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This is true, but "lick that kinfolk good to show them you're in charge!" does tend to stand out even amongst Werewolf books.
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May 21, 2014 01:54
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I think in 1992 they didn't even know about that kind of thing. And they had Bill "Science is killing our children" Bridges at the helm. 2004 Werewolf was very explicit about the whole "no Yiffing whatsoever" thing, with Unihar being the devlopers going "no, stop that right this instant". But in 2007 they completely 180'd that decision and came out with 'Spirit Animals: the Fur Con', where several artists were flat out told to make pornographic stuff, only photoshopping out the dicks when the editors noticed.
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May 21, 2014 01:59
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Asimo posted:Despite the RPG never getting a release, the Null Foundation eventually got folded into Rein·Hagen's new company "Atomaton, Inc" and in 2001 they released Z-G (as in, "zero gravity"), a game very loosely based on the concepts and setting. They put out 3 figures, a green one, a red one, and a blue one. I got them at DragonCon in 2001 and chatted with R-H himself for about an hour about the game before ultimately buying the three figures and some additional cards. The most prominent thing about the game was that all the ranges were in card-lengths so you didn't need a ruler, just the cards themselves. College me thought it played OK, and I was waiting to see them in stores but never did.  I actually have all that stuff in a box that I'm looking at RIGHT NOW.
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May 21, 2014 04:00
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Ah, huh, I must have missed one then.  Well, it was over a decade ago and I don't own any of it anymore, so was working off my feeble memory. Most of the sources for Z-G sort of vanished off the internet a while back.I will never stop boggling at the progression of "transgressive adult sci-fi" to "collectable action figures", though. EDIT: Some further digging turned up another old review page for it though. More Timbrook art there. Asimo fucked around with this message at 06:35 on May 21, 2014 |
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May 21, 2014 06:30
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Asimo posted:Ah, huh, I must have missed one then. Oof. Reminds me of the short-lived "Shadowrun Duels" action figure game. That was a disappointment on a lot of levels.
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May 21, 2014 06:34
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Everything Counts posted:Oof. Reminds me of the short-lived "Shadowrun Duels" action figure game. That was a disappointment on a lot of levels. I never understood how anyone thought that was a good idea. Had the same feeling about this, with a dash of Bionicle for the style.
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May 21, 2014 06:42
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Bieeardo posted:I never understood how anyone thought that was a good idea. Had the same feeling about this, with a dash of Bionicle for the style. The rumor I heard about Shadowrun Duels was that it had to deal with continuing rights holding from the FASA era, where Ral Partha supposedly still had exclusive contracts to any Shadowrun miniatures, so WizKids tried to make Duels be off that 25mm scale they where shut out by.
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May 21, 2014 07:15
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That makes a worrying amount of sense yeah, and I vaguely remember hearing something similar.
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May 21, 2014 07:24
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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.
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May 21, 2014 10:45
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Zereth posted:Rite of Clouds and Rain? http://z6.invisionfree.com/Masquerade_Project/ar/t101.htm posted:Rite of the Clouds and Rain (Level Two) – This rite is kept a careful secret by Children of Gaia, and all who so much as know of it must swear never to mention it among non-initiates - if revealed, anyone involved would likely be ostracised by the rest of the Garou Nation. It allows the partial control of Rage at the price of violating a basic Garou law: the first precept of the Litany. And no I didn't have that link handy, it was the first hit on Google.
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May 21, 2014 10:51
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ThisIsNoZaku posted:And no I didn't have that link handy, it was the first hit on Google. Is that just the first half of the text or something? It looks at first glance like "This is the power to have risky sex! Sometimes it's a threesome! It lets you partially control rage, I guess, but this is really the power to have filthy risky fursex!"
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May 21, 2014 16:23
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The guy who wrote TB:COG's previous work was Breedbook: Mokole, which was about the were-lizards/dragons. It also included a mary sue Werewolf who had magic dragon powers and had people acting way out of character. Including taking a character who's only previous interaction with the Canon was as a heroin addicted Red Talon, and having him show up and be this super nice guy who diffuses the main conflict of the book before stating "Wow it's great to be in human form!" It was poorly received beyond the fact that the actual rules for playing Mokole were extensive and well done, probably because Comer had little to do with it. TB:CoG-R was... bad, but it included such things as a gay relationship between a Homid and a Lupus, werewolves sitting around in their dire-wolf forms in plain sight of humans and no one noticing, them taking a full blooded wolf into a restaurant and feeding him Chinese food from the table with no one saying anything besides 'cute dog'. And all of this taking place at Woodstock '99. I'd link you to the FnF of it but it's in the un-goldmined thread. theironjef posted:Is that just the first half of the text or something? It looks at first glance like "This is the power to have risky sex! Sometimes it's a threesome! It lets you partially control rage, I guess, but this is really the power to have filthy risky fursex!"  What does 'control the tendency to frenzy' mean? Who knows! The LARP rules for the rite are "For obvious reasons, this is best done through Storytelling rather than Roleplaying." Kurieg fucked around with this message at 16:28 on May 21, 2014 |
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May 21, 2014 16:24
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Really risky fursex, considering the traditional penalty for violating that part of the Litany is being torn into chunks too small to regenerate. Mere ostracism is probably the least of their worries, given how little respect the Coggies get from the other tribes to begin with.
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May 21, 2014 17:03
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It doesn't help that the book characterizes the entire tribe as being very casual about gay sex, since Gay sex can't produce Metis Gaia's obviously okay with it, right? The only reason the other tribes look down on the CoGs are they're all closeted and jealous of all the gay sex they're having. I'm being somewhat flippant but that's more or less what Comer says in COG-r
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May 21, 2014 17:21
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It's the reason fundies hate everything to do with hippies, so why not?
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May 21, 2014 18:51
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Rifts Sourcebook Three: Mindwerks - Part Five: "The character is usually hyper and on edge, like a tiger ready to pounce, and needs only four or five hours of sleep a night. He or she likes to fight and play hard." Optional M.O.M. O.C.C.s And yes, you can play characters modified by Mindwerks. It notes that she often modifies people as a favor to brodkil or the Gargoyle Empire, because she's a jerk, as experiments, or...  WARNING WARNING A LARGE SIEMBIEDA CLICHE IS APPROACHING Rifts Sourcebook Three: Mindwerks posted:She believes she is a "god" and that it is a god's duty to "create" and instigate change. Many of her "creations" are the product of this twisted view of life and her delusions of divinity. In any case, she often conveniently releases her creations either just to discard them or to observe them for (bad) science, but works very hard to make sure escapees aren't aware of the way back to the Mindwerks complex. Don't think you can get the upper hand on the Angel of Death, PCs, because you just can't, shut up, nuh-uh! Full Standard Crazy Conversion This is the standard crazy from Rifts, only you can add on the Brain Programming implant with its associated table of gently caress you. It also says they cannot get psynetic implants, and just turn into a comatose veggie or a murder machine who "usually die violently within 2d6 weeks". This is weird, because crazies are pretty far from overpowered; letting them have a few psionic powers would hardly break the game. Mindwerks Full Conversion Borg O.C.C.  "I don't think you gave me a matching set of eyes..." This is mostly just a cyborg from the corebook with less skills and the Brain Programming implant added, plus the penalties from that, plus a bonus gently caress you in that you'll probably have a tracking device and / or a bomb in your head Mindwerks can blow up. Unlike regular cyborgs, your (mechanical) attributes are determined randomly, so you could be awesomer or sucky compared to a regular borg, but you do get more features and geegaws. It reiterates escapees can't ever ever find their way back to the Mindwerks complex again, not two pages after it brought it up last. Honestly this isn't a bad class, given you don't roll badly for the side effects of Brain Programming. If you did, well, you poor gently caress. Null Psyborg O.C.C.  Cyborg Raaagegegegee. A bunch of Rifts player characters once got together once to find out who had the ninetiest name.
Oh, and Mindwerks almost certainly has tracking implants, mind control implants, and a bomb in your head, Ecto-Traveler O.C.C. Not to be confused with the Ecto-1. This is a person who has gotten implants that super-boost the Astral Projection power, but have their bodies become near-completely paralyzed (you can move your face and talk, but that's about it). You need a medical life support system to even survive (problematic for a PC class to say the least). And yeah, only Mindwerks can make these. Ecto-Travelers can Astral Project normally, but at better at navigating it. Their big ability is to create a physical body in the real world from psychic goo. Rifts World Book Three: Mindwerks posted:The ecto-body looks frightening and ugly, like a pink or grey, protoplasmic blob in humanoid shape (or a giant, lumpy Pillsbury Dough Boy). Tee-hee! You can also make more limbs and (nonfunctional) wings, (symbolic) horns, or (nasty-rear end) tentacles. Its M.D.C. is poo poo, starting at 15 and capping out at 90 at level 15, has lovely physical attributes, is ugly as hell, can actually dodge really well (via goopiness), can understand all spoken language, regenerate, takes half damage from physical attacks but full damage from energy attacks, can goop through small holes, has all ESP powers, psi-shield and sword, electrokinesis, hydrokinesis, mind bullets, but you can't taste stuff, wear armor, and hey, you go insane and get more insane as you gain levels. Generally, the big advantage is that the ecto-body can't die permanently, but if it dies, the PC can't reform for a full day. You also get an O.C.C. of your choice; presumably this excludes psychic R.C.C.s, but it doesn't say. You can't cast spells in your magic body, however, so you may as well be a Rogue Scholar or some other class that gets crazy skill bonuses. Use your sensitive powers + skills + ability to go nearly anywhere invisibly and intangibly to solve any mystery! The big question, though, is because you require life support, how'd you escape Mindwerks?  It mentions there are a handful of ecto-travelers outside of Mindwerks, but escaping as an invalid has to be tough (maybe they lugged their own bodies out?). For some reasons, there's no discussion of them having control chips or bombs in their brain, I guess Mindwerks figures it doesn't need to bother.Psynetic Crazy O.C.C.  This here is an old piece of art Siembieda scribbled some crazy implants onto. This is both a joke and a fact. So earlier in the sections the implants section goes on and on about how you can't combine physical and mental implants, how it'll drive you insane and fry your brain (more than even normal implants already do, I suppose). But gently caress all that, because Mindwerks figured out how to combine them. How they went on about how there's no way because it's only like ther are any other groups installing psynetic implants. In fact, they discussed how every psynetic implant is booby-trapped so nobody can steal them. And yet... they can do it anyway, even though it said they couldn't earlier. Of course, this is all a roundabout gyration so they can try and justify non-crazies not combining the two types of implants for balance (hilarious, given that this is Rifts), unless you take the Psynetic Crazy O.C.C.! Oh, and they're psychically boosted crazies who are... more crazy. They get fewer physical implants than normal crazies, but get tons of psynetic implants. Generally speaking, most will be as brain-damaged and crazy as the characters I rolled under the psynetics section or more so. Unlike normal crazies, though, that's all the crazy they get and they don't go progressively more insane (unless they get extra implants installed), I suppose. They also have a Mindwerks identifier chip, but can hack it in reverse to detect other people with the same chip. Of course, they also have a tracking chip, control chip, and a 50% chance of having a bomb in their head. As a psi-crazy, you can be a non-psionic, minor psionic, major psionic, or master psionic. Though non-psionics get some mild physical bonuses, they don't really balance out the Amazing Powers of the Mind the major gets. In addition, the weaker psionic characters don't get as much out of the psynetic implants, so... yeah. There's no reason to to be a master psionic, unless you just like not being able to use your class features as well. Psi-Bloodhound R.C.C.  Berserker raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaageeeee. Doesn't involve The Bloodhound Gang, sadly. These are Dog Boys and Psi-Stalkers converted to have their tracking powers enhanced and their brains lobotomized. How Mindwerks got ahold of Dog Boys - who are only created on another continent across the ocean - is anybody's guess. In addition to their regular psychic powers of being a Psi-Stalker or Dog Boy, they get the ability to track by smell, can recognize psychic "scents", and can fight to -80 HP and do double S.D.C. unarmed damage (which would be great in an non-M.D.C. world...). On the other hand, your IQ is reduced to 2d4 and you have an 86% chance of doing into a berserker rage when you're "angry, frustrated, engaged in serious combat, or injured"... so basically all the loving time you're flipping out and trying to kill poo poo. The new powers are nice, but you can't make intelligent use of them because you're flipping out all the loving time, and likely are going to be put down by other party members in a session or two. Great work from Mindwerks! And so you don't forget - they have a tracking chip, a control chip, and likely have a bomb in their head. Next: D-Bees of Europe!... even those D-Bees can appear anywhere, because Rifts, but... these are in Europe, specifically! it's like sometimes he forgets the premise of his own game Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 20:56 on May 21, 2014 |
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May 21, 2014 20:53
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Mark Rein·Hagen's Exile Part Two: Too many goddamn   Where we left off, I was talking about how Exile almost came about and the weird history of its development at White Wolf and the Null Foundation. Today, we'll be going through the playtest documents and looking at what was actually look at the setting information and introductory materials. When I quote the material, I'll try and mention whether it's from the HTML playtest stuff on archive.org or from the PDF draft. PDF Draft posted:This early version of Exile is an incomplete rough draft and contains limited setting information (with none at all on the Grange). This is simply a first edition of the rules and character creation. We open with a form letter... HTML Draft posted:Dear Madam or Sir, The draft goes on with a second letter from a presumably sympathetic source, noting that the setting information is done in-character as a "Manifesto" for characters who are newly Exiled. There's some differences between the drafts here, but the idea is gotten across simply enough. The first is that "Trinary" is effectively a paradise, and you've been kicked out of it. And... HTML Draft posted:In the Grange, Books are not so uncommon. Here, they are neither illegal nor burned. We trust books over the Artifex because they do not tell us what we want to hear, they only record what others have spoken. That is why we have chosen this medium to pass on our ideas to you. PDF Draft posted:Possession of this book inside the Hegemony will result in your immediate Banishment. If you are not already an Exile, read this at your own risk. Do not open this within sight of any type of T-fex, whether its your Valet or your Drudge. If you are captured, delay revealing who passed this on to you until they have a chance to escape. Like most White Wolf games, that there's a fuckload of jargon that you're expected to internalize before RPing. The drafts diverge a bit here... the HTML draft starts with the glossary, and for the sake of sanity I'll drop it here first before we delve into the rest.HTML Draft posted:Grange-Argot  For brevity I'll omit the ones that are already in the other draft.PDF Draft posted:• Hegemony — The galactic government that controls humanity within the inner worlds.  I think the PDF draft is a later iteration, which makes some sense; there's a lot of terms that come up often (like "ulster") that don't show up in the earlier glossary. On the other hand it has a lot less setting information... well, anyway, try and remember both of these when I quote other sections I guess!In addition to the glossary, the PDF draft goes into some terminology on the robots and computers of the setting, giving them a few paragraphs of explanation. Artifex are robotic servants, specifically the sentient sorts. The text helpfully goes on to mention that their lives are horrible and they struggle to find some sort of unique identity. Lodes are essentially the AI computers, complicated enough that only the Hegemony can create them. They come in seven grades, with the seventh being almost as intelligent as humanity. Cules are hard drives and memory banks, but in spaaaace.  Next time: Something that's more than just copy-pastes of dumb jargon! Asimo fucked around with this message at 21:31 on May 21, 2014 |
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May 21, 2014 21:09
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Thank you for doing Exile. I remember the announcement in InQuest magazine, which gave it a short blurb declaring that the creator of Vampire was making a game where you travel through space in a gimp suit. I remember seeing some HTML and PDF documents floating around the web and skimmed them, but I could never tell if these were official, seriously-for-real designer notes, or some fan collaboration to make a playable game with only a basic concept to go on. I suppose both are true!Asimo posted:... or to put it simpler, something akin to Transhuman Space crossed with Vampire: The Masquerade's politics and aesthetics. Asimo posted:Even some introductory fiction, as pretty typical for White Wolf books... despite the claims in the prospectus that Null-F was trying to avoid doing Another Vampire, there's still some similarities here.  Take my blood, take my clan, take me where I cannot stand...
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May 21, 2014 22:13
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Halloween Jack posted:Thank you for doing Exile. I remember the announcement in InQuest magazine, which gave it a short blurb declaring that the creator of Vampire was making a game where you travel through space in a gimp suit. I remember seeing some HTML and PDF documents floating around the web and skimmed them, but I could never tell if these were official, seriously-for-real designer notes, or some fan collaboration to make a playable game with only a basic concept to go on. I suppose both are true! Also, now I miss Inquest.  I think it also got a brief mention in Arcane, or whatever that short-lived British gaming magazing in the 90's was.
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May 21, 2014 22:26
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Alien Rope Burn posted:M-1000 Panther Ding ding ding. Check out the eyes and the weird faux-humaniod bit going on with the weird preying mantis look-alike vibe. If you have the OLD version of Mechaniods, check out the difference between the old and new ones, then take a good look at those images. Those are mechaniods. Dammit, you doing this makes me want to go resurrect the Palladium thread. drat you.
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May 22, 2014 02:15
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I'm enjoying the write-up on Exile: The Deported. Thanks for doing it!
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May 22, 2014 02:43
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Asimo posted:At this point I'm not quite sure if the PDF drafts I have were altered/edited later. The draft on archive.org doesn't really have much in the way of rules, but there are some actual basic chargen and playtesting stuff that I know I saw back in the day, so I can definitely say most of it is actual work by Null Foundation. It's easy to see why you'd think it was a fan effort though. Big public playtests like this just weren't really done back then, especially in the era of webrings and dial-up. Yeah, it's weird. I remember hearing about Exile but have no idea where I heard about it. Probably through newsgroups or something at the time? Hard to say. 50 Foot Ant posted:Dammit, you doing this makes me want to go resurrect the Palladium thread. I just put up an relevant update to make sure it doesn't fall into archives yet. I don't know how long it takes for a thread to fall off, though.
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May 22, 2014 03:27
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Yeah, it's weird. I remember hearing about Exile but have no idea where I heard about it. Probably through newsgroups or something at the time? Hard to say. Since archives are down I think threads are just piling up in the active forums.
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May 22, 2014 03:33
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Asimo posted:
I'm starting to notice a lot of similarities to Greg Saunders' In Flames, particularly the "kicked-out-of-a-posthuman-paradise" premise.
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May 22, 2014 05:50
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Young Freud posted:I'm starting to notice a lot of similarities to Greg Saunders' In Flames, particularly the "kicked-out-of-a-posthuman-paradise" premise. I'm not sure about the company politics going on at the time, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Aeon/Trinity directly or indirectly derived a lot from Exile's development, if only in giving the WW staff some motivation to try a sci-fi game. They're rather different games mind you, having almost nothing in common in theme and setting, and completely different rulesets (Trinity using a storyteller-spinoff, while Exile having a new ruleset)... but the "black-covered spiral-bound corebook" thing in the Exile draft is almost identical to the initial Aeon print run, and the game came out in 1997, not too long after Rein·Hagen split with the company. 
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May 22, 2014 06:58
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Rifts Sourcebook Three: Mindwerks - Part Six: "The lycanmorph is typically like a happy puppy, quick to forgive and/or forget all but the most traumatic and painful offenses. " D-Bees of Germany & Poland  I have no idea what the gently caress this is. It notes where various R.C.C.s from previous books live, so if you want to know where the zembahk, waternix, or knights live, it's got you covered. One of those things is not like the others, mind. Some of these R.C.C.s feel like overflow material or drawn from overflow art on Rifts World Book Two: Atlantis or Rifts World Book Three: England. Just a hunch, mind, but the fact that some of the races have slave prices or resemble art from those books feels like a tip-off. The Azverkan R.C.C. Knights of the True Vision  A spare illustration from Wormwood, maybe? This is a race with the ability to see "supernatural evil", that nebulous force from previous books, and they're immune to possession and magic-resistant. These traits, apparently, have inspired to become wandering knights that travel and rescue others from magical monsters, and sometimes mundane monsters, but mostly just magical ones. They're basically a race of ugly paladins, and have the lack of personality to match. Oh, and other races can't become Knights of the True Vision, because they don't have the True Vision, apparently. They're really strong, agile, and tough, but ugly as you'd expect for a penis-faced race. They have "Keen 20/20 normal vision", nightvision, seeinvisiblevision, seeevilvision, can sense evil and have super-smellin'. They're immune to possession and vampire mind control, general saves against magic / fear / evil stuff, and pure nonsense saving bonuses like "+8 to save vs symbiotic union and control", which isn't actually a saving throw. They get modest combat bonuses and a pretty nice spread of skills. Oh, and if you don't want to be a Knight of the True Vision, you can walk away with most of its non-combat powers and be a Rogue Scholar or the like, though they can't be a lot of the obvious classes you'd expect (magic-users or cyber-knights). They can be Glitter Boy pilots, though. Just as a thought. It would help hide their penis-faces, anyway. Lycanmorph R.C.C.  The Fly III Born from the sort of D&D word jumble that gave us the "jackalwere", we have the "lycanmorph". However, they don't have anything to do with lycanthropes, instead being buggy-looking D-bees with three different forms, like triple-changin' Transformers. They're herbivorous, "like a happy puppy", "curious, friendly", "extremely mischievous", "pouting, whining", "willfully disobedient", and it literally directs people to play them like eight-year olds. It's all just one grassy hill short of Nimoy springing over the hill singing "Bilbo Baggins". And, nothing against eight-year olds, but having an adult try and depict a super-strong bug child seems like a recipe for disaster. Their normal form is really strong and fast, but they're Dumb with a capital D, weak-willed, and ugly. They get a variety of natural ability to flip, climb, and sneak, can "see a grapefruit or an enemy a mile (1.6 km) away" (look out, grapefruits!), has "sensitive mouth hairs" that can identify food, jump high, blah blah. Their big deal is that they can change form, though this takes them 1d4 hours + 1d4 minutes, and they're relatively helpless inside a 250 M.D.C. cocoon... so if you were especting some rad swift transformation, nope. You have to nap your way to another form. They can also cocoon to heal themselves, which is "rapid healing" at 2d6 x 10 an hour, well under that of most regenerating creatures. Oh, and they have some sensitive psionic power and electrokinesis, randomly. They also get poo poo for skills, though their natural physical skills compensate slightly.  And this feels like overflow art from Rifts England. Their two other forms are the "flyer", which has about three times the M.D.C. of their normal form, can fly around as a giant beetle, and does the most damage of any form (which isn't fantastic, but it's the most). Then there's the "battler", which "looks like a giant insectoid robot", which can fly at slower speeds, can shoot lightning, has a wide variety of (terrible) natural weapons, a ton of attacks, but only twice the M.D.C. of its normal form. Its big deal is that the battler can blast creatures with stink to blind them with no saving throw, though it doesn't affect robots or armored foes.  A dance battler, that is! Bill Coffin posted:If he's really hard put, he'll take a look at the art that's already come in and mine it for ideas ("Hmm...this D-bee wasn't in any other books, but it looks cool, so I hereby declare this guy the Grinkle-Nosed Hogtailer R.C.C. Nobody will mind if I reprint the picture, especially once I Xerox it and scribble a few more details on it myself..."). It's been reported by ex-Palladium employees that Siembieda has a habit of taking a random illustration done by one of their artists and repurposing it into a robot or class. I don't know if that's necessarily true here, but certainly having two illustrations for one creature by an artist who otherwise doesn't provide art for this book seems to be a pretty good indication of it. Seeker R.C.C.  These are "giants from another dimension", as if there were a bunch of Earthly giants to distinguish them from. In any case they're horned, one-eyed, and 20' tall. They're apparently enslaved by the Naruni, which has two problems with it:
In any case, they're peaceful, gentle, compassionate - ohmyfuckshutup, it's the same stick as races like the Zembahk (of Rifts World Book Two: Atlantis), in that they're so kind and it's so tragic that they're enslaved. Look, slavery is heartrending tragedy as it is, Siembieda doesn't have to slather on that the victims is good people. Presumably their one eye is so they can have one enormous tragic tear fall out of it.  They're dumb and ugly, but strong and strong-willed. They have pathetic M.D.C. for their size, but have really sharp vision, can see invisible and astral stuff and in the dark... and that's all? I figured they'd "seek" or track in some way, but they don't. Once again they have a bonus against "symbiotic union and control" which doesn't exist. They have some sensitive psionics, and magic powers including:
Ugakawa Explorer  I'm sure it's a very high-tech spear? These are "dimensional adventurers and mercenaries" who come from a low-G planet with a thick atmosphere that lets them "swim". Can that really happen? In any case, they're emaciated and can't survive in Earth's gravity or atmosphere unassisted. So they made special armor and atmosphere converters to do that! Apparently they're really technologically advanced, but mainly in terms of force fields and nanotechnology. They're insanely strong, able to do M.D.C. despite being S.D.C. creatures, so they can literally kill each other with firm pokes and nudges. Despite being described as brilliant, they're really no smarter than humans (which I guess is brilliant enough), and are also really tough and agile, which seems to clash with the description of them as fragile butterfly people. Oh, and shock of shocks, they're ugly! They get an average selection of skills tending towards the technical and academic. Despite being from a different atmosphere and ecology, they can eat human food (through a port in their armor)... yeah. Not making the best of sense, here. And Ugakawa have special suits that have a (pretty buff) force field and relatively ordinary M.D.C. armor, an exoskeleton "special pair of pants" and cooling system that reduce fatigue and boost running speed speed, nanotech healing robots, jet pack, nuclear power plant, food pill supply, crappy lasers, crappy "plasma spear", crappy grenades, and a pretty decent net where he can just wrap it around human-sized foes and electrocute them, and can effectively stunlock a single foe until dead. I know "alien that walks around in an environment suit" is a sci-fi trope, but it just seems dumb in a setting where they don't have any ready access to their home world or environs. If anything goes wrong with their suits, if they get pierced by anything and can't patch it, they're dead. The idea that they'd stomp around in these suits for six months or more at a time is pretty farcical (and probably leaves them swimming in their own piss, I suppose). Srryyn Cannibal R.C.C.  Too evil for pants. No, they don't eat each other. Also, how do you pronounce "Srryyn"? Anyway, this is a generic aggressor race of raiders / bandits / monsters, with their only real gimmick being their high metabolism. As a result, they get modestly more attacks and small combat bonuses, great prowess, are low-level supernatural creatures, have a ranger-style spread of skills, and... a third arm, useful for back-scratching and bein' all '90s. Also, while I'm on pet peeves, the idea that all of these R.C.C.s are classified as "ugly" gets ridiculous because it's so subjective. Does a Ugakawa look at an Ugakawa and recoil in disgust, or is it all just relative? I'd presume the latter, but the fact that these races can never - ever - get the ability to charm or impress each other is more than a little odd. The Simvan The Monster Riders of Europe They're in Europe now. There's no significant changes to their writeup from Rifts Sourcebook. Kind of odd they were reprinted and not, say, the Brodkil instead, who play a much larger role. And that's the last of the PC classes for now, we're moving on to the monster section (not that there's a section break to indicate that). There's one more odd little class, but we'll get to that in a bit. For now, on to the monsters! Next: Monsters to round out a page count. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 16:32 on May 22, 2014 |
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May 22, 2014 13:57
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I'm actually wanting to play RIFTS again, despite having played it before. I suspect darkest sorcery on ARB's part.
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May 22, 2014 16:12
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Tsilkani posted:I'm actually wanting to play RIFTS again, despite having played it before. I suspect darkest sorcery on ARB's part. Please tell me you'll use any other system. FATE, maybe?
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May 22, 2014 16:25
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Alien Rope Burn posted:These are "dimensional adventurers and mercenaries" who come from a low-G planet with a thick atmosphere that lets them "swim". Can that really happen?
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May 22, 2014 16:38
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JohnnyCanuck posted:Please tell me you'll use any other system. Whatever system you use, just make sure you run any deific encounters using The Primal Order's Capsystem. Cardiovorax posted:On Titan a human being could fly just by flapping their arms vigorously. Doesn't even take an alternate universe. Well, it looks like it takes artificial wings to manage it, but I guess that answers my question!
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May 22, 2014 16:46
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Whatever system you use, just make sure you run any deific encounters using The Primal Order's Capsystem.
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May 22, 2014 16:53
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Also, while I'm on pet peeves, the idea that all of these R.C.C.s are classified as "ugly" gets ridiculous because it's so subjective. Does a Ugakawa look at an Ugakawa and recoil in disgust, or is it all just relative? I'd presume the latter, but the fact that these races can never - ever - get the ability to charm or impress each other is more than a little odd. The thing with the Ugakawa and the Ssrryynnnnnyynn that always gets me is that they aren't numerous or interesting enough to set a story around. These are some random monsters you fight while walking from Important Town to Nearby Macguffin. How to pronounce Sssyyynnrrnnn wouldn't even come up, since the GM would say "It's like a scaly half-robot three armed Predator. It glares menacingly at you from it's "Black Widow showing tits and rear end at once" pose and gestures with a spear that looks plasma-y. Roll for initiative." Then again, that's the same thing with like 60% of the Fiend Folio, and that's one of my all-time favorite RPG books, so I guess it's just a passing thought.
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May 22, 2014 17:00
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JohnnyCanuck posted:Have I told you lately that I love you? Well darling, you're telling me now. theironjef posted:The thing with the Ugakawa and the Ssrryynnnnnyynn that always gets me is that they aren't numerous or interesting enough to set a story around. The Ugakawa basically have nothing to do. They're... exploring, I guess? It's not really clear. I mean, it'd be an interesting thing if they were actually engaged in something like trying to terraform an area or dome, or collecting something they need or want from our world if they actually had some presence or purpose, but they just don't. The Ssssryryryn are just leaner and faster Brodkil, in the end. Oh, and re: Furry Pirates, listening to your podcast just kept making me think of my Rifts Space review, where the author (James Wallis) clearly just wanted a hard sci-fi game and seemed to resent or marginalize the setting's more fantastic elements. "There are % psychics, superpowered people, and mutant animals on this space station, but this fact has zero actual relevance to their society." It looks like Lise Breakey and Bruce Thomas, the authors of Furry Pirates, were the same people that wrote Furry Bandits, so I get the impression that it wasn't somebody new and disinterested in the genre (after all, it looks like those were the only RPGs they ever wrote), but probably somebody genuinely interested in having adventures with sailing mice where you have to worry more about mouse scurvy than having fun being the dreaded Black Plague mouse ship of Arabegos hurling curses at fat Britcats. Even though mice (and dogs, birds, cats, etc.) can't get scurvy, mind.
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May 22, 2014 17:59
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I got the sense that they wanted to make a pirate game, saw how straight-historical RPGs traditionally did in the marketplace, cast around for a gamer-friendly "hook", and settled on applying a thin patina of furry to their game.
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May 22, 2014 18:05
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Oh, and re: Furry Pirates, listening to your podcast just kept making me think of my Rifts Space review, where the author (James Wallis) clearly just wanted a hard sci-fi game and seemed to resent or marginalize the setting's more fantastic elements. "There are % psychics, superpowered people, and mutant animals on this space station, but this fact has zero actual relevance to their society." Huh, the book has a sidebar where the author talks about purchasing the old license for Furry Bandits. I wonder if that was maybe a note from an editor then. Would stand to reason, since the sidebar also mentions the writers' work on Ars Magicka, the boringest game in the boringverse. Overall it is decidedly the case that the authors wanted so little to deal with furries, magic, or repercussions thereof. There's another sidebar as they get into world-building where they say that magic is largely fading from the world, and that all the cool monsters and stuff are going extinct. It's such a weird call, they're literally moving from the dark ages and the crusades into an age of world exploration, and their first thought is "well, why leave anything cool in the world and oceans for players to discover? Better have them learn the value of Ceylon cinnamon as opposed to Korean cinnamon and get in fights with Anne Ramsay they can't win because we also tell you when and how she dies."
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May 22, 2014 18:07
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Speaking of System Mastery, could you break down the resolution mechanic in Don't Look Back: Terror is Never Far BehindTM in writing? I still cannot figure that out.Asimo posted:It's not a unique idea in sci-fi, even if I can appreciate the idea of transhumanism not being all wine and godhead. I'm mocking bits of Exile here and there, but to be honest the premise to the game was fairly clever and there was definitely room for a storygame-style sci-fi outing in the late 90's. I only skimmed the alpha document of Exile, but I got the impression that the PCs were booted out of a godlike science fantasy paradise, but that unlike the protagonists of an Eclipse Phase game, they're very much free to explore the vast reaches of space relying on their Artifex to automagically nanofabricate what they need. I like JG Timbrook a lot, by the way. The official clan illustrations that replaced his in the V20 book are awful.
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May 22, 2014 18:10
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Halloween Jack posted:Speaking of System Mastery, could you break down the resolution mechanic in Don't Look Back: Terror is Never Far BehindTM in writing? I still cannot figure that out. Sure. Your stats range from 6 to -6, with lower numbers being better. So (this is all of the top of my head, so forgive the loose examples), you take your Strength or Fitness or whatever. Maybe you are a jock, you might have a strength of -3. Skills work by listing a stat they work with, and a set normal difficulty. So for example, Drive has a normal difficulty of 4, and a stat of Dexterity. So if you don't have any points invested, you just assume 4 for your number (number will come up later). If you have points invested in drive, you can get a bonus applied to that skill, like a -1 or -2 to Drive. To do a thing, add the value of your stat and the value of your skill, so like say you're very fit and a good driver. You add your -3 Dex and your Drive of 4, your skill adjustment giving you another -2 to Drive for a total of -1. Take the absolute value of this number, so 1. Add 3 to that, so 4. Roll that many dice, so roll four dice. Now check what the value of your roll was before you took the absolute value. In this case it was negative. If you had a positive value, you take the highest three dice out of however many dice you roll. If you had a negative value, you take the lowest three. So in this case we take the lowest three, so let's say a 1, 3, and 3. That's a total of seven. Now there is a bell curve resolution chart. I don't have it in front of me, but basically it's like: 3 - Critical Amazing Success to 18 - Horrible Inept Failure, with 9-10 being a minor success and 11 being a basic failure. So then just add about a million situational modifiers at the DMs whim and you're set for how the weirdest mechanic ever works. Oh, and I guess we could look at how it works as a lovely guy. You're playing the terrified blonde and you need to determine which way to run. You use your Investigation (Int 4) and you have an Int of 2 because school is for brunettes. Also the Director says that there's a penalty to your judgement because a fat knife clown is closing rapidly and gives you a +2 penalty. That's a positive 8 total. You still add three dice. You roll 11 dice and get 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6. You take the three highest (positive score) for an 18 and decide to head into the dead-end alley with a big sign above it that says "Dead End Alley: Now featuring a blood drain!" theironjef fucked around with this message at 18:29 on May 22, 2014 |
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May 22, 2014 18:19
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theironjef posted:Sure. Your stats range from 6 to -6, with lower numbers being better. So (this is all of the top of my head, so forgive the loose examples), you take your Strength or Fitness or whatever. Maybe you are a jock, you might have a strength of -3. Skills work by listing a stat they work with, and a set normal difficulty. So for example, Drive has a normal difficulty of 4, and a stat of Dexterity. So if you don't have any points invested, you just assume 4 for your number (number will come up later). If you have points invested in drive, you can get a bonus applied to that skill, like a -1 or -2 to Drive. To do a thing, add the value of your stat and the value of your skill, so like say you're very fit and a good driver. You add your -3 Dex and your Drive of 4, your skill adjustment giving you another -2 to Drive for a total of -1. Take the absolute value of this number, so 1. Add 3 to that, so 4. Roll that many dice, so roll four dice. Now check what the value of your roll was before you took the absolute value. In this case it was negative. If you had a positive value, you take the highest three dice out of however many dice you roll. If you had a negative value, you take the lowest three. So in this case we take the lowest three, so let's say a 1, 3, and 3. That's a total of seven. This is also the only system besides Masterbook I've seen where the attribute range is 13 points (-6 to +6). Why do you have to bodyshame the knife clowns? #notyourgoodfatknifeclown
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May 22, 2014 18:41
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Halloween Jack posted:Jesus Christ, I followed your explanation but I can't imagine adding that up for every roll. It's much worse than JAGS, where you roll 4d6-4 (or 4d6, reroll 6s) because they wanted a 1d20 system with a bell curve. Does the author explain anywhere what kind of mechanical outcomes he was trying to achieve? The stats also have a one sentence thing in the middle of a paragraph of fluffy stuff that tells you how to assign stats. You put them out however you want though you have to end up with a total value of -3 if you add them all together.
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May 22, 2014 18:49
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Halloween Jack posted:Jesus Christ, I followed your explanation but I can't imagine adding that up for every roll. It's much worse than JAGS, where you roll 4d6-4 (or 4d6, reroll 6s) because they wanted a 1d20 system with a bell curve. Does the author explain anywhere what kind of mechanical outcomes he was trying to achieve? The author is your standard 90s heartbreaker writer. He thinks this system offers the most reasonably thought out variation on the weighted bell curve ever, and spent a lot of the book suggesting that this book would serve as a springboard for space adventures and so on. If you think his take on the generic resolution mechanic is weird, try out his damage scaling. Take the final result of your roll (so between 3 and 18 with that selection weight) and multiply that number by the damage range of the weapon you're using. Your pistol has a range of 1.1? Great, multiply your result (let's say 10) by 1.1. The result is how much damage you do. Well, almost. Take that result and then you do a percentage of that damage to the target. This percentage is listed under the type of armor the target is wearing. So if you want to shoot a shotgun (1.4) at chainmail (70%) and you roll a 14. Round naturally. So 14*1.4 = 19.6, round to 20. 70% of 20 is 14. Hey, you did 14 damage! edit: quote is not edit.
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May 22, 2014 18:56
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