Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Falconier111 posted:

Eh, they do play the magical serial killer aspect of the heightless in the book a lot, especially the "fiendish intelligence". They also get any advantages they have doubled, so a generally likeable fellow gains serial-killer charm :v:

My brain goes straight to Leprechaun in that regard. :shobon:

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Traveller
Jan 6, 2012

WHIM AND FOPPERY

Legend of the Five Rings First Edition

The GM Pack: GM Abuse Edition

So, it's time for the original L5R Game Master Pack! This kinda stuff is normally just a GM screen and maybe an adventure. There's the screen as well as the adventure, but...

It starts giving us the Kharma Rule. In a game as lethal as L5R, players "understandably" can get quite tired of of every character they make ending their life with their own sword in their gut. At the GM's desire, a player can make a new PC depending on how well their previous character had fulfilled his dharma, his Celestial Order-given role in life. The new character gets some of the points of the dead one. In the example given, the new PC uses the old character's Insight as CP, but Trait costs are increased to 10 from the corebook's 8. I'm not sure I'm reading this right - even a starter character would have an Insight of 120ish points, which is a hell of a lot compared to the measly 25 you get as a clan samurai or the 45 you get as a true ronin. Unless you are meant to buy all the things that chargen characters start with like 2 ranks in all Rings, a rank of Glory and starting Honor, but if you had to buy all your Rings from scratch it would take 184 points with the new values, so I don't know. At any rate, the idea is that players can throw away their characters lives more freely and try for daring, honorable deeds to score more points for their later characters, but not everyone has a just shy from gempukku kid to make this work. This ain't Pendragon, bud.

So far, so good, now---


A cool battle pic before the :barf:

quote:

For Your Eyes Only
By John Wick

(Or, "Never Give A Player An Even Break")

Hoo, boy.

Okay, so the GM section of the corebook had GM advice. And honestly, it seems fair to me. But players always read the GM sections, so this is the REAL GM advice. (Players could conceivably buy the GM Pack themselves, but it's less likely, see.) See, the GM cheats, and cheats big. Cheats so big the players would lynch them if they found out. Because...

THE WICK posted:

Some RPGs tell you to be fair.
Others tell you to be arbitrary.
Not us.
We tell you to hit your players below the belt.
Never give 'em a break.
Never let up.
Never take it easy on them .
Why? Because they'll hate you if you do.
The fact of the matter is, players are a masochistic lot. They want you to run their characters through the grinder. They want you to take advantage of their character's weaknesses. To pummel them mercilessly and leave them in a bloody pulp.

I know, I know. John has moved on, he isn't that guy anymore, so on and so forth. But still, repeat after me:

No, you piece of poo poo.

He talks about running an adventure called The Anvil of Despair, involving carrying a cursed anvil to the Shadowlands. The party got their asses kicked to hell and back but still showed up next Friday to play. See, they're masochists! Hurt their characters, because pain builds character. :smuggo:

How do you handle "power players"? Wick-style. One player made a tough Crab samurai because they were going on a Shadowlands quest. That character was super minmaxed, taking Taint points and having no social skills to pump up their combat abilities because John never makes people roll when they RP well, and our man had a choice - he could talk about it with him and tell him to remake the character, or go along. And he did, giving everyone a quest to go into the Shadowlands, and then suddenly some Scorpion samurai yells at the daimyo and demands to replace the brutish, corrupted, useless and worthless Crab. And he succeeds, obviously, since he has the social skills the Crab lacks.And the Crab stayed home, and the player made a new PC, and John magnanimously let him have extra points to catch up with the other PCs. :sigh:

No, you piece of poo poo.

But you know, be responsible! Don't ruin the players' fun!


Don't be this guy, seriously.

After some errata (including more :smuggo: on how lethal the game is - in real life, you only need to be hit once, L5R players can take usually TWO hits before dying, feel free to raise the Earth multiplier though) we get rules for the Shadowlands Taint. The Taint is a sort of sixth element aside from the other five, created by the presence of Fu Leng. It is the element of Corruption, and it is contagious. Those infected by it see their body becoming sickly and their mind turning to senseless violence and bloodshed, until they become unthinking pawns of Fu Leng. The Phoenix have developed unreliable spells to deal with this sickness, while it is rumored that some Kuni shugenja deliberately expose warriors to the Taint - after all, it does make a warrior stronger and only Crane care about how they look. All Shadowlands creatures have the Taint, which is ranked from 1 to 5 and has 10 points in each rank like Honor or Glory. Every 24 hours of exposure to the Taint forces a character to make a TN 5 Earth roll. Failing this means the character acquires 1d5 Taint points. Succeeding clears the character for another 24 hours, after which they have to make another Earth roll with an extra +5 every 24 hours. Jade wards off the Taint's corruption: a finger-sized piece of jade lets the character skip the Taint rolls for around a week. The jade absorbs the corruption until it becomes blackened and stained. Tainted characters may add their Taint rank to any physical Trait for one roll, but this adds one Shadowlands Point. They also subtract their Taint rank from any social interaction rolls. If their Taint rank ever exceeds their highest Trait, they succumb to it and become an NPC. The Phoenix and Crab have developed a ritual, Purification, that removes 1 Taint Point for every shugenja participating in the ritual, but also gives them 1 point each.

Maho! The three shugenja best known for their forbidden knowledge are Nakanu, Yajinden and Iuchiban. Remember him? He made those bloodsword dealies. He was put to death, but came back, and eventually was defeated again and entombed deep in the Shinomen forest, in a, shall we say, dungeon made by Crab engineers and Phoenix and Scorpion shugenja. Even now, the name of Iuchiban gives the creeps to people. Maho is basically praying to Fu Leng, deep in the Shadowlands. It uses Earth + Taint as its casting roll, and all maho spells require blood to be shed - either the shugenja or from someone else. The Mastery score of the spell is how many Wounds of blood must be spilled for the spell to work. Every time a maho spell is cast, the shugenja gets (Mastery x 2) Shadowlands Points. Raises require additional blood sacrifices instead of increasing the TN.

  • Animate the Dead: one corpse is raised as a skeleton or zombie, depending on how decomposed they are. Lasts a month.
  • Blood of Midnight: imbues target with bloodlust, increasing attack and damage dice in 4. They must spend one round butchering and tasting the blood of any foe they kill, the duration is increased for each casualty, and after it is over the target must roll Honor against their kills x 5 or lose one Honor point. The target is aware, but unable to control their actions.
  • Corruption of the Earth: an area under the target's feet becomes deep mud that starts swallowing anyone on it at the rate of 2 feet per action. It requires Total concentration, though.
  • Curse : target is cursed. The TN and blood requirements are low but this needs the caster to have a lock of hair, ounce or blood, or something else that was part of the target's body. This item must be held in physical contact by the caster at all times, or the curse breaks (this is the only way to break it, in fact) Some example curses are stuff like a ladykiller Crane finding that literally no woman can resist him, a Scorpion that everyone trusts, an Unicorn that cannot sleep twice under the same roof and so on. Curses should be challenging but also fun for the player, and care must be taken so that they don't ruin their fun.
  • Dark Divination: Caster can ask yes/no questions of the GM that they must answer truthfully, they get 8 Shadowlands points per question though.
  • Summon Garegosu no Bakemono: this summons a Garegosu, an elephant-sized tentacle monster that devours enemies and adds the Earth of anyone it kills and digests to its own. It's awful enough to require Willpower rolls not to flee from it on sight or when it starts eating someone. The shugenja is always safe from the beast.
  • Summon Oni: this requires the caster to write the name of a living person on a scroll. If the person is unwilling, Void vs Void roll or the summon TN is increased. Once summoned, the Oni and the named person become mystically linked, but it is whoever possesses the scroll that can order the Oni around. The linked person starts gaining Shadowlands Points at an accelerated rate, and jade cannot stop this. If the scroll is destroyed, the oni is sent back to Fu Leng's realm, but if the linked person is overcome by the Taint the oni is freed to do whatever it wants.
  • Summon Swamp Spirits: must be cast near still water, summons some weak swamp monsters. +1 monster per Raise.
  • Summon Revenant: summons an undead champion, the summoning can be made permanent if the caster is willing to sacrifice a full Earth rank.
  • Stealing the Soul: ritual, target loses one point per shugenja from every Trait down to a minimum of 1 Trait rank. Lasts "only" 8 actions but it doesn't specify a minimum range or anything :ohdear:
  • Touch of Death: Ray of Death! DR is 7. Range is 10 feet + 2 per Raise though.

Next: going into the Shadowlands is the least dangerous option.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Bieeardo posted:

I'm seeing Nick Cage in Savage RIFTS, screaming 'Not the D-Bees!'

"How'd it get burst, how'd it get burst?"

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!
Yeah, the Kharma Rules were entirely busted, they let you massively level up by dying in a GM-approved manner. Wick has always needed to rely on others for design math, and if they aren't around...

Falconier111
Jul 18, 2012

S T A R M E T A L C A S T E
GURPS FANTASY II: MADLANDS

6.75 – BESTIARY GRABBAG


Dance before the power of my flaming crotch! Dance!
This picture has nothing to do with this section, it’s just amazing.

So, we’ve covered all the true Madlands monsters but there’s still stuff to go before we finish the chapter. Like mutants! Yes, they have mutants in a low fantasy setting, but not these mutants. Animals are as vulnerable to weird magical poo poo as humans, but instead of turning into one of a few standardized monsters every mutant is its own strange anime creature (“anime” was a typo, but it’s pretty fitting so it stays). Remember hauntings? If a particularly stupid monster decides to set up shop in one of them, it comes out pretty horrifying;

”GURPS Fantasy II: Adventures in the Madlands” posted:

Anything is possible: flying weasels, carnivorous rabbits with saber teeth, cyclopean wolves with poisonous breath or intelligent hornet colonies with hypnotic powers… Rivers are populated with monstrous fish: giant electric eels, char that act like piranhas and muskellunge that feed like sharks.
Fun! Also, a Monty Python quote in an RPG book? Classy. Incidentally, Madlanders don’t go ever go fishing inland because many rivers originated in some godly event. However, though these monster-fish are members of stable species, many mutants are one-offs that don’t or can’t reproduce; most others can and do produce offspring with members of their root species, but those offspring almost never inherit the extreme mutation. Just like real life! :eng101:

There are two given examples of mutant animals. The first is a rattlesnake with telepathy that just uses it to tell you your most secret desires. The other is a raccoon that likes to steal fish from drying racks and shoots loving laser beams from its eyes. Fun!


Man, I got way too drunk last night. Guys, what happened after I blacked out? Guys?

Those poor Madlanders who don’t get a proper burial and don’t turn into monsters turn into undead. Madlands undead closely resemble revenants; they gain special powers related to the opposite of their virtues in life (wisdom turns into irrationality, kindness into sadism, their flaws magnified (gluttons can unhinge their jaws like a snake, blowhards turn into banshees) their personalities in general (drunkards autocast aura of intoxication, storytellers gain hypnosis powers), or just whatever they need to start loving people up. They also look the part, usually visually reflecting their deaths like a headless guy carrying his head Sleepy Hollow-style. Undead target people they were close to in life, try to kill friends or pursue desires left unfulfilled

”GURPS Fantasy II: Adventures in the Madlands” posted:

The subject of an old unrequited crush might be targeted for abduction and a fate worse than death.
:nallears:

Ghosts also exist. They’re much rarer than undead (though they can be left behind by anyone), only showing up in certain circumstances. Sometimes, they straight up don’t realize they’re dead; sometimes, they have some emotional tie to the world they can’t dump on the way to the afterlife; sometimes someone just thinks of them too much, or because some idiot named their kid after them which allows the ghost to possess the infant. They have supernatural powers undead-style with a weird and probably unintentional twist; the book tells you to make ghosts by removing all their physical stats and skills and dumping their point value into powers, which means Ug the village idiot can move mountains and the village’s wisest elder can throw around a pot maybe. Ghosts are, well, insubstantial and can’t be harmed, but they can only show up under very specific circumstances like times of day or weather conditions. How do you make a ghost go away? Good question!



The pigdog, man’s worst enemy (except for everything else in the Madlands).

poo poo That Isn’t Supernatural

The grab-bag of the grab-bag. The end of the chapter includes a bestiary of the Madlands (imagine Fantasy Canada) with some unusual notes;
  • Porcupines are “sometimes heard whistling popular Madlander songs, usually slightly off-key”.
  • Skunks have peacock-level beautiful feathers that would be very valuable if they weren’t attached to skunks.
  • Wild boars are replaced ecologically by “pigdogs”, tusked canines that like to raid villages for their tubers. Everyone hates pigdogs.Isn’t Zuutak described as a boar? How would Madlanders even know what a boar looks like? I don’t see evidence they exist in the Madlands in the rest of the book.
  • Maybe one in six squirrels can turn their face vaguely human-looking as a defense mechanism. Madlander hunters, when not too startled to let them escape, kill them on principle.
  • Wolverines eat iron ore to make their coats harder.
  • Deer have patterns on their fur that change from generation to generation, and this generation’s pattern resembles something gnawing on a human ear.
  • Mountain lions like to hang out with ghosts.
  • Killer whales might be both intelligent and inherently evil, but they’ve never spoken to Madlanders so no one knows for sure. The seals swear it’s true, but the seals swear a lot of things.
What a gloriously weird list :allears:

Incidentally.


Honey, I know someone will buy your self-portrait, you just have to give it more time.

Some seals in the Madlands are just ordinary seals (barely worth mentioning), but other seals are fully intelligent sapient beings; Madlanders consider them straight-up humans as far as crimes such as murder are concerned, an honor non-Madlander humans don’t receive. Seals like to eat (they eat the same things that Earth seals do) and bask after a good meal (they like laying around in the sun so much they’ll kill hostile interlopers with bites from a mouth filled with sharp teeth). Short of those two things, seals like to talk; they like to talk and tell stories and tell jokes and especially make verbal contracts and double especially combine those last two. Though a seal’s word can be always be trusted by a human, it has to be their exact word; they love finding and exploiting loopholes in such agreements and like to do so in such a way that it humiliates their opposite number. If you try to argue against one, it will just continue to argue until either side gives up, and seals can go a couple weeks without eating so good luck. Such arguments among seals can last for said weeks until hunger finally gets to the loser.

Seals are individualists to their cores. They don’t oppose social relationships per se, but they rarely form permanent attachments; even mates only stay together during mating seasons, and seal cubs, creatures as intelligent as humans who need over a decade of socialization to function, only stay with their parents for two years. However, they have a powerful shared culture (presumably that’s how seal children are educated) that prizes humor, songs, and stories. According to the book, seals try to enter human contests in all of the above. They even create physical art (granted, stone sculptures of seals made by nosing rocks into piles). And part of this culture – a part they carefully conceal from Madlanders – is their use of Epic sorcery, a form of magic very different from the god-based shamanism familiar to Madlanders. Apparently nobody knows how the seals learned it and they sure aren’t telling. They can speak Soulless, though, so that’s probably how they got ahold of it. I’ll touch on the soulless at the end of the post.


I like this chapter. Though some monsters are less inspired than others (coughheightlesscough) almost all of them can be a monster of the week or help form the basis of a story arc. The ordinary Madlands animals, though, are probably my favorite part, as quiet and unobtrusive as they are compared to homicidal organ-skeletons and raccoons that shoot laser beams and mind-reading feet. Nothing quite conveys how weird the Madlands are better than encountering a squirrel that suddenly looks like a person or hearing a porcupine give a drunken rendition of a folk song. It’s just so beautiful :allears:


We’re almost at the end of the setting information. In page length. Not in post length. Oh, mercy, no. This next chapter has the exact same page count as the last but I’ll be lucky to get through it in three long-rear end posts, as it’s so dense with information that I, by my estimation, can cut down its word count maybe to a third without distorting the text, whereas I could reduce a half-page to a paragraph here. The next chapter deals with the Soulless, the only Madlands monster not covered in chapter Six. They are not proper Madlands monsters, though. They are elves. They are also dwarves. And they are the most terrifying example of either I’ve ever encountered.


Next time: our elves are the worst elves

Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Aug 14, 2016

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

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

How is the squirrel thing a survival mechanism? They get killed on principle...wouldn't being a normal squirrel and hiding be easier for that?

Simian_Prime
Nov 6, 2011

When they passed out body parts in the comics today, I got Cathy's nose and Dick Tracy's private parts.
Madlands seems like the kind of setting that'd be perfect to adapt into a Lamentations of the Flame Princess module.

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


Why does anyone actually live in the Madlands? Is there something stopping them from leaving?

FMguru
Sep 10, 2003

peed on;
sexually

wiegieman posted:

Why does anyone actually live in the Madlands? Is there something stopping them from leaving?
The same reason Eskimos live near the arctic circle, or Bedouins live in the sahara desert - all the other good land is taken and held by people stronger than them, and they've long adapted to living in that place.

SirPhoebos
Dec 10, 2007

WELL THAT JUST HAPPENED!

Traveller posted:

Legend of the Five Rings First Edition

The GM Pack: GM Abuse Edition

I know it's been said a thousand times on this thread, but gently caress you, John Wick.

AmiYumi
Oct 10, 2005

I FORGOT TO HAIL KING TORG
I remember actually liking (and running) the adventure in that GM Pack, albeit in a wildly-expanded form that ended with the some of the PCs joining/taking over the nearly-destroyed minor clan. Which I remember the pack giving the impression was, like, a half-dozen people at most.

Falconier111
Jul 18, 2012

S T A R M E T A L C A S T E

Mors Rattus posted:

How is the squirrel thing a survival mechanism? They get killed on principle...wouldn't being a normal squirrel and hiding be easier for that?

It startles hunters. Even if you already know it happens, a squirrel suddenly looking like your dead Uncle Harry takes a second to recover from.

FMguru posted:

The same reason Eskimos live near the arctic circle, or Bedouins live in the sahara desert - all the other good land is taken and held by people stronger than them, and they've long adapted to living in that place.

The second one, most of all. They stoutly believe everywhere else is worse and prefer the land of their ancestors.


Simian_Prime posted:

Madlands seems like the kind of setting that'd be perfect to adapt into a Lamentations of the Flame Princess module.

I'm thinking an *world hack would do nicely.

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
Makes me think of a grimmer Edrighor. Hope is meaningless, maltheist ritual is all that's keeping you alive.

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


Falconier111 posted:

The second one, most of all. They stoutly believe everywhere else is worse and prefer the land of their ancestors.

Oh, I can't wait to hear what they think the other places have that's worse than giant feet monsters.

MollyMetroid
Jan 20, 2004

Trout Clan Daimyo
Probably "things we don't know what they are or how to avoid them or deal with them"

Josef bugman
Nov 17, 2011

Pictured: Poster prepares to celebrate Holy Communion (probablY)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund


Now to get back into Glorantha for a bit, lets start with some of the None Human creatures of Glorantha. Starting with the ones that are written the most about and then working down.

The Uz


The Uz are the darkness folk. Before time they lived in what they called "wonderhome" or "hell" by everyone else. It was a paradise, where tehre was always a lot of food and their vast mother Kyger Litor looked after them (trolls respect their mothers. Its because they are scary). However when Orlanth Killed Yelm (or through some other mythological event that sends the sun away) the Trolls suddenly had to deal with a terrifying golden spectre destroying them. Despite their best efforts they lost and were forced to flee to "the hurt place" or middle world. Trolls adapted well to the suddenly darkened middle world and took to beating the ever loving poo poo out of everyone they came across, making several troll Queendoms across Glorantha.

Then Chaos entered the world, following paths that the trolls had partially opened, but had become truly opened through other means. Now trolls loath chaos. The hatred between Darkness and Chaos is absolute and often to the point of fantaicism. The trolls were the strongest and fought in many battles against chaos, but they had almost lost. However Kyger Litor was able to go to hell whilst her grandson The Only Old One, forged the mortal races together to win the Unity battle. The victory reopened wonder home to the trolls and made them a part of time. The trolls were ridiculously strong during the early first age, several thousand of them survived into time and they were all connected by their queens. They helped humanity (as well as dwarves and Elves) after the dawn and made peace, even as many of them grumbled about not being as full as they should be. This was called the Unity Council, and for 300 years or so after the dawn it worked!


The Battle of Night and Day

Then? Well then people started getting funny ideas about bringing the god time back and it ended about as well as you think it would. The trolls left teh council en masse and assisted the rebelling Orlanthi against the Bright God Nyalsor. Who, at the battle of night and day, cursed the entire troll race. You see the Trolls at the battle had formed into a massive shadowy Kyger Litor and swallowed the appearing light of Nyalsor. Then he tore his way out of her innards. This crippled the Uz. Suddenly the painful births that they went through would not neccesarily lead to the birth of healthy trolls but of mewling, stunted abominations called "trollkin". Since then things haven't gotten that much better for the Uz. Their strength is waning and despite some successes in breeding different forms of trolls they have not been able to stop the Curse of Kin. Now the only old one is dead by the hand of a foreign adventurer and the ancient queendoms are starting to prepare, as best as possible, for the hero wars.


Troll Sizes

Now to decribe them Trolls are big. The average troll is about 6-7 feet tall, very powerfully muscled and possessed of an unending hunger. They can eat, quite literally, anything. This includes the air that would normally be "breathed" and sometimes darkness that they live in. That is not to say they enjoy the taste, but they can survive on virtually anything. The average Troll (also called a dark troll) is also not particularly bothered about where he lives. In one quote it mentions how "An average troll would not care if he slept under silk sheets or a horse carcass, except that the horse may make a good midnight snack". You also have the Mistress Race trolls. These are very rare and very few have been born inside time. They are all connected to Kyger Litor and are frequently terrifyingly powerful magic users. The troll kin are tiny, annoying mostrosities that are painful to birth and are constantly screaming "eat me" to trolls every time they get lost or tired.

BinaryDoubts
Jun 6, 2013

Looking at it now, it really is disgusting. The flesh is transparent. From the start, I had no idea if it would even make a clapping sound. So I diligently reproduced everything about human hands, the bones, joints, and muscles, and then made them slap each other pretty hard.

Asymmetric Cryptography for the Modern Elf... Let's Read Cryptomancer! (Part 3)
When we last left off, I'd covered the basics on shards, shardnets, and keyphrase encryption. Now, let's dive in a little deeper and see just how far the authors can contort their fantasy world to allow for another kind of encryption: private-key encryption! (But with magic). In the world of Cryptomancer, every sentient being has three types of names: common names, true names, and soul keys. The first is self-explanatory, it's the name you're given by your parents (or chose yourself) and it's usually shared freely. The second name is much more carefully chosen (and guarded) - it's your true name.

True names are chosen by the child's parents at birth (what happens if the mother dies in childbirth and there's no father present is unclear) and are entirely unique: whatever magical forces control the true name system simply won't allow for a previously-used true name to be assigned to the child. The child's true name is usually kept secret from them until they're old enough to understand how important it is - it wouldn't do to have your five-year-old shouting their cool new name from the rooftops. Again, there's nothing written about what happens if the parents die before telling the child their true name, but let's just assume that the God of Crypto will whisper it in the kid's ear if that ever happens. Anyway, true names are powerful (you can use them to target spells, for example) so they're usually kept secret except from your closest friends, allies, and confidantes.

Finally, everyone who has a true name also has a corresponding soul key. They're words that "defy logic and nature", which you can read as "the author didn't figure out a good explanation" or as a fun mystery. Either way, they're so powerful that you don't even know your own soul key - you can sort of evoke it, but you won't remember exactly what you thought or said. When spoken aloud, "time stops and all within earshot enter a sudden trance," which just raises all sorts of extra questions (can you chant your soul key to freeze a group of enemies? Do you freeze too? Does time literally stop while it's being spoken? etc.) exactly none of which are elaborated upon.

So this somewhat cumbersome system of two-name pairs is what allows Cryptomancer to include private-key encryption in its fantasy milieu. The system works like so: since soul keys can't be copied or stolen (with the exception of situations where your enemies are able to capture and torture you), it's a great tool for encryption. Messages that are encrypted using your true name as a keyphrase can only be decrypted by whoever holds the corresponding soul key, and vice versa. You can use the mechanism to either guarantee a message's sender, or guarantee a message's recipient. If you sign a message with your own soul key, only allies who know your true name will be able to read it, and they'll know with absolute certainty that it was sent by you (although they may not know if you were coerced into sending it). Messages signed with your true name can only be decrypted with your soul key, which means allies who know your true name can send you messages that are guaranteed to be read by one person and one person only: you.

Given true name cryptomancy's obvious advantages over keyphrase encryption, why wouldn't you always use it? The authors point out a few obvious reasons:

Cryptomancer posted:

• True name cryptography is not very convenient, especially when multiple parties of varying levels of trust are trying to communicate with each other.
• The more people that know one’s true name, the less secure and private a message is that is encrypted with one’s soul key.
• Messages insist on responses. An actor is more likely to read and act on a message intended solely for her, and therefore is more easily lured into dangerous situations.
• True names provide non-repudiation. Because the security inherent to true names is absolute, someone cannot
deny her true name if caught responding to a message encrypted with it.
• There are dangerous magic spells which require a caster to know a victim’s true name. The fewer people who know an actor’s true name, the less likely it is that the actor will be on the receiving end of such spells.
So for all those reasons, true names are kept mostly secret, and keyphrase crypto is better used for non-critical messages. Below, I'm going to share some diagrams from the book that might help make this stuff a little more clear.







I should say that, as cool as I think a lot of the game's concepts are, the amount of hand-waving that you have to stomach to make any of this work is a little high. So many concepts are just tossed off as "well that's how it is", which starts to strain credulity after a little while. What I do like, though, is that they've clearly thought about each system and how it would work in the game, which lots of notes that explain their vulnerabilities and strengths when it comes time for the players to attack them.

And that about does it for the cryptomantic basics! Thanks for sticking with me through the weeds, here... up next is some more fluff on the three races of Sphere.

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


Every race in Glorantha has a grand scheme they will set into motion as the Hero Wars start (Yes, all of them at once. The Hero Wars are a very terrifying time.) The land bound trolls of the north come together in a great host, ready to remake the world. The sea trolls, however, have been chewing through Valind's Glacier. When it drops into the ocean, it will flood coasts and lowlands for thousands of miles, which they like just fine. Corpses are good eating!

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

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



I'm waiting for this RPG to get to the point where you can get doge, lite, and bitcoins from a dragon's hoard.

LatwPIAT
Jun 6, 2011

Nessus posted:

I'm waiting for this RPG to get to the point where you can get doge, lite, and bitcoins from a dragon's hoard.

Shadowrun.

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

SirPhoebos posted:

I know it's been said a thousand times on this thread, but gently caress you, John Wick.

I think what this industry needs is a self-aware game like John: The Wickening, the suspenseful horror game of ordinary people or adventurers having to deal with an adversarial, evil presence that is both untouchable and omnipresent.

Traveller
Jan 6, 2012

WHIM AND FOPPERY

Doresh posted:

I think what this industry needs is a self-aware game like John: The Wickening, the suspenseful horror game of ordinary people or adventurers having to deal with an adversarial, evil presence that is both untouchable and omnipresent.

That's just Call of Cthulhu, only everything is Nyarlathotep and out to gently caress with you, specifically.

Falconier111
Jul 18, 2012

S T A R M E T A L C A S T E

wiegieman posted:

Oh, I can't wait to hear what they think the other places have that's worse than giant feet monsters.

I already touched on this, but to elaborate, Madlanders have no concept of history, analogize all deities and magic with the horrible forms they take in their homeland, and they're extremely isolated from the rest of the world. The few Madlanders to visit foreign lands either go to trade in freezing-cold and even more inhospitable Whiteness (no monsters, but Madlanders are used to monsters and the idea of being surrounded by divine snow terrifies them), or they're kidnapped by pirates and taken to Savarginia, a land so suffused in magic and stratified social classes that egalitarian and anti-magic Madlanders only come back traumatized. Just about every other region of the setting is a better place to live, but Madlanders have little knowledge of them and lack the cultural context to grasp even that.


Yesss, thank you! Are you planning on (if you get there) covering the Hero Wars? I've never been able to get a picture of what they actually are; its mentions in the lore I've read are so vague I can't even tell if they don't have a structure so players can gently caress around in them.

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


The Hero Wars are deliberately vague. Even the 4th age that comes after them has little record of what occurred. Some people compare the Hero Wars to the Gods' War, but they're wrong -- the Hero Wars are a hundred times worse. The entire world will be scoured and reforged by the powers unleashed, no corner of it will be spared.

From a gameplay perspective, your player characters are principal movers and shakers of the Hero Wars. You will rub shoulders with the living gods of the world, and probably be one. If you're playing Orlanthi, for example, Argrath will probably be a composite character made up to explain the actions of your party.

Josef bugman
Nov 17, 2011

Pictured: Poster prepares to celebrate Holy Communion (probablY)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund

wiegieman posted:

The Hero Wars are deliberately vague. Even the 4th age that comes after them has little record of what occurred. Some people compare the Hero Wars to the Gods' War, but they're wrong -- the Hero Wars are a hundred times worse. The entire world will be scoured and reforged by the powers unleashed, no corner of it will be spared.

From a gameplay perspective, your player characters are principal movers and shakers of the Hero Wars. You will rub shoulders with the living gods of the world, and probably be one. If you're playing Orlanthi, for example, Argrath will probably be a composite character made up to explain the actions of your party.

Mainly this, but I will do a brief run down of some of the prophecies.

Chernobyl Peace Prize
May 7, 2007

Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Doresh posted:

I think what this industry needs is a self-aware game like John: The Wickening, the suspenseful horror game of ordinary people or adventurers having to deal with an adversarial, evil presence that is both untouchable and omnipresent.
Dread, but you have to pull whenever you're about to disagree with an NPC or the GM about anything. When the tower falls you have to say you're sorry and that you'll think about what you've done.

Traveller
Jan 6, 2012

WHIM AND FOPPERY

Legend of the Five Rings First Edition

The GM Pack: Your Luck Won't Hold

Time for the adventure! The Hare Clan is an adventure written by Greg Stolze. It's a riot! The adventure assumes the PCs are in a group under the orders of a famed Lion samurai, Matsu Chokoku. The Hare Clan is a minor Lion ally with lands past the Scorpion holdings. According to Chokoku, a Hare seems to have stolen a valuable Kitsu scroll. The Lion does not wish to insult the Usagi family by sending in official magistrates, and they don't want to tangle with the Scorpion either, so Chokoku thought of sending the party - who the Hare don't know - to figure things out. Subtlety and discretion are necessary to prevent dishonor! Chokoku stresses to Lion clan characters the need to spare the Hare embarrassment if they 're found innocent. Scorpion characters can come in by a straight appeal from Chokoku (he tells them that he needs their subtle skills and that he'd rather have the Scorpions know this secret, at least they won't just blab it out) or by letting the Scorpions overhear his "secret" request, then "breaking down" and revealing it all in exchange for their assistance. He is more standoffish with samurai of other clans. Ronin get offered 20 koku and the favor of the Lion, with a stern warning not to doublecross him. Onwards!


Pictured: Mr. Not Appearing In This Adventure.

The party gets some travel expenses and papers to journey through the Scorpion lands. The papers are signed, but blank, and Chokoku says they are honor-bound to fill the forms accurately! TN for the FIre + Forgery roll is 25. :v: It's a four day ride through Scorpion lands: characters may choose to stick with the road (with proper inns and Scorpion magistrates) or hump it cross-country. A magistrate called Shosuro Rei (which you can tell is not a John Wick character, since she is "of medium height and stocky" :haw:) hails them on the road, or catches them cross-country if they blow a TN 15 Agility + Stealth or Hunting made every day. Rei is cynical but still believes in justice - she knows just how much slimy poo poo goes on in the Empire, but generally lets "unimportant" crimes like unauthorized duels and such go, they're not worth the hassle. If they find her in the road, she'll check their papers: if she notices they're forged, she will still let them go because that happens like every other day. She is more concerned with hints of treason plotted at very high levels, so she'll just make a mental note of the PCs and send them on their way - not that they know that, so the GM is free to make them sweat.

Shortly after they cross from Scorpion to Hare lands, an encounter! It's an Usagi samurai fighting an ogre. :stare: Both are kinda wounded by now! Presumably, the PCs help the Hare kill off the ogre, because otherwise we don't get an adventure. The samurai is Usagi Ozaki, son to the Hare daimyo. He politely invites the PCs to their castle, after asking them to help him haul the ogre's corpse back - and then notices how the ogre had a very luxurious scabbard for his otherwise plain no-dachi.

quote:

"That appears to be the saya of the Hare clan sword, missing for years. If you'll excuse me, I believe I am going to faint now."

So much for subtlety and discretion when the PCs show up at Castle Usagi with a dead ogre and an unconscious heir! Usagi Tomoe rushes to see her brother, and peppers the PCs with questions before she takes away as her father, Usagi Oda shows up. After the minimum possible of polite talk, he sends the PCs away to get a bath and has them as honored guests for dinner. The Usagi family is provincial and not hip with the latest court fashion, but they're agreeable and kind. After dinner is done, he starts talking about the scabbard and the Hare's ancestral sword, missing ever since a Hare hothead left with it trying to save his love, a Crab samurai, from the Shadowlands. Casting Commune on the scabbard (Tomoe can do this if the PCs don't figure it out, she is a Kitsu shugenja) reveals that the blade is held in Hiruma Castle: an infamous location for the Crab, since the castle fell to the Shadowlands ages ago. The Hiruma family never lived it down, in fact. Ozaki wants to set out for the Shadowlands first thing in the morning, broken arm or not, while Tomoe hints he has "important business" to attend to here. The daimyo doesn't want to send either of his kids, obviously. After this, the adventure splits in two parts that can be played in any order: the PCs can go to the Shadowlands in search of the Hare sword, or stick around and see what happens.


Usagi Tomoe and her Ancestral Hair of the Hare.

The first option is more survivable, to be honest.

To the Shadowlands, then! The PCs have to go through Crab lands to do this. They can use the ogre's corpse as blackmail (since it was the Crab's fault it got through them), they can try sneaking through, they can just march forward and fight any Crab that tries to stop them (the Crabs might just tag along if they fight hard enough!)... or they can just ask politely to be allowed into the Shadowlands, which the Crab will do while writing them off. "One less Lion, one less Unicorn..." Hope PCs remember to carry their jade! On day two of their journey to Hiruma Castle, they're watched by a goblin spy and her steed. Perception or Awareness rolls to catch her, and she'll try to escape. If captured, the goblin will beg for mercy, lick their boots, "offer sexual favors" :gonk: and anything else she can think of, while the goblin mount (her horribly mutated brother) will resignedly ask for a quick death. Better than what Exalted Ugu, their goblin shugenja boss, will do to them. The spies know that there's a lot of goblins in the castle, that all the defenses are focused on the front gate, that there are two ogres (Mug and Mug) living in the castle, and that the patrols have seen a mysterious woman sneaking around. If the PCs don't catch the spy, Mug and Mug will ambush them: it's a tough battle against two ogres, so the GM can send a squad of five Ratlings to help them if things look bad. The ratlings don't know Rokugani, but if communication can be established they reveal that they hate the goblins a lot. They can be enticed into joining the raid on the castle with weapons and armor. As they approach the castle, they find the "mysterious woman," a ronin shugenja called Masago. She truthfully reveals that she seeks something to help her escape an oni's curse: TN 25 Intelligence + Courtier roll to figure out she is a wanted criminal, kicked out of the Kitsu school for unspeakable experiments. She's not a maho-tsukai, though.

The castle! The goblin spy wasn't lying: most of the goblin defenses are on the front gate, because as goblins understand human bushido, no human would ever attack anywhere except the front gate. :v: Mug and Mug will be here if they didn't get whacked before. Going around the gate lets them face less goblins, but one of the fallen walls is protected by Big Stick, Ugu's lieutenant, and a horde of goblins including women and children. :stare: Fortunately they're not bright and just recklessly charge forward. The gate guards will not go to help their 'comrades' if they come under attack - orders are orders! The best thing characters can do is retreat while fighting inside the castle: the goblins won't pursue and they'll soon get distracted by a big feast to celebrate their "victory" (another chance for a surprise attack) The castle itself has been ruined by centuries of fighting, and the goblins have repurposed rooms as their lairs. The chamber of Lord Hiruma is where the Exalted Ugu lives (Masago will unwittingly raise the alarm here, if characters have managed to sneak their way perfectly in somehow) and he will cast a ritual to use the angry ghosts of Usagi Nedei and his beloved, who died right here, against the interlopers. Magic, silver, or human blood-stained weapons can harm the ghosts, but PCs can also try to roll Awareness + Sincerity to pacify them. Or the PCs can just beat up Ugu until he surrenders and calls them off. They'll still be haunting the Ancestral Sword of the Hare, however! Masago will wait for her chance to steal the blade, even if that means going all the way back to Usagi lands. The sword was cursed by the Blood Speakers, old enemies of the Hare: wielders add 10 to their Reflexes for Initiative rolls and no mundane missiles can harm them, but if facing a Blood Speaker at the end of the round they lose 5 Wounds, gained by the Blood Speaker.


:colbert:

And then they can go back to a happy ending... or not!

While the PCs are having fun in the Hiruma castle (or before, or after this happens, depending on what way the PCs take), a Scorpion army comes to siege the castle! First, though, the truth: Ozaki did steal the scroll. One day, while trying to score a good marriage for Tomoe, Ozaki learned that one of his retainers had gone off to a den of ill repute. Going there to meet him in disguise, Ozaki saw an old friend of his, Matsu Akira, in strange dealings with a dark-robed person. Ozaki collected his servant, Seiki, and followed the dark-robed man - a Scorpion known as Soshi Yukio, known enemy of Akira. Afraid that his friend was being blackmailed, Ozaki enlisted Tomoe's help: both started spying on the Scorpion and the Lion, only to learn that Akira gave Yukio "new orders" of some sort. They were spotted, fled, and ended up killing Yukio, recovering a scroll from his belongings. The scroll is coded, and Tomoe racks her head trying to decipher it.

Oda calls everyone to the main hall and tells them dark news: the Scorpions are coming. He sees no reason why the Scorpions should move against them, even if they've never been friends. Also, no one can leave the castle now, since the Scorpions are good at extracting secrets. Oda will not really ask the PCs for help, but he really wants it - they have to do the two-refusals gift-giving ritual to get Oda to accept their help. (PCs can actually turn coat and help the Scorpion deal with the Hare: they get 10 koku and lose 4 Honor Points, or 100 koku and 5 Honor Points loss for the scroll. Also word leaks out about how they befriended and betrayed the Usagi family!) The scroll is hidden in Tomoe's room in magic boxes that only she knows how to handle. As the first peasant refugees arrive during Day 2, Shosuro Rei rides to meet Oda: she sincerely (and apparently honestly) regrets the whole situation, but perhaps there could be a way to solve this... if pressed further, Rei says that Oda has given Bayushi Shoju an excuse to remove his clan by killing a vassal and stealing from him. Oda doesn't understand a thing, but if the PCs explain Rei is willing to negotiate with the Scorpion tactician, Bayushi Tomaru. If she recognizes them from earlier, she'll take them aside and threaten them with their forged papers. If they spill the beans, Rei reveals that the scroll is connected to whatever high-level treachery she is investigating, and that she'll try to stop Tomaru if the PCs can get her the scroll. If Ozaki is confronted about the scroll, he may reveal his part on it or not: he wants to save his family home, but he also believes in bushido, and at any rate he doesn't think the Scorpion will want to see justice done. If Tomoe is confronted, she'll deny her part while becoming convinced that the PCs are part of the same conspiracy as Yukio and Akira.

On the third day, Tomaru arrives with his troops. He rolls 6k2 for Battle as the general, and his forces double that of the Hares. Oda rolls 5k3 for Battle. After the traditional sending of heralds and such, Tomaru will let know that if the Hares send three champions to duel three of his lieutenants, he'll let twenty people go... while secretly mounting a sneak attack when everyone is busy with the duels. The PCs can volunteer as the Hare duelists, or not! Tomaru figures the Hare will lose face if they don't go or morale if they go and lose anyway. The duelists are average, and they really want a fair fight, mostly. They all carry poisoned blades though, cuz Scorpions. :ninja: At least none of them are save or die! The first battle lasts an hour: if Oda wins the contested roll and the Hare side gets two Heroic Deeds (victorious Duels or Heroic Opportunities from the Battle table rolls), they repel the sneak attack while the Scorpions drain the first moat. On the fourth day, the Hares have to win three Heroic Deeds and one Battle roll to fight off the Scorpions from the first palisade, or six Heroic Deeds if they only commit part of their forces; then it's three Heroic Deeds per hour to keep the Scorpions from filling the second moat. Remember that PCs can eat up to 6k6 Wounds from a bad Battle roll, and will be taking damage every Battle turn! :ohdear:


And it could be your guys inside!

Tomaru tries another attack on the western flank (2 Heroic Deeds, or 1 if the Hare wins the Battle roll) as cover for two ninja sent in from the other side. Their missions are to poison the castle well, kill Oda, and make off with the scroll. If all the heroes are involved in the battle, only the poisoning will succeed - at any rate, Tomoe will realize the stakes and reveal everything she knows to the PCs. She is contemplating just surrendering to the enemy to get the siege lifted. If the PCs are willing to copy the scroll and send it to proper authorities, she'll do so - only to be interrogated, tortured and executed by the Scorpions, if she is not rescued. At least this will lift the siege, though the Hare's position will be badly damaged. On the fifth day, if the ninja poisoned the well, the Hare lose all Battle rolls. Tomaru tries a dawn attack (successful Battle roll and two Heroic Deeds, or four Heroic Deeds to stop) and threatens to murder everyone in the castle, just as Tomoe breaks the code: instructions to kill the magistrate in Forest Shadow City and make it look like a suicide, while also talking about a "master" and their "work." If the sword is still missing, Oda takes the younger samurai and tells them of a secret passage they can use to escape the castle, taking the scroll with them. Day six: four Heroic Deeds with a successful Battle roll, or seven Deeds to keep the Scorpions out. This is basically impossible. (In canon, the Hare will fall.) If the castle is breached, the remaining Usagi will commit suicide: if by some miracle they hold out against all odds, Rei will return to Tomaru's camp, and have him retreat his forces. Rei will reveal that she has gotten Shoju to stop the assault, as long as the Hare agree to concessions: praising the Scorpion military at all times, returning the original scroll, and marrying Tomoe to the Scorpion Clan - maybe to Tomaru himself for the romantic factor. But, Rei is still an Emerald Magistrate, and she is also compelled by that duty to investigate the scroll. So she's going to make a copy for herself... but she could never ask third parties to make a copy for themselves and carry on their own investigation, wink wink nod nod. Rei might still find the PCs if the castle falls to convince the PCs to let her copy the scroll.

PCs get 5 XP and 2 Glory for retrieving the ancestral sword, 2 XP for saving some of the Hare (5 for saving the whole family), an extra Void Rank if a player deciphers the scroll (if the character does so, 2 XP) 2 XP for escaping with a copy of the scroll, 2 XP for preventing the Scorpion from getting it or a copy, 3 XP to be spent only on Void or Iaijutsu for fighting a duel, 2 Glory for winning one, and an extra XP for killing the most dangerous lieutenant of Tomaru's forces. A total 15-20 XP, basically.

As for the scroll, it is a Kolat scroll. Which we know nothing about at this point: the corebook only says that we'll learn the Kolat's origins in Way of the Crab and that we'll meet the Master in Way of the Lion. Dun dun dunnnnnnnnn!


The actual Kolat scroll. The code is decipherable, and AEG had a contest where people could mail in their answers.

The GM Pack ends with Hit Locations! There are two tables, one for random hits and one weighted for melee attacks from a right-handed attacker. Only they got both tables mixed :haw: When a hit is made, roll 2d10 and reference the table to see where you get. For an extra deadly game, you can say that taking Earth x 5 Wounds to the head or Earth x 10 to the torso is death no matter how many Wounds are left, while Earth x 3 for arms or Earth x 4 for legs means dismemberment. Fun stuff! You can also make some extra rolls to see if small areas like eyes, hands or ankles take damage, but that's about it.

Next: ice cream.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Traveller posted:

As for the scroll, it is a Kolat scroll. Which we know nothing about at this point: the corebook only says that we'll learn the Kolat's origins in Way of the Crab and that we'll meet the Master in Way of the Lion. Dun dun dunnnnnnnnn!

The former would turn out to be false and the latter is true in that we'll meet a master (there's more than one). In fact we meet a master in both books; they weren't really planning that far ahead.

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:

Yeah, the Kharma Rules were entirely busted, they let you massively level up by dying in a GM-approved manner. Wick has always needed to rely on others for design math, and if they aren't around...

A rogue like type game where you try and arrange the coolest death each time would be awesome. I think a few games let you narrate your death, like Feng Shui and that Aliens/Event Horizon style one.

I was wondering if L5R would let you play as Usagi Yojimbo. I guess you can.

Count Chocula fucked around with this message at 02:09 on Aug 15, 2016

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Count Chocula posted:

I was wondering if L5R would let you play as Usagi Yojimbo. I guess you can.

What, you don't want to use the official Usagi Yojimbo RPG? Pretty sure I have it around somewhere...

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
Wasn't that also written by Greg Stolze (the anti-Wick)?

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!
It looks like there have been two Usagi Yojimbo RPGs, but the one I have (by Gold Rush Games) is indeed Stolze.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 15 hours!

Wapole Languray posted:

By the way, how is my coverage of the book so far? I'm trying to really sell this sucker, but don't want to bore everyone to death before we ever get to the setting. Which is 2/3 of the book.
I always liked the way Talislanta's D20 mechanic worked as opposed to D&D's. Looking forward to all the archetypes and all the crazy races.

What are the major differences between 4th and 5th editions? All I know is that mechanically, it appears they modeled the unique racial abilities as feat-like abilities, rather than skills.

Talislanta reminds me of Jack Vance's Dying Earth and Planet of Adventure series. Do you know whether or not that was a major influence?

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Alien Rope Burn posted:

It looks like there have been two Usagi Yojimbo RPGs, but the one I have (by Gold Rush Games) is indeed Stolze.

And is good even though it's Fuzion system.

Wapole Languray
Jul 4, 2012

Halloween Jack posted:

I always liked the way Talislanta's D20 mechanic worked as opposed to D&D's. Looking forward to all the archetypes and all the crazy races.

What are the major differences between 4th and 5th editions? All I know is that mechanically, it appears they modeled the unique racial abilities as feat-like abilities, rather than skills.

Talislanta reminds me of Jack Vance's Dying Earth and Planet of Adventure series. Do you know whether or not that was a major influence?

The 5th Edition completely changes how Magic works to be way less free-form and more of a structured spell list, and character creation is completely different, being more of a skill-package system instead of premades. The differences are really massive, they are mechanically two different games, with only a few similarities. Basically the same sort of difference between 3.5 and 4th Ed. D&D, they're recognizably related, but still very distinct.

The book is blatantly a Jack Vance RPG. The original concept was to be the Jack Vance alternative to D&D's Tolkien inspired fantasy, though there are obvious connections between the two due to the shared influences, Talislanta is 100% Dying Earth. It takes place in basically a post-apocalyptic Dark-Age, and like 50% of problems are because of some ancient wizard hosed something up. Also, at least one race is explicitly from another world and came to Talislanta when their spaceship crash landed.

Terrible Opinions
Oct 18, 2013



Count Chocula posted:

A rogue like type game where you try and arrange the coolest death each time would be awesome. I think a few games let you narrate your death, like Feng Shui and that Aliens/Event Horizon style one.

Has there been a comprehensive review of Pendragon here?

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!
Yes.

You can always find the list of reviews at http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 15 hours!
And this is a good time to thank inklesspen again for independently hosting all these reviews. Especially considering the formatting work involving in making everything translate over correctly.

Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Aug 15, 2016

Communist Zombie
Nov 1, 2011

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Yes.

You can always find the list of reviews at http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/

How often does the site update since it seems to go only up to about the end of July. Which makes me think something broke.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

MollyMetroid
Jan 20, 2004

Trout Clan Daimyo
inklesspen has to update it manually and does it in bursts, I believe.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5