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Oh man, gently caress you Tasoth, I'm going to be giggling for hours now. That loving car! That loving shopping cart! That loving everything!
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 02:58 |
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| # ? Jun 20, 2013 09:29 |
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I love Nobilis but the art is so, so bad. I also have the first version of the book, pre-deviant art scandal. It is even worse than some of these. If I recall, one of the contracted artists was caught tracing touhou art from DA. In multiple pieces through the book.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 03:01 |
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I like the car and the shopping cart. If you had cosmic power wouldn't you make the items close to you alive and strange? I dunno I like RPGs the closer they are to 'my life, only with cool bits added onto them'.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 03:04 |
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Oh, topic of Mouse Guard, I noticed something. Kestral mentioned that the talking to animals thing seemed to be absent from the RPG, with a few exceptions (the entry on rabbits mentions it, I believe), but I looked around a bit and I actually think I found it. It's just not easy. The Loremouse skill mentioned rudimentary communication with other animals, and Celanawe, who talks to the owl that one time, has Loremouse 6, which is high enough for this to be possible for him. Related, for some reason feathered animals are easier to talk to than other furred ones. Not sure why.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 03:10 |
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Kestral posted:[*]The order of the Scientist factors tells us what priorities the mice put on their sciences, and probably how far advanced they are in a given discipline: Geological / Mineral, Chemical, Physical / Engineering, Biological, Astronomical. You've also got to wonder what a Scientist Ob 6 test with Astronomical and Harmful factors would look like. I'm thinking "solar deathray".
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 03:12 |
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Glazius posted:I'm thinking "solar deathray". Mousehammer 40k: in the grim darkness of Michigan, there are only weasels.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 03:13 |
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Glazius posted:I'm thinking "solar deathray". So like a giant magnifying glass?
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 03:21 |
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Yeah, I blocked out the text. If you want to know, go buy the book! And like I said, it's not that the art is mind-bendingly atrocious, it's how it hops around and breaks the mood one piece sets up for another. Page numbers! Doing this in order posted. Back of the dedication page. 15 18 19 23 43 55 70 60 64 59 75 84 89 92 94 117 204 213 231 230 234 And for the record, I actually like the Surolam piece. There are some worse offenders for the 'THROW ALL THE IMAGES HERE!' style.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 03:29 |
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wdarkk posted:So like a giant magnifying glass? Nope, a couple hundred well-drilled mice holding shomething shiny should do the trick.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 03:46 |
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wdarkk posted:So like a giant magnifying glass? Extermousenatus! Might not be entirely practical as a direct fire weapon but you could light weasel territory on fire with it on a dry day!
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 03:47 |
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Drox posted:Mousehammer 40k: in the grim darkness of Michigan, there are only weasels. But then there would not be any mice!
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 04:10 |
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Tasoth posted:While I don't find most of the images I've posted too terribly bad, this one I can't stand. This is one of the poo poo quality images in the book and there is another one of similar quality on the page facing it. I feel a bit bad about making that statement because someone was probably really amped they managed to get one of their drawings published in a game they liked and it probably brought congratulations from friends and family. But this image is loving terrible. It is also one of Lord Entropy's Nobles and from the section on his chancel. This is the Spelljammer. No, seriously:  It's the goddamn Spelljammer.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 04:12 |
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Bieeardo posted:This is the Spelljammer. I cannot believe I never made that connection before, probably because I haven't thought about the Spelljammer in over a decade.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 04:15 |
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Bieeardo posted:This is the Spelljammer. Does your Spelljammer poo poo the world's gems as it flies overhead?
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 04:21 |
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Tasoth posted:
  EDIT: Damnit, so beaten. But I have the "best" art. EDIT EDIT: Tasoth posted:Does your Spelljammer poo poo the world's gems as it flies overhead?
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 05:37 |
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Wraeththu ...however, this should not be perceived as homosexuality And we're on to the Introduction! Which is not the same as a prologue, somehow! Introduction Alright, so we're playing Hara, who are both male and female in one body, something which should "not be perceived as homosexuality," in case anyone ever thought this might be GAY or something. Sex is called "aruna," and is essential to staying alive. We're told we can "breeze over" the details, though, unless it's really important who we're loving and where. As we've already read, however, this is just a ruse so the GM can ease us into the really creepy poo poo. And then the game tries to sell us the original Wraeththu books. Nice try, but no cigar. Now, I have to say, the first subsection "What is Roleplaying?" is actually pretty well-written. It's actually formulated in a way that gets the point across quite well to anyone who's never touched the hobby before. "How Do I Role-Play?" is also surprisingly well-written, emphasizing various social aspects like not constantly trying to hog the spotlight, and the fact that a character doesn't have to be perfect and infallible to be interesting. Even the section on how to be a good GM is actually kind of great! It advises against railroading aggressively, against being too easy or too harsh on the players, suggests what volume of preparation is handy... RAILROADING BAD posted:Another aspect to bear in mind is that only an incompetent Storyteller plans the plot "to a tee" and then religiously sticks to it, without giving the players a chance to explore other avenues. If you want your players to keep to the plot, then give them a good reason to and don't force them into it. If you insist, for example, that they go to Location X, then Location Y, without doing anything else, you will probably end up with rebellious players, whose characters just sit there doing nothing or perform anarchic or insane acts out of boredom. Even in much better games, this is some advice I've rarely, if ever, seen pop up, yet something that a lot of GM's could stand to learn from. Live Action posted:Due to the nature of the game, we do not suggest any players attempt to act out aspects of Inception or aruna. The Wraeththu are an inhuman race, the players are human. These acts should be confined to the imagination. In order to not get too praise-y, I want to point out that the miserably bad art still continues for this section.    Some of it is flamboyantly hilarious, other bits are just sorta-okay But the good advice comes to an end soon enough and we start hitting stuff about the actual gameworld. quote:It is the end of the world as we know it. Much has changed in the past decade and continues to do so. The greater part of human society has disintegrated, and the up-and-coming Wraeththu have set up small, feudal governments in the areas they control. Some Wraeththu have tried to develop different forms of government, taking ideas from the human administrations of past centuries and using them to suit their political aims. Then we get to the Wraeththu. Apparently they popped up as soon as humanity started declining, so far with no real explanation. Androgynous, as we know, slim and fragile-looking, as we know, deadly warriors, "mystics and seers of great power." They poison humans with their blood to turn them into similar creatures, and apparently only a few of them have so far figured out how their genitals can be used to reproduce sexually. Apparently they mostly "Incept" people who already hate humanity, meaning that most Wraeththu use their new superpowers to get revenge on a species they feel has bullied them since birth. Predictably, most humans blame the Wraeththu for all the poo poo that's going down and hate them. I think I'd hate these assholes, too. So what does the world look like aside from this? Apparently the "Great Western Continent" is now called Megalithica and is under the boot of a human military government. The Wraeththu, on the other hand, bailed on this place pretty fast, moving east to the "Island of Alba Sulh"(the UK, I think) and then "moved east to the continent." Apparently Europe got more hosed than the US by all that went down and we were easier prey for the Wraeththu. Interestingly enough, the Wraeththu are described as kind of horrendous, their behavior is called "raping cities and towns for resources and souls." And it seems like they don't really have any clue of their origin, either. Oh and apparently the Wraeththu can travel to other dimensions, too, so there's that. Props to the book, though, for suggesting that it's possible to play humans fighting against the Wraeththu as well, which would actually be kind of interesting! You've got this inhuman plague of post-human creatures, kidnapping people, spreading their way through the bowels of cities, lurking on the outskirts of settlements. Individually they're stronger than people, but a well-coordinated pack of humans can still take them down. The Wraeththu "The origins of Wraeththu are unclear, in the same way that human evolution is unclear." I thought we had a pretty good idea of wherefrom humans evolved? At any rate, this chapter is about the Wraeththu(as if the title wasn't a big clue). Apparently they're a big enough leap that natural evolution is completely out of the question, and the book waffles a bit on the subject, saying they could be aaaaaaaliens or a genetic experiment gone wrong. No clue whether there is a FOR GM'S ONLY section later that tells us which it is. +1 points for not calling these things Hir and Sie or anything like that, though, the book apparently decides that masculine pronouns will suffice. Then it instantly blows that goodwill by launching into a description of Wraeththu genitals. MONSTER DONGS posted:Wraeththu are creatures with both Ouana and Soume sexual organs, these being their equivalents to human and male genitalia. And then paragraph upon paragraph of how the Hara/Wraeththu are far superior to humans. They're faster, stronger, have better health, more efficient immune and digestive systems, heal faster, have more stable minds, no sexual anxieties or worries, and they're smarter, too. Their only real downside is that if they don't get their monster boners on for long enough, they start becoming mentally unstable and irritable. Oh and they also have telekinesis, pyrokinesis and telepathy. "We could speculate that the harish state of androgyny has contributed greatly to their enhanced mental condition." Then it caps the section by saying that it's KINDA POSSIBLE that humans could get psychic powers, too. Let me just interrupt here, though, and say, that as much as I respect that FANTASY poo poo BE ALL WEIRD YO, this offends my understanding of psychology. I imagine that if you just had an unwanted, forced sex change operation performed on you, you would probably be a mental wreck for a while, even taking into account the superpowers you got in the bargain. Oh and let's not forget that everyone you ever liked or cared about will probably consider you a monster now, and that even if you "Incepted" them so they could join you, there's every chance it'd just kill them(in the prologue section, I think it was something like 2 out of 20 that survived the process). Also forget what I said about pronouns, apparently the Wraeththu themselves use "Har" as a pronoun, to the point of jamming it into other words. "Everyhar," "anyhar," "somehar" are just examples(everyone, anyone, someone). The same section also says that the psyche and memories are essentially unchanged after being Incepted, further bringing into focus the point that WHO THE gently caress WOULD NOT BE A PANICKY WRECK AFTER THAT EXPERIENCE? The section is also written in first-person by a Wraeththu who, hilariously enough, comments that he thinks the weird new pronouns are bullshit and "abominations of language." I'm also not inlining it, but there's STILL more of the art, but it's just the same goddamn poo poo. Pale, ugly, badly-drawn androgynes looking confused or determined about things. Inception So, the Wraeththu are total cockbaskets, because as soon as someone's been Incepted, they usually force him or her to say that they totally let it happen of their own free will, despite the fact that kidnappings and such were involved in 99% of all cases. Then we get some stupid words! Forale: The fast before Inception! Harhune: The infection with Bishie Herpes! Althaia: The part where your cock falls off, i.e. the actual mutation process! Also the Wraeththu have stupid names. Just on this page alone: Swithe Tresillian, Calambus Mint, Zackary Raven Black, Swooner har Sulh, Malakess har Sulh. This bit is mostly just fluff. The Uigenne are a tribe who cut people up for inception, the Varr are SCIENCE about it, the Colurastes choose children for Inception and happily gently caress them afterwards, and presumably there are other weird-rear end methods that aren't elaborated on just yet. Wraeththu Physiology More on how Wraeththu are totally better than humans! None of them are shorter than 5'8", they've got no body or facial hair, they lose all facial asymmetry, being Incepted counters baldness, your teeth become perfect, sometimes your skin colour becomes purple or gold, and sometimes your hair becomes anime-coloured. And supposedly one tribe even grows tails. Agility: Far more. Muscles: Far better. Joints: Even more better. You can't become fat, drugs never have any hangovers or side-effects related to them, poisons can't hurt you in 99% of all cases. You have magical healing and... even though earlier sections said Wraeththu were far more mentally stable than humans, apparently NOW it decides to state that yes, people can actually get mentally hosed up by the whole transformation misery. But luckily, Magical Wraeththu Healing can cure mental illnesses, too! All senses are better, and you have super-awesome sixth and seventh senses and poo poo! But gasp, unlike other things, it's actually possible for Wraeththu to have flawed senses, oh my GOD. Aging causes no damage, and Wraeththu live a baseline of around 150 years or so. DNA-wise, apparently Wraeththu have an extra base pair, K and L in addition to GATC. But apparently they have LESS genetic information because all the redundant parts of the genome have been flushed out? Also the "ribosome" has become more complex, but none of this has been elaborated on, possibly because the authors didn't know jack poo poo about science. Gah, gently caress it, I need a break from this poo poo: Next time! Psychology, magic and The World In General!
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 11:16 |
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Tasoth posted: at the typography on this bad boy.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 11:49 |
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You know, the illustrated wraeththu aren't especially androgynous. They just kind of look like guys. The text descriptions are sort of at odds with the art, there. I think you're right, about the psyche pre- and post-inception, but at the same time based entirely on the prelude fiction they select outsiders and bill it as a Powerful State so you Don't Have To Be So Weak. I imagine a lot of downtrodden people would take that and live with the requisite adaptations, such as "you now have a banana penis and snake vagina" and "by the way, gently caress another one of our kind frequently or your dick will turn toxic or something and shoot through your brain like a giant banana-dick bullet, or whatever". doomfunk fucked around with this message at Mar 6, 2012 around 15:26 |
| # ? Mar 6, 2012 15:22 |
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Alright, you hold that poo poo right the gently caress there, Wraith-U. I spent my time in college getting a biology degree and you, good book, have offended me. How hosed up of an ecology are we talking for the world? Are there large swathes of wasteland where nothing grows? Has soil quality tanked? Are typical bread basket areas decimated? Because let me tell you, suddenly getting tall and developing magic muscles is going to push your daily energy demands up. I can't tell, do they have eyelashes and eyebrows? Because if not, say hello to poo poo in your eyes all the god damned time. I'm also trying to figure how you improve human agility without A.) adding a tail, B.) adding halteres, or C.) redesigning the cochlea. Again, if the muscles are way better than humans, then for for their size, the Wraith-u are going to have higher energy demands. And improving joints is an interesting concept, given that the way joints are setup is terrible based on what evolution had to work with. To illustrate: Let's say we wanted to make a swinging arm for something out of wood. We'd normally just screw a hinge to it and be done, but if we wanted to replicate a limb, we'd have to cap the ends with rubber and then surrounded it in a tape ball full of lubricant to keep the rubber from wearing off. Then we'd either have to have to add another piece of wood to keep it from bending too far in the wrong direction or create a haphazard system of rubber tubing that would hold everything in position through counteracting each other. Which is why we don't make hinges that way. Get high with no ill consequences and never be poisoned? That's horse crap. If the poisons don't work, then the drugs shouldn't, because you have a liver that everyone needs. Alcohol and controlled substances are poisons and operate by loving around with various receptors. I guess being a Wraith-u magically makes your body intelligent. Also, no body fat is silly. There is a point you can hit where you do not have enough body fat for your body to function, but I assume that line isn't about being that thin. What is goofy is how a group of entities without fat can survive a feudal system that can hit famine times. But being a fatty is bad and unsexy, so no fat for everyone! I want to know what those extra nucleotides do. As it stands, with just four, there are 64 different triplet codons that are used to redundantly code for specific proteins, a start sequence and no less than 3 ways to end a protein sequence. By adding two more, you now have 125 ways to code for proteins. And yet allllll redundant DNA was removed from the genome. Let's not get started about what is being defined as 'redundant DNA'. And how the poo poo do you make a ribosome more complex? It's literally two units, a large and a small subunit, the large one being a complex of differing sized chains of protein and RNA. Quick biology lesson: Here's how a ribosome works!  The small ribosomal subunit sticks itself onto the back of a messenger RNA chain, the back being where the phospate-sugar backbone is. The large ribosomal subunit pops over and connects to the small subunit. Next, transcript RNA floats on over and slides into a slot on the large ribosomal subunit and, should its anti-codon (the triplet of nucleotides that are the opposite nucleotide to the triplet on the mRNA strand) should match, it sticks a methonine down and the ribosome chugs down three spaces to add a new protein. Why make this more complex? How do you make this more complex? What can you change that still allows for an easy and efficient means of manufacturing proteins that still relies on Brownian motion to get all the parts together. ARGH! But I guess I need to take a deep breath and stop freaking out because :magic:. They should all be horribly anti-social misfits, by the way. Being the brunt of abuse through the formative years is horrible for socialization and then being subjected to Inception? Wraith-u should be monsters. Also, those proportions suck. Ugh. Fake Edit: In proof reading this, I forgot to mention that Thymine is replaced in RNA with Uracil, so she's wrong there. And I don't know if the author actually means that K and L replace a pair of bases in RNA (highly unlikely) or are added to the standard four. UGGGGGGGGGGGGGH!
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 15:31 |
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Tasoth posted:I'm also trying to figure how you improve human agility without A.) adding a tail, B.) adding halteres, or C.) redesigning the cochlea. Wraeththu is famous for having done C. I do like a lot of the Nobilis 3 art, even the bad stuff. I should buy a copy one of these days, to sit unplaced next to my GWB.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 15:38 |
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chrisoya posted:Wraeththu is famous for having done C. Alright, now you have my interest. What was the explanation for the cochlea being better? EDIT: I also want a :magic: smilie that is similar to the science on, only dressed like a character from a Harry Potter movie with green something flickering from the tip...
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 15:39 |
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Tasoth posted:Alright, now you have my interest. What was the explanation for the cochlea being better? It... was a lazy and terrible cock joke. Sorry.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 15:40 |
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Yeah, I figured the redesign was going to be "more receptive to banana dicks."
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 15:41 |
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Bringing biology into this game is like bringing physics into an episode of Star Trek- the only result is pain. If they had just detailed all the stuff about the Wraith-Fu and left it at that, we'd merely be focusing on the regular creepy stuff instead of their bullshit science. But by trying to justify it, they've opened the gates to being torn apart.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 15:54 |
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I guess they have psychic powers. The increased strength could simply be tactile telekinesis, it happens with superheroes all the time. I'd actually be pretty okay with this as an answer. I'd say the same for improved agility, assuming somehow-superior reaction time ("we used lubed our neural pathways!!") except if you're psychically controlling your entire glam rocker body you're probably going to break something. I've got nothing for immunity to the 'bad sides' of toxins. If alcohol's involved, they could metabolize it very very quickly, so they have a really fast, really drunk phase, but recover very quickly with no hangover. I know someone who's like this after a surgery.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 16:07 |
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doomfunk posted:I guess they have psychic powers. The increased strength could simply be tactile telekinesis, it happens with superheroes all the time. I'd actually be pretty okay with this as an answer. Giving them psychic powers is just going to compound this. Assuming they managed to eek out efficient so they can have super psychic powers with the same volume of brain matter, using psychic powers constantly in anything you do is going to drive up your brain's metabolic energy requirements and O2 needs. I'm sure it all falls down to 'IT'S MAGIC' and I'll have to deal with it, but Ugh.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 16:15 |
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They metabolize buttsex. I'm not sure why you're having so much trouble with this. 
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 16:17 |
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 My lines are pretty crap but anyway, that vertical bar on the left's the length of his right arm, from just below the shoulder to the wrist. The horizontal line that looks like it's sticking out of the rear wheel arch marks the relative length of his left arm (measuring down the bar). If we assume his normal-looking left arm's about 60cm long then his right arm's about 96cm long (again, not including the upper shoulder or hand). That's to say nothing of his legs, of course. His lower left calf's at least one and a half times the length of his right one (I don't think his right leg can be bent to the right/into the page because his elbow's in the way). The car's rear wheel also seems to be thicker than its front one, even with foreshortening.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 16:19 |
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You're overthinking it - just as Maid is really just about the GM role playing as pedobear, this is just about raping people to death and still being technically the "good guys"; not about how the changes to the human body might be justified biologically...
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 16:21 |
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PurpleXVI posted:Alright, so we're playing Hara, who are both male and female in one body, something which should "not be perceived as homosexuality," in case anyone ever thought this might be GAY or something. doomfunk posted:You know, the illustrated wraeththu aren't especially androgynous. They just kind of look like guys. IIRC from the scifi covers thread in Goldmine, where this was my first exposure to it, Bishie Herpes only affects men. With the exception of being farmed to make more humans, women are superfluous in Wraeththu's needs and goals. And, when humans die off, then Wraeththu will follow, since they only reproduce through infecting human males. It's all really justification for why there's no women in Constantine's yaoi wank. PurpleXVI posted:Interestingly enough, the Wraeththu are described as kind of horrendous, their behavior is called "raping cities and towns for resources and souls." And it seems like they don't really have any clue of their origin, either. Oh and apparently the Wraeththu can travel to other dimensions, too, so there's that. Props to the book, though, for suggesting that it's possible to play humans fighting against the Wraeththu as well, which would actually be kind of interesting! You've got this inhuman plague of post-human creatures, kidnapping people, spreading their way through the bowels of cities, lurking on the outskirts of settlements. Individually they're stronger than people, but a well-coordinated pack of humans can still take them down. I can see this, but unfortunately, even though it's suggested, Wraeththu really is meant to be like Vampire The Masquerade and how they viewed the original hunters, instead of the Vampire vs. Hunter WoD dynamic. Tasoth posted:I'm also trying to figure how you improve human agility without A.) adding a tail, B.) adding halteres, or C.) redesigning the cochlea. Wouldn't increasing limb size and adding lumbar vertebrae improve this as well? Short stubby limbs aren't very agile, but having arms and legs lanky should increase agility somewhat.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 16:23 |
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UnCO3 posted:art There's also no pelvis. Those legs go on forever underneath that shirt/jacket/thing. Further, the lineart has some choppy whitespace in it because the artist wanted to preserve the line more than they wanted to remove the paper scan. This is actually really easy but not something most digital artists know how to do - adjust levels on one channel, usually blue, until it's pretty much 50/50 black/white with little grey, copy, paste into the full image as an alpha and invert. Boom, isolated lineart. I don't mind this particular piece, though. Foibles of perspective and such, I think this artist has a lot of potential. I'd hope the time since publication has seen dramatic improvement.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 16:27 |
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7th Sea: No matter their motives, Explorers were a danger to all of humanity. We left off with the Spine Swords, a type of weapon recently found at a number of sites. At first, the Explorers thought they were just bones, but during an attack a Shield Man picked one up to fight with. They're about the length of a longsword but much lighter, resembling the spines of some large animal and made of cartilege. The sword is fashioned in segments which stick together very well, connected by a long cord in the middle. A small release in the handle keeps the blade segments together. This allows them to be used as a whip as well. Thus, they are able to change between modes as single action, going from fencing weapon to whip. If done while attacking, this adds +10 to the TN to hit with the attack. They can parry in whip mode and get a Free Raise to all Binds while in whip mode. Next are the Syrneth Crystal Eyes, a sort of gemstone which is worn as a lens. While wearing it, the TN of all social rolls is down by 5, but the TN to spot hidden items or search for things is up by 5. And then is the Syrneth Navigator, a device which locks in place over a compass. While active, it reduces the TN of all Navigation and Piloting knacks by 5, as it keeps the compass from jostling. Then there's the Temporal Refraction Lens, discovered seven years ago in Montaigne. There are three known to exist. They resemble oval crystals, but when held to the sky and looked through, they reveal the weather for the next 24 hours. This works only for the open air and does not do anything if trained on the ground or anything else. There is also a 20% chance of nausea and seasickness. In addition, after being used, it makes the viewer's TNs all go up by 5 for one hour. Next is the Tessera Rod, a device which is an exceptionally powerful magnet. They are usually found in sets of three - two small rods and one large one. Unless the two small rods are brought together and magnetic force is exerted on the large rod, the rods remain dormant. The small rods can be tucked into a glove finger, and the larger rods are usually inserted into weapon hilts. When the small rods touch each other, the large rod leaps into contact with them, pulling whatever it's attached to. The small rods have no attraction to each other and do not attach to each other on activation. This allows the wielder to, when disarmed, retrieve his weapon and attack in the same action. And last is the Topaz Pendant, a tiny gem that is not truly topaz. When worn or faceted on an object, it is dormant and waiting. The next time the wearer fails ar oll, the gem cracks and the user can reroll, accepting the new result instead. Cracked pendants are useless and ugly, but hey, that's what you get for a free reroll. There's also a random artifact generation table for each Syrneth race. We won't go over them or the reprint of Shield Man fencing. Instead, the Syrneth Tinkering School! Its founders discovered that the Syrneth were able to make truly fantastic machines by combining artifacts from different races. Recent advanced in translation and artifact research have led them to their greatest leap in understanding Syrneth technology. Previously impossible tasks, like repairing mechanical hands, modifying Aether Compasses and even refueling one-shot devices have now become viable. This is called Syrneth Tinkering. Of course, it is terribly dangerous. Every time you mess with an artifact, you could die. However, they've been lucky so far. Minor, often embarassing or painful incidents are common, but deaths are rare. This is a "Swordsman" school available only to Explorers, which does not actually have anything to do with fencing or fighting whatsoever. The knacks are one for each Syrne race. Apprentices learn to repair the equipment, having a TN of 30 if all necessary parts are available. If they are not, the GM may declare repair impossible. Apprentice Tinkerers also learn that some artifacts require a sort of invisible fuel to function, usually aether. If a fuel source is available, the Tinkerer can try to refuel a one-shot item. Apprentices have a TN of 40 to do so, while Journey have TN 30 and Masters TN 25. If it works, the artifact is refreshed and may be reused as if full. If it fails, though, the artifact can never be refueled ever again. Journeymen learn to modify devices, including the ability to merge artifacts from different races, such as using a Domae Stone to power a Thalusai artifact. You pick one artifact as the base and then roll the knack for that particular race. The TN for cosmetic modification is 30, which just merges the two into one with the effects and abilities of both. You make one Raise for each additional device, and one for each additional race of artifact beyond the first. Masters, meanwhile, can try to make devices from broken artifacts. This is identical to the Journeyman power, but starts at TN 40. If successful, the device works. The Tinkerer picks one ability from the appropriate Syrneth artifact chart and rolls for one flaw. Adding aditional abilities requires 2 Raises per ability, plus one Raise for each type of Syrneth race involved beyond the first. Now, there is risk. Any time you fail a TN when using Syrneth Tinkering by more than (Wits*4), you get to roll 2d10 on the Mishap table. (Or 1d20 in d20.) On a 1 (impossible in 7th Sea), you lose a level, which can be restored by magic. On a 2-4, the items explode, causing the tinkerer and everyone in 25 feet to take 6k6 damage or the damage of the most powerful device, whichever is worse. On a 5, you suffer horrible visions, losing 2 Wits (to a minimum of 0) for 2k2 days. The penalty is halved if you make a TN 25 Resolve+Occult roll. Once a day, you must make a TN 25 Resolve+Occult roll to avoid reacting to the voices; if you fail, there is no mechanical effect except that you are hearing voices and your friends are probably worried about you. On a 6, you cause a flare of multi-colored light. Everyone within sight of it must roll Resolve+Occult, TN 30, or lose 2 Wits (to a minimum of 0) for 1k1 days. All artifacts involved are useless for 2k2 days and any with limited uses are considered empty. 7 results in the object exploding into bands or cords or wires of some kind. All artifacts are consumed, and you must make a TN 25 Finesse+Leaping check. If you succeed, your choice of arms or legs are entangled, restricting those limbs. If you fail, you are completely helpless until freed. 8 produces a horrible, stinky gas, requiring everyone in 10 feet to make a TN 25 Brawn check. Failure results in a loss of 2 Brawn (minimum 0) for 1k1 days and also requires a second check, a TN 20 Resolve check. If you fail that one, you vomit and are unable to act for one minute. 9 causes you to shoot a laser or heat ray or sonic burst from the device, striking anyone in your general direction. All artifacts with limited uses are considered fully used, and everyone targeted must make a TN 25 Wits+Footwork roll or take 2k2 damage. 10 causes unknown energies to course around anyone within 10 feet, fully discharging all limited use artifacts involved. Also, everyone must make a TN 20 Resolve check or lose 2 Panache (to a minimum of 0) for 1k1 hours. 11 completely and permanently ruins one artifact involves, generally the less important one. "There is no other effect except extreme disappointment." 12 causes the artifacts to grow six legs, unless they already have legs. Either way, they try to escape! Artifacts have Finesse 4, Panache 4 and Footwork 54. They are harmless, even if they started out deadly, and will return to normal in 1k1 hours. 13 causes harmless insects to emerge from the artifacts. Domae get moths, Setine get clockwork flies, Thalusai get tiny beetles, Tessera get microscopic fireflies. There are 10k10 of them, and they result in conditions equivalent to dense fog for 1k1 rounds. Devices involves don't work for 1k1 minutes, but there is otherwise no real effect beyond annoyance. 14 causes all artifacts involved to float to the ceiling or 30 feet, whichever is lower. They move at one foot per round until they encounter a wall, but are strong enough to resist any attempt to be pulled back down for 3k3 hours, after which they float back down gently. 15 causes the artifacts to suddenly stick to the Tinkerer, causing 1k1 damage from the sudden attraction. The Tinkerer has -2 dice to all actions as long as theyre stuck, and they fall away 2k2 hours later. 16 makes one of the objects shriek incredibly loudly. Everyone in 30 feet takes 2k2 damage. A TN 25 Resolve roll halves this. If that roll fails, though, they are deafened for 1k1 hours. 17 makes one of the artifacts try to absorb heat from the Tinkerer, shattering afterwards. If the Tinkerer fails a TN 25 Panache+Leaping check, he also takes 2k2 damage from the sudden cold. 18 results in the device going wild, either flying around uncontrollably for three rounds (if it has no moving parts) or flailing about wildly for the same time (if it has them). Each round, the Tinkerer and one person per additional artifact must roll Wits+Footwork, TN 30, or take 3k3 damage. 19 causes a whirlwind as they artifacts fly into the air and swirl about, attacking everyone in a 50 foot radius. This requires a TN 30 Finesse+Sprinting roll to escape, with 2k2 damage done to those who fail. This is repeated every round until everyone escapes. Ending the whirlwind requires destroying or disabling the artifacts. And 20? Well, 20 means your artifacts start putting themselves together, altering themselves into a roughly humanoid robot. It will attack everyone around it until it is damaged, at which point it will flee and try to get to Cabora. It has the statistics of a robot from Cabora. And yes, it will do this even if all the devices involved are tiny. Because that's how this works. We will skip the reprint of the robot rules and the ships of the Explorers. Instead, it's time for the appendix: the Isle of the Syrne. It's the site of one of the Explorers' most important excavations, but has recently come under attack. It is due west of Castille, and covered in plants. There are two dormant volcanos, named Captain Johnson and Councilman Bernard. Until recently, they showed no signs of going active. Until the Explorers came, only birds, crabs and aspreys lived on the island. However, the pirate Rogers once used the island as a base, they discovered, but it was abandoned due to jungle fever. The first major ruin they found was a building with walls divided up into a grid with sections 10.5 inches square. The Explorers have dubbed this the 'Syrneth foot' or 'Syrnoot.' Yes, the Syrnoot. They use this with all seriousness. They have no idea what the first structure was for, but it is highly mathematically precise. The entire place was also full of magnetic fluctiations and disease. They found a second site sunk into the mud later that was exactly the same, and at hird site located between the two which had a number of buildings. Inside that building they found a strange table appearing to contain a chess board on which were small cubes of various colors. No one has any idea what it does, but in truth it is a display of key systems information and power transfer. It at one point controlled moving walkways, water transport and magnetic field distribution. The color of the cubes shows damage to the systems. Two pieces have turned black recently, showing functional but requiring extreme maintenance. These correspond to the first two sites the Explorers found. No one has yet noticed. The third site is also full of artifacts using magnetism. Everyone thought there were no carvings...until someone brought some iron filings into the magnetic fields. There, they fgound that there was a pattern to the magnetic disturbances which they believe is consistent with language, though they can't read it. The Shield Men also discovered that the third site was almost ideal for defensive fighting, with only one problem: the ideal configuration would have one more building. The Explorers believe it was destroyed in a war, after they found ashes at the spot it should have been. They think the inhabitants lost. Recently, a band of pirates led by Aaron Blackstone have attacked the island. In the days since then, the volcanos have become much more active, and no one knows why. We get a reprint of the Tessera racial information, and then learn that the first two sites, A nad B, were used to prevent volcanic eruptions. However, the Explorers removed key artifacts, and Blackstone stole yet more. The two sites have failed now, resulting in the volcanic activity. They will erupt within a week. Anyone who remains will take 1k1 damage per half hour from smoke inhalation, and lava will engulf the second site within an hour. The second eruption will cause 2k2 damage to everyone on the island, level the vegetation and send lava through the place. Anyone caught by lava will take 5k5 damage per round. The danger range is out to 500 yards from the island. The damage can be fixed, though, wiuth effort. This will require the return of the stolen stones and then the reestablishment of the protective magnetic field in the third site. However, this will not stop any eruption already in progress. After an eruption, the island is uninhabitable for two weeks due to poisonous gas, which causes 1k1 damage per half hour. Anyone stepping hte laval before it cools in two weeks will risk breaking through to the hot lava beneath, taking 3k3 damage per round. We'll go a bit long here. The Explorers have five ship[s on the island, but one is constantly going back home for supplies. The ships are Persephone, Raider, Archaeologist, Vesta's Tears and Expedition. The first three are couriers and are unarmed. The Vesta's Tears is the barracks for the Explorers, and is badly damaged due to Blackstone's attacks - it needs repairs for at least twelve hours by a full crew. The Expedition ran aground two years ago and is stabilized, serving as a floating warehouse, but most fear it will sink. It is also damaged, and needs two weeks of repairs before it'll be good to go anywhere. The two major NPCs on the island are Professor Joseph McTavish and Aaron Blackstone. McTavish is an expert in languages and lore, and leads the expedition. He is cautious and highly methodical, refusing to use explosives to dig or allow his men to go into the jungle for more than six hours at a time. It's slowed digging, but has made it much safer. However, he's unable to abandon his methods now that a crisis has arisen. Aaron Blackstone, meanwhile, is an escaped prisoner who stole a ship from a Vodacce smuggler he'd convinced to head to Cabora. Aaron and his brother Conrad now command the pirate frigate Massacre, and originally had been guards on an Explorer expedition. Until they turned pirate the moment they were out of sight of land, anyway. When they attacked the island, their cannonballs were deflected in midair, and they found it was due to three magnetic stones. This is why they're raiding - they want more of the stones. Aaron is also a journeyman Donovan fencer. Lastly, Captain Rogers did, in fact, bury his treasure on the island. However, his key is long lost. His journal is somewhere on the island, though, detailing the loss of a battle where he had to cut loose his anchor - which was the key to his wealth. The anchor, a huge stone rod, was magical - it would open the cave where Rogers stored the loot. In fact, the anchor was a magnetic stone weighing six hundred pounds. IOf brought to a small cliff on the island, it will open a crack and reveal a cave. Inside are four chests of gold...and if the front door closes, a second door, in the back, will open to reveal even more money and a smaller version of the anchor, weighing only 300 pounds. However, the hard part is going to be getting the anchor and figuring out how to use it. Next time: Cathay, Jewel of the East! Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at Mar 6, 2012 around 17:42 |
| # ? Mar 6, 2012 17:07 |
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I've been looking forward to Cathay ever since I heard how poorly balanced and Open Game License-y it is.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 17:27 |
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Wraeththu Well, since people seemed to care about arguing about about the DETAILS of Wraeththu WE ARE BETTER, I'll add what details the book gives. Agility posted:Hara possess superior muscle structure and bone joints to humans, but this is mainly due to the fact that their physiology enables them to remain far fitter than the average human. Some can run extremely fast, leap impressively both in height and distance, and most hara possess quick reflexes. That's the FASTER, STRONGER, BETTER bit. Digestion isn't specified, it's just "flawlessly functional" and any excess nutrients they ingest that'd make them pack on pounds literally just gets flushed out when they take a dump. The drugs are not detailed either, just "narcotic effects can be experienced without lengthy side-effects." Again, I guess they KIND OF get around the "trauma of being almost killed and then raped by a stranger"-bit by having MAGICAL BRAIN HEALING afterwards(it specifies that those that get incepted without a BRAIN WIZARD CLERIC around can and do often develop psychoses), but that's still a lovely, lovely cop-out. Aging posted:Harish bodies are not subject to cellular deterioration in the same way as human bodies, but as yet nohar knows the full extent of a harish life-span I guess they could have some improved telomeres or something? I seem to recall a suggestion for a human longevity cure would be genetic alterations to prevent our telomeres cutting themselves shorter when our cells split(DISCLAIMER: NOT A BIOLOGY STUDENT, PROBABLY TOTALLY WRONG HERE.). Genetics: K and L join the four base pairs for DNA, and presumably they'd have to do so for RNA as well because otherwise DNA transcription wouldn't really work for them at all, would it? "It might also be that, having six base pairs instead of four has made the information contained within the them more dense and efficient." RE: Why their genome is shorter.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 17:39 |
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PurpleXVI posted:HUHUHU Biology *eye twitch* Heh... *twitch twitch* The telomere thing does factor into aging, but there are also other factors, too. I'm not going to profess expert knowledge about it, but there are random oxidations that happen between strands of collagen and such as you age that lessen their ability to stretch. I'm going to leave the rest alone before I have an aneurism. Good new is, you can toss these folks into water and let them drown. Also, that anyhar thing is making me think of brony-speak...
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 18:39 |
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This seems like the best thread to ask... somewhere on TGD I remember reading about a system where one of the ways insanity was represented was that the GM and the non-insane players would retcon one important fact about the campaign and not tell the other person. Like the king was now a queen, or their benefactor never existed and the entire thing was being bankrolled by the insane player. Any idea what it was?
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 19:14 |
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LET'S READ LEGENDS OF ANGLERRE Chapter 17: Templates Up to this point in Legends of Anglerre, we've had about 240 pages about how to model, well, drat near everything. This short chapter is a bunch of pre-made stuff made using said rules, which can be used as guides for making your own stuff, or plunked into a campaign as-is. We have Organizations!  We have Constructs!  We have a Band of Heroes character!  We have buildings!  We have collections of buildings!  We have Units!  We even have monsters stated up as military units!  Not much to say here, really. It's nice to see all the tools we've been talking about for 16 chapters being put together in various ways, though. Plus after three chapters of Mass Combat I wanted something easy, dammit. NEXT TIME: Going big! Going bigger!
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 19:28 |
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Man, I was really into the 7th Sea stuff but this D20 material is just cooling me on the whole concept. Looking forward to Cathay, let's see how crazy this poo poo can get 
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 20:19 |
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Tasoth posted:*eye twitch* Not just with collagen, oxidative degeneration affects a lot of other parts of cellular metabolism. And telomeric shortening is only a limiting factor in cell lineages that still actually divide in an adult body, there's still age-related degenerations that affects things like neurons in your brain. For those of you who don't fear big technical molecular biology terms, there's a good review of aging on a cellular level here, although it's a bit out of date (from 1999). Interestingly enough, longevity is also tied to a lower metabolism in several different ways, so the Wraethuthethuthu being faster, stronger, smarter, and able to metabolism poisons and whatnot faster than humans makes NO GODDAMN SENSE, because to keep at that level of activity would require a HIGHER metabolism! As a fellow Biology major, I feel your pain, Tasoth. 
SWMadness fucked around with this message at Mar 6, 2012 around 21:48 |
| # ? Mar 6, 2012 21:43 |
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| # ? Jun 20, 2013 09:29 |
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Drox posted:Mousehammer 40k
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| # ? Mar 6, 2012 22:21 |
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