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theironjef posted:
Moorcock was incredibly popular when I was high school almost 40 years ago. I was never a big fan of his Elric stuff, but the Corum series on the other hand, I could not get enough of. Moorcock was one of Stafford's inspirations for Glorantha and Runequest too.
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Mar 4, 2015 02:24
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The foreparts of a chicken and the hindparts of grandma's dog.
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Mar 4, 2015 02:30
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Some things that bear mentioning. It's in there but it's downplayed. Slaves are mostly just mentioned as something you can play as, and I think it was mentioned that Melnibonean characters are likely to have them. Thing is, at least in that edition, you have a situational 1% chance of being allowed to play as a Melnibonean, so who cares? Man nothing crawls up my craw faster than huge sections of rules buried behind ludicrous percentile chances. Hyper Crab Tank posted:It sure is. Note how the cover is the same goddamn picture of Elric of Melniboné as Stormbringer used. Not pictured: His buddy, coming in for an extremely low-five.
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Mar 4, 2015 02:36
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theironjef posted:It's in there but it's downplayed. Slaves are mostly just mentioned as something you can play as, and I think it was mentioned that Melnibonean characters are likely to have them. Thing is, at least in that edition, you have a situational 1% chance of being allowed to play as a Melnibonean, so who cares? Man nothing crawls up my craw faster than huge sections of rules buried behind ludicrous percentile chances. Yeah, though, in reality 1% tends to work out to "the guy the GM really likes or is the biggest pain in the rear end gets an exception".
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Mar 4, 2015 02:49
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Palladium straight up stole their rune weapons from the Stormbringer series, too. So the original and the heartbreaker pulled from the same source.
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Mar 4, 2015 03:15
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Oberndorf posted:Palladium straight up stole their rune weapons from the Stormbringer series, too. So the original and the heartbreaker pulled from the same source. The difference is that the main purpose of rune weapons in Palladium games is to give enemies powerful magical weapons that most PC groups can't use due to alignment restrictions and can't sell to anybody but thieving assholes. This is because, of course, they're mostly just evil except those used by good gods, and good luck mugging Odin.
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Mar 4, 2015 03:38
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The "Nothing you do matters" rant at the end of Stormbringer reminded me of Polaris: http://www.tao-games.com/polaris/ I humbly request that.
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Mar 4, 2015 03:47
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Kavak posted:The "Nothing you do matters" rant at the end of Stormbringer reminded me of Polaris: http://www.tao-games.com/polaris/ I humbly request that. Wow, the author's description is pretty negative. Here's a list of reasons you won't like this game. Nothing like artistes writing their own ad copy.
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Mar 4, 2015 04:00
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Yeah, though, in reality 1% tends to work out to "the guy the GM really likes or is the biggest pain in the rear end gets an exception". Yeah no one ever uses those rules. They're just in there, making the game look stupid. Following the rules present in the old Unearthed Arcana book, you had a 0.0002% chance to roll a paladin without houserules. Still, probably should devote a few pages of the book to that! Maybe also a section on what to do with your powerball money!
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Mar 4, 2015 04:04
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Kavak posted:The "Nothing you do matters" rant at the end of Stormbringer reminded me of Polaris: http://www.tao-games.com/polaris/ I humbly request that. I'm 99 percent sure someone has already reviewed this (I remember the whole 'you are a snow elf and everything sucks poo poo' aesthetic); it might be on the archive.
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Mar 4, 2015 05:19
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Pinball posted:I'm 99 percent sure someone has already reviewed this (I remember the whole 'you are a snow elf and everything sucks poo poo' aesthetic); it might be on the archive. That's not a big deal, the podcast exists outside of the continuum of fine work you guys all do.
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Mar 4, 2015 05:28
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theironjef posted:Yeah no one ever uses those rules. They're just in there, making the game look stupid. Following the rules present in the old Unearthed Arcana book, you had a 0.0002% chance to roll a paladin without houserules. Still, probably should devote a few pages of the book to that! Maybe also a section on what to do with your powerball money! People forget that the AD&D DMG had a totally different set of attribute roll methods than "roll 3d6 six times and lump it", but yeah, the principle's still there whether it's 0.0002% or 2%. See also: the psionics rules. (Of course, other games just aped "roll 3d6 and lump it" because nobody really read AD&D's rules.) But I got to play in a Stormbringer game a long while back and the GM was like "play what you wanna play, reroll if you don't like something, etc." Well, that and "you are all collectively the Eternal Champion, gently caress this Elric guy". It was actually pretty fun but imploded pretty quickly.
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Mar 4, 2015 05:36
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Pinball posted:I'm 99 percent sure someone has already reviewed this (I remember the whole 'you are a snow elf and everything sucks poo poo' aesthetic); it might be on the archive. It was a really bad review that missed the entire point of the game, so it's not the best introduction. Polaris owns, though, so it'd probably be bad grist for the bad games podcast. EDIT: more games should tell you why you shouldn't play them, honestly. Trad Games work best when they have focus, and it's not a bad thing not to like what a game focuses on. Mr. Maltose fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Mar 4, 2015 |
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Mar 4, 2015 05:56
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Mr. Maltose posted:It was a really bad review that missed the entire point of the game, so it's not the best introduction. Eh, it's too easy to get smug like that. All "This game is for people with brains. If you're a dimwitted normal, you should avoid this game."
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Mar 4, 2015 06:06
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theironjef posted:Eh, it's too easy to get smug like that. All "This game is for people with brains. If you're a dimwitted normal, you should avoid this game." I mean, yes, if you were bad at basic human interaction that could happen. Saying "This game doesn't have a clear and concise win state, if you don't like that try another game more your speed. Your characters are mythic and deal with mythic poo poo, if you want something more street level you'll want a more suitable system" isn't smug, unless the idea of a game not catering to any and everyone is smug. Stating this poo poo outright is something more games should do and be able to do, both to explain expectations to players and to prevent the dreadful 'universal system' heartbreakers that are endemic in the hobby and this thread.
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Mar 4, 2015 06:17
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RE: Polaris, I'm of the opinion that Polaris is a bad game and also, in fact, a non-game, because of the extremely limited interactivity. I'd definitely be very loath to actually call it an RPG, and if I had to, I'd call it a bad one, because it allows you to roleplay exactly one story and then you've effectively mined it for all content. Also if you decide to review it, it's not all that long, but keep in mind that the creator's the same guy who made Bliss Stage, another short(and objectively terrible, Polaris has some wiggle room, Bliss Stage does not) RPG so you could make it a double serving. KROMORE  Because fighters don't deserve nice feats  I suspect this is not the same guy who drew all the loving terrible character art So, the Abilities chapter is up next after the professions. Abilities are pretty much analogous to 3E/5E Feats, except that you get a shitload more of them, right down to being broken in the same stupid ways. For instance, I can pay an ability point for a permanent +1 to Fitness rolls. Fitness is basically Athletics from most other games. Jumping, climbing, swimming and squeezing into narrow spaces. However, if I'm not retarded, that same ability point will also buy me "Cooking Persuasion," also known as "Cakes = Mind Control," which basically doubles my pre-existing bonus to Negotiation(almost guaranteed to be more than 1) towards anyone already friendly enough to accept a piece of candy from me or unaware enough to not react before I shove something in their mouth. But that's just if they're not a wizard. The same one skill point is also all it costs for Innate Magic abilities(one each, but still) that let me conjure up weapons and armor for free and effectively without needing to bother with any checks(unless I decided to make the world's only wizard with Down's). Or I can learn necromancy, which lets me raise undead minions. Raising a minion takes a Hard(DC 19) focus check, but there's no penalty for screwing it up, and the time consumed in the casting is less than five seconds(two actions, a round has three actions and lasts five seconds). Of course, you only control the undead servant for 1d4 hours, after which it just shambles off to eat flesh. quote:NEGOTIATION: Negotiation tricks auto succeed on the Zombie, Intimidations and logic negotiations always fail. It'd be great, though, if you had an undead minion without that problem, and one that couldn't be tricked. Skeletons have the same "tries to kill everything after a few hours"-issue, plus they take a whole round to summon. Time is money, can't just waste it on something as frivolous as bony guardians. That's why you use your 1 ability point to learn how to summon ghosts instead. Ghosts never break free of control, are moderately intangible- quote:IMMUNITIES**: The spirit is immune to steel weapons and wooden weapons, stuns, KO, and poisons. -and have an AoE stun attack that stacks. Meaning you just need enough ghosts and you can zero out anyone's combat stats, after which you just need to raise a single skeleton to go around cutting throats. Assuming we make an ULTRA WIZARD who can do NOTHING but cast magic well, back-of-the-envelope, simple min-maxing allows us to roll 6d4+6 to attempt to summon a ghost, vs a DC of 19. That's a 50+% chance of making our DC, since our ghosts need no materials to summon(aside from a "grave or burial ground," but how hard can finding a graveyard be? We just take a few minutes' walk through the nearest graveyard and we've got our ghosts for the day), and we're not working off any sort of stat pool or resource, that means we can spend all our waking hours summoning. Our only real limit to how many ghosts we can make is that we can only summon a number of ghosts equal to our SOUL stat per day, meaning we'll cap out at 6(and there's literally no way for us to not get that many per day). Hence, as soon as you've made a necromancer, time is literally the only thing standing in the way of him conquering the world at the cost of only twice as many skill points as it costs a fighter to get +1 to jumping(twice because we also need to shell out the massive price of one skill point to unlock magic in the first place). And since two PC races, one of which is available in most time periods(metal men) and the other of which is available in all time periods(Daeadrin humans, which also get a bonus to the Focus skill used for all spellcasting) are literally immortal and unaging... time is not that big an issue. Now, in the game's defense, it does gate "Rule The World With Magic Ghosts: The Ability" behind requiring the caster to be level 10... however the storyteller section recommends roughly a level-up per session, which is also about what you'll get if you use their manual XP-handout rules, so it's not really a huge barrier. You can spend the intervening levels pumping up your Focus skill to make sure you succeed on all your ghost summons and also learning combat magic that does more damage than any weapon short of artillery, has an AoE effect, has no hit roll(even if enemies pass their save, they still take damage and get hit with status effects) and doesn't require any ammunition, unlike all the really nice fighter weapons. It also still only costs one skill point to learn. Ultimately all the abilities fall into this. You can either get a +1 if you're a fighter or you can expend an ability point to replicate a non-wizard's abilities(and if you DO decide to pick the abilities that give you a + to the Focus skill for spellcasting... you get +1d4 or +2 instead of +1 like you'd get if you chose better Fitness rolls). Jealous of the medic? Learn healing magic. Jealous of the sneaky thief? Learn to turn yourself into a table from level 1. Remember how Sci-Priests had a "melt stuff with their bare hands"-class ability? Well get hosed, that's a spell, too. Practically every magic tree has some sort of attack spell that rapidly levels up to outclass weapons. If we're impatient for ghost supremacy, at level 6, we can summon tornadoes. Anyone who touches a tornado has to succeed at an epic(DC 24) fitness check or get sucked in, flung away and hammered for shitloads of damage. And keep in mind that anyone not as min-maxed as our wizard will be hard pressed to roll 24 on a check. As a sci-magi we also specifically get the ability to double the effect of all spells from second level onwards, in exchange for an absolutely trivial focus check. Of course, min/maxing our caster makes us awfully fragile. So it's a good thing we can use a first-level spell to turn ourselves into solid rock so we're difficult to injure(or even a rock so no one will ever even realize we're a mage). Shame that some spells require vocal and somatic components... which we can ignore with another first-level ability, permanently. Now we just need another party member to carry us, or to learn the first-level wind spell that lets us slowly shove ourselves along. We basically only need to ever stop being an inanimate object on occasion to eat. I could really go on. But the point is: This is some wizard supremacy on a level I've rarely seen in any loving game. Skills In the game's defense, there's really nothing wrong with the basic mechanics, I like how it leaves in some degree of randomness while still providing a very sharp bell curve and a generous static modifier, so players can generally rely on their skills and attacks landing in a given region of results, but with just a bit of randomness to provide some tension. There are also a lot of helpful rules for what you can do to make sure your skills succeed, "taking 20" from 3E expanded up to pretty much any span of time you could imagine... though it seems a bit excessive that the table also includes "1 year" and "1 lifetime," and that "1 lifetime" only provides 1d4 more than a year. Though I suppose it does encourage not wasting too much time. Unlike a lot of RPG's, there's also a useful table for GM's advising them on what DC of check is usually appropriate to what level of character... and the suggestions actually aren't bad. There are of course, some oddities that crop up. For instance, the Charm(CHA) stat is used not just to negotiate, but also for medicine and grappling. Flying a plane or riding a horse both work off of pure Agility(and the same skill...). There are a few wonky things in there, though not exactly something unforgivable, though it doesn't really salvage the fuckups in the previous chapters.  This chapter really helps hammer home that either the author or his editor did not have English as a first language, though. quote:Hard: Identifying a face in a crowded market street, hearing a whisper from two closed doors away, or seeing a hidden item that took a great deal of time to hide. Doing a scan of an area to find hidden people or objects without the pretense of a Story Teller asking for the check is always a Hard or higher. This form of an awareness check is often at the level of a trained investigator or a detectives observation abilities. Also the return to Railroad City! If you try to do something without the Storyteller specifically asking you to, it automatically becomes more difficult! Choo choo! I also find it amusing that the hacking mechanics that it took Eclipse Phase, like, ten pages to make totally confusing, even an RPG as generally confused and ineffable as Kromore manages to make more natural and more easier to work with in the span of two pages. One check to breach a network, then successive checks to increase your "security level," and a given security level gives you certain privileges, for instance, at security level 4 you can copy data off the device rather than just read it, at 5 you can delete it, at 8 you can scour a network to alter or remove someone's identity and at level 9 you can make computers explode like a Hollywood hacker. Then a few quick rules for HACKER DUELS and what happens if you gently caress up your hack checks. What I realize at this point is that if you just cut out all the non-wizard(sorry, Grifter) classes out of Kromore, I'm actually not too opposed to the system itself so far. Most of the spells are actually... reasonably fun and useful-sounding(breaking the game with ghosts aside), the only thing that kind of poisons the game is that NOT being a wizard is 18 out of 22 class options, only one of those 18 options getting any fun abilities(Grifter), and of the remaining 4, Realm magic(Sci-Magi, Sci-Priest) is vastly superior to Innate Magic(Adept, Demon Hunter), at the same cost, and Sci-Magi by far get the more fun abilities compared to the Sci-Priest, so the game really only leaves you with two options to play. The basic mechanics are relatively easy to use and the developer did a lot of work to give you benchmarks for your numbers. Of course, there's still combat and the EXCITING SETTING DETAILS left to poo poo on things, but if the combat isn't somehow a total shitpile(I'm guessing it might actually not be, though I doubt it'll make physical classes worth playing)... I could actually see myself scrapping the setting, telling three or four players to roll up some Sci-Magi and letting them loose to do some damage with fireballs. I'm also largely going to skip over the Armory section except for poking at the art, since they made the ~brilliant~ decision not to explain the equipment stats in the chapter that the equipment is in. There's probably some really broken rules, but I can't tell yet, all I can identify is when something stupid in the writing or art jumps out at me, like the fact that "Disrupter" weapons are illegal but nothing explains WHY they're illegal, for instance what they DO that's illegal when other guns are not. There's also LITERALLY no sensible organization to the order that weapons are presented in. It goes like this: Melee, thrown, bows, shotguns, pistols, steamguns, "disrupter" guns, advanced melee, rocket launchers, the "dual clip" pistol(see below), lightning guns, flintlocks(just in case you thought it was by escalating technological advancement), powder wheel, plasma, cannons, mounted guns.  On the one hand, poor art and ugly as sin, on the OTHER hand, it's steampunk without any loving meaningless gears and goggles.  I legitimately cannot tell what this is.  Breaking new ground in retarded weapon designs!  Also, if anyone's interested, this is the DA of the guy who did all the actually awesome Kromore art: http://balaskas.deviantart.com/
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Mar 4, 2015 06:19
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That's a pretty disingenuous summation of Polaris, duder. There is 'one story' in Polaris in as much as there is one story in Pendragon, for example.
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Mar 4, 2015 06:21
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Would it be appropriate to do an F&F of a game that's A: Mostly fan translated and not 100% complete, B: Compiled into .txts and spreadsheets and C: Based off of an anime? Also, this would be my first F&F.
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Mar 4, 2015 06:24
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Xelkelvos posted:Would it be appropriate to do an F&F of a game that's A: Mostly fan translated and not 100% complete, B: Compiled into .txts and spreadsheets and C: Based off of an anime? As long as it's hilariously bad or good in some sort of interesting and novel way, I think it's fine F&F-fodder. It's not a problem that it's mostly in .txt's and spreadsheets unless you just copypaste everything in here, a game doesn't need to be jam-packed full of atrocious art to be terrible or awesome.
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Mar 4, 2015 06:37
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PurpleXVI posted:As long as it's hilariously bad or good in some sort of interesting and novel way, I think it's fine F&F-fodder. It's not a problem that it's mostly in .txt's and spreadsheets unless you just copypaste everything in here, a game doesn't need to be jam-packed full of atrocious art to be terrible or awesome. Okay, then I'll probably get to work compiling the first post of it. It being the "Log Horizon TRPG." A tabletop RPG set in a Fantasy Online RPG based off of a series of LNs/Anime.
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Mar 4, 2015 06:56
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My view of Polaris is that you shouldn't play Polaris. Instead play "Thou art but a warrior" which is a splatbook for Polaris that to me hits much closer in terms of setting and immediacy to what Polaris was trying to be. I guess I respect what Polaris wants to be more than I particularly like Polaris itself. Thou Art etc. does a much better job selling what Polaris is trying to peddle.
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Mar 4, 2015 07:06
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Omnicrom posted:My view of Polaris is that you shouldn't play Polaris. Instead play "Thou art but a warrior" which is a splatbook for Polaris that to me hits much closer in terms of setting and immediacy to what Polaris was trying to be. I guess I respect what Polaris wants to be more than I particularly like Polaris itself. Thou Art etc. does a much better job selling what Polaris is trying to peddle. Literally everything Polaris did wrong TABAW does right. I'd actually play it. I'll add Bliss Stage to my request, though. You thought MAID was creepy? You ain't seen poo poo.
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Mar 4, 2015 07:08
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Kavak posted:Literally everything Polaris did wrong TABAW does right. I'd actually play it. Bliss Stage is currently by far our most requested RPG. We've started our next one already based on a submission we got, but I think it'll probably be right after that.
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Mar 4, 2015 07:12
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Honestly, Polaris seems like it would make a better book than a game. I want more choice in my games than just "well you're inevitably going to fall, but you get to choose how dramatically you fall and where you land."
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Mar 4, 2015 07:54
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Hipster Occultist posted:Honestly, Polaris seems like it would make a better book than a game. I want more choice in my games than just "well you're inevitably going to fall, but you get to choose how dramatically you fall and where you land." If memory serves, Polaris came out in the general timespan as stuff like The Mountain Witch and Dogs In The Vineyard, the first wave of stuff that was explicitly influenced by much of the early Forge theory. Which is to say, you've got a lot of designers who are thinking about things in a much more structured and systematic way and trying out their chops in the new paradigm. It helps to think of them not as games so much as workshop exercises in game design. They're the pen & paper equivalent of video games like The Last Of Us, with extremely focused intent (and in some cases superb execution) but little-to-no replayability.
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Mar 4, 2015 18:05
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Nothing about Forge-produced games deserves to be judged or considered by any standards but the ones we use for every other RPG. The only thing that sets them apart is that they were produced by one insular group and their preferences, but they released them to the world at large, so they get to be judged by the world at large.
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Mar 4, 2015 18:35
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It is unfair to just say that Burning Wheel is just good, for a Forge game. It's legitimately good. I don't know if TABAW was specifically made by the forge but that was good too, as we arguably Dogs in the Vineyard. Everything else made by them though, was either mediocre or bad.
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Mar 4, 2015 18:40
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PurpleXVI posted:Nothing about Forge-produced games deserves to be judged or considered by any standards but the ones we use for every other RPG. The only thing that sets them apart is that they were produced by one insular group and their preferences, but they released them to the world at large, so they get to be judged by the world at large. Oh they should absolutely be judged by the same standards as the world at large. The issue things like Polaris raise is how important is replayability and flexibility to a game? If I go into (either by buying it or just sitting down to play it) it knowing exactly what is on the tin, I don't think there is any inherent flaw in the game being a one-and-done affair. That said, it's been a good decade since these kinds of things first hit the scene, and what's far more interesting is the degree to which these workshop designs have fed back (and not fed back) into games that reach for a broader audience. IMHO, by and large I haven't seen it - maybe with the exception of the God-Machine nWoD stuff which tries to create a marriage between the narrative and the mechanical with the Conditions & Beats mechanics. Examples to the contrary would be great, but I'm not aware of anything that takes the design insights of, say, the world's greatest "samurai climbing a mountain to kill a witch and betray each other" and applies it to anything broader that witch-murder-based-mountaineering.
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Mar 4, 2015 18:54
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Is it anyone else, or is the duck the only one that doesn't look oddly malformed in that pic?
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Mar 5, 2015 03:15
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 This is a little outside our usual scope, but System Mastery just had its first guest appearance. We meet James D'Amato of One Shot Games on his Critical Success podcast to discuss Heartbreakers. They do a few other shows as well (in fact Critical Success is the side show) mostly focused around their teams of Second City trained Improv folks doing recorded campaigns. But hey, we're on this one.
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Mar 5, 2015 18:23
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kaynorr posted:Oh they should absolutely be judged by the same standards as the world at large. The issue things like Polaris raise is how important is replayability and flexibility to a game? If I go into (either by buying it or just sitting down to play it) it knowing exactly what is on the tin, I don't think there is any inherent flaw in the game being a one-and-done affair. I've never read let alone played The Mountain Witch. I can however see the influence of My Life With Master on Apocalypse World, Fiasco, and Monsterhearts. Evil Hat's fingerprints are, of course, all over anything MWP has done in the past five years.
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Mar 5, 2015 19:54
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CORE Command Player's Handbook Deluxe Edition Chapter 2: Character Design This chapter starts of with some more desparately needed setting information. We get another paragraph worth of "They're Starfleet, yo" and then get a bit of information about how CORE Command recruits people. They mostly visit just about every developed planet every couple years to look for candidates. Sometimes, they find promising candidates in uncivilized worlds, which they approach with an offer to join them, at the cost of never being allowed to return. So despite having a Prime Directive going on, they're perfectly happy to thin out the ranks of bright, exceptional individuals who would most likely play a large role in the civilization's natural development. That's a bit questionable if you ask me. We also get another confirmation that CORE Command train cadets in tutorial planets, including some first Holodeck sessions to weed out the pansies. The chapter also does the same thing Jovian Chronicles did, in that it repeats the rough chargen steps from the core book (which is a bit redundant if you ask me). Like JC, it's of course on the cinematic power level. This might be a good point to mention how SilCORE's set of 10 attributes and 5 derives attributes might be seen as 90's overkill. But fear not! The core book actually has a few guidelines to reduce the clutter. The options are "Just use d20 attributes", "cut the amount of stats in half by averaging similar stats" and "borrow from the Tri-Stat system, with Psyche either being removed entirely or hanging along for magic and stuff". Strangely, CORE Command suggest none of these options, even though a light-hearted space opera romp would probably benefit from fewer stats to keep track of. CORE Command does however use two other optional rules: Levels (which is really just there so one can eyeball how many skill points you've got) which exist in-game as "Grades" you have to get promoted to, and the so called "Detailed Experience model" which just multiplies all XP costs and normal XP awards by 1000 so the GM can hand out smaller awards. Strangely, the OGL conversion notes straight up tell you that it's using D&D, even though every other SilCORE line (at least AFAIK) uses d20 Modern. Said notes also mention which agent types relate to which D&D class. Note that there are no profession templates in this (again, unlike every other SilCORE Player's Handbook), making it a bit hard to pinpoint what exactly an agent is supposed to be able to do. Also a weird departure form DP9's usual "Here are some almost complete templates you can use directly as NPCs"-philosphy. (At least unlike JC, this book actually mentions how everyone can take Perks and Flaws.) Oh well, now onto the Races: Humans  Plain humans, of course being the most important member of CORE and playing the role of curious explorers and neutral diplomats we like to give yourselves in more optimistic sci-fi settings. There are still your egocentric warmongers, but those are only found in evil space empires that are not part of CORE. For some reason, they mention that a human's skin color depends on how close their world is to the galactic center. Who knew Africans are actually immigrants from the Milky Way's core? For some other reason, most human civilizations dislike obvious implants because they want to look "natural", but they have no issues with tattoos and piercings. Hailing from the Spiral galaxy, humans can now be found in all five galaxies. As none of the current humans actually originate from Earth, nobody has ever heard about this mostly harmless planet. (I think I'll skip further mentioning who lives in which galaxies, seeing they're not fleshed out at all.) Rules-wise, humans are unsurprisingly your default choice. They do however get a freebie in that they all start out with the lowest level in the Quantek Skill, which I assume is Space Magic. Their statblock (as well as everyone else's) mentions how they "have access to all the professions (unless specifically counter-indicated)". Again, there are no professions. Cyren  Very adaptive Amphibians (who require symbiotic corals to breathe water) who have been around space for over half a million years, thanks to the help of the Orb-Shakra which we'll get to shortly. They obviously prefer colonizing worlds with lots of water and temperate climate. Cyrens in general tend to be brooding, and they find technology so fascinating that their scientists and engineers are essentially their clergy. So they're emo techpirests. Cyrens have better Perception and Agility than humans, but a lower Build and a very crappy Psyche rating, making them a bit unstable. They can also swim very fast, though there are no rules about how those corals work. Sanrok (or "Sandrock", as one table calls them)  Imagine Ben "The Thing" Grimm as an alien race. They're the newcomers of the main races, only having access to FTL drives since a couple centuries. Other races think these guys are pretty cold and emotionless, but that's only because rock skin make for the perfect poker face. They're actually pretty nice dudes. Because their skin grows quickly to counter their homeworld's sand storms, they have to frequently grind off the outer layer or they'll eventually turn into statues. Naturally, they can have quite high physical stats, but are sluggish. They also have low Psyche like the Cyrens. They can easily shrug of high gravity up to 2 g, and for some reason, they can crawl just as fast as they walk. Orb-Shakra  One of the most intelligent races, these guys have been around for several million years. They live as some sort of pseudo-hivemind where knowledge and memories can be shared, but everyone still has its own personality. As they are essentially gross jellyfish that can only survive in the lowest of gravities, they tend to stay inside humanoid servoshells. I guess they're a bit like Vorlons in that regard, but they're far nicer mentor dudes and much more likely to party hard (they have a thing for sensations and excitement). Orb-Shakra trade high mental for slighty lowish physical attributes. They don't pilot their servoshells like a man-sized mech built with the vehicle creation rules. The servoshell is instead lumped into their physical attributes. Makes it easy I guess, but will become a bit jarring when we get to actual robots. Proteans  Another newcomer race (though not as "new" as the Sanroks), these guys are shy Shapeshifters whose first venture into space had them get scammed by the Murans. At least they got some organic data sockets out of that deal with which they can store personalities and abilities for more efficient shapeshifting. Not sure why they need that, seeing how they're shy and peaceful. They can have very high Appearance (hopefully because of their shapeshifting; their actual faces are a bit featureless), high knowledge, slightly low Build, and very low Willpower, making them good targets for brainwashing. They can take on the appearance of any humanoid that isn't noticably larger or smaller. They can hold this form for several hours. The fluff claims they can hold it even longer at the risk of getting insane, but there's nothing in the rules to back that up. Also no rules for those data sockets. Dimni  Nomadic Kremlin merchant and tech dudes. That's about it. Stat-wise, they're very creative, but of course a bit lacking in the physical department. They get the "Mechanical Touch" (actually called "Machine Touch") Perk for free and can't take its opposite "Mechanical Ineptitude" Flaw (spelled correctly this time). Muran  Another very old alien race, these guys are xenophobes. They like bragging with their superior technology, but are slowly getting paranoid over their own stagnation. Similar to the Orb-Shakra, they have high mental and low physical attributes. Mi-Compilers  Fractal's peaceful hybrid crew. Aside from human hybrids, there are also hybrids of Cyrens, Murans and Dimnis around, though they are different enough from their original race as to be lumped together into its own thing. Aside from the humans, everyone is a bit creaped out about their Mi-counterpart. You'd think the humans would think the same, seeing how a lot don't seem to like implants. Similar to Murans, they have high mental and low physical attributes, with their Creativity taking a nosedive because they rely too much on Fractal's database and their own implants (which might come up later in the equipment chapter, but I'm not counting on it). They need to take at least 2 levels in the Quantek skill (they don't get any rans for free like humans). The OGL stats give most of these races Low-light Vision and racial skill bonuses, something they don't have in SilCORE. Probably because it is mandated by D&D law that all non-humans must have these abilities.. Artificial Beings Unlike the Orb-Shakra's servoshell, robots actually are build with the vehicle rules. As this book predates the SilCORE errata that introduced the Infantry Perk (allowing small vehicles to mostly operate like people and require weapons to have the Anti-Infantry Perk to not suffer a hit penalty against them), they move differently, have different movement-related combat modifiers, are more resistant against automatic fire, and are somehow easier to hit with a tank gun despite being human-sized. Playing a robot however has its merits, seing how you have 2 base actions instead of 1 (anyone can get himself more, but that causes a penalty to all rolls) and are generally much, much sturdier than fleshlings. As these small "vehicles" still operate on the vehicle-scale (aka their armor and weapon damage is multiplied by 10 when dealing with people), there can be quite a jump in effectiveness at the lower end of the spectrum. The main book recommends using fractional armor and damage values, which this book does not do. Funnily enough, since none of their "Fists" weapons have the Anti-Infantry Perk, they're pretty bad at punching dudes. Anyhow, intelligent robots or rather their AIs (be they alien-made or aliens themselves) have been quite well integrated into CORE society. They even wear clothes and stuff. No paranoia about them overthrowing their masters to be found anywhere, which is a nice change of pace. Servoshell & Cyber-Servant   These are your most basic robots, with the first being your general all-purpose model, while the Cyber-Servants are your assistants and protocol droids, making them smarter than the former, but with a noticably weaker body. Loading Drone  I'm not quite sure what this guy is even doing here. This is a very specific model from an evil alien race, and its AI is considered Dumb, making it a mindless construct that can only follow simple orders. There have been cases of sentien AIs in such a body, but this only happens as a form of punishment or when the AIs does it out of boredom. Combat Drone  Another mindless drone, this lovely fellow is sturdy enough to be impervious to most personal weapons, and its missiles can be a death sentence for PCs. They're Area of Effect, able to cover a 50 m radius (the smallest AoE a vehicle weapon can have) with an attack that even when avoided will still do its base Damage Multiplier in damage, which for this missile is 10, aka 100 on the personal scale (enough to heavily wound or outright kill all but the most heavily armored soldier). Things get even uglier when the drone uses the missile's high rate of fire, beefing up the area range or dealing even more damage. And he can alpha strike with all of his 8 missiles in one turn. Suffice to say, unless armor in this setting is very high, this guy is a TPK waiting to happen. The OGL version deals 4d6 damage for low-level slaying. Its second weapon are the weapon arms, described as "Gun Clusters" that feature both needleguns and plasma repeaters depending on range. The stat block only has one attack mode for this. Honestly these two drones should belong in a bestiary section. Now on to the real stars here: Recorded Heroes. These are robotic bodies housing the brain pattern of a dead CORE agent. Said patterns are stored in a biomechanical circuitry, and the process of extracting the patterns is so damaging to the brain tissue that it is only done with dying agents. So there are no frequent backups? A shame, would be funny for an agent to be declared MIA, only for him to return months later and find himself some vastly superior robotic clone. And for some reason, Recorded Heroes wear clothing only for ceremonial purposes. Oh well, at least once they have their brain patterns extracted, there's nothing stopping the new Recorded Hero from making backups, making them effectively immortal. All Recorded Heroes come with an antigrav backpack allowing for flight, which is always useful. Strangely, the SilCORE stat block does not include space flight, but the OGL block does (I guess that movement mode is supposed to be used for both?). They don't come with any built-in weapons aside from their fists and a force screen for most models. For ranged weapons, they have to get handheld stuff or modify their body. They also have a Dumb support Computer as part of their "crew", giving them an extra action at the Computer's most likely lower skill level, so leave that one to fire AoE attacks. Their OGL stats make them very overkill for low-level challenges, what with their 30+ STR and a Hardness between 10 and 20. Then again, they're so not supposed to be greenhorns. Recorded Hero Type I  Anyone remember Rise of the Robots? This is the scout/ninja model, the only one without a force screen. Their Armor value of 10 already makes them as durable as a light Gear like the Cheetah. Personal firearms won't do it here, and heavier guns will mostly suffer thanks to a combination of their own low accuracy and the Maneuver bonus of this robot body. Their fists have a Damage Multiplier of 5, aka 50 on personal-scale. They will crush your head like watermelon in a fistfight - though without the Anti-Infantry Perk, landing a hit is a bit hard for them. This model is also the only time Recorded Heroes get a typical Grade value, in this case 20. Eyeballing things a bit with the skill improvement chart and the OGL conversion rules, you can have most of your important skills at level 7 (out of a possible 10) and be considered a 19th level character in d20 with this Grade. You're into one hell of a show when the Type I cavalry arrives. Then again, this body is also handed out to Recorded Hero AIs who "wish to serve extensively in the field", so they can potentially be less awesome. Recorded Hero Type II  This is the balanced model, with advanced comm and sensor systems. Their armor is obviously higher, making them as durable as a Hunter/Jäger Gear, and their force field makes it even less likey for personal-scale weapons to have any kind of effect. Funnily, their fists deal just as much damage as the previous model, and their force screen has no flaw that makes it suck at being used offensively, so I guess that's their main melee attack. The text claims they have multiple hardpoints, but there's none of that in the stats. I would suspect this is because a Hardpoint needs a maximum Threat Value for the weapon mounted on it, and the writers don't believe in Threat Values. So slap anything on the GM let's you get away with! Recorded Hero Type III  For those who ever wanted to play a Gear without the pilot. These guys are slow, but durable like the toughest Gears, though I would put my money on the Type II because a negative Maneuver modifier is a bit of a disadvantage. This model also talks about non-existing hardpoints, and its gigantic fists also only deal as much damage as the Type I's. A boxing match between Type IIIs can go on forever. That's about it. The alien selection is a bit bland (maybe aside from the Orb-Shakras), though those Recorded Heroes are certainly something. They can easily soak up stuff like the Combat Drone's missile massacre and are overall the best player option (unless there's some fantastical equipment they can't use for some reason). I can certainly see longer CORE Command campaigns (if such a thing exists) having the players constantly ask the GM when they're PCs are considered important enough to be put on the Recorded Hero candidate list so they can get themselves conveniently killed. Being an immortal cyber ninja or mini mech in a society that has no problems with robots is a pure win-win situation. Next up: The equipment section. As most of this comes from that one Armory book, this chapter is over 70 pages long, so I'll most likely only cover the highlights. To spoiler a bit: I think the term "rocket tag" might not be enough for this game. Doresh fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Mar 6, 2015 |
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Mar 6, 2015 21:59
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Doresh posted:Combat Drone Why are the drone's lower torso and upper legs made out of mashed potatoes?
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Mar 6, 2015 22:38
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I like how all the drawings are literally on graph paper.
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Mar 6, 2015 23:30
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PurpleXVI posted:Why are the drone's lower torso and upper legs made out of mashed potatoes? Just some fire-resistant pants. Dude can bathe in napalm and chemical fire. Mors Rattus posted:I like how all the drawings are literally on graph paper. It's a true pen-and-paper experience! Doresh fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Mar 7, 2015 |
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Mar 6, 2015 23:49
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Mors Rattus posted:I like how all the drawings are literally on graph paper. It was a common thing in sci-fi rpgs, I'm pretty sure Dragonstar did that with their galactic races book.
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Mar 7, 2015 01:54
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PurpleXVI posted:KROMORE This was from a page back, but is that any hard object? Does it specify size? Because while the idea of making a bomb out of a match and a pebble is amusing enough, I'm pretty sure the planet itself is a "hard object" and even if the hard object isn't instantly consumed on use that's gotta be a pretty hard explosion to dodge. And if the hard object is instantly consumed on use then welp.
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Mar 7, 2015 21:17
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PoptartsNinja posted:This was from a page back, but is that any hard object? Does it specify size? Any hard object, going by RAW, it only has that little parenthesis section to give examples. And yes, this is the entertainment I see in Kromore, abusing the giant gaping holes in the rules to create hilarious scenarios.
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Mar 7, 2015 21:32
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Halloween Jack posted:My first impulse is to say that it needs a foreground element, where the PCs are given a cause and a mission, and a background element that looms throughout the campaign. For example, for the foreground, the PCs could be a government task force fighting the Wonderland on its own turf, a police unit hunting down CPDers who've been warped or possessed, or a company that stops terrorist groups from using chessboard-delving to attack their rivals. For the background element, you could have the government wanting to use Wonderland for nefarious purposes, the Underground spreading misinformation that needs to be combated, or corporations sowing advertising in Chessboard 1. Now that I'm caught up on the thread, I can comment on the suggested Wonderland campaigns. There are 3-4 different suggested campaign-types/campaign stages that correspond with point value. It's something like: College students discover a creepy nightmare world, freak out. People starting to cope with the creepy nightmare world and explore it. Amazing masters/government taskforce taking the fight to the Chessboards The companion book goes into this, but it's not really focused into anything beyond "learn the setting's secrets, which are GM-only." I never finished writing about the second book, did I?
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Mar 9, 2015 02:18
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PurpleXVI posted:Though what the gently caress is a salt hunger? Like is that a term in another language that means something, but has no meaning when translated literally to English? Please. Help. But aside from making rogues irrelevant and checking if someone's cold or hungry, basically they can throw fireballs and heal themselves, that's it. This is from a bit back, but they probably mean salt depletion. Mind you, I can't figure out what "LP"'s supposed to stand for.
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Mar 9, 2015 11:28
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