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Kurieg posted:It's also a game where one of the playable races are ideas. You can play as a chunk of virus that has embodied the physical form of a meme. Yes, because done right you would then be playing Freakazoid.
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Mar 15, 2015 21:00
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Also your MP is how close you are to going insane and becoming a mutant horror yourself, but the more you spend the more powerful all your abilities get, which is one of the best limiter mechanics I've seen.
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Mar 15, 2015 21:01
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Kurieg posted:I mean that in the classical sense of the word meme, not an internet meme. Though I suppose you could do that too if you really want Who wouldn't want to play as PROFIT! or Shoop da Woop? I'm definitely sold.
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Mar 15, 2015 21:04
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PROFIT! sounds like an Orcus to me.
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Mar 15, 2015 21:24
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Ratpick posted:Reading Golden Sky Stories in light of the idea that one-shots are more popular makes it much more sensical: at one point I was trying to wrap my head around the fact that your relationships didn't carry over from one session to the next until I heard that it's pretty typical in Japan for everyone to have a character they take from their home games to other peoples' games. Also explains the lack of any real advancement rules in Golden Sky Stories. Like many things, Japan is sort of stuck in the past. On Log Horizon chat, based on discussion in other places, the series's mechanics seem to borrow a lot from games like Neverwinter Nights and Everquest. As for why fantasy MMOs get the most attention it's likely just because they're the most popular. Also, the author, Mamare, likes to make stories involving the realities of a feudal society in a fantasy world
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Mar 15, 2015 21:33
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That would explain it. I'm not sure how sensible a decision it was (my guess would be "not very"), but it's his decision to make. To be honest, I prefer physical copies to electronic copies of books, but sometimes you don't have access to all of your physical books. That said, you only really need one copy of the book per table - the basic rules (that is, the bit I'm currently covering) are available as a pdf, and while the more advanced rules take up more space in the book, they're honestly probably easier to explain in play than to have people read. And on that note: Burning Wheel Part 2: The Spokes Tests are, simply put, die rolls. It begins with a statement of Intent (for example, "I want to kill the dude."), combined with a task (let's say, "I want to stab the dude in the face."). Then, the GM determines an Obstacle (difficulty) for the test, which the player rolls against. This takes about a page and a half to explain in the book (I'm starting to second guess my original assumption about the book not being aimed at complete beginners to role playing), with a little bit of input from the Instructor: The Instructor posted:If it is ever unclear what to roll, the GM should question the player. Get him to describe his action in detail, until what needs to happen is clear to both parties. Once the Ability to be tested is established, then the dice are rolled. The book then moves onto the various kinds of tests. We have Standard Tests, which are a single die roll which either succeeds or fails, Versus Tests, which are just opposed die rolls with a different name (defender wins on ties - in the stealth example given, if someone is sneaking around, the person looking out for them is the defender; if someone is actively searching for a hidden person, the person doing the hiding is the defender), Graduated Tests, which aren't so much pass/fail as how well you did (gathering information would be one of these, with more information given with each success) and Linked Tests, which are basically D&D Fourth Edition's Skill Challenges done right. A Linked Test is what is used when a test takes up multiple actions, which each use different skills. The skills are rolled in the order they're performed, with a good success (that is, rolling more successes than were required) on a previous roll adding a die to the next roll, and a failure on a previous roll increasing the Obstacle by 1. The example given here is navigating a boat through dangerous waters without being seen. To quote said example: The Rules posted:In the example above, the GM determines that this intent is going to require three tests: the Orc Pirate must pass his Piloting test, the Priest Navigator must then pass a Navigation test and the Temple Guardian must pass an Observation test as he watches the pirates. In this case, the Orc player barely meets his Obstacle. This doesn't affect the Navigator, who fails anyway. Luckily, the Temple Guardian passes his test, in spite of the increased Obstacle. Linked tests may be used for tasks with just about any time frame, from infiltrating a building to making one's way from city to city without running into bandits or running out of food. Next, we have Advantage and Disadvantage. These are very simple concepts - if the circumstances give you an advantage in successfully performing a task, you gain an addition die to your roll. If the circumstances make the task harder, you add +1 to the Obstacle. You can only have one die of advantage, and when asking for it, the book specifies that you should explain why it makes sense in one sentence. No lawyering. Disadvantage can come from multiple places, and it stacks. You can have both on the same roll - in the example given, shooting someone from high ground with smoke in your eyes would have advantage for the high ground (so one extra die), but disadvantage from the smoke (so one higher Obstacle). The harshest penalty is the Double Obstacle Penalty (most commonly seen when attempting to use a skill untrained), wherein the base Obstacle of the task is doubled before any other modifiers are added. For example, in the above situation, attempting that shot without being trained with the weapon in question would double the Obstacle for the shot, then add one to that for the smoke. Then, we have the four main methods of carrying out a test - Normal, Carefully (takes half again as long, and in any time sensitive situation, a failure means you run out of time), Patiently (works differently with each skill, but in generall allows the addition of bonus successes) or Quickly (each additional success allows you to shave 10% off of the time). This can be mixed, meaning that if you perform a task quickly and carefully, if you succeed by five successes, you take the base amount of time. In the case of Patiently and Quickly, the additional successes need to be arranged prior to the roll (for example, saying that you'll split them fifty fifty). After this, we have success and failure. On a success, the player performs the task exactly as they described it prior to rolling. If the task was to stab a fool in the face, that person's face has been well and truly stabbed, and that person is likely dead. Failure, meanwhile, should be interesting. The example given here involves somebody trying to pick a lock before a guard shows up, and suggests that a failed roll should not simply mean that the lock isn't picked; it should mean that the player gets to choose one of two things - either he fails to pick the lock, or he succeeds, but a guard shows up just as he's finishing off. The most important thing to remember here is that, unless the situation changes drastically, all rolls stand. If a player is infiltrating a mansion? One stealth roll. If you're climbing a mountain? One climbing roll. It's that simple. If the player fails, the player is incapable of performing that task unless things change. If the player succeeds, the GM should not ask for additional rolls unless things change. Next, we have the amount of time that tests generally take. There are some exceptions, but these are accurate for the most part. Failure takes just as long as success. For some tasks, if a thing doesn't have to be done all at once but it does have a long duration (research from a book, for example), the one roll covers the whole of that research, but the information might be granted in bits and pieces throughout the session as time passes and the player does other things. A player can help another player in a given test; the player should explain what they're doing to help, after which they provide a one or two dice bonus, depending on the stat or skill they're using to help. It cannot be forced or sneaky - the player performing the task should know that they are being helped, even if the character might not. When more than one skill could apply to what you're doing, this is where Fields of Related Knowledge (or FoRKs) are used. One example given here is when an elf is trying to look up dwarven history. The elf tests History, but because he also as an Exponent in Dwarf-Wise (that is, he knows his poo poo about dwarves), he gets a bonus die to his roll. Some skills require that the player have access to the right tools - if they don't, they take a Double Obstacle Penalty. This stacks with the same penalty for attempting a skill untrained. Finally, there's a bit about how to use written instructions on doing a thing. This can be used for practising skills, and can also be used to actually do a thing. Well, sort of; they'll help, so long as you successfully pass a research roll. If the roll fails, you're confused by the instructions and the task actually becomes more difficult. The chapter ends here, ready to get started on learning new skills and improving the stats and skills you already have.
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Mar 15, 2015 23:28
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unseenlibrarian posted:The reason why the games are designed for one shots is that enough private space and time to play is at a premium, so they tend to play in semi-public venues, like renting a Karaoke booth for a few hours. This doesn't seem like a bad idea, actually. You get table space, a modicum of privacy, consumables for food and drink, and you don't have to clean up after yourself when you're done. Somebody design a game where task resolution is decided by your karaoke score.
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Mar 16, 2015 01:10
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 の文字を構築する方法を学びましょう！ [Let's Make a Character!]  Pictured: Leonardo, the Ninja Before I get started with Char Gen, I forgot to mention one major thing in my previous post and a few minor things. Correction to Stat I apparently missed this: quote:Add any modifiers from your skills to your Base Stats (these can raise your Tags Every Enemy, item, Skill, and thing in the environment has their own set of tags. While these tags are not the complete description of whatever they're attached to, they help to categorize them into preexisting categories for use. For example, every Skill has either the [Combat] or the [General] tag which basically indicates when its meant to be used. Items and equipment have tags such as [One-Handed], [Consumable], or [Rare]. Enemies have tags that indicate what type of creature it is, like [Construct] or [Fairy] or [Undead]. Also, as a note, certain mechanisms are also conisdered Enemies, though they more resemble Traps. These have the tag [Gimmick]. Another special tag is the [Mob] tag. Enemies with this tag are basically mooks and are treated as such. A number of Skills specifically reference enemies with this tag. Hate Most MMOs have some sort of Aggro mechanic which tells the AI whom to target. In this game, Aggro is renamed to Hate. For simplicity, all enemies run off of the same Hate meter so pissing off one enemy pisses them all off instead of just one. There are two statuses related to Hate: Hate Top and Hate Under. Having the most Hate means that that character is Hate Top. Everyone else is Hate Under. If two or more are tied for Hate Top, they're both considered Hate Top. To incentivise attacking those at Hate Top and disincentivise attacking those at Hate Under, those at Hate Top take extra damage when successfully hit equal to [their current Hate level x enemy Hate Multiplier] while those at Hate Under get a +2 to their [Dodge Check]. While I'm not sure of how well the math peters out (note that the Hate Under bonus will never scale), it is an interesting mechanic to incentivise targeting and having a mechanic that makes in-universe sense. Of final note, whenever a player fails a [Dodge Check] by an enemy attack, they immediately get -1 Hate. Other things I forgot Skills have more than a resemblance to 4e's own set of actions with usage paralleling AEDU. I personally haven't played 4e, but at a cursory glance, the LOG Horizon RPG seems to borrow a bit from the format. Now back to Char Gen. Character Generation Every character starts at Rank 1 (i.e. Level 1) and has a Main Class and a Race. The Class will also determine their Archetype. Every archetype consists of three classes (with a total of 12 classes to chose from). There are also 8 races to chose from. These will determine your starting basic stats, ability scores and attributes. Each class also starts with three starting skills. Each class is also only limited to using equipment with the [Light Armor], [Accessory] and [Bag] Tags as well as those listed as part of their class Character images are from the Lite Novels unless otherwise specified. Archetypes and Classes Archetype: Warrior  The classic "Edgelord" equipment set Warriors are generally frontline combatants with Skills that allow them to take hits meant for other, squishier characters. Other Skills in this archetype also allow you to manipulate Hate to draw fire away from those characters or increase your damage. However, their damage output pales in comparison to the Weapon Master classes. In 4e terms, they'd be Defenders or Controllers generally. They are also not weaker than casters in terms of capability. Included among them are the Guardian, the Samurai, and the Monk. Archetype: Weapon Master  In video game terms, Weapon Masters would be called the Physical DPS for their high damage output. Most Weapon Master Skills boost Damage in some form or another with extra tricks to differentiate them. In 4e terms, they'd be Strikers. Unlike the Rogue which would presumably share their archetype, they also do not suck in capability when compared to casters. All Weapon Masters start with the Skill, Blade Artist which gives a +1D bonus to [Hit Checks]. Included among them are the Assassin, the Swashbuckler and the Bard. Archetype: Healer  She'll heal you up real nice, if you know what I mean They heal. They revive. They make sure people around them don't die from the damage that the Warrior didn't stop from getting through or that the Warrior took for them. They can even do damage in battle if they have to. In 4e terms, they'd be Leaders. All Healers start with the trademark Skill of any healer, Heal. For 1 Hate, a target recovers [Magic Power+ Recovery + 3D] HP. For an extra 1 Fate, they recover 10 additional HP. Included among them are the Cleric, the Druid and, the Kannagi. Archetype: Mage  Included among them are the Sorceror, the Summoner, and the Enchanter. Class: Guardian   Your best bro and troll of the battlefield Starting stats: 4 STR 2 DEX 1 POW 3 INT 50 HP +8 HP Mod Can Equip: [Blade] [Spear] [Hafted] [Bow] [Shield] [Heavy Armor] [Medium Armor] The tankiest of Tank characters. They typically have the heaviest armor and the biggest weapons. More specifically, they're skillslend them to taking hits for other characters and pushing enemies where they want them to be. They're generally the types who lead the charge into battle and both deal and recieve the first blows. They're also one of three classes that can equip shields. Starting Skills: Battle Master - Start combat with +2 [Accuracy] and +1 Hate Anchor Howl - At the beginning of the round, pay 1 Hate, get [Cancel: STR] (Cancel will be explained in full later, simply: all damage they take gets subtracted by STR) Decoy Action - During movement, target ally gets -2 Hate and if you pay 1 Fate, can move Speed Squares. Class: Samurai   Starting Stats: 4 STR 2 DEX 2 POW 2 INT 50 HP +8 HP Mod Can Equip: [Katana] [Spear] [Hafted] [Bow] [Heavy Armor] [Medium Armor] The standard version of this class is the Pirate. However, Japan, like many other regions have their own alternate version of the class. For Japan, it's the Samurai.In the series, Samurai have a number of very powerful abilities that can be chained together for maximum offensive and defensive capability, but have very long cooldowns. In this game, Samurai remain the damage powerhouses of the Warrior Archetype in exchange for the battlefield trolling capabilities of the Guardian or the mobility of the Monk. In both cases, the Samurai is meant to be the opposite in playstyle of the Monk. Starting Skills: Eternal Battlefield - +2 [Accuracy], +5 [Initiative] in the first round of combat Warrior's Challenge - At the beginning of each round of combat, get 1 Hate and an ally gets -3 Hate Split-Second Awareness - Once per scene, perform a Perfect Defense ala Exalted. Class: Monk   Starting Stats: 4 STR 4 DEX 2 POW 2 INT 55 HP +9 HP Mod Can Equip: [Martial Arts] [Throwing] The last of the three Warrior classes and technically the least tanky. Unlike the other two Warriors, Monks cannot wear anything above Light Armor. To compensate for this, they have the highest starting HP and the highest HP growth rate out of all of the classes. Also, they are the only class able to use Martial Arts Weapons. In the source material, the class is known for setting up long combos of skills with very short cooldowns that get bonuses if done in a certain order. The TRPG does not do this fortunately/unfortunately. Instead, the Monk is a high mobility controller and defender. Starting Skills: Martial Arts - +2 [Accuracy] and +1D to [Evasion] and [Resistance] checks Laughing Taunt - As a minor action, target ally gets -2 Hate Shadowless Kick - After making a successful [Dodge Check], gain 1 Hate and, if the enemy has the [Mob] tag, they're eliminated. If you have the highest Hate, the enemy takes 5 damage. Class: Assassin   Starting Stats: 2 STR 4 DEX 3 POW 1 INT 40 HP +5 HP Mod Can Equip: [Blade] [Katana] [Whip] [Bow] [Light] [Medium Armor] They are the archetypical Ninja/Rogue in terms of being sneaky motherfuckers who will stab you in the back while they're hiding right in front of you. They can deal the greatest amount of damage but are a bit wanting in Skills that help their defense if they're either out of hiding or at the bad end of an attack roll. Starting Skills: Blade Artist Assassinate - Once per Scene, for 1 Hate and up to 3 Fate Points, you can deal an additional [(Spent Fate + Skill Rank) x 7] damage on a damage roll of a [Weapon Attack]. Blade Sweeper - At the end of every Round, at the cost of 1 Hate, if a Target's HP is less than your POW x 3 or they have the [Mob] tag, they're eliminated. Class: Swashbuckler   Pictured: This cool cat Starting Stats: 3 STR 4 DEX 2 POW 1 INT 40 HP +6 HP Mod Can Equip: [Blade] [Hafted] [Whip] [Throwing] [Shield] [Medium Armor] Where the Assassin is great when going mano a mano, the Swashbuckler makes up for it by being to take on all comers and slaughtering them all. The Swashbuckler also makes particular use of stacking the Status effect known as Pursuit on targets, maximizing their damage as they do so. Because they can also equip a shield, they're more defensively capable than their other two counterparts. Starting Skills: Blade Artist End of Act - For 1 Hate, once per scene or at the cost of 1 Fate if a [Mob] enemy has taken at least 1 damage from the damage roll preceeding this skill, that enemy is eliminated. Opening Gambit - Once per Scene, for 1 Hate, you can distribute a number of stacks of [Pursuit: 7] to Skill Rank number of targets. 1 or 2 Fate can be spent to add 1 or 2 more additional stacks respectively. (Pursuit is another status effect that'll be explained in the combat section. In short, it's extra damage that can be dealt when damage is dealt). Class: Bard   I'd get the LN version of the above chracter, but they didn't exactly look equipped like a Bard (no instrument picture), so they get to be special and have this instead. Starting Stats: 2 STR 4 DEX 2 POW 2 INT 40 HP +5 HP Mod Can Equip: [Blade] [Spear] [Hafted] [Whip] [Bow] [Instrument] [Medium Armor] Classic to any RPG are the musically based support class. What they're doing alongside the Assassin and the Swashbuckler is a bit of a mystery, however Bards are not without a few tricks. Unique to them are Harmony Skills which are wide area buffs and do not technically require them to have an Intrument on them equipped to use. Additionally, they have Instrument Skills which do require having an Instrument equipped, but are more powerful than their harmonic counterparts and can be used offensively as well. Proper placement and targeting of these skills can make even the Enchanter feel impotent. Starting Skills: Blade Artist Maestro Echo - Once per scene, for 1 Hate and up to 3 Fate, a target gets +[(Spent Fate + Skill Rank) x 5] to their damage roll as a bonus. Any one Skill with the [Harmony] tag. Harmony skills are activated at the beginning of the round and require gaining 1 Hate per round to maintain it. By default only one Harmony Skill can be active at a time. Class: Cleric   Starting Stats: 3 STR 0 DEX 4 POW 3 INT 40 HP +6 HP Mod Can Equip: [Blade] [Hafted] [Magic Stone] [Shield] [Heavy Armor] [Medium Armor] The archetypical Healer and the best at doing so. As one of the few classes that can wear both Heavy Armor and Shields, Clerics need not fear standing right next to the tank and supporting their efforts. Of note, the Cleric is the only Class that can effectively Dual Wield Shields to maximum effect. Starting Skills: Heal Grace of Faith - +2 [Accuracy] and +1 [Resistance] Reactive Heal - For 1 Hate, and [1+Skill Ranks] per Round, immediately after damage is dealt to a target, you can heal them for 2D. Class: Druid   Beware the fearsome Druid and their mighty animal familiar! Alt: The most kawaii hippie Starting Stats: 2 STR 1 DEX 4 POW 3 INT 35 HP +5 HP Mod Can Equip: [Spear] [Hafted] [Whip] [Magic Stone] [Medium Armor] Where the Cleric is best at direct Healing, the Druid shines with recovery over time. In addition to recovery, the Druid has two other tricks up its sleeve to make them a rather well rounded class. The first one is Starting Skills: Heal Totem Grace - +3 [Accuracy], +POW to [Physical Defense] Heartbeat Healing - At the beginning of the round, for 2 Hate, target gets [Regen: Magic Power + 10]. (Regen triggers at the end of each round). Class: Kannagi   Starting Stats: 1 STR 3 DEX 4 POW 2 INT 40 HP +5 HP Mod Can Equip: [Katana] [Bow] [Magic Stone] Like the Samurai, the Kannagi is the Japanese counterpart to the internationally used Medium. Where the Cleric recovers damage after it's dealt, the Kannagi prevents it before it happens. This is done with use of giving out the Barrier status. Another thing that'll be explained in more depth later, what it does, simply, is it prevents any sort of loss of HP, either via damage or other effects. In a sense, it's a pool of temporary HP that gets taken before actual HP. When compared to the other two Healers, the Kannagi also has the most movement tricks in their repetoire. Starting Skills: Heal Guardian of Souls - +2 [Accuracy] and during the beginning of each round, they can pick one Skill and reduce its Hate cost by 2 to a minimum of 0 Purification Barrier - For 2 Hate, at the beginning of the round, a target gets [Barrier: Magic Power + Recovery + 15]. Paying 1 Fate increases the Barrier rating by 10. Class: Sorceror   Starting Stats: 0 STR 3 DEX 3 POW 4 INT 35 HP +4 HP Mod Can Equip: [Staff] [Light] [Magic Stone] For sheer magical destruction, the Sorceror is the go-to class. Their skillsare decked out with all sorts of magical attacks with a heaping helping or AoEs to boot. However, two things keep them under control. The first is their lack of bulk. The Sorceror is tied for last with the Enchanter in HP, HP growth and armor so standing too close to the frontline is a risky proposition. Second, many of their spells, incur large amounts of Hate. Whereas most other classes generate 1 or 2 Hate with their offensive skills, Sorcerors can generate up to 5 Hate per attack. Starting Skills: Ultimagica Spell Maximize - It's the same as the Assassin's Assassinate except for a [Magic Attack] Class: Summoner    A team of Summoners and their Summons Starting Stats: 1 STR 3 DEX 3 POW 4 INT 35 HP +5 HP Mod Can Equip: [Staff] [Whip] [Light] [Magic Stone] Unlike other games where Summons become extra NPCs for players to control and potentially break things like Action economy, in this game, there are generally two types of summons: Servant Summons and summons that aren't Servant Summons. Servant Summons are Skills used at the beginning of the round that generate a persistent effect for the caster as well as secondary effect at the beginning of each round when it's reactivated. There's no upkeep to them as well. Other summons are basically identical to other Skills and are generally treated as such. Summoners are another flexible class, with the capability of engaging in offense, healing or general support. In the series, they're supposedly able to play solo as their Summons can actually take hits for them and such. However, in the RPG, they have no such capability as of yet (it may be intended in the future as one Skill they have refer to summons with tags that the Summoner doesn'thave yet). Starting Skills: Ultimagica Servant Combination - Once per scene, for 1 Hate and up to 3 Fate, the target gets [Weakness: (Fate Spent + Skill Rank) x2] until the end of the round. (Weakness, blah blah about statuses, persistent extra damage when hit). Any one Skill with the [Servant Summon] tag. The Summoner currently has four skills to choose from that have this tag. Two are offensive, two are for healing. By default, only one Servant Summon skill can be active on a character at a time. Class: Enchanter   The main character of the source material and all around poopsocker Starting Stats: 2 STR 2 DEX 2 POW 4 INT 35 HP +4 HP Mod Can Equip: [Staff] [Whip] [Light] [Magic Stone] The ultimate offensive Support caster. In the source material, Enchanters the least popular class in the game as they cannot solo have awful offensive and defensive capability. Where they shine, however, is with others who do engage in direct combat as their ability to support their efforts are unparalleled. the lead protagonist of the Log Horizon series is a top level Enchanter which, while potentially reeking of self insert, also provides contrast to most fantasy series whose lead protagonist would more resemble one of the Warrior classes. Unique to the Enchanter are Enchantement Skills which are essentially buffs cast at the beginning of each round. These can increase things like damage dealt or [Recovery]. Starting Skills: Ultimagica Infinity Force - Once per scene, before the target acts, reduce the Hate cost of all of their actions to 0. For 2 Fate, this can be used again if it was already used in the scene. Any one skill with the [Enchantment] tag. All Enchantment skills cost 1 Hate to activate, cast at the beginning of each round and can only maintain up to two at a time. Side note: Alternate classes In addition to the classes listed above, the author had held a fan vote last year and added a bunch of classes unique to regional servers. Classes like the Samurai and Kannagi are unique to the Japanese server and their international counterparts are the Pirate and the Medium respectively. North America got one unique class in the Medicine Man, as an laternate for the Medium/Kannagi while Western Europe has the Paladin instead of the Samurai/Pirate, the Templar instead of the Cleric and the Exorcist instead the Medium/Kannagi. Scandanavia also has their own server with the Viking for the Samurai/Pirate and the Skald instead of the Bard. I imagine that server is pretty   Races Like I mentioned above, there are 8 Races to choose from in the game. Each race gives a bonus of some sort to starting stats, HP and determine your starting Fate. Each Race also has their own set of Racial Skills that players can choose from when levelling up. Race: Human They get no picture because they're humans Generic, boring Humans. They even get the boring Human stat flexibility thing. Yawn. Starting Stats: +1 to any two Stats 8 HP 1 Fate Race: Elf  Comeplete with the requisite smug They're Elves. The standard sort with the affinity of being dextrous and such. The character William Massachusetts is one (see the Weapon Master). Starting Stats: 1 DEX 1 POW 8 HP 1 Fate Race: Dwarf  Complete with requisite beard Dwarves. They're slightly shorter but sturdier than everyone else. Starting Stats: 1 STR 1 POW 16 HP 0 Fate Race: Half-Alv They look exactly like humans except for a thing on mark on their tongue. Also known as the game devs being lazy fucks. In universe, Half-Alvs are the descendants of the mythical Alv race that had gone extinct due to an ancient war and had bred with Humans. They're good with ancient machines. The character Shiroe (see Enchanter) is one. Starting Stats: 1 DEX 1 INT 8 HP 1 Fate Race: Werecat  A group of Werecats in their natural environment The furriest of the 8 Races. In the fiction, they, along the the next three classes were created by the Alv to combat the Demi-Humans. They're also the most agile of the races and lack tails. The character Nyanta (see the Swashbuckler) is one. Starting Stats: 1 STR 1 DEX 8 HP 1 Fate Race: Wolf Fang  The beefiest race. They tend to have very bushy hair and can hide their ears under it. Starting stats: 2 STR 16 HP 0 Fate Race: Fox Tail  Probably the most unique race. In universe, Fox Tails have a racial triat that occurs every few levels called Skill Switching. The Fox Tail loses one of their Class skills in exchange for another's. It is exactly as random as it sounds, but I don't believe it ever pops up in the series. In the TRPG, they have a Racial skill that can be chosen that allows them to pick up a skill outside of their Archetype, Class or Race in exchange for losing 10 Max HP. Starting stats: 1 POW 1 INT 8 HP 1 Fate Race: Race of Ritual  An atypical Race of Ritual  A more typical one The squishiestand nerdiest of all of the races. They look nearly identical to Humans except of the tattoos adorning their body. Starting stats: 2 INT 0 HP 2 Fate Completing Character Generation In addition to the stats gained fron the Race and Class, players get 5 bonus points that they can add to their Base stats up to a max of 7 before Skills. Players now choose three additional Combat skills and one General skill from the various Skill lists that they have access to. The Skill Rank of Skills cannot be raised above the Player's Rank. Additionally, Players cannot gain more than two Skills with the Training Tag. Characters start with 350 Gold, a Backpack, an Adventurer's Set and a Lunch Box. The gold may be spent as this time for equipment. Characters also start with one Connection. A Connection is a relationship to a PC or NPC of some sort and is mainly for plot hooks or getting a bonus of out certain skills. Personal data is filled out, including Name, Gender, Guilding Creed (why the PC is an Adventurer), Level (the level in the Video game which has Zero effect on the game) and Starting Sub-Class. A Sub-class is mostly cosmetic but has effects with certain skills. Sub-Classes include, but are not limited to: Acrobat, Apprentice, Arcanist, Armorer, Artisan, Blacksmith, Butler, Chindon'ya, Connoisseur, Cook, Counterfeiter, Demon Lord, Devotee, Doctor Duelist, Elder Maid, Explorer, Farmer, Food Fighter, Forager, Frontier Guard, Gambler, Gemsmith, Herbalist, Jeweler, Leatherworker, Maid, Mechanist, Miner, Nomad, Novelist, Painter, Scribe, Spellthief, Survivor, Tactician, Tailor, Trader, Woodworker And that's character generation. Nothing too complex or crunchy here. Of course combat is where things get complex and the next post will elaborate on that. Character Advancement Of course, in conjunction with character generation, advancement should also be explained. When a character goes up in Rank (how specifically will be explained later, but it's generally once per session), they get a number of things. First, they increase their HP by their HP Mod and each Base Stat goes up by 1 with all associated Attributes and Abilites Scores adjusting as needed. Each player also gets a number of skills. From Character Rank 2-10, players get two Combat Skills and one General Skill. At Character Rank 11+, they only get one Combat Skill and one General Skill. Each skill has its own cap and Skill Rank cannot go above Character Rank. There's also no Max character Rank. The sky is the limit in this game, and various skills go up in effectiveness at certain Character Ranks. with the highest being CR 21 I believe. And that's all it takes to "Level Up."  Picture: Characters created for the TRPG. From L to R - Cleric, Monk, Samurai, Guardian, Druid If anyone has any character generation ideas, I'll take the first few and use them in an example of generation as well as other examples. Edit: Also, important question: Should I do skills next or gameplay and combat next? Xelkelvos fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Mar 16, 2015 |
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Mar 16, 2015 02:15
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Xelkelvos posted:
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Mar 16, 2015 02:36
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Personally I'm fine with tabletop-as-people-trapped/voluntarily-immersed-in-MMO. It's a game, and it conveniently shuts down 99% of "why can't I do X?"
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Mar 16, 2015 06:27
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Rangpur posted:I'm not sure if you're making that part up or not, but I adore the notion of the metagame developing its own mythos over time. Not merely a gold farming bot, but one of the 13 Legendary Gold Farming Bots collectively known as 'The Blood of the Zodiac Wheel' or whatever nom de group they have (if any). Winning their favor is not easily done, but if you manage to pull it off they will farm the poo poo out of your gold. I would ABSOLUTELY play a sentient gold-farming bot, seems more fun than playing someone who got stuck in the game.
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Mar 16, 2015 06:44
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By the way, if you're interested in Double Cross, you might want to wait a bit because Ver. Blue is going to be releasing a newer version of the core book with the errata worked in.
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Mar 16, 2015 12:26
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PJOmega posted:Personally I'm fine with tabletop-as-people-trapped/voluntarily-immersed-in-MMO. It's a game, and it conveniently shuts down 99% of "why can't I do X?" It's certainly an interesting concept. It's one of the few scenarios you can play in D&D 4th Edition where the game mechanics support the fiction too  .
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Mar 16, 2015 13:54
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hectorgrey posted:It's certainly an interesting concept. It's one of the few scenarios you can play in D&D 4th Edition where the game mechanics support the fiction too Wasn't there an Eclipse Phase PbP on these very forums where the players had to go into an MMO and the GM ran that part of the game using 4e? Might have not been a PbP, but I do recall someone posting their kicking rad 4e pre-gens into the hot modrons thread.
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Mar 16, 2015 15:33
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Ratpick posted:Wasn't there an Eclipse Phase PbP on these very forums where the players had to go into an MMO and the GM ran that part of the game using 4e? Might have not been a PbP, but I do recall someone posting their kicking rad 4e pre-gens into the hot modrons thread. Yup, I'm pretty sure that was one of Ettin's games.
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Mar 16, 2015 15:40
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Xelkelvos posted:
No I'm reminded of these Pathfinder discussions that basically amount to how dual shield wielders make for the best sword-n-boarders. Oh well, let's make a Fox Tail Guardian that is also an Elder Maid. Evil Mastermind posted:By the way, if you're interested in Double Cross, you might want to wait a bit because Ver. Blue is going to be releasing a newer version of the core book with the errata worked in. Good to know. I'll keep that in mind.
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Mar 16, 2015 19:13
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I think 'trapped in an MMO' would be an interesting setting, but only under the assumption that the characters are aware of it and want to escape. Otherwise it's just begging the question 'why not just play any other generic fantasy RPG?' What I saw of the Log Horizon anime kind of does that, but the RPG mechanics don't seem to support it all that well so far. In the show, revival at the nearest Cathedral actually does carry a cost--you slowly lose your memories of the real world. If you were to run with that, it gives you some wriggle room when it comes to accidentally wiping out the party while still maintaining a certain amount of tension. For example, lose all your memories of the real world and you effectively become an NPC. In other words, I feel like there are dramatic hooks to sink your teeth into but they all come from interacting with the metagame rather than anything inherent to the in-game setting.
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Mar 16, 2015 20:13
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Rangpur posted:I think 'trapped in an MMO' would be an interesting setting, but only under the assumption that the characters are aware of it and want to escape. Otherwise it's just begging the question 'why not just play any other generic fantasy RPG?' What I saw of the Log Horizon anime kind of does that, but the RPG mechanics don't seem to support it all that well so far. In the show, revival at the nearest Cathedral actually does carry a cost--you slowly lose your memories of the real world. If you were to run with that, it gives you some wriggle room when it comes to accidentally wiping out the party while still maintaining a certain amount of tension. For example, lose all your memories of the real world and you effectively become an NPC. I was actually trying to avoid mentioning that, so as to avoid spoilers for people who wanna watch the show. But I can see why in Japan's games they wouldn't be able to support that mechanic, mainly because if you've only got so long to play or can only do one shots its a bit of a tricky thing to actually manage the consequences of in a short game without it becoming ridiculous.
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Mar 16, 2015 20:52
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It would certainly be fun if real, physical combat was actually impossible to do in such a world. Everyone's just standing in front of each other, whacking the air and letting the random number god decide if the swing reduced the other guy's visible HP bar. This of course will cause endless frustration with the only guy in the group who actually knows karate/kendo/whatever.
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Mar 16, 2015 20:53
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Rangpur posted:I think 'trapped in an MMO' would be an interesting setting, but only under the assumption that the characters are aware of it and want to escape. Otherwise it's just begging the question 'why not just play any other generic fantasy RPG?' What I saw of the Log Horizon anime kind of does that, but the RPG mechanics don't seem to support it all that well so far. In the show, revival at the nearest Cathedral actually does carry a cost--you slowly lose your memories of the real world. If you were to run with that, it gives you some wriggle room when it comes to accidentally wiping out the party while still maintaining a certain amount of tension. For example, lose all your memories of the real world and you effectively become an NPC. Log Horizon Season 2 Spoilers: There's a guild the heroes meet that have gone bugfuck insane from trying to escape back to the real world. They keep on killing themselves because that's the only way to "see home", as when you die you seem to replay emotional experiences from your life back in The Real World. Unfortunately, dying so much has gutted their memories and caused them to become antagonistic, nihilistic assholes.
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Mar 16, 2015 20:55
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Doresh posted:It would certainly be fun if real, physical combat was actually impossible to do in such a world. Everyone's just standing in front of each other, whacking the air and letting the random number god decide if the swing reduced the other guy's visible HP bar. First episode some scrub mook monsters nearly kill the main cast because they're trying to navigate through menus to use commands while the monsters are biting at their ankles.
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Mar 16, 2015 20:55
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Arashiofordo3 posted:First episode some scrub mook monsters nearly kill the main cast because they're trying to navigate through menus to use commands while the monsters are biting at their ankles. This is starting to sound like one of my plot hooks for a not-so-serious supers/anime adventure, except mine has the characters trapped in your typical oldschool JRPG.
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Mar 16, 2015 21:02
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Doresh posted:Good to know. I'll keep that in mind. Ver. Bule is an awesome company; when the only way to order Double Cross was through their webstore, they actually sent everyone the physical errata booklet free of charge or asking "hey, do you want this?". We just got it in the mail gratis.
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Mar 16, 2015 21:14
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Let’s talk about the The Strange RPG. It uses the Cypher system from Numenera. Unlike Numenera, it also has a title that’s very awkward to use. We already know Monte Cook, but the primary author of The Strange is Bruce Cordell, whose mind gave us D&D 3e’s Epic Level Handbook and D&D 4e’s Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide (as well as some D&D supplements that were actually good.) The Strange comes from Cordell’s concept for a science fiction novel providing his solution to the Fermi paradox, taking advantage of the fact that while physicists currently believe dark energy and dark matter exist, they have no idea what the hell they are. In The Strange, you will learn that dark energy is a universe-spanning computing network. (This doesn’t make a lot of sense, since dark energy is a part of our universe’s physics while the dark energy network supposedly contains many universes with a variety of different axioms, but hey, that’s surely just a conundrum for the GM to resolve.) When he told Cook about the novel idea, Cook convinced him to turn it into The Strange instead.  These are the first two paragraphs in the book. None of this has anything to do with The Strange RPG. The game opens with an in-universe briefing document from “The Estate”, which is an organization that “defends the Earth from all threats of the Strange”. (By implication, PCs are assumed to be members of this organization.) Some of the more interesting details in the briefing are redacted and the document is (in theory) intended for people who already know about the Strange, which produces an effect that I think is supposed to be evocative but is actually just annoying. As an example: Why even bother posted:We call these creatures planetovores because a) the Estate has good evidence that one tried to consume our planet when Earth first discovered the Chaosphere and b) because they REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED. The Chaosphere is apparently a synonym for the Strange. The two terms are used interchangeably throughout the book. Planetovores are referenced from time to time in the rules; they are the ultimate foes which PCs may fight. There are absolutely no rules or guidelines for the GM to use when creating a planetovore for the game. The document also explains the different kinds of axioms natural laws under which alternate universes (called “recursions”) operate: Totally not TORG posted:Earth and the visible universe operate under a familiar set of rules, called Standard Physics. But different recursions often operate under alternate sets of rules. The Estate has classified the following additional laws under which recursions operate: Magic, Mad Science, Psionics, Substandard Physics, and REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED. Okay, “Substandard Physics” is funny, but this is also the point where you have to give up pretending dark energy in this RPG means anything like what dark energy means in the real world. It’s just one level above waving your hands and saying “because quantum”. Next the document lists the other two major recursions, Ardeyn and Ruk. Ardeyn is a fantasy realm where magic works, while Ruk is a millennia-old realm with mad science. Numerous other recursions exist, mostly created by human imagination using the fun old “all your favorite fiction is true in another universe” trope. Later on, we’ll see recursions based on Dante’s Inferno, the Muppets, Barsoom, Oz, 221B Baker Street, and others. (Plus, as a special bonus feature, three pages of a very racist stereotype of Native Americans, for which Monte Cook Games is currently mounting an incoherent defense.) Of course, The Strange is also a Cypher system game, which means you can look forward to a bunch of crappy one-shot artifacts, GM intrusions, and not!wizards being better than the other two classes. But don’t worry, The Strange has its own special spin on most of these as well! So, where should I go from here? There's a lot of "fun" in the character creation, including The Strange's little tweak on Cypher System's adjective-noun-verb thing. Or we could look at the rules for jumping between recursions, or even skip ahead to discuss the different recursions in the book.
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Mar 17, 2015 02:40
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Oh man, this sounds like it could lead to something wonderfully lovely. How about just taking it in the order it appears in the book? Sometimes the bad planning and formatting is part of the ~experience~.
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Mar 17, 2015 02:47
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PurpleXVI posted:Oh man, this sounds like it could lead to something wonderfully lovely. How about just taking it in the order it appears in the book? Sometimes the bad planning and formatting is part of the ~experience~. You won't have to work hard for it, as it's my understanding their most recent world book for it was "Native American Stereotype land," and people were not happy about this.
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Mar 17, 2015 04:21
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LornMarkus posted:You won't have to work hard for it, as it's my understanding their most recent world book for it was "Native American Stereotype land," and people were not happy about this.
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Mar 17, 2015 04:35
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LornMarkus posted:You won't have to work hard for it, as it's my understanding their most recent world book for it was "Native American Stereotype land," and people were not happy about this. It's not a worldbook; it's three pages in the core book. And yeah, it would probably be less offensive if they hadn't done whatever modicum of research they did. (Also I'm convinced one part of it is a really vague Shadowrun reference.)
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Mar 17, 2015 05:03
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Zereth posted:Native American Stereotype Land that, from my understanding, they did just enough research for to make it even more offensive than you'd expect from that description. Where is it on the "World of Darkness Nunuheni" "Dances with Wolves" "Rage across Australia" spectrum?
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Mar 17, 2015 05:03
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 We read Witch Girls Adventures, the first game we've read where the book's TITLE is spelled wrong TWICE in the book. Don't believe us? Here! 
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Mar 17, 2015 05:07
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Wait, wasn't that the game with the horrible OCs and secret transformation fetish? Looking back through the archives, Adnachiel apparently did a review of the book and FourmyleCircus later did some supplements and it's apparently pretty horrible. Was that something you just didn't notice because you didn't go in with the same background knowledge? Because you seemed to like it while the written review makes it sound like a Fields-level nightmare.
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Mar 17, 2015 12:59
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scissorman posted:Wait, wasn't that the game with the horrible OCs and secret transformation fetish? I think I would have to be thinking fetish while reading it for that to kick in. Otherwise yeah, all the "hah hah you're a frog" stuff just reads like adolescent empowerment. But you're not the first person inside of twelve hours to tell us it's apparently a fetish book.
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Mar 17, 2015 15:21
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theironjef posted:I think I would have to be thinking fetish while reading it for that to kick in. Otherwise yeah, all the "hah hah you're a frog" stuff just reads like adolescent empowerment. But you're not the first person inside of twelve hours to tell us it's apparently a fetish book. If I remember the original review right, it comes into sharper relief if you know the author and some of his other works, I could swear I remember someone pointing out that some of his other transformation-related stuff is very fetishy.
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Mar 17, 2015 15:25
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PurpleXVI posted:If I remember the original review right, it comes into sharper relief if you know the author and some of his other works, I could swear I remember someone pointing out that some of his other transformation-related stuff is very fetishy. I guess we continue to be victims of our no-research policy. In retrospect, I'm aware that the most mathy and granular part of the whole book is the chart about how big or small you can make a target of a transforming spell, so there's that. theironjef fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Mar 17, 2015 |
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Mar 17, 2015 15:31
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He used to run an early transformation fetish site(Called "The Shrinking Sorceress" naturally) that was almost but not quite pornographic on Geocities. Most of the characters from those stories share names with NPCs from WGA. but if you point out the Similarities he'll deny it.
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Mar 17, 2015 15:44
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I was the "anonymous donor", and in part I sent it because of this question. The art and Lucinda are fetishy but the system isn't really, and I was interested in what you'd think of it compared to Maid. I think the directors version turned down some of the Lucinda art though (but the same artist continues to do other images that are outright disturbing) That and the awful editing, of course. And hey, I could never have anticipated talking Cujo, which nearly resulted in a ruined keyboard.. I also sent them Noumenon, just to see if they could be the first people on the planet to understand that game, after the rather awesome Nobilis discussion.
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Mar 17, 2015 16:00
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hyphz posted:I was the "anonymous donor", and in part I sent it because of this question. The art and Lucinda are fetishy but the system isn't really, and I was interested in what you'd think of it compared to Maid. I think the directors version turned down some of the Lucinda art though (but the same artist continues to do other images that are outright disturbing) We looked at the first three pages of both, and figured we could knock Witch Girls out of the park in an otherwise busy two-week period. Noumenon looks downright baffling, and I can't wait to get into it. Thanks! The odd thing to me is that the art (outside of the unpleasant comic at the beginning) just didn't read as fetishy to me. It mostly looked like someone trying really hard to ape Steven Silver. It's actually sort of refreshing to see a bunch of cartoon teenagers without a single upskirt or heaving decolletage. I assume Lucinda is the Insider or whatever, the born to magic one that seems to be doing most of the transformation stuff?
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Mar 17, 2015 16:19
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It's the poo poo about Lucinda turning people into cigarettes and smoking them that twigged me. That's not adolescent empowerment, that's Bradburyesque demonic children giving someone a chubby.
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Mar 17, 2015 16:55
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Bieeardo posted:It's the poo poo about Lucinda turning people into cigarettes and smoking them that twigged me. That's not adolescent empowerment, that's Bradburyesque demonic children giving someone a chubby. Bleah, I missed that. Grossest thing we found was her turning some guy into a bug and some guy into a frog and then the frog eats the bug. Even then, I was in benefit of the doubt mode (we've had recent complaints about being too negative) and figured it was just cartoon violence. Well no more. From this day forth System Mastery has no benefit to provide regarding doubt, this is my solemn oath.
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Mar 17, 2015 17:04
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theironjef posted:Bleah, I missed that. Grossest thing we found was her turning some guy into a bug and some guy into a frog and then the frog eats the bug. Even then, I was in benefit of the doubt mode (we've had recent complaints about being too negative) and figured it was just cartoon violence. The artist for most of the Lucinda art - and her original player as a PC - is a woman, Abby Soto. So no chubbies were involved. (Yes, she's the transformation girl, and the sample wicked witch NPC.) I don't know if the smoking thing was in the game book.. (Lucinda has a bunch of her own media). Apparently there's a "wicked edition" of WGA with one of the un-scaled-down Lucinda comics at the front, but it's hard copy only. Given that these include Lucinda zapping a guy into a maid uniform, having him clean her house, then telling him to clean out the mouse cage and shrinking him to put him IN the cage, with the now-larger mice, who've been starved.. Uhh, yea. But I'm actually pretty glad you thought it was usable without the ick factor. If you do play it, please podcast your game (and do voices  ) And it scores self awareness points for having Mary Sue as a trait.
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Mar 17, 2015 17:17
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