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Hostile V posted:Unofficial Game Idea: Misplaced time travelers armed with enough firepower to stop the forces of evil (un)dead in their tracks. Does the Army of Darkness RPG exist? Yes, yes it does, but let me just play a little Devil's Advocate here. The players are from a timeline where Mordecai won, and his undead/demonic hordes are ruling over the remnants of humanity, and at this point he's so beyond mortal power scales that there's no stopping him. They found the ancient ritual to send themselves back in time, armed with the best weapons they could find, to stop Mordecai before he grew too powerful, and summons something they have no chance against... of course, now they also have to contend with the locals who may consider them monsters themselves, since they look weird, talk weird and are armed weird in the middle of all the madness.
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Nov 8, 2016 10:46
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Night10194 posted:"Yo dog you're murdering a whole lotta people and this is basically the worst crime there is." is something D&D characters are surprisingly resistant to. One of the funniest D&D quirks in that regard is how Assassins are typically limited to EEEEEEEVIL characters - because nobody else would ever stoop so low as to murder intelligent beings for profit. Or be some despicable murder hobo who is all about backstabbing unsuspecting people in the spine, or gaining combat bonuses from hating certain species or beliefs. Doresh fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Nov 8, 2016 |
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Nov 8, 2016 18:06
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They're evil because they use poison. Gygax had some gigantic bug up his rear end about PCs using poison, hence all the chances to poison yourself when coating your weapons.
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Nov 8, 2016 18:09
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Kavak posted:They're evil because they use poison. Gygax had some gigantic bug up his rear end about PCs using poison, hence all the chances to poison yourself when coating your weapons. Wasn't poison lethal as gently caress in early D&D and thus would've been a no-brainer advantage for PCs if it was safe to use often?
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Nov 8, 2016 18:11
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Sometimes I imagine a session of formative D&D like a game of Nethack, with players pestering Gygax to let them wield dead cockatrices and such.
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Nov 8, 2016 18:23
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Bieeardo posted:Sometimes I imagine a session of formative D&D like a game of Nethack, with players pestering Gygax to let them wield dead cockatrices and such. I think Nethack's freedom of action making it far more D&D-esque than most other games of its time was a huge contributor to its popularity, such as Elbereth and wielding cockatrices and dying from too heavy encumbrance.
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Nov 8, 2016 18:41
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Godbound Now we enter the chapter of Godbound that is exclusive to the paid version of the book. Secrets of Arcem  The burnt foreground is probably how any place looks after a bit of demi-divine skirmishing. This chapter is almost 50 pages long and full of additional goodies, from entire sub-systems to mere guidelines. So, let's ge started. Creating Mortal Heroes Maybe you like the rules of Godbound, but want something closer to regular D&D. Maybe you're a hardcore grognard who wants to earn his fun. Maybe you want to play Godbound in hard mode. Or mabe you just want to customize your Godbound's most loyal followers and champions. For all these needs and more, here are some rules for making mortal heroes. Mortal heroes come in two tiers: Common Mortals are your typical oldschool dirt farmers, rolling 3d6 for attributes (in whatever order you wish) and with base Hit Points of one. I hope your CON modifier is positive. Heroic Mortals use "roll 4d6, drop lowest" and have base Hit Points of 4. Both types of mortal heroes have Effort, but only Heroic Mortals can use it to auto-succeed at saving throws. Heroic Mortals also have more and better customization options. Said cusotmization comes in the form of Talents, which work a bit like Feats and especially the Gifts from Exemplars & Eidolons. Talents are separated into Common Talents and Heroic Talents. Common Mortals can only pick from the Common Talents, while Heroic Mortals can pick from both, though a couple Heroic Talents are just better versions of Common Talents. So while a Common Mortal needs the Talents Flurry of Blows and Storm of Blows to gain 2 and then 3 attacks per round, a Heroic Mortal can just pick Heroic Flurry of Blows, which not only unlocks the third attack automatically as you level up but also lets you commit Effort to gain another extra attack. Heroic Mortals are also the only ones that can have a Fray Die through the Lethal Presence Talent. Both lists also include Legacy Talents. These reflect weird quirks and mutations gained from your bloodline or magical experiments. Common Legacy Talents include natural weapons and armor or environmental adaption. The only Heroic Legacy Talent let you pick a single Lesser Gift to use. A little oddity with the rules is that mortal heroes don't have a base attack progression by default. They need to buy the Hardened Combatant Talent for that (one purchase for half your level as a bonus, two purchases for the full level). This is also one of the only real Talent chain in this system, with the longest one being the 4-part Talent chain that leads you from Low Magic to the full Theurge package. A pretty fun option is Old-School Ability, which lets you - with the GM's permission - grab any class ability from any other OSR game. The Lesser version for Common Mortals requires you to have the appropriate level, while Heroic Mortals have a - of course - Heroic version that lets them pick capstone abilities right from the get-go. If you just want to pick an actual OSR class and play it in Godbound there are rules for that, too. Heroic Mortals even get Talents on top of that, albeit a bit slower than usual. For a more traditional spellcasting system, you can get yourself the Vancian Caster Talent to gain access to an OSR spell list of your choosing. A bit Talent-intensive, since you have to buy the Talent again to unlock each new spell level. Heroic Mortals are again better here, as they can cast 9th-level spells at Level 10 while their Common cousins struggle to even gain 3th-level spells at that point. "Multiclassing" by gaining access to another spell list works interesting here, as the character has one universal Caster Level for all of his spellcasting traditions, and all the spell lists he has access to are effectively merged into one when it comes to preparing them. You can freely mix classic spell list with spontaneous ones, but having even one of the latter slows down your spell progression a little. Cybernetics and Clockworks As the title suggest, cyberware on Arcem either come as traditional - but still magical - cybernetic implants from the Bright Republic, or as rad clockwork implants from Vissio. Cyberware not only takes up slots on or inside the body, but they also require integration points from the subject. Mortal heroes gain these points through the Cybernetic Adaptation Talent, reducing Attribute scores or permanently reducing their maximum Effort. Godbound can only use the latter, which makes sense considering they are giving up their divine fleshy bits for man-made stuff. Aside from your typical prosthetics and built-in armor and weaponry (the most interesting probably being the Gorgon Stare that lets you stare people into a dry, petrified husk, and the Slow Shield Generator which is more or less directly from Dune), there's the Autocossack Conversion that turns you into a centaur cyborg, the Thousand-Fingered Hand that turns your hand into a swiss army knife that would feel right at home in Ghost in the Shell, and the Eidolon Control Node that has an artifical spirit take over your body if you're knocked out to get away ASAP. Divine Supremacy This is basically an endgame option for Godbounds: Once the PC Pantheon has grown in power and made sure they're the strongest dudes in all the realm, they might as well try to turn it into their actual realm by becoming arch-gods. Becoming the gods of a realm requires the Godbound(s) to find the Celestial Engine that serves as the realm's literal heart. Once there, you just gotta pump it full with a crapton of Dominion till the realm is yours. Problem is that every supernatural critter in the realm will know what you're doing and can resist to multiply the cost, typically forcing your allies to get rid of them. Multiple Godbound naturally have an easier time achieving arch-divinity, but the problem that can pop up is that arch-divinity can't be taken away from someone, so you better make sure that you can trust your comrades to not betray you or anything. So, what does arch-divinity grant you? Well, more Effort, the ability to see any place and teleport to any place in your realm, saving throws of "only fails on a natural 1", the ability to produce Celestial Shards over time, and you can spend Dominion in your realm with no possible resistance from anyone. And if you become arch-god of yet another realm, you can fuse the two together. Naturally, Arch-Gods also make for great villains, either in the form of aspiring Arch-Gods the PCs have to stop, or in the form of a proper Arch-God they have to lure outside of his dominion to weaken him. Godwalkers  Your average Godwalker factory in the Bright Republic. The comic book shows at least one picture from way earlier in the book. Magitek mecha. They were an offshoot of the Made Gods, probably born from the idea "If we can't turn someone into a god, can we at least give him something that can punch a god?" Godwalkers are a rare side outside of the Thousand Gods (where the knowledge and technology survived the Shattering, even if their Godwalker are now made from wood instead of shiny metal), with most being enshrined and useless thanks to a lack of maintenance. Still, some might just be hanging out inside an ancient facility, waiting for a pilot who is hopefully not some spineless teenager. Godwalkers mainly serve as a way for a mortal PC or NPC to fight hordes of mortal enemies or even the odds against a Godbound. The latter can pilot one, but they will be unable to use their Gifts, with the exception of Constant Gifts who also affect the Godwalker. Godwalker mainly use their own stats with the pilot's base attack bonus. They have their own pool of Effort that is only regained through a maintenance cycle (which is why many surviving Godwalkers no longer work). Godwalker Hit Dice range from 14 for a Heavy-Gear-sized Godwalker and 40 for a giat gently caress-off airship. The pilot is not entirely save inside his cockpit, as he will take damage relative to the Godwalker. Creating a Godwalker is a lot like creating vehicles in Crawford's earlier books: Pick a basic hull and slap some stuff on it. Hulls are known as Sacred Armatures, and aside from Giant Robots of varying sizes, the selection also includes the above airship, a fighter jet, submarines and hovertanks. One of the best allrounders is probably the Seraph, since its not only one of the bigger Giant Robots, but also one with wings. Godwalkers are a bit more complex than other Crawford vehicles in that they come with an extra step: Picking a Chakra Engine. They have different sizes (aka large engines only fit on large Armatures), a different number of hardpoints, max. Effort and Actions per round. With the exception of a few heavy-duty versions, all Engines cause the Godwalker to lose 1 Effort per day of operation. The hardpoints gained from the engine come in five different versions, named after the Japanese elements: Fire for weapons, Metal for defense, Water for utility, Wind for movement and Void, which not only houses sensory components, but can also accept any other type of component. Speaking of these Divine Components, many of them let you pick a Lesser Gift that makes sense for the Hardpoint (so the Divine Smiting Actuator lets you pick an attack Gift). Weapons are generally divided into AoE attacks and single target weapons that deal straight damage, with such fun names as Trump of Judgment (a sonic weapon) and Wingcutter Malediction (magical flak beams). Probably the funniest Component is Advance of the Iron Tide, which makes you intangile if you commit Effort and you just keep moving in a straight line. You're like the Ghost Juggernaut. Example Godwalkers include the Unblinking Jade Eye (a small and sneaky robot from the Thousand Gods), the Without Repining (a Giant Robot from Ren), the awesomely-named Gentleman who holds the Whip (also from Ren, but a command hovertank), and The Gatekeeper (a Guardian of a Made God's treasury). The Martial Strifes  "...KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!!!!" These ones are fun. They're martial arts, but not any puny mortal martial arts. No sir, these one channel universal concepts of conflict for devastating effect. Strifes are a lot like Gift packages that are focused pretty much entirely around combat. Each Strife contains six Techniques: One entrance Technique that you have to learn first, one capstone Technique that comes after all the others, and four Techniques inbetween that you can learn in any order you want. These Techniques also require the same points a Godbound otherwise uses to get Gifts and Words. Learning a Strife requires some kind of teacher, though a Godbound with the right Word migth have an intuitive grasp on a fitting Strife. Common Mortals (and really most mortals) are only able to learn Lesser Strifes, watered-down versions of the real deal that are basical regular martial arts with the occasional magical effect. These are learned in three steps (Initiate, Disciple and Master), not unlike Low Magic. Heroic Mortals can learn the proper Strifes with Talents, though they have to master the Lesser version first. While the classic D&D Monk is pretty gimped when it comes to his weapon and armor selection, the Strifes are generally a lot more lenient, with most not even caring what you've equipped. Learning multiple Strifes is tricky as you're generally limited to only one per combat scene. The capability to combine Strifes tkes another Gift point, and this only works with Strifes you've fully mastered. Some Strife offer the ability to make an extra attack, but those are usually limited to a simple unarmed or weapon attack. All Strifes also come with an example NPC who uses that respective Strife, usually a Godbound or a very badass mortal. The Strife of the Bitter Rival A straightforward duelist Strife, based on the conflict between rivals. You mark someone within sight as your rival and get to enjoy various offensive and defensive bonuses against him for the rest of the scene, at the cost of having a harder time hitting anyone but your rival. Interesting examples include While They Live (gain a once-per-scene respawn if you're knocked out while your rival is still alive and well) and When They Hide (you always know where your rival is and what he's doing). The example character is Signore Dottore Gavazzi (HD 20), a fencer and former assassin from Vissio who is now wandering the world as a gentleman duelist. He's also a clockwork cyborg and badass enough to emulate Gifts of Alacrity and Deception. The Strife of the Broken Earth Tapping into the power of earthquakes, this Strife lets you overcome inanimate objects with ease. You can damage enemies with a seismic shockwave, become immune against getting crushed by debris, ignore whatever metal armor your opponent is wearing and smash buildings in a matter of rounds. Other fun Techniques include Under This Red Rock (attack someone you've already hit before as if he's still next to you, provided he's standing on ground) and the hilariously-named Rocks Fall (your unarmed attacks become magical 1d10 weapons, and you can punch your way through earth and stone). The example character is The Shaken Lady (HD 25), the result of the Oasis States' lovely eugenics shenanigans which turned her into a frail, sickly girl. Though it turns out the breeding project was a success after all, and she uses the Strife and her Godbound-like powers over Might and Earth to take revenge at her messed-up society. The Strife of the Consuming Flame This Strife channels the burning power of fire, which unsurprisingly means that you can set yourself on fire to discourage attackers and set other people on fire. Some of these are also self-damaging, like Burn Clean (hurt yourself to burn negative effects out of your body) or A Consuming Fury (blow yourself up). The example character is Lawful Pyre-Born from Lom. He entered the Pyre to become an antipriest, and instead of coming out either unscathed or as a simpleton, he came back with the power of this Strife. So not only does this guy know how to set you on fire, but he makes it harder to use Gifts in his vicinity like an Uncreated. (And yes, Lawful is is actual name. Lom has weird naming conventions.) The Strife of the Drowning Tide Just as the waves wash away rock and earth, so can practicioners of this Strife handle multiple opponents. The Lesser version of this is in fact the only way for a Common Mortal to gain a Fray Die. This Strife also turns you into some kind of Xenomorph / The Thing, as the entrance Technique Water Red and White not only lets you breathe and survive underwater, but also has your own blood lash out of your wounds to strike at whoever hit you. It doesn't say anything about melee range, so your reactive blood tentacles can apparently slap archers across the battlefield. And if you want to troll enemies with multiple attacks, you can use The Tide Goes Out to know yourself out of harm's way, wasting their remaining attacks. The example character is Salt Lady Lastri (HD 30), a pirate captain who is just about as badass as she is bloodthristy. Even her own crew (all-female, as is custom in Kasirutan) fears her. The Strife of the Dying Hour This is temporarl kung-fu, making use of the inevitability of time. My favorite is definitely Thief of Hours. This is not your normal "Your unarmed attacks are now 1d10 magical weapons" power, since the increased damage is caused by you punching future or past wounds onto the target. Less direct, but no less awesome is Day-Devouring Blow, which has you punch up to 10 years off or onto people with each hit. The example character is Scholar Li Po (HD 20), and very intelligent fellow from Dulimbai who sees himself as a shining paragon of his people. The problem is that he's an absolute hypocrite, with the description itself calling him an "tremendous rear end in a top hat" and "selfish bastard". He also likes to get his hands on ancient treasure (be it from dungeons, or other people), making him so kind of stinking rich murder hobo. The Strife of the Falling Sky Lightning and gravity power this Strife. This is the Strife used by the fellow in the above picture, more specifically the entrance Technique Javelin of God. This one not only makes you immune against falling damage, but lets you break through any non-magical barrier in your way and create a shockwave upon impact if you fall long enough. Other tricks include jumping very far, punch lightning at people or use the capstone Tear Down the Sky to rip out a piece of the sky and throw it at someone. The example charater is Inga Hammerfall (HD 25) from Ulstang, a near giantess and one of the most important and loyal henchmen of the Witch-Queen Sif. Think Brienne of Tarth with DBZ powers. The Strife of the Hunting Beast Drawing from the conflict between predator and prey, this Strife lets you be a sneaky bastard. You can make yourself imperceptible to one or even several targets, and your unarmed attacks are not only boosted, but also silence the target for a round. If your enemies are into guard dogs or their monstrous equivalents, you can use Cull the Huntsman's Pack to gain attack and damage bonuses against them. And if you've finally grown tired of being sneaky, you can use Red Jaws of Frenzy to go berserk with access to extra attacks. The Strife of the Scorned Lover This one is just nuts. Powered by scorned love (hence the title), this one starts of with A Kiss like Poison, which turns your unarmed attacks into magical ranged attacks that are so subtle that even the target himself requires a Save to notice that he's been attacked. You can literally hurt people with smiles and kisses. During a banquet. And almost nobody will notice. Equally weird is A Name like Razors, which boosts your unarmed damage if you know the target's name - with an even bigger bonus (1d20!) if you have been BFFs or lovers. The other Techniques are a lot more straightforward, including automatic counterattacks, a way to draw aggro from a single target and a Technique that lets you bounce damage back onto the attacker twofold. The example character is Lady Mihret Kassa (HD 22), a former Ancalian knight and spy. For whatever reason, she turned on her Order before the whole Night Road eruption wrecked her country, and has been working as an assassin ever since. Paradises Paradises are special realms that house the souls of a Godbound's whorshipper after dead, which is usually a better alternative than being a sleeping ghost in the world of the living or landing in Hell. Paradises are created in one of two ways: either the Godbound turns a realm he has become arch-god of into a Paradise, or he manages to find a genesis seed, a precious artifact from Heaven that can actually create new realms from scratch. Aside from the usual benefits of being an arch-god, a Godbound inside his own realm is immune against any traitorous followers, can reshape his Paradise with a minimum of Dominion, and part of his divine essence remains inside of his Paradise to keep protecting his followers - which may or may not eventually allow him to come back from the dead. For the most part, this section is very light on rules. Creating a Paradise is more some kind of collaborative storytelling, with the PCs laying down the looks and rules of their Paradise. Is it a lush forest in which souls take on the form of animals and can't die? Or is it a giant hall with plenty of booze and blackjack for everyone? Themed Godbound This is basically a toolkit to create new Godbound "classes" by tweaking the default one. This is primarily done with Traits. Some of these are beneficial (like bonus Gifts and easier access to Strifes), some are flaws (a reduced selection of Gifts or even Words, no Miracles, a taboo or weakness), some can change the entire Word/Gift structure or have access to new Words (more on those later). It is not recommended have different Themed Godbound in the same party, but the GM can probably figure something out that works. Now onto the example Themed Godbound: The Arrayed are another offshoot of Made Gods, magitek cyborgs that can gain Gifts and Words from plucking echo links into their body. It's a lot like the Materia system from Final Fantasy 7. As cool as it sounds to switch out your entire power set, this does come with the big caveat of relying on some organization that provides you with echo links and maintenance. You can create the facilities yourself with enough Dominion and a couple Celestial Shards, but your sponsors will become more than suspicious if you do that. Elemental Scions are an example of a weaker type of Godbound. One of their Words has to be an elemental one, and they can't buy Greater Gifts or use Miracle unless they've gained a few levels. They also have the Incandescent Power Trait (aka they start an elemental laser light show if they use too much Effort during a Scene) and are completely incapable of making use of Followers, Dominion or even Influence. On the upside, they don't need Dominion for level-ups, so they're pretty much super-powered murder hobos. Exemplars crank up human skills to 11. As such, they can't pick some of the more nature-themed Words. Aside from Incandescent Power, they also have the Consuming Temptation Trait, a flaw ot obsession that occasionally takes over in times of crisis. Exemplars come in various sub-types depending on which part of humanity they excel at. Each must have at least one starting Word from a specific list, and they each have their own bonus Gift. Example sub-types include the Conqueror (must have Sword, Bow or Command as a Word; auto-hits all lesser foes) or the Rebel (must have the Deception, Knowledge or Passion Word; immune against mind effects). Proteans wield primordial powers, capable of freely changing their form. They have excellent physical abilities (STR, DEX and CON can never be below 13), but their selection of starting Words is very limited: They need to have at least one of Alacritiy, Endurance or Might, and another Word choice has to go to Shapeshifting, a new Word that is either exclusive to Proteans (if they exist in the campaign) or can be made available to normal Godbound (if they don't). Their main flaw is a weakness against a specific metal. Damage from that metal is rolled twice (take the better result) and can't be no-selled in any way. The Shapeshifting Word is - surprise, surprise - all about shapeshifting. Become a doppelganger. Turn into a dragon and use all of its special abilities. Regenerate your wounds. Hulk out with claws and everything. Pretty funny for rogueish Proteans is the Greater Gift Deceitful Faces, which turns you into a perfect doppelganger. You are so in-character that you always talk and act like the original, even if you have no possible way of knowing any of it. We also get an example Protean: Leila the Bladewife (HD 11). She awakened during the whole fall of Ancalia, saving both herself and her lover Hazim from the Uncreated horrors. She now stays shapeshifted as Hazim's sword, aiding him in battle (which is necessary as he's just a mortal dude) and patching him up he gets himself killed again. Now that's a character concept if I've ever seen one. Undestined are essentially a glitch in the matrix. They can power from their understanding of the flaws and cracks of reality, granting them access to the Fate Word. They can't into elemental Words, but at least their conflicting nature gives them easy access to Strifes. They come with the amazing flaw of being unremarkable and easily forgotten. They could slay a dragon that has tormented the area for ages, and everyone would just attribute the deed to someone else in a year or so. They cannot use Influence or Dominion for changes without through someone else, essentially being a divine ghostwriter. The Fate Word naturally messes with peoples' destiny. You can make yourself ignored by anyone, free people of mind effects or turn someone into an unperson by erasing their original life from everyone's memory. Since Undestined can't change things directly, they have a fun trick where they use their Gifts to create an alternate identity for themselves: Consume the Name allows them to erase a lesser foe or corpse from existance to essentially become the person, with its identity, knowledge and destiny. Stopping this power causes the person or corpse to appear again. So a Protean could for example take the place of some beggar and become a mighty hero of the land. The funny part comes if people find out about this charade, as they will assume the mighty hero actually existed and the Protean is just some impostor. The example Undestined is Brother Gyaltsen (HD 9), a monk who has grown very, very frustrated at never rising in rank no matter how hard he tries. When he dispatched of a rival, he realized that he was an Undestined, so he promptly stole the rivals identity and left the monastery for good (nobody even noticed that Gyaltsen has vanished). Skill Words This is an alternative concept for Words for Exemplars and similar Godbound. You essentially replace the normal Words with skill-like descriptors like "Brawling" or "Stealth". These act like Words and let you buy Gifts from any normal Word that falls within that skill. Converting Powers from other games Aka how to use Exalted Charms in Godbound, or as the book likes to call it "powers measured on a 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 scale" *nudge nudge*. These guidelines fit on a single page and essentially boil down to "Charms that give you situational bonuses should just let you auto-succeed at stuff", "Charms that don't do enough on their own should be ignored or merged with others", "Charm Trees are basically Skill Words" and "For the love of God, ignore Charm prerequisite chains". And of course, always compare Charms with the Gifts in this book to figure out whether it is a Lesser or Greater gift. (I've also noticed that you could basically convert the Overed from Double Cross as some kind of Elemental-Scion-type of Godbound. Preferrably in the Bright Republic) And that's it, folks. I hope you had as much fun as I did. Keving Crawford seems to be the OSR gift that just keeps on giving. As for me, I'm talking a short break before delving into some other review. Doresh fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Nov 8, 2016 |
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Nov 8, 2016 22:20
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Night10194 posted:Wasn't poison lethal as gently caress in early D&D and thus would've been a no-brainer advantage for PCs if it was safe to use often? Yeah, originally poison was save-or-die by default with occasional exceptions. By 2e most poisons just did damage on a failed save (and either reduced or no damage on a successful save), but that was often still more than enough to outright kill a low-level character.
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Nov 9, 2016 02:53
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Thuryl posted:Yeah, originally poison was save-or-die by default with occasional exceptions. By 2e most poisons just did damage on a failed save (and either reduced or no damage on a successful save), but that was often still more than enough to outright kill a low-level character. DnD's treatment of poison has always been weird - including how it's always been strongly associated with evil. Sure, I can buy paladins and other classes obsessed with honorable combat disdaining the use of poison, but otherwise using poisoned weapons is just good sense to make use of another advantage. It got to the point that the Book of Exalted Deeds included what are totally not poisons so good-aligned characters could use poison and disease effects without being icky and evil. Way of the Wicked has an interesting premise, incidentally, and I'm interested to see more.
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Nov 9, 2016 03:35
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In additional to poison, Gygax D&D also had this weird obsession with bottles of flaming oil and who was and wasn't allowed to use them.
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Nov 9, 2016 05:07
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I played in a DCC game where the GM was like that- any time we were having trouble he'd remind us of how great and useful those bottles were. He even had them do better damage than weapon attacks.
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Nov 9, 2016 05:49
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Thuryl posted:Yeah, originally poison was save-or-die by default with occasional exceptions. By 2e most poisons just did damage on a failed save (and either reduced or no damage on a successful save), but that was often still more than enough to outright kill a low-level character. All 2E poisons that did damage also tended to do a static amount of damage, not an amount of damage that COULD be high, but just "boop, have 40 points of damage, lol." Which you'd need to be a 4th-level fighter to have ANY chance of surviving.
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Nov 9, 2016 12:54
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Doresh posted:Godbound Thanks for reviewing! Godbound is really neat. Honestly, reading about the sample NPCs in the deluxe content sold me more on Arcem as a setting than anything else in the book. Hoping that upcoming setting supplement will help too.
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Nov 9, 2016 16:05
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Godbound really looks like Dominions: The RPG. That's by no means a bad thing, but it did produce a few chuckles as some of the mechanics were introduced.
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Nov 9, 2016 18:56
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Loxbourne posted:Godbound really looks like Dominions: The RPG. That's by no means a bad thing, but it did produce a few chuckles as some of the mechanics were introduced. Really the only departure is that Godbound can't respawn when slain, though that's what Themed Godbound are there for. Then again, one could argue that almost nobody in the game can be considered a Word-powered creature, allowing the Godbound to survive thanks to the Undying Gift. ("I'm a teleporting obelisk" would also make for a great Fact.) Doresh fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Nov 9, 2016 |
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Nov 9, 2016 19:00
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Doresh posted:And that's it, folks. I hope you had as much fun as I did. I did, thank you! To the point where I'm now a proud Godbound owner and casting about for a way to play it with people.
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Nov 9, 2016 20:11
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Doresh posted:("I'm a teleporting obelisk" would also make for a great Fact.) The entire party is a collection of divine statuary/sculptures, just appearing overnight in villages or towns and causing weird poo poo to go down. "Hey guys, do you wonder if the collection of obsidian monoliths that popped up outside town are related to the rain of blood and the fact that everyone in town, men included, gave birth to double-headed mutant children?"
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Nov 10, 2016 01:21
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PurpleXVI posted:The entire party is a collection of divine statuary/sculptures, just appearing overnight in villages or towns and causing weird poo poo to go down. The monolith that is the Pantheon's Deception guy leans forward and whispers "Everything is fine".
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Nov 10, 2016 20:09
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Way of the Wicked - Book 1 -  Talingarde: A Gazetteer The setting for WotW is the kingdom of Talingarde an England sized island off the coast of the main continent. Almost no information is given about the mainland over the course of the Adventure Path so it could easily be slotted into Golarion or any other campaign world. pre:Talingarde Alignment: LG Capital: Matharyn (105,000) Notable Settlements: Ghastenhall (82,000), Daveryn (59,000), Havelyn (21,000), Farholde (9,500), Aldencross (1,800), Varyston (1,200) Ruler: King Markadian V called the Brave, Protector of the Righteous Government: Religious Monarchy Languages: Common, Dwarven Religion: Mitra, the Shining Lord For 46 years after the war Markadian reigned as king of Talingarde. The young paladin proved himself a capable ruler; defeating a bugbear invasion, bringing unruly nobles to heel, turning the capital Matharyn into a great city, reinforcing the defenses along the northern border and making peace with the Yutak Tribes. The Victor spread the worship of Mitra throughout the kingdom while tolerating other faiths; including that of Asmodeus as long as it was discrete. quote:Today, his statues are to be found in almost every town and hamlet throughout The Prince, gripped by madness, flew to the Adarium and slew the King with a flaming sword; ending his brother’s six year rule and proclaiming himself the new king, Markadian the III, later called ‘the Mad’. While many would have accepted the new king as a messenger from Mitra it would not last. Soon after insane commands began to flow forth, including an order to prepare the armies of Talingarde for an invasion of Hell to put an end to Asmodeus, Prince of the Nine Hells. quote:Officially, the histories record that after only five months in power Markadian III called the Mad tried to fly from the highest spire of the Adarium without his magic wings. More likely, he was thrown from the spire by paladins who would tolerate no more of this madman’s blasphemies. The current king, Markadian V succeeded his father, at the age of 22. He has reigned now for 16 years. An early test of his rule came in repelling another bugbear invasion, earning him the title “the Brave”. quote:Markadian V has continued the prohibition against the cult of Asmodeus but does not pursue the purges with the same vigor as his father. After all, that battle is largely won. No one has heard of an Asmodean cultist in Talingarde for years. Instead, he turns his attention to the west and the north hoping to be the king who brings the entire island of Talingarde under his dynasty’s dominion. He has failed in one duty however. He has failed to yet produce a son. Instead, he has only one child -- a beautiful, brilliant young princess named Bellinda. Twenty years of age, she is already a prodigy of arcane magic. If her father produces no heir it is an open question whether the men of Talingarde will follow a queen instead of a king. Her story is yet to be written. GEOGRAPHY OF TALINGARDE The major island and it’s attendant lesser islands can be grouped into six regions:  The Cambrian Bay A massive sea in the center of Talingarde connects the kingdom, including the major cities Matharyn and Ghastenhall and the Heartlands. For some reason the book includes the city of Daveryn in this region despite being separated by a massive mountain range. Daveryn, Ghastenhall and Matharyn are given more detail in future books of the Adventure Path. The Heartland The nation’s true strength; vast stretches of farmland, broken up by small forests and dotted with bucolic villages. This region is the source of the many hedge knights, devout priests and stout peasants that provide the backbone of Talingarde. The Borderlands The most prominent feature of this region is the Watch Wall a series of 12 castles stretching from Farholde in the west to the eastern edge of the island. The fortifications run from sea to sea along the river Tyburn and Lake Tarik and protect the kingdom from invasion by savage bugbear tribe and other monsters from the frozen north. The Caer Bryr A mountain range separates the forest from which this region draws it’s name from Talingarde proper. It is the home of a primitive human and half elven tribes, the Iraens, followers of a druidic faith who do not acknowledge the supremacy of Mitra or the king in Matharyn. Legends tell of all manner of spirits and monsters haunting the forest. The Savage North The plains, mountains and forest of this fertile region are dominated by 3 species; the savage Bugbears, the Naatanuk a race of sapient polar bears, and the enigmatic Ice Elves. It is considered a mystery to most people in Talingarde. The Lands of the Yutak The Yutak are basically eskimos. They’re a friendly people but mostly keep to themselves since they don’t share a common language with the Talireans. They will trade furs and ivory for worked goods and are known to visit cities on the western coast from time to time. NINE PLACES OF LEGEND The book includes 9 locations that aren’t part of the adventure path but could serve potential side quests. Extra plot hooks are appreciated but there’s enough content in the AP I never felt the need to use them. For the sake of brevity I’m just listing them. The Lost Island of Taane-thak (mythic home of a frost giant kingdom) The Barrow of the First King (lost tomb rumored to contain an Asmodean artifact) The Children of the White Spider (a race of intelligent spiders hidden in the Caer Bryr) The Mead Hall of the Ice Elven King (rumored to be a refuge in the frozen north) The Lost Ansgarian Mine (legendary mithral mine of the dwarven kings) The Ice Troll Forges (remnants of a troll civilization craft powerful weapons) The Sunken City of Aath-Aryn (a sunken Talirean city home to a Triton kingdom) The Wreck of the Dawn Triumphant (a sunken ship containing a Mitran artifact) The Holy Caverns of the Naatanuk (treasure hoard of their shaman leaders) ORGANIZATIONS In our last bit of setting information in this section the book details 4 groups in Talingarde that will play an important role over the course of the campaign. The Knights of the Alerion Now the foremost knightly order in the land this brotherhood rose to prominence after supporting House Darius during the war of succession. They are fiercely devoted to Mitra and were the chief prosecutors of the purges against worshippers of Asmodeus after the death of Markadian III. The current king is the highest ranking member of the order. Sacred Brotherhood of the Gryphon The remnants of the knightly orders that supported the Barcan side of the war. Today the group is in decline as greater prestige can be earned for a competent knight by joining the Knights of Alerion. The Gryphon’s do though boast many famous members over their history including their present leader, Lord Vastenus Barca, most trusted military commander of the current king. The Church of Mitra The force that binds the kingdom rivaling House Darius in power. Priests of Mitra are everywhere doing good works and helping the people of the kingdom. The people of Talingarde trust the servants of the Shining Lord and the royal house works with them ‘hand in glove’. The great Cathedral is located in the capital city of Matharyn. The Blessed Order of St. Macarius An order of monks that travel the kingdom tending to the sick and alleviating suffering and in times of war travel with the army to heal the injured. Most interestingly nearly all members Church of Mitra capable of casting divine spells come from this order. A VILLAINOUS CAMPAIGN The author expands on the introduction with useful advice about 5 common pitfalls of an evil campaign and how this adventure addresses them. 1 - No Rest for the Wicked Heroes can sit back waiting to sally forth and dispatch evil foes. Villains need to have evil schemes, which can be difficult for the players to concoct as the lack the comprehensive information the GM possess. WotW deals with this by giving the characters a pre-made plan devised by an NPC. The plot to destroy Talingarde is complex and the PCs are an integral part. 2 - The Trouble with Minions Evil masterminds often have hordes of minions to do their bidding which can get boring for the players as their servants are out having all the fun. The second book in the AP will add optional rules to run an evil organization but the players should never rely on their minions. WotW addresses this by presenting challenges that no mob of underlings could hope to deal with; some things, if you want them done right, you have to do yourself. 3 - Us against the World Evil campaigns often breakdown as player characters come into conflict and disagreements devolve into murder,magic and PvP. In a basic good campaign things wouldn’t go that far but with evil characters all bets are off. WotW deals with this in two ways: early on the PCs are required to sign a devilish contract prohibiting them from betraying each other; second, while the PCs may hate each other and have rivals among their allies the overwhelming theme is that the entire kingdom of Talingarde is opposed to them and if they don’t cooperate they will be destroyed. 4 - PG-13 Villainy Boundaries are important in a shared experience like an RPG; what’s appropriate for one group may not be for another. Torture, mass executions, hot wax bondage; these aspects of the story are interesting to explore but should be handled in a way that doesn’t derail the campaign with out of character arguments. The author suggests handling this like a PG-13 movie where the worst stuff is done off screen or with a face to black. The characters should be villains, not the players. 5 - On a Mission from God Evil for it’s own sake is boring and mindless slaughter does not a campaign make. Our villains need a motivation and the so called good people of Talingarde have provided it by persecuting the followers of Asmodeus. Before House Darius took over the worship of many gods was permitted, now all gods but Mitra are suppressed and Asmodeus is forbidden. The book recommends that the PCs find motivation beyond just mayhem; they need to have suffered indignities at the hands of Mitra’s followers that required cold hard vengeance. We are urged to be fans of the characters, even if they’re terrible people, on their quest for vengeance. CAMPAIGN SYNOPSIS The book ends with a synopsis of the campaign. I appreciate the author giving an outline of things to come. For a GM thinking about running this AP it let’s them plan ahead to future challenges. Going to boil it down to the highlight reel. Book I - Escape prison - Join the cult of Asmodeus lead by Cardinal Thorn - Deliver weapons to a Bugbear Horde - Destroy a key fortification allowing Bugbears into the kingdom Book II - Travel to Farholde on the western border of the kingdom - Seize control of an ancient daemonic temple - Defend the temple for 31 weeks - Complete an unholy ritual to obtain a magic disease Book III - Travel to the city of Ghastenhall - Gather an elite army to assault the holy Vale of Valtaerna - Launch your raid on the Vale - Control the Vale for 3 months and slaughter any that oppose you - Storm the great Cathedral of Mitra destroy the Order of St. Macarius Book IV - Travel to the Bugbear occupied city of Daveryn - Propose an alliance with the great black wyrm Chargammon - Destroy Chargammon's nemesis to gain his help - Assassinate King Markadian with Chargammon's assistance Book V - Cardinal Thorn tries to destroy the PCs fearing their power - The PCs get a chance to deal with the Paladin that has dogged their steps - Locate the Cardinal's phylactery - Track down and destroy their master Book VI - With Thorn defeated only the destruction of the Bugbear horde stands in the way of seizing power - For 3 years the PCs will control Talingarde - The Princess returns to lead her people against the villainous tyrants - A final climactic battle This is a 6 book AP but there is a 7th book that contains a bunch of bonus material that didn't make it into the other books and expands on the story. NEXT TIME: The actual adventure.
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Nov 11, 2016 03:29
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So, probably a really dumb question; With regards to Princess Bellinda, if she's such a powerful wizard type, and no heir is produced, couldn't she just magic herself into a guy?
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Nov 11, 2016 03:59
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That's Adventurer Logic and also probably a good way for the PCs to get their evil hands into the upper echelons of government by going off the rails. "We'll fix this succession crisis...for a price."
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Nov 11, 2016 04:01
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Cassa posted:So, probably a really dumb question; With regards to Princess Bellinda, if she's such a powerful wizard type, and no heir is produced, couldn't she just magic herself into a guy? Prince Bellend has a certain ring to it.
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Nov 11, 2016 04:10
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Someday I want to see a D&D world where Adventurers are a thing. As in, where that mindset is just this weird, naturally occuring in-setting phenomena that tends to lead to epoch-shaping insanity. Where it's acknowledged you'll get spates of groups of 4-6 super-powerful people who will think 'Well, succession crisis, huh? I'll just shift genders and wham, king.' as a matter of course and this kind of insanity heralds the tides of history.
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Nov 11, 2016 04:14
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Night10194 posted:Someday I want to see a D&D world where Adventurers are a thing. As in, where that mindset is just this weird, naturally occuring in-setting phenomena that tends to lead to epoch-shaping insanity. Where it's acknowledged you'll get spates of groups of 4-6 super-powerful people who will think 'Well, succession crisis, huh? I'll just shift genders and wham, king.' as a matter of course and this kind of insanity heralds the tides of history. So, D&D 4? 
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Nov 11, 2016 04:15
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Night10194 posted:Someday I want to see a D&D world where Adventurers are a thing. As in, where that mindset is just this weird, naturally occuring in-setting phenomena that tends to lead to epoch-shaping insanity. Where it's acknowledged you'll get spates of groups of 4-6 super-powerful people who will think 'Well, succession crisis, huh? I'll just shift genders and wham, king.' as a matter of course and this kind of insanity heralds the tides of history. Forgotten Realms is sort of that, only there they have a lot more so it's less occasional randos upending normal history and more "dungeoneering is a perfectly normal occupation for second sons and sorcerers."
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Nov 11, 2016 04:17
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MonsieurChoc posted:So, D&D 4? 100% down.
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Nov 11, 2016 04:18
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Cassa posted:So, probably a really dumb question; With regards to Princess Bellinda, if she's such a powerful wizard type, and no heir is produced, couldn't she just magic herself into a guy? Stat wise she's a Sorcerer and doesn't have the appropriate spell to change gender. It will be a moot point anyways thanks to the PCs.
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Nov 11, 2016 04:27
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Night10194 posted:100% down. The setting conceits of 4e are very much "You are special and are the only thing standing between civilization and annihilation, and at some point you will ascend to something akin to godhood simply by the force of how loving awesome you are." One of the epic destinies allows you to steal your own soul allowing you to cheat the very concept of death. 5e dialed it back down to "Yeah you can be special but you're never going to be as special as Elminster or Drizzt."
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Nov 11, 2016 05:12
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Kurieg posted:The setting conceits of 4e are very much "You are special and are the only thing standing between civilization and annihilation, and at some point you will ascend to something akin to godhood simply by the force of how loving awesome you are." One of the epic destinies allows you to steal your own soul allowing you to cheat the very concept of death. One of the reasons I enjoy the Cardinal System games from Sanguine so much is they start from the same point (albeit without the more 'epic' concepts) of assuming the PCs are absolutely the main characters, start the story well above average, and are only going to get more powerful as you go. By the end of a campaign in Ironclaw or Myriad Song, you are a kingmaker, determining the fate of political movements and star empires. E: There's even a mechanical conceit to it: Mook-type characters CANNOT GET SKILLS outside of their base Career and Species/Legacy dice. The 'average' competent person has 2d6, 3d6 if it's something their people have a knack for. The average starting PC is likely to have 3d8, or d12+2d8, in things they specialize in. You are simply better, because you are the person on whom history turns. You also automatically have at least one extra-life type Gift that regenerates every session and can buy more. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 05:18 on Nov 11, 2016 |
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Nov 11, 2016 05:16
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Kurieg posted:The setting conceits of 4e are very much "You are special and are the only thing standing between civilization and annihilation, and at some point you will ascend to something akin to godhood simply by the force of how loving awesome you are." One of the epic destinies allows you to steal your own soul allowing you to cheat the very concept of death. I like the one where you could steal concepts once a day. Take my breath away...
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Nov 11, 2016 05:57
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Kurieg posted:5e dialed it back down to "Yeah you can be special but you're never going to be as special as Elminster or Drizzt." The idea of "Your dirty peasent PCs will never be as special/important as the Glorious Metaplot NPCs" needs to die in a Sphere of Annihilation.
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Nov 11, 2016 17:30
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Well Mearls is back in charge and they moved the default setting back to Faerun rather than Points of Light so that's unlikely to happen anytime soon.
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Nov 11, 2016 17:37
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One of the few things (not much, but a few) things I liked about Fable was the idea that they had a school where they trained heroes. On reflection, it seems like a natural thing for a high fantasy world to do at some point.
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Nov 11, 2016 17:54
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An ubiquitous concept in the literally hundreds (thousands) of crappy fantasy web novels inspired by RPGs out there is that there's some sort independent Adventurer's guild that registers, trains and provides jobs to adventurers based on how tough they are. Half the time they include an unforgeable "Adventurer ID card" that's basically an in-setting character sheet you can show off. (Why did I read those? I was thinking "Why not do a Portal Fantasy Hack" Followed by "Wow, there's a lot of portal fantasy/reincarnation webnovels, I should look at those" followed by "Maybe I don't want to cater to portal fantasy fans")
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Nov 11, 2016 18:24
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unseenlibrarian posted:An ubiquitous concept in the literally hundreds (thousands) of crappy fantasy web novels inspired by RPGs out there is that there's some sort independent Adventurer's guild that registers, trains and provides jobs to adventurers based on how tough they are. These murder hobo guilds are also the foundation of an entire sub-genre of JRPGs. And I'd like to read a crappy fantasy web novel that works like Pokemon or Digimon in that you have a scanner that tells you the basics of your opponent ("Umbral Bolt, Medium Construct, Challenge Rating 32. Do not touch!") Doresh fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Nov 11, 2016 |
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Nov 11, 2016 18:33
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Doresh posted:These murder hobo guilds are also the foundation of an entire sub-genre of JRPGs. Given they're inspired by Wizardry which in turn was loosely based on traditional tabletop games, making a decent adventure-academy tt game would just complete the circle
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Nov 11, 2016 18:35
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Robindaybird posted:Given they're inspired by Wizardry which in turn was loosely based on traditional tabletop games, making a decent adventure-academy tt game would just complete the circle Does "Give flowers to a cute ghost girl living in a spooky castle, then find some water so the flowers stay healthy" sound like a decent adventure? That was a thing in Atelier Iris 3. It was even a two-part quest AFAIK. From my personal experience, if these games don't just copy typical MMORPG quests, they meander around with the weirdest busywork (see above example). Doresh fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Nov 11, 2016 |
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Nov 11, 2016 18:37
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unseenlibrarian posted:An ubiquitous concept in the literally hundreds (thousands) of crappy fantasy web novels inspired by RPGs out there is that there's some sort independent Adventurer's guild that registers, trains and provides jobs to adventurers based on how tough they are. The otherwise mediocre anime Hunter x Hunters initial plot conceit is that the main characters are basically pyschopathic murder hobos and by getting a hunter card they will be legally recognized as such and no longer subject to things like "passports" and "needing to register their weapons" Edit: one characters last name is Paladinknght and while he is somewhat a good upstanding person he unambiguously wants to be so obscenely wealthy that his desire to do charitable things will not cramp his style.
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Nov 11, 2016 19:20
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This thread got me to cough up the money for Godbound. Hoping to run a game soon. Thanks for the review!
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Nov 11, 2016 20:45
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Kurieg posted:Well Mearls is back in charge and they moved the default setting back to Faerun rather than Points of Light so that's unlikely to happen anytime soon. I feel that's more Greenvatore's influence, but maybe they just agree.
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Nov 12, 2016 05:09
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