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Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!

Night10194 posted:

Interestingly, that looks like it might be what happens with WHFRP4e.

Oh, yeah, they announced a WHFRP4e is being worked on now, by the folks who made The One Ring, and it will be set in the Old World, and take its cues 'mostly from 1 and 2e'.
I'm glad you brought this up because I had wanted to mention a related gimmick: giving stuff technical-sounding names to make it sound more rational than D&D. "Weapon Skill" and especially "Ballistic Skill" as stats always sounded ridiculous to me. The best example out there is still Palladium's stats, of course.

On the one hand, I have nothing against WFRP 3. On the other, I like WFRP 2 and a fusion of that and TOR sounds amazing if done right.

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Cease to Hope
Dec 12, 2011

Barudak posted:

How close of a blood relative do you need for blood ties to work? Because that rapidly turns into "grab literally anyone to use to kill anyone you dont like"

Doesn't say, only that they need to be family. But you get +2 on the save if it's a distant relation!

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Cease to Hope posted:

Doesn't say, only that they need to be family. But you get +2 on the save if it's a distant relation!

So like, statistically, I could kill a good 20%+ of people worldwide by stabbing Keanu Reeves.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Barudak posted:

So like, statistically, I could kill a good 20%+ of people worldwide by stabbing Keanu Reeves.

Fun fact for your familialcide spell use: 1 in 200 men are direct descendants of Genghis Khan.

Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


A story about a villain trying to reconstruct Mitochondrial Eve so they can use a ritual to kill everyone sounds pretty good.

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:

So like, statistically, I could kill a good 20%+ of people worldwide by stabbing Keanu Reeves.

Well you could, but since Keanu's immortal it wouldn't go over so well.

Cease to Hope
Dec 12, 2011

Kavak posted:

A story about a villain trying to reconstruct Mitochondrial Eve so they can use a ritual to kill everyone sounds pretty good.

the player-oriented slayer archetype that hunts a particular family calls out this exact shenanigan as something that isn't allowed, although this spell doesn't

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Wonder if they pick this spell from Order of the Stick or the Dresden Files

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

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



Kavak posted:

A story about a villain trying to reconstruct Mitochondrial Eve so they can use a ritual to kill everyone sounds pretty good.
How are they going to survive when she ignites their mitochondria?

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

Nessus posted:

How are they going to survive when she ignites their mitochondria?

Go get a tiny Japanese-American from Boston. She'll take care of it.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

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

Dragonmech: Steam Warriors: Summon Lesser Equipment

So, we're into magic and spells. Some notes - Create Parts is a level 2 Wizard spell that literally just summons a pile of like 100-300gp of gears that vanishes after an hour. Create Tools, on the other hand, is a level 1 Wizard spell that is that, except instead of random gears it's any of the toolkits in the PHB equipment list. This makes sense. There's also a level 1 Wizard spell, Feast of Machines, that lets you eat coal or wood to live. Some of these spells are incredibly silly. But so are the magic items!

Construct Armor is power armor except powered by magic. It is very rare, has to be built to fit, and gives a +10 AC by itself, +2 AC from enhancement, and has only a 15% spell failure chance. Oh, and it gives +4 to Strength, darkvision 60, immunizes you to gas attacks, gives you infinite breathable air, lets you make slam attacks with your fists and gives you DR 5/cold iron or silver. So that's cool.

Figurine of Wondrous Power, Gremlin is a newly invented magic item that turns into a Tiny man that will obey orders. It lives for six hours each day and is really good at helping with machinery.

L'Arile Tree Armor was invented by the elves, using fragments of their forest homes to make personal suits of armor suited to the new world. They are mostly used by sapling guardians. They are +6 AC armor with a +2 bonus 10% spell failure and +4 to Hide and Climb checks in forests or elven mechs. Also? +4 Str and Dex.

A Staff of Gears is an exceptionally rare item, prized by steam mages and made of literally a stack of gears wrapped in leather. It casts a bunch of the machine-related spells in this book.

Let's see, optional rules. Optionally, any device can be redlined, not just mechs, possibly gated by a feat. Doing this increases the die category of anything the machine does, or gives +4 to skill checks, or increases speed by 20, or gives +4 to an attribute, or otherwise increases effectiveness by about 25%. Redlining lasts 1d4+Int mod rounds, and once it's over, the machine doesn't work for 1d4 rounds. Redlining takes a skill check with DC based on complexity and size.

But I promised robobrains. Crystal Circuit Brains. These are based on ancient manuals, mixed with some necromantic knowledge to keep people alive during the brain transplant. The subject's brain is chopped into 16 pieces, which then get dissolved in a crystal solution, which solidifies into solid crystal of the same shape. Then you rebuild the brain with the crystals. They require only a small static charge to allow thought, so you also install a small spark generator. Then you attach it to the nervous system, which can be natural or cybernetic. Early versions of the crystal circuit brain prevented formation of new memories, until a new steam-heated needle system was invented to allow new neural pathways to be written. However, strong knocks to the head still cause a Fort save to avoid the memory recorder being disabled for 1d10 rounds. In all other respects, the brain functions as a normal brain, but with hardness 10 and 2 hp per crystal. You need a feat to be able to have one of these brains, and takes 24 hours to install...and 8 weeks to recover. Then you need to make a Fort save or you just die. A brain can only have one circuit made of it, since the brain is destroyed in the process, and you will only ever work with your own brain. However, a mech with the right interface can be operated mentally...requiring a complete rebuild to install the interface. So why do it? Well, a brain can be installed in a mech or device to let the brain operate that...? There are no other benefits to having a crystal brain - it just lets you give an AI to things, except the AI is someone whose brain you cut out and destroyed to make into an AI. Oh, and brain operation of a mech is only worth a +4 bonus to piloting checks - and every interface is designed for a specific brain.

Robobrains: not worth even a bit of your time.

Next time: Races.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Rifts World Book 13: Lone Star posted:

Warning!

You know...

Rifts World Book 13: Lone Star posted:

Violence and the Supernatural

... I'm not sure my mother ever read one of these warnings.

Rifts World Book 13: Lone Star posted:

The fictional World of Rifts® is violent, deadly and filled with supernatural monsters. Other dimensional beings, often referred to as "demons," torment, stalk and prey on humans. Other alien life forms, monsters, gods and demigods, as well as magic, insanity, and war are all elements in this book.

I'm pretty sure she saw the first Rifts cover with the Splugorth slave barge and everything.

Rifts World Book 13: Lone Star posted:

Some parents may find the violence and supernatural elements of the game inappropriate for young readers/players. We suggest parental discretion.

I'm guessing she was just fine with letting me explore this kind of thing on my own even after banning me from playing D&D, maybe she saw me getting over my issues with horror as a good thing.

Rifts World Book 13: Lone Star posted:

Please note that none of us at Palladium Books® condone or encourage the occult, the practice of magic, the use of drugs, or violence.

And thankfully, I never became a wizard, junkie, or hooligan. Then again, I never became crazy TV movie Tom Hanks, which may not be the best Tom Hanks, it's still Tom Hanks. Which is a slight dissapointment.



Rifts World Book 13: Lone Star - Part One: "This should make for a fun read (I sure had a blast writing it) and provide more material from which Game Masters can weave exciting adventures."

Mmmhm.


"I am totally going to see what that thing smells like... you know... there!"

So, it's time for Rifts, Texas-style. This continues Siembieda taking up the reigns of the game line, with Julius Rosenstein doing small contributions. Lone Star is part of a "threesome", as he puts it, of books detailing the American West (the other two will be Rifts World Book 14: New West and Rifts World Book 15: Spirit West), and it also helps further detail the Coalition. And though Rifts doesn't do splatbooks per se, this serves as the Dog Boy and mutant animal sourcebook, much like Rifts Sourcebook Four: Mindwerks had a bunch of material for Crazies and Rifts World Book 10: Juicer Uprising was the Juicer book.

Those reading these as they're released may wonder why I'm not reviewing Rifts World Book 12: Psyscape first. As mentioned previously, Psyscape was badly delayed, most likely due to the departure of staff writer CJ Carella, who was originally slated to write it. As such, I'd have to get to World Book 16 first before doing 12, presuming I'm not hit by a sudden bout of good sense first. But with that in mind...

Rifts World Book 13: Lone Star posted:

Lastly, I want to apologize for many of Palladium's products being chronically late by 1-3 months (and a few completely rescheduled in the last year). There are three main reasons for these delays. One, events beyond our control such as artists or writers (sometimes both!) missing deadlines, manuscripts that don't meet our expectations, mechanical failure of equipment, illness and similar. Two, overreaching. We have so many great ideas and projects that we want to do, that we sometimes overload our schedules. Third, none of us at Palladium Books can bring ourselves to sacrifice quality just to bang out product. We care too much about Rifts® and all our game worlds to diminish them with rushed and second-rate products. More importantly, we care about our fans. We pride ourselves on the knowledge that our fans expect the best from Palladium. Consequently, we feel the disappointment of a delay followed by an excellent product is better than releasing rushed, hacked-out junk! Believe me, product delays cause Palladium more headaches than just disappointed fans. We love knowing that Palladium consistently produces some of the most exciting, enjoyable, fun and best selling role-playing games on the market. I think Rifts® Lone Star is another sourcebook that fits the bill. Enjoy.

This is the first book of 1997, which will see probably the most Rifts books in a year. There was seven books in total that year, mostly written by Siembieda, which means he was really bangin' them out... or there's a lot of delayed books coming to fruition. Either way, it's downhill from here to Spirit West, one of the real lows of the Rifts line...

... but it's not all bad news. This sees the introduction of a number of newer Palladium art contributors like Brandon C. Clark, Mark Dudley, or Scott Johnson in addition to Breaux's continued art on the line. But it also introduces-

:dance: Ramon Perez :dance:

- possibly my favorite all-time artist on the line and one of my favorite RPG artists of all time. His work can be a little rough in this deput, but he's one of the few that can manage three important artistic merits for Rifts. First, he has a very dynamic style, and does a lot of exciting action scenes instead of the staid concept art you often see in Rifts products up to this point. Second, his characters often have the wear and cobble you'd expect of people living in a rough, post-apocalypse society. Lastly, he can do both mechanical designs and magical SFX with equal ease. Dudley will also really grow into his own as time goes on.


A wild Perez appears!

But we've still got a lot of Kev to get through, so let's get started. If you thought the Coalition's presentation before was a disaster, you ain't seen nothing yet, um... pardner?

Next: :siren: Erin Tarn! Patrotic! Cowboy hat! :siren:

Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Jun 9, 2017

Serf
May 5, 2011



Shadow of the Demon Lord Part 12: Master Paths G - Po

Geomancer
This Path is all about the use and manipulation of the earth. It provides you with some toughness that magic-users are generally lacking, and gives access to a few other tricks that involve the natural world.

Level 7 Geomancer
You get your standard Attribute increase, a decent amount of Health and a point of Power. You discover the Earth tradition or learn an Earth spell. You get Earthen Defense, which lets you spend an Earth spell of Rank 1 or higher, and for each Rank the spell has, you roll a d6. This total becomes your Earthen Defense pool, which is a buffer of extra hit points that takes damage before you do.

Level 10 Geomancer
You get another chunk of Health, another spell, and Earth Walker, letting you ignore difficult terrain on natural surfaces and letting you move through solid stone and dirt.

quote:

Gladiator
If you want to fight dirty and trust your fate to luck, the gladiator is the Path for you.

Level 7 Gladiator
Standard Attribute increase, a chunk of Health and either another language or a martial profession. Dirty Fighting lets you make an Agility attack against an enemy’s Perception. If you succeed they become Impaired for 1 round. Win at Any Cost means Impaired enemies take 1d6 extra damage from your attacks.

Level 10 Gladiator
Another bit of Health and you get Finishing Blow, a very useful ability that gives you 1 boon against an enemy suffering any affliction, and gives you 1d6 extra damage against those targets. Overall when all your talents line up you’re getting 2d6 damage and 1 boon against enemies you afflict with Impaired, and if you have a party member who can also dole out afflictions the gladiator becomes a nasty and deadly combatant.


Gunslinger
This Path lets you inject a little western into your dark fantasy. You can make your own guns and use them like no one else can. The book does say that it makes more sense for technically-minded characters to pursue the art of gunslinging, but anyone can get into it.

Level 7 Gunslinger
You have your Attribute increase, a little Health and either another language or a profession. You also get Six-Shooter, letting you transform a pistol into a revolver. You can fire a six-shooter six times before needing to reload it, and anyone besides you attempting to use it takes 3 banes to the attack.

Level 10 Gunslinger
Another bit of Health and two abilities: Deadeye Shot, which gives you 1 boon and an extra 1d6 damage on attacks with pistols or six-shooters, and Speed Loader, which lets you reload a gun as a minor action rather than an action.

quote:

Healer
It may not sound interesting or glamorous, but what they don’t tell you about the healer Path is that not only does it make you drat good at healing, it also turns you into a nigh-unstoppable Terminator. Read on to find out how.

Level 7 Healer
Here you get your Attribute increase, some Health and +1 to Power, as well as either the Life tradition or a Life spell. Far Healing lets you extend the range of a Life spell with a range of Reach to a range of Short.

Level 10 Healer
More Health and another spell. Empowered Healing means that anyone you cast a Life spell on heals extra damage equal to their Healing Rate while Unassailable Vitality means that you cannot take damage from a disease or poison, you can’t become diseased or poisoned and you heal all damage when you complete a rest. That’s right, so long as you don’t take damage equal to your Health and can take a nap, you wake up good as new. For you, the old saying “any fight you walk away from is a fight you won” is true.


Hexer
The Curse tradition is the Hexer’s stock in trade. Curse spells are very good at debilitating your foes, and the Hexer just enhances that. The abilities of this Path combine nicely with Curse magic, and allows you to make life hell for your enemies.

Level 7 Hexer
Standard Attribute increase, as well as a little bit of Health and +1 to Power. You get another language or a profession, and you either discover the Curse tradition or learn one new Curse spell. Evil Eye is you core ability, which lets you use a triggered action when hitting an enemy with a Curse spell to apply one of three effects. Desire charms the enemy, Lethargy slows them, and Pain deals 2d6 damage to them.

Level 10 Hexer
Another bit of Health and a spell, and Exacting Curse, which makes targets cursed by you take 1d6 extra damage from your attacks.

quote:


Hydromancer
The Hydromancer’s deal should be pretty obvious. They’re all about the Water tradition, and their abilities make them harder to deal with for most enemies, while at the same time empowering them with the ability to be like their chosen element in some interesting ways.

Level 7 Hydromancer
You get your standard Attribute increase, as well as some Health and a point of Power. You discover the Water tradition or learn one Water spell. You gain the Flow ability, which lets you cover yourself in water after casting a Water spell. While this is active, you cannot be grabbed or immobilized, and you can move through spaces occupied by creatures, and it lasts for as many rounds as the spell’s rank. You also get Swimmer, meaning you ignore the effects of difficult terrain while you are swimming.

Level 10 Hydromancer
A little bit of Health and another Spell, as well as your showstopper ability: Watery Form. This lets you expend the casting of a Water spell to take on a liquid form, which lasts for a number of rounds equal to your Power plus the rank of the spell. While in this form you get the following benefits:
  • You get 1 boon to all Agility rolls
  • You can squeeze through any space that will allow water through
  • You take half damage from weapons
  • You cannot be grabbed, immobilized, knocked prone or slowed
  • You are invisible while submerged in water


Illusionist
If you think this Path is all about illusions… well, you’re not wrong. It does what it says on the box, and perhaps not in the way you’d expect. I find this to be one of the more niche Paths, even though it has a nice mix of abilities.

Level 7 Illusionist
You get your Attribute bump, a smidge of Health and a point of Power along with another language or profession and you can discover the Illusion tradition or learn one Illusion spell. Convincing Illusions imposes a penalty of 2 banes on anyone trying to discern your illusions, and gives you 1 boon when attacking with illusion spells.

Level 10 Illusionist
A little bit of Health, another spell, and Illusory Duplicates. When are damaged by an attack you can roll a d6. On a roll of 6, reduce the damage to 0 and teleport to a nearby open space. This is an ability that I like a lot, as it gives you that feeling of being always prepared from time to time.

quote:

Infiltrator
Do you want to be the best spy that ever lived? Want to be able to hide in plain sight, and then leap into the fray and destroy your enemies lightning-fast? Then this is the Path for you.

Level 7 Infiltrator
You get your standard Attribute increase, along with a +1 to Perception and a minor boost to Health, and either another language or a criminal profession. You core ability is the incredibly powerful Faceless, which gives you a whole host of benefits. Firstly, you can hide anywhere, anytime. Even if you’re in plain sight and being observed, you can hide. Once you use an action to break this stealth, you can’t activate it again for 1 minute. While hidden, people you talk to can’t remember details about you after 1 minute, and after an hour they will forget the conversation entirely. During the first round of any combat you begin hidden, you get 1 boon to all rolls, and if you take a fast turn you can both use an action and move. This is probably one of the coolest abilities in the game and makes the Infiltrator seriously badass.

Level 10 Infiltrator
You get a little more Health, as well as Treacherous Strike, which gives you 1d6 extra damage to surprised targets and targets from which you are hidden. You also get Vanish, letting you trigger Faceless any time you become obscured in any way, letting you reactivate it fast if you have a way to hide for a moment.


Inquisitor
One of the more meaty and flavorful Paths, the Inquisitor is all about being scary and mean, and it is very effective at doing those two things. It has some of the better debuffs outside of magic, and has one very… unique ability that I’m not sure I like.

Level 7 Inquisitor
You get your Attribute boost and some Health, as well as another language or profession. You get Dreadful Threat, which lets you make an Intellect attack against a creature’s Will, and if you succeed they become frightened while they can see you until either they damage you or they complete a rest. Master Torturer does just what you think it does. While torturing people, you can make an Intellect vs. Will attack roll, and if you succeed the creature will have to answer 1d6 questions truthfully. Finally Scrutiny is your core ability, and lets you make a Perception vs. Intellect roll to make a creature the subject of your Scrutiny, meaning that you can tell when it deliberately tells a lie and your attack rolls against them receive 1 boon.

Level 10 Inquisitor
You get more Health and Inquisitor’s Judgment, giving your weapon attacks against the target of your scrutiny an extra 1d6 damage.

quote:

Jack-of-All-Trades
A Path meant for people who want to do a little bit of everything. It’s a real master of none situation too where you’re not explicitly good at anything but you are versatile and capable of rapidly adapting to situations. You’ve also got ways to come through in tight situations when it really counts. I wouldn’t recommend taking this Path unless you’ve taken as least one magic-oriented Path before, as one of its core abilities needs you to have a little Power.

Level 7 Jack-of-All-Trades
You get your standard Attribute increase, a little bit of Health, and you can speak another language and add another profession. Your core ability is Aptitude, which gives you a pool of Aptitude points equal to your group level. When you make an attack or challenge roll, you can spend 1 point of Aptitude to make the attack with 2 boons. When you roll two 6s on one roll of the boon dice you regain a point of Aptitude and you refresh your entire pool when you complete a rest. Flexible Profession lets you make an Intellect challenge roll to act as though you had a profession you don’t already have. Magical Epiphany lets you copy rank 0 spells that you see cast, but these copies only last until you complete a rest and you only get a number equal to your Power, so you’ll need a little bit of that to make this talent fully functional.

Level 10 Jack-of-All-Trades
Another little bit of Health, as well as Prodigy, which allows you to increase one of your Attributes by 1 when you complete a rest (it ends when you use it again) and Uncommon Ability, which lets you treat 1s on boon rolls as 3s and 6s on bane rolls as 3s.



Mage Knight
This the the Path of the Battle tradition. It is a simple and straightforward path that emphasizes using attack spells, buffs, and regular attacks in tandem. This is actually a great Path to dip into at the tail end of a fighter’s progression, as even the low-level Battle spells can add a lot to a high-level character.

Level 7 Mage Knight
Standard Attribute increase, more Health and a point of Power, and either another language or a military profession. You either discover the Battle tradition or learn one Battle spell, and Escalating Violence gives you 1 boon to attack rolls with a weapon after you cast a spell. This lasts for 1 round.

Level 10 Mage Knight
A little Health, another spell, and Mage Knight Tactics, which lets you use a triggered action to attack with a weapon at any point in a round after you cast an attack spell.

quote:


Magus
What’s the iconic wizard weapon? Did you answer wands? Get that Harry Potter poo poo out of here, Shadow of the Demon Lord knows what’s up. This Path is all about the staff and how it rules. For a magus, the staff isn’t just a weapon or an implement, it is a personal effect that grants them a straight-up set of advantages that help them overcome their enemies.

Level 7 Magus
Here you get your Attribute increase, as well as more Health and a point of Power. You also get either another language or an academic profession. You discover a tradition or learn another spell, and you get your Staff of Magic. This item is special to you and gives all attack spells cast through it 1 boon and grants them 1d6 extra damage.

Level 10 Magus
More Health, another tradition or spell, and now you get Staff of Power, which grants you the following boosts: you get +1 to Defense, and attack spells cast through it are cast with 1 boon and impose 1 bane on any attempts to resist them.


Marauder
Another flavor of barbarian or berserker, the marauder focuses on mobility through charging. You get bonuses to charging and extra opportunities to charge. Take this Path if you want to dash around the battlefield like a ping-pong ball of murder.

Level 7 Marauder
You get you Attribute increase, as well as a nice bonus to Health and +2 to Speed. Powerful Charge means you no longer trigger free attacks when charging and you deal 1d6 extra damage on an attack made while Charging.

Level 10 Marauder
Another boost to Health. Bloodthirst lets you use a triggered action to charge anytime a creature becomes incapacitated from one of your attacks. Strength from Pain allows you to take 1 boon when making Strength attack and challenge rolls while injured.

quote:

Miracle Worker
More than a cleric or a paladin, the Miracle Worker embodies their god as a living representation. They can invoke their divine power to take on their god’s appearance and strike fear into the hearts of their enemies. This is another Path that doesn’t offer any Power but works better if you already have a little going in.

Level 7 Miracle Worker
You get your standard Attribute increase as well as a big chunk of Health. Stigmata is your core ability, and it allows you to take on the appearance of your god by taking 1 Insanity and a -5 penalty to Health for the duration, which is a number of minutes equal to 1 + your Power. While in this form, creatures who are not on your side that see you have to pass a Will challenge roll or be frightened until you end the effect. Also while this effect is active you make attack and challenge rolls with 1 boon and your heal 1d6 damage at the end of every round. Tongues is your other ability, and it allows you to communicate with any creatures who understand language. And when you choose to speak in a booming voice you can be heard up to 1 mile away.

Level 10 Miracle Worker
Another big chunk of Health, and the Worker of Miracles ability. When you use this, you can touch a creature and take a -5 penalty to Health until they complete a rest. That creature can then choose from a list of effects, which let it heal damage, cure afflictions, remove curses, or even remove insanity.


Myrmidon
I would like to say this Path allows you to be Captain America, but that would be misleading. This Path does make you pretty badass with a shield, but you’re not gonna be throwing it at Nazis and bouncing it off of walls any time soon. Still, if you want to be a tank and protect yourself from damage, the Myrmidon is an excellent Path for that.

Level 7 Myrmidon
Attribute increase and a boost to your Health and either a language or a military profession. Forceful Shield lets you move targets back when you hit them with your shield and Shield Block lets you use a triggered action to impose 1 bane on an enemy trying to hit you while you have a shield.

Level 10 Myrmidon
Another chunk of Health and Shield Mastery, which gives you +1 to Defense while you have a shield and when attacking with a shield you get 1 boon, 1d6 extra damage, and you do not lose the shield’s defensive property.

quote:


Necromancer
Not exactly the most heroic Path, the Necromancer isn’t overpowered and doesn’t grant you armies of undead creatures. Depending on how undead-heavy the campaign it this Path varies in strength and usefulness but it is always a strong choice based on how good some of its talents are even without a lot of undead to command.

Level 7 Necromancer
You get your Attribute increase, a smidge of Health and +1 to Power. You can speak another language or add an academic profession. You either discover the Necromancy tradition or learn a Necromancy spell. Inured to Death means that you no longer take damage from disease or poison and you can no longer become diseased or poisoned. And when making fate rolls while incapacitated you roll twice and use the result you prefer. You gain the Command Undead spell, which lets you make an Intellect vs. Will attack to control a single undead target for 1 minute.

Level 10 Necromancer
A bit of Health, a spell, and Master of Undeath, which doubles the amount of creatures you can effect with Command Undead (to 2) and any undead creatures you create get 1 boon to attack rolls and deal 1d6 extra damage.



Poisoner
Do I really need to explain what this Path does? You poison people. Pretty cut and dry honestly.

Level 7 Poisoner
You get the standard Attribute increase along with a little Health and either another language or a profession. Poison Mastery lets you use an alchemist’s kit and 5cp worth of ingredients to make a dose of poison. When creatures are poisoned by you, they make Strength challenge rolls to resist with 3 banes and take 3d6 extra damage from them.

Level 10 Poisoner
You get a little bit of Health and the ability Poisonous Touch. This allows you to use an action or triggered action to attack a creature with a needle hidden in a ring or in your finger. You can make a Strength/Agility roll vs. Agility, and if you succeed they take 1 damage plus 2d6 extra damage from the poison. They then make a Strength challenge roll to resist, and if they fail they are poisoned for 1 minute, which makes them dazed and slowed. If they’re already poisoned, they take 3d6 extra damage At the end of each round a poisoned creature must make a Strength challenge roll, and on a failure they take 1d6 damage.

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!

Cease to Hope posted:


Decollate is an extremely bizarre fifth-level buff. It allows you to remove your head for a day, giving you short-range blindsense (but no normal eyesight, even from your detached head) and DR 2/-. The visual is neat, but there's no reason you'd actually cast this other than to be a creepy guy with no head.


Not sure what other reason you need.

gradenko_2000 posted:

Fantasy Alex Jones seems like a cool character concept to try and kick around.

Could work in WHFRP. Ranting about the SKAVEN CONSPIRACIES.

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

gradenko_2000 posted:

Fantasy Alex Jones seems like a cool character concept to try and kick around.

http://www.publicmedievalist.com/pizzagate-cults/

There's an article on medieval conspiracy theories.

Ratoslov
Feb 15, 2012

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

PurpleXVI posted:

Not sure what other reason you need.

Sex stuff, I'd imagine.

Cassa
Jan 29, 2009
Gets lonely in the nightmare realms.

Cease to Hope
Dec 12, 2011
your detached head is inert

Dareon
Apr 6, 2009

by vyelkin
as if that's going to stop anyone

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

Mors Rattus posted:

There are no other benefits to having a crystal brain - it just lets you give an AI to things, except the AI is someone whose brain you cut out and destroyed to make into an AI. Oh, and brain operation of a mech is only worth a +4 bonus to piloting checks - and every interface is designed for a specific brain.

Robobrains: not worth even a bit of your time.

Presumably it makes you unaging, so possibly useful for that.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!
I'm starting to think I should really try this Shadow of the Demon Lord thing.

PurpleXVI posted:

Not sure what other reason you need.


Could work in WHFRP. Ranting about the SKAVEN CONSPIRACIES.
Hey, I never expected Karl Franz to go into Gorbad's camp without getting some goblin blood and vomit on him.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

PurpleXVI posted:

Could work in WHFRP. Ranting about the SKAVEN CONSPIRACIES.

I had that PC in one of my games.

Agitator is a starting class, after all. It promotes into Demagogue.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!
Exit to Zealot, take Read/Write, read the documents, folks.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

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

The Lone Badger posted:

Presumably it makes you unaging, so possibly useful for that.

Well, your brain, sure. I don't believe it does poo poo for your body.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!


Rifts World Book 13: Lone Star - Part Two: "The Native American Indians I encountered during my short visit, call Lone Star, 'The Land of a Thousand People.'"


"Dammit! If only the artist had used the rules, this could never happen!"

Lone Star
An Overview By Erin Tarn


So Erin Tarn first emphasizes that though the Coalition "claims" the state-previously-known-as-Texas, in truth they only dominate about the top third of it. Their territory is centered around Lone Star City, home to the "infamous" Lone Star Complex where the Coalition cooks up mutant animals (dog boys, mainly). The Lone Star Complex is a pre-Rifts military complex designed to focus on genetic engineering, mostly located underground and to be self-sufficient. It was apparently controversial at the time of its construction for nonspecific reasons, though it seems likely it was a tremendous pork barrel project. The Coalition keeps what exactly they've discovered quite secret, or at least secret from Erin Tarn.

She reports that she's heard of other animals being experimented with and mutated, but also that there are rumors of the Coalition creating terrible mutants to bedevil non-Coalition communities. In addition, she brings up the "Xiticix Killer", a creature that was believed to be some kind of d-bee hunting the bugs, but instead may be a cybernetic / genetic creation of Lone Star. In addition, she brings up the so-called Psi-X Aliens, which claim to be failed experiments in genetically engineering psionic humans. Tarn is shocked by this, and doesn't believe Emperor Prosek would sanction such, concluding he must be unaware (and not reading his Erin Tarn, apparently). The Coalition denies any involvement, naturally.

Tarn reports most of the old cities have been raided or stripped for stuff, and most of the state is a motley collection of tribes, gangs, monsters, and other things. The Pecos Empire actually turns out to be a large group of loosely affliated tribes and clans of which only a significant minority raid - others herd, farm, etc. Of course, the "most peaceful and 'civilized'" of its members are apparently the "Indians", presumably because they are genetically inclined to noble savagery. She also apologizes for her previous estimates about the Empire's size being based on Coalition information, and that the actual Empire is actually two to ten times as big as popularly reported.

Also she's heard something about vampires in Mexico, but that goes back to Rifts World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms to find out what she discovers about that.


SAMAS really let itself go.

CS Northern Quadrant

So, it turns out the only reason the Coalition gives a poo poo about the Texan region at all is because of Lone Star, and most of their presence there is military. Though there are farms, mines, and frontier towns, most of it is in the economic orbit of Lone Star City. Though it could become a full-fledged Coalition State eventually, it's unlikely to happen in the forseeable future. We get a variety of details on various locations, like:
  • Ancient Ruins: Most cities were stripped bare of resources, and only a handful of towns in the Northern part of Texas survived. Though they were glad to see the Coalition show up, in truth the Coalition hasn't done much, if anything, for them.
  • Highways: Highway 87 survived mostly intact and has been repaired by the Coalition for usage. Highway 20 has portions intact but about an equal amount are rubble.
  • Comanche Country: This is a group of about 600 Comanche who :sigh: "have returned to the old ways of living off the land and mysticism". Apparently the Coalition don't really care that a bunch of magical Comanche are living on their doorstep and leave them be.
  • Texas Freelands: This is where you find the "Kingdom of Worth", whatever that is, and a number of cities including Dallas are haunted ruins.
  • Briscoe America: A community that survived the rifts, Briscoe have a decent sense of history and see themselves as heirs to the American Empire, complete with flags and slogans. They're anti-magic human supremacists who get along swimmingly with the Coalition, who have a small military base here.
  • Skelray: Built on the ruins of Sunray, it's got the name due to a "skeleton crew" of Coalition troops that maintain an outpost here, their main defense force being a company of skelebots. Get it? Get it? Well, it's okay if you don't.
  • Amarillo: A Coalition military outpost, this was originally a rich mine of old relics; it has a Coalition outpost and a small frontier town.
  • Odessa Base: A small service/farming community and growing military base, this is a more active Coalition base that engages in ongoing operations hunting and engaging bandits and D-Bees. Sometimes they're sent on straight-up kill sweeps of areas, presuming anybody in the badlands is a Coalition target.
  • Wichita Falls: This is the main command base for the Coalition in the area, with a large town, cattle ranges, a dairy plant, oil fields, etc. It also has a bunch of satellite military outposts surrounding it.
  • Lone Star City: Originally a 'Burbs-style shantytown that grew up around the military base to seek protection, and eventually the Coalition begrudgingly incorporated them to build a community for civilian researchers and the like. Eventually they plan to build a mega-city like Chi-Town here, but only once the population can support it. In general Lone Star City is remote enough that raiders strike only very rarely.

I may not like this design, but a better artist can make it work.

The Lone Star Complex

But enough about that, time for the thing the book really wants to talk about : mad scientists making mutant abominations!

The Lone Star Complex was built in 2092 A.D. (the rifts occurred in 2098), but when found seemed to be entirely abandoned. The Coalition uncovered it when searching for oil, and it remains their greatest find, catapulting their technology forward by decades of where it would otherwise be. Most of it was fully intact, complete with documentation and research. Nobody knows what happened to the original staff, only finding a few skeletons.

Desmond Bradford - he's the head of research at Lone Star, but we haven't actually been told that yet - discovered that Sub-Level Nine of the facility was dedicated to trans-dimensional research. He's locked nearly everybody out of it as a result, but he believes some cross-section of the rifts opening and their research transported the staff to another dimension. He doesn't have any hard evidence, but it's probably the strongest hypothesis. (The book says "as good a theory as any", which is probably the wrong term when it comes to a scientist.) Also, he's going to be get a looot of love from the book, so get ready for it slather praise on a psychopathic madman.


"Don't worry! You'll be safe outside the wall! Look at how many pouches you have!"

An Overview of the Lone Star Complex

It's noted this section is kept as brief as possible, and it could fill a whole book by itself (dear Siembieda, please never do that, thanks). Let's go level by level:
  • The Surface - Is is the main Coalition military base with 24,000 troops. It also includes the "Vendetta Squad" led by Brigadier General Kalpov, which is sent against high-value Coalition targets. In truth, the "Vendetta Squad" mainly seems set up as a the type of group that would go after PCs, and isn't too overwhelming.
  • Underground Level One: Military - This is where a lot of the military bureaucracy is located, as well as some of the main storage and hangar areas. The prison and a training area for dog boys get the most details.
  • Underground Level Two: Military, Again - Mainly put over to residential and recreation areas for troops, this also has the main administrative offices for the complex.
  • Underground Level Three: Dog Boys - This is mainly dedication to the raising, indoctrination, and training of dog boys, complete with fake habitats. This is also where human augmentation (Borgs, Juicers) is performed.
  • Underground Level Four: Factory Level - Factories. Smelting and forging, clothing manufacture, cybernetics, power armor, robots, weapons, canning - really, too many factories. This is starting to feel like those bases I drew when I was twelve, what with the hovercraft hangar and a waterslide that extended from the telescope room to the pool.
  • Underground Level Five: Genetics Engineering Division - This is where the military section ends and access tends to be restricted to Bradford and his cronies. Here they have cloning labs, R&D for human augmentation, pens for animals and experiments, as well as residential and recreation systems for the research staff. Seems like a good idea to keep the dangerous mutants next to the mad scientists, everything will go as planned.
  • Underground Level Six: Genetics Engineering Division - This is where the main genetics research and modification goes on, as well as where experienments are held. There's also more residential area here, as well as the master life support system if you're looking to suffocate everybody. That may seem bloodthirsty and indiscriminate, but will seem more and more like a practical idea the more you learn about the folks in charge here.
  • Underground Level Seven: Sector 357 - Off Limits - Bradford's private research institute, this only allows him and his most elite research staff (or elite research slaves, in some cases). It has private quarters so his tools don't have to leave. Did I mention he's kind of a monster? Don't worry, we'll hear about it at excruciating length later.
  • Underground Level Eight: Unfinished - Off Limits - The major part of this level is a geothermal plant that was never completed (and that the Coalition has no idea how to finish). It's also home to a number of escaped experiments that have used the unfinished level as a hiding hole, including a large number of mutant rats. What do they eat, though? The newer mutants?
  • Underground Level Nine: Top Secret - Off Limits - This is where the aforementioned dimension-crossing technology (the "Dimension Door Project") is located, and only Bradford knows about it. Somehow. Prosek apparently isn't even curious, so that's that.
0
"Party in the secret monster lab! Woo!"

Sector 357

We get a fiction chunk where mutants are running amok in Sector 357, but Bradford keeps Coalition troops from killing them, instead walking in himself and mysteriously resolving the crisis. When a Coalition trooper questions him, he has him sent to the Tolkeen frontline. That's supposed to be a punishment, but it seems better to me than working for Bradford. Everything I poke at here at Bradford may be premature, but by the end I think you'll see what I'm talking about. In any case, this is Bradford's "private monster factory". When he reveals information about it to his underlings, it's usually as a sort of blackmail, making them complicit in his questionable experiments to make them hesitant to try and report him to other Coalition authorities.

Basically it goes on about how clever and cunning Bradford is and :circlefap:

Next: Man's Best Slave.

Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Jun 9, 2017

DalaranJ
Apr 15, 2008

Yosuke will now die for you.
Erin Tarn with an overview.

Do we ever get an overview from Prosek, and if so is it hilarious or horrifying or both?

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

DalaranJ posted:

Erin Tarn with an overview.

Do we ever get an overview from Prosek, and if so is it hilarious or horrifying or both?

Well, bear in mind everything we hear from Erin Tarn and Karl Prosek is in terms of "real setting" documents the PCs can experience, even if it's not presented in a way that's friendly to handling them in that sense. Erin Tarn writes letters and travelogues and is very frank and open. All we get from Prosek are his speeches, which are generally a mixture of propaganda and proclamations. So we don't get much insight as to what the Proseks might personally profess or feel.

Most of how the Proseks intersect with Lone Star will have to do with their relationship with Bradford and where the two Proseks (Karl, the emperor, and Joseph, the heir) conflict on that.

Big Mad Drongo
Nov 10, 2006

Alien Rope Burn posted:


"Party in the secret monster lab! Woo!"

Are... are those nipple tentacles?

senrath
Nov 4, 2009

Look Professor, a destruct switch!


Mors Rattus posted:

Well, your brain, sure. I don't believe it does poo poo for your body.

I could see it being useful if you used it to preserve highly skilled individuals who were dying (injuries, age, disease, whatever). Going to lose your best pilot? Not anymore, just crystallize their brain and shove it in their (rebuilt) mech!

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
Yes, they're nipple tentacles, and I'm sure they each grant an extra attack per melee.

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.
They're actually micromissiles launchers (1d4x10 megadamage)

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.
Just wanna say I still love System Mastery. Nexus made my day today.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Big Mad Drongo posted:

Are... are those nipple tentacles?

At Lone Star, science gets stupid.

Simian_Prime
Nov 6, 2011

When they passed out body parts in the comics today, I got Cathy's nose and Dick Tracy's private parts.

MonsieurChoc posted:

Just wanna say I still love System Mastery. Nexus made my day today.

:same:

Every time I hear about Kev Sim and all his bizarre business decisions, I can't help but feel that there's an interesting tragicomic movie in there somewhere. He's like the Michael Scott of the RPG industry.

Imagine if the RIFTS movie gets optioned, but turns it into a Wes Anderson film about an eccentric Midwestern game designer whose behavior causes rifts :wink: between him and his friends and business partners.

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



unseenlibrarian posted:

They're actually micromissiles launchers (1d4x10 megadamage)

It likely has concealed mini-missiles too.

Mr.Misfit
Jan 10, 2013

The time for
SkellyBones
has come!

Simian_Prime posted:

:same:

Every time I hear about Kev Sim and all his bizarre business decisions, I can't help but feel that there's an interesting tragicomic movie in there somewhere. He's like the Michael Scott of the RPG industry.

Imagine if the RIFTS movie gets optioned, but turns it into a Wes Anderson film about an eccentric Midwestern game designer whose behavior causes rifts :wink: between him and his friends and business partners.

Doesn´t even have to be a movie, simply write a book about something that is clearly based on his life and decisions, but called "Breach" or any other RIFTS™ synonym and you got yourself a great and dramatic novel of the failure of the american dream on the cliffs of ego and the american man. Hell, make it all political and you get an Ayn Rand/t out of it ;)

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Thanks!

It doesn't have to be a failure story for Kevin. Dude may leave a lot of disappointment in his wake but I spoke with him in person for a few hours last month(note that we know how to pronounce his name now) and he seems pretty happy for himself. Great story about the success of american capitalism measured in costs of broken friendships and weird deals.

gourdcaptain
Nov 16, 2012

theironjef posted:

Thanks!

It doesn't have to be a failure story for Kevin. Dude may leave a lot of disappointment in his wake but I spoke with him in person for a few hours last month(note that we know how to pronounce his name now) and he seems pretty happy for himself. Great story about the success of american capitalism measured in costs of broken friendships and weird deals.

I am very curious about this meeting.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

gourdcaptain posted:

I am very curious about this meeting.

We conducted an interview that we won't use for technical reasons (dude didn't wear headphones so it sounds like he's a normal guy and we're cave aliens). We're on the calendar to do another one so it's no big deal.

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Simian_Prime
Nov 6, 2011

When they passed out body parts in the comics today, I got Cathy's nose and Dick Tracy's private parts.

theironjef posted:

Thanks!

It doesn't have to be a failure story for Kevin. Dude may leave a lot of disappointment in his wake but I spoke with him in person for a few hours last month(note that we know how to pronounce his name now) and he seems pretty happy for himself. Great story about the success of american capitalism measured in costs of broken friendships and weird deals.

Interesting. Yeah, I'm not imaging the story as a tragedy any more than "The Office" is a tragedy. It's just be a neat story to map all of Kev's high and low points in the little niche he managed to carve for himself our strange little hobby.

It'd just be an even more compelling comedy because, instead of more mundane business like paper supply, you'd got the backdrop of a product revolving around the bizarre sci-fi/fantasy brainchild that is RIFTS. Like imagine a scene where two schlubby guys in a mall food court are having a serious, loud argument over whether the Dogboy Technowizard class should be an RCC or an OCC while the clerk at Panda Express wonders if he should call security.

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