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Halloween Jack posted:There's so much blatantly offensive stuff spread across White Wolf books that it's easy to forget some of the more-or-less-low-key...ecofascism? of Werewolf. I don't even know what to call this. The Eco-fascism is not subtle at all. Gatto Grigio posted:Nah, you’re spot-on. I was thinking the same thing; as portrayed, the Garou Nation is absolutely an eco-fascist death cult. (To the point that you have to give them cartoonishly evil antagonists like Pentex to make them even remotely sympathetic). I feel like especially in 1e, there was this idea of "The World is a gently caress, and none are free of sin, even the heroes" and so while we as the Players are expected to want to play as these various supernatural creatures, it's also pretty clear that they're not "Good" people. Vampires are literally parasites, the Garou are extremely large, extremely deadly maniacs, Mages are full of hubris and are all essentially walking, talking nukes, etc. I think they were aiming for that shades of gray/doing the wrong things for right reasons kind of vibe, and it's certainly aged......poorly in some aspects, while also coming off just kind of naive at other times. Also yeah, it's also skeevy as gently caress and gross that they're basically saying the Dorado Furies are just out here assaulting dudes to get pregnant. To use a wrestling analogy, we got a ton of Heels and Tweeners but not a whole lot of straight up Faces running around. Aka: 90's grim anti-hero poo poo cranked to 11.
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Jul 17, 2023 17:58
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One of the biggest missteps W:tA made as a game line was tying the creation of new werewolves to sexual reproduction while also having that reproduction dependent on non-were humans and animals. At first glance it doesn’t seem like a big deal; both humans and wolves rely on sex for reproduction, after all. But then you get into the weeds of werewolves becoming obsessed with “pure breeding”, tribes based on IRL human cultures that all depend on humans and non-sapient animals as This tale is almost purely a White Wolf take as well. Werewolves/animal-shifters in traditional folklore were usually humans or animals who learned some sort of witchcraft/magic independent of bloodline, and Hollywood/modern media has largely depicted werewolves as victims of a curse or supernatural disease.
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Jul 17, 2023 18:38
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joylessdivision posted:Also yeah, it's also skeevy as gently caress and gross that they're basically saying the Dorado Furies are just out here assaulting dudes to get pregnant. Nah! Then it's hot. SnuSnu.jpg or whatever. joylessdivision posted:To use a wrestling analogy, we got a ton of Heels and Tweeners but not a whole lot of straight up Faces running around. In one of the books - maybe a Player's Guide - one of the essays lays it all out there that werewolves are in fact terrible people who brawl like drunken sailors but also it's fine to lean into the Garou as anti-heroes, which it is. Then you get Revised which leaned heavily on 'oh my God what I have done' and trying to correct mistakes even if it's too late and throttling back on some - but by no means all - of the gross stuff. (Ethan Skemp has apologized for Children of Gaia Revised.)
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Jul 17, 2023 20:04
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And speaking of gross poo poo, my copy of Freak Legion came in from ebay this weekend and I skimmed through it and my take away was "Wow that's a lot more nipples than I'm used to seeing in a WoD book." At least it was in good condition and I didn't spend too much on it.
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Jul 17, 2023 20:07
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When that first came out, it had a protective sleeve on it at a lot of gaming shops. Like the back cover of Clanbook:Tzimisci
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Jul 17, 2023 21:25
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joylessdivision posted:And speaking of gross poo poo, my copy of Freak Legion came in from ebay this weekend and I skimmed through it and my take away was "Wow that's a lot more nipples than I'm used to seeing in a WoD book." Welcome to Black Dog! The 'mature' line. There's maybe two books worth the name. Freak Legion is not one of them.
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Jul 17, 2023 21:56
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joylessdivision posted:And speaking of gross poo poo, my copy of Freak Legion came in from ebay this weekend and I skimmed through it and my take away was "Wow that's a lot more nipples than I'm used to seeing in a WoD book." Don't forget Vagina Dentata and Inner Volcano. for a "Memorable experience" as the book describes it.
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Jul 17, 2023 22:04
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Kurieg posted:Don't forget Vagina Dentata and Inner Volcano. for a "Memorable experience" as the book describes it.  I literally didn't read anything in the book yet, just kinda skimmed to make sure it was in good condition and to give the art a glance. Oh what a....unique book I have before me on the eventual docket. Dawgstar posted:Welcome to Black Dog! The 'mature' line. There's maybe two books worth the name. Freak Legion is not one of them. The only Black Dog book I've actually read was "Chanel House's of Europe" and aside from the extremely questionable subject matter for a horror game, it was one of the best WoD books I've read, even with zero context for any of the mechanics at the time. I'm actually looking forward to reviewing that one.
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Jul 17, 2023 22:36
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Charnel Houses of Europe seems to be the one book where all the gears that occasionally make White Wolf books good spun into alignment at once and we wound up with something that was edgy and complex and good in the way that most of their attempts managed to be two-out-of-three, at best.
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Jul 18, 2023 00:31
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Rand Brittain posted:Charnel Houses of Europe seems to be the one book where all the gears that occasionally make White Wolf books good spun into alignment at once and we wound up with something that was edgy and complex and good in the way that most of their attempts managed to be two-out-of-three, at best. A questionable idea executed to perfection, where most White Wolf books are good ideas executed questionably.
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Jul 18, 2023 01:44
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I am now the proud (?) owner of copies of "Rage Across New York", "Rage Across Australia" and "Caerns: Places of Power". I'm actually looking forward to reviewing New York because I know my boy Fengy shows up again. Also kinda hopefully that "Caerns" is less dry than "Chantries" has mostly been
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Jul 18, 2023 01:56
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joylessdivision posted:"Rage Across Australia" You now have a completely unaltered version of the "black man fights penis envy" art.
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Jul 18, 2023 03:36
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Kurieg posted:You now have a completely unaltered version of the "black man fights penis envy" art.
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Jul 18, 2023 03:37
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Speaking of questionable segues : are we gonna get a lot more detail on the Mokole and the Balam in this book, or is that mostly in another one?
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Jul 18, 2023 05:17
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joylessdivision posted:I am now the proud (?) owner of copies of "Rage Across New York", "Rage Across Australia" and "Caerns: Places of Power". Rage Across New York has one of my absolute favorite lines in WW-dom, which sums up their whole 'good intentions, horrible execution' and I'm excited to see if you catch it. As for Caerns, I genuinely think they have cooler places than the Chantries - David Lo Pan and the Wing Kong Export Exchange aside - and has some NPCs listed that stick around the rest of the line. (You went a long way, Zhyzhak!) That said it is basically 'here is pages on the place plus a half dozen NPCs' and I like NPCs so it's not so bad for me. (My favorite are the twin Stargazer kung fu masters because darn it, just lean into it, okay?) Kurieg posted:You now have a completely unaltered version of the "black man fights penis envy" art. What REALLY killed the Bunyip? The massive size of their dorks. Xiahou Dun posted:Speaking of questionable segues : are we gonna get a lot more detail on the Mokole and the Balam in this book, or is that mostly in another one? They're built up later and eventually get their own books which are pretty good! Phil "The Thrill" Brucato writes Bastet, though, so it has Some Stuff. (Not as bad as I recalled, though. His token hot barefoot girl is not a teenager so that's a very low bar cleared.)
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Jul 18, 2023 07:31
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The intro comic for bastet does have a nice look at a mokole in full dinosaur mode, so the book has that going for it.
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Jul 18, 2023 11:03
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 Joylessdivisions World of Dorkness Presents: Haighter's Gonna Hate: Part 3: Rage Across the Amazon Part 6 First Team Number 69 (nice) Anthony Blakemoor Image: Anthony is covered in blisters, and upon contact, the blisters crack and spill infection on whoever touched them. His face is so badly blistered that only one eye opens properly. Roleplaying Notes: You are a non-stop flurry of foul language. Insult the heritage of everyone you fight. Background: Some folks have all the luck; you’ve unfortunately had none of it. If you’d thought a little blackmail on the side would have caused you this much trouble, you’d have just given Elliot Meiche his collection of private tapes instead of trying to sell them. Terry Williamson Image: Terry has a thick, bony hide covered with spikes. Roleplaying Notes: Most of Terry’s mind was destroyed a long time ago, but she still knows how to fight, so she still serves a purpose to Pentex. Smile broadly, drool and take your best shot at anything your teammates tell you to destroy. Background: When your father was fired from Pentex, you made it a point to get the bastard that cost daddy his job. You probably shouldn’t have slapped Danforth Stern in the face, and you definitely should have made certain his Fomori bodyguards weren't present. If you could remember any of this, you’d still be pissed about the whole thing. Danny Vanderhooten Image: Danny’s body has changed so much that he looks more like a large scorpion standing on its hind legs. His skin looks deceptively hard but is only as tough as normal flesh. Roleplaying Notes: You have an annoying habit of trying to sing victoriously in battle. Unfortunately, your vocal cord's no longer function, and so all anyone hears is a series of grunts. Background: Listen, Danny was just trying to get medication to treat his terminal acne. It wasn’t his fault! Just ask him yourself, he’ll do his best to tell you. Dwayne Bilingsley Image: Dwayne has dark gray skin and seven extra limbs that look like crab arms growing out of his elbows. Twelve tiny orbs in a perfect circle grow from the cavern he calls a mouth. Roleplaying Notes: Grab ‘em, bite ‘em, eat ‘em Background: Dwanye learned an important lesson a bit too late: never volunteer to be a guinea pig in place of a life sentence in prison. Dwayne Billingsley is brought to you by the fine people at the Iliad Project. At the Gates  If you’re saying to yourself “Jeez, it sure seems like there are a lot of stalling tactics going on to keep the players from catching Sam Haight” you would be correct! Once the players have assisted (or not) the Furies, there is little time for more than a quick nod of thanks as the mad Skinner is still loose somewhere in the city. The run to El Dorado’s Square is only a few hundred feet, but the player soon discover that Haight isn’t alone (which, of course not, we’ve been killing his dudes this entire story so far, I don’t expect him to be alone), as Sam has a talent for drawing the lonely and broken to him, and standing outside of the square are two Kindred, a Fomori and a Garou, guarding a set of closed doors, prepared to battle to the death. If the players participated in the Under A Blood Red Moon adventure, they would recognize one of the Kindred as Mary Johnson, a 10-year-old former Kinfolk who was embraced by the Sabbat who was believed to have been destroyed in Chicago. The other Kindred is Mary’s first attempt at embracing another. The Fomori with the group makes the previous Fomor the players have dealt with to this point seem downright petite, and the Garou, Owl Eyes has been corrupted by the Fomori and could be mistaken for a BSD. All members of this motley crew will attack the players immediately, except Owl Eyes. Mary will go directly for any player she recognizes from Chicago, screaming accusations and condemnations as she opens fire. If she doesn’t recognize any of the players, she’ll simply open fire on the nearest Garou. Mary Johnson  Weapons: A serious case of guilt (to be thrown immediately at any Garou she has met in the past) an H&K G3 assault rifle with two clips of silver ammunition and a very bad attitude. Image: A cute little moppet with blond hair, blue eyes and an adorable pout that hides sizable fangs. Mary has cuts in several places from where Garou previously attacked her believing they had killed her. Most of the major damage is gone, but the surface wounds remain. Every day she sleeps she has nightmares about how her Kinfolk came into her home and murdered her and her family. Every night when she rises, the wounds are back. She has not spent the time to cure them tonight. Roleplaying Notes: You hate Garou! They came to your home, tore your family apart because they were different. You know what Samuel Haight told you was correct: they resented your family for gaining power, because with the power that you and Sam have, the Garou can no longer treat you as second-class citizens. Now’s your chance to blow their standards to kingdom come. Start blasting like Sam taught you.  Background: For those of us who haven’t read Under a Blood Red Moon, Mary Johnson was a 10-year-old Kinfolk when the Chicago war broke out. She and her family allowed a Garou pack (the players) to stay with them and after a few days were attacked by a Sabbat pack and embraced. When the Garou returned, they found the entire family (except for a few missing or dead members) had become Leeches. Chances are good that the pack murdered the embraced Kinfolk on sight, but if they didn’t, others certainly did. Either way, Mary was believed to be dead when she very much wasn’t, and she crawled away while the Garou were disposing of bodies. Having heard discussion of Pentex, she spent the next few weeks making her way to a local Pentex office. Robert Allred, suddenly finding himself with a young Sabbat member in need of aid, was all too eager to help, promising assistance in training in exchange for Mary’s loyalty to Pentex. She agreed. Having seen her family torn apart by Garou, she has developed a deep hatred for all Garou (fair). Then she met Samuel Haight. Haight has told her the truth about what he is, and Mary has come to look upon him with an awe that verges on religious fervor. She’ll do anything Haight asks of her. Richard Justice “Juicer” Image: Still dressed in his shredded Pentex uniform. Despite his current lack of wounds, his clothes are still wet with fresh blood. He has dark curly hair, gray eyes and large fangs. Roleplaying Notes: Until a few minutes ago, you were dying, torn apart by one of those freaky bears with huge claws. Now, you feel just fine, drat good in fact. It was the little girl's blood in your mouth that did it. But man are you hungry. Maybe if you tackled one of the big guys coming your way you could drink them dry. Yeah…that sounds like a good idea…. Background: Richard got himself torn apart a few minutes ago in the fighting. Sam decided that Mary should be the one to give him the embrace, and even made sure to lick the wounds first. He’s lost a lot of blood and is on the verge of a hunger frenzy. Dominic King Image: Looks like a praying mantis, if observed while high on psychedelics. He stands just under 7 feet and has a red chitinous hide with six small arms that end in pincers or giant serrated blades. Roleplaying Notes: You adore Samuel Haight. You would die for Samuel Haight. Mostly you’ll kill and skin Garou for Sam. After all, without him, you wouldn’t even be here. Background: In a different time, Dominic worked for NHMT (Nolan Harker Mining, previously seen in Valkenburg) and knew Sam well, often talking about what they intended to do with their lives. Dominic had heard all about the Garou and Sam’s plans for them, even offering to let Dominic in on the plans once he had enough skins, but fate took that opportunity from Dominic. While inspecting one of the company's mines, Dominic fell into a shaft that shouldn’t have been there. Haight risked great personal injury to pull Dominic’s broken body out of the Wyrm Hole, then pulled some strings with Project Iliad to make sure Dominic survived. The metamorphosis was painful, but when Dominic finally clawed his way out of the cocoon his body had built, he was reborn as a glorious killing machine. Sam took things a step further and made sure that Project Odyssey was aware of Dominic’s unique mental abilities. Owl Eyes Bane Snatcher Breed: Metis Auspice: Theurge Tribe: Uktena Image: Owl Eyes is covered in patchy fur and has one extremely short arm, and his hairless spots are quickly being covered with hard callused scales, and the stench of the Wyrm oozes from him. His eyes are mad with the fight to retain control, a fight he’s losing. Roleplaying Notes: The drat voices won’t leave you alone! You are Garou, you must honor Gaia, but the voices keep telling you otherwise. You will not attack the Garou, and if they attack you, you’ll thank them and bare your throat. You want the suffering to end. Background: Owl Eyes has suffered since birth. He hoped that coming to the Amazon would gain him Glory. So far, not so much. When he found the Conquistadors' Sword, he knew he was doing well. When he saw Samuel Haight, he knew there would be enormous Renown for killing the Skinner. Unfortunately, Haight beat him down and knocked him unconscious. When he awoke, Haight thanked him for the sword and left Owl Eye’s bound body to Dominic. That was three weeks ago. The Wyrm has begun eating away at the Garou’s soul, and he could feel the changes in his body, but lacked the courage to kill himself, though he’ll gladly let a pack end his suffering. The corruption has spread through his body, and he is barely capable of keeping control and has kept himself on Gaia’s path through sheer force of Willpower. The Chambers If the players have allied with Ballengash, the Ewaipanoma or the Chimera, they’ll likely be in good shape for this final battle. If they went solo, they’re likely to suffer heavy damage by the end of the fight. Regardless, their final task lies ahead, stopping Samuel Haight from killing El Dorado. The doors that were being guarded by the previously mentioned enemies are heavy golden doors, closed and barricaded from the inside. Attempting to open the doors requires a Strength of 15 and more than one person is needed to open them. A Willpower roll to force them open can be made at a difficulty 9. Once the players have made their way inside the main room, there is plenty to see. Three heavily wounded Black Furies have joined hands and seem to be concentrating. They are older than the warriors the players have encountered so far, and they are attempting to summon Wyld spirits to their aid. The entire room is covered in gold and precious jewels, and in the center is El Dorado himself, struggling for his life against Haight. He has just awakened and is disoriented. Haight has taken full advantage of the situation. As the players finally see the man they’ve come to save, Haight drives the Conquistadors Sword into the Dreamspeakers heart. Both men are briefly engulfed in a blast of energy. As the energy fades, Dorado slumps forward, dead. The energy continues to swirl around Haight. He grins triumphantly, until the sword in his hand shatters and his smile quickly changes to shock, then fury. It’s likely the players will attempt to attack Haight at this point, but they’re beaten to the punch by three Wyld Spirits summoned by the dying Furies. As the players approach, Haight is lifted into the air by the maelstrom of spirits who devour him, and Haight can be briefly seen in the storm of energy briefly before being torn apart. Perception + Alertness at difficulty 10 will allow the observer to see that Haight has once again used his fetish to reform elsewhere in the Umbra. ST’s should not allow the players to make this roll unless they explicitly state they are looking closely to see what is happening to Haight. quote:“Samuel Haight should not be captured by the pack, nor should he be destroyed by the pack, for he will return in future stories” Ugh, I mean I know but I’ve got things to say about this in a bit. The Wyld Spirits continue to swirl through the room in opposite directions, leaving room to see if Dorado is still alive. He is, barely, as the blow was fatal. He mumbles under his breath in Incan, which all the players will understand, hearing the voice in their minds. His final words are “It is over…my reign…I now fly with eagles….” and the Dreamspeaker dies coughing up blood from his ruptured lungs. Scene Seven: Conclusions and Catastrophes With El Dorado’s death, the magic that has held the realm stable is breaking down. The Wyld Spirits that have surrounded the realm are now rushing in and reclaiming it. While these spirits are not assaulting the realm, they are aging it out of existence, and the city begins to crumble around the players. The great jungle grows larger and rapidly begins to consume the buildings and streets. What few Kinfolk remain in the city cry out from their huts as the world they have known slowly begins to slip away. The remaining living Furies are doing all they can to gather and save the Kinfolk, as will any surviving allies the players may have brought with them, and assistance from the players would likely be very much appreciated. Of course, there’s still the broken bridge across the chasm to contend with. One of the Fury elders uses the Wings of Pegasus gift to fly to the bottom of the broken bridge and brings it back to the other edge where another elder uses the Reshape Object gift to repair the bridge. Quickly everyone is filed out of the collapsing realm and into Ballengash’s Den-Realm, and then back to Earth. As the players and survivors cross out of the Dorado Realm, the waters of Lake Parima swallow the remaining land, and the previously clear skies are filled with multicolored clouds and explosions of lightning. The Realm of El Dorado is no more. Unknown to any but the very perceptive (remember that difficulty 10 roll?) Samuel Haight has not been destroyed, but has escaped once again into the Umbra, and at this point there is no chance that the players could hope to locate him. The Conquistadors' Sword has been destroyed, and with it, the knowledge that Haight sought. However, the sword was never meant to contain the power of one as strong as El Dorado, but the destruction has granted Haight a rudimentary understanding of several Spheres. He now understands the principles of using Magick. El Dorado may not be as dead as the players think, though the Black Furies will never reveal this. He is, in fact, reincarnated in the body of an eagle, living the dreams of Gaia. Perhaps one day he will return, but it is unlikely. Before we dig into the Sam Haight write up for this book, let’s talk about this adventure first. Broadly speaking, I think there’s a lot of good in this adventure, and I really like the early stuff that hints that Haight is involved, especially if you’ve already run your players through Valkenburg, having Haight return here makes perfect sense, as the players would recognize him and you get a nice bit of “Oh this mother fucker again”, which you know, is always good for a villain. However, the entirety of this story hinges on the players not beating Haight to El Dorado, to the point that there a multiple obstacles thrown at the players that it seems almost pointless to even dangle the idea of the players reaching the realm before Haight does, because we’re told explicitly once again, that the players are not to capture or kill Haight because he’s going to show up again, and the few moments he actually appears “On Screen” as it were, is him killing Dorado and then being zapped with magic until some spirits swoop him up, except whoops he uses that fetish again and zaps himself back into another part of the Umbra. Which sucks. If you’ll indulge me a bit, if I was going to use Haight as a recurring villain, especially for a group of Werewolf players, I would start with Valkenburg and make my own adjustments to that adventure to suit my own tastes and those of my players, then once that adventure was finished, I’d spend a session or two with the players going back to their home Sept to report to the elders about what they’ve done (and hopefully one of the players would bring up Haight in their reporting), and cleaning up minor things around their home Sept before having Kinfolk emissaries of Golgol arrive with the call of war to the Amazon. I wouldn’t even bother reworking the story from the Sabbat Handbook because it would be pointless and adds nothing. Once the story has shifted to the Amazon, I’d run the players through some of the various mini missions that were presented in this book, get them used to the flow of the Amazon War story before introducing this adventure. I’d keep up the “Race against time” aspect, but with the knowledge that Haight is always going to be three steps ahead of the players. By the time we get into El Dorado, that’s when I’d really lay into the utter destruction that Haight and his crew have caused to that point, and essentially up to Dorado’s death I’d keep things the same, except for the elders summoning Wyld Spirits. Just completely remove them from the equation here. I’d let Haight succeed in killing Dorado and gaining his power, and then instead of just “Welp, now some spirits grab him before he fucks off again” I’d take the opportunity to give the man a loving evil villain monologue. He’s just gained understanding of how non-thaumaturgical magic works within the WoD, letting the man gloat at the players for a few minutes about his newly gained cosmic powers just feels appropriate. Of course, the players are going to want to get their claws on him because he escaped them once before, so I’d let them, but because Haight is going to be a recurring villain, before the players make their move, I’d have Haight go Crinos and gesture for the players to bring it. Of course, he’s obviously not going to die, but I’d let the players get a couple of good shots in before pulling a bit of ST magic of my own and having Haight smack a couple of them around himself, maybe fling a lightning bolt or some poo poo. He’s just unlocked Spheres of magic, let him use them a bit. After the players have had a chance to try and kick this guy's rear end and fail miserably because they’re now utterly outmatched, I’d probably kill off one of the allies the players may have brought with them just to make sure Sam gets another kill that he can dangle over the players heads. Then the realm would start to collapse, starting with an earthquake and things beginning to crumble, which would also be the point where Sam uses his fetish to escape. That way, the players had a chance to fight Haight, maybe even leave him with a couple of scars or something to make it more interesting, but he still escapes because the distraction of the sudden earthquake that announces the impending destruction of the realm would be enough to break the action, allowing him to use his fetish and zip on out of there. It may not be a wholly satisfying conclusion, but it certainly would be more involved for the players and they’d have that “We almost got him” feeling, and I’d probably have one of the players manage to get some kind of proof that they’d battled the Skinner so that once they escape the collapsing realm and return to Golgol with a report about what happened, they can at least say “Yeah, El Dorado was lost, yes, the Skinner escaped, but we got this”, some item of Haight’s to prove that the pack had battled him and maybe wounded him. That would be worth some Renown, right? The players managed to face down the dreaded Skinner and they hosed him up a little bit? That not only builds up Haight as a villain to the players, as they’ve now encountered him twice, but now they know that even though he’s gained major power compared to when they first encountered him, they also made him bleed and they now know that they could defeat him. That’s how you build up a goddamn villain. Now, let’s look at the new stat block and history provided for Haight in this book. Samuel Haight  First, let’s look at Sam’s Valkenburg stats before we get into his updated stat block. Breed: Homid Tribe: Children of Gaia Auspice: Theurge Attributes: Strength 4/Dexterity 2/Stamina 4/Charisma 4/Manipulation 3/Appearance 2/Perception 3/Intelligence 3/Wits 4 Abilities: Alertness 3/Athletics 3/Brawl 2/Dodge 2/Intimidation 3/Primal-Urge 1/Streetwise 1/Subterfuge 2/Animal Ken 2/Drive 1/Firearms 4/Melee 2/Leadership 4/Stealth 3/Survival 4/Computers 2/Enigmas 3/Investigation 3/Linguistics 2/Occult 4/Politics 2/Rituals 5 Backgrounds: Resources 3 Gifts: Thaumaturgy 3 (Movement of Mind 2/Lure of Flames 1/Weather Control 1) Rage 8/Gnosis 4/Willpower 6 Fetishes: Shedding the Spirit Skin (Level 5, Gnosis 7) Not bad. Let’s see what changed prior to Sam gaining Spheres. I have bolded the upgraded stats. Breed: Homid Tribe: Outcast - He thinks of himself as the first of the Skin-Dancer tribe Auspice: Theurge Attributes: Strength 5/Dexterity 3/Stamina 5/Charisma 5/Manipulation 5/Appearance 2/Perception 4/Intelligence 4/Wits 4 Abilities: Alertness 4/Athletics 4/Brawl 3/Dodge 4/Intimidation 5/Primal-Urge 3/Streetwise 3/Subterfuge 4/Animal Ken 3/Drive 2/Firearms 5/Melee 4/Leadership 5/Stealth 4/Survival 5/Computers 2/Enigmas 4/Investigation 4/Linguistics 3/Occult 5/Politics 4/Rituals 5 Backgrounds: Allies 5, Resources 5 Gifts: Heightened Senses/Razor Claw/Inspiration/Curse of Aeolus/Visceral Agony, Thieving Talons of the Magpie/Bane Protector/Wyrm Hide/Blood Omen Note: the first six gifts were taken from Garou, the last three from BSD. Most were gained through the Conquistadors' Sword. Thaumaturgy: Movement of Mind 3/Lure of Flames 2/Weather Control 2/Spirit Thaum 1. Rites: Ritual of Sacred Rebirth, Donning the Mask of Shadows, Puissant Shield, Ward against Lupine Rage 8/Gnosis8/Willpower 9 Fetishes: Shedding the Spirit Skin (Level 5, Gnosis 7) The Conquistadors Sword (Level 6, Gnosis 6): A powerful relic that Sam recently acquired. It was created centuries ago by the Technocracy to assist Pedro de Ursua in his attempts to map the Amazon. Until Lupe de Aguirre stole it. After Aguirre’s death, the sword disappeared until it was found again by Owl Eyes. Owl Eyes sought the sword to gain respect from his fellow Garou, and in turn opened his heart to the Wyrm’s corruption. Haight of course “Liberated” the artifact and learned how it worked. The Conquistadors' Sword will steal the memories of anyone it kills and take any power they had into itself. Paths of power can then be learned by the bearer of the sword, like Thieving Talons, but on a permanent basis. Haight has already used the artifact on several opponents and has learned their gifts. So, before we jump into the rest of his write up, Holy poo poo. Sam jumped anywhere from 1-3 points in almost all of his stats between Valkenburg and this story. Haight was not given stats in the last book because as previously noted, he’s barely a cameo so it was unnecessary, but still, holy poo poo this dudes stat jump from one book to another is kind of insane, and these stats don’t take into account whatever Sphere’s he’s learned by the end of this adventure, though even without the addition of the Spheres, his stats are stacked and he’s now got honest to Gaia Gifts to go along with his Thaumaturgy abilities, plus whatever Sphere’s he gets in the next book. With stats like this, there is absolutely no reason that you shouldn’t at least let the players attempt to smack him around a bit at the end of this adventure. He’s still going to win, no doubt about that, but at least give the players something to do besides stand around with their thumbs up their asses while NPC’s do the heavy lifting. Image: A middle aged man in excellent physical condition with hazel eyes and pure white hair. In all forms, he retains the white hair. Roleplaying Notes: You’ve learned so much since your rebirth. You were always a schemer, but now you realize you were only a novice. There is still much to learn, so many ways you can shape the world to your vision. You hate all Garou and will gladly kill them all, but you will spare the Kinfolk, saving them from their hideous lives. Never step into a direct confrontation when you are outnumbered, that would be foolish. You have so much to correct, so much to change and your work has only just begun. If you can kill El Dorado, you can control the powers at his command! Which sure, I would say under “Normal” circumstances, Haight wouldn’t go for a direct confrontation, but c’mon, he just killed El Dorado and absorbed his power, on top of his already boosted stats. I don’t think my idea of having him doing a bit of monologuing and then essentially telling the players to “bring it the gently caress on” would be out of character. Risky? Sure. Ill advised? maybe. But HE JUST KILLED A CENTURIES OLD MAGE AND ABSORBED HIS POWERS. Are you really telling me Sam wouldn’t want to test out those new abilities on the pack who has chased him down, not once but twice? I think he absolutely would, if only to flex his powers and show off that he’s still in complete control of things, or at least he perceives himself to be in complete control.  Background: Much of this was covered in Valkenburg, Sam was Kinfolk to the Children of Gaia, never gained his father's respect, washed out of college sports due to major injury and became a big game hunter. Eventually Sam discovered Vampires were real, killed one and turned himself into a Ghoul, as well as teaching himself Thaumaturgy. Then he discovered the ritual that would allow him to finally assume his “birthright” of becoming a full Garou, which is where the players likely encountered him the first time. He zipped into the Umbra, saw what a shithole he’d made his home through his evil schemes and freaked out, zapping himself into another part of the Umbra. Which, as we also know from the previous book, is when Sam zapped himself into the realm of Ischen, a Wyrm minion who was attempting to cross into the physical realm through a “Spirit Gate” built by a Kindred. Sam used the opportunity to escape from Ischen’s realm and then jumped back into the Umbra before the unaware Sabbat who had freed him knew what was happening. Sam worked for Pentex for years prior to his “Rebirth” and saw no reason not to return after. Soon he attracted the attention of Robert Allred, another Kinfolk who had grown tired of being treated poorly by the Garou, and seeing a kindred spirit in Haight, became comrades in arms with the Skinner. Haight promised Allred he would use the Ritual of Rebirth on him, after he gathers the necessary pelts. Allred sent Haight to the Amazon with carte blanche to achieve this goal. But Haight is taking his drat sweet time about it, as he’s realized it’s the only leverage he has over Allred. There are numerous other Kinfolk who have become disillusioned with their place in the world, and Allred and Haight are slowly setting in motion their plans to create their new tribe, the Skin-Dancers, to liberate the Kinfolk and destroy the Garou. While in the Amazon, Sam has run into a few problems. The local Board is resentful of the power bestowed upon him by Allred, but even more they resent his access to such large quantities of silver, especially when all the other First Teams must work through waves of bureaucratic red tape to get their hands on the needed precious metal. Haight’s time as Director of Operations at NHMT has granted him some authority within Pentex, as well as opening Sam up to making friends with important figures within the other mining divisions of the Megacorps, including a connection within Harold & Harold, the company directly handling the issuing of silver ammunition in the Amazon. The local Board has deliberately done everything they could to delay equipment getting to Haight and ensuring that he gets the weakest possible troops. Many of these troops were the remnants of decimated First Teams, intended to make Haight’s life slightly more difficult. But what the executives hadn’t counted on was Haight’s charisma (a 5 remember), and its effect on both the stragglers and Mary Johnson. Most of them have come to look upon Haight as a messiah-like figure, a messenger of a new way. Mary looks on Sam as a father. Sam has had no hesitation in turning these feelings to his own ends, regularly taking Mary’s blood to restock his own supplies while carefully avoiding a Blood Bond, as well as supporting Mary in her efforts to learn and understand her new powers. Most of the stragglers would die for Haight, convinced he’d bring them back from the dead. I appreciate the recap of the information we were given in Valkenburg about Sam, as well as the recapping of the events of the previous two stories he appeared in, along with some fresh information that ties him in more tightly with Pentex and their Amazon campaign. I’m also pretty sure this is the first time Allred has been revealed to be Kinfolk, so that’s a neat little wrinkle to that character. I’m still firmly in the camp of “Samuel Haight is a good villain” but as I said above, as an ST you almost owe it to your players to let them get a couple of shots in on this loving guy, because just letting him escape again sucks big time. As a player, if I’d gone through the Valkenburg adventure and then this adventure and Haight just got away….again, I would be really pissed. Like, pissed enough I would vent this frustration to my ST by explaining that I think this villain is cool but it’s kinda bullshit that he just keeps escaping without us getting a chance to DO ANYTHING AGAINST HIM. I get that these adventures, as written, are intended to be how White Wolf is telling the story, and that’s fine, because the unspoken understanding is that the ST can change anything, yada yada. But even just taking it as written, it’s unsatisfying that this character just keeps getting away without a single scratch from the players, meanwhile the players are likely getting the poo poo beaten out of them through his various traps as they track him. Having said all that, I do like this story, I dig the Ewaipanoma, I really dig the whole realm being consumed by the spirits of the Wyld and nature retaking things element, and I still like Sam Haight as a villain, but much like his first appearance in Skins, there’s some unspoken work that the ST needs to do to make this a more satisfying and emotionally resonate story for the players. But we’re not quite done with this book just yet friends, we’ve still got two Appendices to go through. So, let’s bring this thing in for a closing with   Appendix One: Weapons and Equipment The war for the Amazon is being fought on three fronts: Conventional, Spiritual and Tribal. This appendix covers various weapons being used in the conflict. ST’s are encouraged to expand on the provided weapons, but keep in mind that not every weapon is going to be effective in this war, due to gross destructive power or visibility. Sure, Pentex could shell the gently caress out of the Garou with Howitzers, but that’s going to draw a lot of negative attention and press. Like why the hell is a mining company using gotdamn Howitzers!? Basically, the Veil must be maintained, and no matter how big of a hate boner Pentex may have for the Garou, they’re not going to draw unwanted attention to the war they’re waging. Archaic Weapons Things like slings, spears, clubs and bows would all fall under this category, and those specifically are covered in the Werewolf Players Guide. We do get information on one archaic weapon however. Blowgun A weapon that fires a sharp projectile through a tube, propelled by breath. While the projectile itself does minimal damage, it is usually dipped in poison, with the most common form of poison used being Curare (more later) which causes paralysis of the muscles followed by death. Using a blowgun requires a Dexterity + Athletics roll at difficulty 8, and it has a range of 20 yards, though a longer blowgun would have increased distance. Fetish Weapons  Each of the 13 tribes of Garou have a weapon they hold sacred, a legendary weapon that is considered a symbol of the tribe and their beliefs. For generations these weapons were protected by a guardian of the tribe, however the Amazon conflict has changed that, and now these legendary weapons are being wielded with Rage and vengeance as both a means of stopping the destruction, and as an icon of tribal pride and history. Black Furies Axe of the Matriarch A weapon created to symbolize feminine power and authority, it is a six foot long, two handed axe with roses carved along the length of the haft. When wielded in combat by a Fury, the axe emits a blood curdling scream that is silenced when it makes contact. The axe also steals virility from male victims and feeds it to the wielder. Mechanics: for every point of damage inflicted (not soaked) by the axe, the victim loses one dot of Strength, and the wielder gains this as Willpower for the duration of the battle. Damage done by the axe is Agg. Bone Gnawers The Gnawers have no special weapons in this war, as a tribe of misfits and rejects, they have never possessed a weapon of Glory. Which isn’t to suggest they’re useless in the war effort, as they’ve been collecting and hoarding weapons from both the Garou and their allies since the war started. Children of Gaia The Children have no special weapons as they are the peacekeepers of the Garou. Instead, they have brought one of their greatest fetishes. Chalice of Renewal An ancient golden cup that shines with the glow of the sun, said to once contain the tears Gaia wept for her children, the dead cubs she resurrected to become the Children of Gaia. For a single night, once every third new moon, the cup mysteriously fills with salty water, and those that drink from it are instantly cured of any physical wounds or diseases. This is only a minor power of the cup however, as the drinker also experiences a delirious night where they are gifted the vision of Gaia herself. This vision can take any form, and ST’s are encouraged to add details of the characters life to the visions, though the following elements always appear in these visions: a sense of overwhelming loss, like a mother looking upon her dead children, a sense of renewed hope as the sun rises, and a sense of joyous victory as life returns to the world, as if the drinker themselves caused this growth by will alone. The drinker awakens from their vision at dawn and gains one point of True Faith in Gaia. The character may call upon this Faith to repel Kindred, and may sometimes cause miracles to occur. Hunters Hunted has full details on Faith as a mechanic, and all Gaian miracles are nature oriented. Fianna Sword of Fionn The tribe's most prized possession, stories are told of Fionn MacCumhal, a legendary Kinfolk who wielded the sword. Fionn was a hero of Eire, and pursued many adventures with his mercenary band, the Fianna, from which the tribe draws their name. Legends say that when the sword is used in battle, it summons not only the spirits of Fionn, but all who fought beside him. When unsheathed, the surrounding area comes alive with shadows that will mock and torment the enemies of the Fianna and their allies. These shadow warriors will fight for the Fianna, mirroring their actions. Mechanics: Add two dice to each Finanna attack pool and subtract two from each enemy pool due to the distraction. The sword also adds 4 dice to all damage rolls. Get of Fenris Fist of Thor A spiked steel gauntlet, each link is engraved with scenes of a wolf pack hunting a stag under a full moon. Legend says that Thor himself was inspired by the courage and bloodthirst of Jorgen Fists-of-Thunder, a Get warrior, and rewarded him with the gauntlet. Mechanics: grants 4 extra dice of damage on every successful attack and triggers the Clap of Thunder gift. Each strike triggers the sound of thunder. Glass Walkers Laying Down the Law Looks like a standard LAW rocket. The difference is a spirit of judicious vengeance is bound to the launcher. It never runs out of rockets or needs to be reloaded, simply aimed and fired. Each rocket seeks out an enemy deserving of its judgment, with detonation as the punishment. Mechanics: Standard LAW rocket stats with 3 extra dice added to the attack pool. If aimed at an innocent, the rocket will veer off and hit the nearest guilty party, including the user. Red Talons The Talons do not have a “Weapon” as such, instead a powerful spirit ally. It takes the form of a tattoo engraved on the greatest hero of the tribe. If the hero dies, the tattoo disappears from their body and reappears on the next rightful heir. This is a spirit of the primordial realm and is a vicious predator known simply as “The Hunter”. Mechanics: grants 4 extra dice to tracking pools, two dice to Stealth, three to Intimidation, and two to Rake and Bite maneuvers. Shadow Lords The Black Bow A weapon of assaination created by the Lords, its sole purpose is the silent elimination of its victim. The bow and string are completely black, and made of an unknown wood with a smooth texture. It always strikes its target, but does no extra damage. Silent Striders The Whispering Crystal A crystal ball given to the Striders by their Roma (we know what word they used) Kinfolk in the dark recesses of the past. To all appearances, it is a very plain crystal ball. When used, it becomes a powerful tool to determine future events, allowing its user to see so clearly into the future that they may point out troop strength, weapons used and the location of ambushes. This vision extends approximately 24 hours into the future. The downside is that those who look into the crystal will see all who live and die in the future. Because of this, it is feared by the other tribes and has an ominous reputation even among the Striders. Silver Fangs Scepter of the Impergium A beautifully ornate scepter intricately carved with scenes of an old world forest, the rod is rumored to be a relic of the Impergium, and is generally carried by the high marshall of the Silver Fangs war party. When used on an enemy, it triggers the same effect as Delirium, except all affected take a minus two modifier to Delirium Effects per the Delirium chart. No creatures are immune, and affects all enemies in a 25 foot radius. The Children of Gaia warn against using the weapon, as they claim it is cursed, and that the Delirium is a curse upon the Garou for their actions during the Impergium. To use the scepter is to invite doom upon the Garou. The scepter is approximately 5 feet long and about 4 inches around, capped with a gray spiked ball like the head of a mace. Stargazers Orb of the Umbra Considered a blessing by other tribes when used in battle, it is a perfectly spherical orb with no blemishes. It constantly draws and reflects light, even faint ambient light. When activated, it acts as an Umbral portal, forcibly drawing all Banes within a 50 foot radius. Banes within the AoE must make successful Gnosis resistance rolls to avoid being sucked into the Umbra. Those that fail this roll cannot return to the battle. Uktena Wand of Ashes Created with the express purpose of destroying Kindred, legends claim it was forged in the lava fires of Mount Vesuvius as it destroyed Pompeii. It looks like a gnarled and charred piece of wood about 15 inches long. Mechanics: Shoots flame that inflicts 2 agg wounds with a difficulty 8 to resist with the only restriction being line of sight. Note that the wand is as deadly to Garou as it is Kindred. Wendigo Buffalo Spear Created long before European settlers “discovered” the new world, it has been a symbol of tribal pride for generations. The spear is approximately 6 feet in length with a broad, blunt head and the shaft is wrapped in buffalo hides. While heavy, it is not unwieldy. Mechanics: When thrown, the spear always hits its target. Wielder gains 5 extra dice to their attack pool. When it hits its target, it does an additional two dice of damage due to its weight. Black Spiral Dancers Spiral Boomerang  Black, intricately carved boomerangs forged in the Pit of Maleas by Metis BSD weaponsmiths. These are formidable weapons, as each houses between 1 and 10 banes. When struck by the boomerang, the target is “pushed” into the Umbra, unless a successful Gnosis resistance roll is made. Once in the Umbra, the Banes are released from the weapon and attack the victim. If the victim can defeat them, they may step out of the Umbra at will, however if they are bested by the Banes, they are dragged off to some dark pit in the Umbra the Bane considers home. Silver Weaponry Pentex has battled the Garou numerous times in the past, and is ready for an extended conflict. H&H Mining handles the Megacorps silver reserves, and mining operations around the world dig up silver to be shipped to the Amazon. Additionally, Pentex subsidiaries are purchasing silver from the world market, careful to make sure the massive purchases cannot be traced to any single company. The DFG HQ has extensive facilities for the creation of silver bullets, as well as a group of silversmiths who can craft silver coated knives, which are standard issue. The imported silver is first melted down into forms that will most likely get through customs without too much issue, such as tent poles, fencing, or any other items expected in a jungle compound. Shipments come into the port at Manaus, stored locally then secretly transported to the HQ. Pentex, ever the Megacorps, loves bureaucratic red tape, and as such has caused the First Teams to fight amongst themselves to get the proper requisitions fulfilled. Bribery and favors are often employed to influence supply clerks. A First Teamer who loses their knife in the jungle risks waiting months for a replacement to arrive. So far, the teams have been provided with enough equipment to stay alive, but they can’t accomplish much without silver. To correct this, Pentex is pumping more money into Project Iliad to provide troops with “Natural” weaponry that doesn’t require shipment. Because why bother changing your bureaucratic nonsense when you can just experiment on your employees and turn them into horrible monsters? Capitalism baby! Guns Most of these were already covered in the corebook, but I’ll give you the quick and dirty rundown. There is also a gun chart, but it’s essentially the same as the one in the corebook, and also poorly shaded so some of the numbers are impossible to read in the PDF. Whoops! Heavy Pistols M1911 and the Desert Eagle .50 Submachine Guns Ingram MAC-10, Uzi 9mm, Heckler and Koch MP-5, Thompson M1928 There is a Warren Zevon lyric somewhere in this book that I didn’t call out, as I don’t generally call out the lyrics that open bits of chapters or segments, but the inclusion of the Thompson here and the aforementioned Zevon lyric made me think of introducing the spirit of Roland, the headless Thompson Gunner into the fray. As the song says, Roland’s ghost has been traveling around so why not have a headless ghost with a tommy gun show up to fight with or against the Garou? Is this too obscure a reference? Probably. Is it something I’d throw into my own game? You got drat right I would. Assault Rifles  M-16A1/M-16A2, M203, AK-47, and the H&K G3 Shotguns Ithica M37, Fianchi Law 12, SPAS-12, Remington 1100, USAS 12 Ammunition Most ammunition works the same mechanically speaking, except the following: Armor-Piercing AKA: “Cop Killer” bullets. Carried by most Garou as they are effective against Pentex troops. Pentex by contrast uses “Manstoppers” against lightly armored Garou. Manstoppers Designed to cause more damage on impact, these include hollow points, glazier rounds (which fragment) and homemade rounds (made by carving an X on the slug). These cause an extra die of damage on impact, however armor offers double protection against them. Incendiary Inflict agg damage and as the name suggests, burn on impact. “Dragonsbreath” shells are the most common, spraying a spout of fire up to 20 feet, and while it hits like a normal shotgun, these rounds inflict two agg wounds (difficulty 7 to resist) and may cause nearby Garou to Rage check. Multiple uses of these rounds will likely damage the barrel of the shotgun being used, so ST’s should take full advantage of botched Firearms rolls. Tomorrow: The Conclusion of the Appendixes and Rage Across the Amazon
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Jul 18, 2023 14:28
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Page 48, if you're curious. quote:
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Jul 18, 2023 15:42
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Kurieg posted:Page 48, if you're curious. I mean I was only half kidding about the Liefeld possession. I will say I'm genuinely fascinated by the wide selection of art styles and quality in these books, and Werewolf has definitely had some really fun art so far. And Mage supplements have some pretty great stuff too, there's a few pieces in "Chantries" I was really impressed with. And then there's the stuff where I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at because someone thought doing really dark gray scale was a good idea.
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Jul 18, 2023 16:14
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Kurieg posted:Don't forget Vagina Dentata and Inner Volcano. for a "Memorable experience" as the book describes it. Not to mention the Fomor power introduced with lyrics from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKerUUULFoM&ab_channel=ThomasBrown
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Jul 18, 2023 17:39
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The Mokole book suffers from trying to cram South American, African, Indian, and East Asian reptile-shifters under one umbrella. The secret dinosaur history stuff is a lot of fun, and if they'd run with Exalted being some kind of pre-World of Darkness then the Solar aspects could have been pretty interesting, but in the end the best thing to take out of it is the build-your-own-Dinosaur system as a source of wacky inspiration.
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Jul 19, 2023 03:23
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Just Dan Again posted:The Mokole book suffers from trying to cram South American, African, Indian, and East Asian reptile-shifters under one umbrella. The secret dinosaur history stuff is a lot of fun, and if they'd run with Exalted being some kind of pre-World of Darkness then the Solar aspects could have been pretty interesting, but in the end the best thing to take out of it is the build-your-own-Dinosaur system as a source of wacky inspiration. It at the least was more respectful of earlier WW stuff, probably because it had to cover so much. Zhong Lung (the Asian Mokole) probably should have just gotten their full write up in the Beast Courts book. That said I do like how that the Mokole were finally, finally moving out and doing things in the world was a Big Deal (and not just because that guy at the table thought it was awesome to take Huge Size x5 for his Suchid Striking character).
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Jul 19, 2023 03:52
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By popular demand posted:Considering the short lifespan of most Fomori that would be a very high intensity campaign. Dawgstar posted:It at the least was more respectful of earlier WW stuff, probably because it had to cover so much. Zhong Lung (the Asian Mokole) probably should have just gotten their full write up in the Beast Courts book. That said I do like how that the Mokole were finally, finally moving out and doing things in the world was a Big Deal (and not just because that guy at the table thought it was awesome to take Huge Size x5 for his Suchid Striking character).
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Jul 19, 2023 03:57
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By popular demand posted:Considering the short lifespan of most Fomori that would be a very high intensity campaign. I've heard of it, but never actually played X-COM so I don't fully understand this reference. Nessus posted:I think this is almost exactly the premise of Deviant, especially since I imagine the local Glass Walkers who figure out what you're doing might be like "No, let them cook." I'd never until this moment put together that Deviant wasn't so much X-Men as a PG-13 Freak Legion, but it works. I can imagine a rich Glass Walker deciding to sponsor the group as a Toxic Avenger "superhero" team.
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Jul 19, 2023 04:38
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Everyone posted:I've heard of it, but never actually played X-COM so I don't fully understand this reference. The old X-COM games were infamous in getting your soldiers killed, especially at the early game. You're fighting a technologically superior enemy and repeatedly sacrificing half a squad just to return with some artifacts to study or even a live alien to interrogate is not only acceptable but almost required at the higher difficulty levels. So think WW1 losses but with an actual gain. The new games are much more forgiving and take more of a heroic action film approach to your troops.
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Jul 19, 2023 08:39
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Joylessdivisions World of Dorkness Presents: Haighter's Gonna Hate: Part 3: Rage Across the Amazon Conclusion Drugs Not every bullet is intended to kill, and non-lethal rounds can be created. Tranquilizer darts are the most common, and cause 8 dice of damage to humans and Garou. This damage is not applied to Health Levels however, instead each level of damage removes 1 die from the target's pool. If the target takes more damage than they have Stamina (or Stamina + Rage for Garou), they pass out for one hour for every point over their Stamina. ST’s are encouraged to come up with their own unique Pentex created drugs to be used in firearms. Heavy Weapons Hey look, they ported over a bunch of the information on heavy weapons and such from the Players Guide to Vampire into this book.
Grenades Frag Grenades Have a damage pool of 12 dice at ground zero, and for every yard between the explosion and a character, the pool is reduced by 1. Smoke Grenades and Tear Gas Smoke/gas released from these grenades fill a 10x10 yard area in a minute and lasts for 10 minutes in still air. White Phosphorus These hand held war crimes generate a 2700 degree fahrenheit blast on detonation. They have a pool of 12 damage at ground zero, which is reduced by one for every 2 yards between a character and the explosion. They also cause agg damage due to burning, which a Garou can attempt to soak. Explosives “Blast Power” is how explosives are rated with each point of BP equalling 1 die per pound of explosive. Blasting Powder Modern gunpowder, Pentex has a ton of this lying around for ammunition creation. BP: 2, can be detonated by flame or heat, and will burn. Nitroglycerine Rules for detonating nitro are up to the ST as it is an unpredictable substance. Training in explosives will make the process of “Safety Packing” nitro easier. BP: 3, does not burn Nitrocellulose (Gun Cotton) Used for stabilizing Nitroglycerine. BP: 3, can be detonated by impact or extreme heat, will burn. Dynamite Good old TNT. BP: 3 requires a Fulminating Primer to detonate and does not burn Plastique (C4) Like modeling clay in its consistency and extremely stable. BP:1-20, needs a primer or electrical charge for detonation and will burn. Primacord AKA: Instant Fuse, it is a string from explosive. BP: .5, requires primer or open flame to detonate and will not burn. Napalm Jellied gasoline that does agg damage. ST’s should roll 1 die to see how much of a victim's body is covered by the substance, and then roll that number of die in damage every turn for 10 turns. Napalm bombs have a BP of 6-12, and no BP on its own. Requires an open flame to detonate and of course it burns, it’s loving napalm. Support Weapons These weapons provide either heavy or sustained firepower and require either the Heavy Weapons or Artillery skill to use (with skills related to these in the Players Guide to Vampire). Machine guns are the exception to this rule, as they only require the Firearms skill. .30 Caliber/.50 Caliber Machine gun, M-79 Grenade Launcher, Flamethrower, LAW. As previously noted in the Players Guide, the LAW has a “Backblast” when fired that causes a two yard danger zone directly behind the weapon that causes 4 dice of agg damage from the flames. There’s another weapons chart for support weapons, but as noted above, it’s poorly shaded and also covers the same info that was available in the charts in the Vampire Players Guide. Artillery Mortars fire in an arc and thus cannot be fired inside a building, doing damage similar to explosives, losing 1 die of damage per yard away from the impact zone. These are generally rare to see in the Amazon conflict, though they will occasionally lob mortars at suspected Garou camp locations. If questioned by outsiders, Pentex hand waves the whole thing as “Scheduled demolition” of hard to remove stumps, with falsified documentation to back up the story. Vehicles We’ve got a few vehicles, again, most of this information was also previously in the Players Guide so there’s not much to say other than to quickly run over what is mentioned. There are vehicle charts, but like the other charts in this chapter, poorly shaded and hard to read. Wheeled Vehicles Brake Factor is used to figure out stopping distance. Anything below 25 mph and does not use Brake Factor. Jeeps and Trucks are briefly described. Boats Do not use Brake Factor, instead having a set amount of deceleration per turn.
 Aircraft “Stall” is the minimum speed while Stall x 100 is the minimum runway length (in yards) required to land. Parachutes require 30 minutes with a skilled character to pack, and a full turn to open. Parachutes can support 600 pounds but require a Dexterity roll on landing (difficulty determined by terrain) to avoid injury. Military Aircrafts UH-60A Blackhawk, AH-64 Apache. Drugs and Poison Each of the drugs and poisons listed below include their means of entering the target's system, sensory information on how to detect them and effect, which is generally a loss of health levels, as well as any special side effects. Ayahuasca Vector: Imbibed Sensory: Awful tasting liquid Effects: Powerful hallucinations. Used by native medicine men as a curative for many ills, including spiritual diseases. An Ayahuasquero or Curandero (plant medicine doctor) are said to be able to take the drug and see the sickness within a person. Anyone taking this drug will become a friend of the forest, gaining night vision, will be unbothered by bugs and can walk the jungle with ease. While on the drug, the user is guided by the spirit of Ayahuasca Protection: Just don’t drink it.  Curare Which sounds like the 4th or 5th level name for a Cure spell in a Final Fantasy game. Vector: Injected Sensory: Reddish, brown gum Effects: extreme muscle relaxant. Used by native Amazonians on arrows and darts, the poison is kept in a hollow cane sealed on both ends with fur. Arrows (or darts) are then dipped in the gummy substance. Each turn after the poison has entered a target’s bloodstream, they lose one level of Dexterity until they are at 0, at which point they begin to lose one health level per turn until death from paralysis occurs. Protection: Armor or tough skin. Garou may spend 2 Rage points to purge their bodies of the poison, or use the Resist Toxin gift to nullify the effects.  Blood Agent Vector: Contact/Inhalation Sensory: Odorless and colorless in gas form Effects: Coma and death, this gas attacks the blood cells and cripples their ability to carry oxygen. Victims slowly asphyxiate over six hours, with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, blue finger and toe nails, gradual numbing of extremities, shortness of breath and loss of bowel control. There is no cure or antidote. Mechanically speaking, this weapon saps Physical attributes, beginning with Strength and then Dexterity and Stamina at one dot per turn until death (aka: 0 physical attributes). Resist Toxin can be used by Garou to nullify. Protection: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) or Mission Oriented Protective Posture (MOPP) suits. Note that the acidic chemicals within this agent will eat through protective masks and filters within 10 minutes of release. Tear Gas Vector: Contact/Inhalation Sensory: Colorless, distinct odor Effects: Coughing, gagging and severe irritation of eyes and mucus membranes. Removes 2 dice from all pools until clear of the affected area for 10 minutes. Protection: Gas masks. Scuba masks or goggles will protect the eyes while breathing through a damp cloth will protect the lungs. Once again, Resist Toxin will work. Mustard Gas Vector: Contact/Inhalation Sensory: Faintly yellowish, distinctive odor Effect: Caustic, causing blisters on exposed flesh, and blistering of the lungs if inhaled. Remove 1 level of health per turn that skin is exposed, and 2 levels per turn for breathing it in. Protection: Full skin coverage and gas mask. Ordinary clothing will protect for one turn only. Resist Toxin nullifies. Nerve Agent (Sarin) Vector: Contact/Inhalation Sensory: Color and odorless Effect: 1 level of health per turn that cannot be soaked for high concentration. Low concentration causes 1 level of health damage per minute, and trace concentration causes 1 level of damage per hour. Causes nausea and disorientation, followed by death. Sarin is always lethal, with the chances of non-lethal, symptom causing exposure being 1 in 10,000 Protection: Sealed NBC or MOPP gear. Antidote: Atropine Injection Kit (hypodermic needle with Atropine, must be administered before symptoms manifest). Atropine is toxic if taken without being exposed to Sarin. Rumor has it that Pentex has engineered a version of sarin that resists Atropine, only giving the victim an additional 3-4 hours of life. Resist Toxin works to nullify. Atropine Vector: Injected Sensory: odor and colorless liquid Effect: Over the course of Stamina +3 hours, the victim suffers nausea, cramps, vomiting, disorientation and congested breathing before death. Antidote: Blood transfusion, hospital care. Apparently Resist Toxin doesn’t work on Atropine? Which seems odd considering you can cancel loving sarin gas with that gift. Chemical Protection MOPP Suit Lead-lined suits designed for full body coverage except the head. Protects against chemical and biological weapons. Full protection is achieved when used with an M17A1 protective mask. Security Systems Pentex uses audiovisual security systems, including cameras, closed circuit TV’s and microphones. These systems come in two formats, off/on or perception based. Off/On sensors do not require a roll to detect, they simply trigger or don’t. Perception sensors had their own Perception attribute. Their perception score (included in yet another poorly shaded chart) indicates the number of dice the system has to use to detect a character before triggering an alarm. And that’s it for the weapons appendix. As I said above, nearly all this information was previously covered in the Players Guide to Vampire, and when I first read over this chapter, I said to myself “Wait, haven’t I read all of this before?” and yeah, I have indeed read all this before. I didn’t go back and double check to see if they just copy-pasted the same information over, but I assume they did, and considering how poorly shaded the tables are in the PDF, I unfortunately can’t compare those to the ones in the PG. We’ve very nearly reached the end of this book, with one final appendix to go so let’s take a look at  At least it seems like the Liefeld possession ended while this last image was being drawn because I can see ankles.  Appendix Two: Totems and Tactical Storytelling First up, we’re going to be taking a look at some of the local Totem spirits that inhabit the South American rainforest. Some of these Totems extend their power as far as Mexico, but it is rare to find followers of these Totems further north than the Rio Grande. In addition to any noted benefits listed in their write ups, each of these Totems will also grant outsiders the wisdom to navigate the rainforest. This does not negate normal modifiers, unless noted elsewhere. Allying with these Totems requires a quest of some sort, that ST’s should feel free to create. Totems of War Anaconda Background Cost: 5 The lurking hunter of the jungle, Anaconda slithers from the trees or through the water to suddenly leap at its prey. Characters with this totem gain 2 dice to Brawl in any grappling or overbearing maneuvers, as well as a one die bonus to bite attacks and Stealth 3. Anaconda is not popular with the Garou, as they believe her tactics are of the Wyrm. The native Uktena know better. Ban: Do not harm snakes. Jaguar Background Cost: 7 King of the rainforest, the supreme predator of the Amazon, he is a powerful and deadly hunter. Jaguar is also aligned with the Balam who can assume his form. Children of Jaguar gain 1 die in Strength, Dexterity and Claw damage. Ban: Must kill any who destroy the rainforest, including Garou. Any Garou who allies with Jaguar must fight their own kind. Panthesilea Background Cost: 9 Believed to be the spirit of one of the first Black Furies to set foot in the Amazon, in time the collective spirit of the Amazon reinforced her power and she has come to represent the beauty, mystery and fierce vitality of the region. One of the hardest Totems to contact, she rarely chooses an entire pack. When she does manifest, she focuses on a single pack member and totally possesses them, speaking through them to the pack. The player who is possessed gains a Pure Breed score of 5 for the duration of the possession. Her commands are extremely difficult to ignore, and unfortunately her possession causes madness unless a Willpower roll is made at difficulty 9 with at least 3 successes scored, otherwise the player loses one point of Willpower per possession. Those possessed gain Leadership 7, Melee 5 and Brawl 7. The rest of the pack gains the Silent Strider gift Attunement, and no native animals will harm a child of Panthesilea. Packs she chooses instantly gain an alliance with native Uktena, Bastet and Mokolé. She is concerned with the longevity and vivacity of both the physical and spiritual life of the Amazon, and her current focus is ending the mass production of fetishes. Ban: Panthesilea often gives missions to her children, and if orders are not followed, she will leave them. These missions are usually to right the balance of the ecosystem, and the specifics are left to the ST. Totems of Respect Harpy Eagle Background Cost: 6 A huge bird who lords over the highest canopy of the rainforest. From her vantage point she can see all that endangers the forest, but rarely sees details due to the thick canopy. She grants her children the Spirit of the Bird gift, and Intimidation 2, as well as 100 Honor upon allying with her. Ban: Harpy asks her children to protect the trees, and they must prevent deforestation. Totem of Wisdom Toad Background Cost: 6 A strange totem, he is the lord of medicines and poisons, and can concoct on his back anything from hallucinogens to deadly toxins, and can provide healing elixirs. He grants Medicine 3, and with the right materials, his children may create strange elixirs (at ST discretion) as well as granting the Resist Toxin and Venom gifts. Ban: Lose two points of Appearance, and must not harm toads. Totem of Cunning Coatimundi Background Cost: 4 The most curious totem in the jungle, related to Racoon, he has his nose in everything and is always breaking things. Grants Subterfuge 3, Stealth 2 and Area Knowledge-Amazon 3. However, he is without Honor, so his children lose 25 Honor everytime they gain Renown. Ban: Children of Coatimundi must not scold or harm pests, such as Coatimundi, mice or curious monkeys, as well as always give a beggar something for their troubles. Toad sounds like the most beneficial of these Totems, despite the -2 to appearance, you get Nullify Toxin which as we know, basically cancels out all the poisons and toxins covered in the previous appendix. Anaconda is another good totem to take, as you don’t get much downside other than “Don’t harm snakes” and a boost to your attacks. Next up is The Tactical Storytelling Method Storytelling a war is difficult. How do you arbitrate background action, when do battles occur and who wins or loses them? Because this is a Storytelling Game™, the needs of the story should dictate the plot, which can seem forced and could cause players to complain that the ST isn’t being fair. That’s where the Tactical Method of Storytelling comes in. Originally introduced in the Anarch’s Cookbook, it’s intended as a method to resolve group conflicts in a simple dice rolling method like one-on-one combat encounters. The first method (of two) is the ST resolves everything themselves, using group character sheets and some dice rolls to determine the outcome. Think solo wargaming. In this method, the ST does all the rolling and figures out the results of the battle before the game when the players enter the action. This will require adjustment to the results to account for player actions that could change the outcome. The second method involves the players taking control of one or more groups and facing off against the ST. Players should not control their own packs in this situation, as player packs are intended to resolve things through roleplaying and not just dice rolls. This method is intended for large battles between Garou Wargs and Pentex Platoons. Groups will have Names, Abilities, Backgrounds and optionally, Nature and Demeanors. Groups do not have full stats, instead they have Physical, Mental and Social stats, along with weapons and powers, but no Rage, Gnosis or Willpower (there are optional rules for this). Each group should be written up by the ST, and actions are resolved with dice rolls, with the results introduced as background information. Some equipment can be added to a group's Attack pool. Claws/Fangs add 1 die to the Brawl pool, with Small Klaives adding 1 to Melee and Large Klaives adding 2. Pistols add 1, Rifles 2, Shotguns and Submachine guns add 3. Remember that unless the rounds are silver, Garou will regenerate any damage done by normal bullets. All silver weapons add 1 die when used against Garou. Group powers represent Gifts, Fetishes, or Fomori powers. Garou groups have 2 physical stats, one for natural forms and the other covering Crinos, and Crinos automatically “Regenerate” 1 enemy success per turn, unless the damage was Agg. Resisted rolls are how conflict is resolved, and if two or more groups are attacking a single group, the single group must split their pool to attack the two groups. While the results are defined by the number of successes achieved, and resolved with whoever achieves X number of successes wins, it still falls to the ST to interpret these results into a clear narrative. For example, in a city game, a win for the police would likely be subdual and arrest of the other group. However, in the Amazon war, things are considerably more ruthless, and so ST’s can decide that each success scored equals the death of one member of the opposition, allowing for at least some measure of victory, even if a group loses the fight.  Sample Groups The Savage Gristle Pack Number: 5 Attributes: Physical3/6, Social 1, Mental 2 Abilities: Brawl 4/Intimidation 4/Prima-Urge (tracking) 3/Stealth 2/Area Knowledge (Amazon) 1 Backgrounds: Allies 2 (other packs), Rage 4 Weapons: Claws and Fangs Powers: Elemental Gift (elements can be commanded to attack foes) First Team #31 Number: 5 Attributes: Physical 3/Social 1/Mental 2 Abilities: Brawl 1/Intimidation 3/Subterfuge 3/Firearms 3/Melee 1/Demolitions 1/Stealth 3 Backgrounds: Allies (other teams) 2 Weapons: Uzis (+3 firearms, no silver bullets), Knives (+1 Melee) Powers: Toxic Touch (all brawl attacks are agg) Example of Tactical Resolution The players are off sneaking into a laboratory, while the Savage Gristle keeps the guards busy outside. Both the Gristle and First Team are NPC groups, and the ST decides if the battle is resolved through player RP or Tactical Method. Choosing one player to handle the Gristle, while the ST handles the First Team, the ST chooses to “Cut” back and forth between the action happening inside and outside. Five successes are determined to be the goal with each success representing the death of a combatant. Initiative is rolled for both groups, granting the player +2 dice due to surprise and declaring the Gristle have an unresisted attack. Both groups have their Mental + Alertness rolled at difficulty 6. First Team wins with 2 successes, and the attack is resisted as normal. First Team attacks with their guns (Physical 3 + Firearms 3 + 3 for the Uzis for 9 dice) and are resisted by the Gristle’s claws (Physical 6 + Brawl 4 + 1 for claws = 11 dice) Difficulty 6 for both, and the First Team gains 5 successes to the Garou’s 2, so FT takes 3 successes. The ST then describes what just happened, before jumping back to standard group RP. After a time, the ST cuts back to the battle outside. At the beginning of this turn, the Garou automatically regenerate the damage they took last round (1) which reduces the FT’s total successes to 2. FT gains 2 more successes, while the Garou gain 5, leaving them with a total of 3. Again, the action is described, and things go back to the players in the lab. Round 3, the Garou once again regenerate, removing an additional success from the FT, leaving them at 1 success to the Garou’s 3. FT gains 2 successes, and the Garou 4, ending the turn with 2, which in addition to the Garou’s standing 3 points brings the battle to an end in the favor of the Garou and once again the ST narrates the action. Alternatives Willpower represents an individual characteristic, however extremely tight-knit groups can have a Willpower score, which can be used to resist certain Mental or Social attacks (explained in Other Tactical Situations) If a group is tight enough, they may get a Rage score and Get of Fenris packs are likely to have a group Rage score. If a group suffers a bad enough loss, the ST can call for a Rage check via standard frenzy roll. If four or more successes are gained, the group frenzies. In battle, this is often a berserker frenzy. During a frenzy, groups gain 1 additional die to their attack pool. If an enemy uses an incredibly successful Intimidation attack, then a Fox Frenzy results. In this case, Rage cannot be used for extra actions. If a group is fighting Banes in the Umbra, then a Gnosis score can be assigned for use in the Binding Rites pool or other spirit magic at ST discretion. Because these three traits are supposed to be individualistic, using them with groups should be rare. Other Tactical Situations Group situations outside of battle can also be resolved with this system. Example: A group of Shadow Lords must make an extended action roll of Social + Subterfuge (or Intimidation) to convince the Get to side against their sept leader. Combat actions can be resolved in short turns, Social and Mental should take longer in story. The above example should take weeks or months of in-story time per roll. Final Advice ST’s should never let this system intrude on roleplaying. It is intended for background action and not primary story action. If the results clash with the story being told, the ST should feel free to change or ignore the outcome, as the rules are intended as a compliment to the game. quote:“Remember that above all, Werewolf is a Storytelling Game. If this system fouls the play or slows up the game, ditch it. It is presented here simply as one method for arbitrating group interactions. Don’t get hung up on these rules and don’t panic if they don’t work right for your style of gaming.” And that is the end of Appendix 2. While I think the Tactical Storytelling idea is interesting, I don’t know that I would necessarily use it myself. Although having said that, if I was running a chronicle in the Amazon, or to be more accurate, if I was running the Samuel Haight adventure, I might give this method a shot outside of a game session just to play around with it, and see how it feels, and to see if it presents any interesting narrative opportunities. The final page of note involves a call to arms by the White Wolf Environmental Action Committee, asking players to contact the governor of Alaska to demand an end to the wolf hunting licenses the state was giving out, including the full PO Box number and phone number to the governor's office. There is also a brief note that fans can also directly contact the WW EAC for more information. And finally, finally, the thing that I got the biggest kick out of in this book: Temporary Tattoos!  I have not had a chance to pull my copy of Rage Across the Amazon down off the shelf to double check if it still has the tattoos in the back, as I purchased a used copy, and inserts like that tend to be extremely hit or miss when it comes to used books. There is also a note that if you wish to identify the various glyphs, they are in the Werewolf Players Guide. And that finally brings us to the conclusion of Rage Across the Amazon. Okay there’s also an ad for Bradstreet Clan t-shirts listed at $18 + $3 shipping (if your local game store didn’t have them) which comes to $38 for the shirt and $6.33 in shipping adjusted for 2023. Which is still more than what current clan logo shirts go for on the official WoD merch store. I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Aside from the complaints I made in various chapters, overall, I thought this was a solid read, and possibly the best of the Werewolf books I’ve read so far. As a sourcebook, I love the idea of bringing the players into the Amazon to fight against deforestation, it fits the setting thematically, while also drawing attention to a real problem. Hell, I was peripherally aware of the deforestation going on in the Amazon Basin, but I wouldn’t have learned all the horrifying poo poo about exactly how much of the rainforest had been lost if this book hadn’t made me go and look it up to see what the difference was between the 1993 numbers and the present. As the third installment of the Samuel Haight adventure, I think this is a considerably more substantial bit of plot than the previous book, though as I said earlier, it still falls to the storyteller to do a bit of work on the back end of things to reshape the adventure so that the players have a bit more agency and an active role in the events instead of just showing up and watching NPC’s resolve everything. Which is a complaint I’ve had about most of the adventures I’ve covered to this point, I understand that these adventures are being written from the perspective of how the WW staff/writer would run things, but it still feels lovely that so often there’s major elements of the plot that are just NPC’s doing a thing that the players should be doing. I’m all for the story aspect of the game taking center stage, and it’s a big part of why I enjoy playing RPG’s, but I also don’t want to rob my players of agency, nor do I as a player want to feel like I’m just being pushed along from scene to scene looking at the neat model the ST created. But this is just the way these books were written and it’s something I’ll likely complain about until this project finally ends, either in me throwing up my hands and screaming I Quit, or I actually manage to work my way through the entire published library of games/supplement books. Whichever comes first. We’ve had three stories featuring Samuel Haight, and aside from his afterthought inclusion in the Sabbat book, the writing has treated him like a relatively three-dimensional villain and not just a mustache twirler, while adding new elements to his character and background without flying off into complete absurdity. At this point, I’m still willing to stake the claim that Samuel Haight is a believable villain for the setting, and one that I’m still interested in seeing appear in other books. And speaking of other books, we’ve still got three more books (and a little bonus adventure at the very end) to chase Sam through, with The Book of Chantries for Mage: The Ascension being our next attempt at capturing the mad Skinner. Thank you as always for joining me on this journey, and I hope you’ll join me next time for Haighter’s Gonna Hate: Part 4.
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Jul 19, 2023 14:21
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joylessdivision posted:And speaking of other books, we’ve still got three more books (and a little bonus adventure at the very end) to chase Sam through, with The Book of Chantries for Mage: The Ascension being our next attempt at capturing the mad Skinner. Thank you as always for joining me on this journey, and I hope you’ll join me next time for Haighter’s Gonna Hate: Part 4. Barney Gumble: "IT BEGINNNNNNNS!!!"
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Jul 19, 2023 14:34
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WoD never even had good rules for managing a fistfight between a few people, so rules for artillery and heavy weapons are LOL.
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Jul 19, 2023 15:17
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The Masquerade of the Red Death - Book 2: Unholy Allies - Part One, Prologue to Chapter Three Book 1's last post and index So – we’re back! Word has a horrific new UI and I’ve been busy writing my Mage game, but its time to stop procrastinating and continue the Trilogy. A quick synopsis of book 1: Dire McCann and Alicia Varney are the mortal(ish) pawns of two Methuselahs, Lameth the Dark Messiah and Anis, Queen of the Night, who are both the most special characters ever written. They’re locked in the opening stage of a war with The Red Death/Seker, another Methuselah who’s bloodline, the Children of Dreadful Night, have struck a bargain with beings from a past version of reality to become invincible and made of fire for a short period of time. To mask his final offensive against Lameth and Anis, Seker has started what amounts to a full-scale war between the Camarilla and the Sabbat. Tied up in this fight are Madeleine Giovanni, the deadliest assassin of the Giovanni and special agent of her grandfather, Pietro, master of the Mausoleum; Flavia, the survivor of a pair of sexy Assamite twins (who, with Madeleine, has been set to guard McCann); Sanford Jackson, Varney’s mortal bodyguard and secretary, a former snake eater from the Vietnam War and general badass; Phantomas, an ancient Nosferatu who’s been trying for centuries to create a complete genealogy of every single vampire (he is real and cool and my friend); The The Nictuku are rising, Gehenna is on the horizon, and the Blood War is raging. So, without further ado… Prologue We return to the narrative in Tel Aviv, 20 March 1994 – so we’re skipping back in time by four days. This chapter is another of the catch-up infodumps for both the last book and the general setting, in case someone picked up Book 2 without knowing anything about it. Unlike the first one, we’re introduced to characters who actually matter this time: Elisha and the one, the only, the Rambam himself, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon. Shockingly, both actually get descriptions:   No heaving chests or sensual lip-licking, but for once we’re given more than ‘big guy, wears a hat’ for a male character, so I’ll take it. Both of them are mages. Elisha is an apprentice who’s been there for twenty years, which would usually be well past where you’d expect to be a fully fledged graduate, but again: this is the Rambam so I can’t fault anyone involved for having very high standards. The Rambam is a major ally of the state of Israel and currently holding an emergency council. He has a lot of those with politicians and Mossad, but today its with more mages – and Elisha can tell by their eyes. And for once, the prose isn’t terrible:  Still not great, but compared to half the parts in Book 1, this is really quite competent. Bob’s tendencies towards making everyone super potent and general pulpiness are still on display, but the sentences aren’t quite as choppy and actually have some readability. The overall depiction of the Rambam is fairly respectful – or, at least, by the standards of putting him in Vampire in the first place. Bob takes the time to explain where the term comes from and puts some real weight on the idea that this is a legend in the flesh, and (in a nice change) one whose great power is wisdom and knowledge, not disciplines or being the super secret best of all magi. I think it probably helps here that Bob was Jewish himself – not necessarily that well versed in a lot of the more esoteric stuff, but also not inclined to play funny business with one of the greats. There’s a quibble to be had here around presenting the Rambam as a Kabbalist of any sort but that’s beyond my position to comment on. Moving on, Elisha is called in to the meeting. In attendance are Ezra, about all of which we learn is that he’s the Rambam’s strong left arm (why no, I don’t think that’s coincidence – Ezra becomes important in Bob’s next trilogy as a Nephandi – so you could say he’s walked the left hand path), Judith, the soft heart who loans Elisha some power, and Simon, who we learn gently caress all about except he’s based in Germany where he keeps a watch over the fascist issue and acts as the Rambam’s strong right arm. They all agree to the Rambam’s scheme after examining Elisha – then they conveniently gently caress off and teleport away. The scheme is pretty straightforward. Lameth and the Rambam have history, and Elisha is to locate McCann and deliver a message to him in person – it has to be in person and not telepathic to avoid the risk of interception by powerful enemies, which… Okay, sure, but I reckon those same enemies might be able to intercept a physical courier. Particularly one who’s been chosen in no small part because they’re young and inexperienced! (But – then again: Elisha is here established to the most powerful student the Rambam has ever instructed (oh Bob) and has been studying with him for twenty years, so I suppose its all relative.) At this point, Bob diverts us into a setting infodump – the basic history of the Antediluvians, etcetera. I really dislike having one at the start of each book of the trilogy, but I suspect it was editor’s orders and at least this time it doesn’t just set us up with the Wonder Twins and an absolutely wasted glimpse at the Inquisition. Is the Rambam and his council a similar waste? Not especially – they actually return and play roles through the story, just not pivotal ones. Swap the order of the two and have the dead priest be part of Book 2 so it can be framed as an urgent ‘find out if they’ve worked out the blood war is on because we’re going to need to do damage control’ angle and they’d work better narratively. The infodump includes the risk that the Red Death could destroy the world, which gives us some nice stakes. Unfortunately, it also keeps up the specialness of McCann and Lameth:  sigh. I don’t mind mystery, but it needs to actually be mysterious. This is the equivalent of grabbing a cricket bat, writing the word MYSTERY on it in big red letters, and bashing the audience over the head until they cry ‘its very mysterious please tell me more’ to get you to stop. The Rambam also gives Elisha three warnings: One, don’t do too much magic or the Technocracy will getcha. Two, never trust a vampire. Three, everyone lies, so don’t trust their lying tongues and instead trust your heart. Do these come to matter? No, yes, and yes. The Technocracy aren’t really a player in this book, though in fairness its mostly there to keep Elisha from simply casting Fireball at every problem in this context and it does that trick. As to the other two – betrayal by various vampires is constant… and trusting his heart leads to the major romance plotline in both this trilogy and Bob’s sequel. Finally, Bob goes back to his old well and we end the prologue thus:  Bob already used this trick twice. At a certain point it stops being an effective device (if it ever is) and just becomes tedious. Part One, Chapter One Part one has the usual Poe quote to start us off:  The actual narrative returns us to McCann in DC, 4AM on the 23rd of March. He’s sitting, moping, on the footsteps of the Lincoln Memorial, singed by the blast and still wet, guarded by Flavia and Madeleine. Naturally, Bob needs to again highlight how similar they are and also how sexy they are – how Flavia has ‘lush curves and full red lips’ in her form-fitting white bodysuit, how Madeleine is wearing a leotard and shares the same red lips, etc. He also reintroduces them in case we need a refresher, which is fair, I suppose – but these books didn’t come out a long time apart and are pretty clearly intended to be read in series, so its also not really necessary. Flavia is tired of McCann’s brooding enigmatic act – and this is a good chance to look at the prose again:  Again – pretty clunky, but somehow improved over Book 1. The biggest issue is that the entire latter half is just spelling out the tone of the first, which is something Bob will keep doing. Flavia points out its literally her job to anticipate things like ‘a mad Assamite committing a major terrorist attack’ so he should stop being a fuckwit and let her do it… so naturally, Madeleine says to let it go. There’s an attempt to paint the two of them as having a rivalry that comes off as very forced and nearly comes to violence until McCann interrupts it, and the two embark on a friendship for the rest of the trilogy. Now, we’ve just had a whole dialogue about how they both saved McCann, how he should pull his head in and let Flavia think about the danger, so when it comes time to formulate a plan, what’s their opinion? They have none, their job isn’t to think for him. drat it Bob. Madeleine emphasizes that she really can’t have any opinion because of the Treaty of Venice – so basically,  . Bob uses this as a somewhat clumsy spot to talk about the history of the Giovanni, which is all pretty fine – but the continued infodumping 26 pages in (and it continues further still) is getting tedious, and there’s a bit of a howler: This one is particularly bad since Bob’s set multiple chapters in both Vienna and Venice at this point, but its also one that should’ve been spotted in editing and corrected. McCann recaps his encounter with the Red Death, and then we get to part of that relationship between Madeleine and Flavia I mentioned. Flavia swears an oath of vengeance against both The Red Death and Makish, and Madeleine gets it immediately because of her own. It’s a nice touch, but also highlights how unnecessary the stand-off posturing was. The plan, finally, is laid out: The next night, they’ll simply find the Prince and the local elders and explain the situation. Easy! Flavia, at least, points out that its going to be rather difficult on account of the war, but McCann’s not worried now Madeleine is there to help. Our final reveal: Madeleine couldn’t save Varney from the thermite. Oh no! But don’t worry: Any tension this could produce is immediately resolved.  Bob’s gotta Bob, I guess, whether it be making everyone the very best at what they do, clunky dialogue, or ruining emotional stakes as soon as they enter play. Speaking of which… Chapter Two We remain in DC, but hop straight to – you guessed it – Varney. She’s not dead. She used Temporis to sprint to one of the NASA escape pods and is sitting out the fire in relative comfort, which is… Well. Its not impossible, but she’s in the middle of a very prolonged, very hot inferno, and there are limits to what you can insulate against. Most firebunkers – these are a thing here in parts of Australia, though rare – are really only meant to protect you from normal fire temperatures for an hour or two at most. Now, this is top-secret NASA tech, but its also from the early space program so we’re probably not dealing with the really nice composites and insulation, and even a re-entry capsule isn’t really meant to endure extreme heat for multiple hours (the period of peak friction is usually less than three minutes). I know this is nitpicky and silly, but it bugs me in part because this book has an ‘introduction’ of the Technocracy and this’d be one of the few times the kitchen sink approach would be justified. Anyway. Varney is fuming because she barely escaped, isn’t sure McCann did (but is pretty sure she saw a shadow flit in and save him), and is trapped until the flames die down enough for a rescue. She spends a lot of time contemplating the Red Death’s generation and capabilities, and we’re given another glimpse at the real relationship between Varney and Anis:  Again, this is, well – horrific. Varney is Anis’s ghoul, with her own identity and persona but has had that identity eroded enough that she no longer views herself as Herself. If that ‘spirit’ survives, it won’t be Varney: it’ll be the Anis behind her eyes. Its legitimately creepy – and Bob seems to recognize it, because Varney sleeps and we get a dream sequence. It is 1724 in London. Varney, then going as Alice Hale, is a tavern doxy, and the owner is her abusive pimp with a nasty whip. A mystery lady has sent for her services with a bottle of wine and two glasses. The Lady is, of course, Anis herself, and Bob doesn’t spare the description:  Last we saw her, Anis was blonde, so I guess she threw on a dye job. She’s very blunt in her proposal: she wants to make a bargain. Alice can have everything she would ever want, though she may be damned. The dialogue has more of an effort to include character than Bob usually offers:  In fairness to her, Anis explains just about everything involved. She’s a vampire, Alice will be a ghoul (Anis tells her she won’t live forever and will still age, just terribly slowly – which, since Bob seems to grok that Ghouls are effectively immortal with a steady supply, is a nice touch. Anis lies.), and even the nature of their arrangement:   Now again – this is a pretty nice touch. Anis is lying through omission. By the time we hit the main story, its pretty clear Alice is long gone, either because the sheer extent to which Anis riding her has made her goals more important than her own survival, or because its been slowly ground away over centuries of the blood bond. And for once, Bob doesn’t feel compelled to spell that out. And Alice, though a fairly eager party, isn’t entirely devoid of wit and agency here. She spots there must’ve been other hosts before now and requires explanations and good faith disclosure before she takes the deal, though of course, she does take it – helped by Anis explaining the idea of Golconda and saying she’s achieved it (though, of course: this has as much weight as a random guy coming up and saying ‘I am from Mars, where I am a prince’ in real terms...) To celebrate, they make their pact and seal it with the off-screen murder of Alice’s pimp by, uh, burning him alive bound in his own bed – and also the entire hostel, so presumably some servants and guests too. The chapter ends on Alice taking her first drink and another of Bob’s very literal Masquerade uses:  Chapter Three Now for something completely different, we hop over to the Rub al-Khalil on the 24th of March. Our new PoV character is Assad ben Wazir, a tomb robber stealing antiquities to sell to private collectors. He and his team are about to open a new, undiscovered temple complex sealed off during the reign of Solomon, and expect to make an absolute fortune selling off the relics inside. But all is not quite right. The heavy stone slab doors are covered in intricate, eroded writing – and the Seal of Solomon. There’s a nice touch here. The motivation Assad has is poverty. He’s not that happy about the ethics and politics of the situation (including the complicity of the Saudi government in ‘legitimate’ archaeology that still seems to see artifacts disappear and bank accounts suddenly grow larger), but this is a find that could lift his entire family out of the gutter. The team even debate the relative value of blowing the doors open with dynamite versus trying to preserve them as artifacts. It’d be easy to make these tomb raiders evil germans or – oh, hold on.   Nevermind, there we go. Also, is this a Werewolf crossover? No. It’d be easy to slap a Pentex label on him if you were inclined to steal this trilogy for a chronicle, though. Particularly since Burroughs seems to have an unusual knowledge of demons, as we’ll see shortly. Bob throws in the broad strokes of the Empty Quarter and how Burroughs discovered the site, then they blow the doors and head inside to loot everything not nailed down. But this is no ordinary temple:  Could this be the fabled Treasure of Solomon? Assad’s hopeful, Harum dubious. As a quick aside, we can see Bob getting back to his punctuation errors again – though the actual sentences are still more readable than in Book 1. That, or I’m feeling charitable today. As they descend, they discover a vast sarcophagus in a vast chamber:  Points to Bob. This is pulpy, but its good pulp. The characters may lack depth, the prose may be clunky, but he’s selling the vibe and the stereotypes. There’s the evil German, the desperately poor guy we all relate to because he’s just trying to provide for his family, the quiet academic who begins to realize something is wrong. This isn’t a work of art, but its pedigree is clear and the execution is tolerable, and for pulp – for pulp, that’s on point. Sure enough, the academic realizes what’s going on, then the German. But before they can flee, the coffin begins to open from the inside and they flee with plans to blow up the entrance and rebury the tomb.  They’re too late.    Azazel is risen – and leaving. Assad is still alive, pissing his pants in fear in the dark, and when he realizes he’s not dead yet makes for the exit himself because if his team reaches the truck, they’ll dynamite him inside the tomb with the demon. Again – this is good pulp poo poo! Halfway up the passage, the floor rumbles. The dynamite… And then, gunfire. Screams. The tomb is still unsealed, and Azazel is unleashed on the world. Assad has survived and escaped only by sheer luck. The beast is heading North – so he heads south in the jeep. Unfortunately, we don’t meet Assad again, so he probably dies of thirst or exposure. The actual ending lines of the chapter are pretty lame, too – too hammy to work. At the start, Bob had him say they’d remember the night for the rest of their lives; at the end, Assad realizes he truly will. Something shorter and punchier would work much better even in a pulp context. But, that aside – this is a genuinely decent, if somewhat poorly executed, piece of pulp horror. Its classic, almost archetypally so, and the tension builds reasonably well and isn’t immediately dispersed. Unfortunately, its also almost entirely pointless in the broader narrative except to say Azazel is back, and again seems to be a product principally of Bob’s decision to go for a 3 books of 3 parts of 13 chapters each structure. Next time: The Mafia’s Secret Airport in DC, child predation, arsonists, casual misogyny, Madeleine’s Truck for Wayward Boys, and the Three Stooges close in on Phantomas.
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Jul 20, 2023 09:39
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Loomer posted:Next time: The Mafia’s Secret Airport in DC, child predation, arsonists, casual misogyny, Madeleine’s Truck for Wayward Boys, and the Three Stooges close in on Phantomas. The thought occurs these novels are what a lot of people think Vampire is like, in both good and bad ways. Really amused at the description of the ladies' clothing, especially delighted by wearing a leotard. If only he'd waited about ten years Bob could have written a lot about leather pants while furiously mopping his brow.
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Jul 20, 2023 15:50
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I mentioned to a friend that I was reading Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand, and he asked me "Why would you do that to yourself?" Ha ha ha, but yeah. It's hard. It's not even the stuff like the True Brujah or the aliens from the Umbra, it's the writing style. And the idea that a woman who never leaves her house can run a vast global conspiracy.
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Jul 20, 2023 15:58
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 Part 10: Nations, Five, Vol. 1 Now that the broader history is covered, we can start getting into the specific profiles of the nations. The profiles are in alphabetical order but I’m going to set aside the Five specifically to discuss ahead of time and then go back to the others. They’re often considered a set, having been the most significant powers of the last millennium on the continent. It’s hard to talk about any place on Khorvaire without the Five - like trying to talk about the recent history of much of the world without bringing up British (or French, or German, or Belgian, or US…) colonialism. For nearly a thousand years, the Five were a set of crown provinces used to train heirs and their siblings to manage a continent-spanning empire, and so even the modern splinter nations are heavily influenced by whichever of the Five they were under. Plenty of modern politics exist in reaction to not just the War but the lengthy history of Galifar in general. Each of the Five Nations has a national character based on a mix of historical references, but also as a national character class. Something for which each was known in the Kingdom, formally or informally. Not to say that “character class” is a known phenomenon in Eberron, but the terminology persists in the same way we talk about professions and skill sets. Like saying, “Bob is an engineer. Those Brelish rogues.”  Aundair Aundair is the Galifaran Wizard, home of the Arcane Congress - the greatest institution of research and learning for arcane magic on Khorvaire - as well as distinguished schools such as the University of Wynarn. Its national character is also very French, in my mind. The nation is known for fine wine, fine food, high fashion, and the kind of self-assured arrogance you get out of Three Musketeers characters eager for a duel of honor. How fitting, to go with wizards. I also think of them as having a bit of English stirred in, to create a more rounded “Old World pride” along with the history of prestigious institutions of higher education. The more modern-ish political bits of England are portioned off to Breland, meanwhile. Aundair is a beautiful land, and probably the most fertile of the Five. The Eldeen Reaches used to make that “probably” a “certainly,” until the Reachers took advantage of the crown’s divided attention and declared their independence. Aundair still exports plenty of food, but more in the area of luxury goods. Aundair’s population is the lowest of the Five (well, aside from Cyre, of course), reflecting a very spread-out rural populace with only a few cities. And those few cities are also rather small. They made up for a lack of numbers with quality of arcane support during the war, producing some of the finest wizards, magewrights, and artificers from their universities. Despite this arcane edge, Aundair still lost more than it gained in the War. The Thrane/Aundair border was vicious, the two nations at each other’s throats more or less constantly even when pressed by the other three. As a result, when the other nations sponsored bandits and started conquering the southern territories of the Reaches, Aundair could not afford to commit to its defense. The Reachers eventually organized and beat back the invaders, but also realized they did not need the crown to see to their own well-being. As well, Thrane and Aundair traded provinces in the north and south, though each sees their own winnings as justly taken while their losses are to a base aggressor. Sovereigns Save the Queen Life in Aundair is probably the closest to what remains of the “traditional” experience of life in pre-War Galifar, on all levels of society. Most land is still formally owned by the crown, bestowed upon a landed gentry in exchange for feudal vows. Many farmers are still serfs. However, Aundair also still adheres most strongly out of any of the Five to the Galifar Code of Justice, giving these serfs strong protections against legal abuse while still restraining their social mobility. This is helped by Queen Aurala being a genuinely good leader and a good person - she is one of the most absolute monarchs on the continent, most likely to declare, “L’Etat c’est moi,” but moderated by a sincere belief in noblesse oblige. Aurala came to power during a risky period of the war when Aundair stood alone. She managed to trade small concessions for momentary ceasefires, giving the nation time to regroup and rebuild. Out of this, she became very aware that her absolute power comes from the compliance of those below her, from noble down to commoner. As a result, she rules with a mix of some cynical practicality and honest idealism about her office. Her honest belief in this system and her rightness will also most likely throw the continent back into war, because she’s still thinking of the current peace as identical to the small one she secured back in her first years on the throne - a time to regroup for the next fight on the horizon. “As she holds out her right hand in peace, she directs the machines of war with her left.” Aurala of Aundair and Kaius of Karrnath are two big pieces Eberron uses to actively play with alignment. (There will be a lot to say about Kaius later.) We already have the setting passively divesting itself of things like racial alignments, now we engage with the idea of political alignments. Aurala is a Neutral Good warmonger, and she is genuinely a good and kind person as much as her office allows, a queen who wants the best for others and works hard to produce it… but is also about to go jogging down the road of good intentions. She believes whole-heartedly she is the enlightened despot. And she even kind of is! Aundair is legitimately a nice place to live, sustained in no small part by her rulership and the faith she inspires in others. Aundair is so gosh-darned nice and pastoral that Tolkien would cavort in glee. And she will sadly, compassionately send people off to kill and die in her name to secure that nice pastoralism and expand its reach. She will mournfully sigh, possibly even weep a little - genuinely, even in public in what for anyone else would be a calculated display - as she declares that now is the time to cross into Thrane and take back lost territory. She will be very honestly sad when Boranel of Breland walks away from the negotiation table refusing to sign on, when she then sends her soldiers to strike against Brelish patrols because they might be escorting shipments of Cannith arms to her foes. She will reluctantly fund and encourage Prince Oargev of the Cyran refugees to rise up to distract Boranel during a critical moment in the coming war, lamenting properly when Oargev gets himself and a bunch of his remaining countrymen killed. Once she has taken Thrane, she will do her best to make honest peace with the Church leadership there and then send as many of their clerics and paladins as she can to the front lines against Karrnath’s undead legions, bemoaning their loss and then capitalizing on it because it means she can bring proper monarchy back to the people - and oh, Keeper Jaela really just needs a motherly figure to look out for her, it’s all for the best. It's all for the best. I mentally cast early-2000s Cate Blanchett as Queen Aurala. Galadriel who took the One Ring. Except the Ring is monarchy and she was born with it. Like has already happened before, the “good monarch” or “enlightened despot” is a disaster waiting to happen. It may have taken rather a while to play out fully for Galifar, but Aurala’s determined to speedrun this poo poo. As we’ll see with other rulers, the heads of state in the Five are to an extent exemplars of their national character. That’s not to say everyone in Aundair is as dedicated and kind as Aurala is (outside of her ambitions), but rather that the leaders tend to be taken as model examples by their citizens. Most people of Aundair are generally regarded by others as pleasant and outgoing, if prideful. They nurse stronger grudges against the Thranes as well as the breakaways in the Eldeen Reaches, and a milder distaste for the dour Karrns. They pity the Cyran refugees but are relieved that most of them have settled in Breland instead. During the confusion following the Day of Mourning, Aundair turned away a refugee wave that they thought would be the vanguard of an invasion. Something which feels even more relevant now than then… Marked to Rule Aundair hosts the headquarters of both House Orien (Passage) and House Lyrandar (Storm), the two houses most deeply involved in shipping and travel across Khorvaire. Aurala’s fondness for the houses is almost unseemly - her husband is the brother to House Vadalis’s (Handling) patriarch, and she regularly meets and trades gossip (and intelligence) with the matriarch of House Lyrandar. Galifar used to maintain a number of rules to keep the houses officially out of the halls of government, and while they were imperfectly kept (and don’t do nearly enough anyway), Aurala’s closeness to some of the houses is still borderline scandalous. She actually works to keep Vadalis at arm’s length, scrupulously never granting them favor in her personal decisions, but that doesn’t stop those beneath her from surreptitiously favoring the house. Nor will it necessarily prevent any of her heirs from attempting to further marry the house to the crown, especially if they manifest the Mark of Handling. If any nation is likely to be co-opted by the houses, much as Thrane was taken over by the Church, it’s Aundair. It won’t happen in Aurala’s lifetime, but she’s unintentionally sowing the seeds, possibly in exchange for a lock on Lyrandar air support and Vadalis warbeasts in the next war. Appropriate to the ancestral seat of House Orien, as well, Aundair hosts extensive infrastructure including a robust network of well-maintained roads and one of the most important lightning rail lines. The Aundair line was a major commercial artery between the east and west of the Kingdom as well as supplying the capital, as it passed just north of Thronehold. The Karrnathi destroyed the rail bridge crossing Scions Sound out of necessity and it has yet to be restored. The lines between Aundair, Breland, and Thrane remained largely intact, and any rail breakages between them have been easy to repair since then. Trade is still brisk between Aundair and Breland as a result. Adventure! Aundair is the most peaceful land in Khorvaire currently, but even here there is still potential for adventure. The Whisper Woods in the far north resist being tamed, while the Crying Fields on the Thrane border are haunted and possibly cursed. The Royal Eyes, the queen’s personal intelligence agency, are always on the lookout for useful agents and deniable assets. So is the queen’s brother, Warlord and Minister of Magic Adal ir’Wynarn, who thinks he would do better on the throne. Many of the institutions of higher learning and arcane study in the land may also decide they have cause to hire some “freelancers” for various reasons - most just want bodyguards and guides as they take on expeditions to other parts of the world, but some are convinced they’re likely to be kidnapped over various secrets they’ve discovered in their researches. Not necessarily wrongly, either. Guillotines? Probably not any time soon. Aurala is popular, and things are going well for the Aundairan people despite their wounded pride. Eldeen food may no longer be quite so cheap, but Aundair is still the Reaches’ main trading partner just from proximity so costs have not yet shot up. The conditions that might have sparked the French Revolution actually came and went back around when Aurala first took power, but she very visibly worked hard to support the nation in her first years and won much of her subjects’ love instead of becoming the detached, indulgent monarch. Now, if her brother Adal made his move to take the throne, depending on how subtle he was about it, that might spark a brief trend in public executions until one of Aurala’s three children was placed on the throne. Then it would be up to her heir to keep things together, and well, who knows what might happen then.  Breland Much as Cannith and the warforged are the designers’ favorite marked house and new race, respectively, Breland is clearly the darling nation of the line. It gets by far the most attention, meant to be the place where adventuring careers start and can continue well into mid or even high levels. It hosts Sharn, the City of Towers, which is to Eberron as Chicago and New York are to mobster and Mafia movies. Sharn gets its own book, and on top of that Breland has the heaviest hand in Stormreach, the only Galifaran city on Xen’drik, which is used to plumb into the depths of the ruined continent (and also gets its own book). Appropriately enough, as the place that gets the most attention from a bunch of mostly-US-based writers, Breland feels very American. The political structure is ostensibly rather British but has shades of the “imperial presidency” period of George W. Bush’s term in office, during which this was written. Due to its position in relation to Xen’drik and the proprietary attitude it has toward that continent’s resources, and also because I was reading Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s Captain Alatriste series back when I was first really getting into Eberron, Breland also feels very late-Golden Age Spanish to me. Something which I feel the text reasonably bears out. This influence also recasts Sharn with some elements of Madrid as depicted in Alatriste, when during occasional breaks in the Spanish Empire’s constant conflicts, the city was choked with decommissioned soldiers getting into trouble and trying to scrape by - much as also happened in many large cities when World War 1 itself ended. I also imagine the Brelish to have a similar fixation on honor that the Aundairans do, but from a more emotionally insecure viewpoint - your honor is not something you guard and maintain, but something you project near to the point of belligerence… something else that is not exactly out of place with US citizens and our reputation for our country’s whole history, but is also all over the Alatriste novels. Alatriste himself has regular close brushes with royalty and other powerful people, unusual for a common (but uncommonly brave, or perhaps just suicidal) soldier. Madrid (and Spain) of the time is presented as a wild place, one of the heights of worldly power and wealth. Vast sums of money poured in as if - to the regular Spaniard - from nowhere and sparked no small amount of trouble on all levels of society. Social class barriers were signaled strictly yet permeable if you had the money to put on the right appearance, the number of layers isolating a king from a commoner fewer than we traditionally imagine. Especially when the king makes a point of going among the people to be seen, or when reliable but deniable sword-arms are needed to deal with problems both domestic and foreign. The books are a fun inspiration for adventure in the midst of a settled and “civilized” land, and perfectly capture for me so much of what the game line tries to get across about Breland in general and Sharn in particular. There’s adventure everywhere, based on almost anything. In line with all of this, Breland’s national character class is the Rogue. A kind word and a sharp knife will get you a lot farther in life than just a kind word. Breland is ready with both - indeed, if anyone could have ultimately won out over the other nations during the Last War, it’s probably Breland. But the hard victory isn’t really in the Brelish national character. They’re willing to sacrifice, but not if it isn’t worth it. Pick your battles, make the opportune move, but also be ready to strike the deal that gets what you truly want without a fight. This doesn’t make all Brelish untrustworthy scoundrels, but rather that pragmatism wins the day over ideals. They’re very good at lying to themselves and others about being much more idealistic than they actually are - the life of King Boranel is an excellent example. A Spare Heir Boranel was a third son, never meant for rulership even in light of the perils of war. He was destined for the military, but between campaigns slipped away to adventure. Accounts of his military victories and adventurous doings were published in national newspapers, charming the war-weary citizens. His romance with his first wife, the lesser Cyran noble Lady Chaseva ir’Maasat, was also given a storybook gloss in the papers and overcame fears that the young adventurer-lord was inviting a spy into his bed. (And one of so much lower station, at that!) When tragedy struck the nation and Boranel’s two elder brothers died in battle together and his father soon followed in his grief, Boranel ascended to the throne to much popular acclaim. He became one of the most active kings in not just Brelish but Galifaran history, personally directing the war and often going to fight on the front. He also became a champion of warforged rights later in the war after a small contingent of warforged risked their lives to save him during a disastrous turn in a major battle. Those warforged became his royal bodyguards and their leader, Three, eventually became Boranel’s closest confidant. Reading between the lines, I’m reminded of Winston Churchill’s early career. Churchill joined the British armed forces as a junior officer and supplemented his pay by selling his eyewitness accounts of various events to British newspapers, then later compiling and writing several books from his experiences. This aspect of Churchill’s career is understandably overshadowed by later events, but they’re a large part of what made that career in the first place. Churchill knew what he was doing, building his reputation for the sake of future ambitions and taking shots at those who might stand in his way. Boranel is not presented as quite so calculating, but he’s also smart enough to understand the power of the news media and how to turn public perception. The deaths of his brothers and father are not hinted to be anything more than the genuine tragedies they were, but Boranel had the foresight already to spin up a positive reputation in the eyes of the Brelish public. What might have come of this had the crown not been suddenly thrust into his hands, nobody knows. He certainly used his popularity to get what he wanted when it came to his first wife, so maybe that was all he would ever do with it: get what he wanted, even if it broke with tradition to do so. What he doesn’t seem to have actually ever wanted was the crown. Even so, Boranel ir’Wynarn is a widely-beloved Good King. And like with his distant cousin Aurala, this is a problem. Breland is a goddamn mess. Many Brelish, including Boranel, are well-meaning but morally complacent. The Brelish come off as not really reflecting on their country and its place in the world at all, except in the way of a general national pride and patriotism that doesn’t require them to think hard thoughts. Breland’s most prosperous provinces were well away from the front lines. While the war touched a lot of people’s lives, this allowed many - including many of the rich and powerful - to carry on without having to think too deeply on it day to day. Breland has also been at the forefront of exploiting the continent of Xen’drik to the south since before the Last War. They think of the native giants as savages in the ruins of a fallen empire whose time has passed, they barely acknowledge the drow elves, and corruption runs rampant as everyone thinks they’re obliged to stick their hands in the river of mineral and magical wealth coming out of the “dark continent.” It’s not exploitation, you see, it’s adventure and discovery. Similarly, Boranel wants to do well by people but he hates “politics.” Legally, Boranel is actually the most constrained ruling monarch in the Five. Breland is bound not just by the Galifar Code of Justice, but also a democratic tradition of public representatives from various communities and a national parliament. The parliament hears discussion and debate on a variety of issues raised by the public representatives and formulate any new laws of the kingdom. But it’s up to the Crown to enforce the law. Instead of doing the work demanded by such a system, Boranel bulls ahead and draws people after him. He enforces his law, as he feels like. He can get away with it because he’s charismatic and accomplished, and not actually a bad person out to hurt others with his power. He’s also old, having ruled for almost 40 years with a high-profile career at least a decade before. He’s been a public fixture for the whole lifetime of nearly all of Breland’s human citizenry, and ruled long enough to leave a profound impression on the longer-lived citizens. Boranel is however not particularly reflective and doesn’t fully realize what his “imperial kingship” has actually done to his country. There’s no real accountability in this system. There’s no system in this system. The people have their say and then Boranel does what he wants. He constantly bypasses anything resembling a hierarchy or bureaucracy. Much of the Brelish bureaucracy meant to run the nation on its own has withered significantly up top and become rife with corruption lower down. Boranel’s hatred of politics means he’s not kinging sustainably. He may in fact be responsible for the death of the monarchy in Breland once he passes on - and perhaps even the death of Breland, if things go badly enough. It’s the recurrent problem of a powerful ruler being so involved in things and then dying. His potential successors have nowhere near the personal power or charisma to carry on when he goes. Complicating this further is that all of Boranel’s potential successors, whether legitimately of his blood or simply those with enough power to grab for the throne, all have very different opinions on what Breland’s future should look like. To contrast with Aundair, that nation at least has maintained the power of the state united behind a dominating monarch. They have a tradition, and while it’s a lovely feudal one, it makes even Aurala replaceable with a minimum of day-to-day fuss because the system will still work without her as long as people can minimally trust its legitimacy. Breland’s system was also intended to make anyone replaceable without fuss, just from a different direction, but Boranel has drawn too much power to his person for Breland’s government to compensate for his inevitable loss. (Sudden thought: adventure or mini-campaign based around giving a recently-deceased Boranel the Weekend at Bernie’s treatment long enough for someone to actually secure a stable succession, with no one the wiser. Opportunity for Vol to make in-roads with whoever’s doing this, thanks to her necromantic knowledge. Why yes I enjoy the Locked Tomb series as well.) In the east of Breland, one of the largest communities of Cyran survivors has collected under their last surviving royal, Prince Oargev. Oargev is a counterpart and counterpoint to Boranel, stripped of much of what Boranel neglects and forced to work directly while his Brelish cousin chooses to. Boranel invited the survivors of Cyre to settle, but in eastern territories that took the brunt of the war. Brelish politicians also seek to check Oargev and New Cyre in a way they refuse to do for their own king, making life harder for the refugee community while puffing themselves up in self-satisfaction for taking the refugees in at all. Oargev has become a scholar and even a bit of an adventurer out of necessity. He hopes to puzzle out the mysteries of the Mournland as well as interceding personally in the needs of his people. As a leader, he’s a good man, but his means are so limited that he knows - much better than Boranel does - that he must rely on his people to help build something that can stand. Make Your Mark Breland hosts major seats of power of several different marked houses. House Medani, of the Mark of Detection, make their home in the Brelish capital of Wroat. Their patriarch is a friend and old adventuring buddy of Boranel’s, so close that it actually causes problems for the Medani in other nations. House Phiarlan of the Mark of Shadow has also based itself out of Breland, and the house matriarch is a regular fixture of high society events in Breland, Thrane, and Aundair. Strictly speaking, House Cannith is not based in Breland. After the house was decapitated with the loss of Cyre, power devolved to three different enclaves across Khorvaire. Baron Merrix d’Cannith rules the Brelish enclave in Sharn and would be a much more serious contender for patriarch of the house if he wasn’t so involved in his own projects. Even so, the Sharn enclave is still one of the mightiest branches of the house simply because of the sheer wealth constantly flowing through the city and the massive foundries under Cannith control in the deepest reaches of the City of Towers. Similarly, House Vadalis holds two of their largest enclaves in Breland even as their house headquarters is in the backwoods of the Eldeen Reaches. Adventure! So much adventure potential revolves around Breland, and Sharn in particular. Sharn is the place for adventure to start and happen in the setting, much as Sigil is in Planescape or Greyhawk is in, er, Greyhawk. Obscene amounts of wealth flow through Sharn, as do countless people hoping to make their fortune. Crime is rampant but so is the cutting edge of high society and culture. This is where you’d find jazz clubs and the Outfit. Every marked house has a presence. Anything could happen, from a mugging to King Kong. The city is highly stratified, literally as well as metaphorically, as a permanent manifest zone to the plane of Syrania makes flight magic easier to enchant. Sharn is a place of aerial taxis, soaring towers of masonry instead of steel, and floating neighborhoods of the ridiculously wealthy. But it is also a place of grinding poverty that stretches almost as deep down as it rises up, with the lowest reaches of the full of the poorest people who scrabble to make a living at the massive forges that tap into a shallow magma vein beneath the city. Every kind of social and economic friction happens here, ready to spiral out into something requiring 4 to 6 random weirdos to solve. I could go on and on about just Sharn. It gets its own book later in the line, and took up a huge chunk of the 5th Edition Eberron book. Despite that and its importance to the setting, Sharn actually gets a fairly light touch here. It gets about a page of Breland’s write-up, regular mentions around the book, and is the site of a 10-page sample adventure at the end of the book. It also feels oddly detached from the rest of Breland and the plots found therein. Then again, maybe that’s not so odd - I live in New York State but not the city, and NYC feels almost like a completely different country from here sometimes. In not just distance but economic and social concerns. Almost as much as Sharn, the ECS is very interested in the adventure potential surrounding the political problems of Boranel - the problems he has, and the problems he presents. The Brelish parliament is supposed to be a distinct pole of power from the monarch, and Lord Ruken ir’Clarn is noted to lead a conspiracy planning on making that a reality once more. Ruken hopes to take power for the parliament when the king finally dies, though he notably does not want to kill Boranel himself. He is not an idiot. Ruken instead wishes to be Breland’s first prime minister when the king passes, and bury the monarchy with him. Guillotines? Look, I wouldn’t take a bet against one going up in Wroat’s public square. When Boranel kicks it, at least three different groups are going to make a play for power. Whichever idiot kid he finally names as heir will want to hold on to the throne, Lord Ruken’s conspiracy is going to move as fast as they can to claim authority, and New Cyre is going to secede. There have been rumors of secession since the community was founded, and the parliament is hostile enough to Oargev’s presence that he’s going to have to declare (and back up) his independence just to keep New Cyre from getting broken up once Boranel is no longer there to offer his personal guarantee. And that’s assuming nobody else gets involved at all to make things worse. There are a lot of powers out there that would be happy to destabilize things even further, for plenty of reasons. When old age catches up to King Boranel ir’Wynarn, he’s not going to be the only one who dies. Invest in timber and steel, you’ll make a killing. Next time: Three, Four, Five
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Jul 21, 2023 05:56
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Worth mentioning: Boranel has, IIRC, thirteen different kids. He has named precisely none of them as his heir, and isn't involved in any of their lives. The books never explicitly say it, but I get the feeling that he's an extremely neglectful parent, if not downright absent. Every Eberron campaign I've run has involved at least one of Breland's princes or princesses getting into trouble of one sort or another in the name of trying to get daddy's attention and prove that they're not only the best possible heir, but also, you know, that dad should actually be a dad.
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Jul 21, 2023 12:25
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It's also implied that Breland is on the fast track to a full on succession crisis resulting in a democracy but since Eberron is eternally stuck at 2 years after the war it won't ever actually happen
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Jul 21, 2023 15:44
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Kurieg posted:It's also implied that Breland is on the fast track to a full on succession crisis resulting in a democracy but since Eberron is eternally stuck at 2 years after the war it won't ever actually happen Everything set up like that in Eberron is for your game to resolve if you want to, there's no real metaplot. And that's something I strongly appreciate about the setting, especially coming on the heels of the metaplot-heavy 90s in RPGs, including D&D.
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Jul 21, 2023 17:17
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Cythereal posted:Worth mentioning: Boranel has, IIRC, thirteen different kids. He has named precisely none of them as his heir, and isn't involved in any of their lives. The books never explicitly say it, but I get the feeling that he's an extremely neglectful parent, if not downright absent. That sounds like a recipe for a really interesting time if the King gets dead unexpectedly.
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Jul 21, 2023 17:23
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disposablewords posted:Everything set up like that in Eberron is for your game to resolve if you want to, there's no real metaplot. And that's something I strongly appreciate about the setting, especially coming on the heels of the metaplot-heavy 90s in RPGs, including D&D.
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Jul 21, 2023 17:39
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I appreciate that everything ever published for Harn describes events up to to the year 720 TR and no further.
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Jul 21, 2023 17:45
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Reminds me of Harn, which has an exhaustively detailed setting history that goes right up until a particular moment in time - and then stops. Nothing is published beyond the moment that all the books are set (the local equivalent of January 1, 720 AD). No ongoing setting developments, no future history, just building a giant sandbox and handing it to the GM and letting them take it from there. e: drat it, HJ.
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Jul 21, 2023 17:51
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wdarkk posted:That sounds like a recipe for a really interesting time if the King gets dead unexpectedly. Plus, as disposable noted, the would-be Prime Minister who's going to move immediately to try to remove the monarchy or at least reduce it to a figurehead. And the almost inevitable secession of New Cyre. And the entire rest of Khorvaire moving in to try to turn the situation to their advantage. No one is going to gently caress with King Boranel, but Breland is a ticking time bomb and the elderly king is the clock. One of my Eberron campaigns was set mainly in New Cyre and opened with the premise "One of Boranel's daughters just proposed a diplomatic marriage to Prince Oargev. While Oargev waits to deliver an official response, approximately everyone in New Cyre freaks the gently caress out." Cythereal fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Jul 21, 2023 |
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Jul 21, 2023 18:08
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