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Xelkelvos
Dec 19, 2012

Cythereal posted:

Never heard of Beast. From a glance through Leviathan, the basic deal is that it really does suck to be a Leviathan and the race is in a long decline never to recover. Ancient hunters vanquished their great progenitors, destroyed their once glorious civilization, and their descendants hunt the remaining Leviathans still. This doesn't make them bad people as a whole, and while individual Leviathans can be forces for progress and even forces for good, the race is circling the drain never to recover and the world won't miss them. Don't expect them to go gently into that good night, though. Leviathans retain a measure of their ancestors' power and are capable of immense destruction if unleashed.

Beast is the new splat for nWoD in the works. It's about preying on humanity's primal fears and feeding the beast inside. There's supposed to be an element of built-in crossover with the game to enforce an idea of family and relation to the other splats, but it's not very good as of yet. It's still in early development. Leviathan sounds better than Beast IMO.


KittyEmpress posted:

Princesses sounds unironically fun and I would like to actually play it, and I dislike WoD.

With a bit of polish and cleaning up, I could see Princess being a good game. Either they drop the WoD elements and go straight into a Magical Girl game or they fix up the WoD elements and give them a greater purpose that doesn't step in every footstep of Hunter (or go whole hog with the Hunter parallels including low Belief Princesses being as nearly inhuman as low Integrity Hunters).

Question for the thread: Should I make my posts smaller and easier to digest? In particular, should I break up the Queen post into 3-5 smaller ones or keep it with all five in a single post? It's shaping up to be bigger than the Callings post right now. I'd also offer to make a sort of example character, but since this is WoD, it's fairly trivial to generate one and it's by no means as complex as what Genius requires

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Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:

MonsieurChoc posted:

Well, next to the power of Satan...

Where does this quote come from. I've heard it come up as a tounge in cheek jab at hunter but I've never seen it properly explained.

Wrestlepig
Feb 25, 2011

my mum says im cool

Toilet Rascal
A good magical girl game would be Fate with your gm invoking magical aspects while in normal mode. I don't know anything about either if those though.

Traveller
Jan 6, 2012

WHIM AND FOPPERY

Kurieg posted:

Where does this quote come from. I've heard it come up as a tounge in cheek jab at hunter but I've never seen it properly explained.

One of the hunter Conspiracies, the Lucifuge, are literally descendants of Satan and have hell-themed powers.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Xelkelvos posted:

Question for the thread: Should I make my posts smaller and easier to digest? In particular, should I break up the Queen post into 3-5 smaller ones or keep it with all five in a single post? It's shaping up to be bigger than the Callings post right now. I'd also offer to make a sort of example character, but since this is WoD, it's fairly trivial to generate one and it's by no means as complex as what Genius requires

Your posts should be smaller, yeah. Not that the subject matter is uninteresting but you're going like 12 scrolls deep and it's hard to read on a phone that way.

theironjef fucked around with this message at 04:02 on May 26, 2015

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



theironjef posted:

Your posts should be smaller, yeah. Not that the subject matter is uninteresting but you're going like 12 scrolls deep and it's hard to read on a phone that way.

This exactly.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!
Just to mention because :effortless:, Rifts World Book Six: South America is now up on the tradwiki, as is every other Rifts review occamsnailfile and I have done.

Crasical
Apr 22, 2014

GG!*
*GET GOOD

DigitalRaven posted:

Speaking of, has anyone done Slasher?

I'd like to see something like this because while I am not good with World of Darkness, Serial Killers vs. Werewolves seems like a great Scifi original horror movie/campaign concept.

Vampires are also acceptable.

Xelkelvos
Dec 19, 2012
Okay. Message received. Since it's Memorial day, I've got nothing to do so that's why these posts are flying out. Also, it's a lot of copy and pasting too. I have two Queens done already, but I'll space their posting out a little.

Princess: the Hopeful
Queens
The Y splat. These sections are a lot longer than the Callings section and include stuff such as the Queen's background, the team colors and Heraldry, and essentially an essay about the group's philosophy. Most of this stuff would have been shuttered away into another book including stuff on the Twilight Queens since it's largely irrelevant to a core book. Also included are Duties for each Queen according to the five Callings. For the sake of completion, I'll include what bits seem important or potentially humorous. Otherwise, I'll skip over sections that don't really add too much. This includes the Character Creation section which seems like common sense to anyone building to a concept. There are technically 8 Queens, but Protagonist PCs are suggested to pick from the 5 Radiant Queens. The other three are a bit morally grey in various aspects and are detailed in the Antagonists section where they'll get their deserved attention.

Also, in the previous section, I listed them as Examples, but technically they're Inspirations. For what it's worth, they should be mostly one and the same, but it may explain why a character like Yuki Nagato, a cold almost emotionless sentient servant and an otherworldly AI whose sole purpose is to monitor and observe, is listed under the Seeker Calling since she, in no way, shape, or form would be any sort of example for a Princess. She might make a good Demon though.

All Queens have three Attributes they can boost via Practical Magic at a one-to-one expenditure of Wisps to add dice to a roll, either to boost theirs or increase the penalty of another's. They also have an Invocation they favor that lets them apply bonus dice equal to their Invocation rating to a Charm roll if it applies. Normally it costs One Wisp to add an Invocation bonus to a Charm roll.

Queen of Clubs
AKA: The Matron of the Forests, The Mother
Followers' Epithets: Wilds, Turtles

quote:

In any battle your greatest foe is yourself. You must ask yourself why you fight, what can you hope to gain and is it worth the risk of what you might lose? The enemy who says you cannot back down is none other than yourself; overcome it and look at the other options. You could surrender, often it costs you nothing but an apology and some pride. You could examine yourself, what did you do that lead up to this moment. Why couldn’t you live here in peace? If you can learn to live in harmony with your surroundings, isn’t that a better result than whatever you could win in a fight?

You can’t fix the world by yourself, but the best place to start is within.


The Queen of Clubs leads those Princesses who seek balance and harmony, they believe that a better world can be achieved if we just learned to live peacefully with each other, with the world around us, and most importantly: with ourselves.

The hippie Queen. She takes it easy and is generally chill about all things. When tough problems show up, she takes care of the little things while building up to the big stuff. While she could be an immortal Queen that fears no ageing, she prefers to go with the flow and age naturally. Instead of living in a castle and wearing finery, she lives in the woods of her former kingdom and wears donated clothes. She's just totally chilled out, man. :2bong:

quote:

Philosophy
The Queen of Clubs asks a question: “The world speaks to us. Have you ever stopped to listen?”
Most of the Mother's philosophy boils down to "Go with the flow." Suffering stems from struggling against the confines of the world and one's nature and harmony can be found by figuring out how to live with the world. And to achieve a world of total harmony, it cannot be done through conflict, but by teaching and showing by exampleand being a hippy.

quote:

Duties
A Turtle’s Duties are to bring things together. People certainly but that’s only a small part of it: Man and nature, reason and emotion, city and countryside. The Wilds dream of a world where what were once opposing opposites are now part of a balanced whole.
Champions of Clubs help people directly. They are park rangers and wilderness guides who help people brave the dangers of the natural world so that they may see it’s beauty first hand. More than any other Calling it is the Champions of Clubs who earn the epithet of Turtles. In battle they favour defensive tactics and seek to gradually wear their opponents down with a minimum of harm.
Many Graces are environmentalists who seek to preserve natural world and preach the importance of living in balance with our suroundings. Other Graces are mediators without peer who work to bring conflicting parties together in a harmonious balance. The lessons of harmony are not limited to those with an external enemy. The Queen of Clubs teaches that harmony beginns with inner balance and many of her Graces are teachers who help their students learn to live in harmony with themselves and the world around them.
In the Court of Clubs Menders are rarely simple healers. Under the Queen’s philosophy the disease itself is often a symtom and her Menders teach their patients to live a lifetyle that avoids further sickness. The court’s focus on the natural world attracts membership from vets and envionmentalists who work to clean pollution. Partnerships between Menders and Graces are common, the Mender deals with the physical symptoms and the Grace teaches a way of life that removes the root cause.
Seekers delve deep into the jungle seeking new herbs, undiscovered animals or just beautiful vistas. Others travel beyond the borders of earth. They delve into the lore of the Spirit wilds, the hidden half of the natural world, and try and use the wisdom they find to shape and heal the spirit community around them. A few Seekers blur the lines between Clubs and Diamonds as they work on renewable energy and cleaner technology.
Troubadours are inspired by nature and paint magnificent scenes of the natural world, others work with nature directly as landscapers, flower arrangers or bonsai artists. A surprising number are architects and urban planners who attempt to reintegrate nature with cities in the most literal manner.
I was worried they would mention Homeopathic medicine or GMOs.

quote:

Background
Appropriately for a Court so focused on Harmony, the Wilds are often classified into two groups with little conflict or divisions between them. On the one hand you have the naturalists: Everyone from professional park rangers and conservationists to people who really love their pets. They are drawn by Clubs’ belief in harmony with the natural world and often leap for joy when they learn how Legno lets them talk to animals.

On the second hand you have the spiritualists: From gurus and philosophers to pacifistic hippies and suburbanites yearning for something with more meaning than materialism. That is not to say that every spiritual Princess is drawn to the Wilds. The Court of Clubs has its own philosophies which draws students interested in learning about harmony, balance and the quest for inner peace.

When the Court of Clubs gathers it is not rare for a laboratory biologist to talk long into the night with a self taught student of Taoism, each delighting seeing the world though eyes that on the first glance are so different from their own. The Queen herself knows that the two sides are both the inevitable result of each other and smiles every time one of her sons or daughters experiences the joy of learning so for themself.
At least the writers are self aware of how nature oriented they are. It's just a tad surprising. I'm skipping over the Heraldry, Echo and Character Creation sections since they're relatively useless and uninteresting (well no poo poo a person with an affinity for nature is going to put Dots into Animal Ken and Survival)

Practical Magic: Resolve, Stamina, Composure. i.e. The Resistance Attributes

quote:

Invocation: Legno
The Queen of Clubs teaches the principles of harmony and inner strength in the form of Legno and the Turtles find it easier to master than any other. Legno encourages a Princess to work with, not against. To find balance not overpower. To defend not attack. It also guides a Princess to seek inspiration in the natural world.

Legno applies at no cost when the target of a Princess’ Charm is a living plant or wood, and when her Charm’s target is a natural, non-sapient animal. It also applies without cost when a Princess intends to restore things to their natural state, to restrain the reckless and calm the fearful, to find a harmonious compromise between two positions, to protect against an attack, to prevent or calm violence without committing violence herself, to conserve and cultivate over time, and to influence without drawing attention to herself.

Those who would make use of Legno must live for harmony in all things. A Princess who attempts violence against someone not involved in combat, or who helps another to do so, may not apply the Invocation until the next sunrise. Self-defense, protecting a non-combatant, and using Charms to stop a fight without violence are unexceptionable, but if a Princess gives tactical support to an ally and the ally attacks one who has not begun to fight, she loses access to Legno just as if she had struck the blow herself.
Basically, live up to your name and be one with the Turtle and tank things. Or Sundown Eyes. Or stop Death Rage Werewolves.

quote:

Quote
You can’t control the world, but you don’t need to.
Stereotypes
• Diamonds: They seek knowledge only for the sake of knowledge. They build a future with no idea where it leads. Yet we must ask ourselves: Would we have time to contemplate without their agriculture? Would we understand the life of the butterfly without their tables of numbers? Ask them to free us from necessity, our work comes after.
• Hearts: They are living in traditions built for the world of yesteryear. Either they can hold the world back or the world can trample them underfoot. It cannot end well.
• Spades: Flexible, adaptable they can fit anywhere yet they lack the permanence to ask the same respect of the world. Somehow I don’t think that matters to them.
• Swords: If you are strong enough, you can move the world, but unless you teach the world to move itself it will always return when you remove your hands.
• Tears: The world changed, until you can change with it you will suffer. I would like to help you, but only you have the power to help yourself.
• Storms: When you learn to take every blow the Darkness throws at you, then you will learn to fight without falling to hate.
• Mirrors: You claim that you shall solve every problem yourself by the virtue of your crown, but your claims of strength are to hide from a weakness within. It is an appropriate paradox, in a mirror everything is back to front.
• Vampires: We’ve all heard the tales, that they are creatures of pure Darkness who run away from the Light’s touch. I didn’t want to believe them. Then I met one.
• Werewolves: I have heard the howls and seen them from afar. Beware, some beast are rabid and may bite even a caring hand.
• Mages: I’ve been watching you, I saw you drawing maps but did you notice every path you found was first found by the ants? This glade that delights you so, did you see that every moss and mushroom grows to face the centre? You can feel the Earth’s power, but you cannot master it until you listen to her heart. I could teach you so much if you only had the humility to listen.
• Prometheans: I met one once. It’s been the only time in my life were I was sure I had met something that couldn’t belong in an harmonious world. The next time I met him, he was just a man. How could anyone overcome such a burden? I have to know.
• Changelings: You are trying to balance two natures in your heart. I would say we were alike if your other nature was not so different. Instead I offer the kiss of a Princess for luck.
• Sin-Eaters: Behind their denial of death is a clear understanding that death is a natural part of life.
• Mummies: I can think of no curse greater than an unchanging immortality.
• Mad-Scientists: My biology teacher grew strange fungus-men in his basement. In the end we had to... we had to... I don’t want to talk about it.
• Leviathans: You look old, timeless, like something from the early days when the world hadn’t learned there was more to life than sex and violence. I’m sorry, but we’ve come so far since then and until you do the same there’s just no place for you here any more.
• Hunters: The only thing you can say they have in common, is that they define themselves by what they are in opposition to. They do good for the world, but they could do so much more if they found themselves first.
• Mortals: We live the world we want for them so it may come to be. It’s not easy, but I believe they are worth it.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd imagine this group and Werewolves would have a little more in common and more to say to each other than "Watch out." The only difference is that Werewolves go offence and Turtles go defence. The Promethean one seems like a big flag to me as well since I don't think any references to their achievement of humanity are meant to be anything but rumor and legend.[/quote]

Inspiration:
Nausicaa (theirs)

Animal Man (mine)

Best I could come up with that fit "peaceful naturalist"

Xelkelvos fucked around with this message at 06:11 on May 26, 2015

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

Crasical posted:

I'd like to see something like this because while I am not good with World of Darkness, Serial Killers vs. Werewolves seems like a great Scifi original horror movie/campaign concept.

Vampires are also acceptable.

I think I'll see if I can start in on the entire Hunter line, then. I like doing whole lines, and to get VASCU you really need to know some Hunter stuff.

E: Also man, half the fuckin' inspirations in Princess aren't magical girls.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Mors Rattus posted:

E: Also man, half the fuckin' inspirations in Princess aren't magical girls.

I was weirded out by that too, is it really that hard between all the magical girl franchises, especially with ones like Precure that drop a whole new set of faces yearly?

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

They picked Elite Beat Agents before any musical magical girls, of which there are at least five big name ones I can name off the top of my head.

Count Chocula
Dec 25, 2011

WE HAVE TO CONTROL OUR ENVIRONMENT
IF YOU SEE ME POSTING OUTSIDE OF THE AUSPOL THREAD PLEASE TELL ME THAT I'M MISSED AND TO START POSTING AGAIN

quote:

You could see the notches on his ears through the barroom haze. The smoke didn't seem to bother him at all. An LED cast lit his pantherish features, its green glow accentuating his mahogany skin. He smiled as Race stretched towards the deejay booth, up on her toes like a curious mouse. "Emile Autum?!?" she shrilled through the thumping roar. Ghost nodded, still smiling, but said nothing. His eyes held hers like destiny fulfilled. She took the bait, a goner. I knew then where she'd sleep it off tonight.

Why am I not surprised that Emilie Autumn got namechecked in a WoD book? Right, because she's a quirky goth princess who spits tea into her fans mouths at shows and has a devoted, creepy fanbase.

inklesspen
Oct 17, 2007

Here I am coming, with the good news of me, and you hate it. You can think only of the bell and how much I have it, and you are never the goose. I will run around with my bell as much as I want and you will make despair.
Buglord

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Just to mention because :effortless:, Rifts World Book Six: South America is now up on the tradwiki, as is every other Rifts review occamsnailfile and I have done.

Thank you for your service to America and to freedom.

Xelkelvos
Dec 19, 2012

Alien Rope Burn posted:

I was weirded out by that too, is it really that hard between all the magical girl franchises, especially with ones like Precure that drop a whole new set of faces yearly?

From what I can tell in the changelog, those sections haven't been touched for a long, long time. The Callings don't seem to have been touched since before Septermber 2012 (and a cursory inspection on the Wiki seems to confirm this). The Inspirations for all of them don't seem to have been touched much either and seem to be something that was decided upon at the outset and then utterly forgotten. Likely, they pulled their Inspirations from TVTropes and kept it at that. Most of the recent development seems to be updates to antagonists and fluff of later sections. Queens and Callings, I assume, are largely complete to them and need no changing. Except for how samey they both are and the piles of typos still within it.

I do wonder if the people on RPG.net that are working on it would react to any of the criticisms we make beyond a huff and a silent dismissal. That aside, let's continue.

Princess: the Hopeful
The Queen of Diamonds
AKA: The Crystal-eyed One, Lady of Clear Water, The Philosopher Queen
Followers’ Epithets: Crystals, Lights, Hope-Engineers

quote:

Contrary to popular belief, people aren’t stupid. It’s just that people don’t think, or they don’t know how to think, or they just didn’t have the right facts. If you don’t think, you miss all the flaws in your plans. If you don’t have all the facts, you make stupid assumptions because you didn’t know any better. If you don’t think and don’t understand the world around you, you’ll put all your efforts into a plan that simply won’t work. And then things go wrong. Sometimes, they go very, very wrong.

That’s why thinking and knowledge and education are so important. If you know why a problem happens, you’re halfway to solving it. If you think clearly, you can find that solution. And if you educate people, you give them the ability to solve their own problems. By understanding the world, and teaching others to do the same, we can find a way to make it brighter.

So. Want to help build a better future?


The Queen of Diamonds teaches that the Light of Hope is best accompanied by the twin lights of knowledge and reason. The Nobles who follow her believe that with those two lights acting as Hope’s heralds, they can spread the light far and wide.
*tips fedora* "Hello m'lady, have you heard the word or Atheism?" All joking aside, this is the group for people who think they're smarter than everyone else and will demonstrate at every opportunity. As far as what the Queen is like:

quote:

From her seat in The Academy the Queen of Diamonds rules the Danann Archipelago. Upon a throne of whale ivory and pearl sits The Philosopher Queen: Regal as a glacier, six foot tall and adorned in the latest sleek future-chic fashions of her court. Here she judges the petitions and arguments of her subjects. Her replies are lengthy and explain the facts, theories and reasoning behind every decision. Every word spoken by The Lady of Clear Water is precise and rehearsed, as calm as a moonlit pond.
Those who know the Queen in private see a very different person. Barely reaching five foot stands a young woman just entering her twenties, wearing casual clothes, unkempt mousy hair and a tee shirt adorned with an obscure and highly technical joke. She even wears glasses having never bothered to fix her eyesight. Far from the regal Philosopher Queen she stumbles over her words, gushing like a bubbling brook in her excitement over the latest technical and scientific discoveries. When gifted with some unseen device or research from Earth she squees, yes squees, in delight. Among her many friends and frequent one night consorts she values nothing more than someone with whom she can share her boundless passion for learning.
In public, she is the Ice Queen that every nerd wants to get stepped on by. In private, she's a nerd girl that every nerd also wants to get stepped on by. Ugh. She also has an owl named Plato that's her second in command. Probably a reference to Athena and/or Archimedes the owl from Sword and the Stone. It's likely more the former than any sort of the latter.

quote:

Philosophy
The Queen of Diamonds has taken as her motto, “Think, then act.”
Since it may not be as clear through some of these excerpts, there's an underlying theme of running water for Lady. Everything about her philosophy revolves around being smart and logical and methodical and clearly explaining everything so that everyone understands. This generally means having all of the answers. If she doesn't she'll go and find them before giving an answer that's smart and logical and methodical and clear so everyone understands.

quote:

Duties
The Lights’ Duty is to use her brain. The Courtiers of Diamonds seek positions where problems can be solved with thought and intelligence alone. Sometimes it falls upon them to personally implement the solutions they conceive. Sometimes society expects them to start at the bottom and learn the ropes. Whatever situation she finds herself in, the ideal is to earn a Mandate to use her mind.
What Champions of Diamonds lack in combat power they make up for in strategic ability. As much a general as a fighter the Champions of Diamonds have the mind to plan a grand military campaign and organise the logistics of keeping her army fed and battle ready. When battle is joined her quick wits let her adapt to changing circumstances and match her foes gambit for gambit. If so many Champions of Diamonds are seen with shield and spear in hand against the Darkness, that’s because so few of them have an army to lead. While her Nakama will benefit from a well thought out plan to raid a Darkened cult, a group of five can scarcely afford to leave their Champion away from the front line.
The Graces in the Diamond Court might not be the best at managing people but they are the best at managing their kingdoms. The Grace’s pen closes loopholes in the tax code, defines laws in clear and understandable terms or just balances the national budget. So long as she can keep her head above the confusing tangle of special interests and the reins of policy away from those who pander to badly thought out populism she should have no trouble running a kingdom.
Seekers of Diamonds are perhaps the purest expression of Diamond’s Philosophy. They truly believe that knowledge is inherently good and only application can be evil. Deep within their ivory towers the Seekers of Diamonds study everything, from atomic physics to the Twilight Invocations. The future is built on what they discover.
If The Queen of Diamonds’ Seekers are scientists, then her Menders are the engineers. A Mender of Diamonds is more likely to be found in a laboratory researching new cures and vaccines than in the hospital, helping patient after patient. Rather than fixing a broken machine, she will design a new machine free of the fault that broke the first model. The Hope Engineers can be found in research and development teams, developing technological policy, contributing to open source and running crisis response centres.
The Troubadours of Diamonds tend to dedicate their talents in a very specific direction. Their duty is simple: make learning fun! Whether they write a sci-fi epics where the plot hinges on an accurate understanding of science or whether they’re the cool chemistry teacher who manages to tie every topic into a practical that ends with something blowing up. When Troubadours of Diamonds are teaching, you might not even know you’re being educated.
The Troubadour one gets a simple facepalm from me, but Seeker example really shows how similar these two portions of the X and Y splat are. While there's nothing wrong with overlap between two factions, the fact that they essentially have many of the same beats of theme and purpose gives the impression that one or the other was more an afterthough rather than an original idea (or lack thereof). The expected background is what one would expect and there's nothing interesting or surprising in that block of text. Their heraldry is more interesting though:

quote:

Heraldry
Lights often have a scientific, technological, or futuristic feel to their Regalia. For some, their regalia calls to mind science fiction; computer readouts built into sleeves or gloves, gadgets such as scanners, energy weapons, or palmtop computers, clothes made from metal, plastic, or some strange material that defies categorization. The superhero look is fairly common among the Hope-Engineers, with colors tending towards white or the brighter shades of blue. Many Regalia shed light in some manner. Others have a Regalia that call to mind professions of learning; many Lights wear glasses as part of their Regalia, whether or not they normally need them. Some have long coats reminiscent of a lab coat, while others have vests, boots, and practical looking clothing suitable for explorers, archeologists, or others who look to learn things far from a lab. No matter the style, the Regalia of many Crystals features a distinct lack of anything that would be inconvenient or unwieldy a normal costume, despite the fact Regalia doesn’t have to obey such rules.
So Tron suits. No Steam- or Cyberpunk outfits for these nerds. It's all neo-futuristic outfits and spacesuits.

Practical Magic: Intelligence, Wits or Resolve. i.e. All of the Mental Attributes

quote:

Invocation: Acqua
The Philosopher Queen focuses the lights of knowledge and reason into the Invocation of Acqua, and the Crystals gain mastery of that Invocation more swiftly than any other. It is linked with the virtues the Crystal-eyed holds dear, such as clarity of mind, honesty in word and deed, deep understanding, and to the emotions of curiosity and wonder. It is also tied to the classical element of water, and to liquids in general. The invoked Charms and upgrades based on Acqua relate to these things and to phenomena connected to these.

Acqua applies at no cost when the target of a Princess’ Charm is water or ice, or when she has spent at least one turn studying her target during the scene and nothing significant has happened to it since. It also applies without cost when a Princess intends to teach someone, to master a body of knowledge, to prove or refute a theory, to discover things previously unknown to anyone, and to carry out a strategy she has previously formulated.

The Invocation aids only those who are open and candid in all their dealings. A Princess who deceives another person in any fashion, be it simple falsehood, sophistry, or material omission, cannot apply Acqua for the rest of the scene, unless the deception is necessary to shield an innocent from harm, or to keep a secret given her in confidence. A Princess may reserve what she knows, if it isn’t relevant and no one asks her to inform them, and apply Acqua; she may not, however, cause another to believe what is untrue.
Of all of the things so far, I think Invocations and their special rules are actually one of the more interesting parts of the Queens. It's definitely a case where the mechanics came before the fluff and was adjusted accordingly as more fluff was added.

quote:

Quote
Your heart can show you where you need to go, but only your head can get you there.

Stereotypes
• Clubs: You’ve got some good points, but I have absolutely no idea what you’re trying to accomplish.
• Hearts: We can learn a lot from the Kingdom, but you can’t just imitate its ways blindly and expect them to work today.
• Spades: They’re excellent when it comes to making you think ... but are they never serious?
• Swords: When you need a grand, dramatic gesture, call for them. When you need subtlety, call for someone - anyone - else.
• Tears: Look, it’s obvious - if you didn’t live in that dank hole, you wouldn’t need to steal the world’s hope. Why don’t you move out?
• Storms: The ones who let their hate and anger control them, I can deal with. They ones who are still rational, I understand and that scares me like nothing else.
• Mirrors: Someone needs to deflate their egos before they get someone killed.
• Vampires: You’re a problem. I solve problems.
• Werewolves: I’ll stay out of your way, try and stay out of mine.
• Mages: They’re dangerous – not because they have fireballs, but because their understanding of reality is fundamentally wrong.
• Prometheans: What “are” you?
• Changelings: The more I learn, the less sense they make. Thankfully, they don’t seem to be an issue.
• Sin-Eaters: They know a lot about working with the dead, but they don’t seem to understand how death works.
• Mummies: It sounds like your magic was far better understood than ours. Don’t let that be lost to history, teach me.
• Mad Scientists: They’re dangerous – not because they have death rays, but because their understanding of reality is fundamentally wrong.
• Leviathans: Find wonders in the deeps, whoever said that can’t have known what’s really in the deeps.
• Hunters: They do study mysteries, I’ll give them that. I wish they weren’t so quick to shoot them.
• Mortals: If we can teach them to think, they will make the world perfect.
Both the Mage and Genius stereotype have an identical last bit. Was that intentional or did no one notice that while writing this? The character voice is at least consistent and meaningful when talking about the other Queen courts though which is a plus. The others...vary.

Inspiration
Not for :effort:, but the archetype that's being drawn is a pretty common one so rather than putting up images of the ones they list, since it's actually kinda bizarre.
Washu of the Tenchi series
Sailor Mercury of Sailor Moon
Jonas Salk, the scientist :wtf: On the Wiki, Iron Man is used instead.
Watanabe Eriko of some TVTroper fiction called Saga of Soul (this took me a little bit to find it since there's an actress with the same name)

Xelkelvos fucked around with this message at 05:54 on May 26, 2015

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

quote:

Leviathans: You look old, timeless, like something from the early days when the world hadn’t learned there was more to life than sex and violence. I’m sorry, but we’ve come so far since then and until you do the same there’s just no place for you here any more.

Ironically, from what I'm reading of Leviathan most of them would completely agree with this assessment. Which is weird from a splat stereotype standpoint.

Next installment of Genius will be up tomorrow.

GrizzlyCow
May 30, 2011

Alien Rope Burn posted:

I was weirded out by that too, is it really that hard between all the magical girl franchises, especially with ones like Precure that drop a whole new set of faces yearly?

I'm going to guess the people who worked on this project was mostly just familiar with Sailor Moon, Card Captors, Lyrical Nanoha, and Madoka after that came out. Basically stuff that was popular with 4chan or otherwise present on TV or the internet without anyone specifically searching for it. Mors Rattus already pointed out that Precure wasn't and isn't exactly big in the west, so it isn't too odd in that respect.

AmiYumi
Oct 10, 2005

I FORGOT TO HAIL KING TORG

Xelkelvos posted:

Watanabe Eriko of some TVTroper fiction called Saga of Soul (this took me a little bit to find it since there's an actress with the same name)
Well, guess we know who one of the authors/editors was. "No, really, my fanfiction is the best example of this archetype that has been present in every anime released in the past decade! It absolutely deserves a mention in this book!"

I went to his :tvtropes: page and clicked on what I thought was another work of his with an interesting title. It turned out to be an obscenely-long Sailor Moon/Dungeon Keeper fanfic. I then said "ugh" aloud to no one in particular but my cat.

Count Chocula
Dec 25, 2011

WE HAVE TO CONTROL OUR ENVIRONMENT
IF YOU SEE ME POSTING OUTSIDE OF THE AUSPOL THREAD PLEASE TELL ME THAT I'M MISSED AND TO START POSTING AGAIN
I don't watch much anime, so I just saw a Princess Bubblegum splat.

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!



It's time for more

NIGHTBANE

Nightbane - The Factioning

Previously on Nightbane, we discussed how Nightbane were things that had been around for a long time and were like, natural and stuff. But you see, Nightbane don't just hang loose, even though they're not really in competition for anything. You might think that the logical thing for Nightbane to do is, at most, kind of keep an eye on each other to make sure nobody's spilling the beans.

You would be wrong!

quote:

At first, the Nightbane were disorganized, traveling alone or in small groups, hiding from the authorities and giving little thought to anything other than their survival. Some of these independents are still out there, but they are the most vulnerable and short-lived, falling easy prey to the Nightlords and their minions. Eventually, however, the "newbies" or "nightbabies," as they are sometimes known, run into one of the larger groups of Nightbane . These groups, commonly called "the Factions," are loose organizations that operate on a regional, national, or even world-wide scale. The Factions vary widely in power, numbers, and goals. Some of them include humans, sorcerers and even vampires and other supernatural beings in addition to Nightbane.

Note to the G.M.: In a Nightbane campaign, the Factions can help provide focus and goals for the adventuring party. If all player characters belong to a Faction, they have a reason to work together and help each other. The Faction will provide the characters with a home, base of operation, allies, and missions. Of course, a particular Faction may have old enemies as well as acquire new foes, which may put the characters in danger because of their affiliation with the group. The Nightbane characters in the player group could also belong to different Factions as well, especially those who have a history of working together. They might even belong to competing or antagonistic groups, which may lead to some interesting role-playing, but also to back-stabbing and bickering, so the game master should decide whether the players' temperaments are up to such a situation.
Well that's remarkably logical advice, Palladium!

Let's take it to the threatdown.

LaThe Resistance - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6sTsKGgaQc

The Resistance is the largest Nightbane faction, growing out of the "Underground Railroad" (see below). The name does, in fact, come from the WWII french resistance, but there's no American army coming, folks... probably. Anyway, they recruited disaffected young Nightbane, supported by a few old Nightbane who had acquired large sums of currency. Cell organization, generally speaking; they also tend to distrust "norms" and other critters.

The Nocturnes

These people involve a lot of the deep lore on how vampires appear to work in this setting. This is complicated. Basically, they are like the Resistance, but vampires. The true face of vampire intelligences will come in the fulness of time.

The Underground Railroad

You remember how I talked about how there might be a kind of self-help group for Nightbane who don't really do much to boss people around? This is basically that group. They did in fact borrow their name from the abolitionists, rather than vice-versa, and their goal is to help young new Nightbane.

The Warlords

These folks are a gang. And I mean a gang.

quote:

The first Warlords were Nightbane who had grown up in the violent slums of the United States. Some of them were already gang members when Dark Day and the change came upon them. Using their supernatural powers, they quickly clawed their way to the top of their gangs, and formed a loose alliance of Nightbane ruling over humans. In two or three years, the Warlords had taken over the Bloods, Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings and other nationwide gangs, and absorbed most of the smaller ones. The Warlords have no racial bias: "You're all red inside," is the threatening motto of the Warlords' leaders.

These are portrayed as good antagonists, as well as being possible to use as heroic campaigns with PCs. Unstated, but implicit, is the possibility of becoming the Third Street Saints.

The Seekers

You ever play Call of Cthulhu? Your PC would be in this group.

The Lightbringers

These mysterious angel-like beings appear and shoot bad people with radioactive holiness beams. They get called Guardians, and sometimes will work with Nightbane, who appear to not qualify as inherently evil. They shoot those who prey on humans, and have apparently been lurking in the shadows of history (presumably cast by all their lights, whe you think about it.)

You may ask, don't a bunch of holiness critters running around in a WoD-like setting kind of invalidate a lot of moral ambiguity potential, in much the same way that the direct intervention of God tends to end conversations about morality? Well, either way, they may also have something to do with UFOs, bringing up the exciting possibility that the Space Brothers are, in fact, here to help us out.

The Spook Squad

Agents of SHIELD or what have you, these are a bunch of people who used to work for the government but got fired because of President Ron Paul's "Kill You're Parents" initative, which sharply downsized the federal workforce that didn't originate in the mirror universe. Unlike most of these other factions, which are either dominated by a splat (usually Nightbane, but sometimes Guardians, vampires, scions of New-English blood, etc.) this one is bossed around by normal humans.

Anyway, having had that happy time, we go to the magic of Other Splats.

Vampires

Dammit, Bobby! They just couldn't wait. However, vampires have been around and fought by mortal wizards, etc. Vampires have at times lurked in the Nightlands, but they largely persist in Earth. The Ba'al invaded and hosed them up good, though not to the point of extinction. Vampires hate the Nightlords but also don't like Nightbane, who do things like interfere with blood orgies - and that's no fun, Johnny Joestar!!

Sorcerous Orders

There are wizards floating around. Some are good, and others, bad. The Nightlords were leaning on the bad ones for a while and it is theorized that the "Cults of Eternal Night" helped the Nightlords institute the Dark Day and rule Earth, which just stands to reason. Of note is that wizards can learn spells that let them go into the Nightlands, which is important as that is where you will probably want to shoot some fools.

The Guardians

This ancient mystery, which has lasted approximately 3 pages, is answered here. Nobody knows.

There are also some fun vocabulary words and glossary terms which I will leave alone.

We then receive some wise words...

Kevin Siembieda posted:

Role-playing games are really just an advanced form of regular board games. In fact, they are so advanced that they no longer use a board. Some of the elements are still the same; you still need paper and pencil, dice and players. But the main thing you need to play a role-playing game is IMAGINATION.
Let's take it a step at a time.

That's right, folks, we're at the Palladium Boilerplate sections! Do people want those to be discussed?

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

Does Brucato find a way to cram bestiality into every third paragraph in his other work, or is it only in Furry: the Yiffing?

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Nessus posted:

That's right, folks, we're at the Palladium Boilerplate sections! Do people want those to be discussed?

Do they discuss how skill rolls are actually rolled?

Asimo
Sep 23, 2007


Alien Rope Burn posted:

I was weirded out by that too, is it really that hard between all the magical girl franchises, especially with ones like Precure that drop a whole new set of faces yearly?
Spoiler: the people who wrote the book are middle-aged male nerds and not actually the target audience for magical girl shows yes I know don't link the precure age graph so they're just going off what generic rough stereotypes from whatever the most well known series are in pop culture they might have watched an episode or two of and then adding on other archetypes that vaguely kinda match because nerds fundamentally do not understand how themes in media work. :ssh:

The Lone Badger posted:

Does Brucato find a way to cram bestiality into every third paragraph in his other work, or is it only in Furry: the Yiffing?
It's a bit less frequent in other lines.

... But only a bit.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 8 hours!
Nightbane appears to give the PCs clear story hooks, factions to join, and enemies to fight and does it better than some actual White Wolf games.

Nessus posted:

That's right, folks, we're at the Palladium Boilerplate sections! Do people want those to be discussed?
Sure, because it's sad and funny that an urban fantasy game is leashed to a system where the magic stat is called "P.P.E. (Potential Psychic Energy)." It's like if Storyteller had worse balance and the "feel" of reading tax code.

[BOILERPLATE REGRET RE: MEGAVERSAL SYSTEM]

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Asimo posted:

Spoiler: the people who wrote the book are middle-aged male nerds and not actually the target audience for magical girl shows yes I know don't link the precure age graph so they're just going off what generic rough stereotypes from whatever the most well known series are in pop culture they might have watched an episode or two of and then adding on other archetypes that vaguely kinda match because nerds fundamentally do not understand how themes in media work. :ssh:

I know, I'm crazy to think before you barf out 431 pages of magical girl material, you might want to at least do basic research on the genre.

It's a peculiar malady indeed.

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:

Count Chocula posted:

Why am I not surprised that Emilie Autumn got namechecked in a WoD book? Right, because she's a quirky goth princess who spits tea into her fans mouths at shows and has a devoted, creepy fanbase.
I thought it was just a made up name, that makes it worse somehow.


The Lone Badger posted:

Does Brucato find a way to cram bestiality into every third paragraph in his other work, or is it only in Furry: the Yiffing?

Brucato's not about beastiality per se, he's just really really into sex. He's written or contributed to about four separate books about the "magic of Sex". It's just that in a book that's literally a journey into the depths of his otherkin fantasies that takes a sharp right turn into Yiffing very quickly.

His Black Fury book was basically "We should abandon the ways of the Judeo Christian Patriarch god and have glorious naked pagan sex in the fields. Also men should learn their place, that place being 'provider of sperm and in all other things subservient to women.' "

Rand Brittain
Mar 25, 2013

"Go on until you're stopped."
Beast is actually out of development and should be up for Kickstarter sometime in June, with the more-or-less final text available, Demon-style.

The leaked version that was poorly received was the pre-development alpha and could have changed a bunch.

Asimo
Sep 23, 2007


Halloween Jack posted:

Nightbane appears to give the PCs clear story hooks, factions to join, and enemies to fight and does it better than some actual White Wolf games.
In fairness (and kind of going back to the themes thing), Nightspawnbane is really a very different sort of theme and setting than the World of Darkness, with a much stronger emphasis on more traditional adventuring and conflict than the sort of internal struggles and politicking that the WoD theoretically revolves around. Since most games in practice tend to wind up being about beating up the bad guys anyway, and a not insignificant number of people who played WoD at the time basically used it as a superhero-in-trenchcoat kludge, Nightbane really does work better as a game than WoD in a lot of ways.

Except, y'know, the part about being tied to the Palladium house system and Siembieda's editing. :geno:

Alien Rope Burn posted:

I know, I'm crazy to think before you barf out 431 pages of magical girl material, you might want to at least do basic research on the genre.

It's a peculiar malady indeed.
Your optimism is refreshing. :haw:

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.
Genius: The Transgression, More Storytelling

At its heart, Genius is a game about creation. Creating stuff, beautiful or horrific, is what the mad scientists do and their mechanics reflect that. Genius again encourages the DM to put a lot of power in the players' hands: let them create things, let them be forces of change, and have the world react to that. It's a common idea in stories about mad scientists and wizards that they create their own worst enemies, their own nightmares and destroyers, and given the themes of Genius it's quite likely that the PCs will follow that example. That said, Genius does encourage the DM to put a leash on what axioms PCs have - higher ranks of many axioms, notably Skafoi, can put a severe crimp on many campaign stories, so the DM may not wish to bother.

Genius posted:

This is a lot to ask, especially of new players. Sometimes your players will get stuck. The variations of mad
science present in Genius are legion and can paralyze a new player. One solution is to point to different
historical and fictional mad scientists. Ask the player if she's aiming for more of a Nikola Tesla "electricity and
dynamism" mad scientist, or maybe a deranged biologist like Dr. Moreau. (Just listing the major branches of
science and craft, and putting "mad" in front of each one, can help. Mad archeology, mad acoustics, mad
macramé...) But a better technique is to ask the player, not who she wants to play, but what she wants to
make. Wings made of iron and stolen clocks? Feline servants, each made from miles of tangled electrical wire?
Beautiful glass spheres that spread nightmare-gas? Have images on hand and gently prod players who seem
at a loss. Remember: the story is about the players' characters and what they create.

Genius next delves into a brief discussion of science fiction, horror, and weirdness, three concepts and genres that lend themselves to Genius stories. Science fiction in its purest form is about asking questions: break one established rule of science or technology, and what happens? Invent a new machine, and who does it affect? Technological proliferation usually isn't a valid option to explore in Genius, given the nature of Havoc, but almost any wonder can draw someone else into the plot as victim, antagonist, ally, or some or none of the above. Build a gate into the realm of spirits, and you might invite the wrath of a pissed off werewolf or a curious werewolf intrigued by this anomaly. Or an old woman who thinks she's talking with her dead husband. Or hunters who think you've built a gateway to hell. Or a tech-spirit that wants to use the Inspired to build more such portals. Take a wonder, think about the consequences.

I think we're all familiar with the tropes and forms of horror attendant to mad science, so I'll skip over most of that except for Genius noting the most banal, mundane fears that are also among the most insidious for geniuses: simple fear of failure, and fear of insanity. That creeping fear that you really don't have everything figured out, that your ideas don't work, that your family you don't talk to anymore because they think you're mad are actually right. Inspiration tears every genius away from humanity to some degree, but the only salve it offers to that bleak, mundane everyday horror of a dead-end life chasing immaterial dreams is genuine insanity. For every genius who proudly marches into unmada triumphantly proclaiming their righteousness and superior intellect, there's two more who quietly retreat into it looking for a mental happy place that Inspiration denies them.

Genius posted:

The power and value of high weirdness is in the juxtapositions it can produce. Weirdness is invaluable when
something in your story―a character, a wonder, a place―doesn't yet seem extraordinary enough to merit
inclusion in the chronicle. You can enrich an idea through several kinds of juxtaposition. Try...ancient and
modern: the Oracle hunting the collaborative wields an obsidian axe in one hand and a crackling energy-whip
in the other. Biological and mechanical: the wolf lopes forward, revealing the AA batteries driven into its
cranium like a crown of thorns. Beautiful and hideous: the mane's exquisite ruby mask hides a face of putrid
rot and dripping meat. High culture and pop culture: a Scholastic's office is full of ancient Roman busts and
velvet paintings of Elvis. Wealth and poverty: the Director's magnificently appointed townhouse has no
windows through which one might glimpse the favela's feral children just outside.

Using all three ideas - science fiction, horror, and weirdness - is what Genius strives for to present a rich setting. One of my favorite examples, taking from Genius' suggestions as ideas, comes from a book I enjoy called Riptide. In a lonely, mysterious island off the storm-battered Maine coast, a high-tech archaeology company explores a doom fortress built by a legendary pirate to conceal his accumulated treasure, and the place's architect was a visionary so brilliant that the traps and defenses confound even modern technology and kill the best-prepared treasure hunters. As the protagonists research what went on there to warrant such a fortress, cracking seemingly impossible ciphers in the architect's journal, they learn that the prize at the bottom is a sword said to belong to the archangel Michael, and the blade killed everyone it ever came into contact with, and indeed its very presence laid waste to entire cities. What is the sword? Why did the architect go to such lengths to protect it? And can they stop the increasingly insane man leading the expedition who's obsessed with finding the sword? That's pretty much all you need for a good adventure right there.

Genius posted:

Genius ' theme is Transgression. In his quest to create, to transform, and to transcend, a genius can commit
acts of monstrous cruelty, and even when he does not, his behavior and ideas are not palatable to most
regular people. Its mood is Bitter Disappointment. A genius might fly, but she is still chained to our mundane
reality, and the forces of Havoc and simple, human cruelty will wipe away all her accomplishments in the end.
But as a Storyteller, your chronicle, too, can have its own theme and its own mood, something that
complements or contrasts with the literary elements of the larger game.

Genius' default mood is one of Bitter
Disappointment: triumphs vanish, brilliance goes ignored, great works fail for stupid, common reasons, and in
the end, a genius never achieves the recognition, respect, or even understanding she desires. In other words,
life sucks, and not in a grand way―there's no vast conspiracy holding the genius down. He's not chosen as a
scapegoat by a vindictive God. He's not punished by Nemesis. Terrible things just happen because we live in a
broken, imperfect world, and those imperfections destroy the most beautiful and brilliant among us first.

The discussion of themes and moods is old hat to anyone familiar with the nWoD so skipping over it. Next time, which may be sometime tonight, I'll delve into the storytelling section on antagonists and plots.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.



It's a Supplement Special on System Mastery this week. We cover Path of Rage, the Haven: City of Violence ... I guess worldbook?

That's not enough though so we also toss in an appetizer of Starfleet: UFP Federation, which is just extra dumb crap that you could attach to your horrible Prime Directive game, Dan.

Also holy crap, someone just linked Louis Porter Jr. to our review on Facebook. I hope this isn't the first time he's been directly insulted for his ultraviolence and terrible editing.

theironjef fucked around with this message at 17:19 on May 26, 2015

Platonicsolid
Nov 17, 2008

Good stuff as always!

More Haven poo poo has me giggling wildly.

Totally unfair slam on Pittsburgh, though. It's actually known for its reinvention in the 80s, and is now extremely livable. Lots of tech companies have landed there, for instance.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Platonicsolid posted:

Good stuff as always!

More Haven poo poo has me giggling wildly.

Totally unfair slam on Pittsburgh, though. It's actually known for its reinvention in the 80s, and is now extremely livable. Lots of tech companies have landed there, for instance.

That's fair. I was basing my knowledge of Pittsburgh on watching Queer as Folk back in my bisexual formative years, and thinking "wow, that place is basically gay Disneyland" and then checking the internet to learn that it actually isn't and the show was just Hal Sparks tainted bullshit.

thotsky
Jun 7, 2005

hot to trot

Count Chocula posted:

Why am I not surprised that Emilie Autumn got namechecked in a WoD book? Right, because she's a quirky goth princess who spits tea into her fans mouths at shows and has a devoted, creepy fanbase.

What makes her fanbase (and especially Emilie Autumn herself) creepy is that they're 13-14 year old girls. I was dragged to one of her shows, and watching the spectacle of that show while getting dirty looks from all the parent chaperons remains the most uncomfortable moment of my life.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

We just got the first half of the Louis Porter Jr. stamp of approval. He just hasn't listened to the episode where we guess he's a racist white guy yet.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

theironjef posted:

That's fair. I was basing my knowledge of Pittsburgh on watching Queer as Folk back in my bisexual formative years, and thinking "wow, that place is basically gay Disneyland" and then checking the internet to learn that it actually isn't and the show was just Hal Sparks tainted bullshit.

Or just Hal Sparks taint...

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

Cythereal posted:

A fair point, I'm just used to thinking of Hunters in terms of Conspiracies, and Princess does not feel like a terribly well thought-out line in general. Nothing about most of those stereotypes screams magical girl to me, or that they're genuine beacons of light in the World of Darkness. Doubly so considering how many ways they can apparently go wrong or destroy themselves. Still not getting any sense of them having a place in the World of Darkness not already filled by Hunters who haven't lost their senses of empathy and humanity.

Proper magical girls would confuse the hell out of the other WoD inhabitants. Seriousness has no power before moe.

hyphz posted:

HackMaster, 2

Ok, let's have a crack at the first of those characters; a Gnome Titan Fighter. First step, the all important array roll.

Side note: HackMaster has a really odd idea about the order in which you roll your stats by default. Most D&D players I know use the Physical/Mental divide: Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha. Some older edition grognards use Str, Dex, Int, Wis, Con, Cha; and 4e fans use Str, Con, Dex, Int, Wis, Cha. HackMaster suggests Str, Int, Wis, Dex, Con, Looks, Cha, which I'm not sure has any relationship to anything. I'm going to go ahead and use phys/mental, because it's what I'm used to and makes sense.

Oh, this reminds me that Stars Without Number uses the older edition order.

quote:

So, questions for the moment:
* Do we go ahead with these stats, or swap some or all of them?
* What weapons shall we go for proficiency with? The choices we have and the adjusted BP costs (not counting the ones we already have) are:
1 BP: Bardiche, Battle Axe, Crossbow, Dagger, Fauchard, Fauchard-Fork, Flail, Glaive, Great Warhammer, Guisarme, Hand Axe, Javelin, Knife, Mace, Military Fork, Military Pick, Morningstar, Partisan, Pike, Scourge, Short sword, Spear, Spetum, Staff, Warhammer, Voulge
2 BP: Bec de Corbin, Bill-Guisarme, Broadsword, Glaive-Guisarme, Greatsword, Guisarme-voulge, Halberd, Horseman's Flail, Horseman's Mace, Horseman's Pick, Lance, Longsword, Ranseur, Sabre, Scimitar, Short Bow, Sling, Thrown Axe, Thrown Knife, Trident, Two-handed Scythe, two-handed Sword
3 BP: Longbow

Bec de Corbin. Not even plate armor can protect groins against this hammer.

quote:

Philosophy
The Queen of Clubs asks a question: “The world speaks to us. Have you ever stopped to listen?”

Crap. She's a Feral in disguise!

Alien Rope Burn posted:

I was weirded out by that too, is it really that hard between all the magical girl franchises, especially with ones like Precure that drop a whole new set of faces yearly?

Asimo posted:

Spoiler: the people who wrote the book are middle-aged male nerds and not actually the target audience for magical girl shows yes I know don't link the precure age graph so they're just going off what generic rough stereotypes from whatever the most well known series are in pop culture they might have watched an episode or two of and then adding on other archetypes that vaguely kinda match because nerds fundamentally do not understand how themes in media work. :ssh:

This would explain my mild Furry Pirates flashbacks (I'm currently on a System Mastery archive binge). I guess that's why this game is not explicitly called "Magical: The Girlening".

Nessus posted:

The Warlords
...
These are portrayed as good antagonists, as well as being possible to use as heroic campaigns with PCs. Unstated, but implicit, is the possibility of becoming the Third Street Saints.

How about the Baseball Furies?

Alien Rope Burn posted:

I know, I'm crazy to think before you barf out 431 pages of magical girl material, you might want to at least do basic research on the genre.

And that's why I know way more about Sailor Moon musicals than I'd like to admit.

That Old Tree
Jun 24, 2012

nah


I'd love for the two big fan/creator reactions to your podcast to be fanboys flipping out because you didn't like a particular edition of their mediocre favorite game, and then the actual creator of a piece of undeniable garbage nodding his head and going "Yep, that was pretty dumb of me :thumbsup:"

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 8 hours!

Biomute posted:

What makes her fanbase (and especially Emilie Autumn herself) creepy is that they're 13-14 year old girls. I was dragged to one of her shows, and watching the spectacle of that show while getting dirty looks from all the parent chaperons remains the most uncomfortable moment of my life.

Hey! She's been putting out albums for more than a decade now; some of her fans are in their 30s and only act like bemused teenager girls.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018



Hunter: the Vigil

Hunter opens up with, like all World of Darkness stuff, some intro fiction. It's about some cops hunting for illegal immigrants in Philly, being smuggled in by the Russians. They're following a mysterious note, and they end up running into a monster - a huge, scaly man-beast that kills at least one of 'em, if not all. This is what makes Hunters happen.

Hunters, the game tells us, are the people who recognize that monsters are real, the ones who are driven to study these creatures, to act against them, to stop them from hurting others or using them. Hunters never get to retire - it's not a job that ends. It is, as per the title, a vigil - and endless, crushing vigil. It drives them mad, in the end, the things they have to see and do. But they have no choice. The hunt drives them, the need to sacrifice themselves to protect everyone else. Hunters are a light in the darkness - the light of a torch burning a vampire, and the light of a candle illuminating an ancient manuscript on strange wizards or the burial chambers of a long-dead mummy. Hunters both seek action and seek knowledge - not a safe combination.

Some Hunters seek to document their quarry, seeking the mystery just as compulsively as those who fight seek violence. Hunters aren't unified in even the slightest way, as a whole. Some Hunters are just a small taem - a group of friends, a family, even just those stuck together by circumstance. They protect their patch, whatever that is. They don't know what's out there, really. They have only the barest light in a profound darkness. Other groups band together, pool resources. They share information, try to support each other. These are more than cells - they are compacts, a more unified front. And above them are those who have more power. Ancient organizations, modern agencies, but all with the resources and ability to supply their teams with powerful weapons and tools - strange ones, dangerous ones. Conspiracies, which have hunted monsters behind the scenes for decades - even centuries.

Even conspiracies are fighting a losing battle. They are a brilliant light in the dark - but there's always mroe dark. The light will die, eventually. The darkness does not. Humanity is powerful - it is not helpless against the monsters - but it is fragile, too. Hunters aren't weak, but they die with depressing frequency. Alone, a hunter is dead. It is together that they find strength, and together that they become able to take down even the most terrifying foes. Hunters cannot work alone. It never ends well.

And yet, Hunters are alone. They are isolated. They know that the monsters are real, but only the worst of what they see ever hits the real world - and even then, distorted. Newspapers don't report the werewolf devouring people - they blame the body on a cougar. They report the mother killing her child, but not that she was controlled by an evil wizard. Hunters realize that not all supernatural beings intend to cause harm. But they do - they are dangerous. EVen the most pacifistic monster has powers that can harm people - and enemies that will kill them. Enemies that a normal person could never be ready for. Hunters are the people who have seen the dangers, and who take it on themselves to deal with them. They're the ones who can't lie to themselves - who can't ignore that the deer they barely missed had a human face, say. The people who can't just shake their heads and desperately pretend it never happened.

There have been Hunters since the dawn of man - for as long as there have been monsters. Some say that the tablets of the Assyrian Lost Library of Ashurbanipal tell about the first hunter cell. The tablets say that Marduk was no god - he was a divine hero, championed by an army called the Nibiru. He was righteous and holy, tasked to reclaim the Tablet of Destinies, said to detail all events, past and future. and to grant great power to its bearer. Unfortunately, it fell into the hands of the monstrous goddess Tiamat, who gave it to the god-king Qingu to rule with. The Nibiru and Marduk hunted Qingu and Tiamat, stealing the tablet, which Qingu wore as a breastplate. Marduk tore into Tiamat, but when she was slain, an army of horrors was released - scorpion-men, dragons, demons. Thus, the Nibiru were said to have taken up the Vigil to atone, to bottle the demons back up from Marduk's legacy. Other Hunters who know of the story say it's total bullshit.

There were hunters in Rome, too. Many of them, for Rome was besieged by monsters within and monsters without - cannibal barbarians, undead monsters, skin-stealing owl-women. The Hunters of Rome tended to work as cults or gangs devoted to various gods, and the Aves Minerva of Aventine Hill were just one among many, a rough gang that worked under cover of darkness to protect the hill. One story says the Aves Minerva defeated Cacus, a cannibal beast with fire eyes, some say child of Vulcan. Cacus lurked in the tunnels beneath the Hill, eating his victims and leaving the heads nailed to doors and cave walls. It's said that the Aves Minerva dragged the beast's corpse down to the cattle market to show their success. Some say the Aves were nothing more than a brute squad, thugs and nothing more, not to be admired. Others say the Aves were heroes to be emulated. They were hardly the only ones, though. Rome had plenty - and vicious Hunters, at that. No one's found any evidence of some of the monsters they wrote about, the dog-headed Cyncocephali, the long-toothed Macrocephali or the shadow-foot Skiapodes.

Others name Beowulf as one of the first recorded Hunters. Grendel and his mother, in the original poem, are named as 'kin of Cain' - an occasional euphemism for vampires and other unholy beasts. But not all historic Hunters were fighters. The 15th century theologian Johannes Nider drafted the Formicarius, a book detailing the habits and practices of the witch hunters. Nider was a clergyman above all, part of the Council of Florence. He publically denounced magic and worked to ensure his fellows felt the same. He and his cell gained much of their information from an infamous German judge and Hunter named Peter of Greyerz, who himself served in a cell that exemplified the rigor of the Inquisition. Geyerz claimed to have tortured confessions out of more than 200 men, women and children, sentencing them all to death. Each one, he said, was a witch, soul sold to the devil.

More recently, the 19th century biologist Anthonid Cornelis Oudemans, director of the Royal Zoological Gardens in the Hague, encountered a sea serpent. He was struck with a desire to learn more about such impossible creatures, an obsession that drove him to hunt down many 'mythical' sea beasts or accounts of them from across the globe. Early on, he could hide it, but in time he was removed from his post after he and his cell published a dissertation on sea serpents. (The cell tried to stop him, but it didn't work.) It was ridiculed, laughed at, and Oudemans resigned in shame. His public career ended, but many Hunters believe he got the world's first photographic evidence of monsters.

No overall records of the Vigil exist - how could they? But the conspiracies and compacts keep their own records. The Lucifuge is rumored to have an archive containing the names and histories of every member it has ever had - some say even with clandestine samples of hair, blood and personal articles. Its existence has never been confirmed, but some say it is in the Syrian peaks of Mount Hermon, where Jesus was tempted by the Devil. Other groups are said to have similar archives. Some certainly exist, and these files claim great victories. The Aegis Kai Doru claim that in the late 1500s, they stopped Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who had a relic that drained the blood that kept her young. Some say a spear, others a mask. The Aegis say they tortured Bathory for years to find its location. The records claim success, but others are less certain. Some who know of these records claim the Aegis was less than innocent in their desire to stop her - one Thule researcher believes that a group named the Aegis tortured a Hunter to death to find Bathory's relic.

The Ascending Ones have journals from the 1700s, claiming that they hunted the Beast of Gevaudan, a wolf-monster that killed dozens. They hoped to harvest its body to create their mystic elixirs, spending two years tracking the beast while also keeping ahead of royal French hunters after it as well. They failed at first - in 1765, the king's chief wolf hunter, Francois Antoine, took down a massive wolf said to be the Beast. The Ascending Ones bribed him for the body's samples, but they proved useless - perhaps not even the right wolf. Two years later, that proved correct - the beast took two more children, and a devout farmer slew it with a rifle loaded with silver bullets carved with the image of Mary. The Ascending Ones never got the body, but the attacks stopped.

Everyone knows about Jack the Ripper, too. They say he was never caught, but Ashwood Abbey knows otherwise. The ironically named Hellfire club set out to catch him, interrogate him...and then, at last, they recruited him. Modern Abbey members insist they planned to turn Jack's homicidal impulses to good use against monsters. Certainly their official records claim it, though few ever get to see them. Within months, however, it became clear he wasn't going to stop, and while the Abbey had no sympathy for the prostitutes he killed, they didn't want to be implicated. The Ashwood Abbey tried to stop him, and when they failed, they hunted Jack, the first but not the last of their own subject to their hunts. Abbey records suggest that the cell that caught him voted on his fate, settling on evisceration but voted against the eating of his organs, as he did to his own victims.

Next time: Hunter society.

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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.

Halloween Jack posted:

Hey! She's been putting out albums for more than a decade now; some of her fans are in their 30s and only act like bemused teenager girls.

The biggest condemnation I have of Emilie Autumn is that every fan of hers I've ever met were also huge into Changeling: The Dreaming.

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