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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:WoD mummies are Mary Sues who pretty much can't die and are insanely powerful. There's only a small number of them. They're one of the few splats that are good guys. Fun fact, in Mummy: The Curse, a mummy's supernatural resource (Sekhem) is actually scientifically measurable, and since it's usually attached to artifacts rather than the mummies themselves, it's useable by humans. There's an antagonistic mega-corporation called Last Dynasty Incorporated, and their entire goal is to get their hands on all of the magical artifacts they can... So they can cure cancer and AIDS and extend lifespans, but only for people who give them lots of money. It's interesting to see the shift from corporate antagonists being cartoonish Captain Planet-esque megapolluters in Werewolf, to Mummy where it's essentially a slight exaggeration of the pharmaceutical industry.
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Aug 2, 2021 19:56
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It's fun to see all of the Western fantasy tropes in Japanese media and how they differ from what we usually see, and the answer as to why they're like that usually just boils down to "well that's how it worked in Wizardry"
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Aug 2, 2023 18:50
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Zoeb posted:How do folks feel about how race science and racist myths like Hyperborean Atlantis are part of the heritage of the fantasy genre (Conan) and attempts by modern game makers to distance character options from the word "race" or game mechanics surrounding this fantasy ancestry gets +2 to this minus whatever to that? It's been interesting to see the industry grapple with this over the past couple of years. I think the dust has kind of settled on the whole "racial attribute bonus" controversy at this time, where the writers say "Yeah, elves typically have a +2 to Dexterity... But you can put that elsewhere if you want to, we're not cops". That's a good compromise, I think. Having optimized character builds locked behind any racial choice is kinda sucky just from a gameplay perspective, before bringing in any real-life implications. I think the biggest change in the fantasy genre space recently is that major publishers are scrambling away from the concept of any sentient race being evil-by-default. It's long-overdue, I think, but it's just been such a taken-for-granted part of fantasy gaming culture that any attempt at reforming it is gonna be a little clumsy. Like, sure, Forgotten Realms, the non-evil drow elves have been just off-camera this entire time, I believe you. The most jarring example I've found is the Tal'Dorei setting books, where the first edition explicitly said that all goblinoids are irrevocably-evil vermin that deserve to be exterminated, while the second edition says that goblinoids are just taxpaying citizens that society totally accepts with open arms. It's weird, but appreciated, I guess? What a difference your web show getting immensely popular can make. Slightly unrelated, it's been a long time since I've paid any attention to Shadowrun, I'm curious to see what they're doing with that nowadays. Back when I played in 4th edition, I remember paragraphs about Ork culture that pretty much turned directly to the reader and said "Hey, Orks are what white people think Latinos and Black people are like, do you get it?" In retrospect, it wasn't great.
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Oct 18, 2023 15:16
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