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Evil Mastermind posted:And yes, I'd have transformation as something that only happens to Ords. I'm guessing that these rules would probably be what it takes to actually inspire people in Nippontech. You'd just have to be as anime as possible. Ride into town on your cyberware enhanced velociraptor armed with paired submachine guns named truth and justice that shoot lightning and fire respectively.
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Apr 9, 2015 17:05
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Kurieg posted:Ride into town on your cyberware enhanced velociraptor armed with paired submachine guns named truth and justice that shoot lightning and fire respectively. Yeah, but who wouldn't that inspire?
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Apr 9, 2015 17:34
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Evil Mastermind posted:Yeah, but who wouldn't that inspire? The realists pointing out that Velociraptors are the size of turkeys.
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Apr 9, 2015 17:36
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theironjef posted:The realists pointing out that Velociraptors are the size of turkeys. Are you saying that Hornswoggle can't be an inspirational hero?
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Apr 9, 2015 17:37
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theironjef posted:The realists pointing out that Velociraptors are the size of turkeys.
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Apr 9, 2015 17:38
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The Living Land would hate it, cementing firmly its place as The Worst Cosm.
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Apr 9, 2015 17:38
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And that brings us back around to the idea someone had upthread of making Baruk Kahh the insane crossbreeding guy who's growing super-dinos and grafting other dinosaurs to them
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Apr 9, 2015 17:39
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Mors Rattus posted:Are you saying that Hornswoggle can't be an inspirational hero? Yes. Hornswoggle is objectively terrible. Make that Warwick Davis and I'm on team velociraptor rider. Wait now I want a recut of the Jurassic World trailer with Warwick Davis on a tiny little bike surrounded by science-accurate trained velociraptors, all looking like angry turkeys. pkfan2004 posted:Fine, spoil-sport, have like twenty velociraptors pulling a vendor cart done up in dekotora while riding on the cart like Washington crossing the Delaware. The raptors can keep their guns though. A chariot pulled by twenty super-turkeys is the best vehicle Benjamin Franklin never had. I'd be the most inspired ever if that syphilitic old codger rolled into battle on that thing, cyber-bifocals all acquiring targets, all with two french hookers manning the turrets. theironjef fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Apr 9, 2015 |
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Apr 9, 2015 17:39
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theironjef posted:The realists pointing out that Velociraptors are the size of turkeys. I'd like to imagine one of the storm knights pedantically arguing with kahh about how his velociraptors aren't scientifically accurate for hours on end without either of them realizing that the darkness device can just make the giant ones be the accurate versions as far as the living land is concerned.
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Apr 9, 2015 17:47
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theironjef posted:Yes. Hornswoggle is objectively terrible. Make that Warwick Davis and I'm on team velociraptor rider. *lightning cannon hums and crackles* "Do you ladies know how electricity works?" "Non, Msr. Franklin!" "Well it helps to be HIGH AS A KITE!"
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Apr 9, 2015 17:48
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Kurieg posted:I'd like to imagine one of the storm knights pedantically arguing with kahh about how his velociraptors aren't scientifically accurate for hours on end without either of them realizing that the darkness device can just make the giant ones be the accurate versions as far as the living land is concerned. The giant ones ARE accurate, they're just Utahraptors. With their feathers missing. This game needs a "that doesn't function" power so that pedants can fix the universe to make sense to them in a bubble around themselves. Like nega-psychics for reality.
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Apr 9, 2015 17:50
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Evil Mastermind posted:And that brings us back around to the idea someone had upthread of making Baruk Kahh the insane crossbreeding guy who's growing super-dinos and grafting other dinosaurs to them
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Apr 9, 2015 17:50
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theironjef posted:The giant ones ARE accurate, they're just Utahraptors. With their feathers missing. This game needs a "that doesn't function" power so that pedants can fix the universe to make sense to them in a bubble around themselves. Like nega-psychics for reality. Alright, a Cybernetically Enhanced Utahraptor, same magic guns and everything.
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Apr 9, 2015 17:52
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Kurieg posted:Alright, a Cybernetically Enhanced Utahraptor, same magic guns and everything. Let the record show I think cybernetic dinosaurs bedecked in magic guns is totally cogent, just not when the wrong dinosaur is used. I'm a nerd.
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Apr 9, 2015 17:56
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Kurieg posted:I'd like to imagine one of the storm knights pedantically arguing with kahh about how his velociraptors aren't scientifically accurate for hours on end without either of them realizing that the darkness device can just make the giant ones be the accurate versions as far as the living land is concerned. Oh man now I want to replace Kaah with Dr. Dinosaur. 
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Apr 9, 2015 18:12
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theironjef posted:Yes. Hornswoggle is objectively terrible. Make that Warwick Davis and I'm on team velociraptor rider. Fair enough!
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Apr 9, 2015 18:15
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By the way, ready to have your mind blown? In the game-line-ending War's End, it turns out Kaah is the second-most important NPC in the game and is the lynchpin of the victory or defeat of the Gaunt Man. Speaking of letting players create their own realms; that was apparently going to be idea of the sequel game "Storm Lords". After the final victory of the Storm Knights, it would turn out that the realms have become "burned in" to the world, and don't require a High Lord, bridge, or stelae to be there. The rest of Core Earth has reality storms constantly shifting things around, so the PCs have a chance to become High Lords and create their own realms.
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Apr 9, 2015 18:25
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Evil Mastermind posted:I've said it before, I'll say it again: I'd kill for a Fate Core version of Torg. I have so many half-assed notes and ideas for it. And yes, I'd have transformation as something that only happens to Ords. I'm strongly considering working up an Atomic Robo hack of TORG. fool_of_sound posted:I've been thinking that non-detrimental transformation for each realm might be more interesting. Like a Asyle wizard might become a Watch-Dogs-esque magic hacker in Core Earth or Marketplace, a powerful priest in the Living Lands, a pulpy superscientist in the Nile Empire, and a hacker OR a witch in the Cyberpapacy. Basically, have players choose a high concept and aspects that are realm agnostic, and have them come up with realm appropriate versions of them whenever you change locations. This would be a cool idea, actually. I'd love to see what the players could come up with to explain their pulp superpowers in Orrorsh or their cybertech limbs in Aysle.
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Apr 9, 2015 18:30
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Evil Mastermind posted:Oh man now I want to replace Kaah with Dr. Dinosaur. 
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Apr 9, 2015 18:32
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To borrow a pun from a GURPS supplement: go-limbs.
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Apr 9, 2015 18:32
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People beat Sauron up all the time, so presumably by now some hero has definitely confiscated his tech and can therefore cure cancer. So why haven't they? Maybe Iron Man is also busy turning people into dinosaurs.
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Apr 9, 2015 18:43
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theironjef posted:People beat Sauron up all the time, so presumably by now some hero has definitely confiscated his tech and can therefore cure cancer. So why haven't they? Maybe Iron Man is also busy turning people into dinosaurs. Iron Man can and has cured cancer.. then he charges them $99 a day or else he'll put the cancer back. The current avenger's plot arc is going to some weird places.
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Apr 9, 2015 18:50
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Genius: The Transgression, Foundations and the International Union of ArtificeGenius posted:"The fear of infinity is a form of myopia that destroys the possibility of seeing the actual infinite, even though it in Geniuses are somewhat unusual in the World of Darkness in that they aren't necessarily created by another of their kind. Many are, but the majority of geniuses become Inspired on their own. Those who realize what they've become naturally tend to wonder if there are other people like them out there, and indeed there are. Lemuria and the Peerage keep an active lookout for the newly Inspired, and most geniuses who realize what they are drift into one of the two groups sooner or later, or find someone knocking on their door. The Peerage's sales pitch is that you're insane and need others of your kind to keep you relatively grounded and human, that Inspiration is a double-edged sword but it's a livable condition. Lemuria tells you that no, you're not insane, everyone else is. The Peerage was founded in 1814 when the mad scientists free of Lemuria in Europe, North America, and the Middle East came together to oppose Lemuria and bring relative rationality and sanity to mad science. None of the original founding groups of the Peerage remain as such today, growing, changing, and occasionally dying in the two centuries since. Today, five great foundations dominate the Peerage along with a host of smaller organizations, and it's assumed that most if not all PCs belong to one of the foundations (there are rules for playing a genius unaffiliated with any of them, be they members of a smaller group or completely independent of the Peerage, as well as rules for playing Lemurians). The Peerage hasn't always been this way, but today it's an open and non-hierarchical organization. There are no codes of laws, no mad science police, no secret handshake. What the Peerage does offer is a social and academic network of like-minded mad scientists, invaluable both psychologically and for more practical reasons like access to a Foundation's research journals and other resources. Mechanically, there are two big draws to being part of a foundation: you receive a second favored axiom (in addition to the one your catalyst grants - each foundation has a choice of two), and each foundation has a grant, a special ability or effect that all members of the foundation enjoy. Joining or leaving a foundation is simple: sign up for the free journals, forums, listservs, and the like, and contribute regularly. In game terms, you bind (permanently store away) one point of Mania into the foundation, which represents your active research work and ongoing contributions to the foundation. You can cancel at any time, and continue to receive foundation benefits for one month until they run out, at which point you also get your point of Mania back. Changing foundations - including going rogue, joining Lemuria, or joining the Peerage if you were previously rogue or Lemurian - is a little more complicated. The foundation requires a donation of Mania equal to the genius' maximum Mania at the time, paid off all at once or over time, and needs to gain one dot in a specific skill - or gain a Specialization if already at maximum dots. Going rogue automatically happens a month after canceling your subscription to a foundation/baramin, and requires no skill or Mania contribution. One cannot be Unmada if you want to join the Peerage (no rules against going Unmada if you're already a member, though), and one must be Unmada if you want to join Lemuria. Requisite skills for each foundation/baramin: Artificer: Computer or Crafts Director: Persuasion or Socialize Navigator: Athletics or Drive Progenitor: Medicine or Occult Scholastic: Academics or Investigation Atomist: Politics Etherite: Science Mechanist: Crafts Oracle: Occult Phenomenologist: Academics Which brings us to the first foundation, The International Union of Artifice. Genius posted:The International Union of Artifice The Artificers are the youngest, fastest-growing, and most actively dynamic foundation in the Peerage, and their specialty is simple: they build stuff. They build lots of stuff, and build it quickly. Thinking about the potential consequences of what they build is an optional extra. More so than most foundations, Artificers tend to scare people with their work. You know every fearmonger ranting about robots taking jobs, doomsday weapons accidentally unleashed, or the Third World developing technology that will let them hurt the industrialized world? Artificers can potentially unleash all of that. Historically the Artificers simply built for the sake of building, they loved what they did and didn't need much of a reason. Times are changing, though, and the Artificers are by far the most active group of mad scientists in the impoverished and strife-ridden parts of the world, notably Central America and sub-Saharan Africa. If any geniuses are likely to strike out against The Man, it's probably the Artificers. Genius posted:Despite the fear the Artificers engender, no one better exemplifies the new spirit of creation that has swept The Artificers are masters of mad engineering. They're designers, builders, and draftsmen, and these days their choice of materials is far more wide-ranging than clockwork and steel. There are carpenter Artificers, computer hackers who build immaterial software-based wonders, and even a growing crop of genetic engineers. No matter the medium, Artificers build stuff and build more stuff, more quickly, and more effectively than any other foundation. They're also the poorest of the foundations: they attract the people building robots and plasma cannons in their garage more than serious architects and aerospace engineers. Historically, the Artificers as a concept have always been around in the world of mad science - they were never organized or widespread, but there have always been those mad scientists more interested in making stuff than figuring out how it works. Only in 1752 did hundreds of like-minded tinkers, smiths, and artisans meet in Philadelphia to ultimately found the Brotherhood of Artifice and Mechanism, and to reject Lemuria's insanity. The Brotherhood quickly found a friendly rivalry in the Invisible College, and in 1814 were one of the founding members of the Peerage. Before and since, the Artificers have always been considerably rougher around the edges than the rest of the Peerage, taking interest in mad scientists the rest of the Peerage didn't want to touch: African shamans whose rituals really worked, lunatic American and British gunsmiths, Rom tinkers, Jewish watch-makers, pretty much anyone the squeaky-clean Renaissance Men of the Peerage thought beneath them. Anyone interested in making stuff, the Artificers offered a hand to. In the history of mad science, the Artificers had very little interest in politics or large-scale activities until very recently. At most, they served as useful auxiliaries during the Invisible Wars between the Peerage and Lemuria (and on occasion, other, weirder threats), but most of the time they just kept on building stuff because that's what they liked to do. This changed in the late 20th century, with Lemuria's collapse and human civilization unleashed. People who traditionally did not catalyze were starting to: the poor, the desperate, and the oppressed. Whereas other foundations rejected these sorts of post-modern mad scientists, the Artificers welcomed them, and the new generation of Artificers often come from crime-ridden slums and barrios, war-torn hellholes, and depopulated villages. Not all of them, certainly - the traditional eager young builders of stuff still dribble in - but it's heavily colored the modern Artificers and their political direction. Embracing this movement has also made the Artificers by far the poorest and least-respected foundation, but they're working on that. Genius posted:Organization: Most geniuses build compulsively, but Artificers are far more inclined to get their hands dirty and use whatever is at hand. They expect members to be self-sufficient, and many Artificers make it a perverse point of pride to build wonders of awe-inspiring power out of the contents of the local dumpster. Or from the neighborhood sewer. Many young Artificers style themselves the New Makers and go whole hog on the punk attitude - probably a bit juvenile and more than a little bit hipster among the New Makers from less impoverished circumstances, but there's a lot of potential for serious change brewing there. Older Artificers, and those who don't buy into the New Maker attitude, are much more diverse in their aesthetic. They like to build stuff, and even Artificers fond of clockwork and steampunk (usually emphasizing the grease monkey punk) tend to build their stuff fast and hard, and their aesthetics reflect it. All of this makes the Artificers the fastest-growing foundation in the Peerage, and there are more non-academics in the Artificers than any other foundation. Mechanics, militia members, and unlicensed doctors all fill the Artificers' ranks, and unsurprisingly the most common catalysts among the Artificers are Grimms, Neids, and Hoffnungs. There's a lot of rage and resentment in the new generation, but also a strong spark of hope. Staunens are very rare, however, given that most Artificers want to build something new rather than admire something that already exists. Genius posted:Most Artificers, with their interest in creation over theory, favor Craft over Science and Science over The Artificers' favored axioms are Automata (make robots and zombies and whatnot) and Prostasia (the axiom of protection - armor, force fields, etc), though Katastrofi is very popular as well. An Artificer can choose between Automata or Prostasia for their second favored axiom. Their foundation grant is two-fold: Artificers make stuff faster than anyone, and their improvised wonders hold together remarkably well. Artificers reduce the time needed to build or fiddle with any wonder by one step (to a minimum of one day for non-kitbashed wonders), and suffer no penalty for doing this. For kitbashed wonders, this time reduction does not make the wonder fall apart faster. A two-step kitbashing job falls apart after one day for Artificers, not one scene. We'll get to the rules for kitbashing and wonder construction later. And finally, the obligatory fluff. Genius posted:Concepts: Back-alley machinist, caffeine-addled computer hacker, master bladesmith, automotive greasemonkey,
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Apr 9, 2015 18:50
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Kurieg posted:Iron Man can and has cured cancer.. then he charges them $99 a day or else he'll put the cancer back. Wait, I thought the whole Axis alignment-flip thing was resolved?
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Apr 9, 2015 19:00
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For everyone else, Iron man's still evil as far as I am informed.
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Apr 9, 2015 19:03
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theironjef posted:People beat Sauron up all the time, so presumably by now some hero has definitely confiscated his tech and can therefore cure cancer. So why haven't they? Maybe Iron Man is also busy turning people into dinosaurs. Wakanda has cured AIDS but won't give the cure to the other nations of Africa because they would "abuse" it. Black Panther is a stone cold mother fucker. This is from the terrible Reggie Hudlin run of Black Panther where every white hero and villain was racist. EDIT: Kurieg posted:For everyone else, Iron man's still evil as far as I am informed. It's called capitalism.
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Apr 9, 2015 19:41
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Tony Stark, new High Lord of Nippon Tech. Which he immediately renames Starkworld.
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Apr 9, 2015 19:45
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Kai Tave posted:The problem with "use Nippon Tech as a place to get rad supplies," aside from it being kind of a one-note reason to keep a whole parasitic genre-cosm around, is that Torg goes out of its way to discourage taking poo poo from one cosm into another, so all your rad Nippon Tech computers and guns turn to dirt as soon as you go to the Living Land or whatever. A remake of TORG would probably be served by making axioms a lot... looser, as it were, so you could take M-60s into the Living Land and gun poo poo down (but they break down fairly quickly, and the shinier the gun the faster it breaks down) but for the time you have a tech 25 weapon in a world where spears are the most common normal tech, you're basically a god. fool_of_sound posted:I've been thinking that non-detrimental transformation for each realm might be more interesting. Like a Asyle wizard might become a Watch-Dogs-esque magic hacker in Core Earth or Marketplace, a powerful priest in the Living Lands, a pulpy superscientist in the Nile Empire, and a hacker OR a witch in the Cyberpapacy. Basically, have players choose a high concept and aspects that are realm agnostic, and have them come up with realm appropriate versions of them whenever you change locations. And yes, this would be cool, especially if you could spend resources to throw off the transformation and just shoot loving laser beams when you really need to. Pecs McGee, the cybernetically enhanced killing machine, might just be a Herculean strongman in the Nile Empire or Tarzan in the Living Land but if it comes down to it he can spend a possibility and go back to being the Terminator for a scene.
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Apr 9, 2015 20:12
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fool_of_sound posted:I've been thinking that non-detrimental transformation for each realm might be more interesting. Like a Asyle wizard might become a Watch-Dogs-esque magic hacker in Core Earth or Marketplace, a powerful priest in the Living Lands, a pulpy superscientist in the Nile Empire, and a hacker OR a witch in the Cyberpapacy. Basically, have players choose a high concept and aspects that are realm agnostic, and have them come up with realm appropriate versions of them whenever you change locations. It's pretty much the only way I can think of making swapping realities exciting. Edit: Cyber-limbs in the Living Land would probably be like, made of living lava-rock or something.
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Apr 9, 2015 20:19
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Green Intern posted:Edit: Cyber-limbs in the Living Land would probably be like, made of living lava-rock or something. I picture them as a thick vine growing out of your shoulder with a hand-like clump of sticks or something on the end. Best image I could find to explain what I mean:  Either that or you have your arm replaced with a snake or something.
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Apr 9, 2015 20:26
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Evil Mastermind posted:Rocks are dead things. The Living Land doesn't use dead things. I did say living lava rock, but ok.
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Apr 9, 2015 20:47
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Evil Mastermind posted:Rocks are dead things. The Living Land doesn't use dead things. I'd still go with dinosaurms.
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Apr 9, 2015 20:50
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Serf posted:I'd still go with dinosaurms. So, like megatron? Just have a T-Rex head for a hand?
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Apr 9, 2015 20:51
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Green Intern posted:I did say living lava rock, but ok. Oh, I missed that. Sorry! (But to tie this back again to canon, while the religion of the edenios forbids them from using "dead things", Kaah has no problem with using them and has in fact created a special "cult" of P-rated lizardpeople dedicated to using things like assault rifles and flamethrowers.)
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Apr 9, 2015 20:52
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Kurieg posted:So, like megatron? Just have a T-Rex head for a hand? I was actually picturing a person with huge dinosaur arms with like iguanodon spikes instead of thumbs. This works too.
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Apr 9, 2015 20:57
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MJ12 posted:A remake of TORG would probably be served by making axioms a lot... looser, as it were, so you could take M-60s into the Living Land and gun poo poo down (but they break down fairly quickly, and the shinier the gun the faster it breaks down) but for the time you have a tech 25 weapon in a world where spears are the most common normal tech, you're basically a god. I think the degree to which characters adapt to their environment in new realities is actually a really great hook to hang character design on. Like if you divided your characters up into Stoic - No matter what reality these guys are in, they stick with what they know. Stoics reflect wherever they were born through sheer force of will. In fact they're so insistent on the nature of reality that reality near them tends to go along with their beliefs. Bullets fired at a Paleolithic Stoic are going too fast to see, and things he can't see don't exist. Meanwhile a future-tech space Stoic is so above the era of stones and spears that these objects are simply too inferior to even penetrate his modern defenses. Stoics, because of their resounding conviction that they can't be harmed by bizarre lies from another world, make excellent tanks and defenders. Adopter - These folks blend in and go with the flow. An Adopter from the age of shining knights thrust into the world of shamans and dinosaurs will find his armor shifting around him until he is clad in the sacred hide of the Ankylosaur. Paradoxically, Adopters are the most stable of classes in this game, as their rules work the same everywhere. Only the visuals really change. Adopters make great face characters, as they always have the right clothes for the current reality. Stringer - Stringers bring the best of where they've been along for the ride. Stringers develop an arsenal of useful truths from each reality they visit, and through determination, can bring those truths into being in places where they would otherwise be patently false. A stringer might pick up a spear and adjust it's reality to be that of a laser rifle, or adjust his own body to the truth of a world where humans evolved wings. An odd side effect of this ability is that they can't transform things that are in the reality they are currently inhabiting into other things from that same reality, for their truths are already locally true. No turning a spear into a sling, or a rifle into a bomb. These tricks enable the Stringer to deal damage or quickly patch wounds.
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Apr 9, 2015 21:01
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Basically what I'm getting from all this is that we need to all get together and just create the new version of Torg.
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Apr 9, 2015 21:11
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theironjef posted:I think the degree to which characters adapt to their environment in new realities is actually a really great hook to hang character design on. Like if you divided your characters up into I'm looking for a Kickstarter link but I'm not seeing it.
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Apr 9, 2015 21:13
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The idea of TORG using a version of Cinematic Unisystem (Those aren't Drama Points! Those are Possibilities!) excites me. The high concept of TORG is so good. The metaplot isn't, along with the 90ss-est of rule sets. Serf posted:I'm looking for a Kickstarter link but I'm not seeing it. Also this...
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Apr 9, 2015 21:17
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Well I guess I better cave and finally read FATE so I can write my Sliders/TORG crossover fanfic playbook.
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Apr 9, 2015 21:28
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