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Cease to Hope posted:so I guess that's a no on some 13A sample characters, heh
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Apr 10, 2017 19:35
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I just want to say that I'm really appreciating the 13A writeup. I ran a short-lived game for some irl friends, and I think this review is articulating some of the issues I kept finding as I went through the books. We had a pretty good time overall though.
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Apr 10, 2017 19:50
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Cease to Hope posted:so I guess that's a no on some 13A sample characters, heh Rudy the Wizard, his OUT is "Wishes he were a fighter"
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Apr 10, 2017 19:50
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Cease to Hope posted:so I guess that's a no on some 13A sample characters, heh
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Apr 10, 2017 20:04
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Dragonmech: Increasingly Silly Mechs The Daughter is a Colossal clockwork mech that is approximately two-thirds buzzsaw, at least by height (and that's 35 feet, total). It's got a driver and another crewman, whose job, I can only assume, is to make it lean forward to cut things. It is a companion piece to a mech we'll learn about later, the Mother, and its main job is to harass other mechs that have become entangled by the Mother. We'll learn more about those tactics later, along with the history of both machines, which are Irontooth.  The Dignitary is a Colossal II steam mech, used primarily by human merchants out of the city of Edge. It's 50 feet tall and crews 3 - a pilot and two gunners, one for the left arm's giant steam cannon and one for the right leg's big ol' flamethrower. Its main job, however, is to serve as transport for a big iron vault in its chest, which is used to transport wealthy travelers to and from visiting citymechs. There are no sleeping quarters, though - it's a taxi, not a longterm traveler. It costs around 20 to 40 gp per hour of travel, and when citymechs show up at Edge small swarms will come out to bring people to visit them. A few models have been redesigned to have sleeping quarters for longer treks.  The Fangbiter is another 3-man mech, this time 25 feet tall, Gargantuan and steam-powered. It's got a big ol' sword in its left hand and a barbed blade in its right., and it's primarily used by the Irontooth clans and the rust riders, who often strip down other mechs to rebuild as fangbiters. This is because it's designed for capturing other mechs. It closes with them, and either uses the barbed blade to hold them in place or the standard blade to fight them. Meanwhile, the guys hanging off its legs or hidden in its crew jump over to the enemy mech and make their way inside to attack the enemy crew.  The Incinerator is a Colossal II steam mech and not a yellow devil, 50 feet tall and made by dwarves to fight infantry. Its primary armament is a giant steam cannon on its face, but it has two flamethrowers mounted on each foot, too. It needs backup to fight properly, as it can't handle other mechs, but is definitely good at stopping boarders. The name comes from the flamethrowers, but it's also good at using its oversized fists, each of which contains two firing ports for onboard gunners to shoot from if they feel like it, or pour oil out of. It can crew up to 8 people, in fact. Even the steam cannon is for anti-infantry use as a sniper rather than antimech fighting, but can do the job if it must. The main other thing about it is that its legs are extremely smooth, with the flamethrower nozzles no more than three inches long out of the leg, and the seams fit extremely snug. It makes the mech very hard to climb.  The Iron Maiden is one of the nastiest Irontooth designs, at 75 feet, Colossal III and steam-powered. It crews up to 16, but only 3 are used to man the weapons. The face is designed to mimic a skull, and the mech has only one job: capturing other mechs. It's coated in spikes, and its design is meant to intimidate. It usually goes into battle with 32 raiders aboard - 16 in each of its arm-mounted bore punchers - as well as being armed with a giant hooked axe blade. The idea is that it fires the bores into the enemy to get the raiders abord, then closes in to keep the mech distracted from the outside. It's also got crew armed to the teeth in case of enemy boarding actions. Next time: Janzeter's amazing mobile cannon (mark I)
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Apr 10, 2017 20:21
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 CHAPTER TWO PART THREE MAGICALLY TALENTED BODY THIEVES Magical Thieves don't need talent or instinct or innate power to steal a body. Magic generally requires rituals and arcane secrets carefully leveraged to take what they want. The main difference between Mental Theft and Magical Theft is that unless Magical Theft involves a specially-made amulet, it's only temporary. The Theft is also harder for the victim to defend against because they're being targeted by indirect forces they're not entirely aware of. Possession is a case of Resolve+Composure (Thief) vs. Resolve+Composure (Victim). Mystic Exchange, the means of Magical Theft, is simply Manipulation+Occult (Thief) vs. Resolve (Victim) with a TN of the victim's full Willpower with the winner taking the body for a while. The Thief needs to have a sympathetic link to the victim, but a two-way recognition between victim and Thief or certain possessions gives the Thief a benefit to their rolls. It's also only a Morality 4 sin to steal a body via Mystic Exchange. However, the Thief can only inhabit the victim's body for (10-victim's Morality) days (outside of an Exceptional Success which is a flat month). If you've got an pretty average person who is Morality 7 (or if you want to go the Integrity route which I really feel works better for Body Thieves in general), that means you only have that body for three days. But you don't want to put together an amulet. So how do you make that body yours for good? It's pretty simple. Kill your old body while the victim's mind is inside. If either party can't return to their old body, the swap is permanent. Now, granted, this isn't some kind of metaphysical death. This is straight-up murder. Some magicians gun down their old body, some place themselves in traps that will do the job once the transfer is completed, some have an assistant or apprentice do the dirty work. But it's murder, plain and simple. The other way to stay in a body permanently is to inhabit the body of someone with 0 Morality or no soul, but these are harder to engineer. Societies of Magical Thieves tend to be a lot more insular and volatile than Mental Thieves as well. They do a good job of keeping each other grounded, but jealously over guarded magical secrets can lead to very bad things happening.  The Avalon House Wardrobe Avalon House is a small fashion house in Milan. It's a beautiful Greco-Roman establishment full of beautiful models lounging. They're influential, inspired and renowned but they keep to themselves as outsiders/fringe members of the fashion community. The House was originally created by Franco Italioni back in the Renaissance. The history of Franco varies depends on who you ask, but some things are certain: Franco knew magic, Franco created jewelry and Franco dipped into dark waters for a woman. It's said he had a wife who was older than him, a woman he genuinely loved despite her ailing and aging body. What he wanted to do was grant her youth and repair her, but he didn't know anything about healing magic. So instead he would try to use his magic to place his wife's soul in a newer, younger body but it never lasted; her mind was always returned to her older body and the victim returned to theirs. In desperation, Franco decided that the easiest and safest way to guarantee that the transfer would be a success was if the victim's body was as hollow as if he was a Mental Thief. On the eve of his final creation, an amulet that would strip away the soul of the wearer and leave a living doll, being proven a success, Franco's wife died. And that was the last anyone ever heard of Franco Italioni, a man who they say was dragged away to Hell by the Devil himself for what he had tried to do. But Franco had help. Franco had apprentices who knew every last detail of their master's work. And unlike Franco, they had no interest in continuing the craft for altruistic reasons. The apprentices declared themselves to be the masters of Avalon House and have been stealing bodies since, infiltrating upper society for money and resources and power. The models of Avalon House are all living dolls unable to do anything more than breathe thanks to the amulets on their neck. The masters engage in petty politicking amongst themselves and use their dolls for espionage, prostitution and other misdeeds. This is the true purpose of House Avalon: a distraction for bored, rich immortals, their moneymaker and the source of their new bodies. They sell plenty of amulets and trinkets, but only beautiful models get invited to Avalon to be given the powerful amulets that will destroy their minds and souls.  Members of the House get Amulet Making for free and any member in good standing can get Resources and Contacts at half price. As body merchants and general schemers, Manipulation is necessary and they're always looking for people with good Mental and Social abilities. The downside of the House is that their abilities are pretty heavily tied to their amulets. They can purchase any Thief merit they'd like, but the Merits that involve taking something from the victim can only work when installed in an amulet. In fact, their sympathetic connection must be an amulet in the victim's possession. Finally, the only way they can take over a body permanently is to reduce their Willpower to zero at the time of transfer like a Mental Thief would.  Sample Character: Caina Ugolino  There is no Caina Ugolino. Caina is a construction by a being who has lived so long, they've forgotten more than most people will ever know. She once loved a woman so much she dabbled in dark forces to try and save her body but ultimately failed. They claim Franco Italioni was sent to Hell, but he wasn't. He doesn't really exist anymore. Only the House of Avalon and the ghost of Franco's beloved remain. Caina works to protect the former and is always chased and haunted by the latter no matter which body she takes. The main problem with this is the fact that she can't remember why she's protecting the House. She had a reason once but she sincerely has no idea why she's still doing it, her actions inexplicable and not even recognized by the masters of Avalon. Caina/what remains of Franco's mind takes bodies that are the opposite of the glamorous models and beautiful people the masters use and then gives them an ironic name. Her sole defining feature of this body is that she's short; everything else about her is completely unremarkable except for the fact that she carries herself like she's much older.  Thoughts: The House of Avalon...is okay? I dunno, they don't really wow me. They really need the GM to dig their hands into the material and shape it into something worthwhile. As it is, I wouldn't really bother with it. The Archer Family Full disclosure: I don't know a lot about the Irish Travelers. I don't pretend to. I'm not intending any of what follows to be a statement about Irish Travelers but this is what's written in the book. The Archers are Irish Travelers and a legitimate branch at that. They're also inveterate criminals who have essentially been forbidden from living in Ireland since the 1950s when attempted impersonation of a royal almost lead to a crackdown on other families. Officially, they're not allowed to be Travelers in Ireland as decided by a tribunal of other families. Unofficially, it doesn't matter if they've given up the life or not, it's open season on them because the Archers give the other families a bad name. So patriarch Bobby Archer brought the family over to America in the 1950s and the family has flourished since into five different camps controlled by Bobby. Bobby Archer is a well-read intelligent man who knows a good deal about American law and how to move and shift everyone around to avoid the law. The Archers commit fraud and steal things to support the family and this activity has lead the FBI to follow the Archers under RICO laws. The feds haven't been able to make anything really stick though, and that's because Bobby Archer knows a thing or two about committing crimes via body theft. Nobody in the family is entirely sure how old Bobby is, but they do know that he taught the others the necessary ritual to do it and that he's been in charge forever. While he's a smart man, he's not a particularly great magician. He knows the trick, but his notes are sloppy at best and half-assed at worst. This has lead the Archers to improvise on the fly whenever necessary for their cons, often by using whatever they can scrounge around them. The only thing that definitely works every time is that the leader of the ritual is the one who does the swap and that the leader has something of the victim's in their possession. When the swap is completed, they take the victim's body, empty out wallets and funds and then wait out the rest of the ritual. The victim is generally kept incapacitated by the leader of the ritual getting rip-roaring drunk so the victim is disoriented and helpless in their body.  The Archers get the Sleight of Hand Merit for free. The other big benefit is that they get Allies: Archer Family for half off and, because they only trust each other, they get the Mentor and Retainer Merits half off. Archers come in all shapes and sizes but some mix of Larceny, Streetwise, Subterfuge, Persuasion or a physical skill for fighting helps. The main downside is that Archers cannot use the ritual in a coherent, stable manner. It only works when the implementation is chaotic and the leader has a negative to the dice pool due to some kind of distraction (such as improvised/wrong tools or the leader being drunk). The other ban for their ritual is that they cannot permanently possess a body if the victim isn't a redhead regardless of any other circumstance. If the Thief kills their old body, they die and the victim returns home. This does have a slight loophole, however; the victim's hair can be dyed red and the perma-swap will work only if the Thief doesn't it's not natural. It's presumably still permanent once the dye wears off. Sample Character: Isbelle Archer-Fay  Isbelle's daddy was a bare-knuckle boxer with a list of opponents killed in the ring and she loved every minute of watching her old man fight. To a certain extent, she was envious that she wasn't able to fight like him. But he killed someone outside of the ring one night and started drinking instead, so Isbelle stepped up to support the family the same way her dad did. This didn't pan out too well and ultimately her cousin Crystal taught her all about the family's magical heritage. Now she makes money betting on fights, but not in the way you'd think. Some of her relatives pinch a possession from a bookie or lowlife who are involved in fights and she'll jack the body to convince the victim's friends to bet heavily on someone who has no chance in winning (while her relatives bet on the winner). When the friends have lost and her family has won extra money thanks to a bigger pot, Isbelle will escalate confrontations between the scammed and the victim to violence before detaching back to her body. This is a little bit of a complicated plan, but the main reason she runs this con is because the shorter version (hijack the body of a boxer, take a dive/win the fight) is too tempting for her. If she was to enter the body of a boxer, she might never want to leave it. Isbelle is pretty with freckles, red hair and a soft face. Underneath is a red-hot temper that even she underestimates. She saves her anger for cons and for when she's in a man's body but her cunning and temper means she's a lot more dangerous than she looks.  Thoughts on the Archer Family: Hmm. Complicated. Keep all of the aspects of the family using a heavily bastardized form of chaos magic that's only chaotic because the patriarch didn't take good notes. Probably drop all of the Irish Traveler stereotypes about them being thieves because they like being thieves and use this way of life to support themselves. I'm not entirely sure what you could rework this family idea into, but even with the disclaimer of "the Archers give Irish Travelers a bad name" it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. NEXT TIME: the end of the Body Thieves with two examples of Oddities
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Apr 10, 2017 20:40
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Oh, that's a buzzsaw robot. I thought it was just a walking rear end. "Why would it be a walking rear end?" I dunno man, I didn't build it.
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Apr 10, 2017 20:41
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LeSquide posted:I'm now on a huge Demon Lord kick and I think I want to run a game soon; what supplements besides the Companion are good? Is the Hell/Devil boom decent? I'm aware of the shocking setting twist. As other posters have mentioned, Tales of the Demon Lord and Forbidden Rules are probably the best two additions to the game. I'm running the game in my own setting with some custom races 'n things so much of the other content isn't to my taste. If you're planning on running zone-based combat, here's two modifications I made to what's in the book:
I've found the zone-based combat super fluid and fun, and it's let me run some really crazy encounters - last session, I had my players riding giant war-beetles down an Elvish highway while fighting off druids riding enormous millipedes and tarantulas. (It was basically Fury Road, but with fewer big rigs).
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Apr 10, 2017 20:55
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LeSquide posted:I'm now on a huge Demon Lord kick and I think I want to run a game soon; what supplements besides the Companion are good? Is the Hell/Devil boom decent? I'm aware of the shocking setting twist.
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Apr 10, 2017 22:52
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Dragonmech: More Mechs Janzeter's Amazing Mobile Cannon (Mark I) is exactly what it sounds like. It is a Colossal III steam-powered steam cannon on legs, standing 40 feet tall and with a cockpit in a glass sphere on the back. It needs 16 crew to keep the engines running, two of whom operate a pair of zeppelins to help it walk. See, the Mark I only had two legs as originally designed. The zeppelins were required to help it carry its own weight and not stagger around like a drunk when walking. It doesn't typically walk once it reaches a battle, however, planting itself and instead using its incredibly fine ability to adjust its targeting. It's the first mobile howitzer ever made in Highpoint, and even before he improved it, it made the Stenian dwarf Janzeter's name. The Mark II has four legs and no longer needs the zeppelins (though it also loses their ability to serve as spotters), and the Marks III and IV reduced the size of the cannon to make room for other guns. The entire thing remains unwieldy and slow, but it's much more mobile than horsedrawn cannons and vastly more powerful.  The Juggernaut is a Stenian mech, Gargantuan and steam-powered. It stands 25 feet tall and needs only 3 crew. It's the archetypal mech of the Stenian forces, designed to resemble a giant dwarf, and tends to lead just about any Stenian assault. Its right arm has a huge axe blade and a flamethrower, while the left arm has a pair of fire-linked flamethrowers, and there's a steam cannon built into the shoulders. The model is designed as an all-purpose mech, using the cannon against other mechs at range before swapping to axe and fist. Against infantry, the flamethrowers are excellent weapons - usually. Desperation sometimes leads to all three firing at once against an enemy mech, even though it risks the Juggernaut's own explosion.  The Lancer was originally an elven mech, a Gargantuan animate design coated in mithral. That version needs only one crewman and stands 25 feet. The Stenian dwarves copied it as a Gargantuan steam mech, needing three crew and still 25 feet tall. Both versions mount the same weapons - a giant sword for the right arm, a lance in the left arm and a wand of magic missile in the head. The two appear largely identical, but the dwarf version is cheaper and more common. Both are intended for fighting against biological foes rather than other mechs, using their melee weapons for big hits and the wand for groups or really tough foes. They usually begin fights with a barrage of magic missiles before charging with the lance, then finishing with the sword.  The Mother is the brainchild of the gnomish engineer Egwerd Turnscrew. He was a pioneer of clockwork mechs, and the Mother is a Colossal IV clockwork, weighing at 13 crew and 110 feet tall. Egwerd is a mercenary through and through, and he sold the Mother to the Irontooth Clans for a fortune, knowing they'd treat him like a king. The Stenians still have a price on his head for being a traitor. The Mother is big, fat and funny-looking, with one massive chain tentacle on each arm. The Irontooths thought it was a joke at first, but inside the Mother is a hangar containing two Daughters, and together, they're nearly unstoppable. The Mother grabs and drags in targets and the Daughters tear them apart. When fighting to capture, the Mother draws the mechs into its hangar and the Daughters harry defenders to keep them away. The Mother's hangar is what makes her so valuable - she can capture enemy mechs whole, without even needing to board them.  The Rodwalker is the name of this goofy-looking boy. It's a Huge, magically animated elven machine, a mere 13 feet tall and with barely enough room for the one pilot. It is also the elven signature mech. It's slim, fast and flowing. The bulbous head and hunched over build make it seem unstable, but it isn't. The four massive cylindrical arms are actually outsized wands of fireball that can, in an emergency, be used as rudimentary clubs. Not that, with a total of 50 charges per wand, they need to get into melee very often. The rodwalker was the first mech to make offensive use of magic, and now it's very common among elven forces. It's weak to dispellation, but its long range attacks usually keep it safe, and a team using overlapping fields of fire can burn down just about anything. Some variants use wands other than fireball for specialized missions. The wands can be fired one at a time, or they can be linked together to fire all four at once against one target. I love this stupid, stupid robot. Next time: An orc mecha, which is exactly what you think it is, and an orc mecha, which isn't.
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Apr 10, 2017 23:11
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Mors Rattus posted:Dragonmech: More Mechs A glass cockpit seems like a really terrible idea for as a feature that sits directly behind a huge cannon.
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Apr 10, 2017 23:15
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You know what's a great decision in a mech game with a 4 man party? Most mechs needing lots of crew. Do you just have hirelings, or do you share one mech, or what.
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Apr 10, 2017 23:22
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It's just a weird choice in general. Most mech shows only require one pilot per mech and for good reason.
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Apr 11, 2017 00:42
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Mech games hate mechs. The same terrible impluses that produce bad RPG rules also compels people to explain why mechs aren't realistic.
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Apr 11, 2017 00:53
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Does Immortals have rules for voluntary body sharing, like in Sense8 or Drawing of the Three? The old 'oh no you've captured me PSYCH now my body is being controlled by a kung-fu master' trick?
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Apr 11, 2017 01:02
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Bar Crow posted:Mech games hate mechs. As someone who's been demoing a mech game at Metatopia for the past few years, I think that may be a defensive reaction to playtesters who know what the game is about but then feel the need to bring up how unrealistic it is. LaSquida fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Apr 11, 2017 |
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Apr 11, 2017 01:05
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it's the same impulse that causes dimension-hopping games to actively prevent you mounting lasers on t-rexes
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Apr 11, 2017 01:10
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People want to put in 'twists' to the point that they lose their central premise because they don't trust it to have enough draw on its own.
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Apr 11, 2017 01:18
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Dragonmech: ORC The Scale Hunter is a Stenian design with one job: killing dragons. It's a Colossal II steam-mech, fifty feet tall and with a crew of 8. It's got a shoulder-mounted javelin launcher on the right shoulder, a massive lobster claw on its left arm, a chain tentacle on the right shoulder, and a steam cannon and axe blade on the right arm. The idea is that it can fire continuosuly as the dragon gets close, survive the charge, then beat it to death in melee. Dragons that fight at range are hit with javelins and cannonballs until the mech can drag them closer with the chain tentacle.  The Scorpion is another STenian mech, designed to fight other mechs - and destroy them. Both arms end in huge lobster claws, but the left arm also has a steam cannon. The tail mounts an immense chain tentacle on a turret that can attack with it in any direction. It's designed to capture mechs with the tentacle and tear them apart with the claws. However, the Scorpion line has been largely discontinued due to its complexity of design. They're very powerful, but also expensive and hard to build, so they were deemed too much for general use. They are, however, much harder than most mechs to trip, on account of their solid build and quadrapedal design.  The Skull Crusher is the standard in orcish mech design - a Colossal IV man-powered mech, 110 feet tall and with a crew of 64. Well, 'crew.' It has a ballista on one shoulder, a catapult on the other, and axes for hands. Most of the crew are slaves who turn huge wheels to keep the mech moving. The design and construction are simple, but the tactics employed are surprisingly sophisticated. Skull Crushers primarily target small settlements and isolated nomads, using the mech more for intimidation than anything else, given that a tribe of 300 orcs follows it everywhere. Skull Crushers typically avoid mech combat as much as possible, but when forced into a fight, they charge as fast as they can and hit things with their axes.  Slaughtergore is a one-off, a Gargantuan undead mech, 30 feet tall and crewed by one lone, unknown necromancer. Actually, I have no idea how the world even knows what it's called. It has been seen wandering around near the site of a large battle between orcs and humans, and it's believed the battlefield was actually where it was made, using both materials and zombie work crews raised on the spot. It appears to be a giant, gross humanoid zombie made out of the bodies of people, stitched and stapled together. It is unarmed, but most assume the creator's going to give it weapons at some point - they just didn't have the materials at the battlefield to make any. It has been spotted raiding tombs and cemetaries for parts, but has never directly attacked any living being. In the few fights it's gotten into, it's fought by punching things and running away. No one is clear on who made it, but it seems to be looking for certain corpses, though it's unclear why.  Smiggenbopper's Perambulatory Orc is a Gargantuan clockwork machine, 25 feet tall and with a single crewman. It was designed by Pobloppy Smiggenbopper, a gnome and early experimenter in clockwork mechs. It's designed to frighten orcs in battle, and it...looks like a giant orc. It has an axe in its right hand, and a concealed flamethrower in its upper arm. The left arm is a ballista designed to look like a crossbow. The intimidation tactic actually worked at first, scaring the orc tribes that faced it and fooling them into thinking it was a god...until they noticed it always got followed by gnomish and dwarven soldiers. Now, they just know it's good at hitting things. Smiggenbopper has actually built several variants with different racial designs, but none have caught on. This is because the ballista relies on an automatic reloader that requires a pilot skilled in using steam powers, so the Stenians never actually comnissioned more than a handful - and neither has anyone else. Next time: The last mechs in the chapter.
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Apr 11, 2017 01:40
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I am slightly let down by these Orc mechs and now I am sad. The Scale Hunter sure looks badass though.
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Apr 11, 2017 01:49
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Kilroy the wizard, whose OUT is that he is a giant robot. (I may have played this character.)
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Apr 11, 2017 02:05
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Corvo the Barbarian, whose OUT is that he is the illegitimate son of the Emperor
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Apr 11, 2017 02:35
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gradenko_2000 posted:Corvo the Barbarian, whose OUT is that he is the illegitimate son of the Emperor this is an example OUT in the book
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Apr 11, 2017 02:39
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Mors Rattus posted:
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Apr 11, 2017 02:52
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LeSquide posted:As someone who's been demoing a mech game at Metatopia for the past few years, I think that may be a defensive reaction to playtesters who know what the game is about but then feel the need to bring up how unrealistic it is. Red Metal posted:it's the same impulse that causes dimension-hopping games to actively prevent you mounting lasers on t-rexes
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Apr 11, 2017 03:03
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Evil Mastermind posted:People who want realism in games involving wizards firing lightning from their eyes will always confuse the hell out of me. I understand wanting internal consistency, but yeah, what'd be realistic in fire wizard land wouldn't be what's realistic in ours anyway. Since they've got fire wizards so something's obviously way different.
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Apr 11, 2017 03:06
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Turn it the other way around and that thing's Peace Walker
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Apr 11, 2017 03:19
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Now Im just imaging a game where magic is painfully detailed and consistent and subject to multiple checks just for weak effects while physical activities like "jump" have no checks, the mechanism at work seems totally lost on the author, and it outclass all the magical options many times over.
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Apr 11, 2017 04:07
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Barudak posted:Now Im just imaging a game where magic is painfully detailed and consistent and subject to multiple checks just for weak effects while physical activities like "jump" have no checks, the mechanism at work seems totally lost on the author, and it outclass all the magical options many times over. TORG?
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Apr 11, 2017 04:44
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Barudak posted:Now Im just imaging a game where magic is painfully detailed and consistent and subject to multiple checks just for weak effects while physical activities like "jump" have no checks, the mechanism at work seems totally lost on the author, and it outclass all the magical options many times over. Jump School: athletics (mobility); Level: rogue 4, fighter 4, ranger 4 PERFORMING Performance Time: 1 standard action Muscles: L EFFECT Range: long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level) Target: you and touched objects or other touched willing creatures Duration: instantaneous Saving Throw: none and Fort negates (object); Athletics Resistance: no and yes (object) DESCRIPTION You instantly transfer yourself from your current location to any other spot within range. You always arrive at exactly the spot desired – whether by simply visualizing the area or by stating direction. After using this exploit, you can’t take any other actions until your next turn. You can bring along objects as long as their weight doesn’t exceed your maximum load. You may also bring one additional willing Medium or smaller creature (carrying gear or objects up to its maximum load) or its equivalent per three athlete levels. A Large creature counts as two Medium creatures, a Huge creature counts as two Large creatures, and so forth. All creatures to be transported must be in contact with one another, and at least one of those creatures must be in contact with you. If you arrive in a place that is already occupied by a solid body, you and each creature traveling with you take 1d6 points of damage and are shunted to a random open space on a suitable surface within 100 feet of the intended location.
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Apr 11, 2017 04:54
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Cease to Hope posted:so I guess that's a no on some 13A sample characters, heh Since OUT are literally Dramatic Hooks...  Jack Burton, Human Fighter*, just fell through a portal in the Netherworld, doesn't get this at all. *Or a similar class that is effective at random times.
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Apr 11, 2017 05:57
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Nessus posted:Turn it the other way around and that thing's Peace Walker Or the old Metal Gear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-H0fmG9ffI
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Apr 11, 2017 07:53
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Tulul posted:Since OUT are literally Dramatic Hooks... this rules and i would've used it if i wasn't already neck-deep in a draft of the next post
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Apr 11, 2017 08:01
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Bar Crow posted:Mech games hate mechs. Counterpoint: Remnants
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Apr 11, 2017 09:47
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 Aethera Campaign Setting Part Five - Classes IV, Archetypes II, Biology 208 The Medium ordinarily derives power from the Astral Plane. Since that's not an option here, Aethera uses the Etheric Dreamer as its base class, crossing out the word "astral" and writing in "ethereal" in its place. Otherwise, we have a nice assortment of options. The Deathless Guide focuses on the plane of Evermorn, a temporally-fluid realm of Faerie. They gain some resistance to any attempts to muck about with their personal timestream, can muck about with the personal timestream of others, step back and forth between the Material and Evermorn, commune with the fey, and at 19th they become immune to nearby Time Stop. Yes, they can fight a duel that no two others could fight, against the ticking of the clock. The Modded Medium is a phalanx that tailors its own body in order to better channel a legendary spirit it believes to be its past incarnation. They boost the benefits from that spirit, can always call on it, and emulate one of the racial traits of the spirit. The okanta Speaker for the Ancestors is a party buffer, able to induct allies into her clan and share buffs with them. She also gains the service of an orbisant advisor, a little blue ball that follows her around, boosts Perception, lets her use Guidance at will and Vision 1/day, and can project a telepathic thought to the members of her clan. The Shadow Visionary draws power from the shadows of the past, acting as a normal Medium for most of their career, but gaining the ability to use Shadow Walk and Contact Other Plane to ask the shadows what's up. This is assuredly a plan without flaw or possibility of error. And the War Memoirist channels the more recently-dead spirits of the Century War, swapping two of the normal spirits for an ace aethership pilot and a war chaplain. The pilot is, of course, a flying ace, granting various bonuses to fly an aethership and getting huffy if you don't fly an aethership or act in a manner befitting a shirtless, volleyball-playing top gun. The chaplain is a spellcaster, granting cantor spells and the ability to grant rerolls to one's allies. Mesmerists get two new options. Erahthi can become Aromachologists, replacing their hypnotic stare with a cloud of potpourri that's slightly weaker than the normal stare, but affects an area around the aromachologist in exchange. Meanwhile, Hypnotherapists turn the hypnotic powers of the Mesmerist to the cause of good, buffing their allies with group therapy sessions, although tucked in there is an option to make the group more susceptible to charms and fear effects the hypnotherapist creates. There's a world-inclusion note about them dealing with veterans with PTSD, which I find nice. Gravitic Masters are Monks that harness their chi to freaking control gravity. They focus on reposition and bull rush maneuvers, get some buffs related to zero-g and resisting being moved, can slow fall without a wall, and instead of quivering palm, they get to summon a black hole.  Oracles get the new Song Mystery, which adds Knowledge (arcana), Linguistics, and Perform to their class skills; a selection of sonic spells to their spell list; and a nice toolbox of revelations, including Cha instead of Dex on defense, revealing everything within 30 feet, temporarily reviving an ally into an unstoppable juggernaut, harmonizing with other performance abilities, and forcing enemies to repeat their last actions. There's also a very small archetype, the Listener, which hears voices from beyond. Certainly nothing strange about this, no. They swap Knowledge Religion and Sense Motive for Perception in their class skills, and must take a specific revelation at 1st level which grants them a highly-accurate Augury, upgrading to Divination and Commune. And two new curses. Aether-Corrupted gives you radiation poisoning. Joy. Reduced HP per level, adding some telekinetic and clairvoyance spells to your spell list. Meanwhile, Choir-Voiced removes the ability to speak in combat in exchange for some bardic music: Countersong, fascinate, soothing performance and frightening tune. Aetheric Knights are basically Jedi. "Ascetic psychics dedicated to upholding a strong moral code in the face of what is seen as an inherently amoral and chaotic universe." Three different orders arose independently among humans, erahthi, and okanta, only meeting during the Century War. Discovering that they'd all tapped into the same collective consciousness within the ley lines to inspire their code of conduct, they united and broke away from their native cultures to foster charity, honor, and justice throughout the system. They're Paladins, but slightly less restrictive. They need to be good and do the whole protect the innocent punish villains schtick, but their code does not require them to respect authority, instead requiring them to never demand payment for their services. Taking rewards if offered is fine, and I'd assume it's all right if they're conveniently out of the room while someone else asks for a reward. They're lightly armored (and gain Wis to AC when unarmored), cast psychic instead of divine spells, can deflect and redirect attacks, use a telekinetic bull rush and some other attacks, and do some telekinetic movement. Yeah, they're pretty much just Jedi. The Thoughtdrinker Psychic ransacks people's minds to power their own spells. Instead of psychic disciplines, they gain an occultist's implements, can drain them for phrenic power, and can induce fear in a target to restore phrenic power as well.  Aww, look at the wittle baby cthulhu. The Exostentialist is a Ranger that looked too deeply into that stygian gulf between the stars, and found that something looked back.  They focus on space, gaining zero-g training and space as a favored terrain, as well as the ability to track creatures in space. As well, they get Aklo as a bonus language, wild empathy that only works on space-bound aberrations and animals, and an aberrant companion, a little stellar horror that helps them hunt their favored enemies.Salvager Rogues rip pieces off whatever aethertech and constructs they come in contact with, cobbling these disparate pieces together to make jury-rigged tools and weapons. They have a d8 sneak attack against constructs, but only a d4 against everything else. They gain a pool of points that can be expended to boost a Craft or Disable Device check, or to create improvised aethertech devices, which replace their rogue talents with things like guns, cloaking devices, explosives, or an independently-operating drone. Shamans can choose the Aether spirit, granting access to much the same suite of telekinetic abilities as most other aether-wielders. An aether shaman does get the interesting wrinkle of being able to divine the function of aethertech just by touching it, but otherwise it's the same laundry list of Levitate, Telekinesis, Telekinetic Storm, that sort of thing. Don't get me wrong, it's all useful, it's just getting hard to make interesting. Fortunately we're nearly done. Skalds get two new archetypes. The Adept of the Song stems from an okantan tradition that began to gain ground once they started coming into contact with hostile forces wielding aethertech. The adept's raging song can nullify or repulse aetherite and anything made of, carrying, or using it. Meanwhile, the Space Pirate gets a few boosts to living aboard ship, including the skills to handle an aethership, a song that boosts Dex instead of Str, and a song to keep his allies going longer without air, food, or water.  I don't actually know what class this guy is, I'm too busy staring at his anime leafcut. Slayers can focus on the gun and become Bullet Dancers, gaining a small pool of grit, a gun, and a few deeds, including the titular bullet dance, which lets them attempt to move out of the way of a shot fired at them from their target. They can also damage their target with a melee attack, make a Bluff check, and render the target flat-footed against the next ranged attack the slayer makes. Sorcerors gain the Aetheric bloodline, which adds telekinetic spells to their list and provides some free telekinesis and force powers. The most interesting things they get are bonus force damage on elemental spells and the ability to charge and power aethertech by expending spell slots. The Aetheric Caller is a summoner who draws forth a special eidolon from the spiritual impressions embedded in aetherite. They turn the usual summoner/eidolon dynamic on its head, because the summoner gets armor and martial weapons, while the eidolon gets a Charisma boost, a Strength penalty, and the spellcasting that the summoner would usually get (Plus a few telekinetic spells, as usual). The summoner still has the summon monster ability, though, calling forth aetherwarped horrors. And finally, we have the Star Corsair Swashbuckler. Tuned to fight aboard aetherships and in zero gravity, they can easily flit about in zero-g and become well-known enough that their very presence carries weight (half their level as a bonus to a social check 3 times a day).
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Apr 11, 2017 11:33
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Doresh posted:The real purpose of mechs is to do the impossible and break the unbreakable. Preferably while fighting the power. Exactly. If you build it according to a realistic and practical design then you've given up the fight before you even started. You need your mecha to be something that cannot possibly exist, so you can use it to do even more impossible things.
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Apr 11, 2017 12:45
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Getting serious King of the Monsters/Cyber Woo vibes from that mecha orc.
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Apr 11, 2017 13:47
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megane posted:Jump Yessssss.
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Apr 11, 2017 14:03
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Behold: The true Jumplomancer.
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Apr 11, 2017 14:09
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 21:08 |
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gently caress, man, self-hurling is so broken.
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Apr 11, 2017 14:23
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