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Kai Tave posted:Ah yes, the "good" scientists of mage, namely people who cling fervently to concepts such as phlogiston and orgone and 133t h4cker$, a truly balanced viewpoint there.
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Mar 31, 2016 07:52
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Again, you can play Changeling without that. 'Modern life can be a bit banal, and that can hurt' is a good premise for a game. You don't need to be a Scientologist to hate shopping malls, elevator music, and the 9-5. 'Banality' as a Capital Letter force of evil might sound silly to you, but it was an idea I had long before Changeling. It's cool if White Wolf games aren't for you. They became popular because they tapped into previously underserved markets, like goths and drama kids and hippies and stoners who liked the idea of playing pretend but not all the murderhobos and orcs. I remember being a mix of all those in the 90s and tho I didn't play a WW game they were around, and their memes penetrate. There's a ton of stupid poo poo in there - I was never a fan of the clan of Italian stereotype vampires - that's easy to mock, but I don't violently disagree with many of the premises of the games. Except maybe Werewolf, but that has its place. With the expansion of D&D back into pop culture, White Wolf needs to bring back all its games in accessible, rules-lite forms, since those cliques are still around.
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Mar 31, 2016 08:04
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In this case the issue is more that scientists (yes, presumably including Carl Sagan) and mental health professionals are portrayed as radiating evil anti-faerie radiation. The version of Changeling I was familiar with also had a weird undertone where it seemed like the more obscure something was, the more magical energy it had in it, meaning that the best thing your Dreaming-loving rear end could do (for yourself) is make sure your favorite indie band doesn't ever get to do what they love, you know, for a living. I will be totally fair that the revised editions may have walked that poo poo back, though! As for the rest I fuckin love me some draculas, wolfmans and ghosts so don't go taking away my white wolfs, Count Chocola 
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Mar 31, 2016 08:19
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Wait you can get power by liking obscure poo poo? That makes me like Changeling more! I was trying to come up with an Unknown Armies Adept based on that Paradox. I guess the idea is that the attention of the Masses dilutes something's power? That 'evil anti-faire radiation' sounds like something I'd already feel sometimes. I'd rule it's not scientists and shrinks that spread banality but ones who are obsessed with numbers, jargon, and reductive explanations like evo-psych, Myers-Briggs, and calling it 'depression' instead of 'melancholia' and 'TB' instead of 'consumption'. Draculas, wolfmen and ghosts aren't quite as fun to me as being told that personality traits and interests I already possess mean I'm a wizard or a fae or a Toredor. I guess that's why I love UA so much.
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Mar 31, 2016 08:34
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Count Chocula posted:Wait you can get power by liking obscure poo poo? That makes me like Changeling more! I was trying to come up with an Unknown Armies Adept based on that Paradox. I guess the idea is that the attention of the Masses dilutes something's power? That 'evil anti-faire radiation' sounds like something I'd already feel sometimes. I'd rule it's not scientists and shrinks that spread banality but ones who are obsessed with numbers, jargon, and reductive explanations like evo-psych, Myers-Briggs, and calling it 'depression' instead of 'melancholia' and 'TB' instead of 'consumption'. As for the rest, remember.. in time, we all become spooky ghosts.
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Mar 31, 2016 08:40
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Nessus posted:No, like, the poo poo has to be obscure or else you don't get any magic from it. The demo tape from your local indie band is full of Glamour. Beethoven's 9th Symphony is not, because it's been exposed to the mundane world. One of the ways in which you can cop a quick "buzz" of Glamour in at least first ed changeling was basically finding a creative type and sucking the dreams out of them. Makes sense. Beethoven's 9th is beautiful but it's also been used in a zillion terrible movies and commercials, and those associations stick to it. Think about the first time you heard your favorite old song used in an ad or remixed or sampled - it can be pretty bad. Listening to Nick Drake pre-VW ad is a different experience than listening to him after. Plus it explains why so many creative types burn out or fade away. So if you want to get lots of Glamour, remember to support your local scene! Pick up your trash on the way out, and don't forget to grab a free sampler or a t-shirt. All funds raised go to Foods Not Bombs. Thank you, and good night. (I wish the Changeling game on this forum where I played an indie folk-punk singer hadn't died) (Can you get Glamour from bootlegs and alternative takes of popular songs? It would explain the huge prices paid for Bob Dylan bootlegs. What about live performances where the song is changed significantly like Dylan does?) All this is just my basic assumptions about the world. Count Chocula fucked around with this message at 09:01 on Mar 31, 2016 |
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Mar 31, 2016 08:55
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I'm idly reminded that a part of the problem was that at least some of the old White Wolf staff just not getting what science is, specifically that it's a methodology separate from technology. I remember getting into a nerd battle with... I forget who, but one of the writers for oMage on RPGnet like thirteen years ago when I was still dumb enough to do that sort of stuff. I forget the exact context for the thread, but someone made the point that the most "scientific" tradition was probably the Order of Hermes due to their heavy documentation, experimentation, and all that sort of stuff. The writer was dubious about this so I brought up a theoretical silly example of a Hermetic perfecting the ritual of binding fire elementals to toasters to toast bread, finding all the scenarios and conditions where it would and wouldn't work, and using that to refine the ritual so anyone could make their own elemental toast if they followed the directions. Surely that's pretty scientific despite all the ritual trappings, right? Only to get back, paraphrasing, "Of course not. Magic can't be science!"  There's a lot of good themes and ideas in the oWoD - there's a reason the line was so popular - but wow the biases and culture of the time are impossible to ignore now.
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Mar 31, 2016 10:29
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Every White Wolf game is 'Hey there is an actual interesting idea/theme at the core but throw out everything else and just rewrite this pile of poo poo.'
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Mar 31, 2016 13:37
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 PEOPLE, PART 6  The Chief of Station, Bucharest Joshua McKinney. CIA, works with the SIE on the War on Terror. If a lead crosses his desk, he'll put everything he has into it, and he has a lot. Asset: Unlikely to be Edom, unlikely to know about the CIA vampire program. If he's Edom, though, his main job is deflecting the curious away from the places where their questions might lead them to sniff. Minion: Dracula would really like to have access to a guy with this many Predator drones at his command.  The Chinese Agent Lei Dongfang. Works for China's Ministry of State Security, monitors Russian and Western energy interests. Has a geology degree, might have useful knowledge about telluric power. Asset: Defected to Edom in 2012; his main role is to offer a false safe haven to Edom's enemies. Minion: Serves a jin-gui, won't resist unless he is shown that there is a force more powerful than Dracula in the world.  The DIFC Tasker Gavin Parton. DIFC = Defence Intelligence Fusion Centre, serves a lot of customers, including MI5 and MI6. Hopkins: He wrote all the notes, and gave it to his boyfriend in Cambridge, only later realizing it might be genuin - "Hopkins" is an alias created by the two of them together. Asset: Reports to Osprey, helps identify priority targetes for Dracula strikes, on the books as a possible future Duke. Minion: The Parton family has served Dracula since 1894. Gavin massages dossiers to put terrorist cell evidence anywhere Dracula wants Edom to send him.   The Dissident Daniela Istok. Activist opposing whatever issue your story requires her to oppose. Potentially violent, has friends all over Europe. Asset: Some other organization is secretly backing her crusade for their own purposes - Istok made a deal with the devil and can't get out. Minion: Istok's there to provide a distraction whenever Dracula needs something nearby done discreetly.  The Drug Boss Cemal Gusa. Heroin smuggler, maybe an AQIR associate. Strange creatures are killing his associates, and he might be willing to temporarily cooperate if someone can stop that from happening. Played by Duane Johnson in the film. Asset: Edom's man in AQIR, or he's been flipped by the BND or CIA. Minion: He's going full Renfield and getting more dangerous and unstable by the day.  The Enigmatic Monsignor Tristano Luria. Vatican vampire hunter and exorcist. Asset: Edom agent in the Vatican's hearet, obstructing both them and the Conspiracy. Minion: Violent mood swings left him susceptible to Dracula's influence, his only awareness of his own betrayal is periods of memory loss.  The Ex-IRA Informant Thomas Deegan. Used to handle terror and violence for the IRA, but he changed sides and sold out several of his comrades and fled to London. Asset: Unwilling member of an Edom counterterrorism operation, possibly mind-controlled by Edom's vampire. Minion: The same but from Dracula instead.  The GCHQ Romania Desk Analyst Cassandra Irving. Monitors SIGINT for CGDQ, mostly out of Romania. Didn't mean to become a spy, but her skillset led to her recruitment as a cryptographer. Hopkins: Maybe she's the one who found the Dossier and gets it into the hands of the party - she could be dead, on the run, captured, or still at her desk, with Edom unaware. Asset: Edom wanted a mole in GCHQ, she's being coerced into the role by threat of violence against her family. Minion: Dated one of Dracula's agents, was turned because Dracula needs someone who understands the digital world and spy on it for him.  The Hildesheim Legacy Itamar Hildesheim. Runs a law firm in Tel Aviv, great-grandson of Dracula's agent in Galati. Asset: Active member of the Zionist Revisionist Organization of Romania, belongs to a Mossad operation that shadows Edom. Minion: He actually IS Dracula's agent from Galati - he's a century-old Renfield.
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Mar 31, 2016 14:23
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Asimo posted:I'm idly reminded that a part of the problem was that at least some of the old White Wolf staff just not getting what science is, specifically that it's a methodology separate from technology. I remember getting into a nerd battle with... I forget who, but one of the writers for oMage on RPGnet like thirteen years ago when I was still dumb enough to do that sort of stuff. I forget the exact context for the thread, but someone made the point that the most "scientific" tradition was probably the Order of Hermes due to their heavy documentation, experimentation, and all that sort of stuff. The writer was dubious about this so I brought up a theoretical silly example of a Hermetic perfecting the ritual of binding fire elementals to toasters to toast bread, finding all the scenarios and conditions where it would and wouldn't work, and using that to refine the ritual so anyone could make their own elemental toast if they followed the directions. Surely that's pretty scientific despite all the ritual trappings, right? I got into a similar nerd battle with someone on another forum when said person created a thread for "Scientific Vampires", because everything that vampires do just had to be explained via our current understanding of science. The one thing I remember was that Dominate was the Vampire firing a Neuron out of their brain via a biological railgun and into the skull of their target at which point the Neuron would take over their brain. He later made a "Scientific Werewolf" thread where Werewolves were actually their own species(That somehow was able to interbreed with two separate unrelated species, this was apparently how evolution worked), inflated by absorbing gasses from their environment (We later explained that their consummate increase in mass would either require they be surrounded by a miasma of heavy gasses so thick they wouldn't be able to breathe, or that shifting into Crinos Form would cause enough suction to knock a man off of his feet), and that the umbra was just them extruding hallucinogenic gasses(leading to his impassioned defense that "WEREWOLVES DO NOT FART THE UMBRA SHUT UP GUYS"). Said conversation never reached a satisfying conclusion because he then created a thread defending Clanbook Baali, stating amongst other things that
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Mar 31, 2016 14:59
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Nessus posted:CUT THROUGH!!! "Seriously, dude, it's folded like a million times, and the metal has blood in it!" But still, I'd be so much more interested in Mage if there was a paradigm employing metaphysical kenjutsu. Teleport around the world by slicing space-time. Mind control people by cutting their willpower in half. Transform people into beach balls by striking down the part of their metaphysical self that is a not-ball. Robindaybird posted:More so when you throw in the fact they insert their weird fetishes into their words, Soto's Transformation/Smoking/Snuff with Brucato's Animal loving/Furries That's why I stick with catgirls. That's something I can get behind. Kai Tave posted:"I'm going to write this book, ostensibly designed to be informative, but get this! It's going to be presented entirely in-character so that all of the information has to be parsed through my attempts to be clever and obfuscatory while falling back on the tired old excuse of it being the character talking and not me, the writer" is maybe not the most insufferable trend 90's RPGs have to answer for, but it's certainly top three. Coming soon: Wowzers - The Denying. Kavak posted:That joke is basically all I had to say. Everything that Ascension claims to offer is there in Planescape, minus the magic system and the modern day setting, but you shed a ton of baggage with both of those. I wonder how well Planescape works with Silent Legions... Kurieg posted:I got into a similar nerd battle with someone on another forum when said person created a thread for "Scientific Vampires", because everything that vampires do just had to be explained via our current understanding of science. The one thing I remember was that Dominate was the Vampire firing a Neuron out of their brain via a biological railgun and into the skull of their target at which point the Neuron would take over their brain. He later made a "Scientific Werewolf" thread where Werewolves were actually their own species(That somehow was able to interbreed with two separate unrelated species, this was apparently how evolution worked), inflated by absorbing gasses from their environment (We later explained that their consummate increase in mass would either require they be surrounded by a miasma of heavy gasses so thick they wouldn't be able to breathe, or that shifting into Crinos Form would cause enough suction to knock a man off of his feet), and that the umbra was just them extruding hallucinogenic gasses(leading to his impassioned defense that "WEREWOLVES DO NOT FART THE UMBRA SHUT UP GUYS"). The WoD community is freaking me out, man. Imagine if the Satanic panic happened around a decade later.
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Mar 31, 2016 16:58
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B-1 Code of Bushido Part 2 We now moving into the second adventure of Code of Bushido, called Testimony, Murder, and Lies. At its heart we’re dealing with a murder mystery with a lot of frivolous extras. Many, if not most, of the early L5R adventures had the PCs acting as police (magistrates). It makes it a hell of a lot easier to understand why your characters are involved in an investigation at all. Most of my games of L5R end up with the same setup: the PCs end up as Emerald Magistrates after a good showing at the Topaz Championship. It saves a lot of time and many of the implausible reasons for your PCs to be involved can be avoided. The PCs are invited to Winter Court held in Kyuden Asako due to their involvement in the proceedings of the last adventure. Winter Court is the way that many of the more courtly samurai spend their winters prior to the campaigning seasons of spring and summer. Lots of gossip, jockeying for position – basically a social battlefield. This particular Winter Court is again centered on Otomo Yoroshiku and her suitors. The adventure introduces a wealth of characters to round out the suspects. The most important one is the young daimyo of one of your PCs families. He’s brash and kind of stupid and wants the characters to help him win her hand. Others include Mirumoto Hanzu, a competent duelist, Yoroshiku’s three handmaidens, Shiba Himitsu who seems bitter toward the princess, and our ronin friend Koan from the last adventure. It also includes my favorite character, an old magistrate named Hiruma Usigo who is attending one last Winter Court before retiring and entering the monastery. An old cop just three  Court gets underway with a gift exchanging game that’s slightly more complex than I would ever use in a game. Really it’s just an excuse for your players to get to know the principal suspects and make the coming murder more shocking. The players get to witness the suitors attempts to outplay one another. They also get to watch as the samurai-ko who was assigned to be their bodyguard during the last adventure, Shinjo Iruko, makes fumbling attempts to catch the attention of one of the PCs she has a crush on. The players get to watch a wonderful play by a troupe of Scorpion Clan actors who are attending court as the entertainment. Eventually Yoroshiku gets cornered by one of her suitors and this leads to a poetry competition. Before any of her suitors have a chance to deploy their skills at verse a drunken Shiba Himitsu drops a haiku that calls her a weed within the Imperial family’s garden. It pretty much kills the celebration and the PC’s daimyo demands to know what it was supposed to mean. Himitsu sneers and tells him that he will see tomorrow night. The daimyo instead decides to challenge him to a duel to the death for insulting Yoroshiku’s honor. It is quickly confirmed and scheduled for dawn the next day. Now we enter the investigation phase, and the authors show that they don’t have a clear idea how their own system works. Tons of surprisingly high difficulty tests are thrown around to notice clues important to the case and for things that happen in later adventures. We begin with a TN 20 awareness check to see if the players notice that Koan is shifting uncomfortably during the whole previous scene. That is not an impossible TN by any means, but a player still needs an Awareness stat of 4 to have better than even odds of hitting it. For those who don’t know, the stats in L5R 1e went from 1 (totally inept) to 5 (incredible). There were no rules in first edition for going past 5, but plenty of NPCs were statted that way and it was an easy thing to work out. The point is, unless a character is specifically made for something involving that stat, most stats won’t get above 3 until the PCs are extremely experienced. At least that’s how it’s gone in my games. There is also an Awareness check at TN 30 to see if the PCs notice that one of the Scorpion actors is missing. If you have the maximum possible Awareness of 5, you still have a slightly less than 50% chance of hitting it. Anyone with and Awareness of 3 or less (which is probably most PCs) might as well not even bother. It’s possibly to drop Void points on these rolls to increase the odds of hitting the TN. I see most players only use Void in critical moments, though, such as combat or during a competition of some sort. Additionally, it is entirely likely that the authors meant for one of the PCs out of your four to six to hit it. That increases the odds, but does not make even obvious things a guarantee. Everyone retires to their room for the night and the PCs daimyo calls them to his room to discuss Yoroshiku. He’s concerned about what Himitsu might have to say about her lineage and is worried that he is wasting his time wooing her. He’s a real romantic. Eventually the PCs head toward bed probably anticipating an interesting duel in the morning. Instead they are awoken just before dawn to an alarm. Someone broke into Himitsu’s room and killed him.  If the PCs are magistrates, they get to go look at the body. If not, their friendship with the old magistrate Usigo gets them in. There was clearly a struggle in the room as much of the furniture is knocked over and Himitsu’s body has several wounds other than the one that took his head clean off. It is also clear that he never reached his weapon, which was sitting near the door. The door itself was bashed in by someone very strong and the patio leading toward the courtyard was torn off its hinges during the suspect’s flight. This seems like a gimme, but the game recommends an awareness check of 15 for it, meaning an average person would likely not be able to put this together from a door bashed in on the floor. If the PCs can pass a Perception/Investigation roll of 25 they notice a hidden board with a letter implying that Himitsu was going to meet with someone who had information about Yoroshiku’s lineage. The Perception/Investigation roll is within the realm of reason for someone built for it. I’d say an average beginner level Kitsuki Magistrate has about a 50/50 shot of it. An experienced one might even pull it off reliably. Hope you have one in your party! Now the players begin to interview several witnesses. An old lady staying in the room next door heard a scuffle around 2 in the morning and looked through a crack in the wall. At first she saw a young lady struggling with Himitsu, but they moved out of her narrow view of the room and when she could see them again it was clearly the PC’s daimyo struggling with Himitsu. She freaked out and hid after seeing it. The guards will tell you that earlier in the night the daimyo came to Himitsu’s room and got into a drunken shouting match before Himitsu calmed him down and sent him on his way without any violence. Some guards saw the daimyo walking back in the direction of Himitsu’s room around 2 AM. A guard outside also saw someone flee from Himitsu’s room out through the balcony and take a leap to the ground, but when she got across the courtyard the suspect was gone. If the PC’s question Koan, he knows nothing but he is aware that his lieutenant, the ronin Niban, was working with Himitsu regarding the parentage of Yoroshiku. He doesn’t know what they were going to say, but he does know that Niban really seems to hate Yoroshiku. Things look pretty bleak for the daimyo. He protests his innocence, but the weight of evidence, the testimony of witnesses, and the motive seem to point to his being the killer. Rokugan doesn’t have a formal trial process, so once the evidence seems to be fully collected, the local ranking noble gets to make a judgement. Likely that will be within another day or so.  The old magistrate invites the PCs to have tea and discuss the case. He has also received an anonymous, cryptic poem that implies that he or the PCs should look into the whereabouts of one of Yoroshiku’s handmaidens. Tea is served by the magistrate’s servant and while the PCs are relating all the facts they’ve discovered, the magistrate slows down and falls over dead. He’s been poisoned and now his servant is nowhere to be found. Of course the PCs only notice the poison with an Awareness/Poison roll of 25 which is insane because why to the PCs know the poison skill? Again, perhaps they have an experience Kitsuki Magistrate on hand. A quick search of the premises find the body of the actual servant stuffed in an old fireplace. He was clearly killed hours before and whoever served the tea was a good enough mimic to trick an experienced magistrate who knew the original person personally. The only people who might possibly have skills like that are the Scorpion actors who are skilled enough at makeup and acting to potentially pull it off.  The actors are led by a woman named Shosuro Tage. She is not surprised to be considered a suspect but is able to provide an alibi for herself and all her actors at the times of both murders. Tage basically tells the PCs that the killer was one of Yoroshiku’s maidservants and that she is hiding in an old pantry beneath the kitchen. All of your investigative work before this interview are now utterly pointless. Up until now there was a real sense that if they didn’t piece together the right answer from a bunch of disparate clues then the wrong man would go to his death. Or maybe even the PCs thought that the daimyo is guilty. It could have gone a lot of ways, but now it’s laid out in a nice, obvious and linear progression. I also have no idea how Tage knows where the killer is hiding but I just chalk it up to ‘Scorpion circa first edition’. When the PCs go to where they’ve been directed they find the killer. It starts out looking like Kakita Nantoko, who was Yoroshiku’s handmaiden, except she’s got several wounds with clotted, pitch black blood. She/it quickly changes shape into one of the PCs and attacks with inhuman speed and strength. Its entire right side is covered in a strange black tattoo or brand that seems to suck in all the light around it. The shapeshifter is incredibly dangerous based on the stats the game provides. It’s not terribly likely to hit a PC, but if it does then it will likely cripple or kill them simply due to its incredible strength. It is assumed that the PCs kill it and when they do it shifts back into the image of the young handmaiden, only with a large brand still visible along her side. The Phoenix officials who own the castle are pretty interested in the obvious black magic going on here. The PCs daimyo is freed and is obviously grateful. Yoroshiku claims she has no idea why her handmaiden killed Himitsu or even how she did it. She is embarrassed and ashamed by it all, though. Lots of suspicion now rests on her since her handmaiden committed the murder and based on motives it is likely that Yoroshiku ordered it. She is probably not too happy with the PCs for bringing it all to light. As for the shapeshifter, she was actually a Scorpion spy using a shadow brand, which partially fuses the bearer with the power of pure nothingness. It allows for incredible powers of mimicry but slowly erodes the mind until the bearer is insane. I doubt the PCs will know any of this and will just chalk it up to run of the mill black magic. Next time: the concluding adventure, Deadly Ground, and where we finally see John Wick cut loose with his own style of combative GMing.
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Mar 31, 2016 17:26
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I think I need a break from Draculas, so I'm gonna change course for a while to write up something that's about as different from the Dracula Dossier as it's possible for a game to be. IT'S TIME FOR... Golden Sky Stories is a non-violent, relaxing, adorable Japanese RPG made by (of all people) the guy who wrote Maid. Instead of ridiculous anime fanservice tropes, this one's about henge, animals who have the power to turn into humans. You don't defeat monsters, you just help ordinary people in the country solve their small problems, and learn important lessons about friendship. If you thought Ryuutama was chill and wholesome, it's a gritty war epic compared to Golden Sky Stories. It's the feel-good RPG of the decade. Spring: About Golden Sky Stories  The book opens with a short comic, which is far from unusual, except that this one has no fighting and no dialogue. It briefly introduces some of the recurring characters used throughout the book, and gives a bit of nice scenery and a sense of atmosphere - small towns in the country, creatures that aren't quite human, people getting along. Following this is a brief, gentle foreword from the author. It thanks you for buying the book, explains what RPGs are and gives you a good idea of what kind of experiences and emotions to expect going in. It ends with this, which I'm strangely fond of: quote:May your stories sustain you. May it add flowers to the story of your life. That is what this humble author prays for. Next is briefly a note to the English audience about cultural accuracy - basically, don't worry about it too much. When Japanese gamers play Shadowrun, Seattle is a wild exotic locale where awesome adventures happen. Let the Japan in this game be a sort of idealized fantasy Japan. There's a "Watch this anime to get an idea of what this game is kind of going for" list: My Neighbor Totoro, Natsume's Book of Friends, GeGeGe no Kitaro, Mushi-shi, Wolf Children Ame and Yuki, and Higurashi (just for the depiction of the Japanese countryside, definitely not for tone).  quote:Spring is the season of beginnings. This is the second Japanese RPG I've seen that divides its rulebook into seasons (Ryuutama did the same thing). The Spring section is essentially the player guide - introduction of the setting and basic concepts, and character creation. Summer is gameplay, Autumn is GMing and sample scenarios, Winter is extra resources. In a Certain Town Imagine a town in Japan where there's only a single rail line, with 2-car trains passing once an hour and no more. Most of the roads are little more than dirt paths, rice paddies outnumber houses. Temples, shrines, bamboo groves, flower beds, morning glories growing out of cracks in stone walls. The nights are dark, the people are outnumbered by animals, and the sky seems to go on forever. That's the kind of place this game takes place in. Where Things Besides People Live This town is home to more than humans, even if they don't all know it. If someone goes about and talks to folks at the right times of day, in the right places, some of the people they talk to might be something else in disguise. You are a Henge. Henge aren't quite humans, and aren't quite animals. They aren't quite adults, and aren't quite children. They've been afforded a small amount of magical power, just enough to bridge the gap between nature and civilization, guiding people who need small opportunities created for them. Humans are powerful creatures, but they sometimes fall to weakness, because of their words or fragile hearts. When someone is at a crossroads in their life, you're there to help guide them. In this town, neither animals nor people are living alone. Next: More about henge.
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Mar 31, 2016 17:52
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I love this game so very much. Most of the art is great (there's one picture with the Dog Henge that is... not), the concept and execution is cute and pleasant, and the rules work pretty well for the stories they're telling. Definitely looking forward to reading this. There's actually a fan song about this game, too: https://tomsmith.bandcamp.com/track/new-golden-sky-stories
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Mar 31, 2016 18:03
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Kai Tave posted:I feel like the fact that plenty of people apparently came away from GttT thinking "oh poo poo, these guys are right!" is enough evidence of a failure on the writer's part that I don't actually need to do empirical research of my own to reach that conclusion. Now I guess you can just handwave that away with "well maybe all those people are just huge loving morons," but even if they are it's still the writer's (and editor's I suppose but we're talking about White Wolf here so let's not go too crazy) responsibility to get their intended point across. When it comes to the whole, "actually just the narrator presenting the in-universe perspective the Technocracy has of itself", GttT has the following passage almost at the start: Guide to the Technocracy posted:Despite the outsider's view of the Technocrats as soulless, humorless drones, these dudes are cool. Cool as ice. Cool as freon. Cool as the deadly machines at their fingertips. They have to be cool. The future of This is very hard to read as in-character fiction, what with the reference to itself as a book and everything. The reading that comes most naturally to me is that this is the omniscient narrator, i.e. White Wolf themselves, telling me that the stuff in GttT is the objective truth about the Technocracy in the setting, even if it's contradicted elsewhere. And when it then also goes on about how maybe the Technocracy aren't the fun-police, the natural conclusion is that the Technocracy aren't all that bad. I mean, here's the Mood of GttT: Guide to the Technocracy posted:The Technocratic Union, some say, is a monolith, a towering slab of implacable menace throwing its shadow across the world. Others claim that it's a pillar of stability holding the weight of the world, keeping the sky from falling with its raw strength and intricate craftsmanship. Here's a passage from How To Use This Book, speaking directly to the reader about running Mage campaigns with Technocratic characters: Guide to the Technocracy posted:And if you're especially resourceful, you'll discover the flaws within the Union, the infestations and infiltrations your hidden masters don't understand or won't reveal. Fortunately, you're not short-sighted enough to try to destroy the Technocracy. Instead, you're going to fix it. You're a Technocrat who has the idealism and ingenuity to solve the problems your Supervisors can't. Heroes don't try to escape from reality. If this book is not supposed to put forward the idea that the Technocracy "are the real heroes who protect us from the evil, light-bulb-fearing Traditions" as a true perspective out-of-character, it should maybe not have, out of character, claimed it was true. LatwPIAT fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Mar 31, 2016 |
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Mar 31, 2016 18:12
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Oh god, GSS is just loving adorable. 
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Mar 31, 2016 18:13
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Kaza42 posted:Most of the art is great (there's one picture with the Dog Henge that is... not) I know the exact image you're talking about, and I'm glad it wasn't just me.
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Mar 31, 2016 18:23
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LatwPIAT posted:This is very hard to read as in-character fiction, what with the reference to itself as a book and everything. The reading that comes most naturally to me is that this is the omniscient narrator, i.e. White Wolf themselves, telling me that the stuff in GttT is the objective truth about the Technocracy in the setting, even if it's contradicted elsewhere. And when it then also goes on about how maybe the Technocracy aren't the fun-police, the natural conclusion is that the Technocracy aren't all that bad. See, I have a hard time reading that as anything other than an in-character statement, because otherwise the game is telling me that every other book they previously published is a lie. I don't think they meant that unironically.
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Mar 31, 2016 18:28
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:GURPS Car Wars?  Car Wars was my first game that went past Monopoly in complexity. I remember seeing the Deluxe Edition while a parent was at a hobby shop for... some reason. Models, I think? It had nothing to do with Car Wars. I'm not sure why it rang a cord with me, but it was probably Denis Loubet's striking cover. So when I saw a copy of Mini Car Wars for $1 months later, I was primed, and by Christmas, I had a copy of Car Wars Deluxe Edition sitting under the tree. I loved it even with all the math I had to master to play it. But covering Car Wars Deluxe Edition isn't vastly interesting, it's a big chunk of rules telling you how to craft just about any motorized wheeled vehicle plus helicopters, attach guns and armor, and then make it fight. There's a setting, but it literally only gets a page or two of discussion. Plus, System Mastery covered it. I mean, sure, I know the game backwards and forwards, but I don't think I could make it interesting to describe.   I considered the first supplement for Car Wars, Autoduel Champions, but it has the same problem where it's mostly just a contiguous set of rules: a set of vehicle rules for Champions followed by a set of superhero rules for Car Wars. Once again, it only gets a few pages of setting in which we are told by Aaron Allston that it's mostly just a western with cars, given a metaphorical slap on the rear end, then shoved off to run a game, because that's what you did in these days. You pushed GMs into the deep end of the pool and told them learn to swim, babies. Well, it was the '80s. And, in fact, it's still the '80s as we get to GURPS Autoduel and the actual subject of the review. Now, this isn't to be confused with GURPS Autoduel 2nd edition, which removes the vehicle design rules and instead requires GURPS Vehicles. No, by modern standards, the original GURPS Autoduel is a textbook of example of how to use space efficiently, giving us not only a rather detailed setting, campaign advice, two adventures, but complete car design rules for GURPS in 84 pages. Now, this was written in 1986, so it was intended for use with the 1st or 2nd edition of GURPS, but works with the 3rd edition perfectly well, though there might be some conflicts with the gun rules - since 1st and 2nd editions of GURPS, amazingly, didn't have fully-fledged firearms rules. 4th edition gets trickier, but you could probably use this a modicum of adjustment. It's just not a system that's undergone truly radical changes, but rather incremental changes. Part 1: Introduction  So, Car Wars was at first a board-game in which people played drivers in a post-post-apocalypse where America (and most of the world) experienced a societal collapse. During this time of lawlessness, violent arena sports gained popularity, most notably autoduelling, born out of demolition derbies where competitors got the idea to start putting guns on their cars. And though the America of Car Wars is in a recovery period and rebuilding civilization, "autoduelling" and other blood sports are still popular. Of course, given the lawlessness of rural areas and roads, particularly the rise of heavily-armed cycle gangs, having a gun on your car becomes the standard for society. In fact, it becomes the only thing that brings America back from the brink. Society is saved by the proliferation of arms, particularly armed cars.  Of course, the real reason was "Steve Jackson got frustrated in traffic and thought he'd really like to shoot other drivers", so he got together with his gamer Chad Irby and made a game about that. Chad Irby did at least one article I found in Space Gamer, then fell into a black hole as far as the gaming world is concerned, though but I have reasonable evidence that he's still alive. Steve Jackson, on the other hand, went on to make a few supplements for the game before a disastrous revision in 2002. Without going full grog, all you need to know is that they tried to sell two-packs of vehicle designs in a game that previously published "vehicle guides" with upwards of two-hundred packs of vehicle designs. It was seen rightly as gouging, and coming out in era where d20 was taking everybody's lunch money as it was, it never had a chance. Car Wars vanished as a going concern until the recent reprints of some material from the original game, going on the nostalgia pull of Steve Jackson's highly successful OGRE kickstarter. Though a new edition of Car Wars was promised as part of the a kickstarter, only reprints have emerged so far. But enough about Car Wars! We're here for GURPS, a name that will never, ever, not sound silly. GURPS Autoduel was the product of two writers. The first is Aaron Allston, mainly known to the public as a sci-fi and Star Wars novel writer, but would be better known to gamers as the primary author behind D&D's Mystara setting. He tragically passed away in 2014 at the age of 53 from a heart attack. The second is Scott Haring, who was the editor behind Autoduel Quarterly, the house magazine for Car Wars, as well as writing for GURPS, D&D, and some little game forum readers may have heard of, In Nomine. He's still around and has been tapped for the upcoming new edition of Car Wars. There are too many artists for me to mention by name, but I'll mention a few. We have Denis Loubet, the cover artist who went on to work for Origin Systems and gave us iconic art for games like Ultima and Wing Commander. There's Dan Panosian, who has gone on to be a comic penciller and inker on a wide array of Marvel and Image comics, as well as being the inspiration behind Kung-Fu Panda. There's Jason and John Waltrip, known for doing a variety of Robotech comics, as well as webcomics like Penny and Aggie and Guilded Age. Yes, that means Jason or John drew an older AV I used here on Something Awful. And there are many, many others, and I'm the worst monster for skipping over them, but I have to get to the meat of the book sometime. Next: The 1990s you never knew. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Mar 31, 2016 |
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Mar 31, 2016 18:31
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The early-2000s relaunch of Car Wars was shitshow in every possible way, but most especially because the thing that people loved most about CW was the build-your-own-vehicle rules was completely missing from it. Just premade cars, nothing else. CW itself is an interesting design, a minis game with a robust DIY unit system, with design cues taken from Jackson's own Ogre (wargame with the focus on a single unit with lots of interesting subsystems) and fellow Austinite Steve Cole's Star Fleet Battles (the impulse movement system, the vehicle status display, the ablative directional armor, the weapon arcs - there's a reason CW had the nickname "Car Fleet Battles"). A fun game, but probably too 80s-wargamey to make much of a splash today - plus, the physical presentation was strictly cheapjack (even the "Deluxe" products). (Confession: I used to have an AADA keychain)
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Mar 31, 2016 18:43
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Yeah, it's hard to emphasize how big it was at the time, but there were gaming clubs nationwide in America (and a few other places) dedicated largely to just playing Car Wars, and the only modern equivalent I can think is of dedicated CCG groups like Magic. It never had the cataclysmic effect on the hobby like Magic did, of course, but it was easily in the top five hobby games for a good long while, along with games like D&D, Battletech, and Warhammer 40k.
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Mar 31, 2016 19:07
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Bieeardo posted:Oh god, GSS is just loving adorable. Henge: The better magical girl RPG. (Though I bet people have played grimdark versions of it...) ProfessorProf posted:I know the exact image you're talking about, and I'm glad it wasn't just me. I have no idea what you're talking ab... *skims through own copy* ow. FMguru posted:The early-2000s relaunch of Car Wars was shitshow in every possible way, but most especially because the thing that people loved most about CW was the build-your-own-vehicle rules was completely missing from it. Just premade cars, nothing else. Who thought this was a good idea? And why?
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Mar 31, 2016 19:08
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Golden Star Stories is great, yeah. Between this, Chuubo, Ryuutama, and some others, it's cool to think that "heartwarming pastoral RPG" is its own subgenre now and not just a one-off.
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Mar 31, 2016 19:11
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Rand Brittain posted:See, I have a hard time reading that as anything other than an in-character statement, because otherwise the game is telling me that every other book they previously published is a lie. I don't think they meant that unironically. This is the company that released Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand
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Mar 31, 2016 19:12
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Terrible Opinions posted:This is the company that released Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand Yeah, okay; I can't actually deny that they brought this on themselves either way.
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Mar 31, 2016 19:20
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Doresh posted:
Someone show us the picture!
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Mar 31, 2016 19:24
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It should also be noted that White Wolf was not above having books in the same line wildly contradict each other and claim both were true - the Rokea book completely contradicted everything ever written about for Werewolf mythology and backstory, but was presented as correct, at least when talking about Rokea.
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Mar 31, 2016 19:28
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oriongates posted:Someone show us the picture!  It's not the worst image ever or anything but it really doesn't fit in with the feel of the rest of the book.
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Mar 31, 2016 19:33
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Yeah that picture is just like 'wait why is there an intro to a porn comic here?'
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Mar 31, 2016 19:34
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Mors Rattus posted:Yeah that picture is just like 'wait why is there an intro to a porn comic here?' You should see a proper Hentai TRPG. I think Mr. Maid + GSS made one, too.
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Mar 31, 2016 19:36
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Mors Rattus posted:It should also be noted that White Wolf was not above having books in the same line wildly contradict each other and claim both were true - the Rokea book completely contradicted everything ever written about for Werewolf mythology and backstory, but was presented as correct, at least when talking about Rokea. Or Mokolé which contradicts everything in every other book, including a bunch of stuff from Rage Across Australia, ends in one of the most amazingly retarded ways ever, and was written by Jim Comer AKA the guy who put Rite of the Clouds and Rain to paper. ProfessorProf posted:
I'm hoping that her treasure isn't what I think she's talking about but I know in my heart it is and that sickens me.
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Mar 31, 2016 19:37
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That character is 12 years old in human form, 5 as a dog. The game goes out of its way to avoid being in any way sexual, including a part where they acknowledge that some myths are about spirits seducing mortals, but this really isn't that sort of game, so you shouldn't do that. All the rest of the art is cute and appropriate to the theme, and then they stick a sexy 12 year old showing off her But still, the entire rest of the book is fantastic, and one image on half a page should not turn anyone away from reading it Kaza42 fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Mar 31, 2016 |
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Mar 31, 2016 19:40
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ProfessorProf posted:
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Mar 31, 2016 19:43
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Bieeardo posted:Oh god, GSS is just loving adorable. Yeah, it's wonderful, I'd love to have a chance to run it more. And yeah, the picture is definitely off on tone, but it's all remarkably reserved and thoughtful compared to Kamiya's other RPGs. Doresh posted:Who thought this was a good idea? And why? Here's a good summary of everything that went wrong, and why.
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Mar 31, 2016 19:44
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It could have been worse. I remember a post from S. John Ross, who was with SJG at the time of that edition, saying that Jackson was casting around for better "hook" to replace the post-nuclear war/Mad Max-ish Autoduel America setting, and was very seriously considering making the whole thing furry.
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Mar 31, 2016 20:09
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Autoduel was my introduction to GURPS, way back when the third edition book was out. A battered-looking (through the cellophane, even) copy sat on a shelf at the local hobby/crafts/etc store at the mall, somehow looking sun-bleached, until a friend picked it up and we finally stopped making body noise jokes over the name. ...we got worse from there. There's just something about systems with disadvantages that bring out the inner five year old in a lot of people I've met.
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Mar 31, 2016 20:15
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FMguru posted:It could have been worse. I remember a post from S. John Ross, who was with SJG at the time of that edition, saying that Jackson was casting around for better "hook" to replace the post-nuclear war/Mad Max-ish Autoduel America setting, and was very seriously considering making the whole thing furry. And here I thought Road Hogs was Palladium. But yeah, it also bears mentioning that the new edition of Car Wars hit around the same time as Munchkin. After that hit, very soon Steve Jackson Games didn't have to worry about Car Wars or anything else to keep the company afloat.
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Mar 31, 2016 20:42
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:GURPS Car Wars? 
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Apr 1, 2016 00:39
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quote:Rite of my Butts and Rain Oh Butt-to-Butt extension, is there no topic you cannot improve? 
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Apr 1, 2016 02:25
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 09:20 |
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ProfessorProf posted:
You know how when you're having a picnic, sometimes you put a piece of food a little way away from your blanket so the ants will swarm it and leave you alone? I kind of feel like that's what this picture is except the ants are furries.
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Apr 1, 2016 05:07
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