|
Alien Rope Burn posted:Yeah. I remember playing in a Hunter game briefly using the oWoD and playing a firefighter-turned-hunter, and learning "axe to the face" ends up being more effective against classic vampires than pistols and rifles. It turns out a neonate with a little Fortitude can still wreck most mortals' poo poo, to say nothing of vampires with actual powers. As someone coming from nWoD where vampires are pretty much the chump shitters of the supernatural world, oWoD and its vampire supremacy is really weird. Like, sure, Mages are Mages and Werewolves are unkillable bulldozers, but Fortitude, Potence, Celerity and some of the unique clan disciplines are loving bananas. Holy poo poo.
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 01:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 07:50 |
|
|
nWoD vampires can be pretty scary, but it's sure not their default state.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 01:26
|
|
|
nWoD werewolves are kind of a pale shadow of their oWoD unstoppable rage monster selves too. I think the most powerful supernatural splat is a toss up between mages and geists. Actually demons might be up there too but I don't have any hands on experience with them.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 01:31
|
|
|
Yeah, nWolves kinda suck. 2e seems to be planning to change that, though. Geists come with a lot of power out of the box. They don't really improve too much from there, but when you can deal like five to ten agg per turn, you don't really need to? But it seems to be largely unintentional.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 01:38
|
|
|
The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Games > Traditional Games > World of Darkness: It seems to be largely unintentional
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 01:44
|
|
|
Kai Tave posted:nWoD werewolves are kind of a pale shadow of their oWoD unstoppable rage monster selves too. I think the most powerful supernatural splat is a toss up between mages and geists. Actually demons might be up there too but I don't have any hands on experience with them. Hunters can be ridiculously scary if you let them tool up. Task Force Valkyrie in particular has some hilarious endowments. Prometheans might be pound for pound the biggest heavyweights excluding geared up hunters. They're extremely difficult to kill, have a lot of powers, and are theoretically the most dangerous of any supernatural because of the sheer havoc they wreak just by existing in an area. Reality itself hates them, and the backlash against a Promethean who stays in one place for too long can be devastating, both the Disquiet and the Wasteland.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 01:51
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:Geists come with a lot of power out of the box. They don't really improve too much from there, but when you can deal like five to ten agg per turn, you don't really need to? But it seems to be largely unintentional. The Bound are kings of the mountain at killing things, ruining lives, being bloody difficult to kill and dealing with ghosts. Outside of that they don't have much going for them.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 02:38
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:Yeah, nWolves kinda suck. 2e seems to be planning to change that, though. Yeah, the 180 they did with Forsaken to undo the crazy/stupid parts of Apocalypse created a great setting but mechanically gimped PCs when compared to other lines. So glad that's being worked on. Rand Brittain posted:The Bound are kings of the mountain at killing things, ruining lives, being bloody difficult to kill and dealing with ghosts. Outside of that they don't have much going for them. When it comes to crossover, those first three are all you have to be to keep anyone sane from loving with you.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 02:41
|
|
|
Rand Brittain posted:The Bound are kings of the mountain at killing things, ruining lives, being bloody difficult to kill and dealing with ghosts. Outside of that they don't have much going for them. An Ulgan Promethean is the stuff of their nightmares, though.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 02:46
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:An Ulgan Promethean is the stuff of their nightmares, though. Ulgans wreck the barrier with the spirit world, not the world of the dead. They're an Uratha's worst nightmare, but at least they burn easily.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 02:51
|
|
|
Kavak posted:Yeah, the 180 they did with Forsaken to undo the crazy/stupid parts of Apocalypse created a great setting but mechanically gimped PCs when compared to other lines. So glad that's being worked on. Probably the most glaring mechanical problem with nWolves was that their power stat was renown. Meaning they had 5 separate power stats, any 3 of which you would probably not get points in because your Storyteller determines when you can level them up.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 06:51
|
|
|
Kavak posted:Ulgans wreck the barrier with the spirit world, not the world of the dead. They're an Uratha's worst nightmare, but at least they burn easily. True, though any Promethean's wasteland and disquiet qualify them as among the most destructive supernaturals in nWoD. Zeka have an incredibly nasty one, too, but none of them are healthy to live in.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 07:12
|
|
|
Kurieg posted:Probably the most glaring mechanical problem with nWolves was that their power stat was renown. Meaning they had 5 separate power stats, any 3 of which you would probably not get points in because your Storyteller determines when you can level them up. Primal Urge was the power stat, Renown was just an holdover* from Apocalypse. It's actually worse than the old system- there you had 3 categories with big long lists of what gave points towards leveling them up or down, so it was easy for the ST to devise a system where players got Renown automatically for doing stuff. There was no system like that for Forsaken, so they just ended up as giant XP sinks. I played a werewolf on a chat game for almost 10 months straight and didn't gain a single point of Renown, that's how bad it was. *Renown makes sense for the Garou because they have this huge, structured society with a bunch of positions and legends and all that jazz. The Uratha, except for the Ivory Claws, are very asymmetrical- the only tightly structured part of their society is the pack, and that can be resolved by punching the Alpha until you're the new Alpha.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 07:20
|
|
|
Kavak posted:Primal Urge was the power stat, Renown was just an holdover* from Apocalypse. It's actually worse than the old system- there you had 3 categories with big long lists of what gave points towards leveling them up or down, so it was easy for the ST to devise a system where players got Renown automatically for doing stuff. There was no system like that for Forsaken, so they just ended up as giant XP sinks. I played a werewolf on a chat game for almost 10 months straight and didn't gain a single point of Renown, that's how bad it was. Primal urge was your resistance stat, but each gift list other than the auspice specific ones had each renown type at least once as an addition to their dice pools. (So like. STR+BRAWL+PURITY and STR+BRAWL+HONOR) or something, whereas in vampire your power stat was the discipline that you were spending experience points on anyway. So if you wanted to use a gift and not have it resisted, in addition to paying the XP to buy it, you also had to spend XP on buying up your renown for that gift, and to do that your storyteller had to tell you you had earned said renown. I much prefer the Idagim Chronicles version of the gift lists.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 10:13
|
|
|
 Part 3: The Empire of Humanity As Wujcik points out, a RPG wouldn't be much fun without bad guys, so he created The Empire of Humanity, an autocracy with... vast amounts of technology and... hate everyone else... but they like dogs...  Yeah, we've seen this before. Again, I should point out that After The Bomb predates Rifts by a good 4½ years, so ATB is the one being ripped off here. The More You Know! The Empire is miles ahead of every other territory, technologically speaking, thanks to their manufacturing being done entirely by mutant slaves, although they're being phased out for robots. They have an absurd amount of weaponry, which I'll get to in a bit, and the only working fusion reactor in the world. It's not all good news, though; anti-government protests often break out, ending in exactly what you'd expect from a totalitarian dictatorship. Emperor Daniel Christian  "SFII: The Movie" M. Bison is tricky to pull off for even the most experienced cosplayer. His alignment is Diabolic, which means he's pretty much your garden-variety tin-pot dictator – charismatic, talks a big game and is always happy to make you the scapegoat if things turn out bad. Also, he can turn his entire body into stone! Yes, the mutophobic zealot has a mutant power of his own (to be fair, about 12% of his army have some kind of mutant ability, and it's not like he enjoys showing it to anybody). When he does use it, his Physical Strength gets a +8 and his S.D.C. goes from 66 to 600; he becomes invulnerable to pretty much everything, and explosions (including nuclear blasts!) do half damage. This power has slowed his ageing process down considerably – he looks about 40, but he's actually 96. This had led to speculations that he has his own private "Fountain of Youth". Just after The Big Death, he was part of a "renegade militia unit" that discovered the fusion reactor, which was being maintained by a peaceful scientific community. He quickly realised the potential, put all the scientists into separate labs, and used the reactor to found Technoville, capital city of The Empire of Humanity (It's also where Newburgh used to be... I think. There's a map that I'll post in the next update, so). He rules with an iron fist, but people still talk poo poo about him... just not for very long. Professor William Sybek  That sandwich doesn't look very appetising. He's Christian's second-in-command, and his alignment is Miscreant, which means he only looks out for himself. He certainly meets expectations; he's not a particularly brilliant scientist, but he's very good at motivating his "team", which mostly consists of scientists held prisoner by The Empire... turns out productivity soars if you threaten to kill somebody's family. He doesn't normally carry a gun, but if cornered he might whip out a death ray or something... just don't expect him to bother aiming it properly. He also has trouble accepting that mutant animals are sapient as well as sentient; he's killed a lot of brilliant scientists, simply because they were mutants. General Mike Ulster  I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M HOLDING BUT I loving HATE IT ARRRRGH Mike is the leader of The Empire's armed forces, and a Scrupulous character, which makes him... Good? Yes, we have our token "has noble intentions, but is surrounded by evil assholes" character! Good lord, this really is like a Saturday morning cartoon. Anyway, Ulster is more pro-human than anti-mutant; he doesn't have a problem with mutants - he feels the death of each soldier keenly, whether they're human or mutant - he just doesn't want humans to be wiped off the face of the planet. He's also a genius on the battlefield, with an extensive knowledge of military history. Luckily for The Empire's enemies, everyone else in the army is a moron that fucks up all the time. As a result, Ulster is always on edge, and can't really "switch off"... which is probably a good thing for The Empire, given that he's the only one who can stop everything from going tits up. The other noticeable thing about Mike is that he's a motherfucking cyborg. Most of the left side of his body is full of gadgets; he has an eye that has infrared, zoom and targetting (+1 to hit), his left hand has a Physical Strength of 28, built-in bioscan and computer and a mini-ion blaster in his left arm (he likes to save that for emergencies). On the downside, his hearts, lungs and kidneys are all bionic. Speaking of Empire technology... Empire Robot Armour Remember that fight scene on the cover? Well, the humans in the goofy armour are G-9 troops (so called for the G-9 rifle that comes with an Empire soldier's basic kit) wearing Type 2xd Robotic Armour, which we'll get to in a bit. The Type-1 Robot Armour (the ED-209 ripoff on the cover) has a lot of cute little gadgets – dual mini-lasers, targeting scope, retractable blasters, etc. - and has 1200 S.D.C. Not surprising, given that it weighs 1.4 tonnes. Whilst the Type 2dx Armour hasn't got as many tricks as the Type 1 (loudspeaker, targeting sight, radio com-link, a computer and ion blasters that do 5d6 damage, but can only be fired once every five minutes) and only give 240 S.D.C., the 2dx has a few advantages over Type 1 suits; they're a lot cheaper to make and pilots only need 3 weeks training, as opposed to the two months the type 1 suits require.  Fairgrounds got a lot weirder after the apocalypse. Ulster has his own custom suit of "full bionic armour" that he wears into battle. It gives him 900 S.D.C., and it only works for him. The Empire has a few other little toys; VTOL jet fighters that can reach Mach 3.5, tanks with laser cannons and helicopters that can do 300mph (interestingly, a few attack copters can manage just a little over that nowadays) but it's all window dressing to make the Empire look cool.   Here's what the suits look like in 2nd Ed. In 2nd Edition, everything gets an upgrade; Type-1 suits now weigh 2 tonnes and the Type 2xd get an energy pistol and a helmet with a sweet HUD and gas mask. Strangely, their LC-12 attack helicopters now only manage 250mph.  There are also the Type 3 Security bots, but they're as stupid as they are deadly – they get fooled by mutants with Full and Perfect Looks, have no concept of "taking cover" and often kill humans at random. Other than that, they work fine! They look like rejected concept art for the Battlestar Galactica reboot. New Kennel Dogs are pretty much the only species that gets along with The Empire on the whole, because MAN'S BEST FRIEND AMIRITE. They were fully integrated into The Empire a decade ago, but after certain factions within the dogs started making a ruckus, so now they all live where New Jersey used to be. According to 2nd Edition, their trade is almost entirely agricultural, thanks to The Empire constantly making GBS threads on them, with only a few manufacturing plants allowed. Technologically speaking, they're turn of the century... the 19th Century, that is. New Kennel's run by Yaster and Yasbal, greyhound twins who are puppet rulers chosen by Christian. They help spread pro-Empire propaganda, and keep the citizens under The Empire's rule. Interestingly, the twins (gently caress you, I'm not typing out those stupid names again) really do believe that Christian will give dogs full citizenship, provided they prove that they're all loyal. They'd better go on thinking that; Christian's bugged their offices, and he's perfectly fine with removing them if they show signs of becoming more independent. Also, they have 80% Ventriloquism, because Palladium. v  v Who's a good soldier? You are! Yes, you are! Military-wise, they're entirely dependent on Empire tech. They've got almost three dozen tanks, and 6,500 Empire soldiers stationed within New Kennel, but those troops don't answer to any dogs. New Kennel's "Air Force" does little more than ferry its politicians around, which isn't surprising considering it's made up of 15 helicopters and 23 transport planes. In terms of local manpower, there's a National Guard that's made up of about 15% of the population, most of which keep their crappy old rifles at home. There's also the NAI (National Army of the Interior), but they're just the Service d'ordre Légionnaire to New Kennel's Vichy France. Moira Alpland is the owner of a nice little clothing store. She's a lovely, cheery soul... who also happens to moonlight as The Spider, head of the New Kennel resistance movement – currently about 20-30 dogs who take part in weekly raids in Empire territory or New Kennel. Huge rewards have been posted by officials from The Empire and New Kennel, but no NAI operative has come close to capturing her (they don't even know The Spider is a woman, and neither does the resistance – it's safer for her that way). This is partly because she's a master of disguise; she's even passed for a human, even though she's actually a coyote. Another interesting little bit from 2nd Edition; an attempt to breed genetically pure humans kind of hit the fan when it turned out most of the results turned out to be half-pig. Not the kind of people to throw a terrible idea away, they decided to clone two dozen "perfect" children a whole bunch, billing them as "The Future of The Empire". This was fine right up until they turned seven, when they tried to destroy The Empire with their terrifying psychic powers in a bid to cull the "impure" humans i.e. everybody else. They were only stopped by outside help, in the form of The Three-Eyed Elephants of Ganesh, India's theocracy (we'll get to them later, I promise) which only rubbed salt into the wounds. Needless to say, The Empire isn't as hopeful for the future as it once was. Next time: All the other places! Eldad Assarach fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Nov 17, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 04:13
|
|
|
If these guys sound familiar - a pro-human, technologically advanced country led by a tinpot dictator with mutated dog flunkies - that's because they'd be given a skull-intensive makeover for a certain later Palladium game. I actually find Christian more interesting than his successor in Rifts, Prosek, because he has that edge of hypocrisy inventive PCs can use against him, being a mutant railing against other mutants. He has a grand total of two notes, as opposed to Prosek's one note.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 07:37
|
|
|
 Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era, part 11 Last time, we started the Israelite-themed monsters. Today, we finish them up. Demons? Azazel is first up. Testament quotes Leviticus 16:7-10 here, but puts "Azazel" in where translations I'm familiar with put "scapegoat". There's probably reason for that, but it's beyond me.  Azazel is a unique demon who hangs around in the wilderness outside Israel, eating goats and sins. Despite only being 22 CR, Azazel is a 40 HD, DR 30, fast healing 30 monster who's just this side of indestructible. Also he can fly. He can cast at-will quickened enervation, wall of fire, greater dispelling and a few other things. On the non-quickened side, be ready for two/day apiece disjunction, storm of vengeance and firestorm. He gets bonuses against those with negative piety, but, uh, we've already established that it's both easy and a good thing to keep your piety really high. Basically this guy looks annoying as all hell to use. The guy is slinging around disjunction and negative levels. He's ability damage away from being the platonic ideal Stop The Game And Recalculate Your Character monster. Next up is the Possessor Demon. Dinky little monsters who possess someone else to let them do the fighting. There's a template for when they possess the target. DR, energy resistance, no (other) mind control works, done. It doesn't even give a CR change. Tempter Devils don't make any distinction between devils and demons because... well, that's kind of a pure D&D-ism. These guys let you turn your piety into bonuses on rolls, which is probably inferior to not losing your piety and using it repeatedly to do things like 'cast spells'. Of course, since your piety is capped and you get more twice a week, you could also keep a tempter devil around to let you clutch improve your rolls. It would be pretty hard to manage this, since the demon is probably going to use its abilities to cast illusions and mind control on you to do bad things, too. Sin Dragons are a bit later on. You didn't think we were doing to skip dragons, now did you? These guys are comparable to white dragons, but instead of ice, they get bonuses against targets with negative piety. We get it, negative piety bad.  Half of their breath weapon is negated by a piety check. The other half is reflex and it's merely normal fire. As the dragon gets stronger, their breath can also apply demonic possession or enervation, but, uh, high piety blocks those out. They don't get good spell-like abilities. They don't get sorcerer spells. They do get a special Divine Vulnerability, where a good person can use divination and maybe a quest to get a special weakness to automatically one-shot the dragon, no save. I guess maybe, if it's way out of your power range? These are the most pathetic of all dragons if you're nominally a good person. Leviathan is a unique CR 22 aquatic monster with no art and no description beyond "crocodile-headed". His unique gimmick is using control water to get new places to swim in, so don't think you're safe just because you're up a mountain. This colossal swimming indescribable thing might be lurking in the ledge above you, ready to pounce down on you and make his, uh, seven bite attacks. Sure. He's not even got all that bad a hide check, really, so he might actually be able to ambush you if you're unlucky. Nephilim are giants with 6 innate HD, darkvision, a long lifespan and literally nothing else. Underwhelming for a group so terrifying that the Lord flooded the earth to deal with them. He didn't even get them all! So much for all life perishing from the earth. There's also the Half-Nephilim template. A size increase if you're no bigger than Medium, some buffed str/con. Rephaim are at least a bit more interesting. These are the undead of Flood-drowned Nephilim. Their touch spreads the chill of the grave, their mournful cry sends people flying for higher ground to escape the seas... no matter how far they are from water... hey, these guys get a stamp of approval. That's good, useful stuff. Sea goats are aquatic rams hundreds of feet long who charge at least a quarter of a mile through water to sink ships. I don't know who came up with this or why, but sure. Why not. Ziz are neutral good birds that eat sea goats and dragons, and their song heals people with positive piety modifiers and hurt those with negative. Why are we given only alignments for monsters, and not piety scores, anyway? Anyway, they can also wade in any depth of water. If they feel like wading out into the deep ocean, their legs just extend thousands of feet. Got a problem with that? Next time: some Babylonian monsters. There might be a nipple! There will be a much less pathetic dragon, but like Behemoth, it's got some inconsistent art. ZeeToo fucked around with this message at 09:38 on Nov 17, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 09:36
|
|
|
With regards to scapegoats and Azazel, there's a lot of really interesting stuff going around here: the term scapegoat comes from the Old Testament when as part of the celebrations of the Day of Atonement one goat was chosen as a sacrifice for the Lord and another was presented to the Lord before being sent into the wilderness "for Azazel." The latter goat is where the term scapegoat comes from, as the goat was seen as carrying the sins of the people and its sacrifice was meant to absolve those sins. Now, what Azazel actually means is open to interpretation: there's a mountain called Mount Azazel from which these scapegoats were traditionally hurled against the rocks, but apparently Azazel can also be taken to mean "absolute removal." Which of these predates which is anyone's guess. If that wasn't confusing enough, Azazel also appears as one of the angels who rebelled against the Lord in some apocryphal writings, where after his rebellion he was tied to the jagged rocks at the base of a mountain as punishment. So, what's probably going on is a mix of the three: you've got a ritual of purification mixing with a story of a rebellious angel bound to the base of a mountain, that same mountain also becoming the place where the ritual takes place. Once all this jumbled cultural and religious tradition makes its way to Europe, Christian demonology translates Azazel into a cut and dried demon. e: Nephilim being giants is also pretty interesting: I remember back when I was actively involved with my local church's youth activities I was constantly confused about there suddenly being giants in the Old Testament. During Bible studies our youth minister told us that it stemmed from early Bible translators not bothering to find out what Nephilim meant and going "gently caress, they're giants now." I do recall that in the Hebrew stories the Nephilim were described as being large in stature, but classing them as literal giants is weird as gently caress because they were, to my knowledge, more like half man half fallen angel. The Bible is weird is what I'm saying. Ratpick fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Nov 17, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 10:43
|
|
|
ZeeToo posted:Sin Dragons are a bit later on. You didn't think we were doing to skip dragons, now did you? These guys are comparable to white dragons, but instead of ice, they get bonuses against targets with negative piety. We get it, negative piety bad. Awhile back I was in a Fantasy Craft game that used a lot of Christian mythology, and one thing the GM generally chose to ignore was that most monsters in Christian mythology can just be warded off by piety and prayer. Accurate, but it's not that exciting for an adventure game whenever faced by a monster to drop to your knees, think of Jesus, and call it a day. ZeeToo posted:Sea goats are aquatic rams hundreds of feet long who charge at least a quarter of a mile through water to sink ships. I don't know who came up with this or why, but sure. Why not. The Sumerians did. It was part of Enki's symbology, which later became the astrological symbol known as Capricorn in Greek mythology. It's really more of a Greek myth, though, and not much to do with sinking boats as far as I can tell.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 13:13
|
|
|
Azazel and sea goats have already been covered, so I guess I'll grab this one.ZeeToo posted:Leviathan is a unique CR 22 aquatic monster with no art and no description beyond "crocodile-headed". His unique gimmick is using control water to get new places to swim in, so don't think you're safe just because you're up a mountain. This colossal swimming indescribable thing might be lurking in the ledge above you, ready to pounce down on you and make his, uh, seven bite attacks. Sure. He's not even got all that bad a hide check, really, so he might actually be able to ambush you if you're unlucky.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 13:29
|
|
|
Quick Skins for the Skinless update: I remembered that my compiled PDF is slightly out of date, and the two newest Skins for the Skinless are not included in it. I still plan on still doing those, though, so the new order is going to look like this -- I've bolded the new ones:
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 13:45
|
|
|
Ratpick posted:e: Nephilim being giants is also pretty interesting: I remember back when I was actively involved with my local church's youth activities I was constantly confused about there suddenly being giants in the Old Testament. During Bible studies our youth minister told us that it stemmed from early Bible translators not bothering to find out what Nephilim meant and going "gently caress, they're giants now." I do recall that in the Hebrew stories the Nephilim were described as being large in stature, but classing them as literal giants is weird as gently caress because they were, to my knowledge, more like half man half fallen angel. The Bible is weird is what I'm saying. I believe one of the interpretations is that they were giants among men in terms of power. I've been researching them for a game project and there aren't many references to them. One problem with the Old Testament is that there was the Oral Torah so you're missing part of the information and most of the listeners would be familiar with things. The job of the Torah was not to be a book for everyone but as a written record for those who were allowed to read the Torah.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 16:07
|
|
|
Fossilized Rappy posted:Azazel and sea goats have already been covered, so I guess I'll grab this one. drat, you're good:  Alien Rope Burn posted:The Sumerians did. It was part of Enki's symbology, which later became the astrological symbol known as Capricorn in Greek mythology. It's really more of a Greek myth, though, and not much to do with sinking boats as far as I can tell. If it's Sumerian, I wonder why they filed it under Israelite monsters instead of Babylonian/Mesopotamian? Everyone else, too. It's interesting to see details that I just plain don't know about Israelite/etc mythology.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 16:56
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:If these guys sound familiar - a pro-human, technologically advanced country led by a tinpot dictator with mutated dog flunkies - that's because they'd be given a skull-intensive makeover for a certain later Palladium game. I actually find Christian more interesting than his successor in Rifts, Prosek, because he has that edge of hypocrisy inventive PCs can use against him, being a mutant railing against other mutants. He has a grand total of two notes, as opposed to Prosek's one note. I quite like the concept behind General Ulster as "reasonable guy who doesn't want everything to get hosed up", simply because he seems to be a kind of metaplotty way for somebody reasonable to be put in charge of The Empire if Christian got offed in some way.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 18:52
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:If these guys sound familiar - a pro-human, technologically advanced country led by a tinpot dictator with mutated dog flunkies - that's because they'd be given a skull-intensive makeover for a certain later Palladium game. I actually find Christian more interesting than his successor in Rifts, Prosek, because he has that edge of hypocrisy inventive PCs can use against him, being a mutant railing against other mutants. He has a grand total of two notes, as opposed to Prosek's one note. To be honest, it's a rather common trope, with the dictator really being part of the minority that'he's oppressing. I recall the computer game Bad Blood had a similar plotline, with it's human supremacist ruler having the mutant ability of regeneration, and there's the unsubstantiated rumors of Hitler being half-Jewish due to a grandmother. If this guy could turn his skin to stone at will, why did he become some sort of tinpot dictator instead of Kiba Daioh from Fist Of The North Star?
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2014 21:55
|
|
|
You'd better answer the call of nature first, cause this is a long one! Part 4: The other territories  Here's a pretty nice map. All the goons on the west coast, have fun figuring out how the downfall of civilisation has messed with state borders! Cardania Cardania's a pretty nice place to live, all in all. The hydro-electric drat means the economy's good, there's no tension between species (even humans are accepted!) and it's an honest-to-God democracy. If you had to pick a flaw with it, it'd be the constant attacks from their technologically superior neighbours, The Empire of Humanity. That, and it's where Delaware and Virginia used to be.  Cardania is outgunned by The Empire to such a degree that it's not even funny. Cardania's Navy is mostly staffed by assholes who are more interested in playing pirates, their Air force is a joke and their ground troops have a noticeable lack of robot death-suits.  Their leader, President Thana Foxline, is pro-human... but even she knows that the only way her people can be safe is if The Empire is destroyed.The Plains of Free Cattle As the name suggests, they're mostly buffalo, deer, cows, horses, etc. Their exact boundary lines are a bit fuzzy – they claim to span as far as "the other ocean" – but it's more or less where Tennessee used to be, along with a bit of North Carolina and I think some of Georgia. They're a lot less centralised than the other territories, and one of the most anti-human. That's mostly down to their leader Weschek the Wise, a horse who's sometimes a little esoteric and hard to understand, but is "good-natured"... except when he's preaching for the destruction of the "evil humans". On the other hand, he was gelded by humans before The Big Death, and often uses this as a visual demonstration whenever he's questioned on his beliefs. No, I'm not making this up. The Rodent Cartel of Filly Yes, this is Philadelphia; apparently this city was ravaged by chemical weapons, as opposed to nuclear bombs like everywhere else was. It's pretty much this setting's Bartertown, only instead of Tina Turner it's run by The Rodent Cartel. Unlike Bartertown, though, there are some rules – the Cartel realise that they're the only truly neutral place (they even trade to The Empire, albeit through New Kennel), so they have well-armed mercenaries patrolling the city at all times to keep everything relatively quiet. The Cartel also give out permits to archaeologists so they can explore "The Wild Philly", a lawless shithole that's also filled with artefacts of pre-Big Death culture. N'Yak Go on, guess where this used to be. It's pretty much Fist of The North Star: Furry Edition here – crumbling masonry, sadistic gangs, the whole works (although most gangs don't have guns, and the ones that do only hang onto them until their ammo runs out). The only reason any outsiders go there is for pre-Big Death stuff; it's assumed that that's where the really valuable artefacts are. Bird Island It's where Long Island was, and while it's not as bad as N'Yak, it's not great either. It's now a bird supremacist autocracy run by Isaac Crow, who loves clipping the wings of criminals, fermenting anti-human and anti-bat sentiments, and executing traitors and "invaders" (basically, anybody who had the bad luck to wind up on Bird Island). He also dreams of invading the mainland some day, which is probably why he's busy keeping his munitions factories a secret.  I'd use some 1st Edition art to break up this wall of text, but to be honest there's not that much. Besides, gun-toting parrot. Contested Lands The Plains of Free Cattle and New Kennel have shitfits over this every now and again, with Cardania trying to make sure neither group gets what they want whilst staying directly out of things. We're not told why, but it's presumably something to do about expanding Empire territory or some bullcrap. The North As you'd expect, it's a harsh place, inhabited with Wolf Barbarians (there are also dogs and coyotes, but marketing's important for these guys). There are also rumours of a Northern Free State, and these weird things known as "glaciers"... The South There are a bunch of free states and towns there, but what with The Free Cattle inbetween them and Cardania, they tend to keep to themselves. There's also a huge swing in technological ability from town to town - one place can be almost up to pre-Big Death technology, and another just a few hours walk could be some shithole straight out of the 17th century. Gatorland It's pretty much one big marshy swamp... or a swampy marsh, it depends where you live. It's actually a pretty chill place to live, thanks to The Gang of Four; they're a ninja clan, of sorts, who live according to the tenets of Eastern philosophy, and made Gatorland into a prosperous nation. They send ninja operatives throughout the East Coast, mostly in Cardania and Filly.  Yeah, this guy isn't familiar in any way... That's 1st Ed - nothing too exhaustive, but it's not trying to be. 2nd Edition is, as you'd expect, a little more in-depth. It gives a brief rundown of the continents, which I'll try and condense as best I can. The Arctic and Antarctic All the ice from Antarctica vanished and ended up in The Arctic, turning the former into one big ice palace and the latter into the “New Eden of the South”. To be fair, the book does acknowledge that there's no way that could've happened... but it did, and that's the scary part. The scarier part is that The Arctic has people living there, who are apparently into some crazy mystic poo poo – it got the nickname “The Mountains of Madness” for a reason. Europe To put it bluntly, pretty much everything's gone to poo poo. There were a few “human empires”, but most of them have crumbled; the only one left standing is in Skandia (formerly Northern Denmark – it's not as bad as The Empire of Humanity, but it still won't give mutants citizenship or the vote) and even that's getting worse by the day.  Calais, now called Societie A Eliminer les Creations Sauvages et Nuisibles or SAECSEN for short, seceded from France and focused on the genocide of all mutants. France, which is now New France, a coalition of three groups (mostly mutated French purebred animals) dedicated to kicking SAECSEN's merde in, and it looks like they might do it pretty soon.  The Netherlands, or Lakenveld as it's now known, has decided to say out of all this poo poo and everyone lets them because Lakenveld is the only country in Europe that's got their poo poo together (100% literacy among all its citizens, mutant and human alike, and their economy's booming – even Skandia use Lakenveld Guilders as legal tender). Oh, and it looks like Böhlen, a small town in Germany, has been hiding mutants with some really hosed-up powers; energy blasters, shape-shifters, even half-mutant/half-machine. Also, Palladium still have Africa The northern and central parts of Africa are one giant shithole of warring factions. Yeah. Southern Africa, meanwhile, has three countries of interest (Four if you count Fortress South Africa, a small “human-dominated” country, but it's government is very isolationist so they don't really come into the equation that much). Zambiziland is at the forefront of cutting-edge technology e.g. microchips and supercomputers, but is beset from all sides by its warring neighbours. Basically, it's ATB's version of Wakanda. It's also home to the Donta Elephants, bipedal warrior-poets who have opened their gates to refugees from all over the globe, but don't take anybody's poo poo. Also, 97% of the Donta have Low-Frequency Wave Detection as an Animal Power, allowing them to detect imminent earthquakes... provided they have Padded Feet as a Power as well, something this section of the book neglects to mention. Oh, and their ears make great air conditioning. Thanks for that, Erick.  At first, imgur had some issues uploading this. I choose to believe it couldn't handle the awesome. Inkuruland, on the other hand, is a loose collection of clans (mostly purebred cattle), tribes and villages who are a little behind their neighbours technologically, but they make up for it by making lots of weapons. They sound lovely! Meanwhile, Talichiland is... pretty vague. It popped up three years ago (and I do mean “popped up” - it was founded by naked mole rats) and from what people can tell from airborne reconnaissance it's a war-torn dust bowl. The really worrying thing is that nobody seems to know what the mole rats are up to; they seem to have their eye on expanding their borders, but given that their borders include Inkuruland that seems like a bad idea.  India Yes, the book covers The Middle East as well, but only to mention that it's mostly an irradiated wasteland, thanks to all the nukes. Yeah. Anyway, India! It's very much in charge of what's left of its neighbours, and has renamed itself Ganesh to pay homage to the Ganeshi. Who are the Ganeshi? They're mutant elephants, apparently the result of chimera experimentation by the Indian government before The Big Death happened, which explains why they all have a third eye. They rule over Ganesh as living gods, telepathically communicating with their subjects every morning, noon and night; their telepathic powers are beyond anything any other mutant has, with astral projection, teleportation and mind control all being part of their repertoire. There are also the Hyderabad, purebred Baboons who are subservient to the Ganeshi, and are highly skilled at building pretty much anything. This is probably the most depressing part of the book, as Erick promises that the Ganeshi will be covered in “future sourcebooks”, but given that he died about 6½ years later... Let's move on, shall we? Asia What's happening on the world's largest continent? Nobody really knows!  Some people claim there are dragon chimeras! People around the Pacific Rim are using Hong Kong Dollars, which seem to be indestructible!   Don Pollastro isn't angry, he's disappointed... and that's somehow worse. Oceania Guys, Palladium have still got copies of Mutants Down Under! You should  You should get Mutants Down Under if you want more details on Jakarta! I'm not kidding, this is how they're selling it! Also, Tasmania (or Tazzieland, or Tazzie, or TazzietazziebobazziebananafanafofazziefeefifomazzieTAZZIE) is now a constitutional monarchy modelled after the “pre-Prang” British government, and they've recently rediscovered plastics. Good for them!  Central & South America Cuba were planning on making a bunch of real-life Jurassic Parks! What are they up to now? Who knows! What about the rest of the fourth-largest continent in the world? Buy Mutants of The Yucatan!  West Coast America Buy Road Hogs for more information! Yes, that really is all we get! Next time: Spider-goats and poo poo!
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2014 01:30
|
|
|
Eldad Assarach posted:
This illustration actually pre-dates Leatherhead by well over two years. That's how far back we're looking; this was only released after the fifth issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Leatherhead was also, incidentally, the first mutant animal in the comics introduced that wasn't the Turtles themselves (not counting Cerebus the Aardvark). Amazing that the Palladium was already putting out supplements that early, but there you have it. When Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness RPG came out, all that had been established in the comic aside from the main characters was the Foot, Shredder, April, Baxter Stockman, and the Mousers. I always found Jakarta amusing as a villain organization, because they're so goddamn random. They have blimps! And crossbows! And mutant buffalo slaves! Thankfully, you have the magical Indigenous Australians looking to back the mutants out with their special dreamtime crystal powers!  (The setting generally doesn't have magic at all, except Indigenous Australians and druids have it. Because.)
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2014 05:06
|
|
|
I always loved After the Bomb because it was a good trump card to use whenever old nerds would harumph and whine about how the cartoons and all made the turtles silly.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2014 05:10
|
|
|
Eldad Assarach posted:... I think this image is my favorite thing Palladium has ever been responsible for.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2014 05:57
|
|
|
Every character I play that isn't that Rooster (I like to think he's a riverboat gambler) is the wrong character. So I just started reading for a future episode of the podcast. It's a few weeks out in the queue, but I'm digging into Maid. It's certainly a thing. That's what it is alright. Totally a set of words that someone decided to write down in sequence and send to a publisher.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2014 21:49
|
|
|
Alan-a-Dale became a record mogul, apparently.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2014 21:52
|
|
|
theironjef posted:So I just started reading for a future episode of the podcast. It's a few weeks out in the queue, but I'm digging into Maid. It's certainly a thing. That's what it is alright. Totally a set of words that someone decided to write down in sequence and send to a publisher. I eagerly await your verbatim readings of the play examples.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2014 21:59
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:I eagerly await your live-action readings of the play examples. That is honestly already in my notes. "Read this stuff out loud."
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2014 22:00
|
|
|
Your honah, I may just be a simple hyperchicken from a backwoods asteroid...
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2014 07:46
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:Alan-a-Dale became a record mogul, apparently. Rockin' Robin sold out!
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2014 15:03
|
|
|
Eldad Assarach posted:Gatorland Also I have no idea why "gatorland" is in... what, the Carolinas, instead of Florida or maybe Louisiana.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2014 16:57
|
|
|
U.T. Raptor posted:I have no idea if this is supposed to be the implication or not (I think it is?), but I immediately assumed the Gang of Four was founded by the Ninja Turtles.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2014 17:28
|
|
|
JohnnyCanuck posted:Yeah, it's totally the Turtles. Laird even did an AtB strip for one of the books where it showed an elderly Michelangelo accompanying his students on a mission. It's in Road Hogs, the first supplement to After the Bomb. The art is actually done by a Benjamin Carpenter on pencils, who I can't find anything more on, with Siembieda providing the inks. Siembieda and Wujcik did the writing on it. (There's no Laird art in Road Hogs, but Eastman did the great cover.) It features an elderly Raphael training three younger mutant turtles; it's implied he's the last remaining of the original four.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2014 18:06
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:It's in Road Hogs, the first supplement to After the Bomb. The art is actually done by a Benjamin Carpenter on pencils, who I can't find anything more on, with Siembieda providing the inks. Siembieda and Wujcik did the writing on it. (There's no Laird art in Road Hogs, but Eastman did the great cover.) It features an elderly Raphael training three younger mutant turtles; it's implied he's the last remaining of the original four. As I recall it's pretty murdery too. Like the new batch of ninja turtles with their new set of weapons (I want to say Tonfa, Manriki-Gusari, and Yari) straight up murder some mooks in the comic.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2014 19:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 07:50 |
|
|
That dovetails pretty well with being trained by Raphael.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2014 19:41
|
|