|
Fallout, at least, has post-apocalyptic white people deciding to cosplay as Romans and do away with frivolities like gunpowder and medicine for poorly defined reasons...
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 14:03
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 08:21 |
|
|
Angry Salami posted:Fallout, at least, has post-apocalyptic white people deciding to cosplay as Romans and do away with frivolities like gunpowder and medicine for poorly defined reasons... They had plenty of guns and healing powder and the like. The reason was Caesar wanted to play dress-up.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 14:06
|
|
|
Desiden posted:Someday, I am going to write my post-apocalyptic future game, which will be shockingly innovative. In the not-white countries charismatic leaders will rise, preaching a return to the "old ways", and attempt to restore the ancient incan/mayan/persian/imperial japanese/whatever empires. They will come forth to the land, and the people will say...."no, that's dumb. why would we do that?". And the preachers will say "oh yeah, I guess you're right. I know, how about we work on building up a sustainable regional economy and food supply, since the global system is collapsing." And the people will say "yes, that seems much more sensible than putting on grass skirts and dancing around like the platonic ideal of white people ideas of 'savages'". Before Savage Rifts came around, I was trying to make a Not-RIFTS set in South America decades following a major nuclear war between US and Russia that triggers the Rifts. Brazil and Argentina would essentially the Coalition States, with civilization sliding down into barbarism the further north you went past Rio de Janerio.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 14:12
|
|
|
Desiden posted:Someday, I am going to write my post-apocalyptic future game, which will be shockingly innovative. In the not-white countries charismatic leaders will rise, preaching a return to the "old ways", and attempt to restore the ancient incan/mayan/persian/imperial japanese/whatever empires. They will come forth to the land, and the people will say...."no, that's dumb. why would we do that?". And the preachers will say "oh yeah, I guess you're right. I know, how about we work on building up a sustainable regional economy and food supply, since the global system is collapsing." And the people will say "yes, that seems much more sensible than putting on grass skirts and dancing around like the platonic ideal of white people ideas of 'savages'". I'll at least go to bat and point out how much better Carella does it. It may not transcend the trope, but he does it much better for several reasons. First, they actually have a reason to pick up the old ways again - the gods return from their self-imposed exile and help the people out of the collapse. Second, they don't abandon technology. They realize that jeans, computers, TVs, laser rifles, and power armor are still useful, they just have more limited access to them in their region. Which, granted, is a concept imposed by the writer but at least it's a loving concept compared to Africa or Japan. Thirdly, their magic, like the Nazca being able to make magic buildings or having the legit gods helping out, actually can help build and defend a civilization rather than just having fireballs instead of laser rifles. Lastly, their society is actually much more socially progressive than the ancient Incas, and isn't just a copy-paste. They're much more egalitarian and the society has vastly greater social mobility. If you're going to have the "old ways return" the Empire of the Sun is much more nuanced than its Rifts contemporaries.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 17:16
|
|
|
Relevant to my bagging on the Indie Hack: the author is running a game of it for the Gauntlet podcast, so we can all see how it works in practice. Maybe I'll eat my words!
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 17:34
|
|
|
Regarding Rifts Japan, I'm wondering if it could be much easier to nix the idea of splitting the country into seperate nations? Like have the Imperial family and the Shinto and Buddhist groups under a traditionalist umbrella, while the corporations and scientific interests take a more futurist side, and the government are caught trying to work between them? I know that a lot of RPGs of this type had a thing for Balkanization, but I just like this idea more.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 17:46
|
|
|
Young Freud posted:Before Savage Rifts came around, I was trying to make a Not-RIFTS set in South America decades following a major nuclear war between US and Russia that triggers the Rifts. Brazil and Argentina would essentially the Coalition States, with civilization sliding down into barbarism the further north you went past Rio de Janerio. Yeah. As it is, we'll have Columbia (from the previous South America book) and Cordoba (that is, a chunk of Argentina) filling that role, with Columbia being the more sympathetic version and Cordoba being straightforward fascists. Spark That Bled posted:Regarding Rifts Japan, I'm wondering if it could be much easier to nix the idea of splitting the country into seperate nations? Like have the Imperial family and the Shinto and Buddhist groups under a traditionalist umbrella, while the corporations and scientific interests take a more futurist side, and the government are caught trying to work between them? I know that a lot of RPGs of this type had a thing for Balkanization, but I just like this idea more. It would probably work better, especially if you tied the throwback elements to extreme elements of Japanese conservatism where I could actually see that possibility. But that would require an awareness of modern Japan that doesn't just arise from having read Rising Sun and Neuromancer. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 18:19
|
|
|
Hostile V posted:Alright lemme level with you. Yes, you. Just you. It's a pretty dang good book. That doesn't mean it's flawless. Far from it. The main issue you and I are going to be running into is the fact that a lot of the stuff in Immortals doesn't have particularly good compatibility with Chronicles of Darkness. This is mostly due to the old Morality System and our loathsome buddy Derangements. Good to hear that. I've recently gained the perception that WoD is either a parody or edgelord teenager stuff. That's probably not entirely true.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 19:09
|
|
|
Doesn't RIFTS have a tradition of sympathizing with the fascists, too?
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 19:14
|
|
|
Hostile V posted:Alright lemme level with you. Yes, you. Just you. It's a pretty dang good book. That doesn't mean it's flawless. Far from it. The main issue you and I are going to be running into is the fact that a lot of the stuff in Immortals doesn't have particularly good compatibility with Chronicles of Darkness. This is mostly due to the old Morality System and our loathsome buddy Derangements. Integrity is a much better system, but Breaking Points vary from person to person and, well, say it with me: I preferred the old Morality system. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 19:14
|
|
|
LatwPIAT posted:I preferred the old Morality system. Sorry, you are bad and wrong. The old Morality system was awful - it was explicitly a Victorian morality forced on everyone, complete with the idea that mental illness was the result of being a bad person.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 19:16
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:Sorry, you are bad and wrong. The old Morality system was awful - it was explicitly a Victorian morality forced on everyone, complete with the idea that mental illness was the result of being a bad person. How is it Victorian? It's mostly "don't steal, don't harm people". It's not a perfect system, certainly, but I prefer it to Integrity. And you can pick up mental illnesses from being a bad person with Integrity. If your Breaking Points involve being a bad person, or you commit a murder, a Dramatic Failure on the a roll can result in the Madness Condition.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 19:50
|
|
|
LatwPIAT posted:How is it Victorian? It's mostly "don't steal, don't harm people". It's not a perfect system, certainly, but I prefer it to Integrity. And you can pick up mental illnesses from being a bad person with Integrity. If your Breaking Points involve being a bad person, or you commit a murder, a Dramatic Failure on the a roll can result in the Madness Condition. The entire Morality system is literally built around Victorian hierarchy of sins and declaring what is worse for you than what, though somewhat less so than, say, oWoD Humanity was. It is also directly tied to derangements - literal mental illnesses. The idea of mental illness being a sign of actual evil is intensely Victorian and even more intensely insulting to those of us who actually have mental illness. Integrity is designed first and foremost as a mind/soul health system rather than a moral judgement - and further, it doesn't cause mental illnesses, because derangements are gone. It causes conditions - which are almost always temporary and pretty much never based around actual mental illness.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 19:53
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:The entire Morality system is literally built around Victorian hierarchy of sins and declaring what is worse for you than what, though somewhat less so than, say, oWoD Humanity was. It is also directly tied to derangements - literal mental illnesses. The idea of mental illness being a sign of actual evil is intensely Victorian and even more intensely insulting to those of us who actually have mental illness. But Integrity does all that too! There's a slight hierarchy of Breaking Points in how you can never harden to murder, and some kinds of murder are worse (premeditated murder [-5] worse than accidental killing [-4] worse than torture [-3] worse than causing visible serious injury [-2]), and a Dramatic Failure on a Breaking Point roll causes Broken, Fugue, or Madness. All of these are persistent Conditions, and Madness even gets worse the less Integrity you have. I don't think this is all that different from the Morality Hierarchy of Sins, where two failed rolls in a row result in Derangement. And for both systems, a character only picks up a mental disorder when they decrease the associated rating.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 20:11
|
|
|
There's a pretty significant difference between 'the act of torture and killing is stressful to the human mind and soul' and 'you can go insane from stealing stuff'. And frankly, if you can't see the difference between the conditions you listed and the way Derangements were treated and tied to actual existing mental illnesses, uh, I don't know what to say. You also seem to be ignoring literally all of the supplemental material surrounding both systems, which describes and helps give examples on both intent and implementation.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 20:17
|
|
|
 Preface One of the main reasons I’m writing this review is that I feel that this is an amazing product and probably one of the best Old World of Darkness products released. I think it’s important to highlight a good, recent World of Darkness product that updates on original material while making progressive improvements to the source material and to the presentation of the setting. This review will mainly focus on the fluff, presentation, and setting than the mechanics, though I will address them. It’s still an Old World of Darkness game so if you know what that means, you know how the mechanics breakdown. I want to note as well that this is a product of Onyx Path Publishing, not White Wolf. Although former White Wolf writers wrote for this line, it is a product of a distinct, separate company that licenses material from White Wolf, which up until very recently was nothing more than an IP holding company under CCP, the makers of EVE Online. These Monday meeting notes from Onyx Path gives you more of a rundown of the history of the two companies (http://theonyxpath.com/bucking-broncos-monday-meeting-notes/). After clearing that up, I think you should fully support Onyx Path and their writers if you like what they’re doing and know that giving them money or work is not supporting some of the most toxic elements in the RPG industry. OPP has made some mistakes along the way, Beast in my opinion to name one, but they are still light years ahead of some of their contemporaries.  This diverse set of characters is not only inclusive but also historically accurate and shows the geographic range that they cover in the book. The Dark Ages The Dark Ages line is a line of books put out for the Old World of Darkness lines that take place during the Middle Ages. V20 Dark Ages Vampire takes place in 1242 CE. The original book, Vampire: The Dark Ages was set in 1197 CE and Dark Ages: Vampire moved the date to 1230 CE. Although this book is a comprehensive treatment of the Dark Ages Vampire line, it does move the timeline forward. Werewolf, Mage, and Changeling received Dark Ages treatment books, Werewolf even had two editions, but this review will focus on V20 Dark Ages Vampire. In many ways this setting is set in the period of time in the World of Darkness before everything went to poo poo for the major supernaturals in the setting. Vampires at this point are not bound by the masquerade and no sects exist as they do during modern times. The political power structures of the time don’t really extend beyond fiefdoms ruled by princes and some vampires even dare to live openly, although the inquisition, mortal mobs, and other supernaturals often put an end to this brazen behavior. Werewolves exist as they do in modern times but are missing the Native American tribes. Mages exist in broader, looser schools of magic and the Traditions and Technocracy don’t exist yet. Changelings don’t exist as they do in modern times, instead they are beings of pure glamour and inhabit the wild areas outside of humanity. Demons do not exist outside of the occasional earthbound demon and hunters are nonexistent due to being a product of end times prophecy. It is not uncommon to have elders who lived during the Roman Empire and the breakthroughs made during the Renaissance haven’t happened, which brought paradox and banality down on Mages and the Fae. It is largely a dark time for mankind relative to modern times but this turns out to be quite good for all the supernaturals in the World of Darkness. I personally enjoy this setting a great deal and I think the creators of V20 Dark Ages did a great job in making these books. The writing is great and the artwork is beautiful. The deluxe core book even looks like the complete Sandman omnibus releases.  Not my own picture, I only got it at the PDF level due to monetary constraints when the Kickstarter was live. I will try to do at least one post a week for this book and I will move on to the Tome of Secrets when it's done. V20 Dark Ages Companion will follow that when it's done but it's at art direction at the moment.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 20:29
|
|
|
Integrity is by no means a perfect system itself. There's little of particular interest to seeing it slide up and down, with the serious dramatic failure Conditions being very rare, and raising your Integrity being a boring XP expenditure with little effect except for a minor situational bonus or penalty change. But I think there's a big difference in perspective and tone communicated between saying that specific actions, like shoplifting, breaking and entering, or arson, can cause you to develop an Inferiority Complex, Obsessive-Compulsion, or Megalomania, and saying that flexibly defined personal shocks can cause you to feel Shaken or to become Broken or go Mad. Using the language of the DSM is a loaded decision.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 20:34
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:There's a pretty significant difference between 'the act of torture and killing is stressful to the human mind and soul' and 'you can go insane from stealing stuff'. You can go insane from stealing stuff with Integrity too, though! Just have "stealing stuff" as Breaking Point, and then you can go insane from it. And once you get past arson on the list of sins in Morality, it's all torture and murder, much like Integrity. Like, yeah, getting a Derangement because you shoplifted is somewhat bizarre (though not directly unrealistic), and I'm not going to say that the Morality system was flawless, but I liked the rigidity and predictability of it combined with the neat downward spiral more than I like the Integrity system, which removes a lot of bite that Morality originally had while also requiring more ST arbitration. I do think the tone of the Integrity rules is better than the tone of the Morality rules, but that's really all I like about it. Other than that it does basically what Morality does, but in more awkward ways. Mors Rattus posted:And frankly, if you can't see the difference between the conditions you listed and the way Derangements were treated and tied to actual existing mental illnesses, uh, I don't know what to say. You also seem to be ignoring literally all of the supplemental material surrounding both systems, which describes and helps give examples on both intent and implementation. I don't really think that the theme-park mental disorder Conditions in the Integrity system are all that much better a portrayal than the Derangements. On one hand, it doesn't make a game out of real things, on the other hand, it has a very unrealistic portrayal of things while still naming them stuff like "Madness" and "Fugue". As for the supplemental material, I've not really read it? I have the system as portrayed in the Blue Book and the system as portrayed in the GMC rules update PDF, because that's where the systems are described.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 20:41
|
|
|
RocknRollaAyatollah posted:
I agree with this and am looking forward to your review.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 20:43
|
|
|
LatwPIAT posted:You can go insane from stealing stuff with Integrity too, though! Just have "stealing stuff" as Breaking Point, and then you can go insane from it. And once you get past arson on the list of sins in Morality, it's all torture and murder, much like Integrity. Like, yeah, getting a Derangement because you shoplifted is somewhat bizarre (though not directly unrealistic), and I'm not going to say that the Morality system was flawless, but I liked the rigidity and predictability of it combined with the neat downward spiral more than I like the Integrity system, which removes a lot of bite that Morality originally had while also requiring more ST arbitration. Holy poo poo you are just being willfully dense now. A player choosing to do something - a stupid thing, IMO, but a choice - is very different than the game forcing it on them.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 20:46
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:Holy poo poo you are just being willfully dense now. A player choosing to do something - a stupid thing, IMO, but a choice - is very different than the game forcing it on them. You complained about 'you can go insane from stealing stuff' with Morality. I pointed out that you can go insane from stealing stuff with Integrity too. There's a reduced chance of it, and yes it requires the player (or their ST) to pick that as a Breaking Point, but it's not like that's not something the game suggests; it says to make a Breaking Point based on the worst thing your character has done, and mentions purse-napping as an example of what that worse thing could be.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 21:04
|
|
|
Integrity lets you build out how your character feels about things. Your collegiate scholar character may think of theft as incredibly repugnant, and would take a breaking point from being put into a situation where they had to steal something, while another player's street punk doesn't have any qualms with theft as it's just another part of their life. The difference is that under Morality, the Punk WILL stress and break down because of all their theft, because the morality system was a set of universal rules that every human followed. Morality is about a universal code of moral conduct and condemning people who don't follow it. Integrity is about what stresses and rattles your character until they hit a Darkest Dungeon-esque breaking point and become abusive or paranoid or delusional.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 21:20
|
|
|
The discussion of Integrity v Morality is especially relevant given Dark Ages' preponderance of Paths of What I Was Going To Do Anyway. I am excited.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 22:04
|
|
|
Crasical posted:Integrity lets you build out how your character feels about things. Your collegiate scholar character may think of theft as incredibly repugnant, and would take a breaking point from being put into a situation where they had to steal something, while another player's street punk doesn't have any qualms with theft as it's just another part of their life. Courageous
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 22:14
|
|
|
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that grown to not really like Sanity/Morality mechanics in RPGs in general that only serve to reduce player agency. Those kind of "mental health" mechanics are a holdover from the days where it was expected that, by default, you would need them to get your players out of the D&D mindset of murderhobo shenanigans. I can accept a "mental Hit Point system" that goes down to reflect how close a character is to a complete breakdown, but stuff that just lets the GM hijack your characters actions ("you failed your Saniy roll, so now you must attack your friends", or "you have -2 to actions because you feel sad") rankle me.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 22:31
|
|
|
Simian_Prime posted:I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that grown to not really like Sanity/Morality mechanics in RPGs in general that only serve to reduce player agency. Agreed. You can probably get the desired effect by making sanity a resource the player can choose to spend. Call of Cthulhu investigators conspicuously avoiding looking at things yet somehow knowing what they are dealing with is not the desired effect.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 22:58
|
|
|
It's kind of hilarious whenever I heard people talk about adding a morality system to Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and my response is "If your players are being shitheels then you have a rank 6 Ahroun show up and kick their poo poo in." The spirits are watching and will go tell someone else if you're doing something obliquely evil. One of the books even goes over how the Garou Nation handles punishment for crimes on both a personal and sept level, including what happens when you stumble upon a sept that's turned their kinfolk into breeding cattle.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 23:13
|
|
|
Kurieg posted:It's kind of hilarious whenever I heard people talk about adding a morality system to Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and my response is "If your players are being shitheels then you have a rank 6 Ahroun show up and kick their poo poo in." The spirits are watching and will go tell someone else if you're doing something obliquely evil. One of the books even goes over how the Garou Nation handles punishment for crimes on both a personal and sept level, including what happens when you stumble upon a sept that's turned their kinfolk into breeding cattle.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 23:22
|
|
|
Usually "Kill/ostracise the elders, put new ones in place, tell them to start cleaning house."
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2017 23:37
|
|
|
One of the handy things in werewolf culture in W:tA is that even a death sentence can be useful. Having a few werewolf elders with nothing to lose go loud on a Pentex facility or other Wyrm den is a great way to kill two birds with one stone.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2017 00:43
|
|
|
Just Dan Again posted:One of the handy things in werewolf culture in W:tA is that even a death sentence can be useful. Having a few werewolf elders with nothing to lose go loud on a Pentex facility or other Wyrm den is a great way to kill two birds with one stone. Isn't a bunch of werewolves with nothing to lose where we got Black Spiral Dancers from though?
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2017 00:46
|
|
|
wiegieman posted:Isn't a bunch of werewolves with nothing to lose where we got Black Spiral Dancers from though? They were a bunch of werewolves with something to prove. I think the distinction is that the White Howlers thought they could march to the heart of the Wyrm and win, while a wayward pack sentenced to a suicide mission knows for a fact that they're not coming home.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2017 01:06
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:Doesn't RIFTS have a tradition of sympathizing with the fascists, too? TL;DR: Siembieda does. Other Rifts writers vary.  : Siembieda likes gotchas in RPGs, particularly playing against player misconceptions in regards to appearance and demeanor. The perfect book for anybody that wants to examine this is Villains Unlimited, where you have a group of respected businesspeople that turn out to be alien invaders that loathe and resent humans even though they don't look any different from humans. Similarly, you have a demonic werewolf-looking guy who's wanted but turns out to just be on the run hulk-style for crimes he did not commit. And you see this all through his writing - Rifts World Book 3: England had two races of insect-based people, one looks like straight-up bugs and the others look like humans with buggy bits attached. The human-looking ones are, of course, the the more villainous while the full-bugged out ones are the nice folks. And so on.So we come around to the Coalition and he wants to do continue to playing against murderhobo tendencies - emphasizing that the Coalition are baddies but at heart they're human victims of a propaganda machine. Early Rifts material also offers the tried 40K-style excuse that hard, relentless fascism was necessary for humanity's survival. But of course, as the books go on and we get plenty of human civilizations that didn't think genocide was necessary for survival, that argument quickly falls apart. Siembieda wants to wring his hands and do a spin where individual soldiers might not be such bad guys even though they work for a genocidal fascist state, and pull his old gotcha. The problem is that he's not able to pull that off more often than not. Most of the Coalition leadership is a collection of psychopaths, bullies, and demagogues, and the morally conflicted are in a decided minority. (At least far as I've deeply read goes.) What's more, the idea of nuanced ethical dilemmas is not something Rifts is good at - it has creatures around every corner that are evil... because... that's what it says on their sheet. Of course, you add in a small section of the fandom that genuinely want to play Coalition soldiers because you to be get cool military macho skull dudes blowing the hell out of whatever and that only perpetuates trying to give them a sympathetic edge that fundamentally doesn't work. I don't think it's because he's eager to celebrate fascism as an great idea or even a viable notion - even he constantly brings up that they're the villains and the tragedy of the current state of affairs. But I think it's more that he wants to have ethical gotchas and dilemmas in his games but is fundamentally bad at implementing the nuance necessary for them to work. If you had multiple political factions in the Coalition struggling against each other and some level of internal ethical conflict going on, it might work. But as it is it doesn't function, and if I get to Coalition War Campaign, that's a book that may get me to lose my poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2017 04:49
|
|
|
  Introduction The introduction for this book follows the standard White Wolf/Onyx Path model for a core book. It lays out that this is a book for not only a fan of Vampire and Dark Ages but also for someone new. It also points out that they’re offering a new take on a lot of old White Wolf concepts and they do deliver on this. The book does the usual of breaking down what traits OWoD vampires have relative to myths, nothing really groundbreaking or different. Vampires in the OWoD are relatively immortal, have to choose who they make vampires, and are damaged by the sun. They bring up the beast and the concept of the embrace but do a good job of laying down the basics. They do detail vampires and sex, which is a given since vampires are essentially magical rapists from Eastern Europe in Dracula, this is a given within the Western literary canon. They do have a sidebar box in this section that lets you know that some powers are different from previous editions but you’re free to substitute in disciplines ranks for instance if you like the previous iteration of the power better than the new one. The book does point out at this point that vampires in Europe consider themselves the spawn of Caine. This is not that crazy because most medieval Europeans are versed in the Bible, at least in a broad concept and story sense, and they believe it’s the history of the world up until their time. Caine, cursed by God to wander the Earth for eternity for committing the murder beget his children and they beget the Antediluvians, the founders of the clans. Editorial Note: In modern Vampire, only the Sabbat openly acknowledge this. The Camarilla refer to themselves as "kindred" and shun all talk of Caine because they claim it’s baseless superstition. The elders of the Camarilla know otherwise but do this to cover up the truth because they know the signs are all there and the world may possibly be ending. There’s also a lot of poo poo that went down related to Caine veneration and it led to the Anarch Revolts and the formation of the Sabbat. They honestly want to nip all that talk in the bud before someone fucks everything up. The embrace is touched on in very brief terms after this and the hunt is detailed. The hunt is different for every vampire and for some just feeding on passed out drunks is enough but for others, they require more like a herd of mortals or a cult that they feed on. As a source material recommendation, they mainly recommend The Crusades by Terry Jones, the Mony Python one. I do not believe I’ve read this one, I read a couple similarly titled works for an undergrad class but the professor didn’t point it out. He probably would have because we watched El Cid and he pointed out Herbert Lom, Chief Inspector Dreyfus from the Pink Panther movies, as the villain and I feel that would be something he’d mention since that’s a far reach for a class of college students in the mid-aughts. The authors do recommend the book because it’s a history that focuses on the common people and for recommending a work of history that isn’t a great man history, they deserve at least some praise.  Playing the Game In this section the author lets the player know that this is their game and they can make it what they want. If you want a world spanning trek, you got it, and if you want an introspective, character driven drama, you got it. You can take the game in any direction and there’s no wrong way to play. They do break it down into the frame of hunger, hunt, feed, digest. Exposition - The Hunger: Vampires feel a need to feed themselves but it’s an alien hunger unlike any they experienced in life. This section talks about the importance of food in medieval society quite well and how getting your next meal can mean the difference between life and death in a pre-industrial society. It also talks about the importance of eating as a communal activity and a celebration, which you are now cut off from. Vampires are incapable of consuming food, most can’t even stomach it and vomit it up if they lack the appropriate merit. You have to now answer to your beast, the brutal alien entity within you, and satiate your hunger. It is a hollow, unnatural feeling that you must constantly wrestle with. Action - The Hunt: Humans are everywhere and it’s up to a vampire to choose their victims. Some vampires choose to go as long as they can without feeding while others indulge heavily in it. The hunt is much more personal than their hunger because the vampire was once mortal and is now separated from that by undeath. Humans don’t always die once fed upon but it can happen so they must be prepared. It is stressed that it is a complex moral situation that vampires must wrestle with. Climax – The Feeding: The feeding is itself not unlike a junkie indulging in their vice, a period of ecstasy that washes away the concerns of the vampire and satiates the beast. The feeding reinforces that the vampire is no longer human, something else, worse and more sinister than their former self. A vampire is never sated though and the hard choices are up to the vampire. The beast makes it harder and harder for the vampire to do anything other than feed and satiate themselves at the expense of humanity. The Denouement: Vampires are ultimately junkies for the blood by which they survive. Feeding quiets the beast but takes a great psychological toll on the vampire. They are a parasite and their livelihood comes from the life force of other humans. Vampires deal with it in their own ways, some reject their nature while other embrace it, but all struggle with their condition regardless of their rationalization. There is no escaping this cycle and how a vampire deals with this shapes their character. This is all and all a good setup. It lets the players know the basics about the game and sets the vampires up as monsters. I think that too often vampire characters are treated as someone with a disability with superpowers. This book makes a good point that vampires are monsters, ruled by their beast, and are ultimately very self serving. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Feb 25, 2017 |
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2017 05:42
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXBBGjUjy2c CHAPTER ONE: BLOOD BATHERS Blood Bathers are a general group of Immortals who have figured out how to gain power through ritualistic bloodletting. This is called the Bathing Ritual and every Bather has their own form of the ritual. Remember how I said the easier it is to gain immortality, the more repugnant it is? Well, case in point. Why blood? Good question. The blood is what’s important because the Bather is taking a victim’s essence for their own and they’re taking it through violence and murder (or at the very least through harm). The blood itself is only able to transmit the life essence for two reasons: the Bather’s Ritual is designed to facilitate that and also the Bather believes it’s possible. When it comes to ritualistic veneration, symbolism is key. The Bathing Ritual The Bathing Ritual is something that has existed in every culture that has held blood as having some kind of importance. The origins are ancient and it’s not clear which society figured it out to begin with; knowledge of the Ritual can be found in the texts and artifacts of many ancient cultures. The original Ritual allegedly made the Bather into a god on Earth: immortal, undying and unable to be harmed. Nobody has ever successfully pulled this off. Every time someone has dug into studies of the original Ritual, something vital to the process has been missing. For those with no background in research, history or anthropology, sometimes they just have the knowledge that the Ritual is possible and nothing more. Blood Bathers throughout history have attempted to fill that missing piece or build their own Ritual. Figuring out the Ritual is a lot like fandom theory crafting or believing in a conspiracy theory; you have an end-point in mind and just extrapolate all the clauses that need to be true from there and sound crazy in the process. As a result, every Bather has their own ritual that also gives the benefits they want to obtain. Some would argue that the Ritual itself doesn’t matter, that the will to power is enough, but that’s not true. When the Ritual is forged for that Bather, this is the only thing that’ll work for them. Learning the Ritual You have two options for this. The first option is the easy/lazy option, which is where the Storyteller makes a character/PC a Bather before the game starts and the Ritual is built and that character takes some dips to their Morality. The longer/harder option is when a Ritual is researched and constructed over the course of the chronicle. So let’s focus on that because it gets more play in the book. Figuring out that the Ritual itself exists requires 10ish research successes. From there you have to actually start building each facet of the Ritual. This requires a little bit of a deeper explanation. The Ritual itself is made of the Bath, the Blood, the Effects, the Frequency and the Preparation. Depending on the choices you end up making (what effects you want, where you bathe, whose blood you take), these all have a positive or negative point value. In order for a Ritual to be viable, it needs to be a zero-sum equation. That is to say, the point value of all of all five facets (Bath+Blood+Effects+Frequency+Preparation) must literally equal zero. Crafting each Facet requires an Extended Intelligence+Occult roll that takes a minimum of one day spent researching per roll. The amount of successes needed is 5xPoint Total (ignore if the point totals are negative). Once all five facets are assembled, if the total cost is zero that’s it, you’re done. If the total isn’t. Well, this requires an Intelligence+Occult roll.
 Blood Bather Society “Who the hell would want to be friends with a Blood Bather” asks someone who has never been to any internet forum ever. There’s no international Bather union or squad but having an ally or two is pretty handy. Plus, sometimes the Ritual can affect more than one person at once. So Bather groups tend to come in the following three layouts. Mentor/Student: A teacher/student relationship tends to lean towards “I want an immortal companion” or “I want to have a kid and this is close enough”. The egocentrism of Bathing allows the teacher to view the student as a means for their knowledge and work to continue. Or sometimes a Bather wants to entice a possible student with the prospect of power and then set them up as a scapegoat for their actions. This sort of relationship doesn’t always work out because if the student disagrees with the teacher’s Ritual, the student can go off and make their own and provide competition. Cult: Cults are a great way to stroke your ego and also cultivate a specific crop of victims to harvest. But let’s assume that this is the kind of cult where everyone gets the benefit of the Ritual. This makes a cult a great way to have hands to help prepare for the next Ritual, but there are two big possible problems. First, if they all get the benefit of the Ritual, a schism might form based around who is the central focus of the Ritual and gets to do all the important stuff. Second, the Ritual is tied to the size of the cult. Religious differences and internal strife means that Ritual can’t be changed. Now each faction has to get more people if they want to continue reaping the benefits. Coalition: A Bather coalition is a loose association of Bathers with different Rituals. Maybe they all worked from one point to figure out their own, maybe they just do it their own way. Generally speaking they don’t meet in person but they do share resources and keep their work quiet and discrete. So a forum. There’s not always a leader but they’re all interested in proving that their Ritual is the best. The thing likely to bring a coalition down is a breach of privacy that brings the authorities down on everyone. BLOOD BATHERS IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS Blood Bathers are pretty uncommon. Most authorities (such as VASCU) are unintentionally tracking Bathers without knowing it. I mean the difference between “serial killer” and “immortal who gains power through ritualistic murder” is nonexistent without a little bit of context. Since most people don’t believe that power can be gained through ritualistic bloodletting or don’t have the drive to believe it, they’re not a phenomenon that gets a lot of discussion or interest. Their general rarity and the fact that most knowledgeable folks don’t have any info to share outside of anecdotes or weird experiences give Bathers a little bit of extra protection to operate. Vampires do not play well with Bathers. The fact that most Rituals require death by exsanguinations means that Vampires get more heat from Hunters who are wrong for the right reason. There’s also the fact that Bathing drains any useful Vitae from blood, making it completely useless to them. A Bather in Vampire territory is going to do a pretty good job of drawing attention to themselves by getting the Vampires in trouble and depriving the Vampires of food.
NOT CANON Sin-Eaters are beholden to ghosts and death and so are Bathers. Mass murder makes a lot of angry ghosts. Downside: Sin-Eaters are superheroes up against enemies that kill lots of people and nerds on the internet will be mad that Ghostlord the Amazing does or does not kill Immortal Dan the Murder Man. I don't have much of a downside because Sin-Eaters don't have much going on. I'm sorry, fans of Sin-Eaters. You are really gonna hate my opinions when I cover future chapters. No but for real though Sin-Eaters are crazy overpowered and I can't really think of some other evil temptation that would cause a Bather to actually team up with a Sin-Eater. Wait nevermind I had some ideas.
My Thoughts We're gonna get into the nitty-gritty of the Blood Bather's mechanics later but for now here's my basic views. I think the book starts off pretty strong by offering the most visceral and active Immortal from the word go, one whose general shtick is understandable and easy to grasp. I like the fact that the true Ritual is unattainable and there's a balance of having to weigh the different parts of the Ritual to get it to 0 for it to be functional. That being said, I have one big issue with the Blood Bather and it's kind of a simple one: I don't think they should be playable in the first session. It's kind of a bugaboo to me. See, Blood Bathers may not be evil but they're pretty amoral at best. And it makes for a bad, imbalanced team if one person is a Vampire Lite and everyone else is a pretty relatively normal. Plus from a storytelling perspective, the eventual descent of a player's character into a Bather is a compelling character arc that keeps the game going. It's a general mix of "rules that are meant to be exercised during play", "loving up group balance" and "let's start play with one character as a serial killer and all-around bad person" that makes me leery about letting someone be a Blood Bather from chargen forward. I mean, considering how much work goes into building a proper Ritual, that's a pretty great long-term chronicle-spanning goal for the player to keep striving towards. But that's my two cents; you could tell the GM that they can't do that and the GM would be like "pfft, who's gonna stop me?". We'll get into Morality and Integrity NEXT TIME when we also tackle the various mechanical aspects of the Ritual's Facets and some sample Rituals along with assorted business. Vox Valentine fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Feb 25, 2017 |
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2017 05:46
|
|
|
What is a wild Mask?
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2017 08:06
|
|
|
lifg posted:What is a wild Mask? A Slasher. Crazy magic serial killers. Think Jason Vorhees or Michael Meyers.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2017 08:16
|
|
|
Every kind of slasher has some kind of nastier form that's been twisted by whatever dark magic gives them their powers into something overtly supernatural. Masks are primitive, animalistic and nearly unstoppable killing machines that can take a whole team just to slow down.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2017 09:17
|
|
|
 Rifts World Book Nine: South America 2: Part 3: "Inca Warriors are traditionally men, but in latter years dedicated females have been granted the same privileges and special weapons; their conduct and performance have been outstanding so far." O.C.C. and R.C.C.s of the Empire of the Sun We get a long list of applicable material from other books, along with - strangely enough - an Inca Soldier O.C.C. that's intended for NPCs only (being very short and underpowered) and suggesting you somehow go about converting the Coalition classes to fill in for Inca soldiers PCs. It doesn't tell us how, though.  The RK Post art in this is actually really good. True Inca R.C.C. Demigods So, these are "transdimensional beings" (which means they travel between dimensions, I guess?), led by Viracocha, who's an actual god. They look like Andean natives but are slightly taller and lighter-skinned, which is why the Spanish invaders were mistaken for them! That's true history, folks.  (Actually, the whole idea of the Incans associating whiteness with divinity is probably an invention of the Spanish, and there's no real evidence for it.) So, there are different types, though only a few are mentioned in the descriptive text:
Stat-wise, they're awesome at just about everything, though they're tops in strength and endurance. Their M.D.C. is based on their endurance, so you might want to stock up on every physical skill that provides it. We're told their lifespan is "40,000+" years, an idea with staggering implications that are not explored at all. They can see the invisible or in dark, regenerate, get minor psionics, and bonuses against fear. Skill-wise, they mostly get a bunch of languages, survival, and combat skills. Their skill picks are pretty average, which isn't bad given all their other powers. Also, you get a magic club and spear, and additional magic items as you level up poached from the Inca Warrior class. Though they don't excel at anything, they do a lot of things really, really well. They're not nearly as awesome as vanilla demigods, though, who get to pick an O.C.C. and just generally bust the system that way. Inca Warrior O.C.C. So, this is a magical holy warrior that has"the magic to equal any power armor solider or any squad of infantryman". Wow! That sounds pretty badass. What do they get? Well, they get a magic sling that fires magic fire, a holy axe that can heal tiny amounts, magic body armor, and an amulet of protection that gives them 100 M.D.C. six times a day. About the only thing that's notably more badass than a Coalition soldier is the amulet, which can make them pretty unstoppable as long as they aren't overwhelmed... but nothing that'll stop a squad of soldiers of power armor. The book describes them as a "magical juggernaut" but the Coalition gets better arms than they do by far, doubly so in the case of power armor troops. Not sure why they're tryign to sell them so hard. They do get a bunch of bonuses on saves and physical attributes, but a +2 or a +3 on a d20 isn't a game-changer. Anyway, they go through intensive training, though they generally don't understand technology so well unless they're from Arequipa. Which is weird - you'd think they'd study it a little harder, given their key foes are steeped in technology. (And, unsurprisingly, it describes this as their sole weakness.) They're supposed to be the elite of the elite, mainly just because their equipment is expensive and rare. Speaking of which, they can get a suit of Incan power armor "when going on dangerous missions", but I'm pretty sure "dangerous missions" covers anything a PC does, so who knows. They get wilderness and weapon skills, chiefly, along with power armor training. Their other skill picks are pretty robust, and they get an array of Incan weapons... including a rifle that's way better than the elite and rare magic weapons they're gifted above. And thanks to attribute requirements, you only have about a 38% chance of playing one. So much for the ways of the gods, then!  You don't know how long I stared at this before realizing that's a snake on the ground. Inca Sun-Priest This is a specialist priest, to borrow a term, who's part of the "most prestigious organization in the Empire". Presumably they mean "aside from the actual pantheon of the gods", but details are details. So mostly they're more actual priests than mace-swinging clerics, and serve as bureaucracts, academics, and doctors - but this class specifically describes the initerant priests that go around healing people and hurting monsters. Sometimes they act in secret, especially outside the Empire where aliens are likely to shoot them. Firstly, they can select three priest abilities from the Priest O.C.C. in Rifts Conversion Book 2, but if you don't have that book, they get bonus spells instead. (Having the Priest powers is way better in the long run.) They get second-par spellcasting (they don't have much P.P.E. to play with, minor save bonuses, a holy symbol that has a few defensive spells and also burns anybody that helps the pantheon, a middling number of academic skills, and powers based on their god:
I don't know they don't just say "spray character sheet with lighter fluid, then apply flame", because that would be a lot more succinct.  "And now I have summoned whatever this is!" Nazca Line Maker O.C.C. So, it gives us the whole story of the Nazca over again, to where they fled this world and then returned now that magic's back in fashion. It notes they almost claimed Atlantis, but they didn't and instead it gave the Splugorth open season on the old continent. Way to go, drawmancers! Unlike normal wizards, they focus their will through drawings, though they can sketch magic lines in midair, and if you have a crazy high will, you can do it without a drawing implement. However, considering only 0.38% of normal human characters will qualify with the necessary mental endurance, I'm not even sure why they bother mentioning it. What can they do? Well, sense ley lines and rifts. They can sense if they're a ley line within 5 miles, but can tell the exact distance once they're within 3 feet, which has to be a typo given they're giant blue glowy lines. "I'm 23.452156... inches away. Roughly speaking." You get line rituals, and about a 1/3 chance at base to recognize other line drawings. You'd think it'd be easier, given they're obvious symbols... but I'm going into nitpick overdrive. They also get a number of warding-type spells from the normal spell list as well. They get skills like art, astronomy, math, and demon lore, and get a good spread of other skills (but don't have many default skills). And I'm going to skip slightly ahead, because it fits here, to give examples of: Line Magic So, some line magic takes minutes to case, others take just an attack. There's no unified language, so time for me to see what looks interesting:
These are the super-special secret ones that the Nazcans will teach you only if you're 6th level or higher (how do they tell?) and have performed a valuable service. So, basically quest rewards. A lot of them have to do with loving with ley lines - making ley line storms, opening rifts, or making a crappy energy warrior that's only modestly better than your average soldier. The standouts are:
 "I will fight evil with whatever the hell this is!" Rune Warrior O.C.C. Rune Warriors are soldiers imprinted with permanent line drawings, originally to fight a race known as the "red people", which mercifully refers to a race of demonic giants. We won't get to unironic use of the term "red man" until later in the game line. So, anyway, this makes them into the supernatural elite of Nazcan warriors. Apparently they go around with spears and loinclothes wo that they're clothing-free to "power up". Some few use guns, but most snub the idea. So this makes them into super-strong M.D.C. warriors, but not really enough M.D.C. to justify running around unarmored, so there's a mechanic where if they try and put on sealed armor, the magic eats away at it until it's unsealed (about 10 M.D.C.). Basically they have powers that last a minute or so and cost them power, like armor, sensing evil or invisible creatures, boosting strength or speed, getting awful combat bonuses, or regeneration. They also get a "pattern staff" that's tied to their own line magic, where they can drain M.D.C. from the staff or shoot energy bolts. The bolts are actually a big deal, because they can do 1d6 damage per P.P.E. spent, with no upper cap. That means if a 1st level character dumps their entire reserve of power, they can do 1d6x100 with one shot. Better not miss... They have a very general soldier layout (and despite being described as poo-pooing technology, know how to use their radios perfectly well), and their kit comes with rocket or energy weapons. Editing! Psh! Next: Neon kaiju hummingbird.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2017 12:39
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 08:21 |
|
|
Hey folks, I know it's been a little while since our last update. Forgive me for that, I was having some technical difficulties. Anyways it's time for more... Shadow of the Demon Lord Part 11: Master Paths D-E  Death Dealer When I read this Path’s description, I think of ultra greatsword characters from Dark Souls. You use heavy weapons, and you use them well. Big drat swords and axes, anything that uses two hands is in your wheelhouse. Level 7 Death Dealer Attribute increase and a big chunk of Health as well as Brutal Swing, which is the classic D&D cleave. When you incapacitate an enemy, you can make an attack against another enemy. Level 10 Death Dealer Besides another nice Health boost, you also get the awesomely-named Make Mountains of the Dead, which allows you to attack any number of creatures within reach. You don’t have to roll or anything, and if any of the enemies have less than 20 Health, they just straight up die. quote:Defender Dervish If you want to wield two weapons and look cool while doing it, you want to be a dervish. The penalties to dual-wielding in SotDL are pretty steep, but if you take this Path you basically become the magic bullet of fighters. Level 7 Dervish You get the standard Attribute increase, a solid chunk of Health, and either another language or a profession. You get Ambidexterity, which lets you wield one-handed weapons as off-handed weapons, and Off-Hand Parry, which gives you a +1 to Defense for using a non-shield weapon in one of your hands. Level 10 Dervish More Health, and Two Weapon Mastery, allowing you to get 1 boon when attacking with two weapons. If you attack one target with both weapons you also deal 1d6 extra damage. quote:
Every group has one player who wants to try and talk their way out of anything. The diplomat lets you do just that. They get bonuses to social combat rolls and can turn foes into friends. Level 7 Diplomat You start off with your standard Attribute increase, a little bit of Health, and either a profession or a language. Then, you get Master of Diplomacy, which gives you a boon in social settings to all Intellect and Will attack rolls. Stay the Hand is your other core ability, which lets you make a Will attack roll against an enemy’s will after they hit you. On a success you can either cause their attack to miss you or charm them for 1 minute. Level 10 Diplomat A little Health, and Soothing Words, which lets you clear status effects from nearby creatures, and Unexpected Alliances, which upgrades the charm from Stay the Hand to compelled. quote:Diviner  Dreadnaught Do you want to be invincible? Well, you can’t, but being a dreadnaught is as close to that as you can get in SotDL. They wear the heaviest armor and absorb nasty hits like it was nothing while never giving an inch. Level 7 Dreadnaught Increase your three Attributes and gain a solid chunk of Health. You get either a language or a military profession. Iron Clad lets you ignore the requirements for heavy armor and gives you a +1 to Defense while wearing heavy armor. Immovable means that while you’re awake the only way you can be moved is if you want to be moved. Level 10 Dreadnaught Another chunk of Health and Weapon Resistance, which means that while you’re wearing heavy armor you take half damage from weapons. Essentially, if you’re fighting humanoid enemies with swords, axes, guns etc. you have an absolutely massive advantage. quote:Duelist If you like to charm enemies and protect your allies from charms and other mental status effects, the enchanter is the way to go. Level 7 Enchanter Attribute increase, a bit of Health and +1 Power along with a language or profession. You either discover the Enchantment tradition or learn an Enchantment spell. You get Enchantment Defense, which lets you remove mental status effects from yourself with an Intellect challenge roll and Subtle Charm, which prevents enemies you have charmed from remembering that you charmed them. Level 10 Enchanter A little more Health and a spell. Countercharm lets you make an Intellect challenge roll when a creature within sight becomes charmed, and on a success the effect is removed. Persistent Enchantment doubles the duration of all your Enchantment spells. quote:Engineer  Executioner The name for this Path is pretty apt, as it does exactly what it says. If you’re looking for ways to instantly kill or severely damage your foes and end fights quickly, then the executioner will give you what you need. Level 7 Executioner Standard Attribute increase, a little Health, and either another language or profession. You get Execute, which means that once per round, you can make an attack with 1 boon that deals 1d6 extra damage. If the attack injures the target (brings them up to damage equal to half their Health), they have to make a Strength challenge roll. If they fail, they are insta-killed. Level 10 Executioner A bit more Health and the Exacting Strike ability, which lets you use a triggered action on a successful attack to deal maximum damage. quote:
Do you want to boldly go where no one has gone before? Push yourself the limit and discover hidden secrets? Expand your senses and surprise people with your perserverence? Look no further than the exorcist for all that. Level 7 Explorer Besides the traditional Attribute increase you also get more Health, +1 to Perception and +2 to Speed. You also get another language or a wilderness profession. Preternatural Senses gives you 1 boon to all Perception rolls, while Perseverance lets you make a Strength challenge roll to remove a few different status effects from yourself. Respite lets you take a 1 hour rest with your allies, and at the end of it, everyone heals damage equal to your Healing Rate. Level 10 Explorer More Health and Driven, which means that any time you roll a 5 or less, you can roll another d20 and add that to the result. Still pretty swingy and you’ve only got a 20% chance of it triggering, but when it does there’s a good chance it will turn things around. Next time: more Master Paths!
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2017 20:03
|
|
