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Oh right! CthulhuTech: Vade Mecum: the CthulhuTech Companion: Alphabet Soup: Trivia Answer! quote:They have nine divisions. Guess which one one of the sample adventures puts the PCs in! The answer was Organized Crime Division. What were you thinking of? 
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 00:10 |
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| # ? May 19, 2013 23:02 |
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Ettin posted:Oh right! CSD or VCD, IMHO.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 00:13 |
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Kavak posted:CSD or VCD, IMHO. VCID was the only one I thought of. Gotta be close to the surprise sex.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 00:15 |
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Ettin posted:The answer was Organized Crime Division. What were you thinking of? My guess was SCD. It seemed like they'd do something culty for the trial adventure.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 00:16 |
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I thought it was a trick question.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 00:40 |
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I was holding out for the FID. To be honest, the alphabet soup thing is actually rather realistic. The current US security apparatus is a pretty big clusterfuck.
And if you think that's ridiculous, try looking at the Third Reich's table of organization for intelligence agencies  The only horrible occult magic the Nazis were actually experimenting with was bureaucracy.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 00:52 |
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7th Sea: We are Montaigne! The world is ours! Am I clear? We begin with fiction about some a Montaigne general arguing with his advisors about retreating. He doesn't want to, despite the fact that a giant wall has loomed over the battlefield where there wasn't one all that long ago. He believe's it's a bluff, not truly impenetrable - especially because it covers the whole front. He plans to find the weak spot on the wall. Except...the wall was made by the best engineers in Castille, as our next viewpoint, from a Castillian general, tells us. He has been playing cat and mouse throughout the whole war, and now, without Montegue, he believes he can win. He has the men prepared. And three hours later, the Montaignes attack, throwing waves of men at the wall - several just to be killed as a distraction. Castille's general realizes that the Montaignes have stretched themselves thin so they can make a push for the wall while its defenses can't be shored up. For a moment, it seems to be working - but as things seem at their worst, Castille's cannons overwhelm the foe, and even the Musketeers move into retreat rather than die in the onlaught. Castille has defeated the inevitable - for now. We then get a new piece of fiction, from early in the Montaigne invasion. It is a surpise assault on Barcino, in Rancho Ochoa - an attack that seems, impossibly, to have come from within, though no one knows how a hundred and fifty troops got inside. A soldier of the Ochoas is trying to flee to the docks when he finds that they're surrounded there, too - warships, who have already overwhelmed the defenders. Where did those defenders go - they should be here still! But no - things have failed. Tomorrow, Barcino will be Montaigne. Castille's history is a bit complicated - until very recently, it wasn't written by Castillians. Castille, called Castillo buy its native people, has been invaded and occupied for centuries. In ancient times, it was caled Acraga, and it was populated by nomadic hunters and herders. They lived along the banks of the Rio de Delia and Rio de Dios, and along the coasts. They traded with merchants of what would become the Old Republic and mingled freely with foreigners. In AUC 228, they were invaded by the Old Republic, though it began peacefully enough, with trade agreements and cultural exchange. In 268, though, Numa began to envy the trade that the Acragans had with what would be Montaigne, Eisen and Ussura. They had been planning for years to do this - and when gold, silver and iron were found in La Sierra de Hierro, open warfare began. The Acragan Wars lasted for 75 years or so, until 344. The Numans were just too strong and too good at planning, and half of Acraga was captured in the first weeks. The brush wars continues until 320, when Numa had conquered all of Acraga save for three strongholds: the fort now called Puerto de Sur, the settlement known now as Altamira and the capital of Marina Linda, now called Barcino. All three were sacked by 344, putting an end to the bloody Acragan Wars. The senators, led by Caius Castillus, consolidated control of Acraga, and Castillus's family ended up in charge. Numans continued to march for Montaigne, while the Castillus family institude widespread reforms, absorbing the Acragan society into their own. Numan technology improved the sea trade, dye and textile production that the Acragans specialized in, harvests doubled, and they introduced what would go on to become a legendary Castillian winemaking technique. Numan influence remains even today. Roads were built, cities prospered - including Marina Linda, now Acraga Nova, which would later be renamed again to Barcino. For every advancement, though, the Numans took. They stripped the ore, subjugated the people, removed the natives from all decision-making and exploited the area in a way that would be the pattern for centuries. It was here that the first threads of hatred of foreigners were instilled in the local populace. The worst came in the mid-700s AUC, when one of Caius Castillus's descendants arrived with the power of sorcery. The natives called El Fuego Adentro, the Fire Within, for it gave the power to draw fire from the soul. The art spread through the bloodline and helped subjugate the people. Eventually, some local nobles married in and learned the power, but it was always used to maintain control. However, there was always an Acragan guerrilla resistance, until the Numan system collapsed. In AV 98, Acraga suffered political rebolution, and Imperial authority was compromised there. They and a number of other regions were given semi-autonomy and named the Western Empire. An Imperator was placed in charge, in the Numan-built San Cristobal. For two centuries, Acraga had the support of the Empire, but little interference. The provinces began to develop on their own, so the fall of the Old Empire in AV 297 was not so traumatic for the Acragans as it might have been. The Castillo family, the remnants of the Castillus, asserted their position as Numa fell, and they mostly peacefully won dominion over the other kingdoms of Acraga. In 299, Josémaria de Castillo was crowned king of united Castille. The former kings of the provinces were granted administration of their lands in exchange for fealty, and named Gubenador, governors. The monarchy advanced its power through mining and trade - especially trade with the Empire of the Crescent Moon. The Crescent Moon alliance gave the Castillo new trade, military innovations, archictecture - and in exchange, the Crescents were allowed colonies along the southwestern coast of Rancho Gallegos; their two primary ports that stand today were Malaca and Puerto de Sur. The alliance survived the Corantine Empire, the coronation of Carleman, even the creation of the Vaticine. With it came alchemy, metallurgy, math, astronomy and the Crescents' version of the Second Prophet's teachings. For 700 years or so, there was peace and prosperity, formalized when King Josémaria married the eldest daughter of the Crescents' Caliph. In 313, their child, King Alonzo Al-Mahmud de Josémaria, was named second high king of Castille and Caliph of the Crescent Moon. (The heir to the last Caliph had died shortly after inheriting, and he was the only one left of the line.) It was more symbolic, though, than practical. Alonzo's ascent is seen today as a horrendous compromise of sovereignty, the gradual dissolution of a traditional lifestyle to outsiders. Many Castillians resented the Crescents and wanted to lash out. In 306, they saw their chance when the Second Prophet was killed in the Crescent Empire. Vodacce called for war, and many Castillians joined the Crusades. None of the fighting was in their territory, though - it was all on the Vodacce/Crescent border. It created a schism in the ruling lines and the symbolic unification of the two nations was shattered. Alonzo's son abdicated the Crescent throne to a cousin who had never left. Still, the alliance survived, and most of its vocal foes died in the Crusades, leaving only more moderate voices. Trade continued throughout the Crusades, and for seven centuries peace remained, allowing Castille to weather the dark ages well. The Church and Crescent medicine provided a haven from barbarians, the plague and other dangers, and by the time of the Third Prophet, Castille was one of the most sophisticated civilizations in the world. In 1000, the Third Prophet emerged, performing miracles in northern Castille. At first, the Hierophant was apprehensive, so the Prophet invited him to a pilgrimage to La Sierra de Hierro, where there was a hidden cave containing a spiraling jet of flame from the floor. They meditated for three days. At dawn on the third day, the Prophet places his hand into the flame, which turned white, and claimed that the Flames of Theus cannot harm those who obey His word. The Hierophant was convinced, and word soon spread. The Chamber of El Fuego Sagrado, the Holy Flame, is now one of the most sacred sites in Castille. However, the Third Prophet began to speak out against the Crescent Empire's influence. preaching that Castille had lost its identity and connection to the true faith. Many rejected his divinity over this in more Crescent-influenced areas, and civil unrest flared. Open conflict began in 1002, when a mob of Crescents in Malaca murdered a Vaticine bishop. Within days, the Third Prophet stated that anyone who rejected his teachings or claimed fealty to the Crescents would be branded heretic and expelled from Castille. The Second Crusades had begun. By this time, the Crescents had a stronger foothold in Castillian society than any foreigners before or seince - but the Hierophant and the Prophet were the religious power of the nation, and had great influence. The nobles had to choose - the King, or the God. Many had already made their choices. The civil war continued for eight years, as did the Crusades. Thousands fell before the armies, in Castille and the Empire. In 1008, neither side had clear advantage, and the Third Prophet called for aid from other Vaticine nations. In 1009, High King Gracia and the Crescent armies were defeated at the Battle of Malaca, now remembered as El Fin del Cielo, the End of the Cycle. With the death of the king and his followers, the fire magic of the nobles was left only in a few renegades and those few under the Propeth's banner who used it. Those received sainthood...but only if they gave their lives for the Church. Sorcery was declared an evil heresy, to be purged and forgiven in the holy flames of El Fuego Sagrado - and many stepped into the flames, assured they were going to Heaven. Few with the blood still lived, and they fled to the wilds of Rancho Gallegos. While El Fin del Cielo ended the war in Castille, the Crusades continued on, not ending until the destruction of the Poor Knights three hundred years later. But in the meantime, Castille needed a king. They chose a noble in 1014, a warrior of the Second Crusade named Ramaon Sandoval. He was crowned High King, and his first act was to restart the nobles, granting the peasants who'd distinguished themselves the title of Don. Roman himself was not actually pure Castillian - he was of a mixed family, his mother a Crescent and his father a Castillian noble. He changed sides several times, fighting for whoever had the moral high ground at the time. Despite that, his success on the field - he was said never to lose a single fight - and his capture of Malaca earned him a treasured place in the minds of the loyal Castillians. His life has been immortalized in the epic poem El Cantar de Mio Sayyid, the Song of the Master, and many other pieces of art. Ramon Sandoval divided the land up into new ranchos, giving them the names of their ruling Dons' families. The land governed directly by the king remained around the ancient capital of San Cristobal. After taking his title as Don and High King, Sandoval offered part of his estate on the Rio de Dios to the Church, for a new Vaticine City. The first building was the Great CAthedral of the Prophets, home to the third Prophet until his eventual death in 1030. Castille rebuilt the land, and they didn't end up tearing down the Crescent buildings, but rather incorporating them - it is easier, after all, to maintain than to build. A year after the Second Crusades began, though, power began to shift. Castille was becoming the home of the Church, and Vodacce wasn't happy, especially when the Prophet openly declared it to be the Vaticine's center. Hostilities began in days, and the High King joined the battle alongisde the Castillian Hierophant. From 1012 to 1019, the Hieros Wars raged, as the Castillians fought eastward to Voadacce and defeated it. The Hierophant allowed Vodacce to keep its two arch-dioceses, but only to protect the religious integrity of the Vodacce. The wound to their pride has never truly healed. Castille's Church had a secure power base for nearly four centuries. Through the Dark Ages, the world had suffered the terrible White Plague, which killed a third of the populace before it ran its course. Castille was spared the worst thanks to the Church, though, and in the 900s most thought it was over. In 1386, however, it struck again, in the heart of San Cristobal. The disease spread out from the harbor and engulfed the city. It was quickly quarantined, and the Sandovals were removed in the hopes they'd be spared. It was too late: the king lay dying, and his family was dead. The disease never escaped San Cristobal, but the royal family was destroyed. There were no heirs or even collateral relatives - some distant cousins, but none with a clear mandate. The Church debated, and the cousins fought, and eventually a native Montaigne named Jacques Cesar Prais du Rachetisse emerged, claiming the throne. The Castillians were horrified - he was related to the Sandovals only through distant marriage, had never been to Castille and was rumored to be a sorcerer! Faced with a popular revolt in the making and unwillign to acknowledge du Rachetisse, the Cardinals, at the request of the Hierophant, refused to grant him the title of king. Without legitimacy and support of the Church, he could not run the place - and so the Cardinals took over the government, acting as a council that served in place of the king. The Dons answered to them, as did the courts and arm. For six months, this continued despite du Rachetisse's saber rattling, and finally, a solution appeared. One of the king's cousins, a diplomat sent to Ussura, was found and recalled. He was much closer to the royals than du Rachetisse, and the Cardinals liked him. He slew the usurper Montaigne in a duel and was personally crowned by the Hierophant. The White Plague outbreak was never explained. Through the 1400s, the Castillians realized they'd spent most of their history looking in. They took a new interest in international affairs and established political dialogues with other Vaticine states. They sent forth missionaries - and they sponsored Cristobal Gallegos, an ocean navigator who claimed that if there lay another part of the world over the horizon, he would find it and claim it for Castille. He also promised he'd circumnavigate the globe. Noth the High King and Hierophant died before seeing if he was right. He left his home in the early 15th century and was never heard from again, vanishing somewhere west of the Syrneth Isles. Many have hunted for the lost explorer's expedition, but no clues to his fate have ever been found. All ships that have gone too far west have vanished as well. Some suggest that the Corridors of Flame destroyed him as he circled the globe, while others thought he found a new land - and it killed him. Others believe he never actually left and retired in seclusion as the best con man of the age - though they can't explain why later vessels vanished. Either way, with his failure, interest in exploration waned, and Théan archaeology and cartography would nto resume until the founding of the Explorers in 1598. When the War of the Cross began in 1636, many Castillians went to fight - Objectionism had been banned in Castille for a century, and Objectionists burned at the stake. They were happy for a chance to fight. The nation as a whole, though, stayed officially neutral until the end of the war, when it and Montaigne openly invaded to seize part of the land of Eisen. The Treaty of Weissberg gave them the lands now owned by Erich Sieger, but they have no desire to have it - it's salted and burned, and they don't even bother trying to tax Sieger. In 1659, the entire Castillian Armada - 180 ships of many sizes - set sail under the command of Hernando Arciniega de Orduño, an advisor of the King. Their goal: Destroy Elaine, who had declared independence from the Vaticine. They were doomed from the beginning, plagued by bad weather, a hurricane that destroyed a third of the fleet, a lack of supplies that forced an unplanned stop that revealed their hand - and after all that, further lack of supplies. Once they made it to Avalon, they were attacked by Vendel raiders, which used up critical amounts of powder and destroyed twenty-seven more ships. Only 94 were left to face Avalon, but they continued onwards against their captains' better judgement. On the morning of battle, they ran into a fogbank so bad they couldn't see more than six feet, and when they emerged, less than half of the fleet was there. Which is when they ran into the Sea Dogs, 200 strong. That didn't end well, and at the end of the day only 32 ships were left. 36000 men died at sea, including Orduño, who some say was thrown overboard by a rebellious crew. Others say he died in battle, while others say he committed suicide in shame. The family was disgraced, and the King's son, Javier, was made Admiral. He served well, and he was expected to be a good king. When his father took ill, he returned home as regent, and his ideas were innovative and effective. He was well loved by the court, and everyone thought he'd be formally made king soon. Something went wrong, though - he vanished without a trace one night, and there was no finding him. Soon after, King Salvador Aldana de Sandoval died, and Javier's younger brother, the thirteen-year-old Salvador Bejarano de Sandoval, was made the youngest King in the history of Castille. Some fear his inexperience will usher in terrible things, but he was doing all right so far, if rather obviously biased towards the Church, thanks in large part to his dependence on El Concilio de Razon, the Council of Reason. It's the King's personal council of Church advisors. Next time: Montaigne invades.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 00:58 |
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Young Freud posted:VCID was the only one I thought of. Gotta be close to the surprise sex. Yeah same here. I just thought VCID without thinking about it twice.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 01:08 |
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homeless poster posted:See, everything that you listed here is what I find to be mechanically lacking with Hucksters. See, there's the problem. What the hell are you going to compare hucksters to? Blessed, which all the rules love? Shamans, which all the rules hate? Mad scientists, which basically have no rules? Or maybe Marital Artists, who can hop on top of a small building three times a day. Deadlands caster powerlevel is all over the drat place. Hucksters pay a few points to gain the ability to gamble their wellbeing against enormous magical power, and I think that's just peachy. Anyway, it occurs to me that we're quoting ifs and maybes and buts at each other, so let's stop being lame and bust out an...  Example of Play Three Irish brawler arcane heroes have spent the last month opposing the terrible Baron Samadi, the Houndoon railroad tycoon / rear end in a top hat king. Samadi's powers far outstrip the party's, and include the ability to reliably throw bolts of black lightning that hit about as hard as a cannon. The party has tricked his minions into dumping most of his zombie minions into the sea, destroying his enchantments over them through the ocean's power, and now they're escaping along the gulf coast, fleeing Louisianna, riding a stolen train filled with orphans. But the Baron is one step ahead, driving a train filled with zombies down the opposite track straight at them! Only by picking the opposing train up and tossing it into the ocean can the day be saved. Jack Hannigan is an Irish Boxer slash Huckster. He is a starting character with a smarts of d10, a spirit of d12, Hexslingin' of 5, and the Mental Tweak and Phantom Fingers hexes. He probably has other stats as well. Father O'Neil is an Irish Protestant blessed, bringing the word of god to the lost souls in the American West. He has a 5d12 faith, several beat the poo poo out of someone miracles, and Holy Roller. He is also a starting character. Rodger Hughes is an Irish fightin' whiskey maker, and has the Arcane Background: Alchemist. He's the only not starting characters because starting characters don't start with inventions, and a mad scientist or alchemist with no inventions is basically a normal person with fewer points. His invention is Courage Double Barrel, which is a draught brewed from three ounces of black label whiskey, two ounces of rattlesnake scales, four ounces of salt, two ounces of mercury, and three ounces of cocaine, all treated with six ounces of alchemist's stone, an unholy amalgamation of ghost rock and Rodger Hughes' own blood. He says it's the rattlesnake that gives the drink it's kick, but his friends secretly suspect it's the cocaine. It's a reliability 16 potion that increases your spirit by three steps and gives you a bad case of the runs. First, Jack Hannigan casts Mental Tweak. He rolls the dice, gets a 22, so he draws eight poker cards.  Not bad, not great, that pair of kings boosts his spirit two steps. Next he drinks the Courage Double Barrel, and makes the reliability exactly. Inauspicious! Either way, his spirit has been boosted to d12 + 10. Finally, Father O'Niel casts Holy Roller on him, gets a ten, and gives him a single free red chip, real inspiring padre. Time for the big spell. Jack tosses in a white chip and a blue ship to go with the red chip, and is rolling 6d12+10, +1d12+10, +1d12+10, against target number five. None of his base dice explode, neither of his bonus dice explode, luck has turned away from him and he only rolled a 20 total. But with his spirit of d12+10, that's a 50, which is to say 45 over his target number. He gets to draw 14 cards to make his poker hand out of.  Hell yes! But we got a black joker, so it's time to roll on the backlash table, get a 3. Brain Drain posted:The manitou fries part of the Huckster's mind with energy from the hunting grounds. The huckster's hex fails, and he must make an Onerous (7) Spirit roll or his Hexslingin' apptitude drops 1 level. Well... poo poo. Good news is, with his base spirit of d12 + 10, he's unlikely to fail that roll. Bad news is, he's just been hit with a train and is dead. Sorry, orphans! I think I see what you mean about frustrating.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 04:06 |
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Evil Mastermind posted:It should be pointed out that the "mental game" wasn't originally supposed to be just poker; I remember there was a sidebar talking about how each huckster envisions it as whatever game of change they're most familiar with; it's possible to play mental tiddlywinks with demons for power. I have a better idea.  http://www.amazon.com/Armed-Bandit-...pd_sim_sbs_hg_2
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 07:00 |
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Bieeardo posted:I thought it was a trick question.  CthulhuTech: Vade Mecum: the CthulhuTech Companion: Sexy Psychic Teenagers The next chapter opens with some fluff text about some drill sergeant teaching his new recruits how to fight in close combat. With swords! Especially kendo, because Japanese stuff is awesome. When someone asks him what good that will be, he has them watch him enter another room where he was keeping some nightgaunts locked up and kills them all with his katana, because katanas are awesome. Then we get stuck into Chapter Three: Alternative Egos! This chapter offers up some new character options under a heading which reminds me of that far superior RPG yet again. Will the rules themselves also remind me of other, excellent games? No. So, Assets first. What have we got? First, the para-psychic powers are finally here! Remember how you could take Latent Para-Psychic in the core book for 4 points, and it did absolutely loving nothing because it was a placeholder? Well, now you can replace that feat with quote:Erupted Para-Psychic (2) quote:Your Character’s latent para-psychic ability has blossomed into amazing powers that he can now consciously control. Erupted para-psychics begin with one First Order power in whichever group of para-psychic powers they choose as their primary talent – Environmental, Manipulative, Sensory, or Somatic. See Chapter Five for more details. They may acquire other powers through the expenditure of Cheats. However, erupted para-psychics also begin with one Insanity Point, in addition to any others they might gain as they acquire powers. quote:Exceptional Para-Psychic (4) Afterwards we get Lucid Dreamer: quote:Lucid Dreamer (3) quote:White (4) quote:Zoner (2) Anyway! quote:The moment the Zone touched his being, he erupted in a big way – at the cost of his sanity. In addition to the First Order power granted to an erupted para-psychic, a Zoner begins with one Third Order power in whichever group of para-psychic powers you choose as his primary talent – Environmental, Manipulative, Sensory, or Somatic. He also begins with one First Order power in whichever group of para-psychic powers you choose as his secondary talent. You may acquire other powers through the expenditure of Cheats. However, he begins with a total of five Insanity Points (including the one from the Erupted Para-Psychic Asset, but not including any he may gain through the acquisition of his powers), along with the accompanying two permanent psychological disorders and the -1 Test Penalty for future Insanity Tests (including those required for the acquisition of their powers). Work with your Storyguide to determine these disorders. They shouldn’t be a cakewalk – at least one of them should compromise your Character’s ability to function in society. quote:Zoners & You After a Modified Assets section which lets us know that Tager and Tager: Exceptional from the Core Book now cover the new Tagers later in this book (but the placeholder Latent Para-Psychic couldn't be retroactively changed into Actually Para-Psychic because...), we get to Drawbacks! They aren't worth quoting, so:
Afterwards is a Parapsychology skill, which means you know a lot about para-psychics and their powers, biology, physiology, metaphysiology, metabiophysiology, etc. You could help block and control para-psychic powers, if you work for the NEG or someone else who experiments on them! Also, you need Expert in Medicine (Psychological) if you want to actually know anything about the biological aspects baked into the skill. Specialisations are Burning, Environmental Powers, Eruption, Latent Ability, Manipulative Powers, Orgone Theory, Para-psychological Physiology, Para-psychological Suppression, Sensory Powers, Somatic Powers, Para-psychological Theory, White Xenomixes, and Zoners. Oh hey, new races! Xenomixes (Amlati) and White Xenomixes (Sidoci), according to their headings. The Xenomix description reminds us that they are "amlati in the Nazzadi tongue" for a third time, and then neither of those words are ever used again. Xenomixes get +1 Skill Point, low-light vision, quote:Xenomix Characters Sexy teenage misfits. Aw yeah. A Xenomix who takes the White (4) asset upgrade to Nazzadi nightvision, +1 Tenacity (it's not clear whether this stacks with Xenomix bonuses, but they repeat the part about getting Alluring (1) so I doubt it), and also:
Whites posted:They gain the Misfit (4) and Watched (3) Drawbacks, which do not provide any additional skill points nor do they count against their starting Drawback limit. Zoners posted:Furthermore, if a Zoner has chosen to register with the New Earth Government, this Asset confers the equivalent of the Watched (3) Drawback – a Zoner cannot choose the Watched Drawback again. If a Zoner has chosen to remain anonymous with the powers that be, he gains the Hunted (4) Drawback as soon as he pops up on their radar. These drawbacks do not count against a starting Character’s Drawback limits. quote:White Characters Oh, and while we're here - remember the races in the core book, and how the females mostly dressed like sluts while the males were fully-clothed? Well:   Why the gently caress is she wearing ice skates? And I almost didn't notice because of the constipated Ken doll behind her. Holy poo poo. The chapter ends with new Professions, which aren't nearly as bad so I'm just going to list them.
Next time: What this system really needs is hit locations, tables and charts! Ettin fucked around with this message at Nov 23, 2011 around 14:07 |
| # ? Nov 23, 2011 11:38 |
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). Since you're required to have Disorders, the book suggests "Paranoid Schizophrenia, Minor Physical Disorder (Sleeping), Schizotypal Disorder". That sounds like a great idea for a PC, thanks CtuhlhuTech!
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Bieeardo posted:Given the way 7th Sea leverages real-world history, it shouldn't be surprising that the Schattenmann is similarly drawn from real world sources. It is really good. I've actually spent a bunch of free time reworking the system because the setting and plots and characters are worth it. It is one of the best (if not the best) game settings, but man is the system broken. I'll leave the book synopses to Mors Rattus, but here's my two cents on the system: The core of it (rolling trait + skill "knack" and keeping the trait, exploding ten's, drama dice, etc.) is strong, unique, and engaging. Character creation is where it really flies off the rails. Character creation is unfair, unbalanced, unnecessarily convoluted (using a different point system at start than is used throughout the game, making most things require conversion rates), and some things on the character sheet are just mechanically broken. Traits are mostly fine. Brawn, Finesse, Wits, Resolve, and Panache are your traits. I've found that in and of themselves they're fine and represent a whole character (Panache being your catch-all social trait). It's how thew rest of the system uses them that is bad: Wits and Panache get way too much play, while Brawn and Resolve (especially Resolve) get the shaft. Skills/Knacks are what you can do. Skills are more like professional skill groups, and knacks are specific things that you roll. "Athlete" is a skill, and "Swimming" is a knack under it, for example. These are alright in theory, but in practice this is one of the dumbest parts of the game. As the game went through so many writers, and ones that had increasingly less knowledge of the past published content, skills start getting redundant, unnecessarily corner-cased, and unbalanced (I'm looking at you, Cathay, Jewel of the East). Some skills have 6 or so knacks, while some have fifteen. That might be ok if the less diverse skills had power knack selections, but that's not the case. What ends up happening is, after years of publications, there are dozens and dozens of skills and hundreds of knacks among them, but everyone ends up taking the same 6 or so "super-skills." LAME. Virtue/Hubris is your character's defining merit or fatal flaw. While this is one of the best ideas the game has, and it's essential to the genre, the system for it is completely dumb. Here's why: you get 100 "hero points" (not to be confused with the XP you'll be using for the rest of the game, which is a completely different scale, and not always a consistent conversion rate) to build a character. Virtues cost 10 of those 100 points. Hubrises give you 10 points instead. That's a 20-point swing, a full 20% more than the starting points. Guess which one everyone always picked? You may be wondering, "well, virtues must be powerful enoguh to justify that cost." Nope! They sucked, especially for something that costs that much and is that central to the character. Hubrises were not the end of the world, but even they annoyed me because so many of them are redundant. "Rash" and "Reckless" are two of them. I kid you not. Advantages are extra poo poo for your character that enhance rolls, open up options, represent social connections or items, and do all sorts of miscellaneous stuff. Again, like most of the parts of character creation, they're fine in theory and even in practice. It's the costs and character creation itself that is dumb as gently caress. Costs for these were given in "hero point" costs, so if you wanted to buy one later with XP, you have to convert it... at a 1:3 rate. This makes sense for cheap advantages like "Able Drinker," that cost 1 HP and therefore 3 XP. But how about expensive ones, like "ship?" "Ship" can cost 10-30 HP. That's 30-90 XP. 30 is not unobtainable, but anything past that is dumb as hell:  Two traits at 4 out of 5, now. A journeyman of a school, too. HURF DURF What's wrong with you? Why are you still terrible at everything? I'M GUNNA BUY A BOAT But you suck at everything. What do you plan on doing with the boat? I'M GUNNA BE CAP'N  Not to mention the fact that some advantages were just lame and never worth their cost, at either rate. Every game has weak stuff and strong stuff, but 7th Sea has a ton of it. Like with the unbalanced skills, it creates play groups with really homogeneous characters. Everyone not just loving around or taking dumb poo poo just for the challenge ends up taking the same short list of advantages, skills, etc. School is a major expenditure and represents a character's professional combat training. It's not necessary to have one, but most characters do. Schools give you combat abilities unique to the school and access to knacks that only schools have. These knacks, rightly, are not created equal to other knacks. You have to pay a lot to get into schools, so they ought to be worth the cost, and knacks are half the reason. The problem is that some schools are just garbage. Again, you have dozens of schools but everyone is playing the same few because they're the good ones. The core book is even worse because it seems to deliberately sabotage character creation options. Castille (Spain) has a bunch of sword schools. Fine. It's renaissance Spain. We're going for the Princess Bride here. I get that. How about Eisen (Germany), a nation characterized by war and its martial academies? One loving school. And Ussura (Russia): NONE. Why?! Oh, but they fixed this with the nation books. Eisen eventually gets a good spread, Castille and Montaigne get a few more...and Ussura ends up with 1. And don't tell me they're not part of the spirit of the genre because a) that's wrong, and dumb, and b) the Vesten (Vikings) fit similarly into the genre and they have 5 schools. In short: gently caress this game's crusade on game balance and player choice. Sorcery is similarly broken, but at least each nation get one, (usually) no more, no less. The problem in these was the cost with respect to the starting points. Again, you have 100 "hero points." Sorcery cost 40. Furthermore, to get better and to have more options, you had to sink XP into the sorcery later in the game. A lot. Want to throw fireballs or do magic tricks? THAT'S ALL YOU'RE EVER DOING. I've ranted long enough, but you get the idea. Like I said, the fundamentals of the game really are strong (which may seem had to grasp considering how much I just bitched about the rest of it), but give it a shot. I put a lot of time into reworking the system from the ground-up, and our group uses that now. The focus of my revision was addressing the balance, mechanical holes, streamlining, and player choice in the game. My revision is complete, but I haven't even touched The Crescent Empire (The Arab Empire) or Cathay (Asia) yet. That poo poo is so much worse that just thinking ab out it makes me head hurt. I'm planning on starting to look at those over winter break. JOY.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 13:06 |
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Railing Kill posted:[stuff] If you do complete your bottom-up reworking, would you mind sharing? I'm REALLY digging all the 7th Sea stuff and I'd love to try running a game for some of my pals at some point.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 13:19 |
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So is captaining a ship better left to an NPC in 7th Sea?
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 16:13 |
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So Cthulhutech doesn't list STALKER as an inspiration but literally has THE ZONE in the game? And its called the zone too? That's obnoxious.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 17:01 |
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Glazius posted:So is captaining a ship better left to an NPC in 7th Sea? The best way to get a ship in 7th Sea is to tell the GM 'hey, we want to be sailors, give us a ship for free.'
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 17:18 |
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Mors Rattus posted:The best way to get a ship in 7th Sea is to tell the GM 'hey, we want to be sailors, give us a ship for free.' That's a hell of a way to misspell "kill a bunch of pirates and take their ship."
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 17:18 |
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Glazius posted:So is captaining a ship better left to an NPC in 7th Sea? In terms of group dynamic, probably. I'm actually playing in a seafaring game now and our captain in an NPC. it works alright, forgiving the tendency for her to defer to the PCs more than a typical captain would. That's a good thing, but if you're looking for realism it doesn't work (and you're playing the wrong game anyway). The ship combat rules in 7th Sea are robust, but similarly broken. They are also spread out between the Player's Guide, GM Guide, and Pirate Nation books. The rules are virtually impossible to use with just one of any of those books. My revision put it all in one place and fixed it, because there were some thing that were goofy. My point is: ship combat can be a ton of fun, as it lets the group work as a cohesive team in a new way, but it needs some patience and attention. As for posting my revision, I'll do that later when I get back from work. My revision assumes some knowledge about the background and setting on the reader, but is otherwise a complete sourcebook for mechanics. The revision says this but I'll say it again here: folks that are genuinely interested in 7th Sea should still pick up the nationbooks. They're excellent and the real strength of the game.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 17:19 |
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TheTatteredKing posted:So Cthulhutech doesn't list STALKER as an inspiration but literally has THE ZONE in the game? And its called the zone too? That's obnoxious. Yeah, and it's creation is very similar to the Zone out of the computer game.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 17:20 |
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NinjaDebugger posted:That's a hell of a way to misspell "kill a bunch of pirates and take their ship." If you GM is a real swashbuckler fan he knows to give you a very average, bland, nothing special, ship, and then almost instantly show you a pirate/rival nation ship that's better in every way. Nature sorts it out from there.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 17:35 |
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The best part about parapsychics is just how badly balanced they are. Basically, they're completely useless, with starting game parapsychics paying all that to heat a cup of warm coffee. Meanwhile, you could have paid the same points to get the ability to hulk out into an armored alien horror that shoots energy beams. Unless, somehow, you manage to get a pile of experience. In which case you become, basically, the most powerful thing ever to walk the earth and can casually kick the rear end of anything Vitality-scale (and if you have a mecha, anything Integrity-scale, most likely). It is just SO BAD as a PC concept.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 17:41 |
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poo poo balance in CTech? SHOCKING. It's like these designers have never played an RPG before. Or have only played RIFTS, but that's almost as bad. Speaking of laughable balance, would there be interest in the D&D 3.5 Epic Level Handbook? It's a decent concept with ridiculous execution that holds a special place in my heart because my first real game of D&D started at level 24.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 17:53 |
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Glitterbomber posted:If you GM is a real swashbuckler fan he knows to give you a very average, bland, nothing special, ship, and then almost instantly show you a pirate/rival nation ship that's better in every way. This reminds me of a problem that 7th Sea shares with a lot of RPGs. I call it The White Wolf Problem, because those games do it most of all: PC power progression is nowhere near what it needs to be, and at the same time published NPCs are hideously overpowered. 7th Sea, like White Wolf games, hands out a few XP each session. The costs for things aren't as dumb as they are in White Wolf games (where, if you play by the rules, it takes literally years of playing once a week to get your vampire/werewolf/mage/whatever to an even mediocre level), but they're pretty dumb. I reverse-built a few published 7th Sea NPCs when I was rebuilding the system, just to see what the cost scale was, and what it could be. Fauner Posen, Eisen's own Admiral Cain and all-around badass, clocked in at hundreds of XP. Think closer to 1,000 than 500. In contrast, PCs, by the book, get 3-5 XP per session. A group of four PCs would need a minimum of 150 XP or so each to stand up to Posen for just a round or two, but even that is just treading water. There's at least one NPC in every nation that is virtually unbeatable. Posen is Eisen's, but she at least plays by the rules. There are NPCs in Avalon and elsewhere that ignore more rules than they obey. Having NPCs like that around means you really need to trust your GM to not be a "me vs. the players" GM. 7th Sea is supposed to be a game about larger-than-life PCs that can triumph over any villain and woo all the damsels (or lads) in the process. No NPC should ever be out of reach for the PCs, so the power creep on some of them always bugged me. it doesn't bug me that powerful character exist (they should!), but PCs should be allowed to meet them up there, and not take five years of play time doing it.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 17:57 |
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Glitterbomber posted:If you GM is a real swashbuckler fan he knows to give you a very average, bland, nothing special, ship, and then almost instantly show you a pirate/rival nation ship that's better in every way. Also, their captain has an inadequate moustache. Any good 7th Sea character can be summed up in three details: the floppiness of their hat, the gloriousness of their wig, and their facial hair if male and their jewelry if female. You know everything you need to know about a character's relative power level from these. For example, Villanova has a maximally floppy hat, a glorious wig, and magnificent facial hair. As such, it is the height of bad ideas to gently caress with him. Meanwhile, that bald Eisenfust is safe to get your PC on around, as he is both hatless and minimally facially haired.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 17:59 |
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I'd love to see the revision, it'd mean not ever needing to make one of my own! And I'd need one because I loving love fencing and sorcery and want any players to want, you know, to take them. 7th Sea: Tomorrow, a foreign sun would rise over Barcino. In 1664, King Léon of Montaigne openly declares his sorcery. Two years later, the Inquisition gets an army mostly made of Castillians and tries to arrest him. Yadda yadda. Cue Montegue's Stand, and the Montaigne invasion. The Castillians were totally unprepared, and betrayal didn't help: remember the story about Barcino? Don Marco Ontiveros del Ochoa betrayed Castille and let the Montaigne into Barcino with only token defenders. With Barcino seized, Montegue could use it for supplies and made a huge assault through Rancho Torres and most of Rancho Zepeda, seizing towns, ports and cities with ease. Rancho Torres lost everything, and the Castillian forces were constantly overrun. The Castillian general, Jose Rioja del Montoya, was cut off from the capital and fell back to Rancho Zepeda. Montegue turned east towards Rancho Aldana, once he'd cut Castille's forces off. El Rio de Delia was home to the finest defensive positions in the world, and Montegue wanted to take them before reinforcements came, so he left General Francois du Toille to handle Rancho Zepeda. Du Toille advanced on San Juan, a town between Ranchos Torres and Zepeda. General Montoya ordered a civilian retreat - but the people of San Juan would not leave. They wanted to defend their homes, so Montoya left what supplies he could before pulling back to La Reina del Mar. The people of San Juan built a sturdy defensive line, and they survived six days of fierce fighting on determination and high morale - indeed, the Battle of San Juan seemed to have no advantage for either side, which infuriated du Toille. These were peasant militia! Du Toille ordered a full withdrawal, but before the celebrations could begin, he continued his plan: two days straight of artillery bombardment. When the smoke cleared, half the city was gun and thousands were dead or crippled. Du Toille easily took San Juan, gathered the survivors...and put them to the torch. As you might imagine, Castille was not happy. Meanwhile, Montaigne's amphibious forces had sat idle through the war until the attack on Castille's western seaport, La Reina del Mar. Du Toille wanted to take it by land, given its formidable sea defenses, but that plan was delayed by San Juan. The Montaigne navy put in a blockade, but the army was still behind schedule - so Don Montoya ordered another evacuation, and this time almost everyone left. Only a few regiments were left behind, ordered to hold the city as long as possible and withdraaw. La Reina fell with minimal casualties. Meanwhile, Montegue was moving east. The Casitllians had put up a massive set of fortifications between El Morro and La Selva de Fendes. The Vaticine engineers overseeing the project believed it was unbreachable - but they hadn't count on Montegue. He used Porté mages as advance scouts and crossed the river through the Forest of Fiends, long believed impassable. Thanks to Porté and his own genius, Montegue managed it. He launched a devastating set of assaults, and withing a few months he'd destroyed all fortifications north of El Morro. Each allowed him more troops, massing for the final blow. The Castillians prepared for one final, massive counterattack in a desperate gamble to turn the tide. And then a miracle happened. Montegue was inexplicably recalled to Charouse and reassigned to Ussura. A hundred thousand men retreated. Montegue's underlings were confident they could handle it - too confident. They pland to attack El Morro, the one target Montegue had refused to engage. They immediately launched an ill-advised attack on the fortress. At which poin the Castillian counterattack hit. Tens of thousands of Montaignes died trying to breach El Morro, and the survivors could not handle the Castillian counteroffensive. Within seven days, the Montaigne had been driven back across El Rio de Delia, recapturing what had taken Montegue months to seize. The Montaignes managed to hold the Castillians at the river, but they could not get back across. Meanwhile, in the south, General du Toille kept advancing. Many Castillians had criticized Don Montoya for his continued retreats, but they didn't realize he'd preserved 90% of the army and given his engineers time to build a defnesive position that could do for a final stand: La Muralla al Ultimo, the Last Wall. As news of Montegue's withdrawal spread, hope begin to rise in the Castillian south. In 1667, Montoya's patience proved wise. The Castillian army slipped through the darkness to La Muralla - and two weeks later, the Montaigne assaulted what they thought would be an empty battlefield. To their dismay, a wall lasting as far as the eye could see awaited them. Du Toille arrogantly threw man after man at the wall, assuming the Castillians unable to defend its whole length. Thousands of his best troops were killed under the defenders' coordinated fire, and it soon became clear that the wall ran the entire peninsula with no weakness. The advance was stopped. Since the autumn of 1667, the war has become a stalemate. La Muralla has been intensely frustrating, with the city of San Augustin just north of it still holding out against invaders. In the east, El Rio de Delia is a bristling line of guns, the lakeside castles and villas turned into fortresses. The Montaigne don't want to lose any ground and have been fortifying the west bank of the river. River traffic has become very, very dangerous. The Castillians are slowly realizing that while the Montaignes are still huge, their command is fractured, and they hold out hope that they can turn the war around. Today, in 1668, Castille's pride and passion remains strong. Bloody battles occur daily, and many wonder how it has come to this - but they are Castille. They know who they are, what they fight for, and that is all the difference in the world. Castille is run largely by families, but while outsiders see only eight, Castillians see dozens of smaller bloodlines of extreme complexity - under each Great Don, there are many Lesser Dons, each with his own name and holdings, though many are now homeless and poor due to the occupation. Their system is a complex one that gives even peasants rights and judgments in property and law. There are, however, only eight major families. First are the Aldanas, formed when a young peasant alcalde, sheriff, named "Aldana" came to the Third Prophet's attention for his boundless devotion. He became one of the Prophet's advisors, and the Church even offered him the seat of Hierophant. He turned down the offer, saying he wanted no reward for his service - only to return to his home. His humility shocked even the Prophet, and his homeland was declared Rancho Aldana, with Aldana as alcade and Don. The Third Prophet declared the new Vaticine City would be built in Aldana, and the Aldanas were to be representatives of the people, speaking on behalf of the common folk in court. They've always done so. Their current leader is Don Francisco Guzman del Aldana, occasionally stubborn but largely just, fair and forgiving. He is on his second wife, Doña Cherie du Montaigne del Aldana, eldest daughter of the Empereur, but she loves her new home and its people despite the war. His nephew, Andres Bejarano del Aldana is one of King Sandoval's advisors and a master swordsman, who once saved Sandoval's life alongside El Vago. Noble heroes whose father is Aldana get a discount to the Aldana school of fencing, but can never, ever take the Criminal skill, ever. Nobles whose mother is Aldana get the Courtier skill free, but have their TNs increased by 5 when using Repartee actions against the Gallegos family. That seems like a good trade to me! Speaking of the Gallegos...the Gallegos have been scorned since founding because of foreign influences in their blood, both Crescent and Vodacce. They lost the chance to redeem themselves, as well, when Cristobal Gallegos vanished. Since then, they've mostly just managed the coastal ports. They are friendly, once the initial stigma wears off, and have healthy appreciation for life, renowned for their daring and adventurousness. Outsiders look on the Gallegos and their commoners as savages and witches, and certainly the few surviving practitioners of El Fuego Adentro hide in their province. However, they are simply more in touch with their mystic side. Nobles with a Gallegos father get a discount to the Gallegos fencing school, but may never purchase the Streetwise skill, ever. Nobles with a Gallegos mother get a free Raise on Sorcerous knacks, but have -2 Reputation dice in Castille. The Ochoas, until recently, were one of the most respected families in Castille. Today, they are reviled, unwelcome everywhere. It began when Don Marco Ontiveros del Ochoa, son of the family patriarch, arranged for the Montaignes to meet almost no resistance in taking Barcino, allowing the invasion to begin without trouble. None know why he betraed Castille, and rumors are raging - blood debts, money, coercion, insanity. Either way, though, the Ochoa are anathema in Castille, the survivors hiding, joining Montaigne or fighting guerrilla wars in the occupied lands. Rumors spread that Don Efron, the patriarch, was murdered somewhere in San Cristobal. Heroes from the Ochoa family may never buy the Noble advantage, ever. The Orduño family, officially part of the lesser nobles, are nonetheless famous as shipwrights. They occupy the southeastern corner of Rancho Aldana, and they have been instrumental in thwarting the Montaignes. Orduños hold the posts of Admiral General, Headmaster of the College of Naval Engineering, Master of Naval Shipyards, Master of Royal Artillery Academy, Harbor Master of the naval base at Tarago and Admiral of the Armada. In fact, more warships have an Orduño aboard than do not. Recently, though, their fortunes have begun to fail, starting with Hernando Orduño's disaster against Avalon. They lost command of the navy to Prince Javier, and they hope to turn their performance in the war into a way to regain their former stature. The current patriarch is Admiral General Don Julio Rivera del Orduño, commander of all Castillian warship operations. He's brilliant, but also arrogant and aloof, especially with those who know nothing of sailing. His brother, Admiral Enrique Rivera del Orduño, is commander of the Armada, and...book, why are you listing all these names with positions? Anyway. Nobles with Orduño fathers get the Sailor skill free but can never have the Hunter skill. Nobles with an Orduño mother get a discount to the Commission advantage, but receive 50G less in income each month. The Sandovals, of course, are the royal line, centered in San Cristobal. Anyone can roam their rancho along La Boca de Cielo, but military presence has increased since the war started. The Sandovals also have private ranchos in Vaticine City and the island port of Altamira, for the winter. The return of the White Plague has been terrifying for them, and Javier's disappearance has made it so there is no heir - after all, Good King Sandoval is so young! The family is now just home, a numver of cousins, "adopted" Dons - old heroes, duelists and statesmen, mostly - and relatives by marriage. The rancho halls are silent now, with Salvador and his elder son both gone. Nobles of the Sandoval family get twice the normal income and get the Castillian Education advantage free. GMs are warned to be careful with these guys for balance purposes. The Soldano family are famous for swords and wine. Soldano blades are prized across the continent, second only to dracheneisen in strength and durability. The secret of their creation is guarded closely. The wines produced by the Soldanos are also the most exotic outside the Crescents and Vodacce. Like their wines, Soldanos are fiery and passionate, mixing Vodacce, Eisen and Crescent heritage, mostly from a mass migration during the First Crusades or marriage between soldiers in the Second Crusades. Nobles with a Soldano father get a discount to the Soldano fencing school, but can never purchase the Servant skill. Nobles with a Soldano mother get a Free Raise with the Repartee system, but 100G less income per month. The Torres family were once the wealthiest short of the Soldanos, but they suffered greatly in the war, losing their entire province, and are now refugees. Historically, they have been export traders, but now, well...not so much. Their matriarch is the grieving Doña Elodia Avila del Torres, whose husband Fernando and three sons died defending their home. Elodia now spends her time as King Sandoval's personal guest, aiding her nephew, Andres Bejarano del Aldana. Some say she's mad with grief, and Andres is handling her family affairs in her stead. Her only living child is Elvia Avila Torres del Guzman, who is waging a guerrilla war alongside her husband, Javier Gallegos del Guzman, though their adherence to Torres fencing has caused them some trouble. Nobles with a Torres father get a discount to Torres fencing, but may never learn the Dirty Fighting skill. Nobles with a Torres mother get a free 3-point Dispossessed background and 100G extra starting cash, but they must purchase a Hubris and get only 6 points for it. And of course, there is the other refugee family, the Zepedas. They've done a bit better than the Torres, having rallied their army and made their stand at La Muralla al Ultimo. Before the war, they twoo were prosperous traders. Now, they are symbols of Castillian determination to resist. They have become fully dedicated to the war, led by General Don Ciro Lopez del Sepeda, who got shoved into the role when his parents were captured and executed by the Montaigne. He hates the Montaigne for their deaths, and he has been fueling General Montoya's campaign of ambushes on the enemy flanks. Montoya' sson, Jorge Vasquez del Zepeda, commands an artillery battery on La Muralla. The Zepeda are classicaly very pious and isolationist, but cooperation between them and the rest of Castille is being forced on them. Heroes with a Zepeda father get a discount to Zepeda fencing, but may never buy the Performer skill. Nobles with a Zepeda mother get the Priest skill free, and get 12 points for the Overzealous Hubris, but they may never take a Virtue. There are also a number of lesser families. They are: the Acedos (fishermen and merchants), the Arciniegas (scientists originally from Vodacce), the Avilas (administrators and alcalde), the Bejaranos (farmers), the Garcias (ore merchants), the Grijalvas (living in exile over a heretic in their family, now living as forest guides), the Guzmans (boatmen), the Lopez (guerrillas cut off from the rest of Castille), the Montoyas (soldiers), the Nuñez (artists and farmers captured by Montaigne), the Ontiveros (politicians), the Ramirez (soldiers and devout Vaticines), the Riojas (old blood smugglers and pirates), the Rios (wealthy), the Riveras (border guard)m the Rodriguez (mostly killed by Montaigne), the Vasquez (miners and lumberjacks), the Valesquez (crafters conquered by Montaigne) and the Yañez (horse breeders and traders). Naming's pretty simple. You have your titles, your given name, your mother's family name, the word 'de', your father's family name, the word 'del' and your native country, which is usually omitted. So you have, say, Don Pablo Aldana de Lopez del Castillo - Pablo's a don, his mother's an Aldana, his father's a Lopez and he's from Castille. Married women and non-nobles are slightly different. Married women use Title, Given name, Mother's family, Father's family, de, Husband's father's family, del, Country. So Doña Celina Bejarano Aldana de Ontiveros del Castillo - Celina's a doña, her mother's a Bejarano, her father's an Aldana, her husband's an Ontiveros and she's from Castille. Non-nobles just use Given name, father's family, de, native region, del, country. So Juan Garcia de Vasquez del Castillo - Juan's father is a Garcia, he's from Rancho Vasquez and he's from Castille. Children also introduce themselves with their parent's names - so you give your name, then 'el hijo de' or 'la hija de' your parent's name. In youth, children usually have -ito or -ita attached to their names as an affectionate nickname - so Miguel becomes Miguelito, and Rosa becomes Rosita. Next time: The Five Ranchos!
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 18:29 |
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TheTatteredKing posted:So Cthulhutech doesn't list STALKER as an inspiration but literally has THE ZONE in the game? And its called the zone too? That's obnoxious. Err, well, 'the Zone' is a real thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherno..._Exclusion_Zone That Cthulhutech and Stalker both make use of it isn't surprising.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 18:52 |
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Well, I guess I might as well move onto book 2 of The Riddle of Steel; featuring priority picks, topsy-turvy skills and elves that really are Just Better. Book 2 Welcome to Book 2 of The Riddle of Steel. This book starts, once again, with some fairly competent, in setting fiction, before moving onto the actual rules section. This being the book on character creation, chapter one is about deciding on a character concept; it gives such relatively sound advice as discussing your concept with your fellow players and Seneschal, in order to help create a unified, complementary party. It then gives a list of example concepts which cover most of the bases. After this, there is a list of example philosophies by which a character might live his life, such as: quote:"Kill them all, let the gods sort them out." It goes on to suggest using proverbs or quotes from other sources if none of these fit and the player is having trouble thinking of something to use. Chapter 2 introduces the crunch of character creation: the idea of choosing which aspect of your character is more important to you in the form of priority picks. These ought to be familiar to anyone who has played ShadowRun 3rd ed or lower. Before displaying the table, the book explains each priority in turn. Racial priority has humans, by far the most numerous race, are at the bottom of the table and count for an F pick. Humans who have the Gift, and can therefore use magic, however, are incredibly rare and count as a B pick. Elves can all use magic, and count as A, as do any other Siehe races that can use magic. Halflings (not short people with hairy feet, but human/other hybrids) count as a C pick, or B if they can use magic. Or, in easier to read format: code:Third is Attributes. the player may place between 27 and 47 points between his ten temporal and mental attributes. One of these must be designated the High attribute, and must be higher than any other. The minimum score at this stage is 2, while the maximum is 7. Race and Nationality may affect these later, if appropriate. This is where the derived attributes mentioned in Book 1 are worked out: quote:Reflex = (AG + Wit)/2 Fourth is Skills. Each player receives two skill packets (with the exception of the F pick, which only receives one), and the priority determines the score of the skills within those packets, followed by an additional skill, language or -1 modifier (remember, lower is better) to any one skill for each point in Mental Aptitude. Fifth are the weapon proficiencies. Anyone with the Gift takes their Vagaries (magical proficiencies) from here too. There may be anywhere between 14 with a maximum of 8 in one proficiency at A, to 0 at F, while anyone with less than an A may only put 7 into any one proficiency at most. The proficiencies are detailed in Book 3. Sixth and finally are the Gifts and Flaws; at A, one is given two major gifts; at F, a major flaw and a minor flaw (D, the average, is either one minor gift and one minor flaw, or neither). Chapter 3 is barely a paragraph long, explaining how to fill in the Combat Pool (Proficiency + Reflex)* and Missile Pool (Proficiency + Aim)*, while Chapter 4 is an example of chargen, followed by a filled in character sheet. The example is competent enough (and, in a refreshing break from CthulhuTech, has absolutely no surprise sex), and is interspersed with tables for randomly generating height and weight should anyone wish to use them. Here endeth the second book. Don't worry, we'll see fluff soon; should only be another... five books. The next book lists all the skills and proficiencies, as well as all the combat manoeuvres for each proficiency and all of the gifts and flaws. No, I'm not sure why none of this was in this part of the book either, but at least next time ought to be a longer and (hopefully) more interesting post. Edit: *Just realised that I hadn't actually bothered including how these are worked out. This should help when reading the write up of Book 4. hectorgrey fucked around with this message at Nov 30, 2011 around 20:59 |
| # ? Nov 23, 2011 19:28 |
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Mystic Mongol posted:Trinkets. Based off of Knowledge. Pull a small, inexpensive object out of a pocket... a match or stamp for an ace, all the way up to a pistol or a specific playing card for a pair. Does this mean you could cast this to cheat at casting something else?
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 21:42 |
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Lemon Curdistan posted:Does this mean you could cast this to cheat at casting something else? I.... Huh. Depends on how you can bluff the dungeon master, I guess? Given that a six card draw has a one in nine chance of getting the black joker, casting a second spell with a two pair minimum just to get the red joker doesn't seem broken.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 21:58 |
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It occurs to me that something that might make hucksters a lot less frustrating to play would be a way to counteract the Black Joker with a high-value chip, similar to the way Blessed can get their one-shot super miracles. ...and not similar at all to anything else related to them.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 22:00 |
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Yawgmoth posted:poo poo balance in CTech? SHOCKING. It's like these designers have never played an RPG before. Or have only played RIFTS, but that's almost as bad. Intrested. As long as the moon jokes are kept to minimum.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 22:48 |
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Yawgmoth posted:poo poo balance in CTech? SHOCKING. It's like these designers have never played an RPG before. Or have only played RIFTS, but that's almost as bad. I take Misfit (2) because I refuse to conform to the norms of society and cheerleaders don't date me. Now I can afford psychic powers! That'll show those jocks! Also yes, ELH please!
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 23:04 |
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7th Sea: Tell the men to be ready - and tell them that the butcher of San Juan commands the enemy. Okay. Rancho Aldana. Rancho Aldana is the heart of Castille, and it's got...well, a lot of important cities. Vaticine City, the trading centers Tarago and La Pasiega, the fortress El Morro. All kinds of stuff. El Morro, the Black One, is the strongest defensive position in the world. It is on top of a rocky knoll, covered in cannons, and is made of four stories of black granite. Two walls are flush with the water, while another is guarded by the Pantano Grande, a huge swamp. Any approach is going to involve crossing a river or a swamp at least part of the way. It's also home to the Royal Artillery Academy, where all of Castille's gunners are schooled, and where cannons are tested. At this point, testing tends to mean 'point them at Montaigne and see if they work.' The cannons and their crews are the secret to its defenses - they use pivoting gun carriages, allowing each gun 45 degrees of turning - or 90, at the corners. This lets crews fire continuously at ships that sail by, and no ship yet has ever been strong or fast enough to outrun the guns of El Morro. Its crews are commanded by General Bardo Rivera del Rios, headmaster of the Royal Artillery Academy, and besides the siege guns, it has 2000 infantrymen with muskets, who fire from murder holes and gun slits. It also has a hospital, blacksmith and repair foundry, along with food and living space for the entire garrison. El Morro is loving tough. The port of La Pasiega is also in Aldana, one of the most important ports in the nation. It's home to the College of Naval Engineering and the Naval Shipyards, making it the birthplace of the Castillian Armada and merchant fleets. It's got excellent drydock facilities, and with the war it has grown massively in size. They need all those people to maintain production, but it's started to get really cramped and tense. There is no rest in La Pasiega - work starts at sunrise, ends at sunset and never stops between. The constables are overworked, between raucous borachos (read: drunks), Montaigne saboteurs and more. El Vago has even been seen in the area assisting the alcalde, and rumor has it that he lives in La Pasiega. Then there is La Selva de Fendes, the Forest of Fiends. It is home to much superstitious fear, more than anyone except perhaps La Sierra de Hierro. Everyone's got their own ideas about the place, ranging from demons to hidden cults. The Explorers are interested in the place, looking to see what might be there - demons? Monsters? Ruins? The monster-hunters are headed up by a cartographer named Sienna de Guzman del Torres, who spent her early career hunting zombies in the sewers of Charouse. She believes the forest is haunted by monsters of Eisen myth. Her camp's been running into a lot of trouble - landmarks they use move, food vanishes, tracking markers go missing...and so have some members of their party. Eventually, the guides discovered that someone or something was tracking them in the forest...but still, Sienna and her men have gone in three times and never found actial proof. The second group is a team of scholars who feel the legends are an elaborate hoax. They are led by an Eisen Objectionist, Gregor Wische, hwo believes that the danger of the forest is a gang of criminals escaped from a Sieger prison who fled to the forest. Most people avoid the forest. Let's see - ah yes. The capital, San Cristobal, is also in the Aldana lands. It is famous for architecture - both sewage systems and complex aqueducts. It's a beautiful, highly defensible city full of beautiful mosques and cathedrals. Once, the Vaticines wanted to tear down these structures, designed by Crescents, but the military objected - the cathedrals and mosques are full of great defensive positions, and they managed to keep them intact. Today, new buildings form an outer ring from the original city, where most people live. The most impressive structure, though, is the Turbe Malik, the Crypt of Kings, where the greatest weapons and works of art of the Crescents are displayed beside the tombs of their most honored dead. At one point it was a monastery and royal household, but it was closed to protect its contents from theft and vandalism during the First Crusades. Today, it's a major tourist attraction. San Cristobal is also home to the University of San Cristobal, one of the oldest and foremost of the world's schools. The Inquisition's been unable to close it down, though they've abducted a professor or two, and it's a haven for displaced students and teachers. Hundreds have flocked there from occupied regions, straining it to the limit, but it sitll manages to make great advances. And...no, we can skip Tarago, that's uninteresting. The Vaticine City is the official capital of Castille, despite San Cristobal's being the trade center and military headquarters. It's also the religious center of the world, the seat of Vaticine power. It also hosts the Palace of Wolves, a set of labyrinths in which most of Castille's politics take place. Things are dire in the Palace - Torres and much of Zepeda have been lost, and the roving, homeless Dons want recompense and revenge. Until the war, things went pretty well, and the Dons managed most of it - but now, with so much land suddenly gone, it's harder and harder to meet everyone's needs. The Vaticine City also holds the famous La Ciencia university, more on which later. Now, Rancho Gallegos! It's a very important place, though most Castillians avoid it: it's home to the mines and ports that fuel the war. The Gallegos get few resources to support themselves - the fishermen build their own ships and train their own crews, and the fish are relied on to feed the whole province. This is because Gallegos is rather hard to get to, thanks to the mountains of La Sierra de Hierro, and the superstition surrounding it. Most believe the Gallegos secretly trade with the Crescents, and it's where the last remnants of El Fuego Adentro went! Still, it's a productive and pretty land, with wild, uncharted mountains full of strange beasts. The people are sturdy and aloof, and they still refer to themselves as Acragans. Though part of Castille, they're generally left to their own devices and don't like outsiders much. Gallegos is home to the city Avila, in the Peninsula of Oranges. They're famous for fruit. So much fruit. Orange trees, especially. They also produce wine. More important is La Sierra de Hierro, the Saw of Iron. The mountain range stretches from the Peninsula of Oranges across much of Gallegos. It is huge, stark and beautiful - and very unexplored. There are rumors of rogues and outcasts in the mountains, Los Nublados ("Those of the CloudS"). Some say they are the last sorcerers, carving out a mountain kingdom, while others say they are ghosts of those who refused the Second Prophet. Still, these spectral renegades are a major legend of the Sierra de Hierro. In the 1500s, Don Louis Trejo went looking for them, but came back empty-handed. He was sent to an asylum soon after, claiming nightmares of "men bathed in blue fire shot through with the shadow of death." None of his men would speak of his rambling, and all retired or died within the next decade. No one has dared to go find Los Nublados again. Let's see...skipping Malaca...Puerto de Sur is a Numan-built port that makes its money as a vacation spot for the rich, but other than that not super interesting. Roja's a fishing port...yadda yadda...oh hey! San Eliseo. It's a huge city, a major mercantile port that is home to the Castillo de Santa Marillo, a nigh-impregnable fortress. Once, it was besieged by Crescent invaders, who captured the commander's son, Hecter de Basquez, and threatened to slit his throat unless the garrison surrendered. The father threw his own knife down, saying it'd be better to lose a son with honor than a castle with disgrace. The son died, but Castillo de Santa Marillo remained uncracked. San Eliseo is also the mining headquarters of Gallegos, growing richer by the day. A few miners have disappeared, and rmor has it that Miguel de Trujillo, the mining head, is looking for people to look into that. Let's see...oh, and there's San Felipe, a town that is home to the Dragos tree - an immense tree which can grow 70 feet tall and 25 feet wide, with some trees perhaps 2000 years old. Montaigne sorcerers believe the tree's sap is magical. And more fruits and vegetables come from San Gustavo, the capital which is surprisingly uninteresting. Rancho Soldano lies between the peaks of La Sierra de Hierro and La Selva de Fendes. It's almost completely rural - it's got only one city: Altamira. There's some garrisons, but no other cities. Just villages and towns. This is omething of a preference, actually - the Soldanos have always been first to be taken by outsiders, so little has been done to give it much to lose. The primary center of activity is in the foothills of the mountains, at the passes, and the city of Altamira. Altamira is a riverport city far from the war and the trouble - it is perhaps the most peaceful city in Castille, reminescent of a lost age of youth and innocence. It is a mercantile hub for the entire world, and home to the famous de Cordoba moneylenders, who own many interests in the city, including the bullfight arena of La Vengaza. There is also Paseo Largo, the "Long Walk" of shops and flea markets. Unlike the paranoia of Vodacce or arrogance of Vendel, Paseo Largo is a cheerful, happy Castillian trade center. Prices are fair, quality is high and above all is service. Browsing is encouraged, and people often come visit the plaza during siesta, when fireworks, free lunches and children's games are all provided. Indeed, many store owners even hand out gifts to customers during siesta. It is also home to a major branch of the Swordsman's Guild, a popular and courteous branch called the Guild of San Marcos. There's also La Universidad de Arciniega, a well-stocked university and home to a great cathedral. The Altamirans also believe that Altamira is Centro del Mundo, the center of the world - it's home to everyone, even those elsewhere. Each family has a private ranch in Altamira, including the Sandovals, and it is a beloved tourist destination. Altamira's pretty cool is what I'm trying to tell you. You should base your heroes there. Rancho Torres is the farmland of Castille...or, well, it was. Most of the farmers were killed during the invasion, while the rest are n the army or fled to the east. Until the Montaigne can find laborers to work them, the rich fields go unharvested, severely limiting their advance. The trade centers are shadows of their former selves, and Montaigne colonists have found violent guerrilla resistance awaiting them in the Torres farmlands. The Torres are deeply Vaticine, and they know Theus supports their cause. The port of Barcino is now the primary Montaigne staging area, in Rancho Ochoa (a subprovince of Torres). Heavy tolls are levied on all but Montaigne trade, and most Barcino citizens have fled to join the resistance. So far, they've destroyed only one ship and razed some depots, but they've proved impossible to crush for Montaigne's puppet government. The city has not forgotten Don Ochoa's treachery, and many have vowed to die if it'll protect Barcino and Torres from the Montaigne's depredations. Rancho Zepeda, like Torres, was once lush farmland. Now, it's a wasteland of battlefields, with La Muralla al Ultimo standing as the only barriers to Montaigne conquering the entire western peninsula. Most of Zepeda's population are soldiers now, serving at the wall, or fled to the east. The farmland is being worked only by colonists or imported labor from Montaigne. The Wall is a complex network of wood and soil, with trenchwork on the Castille side to allow infantry to shower Montaigne forces with bullets while maximizing cover. Both sides are clean of all natural resources to support combat. Both sides have the time and space to rebuild between assaults, and as yet the Last Wall has never been penetrated. The Montaigne thought they could starve the defends out, but the Castillian Navy's smugglers mobilized too quickly and keeps the troops supplied despite the fierce blockades. The once proud city of La Reina del Mar now lies empty of all but the Montaigne. Controlling this base was key to the Montaigne war effort, and it's the site of one of the few successful amphibious assaults in history. La Reina was seized and held even after the Castillian Armada arrived to free it, and the elaborate port is now held by Montaigne, supplying all their forces in the south. It's a key port for them. The city of San Augustin goes uncaptured, though. Before the war, it was simply a way station with a small university - but now, it is the anchor of the Last Wall, improved so as not to fall like La Reina did. The few ships that still defend it try to break the blockade daily, and this keeps the city from being overrun. San Augustin is growin in war, filled with troops, supply depots and repair facilities that rival all but the Armada's traditional home in Tarago. Housing is becoming a problem, though - Montaigne artillery has destroyed many buildings in the northern half of the city. Should the place be overrun, General Montoya has prepared a fallback position in the south to preserve La Muralla al Ultimo. We know what happened to San Juan, but there is a note now - the Montaigne soldiers based there now are convinced the place is haunted. Disappearances are attributed to desertion, but many believe the ghosts have come to claim revenge. San Juan is being used less and less as the war continues. And...yeah, San Teodoro isn't interesting so that's it.  That bull is just pissed off, dude, it's not even bleeding. Castille is a passionate and artistic culture, though the Inquisition has taken to policing its artists and writers who produce "heretical" works and "dissident" statements. Their architecture blends Crescent, Eisen and Montaigne as well as their own unique and rugged flair, and dancing is a cultural touchstone. Many believe (falsely) that the Castillians invented dancing - they didn't, the Montaigne started ballroom dances and Vodacce invented theatrical dances. But Castille? Castille's commoners took to their own dances, which have slowly been sporeading to the nobles over the past 300 years. Today, dancing is a widely respected art, devoted to showing off emotion and passion in mesmerizing, immersive manners. The two main types of dancing are danza, very regimented dancing with formal training needed, which is primarily the domain of bailarinas, theatrical career dancers who train for years. The other is Baile, more of a folk dance that originated in Rancho Gallegos, which is very instinctual and rugged. It's even seen as licentious among some of the nobles, for it is passionate, fast and prone to pulling onlookers into the dance. Bailadora, the common dancers, are competitive and can be found in dancing "tournaments" across Castille in homes and shops. They often dance in the street to entertain others. Danza is for nobles, and has been adopted by the Vaticine, who run academies for it, and over the past fifty years, chorales (theatres for danza) have become fashionable. Baile is much more a commoner's style, and extremely flashy. It comes in many styles - the flashy Soldanos' Canario, the informal Flamenco of Gallegos, which even the nobles love, the wild Folia, associated with drunkenness, the Montaigne-influenced Sarabande, which has constant movement, the clapping and stamping of the peasant Villano, and the forbidden Zarabanda, which the Vaticine has outlawed for more than a century because they feel it's obscene. It doesn't stop anyone from performing it. Castille also produces literature, in the form of historic poetic texts and social satire focused on low views, justice and retribution. It's perhaps a bit out of touch with the minds of most Castillians, but some say it's just ahead of its time. More than any art but dance, though, painting is hugely Castillian. Paintings have caused duels, treaties, even wars. Paintings have reinforced faith and sent governments into chaos. Castillian paintings tend to focus on religious themes, though that has led to a certain amount of a stagnation, and cross-pollination with Vodacce styles is common. Castille also has a number of unique festivals and celebrations - of course, there are many, many regional celebrations, but these are all over Castille. Every day is a holiday somewhere in the nation, but these are holidays everywhere. In Spring, there is El Festival de Llamas, the Festival of Flames. Its origins have been lost, though some Gallegos believe it is connected to Los Nublados. It is highlighted by the burning of niñots, giant paper-maché figures that are often bawdy or depict some unpopular event in a satirical light. Currently, that usually means lampooning the Montaigne forces, though some have targeted Ésteban Verdugo and the Inquisition. These tend to vanish quickly. The days before the Festival are full of parades and dances, and four nights after the niñots appear, they are all filled with fireworks and set ablaze. I love Castille. Next time: More yearly festivals!
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 23:05 |
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Ettin posted:I take Misfit (2) because I refuse to conform to the norms of society and cheerleaders don't date me. Now I can afford psychic powers! That'll show those jocks! I'll bring my ELH with me on the way to thanksgiving excitement and start posting end of the weekend/early next week.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 23:53 |
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Make sure to mention the stuff that is literally just "this is something we already made but with more levels/resistances/spell-like abilities on it". Like the Leshay.
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| # ? Nov 24, 2011 01:25 |
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anagramarye posted:Make sure to mention the stuff that is literally just "this is something we already made but with more levels/resistances/spell-like abilities on it".
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| # ? Nov 24, 2011 01:28 |
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Yawgmoth posted:I know I'm gonna have a loving field day on the templates in that book because they were both abysmal, although I am hard pressed to remember specifics off the top of my head. Hey, Worm-that-Walks is pretty cool sir 
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| # ? Nov 24, 2011 01:32 |
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Ettin posted:I take Misfit (2) because I refuse to conform to the norms of society and cheerleaders don't date me. Now I can afford psychic powers! That'll show those jocks! Deadlands had a ridiculous "flaw" that gave female characters bonuses to seduction but when male characters have it, it gives them negatives. People just considered the woman a whore but when your character is a prostitute in a setting where prostitute is one of the suggested characters that doesn't matter. Also, I think the Whites in Cthulhutech are a poor attempt at making the Rei from Evangelion style alluring albino sperg chick.
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| # ? Nov 24, 2011 01:46 |
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Deadlands had a ridiculous "flaw" that gave female characters bonuses to seduction but when male characters have it, it gives them negatives. People just considered the woman a whore but when your character is a prostitute in a setting where prostitute is one of the suggested characters that doesn't matter. Don't be ridicuous! That would imply that the writers are fans of Eva and yet are still incredulous about the possibility of teen Engel pilots. And the fine makers of CthulhuTech are certainly not hypocrites, no sir!
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| # ? Nov 24, 2011 01:50 |
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| # ? May 19, 2013 23:02 |
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Also, I think the Whites in Cthulhutech are a poor attempt at making the Rei from Evangelion style alluring albino sperg chick. I'm pretty sure that's what they are, yeah. Unfortunately, for some reason every time I post about the Whites what actually comes to mind is "  ".
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| # ? Nov 24, 2011 01:56 |
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