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Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

Asimo posted:

Also a lot of the "what do I do with it?" sort of arguments are really more "what sort of antagonists do I write up for the group and how do I make them mechanically fair?", and that's a thing a lot of games have historically had problems with.

There's also often a sense of 'how do I, the player, affect this world and what sort of scale should I, the GM, be aiming for in general'.

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LatwPIAT
Jun 6, 2011

The Lemondrop Dandy posted:

I've always loved Eclipse Phase's setting but the system is just too married to some of the ShadowRun design asthetics (too obsessed with gear and, ironically, gear costs).

It's the future and money is mostly obsolete and you can produce anything you want with nanomachines! Also, here's a list of gear you have to buy with chargen-points! Also, if you buy a good body or any gear at all at character generation, say bye-bye to your XP the next time you egocast!

The Lemondrop Dandy posted:

TF narrows the default assumption down to Firewall (Delta Green style secret agent folks) vs. nasty extinction-level threats.

Oh, the core book assumes Firewall too, though it doesn't prohibit other ways of playing. The problem is that the Morningstar Coalition Firewall agent is going to have trouble getting along with the Planetary Consortium Firewall agent, and the Lunar Firewall agent is not going to get along with the AGI, uplift, or synthmorph Firewall agents, the Autonomist Firewall agent is going to have trouble getting along with the non-anarchist Firewall agents, and the Jovian Firewall agent isn't going to get along with the Autonomist, AGI, or uplift Firewall agents, and also probably isn't going to want to resleeve, egocast, or use nanotechnology.

Since the game obviously wants to be about heroic anarchist cells fighting the TITANs and capitalism, it might have worked better for the game if the initial presentation was "make an Autonomist troubleshooter" rather than "make anything you like!".

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Night10194 posted:

There's also often a sense of 'how do I, the player, affect this world and what sort of scale should I, the GM, be aiming for in general'.

One of the reasons I like Eberron. It's a basic assumption that a starting PC is going to be in the top third or so of what anyone in the world will be capable of, there's only a dozen or so people in all of Khorvaire who are level five or six. That's the level of the average Forgotten Realms innkeeper.

Your typical murderhobo, transplanted to Eberron, has very few people on the continent who can pose a straight fight - mostly King Kaius, King Boranel, the Lord of Blades, Jaela Daran as long as she's inside the Cathedral of the Silver Flame, Oalius the Warden of the Woods, and the Lords of Dust.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
Perhaps I should read it again, but I found all the groups in EP fairly unlikable.

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


Halloween Jack posted:

Perhaps I should read it again, but I found all the groups in EP fairly unlikable.

That's probably because it was made by the CthulhuTech guys.

LatwPIAT
Jun 6, 2011

Halloween Jack posted:

Perhaps I should read it again, but I found all the groups in EP fairly unlikable.

The Jovians and the Planetary Consortium are written to be mustache-twirling cyberpunk villains who are oppressive in generically government and megacorporate ways, respectively, complete with gulags and slavery. The Morningstar Coalition are a slightly less powerful PC that still practices slavery. The Lunar-Lagrange Alliance are a member of the PC that are extra bigoted against robot-people, AI-people, animal-people, and the poor. The Extropians are slavery-practicing anarcho-capitalists. The Singularity Seekers are mad and a danger to everyone. The Exhumans are mad, evil, and a danger to everyone. The Ultimates are a bunch of pseudo-fascists. The Criminals engage in human trafficing and other uncouth criminal activity.

The Autonomists... the Autonomists are theoretically supposed to be the good guys of the setting, but the writing is so biased in favour of them it's tempting to just dislike them out of spite.

This leaves Mercurials (radical transhumans, uplift and AGI-rights people who may be into transhuman separatism), Argonauts (independent scientists), and Brinkers (loners who stay away from other people).

LatwPIAT fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Mar 16, 2017

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

wiegieman posted:

That's probably because it was made by the CthulhuTech guys.

What? No.

The EP guys have some weird futurist stuff going and everyone-is-an-rear end in a top hat stuff, but they aren't the CthulhuTech writers.

You can tell because they literally seed torrents of their own books for anyone that wants them, as opposed to putting angry anti-piracy screeds in the front cover pages.

Ratoslov
Feb 15, 2012

Now prepare yourselves! You're the guests of honor at the Greatest Kung Fu Cannibal BBQ Ever!

Mors Rattus posted:

What? No.

The EP guys have some weird futurist stuff going and everyone-is-an-rear end in a top hat stuff, but they aren't the CthulhuTech writers.

You can tell because they literally seed torrents of their own books for anyone that wants them, as opposed to putting angry anti-piracy screeds in the front cover pages.

Also, there isn't a thin layer of rape all over every surface.

bewilderment
Nov 22, 2007
man what



Cythereal posted:

One of the reasons I like Eberron. It's a basic assumption that a starting PC is going to be in the top third or so of what anyone in the world will be capable of, there's only a dozen or so people in all of Khorvaire who are level five or six. That's the level of the average Forgotten Realms innkeeper.

Your typical murderhobo, transplanted to Eberron, has very few people on the continent who can pose a straight fight - mostly King Kaius, King Boranel, the Lord of Blades, Jaela Daran as long as she's inside the Cathedral of the Silver Flame, Oalius the Warden of the Woods, and the Lords of Dust.

It's a little higher than 5 or 6, if I remember right from the 3.5e book - there's actually a somewhat decent amount of 3-to-6s since a significant amount of the world's population are war veterans.

That said, the highest most big NPCs get is 10 to 12. King Boranel of Breland is ten-ish and he's a former hero. The Lord of Blades is meant to be 10-ish but according to Baker he uses him and has him level up a little bit along with the players for him to be a recurring villain until he's permanently dealt with and the bigger threats emerge.
At the very end of the good or 'evil but not actually world-ending' NPCs are:
Jaela Daran the child-pope who is a Cleric 18, but only in the temple, and is otherwise a Cleric 3ish.
Oalian who is a 20 Druid but is also a tree and doesn't move.
Some level 20 Commoner innkeeper elf in Sharn somewhere from a sourcebook I heard about.
Mordain the Fleshweaver a mad level 17 wizard who mostly just sits in his tower and crazy forest being a crazy guy.

The Lemondrop Dandy
Jun 7, 2007

If my memory serves me correctly...


Wedge Regret

wiegieman posted:

That's probably because it was made by the CthulhuTech guys.

What? Naw, Posthuman studios are ShadowRun expats and a bit biased towards anarcho-socialism not Nazi rape death machines. All of their stuff is Creative Commons, which is rad imo.

Cthulhu Tech folks (Wildfire) did a more directly transhumanist game after Cthulhu Tech called "The Void" later on that I have not read yet.

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!



LatwPIAT posted:

The Jovians and the Planetary Consortium are written to be mustache-twirling cyberpunk villains who are oppressive in generically government and megacorporate ways, respectively, complete with gulags and slavery. The Morningstar Coalition are a slightly less powerful PC that still practices slavery. The Lunar-Lagrange Alliance are a member of the PC that are extra bigoted against robot-people, AI-people, animal-people, and the poor. The Extropians are slavery-practicing anarcho-capitalists. The Singularity Seekers are mad and a danger to everyone. The Exhumans are mad, evil, and a danger to everyone. The Ultimates are a bunch of pseudo-fascists. The Criminals engage in human trafficing and other uncouth criminal activity.

The Autonomists... the Autonomists are theoretically supposed to be the good guys of the setting, but the writing is so biased in favour of them it's tempting to just dislike them out of spite.

This leaves Mercurials (radical transhumans, uplift and AGI-rights people who may be into transhuman separatism), Argonauts (independent scientists), and Brinkers (loners who stay away from other people).
You know, I'm noticing a lot of slavery in this semi-post-scarcity environment. Is this AI slavery or are they just bored in their space colonies, yet prevented from the natural and wholesome spacenoid outlet of building Zakus and dropping colonies on Earth?

LatwPIAT
Jun 6, 2011

Nessus posted:

You know, I'm noticing a lot of slavery in this semi-post-scarcity environment. Is this AI slavery or are they just bored in their space colonies, yet prevented from the natural and wholesome spacenoid outlet of building Zakus and dropping colonies on Earth?

The megahypercorps have enslaved about half the setting's population through predatory indentured servitude contracts because slavery is apparently economically attractive to them/they want to subjugate the poor so they can feel rich?

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!



LatwPIAT posted:

The megahypercorps have enslaved about half the setting's population through predatory indentured servitude contracts because slavery is apparently economically attractive to them/they want to subjugate the poor so they can feel rich?
So you're saying that bringing the dream of Zeon to the people of transhuman space is an effective campaign seed, eh?

The Lemondrop Dandy
Jun 7, 2007

If my memory serves me correctly...


Wedge Regret

Halloween Jack posted:

Perhaps I should read it again, but I found all the groups in EP fairly unlikable.

Part of what made the groups *click* for me is that EP is a post apocalyptic setting where something like 90% of the population of the solar system is killed off. The 10% or so of the remaining population who survived have societal PTSD and lots of 'em were loner nuts to begin with.

LatwPIAT
Jun 6, 2011

Nessus posted:

So you're saying that bringing the dream of Zeon to the people of transhuman space is an effective campaign seed, eh?

I wouldn't know, I haven't watched Macross. I'm more of a Ghost in the Shell/Serial Experiments: Lain type of girl (i.e. pretentious).

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


The Lemondrop Dandy posted:

What? Naw, Posthuman studios are ShadowRun expats and a bit biased towards anarcho-socialism not Nazi rape death machines. All of their stuff is Creative Commons, which is rad imo.

Cthulhu Tech folks (Wildfire) did a more directly transhumanist game after Cthulhu Tech called "The Void" later on that I have not read yet.

Really? I thought for sure that it was refugee from the CT team. I guess ex-Shadowrun makes sense, given the gear lists.

wdarkk
Oct 26, 2007

Friends: Protected
World: Saved
Crablettes: Eaten

LatwPIAT posted:

I wouldn't know, I haven't watched Macross. I'm more of a Ghost in the Shell/Serial Experiments: Lain type of girl (i.e. pretentious).

Gundam, but the problem is there's nothing you'd really want to interact with on Earth.

Thesaurasaurus
Feb 15, 2010

"Send in Boxbot!"

LatwPIAT posted:

The megahypercorps have enslaved about half the setting's population through predatory indentured servitude contracts because slavery is apparently economically attractive to them/they want to subjugate the poor so they can feel rich?

What else is wealth, when money itself is obsolete?

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

bewilderment posted:

It's a little higher than 5 or 6, if I remember right from the 3.5e book - there's actually a somewhat decent amount of 3-to-6s since a significant amount of the world's population are war veterans.

That said, the highest most big NPCs get is 10 to 12. King Boranel of Breland is ten-ish and he's a former hero. The Lord of Blades is meant to be 10-ish but according to Baker he uses him and has him level up a little bit along with the players for him to be a recurring villain until he's permanently dealt with and the bigger threats emerge.
At the very end of the good or 'evil but not actually world-ending' NPCs are:
Jaela Daran the child-pope who is a Cleric 18, but only in the temple, and is otherwise a Cleric 3ish.
Oalian who is a 20 Druid but is also a tree and doesn't move.
Some level 20 Commoner innkeeper elf in Sharn somewhere from a sourcebook I heard about.
Mordain the Fleshweaver a mad level 17 wizard who mostly just sits in his tower and crazy forest being a crazy guy.

There's also Vol (level 18 necromancer and lich) and Haze-of-Death (CR 19 dragon in the Mournland).

Baker also said he once drew up stats for the Lords of Dust and they're CR 60. :v:

Young Freud
Nov 26, 2006

wiegieman posted:

Really? I thought for sure that it was refugee from the CT team. I guess ex-Shadowrun makes sense, given the gear lists.

You can literally divide everything by 5 and it would give you the base of an EP conversion into Shadowrun.

Also, there's a chart regarding internet devices that is almost lifted verbatim from SR4.

LatwPIAT
Jun 6, 2011

Shadowrun mixed with Call of Cthulhu, with the good parts of neither.

Why is character generation exactly 1000 points? Because that's an optional character building method in CoC 6e.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso

LatwPIAT posted:

The Jovians and the Planetary Consortium are written to be mustache-twirling cyberpunk villains who are oppressive in generically government and megacorporate ways, respectively, complete with gulags and slavery. The Morningstar Coalition are a slightly less powerful PC that still practices slavery. The Lunar-Lagrange Alliance are a member of the PC that are extra bigoted against robot-people, AI-people, animal-people, and the poor. The Extropians are slavery-practicing anarcho-capitalists. The Singularity Seekers are mad and a danger to everyone. The Exhumans are mad, evil, and a danger to everyone. The Ultimates are a bunch of pseudo-fascists. The Criminals engage in human trafficing and other uncouth criminal activity.

The Autonomists... the Autonomists are theoretically supposed to be the good guys of the setting, but the writing is so biased in favour of them it's tempting to just dislike them out of spite.

This leaves Mercurials (radical transhumans, uplift and AGI-rights people who may be into transhuman separatism), Argonauts (independent scientists), and Brinkers (loners who stay away from other people).
Okay, so...

Jovians: They’re fascists. I mean it flat out says they’re fascists. But one of the best defenses of any group I ever read was some guy on RPGnet defending the Jovians. “Okay, so there’s a bunch of ‘transhumans’ all of whom insist that they’re human, but this or that group isn’t. How is that not a recipe for chaos and genocide? Maybe we should all grow up human before we go off and decide to be other things.”

Consortium: If you want a picture of the future, imagine President Hillary Clinton stamping on a transhuman face, forever.

Morningstar: You’re from Venus and you like…Venus. Okay.

Extropians: Libertarians.

Singularity Seekers: Cyber Satanists, except way more dumb and less cool than that sounds.

Exhumans: Want to be Cyber Satan, which I can respect a little more.

Ultimates: Randroids. Literally.

Autonomist Alliance: It’s a club that lets in communists and libertarians, so they’re about as likely to save the world as Twitter.

On second thought, I like the Titanians best.

Thing is, I can't agree that the PCs are all doomed to be at cross-purposes, because there are so many goddamned factions, some of whose primary goals don't intersect at all. I mean if I'm an isolationist Brinker and you're an Argonaut, I don't give a poo poo as long as you leave my remote space hovel alone.

Tsilkani
Jul 28, 2013

What, no love for the scum?

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso

quote:

Scum are nomadic space gypsies,







This is me, way down here, not touchin' that.

Young Freud
Nov 26, 2006

Halloween Jack posted:

Okay, so...

Jovians: They’re fascists. I mean it flat out says they’re fascists. But one of the best defenses of any group I ever read was some guy on RPGnet defending the Jovians. “Okay, so there’s a bunch of ‘transhumans’ all of whom insist that they’re human, but this or that group isn’t. How is that not a recipe for chaos and genocide? Maybe we should all grow up human before we go off and decide to be other things.”.

I've thought the best way to go for the Jovians is make them extreme DEMOCRACY! worshippers instead of fascists or space Catholics. I mean, Reagan and Thatcher viewed themselves as that and their actions being necessary evils in the Karl Popper "zero tolerance for intolerance" threats to the democratic system of one person, one vote. Like, the reason they treat infugees as non-entities is they're beta forks and if you give forks the right to vote, what's stopping someone from forking themselves to 51% of the electorate and making themselves Congress and the President and then nominating themselves the Supreme Court, as a finishing touch?

LatwPIAT
Jun 6, 2011

Tsilkani posted:

What, no love for the scum?

When I say the anarchists are bombastic and annoying(ly written), you can multiply it tenfold for the Scum. And Scum fans. Especially Scum fans.

bewilderment
Nov 22, 2007
man what



The Jovian position in Eclipse Phase is a little more reasonable from the angle of:
A. I believe that humans are real people with real feelings and are not p-zombies.
B. I have no evidence that anything trans-human or forked or AI or whatever is not a p-zombie
B2. Also, 90% of the population got nuked by AIs, and the line between 'infomorph' and 'AI' is kinda blurry.
C. Therefore, I can trust in regular humans and give them rights, and anyone else can piss right off.

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!



All these people sound like assholes! Do they have cool styles and activities or are they just affinity globs?

LatwPIAT
Jun 6, 2011

Nessus posted:

All these people sound like assholes! Do they have cool styles and activities or are they just affinity globs?

You pick one and it determines where ~40 of your ~1080 character generation points go.

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!

Halloween Jack posted:

Ultimates: Randroids. Literally.

A bit more like they read Nietzsche a bit too much, and after badly misunderstanding it, decided that to be an Ubermensch you really needed a katana and a machinegun. Or, at least, that's the majority of them. Their initial elevator pitch in the core book is that they're super into "perfecting" themselves, but in less retarded ways than Exhumans, but when they actually start detailing the organization and their habs in the books, they start sounding more like pretentious wannabe-samurais with rocket launchers.

And the Jovians are weird, because "All this dumb hypertech poo poo killed 90% of humanity, and now you want to start loving around with it again?" is a relatively reasonable position to take. But really the only people in the setting who have that position have nothing but lovely habs that don't work right, are ruled by a fascist junta with hab names like they were written during the GW Bush presidency by some fringe liberals and just to top it off, they're given a weird caricature of the Catholic church as their main religion. It's just a bit over the top.

Wapole Languray
Jul 4, 2012

Goddamn none of you guys have actually read the books I guess? That's... all really not accurate in any way shape or form.

Jovians: Yes, fascists, but not all straight Nazi's. They're an isolationist and paranoid, but a strong motivation is that by rejecting newer technology, the military goverment can more easily stay in power and control the populace. Think Starship Troopers government where information is all propaganda. A lot of Jovian scientists, as well as the population that knows what the outside world is like, generally don't like the goverment. They do have a shared feeling that yeah, the rest of the solar system is going nuts with the AI's and genetic engineering, that poo poo caused an apocalypse like 10 years ago and lots of you aren't even vaguely human anymore and we don't want none of it because it's just asking for bad poo poo.

Consortium: Actually a pretty decent democratic/capatalist system that's ran by immortal oligarchs and super-corporations. Cyberpunk future with a decent HDI. They basically mix traditional capitalism with the whole reputation post-scarcity economy thing. They explicitly try and keep corruption and evil poo poo down, but still megacorps gonna megacorp.

Morningstar: Venus used to be in the Consortium, but they actually managed to break away into their own government, but the Consortium isn't happy. So you've got legit Venus-independents clashing with Consortium influence trying to find a path for the planet. Big contention is exactly how to go about terraforming Venus.

Extropians: Yep libertarians, but they actually kinda figured out how to make it work. Extropia, the asteroid where they're based, is supposed to serve as the Mos Eisley giant space crossroads where anything goes.

Singularity Seekers: People who pursue technological advancement at any cost, but this leads to some doing really ethically questionable poo poo, like trying to make advanced AI's like the Skynet types that killed Earth because they see them as the perfect lifeform.

Exhumans: People who just don't want to be human anymore. Most are harmless, there's one group that basically upload their minds into virtual reality constructs in long-term space probes and shoot off to explore the universe at sublight speed, but some go crazy into it and do poo poo like turn themselves into Xenomorphs and start hunting people for fun.

Ultimates: Wierd spartan/buddhist euginicist war-cult. All about perfecting humanity, mentally, spiritually, physically. Take the Futurist Manifesto and mix it with some Buddhism and you get the Ultimates.

Autonomist Alliance: Just a grouping of all the tiny polities and entities scattered about the outer edge of the solar system. There's just tons of different groups so there's no real single defining trait.

Scum aren't Space Gypsies. Really, they're more bohemian artist punk types. Think Space Burning Man and you got it. Love body modification, hedonism, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Also run black markets and have amazing parties.

The add-on setting books Rimward and Sunward did a good job expanding on and giving some nuance to the different cultures, but 90% of talking about RPGs on the internet are people repeating things they think they remember pieced together from forum posts and sorta-skimming the PDF one time.

Also, yeah Firewall agents don't get along swimmingly, but they work together to prevent the potential extinction of mankind. The idea that people of varying political opinions must kill each other on sight is not a thing.

Emy
Apr 21, 2009

Wapole Languray posted:

Scum aren't Space Gypsies. Really, they're more bohemian artist punk types. Think Space Burning Man and you got it. Love body modification, hedonism, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Also run black markets and have amazing parties.

That quote Halloween Jack posted isn't something he made up himself, it's taken directly from the book, first sentence of the description under the Scum faction heading.

Wapole Languray
Jul 4, 2012

Yeah, but literally nothing in their description or nature is Gypsy-ish, like they're called that for some reason but then absolutely no part of the Gypsy stereotype fits except that they're sorta nomadic? Like they used that as a descriptor but nothing about the faction actually fits it.

LatwPIAT
Jun 6, 2011

Wapole Languray posted:

Goddamn none of you guys have actually read the books I guess? That's... all really not accurate in any way shape or form.

I've read the books. Many times. I'm going to stand by my description of the political groups.

Wapole Languray posted:

Also, yeah Firewall agents don't get along swimmingly, but they work together to prevent the potential extinction of mankind. The idea that people of varying political opinions must kill each other on sight is not a thing.

It's not so much that they need to kill each other on sight every time as the fact that it's very easy to end up with groups of characters that "realistically" would have trouble working together. I think the game would have been better if it wasn't built to enable that kind of intra-party conflict, but instead made your default Firewall team one that would be naturally inclined to work well together.

Wapole Languray
Jul 4, 2012

Fine, conceded, Eclipse Phase is lovely liberal fantasy Shadowrun.

Covok
May 27, 2013

Yet where is that woman now? Tell me, in what heave does she reside? None of them. Because no God bothered to listen or care. If that is what you think it means to be a God, then you and all your teachings are welcome to do as that poor women did. And vanish from these realms forever.

Wapole Languray posted:

Fine, conceded, Eclipse Phase is lovely liberal fantasy Shadowrun.

Shadowrun is pretty liberal too. Cyberpunk in general is pretty hard hitting with the "capitalism and corporations are evil if you give them infinite power."

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

Warhammer Fantasy: Night's Dark Masters

Lahmians: Mind games and ways to hide

I likely won't be going into this level of detail for all of the mechanical stuff in the book, but Blood Gifts and Weaknesses deserve it because they're the most important mechanical distinction for vamps besides being a pile of Wounds and high stats. This time, we're on the Lahmians.

They start right off the bat with an incredibly useful ability: Aethyric Cipher. You see, the average vampire is held together by dark magic; this means wizards can detect them fairly easily with a magical sense check to spot the black and purple winds around the undead thing. A vamp with this ability cannot be detected so easily; someone using Magical Sense on one has to make a hidden opposed Willpower test and win it (rolling Willpower versus Willpower and seeing who gets more degrees of success) to detect any magical talent or undeath in the target. Vamps with this ability also gain an immunity to warding herbs, if they were weak against them. For an order of spies and agents, this ability is essential; wizards tend to assume it's easy to spot vampires and will usually clear someone of suspicion if they can't detect anything. This has actually let the Sisters place a few of their own among the Colleges of Magic, hiding as apprentices.

Next is Corrupted Innocence: People have a really hard time bringing themselves to hurt someone with this power. You gain the Unsettling trait, lowering enemies' to-hits by 10% until they beat a WP test. Simple and useful.

Next is one I'm not as fond of for flavor reasons: Defy the Dawn. If you've gained or picked this Gift once, you can make a Willpower test to avoid catching fire/taking damage if you're caught in direct sunlight without gear to cover you up. If you take it twice, you're immune to the sun. It's a matter of taste, but I prefer for Mr. Sun to be the one universal constant vamps can't deny.

Then there's Domination, the signature power of the Lahmian line. A vampire with this ability can pull the classic mind control trick, using their Fellowship against the target's Willpower. This only works on living, mortal, sentient creatures and they need to be within 6 meters. It also can't be used during combat; someone who knows they're fighting is too alert for the mind trick. If you win, the target is completely under your control and you decide their actions for the next d10 rounds, at which point they make a Willpower test to try to break free. Any attack on the dominated creature will immediately cancel the effect. I wish it was a little more clear if the target realizes they were Dominated after the power wears off, but a power that directly takes control of people is never useless.

Next up is the classic Ethereal Mist: This lets a vampire turn into incorporeal mist, affected only by spells and magic, as a full action. This is mostly an emergency escape method, though, as the vamp can't turn back for d10 hours and when they try, they have to make a WP test to manage it. No turning into mist and slipping in to menace Lucy at night with promises of transgressing Victorian social mores.

Next is Familiar Form: The ability to turn into a small animal like a cat or a rat for slipping into places unseen. Useless for combat, obviously, but helpful for a spy. Your clothes follow you through the change and all your gear will be equipped when you turn back. Queen Nefereta's dozens of cats aren't just a weird quirk; she hides her bodyguards among them, using this ability.

Next is Noble Blood. A vamp with this ability has a particularly strong aptitude for necromancy, and they can command undead at very long distances.

Next is Quickblood: Just like Dragons, Lahmians can be fast enough to dodge a bullet. It works exactly the same.

Then comes Transfixing Gaze: Like Dominate, this allows a vamp to completely destroy someone with one failed WP roll. If you use it as a half action on someone within 6 yards, you hypnotize a target. Note this works on ANYTHING. Demon, vampire, human, unlike Dominate this is not limited to non-combat and isn't limited to the living. Once the target fails a WP test, they're considered Helpless and can do nothing until something breaks your gaze or you dismiss them. Remember, in combat, a Helpless target automatically takes an extra d10 of damage; very little will survive a vampire managing to stun it and then smash it. This is actually the 'signature' power of the Von Carsteins; the Sisters can just roll/pick it as well.

Finally, just like a Dragon, a Lahmian can get Unhallowed Soul and become immune to being driven back by holy symbols. In the Sisterhood's fluff, they claim they achieve this by desensitization training to partially remove their 'allergy', helping a Lahmian resist the urge to flinch or fall back hissing and barring fangs if someone happens to present a holy symbol. Like with the Dragons, it does nothing against the actual bonus damage for blessed weaponry.

You'll note, all in all, the Sisters focus on ways to avoid detection (holy symbols and wizards are more common than usual in places like Altdorf, and the Sisters' plans require them to do a lot of business in the Imperial capital and do it while trying not to seem out of place) and ways to control or manipulate targets. The Lahmian abilities are for blending in and making people have plausible 'accidents', not gutting a dozen men in the street like a Dragon. You'll also note they get a few repeat abilities: By the time I get to the Carsteins most of the other Lines will have had a few of their powers, saving me time writing them up.

Next Time: Necharchs and their crazy magic powers.

Night10194 fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Aug 4, 2017

Young Freud
Nov 26, 2006

Covok posted:

Shadowrun is pretty liberal too. Cyberpunk in general is pretty hard hitting with the "capitalism and corporations are evil if you give them infinite power."

You'd think that, but I belong to a cyberpunk genre FB group and deeply regret it. Not do I have to deal with ongoing purity wars that seems to follow the fandom, but I have run into some hardcore MRA, transphobic Trumpers on that group and don't get why it appeals to them.

The Lemondrop Dandy
Jun 7, 2007

If my memory serves me correctly...


Wedge Regret

Wapole Languray posted:

Fine, conceded, Eclipse Phase is lovelyrad as heck liberal fantasy Shadowrun in spaaaaaaaaaace.

Fixed that for ya.

With regards to the scum, I chalk that up to being written by Americans, as all you need to do is cross off 'gypsy' and write in 'nomadic'. Scum are way more traveling burning man / art collective than anything else. (Still dumb and they shouldn't have used that term)

I really should do a f&f of Transhumanity's fate.

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Covok
May 27, 2013

Yet where is that woman now? Tell me, in what heave does she reside? None of them. Because no God bothered to listen or care. If that is what you think it means to be a God, then you and all your teachings are welcome to do as that poor women did. And vanish from these realms forever.

Young Freud posted:

You'd think that, but I belong to a cyberpunk genre FB group and deeply regret it. Not do I have to deal with ongoing purity wars that seems to follow the fandom, but I have run into some hardcore MRA, transphobic Trumpers on that group and don't get why it appeals to them.

Not surprised. Cognitive dissonance and supporting Donald Trump go hand-in-hand.

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