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Hunt11 posted:Of course the concept of civilians still existed. There were the people you were trying to kill and/or do horrible things to who could not fight back. Oh but they did fight back. China and the Eastern Front were nightmares where more or less everyone fought. My complaints about Godlike aside, I do like the presentation that Talents had an influence on the war, and in many cases were famous war heroes, but don't seem to have actually changed the course of the war or dramatically altered major events. I think that's my favorite way to handle Weird War Two settings, and my first thought for a Godlike character were I to play the game is a Muslim woman from North Africa - maybe Egypt - whose powers awoke when she and her family and/or religious community were hiding the local Jewish population from the Italian/German occupiers (a thing that actually happened, a lot of Muslims in North Africa resisted the Axis occupation and went to heroic lengths to shelter their Jewish population).
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Sep 16, 2016 14:31
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Can someone give a rundown of the craziest poo poo in Tomb of Iuchiban? I've never read it, only reviews. I know the tomb changes in the second part and the rakshasa that taught Iuchiban is there or something but no one has put up a comprehensive description of its bullshit. I imagine it's all for nothing too and you can't accomplish anything important. I own it and it's been a long time since I looked through it. The adventure is basically broken up into two parts - the discovery that something is amiss and tracking down Iuchiban's lieutenant back to the tomb, and then the tomb itself. I have never played either since it was basically a capstone adventure for high level PCs that you wanted to go out with a bang - literally in the best case scenario they're going to get some taint and have nothing much to show for their trouble. None of my players ever got to the point where they'd likely survive getting to the tomb let alone what is inside it. The tomb itself is intentionally an homage to Tomb of Horrors and it's every bit as deadly. It's composed of a whole mess of rooms that are all traps and a small handful of combats. I will try to recall some of the rooms, but I honestly don't recall too much. I might look later tonight. Here are a few: A hallway that is an illusion. So long as the PCs keep their eyes open it appears (and is) an endless hallway that they will eventually starve in. If they close their eyes and feel their way around, they might find a way out. An Indiana Jones room with the symbols of each clan on large floor tiles. If the PCs follow the correct order that they were eliminated in the Tournament of the Kami then they're okay, otherwise they die (don't recall how). Sentient armor that will face PCs in Iaijutsu duels and basically takes over the skill and soul of any PC it defeats. It recently killed a hell of a duelist, so it's tough. A room that is just a pit with a narrow ledge around the side to walk on, but around the pit are swirling circular patterns that disorient the PCs and make it more likely for them to fall in. A room with a bunch of brambles that make lots of insignificant cuts on the PCs, and then a room that douses them in a chemical extract from a fish that makes their blood stop clotting and puts them on a timer before they bleed out. There are basically two 'tiers' of rooms. The outer rooms are still normal and intact and act as the creators of the tomb intended. Just inventive traps intended to weed out Iuchiban's followers. The inner rooms have become warped by the power of Iuchiban and things get weird. One room is just a giant, beating heart that it some sort of facsimile of Iuchiban's real heart. Other rooms show memories of the PCs for all too see, good or bad. One is just a pool of blood with some kind of oracle/blood golem that gives the PCs information. In the center of the tomb is where Iuchiban is located and when you get there his traitorous lieutenant is already starting the process of ending him and stealing his power. Just being there forces you to accrue taint and there's almost no way out unless your PCs randomly think to use a naga pearl they got from a helpful magistrate a long time ago. Like I said, I never ran it, but like Tomb of Horrors the designers clearly didn't have a high expectation of your people getting out alive. edit: as to what you accomplish, the goal is to stop Iuchiban's lieutenant (Yajinden? I don't remember) from getting to the tomb. As someone mentioned, the Bloodspeakers are sick of Iuchiban's failures and Yajinden decides that he has a way to kill Iuchiban and steal his power. With someone potentially competent at the helm things could go bad. Your PCs get wind of the plot and track him to the tomb. You basically either stop him (and leave his soul to be tortured as Iuchiban's plaything for a few more decades) or fail and a new Iuchiban is on the loose. The adventure is absolutely bullshit and is intended as such. If I remember right, the designers are up front about that part. As for the Rakshasa, it is trapped in one of the rooms and tries to convince you to let it go. It's a lovely scenario - if you let it go it will probably kill you now or might just come after you should you get out of the tomb. If you let it languish, canonically Iuchiban is freed in a couple decades and it gets free anyway and is now coming for your elderly PCs. EverettLO fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Sep 16, 2016 |
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Sep 16, 2016 15:47
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Wait. How can there be a D&D hommage in a Wick game if Wick doesn't like D&D? (Or maybe all those pretentious "I can do better than D&D" game designers are starting to blur in my mind or something.)
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Sep 16, 2016 17:19
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Doresh posted:Wait. How can there be a D&D hommage in a Wick game if Wick doesn't like D&D? I don't think he was involved in this one at all. Nothing I recall felt like the GM trying to dick you unfairly - they were fairly up front about what is going to happen to your characters if they set foot in the only place more dangerous than the Shadowlands.
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Sep 16, 2016 17:40
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Doresh posted:Wait. How can there be a D&D hommage in a Wick game if Wick doesn't like D&D? As much as it's popularly thought of as a "Wick game", Legend of the Five Rings was more of an "AEG game", as Wick himself put it. In any case, Tomb of Iuchiban was written by Rob Vaux, a freelance writer who also worked on Way of the Crab and Book of the Shadowlands covered previously, so he was probably considered a natural fit for this product.
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Sep 16, 2016 17:47
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What I remember most about Tomb of Iuchiban was that it came with a large blank grid map and a bunch of punch out tiles to represent the rooms and the semi-random way they were arranged, and that it added nothing to the module and seemed to be there solely to justify the effort and expense of making it a boxed module. It's not even like TOI is an old-school mapping puzzle like many classic D&D adventures (including Tomb of Horrors) - it's just a series of linked rooms, each one of which has A Clever Trap in the middle and An Exit or two on the other side of the Clever Trap. Plus the whole thing is full of handwavey nonsense about how the shadowlands taint is strong enough to warp space and time so the geometry is unreliable and doesn't always make sense, which is the opposite of the effect created by laying square tiles on a square-gridded map. Just baffling.
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Sep 16, 2016 17:57
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Alien Rope Burn posted:As much as it's popularly thought of as a "Wick game", Legend of the Five Rings was more of an "AEG game", as Wick himself put it. In any case, Tomb of Iuchiban was written by Rob Vaux, a freelance writer who also worked on Way of the Crab and Book of the Shadowlands covered previously, so he was probably considered a natural fit for this product. Thanks. Now everything makes sense again. FMguru posted:It's not even like TOI is an old-school mapping puzzle like many classic D&D adventures (including Tomb of Horrors) - it's just a series of linked rooms, each one of which has A Clever Trap in the middle and An Exit or two on the other side of the Clever Trap. Plus the whole thing is full of handwavey nonsense about how the shadowlands taint is strong enough to warp space and time so the geometry is unreliable and doesn't always make sense, which is the opposite of the effect created by laying square tiles on a square-gridded map. So it's a bit like L5R: Silent Hill Edition? Doresh fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Sep 16, 2016 |
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Sep 16, 2016 18:40
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Don't get me wrong, I actually like the idea of settings set in weird environments, but there has to be some reason to engage with it more deeply (get it?) and Blue Planet has its unobtainium you have to dive down under to get, and there's sea mining and fishing and all that, but, you know, nothing that really felt engaging to me other than playing a space marine mammal. The thing is, they were going hard sci-fii, so there isn't any of the obvious exciting hooks you would have like an alien civilization or alien ruins to interact with. There's all your standard human intrigue and conflict in a hostile environment, and you could probably do something with a survival emphasis, but I think you'd have to emphasize the "one oxygen unit away from crushing death" tension somewhere in the mechanics. Blue Planet is all about Alien Creatures/Civilization that's the source of the aborigines and Long John, the xenosilicates that everybody is mining for. They're used to really creepy effect in several places and the campaign I mentioned with the discovery of the Cousteau was all about that.
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Sep 16, 2016 21:20
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EverettLO posted:Rocks fall, people dishonorably die. FMguru posted:What I remember most about Tomb of Iuchiban was that it came with a large blank grid map and a bunch of punch out tiles to represent the rooms and the semi-random way they were arranged, and that it added nothing to the module and seemed to be there solely to justify the effort and expense of making it a boxed module. Thanks for the rundowns. I wonder how complete the $150 copies floating around are with the tiles? I did luck into an original Battletech box set with all the tiles for $2 at a Goodwill a couple years back so I guess it's possible.
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Sep 16, 2016 23:31
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 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. I actually use up the very last piece of art in this update, which is a bummer. Combat: We now come to the penultimate webpage in Open Legend, Combat. This chapter is the most-rule dense and the most obvious one that this game is a heartbreaker. Almost every rule involving combat, which includes things like movement and healing, is in here. The resulting monster page therefore has a revolving cast of gameplay concepts it is introducing and explaining here for the very first time, including what to me are fundamentals such as what sorts of things the game expects you to have on hand to play. In an interesting choice, the chapter begins with examples of when not to use the combat rules, suggesting that GM only invoke these rules for fights that would be both fun and important enough to merit a blow-by-blow resolution. For examples, we’re told a mundane tavern brawl can probably be resolved with a single roll, while dueling a necromancer and his skeleton horde in our intertwined airships as they blast into each other is something we should be fighting out. We’re then given an overview of how combat is broken down, which follows the bog standard DnDism of rounds consisting of characters turns, six seconds per turn, and everyone having a turn in which to go during a given round but semi-randomly distributed based on their attributes. With that, we kick off with initiative and surprise. Surprise is determined by your GM, who may or may not grant the party the opportunity to make checks to avoid the ambush, and yes the rules are that wishy-washy. Characters who are surprised in combat go last in the first round regardless of their initiative, may not interrupt any attacks made that first round, and all attacks against them have an advantage 1 bonus. Initiative, as the game then explains, is a score to determine what order characters take their turn in a round. Initiative is an agility roll (d20+ agility attribute dice) with straight highest to lowest ranking. Of a possibly interesting note, since I don’t remember DnD ever offering this, if you switch weapons during combat you may re-roll your initiative for the new weapon. Before it gets into the full meat of battle, the game notes that in a combat encounter there will be quite a lot of rolling attacks, which might overwhelm a GM to come up with roleplay outcomes for all of them. The game encourages using a slight modification of its typical resolution mechanic instead, where on a failed combat roll the player in question and the GM choose from a short list of results to determine the outcome. Each chooses one outcome from the following list to inflict on each other: Deal 5 damage, inflict one bane of power level <= 3, a free bonus movement of 10’ without triggering opportunity attacks. It’s an elegant way to handle misses, but it doesn’t seem the most well balanced. It’s also not clear if the GM and the player can both pick the same one from the list, but the game is extremely clear this only applies to player rolls. If the GM whiffs, the GM whiffs.  this is actually the art for an article on using politics to spice up your game’s story – Artwork by: Dleoblack Open Legend then segues into what attributes can be used for making combat related rolls. Not every attribute can be used, and some are considered situational and up to the GM. Might for instance, is always available to fight with, logic is conditional such as in situations involving traps, and fortitude probably never will be unless the game notes there is a great reason given. This section seems a little pointless as Banes and Boons already state what attributes they use, weapons have defined attributes they function off of, there are feats that bypass/do the same thing as this, and this section is a loooong time after we chose what attributes our characters were going to use. With the basics of combat resolution and rolling out of the way, Open Legend introduces the turn and what players can do on it. A turn consists of either a single focused action or a combination package of 1 move, 1 major, and infinite minor actions. Open Legend is not afraid of nested hierarchies, and there are three types of focus actions, five types of major actions, and 3 types of move actions all then summarily defined in helpful detail. Focus Actions: on a successful bane inflicting attack remove all your opponents buffs, make a major action with advantage 1, or move twice your move speed and attack in melee range with disadvantage 1. Major Actions: attack, invoke a bane, invoke a boon, assist an ally by forgoing your action to give them advantage 1, and take another move action. Move Actions are: move your speed, make a non-standard movement such as climbing*, and attempt to remove a Bane currently afflicting you. Open Legend then provides a 4-step chart that shows how to calculate all attack possible attack rolls in the game using the Standard Excel Pivot Table Color Scheme™. This chart tracks the type of attack, the distances involved, how each type of attack handles multiple targets, what attacks target what defenses, and for the first time in Open Legend how damage is calculated as well as when to proc a Bane. The chart sounds daunting when writing up what it covers, but is very streamlined and concise and the information it provides small enough that players should grasp their attacks with ease. Some small nerfs to non-magic users crop up in this chart with, ranged attacks made within melee range of an enemy having disadvantage unless you are using a magical ranged attack against the foe next to you. The most interesting thing here is all magical attacks are ranged, but the distance of the attack is determined by your attribute score in that specific magic stat. So while one may have a 4 in energy and able to attack/use those abilities at 50 feet, doing the same with a creation 2 the effects can only travel 25 feet. Further, all magic actions can be made area of effect without requiring any special ability or specific bane or boon. Instead, for each additional increase in area size from single target 5x5 square, the roll takes another disadvantage, scaling up to a nigh-hopeless15 disadvantage at maximum to create a 75x75 foot square of effect.  I’m completely out of art now, so next update I’m going to have to steal from a friend. In the meantime, here is the cover for the first module. – Artwork by: Uncredited(?) We now detour back into actions for a moment to discuss minor actions. These include, but are not limited to as the game notes, drawing weapons, sustaining a boon, making mental checks to determine what you know about things, and making an opportunity attack. While you can take an infinite number of minor actions, you can only take one minor action per turn once so no pulling out weapons until you get the initiative score you want. As part of Minor Actions, characters may make opportunity attacks. Any enemy who was in your reach who is moved for any reason out of your reach gets a thwacking. Since it is a minor action, you can only perform it once a turn but combat in Open Legend is pretty lethal as is and opportunity attacks can inflict banes if you deal enough damage so it can be incredibly nasty. The final action you can take, Interrupt actions which were never mentioned previously, are then introduced. This is basically a catch-all category for “I do [x] on reaction to help myself/ an ally” with examples given of say catching an ally pushed off a cliff. Doing an interrupt uses your next major action, but you can still move and make minor actions on your next turn. The game stresses that interrupts are intended only for helping fellow players, not alpha striking enemies by having the party take 8 turns of advantage boosted attacks in a row. Open Legend then wraps up with how healing and reaching 0 hit points works. Characters reduced to 0 no longer take actions although they technically remain on the initiative order. Characters can never fall below 0, so any healing that hits them while at 0 has them instantly stand up at that number and resume at their place in the initiative order. After combat everyone still standing is restored to full health within 10 minutes, no spells, items, food, or anything required. Characters who were at 0 at the end of combat don’t get fully healed after 10 minutes, but do regain all their health after 2d4 hours. Not quite sure why that isn’t just a hard number as well. Of note regarding getting knocked to 0 hit points: if players are attacked while at 0 hit points, they must make a fortitude roll with the challenge rating set to half the damage they took. While it should be fairly rare this would ever come up or the characters fail since they still get full defense scores, it is incredibly cruel that you die permanently if you fail this roll. This chapter draws to a final close, however, with a terrible, but thankfully optional, rule that seemingly exists to make the players suffer. On any d20 explosion, the die rolled after the exploding die is dealt immediately as special damage which cannot be healed by magic or by finishing the encounter. This hit point penalty is recovered at a rate of fortitude attribute per day, which turns a fun and relatively quick encounter game into a slog where enemies have a 5% chance of maiming the PCs for an average amount of 18%-100% of their health that even should the PC survive the hit will linger for long periods of time. Of critical note is that nowhere in this section is any explanation of the unspoken assumption that you are playing on a grid with tokens, with each square on the grid measuring 5x5 feet. Further, the game never mentions how to track the oodles of status effects it’s rife with or, egregiously, if line of sight is even a concept. Combine this with having to dig around to figure out exactly how far you move and you've a recipe for combat that can't actually get started based on what's written in the rules. *Uniquely to me all of these difficult movement checks rely on a characters might attribute, not agility. Agility is, as ever, a dump stat in Open Legends. Up Next: Running the Game! (It’s pretty much what it says on the tin)
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Sep 17, 2016 20:13
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Attempting to remove a bane is a move action? Do you try to literally shake it off?
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Sep 17, 2016 23:42
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To quote the game here the only description is, "you may focus your energy on shaking off the negative effects of any banes currently afflicting you." So yes, as far as the rules are concerned you are quite literally shaking them off of you which includes things like "being knocked to the floor" and "cursed to die in three turns".
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Sep 18, 2016 00:57
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Barudak posted:To quote the game here the only description is, "you may focus your energy on shaking off the negative effects of any banes currently afflicting you." So yes, as far as the rules are concerned you are quite literally shaking them off of you which includes things like "being knocked to the floor" and "cursed to die in three turns". I mean, if you can't just walk this off like it's nothing, I don't think you can call yourself a hero at all. (Is "dying" a Bane?)
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Sep 18, 2016 07:32
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Barudak posted:Ok originally I was going to post an update to Open Legend to cover combat rules but it's just been announced Matt Mercer, Ed Greenwood, and John Wick are going to the be writing force behind its first setting book. It launches on kickstarter on October 18th so get your poo poo in order for that mess, and I for one am super excited to see how that not at all conflicting group of individuals writing styles finishes up. Matt Mercer the voice actor? I guess Critical Role has been even more successful than I thought
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Sep 18, 2016 11:08
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Doresh posted:I mean, if you can't just walk this off like it's nothing, I don't think you can call yourself a hero at all. There's something really endearing about this. I kindof want to integrate it into my DnD game. Under the effects of Bestow Curse? Take a lap around the battlefield (with any attacks of opportunity) and it goes away.
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Sep 18, 2016 15:49
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Death is a gym teacher. "Look we don't play chess or anything unless you have a note from a Higher Power excusing you. You want outta here? You gotta climb The Rope."
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Sep 18, 2016 16:24
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Gym Class Hero: Whenever you take your full movement and no other action during a round, gain advantage/+2/automatically end any ongoing conditions (death included).
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Sep 18, 2016 19:41
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Blue Planet is all about Alien Creatures/Civilization that's the source of the aborigines and Long John, the xenosilicates that everybody is mining for. They're used to really creepy effect in several places and the campaign I mentioned with the discovery of the Cousteau was all about that. Ah, okay. I only ever had the FFG version of the core rules, so I never got too deep into it before selling off my two books earlier this year. Of course, that's a bit of a general issue with games that take the real plot and jam it in the supplements. To players that don't invest beyond the core material, it's mostly a footnote and the Moderator's Guide doesn't spend a lot of time on it. RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Thanks for the rundowns. I would suspect a fair number given it isn't a set of tiles you regularly play around with like a board game. I know my copy is complete, but I'm fairly certain the copy I have was never run. It's more like Shadowgate than Silent Hill in any case.
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Sep 18, 2016 20:31
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I really like Blue Planet and actually built a Beluga Missionary for the Church of Whalesong Mysticism in the old archived build characters for games thread https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3609987&userid=135246#post426295653 . The 2e game system (Synergy) works reliably and is nothing special, but is leaps and bounds ahead of the 1e system.
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Sep 18, 2016 21:33
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:I really like Blue Planet and actually built a Beluga Missionary for the Church of Whalesong Mysticism in the old archived build characters for games thread https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3609987&userid=135246#post426295653 . The 2e game system (Synergy) works reliably and is nothing special, but is leaps and bounds ahead of the 1e system. That was such a good thread.
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Sep 18, 2016 22:30
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 Return to the TOMB OF HORRORS Part 13: Face You My Trials Three! Here's the Moil map again, for reference. http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/images/8ac72538e7e112fc6722effa5c9be075e438e7f90e152aa85da5d3f7897c3f5c.jpeg We last left off after the heroes had activated two of the switches they need to escape Moil: the riddle box in the wraithspider-webbed tower, and the lever in the darkweaver's lair. The next stop is Tower 14, the Tower of Test.  Moil was a potent city-state on its home plane, and part of that was its mighty standing army. The Moilians required their army to be constantly and rigorously tested, and so they devised this tower. It used to be the tallest tower of a complex series of keeps, barracks, armories, and all of the other elements that make up a great fortress; time, and Orcus's curse, has left only this small part remaining. The tower floors that Acererak has modified were once the testing ground for the Exalted Moilian Home Guard, or "exaltants," the army's elite. PCs are most likely to enter on the bottom level and proceed upward. 14.1 is the entryway. It has a sword, axe, fist and crossbow above the doorway, to give PCs a hint as to what kind of business went on here. Anyone who passes through the archway triggers an enchantment that causes war horns to sound: a proud martial bellow in the city's heyday, it is now a "lonely death knell." It also alerts Faericles that he has company, which... well, you'll see. 14.2 is a long, curving corridor with red and white checkered tiles on the floor showing martial scenes. The walls are covered in mounted human heads  , in case you forgot what kind of city Moil is. These are the remnants of those who challenged the Lord High Exaltant, the leader of the Exaltants, to a fight to the death for his spot-- the loser's head would be stuffed and mounted here, so each of the heads has a brass plaque with a Moilian name (Daelis, Goerdyn, Vaekreeth and Suedlow are given as examples). At 14.3, something unusual: Gus! Gustaeth was an unlucky challenger, and his head was mounted on the wall like the others. This head was animated by the Dark Intrusion and has some memory of its former existence. Gus doesn't know he was decapitated and thinks his body is trapped in the wall behind him. Acererak has promised Gus that he will come back to free him if Gus directs people to the first door of the Six Criterion, so that's what he does. He tells the party to enter the door to the south, then begs them to free him so he can feel the wind on his toes and flex his fingers.  oh, gus  If the PCs are dicks enough to convince Gus that he's a disembodied head, he loses the remains of his sanity and descends into screams and moans. Please don't be mean to Gus. The door he points PCs to is the entry to the series of six tests that prospective Exaltants had to face: the Six Criterion. Gus knows that Faericles was the last Lord High Exaltant, but assumes he's dead because he hasn't seen him in over a century. He'll tell the PCs what he knows about Acererak if they ask, which isn't much; Acererak came in the form of a winter-wight ("a skeleton encased in ice") and he saw Desatysso when the wizard passed through, though he's mad that the wizard wouldn't free him. He doesn't know that only five of the six tests are still functioning, either. Once the PCs are within 80 feet of the tower's central core-- ie, when they walk through the door, and thereafter-- no magical or psionic effect that allows special movement or travel ceases to work. No teleporting past the test, or flying through them, or phasing, or anything. 14.4 has a battered four-foot-long horn attached to a plaque. It's faintly blue-black and "speaks of pestilence and dread." The plaque labels it "Horn of an Astral Dreadnought," which it is, although failing to kill the beast when taking its horn ended up proving the doom of the trophy-taker. The Dark Intrusion has suffused it and made it very unpleasant to be around. Anyone within 5 feet of it must save vs. spells at -4 or suffer fear for 1d4 hours. Touching it (why would you do that?!) means you save vs. death magic or forget the events of the past day. Touching a magical item to it causes the item to save vs. disintegration or lose all its powers. If for some insane reason you carry it around, once every 24 hours a random magical item you hold must save vs. disintegration or lose all powers.  You got it, book. 14.5 has a plaque bearing a wriggling severed human hand, labeled "The Hand of Tyr." It is not actually Tyr's hand. It was put up as a joke after being severed from a "lowly criminal" who ended up plea bargaining from death down to dismemberment. "At the time, all who saw the hand got quite a chuckle." If you take it off the wall, it follows you around like a pet. You can graft it to a stub on an arm, and it will fuse and grant you 18/00 Strength-- for the 24 hours until it kills you. Anyways, moving on, we get to the first actual test: 14.6. This is the Test of Deftness, the Standing Spires. The room is full of 4-sided iron pillars placed incredibly close together in a thicket, though a path can be traced through them. The way they're arranged, knocking one over sets off the dominoes from hell as they all topple with a horrendous clanging crash. Many of them fall towards the walls and ceiling and scrape along them, so you can't simply go around. When the first PC makes it halfway through the room, the enchantment binding the pillars triggers, and they start to topple. Everyone in the room has to "jump, dodge, scoot or run" to clear a path before all of the pillars fall. This is three dex checks at -2, -4 and -6 respectively, and each failure results in 3d10 damage as you get squashed by a heavy iron pillar. Getting hit once also gives you an additional -2 on your next check, increasing the likelihood that you get bashed again. It takes one minute for all of the pillars to fall, and then after one week the room resets itself. 14.7 is the depressingly simple Test of Strength. The only exit from the empty room (besides where you came in) is covered by a panel of gleaming silver that is strangely empty of the otherwise everpresent frost. There's a handle at the bottom of the panel which is frozen solid in a block of ice. The panel itself is solid steel and heavily enchanted to resist magic. It opens by sliding up on a pair of vertical tracks. The surface itself is nearly frictionless, due to the same enchantment, so the ice can't accumulate on it. You can only open it by grabbing the handle and lifting. You have to chip away the ice first, then you need someone with 18 Strength at least; less than that won't work, but what else are we lugging Grunther around for? You can also batter it down; it has an AC of -2 and can take 80 points of damage, which must be from blunt or piercing weapons. Hope the Vestige doesn't catch on to what you're doing here. 14.8 is a wide room holding a wide variety of spheres in a dizzying array of colors, all descending from the ceiling on copper chains. This is the Test of Forbearance. Sharp eyes with good memory might be reminded of the TOMB OF HORRORS. There's no actual connection, but I hope it freaks PCs out. Each orb produces a single, clear tone; however, the tones were selected the create maximum discord. You hear them as a low hum when you enter. It starts off unpleasant, but with every foot someone progresses into the chamber, it gets louder... and louder... and louder... The room is 70 feet across. At 35 feet, the sound becomes actively dangerous. You have to test Constitution three times per round (ie once every 20 seconds) with -2 on the first check, -4 on the second, and -6 on all subsequent checks. You can only move at half your maximum due to the noise. Being deaf makes you immune, though a silence spell is not sufficient to block the noise. If you miss a check, you fall over, trying to block the noise. The DM should know where you are at this point, because you have a number of rounds equal to the Constitution divided by three to get out of the room, or you die of a brain hemorrhage. If you pass a Con check at -10, you can get back up and stagger out. PCs will likely need to help each other here; once you're out, one minute of rest sets you to rights. 14.9 is the Test of Intelligence. The far door is a sealed iron valve bearing a plaque with five small gemstones set in it. They pulse with light in a seemingly random fashion. The whole door is completely magicked against cheating, and will only open if you can pass the test. Watching the gems gives you a Wisdom check to notice that they flash in repeating patterns: one series of 20-30 flashes, a 30 second pause, then the same series again, then a 30 second pause, then a new sequence. Repeat. A rogue attempting to Find Traps finds that the gems can be depressed and will spring back into position. You've figured this out. You have to Bop it! Twist it! Pull it! Bop it! It takes three Int checks to follow the pattern, with each failure giving you a shock worth 2d4 damage. If you miss even one you miss the whole pattern and have to start over. Don't worry, you'll get it. Eventually. 14.10 is the Test of Logic... by GIANT SCYTHE! It's basically an Indiana Jones trap, with scything blades on thin wires oscillating back and forth along the staircase. They briefly part to let you through, then the space fills with sharp steel again. You must use patience and wit to figure out the safe path, which takes two Int checks and a Wis check. If you miss one, the next one is at -4, and then -8 if you fail again. For failing, you get hit with 1d4/2d4/4d4 blades doing 1d10 each. The book says a "lenient DM" may allow a player on the wrong path a chance to dodge each blade with a save vs. breath weapon at -3, but if you're a lenient GM, what the gently caress are your PCs doing here?!  how logical Once everyone's all cleaned up and bits have been reattached, then you can proceed to the... oh wait, that's five. You pass! Almost! The next room is 14.11, the Field of Glory, a mostly bare room with all kinds of weapons hung on the wall. This is where the Lord High Exaltant took challenges, which were always fights to the death with the challenger's choice of weaponry. PCs can find any mundane melee weapon they want here. They can also find Faericles, the last Lord High Exaltant, who suffered the fate of all the other Moilians: he died in his sleep. Acererak found that he had a use for Faericles and his martial prowess, and empowered him far beyond the normal Moilian zombie. Faericles spends his unlife endlessly practicing and "honing his martial arts and weapons kata"  . If he is forewarned by the war horn or the spheres, he will hide and spring out when the PCs arrive. He appears as a leathery-skinned human backlit with an eerie violet glow, which is part of the necromancy. He is surrounded by vapor that extends out about 20 feet, which is also his life-drain power's range. Acererak taught him common, so he can challenge the PCs, which he does: You don't have to fight him one on one, but he's not an idiot; a party of PCs vs. one uberzombie still doesn't favor the zombie. If you do pick a champion and Faericles wins, he'll admonish you to be on your way; if you win, you can proceed, though remember the next bridge is #11 (the collapsing bridge). Faericles is a buffed Moilian zombie, with a lower AC, better Thac0, more attacks, and the Blade Perilous, which I mentioned earlier. It's a +3 sword of wounding, but it's also an intelligent weapon with an ego of 31, that can communicate telepathically. It glows a ghastly red in the air and leaves a shimmering trail behind it, can detect invisible in a 10-foot radius (presumably whenever it wants), and three times per day it can entrance by being swung overhead at least twice. Anyone who fails a saving throw vs. spells at -3 must remain entranced for as long as the blade is swingin' plus 1d4+1 rounds. It can entrance up to three times the wielder's HD, which is 16x3=48 for Faericles. When fighting a warrior (fighter, ranger, paladin, etc.) if they're wounded by it, in addition to not being able to heal (as per normal for a sword of wounding), the enemy loses 2 HP per round (instead of the normal 1 for a sword of wounding) for 10 rounds. He also has all normal Moilian zombie powers. He's a fighter, though, so your magic-users will squish him, probably. The last chamber here is 14.12, the sanctum of Faericles. The center of the room has a 10-foot square mat with four violet glowing stones around it, one at each edge. Faericles spends 12 out of every 24 hours here, meditating on the mysteries of his art. The stones give off "necromantic radiation"  that animates Faericles. If you sit on his mat, you feel a sharp pain after one round, an unaccountable feeling of dread, and a strong desire to leave the mat. If you don't, the stones connect you directly to the Negative Energy Plane, sucking your life out and animating you simultaneously as a free-willed undead. This retains all of your stats and skills, except for paladins, who lose divine power and become fighters. You might not even realize what's happened to you!Eventually, you'll figure it out; you don't need to eat, rest or breathe, your heart doesn't beat, your skin takes on a waxy pallor, and other subtle hints. It ain't all roses: Wounds don't heal normally and healing magic hurts you, plus you can be turned. Acererak can also possess you whenever he wants if he achieves his Apotheosis, so you have more reason than anyone else to want to stop him! That's the tower. No switch in here, but you need to pass through it to get to Tower 15, which we'll deal with next time. Again, remember that the bridge that takes you there from Faericles's room is the one that collapses. Next time: Welcome to dreamland! DAD LOST MY IPOD fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Sep 19, 2016 |
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Sep 18, 2016 23:54
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What's in the tower between 14 and 15? Shouldn't that be the Tower of Test based on the description?
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Sep 19, 2016 00:35
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Kavak posted:What's in the tower between 14 and 15? Shouldn't that be the Tower of Test based on the description? I think that's true and the map is just really poorly laid out.
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Sep 19, 2016 01:05
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Tasoth posted:Gym Class Hero: Whenever you take your full movement and no other action during a round, gain advantage/+2/automatically end any ongoing conditions (death included). And, once again, the Body Improvement Club is shown to be the heroes we need.
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Sep 19, 2016 01:15
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Those undeadify stones seem a pretty solid deal for a wizard or anyone else with access to negative energy spells. Forget hunting down some other form of immortality, sell admission tickets.
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Sep 19, 2016 01:22
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wiegieman posted:Those undeadify stones seem a pretty solid deal for a wizard or anyone else with access to negative energy spells. Forget hunting down some other form of immortality, sell admission tickets. While you are in the Fortress of Conclusion (the next and last step of the trip) Acererak is stated to be able to freely inhabit and control the actions of any undead present. I have to assume this includes undead PCs, because otherwise you could cheese the hell out of this adventure by all going undead.
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Sep 19, 2016 01:34
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Legend of the Five Rings First Edition Way of the Phoenix: Let's talk about Phoenix  Clan Mixtape. Welcome to the last of the Great Clan books! But we still have a way to go, don't worry. Now we get to see what the pacifistic spellslingers of the Clans are all about! This book is written by Patrick Kapera and Ree Soesbee, supported by the AEG crew, including John, Jennifer, Marcelo Figueroa, Rob Vaux and... Ryan Dancey? Huh! quote:Ryan gave us the kick-start we needed, and provided constant inspiration, even from afar.  RPG FICTION! Shiba the Kami sat and wrote what Shinsei told Hantei. Again, Shinsei asked the Emperor for seven warriors to take to Fu Leng's realm, and while Shiba pondered on how not all the paper in the Empire could contain the little monk's wisdom, he noticed he was staring at him, probing him for something. Hantei granted his appeal and said he would call for his brothers and sisters, but Shinsei said that could not be: only mortals, for Fortunes favor the mortal man. Hantei considered this and eventually agreed. Then, when Shinsei retired, he took one page of Shiba's record and asked him what it was. A record of his talk, he responded, but Shinsei said "No" and Shiba was ashamed of his ignorance. For Shiba it was just the present, but for others it would be history, and as Shinsei talked Shiba realized he was telling him something else: Shiba could not appreciate history, because he would live forever, and that was why he could not fight Fu Leng. Much later, Shiba journeyed into the Shadowlands, searching for Shinsei and the last Thunder - still haunted by Shinsei's words, and Lady Asako's face. Eventually he came upon a fight: a multi-limbed Oni, literally the first of his kind, in a deadly fight with Shosuro the Scorpion. Shiba joined the fight, but the Oni ended up catching him and crushing his body in its fetid grip, until Shiba managed to rip his eyes off with his bare hands  and dealing him a mortal wound. In his dying moments, he saw a small form approaching, heard the wings of a crow, and Shinsei speaking into his remaining ear. Shiba was dying, and Shinsei said that he would not live - but he would move on. Shinsei whispered in the Kami's ear and revealed to him a path between earth and sky, one that mortals would not be able to venture for ages. He saw man's beginning and end, all the points in between, all the challenges and how to overcome them. Weeks later, the exhausted Shosuro returned to the Empire, asking for Shiba even as she fell to her knees. Bayushi rushed to hold her, saying he was not here, but Shosuro said that Bayushi was wrong; Shiba was everywhere. She saw the young man that carried her into the Imperial City, who bowed and disappeared in the crowd. During the celebration and ceremony for the fallen, Lady Asako had so much to think of - all the losses, the issue of the wedding of her son to Isawa's daughter, and then she heard an eerily familiar voice saying she looked lovely in the moonlight. She turned around and saw a young man he didn't know, one of Shiba's children, but his eyes were those of his friend. He had something to ask of her, and he was Tsuzaki, son of Shiba - but also Shiba. And as Shiba spoke, a new path started opening in Asako's mind, a new gift that she had to protect until the rest of humanity was ready. Humans were the key to greatness, and Shiba would show Asako how to guide them: he would give her the future. The Tao of Elfgames. quote:For a thousand years, the Phoenix have stood on the border of this world and the Celestial Heavens, refusing to accept only one Way. The Isawa Masters have had the strength to defy all those who would tell them where their path lies, and forged their own truths from the bitter realities of war and darkness. The Phoenix Clan holds the secret of magic, and the true power of mortal man. Our first in-setting letter comes from the journal of one Ide Amu, first ambassador of the Unicorn to the Phoenix. He was on a mission from the Emperor to stay with the Clans and learn of them: with the Crane he had found brotherhood, but the Scorpion and the Lion only had scorn and desire to steal the Unicorn's treasures. Who could tell what to receive from the Phoenix? He remembered the stories of their strange practices and rituals, and how in the Emperor's court they had spoken against the Unicorn, saying that their claim to Shinjo's blood was 'blasphemous' and that they were a threat to the Empire, even sending their shugenja to fight against them while keeping their 'pitful' armies far from battle. The ambassador and his companions, one Iuchi Tagiso and one Otaku battle maiden, Katsako, travelled through a long, narrow canyon while feeling they were being watched. The sides were carved with huge figures of men and women, and the Unicorn mission saw them through three days of travel. Just was Amu was about to drink from Tagiso's sake bottle, the Otaku cried out and they all saw a small man in Phoenix colors blocking the narrow path. He could not hear the conversation between the man and the battle maiden, but it was not to her pleasing. Even as Amu approached to try to prevent bloodshed, he heard the man speak - trying to flatter the Otaku. "He must have been mad." The battle maiden drew her sword, and then a crack sounded and the blade was severed. She faltered, and the man said to Amu that his name was not important, but that they knew they were coming and had prepared for their visit. Tagiso whispered in his ear that it could be a trap, but the sound was much too louder than normal, enough for the Phoenix to hear. He agreed, he was a trap, but not one of his making. Why don't they all rest, he said, and drink some sake? At this, Tagiso flinched. The Phoenix willed the sake bottle to his hand, and offered to feed it to the Unicorn's horse, so that its belly burned and died from the Scorpion's poison. Tagiso denied the claims that he had accepted a deal with the Scorpion, but Amu caught something in his voice, and the statues seemed to whisper. Amu decided to make him drink the sake: for some reason, he trusted the Phoenix more than his own friend. Tagiso drank, and died. The shugenja took the broken blade, and reforged Katsako's blade: what was broken by anger could be healed by trust. He bade her return to her people and tell them that Amu was safe with them. Overwhelmed, she protested softly that she had to escort him to the Elemental Masters, but the shugenja said he had: another four figures stood on the clouds over the mountain pass, and the Master of Earth said it was time for Amu to come with them, if he dared. This story is kinda weird. In the previous books we saw that the Phoenix stood with the Unicorn against the Scorpion and Lion on the war of their return. Now, this book has more of those snarky '90s faction stereotype quotes. All the Clan books do, but I haven't been bringing them up because they're slightly reworded, slightly longer quotes from the core book. But the Phoenix quote towards the Unicorn in the corebook is something like "they're young and have much to learn, but their strength and our wisdom can make for a powerful alliance." Here? quote:"They have a single advantage, and they have been shouting about it for centuries. Since they came to our Empire, the faith and trust of the old ways has been shaken, and their blasphemous babbling has been tolerated for too long. If they choose to leave behind the trappings of their 'other land', then we shall be glad to teach them the ways of civilization. Until then, let them keep their horses and strange clothing. They will learn too soon that their luck cannot last forever. At some point between the core and the clan book, it was decided that ISAWA WILL MAKE ROKUGAN GREAT AGAIN, I guess. The second letter is from a Crab, Hiruma Toju, where he explains to an Imperial Magistrate (again) why he stood for Isawa Uona in a duel against a Lion, Matsu Kaiki. No one seems to understand why a Crab, one of the "foul mouthed barbarians" that despise the rest of the Empire would be willing to fight for a Phoenix, cultured and pacifistic and the antithesis of everything the Crab supposedly stand for. He explains that Uona once traveled to the Crab lands to collect her brother, Tadaka, and bring him home. She traveled with just her wagon driver. She was obviously an outsider and a Phoenix on the Wall, and the Crab's surprise soon turned to cruel jeers and insults. What could a pacifist do against Fu Leng? Other samurai would have challenged them to a duel or worse, but Uona took the abuse silently, even as the barbed words really hurt her, making her cry in silence. Then, a lookout cried a warning, and the Crab saw a scouting party rushing to safety, pursued by a pack of angry Oni. They caught them, and though the scouts fought bravely the other Crab could do nothing more than watch as they were slaughtered. No one noticed Uona until she flung herself from the Wall, flying on the air and landing in front of the fight. She called up the spirits of the air, focusing them on the oni without touching the scouts just a few feet aside. The oni turned to face this new threat, but could not move due to the air keeping them still, and then Uona lifted them off the ground and sent them flying away, miles from the Wall. She bowed before the scouts and tended to their wounded, while the Crab stammered their apologies and thanks. For Hiruma Toju (who wasn't there but heard of her exploits from his brethren) it was a proof of the Phoenix's power: more importantly, she exercised her powers without harming her own philosophy. A Clan with so much power and so much control over that power deserves respect, and the Phoenix understand more about honor than any of the so called "civilized" clans, so he will stand against a Lion or anyone else that dares to challenge a Phoenix's honor. And if the clucking hen's nest of Rokugani courts wish to spread more lies about it, he will refute them with every breath he takes. The third letter is from Agasha Tamori, remembering his talk with Isawa Kaede when she went to visit the Dragon lands. We actually saw the opposite side of this all the way in Way of the Dragon, where it was Kaede that was all mystified by the Dragon's secrets and strange sayings and words. The same stuff happens here, but from Tamori's point of view Kaede is just as mysterious and secretive, and what Kaede thought were Dragon stonewalling and implications were mostly attempts at drawing her out to speak her mind. Tamori recalled that he once went to the Phoenix lands himself to do the same as her, watch and learn. He met her father, the Master of the Void, who knew what he was looking for and did not prevent it, instead sending his own daughter to Dragon lands. Kaede asked if he had learned anything in his stay, Tamori said yes, and she leaned a little to ask what it was. He saw in the eyes of a maiden half his age the secret of the Void, so close. Her soul, her father's soul, the blackness of the stars, something... and then it was closed, and he smiled because he had been foolish. It was not yet time to learn the truth. He simply says he learned patience.  The Isawa mon. The Five Elements, weeooo. God, the kanji are fugly, enough that I first confused the Water one with Ice. And what's with the 'Earth' one? Anyway hundreds of shugenja across all of the clans wear the Isawa mon along with their own because their magic is boss. The families of the Phoenix! First is the Isawa, the most prominent of the Phoenix. When the Kami gathered the people together and divided them into clans, one man, Isawa, watched them but did not bend the knee. What made them worthy of their servitude, he asked his brothers and sisters, and with that they left what one day would be Otosan Uchi and build a large city to the north with their primitive magic. There are many records making references to inventions, scientific and religious discussion and the worship of a pantheon that was known as "the Fortunes." Isawa and his followers ignored the Empire, researching and studying the world around them, and with their domain over magic Isawa considered mortals, Children of the Earth, superior to the Kami, Children of the Sky. In the cold northern mountains they thrived, which Isawa saw as another sign that they did not need the rule of the Kami. When Fu Leng's hordes invaded, Isawa's city ignored the threat at first, shielded by the fledgling Empire and their own isolation, but soon wandering groups of oni and goblins made their way to the northern lands. The Isawa casters attempted to defend their city with magic, but the evil horde had the numbers they lacked. One the day that Isawa's youngest sister died to an oni, Shinsei and Shiba arrived to call Isawa to fight for the Empire. In Isawa's city, they saw the casters using blood rituals in the funeral, at a time where maho was not clearly understood beyond it being magic not of the Kami. After the burial, Shiba asked how such foulness could be a tribute to his fallen sister, but Isawa said that it was their way. In fact, with this primitive maho Isawa had bound the souls of his fallen people to the walls of his city to defend them. He blamed the Kami for the evil of Fu Leng, while Shiba countered that he should be more worried about his people's spirits than their bodies. Shinsei stood between them and he talked long into the night, and by the time the sun rose a bargain was made. Isawa would go with Shinsei, if Shiba swore that he and his descendants would always protect the city. Isawa said that he was not Shiba's subject, and demanded that Shiba knelt before him, which the Kami did because to him the price was absurdly trivial. By bending the knee, he would gain the power and knowledge of the Isawa line, and a Thunder for the Empire. The tale of Shiba kneeling before Isawa is well known, and unruly Phoenix children are asked if they are so tall that they can't bend like Shiba did. Since that day, Isawa's city was known as Gisei Toshi, the City of Sacrifice. It still exists, in fact, though it is kept as a myth to other clans and its position is not recorded on any map. Shiba began living in the city with Isawa's followers, but there was always tension between them, a tension that remains between the Isawa and Shiba lines now. The Isawa are the "guardians at the gate" of magical lore and knowledge, protecting inexperienced shugenja from stumbling into dark powers and shielding Rokugan from maho. Thus, they often travel the country in search of lost knowledge and keeping in touch with other schools of knowledge, and it's common to see Isawa apprentices staying with other schools for short time. They are often criticized for their suppression of knowledge, and some say that entire rooms of the Isawa libraries are devoted to maho, blood magic and oni summoning. The Isawa deny such allegations of course. They have a strong alliance with the Kuni Witch Hunters, and have their own order of elite shugenja, the Inquisitors, to deal with dark magics. They did this in the wake of the Emperor announcing after Iuchiban was put down the establishment of a new position, the Jade Magistrate, as the chief authority on magic across the Empire. The Phoenix lobbied hard against the position, seeing it as a threat to their supremacy of spellcraft, and within five generations the post was all but forgotten. The Isawa are notorious traditionalists, and other clans turn to them to settle disputes on the traditional ways. They believe that Shinsei taught all that mankind needed to know, and anything else is superfluous at best, dangerous at worst. The Phoenix maintain that all shugenja schools in Rokugan owe their origins to the Isawa, and certainly most records show Phoenix connections to the rise of the Clans' respective magic schools. Originally spellcraft was only taught to a few children of each generation, but the war against Fu Leng changed the Isawa traditions. Isawa sent each of his five brothers and sisters to the Clans (except for the Scorpion) to educate the first shugenja of the Empire for the first war. Records from all the Clans show that without Isawa magic support the war would have been lost, even before the Seven Thunders departed. So, about those shugenja. Their traditional role is that of keepers of religious teachings and thoughts, and they are expected to perform duties of scribe, priest, speaker to the fortunes and keeper of a clan's secrets. It's not uncommon for shugenja passing a village to receive offerings from the peasants, and if one settles they are certain to be treated with great respect. They are more than wandering priests, though: they have actual power over the kami. Only one in a thousand have this ability. Shugenja have privileges above ordinary samurai, as long as they don't abuse them. It is proper to speak to a shugenja with deference and respect, but it would be inappropriate for the shugenja to ever take note of his position.  They are typically born into the noble class, and when they show signs of their ability other shugenja of the household talk to the spirits about the child. If the response is positive, the child will be taken to shugenja schools to train for many years. They are not typically taught skills of warfare, though some houses prefer that their shugenja know something about self-defense. If a shugenja chooses to wear a katana, they must be prepared to use it. If they don't carry the sword, they signal that they are a non-combatant and must be treated same as a courtier or other peaceful profession, including having the right to call a champion to stand for them in a duel. The Isawa see the craft of shugenja as the highest calling, and place it above noble rank or awarded honor. They use their abilities for peace, and only in defense will an Isawa shugenja use their powers to destroy.  The dark secret of MONSTER GIRLS lies ahead. Indeed, the Isawa have been defenders of peace for centuries, even more than the Crane. They have given their lives to prevent warfare, and often interceed on behalf of an oppressed minor clan or daimyo. They believe that all life is sacred, a gift from the Fortunes that should not be thrown away from temporal reasons. This attitude has gained them friends in distant clans, and foes when the targets of their pacifism are strongholds under siege by the Phoenix's allies. Not that the Isawa aren't incapable of fighting: unlike the Asahina, they practice military maneuvers in their training, determined to make sure to end war swiftly and with as little loss of life as possible if it comes. If the Clan goes to war, however, they must do so with the unanimous vote of the Council, leaving to the Shiba the routine work of dealing with bandits and troublemakers. The few battles where the Phoenix have fought as one are legendary for the effective use of crippling magical force. At times, their pacifism has brought difficult circumstances for them: they used blood magic to defend their home during the war with Fu Leng, and as legend has it, they tried to negotiate with Iuchiban the Blood Sorcerer and even offered their alliance if he would accept a reasonable compromise. Some whisper that if another great war comes, it would best to keep the Phoenix far from the battlefield for their willingness to compromise virtue in the name of peace.  I would be smug too if I got to gently caress around with dumb wizards. The Clan is guided by five members of the Isawa, the Council of Five or the Elemental Masters. Descendants of the five remaining members of Isawa's family after his sister died and the man itself left with Shinsei, they are the ones that make decisions of policy for the Clan. They are traditionally chosen from the finest shugenja in the family, each with a distinct elemental specialty. Usually a Master is chosen by a retiring Master from their favored apprentices, or is decided by the other Masters in certain circumstances (like the unexpected death of a Master) It's typically well known who the next Master of an element will be before the reigning lord makes the decision public, but at times they use duels and tests of magical ability to determine the successor, and many times the best suited candidate is overlooked because of their temper, arrogance or other flaw, and a more stable (if less gifted) student is chosen instead.The Council is the real power of the Clan, and while the Shiba Champion speaks for the Phoenix, it's the Council that tells them what to say. They have the sheer magical aptitude and intellect to retain their position as the guardians and protectors of magic, and they maintain Inquisitor units to seek out maho and its users to destroy them. The Inquisitors only report to the Elemental Masters or the Emperor itself, and even the Hantei knows to defer to their advice. They keep magical treasures ranging from ancient Imperial relics to obscure maho rituals, and it is said that they even possess three of the Black Scrolls, sold to them by a traitorous Scorpion. Only one member of the Five ever knows where those scrolls are located. They also have a terrible ritual, the Forgetting, used against shugenja proven unworthy of their abilities. If the Masters judge them guilty, they enact the ritual for sixteen hours with the presence of all Five, and the shugenja is stripped from their powers - they lose all their magical knowledge and can never use a spell again. The only target of this ritual in living memory is Isawa Dairya, son of a Master of Fire who was manipulated by the Scorpion into believing he was to be his mother's successor. With the Scorpions' knowledge of weaponry, spellcraft and poison, he grew to become one of the most powerful students in the School of Fire, but the Scorpions underestimated Dairya's ambition. His gifts as a shugenja flowered and he believed he no longer needed Scorpion help to get in the COuncil. The Scorpions were angered when Dairya no longer heeded them, and plotted their revenge: three months later, Dairya murdered his mother, and he was put through the Forgetting. He has never denied that he did the deed, only maintained that Scorpion treachery caused it. For fifteen years he has traveled Rokugan as a bushi, seeking wisdom on swordplay from any that would teach thim and avenging himself on Scorpions and Phoenixes. So, let's talk about the Fortunes! Specifically their worship, the Way of the Gods or kami-no-michi. The pantheon is complex and Rokugani believe in a lot of gods. The Sun (Amaterasu) and the Moon (Onnotangu) are considered the highest echelon of existence, but worship is concentrated on the Seven Fortunes and those who came later. They make a distinction between the greater Fortunes and the mikokami, the 'thousand Fortunes' that live in every plant, rock and river. The mikokami are not as powerful as the Seven, but the Rokugani still venerate them as it's easier to attract their attention and have them intercede in the Celestial Court on behalf of mortals. Every region, town and village has their own festivals celebrating important local traits. The coast villagers honor Suitengu, Fortune of the Sea, who is less popular with inland farmers. These festivals follow a similar pattern where villagers light giant torches to mark a path for the kami while shugenja take baths of freezing cold water or walk across hot coals, then the kami is invited with a prayer to visit, at which point they are believed to enter a shintai, a "god-body" that usually a statue that the villagers parade on a portable shrine. Supposedly, kami enjoy when mortals drink and have fun, so the villagers dance, sing and share in a communal feast. Then, the shugenja makes the petitions on behalf of the community, and the villagers send the kami on their way. Festivals are largely ceremonial: shugenja rarely summon the actual kami to appear, though they are known to appear nonetheless.  This dude is fuckin' high, yo. Ancestor worship is perhaps the oldest religion in Rokugan. The people believe that the spirits of the dead live in Jigoku, the Underworld, where they work off negative karma accumulated in life. Ancestors watch over a family, providing aid in the form of advice or reproach in the form of hauntings. Offerings of food, prayer and incense are made to the ancestors in gratitude for the gift of life and to ensure future prosperity, as well as speeding the ancestor's reincarnation. Neglected ancestors or those who have no one to pray for them often return to feed on the living or terrorize the disrespectful family. Depending on their karma, Rokugani believe people are reborn into the realm of humans, gods, demigods, animals, ghosts or demons, the six realms of the Wheel of Existence. Those who are selfish or venal can be reborn into the world of animals to spend a lifetime as a horse or a slug, while those who lead pure lives can be reborn as a human again, but at a higher level (so, bushi instead of peasant) Rebirth is central to bushido, allowing samurai to place little value on their current incarnation and throwing themselves into battle heedlessly. A popular belief is that samurai are fated to pay for their actions, by being born again as samurai. A soul in Jigoku is punished for any impure actions, and Emma-o, the Fortune of the Underworld, prescribes all sorts of tortures that may last for thousands of years. Fukurokujin, one of the Seven who is also considered a Fortune of Mercy, travels to Jigoku to relieve the suffering of the souls, and people pray to them to help their ancestors. Ancestor worship is not organized, there is no central structure or church. Generally people worship their own ancestors on their home's family shrine. There are two distinct ways of ancestor worship, though: that of the bushi and that of the peasants. Bushi believe their honored ancestors live in Yomi, a sort of Valhalla where they watch over their progeny. Good fortune comes from helpful ancestors, and bad fortune comes from their angry spirits. Samurai families worship the founder of their Clan, their family and other legendary heroes. Although being haunted is widely considered a course, many samurai deem the attention of a shiryo an auspicious occurence. Peasants, on the other hand, think Yomi is not a place for hallowed heroes but the space between lives, and really don't want anything to do with the spirit world. Their worship is more of a preventive measure to avert bad fortune. So long as the ancestors are happy, they'll remain where they belong. Shugenja are employed by bushi as mediums to contact their ancestors (particularly the Kitsu), while with the peasants they find employment as exorcists.  MORTAL KOMBAAAAT Next: and now for something completely different!
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Sep 19, 2016 02:35
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DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:While you are in the Fortress of Conclusion (the next and last step of the trip) Acererak is stated to be able to freely inhabit and control the actions of any undead present. I have to assume this includes undead PCs, because otherwise you could cheese the hell out of this adventure by all going undead.
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Sep 19, 2016 02:53
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Hostile V posted:If there's one thing I've learned about d20 games, it's that unless it's explicitly stated, someone can and will argue otherwise to exploit the weakness. Ah, but this isn't d20, it's 2nd Edition, where "gently caress you, player!" is the norm. Plus, you know, TOMB OF HORRORS, so not only is it the norm, but it's the the expectation.
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Sep 19, 2016 05:39
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SirPhoebos posted:Ah, but this isn't d20, it's 2nd Edition, where "gently caress you, player!" is the norm. Plus, you know, TOMB OF HORRORS, so not only is it the norm, but it's the the expectation. 2nd ed wasn't particularly "gently caress YOU, PLAYER!" It gave the GM plenty of "gently caress YOU"-tools, but nothing that a vindictive GM in a later edition couldn't have decided to do as well. It's more that some adventures in every single edition are just terribly written. Also, a high-level warrior enemy in 2nd ed would almost certainly curbstomp a PC mage in a one-on-one fight due to spell interruptions, not to mention acing almost every saving throw and having mountains of HP to chew through. In a one-on-one fight, unless you're sniping them with spells from a valley away, the PC warrior would definitely have the advantage.mage
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Sep 19, 2016 09:32
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So what happened in the 3e transition that caused spellcaster superiority?
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Sep 19, 2016 09:45
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Rigged Death Trap posted:So what happened in the 3e transition that caused spellcaster superiority? A whole bunch of little changes, I forget the details of. Stuff like haste no longer aging the subject by a year every time it was cast; making it harder to interrupt spellcasting ('cast defensively'); metamagic feats; more hp for wizards; more powerful control options for wizards... just loads of little odds and ends that added up.
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Sep 19, 2016 10:01
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Fighters' saves went to poo poo. Pre-3e they had remarkably good save progression, and the saves were not as tied to their ability scores. Spells also became functionally impossible to interrupt, and I think the save DCs became tied to the caster's level instead of being flat. The Fighter's damage output was lowered as well, as attacks after the first get to-hit penalties, unlike in previous editions.
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Sep 19, 2016 10:02
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Rigged Death Trap posted:So what happened in the 3e transition that caused spellcaster superiority? It was a lot of little things that added up, but basically they lost flaws while the warrior classes lost bonuses. A lot of things that kept Wizards balanced were stripped away, like failing to scribe spells from scrolls or needing scrolls at all to learn new spells. IIRC a lot of spells also didn't get playtested as much as they should have due to 2nd Edition biases, resulting in a bevy of save-or-suck encounter wrecking spells. Meanwhile, followers and hirelings were the Fighter's unique thing in 2nd Edition and earlier- they got land and armies where the Ranger and Paladin got abilities and the other classes got spells. Bottom line, casters simply had more options and ways to confront problems in and out of combat than other classes.
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Sep 19, 2016 10:09
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Siivola posted:Fighters' saves went to poo poo. Pre-3e they had remarkably good save progression, and the saves were not as tied to their ability scores. Spells also became functionally impossible to interrupt, and I think the save DCs became tied to the caster's level instead of being flat. The Fighter's damage output was lowered as well, as attacks after the first get to-hit penalties, unlike in previous editions. In 3e, save difficulty was set by the caster, and casters had little reason to do anything other than pump their casting stat as much as possible, while Fighters had lovely will and reflex saves and were unlikely to increase the stats for will saves much. And there were feats to increase your spell's save DC. As for damage, monster HP also greatly increased because they suddenly actually had Constitution to give a bonus to it, and getting more than the lowest level of bonuses from this were no longer tied to being a Fighter or related class. This did mean that straight damage spells weren't that great anymore, but because of the ability to make things harder to save against, and it generally being relatively obvious what an enemy's bad save was, the save-or-get-hosed spells became enormously better.
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Sep 19, 2016 10:35
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Among other problems, D&D 3rd suffers from a terminal case of what I've come to call Realism Disease. It's an acute sudden illness that can affect any game designer, even ones who are otherwise healthy. It happens when a game designer is, say, writing out his skill list. "But wait!" he says. "It doesn't make sense for one skill to cover piloting all vehicles. I have to separate cars and planes, of course. And boats, too, that's totally different. And you need a different skill for motorcycles and big trucks, I mean, those require a special license. Oh, and hovercrafts..." Later, he's writing some rules for how to handle a car chase, or piloting a vehicle in difficult conditions. Lots of people agree that it's more satisfying if that's resolved with more than one roll. "But wait!" he goes again. "Dogfights are totally different from car chases. And boats are of course different from cars and planes." When the game designer awakens from this seizure, his roleplaying game now has ten different vehicle skills and a full page of sailing rules. In a game about vampire gangsters. D&D 3rd had the same problem every single time combat came up. Essentially, any interesting thing you want to do in combat incurs a huge penalty, or provokes an attack of opportunity, or both. (Not to mention rules for reach and size.) You can buy off those penalties, though...by spending feats. The end result is that Fighters don't spend feats to be good at things, they spend all their feats trying to be not lovely at one or two special combat tactics. Half the Monster Manual will be immune to those tactics anyway, because a dire wolf has no weapon to disarm, and you can't trip an ochre jelly.
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Sep 19, 2016 14:26
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Halloween Jack posted:Among other problems, D&D 3rd suffers from a terminal case of what I've come to call Realism Disease. It's an acute sudden illness that can affect any game designer, even ones who are otherwise healthy. One thing that's hilarious about the Cardinal system Sanguine uses is how each game they make with it moves further from this. They started out with a bazillion different weapon proficiencies and dumb rules where being stronger made you larger and thus made all your armor weigh proportionally more (thus making strength increases unable to make you able to easily use heavier gear) and having tons of 'has absolutely no mechanical effect, only roleplaying' merits and flaws with fiddly points costs in 1e, by 2e they've reduced the skill list down tremendously and put Melee and Ranged as the only fighting skills (plus Brawling for unarmed and Throwing because they still hadn't fixed the problem yet) and normalized the cost of all Gifts as well as exactly what a Gift should do, and by Myriad Song they're down to a single Fightin' and Shootin' skill and ammunition is an abstract stat for how many attacks you can make before you need to reload rather than something you track as individual bullets. It's nice to see it happen in reverse, sometimes, as a system gets refined.
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Sep 19, 2016 14:33
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 Godlike, Chapter V, Part IV The last update concluded with the signing of the Lend-Lease Bill. While not as flashy as a coup on the battlefield or the emergence of a powerful Talent, it was one of the most important acts of the war, a policy Churchill asserted would “stand forth as the most unselfish and unsordid financial act of any country in all history.” 3/16/1941, British Enter Ethiopia: British forces swept through Eritrea into northern Ethiopia, defeating Italian forces with ease. The Ethiopian offensive was made much easier by the tireless Ethiopian resistance under Zindel’s command. He joined up with British forces, providing invaluable intelligence as well as the use of his Talent. 3/17/1941, Battle in the North Sea: Allied convoys led by Captain Donald Macintyre defeated German U-boats, taking out the top two German submarine aces. Otto Kretschner was captured when his ship was forced to surface, while Joachim Schepke’s U-boat was lost with all hands...except for Oberleutnant Georg Klingen, who manifested a Talent that allowed him to survive. He lived in the sea for a month before he found another U-boat and a ride home. quote:Der Seefahrer (“The Seafarer”) 3/21/1941, Viljo Dies: The Finnish Talent Viljo was killed by a well-planned Soviet trap that lured him into an artillery barrage. His scant remains were remanded to Special Directive One for study. 3/25/1941, Yugoslavia Sort of Joins the Axis: Though Yugoslavian legislators signed the Tripartite Act, Serb Army officers and King Peter II refused to collaborate. Hitler decided to simply invade. 3/26/1941, Einsatzgruppen Formed: Under orders from SS leader Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich formed the Einsatzgruppen (“task forces”). In practice they were death squads assembled to murder Jews and communists in German-occupied territories. By 1943, they had claimed over a million victims. 3/29/1941, the Blue Accord: Churchill and Roosevelt agree to enact “Blue,” a knowledge-sharing agreement concerning the Talent phenomenon in exchange for a large commitment of materiel and technology. The first “payment” was 2 American destroyers and a shipment of raw materials in exchange for 4 British Talents traveling to America for study. 3/30/1941, the First Talent Clash: The first Talent-against-Talent combat of the war took place during a tank skirmish on the border of British Libya. Der Tragheit (“The Inertia”) and Dunkelheit (“Darkness”), ambushed a unit of 7 British Talents. They used a long-practiced tactic wherein Dunkelheit would use his powers to blind enemies so that Der Tragheit could touch them, robbing their bodies of inertia and flinging them into space. Golgotha and Puppeteer were quickly killed before the rest of the British Talents regrouped. Scythe used his powers to draw the oxygen from Dunkelheit’s body, killing him instantly, while John Tom used his hyperstrength to drive Der Tragheit off with a bombardment of debris. Both sides claimed victory, with Britain pointing to total German losses while Germany only mentioned the dead British Talents. But less important than who won was the discovery that it was difficult and exhausting for a Talent to use their powers against another Talent...unless they caught them unawares. As in all forms of warfare, surprise was the easiest way to land a killing stroke. This drastically altered Talent vs. Talent tactics. quote:Der Tragheit (“The Inertia”) 4/3/1941, RuSHA SA Expands: As more Übermenschen were discovered, Hitler expanded RuSHA SA’s funding and authority. Talent training was recentered on a special camp under the direction of Albrecht Gehbart, an SS expert in Nazi racial science. They did glean some interesting data, noting that the most common powers were super strength (35%), telekinesis (25%), flight (15%), and various offensive powers (15%). RuSHA SA projected that the population of Übermenschen would crack 5,000 in two years. 4/4/1941, Rommel wins in Africa: General Rommel forced the British to retreat to Marsa Brega and launched another attack before they could establish defenses, putting them to full retreat across the desert and seizing northeastern Libya sooner than anyone expected. The Italian commander retired in disgrace while Rommel, who had just turned the tide in North Africa in less than a month, had established himself as a military genius. Within days he had seized Al Badya, Cyrene, Barce, and Derna, leaving the port city of Tobruk as the only thing standing between the Afrika Korps and Egypt.  4/6/1941, Nazis Invade Yugoslavia and Greece: Germany invaded Yugoslavia, concentrating on Serbian positions. German propaganda assured Croatians they would be rewarded with an independent state. King Peter II and his cabinet fled to London to establish a government in exile. Hitler responded to Yugoslavian resistance with a bombing campaign that killed over 17,000. While the Nazis were able to occupy and consolidate power in Belgrade, outlying regions were far from under control. Soviet-backed Communists and British-backed Serbian Royalists would threaten German power in Yugoslavia throughout the war. These resistance fighters prepared for a long battle as Hitler’s puppet regime formally surrended Yugoslavia on April 17th. Although Greek and Allied forces repulsed the Germans at the Metaxas line soon after they pierced border defenses, they couldn’t withstand intense aerial bombardment and being flanked by the German forces in Yugoslavia. Allied troops were forced to evacuate, and thousands were surrounded and taken prisoner. By May 14, Greece was under German control, and the government signed an armistice on May 21st. With continental Europe now firmly under Axis control, Hitler returned to planning Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. 4/9/1941, Visions: The German invasion of Yugoslavia was not without setbacks. On the road to Sarajevo, an entire Panzer Corps was neutralized by Janes Sajovesek, a Talent with the power to project terrifying visions into the minds of his enemies. Though most recovered in hours or days, several spent the rest of the war in mental hospitals. When German troops regrouped, Sajovesek wisely fled the country as teams of Übermenschen began combing the hills for the man the locals called Stasio (“Stand of Glory”). The very next day in Greece, British officers were trying to make sense of rumours concerning a return of the mythical Pythia, the Oracle at Delphi. When thousands of civilians migrated to the city of Katherine to hear a group of young girls foretell the future for any who made an offering to Apollo, it was clear that the stories were true. Major General Fryeburg said “I’ve never before seen civilians head towards a war.” The British were forced to retreat south and abandon the city. When the German commander consulted the Oracle and was satisfied that their powers were real, news was sent back to Berlin. quote:Stasio (“Stand of Glory”) quote:Pythia 4/13/1941, the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact: The Soviet Union signed a peace accord with the Empire of Japan, supposedly strengthening a strained relationship following several skirmishes on the Manchurian border. Secretly, Stalin prepared for the worst, knowing that Nazism and Communism could not peacefully coexist for long. 4/14/1941, Australia Holds the Line at Tobruk: Despite being surrounded on all sides and reinforced only by the sea at their backs, the Ninth Australian Infantry bravely repelled Rommel’s ground and air assault. Though they suffered many casualties, Rommel was forced to call off his attack on May 4. 4/19/41, the Blitz Continues: The Luftwaffe made its worst attack yet on London, dropping 35,000 pounds of explosives and killing hundreds. Thirty-six new British Talents were “born” in the attack. 5/6/1941, the first USO Broadcast: American comedian Bob Hope hosts the first USO Show featuring many Hollywood stars, broadcast for servicemen on international radio from March Fields, California. Hope opened with a joke about British Talents: “I have no doubt Hollywood’ll develop Talents of their own shortly. Me, I’d just like to be strong enough to lift my own ego one day…” 5/10/1941, Rudolph Hess Captured: Deputy Führer Rudolph Hess made an attempted flight to England, hoping to singlehandedly negotiate peace between Germany and Great Britain. Disoriented in his attempts to avoid British radar, he was forced to bail out over Scotland when his fuel ran low. He was promptly captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London to await trial after the war. Hess was a close confidante of Hitler (he edited Mein Kampf and shared many of Hitler’s eccentric interests) and historians are still baffled as to why he attempted such a bizarre plan. He had considered it for some time, having attempted to contact the Duke of Hamilton (a diplomatic contact made at the 1936 Olympics) and having outfitted a specially modified Messerschmitt for the journey. Most point to Hess’ diminishing importance vis-a-vis Martin Bormann as Hitler became totally focused on the war, and his concern that Operation Barbarossa would be Germany’s downfall. Hitler was infuriated and eliminated all traces of Hess, replacing him with Bormann in all things. Churchill took advantage of the incident, implying in radio addresses that Hess had been the first, but not the last, target of a powerful mind-controlling Talent. 5/10/1941, Another Attack on London: The Luftwaffe launched an even more deadly attack on London, killing over 1,200 people with incendiary bombs. Ninety-four Talents were spawned by the attack, and defenders of the city downed 14 German aircraft. 5/10/1941, British Land in Iceland: The small but strategically important nation of Iceland struggled to maintain neutrality as a “sovereign kingdom in personal union” with Denmark, which had been overtaken by the Nazis. The British made the point moot by landing 60,000 troops at Reykjavik to secure transport lanes for Lend-Lease materiel. Presented with a fait accompli by Great Britain and the United States, Iceland officially cut ties with Denmark days later. (Note: Britain actually invaded Iceland in May 1940. Whoopsie-daisy!) 5/13/1941, Zindel Dies: Ethiopian Talent and resistance leader Zindel was killed by a landmine near Nonna. His followers placed his body in a stone crypt, which was soon desecrated by the BSOE under secret orders from Churchill. Within weeks the remains were being studied by the SSO. 5/15/1941, Operation Brevity: A series of poorly-planned British attacks lead to the Eighth Army being flanked by Axis forces. Fortunately, a last-minute attack by 21 British Talents disrupted the Axis forces long enough for most of the British to escape, narrowly averting disaster and another great victory for Rommel. Operation Rascal, as it was called, was commanded by 1st Lt. Reginald “Gabriel” Green. Divided into small 3-man squads, the Talents destroyed tanks and disrupted communications before retreating to Egypt. Labyrinth and Iron Pete were killed, but the mission was a success. Gabriel was promoted to Captain, and Churchill personally decorated him with four gold tank emblems for the four tanks he destroyed with his sonic powers.  5/21/1941, the Robin Moor is Sunk: U-boat U-69 torpedoed the SS Robin Moor, an American freighter on its way to supply British forces in North Africa. Although the crew and passengers were allowed to board lifeboats (and were all miraculously rescue, though one later committed suicide), the American public was furious. Roosevelt used the incident to solicit further support for the war. 5/24/1941, Sinking of the Hood and Bismarck: The HMS Hood, the largest ship in existence at the beginning of WWII, was sunk by the German Bismarck in a battle in the Denmark Strait. Though damaged, the Bismarck managed to score a direct hit on the Hood’s magazine, triggering an immense explosion. Only 3 men survived out of a crew of over 1,200. Two days later, the Bismarck was set upon and badly damaged by Swordfish torpedo bombers, and sunk by the HMS Rodney and HMS King George V the next day. Only 110 survived out of a crew of 1,900. 5/27/1941, State of Emergency in America: President Roosevelt declared an “unlimited state of national emergency,” putting the military on full alert. In the address announcing his decision, he encouraged all Talents to report to their nearest government official. May 1941, End of the Battle of Britain: Having lost over 700 aircraft in an attempt to crush British morale, Göring officially called off the attack on London at the end of May. He shifted his focus to the Soviet Union, anticipating success against the outdated Soviet air force. June 1941, OSRD Formed: The National Defense Research Committee was reformed as the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Plans were made during May, and the organization was officially created by executive order on June 28, 1941. Headed by Dr. Vannevar Bush, who reported directly to Roosevelt, the organization was given virtually unlimited access to funding and resources. It would be responsible for innovations including the proximity fuze, penicillin, and the atomic bomb. While atomic bomb research was the purview of the secret Section 1, Section 2 was concerned with Talent research. By the end of the war, Section 2 would be a household word and synonymous with American Talents. 6/9/1941, the Berlin Air Show: Thousands of Germans, including Himmler, Göring and Goebbels, attended a state air show featuring dozens of aircraft and cutting-edge Luftwaffe technology. But by far the most dazzling example was the demonstration of the prototype Düsenpack. Oberstleutnant Björn Kafsack took the stage wearing a bulky silver backpack and, to the surprise of the crowd, took off. For several minutes he delighted the crowd with an aerial display, but when he momentarily flew out of view of the crowd, tragedy struck. Kafsack plummeted to the ground and died instantly, and no one knew what had gone wrong. The air show was immediately concluded and the national press obscured the incident with several misleading statements. As it turned out, the inventor of the Düsenpack, Gunter Koen, was the first known example of a Talent power which the Americans would call “Goldberg Science.” Koen appeared to be able to engineer machines decades or centuries ahead of modern science, but it was his Talent that “tricked reality” into allowing his machines to work--the engineering behind them was utter nonsense. Until his Talent failed, even Koen himself believed that he was “only” a gifted scientist--he had never demonstrated his device to any Talents. The performance in Berlin was preceded by several test flights to gain Hitler's approval--but all with Koen as the pilot. His Talent and his Düsenpack failed as soon as the device was out of the realm of his perception. RuSHA SA quickly ascertained the limits of Koen’s Talent, but no attempt was made to utilize it--after his public, catastrophic failure, he was persona non grata. He was drafted into a regular Heer unit and would be killed in action in 1944. The “plans” for his Düsenpack are still on display at the Berlin Museum of Science and Technology.  6/15/1941, the Best British Invasion Ever: As part of the Blue Accord, four British Talents traveled to the United States. They were there for very secret experiments with the newly-formed OSRD S-2, and a very public tour to promote the Lend-Lease policy. The Talents were extremely popular with the American public and increased support for Roosevelt’s stance on the war. The Talents were Arthur Smith, a pyrokinetic who could control the temperature of objects; Templeton “Bolt” Ruperelia, who could fly (but only in straight lines); Grant “Pop” Kearney, who could control the air pressure in objects to cause explosions and implosions; and the most famous, Lloyd “Bulldog” Feit, a skinny little man who could lift tanks over his head with ease. The arrival of the British Talents presaged a revival in the popularity of all kinds of parapsychology. If the “super-men” were real, the average American reasoned, then why not ghosts, aliens, monsters, and reincarnation? While most of the public’s fancy was exactly that, reputable academics inferred correctly that Talents were linked to some mental ability. Princeton University founded a School of Psychology, Parapsychology and Physics (“4P”) which would become the world capital for the academic study of Talents in decades to come. quote:Bulldog 6/15/1941, Operation Battleaxe: Marshall Wavell launched an attack on the Axis on the border of Egypt. It was a disastrous move; the attack was meant to lure Rommel out, but Rommel simply used the superior range of his Panzers’ guns to fire on the British from well outside the range of their guns. In two days, the British lost 91 tanks and 1,000 men. Churchill forced Wavell to exchange duties with Claude Auchinleck, then commander of British forces in India. 6/19/1941, SS Überkommandogruppen is Formed: Playing on Hitler’s desire to have all Übermenschen in the Schutzstaffel, his personal guard, Himmler successfully lobbied to have all newly-discovered German Talents placed under his command. Whereas Übermenschen had been divided among many branches based on prior membership, from now on they would all be enrolled in the Nazi Party and the SS. Many Übermenschen took the opportunity to transfer to the prestigious organization. Überkommandogruppen trained its members for specialized assault, rescue, and assassination missions. Only the strongest and most fanatically Nazi were accepted into the elite Überkommando, who were presented to the public as ideal Aryans. A division within the spy agency Abwehr, called Wasserfall (“Waterfall”) trained Talents for espionage, sabotage, and assassination. 6/22/1941: In a very successful publicity stunt, Bulldog was allowed to “keep whatever he can lift” for the British war effort from the Albany, NY National Guard Armory. American millionaires like Howard Hughes offered to purchase for Lend-Lease everything he could lift in an hour. In that time, Bulldog lifted 152 tons of equipment. A photograph of Bulldog holding a 8.5 ton half-track overhead in one hand while bending down to pick up a heavy machinegun made the cover of Life magazine.  6/22/1941, Operation Barbarossa: The Heer and Luftwaffe launched a rapid series of attacks on the Russian border. It was the largest military assault in history, deploying almost 3,050,000 men. German infantry, tanks, artillery, and aircraft rolled through Soviet defenses. The paranoid Stalin at first refused to believe news of the attack, thinking it an Allied plan to trick him into attacking Germany. Meanwhile, Germany tore through one Soviet division after another on its way to Moscow. 6/22/1941, Baba Yaga: On the same day the Nazis launched their attack, the Soviet Special Directive 1 achieved its first “success” at artificially creating a Talent in their laboratories in Minsk. The man known only at Subject 3009 manifested powerful telekinetic abilities after a regime of torture and brainwashing that had killed all other subjects. Somehow the man managed to survive despite suffering starvation, dysentery, and bronchitis. Subject 3009 began subconsciously defending himself. At about the same time his torturers realized he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, a pair of scientists taking a blood sample from 3009 were torn to shreds by his powers. SD-1 alerted Stalin and advised him to abort the project, but he refused, too preoccupied by the German attack to consider anything but finding a way to use the prisoner’s power to aid the war effort. More fearful of Stalin and Beria than of their subject, the scientists continued. Five days later, Subject 3009 began screaming endlessly about “the witch and the house.” Those sent to sedate him were crushed to a bloody pulp, and soon the walls of his cell were cracking as he repeated “Baba Yaga, Baba Yaga.” Stalin authorized the use of Sarin gas which was pumped into the facility, killing hundreds of prisoners. The building went silent...briefly...before something emerged. Accounts varied, but all agreed they had seen some sort of house, a small, brightly-coloured wooden shack, perched atop numerous scuttling spidery legs. The creature escaped, tearing through concrete walls and heavily armed soldiers with ease, before wandering into the Pinsk Marshes. Exhaustive searches yielded nothing, but Baba Yaga would be seen again. quote:Baba Yaga  Next time on Godlike: America and Japan enter world war. Sheol emerges from the shadow of genocide. Two phantoms battle for the life of Winston Churchill. America gets its first Talent.
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Sep 19, 2016 15:51
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Not to derail from Caster Supremacy, but wasn't Tomb of Horrors originally conceived as a convention game with the idea of seeing which PCs could make it the farthest?
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Sep 19, 2016 15:53
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It was specifically built to take down an overpowered fighter in Gygax's home game (IIRC he conquered it by feeding his army of orc minions to get through the traps and basically knowing how Gygax built things: Look for the killer pit traps, there's probably a secret door there to go forward.) It got retooled to a convention game after.
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Sep 19, 2016 15:56
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