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Legend of the Five Rings First Edition Way of the Dragon: Of course he would  Togashi Mitsu! He tells little kids to wash their teeth before bed. Time for Important NPCs! Of course. They sometimes have Insight too low to actually achieve their school ranks, but oh well! The first one is Togashi Mitsu, who I like because he was the first character I ever learned about when I first came into contact with L5R. He is the most famous of the ise zumi, a guy full of wanderlust that pretty much took off as soon as he got his first tattoos. He's spent his life in adventure, doing everything from catching Scorpions trying to blackmail honest daimyo to helping them blackmail dishonorable ones, chasing off ogres from small villages, and jumping off mountains (he was the guy that spooked Isawa Kaede at the beginning of the book) He likes people who are of noble nature rather than just birth, is friendly to peasants, and his flame breath is legendary. Still, he is not just some lolrandom kender, he considers the outcome of everything he does and he is a truly wise monk. His main interest these days is finding out what goes on beyond Rokugan, and has questioned Unicorn scouts about it, but his vows and duties keep him from leaving Rokugan. He is a Rank 3 Togashi monk with the Centipede, Crow, Monkey, Dragon and Tiger tattoos, strong but definitely within PC levels of power. A Cool Dude.  Yama'ngettingoutofthisshit Togashi Yama is also on the PC side of things, though less interesting. His deal is that he is an Agasha shugenja that transferred to the Togashi looking to become a tattooed monk, but is having serious misgivings about the whole thing. He feels the weight of expectations bearing on him, since he is basically a genius with his mastery of Earth that has made great improvements to the Togashi castle, but growing up listening to the tales of Togashi Mitsu's exploits makes him question his own abilities. He continues delaying his induction ceremony, hoping his destiny becomes clear. He doesn't have a Great Destiny, though  Rank 3 Agasha, but somehow he only has the three basic spells plus Transform, the secret Agasha basic spell.  The Togashi, not bringing the gunshow for once Togashi Yokuni is on the far end of the power scale, though. Being that he is the Togashi, as well as a loving dragon. Because he is, shut up. He changes name every fifty years, giving the outside world the impression that the clan is ruled by a succession of daimyo. He carries the same blades forged for him by Agasha all those centuries ago. Hantei ordered him to "watch" the Empire, and that is what Togashi does: he meticulously chronicles everything, in a gigantic record that covers everything from the birth of a sparrow to the death of an Emperor, and somehow he has never been seen actually working on it. He only intervenes directly when the fate of the Empire is in the balance. He is the first dragon to take physical form, and though he has lost his mortality he has gained a much greater sense of understanding of the world than the other dragons, tied to their elemental natures. The only luxury that he has allowed himself is having a son, Togashi Hoshi. Togashi's stats are Win: YES, so like, don't even think of fighting him. He appears as a muscular man clad in Dragon armor, his face always hidden by the helmet, and no one ever remembers his voice - only what he says, which disturbs people. Which is what he likes, anyway.  The best dickbutts in the whole Empire, crafted personally for your skin. Togashi Gaijutsu is the most skilled tattoo master of the Clan. He was born blind and under a bad sign, but Togashi intervened by showing up at his crib, cutting his palm and feeding him some of his blood. Gaijutsu grew to have an uncanny ability to draw and paint, and his magic tattoos are so powerful that only the bravest and strongest can withstand them. He always looks as if he were actually looking at something, and he just says that his works bring out something that was already there, even though he has never really seen them or his clients. He is not really known outside of the people he works on. Not much of a fighter, but he is a Rank 5 Togashi and has any six tattoos at any time, and only needs an action and a Void Point to change any tattoo from his list.  Hoshi does what Yokuni don't. Which is mostly "actually leaving the mountains without majorly loving with destiny" Togashi Hoshi is Togashi's son with a Scorpion shugenja/spy. He is half man, half dragon. Yokuni uses him as a link to the outside world, observing important events and delivering messages to specific people at specific times. Sometimes he stays at the castle for centuries, sometimes just for years. He never ventures beyond the mountains without disguising his real form. He is fascinated by humanity, mercurial and with such a short lifespan. Only a handful of people know about him, counting Yokuni, a few monks and the highest Bayushi. Even the Scorpions would pale if they knew just how many secrets he has figured out, however. There are stories of people being saved by a "nature spirit", but they're probably peasant superstition. Like ninja, really. Hoshi is a Mirumoto 5 bushi with all Rings at 7 and knows pretty much all skills that aren't on his sheet at at least 1. He also hits with 7k4 barehanded, instead of the basic 0k1, cuz dragon. The only power that he hasn't inherited from his father is spells, because he can't use any magic at all, but really he's just going to trounce a party if they get in his way.  The gently caress did you say about his wispy 'stache!? Mirumoto Daini is Hitomi's younger brother. He is handsome and knows it, and prefers the court to the battlefield. Growing up in the shadow of Hitomi and Satsu, he had to find some place to shine of his own, and that was court. He is the main Mirumoto representative in the Imperial court, and is fascinated with Akodo Toturi, the Lion Champion; he is also falling for Toturi's student, Ikoma Tsanuri. He has acquitted himself in a couple of duels, but he has never seen real combat. He is a Rank 3 Mirumoto bushi and there isn't much else going for him, he's a vain samurai looking to prove himself.  Like she hasn't planned how to cut you up six ways to Sunday. Mirumoto Hitomi is, spoilers, one of the major figures of the original metaplot. She is technically the Mirumoto daimyo, but most outsiders would think Daini has that role. Her appearances are sporadic, enough to make the courtiers call her "Togashi Hitomi" behind her back. Her sole objective is to avenge his brother's death at the hands of Hida Yakamo. Ever since her mother died of ill health and her father seppuku'd, she has sworn that the last thing Yakamo will see is her blade through his belly. Yokuni has taken a special interest in her, granting her a special tattoo. Outside of this, she is super melodramatic and pained and anguished because of her loss. As Wick puts it: quote:If Hitomi seems two-dimensional, it's because she is single-minded. Anything and anyone that isn't a part of her destiny is in the way of it. She has no problem with cutting down those who stand in her way. So, she's a very vengeful lady! Of the Dragon Clan. You could say that she is a vengeful Dragon Lady.  wick why u do dis She is a Mirumoto Rank 3 bushi, with high combat skills but not completely out of bounds. Her special tattoo gives Hitomi her School Rank's worth of extra Void Points: she can only spend one of them at a time but this is in addition to her natural Void, so she can basically spend two Void per turn. Nifty!  Kinda smug but hey, he's the ranking Mirumoto that actually has his poo poo together. Mirumoto Sukune is uncle to both Daini and Hitomi, and the one actually running the family and the clan. He used to be the main military commander of the family when his brother, the former Mirumoto daimyo lived, and now balances that with actual civilian administration. He is the best known and most approachable Dragon for those that have regular dealings with them, because he moves a lot to work on trade deals, soothe unhappy magistrates, and doing all sorts of practical work. He actually likes it, and doesn't begrudge Hitomi or Daini for loving off to do their own thing, young people are young and all that jazz. He is a Rank 4 "Togashi" (should say Mirumoto) bushi with a very high archery score - it is his personal passion, and he regularly attends the archery championship held by the Wasp Clan.  "They're waiting for you, Ginawa-san. In the TEST CHAMBER." Agasha Tamori is the current Agasha daimyo. He keeps the library and journal of the first Agasha, and maintains the great family libraries as well as Togashi's Chronicle of Rokugan. He is fascinated by the elements and how they combine into earthly forms, and is generally a  dude that actually grows more spiritual the more he learns about the world. He does not like conversation and sometimes pretend to be offended by a talkative host's probing questions just to get them to shut up.  He trusts character rather than position, but understands Rokugan's rules. JUSTICE is a huge sword and a guy with middling skill with it. Kitsuki Yasu is the Kitsuki daimyo. He is obsessed with catching the Scorpion, as evidence pointed to their involvement in the death of the previous Kitsuki daimyo. Nothing came of that, and his unfortunate public outburst against Bayushi Kachiko hasn't helped matters. He is a brilliant magistrate, but brash. He is obsessed with justice and pays little attention to etiquette. He has been challenged to duels for his judgments, and so far has killed all of his challengers. Last time that happened it involved a Lion of no small repute, which didn't please Akodo Toturi much. He is a tall, willowy guy that likes to loom over criminals and carry a huge no-dachi. Rank 5 Kitsuki, with good investigative skills but only 2 in Kenjutsu and no Iaijutsu (he must've dueled some really lovely people to survive seven duels) and a medallion that gives him (School Rank) points in any Lore skill as long as he wears it. Sample Characters! Oh, of course.  Pictured: Tattooed Man. Not pictured: Tattooed Man's Tattooed Butt. The Tattooed Man went up to the mountains and is now going into the WORLD OF DIVERSION. Jovial, not dour, always answering questions with questions and with no interest in physical rewards or gifts. No Ascetic disadvantage, though. And for some reason he has Unlucky at -6, so the GM can force him to reroll successful rolls twice in a session. Hope that joy sticks! Advantage: Sweet Hat. The Kitsuki Magistrate is sickly and was treated by shugenja growing up, but he managed to join the Kitsuki school and graduate. Now they have a Mirumoto duelist as a yojimbo, and life is good except that actually moving around is super lovely and has them coughing up blood at night and poo poo. But at least their observation skills are good! Instead of Bad Health they have Small as their physical disadvantage, for some reason.  Check out my sweet daisho tech--- A-A W-WOMAN   The Mirumoto Duelist is a hardass warrior and amazing duelist and yojimbo. But he can't even look at women without getting the heaves. No, seriously. He has express forbiddance to speak in court, and now works as a yojimbo for a diplomat that can't fight. Generally a high combat skills, low social skills type of character, so in a Wick game he would be hosed more than usual.  "This time, I am NOT turning your blade into a dragon dildo." The Agasha Shugenja left school with a letter of recommendation from Agasha Tamori himself, on the way to become a respected magistrate! But ended up working for a minor daimyo. But things are looking up! Except that everything has a way of turning out terrible. But things will look up! Just ignore the Unluck -6 Disadvantage.  The secret is that everyone is controlled by pasty nerds from another dimension, and only he realizes it. The Mad Tattooed Man took his tattoos, but something went wrong. VERY wrong. He's nuts, and on the run, and has a secret, a BIG secret - but one he can't really say. But people don't know the secret, so he laughs! This is totally a character that will play well in a party. The strongest form of Enlightened Madness, and Spider, Scorpion and Dragon tattoos. This one does have Ascetic. quote:You're mad. You've got Togashi's blood burning inside of you, and there's nothing you can do about it. It's Bad Form to rip off from Watership Down, Mr. Wick.  Next: dragon smug. Traveller fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Aug 17, 2016 |
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Aug 17, 2016 01:57
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Traveller posted:
Ancestor advantages range from the cool to the useless, but drat they are a neat idea.
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Aug 17, 2016 01:59
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Mirumoto Kaijuko was the first woman to become daimyo of the Mirumoto family, and she dueled and killed her uncle for the right to the position. Characters will never marry (even if they try) but gain an additional die to roll and keep in Courtier or Seduction rolls. Mirumoto Tokeru has a bizarre story where he was first called Omosa ("heavy") because apparently there is a tradition that during childbirth the father puts on a fake belly and cries as if giving birth to distract any spirits that may get close to the mother and he almost killed his mother when being born. Anyway, he purposefully lost a duel to his brother and superior that challenged him because the brother's wife totally had the hots for him, and so characters that get him as ancestor always succeed at Honor rolls when duty to their lord is in question. Agasha Nodotai was a shugenja/warrior that was killed protecting the Emperor's Lion general during White Stag - had he been a foot to the left the general would have eaten a rifle shot to the face. Characters get to move one position in the Battle table. Agasha Kitsuki founded the Kitsuki family and school, and he died in a Scorpion plot trying to recover important documents that turned to be false, and poisoned. Characters can spend a Void point to completely negate effects of poison. Agasha herself gives characters a Free Raise when casting a spell, 8 points though.
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Ultimately, level caps were a binary solution to a non-binary problem. Eventually writers realized the solution to their desire to make the world more humany was to make humans good instead of capping every other race, but the backfilled 2nd edition explanations come off as passive aggressive ways to deal with a problem player at the design table. Just sort of "Hey, wouldn't my elf be like level 30 because he's already 200 years old?" and they went with "No, because the greatest elf ranger in the world is still way, way worse than a midlevel human, that's why Legolas was so much less efficient in combat than Aragorn" instead of "No, quit trying to use fiction logic to powergame. You an rear end in a top hat, Steve." You can tell they weren't entirely or at first about balancing the value of racial bonuses because of the half-orc cleric. Level 4 is a laughable insult, and they might as well have just said "No half-orc clerics" if the original point was to stop this not at all overpowered race from getting good at playing healer. Except if you look at why they were likely to actually have that cap, which is to tell DMs that orc villages will sometimes have low level half-orc clerics in them, probably not higher level than four, then it suddenly makes sense why there are level caps. Because the other races make great monsters and early world design was all naturalistic.
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Aug 17, 2016 02:20
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Traveller posted:Legend of the Five Rings First Edition I wish I had the time to do a CCG addendum for these folks like I did for Way of the Scorpion. I seem to recall dragons being a bit overpriced but nowhere bad as Unicorns. theironjef posted:You can tell they weren't entirely or at first about balancing the value of racial bonuses because of the half-orc cleric. Level 4 is a laughable insult, and they might as well have just said "No half-orc clerics" if the original point was to stop this not at all overpowered race from getting good at playing healer. Except if you look at why they were likely to actually have that cap, which is to tell DMs that orc villages will sometimes have low level half-orc clerics in them, probably not higher level than four, then it suddenly makes sense why there are level caps. Because the other races make great monsters and early world design was all naturalistic. Alternately, the gods just hate the poo poo out of half-orcs. Which, honestly, probably isn't far from an in-setting truth, because D&D gods are petty garbage tyrants. Except for Ka the Preserver, Ka's alright.
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Aug 17, 2016 02:41
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IIRC, Ka isn't even a god, he's just Immortal Dinosaur Moses.
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Aug 17, 2016 02:45
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I wish I had the time to do a CCG addendum for these folks like I did for Way of the Scorpion. I seem to recall dragons being a bit overpriced but nowhere bad as Unicorns. I wanted to get into the CCG Back When, but no one even sold it in my city, much less played it. I got to it through a CCG magazine that talked about wicked Togashi Mitsu combos and some narrative "Good vs Evil" tournament that squared off honorable against Tainted decks, and it was cool as poo poo to my high-school self but Magic was the name of the game so back to making black/red decks work. 
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Aug 17, 2016 02:51
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Traveller posted:I wanted to get into the CCG Back When, but no one even sold it in my city, much less played it. I got to it through a CCG magazine that talked about wicked Togashi Mitsu combos and some narrative "Good vs Evil" tournament that squared off honorable against Tainted decks, and it was cool as poo poo to my high-school self but Magic was the name of the game so back to making black/red decks work. Togashi Mitsu had a weird effect where he was a 2 force / 2 chi, but could gain 5 fire tokens that each gave him +1 / +1, which made him 7 / 7 (tougher than most clan champions) but if he was in a battle he had to bow (tap) at the end. He couldn't unbow while having tokens, instead just losing a token a turn until he cooled off. So some decks would take a spell like Sympathetic Energies that let you redistribute tokens, then move those fire tokens to personalities that wouldn't bow as a result of having them, and let Mitsu charge up for his next explosion. There were nastier combos in the second block involving giving Mitsu a hat that let him cast kihos without bowing, and then cast kihos, that, say, let him add his chi + honor to the force of another of your samurai...
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Aug 17, 2016 03:09
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Bieeardo posted:I've never bought either argument for level limits. Demihuman abilities are useful at low level, and they're a footnote by the time level limits come into play. It's silly. Give them an XP deficit to even the to-hit progression out some instead. I had similar issues with level adjustments in 3.x. Both the Rules Cyclopedia and the AD&D 2e DMG did say "instead of capping demi-humans, just make later levels cost more XP", with the RC even giving you a full extended XP table that covered Dwarves, Elves, etc. all the way to 36. Comrade Gorbash posted:I find myself agreeing that the reasons as to why the designers made the choices in 2E that they did don't ultimately hold up, both in terms of how the game functions and in terms of what makes for good game design in general. That being said, it's a design philosophy nearly 30 years old and it's really interesting to see that they were thinking about these things, even if ultimately we've figured out there's a better way to do it since then. The thing that really makes it fall apart is the assumption that the game's rules define the world ... rather than just being the rules to play a game with. SirPhoebos posted:I think my biggest gripe with 2nd Ed. was that until Player Options there weren't any guidelines for starting characters above level one. So all those rules for interesting magic items, spells, and monsters are gated behind at least a year of regular gaming. Appendix P of the AD&D 1e DMG has rules on letting people start at higher level. Low levels were defined as 1 to 4, medium levels were defined as 5 to 9, and high levels were defined as 8 to 12. For multi-class characters, you'd first determine the level that a single-classed character would start as, and then add 1, and then divide that number by the number of multi-classes you have, and any fractions would be counted as a whole level. So if you were starting play with level 5 characters, a multi-classed Fighter/Mage/Thief would instead be [(5+1) / 3] level 2 in each of their classes. There would then be a table to roll on for your equipment: A Fighter would have a 10% chance per level of having a magical shield, a 6% chance per level of having magical plate armor, an 8% chance per level of having a magical spear, and so on. If they passed this initial roll, they'd also have a 1% chance per level that the magical item would be a +2 instead of a +1, and could even roll again to get a +3 or more as long as they kept passing. Roll tables would also exist for scrolls so that M-U's could have multiple spells, as well as for potions, and then a section on "you should probably give high-level parties these magical items so that they can survive adventures at that level", with things like the Brooch of Shielding and the Bag of Holding and the Wand of Wonder.
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Aug 17, 2016 03:13
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Togashi Mitsu had a weird effect where he was a 2 force / 2 chi, but could gain 5 fire tokens that each gave him +1 / +1, which made him 7 / 7 (tougher than most clan champions) but if he was in a battle he had to bow (tap) at the end. He couldn't unbow while having tokens, instead just losing a token a turn until he cooled off. So some decks would take a spell like Sympathetic Energies that let you redistribute tokens, then move those fire tokens to personalities that wouldn't bow as a result of having them, and let Mitsu charge up for his next explosion. Yes, I remember the combos involved all sorts of token fuckery, Sympathetic Energies included. Another one was using a kiho that saved a personality from death (Sight of Death, maybe?) because that let Mitsu die, revive and come back without tokens.
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Aug 17, 2016 03:35
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 Planescape: Planes of Chaos - Ysgard (part 1)  Ysgard is sort of special among the Outer Planes because of how much of its tone is set by one pantheon. Not only are most of the Powers from Norse Mythology, but the rules for the Plane are very thematic to vikings and Nordic mythology. That’s not to say it’s all Viking-  . Ysgard is the CN/CG plane, and in Planescape that’s interpreted as ‘So libertarian as to give Barry Goldwater a shameful erection.’ Combine these two elements and you get a Universe that holds up a stark mirror to D&D characters. Welcome to Hobo: The Murdering. Hrafnul the Bold, Ysgardian Petitioner posted:It’s a perfect day to die - just like yesterday and the day before... Physical Description Ysgard is made up of continent-sized “landbergs” floating on rivers of fire and stone, their burning undersides lighting the skies of their neighbors. Despite the lights, Ysgard has a day/night cycle and seasons, because you can’t have Scandinavia Heaven without frosty winters. The landbergs sometimes collide into each other, causing earthquakes (dex check or fall down). The landbergs themselves are Scandinavia-fjords, coniferous forests, tundra, you know the drill. It’s actually possible to sail between landbergs. You don’t need a magic boat or anything, it’s just how you roll in Ysgard. Flying between landbergs is much more difficult, thanks to violent thermals that rise from the landbergs moving through the lava flows. Only the Valkries can fly through them without effort. That’s the first layer (also named Ysgard to confuse matter), where most of what’s of interest on the Plane lies.. The second and third layers are actually variations on the landberg rivers. On the second layer, Muspelheim, the ‘bergs are flipped on their back, making the terrain all fiery. In Nidavellir, the third layer, the ‘bergs are packed tightly together, simulating an underground environment.  Ysgard is where Yggdrasil is centered. The World Ash has shortcuts to many of the important locations in Ysgard on all three layers Yggdrasil’s branches also lead to the Grey Wastes (Hel’s Realm), The Halls of Winter in Pandemonium, Arborea, the Outlands (the Norn’s realms), and every Prime Material where the deities of the Norse are worshipped. There’s even a branch that connects to Sigil, though exactly where depends on the teller. Magical Conditions The Norse prefer physical prowess to magical aptitude, and so magic in Ysgard has a lot of restrictions attached. It’s this part that I suspect was c/p’d from the Viking Campaign Sourcebook, just because of how detailed it is. Abjuration: Abjuration is controlled by Heimdall. To use these spells without a spell key you must be able to see Bifrost. Alteration: Spells which enhance one’s fighting ability work normally, though spells related to elements need the appropriate key. Luckily Polymorph is in the former category. Transportation spells require rare keys that Loki likes to make fakes of. Sheltering spells need a key from Frigga. Metamagic spells need Odin’s permission. And weather spells are right out (Thor doesn’t want anyone else messing with it.) Conjuration: Monster Summon spells always brings einheriar on the first layer, giants or ogres on the second, and dwarves or trolls on the third. Trying to summon a creature from a different Outer Plane fails 10% of the time. Divination: Double range and duration, but only one creature can be spied on at a time. Scrying locations, events or groups fails. Illusion: Loki controls these spells, so they work normally except in times of danger. At which point the spell fails unless the caster knows the key. Necromancy: The Norse think that healing spells are for wimps. So every necromancy spell is treated as one level higher. Destructive necromancy spells may attract the attention of Hel if used on her followers. Wild Magic: Wild mages roll twice for level variation, and take the more extreme result. If one of the rolls is a wild surge, then a wild surge occurs. Elemental: Normally you need a key to use these, but there are a couple of exceptions for certain realms and layers. Fire spells don’t need a key in Muspelheim, ice spells work normally in Jotunheim, and “elemental light” spells work normally in Vanaheim.  Spell Keys: At this point the book just tells you to go get the Viking Campaign book. Each school has a rune that needs to be carved into the material components (or spoken if there isn’t a material component). However, certain spells require the caster to know a kenning, a word play. What spells require these, you ask? I dunno-I’m guessing it’s in the Viking book. Power Keys: A priest of the Norse gods has to prove his worth to get a spell key. Odin, Thor, Frigga, Loki, and Heimdall are the most likely to grant spell keys, and these keys are typically in their area of interest. Of special note is that Thor will grant weather keys to his worshippers, making them the only non-Power berks on Ysgard able to affect the weather. Alternatively, Power Keys can be found by searching around the roots of Yggdrasil. And Priest of Loki are free to try and steal their patron’s key from the Well of Mimir (Loki doesn’t give a poo poo). Other Powers of Ysgard hand out keys when the mood strikes them. Typically they give keys for the Combat and Guardian keys, to protect their followers from the bat-poo poo crazy locals. Svava the Valkyrie posted:Paradise lies in the shadow of swords. Inhabitants Like Arborea, the entire Norse myth-ecosystem can be found in Ysgard, regardless of alignment. You also have monsters common to all the Upper Planes like the Aasimon, herds of Bariaur, and Ratatosk. Powers: The Norse are actually two groups of Powers - the Aesir and the Vanir. More than other Powers, the Norse love hanging out with their followers, usually in disguise You also got the related giant deities Surtur and Thrym. While the Norse dominate the Plane, there are actually a lot of deities that make their home here. The historical ones include Anhur and Bast from ancient Egypt, the Japanese gods Hachiman and O-Kuni-Nushi, the Chinese deity Shou Hsing, and the Indian deity Soma. The TSR gods that live here are the dragon deity Aasterinian, The elf goddess Aerdrie Faenya, and Selune of the Forgotten Realms. There’s actually a decent amount of detail for these realms here that was absent from the Limbo and Pandemonium sections. Proxies: The most powerful servants of the Norse are the Valkyries, followed by Einheriar. Bast apparently has a deal with the Cat Lord of the Beastlands, and based on the description may be responsible for the “housecat vs commoner” meme. Aasterinian uses brass and copper great wyrms as proxies, while the Japanese gods use Kenku. Selune and Soma, as moon deities, have good-aligned lycanthropes to use as proxies. They also have some new monsters introduced in this box set, the Lillendi and Asuras. Petitioners: Ysgardian petitioners are reborn each morning if they were slain the day before. So they’re allowed to be as kill crazy to their heart’s content. If that wasn’t bad enough, some of them can transform into werebears and wereboars, just because. In terms of particular gods, some of Bast’s petitioners are intelligent, winged cats. The Fated: The Fated loving love this place, and have built a big citadel on the first layer called Rowan’s Hall (or Heartless Hall). The Hall is built on a branch of Yggdrasil and is located near a conduit to the Norn’s Realm in the Outlands. Factol Rowan Darkwood stops by here whenever he feels he needs to take a break from Sigil politics or has to check in with his patron deity Heimdall. Besides the Fated, Sensates, Chaosmen, and Indeps are frequently encountered in Ysgard. Shublik of the Fated posted:If I can pry it out of a cutter’s hand, it’s mine The Ring-Givers: In contrast to the Fated, the Ring-Givers are probably the most friendly group to run into in Ysgard. Now, you’re going to pay for their ‘charity’ eventually, but when everyone else here thinks wedging an axe into your face is an appropriate way to say ‘hello’ or, alternatively, won’t let you use the shitter without paying a fee, the Givers are a pretty good deal. They’re most congregated in the town of Skeinheim. Outside Skeinheim, the most famous Ring-Giver is a Bariaur named Kara the Forester. Kara the Forester posted:What cannot be taken, can be given. Other Inhabitants Bariaur herds avoid petitioners, since they don’t have the benefit of returning to life. If they think they might be in danger, the Bariaur will shoot first and ask questions later. There are plenty of giants and trolls for everyone to have cool Norse fights. These two monsters are generally smarter than their prime cousins, and frequently have magical abilities. Next Time: Rip and Tear
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Aug 17, 2016 03:38
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That seems like a really, really awkward way of dealing with higher starting levels. Honestly, for AD&D I'd just start with a specific amount of XP. Sure, the characters will vary a little in level, but it should work out as well as if they had simply gained the xp organically. Then, I'd probably go with 4d6 drop the lowest, assign as desired for abilities - there's a reason why AD&D 1e had this as the default (even Gygax wasn't that much of a grognard, apparently).
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Aug 17, 2016 03:38
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Spiderfist Island posted:If you’re already at 75% skill with a weapon, or are in the 99% of Glorantha that doesn’t have enough civilization for a “guild,” you have to learn by experience. When a PC succeeds on an attack or parry, they make a note about it. At the end of the session, they roll a check against 100 – (specific Skill) + (Int modifiers). If this succeeds, they gain +5% to the skill, and can’t increase it again by experience until the next adventure. I understand that Call of Cthulhu uses a nearly identical method for character advancement, which figures because they’re both BRP systems. This is one of the more annoying bits of the system, in my opinion - later editions replaced this with roll d% and add your intelligence; if this is above your skill, it goes up. Edit: oops, sorry for double post.
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Aug 17, 2016 03:52
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hectorgrey posted:That seems like a really, really awkward way of dealing with higher starting levels. Honestly, for AD&D I'd just start with a specific amount of XP. Sure, the characters will vary a little in level, but it should work out as well as if they had simply gained the xp organically. Then, I'd probably go with 4d6 drop the lowest, assign as desired for abilities - there's a reason why AD&D 1e had this as the default (even Gygax wasn't that much of a grognard, apparently). Oh, I agree. Just start with, say 20 000 XP or something for a mid-level game and let people reverse-engineer their level from their class from there, but the rules did exist.
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Aug 17, 2016 04:09
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That last update actually made Beast look fun. Just take out all premise of 'teaching a lesson', emotional abuse, and rape and run it as a game of over the top monsters. That cranky old Halloween lady getting more points the more her murder fit her theme was great - like a Batman villain or something. Plus the powers with over the top names were cool, and who hasn't been so irritated by a minor annoyance that you've wanted to punish them? You could have a Duel/War Boy type who runs down everybody who cut them off in traffic, for example. Just make it a bit more over the top, like Better Angels. It'd work perfectly with way we played oWoD, with PCs plotting against each other. It'd even work with crossovers - the Poison ivy type who creates elaborate death traps for litteres can team up with werewolves, and Saw guy would make sense in a world with vampires since he's a modern monster.
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Aug 17, 2016 04:19
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Count Chocula posted:That last update actually made Beast look fun. Just take out all premise of 'teaching a lesson', emotional abuse, and rape and run it as a game of over the top monsters. That cranky old Halloween lady getting more points the more her murder fit her theme was great - like a Batman villain or something. Plus the powers with over the top names were cool, and who hasn't been so irritated by a minor annoyance that you've wanted to punish them? You could have a Duel/War Boy type who runs down everybody who cut them off in traffic, for example. Just make it a bit more over the top, like Better Angels. Yes, because what's most fun in a game session is everyone sitting around the table talking about how they want to rapemurder everyone who ever looked at them funny, including the other players. Cor, what a ruse! Seriously, Beast just keeps getting worse, and it started awful. Fortunately, Hunters and Demons are immune to their stupid bullshit "You're my friend" rays, so we can imagine any beast that starts this crap gets a friendly bayonet to the back courtesy of the Malleus Maleficarum or something of that nature.
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Aug 17, 2016 04:28
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We're talking about a company who's flagship game is about playing murderous monsters who are usually rape and/or disease metaphors, then expanded into furry ecoterrorists who kill people for not hugging enough trees. You've already bought into playing monsters. This just expands the monsters to include Willy Wonka, Batman and James Bond villains, the creepy old witch who lives down the lane, Tecmo's Deception, Dexter, Hannibal, and Jigsaw (I don't like jigsaw but he's part of modern horror). All the dream/lair stuff is neat, and manifesting powers as part of a primordial beast reminds me of those cool Bloodborne tentacle attacks. And that oWoD game we ran was great. One player was secretly starting a squid cult and turning people into squids. Count Chocula fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Aug 17, 2016 |
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Aug 17, 2016 04:44
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Count Chocula posted:You've already bought into playing monsters. no, you haven't
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Aug 17, 2016 04:47
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chiasaur11 posted:Seriously, Beast just keeps getting worse, and it started awful. Fortunately, Hunters and Demons are immune to their stupid bullshit "You're my friend" rays, so we can imagine any beast that starts this crap gets a friendly bayonet to the back courtesy of the Malleus Maleficarum or something of that nature.   Count Chocula posted:We're talking about a company who's flagship game is about playing murderous monsters who are usually rape and/or disease metaphors, then expanded into furry ecoterrorists who kill people for not hugging enough trees. You've already bought into playing monsters. This just expands the monsters to include Willy Wonka, Batman and James Bond villains, the creepy old witch who lives down the lane, Tecmo's Deception, Dexter, Hannibal, and Jigsaw (I don't like jigsaw but he's part of modern horror). All the dream/lair stuff is neat, and manifesting powers as part of a primordial beast reminds me of those cool Bloodborne tentacle attacks. Maybe if they had done that from the beginning, but there's just way too much baggage as it stands. Just cause you scrape the poo poo off the Doughnut doesn't mean that there wasn't poo poo on the Doughnut. And I'd just as soon have a Doughnut that never had poo poo on it.
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Aug 17, 2016 04:47
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I'm having legitimate trouble parsing how some of Beast's mechanics work (by way of "how your hunger relates to what your powers can do" for nightmares and atavisms) but every time I try to read deeper and get it my brain is just like "nah buddy why are you even bothering". It's just so muddled to me (this is not an invitation to explain) and even if they changed the fluff and horrible aspects of everything I think it's a major point against how they designed Beast.
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Aug 17, 2016 04:56
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Well, even though that wasn't an invitation to explain. I will. Mainly it doesn't. Hunger has gently caress all to do with anything mechanically, only your strain of Horror has any kind of mechanical effect on anything, and even then only one of your starting Atavisms has to be of your Horror's breed, and you get some random effect like the ones described in chapter 1.
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Aug 17, 2016 05:04
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Whoops sorry I forgot about White Wolf Proper Nouns and when I said "hunger" I meant to say "Satiety". (also I'd run (hypothetically speaking because I am never running or touching this game) a Beast campaign like "congrats, you reached Satiety 10, you're human again! Never get in danger because you're keeping a horrible monster contained. Alright let's roll up new characters for some other game")
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Aug 17, 2016 05:14
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Oh, Nightmares like high satiety, Atavisms like low satiety. Nightmares add Satiety as a bonus to their dice pool and get stronger at 7+. Atavisms just get stronger (and some use the super clunky 10-satiety).
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Aug 17, 2016 05:23
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Ah, I see. So it just automatically augments the power based on how hungry you are.
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Aug 17, 2016 05:43
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Yes, if you're starving then your atavism automatically gets the low satiety effect free of charge. If you're Gorged you automatically get the high satiety effect on nightmares. Spending satiety is a bonus on top of that but it always considers whether you were at low or high satiety as favorably as it can.
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Aug 17, 2016 05:46
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 Perhaps the real RuneQuest was the friends we made along the way! Previous Review Sections Part 1: Introduction Part 2: A Brief History of Godtime Part 3: A Brief History of Time Part 4: Chapter II, Character Creation Intermission 1: Creating Goonalda of the Lowtaxanoli Tribe Part 5: Chapter III, Mechanics and Melee Part 6: Chapter IV, Combat Skills Chapter V: Basic Magic, Part 1 ”Chapter V” posted:Basic Magic is available to all players in RuneQuest. There are two types of Basic Magic: 1. Battle Magic; and 2. Spirit Contacts. Battle Magic Within the game, Battle Magic’s two major mechanical characteristics are that they 1) work on a very short term basis, and 2) take a comparatively high amount of POW compared to similar effects within other magic systems. You’re essentially brute-forcing reality, and without a easy access to Glorantha’s Otherworlds though means like being a member of a divine cult, having spirit contacts, or being a lovely wizard,* it’s highly inefficient. However, unlike these methods, conceivably anyone can learn some battle magic. Additionally, the rules for Battle Magic are the basic rules that all other systems are based on, whether through exceptions to the rules or by defining themselves in contrast to them. Anyways! Your POW score determines how much magic you can do, though unlike the other stats, it also goes up and down frequently as the ability score doubles as the character’s “MP.” POW regenerates up to 1/4 your maximum POW score every 6 hours. Again, this is an example of in-game time keeping becoming a critical aspect of game balance like we’ve seen in previous chapters. This brings up the issue of POW acting as what I’d like to call using RQ2E’s nomeclature “multiple implicit abilities,” because so far we’re seeing that POW can both mean your maximum MP and your current MP, and it also defines an MP regen rate. This is a bit of an issue in terms of clearly stating all aspects of the system, but I suppose in 1978 the concept of magic points was novel enough that explicitly separating them in the game language didn’t seem like a necessary action. Adding to this is the additional headache that arises from a constantly shifting POW score– many of a character’s abilities are affected by their POW, and so any major use of magic will involve recalculating a lot of different stats if played RAW. Characters don’t start out immediately knowing spells. That doesn’t mean that a character without spells doesn’t need to worry about Battle Magic, because every character uses their POW to repel enemy magical attacks. When characters cast spells on a target, the relative POW of the attacker and defender determines the base % chance of the spell successfully working (remember, RQ2E uses a percentile system as much as it can for its conflict resolution!). Unlike with melee combat, it’s possible to immediately overpower the defender, or automatically resist a spell– for example, our Goonalda ignores or overpowers 7 POW enemies with magic because of her 17 POW. However, the POW compared on these tables is your current POW, rather than your maximum POW. It’s a clever system, but from reading this it seems like the magic system’s “meta” would immediately default to baiting your opponent into attacking first so that you have an advantage on your counter-spells.  Pictured: a PC reevaluating their previous spellcasting choices. Learning Spells: Just Take a Few Classes At Ishtar Temple Community College Going back into the order of how things are presented in this book, spells are learned like anything else in RQ2E: paying a guild (a “rune cult” in this case) to teach you during your character’s downtime. Battle magic is widespread enough that any given rune cult will have access to all spells, which makes things fairly simple for the player. Much like with weapon skills, starting characters are given “guild credit” for some basic starting spells, though in this case this credit scales with your character’s POW. I guess in the world of magic, game recognize game? Alongside the financial and downtime limits to learning spells, there’s a personal limit, too: characters can’t have more spells active than their INT score allows. Many battle magic spells have multiple ranks (healing 1 to 4, etc.), and these count as a number of “spell slots” equal to their rank– these are called Variable Spells in the game. So, you can either know a lot of low-level spells or a few high-level ones. You can know more spells than this and use them at different ranks, but the total number of active spell levels can’t exceed your INT. This seems like a strange hybrid of AD&D’s “Vancian spellcasting” with a magic-point spell system, where instead of a spellbook, each character has an “active spell list“ they can use at a given time. It’s also important to remind us here that all characters are doing this to some extent, not just a single class. Every PC in RuneQuest uses magic. A Bunch More Details on Battle Magic The casting times, durations, and effects vary considerably between different battle magic spells. While there are some hard definitions for different types of spells, they also can have exceptions from the general categories. Each spell cast has a strike rank that gives its priority in melee combat and when the character finishes casting (if you’ve ever played the video game Final Fantasy Tactics, it works like that). Much like in AD&D, taking damage before the spell finishes casting will stop the spell entirely. A high DEX score will speed up spellcasting, but high-POW spells cast intrinsically take more time. Spell effects can’t stack, but adding more POW to a spell cast can increase the effects. Two Spells with countering effects (buffs and debuffs, to be precise) don’t nullify each other– instead, only the first spell cast takes effect. So within the metagame, be sure to buff yourself before your enemy debuffs you. Additionally, a character can’t cast more than one spell in a melee round unless they’ve cast the Multispell spell on themselves. Most spells affecting targets other than the caster require a physical focus to work quickly, which generally means that people use a wand or other object with a carved Rune to use as a magical lightning rod. Each spell you know requires a different runic focus, but you can double up these Runes on one object– people who enchant their weapons will have multiple runes for spells like Bladesharp already on them. To use a focus, they have to look at the rune. It’s a nice bit of worldbuilding that also requires a magician in-game to have something to treasure as much as a warrior values their weapon.  There aren’t many good illustrations in RQ2E, so here’s a picture of a bunch of Orlanthi using magic in a fight. The rules for increasing a character’s POW are buried in this section, though in this case it follows naturally– to increase your POW, a character has to succeed on a spell cast against a mortal enemy in combat, with an actual threat posed by the enemy (a < 95% chance of success). After the adventure, the player rolls one of those inverted-score percentile rolls, but with the added caveat that your racial maximum is factored in. As a reminder, for humans this is a POW of 21. You can gain up to 3 (!) POW points from one of these rolls if you’re lucky enough. quote:Anytime the character’s POW goes above 18, he may qualify for Rune Priest status and should turn to Chapter VII, Rune Magic. Battle Magic Spells There are 49 Battle Magic spells in RQ2E’s core rules, and because of that fact I’m not going to list them all. Each spell have very curt sounding names, which is a bit of a sharp turn from the more florid names you see in AD&D. Rather than “Cure Light/Serious/Critical Wounds,” you have “Healing 1-6.” For being a system called “Battle Magic,” there are some decidedly noncombat spells like Detect Gold or Detect Detection. There’s a lot of spells relating to detection and divination.  This spell is called “Harmonize” Other notable spells include Bladesharp / Ironhand (better weapons and punches), Firearrow / Fireblade (set weapons on fire), Befuddle (stun enemies), Multimissile (have arrows you fire split into two upon flight), Harmonize (force a humanoid target to mimic your movements), and Spirit Shield / Spirit Binding, which… Well, look at that! It’s the next magic system used in RuneQuest, which is Shamanism! It’s probably for the best to end this review part here, so that we can appreciate them independently from each other. Remarks on Battle Magic The system for Battle Magic boils down to a few basic rules and lets all characters gain access to some very useful effects for both non-combat and combat scenes. Battle Magic also eschews aping the Vancian system of AD&D and instead goes for a points-based system that’s a hell of a lot simpler than the appendix on Psionics in AD&D, even with the shifting POW modifiers. With each character starting out with usually 2-3 spells from the start, the first real decision points for character building now come down to weapon training and starting spells, which effectively define how the character plays along with their ability modifiers. The openness of Battle Magic to all characters underlines just how unlike AD&D RQ2E is when it comes to the basic idea behind how a player character is made. In AD&D, a PC belongs to a class, an archetype that has a pre-set rate of growth and unique abilities, such as spells. In RQ2E, a PC is meant to be a simulation of a person, without any level or class structure guiding their development. While other new RPGs that followed AD&D also were guided by a desire for “realism,” RQ2E managed at an early date to make a mostly unique system for basic checks, character structure, and character advancement rather than a more derivative clone of AD&D, a feat that can be appreciated even if you consider the design goal of realism in RPGs to be a flawed one. I don’t know what the first classless RPG was, but I have to say that the way RQ2E does it is still easy to understand today. Next Time: Chapter V Continued, Spirit Magic and Shamanism * The option of being a lovely Wizard never came out for RQ2E, though in the recent Kickstarter for the 40th anniversary, they released a cleaned-up rough draft of the unreleased supplement for Western Sorcery as a high-tier backer reward.
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Aug 17, 2016 07:53
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I recall reading an article in some non-Dragon gaming magazine on how ordinary citizens might use Battle Magic spells in their everyday lives -- a farmer using Bladesharp on his plow, a carpenter using Bludgeon to drive nails in, etc. It also suggested casting Befuddle on yourself as a cheap alternative to getting drunk.
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Aug 17, 2016 15:42
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Landberg is a great, great word. And hooray for more Beast! Or maybe boo. Either way, eurgh. I agree with the other poster who mentioned getting fuddled by the mechanics - I totally have the same problem. Vampires and werewolves have pretty clear symbolic meanings and conflicts. I get what a vampire "means" and how the struggle between humanity/cruelty works in the fiction and the mechanics. But Beast just confuses me. You're playing avatars of mythological monsters, except not, and your job is to spook the poo poo out of people, except when it's just to kill and eat them, and you have a secret alternate-dimension lair and you get hunted by MRAs because you killed their friends in revenge for being douches? It's just so goddamn muddled and unclear what the actual hook is. How would you even begin to pitch this game to a player who isn't already steeped in WoD nonsense? I want to run a Vampire game, easy. Everyone gets vampires. I want to run a Beast game, and I have to spend an hour explaining the ins and outs of horror and satiety and teaching lessons and the Dark Mother and whatever-the-gently caress. Ugh.
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Aug 17, 2016 18:13
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Beast really seems to suffer from that weird thing where it seems like they designed the whole game in their heads and never actually sat down and played the drat thing. I dunno about everyone else, but when I play TRPGs it's mostly the whole group going off to confront some problem or complete some goal. Beast seems to expect you to spend the whole time doing the supernatural equivalent of finding lunch. Notice how in Vampire, vampires have to drink blood, but it's almost like a side thing -- a lot of the actual game is about the Camarilla and the Sabbat and generally interacting with other vampires and dealing with politics and whatever. Where is that for Beast? The telltale sign is in all the "play examples" -- every one is just "[player name]'s Beast is being a dick to [NPC name]." The old lady choking the frat boy, for instance. Is this really the core experience we're going for? One player filling up her hunger bar? Where are the other players while she's doing this? Notice that the rules for gaining Satiety just flatout assume that the Beast did the deed solo, and that it's some kind of deep personal experience for him. And that all the powers you get are for terrorizing mortals (and/or being better than every other splat, but whatever). Does a session of Beast consist of each individual player rolling to notice that Mr. Racket doesn't change the lint trap after using the communal dryer, and then spending the whole session planning to light the guy on fire in retribution?
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Aug 17, 2016 19:37
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See the main issue with even that is that Kurieg had explained how the feeding mechanics are busted when you can basically be buds with a vampire and follow them to a feeding whenever you need a meal and just watch. So you're right in one regard: the mechanics don't match the game and it feels like they never played it to make the game fit their idea. It's just that in execution Beast is about playing a bunch of supernatural freeloaders who spend most of their time showing off like a 90s RP forum members and when they want to get a fix, they bum a bong hit off the vampire down the hall and go back to grandstanding. Beasts would never pay for their share of the weed is what I'm saying.
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Aug 17, 2016 19:42
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Well it's also that the "Risk" of accidentally going into Slumbering isn't really there. The amount of work that goes into pulling off a non-murderous rank 7+ feed is too much to risk it on something unless you absolutely have to. Even if you accidentally kill someone on a lesser feed an exceptional success removes all risk meaning you can only go slumbering at 6+ Like almost everything else the game's stated themes are undermined by it's mechanics.
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Aug 17, 2016 20:03
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So I think in the most recent edition of RuneQuest, Battlemagic became folk magic and sorcery. Folk magic is mainly focused on little spells and things that make your life easier (keeping your blades sharp, letting you handle hot things, taking care of minor aches and pains, etc.) and sorcery is this modular system where you spend a pool of points based on some trait that lets you modify have everything works together. It reminds me of a system closer to Ars Magica/Mage with limits imposed because you can only modify as much as your point pool allows.
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Aug 17, 2016 22:38
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megane posted:Beast really seems to suffer from that weird thing where it seems like they designed the whole game in their heads and never actually sat down and played the drat thing. I dunno about everyone else, but when I play TRPGs it's mostly the whole group going off to confront some problem or complete some goal. Beast seems to expect you to spend the whole time doing the supernatural equivalent of finding lunch. Notice how in Vampire, vampires have to drink blood, but it's almost like a side thing -- a lot of the actual game is about the Camarilla and the Sabbat and generally interacting with other vampires and dealing with politics and whatever. Where is that for Beast? I like those games where the players do their own things and get the ST to adjudicate. You do suggest a cool thing where the players are in the same neighborhood/block/city and help each other feed. So the guy stalking Mr Racket notices he works at a corrupt company (Pentax?) and tells another Beast, and then it turns out his Uber driver has terrible taste in music so he tells another PC...It might work better in a mixed group. Vampires all looking for blood and one Beast taking out assholes. And accidently pissing off Mages/Vamps/whoever by trying to eat their contacts for being assholes. Okay, that doesn't sound very fun, but the feeding and lairs being based on symbolism is cool. And putting more focus on vampires feeding would be a neat sub-game or story game or something. I guess I just somehow want a creature who's always angry and hungry to be cool.
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Aug 17, 2016 23:07
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Count Chocula posted:I like those games where the players do their own things and get the ST to adjudicate. You do suggest a cool thing where the players are in the same neighborhood/block/city and help each other feed. So the guy stalking Mr Racket notices he works at a corrupt company (Pentax?) and tells another Beast, and then it turns out his Uber driver has terrible taste in music so he tells another PC...It might work better in a mixed group. Vampires all looking for blood and one Beast taking out assholes. And accidently pissing off Mages/Vamps/whoever by trying to eat their contacts for being assholes. Only problem is, examples and mechanics wise it's not a group game, it's pretty much 1-on-1 sessions, and given how Beasts basically "YOU WILL LIKE ME NOW" towards other monster types that there's really no reason for them to not want to murder the beasts the moment they realize these guys are magically forcing them to love them. And then there's the whole issue of all examples basically encouraging massively disproportionate retribution for minor slights - like the "Suffocate with bag for stealing candy", even people that like playing "Evil Campaigns" don't like their evil to be so... petty and bullying.
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Aug 17, 2016 23:22
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Robindaybird posted:Only problem is, examples and mechanics wise it's not a group game, it's pretty much 1-on-1 sessions, and given how Beasts basically "YOU WILL LIKE ME NOW" towards other monster types that there's really no reason for them to not want to murder the beasts the moment they realize these guys are magically forcing them to love them. And then there's the whole issue of all examples basically encouraging massively disproportionate retribution for minor slights - like the "Suffocate with bag for stealing candy", even people that like playing "Evil Campaigns" don't like their evil to be so... petty and bullying. It's a fantasy, though - people imagining what they can't get away with. Doesn't Hannibal Lecter kill people for being rude or uncouth (I haven't watched the show). Or think all the slashers and horror movie monsters that kill douchebags while the audience cheers. Play up how much the candy meant to the kids and what kind of jerk steals it. Maybe mechanically encourage Freddy-esque quips and creative kills. Count Chocula fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Aug 17, 2016 |
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Aug 17, 2016 23:32
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Count Chocula posted:I guess I just somehow want a creature who's always angry and hungry to be cool. You can have games where you're always angry and hungry. Look at Werewolf: The Forsaken. It's a game about balancing your monstrous duty with your human nature and never letting one get too much focus over the other. They can even work with other supernaturals in their packs, not because they are teh most awesome !!11231!!! but through bonds of genuine friendship and comradarie. Beasts are self righteous and hungry. They are a solipsism, they are the only ones who matter, and that does not sit well with the themes that they try to play with. Let me quote that Collector from my last update again. quote:The Collector must hunt for rare, very specific examples of his desire. He can’t settle for any blonde man as a lover; he needs a blonde virgin with a large birthmark on his rear end, a soprano voice, a boyish stutter, and who would be outraged by the Beast’s seduction. There's an entry in the Beast fiction anthology where a Beast destroys the lives of everyone around them because one of their circle of friends has moved on and they are literally incapable of understanding that they are not the most important thing in the world to that person. I sort of understand the kind of game that you want to play, but I assure you that Beast is not that game.
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Aug 17, 2016 23:54
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No, your clarification makes me want to play the game MORE (minus the rape). Solipsistic anger makes way more sense to me than Werewolf's hyper-masculine VIKING RAGE/Klingon Honor crap and anger about 'nature'. It the game knew it and focused around it it would be great - hell I'd love some way to use it as an anger management therapy tool. It looks like 'solipsistic rage' returns no search results on Google, but it's a valuable idea and term. The Collector is obviously based on the disturbing John Fowles novel and movie.
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Aug 18, 2016 00:24
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Of course the biggest unironic Beast fan in thread also calls nWerewolf Righteous Viking Nature Rage.
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Aug 18, 2016 00:28
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Mr. Maltose posted:Of course the biggest unironic Beast fan in thread also calls nWerewolf Righteous Viking Nature Rage. It'd probably sell more copies with that title. But my views about nature are...unorthodox.
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Aug 18, 2016 00:30
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The joke is that you apparently missed that hasn't been the point of Werewolf for at least a decade. Let's try a different tack here. You like Grant Morrison, right? Beast is Magneto per Grant Morrison. Not worth the effort and actually just bad.
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Aug 18, 2016 00:34
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Legend of the Five Rings First Edition Way of the Dragon: More Dragon Punches Let's start with all the appendices! The first one talks about the Dragonlands and its inhabitants, which are to no one's surprise loving dragons. These aren't princess-stealing giant lizards with hoards of gold, but spirit creatures that heroes seek for their wisdom instead of slaying. The dragons exist in two worlds at once, both this plane and the Dragonlands themselves - sometimes more in one than the other. In the spirit world, there is a King of All Dragons that all dragons pay homage to, Togashi included. Some humans have been taken to the Dragon Court or found their way, but time flows differently there: there's a story of a samurai that went there, returned to his own past, and ended up being the distant ancestor from which he would inherit his sword. There are also stories of samurai returning with powerful nemuranai with a single, specific purpose, and samurai maidens that come back with young children; one of the most popular stories of the latter kind is called the Tale of Hoshi. The dragons have a physical form, but they change it as often as they need, and is always a majestic form. They can be beautiful and pleasant or terrible and ferocious, depending on their purpose and present company. They have no stats.quote:You might as well try giving Traits and Skills to Lady Sun and Father Moon. That's reasonable, John, but--- quote:Dragons can use any spell listed in the rulebook (and any published thereafter) Yeah OK but I quote:Dragons cannot be killed - let alone wounded - by mortals. Any mortal so foolish as to attack a dragon will quickly find himself torn to tiny pieces, put back together again, torn to tiny pieces again and back together. In case you're wondering, this effect requires no die roll and takes one action to perform. quote:The chance of a dragon "joining up" with a group of characters is about equal to the chance of you winning the state lottery three times in a row. I GET IT, GEEZ. Dragons are ineffable, that's cool, but Wick has to spend a full page  ing about it. Farewell, my friend, I was a thousand times smugger than thou. There have been seven dragons positively (?) identified. The first five are the elemental dragons, one per element. The Fire and Earth Dragons have the most defined shape, giant flying serpents of their element, while Water is more mutable, Air is invisible and Void only appears in dreams. There's been reports of a Thunder Dragon, which is actually a manifestation of Osano-Wo, the Fortune of Fire and Thunder. Lastly, there is Togashi himself. Only he could say if perhaps all the Kami were dragons, or could at least take their form. He's never been seen with other dragons, but sometimes leads human heroes into the Dragonlands. Phoenix shugenja say that dragons know their exact place in the Celestial Order, and the knowledge makes them powerful but bound to it. Maybe humans, who cannot truly see their place, have more freedom. Maybe! Kaze-do began when one ise zumi monk, Togashi Kaze, got sick of how peasants were abused by bandits, samurai and worse, particularly after one Emperor banned peasants from wearing weapons. Kaze developed jiujutsu, and made it popular by talking poo poo to samurai faces and then wiping the floor with them, which made him quite popular with the peasantry. He taught his style to anyone who came to him except the samurai, as long as the Emperor persisted with his weapon-banning edict. Finally, the Emperor called him to his court, and demanded a demonstration of his technique, which Kaze refused. Furious, the Emperor ordered his Emerald Champion to cut him down on the spot, but instead the Champion committed seppuku rather than slay an unarmed man. The next Emerald Champion was not so scrupulous, and Kaze died without moving rather than showing off his moves. Since then, jiujutsu has been acquired by the samurai, but kaze-do (the original form) remains with the monks and the peasants. Kaze-do is more focused on redirection and non-violence compared to regular jiujutsu. Both are the same Hand-to-Hand skill of the corebook, a character just jots down if they are trained in jiujutsu or kaze-do. Jiujutsu deals Strength+0k1 damage, while special effects like eye gouges and such should take Raises. Kaze-do uses throws, sweeps and nerve punches instead. A throw or sweep is an Agility + Hand to Hand with a TN of the opponent's Agility x 5. If successful, the opponent must make an Agility + Hand to Hand or Athletics roll against a TN of 15 + 5 per Raise on the original roll. If the opponent succeeds, they take no damage, otherwise they take the thrower's Strength + 0k1 damage (Raises included), and the TN to hit a thrown character that takes damage on the next round is 5. Never punches are... doesn't say! Grappling is similar to throwing and sweeping, but if the grappler's Agility + Hand to Hand roll succeeds they deal Strength + 0k1 damage per round until the opponent succeeds in a contested roll of Strength or Agility + Hand to Hand. Both character can use whatever Trait they want.  Break-Your-Own-Ankle kata, that's hardcore. Agasha tricks! First, they get one (just one?) secret spell. Transform does exactly that, transforming one element to another. The TN to transform one thing into another depends on how many elements the first object is made of, and how many elements the intended result is made of. So transforming a rock to water (Earth to Water) has a TN of 10, the total number of elements involved times 5. A candle to water (Earth + Fire to Water) has a TN of 15, and so on. A katana is made of all five elements, because katana. Kagaku items are those that can be created with the Kagaku skill. They include Moeagaru ("flash paper"), which can blind a character if held close to the eyes for one Action; Poluvora (or polvora) is gunpowder, highly illegal in the Empire and unstable because the Agasha have yet to figure out that they should use saltpeter with their mixes. Each "dose" deals 1k1 damage. Hinemuri ("sleeping fire") is a thin, transparent liquid that if disturbed ignites. 1k1 damage per round if prolonged contact is maintained. Ekitai kemuri ("liquid smoke") is a liquid that emits a thick black smoke when lit: Stamina roll at TN 10 to pass through the smoke cloud. Nemuranai! The Mirumoto daisho is what Hitomi is packing. They can only be drawn by someone of the Mirumoto family. The wielder knows the School and Rank of anyone they face. The katana gives one extra die to roll and keep per Mirumoto School Rank, while the wakizashi adds 5 to the TN to be hit per School Rank. Mirumoto Armor adds a number of -0 Wound Levels equal to the Mirumoto wearer's School Rank. Kitsuki's Coin is the only real magical accomplishment of the original Kitsuki, a koku coin that makes anyone that lies while holding it to glow red. Only others can see this glow. Agasha's Glass is a small glass that magnifies anything that the shugenja looks at, then analyzes the elements it is composed of. Twilight Lanterns are paper lanterns with a small fire spirit that responds to simple verbal commands and can focus the light if so wished. The spirit must be kept happy or else it will abandon the lamp forever. Yon Tane-o Maku ("four seeds a day") are small seeds that completely feed a character for a day if they eat four of them. Mizugusuri ("mee-zoo-goo-soo-ree", quote unquote) are magical elixirs. A samurai can only have a maximum number of elixirs active in their organism equal to their Earth, or suffer GM-judged consequences. Most last 5 rounds if they have a duration. They are all created using Intelligence + Mizugusuri rolls, and Raises can be made to improve their effects. Bayushi's Bane is an antidote for any poison. Brother of Air makes the drinker immune to the effects of any Air spells for 5 rounds (there are Brothers of Earth, Fire and Water too) Crane's Tongue raises Awareness in 1. Dragon's Breath is a single shot breath of fire that deals 3k3 damage to the target and 1k1 to the user. Earth's Anvil makes the drinker immune to all Wound penalties until the Down level. Health heals a full Wound level, but not permanent wounds like missing limbs. Lion's Heart adds the character's Honor to all attack or damage rolls. Liquid Fire is not meant to be drunk; rather, it's a firebomb. Agility + Athletics or similar to throw, targets must get out of the way with a Reflexes roll or take 2k2 damage that increases by 1 die every round until they wash off the liquid fire. Smoke is also a thrown potion that creates a cloud of choking, stinking smoke. Stamina at TN 10 to move through it. Vitality increases Stamina or Willpower like Crane's Tongue, brewer's choice. Miscellany! Also known as "we ran out of titles but still have to fill up space" There's some adventure hooks, like a super wise hermit that shows up near a waterfall once every ten years and an Asako scholar that wants to be there when he shows up, a mine suffering regular cave ins that can be natural, supernatural or committed by greedy Crab; a white woman that haunts Togashi castle, crying for her baby; a mad ise zumi that hunts and kills other ise zumi to rip off their skins and wear their tattoos  There's some description of the Dragon lands (as in, the physical lands of the Dragon clan) here: the Mirumoto live in the lowlands along with most of the peasantry, the Kitsuki live further into the mountains watching over mining towns and such, the Agasha are where things start to become fully isolated and the Togashi live in the highest mountains, where the mountains are freaky. Dragon peasants tend to be actually pretty pragmatic and friendly compared to their samurai overlords, though some goatherds can quote the Tao of Shinsei better than any scholar. Also, north of the Togashi castle there is a small cave where the Sisters of the Moon live, three immortal sisters that tend to a shrine to Lord Moon himself. Only those who deliberately seek it and figure out the strange path can find it, and Yokuni does nothing about them. Or maybe, he can't! The book ends with a couple of CCG decks. Sadly, unlike ARB, I cannot offer any insightful commentary there - I didn't play the CCG! I can count 9 and 12 Rare cards, and one of them is called "Conspiracy Theory" because it uses Crane holdings to produce enough gold for the deck.  There's also a small FAQ, including this gem:quote:Can I be a samurai/shugenja like Yokuni? John, shugenja are already samurai. And that's it! Next: should I go with City of Lies, or Book of the Shadowlands?
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Aug 18, 2016 00:36
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