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Barudak
May 7, 2007

I have a perverse lust for people reinventing the wheel so please monte cook me.

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By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 23 hours!
Maybe it's good that Gygax is dead, the world can only handle so much pretentious Original Designer (tm)

Zereth
Jul 9, 2003



NGDBSS posted:

Nah, that part about playing away from the table is just another instance of Monte Cook reinventing the wheel, sort of like the "passive perception" incident when he was a designer for 5E. In this case he's claiming (in his ignorance of advances in game design) to have discovered blue booking...which is a practice more than twenty years old. He's not being dishonest (I hope), just really sheltered.
I'd like to remind you he'd worked on 4e, which had previously had Passive Perception, which he was introducing like it was a new idea. I'm not ready to come down firmly on the "he's not being dishonest" side.

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

Zereth posted:

I dunno... Trying to get them murdered by the police seems a bit overkill for that? :ohdear:

Sounds like LARP mode for Haven: City of Violence.

NGDBSS posted:

Nah, that part about playing away from the table is just another instance of Monte Cook reinventing the wheel, sort of like the "passive perception" incident when he was a designer for 5E. In this case he's claiming (in his ignorance of advances in game design) to have discovered blue booking...which is a practice more than twenty years old. He's not being dishonest (I hope), just really sheltered.

Maybe he will blow all of our minds by coming up with totally-not-FATE-dice. Or tells us about the wonders of meta-plots.

Barudak posted:

I have a perverse lust for people reinventing the wheel so please monte cook me.

Then you must be a big Final Fantasy fan.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Let the record show I don’t like Final Fantasy, I love Final Fantasy.





Open Legend is available for free on https://openlegendrpg.com It contains art, tips, links to adventures, a blog, the full rules of course, and other details that this review won’t touch, so please visit the page if you’ve any interest.


Banes and Boons:

Welcome to the part of the game Open Legend is most proud of, and possibly the heartbreakiest portion of the game. To quote Open Legend, “Banes and boons are a huge part of what makes Open Legend so open. They represent the endless possibilities of effects that your character can have on other characters beyond simply dealing damage.” and “Banes and boons are not tied to specific spells, attacks, or items. “ The second sentence is a lie according to a chart presented not 4 paragraphs ago, but we'll let that slide because the game seems to have forgotten as well.

Put it simply Banes and Boons are effectively a massive list of anything beyond a basic attack that any character, assuming they meet the things pre-requisite, can do. There is no memorizing Banes or Boons, no schools, no need to find them in the world, and no limitations on casting them as many times in a row as you please. Every character from the get go can theoretically be built to use any Bane or Boon on the list, although some attribute pre-requisites or scaled versions of the Banes or Boons will be impossible at level one. The game doesn’t make this quite clear here, but Banes and Boons are considered distinct categories in the rules as we’ll get to in a moment.

The game then takes a break to say that any benefit or negative applied by these skills should be roleplayed beyond what the text says. You don’t just grant your allies “resilience”, you cover them in your mystic aura of ice or a cloud of insects that follow you everywhere. I genuinely like this little pause since it says “fluff these however you want” which is one of those things I think people get way too wrapped up in these kind of TTRGPs.


look at that adorable rat helmet. Artwork by – Vorpal Pen (Credited as Holy Avenging Vorpal Pen of Drawing +5 for this particular image)

Now that we know that we have these Banes and Boons, how the hell do we actually use these? It’s actually slightly different between Banes and Boons, but overall its fairly streamlined and intuititve. Both can only be done on your turn* in lieu of your standard attack. Banes however, in what I really like as a conceptual idea, can also proc as part of your main attack.

Boons are easy, characters simply need to pass a challenge rating task set at 10 + 2*Power Level of the Boon**. So if I want to invoke Haste at power level 2, I either use the Movement or Alteration attribute to beat a roll of 14. A completely untrained character has an approximately 40% chance of using a level 1 boon which is neat.

Banes are different and, as mentioned before, can be invoked in two ways. The first is similar to Boons and beat a target score, except in this case the target score is the enemies defense the Bane targets. For those of you doing the math at home, this is way easier than the Boon difficulty unless the GM just starts slapping piles of extra armor on enemies. The second is if you make an attack roll and beat the challenge rating by 10, you get a free Bane on top of your attack that uses the same attribute to invoke and has a maximum power level of the attribute score of the attack you made - 1. E.g. a Might 5 user hits someone, beats their defense by ten, and can then invoke a free might-based “Knockdown” Bane as the Bane is Power Level 2.

Lastly Open Legend explains how to read Bane and Boon descriptions. Each one consists of Name, Power Level, what attribute it checks against, the duration it lasts, a fluff description that is useless, and an effect description that is the actual mechanical effect. The game then provides links to these lists separately, and as with Feats there is also a completely separate page on the website to instantly hop to these lists.


a literal puppet-master defense – Artwork by: Qyrara Art

With all the rules out of the way, I want to like the Bane and Boon system but it just doesn’t work right at all. There are a lot of issues and the system runs headlong into all sorts of problems from the very word go. Let’s get started.

First, off the bat, this system is way too much to throw at a starting player. Banes and Boons are two more lists of abilities to look at in addition to the 19 attributes, starting gear, and feats players need to juggle to start this game. It sounds great to make everything there at the beginning, but it creates massive option paralysis and requires intense cross referencing from three large lists to see if you’ve built a character who even does what you’re hoping it will. It’s especially glaring since the list is only alphabetical, so a new player has to sort out Banes and Boons they can never hope to cast at the outset to find the ones they’ll actually be taking advantage of. Once you are playing, hope you like referencing two lists constantly of everything you could possibly be doing on any given turn.

Second, the system isn’t equally spread around at all. It’s obvious they basically ported most of the spells and effects they could think of, but they didn’t make more of them to cover all attributes. For a particularly glaring instance, Might and Agility which are the two weapon attack attributes have 0 boons between them. On the other hand, the various supernatural groups have tons of overlaps not only on the Boons page but also the Banes list.

Third, many of these are dull or have rules built into them to hinder their use for no good reason. The ability “Immobilize” for example can be used by 6 different attributes, but if you do it via the Might attribute you also at get inflicted with the Bane. On the boon side of things, Open Legend includes rules to animate creatures, but it notes animating them gives you no control over them so if you animate something dangerous it will just come to life attacking you.

Fourth and finally, mechanically the checks and outcomes aren’t balanced at all. It’s remotely fun at all to have to make a check for things like “I heal my ally.” Open Legend, if you’re already giving up a turn to heal one person, don’t make it worse by letting people whiff on that completely. I should also mention healing options in general are pathetically weak, with an average single cast of heal not surpassing the damage of a character’s missed attack roll until level 4. It gets worse with the difference between Banes and Boons hit chances, as Boons at level 9 have a challenge rating of 4-10 points higher than Banes so offensive odds of success are completely out of sync with your party-boosting options. By the way this comparison is derived by back solving from an example chart in the last section of the game.

So in summary, Banes and Boons are a heartbreaker solution to fixing spell lists that doesn't quite work right. A lot of the issues though, come down to not providing enough options and not having a separate system for automatically succeeding at some boons. Presumably you could house rule those issues, but then you'd end up with an even bigger list of stuff players have to sort through on any given roll which is the other end of the problem.

*The game hasn’t explained this concept yet, but I think you get the idea.
**Yes, the game has never mentioned this before because yes, the game is that out of order the description of Banes and Boons comes after how to use them.

Up Next: Combat! (or: Wait, I need what to play?)

Kellsterik
Mar 30, 2012

Halloween Jack posted:



Godlike, Chapter V, Part I: A Godlike History of WWII

I know this game is heavily focused on the experience of being a Talent soldier within a formal chain of command, but it would be really interesting to play a story in this setting that was sort of orthogonal to the best known battles of the war itself. Like organizing a resistance movement in Japanese occupied territory, or guarding some domestic site from Talent saboteurs, or conscientious objectors raising hell on the home front.

I would also definitely play a Godlike campaign in the Kaiserreich alt-history WW2 setting.

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015
Godbound

That must be one comfy throne.

Heaven has fallen.
The world is broken.
The Throne is empty.
Are you a bad enough dude to sit on it?

Welcome to Godbound, the latest Kickstarter game by Kevin Crawford, who you might remember from other OSR products like Stars Without Number or Red Tide.
Like Stars Without Number, Godbound comes in both a free and paid version, with the latter giving you an extra chapter full of additional goodies, which in this case includes hypercharged Wuxia martial arts and giant magitek robots.

In a way, Godbound is a further escalation of Exemplars & Eidolons, and earlier Crawford title that both acted as a guide for layouting oldschool games and served as its own OSR game about mythical badasses who cleave through your typical Goblin horde like Dynasty Warriors characters. To accomplish this, Crawford adapted his Solo Heroes rules (a combat rules tweak that allows a single PC to tackle any oldschool adventure module with little to no modifications) to a normal-sized D&D party.

Godbound uses the same - if somewhat altered - Solo Heroes rules and takes the power level even further, starting the PCs off as demi-gods who are just a few level short of being able to eat Balors for breakfast.

How do you challenge a group of such powerful individuals? Well, how about if all of Creation is at stake? But let's start from the beginning...

New Gods Awaken - or why mortals shouldn't learn Venderant Nalaberong

Over a thousand years ago, mythical nations known as the Former Empires ushered in a golden age thanks to the help of theurgy, magic of tremendous power that can alter the very fabric of reality itself.

(It's your typical high-level D&D magic)

As these Former Empires were all living in nice, magically-induced post-scarcity societies and no longer had reason to wage war over petty things like land or resources, they quickly found other excuses to bash each other's hands in.
Why, if you think your culture is the bestest there is and that your neighbors can only benefit by seeing everything your way, they must be nuts or downright evil to resist the teachings of your glorious leaders who turned your land into a paradise, right?

Yeah, it's kinda like one of those polarising internet flame wars, except with armies and magical WMDs instead of petty insults and doxxing.

Seeing entire nations tearing each other apart in what would later be known as the Last War, some of the oldest theurges decided that they need to find the true way that humanity has to take, and they believed that only the highest authority could give them answers: God.

Now you see, Heaven isn't a place a mere mortal can just waltz through, what with angels having a strict "None shall pass" policy. So these theurges proved to be no better than the humans they tried to stop by doing what every OSR party does best: Hire a bunch of hirelings and go on a murder hobo spree through Heaven.
After wrecking the place and forcing the angels to seek refuge in Hell, they finally stood before the throne room. But upon opening its doors, they found nothing but an empty throne.

Has God forsaken them? Or was he nothing more than an elaborate angel hoax? Whatever the case, the theurges figured that if God is gone, they better make their own.
So they did. With sweet loot from Heaven, they returned to their respective nations and started building Made Gods, artifical beings of divine power that would embody everything their nation stood for.
Some just looked like humans (albeit ones of utmost perfection), and may in fact have once been a human, a shining paragon and champion of their people that got infused with celestial powers. Other Made Gods were hulking behemoths with monstrous or alien appearance.
While not every Made God was an aggressive combat monster, the ones hailing from more peaceful nations generally didn't last long when one of their more martially-inclined colleagues paid them a visit.

In their attempt to end the Last War, the theurges had only made it worse. Made Gods wrecked entire landscapes in their titanic struggles, and many returned to Heaven to either search for more loot or claim the Throne for themselves.

In the end, almost all Made Gods perished. They either killed each other, were slain by angels, or got annihilated as they tried to sit on the Throne.
But the damage they've caused was already irreversible. You see, the most precious treasure to find in Heaven are pieces from the Celestial Engines wondrous devices that keep Creation going. Some of them only overwatch a small region like a forest or mountain, while others regulate a law of physics for an entire world. Other, more rarer ones are even the literal heart of a world.
In their plain ignorance or deliberate attempt to harm a rival nation, the Celestial Engines got smashed without a moment's thought, until reality couldn't take anymore and the Shattering happened.

Heaven broke apart, as did entire worlds, their individual shards now floating in the Uncreated Night, the eternal darkness of non-Creation.
Wherever the Uncreated Night would come into direct contact with a world via a Night Road, it had the unfortunate tendency to vomit out twisted, Lovecraftian nightmares in an effort to destroy this unsightly piece of Creation.

Humanity has since lived in bleak times. Their little havens of reality are slowly failing as their Celestial Engines lose a bit of their power with each year. Help from angels is not to be expected, in fact they are actively trying to exterminate humanity for what they have done.

But something has changed in recent times. Some mortals have been blessed with the lost Words of Creation, granting them powers akin to a Made God.
Some of these Godbound awakened during times of crisis, while others just woke up one day with the power of a god. Even their origin is not certain. Have they been blessed by celestial fallout from a Made Gods carcass? Are they part of a law of nature that demands that the Throne shall not be empty? Or are they chosen ones gifted by God himself in an effort to restore Creation?
Whatever the case, the Godbound are the only ones that can repair the world and battle the immensely powerful creatures that threaten all there is.

It's OSR meets Exalted, with some inspirations from the video game series Dominons (near-divine beings competing to fill a power vacuum created when the only actual god vanished).


It's just not the same without skeletons.

Mitama
Feb 28, 2011

Somehow, I didn't catch that you were reviewing Godbound even though you described it fairly well back there.

Really dig what I've read of the book so far, gets what I like about Exalted with less of the crunch involved. Hopefully more folks will want to read and run it after this (it's even free on DTRPG).

Mitama fucked around with this message at 13:11 on Sep 11, 2016

long-ass nips Diane
Dec 13, 2010

Breathe.

I really like that piece of art that shows all the skeletons climbing the throne. It's really evocative without being too over the top.

Obligatum VII
May 5, 2014

Haunting you until no 8 arrives.
That cover art is really rad and that alone endears the game to me already.

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


Art is a huge part of doing a legitimately sized PnP RPG production; Pathfinder is proof that you can almost build an entire line on good art alone.

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

wiegieman posted:

Art is a huge part of doing a legitimately sized PnP RPG production; Pathfinder is proof that you can almost build an entire line on good art alone.

Godbound doesn't quite have the same art density, but boy does it have some rad stuff.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Kavak posted:

Yes. A player is supposed to stay home and read the dictionary while everyone goes out for food to simulate a character being stuck in the hospital while everyone else is adventuring.

Specifically it's to avoid dying. If your character fails a surgery roll or takes more lethal than they have HP equivalents remaining, they can beg the DM to let them live, and then you get the following exact text:

quote:

Characters may, with the approval of the GM, spend one point of Heroic Reputation in order to reduce the damage they take from any single lethal attach to one point less than would kill them outright. They may also use this if they are about to be knocked unconscious in the event of a stunning attack. Of course, if it's their first adventure, let them know that it was very painful and they should learn their lesson. (For total realism, instruct any player who had to use this rule that he cannot go for pizza with the rest of the group, but must go home and read 20 pages of a dictionary starting with a randomly determined letter. That should simulate the time spent recouping in the hospital rather nicely.)

Bonus, here's the part where the players can argue with the DM's in-game surrogate over how much XP they should get in the event of a mission that didn't go very well.

quote:

Wheedling for Points
At the end of a mission, each member of a team can try to convince their briefing officer that they really did better overall on the mission that his initial assessment. There are special rules and conditions that apply to this negotiation task.

First, before the GM lets the players make the Reputation roll, he must rule that the scenario's assessment of the the criterion of success did not adequately cover the positive value of the things that the team really DID accomplish. That is to say, of the players didn't do exactly what the scenario called for, and they didn't do anything else particularly useful besides, then DON'T LET THEM TRY TO PULL THE WOOL OVER YOUR EYES!

If they really did screw up, fine. Don't feel bad about awarding a low or even negative Rep award if THEY DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO DESERVE BETTER. the GM has absolute final say on the wards. Period. Life ain't always fair.

If the GM rules that, ok, you got some good shots in, and the mission wasn't really as botched as it looks on paper, then you still have to try and sweet talk your Briefing Officer into buying it, too. This is a special application of Professional Reputation as described above. Each character, in turn, may try their hand at Wheedling for Points. Each character may only attempt this ONCE per mission (after that their Reputation Level dice are gone, remember?) and characters may NOT combine their Professional Reputation levels into one big task test. Each character, in turn, may try the task, but each successive try adds the Successive Attempt mods to the tricode from the previous attempt. If ANY attempt to Wheedle for Points results in a Failure or a Botch, then the Briefing Officer is not longer interested in entertaining further discussion on the topic and the matter is closed. By the way, you cannot use Heroic Reputation to influence the Wheedling Task test (What would the audience say if they saw their favorite heroes begging for points?}

I dunno, insane book author. Probably the same thing they'd say if they saw any of the poo poo in this whole section attempted on a show. Remember that scene where Sulu argues with Kirk(lol, like it'd be a Captain or someone you've ever heard of, it's a Briefing Officer) over a promotion and a raise for 10 minutes after his away mission went all stupid? And then Chekhov's just standing there in line behind him, all "I also want to get in a long argument about accomplishments, but I understand that we can't support each other in this and have to take turns, and also if Sulu says something dumb then I don't get to try, and the method by which we determined which one of us was first to argue with you is ... not discussed."

theironjef fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Sep 11, 2016

Rand Brittain
Mar 25, 2013

"Go on until you're stopped."

wiegieman posted:

Art is a huge part of doing a legitimately sized PnP RPG production; Pathfinder is proof that you can almost build an entire line on good art alone.

Someday I should do a post on the lessons I learned art directing The Glass-Maker's Dragon, once I figure out what they were.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 52 minutes!

Kellsterik posted:

I know this game is heavily focused on the experience of being a Talent soldier within a formal chain of command, but it would be really interesting to play a story in this setting that was sort of orthogonal to the best known battles of the war itself. Like organizing a resistance movement in Japanese occupied territory, or guarding some domestic site from Talent saboteurs, or conscientious objectors raising hell on the home front.
As you'll see, there were several famous Talents whose major contribution was leading resistance movements in their home countries.

Talents who did work on the home front were fairly common--Zed is a common Talent power, and high-level VIPs had Zed bodyguards. Talents with "Dud" powers, like being able to float or turn green, were often assigned to watch for Talent saboteurs.

I don't recall any conscientious objector Talents, and certainly not any who were prominent protestors. I don't know a lot about conscientious objectors in WWII, but I expect such Talents would've done research work for Section 2, looked after VIPs, or done important work on the home front (like firefighting) like thousands of other objectors.

There was one American Talent who came to the conclusion that the whole war was wrong. But he wasn't a nonviolent protestor...

Traveller
Jan 6, 2012

WHIM AND FOPPERY

Legend of the Five Rings First Edition

Way of Shadow: The Doji Witch Project

The next part is called The Disappearance of Lady Ninube. Ninube, Ninube... where have we heard that name before? Ah, yes - one of the ninja families in the original corebook writeup, the one where children were raised with multiple identities. Probably related??? Anyway, our man Kaagi is resting in Kyuden Tonbo, seat of the Dragonfly Clan, while he and Mei restock on supplies for the journey back to the Kitsuki castle. He is still rattled by the events in Crab lands, unable to explain fully what happened but feeling he is on the verge of finding something significant. He is also experimenting a sensation of lingering dread and bad dreams that he can't fully recall. Spooky! Mei is back.

quote:

"The pony has new tackle," she says. "The old stuff was worn and wouldn't have lasted much longer. Our food stores are full, I picked up new shoes and such to replace the rest of the things I lost in the fire. And I brought you a new kimono with lilac blossoms and frolicking ponies on the front and an indisposed geisha on the back. Are you listening to me at all?"


"Our daughter has run off with those Ninja Boys, hun!" *laugh track*

Oh, Mei. Kaagi trusts in her judgment, but he still checks the kimono to see if she really bought that monstrosity. It's fortunately a plain one. Mei says it's good weather for travel, but when the magistrate says there's no rush and that he'd like to go out for dinner she also says that it's probably going to rain soon and that they should stay inside. Kaagi figures that she must be disturbed by something if she's lying to him so poorly: as it turns out, there is some Crane guy, a karo for some lord out in the streets calling out for 'the Great Kaagi of legend and story' to enlist his aid. Of course, Kaagi has to go out to see what's going on, whatever Mei mumbles behind his back. It's not difficult to spot the Crane, since he's making a big show of trying to find him. He is Daidoji Sanju, karo to Doji Mikara of Ukara Castle. He asks for Kaagi's help and our hero readily agrees, while Mei just shakes her head. As it turns out, the lord's daughter is missing: she left two weeks ago to the home of the Phoenix lord she was supposed to marry, but never arrived and neither she nor anyone in her entourage has been seen since. The Crane have asked for help from Otosan Uchi, but Sanju knew about Kaagi and he was closer. On the road, Sanju explains that Ninube, the young lady, was to marry Isawa Ujina, and the union had brought great joy to her family. Two weeks ago, Ninube set out to see Ujina's family before the marriage next spring; one week ago, Ujina arrived at Mikara's castle, concerned that Ninube had failed to arrive. Once they realized what had happened, everyone sprang into action. Fortunately, a party of Imperial magistrates had coincidentally stopped at Mikara's place on the way to Otosan Uchi and offered their help in finding the girl. Unfortunately, they haven't shown up either. Kaagi notes how Sanju's account seems practiced, but he attributes it for a normal concern for formality and phrasing. The Crane also says that there's rumors with the servants: it was the work of ninja! :ninja:

In less than a day, they're in Ukara Castle. It looks ornate in the Crane manner, and Mikara is found in a sort of crisis room, surrounded with maps that no one seems to be paying real attention to. Mikara is relieved to see Kaagi, as his reputation precedes him. He is an old man, and Kaagi can't help but feel sympathy for his loss: he clearly is trying really hard to keep panic out of his voice. Kaagi relates the facts as he knows them and asks if the Phoenix guards at the border saw Ninube's party, which they hadn't. She did cross the river on the way there according to waypoint guards, as did the Imperial magistrates. Isawa Ujina is in the castle, trying to catch something through his meditations without success. He also wants to go find her post-haste, but Mikara persuaded him to wait until Kaagi arrived - he also confesses that as much as he loves his daughter, he can't afford to lose a prominent Isawa family's eldest son too. The Scorpion magistrate will perhaps want to join the search party too. What Scorpion magistrate? Oh, apparently the Imperial magistrate party had a Scorpion member, who got sick and had to stay at the castle while his companions went out.

Kaagi doesn't have a good night. He can't help but think of the Crane lady from Akodo Temoru's story: massacred by Lions manipulated by Scorpions. He doesn't sleep well, and neither does Mei. He decides to talk to the Scorpion first, and Mei advises him to at least eat breakfast before doing so. He really wishes he had taken her words more seriously later when talking to the Scorpion magistrate, Bayushi Baka. (Baka? Really?) The Scorpion sincerely wishes he could be of more help, but he sincerely thinks he doesn't have any more knowledge that Kaagi has. Our guy asks if he will join him in searching for Ninube, but Baka sincerely regrets that he has orders from Bayushi Shoju himself to return to Scorpion lands as soon as possible. They look at each other: Baka is lying, Kaagi knows it, Baka knows that he knows it. And suddenly, the Scorpion's mask of sincerity is dropped. He hates Kaagi and all the Kitsuki - "we are spiders and you are ants," he says, but still he explains why he didn't go with his companions: they were doomed. He would not have helped in anyway. Kaagi realizes that Baka knows something of the mysterious presence that he has been facing so far. The Scorpion says that he knows he's caught the eye of something Kaagi wishes he hadn't, and that it is waiting for him. He warns him to not let himself or any of his companions to travel alone, to trust on what he feels - especially fear - but not to put too much trust on what he sees or hears, and above all things to trust himself. By the time he can't trust himself, he won't care anyway. Kaagi, his voice hollow, asks if he would have warned his friends; Baka counters, would Kaagi have heeded those warnings without knowing what he knows now? He stands up to pack his things after wishing him luck. Kaagi turns and says that there will be one less ant if he doesn't return; without turning back, Baka says that he is right.


Definitely a Baka with that stupid loving mask.

Isawa Ujina is in the courtyard. He is a young man, refreshingly genuine after Baka. He is still obviously worried for Ninube. Suddenly Kaagi starts examining him closely, and Ujina is taken slightly aback. As it turns out, the Phoenix has not slept at all, but his meditation makes up for it. He has been trying to discern Ninube's whereabouts with meditation, which interests Kaagi as apparently some Phoenix could be just as perceptive as those trained in the Kitsuki method in those trances. Ujina says that he's found no traces of Ninube, which is wrong - even if she were dead, he would have sensed her corpse by now. Ujina is curious in spite of himself. Mikara furnishes them with plenty of supplies and off they go! They talk on more light matters on the way there - the Isawa school and the Kitsuki school are interested in each other's philosophies - but yet Kaagi can't get a sense of foreboding away, which Ujina picks up on even without looking straight at him. In the last village they will find before the Nemui Kaminari Yama mountains between Crane and Phoenix territory, the headman tells them of disturbing rumors: strange riders at the edge of the hills, bandits perhaps, or something even darker: ninja! Ujina has heard nothing of the sort on his side of the mountains, but he considers the talk of ninja unlikely. Kaagi says that if there are bandits they'll most likely keep Ninube well: he doesn't actually believe his own words, and knows that Ujina could see that if he wanted, but also that the Phoenix really wants to believe him right now. They continue on as the day falls, reaching rockier ground by twilight: Ujina urges them to push on a little further. Mei remains silent as she often does when Kaagi has company, but she is paying attention to their surroundings. As night falls, Kaagi feels like they're getting trapped: a foolish notion, and yet he can't get Hida Dasan's wife out of his head - and then he trips and falls. Busted ankle! Ujina apologizes and says they should have stopped while there was still light, and Kaagi just nods because saying anything else would be petty. :v:

They find a clearing to camp, and Ujina works some magic to light up a fire. The provisions are exceptional as can be expected of a Crane family. The road will only get more treacherous from then on, and it's clear that Ujina wants to send Kaagi back with his hurt foot. Of course, Kaagi will only go if Ujina goes, and the Phoenix won't quit, and only Kaagi can follow the tracks. Kaagi resolves to go on, and catches Mei looking at him with intense sadness. By the time he is dozing off to sleep, suddenly a woman's scream rings into the night: Ujina is up and ready to run but Kaagi stops him, remembering Baka's warning not to leave people alone. With Mei supporting him, Kaagi marches on, barely keeping up Ujina's pace. Another cry, and the Phoenix is convinced it's Ninube. The ground is treacherous, branches scratch at them, and Mei thinks all of this is really goddamn stupid. It soon becomes more about keeping Ujina in sight that actually trying to find out what the screams are about, until the Phoenix stops: he heard Ninube crying and sobbing, and now he's lost her. Kaagi and Mei soon pick up on the unnatural silence of the forest they're in, and then they hear a woman's scream again. A breeze passes from where the sound came, and then the normal night sounds resume. Something stirs in the dark: a black owl, carrying a pendant that Ujina identifies as Ninube's. The Phoenix is completely puzzled - the owl wasn't there, it says. He saw it but he had no sense of the owl's presence. Ninube never took off that pendant. Is this maho? After two hours they return to camp, only to find the smell of blood - lots of blood. Their camp is a disaster: something has torn their bedrolls, made a mess of the provisions, and the poor ponies are slaughtered brutally, their entrails on the ground or hanging from the local trees. Mei goes on a run with her knives around the ruined camp, making drat sure she is in sight of Kaagi, while Ujina tries to keep his lunch inside. Who could have done this? Kaagi has his suspicions. Mei thinks she can salvage some of the food and says they should all go back now, but poor Ujina's desperation kicks in again and he says that whoever took Ninube had to have distracted them to get them off their trail. Kaagi corrects him: they distracted them to do this to whoever stayed in the camp. All the more reason to go on, Ujina says, and it's clear he won't be deterred. It's stupid, Mei mutters when Kaagi walks up to her: Ninube is dead, and maybe it's better like this. She knows it, Kaagi knows it, Ujina knows it - but the Phoenix can't go home without her. And so, the three continue the search.


Your My Little Ki-Rin figurine won't save you from THE DARKNESS.

Neither of them is really rested in the morning. Mei makes a poultice for Kaagi's foot, and they move on after breakfast. At last they catch the tracks of Ninube's party, as well as those of the magistrates. When they reach the mountains, the trail becomes much harder to follow as there's little more than soil over stone on the ground. Over a chasm, Ujina spreads his perception - he can't find Ninube, but there is something else nearby that leaves him unsettled. Probably me, Mei says. She had been joking to Kaagi if Ujina would jump off the cliff before. :v: Further ahead, Kaagi spots a broken branch on a tree: probably the magistrates. Cautiously they move into the treeline, and the leaves hide most of the sunlight and the temperature drops hard. Kaagi and then Mei catch the smell, once more: bodies, too torn and rotten to identify, but enough is left of their mon for that. The most whole of the bodies, a Crane and a Crab, lie on the ground: the Crane has deep gashes in his torso. An Asahina woman is impaled on a tree branch. A Lion tried and failed to keep his intestines inside his belly. A fifth magistrate is headless. Ujina's meditation lets him feel the terror: whatever it was, it came on the magistrates without any warning. And yet he can't feel any haunting or anything like that: the local elements sensed what happened but can't make any sense of it. It was something out of nature. And Mei finds... the trail of Ninube's party. Ujina sees it, too.

quote:

"It's her, isn't it?" His tone is quiet, filled with tension. "She came into these woods with whatever did that." He makes a sharp gesture back towards the bodies.

The trail isn't hard to follow. Half a mile into the woods, they pick up on the smell of death again. The remains of Ninube's party lie there, bodies piled on top of each other. Mei examines the corpses while Kaagi holds Ujina back: no noble women among them, just one Daidoji maid. All of them killed by having their throats slit, and nothing more aside from some minor cuts on a couple of the bushi guards. None of it makes any sense: did they all wait patiently to get killed one after the other? It's too clean, no signs of a struggle. The horse prints keep going, and there seem to be three sets of footprints, none of which belong to a woman. Maybe bandits did take Ninube after all: the possibility that whatever attacked her party is unrelated to the MURDERFORCE that slaughtered the magistrated and ruined our heroes' camp is minimal, but Ujina wants to believe it and Kaagi has no reason to disappoint him, especially since he can't make heads or tails of the situation. Half an hour later, they find a cave - and a dozen ponies, very much alive. Ujina draws on his powers: the horses are fine, they can drink water and graze, and haven't seen anyone for a long time since their new riders left. They miss their old riders. :smith: The riders went in and haven't come out. Ujina's humor has returned somewhat, but he is going to go in the cave even with Kaagi advising to pull back and get Mikara's men as backup. Besides, Ujina says, they put anyone they bring in at risk from a force none understand. And on they go into the dark cave!


The spookiest claw marks!

It seems ordinary enough, and a good hiding spot. Suddenly as they go down a slope, Mei curses and Kaagi falls down - just in time to miss a spiked slab of wood. There was a booby trap, and Mei had to tackle Kaagi to keep him from being kabob'd. So much for surprise, but Kaagi notes that the enemy doesn't know that they survived the trap yet, so they keep going. Further ahead, they hear footsteps and our heroes get ready for battle. Three figures turn a corner: Ujina cleaves through one immediately, Mei stabs a second in the shoulder and wounded Kaagi gets to fight the third. He has seen ninja before, but none like this: they dress in black, but their clothes are ragged, the flesh unwashed and their armor and weapons are mismatched. As Kaagi delivers a shallow belly cut, his opponent's face contracts - he looks just wrong somehow. Mei finishes off her guy, but Kaagi ends up on the ground as the third one makes a run for it. They examine one of the bodies, and indeed the faces are distorted and deformed. They were very sloppy fighters - maybe bandits after all, since their weapons are dull and worn. Further down into the cave complex, they hear a woman's cry: Ninube! Ujina is ready to bolt again, when Kaagi catches him - same Ninube he heard in the forest? That seems to settle the Phoenix down. They follow the sobbing until they're close, and after a moment all three rush in: Ninube is alive! She smiles through her tears while Ujina holds her hands. The bandits will return soon, she says. Sometimes they feed her, sometimes they just stay and look at her. They killed everyone else, and there's something wrong and monstrous with them! At least she appears uninjured. As they make their escape, Kaagi hears a buzzing sound coming closer. Suddenly, he reflexively grabs Mei and pulls her out of the way: a swarm of dark insects separates them from Ujina and Ninube. Mei cries out in pain and something stings Kaagi, and they can hear Ninube screaming and Ujina roaring. It seems like time stops for a moment as Kaagi can see Ujina with his arm extended past Ninube, then the calm shatters and the blackness floods past Ninube and Ujina is lost in the dark. Ninube steps away from the buzzing and Mei gets her away. Black smoke fills the cave and kills the light, and by the time they can get a new one running they find Ujina unmoving. He is badly hurt - strips of flesh taken from his face down to the bone, and his arm... Mei doesn't know how he is still alive, because his arm is basically just bone now. The smoke was Mei's, in fact: she took it from the dead ninja they found way back when, and used it thinking that the insects might not like smoke. Kaagi sees it's pointless to argue that she shouldn't have hidden that from him. Ujina wakes up slowly: it's okay, Mei says, he just got a couple of bad bug bites! Kaagi notes she's a much better liar than him. Mei figures that it's the magic that keeps Ujina together as he stands up to go get Ninube, and Kaagi realizes he knows what happened to his arm, and that he's willing himself not to acknowledge it.

Just as they finally reach the entrance, someone tells them that they've come a long way for nothing. Kaagi gets ready to fight him, but he just moves past him. Does he have any idea how old he is, he asks. He also has a distorted face, changing even as he faces the wounded Ujina who is keeping Ninube behind him. In fact, he is taking Ujina's own face. :stare: Ujina is shocked with horror as the bandit-mutant-thing laughs, gloating how hopeless everything is. He can be Ujina better than Ujina himself. The Phoenix drops his blade and falls to the ground, and just as the false Ujina offers his hand to Ninube, bam! Mei knife in the throat. Instead of blood, it's smoke that comes out of the wound. Without warning, his body stiffens, then rises above the ground, then rattles and falls in a heap. Mei gets Ninube moving, but Ujina is in shock - she won't want him now, he says. Mei snaps him out of it: if he thought that, then he should have left her in there. Outside, they go to the horses. Mei coos something to one and it obediently kneels so that she can get Ujina on top. Another recoils when Ninube approaches it: she grabs it by the mane suddenly, and Kaagi thinks she locked gazes with it. Then the horse allows her to climb on. Kaagi gets close to a third horse, and there's no weirdass reaction for him. Mei also takes the other horses: they'll die if they leave them, she explains. They manage to get back to the village and Mikara sends a full complement of guard to pick them up. He and his wife are overjoyed to have their girl back, but on the following days Kaagi feels very uncertain about Ninube. So do the castle servants, who look about as nervous in her presence as the horses at the cave, but she gives no signs of being anything than a doting young woman. Kaagi does some sleuthing and finds out that Ninube goes out at night: he follows her in secret and to his horror, he sees that the very shadows seem to coil around her. He goes to talk to Ujina, who is slowly recovering, and lays down all that he's seen. Something is wrong, deeply wrong with Ninube. Ujina is both angry and afraid, but refuses to acknowledge it. Ninube is fine, she is stronger now, and if Kaagi thinks otherwise - he is wrong. There's nothing more for him to do, and he and Mei leave the castle with a very bad feeling.


The spookiest blood... splotch... mark... thing. Okay that is kinda spooky.

As for the adventure! The setup is simple enough: Doji Ninube is kidnapped by ninja, are the PCs and Isawa Ujina bad enough dudes to get her back? But of course it's not so simple. By now the PCs should feel a healthy dose of skepticism regarding talk of ninja. How they get into the adventure is up to the GM: if they have a reputation, then Sanju can go find them in a similar way to how he did with Kaagi. Awareness roll at TN10 to see that Sanju and his men are deeply disturbed by the events. In the throne room, Awareness TN 15 roll to figure out that none of Mikara's advisors has the slightest clue about how to mount a search and rescue operation, and Perception against TN 15 roll to notice that Mikara is drinking his tea with his left hand because the right one is twitching. He tells the PCs about his daughter. Ninube is set to marry Ujina, the future Master of Void of the Phoenix, and if there are no Scorpions in the party he will confess that he believes Scorpions are sabotage the marriage. Contested Awareness roll at TN 30 to notice that the Crane daimyo isn't too sure about his own story, only that we don't get a stat block for Mikara so no way to tell how much we roll for him. Doh! Anyone with the Courtier skill realizes that Mikara asking the PCs for their help also intimates that he doesn't think his own men are good enough for the job. Ujina is in the garden, and of course he wants to go with the PCs. They can try to stop him, but those who presume to tell him about how his emotions may interfere are going to piss off one of Rokugan's most prominent shugenja by implying his emotions will get in the way of his political marriage, so like nope. As for Baka, the PCs can't question his word since it would be questioning the Scorpion daimyo and the Emperor himself. He'll only see the PCs if they directly ask to see him and avoid all direct questions. He knows a little about the Darkness: he thinks it's another "false" element, a subtle corruption of the Shadowlands. He knows it strikes when a samurai is alone and also believes his own Clan has some sort of bargain with it. He makes an Awareness + Sincerity check to determine the PCs' integrity and loyalty, which can be simple at TN 15 or contested - but seriously, what's the point of making him roll like this? Anyway if this goes off and/or there are Scorpions with that special Loyalty List option from Way of the Scorpion, he says what he knows and also makes sure the PCs understand the consequences of betraying his trust. He'll only confide his worries about the Clan with other Scorpions though. If the PCs are disrespectful or rude, he'll stonewall them, misdirect them as best he can, then find Ujina in front of the PCs and imply that he already knows what took her and to forget it, which of course Ujina won't do.

On the road, the events can play out similar to the story or with encounters of the GM's devising, but the idea is to shake the players' confidence. The first adventure gave them a ninja and a taste of the Darkness, while the second had a "ghost" and a "witch." Now everyone is telling them they're dealing with ninja, but the players are probably picking up on the clues that they're dealing with the new threat they had been facing through the previous adventures. The GM should use the same tone in these encounters as they used when describing Sokoi from the first adventure or Kohi in the second so that the players feel they're dealing with that something else.

quote:

Of course, they're only half right, but that's exactly what we want them to think.

:allears:

Sample encounters! These should be tailored to the PCs for extra spook. On one village, the PCs hear rumors about ninja. They're prowling around and moving through shadow and doing all the stereotypical ninja things, but the villagers say the "ninja" were misshapen beasts of some sort. The "ninja" went north and the villagers can even pinpoint the road they took. On the way there, the PCs find trails. They are somehow unnatural, though. Crab characters or anyone with Shadowlands lore tells them that the hoof prints they find are twisted and wrong, but a Shadowlands Lore check at TN 30 tells them it's not the Taint that has twisted them (apparently, it deforms horses in a very particular way) The GM is not supposed to offer this second roll, though. The PCs can stay at the village overnight, but they get hit by Darkness nightmares. One PC (the one with the lowest Void, the lowest Honor or somehow the least trustworthy) dreams of falling in a forest, calling out to their friends, who turn back and turn out to have no faces - and yet they smile at the PC. This PC will be important later. The PCs will continue having nightmares even if they sleep during the day. During the journey, the PC that had the spooky faceless nightmare will fall and twist their ankle like Kaagi, and the GM must railroad them into it. Make whatever rolls necessary, but this must happen to a PC, and even if the PCs ace all the rolls one of them gets their ankle twisted after dreaming it happened. Later at night, the Darkness tries to lure them out individually to take a look at them: it used Ninube with Ujina but the GM should know what makes the PCs tick. Lost Loves, resentful parents, pretty much any NPC they've ever cared about.

quote:

Taunt them with everything at your disposal. Force them to make Honor rolls. Hit them where their armor doesn't protect them. The Darkness does not know the meaning of mercy, and neither should you.

Jennifer.

Sooner or later one PC should get running into the shadows and away from the fire and the light. It's a Perception + Hunting skill at TN 20 to not get lost, and the whole point is getting them lost. When a PC gets lost, the GM should take the player and physically remove them from the room. They can also ask them to act strangely when they call them back for extra paranoia. When the other players start getting impatient, the GM should call the player(s) back. Of course, they won't remember anything. If someone stays behind to guard, they will be found covered in blood and guts, or just curled up in shock and muttering nonsense. When the PCs find the magistrates, it's the GM's call if they want to make them NPCs they knew before, but the important bit is that the mon they find match exactly the party makeup. If the party are two Cranes, a Crab and a Dragon, they find two dead Cranes, one dead Crab and one dead Dragon. And the GM should emphasize the gore and violence and how whoever did this did it to a team of prepared magistrates and REALLY PCS, YOU'RE EXTRA hosed. (A sidebar implies that the Darkness possessed one of the magistrates to do this.) As for Ninube's party, anyone with forensics training (Kitsuki magistrates or Kuni or Asako shugenja) realizes how odd all of this is: all the bodies with throat cuts in the same place, no signs of struggle, a couple of the bodies were even smiling, and the bodies have only begun to rot even though it's been a couple of days. TN 15 Shadowlands Lore roll to tell that bodies in the Shadowlands rot faster, not slower. And TN 15 Perception + Hunting roll to pick up on the trail. It's time to get personal with the Goju!

The cave is a dungeon crawl. It's dark and dank and it's hard to see, prime territory for the Goju bandits. The cavern is only wide enough for two people to march together side by side. TN 25 Perception + Investigation to spot the trap that almost did Kaagi in (25?) or else they trigger it for 6k3 damage to the first three ranks of characters, so six of them total. PCs can only dodge it by spending a Void Point (!) which gives them the chance to make a Reflexes + Defense roll against TN 25 (!!) to dodge, otherwise they also eat the 6k3 Wounds. Also TN 15 Reflexes roll to not slip in the following slope. :sigh: In the next area, TN 25 Reflexes rolls (!!!) or they slip on a slope and fall to a slime pit that will suck them in. PCs will die in (Stamina) rounds. Other PCs might try to catch them, but they have to do a contested Reflexes roll against the falling PC's Strength (Large characters do roll and keep 2 extra dice). Oh, and they must keep their highest dice for this. If a shugenja thinks of using Earth or Water Communes to talk to the local spirits, they will find that they are corrupted. They are belligerent and unhelpful and the PC must spend a Void Point every round, and also they will hear a bunch of voices screaming at them, some telling them to accept the Darkness and some telling them to let go of it. That PC is now exposed to the Darkness and if they ever spend their last Void Point while in complete darkness, it will get to them. Rules for this are in the final chapter, but basically they're turbo boned.

The next area splits the path but they lead to the same point in the end. There are tripwires here (Perception TN 20 to find) that spring bells to let the Goju know that the PCs are in. In the next area, TN 15 Perception roll to hear the weeping. Isawa Ujina will recognize it as Ninube's and will try to rush forward to it. PCs can try to stop him but Ujina will be willing to use his powers if they get too in the way, and the Goju will use this opportunity to jump the party. The whole point is getting to Ujina for them, the PCs are secondary. The Goju have low-average stats other than their Agility of 4, but also Shadow points that do tricksy ninja things. They also have only 24 Wounds so they're half as tough as the starting average PC. There is one cavern with disfigured figures, people that have been taken by the Darkness but whose transformations aren't complete. PCs that approach them roll TN 10 Willpower or flee the cavern. If they attack the figures, they don't fight back and bleed something inky and black before disappearing into the shadows. Finally the PCs will find Ninube, and on the way back they get hit with the swarm of Darkness-possessed insects that Kaagi described. Each round they spend in the cloud deals 1 die of Wounds to the PCs, without rerolling tens. This lasts for three turns until Ujina uses his power to draw the bugs to his own arm, and then he'll scream for the PCs to burn it. He can only keep the bugs for two turns before losing his hold on them. If they do, the PCs now have to carry the unconscious Ujina out before meeting Goju Sanado, the bandit leader. He is a Shosuro Assassin 4 (Assassin?) with Reflexes 4, Fire 4 and Strength 4 aside from his Shadow points, so he's a tough cookie. He also creates a Fear effect of 3 with his face-shifting trick, and any PC that fails to overcome it cannot hit him. He has 32 Wounds but no Wound Levels, so he won't take penalties until he's Dead.

What do the PCs get out of this mess? A Major Favor from Mikara, and 6 XP. Also, Ninube is now Goju Ninube, a full servant of the Darkness. :stonk: She is a Crane courtier at Rank 2 with 5 Shadow Points, so yeah. If the PCs try to start something with her, she'll manipulate Ujina into defending her, and only if he dies will she use the full range of Darkness powers.


My face when I saw the length of this post.

Next: does it count as a railroad if you're in horseback?

Traveller fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Sep 13, 2016

Cirina
Feb 15, 2013

Operation complete.
So what happens if the PCs decide to just kill Ninube while Ujina is still unconcious?

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!
I think that sometimes it's John that you're picking on when you're calling out Jennifer. It's always hard to tell in a book like this, more so when it's a married couple that could be looking over each other's shoulder, but that really sounds like Wick's authorial tone.

I don't think the book ever addresses the notion of killing Ninube but I imagine there's no reason the Shadow couldn't just replace her if necessary. The Shadow as presented in this book is so powerful that it probably supports whatever railroading is necessary for its plots to work. :v:

Kemper Boyd
Aug 6, 2007

no kings, no gods, no masters but a comfy chair and no socks
Godlike's stuff about Finland is absolutely loving hilarious because it's pretty obvious no one even looked at a map while writing it.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

I tentatively like the idea for this adventure, but it relies so heavily on railroading and 'gently caress you players' - as well as not accounting for PCs trying to keep the obvious bad poo poo from going down.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Godbound is one of those games that I know is straight up my jam (Jack Kirby-esque high fantasy? Hells yeah) but I really have a hard time getting into the OSR mechanics.

Robindaybird posted:

I tentatively like the idea for this adventure, but it relies so heavily on railroading and 'gently caress you players' - as well as not accounting for PCs trying to keep the obvious bad poo poo from going down.
WickAdventures.txt

Mr.Misfit
Jan 10, 2013

The time for
SkellyBones
has come!

Eopia posted:

So what happens if the PCs decide to just kill Ninube while Ujina is still unconcious?

John Wick would know.

Somewhere, deep within the bowels of his Fortress of WICK, John looked up.
Something had nudged him to do so, at the edge of his mind.
He knew the feeling all too well.
"They killed Ninube!"

Loxbourne
Apr 6, 2011

Tomorrow, doom!
But now, tea.
Did anything actually HAPPEN in that L5R adventure, or was it just ~OMINOUSNESSNESSNESSNESS~ ? There's no way the PCs can change the outcome in any way or force a better resolution (although I did like the way players could potentially get more info from the Scorpion dude than the "canon" version). The whole thing should be a one-session one-shot on the way to something better.

Lichtenstein
May 31, 2012

It'll make sense, eventually.
Wicks out for Ninube

RocknRollaAyatollah
Nov 26, 2008

Lipstick Apathy

Loxbourne posted:

Did anything actually HAPPEN in that L5R adventure, or was it just ~OMINOUSNESSNESSNESSNESS~ ? There's no way the PCs can change the outcome in any way or force a better resolution (although I did like the way players could potentially get more info from the Scorpion dude than the "canon" version). The whole thing should be a one-session one-shot on the way to something better.

Just wait until they get to the end of the book and you find out what happens to Kaagi.

Zereth
Jul 9, 2003



RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

Just wait until they get to the end of the book and you find out what happens to Kaagi.
I'm going to guess No Kaagi You Are the Shadow.

RocknRollaAyatollah
Nov 26, 2008

Lipstick Apathy

Zereth posted:

I'm going to guess No Kaagi You Are the Shadow.

All I'm going to say is that nothing you do matters in an L5R adventure path, even if you're an NPC with slight plot armor. There's always some minor thing that comes back and makes it so the house always wins because the deck is stacked and they have 5 aces.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 23 hours!
gently caress me, people complain about the 40k universe being static but you can easily create a sector and go hog wild.
L5R seems entirely pointless.

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

Horrible Lurkbeast posted:

gently caress me, people complain about the 40k universe being static but you can easily create a sector and go hog wild.
L5R seems entirely pointless.

At least L5R has the excuse of having to make sense out of the card game tournaments. When GW does something like that, the Space Marines always win, even if they don't.

Though speaking about only being able to have fun on a small scale: How well does L5R do the Seven Samurai scenario? I guess poorly, seeing how all of them are Ronin and one of them isn't even a proper Samurai.

(Though I guess they still list the movie as inspiration anyways.)

Doresh fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Sep 12, 2016

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Doresh posted:

At least L5R has the excuse of having to make sense out of the card game tournaments. When GW does something like that, the Space Marines always win, even if they don't.

I have a Dark Eldar army which I bought and built during the era of the codex that precedes the current one. The main story in that book is "Dark Eldar warp a Salamander ship right into their own main city specifically to kick marine rear end. Instead the marines casually beat the evil poo poo out of the Dark Eldar and leave. The end." In the Dark Eldar book!

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

It's a setting I really like bits and pieces of, but the metaplot stifles it.

RocknRollaAyatollah
Nov 26, 2008

Lipstick Apathy
In defense of L5R, this is how you did things in the 90's due to the way the market worked. Although Way of the Shadow was made in 1999, you're still coming out of the era where metaplot was the new big thing. In order to have your books carried by distributors, you had to constantly come out with books and having a metaplot gave fans reasons to buy books that offered nothing more than some poorly written prose. It was much easier to have an adventure path tacked onto some fiction than to keep churning out crunch. You also couldn't have variable adventure paths or campaigns, like the stuff Pelgrane Press puts out today, because metaplot had to keep on going. L5R was theoretically better because you had the CCG determining the route things went but there's always been evidence that AEG pushed things in the direction they wanted although plenty of weird stuff happened that could only happen because of the CCG.

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.


U MAD, BRO-CHAN?

Simian_Prime fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Sep 12, 2016

Traveller
Jan 6, 2012

WHIM AND FOPPERY

Legend of the Five Rings First Edition

Way of Shadow: I Want To Get Off Mr. Shadow's Wild Ride

The epilogue to the last story! On the way out from Mikara's castle, Kaagi tries to put his thoughts in order. It's clear to him now that the same power that took the face of Hida Dasan's wife also took over or replaced Ninube before they arrived. He could not convince Ujina otherwise, however, and trying to tell Doji Mikara that his daughter was now some shadow monster would have turned his hospitality into hostility, and probably a pointless duel with Ujina. At least Mei believes him, after coming this far. He is not sure if he is disturbed more by having encountered the new threat twice in the last couple of months, or by the idea of having been guided towards it. One morning, while at camp on the way back to Kitsuki HQ, Kaagi is minding his foot while Mei is off having a bath. Suddenly, someone walks into view - a figure in white garments, though Kaagi's gaze seems to somehow slip off them. Only the pain in his foot tells him it's not a dream. The stranger points out at the blowgun in Kaagi's belt - it's his, he says. Was he the one that killed Matsu Nari, Kaagi asks in disbelief, while the man just sits. He introduces himself as Hiroru, a "shadow hunter" just like Kaagi. He says that he was at Ichime Castle for the same reasons than Kaagi, but the magistrate was quicker to find the real culprit. Kaagi recalls Maouri's room, and realizes that Hiroru was outside the window - he just never thought of looking up. Hiroru dropped his blowgun on the rush to leave when Kaagi and Mei walked in. Yes, he did in fact finish off Nari, and then he deliberately led Kaagi towards the Hida to see if he could catch something the others couldn't. Kaagi shudders thinking that something saw him, instead. They must have known him already, Hiroru says: perhaps Kaagi caught their interest at Ichime or even earlier without his knowledge. In fact, Hiroru was the old man with the spooky story about the DEEP SHADOW, and Kaagi wonders if any part of his journeys has been left to chance. As best as Hiroru can tell, the shadows are something else, something not named by Sun or Moon. He has been trained to hunt them, and he thinks the Scorpion and their flesh and blood ninja also know about them. What do the shadows want? Hiroru believes that when they take someone's name, they become just as formless as them - if they take enough names, they can unmake all that Sun and Moon have created. Some, like Hiroru, Kaagi or Mei, have a natural resistance to it, and for whatever reason they can't be taken as easily as others. In Ichime, their agent was Sokoi, the young bastard boy. Hiroru's mission was to observe him at first. Kaagi is a little miffed by how at ease Hiroru is - he is just out of range of his sword, but the weird effect on his clothes is gone and it looks like he doesn't consider the wounded magistrate a threat. :v:

Kaagi wonders what the shadows could want with such a young boy, and he says that no one really pays much attention to what children say or do, but also that he doesn't really understand the shadows other than they value knowledge and seek to put themselves in positions of power. These shadows that still have some identity of their own he calls "Goju," and they spread themselves like rot, avoiding the mistakes that Fu Leng did. It's easier to take a weak man's name than a strong one's, so they demoralize and break down their prey's will. Suddenly, he stands up: he says that Mei is close and it's better that she doesn't know about him. He warns Kaagi to send her off and away, as the shadows will use her to get to Kaagi, or kill her to make him flinch. He picks up his blowgun (Kaagi notices it but somehow can't really do a thing to stop him) and tells Kaagi to travel west, find a group of Unicorn there. With that, he takes his leave. At night, Kaagi dreams of Sokoi standing over a sleeping Mei - Kaagi asks what he is, but it replies in Kohi's voice that Kaagi already knows more than he would like. What good has that knowledge done for him? In the dream Kaagi remembers that Mei said she had been talking to Sokoi, but didn't remember what about. He wakes up, and during breakfast he finally says that they should go opposite ways. Mei, after a long silence, wonders when Kaagi got so dumb, but he says that someone has to get back to the Kitsuki and tell them what happened and that it wouldn't do if both of them disappear. An angry Mei tries to argue that the Kitsuki don't trust testimony but evidence alone, and the presence has left no evidence for them. He still says she has to go back because at least her words will be recorded. Mei counters that she could follow Kaagi without his knowledge, but he retorts that she'll do as he says if she gives him her word. That's what gets her: she weakly argues that she doesn't know the way to the Kitsuki castle, but Kaagi gives her proper indications. They break camp, he gives her last pointers, Mei says/prays that he be safe, and then reaches up to touch his chin, and look him in the eyes. Then, she takes off: Kaagi watches her for two heartbeats, and turns before his will breaks and he runs after her towards home. :smith:


THE MEDALLION!?

The next episode is The Chase! Alone, Kaagi half-limps west as Hiroru told him, hoping that the Kitsuki will record Mei's words even if they don't believe them. With enough reports, maybe they can put together a picture of the shadows. Just as the sun starts setting, Kaagi finds the Unicorn caravan, about twenty men or so. For some reason they are breaking camp, even though it'll be night soon. As he approaches to talk to whoever leads them, he gets clocked out from behind. The assailant demands his identity, he replies that he is an Emerald Magistrate and musters what dignity he can while tasting dirt on the ground. :v: Someone calls for someone, and he can see a young bushi and a slightly younger girl. She presses a crystal pendant to him and shines some light behind it, which blinds Kaagi briefly. Somehow, this identifies him as "a man," and the Unicorn get him up and the bushi apologizes for his rudeness. He identifies himself as Shinjo Renari. Kaagi asks to see the person in charge, and Renari says that they are in a hurry: he doesn't want to question Kaagi's authority but is also nervous about the sun setting. Eventualy he relents and takes Kaagi to see the "Oba-sama" in charge, an old lady. Kaagi introduces himself and tells her about her encounter with Hiroru, and gives her a crystal that he had left with him. This makes the lady's eyes grow wide: is he there to accompany them, then? They are in a great hurry, but an Emerald Magistrate would smoothen things with the way posts. Her accent is much thicker than Renari's - perhaps her grandmother was old enough to remember the deserts. Kaagi wants to know what's going on, but she says they won't have time to explain. Maybe tomorrow, when they camp. She gets Renari to give Kaagi a horse: a gentle one. It belonged to someone called Tempu, and Kaagi thinks better of asking why Tempu doesn't need it anymore. And off they go into the night!

They take very short breaks, and indeed they are basically riding too fast for Kaagi to talk to anyone at length. The horse almost rides itself and all that he can do is hold on for dear life. The reason for their haste becomes clear when hours into the ride Kaagi sees a cloud of dust behind them: they're being chased. Some of the chasers, dressed in black, break up from their group and ride faster to catch the Unicorn, and soon they start fighting. Kaagi sees a samurai's mount crashing down with him, and the dark figures surround him quickly but the caravan does not even think of stopping. Worse, Kaagi saw one of the pursuers' faces in the moonlight - it's distorted, same as the cave bandits. Finally, after an eternity of riding morning arrives and they stop for camping. Kaagi is worn to poo poo from all the riding, and the crystal pendant girl (who looks a lot like Renari) asks if she's okay. She has no sense of propriety and Kaagi is suddenly reminded of Mei, especially when she laughs after the horse, Keo, nuzzles Kaagi and makes him fall on his back. He asks about the people chasing them and she says that it's why they ride at night: they are faster at night but never show up during the day, and somehow even if the Unicorn ride all day long the chasers are right behind them when night falls. The girl, Notaiko, says she doesn't know anything else and that he has to check with Oba-sama for answers to his questions.

After sleeping, Kaagi goes to see the old lady while the Unicorn whisper and the ladies giggle. Kaagi is a little embarrassed, knowing how much of a mess he looks like by now. A scent he somehow recognizes comes from Oba-sama's tent, and as Kaagi enters he remembers it's like the perfume Mei wore when she had to be presentable for court. They start talking and Kaagi tells her everything from the Crab village on, throwing caution to the wind. He is desperate to voice such suspicions to someone in a position of power. The lady nods when he brings up Hiroru: she doesn't know him but has heard of him, and she knows of the Darkness. See, they're being chased now because the Unicorn have captured one of their own. He asks why the Unicorn left that one man behind, and without taking any offense she replies that it was a ploy of the Darkness to make them slow down and catch them all. Their mission to bring their captive so that Unicorn shugenja can examine them is foremost. She tells Kaagi of how the Unicorn found the Darkness on their way home towards Rokugan. One day, they found a man that looked like them, that identified himself as one Togashi Ginave, and after celebrating that they finally found one of their own once more that night three people were dead, including the stranger. Questions arose of course, but ultimately they decided to burn the corpses and move on. Another day, a man gave a girl he wanted to marry a crystal pendant, and the light from the sun shone right through her. In Unicorn legends, crystals are tears from Mother Sun herself. The darkness that had taken over the girl abandoned her form and disappeared: the Unicorn pressed the pendant to everyone in their camp, and found others that also were darkness decoys. One did not disappear, a young fifteen-year old girl, and the elders demanded her death. When the Unicorn returned, the Rokugani did not understand any of this, and the first post-return generation grew believing the tales of the Lying Darkness were just foreign demons of some sort. But some Unicorn have found it once more, like this one party, and that's why it's so important to bring their prisoner back. If they can convince their daimyo of the threat, maybe he can convince the others. Kaagi is both relieved that he is not alone in his knowledge and alarmed by being now certain of the threat. The prisoner is bound with crystal charms, as it's the only thing the Unicorn know that can hold the Darkness. And that's why they need Kaagi to make the journey faster.

quote:

"I'll do all I can to help," I say to her, rising slowly. "Thank you Oba-sama, for sharing your story. But tell me one more thing. Notaiko and the bushi, Renari, are they brother and sister?"

"Near enough," she says with a smile. "Notaiko is my granddaughter. Renari is my nephew. Everyone else calls me Eniki." I feel my face growing hot again, and she laughs. "But you may call me Oba-sama."

I feel foolish as I walk to where Keo waits patiently. But I do not feel bad about it.

:allears:

The ride starts soon after Kaagi is done with Eniki. It's ambitious but not as reckless as that of the previous night. Kaagi meditates on what he knows now about the Lying Darkness, and thinks on the things he could have missed in previous investigations by dismissing them as superstition. Above all, he thinks on when or how he found the Darkness before knowing of it. They reach the checkpoint between Dragon and Unicorn lands soon, and Kaagi wastes no time in pulling rank with the Imperial guards. Renari winks at him: apparently he thinks better of Kaagi now that he's been actually useful. Much later, while they ride through a mountain pass, the bandits jump them - the only warning Kaagi gets is hearing a sound and watching the samurai riding a bit ahead of him being brought down by shadow figures jumping from the rocks. It's awkward to fight in such close quarters with his katana, but the samurai at his side dispatches his foe and hands Kaagi a short knife. The bandits aren't good fighters, but there's a lot of them. Kaagi realizes that they are deliberately throwing themselves in the Unicorn's path so that their own corpses will stop the horses from racing through the pass. He calls this out to Renari, who gives a cry and makes the caravan rush through. Then, Kaagi feels a slash on his leg: he slashes back without looking, but just as he turns he sees something that chills his blood - the bandit wears the face of his own brother, not as the grown man he should be now but as the young boy he once was. Kaagi drops his knife and tries to catch his "brother" but Keo suddenly jolts forwards and away from the bandit. The pursuers howl and Kaagi is convinced they'll bring down the rocks on them, but he hears Eniki's voice chanting and then all horses start running with unnatural speed and away from the ambush. Morning comes and safety with it, but as the riders regroup Kaagi sees Eniki tumble down from her horse. Later he learns that she is dying: she used all of her energies to power that spell. Notaiko emerges from the tent, with Eniki's staff and her position, and the old woman's tent is set ablaze. Now the Unicorn will head to Shiro Iuchi, and Kaagi considers going along with them. That night, Kaagi dreams of his room in the Kitsuki castle, and of his brother climbing in through the window. Somehow, realizing it's Iyekao frightens him even more. He apologizes for leaving Kaagi alone, but someone had to do something for what the Crane did to them and the Phoenix wouldn't do a thing. He didn't want Kaagi to get involved, but ironically it's he who needs his little brother's help now, to save him from something worse - to find the way back. He is by the temple near Firefly River. Kaagi wakes up to find Renari clutching his throat and trashing about. He yells for help and tries to keep Renari from choking himself, but he suddenly goes deathly still. Notaiko, crying but with her voice steady, asks what happened. They examine his body and find bruises on his throat - but not as those from being choked from outside, but as if the hand had been pressing from the inside. Kaagi and Notaiko cut up his clothes to examine his body, and find long lines running vertically across his chest, bloody but the skin uncut.Notaiko resolves to break camp immediately and use her spells to reach the Iuchi castle, but she realizes Kaagi won't go with them. He has to see someone important, he says, but she replies that it's called the Lying Darkness for a reason. Even Kaagi knows how wrong this is, but he has to go. She offers him what provisions he needs and wishes him luck.


Kaagi has seen better days, lemme tell you what.

The adventure! Okay, this isn't really an adventure, but more like an extended scene in another adventure. This is a spook scene designed to remind the PCs that the Darkness hasn't forgotten about them. The idea is that they hit this chase as they are doing something else entirely, so that they are the least prepared to face the Darkness. The book advises to read the story thoroughly and keep a stack of notes to reference for colorful words and phrases to use, rather than using the book and reading scenes wholesale.

quote:

Be sure that your characters have the feeling that it is a relentless pursuer, and that it cannot be evaded, hidden from, or met head-on. Combating the Darkness is more than drawing a heavy katana and chopping a bandit. The Darkness gets inside your mind... and worse. It gets inside your soul. If a character stops to fight, be sure the bandit they choose to kill has the face of their wife. Or their sister.

Or their daimyo.

As a standalone thing, the PCs can be requested by a daimyo to seek out a group of Unicorn that are obviously armed for war wandering their provinces, and since they only ride at night the sensible guess is that they are bandits or criminals. Furthermore, Eniki and Renari are unfamiliar with travel papers, and the PCs can arrive at a guard post to find they have been refused passage and innocent blood might be shed soon. The Unicorns will take no chances with the PCs anymore than they did with Kaagi. If they approach the caravan they'll be ambushed just like he was: a "skilled woodsman" with a Perception + Hunting against TN 15 roll can tell the PCs that the party is being stalked. The Unicorn aren't interested in killing them, just isolating and capturing them to see if they are human or Shadow. Once they can tell they're human, they'll be wary but otherwise friendly. If characters do have the taint of the Shadow in them, though (like Shosuro shadow brands or by catching it in a previous adventure) they'll have a lot of explaining to do, and the Unicorn might very well take them into custody. They are twenty, with Eniki in general charge but Renari commanding the bushi complement. No Awareness rolls needed to tell that the Unicorn are very spooked, constantly looking over their shoulders and never being in groups smaller than three or wandering far from the camp. Eniki does not have any intention of defying the Emperor or making new enemies, so she'll have Renari or Notaiko talk to the PCs and try to get them to leave them alone, but if pressed further they won't lie about their real intentions. They'll welcome any PC that wants to join them, or even insist in case the PCs are thinking of getting off this wild ride.

In the first night, the important part is when one of the Unicorn falls and is swallowed by the Darkness. The GM has to think on what PC would be the most shocked by the event, and tailor it to them: if they are greedy, the Unicorn drops a bag full of koku when he goes down. If they love their Benten's Blessing, they see the Unicorn's otherwise handsome face melt while the blackness swallows them. Or they can go full tilt on describing the gory mess that results when the Unicorn hits the ground, and make the PC look into his eyes before asking if they'll stop to help. If the PC doesn't, then the GM has to hammer home the point that for the rest of their life the PC will have the horrified face of the Unicorn haunting them because gently caress you player, that's why. The GM has to get in the player's physical face while describing this. (Okay, that's definitely more John than Jennifer.) If they do stop to help, double gently caress you: the GM has to take the player out of the room. The GM can do this repeatedly for all PCs, and the Darkness can be very inventive when it comes to spreading insanity and fear. And if the GM feels the PCs aren't afraid enough, then they should kill their horses and let them see who will come back for them. (No one!)

The first day is resting time, and the important part here is Eniki's revelation. The PCs should learn of the Unicorn stories of the Lying Darkness as well as the effects of crystal on its minions. The GM can choose to compress the adventure so that the chase only lasts one night, in which case Notaiko will talk to the PCs after cremating her grandma. The PCs should catch on on how fast Darkness infection is. Eniki will also reveal their prisoner and the reason why the Darkness is after them. The PCs may choose to leave the Unicorn to their fate, but the GM should remind them of the faces of the Unicorns lost the previous night, and have an Unicorn show them the face of the infected bandit. It's their fate if they quit now!


Spooky 'stache.

quote:

It's a choice. Not much of a choice, but still a choice. Let them make it of their own free will.

:nallears:

The second night, the party reaches the Imperial way point. If they have proper permits, it's all good. If they don't, Courtier or Bribery rolls to get through, but if they make no progress Renari will tell his men to charge through, swords and arrows first. The second ambush happens at the narrow, winding mountain pass, where only two horses can pass at the time and the ground is rocky and hard for horses to run in - prime ambush territory. The Shadow bandits (still low-stat mooks) want to create as much confusion and corpses as possible to stop the Unicorn from passing, which Kaagi figured out and the PC with the highest Perception + Battle score will do as well if the players don't pick up on it. Characters roll one less die if they use weapons longer than katana in the narrow pass, and characters without Horsemanship that don't get off their horses to fight roll two dice less. Now, the players that were sent away during the previous ambush are brought back, and the GM should tell them to encourage the PCs to join them, or to run away, or to turn the Unicorn prisoner in exchange for them. Of course, those PCs are all corrupted by the Darkness already. The last important part is Eniki casting her spell: any PC with a hasting spell can help in the casting. As an optional rule, a spellcasting PC willing to die to cast a spell does so without a roll and with twice their Void in Free Raises. If the PCs help Eniki, she survives (although she and her assistant take half their total Wounds score in damage). Renari will still die a horrible death next day, however, and PCs will find about the same things Kaagi did if they examine the body. The PCs get one XP for surviving the trip, another for getting through the check point without fighting, and yet another for helping Eniki cast the spell as well as a major favor if they keep the old shugenja alive. They also get a separate major favor from the Unicorn that the PCs' children would be able to inherit, as the Unicorn are willing to let those favors lie for much longer than other clans.

Next: the final spook.

Traveller fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Sep 13, 2016

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

Evil Mastermind posted:

WickAdventures.txt

What I don't get is the total lack of expectation that players will try to avoid Bad poo poo. Players always try to avoid Bad poo poo! That's a big part of playing, rather than sitting and watching a narrative!

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Yeah, that's what gets me - the whole Ninube bit - any player who notices she's acting weird, or suspect something's not kosher, they're going to try to deal with it - either killing her while her fiance's unconscious, to suggesting she's locked up and tested. Even if they don't know what's going on, there's a lot of red flags that would make no sense for characters to ignore.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 23 hours!
Sounds like you need some alone time with a dictionary:cop:

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

Wick must have dumb as hell players, or players who have realized they're going on the railroad anyway and so they've just stopped bothering to fight it.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 23 hours!
They were probably just in that learned helplessness mindset that abusive GMs try to enforce.
Which is another sort of dumb.

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Traveller
Jan 6, 2012

WHIM AND FOPPERY

Well, the thing with Ninube is that she does not give any sign that things are wrong with her except for some blink-and-miss moments (and the adventure portion of the chapter does not suggest this is even possible; in canon, Ninube will keep her cover for a very long time) Even if PCs pick up on those, if you're playing the adventures in the order the book gives out players won't know how to test her for corruption, only that tests used to check for Shadowlands Taint will turn out to be negative (since the Darkness and the Taint are two different forces). The adventure is also very insistent on Ujina's exalted status and how getting rough with his waifu is a killing move, either career or life-wise. It is a shitshow, yes: the progression of the Way of Shadow adventures is inversely proportional to the amount of agency the players have, which ends with the Unicorn horse chase which is just "sit down and feel bad as the GM describes gory deaths you have no way of stopping, maybe roll some worthless dice now and then"

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