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Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Yeah, the books are gorgeous and I can't stress enough how well everything is presented.

Speaking of which; Fragged Empire is up for two Ennies: Best Cover and Best Setting. I don't think I'll get to the setting specifics before voting ends, but I can say it deserves votes in both categories.

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Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Oh, and Mors:

Mors Rattus posted:

Just went and preordered via BackerKit - I hope it processes soon because I want these books.
From the last KS update, Wade had to lock backerkit down, but he's still taking preorders.

quote:

Pre-Orders and BackerKit

Unfortunately I had to lock down BackerKit a lot earlier than I had hoped as I needed the funds for production and for pre-paying some of my postage costs.

You can still log in to change your postage address, but if you would like to add to your pledge you may need to pay via PayPal (by clicking the "Donate" button at the bottom of my website and then sending me a private message with what you would like to add to your pledge). Please let me know if you need any help with any of this.

Pre-ordering products will not only save you money but it also helps me a LOT :) Thanks so much for everyone's generous support.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

Weird, it still let me order.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!
The idea of the post-post apocalypse has been bouncing around for a good while, though it hasn't really come into vogue as a notion. Fallout has increasingly been post-post apocalypse as it goes on (New Vegas is a very good example of the notion, if nothing else), and many post-apocalypse RPGs like Rifts are actually post-post apocalypse, where civilization has been pretty much reclaimed, it's just a matter of who gets to rebuild it.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
Many classic fantasy settings are post-post-apocalypse insofar as they are full of lost technological civilizations, which are sometimes central to the setting. What really makes Fragged Empire stand out is that you have the combination of a war that's recent enough that it's still in living memory (for some very old Nephilim anyway) but industrial society has already recovered and is starting to branch out again. It's a breath of fresh air after so many Dying Earth style fantasy settings.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Halloween Jack posted:

Many classic fantasy settings are post-post-apocalypse insofar as they are full of lost technological civilizations, which are sometimes central to the setting. What really makes Fragged Empire stand out is that you have the combination of a war that's recent enough that it's still in living memory (for some very old Nephilim anyway) but industrial society has already recovered and is starting to branch out again. It's a breath of fresh air after so many Dying Earth style fantasy settings.
Yeah, that's a big difference between Fragged Empire and, say, Fallout. In FE, most of the fighting was done by soldier races, and planet-destroying WMDs were the exception. So the overall infrastructure wasn't as destroyed as it could have been, meaning that people could just move in and start it all up again.

One of the core things of Fragged Empire's setting is that the overall galactic infrastructure is pretty much settled. There's a working stable economy, manufacturing and mass production are chugging along nicely, things are (for the most part) stable. The "center" is fine so the focus is more on expansion and rediscovery instead of crawling out of and around the rubble.

Hostile V
May 31, 2013

Solving all of life's problems through enhanced casting of Occam's Razor. Reward yourself with an imaginary chalice.

Fragged Empire looks good. Put me down as interested.

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
I'm surprised Fragged Empire turned out so well. I remember discussion of its KS drive being pretty cautious at best.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
Wait, aren't the robots called Mechonids? If they're Mechanoids then Siembedia is going to sue their pants off.

Maxwell Lord
Dec 12, 2008

I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.


:smith:

Grimey Drawer
Welp I'm already sold.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!
They're Mechonids, yeah, unless something changed on the way to the book's printing.

Mind, that's all running on the assumption that Siembieda still has a pile of money to throw at legal fees these days.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Yeah, I was gonna say I don't think Kev's in any financial position to do anything even close to legal action nowadays.

And yes, it's Mechonids, not Mechanoids.

Hostile V
May 31, 2013

Solving all of life's problems through enhanced casting of Occam's Razor. Reward yourself with an imaginary chalice.

Mechonids, Yujain.

ShineDog
May 21, 2007
It is inevitable!
I watched someone run through a summary of fragged empire and it seemed really really overcomplicated and fiddly at every stage. It'll be interesting to see what I missed in here.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

I've been reading ahead and I love the ship combat and its allowance for gravity whips. Man, I want to play this.

It definitely needs a grid, though, and some practice runs to get the system taught. The Theatre of the Mind rules are kinda lame.

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!



Post-post-apocalypse, for want of a better term, has always been really common in fantasy, at least. Hell, the reason for all those giant empty wastelands in Tolkien was because of a huge plague a couple hundred years before the Hobbit. And in a less controversial form, it's been a major plot point in most of the Final Fantasy games. :v:

Hostile V
May 31, 2013

Solving all of life's problems through enhanced casting of Occam's Razor. Reward yourself with an imaginary chalice.



NEW POWER PACKAGES

DOUBLER

A Doubler is a Delta capable of cloning themselves by just splitting into a new person. The clone is a perfect match for the original, right down to the clothes they're wearing. Creating a double takes a TN 5 Spirit roll and if it's done in combat, it uses all actions that round. Both bodies are controlled by one mind but can act independently of each other and there's no limit to how far apart they can be. Both bodies can communicate telepathically to each other and each body requires a Speed roll for initiative and gets separate actions in combat. If one body is hurt, the other body is unharmed. The bodies can meld back together into one form by making contact and rejoining. Both bodies can sustain normal injuries for their normal stats and when they combine, the single body ends up with the lowest level of injury in each body location. If one body dies, the other has to make a Stun check and permanently loses 1d6 points of Spirit and they'll die at 0 Spirit. The body must be recovered and absorbed for the survivor to split again. For Tricks, they get:


Less about being a Doubler, more about being blackmailed about infidelity.

Double Speed: On an extra success on an Initiative roll, the Doubler can use the higher of their two Initiative results for both bodies. This doesn't work if one gets a disaster roll.

Double Team: If both bodies work together on the exact same Spirit or Smarts roll and make one extra success, both bodies can use the higher result. Doesn't work if there's a disaster roll.


It's not sameface, it's twinning.

Thoughts on the Doubler: The Doubler is actually pretty good! Double the actions, double the skill rolls, cheesing the poo poo out of the wound rules, it's a neat package. You can totally just keep one half back in a safe location so if the other one gets banged up there's no actual damage done when they merge again. The big downside: I first read the Spirit loss rule as losing 1 point in Spirit. Instead it's 1d6 Spirit. You have to enhance your Spirit a lot to withstand a possible death but there's only a 66% chance of surviving with Spirit 5 at generation and with the experience point drop rules and the cost of raising a stat, you're not increasing Spirit too fast to recover from the damage. So it's an actually good powerset but you have to play very safe because otherwise you're getting wrecked and a mandatory focus on Spirit hurts the Delta's ability to just double-team people by making your combat stat an inherit secondary focus.

This time around I'm not going to focus on the premades because honestly I don't care anymore. However, I'm gonna leave you with this thought: does Boosting a Doubler's power mean that they can split one person into four?

FORGER

The Forger is capable of making exact duplicates of anything with the right tools and time. The Forger gets +10 to Forgery. That's all they get. For Tricks, they get:


Less about forging, more about Gun.

Forge from Memory: An extra success on a Forgery roll lets the Delta remake something from memory, having an eidetic memory for things they've seen. Downside: they can only recreate something from exactly how they saw it.



Quick Forge: Three extra successes can be used to come up with a passable fake on the fly but won't hold up to a TN 5 Scrutinize roll. The Forger is the only one who can present the fake and can make a Spirit roll against the person they're presenting it to get them to ignore it.


Of course it's the Mona Lisa.

Thoughts on the Forger: Thematically appropriate. Probably gonna make a shitload of cash for Evil Unlimited. Completely useless in all regards unless it's an espionage/crime focused game.

FORTUNATE

The Fortunate is a Delta with an ingrained lucky streak that can actively attempt to force things to go their way. The Fortunate can automatically generate Delta points reflexively, gaining one to use when they need to. The Delta can make a TN 5 Spirit Roll without an action whenever the Delta would want to actually use a Delta Point. Quick reminder: DPs can be used to remove a wound received from a damage roll or add a d6's result to a failed roll's total. There are some limits: you can't use Delta Points on the roll to generate one, you have to declare you're generating a point before you roll anything, if you fail a generation roll your power shuts off for 24 hours and a disastrous roll makes the task fail in addition to your power turning off. For Tricks, they get:


Better poison negation through luck.

Bad Luck for Them: Use an extra success on a contested roll and making a Delta Point means that the Delta Point can be used for another purpose. The generated Point can be used to force the opponent to reroll and take a worse result.

Choose Your Luck: An extra success on a generation roll means that the created point can be used to make the entire skill roll again.


I dunno how the hell you can power-cheat a lotto ticket like that, you're not an Acanthus mage.

Thoughts on the Fortunate: It's the ability to just add onto a result's total with a Delta Point that makes the Fortunate good. The blind Spirit roll? Not so good! It's also a drat killer that if you fail the roll, your powers shut off for a day. So it could be good except no not really I can't recommend it.

POISONER

A Poisoner is a walking, talking chemical lab capable of generating poisons and exposing people to them. Poisoners are absolutely immune to all poison and can inject people with a successful hit in close combat. The Delta must then make a free Spirit roll with the level of success dictating how strong the poison is, but you can settle for a lower one. For Tricks, they get:


SUBTLE AS gently caress

Cure Poison: Poke someone and make a Spirit roll. You need X extra successes over the normal success to cure someone.



Poison Food or Drink: Contaminate 16 ounces of liquid or a pound of food with a touch and roll Spirit as normal. The entire thing has to be ingested; if it isn't, treat it as one level less severe and two if half is eaten.




There is an uncomfortable design to this guy's art that is highly reminiscent of "a creepy guy at a bar you should never get a drink from".

Thoughts on the Poisoner: They didn't include a base TN for generating poison and, again, blind Spirit rolls are rear end, not to mention a blind Spirit roll that requires you to touch an enemy. The rules for poison are also, well, bad and they're not really so good for direct combat. Your better option is to just call yourself Captain Chug and run around with a bunch of poisoned water bottles on your person and a Supersoaker and shoot people in the face with poisoned water to make them drink it.



SMUGGLER

The Smuggler smuggles. The Smuggler has two abilities, the first of which being +10 to Bluff. The second is that the Smuggler can suck in their stomach and create a cavity that can hold up to a quart in volume. The skin then seals over the hole and has a small scar indicating that the hole is occupied and an x-ray won't show anything unless it's metallic. Doing this takes a minute or three rounds in a pinch, can be retrieved in a full round and if you're punched in the stomach the GM rolls 1d6 and on a 1 the item is ejected because the seal is broken. For Tricks, they get:

Blatant Lie: Three extra successes on a contested Persuasion roll will let the Smuggler tell a bald-faced lie that will last for a round.

Spit It Out: Eject the item in your cavity with an extra success on a Speed roll to get it out without needing to spend an action and a round.


I think she got lost on the way from a bad espionage/cyberpunk game.

Thoughts on the Smuggler: Disregarding the ability to create a weird hole for all sorts of erotic shenanigans, the selling point of the Smuggler should be +10 to Bluff. It isn't. It's nowhere near as powerful as the Charmer mostly because how the Smuggler is split between Stomach Hole and Lying and only gets one Trick for Lying. Plus the Stomach Hole is just...weird and thematically appropriate but kind of stupid.

WEREWOLF

Like werebear, like wereshark, but wolf. Rules for transforming and attacking with claw/claw/bite are the exact same as the Werebear's and it has the exact same weaknesses: fear of fire, double damage from silver, full moon stuff, savage transformation rage. For Tricks, they get:



Inflict Madness: An extra success on a bite infects the victim (if they survive) with a powerful delusion. The next full moon makes the victim think they too are a werewolf, running around and clawing at people as they howl. It's a TN 10 Spirit roll to resist this. The only permanent cure is to put a wreathe of wolfsbane around the victim's neck when they're in a delusional state.



Terrify: Same as the Werebear.


These are some middle school How To Draw Manga-rear end drawing proportions.

Thoughts on the Werewolf: Inflict Madness is just dumb and weird. Anything that requires your victim to go up to a month before feeling the effects is too stupid and long form. It's like a Werebear but way less combat friendly. Hell this is pretty much just a reskin of the Werebear but less good.

AWARDS

Most Likely To Kill A Room Full Of People Without Breaking A Sweat: Either a Doubler or a Werewolf. Probably a Doubler.

Best Battlefield Control/Exploitation: The Doubler for being able to just control two characters and do way more than anyone else on your team in one turn.

Most Pigeonholed Into One Job: The Forger.

Melee Class Most Affected By Dex-Focus in Game Engine: The Woofwoof.

Peak 90s: Look at how that loving Werewolf is proportioned and how it's clutching a shotgun in one hand like that.

Most Cribbed Directly From Deadlands: Nobody.

Best Optional Combat Rule Shenanigans: The Doubler for being able to get both bodies to act on the exact same turn.

Most Broken Class (Not In A Good Way): Tie between the Poisoner not having a base TN for its poison rolls (mechanically broken) and the Fortunate for losing their powers for a day on a bad roll. Runner-up: the Doubler for that death by Spirit thing.

DELTA RUNDOWN 2016

There are 54 Deltas, enough for a full set of cards, a Joker and a list of rules. Let's go over which ones are worth a drat, one last time.
  • Ace: Drive fast, eat rear end. Bad.
  • Aquarian: The only good thing I can say about this idea is that it's an accurate representation of when people try to go Galt in an environment that can't really support human life. So there's that at least. Bad.
  • Bargainer: I ran out of fucks to give to about you books ago. Bad.
  • Blaster: Still the best way to live out the dreams of being Goku. Good.
  • Bomber: I joke a lot about how funny the idea of Splodehog is but at the end of the day the only thing it's good for is healing faster at the cost of threatening everyone around you with a seven foot tall 400 pound grenade. Bad.
  • Booster: Makes the good ones better and can still hold their own in a fight while their powers run in the background. It's somewhat necessary to the makeup of a good team. Good.
  • Bouncer: I would like you more if you weren't melee-focused, you've got some good fighting edges. Reluctant good.
  • Changeling: Too MAD for its own good. Bad.
  • Charger: The less-good Blaster, but that's like saying ten nuclear bombs is less good than a hundred. Good.
  • Charmer: Just use the example of the premade in its book to become a vicious roleplaying monster. Good.
  • Communicator: Your one offensive ability can still be done better with a tazer. Bad.
  • Copycat: I don't really have much of an opinion about you. You can be good, you can be cheesy, but...sorry, this team doesn't necessarily need to double up on things. Bad.
  • Covenant: Actually well-rounded and versatile, covering bases to help support the team with healing, holy fire and pain-negation for themselves if their powers are picked right. Shame about all that metaplot. Good.
  • Defender: Good for defending people but at the end of the day you're not gonna be picked first. You're a good third or fourth round draft though. Good-ish.
  • Desiccator: One horrifying trick to you but not worth the time. Bad.
  • Doubler: Any time you can take extra actions for free is a good time. Hang out with a Defender and hide behind the shield and lay cover fire. Good.
  • Dunemaster: Useless anywhere there's no sand. Bad.
  • Flyer: I liked you a little but unfortunately other Transportation-powered Deltas have proven they can use their abilities offensively and you can't. Bad.
  • Forger: Nope. Bad.
  • Fortunate: Such a harsh cap on your powers makes you hard to recommend. Bad.
  • Freezer: Can't operate so well in warm places and melee powers makes you hard to use well. Bad.
  • Gasser: Nah. Bad.
  • Gadgeteer: You had a second chance and you were still designed to be terrible. Bad.
  • Genius: Ha ha metagaming and poo poo no I'm good thanks. Bad.
  • Goliath: Sorry buddy, being huge and being slow makes you worse at combat. Bad.
  • Gunner: Who would have thought a guy with the power of Gun would make the good list? Good.
  • Hacker: *armpit farting noise* Bad.
  • Healer: Unfortunately necessary but with those limitations to your powers, yeesh. I should be of the opinion that you get a Good because of how necessary and mandatory you are but, well, none of what I've seen in premade missions have indicated any real danger for people who know what they're doing/are minmaxed. Plus the Covenant can heal people and do more than you, sooooo. Bad.
  • Hot Shot: Ehhh. I'm actually kind of cold to you. Bad.
  • Hound: No thanks I'm good. Bad.
  • Interrogator: No I must insist, I'm not interested. Bad.
  • Jungler: BEES aside, it really kind of does too much with animals AND plants AND Trick creep...ultimately, bad.
  • Lazarus: This would be a lot better if it didn't take literal days to weeks to pull yourself together. Bad.
  • Paralyzer: Too many steps to incapacitate people. Bad.
  • Phaser: The phasing is actually pretty good except for the "electric wire" thing and the fact that the Teleporter does everything you do better. Bad.
  • Poisoner: There's no cure to sucking. Bad.
  • Ratmaster: Hmm yes, gaze upon the army of your destruction: three squirrels. Bad.
  • Scrapper: The fastest-healing and pretty good at fighting. Again, though, shame about the melee focus. Good.
  • Screamer: The auto-target on the head is good for damage but you can't really ever use it nonlethally and it just doesn't have the same damage OOMPH as the Blaster. Bad.
  • Shrinker: It's a shame you can't actually be any smaller than a cat unless you're with a Booster. The small size shenanigans and still moving as fast as a regular person is good, though. I will give you a tentative Good.
  • Smuggler: Stick this in your belly-hole and smuggle it. Bad.
  • Sneak: God I still hate you. Bad.
  • Snuffer: Integral to a good team makeup and it helps that you can still do things while suppressing people. Good.
  • Speedster: Once upon a time I thought you were good, but ehhh. Bad.
  • Stretch: Mm. Hmm. You've really failed to leave an impression on me. I can't really recommend you. Bad.
  • Telekinetic: The psychic brain punches being completely invisible and vague outlines of everything is actually quite nice. Good for stealth, good in general.
  • Teleporter: My buddy. Good.
  • Timetripper: The redo ability is pretty handy. Tentative good.
  • Tough: Best armor in the game, healing to boot and the ability to neutralize incoming attacks? Hell yeah. Good.
  • Translator: Nope. Bad.
  • Watcher: Ehhh. The only thing you have going for you is the UV eyes and that's still just ehhh. Bad.
  • Werebear: Big melee focus and bad drawbacks. Bad.
  • Wereshark: Big melee focus and even worse drawbacks. Bad.
  • Werewolf: Just worse than the Werebear. Bad.
MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION, NOT SUPPORTED BY MATH OR ANYTHING: There are only 16 out of 54 that I would consider to be worthwhile or good. That's roughly 29%. I'm not insane enough to rank any of these with anything less than a binary good/bad system but I did feel like some of my reasoning should be explained.

NEXT TIME: setting secrets and the premade mission, a little tale about Bargainers being awful called EVIL IS AS EVIL DOES. What does evil do? Make stupid choices.

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

Nessus posted:

Post-post-apocalypse, for want of a better term, has always been really common in fantasy, at least. Hell, the reason for all those giant empty wastelands in Tolkien was because of a huge plague a couple hundred years before the Hobbit. And in a less controversial form, it's been a major plot point in most of the Final Fantasy games. :v:
Part of the reason for this, and all the lost ancient empires, is that the Medieval European experience fits the profile itself, after the Western Roman Empire fell apart. The Victorian idea of a unchanging barbarous dark age was wrong, but the pendulum has swung so far the other way there's a tendency to forget that Western Europe really was a shadow of what had existed before for a very long time.

The population was significantly lower in most places for a very long time - in the early Medieval period, the population dropped by 30% or more. By the time of Charlemagne, the population was less than half what it had been. Productivity dropped through the floor, local warlords took over amidst low-scale conflict, and The nations that followed lacked the technical ability or organization to replace Roman roads or bridges or aquaducts - the best they could manage were patch jobs. If one failed, a whole community could go under.

So as much of a cliche as the idea of the fallen empire is, it's worth remembering that our own world is probably fairly accurately described as post-post-apocalyptic.

Ultiville
Jan 14, 2005

The law protects no one unless it binds everyone, binds no one unless it protects everyone.

Comrade Gorbash posted:

Part of the reason for this, and all the lost ancient empires, is that the Medieval European experience fits the profile itself, after the Western Roman Empire fell apart. The Victorian idea of a unchanging barbarous dark age was wrong, but the pendulum has swung so far the other way there's a tendency to forget that Western Europe really was a shadow of what had existed before for a very long time.

The population was significantly lower in most places for a very long time - in the early Medieval period, the population dropped by 30% or more. By the time of Charlemagne, the population was less than half what it had been. Productivity dropped through the floor, local warlords took over amidst low-scale conflict, and The nations that followed lacked the technical ability or organization to replace Roman roads or bridges or aquaducts - the best they could manage were patch jobs. If one failed, a whole community could go under.

So as much of a cliche as the idea of the fallen empire is, it's worth remembering that our own world is probably fairly accurately described as post-post-apocalyptic.

So is the New World, at least most of it. Mesoamerica is less clear, but in the South and North European settlers basically took over in the aftermath of the apocalypse caused by their own arrival and the disease and other upheaval it brought.

Hostile V
May 31, 2013

Solving all of life's problems through enhanced casting of Occam's Razor. Reward yourself with an imaginary chalice.

No joke, that's pretty much the only reason why the Pilgrims didn't immediately die in Massachusetts or have nearly as rough of a go as Jamestown in Virginia. The ship that took Squanto over to England ended up infecting the Pawtuxet tribe with European diseases and when the Pilgrims landed four years later the area was full of abandoned homes and overgrown fields. The Pilgrims immediately decided that the these were good signs from God and moved in.

Count Chocula
Dec 25, 2011

WE HAVE TO CONTROL OUR ENVIRONMENT
IF YOU SEE ME POSTING OUTSIDE OF THE AUSPOL THREAD PLEASE TELL ME THAT I'M MISSED AND TO START POSTING AGAIN

Alien Rope Burn posted:

The idea of the post-post apocalypse has been bouncing around for a good while, though it hasn't really come into vogue as a notion. Fallout has increasingly been post-post apocalypse as it goes on (New Vegas is a very good example of the notion, if nothing else), and many post-apocalypse RPGs like Rifts are actually post-post apocalypse, where civilization has been pretty much reclaimed, it's just a matter of who gets to rebuild it.

Is post-post-apocalypse pre-Dying Earth? That's a fun setting- weird ruined empires at the end of time. See some Moorcock, Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance, M. John Harrison.

Huh, the Smuggler is a full Cronenberg.

Count Chocula fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Jul 14, 2016

Fossilized Rappy
Dec 26, 2012

Break Time 2: GURPS Fantasy Adventures
Written in 1991 as a supplement for GURPS Third Edition, GURPS Fantasy Adventures is a set of four adventures that take place on the world of Yrth. Rather than delve deeply into each adventure piece-by-piece, I'm going to break down each adventure into its tagline from the book description and a brief summary of its events, what it adds to Yrth as a setting, some quotes for flavor, and my own personal opinions on it.



Adventure 1: Fighters of the Purple Rage
Tagline: "A hard-hitting bounty hunt that pits the characters against battle-hardened escaped gladiators. It's a dangerous chase through the Megalos underground . . . who will survive?"

Written by Chris W. McCubbin, who also wrote GURPS Aliens, GURPS Fantasy Folk, and GURPS Space Bestiary amongst other things, Fighters of the Purple Rage is meant for characters of 150 to 200 points. Eight gladiators have escaped from the Grand Elimination, a biannual massive gladiatorial fight to the death in the grand colosseum of Megalos City. These gladiators are an anti-imperialist guerrilla named Marlon, a fat but hardy eunuch named Cee who got thrown in the arena after he acted as a confidant for his noble mistress's affair with a young lover, a rather generic man named Floyd who went from professional gladiator to slave gladiator after killing a nobleman in a barroom brawl, a half-ogre named Groby who was imprisoned because his father was an orc and this counted as close enough for the Megalan Empire's "all captive orcs must be slaves or slain" law, a Nord raider in a horned helmet named Skuli, a young swashbuckling burglar named Jaim, a half-elf wizard named Nurrien who became a slave after a Megalan noble murdered her elf family and demolished their ancestral home to build a hunting lodge, and a bard named Reńe who was enslaved because he pissed off the Emperor with a drunken comment about his "recreational habits". Their escape was facilitated by a dedicated abolitionist named Simeon, who has led his band of fugitives into the labyrinthine and poorly-mapped underbelly that is the sewers of Megalos City – the Below. The players are assumed to be either spectators at the event or passersby that are drawn in by the emperor's decree that anyone bringing in some or all of the fugitives alive or dead will be given five gold marks ($1,000) a head.

All alleyways of information lead to the Limping Lion, a waterfront tavern where the heroes either get into a huge brawl with mercenaries and the tavern's ogre and minotaur bouncers (and the minotaur half of the duo has a glorious mullet!) or buy everyone in the tavern drinks on the house as a weird underworld initiation rite in order to gain information. From there, it's into the sewers where there are a series of altercations with alligators, angry swarms of homeless people, and eventually the face off with the gladiators and Simeon. The outcome of this is either they win the fight and get their pay, win the fight and then get backstabbed by the criminals who got them the information, lose the fight and get jack poo poo beyond a few hours of unconsciousness, or join with Simeon and attempt to sneak the gladiators past both the criminal syndicate that runs the Below and the Imperial Guard above.

New Things for Yrth
The biggest addition to Yrth's lore in this adventure is the Syndic, the syndicate that runs operations out of the Megalos City sewers. They are on a level beyond any of the thieves' guilds or groups like the Assassins and Hashashin, having been around for centuries and spread across every inch of Megalos City through its vast underworld, and are capable of being friend or foe because they literally don't care what you do as long as you're giving them money. The Syndic even allows simultaneous slaver rings and abolitionist underground railroads to pass through the same sewer tunnels as long as they pay their monthly fees. Even more unique is that the Syndic regularly hires necromancers, said by some to evidence that they are raising an undead army to protect their interests on top of the thousands of mortal laborers and agents they already have.

Oh, and the sewer alligators. Those are new.

A Quotable Selection

quote:

Harlots try to solicit the party. If refused, they follow the party for several blocks, decrying their cheapness.

quote:

The dregs are no threat to the party. These pathetic rejects of society can be treated as having 8 in all stats, with no advantages, but each with his personal assortment of strange diseases and stranger addictions.

quote:

If the party and the gladiators join forces, she's the most suspicious and unpleasant of the gladiators, and will likely react violently to any would-be human Romeos. On the other hand, if the party contains an elf, Nurrien will attach herself to the elf with near-canine devotion.

Is it a Good Adventure?
It's good enough, a simple standard fantasy adventure. It's kind of weird that it's assumed that the players will always be after the bounty rather than permitting some secret abolitionist fun from the very start, but there's very little about it you'd need to rewrite to facilitate that sort of quest.



Adventure 2: Lost Inheritance
Tagline: "A magical trip into the Darkland -- a place of strange creatures and untold dangers. Will the PCs find the inheritance and collect the reward? Or will they fall to darkhounds or the obsessed apprentice mage?"
This adventure for 125 to 150 point characters (at least one of whom is recommended to be magic-aware, if not necessarily a wizard) is created by David Dunham, whose only other GURPS credit I can find offhand is a playtester credit for GURPS Aztecs. The adventure starts out in Cardiel's capital city, but quickly moves on after the heroes learn of a fairly hefty reward being offered to adventurers willing to undertake a quest in the nearby town of Tin Hill. A thunderstorm and flash flood, fight with an illusionist-lead group of bandits, and river fording later and the heroes get to meet the surly Tin Hill craftsman by the name of Oinet. Oinet's hiring adventurers to find his inheritance, hidden by his mysterious eccentric uncle Riyan before he died, and the reward is a fourth of the inheritance and any magic items that might be in it. Before they know it, one thing leads to another and it turns out that Riyan's kitchen closet is actually a portal to a dimension called the Darkland.

The dimension is a circular land drenched in perpetual night that is made up of consecutive perfectly circular rings of habitat: a ring of barren plains, then a ring of mountains, then a ring of barren wasteland, then a ring-shaped river, then a ring of hills, and finally a central circle where an ominous glow hangs in the air. The outer layers are trial after trial of battling both the forces of nature and the dimension's hostile wildlife, as well as an encounter with a giant who the players either negotiate with through song and dance or attempt to fight (the latter being specifically intended as the wrong option, surprisingly). The final encounter is with Quiann, a black-skinned and red-haired sorceress from a dimension of darkness. It turns out that old Uncle Riyan was a wizard who found out about the Darkland, a realm where there are constant dimensional leaks that throw detritus from all over the multiverse and the normal dimension restraints of Yrth are broken, and simultaneously summoned and bound Quiann there in an attempt to forcefully create company for himself out of loneliness. By using clues they had attained throughout the adventure, the heroes can release Quiann from her bondage and allow her to return home, a kindness that she repays by revealing Oinet's inheritance: $25,000 in gems, six magic circlets that ward off all of the monsters of the Darkland, and a waistband that allows up to seven people in close proximity to transport themselves to the Darkland at will at the cost of one permanent point of their Health attribute per transport.

New Things for Yrth
The Darkland, of course. It's a place where the biggest rule of Yrth is broken entirely, which makes it an immediate draw for anyone who wants to travel to other worlds or brng something to Yrth. The only problem is that any portal other than the closet connector requires a special cosmic password, though that just means you have an adventure in and of itself getting the arcane knowledge needed to operate the Darkland in the first place. The Darkland also introduces its native creatures, created by the same magic fuckery that forged the plane itself:
  • Shadowcat: That name's a literal one, as these as lions made out of shadow. They feed on heat, and humanoid body heat happens to suit them just fine. Shadowcats take half damage from heat-based spells but double damage from cold-based ones.
  • Giant Black Scorpion: Elephant-sized black scorpions straight out of a B-movie. It probably won't come as a surprise that being stung by one of these guys hurts a boatload: 2d6 impaling damage, and then a venom that renders a victim that can't fight it off comatose for 2d6 hours.
  • Crazy: The crazies are weird white apemen with wild-eyed stares and drooling mouths. Their favored method of "attack" is suddenly ambushing in numbers, grappling opponents, and then screaming into their opponents' faces over and over again until the crazies are inevitably killed. They aren't out for blood, they're just...crazy, I guess. :shrug:
  • Nightwing: Vaguely bat-like flying shadows. Like shadowcats, these guys seek heat to eat.
  • Black Eel: Technically black lampreys, but whatever. These guys swim throughout the river of the Darkland and will latch on en masse to suck your blood if you wade in.
  • Darkwolf: A murderous blcak hound with red eyes and acidic saliva. These guys are said to be some of the most dangerous predators in the Darkland, attacking in packs and dripping right through damage resistance as they attack for no reason other than because they like to attack things.
  • Brillet: Weird six-legged rat things. They can mimic speech, and specifically parrot one sentence they hear over and over again. Brillets are meant to be used as an extra way to convey random information to the players and have a list of pre-made statements to that end.
  • Black Guardian: One of these guys stands at each of the bridges that cross the chasm around the inner circle of the Darkland. They're obsidian giants with four arms, two of which end in giant broadswords, and are only interested in guarding the inner circle and its portal. If you kill a black guardian, the other five immediately teleport to your position in an attempt to kick your rear end.
  • The Spider: The only way across the chasm other than the bridges of the black guardians is going across the titanic web of this black spider, which is just as immense as the black scorpions found in the wastelands. It's statisticaly probably easier to kill this guy than even one black guardian, but it has the advantages of lots of sticky webbing that heroes can get trapped in if they aren't careful and a venom that knocks you out for 1d6 hours while it wraps you up and prepares to suck your innards out like a Slurpee.

A Quotable Selection

quote:

Riyan's will made no provisions for Nringa, who, to be honest, is something of a shrew.

quote:

Grundge will not relate any useful information until someone in the party sings for him. Grundge likes to dance, and he asks the PCs to sing something. He gyrates clumsily to whatever tune the group can come up with (devious GMs will require their players to actually sing the song).

Is it a Good Adventure?
While it's not meant to be so character points-wise, this is a really good end game adventure for a Yrth campaign with people who were taken by a Banestorm in living memory. What greater accomplishment would there be than to find the fabled way back home? Of course, even if they aren't people who want to go back again, the Darkland nonetheless provides a different setting than most Yrth adventures, and can allow all sorts of crossover potential. It is a portal to all multiverses, after all.



Adventure 3: Sahudese Fire Drill
Tagline: "Tired of the same old adventures? Here's a change of pace. Babysit a hundred screaming Sahudese while their clan leader visits Megalos. All you have to do is keep them safe and happy – while they tear the city apart . . ."

This dumpster fire piece of garbage adventure was written by Walter Milliken, frequent In Nomine contributor, co-author of GURPS Illuminati University, and co-suer in Steve Jackson Games v. United States Secret Service along with Steve Jackson himself. How the hell he managed to go from those to this is a mystery. The adventure is meant to be a comedy session with the player characters taking the brunt of the joke, there is no suggested point level as a result, and the recommended reading to "get in the proper mood" are Monty Python, Abbott and Costello, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Because if there's anything we know is great at the gaming table, it's someone prepared to quote Monty Python ad nauseum.

The plot of the adventure is that the heroes are hired by a Megalan merchant named Marcus Aurifactus to escort the Sahudese silk merchants of Clan Yarohito through Megalos City. This involves hilarious antics and dialogue such as "Wourd be gleat honol to meet today, but must pelfolm Lituar of Gakimaju filst," "excuse prease. Must stand on one foot, ol offend spilits," and "Herro. You all Malcus peeper? Humber serf is Yarohito Shimota. My peeper unship now".

...Jesus Christ, how was this written in 1991 and not, like, 1943?

Anyway, this clusterfuck eventually congeals into a three-way event with a summoned fire elemental conjured by an rear end in a top hat Sahudese child mage, ninjas with smoke bombs that turn people into animals as a prank, and an attempted poisoning by a rival merchant house that doesn't want the deal between Marcus and Clan Yarohito go through. Things all smooth out in the end and the heroes can hopefully move on and pretend this never happened.

New Things for Yrth
No.

Quotable Selections
I was really tempted to just fill this one with all the gratuitous swapping of Ls and Rs, but I decided it would be better to highlight some of the other dumb poo poo.

quote:

A success locates someone who's actually met a Sahudese before. Make a reaction roll at -4. If the reaction is Poor or worse, the person merely shudders and walks away. A Neutral or Good reaction elicits the comment, "No. You don't want to know. Really, you don't."

quote:

There are lots of Sahudese retainers with the Yarohitos. And Megalans aren't familiar with their facial features, so the PCs will have trouble tellin various of the foreigners apart.

quote:

Because of their difficulties in telling apart the "round eyes", the Sahudese are fooled by the simplest of disguises, even accidental ones like ladies' cosmetics.

quote:

Naturally, when Sahudese speak Anglish, they do it with a horrible accent. Study 1940s and 1950s movies with Oriental characters as a model. Several Monty Python episodes also feature extremely phony-sounding Japanese accents. Try to emulate them.

quote:

After the characters have seen some of the Sahudese customs in action, they may feel that they understand them. Not likely! Every custom is hedged around with conditions and modifiers. The time of day, the phase of the moon, and the number of people present in the room are all good reasons to change the way a custom is applied. An honor in the morning may be an insult in the afternoon.

quote:

No Oriental character is complete without a few phrases of Oriental wisdom. Except the Sahudese - they have plenty of sayings, but it's very hard to extract wisdom from them.

Is it a Good Adventure?
Sahud was a mistake.



Adventure 4: Mordag's Little Finger
Tagline: "It's time to visit the Bad Side of Town. In this adventure, the party attempts to track down a clever master thief through the back alleys of the worst neighborhood in the city – Northside, where a meeting could get you choice information . . . or land you in the morgue."

David Pulver! Buddy! Good to see you. This adventure is meant for 100 to 125 point characters, and involves them engaging in questing at the behest of the Sorceress in Silver. A beautiful raven-haired woman from an unstated foreign region (and master of the Dreamworks Face if we go by the artwork), the Sorceress has made a name for herself in the Christian lands as an honest and God-fearing woman. The job? Find a thief and master of disguise by the name of Saragrave and take back the little finger of Mordag. Mordag was an evil giant mage slain by a legendary wizard, who took one of Mordag's finger bones and enchanted it into a staff. The staff was eventually acquired by the Sorceress and lent to her apprentice Maewen, but was stolen after Saragrave murdered her in cold blood. The trail begins with the tale of Mordag himself. It turns out that legend says that the slayer of Mordag was a legendary necromancer from the realm of Hordag Loi, who was rewarded with a Pale Tower in the rogue town of Northside by the local duke after saving his son from Mordag. The necromancer herself would eventually fall to the equally legendary blue dragon of Wye, while the duke's son would become a great warrior and father whose grandson now leads the duchy that Northside is located in.

Various adventures and misadventures with local ruffians, toughs, and even a bone golem lead to the Pale Tower, where it turns out that Saragrave is the thrall of none other than Mordag himself. It turns out that not only is he a giant mage, he's a giant vampire mage, and one with the lich-like ability to resurface again and again due to his finger bone secretly being a Soul Gem phylactery. In the end, the Sorceress is understanding if the heroes destroy the staff to end the menace of Mordag forever, but she will pay them far more for their efforts if they think outside of the box and figure out a way to both keep the staff intact and destroy Mordag's soul, such as using another casting of Soul Jar to pop him into some far less valuable object and then destroy that.

New Things for Yrth
Northside is an Anytown, Ytarria, specifically unstated in location beyond being somewhere in the Christian lands. As such, it can be retooled for any number of future adventures – hell, there even are some suggestions for using Northside past Mordag's Little Finger in the adventure notes. The Sorceress in Silver is also a powerful and potentially wonderful patron to have after you've avenged the death of her apprentice and gained her gratitude.

A Quotable Selection
None, really. It's a good adventure, but also kind of a straightforward and dry one.

Is it a Good Adventure?
Well, I just said it was, and I doubt I changed my mind in the course of putting in another paragraph. I'd definitely caution against throwing 100 point characters at this problem, though, in spite of the recommended character cost. Mordag's a very powerful foe even without his magic, and has the aid of a fairly durable thief and summoned demon if he wishes.

Maxwell Lord
Dec 12, 2008

I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.


:smith:

Grimey Drawer
At some point BNW's designers should have realized they were going to run out of useful splats quickly.

Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


Fossilized Rappy posted:

Adventure 3: Sahudese Fire Drill

Christ on the Cross. I seriously want to track the author or Steve Jackson down and ask what the gently caress were they thinking writing and publishing this.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



I'm just impressed that the Duplicator is one of the best powers in the game, when it's basically Duo Damsel from Legion of Superheroes.

I mean, she has one of the crappiest power sets in the group based around coming up with weird-rear end power sets, but worse because of getting killed by robots, and she's still riding high on the badass heap around these parts. I hesitate to imagine how dangerous Matter Eater Lad would be around here.

(I mean, on top of everything else he's a lawyer, senator, and beloved TV personality. How's Kennedy going to stop that?)

Maxwell Lord
Dec 12, 2008

I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.


:smith:

Grimey Drawer
To say nothing of Bouncing Boy.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

holy gently caress - what editor was sleeping on the job for that book because I can't imagine even for when it was published that no one would've noticed how horribly racist it is.

Young Freud
Nov 26, 2006

Count Chocula posted:

Is post-post-apocalypse pre-Dying Earth? That's a fun setting- weird ruined empires at the end of time. See some Moorcock, Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance, M. John Harrison.

Huh, the Smuggler is a full Cronenberg.

I think Dying Earth is the epitome of the post-apocalypse.

And yeah, I thought the same thing. I'm pretty sure Forbeck thought it was like some sort of Wiley Coyote hole, but I too immediately went to Videodrome.

chiasaur11 posted:

I'm just impressed that the Duplicator is one of the best powers in the game, when it's basically Duo Damsel from Legion of Superheroes.

I mean, she has one of the crappiest power sets in the group based around coming up with weird-rear end power sets, but worse because of getting killed by robots, and she's still riding high on the badass heap around these parts. I hesitate to imagine how dangerous Matter Eater Lad would be around here.

(I mean, on top of everything else he's a lawyer, senator, and beloved TV personality. How's Kennedy going to stop that?)

Doubler is just a worst Multiple Man in my eyes :colbert:

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
I'm not surprised at Sahudese Fire Drill at all, even now there's all kinds of poo poo people try to pass off under the guise of joking. There's a Dragon article of the same vintage giving rules for inflicting mental illnesses on PCs, with examples that are played strictly for lovely laughs.

I may see if I can find Space Adventures, because while Beware the Health Police isn't steeped in cringeworthy racism, it's got a poo poo joke that's integral to the plot.

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib

Fossilized Rappy posted:

Adventure 3: Sahudese Fire Drill
Tagline: "Tired of the same old adventures? Here's a change of pace. Babysit a hundred screaming Sahudese while their clan leader visits Megalos. All you have to do is keep them safe and happy – while they tear the city apart . . ."

Wow. Of all the things I would have never expected to find in a GURPS sourcebook, an entire chapter of someone's Joe Jitsu fanfiction is certainly somewhere at the top of the list.

Count Chocula
Dec 25, 2011

WE HAVE TO CONTROL OUR ENVIRONMENT
IF YOU SEE ME POSTING OUTSIDE OF THE AUSPOL THREAD PLEASE TELL ME THAT I'M MISSED AND TO START POSTING AGAIN

Young Freud posted:

I think Dying Earth is the epitome of the post-apocalypse.

And yeah, I thought the same thing. I'm pretty sure Forbeck thought it was like some sort of Wiley Coyote hole, but I too immediately went to Videodrome.


Doubler is just a worst Multiple Man in my eyes :colbert:

Stealing something from BNW to put in Unknown Armies would be bizarre, but a smuggling flesh-pouch is exactly the right mix of situationally useful and horrifically creepy that you want in that game (or at least I do; YMMV).

Hostile V
May 31, 2013

Solving all of life's problems through enhanced casting of Occam's Razor. Reward yourself with an imaginary chalice.

It wouldn't be out of place on an Epideromancer.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
Sahudese Fire Drill sounds something more appropriate to the WW2 Brave New World book.

Fossilized Rappy
Dec 26, 2012

Bieeardo posted:

I'm not surprised at Sahudese Fire Drill at all, even now there's all kinds of poo poo people try to pass off under the guise of joking. There's a Dragon article of the same vintage giving rules for inflicting mental illnesses on PCs, with examples that are played strictly for lovely laughs.
Yeah, the idea is presumably that it's meant to be an over-the-top parody. Unfortunately, being an over the top parody doesn't save your writing from being awkward as hell. "Ironic racism is often indistinguishable from real racism" and all that.

I think the problem is exacerbated by the fact that Sahud is already so poo poo on compared to the other nations. Poor Sahud is just there to be "aren't these guys weird and wacky?", and the idea about it being a melting pot of various eastern Asian cultures (and those Native Americans that stayed whose culture mysteriously hasn't influenced Sahud at all) just falls away. It would be far more interesting if they had at least tried to give Sahud an actual piecemeal culture rather than just shrug and say they're weird and confusing. Maybe the Iroquious got in on it and there's their confederation concept at the core, but with the religious and political structure being that of the Celestial Bureaucracy. Maybe India got in on the mix and there are vestiges of the Mughal Empire. Maybe they didn't all unanimously choose Japanese nomenclature for naming places and people because seriously. Just do something more with Sahud.

It wouldn't hurt for a hypothetical GURPS Banestorm 2/Yrth 3 to expand the Orc Lands beyond "there are orcs here. They do orc things" as well.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Very few RPGs will ever do much with Asia besides 'The Mysterious Far East Land of Katana and Ninja' .

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
In any roleplaying game set in the future, Japan will have 1600s feudal samurai running a 1980s economy.

China will either revert to Maoism, Confucianism, or both, as written by someone who doesn't understand either.

unseenlibrarian
Jun 4, 2012

There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.

Night10194 posted:

Very few RPGs will ever do much with Asia besides 'The Mysterious Far East Land of Katana and Ninja' .

The big bugaboo I've seen a few Chinese and Korean-American gamers complain about : "Oh, they're all Asia, right? We'll just have fictional Japan form some sort of...Asian Co-operative Wealth Circle so we can assume everything we know from Anime about Japan is also true about China and Korea and occasionally Vietnam!"

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

unseenlibrarian posted:

The big bugaboo I've seen a few Chinese and Korean-American gamers complain about : "Oh, they're all Asia, right? We'll just have fictional Japan form some sort of...Asian Co-operative Wealth Circle so we can assume everything we know from Anime about Japan is also true about China and Korea and occasionally Vietnam!"

Which the American authors especially don't understand is super hosed up. Most American authors have no idea how hosed up WWII was in Asia.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso

unseenlibrarian posted:

We'll just have fictional Japan form some sort of...Asian Co-operative Wealth Circle
I'm sure the Koreans just love that. There's certainly nothing in the history of East Asia that would make such a thing offensive...

I recall that Trinity had some missteps in how it handled other cultures, but it went out of its way to make Africa, China, and Southeast Asia economic powers for reasons that were plausible.

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Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Halloween Jack posted:

I'm sure the Koreans just love that. There's certainly nothing in the history of East Asia that would make such a thing offensive...

I recall that Trinity had some missteps in how it handled other cultures, but it went out of its way to make Africa, China, and Southeast Asia economic powers for reasons that were plausible.

It was amusing seeing the weeaboos' reaction to the state of east Asia in the Beyond Earth computer games: after a century or so of ecological upheaval and nuclear war, east Asia has settled into a "Pan-Asian Cooperative" that everyone in-setting knows is China and Korea bullying the entire region into submission - China has the industry and military, Korea (reunified, ruled from Seoul) has the money and tech. China and Korea don't particularly like each other, but the PAC is too useful to discard.

Some people were so goddamn angry when Korea became a playable faction and their backstory revealed that Japan in the 2200s has declined into a nonentity on the world stage and hopelessly economically dependent on Korea.

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