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ZeeToo posted:Coming of Age (level 3) is a qedeshim/qedeshot spell where the sex priest turns the target from virgin to not-a-virgin, giving them a +1 to ability scores for XP (they pay, not the caster). Casting time: Yes you are. The effect got dispelled, so you're back to virgin city.
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Nov 8, 2014 02:52
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Which also implies that non-virginity is a magical effect that can be dispelled. Which implies that sex is a magic ritual.
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Nov 8, 2014 03:16
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Was it magical for you too baby?
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Nov 8, 2014 03:18
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I think the virginity loss is part of casting the spell, not an effect of it.
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Nov 8, 2014 03:27
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Night10194 posted:I'm really not as annoyed by Testament as I expected to be, more just kinda baffled. D20 is very much not the right system for community, mass combat, and the epic tales of peoples, but the basic idea honestly isn't that bad? Like, with a system tuned to actually handle that kind of stuff playing as an Israelite Judge or Egyptian Priest or whatever in an RPG would actually be pretty cool. It was the early Aughts, when the D20 System was the next big thing and promoted as this super-versatile framework for all sorts of genres and games. We had Call of Cthulhu and Deadlands D20 in 2001, D20 Modern and Afghanistan D20 in 2002, Silver Age Sentinels and BESM D20 (highly unbalanced anime game) in 2003, and so on and so forth. I believe that Testament was made by Green Ronin around 2003. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Nov 8, 2014 |
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Nov 8, 2014 03:58
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Yeah, I remember that period. It's just kind of disappointing, as a biblical/ancient near east RPG could be cool as hell.
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Nov 8, 2014 04:13
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Testament:D20 probably sold 5x-10x as many copies as Testament: The Standalone Biblical RPG would have, especially in the early 2000s.
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Nov 8, 2014 04:16
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Poison Mushroom posted:Which also implies that non-virginity is a magical effect that can be dispelled. Which implies that sex is a magic ritual. I dunno about anyone else but, in my PHB, sex is the somatic component for an earthquake spell.
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Nov 8, 2014 07:01
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Lucky. When try to have sex, all I get is Tasha's Hideous Laughter. 
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Nov 8, 2014 07:14
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Night10194 posted:I'm really not as annoyed by Testament as I expected to be, more just kinda baffled. D20 is very much not the right system for community, mass combat, and the epic tales of peoples, but the basic idea honestly isn't that bad? Like, with a system tuned to actually handle that kind of stuff playing as an Israelite Judge or Egyptian Priest or whatever in an RPG would actually be pretty cool. That's been my takeaway, too. For all the stuff to rag on, it's not terrible if you just don't let magic or monsters happen (just wait for the monsters!). The mass combat system isn't spectacular, but it'd run okay if "arcane magic happened" didn't clear the battlefield almost instantly. The community rules aren't amazing, but they're roughly functional. It's still got some rough edges, but it's not hideously awful. Baffled is a good word for it. Poison Mushroom posted:Which also implies that non-virginity is a magical effect that can be dispelled. Which implies that sex is a magic ritual. Sadly, this is not true. Coming of Age posted:One of the most important role of qedeshot and qedeshim is to provide and introduction to sexual experience prior to marriage, helping young people into their adult roles. Coming of Age requires the target to be a virgin, a condition that will not be true at the spell's conclusion. It's virginity that's a condition!  Now where's my Iron Heart Surge...
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Nov 8, 2014 07:29
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ZeeToo posted:It's virginity that's a condition! This just gives the Bloodstorm blade all sorts of uncomfortable implications.
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Nov 8, 2014 08:25
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These modern Pokemon designs, I swear.
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Nov 8, 2014 09:03
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 Apocamon!
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Nov 8, 2014 10:13
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Poison Mushroom posted:Lucky. When try to have sex, all I get is Tasha's Hideous Laughter. I think Tasha is just being mean here - maybe you should think about splitting up?
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Nov 8, 2014 14:34
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  When you used to play Cowboys and Indians on the playground, there was one kid who had a super-invincible forcefield. You could ignore them, theoretically, except they were the batman-power-ranger king. "Skins for the Skinless" was built by such a person, and the Proxy is the worst example. Basically, you're obsessed with Zalgo or Homestuck or Creepypasta. You have a mask, a subject who you torment, and you're trying to bring other people into your cult. So you're a Mortal/Queen/Infernal mashup, with Homestar Runner starting with 5 strings on you. You get a mask (there are a few interesting selections) and a name (helpfully suggested are "a unique name" and "a kid's name".) Unfortunately, we get to Backstory, and things get off the rails. If the Proxy is going to be balanced, the game needs to focus on them. The infernal is a great class, because their metaphor (addiction) and methodology (giving strings to the Dark Power) give a method of behavior that could fit into a high school. We all know that guy. The Proxy starts off with one string on everyone, and two more strings on their subject. They give away one string, plus five to It. Already the laser shields are up; starting with 3 strings on someone means you can gently caress up their day pretty well. The Proxy's base move is OK, albeit terrible; when you offer your subject XP to do something, they mark their advance. When you do it 5 times, they have to take a proxy advance. The Sex move replaces your Target with a new Target. You both mark experience, and you get +1 to causing harm to your new target. The person you had sex with now has to mark XP to taking a Proxy move. There's already a way to model spreading diseases/mind control (the Queen brings anyone she sleeps with into her gang). This one does it only for one person and is semi in game, semi-out. If your subject wanted to explore the Werewolf space and take 3 specific moves, you'd be handicapping them. The following non-core moves are so absurd, they need to be quoted in full: quote:Am I Interrupting? You can spend two strings on some- one to gain complete access to their home and identity. You have full access to all their social media accounts (e-mail, Twitter, YouTube, G+, etc) and may make irreversible changes to those accounts. You can also edit your target’s uploaded videos, inserting scenes, frames, audio, or text, either obviously or subliminally. You may enter their home with sufficient stealth as to record video of them sleeping, without triggering security, being discovered, or leaving accidental traces of your presence. This is better than the Ghost, who is a literal ghost. Overpowered, yes, think of it the other way: you've robbed yourself of all the drama of breaking into someone's house, learning something you didn't want to know, having a moral crisis...a good half of play is done away with. quote:DistortionYou can cause distortion in any photographic, video, or audio recordings of yourself. The distortion may range from mild static to severe interference. Anyone viewing or listening to the distorted recordings of you must hold steady; results of 6 or less give the viewer the condition Fascinated. quote:Path of Black Leaves quote:Masky And here's the forcefield. You have a nuh-uh button that requires someone to roll + cold to interact with you. Cryptic Bullshit is nearly a good move, but it's a stat replacement that allows you to remotely shut people down with dark as long as you use a creepy video. You get a +1 as well, which is better than other stat replacement (the Ghost has a similar move). The Collective allows you to attack other players when you gaze into the abyss. So, you have tons of moves to not be hurt and can attack/shut people down without ever seeing them. You're a mixture of a decker and serial killer, which I guess matches the intent, but there is 0 reason for other people at the table to interact with you, positively or negatively, and if that's the case, why are you playing a roleplaying game? Edit: 11/8/2014 edited for tone and completeness. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Nov 9, 2014 |
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Nov 8, 2014 21:22
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Also, for people who aren't up on their internet video series from five years ago, the Proxy is an open reference to noted Slenderman vehicle Marble Hornets, specifically the guy with a mask. It's openly a reference. It also doesn't really do much that the Infernal doesn't already do conceptually and it only has moves that let you be an incomprehensible stalker/slasher and nothing that really focuses on the whole "paranoid obsessive" part of things. Also, can I just say that it's really weird for someone to take a pack of playbooks someone else is writing up and writing a post about a skin that has four other skins between it and the point the other reviewer left off at?
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Nov 8, 2014 22:24
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So, do any of the Skins for the Skinless actually have a teenage analogue or are they all 'X Cool Monster Does This!'?
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Nov 8, 2014 22:39
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Night10194 posted:So, do any of the Skins for the Skinless actually have a teenage analogue or are they all 'X Cool Monster Does This!'? The decent ones do, it's usually how you can tell the good from the bad, if they spent like ten seconds to think of high school drama tropes to fit their 'cool monster idea' it's usually at least ok.
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Nov 8, 2014 22:41
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I don't get what the Proxy even does.
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Nov 8, 2014 23:24
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Lurks With Wolves posted:Also, can I just say that it's really weird for someone to take a pack of playbooks someone else is writing up and writing a post about a skin that has four other skins between it and the point the other reviewer left off at? It's weird but I really, really hate the Proxy. Some other skins are OK (the Unchained is good), some are broken-boring (the Unseen who can be played by someone not-at-the-table), but I woke up this morning with a need to decry the Proxy. Maxwell Lord posted:I don't get what the Proxy even does. It tries to murder people and avoid Slenderman. Torn from the headlines, except the skin predates the stabbings by at least six months.
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Nov 9, 2014 00:36
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Maxwell Lord posted:I don't get what the Proxy even does. References Slenderman. That's it. Wasted because having a psycho killer/fascination with a key target has so much potential. "Why do you run from me? Don't you see I love you! I can keep you safe! That's what the axe is for!"
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Nov 9, 2014 01:36
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The Proxy is the biggest heartbreaker for me because I actually like to concept of both a Slenderman/Creepypasta playbook and also think there is room in Monsterhearts for a playbook that isn't just capable of being hosed up but just unashamedly the bad guy. I think it's completely valid for a game about teenage monsters to question how we deal with someone who is just completely loving evil and won't stop doing evil things, because you can look at how that happens to regular people and also exactly what makes someone like the Proxy different from the dude who will flip out and wolf people to death if he's not careful. It carries a shitload of risks and I think groups that would use such a playbook should probably agree that it's a temporary thing with a large part of the game being dedicated to dealing with that character, but it's not an entirely worthless concept.
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Nov 9, 2014 01:38
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Tatum Girlparts posted:The decent ones do, it's usually how you can tell the good from the bad, if they spent like ten seconds to think of high school drama tropes to fit their 'cool monster idea' it's usually at least ok. Wait, Monsterhearts does involve actual, verifiable, supernatural events? I've been under the impression that all of it existed on a magical realism level of metaphor and the characters strictly exist as normal teens that are just being described as movie creatures. Although, now that I say this, I'm pretty sure the answer is "you can play it either way, stupid cis-het." I'm a feminist and a straight-ally, but I feel like I am so very not the audience for Monsterhearts. I'd never decry a work for pushing a medium in a new direction, but I just don't get anything about this game. But the quantity of content its seen here, and the praise its received elsewhere suggest that I've been doing a disservice by sticking to the tired old murderhobo games I and my group enjoy. I'm just not sure how I could pitch to them, "Okay, so, instead of being swashbuckling Space-Outlaws, we're going to be transgender Frankensteins."
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Nov 9, 2014 01:46
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ZorajitZorajit posted:Wait, Monsterhearts does involve actual, verifiable, supernatural events? I've been under the impression that all of it existed on a magical realism level of metaphor and the characters strictly exist as normal teens that are just being described as movie creatures. Although, now that I say this, I'm pretty sure the answer is "you can play it either way, stupid cis-het." Yeah, Monsterhearts assumes that you really are playing as supernatural high schoolers. Speaking for my gaming group, we've taken to it as a nice break from being swashbuckling Space-Outlaws now and then. We don't break it regularly, but it's nice to relax with on occasion.
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Nov 9, 2014 01:50
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I don't know anything about any slender dude, but that Proxy looks exactly like Halloween's Michael Meyers. Faceless serial killers would take a lot of effort to make interesting in a game about character conflict. Maybe if it was less Jason and more Rorschach?
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Nov 9, 2014 02:01
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Want to kill folks? Try the chosen or werewolf or vampire or ghoul or
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Nov 9, 2014 02:16
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ZorajitZorajit posted:Wait, Monsterhearts does involve actual, verifiable, supernatural events? I've been under the impression that all of it existed on a magical realism level of metaphor and the characters strictly exist as normal teens that are just being described as movie creatures. Although, now that I say this, I'm pretty sure the answer is "you can play it either way, stupid cis-het." Monsterhearts is essentially Supernatural Romance Drama: the Game. Twilight is heavy influence on it in the sense that the author is coming at it from the angle of "what if you critically examined the hosed up relationship politics of Twilight instead of glossing it over as ~so romantic~ and then milked that for a game of cutthroat high school drama?" Buffy is also a big influence where the various supernatural happenings were all metaphors for various growing pains and tribulations of high school life, but were also vampires, were-hyenas, mummies, and giant snakes. Personally I have very little interest in playing Monsterhearts myself but I still recognize that it's a quality project that could easily have wound up like every other RPG or RPG supplement that aims to deal with topics of sexuality and relationships, i.e. someone's skeevy wank-fodder or an excuse for boner jokes. If you aren't feeling it then don't force yourself to play it or run it, it's not like you're obligated to do so in order to prove your "good ally" cred or anything.
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Nov 9, 2014 02:18
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ZorajitZorajit posted:Wait, Monsterhearts does involve actual, verifiable, supernatural events? I've been under the impression that all of it existed on a magical realism level of metaphor and the characters strictly exist as normal teens that are just being described as movie creatures. Although, now that I say this, I'm pretty sure the answer is "you can play it either way, stupid cis-het." You know how lots of people have written about how Twilight and the general supernatural romance poo poo as a whole usually involves some hosed up concepts RE abuse and addiction and danger, and then other people write about the deep conceptual meanings behind the assorted monster mythos and how these stories have common cores to them beyond the spooky vampire poo poo? Yea those two people had a baby and it's Monster Hearts. You are actually a Teen Wolf but the point is when you literally snap at your girlfriend and shove her across the room you're...well a loving a monster and when she goes 'oh it's ok he was just angry at me' it's a really hosed up thing you should kinda be ashamed of. It helps that my group long ago accepted I'm a big gay stereotype and a couple of them joined me in many a True Blood or Teen Wolf or Buffy marathon/hate watch depending on the season, so when I said 'hey wanna play this fuckin crazy unironic conceptual RPG' most all of them went 'yea gently caress it we'll give it a go'. Like already said it makes a nice kinda intermission between stomping Orc skulls or shooting space robots.
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Nov 9, 2014 02:41
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In the end, Monsterhearts's a quality RPG, but there's no shame in it if it's not your thing.
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Nov 9, 2014 03:15
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Okay, so, I was actually going to post this up this weekend anyway. Sorry I've been slow here -- personal stuff has made it kind of hard to focus on this sort of thing. When I work my way down to it, I could skip over the Proxy since we already have a writeup about it, or I could do it anyway and try to go into more mechanical detail. I guess you all can tell me what you'd rather see.  (No, really, that’s the artwork for the male version of the Fury. No comment.) The Fury So, Carrie sure was a film/novel! This is another one of those skins that I’ve been told isn’t that bad in the past, but I kind of have to disagree. It gives out way too many conditions that it fails to ever do anything with, there’s a lot of unclear language here that could really benefit from some good, thorough editing, and worst of all its core mechanic is kind of fundamentally broken, in that there is absolutely no reason why anyone would ever want to betray this character. And the whole skin assumes that this character will be being constantly betrayed by everyone around them. Like I said, this is a Carrie skin. You’re a victim of chronic bullying and the idea is that people are supposed to trick you and hurt you until you lose it because oh no you’re also secretly a psychic and they’re all exploding now. Our metaphor here is pretty clear. That quiet kid who everyone picks on for years until, uh… they snap and come to school and murder everyone. Uh… Okay, so I know that this is based off of Carrie, which was written like 15 years before Columbine, but ignoring the Carrie reference, this is basically a school shooting skin. Like, literally, that’s the only direction this metaphor points, and I don’t think I’d be comfortable with this skin at my table regardless of its mechanical drawbacks, because I don’t think it’s being handled with a particular degree of tact here. One of your origins is even “abused child.” Which, to be fair, I’m pretty sure is supposed to be a Matilda reference, but still in this context it’s kind of on the nose. Other options include “experimental psychotherapy” and “government program.” The Fury’s good stats are Dark and Volatile, which is actually perfect -- that is the combination you pick when you want a skin to be loving socially useless. Without an easy way to manipulate others or defend yourself socially due to your lovely Hot and Cold stats, you’re forced to fall back on magical bullshit and violence in order to express your agency. Of course the skin kind of messes that up pretty well, as you’ll see. Skin Moves You start out with Futile Hope and two other skin moves. Futile Hope If someone is kind or accepting toward you, you both take a string on each other. You also get the Hopeful condition -- if you’re already Betrayed, replace Betrayed with Hopeful. If you are hurt or betrayed by someone you trust while you’re Hopeful, lose Hopeful and take the Betrayed condition -- you lose all strings on the person who betrayed you, and roll Dark. On a 10+ you always trigger your Darkest Self. On a 7-9, choose one:
This is a move where rolling a 10 is literally worse for you than rolling a 7-9, which is not the sort of weird mechanic you want to introduce into your Monsterhearts skin without a lot of consideration -- on a 7-9, you have the options of taking a relatively minor consequence like “they take a string on you” rather than going all Carrie on everyone. My biggest issue here is that this move does not do incentives right at all. The other player gets a string for making you Hopeful, but they really don’t get enough out of Betraying you to make it worth their while. This is a mechanic we’re clearly supposed to engage with, so why are the other players mechanically punished for doing so? You lose all the strings you had on them, and maybe they might get another string out of the deal. But by betraying you, they’re actually giving you a pretty significant mechanical advantage for like… almost all of your other moves, and you might also just go into Darkest Self mode and kill them. There isn’t even a move like the Fae’s Lure to give an additional benefit for betraying you, and Fae promises honestly don’t have penalties this steep for breaking them to begin with. The Eye You add 1 to your Dark roll when you Gaze Into the Abyss. If you get a 10+, you can choose all three options from the list -- you also mark experience if you’re Betrayed. If you roll a 7-9, you don’t get any benefit unless you’re Betrayed. At which point you get to take an option from the 10+ list instead of the 7-9 list. Weird wording there. It specifically says to add 1 to your Dark roll, so maybe this doesn’t trigger if you have a move that means you’re rolling with something else? The premise itself is another “a standard move but take more options” deal, which I’m not a huge fan of. It’s not like… awful, but it feels a bit boring to me. It’s usually more interesting to add new options than it is to just let you choose more of the existing ones. And yes, literally every move after Futile Hope is named after a film. Firestarter Roll Volatile to wreck poo poo up with your mind. Fire, electricity, telekinesis -- whatever. You can basically use this in place of Lash Out Physically to deal damage to someone. On a 10+, you do 2 harm and give the target an “appropriate condition” -- Burned for Fire, Electrocuted for electricity, Concussed for being smashed on the head by a table, that sort of thing. On a 7-9, you do 1 harm, give them a condition as per above, and pick one from the following list:
There’s really no reason this has to be a separate move from Lash Out Physically. Lash Out Physically is purposefully vague -- it covers any attempt at hurting someone else. So by default, you would assume that when the Fury Lashes Out Physically, they could be doing it by throwing a bookshelf at someone with their mind. This move’s existence, though, implies that the Fury can’t simply Lash Out Physically with their powers. Once again, we also have the thing where we’re given specific numbers for Harm, which is not really how the official content handles things at all. The Betrayed bonus… honestly feels a little tacked on. Like, it’s pretty clear that the intent here was to make it so every move benefits from you being in a constant state of betrayal and anguish, but it’s just not being done in a very clever way. Basically this would be a much better idea if it were something that added more to Lash Out Physically rather than trying to supplant it. Poltergeist … Except then, this next move actually requires you to Lash Out Physically with telekinesis. When you Lash Out Physically with your powers, the target needs to Hold Steady before they can Run Away. If you are Betrayed at the time, you also deal 1 extra harm. The biggest thing I see here is that this does not actually require the move to succeed for this to happen. It just says “when you Lash Out Physically using telekinesis instead of physical attacks.” So, even if you gently caress up the roll, the person can’t run away. Is this an intentional effect or is it just sloppy wording? Hard to tell. If it’s the former, it should definitely be clarified. Whatever the intent, though, RAW, this gives you a weaker version of one of Lash Out Physically’s 10+ options whenever you make a roll, regardless of the result. Okay, that’s kind of interesting. Too bad that it has like… the opposite of synergy with Firestarter. It feels like Topher wanted to have both, but also didn’t want to make the Fury’s Lash Out Physically rolls too overpowered, so he split them up into two moves. This doesn’t work though, because all it does it create two skin moves which are mutually exclusive in their usage and can’t build off one another at all -- it would be better to have nerfed Firestarter to produce a much smaller effect so that you could safely stack it with Poltergeist instead of needing to quarndon it off in its own superfluous damage move. Push You can roll Volatile instead of Hot to turn someone on if you do it with “empathetic projection to gently caress with their head.” On a 10 up, they give you a string and also must follow a “short term command of your choice.” It then says “on a 7-9, also give yourself the condition Creepy”, but that’s a really ambiguous statement. Also in addition to what? Turn Someone On’s standard 7-9 list? The additional action listed above? This skin really has editing issues way beyond what the three I’ve already talked about had. If you are Betrayed, they get the condition “Enthralled.” So, using Volatile to force someone to be attracted to you and then getting to tell them what to do is a seriously loaded mechanic to just dump in here uncritically. I don’t know if I’m super comfortable with it, to be honest -- I mean, there’s a lot of stuff in this game that is going to be disastrous with the... “the wrong group”, but this move in particular is toeing the line in a skin about taking violent revenge against bullies, so, uh... For those of you who are counting, we have so far encountered ~5~ special skin conditions in as many moves, counting Firestarter’s “appropriate conditions.” That’s more than any two standard skins combined already, and most of them aren’t there to do anything interesting. Scanners You can roll Dark to invade someone’s thoughts. On a 10+, you get a string on them and they have to truthfully answer one question. On a 7-9 you still take a string on them, and choose one from this list:
So this is a move you could potentially use to find out if people have been talking poo poo about you behind your back. It would be great if that were more of the focus -- this skin really needs more to help you get Betrayed in the first place. It does have that 6- condition, which I still hate, but it’s not that bad, all considered. Once again we have Creepy though, which doesn’t do a whole lot to justify a place in two separate moves. The Shining You can use Dark instead of Hot and Cold to Manipulate an NPC and Shut Someone Down. If you are Betrayed, you get a +1 to the rolls and the target gains the Headache condition (that’s 6 now!). So this in combination with Push means you never need to roll with either of your bad stats other than to Hold Stead, which is not a great idea, design-wise -- it gives the Fury an unfair advantage and severely reduces the number of complication-producing hard moves that they’ll generate. Which is boring for the whole table. Headache might not be terrible as a one off consequence, but at this point I really just want to see anything but another condition. Sex Move When you have sex with someone, you both gain 2 strings on each other, and you become Hopeful. For as long as you’re hopeful, your partner gains a +1 to any attempts to manipulate, hurt or betray you. … which is a great reason to never try to hurt or betray you, because they’d pretty much just be shooting themselves in the foot and robbing themselves of an easily manipulated psychic. I feel like this sex move is just presenting a broken narrative, short of you using the strings to bribe them to make you Betrayed. Darkest Self You go postal and murder the gently caress out of everything that moves, because nobody loves you and anyone who says they did is only trying to lie to you, and you’re going to make all those fuckers pay. In order to leave your Darkest Self, you need to be confronted by someone who has never done anything wrong to you, or someone needs to show you an act of kindness that seems genuine. So once again: Why would any other player ever want to betray the Fury, again? Other Stuff This time the moves are mostly usable by other skins -- they could even get the Betrayed bonus if they managed to get that condition put on them from some other source. So, that’s an improvement!  The Fury gets a gang advance called a Psychic Gestlat, which is like a gang of other angry psychics and this skin having a gang advance completely undermines the whole concept behind it even more than the basic mechanics do. It should probably just have had no gang advance, like the Mortal. Next Time: The Gargoyle -- “Oh, sorry, did you forget to take the Move that lets you walk around and actually do anything? Guess you’re just kind of standing there for this scene.” Gazetteer fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Nov 13, 2014 |
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Nov 9, 2014 03:53
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Gazetteer posted:
Fun fact, there used to be only one picture per SftS skin. Someone requested versions of the skins with both guys and girls pictured, and Topher added them. It's nice that he did it but it's pretty obvious which ones he didn't have a good idea for and just used a random picture that looked kind of relevant. Also, I'm up for another post on the Proxy later down the line. It'd be nice to have a calmer writeup of it. Also a writeup that isn't by a random goon that decided to write a post for someone else's review out of the blue.
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Nov 9, 2014 04:56
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I'd like a bit more info too. (How do you handle a Sex Move for the Proxy? Aren't they already their Darkest Self?)
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Nov 9, 2014 05:01
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I do like the idea behind The Fury, even if the moves aren't the best. It's a shame because I can probably relate to some of the themes behind it.
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Nov 9, 2014 05:14
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Xelkelvos posted:I do like the idea behind The Fury, even if the moves aren't the best. It's a shame because I can probably relate to some of the themes behind it. I think this actually highlights another weakness of the Fury which is that in a game that's all about high school drama and teenagers being awful to one another (plus magic and monsters), it's kind of weird to have a skin that's "the bullied kid." Even ignoring the rather awkward "have you ever wanted to play a school shooter?" sales pitch, the fact is that bullying is something that all the skins should be having a chance to weigh in on, be affected by, or perpetrate (sometimes one after the other), so having a single character type be built entirely around a thing that's liable to happen to every character as a matter of course feels kind of shallow and one-note, as does the overall arc of the Fury's narrative...get bullied, freak out, kill everybody.
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Nov 9, 2014 05:42
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If I were gonna go for a telekinetic/telepathic type person in Mosnterhearts, I'd probably want to design it around a different thing. (Leave the psychic domination to the Queen, anyway.) I'm thinking I'd probably go for the person who provides a shoulder to everyone. The listener, who knows who likes who and who's planning what and is always sympathetic... Until one day it all gets too much to deal with everyone else's bullshit, and they snap and start yelling at people and using all the trust they've been given against people and so on. (And, presumably, telekinetically hurl stuff at people.) Probably still Volatile/Dark, forcing them to do social interactions through their skin moves, which'd focus on being quiet and receptive and gain strings on people by helping them and listening to them and doing what they want rather than active manipulation.
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Nov 9, 2014 05:46
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Gazetteer posted:(No, really, that’s the artwork for the male version of the Fury. No comment.) Gain one string on someone every time they don't leave Britney alone.
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Nov 9, 2014 06:45
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Mors Rattus posted:If I were gonna go for a telekinetic/telepathic type person in Mosnterhearts, I'd probably want to design it around a different thing. (Leave the psychic domination to the Queen, anyway.) I'm thinking I'd probably go for the person who provides a shoulder to everyone. The listener, who knows who likes who and who's planning what and is always sympathetic... I kind of feel like this partially infringes on the Ghost's territory given that skin already has some of that "generally ignored by everybody, but you can also be the person that that they come to vent to before they go back to ignoring you again" going on in it, plus other interesting stuff besides. I dunno, maybe there's a way to do something with the base concept of "that one kid who has an invisible target painted on his or her back," which is definitely a thing I think everybody who's been through high school can recall an example of, but I don't think "literally Carrie" is it.
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Nov 9, 2014 06:58
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Kai Tave posted:I kind of feel like this partially infringes on the Ghost's territory given that skin already has some of that "generally ignored by everybody, but you can also be the person that that they come to vent to before they go back to ignoring you again" going on in it, plus other interesting stuff besides. The Roast Beef. Look into the Abyss to receive a hot bean dish or legislated meat item.
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Nov 9, 2014 07:39
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The thing about a Carrie skin is that Carrie was a singular movie. Unlike romantic sagas (Twilight, Buffy, True Blood), Carrie didn't have to school the next week. So after you have a big psychic blowup...you're done. If you're lucky enough to dodge an asylum, you gotta move to a new town.
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Nov 9, 2014 08:01
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Xelkelvos posted:I do like the idea behind The Fury, even if the moves aren't the best. It's a shame because I can probably relate to some of the themes behind it. Same. I'd change the Fury thematically into basically "what if the Werewolf's Darkest Self and their main person were not separate". Like. Think of it this way. Push a werewolf too far and you've got the wolf to deal with and that will result in blood and tears. Push a ghoul too far and they have to satisfy their hunger and that will result in blood and tears. The Fury can totally be the kid who's bullied, ignored or neglected. Hell, the Fury could even be the clinically depressed kid who just has severely bad days. But the power should not be separate from them. Their power is part of them. It doesn't get them addicted to lifting stuff with their mind, it's not the shoulder devil that demands they get their pound of flesh. The Fury should be the kid who knows what they're capable of and they're loving terrified of losing control. There won't even be a moment of Hulk-like "you wouldn't like me when I'm angry". You look at the people treating you like poo poo and you tell them, point blank, terrified, "I'm so sorry" as the locker doors tear off the walls and start flinging themselves at them. What if one day my depression is so bad I can't resist coming into school with a gun and shooting everyone before shooting myself. What if I'm crying my eyes out as I set fire to the library with my mind. I am so scared of my brain and keeping myself in control and I want them to know that when I say I'm sorry for what I did, I absolutely mean it. Then change the trigger for turning off the Darkest Self into someone accepting their apology or trying to break through to them and emphasize that yeah, this is part of you, but it's only one facet of you. Granted, now you have to absolutely rewrite the Skin from the ground up, but. Also please share the mechanical aspect of the Proxy, because that seems like a great idea done absolutely terribly and I want to see the nitty-gritty.
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Nov 9, 2014 08:05
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