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Davin Valkri
Apr 8, 2011

Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!
Oh my god, it's like someone took a Hind and made it even THICKER. Although they swapped out the pods and pylons for a fixed system, for some reason. It doesn't look cooler, it just looks more bulbous.

Although the idea that a swarm of upgunned Hinds can KO a god sounds pretty cool.

Davin Valkri fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Aug 11, 2014

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RocknRollaAyatollah
Nov 26, 2008

Lipstick Apathy

Cardiovorax posted:

So ten of these can kill a minor god.

...Siembieda has no loving clue how balance is even spelled, does he?

Only if that minor God is not protected by Islamist rebels armed with Stinger missiles.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 6 hours!

Davin Valkri posted:

Oh my god, it's like someone took a Hind and made it even THICKER. Although they swapped out the pics and pylons for a fixed system, for some reason. It doesn't look cooled, it looks more bulbous.

Although the idea that a swarm of upgunned Hinds can KO a god sounds pretty cool.
Whoso Rift to hunt, I know where is a hind.

Cardiovorax
Jun 5, 2011

I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.

RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

Only if that minor God is not protected by Islamist rebels armed with Stinger missiles.
Good thing those were all killed by the literal Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

BerkerkLurk
Jul 22, 2001

I could never sleep my way to the top 'cause my alarm clock always wakes me right up

Alien Rope Burn posted:

where theyr'e getting the depleted uranium is, as with Triax, a mystery.
Every vehicle or powered armor in the game has a nuclear fuel source, so I'm guessing from that (which raises the question of where they're getting the un-depleted uranium, but anyways). A lot of common vehicles can have gas or electric engines, but the none of the rules obligate you to chose those as your starting vehicle, so you'd be an idiot to not chose the engine that lasts for 10 years and gives your attached weapons a nearly endless E-clip.

Alien Rope Burn posted:

MP-23A Caseless SMG: An S.D.C. submachine gun, and if you put in depleted uranium rounds, it can do 1 Mega-Damage with a 20-round burst. Oh, joy. Only 700 rounds to take down some of the weakest armor suits! And only 5,000 rounds to take down a dragon hatchling! Congratulations, you just bought an expensive irritant.
I always loved the flavor of these weapons, since Rifts so rarely talks about the time between modern day and the apocalypse (until Chaos Earth, I suppose, which I never read). Advanced SDC weapons from the time before MDC became the norm was interesting to me, plus horray Fun Gun Pictures.

The problem is, of course, that SDC is mostly useless in Rifts. You still need it for hunting, even Rifts will tell you that, but even though the stats are a little hard to find (no giant porny gun illustration), basic SDC hunting rifles are very cheap and very plentiful. Plus a lot of laser weapons have an SDC setting.

Rifts again says some communities only allow SDC weapons, which is a weird distinction, especially since, as Mercenaries clearly spells out, you can cram MDC ammo into just about anything. However, as far as I can tell, they never mention any of these SDC-only communities in any of the books. So you're free to create one as a GM, I guess.

So what's left: maybe you can catch someone out of their armor and shoot them with your SDC gun. Or you can shoot them with your MDC weapon and finish the job in one shot. Hell, use a cheap laser pistol to minimize collateral damage.

BerkerkLurk fucked around with this message at 17:25 on Aug 11, 2014

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

The big military vehicle sections are always the parts of Rifts books I skip. Never fit the flavor for me, and the numbers certainly never add up right. Northern Gun would barely have the population to make a few ships, let alone man them, let alone man them and tanks and helicopters, let alone sell all that, and if anyone has a big functional military then the apocalyptic road warrior vibe of the world is replaced by "Well, everyone has nuclear ships and email, the apocalypse is over."

I'd always run games where if someone had a working naval cruiser, it was because it was a salvaged survivor ship, and it was full of insane pirates adopting fakey naval lingo and terrorizing one coast.

JohnnyCanuck
May 28, 2004

Strong And/Or Free

Cardiovorax posted:

...Siembieda has no loving clue how balance is even spelled, does he?
He wrote a rant in one of his books about how RPGs should never be balanced. I'll see if I can dig it up.

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib
Rifts always seemed pretty schizophrenic about the whole "post apocalypse" thing because on the one hand you have things that point to the post-rifts world being some hardscrabble existence cobbled together from the shattered remnants of the old world shot through with a bunch of weirdness from other dimensions and then on the other hand you have long masturbatory sections detailing various nations' military infrastructure and there are a bazillion corporations and factories just churning out tons of advanced technology and magitechnology and alien technology and all that poo poo, which implies that the apocalypse was really more of an inconvenience than anything.

Cardiovorax
Jun 5, 2011

I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.

JohnnyCanuck posted:

He wrote a rant in one of his books about how RPGs should never be balanced. I'll see if I can dig it up.
Please do. Because RIFTS is really not making me think anything except "you're deluded."

wdarkk
Oct 26, 2007

Friends: Protected
World: Saved
Crablettes: Eaten

Kai Tave posted:

Rifts always seemed pretty schizophrenic about the whole "post apocalypse" thing because on the one hand you have things that point to the post-rifts world being some hardscrabble existence cobbled together from the shattered remnants of the old world shot through with a bunch of weirdness from other dimensions and then on the other hand you have long masturbatory sections detailing various nations' military infrastructure and there are a bazillion corporations and factories just churning out tons of advanced technology and magitechnology and alien technology and all that poo poo, which implies that the apocalypse was really more of an inconvenience than anything.

I sort of like the idea of post-post-apocalypse, where there's been a somewhat uneven recovery going on. Not that I'd use Rifts for it.

Davin Valkri
Apr 8, 2011

Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

wdarkk posted:

I sort of like the idea of post-post-apocalypse, where there's been a somewhat uneven recovery going on. Not that I'd use Rifts for it.

Is there an official Fallout New Vegas RPG? That's the tone I'd go for for a post-post apocalypse. Unless I were going full Ghibli or something.

Mr. Maltose
Feb 16, 2011

The Guffless Girlverine

Davin Valkri posted:

Is there an official Fallout New Vegas RPG? That's the tone I'd go for for a post-post apocalypse. Unless I were going full Ghibli or something.

Yeah, Chuubo's already exists for that.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 6 hours!

wdarkk posted:

I sort of like the idea of post-post-apocalypse, where there's been a somewhat uneven recovery going on. Not that I'd use Rifts for it.
Even games that handle this kind of thing well in terms of setting are often dicey in practice--consider the Fallout games, which take place entirely within a pretty small geographic area. In the area where you start, decent guns and ammo are precious treasures, but not far away are random-encounter battles where the thugs all have laser guns.

There is post-apoc media where bastions of advanced and weird technology make sense according to its internal logic, from the Planet of Adventure series to "Thundarr the Barbarian," but I agree that it never quite gels in Rifts.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

It's almost entirely because the writers wank over military tech. Tanks and ships and jets are cool and easy to draw, so let's put in more than existed at the height of America's defensive strength, all housed somewhere somehow in a comparatively small chunk of real estate. Meanwhile you're supposed to believe that no one can possibly wrest Louisiana from the SDC dinosaurs and California is a vast empty wasteland.

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib
It also serves to highlight just how much of the threat the Coalition poses is down to Sembieda going "because I said so!" because in a setting chockablock full of power armor and killer robots and MDC mega-weaponry in the hands of random mercenary companies let alone the apparently numerous corporate enclaves littering the post-apocalyptic landscape, a bunch of illiterate Nazi chucklefucks with a hardon for skulls squatting in Chicago who don't even have the sense to use magic should be, at best, a localized threat but instead they're the big bad boogeyman (though they're secretly noble and really just misunderstood you guys) that everyone's too powerless to do anything about.

FMguru
Sep 10, 2003

peed on;
sexually

theironjef posted:

California is a vast empty wasteland.
This is realistic, though.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 6 hours!

theironjef posted:

It's almost entirely because the writers wank over military tech. Tanks and ships and jets are cool and easy to trace
Let's be real here.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

FMguru posted:

This is realistic, though.

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

Davin Valkri
Apr 8, 2011

Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

Halloween Jack posted:

Let's be real here.

Honestly, if writers traced military hardware the result would look a lot less derpy. Comic book style artists seem to come up with the dumbest ways to draw military stuff.

Davin Valkri fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Aug 11, 2014

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Kai Tave posted:

It also serves to highlight just how much of the threat the Coalition poses is down to Sembieda going "because I said so!" because in a setting chockablock full of power armor and killer robots and MDC mega-weaponry in the hands of random mercenary companies let alone the apparently numerous corporate enclaves littering the post-apocalyptic landscape, a bunch of illiterate Nazi chucklefucks with a hardon for skulls squatting in Chicago who don't even have the sense to use magic should be, at best, a localized threat but instead they're the big bad boogeyman (though they're secretly noble and really just misunderstood you guys) that everyone's too powerless to do anything about.

I always wonder about the water infrastructure of all these megacorporations in like Texas and stuff. They seem to be investing a lot of their capital in making warships and mutating dudes into experimental monkey-men, and I have to assume that maintaining a canal or aqueduct system would be difficult across the vast empty wastes, albeit extremely important if you want to keep your shop in fuckin' Texas. Did desalinization get normalized like nuclear power pre-Rifts? Or are they just using nuclear engines to run massive desal plants all over?

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib
I assume they all have special magic fusion reactors that can also function as water desalinators like that one movie with Keanu Reeves.

Drake_263
Mar 31, 2010
To be fair, all you really need for water desalinization is energy - it's essentially just distilling water, boiling it and then capturing and condensing the steam while the salt is left behind - and if you use vacuum desalinization for it to lower the temperature (and power) requirement you could easily run it off waste heat from a fusion reactor or similar.

That doesn't make Rifts any less dumb, though.

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.

Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


Zereth posted:

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

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

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:

JohnnyCanuck
May 28, 2004

Strong And/Or Free

JohnnyCanuck posted:

He wrote a rant in one of his books about how RPGs should never be balanced. I'll see if I can dig it up.

Here we go! It's from a 2009 interview on this blog:

http://www.rpgblog2.com/2009/07/mega-interview-with-kevin-siembieda.html

quote:

Game balance is ALWAYS a concern and a key aspect of every rule, power, weapon and character. It has to be.

You are right, personally, I do not like the 4e approach. I do not think it is the way to go – at least for me. Everyone is NOT created equal. These attempts at ‘game balance’ with characters that are all pretty equal may sound correct, but all they do is create an illusion of balance and fairness that ultimately creates (in my opinion) dull, boring, “cookie cutter” characters that lack personality and excitement, especially in a “storytelling game.” And role-playing games are all about storytelling and characters. Character who must think and be clever, cunning, make bold and daring moves, take chances, face impossible odds sometimes, and pray for a touch of luck via the roll of the dice. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but making all character fundamentally equal is not game balance. Being able to play a huge, diverse range of characters, in a huge, diverse world (or Megaverse®) is game balance. Having rules that are invisible is game balance. And I’m not just talking about Palladium’s RPGs.

Think about it. If we all played Superman, but with a different name, things would get pretty boring and similar after a couple dozen games. Where’s the challenge, the weaknesses, your chance to shine when brawn and raw power are not the answer, that clever idea that saved the day, that moment of desperateness as you face a foe who can chew you up and spit you out, and the challenge to defeat him one way or the other?

As for the Game Master. Storytelling games like RPG are reliant on the G.M. A great G.M. can make any scenario, setting and adventure, wonderful. A bad G.M. will make the best canned adventure or setting or characters one of the most awful experiences on Earth. It’s the nature of the beast. However, I have NEVER written a game book assuming the G.M. is fantastic. On the contrary, you have to assume the G.M. is fair to good and make sure your game is still playable and fun even if the G.M. is not the best. Of course, the G.M. (and players) gets better the more he or she plays, and as his/her confidence grows. Consequently, when I design a game or sourcebook or adventure, I try to consider how the worst G.M. could wreck it or abuse it. I then try to avoid those pitfalls, provide a complete description and enough meat and ideas so that ANY G.M. with good intentions can run a good, competent and fun game. It’s tricky at times.

What irritates me is that some people don’t seem to realize is that just because you, personally, prefer a particular game system or approach, it does not mean it is the only or best one. The beauty of role-playing games is that it is personal. If it works and you like it, you are good to go. That means there are people who like the 4e approach, or Palladium approach, or Role-Master, or GURPS, or Hero Games, and on and on. And ALL of them are valid, playable, fun game systems. One is not inherently better than another, they are just different, and you may – personally – prefer one over another, but that does NOT mean all the rest are bad, no good, junk, antiquated or anything else, they are just different. That’s one of the things I love about role-playing, it is personal. There are many rules variations. In fact, many gamers have variant house rules in addition to their favorite rules. That also means if there is a rule you don’t like, you can change it. Modify it to your own, personal style of play. Awesome.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 6 hours!


Chapter 4: The Explaining of the Characteristics, Part 2


Traits in Dune are like the Merits, Edges, Advantages, Flaws, or whatever else you want to call them when they show up in many other games. They represent special abilities or weaknesses that can’t be quantified as skills, and are divided into Advantages and Disadvantages. Like most games of its time, many of the disadvantages are roleplaying-related, and they grant extra Development Points. Like skills, they’re divided into the “Valor of the Brave…” et cetera categories.

The Valor of the Brave

Alertness (1): Right in front is probably the best bargain in the game. For 1 point, you get +1 to your Intellect (Perception) edge and a general “danger sense” ability that gives you a free Observation test when you’re in peril.

Bimanual Fighting (2): You can fight equally well with either hand. This isn’t just useful for two-weapon dueling or weak-hand shooting, but for sneaky attacks where you quickly switch a knife to your other hand before attacking. (This is a maneuver which is actually highlighted a couple of times in Dune, and which I’m glad to see shows up in the combat system.)

Dueling (2, Swordmasters): When using a dueling weapon, you have access to several special maneuvers in combat.

Heroism (2): You have a high pain tolerance. Any wound penalties are treated as a category lower, and you get an extra die to resist any physical trauma.

Immunity (1 to 3): You are immune to a specific disease, drug, or category of poisons. Immunity to disease makes little sense--how would you know if the Narrator plans to subject you to a plague, and what kind? Do you really want to pay 1 point to be immune to influenza? (Yes, it’s listed.) Poisons, on the other hand, makes a lot of sense. There are five categories of poison, costing 1-3 points based on their severity, so you could be totally immune to all poisons for 15 points total.

Latent Prescience (3): You start with a Prescience attribute of 1 instead of 0, and you can buy Prescience skills. This can be purchased during play, in case you’re wondering.

Olympian Physique (3): One of several Advantages that gives you an extra point in a Attribute, and allows you to raise it to a maximum of 6 instead of 5. Olympian Physique improves, y’know, Physique.

Prana-Bindu Conditioning (3, Adepts): Okay, so from a setting point of view, prana-bindu conditioning is the foundation of all the Bene Gesserit’s cool powers. Learning near-total control of their entire body’s musculature and nervous system is how they achieve superhuman powers of observation and martial arts mastery. But this advantage, on the other hand? All it does is allow you to enter a fakir-like trance where you need only a fraction of the normal food, water, and air to survive. The other Adept-only traits don’t even make this a prerequisite, so you could just save yourself 3 points if the Narrator isn’t paying attention.

Resilience (1): You get a bonus to healing checks, and so does anyone providing you with medical care.

Shield Fighting (1): You are trained in the art of dueling with a personal shield. In the Dune universe, elite fighters wear personal force-fields that can only be penetrated by three things: gases, a lasgun beam (which creates a nuclear explosion), or a slowly-moving object. Thus, the greatest soldiers in the galaxy are all experts with knives and swords, and fight with deceptive swordplay and expert timing (not to mention special projectile weapons).

Like Dueling, Shield Fighting gives you access to a set of special combat maneuvers. However, it only costs one point because it comes with a downside--since shield dueling teaches you to slow your strike just before making a kill, you take a penalty whenever you’re fighting unshielded. In the original Dune, this is an important plot point--but only in Paul’s first real duel, when he’s not only unaccustomed to fighting without a shield, but a teenager who has never fought to the death before. I think this is a case of focusing on a bit of the source material a little too hard.

Weirding Combat (2, Adepts): Oh yeah! This is Bene Gesserit kung fu. Adepts know how to channel their skill at observation and bodily control into mastery of hand-to-hand combat. They maneuver in ways that make it seem to their opponent that they are vanishing and reappearing, and strike with superhuman bursts of speed and precision. The “weirding way of combat” is actually what the Fremen call it, and if you’ve seen David Lynch’s film, the “weirding module” weapons were replacements for the Weirding Way because he thought that “kung fu on sand dunes” would look silly. Weirding Combat gives you access to another special set of combat maneuvers.

Whipcord Reflexes (3): You get +1 Coordination, and a maximum of 6.

Addiction (+1 to 3): You’ve seen this in every other game. Fortunately, the Dune setting provides you with a whole new array of crazy space-drugs to get yourself addicted to. My favourite is semuta, which is a combination of techno music and narcotics. I like Dune’s way of measuring the effects of addiction: with weaker addictions, not getting your fix means taking injury penalties, whereas severe addictions--say, to spice--results in actual injury or death.

Chronic Pain (+2): You have some sort of painful condition that flares up from time to time. At least once per session, the Narrator should require a test to see if you have a flare-up, imposing a penalty to all Physique and Coordination tests.

Physical Impairment (+1 to 3): A serious physical handicap, which can include missing body parts, blindness or deafness, or paralysis. It’s up to the Narrator to decide how this impacts any tests you make.

Learning of the Wise

Direction Sense (1): Why does this show up in so many games? I think somebody put it in a RPG sourcebook after watching The Great Escape or something, and it just got copied by other designers for years. Uh, you have a flawless sense of direction and you can accurately estimate distances. Go you.

Enhanced Sense (1): See above. You get a +1 to Observation sense where your enhanced seeing, smelling, etc. is relevant.

Imperial Conditioning (2, Suks): You’ve received the Suk school conditioning against taking human life under any circumstances, a conditioning which is almost impossible to break. You signify this with a diamond tattoo on your forehead, and by wearing your hair long and gathered in a silver ring. Of course, this means that you cannot be any kind of fighter or assassin, but it also grants you instant social status, as any Suk doctor can be trusted to give medical care to anyone, even a hated enemy. In practice, you get an extra die on any Bargain, Charm, Persuasion, Interrogation, Subornation, and Subterfuge tests, because your Suk status comes with a measure of instant trust.

Information Network (1 to 3): You have a network of contacts within an organization--your own, maybe an enemy’s. What you get out of it is up to the Narrator, as the rating measures the prominence of your primary contact and the size of the organization. Knowing a smuggler is worth 1 point, whereas a Great House advisor is worth 3 points. You can take this one multiple times to represent multiple networks. I think that it’s defined too narrowly for what it does--conceivably, one of the intriguers from the novels could have a ton of networks.

Linguistic Talent (2): You have an instinctive grasp of new languages, and get an extra die on Language tests (as long as you already know the language). However, you should not take this advantage, because your Narrator should not be using the rules for handling languages, because they’re terrible.

Machine Logic (2, Mentats): Your brain is like a computer, able to run other processes in the “background” while your attention is focused elsewhere. You can make an extra Intellect-based action during any turn without taking a multiple action penalty. “Off-hand penalties still apply,” so this is more useful for analytical tests like Observation and Mentat Trance than for disarming a bomb and picking a lock at the same time.

Mentat Awareness (2, Mentats): Uh...this doesn’t do anything. At all. The text says “Mentats instantly know when something deserves their attention. Like one wrong note in an orchestra, they can see that something is out of place...this trait complements the Mentat Trance skill.” But it doesn’t actually give any explicit bonuses or anything. I cannot see this Trait being useful unless the Narrator wants to ruin any mystery or tension by considering himself honor-bound to inform the Mentat player whenever there is A Clue to be found in a scene.

Metabolic Clock (1): Your fine attunement to your own biological rhythms means that you can always guess the time to within 15 minutes...unless you’ve been sleeping or otherwise unconscious recently. This is a great way to tell which players were too dumb to take Alertness instead.

Plasteel Will (1): You have “more willpower than the average person.” So, uh, a +1 to Charisma (Willpower) maybe? No, it just gives you an extra die to resist attempts to influence you, so it’s like a half of a half of an Attribute point.

Trained Intelligence (3): +1 Intellect, and a maximum of 6.

Truthsaying (3, Adepts): You’ve undergone the rigorous and dangerous initiation to proper use of the Truthtrance skill. You bear the title of “Truthsayer” which comes with 2 points of Renown (Prayer).

Brash (+1): Unless you spend a Karama point to counteract it, the Narrator can force you to take reckless actions that are embarrassing at least and life-threatening at worst.

Diminished Sense (+1): You take a one-die penalty to tests involving a particular sense. Protip: Be bad at smelling things, and use that point to buy Alertness.

Hypno-ligature (+1 to 2): Unbeknownst to you, the Bene Gesserit have identified you as a potential threat, and have secretly conditioned you to respond to a secret trigger word by freezing or falling unconscious. It’s up to the Narrator to decide which Sisters have access to the word, and it doesn’t explain the difference between the 1-point and 2-point versions of the disadvantage.

Perversion (+1 to 3): Ugh. Your character suffers from “moral perversion” related to some kind of obsession or compulsion. The key example from Dune is Baron Harkonnen, who is a homosexual pedophile and actively delights in disgusting others by flaunting his morbid obesity. It’s completely up to the player and the Narrator to work out the nature of the Perversion, how often it will be relevant, and how many points it’s worth...but what if you just don’t?

Pyretic Conscience (+3, Suks): The downside to Suk conditioning, the “conscience of fire” makes it impossible for a Suk doctor to deliberately harm another person, or even to withhold medical treatment. It doesn’t force you to be an ideological pacifist, but you can’t take any action to hurt another person, even indirectly.

Twisted Conditioning (+1 to 3): You’ve received a deliberately perverted version of the conditioning normal to your vocation, or the conditioning you received has since been subverted. The textual example is Piter de Vries, the “twisted Mentat” who serves the Harkonnens as a psychopathic torturer and assassin. However, it can also represent Adepts who have secretly been turned against the Bene Gesserit, Suks whose conditioning has been broken, et cetera. This is another trait with uncertain benefits and costs, and it’s up to the Narrator and player to work it out.

Justice of the Great

Assassin’s Code (2, Assassins): You are a trained assassin, and you’ve assimilated the rules of the Great Convention into your practices. It’s unclear how this is an advantage. Presumably, you will always know if an assassination plan is legal or not, and there is some fluff about extending “professional courtesy” to fellow assassins, and being able to receive the benefits of confidentiality and noninterference in return. Considering that assassins aren’t played up as point-of-view characters in the novels, this vocation could really use some fleshing out to make it as interesting as the other character types.

Ally (1 to 5): You have a friend in a high place. Someone like a colleague in an aligned House is worth 2 points, whereas a Noble of another House is worth 5. Once again, what these alliances are worth in practical terms seems to be totally up to the Narrator.

Commendation (1 to 3): You’ve been decorated or promoted for going above and beyond the call of duty. This is yet another entirely roleplaying-based advantage--different point costs lists different ranks, from lieutenant to commander, and fancy-sounding decorations like “Cluster of the Hawk,” but what they mean is up to the Narrator.

Compounded by Whispers (3): Intrigue, treachery, and spycraft are second nature to you. When you make tests concerning intelligence, propaganda, and interrogation, you can spend a Karama point for an additional drama die. (More on that in the next chapter.)

Highborn (3): You are of noble blood and entitled to call yourself Lord or Lady, no matter your vocation. You get +1 Caste (maximum 4). Perhaps you are adopted, or the survivor of an extinct House.

Honorarium Familia (2): Your House has honored you by naming you as one of their na-familia, the attendants treated like part of the royal household. You get +1 Caste (maximum 4), and you’re protected under the same Articles of Kanly that apply to royalty.

Magnanimous Appeal (3): +1 Charisma, and a maximum of 6.

Military Genius (3): House security and warfare come naturally to you. When you make tests concerning military operations, security, and leadership, you can spend a Karama point for an additional drama die.

Patron (2-4): You have someone powerful watching over you from afar--examples of varying costs include a Suk School Professor, a Spacing Guild representative, or a Great House noble. Rather than being an Ally you can actively call on, a Patron will “smooth things over” when you get into trouble.

Adversary (+1 to 3): Somebody in a rival House doesn’t like you, and will actively try to sabotage your efforts if given the opportunity. The point value is based on your enemy’s level of power--a professional rival in another House Minor is worth 1 or 2 points, whereas a 3-point enemy would be the officer of a rival Great House.

Bonded Allegiance (+1 to 2): The House you serve paid your way, and you are an indentured servant, likely to be treated as if your Caste was one level lower. That said, your indenture is only for a few years, so they’re not likely to treat you like dirt and see you sign on with a rival House.

Dual Allegiance (+2): Who says you can’t serve two masters? You owe allegiance both to your House and another organization, usually the one that trained you in your vocation. Per the text, the two organizations are aware of this, but of course there will be many situations where you will be caught in a conflict of interest. This is mandatory for Adepts, and common among Suks and Assassins who still have strong ties to their schools.

False Allegiance (+3): You are secretly working for an organization other than your House, and actively undermining the House’s interests in favour of your true allegiance. In a feudal society that still relies on vast networks of advisors, confidantes, and household servants, this is a dangerous game to be playing.

Renegade (+1): You previously renounced allegiance to another House. This hurts your Renown, and makes your current House suspicious until you prove your worth and loyalty.

Shaitan’s Bargan (+2 to 5): You’re in a proverbial “deal with the devil” to a rival organization, and they own your rear end under threat of death or worse. However, the details are entirely for you and the Narrator to figure out.

Vendetta (+2 to 3): In the Dune universe, Vendetta is an ancient word with a formal and rigid definition. A rival House has formally and openly named you in a declaration of Kanly, meaning that you are a legal and valid target for assassination attempts. The difference between the 2-point and 3-point versions is unexplained except that it is for you and the Narrator to work out. I figure that having Piter de Vries on your rear end is a lot scarier than some pissed-off House Minor nobleman.

Prayers of the Righteous

Contraband (1-3): You have access to some kind of equipment that you’re not supposed to have. This could be something that’s normally legal for another vocation (such as a lasgun or an assassination drone) or entirely forbidden and mysterious technology, such as a cybernetic implant or a device for disabling shields.

Hand of God (3): You regenerate Karama points at twice the normal rate.

Heir (1 to 3): You’re a potential heir to your House. One point makes you one of several possible heirs, while the 3-point version makes you the current Heir Designate, in which case, watch your back. And your wine glass. And your food. And your governess’ jewelry. And that prostitute’s thigh. And…

Human (1 to 2): For some reason, you got the attention of the Bene Gesserit, and they sent a Reverend Mother to subject you to a test in which you had to force yourself to endure agonizing pain or be killed. Having passed the test, the Sisterhood now consider you a genuine “human,” a person capable of mastering their animal instincts. They accord you a certain measure of respect, and from time to time you can call on them for small favours or bits of information.

Moralizing Creed (1): You have a code of honor. In exchange for following it, it’s possible for you to spend up to 5 Karama points (Narrator’s discretion) to boost actions that further your ideology.

Noble Title (1 to 2, Nobles): You are a member of the aristocracy, and you have some kind of title like “Defender of the Ream” or “Usher of the Thistle.” Most of these are suffixed by -absentia meaning that someone else does the actual work. Nonetheless, you get recognition and +1 Renown (Justice).

Prized Bloodline (2 to 3): Something about your genetics makes you valuable to the Bene Gesserit’s plans, and they will make efforts to protect you from harm and misfortune. On the other hand, they will almost certainly meddle in your life and career, especially when it comes to your marriage. Hopefully, they will try to marry you to a Bene Gesserit Adept because that stuff I said about controlling every muscle and nerve? Yes, that’s right.

Spice Diet (3): The spice melange, the most expensive commodity in the universe, is a regular part of your diet, and as such you enjoy the benefits of health and an increased lifespan. You get Physique (Constitution) +1, Prescience (Sight) +1 if you’re already prescient, and a 25% longer lifespan. However, your spice diet is mild and regimented enough to avoid spice addiction.

Terrible Purpose (2 to 4): You are “instilled with the overwhelming suspicion that [your] future is governed by fate.” Moreover, you feel sure that this purpose will put you at odds with your allegiances and convictions. This is an almost pure bullshit narrative advantage, but the Narrator is directed to give you free Karama points to spend on tests that accord with the secret Terrible Purpose.

Unrealized Potential (3): Couldn’t decide between Whipcord Reflexes and Trained Intelligence? This lets you wait until you know what Attribute you want to boost--at any time during play, you can choose an Attribute and have the ability to develop all the skills related to it to level 6. It doesn’t grant any boosts on its own.

Byzantine Corruption (+1): You have a particular moral weakness related to one of the seven deadly sins--no, wait, I’m sorry, one of the Orange Catholic Bible’s seven venal sins. Choose from pride, lust, hate, avarice, wrath, envy, or sloth. You lose a die on tests in situations where you’re tempted by your moral vice, and dramatic failures in these instances can lead to you gaining negative Renown traits.

Dark Secret (+1 to 3): You have a dark secret that could ruin you if discovered. Fortunately, we’re given some guidelines for the point costs. One-point secrets are listed as embarrassing (like having lowborn parents), 2-pointers are potentially career-ruining, and 3-pointers are ones that could get you executed.

Code of Conduct (+1 to 3): The negative counterpart to Moralizing Creed, you follow some ideological principle strictly One-point examples are merely tedious or time-consuming, like observing a diet or prayer regimen. 2-pointers are strict, predictable behavioral guides, such as never lying under any circumstances, and 3-pointers are life-threatening stuff like “always avenge an insult to your House.”

Genetic Eunuch (+4): This is a nasty disadvantage with both mechanical and setting penalties. The Sisterhood has determined that you have a critical genetic flaw that makes you useless to their plans for controlling the Imperial bloodlines. You can’t have Bene Gesserit allies or Patrons. Even worse, you must choose an Attribute related to your genetic flaw. You can’t develop skills higher than the level of the attribute, and raising the attribute costs double development points. The emblematic character from Dune is the Emperor’s closest advisor, Count Fenring. Just as it is in Dune, the text doesn’t explain if the character is actually impotent or sterile.

Rogue (+2): You’ve renounced all former affiliations, and wander the Imperium as out-freyn, an outlaw adventurer. Mechanically, it costs you a Karama point to participate in combined tests, as you don’t work well with others.

Superstitious (+1): Even if you’re educated enough that perhaps you should know better, you can’t help but pay respect to a great deal of folklore and supernatural beliefs. This tends to annoy your superiors and colleagues.


Those are the Traits of Dune. You can see a great deal there that’s typical of the Advantages/Disadvantages systems that were and still are popular in a lot of games. The most interesting features of Dune’s Traits are the ones that are most strongly tied to the setting. That’s because they’re the best and the worst--some have clear mechanical benefits and penalties, even ones that influence the flavour of the combat rules, while others do literally nothing at all.

Next time, on Dune: The rules!

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

theironjef posted:

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

Ahem. Yes, I'm sure we out in the Midwest do nothing but fight the neverending tornado wars, and grow no crops at all.

Isn't the Coalition in the Midwest for some ungodly stupid reason in RIFTs?

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer

Halloween Jack posted:

Hypno-ligature (+1 to 2): Unbeknownst to you, the Bene Gesserit have identified you as a potential threat, and have secretly conditioned you to respond to a secret trigger word by freezing or falling unconscious. It’s up to the Narrator to decide which Sisters have access to the word, and it doesn’t explain the difference between the 1-point and 2-point versions of the disadvantage.

The two point version has the Bene Gesserit writing 'for a good time, call trigger-word' on every dive bathroom in the known universe.

GimpInBlack
Sep 27, 2012

That's right, kids, take lots of drugs, leave the universe behind, and pilot Enlightenment Voltron out into the cosmos to meet Alien Jesus.

Bieeardo posted:

The two point version has the Bene Gesserit writing 'for a good time, call trigger-word' on every dive bathroom in the known universe.

Ahh yes, the little-known Missionaria Pranktectiva.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Night10194 posted:

Isn't the Coalition in the Midwest for some ungodly stupid reason in RIFTs?

Not all of the Coalition states are, but the most antagonistic and Hitleriest one is Chi-Town, which controls much of Iowa and Illinois. Other Coalition-dominated areas include Missouri, Minnesota, Arkansas, Texas, Ontario, and (disputably) Quebec.

Really, I haven't gotten to any books that actually give much of an origin for the Coalition, so I have no idea if there's some big reason given later on why Chicago is so important, but it is! Blame it on Palladium Books being a deeply midwestern company, I suppose.

JohnnyCanuck
May 28, 2004

Strong And/Or Free
I'll give them props for remembering that Canada exists, and giving it 2.5 books worth of material!

Too bad the material is so excruciatingly boring.

BerkerkLurk
Jul 22, 2001

I could never sleep my way to the top 'cause my alarm clock always wakes me right up
Rifts: Canada gives us the Worldly Sasquatch O.C.C. so it rules. Bigfoot lured into the human world with the promise of sweets and jam.

BerkerkLurk
Jul 22, 2001

I could never sleep my way to the top 'cause my alarm clock always wakes me right up
As for why the Domain Of Man is in the midwest, I think part of the Rifts apocalypse included a nuclear weapon exchange along with the coming of the Rifts. Plus Atlantis came back, which raised sea levels to the point that Australia has a big inland sea. Places along the coast got it the worst, like New York City is a flooded radioactive ruin full of the spirits of the dead and mutants. Unlike the Coalition, which, uh, just has mutants.

But then you have places like Utah that are radioactive wastelands (Rifts: New West) and not Chicago. I would think one of our largest cities would be on the shortlist for nuking.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Zereth posted:

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

I live in San Diego. It's mostly Southeastern California that's empty desert. The East County near here, where the Salton Sea is and so on, is insanely desolate, but it's not really the majority land type. Plus yeah, the Central Valley and the coasts tend to make up for the big terrifying dead zones.


Unrelated, here's our fine System Mastery podcast for your enjoyment, grown farm fresh in the salt air of an organic San Diego nerd basement (just kidding, no one here has basements): System Mastery 25 - D&D Set 1 Basic Rules. We're celebrating doing this for a year by reviewing something classic.

theironjef fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Aug 12, 2014

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

honestly, California is hosed when the aquifer is drained dry.

FMguru
Sep 10, 2003

peed on;
sexually

Robindaybird posted:

honestly, California agriculture is hosed when the aquifer is drained dry.
ftfy

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

It's cool, our backup plan is to die in the Time of Troubles.

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.
So, it's been a while since I've continued my readthrough of what is possibly the most depressing roleplaying game book. Half of why is laziness, half is because I didn't want to feel super-sad, and half of it is I plain forgot. Anyway, hope you guys are ready, because this is the last chapter: loving Auschwitz. :unsmigghh:

Charnel Houses of Europe Part The Last:
Behind the Wire: Oswiecim (Auschwitz-Birkenau)

by Robert Hatch



”Charnel Houses” posted:

We are told that the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for. Now, at least he will know what he is fighting against.
- General Dwight David Eisenhower, upon liberating the death camps

So, this is it. The last chapter, the big one: Auschwitz. The first words of the chapter are

“ARBEIT MACHT FREI
Work will make you free.

And it’s not going to stop from there. 2 million people were sent to Auschwitz, and few came back out. What they suffered through is pretty horrifying. And it had its effect on the land of the dead: Auschwitz is apparently the biggest Necropolis in Western Europe, and it’s not a very nice place.

After that brief description, we get a long section on the history of the place, aptly titled “A History of Hell”. I’m not going to go over the history of the real Auschwitz: a lot of people did that better than me. The first sidebar explains how the Deathlords of Stygia are scared of Auschwitz, due to its size and population. That many wraiths could pose a challenge to the fragmented Hierarchy, if they’re still wraiths that is… Another sidebar explain the “color” system that was in use in the place, with the color of the triangle sewn onto your uniform explaining why you’d been sent to the camps (red for political prisoners, green for normal criminals, etc.) Another sidebar talks of the Russian prisoners, their terrible treatment and horrible deaths, and of how they became Spectres in death, the few among them who had become normal wraith apparently having been destroyed by the rest. Their leader is said to call himself Koschei the Deathless, and to be particularly evil and terrifying. Later on, the Sonderkommando’s revolt is briefly retold, ending in their death. A further sidebar notes how, despite many groups in the World of Darkness claiming to protect the Gypsies, none of them lifted a finger to help the 20 000 who died at Auschwitz. Finally, the history of hell ends with the liberation of the camp by Soviet troops. The whole section was pretty drat depressing. :smith:

Next section is the Camp’s geography, first in the Skinlands and then in the Shadowlands. The camp has now become a museum, dedicated to the suffering of those who went through it. The parts of the camp not open to the public are slowly falling apart, rusting, crumbling. The museum is a huge source of Pathos for the wraiths of Auschwitz, often hoarded by the most powerful “for the good of the community”. Sometimes Spectres will scare the living who come to visit. A rather unfortunate passage mentions how there a lot of Drones (ghosts with no personality, simply repeating events of their lives and/or death) around and that they called Mussulmen by the locals. They’r emostly left alone.

Then we get the description of the “Dark Kingdom of Wire”, the Auschwitz Necropolis. The first thing to note about the place is the smell. It is apparently so terrible, visitors will take days to get rid of it. Next is the sound, a terrible dissonant cacophony (presumably someone is playing the Drakengard soundtrack on loop through the camp’s loudspeakers). Then is the giant cloud of human ashes that forever covers the camp, known as the Miasma. Sometimes it takes the appearance of Zyklon B! Then, finally, the camp itself, overshadowed by the four towers of the crematoriums. This is a happy place. :suicide:

The well-known gates are still present in the Underworld, with the war criminals who used to run the camps visibly moliated into it. They appear to be in agony. Some have evaded the vengeance of the dead though. Plot Hook! The description of the camp if horrifying and not a little disgusting: for example, a mildew of rotting human flesh cakes the entire camp and returns when removed, so most inhabitants simply live in human filth. Barbed wire is everywhere, as well as serving as the camp’s boundaries. Yeah. Anyway, there is a giant Nihil called “Sheol” where the SS Barracks used to be, the center of oblivion within the camp. Guarding it is a duty no one wants to do, but everyone takes seriously: from time, it “erupts” and hordes of Spectres come forth to attack the camp. The giant Kremas are the center of industry, as they are where the Soulforges are situated. No one stays in them after dark, when their flames turn blue and screams can be heard coming out of them. There’s a bordello, called the House of Dolls, with strange and creepy entertainment and corridors that lead straight into the Labyrinth. It’s Madam was decapitated, and holds her skull in her hands. Birkenau is mostly haunted by Spectres, with wise Wraiths staying clear of it. The factory camp of Buna, a few kilometers away, is held by a group of communist Artificers called the Collective, led by an old agitator named Stefan Brukovich. They have a large forge where Nazis are sometimes soulforged. In recent years the camp has become more isolated from the rest of Aushwitz, as they are starting to fear the corruption spreading there. And there are many barely-organized subcamps spread around, often attacked by Spectres.

Society! Well, it’s a mess. There’s no leader, or even leaders. No census or identifications (reminds people too much of when Nazi ran things). Still, the Dybbuks of Auschwitz do gather in small groups, called Kommandos or Triangles in a display of bitter irony. We get a section on “deathmarks”, the signs of their deaths that wraiths display. It’s about what you’d expect of people who died at Auschwitz, that is to say really disturbing. Then there’s stuff on the most notable Triangles:

- The Partja: ghosts of socialists who still believe in social justice. They want to reform the camp into something better.
- The previously mentioned Colelctive: old-school communists with a monopoly on Darksteel goods.
- Die Eingeistein: A brutal gang made up of former Kapos. They signed an accord to serve as a conscripted militia in exchange of not being thrown into oblivion and grudgingly keep their word.
- Kanada: A group of pawnshop and relic-brokers. They sometimes kidnap people to sell to the soulforges. Nice guys!
- The Sonderkommandos: A lot of those guys are still around. They’re not well-liked, except for those who rebelled against the Nazis at the end. :smith:

Aside from that, the black triangles, those who were “Aryan” and better treated in life, have become known as “poo poo-ghosts” in death and are the bottom-feeders of the camp. There are also large group of “Striplings”, spectre-children, wandering the camp. The pink triangles, homosexual, are pretty badly-treated by everyone, as most people died in the 40s, not exactly enlightened times. The Gypsies prefer wandering outside the camp, coming in to do work and when Spectres attack. They’re largely distruste,d because even today Europe is horribly racist to Gypsies. There’s also a few Jehovah’s Witnesses, who mostly keep to themselves and help people by acting as Pardoners.

Yeah, even in death, everything is :smith:

Then we get new merits and flaws, the first time new mechanics are introduced in the book. The first one, Tainted Humors, a 3-point flaw, transforms the Pathos you absorb into Angst when you fail a difficulty 5 willpower roll (all of it if you botch). While the roll isn’t hard, the consequences are terrible so I’d say it’s not worth it. The second one, Starving, a 4-point flaw, causes to look like an emaciated wreck, have only 8 health levels instead of 10, and when feeding on pathos you must make a difficulty 10 willpower to tear yourself away. Another one that seems really harsh and not worth it. And then there’s the Waffengeisten, Nazis moliated into being the Camp,s guard hounds. Their existence is suffering.

After all of this, we get the long list of NPCs that is in every chapter. I’ll only list the notable ones this time:
- Schlomo Ficzka, leader of the 12th Sonderkommando: a giant brute of a man, he’s the leader of the Sonderkommandos who rebelled against the Nazis. He serves as a guardian to the Camp, but his Shadow has become really strong.
- Rosa Robota, Polish jew and communist agitator. Brutally tortured and murdered for helping the Sonderkommandos’ revolt. She’s really angry.
- Joachim Steuben, a pimp and pusher and purveyor of horrible needs.
- Malina Prmystleskza, a doctor who helped others after she found herself in the camps. She performed many a “mercy-killing” on young babies so that they wouldn’t be experimented on by Mengele, and now sometimes help save babies by possessing their parents to perform the medical procedures needed. And sometimes when her Shadow takes over she harms them.

Finally, plot hooks. With the end of the Warsaw pact (this was the 90s after all), the players might try to help their descendants from beyond the grave, and act the hierarchy might frown upon. Another one has the PCs as heretics searching for Transcendence. Eventually, one of their followers eagerly attempting redemption is revealed by a group of angry Dybbuks to be one of the guards at Auschwitz. The last one has the PCs as Spectres, attacking Auschwitz.

Final Thoughts:
So, this is finally over. Despite being only 126 pages long, this book is really hard to finish, due to its pretty horrifying subject matter. It’s well-researched and does a good job of giving you an idea of what the horror was like, and the picture it draws of the afterlife is even worse. The writing quality varies greatly between chapters, the best one being the Warsaw Ghetto by far. I’d say it worth a read, but I’ll never use it for a game.

MonsieurChoc fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Aug 12, 2014

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Drake_263
Mar 31, 2010

...I think I need a hug :gonk:

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