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Kurieg posted:I see you down there Foglio, don't think I don't see you. Isn't that Phil of Phil and Dixie?
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Aug 17, 2015 02:55
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Pope Guilty posted:Isn't that Phil of Phil and Dixie? Phil Foglio has glasses, Phil from Phil and Dixie doesn't. Other than that... yeah, they pretty much just look the same.
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Aug 17, 2015 03:33
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HARP: High Adventure Role Playing Part 1 Part 2 Part 6: Basic Task Resolution “Any time a PC takes an action that involves a risk, requires concentration, or grace under pressure, it is considered a maneuver and thus requires a Maneuver Roll” A Maneuver Roll is this game’s term for a skill check/ability check, or any other basic building block for performing a task. There’s the standard note that dice rolls should only be called for if the task being attempted is dramatic and/or has something valuable at stake. There are two kinds of Maneuver Rolls: All-or-nothing or percentage rolls. All-or-nothing is just that - the player rolls 1d100, adds their skill bonus, adds their stat bonus, and wants to get a 101 or better to succeed. A percentage roll is when the margin of the success or failure can be variable: if the player gets a result of 101-110 when haggling with a merchant, the Maneuver Table describes a +5 bonus, so the GM might say that the player gets a 5% discount. If they get a result of 151-170, the bonus is +30. Similarly, anything below 101 starts imposing a penalty, such as a result of 51-60 resulting in a -25 penalty. This also applies to rolls where one player might be trying to help another. If Bob wants to, say, use their Trickery skill to try and distract a merchant while Jess uses their Pick Pockets skill to filch the merchant’s coinpurse, the GM might call for Bob to make a percentage roll of their Trickery. Bob gets a 171, which corresponds to a bonus of +40, so when Jess makes their Pick Pockets roll, they can use that +40. In that example I just made up, Trickery is actually classified as an All-or-nothing skill, but depending on the context, it can also be made to apply as a percentage. Percentages is also where the “open-ended” feature of their die rolling mechanic comes in: if the die roll is a natural 96 to 100, then the player adds that to a running total and rolls again, and keeps on rolling and racking up the running total as long as they keep rolling 96 to 100s. The Maneuver Table describes roll results of up to 301+ for this. As I mentioned before, the GM can also apply circumstantial modifiers: +60 for a “routine” task, +40, +20, then a -20 penalty for a “hard” task, -40, -60, -80 for “sheer folly” and -100 for “absurd” The game also supports using skills “untrained”, which simply imposes a -25 penalty if you attempt a skill that you have 0 ranks in. Tasks that are unsupported by any skills/raw ability checks can be rolled for by using twice the stat bonus of the stat being tested. So if our example character, Athan, with his 79(+6) Strength, wanted to push a boulder out of the way, the roll would be 1d100+12. It seems like this would be quite difficult though without circumstantial bonuses as a large proportion of the climb to 100 is done via the skill bonuses. There are also a couple of “GM’s Option” sidebars here: * Round off any numbers to the nearest 5 to make the math easier * If a roll just misses succeeding by 10 or less, like a 98, the GM can allow a second roll with a +20 bonus with a small expenditure of additional time/round * If the roll is a natural 66, the result should be special/exceptional/unusual Opposed rolls and basic spellcasting The classic opposed roll is the someone sneaking and someone trying to detect them. In this game, it’s a 2-step look-up on the Maneuver Table: 1. The sneaker makes a Stalking & Hiding roll, and it produces a corresponding Resistance Roll to beat. A result of 31-40 will give an RR of 75, a result of 81-90 will give an RR of 100, and a result of 151-170 will give an RR of 160. 2. The victim could then make a Perception roll, and they need to beat the RR number to detect the sneaker. Spellcasting works the same way: the caster makes a roll using the corresponding skill of their spell, that produces an RR number that the target must beat with a roll from their Resistance skill. As an example, Arcane Bolt is a spell that deals 1d10 damage to a target if they fail their Magic Resistance roll. If Athan had 4 ranks in that and tried to cast it, he’d roll a 1d100+20 (Athan’s Self Discipline and Reasoning have a +0 bonus, so it’s just +20 from 4 ranks). He gets a 26, which on the Maneuver Table corresponds to an RR of 70. His target then makes a 1d100 + Magic Resistance skill roll and needs to get a 70 or better. If they don’t, they get hit for 1d10 damage. This is why the skill section recommends at least 1 rank in all the Resistance skills, because otherwise you get hit with a -25 penalty in trying to resist anything. It’s a bit more complicated than the basic resolution, but if I’m not mistaken Chaosium uses a similar kind of “Resistance Table” for comparing the relative skill numbers of any two opposing characters to give you a single target number to roll under, so it’s not unprecedented. The game does tell you to take photocopies of the Maneuver Table’s page so that everyone can do look-ups. With regards to “utility” spells, or what we might call buffs, you need a minimum spellcasting roll of 71 or better for it to be cast correctly/effectively. However, if you get 151 or better, then you get a “Double” result and you can double either the range, duration or number of affected targets for free. 201 or better and you can double two of these properties. 261 or better than one of these properties can be tripled. So if you were to cast Minor Healing and you got a 265, it would heal 75% of your target’s damage instead of just 25%. Failure and Fumbles 1. If you’re making an all-or-nothing Maneuver roll and you get a modified result 100 or less, you fail. 2. If you’re making a percentage Maneuver roll and you get a modified result of 10 or less, you fail and impose/receive a hefty penalty 3. If you’re casting a Utility spell and you get a modified result of 70 or less, you fail. The Power Points are expended, but the spell fizzles and nothing happens. 4. If you’re casting any other kind of spell (such as an attack spell) and you get a modified result of 10 or less, you fail. Even an 11 would go off, even though the Resistance Roll would be just a 65. Now, if you get a natural 0 to 10, then it is a Fumble. There is a Fumble table where you roll a 1d100 and cross-reference it with the kind of activity/skill category you were attempting. Some examples: Influence skill fumble - you accidentally make a high pitched noise as you try to begin Combat skill fumble - you give yourself a minor wound. Take 1d10 hits. Remember, the pointy end faces the enemy! Mental skill fumble - In the words of a great philosopher, “Doh!” Not only do you not remember anything pertinent, but you actually spout off incorrect information without realizing it! Spellcasting fumble - Wow! You just invented the x-ray! Unfortunately, you also knock yourself out and take a 1d100 on the Electricity Critical Table from the magical energy feedback. And this is where the RoleMaster influence really starts to shine - there’s a footnote at the bottom of the Fumble table: quote:Note: It is important to tailor the fumble to the event. While a fumble is unfortunate, it is not necessarily certain death. And while I don’t know (yet) if such a similar caution exists in actual RoleMaster, at least they’re cognizant of the whole “an improbable series of die rolls leads to a character dying of a head wound all because they wanted to ride a horse” that the system is infamous for. Other Adventuring Rules The section then covers rules on * Breaking objects * Throwing grenade-like substances/objects * Light and vision * Movement rates across various kinds of terrain * Blind-fighting and fighting invisible targets (the play example demonstrates the player throwing a bag of flour to partially discern an invisible assassin, the GM awarding a bonus to the player’s Perception roll because of it, then a percentage Perception roll determining the bonus or penalty to the player’s attack) * Fighting in darkness, fog, rain and other limited-visibility situations - what amounts to a penalty on all attacks and Maneuver rolls: -20 for starlight, -5 for light rain, etc * Falling damage * Traps * Swimming and drowning * Quicksand * Starvation and thirst - take an RR 100 Stamina Resistance roll if you’re starving or dehydrated, or take two if both. A failure imposes a cumulative -10 penalty on everything, and you’re dead by -100 * Extreme heat and cold - you start taking damage past 54 degrees Celsius, or below -18 degrees. There’s also a section on Death and Dying, but I’ll tackle that when we get to the Combat section, which is up next! Next: Combat rules!
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Aug 17, 2015 06:48
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 Existing GURPS Advantages, Disadvantages, and Skills Ally, Ally Group, or Patron would normally be either somebody who is on your side or an organization you're a part of, but at IOU Allies and Ally Groups are often being coerced- such as somebody you're blackmailing. Of course, you can also get willing allies, like the frat you're in or your advisor (who might also be a Patron). Luck is very useful at IOU. Normally it comes in Luck (15 points), Extraordinary Luck (30 points), or Ridiculous Luck (60) points, but IOU also permits (at GM discretion) Super Luck (100 points), which permits the player to, once per real hour, simply dictate the result of a die roll, though it must be a possible die roll. Unusual Background is rare at IOU simply because IOU's students and faculty are all so weird to begin with that it takes a lot to stand out in that regard. Demigods, unrestricted access to technology above Tech Level 8 (first-world countries in the real world are currently in early TL8), or greater demons would all count. Wealth is tremendously useful. The book mentions that 91+% of IOU students come from Wealthy backgrounds.  Duty is generally academic (i.e. to students or faculty), though Campus Security's duty to IOU is worth more points than usual because it's constant and very, very dangerous. The most common Enemy at IOU is one's roommate. Illiteracy is disallowed for everybody except members of The Team. Poverty is a terrible Disadvantage to take since at IOU the phrase "Dead Broke" is often literal! Get a scholarship. Primitive is surprisingly common due to the number of time travelers who end up at IOU, though buying it off quickly is recommended. GMs shouldn't count it against the usual limit on Disadvantages since it's generally a temporary state. Social Stigma applies to Nerds (including most WUSE students and faculty) from Jocks, and to Jocks from Nerds. Mundanes get Social Stigma from everybody else, except each other. Weirdness Magnet pretty much describes IOU as a whole, but getting points for it at IOU will require things like getting abducted by aliens on the way to class. Area Knowledge (IOU) is the local variant of the Area Knowledge skill, and it's extremely important. The topology of IOU is confusing at best and rapidly shifting at worst; a critical success may see you arriving at your destination before you left your dorm, while a critical failure could potentially leave you stranded in time and space. Survival (IOU) is another super-important one, and can help you know which drinking fountains actually give water (as opposed to Everclear), which buildings can support a giant monkey, or read the hazard signs and symbols which explain which lever you absolutely must pull and which you absolutely must not. Lacking in this skill will lead to spending lots of time in the health center...  New Advantages, Disadvantages, and Skills Academic Status goes from -3 ("High school students and other clueless lowlifes") to 0 (grad students) to 7 (the ArchDean). Cast Iron Stomach lets you eat basically anything organic and resist poisons, though anybody who sees you eat won't like it. Very handy if you plan to eat in the cafeteria!  Gadgeteer makes you a mad Health/Life Insurance is extended to all students, faculty, and staff of IOU and covers various medical services from treating minor wounds to straight-up resurrection. (Dead students don't pay tuition!) This doesn't cost anything in an IOU game, since everybody is assumed to have it, but there's also No Insurance, which applies to people who aren't students, faculty, or staff. If you have No Insurance, then you're without the basic safety net that is crucial to survival at IOU, and in fact this is a -100 point Disadvantage. Nasty, that. Honor Students get a little bump to their reaction from university personnel, but Jocks don't like them. Immunity to Poison is handy at IOU, especially if, again, you intend to eat at the cafeteria, whose staff are to cooking as Dr. Zoidberg is to doctoring. Jocks get a bonus to their reaction from faculty and Ilumni, and a penalty from honor students and administrators. Nerds and Jocks, of course, hate each other. Mundanity is straight-up one of the most interesting ideas in the book. Simply put, Mundanes don't believe in aliens, psi, magic, pocket-portable nukes, or any of the myriad wacky poo poo one encounters during an average day at IOU. But it goes beyond that. Even if you don't believe in those things, if you're most people, a few days at IOU will rapidly disabuse you of your skepticism. Mundanes, however, are so mundane that IOU-style weird poo poo cannot touch them in any way. This is also context-specific- Mundanes from ancient history have been known to suppress basic tech that we're all comfortable with, like cell phones or cars. Each Mundane has a Reality Check that has to be rolled over (GURPS uses 3d6) to affect them. Mundanes come in three levels. First-level Mundanes just don't notice things or can easily explain them away. They blink at the wrong moment, they stop to tie their shoes just as a werewolf bounds across the Pent, or admire the pretty roman candles (which are actually Magic Missiles). First-level Mundanes have a Reality Check of 13, meaning that they have about a 75% chance to be completely unaffected. At level 2, Mundanes nullify any weird poo poo that comes close to them, rendering it in line with their blinkered view of reality- ray guns don't work, spells fizzle, ghosts and demons and aliens and poo poo can't even approach. Their Reality Check is 15, or about a 90% chance to nullify. Finally, a third-level Mundane affects anything they can see. Point an alien weapon at a level-3 Mundane? As long as he can see it, it's obviously just a painted nerf gun. That flying carpet better have wires, or it's going down the second a Mundane lays eyes on it. Rampaging monster? Just some guy in a suit. Which is no fun for the monster... Third-level Mundanes have a Reality Check of 17, which gives them about a 98% chance.  Nobody at IOU particularly likes Mundanes, and the other major downside is that lacking access to weird poo poo puts you at a huge disadvantage at IOU. Rapier Wit allows a character to be so witty and verbally vicious that they can literally stun with their insults, doing a point of damage on a crit. Secret Advantage lets the player choose a number of points to put into it, and then the GM picks out an Advantage worth 5 more and brings it into play when appropriate. Once it's unveiled, those extra 5 points have to be bought off asap. There's also Secret Disadvantage, which works the same way. Tenure doesn't just protect you from being fired, but also from being bumped off, or "accidentally disintegrated in a lab experiment" or otherwise disposed of. You can still die in a legitimate accident, or be killed in a faculty bloodfeud (given that the bloodfeud was properly registered and permitted with the university). The Treatment is one of the surest signs you've made it at IOU, since it's given to high-level administrators and faculty. It's basically a way of making sure that university gets done by conferring immunity to low-level violence and dangers on valued members of the university. At level one ("The Treatment"), you automatically and involuntarily turn insubstantial for a moment when damage comes in (well, the ~75% of the time it goes off). Your possessions and clothes are not affected, and you also gain some resistance to poisons, diseases, and powers. At level two ("The Treatment Strikes Back"), your chance to avoid damage rises to 95%, and you gain immunity to diseases and poisons, along with Fast Regeneration. At level three ("The Return of the Treatment"), your chance to avoid damage rises to 98%, you gain Instant Regeneration, and you get a massive bonus to resist powers. This level is mostly restricted to college deans and the like.  Clueless characters pretty much don't pick up on things, whether seduction attempts, jokes, or manners more sophisticated than chewing with one's mouth closed. An Evil Twin looks and sounds just like you, and might even use a similar name, but their personality is entirely opposite yours. They've got the same stats, down to the Evil Twin Disadvantage (they don't like you any more than you like them). The more points you take in the Disadvantage, the better their stats and the more often they mess up your life by doing something that you get blamed for.  Klutzes are prone to accidents, tripping, and breaking things, and probably shouldn't major in chemistry. A character who Lives on Campus is closer to their classes, yes, but are a) obligated to eat in the dorm every day and b) subject to whatever whims the University (or one of the hundreds of faculty) impose on the dorms, such as rigging the fire alarms to go off all night or reconfiguring the dorm to fit some odd plan. And then there's your roommate... Mundane Background isn't as severe a mundanity as Mundanity- you come in without so much as the Occultism skill or any experience with technology past modern stuff, and you need to buy off the Disadvantage to learn any of that stuff at IOU. Also everybody at IOU who realizes you have this Disadvantage will regard you as kind of a rube. Science! is a skill you can take once you've got a decent score in Research and a couple of science skills, and it basically makes you Benton Quest or Doc Brown- you can roll it in place of any other science skill. At Science! 13 or more, you can call yourself Professor, though it may not be wise to do so in front of actual professors. Weird Science and Weird Magic let you comprehend and use science and magic that's way outside your normal range of understanding. They're also handy if you're gadgeteering or improvising magic. Next time: Colleges and Departments!
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Aug 17, 2015 10:47
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HARP: High Adventure Role Playing Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 7: Combat This chapter begins with a standard disclaimer that because combat can result in permanent death and/or severe injury, the players should not take the decision to fight very lightly, and that if they have to, they should be well-prepared for it. Combat is supposed to be gritty and quite lethal in this system. A single round in HARP is 2 seconds long, although almost every action is only 1 round long with the exception of reloading ranged weapons. Even all the spells take only 1 round to cast. Initiative Everyone declares their actions, then initiative is rolled for everyone, and the actions are executed in sequence of the initiative. Initiative is affected by a character’s Quickness and Insight bonuses, as well as their weapon type - two-handed weapons are slower, as is using a shield or being heavily encumbered. Initiative is also rolled every round, ostensibly to “reset” the order to account for any changes inflicted on the combatants. Offensive Bonus This is essentially the skill roll of a character with their weapon skill: 1d100 + weapon skill bonus + Strength bonus + Agility bonus, plus any other modifiers like a bonus for flanking an opponent or a penalty for being injured. Defensive Bonus This is a flat number composed of Quickness bonus x 2 + Armor bonus + Shield bonus, plus any other modifiers like being behind cover, or using a defensive action like Parry. Basic attack resolution When a character attacks, they roll their Offensive Bonus, subtract the target’s Defensive Bonus from the result, and then they hit if the result is 1 or greater. For example, let’s say Athan has 6 ranks in their Weapon Skill: Long Blades for a +30 skill bonus, then +6 from Strength and +7 from Agility. He’s attacking a Kobold, which according to the game’s bestiary has a Defensive Bonus of 60. He rolls 1d100+30+6+7-60. Let’s say the natural roll is a 21 for a final modified roll of 4. That’s greater than 1, so Athan hits. The next step is to factor in the weapon’s size. A longsword deals “Medium Slash” damage. A Medium sized weapon has a Critical Modifier of 0, so there’s no change to the final result of 4. It also has a Damage Cap of 100, so no effect there either. We then go to the “Slash Criticals” table and cross-reference the final result of 4. It says “You nicked his arm. 5 Hits”. Hits here is the equivalent of your Endurance skill. The Kobold has 70 Hits, so now the Kobold is down to 65/70 Hits. Let’s say Athan rolled a natural 80 instead, for a final result of 63. Again, no change due to damage caps or weapon size, so we go straight to the damage look-up. 63 on the Slash Criticals table reads “The idiot used his arm to parry. For takes 18 Hits, is stunned 1 round, and is at -10” So the Kobold is now down to 47/70 Hits, misses its next round, and has a -10 penalty to everything, including its Defensive Bonus. That means that if Athan rolls another natural 80, the final result is now 73 instead of 63, and the result of 73 gives us “Blow to his elbow. Foe takes 20 Hits, is stunned 1 round, bleeds 1 per round, and is at -15”. The Kobold would miss its turn again, get reduced to 27/70 Hits, lose 1 Hit per round, and takes another -15 penalty. Which means its Defensive Bonus is even lower the next time Athan tries to attack it. Injury and Death Once attacks start reaching the 100+ range, the table lookups start giving you results like “death comes in 6 rounds”, which is actual permanent death unless the character gets healed somehow. The other way to die is if you become unconscious at 0 Hits, and then go into negative Hits greater than your Constitution stat. The bleeding status inflicted by attacks will also cause you to lose Hits over time, producing the same result unless the bleeding is stanched. Natural healing can take a while in this game. Your wounds are either classified as Light, Medium or Severe depending on how many Hits you’ve lost, any bleeding inflicted and/or any specific organ injuries inflicted upon you. A Light injury can take 1-5 days to recover from, Medium injuries can take 3-25 days, and then Severe can range from a week to a month and a half. The percentage or “status” based classification of injuries though avoids that hit point pitfall of a 100 HP Warrior requiring much more bedrest than a 25 HP Wizard in other games. Armor In this game, armor is simply a flat increase to your Defensive Bonus. This might make it seem D&D-esque as far as plate mail awarding you no “damage reduction”, but if you look at the combat example I wrote, the final attack result is also used to determine the amount of damage dealt by the attack, so in a way armor still also does act as damage reduction, because even if the final attack result is positive, if it’s only a 10 then you’re only taking a few Hits anyway. Heavy armors do impose a penalty on Agility and Quickness based skills (mitigated by the Armor skill), while also causing the Power Point cost of spells to increase. Trying to cast a spell while in plate armor adds a whopping 10 Power Points to the base casting cost of any spell. Parrying One possible combat action that the game specifically highlights is the ability of a player to reduce their Offensive Bonus in order to increase their Defensive Bonus by the same amount. The game assumes you’ll be doing this normally as part of your tactical repertoire, and seeing as how combat can quickly cause a “death spiral” where the first meaty hit inflicts enough of a penalty to cause more and more damaging hits to be inflicted in sequence, it seems to make sense. Critical Tables Each weapon inflicts a damage type, and the game provides a different look-up table for each of those: crush, puncture, slash, martial arts, and then even elemental damage; heat, cold, electrical and impact tables. It’s my understanding that in RoleMaster, they have look-up tables down to the individual weapon, and that the tables are much much larger/specific/potentially lethal. These ones though are fairly straightforward, moreso that the “roll to hit” and “roll for damage” are in the same roll. I find the combat fairly easy to understand, and the “wearing down” of an opponent through progressively more damaging hits would seem to prevent the “big bags of HP” problem. Next: Spellcasting
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Aug 17, 2015 13:33
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Someone please fix that robot. Her torso is sliding off!
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Aug 17, 2015 14:08
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gradenko_2000 posted:It’s my understanding that in RoleMaster, they have look-up tables down to the individual weapon, and that the tables are much much larger/specific/potentially lethal. Correct.  It's been called "Rulemaster" for a reason.  That said, it's not as bad as it looks. IIRC, the columns represent the armor type of your opponent (where 1 is unarmored and 20 the maximum) and the rows are your modified to-hit roll. Suppose you hit someone wearing heavy leather (Armor Type 10), and your modified attack roll is 97. Cross-referencing your roll with the '10' column you get the result "14CK", which means the guy you just hit with your two-handed sword takes 14 hits as well as a C-type Krush critical hit. (Crits are rated from A to F, with F being the most severe. They're also further classified into damage types, slashing, piercing, crushing, etc. Can't recall why they used a K instead of a C for crushing, but it might have to do with not confusing the damage type with the crit severity.) Been years since I attempted to play RM, so I might have missed a step or two. Comrade Koba fucked around with this message at 14:38 on Aug 17, 2015 |
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Aug 17, 2015 14:23
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That's certainly something. The other thing I've heard of is that RoleMaster began as just that "Arms Law" book, and that it was supposed to be a ... replacement? for the combat system of other RPGs (read: D&D). Is that true? Were there people who actually did that?
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Aug 17, 2015 14:41
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Comrade Koba posted:(Crits are rated from A to F, with F being the most severe. They're also further classified into damage types, slashing, piercing, crushing, etc. Can't recall why they used a K instead of a C for crushing, but it might have to do with not confusing the damage type with the crit severity.) That's pretty much it, but not quite on the crit ratings. Crits are typically rated A to E, from least to most severe. All the crit tables reflect this, all of them. Except, of course, wizards can go ~off the charts~ and inflict F, G, H, I and even J, crits. These superior, wizardly crits inflict the top-level E crit, then one or even two additional crits rising in severity from A to D based on the original crit's severity. It's not particularly hard to get I crits, either, because it's just the normal top 150-result from a wizard attack table, and your Offensive Bonus for those grows roughly on par with non-wizards' weapon skills. The main barrier is just getting the right spell, because your standard Fire Bolt caps out at normal E crits, Ice Bolt only goes up to like a G, but Lightning Bolt is where it's at, because once you hit 111+ on your attack it's mostly F and G crits and it goes all the way to J. Plus these spells are nearly all ranged, so your target can't parry them for poo poo, which is the main tool everyone has for avoiding death. EDIT: This combines well with how they overhauled spell acquisition and magic points in later editions of Rolemaster, where you get more and easier. Just like D&D! Linear fighters, quadratic3 wizards! gradenko_2000 posted:That's certainly something. Pretty much. They had most or all of a whole system rewrite because that's how they rolled, but it was a mound of house rules in their closets or wherever they kept it. The first products they released were Arms Law, Claw Law and Spell Law to replace, well, all the most important parts of D&D, but there were already elements of the baroque skill and GM systems peeking out. The original crit tables were entirely hand-written and then photocopied for layout. Whoever did those had pretty good penmanship, considering. EDIT: On the topic of HARP, I like a lot of what they seemed to be reaching for, but it was close enough to Rolemaster without having the fun crit charts that it was mostly a sad D&D-alike for me. The way they did spell-boosting options for more MP was really cool, though I don't remember if that was in the core or the Colleges of Magic supplement. That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Aug 17, 2015 |
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Aug 17, 2015 14:54
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The spell boosting options are in the core book, and there's a "Hack and Slash" supplement that has more RoleMaster-y look-up tables:
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Aug 17, 2015 15:16
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Yep. There was also a middle-child Martial Combat supplement that I think made everyone slightly depressed. Hack & Slash came out way after I passed on the system.
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Aug 17, 2015 15:19
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Plague of Hats posted:EDIT: On the topic of HARP, I like a lot of what they seemed to be reaching for, but it was close enough to Rolemaster without having the fun crit charts that it was mostly a sad D&D-alike for me. This, I think, is why HARP never got very popular. It's essentially Rolemaster Lite, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, I doubt that the concept attracted many players. The ones who enjoy extensive crit chats and detailed descriptions of exactly how your foe gets mutilated stick with Rolemaster, while the ones who don't probably just keep playing D&D. MERP, the "predecessor" to HARP, at least had Middle Earth and all the Tolkien-based lore going for it. HARP has...a decent system and a pretty nice core book, but that's about it. EDIT: While we're on the topic, maybe someone could write a post on the history of Rolemaster and its various editions? From what I understand both the system and the publisher have been through some rough times. Comrade Koba fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Aug 17, 2015 |
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Aug 17, 2015 15:37
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Comrade Koba posted:EDIT: While we're on the topic, maybe someone could write a post on the history of Rolemaster and its various editions? From what I understand both the system and the publisher have been through some rough times. This might be fun to do. (And if it's a single post I might actually finish it! ) Also, it might just be me paraphrasing Designers & Dragons with some added color commentary. (Do not let this expressed interest stop anyone else more motivated/qualified from doing it first.)
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Aug 17, 2015 15:49
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Plague of Hats posted:This might be fun to do. (And if it's a single post I might actually finish it! Sweet. I don't think more than a single post is called for. A short history of ICE and RM would be perfectly adequate, no one's expecting a detailed Let's Read of every single edition.
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Aug 17, 2015 16:01
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Hordes: Gargantuans Makeda and the Exalted Court are the second Epic Makeda, a warlock unit. After seizing the throne, Makeda formalized her rule at the Abyssal Fortress, summoning the greatest leaders of the empire to attend her. She knew she must demonstrate strength and tradition. To signify that she was now more than just head of House Balaash, she set aside her house weapons, the swords of Balaash. Only a weapon of immense power could take their place, however, and in all the empire, there was but one: the Talon of Murzoul. Makeda commanded it be brought west to her. The weapon itself is the most ancient of the skorne, connected to the first archdominar, over four thousand years ago. The exalted Murzoul brought the skorne together in their first city, Malphas, beneath the Shroudfalls. Even then, the sword was a relic of power and signifiance, its blade taken from the Lyossan ruins near the Abyss, finer than any that the skorne could forge. When Murzoul received exaltation on his death, his sacral stone was placed in the pommel of the sword, empowering it with his spirit. It was passed down to the archdominars of Malphas ever since, drinking deeply of skorne blood. The current ruler of Malphas instantly surrendered the sword to Makeda in a vow of obedience. She sees it as the perfect weapon to represent her rule. When the dominars came to see Makeda, they found her escorted by several exalted guardians. She far exceeded her predecessor, calling on the extollers to bring honor to her rule and bloodline. They reviewed the House Balaash stones, selecting the greatest heroes to give new life to as ancestral guardians. These are Makeda's inner guard, tireless and loyal warriors and protectors who accompany her into battle in pairs. Their presence is a tangible sign of ancestral approval. It is said that some of these exalted spoke to the extollers for the first time when given the chance to join Makeda's exalted court, showing an unusual interest in current events, and none can question that Makeda's conquest is not only for the living but the dead, as well. Makeda led her exalted back to the west, assuring her own immortality as an exalted. She embodies skorne history, the hoksune code and the pride of her people, and many hope that as an exalted, she will eventually rule the empire in perpetuity. On her return, Makeda turned the skorne towards their ancient foes: the elves of Ios. Thanks to ancestral prophecies, she knows that their borders are weaker now than they have ever been, as the Iosan forces are busy abroad. This is a great omen and opportunity. Makeda will use all of her power to destroy Ios and render the western nations' power to nothingness.  The Reptile Hound is an ancient beast of the skorne, a vicious pack hunter raised by the skorne to fight. They are lesser warbeasts for the skorne. Even the most resilient beasts cannot regenerate faster than reptile hounds can kill them - a pack in concert can swiftly reduce anything to bones. The Bloodstone Marches breed terrifying creatures, and even the smallest are deadly. Reptile hound packs commonly appear in the desert, preying on anything they find. They are popular pets for the skorne as a result of this ferocity, bred both as status symbols and weapons. Their animus allows them to shred through toughness.  Despoiler is a testament to Mordikaar's mortitheurgical power, as much an implement of the Void as a beast. It is driven mad by the shrieking of the damned, fighting in a frenzy to smash its foes. It doesn't realize that their deaths only fuel the chaos in its mind. It might be taken for a suicidal urge, but Despoiler is dimly aware that death would be no release. It relishes violence for its own sake. Mordikaar has made it into an occult weapon, the focus of a thousand rites to turn it into a gateway to the Void. Its power can fuel magic, and it dwells within the tension between Caen and the Void. Its animus greatly increases the cost of magic near it.  The Cataphract Incindiarii are a recently founded martial discipline. They are patient, opening fire on their foes only when the dakar orders and never before, to maximize destruction. They discharge chymical rockets, which set fire to man and beast alike. Any survivors find themselves cut down by the blades of the master Cataphracts, who exult in the chance to show their understanding of hoksune. Makeda refused to allow tradition to limit victory, adapting the Cataphracts to wield these weapons. The incindus, the weapon is called, designed by skorne chymsits to be worthy of the Cataphracts. Despite their power, many incindiarii still prefer close combat to their use.  A Morthitheurge Willbreaker is a master of torture and meditation, manipulating the energies of pain and fear. They are able to reach into the minds of others, turning them into pawns. They can very easily turn foes against each other or make them fail to defend themselves. They are the finest mortitheurges in the empire, easily able to manipulate the minds of dull beasts. However, their greatest achievement is in compelling the minds of other people by their understanding of agony. In battle, they hunt for soldiers whose minds are weakened by a narrow focus, leaving them vulnerable. With magic powered by death, they snatch control of the victim's mind, imposing their own will on them.  A Mammoth cannot be truly tamed. Even experienced handlers consider their capture to be one of the greatest challenges. Besides raw strength and an ornery nature, they are immensely powerful and tough to wound. They hail from the Valley of Kornash in the Northern Tor, bordered by mountains and the Blasted Desert. It is a relatively lush area, but largely unworked thanks to the mammoth herds and the other creatures of the area. While distant cousins of the smaller titans, they differ in more than just size - most obviously in the form of the immense armored crests growing from their heads. They are believed to have a common ancestor, but their aggression and omnivorous diet means their lineage grew separately. Their range overlaps with that of the hydra, and the two species fight often. It's hard to tell which is the predator. The risk of capturing and housing a mammoth is means most houses can't afford them at all, especially with the damage they cause to their handlers. They are pretty much impossible to breed in captivity, too, so they must be taken wild. Powerful soporifics are used to restrain them, along with harnesses for pain hooks and blades. When even these fail, as they often do, the mammoths can awaken prematurely to destroy anything nearby. When Vinter ruled the skorne, he forbade them to bring any mammoths with them to the west, claiming the bridge across the Abyss could not carry them. This was later found to be false after Makeda took over, that Vinter had feared the mammoths would be too much for humanity to deal with. Since learning this, Makeda has authorized their use. Under direction of Dominar Rasheth, House Telarr has been fueling the need for mammoths, using new chymical mixtures and excruciation techniques. Rasheth knows well the profit and influence he can earn this way. Mammoths have long been used as platforms for the immense cannons of the skorne. Training them to aim and fire them is much harder than with titans, but they can carry immense ordnance. Under Makeda's direction, they have developed a multibarreled, self-reloading mechanism representing an unprecedented level of sophistication. Their rate of fire exceeds the coordination of the mammoths, but they can lay down an earthshattering blast on the enemy. Left to themselves, the mammoths prefer close combat, smashing foes with their fists and tusks. Next time: Giant flying monsters
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Aug 17, 2015 16:04
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Comrade Koba posted:Sweet. Oh yeah, no. Still, I would want to be relatively thorough, plus I have ~opinions~ about some things. 
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Aug 17, 2015 16:07
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Plague of Hats posted:plus I have ~opinions~ about some things. Wouldn't have it any other way.
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Aug 17, 2015 16:18
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IOU looks pretty neat and is shaping up towards being my default engine if I ever run a China, Il. game.
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Aug 17, 2015 16:42
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 Part III: Pirates and Imperial Armada. Welcome back to this F&F of Freebooter's Fate: Deep Jungle. Today, I'll be talking about the new crew options for the Pirates and the Imperial Armada – there's a lot less here now than there was in the initial book, so I'm going to try and cover two Crews per post now. So, let's see where the storyline has gone. The Pirates have had a banner year – they've successfully taken over Longfall, kicked out the Empire, and have been living well off of their new city. Unfortunately, tensions are running high as the individual Captains attempt to set themselves atop the new status quo. There's also the trouble of all the Amazons showing up and keeping them from hitting the Empire in their jungle fallback point, so things aren't perfect for the crews. So, with all that said, let's talk about the new Leaders the Pirates have available. Regicide Alvarez is introduced aboard her ship, the Sierpe alongside her crew. She's just purchased a new gun, and when some seawater gets into the mechanisms, she decides to fix it herself. When a new crew member asks why everyone is suddenly nervous, he's enlightened as to Regicide's rather heated temper – various stories of the mechanical devices that have succumb to her wrath are legendary among the crew, and anyone dumb enough to try and get her to calm down is pretty much suicidal. The list of things that piss her off is quite extensive – including people mispronouncing her name, which has led to quite a few barroom deaths. The best option is to find something to fight, point her in the right direction, and pray that the loot is good enough to improve her temper.  Pictured – anger. As far as leaders, she's the standard Pirate – good toughness, skilled in melee and at range, and capable of handing out orders. Until she gets injured, that is – when that happens, she gets to recheck morale if she fails a test, gains strength and toughness, and is generally a horrifying monster in melee. She's pretty middle-of-the-road, although having a plan to get her closer to the enemy before she takes an injury is a good tactical idea. Barco Malcaduco is the other leader available to the Pirates. If Regicide scares people with her anger, Barco scares people because he's a half-dead wreck of a man who was so notorious his crew was scared to finish him off when he was set on fire, lost an arm and an eye, and was crushed under a heavy rock, instead choosing to maroon him on an island. Rather than waiting for death, he chose revenge, and hunted down the mutineers before reclaiming his ship, his crew, and his hat.  Not a fan of the sculpt or the official paint-job, but a pretty cool concept. Barco has replaced his missing hand with a giant pistol – closer to a rifle in stats, mind – and is terrifying in melee and at range. Due to his injuries, anyone getting into melee with him has to resist the urge to flee from the apparently half-dead spirit of vengeance bearing down on him, but as a disadvantage, he loses access to the Aim action, thanks to his missing eye. He's also so well-known among the scum of Longfall that any crew can hire an extra specialist or mercenary beyond what they'd normally be allowed. Now, let's talk Specialists. The pirates get two this time around. Ex-Captain Jack is a living symbol of why Pirates shouldn't get old. Half-blind, missing both legs, and carrying a mummified parrot on his shoulder, he's only got a tenuous grasp on reality, the things happening around him, and frequently believes that he's dealing with people who have been dead for a long time or may never have existed in the first place. His introductory fiction shows him barreling through a wall, angrily confronting the hapless dockworker he believes to be at least three different people over the course of the conversation, and then wandering off again, leaving only a shattered wall and a dockworker swearing that, no matter how much rum it took, he'd drink enough to forget this had ever happened.  I love this crazy bastard. Ex-Captain Jack can barely move – relying on random distance every time he wants to move, can randomly be controlled by your opponent, and may suddenly gain the ability to actually be effective in combat. He's got a heavy pistol, which he's not particularly good with, but at the same time, he's cheaper than most Deckhands to hire, so he can be a decent choice to fill out a crew if you're desperate. Casimeere Flynn is the perfect image of a gentleman pirate. Always impeccably dressed, freshly groomed, and courteous to a fault, he's like something out of a terrible romance novel, especially given his tendency for theatrics. He's managed some ridiculous feats – stories tell of him managing to take a whole passel of noblemen's wives hostage with just some charm, and he's avoided pissing off the numerous male pirates who would normally eat a prissy boy like Flynn for lunch. In the fiction introducing him, he's joining the crew of Blanche Pascal, who notes the favorable effect he has on her crew and even considers taking advantage of him. It's the classic ”Roguish pirate” from the golden days of Hollywood brought to the table.  This is a terrible sculpt. I'm not really a fan of the concept art either, but it's just so stiff and awkward-looking. While he's a bit expensive for his abilities, he's got the standard pirate loadout of a sword and a pistol, along with some average abilities. Notably, however, is his ability to Parry – remember the combat resolution mechanic? Well, if your opponent manages to get a hit, Parry allows you to force them to randomly replace the hit with an unused location card, making it a lot easier to keep him alive in melee. That's it for the Pirates, so let's talk about the Imperial Armada. They're in dire straits these days – they've been forced into the jungles, and their best Captains are still trying to rejoin the main forces. Fortunately, there's some help from the mainland, as some new equipment loadouts and troops have been sent to retake Longfall, but it may be a case of too little, too late – the wars on the mainland are occupying most of their time. With that said, let's see the new Leader for the Armada. Jarrõno is what Pratchett would refer to as ”God's gift to the enemy”. He's the Gobernador's nephew, a righteous fop who was sent to Leonera for a chance to get his first taste of command. He's not exactly this generation's finest tactical mind – being one of the many signs that the Empire's insistence that officers come from the finest of noble stock, the sum total of his military education is distilled thusly: Deep Jungle 42 posted:“So, what did you learn at the Academy?” the Gobernador asked, desperate to find some shred of evidence that the decision he was being forced to make could be justified.  For stats, Jarrõno is a first amongst leaders – he's got no authority whatsoever. If he's part of a crew, you'll need lieutenants or sergeants to handle the actual giving of orders and inspiring of the troops – he's just too important for all that stuff. He's got a parrying sword, a dueling pistol, and the ability to bestow his personal favor on one of your troops in the form of a well-made weapon. Because of his familial connections, he can also afford to outfit an Honour Guard – Marines gain the Parry ability for an increased hire fee. He's basically a joke leader, but makes room for hiring specialists and deckhands.  I loving love his concept art – seriously, look at that pug! I'm also including his concept art, because it's amazing and it's a goddamn crime that the pug wasn't included on his official miniature. If he came with the pug, I'd be running Imperial Armada under Jarrõno all the time. The new Imperial Specialists are Ahondaros, who apparently come from the game's version of Australia, spending most of their time smoking, cooking meat, drinking beer, and digging incredibly complicated fortifications with criminally unsafe amounts of gunpowder. Thanks to their skill at turning bits of the jungle into rather less jungle and the quick building of fortifications, they're a little outside the usual field of discipline, to say the least.  While they're not exactly super-useful in a fight, having only their pickaxe to work with, they let you destroy one item of scenery after everything's been placed, replacing it with a pile of rubble. They can't destroy anything that's scenario-specific and, as a further clarification, refuse to destroy anything that might be a pub. They can also place terrain on the field, erecting barricades out of whatever's handy (typically: debris, cursing, and dirt), letting you build on-the-fly terrain on the field. They're drat useful pieces for ensuring you've got good cover for your gunfighters. The Imperial Armada also gains a new Deckhand – the Asatores, whose weapons have been modified with a bayonet and sawed down slightly for better handling in the jungle. They've gained access to the Assault Shot skill, can make a rather damaging charge with their bayonets, and can shoot nearly as far as an Arquebusier.  That's it for the Pirates and the Armada. Next time, I'll cover new crew for the Goblin Pirates and the Brotherhood, both of whom gain some cool new options,as well as the sole Mercenary made available in this book.
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Aug 17, 2015 17:23
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Hackmaster, 13: Higher power spells Sixth Level Boost Strength: Gives the target d6 extra strength for 3 hours. Find Item: Gives the crow-flies direction that a particular object is in, provided the mage has an image of it. Only works on objects rather than people, but you can find a person by finding their clothes. Beardy. Flame Ball: Like Flaming Sphere from D&D, but you have to provide a lump of coal to act as the core. Dumping water on it immediately puts it out. Immunity to Apprentice Magic: As the name applies, makes the target immune to Apprentice level spells and allows them to dismiss ongoing enchantments with an opposed check. Inflict Temporary Blindness: Typical blindness spell, but with a note that the condition inflicted is psychosomatic (ie, the target's eyes still work, their brain just can't process the result) meaning that it can't be healed in the normal way. Invisibility: Classic D&D Invisibility which is ended by an attack or spell. Mind Reading: Listen in to a single target's thoughts. You can spend some time at the start of the spell sweeping for the correct target in a group, but can only listen properly to one target's thoughts at a time. The description does mention that most intelligent creatures know about this and will realize what it is ("Why is that dude just staring at me? Oh s#^! Pink Elephants! Pink Elephants!") Stink Bomb: It's Stinking Cloud except you set it off by throwing a tiny pellet which triggers the cloud where it strikes a solid object. Oh, and the material component is the caster's faeces. Mmm. Telepathic Mute: Disables all telepathy or mental command/control abilities of the target if they fail a save, including incidental mental control granted by spells. Nice idea. Viscous Webbing: Hey, it's Web. Seventh Level Bash Face: Lets the mage smash a target in the face remotely for 4d6p damage, but requiring a regular attack roll - but bypassing any shield. Clairnosmia: Ha ha, it's like Clairvoyance except it's for scent instead of vision. It doesn't make your sense of smell any better, so I suspect this won't be useful. Conjure Warrior Avatar 2: Like the original Conjure Warrior Avatar, but it's a bit more powerful - although, thank goodness, not as powerful as a fighter PC of the same level. Cutaneous Aspiration: Um, yea. Ok, so this is really meant for breathing water. It makes your skin gas-permeable, so you can breathe by absorbing oxygen in water through your skin. Unfortunately, it also gives you a whopping penalty to saves against dangerous gasses. You can cast this on an unwilling target, but they get a physical save. Grounding: Stick a copper rod in the ground and it becomes a perfect earth, negating any electrical effects in the area for a limited time. Icy Blast: Hey, Cone of Cold. Missed you. Induce Fratricide: If target fails a save, it spends the spell's duration whaling on the nearest living creature of any kind in melee with the Aggressive Attack move. So, hmm. Kinda like Insanity but without the uncertainty. Induce Nervousness: If the targets fail a save, they get knocked back to Nervous level morale. This is a common thing with Hackmaster and Kenzer stuff in general: if there's a mechanic in standard use they'll make stuff that affects it. KoDT's monster add-ons for Hackmaster featured monsters whose attacks were to eat the PC's provisions or destroy their dungeon map. Low Light Vision: Gives anyone low light vision, like a dwarf. Whattya want? Retard Reaction: Slow, but nastier because it ties into the Hackmaster second-based timing system. Everything takes 3 extra seconds to perform. Ouch. Eight Level Clairaudience: Aha, a useful remote spell. Lets you hear things in a remote location. Exploding Script: Yea, I bet that script is written in runes, too. Force Fumbles: For the duration of a spell, any time the target misses an attack, it's a critical fumble with a +200 on the fumble result table. Force Grenade: Throw a stone at a solid object, and when it hits, it explodes for 4d6p damage in a 10' radius which can be dodged for half. If not thrown within 30 seconds, it goes off in the mage's hand. Illumination: Even better than Torchlight. Paralysis: It's Hold X except it's based on hit point totals rather than type of creature. Also, the effect is permanent after a single saving throw. Ouch. Phantom Horse: A bit like Virtual Mount, but the horse can only be ridden by one person (you or someone you name), and the ghostly horse scares away other horses and typical wild predators. You can also spend extra SP to give the horse the ability to walk through mud unimpeded or, for even more, walk on water. Nifty. Polylingualism: Like Comprehend Languages but lets you hear and talk in the target language, provided you've heard it spoken. Again, nifty. Surprised this hasn't appeared in more games. Skin of Stone: Oh, come on, they're not even trying now. Sure Grip Snare: Touch an object and name the people who are allowed to touch it. If anyone else touches it, they must make a dodge saving throw or be snatched up and held upside down five foot off the ground for 60 seconds. Even if they pass their save, they're disoriented for 10 seconds. So, again, let's continue screwing over thieves by creating traps which they can't do anything about because they're maaaagic (tm) Ninth Level Clairoptikos: Lets you see remotely. Usual effects, except it does mention that the mage's sight is no better than it normally is (they can't see in the dark), but at the same time there's no physical transmission of gaze effects to the mage (so they can't be harmed by seeing a medusa, or by staring into the sun) Hasten: Remove the n. Speeds everything up, but rather nasty in that it doesn't help wizards: not only is casting spells not any faster (because it still needs to be done precisely and your thinking doesn't speed up) but wizards under the spell actually have to make a Wisdom check in order to cast properly. Also, afterwards, everyone suffers fatigue. Infravision: Another heartbreaker classic - and yes, it's actual infrared vision, with temperature dependance and all. Lightning Bolt: Almost straight out of D&D; fire a lightning bolt hitting anything in the area for 6d6p points of damage. If it hits a wooden door or wall, it destroys it, but the bolt ends there; if it hits a stone wall, it ricochets. Polymorph to Primate: Turns the target into a random kind of primate based on a table (the list is: "Ring-tailed lemur, baboon, orangutan, spider monkey, howler monkey, gibbon, or tarpier"). Primates can still attack although not all can use weapons (Orangutans can, and actually get a Strength bonus, so this is a risky business) and creatures retain their intelligence and memories, so can still cast spells with a 75% failure chance. The exception is that the last entry on the list, not counted above, is "monkey brain" which leaves the target's body the same but lowers their intelligence to 5/01. Preemptive Retribution: Ha ha. If any enemy intending to hurt the mage comes within 5', they get an electric shock for 3d6p damage, with no save. However, it only works once. Summoning 2: The first sensible summoning spell. Summon 2d4 creatures of EP value less than 67 and control them mentally as you wish. Resist Fire: Gives 12 points of damage reduction per 10 seconds against Fire. That's going to be fun to track. Tenth Level Clairvoyance: Ah, finally, but it's not the same as seeing a remote location. Instead, it just gives you information about whatever you target, obtained from unknown supernatural sources. Conjure Warrior Avatar 3: Better still. In fact, getting worryingly good at this point. Dismiss Enchantment: Hey, it's Dispel Magic. At last. Fireball: Exactly like the classic Fireball with the note that "it's not an explosion because there is no concussive force" extended with a warning that it will expand until its total area is reached even through passages and other architectural constraints. Flight: Exactly what it sounds like, with the caveat that spellcasters who're flying must stop and hover while casting. Ghostform: Turns the mage (and only the mage) incorporeal with the usual caveats, notably that "people who do not know the mage will presume him to be some form of undead; conversely, the undead will not recognize him as a living being and usually ignore his presence". Induce Fatigue: Gives the targets the same fatigue effect that's given after a Haste, but with no benefits. Sphere of Invisibility: The classic Invisibility that ends on an attack or spell cast, but for multiple people in an area. The mage can nominate who is affected, but they must still stay within the sphere to remain invisible. If someone attacks, the spell ends for everyone.
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Aug 17, 2015 17:31
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It always amused me that IOU's 'No Insurance' disadvantage was basically a reskin of the equally silly 'Terminally Ill' in its worst form, which meant your character was going to irrevocably die really goddamn soon.
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Aug 17, 2015 18:05
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Bieeardo posted:It always amused me that IOU's 'No Insurance' disadvantage was basically a reskin of the equally silly 'Terminally Ill' in its worst form, which meant your character was going to irrevocably die really goddamn soon. "No Insurance" is worth -100 points, and "Super Luck" is worth +100 points, sooooooooooo...
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Aug 17, 2015 18:31
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Ah, but Super Luck only fires once a real-time hour! ...which means you'll have to entertainingly filibuster rolls, hide people's dice, and keep the GM distracted until the next time you can use it!
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Aug 17, 2015 19:04
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Bieeardo posted:Ah, but Super Luck only fires once a real-time hour! And that is IOU as gently caress.
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Aug 17, 2015 19:08
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It's that time again! Time for MORE RIFTS. I know you're excited! Rifts Dimension Book 3: Phase World Sourcebook Part 1: Forward to Excess Page count!  Phase World was the ambitious beginning of a large addition to the Megaverse, an entire space setting spanning the Three Galaxies. That was pretty massive, and the first Dimension Book really didn’t have room to cover it in anything but very superficial detail. The fact that there was a lot of wasted space in Phase World is kind of secondary to the fact that there really is just a lot to cover. So we get a separate sourcebook as Dimension Book 3. This is not to be confused with the other Rifts Sourcebooks which are a separate line. The intro says that this book is intended to cover the cultures and civilizations of Phase World in more detail, as well as give out more equipment. And uh, cover rules for large-ship combat, though if they’re anything like the dogfighting ‘rule’ in Phase World, they could skip it again and I wouldn’t complain. The introduction is by Carella, states what was mentioned above, and is extremely brief. The book jumps straight into material after that. First up we’re going to talk a bit about star travel and maps. The Consortium of Civilized Worlds (CCW) divides space into sectors of about 500 by 500 light years. The book repeats the assertion that there’s a ‘galactic biosphere’ about 10 light years thick at the ‘edges and corners’ of galaxies which ‘makes two-dimensional representations of space viable.’  Firstly, that’s stupid. as. hell. Secondly, this is space opera, where are the neat holographic displays?!The Transgalactic Empire divides its territory into dominions which vary in size from 100x100 light years to much larger. The Kreeghor Dominion is the biggest and most influential at 1,000 x 100 for whatever reason. FTL travel is discussed in Phase World proper but they go into it a little bit more here. Most ships do 1-5 light years an hour so they can cross a pretty good chunk of territory in a day. Rift drives of course open a magical portal in space but here it states their ‘effective range’ is ‘5-20’ light years per jump, at 6-7 jumps a day, for :reasons: to make sure that magic doesn’t ever outstrip technology. Travel between galaxies is faster than travel within because the lack of massive objects reduces “gravity drag”  and not because it’s just easier to plot a course with nothing in the way. FTL travel works at 500% efficiency between galaxies; the Three Galaxies are very close, downright neighborly on the galactic scale. Still, while star travel is eminently practical, it is not something to do lightly. The Corkscrew galaxy is 90,000 light years long, for instance, and it takes ‘1d6’ months to make a trip from end to end. Most residents of the Three Galaxies never set foot on a starship, having perfectly good planets to live on and probably no money with which to escape. Even most star travelers venture along familiar routes in relatively small areas. Most planets have to be relatively self-sufficient because Amazon Prime has not yet reached light speed, and imports can take a long time to arrive. Also there are space pirates and cosmic anomalies along the way. Space is cool but full of peril. Given the largeness of space, direct patrolling of all areas is impossible and a lot of travel is done with armed escort of one sort or another. Next we talk about communication, which is good because they didn’t mention that in the first book and it sounded like they just used conventional radio. Now they tell us that messages are sent via <technobabble> transmitters that can send data at 100 light years per hour in-galaxy and five times that out-galaxy (relays seem like they’d be a good investment) making it hard to have real-time space internet arguments on forums as  has limited capabilities. Again, it means that communities have to be somewhat self-sufficient. It also backhandedly makes Cosmo-Knights a bit more powerful, as they are some of the fastest things in existence. Not more powerful in a way that allows them to necessarily stop an army, but they can at least arrive. Now that we know how fast they can talk and fly, let’s see what it’s like living in a little bubble of civilization across vast space. Life in the CCW is highly technological as one might expect, and tends towards being heavily urban. The standard of living is high overall, and with most of their production being automated, their society still somehow manages to maintain a large middle class of largely service-sector workers. Must be magic* (unions). Even the poorest citizens have a safety net and this includes regular old internet most of the time, as it’s a utility. Why, “Magazines and movies can be purchased and printed out or stored on CDs for easy access!” Truly a blessed age.  too many words, time for a mech break A lot of folks telecommute via the extensive interwebs and has created a certain degree of agoraphobic shut-in syndrome, up to 15% in densely populated areas--but honestly a bunch of telecommuting WoW-addicts are not nearly the urban blight that regular commuters are now. The CCW is a ‘loose federation’ of worlds rather than the top-down hierarchy of the Empire. This means that various local laws differ, sometimes widely, from planet to planet--the CCW only deals in planetary governments apparently. To cope with this, individuals are dual citizens--of their chosen/home planet, and of the CCW itself. Taxes are apparently favorable for home planet citizenship, so only rootless spacefarers only have Consortium citizenship. I really do not understand how that would work. Generally speaking, local laws precede CCW laws which is probably awesome for all concerned. The example they give is Motherhome, the home world of the space wolfen, where starting unauthorized campfires has a 5,000 credit fine because they are very concerned about the environment there. The CCW has a Civilization Compact that gives the Three Laws that all members must abide by to be members--no slavery, no wars of conquest, and planetary governments only. There are a lot of other CCW laws but they apply in areas that are specifically government territory. Given the very Articles of Confederation-like feel of the government, that’s mostly open space. None of this Admiralty law stuff here! The next section is a list of common crimes and punishments and it’s a really dumb list since it nearly always says ‘varies from place to place’. They also define a standard year as 360 24-hour days which is good to know but tacked into crime & punishment. The death penalty exists on most worlds though the frequency of administration varies, and the most common method is lethal injection or firing squad for those who can’t be poisoned. The ‘T’zee’ specifically like the electric chair, because certainly in a high-tech society, no other methods would be contrived. Crime tends to be focused on the poor, by the poor, much as in our own society though on most CCW worlds the rates are quite low, “As low as Japan in the late 20th century.” Frontier and isolated worlds have more crime, and of course some worlds define crimes in unique ways I am sure. Also there are crime rings and families and what have you, we’re going to hear about some of those now.  yo boss what you want we should do with this guy, we spent a lot of time learning intimidating Jersey-esque accents The Linchpins are the basic Mafia-esque crime alliance of five families who deal in predatory lending and extortion, as well as sale of what’s illegal where it’s illegal. A lot of their members are related to the families directly at least by marriage which is supposed to minimize betrayals and they hate snitches. They also launder a lot of money through legit fronts. The Gun Brothers are not some kind of neocon performance art but instead are a mystical secret society of assassins and and spies based on a 90s midwestern white guy’s perception of the tongs/triads of Asia. They kidnap and indoctrinate children in the hopes of creating Lady Shivas but these guys also come up with Bio-wizard enhancement in a grand show of suboptimal character choices, which also signals that the splugorth have their tentacles in the organization. The Merchants of Freedom feel that governments engage only in unfair trade restrictions and vow to circumvent them because freedom. They are smugglers, obviously, but also slavers. The CCW is fairly sure they’re also a front for Naruni Enterprises but they haven’t been able to prove this. Lastly, each planet has an Independent Defense Force to serve as a planetary guard since the CAF just can’t be big enough to be everywhere at once. The IDFs can be placed under CAF command in emergencies but are generally independent as their name states. Civilized core worlds tend to have nearly vestigial defenders, while frontier areas buy the best gear they can afford, even Naruni pieces sometimes. Naruni stuff isn’t actually illegal (aside from specific laws about weapons) but it is expensive and the payment plans involve killer robots so a lot of folks opt for local military surplus. The CAF proper is prone to viewing the IDFs as provincial bumpkins while the IDFs often see the CAF as high-handed meddlers. Still, they can work together in a pinch. Next time: CCW planets of note, like the mysterious Bushi Federation!
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Aug 17, 2015 21:37
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Plague of Hats posted:Linear fighters, quadratic3 wizards! The tables have spoken. Comrade Koba posted:
"Rollmaster" might be a nother candidate. (I'm surprised there is no modifier based on the exact length, mass and weight distribution. Though maybe there is.)
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Aug 17, 2015 21:38
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Doresh posted:(I'm surprised there is no modifier based on the exact length, mass and weight distribution. Though maybe there is.) Depending on the edition and specific rules you're using, you can get almost all of that going on. There are reach modifiers for both the attack roll and for initiative rolls, charging can switch things up, and I'm pretty sure one of the Rolemaster Companions had poo poo about hand placement. There's also a fan supplement from the ancient mid- or late-90's internet where some dude went absolutely crazy with adding even more detail, and action points and splitting five-phase combat into individual percentages of activity per phase and oh my god 
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Aug 17, 2015 21:45
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I've never given Rolemaster more than a glance, so pardon/correct me if the following complaint doesn't apply: The problem I have with most "tactically detailed" combat rules is that they are rarely very tactical. As in, they don't give you much in the way of choices to make in combat, as opposed in preparation for combat. You can design combat rules where weapons vary in reach, initiative, base damage, critical damage potential, armor penetration ( and specifically against different types of armor), modifiers to parrying (and specifically against different weapons), and so on. However, I notice most combat rulesets make it impractical to change your weapons and armor in the middle of combat. The result of this is that players will spend a long time reading the books, and consider very carefully what weapons and armor to take with them when they go adventuring. But when fighting breaks out, the optimal "tactic" is to hope you win initiative, then just hack/blast away and hope the other guy drops first. Again, depending on the game, this also holds true for rules about dodging and finding cover, unless your goal is to run away. I first got a taste of this in Shadowrun (2nd and 3rd editions). When deciding what weapons to take with you, the tradeoff was between stealth and stopping power. Once combat started, the best gun was the one currently in your hand. On the other hand, D&D 4 has very detailed rules for combat, but none of it is in service to anybody's notion of realism. It's about having tactical choices, sometimes at the expense of physics-engine notions of realism.
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Aug 17, 2015 22:10
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Speaking as someone who own the Palladium Compendium of Contemporary Weapons, I can agree that a book that has 200 guns is basically just a Where's Waldo minigame to find the one gun that matters.
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Aug 17, 2015 22:13
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theironjef posted:Speaking as someone who own the Palladium Compendium of Contemporary Weapons, I can agree that a book that has 200 guns is basically just a Where's Waldo minigame to find the one gun that matters. I remember both the original Spycraft Modern Arms Guide and the D20 Modern Modern Arms Guide are basically a parade of 'This pistol does 2d8 damage but we swear it's different mechanically from the other 80 pistols of its caliber that all do the same damage with the same range.'
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Aug 17, 2015 22:33
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pkfan2004 posted:IOU looks pretty neat and is shaping up towards being my default engine if I ever run a China, Il. game. I love IOU, but if you ever get serious about it, I have a few suggestions;
I could go on, but I think I'm just going to recommend you convert it FATE or a similar system instead of houseruling the system into oblivion. I love GURPS to death (it's how I got into RPGs), but it's the wrong system for IOU.
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Aug 17, 2015 22:45
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Speaking of Rolemaster, it has the best illustration of the Bard class ever created:
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Aug 17, 2015 23:23
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FAE or PDQ works really well for IOU, in my experience. GURPS basically gives you an excuse to pile on obnoxious disadvantages, which is its own fun in setting. I'm guessing TOON would be pretty hand-in-glove too.
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Aug 17, 2015 23:26
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Comrade Koba posted:Speaking of Rolemaster, it has the best illustration of the Bard class ever created: Huh. I know I've seen that artist's stuff before but I'm damned if I can remember the name.
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Aug 17, 2015 23:51
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Night10194 posted:I remember both the original Spycraft Modern Arms Guide and the D20 Modern Modern Arms Guide are basically a parade of 'This pistol does 2d8 damage but we swear it's different mechanically from the other 80 pistols of its caliber that all do the same damage with the same range.'
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Aug 18, 2015 00:00
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I like GURPS IOU and GURPS Illuminati, and I like some of the strictly fluff/creative work that's come out of SJG, but I hate, hate hate the GURPS system and think it's crap. Universal systems are a terrible idea IMO.
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Aug 18, 2015 00:10
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Pope Guilty posted:I like GURPS IOU and GURPS Illuminati, and I like some of the strictly fluff/creative work that's come out of SJG, but I hate, hate hate the GURPS system and think it's crap. Universal systems are a terrible idea IMO. Could you please elaborate a little? I like GURPS because of the sheer flesibility it promises and the detail and work put in the supplements, but I must admit I have not played it enough to be' sure that it delivers. Different opinions are good for the brain. paradoxGentleman fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Aug 18, 2015 |
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Aug 18, 2015 01:11
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Pope Guilty posted:I like GURPS IOU and GURPS Illuminati, and I like some of the strictly fluff/creative work that's come out of SJG, but I hate, hate hate the GURPS system and think it's crap. Universal systems are a terrible idea IMO. Absolutely this with the GURPS hate. I am an old school grog (I have a Scarlet 'G' as my avatar to prove it) and I loath the GURPS ruleset. It is horrible to run and cumbersome to make characters. The sourcebooks on the other hand are fantastic as gaming reference.
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Aug 18, 2015 01:13
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paradoxGentleman posted:Could you please elaborate a little? I like GURPS because of the sheer flesibility it promises and the detail and work put in the supplements, but I must admit I have not played it enough to be' sure that it delivers. For IOU, at least, it's far too finicky and dense and anti-cinematic to really work for proper goofiness and weird poo poo. IMO, GURPS is at its best when you really want to be tracking nitty-gritty details.
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Aug 18, 2015 01:24
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Halloween Jack posted:Once combat started, the best gun was the one currently in your hand. This is true in real gunfights. Cops (non-SWAT) typically only have a sidearm, with maybe a long gun in the car. Soldiers typically carry a long gun and sidearm. It's not common for anyone who expects a gunfight to have an arsenal strapped to them; much more likely to have a primary, a backup, and a bunch of ammunition for both.
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Aug 18, 2015 01:26
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