Splicer posted:

2017 was an international game of Paranoia. Or Fiasco.

What will 2018 be like?

FMguru posted:

Halloween Jack posted:

Also, it has always been obsessed with going into other people's homes and mass murdering them and taking all their stuff

Halloween Jack posted:

Instead of a Dr Phil rpg, specifically, you could do an Oprah RPG with a hack of kill puppies for satan. The PCs are all scumbag quack doctors trying to get rich by getting regular guest spots on her show.

Zurui posted:

Okay, this is gonna happen now.

theironjef posted:

What's a good example of that last one? I'm guessing Dread, FATE, and the FFG Star Wars games?

Alien Rope Burn posted:

I suppose in a podcast you could edit out the miserable amount of back and forth dice-rolling in combat. Or just turn it into a performance art.

Bedlamdan posted:

Some people find humor with how dysfunctional the Imperium is. Some people find the individuals living within it to at least be more sympathetic than the faction that is basically four different kinds of Satan, one of whom will kill you quickly, one of whom will kill you slowly, one of whom screws with your head and one of whom simply screws you to death.

It’s less that people don’t understand the Imperium is a bad thing, and more that people can find it an interesting or funny thing despite also being a bad thing, is what you’re missing here. Like intellectually I understand Darth Vader is a self loathing quadriplegic who is his own worst enemy, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking the airlock scene in Rogue One was probably the best thing Star Wars ever did.

I’m sorry to say that sometimes bad people still make for good characters, and quite a few people find the Empire in Star Wars cool without also buying into National Socialism.

Martin Snazz posted:

Thank you.

In all seriousness, though, yelping about a fiction anthology that they apparently pulled from access and scrubbed from publication a while back seems a bit ... extreme. I mean, I get it. We all have to have something to be outraged by, but what do you think they should have done instead? Doubled down? Let Ericsson ramp up his obnoxious Uber-Edge Lord schtick? Offered penance, mea culpas and a tray of cookies to the poor bastards that actually wait around for a fiction anthology about their favorite Elf Game?

Because honestly, that's Woody Allen poo poo right there: "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." "Yeah, I know; and such small portions." It's essentially fanfic centered on a game that was hot and edgy 25+ years ago, and you're complaining because some douchebags are trying to keep it edgy. Man, I'd hate to see what you think of the latest Dragonlance collection or R.A. Salvatore series. If you're buying licensed White Wolf V:TM fiction, there's a bigger problem than the guys writing or editing the damned thing.


The term "reprint" seems to mean different things to different people. I'd be curious to know how long that e-book was available before it was scrubbed.


I'm guessing that, in your home games, vampires are only allowed to feed on narrowly prescribed sorts of victims, such as neoliberal republicans and people who disagree with you on internet forums.

Honestly, this leaves me at a bit of a loss. If there isn't an element of horror in your edgy, gothpunk games, what exactly is going on? Is it Model UN with fangs? An extended coffee shop slam poetry night, only we broadly talk about how we totally spiked the coffee with blood from "bad" people? Season One of Arrow, only the guy in the hood has three dots in Auspex?

Vampire (and White Wolf, in general) has always been trashy in its dark and edgy nature. Back cover of the Tzimisce, anyone? Entire chapters on world details like "walking the chicken strip" and similar? These ringing any bells? It just happened that people could ignore the lore whenever they were running it.

Puffing up with outrage now, when the company looks to be doing the same damned thing all over again... what game did you think you were talking about?


Yeah, I hadn't realized that the game needed a purity test that went that deep. I do appreciate the "yeah, Hite's a dick in real life, so it doesn't matter if he puts out decent games" angle, though.

Snark aside, I didn't know that Zak S had anything to do with the game at this point. He's a reprehensible creature, but I would be surprised if (like the scrubbed fiction anthology) if they were willing to court that sort of shitstorm.


That's ... phenomenal. And not really unexpected for a White Wolf fiction anthology.

It honestly makes you wonder if Tim Kring or Joss Whedon were aware of his hilariously bad "participatory art and entertainment" when they were working with him.


Nah, apparently I'm not nearly "bombastic" enough. Clearly, I need to add more "concentrated spunk in my groins-blood" to my posts.

Martin Snazz posted:

Or it could be that I'm not deep enough into the groupthink, so I have to be properly informed to know my place.

Opinions are terrible things, when they're not properly aligned.

Martin Snazz posted:

That's cool. Saves me having to bother with the rest of your reply.


Oh. You're back.

Should I go back and talk about your previous points?

Mr. Maltose posted:

That's nice, Zak.

My Lovely Horse posted:

Trying to parse the homebrew system we're using this weekend and every aspect of it fills me with equal parts dread and antipathy. It covers so very few things and it covers those things in such excruciating detail.

ten ability scores

My Lovely Horse posted:

I keep trying to summarize the rules but I always end up reproducing them in total, and the most concise description I can come up with is that it's exactly what you'd expect a D&D 3.5 clone written by a theoretical physicist to be like.

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

I wish I were good enough at that I could whip y'all into half as big a frenzy as this guy. zak s is good. narrative games suck. I hate hte bands you like. why isn't this working??

oriongates posted:

So, does this sound like a Peanut Butter +Chocolate sort of combo, or more of a Avacado + Chocolate kind of combo?

Antivehicular posted:

Also, can you even imagine how lovely life for the average person would be in Dark Sunxalted? Holy balls.

Wrestlepig posted:

The best intro game I’ve seen is Call of Cthulhu. It’s simple to grasp the resolution, it doesn’t take long to set up a character, it’s good for one-shots, most of it can be understood without many gamey terms, players probably get the genre and there’s lots of modules and support.

Pollyanna posted:

I'd actually like to know something myself:

- What's your longest-running campaign?
- What system was it in?
- Was it online or in-person?
- What year did it begin?
- How long did it run?

remusclaw posted:

Is that why the Old school D&D thread got the way it is lately?

SunAndSpring posted:

Did any of you fuckin nerds buy Warhammer Fantasy RP 4e and if so how are you finding it so far? I'm reading the preview pdf and it's super rushed, I hope they can get their poo poo together because while I think the rules are a general improvement on 2e, there's a lot of weird poo poo that I don't know is going to be fixed or not before final release

Macdeo Lurjtux posted:

Does anyone have any impressions on Zweihander? The exposure it’s gotten after the Ennis wins has me intrigued.

Is it basically setting agnostic WFRPG?

That Old Tree posted:

Dark Astral Ad Blurb posted:

In the grim future of Dark Astral, there is only war.

The solar system is spread apart into warring fiefdoms, technology has gone by the wayside and become an extreme luxury, education is fleeting and knowledge is reserved for the powerful – meaning science and medicine lag behind. Religion and superstition reign. This is a campaign setting that’s deeply entrenched in superstition and subverted ideals, despite the staggering height of technology.

Dark Astral is the Renaissance era transplanted into the theater of the Vault of Night: foolhardy Shadowbrokers (Hostile V's note: Rogue Traders), corrupted Klergists (HV: Techpriests), insane Psykonauts (HV: hazard a guess), hedonistic Technokrats (HV: Imperial scribes and magistrates), sanguine Manhunters (HV: Bounty Hunters/Scum) and ravaged Astrotemplars (HV: theoretically Space Marines but really just like Imperial Guardsmen and you're told they're really cool superhumans) all have their niche, even if their sailing ships are replaced by space arks and bows with laser rifles. In Dark Astral, don’t use traditional science fiction terms: aliens are called The Other, gravity is called Ætherea, planets are called Dominions, spaceships are called Arks, stars are called Mirrors and space itself is called the Vault of Night. In the uncharted territories in the Vault of Night, there are not galaxies, but Wytch-spirals. Instead of black holes, there are the starless wells called Dark Astral.

Dark Astral Intro Text posted:

It is the far future, but in a not-so-distant past of the one we recognize as the Renaissance. Following the desecration of the garden world of Eden, the people fled in a massive diaspora through the Vault of Night, under the auspices of an immortal Technokrat named Sol Invictus. In the grim darkness, a new Jerusalem was erected, a pinnacle of humanity’s greatness. As time progressed, the memory of Eden was lost to a new dawn, regarded barely as a faint echo in Sol Invictus’ convocations. As humanity’s faith and culture spread to new dominion worlds, so did the threats of an unknown universe unfold.

An unforeseen enemy emerged from the vastness of the Dark Astral - an uncharted sector in the Vault of Night. Civilization was threatened by what was simply called “The Other”. Not even the godhead could protect the people from the horrors to come. Unable to cope with the wrath of The Other’s legions, survivors of New Jerusalem congregated in the Last Cathedral, pleading to a dying Sol Invictus for answers. The Astrotemplars of the godhead interpreted the grim omens. Humanity was tasked with a holy quest, commanded to make pilgrimage back to Eden. Gathering the best and brightest, a massive ark known as Outremer (pronounced Oh-trey-mere) was built in the few short years to follow. Housing nearly ten million souls and two of every beast, it raised anchor, departing New Jerusalem shortly before it was destroyed by The Other’s infernal weaponry. It took nearly three generations for the ark’s survivors to find the path back to Eden. But it was not the Eden spoken of in the sermons.

An aurora of shimmering pink light surrounded Eden, an emerald jewel encircled by a haze of dark Magick. Passing through the whorl of chaos, Outremer nearly disintegrated as it hurdled towards Eden. Nearly broken, remnants of the ark and a mere fraction of humanity survived the impact. They had escaped The Other, yes but the Hospitaliers’ prayers to Sol Invictus were left unanswered following their arrival. Had they ventured too far beyond? Was this the Eden prophesied of? Left with no choice, the Outremer followed protocols given to them by the godhead. Eden became their new home.

Now, nearly three generations later, the massive city known as Outremer stands as a bastion against the Hinterlands. Beset on all sides by Mutants, the survivors try to eek out a desperate existence, devoid of Sol Invictus’s divine voice. The ruler of Outremer, the Elector-Prelate, hides behind his guard of Astrotemplars. His supplicant Hospitalier Klergists send countless adventurers on ‘Crusades’ into the surrounding wilderness for the glory of Outremer. This world is not safe and it is not kind, but it is the only one they know.

That Old Tree posted:

Oh my god just gently caress this guy.

Kai Tave posted:

How is it fuckin 700 pages? Isn't it a Warhammer Fantasy 1E retroclone? How big was the actual game it's "homaging?"