quote:The other tie-in goes along with another John Wick game, Flux. Flux is based around the idea that the world periodically changes between realities, but only a few people notice. It's basically a tool to shift between different games and lives with the same characters. And in getting a view of different realities, she see that one of Lilith's former selves had been killed by Mr. Finger. He emphasizes doing this made Mr. Finger a much more tangible threat, but also established Mr. Finger as another figure that could sense the changes between realities. Flux Flux actually sounds cool, I'd love to hear more about it. Could work for an Eternal Champion game.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 02:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 10:08 |
|
|
Kind of twitching over his loving stupid O'Bannon GMPC. Because that guy wasn't annoyingly OP and dumb in 7th Sea already, and even moreso in Changeling, which is a notably low-power game.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 02:11
|
|
|
That's the third time we've seen him suggest "Players don't want to play the game you want to run? Promise to run their game, and then force them to play yours anyway, because gently caress them."
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 02:46
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:The mean vampire lady (who bears a strong resemblance to the Faerie Queen) told the Girls there would be consequences for taking her toy away. She made the sky thunder and the ground shake, but the Girls stood on their side of the bridge and told her to sod off. Is he implying that a vampire brought down the I-35W Bridge just to prove a point to some changelings? Because that's super hosed up, even for him. The more I hear about this setting the more I like about it, it seems pretty well thought out for a Gurps book.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 02:47
|
|
|
Kurieg posted:The more I hear about this setting the more I like about it, it seems pretty well thought out for a Gurps book. GURPS has issues as a system, but it's supplements tend to be very well researched and thought-out.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 03:00
|
|
|
Moscow is pretty interesting. The bookish Zonemind, the obsession with media, the collectors (and the agent ranks being controlled by a split head, one human, one AU). There's a nice hook there for what exactly moscow is going to do once it's completed it's mission, especially if it's correct in the assumption it's going to do so within one generation. Do Info-Commandos get special equipment/cyborgization to make them more capable?
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 03:02
|
|
|
Kurieg posted:Is he implying that a vampire brought down the I-35W Bridge just to prove a point to some changelings? Because that's super hosed up, even for him. Wow gently caress that guy, I had a friend whose regular commute is the I-35W bridge, so we were worried as gently caress (thankfully they were already at work when it collapsed), way too soon for that kind of stunt. And sad, it sounded like for the most part his changeling campaign was okay, but then he had to pull the bait and switch.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 03:08
|
|
|
Yeah, wow, that's awful. He probably thinks that makes people hate his villain instead of just him.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 03:14
|
|
|
John Wick posted:All of the above rules apply to everyone. Including me. Play Dirty 2: Even Dirtier Part 13 Play Dirty 2: Even Dirtier posted:John Wick’s 10 Commandments  Play Dirty 2 isn't without good ideas, but there's a lot of dross to dig through to get at them. The big flaw is that Wick wants to teach through anecdotes, but too often gets distracted from making any sort of point with them. It really shows in that the best ideas and techniques are discussed only briefly, but whenever he goes at length, he gets caught up in minutae and braggdacio and One True Waying. And with that, Play Dirty 2 is done. Or, more importantly, I'm done here. Next: Time for me to go wash and wash until I am clean. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Dec 28, 2015 |
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 03:22
|
|
|
Crasical posted:Moscow is pretty interesting. The bookish Zonemind, the obsession with media, the collectors (and the agent ranks being controlled by a split head, one human, one AU). There's a nice hook there for what exactly moscow is going to do once it's completed it's mission, especially if it's correct in the assumption it's going to do so within one generation. Do Info-Commandos get special equipment/cyborgization to make them more capable? Also in retrospect I forgot something incredibly important about the Info-Commandos and Collectors. lovely Mini-Addendum Because This Is Relevant Here Too I Guess Moscow's agents have an unprecedented amount of freedom for the workers of an AI who still controls and enslaves its population. What stops them from running away? Originally, nothing. A few groups of Collectors managed to play a long enough con to go rogue and defect to a safer zone when they were in calm waters. Ever since, every group of Collectors or Info-Commandos with more than three agents has at least one squad member who is actually an altered Redjack/Lilith designed for infiltration and espionage with a AU riding in the brain. They're not truly human but they're very good at imitating and lying. At any sign of dissent or plan of desertion, the monitoring squaddie will inform Moscow who will decide how the squad should be terminated. It's not uncommon for Moscow to tell the informant to just do the job themselves. This isn't a secret, either. Collectors and Info-Commandos are openly told that one of their ranks is a robot spy. It's not good for morale and paranoia, but it has drastically reduced escape attempts. The Major and the Colonel are the only ones who know which Collectors or Info-Commandos are humans. The monitoring agents may not be bioroids, but they're very hard to tell if they're human or not short of cutting them open. End lovely Mini Addendum Anyway. To answer your question, most Collectors and Info-Commandos don't have any type of augmentation, they're mostly just ex-military or given sufficient training before they're allowed out into the field. If you're going to give them a cybernetic implant, the game has limited implants. It just recommends giving them the Cybernetic Implant advantage and then I guess crack open the Cybernetics books for stuff to give them. However, keeping them 100% human makes them easier to disguise what zone they're actually from. It's common for Collectors to get a robot companion for recon disguised as a pet, child or lover. Info-Commandos are just recommended to be straight-up military badasses who can't retire short of running away or dying.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 03:26
|
|
|
Kurieg posted:Is he implying that a vampire brought down the I-35W Bridge just to prove a point to some changelings? Because that's super hosed up, even for him. No, she's referring to the fact that the contract that keeps the vampires on one side of the bridge will one day be broken, which it eventually is when the PC kill their first vampire, as mentioned in the post. I may have been unclear, I was having to boil away a lot of the fine details given it's a 20-page chapter that rambles a lot.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 03:27
|
|
|
Hostile V posted:Moscow's agents have an unprecedented amount of freedom for the workers of an AI who still controls and enslaves its population. What stops them from running away? The obvious answer is that they already have better security and living conditions then they could get anywhere else in the world. There's no reason to leave unless you're ideologically dedicated to opposing the Zoneminds, in which case you're better off as an agent-in-place (using your Moscow-facilitated access and mobility to help out VIRUS).
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 03:40
|
|
|
The Lone Badger posted:The obvious answer is that they already have better security and living conditions then they could get anywhere else in the world. There's no reason to leave unless you're ideologically dedicated to opposing the Zoneminds, in which case you're better off as an agent-in-place (using your Moscow-facilitated access and mobility to help out VIRUS).
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 04:29
|
|
|
Nessus posted:By God, Badger, you can't have soviet superspies coming out of Russia who don't have a reason to dramatically defect, murdering themselves in the process! Do they know the truth about Washington? The truth of Zone Washington being this data is expunged by the Protectorate of Washington's FBI for matters integral to national security. Please remain where you are and make your location known to the arriving authorities or the consequences may be dire.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 04:49
|
|
|
 Royal Apes: Man's Shadow, Man's Mirror quote:The aye-aye crooked its spindle-thin black finger toward us from its perch in the tree 10 yards away. We all stopped to stare. It gazed back at us through bulging eyes and a mat of stringy hair. This chapter is also written by someone new, one Alexa Duncan, who as far as I can tell has not written anything RPG related before or since. Behold the Beast: "More than any other creature, our simian cousins embody the dichotomy of Man and Beast in a single form. Stripped of human social mores, they are man at his most tender - and his most rapacious. From the peaceful yet promiscuous bonobo to the warlike chimpanzee, the powerful silverback giant to the dexterous tamarin, primates run the same gamut of physical capabilities and mental dispositions as humans, and much more" Sure they do, particularly when you lump an entire Taxonomic order into a single group. Yes, despite the fact that they're "Royal Apes" this group encompasses all of Order Primate, which is just poorly researched and dumb. Since they're usually apex predators their only real universal predator is man, and the book harps on that for a few paragraphs. Then it goes on about all the legends about monkey as a trickster god and warrior king in various Asian Cultures. Note that they will lump all of these legends into two distinct groupings and completely ignore the actual species therein. Because it's easier that way. Also yetis and Sasquatch, excuse me, the SHADOW-MEN, find themselves in this group. Or they don't. Because they probably don't exist, or maybe they do? More than any other species their human form tends to look normal. Though gorillas are more broad shouldered than a macaque. "The clues to their nature are more subtle: something in a person's grim smile that conveys more menace than amusement, his penchant for going barefoot, the way he hurls paperweights and crockery when something displeases him, or his uncannily long, limber arms and legs..." So what I'm getting is that this  and this  are the epitome of were-ape culture. Got it. Their primal forms also tend to have opposable thumbs, and they're absolutely insufferable about it to other Primals. They also feel 'bald' in their human forms so they love styling whatever hair they have. They don't outright state it but manscaping is implied. They can be found anywhere Primates show up, and everywhere else because airplanes exist. But they tend to concentrate in Asia, Africa, and South America. quote:Just as humans, simians are omnivores. Most days, they forage for plants and the occasional bird’s egg. But those incisors aren’t for nothing. Sometimes a Royal Ape craves meat. If he’s lucky, he can walk into a restaurant and order plate after plate of ribs and steaks, or pick up an antelope carcass where a pack of lionesses left off. Other times, eating the meat isn’t enough: he has to catch it with his own hands. Even the most civilized of baboons simply can’t help himself from feasting on a tender, succulent baby chimpanzee every once in a while. He may feel remorse later, but at the time it feels so right. . . . The apes long to return to a time when humans worshiped Sun Wukong, which as far as I can tell is a time that never actually happened. Their society either adores groups, or hates them, depending on which paragraph of the text you're reading. But they do adhere strongly to their oaths of brotherhood once given. Their groups adhere to a rigid hierarchy with an Alpha keeping his "Or in the case of Bonobos, her" subordinates in check. Baboon ferals keep a harem of females for their own personal use, and will bite or kill any that they feel are getting out of line. quote:Stereotypes   Hanumani Brahman: the Golden Lords And here we run into the major problem I have with the Royal Apes, they aren't divided by species like the other Ferals are. The Hanumani Brahman are a collection of most of the feral families that exist within India and the former British Empire, that claim to be descended from Hanuman. When a monkey or Ape feral is born into one of these families he immediately ascends to the head of the household unless it is already occupied. And any marrage between two Hanuman ferals is a week long celebration. So it's good that they're also all rich as hell to support themselves. That said they are on the decline because they still hold to the caste system and refuse to admit new members into their house. The younger members want to 'search for lost blood' but the elders refer to this as 'promiscuous fraternization'. Appearance: quote:A Hanumani Brahman’s Primal Beast self may take the form any number of apes or monkeys native to India, particularly the macaque or the gibbon. In their wiry and ferocious War-Beast forms, they prefer to go naked or wear silk lungis or kurtas. After several spectacularly failed experiments with a Kevlar-silk hybrid armor, the elder Hanumani declared modern body armor “an unnatural contrivance.” Many families still keep traditional quilted silk and leather armor, but this is mostly for show these days, much as a European noble family might keep a dusty suit of plate armor in the library. Their human forms are always impeccably dressed, and employ several servants for the expressed purpose of dressing them because that is servant work. Background:Most Hanumani maintain shrines to Hanuman, or at least make pilgrimmages to the shrine often with their children to "encourage the gift". They're also trained from an early age to accept the change and the near-worshipful attitude of their families make it much easier to settle into their role. Breed Favors:Clamber, size 4, speed 6 Breed Bonus:All Hanumani Brahman have the Magnificence Aspect for free. Common Aspects: Alarming Alacrity, Bare Necessities, Clever Monkey, Durga's Blessing, Fortune's Favor, Hybrid Forms, Magnificence, Righting Reflex, Sexual Dimorphism, Unsettling Eye, Weaver's Wisdom. Form Adjustments: War-BeastStr+2, Dex+3, Sta+2, Man-1, Size 5, Health+7, Speed +6, +1 to perception rolls. Primal Beast: Str+1, Dex+3, Sta+1, Man-2, size 4, Health+0, Speed+5, +1 to Perception Rolls So he got the health calculation wrong the first time, and right the second time? Also, all hanumani Brahmen are size 4 regardless of their species. So those are either some freakishly huge lemurs or small gorillas.  The Order of the Luminous Way of Sun Wukong: Turned Tricksters There is no way I'm going to type that out every time, assholes. More a vocation than a breed, the Order sees themselves as intermediaries between the world of beast and man like the original Sun Wukong eventually became. And any tailless simian of roughly human size is welcome to join. Why? Because we need as large a bucket as possible to fit all these groups into. Also I'm pretty sure that's a spider monkey up there which is neither human sized nor tailless. They must also accept the ascetic lifestyle and teachings of the Buddha. Using those teachings to keep them from the lower end of the Harmon scale at which point they turn into a rampaging engine of chaos, "the worst of man and beast combined". Appearance: As fitting their ascetic lifestyle, they favor simple, colorful robes in their human guise. In their war beast guise they emulate Sun-Wukong. Though an actual suit of golden armor would be impractical, they choose to interpret that bit of the tale a bit more liberally and instead their fur takes on a golden sheen and they literally glow with an aura of golden flame. Background: They used to keep separate monasteries for their male and female students, but their numbers have dwindled to the point where that's no longer feasible. The closed nature of other sects and the apparent need for companionship that all royal apes feel (Which they didn't have earlier in the book so sure?) drives primates from all over the world to the Order's doors. Some abandon their training after days or weeks but those who remain emerge deadly zen-like warriors. In addition to the principles of Buddhism, they also practice Shaolin Kung-Fu I'm seriously beginning to think that this entire thing only exists because Brucato wrote "Black Kung-Fu Gorilla Monk" on the whiteboard and continued underlining it until someone finally acquiesced. Breed Favors: Clamber, Fang and Claw1(L), Speed 6 Breed Bonus: Members of the order can use Kung Fu in their beast forms.... fuuuuckk yoooou whatever editor let this go to print. Common Aspects: Alarming Alacrity, Catwalk, Hybrid Forms, Keen Sense, Magnificence, Pack Bond, Resilient Form, Unnerving Cry, Warrior's Restoration, Weaver's Wisdom. Form Adjustments: War-BeastStr+2, Dex+3, Sta+2, Man-1, Size 5, Health+7, Speed +6, +1 to perception rolls. Primal Beast: Str+1, Dex+3, Sta+1, Man-2, size 4, Health+0, Speed+5, +1 to Perception Rolls Why yes, that is literally the same stat spread as the Hanumani.  Abathakathi: The Witch-Apes Oh boy it's time to get super racist. quote:Shapeshifters in West Africa have a hard lot. Between the belief among some Muslims that monkeys were once humans transmuted into animal form as punishment for theirs sins, and local superstition mixed with Christianity, any being with the Changing Gift lives in constant fear of persecution. Remote villages employ the most brutal means of driving shapeshifters and other anomalies from their midst. Appearance: quote:Far from human society, the umthakathi cares little for the conventions of human dress. The clothes she wore when she fled quickly become a patchwork of torn cloth, bloodstains, bone and woven plant fiber. Her hair Breed Favors: Clamber, Darksight, Fang and Claw 1(L) Breed Bonus: All of them have an affinity for Beast Magic because duh. Common Aspects: Alarming Alacrity(again), Beast Magic, Beast Surge, Blend In, Clamber, Clever Monkey, Earthbond, Keen Sense, Nine Lives, Righting Reflex, Territory Bond, Unnerving Cry, Unsettling Eye, Weaver's Wisdom Form Adjustments: War-BeastStr+2, Dex+4, Sta+2, Man 2, Size 5, Health+7, Speed +6, +2 to perception rolls. Primal Beast: Str+1, Dex+3, Sta+1, Man-1, size 4, Health+0, Speed+5, +1 to Perception Rolls That isn't a typo, it just says "Manipulation 2" in the book, and the stats are almost identical to the previous two breeds except for an extra point of dex and the Manipulation, and they got the health wrong again. As an aside, I'm willing to bet Brucato creamed himself when he got to this breed in the writer's spec. Other Species Tothians and Babi-Ahsh: The Mane and the Stone So the baboons are important enough to get two sub-breeds but aren't important enough to get a full writeup for some reason. quote:It was not Man who discovered magic, but the baboon. One of the first children of the sky, the first baboon Ahnkan-Ka mated with a falling star and produced two brothers: Aki-Toth of the Brightfi re Mane and Babi-Ya the Hooded Stone. All three baboons understood instinctually the secrets of the universe, and their descendants have used those arts ever since.  I'm almost certain this has absolutely no grounding in actual mythology which is good because it also seems super racist.The Tothians are master of captial M Magic, and are scholarly antiquarians. The Babi-Ahsh snatch baby animals and humans to sacrifice to their dark gods and are instead masters of Spirit Magic. Breed Favors: Clamber, Darksight, Fang and Claw 1 (L) Breed Bonus: Their Beast/Spirit magic aspects are what count here. apparently. Common Aspects: Bare Necessities, Beast Magic, Blend In, Earthbond, Hybrid Forms, Keen Sense, Nine Lives, Shadow Bond, Truth Sense, Unsettling Eye (Tothians), Alarming Alacrity, Blend In, Catwalk, Clamber, Culling the Weak, Earthbond, Skin Double, Spirit Gift, Spirit Secrets, Spirit Sight, Territory Bond, Unnerving Cry (Babi-Ahsh) Form Adjustments: War-BeastStr+2, Dex+3, Sta+2, Man-2, Size 5, Health+7, Speed +6, +2 to perception rolls. Primal Beast: Str+1, Dex+3, Sta+1, Man-1, size 4, Health+0, Speed+5, +1 to Perception Rolls My, these look suspiciously familiar. All they did was swap the manipulation penalties, somehow making them more adept at manipulating people in beast form, must be the giant red asses. Hugranja: The Hairy Men Their logic here appears to be "No, bigfoot doesn't exist, but if he did this is his statline". It just takes them 3 paragraphs to actually get to that point, lingering way too long on 'well man says that were-apes don't exist either, huh!? HUH!?'. Breed Favors: Darksight, Fang and Claw 1 (L), Size 7 Breed Bonus: Since they're so good at hiding they receive two extra successes on any attempt to evade detection. I'll admit it, it's sort of clever. Common Aspects: Blend In, Catwalk, Earthbond, Hybrid Forms, Keen Sense, Nine Lives, Shadow Bond, Spirit Sight, Territory Bond, Weatherskin Form Adjustments: Their primal form is the Sasquatch, which triggers the delusion as normal. The War-Beast is an even bigger angrier Sasquatch with glowing eyes, huge fangs, and a dense hide that exudes mist and smoke. War-BeastStr+4, Sta+3, Man-2, Size 8, Health+8, Speed +4, +1 to perception rolls. Primal Beast: Str+3, Sta+2, Man-2, size 7, Health+4, Speed+3, +1 to Perception Rolls Blessed be they got the health calculations right finally, probably because they stopped copy-pasting the first mistake. Up Next: Arachnophobia
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 04:51
|
|
|
You know, if Wick has such a consistent problem with people not paying attention, it might be because his games sound aggressively uninteresting.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 04:53
|
|
|
Count Chocula posted:Flux actually sounds cool, I'd love to hear more about it. Could work for an Eternal Champion game. It is an really interesting idea, though it's one of those unfortunate game pitches where after I read the back cover of the book, it's like "Well, that's a neat idea, but I can just go do it on my own, I don't actually need the book per se."
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 05:11
|
|
|
Flux is also an idea that would be a lot more fun if the group had buy-in with the notion, rather than saying, "Okay! We're playing my game now instead of the stupid baby-games you idiots wanted to play," which is the implication almost every time Wick pulls this poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 05:14
|
|
|
Incidentally, 'Mister Finger' is such a dumb name.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 05:15
|
|
|
It remind me of Mister Jigsaw the friendly Spectre from Orpheus, except Jigsaw was a cool NPC and Fingers is lame on every level.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 05:29
|
|
|
Well, we don't know how the game change was presented to the group, or how long he ran. He certainly seemed to like Lost and complimented it. But I couldn't help myself from commenting on it after seeing the pattern. That being said, Mr. Finger is an awful name, but that's that happens when you drag childhood concepts along with you. I had nightmares about the Muppet Sweetums, but I'm not putting Sweetums as a villain in my games because what scared me then has largely zero impact on grown adults. He has a whole story about how he overcome his fear of Finger as a child in the book, but I excised it because it's a pretty irrelevant tangent.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 05:43
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:Well, we don't know how the game change was presented to the group, or how long he ran. He certainly seemed to like Lost and complimented it. But I couldn't help myself from commenting on it after seeing the pattern.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 05:54
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:He has a whole story about how he overcome his fear of Finger as a child in the book, but I excised it because it's a pretty irrelevant tangent. They why didn't you excise the rest of the book? 
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 06:04
|
|
|
Kurieg posted:
As far as I know, there were no crazy naked magic rituals related to him, though, and he certainly wasn't worshiped as far south as the lands of the Zulu like the text implies. That's all on Brucato. EDIT: Aye-ayes being harbingers of darkness and impious people transforming into apes are also both actual mythology, but they also don't really fit into a book about were-creatures beyond "look, I know mythology about primates, ma!". Fossilized Rappy fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Dec 28, 2015 |
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 06:32
|
|
|
Fossilized Rappy posted:Babi is (or I guess technically was) an actual ancient Egyptian deity. He's a shitlord who sits around in the underworld of Duat with a constant raging boner, eating the entrails of the damned. There were men who would pray to him in order to be sure they could still get it up once they were in the afterlife, but Thoth eventually replaced him as the big boss baboon of Egyptian deities and his job as eater of the unworthy was syncreticized into Ammut/Ammit. Also after finishing my writeup I realized that it seems like someone said "you have to have an entire splat spread of nothing but Apes" but there wasn't much mechanically that supported it. Which is why you've got 5 different breeds with almost identical stats and drawing from increasingly threadbare support networks. It's a square peg in a round hole for the sake of appearances. And it's definitely not the last time we'll see it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 06:38
|
|
|
Kurieg posted:I knew about Thoth but I googled the first name there and didn't find anything about baboon dieties loving a star so I wrote the whole thing off. But still they conflated an egyptian diety with half-feral natives in South-Africa running around eating children.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 06:46
|
|
|
Well, they did touch on one other African culture in the witch-mandrills that give you aids. Oh wait.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 07:08
|
|
|
I've met so many Australians who grew up on Monkey Magic and who would probably love to play Sun Wukong in the World of Darkness, though that's clearly a terrible idea and why wouldn't you just use Exalted? Or Feng Shui, but 'modern day Sun Wukong' is a pretty vanilla character there.
|
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 09:34
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:Play Dirty 2: Even Dirtier Part 13 quote:Thou shall... This only works if you exclusively game with people whose responsibilities never come in the way. If people have lots of free evenings, but some work overtime based on workload demands they have no control over, it may be better to move the gaming day around than to be inflexible. quote:... only kill a character when you have a drat good reason. This really is a matter of taste. quote:... give your players something beautiful to care about with all their hearts and souls, then give them a villain who crushes it mercilessly and laughs in their faces. This is the key to all drama. And here we have the reason John Wick tells all these stories about himself being a jerk; he seems to think that pointlessly evil and mean villains are the only way to have drama. gently caress you John Wick, have you ever read/seen a romantic drama unfold? They don't need evil villains, or even villains, unless you count "misunderstandings" as a villain that mercilessly crushes someone's dreams of a relationship and laughs in their face. Lots of truly great drama is built around having people trying their best to be good coming to blows - and the drama and tragedy comes from how neither side can easily be painted at evil or even mean, precisely because neither side are petty enough to laugh in the opposition's face. Man-versus-nature stories don't have villains at all, yet make for great drama too.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 10:27
|
|
|
The eternal great conflicts that drive narrative. Man vs. nature. Man vs. self. Man vs. cyborgs. Also, if I had to make multiple major ape cultures up, I'd definitely start ripping off such mythological icons as Gorilla City from the Flash and the Planet of the Apes.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 12:16
|
|
|
I'll admit, the first thing I did when writing up a supers setting was figure out the equivalent of Gorilla City. (It's Goril-la, a mythical valley of immortal great apes in the Himalayas who teach both martial arts and terrible ape pun name schemes.)
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 12:28
|
|
|
[quote="Play Dirty 2: Even Dirtier" post="454299581"] Nobody ever talks about the Faerie King. There are no stories about him. It’s always the Queen. Powerful. Terrible. Beautiful. We’d be dealing with that. Arcadia, in my mind, is a very feminine place. Cities are masculine with their geometry and cold concrete. But Arcadia is lush and growing. Green and warm. Playing off those two very different settings would be fun.[/quote] Oberon? Who's that?! And the rest of this chapter... wow. I mean, wow. If I ever get to run a Ryuutama campaign, I'll make sure to turn it into a round of Shadworun halfway through. The players will love it! Hostile V posted:
A setting were a group of badass Russian SpecOps and a Replicant try to rescue the last known copy of Dark Dungeons? Why have I never heard of this before? Kurieg posted:
So they were so hell-bend on separating these splats into different mythologies that they didn't care that lemures and gorillas end up with the same stats? The hell is going on o_O ? quote:The apes long to return to a time when humans worshiped Sun Wukong, which as far as I can tell is a time that never actually happened. Their society either adores groups, or hates them, depending on which paragraph of the text you're reading. But they do adhere strongly to their oaths of brotherhood once given. Their groups adhere to a rigid hierarchy with an Alpha keeping his "Or in the case of Bonobos, her" subordinates in check. Baboon ferals keep a harem of females for their own personal use, and will bite or kill any that they feel are getting out of line. Of course they needed an excuse to justify kung-fu gorillas and kinda sorta cover Chinese mythology, so they went with a character from what is basically a comedy novel. It's a little bit like making an ape breed of wise British scholars who worship the Librarian from Discworld. Well, I hope they at least get extendable quarterstaves and a cloud to ride on. Double Cross - Advanced Rulebook  UGN NPCs A lot of these are from UGN Japan (of course), but we also get a few from Axis and the HQ. This is mainly due to Dr.... oh wait Professor Caudwell (silly me) now being the new leader of FH Japan, forcing the higher-ups at UGN to exert more direct control over Japan out of fear of them effing it up. Seeing how the regional branches of UGN Japan used to be very independent from each other, many agents are naturally a bit irritated by these turn of events. And as a lot of NPCs were already covered in the corebook without a full statblock, I'll just go over the new ones. Yuki "Guiding Fate" Yakoji became the Branch Chief of City S at the young age of 15 because of her mad Neumann skills. Originally a bit insecure about her position, she is now a beacon of stability in the recent chaos. She does a pretty good job at stabilizing the UGN, but she has become a popular target for False Hearts attacks in the process, none of which have been particularly successful. Ashe "Million Suns" Redaric is a Balor/Orcus/Hanuman Overed and former head of the Oversight division, a position in which he earned tha hate of many field agents that got demoted or transferred because of him. After Caudwell's return, he became a member of Axis and is now the leader of the Reform faction, aiming to militarize the UGN and make Axis an Overed-only committee. Kaoru "Jester's Truth" Senjoji is an Orcus/Morpheus Overed and filthy rich pretty boy. A member of R-Lab and follower of Therese Blum, he claims that he comes from a noble family that owned a castle in Western Australia, which is most likely a load of bullcrap. Genichi "Holy Meditator" Fujisaki is an Orcus/Solaris Overed working directly for the UGN HQ. He's a strict realist who tries to convince the various UGN branches to cooperate better. While he often disagrees with the Japan Branch Chief Kiritani, he nevertheless trusts him to handle things without Axis breathing down his neck. Ivy "Sylphid" Knowles is a 13-year-old pianist who became a Hanuman/Angel Halo after she got kidnapped by Phantom Cell. One of the survivors of the revolt that ended Phantom Cell, she now dedicates herself to changing the world with her music. I guess she is also either an Illegal or someone supervised by the UGN. Shiori "Transceiver Girl" Fujimiya uses her Neumann to become an expert hacker, able to get acess to anything she wants. When she ended up getting caught, she became an UGN Illegal, doing the occassional job for them in exchange for protection. Midori "Clean Green" Kano, a an Orcus/Solaris/Exile Overed, probably has one of the worst jobs out there. She is the president of Midorimaru Cleaning Service, a front for UGN Japan's Clean-Up division. Understaffed and underpayed, things aren't exactly cozy for her, what with both UGN and False Hearts agents causing collateral damage all the time. Masamichi "Burning Heart" Ino is a new and idealistic UGN Agent and the Salamandra/Hanuman Syndromes. His enthusiasm isn't shared by older, more jaded Agents who have seen what the UGN has become, but maybe a bit of fresh blood isjust what they need. Maria "Fragarach" Chesnokov, an Angel Halo and possibly former assassin, is the leader of Section Four, also known as the "Fugitive Killers" because they are a glorified deaths quad tasked to kill UGN traitors and deserters. It probably doesn't bode well that she and her Section are loyal to Ashe and his cause. Masaya "Cool Runner" Arishiro served in the JSDF before becoming a Neumann/Black Dog/Morpheus Overed. Spending a couple years as a mercenary, he eventually found out about the UGN and is now the vice-captain of Japan's Strikehounds. Despite his violent past, he's a kind soldier who always looks out for his comrades. Other NPCs Kozue Shinjo, The Other-World Priestess is a nice 12-year-old girl who has an entire UGN Special Branch surveilling her. Why? Well, her Encroachment Rate is 666% and her Renegade Control skill of 30 is even better than Caudwell's (though he has a much higher [Mind] stat to go with it), but she doesn't shown any signs of being a Gjaum, nor has she ever done anything with her Salamandra/Solaris/Balor powers to harm anyone. Despite the lack of incidents caused by her, the S-Ranking website nevertheless has her ranked as having the 2nd highest power level after Caudwell. Nameless is awesome. A master informant of legendary renown, he has managed to hide is true identity by using his Orcus/Black Dog powers to contact customers solely through animal proxies. Getting your intel from a talking dog or pidgeon might be strange, but at least the information's good. Ryo "Midnight Driver" Kugayama is an Angel Halo/Neumann Overed and another informant, giving out intel and rumors to anyone who pays well. Since his official job is that of a late-night taxi driver, he passes on his intel while driving his "customer" and only stops when the fare equals the payment for his intel. Diaz "Ace Card" McLain is the captain of Tempest (the US Marine's anti-renegade group) and a Hanuman/Black Dog/Exile Overed. He does a pretty good job so far, but military officials fear the extensive augmentations he and his team go through could turn them all into Gjaums. Fionn "Old S" Boothroyd is an old MI6 veteran who still works for the Empire on Overed-related tasks well after his retirement ever since he got hit with a case of the Black Dog Syndrome. He's a real gentleman, but his jokes are terrible. Douji Saga, the Knight of the Round Table is a great example for a Renegade Being with the Legend Origin: taking control of a suit of medieval armor, he believed himself to be Lord Gawain, travelling all around the globe for who knows how long on a quest to find the Holy Grail. Even after an encounter with Xenos uncovered his true nature, he still can't stop himself from believing that he his Lord Gawain. You'd think someone with the Neumann/Black Dog would be a bit more logical. Fernando "Smoker" Franco, a Morpheus/Neumann Overed and the very laid-back, but effective, leader of the Guild's Japan branch. His negotiation skills are through the roof. Seiji Munei, The Walking Animal is the human leader of the Special Investigations Agency. He hates both the UGN and Overeds, but he knows that mere humans have no chance at fighting Overeds. Shoya "Clockwork" Mitsurugi is the boss of the Takagawa Yakuza family, a part of the Ko-Ou Society. The other bosses don't trust him due to his young age (24), but espionage skills served the family very well. He is also an Orcus Overed, proving that the Society isn't entirely in the dark when it comes to the Renegade. Natsuki "Steel Guardian" Minase is the leader of the civilian anti-Gjaum group Tindalos ever since she desposed of the original leader due to his incompetence. A Salamandra/Exile herself, she realizes that Tindalos needs to recruit more Overesd if they ever want to become a serious player in this game. Toshimichi Asada is one of the few Japanese politicians who know about the Renegade, and he is the de-facto spokesperson for the UGN's agenda. As a doctor, he sees the Renegade virus as a disease, and there are rumors about an Overed in his own family. I sense a bit of X-Men here. Kiyomaru Kawai, the "Mountain Hsein" is an odd fellow. A wandering old hobo who is actually a rich man if the rumors to believed, only sleeping in forests and abandoned buildings he personally owns. He knows about the Renegade and is in fact an Overed with unkown Syndromes. He has many connections with all kinds of organizations and likes to help out young folks. Trying to fight him is a very bad idea, for he is even more powerful than Caudwell, especially when it comes to mental powers where he absolutely rocks with a [Mind] of 30 and Renegade Control of friggin' 40. Who knows why he isn't #1 on S-Ranking. I also think that he kinda looks like Muten-Roshi:  "Does anyone have some censored beer for me?" Next Time: More about City N and its questionable redevelopment plans. Doresh fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Dec 28, 2015 |
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 15:38
|
|
|
Doresh posted:Oberon? Who's that?
|
In most traditional RPGs, traits and abilities are an essential means for players to express agency. Wick's repeated exhortations of "their sheets cannot save them" and downplaying their associated mechanics is a direct denial of that agency, of course.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 19:38
|
|
|
Wick is the kind of guy who would see a PC dump a ton of points into 'I am one of the best swordfighters in the world.' and go 'Aha! I should have someone shoot her! That'll learn her!' instead of 'Oh, she really wants to have exciting swordfights.'
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 19:39
|
|
|
I really don't get that "their sheets cannot save them" mentality. Like, does he literally mean "their main form of agency and interacting with mechanics mean nothing in the way of my desire to control everything"? Or is there more nuance to it that I'm missing?
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 19:40
|
|
|
Covok posted:I really don't get that "their sheets cannot save them" mentality. Like, does he literally mean "their main form of agency and interacting with mechanics mean nothing in the way of my desire to control everything"? Or is there more nuance to it that I'm missing? No, that's exactly what it means. Wick wants to tell a particular story, the players' characters and their abilities be damned.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 19:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 10:08 |
|
|
Like, I'm all for occasionally fudging stuff. If a player's having a really bad streak with dice and getting visibly frustrated, we'll give them a pity reroll or sometimes let them do something their PC is good at without rolling to give them a moment to show off and get back in the game, that kind of thing. But just flat-out ignoring the rules to run whatever, PC permission or not, is kind of defeating the point of playing an RPG with a group.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 19:46
|
|