Life magic, however, remains extremely effective against the physical body of the Mage in real space, as heart attacks, hormonal imbalances, seizures or worse can be caused through coincidental means to those hooked up to the Net. A users Life Pattern can also be tampered with, making it more difficult to return to the body after digital death. Mages specializing in the Life Sphere prefer to enter the Web holistically, allowing them to heal and transform themselves. Those who enter astrally can use their magic to sustain themselves before entering, allowing them to more likely come out of a coma or heal damage suffered while in the Web. With Holistic entry, Life magic functions as it does on Earth, the only difference is that effects in the Web only affect other holistic travelers. Sense Life (L1) can be used in conjunction with security cameras or monitors connected to the Web for effects like Genetics Scan, and any Mage with Sense Life has a stronger tie to their Life pattern, allowing them to reduce the difficulty of the Stamina roll upon their return by the number of levels in Life magic they have. Sense Life also allows for the Mage to sense access points back to Earth. Almost any use of level one Life magic is coincidental in the Web. The higher levels of Life magic unfortunately are not as useful as there is no organic life in the Web. Rumors abound that Life magic can be used to create virii online and that a Life pattern is required to generate AI. As it stands, Life magic is mostly useless within VR other than easing entry and preparation of the body and mind for traveling and recovery. Matter 0 Low level Matter powers allow for the manipulation of technology connected to the Web on Earth, as well, and with the proper scientific knowledge, allows for the transformation of items into devices that can assist in the trek through cyberspace. Tapping the Signal (L5) provides examples of possible uses of Matter (so go read the corebook again) Any effects that damage hardware or electronics at access points to the Web are treated as coincidental, while masters can turn a buildings security system into a nightmarish death trap. The biggest obstacle to using Matter in real space around an access point remains the Mage’s perception. The Sphere of Matter has never affected the structure of a sector. The other rules of Matter do not change from the corebook as there is no matter in the Digital Web. The only exception is the holistic transfer of equipment into the virtual. Mind 4 The powers of the Mind Sphere are greatly increased in the Web as it is a place filled with intelligences, such as programs, AI and other Cybernauts that are all affected by Mind magic. Difficulties of all Mind powers are reduced by one for any target that experiences VR. Because the Web is a mental experience, Mind powers can affect sensory visitors as well as Sleepers. Sensory visitors may not use Mind power coincidentally to counterattack. All effects of Empower Self (L1) are coincidental and can be blamed on software, hardware or simply the unfettered nature of the Web. Mental Impulse (L2) allows for the sending of messages to other users, including Sleepers. When used with Sleepers, the coincidental effect takes the form of flashing subliminal messages on their monitors. Mind 3 allows for the unleashing of psychic attacks that deal one level of health damage without triggering a Paradox. Private telepathic messaging is possible with the effect of Instant Message. Probing Thoughts and Graphic Transmission are all coincidental in the Net, however using Mind 3 against a Sleeper who is not connected to a VR device is considered vulgar. Mind 4 allows for Mind Control which is considered a static effect in the Net. Most programs can be manipulated this way, as well as allowing for them to be stolen, erased or altered with this level of magic. Data Beasts (Chapter 5) are susceptible to this power as well, and Restricted Areas can be created with Mind 4 in conjunction with Prime (More info in Chapter 5). Mind 4 grants the ability to heal Runners who are traveling the Net via sensory or astral means, as if the Mage possessed Life magic of the same level in real space. Sleepers can be coincidentally controlled via monitor however possession of a Sleeper who is not using a VR device is vulgar. Mind 5 lets a Mage slip beyond the bounds of the Web and beyond the bounds of reality itself. What’s out there? Who loving knows, probably Paradox Realms or it’s where Wraiths hang out.  Prime 3 Just as the power of Prime courses through reality, so too does it power the Net. Masters of Prime can change the parameters of a sector as well as commanding the reality of the Net. Prime 1 allows for sensing Quintessence in the web with a Perception + Awareness roll, which can determine contextual underpinnings as well as (with enough successes) the age and identity of the Mage who formatted a sector. Prime 1 also allows for sensing Whiteouts. Prime 2 allows the Mage to fuel patterns of Forces in the Web, which can give digital objects permanence, allowing them to be moved from one sector to another, as well as fueling Matter and Life patterns created within the Web. As a rule, Prime 2 makes all other magic more effective, such as Prime 2 being used with Mind 4 to restrict a sector. The restriction has a Prime strength equal to the amount of Quintessence invested at the time of creation. All Prime 2 effects are static. Prime 3 allows a Mage to channel Quintessence through the Web. When drawing from a Node on Earth into the Web, this creates a special conduit called a Channel. When not being tapped, the Channel pours Quintessence out of the sector into other parts of the Net. Talismans and Chantries can also be created with Prime 3. For more information about Chantry creation, look at Chapter 4 of The Book of Chantries. (Which came out a month later) Prime 4 grants the ability to rip Quintessence out of an area, remove parameters, destroy restrictions and eliminate objects. Objects that have their Quintessence siphoned out cease to exist, however their Pattern remains in the Web, and channeling Quintessence back into the Pattern will return the object to its previous form. Prime 4 and 5 however trigger double the normal Paradox for vulgar effects. Removing Quintessence from parameters, restrictions or taking it from holistic travelers are all considered vulgar, while siphoning from a digital object is static. Moving large quantities of Quintessence around also risks causing major system crashes. Prime 5 may be able to fix Whiteouts, however as previously noted about the doubled Paradox, most Mages aren’t testing their theories on Prime 5’s use in the Net too often. Spirit Spirits do infest the Net, including viruses, data beasts, electrical elementals and strange spiders such as rune-fetters. These electronic spirits roam all areas not patrolled by the Technocracy. The Glass Walkers revere the totem spirit of the Cockroach, which has amazing powers within the Web. There are rumors of a group of Garou calling themselves the Random Interrupts that aid the Dreamspeakers in the Net. Spirit Sight allows the user to see both the physical world as well as the Umbra from the Net, with 5 successes needed to pierce the Gauntlet around the Mage. If the Mage is near a Conduit that is near the Umbra, only three successes are required. Finding an Umbral Conduit requires a Perception + Cosmology roll (difficulty 8). Once a Mage focuses on the Umbra, they fade from the Net and become intangible as if they were a sensory visitor, however they have no awareness of events occurring around them in the Web.  Spirit 2 allows a Mage to leave the Web through Conduits that touch the Umbra as well as granting the ability to communicate with and call spirits within the Net. Both are static effects. Spirit 3 grants the Step Sideways ability, allowing the user to leave the Net with 5 successes, and allows for holistic travel into the Web from the Umbra. Jumping from the Net to the Umbra or vice versa is considered vulgar and the Paradox incurred is determined by the reality the Mage is leaving and takes effect in the destination. Whiteouts do not follow Dreamspeakers into the distant Umbra. Spirit 4 allows for the creation of Talismans and breaching the Gauntlet. Otherwise, it functions as written in the corebook. Gauntlet Prison can be used to trap a target in the fabric of the Net, and those trapped can perceive events in the sector they are trapped in as well as communicate but cannot escape the cell. This is also considered vulgar magic. Spirit 5, like Mind 5, is beyond the scope of the Web. Using this level to travel beyond the Web is vulgar and no one is entirely sure what lies beyond the Net. Time 4 Time moves precisely through the Web, at a regular and constant pace, however the VA’s or other Mages’ can manipulate time by speeding up or slowing down the processors within the Net, however, doing so runs the risk of derezzing the Mage attempting such a task. Time Sense (L1) is completely coincidental in the Web, and Absolute Time Sense is justified as computer function. Past/Future Sight also works well in the Web, but the user sees possible timelines and probabilities of occurrences, and the past can always be replayed in the Net. Some have used this power along with Correspondence and Mind to warn them before the Technocracy finds them hacking a restricted area. Time Contraction/Dilation allows for the control of localized time flow and is considered static as it can be blamed on slow processors. Many Virtual Realms have special time-flow parameters that may differ from other parts of the Net. Time Determinism allows for effects such as hanging spells or delayed functions, unfortunately some beings like viruses are also able to use this effect. Programmed Function also works as a static effect because many programs have timers and precise time controls. Time 5 functions as it does in real space, Time Travel and Sidestepping Time are considered vulgar effects, and some Masters of Time are said to be trapped in mysterious Time related Paradox Realms. Creating Virtual Realms Any Mage can create a Virtual Realm in an unformatted sector, and the process does not require magic, nor does it cause Paradox as it is a natural process of the Net. The reason everyone doesn’t have a Virtual Realm is that Sleepers unknowingly format most new sectors as Grid Sectors simply by using a computer, the VA and VE are in their great race to control every untouched sector and finally because free sectors are just difficult to find, despite new Conduits coming into existence continually, they cannot be used to create a Virtual Realm.  Formatting the Web A Virtual Realm can only be created in an unformatted sector, and groups of Mages can combine their efforts to format Realms as well. The first step is conceiving of the context of the reality for the Realm, which is just a description of about a paragraph. The nature of this context is totally up to the Mage, and the concept can be as vague as “The Wild West” or as specific as an exact duplicate of the house the Mage grew up in. Once the process has begun, it is finished quickly as the Net simply adapts to the imprint. In game terms, the ST takes the initial concept and then develops it from the players initial description. Next, a point of Willpower is spent to force the Web to adjust to the concept. Once the Willpower is spent, the Mage rolls their Arete against Difficulty 6 and Quintessence can be spent to lower the difficulty, and the standard Willpower for one auto success rule is allowed. Success means the Web has successfully been formatted, and the process is irreversible. Once formatted, the sector will always retain an underlying reality based on the initial concept. Failure means that the sector is formatted, but not based on the characters concept, instead the ST chooses some element from Mage’s background or life instead that imprints itself on the Web. Dramatic or emotional themes from the characters' lives make for excellent ideas for this. Botching means the Mage has projected part of their subconscious into the Web and the ST transforms part of the Web into something the character fears or hates, or even a reflection of their dark side. The player also loses a permanent point of Willpower. One point of Quintessence must be spent for each parameter set on a sector, as well as an extra success on their Arete roll. Every two parameters raise the difficulty of the roll by 1 with fractions going against the player. I assume they mean you’re doing the same Arete vs Diff6 roll here? What the gently caress do they mean “extra success”? Parameters that only affect the atmosphere of the sector have no limits while parameters that require game mechanics are limited by the magical abilities for the Mage on earth, except Pattern magic does not require Prime. Time-flow and restrictions are common parameters, and when setting parameters, all successes must be achieved or the formatting results in failure. Realms cannot affect other Realms, and parameters do not affect areas of the Web outside of the sector they have been set in. This should not be seen as a limitation on the ST, as anything can happen in a Realm if it relates to the initial concept. Little Nemo in Etherland Sidebar about a SoE who creates a realm based on the Nautilus. The Mage chooses five parameters for the Realm, and so needs 5 successes on their Arete roll. The ST decides that two of the parameters are simply for atmosphere and so allows these parameters without mechanics being tied to them (while the other parameters fall within the Mage’s Time/Matter/Life and Prime Spheres.) For example, if the sidebar Mage’s Realm is created, the giant squid they added for atmosphere would not be an actual threat to anyone within the Realm, unless another Mage had come in and messed with the Realm while the creator was unaware. Characters cannot Awaken new sectors simply by building a new computer, ST’s have sole and complete responsibility for the availability of unformatted Web. While it is easy to create a Realm, it’s meant to be extremely rare and awe-inspiring when it does occur. The creation of a world, even one as small as a Virtual Realm should be a transformative experience for the character and another step on their path to Ascension. Many Cybernauts look on formatters of the Web with fear and envy and most unique Realms remain intact as memorials to their creators long after they have passed.  Crossovers Cmon, you didn’t think we’d get away without some crossover nonsense, right? ST’s may wish to interweave their Mage chronicles with stories from Werewolf and Vampire, and successful combinations provide a multi-faceted lens through which a troupe can tackle a multitude of problems as well as offering a fun experience for the players and ST. (Citation loving needed) Crossover ST’s have a wealth of information available to them from both games to draw from and the following are suggestions on how to run Garou and Kindred in the Web as well as how to use Werewolf and Vampire material with Mage.  Location of the Net in the Umbra Metaphysically, the Web lies within the Pattern of Reality, a sort of universe sized spiderweb with strands reaching everywhere within all things. The Web is co-located in the same area as the Gauntlet, on the border between the Umbra and Earth, with some sections reaching out to the Horizon between the Umbra and Deep Umbra while other parts touch the Dream Realms. Connections with the Umbra Because the Pattern Web touches everything, the Net grows within this stretching fiber of existence. As the electronic landscape expands, portals and gateways open allowing access to numerous spiritual Realms throughout the Umbra. In the spirit world, there is a spot where the Net is intertwined with the CyberRealm. The Computer Web spans the space between the CyberRealm and the Net, reflecting the spiritual components of the computer revolution, just as the Penumbra reflects the spiritual nature of the Earth. The Nehpandus, Marauders and Paradox spirits infest this space. The Glass Walker tribe of Garou travel though their own version of VR with a unique holistic immersion method. Strands of sticky crystal cover the conduits leading from the Web into the Umbra, and strange mists fill these passages. Mages with Spirit 3 using Stepping Sideways can penetrate these barriers with two or more successes, and direct access to the Web from the Umbra is equally difficult, however Spirit 2 allows for the calling of spirits to open the barriers, though this is a dangerous option. Finding a conduit from the Umbra to the Web (or vice versa) requires an Intelligence + Cosmology roll at difficulty 8. The previously mentioned Umbral Conduit chart should be used to determine the number of successes needed. Astrally projected travelers who enter the Umbra from the Web must first return to the Net before returning to their body. Mage’s who enter the Net from the Umbra can simply return. Dreamspeakers can reach the Umbra directly from the Net, with five successes required on their Stepping Sideways attempt to escape into the Umbra. Any Whiteout caused by this use of magic automatically dumps the Mage into a Paradox Realm parallel to the Digital Web. The Net opens into the Horizon Realms of the Technocracy, including Autochthonia. Swirling, misty conduits fade into the Dream Realms, and even Paradox Realms have conduits that trail into them. Spiritual Mages are also aware that the Net has openings to the Scar, and others believe that somewhere in the Web are openings to the Abyss. If you want more information about the Scar, the Abyss and CyberRealm, go read Umbra: the Velvet Shadow. Here Come the Glass Walkers (Werewolves meet Mages) Werewolf Supplements for Mage Sidebar! The Mage corebook provides rules for translating spirits from Werewolf along with some examples of converted spirits in chapter 5. The Nephandi, Technocracy and Maruaders can all be integrated with the forces of any of the Triat. Fetishes found in Werewolf can also be translated to Mage, with the Gnosis score equal to the Arete of a Talisman, with the level remaining the same. The Quintessence score of a Fetish is determined by multiplying the Fetishes level by its Gnosis score. Werewolves do not generate Paradox (Lol because the Garou loving rule) but cannot use Talismans of a non-spiritual nature. The Garou explain most events in the world as the result of the interplay between three indescribably powerful spirits known as the Triat (The Weaver, Wyld and Wrym). The Weaver is the source of structured reality, and everything static about the world derives from them. The Technocracy and Paradox are manifestations of the Weaver. The Garou recognize technology as a threat, and unfortunately for Mages, they’re not great at understanding the difference between the SoE, the VA and the Technocracy. Only the Glass Walkers deal with the Weaver. The Wrym is decay and destruction incarnate, the source of all corruption and suffering in the world. Kindred, as well as the Nephandi serve the Wrym as far as the Garou are concerned, though there are mysterious werewolves that serve the Wrym (Black Spiral Dancers baby!) According to the Dreamspeakers, most Garou claim affinity with the Wyld, the spirit of chaos and creation, though the Garou also worship a mother goddess known as Gaia. According to them, the insanity of Marauders comes from the Wyld. Because spirituality is at the heart of the Garou, the metaphysics of their paradigm are complex, as they defy Paradox and enjoy a relationship with spirits that is envied by Adepts of the Sphere. They also perceive elements of the Umbra in their own way. According to most Garou, the Weaver controls the Net, and while the virtual worlds of the Net simulate reality, the Garou somehow always know that these worlds are false and are uncomfortable there, sometimes driving them to berserker rages. Only the Glass Walkers interact regularly with the Net, though they too experience discomfort when in or near Technocracy controlled sectors. Because they project holistically into the Net, the Garou retain their physical capabilities, which makes them extremely loving dangerous, and they are capable of bringing their spirit bound fetishes into the Net. The Cockroach spirit commands many powers over the Net, including the ability to help Glass Walkers find secret conduits unknown to VA. Some spiritualist Mages can also call upon Cockroach for assistance. Pull the Plug! Pull the Plug! - The Malkavian Madness Network Uplink (Vampires meet Mages) Occasionally the Web is overrun with pale, gray skinned Icons, some wearing campy bat cloaks who play strange pranks and make indecipherable comments to other Runners. Some VA have identified them as Kindred, though the pranksters deny this, while also making it clear they gleefully lie constantly. While most seem harmless, their pranks have ruined some sectors, and while they only appear rarely, when they do, a lot of trouble follows. Areas of the Web that they have patterned induce a low-level psychosis (a temporary Derangement that lasts 24 hours for each hour spent within a Mad Realm). VA research has revealed that these creatures claim to reach the Web through a form of mental communication called the Malkavian Madness Network, which allows them access to the Net without computers. The VA suspect that one of these vampire pranksters have managed to acquire one of their VR computer uplinks, while not ruling out that the crazy bastards may have figured out a way to access the Web without technology, perhaps through some variation of the Ahl-I-Batin's Mind magic. Regardless of how, they should be avoided, and while they cannot drink blood from Runners in a conventional sense, their madness is especially contagious within the fluid reality of the Net. Vampire Supplements for Mage Not a sidebar! The Players Guide provides ample information including rules for mortals and extensive lists of gear for humans. ST’s are also recommended Clanbook: Malkavian for more info about the wacky visitors to the Web (and for a fun read in general) Oh, you mean the clanbook that has scrawled drawings all over the place and is more than a little bit of a pain in the rear end to try and read? I love me some Malkavians but even I can concede that their original clanbook is a bit of a mess. Werewolf Crossover Ideas
2- Monkeywrenching: The characters get involved in a Glass Walker scheme to hack into Syndicate computers. The Garou refers to themselves as a Monkeywrencher, seems convinced there is a connection between the Syndicate and Pentex, and they need the characters' help to get into the Technocracy computer and block any Syndicate defenses. While there is a connection between these two groups, it is buried deeply and spread across multiple files, it is unlikely that the Garou will be able to retrieve everything before security clamps down. The first security step is shutting off the power, cutting the connection (even in the Umbra or the Web) and any botched rolls made by the characters or the Monkeywrencher will allow the Syndicate to track their identities, ruining their credit scores, incurring debts and eventually marking the characters for credit fraud around the world. Also, MIB’s and HIT Marks wll be sent after them. 3- Spirit Hunt: A Glass Walker pack has entered the Net seeking spirits to bind into fetishes or to learn Gifts from. Mistaking a Mage’s familiar for a spirit and using their powers of spirit control to bind it and run. Now the players are in a race across the Web while the Glass Walkers attempt to step sideways into reality and back into their home turf, where finding the pack will be more difficult. It is also possible that the pack may try to blackmail the characters for the return of the familiar. Vampire Crossover Ideas
2- Initializing Disk Now: A gang of Malkavians want to reformat a sector of the web, specifically one belonging to one of the players. The players must confront this league (there are four of them) and prevent reality from switching formats. If the Malkavians succeed, the players will lose control of their haven. 3- Bleeding Information: Information is disappearing, as hackers all over are reporting falling asleep at their consoles and waking up to discover whole files have been deleted completely with no way to retrieve them. If the players investigate the trail, they’ll find a desperate Malkavian trapped in the Web. Somehow, they have reformatted themselves so they can drink information instead of blood, but it is not enough to sustain them, and they are slowly starving. They gain no knowledge from the data they take, and the information is lost for good. Releasing the Kindred will end their reign of informational terror, but they will return to drinking blood of mortals. A virtual stake to the heart will stop them (if you can hit them) And that’s Chapter One down. I get heavy Tron and Lawnmower Man vibes from the descriptions of the Net, and honestly, I kind of love that about this book. As I said previously, I’m extremely charmed by the goofy early 90’s “Magic Computers” stuff in this book, because in 2023, most of this stuff isn’t that far off from actual software/tech we have now. And VR Chat being the best example of what this book is trying to express about characters moving through the Net also cracks me up. Sure, Second Life is probably also a fairly accurate expression of what the “Digital Web” could be mapped to but considering the heavy emphasis on the idea of virtual reality as it’s been sold to us (for as long as I've been alive at least), VR Chat just feels like the appropriate analog to what the book is explaining. Also, it’s extremely funny to imagine a group of Mage’s as VR Chat avatars. Big tiddie anime girls arguing about Ascension with a furry and Goku? Where do I sign up for that idiocy? The crossover ideas are.... mostly fine. Monkeywreching seems like it could be a fun story to tell, and Bleeding Information is another that immediately pinged my creative brain, as did Virus. “Whoops, we’re in the wrong realm, OH CHRIST SPIDERS!” and “Werewolves stole my familiar” are both bland, as is “Malkavians are stealing MUH REALM!”. I appreciate that Malkavians can just crazy their way into the Net, but the plot hooks involving them aside from Virus and Bleeding Info feel like they could be told with Technocracy goobers or some other creature.  Chapter Two: The Spy’s Demise The enigmatically named Spy’s Demise is a safe haven for all Mages located in a sector with direct conduits to both Tradition and Convention sectors. All Mages respect the peace of this sector, with some having self-serving reasons for maintaining the peace. Some think that the laws of the sector are so strong that they even influence the Technomancers who travel there, while others worry that the Technocracy has too much to gain from the sector and are only acting on their best behavior until the time is right. The bar attracts an assortment of Mages, and while many older Mages of power and prestige are quick to shun the Net in general, believing it to be a waste of time, younger mages from all Traditions regularly visit the Demise. Some of the Traditions believe that the Demise is a trap for lazy Mages, that if a Mage cannot face the real world and the threat of Paradox they have no business being a Mage, and better that they waste their time in the Net than impeded the works of “Real” Mages. Which yo, gently caress you. Granted my memory of Awakening as a Mage is hazy but I’m pretty sure it’s a thing that can happen spontaneously, in which case yeah, if I randomly Awakened as a god drat wizard I’d probably go hang out in a cool digital bar than hanging out with a bunch of douchebag Tradition wizards and the constant threat of Paradox for actually using my cool powers in a way that requires more effort than bullshiting reality into believing the impossible thing I did was a coincidence. Hollow Ones for Life! Many “Old World” Mages are reclusive, venturing out only to meet with other Mages when they need some bit of esoteric information or assistance whereas younger Mages regularly gather with other like-minded Mages, and the place to meet is The Spy’s Demise.  A Brief History Lesson If you can call two pages brief. Presented as the recollection of a Celestial Chorus member named Tricia and her experience of learning the history of the Demise from an unseen voice in the bar. When BBS’s were created/introduced by wizards, computer geeks from all over logged in, Sleeper and Mage alike, and in time these BBS’s became a sort of digital night club, at least in the sense of serving a similar social function. With this constant flow of Quintessence and time from both Sleepers and Mages into these forums, the Net reacted, and the Spy’s Demise was born. Of course, Mages of both sides of the Ascension War jumped at this chance to influence Sleepers for their own ends, and soon there were battles in the Net regularly, crashing other BBS’s with the Entropy and Paradox let loose on the Net. No one is entirely sure what caused the end of hostilities, some believe it was Sleepers simply being fed up with their systems constantly crashing, others believe the leaders of the Conventions and the VA came to the agreement that all the fighting was only helping the Nephandi and the Marauders, others think that it dawned on someone that losing the Net all together would rip out a potential avenue of observation on the Sleepers. Ultimately, the hostilities ceased, and the Spy’s Demise was staffed by well-trained professionals who treated all who entered, regardless of allegiance, as equal. The Spy’s Demise functions under a couple of rules:
2- All violence goes outside. 3- Everyone has a right to enter and receive Tass. Failure to uphold these rules results in the offenders being derezzed. What is the“Spy’s Demise”? Nearly every Grid sector has a Channel or Conduit that leads into the Demise. Sleepers enter chatrooms, unaware that their conversations, even private ones, are being observed by the patrons of the Demise. The energy these Sleepers expend on the experience transfers their Quintessence into the Web which is then distilled into Tass which is served at the Demise. Fundamentally, the Demise is a bar or club, and it serves the social functions of such an establishment. There are no maps of the place because no one is sure of how big it really is. Monitors hang in the corners all over the bar, displaying chatrooms of Sleepers or virtual worlds created by Mage’s like Kibo or Feedback. The Demise is a Restricted sector with a frequently changing password. Newbies to the bar are usually granted entrance after performing some embarrassing act for the bouncers, such as standing on their head while singing a song or doing a little dance. Whatever the bouncers feel like asking. Unknown to these poor assholes, their performances are broadcast on the monitors in the bar for the regulars to have a good laugh. Newbies with a good sense of humor about the whole thing are usually given a bit of extra Tass for being a good sport. Individual rooms in the Demise reflect the regular occupants of those rooms. Technocracy rooms tend to be sterile, metallic and mechanical. Other rooms have dance floors or stages, video arcades and a plethora of other strange and unique places to enjoy a drink. Secret rooms and passages litter the Demise, and new Conduits are found regularly. The numerous public rooms entertain both regulars and new patrons, and even more private rooms offer quiet spaces to meet, plan, scheme or just relax away from the rest of the crowds. Paths between rooms change regularly, and if you don’t visit rooms in the correct order, you’re likely to get lost in the Demise. Smartasses claim this is a great way to learn to follow the tree of Conduits and sectors. At least one room in the Demise features a phone booth that when entered changes an Icons clothing to spandex with optional cape. And as a reminder to any who might get lost, the staff is always willing to help out. If the Demise itself wasn’t strange enough, the patrons themselves certainly add to the bizarre atmosphere, as Icons of every size and shape wander the halls, from aliens and fantasy warriors to celebrities, ex-presidents and even mobile works of art. The only way to be certain of a patrons identity is checking their Avatar with Prime or contacting them through Mind magic. It’s VRChat, including the big tiddie anime girls and Ugandan Knuckles riding around in a Russian tank. All patrons have a screen name (or handle) they use in the Net, and the really savvy Runners use multiple handles and identities with distinct Icons and email addresses. If the VA had as many members as the Demise has patrons, global Ascension would be assured. Information is everywhere in the Demise, with the postings of thousands of digital documents covering the walls (great, a bar wallpapered in poo poo posts) and some regulars set up email addresses in the bar. Patrons deal information in the dark corners, offering their knowledge in exchange for Tass, services or more information, with the most valuable being the location of unformatted sectors. Those that don’t follow through on their promised payment are usually not seen in the bar again. Rumors tell of a library hidden away in the wine cellar (wherever that may actually be is up for debate) of the bar, full of free data including rotes, for anyone who can find it. Sleepers are easy to clock, as they have standardized Icons that tend to float in grid rooms where all they can do is talk. When a Sleeper chatroom begins to take shape and form images instead of just lines of text, it’s a sign one of the Sleepers is nearing Awakening, and because of this both the altruistic and not so altruistic Mages hang around these grid rooms to snatch up Sleepers with potential. Despite all the espionage and intrigue and manipulation, most of the patrons have a great time, with Cabals and mentor-student relationships forming regularly in the Demise. Major Public Rooms of the Spy’s Demise  There are several popular rooms in the Demise that have easy Conduits to Sleeper grids. These public rooms are always open and available, and provided are a few of them. Spaceport 1 A winding grid hallway leads into a bubble-like sphere of virtual space where ships of all makes and models dock. The “Space” of this room does not access the Deep Umbra or outer space in any real way, instead providing a visitor something more akin to an elaborate sci-fi experience than an actual trip into space. The monitors in this room connect to Grid sectors dealing with space, from the national policies on space exploration to new sci-fi, and Spaceport one offers simulated trips into “Deep Space”. Paradise Exiting a door in the Demise into a wooden hut on an endless beach front resort awaits those who seek Paradise. Crystal clear waters lap white sand beaches while friendly indigenous people serve visitors with the women wearing leis and men with flowers tucked behind their ears. There is speculation regarding the natives of the area, if they are real people or simply VR constructs, and considering the local, most don’t really care to know. Could we have skipped out on the weird “Happy natives serving the tourists” thing here? I’m fine with the “Tropical Island in VR” thing but God drat did we really need to lean that far into the idea? It’s kinda loving gross! Cathedral The Cathedral contains a large, ornate church with stained glass windows in a traditional Christian style depicting scenes of Ascension and rows of candles lining the aisles. Reputedly created by a member of the Celestial Chorus, the Cathedral is where Mage’s discuss spiritual matters, religion and Ascension, including debate between Technocracy and Tradition Mages regarding their views of Ascension. The more theologically minded ponder the moral and theological implications of magic, Ascension and how they relate to God. Many come to simply listen to these discussions, and there are small doors built into the walls that lead to Sleeper religious forums. The Board Room Credited to the Syndicate, the Board Room features a long mahogany table that dominates the room, surrounded by high-backed leather chairs. The table grows to accommodate visitors and there are always enough chairs. When the table grows too large for easy discussion, two monitors appear in front of each seat, one displaying the meetings moderator and the other displaying the current speaker. The room also has access doorways into Sleeper business forums and meeting rooms. Serenity Grove A well landscaped park, with lakes and nature trails, picknick tables and playgrounds. It’s a place where a Mage can relax and enjoy the sunshine, take a nature walk or fish in one of the lakes. The only rule is there is no discussion of magic or the metaphysical here, and anyone attempting to bring up these topics for discussion is politely warned by the staff. A second offense will trigger a park ranger to promptly escort the offending Mage out. While some still try to bend this rule by discussing a new discovery in the web, the park rangers' word is ultimately final. Next up: Major NPC's of the Spy's Demise
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Mar 22, 2023 16:25
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joylessdivision posted:the Garou somehow always know that these worlds are false and are uncomfortable there, sometimes driving them to berserker rages. The internet has that effect on all of us from time to time.
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Mar 22, 2023 16:37
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PurpleXVI posted:The internet has that effect on all of us from time to time. 
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Mar 22, 2023 16:43
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Halloween Jack posted:Random thought: I enjoy the pseudo-Gnostic mythology of Sword World. God is a magic sword and there have been a series of increasingly debased emanations of God, which are weaker and weaker magic swords.  Fellows “I think that enemy got … the point!” Look, we get it. Sometimes the sorcerer has to go to his stupid sister’s wedding, or your best fighter finally wheedled a date out of that girl in Class 2-A, or maybe you have a party of clumsy numbskulls who want to plunder the Razor-Filled Labyrinth of Mirrors and Tripwires and could use a hand. Where will you scare up another player at this time of night? With Fellows, you don’t have to. Fellows turns PCs into simplified, semi-autonomous NPCs that the party can use even if the player isn’t around. They also let you introduce helper characters into your own game, and send your own characters out into the world to be NPCs in other games around the world. To make a Fellow, you must first create  Nothing new so far. Next, choose four actions which you consider either the most useful, or most iconic, actions that your character might perform. They don’t all have to be combat actions, and the rules suggest that they probably shouldn’t be, lest playgroups think your character is a dull, one-note combat monster. In Saffron’s case, I’m thinking of an interesting spread of her class talents, like a couple of Fairy Tamer spells, something Ranger-y like noticing things are amiss in the forest, and maybe her Bard spellsong.  Once per combat turn, or whenever the party thinks the Fellow’s skills would be useful, someone can roll 1d and check the action list to see what the Fellow tries to do. If it’s nonsensical or dumb, the Fellow instead does nothing of consequence that turn. The “Result” column is the presumptive skill check roll for that action. Add that number to the Fellow’s skill and enter the total in the Value column. The GM will compare this Value to the difficulty of the action and tell the party if it succeeded. Example: Your character has a big sword and you want to create an action for him smacking someone with it. The character’s Accuracy with the sword is +5. You put the action in the second row, which has 8 in the Result column. That gives the action a Value of 8 + 5, or 13. The Fellow will now automatically hit any enemy with an Evasion of 12 or less. Generally you’ll want to put your most effective skills in the bottom two rows for the higher Results, with the understanding that those rows will be rolled less often. If an action has a target, the party chooses the target after the roll. The party can also cancel an action if it’s not really needed, like if the Fellow rolls to heal someone who’s only slightly banged up. To make your Fellow even more convenient to use, you should include the Effect of the roll (if there is one) in the last column. Continuing the big sword example, you’d include the weapon’s Power, Extra Damage, and Crit values, plus any other effects from either the weapon itself or any combat feats that you want to apply. Best of all is the Dialogue column. Whenever the Fellow succeeds with an action, this is a little quip that the character says aloud. Every. Single. Time. This will make the Fellow either a charming temporary team mascot, or the most annoying being to ever exist. Probably both. Hopefully both.  “I wanna take you for a ride …” And now, finally, we can write our Fellow’s Introduction, a one- or two-liner that your character would say to an adventuring group at their initial meeting. If a GM grabs your Fellow sheet off the internet, the Introduction is what they’ll use to help sell your character to the group. The example Fellow in the book, a fighter/scout named Wolfe, has this Introduction: “I’m a hot-blooded guy who loves a good adventure. Nice to meet you!” I mean, like, yes, hello, Action Man, come hit things with us, let’s go. The Introduction is both a brilliant way to encapsulate your character for new groups, and extremely Japanese. I half-expected the rules to tell the Fellow to bow while presenting their business card with both hands.  Hajime mashite You might notice that our Fellow has no HP, armor, or equipment. That’s because a Fellow can never be harmed. They’re never targeted by enemies, and any calamity that affects the entire party somehow misses them by miraculous circumstance. In the event of a TPK, the Fellow is assumed to survive and return to civilization. But immortality has its price: a Fellow must always be in the same area as one of the PCs (so no sending them down a deep dark hole to report back what they find) and can take no action* except what’s on their action chart. They will flatly refuse to do anything that takes advantage of their meta-invulnerability. Any consumables they use (healing herbs, potions, etc., but not ammo) must be provided by the party. They can’t be captured by enemies without their PC companion, and vice versa. * They can perform other small actions if their companion PC does it too; the example given is crouching behind some rocks. But they can’t do anything unique. After a group finishes a session with a Fellow, the rules encourage them to provide an after-action report back to the player. The book goes to great lengths to urge them to make their feedback positive, because they and we all know what people are like on the internet. It’s a fine sentiment but also has a bit of a CYA feel.  Nice try, grandpa Players can also ask that their Fellow receive a share of in-game loot or XP. It’s entirely up to your GM to decide whether any percentage of that translates back to your campaign, but it can be a nice little bonus. There’s no official Fellow repository mentioned in the books. Even a scan of the publisher’s website doesn’t find any mention of them. There are a couple of Japanese-language fansites with Fellow databases, though, and probably more on the handful of SW2.5 message boards. For English speakers, the Sword World Translation Project’s Discord has a Fellows channel with several entries already. A Fellow is a way to offer more muscle and/or skills to a party when needed, plus a role-playing prompt, plus a way to feel like you’re contributing to the larger community. I enjoy this concept a lot, as you might expect considering how long I’ve gone on about it. It’s quick, simple, and a bit silly. Just how I like ‘em. Next time: Monsters! Monsters!
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Mar 22, 2023 18:01
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Fellows are a lovely detail.
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Mar 22, 2023 18:10
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Dragon's Dogma's pawn system is not something I expected in a tabletop game, but that's... really neat, actually.
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Mar 22, 2023 18:38
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That poo poo rules. Finally I can be a Palico!
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Mar 22, 2023 18:39
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Mirage posted:In tone, SW2.0+ feels more whimsical and varied than SW1.0. People often describe SW2.0 as Final Fantasy to SW1.0’s DragonQuest.
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Mar 22, 2023 19:02
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Halloween Jack posted:Is there a general perception that DQ is more serious than FF? I've only played DQ1 and DQ4 on the NES, so my impression for a long time was that DQ had a very simple fairy-tale story compared to FF, where the first game combines fantasy and sci-fi and you start to see some social themes crop up as the series goes on. For all I know, DQ11 is a serious philosophical epic.
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Mar 22, 2023 19:09
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mellonbread posted:UNKNOWN ARMIES 3E BOOK FOUR: EXPOSE PART 6: STATOSPHERIC SELVES PART 2 I do recall that the modules in the West End Games Star Wars RPG would occasionally feature cut-scenes to off-screen NPCs.
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Mar 22, 2023 19:10
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Mors Rattus posted:Soulbound: Era of the Beast For some reason I quite like it how even in the Warhammer game of higher fantasy and more Proper Nouns, there's still an adventure seed that's about securing a steady supply of lumber. The more things change, and all that.
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Mar 22, 2023 19:15
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PurpleXVI posted:I want to say that I like the "historical" retrospectives for each class you do. They're genuinely interesting. Halloween Jack posted:Seconded! Thanks! Usually when I do that in real-life, people's eyes glaze over. When I've seen Aragorn cited for two-weapon fighting, it's usually Weathertop, with sword and torch... and general reaction tends to be whoever is arguing that is really reaching (Aragorn might justify the spells, with the healing and herb knowledge, but by that point in the book he's closer to D&D's paladin). A quick search finds a reddit thread and Drizzt gets a lot of credit/blame for dual-wielding https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/pg9kvp/why_rangers_fight_with_two_weapons/ though someone does bring up that the timing doesn't really work. I think Drizzt is probably why two-weapon fighting as an option for rangers persisted, but not the cause.
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Mar 22, 2023 19:21
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Halloween Jack posted:Is there a general perception that DQ is more serious than FF? I've only played DQ1 and DQ4 on the NES, so my impression for a long time was that DQ had a very simple fairy-tale story compared to FF, where the first game combines fantasy and sci-fi and you start to see some social themes crop up as the series goes on. For all I know, DQ11 is a serious philosophical epic. "Whimsical" is probably the wrong term. "Less straightforward," maybe? SW1.0 is very upright and direct Epic Fantasy. SW2+ is as you say, with more avant-garde elements. You would much more expect to find mech suits, airships, and Chocobo racing in 2 than 1. Not that SW1 doesn't have its fun bits, but 2 ranges much wider.
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Mar 22, 2023 19:33
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UNKNOWN ARMIES 3E BOOK FIVE: MINE PART 1: CRYPTOMANCY, DETRITOMANCY AND ENTROPOMANCY Unknown Armies 3e, Book Five: Mine is another splatbook from the UA 3rd edition Kickstarter. As the name implies, it’s the one that came out after Book Four, which is the one that came out after the three books in the core set. Released in 2017, Book Five is not a Greg Stolze product. It was created by a team of Atlas Games writers, including some returning authors from previous editions. I’m not going to recap what Avatars and Adepts are in this post, or any other stuff that I covered in the Book Four review. If you’d like to revisit any of those things, check here.  This book has eight Adept schools, nine Avatar Archetypes, new rituals, new magick items, locations, NPCs and factions. It’s a hundred pages compared to Book Four’s ninety pages, and there isn’t any padding. This book has more public domain photography than Book Four, but doesn’t have bookmarks, which sucks. Especially since Book Five is much mechanically denser. Buckle up. ADEPTS We’ve got a lot of ground to cover here. The introductory text lays out a program of porting forward some Adepts from 2e, and adding new ones to the pile. It says that some of the Adept schools will seem more appropriate for antagonists rather than player characters, but all of them are written as valid character build options.  CRYPTOMANCY Cryptomancy is a backstory heavy school from the previous editions of UA, originally tied to a secret history of conspiracies similar to how Cliomancy was interwoven with the story of the Sleepers. If you wanted an ultimate resolution to the brewing secret war between the East Germans and the homosexual underground, you’re going to be disappointed. Book Five tosses all that aside and jumps straight into the mechanics. Cryptomancy is about secrets. You hoard secrets and then you dole them out to further your schemes, revealing info selectively to enhance your power. Unknown Armies gives a list of slang terms that occultists use for each Adept type, which I forgot to go over in the Book Four writeup for Ustrinaturgy. Cryptomancers are sometimes called Cognoscenti, Weasels, or just Liars. To generate a minor charge a Cryptomancer has to learn a piece of information about someone that could cause them harm if released publicly You can track this by actually roleplaying the character doing detective work/trawling the internet, or you can abstract it and say that the Cryptomancer can harvest up to ten minor charges a day, and “if they’re a half-way skilled internet user, that only takes a couple of hours”. To generate a significant charge you have to release the information you gathered while getting a minor charge, in a way that harms the person it’s about. The information must be written, people must believe it, and it must harm the target. Cryptomancers get a major charge if they reveal a secret that’s big enough to bring down a government or country. The kind of thing that people would kill you for. Though a lot of people will also try to kill you for the significant charge. Cryptomancers taboo if they tell anyone a true fact that person did not already know. The taboo only applies to spoken information, which is why Cryptomancers get sigs by releasing the information in written form. There are a couple paragraphs in the book that go into the finer details of how this works, but basically just being in the same room as another person is a taboo risk for a Crypto, because even something as simple as “I’ll have a beer” is telling someone else a true fact they didn’t already know. Importantly, sign language doesn’t break taboo. A deaf or mute Crypto doesn’t have to worry about all this poo poo. Charging is easy for Cryptomancers. You get ten minors a day, and each of the pieces of info you get can net you a sig if you pull the trigger on releasing it. You can break down significant charges into ten minor charges each. So your maximum per-day is ten minors and ten sigs, 110 minors, or some combination of the two. The downside is that you basically can’t engage in spoken communication with other people or you lose the charges, and releasing the info will make you a lot of enemies very quickly. Cryptomancer random magick is based on illusions and social manipulation. Cryptomancy has no blast, so the random magick can’t deal direct damage. We’ll go over the highlights from the spell list rather than every single one. Minor Spells Cryptomancy minor formula spells create illusions and alter perception. You can make yourself better at lying and detecting lies, you can change the appearance of objects like with Prestidigitation, and you can inspect someone’s character sheet to learn their obsession and other details about them. The most powerful spell on the list, for a minor formula, is The Forgotten. Lay a hand on someone and you can remove them from reality for d10 minutes. They disappear and nobody but you even remembers they existed. They reappear at the end like nothing happened, safe and sound and unaware that they disappeared. Significant Spells You get a version of The Forgotten that lasts for hours rather than minutes, called The Lost. This one can cause harm by deleting a person, though nobody can trace the hosed up situation they’re in back to them. For example if you delete the driver of a car, the occupants of that car remember another reason for why the vehicle is now careening driverless down the highway. Sewing the Seeds lets you incept a lie into someone’s mind by whispering it, so they think it was their own idea. You get a bigger version of the prestidigitation spell, and an Unknown Armies version of Comprehend Languages. You can summon a demon with Tap the Source but not bind or control it. The nastiest power is Cutting the Cord, it lets you touch someone and stop them from using any magick powers for d10 hours. Example Major Charge Effects include deleting someone from reality permanently, changing something about yourself permanently (sex, nationality, age, etc) or permanently changing one object into another. ANALYSIS When the book says some of the Adept schools seem more appropriate for NPCs than players, I assume they’re talking about Cryptomancy. The wizard sitting at the center of a web of secrets, gathering information about the player characters and altering their reality is classic villain behavior. But I don’t think it’s off the table as a player option. The main downside is how easy it is to get sig charges. It’s supposed to be balanced by NPC blowback, all the people pissed off that you revealed their secrets coming to get you. But the abstract secret gathering system means you’re gathering ten compromising pieces of information every in-game day, and that’s ten opportunities to reveal that info, which means the GM has to come up with ten compromising secrets, and ten people who want to hunt you down and kick your rear end for letting them slip. I said in my Book Four review that stuff like this is fine, provided you hook it into the corkboard that you create during worldgen. My advice for making Cryptomancy better is to reduce the number of charges you can gain through sitting on your computer for an hour, or remove that option entirely and only let the player charge through actually in-character discovering secrets about NPCs. Reduce charge costs across the board to compensate. You’re left with a school that does the same thing, but now requires digging into the social lives of NPCs you’ve already created, instead of forcing the GM to come up with a stream of disposable nobodies. The Cryptomancy taboo is not that big a deal for a player character interacting with other players. They can take on a “handler” role where they monitor things from a command center, communicating with the other characters in writing, taking to the field only when they need to cast spells in-person. I know people who already play this type of character in Eclipse Phase and Delta Green.  DETRITOMANCY Detritomancers (AKA Magpies, Garbologists, Packrats) are trash wizards. They collect garbage and put it in a secret pile called a midden. It can be useful trash, or it can be worthless crap scavenged solely for the purpose of symbolic resonance. Either way, trashomancers are masters of decay and forgetting. Detritomancy is a new school for 3e, it was teased in the core set but this is the first time it's gotten a full writeup. Garbologists generate a minor charge by spending two or more hours collecting trash in a public place. This inflicts a tiny Self shock at level 2 to the Adept, which means even the tiniest bit of psychological hardening is enough to get over it. In order to get the charge, the stuff you collect has to have been discarded, it can’t be gifted to you and you can’t steal it from someone who’s still using it. To generate a significant charge you gotta find a piece of trash that’s worth 100 dollars or more, OR has a significant value to someone who regrets throwing it away (or someone else throwing it away on their behalf). If you’re tracking the number of trash items picked up for a minor charge, there’s a 10% chance that each item picked up is actually worth this significant amount. The other way to get sigs is to spend a full hour illegally searching through actively guarded garbage. You can break into a junkyard or landfill to do this, or the dumpsters behind someone’s house, or a place where they break down military airframes. You only need to scavenge one item to fulfill your obligation, but once you scavenge an area you can’t get another sig from it for one week. To get a major charge a Detritomancer has to find an extremely valuable object in the trash, worth half a million dollars or more. Detritomancers have two taboos. When you collect items for charges, you have to put them in your midden. If you remove items from the midden you lose all your charges, same if it gets destroyed or if someone else messes it up. You also lose all your charges if you own an object worth $100 or more for twenty four hours. This doesn’t apply to objects you found while scavenging. The Detritomancy random magick domain is rust, rot, decay, discarded and forgotten things. Detritomancy charging is expensive and the taboo is punishing. It takes a Detritomancer two hours to get a minor charge, and in that time a Cryptomancer has already hit their daily max of ten. Per the spell balance rules in 3e core, Detritomancy spells are therefore cheaper, but let’s see how much so and whether the power level is proportional. Minor Spells Detritomancers can inflict a debuff called Laziness which takes 10% off the target’s odds of success on d100 rolls, one roll per casting of the spell. It’s overcosted at two minor charges, meaning it takes four hours of work to inflict a tiny malus. The Detritomancy blast Too Much Junk Food inflicts decrepitude, rupturing blood vessels, spraining joints and cracking bones, but dealing reduced damage to physically fit characters. They can cause people to drop objects without realizing it, forget about major life events, and neglect security measures to protect important locations. The premier minor spell is Past Due For Maintenance, which causes an object to decay at a rate of one year per day that elapses after casting the spell. This goes on until the object is completely destroyed, or until someone does preventive maintenance. You can apply the curse to a fist sized or smaller part, but it can be any part of an inanimate object that you can see, as long as you know that part exists. Take a look at a blueprint and then curse something deep inside the engine, which nobody is going to see until it fails. Significant Spells Detritomancy sig spells let you inflict apathy and decay on others in grander fashion. Deny enemies die manipulation by making their obsession and passions seem worthless with What’s the Point?, cause organ failure and osteoporosis with the sig blast Your Body, Your Temple, force level 8 Helplessness saves on people trying to perform any complex task with Futility. They get a divination spell called Alley Cat Augery that requires you to disembowel a stray or verminous animal, but answers questions that fit in the Detritomancy random magick domain. Like the minor formulae, some of these spells are overcosted relative to their power. There’s also no greater rotting or withering version of the lower tier object annihilation spell. Major charge effects for Detritomancy include reducing an entire city block to rubble, being permanently ignored by a category of people like government agents, or making everyone believe a particular product or company is bad and makes trash products. ANALYSIS This spell school has some cool powers, but the spells are overcosted relative to the difficulty of charging and the strictness of the taboo. I don’t think any of the sig spells should cost more than one sig charge, nor the minors more than one minor. Two at the most. There’s also an overfocus on malaise and ennui, with a lot of similar spells that make people forget and stop caring about things. These should be combined, and the empty space filled with spells that let you be a weird trash bastard. Commune with raccoons, rats, possums and crows. Regen HP or buff your stats by eating garbage. King Rat and Frank Reynolds type poo poo. Like with the Tamer, the fear of decrepitude and rot is something to be embraced with this caster school. And that is something I like about it. I complained when I reviewed the Ustrinaturge that it was too socially acceptable and you could practice it while living a normal life. Not Detritomancy. The taboo almost guarantees you’re homeless, or live in a weird location with a weird lifestyle. What he hell, let’s do one more Adept.  ENTROPOMANCY Now we’re getting into the heavy hitters, the core schools from the earlier editions of the game. Entropomancers (bodybags, chaos mages, exploding dice) are probability mages, daredevils who gain power by submitting to chance. In a sense, Entropomancers predate Unknown Armies and the New Inquisition comic scripts that preceded it. These gambling mages and their gambling mage antics can be traced right back to Last Call, the Tim Powers novel that the first UA books were cribbed from. Entropomancers generate a minor charge by exposing themselves to danger. It has to be your choice, you have to risk something you need (money you can’t afford to lose, d10 HP, etc), and there has to be at least a 10% chance you actually get hurt. You can’t use magick to manipulate the odds, because you can’t use charges to get charges. To get a significant charge you have to raise the stakes. Risk on the order of 5d10 damage, or the equivalent in money or social consequences, and do it purely for the sake of charging, not for any constructive purpose. The Entropomancy major charge is pretty easy to get, as far as majors go. Either endanger a minimum of ten people with a stunt that might kill them, or one person you actually care about. Either way, you have to be present to make sure they understand the stakes and see the fear in their eyes as they realize there’s a chance they’ll die at random. Basically if you want to become Two Face you can get lots of major charges from terrorism. Some Adept schools are like that, they give out majors like candy if you’re willing to make yourself the enemy of every living thing you encounter. Entropomancers taboo if they try to shield themselves from danger by exposing other people to risk. You gotta lead from the front and you can’t gamble with other people’s money. Entropomancy random magick is all about coincidences and probability manipulation. You can’t use magick to buff your chance of success when you get charges, and when we get to the spell descriptions they all say that you can’t use them to mitigate deadly fuckups incurred while charging. There’s a constant back-and-forth between surrendering yourself to fate and incurring whatever pain the world deals out, then spending those charges to force your own will on the universe. Minor Spells Entropomancers get a spread of low level probability manipulation abilities. They can buy emergency rerolls with Fortune’s Fool, get a potion of displacement effect (50% miss chance) with Bulletproof Chutzpah, and get a hunch with Peek at the Top Card. Hunches are a category of UA3 spell effect that many schools get, similar to blasts. You preroll a d100, and the next time you do something that requires a die roll, you use the prerolled result instead of rolling. It’s like the 5e Divination Wizard but worse, since you don’t get to choose when to bust out the saved die roll, it just procs automatically. Entropomancers can use Pierce the Veil to cheaply summon demons, but the ability doesn’t grant control over it. The Entropomancy minor blast, Evil Eye, scars the target’s skin with random words and images that reflect the intrusive thoughts of the caster. The caster can add bonus damage to the blast by rolling up to five additional d10s, but if even one of those dice shows an odd number the blast instead does no damage and you lose the minor charge spent. Significant Formula Spells Entropomancers can use Cage For The Dead to bind and control demons summoned with the lower level ability, but unlike other demon control powers this formula cannot be used to banish them. For one sig, Entropomancers can completely negate all damage from a hit with Luck of the Damned, as long as they have a plausible explanation for what coincidence allowed them to survive. I Win lets you convert a failed d100 roll into a success, no matter what the roll was (unless it was a crit failure, those always fail). The most expensive sig formula is On A Roll, which gives you a 10% buff to chance of success on d100 rolls for a day. All the spell schools we’ve encountered so far significantly overcost these small percentage bonuses, I suspect they're mispriced in the corebook’s Adept creation system. The sig blast is called Killing Stare and you can’t add bonus damage to it. If it kills someone they liquify or get shredded. An Entropomancy major charge lets you dramatically change an event in your past. You can rewrite your own history as long as you don’t change
ANALYSIS I like Entropomancy because it makes luck and probability manipulation mechanically salient in a system where players already have lots of ways to manipulate die results. The theme is cool and it’s easy to imagine a broad range of characters who would use this spell school. I like it when a school has a major charge that doesn’t take a campaign of work to get, but instead requires a grisly sacrifice that can be done quickly if you’re ready to pay the price. My big problem with Entropomancy is the requirement that the daredevil activity undertaken to get a Significant charge not serve any constructive purpose or advance the plot. If you’ve followed me this far then you know I’m always on the lookout for how we can link a character’s idiosyncratic magick system to the shared objective and world. Entropomancers should be allowed to get charges from dangerous poo poo that advances the plot, they shouldn’t have to make sure their life threatening stunts are totally divorced from anything helpful. In the next update, we'll meet some more new and returning Adept schools. mellonbread fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Mar 26, 2023 |
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Mar 22, 2023 19:47
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I love Entropomancers. I love the charging mechanics, I love the cheap blasts and demon summoning. I love that the UA world gives all this power to someone who will, because of perverse incentives and their own nature, use it in the funniest way possible.srhall79 posted:I think Drizzt is probably why two-weapon fighting as an option for rangers persisted, but not the cause. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Mar 22, 2023 |
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Mar 22, 2023 20:49
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Halloween Jack posted:Yeah, that makes perfect sense to me. I think Drow got the ability to dual-wield in the G-series modules or in Unearthed Arcana, which is probably why Drizzt has that ability. Yeah, his origin trilogy makes it clear as he learned dual-wielding well before he became a ranger
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Mar 22, 2023 21:27
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The Icewind Dale books were really big. No reason they couldn't have edited one paragraph in the year between. Not like AD&D was some meticulously playtested fully cohesive machine.Robindaybird posted:Yeah, his origin trilogy makes it clear as he learned dual-wielding well before he became a ranger Terrible Opinions fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Mar 22, 2023 |
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Mar 22, 2023 21:33
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Next for UA we get Epideromancy, my favorite school because it’s most 
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Mar 22, 2023 21:49
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Definitely my second favourite after bodybaggin'. Entropomancers have the best illo in the previous edition. I will say, while the new edition seems to give more guidance on getting the PCs together and keeping them together, it still seems like a game with a very high buy-in. Esoteric Enterprises has a lot of rules problems, but the baseline of "you're a bunch of scrub-tier criminals trying to pay rent" is very straightforward and hard to gently caress up by comparison.
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Mar 22, 2023 21:55
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Warden posted:For some reason I quite like it how even in the Warhammer game of higher fantasy and more Proper Nouns, there's still an adventure seed that's about securing a steady supply of lumber. The more things change, and all that. Lumber is super important.
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Mar 22, 2023 22:50
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 So, let's talk about Conflict Scenes. Conflict Scenes are when this game feels more like a TTRPG. Since there's a big emphasis on the game of being more vague on play and actions, a "zoomed out" experience, these are when the game "zooms in" a lot more, and the order PCs act in is much more important. They're for when the situation calls for a rapid series of events and actions, and while that usually happens in a fight, Conflict Scenes are, as mentioned before, not just for fights. The book gives some examples: Conflict Scenes posted:
The game notes that there's no reason to use a Conflict Scene for every one of these occasions, either. Only "truly dramatic situations", which I think is a tad bit silly in this case, but I half-agree: The duel example used in the last post still would be better as a series of opposed checks, rather than a full on battle. An epic showdown between one PC and their nemesis might be fun to watch for a little while, but eventually the other Players will get bored if the only thing happening is the PC taking a turn, then the nemesis, until one of them falls over. But I've always been a firm believer in the old adage "Don't Split The Party", and not just because it makes more work for the GM, who usually happens to be me. It's also a tactical error in a lot of TTRPGs: Being split up means you're less likely to be able to deal with threats or problems without a full range of abilities and bodies. But more importantly... Well, I'll finish that thought in a moment. First! We get a flowchart on the next page about the general setup of how a Conflict Scene is run, and we'll be talking about this in more detail throughout this post, but this flowchart contains all the information a GM and the Players need to set one up and go through the whole thing, which is good. A bite-sized set of instructions before the more detailed explanations come in. I'll show off the flowchart in an image, and then talk about it myself from there.  The first step is that we decide who is actually involved here. While it's understood that a party will often face a threat together, sometimes, the party is split despite all common sense screaming not to do that, or sometimes someone will be an active hindrance in the coming scene. You don't want your Berserker saying a lot at a high-society party where you're trying to sniff out the hideout of the secret cult in the capitol city, obviously. It's not just that they can't add much, they're really an actual liability there. And in the example the book gives, we see the idea of a trial where two of the PCs are acting as the defense attorneys for a young bandit. One, a Knight, uses his mere presence as a noble to lend credence to the Scholar, who will be doing the talking. But because of the nature of her job and reputation, the Thief is going to avoid being seen, and not for the usual reasons. She already did her part by collecting evidence. Now, back to what I was saying before: More importantly than the tactical error of splitting the party, or the extra work your poor, beleaguered GM has to suffer through (you assholes) is the fact that not everyone is participating in a tense, dramatic scene. While that can be understandable, it still kinda sucks for everyone not playing at the moment. Of course, I'm sure most of us know Players who are fine with just watching on the edge of their seats as this crime drama unfolds in front of them. Of course! I know I do, as a player, I love giving others the spotlight and watching things play out. But ALL of us know the Players who would spend the entire time impatiently tapping their dice, wishing they could roll, and usually both types are in a playing group. While I'd think of this as being immature, that's not really a fair sentiment. Everyone has their own levels and points of engagement, and some people just can't care about a situation they're not involved in. I appreciate that this game is allowing more stridently for the possibility that not everyone needs to shine all the time, but in practice, this kind of thing really requires the right kind of group to fully work out. TL;DR: Don't Split The loving Party. Anyway, next step is to discuss the goals of each participant, and determine what everyone has equipped as well. This step seems slightly redundant, or out of order. If you know which characters are participating, and which ones aren't, you probably know WHY they are or aren't, and thus what they hope to get out of this! Of course, maybe a Player's intention isn't the same as their character's, or maybe the PC themselves are hiding a secret agenda. That'd make this step important, if you don't care about sacrificing the surprise the other Players get from finding out that the Scholar is actually planning on getting the bandit declared guilty! The game would prefer these intentions be made clear up front. Initiative comes next, and it's pretty simple: It's a Group Check. As a reminder, the party chooses who is best at passing this Check, that PC is the Group Leader, everyone else rolls to get a bonus to add to that check, and the Group Leader rolls. In this case, the difficulty is the highest initiative score among the antagonists in the scene. If the Group Check is passed, the party goes first! If they do not pass the Check, the enemies go first. Notably, if someone new comes into a Conflict Scene, either as a surprise Villain or expected reinforcements, they have to adapt to the existing initiative. This is given no detail but will make perfect sense when we talk about :  apropos of nothing, have these sweet Katars to break up all this text Rounds And Turns! Everyone takes a turn in a Round, and a turn involves a single Action, which we'll find a list of in a few pages. I'll go into them then. Once everyone has performed an Action, the Round is over, and if the Conflict isn't, a new Round begins. So who goes in what order? If the Party goes first, they nominate someone to lead them off. Then the GM picks an enemy to Act. Then... Another PC goes. How do you decide this? Well, since the game doesn't actually say, I'd prefer to handle it like Lancer does: The Player who last acted chooses who goes next, and then another enemy gets a turn, etc. If the enemies go first, it's the same but in the opposite alternating order. If one side outnumbers the other, you keep alternating as long as you can, and then all the remnants get their turns. Because of this action economy, as a note from me, it's very important that Bosses and Villains get multiple turns a Round, or they'll be drowned under the weight of PCs beating them to poo poo. In IC terms, neither Turns nor Rounds take a specified amount of time to happen. They just happen and if the sequence of events takes longer from one Round to another, that's cool too! No spells in this game have a duration listed in seconds or minutes, just Turns, Rounds, or Scenes. The cleric/nurse has more to say about this:  This game has a lot of Skills and Spells that will be far more effective if used in the right order, and almost every enemy has Skills that can change what someone might do in a turn. The order of operations is important, and can turn a nightmare of a Boss into a manageable challenge. Which Players act first and what they do can make or break a Conflict, so like she says, make sure you cooperate with each other! There's an optional rule here for Enemy Initiative: And it's just making them take Turns in descending order of Initiative score instead of the GM picking. Supposedly, this will let the GM focus on more important things in the Conflict Scene at the cost of making enemies more predictable. I don't think the GM planning who and what goes when is that much of a drain on attention, personally, but maybe someone else will! Now, we're going into Distances, which is HEAVILY abstracted in this game. How much so? Well, so much so that there's effectively no difference between melee range and ranged... Range. Like in a JRPG (well, most of them), everyone is considered to be in range of everyone. The difference between melee and ranged is in how they interact with Skills and Spells, both PC and NPC. Flying enemies can't be struck by melee enemies unless something MAKES them capable of being attacked, for instance, so having ranged options in a Party is crucial. If no one at least has a simple bow, there's really very little they can do against even the most basic Flying monsters without wasting a lot of resources. Now, if everyone can hit everyone at any time, what about the squishy mages? Where do they come in here? We'll cover that soon, but the basics are that the game sort of expects there to be a designated Tank in the Party. While that's probably not always going to happen, everyone can help the more fragile members of the party stay alive using the Guard Action. Personally, I'd also subvert the game's expectations (and I have in my own Fabula Ultima campaign) and allow PCs to make it harder to target them by using terrain or Spell effects. When we're dealing with a Split Party (we just discussed this why are you doing it), the initiative order still matters, and you will cut between the different sce- Wait, no, this is a horrible idea! Swapping back and forth according to the initiative is a great way to confuse everyone, even yourself! Don't do this! Have both Conflict Scenes follow their own initiative, or handle one and THEN the other! There's a great optional rule at the end of this section for a situation like this, actually: If a Player isn't controlling any character in a Conflict Scene, try out having them influence the Conflict anyway: Once per Round, every that doesn't have a horse in the race can force a re-roll of any die, ally or enemy. This can be done multiple times by different Players, which sounds like deliciously chaotic fun. "Okay, but..." The book says, calling itself out. Okay, but... posted:There are situations in which distances and positions are supposed to play an important role: What if there's a sniper atop a tower? What if a terrible ritual tears open a chasm in the middle of the battlefield? Or you can just give Players a bone for being creative instead of saying "nuh uh".  Just a thought.The Book, still doubling down posted:In the end, the most important thing to remember is that conflicts shouldn't be resolved through careful movement and positioning, but through clever use of the character's Skills and Actions. Stepping off my soapbox, let's get into ACTIONS! There are many various Actions, and a list to follow, but the book actually puts here a few things you can do aside from an Action on your Turn that won't actually end your Turn:  You can do these kinds of things at any time on your turn, but within reason. The GM has the right to tell you that you can't do more than one of these things, or if you can't do them at all depending on the circumstances. For all other things, that don't fit into one of the set Actions or in this list: If it requires a Check, it's probably your main Action for the turn. And of course, being cool doesn't take any Action. If a Player wants to describe their PCs lower-case actions with style, that doesn't cost anything. Don't be a jerk and make PCs make Checks when they try to look cool! Instead of writing out the list of Actions, I'll just dive in: Attack: When you want to aggress upon an enemy, you select a target! You must know their position (oh, now that's important) and be able to see them. You also have to be able to reach the target with the weapon you have: As mentioned earlier, flying enemies can't be hit with melee weapon under normal circumstances. To hit, you have to roll the weapon's Attributes, add any bonus you might have from the weapon or your Skills, and add them together, while keeping in mind the higher of the two rolls. If the accuracy result exceeds the defense of the target, it's a hit, and you add your weapon damage to your highest roll, the HR, to determine damage. Many Skills or rare weapons add to damage as well. If you fail, the enemy "managed to anticipate, evade, or negate your offensive". Again, I do enjoy how the game goes out of its way to support the idea that the PCs are heroes, not random schmucks with a 5% chance to look like an utter buffoon. If you roll doubles of 6 or above, you get an Opportunity to inflict on the enemy: Some benefit for yourself or an ally. We've gone through that before, as well as the fact that rolling double 1s is bad and gives the enemy an Opportunity instead. We also get here our first introduction to Affinities, which are what you'd expect out of a JRPG: There are multiple elemental Affinities that enemies can be aligned/misaligned to. Most Affinities are neutral, but there are four more: Vulnerable, which means the enemy takes double damage from this element, Resistant, meaning they take half, Immune, which means they take nothing, and Absorbing, which means they actually get HP back from the attack. Immunity or Absorption of Physical is possible, but extremely rare, and the game really does not want PCs to have either. This is... Fair, because almost all enemies in the game deal Physical damage with their main attacks. As one might expect. There are some Skills or effects that might allow for a Free Attack, which is just what it says on the tin. This usually isn't on the turn of the one making the Free Attack, though. We also discuss Multi and Two Weapon Fighting. Both are pretty easy. Multi (x) means you can attack up to x different creatures in one Attack action with the same Accuracy check. It is checked against all targets' Defense, though, so you might not hit all of them. If you roll a Crit, you auto-hit all of them. Fumble and you auto-miss all of them. If you're using Two Weapon Fighting, you can target two different enemies or the same enemy twice, and you have to roll separately for both weapons. You can also roll them in either order. There are three caveats, though: when you're dual-wielding, if either or both weapons have Multi, they lose it for these attacks, and your HR is always considered 0, so you only do weapon damage. The final one, and most important, is that both weapons have to be from the same category (like guns or swords). There's a Skill that will let you use weapons of two different categories, and if you plan on dual-wielding, you'll probably be getting that. Next, the Equipment Action allows you to store any number of equipped items into your backpack, and vice versa. Armor is a little too cumbersome to do this with, though, at least in a single turn. If you buy the pizzas or are the GM's significant other, they might allow you to switch armor in more than one turn, though! You don't need to worry about what you have equipped already. If you have it equipped, there's no need to waste an Action drawing weapons or anything like that. Guard is a pretty important Action in this game, and a common one for a Tank to take. When you Guard, you gain resistance to all damage types from any source, and you gain +2 to any Opposed Checks taken in the scene (while Guarding, can't save this up). You can guard another character, and if you do, that character can't be targeted by melee attacks until the start of your next turn, or if you die, leave the scene, or are unconscious. This is called Cover, and you can't Cover a creature that is Covering someone else, that would just be silly. Guard can't stack by any means, which is a good thing to mention given that you can conceivably do so in the game's rules. Hinder allows you to perform a Check to inflict one of four status effects on the enemy. The Check depends on how the Player wants to inflict the ailment, more or less how they theme the PC accomplishing it, and is GM fiat. The DL is always 10. If you succeed, you inflict either Dazed, Shaken, Slow, or Weak. The game says it'll explain these later, but I want to explain them now: all status effects inflict -1 die size to an Attribute or multiple Attributes, but these four in particular are only to one. Dazed is -INS, Shaken is -WLP, Slow is -DEX, and Weak is -MIG. These can be very helpful against certain enemies, especially INS or DEX, since not only do they influence the enemy's ability to do stuff like other Attributes, but also decrease their Magic Defense and Defense respectively. Weak and Shaken are slightly less useful: Sometimes that'll really help in a Conflict Scene since it can drop an enemy's accuracy, or prevent a debate opponent from making a decent argument, but HP and MP maximum cannot be lowered in this way, so you're not doubling up on effectiveness as with Dazed or Slow. These status effects cannot be stacked, but they can be stacked with two more status effects: Enraged and Poisoned, which are -DEX and -INS, and -MIG and WLP, respectively. An Enemy can't be Dazed twice, but they can be Dazed and Enraged! That said, die size never falls below d6, so you might not need to do this. Inventory allows you to just pop an item out of your Inventory, for a limited resource intuitively called Inventory Points (IP). There's a small list of items later on, when we discuss IP in much more depth, but this also allows you to just get an item out that might help in the immediate situation in some way. If you have things in both hands, you can still use the Inventory Action, no problem! Objective is an Action you take to fill (or unfill) Clocks that are related to the current situation or objective in the Conflict. There's a bit flowchart here, but there's nothing here that hasn't really been explained before in the Clock section, aside from that particularly simple goals like jumping across a gap can be done in a single successful check instead of making it into a whole thing. I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but this is something important: If you beat the DL for a Check by 3 or more, a Clock (un)fills by 2, not just 1. If you beat it by 6 or more, that's 3 sections filled in. This is something to keep in mind for later and how hilariously broken a specific part of the game is. Spell allows you to cast a spell. What, did you think you would be getting more information about magic yet? Study allows you to do an Open Check that is usually INS+INS, but the book mentions that sometimes other combinations might be more appropriate. Study gives you information based on how well you do:  If you Study something, you can't ask the same question you asked last time. The PC knows what they know, and can't summon up more from the aether if they didn't roll particularly well. You can also use Study to learn a character's Attributes, Skills, Spells, or Affinities, which can be really helpful in a fight. Generally, you only get one piece of information when you do this, though, so it's a lot more limited. We'll get to that much later, though! Skill allows you to use Skills that require an Action to activate. The book mentions that outside of Conflict Scenes, a Skill takes 5-10 seconds to accomplish, which makes sense for some, not so much for some others. Other is just a catchall Action. I'm not really sure I can think of any other things that haven't been mentioned here, and I'm not sure that the writer did either, but having a fallback is a good thing just in case! The GM gets final say on what an Other Action might entail, though the Player can negotiate this fact. Also, Nurse Cleric has something to say:  So don't hold up the game demanding that PCs make plans in character for the sake of immersion in this game, let them discuss above-board and assume they worked out plans earlier off-screen. Or give them that cool Psych moment. That's reasonable! This is my longest post yet, but we're not quite done. First, Teamwork: When a PC does a Check during a Conflict Scene, anyone who hasn't acted yet can help them. This turns the Check into a Group Check, but with a few differences: First, the leader is automatically the one trying to do the Check. Second, all supporters don't have to roll, they automatically succeed. In exchange, this means the supporter has taken their Action for the Round and can't act (except maybe Free Attacks or the like). It seems a little much to ask for a PC's entire Turn just to give a +1 to another PC, but I can see this sometimes being a worthwhile trade-off, if you really need something to work. Particularly when Clocks are involved. And sometimes, a PC just isn't helpful in the current situation and giving up their Turn isn't actually an awful idea since they won't be doing anything useful anyway. An example given is when all enemies are flying, a PC with no ranged weapons might prefer to give someone who DOES a +1 instead of spending precious resources. We also get here that a Conflict Scene can just end because the GM said so, especially if victory is extremely clear. Definitely avoid doing this if it looks like the Players are about to lose, though, as Players have a habit of pulling a win out of their butts (and that is actually a mechanic we'll talk about)! A Conflict ending might start another Conflict, depending on the situation, which is important to note. If you end a fight and get into another one right after, this is a separate scene and that is important because many effects last until the end of a scene. This can mean buffs fall off, but also that status effects on the PCs can as well! Also of note is that Turn-Related effects end automatically if the PC goes unconscious, leaves the scene, dies, or if a Conflict Scene ends before their turn technically begins or ends. And here is a big one: If an effect begins, ends, or recharges at the start or end of a PC's turn, that automatically happens if they use Teamwork, so this can be exploited: Imagine if the mage in your party has a nasty effect on them that makes them explode for extra damage if an enemy hits them before the end of their next Turn. If the Thief tries to nab an item off an enemy before anyone else goes, the Mage can help out with that, giving the Thief a +1 and denying enemies the extra damage. This game encourages tactical thinking like this in many ways (except positioning [except when it does]). The game gives a bunch of sample Clocks here-Skip. OPTIONAL CONFLICT RULES! We already discussed one, but the others are neat. The first one on this page is about Surprise Rounds, which work just how you'd think: Whichever party gets the Surprise Round gets a free Round to work with! This can really break encounters in either side's favor, so a GM should be careful before allowing this. It's no fun for anyone if the monsters immediately splatter the party's Healer without a single chance to prevent that from happening. Even the crappiest rolls don't justify that lack of agency. The third (the second is the one we already talked about) is Battle Superiority, and hoo boy, this can ALSO break battles, but in new and interesting ways. If you've played MegaTen games, particularly SMT games after 3 or Persona games, you already get the drift here. If you don't: This special rule gives ALL characters in a Conflict a special pool of Superiority Points. You gain them in four ways: Hitting Vulnerabilities, an enemy hitting an Immunity or Absorption, getting a Crit, or an enemy getting a Fumble. Each one of these nets 1 point, and you can only have 5 at a time. Enemies can get points in the same way! What do these allow you to do? Well, if a Player wants to spend one, they can do so on their Turn. It gives them a Free Action. Just allows them to outright Act again immediately! This is a very powerful ability, especially if you know enemy weaknesses! These Points exist as a tug of war: Whenever the Party gains a point, the enemy LOSES one, and vice versa. If the enemy has a positive number of points, you have to steal their points before you start gaining them. Battle Superiority really emphasizes a tactical approach to fighting in which spending a Turn in the most efficient way gives big advantages to the side that character is on, and cleverly used can really just destroy an enemy with little trouble, but also offers the enemy to do the same to the Players. Still, it's slightly more advantageous to Players, since they usually don't have Vulnerabilities. If my explanation is a little confusing, this is what the Battle Superiority "gauge" looks like:  That's it for this post! Next time, we'll get into the nitty-gritty of some of the game's mechanics, a deeper dive into the details of how the game works (and kind of where I think Character Creation should be instead). Mecha_Face fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Mar 23, 2023 |
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Mar 23, 2023 00:01
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MonsterEnvy posted:Lumber is super important. Well, yes. That was the point.
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Mar 23, 2023 06:29
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Everyone likes some wood from time to time.
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Mar 23, 2023 11:58
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Joylessdivisions World of Dorkness Presents: Digital Web 1.0 Part 4 Major NPC’s of the Spy’s Demise Provided are a sampling of characters players might encounter in the Demise, but be warned, each has the potential to be either an ally or enemy, and no one is what they seem. Jessica Young  Essence: Questing Nature: Architect Demeanor: Avante-Garde Convention: Former Void Engineer, current bartender at Spy’s Demise Image: Jessica is an attractive young woman with long, curly brown hair and bright blue eyes with an inquisitive twinkle in her eye and a smile on her lips. Usually seen carrying an assortment of artistic tools and paper. Background: Jessica was a very talented cartographer, with a both a flair for the artistic and attention to fine detail, a person with a passion for precise definitions and accurate descriptions. She had an almost uncanny ability to translate the world around her onto paper. She was Awakened after encountering a group of Void Engineers who needed someone who could accurately quantify sections of the Net as part of their Great Race. After a couple of close calls with the VA, Jessica realized the animosity between the Conventions and the Traditions was counterproductive, unable to understand why the VE couldn’t see the advantages of helping the Traditions. She made maps not to define reality, but to help others, especially the neophyte Runners finding their way around the Net. Jessica had a long talk with some of the staff of the Demise about the dilemma and when she was done, she was offered a job by the mysterious group that runs the digital club. Unknown to many, the maps that come with the VA’s Digital Online Package Talisman are made by Jessica. When not working on maps, she enjoys sketching people and scenery in the Web. Roleplaying Hints: You want to be with the first people to explore a new section of the Web, and you form alliances with Mages of all backgrounds to tour their worlds and map the interconnections. You believe that the Traditions and Conventions, as well as the Nephandi and Maruaders all have contributions to make. You’ve formatted some of the Web yourself and retain the ability to dump Runners into Techno turf from your Convention days. You remain comfortable even when around the Technocracy. 23  Essence: Pattern Nature: Fanatic Demeanor: Loner Convention: Iteration X Image: 23 appears in the Demise as an attractive man wearing a tuxedo, always sitting by himself and letting others come to him. Background: 23 is an information broker for the Technocracy. He was once human, but now is more machine than man. As both a Sleeper and a Mage, he spent his life bitter and isolated. Raised by a fanatical grandmother who beat a loathing of all life and it’s processes into him, to the point that he hates and shuns his own body and suffers violent attacks when emotions begin to overwhelm him. His mostly cybernetic body is located in a heavily secured bunker beneath the basement of a house in Boise, Idaho. He remains hooked up to his computer system and divides his time between the Digital Web and Autocthonia. He gives out valid information to Tradition Mages most of the time, much of it directed against the Nephanid and Marauders or other Conventions and waits until he can compute that enough can be gained from misinformation to strike. He builds trust and then shatters it, never leaving enough victims behind to discredit him. If anyone threatens him, he simply downloads their profile to Autocthonia and marks them for termination, preferring not to act personally against an enemy. Roleplaying Hints: Gain the trust of the worthless Tradition Mages the dispense faulty data to them. Retrive as much data as possible in the exchange. Never look anyone in the eyes. Negotiate in a precise and logical fashion, shunning entanglements that might produce emotions. Loyalty, love, anger or even friendship are risky states because of the emotional load they bring. Be subtle in your manipulations of the enemy and always try to stay in control of a situation. If the players trick 23 into feeling strong emotions, he loses control. His icy composure explodes in a wild panic attack, staggering, arms flailing as he attempts to keep his emotions at bay. He is extremely vulnerable in this state, like a frightened child and can be made to blurt out secrets. Acid  Essence: Dynamic Nature: Martyr Demeanor: Deviant Tradition: Hollow Ones Image: Acid appears as a gleaming angel with a mohawk and strange tattoos on his body Background: The mage known as Acid is wild on the outside and shy on the inside. Craving truth and esoteric information, Acid was born with an immense amount of potential, but his genius was smothered in his stultifying home life. Growing up in a culturally isolated suburban neighborhood that had no room for his wild insights, he sought escape in drugs and computers. He Awakened while online and soon found himself in the Digital Web. Acid’s life was never the same after, and neither were the drugs or computers. A flamboyant but insecure Cybernaut, who’d like to accomplish something great, he unfortunately pities himself too much. Somedays he’d be happy to just escape life through a cosmic blaze of glory (Hell, same brother) His younger sister Julie takes care of him and tries to keep her brother off drugs and out of the Net. Roleplaying Hints: Talk in pseudo-philosphy about everything, especially sex, drugs, violence and rock music. Always act cool, but occasionally do something insecure and immature. Kalydescope  Essence: Dynamic Nature: Avant-Garde Demeanor: Bon Vivant Tradition: Virtual Adept Image: No one in the Demise is certain of Kalydescopes age or sex. Their Icon image varies, but they are always flamboyant, preferring to use millions of bright colors to create their Icon. They always wear a piece of clothing or jewelry with a gecko on it. If they stay offline for a while, inevitably someone in the Demise starts speculating as to which Icon Kalydescope will choose next. Their mutability extends to social situations, as they display an uncanny ease of shifting their personality depending on who “he/she/it” is speaking with. They love experimentation of any sort. Background: Kalydescope has been in the Web just a little too long or suffered too many effects from Quiet. “he/she/it” shifts Icons continuously, never remaining static and using Quintessence to reshape the parameters of their Virtual Realms as often as they do Icons. Perhaps because of this, they have become a sort of celebrity at the Demise, though some worry they are slipping towards the Marauders Roleplaying Hints: Change your personality and your form to fit everything. You don’t know why you do this anymore, or even who you truly were, but you don’t care. Change means everything. Real space is just another Virtual Realm, bigger than most. You are willing to try any new experience, the more bizarre the better, and you enjoy spending time in multiple telepathic conversations. Kalydescope prefers to avoid direct conflict in the Web, unless there’s something highly unusual about the experience. They use Correspondence magic in conjunction with Prime and Spirit to shunt annoyances through some special Conduits into the Umbra as their main form of attack, as well as opening an opponent’s mind and planting a more flexible world view inside. I left the “he/she/it” in quotes as it is directly from the book so I could complain about it here. White Wolf in this period has a bad habit of trying to do right in representing queer characters and having a non-binary character here is good, but for the love of gently caress why did we need the “he/she/it” thing? THE GENDER-NEUTRAL WORD IS “THEY”! Just use They/Them to refer to the character God drat It. Secret Agent John Courage (Rogue Man in Black)  Essence: Dynamic Nature: Loner Demeanor: Thrill-seeker Convention: Does John Courage still serve the Men in Black????? Image: Nondescript, his facial features never linger long in the mind and he’s dressed in simple but nefarious get up: trench coat, boots, jeans, dress shirt and fedora, all black. Except for his white sock. When hiding in the shadows, he is calm and tranquil, a façade for the boundless energy he can use to lash out at any moment. Background: Secret Agent John Courage! The name alone is enough to chill the souls of Technomancer and Traditionalist alike. Although he reports to both the psychic networks of the MIB and the message gateways of the VA, his true purpose remains a mystery to the uniformed. He appears to perform missions for the MIB at the same time reporting supernatural occurrences to the VA (Aha! Clearly a double agent!) He has led the most destructive of the VA into sinister traps (a double-double agent!) only to release selected members later (a triple agent!) paving the way for MIB defectors (quadruple!) to infiltrate the VA (quintuple!) and fall right into his trap (!!!), until he makes his next move....the cycle goes on and on. Whom does he truly serve? Most believe that John only serves himself, silently carrying out missions as he watches the Ascension War unfold. While ruthlessly compiling data, he pursues an understanding of the conflict that few can hold. Perhaps his enigmatic machinations are merely a tool for furthering his own knowledge...perhaps he is following some torturous path to personal Ascension...or maybe he’s just so disaffected by the horrors of espionage that he only seeks to seed confusion. The world will never know. Roleplaying Hints: The Real Story: John Courage was ruthlessly efficient, legendary MIB. The pressures of espionage were so great that he eventually snapped. He’s so Arcane, sometimes he doesn’t know what he’s doing. John is slowly turning into a walking pulp novel and is so consumed with the need for “Action” and “Adventure” that he’ll betray anyone or go anywhere for the sake of thrill seeking. Mix two parts angst and one part Doc Savage novel and you’ve got John Courage. Agent Courage will often bring important news to agents fighting the Ascension War, regardless of what side they fight on. Through a bizarre rote combining Entropy 2, Correspondence 4 and Time 3, John will often appear at the Demise when it is needed most, even when he is somewhere else. His use of time manipulation and spatial co-location can make his relative locations in the space-time continuum difficult to ascertain. Anyone seeking data from Courage must consider which side he’s working for currently and what reason he may have for betraying critical facts. The Net, however, is not John’s only avenue to adventure, wherever heart-stopping excitement, endless cavalcades of adventure cascade, he will be there, carriying out his agenda that only he truly understands. Whether that’s observing Yeti in the farthest reaches of the Himalayas, wielding chainsaws in the steel corridors of Qui La Machinae spaceships or hiding in the shadows of the Demise, adventure calls him, and John Courage is there. The numerous exclamation marks throughout John’s write up are lifted directly from the book, and I love them. It’s utterly absurd, but it’s exactly the kind of absurdity that I enjoy. He’s a two-fisted man of action running around the wacky World of Darkness. The white socks is such a delightfully silly little bit of character nuance that I enjoy as well. That’s how you add a bit of character flavor with something simple and memorable. Astarte  Essence: Primordial Nature: Visionary Demeanor: Director Tradition: Sons of Ether Image: Asarte’s icon appears as a woman with a perfectly molded figure and void-black skin and hair with celestial bodies swirling across the surface of her skin. If you stare too long they seem to move within the vast space of her body. Background: Always fascinated by the works of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs and the like, Astarte longed to sail along the canals of Mars, travel through time and venture to the darkest depths of the oceans. Unfortunately, the Space Race shattered her youth with the revelation of the lifelessness of the solar system. She became determined to create the Sci-Fi fantasies of her favorite literature if she could not discover them for real. When her Avatar Awakened, she contacted a mysterious being known to her as Dr. Solaris, who guided her to build a large computer system out of discarded vacuum tubes and antennae that were no longer efficient to the computer revolution. The monstrosity she built took up a large section of an abandoned warehouse (this Talisman works the same as “Prodigy” from the corebook), and suddenly she had access to the Web, a place where all her fantasies could become reality. She has vast amounts of knowledge, which she attributes to being a star goddess. Previous bouts with Quiet have unhinged her mind, and she now believes that she ruled poo poo solar system a millennia ago, and that some force has stripped the Ether away and slew her children on the other planets, with only the Earthlings surviving. She has several bound rune-fetters that she calls on when in combat. Roleplaying Hints: You are now one of the primal forces of the universe, the embodiment of the entire cosmos. Others come to you begging for help and advice. If they return to you the Quintessence that you once spread across the universe, you will aid them. Nightwind  Essence: Questing Nature: Architect Demeanor: Loner Tradition: Virtual Adept Image: Nightwind always dresses in black with a jet-black cloak. He stands at 5’10 with black hair and eyes. He moves naturally and looks like his Icon is simply a recreation of his true appearance. Background: Nightwind dreams of creating something beyond what the Web is now, seeing the Net as a ripple, spreading outward in the vast cosmic ocean, and he wants to reach the shores of the ocean, beyond, above and around. According to his understanding of Correspondence, space is an illusion, so it should be possible to go anywhere instantaneously. Nightwind is still working on his vision, but intuitively knows that the whole reality paradigm is going to change. He wants to be the man who undoes Copernicus and the Technocracy, with the passion of a fanatic that shows in all he does. Frighteningly, his faith in himself is so strong and his intelligence so profound he might actually be right. Roleplaying Hints: You are better than everyone else, but you generally treat people the way they treat you. Some Runners think you’re an arrogant Feeback style showoff. They’ve obviously got self-confidence issues. You have a reputation for being the very best at obtaining data, and lots of people come to you for results. Conflict is a waste of time, and he likes to use Correspondence to move himself away from attackers in the Web. An old hand at the Net, he has access to numerous hidden Conduits and Virtual Realms. Lots of people owe him favors and most of his Realms are Gothic cyberpunk style sprawls where he is the biggest CEO of the largest Megacorps. Nightwind is intended as an occasional mentor or ally for characters entering the Digital Web, not as competition. If they work for him long enough, he might confide his vision to them. Yo gently caress this dork. First you call yourself “Nightwind” which even by the standards of 90’s WoD is an on the nose, goofy as gently caress name. And you want to take down my boy Copernicus? gently caress you. Copernicus rules and said, “What if the earth revolved around the sun?” to which the church responded, “What if you’re rear end revolved around a fire” and Copernicus told em to Deal With It* *This may or may not be historically accurate. Timothy Blackard aka Micro-Wolf  Essence: N/A Nature: Loner Demeanor: Curmudgeon Image: Short. So short it hurst your neck to look down at him. Don’t let it show on your face though, because he’s always looking for any hint of disdain over his size. Try not to crack a smile at the cowboy boots, dirty jeans, white shirt and black tie either. He may look too absurdly short and squat to be a city cowboy, even with his leathery face and rawhide duster, but when he goes fuzzy, he’ll be able to look you in the eye, tip his hat and rip your head off like lightning. Background: Micro-Wolf is a Glass Walker, born of human parents. The runt of the litter, a “freakish midget” with a rough animalistic face, he was abandoned and lived in institutions until the Glass Walkers found and rescued him. Though he is Homid (born of human parents) many Garou mistake him for a Metis and shun him. His packmates don’t care where he spends his time, and consequently, he’s out to prove a few things. He’s been breaking and reassembling things for as long as he can remember, and after all his tinkering, computers were the next logical step. He’s gained a little respect among his tribe for solving problems with his head and his computers (not to mention a healthy dose of flair). He visited the CyberRealm and stumbled into a Conduit that dumped him into the Web. He’s found people are much less judgmental on the Web than they are in real life and has since made the Web his second home. While very sensitive about his height, he insists on appearing smaller than he really is when in the Web, insisting that people accept him for what he is, rather an creating an idealized image. When he transforms into Crinos form, he usually remains small, the way he appears in real space, though sometimes he indulges himself by turning monstrously tall. Roleplaying Hints: You’re angry, you’ve drawn the shortest straw in life’s lottery. Things have been looking up (no pun intended) and you can still walk around in Crinos and look down on people. Still, Gaia owes you a few, and you’re here to collect. If it comes to a fight (and it will if anyone mentions your height) then you’ll pick your opponent, taunting their inability to catch you and then slam them when the opportunity presents itself. And no, you don’t believe that there’s such a thing as fighting too dirty. Special Abilities: As a Garou, Tim enters the Web via holistic immersion, and shifting form augments his stats to Strength 5, Dex 4 and Stamina 5. He can shift into the spirit world using Arete and has the equivalent of Spirit 3. He can also attack up to 3 times in a turn with his claws using his Rage. If you have the Apocalypse core, he is a Homid Ragabash Glass Walker of Rank 1 who belongs to the Random Interrupts camp. His gifts are Smell of Man, Open Seal, Control Simple Machine and Blur of the Milky Eye. He also knows Rites of Talisman Detection, Cleansing, Contrition and Spirit Awakening with a 3 in Rage. Okay, while I think a tiny werewolf who runs around in a cowboy outfit is hysterically funny, describing him as “freakish midget” is just cruel and offensive. Leave the adorable little furball alone, he’s trying his best. Although I imagine him as the fat Texan from The Simpsons for some reason, or having a voice like Yosemite Sam, and that’s very funny to me. Just want to see him get angry and stomp his tiny, booted feet after throwing his big old hat on the ground. Before he goes Crinos and rips my head off for laughing at him of course. It would be hysterical, for the minute or two before it becomes terrifying, and I end up dead. Views of the Spy’s Demise The Spy’s Demise can be many things in a chronicle, a place to gather information, a jumping off point for stories set in the Digital Web, or a chance for players to meet a new NPC. It could also be the base of operations for a secret organization of Mages who cross the Technocracy/Traditions lines. Ultimately, the nature of the Demise is up to the ST. Opinions Regarding the Spy’s Demise
-Marauders: The joys of visual fantasy are nothing compared to the truth. The entire Digital Web serves as nothing but a net, a great, enclosing net to catch many wriggling fishies. Oh, the tragedy for the poor Sleepers who worship the Web, but who cannot see the Spider looming over them, preparing to strike. -The Technocracy: We have conceded the necessity of the existence of the Spy’s Demise. We hope that the popularity of the BBS’s and online services will teach people to rely on technology for everything. As long as we allow it to exist, we should all use it to learn the plans of the Traditions. Welp folks, pack it in, the Technocracy has won reality in 2023. -The Virtual Adepts: The Spy’s Demise and its romantic, adventurous atmosphere are natural environments for us. We can choose different forms and guises for each new foray into the Demise. There are always more rooms and more people to meet and conspire with. This place is what Virtual Reality is all about. -Other Traditions: The Spy’s Demise is the greatest thing about the Digital Web. It provides sanctuary from the Technocracy, and a rest from the hyper speed world outside. The Tass is free, and the greatest thing about it is you never know who or what you’ll meet, see, learn, feel... Rumors from the Spy’s Demise Provided are a sampling of various rumors and info that players might overhear at the Demise.
-The NWO created the Demise and keep it running, monitoring every conversation and piece of data that comes in or out, compiling it for a later strike against the Traditions. -The Marauders want to crash the entire Web, and the VA set up the Demise with fail-safe programs that can crash the Net prior to their leaving the Technocracy. A crash in the Demise could cause damage to the Pattern Web itself. -There’s a renegade Euthanatos serial killer running around harvesting Quintessence from their victims. -A group of VE transmitted their Icons into space via the SETI program before it was shut down, go stop them! - The Ahl-I-Batin are wandering around the Net and they’re not happy about the VA taking their place in the Traditions -The VE want to join the Traditions. -The Technocracy turned a pack of Garou into cyber-beasts and let them loose in the Net. -Captain Feedback’s Icon is supposedly trapped in the Voyager space probe. -Want to take a shot at the Technocracy? There are three backdoors to the Null-B Chantry out in the Junklands. -The Nephandi control one of the Conventions, possibly Iteration X? If that’s true, then they need to be stopped before the Technocracy completely falls to the Nephandi. -Some Mages who have outlived their physical forms have transferred themselves and their Avatars permanently into the Web and have gained powers beyond those of ordinary Mages. -The secret to Ascension is to live Ascension, not seeks a sudden transformation. -Computers can dream, and because of this Chimera are coming out of the conduit between the Digital Web and the Dream Realms. -Better be careful, playing too many roles in the Web could cause you to go insane. -Somewhere in the Web, a Mage has recreated existence in its entirety and it’s much better. -The Arcanum knows that Mage’s exist, and while they mean no harm, they draw Paradox. -Magic doesn’t affect some Sleepers, with some possessing a kind of anti-magic Avatar. Are they the cause of Paradox? -A secret organization of Mage’s who embrace all philosophies as valid are the ones who created the Demise. -The Cockroach Incarna has carved out a place for itself and the Glass Walkers in the Net, and its minions are everywhere, always watching and listening. And that brings us to the end of Chapter Two. While my eyes glazed over a bit while reading through the actual magic stuff, because let me be real, I think the Spheres are annoying and dumb, I liked the bulk of this chapter. The Demise itself is a neat idea for a setting within the Web, and I like most of the NPC’s the book presents in this chapter, aside from my complaints about Nightwind and Kalydescope. John Courage loving rules, and while I have my doubts that he’ll appear in other books, he deserves a spot in my “Best WoD characters” hall of fame that I swear one of these days I’ll actually write up. I really like a lot of the rumors presented in this chapter. Some of them like “A Mage made a copy of the world and it’s better” is just sort of funny considering how lovely the WoD is, and I really like the idea of the Technocracy turning a couple of Garou into cybermonsters and then unleashing them on the Net. What’s worse than a pissed Garou? I would assume a pissed Garou who also has loving cyborg legs and laser eyes. The “Lost” tradition wandering the Net looking to wreck the VA’s is also a neat idea but again feels like something that I personally would rather have more information about before introducing it at a table. Not that I’d necessarily take everything provided in Book of Shadows about them as gospel, but at least a bit more information would be useful to give me as an ST a bit more to grab onto. The serial killer Euthanatos also sounds like a great hook for a chronicle and is one I might toss into the old “Ideas for games” notebook. Let’s keep surfing this digital wave (I’m sorry) into  Chapter Three: Tale Recursion “Tale Recursion” is a story that tasks the players with attempting to hack into another Mage’s Paradox Realm to rescue them. Sounds simple enough right? How to Run This Story “Tale Recursion” is a loosely structured adventure for use with any number of players and any grouping of Traditions, however all players must be able to access the Net as the story launches from the Spy’s Demise. As noted, the story is structured such that an ST can run any number of side-quests within the story, with a couple provided. These side-quests can be integral to the plot or simply be distractions, but they should leave the players wondering how their actions affect the “Real” (or Virtual in this case) world outside of the Paradox Realm.  [ The Plot Background: What’s Going On? Hidden in a Chantry deep in the Web, a Master of Ether named Dr. John von Neumann has spent the last twenty years perfecting an artificial intelligence model, which has taken the form of AI construct composed of sentient silicone named ROSE. Through a tremendous use of Forces, von Neumann distributed her processing over an immense portion of the Web to diffuse the effects of Whiteout. ROSE was designed with one purpose in mind, the “Solving” of logical contradictions and mathematical paradoxes. Von Neumann believed the key to Ascension was the eradication of Paradox. To make ROSE work, he injected enormous amounts of Quintessence from the Web into the construct. While this averted a system crash, the act was so Paradoxical that Paradox spirits grabbed him the moment he gave ROSE her first problem to solve. Von Neumann, brilliant genius that he is, realized what had happened and reasoned the only way to get out of the Paradox Realm was to succeed at the task that had sent him there in the first place. To the shock of literally no one, each time he has successfully rebuilt ROSE, he’s been thrown further and further into his Paradox Realm. The Paradox Realm resembles the Web nearly identically, except that Rose does not exist in the Realm, causing von Neumann to have to rebuild her at each level, and subjective time moves differently in the Realm. A second spent in the Realm is equivalent to a microsecond in real space, and recursively extends into each additional level of the Realm. Practically speaking, this means that the players can spend as much time as they want in the Paradox Realm, to return to reality and only moments have passed. Mages within the Realm also do not age, so while a millennia or two may pass in the Realm, those within age less than a day, which is how von Neumann has been able to establish himself again and again as a Master of Ether. The ironic thing about this Realm, is that through ROSE, von Neumann created his own Paradox Realm and Paradox Spirits. Many theorize that Paradox is brought on by a Mages own subconscious, and that the spirits are simply manifestations of inner boundaries that the Mage must not (or lacks the faith) to cross. No one knows for sure, and Paradox Spirits aren’t telling. However, if this theory is true, then von Neumann has created a VR prison out of the reflection of his own stubborn pride, that he can never escape until he realizes his own limitations. To be honest, this is probably the best explanation of Paradox I’ve been given by this game so far. That it’s manifested by the Mage themselves and a subconscious block on their own abilities is a much better explanation than “REALITY SAYS NO”. Von Neumann’s disappearance hasn’t been noticed by anyone but his apprentice, Bertrand Gerarde, who is familiar with ROSE but unaware of her true purpose. Von Neumann is none the less an important figure in his Tradition, and his talent would be dearly missed if he were not returned, and if the Technocracy finds out, they’re sure to leap at the chance to ransack his Chantry, and would be a great blow to the SoE should ROSE and the rest of von Neumann’s work fall into their hands. Bertrand, for his part, is holding up pretty well. He was a witness to the accident but is unsure if it was due to Paradox or not, though he strongly suspects it was. He knows he needs help retrieving von Neumann and makes the Spy’s Demise the first place he intends to look. When the story begins, von Neumann is again working on rebuilding ROSE. The level of the Realm that he’s in is determined by how long the players take to figure out the secret of his release. Once they’ve figured out the mystery, the ST should arrange for the players to find von Neumann in the next level they enter, whichever level it may be. Great job not actually giving any kind of direction on how deep this dude should be beyond just “However long it takes for the players to figure out what’s going on”. I suppose they expect the ST to have a few extra side-quests at the ready to make this all work beyond just the ones offered. Theme While the story explores the idea of entering someone else's Paradox Realm, there is a more subtle theme of the perils of power at work. Von Neumann’s hubris is what has led him to his doom, and like many Masters, he is obsessed with forcing his vision of Ascension onto reality. His spiraling deeper and deeper into his Paradox Realm is entirely his own doing, and ironically the only solution is the realization of the flaw in his beliefs. The mission is to find the Doctor and get him out of the Paradox Realm. While the prospect of getting into the Realm is a challenge, the true challenge lies in convincing the Doctor that he must abandon his approach to Ascension if he intends to escape. The players themselves will be confronted with not only the question of what Ascension means to them, but the larger issue of the proper way to go about achieving such a goal. Mood The mood is a mixture of the heroic and the bizarre. The players are on a righteous mission to rescue a prominent Master but are flung headlong into the bizarre landscape of his Paradox Realm. Scene One At the Spy’s Demise Once the players are settled into the Demise, an unknown man approaches and begins addressing one of the players as an old friend. The man ignores the first few “Who are you?” queries from the players before turning their attention to a different player who they begin rattling off personal data about. The man, Bertrand Gerarde, will initially be cordial in his approach, however his tone should shift to deadly seriousness when addressing the second player. To really gently caress with the players, he’ll move onto a third player and begin spouting off personal information about them as well. Bertrand is using intimate information about the players to get their attention, obtained by hacking into an NWO database. The ST should feel free to give Bertrand any information from the players backgrounds that they feel the Technocracy would (or should) have on the player. The degree of information Bertrand has should be based on plausibility and dramatic effect, the more intimate the knowledge, the more menacing the situation will seem and the more anxious the players will be to learn more. At the point when the players are reaching for the metaphorical firepower, Bertrand goes silent, and it becomes clear to anyone making a successful Perception + Awareness (difficulty 7) roll that he is trying to hide his nervousness and apprehension. He introduces himself in a hushed tone, explaining he needs assistance and that his methods were intended to get the players' attention. He will provide more information to the players, but only if they promise to come with him. Until the players agree, he won’t answer any questions other than “Why Us?”, to which he responds that the players are not yet set in their ways, and they are the best Disciples he could find. Von Neumann’s Chantry If the players agree to follow Bertrand, he will take them to von Neumann’s Chantry, located in a private Horizon Realm, reachable from the Web via a singular MIT gateway which only Bertrand knows the password for. To open the Gateway, a Mage must use a Mind 3 rote (difficulty 7) that mentally sends a series of keywords to the security system. The phrase “Curious Green Ideas Slept Furiously” will trigger the system to activate a rote that transports anyone in the staging area into the Chantry. Fueled by the powerful Quintessence of the Net channeled through Correspondence magic, the Chantry appears to have no real structure beyond a single room, but in fact there are numerous co-located rooms stacked in one place. There are always two doors in the room (known as Ports) an input and an output. Thinking of the room you wish to enter will configure the output port to open on that room, and only opens once the destination has been mentally decided. If more than one person passes through the door before it closes (remaining open for approximately five seconds), they all end up in the same room. Von Neumann can create rooms whenever he wishes simply by thinking about it, however unless a player knows of a room, they cannot access it. Currently von Neumann has over 200 rooms, however Bertrand only knows of about a dozen, and they range from the mundane (library, various labs, mail room) to the outlandish (rooms modeled after Escher paintings, rooms as big as Yellowstone containing vast, life-sized fractal landscapes, etc.) Once inside, Bertrand takes the players to a conference room where he explains how he knew so much about the players, that he used a Talisman called the Fiberopticon that looks like an ordinary monitor, built by von Neumann. It appears to be off currently as it works by communicating with ROSE, who is currently in a hung state. There is also a reason (in the epilogue) for why von Neumann didn’t use it to hack the Technocracy like Bertrand did. Bertrand explains what happened to von Neumann and his suspicions regarding the potential for it to have been caused by Paradox. Introducing ROSE At some point during all this explanation, the players will likely ask who or what ROSE is, to which Bertrand will explain that ROSE is an AI neural network built by the Doctor. He will lead the players into the room where ROSE is set up. She bears a striking resemblance to the robot from the film Metropolis with a wireless keyboard (powered by Correspondence magic) sitting on her lap.  Normally ROSE is very conversational, however with von Neumann gone she’s been silent, though still functional. Bertrand does not realize that the Paradox Realm that imprisons von Neumann is within ROSE. She remains in a state of digital hibernation until the Doctor can escape. The Mission Revealed Bertrand makes his appeal and if the players question why he hasn’t gone after von Neumann himself, he admits that he doesn’t believe it to be a job for one person. If the players ask why they should bother, he will remind them of the potential the Fiberopticon holds for gaining information from the Technocracy. If further persuasion is needed, he can remind the players that saving von Neumann would be a great feat and would earn them recognition from the other Traditions as well as the personal gratitude of von Neumann. Of course, this all sounds like a set up, and it’s up to the ST to try and convince the players of the sincerity of the request. Bertrand will allow his mind to be probed (with Mind Link) so long as they don’t go poking around any highly sensitive doors in his mind. If the players decide to pass on the mission, either because they think it’s too dangerous, or it’s a trap, Bertrand will thank them anyway, and return them to the MIT Gateway. Once they pass through, they will forget everything that occurred at the Chantry, and will remember waiting to enter the Chantry with Bertrand. This loss of memory always happens when traveling from Chantry to Web unless a Mind 3 rote (difficulty 5) is used shield the players' minds. Getting In If the players agree to the task, the next step is figuring out how to find the Paradox Realm and how to enter it. The first clue is that something strange happened to von Neumann and ROSE when he disappeared (he was sucked into a Paradox Realm), the second clue is that ROSE is in hung state, and the keyboard (as Bertrand points out, ROSE had speech capabilities, so why was the keyboard being used prior to the disappearance?). Everything should point to ROSE as the source. If (or when) the players figure out that the Paradox Realm is inside ROSE, they can attempt to enter the Virtual Realm, which requires either astral or holistic immersion. If none of the players have this ability, Bertrand will provide a Talisman that allows them to hack in with 10 or more successes on an Intelligence + Computer roll (difficulty 9). If the players succeed, they find themselves in the first level of the Paradox Realm and the action proceeds to Scene Two. Note: Because ROSE is a neural network distributed across numerous computers in the Web, shutting her down is impossible without first shutting off most of the Web. While possible (but extremely difficult) doing so would terminate both ROSE and von Neumann, as the Paradox Realm only exists within ROSE, and if she goes, so too does von Neumann and the Paradox Realm he’s trapped in. Getting Out There are 3 keys to escaping von Neumann’s Paradox Realm:
2- Trying to get any ordinary computer to solve logical paradoxes causes it to lock up in an infinite loop of logical inferences, thus also useless. 3- The only solution is accepting There is no solution, or recognizing the nature of Paradox, that it is inherently unsolvable. Using magic to create an AI powerful enough to recognize Paradox when it sees it (and thus giving up on trying to solve the puzzle of Paradox) unwinds the Realm, pushing the characters back out of the levels as each comes undone until they have returned to reality. Convincing von Neumann that his objective is flawed is going to be difficult, and standing in the way of his goal is potentially very dangerous (as he can and will fight back) but is necessary to save him. Scene Two This scene works more as a compilation of story hooks and vignettes to model side-quests on that the players will experience while tracking von Neumann and should continue until the players have figured out how to free the Doctor. An important element is that the environments can take any form, and the laws of reality for each area can be adjusted as needed, as well as any aspect of the Paradox reality can be exported into the real world, as the secret project taking place in Scene 2.2 could also be happening in real space. The pattern of the side-quest/stories is as follows: Each time the players enter a new level, they begin in von Neumann’s Chantry, but the world inside the Net is slightly different. Ex: ROSE is always constructed, but in a different form. Each level also completely restricts one Sphere while enhancing another (the blocked Sphere does not work at all while the enhanced Sphere is a –3 to difficulty). The Paradox Realm behaves in most ways like the real world, in as much as Astral and Umbral travel are possible, but everything within the Paradox Realm is simply a copy of the real thing. Sample Side Story: Scene 2.1 “The Abduction of ROSE” Unavailable Spheres: Time Enhanced Spheres: Entropy Theme: Human vs Machine Intelligence. Is there a difference? What is the nature of that difference? Was ROSE kidnapped or stolen? Is there a meaningful distinction? Mood: Action. A race against time to retrieve ROSE before she is assimilated by Iteration X. The players have arrived in the Chantry within the Paradox Realm. It appears that the Chantry was recently broken into by HIT-Marks with the mission to steal ROSE, which they were successful in, despite the security systems activating. Bertrand will assume the players are the cause of the break in and do what he can to take them out, using vulgar magic initially, he will not persist after accumulating six points of Paradox. That the players know who Bertrand is should be enough to cause the fellow Mage to stop fighting. While this Bertrand doesn’t know the players, he is willing to believe them if they are convincing enough. He saw von Neumann disappear after merging with ROSE, but there is no Firberopticon in this level, and ROSE doesn’t appear as a robot but as a black cube with blinking lights. In all other aspects, this level looks and behaves as real space would, however the ST is encouraged to add odd twists wherever they feel it appropriate to make the adventure memorable, suggesting that allies of the players in the real world be presented as rivals or HIT Marks in this reality. The retrieval of ROSE should be an exciting and challenging side story, providing opportunities to use Iteration X and demonstrate the sinister menace they represent. They intend to reverse engineer ROSE and incorporate the innovations into their next generation of HIT Marks, and the players can encounter progressively more advanced HIT Marks as IX puts their prototypes to the test. Sample Side Story: Scene 2.2 “Where No Mage Has Gone Before” Unavailable Spheres: Correspondence Enhanced Spheres: Forces Theme: Can exploration lead to Ascension? One man’s monumental vision is being brought to life, possibly bringing Ascension closer. Has he found the path to Ascension? The endeavor speaks for itself. Mood: The wide-eyed thrill of discovery and the excitement of exploring the unknown carry the mood. The story should have more than a little humor but should not become campy. Which....folks from the title of this scene I’m pretty sure you know exactly where this scene is going and you’re telling me not to take things into campy town? The characters have landed in von Neumann’s data transfer room in the next level of the Realm. The platform they are standing on looks like the teleportation platform from a popular sci-fi TV series, and data is “Uploaded” and “Downloaded” from this room to numerous similar rooms in the Near Umbra of the Realm. Before disappearing from this level, von Neumann was working on a project with the SoE to build a large starship in their Horizon Realm orbiting the virtual Earth. Before the players can move, they are transported to another room, like the previous one, this one larger and with two figures standing in orange jumpsuits behind a console. Once the players “materialize” one of the figures speaks into the console, informing the captain that they have uploaded X strangers from von Neumann’s transfer areas, and that despite not appearing hostile, force fields have been raised around the players. The captain responds that they’ll be right there. The forcefield around the players is resistant to magic and magic cannot pass through it. After a few moments, the door slides open and the captain and another officer appear, dressed in black pocketless pants and black boots, the captain wears a yellow shirt with a small insignia on the chest, while the second officer wears a blue shirt with a slightly different insignia. Behind the second officer are two more officers in red shirts, carrying handheld weapons, pointed at the players. The captain introduces himself as Captain Douglas, the second officer as First Officer Ilyana Tanov, and informs the players they are on the U.S.S. Endeavor, and that Dr. von Neumann did not warn them about visitors, and that if the players cooperate, they will not be detained. Unless the players can convince the captain of why they’re there, they will be thrown in the brig. ST’s can spice things up by adding a Marauder attack on the ship. If the players gain the captain's trust, they will be treated as guests on the ship, taken to the ambassador suites and offered a tour of the ship. Either during the tour or during dinner with the captain, the players learn that Douglas is a SoE, and that he is in charge of the massive project to build the starship as a weapon against the Technocracy. Douglas and Tanov are somewhat rational, but deeply enjoy the roleplaying aspect of their jobs. Douglas confides that the ships computer system, built by von Neumann, has seized up a few days ago leaving the crew in a lurch, as von Neumann is nowhere to be found, and the crew is concerned that the ship won’t be see its maiden voyage. The computer issue is of course, because it is this levels version of ROSE, and because she’s in a hung state, the Endeavor is in jeopardy. If the players reveal their mission, Douglas will implore them to continue the search. It’s Star Trek, and very clearly leaning on the original series Trek at that. Hello, it’s me, the Trekkie who had a big old goofy smile on his face and a hearty chuckle in his throat while reading this entire scene. I love it and if I was STing this scene, I would lean so loving hard into it being Star Trek without directly saying the word Star Trek.  What will happen in sample side story 2.3? Find out tomorrow!
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Mar 23, 2023 14:29
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joylessdivision posted:After a couple of close calls with the VA, Jessica realized the animosity between the Conventions and the Traditions was counterproductive, unable to understand why the VE couldn’t see the advantages of helping the Traditions. She made maps not to define reality, but to help others, especially the neophyte Runners finding their way around the Net. Well maybe they've met Tradition mages before, Jessica. joylessdivision posted:The numerous exclamation marks throughout John’s write up are lifted directly from the book, and I love them. It’s utterly absurd, but it’s exactly the kind of absurdity that I enjoy. He’s a two-fisted man of action running around the wacky World of Darkness. The white socks is such a delightfully silly little bit of character nuance that I enjoy as well. That’s how you add a bit of character flavor with something simple and memorable. I unironically adore Secret Agent John Courage. He doesn't show up a lot in person - which might actually be the best call so you don't wear out the joke's welcome - but going forward his legacy will be felt throughout the line.
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Mar 23, 2023 14:43
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Dawgstar posted:I unironically adore Secret Agent John Courage. He doesn't show up a lot in person - which might actually be the best call so you don't wear out the joke's welcome - but going forward his legacy will be felt throughout the line. The revised Sons of Ether book includes an Asian mage who deliberately acts like an over-the-top Fu Manchu stereotype because he has found that this causes all of the Technocrats to fall in line with Pulp tropes and waste their time in two-fisted action against his minions (random hired goons) while gleefully walking into his over-engineered "death traps" (who never actually kill anyone). The book leaves it ambiguous whether he is subconsciously using magic or if the Technocrats are just having too much fun to stop.
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Mar 23, 2023 16:01
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