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unseenlibrarian
Jun 4, 2012

There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.

Barudak posted:

The US strapped incendiary bombs to bats which resulted in the Hangar the bats resided in exploding

Japan built drifting balloons with bombs attached to sail across the pacific and bomb America.

The Suicide Bat Bombers of Project X-ray almost got deployed, even, except we developed the nuke first.

(I am absolutely using them at some point in an NBA game, because if a Dracula can control bats, why wouldn't he try to burn down your house with them?)

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Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Serf posted:

Let me pitch y'all this idea: how about we don't strap bombs to dogs.

The Eastern Front was bad times, mkay. Organized cannibalism wasn't unheard of at times, like at Stalingrad.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 20 hours!

Cythereal posted:

The Eastern Front was bad times, mkay. Organized cannibalism wasn't unheard of at times, like at Stalingrad.

Yup, everyone is gonna have to be real creative when the next global war strikes.

slap me and kiss me
Apr 1, 2008

You best protect ya neck

Serf posted:

Let me pitch y'all this idea: how about we don't strap bombs to dogs.

If I ever see a 1940s soviet military planner, I will pass along your suggestion.

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:

Mors Rattus posted:



Verdant Fury is the personal machine of the elf ranger Juna Darkwalker. It's a Huge, magically animated machine, 15 feet tall and barely large enough for its one-man cockpit. Juna and his former adventuring companions each made their own mechs when the rains came, and each have gone to defend their ancestral lands. Verdant Fury is made of mithril with a layer of living bark on the outside, allowing it to disguise itself as a tree. It has no visible weapons, but stores four magical +1 dancing longswords in its torso to deply. It typically hides until an enemy is in ambush range, then charges and punches, pulling out one sword per round after that to minimize the periods in which there are no blades attacking. It is designed to fight monsters from the moon rather than other mechs, and is poorly armed to deal with other kinds of foes, but is quite good at taking on infantry and lunar monsters. I think Juna was one of the party members of the personal game that DragonMech was born out of.

I'm reasonably certain that's a Gundam. The head looks very Gundam, and the swords can even stand in for fin funnels.

Serf
May 5, 2011


slap me and kiss me posted:

If I ever see a 1940s soviet military planner, I will pass along your suggestion.

Please do.

MightyMatilda
Sep 2, 2015

Kurieg posted:

I'm reasonably certain that's a Gundam. The head looks very Gundam, and the swords can even stand in for fin funnels.

The head makes me think of Getter-1, though that's more of a giant axe-using robot.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 20 hours!


Serf's bold demands to the Stalinist regime had not gone unnoticed...
That very night the NKVD had come for him.
He was never seen again.

By popular demand fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Apr 12, 2017

The Saddest Robot
Apr 17, 2007

Barudak posted:

Japan built drifting balloons with bombs attached to sail across the pacific and bomb America.

They made school children sew the fabric for the balloons. National pride.

A few of the bombs actually reached the US. They weren't reported so that they wouldn't cause panic.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

The Saddest Robot posted:

They made school children sew the fabric for the balloons. National pride.

A few of the bombs actually reached the US. They weren't reported so that they wouldn't cause panic.

Yea - there's only one record of a fatality - five kids and a pregnant woman, officials believed one of the kids accidentally kicked it and it went off.

Count Chocula
Dec 25, 2011

WE HAVE TO CONTROL OUR ENVIRONMENT
IF YOU SEE ME POSTING OUTSIDE OF THE AUSPOL THREAD PLEASE TELL ME THAT I'M MISSED AND TO START POSTING AGAIN
So 'Animal Man, but in WW2' is now a viable character concept? Minus the bit where he's vegetarian.

quote:

Idea started with the Hearthstone item from World of Warcraft which teleports the player back to an inn. Which got me thinking, "What if the party isn't going out and doing these adventures, but telling the people at the inn about them after they're over." Which explains why they keep telling the same story (running the dungeons) over and over; and why, when they get too drunk and blurt out "And then fifty whelps came from both sides and killed everyone!" the party just rewinds back to before they said that.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is this as a Western videogame and it's awesome. It also explains why the PC meets every single famous gunslinger.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

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

Dragonmech: Orcs - The Worst

Chemak is a fortress on the eastern edge of Highpoint, sited on whath as always been the end of orc lands for millenia. See, thousands of years ago, the warlord Chemak organized giant tribal alliance against the orcs, and he conquered a lot of land. Chemak is the site where he built his castle. Even now, the society that lives there is militaristic, disciplined and obsessed with defense against the orcs, who have attacked the city many times but always been driven away. Most of Chemak's history is now forgotten, but for two things: the name and the war with the orcs. The fortress-city is now obsessed with defeating the orcs with overwhelming force.

Chemak is easily the most fortified city on the continent and perhaps the world. Its center is a 150 foot castle, surrounded by six sets of walls divided into eight sections, designed to allow successive retreats through city sections in order to prolong city defense. Legend holds that the orc warlord Therug managed to get through to the third ring, so the Chemak forces faked a retreat and lured the orcs through a false breach, then sealed the gates on him and trapped him in a wall section in the city. Then they burned that district to the ground, using arrows to kill any orc survivors and containing the fire with the walls. This is now an institutional strategy, the Therug Fire. It's really the core of Chemak strategy: sacrifice a finger for the thumb, sacrifice the thumb for the hand, sacrifice the hand for the whole and sacrifice the whole to destroy the enemy. Chemak doctrine is ruthless in all ways.

It's taken nearly three thousand years to get Chemak to its current state, and there's more stone in the walls than there ever was in the ground around them. Workable stone has been their main import for centuries. Not even orcs would consider attacking Chemak at this point, and there's no reason to continue building its defenses, but they still do, because it's what they've always done. The entire city but for the young, old and disbled, are part of the military, with 60% of the population on active duty at any time. This has actually served them well against the lunar rain - Chemak is utterly unchanged thanks to its solid defenses, and it's had anti-air emplacements of ballistas and catapults for centuries, which have driven off the dragons enough that they rarely attack any more.

The king, Krecham IX, traces his lineage back to Chemak himself, but leaves most of the city's governance to his council of generals, who are essentially nobles promoted for good military service. The truth is that the line of Chemak has blurred to the point that several times, powerful generals descending from him have fought over the throne, and military coups are not rare in Chemak's history. Further, Chemak's actual control is limited. Its tactics are fundamentally defensive, and it's never been any good at conquest. Every few generations, one of the generals tries, but their invasions invariably fail. First, there aren't actually any settlements nearby to conquer and hold, and second, the high-water season's floods make it very hard to maintain supply lines, especially around Chemak's closest neighbor, Stilt City. There are around 3,500 current residents of Chemak.

Beyond the standing cities, there are three major ruins that still hold some importance in Highpoint. First is Bessemer, once a magical elven city made of living trees guided over thousands of years of careful growth into an interlocking arboreal city. However, it was made for beauty, not defense. While the mages of Bessemer managed to, largely, survive the rains by fleeing with their magic, the city was far too delicate to withstand the lunar invasion. Now, it is a burned, twisted wasteland of flattened forest. The treants there have gone utterly mad, though some elves remain as refugees, hiding as best they can in the burned-out groves.

Rook was a mountain city that traded in gems, ore and wool with the nomadic tribes. However, as it turned out, the mountains around Rook were the highest point in the plains, and so the lunar dragons first roosted there. Rook had relied on the mountains for defense, but they were no help against the lunar dragons, and Rook was one of the first cities to fall. Now, the ruins are home to several dragons. However, the area is somewhat famous as the birthplace of Shar Thizdic, master of the Legion, whose parents were shepherds before the city was utterly lost. As Rook came under greater assault, Shar organized the youth of the city to make a stand so the nobles had time to gather for a fight. His ragtag army surprised a single dragon, grounding it and fatally wounding it. However, the dragon died by collapsing on top of Shar's family cottage, killing everyone related to him. The next day, five dragons came for revenge, flattened the city and managed, somehow, not to kill Shar, who fled to the plains with everything he had ever had in burning ruins behind him.

Lebra was a city in the Lilat Forest, once home to the White Congress, the greatest mages' association the elves ever had. Their library was stored there, and the city's entire economy was built on knowledge and magic. The library was actually only a mere two hundred books - but each book was two feet thick and usually three feet or more wide, along with being extremely magical. It is said that each book had a room of its own, and not even most mages could read more than eight to ten in their entire lives. Lebra's powerful mages fought well against the dragons, but the rain weakened the city, and the dragons refused to live Lebra alone as they had Glatek and Chemak once those cities showed some fight. For some reason, they were coordinated and persistent in fighting Lebra. In a final move of desperation, the White Congress called on immense power...and the library vanished. Then they left the city to be destroyed.

No one knows what happened there - perhaps not even the White Congress, some say. The truth of it is that the White Congress gave the library to a powerful extraplanar being to protect, reasoning that it would be safest if even they didn't know where it was. So that being now protects it somewhere that no one knows. It is said that it will return exactly 501 years after it vanished, assuming its current master keeps his promise. The White Congress has until then to clear the planet of dragons and make it safe. Lebra is a popular destination for adventurers seeking magic items left when the city was abandoned, or seeking out strange portals that are said to have been left when the library went away.

There are, of course, a number of nomadic peoples that have no city. The Stavians, for example. The Stavians are one tribe split in half - the horse riding Stavians and the dusk devil Stavians, who ride giant bugs. Once, they were one group, but split centuries ago. Now, the two clans are bitter rivals, each of which claims that their mount is the mark of a true Stavian. Between the two groups, the Stavians are the largest nomadic tribe in the world, with around 4000 people. All of them are great riders, practically raised on their mounts. They move constantly, never staying in one place for more than a week and surviving on hunting and foraging. They respect no boundary, believing that all of the world belongs to everyone, and the worst crime anyone can do is block the passage of another. The Stavians are fundamentally a peaceful group and rarely fight others, focusing on speed and agility when they must fight. They try to outflank and confuse foes until they can retreat, always relying on their superior riding skill and maneuverability. Stavian culture is built around riding. Disputes are solved by racing, obstacle courses or other contests. Their crafts are almost entirely those that can be done on horseback - they do not make pots or use forges, but rather prefer weaving and leatherworking. They are famous for their trading across the continent, and each group is led by a shaman (usually a cleric) and a headman (usually a fighter). They rarely possess any arcane magic at all.

The Thurd are a violent band of half-orcs. Originally, they were born out of the mating of orcs and humans - not especially rare, really, given that the nomadic orcs and nomadic humans basically lived alongside each other in the past. The half-orc children were rarely accepted by either group, and so the Thurd were born. They are a tribe of half-orcs who have, for the most part, had neither orc nor human parentage for generations - just half-orcs. They no longer, in fact, consider themselves crossbreeds - they are Thurd, their own race. The word 'Thurd' refers to someone whose ancestors are orcs and humans, not someone whose parents are orc and human - for that, the Thurd retain a word for 'half-orc.' However, the Thurd have done little to otherwise differentiate themselves from their raiding parents. They live largely by preying on orcs and humans alike. They worship reptiles, for reasons that no one actually remembers, and their gods and totems are always reptilian in shape, while their chiefs wear snake-headed cloaks. Every Thurd band is led by a chieftain, usually a mid-level barbarian. They are occasionally accompanied by humans or orcs, why might be family, lovers, friends or slaves.

Next time: More nomads.

Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Apr 14, 2017

gourdcaptain
Nov 16, 2012

Oh, Alien Rope Burn? I finished the set of audio reviews of the Rifts Index book, and while it was a bit rough, the final episode with the Hook, Line & Sinker analyses was probably the best of the set for me. It felt the most punchy and energetic, along with getting pretty funny.

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

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



Cythereal posted:

Unrelated, but I went back through the last Godlike update, and the :stare: reaction to the Soviet Union strapping bombs to dogs as anti-tank weapons but the Soviets having problems with it because the dogs would keep running under their own tanks.

Uh, that wasn't made up for Godlike. The Soviets really did try that, and they really did have that particular problem leading to them abandoning it. Governments in WW2 were willing to try weird poo poo.
I was only :stare: ing at the idea that the Germans somehow had superior weapons, as part of my established trend of catcalling Reverse Russian Bias in the fantasy WW2 game. :c00lbert:

RocknRollaAyatollah
Nov 26, 2008

Lipstick Apathy


Chapter Two and Chapter Five: The Clans of Caine and the Gifts of the Blood

Cappadocians
Nicknames: Necromancers, Graverobbers



The Cappadocians are a clan that's unique to Dark Ages Vampire and get replaced by the Giovanni in modern times. Some of them are still around, they're the Harbingers of the Skull, but they're rare and usually NPC level characters. Their Antediluvian is still around too, he's crazy and if I'm remembering correctly he wants to diablerize God as part of his weird conception of vampire Christianity.

The Cappadocians are pretty much a clan of introverted vampire necromancers. They generally act as lorekeepers and historians for vampires and seek to master the undead state through using necromancy. Their clan founder is still around, Cappadocious, and he still interfaces with his clan. He’s pretty much a crazy person though, sometime dispensing wisdom to his clan’s elders but other times to grand, apocalyptic visions. He’s a necromancer from before Noah’s flood, it’s kind of expected I guess.

Necromancy is a close guarded secret of the clan. The Cappadocians pretty much have a monopoly on the discipline and only their offshoot clans practice it. In modern nights the Giovanni have this distinction but during the Middle Ages they are a client bloodline of the Cappadocians.

Cappadocians rarely seek temporal power as well and don’t generally want to become princes, it’s hard to read when you’re running a domain.

Appearance: The Cappadocians are a varied and cosmopolitan lot and tend to dress conservatively. They were usually members of religious orders or scholars in life and they tend to keep dressing accordingly to that. They do tend to cover themselves in public due to their clan weakness and wear veils or hoods. Some like to wear masks, which is foreshadowing to Harbingers of the Skull, their modern Sabbat and as of V20, True Hand aligned survivors.

Haven: Cappadocians prefer practicality in their havens and feeding. They feed on what they can easily feed on and like secure havens. Easy access to corpses is a must and they don’t mind feeding off corpses either. Most vampires tend not to drink dead blood, it apparently tastes bad, like stale coffee.

Background: Cappadocians don’t embrace lightly and are very particular about who they embrace. Mystics, religious officials, scholars, and similar people from educated and spiritual backgrounds are chosen. The clan is diverse though and an inquisitive mind and having insights into life and death can make more of a difference than what their previous background was.

Editorial Note: It doesn’t mention it but Cappadocious once sealed away a number of in an underground city in an event known as the Feast of Folly. He was pretty pissed off when he found out members of his clan were just embracing wantonly, as is the spirit of the times, and invited them all to an underground city he made. He asked them a series of questions related to how they had met with the ideals of his clan and his vision for the clan. Those who answered incorrectly were sealed in this city and he forced the mortals to flee the city above it so no one could find it. You can kind of get the picture as to why the Antediluvians are unpopular among their own clans.
Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Fortitude, Necromancy

Weaknesses: All Cappadocians have a corpse like pallor about them and it gets worse as they age. Most Cappadocians elders tend to look like desiccated, mummified corpses. They have a +2 difficulty on social rolls with mortals because they look like corpses. This is why they cover themselves in public.

Organization: The Cappadocians are pretty organized as a clan because Cappadocious is out and about. Every decade he calls a meeting of the clan at an underground city he built or maintains, I forget, called Erciyes and they have a type of symposium. They look over and debate Cainite lore and share their own knowledge. These gatherings are generally not compulsory, it’s the Middle Ages and it’s not easy to get around, but being close to Erciyes and attending gets you brownie points. Smaller, regional gatherings also occur but they are far less formal than the big clan one.



Disciplines:
Auspex and Fortitude were covered in a previous post so the only new discipline to cover is Necromancy, which has branches and rituals.

Necromancy
Necromancy itself is not a single discipline but a school of Cainite magic that uses blood to power it. Necromancy, and the other vampire magic schools, is not on par with Awakened magic, which is what Mages use. Therefore they don’t have the same hindrances, such as invoking paradox, but are less dynamic, freeform and are all done the same for every user of that path. There are also rituals in necromancy like in thaumaturgy. When you buy a rank in a path, you get a ritual. Cappadocians favor the Paths of the Corpse in the Monster and the Grave’s Decay.

Sidenote: The book at this point mentions some things about ghosts, which have far more written about them than their counterparts in Chronicles of Darkness and they have their own splat in WoD, Wraith. Ghosts live in a world that’s a dark reflection of our own, though everything is older and weirder. Everything is drained of color, everything natural is dead or dying and structures are decaying. Mortals on the verge of death also show up in this world with marks of death around them. They mention there are darker realms beyond this realm, there are, but ghosts don’t usually go that far.

Ghosts have their own society and culture unique to the dead. They also sometimes hoard Relics, powerful or popular items that once destroyed appear in the land of the dead. These can also include giant structures like the Colossus of Rhodes or the Tomb of Mausolos. Although these items can be valuable to a necromancer, they are well guarded and leaders of the Underworld closely guard their Relics.

Path of the Corpse in the Monster
This path is based on studying corpses and using the knowledge gained, along with rituals, to apply aspects of it to vampires.

Level One – Mortuss in Vultus: The caster can make themselves or another look like a mummified corpse. It lowers the target’s Dexterity and Appearance and it requires a touch attack to use it on another. If the target remains still, it’s very difficult to distinguish them from a corpse so it’s good for hiding. It’s also good for lowering a target’s dexterity in a fight.
Level Two – Algor Mortis: This power allows the caster to eliminate all of their emotions. Their flesh becomes colder and their breath freezes in air when speaking. They ignore wound penalties for a scene and gain a bonus die for each level of Path of the Corpse in the Monster when resisting emotional manipulation. It conversely increases the difficulty to manipulate others. It does not ward off frenzy, which has a normal chance of happening.
Level Three – Intimations of Mortality: The caster causes the target to be afflicted by unpleasant mortal sensations like hunger or having to relieve themselves and they are unable to stop these sensations. All actions taken are more difficult and the target can’t spend a willpower to ignore them. The target also can’t spend blood to raise physical attributes. They can still use physical disciplines during the duration of Intimations. The effects last until the next sunrise.
Level Four – Benedictio Mortem: For every success rolled on this power, the vampire becomes like a corpse for a turn. During the effects of this power the vampire is immune to frenzy and the effects of a stake through the heart, fire only does lethal damage, holy artifacts have not effect, and is only affected by sunlight if it is on their bare skin and even then it only does bashing damage.
Level Five – Benedicitio Vitae: The vampire spends 12 blood points, which don’t need to be spent in a single turn and they can spend while feeding, and becomes like a mortal. They can go out in the sun, where they take no damage and have no compulsion to slumber. They can still be staked and are affected by holy artifacts though. The vampire is also at half difficulty to resist frenzy. The power lasts until the next midnight after casting but once it’s done the difficulty to resist frenzy goes up by 3 for the next 6 nights.



Path of the Graves Decay
This path is based on the necromancer harnessing decay and entropy.

Level One – Ashes to Ashes: The vampire spends a blood and drips it on a human corpse. The corpse disintegrates into ash over a period of 5 minutes, minus 1 minute for each success. If they botch, the corpse putrefies but loses no integrity.
Level Two – Rigor Mortis: The caster freezes a target in place for 1 turn per success. Frozen targets can’t spend blood points or move. Cainites can take physical actions with a penalty equal to the caster’s success.
Level Three – Ashen Lady’s Embrace: The caster touches a limb of the target, arms, legs, hands, fingers, eyes, mouth, nose, etc., and deals two aggravated damage to that limb. The limb dries out and withers and if something small, like eyes, turns to dust. Vampires can soak and heal as aggravated damage and mortals are screwed since they can’t heal aggravated damage. Targets gain appropriate flaws for the damage if healed. If you’re a mortal, enjoy that Middle Ages crippled life.
Level Four – Gift of Melancholia: The caster infects a target within twenty yard within their line of sight with a terrible, flu-like contagious disease. If the victim fails to get more successes than the caster in a contested roll, the victim has their Strength and Wits halved, Dexterity decreased by 1, Cainites spend 1 extra blood to raise every morning and mortals take 1 lethal every morning. Cainites have to roll Self-Control when feeding or vomits up the blood, gaining nothing. Mortals get no roll and vomit up their stomach’s contents. The victim rolls stamina each day against a difficulty of 10 that decreases by 1 a day.
Level Five – Dust to Dust: The necromancer cuts open their skin, spends two blood points and a point of willpower, and then drips blood on their target. It has to be dripped from within touch range on the target, no flinging. The necromancer rolls against the targets Stamina plus 3 and every success deals 1 aggravated damage. Every 2 damage causes an appropriate limb to shrivel up like Ashen Lady’s Embrace.

Necromancy Rituals
Rituals are magic powers that can be invoked by necromancers in a fashion different from Paths. Paths are more intuitive and follow a theme too while these are more general. Some have been created by clans or bloodlines while some are even rumored to have been taught by mages. I will spread out the rituals among the entries for the necromancer bloodline entries.

Level One – Call of the Hungry Dead: You can use this ritual to talk to the dead or have them harass a rival. The caster chants and throws out some black beans for about 10 minutes. The caster then lights a black candle and burns a single hair from the target in the flame. The target can now hear the dead. If the target doesn’t get more successes than the caster, they just hear wails and howls. If they succeed, they hear them speak but are at a greater difficulty on all rolls due to the distractions. It lasts for the duration of the candle.
Level Two – Hand of Glory: This ritual creates the titular item, a candle that when lit causes all mortals within a residence within 50 paces to fall into a deep slumber or remain asleep if already asleep. The hand is constructed from the left hand of a hanged felon, which is mummified through an involved process. The hand is placed in a jar with saltpeter and peppercorns. After a fortnight, the hand is coated in wax made from tallow rendered from a condemned man’s fat, it doesn’t say the owner of the hand by the way. Each finger can be lit once and the power remains in effect while the candle is lit. It can only be extinguished by blood or milk. If any residents are awake, I don’t really know how but I’m guessing they’re not mortal, it doesn’t say, the fingers on the hand curl for each person. If the caster botched the ritual, the hand lights as normal but the effects don’t occur.
Level Three – Din of the Damned: The caster seals a place against eavesdropping by drawing a line of ashes on the ground. If the line is not broken, all listeners hear are the faint echoes of the Underworld in a fashion similar to Call of the Hungry Dead. If the listener uses supernatural means, like Auspex, they can listen in if they get more successes. If the they botch the roll, they’re deafened for the rest of the night.
Level Four – Vision of St. Anthony: This ritual allows the caster to grant others the ability to see into the Underworld for a number of hours equal to the caster’s Stamina score. The caster enchants a handful of wheat infected with ergot in an hour long ritual. Every success creates three doses. If successful all toxicity is removed from the ergot. If the ritual is botched, the caster created three doses of highly-toxic wheat that inflicts eight dice of lethal damage on anyone who ingests it, vampires included. This can outright kill a mortal or put a vampire into torpor.
Level Five – Orphic Sojourn: The vampire dresses themselves in funeral garb and grave goods. They lie down and meditate from dusk until midnight, when their soul separates from their body. She can then wander the Underworld as a ghost does for a number of hours equal to the successes achieved. They cannot return with Relics from the Underworld. There's another ritual for that though.

RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Apr 13, 2017

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

gourdcaptain posted:

Oh, Alien Rope Burn? I finished the set of audio reviews of the Rifts Index book, and while it was a bit rough, the final episode with the Hook, Line & Sinker analyses was probably the best of the set for me. It felt the most punchy and energetic, along with getting pretty funny.

Thanks! I recognized it was likely the best of the lot. The material was just gold in its lazy badness, I know I have another set of HLSes coming up but I don't know if they'll be nearly as confused, cruel, or based on Laserblast.

Mr.Misfit
Jan 10, 2013

The time for
SkellyBones
has come!

quote:

.......

What the? When did they start copying images from Bellum Maga?

Flavivirus
Dec 14, 2011

The next stage of evolution.

Mr.Misfit posted:

What the? When did they start copying images from Bellum Maga?

Looks like some of the worst art from Exalted 3e, which worryingly implies they hired that artist for *multiple* books.

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

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



Flavivirus posted:

Looks like some of the worst art from Exalted 3e, which worryingly implies they hired that artist for *multiple* books.
Didn't that artist only get made on Exalted 3 because someone noticed that there was a screenshot from a modern video game in Kejak's visions of the future? (Not even like, a cute easter egg, literally that screenshot)

That Old Tree
Jun 24, 2012

nah


Nessus posted:

Didn't that artist only get made on Exalted 3 because someone noticed that there was a screenshot from a modern video game in Kejak's visions of the future? (Not even like, a cute easter egg, literally that screenshot)

I don't know if it's the same artist, but I believe they're referring to the insanely obvious and bad poser art of a Lunar hiding under a table that also got replaced.

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

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



That Old Tree posted:

I don't know if it's the same artist, but I believe they're referring to the insanely obvious and bad poser art of a Lunar hiding under a table that also got replaced.
Ah yes the extremely subtle interplay of the core Lunar theme of "eating the cake" and the core Solar theme of "finding your wife who just ate the cake."

RocknRollaAyatollah
Nov 26, 2008

Lipstick Apathy
The Exalted one that got busted for plagiarism had the cover image for Chivalry: Medieval Warfare as one of the smaller pictures in a portal. Not a recreation of it or one that had filters applied to it, the cover was just cropped and put into the picture. It also had a picture from the TV show Vikings but I think they at least manipulated it a bit.

The Lunar eating the cakes is just straight up poser art too. Not that the Dark Ages picture is good, they at least painted over the Poser art or added a filter in Photoshop before they turned it in. The Lunar artwork is literally an artist's mockup that looks like it was made by someone on day 2 of a class on Poser. It also makes no loving sense at all for where it's at or for anything in Exalted other than zanny sitcom hijinks.

Exalted 3e is pretty much a textbook example of how not to run a kickstarter, how not to make and release a new edition of an RPG. They at least released it, a feat for Kickstarter, but everything about it was bad enough to poison whatever good they did.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

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

It's true, Exalted beats out Far West by virtue of actually releasing, if over a year late.

Pity it's so overcomplex and the guys who managed it are so bad at doing so that they got fired before their first supplement could even be completed.

...over two years late.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

Mors Rattus posted:

Pity it's so overcomplex

Was anyone surprised by this?

Green Intern
Dec 29, 2008

Loon, Crazy and Laughable

Really enjoying that Super-ergot ritual. Players would definitely botch that on purpose.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
Just wanted to say I really enjoy the WoD reviews. I haven't commented much as I've been busy reading Vampire and Kult.

Kaza42
Oct 3, 2013

Blood and Souls and all that

RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

The Exalted one that got busted for plagiarism had the cover image for Chivalry: Medieval Warfare as one of the smaller pictures in a portal. Not a recreation of it or one that had filters applied to it, the cover was just cropped and put into the picture. It also had a picture from the TV show Vikings but I think they at least manipulated it a bit.

If I remember correctly, EVERY image that Kejak was surrounded by was plagiarized. I remember seeing someone post a list of all the game covers/loading screens they were ripped from

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
Well, I still love this.

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.
My favorite part is that he isn't the picture for the Lucifuge.

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

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



Halloween Jack posted:

Well, I still love this.


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.

I'd prefer a cameo from Viewtiful Joe and Sexy Silvia, if we're going to do Capcom cameos.

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

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



Covok posted:

I'd prefer a cameo from Viewtiful Joe and Sexy Silvia, if we're going to do Capcom cameos.
Alchemicals is pretty much just Mega Man X: With More Ten Dollar Words

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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


I admit I'd rather enjoy seeing him go through the WoD like a bemused, doofy weed whacker.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Well yeah hed just use the Demon rules.
(Going loud is DT)

(E: would DmC, the ninja theory one, be stereotypically WoD enough)

Rigged Death Trap fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Apr 13, 2017

Glagha
Oct 13, 2008

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAaaAAAaaAAaAA
AAAAAAAaAAAAAaaAAA
AAAA
AaAAaaA
AAaaAAAAaaaAAAAAAA
AaaAaaAAAaaaaaAA

Holy poo poo I was on my phone for that gif and it didn't animate right away. I knew what it was before it even started it's so egregious.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Rigged Death Trap posted:

Well yeah hed just use the Demon rules.
(Going loud is DT)

(E: would DmC, the ninja theory one, be stereotypically WoD enough)

Not really? If anything less so because he doesnt do any fighting in the real world so it completely loses any trapping of urban fantasy DMC has.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Well yeah but there is real world parts to it, and the real world/demon world interaction bits.
(Its a poo poo game to begin with tho so ef)

---
Devil: the Crying
Your morality stats are Dark soul and Cuhrazy
Your power resources are Magic and Style
You can take dots in devil arms to get more moves.
Your antagonists are legions upon legions of demons and that people rately if ever think youre as cool as you think you are.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Rigged Death Trap posted:

Well yeah but there is real world parts to it, and the real world/demon world interaction bits.
(Its a poo poo game to begin with tho so ef)

---
Devil: the Crying
Your morality stats are Dark soul and Cuhrazy
Your power resources are Magic and Style
You can take dots in devil arms to get more moves.
Your antagonists are legions upon legions of demons and that people rately if ever think youre as cool as you think you are.

You're like halfway to a Laser & Feelings DMC hack!

e:
Choose your number, from 2 to 5. A high number means you’re better at Style (being in control, being unfazed, not being intimidated, looking good while kicking rear end). A low number means you’re better at Crazy (dumb risks, insane stunts, fighting more enemies than you really should).

Evil Mastermind fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Apr 14, 2017

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

The Lunar eating the cakes is just straight up poser art too. Not that the Dark Ages picture is good, they at least painted over the Poser art or added a filter in Photoshop before they turned it in. The Lunar artwork is literally an artist's mockup that looks like it was made by someone on day 2 of a class on Poser. It also makes no loving sense at all for where it's at or for anything in Exalted other than zanny sitcom hijinks.

It's particularly odd because it's based on an illustration from Masters of Jade, which means they got the art commission of "Lunar ate the cakes lol" redone twice for reasons that are hard to comprehend.

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Ratoslov
Feb 15, 2012

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

Evil Mastermind posted:

You're like halfway to a Laser & Feelings DMC hack!

e:
Choose your number, from 2 to 5. A high number means you’re better at Style (being in control, being unfazed, not being intimidated, looking good while kicking rear end). A low number means you’re better at Crazy (dumb risks, insane stunts, fighting more enemies than you really should).

Looking good while kicking rear end shouldn't be a roll. :colbert:

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