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Doresh posted:Of course. They wouldn't be evil if they didn't do thinks purely for the evulz. Just pick it up, link to the earlier one or the wiki if you want continuity.
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Nov 7, 2015 16:44
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It's nice to know that one of the most dangerous classes is a big buff person with a machine gun wearing swim trunks, floaties, a snorkle and an aluminum foil hat yelling "SUFFER NOT A FISH TO LIVE" whenever they open fire or feel like it.
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Nov 7, 2015 16:46
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Hostile V posted:It's nice to know that one of the most dangerous classes is a big buff person with a machine gun wearing swim trunks, floaties, a snorkle and an aluminum foil hat yelling "SUFFER NOT A FISH TO LIVE" whenever they open fire or feel like it.  I miss The Far Side.
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Nov 7, 2015 16:48
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Doresh posted:Of course. They wouldn't be evil if they didn't do thinks purely for the evulz. I'd just continue it unless ProfessorProf objects.
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Nov 7, 2015 18:41
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Doresh posted:Of course. They wouldn't be evil if they didn't do thinks purely for the evulz. Reboot it, I'd say. It's been too long.
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Nov 7, 2015 20:09
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PurpleXVI posted:For some reason some of the stuff I love the most from the F&F thread is when someone completely breaks a game in half with some unintended results of RAW. Same. In fact, it'd be fun to have a series that was just How To Break Games Into Pieces without necessarily needing a full writeup for each one (or just referencing existing writeups).
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Nov 7, 2015 20:25
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I seriously love the soggy, kelp-covered aquatic ghost pirate cowboy with his antimagic and force-fields of DETERMINATION and dual pistols of absolute smite-y murder. Toss that on the pile of RIFTS character concepts that I'd actually love to play, except, you know, RIFTS.
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Nov 7, 2015 23:21
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I think there's a chinese OCC who can also do the SDC = MDC trick. Without the doubling, but it works on anything.Alien Rope Burn posted:and have a 35% (+5% per level) of being able to tell if a supernatural creature is evil. The Lone Badger fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Nov 8, 2015 |
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Nov 8, 2015 01:06
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Alien Rope Burn posted:And when you murder an adult dragon with some of the dinkiest weapons in the game, tell 'em Alien Rope Burn sent you. Oh man, you didn't even get in the Rifts: Merc Ops with the entire Golden Age Weaponsmiths arsenal. The first part is that they re-statted a bunch of SDC guns to have a MD effect. For instance, .50 caliber guns to do 1D6x10 SDC with a single bullet hit and 1D6x100 in a ten round burst. A 7.62mm machinegun, which is probably what those machineguns attached to the vehicles in the Rifts main book, is something like 4D6x10 SDC or 1D4 MDC. But, that's not getting to the big one: there's a GECAL .50 caliber vulcan gun listed there that does 2D6x100 SDC in a burst.
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Nov 8, 2015 01:21
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If only they had some SDC area of affect gas it could fire to purge evil from different environments like grocery stores or congress. The Suffer not the fish to live cleaned up congress.
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Nov 8, 2015 01:21
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What's the highest you could go without having it turn into MDC, anyways? Something like xd6 x 99 ?
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Nov 8, 2015 10:17
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There's no strict number. Weapons that do over 100 S.D.C. are often given an M.D.C. damage value, but there's no specific rule that says they have to.
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Nov 8, 2015 16:39
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Isn't there a paragraph in the core that says they never convert, ever? It mentions how you can rack up several hundred SDC in a round but this is basically meaningless, MDC material is simply so tough that your bullets are useless. It doesn't get into like, nukes or even cruise missiles but it strongly suggested that SDC guns were basically worth less than it cost to make them.
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Nov 8, 2015 17:54
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Read the novel Fragment by Warren Fahy. He's got your giant mantis shrimp in spades. That's a really fun airport novel. It'd make a fantastic modern or SF one-shot scenario for a con or any other time you don't mind a TPK. The setup is, there's an island in the SE Pacific that has been isolated for long enough for horrible deadly life forms to evolve in a genetic pressure cooker. I'm scribbling note to make it the deadliest Traveller Red Zone ever.
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Nov 8, 2015 18:01
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occamsnailfile posted:Isn't there a paragraph in the core that says they never convert, ever? It mentions how you can rack up several hundred SDC in a round but this is basically meaningless, MDC material is simply so tough that your bullets are useless. It doesn't get into like, nukes or even cruise missiles but it strongly suggested that SDC guns were basically worth less than it cost to make them. Somewhat. I used Merc Ops heavily during my campaign, because one of those things I wanted to pull off is how people outside the player characters or outside of the Coalition or the major powers could survive in the post-Rifts wilderness with little access to MDC equipment. One of the ideas is that there were militias practically armed all with light machineguns, first stolen from various military arsenals in the Cataclysm, and then rebuilt and reverse-engineered over generations in remaining CNC mills or garages. Building open-bolt machineguns and automatic rifles is actually pretty easy, since you're not worried about being accurate with semi-auto with the damned thing, you're just interested in firepower. Laser weapons acquired through looted pre-Rifts stashes or Coalition armories, from CS defectors, or through the Black Market and other traders were would be rare, still significantly powerful, and usually a symbol of elites, but a few militiamen with a light machineguns and a few hundred rounds of ammunition a piece would be enough to fend off most attackers as long as they were solitary hunters or stragglers. If I had heard about the DIY .50 caliber automatic rifles made by Mexican drug cartels before the campaign, I would have probably gone that route instead.
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Nov 8, 2015 19:08
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It's always weird (and usually a pet peeve of mine) when some aspect of how the rules work practically becomes a cornerstone of the setting. The dividing line between SDC and MDC in Rifts seems like it constitutes one of those things.
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Nov 8, 2015 19:22
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mllaneza posted:That's a really fun airport novel. It'd make a fantastic modern or SF one-shot scenario for a con or any other time you don't mind a TPK. The setup is, there's an island in the SE Pacific that has been isolated for long enough for horrible deadly life forms to evolve in a genetic pressure cooker. Giant land dwelling predators evolved from Mantis Shrimp is all you really need to say.
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Nov 8, 2015 20:31
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occamsnailfile posted:Isn't there a paragraph in the core that says they never convert, ever? It mentions how you can rack up several hundred SDC in a round but this is basically meaningless, MDC material is simply so tough that your bullets are useless. It doesn't get into like, nukes or even cruise missiles but it strongly suggested that SDC guns were basically worth less than it cost to make them. Yeah, there's no hard conversion. There are some words in some Palladium book about how some classes of SDC damage like big explosions can convert, and there are a number of weapons that have damage given as "2D6x100 SDC + 100 ft knockback (or 2D6 MDC)" but there's no rhyme or reason to which ones get MDC damage ratings. Nor is it clear how you decide whether to cause SDC or MDC damage - player choice per weapon or per shot, GM decision, campaign default?
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Nov 8, 2015 20:39
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Way back in the mists of time, it was unhelpfully stated that SDC weapons never scaled up to MDC, even if they did over 100 damage, unless they were explosives. I think the rationale was bullets and RPGs versus tank plating. Of course, that didn't explain how tank rounds dealt MD, or where SDC materials magically became impregnable to small arms, but this was already a system where you could beat a steel-core door down with a Louisville slugger and enough dice rolled. Goddamn Robotech RPG, it's all your fault.
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Nov 8, 2015 22:32
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Alien Rope Burn posted:There's no strict number. Weapons that do over 100 S.D.C. are often given an M.D.C. damage value, but there's no specific rule that says they have to. Why am I not surprised that there aren't clear, universal damage conversion rules in Rifts? mllaneza posted:That's a really fun airport novel. It'd make a fantastic modern or SF one-shot scenario for a con or any other time you don't mind a TPK. The setup is, there's an island in the SE Pacific that has been isolated for long enough for horrible deadly life forms to evolve in a genetic pressure cooker. So it's basically Monster Island? Neat. Tenra Bansho Zero  (Diaper ninja girl is happy that the translators didn't remove her from the game. I personally think they overreacted a bit, as this looks less like a diaper and more like some cross between a yukata and a leotard. Then again I may be desensitised after watching manly men like Toshiro Mifune run around in something looks a lot more like a diaper. You can never unsee.) It's Tenra Bansho Zero again, the hyper-charged Japanese tabletop RPG set in the grim future of planet Tenra, where there is only war and dickish priests. Before reading this, I'd like to draw your attention to ProfessorProf's previous posts that give a good overview of the setting and basic mechanics to which I can't really add anything new. Don't worry, they're a quick read. Now that you are (hopefully) prepared, let's follow up the post on war with more information - and rules about combat. Tools of the Trade So technological advancements have allowed the lowly Ashigaru to move from bows, spears and swords to WWI-style firearms and machine guns, with some more advanced stuff like sub-machine guns if they're lucky. Elite troops and PCs of course have access to way better stuff, a lot of which predates gunpowder weapons by a long shot. Soulgems are As soulgems are both rare and of outmost importance to any army, lords will do pretty much anything to get their hands on a newly discovered mine, which can easily result in a war if the mine happens to be in a border region. New mains are mainly found by geomancers, onmyoji sorcerers dealing in feng shui stuff. Because of the above reasons, geomancers are very careful or downright paranoid when it comes to keeping their mines secret. The prices they demand for their gems are usually quite high, but they generally try to not be too greedy, because making a profit is much more important to them than pissing off their business partner enough for them to try to find less legal ways to get the gems. Scarlet Steel (also known as Orichalcum) is another reddish metal that is much denser than normal steel and is a great conduit for spiritual energy. It is the primary material for Armours aka giant robots, and it offers nice synergy with soulgems in the form of the gemblades. Gemblades are basically like gunblades from Final Fantasy 8, except the design is much more sensible because they are just normal weapons that happen to have a gun mechanism build into their crossguard, instead of being oversized pistols with a blade for a barrel. You squeeze down the trigger, and one or more of the soulgems inside the magazine will get pulverized, releasing its energy to temporarily turn the weapon into a vibro-blade with improved density and cutting power. The firing mechanism itself comes in two varieties: revolver-style or the newer automatic style. The latter offers a bigger magazine, but is more prone to jamming (which there are no rules for, so you just roleplay it if you want to). Many warriors prefer revolver-style gemblades, mainly because this is one of those settings where older stuff is usually of higher quality. Though any type of bladed weapon can be made into a gemblade, gemblade katanas (as well as their shorter and longer cousins) have such a cultural signifiance on Tenra that they are far more numerous than any other possible gemblade type. (And despite being red in color, all of the colored pictures in the book show gemblades as being steel-colored). The same discharge created from a soulgem is also used for soulgem firearms, who have been around a lot longer than their gunpowder counterparts. Though the latter are significantly cheaper, soulgem firearms have many advantages: They are better (because they're older), and soulgems also don't become useless when doused with water. Soulgems also have the advantage that they can't accidentally blow up. Even if you were to smash a soulgem with a rock or hammer, it would just break apart and the energy stored inside would just vanish. They only release their energy in an explosive manner when they come into contact with a special magical sigil (carved into the firing mechanism's hammer) and when the user has a clear killing intent. For these reasons, warriors of higher status generally look down upon gunpowder weapons for being unpredictable and messy. Since blades and guns powered by magical marbles aren't quite ridiculous enough for such a grimdark setting, we now take a look at the three most feared and powerful weapons on the battlefield:  Man, this is almost like Monster Hunter. The Gunlance is essentially a sniper railgun used seriously damage Armours or turn human-sized targets into gibs. Though build for long range, the weapon is by no means useless in melee combat. The bayonet attached to the barrel is a so-called explosive spiker which uses its own soulgem discharge to launch forward at incredible speeds, punching through Armours with ease. Due to its length and weight, the Gunlance requires special training and can only be used by characters with the Gunlancer archetype. The Zakt-8R Ultimate Edge (aka "Hachiren Zankoutou", aka "Eight-Repeating Ultimate Cutting Blade" ) is the weapon of choice for Armour Hunters, warriors who are bad enough dudes to fight 18+ foot tall metal monstrosities in close combat - with their own weapons, for the Zakt-8R is actually a modified Armour shortsword that can unload its entire magazine of 8 soulgems in one strike, giving Armour Hunters dangerous spike damage capabilities. Just like with the Gunlance, special training is required to wield to weapon, restricting its usage to characters with the Armour Hunter archetype. The White Heat Palm (aka Grimdark Shining Finger) is one of the most dangerous close combat weapons in all of Tenra. Serving as a hand prosthesis or just the regular hand of an Armour or kongohki (which we will cover in due time), the White Heat Palm is made out of pure scarlet steel and infused with soulgems. It is powered by the wielder's own spiritual energy, which it uses to become hot enough that it starts to glow and can melt just about everything it touches. Because of its larger size, Armour-scale White Heat Palms are less energy-efficient than their smaller cousins. Basic Combat  I love these comics Combat is pretty straight-forward. Initiative depends on Agility (with Sense and Knowledge acting as tie-breakers), and everyone gets one Action (like attacking or using a special ability) and a Half-Action (like switching weapons or shouting something). The exact length of a turn in seconds is not important and generally up to the GM. Attacks can be either dodged with the Evasion skill, or parried with a melee combat skill if the attack itself is also a melee attack. Damage is equal to the Margin of Success, the weapon's damage and various other modifiers. The most common of these are soulgem discharges of a gemblade, which increase damage by 1 for each soulgem used, limited by the blade's rate of fire and remaining ammo. Gemblade users can wait until after their attack has hit to use soulgems with no penalty (essentially cutting deeper into their opponent), making it pretty hard to waste gems. As weapons on Tenra have long since developed past a point where a bit of leather or steel could stop them, the game has no rules for personal armor, so any piece of protective clothing you wear is purely for style. Parrying a melee attack with a melee skill of your own has an interesting mechanic I really like: You only actually parry if you tie with the attacker. As soon as you have more successes than he has, you actually do a counterattack, dealing damage as if you just made a succesful attack. So melee combat in TBZ is not about "I attack, you defend", but about "I attack, you attack". So if you are clearly outmatched by an opponent, it might just be better to flee or use a ranged attack. This also keeps action economy simple. Guys like Zatoichi don't beat up a group of bandits in a matter of seconds because they have that many attacks per round. They just counter-attack everything thrown at them. Ranged weapons are a bit different in that their rate of fire allows them to hit multiple targets at once. The higher their ROF in comparison to the number of targets, the more extra damage each one suffers. This extra damage is however capped at +2, so you pretty much have to attack multiple targets if you want to make full use out of high ROF. Damage itself is handled quite interestingly, since TBZ has both Health Points in the form of Vitality and Wound Boxes. The interesting part is that the PC chooses how the incoming damage is applied, distributing it between Vitality or Wound Boxes however he wishes. He doesn't even have to fill the Wound Boxes in order of severity, and they are all worth the same amount of damage (aside from the Dead Box, which we'll get to in a minute). The only time a character can't pick between Vitality or Wounds is because of an esoteric special ability or if the character in question is an Armour pilot who wants to keep is Armour going for longer (in which case the damage has to be received as wounds, though they can be split among Armour and pilot). Vitality is short-term damage that quickly regenerates after combat in a matter of minutes, and you can even recover a bit during combat by just resting instead of attacking. Losing all of your Vitality just knocks you out and has no lasting effect. A character could literally drop from Tenra's orbit and smash head-first into a mountain and be fine in a few minutes because he put all the damage in Vitality. Wounds are different. They are serious wounds that generally require outside medical help to heal. On the plus side, TBZ runs under an inverted spiral of death, since getting wounded actually adds bonus dice to everything you do, based on the most severe kind of wound you have. This is because Wound Boxes are generally reserved for important fights where you just have to win. This also makes boss battles more interesting, as the boss actually becomes stronger as the fight goes on. The more severe wounds do however have a caveat: Critical Wounds (offering a +2 bonus) cause your Vitality to drop by 1 and the end of each turn and prevent natural Vitality recovery until the wound is healed, so these boxes are better left untouched outside of a big showdown. The Dead Box takes a special role. Each character only has one, and it can only ever be filled if the character is absolutely and 100% sure that the fight is important enough that he is willing to die. In checking off the Dead Box, the entire damage of the attack is negated, and the character now receives +3 bonus dice, but he'll die for good if his Vitality drops to 0 during the fight. The Dead Box is also the only kind of Wound that can't be healed during battle, as you can't just chicken out of a "I'm ready to die" situation. It is healed pretty easily after combat, though. The Dead Box is even worse for Armour, as this signifies deep structural damage that can never be repaired. Special Combat Rules There are various advanced techniques and tricks in TBZ, some of which are restricted by archetype. Aiuchi and Sneak Attack These are both ways to add your full number of successes to your damage. The Aichu Attack is a reckless attack that involves dropping your guard completely. You get to deal damage with your full successes, but so does the enemy - and he gets to hit first. Sneak Attacks of course involve sneaking up to the target for a surprise stab or shot to vital bits. Samurai Form Samurai in TBZ can essentially use Devil Trigger from Devil May Cry, hulking out into a more or less demonic/monstrous form for up to their Spirit in rounds. Though there's actually quite a bit of customization to a samurai form, most samurai settle for a no-nonsense package of enhanced Ability scores and Vitality regeneration. Butterfly Dream Once per combat, a Kugutsu can engage a Butterfly Dream with a single opponent. This is basically a mind probe, with the option of confusing the opponent with illusions. It's very freeform and a good excuse to go all Satoshi Kon on people. Overdrive This fearsome lets the Kongohki act in Bullet Time, greatly speeding up their physical actions. This is done by letting them reroll the successes of a physical roll once. This ability was actually nerfed in the English translation, where you have to expend your available Overdrive actions for the session on a per-action basis, whereas the Japanese original has Overdrive last for several rounds (and usually longer than the average combat lasts). Arts of War These are various martial arts styles that let you do stuff like dual-wield or be a cool gunslinger. Also included here are the various types of monk martial arts, one of which lets you be Kenshiro. Strategy Before each battle, a character can do some preparations and planning, making a strategy roll and storing the successes as bonus dice to be given out to himself or allies during battle. The Strategy skill is also important for the mass combat rules they have jet to include in the English version. Kiai/Aiki Tricks TBZ's various types of brownie points of course play an important role in combat. You can boost rolls, gain extra actions, and cheer people on if you have a Fate connection with them (essentially giving them Aiki chits as if for good roleplaying). You can also intercept an attacker to take the blow for someone else with this. Spending Kiai is especially important in boss battles, because bosses have purposely high Ability scores that let them throw a bucket full of dice. Next Time: TBZ session structure. Doresh fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Nov 8, 2015 |
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Nov 8, 2015 23:07
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Doresh posted:
So here's a story about these comics. The guy who drew them is Hayami Rasenjin. He's done illustrations for a lot of Japanese tabletop games. He's also a bigger nerd than any of us. Back around 99, 2000ish, he did this.  Which was a submission for a fanart competition back in the primordial days of the internet. It's this.  The Catlord from Planescape. Tony DiTerlizzi, the guy who drew most of Planescape and a huge portion of the 2E monster manual, was the one hosting the contest. Rasenjin was the runner-up,as I recall. Bonus space beholder: 
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Nov 9, 2015 02:21
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 Part 7: "Only rogue PB-killer whales continue to feed on their smaller cousins." The Whale Singers By C.J. Carella & Kevin Siembieda Mystical Undersea Society The Prophecy Rifts World Book Seven: Underseas posted:A Band of Warriors, brave and strong. So we have a prophecy from Blind Current-Rider, who was a human who was mashed up with a blue whale by the Lord of the Deep. He discovered a way for cetaceans to do magic called "spellsongs", and also invented on called the Song of Prophecy, which produced the prophecy above and killed all the other spellsingers in his vicinity. It's not sure whether the Lord of the Deep is to blame or if they saw something that struck them dead, but either way - ooopsie. Still, there are those known as "Seekers" that try and find out what the prophecy's about. The Lord is pretty obviously the Lord of the Deep, the USS Ticonderoga (nope, not described yet) is probably the Largest War Machine, the Eylor relates to the world enslaved by the Splugorth (as rumored in Atlantis), and though the Singers don't know it, the Cosmic Forge relates to the Cosmo-Knights (Phase World). The rest is a mystery for GMs to hack out, given this isn't referenced in later books like the Plato prophecy from Rifts Sourcebook Two: The Mechanoids. Whale Singers & Pneuma-Biforms Pneuma-Biforms. I'm sorry, I can't stop laughing.  Pneuma-biforms. I- wow, Rifts, raising the bar on goofy names for things.Pneuma-Biforms. Origins So these are humans that have been mashed up with dolphins, orcas, or whales by the Lord fo the Deep, but unlike other creations of the Lord, it turns out because humans are good guys (just ignore the Coalition and New German Republic) and that dolphins are good guys (just ignore dolphins murdering baby porpoises) that they become super good guys. And knowing this, since sirens can be half-human, half seal, that means seals are evil. The morality of aquatic mammals aside, the pneuma-bi- - I'm sorry, I seriously am laughing- - the pneuma-biforms escaped the Lord of the Deep and joined together to oppose UnCthulhu with their magic marine mammal melodies. And so they formed the Whale Singers, which now encompasses a goodly number of mundane dolphins and whales, a small number of humans, d-bees, and Lemurians. (The Lemurians will continually be mentioned in this book without ever being detailed.) They generally do good things because dolphins is good people and have never done anything bad like murder or rape. Allies and Enemies So, a lot of dolphins and whales shun the pneuma-biforms because they're weird and magical, and so they protect a world that hates and fears them (sometimes). Of course, jerks like the Splugorth, naut'yll, or horune (to be explained later) murder them because go team evil, amirite? Most seafaring people see them as tenative allies, but don't invite them over for tea & tray bakes or allow them in their seayards, because they're weird. They're also allied with the New Navy (more on them later) and Tritonia (ditto) and Lemurians (sir not appearing in this book). They also ally with the kreel-lok sometimes, but nobody cares. Also we get a throwaway note on how the Whale Singers hate pollution. Except. Nobody's polluting? We don't have a lot of industrial powers on the coast. Maybe the Splugorth. I imagine they deliberately manufacture garbage to throw away, that strikes me as their flavor of evil. Dolphin Pneuma-Biform R.C.C.  What, no spikes... or missiles? Are we still in Rifts? This statblock refers a lot to the dolphin statblock, which is a pain because they don't get stats for another 26 pages. But I'm going to detail a lot of the dolphin stuff here because it's important to the writeup, even though it technically isn't listed for convenience's sake. So these are cheery magic dolphins that can turn into humans and also into a metallic battle form that can can take the shape of either form, but battlier. They can mate true with other dolphin pneuma-biforms, or can mate true with dolphins or humans 11% of the time, and 90% of those (so 9.9%) are pnuema-biform babies. We get gestation periods and birth rates and okay, I'm bored and skipping to the numbers. We get a note first that if the Lord of the Deep is defeated, pneuma-biforms will have a choice whether or not to stay as pneuma-biforms, but that the grand majority of them prefer to stay as they are... even though they're hated and feared? Well, I guess they are magical and rad. Of course, there's also the unwritten notion that a pneuma splitting into a dolphin and human in the middle of the sea is probably a pretty harsh situation for the human, or vice versa for the dolphin on land. So, they get superhuman attributes on all axes, with their top abilities being willpower and strength. But yes, they're even prettier and more likeable than humans in either form. Their M.D.C. is average to low, and only slowly grows with experience, though they get decent P.P.E. They get all the natural abilities of a dolphin, which includes:
It's crazy, I don't know who wrote the dolphin section, but it just goes on and on without stopping for about 13 pages, 15 if you count the pneuma-biforms. As such, we aren't stopping with dolphins, this is just the section directly relevant to playing a dolphin pneuma-biform. There'll be more. Much more. Killer Whale Pneuma-Biform R.C.C.  More like a puckish rogue. So it notes right off the that even though killer whales even eat other whales, most pneuma-biform orcas have gotten over that and are less murderous than most, though there are "rogue PB-killer whales" who are eeevil and apparently "have kept the worst traits of humans and orcas". Most of them are still good. Once again, we get a note that most of them don't want to return to normal humanity and orcahood. And then it's number time. So, they're not as smart, willful, or charming as dolphin pneuma-biforms, they are much stronger and tougher, with M.D.C comparable to a dragon hatchling. They get many of the same powers as the dolphin, only instead of dolphin magic, they can choose a few spells from dolphin magic, ocean magic, or spellsongs. They also get spellsongs, and it confusingly notes they don't get dolphin magic when the killer whale writeup clearly says they do. Editing! It's bad! They have more attacks and damage than dolphins, but are slower and get less magical power. Whale Pneuma-Biform R.C.C. These are the thoughtful, lazy giants of the pneuma-biform worked. They don't a lot of detail before be go on to numbers, other than once again noting that most of them don't want to stop being pneuma-biforms. So, they're actually not as strong as killer whales, surprisingly, and are the ugliest pneuma-biforms in that they have average looks, but have strong mental attributes. They also get M.D.C. that's dependent on the type of whale - blue whales are very tough, sperm whales are modestly tougher than killer whales, and beaked whales are only as tough as killer whales. They get the most magic power, generally including a ton of spellsongs and a bit of ocean magic, and sperm whales and blue whales get automatic psionics, though it's mostly just the basic powers. Naturally, they do more damage with their attacks, and with their power strike, they can actually do 1d4 x 100 M.D.C., giving them one of the strongest non-missile attacks in the game!... though it costs two attacks. Still, when they're in the sea, they're ship-sinking badasses, as it turns out. Whale Singer O.C.C.  Uh, that's now how eyes are drawn. So, this class, confusingly enough, applies not to whales, but to humanoids that learn to sing like whales! Apparently they get a lot of respect from seagoers, who often give these spellsingers discounted passage. But never for free! That would be crazy. It also notes that simvan and dog boys can become Whale Singers, except for the fact they can't take O.C.C.s keeps them from doing just that. Most are humans, undersea races, dolphins, or whales, though. Porpoises? gently caress those guys. Those guys are assholes. They can sense other whale singers automatically, tell the purity level of water, navigate underwater (but no better than having a mundane skill), hold their breath and go a whopping 200 feet underwater, sense ley line and magic energy, read information from ley lines, transfer messages on a ley line, heal faster on a ley line, and get a modest amount of spellsongs and ocean magic. They can't learn dolphin magic or regular spells, so they're really niche. But unlike a lot of magic classes from Rifts supplements, they can at least aren't limited by their level when learning new spells. Predictably, they get a bunch of sailing and miscellaneous skills, with limited free skill picks. Ultimately, they're a variant ley line walker that focuses on the sea, and but since they have a smaller spell selection with a more niche focus, they're pretty forgettable. Whale Singer Spellsongs By Siembieda, Carella, & Conder Who's Val Conder? Well, they aren't in the credits, making their inclusion a total mystery. I can't find out too much about them other than having volunteered for Palladium in the past and being a gamer from Detroit. So, it turns out cetacean songs were magical all along, but Current-Rider discovered how to awaken that magic. It sure is convenient when animals turn out to be secret occultists all along, huh? It turns out they can only be used underwater for the most part, though they can be cast as ritual magic on land with 10% of the range. Also, non-cetaceans have reduced range on them all-around, which really sucks if it applies to whale singers. So, let's get some magical highlights from the spell list! A lot of these are things like basic communication or mind or emotion-affecting spells, but let's find some more interesting ones.
Next: Finally, become the fiercest creature of the sea: a shrimp.
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Nov 9, 2015 02:22
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Sense flying saucers? Open rifts? This is getting into Ecco territory.
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Nov 9, 2015 02:48
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Yeah, I just want to reemphasize their ability to sense flying saucers, for those who miss it in that wall of bullet points. No, Rifts does not have flying saucers in it. It has aliens in an upcoming book, but they don't have the classic saucers. I guess you could draw a connection between the two, but it's... odd.
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Nov 9, 2015 03:17
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Do weredolphins get to take an OCC as well or just the RCC? I never can tell when you can and when you can't.
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Nov 9, 2015 03:32
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They can't take an O.C.C. You're right in that what an R.C.C. entails is confusing, and whether or not a given R.C.C. can take an O.C.C. is defined on a case-by-case basis.
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Nov 9, 2015 03:36
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Aww, our kelp-covered gunslinger can't also be a killer whale.
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Nov 9, 2015 05:54
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Wow no wonder I could never figure it out
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Nov 9, 2015 06:05
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grassy gnoll posted:So here's a story about these comics. The guy who drew them is Hayami Rasenjin. He's done illustrations for a lot of Japanese tabletop games. I've read about that from the old TBZ posts and discussions. Though the space beholder is new. Nifty. I wonder how a beholder mech must look like? Probably like spheroid mobile suit with lots of those very early funnels that where connected to the main unit via cable (or however you call these weapons on the first Zeong). Alien Rope Burn posted:They can't take an O.C.C. You're right in that what an R.C.C. entails is confusing, and whether or not a given R.C.C. can take an O.C.C. is defined on a case-by-case basis. Which apparently even the writers can't get right. That's some good game design.
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Nov 9, 2015 18:36
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My rule has always been if it has a skill block, it's a dedicated character class. From there, there's either a note in the statblock, telling you to use Table X (there's some absurdly weaksauce poo poo stuck with the dragon hatchling table in the early books), or it'll be in the stack of numbers in the back that KS probably got from the high score table on the pinball machine in his office.
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Nov 9, 2015 21:00
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occamsnailfile posted:Isn't there a paragraph in the core that says they never convert, ever? It mentions how you can rack up several hundred SDC in a round but this is basically meaningless, MDC material is simply so tough that your bullets are useless. It doesn't get into like, nukes or even cruise missiles but it strongly suggested that SDC guns were basically worth less than it cost to make them.
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Nov 9, 2015 23:06
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That's been my pet theory for a while, given that he also canonized some goofy animator's errors here and there.
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Nov 10, 2015 00:52
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Yeah, the MDC system was invented for Robotech to reflect how the sci-fi tech basically just outclassed everything around it and was really, really destructive. It made more sense in that setting as a result, but it's still a weird system bolted onto the awkwardness of regular Palladium. Then in Rifts, everything is MDC, not just the super-advanced space weapons and it completely cracks apart as anything logical.
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Nov 10, 2015 01:33
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The general purpose of M.D.C. was just to keep small arms or a crowd of flailing fists from destroying a tank or veritech, and to let spacefaring mechs step all over ground-pounders. It's what would be "hardness" or "damage reduction" or "imperviousness" in any other game. It even works reasonably well in Robotech RPG (or at well as anything in that game "works") because the M.D.C. values were comparatively low compared to later games. The core issue is when Rifts made it ubiquitous to represent insane future-tech (that is somehow still mass produced) and super-magic but somehow ignored the part where the game becomes insanely lethal to mundane character types as a result. Or rather, considered it a "roleplaying challenge", the usual Palladium excuse for anything that fucks players over righteously.  Underseas is going to run a little late on account of some other post-apocalypse game dropping.
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Nov 10, 2015 01:36
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Alien Rope Burn posted:The general purpose of M.D.C. was just to keep small arms or a crowd of flailing fists from destroying a tank or veritech, and to let spacefaring mechs step all over ground-pounders. It's what would be "hardness" or "damage reduction" or "imperviousness" in any other game. It even works reasonably well in Robotech RPG (or at well as anything in that game "works") because the M.D.C. values were comparatively low compared to later games. The core issue is when Rifts made it ubiquitous to represent insane future-tech (that is somehow still mass produced) and super-magic but somehow ignored the part where the game becomes insanely lethal to mundane character types as a result. Or rather, considered it a "roleplaying challenge", the usual Palladium excuse for anything that fucks players over righteously. TBH, MDC fell apart in the later Robotech games like the Masters, with the RDF's Arming Doublets suits being introduced to explain why characters could ride exposed in their tanks or fight on foot against Bioroids, and especially in Robotech Next Generation, where there was enough evidence of the Invid being shot down and killed by guerrillas armed with small arms as well as small Invid like the Enforcer suits. In Mospeda, it was difficult to fight Invid/Inbit without having access to the Mospeda suits, but not impossible.
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Nov 10, 2015 03:04
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 Time for System Mastery! Hey everyone, enjoy Panty Explosion! It would be nice if someone did.
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Nov 10, 2015 17:59
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theironjef posted:
Did you change up the site format? I can't find the download link, which is kind of important if I want to actually put this podcast onto a music player.
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Nov 10, 2015 18:38
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Glazius posted:Did you change up the site format? I can't find the download link, which is kind of important if I want to actually put this podcast onto a music player. Yeah, we can't have the playable button and the download link on the same page if we want access to the new Google Play podcast store. The download links were all shunted onto their own pages, one each for RPG episodes and Movie episodes. They're in the dropdowns on the menu bar, too.
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Nov 10, 2015 18:45
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theironjef posted:
Huh. This game sounds a lot more boring than I always thought. CharGen sounds so otaku-y I'm surprised there isn't a zettai ryouiki stat, or a yandere/genki alignment chart. And I dunno, German school always appeared a bit bland and generic compared to what you see in American and Japanese schools. We don't have walls upon walls of lockers (at least where I've been to), after-school activities or a big focus on school sports teams. It's mainly just a bit clusterf*ck-y because each federal state does its own lesson plan, which can potentially result in you having to repeat a grade if you move from one state to the next. Though I honestly don't know if that is still a thing. Most states now seem to avoid having students repeat grades, which usually results in dumping down everything for the lowest common denominator. A good example of this that started when I was in school involved fake cursive handwriting that has only become worse since and will seriously bite the students in the arse once they go to a university and realize they write too slowly. Man, this is getting ranty. Oh, and our schools tend to be in a process of falling apart because German architects and building companies in the 60s were apparently a bunch of scammers. Tenra Bansho Zero I'll summarize the next 3 chapters, as they are mainly about general roleplaying and scenario creation guidelines. This will be a quick look at what TBZ does differently. Session Structure TBZ divides each Session into around 3-4 Acts, similar to a stage play (like in kabuki theater). And just like in a stage play, Acts can potentially be years apart. Acts are further divided into Scenes, which usually only last a few minutes and end as soon as the location changes or enough time has passed. After each Act, you have an Intermission for bookkeeping purposes. This is where Fates are changed and Karma is managed. This is also the time you can say goodbye to your PC if he ends the Intermission with over 108 Karma and turns into an Asura, someone so obsessed with his earthly attachment that he essentially turns into a deranged Batman villain. And here comes a big quirk of TBZ: You know how you generally want to keep the party together most of the time? Not so in TBZ. It is not uncommon to roleplay through several Scenes where the party is never complete. How does this work out? Well for starters, the players whose characters are currently "off-screen" essentially play the audience, handing out Aiki chits for good performances. If you'd rather want to enter the Scene yourself, you can spend a point of Kiai to invite yourself in. But the most interesting part involves the GM handing out Aiki chits for players to join the scene - by taking the role of a NPC.  I think that's actually a pretty neat idea. It makes the GM's work a bit easier, results in more interesting roleplaying sessions because the players aren't just talking with the same dude, and it gives the players a chance to take on a wildly different role to earn some more of those Aiki chits. (Of course, the GM always jank away control from a NPC if the player does something silly, like showering the party with treasure for no reason or something.) The Emotion Matrix This is a 6x6 grid used to randomly determine a PCs initial emotionally reaction towards a new NPC, and it can also be used to come up with Fates. If you are unhappy about the Emotion Matrix result, you can spend Kiai to move around on the grid. The GM and other players can also bribe you with Aiki chits to move where they want you to be. Naturally, you generally want to change the result if it appears a bit weird, like if the group meets a nice princess and one PC suddenly has his danger sense on overdrive (which is one of the examples presented in the book). Zero Act This is the first Act of the game, where each Scene serves to introduce the PCs one by one (usually in the form of a backstory). This is also where each PC gains a Destiny, a Fate set by the GM that serves as that character's overall goal of the scenario. The Emotion Matrix is also used in this Act to find out how the PCs initially feel about each other. The Moment of Truth This is an optional rule that allows a PC to essentially call out a last stand once per game. It allows the entire group to pump the PC full of any Aiki chits they're willing to hand out. The PC then converts all of it into Kiai to overcome whatever danger he is facing - and he hopefully can get rid of all the amassed Karma in the next Intermission. NPCs NPCs in TBZ can be created as detailled or as simplified as the GM sees fit. They don't have to follow the character creation rules. Simple mooks have very low stats, extremely few Vitality Points and no Wound Boxes to speak of. Major villains and bosses can have ridiculously inflated stats the PCs can never hope of reaching themselves. Asura These are the most evil and insane NPCs the group can come across, and they can end up becoming ones themselves. It should be noted that Asuras are relatively rare and that the GM shouldn't overuse them. The thing that really makes Asuras dangerous is that they have Kiai like PCs - and the only thing worse than a boss with inflated stats is a boss with inflated stats who can just grant himself extra actions. Thankfully, Asuras cannot gain new Kiai and have to make due with their starting pool. The Campaign Game In typical Japanese tabletop tradition, TBZ isn't really meant for long-term campaigns. Each Scenario is usually a self-contained story, though old characters can still appear in new stories. The two recommended ways to play an actual campaign involve playing out an epic war chronicle that can span decades (think Romance of the Three Kingdoms), or do the typical murder hobo routine of "group travels around and performs various murder hobo missions". Next Time: Armour - become the gemblade that smites evil. Doresh fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Nov 10, 2015 |
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Nov 10, 2015 20:03
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Strap in, folks, it's time for the Gods and Religions of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 2nd Edition! This chapter is just about entirely fluff, but it's both pretty cool and very important fluff for the setting. Religion is tremendously important to the people of Warhams, and not just in a 'SIGMAR WALKS WITH US, WE CANNOT FAIL!' way. Yes, Sigmar is the most widely recognized and beloved God in the Empire, but as the book points out, other lands consider him a Regional God instead of part of the nominal global pantheon, and even in the Empire you're rarely going to find people who are solely devoted to Sigmar even if everyone pays him respect. One of the really important points they establish early on is that Warhams takes place in a polytheistic society and that honoring and recognizing the Gods is considered a matter of public good (which was generally the case, look at ancient Greek laws against atheism). An atheist in Warhams isn't considered educated or intelligent, he's considered to have a giant target painted on his head and that target risks the entire community. The Gods (the proper ones, anyway) are relatively distant, but they're almost definitely there and the magic their priests use is held up as proof, as are the occasional blessings and inexplicable occurrences that mark their worship. A priest of a specific God is not so much for her God but against others, as she is a religious professional qualified to perform the rites specific to placating and drawing the blessing of that specific God. So, say a Priestess of Verena (Goddess of justice and knowledge) was passing a shrine to Taal and Rhya (Nature). She'd still be expected to leave an offering or a short prayer, or to observe those Gods' holy days, just in a capacity as a layperson instead of a priest. Similarly, all of the Gods possess strictures that are generally above and beyond lay respect and only required of priests or especially devout laypeople. For instance, Shallya (Mercy) demands her followers never arm themselves beyond a walking staff. One doesn't need to follow that stricture of pacifism to pray to or receive benefits from Shallya and her order, but if one was a priest of Shallya, they'd be expected to follow the full strictures. This doesn't mean there isn't religious strife in the Empire, mind. The churches of the various Gods are tremendously powerful organizations, full of political influence and piles of tithe money, and they often clash over who gets pride of place. This is especially true in the case of Sigmar and Ulric; northern cities often tend to venerate Ulric as their chief God and cite the fact that Sigmar himself was an Ulrican. Some of them even go so far as to blaspheme and say Sigmar doesn't exist, and Ulric is merely answering all those prayers on his behalf. This has been the cause of some really nasty civil wars in the past. This is also probably a big reason a lot of the Southern provinces are starting to embrace an alternate God of war and strategy, importing Myrmidia to replace worship of Ulric. This is especially true when you learn Ulric hates guns and would rather Imperial soldiers faces nine foot hulking hellvikings with an axe and no helmet. Ulric is kind of an idiot, though it should also be noted that he's tried to give multiple signs and visions saying 'For gently caress's sake guys knock off this fighting with the Sigmarites.' There are a few suggested rules that PCs might occasionally receive the intervention of the Gods, but that it requires sacrifice and devotion. The Gods judge sacrifice based on what the worshiper can give rather than the overall value of the sacrifice; the example given is that a pauper giving the last shilling he owns would be more likely to be heard than an Elector Count building a golden statue. No real rules are given for this, though, and divine intervention is firmly in the area of GM Fiat (and should generally be quite rare). Sacrifice and tithing is a common practice, temples and shrines are also major social centers for their communities. The Empire has a ton of various festivals and holy days, because everyone loves a chance to get together, take a day off work, fulfill their piety obligations, get drunk as hell, and eat a bunch of sausage. Elven and Dwarven religion are mentioned, but in far less detail; dwarves worship ascended Ancestor Gods, Elves have their own pantheon. Sometimes you piss off the Gods. You can usually tell you did so because now you have dysentery. Priests insist that 'the flux' is a common sign of divine disappointment and sin. A PC should go to the cults and offer reparation to the God they wronged, by acts of public repentance, paying fines, and various other humiliating and potentially dangerous ways to make amends. It's worth it, though, because pissing off the Gods is really bad. It can get way worse than dysentery, and it's best not to test their patience lest you bring trouble down upon everyone around you. Next Time: All The Gods, All The Detail, All The Cults. If I tried to put that all in one post it'd be enormous.
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Nov 10, 2015 20:51
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