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So, I'm just saying I'll probably have to wind Hackmaster up because work has started in earnest and there's no way I can devote time to it. Sorry. If someone else wants to do the cleric spells and the dungeon design section, great. There is some stuff I'd still like to cover, but I'll probably try to keep it to single posts. Just so there's some signal in this post, have some stuff I wrote a while back about a Witch Girls Adventures supplement: "Annabelle DeVille's GUILD to Mystical Mayhem". It comes right with a picture of a giant witch holding onto a shrunken mortal on the cover. As with the original book, it begins with a graphic novel. This has the titular Annabelle, and the dreaded Lucinda, going to a cafe where the waitress asks if they're going to a costume party. The witches tell her that servants should stay quiet. For some reason this is enough for the cafe owner to walk over and tell them off for being rude. As a result of this, the witches murder a total of 14 people and then summon giant monsters to destroy the cafe. Yea. Here's the toll: * the owner and the waitress get transformed into cigarettes and smoked (someone really likes this); * 4 patrons are turned into a toad, a pig, a lizard and a mouse; * 4 people trying to escape are turned into a lamp, a pot plant, a lollipop and a little girl (who eats the lollipop). Ok, this is a possible survivor, although she's probably killed by the giant monsters. * The few remaining customers are teleported to the arctic, turned into a bug, and two are turned into ice creams and eaten by the witches as they stroll away. So, let's kick off the actual book: "Welcome to Wicked ways, a supplement for the Witch Girls Adventures Drama Dice Game. About the being wicked." Keep up that editing there. "We say wicked and not evil as we're covering more standard story book villainy and not real world style madness and atrocities." *cough* fourteenrandommurders *cough* "Throughout the book you'll see notes written like this. Those are writing from Annabelle a very and we're using her own words 'Persnickety':, witch girl who know here way around the wicked side of our little wichy- world Annabelle will offer her own musing and comments through the books as well m you can read them or not, it's up to you" Did I mentioned they do credit a proofreader? Abby Soto, who should at least be interested in seeing her own game succeed? So, we start with a discussion of how evil characters might be built. This takes the form of a series of lists - first of "catalysts" which would give a reason to be evil, then "dark deeds" which give the goals they might have, and then "methods" which is actually a list of personality tropes (or at least it starts that way but then they give up and start quoting the Deadly Sins, plus they spell the last one as "Wraith"). The final list could actually be interesting - the "Delusion". The game explains that nobody ever sees themselves as a villain, and suggests how they might justify their actions to themselves. The "Agent of Change" thinks they're making the world better (and the "innovator", um, does too...), the "Better Being" thinks evil actions don't matter because no-one else matters, the "Hero" thinks they're doing good, the "Iconoclast" knows they're strange but refuses to change because they'll never be accepted, "Monsters" know they're evil but think they aren't responsible, "Pranksters" think everything's just fun and have no idea how dangerous it is, "Normals" think everyone is evil so it's no problem that they are too, "Teachers" are basically the Jigsaw Killer, and "Zealots" are.. um.. "In their mind the innocent is so good and pure that the corrupt majority of the world will never understand them. To the innocent their moral crusade and actions are just and their thoughts are above reproach and fort some from a higher power. For the Zealot belief is everything and if something goes against that belief it is by its very nature evil and should be avoided or destroyed." So this one was named "Innocent" at some point, and was then renamed "Zealot", but they didn't bother editing the text. Also, it's essentially the same as the Hero. Still, there's actually at least some reasonable ideas there, although half of them are not actually reasons why someone wouldn't think they were a villain but reasons why they'd think it was OK to be one. There's then a section on crime and punishment. It says that there are Magistrates who prosecute witches who cast malicious magic on other witches, or make magic known to mortals. If a Magistrate catches a witch, the punishment is "a fine, community service, or binding" depending on whether or not the crime can be reversed. Binding effectively turns the witch into a mortal for a limited time. There's a table of lengths of binding for crimes, which include "Using magic to gain money" (but using it to substitute for services or goods that would otherwise have required exchange of money is fine - oops, someone doesn't get economics), "turning someone into a piece of furniture for more than a week", and "magical murder that cannot be undone". There's suggestion of some other punishments that might be used instead of binding, because witches are horrified by the idea of being bound. (Of course, one of the punishments is to be turned into an object and put on display as a deterrent to crime.) There's then a list of mitigating circumstances, such as political power (translation, "Lucinda's OK because she's a princess"), self defense and.. aha. "Youth". If a witch is young, then unless a crime "is extremely resulted in a lost of life", they won't get any harsh punishment. Let's remember that witches don't naturally age. Finally, we get a list of villainous organizations and the ones that oppose them. Again, there's nothing too original or special here, apart from what is presumably a jab at White Wolf: "The Night Court: The night court is composed of Dark fae, witches Shapeshifter and vampires who nothing less than to bring about eternal darkness to the world... the organization is so badly run it's more of a club for Emo and Goth otherkin than a real threat." So, the next chapter brings us into the actual meat, and we start with Wicked Cliques. With a warning that they might be a bit more powerful than the originals, we get: BRAT: The only clique who doesn't get the standard dice spread. They give up their d8 in a mundane stat for a starting d10 in Magic. The two bonuses they get are "Tantrum" (they get a combat bonus against the first target who hurt them), and "Wicked Wonder" which is a scaled down version of Lucinda's unique "Dark Child" from the first book - it gives a +1 bonus to wicked spells, and lets you spend a Zap point to make the spell permanent. (It is worth bearing in mind that most spells can be augmented to be permanent by adding one MTR in the standard rules, so this is really only for edge cases.) BULLY: Standard progression and two bonuses: they can "glare" at people to trigger an opposed Will roll to intimidate someone. This means that "the person effected about this abilty is -1 to all rolls against the bully for D6 minutes and cannot act against the bully in way for the abilities duration". Not quite sure how they would be rolling against the bully for an action they can't take, but ok. She also gets +1 to wicked actions and an extra D6 damage and D6 armor ignoring - so this is basically an attempt at an evil antidote to Punch Witches, except they still have the problem of not maxing body. IMP: Standard progression. "Twisted Wicked" gives a +1 to wicked actions (groan) and says that if the action is humourous, then the target loses their next action through being flustered. This seems utterly pointless. Most successful wicked actions are going to take out a character for much longer than that. They can also cast one spell a day from a school they don't have, provided it's level equal or lower than their best school and they pay double points. PRIMA DONNA: Standard progression. They can spend a Zap point to add their Social stat to rolls to resist damage, get +1 to wicked actions (GROAN) and +2 if it's Will or Social based. They think they're better than everyone else, but ironically they're actually way worse. RINGLEADER: Same as the Brat progression, but they start the game with "10 allowances in Minions". They also get +1 to wicked actions (HEADDESK) and give this to all allies they have helping them with the action. What exactly "10 allowances in Minions" means isn't clear: Minion is a Conjuration spell from the base group that creates an obedient Average Mundane with a synthetic background. There are no stats for an Average Mundane anywhere in either book. We then get "wicked social classes". Um. These are Nobility (which is Rich from the main book with more skill bonuses), Underworld (which gives ranks in criminal skills), and the best one. Traveler. We never find out why travelers are evil. We do find out that this social class gives +1 to body die type, so Punch Witch is laughing even harder. And, amazingly, that's practically all there is. Beyond that, there's just a bunch of generic example characters as people who "might fight wicked characters" - which is basically everyone else.
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Sep 22, 2015 22:16
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 Hey everyone, here's Afterthought 15. We don't event want to pretend to remember all the Fantasy Wargaming stuff, so we get into games that have disappointed us in big ways in the past, then answer questions, cover the poll, and baselessly insult Plague of Hats. Also at one point we give masturbation material recommendations to a kid. All in all, it's a total win.
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Sep 23, 2015 05:40
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Okay, I'm sorry for being a late arrival to the podcast, but where did Cheese Dudes start?
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Sep 23, 2015 05:52
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Kavak posted:Okay, I'm sorry for being a late arrival to the podcast, but where did Cheese Dudes start? 
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Sep 23, 2015 05:54
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Kavak posted:Okay, I'm sorry for being a late arrival to the podcast, but where did Cheese Dudes start? Super early, somewhere around episode 10 or 11. The basic premise is that it's a rural fast food restaurant where we don't ever actually say what the food is. Like for example, you can order a plate of cheese dudes, but what they are is very much up to interpretation. We added some weird characters that work there and a few fake commercials and gross food items, like "Yump" which is a beverage, and the Butternut Log, which who knows. The listener base at some point started calling us the Cheese Dudes, which makes some sense, it's pretty catchy, and now I guess we're also the Cheese Dukes (of Denmarkia, which is great and all, but I'm waiting for lands and titles in Bizmarkia).
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Sep 23, 2015 05:58
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theironjef posted:Super early, somewhere around episode 10 or 11. The basic premise is that it's a rural fast food restaurant where we don't ever actually say what the food is. Like for example, you can order a plate of cheese dudes, but what they are is very much up to interpretation. We added some weird characters that work there and a few fake commercials and gross food items, like "Yump" which is a beverage, and the Butternut Log, which who knows.
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Sep 23, 2015 15:53
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theironjef posted:
Who... Which side was which in the edition wars analogy? Also, I sent you an email about writing for Blimpleggers. Because every RPG needs endless tracts of prose only tangentially related to the rules.
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Sep 23, 2015 15:57
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theironjef posted:
I don't know how you guys manage to top your intros episode after episode, but don't you magnificent bastards ever stop. When the Ken Burns music started playing I just completely lost it.
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Sep 23, 2015 16:13
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ZorajitZorajit posted:Who... Which side was which in the edition wars analogy? Also, I sent you an email about writing for Blimpleggers. Because every RPG needs endless tracts of prose only tangentially related to the rules. I'd guess it's supposed to be, given they said "the third edition rebels" which would make them the South but then the letter was read with a southern affect despite being named as a person with a Dragonborn who mentions encounter powers. Still hilarious either way.
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Sep 23, 2015 17:37
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Halloween Jack posted:No, I remember this one. The Butternut Log is a stick of butter rolled in peanuts with the shells still on. I want to know about the balljacks. Is it really food, or can I use it to change a tire? Both? The balljack is a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, served with boysenberry syrup. ZorajitZorajit posted:Who... Which side was which in the edition wars analogy? Also, I sent you an email about writing for Blimpleggers. Because every RPG needs endless tracts of prose only tangentially related to the rules. I figure that Ephesius, as a dragonborn, is probably a 4th edition player? But he's Southern, so maybe he's a Southern Unionist out of Virginia? It's just so confusing! What I do know is that Southern Dragonborn is going on the wall next to Italian Dwarf. theironjef fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Sep 23, 2015 |
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Sep 23, 2015 18:01
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theironjef posted:The balljack is a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, served with boysenberry syrup. Obviously he's West Virginian.
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Sep 23, 2015 18:21
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LornMarkus posted:I'd guess it's supposed to be, given they said "the third edition rebels" which would make them the South but then the letter was read with a southern affect despite being named as a person with a Dragonborn who mentions encounter powers. A good catch there. It's because we really wanted to drive home the idea of the classic "brother against brother" conflict from the Civil War. Here in the universe of our opening, Ephesius is the little brother that has decided to back the 4th Edition and embraces change while his older brother still runs a 3.5 campaign and firmly believes in wizard supremacy (although he would tell you that he is really fighting for GMs Rights). While none of this is mentioned in the intro, it's world building like this beforehand that really lets us get into character and deliver the kind of spectacular acting you've come to expect from the System Mastery Afterthought Podcast. It is definitely not just because accents are fun.
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Sep 23, 2015 20:04
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So it's been a little while, both because I've been busy with work but also because I've been dragging my feet since we're into what's easily the most boring part of Blue Rose for me. This is entirely my doing, gradenko_2000 has long since submitted his update and has simply been waiting on me to get my rear end in gear, and since I'm determined not to let this review go uncompleted it's time for me to bite the bullet and power through this. I hope you guys love fiddly situational modifiers because here we loving go. The One With Even More Feats Gradenko's note to me when he submitted this part of the writeup was "feel free to release this over as many parts as you like" but haha nope, you're getting it all in one huge hard to digest lump so you can experience that same eye-glazing sensation of intense boredom I feel whenever I reach this part. As usual, if you're at all familiar with 3.X era d20 feats (and of course you are, you post to Something Awful's traditional games forum) then you already know what to expect out of this, but for completionism's sake here's gradenko_2000 with all you ever wanted to know about the wonderful world of feat selection for your romantic fantasy roleplaying needs. *** Chapter 4: Part 2: More Feats We’ve already covered the Warrior- and Expert-specific feats, but I’d like to leave the Adept-specific feats for a later time because we haven’t even really talked about Arcanum as Blue Rose’s magic system yet. That leaves us with General feats, or ones that any hero can take. Note: I'm segregating them into various categories so that they're easier to follow along than a straight alphabetical order, but only the prerequisite I write at the end of the feat description actually matters. Attack modifiers: Accurate Attack - you can take a penalty on your damage roll of up to -5 in order to gain the equivalent bonus to your attack roll. You cannot reduce your damage roll below +0. All-out Attack - you can take a penalty on your Defense of up to -5 in order to gain the equivalent bonus to your attack roll. You cannot reduce your Defense below +0. Defensive Attack - you can take a penalty to your attack roll of up to -5 in order to gain the equivalent bonus to your dodge bonus to Defense. You cannot reduce your attack bonus below +0. Power Attack - you can take a penalty to your attack roll of up to -5 in order to gain the equivalent bonus to your damage roll. You cannot reduce your attack bonus below +0. Monk-like feats: Improved Strike - your unarmed attacks can deal lethal damage, and your unarmed strike damage has a +1 bonus for every four character levels. Canny Defense - when unarmored and unencumbered, you add your Intelligence or your Wisdom, whichever is higher, to your dodge bonus to Defense. Arcane Weapon - your melee weapon is considered an arcane weapon for the purposes of being able to hit enemies that need arcane weapons in order to be hit. Requires Base Attack Bonus +6 or higher. That was a really awkward description to write. Improved Critical - the critical threat range of one of your attacks is doubled. You can take this feat multiple times, each applying to a different attack/weapon. Archery-related feats: Point Blank Shot - you get a +1 bonus to ranged attack rolls against targets within 30 feet of you. Far Shot - the range increment of your projectile weapons increases by 1.5, and your thrown weapons by 2.0. Requires Point Blank Shot. Precise Shot - you can make ranged attacks against opponents engaged in melee with your allies without the -4 penalty. Requires Point Blank Shot. Improved Precise Shot - you ignore the Defense bonus granted by anything less than total cover, and the miss chance granted by anything less than total concealment. Requires Precise Shot. Improved Ranged Disarm - you have no penalty to attack rolls when making a ranged disarm attempt. Ranged Pin - you can pin an opponent by using your ranged weapon attack to nail a bit of their clothing to a nearby surface. The target must be within 5 feet of a wall, tree or similar surface. Make a normal ranged attack roll against your target. If the attack hits, the target is pinned and needs to use a move action to make a DC 15 Strength or Escape Artist check to break free. This is a surprisingly flavorful feat.  Flavorful yes, but I have a feeling it runs into the problem of "I could do this cool Robin Hood thing and pin that guy's sleeve to the wall...oooorrr I could just shoot him with an arrow. The fact that you need to spend a feat to unlock the ability to even do this the one time in a hundred it might come in handy is like an object lesson in why feats and the philosophy that went into them are terrible.Saving throw feats: Great Fortitude - you gain a +2 bonus to Fortitude saving throws. Great Toughness - you gain a +1 bonus to Toughness. You can take this feat up to 5 times. To be fair, this is a drat sight better than 3.5’s Toughness giving you a flat 3 HP. Iron Will - you get a +2 bonus to Will saving throws Lightning Reflexes - you get a +2 bonus to Reflex saving throws Mount-related feats: Mounted Combat - when your mount is hit in combat, you can negate the hit by taking a Ride check and rolling higher than the attacker’s attack roll. You can do this once per round. Requires training in Ride. Mounted Archery - your ranged attack roll penalty is reduced to -2 instead of -4 if you’re shooting while your mount is taking a double move, or a -4 instead of a -8 if you’re shooting while your mount is running. Requires Mounted Combat Trample - when you attempt to overrun an opponent while mounted, your target cannot choose to avoid you. Your mount may make one hoof attack against any target you knock down, and it gains the standard +4 bonus to attack rolls against Prone targets. Requires Mounted Combat. Ride-By Attack - while mounted, you can move both before and after you take a standard action, as long as your total distance moved does not exceed your normal speed limit. Spirited Charge - when mounted and using the Charge action, you deal double damage with a melee weapon, or triple damage with a lance. Requires Ride-by Attack. Skill-related feats: Endurance - you gain a +4 bonus on Swim checks to avoid becoming fatigued, and also on Constitution checks / Fort saves to hold your breath, or avoid damage from starvation or thirst, or avoid damage from very hot / very cold environments. Improved Balance - you are not penalized for using accelerated movement while taking Acrobatics checks, and you are not flat-footed while balancing. Improved Climb - you are not penalized for using accelerated movement while taking Climb checks, and you are not flat-footed while climbing. This sort of feat seems niche enough that the only time it’d come into play would be if you spent a Conviction to temporarily gain it, or if you found out that your campaign’s Big Bad is Daisy De La Cruz. Sensitive - you gain a +2 bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Sense Motive checks when interacting with creatures of -3 Intelligence or higher. Second Chance - choose a hazard, such as falling, being tripped, triggering traps, being mentally controlled, being affected by a particular arcanum, or a skill with certain consequences for failure. If you fail a check against that hazard, you can immediately roll again and use the better result. Unlike spending a Conviction point, any roll less than 10 is not automatically increased to 10. You can only use this feat once against any given hazard, and the Narrator decides if the hazard you’ve specified is allowed and if it’s applicable in the particular situation you find yourself in. You can take this feat multiple times, each time applying to a different hazard. Definitely another feat to take for the Haunted Mansion campaign. Skill Affinity - add two Favored skills. if you already Know these skills, then their skill rank increases as if they were both Favored and Known accordingly. Skill Focus - choose a skill you Know. You get a +3 bonus to checks using that skill. You can take this feat multiple times, choosing a different skill each time. Skill Training - add two Known skills. If you choose only one non-favored skill, you gain it as a known favored skill. This feat can be taken multiple times. I’m not sure how the second sentence is supposed to be read, whether it means you get a Known+Favored skill as long as only one of the two skills you choose is Favored, or that you can choose to gain just one skill, but that one skill is both Known and Favored in exchange. Talented - choose two Known and related skills, such as Survival and Sneak or Acrobatics and Climb. You gain a +2 bonus with both skills. You can take this feat multiple times, applying it to two different skills each time. Wild Empathy - you have a special connection with animals. You can use the Handle Animal like Diplomacy to change the attitude of an animal by interacting with it. Unlike Diplomacy, you do not need to be able to speak a language the animal understands, and Wild Empathy will allow you to interact with creatures with Intelligence less than -3. You can also use your Bluff and Gather Information skills normally with animals. Basic Training feats: Armor Training - after taking the respective versions of this feat for Light, Medium or Heavy armor, you can then wear those armors and their armor check penalty will only apply to Acrobatics, Climb, Escape Artist, Jump, Sleight of Hand, Sneak and Swim checks. Without this feat, the armor check penalty will apply to all physical rolls and checks, including attack rolls. Exotic Weapon Training - you can use an exotic weapon. Blue Rose explicitly lists the bastard sword, the whip, bolas and nets to be exotic weapons. Shield Training - after taking this feat, you can equip a shield and only suffer its standard penalties. Without this feat, the shield’s armor check penalty will apply to attack rolls and all Strength and Dexterity checks. Two-Weapon Fighting - you can fight with a weapon with each hand, giving you one extra attack per round. The attack roll with both weapons has a -4 penalty. If the off-hand weapon is a light weapon, the penalty is -2. Requires +2 Dexterity or higher. Two-Weapon Defense - when wielding two weapons, but not while unarmed, you gain a +1 bonus to Defense. When fighting defensively or using the Dodge action, the bonus is +2. Requires Two-Weapon Fighting. Weapon Finesse - when wielding a light weapon you can add your Dexterity to your attack rolls, instead of your Strength Weapon Training - you can properly use martial weapons. Without this feat, you take a -4 penalty with attack rolls while using a martial weapon.  Man these feats are all lame, so have a skeleton inviting you to the GUN SHOW "Combat Maneuver" feats: Improved Demoralize - you can make Intimidate checks to demoralize opponents in combat as a move action instead of as a standard action. Improved Disarm - you have a +2 bonus on attack rolls when trying to disarm an opponent, and the opponent does not get a free disarm attempt on you if your disarm attempt fails. Improved Dodge - when you use the Dodge action in combat, you gain +6 to your dodge bonus instead of a +4. You can take this feat a second time, increasing the bonus to +8. Improved Feint - you can make Bluff checks to feint in combat as a move action instead of as a standard action. Improved Grab - when you hit with an unarmed attack, you can immediately make a grapple check as a free action. The unarmed attack you just made already counts as the initial attack roll required to start grappling. This is more of what Kai Tave has been saying: do we really need goddamn grappling rules in a game about Romantic Fantasy? The issue underlying all of this isn't that Blue Rose's writers sat down and thought that the roleplaying game of romantic fantasy needed grappling rules, it's that they simply ported 3.X D&D over wholesale and didn't bother to examine any of the mismatched assumptions that arise as a result. You have to remember that back when Blue Rose was new everybody and their dog was making d20 stuff, it was the biggest boom in roleplaying games to come along and probably still holds that title today, and as a result a lot of writers were simply going with the flow and giving people what they expected to see. Blue Rose is based on d20 D&D so therefore it's obviously going to have the same grappling rules, it's going to have feats, it's going to have saving throws and all this other poo poo, etc. This is what the market at the time was bearing. I'm curious to see what the AGE version of Blue Rose is going to shake out like because AGE seems equally unambitious to me, so it remains to be seen if the new edition is actually going to be any better in this regard or if once again we're going to the world of Aldis tacked on to another dull as dishwater fantasy roleplaying system.Improved Speed - your speed increases by 10 feet while wearing no/light/medium armor and while not carrying a heavy load. You can take this feat up to 5 times. Improved Sunder - you have a +4 bonus to attack rolls when trying to strike an object held by another character. Improved Trip - you have a +2 bonus on Strength and Dexterity checks to trip an opponent, and they do not get an opportunity to trip you back if you fail. Taunt - as a Standard action, make a Bluff check against a target, opposed by their Sense Motive check or Will saving throw, whichever is higher. If you succeed, the target is Shaken for one round (-2 to attack rolls, checks and saves except Toughness). You can attempt to Bluff a target multiple times, but they gain a cumulative +1 bonus to their opposing roll for every Bluff attempt used against them in the same encounter. If you take this feat a second time, you can choose to spend a Move action to Taunt, instead. Everything else that didn't fit into a neat category: Blind-Fight - you only suffer half the usual miss chance due to Full Concealment, and you can spend a Conviction point to completely ignore the miss chance. Dodge - your dodge bonus to Defense increases by +1. You can take this feat up to three times. It is a testament to how loving bad the original 3rd Edition version of this feat was that this thing is significantly better. Heirloom - you’ve inherited some valuable item or object or possession such as a house, a ship, jewelry, a magical item and the like. The item must be Narrator-approved. Improved Initiative - you get a +4 bonus to initiative checks. Uncanny Dodge - you still retain your dodge bonus to Defense even if you are surprised, flat-footed, etc., so long as you not bound/helpless/unconscious/etc. Improved Uncanny Dodge - you cannot be flanked. Requires Uncanny Dodge. Low-Light Vision - you can see twice as far as a human can in low-light conditions. Your vision is still hindered by total darkness. This is a sort of roundabout but effective way of solving the 3.5 problem of everyone except humans having low-light vision. On the Run - you can move both before and after taking a standard action, as long as your total distance moved does not exceed your normal speed limit. I cannot restrain myself from taking a shot at D&D Next. Sure, it’s a feat, but it’s been done before! Run - [throwing out the book’s description here completely because the rules are not very well-written] when you take the All Out action to run, and if you are only wearing no/light/medium armor, and if you are only carrying a Medium load or lighter, you can move up to five times your normal speed. If you are wearing heavy armor or carrying a Heavy load, you can move up to four times your normal speed. If you make a jump after a running start, you get a +4 bonus to your jump check. I had to go back and forth on this feat a lot because the actual text says “when running, you move five times your normal speed”, but there is no “running” action in the Gameplay section, just “All Out” as a full-round action. That All Out action is described as moving four times your base speed. As I understand it, this Run feat will let you run at five times speed instead of four, and it’ll let you ignore the movement penalties imposed by certain load and armor combinations. Track - you can find and follow tracks left by other creatures using Survival checks. [There follows a description and a chart of how to assign DCs to the Survival check based on various circumstances] Trackless Step - you can choose to leave no trail in natural surroundings and therefore cannot be tracked. Requires training in Sneak and Survival. Wealthy - increase your Wealth bonus by +3. You can take this feat multiple times. *** There's actually some more fiction in the feats chapter, this one slightly more interesting than "guy falls off a boat, is rescued by sea-folk." Jen and her bonded rhy-cat companion Kili are loving up an army of the undead, as they've been doing for most of the day now. Unfortunately being an army of the undead, every living person that falls adds another to their ranks and Jen knows that if she and Kili don't put a stop to this that the defenders, whose morale is already fraying, are going to rout, so she and her cat-shaped cat buddy go charging up the hill, pulling off sick zombie-slaying tricks until they carve a path to the enemy commander's tent. Turns out zombies make terrible sentries and within moments she's face to face with the dread necromancer...an old woman rocking back and forth, murmuring to herself. Jen hesitates for a moment because that's not quite what she was expecting to find in the tent surrounded by channels of blood carved into the ground but Kili snaps her out of it in time to avoid getting blasted by dark magic as the old woman goes into a murderous frenzy. Unfortunately it turns out old ladies make terrible melee combatants to, and Jen introduces her to the power of Greyskull with three feet of Light-infused sharpened steel through the chest. With the sorcerer slain the hundreds of spirits being enslaved against their will depart, the undead army collapsing where it stands.  Get hosed, grandma! At this point gradenko_2000 left me with a small selection of feats that he felt I might be better suited to cover, either because they're more flavorful/tied to the setting or because I may be in a better position to address what they do. Personally I think this is his way of saying he's done covering feats, for which I can't blame him in the least. And so, in no particular order: Arcane Balance - a General feat that nonetheless requires Improved Balance and 6 ranks or more in Body Control which isn't a skill, it's actually one of the game's spells which we'll cover in more detail later on. So what does it do? By first taking a full-round action to get yourself ready and then a standard action every round thereafter you can walk over surfaces like quicksand, snow, water, etc. without sinking. That's it. I mean yeah, "you can walk on water!" is totally something that sounds rad in practice, but the need to spend a standard action every round concentrating to use it and requiring a full-action windup explicitly to prevent you from using it in response to sudden falls mean that for a thing that requires several prerequisites it's usefulness is rather situational. Arcane Speed - also takes 6 ranks in Body Control. Why aren't these just part of the Body Control spell, which itself is a buffet-type spell to begin with? Who knows. You can run ten times as fast for 1 round (6 seconds as the book helpfully reminds us). It takes a full round action, carries a risk of fatigue (DC 12), and you have to spend a full round doing nothing but running when you use it. Oh and your jumping distance is multiplied by 5. Arcane Strike - are you seeing a pattern yet because I sure am, Improved Strike and Body Control 8(!) as prerequisites lets you do to your bare hands what Arcane Weapon does for weapons. Arcane Training - this plays into Blue Rose's magic system which we haven't really covered in coherent form yet, just sort of hinted at around the edges. Okay so here's a quick and dirty primer...Adepts, as opposed to lower-case adepts, have access to the Arcane feat pool, among which are various X Talent feats which give them greater mastery over one of the talent "schools" of arcana, such as the healing arts, the shaping arts, the psychic arts, etc. Arcane Training is a feat that gives you two new spells in up to two talents that you have. This is a more efficient way to quickly broaden out your selection of spells than the General feat Arcanum which anyone can pick up and use, even Warriors and Experts, but only gives out one single spell at a time. There are some more details that I'm glossing over but that's the gist of it. Beloved - Well okay, this is at least kind of interesting? You've found true love with someone, though the book does mention that it doesn't have to be romantic love specifically, it could represent a bond between siblings (no not like that), a parent and child, mentor and student, or just really close boon companions...but it does cover romantic love as well. It also mentions that the person you've found love with can be another PC as well as an NPC. The benefits are a +4 bonus to saving throws and checks that would sway you against your beloved in any way, and when you spend a Conviction point to reroll a die on anything concerning your lover (rescuing them from dread pirates, storming the castle to stop them from being married to the evil king, etc) then you can simply treat the roll as a 20 (not a natural 20 the book reminds us, let's not get too carried away here). It's a neat feat and finally something flavorful to the game itself, but it still feels kinda lackluster a little bit that no-fooling true love is "a +4 bonus on saving throws." Comprehend - requires the Mind Touch arcana at 7 ranks or higher and lets you understand the language of any creature intelligent enough to have language...understand but, of course, not speak. Favors - you can call in favors from people you know by using the Diplomacy skill against various DCs depending on the extent of the favor wait a minute what the gently caress, isn't this just a standard use of the Diplomacy skill anyway? Oh, you can spend a point of Conviction to bypass the roll if you want? gently caress you, this is still bullshit. Fortune's Favor - for having the following prerequisites of any arcane talent feat or Arcanum or Wild Talent, along with Charisma +1 or higher, you get to add your Charisma score as a bonus to all of your saving throws. This seems a bit like a sneaky "wrapping the pill in cheese" sort of way to encourage even the minmaxers in the party to stop dumping Charisma goddamnit. Immunity to Disease - requires Body Control rank 5 come on Blue Rose, enough with this and makes you immune to disease, automatically succeeding on saving throws and so on. Immunity to Poison - Body Control 10, ditto. Pure-Hearted - you get a +4 bonus on saving throws and checks to resist corruption, including Corruption, bribery, or any such attempt to turn you from the right and noble path. This doesn't count if you voluntarily indulge in such activities so no sorcery for you unless it's for a really, really good cause at the GM's discretion. Also when your Shadow nature is dominant you lose the benefits of this feat for the duration. Rhy-bonded - you have a bond with a rhyden or, if you're the rhyden, you have a bond with someone else. Curiously the wording of the feat seems to exclude Night People from qualifying. Man, nobody likes Night People. You have a permanent psychic link with your buddy and even if it's blocked by something like the Ward arcanum you can make rolls to try and overcome it, and the link instantly reestablishes itself once the interference has passed. Your buddy, if an NPC, levels up when you do but is fixed at two levels below you. Self-Healing - being trained in Body Control is a prerequisite HEY GUYS DO YOU THINK I SHOULD TAKE BODY CONTROL I DUNNO MAN I JUST HAVE THIS HUNCH, and it effectively lets you use the Cure arcanum but only on yourself. Wild Talent - this is a General feat that allows you to use any arcana under a single talent untrained BUT whenever you're under stress you have to roll a Will saving throw at DC 10 + half your level, and if you fall you become stunned and the GM gets to choose one of your arcana to go off randomly, picking the target. Could be neat but could also be a huge loving pain in the rear end, just like Wild Magic usually is in D&D. If you do somehow acquire the Arcane Talent feat for your chosen talent then you still get to use all of that talent's arcana untrained but no longer have to make the Will saves. Wildwalk - requires the Animism talent to take and you're no longer hindered or slowed by any sort of natural terrain like underbrush, snow, mud, etc. Cool, great. And that's it. We're done with this chapter and on to the next one. In conclusion, gently caress feats forever. Next Time: Magic: the Gathering
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Sep 24, 2015 08:25
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occamsnailfile posted:Rifts Dimension Book 3: Phase World Sourcebook Part 10: Immature Radioactive Cyberai Slugs Given the "function follows form" philosophy of most Rifts tech, I'm surprised the pauldrons don't let it fly via concealed mini-jets, using the headwings to steer. occamsnailfile posted:Next we’ll deal with Robot Vehicles which are different from power armor by being taller. Seriously. Ah, the classic Palladium "fill page count by using one piece of art for both a power armor and a robot vehicle"?
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Sep 24, 2015 13:37
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theironjef posted:
I'd actually be really interested in a "Fantasy Haven - The Highest Violence of All" (or really any other permutation of the title) kind of deal, which takes your average D&D fantasy setting with a single city, with the reaces organized into gangs. It would be the perfect excuse to use "Hobgoblin Money" as the title for an adventure module. (Though what I'm really dying to see is "Urbana Arcana: The 70's", with hundreds of feats, spells, monsters and classes revolving around the almighty sheriffs's office, scenic driving and dry exposition.) Doresh fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Sep 24, 2015 |
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Sep 24, 2015 16:53
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Doresh posted:I'd actually be really interested in a "Fantasy Haven - The Highest Violence of All" (or really any other permutation of the title) kind of deal, which takes your average D&D fantasy setting with a single city, with the reaces organized into gangs. It would be the perfect excuse to use "Hobgoblin Money" as the title for an adventure module. Man the art in the original Urban Arcana book basically sells a 70s module all by itself, with the hard-nosed bugbear private eye and the gnoll pimp. I can just see orcs working on muscle cars in an alley and so on. That'd be awesome. For that matter I've always lamented that there isn't a 70s Grand Theft Auto game.
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Sep 25, 2015 02:36
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Belatedly, jef, I just wanted to say always find it amusing when you bring up fantasy shitfarmers being hapless, because I always feel like D&D farmers should actually be horrendous badasses. I mean, they have to live away from the protection of civilization and protect livestock from any manner of monsters, and have to deal with burrowing creatures like ankhegs and bulettes. Farmers or farming communities should be some serious badasses. "You fought stirges in the sewers? Son, I was raised where the winter wolves and owlbears run free."
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Sep 25, 2015 02:44
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Belatedly, jef, I just wanted to say always find it amusing when you bring up fantasy shitfarmers being hapless, because I always feel like D&D farmers should actually be horrendous badasses. I mean, they have to live away from the protection of civilization and protect livestock from any manner of monsters, and have to deal with burrowing creatures like ankhegs and bulettes. Farmers or farming communities should be some serious badasses. "You fought stirges in the sewers? Son, I was raised where the winter wolves and owlbears run free." Man they SHOULD be. Of course the rules say their chance to die if their geese feel like taking a nip at them is a little higher than what Fantasy OSHA would be happy with.
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Sep 25, 2015 03:11
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Strange as it was to hear my professional name bandied about on System Mastery, then transformed into a verb* and put to song, you did my too-complicated "literally-came-to-me-in-a-dream" question all the justice it deserved. *as far as I am aware it actually translates to "ostrich"
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Sep 25, 2015 03:17
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theironjef posted:Man the art in the original Urban Arcana book basically sells a 70s module all by itself, with the hard-nosed bugbear private eye and the gnoll pimp. I can just see orcs working on muscle cars in an alley and so on. That'd be awesome. Driver stole their spot, unfortunately, though I'd love if they'd start doing games set in the past again.
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Sep 25, 2015 03:32
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Hey Jef, do you promote Movie Mastery on this site as well? It seems like Cinema Discusso might be a good place to find new listeners. (The Yor: Hunter from the future review is my new favorite review, and I immediately broke into my dorkiest 80s New Wave dance when "Yor's World" was playing)
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Sep 25, 2015 07:22
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Simian_Prime posted:Hey Jef, do you promote Movie Mastery on this site as well? It seems like Cinema Discusso might be a good place to find new listeners. We fear bringing the gaze of SuperMechaGodzilla down upon us
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Sep 25, 2015 07:55
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We fear them for they are curmudgeonly and knowledgeable, but we have been quietly hoping someone would pimp us over there.
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Sep 25, 2015 07:58
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theironjef posted:We fear them for they are curmudgeonly and knowledgeable, but we have been quietly hoping someone would pimp us over there. Don't wake the movie grognards! On a side note, has The Room been requested for a movie review? I know it's a somewhat cliche suggestion for bad movies at this point, and it's likely at least one of you has seen it, but I think it'd be interesting to hear your perspectives on it.
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Sep 25, 2015 08:18
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Belatedly, jef, I just wanted to say always find it amusing when you bring up fantasy shitfarmers being hapless, because I always feel like D&D farmers should actually be horrendous badasses. I mean, they have to live away from the protection of civilization and protect livestock from any manner of monsters, and have to deal with burrowing creatures like ankhegs and bulettes. Farmers or farming communities should be some serious badasses. "You fought stirges in the sewers? Son, I was raised where the winter wolves and owlbears run free." 
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Sep 25, 2015 09:05
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I kind of love the sheer amount of detail put into the Dark Eye. Combined with the few glimpses of rules we've seen it really seems like a bunch of German dudes looked at Rolemaster and thought "Surely this could use a few more hundred pages worth of rules."
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Sep 25, 2015 09:32
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Count me in as another person who chipped in on the Fellowship kickstarter thanks to that writeup. 
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Sep 25, 2015 11:37
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Unknown Armies: Postmodern Magick Adept Rundown, part 6 Thanatomancy  Postmodernism is for pansies Thanatomancy is one of those "So terrible it's only for NPC villains" adept schools...and when you consider the sort of poo poo normal adepts get up to, that's saying something (of course, in practice Thanatomancy isn't that much harder than some adept schools like Narco Alchemy or Entropomancy). As the name implies Thanatomancy is all about death magick. Thanatomancy isn't even modern, let alone postmodern...Thanatomancy is straight up prehistoric. It's based on a very simple formula: sacrifice = power. Theoretically, you could perform Thanatomancy without resorting to human sacrifice, but it just won't have the same oomph. So odds are pretty good that any given Thanatomancer is going to be doing a lot of murder (relative to the amount of murder ordinary UA PCs dabble in anyway). All that said, despite the drama surrounding it Thanatomancy isn't exceptionally powerful compared to other adept schools, although it does do some tricks rather well. Charging rituals Getting a minor charge requires the ritual killing of an animal (it must be a mammal or bird) in an hour long ritual. After the ritual is complete the charge is "stored" in a piece of the target's body that the thanatomancer must have with him in order to use the charge. Although messy, it's pretty trivial to gain boatloads of minor charges so long as the adept is willing to put in the work. Feeder mice cost practically nothing and unlike buying 10 puppies a week no one will be asking any questions (also, really easy to store charges if you don't mind carrying around a bag full of mouse tails). You can probably expect a "fresh" Thanatomancer to easily have dozens or even hundreds of minor charges. Significant charges are when things really become tricky, because this is where human sacrifice is required. Any human sacrifice will do, but it must be a ritual killing performed without the use of magic and the ritual must last at least two hours. If you can manage it a willing sacrifice is worth two charges. To count as willing the sacrifice must knowingly consent to the ritual, remain conscious throughout and never change their mind as death approaches (although you get the single significant charge regardless). As before, you've got to keep a fetish of the victim in order to "store" the charge (be careful not to leave your fanny pack full of ears on the subway). Major charges require the sacrifice of an important individual in an elaborate 12 hour ritual. Important means either someone famous (A-list celebrity), another adept with a Major charge (good luck) or a Godwalker. Or someone you deeply care about such as a spouse or child. As before a willing sacrifice is worth double and you need to keep a part of their body on hand to use that charge. Taboo Thanatomancers cannot kill outside of a magickal context. So you can kill someone as part of a charging ritual, or murder them with a Blast spell but you can't blow their head off with a shotgun. Injuring people is fine, but actually taking life without magick will bust your taboo. Thanatomancy Spells Thanatomancy is fairly limited. You can certainly kill things, or you can unkill them (to a degree). It's also the school with the greatest command of the spirit world (demons, revenants, etc). However, outside of life, death and the in-between there's not many tricks available to the Thanatomancer. The Thanatomancer's biggest problem isn't all the murdering they have to do...its that they're kind of dull. It's like being at a party with a really boring goth. Die Like a Dog (minor) Or, as the case may be, die like a small mouse. This is the Thanatomancer minor blast which inflicts the "death" of the sacrifice on the victim, causing them to suffer standard minor blast damage (for humans). Animals are affected more severely due to their similarity ot the sacrifice, taking firearm damage. The Healing Spirit (minor) This spell heals damage equal to the sum of the dice on your roll. Although effective, it leaves heavy scarring. The Calling (minor) Summons (but doesn't control) a demon. You cannot summon the spirit of anyone you have personally killed. The Tethering (minor) This lets you bind a spirit to a specific location, creating an artificial haunting. Although it doesn't provide any control beyond that, it's very useful leverage...after spending a week trapped in a dollhouse most demon will probably agree to anything for release. There's another minor spell called the Sundering which can be used to reverse this (which breaks the bonds a spirit has to any current "anchor", usually putting them to rest (or in the case of demons freeing them to roam or kicking them out of a possessed victim). Borrowed Death (significant) This is the significant Blast, inflicting firearms damage to human enemies (it can also inflict damage directly to the Soul stat of spirits). Against animals it does only the sum of the dice (in practice this is meaningless since you can always split a significant charge into 10 minor ones to use Die Like a Dog). Compulsion (significant) This spell lets you boss demons around directly, lasting until the next midnight. The demon must follow any orders or answer any questions but it still ultimately has free will so it can twist or misinterpret orders to gently caress with the adept. Stolen Life (significant) Stop aging for 6 months or become a year younger...I'm not certain why anyone would go for the first option. Keep up the murdering and you can be immortal. The Trade (significant) Mystical CPR. This spell can be attempted only once at the moment of a target's death and if it is successful it will restore them to life with 10+1d10 wound points. The Binding (significant) This spell binds a demon to a corpse, allowing the demon to animate it (although once inside the demon can't leave on its own). The corpse won't decay (any further at least) but it also cannot heal or perform any involuntary biological functions. It's not actually clear if it's possible to kill a reanimated corpse through normal damage, but destruction of the body will kill the demon or set it free depending on its soul stat relative to the spellcasting roll. The Face of Death (significant) You can appear as the embodiment of death to one person (1 significant charge) or everyone who sees you (3 charges). This induces a rank-10 Helplessness check and anyone who fails must flee or freeze (they cannot attack you). A matched failure causes them to faint, a critical failure causes a heart attack. Major Effects Kill several people, stop aging. Become young again, banish all the ghosts in a city. raise an army of undead. Eliminate a disease, perform a resurrection. And with that we are at the end of the adepts for Postmodern Magick. I'll keep going to cover some of the weirder artifacts, creatures and groups in the book.
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Sep 25, 2015 11:48
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oriongates posted:The Binding (significant) Is this one of the few ways to actually kill a demon?
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Sep 25, 2015 12:57
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Man, even the PCs from kill puppies for satan get better powers than that, and for similar effort!
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Sep 25, 2015 13:07
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The Lone Badger posted:Is this one of the few ways to actually kill a demon? It'll do the job, but there are other spells that do it easier. Demons can be killed by anything that can inflict damage directly to the Soul stat (like the Dipsomancer's Soul Sipping spell), and the Thanatomancer's Blast spell already inflicts damage to a spirit's soul stat. It'd be far cheaper to simply use the Tethering to hold a demon in place and pound it with Minor Blasts. Even if you needed to take it out quickly for some reason the Significant Blast is definitely going to be easier than getting ahold of a corpse, sticking a demon in it and finding a way to completely destroy the body (and hope you rolled well enough that the demon isn't set free). Honestly, I'm not even sure why that particular "feature" is included in The Binding spell. It's certainly not an easy or efficient way to get rid of a demon. Maybe to prevent the demon from just trying to immediately destroy their corpse-body to free themselves?
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Sep 25, 2015 13:47
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Skeleton just wrecked that guy in a street dance battle.
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Sep 25, 2015 13:54
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LongDarkNight posted:Skeleton just wrecked that guy in a street dance battle. The real UA twist is that its his own skeleton.
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Sep 25, 2015 14:13
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You really want to read the fine print on the "Animate Skeleton" ritual.
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Sep 25, 2015 14:37
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Isn't there a UA Conspiracy Adept? I remember there being one with a blast of making someone the target of a mysterious assassination attempt.
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Sep 25, 2015 15:43
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Are you thinking of the Urbanomancer blast? It works based on coincidence, which could include being hit by a car or randomly stabbed. There is a Conspiromancy Adept on John Tynes site, but like most of the homebrew submissions stocked there, it's not very good in my opinion. Reaching way way back: oriongates posted:Its important to notice that risks taken by entropomancers must be done deliberately for the purpose of gaining charges. Fleeing into traffic being pursued by police is not worth a significant charge because it lacks the intent and ritual context. Likewise, driving a hijacked bus the wrong way down the highway won't get you a Major charge if you're only doing it to try and evade police pursuit...simply endangering people isn't enough, you've got to be doing it for the sake of your magick. Hyper Crab Tank posted:So can an entropomancer piss on a biker's shoes with the intent of using the charge to mitigate whatever retaliation he has coming, or is that too close to the whole can't use magick to generate magick clause and would just result in a black eye and no charges? oriongates posted:Nope. No using magick to help survive or get out of the consequences of your charging. You've got to take any lumps you end up with. For most adepts, Transaction prevents them from basically pulling the "I wish for a million wishes" stunt. Granted, there are some loopholes even in the system as it is. For example, Epideromancers can potentially “get more out than they put in” by harming themselves and then casting Regeneration. (Three points of self-inflicted damage nets you a minor charge; Regeneration costs a minor charge and heals 1d10 points. Sure, you can’t heal wounds you made, but you could survive a nasty fight, limp back to your bolthole, and give yourself some cuts in order to heal more serious injuries.) A dipsomancer who used random magick to find some booze probably wouldn’t get more charges than he spent, but this could save him from sobering up and losing all his charges. With Entropomancers, their magick pretty much takes care of itself with regard to Transaction. So you take a stupid, pointless risk and get a charge, then you use the charge to save your bacon? Magickally it's a zero-sum game, and practically it's a loss, since you have to deal with the social consequences of fighting or gambling or playing in traffic. And you can't use this roundabout to accomplish other goals--charging risks have to be pointless by nature. What they have to explicitly forbid you from doing is taking fake risks, or risks that have been mitigated with magick. You can't benefit from contrived scenarios where you play Russian roulette with a gun that you only think is loaded, and you explicitly can't gain any charges while your under the effect of your protection spell.
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Sep 25, 2015 15:57
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Every time this image comes up in any context it makes me unreasonably happy. I really want to play this guy the next time I play Warhammer Fantasy RP.
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Sep 25, 2015 18:01
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Peasant isn't a bad career at all in WFRP. Not a fighter, but plenty of useful skills.
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Sep 25, 2015 18:10
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Halloween Jack posted:Peasant isn't a bad career at all in WFRP. Not a fighter, but plenty of useful skills. Most hilarious are its Career Exits. It can go instantly into Winged Hussar according to the Kislev book, or you can go Peasant-Politician-Noble Lord and become an elector count who institutes sweeping agricultural reforms.
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Sep 25, 2015 18:15
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If all else fails, a lot of seemingly-useless low-class Professions can slot into Spy darn quick! I love how the Peasant is trying to get into the spirit of things by hanging a skull on his belt. Edit: Out of 113 careers in the corebook, 35 have a skull in their illustration. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Sep 25, 2015 |
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Sep 25, 2015 18:17
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