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You poor bastard, Syrg. I like to joke about how I'm that guy who always opens the tome of eldtritch lore in the Call of Cthulhu game and starts reading, only with RPGs instead, but FATAL is the only time that really felt like it was true.Gau posted:I'll volunteer to mirror/format completed reviews on a blog for posterity. I think I'll pick something out of my grab bag and review it, too...I just don't know what yet. The World of Synnibarr, First AND Second Editions The World of Synnibar: The Ultimate Adventurer's Guide SenZar: Role Playing For The Next Millennium Creeping Death: Campaign Builder Number One (for SenZar) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, Revised Edition Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, Revised Edition, Suggested for ages 12 and older (I am not sure how these are different) Transdimensional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Compatible with Heroes Unlimited, Beyond the Supernatural, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!) And, some games which are more debatably terrible, but should be entertaining to look at anyway: Macho Women With Guns More Excuses To Kill Things for Macho Women With Guns Human Occupied Landfill Amber Diceless Role-Playing Shadow Knight: Supplemental Rules & Background for Amber Diceless Role-Playing Unfortunately I couldn't find Space Ninja XDO Cybercrisis, which I bought for like $5 based entirely on the name. I feel I got my money's worth there. I'll be starting with Synnibarr. Tune in tomorrow for such details as, courtesy of randomly chosen parts of the back of the book: The back of The World of Synnibarr posted:
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| # ¿ Jun 26, 2011 20:25 |
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| # ¿ Jun 19, 2013 13:20 |
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Multi-Genre? Oh no, this thing is set on the titular World of Synnibarr, and it's only got one genre: Bonkers.
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| # ¿ Jun 26, 2011 20:46 |
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Doc Hawkins posted:Maid is a game where the players play superpowered maids who constantly vie for the affections of their Master, played by the GM. Every anime fetish archetype is present and accounted for. One of the character types is called "Lolita.". There are optional seduction rules. There are optional rules for getting powers from costume changes, and losing powers from losing parts of your maid uniform. Obviously it is fairly easy to jettison the creepy poo poo, but there's some creepy loving poo poo in it. Midjack posted:It and its expansion BUTTery wHOLEsomeness are amazing.
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| # ¿ Jun 27, 2011 09:40 |
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demota posted:Edit: Oh, oh, and I almost forgot. FATAL has a thing where you roll a random percentage chance of success for some things. That's right. You roll to figure out your percentage, then you try to roll under that. You know what else has the exact same probability? EDIT: Speaking of Synnibarr, time to start writing poo poo up.
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| # ¿ Jun 27, 2011 14:11 |
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EDIT: whoops, wrong button.
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| # ¿ Jun 27, 2011 14:26 |
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Welcome to.. Image taken from the WTF D&D article on Synnibarr I'm sure you've all heard of Synnibarr by now. Raccons, Talking. Raven c.s. McCracken himself. But you haven't really experienced it like I have. Let's start with the back cover.  Ah, where to start. No, seriously, where do I loving start?  The fact that Synnibarr is MARS? The fact that it implies that this game won't "limit your imagination" or your character's abilities with its four separate ways of making a character, most of which have weird rear end restrictions on them? "The specific for characters to engineer and create their own" assorted poo poo, which has very, very little rules backing it up?"If you have imagined or dreamt it, you can live it within The World of Synnibarr." As we'll see, this is grossly inaccurate. This is not a generic system by any means. By the way, as page iv states, "This book is not intended to foster any belief in the occult." So don't start beliving in magic and faeries, guys. The book itself opens with "Introduction & Welcome", with a quote from... somebody? stating "Into imagination's fury I plunge thee. Ride the storm and ye shall be enriched." It then gives a history of how the gameworld came to be. In short, some jackass named Aridius was born, and he was so loving awesome at magic he became a god (Specifically of Hope and Command). Eventually he wandered the "vast universe and the 100 dimensions" and found Earth, and converted its inhabitants to his worship, and made Jesus. At least that's what I'm getting out of this. And after watching Jesus do his thing for a bit, Aridius was summoned by the "Father of All" becuase the powers of Darkness, with the aid of the God of Time, were attacking from the "dread dimensions of Shadarkeem1". The footnote then states that Shadarkeem is the birth dimension, singular, of the gods, and only Venderant Nalaberong works there, so gods turn into mortals if they go there. More on Venderant Nalaberong later. The Gods of Light then locked everybody up in Shadarkeem in "a temporal suspension", leaving the demigods to run poo poo. This made a bunch of suns blow up becuase they were chumps. Scientists noticed this and didn't know what the gently caress, but figured out where the "stellar storm" was going and warned planets in its path, including Earth, who had recently found Jesus. He was in the Amazon the whole time, apparently. They decided he was a god, prayed to him to save them. He couldnt' teleport them to saftey, though, so he turned Mars into a giant starship instead. Specifically, he hollowed it out, making it double the volume of earth (Yes, volume, not diameter. I'm not how this worked), turned the "excess matter" into vegetations and oceans, inside and out, and embedded the "organic electronic control network" for the environment and gravity in the 30-mile thick shell. Thus was created the Worldship Synnibarr. Also he put some engines and poo poo in it, and rested for three months. According to legend he made it like this so people would stop fighting over territory when he teleported them to it without their nukes. Then he teleported over all the animals, and picked 400 men and women to be ADVENTUERERS. With special powers and abilities! Each class was different, yet depended on each other for survival! So that's why this game has classes. BUT WAIT! Radiation and aliens might gently caress poo poo up! So he encased it in a "Werestorm". Which has nothing to do with lycanthropes. The "Were-" prefix shows up a lot, and NEVER has anything to do with lycanthropes or therianthropism. I don't think the game has any, in fact. The game doesn't mention what a Werestorm does at this point, of course. Then he rested for three months. And now, he actually teleported people to it, mostly inside, and fiddled with people's minds to implant the suggestion "Work together". Then he went to sleep for 30,000 years. Now, with only 2 months left before Sol blew up, it was time to leave! Except wait, a "child was born whose heart was as black as hell itself". A Mutant! With a capital M. She was born, then 15 minutes later she was an adult, and for some reason she went to the fusion reactor powering the engine and tried to eat its power, and blew up, irradiating the interior of the worldship and killing everything inside it except for 1500 humans near a tunnel to the surface. They went to the Terra Isles, and then another Mutant showed up, ran back to the controls, and repaired the reactor just in time. So the crippled worldship limped away. During the trip, the radiation shields or something weren't working right, so some gamma radiation mixed with the other radiation and poo poo from the damaged reactor and drives and out popped the first drake, the paradrake. Somehow. And then it was found by an Alchemist, who then made a bunch more kinds of drakes and hydras, wanting a sweet army, but he did it TOO WELL and they turned on him. So then, the biggest and baddest of the hydras, the Midnight Sunstone Hydras, stole his knowledge and granted the other hydras and drakes intelligence and established a social order, which lasted for a while before the drakes went "gently caress this poo poo" and rebelled, and there's still fighting going on to this day. There have been conquering attempts six times, two by aliens, once by evil mages and alchemists, and three by Dark Lords and great evil powers. Fortunately there are ADVENTURES to hit them until they stop! 5000 years ago, the place finished its journey and has spent the time orbiting the Planet of Peace without incident. Sometime within the last 18,000 years, a plague wiped out most of civilization by making people stupid, but it's since been cured, and a couple places still have records. And that brings us to now! If this didn't make much sense, good, I got it across perfectly. Next time: The Glossary! Which contains important mechanical information not duplicated anywhere else in the book.
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| # ¿ Jun 27, 2011 15:15 |
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Not a lot of that has much of anything to do with what level 1 scrubs are going to be doing, honestly. Except maybe the "There was civilization here but it blew up" poo poo. Putting it first is not a great choice, but the book is full of odd organizational choices anyway!
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| # ¿ Jun 27, 2011 15:33 |
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MagicHateBall posted:I have a copy of this laying around and will take the review duty off your hands when I get back to my library, if you like. I wouldn't mind doing it, I actually sort of like SenZar.   Sup SenZar-owning-buddy. Sure, go ahead, I'll handle the supplement I have in between EVERYTHING ELSE I HAVE TO DO OH GOD  EDIT: Lemon Curdistan posted:Also: the were- in werewolf etc. means "man." A werestorm is a manstorm.
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| # ¿ Jun 27, 2011 17:11 |
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Oh no. It's much more stupid. In fact, I'll get to the glossary RIGHT NOW! Except the glossary does not mention werestorms, werewinds, or weremen.  The World of Synnibarr, Part 2: The Glossary Immediately after the origin story and a boring timeline comes the glossary, full of all kinds of information, including a few mechanically important things you don't find anywhere else! I won't be going over most of this now because it'll come up later, but some of it is hilarious. For one thing, one of the first entries is "10ths". Which is damage reduction! See, 1 10th means you divide (usually only physical and energy) damage you take by 10, two by 100, etc. The most you can have inherently is 4, and another 4 from worn armor (which has its own hitpoints and gets damaged and I'll go over that later.) And initiative is called "Advantage" because why not. Alchemy is "a force within the Centiverse similar to technology but more akin to magic", and is not in fact about magical chemistry and potions and turning materials into other materials much of the time, but has a lot more energy beams and poo poo, becuase this is Synnibarr. Aura is your alignment, basically, but might change based on your mood. Death is defined here (Yyou die at negative 1000 "life points", which may seem like a lot but is nothing in this system), and I can't remember if this turns up again in the combat chapter, so I'm putting it in. EGs are "electrons in gravimetric suspension", and one of them is equal to 10,000 kilowatt-hours. This is how most portable poo poo is powered in the World of Synnibarr for some reason, although if you take it to a place where 'high technology" doesnt' work for a while it'll break. The GM is called Fate, and PCs can do something called a "Fate Roll" which is not seemingly related to the GM being Fate, but is instead a roll on percentile dice. It is basically saving throws, only there's a shitload of categories. "Midnight Sunstone" is one of the hardest substances "that can exist", and is a crystalline metal found near midnight sunstone creatures, and is used to generate "Midnight Sunstone Energy", "Also known as Pure Psionics". Which is a "blue-black beam with a pure white light at its core". "Organic Electronics" are like electronics, only they use protein molecules instead of integrated circuts, and also use synapses and neurons to sort of think or something. You need to use these instead of conventional electronics if you want to generate magic or poo poo, but you can also do normal electronics stuff at half the power drain and 10% of the size. The Powers: These are various types of weird-rear end magic, and include Magic, Psionics, Earthpower, Alchemy, Mutations, Chi, with special categories for Venderant Nalaberong, Pure Psionics, and God Power. However, they only work in the presence of Caprenium Radiation, which is caused by the combination of caprium and technentium. But fortunately those are omnipresent! But their effect might be drowned out by other types of raidaiton so powers might not work in some places. This isn't mentioned in the glossary, but "Werewinds" and "Werestorms" are one of the ways of nullifying most Powers. There's a combat move called "Sacrifice", which is, uh. Attacking a guy first instead of dodging. I don't know why it's called "sacrifice". And now, king poo poo of gently caress mountain of important mechanical non-duplicated information, Venderant Nalaberong. Venderant Nalaberong is "the strongerst force in the Centiverse", which cannot be affected by any other type of power, including God Power (which is what gods use, if you couldn't tell from its strange arcane name). Also known as "The Tounge". It's a "Special form of pure magic practiced by only a few", and is the language the elder gods used to make the Centiverse. "This language cannot be spoken or written by anyone unskilled in its use." Remember that, it's going to come up later. You learn it by trying to read an example and making an Ego Roll, which you can't repeat unless you manage to improve your character's intelligence by some means. (Ego is the use of your Intelligence and your Wisdom, but raising your Wisdom doesn't let you make another roll like Int does for some reason.) Once you learn it, you become a spellcaster in Venderant Nalaberong, which means you can cast pre-existing types of spells only with VN backing it up, which means only other VN-backed things can stop them. How do you make ego rolls, you may ask? YOU DON'T. That's right. I've read this book cover to cover multiple times and never found any rules for either ego rolls or general stat rolls. Nobody can ever learn Venderant Nalaberong, ever. Join me next time for a 9-page example of play!
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| # ¿ Jun 27, 2011 17:50 |
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Canopus250 posted:Just chiming in to say that I want to hear about the real madness that is Synnibar.
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| # ¿ Jun 27, 2011 18:27 |
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Mormon Star Wars posted:Is "The Everlasting" obscure? With a Midnight Sunstone Bazooka.
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| # ¿ Jun 27, 2011 21:58 |
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Actually, SenZar's system really isn't that bad, the massive powergaming aside, and the powergaming was an explicit design goal. v v
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| # ¿ Jun 28, 2011 01:05 |
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I think Syrg is going more or less in order. We'll get to them sooner or later.
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| # ¿ Jun 28, 2011 14:56 |
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You know, I don't remember undead coming up in Synnibarr much if it all.
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| # ¿ Jun 28, 2011 20:55 |
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It's time once again for The World of Synnibarr! Part 3: The Example of Play A Mage Warrior, a Ninja, and a Chameleon Drake recuse an Elvome or something, and also lose their ship becuase they lost the unnecessarily complicated coin flip. Part 4: Character Creation I'm going to be stepping through this and actually creating a character myself, using physical dice. And keeping track of the number of times I have to roll dice, and the number of choices I get to make. First step is generating my "Basic Charactersitics". I roll 7 20-sided dice. I get results of 14, 14, 7, 6, 5, 2, and 1. (7 rolls) Now I reroll anything under 8 until I have seven results equal to or greater than 8. So that's another 5 rolls, resulting in 12, 12, 8, 19, and 13. (12 rolls) I now discard the two lowest results (12 and 8), and roll until I have a result better than the highest one I dropped. I roll an 18 first try, for 13 total rolls, and stats of 19, 18, 14, 14, 13, 12. Now I must choose which of the four separate methods of proceeding I use:
However, I am goign to use the Traditional method, becuase it's unnecessarily stupid, and was also the only one in first edition. So, three more rolls (16), resulting in 9, 13, and 15, for... Gnome (requirement: one stat 14+), Psielf, (20, 19, 19, 18), and Shadow Warrior (18, 18, 16). I only qualify for Gnome, so that's another two rolls (18), of 16 and 20, for Shaman (17, 17), and Winged Warrior (anything). I can now choose (1 choice) between being a Gnome, a Shaman, or a Winged Warrior. I don't feel like messing with spellcasting right now, so I choose to be a Winged Warrior. I must now assign my ability scores, and apply the class bonuses (+1d6x10 strength, +3 agility). I choose (2) to place my stats a follows: Constitution 14, Strength 13, Agility 19, Dexterity 18, Intelligence 14, Wisdom 12. I roll(19) a 4 for strength bonus, giving me a final Strength of 53 and Agility 22. My Ego is the sum of Intelligenc and Wisdom, 26. I now roll(20) for random mutations, the chance of which is 5% becuase I'm not a Mutant or Bio Syntha Cyborg. I roll a 23, so I don't have any random mutations. Now I roll for random psionics, and the table informs me that becuase my intelligence is between 10 and 16, I have a 5% chance. A result of 42 means I do not have random psionics. Now I go note down all the poo poo I get from my stats! Having an agility of 22 or 23 means I get an Advantage(init) Bonus of +1.5, and two attacks per turn, meaning I act on combat segments 6 and 11. A Dexterity of 18 gives me a further +1 Advantage, for total +2.5, a Shot Bonus of +4(to-hit, rolled on d100), a Dodge Bonus of +10, and a Surprise Adjustment of -7. My base dodge is twice my agility plus the Dodge Bonus, for a normal dodge of 54, and a Beam Attack Dodge of 75% of this, or 40.5. My block score is equal to my dodge. My 54 Strength means my maximum lift is 3,700 pounds, and when I hit with a weapon, I add 10 points of damage to its base dice, and then multiply the result by 19. High strength is really good. I'm goign to go out of order and consult chapter 12 here for the throwing objects chart, which indicates I can throw a 370 pound object at 243 miles per hour a distance of 6,660 feet, and the object will take its weight in pounds in damage, modified by the value on the strength chart in mph it was moving. 240 is x85 damage, so this hypothetical 370 pound object would take 31,450 damage (before damage reduction) when it hit something over a mile away. My wisdom of between 8 and 14 gives me a 30% chance to locate traps. My constitution of 14 gives me +140 Life Points, of which I have 1d6*100, and I roll(21) a 1, giving me a total of 240 life points. I am flimsy as hell. I also have a bunch of base Fate rolls, but I'll get to those later in another update. My Ego of 24 gives me +2% Fate bonus verses Magic, Psionics, and Earthpower, and non Reaction Adjustment (which makes people like me more). I now roll (22) for my current Ego Flux, getting a result of 31, indicating that my Personality is "Good+", although this isn't explained. Once I reach level 25, I need to re-roll this. I now note down my base surprise scores, which are fixed off a table based on my class. I also apply my dexterity-based surprise class adjustment. I now have to roll for my physical appearance! I am a (22) 1d6=3, Female; (23) 1d6=4, Indian; with (24) 1d6=5, Silver hair; (25) 1d8=3, Gray eyes; who is (26) 1d100=84, Left handed; (27) 48+6d6=74 inches tall, with a wingspan of 148 inches because I'm a Winged Warrior, who weighs (28)1d6*10+90=120 pounds, and I am 1d6=4 of average appearance. I am (29) 18+(1d4-1)=19 years old, and will die of old age at 85. I now roll (30) for my starting social status and (31) resulting money! I roll a 45, indicating I am of Normal status, giving me 1d20*1000 starting $. I have $10,000 starting cash. I now choose (3) my Aura, which is basically alignment. I choose the Neutral alignment of Green becuase it's slight on the "good" side, resulting in one of the only auras which doesn't have draconian behavior limitations and/or make you a psychopath. I now read the section on Karma, which boils down to act according to your alignment or the GM will screw you, and if you do really well you get a point which can give you +2 to all abilities on your next character. Also, "Both types of karma are kept track of by Fate and the player and do not pass from one referee's campaign to another without express consent." Implying that characters might do so without express consent. And now, I need to go find my class description and copy down all the poo poo I get! First I get "skills for all Guild-Trained Adventurers", which consists of "Balancing and Juggling; Climbing; Combat, Dodging and Blocking; Combat, Hand-Held Weapons; Combat, Hand-to-Hand; Combat, Projectile and Throwing Weapons; Computer Operation; Cooking; Detect Traps and Secret Doors; Fishing; Math, Basic; Medical, First Aid; Navigation, Air; Navigation, Land; Navigation, Water; Piloting, Boats; Reading; Running; Sewing; Survival, Wilderness; Swimming, Basic; Weaving; Wood Carving; Writing". As a Winged Warrior specifically, my Natural Abilities are Enhanced Senses, giving me "enhanced" sight and hearing with no explanation of what that means, double visual range compared to a human and 20% bonus on surprise rolls (which I think is separate from my base surprise class for some unclear reason); two inherent 10ths of damage reduction; 50% resistance to magic, psionics, and earthpower; +5% on my dodge when flying; "Two steel-hard feathers I can use as weapons", which do 1d8*100 modified by strength adjustment (I think these are part of my wings, but it doesn't specify), and the additional skills of Acting, Comedian, and Hunting. My Basic Abilities are... oop. (32 rolls) a 50% chance of having a "master mutation". I roll a 36, so I do! I'll get to that later. I also have Psionic Tracking, at a 50%+1% per level chance, with unlimited range, which allows me to lock on to up to five "things" at a time, as long as I do so within five days of having last seen it. I also have a permanent Cloak of Mist in my skin, as per the third-level Mage Warrior spell Cloak of Mist. This means I am invisible to clairvoyance, crystal balls, sense-life forms, enhanced awareness, detect danger, and locate person or object spells, from people of equal or lower level. I also have special Winged Warrior abilities! I roll (33) a d4 to see how many I have, and get a 3, indicating I have 1. (A roll of 1 or 4 gives me 2, while 2 or 3 gives me 1.  ) I then roll (34) for both of them (35) randomly, getting results 1 and 2, Quickness and Super-Strength. Quickness takes... 1/4th attack to use, can costs 1 Con Point per turn, and gives me +10% dodge, +1 attack/turn, and +1 Advantage, while Super Strength takes the same time, costs 2 con points per turn, and adds 200 strength, plus 10 per level after 5th, to my strength score while in use, letting me throw things even farther away.Now, back to that Master Mutations. Mutations come in lesser, Master, and Major, increasing level of awesomeness. I roll (36) to find what I have, getting a result of 92: Tricancellation! This lets me either create a beam, or make a flat 10-foot diameter shield, which will "cancel any of the three powers stated in the next paragraph when the beam strikes a person or monster". Or I can shoot it at a spot, creating a 20-foot plus 10 foot per level sphere which will nullify am area, and a bunch of fiddly poo poo about levels of "the spellcaster" (  ) and using more Con points and blah blah blah. It will cancel magic, psionics, earthpower, chi, mutations, alchemy, or "energy", but only three at once, which I specify when I make the beam or shield.I now get to choose (4) how to spend my whopping 10 skill points. Because I am tryign to make Synnibarr look bad, I learn Motion Picture Direction and Cryptography for 5 skill points each. Except then when I check what my base chance of success at them is (my ego score, for a whopping 24% on cryptography, and ego +10 for motion picture directing), I find that I need to know Linguistics, Math, Basic, Reading, and Writing for Cryptography, and I don't know Linguistics, and Cinematography, Holography, Math, Basic, Photography, Reading, and Writing for Motion Picture directing. So instead I learn Landscaping (2 points, 65%+5% per extra skill point), Massaging (2 points, Ego score +20%, +25% per extra skill point), Mime (2 points, Ego +35%+1 per skill point),Glass blowing (2 points, 60%+5% per extra point), and Combat, Grappling (2 points, Dex + Agility, also gives me +1 to Strength) so I can actually grab people to throw them over the horizon. I can now choose (5) how to spend my starting cash to equip myself, but I'll handle that later. I made a whole 5 choices, and rolled to randomly determine 36 loving things during character generation. But wait! What if we DID choose to be an Ice Lott instead? Well, we'd spend 140 of our 180 skill points on it, and gain: +1d6*100 Strength, +2 agility, +1 dex, and 50%+15/level resistance to alchemy, psionics, and mutations, flat out immunity to Earthpower, gain 5 skill points per level after fourth, and learn all non-martial-art combat skills, Ambush, Concealment, Disguise, Impersonation, Infiltration, Moving Silently, Reading, Swimming, Basic, and Writing, the Major Mutation Thermal Kinetic(only for cold modes), the Master Mutations Metamorph and Control Body Molecules, and "Freeze instantly with touch". Metamorph lets us turn into somebody else, or heal ourselves completely, and Control Body Molecules lets us do poo poo like turn our hands into keys or give ourselves 3 10ths (out of maximum 4) of protection. Thermal Kinetic (cousin to Energy Kinetic, Environmental Kinetic, Gravity Kinetic, Hyperkinetic, Major Temporal Kinetic, Mass Molecule Kinetic, and Sonic Kinetic) will, in this case, let us lower the temperature in an area, fire and ice bolt which freezes somebody solid, meaning thy either die if they fail their Metabolic Shock roll, or go into suspended animation if they succeed, and we can make it a wide beam to hit multiple people at once, and make an ice shield with 3 million life points. We can't buy a lot more with our remaining 40 skill points, but we could take some "Recessive Mutations" to get more skill points. Things like Acrophobia, being blind, claustrophobic, and so on. Tune in next time, for More character creation! Featuring the complete bullshit Immortal Born option!
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| # ¿ Jun 29, 2011 01:43 |
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NotInventedHere posted:I just can't imagine why the creator of Synnibarr decided to make the character creation so random. Why implement a bunch of classes, and then arbitrarily limit any given character to three options? And what is the point of rolling 18+(1d4-1) to determine the character's age? quote:I'd like to hear more about the draconian behavior limitations. The World of Synnibarr, Part 4.5: Auras and Draconian Behavior Limitations Thdere's nine auras, divided into three groups of three, "Good", "Neutral", and "Evil". Good consits of Gold, Silver, and Blue, Neutral Green, Violet, and Amber, and Evil Gray, Red, and Scarlet. Gold: "Fanatically good. Hates and seeks to destroy all evil and semievil creatures, including their closest friends if may they show even the slightest tendency toward evil. They are the ultimate force for good." Silver: "Doer of good. Hates evil but will not necessarily slay evildoers. Usually a silver aura will endeavor to stop and capture evildoers but not at the risk of a hostage's life. In this situation, silvers will not hesitate to do all they can to save the innocent." Blue: "Heroes. They work to reform evildoers. They will not take another's life under any circumstance, not even to save themselves.They always attempt to perform rescues and will subdue and capture their quarry rather than kill them." Green: "These characters have a tendency for the good but they also have a mischievous streak that allows them complete freedom. They will never perform evil acts except under provocation or extreme pressure." Violet: "Totally neutral. These characters do as they wish and are concerned only with themselves. They will not perform good or evil acts unless it is necessary and not threatening to their own plans." Amber: "A person with a tendency for mischief, who does not care for others unless they are close friends. They do not value their enemies' lives at all." Gray: "Villain. An evildoer with a marginal respect for life. They do not kill needlessly, but will prey upon others for survival." Red: "Evildoer. Villains( ) who tend to use killing as a way to win a conflict. However, they prefer their greatest enemies to be subdued and to grovel at their feet. They perform evil with pleasure. Still, they do not arbitrarily waste innocent lives- Unless their victim is good-natured. They will attempt to slay until they run the risk of defeat, whereupon they will cease their aggressions and retreat."Scarlet: "A fiend. The ultimate evil. A character with this aura will actively seek out and destroy good or semigood creatures, taking extreme pleasure in slaying the innocent. These beings will turn on even their closest associates at the first sign of weakness." Even the neutral ones are oddly restrictive.
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| # ¿ Jun 29, 2011 04:06 |
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Lemon Curdistan posted:Erm, surely the double visual range is enhanced sight, and the bonus to not being surprised is enhanced hearing? Apart from poor formatting in the rulebook that seems pretty straightforward. quote:Also: I have to admit that Synnibar character sounds like he could be pretty fun to play... in another system. Maybe there's hope for Synnibar as a generator of totally batshit insane Wushu or PDQ characters, or something. tzirean posted:But why the hell would he do this? 18+(1d4-1) is the same loving thing as 17+1d4. Did he seriously just want it to look more complicated? quote:I'm almost impressed that he managed to make his Lawful Good analog more evil than his Neutral Evil analog.
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| # ¿ Jun 29, 2011 18:36 |
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Halloween Jack posted:Immortal was also one of those games that tries to be original by coming up with new names for every single bit of gaming terminology, including "turn," "action," "penalty," and "points you have in something." (You can spend motes of immaculum to get more than one escapade in a clash, but don't forget to subtract your hostiles.)  And I thought Synnibarr was weird, but it has the excuse of most of this poo poo being from *checks* My first edition says copyright 1991. Huh, thought it was older. Okay, never mind! It's just using odd terms to be different/becuase Raven c.s. McCracken is weird.
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| # ¿ Jun 29, 2011 20:39 |
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Android Blues posted:The hollow earth supertech world-city, for instance, is barely detailed, But yeah, you're right, it's a weird mix of crazy rear end poo poo, misused terms, and bland. But it's definitely different. HOWEVER. The Ultimate Adventurer's Guide tries to add a lot of flavor and background info and such, and only succeeds in making poo poo stupider. I'll be getting to that later.
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| # ¿ Jun 29, 2011 21:05 |
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Halloween Jack posted:There are furries in Cthulhutech now?
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| # ¿ Jun 30, 2011 23:24 |
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 ... um. I... think I'll get to work on more Synnibarr now.
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| # ¿ Jul 1, 2011 00:40 |
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The World of Synnibarr: Part Five, More Character Generation There's some other wrinkles to character generation. For example, if we'd had 235 skill points for the Variant Races option (requiring rolling an average of 19.583repeating for our attributes) we could afford to be a Priest of Berava! What does this get us, you ask? It gives us a big loving list of skills, best grade spellcasting in magic or earthpower, our choice of "Ninja or Tiger abilities learned as the traditional class" (so we're basically one of those, only better, and I think this includes duplicates of a lot of skills. The effects of this are unclear), and some excellent stat bonuses. How excellent? While we don't get any con bonus to fuel our spellcasting and special abilities, we get +5 to agility, +3 to dexterity, +3 to intelligence, and +4 to Wisdom. Pretty nice, but not crazy. Oh, and we get +400-900 to Strength.  Note that the maximum allowed to non-Immortals is 1000. Let's assume we had 20 strength and rolled a 6 on the 1d6, giving us 920 strength. x440 damage adjustment and 160,000 pound max lift. This allows us to throw 1,600 pound objects 4,554 mph up to 316,800 feet away, or some 60 miles. Given the way the throwing chart works, we can't throw a human-sized object much farther or faster, but that's enough already. I can't find a reference to what Synnibarr's size or mass are to determine escape velocity, but the various machinery mentioned in the background is messing with that anyway.Let's take a detour to the monster chapter to check out what a Priest of Berava is. "These people live solitary lives, devoted to their personal gardens on top of the Plateau of the Seven Springs. Occasionally they will leave to pursue their destinies, dressed in saffron robes. They are normal humans(  ), weighing from 150 to 300 pounds, and bearing the mark of their order (a small star surrounding the right eye)." Apparently they're ridiculously awesome kung-fu monks, taken to ridiculous extremes. Although in their native environment the effects of the Center of the World mean they're a lot weaker. But if you're already under the cap imposed by that you don't get any weaker. Surprisingly enough, this is NOT the most complete bullshit thing you can do with character generation! If you happen to roll five natural twenties on your stats, you can be an Immortal Born! Congragulations, you're HALF GOD. You get +10-100 strength, +2 to everything else, one natural 10th, and Eternal Sustenance, allowing them to survive without air, food, water, in space, and up to 500 degree heat. It's unclear what power source this uses, as it's available as a fourth-level Mage Warrior spell and a mutation, or if they need to spend Con points to use it or not. They also get TWO CLASSES. Assuming you rolled a 17.5 or higher on your sixth stat, you can make one of them a Priest of Berava and use your other on something else, or make use of the Non-Classed Adventurer option to pick up a bunch of skills you normally wouldn't be able to afford, like the ability to make your own spells and poo poo. You get the better of all the various stat bonuses and surprise classes and so on of your two classes, except life points, which you roll both and add together. The downside is that you have to split your Gaming Points (xp) between your classes evenly. When they die, they can come back in another body, losing any accumulated gaming points from the adventure they died on and 1d6 levels. This takes two weeks. But with the complete loving bullshit options you can easily afford with the skill points you'll have from meeting the qualifications, why would you? Tune in next time for Information on the classes!
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| # ¿ Jul 1, 2011 01:16 |
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I, uh. I think we get the idea. You can stop now.
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| # ¿ Jul 1, 2011 02:39 |
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okay Friend of mine while we were making characters of synnibarr found something I'd missed Text for what you do with your numbers: "Assign your abilities scores and written them on your character sheet..." "written them"
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| # ¿ Jul 1, 2011 03:38 |
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No I don't think we need that you can stop now homerlaw it's okay you don't need to keep going
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| # ¿ Jul 2, 2011 04:04 |
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... Do you get any acid resistance for growing up in an abrasive environment?
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| # ¿ Jul 4, 2011 01:14 |
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I've been slacking off long enough. Time for more Synnibarr! The World of Synnibarr, Part Whatever This Is I Can't Be Assed To Check: Detailed class info part 1: Alchemists So I went over general character creation, with an example, earlier. Now it's time for detailed breakdowns of the classes! Alchemists are trained in a secret location, where they wont' see the outside world for 27 years, which a little math and the starting age chart indicates they're taken at age 11. This secret location is a pocket dimension inside the Alchemists Guild Hall, where they get modified to produce Starfire, and then practice their asses off to control it, and also get the lesser mutation Analyzer. Checking the Mutations chapter, this lets you, with a 50% success rate which doesn't change based on any factors whatsoever, comprehend, operate, understand, and with the proper materials, duplicate any "electronic or technological" device. But not organic electronics. The Alchemists also have "preserved the knowledge of Old Earth in special tomes recording the sciences", and view creating technology as a religion. And science "is a pure and provable faith". Which they rabidly guard and keep from outsiders. They are also taught special alchemy studies, which I will go into more detail on later, and when they graduate they are given a bag of holding. Which is good becuase they'll need somewhere to keep all the spheres full of random rear end poo poo they need for their special studies. It can carry up to 200 pounds of poo poo, as long as you can fit it through the "7 inches wide" mouth. (Circular? Who knows.) But anything living, including organic electronics, put in it will die (if this includes the alchemist's hand is not specified), and enchanted items, potions, and scrolls can't be put int. They also get taught how to create technological items, which they have the tools for in their bag. "The larger tools are contained in mist crystals created by their teachers." Mist crystals are not mentioned by name elsewhere, but I think this refers to the "Transmute Matter into Mist" alchemist study, which I'll get to later. "All Alchemists are religiously loyal to the Guild. They will perform any task given to them, even at the risk of their own lives." It mentions that this may make them not a good fit for adventuring parties, but offers no advice for dealing with this. And then we get the Three Laws of Law 1: "No knowledge of the faith shall be given to non-Alchemists, nor through inaction shall you allow such to happen." Law 2: "No non-Alchemist or engineer shall make any form of technology, nor shall they be allowed to posses the books or the machinery regarding their creation. Any such items found in the possession of unauthorized persons shall be returned to the Alchemist's Guild in accordance with the law. Violation is punishable by 'mind-wipe'." Law 3: "No alchemist, through action or inaction, shall break or allow any other Alchemist to break laws 1 or 2, nor shall they allow rumors of such incidents to go without investigating. It is the duty of the Alchemist to keep the secrets of the faith hidden from the eyes of the world." Although the On to their actual abilities! Their Natural Abilities consist of: 1d10*1000 extra cash, and a 20% discount for buying chemicals and equipment with starting cash. They also learn, on top of the previously mentioned Skills For All Guild-Trained Adventurers, Biology; Botany; Chemistry; Electronics, Basic and Repair; Glass Blowing; Math, Advanced; Mechanics, Basic; Mineralogy; Physics; And Science. Their "Basic Abilities" consist of: The Analyzer mutation; The Alchemist's Bag; Star Bolt, letting them shoot alchemy energy at dudes, 1/day/level, or for 0.5 con points, for an amount scaling with level and is uses in many alchemy studies; Starfire Shield, which can be used 1/day/level or for .5 con points, and blocks Alchemy, Physical, and Energy attacks for an amount scaling with level, and they get Special ALCHEMY STUDIES! Level 1 alchemists get 1d4 Lesser Studies, plus 1 per point of Int over 21, and get one more at 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th levels. They get one greater study at 10th, 13th, 16th, and 19th level, and at 20th, one Master Study. Every 5 levels thereafter they get one more study of any category the player wants. At 20th level, Alchemists get one free Engineering skill, including all prerequisite they don't know yet, but will still have to spend skill points to level them up. I'll be going into this in ore detail in a later post. Now on to the studies themselves, which are off in chapter 10! There are 13 Lesser Studies. The first is Alchemist Armor, costing $61 in materials, which uses a "pinch of diamond, sunstone, and fire pearl crushed into a powder and mixed into a 1-inch diameter wax ball". The alchemist uses a star bolt or a con point (which, since you can generate a star bolt for 0.5 con points even if out of free casts that day, seems pointless) and give you some armor which protects against earthpower, chi, and physical damage at a rate which scales based on level. And also gives you +2 init, 1 extra attack, triple strength, and Shadow Vision as per the first level Mage Warrior spell. Why? Because this is loving Synnibarr, that's why. The second is Ball Lightning, costing $50, which is created by using a star bolt to vaporize a "in-inch diameter sphere filled with powdered shock vine, electric eagle gland, and neck-gland extract from a storm drake". It generates a ball of lightning which you can make move around, hit a guy for some damage which scales after 9th level, and can also be used to recharge batteries or as a light source. Third is Bolts of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. These are free! These are generated by opening a portal to the relevant elemental plane, which you do with a Star Bolt(are you seeing a pattern here) and saying the name of the element you want in Venderant Nalaberong. The four types of wait a minute what? Glossary Entry on Venderant Nalaberong posted:"This language cannot be spoken or written by anyone unskilled in its use." Anyway, the four types create "5 tons of earth" which you can't hit people with becuase you can't use it, make 300mph winds which can tornado people around or lift 7 tons, Burn people, and create up to 2,500 gallons of water, or create "pure water" which is a powerful acid, 1 gallon plus 1 per five levels. The fourth is Cotnrol Size, costing $10, which lets you make things up to five times larger or 1/10th of the size, and "weight is affected in the same manner". It's not clear if it means height or volume. To do this, an Alchemist mixes Starfire with an Alchemy Water Bolt... which they can't, becuase they cant' speak Venderant Nalaberong... and chants a special phrase... in Venderant Nalaberong. Also if you somehow overcome the inability to ever learn Venderant Nalaberong, stacking the effect three times to shrink something will make it implode into nothingness. The fifth is Create Potions, which lets you make a special liquid which can absorb any type of various power into it and then drink it later for the effect! The materials cost $20,000 per potion, and require a $100,000 set of bowls, but you get those free when you learn it. The actual mixture requires you to mix powdered scales (type unclear), a pinch of mage tree bark, a quart of sunstone drake blood, and an... alchemy water bolt.  Once you fail to produce the required water bolt because you can't speak Venderant Nalaberong, the next step is to summon an air elemental to contain the smoking and glowing mixture in its bowl and lift it into the air so you can shoot it with a Star Bolt. Then you go mix a gram of fur drake fur, some white pearl dust, and a... water bolt... in a special kettle which you have to go to the Guild to use, and mix it into the first bowl and cook it at night with Ball Lightning. Did I mention that you roll randomly for these and could quite easily get this study at first level without any of these other studies needed to perform it, even without the VN issue? Just checking. You have to do this at night because the "solar winds can cause the mixture to jell instead of liquefy", becuase apparently Synnibarr lacks a Van Allen belt to protect it, and you have a blank potion! What you do now is fire a spell or mutation into it 10 times, then draw 1 ounce of blood from the guy who just did this and mix it in, and you've got a POTION! Drink it and for 12 hours, you can cast it! Drink a second one and your insides explode and you die, no save! Or you can split it up into 10 parts and make lesser potions, which last for 1 minute plus 1 minute per level of the potion's creator, and you can use up to 4 of them, and they ahve charges instead of just giving you the power.Sixth we have Ether Bolt, costing $100, which can knock people out or do lovely damage, and you make by firing a star bolt through a glass sphere containing the "essence of a lesser ether elemental". Seventh we have the Eye of Alchemy, costing $5,000 ($4,900 of which is the reusable bowl), which uses a mixture of powdered glass, copper flakes, the eye of a rat, and some powdered flying root vaporized in a silver bowl by a star bolt, to make an eye which can float and pass through walls you can see through! It came "move at the speed of thought", although must be moving slowly to actually see poo poo. 5 inches across, and glows green, until 40th level when it's invisible. You can also see auras, magic, psionics, earthpower, and alchemy with it if you keep it within 5 feet. Eighth we have Lesser Elemental Summoning, allowing you to summon lesser Air, Earth, Ether, Fire, or Water elementals, using $1 air sphere, a rock, a $2 vacuum sphere, a fire, or a small bottle of water respectively! You learn one when you get the ability, and every three levels after that you roll another until you get them all. The actual summoning requires the component and saying the Elemental's name in... Venderant Nalaberong. They're honestly pretty boring. Ninth we have Mist of Force, costing $100, which lets you create a mist which "is a type of visible telekinesis", letting you manipulate poo poo in a 10 foot cube at max. You make it by Starbolting a pinch of earth and diamond dust, mixed with a drop of... an alchemy water bolt. Tenth is Shield, costing $100, which gives you a shield against various things, but not all at once. IF can be used to block poo poo if "the pellet" is in hand when you're attacked, but otherwise you have to fish it out and can't do that. Pellet of what you say? The description doesn't mention it! Eleventh is Transmute Matter into Mist, costing $5. It makes a small crystal sphere which you can braek onto an object, which will then turn the object into mist (don't worry, you get to choose, it won't blow up in your face) and suck it into the sphere which will reform. It's 4 inches accross and 4 ounces, so this is a good way to store large or heavy objects, up to 20 pounds per levle of the creator, although this can be enhanced in certain ways. You an buy empty ones form the Guild for $15. Doens't work on living things, including organic electronics, or other crystals. You make it by mixing a small burst of Starfire and... a water bolt... inside "a shield", and heat it with Ball Lightning, and you've got your sphere! Wait doesn't Ball Lightning cost $50? Huh.Twelfth is Transmute Self Into Air, costing $25, which turns the user into air, letting them fly 70MPH and lift up to 300 pounds of stuff on top of themselves, and can't be affected by any spell other than Cancellation or those that affect air. You can use this to dodge poo poo. You can turn back whenever yo uwant but then it's over. Material components: Mistberry powder, combined with a pellet of giant armored bee wax and a... water bolt... and starbolted. Thirteenth is Winds of Enforcement, costing $500, which doubles the power of any effect, spell, or mutation when used once, increasing the multiplier by 1 (so x3, x4, etc) each time you use it. It costs 3 con points plus a star bolt. The example says "4 constitution points put into a Winds of Enforcement will amplify a spell's power three times (up to a maximum of 10)." But it costs a base 3 points? You make it out of a special powder made from earth egg, mage tree bark, sunstone, moonstone, fire pearl, and nova quartz, which you starbolt a pinch of.So, out of 13 Lesser Alchemist Studies, you can actually perform 4 and a half of them, counting Shield's pellet of :?: as the half. Even ignoring the VN issues, you're quite likely to end up with abilities you require the help of another alchemist to make the materials to use! Let's move on to the 6 Greater Alchemy Studies, shall we? First is Alchemist Ambrosia, costing $1.01 million. When you drink it, you are cured of all diseases, poisons, wounds, restores strength and constitution and psionic points, and get the effects of Eternal Sustenance for 24 hours. But the first effects only happen at initial application. You can also bring people back to life if you administer it within 1 minute of death, giving you 1/4th of your HP and such. You make it out of 25 gallons of heal spring melon juice, 25 gallons of distilled blood orange juice, and... a pure water bolt. Then you leave it out in the sun for five days, then boil the greenish liquid down to 1 gallon, then add equal parts of gold, silver, and earth, then starbolt it up and grind it to powder. Now, toss this into a Ball Lightning, and say a... special phrase in Venderant Nalaberong. You then have to catch the tiny golden rain in a bowl and add sunstone dust, and now you have 5 doses of this poo poo. You get 10 doses when you learn it. Make them count, becuase you can't actually make this.Second is Binding, which costs $1000. Simple Binding lets you bind an object or creature with "100 pounds of force per the spellcaster's level". You can either make them stuck, or allowed to roam a 100-foot-per-level (square? cubic? who knows) area. Of course, getting ridiculous strength can be relatively easy. Lesser binding costs more Con and holds at 10 tons of force, plus 1 per level after 10th. You can also bind in their powers! Or make it a cube which will bind somethign which comes into contact with it. Greater binding is how you make lesser enchanted items, and can be used to permanently bind an elemental to an item or area. The material components are Third is Cloud Carry, costing $6,000, which lets five dudes ride a sweet-rear end red cloud around, as long as the alchemist knows where he's going, and is created with powdered Tesseract Twig and mage tree back in a hollow giant clam pearl which is starbolted. At 20th level you can add a phaze drake scale and two extra star bolts to travel through up to five dimensions per use! Fourth is Create Creature, which costs $26,500 and allows you to clone somebody from 3% of their body over two months. Or create mixed breeds. It requires a bunch of specific tools and a... Water. Bolt. After a long, detailed, and uninteresting process, including putting in 2 ounces of your blood per day and... Alchemist's Ambrosia, which does NOT produce enough per MILLION DOLLAR BATCH to last for 2 months at 3 drops per day for $10,000 for the materials, you have your own pet abomination, under your control! You can also put your creature in a mist crystal if you want. Fifth is Reflect and Amplify, costing $1200, which lets you reflect anything, including a 50% chance to reflect Venderant Nalaberong if you've over 35th level, is reflected and does double damage, unless it's one of a various number of specific poo poo. It's made out of a gram of earth rot and 2 ounces of gold dust, in a 2 inch silver ball, and then you starbolt it and... Say a word in Venderant Nalaberong. Sixth is Werewinds! Oh boy, time to learn what the gently caress these are! It costs a million for the gold tub and slab, and $310,000 for the scales, horn, and blood. It comes in three types, the Banishing Werewind, which banshies poo poo to Limbo, the Disintegrating Werewind, which disintegrates poo poo, and the Nullifying Werewind, which cancels all forms of power and abilities except chi, Venderant Nalaberong, and God Power. Bio-Syntha Cyborgs shut down. In order to make nay of these, you need Werewind Sand, which you make out of a pound of silver dust, a cup of... water bolt... and suspend it in a whirlwind until mixed. Get the dust with your preferred air manipulation ability, then take 40 ounces of cave demon blood, some powdered scarlet drake bone, and a... pure water bolt. Mix them until they dissolve into a gas, and mix it in the whirlwind with the first mixture over a gold basin 5 feet wide, 5 feet long, and 1 foot thick. (Depth/capacity unclear.) Shoot this poo poo with two star bolts and a Ball Lightning, and you'll get a tiny storm of Blue Rain you catch in the basin. You have 30 ounces of this! Take the amount you're going to use and cover the basin with a gold lid so it doesn't go bad, and be careful, because this poo poo is explosive! To actually make a werewind, mix 2 ounces of this poo poo and a starbolt, which will stabilize it instead of destroying it like it does all the loving time in other studies. Now you add powdered null snake scale for a nullifying werewind, powder golden uniwolf horn for banishment, or mist drake blood for disintegrating, and mix it with powdered earth root and mage tree bark, and let dry. CONGRAGULATIONS, YOU HAVE WEREWIND SAND WASN'T THAT EASY? Six studies, 1.5 useable, counting Binding's componets of  as 0.5.Finally, the MASTER STUDIES! First, Summoning Elementals. Earth needs a $100,000 earth egg, Air "five breaths of a newborn baby caught in a glass jar", fire one flawless fire diamond costing $10,000, water an alchemy water bolt in a forgotten steel jar costing $7,000,000, and ether an ether sphere that costs $10,000. The acutal procedure is almost as long and boring as cloning things, so I'll just say it requires multiple Water Bolts and words in Venderant Nalaberong and move on. You learn each type of summoning as a separate study, bringing the total Master Alchemy Studies to 6. The other Master Study is Transmutation Crystal, costing $11,000,000 for the large gemstone. You can use it to shoot poo poo with a beam which will turn things into other things, as long as you have a sample of what you want to make, or have studied it if it's a creature. "No sellable gems of metals can be made until Alchemist reaches 40th level". You make it with a pure diamond or ruby, put in a whirlwind and a Ball Lightning, and hten you fire... bolts of all five elements at once, along with three words in Venderant Nalaberong. Congratulations, you and your four buddies have failed to make a Transmutation Crystal becuase you can't do either of those because you can't speak Venderant Nalaberong. 2, or 6 depending on how you count them, Master Studies, none of which are useable. THE ALCHEMIST, EVERYBODY! GOOD NIGHT! Next time: The Amazon!
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| # ¿ Jul 8, 2011 07:57 |
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Dareon posted:Well, air seems easy enough. Is the water component an actual material, "Forgotten steel", or just a jar some dude left somewhere and forgot about? And the issue is that unless you know Venderant Nalaberong, and thus become a spellcaster (which Alchemists aren't) you can't speak or write it at all. And nobody can learn it ever becuase the rules for Ego Rolls aren't there. TheTatteredKing posted:Maybe there was supposed to be a splat book for valiant nabberbong ... The errata does not include rules for ego rolls Yawgmoth posted:Are there rules for learning any new languages in Synnibar? or does everyone speak the same language throughout everywhere and Vanilla Tombombadil is just some kind of magical code or some poo poo? Captain Hats posted:Heroes Unlimited Part 4.5: Greased Lightning (Sort of)
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| # ¿ Jul 8, 2011 23:42 |
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SavageMessiah posted:Also, Zereth I sure hope you're planning on covering the complete madness that is bionics. Oh, you got a bionic arm? You now have a zillion hitpoints!
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| # ¿ Jul 9, 2011 02:07 |
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SavageMessiah posted:I just looked in my 2nd edition and it seems clear that by "Ego roll" it means rolling under your ego on percentile dice. Oddly, even if that was explicitly stated it wouldn't make the whole VN thing make any more sense. So, if you're running Synnibarr, there's no rules for an Ego Roll, and you're not allowed to make one up. EDIT: I'll be doing Amazons after I get back from the store. There won't be as much to go over, fortunately. Zereth fucked around with this message at Jul 9, 2011 around 02:25 |
| # ¿ Jul 9, 2011 02:23 |
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LGD posted:You're clearly misinterpreting the rules. The full quote is actually:  Of course, even if you call instituting your own ego roll "deviating from the rules as written", by that text, as long as it doesn't happen inside an adventure nothing happens. Alchemists do still have the issue that they aren't explicitly granted Venderant Nalaberong as one of their class abilities so they'll still need to pass an ego roll (and given that their training apparently includes boosting their Int, a generous GM might let them make up to four rolls to learn it), leaving them with a chance to be unable to use some of their abilities. In fact, assuming they put a 20 in both int and wis, that gives them a 43 ego. So assuming roll-under d%, one roll, they have a 57% chance of being unable to use those abilities until they raise their Int somehow and get another chance, and I don't remember any methods other than having somebody artifically induce the "+5 int" mutation, which costs... let's see. 30 million dollars. Coming soon: Amazons! Zereth fucked around with this message at Jul 9, 2011 around 03:43 |
| # ¿ Jul 9, 2011 03:38 |
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The World of Synnibarr, Part Oh God This Is Going To Take Forever: Class detail: Amazons Amazons are all female, and... according to a footnote on the Physical Appearance chart, "have a 30% chance of being very good-looking". How this interacts with the 1-6 chart you roll on is not specified. They are famed as the second organized exploratory force from Terra after the Dark Age. They are totally awesome at all kinds of poo poo, becuase they start their training in the womb. Amazons can control the gender and physical appearance of children they conceive, becuase this is Synnibarr. "Usually they themselves have fair complexions, green or blue eyes, and blond or brunette hair", but this isn't reflected on those tables you roll on to generate this poo poo. They're indispensable to any adventuring party, because they can pick locks. They are also sweet martial artists, but becuase their class strength bonus is only +10 they can't put out the really crazy damage. But with high enough Wisdom, they can learn to use Gnome spells, becoming a "Minor Practitioner of the Art in earthpower". (That's the crappiest spell progression.) I will not actually be going over spells here, but will when I get to an actual spellcasting-focused class. Their Natural Abilities are: The ability to detect astral forms, and SKILLS. So many skills. They gain, on top of the Skills For All Guild-Trained Adventurers (yes it says that every freaking time): Astral Projection; Biology; Biology, Marine; Biology, Xeno-; Climbing Walls and Ceilings; Combat, Grappling; Combat, Martial Art Disarming; Combat, Martial Art Empty-Hand; Combat, Martial Art Throwing; Combat, Martial Art Weapons; Disarming Traps; Lockpicking, Advanced; Lockpicking, Basic; Meditation; and Nerve Pinch. Their Basic abilities are: Being A Minor Practitioner in the Art in earthpower if their wisdom is "higher than 19", so 20 or more. The Gold and Red Hand, costing 1 con point for Gold and 1 con point per 1,000 pounds plus 1,000 pounds per level, which, for gold, heals 20% of the target's life points plus 20% per level after second, and red harms 20% + 20% per level after first, each up to 100%. So a fifth level Amazon can instantly drop somebody weighing up to 6,000 pounds to 0% life by touching them, if they fail their save. At tenth level, the Gold Hand can be used to resurrect somebody "if 90% of the body is intact". They can do this once per day per 10 levels. Call Spirits, useable once per day per 3 levels, within 150 feet of the location of the remains, and lets you summon somebody's ghost for a friendly chat. Banish Spirits, useable once per day per 3 levels, banishes a a spirit, some of which can resist, one per every 5 levels of the Amazon at a time. Control Biochemistry, which is what they use to control their unborn babies and teach them, makes the harder to affect with poison (subtract the Amazon's level from the poison's level), and if the amazon is higher level then the poison, she can produce an antidote to its effects in her saliva. So the cure to being poisoned is making out with a hot amazon, apparently. In addition to this, it gives the the following abilities:
They also get an Amazon Toolkit! Dont' lose it, because the cost for replacing it is "demotion by two levels, with loss of all special abilities that accompany them.[i]" so if you get bumped down a rank for some reason, you actually [i]lose your powers in Synnibarr. The kit includes a radar and sonar jammer, an ultrasound viewer which "can be used to see through any substance with a density of 17 or less", which we'll get to in Chapter 4: Substance Descriptions. (Spoiler: the highest listed Density is 3.330 pounds per cubic inch. The 1st edition amazon toolkit also refers to "Density" and has much the same material chart.), an "Electron Freezer", which... "will create electromagnetic pulses that will stop the flow of all electrons within 50 feet for up to 30 minutes", thus shutting down electronic defenses and computers as well as other stuff, but don't worry, it will stop energy weapons, but not Organic Electronics so I guess it doesn't just kill people. They also get a Cod Buster, which resembles a mini-calculator, which you can also use it as, but its main purpose is to "penetrate up to 1 foot of shielding and lock onto the troublesome microprocessor". Then it does that thing you've all seen in the movies where i runs through codes until it gets them all right, usually requiring 30 seconds per digit and handling up to 20 digits. 2 minutes per digit if it has alarms. And finally, magnetic and mechanical lockpicks. They also roll on table 35 for the number of special studies they know (1d4: 1 and 4 gives you 2, 2 or 3 gives you one), and learn another one every three levels, rerolling duplicates. Their special Amazon Studies are: Chi Dim Mock, usable once per day per 2 levels, of for 1 con point, which does kinda lame, not strength adjusted damage, but becuase it's Chi, ignores armor, and does more damage the better they roll. If they roll over 100 (on a d100, so they'll need bonuses), it does 5x as much damage and requires the target to make a Metabolic Shock roll or die instantly. Chi Shout, usable once per day per 3 levels or for 2 con points, which lets them shout out a white cone whch does damage or can make people unconscious (if they weigh less than 2 tons per level) Create Chi Objects, useable once per day per 5 levels up to 10 times per day, which lets them make a shield, a rope, a key which can bused as a lockpick, 10 shuriken doing decent damage, or simple weapons doing 10 times normal damage but not getting strength bonuses, changing to a different formula at 5th and 20th level. It's unclear if it gets the usual chi "ignore armor" thing. Fate Call, which gives you and/or your buddies a bonus on your saves (except vs Venderant Nalaberong, Pure Psionics, and God Power), +2 to init, and a shield against physical and chi. "It can also be used to reduce rolls as well for the same amount". If the secondary effects are reversed, go away, or still happens is not specified. Mind's Hand and Eye, useable once per day per 2 levels, which greates a visible, green, glowing telekinetic field capable of lifting seven tons, which the amazon can see what they're doing with using a "special form of clairvoyance that functions even in the dark". It has a range of five miles. Teleport Sphere, which will teleport people anywhere known by the amazon (within 200 miles per level), and there's a 20% chance of missing your destination "unless it is known or in plain sight". So you can only teleport to places you know, and if you try to teleport somewhere you don't know you have a 1 in 5 chance of getting lost. It can teleport the user and up to 1,500 pounds, as long as the stuff will fit in a 10 foot diameter sphere.Ward of Cloaking, which hides Amazons from "The Orb of All-Seeing, Clairvoyance, Sense Life Forms, or any type of distance locator." It requires total concentration to maintain the 10-foot daimeter + 0.5 foot/level sphere, and "the slightest disturbance will require them to roll psychic shock vs breaking their concentration". Also it drops if they attack. and finally, Ward of Control, which works only on creatures with an ego above 10, and give the target any one-sentence command (if they fail their save), including killing themselves. Next time,
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| # ¿ Jul 9, 2011 04:40 |
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projecthalaxy posted:Of course. Obviously Amazons are computer hackers.
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| # ¿ Jul 9, 2011 04:49 |
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Drox posted:And telekineticists. And exorcists. And sexy toxicologists.
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| # ¿ Jul 9, 2011 05:01 |
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no no no guys the telekinesis is a byproduct of their ability to control their own biology you see it makes sense because (The advanced Amazon studies are all chi poo poo, so that's a different type of telekinesis they can get, as opposed to the control own biology=remotely manipulate matter one all amazons get) Also there should be like five or six "They are also" entries for proper Synnibarr Mad Lib Class Generation.
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| # ¿ Jul 9, 2011 05:36 |
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World of Synnibarr, Part God drat This Book Is 477 Pages: Aquamans. I mean Aquarians. You're Aquaman. Turn in next time when-Oh you want details? Okay fine. Aquarians are blue-green skinned humans that live underwater, although they can stay out of water as long as they like. They were discovered a mere 5,000 years ago, and claim to have been created by Aridius to protect the Terra Isles! They live in a city deep below the Mushroom Spires. Hang on while I look up what the hell those are. (I said I'd read the whole book multiple times, I didn't say I remembered all of it.) Get a sandwich or something. Okay, Chapter 7: Lands and Worlds indicates they are... mushroom-shaped islands, with the cap being about 1 mile above sea level, and are up to 200 miles wide at the top. The 37-island achipelago is about 1,360 miles long and 1,223 miles wide. So the Aquamans have a city somewhere under this mess, which by the world map looks to be at least a few hundred miles away form the Terra Isles. Becuase if you were created to protect something you obviously want to live where you can't rapidly get to it. Anyway, they were discovered when they beat the sea drake king, after suffering 90% casualties, with his own sword when some Aquarian lady called Tendenka broke free, stole it, sand shanked him. And then they moved to their current home somewhere under the Mushroom Spires, under the protection of the "nearby" Terra. Spoiler: The main method of long-distance travel is wind-powered sailing ships. So after doing this they traveled to Terra to go "hey look what we did", and now there's an 8-day long annual holiday about this poo poo. They breathe water with their lungs, and have a psionic ability to manipulate oxygen they can use to let other people breathe underwater, or suffocate dudes with by stealing the oxygen from their bloodstream. They can also telepathically speak with sea life, and also hypnotize them. Theyve got sonar. If they're smart enough they can also be spellcasters! Their Natural Abilties are: Heat Vulnerability, making them take double damage from fire and all forms of energy attacks, one inherent 10th of damage protection, and they also get the Swimming, Advanced skill on top of Skills For All Guild-Trained Adventureres. Their Basic Abilities are: A 50% chance of one Master Mutation, which I will go into detail on when we get to mutants. If their Int is 20 or higher, they're a Minor Practitioner In The Art in magic. They have Telepathy With Sea Creatures which can also be used like the Lesser Mutation "Hypnosis" on aquatic creatures with an Ego of 15 or less. Sonar gives them 360-degree vision and +10% dodge underwater Oxygen Manipulation lets them provide air for free to 3 people up to ta total of 1 ton, with one additional person and 500 additional pounds per level, and take a surprisingly long time to kill people by sucking all their oxygen directly out of their bloodstream. They also get SPECIAL ADAPTATIONS, rolling 1d4 on a chart identical to the Amazon studies chart except it says "Aquarian Adaptions" over it instead of "Amazon Studies". The column which tells you many you get even refers to them as "Studies". You then roll 1d8 to determine which adapatations you get! The 8 are: Claws, which lets you do... "10 to 600" life points, breaking the usual "1dx * 100/1000/whatever" formula. I'm not sure where to find a 60-sided die. These claws come out of your forearms and extend 7 inches past the first, letting you be Aquwovlerineman. They also secrete a 10th level poison, plus one level for every 2 levels of the Aquarian, and yes it puts it in that order. You can choose if you kill or just put to sleep your target and are immune to your own poison. Electricity Generator, which lets you be an electric eel, and also recharge batteries. Poison Spines, which let you fire poison darts out of your forearms 1,000 feet underwater or 100 feet above water, and are armor piercing. And homing. They will chase your target for up to 8 sets, or 40 turns, attacking them 3 times per turn. They only last one set in the air but can "crawl for up to 35 feet and jump 10 feet vertically". However, they only have 10 HP and 2 10ths damage protection, so they're pretty easy to kill if you hit. If they do manage to hit and penetrate, their venom "robs victims of their will, whereupon they cease all voluntary behaviors and do not move unless directed." Sonic Glider, which lets you shoot a sonic beam at people which "appears as a white bolt of light", and can stun people on top of the damage. It ALSO lets you create a "manta-raylike membrane" which lets you swim at twice normal speed, which I think is passive. And also fly, at half the speed they swim. (If it means before or after doubling it for this effect is unclear.) The membrane, which stretches between your wrists and waist and the rest of your body between, lets you fly by vibrating, and you can even hover. This makes a humming sound, but not underwater. Super Strength, which on top Aquarians have the best strength bonus in the normal classes outside of Giants (+10-60), increases your Strength by 20 points per level. If you get it twice, that's 40 points per level! But only up to 600, unless you have 3 10ths inherent damage proteciton, in which case you can get up to 800. 1000 with 4! Telepathy, which lets you make an anti-psionics shield anywhere within 5 miles, make people pass out, use "ego disruption" which "stops the victim's mind from functioning for 1 hour after being attacked", with no clarification for what this means in rules terms, and also actually communicate with people and perform mind-scans. Two 10ths Damage Protection, giving you a total of 3 10ths. 4 if you roll it twice, becuase you're not allowed to have more than that inherently. And finally One Extra Adaptation, becuase "roll again twice" was too complicated or something. "A total of three adaptations may be obtained with this roll." And there you have it: Aquaman, Synnibarr Style. Tune in next time for Archers!
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| # ¿ Jul 10, 2011 15:51 |
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Dareon posted:None of these are all that sexual, and the author has admitted difficulty in coming up with non-pervy ones. And man, maybe I should go play more sokoban and find that copy of the supplement I own for some OTHER time-travel RPG. TimeMaster or something. Note that I only own the supplement, which I got when I Was like 8 out of a small used book shelf in a thrift store or something my parents dragged me to. Everything I know about the system I got from this one supplement. Never seen a copy of the core book.
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| # ¿ Jul 11, 2011 02:01 |
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Thuryl posted:Yeah, except for the handful of weird options in the Change table it honestly seems like a fairly well-designed and coherent attempt at what it's trying to be, at least so far. I'm not sure I'd want to play it, but it's a cut above most of the games in this thread (which is admittedly not saying much). Daeren posted:Mages and Sin-Eaters don't count because they loving cheat,
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| # ¿ Jul 11, 2011 14:07 |
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World of Synnibarr, Part Oh God I Am Going To Be Doing This Until The Day I Die: Archers! Archers shoot things. With bows. Also, painters for some reason. No, really, "Most are artists as well as warriors, their steady hands working surely with brushes and pigment." They don't get any sort of skill for this, though, becuase there don't seem to be any art skills in the skill list. They train in the Terra Isles' deepest forest, the "Redwood Shadow". Here they learn to shoot normal bows and arrows, and also magic arrows. They practice a specialized form of earthpower to make magic arrows and poo poo! Otherwise they're human. They are "fearless and quick to come to the aid of those in danger". For example, some demigod was once loving up a town, so 20 nearby Archers went to go stop him, and did! Only 7 of them survived, but they totally beat his rear end. They are also compulsive gamblers! Preferred poison is card games, but lacking that they'll bet on loving anything, as the story about an archer betting ten million loving dollars on a single wrestling match between two giants shows. (The length of the match, 16 hours, was recorded, but not if he won or lost.) They also have a loving awesome museum, including works of art more than 49,000 years old! It's in Flechington, made out of 20 3-story tall buildings, and a full tour is 4 days long. All archers are licensed to acquire poo poo for it. Their Natural Abilities are: +25% to hit with bows, and only bows. (Again, rolls are on a d100.) They get, in addition to Skill For All Guild-Trained Adventures: Ambush; Archery; Concealment; Gambling; and Sniping. Their Basic Abilties are: Create Matter, as the second-level earthpower spell, which they can perform once per day per level, to make bows, or arrows. Or anything else they loving want, as long s they don't make money with it. (The wording implies that they physically can't make money rather than it being against the tenets of the Archers' Guild or something.) Spellcasting: If their wisdom is at least 20, they become first-level Minor Practitioners in the Art in earthpower at 15th level, going up by 1/level thereafter. They can also shoot SPECIAL ARROWS! They learn all these standard arrows at the beginning of their careers: Earthpower Arrow lets them shoot a magic arrow, with or without a physical arrow in it, for some okay damage plus the physical arrow damage. This costs nothing. Entangle Arrow costs a con point and also doesn't require an actual arrow, but instead of extra damage it "will hold 10 ton of pressure plus an additional 1 ton per level, encircling up to a 10-foot diameter sphere. It will enclose and hold but not squeeze." Grappling Arrow costs nothing, and CAN be used with an actual arrow but it's kinda pointless, becuase it shoots a magic grapple line which can hold 1,000 pounds plus 500 per level so don't waste an arrow. It can't be cut, and can contract at up to 30mph, letting you move up quickly, or just grab something from across the room without getting up. Arrow of Annihilation is somehow acquired at the start of the Archer's career AND fifth level, costs 2 con points, and will utterly annihilate anything weighing under 5 tons plus 1 ton per level of the archer (so 10 tons when you get it at 5th level when your career starts) if it fails its save. If it's bigger than that, it does a good chunk of damage. You can't combine this with other arrow types, so I guess you could shoot an Earthpower Entangle Grappling Arrow? They also learn SPECIAL ARCHER ARROWS. Randomly. Because this is loving Synnibarr, you almost never get to choose anything. They learn two to start, plus another one every 3 levels. Oh, here's the rules on multiple magic arrow types. When you draw your bow, you can place up to 4 enchantments on the arrow at once, other than Annihilation and Nullificiation which can only be by themselves. You can in fact place the same enchantment on it up to 4 times for up to 4x the effect, so if you don't want special effects there's no reason to not just go for 4x Earthpower Arrow, becuase it's free. You also can't reflect special arrows becuase the enchantment is attached to a physical object, but on the other hand if you stop the arrow you stop the enchantment for free. The types are: Hunter Arrow, costing 0.5 con points, which makes it homing. It'll follow the target for 1 Set (5 rounds), attacking on segments 5, 10, and 15. Fire and forget! Breaking the arrow stops this, although if you do you're considered to have been hit with whatever other enchantment poo poo is on the arrow. Invisible Arrow, costing 0.5 con points, which does damage like Earthpower Arrow, except it's invisible. Also it then informs us that it does normal earthpower arrow damage on top of saying so in the Damage entry for the power. Nullification Arrow, which stops the victim from using "any three power types (choose from magic, psionics, earthpower, mutations, chi, energy, and alchemy)" for one set. Specified when you enchant the arrow. You CAN combine it with itself, though, so you can nullify up to 12 of those... six types. You can also use it to take down shields or "special attacks", although it doesn't explain how to do the attacks thing. You can ALSO just draw the arrow and stand there and it makes a 5-foot diameter shield in front of you, using up the arrow. It also does no damage becuase the arrow itself is used up in the process. Somehow. Phazed Arrow, which "will pass through any defense that does not stop a phazed attack". You can only combine this with one other type of arrow at a time (but can presumably stack that other arrow up to 3x.) Retrieval Arrow, which will grab something up to 300 pounds plus 100 pounds per level, and bring it back at up to 300 mph. In case you wanted to be Scorpion as well as Green Arrow. Sight Arrow, which has a range of ten miles, lets you see through the arrow after you shoot it. You can also make it stop and hover for up to 5 rounds. Does no damage and can't be combined with anything other than Invisible Arrow. Silent Exploding Arrow, which explodes. Silently. 20 foot "area" effect. Stunning Arrow. Fail your save, you're stunned for 5 minutes, as long as you're under 300 pounds plus 100 pounds per level, unless the shooter is 15th level or higher in which case the sky's the limit on weight. Next time, Bio Syntha Cyborgs. As a note, most class breakdowns are 1-2 pages, not counting any "see chapter 10 for further powers" poo poo. BSCs are a bit over 4, becuase they're actually composed of 4 sub-classes, three of which have "see chapter 10" stuff going on.
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| # ¿ Jul 11, 2011 17:15 |
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| # ¿ Jun 19, 2013 13:20 |
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Yeah, that doesn't seem that interesting, honestly. Not like "magic gadget arrow magic gadget arrow magic gadget arrow magic gadget arrow arrow of utter annihilation magic gadget arrow..." Admittedly I may be a little biased in favor of Synnibarr here. 
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| # ¿ Jul 11, 2011 18:00 |
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