|
pkfan2004 posted:Every time I hear about oWoD Changelings versus nWoD Changelings it's always the same old song and dance about how it was a "light-hearted, happy series about finding beauty in creativity in imagination~ that become the darkest and grimmest series about the destruction of your identity and self and picking up the pieces and you may never truly be free". But now that I'm actually looking at oWoD Changeling holy poo poo I am glad I never saw this stuff in highschool. I'll just add my two cents to the "oChangeling sucks" pile here: The people you hear from are not good reviewers. Not hardly. Lost is, fundamentally, about the bittersweet nature of existence, likely maturity as well. Your Durance sucked, it's why you decided to face the Thorns and try to come back to Earth. But the game starts with one of the greatest victories of your entire existence as a changeling; escaping from an emotionally abusive god, and showing enough of you was left to recognize your abuser was exactly that despite his supernatural punch. And you've emerged stronger for it, literally if not emotionally. The real trial of the game is to avoid squandering that win. But then again, that's not actually that hard; the Courts, even the Winter, whose entire song and dance is "we're sad, and we make other people sad  " are all functioning people with very stable societies of their own. That's not a sign of people who can't heal.
|
#
¿
Jan 13, 2014 18:22
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 08:22 |
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:I always wondered if Unhallowed Metropolis was a good way to play something like Fallen London, whose creators were very scrupulous about not degenerating into steampunk cliche. Speaking as someone who knows the summary version...it isn't. In Fallen London, there's hope and a sense that if you try hard enough things will work out. In UH, the world's already impossible to fix, and is already running on fumes of existence. As mentioned, loving Warhammer is more optimistic and cheery than this setting. And steampunk cliches everywhere (*cough*combat corsets*cough*)!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 17, 2014 16:50
|
|
|
Cardiovorax posted:Dead Inside is a surprisingly fun and optimistic game for having the premise that you're a soulless abomination and life sucks and is sad and boohoohoo. Well, unlike a lot of soulless abomination games, the entire goal is to stop being a soulless abomination, and you do it by being a generally decent person. That, and I get the sense that the reason the Dead Inside perceive the world as bleak is for the same reason as the Discworld and why you want to avoid being knurd; they've lost the part of humanity that allows them to deal healthily with their lives, but it's not an injury that can't be healed, or even one you can't become stronger from in the long run. Presumably Senstives are those people who are fine being slightly knurd all the time. An entire subrace of humans composed of ideological clones of one Samuel Vimes. This is not a bug in the system. Erebro fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Feb 19, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Feb 19, 2014 15:43
|
|
I've never actually played it, but it's a fun read just for how many of your expectations it subverts.
|
Cold Hard World. You've piqued my interest.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 20, 2014 14:40
|
|
|
I find it hilarious the necromancers in Jaws are the Wise Old Mentor faction. Even more hilarious that they're likely the idealistic, wants-to-do-good-for-its-own-sake teammate. Villager being menaced by Devilfolk: "Zombies! We're saved!" Sorcerer: "Curses! I'll get you next time, Karkix the Soul Reaper!"
|
|
#
¿
Mar 15, 2014 02:16
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:It's creepy even in the English version, mind, but the whole thing is supposed to be tragic and cruel. Like many things in Tenra, really. Yeah. It's supposed to come off as being rather skeevy, so it's not nearly as bad as it seems from that remark. Really, all of Tenra-the-planet is like Japanese Warhammer 40K with mechs and without Chaos, so the Imperium (the Shinto Priesthood) come off as a bunch of tyrannical, secretive douchebags. Although I think the creator admitted that the dolls were actually a little too skeevy still. Don't quote me, but I think he did say there is also art in there he's embarrassed by. Erebro fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Mar 27, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2014 22:52
|
|
|
Humbug Scoolbus posted:Eldritch Skies. With Robots. Doesn't seem too hard to put into Unisystem or Savage Worlds, should the licence not be renewed. I reiterate my idea about extreme Hastur infection resulting in building cheap mecha with creepily polite (infected human) pilots who fight via singing psionic lullabies to disable you before giving you the Final Sleep.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 5, 2014 18:15
|
|
|
Fossilized Rappy posted:And we're the violence-prone species? From what you wrote, the book didn't say anything about humans being violence-prone in relation to the aliens. It's less like "loving cavemen wouldn't know a good thing if it bit them in the rear end" and more like "loving cavemen will kill your rear end dead if you get in teeth range, check your restraints regularly!" Erebro fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Sep 6, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Sep 6, 2014 06:06
|
|
|
Bieeardo posted:Holy poo poo, the Serpentine is Lovecraft as hell, right down to visiting the horrors of miscegenation on someone you share the effects of your Sex Move with. And this is why I love mocking Lovecraft's themes even as I embrace his motifs. The idea of snake people always struck me as a profoundly tragic society. The snakes' world died with the dinosaurs, and everything they do-everything they are-is based around trying desperately to reclaim their world and their glory despite everything that's happened rendering that world unattainable. Screaming about how they're inherently evil (no really it's not out of being understandably bitter because they realize they're dying out they're just nasty because reasons) doesn't change that fact at all. I did a little happy dance upon reading that writeup; there's even a Move for being sympathetic to the Serpentine's true nature. It's like Lovecraft's evil twin wrote this Skin, and I love it.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2014 20:36
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:The Ancient The really hilarious bit is that you can spin "Lovecraftian god" to teenager metaphor; the Complete Outsider. They enter at the exact bottom of the social hierarchy because they've never been a part of it, maybe they were at a much different school or even homeschooled for much of their childhood. This is obviously a bad thing, but the thing is that the Outsider understands how ridiculous the whole dance is. They're something alien to the social web, something who can examine it clinically and guess at who people actually are beyond its bounds, and that scares the social web. Yes, this also means the Lovecraftian God is the sane Skin. Darkest Self could easily be losing patience with the whole thing combined with feelings of worthlessness from how it's affected them anyway, focused into tearing apart social bonds and identities (which may or may not involve whispering forbidden knowledge into the ears of the cheerleading squad, more likely switching incriminating items around).
|
|
#
¿
Dec 23, 2014 02:06
|
|
|
I am on the  for Cyberpapacy
|
|
#
¿
Jan 14, 2015 03:17
|
|
|
hectorgrey posted:Seconded. Something entertaining needs to come from this terrible, terrible game... I'll add a third vote to that. Though I wonder how creeped out he'd be by the libertarian wank ("Utopia? Freedom for all? Ultimate capitalism? And you don't need to abandon friends to get it? ...Is this entire world trying to sell me something?").
|
|
#
¿
Jan 17, 2015 15:18
|
|
|
You forgot the fact he seems to have run out of anything resembling originality. I Am Zombie, the Kickstarter that has proven to be a case study in how to abuse the service? Yeah, it's Vampire with a zombie skin. I am not even joking, they have their own secret society and everything. Please keep in mind these are zombies, who are not known for their ability to remain a secret. The idea of what they call themselves, Toxics, isn't even from his brain either; he was inspired by a two-bit joke book from 1962 (he actually says this in the Kickstarter). If you want, I can post a link to the Kickstarter in question.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 24, 2015 04:17
|
|
|
Rand Brittain posted:Beast is actually out of development and should be up for Kickstarter sometime in June, with the more-or-less final text available, Demon-style. Also, it should be noted: That thing (at least according to Matt McFarland)? It's entirely possible that was deliberately chosen to be the most unpolished and poor draft of the game. It was literally leaked as part of a scheme by a jackass to get a different guy fired. The guy that jackass was attempting to get fired does not work on Beast.  EDIT: Here's my source. Erebro fucked around with this message at 23:57 on May 26, 2015 |
|
#
¿
May 26, 2015 23:37
|
|
|
I vote Witch Finders.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2015 02:25
|
|
|
Kellsterik posted:Why doesn't anyone like Les Mysteres I'm with you on that. Yeah, Les Mysteres is misinformed, but they're also one of the nicest Conspiracies there is. And really, people who think the Mysteries are going to all be Claimed is seriously underestimating the average sapient spirit: Why piss off the Uratha to cultivate Essence and risk them tracking you down after they kill your meat, when you can get Essence while cultivating it in a much less intrusive (and infinitely more subtle) manner with the help of this friendly shaman? That, and I don't think Mysteres are dumb, either; they know there are evil spirits, and a psychotic rat that eats people's hearts so it can summon disease spirits? Time to start flattering some felines.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 10, 2015 03:02
|
|
|
Kurieg posted:
Got it in one. They're usually either more subtle or more horrifying than that, though. Definitely more abstract, normally (in WOD: Spirits, there's a crazy anti-vaxxer Claimed by a medicine-spirit of some sort, and he looks a lot like a surgeon in work gear at a passing glance...then you look closer, and see the "mask" and "gloves" are actually part of his skin..).
|
|
#
¿
Jun 10, 2015 19:20
|
|
|
Everything Counts posted:They come up in nMage, actually. They're mentioned a couple times in connection with Atlantis, and there's a Legacy--an extreme subsect of Magedom--that works towards becoming them. I no longer have my Mage books so I'm real fuzzy on the details. Lemme see if I can look it up. You're thinking of the Daksha, and yes, they were fully detailed as a normal Legacy, albeit one that's getting really, really close to being declared Left-Handed because of the Nazism thing, as well as being insufferably smug asshats. You're mostly right, but it's primarily yoga they use, and the transformation is slightly more subtle (ie, their skin remains at its original color, there's not much you can do disguise hermaphrodism).
|
|
#
¿
Jun 11, 2015 17:38
|
|
|
Luminous Obscurity posted:Mummies major enemies are the Deceived, another Iremite guild of betrayed Shan'iatu and their own weird quasi-mummies that they've grafted chunks of their souls to, and the Shuankhsen, former Iremite slaves who were sacrificed to a destroyer goddess as part of the Rite of Return and are now back for revenge. Both of these antagonists are also tragic and awesome. With the Shuankhsen, the tragedy is front and center; they're slaves of Ammit, far more than the Arisen are slaves of the Shan'iatu. And they remember; Ammit didn't erase their ability to recall Irem, to the point where they have true Morality rather than Memory like most mummies. Which means they know exactly who is responsible for their sorry state, and that the Arisen were the oppressors who made even their living days a complete hell. Ammit fuels their hatred with her own entropy and hunger-based powers; each and every Shuankhsen is a cannibal, since eating Arisen is the only way to get more powerful...and like Arisen, they can lose power just as easily if they upset Ammit. The Deceived have eternal unlives that suck even worse, if at all possible. See, it's not the Deceived mummies themselves that hate the Arisen, it's their Shan'iatu guildmasters. The Shan'iatu guildmasters, that as noted, each Deceived has a mental clone of sharing their skull after the so-called temakhs' botched attempt to usurp their brethren went wrong. This isn't like geister and Sin-Eaters though, because each temakh is an egotistical, self-pitying, and generally insane nihilistic brat with an appreciation for art that would unnerve Richard Pickman (each one is themed after a different art form). It's not all bad; besides having extremely powerful Fate-based magic, the temakhs also give their hosts power over a different Vice and the ability to feed on artistic passions-as well as grant supernatural powers to and derive mystically-enforced loyalty from every member of their cult.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 18, 2015 00:59
|
|
|
oriongates posted:Demons Behold, my favorite part of the setting. Probably not the best part (that'd be the Invisible Clergy and the scarily anthrocentric cosmos), but I just love the little buggers that are Unknown Armies demons. They encapsulate everything you need to know about the setting: 1) The supernatural is dangerous, and probably counterproductive to deal with. 2) They look like generic infernal baddies at first glance (they possess people, they're utterly ruthless, they make deals that almost invariably favor themselves), but on closer inspection seem completely unexpected and new (they're not a race of fallen angels or physical negative emotions, they're what people otherwise call ghosts, and they're more desperate and selfish rather than truly malicious). Then you think about it, and you realize your first impression wasn't actually wrong, just lacking nuance. Sufficiently unempathetic people are how we develop a baseline for evil to begin with, and they're the antithesis of the gods (the book actually outright says they're the opposite of Archetypes; rather than losing their selfhood and material goals to become a part of humanity, they lose their humanity to retain their selfhood so that they may continue pursuing their material goals...and in another parallel, become rather small fry on a cosmological level as opposed to an almost certain chance of drafting the rules for the next cosmos). 3) You did it. Erebro fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Jul 7, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Jul 7, 2015 20:42
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 08:22 |
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:Some notes on the Freak from Godwalker, for anyone who's interested: The Freak is not invincible, but pinning it down and actually killing it is almost impossible. If you figure out that the 90-pound girl or wheezing old man in front of you is the Freak, you have a couple seconds to live. It's practiced Epideromancy on itself so that it's stronger, faster, and tougher than a human. It's not Superman, but it could shrug off a shot from a handgun and break your neck before you know what's happening to you. If it feels threatened, it immediately uses Still Pond to make itself bulletproof and then Body Melting to pull you apart like dough. The only thing that scares the Freak into blowing town is when it senses that somebody (probably someone who wants it dead) just copped a Major charge. Also, the Freak isn't quite as annoying as most GMPC god-characters. For one, there's only one of it, and for another...remember how Alex Abel is a threat and patron on a cosmic level precisely because he has no magic of his own (i.e. is perfectly effing sane)? The Freak has immersed itself so far into Epideromancy and its Avatar that it can't interact as a human being. Which, given what the cosmology of Unknown Armies is, also means that it's honestly something that doesn't matter to the vast majority of the UG, unless you're trying to pull the Godwalker plot and replace it. That isn't to say it can't be annoying, but it is honestly more akin to a less active Lady of Pain than anything. And matters less than the Lady, given how the entire planet is bigger than one city on the inside of a torus.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 30, 2015 17:45
|
|