FATAL & Friends 2014-15: The Neverending Storygame

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FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Halloween Jack posted:

The Cyberpapacy is also something that's not stupidly complicated or silly in concept, but has a lot more flavour than if the Torg creators were just like "Well there's a high fantasy world, a cyberpunk world, a steampunk world, and a Prehistoric world." I don't know how well they executed Tharkold, but the "Terminator meets Hellraiser" sounds really cool, actually.

Most of the Torg cosms are "like escapist genre X, but with a twist". The pulp world was mixed with ancient Egypt, the cyberpunk world was mixed with corrupt medieval papacy, the other cyberpunk world was full of Hellraiser demons, the sci-fi world uses giant tree-ships to travel between stars, and so on. The fantasy world stood out for how generic it was, compared to the others.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 17:04

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# ? Apr 23, 2024 22:15

Doresh: Jan 7, 2015

Halloween Jack posted:

Pardon me if someone else already mentioned it, but the rights to TORG are owned by a company with plans to develop it. After Eric Gibson imploded and sold off all his WEG-related rights, Torg was picked up by Ulisses Spiele (a German company that specializes in wargames but also owns the rights to The Dark Eye). They were the ones who got all the old Torg books up on DriveThru, and they planned to release new Torg stuff this year.

(That said, I'm doubtful that anything they release will be developed with a drastically different system, although TORG needs it badly.)

Ulisses is also the German publisher of Pathfinder, Shadowrun and other stuff. I would say with having to translate all those foreign books and working on the newest edition of The Dark Eye, they seem to be a bit busy. A shame, really. TORG deserves another go.

Xelkelvos posted:

You could probably set up a set of tables during char gen so everyone can participate in the bizarre cosm building

I think we can use some Maid RPG tables as a base.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 17:15

theironjef: Aug 11, 2009; The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Doresh posted:

Ulisses is also the German publisher of Pathfinder, Shadowrun and other stuff. I would say with having to translate all those foreign books and working on the newest edition of The Dark Eye, they seem to be a bit busy. A shame, really. TORG deserves another go.

I think we can use some Maid RPG tables as a base.

I'm all for that, but one thing I do like about TORG is the metaplot and the big obvious villains to hang prose and art all over. So as I move forward with my dumb plan, I'm gonna keep that angle in (there's a few key bad guy dimensions that merit discussion) and then of course there's the myriad of infinite other universes to create, visit, and cause trouble in.

Of course this is just my dumb plan. Everyone in here should go make a not-TORG and then report back next year.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 17:20

unseenlibrarian: Jun 4, 2012; There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.

FMguru posted:

Most of the Torg cosms are "like escapist genre X, but with a twist". The pulp world was mixed with ancient Egypt, the cyberpunk world was mixed with corrupt medieval papacy, the other cyberpunk world was full of Hellraiser demons, the sci-fi world uses giant tree-ships to travel between stars, and so on. The fantasy world stood out for how generic it was, compared to the others.

The twist with the fantasy world was -supposed- to be "Was actually subject to early intervention by the space gods and that's where elves come from" but basically that got dropped when the space gods got made into Ancient Astronauts, IIRC.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 17:20

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!

unseenlibrarian posted:

The twist with the fantasy world was -supposed- to be "Was actually subject to early intervention by the space gods and that's where elves come from" but basically that got dropped when the space gods got made into Ancient Astronauts, IIRC.

That's so passe in fantasy worlds that it doesn't even qualify as a twist. Off the top of my head, Greyhawk, Mystara, the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, and Tekumel are all based on that premise.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 17:26

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Careful with the spoilers, guys. I haven't revealed the two realms that appear after Tharkold shows back up. I want a bit of surprise to happen. :ssh:

# ? Apr 10, 2015 17:39

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Genius: The Transgression, The Fellowship for Manifest Direction

Genius posted:

The Fellowship for Manifest Direction
Name: Directors
Nicknames: Overlords, Disputers, The Loud

Most mad scientists are fairly antisocial people, at least around non-Inspired. Not so the Directors. Directors, in general, are the people people of the Peerage and their mad science is often far more subtle than the other foundations. What interests the Directors most is power: the science of it, and the practical applications. On the face of it, the Directors are an Illuminati style organization, the rulers behind the throne and the faceless suits in the corporate boardroom. While they definitely look and act the part, the Directors are very explicitly not actually such an organization: they only wish they had that much power. But in the end, mad scientists are mad and that invariably does a number on plots for world domination.

Genius posted:

Each Director burns with ambition, with vision,
with a terrible yearning for more: more power, more wealth, more control, more safety, more revenge. It
doesn't matter what it is, but all Directors live lives of restless dissatisfaction. An individual Director might be
afraid, or uneasy, or ambitious, or merely curious, but all want the same thing: to accumulate power, at nearly
any cost. It's the naked ambition that shocks people, more than what the Director plans to do with all that
power. A genius' catalyst often strips away certain subtleties in a person's nature, exposing something
smooth and archetypal, and in the Directors is this tendency most strongly manifested. Some might climb the
greased pole to escape the machinations of their underlings, to exercise control over the pitiful world of
mortals, or merely to get laid every weekend, but all Directors possess a horrible, blank, all-consuming lust
for power that exists outside of any concrete goal or desire. A Director is a scientist-aristocrat, a wealthy
master of hypnotism, a would-be ruler of the world, who wouldn't even know what to do if at the end he sat
alone and unchallenged on a throne of pure diamond and looked out over his dominion of the Earth.

Yes, they're the New World Order from oMage with the serial numbers filed off.

The Directors specialize in mad psychology, many of them masters at mind control or creating entirely new life. However, where they really stand out among their Peers is in their social ability - more than any other group of mad scientists, Directors are good with people, even mundanes. Not every Director is a psychologist or would-be political mastermind, either. Software engineers and AI researchers are increasingly common, and there's a strong contingent of Directors who study related fields including economics, sociology, history, even ecology and agriculture. There's even a smattering of geniuses who study completely unrelated fields, provided they have the requisite people skills and lust for power.

As an organization, the Directors are an artifact of the Invisible War between the Peerage and Lemuria. Lemuria was (and still is) nothing if not highly organized, whereas the 19th century Peerage was decidedly not. In response, the Peerage appointed a council of directors to organize the war effort against Lemuria and the Directors have been a significant presence in the Peerage ever since. The Directors came to the fore during the early 20th century when they began to champion business and industry, bringing those assets to the Peerage's side against Lemuria. Ruthless, exploitative, and greedy, the Directors weren't exactly models of behavior but were invaluable for their ability to organize the Peerage, build an infrastructure, and keep the mad scientists pointed in the right directions.

Like most of the Peerage, the Directors have since found themselves divided and deeply conflicted after Lemuria's defeat. They were as an organization created to lead and fight a war, and with the war's end the Directors have found themselves at a loss for a purpose. Many retreated into good ol boys networks and secret societies only interested in preserving the status quo, but as with the Artificers a new generation of Directors has emerged. These New Directors are not apprentices to old men in smoke-filled back rooms, rather they style themselves capable of ruling the world through a smartphone. Old Directors are prone to volcano fortresses and underground sanctuaries, but the new breed are mobile, connected, and growing. Whereas the Artificers have pretty well run with their new generation, the Directors are growing tense and the spectre of a civil war within the Peerage or a splitting of the foundation is looming.

Genius posted:

Organization:

The Directors are more organized than other foundations. Every Director, whether she knows it or not,
belongs to a Dominion, a geographic region that contains from ten to 30 million mortals. The United States
contains twenty-three Dominions. Each Dominion is run by a Heterogeny, made up of three, five, seven, or
eleven influential Directors called Dispensers, one of whom is appointed the Overlord and manages the
regional finances. Many lesser ranks exist beneath the Dispensers. This group manages the affairs of the
Directors in that area from some central location. Every ten years, the Heterogenies vote on a Clade, which
consists of 44 Directors (currently; the population grows with the total number of Directors). The Clade, in
turn, sets policy for all the Directors from a central location in one of the world's major skyscrapers. (The
exact location varies from year to year.)

Directors technically have a single source for all Director-related scholarship, a monthly magazine called
Control. However, that's the old way. The new Directors, the up-and-comers, favor an ever-shifting network of
newsgroups and contacts squirting micro-assessments to their phones or laptops in a constant stream of
evaluation and analysis.

Most rank-and-file Directors, whatever their style, interact only vaguely with the hierarchy of their Dominion,
instead working on small-scale projects within their collaborative. Those that focus inward often serve simply
by remaining loyal to those on top and fighting for scraps of power in predictable ways. Others, though, join
some of the cultural groups within the Fellowship for Manifest Direction, organizations that exist not for the
benefit of their individual members but to protect and enhance the foundation as a whole. The Jaguar People
serve as the Directors' elite guards. The Mirror People handle counterintelligence and espionage. The
Stochastic People deal with issues of raw material, transport, and extraction. The Sigil People monitor
internal affairs and handle audits and personnel. The Tower People (whom everyone calls the People
People) deal with the mundane population. These groups were once vitally important to the foundation's
well-being and had intricate hierarchies and protocols; now, with the power structures of all the foundations
flattened, most of these groups are little more than a news feed with jobs to be done and rewards to be
offered.

As the political scientists and students of power within the Peerage, the Directors are some of the most subtle mad scientists and often the least reliant on wonders. Some Directors have a variety of styles and adopt whatever look they think is most effective in a given situation, but the majority generally favor a clean, professional aesthetic to their work. Some affect a bizarre, horrific, or just plain improper aesthetic for the shock value, while a few see their Director and genius roles as distinct and employ a brutally functional look when the fangs come out.

Genius posted:

Character Creation:

The Overlords focus on Social Attributes and Skills as much as Mental ones. They are orators and
administrators, and they often view themselves as the "elite" of the Inspired, best able to command the efforts
of other geniuses. Composure often trumps Resolve, as looking in control is more important in the Manifest
Fellowship than actually having it together. Physical Attributes are sometimes neglected in favor of
Intelligence and Presence, especially among Directors who prefer to act through proxies.

Social Skills are also prioritized, though Directors of different styles focus on different approaches: a
scheming, manipulative genius may focus on Subterfuge, while an expert at raising money and giving
presentations might emphasize Expression and Persuasion. This is not to imply that Directors neglect their
scientific training: most are as technically competent as members of the other foundations, though they often
seem reticent to emphasize that fact. Academics and Computer, to fit their favored Axioms, are common,
though medical Directors, aeronautics Directors, and even occult research Directors all exist.

Many Directors define themselves by their Social Merits: Allies, Contacts, Status, and Resources are all
common. Some even stay in the mortal limelight with Fame. Directors enjoy large numbers of beholden, and
can always find work for them. They're rarely the Dumpster Diver sort.

Unsurprisingly, in a group of PCs the Directors are usually the party face, though Automata means they can be formidable in a fight when need be.

Directors can choose between Automata or Epikrato (the axiom of mind control and whatnot) as their favored axioms, and rarely dwell on the blunter axioms like Katastrofi. Apokalypsi for information gathering and Exelixi for body and mental enhancements are popular.

Their grant further reinforces the Directors as social types: they can spend Mania to enhance their social attributes and when they do so, they do not suffer penalties for low Obligation, nor do they suffer Jabir penalties (Jabir will be covered in character creation, but it's the sperglord penalty).

Genius posted:

Concepts: Lab director, wannabe Bond villain, professional debunker, millionaire industrialist, member of
the Mad Ethics Board, unconventional psychologist, New Age techno-guru
Quote: "Like even the strongest iron bar, every man has a weak point, and it can be found."

Stereotypes:

Artificers: If only we could convince them to make something useful.
Navigators: Arrogant, insufferable hotshots! I like that. Besides, someone has to break heads when
negotiations break down.
Progenitors: Busy swallowing their own tails. At least they won't take too many people with them this time.
Scholastics: Research and development, that's where it starts. It's just not where it ends.
Rogues: Usually poor and looking for work. But I'm glad to work outside the system...when it benefits me.

Lemurians: How sad it is, to watch gifted geniuses worshiping at the altar of their dead ancestors.
The Illuminated: No, I'm not like them. They don't pay their test subjects.
Other Creatures: Generally dangerous, horrible, and uncouth, with a frightening lack of manners.
Mortals: They never listen.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 18:15

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Evil Mastermind posted:

Tharkold is actually pretty well done, but has so amazing poo poo that I can't wait to talk about because it's gonna make the whole thread uncomfortable. It's squared.

Uh oh.

FMguru posted:

Most of the Torg cosms are "like escapist genre X, but with a twist". The pulp world was mixed with ancient Egypt, the cyberpunk world was mixed with corrupt medieval papacy, the other cyberpunk world was full of Hellraiser demons, the sci-fi world uses giant tree-ships to travel between stars, and so on. The fantasy world stood out for how generic it was, compared to the others.

Ancient Egypt stuff doesn't seem out of place for normal pulp stuff to me, honestly.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 18:38

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Zereth posted:

Ancient Egypt stuff doesn't seem out of place for normal pulp stuff to me, honestly.

A whole modern world recreated with Ancient Egypt stuff is kind of new. Every town in modern Egypt now has functioning temples of Set and Isis, newly-carved obelisks everywhere, militia brigades of shambling mummies, newspapers written in hieroglyphics, and so on. It's ancient Egypt (well, a pop-cultural gloss on Ancient Egypt) brought into the early 20th century, and then packed with mad science, cackling villains, and two-fisted adventurers.

Evil Mastermind posted:

Careful with the spoilers, guys. I haven't revealed the two realms that appear after Tharkold shows back up. I want a bit of surprise to happen.

You're just trying to hoard all the magic Incan space weed for yourself.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 18:49

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

FMguru posted:

A whole modern world recreated with Ancient Egypt stuff is kind of new. Every town in modern Egypt now has functioning temples of Set and Isis, newly-carved obelisks everywhere, militia brigades of shambling mummies, newspapers written in hieroglyphics, and so on. It's ancient Egypt (well, a pop-cultural gloss on Ancient Egypt) brought into the early 20th century, and then packed with mad science, cackling villains, and two-fisted adventurers.

It doesn't go that far, but yeah. It's really just "instead of Nazis it's Egyptian cultists".

# ? Apr 10, 2015 18:54

Hyper Crab Tank: Feb 10, 2014; The 16-bit retro-future of crustacean-based transportation

I interpreted "pulp" as "pulp noir" for a second there, and now I wonder what fantasy Egypt meets noir would be like. "I could tell from the moment she stepped into the office that she was going to be trouble, and trouble was the last thing I needed. But there was something about her that wouldn't let you say 'no'. Maybe it was the sway of her legs, long and snaking like the Nile, or the way her voice reminded you of a wet-season night wasted away forgetting your sorrows over dates and jugs of wine. Or maybe it was because she had the head of a crocodile."

# ? Apr 10, 2015 19:05

unseenlibrarian: Jun 4, 2012; There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.

Hyper Crab Tank posted:

I interpreted "pulp" as "pulp noir" for a second there, and now I wonder what fantasy Egypt meets noir would be like. "I could tell from the moment she stepped into the office that she was going to be trouble, and trouble was the last thing I needed. But there was something about her that wouldn't let you say 'no'. Maybe it was the sway of her legs, long and snaking like the Nile, or the way her voice reminded you of a wet-season night wasted away forgetting your sorrows over dates and jugs of wine. Or maybe it was because she had the head of a crocodile."

Honestly probably a valid Nile empire adventure starter.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 19:08

Kurieg: Jul 19, 2012; RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20

Hyper Crab Tank posted:

I interpreted "pulp" as "pulp noir" for a second there, and now I wonder what fantasy Egypt meets noir would be like. "I could tell from the moment she stepped into the office that she was going to be trouble, and trouble was the last thing I needed. But there was something about her that wouldn't let you say 'no'. Maybe it was the sway of her legs, long and snaking like the Nile, or the way her voice reminded you of a wet-season night wasted away forgetting your sorrows over dates and jugs of wine. Or maybe it was because she had the head of a crocodile."

"Seriously Sobek this poo poo has to stop."

# ? Apr 10, 2015 19:12

theironjef: Aug 11, 2009; The archmage of unexpected stinks.

"Cut the waterworks, you dizzy dame. I've been working this gumshoe racket for too long to believe you" said the detective, before using his teeth to filter a pull of thick, pulpy beer from his flask. "I'll take the case, but it's ten loaves a day, plus 1/3rd kilo of barley for expenses."

# ? Apr 10, 2015 19:17

Selachian: Oct 9, 2012

"Boys, I think this chump has been stickin' his nose where it don't belong. Why doncha take him for a little ride? So let it be written, so let it be done."

# ? Apr 10, 2015 19:23

theironjef: Aug 11, 2009; The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Selachian posted:

"Boys, I think this chump has been stickin' his nose where it don't belong. Why doncha take him for a little ride? So let it be written, so let it be done."

"Fit him with a pair of cement shoes, boys. That oughta weigh more than a feather!"

# ? Apr 10, 2015 19:25

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

West End Games actually published two entire books of hardboiled/pulp/noir short stories set in the Nile Empire ("Strange Tales from the Nile Empire" and "Mysterious Cairo"), and all the stuff on this page could have been taken directly from the stories therein.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 19:32

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I wrote a Torg-alike in high-school without ever encountering Torg. It was a huge mess but the basic plot was the heroes were thrown together by a magic gate at the End of Time that could send them to any reality and tasked with hunting down their own evil opposites, who had a terrifying plan to destroy the multiverse by causing sufficient paradoxes and damage, since this had been done before and was, indeed, where the Gate had come from (he was the last guy to wipe out existence and rebuild it in his image). My high school group did a lot of mechanically loose 'whacky' games like that.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 19:35

JohnOfOrdo3: Nov 7, 2011; My other car is an asteroid

FMguru posted:

West End Games actually published two entire books of hardboiled/pulp/noir short stories set in the Nile Empire ("Strange Tales from the Nile Empire" and "Mysterious Cairo"), and all the stuff on this page could have been taken directly from the stories therein.

I am a happier person for knowing this exists :allears:

# ? Apr 10, 2015 19:36

Vox Valentine: May 31, 2013; Solving all of life's problems through enhanced casting of Occam's Razor. Reward yourself with an imaginary chalice.

"He's a Ptolomy. Nine's third son, was due to be married in a week's time. Dunno why but his old man was planning to make him the head of the Irrigation Department."
"Where'd they find him?"
"Face-down in a gutter." The coroner slid the crime scene photographs over to the detective. He thumbed through them. The alley he'd been killed in was vandalized with Latin graffiti and vulgar Germanic runes. That meant he died in gang territory or the slums.
"Cause of death?"
"Blunt force trauma to the back of the head, crumpled his neck vertebrae like an urn under a wheel."
"What'd you find when you cut him open?"
"...that's the problem." The coroner licked his nervous, dry lips. "They took his jb."
"*sighs* You're kidding me."
"I wish. They took his lung, intestine, stomach, liver and heart."
The detective rubbed his forehead and sighed. "Lemme guess, Nine wants the guy who did this found?"
"Yeah. And you've got a lot of different suspects who could've done it."

# ? Apr 10, 2015 19:36

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Also Ancient Egyptian Noir is great. You're all great.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 19:39

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

quote:

Egyptian noir

I love you guys. :allears:

# ? Apr 10, 2015 19:41

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!

Zereth posted:

Ancient Egypt stuff doesn't seem out of place for normal pulp stuff to me, honestly.

Well yeah, it's just a good fit. Egypt is a place you can easily see James Bond or Indiana Jones or any 20s pulp hero visiting. It's also pretty easy to grasp because the Ancient Egyptian themed mad science empire is actually set in Egypt. Likewise, Nippon Tech is set in Japan, thankfully; it would get confusing if the cosm was Cyberpunk Japan but it actually landed on South Africa.

Now if you took WoD style "dark modern horror-fantasy," mashed it up with mecha anime, and set it in the Middle East, that would be too dense.

Evil Mastermind posted:

It doesn't go that far, but yeah. It's really just "instead of Nazis it's Egyptian cultists".

Well yeah, replace the swastikas with ankhs and this is what I want from the Nile Empire.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 19:46

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!

Night10194 posted:

Also Ancient Egyptian Noir is great. You're all great.

She's my sister! She's my wife! She's my sister and my wife!

# ? Apr 10, 2015 19:53

Vox Valentine: May 31, 2013; Solving all of life's problems through enhanced casting of Occam's Razor. Reward yourself with an imaginary chalice.

By the time they found Rami, he'd nearly bled to death. They'd hung him from his legs and given him an Osiris Special, his mouth stuffed with gauze and sealed with beeswax to keep him from screaming. Adom was livid. He threw the girls out of his office and flipped a table, ruining a sack of Persian poppies and scattering it all over his office. I'd never seen him so mad in my life.
"Dogs of Gaul! This is how they repay me?!"
"Adom, he's critical but the physicians say-"
"They say what, Jafari?! That I'll never have a grandson? That they have made a mockery of me and mine? I wanted a dynasty, Jafari, and those disgusting dogs of Gaul have robbed me."
"He'll live, Adom. We don't know that the Gauls have done this. The physicians can heal him, you know there's ways to fix him. And we can't afford to go to war with them, not when Adonis and his bath-houses are trying to muscle us out of our own turf."
Adom could only shake his head. He wouldn't look me in the eye. He knew I was right, but his pride, his honor...I would know what his decision was, come morning.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 20:12

grassy gnoll: Aug 27, 2006; The pawsting business is tough work.

Halloween Jack posted:

She's my sister! She's my wife! She's my sister and my wife!

I can't believe I got jumped on this, of all things.

# ? Apr 10, 2015 20:37

Maxwell Lord: Dec 12, 2008; I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.; Grimey Drawer

Honestly if I were redoing TORG I wouldn't change too much about the setting. Just make the mechanics less 1989, make the axioms less punishing, and make it so you have a clearer chance of winning.

It's a game I would still run so long as I could play a little loose with the mechanics.

# ? Apr 11, 2015 00:46

Doresh: Jan 7, 2015

Fight! - The Fighting Game RPG

Chapter 4: Basic Moves, Special Moves and Super Moves

Moves might just be the most important part of character creation and advancement. You might already have some basic capabilities written down, but moves define what your Fighter can actually do.

As mentioned in the first chapter, Moves in Fight! are effects-based and only really come in 3 different varieties (Basic, Special and Super). There are some pre-built Moves in the appendix as guidelines.

Fight! does a rather clever thing when it comes to Move balance by having the cost to purchase a Move affect its cost to use in combat: Moves are rated in levels which not only determine their purchase cost in Move Points, but also their overall power and how much Control you need to pull them off. This avoids situations like in Thrash where there's really nothing stopping you from pooling all your points into 1-2 uber maneuvers.
As the Moves are effects-based, there are no special rules for weapons and similar equipment (with maybe one exception later on). If your Fighter is say a spearman, you just build a couple Moves with increased reach and damage, and maybe a pole-vaulting move.

Basic Moves

Basic Moves are your Light Punches and Heavy Kicks from the video games. Simple and, well, basic attacks that everyone knows how to pull off (of course modified by their fighting style). The only thing you really need to worry about with Basic Moves is their visual description, as they all function the same under Fight! rules, being Level 1 Moves (requiring 1 Control to use) and having a base damage of d4.

Mechanically, there is really only one Basic Move (which you obviously already start with), though the GM can spice things by allowing Sweeps (a low-hitting Basic Move that is harder to pull off, but knocks down; a less optimal version of what you could buy as a Special Move), Basic Taunts (a Basic Move that does nothing apart from giving you a bit of Glory), and one or more Basic Throws (which are actually proper Special Moves you get for free).

Special Moves

Your Hadokens and Shoryukens. These are gonna take up the majority of your character sheet. They have a minimum level of 2 and are rarely above 5, with a base damage of d6. Level 9 is not unheard of, but that's already rather hard to perform. Anything above that is just silly.
Level 2 Special Moves are called "Command Moves". They cost as much as a Level 3 Special Move to buy, since their low Control cost makes them very spammable.

All Special Moves get slots based on their level, which you can slap Elements on to customize the Move. If you run out of Elements, you either have to increase the level or add Liabities to the Move. There are two exceptions to this rule, which we'll get soon enough. Several Elements and Liabilities can be bought in ranks to increase their effect, or modified with sub-elements.

Special Move levels become really interesting when you want to convert stuff from a fighting game. Even in the predecessor games, it was rather hard to eyeball the relative power between say a Shoryuken and a Ground Flame short of looking at their frame data on a wiki, especially if you want to keep things balanced. Does this "level" thing ease the pain? Of course! See, there's a neat little advice given to the nature of levels, which may or may not blow your mind:

A Moves' level equals the amount of buttons you would have to press in a fighting game (except for quarter-circle motions which count as 2 button presses due to their fluidity). Writing down your Move's controller input is encouraged if you're into that sort of flavor.

The same info box goes into a bit more detail, like how most 360� motions are actually fine with 270�, or how "button-mash" Moves like E.Honda's flurry punches can be eyeballed with either Level 2 or 3 depending on how sluggish they are to activate. Charge moves are a slightly different thing and handled with an Element.

The two most basic Elements and Liabilities are "Increased/Decreased Accuracy" and "Damage", modifying a Move's accuracy bonus from its base of +0 and its damage, respectively. Of particulary note is that it costs 3 times as many slots to increase accuracy than it is to decrease it (a positive accuracy bonus is that important), and that there is a slight "slot tax" to increasing damage in that even ranks in this element don't increase damage all that much (outside of a lucky damage roll), making it a bit more attractive to pick another Element instead.

A lesser, but much more cheaper way to boost your accuracy comes in the form of "Subtle", "Hard to Evade" as well as "Hits Low" and "Unblockable". These give you an accuracy bonus if the opponent is defending with a specific skill (Tactics for Subtle, Evasion for Hard to Evade, Defense for Hits Low and Unblockable). Naturally, these lose their effectiveness once the oppponent remembers that your Special Move has one of those, but they can still prove useful in forcing him to pick a certain Defense skill, or punishing him for over-specializing.

As there are a lot of Elements and Liabilities, I'll just go over the most interesting ones.

First up are normal Liabilities:

Non-Finisher: This Special Move cannot under any circumstances bring an opponent below 1 Life Bar. This is probably the tamest Liability, unless you go overboard with it.
Limited Move: If you want to convert a Special Move with a certain quirk you can't find anywhere else, this is the Liability for that.
Random: Modifies another Element in the same move to only go off 50% of the time. Can really gimp a ranged attack if you add it on the Ranged Element, though that's always good for a laugh.
Slow Recovery: Lots of recovery frames put you at a disadvantage if you miss.

Major Liabilities are especially nasty, and therefore count as 2 Liabilities:

No Damage: Turns a Special Move into a pure utility move. Certain Elements that make no sense as part of an attack already have this.
Self-Damage: You either suffer damage or get stunned from your own Move.
Super Energy: The energy cost of a Super Move without the oomph.

Now onto the normal Elements.

Always Does Damage: Rare in the actual video games, this forces an opponent to lose some FS or Life Bar on a miss. Pretty nasty for opponents running low on either.
Area Effect/Explosion: These two are pretty similar, so I bundle them here. Quite expensive, but the only way to hit multiple fellow Fighters at the same time. Can be very taxing on your Fighting Spirit.
Charge Back: The Guile Element. Has the disadvantage of increasing the Move's Control cost if you're just using it as is, but it makes you a very effective turtler. For flavor reasons, Charge Fighters are encouraged to add this Element to most if not all of their Special Moves.
Fast Recovery: The opposite of Slow Recovery. You hit, you get an advantage on the next turn, making it easy to set up longer combos or keep on the pressure.
Juggle: Launch someone in the air for improved combos. Can be further modified with other Elements to make it more effective, but a lot of those require a successful Tactics check due to their tricky timing.
Ki and Strength: An Element for Ki-heavy Fighters, changing the base damage to that of a ranged move. Can be used to emulate stuff like Ken's fiery Shoryuken.
Knocks Down: A classic trick to deny the opponent his turn. More on that later.
Mobile: For all those Special Moves that cover a lot of ground. There's a more powerful version in the form of "Teleportation".
Power Up: Boosts damage by either spending more Control or reducing your own Life Bar.
Ranged: For all your fireballs and guns. You obviously attack at range, with the base damage depending on your Ki skill. This as well as Ki and Strength are the only way a Special Move will improve after purchase (excluding outside modifiers like Combat Bonuses), though it takes a while for those Moves to eclipse normal ones. Even then, you've spend quite a lot of points that you could've used for a more well-rounded defense, higher combos or more Fighting Spirit. There are a lot of sub-Elements with which you can simulate Sakura's fireball or Scorpions classic "Get over here!"
Temporary Invulnerability: This simulates stuff like "Super Armor" or invincibility frames, which are useful for dealing with counter-happy opponents. Pretty costly, though.
Throw: A classic Element for all your short-ranged, hard to avoid attacks. Aside from its sub-elements, it's mainly just a package of existing Elements and Liabilities bought much cheaper due to it being incompatible with a couple of other Elements.

Lastly, we get to "exotic" Elements that are a bit weirder/crazier. A lot of these can be traced back to a famous fighting game character or two.

Absorbs Attacks: Absorb a ranged attack to either turn into energy or use yourself.
Bomb: A cheaper, but trickier area attack.
Borrow Identity: The CPU Shang Tsung Element, allowing you to turn into a clone of another Fighter. Each specific Fighter to clone requires a different Special Move, and your own original Special Moves will have one less slot.
Copies Moves: The Kirby Element. Instead of dealing damage, you can use one of your opponent's Special Moves for a limited amount of time.
Entangle: The Sub-Zero Element. It's a bit like Knock Down with different properties.
Flight: Allows you to fly for a short time, making it easier to evade but limiting your Move choices.
Healing: Heals some Life Bar, usable in an attack move (making you Ragna the Bloodedge) or pure utility move.
Illusionary Double: Crazy ninja duplication tricks to confuse attackers.
Invisiblity: The Reptile Element. Acts as a general buff to Initiative and/or Control for a short time, or until you're hit if you upgrade it.
Power Enhancer: For Special Moves that do nothing but beef up a specific set of other Special Moves. Think Jam from Guilty Gear.
Reflection A bit like Absorbs Attack, but this one shoots back immediately.
Style Change: The Gen Element. Your moveset is split into different styles, which you have to change back and forth to with style change Moves. The advantage of this is that you get additional slots for all of your Special Moves depending on how many styles you have. To avoid potential abuse, each style has to have at least one other Special Move (or have to be filled ASAP if you start with "empty" styles), and the free slots aren't applied retroactively.
Super Move Enhancer: Effectively gives you tempoary Super Energy when it comes to one specific Super Move, though your stunned after using it.
Suppression: One of those very annoying Moves that prevents you from moving and/or using Special Moves for a short time.
Taunt: A more powerful version of the Basic Taunt. Can be modified to gain Super Energy or add a specific Element to your next Special Move.

With exotic elements also come exotic Liabilties:

Move Sub-Set: The Kyo/K'/Dynasty Warriors Liability. You can only use the Special Move immediately following another specific move (either inside the same combo or in the following turn if you win Initiative), allowing you to create a kind of pre-defined combo tree.
Multi-Part Move: The "Rolento's staff twirling" Liability. It is a more limited Move Sub-Set in that any single Special Move can only have one other Move "attached" to it.
Prop Liability: The Cody Liability. The Special Move requires some kind of item you can lose under certain circumstances, preventing you from using the Move again unless you can pick the item up or perform a specific "get item back" Move.
Random Move: The Faust Liability. A randomily-rolled modifier is applied to the Move before each use. The Move can fail outright, but most results either make it harder or easier to land a hit. Damage is also a bit fluctuating.

Attack Strings

The default flavor of Fight! is your classic 2D fighting game with lots of "pretzel motions". But how about traditional 3D fighting games like Tekken or Virtua Fighter that rely more on a laundry list of pre-defined basic combos? Well, this is what Attack Strings are for, as an optional rule you can apply to your campaign.

Attack Strings are a special sort of combo that only consists of Basic Moves, and you can trade in "hits" of this combo to add certain Elements to the overall attack. Overall, it gives you more flexibility. And since these Attack Strings count as a normal Special Moves, you can combo while you combo. Saying "Yo Dawg!" while doing this is optional.
On the downside, you now have to spend points on two Combo skills (Attack String and the now much more expensive Combo skill), and your "normal" Special Moves cost more to purchase.

Super Moves

The big ones. They cost as many Move Points as a Special Move of the respective level (though Super Moves have to be at least Level 5), but there is a hard cap on how many you can have based on your Power Level.
Super Moves have acces to new Elements and Liabilities, have a higher base damage (d8 vs d6), and they get so many slots compared to Special Moves (Level x 2 vs Level + 1) that picking expensive stuff like Increased Accuracy is finally feasible. In fact, you have to spend at least half of your slots in Accuracy, Damage, and the Super-exclusive Breakthrough and Invulnerability Elements (unless you're Super Move doesn't actually deal any damage, of course).

The list of new customizations is rather short, so here it is:

Breakthrough: This represents a Super's massive hitbox or large number of individual attacks, making it very hard to evade completely and/or dealing lots of chip damage. The Super Move will still deal half damage on a miss, provided the margin of failure isn't too great.
Extended Duration: If the Super Move has a buff or debuff of sorts, you can increase the duration by spending more Super Energy.
Increased Accuracy/Damage: Not actually new, but you can boost your accuracy and base damage even higher compared to Special Moves.
Increased/Decreased Super Energy Cost: Modidifies the Super Energy cost from its base value of 10. Not technically allowed according to RAW, but I would allow these for Special Moves that cost Super Energy.
Infinite Supers: The mother of all buffs. For a short period of time, you can ignore Super Energy cost for some deadly combos. Requires GM permission.
Invincibility: Lots of invincibility frames. You can essentially steal initiative to perform the Super Move if the difference in initiative is not too big, making this a favorite for slower Fighters.
Limited Choice: The Street Fighter 3+4 Super Liability. You only have access to one kind of Super Move per fight, choosable before said fight. Naturally, you have to apply this to every one of your Super Moves.
Unique Super Move: By default, a Super Move has to be based on one or more existing Special Moves, inheriting all the Elements and Liabilities. With this Element right here, you are freed from this restriction and can therefore surprise your opponents a bit more.

Super Energy to pull these wonderful Moves off is gained similar to most fighting games: Lose health, use an attack (even if you don't hit anything; reminds me of Street Fighter Alpha), and successfully pull off combos. You also recharge some Super Energy passively with each turn, depending on your energy maximum.

There's quite a bit of tinkering you can do with how your campaign's Super Energy bar works, though the two standards presented in this book are a simple no-frills bar capable of storing 10 or more points, and the Street Fighter Alpha 3-tier system where you can store up to 3 full bars of Super Energy and where every Super Moves comes in 3 variations with increased power and energy cost. You also have to decide on whether or not Super Energy carries over from round to round.

Transformations

Another optional rule applied to everyone. This turns Fight! into Bloody Roar. It gives everyone a "Beast Energy Bar" with which you can turn on your Warbeast form, Hulk out, activate your Devil Trigger or go Super-Saiyan. A big, juicy buff that lasts till you run out of energy, basically.
Aside form this relatively simple modification, you can add a Liability to Moves that are only usable while transformed, and you can burn your energy even faster for an even bigger buff.

CharGen continued: El Oso's Moveset

Now it's time to add some meat to our luchador bear. At PL 1, we get 10 Move Points to play with. This is enough to give him one Level 4 Moves and a combination of two Level 2 or 3 Moves (I'll go for two Level 3s). Since Super Moves aren't available before PL 3, we can't buy anything related to Super Moves or Energy yet.

Since they are so common in fighting games, I'll assume the campaign allows for Sweeps, Basic Taunts and a single Basic Throw. The only thing we can customize here is the Basic Throw, as a that is a proper Special Move with slots left unspent (a L2 Move as 3 slots, with the required Throw Element taking up 2). To keep it basic, I'll call it a Suplex, with the added Element of "Position Shift", which is handy when the arena features some environmental hazards to interact with (a given for a wrestler). I could add some Liabilities to get more slots, but I want to keep this one simple.

Before spending points on the 3 Special Moves we can start with, I have to think of El Oso's general strategy and theme. His Tall Quality gives his Basic Moves a longer reach, so we can assume he's usually standing upright (maybe a bit hunched over) and raking stuff with his forearms. As a wrestler, he should also have at least one other throw to start with. Overall, he seems to favor a mix of short- and mid-range attacks, so it would be useful to also have one Move to cover the distance.

L3 Bear Rush (d, db, b + P)

El Oso launches himself towards his opponent, counting on his sheer mass to get through whatever he has in stock for him.

As this one cover some distance, I give it the Mobile Element. There are several choices for how this Element affects the Move, but I'll pick the "2 ranges before movement" variety (making the Move cover as much distance as a jump, and it can go even farther if we decide to not attack with the Move). This costs us one of 4 available Element Slots. The remaining three will be spend on "Temporary Invulnerability", allowing El Oso to just power through counters, interrupts or attacks from simultaneous initiative (more on that later). It heavily discourages the opponent from trying any funny tricks, is all I'm saying.
For added flavor, I also pick a rank in "Increased Damage", balanced with the "Slow Recovery" Liability. It hurts more than your normal Special Move, but it's also hard for El Oso to stop if he misses.

L3 Improvised Weapon (d, df, f + K)

El Oso quickly grabs whatever random object he can find and attacks with it, be it a 2x4, a steel folding-chair or a bouquet of flowers.

Obviously, this one's going ot use the "Random Move" Liability, giving us 5 slots to play with. I pick Reach (since he's holding a weapon), a whooping 3 ranks of "Increased Damage" (to counter the fluctuating damage of "Random Move" and because most improvised wrestling weapons hurt a lot ) and the "Critical Hit" Element, which has a certain chance of staggering the opponent for some added randomness.

L4 Bear Hug (b, d, bf + P)

Being a bear and all, El Oso "hugs" his opponent and squeezes the life out of him.

This is another Throw, with the sub-element of "Sustained Hold" that allows El Oso to carry over the move to the next turn with a good chance for an auto-hit. This whole packages costs 4 slots, leaving us with only one left, which we use for a rank in "Increased Damage".

Some tactics you can do with this moveset include a mid-range combo using the Improvised Weapon with Basic Moves, or a Bear Rush followed by a weapon or basic attacks (throws sadly don't work in combos unless the combo already starts at short range)

Overall, the system's pretty darn nifty. It's straight-forward and relatively quick (unless you really want to tinker with a Special Move to get it "just right"). Most of the stuff you see in the source material is covered, lending Fight! well for conversions. And most importantly, there ain't much room for abuse, which is always good in a game where the players create their own powers/moves/etc.

Next Time: Combat rules that may or may not be mortal (I think I made this joke before...)

Doresh fucked around with this message at 14:06 on Apr 11, 2015

# ? Apr 11, 2015 13:03

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Genius: The Transgression, Navigators and Progenitors

I'm not dignifying either of these foundations with a proper write-up for the simple reason that they're really, really blatantly the Void Engineers and... Progenitors... from the Technocracy in oMage. There isn't even the token effort made with the Directors to distinguish them from the New World Order. The Navigators even used to be part of Lemuria but were of course treated as second-class citizens by everyone else so they jumped ship, while the Progenitors keep the oMage Progenitors' issues with their members going nuts.

Genius posted:

The Center for Circumferential Navigation
Name: Navigators
Nicknames: Daredevils, Guardians, Fire Bait

Navigators are the physical-oriented group of the Peerage, specializing in mad physics and being the guys who love to use their crazy poo poo and explore deep space and other dimensions. They have a militaristic air bordering on fascism depending on the Navigator.

Favored axioms for the Navigators are Katastrofi and Skafoi. Katastrofi we're already acquainted with, but Skafoi is a new one. Skafoi is the axiom of travel and movement: if it makes something go, it's Skafoi. Three dots is interplanetary travel, four is FTL and interdimensional travel, five is time travel.

Just like the Directors' grant lets them spend Mania to improve their social attributes, the Navigators' grant lets them spend Mania to improve their physical attributes.

Genius posted:

Concepts:

Deep sea or deep space colonist, jet pack flyboy, trailblazer, guardian of the city streets, spatiotemporal
researcher, cynical scout

Quote: "I've seen things you wouldn't believe. Hell, I've seen things I don't believe."

Stereotypes:

Artificers: Reliable, quality construction and professional design. I can't say anything bad about that.
Directors: Someone has to provide organization and funding. Shame it's these assholes.
Progenitors: Their desire for bettering themselves is commendable, but change for change's sake is pointless.
Scholastics: Evenly divided between useless antiquarians and people who know that real knowledge is
farther away than the bookshelf.
Rogues: Unpredictable when the poo poo starts. Don't trust 'em and don't turn your back.

Lemurians: They're not pathetic or harmless. They're dangerous killers, and they need to be respected for
that, if nothing else.
The Illuminated: You can go out into the Void, but you always need to come back.
Other Creatures: Good in a fight, and usually a lot more reasonable than people make them out to be.
Mortals: A bit too obsessed with creature comforts, but in a pinch, it's nice to have some ex-special forces to
point their guns at the problem.

Fortunately, no Threat Null in Genius so be a faux Void Engineer to your heart's content. Don't be an actual Void Engineer, though. Void Engineers are a specific and very different thing in Genius, and not really suitable for PCs.

Genius posted:

The Reformed Society of Progenitors
Name: Progenitors
Nicknames: Breeders, Gardeners. Old Breeders are called Demiurges.

Genius honestly has no idea what the Progenitors should be, so they're wacky biologist types obsessed with transhumanism and self-transformation, and they're considered dangerously insane even by other geniuses. Like the oMage Progenitors they used to be filled with lunatics (Lemurians and Illuminated in this case), but they swear they're better now even as the game tells us all Progenitors have a dead spot in their body or soul and universally get up to poo poo that's weird even by genius standards.

In other words, go play oMage.

Favored axioms for Progenitors are Automata or Exelixi. Exelixi has only been briefly mentioned before, but it's the axiom of healing, buffing, and even true resurrection at five dots.

The Progenitors' grant makes them experts at making tiny wonders, so they don't suffer a -1 penalty for building a wonder of Size 1, and suffer only a -1 penalty (not a -2 penalty) for building a Size-0 wonder. Large wonders are unaffected, but tiny wonders like these can be implanted into bodies. Progenitors also gain a bonus when fiddling with their wonders equal to their dexterity score, which is another mechanic that will come up later.

Genius posted:

Concepts: Revolutionary gene-hacker, man-beast hybrid, posthuman aspirant, fecund brood-mother,
aristocratic uplifter, replicant pimp, drug-fueled psychonaut

Quote: "It'll work this time, I promise. It won't hurt anyone."

Stereotypes:

Artificers: Trashy self-styled revolutionaries building the disposable future.
Directors: Charming, vacuous creatures. No, I'm not jealous. Not at all.
Navigators: Brave and smart, but incurious and unwilling to take the final step.
Scholastics: They pretend that the world they study doesn't transform them.
Rogues: There is strength in following one's own path. Sometimes there is folly.

Lemurians: The walking abortions of a failed space-time continuum.
The Illuminated: They are not the next step in human evolution.
Other Creatures: They change themselves, but they don't remake themselves.
Mortals: They'll understand soon enough.

Iteration X may have been a more interesting bunch to try rehabilitating as good guys, Genius.

# ? Apr 11, 2015 15:23

Xelkelvos: Dec 19, 2012

Doresh posted:

Ulisses is also the German publisher of Pathfinder, Shadowrun and other stuff. I would say with having to translate all those foreign books and working on the newest edition of The Dark Eye, they seem to be a bit busy. A shame, really. TORG deserves another go.

I think we can use some Maid RPG tables as a base.

Every player picks a geographical region, a genre/setting period and names a person fictional, real or made up on the spot. GM fills in holes or players make multiple additions if needed.

Then roll on each table for each area, invading cosm and leader of said cosm until satisfied

# ? Apr 11, 2015 18:48

Doresh: Jan 7, 2015

Xelkelvos posted:

Then roll on each table for each area, invading cosm and leader of said cosm until satisfied

Invasion of the robot vampire crossdresser cosm.

# ? Apr 11, 2015 19:04

Vox Valentine: May 31, 2013; Solving all of life's problems through enhanced casting of Occam's Razor. Reward yourself with an imaginary chalice.

Doresh posted:

Invasion of the robot vampire crossdresser cosm.

They're just some sweet trans-tech-uals from Trans-tech-ual, Transylvania.

# ? Apr 11, 2015 19:27

By popular demand: Jul 17, 2007; IT *BZZT* WASP ME--
IT WASP ME ALL *BZZT* ALONG!

drat, every torg-like setting idea that comes up in this thread is golden.

# ? Apr 11, 2015 19:50

Traveller: Jan 6, 2012; WHIM AND FOPPERY

I've been away from home for too long.

MiliKK

Sample PC, right here.

This is a curious Spanish game from 1993 (aren't they all?) that deals with a subject I'm confident in saying most of you will be unfamiliar with: military service. Specifically, compulsory military service. In Spain, all young men had to join the armed forces at 18+ years old until about 2001, which means that generations of Spanish men have all sorts of hilarious stories about their "mili" days. And not so hilarious: let's remember what happened back in the '30s in Spain and who ruled it for a very long time. (Hint, it was Franco.) This game is, as its creators (one of which is Spanish RPG eminence Ricard Ib��ez) say, is not about heroes and adventurers: PCs are just kids doing the mili. They don't have treasures to discover, empires to topple, or worlds to save: all they have to do is keep the military machine from pummeling them through hazing, stupid orders and all the poo poo that falls down on a conscript soldier into "zombie-dom" and transformation into a perfect little soldier. Did I mention that its title can be read as "Milipoop" in Spanish? :v:

posted:

This is the roleplaying game of thinking recruits, which is just like saying "bad soldiers."

gently caress, the CO plays Warhams.

Unlike other games, in MiliKK you can't die. The authors think that accidents (lethal or otherwise) that happened every year during the service are simply too grim to joke about. The game is also dedicated to one Jos� Luis N��ez P�rez, who died while under arrest three days after the guy he replaced was discharged. :smith:

Though this is a comedy game, this is definitely based on some lovely personal experiences: the authors note the units where they served, after all. One of them was in Spain's Northern Africa Army!

But, to the game. Let's start with Character Creation! PCs. First goes the name, of course, then the player's name to save people trouble during play. You roll for some personal data (height, weight, hair and eye color), then it's stats time. MiliKK characters are defined by their Muscle, Intuition, Brains, Personality (willpower) and Education. Roll 3d6+5, then split the total among the stats, with 1 as the minimum and 5 as the maximum. Then, there's the Morale stat, which is Personality x 10. Morale is MiliKK's real HP-like stat, which is improved by doing Good Stuff and reduced by having Bad Stuff happen to you. If a PC hits -6 Morale, they're "dead" - the system has successfully brainwashed him and he'll spend the rest of his service doing things like a good little jarhead. Morale is also rolled to see how ballsy the PCs are at doing some truly outrageous poo poo. Then, it's time to figure out the PC's mili rank and military rank: mili rank is how far into his period of service the PC is, and therefore how experienced he is at dealing with the loving mili. This also determines how many skill points the PC will get.

Mili ranks are:

Rookie: PC just got into the mili. 150 skill points, can't take mili skills.
Veteran: Some months into the mili, PC kind of figures things out by now. 300 skill points.
Grandfather: PC has done over half of his mili time. 450 skill points.
Great Grandfather: PC has less than two months left of mili. 600 skill points.

Grandfathers can take a Morale check to see if they're Corporals. Great Grandfathers can become Lance Corporals with two successful Morale checks.

Skills are divided in Civilian, Military and Mili skills. Civilian skills are those learned in the real world, Military skills are taught in the training camp, and Mili skills are those developed out of necessity in order to survive the Army. They're ranked from A to E, with A being the lowest value and E the highest. Some of them also come with certain specializations: for instance, you have to pick one specific Martial Art to learn. They're all linked to one of the five primary Stats: purchasing a skill at A level costs more if the relevant stat is lower. Once the A level is bought, progressing a skill further costs a fixed 50 points. Finally, starting PCs get 2 Survival points, more on these later.

Stat is 1-2: 100 points.
Stat is 3: 75 points.
Stat is 4: 50 points.
Stat is 5: 25 points.

A Bug Eater on his natural environment.

It's a short list of skills, but they do a great job of setting the tone:

Civilian Skills

Martial Arts (M)
Singing (P)
Drive (I)
College Knowledge (E) (It was entirely possible to get saddled with the mili even while in college.)
Handyman (I)
Sports (M)
Professional Formation (E) ("A soldier with knowledge of Tax Consultancy will be more qualified to move heavy file lockers from a storehouse to the Purser's Office than one without it.")
Photography (E)
Speak Guiri (English) (E) (du yu sp�k �nglich?)
Getting Laid (P) (Specifically to get laid with the gurlz )
Swim (M)
First Aid (B)

Military Skills

Drive Can (I) (any military land vehicle)
Drive Floating Can (I) (any military water vehicle)
Drive Flying Can (I) (any military air vehicle)
Instruct (B)
Command (P) (rolled against Truancy to see if a command is actually obeyed)
Handling Heat (I) (As in, guns. The Spanish word is "chopo", which specifically means the venerable CETME rifle: this skill lets the PC use any small arm up to a chopo's size.)
Handling Heat Plus (I) (all the other weapons not covered by Handling Heat, from mortars to flamethrowers to howitzers and naval batteries.)
Comms (E)

Mili Skills ("The great ability of the "national" soldier in employing these [skills] has made this country the great military power that it is (mostly by preventing more nonsense than necessary from happening)")

Harass (P) (Trolling and bullying, used to inflict Morale loss.)
Endurance (M) (Both physical and mental, use this to ignore a hangover or a chewing out from your CO.)
Pinching (P) (The skill to get the things you need to spend your mili without losing Morale: tobacco, money, booze, etc. The Spanish word they use is "buitreo", which means something like "vulturing.")
Camp Lore (B) (This skill equals the personal knowledge of the PC's camp, so it'll be nigh impossible to max it out since some places will never be open to a recruit.)
Detect Truancy (I) (To determine, while observing a soldier with a mop, whether it's the sixth time he has wiped the same tile on the floor while his buddies are out in the sweltering sun training in close combat.)
Detect Brass (I) (To tell if that guy in front of you is actually someone with rank over you, and which rank they hold.)
Detect Cool Spot (I) (Is that bar nice, good and cheap?)
Truancy (B) (getting away from poo poo, getting away with poo poo)
Gaming (I) (vidya, poker, dice, billiards, etc.)
rear end-Kissing (P) (self explanatory)
Swear (P) (a good "motherfucker" after bad poo poo happens can raise Morale, but it has to be loud enough to put the PC in danger of being heard)
Marshality (B) (proper goose-steppin')
Chutzpah (P) (pretending you're innocent)
Prepare Fast-Food (B) (not that literally, this is just the cooking skill applied to whatever the PCs can scrounge and is barely edible)
Military Psychology (I) (to determine whether threats by the brass are real or just Harassment, or to size up a new officer.)

PCs can roll for all skills without having them: essentially, they're added to the relevant stat when a roll is called for, so an A skill is equal to a stat of 6 for the relevant roll, and so on. There's a table: a roll-under percentile roll is made depending on the stat/skill level of the character and the difficulty of the action they attempt. A PC has 50% of pulling something with a Difficulty equal to their stat/skill, increasing or decreasing in five point steps. Trying to use Chutzpah at A to get away from weekend guard duty by convincing the Difficulty 8 "Childeater" CO? 40% rolls. 95+ rolls are fumbles, 5- rolls are crits. Crits also provide Survival points! Speaking of these, they represent a PC's experience and reserves of good luck. They can be traded in for skill points (1 Survival = 25 skill points), reducing a Difficulty in two steps, or increasing Morale by 5 points per each Survival spent.

There's also a Morale table: Good Things increase Morale, like getting laid, getting drunk, getting high, scoring weekend passes, getting out of poo poo duties, surviving until your next mili rank, and so on. Bad Things reduce it: late-night guard duty, getting thrown into the brig, being saddled with lovely duties, watch a friend be discharged, and so on. Being discharged yourself, however, is worth a billion Morale points! :d:

Drugs can increase Morale at a risk: milder stuff like booze and weed increase Morale but need an Endurance roll later, while coke and harder stuff give big Morale increases with a certain loss of Morale later that can be worse than the Morale bonus. As for physical damage, there's no HP: you can't die in MiliKK, so getting hurt in any serious way just sends a character to the hospital. Plus, the authors assume that their gear is naffed enough that they won't hit the broad side of a barn at three feet :haw:

. A fistfight is a simple Muscle against Muscle roll, with Morale losses on the line.

Now, as this is an old RPG, we have a Bestiary! Oh, yes. Mostly the same stats of PCs, with the addition of their usual habitat and their Speed, that can go from Almost Immobile to Carl Lewis. :v:

Terminal Weenie: government official with a little bit of power. Angry because it'll take a long time for him to be promoted. Attack: Harass.
IMECO: young officer with tertiary education. Like a ROTC. Attack: usually harmless.
Volunteer: kid that knows he's going to have to do a year again. Attack: depends on his character.
Rambo: well, Rambo. Attack: order push-ups.
Saint: "Appearance: Dad." Attack: harmless. Very good at Detecting Truancy, though.
Legal: as the Weenie, a little smarter.
Family: You don't get to pick them. Attack: "I'll tell Dad/Mom/etc.!"
Fash Civvie: A fash civvie. Attack: "In the times of F... this didn't happen, I'll report this with your CO."
Apathetic: ranked, but harmless until provoked.
Bug Eater: "Appearance: as a truck driver compared to a compact car driver." Hardcore rear end in a top hat. Attacks: Harass, gently caress With.
Pater: a chaplain. "Appearance: Inquisitor." Attack: "Soldier, have you ever served as an altar boy?"

Then there's some plot seeds!

The Wolf's Coming: major joint exercise, the PC's company is chased around by other units. The PC's objective: to keep from being captured by the 'enemy' and do as little gung-ho poo poo as possible.
Fire in the Body: a forest near the PC's camp catches fire, and they're volunteered to help. They're loaded up in a truck along with some IMECO 2nd Lt., but soon the driver loses sight of the convoy. They later find out that the fire already has been extinguished, and the PCs have a close city during party season, a hastily signed route sheet, and an easily coaxed IMECO for a nanny...
The Sarge's Goat: Lucero is the name of the kitchen sergeant's pet goat! He loves it so much! He, who just took away your overnight pass, serves poo poo for grub and bought a Mercedes with what he steals from the kitchens. Time to get some payback by having Lucero for lunch.
Lieutenant Francis' Wife: Lt. "Mule" Francis is the most hardcore officer in the regiment. A fash, too. His wife is the sluttiest slut that ever slutted (hey, it was 1993!) The PCs are tasked to do some repair work around the LT's house, and she'll try everything she can to get in bed with the PCs. Oh, and the Lt. will drop by for a surprise visit...
The Regiment's Pet: the regiment's Colonel had a lion pup given to him as a gift when he took command. Now, the lion is fully grown, but completely tamed. The PCs are ordered to look after it because it will be part of the regiment's next parade... except kitty gets lost in the city one hour before it starts.
Guard Night: The PCs get to stand watch on a small store apart from the main camp. It's known to be a good opportunity to gently caress around, except that this night the veterans are preparing a party, the phone is busted, some corporal sneaked a couple of hookers inside, the IMECO in charge scores some dank poo poo, a gang of ecologist-pacifists storm the place to protest the death of penguins, some burglars want to check if they can steal some of the good stuff, and a random CO will perform a surprise review.
Cerdito IV: "Piggy" IV would be the best bar in town, except that its owner is a sumbitch that hates jarheads with a vengeance after one got his little girl pregnant. He sets up the PCs by offering them free drinks, then calling the MPs accusing them of not paying and hurling threats at him. Vengeance is forecoming.
Night of the Long Knives: PCs are rookies just arrived into camp. The veterans sharpen their fangs. The longest night...
The Chewer: Florenciano "The Chewer" P�rez is the officer in charge for the week. Surprise footlocker inspections, removal of passes, arrests over anything: he's a loving rear end in a top hat. Everyone also knows he's gay, but no one has ever found any proof (though if someone did, they could have a very good mili by blackmailing him...)
Elementary, Dear Doctor: a routine check of the infirmary's pharmacy reveals that many drugs have gone missing. The CO issues a lockdown alert, everything goes to poo poo, and everyone is grounded until the drugs show up. They never will, since someone forgot to carry the two and hosed the check in the first place. The PCs have to get at the bottom of the mystery, or at least get away from the Bad Stuff.

HEY BOYS

And that's it! There's a long sidebar detailing authentic mili slang for that Spaniard flavor. I could do a couple of the adventures they wrote for the setting, if you'd like.

Traveller fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Apr 13, 2015

# ? Apr 13, 2015 05:55

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

That sounds like a pretty fun comedy game, actually.

# ? Apr 13, 2015 06:02

PurpleXVI: Oct 30, 2011; Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!

Yeah, that sounds like a great game to run for one-offs whenever the usual game is cancelled or people just aren't feeling it on a given day. I think that even without experience with compulsory military service, the general concept of unwilling recruits faffing off rather than doing their duties is ingrained enough in the communal psyche to work with most people.

# ? Apr 13, 2015 06:06

Kavak: Aug 23, 2009

Now I want "Terminal Lance: The RPG".

By accidents, do you mean poo poo like helicopter crashes or "accidents" like whatever happened to poor Jose?

# ? Apr 13, 2015 06:11

Traveller: Jan 6, 2012; WHIM AND FOPPERY

Kavak posted:

Now I want "Terminal Lance: The RPG".

By accidents, do you mean poo poo like helicopter crashes or "accidents" like whatever happened to poor Jose?

Actual accidents. The writers probably didn't want people to emulate forced disappearances or the all too real military brutality that was (is) visited upon poor conscripts.

# ? Apr 13, 2015 06:16

Lynx Winters: May 1, 2003; Borderlawns: The Treehouse of Pandora

That all sounds close enough to my experience in the US military. As much as I don't want to relive those days, MiliKK sounds like a pretty entertaining thing and I laughed at a lot of things in the review, thinking "yeah that's pretty much true."

# ? Apr 13, 2015 06:28

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# ? Apr 23, 2024 22:15

Robindaybird: Aug 21, 2007; Neat. Sweet. Petite.

One could pretty much do M*A*S*H: The RPG with this.

# ? Apr 13, 2015 06:47

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > The Goodmine > FATAL & Friends 2014-15: The Neverending Storygame

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