FATAL & Friends 2014-15: The Neverending Storygame

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Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Kaja Rainbow posted:

I'm put in mind of the story of Nobilis 3E and how 68 pieces (all by a single person) turned out to have been blatantly copied from Touhou fanart. That led to a lot of headache, a printing delay, and a pull of the PDF to commission replacement art. Point is, people can and will trace art from all sorts of random things.

I thought three or four were confirmed, which tainted everything the artist did so they had to hire new people?

# ¿ Jan 15, 2014 10:46

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 15:21

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

oriongates posted:

Wow, this is probably the worst editing mistake so far. An entire plot for two regions is invalidated because the left hand wasn't listening to the right.

That's loving impressive.

On top of that, is there like... a reason for the PCs to give a flying gently caress about this? The demon squid using abilities he doesn't have, that wouldn't work that way anyway, even if what he wanted to use them on existed, to take over more of a pond in a dungeon that by this point I'd just want to get the gently caress out of?

# ¿ Jan 29, 2014 15:04

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

oriongates posted:

It would be like someone owning a sci-fi super-tank and using it to work for a taxi service.

I'm sorry that actually sounds awesome.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2014 10:44

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

The celestials who built the WLD are completely insane aren't they.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2014 16:05

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

It's been out for a while, so it's time for my review of...

World of Synnibarr Third Edition!

Where Second Edition made you ask "Why are you doing it this way", Third makes you ask "what the hell are you doing". I can't puzzle this out and I have too many other things I could be doing these days. I give up.

The End.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2014 06:36

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Barudak posted:

You can build him in lots of games. Is he effective is the question.

If the answer is yes my group has no hope, they're already playing this game.

With a few actions worth of setup time, punching things can be by far the most damaging attack available without calling the gods for orbital death lasers or something.

You can also spend a metagame resource to get more actions on your turn.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2014 04:50

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

occamsnailfile posted:

Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse: Part 5: Feathered Santa is coming to town!

Comparatively, he�s a weakling, with 13,000 MDC. Aztecs must not have had much use for their magicians. No real magical abilities of note, just knows �all spells� from level 1-15 at 14th level. They at least gave Q Temporal magic, let a magic dog know some elemental spells maybe? Not that these statblocks aren�t overcomplex already.

Are elemental and temporal spells not part of "all spells"? That sure sounds like he knows every spell from every spellcasting discipline anywhere.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2014 01:45

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

occamsnailfile posted:

I would generally think that "all spells" written that way refers to the Core book only, as they use the unqualified term "spells" for a lot of other entries like "knows all spells 1-5" and then further specify "knows all air warlock spells" or something similar if that's what they mean. It's ambiguous though. Oh, Rifts.

Oh, if it uses "All spells" and then "All [specific type] spells" in the same character writeup I can see that meaning "from the core book". I guess we can blame this one on Rifts!

# ¿ Apr 6, 2014 05:48

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Bieeardo posted:

I just looked it up. Lower the roll, the better, because after you roll under (skill, etc), you subtract the result from your skill and reference the result on a table to determine the magnitude of its Effect. Conflict resolution turns into dueling Effects, subtracting aggressor from defender and referencing the result. Or not, because it's apparently optional, and has riders, and combat is called out as using something different.

Basically, it's roll-under meets marginal success systems. Or not, because those subsystems are optional.

Isn't that a more complicated method of getting the same results as "roll under skill, higher is better"? Instead of doing some math you could just take the raw die result and compare it to the table. Unless you failed in which whatever.

# ¿ May 8, 2014 05:43

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Save vs. Pedophila.

Wait this makes the second thing I've seen where you can end up gettng sexually aroused by heights/open spaces/poo poo like that because of a reused phobia table. :confused:

The other one being Central Casting.

Strength of Many posted:

Well poo poo. Now i'll have to actually learn the mechanics to explain why its a bad game.

The only viable defense is not getting hit. Armor makes you heavier which makes you more likely to get hit which makes you more likely to get crit and your armor ignored.

EDIT: Or your mech just being completely disabled. Or destroyed. And unless you're massively better than the enemies you're facing, you WILL get crit eventually.

Zereth fucked around with this message at 02:36 on May 20, 2014

# ¿ May 20, 2014 02:34

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Alien Rope Burn posted:

As for Mekton, yeah, I remember "winning" by building a comparatively cheap mech-murdering helicopter with a rapid-firing gun and taking all the points I had saved (by not worrying about arms, legs, expensive power sources, etc.) and just putting them into maneuverability and speed. Building a rad mech was a horrible trap when I could dance out of their range and had a +20 to dodge on a d10 when they though they were hot stuff with a 1d10+10 or the like. It'd work better if you ban personal mecha construction and just have setting-based designs, but it's still just a "Dex supremacy" combat system.

Yeah, the roguelike Gearhead has some heavy Mekton Z influences in its systems, and in it (at least in 1, I think things were adjusted in 2) you're universally better off ripping off the legs of humanoid-type mechs and installing a lot of hoverjets instead. Point budgets are more of a concern in Mekton but the most important thing is having your MV as high as possible.

And the same stat applies to every single attack of defense you can do in a mech/vehicle, so you want to max that.

# ¿ May 20, 2014 04:59

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Kurieg posted:

Their intent wasn't to pander to the Furry Community the problem is that apparently not everyone got that memo and some line editors decided to give the writers they didn't particularly like enough rope to hang themselves with, culminating in Tribebook: Children of Gaia (revised) and the Rite of Clouds and Rain. It was literally the last thing the Author would ever write for White Wolf.

Rite of Clouds and Rain?

# ¿ May 21, 2014 10:45

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Rifts Sourcebook Three: Mindwerks has interesting ideas, but seems to botch on the execution every time.

So it's a Rifts product then. :rimshot:

# ¿ Jun 13, 2014 12:44

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

theironjef posted:

Looks like third edition switched from Realm and Spirit to Persona and Treasure. Okay then. On the wiki it says Treasure defines the strength of the powers, things, or ideas that represent the Noble. So does that mean if you're the Voice and Grace of Waterparks with a Treasure of 5 that waterpark employees and slides are more powerful throughout the world because of your investment?

No it means you have a bunch of magic poo poo, which may be completely unrelated to Waterparks.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2014 16:23

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

theironjef posted:

Dude wasn't playing his claw to full effect. He should have cut terminal velocity in half to slow his falling speed to 57 mph, then cut gravity in half to further slow his descent, and finally cut the surface tension of the water in half so that it was like he was just diving in a pool, instead of falling further at the same speed into a chasm. Then again he wasn't the Marquis of Nerds.

Also that list you're providing makes Aspect sound worthless except insofar as you can use it to freak out humans. Like you could have a guy with Aspect 5 say "I run at lightspeed towards the finish line" and the guy with Domain 2 would say "I win the race by invoking the Domain of Technicalities."

poo poo, dibs on the Duke of Technicalities. That's the best character I ever wanted to play.

I don' think you can do abstract concepts like that with Aspect unless you go to the spirit world and find the spirit of Terminal Velocity and beat them up until they do what you say. It's more "Okay I pick up that mountain and eat it" poo poo.

Also I think Aspect Guy would still win the race because your miracle was a level 5 and the duke of Technicalities was level 2.

theironjef posted:

I would personally far prefer the gods of concepts over the gods of stuff. I decidedly want a party now with the Duchess of Self-Evidency, the Earl of Pedantry, and the Marquis of Technicalities. Try accomplishing anything around that combo. Call their Imperator the Stuffy rear end in a top hat of the World. They live in a chancel where nothing ever happens because someone will just point out that it can't.

This is a perfectly good Nobilis PC group, though. I've always kinda wanted to play a gang who's all Powers of the Angel of Lies.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2014 03:05

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Hidingo Kojimba posted:

In third edition at least, Domain doesn't really get to the point where you can go "I twist my Estate in such-and-such a way, and achieve this result" until Domain 4 (which gives you the ability to create and animate/control instances of your Estate).

At Domain 2 you can divine facts about your Estate and talk to spirits of your Estate and potentially persuade them to do things for you, but that actual 'doing things' part isn't covered by the Miracle, so it doesn't automatically succeed and can be beaten easily by opposing Miracles. (Domain 2 is still really useful as a utility power, it's just not really designed for winning divine throwdowns.)

The trick to getting ahead in Nobilis 3rd Edition nearly always rests in finding a way to do what you want in such a way that it doesn't directly go up against your opponent's miracles.

Yeah, if you're trying to win a race against an Aspect 5 guy (especially if he's willing to spend MP on it) you're gonna need to get him sidetracked doing not-race things rather than try to hinder or outrun him.

Or possibly outright cheat with teleportation, although if he's willing to go for broke with an Aspect 9 miracle he might be able to beat that anyway.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2014 03:20

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Alien Rope Burn posted:

I ran it about a year back as a lark. It's possible to make it functional with some house ruling, it isn't good, but it's conceivably playable. It's at least not something like World of Synnibarr that manages to be totally unplayable as written. Kevin doesn't play it as written, or so I'm told, so I don't see why I should. It's just too bad the books don't admit that.

I don't recall Synnibarr, a few issues like "Alchemists can't actually use most of their abilities" aside, having any particular points where the rules just outright failed to work or exist. You could play a game in it (as long as nobody was playing an Alchemist).

It didn't work remotely as intended, but that's a separate issue! :laugh:

Also the Adventurer's Guide supplement indicates that McCracken doesn't seem to remember the "must run exactly as written" rule and he tended to wing things more as he went on.

(Synnibarr 3e on the other hand, may or may not function, but I can't make sense of it to tell.)

# ¿ Jul 24, 2014 04:15

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

theironjef posted:

Only culturally. We make all your food, rest of America! Quit pretending we don't!

Have you driven through Southern California? Most of it is empty desert.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2014 02:06

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Kavak posted:

He's talking about Central California, which is a grassy desert instead of an actual desert.

Hey, some rain passed through here (and thus I assume Central too) a few days ago!

For like 20 minutes.

oh god my state is going to burn down :supaburn:

# ¿ Aug 12, 2014 02:23

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Bieeardo posted:

I'm not sure anyone really thought about the math, either. Variable dice pools versus variable target numbers made for some really swingy results, and that's before tossing in degrees of success and target numbers that require one or more dice to explode multiple times. FASA simplified things a little for combat in SR2, by standardizing on two successes to 'stage' damage results up or down a level, but it took White Wolf until the New World of Darkness to standardize on a fixed target number.

Exalted had a fixed target number, actually.

... Until the Sidereals book showed up.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2014 23:04

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

I think the virginity loss is part of casting the spell, not an effect of it.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2014 03:27

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Bieeardo posted:

Reminds me of how multiple splats liked to claim that Rasputin was one of theirs all along.

Everybody knows Rasputin was a time-traveling robot. Sheesh.

_{_{Rasputin from Raidou Kuzunoha is the canon Rasputin. I don't care what you're playing, he's the real one.}}

# ¿ Nov 12, 2014 18:26

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

SenZar seems like it might be playable, unlike Synnibarr which is just "technically the system looks like it doesn't actively break down unless you're an Alchemist".

EDIT: I guess I should find some time and willpower to review it since I also have a bestiary. So I might be able to run some simulated combats or rope some guys into running some actual combats to see how the combat system shakes out. (The core book doesn't have anything to fight in it.)

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 06:57

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Evil Mastermind posted:

I really want a copy of original Synnibarr to place next to it.

Do you mean first or second edition?

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 17:11

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

It's pretty much second edition with terrible organization and without cybernetics and probably some other things, hell if I'm going to compare my copies closely.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 17:31

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Transdimensional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an amazing and delightful stream of pure and shameless nonsense.

I like how it presents multiple methods of time travel.

That all work in the same way except for the details of how much poo poo you can carry and if you're casting a spell or using a time machine or the like, but they can all travel in exactly the same lengths of time because of the rather strange way time travel in general was set up.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2014 06:27

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Presumably the cycles would shift forward with the PCs (it's probably best to think about that too hard).

Ultimately the whole cycle system is intended so that time and date remain relatively fixed as you travel between years, so if you chase a villain into the past, you can't just arrive before them and punch them as soon as they show up. Though you can hop between eras, all time travelers are operating on the same relative time scale.

Except that it explicitly mentions that sometimes you can end up off-cycle, which by the logic given for the 125-year jumps would mean you end up jumping from that point in time instead. Rather than "whoops you're hosed" like it actually says happens.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2014 03:25

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

They could easily have made up some batshit cosmic thing to support the "if you get off the main cycle you're kinda boned" bit along with the rest of the batshit cosmic stuff, though. But instead it's just "You jump forward or backwards in 125 year chunks! Unless you somehow end up not exactly 125 years from your home time."

They put all this effort into the "how time travel works under the hood" stuff, why not put a little more in to justify the "fixed" (technically moving at 60 seconds per minute) reference point?

# ¿ Dec 17, 2014 04:07

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Night10194 posted:

Feng Shui's time periods are literally just set up as a series of variant locations connected by chinese hell. Time travel works roughly like Chrono Trigger (stuff changes if dramatically appropriate and part of the plot). That's all it needs to do and I really appreciate it for that.

Actual Chinese Hell is a separate place where demons and poo poo come from. The Netherworld, as far as I can remember, is just kinda... there, and nobody's sure why.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2014 09:09

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

The hellmouth which is a literal mouth, of a giant demon.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2014 10:33

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

theironjef posted:

I spent about an hour this morning thinking "wow, gladiator and battlebabe are real departures from teenage monsters, I wonder how this skin book even went over" before realizing that it's just a different -world game. I haven't read any of them so they bleed together real easy.

It's also from the original -world game.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2014 17:45

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Grnegsnspm posted:

You might not think peanut butter and mayo on a burger would be good. You would be wrong. It's so goddamn good.

Probably not if he just hates mayo in general though.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2014 03:36

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

I've played and run Torg many times, and the first couple of combats of a new campaign are really rough. Once everybody figures out the card mechanics and the GM learns how to handle blocks of bad guys it hums along surprisingly quickly. The parts I loath are Possibilities as Experience, Glass Ninja, and Spell Design. Possibilities as XP is a horrible idea because you get players hoarding them so they can improve and getting turned to a thick gooey paste by a Edeinos scout. This is fixable by giving out an XP for every possibility they earn and keeping separate tallies. Glass Ninja isn't really fixable and Spell Design needs cleansing fire.

For extra fun, try making Possiblities turn into XP when spent.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2015 05:23

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Evil Mastermind posted:

Every reality has three or four world laws, although Core Earth didn't get any until about halfway through the game line because I guess the designers forgot or something. Kind of like how they forgot that technically all of Core Earth should be a pure zone and thus make life incredibly difficult for characters from other realities.

Here's a solution to that: You can only get up to the full mechanical bullshit of a Pure Zone if the relevant Darkness Device is present in the zone.

Make Darkness Devices more vulnerable somehow, and suddenly there's some interesting stuff to be done with them. You can't fully overwrite the target's reality with yours unless your Darkness Device is present, but if you do you're making yourself vulnerable.

(Also make it so Ords have a hard time holding onto things like the rules say Storm Knights do, and Storm Knights don't have any problems using their gun to shoot dinos or whatever unless they're literally in the same room with the dinoland Darkness Device.)

# ¿ Jan 9, 2015 06:55

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Green Intern posted:

Why isn't that blue lady wearing proper PPE? She could contract Space Ebola!

Well, she seems to be rather happy about the thing on the table.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2015 19:19

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Evil Mastermind posted:

And you know what the funniest part is? This isn't the worst published adventure by a long shot.

Hm. How many steps in dramatic resolution does it take? Is it full ABCD?

Didn't you say earlier that that would average about 14 rounds to pull all the right cards? When the total time limit here is 20 rounds?

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 03:57

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Evil Mastermind posted:

Yup!

Yup!

... What's the absolute minimum amount of time the PCs could take to get to the spot where they can start the process?

Also Dr. Mobius sounds awesome.

EDIT: Hell, that's an average time, with a bit of bad luck on the draw, even if the PCs don't have to deal with the skeleton and it activates while they're in reach to being the process that round, and somehow know what to do already, they could just fail to draw a D after completing the first three steps. SORRY, EARTH!

Zereth fucked around with this message at 07:53 on Jan 13, 2015

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 07:51

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

A better way to do that would be to have the disintegration chamber have a secret exit that the first set of body doubles leave through when it's activated, which is extremely easy to find for PCs. Hell, I don't think you even need to invoke OOC reasons for the easy escape, he's a pulp villain who has trapped the heroes in a deathtrap, of course they manage to escape!

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 07:58

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

The Nile Empire, duh. Gotta find out what Dr. Mobius is up to.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 16:52

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 15:21

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Kurieg posted:

Only the wolf looks like it has any effort put into it. ~~That gun is terribly designed~~ Nevermind all of the gun/lasers are terribly designed. And that feral cat has body armor with pouches.

It doesn't have thumbs!

Why do these artists keep giving things that would require thumbs to things that do not have thumbs?

And that does look weird. I feel like it was composited out of some other stuff that wasn't intended to be used together like this.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2015 20:02

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