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I get the sense from the number of fights with loving demons early in a campaign with no character progression and limited gear that the designers don't think the demons are as dangerous as they are and think PCs are much better fighters than they are. Especially given there are no other options but fighting.
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Jul 23, 2017 14:13
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Night10194 posted:I get the sense from the number of fights with loving demons early in a campaign with no character progression and limited gear that the designers don't think the demons are as dangerous as they are and think PCs are much better fighters than they are. Given how... min-maxed is probably the wrong term, but it's in the ballpark... the demons are mechanically, I'm guessing the writers expected the PCs to be the same way.
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Jul 23, 2017 15:09
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Boy howdy playing in a group with a Damnation-focused character sounds like it'd just be the worst.
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Jul 23, 2017 15:21
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 The Ghost Mammoth. WÜRM Rulebook Cover - Watercolour & Acrylic, 2010 Würm is a French roleplaying game originally published by Edition’s Icare, and translated into English by Nocturnal Media, who are the company that currently publishes Pendragon. The translation was funded on Kickstarter back in 2015, allowing a translation of the core book, three supplements, and an art-book. The core book is a compilation of the original French core, as well as several supplements and errata to make one complete book in English, which is what I’m covering. The primary author and illustrator is French artist and writer Emmanuel Roudier. He isn’t really known in America, but his career is mostly defined by several comics: Vo’Houna, Neandertal, and La Guerre du feu, which essentially act as the source material for Wurm. He’s also done several professional illustrations for exhibits and museums which show up as art for this book. This book is obviously an enormous passion project for Roudier, who absolutely loves the Paleolithic, and it shows. This book drips quality, and obvious enthusiasm and love for the material. It’s also by far the best game I’ve seen at actually clearly showing what the hell the players are supposed to do, and has some amazing adventure seeds/design/suggestions to help drive campaigns.  Rearing Horse and his Auxiliary Spirits. Cover Illustration for Vo’huna, Vol.3 - India Ink, 2004 But without further ado, let’s get into it: Dawé the Damned The book opens with a bit of introductory fiction, which also turns out to be a stealth adventure seed. The story is about Dawé Moon-eyes, a Neanderthal woman on her deathbed dying of some mysterious illness while her unnamed son sits b y her bed caring for her. As she lays dying, she tells her son of her life’s story: When she was young, Dawé caught the eye of Ar-Zul, a hotheaded rear end in a top hat hunter of her tribe who wanted to make her his woman. Dawé was uninterested in his advances, even to the point that she rejected what was essentially a public proposal from him (A deer hide presented in front of the clan Elders, how romantic!) which turned him hostile and angry toward her. This apparently didn’t amount to much until the Neanderthals first met with Cro Magnon man. Dawé and her people actually got along wonderfully with the Cro Magnons, exchanging gifts, spending time around each other, and making friends. In particular Black Lion, the hunt leader of the Cro Magnon tribe, and his beautiful sister Shining Magpie, a wonderfully kind girl with an enchanting voice. She was very popular with the Neanderthal boys, particularly Ar-Zul who kept trying to put the moves on her even though Magpie was totally oblivious to his advances. Well, he apparently got sick of that because one day they find Shining Magpie strangled to death after she was raped! While Ar-Zul was the obvious culprit, the Neanderthal clan elders protected him from consequence blaming the Cro Magnons for bringing bad luck and stirring up hostility with the newcomers. Black Lion though was actually not a dumbass and sought compromise: As a woman was taken from them, they wanted a woman in return. Not as a sacrifice, but to replace the lost tribe-member. Obviously Dawé was chosen on Ar-Zul’s suggestion because he’s a fucker. Dawé moved in with the Cro Magnons and actually got along wonderfully, integrating right into her new tribe, eventually falling in love with and marrying Black Lion though she bore him no children. This happy time wasn’t to last though. The Cro Magnons were being devastated by the Curse of Mordagg, a deadly plague that weakens the victim over a month until they die a painful death. Black Lion died, along with many others, before the tribe’s Shaman found a cure for the disease. Sadly Dawé never learned what it was. The Cro Magnon elders let Dawé free of her bond to them after Black Lion’s death, and she left them to find a new tribe. She eventually settled with another Neanderthal clan led by a chief called Bahor, where she married Ougrar the Brave who is the father of her nameless son. Bahors clan was also plagued by the Curse of Mordagg though. Ougrar died, and Bahor’s tribe sought to escape the disease by leaving the land and going elsewhere, but Dawé stayed in her homeland with her infant son. Dawé sought new refuge with the clan of her birth, only to find that Ar-Zul was now Ar-Zul the White, the shaman of the tribe, and undisputed decision maker of the tribe. Now, Ar-Zul’s tribe as also getting messed up by the Curse, and he quickly made Dawé the scapegoat for it blaming her leaving the Cro Magnon tribe as the cause of the curse by breaking her word. He exiles her and her child to die out in the wilderness alone. Thankfully, not everyone listened to Ar-Zul, and some of them secretly helped her out over the years. Now Dawé is dying of the Curse of Moragg as well, and she fears her son will be hounded by Ar-Zul as she was, but she’s got a plan, see! She tells her son to seek out Black Lion’s tribe, and integrate into them, becoming one of them by using her reputation, in order to learn the cure for the Curse of Moragg. Then, once sonny-boy has the cure, he’s supposed to come back, cure the Curse, and use this influence to throw Ar-Zul out on his wrinkly rear end to freeze to death. Then she dies. Yeah, just make one of the PCs her son, or heck, all the PCs her children, and boom you have a very good start for a campaign about a family of young Neanderthals proving themselves to a tribe of Cro-Magnons in order to take vengeance upon their mother’s persecutor who just happens to be a murdering rapist and powerful shaman.  What is Würm? Well, first an explanation of the name: Würm comes from the Würm Glaciation, which is in turn named after the Würm River in Bavaria. The Würm Glaciation was the most recent period of expansion for the Alpine glaciers, which corresponds with the Weichselian Glaciation to the north.  Here’s a map showing what Europe looked like at the time This Ice Age lasted from 115,000 to 11,700 years ago, though Würm the game is more accurately set approximately 35,000 years ago, which is right in the middle of the meeting of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon men in Europe during the Pleistocene/Paleolithic era. Now, most of the first chapter is explaining what an RPG is, nicely it does it in depth over an entire 6 pages. It clearly explains what a GM is and does, what players are and do, provides an example of play based around not rules but explaining exactly how you talk when playing an rpg and what each person is expected to actually physically do duringplay, how rolling die works on a conceptual level, explains common terminology like “session” and “campaign” and basically is what I’d give someone who has no idea what the hell an RPG is. I believe this is in large part because the game is in part designed to be child-friendly, and there are optional rules for playing as children-characters for kid appropriate adventuring as well, so it’s overall very new player friendly. So, next time we’ll jump right into Chapter 2: Character Creation! Extra Art I Couldn’t Fit In Between the Text    Vo’huna & Rearing Horse. First Sketch - Pencil & Watercolour, 2000
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Jul 23, 2017 17:56
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 Rifts World Book 15: Spirit West, Part 4: "They ride horses and/or monsters, while those not 100% devoted to tradition will use hovercycles." So, we're told that traditional Native Americans live in the wild, where- Rifts World Book 15: Spirit West posted:Most "modern people" of all races and advocates of science and high-technology discard these people as "primitive," "backwater," "retro," and low-tech or even anti-technology societies. Some, like the Coalition States, consider them primitive, "retro-savages," either beneath their concern or dangerous because they call upon and worship supernatural forces (or just because their belief system and culture is too different). And then we get a laundry list of regions and lists of tribes that live in them. Nothing about those tribes, just lists like: Rifts World Book 15: Spirit West posted:Northeast Tribes How useful is that? Boy, I'm glad I can pronounce a bunch of names I still don't know terribly much about! Well, time to power through this section even though I know it will thrill noone and irritate some.
Next: Rejecting the modern.
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Jul 23, 2017 18:13
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) use dog sleds and igloos but "Modern Inuit prefers snowmobiles, power armor and modern tents and buildings." We're told they've rediscovered a pre-rifts military base but more on that much, much later.
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drat, Wurm has real good art.
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Jul 23, 2017 18:17
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I was interested in Wurm because someone mentioned that it's child-friendly, but then the opening fiction features a rape and murder, so maybe we mean different things by that. I guess we'll see; I'll go back and read more. The PDF is 25% off ($12) on DTRPG right now through July 31, fwiw.
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Jul 23, 2017 18:35
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Child friendly in that there are optional rules to make it more so, but the book as a whole is more adult, yes. It doesn't shy away from the reality of paleolithic life and survival, and a lot of the adventures are driven by human faults and desires.
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Jul 23, 2017 19:00
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Yea it encourages you to simplify it and obviously cut out the dumb rape poo poo so you can run a game for kids but the book itself is in no way 'kid friendly'.
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Jul 23, 2017 23:08
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JcDent posted:
Eh? Sci fi anthologies were my bread and butter as a kid, and those weren't exactly unknowns, but there were other options. Lots of them. There were puzzle stories where the protagonists solve the problem of the setup and escaped, lighthearted adventures where nothing went too bad, bittersweet meditations on the human condition where people got what they wanted but wondered if it was worth it, straight up comedy... There's a whole subgenre of doomed travelogues, but that's not the same thing as all sci-fi.
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Jul 23, 2017 23:08
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sexpig by night posted:Yea it encourages you to simplify it and obviously cut out the dumb rape poo poo so you can run a game for kids but the book itself is in no way 'kid friendly'. At least the "maybe these people always sport raging erections" character option will keep them amused.
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Jul 23, 2017 23:17
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Bieeardo posted:Hm. There are multiple references to labyrinths in those planar destinations. Is it possible that the Taur are some offshoot of the Progenitors? That's a connection I hadn't thought of. Luthias' Fifth Prophecy does claim the greatest enemy of humanity would be "rebel children of the Progenitors of a world beyond", but I just figured "Oh, it's prophecy, they don't actually mean the Progenitors." I mean, all these labyrinths could just have a more prosaic explanation.
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Jul 23, 2017 23:42
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That's entirely true! Much more likely that they'd be enormous catteries or something.
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Jul 24, 2017 00:13
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Ninja Crusade 2e - The Firebrands: Bad Friends Our final host is Sumi Rika, an orphan to the first attacks of the Ninja Crusade. She is known to volunteer for the most danger ous missions she can, and she is an utter monster in combat. She's a tall, thin and long-haired woman who doesn't like to dress heavily or in anything constricting. She drinks a lot with Sake, but even drunk, she is a deadly combatant. She will go to any risk to keep those who still have families with those families. She starts off by having the initiate hit her. He's not very good at it and hesitates. She says he'll have to let go of all hesitation to survive. She also gives the initiate a set of tattooing needles. Eventually, the initiate will need to carve his own handles. The needles will never, ever be used on anyone except the initiate, in order to keep them attuned to his chi. That's why the handles can be removed - everyone has their own handles. The tattoo artist uses your needles and their handles. That lets the handles absorb the artist's chi and be most usable, while the needles absorb the subject's chi and become more effective. The process of tattooing is known as tebori, and mastering it can take years. Most Gardeners are not masters, and so do not have the artist's name - again, "Hori" plus a syllable from your name and a syllable from your master's. In some rare cases, you can actually take on your master's name entirely and become the next in the horishi dynasty. There's also the Horikaze name taken by the clan leader, but that's not the same. The Gardeners tend to be rebellious and like to question authority, and that means that organizing them is kind of like herding cats. They believe it's good to have disagreement - it stops complacency. However, even they know that ignoring good advice is stupid, and that you shouldn't rebel purely for the sake of rebellion, but rather to choose what you believe is best. Even the Gardeners have a structure, too, but it's a pretty organic one. Those who can lead best rise to the top and take charge, and people listen because they're good at it. It just becomes obvious over time. There's no need to sit down and debate - you find your rhythm or you fail. (The Gardeners aren't the best at providing safety nets for failure.) Initiates are the bottom of the clan. They do not yet have the clan tattoo and have not yet been chosen as a student by one of the horishi. They are not yet full Sumi. The clan tattoo, granted by your horishi master, is the one tattoo you can never hide. Irezumi can be removed, horimono can be hidden, bt the clan tattoo is permanent and visible. Those shamed and cast out to be ronin have their clan tattoo painfully burned off, leaving an ugly scar. Initiates work to prove their worth to the horishi and be taken as students, becoming one of the nebulous mass of ninja in the clan that occupy the middle ranks. The Kurokamen are an elite fighting force within the Virtuous Body Gardeners. A team of Kurokamen can wipe out an entire Imperial cadre, and their name means 'Black Masks.' This is because when they enter battle, their jutsus turn their tattoos into a single art piece that covers the entire body, including the face. This gives the appearance of oni, with the black and blue-green tattoo ink covering the entire body, like a demon emerged from the tattoo. The Gardeners do not correct people who hold this misconception. The horishi are the elders of the clan, accomplished not only in jutsu and tattooing skill but in life. They have experienced many things, and that is why they can understand master both tebori and jutsu. It's not about age - it's about life experience. If you can pack a lot of living into a very short time, as long as your skills keep pace you can become horishi. Kayanwe, for example, is quite young but is well on his way to becoming horishi. The trick is earning respect - the Gardeners respect only those who they believe have earned it, not those who claim titles. Horishi also serve as the teachers and guides of the clan, and help direct it. The Sumi don't take orders well, but they respect the advice given by the horishi. The most respected of all is the Horikaze. In all conflicts within the clan, the Horikaze is the final authority. If you seek out the Horikaze's opinion, you agree to be bound by it. Period. If you don't plan to honor it, don't bother going to see the Horikaze. The Horikaze speaks for the clan as a whole to outsiders, and at this point spends most of his time dealing with the Lotus Coalition. So, how do the Dancers feel about other clans? First, they believe it's bad to get too comfortable with them - always expect them to pull something out you've never heard of. The Bamboo Herbalists, they've found, are extremely good to have around. They have good medicine, and some of that medicine takes the form of even better alcohol. Always a good thing. The Blazing Dancers are a kindred spirit to the Sumi - passionate troublemakers and good fighters, who understand the Inks better than just about anyone. he Grasping Shadows, on the other hand, are pretensious assholes who've decided they are the final arbiter on what it means to be ninja - and no one but them ever succeeds. They act like they're owed hero worship just for being Kumori, and there's no point to showing them the respect they want - it's not like it'll make them treat you any better. The Hidden Strands of Fate are the antithesis of the Gardeners. They are politicians, manipulators and control freaks, like spiders in a web. While the Gardeners may not like the Serpents or Shadows, they hate the Strands. The problem is, even if you do decide to fight them, they don't fight fair. They'll wield society against you - little coincidences, little inconveniences, bad luck. Always with their mark, to let you know who's loving with you. They never fight straight up. The Living Chronicle, surprisingly, are not hated. Sure, living under their rule was a problem - but only the elders give a poo poo about that any more, if anyone at all. No sense blaming them any more. Besides, the Chronicle understand the Sumi in a lot of ways, and respect their art, and if a Rekishi treats a Sumi with respect when asking for tattooing - well, that's not a burden any more, that's an honor. The Pack of the Black Moon are terrifyingly powerful. The Sumi know that nature is a potentially terrible foe - and the Pack are nature incarnate. The Pack are amazing fighters, and pissing them off is very dangerous...but once they're loyal, they're loyal forever. The Recoiling Serpents, meanwhile, are not friends. Ever. They may be allies of convenience, but they are ruthless, cold and vicious. They are very patient, and they always get revenge. Always. The Wardens of Equilibrium aren't so dangerous - but they are assholes, obsessed with getting payment and reward for any good they do. That's their idea of 'balance.' The Will of Iron are not about good or justice - not real justice. They don't accept any changes from their idea of right and wrong, and while they'll always do right as they see it, they don't care who gets hurt when they do. The Sumi don't really understand why the Will of Iron haven't just sided with the Emperor, since in theory he's the source of all law anyway. And as for the Empire? Well, it doesn't matter what you think of another ninja or their clan, once the Empire gets involved. Any fight between ninja should be forgotten, because the real enemy is the Emperor and his forces. Even if you were about to kill a Serpent for betraying you or whatever, stop. Go fight the Imperial soldiers. Never forget that they are the true enemy. Next time: New mechanics.
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Jul 24, 2017 00:15
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 Chapter 2: Creating a Character  Faudraug, Vo’huna & Gohoum. Illustration for the Neanderthal Museum, Germany - Pencil & Watercolour, 2006 Character creation in Würm is cooperative between the Players and GM. The default assumption is that the GM will, before players make a character, already have decided what species the players are playing, which tribe or tribes they are part of, and what role the players are filling in the campaign. The individuals are of course totally up to the players, but I feel this sort of guided approach can help a lot to prevent incompatible parties and smooth out character creation.  Peoples and Tribes So, let’s grab the character sheet and start making a character. The first decision, though it may actually be defined by the GM, is the species of the characters. This legit has huge effects mechanically, affecting almost every part of the game. As this is Pleistocene Europe, there are two species to choose from:  Foam Hand & Shadow Mane. Characters sketch for Vo’huna - Pencil & Watercolour, 2005 Long Men Homo sapiens sapiens Long Men are us, modern humans. In popular terms these are Cro Magnon, from the French Abri de Cro-Magnon, meaning Rock Shelter of Magnon’s, the shallow cave where the first Cro Magnon remains were discovered. Anatomically the Long Men are nearly identical to us, with a trend for heavier bodies, slight brow ridges, and a slightly larger brain cavity. Most Long Men have darker complexions, ranging from tanned to dark brown, fitting as humans migrated into Europe through the Middle East and therefore likely did have a Middle Eastern or Mediterranean look. They have black hair, with brown, black, or blue eyes. Long Men live in large clans of 20 to 40 individuals which are semi-nomadic and live in large comfortable huts. The Long Men of Würm are part of the Aurignacian culture, with some clans having elements of early Gravettian culture present. This will be better explained in later chapters when we get to crafting and the culture of the peoples of the Ice Age, but it means they’re the more “advanced” culture at the time.  Trolv, Mehoun’tha & Gohoum. Characters sketch for Vo’huna - Pencil & Watercolour, 2005 Bear Men Homo sapiens neanderthalensis Bear Men are what we call Neanderthals, a human subspecies seemingly native to Eurasia that evolved simultaneously alongside Homo sapiens sapiens. Bear Men are sometimes called Trolls by Long Men. Bear Men get much more description than Long Men as one would expect, so “bear” with me! Bear Men were shorter than Long Men as a rule, with Long Men males standing around 6 foot tall and Bear Men averaging 5 foot, smaller than even the average Long Men female. Heights among Bear Men don’t vary by sex though, as both males and females have the same average stature. Bear Men have very distinctive faces, with large jaws, small or no chin, a long wide nose, and a large prominent brow ridge above the eyes. They have fair to pale skin, with lighter brown, blonde, or even red hair and amber, green, or hazel eyes. While smaller, they are much more powerfully built than Long Men, with much thicker bones, heavier ligaments and much more powerful muscles. This also is the same between sexes, with Bear Men women being just as physically imposing as the males. Hairless or Hairy? The Neanderthal Look Basically, no one knows what Neanderthal’s looked like. We have skeletons, so we can get their general shape, height, etc down, and also reasonably infer things like muscle size/power, facial features, and locomotion, but most of the rest is unknown. How pale or dark was their skin? Eye color? Were their noses bulbous, or upturned, or maybe both? We know they had hair, but how much? Was it like modern humans? More body hair? A full on ape-like covering of fur? Were their ears big or small? Round or pointed? Flat back or sticking out? By default Würm assumes a human-like Neanderthal appearance, as seen in the illustration at the beginning of this post, but acknowledges GMs can do whatever they like and it won’t mess with the rules or ruin the setting in any way.  The Tribe As mentioned before, the Tribe and Clan of the players are most likely going to be defined ahead of time by the GM based on their own ideas or on the adventure/campaign being played. But as normal, players and GMs can collaborate to make one up, or even play as members of several different Clans or Tribes. This section also goes into what a Tribe or Clan is: Basically a Clan is a group of one or more families that are all connected by a common lineage or ancestry. This forms the most basic social unit of the Paleolithic world, and they generally stick together. A Tribe is made up of several clans who share a common authority or system of government, essentially being a grouping of related or friendly clans. Gender and Age Gender is actually covered in a later chapter, about the roles of Women and sex in the Ice Age, but this bit basically says it doesn’t matter for the rules. Mechanically Men and Women are identical in Würm. Age is different though: Bear Men reach maturity three or four years earlier than Long Men do. So Long Men are considered adults at around 15, while Bear Men are adults at 12. For women the “coming of age” is based on their first menstrual cycle, but it roughly matches with men age-wise. As a rule of thumb, over 25 would be considered mature, and over 50 is thought of as being properly old, though obviously people live for much longer than that if they’re lucky and well cared for. You can of course choose age, but if players want to randomly generate theirs, the game suggests rolling 1d6 and adding 14 for Long Men and 10 for Bear Men to get a starting age for their character. Choosing to Play Long Men or Bear-Men? How to Start? In short: Long Men are more familiar to players as they are psychologically and physically similar to modern humans, and people have a lot of stone-age hunter gatherer societies like the Native Americans, Inuit, Aboriginal Australians, etc to draw inspiration from. Bear Men are more alien both physically, and possibly mentally if the GM wants to run it that way, but players may enjoy the additional challenge or novelty of playing a non-human. THis section also advises to avoid caricature and parody: the Ooga Booga cartoon caveman with the leopard skin toga and rough tree branch has no basis in reality and kills the mood of the game. There are other RPGs suitable for playing a comedic prehistory style of game (Og: Unearthed Edition is real good, especially if you’re a little drunk) but Würm is not it.  Vo’huna. Character sketch for Vo’huna - Pencil & Watercolour, 2005 Strengths Strengths are one of the main ways to differentiate different characters. These are situational bonuses that allow players to specialize their characters and have areas of expertise. Generally this bonus in the form of a 1d6 bonus to a specific action or set of actions, though other benefits are possible. Each character starts with 3 Strengths: One determined by whether the character is a Long Man or Bear Man and two others of the players choice. Players can start with 4 Strengths, but then they also have to take a Weakness (covered after the Strength chapter). Now, Strengths are each tied to an Animal or natural feature, representing the characters bond to a Totem Spirit of that beast. This is actually a balancing feature: if a character ever kills one of the animals associated with a Strength not in self-defense, or eats the flesh of the creature outside of a ritual context, he loses that Strength. One big flaw is that the game nowhere tells you explicitly how to get those strengths back, but it isn’t very hard to infer that the intended course is to seek out a Shaman and have him negotiate with the spirit to restore the strength, possibly in exchange for a quest or service of some sort. There are rules specifically for doing that, so this seems more like a missing reference than a lack of support. These Totem spirits also act as Auxiliary Spirits if your character is or becomes a Shaman. List of Strengths First off I’ll cover the strengths based upon your people. It’s important to note that these are not exclusive: Bear Men can choose a Long Men Strength and vice versa as one of their Strengths of Choice, it’s just that a Bear Man must have one of their two People based Strengths at the start of the game. Long Men
Bear Men
 Laghu. Character sketch for Neanderthal - Pencil & Watercolour, 2007 Now that that’s done, let’s go over the rest of them!
And that’s all the Strengths! The rest of this section is just advice for combining strengths that may stack. By default it suggests just not allowing them to be cumulative, and only giving the player the 1d6 bonus even if they have multiple strengths that apply to a situation, but there are rules and suggestions for combining them anyway. First, you should only allow a 2d6 bonus on rolls that are either really difficult, or super important to the campaign, which probably are also super difficult. It’s a thing that allows the character to overcome a seemingly impossible challenge, not something to let them crush everything they come across. Breath of the Stag and Protection of the Vixen can be freely combined though, for the 2d6 to resist illness not being something that would upset balance or remove challenge. The two biggest problem skills are Might of the Bison and Strength of the Bear, as they both buff combat massively. Instead the game suggests a character with these two Strengths get a flat +3 to the relevant rolls in addition to the 1d6 bonus. So, more powerful, but not as insane as a 2d6 bonus. Might of the bison also has a big limiting factor, in that Bison are one of the most common prey animals and so it would greatly limit the characters diet and hunting choices. Weaknesses Characters can start the game with up to 2 weaknesses. One if they take an extra Strength at creation, and one if the decide to master a Talent or Secret Skill at creation. These are other special abilities, but they’ll be covered later. You can learn them after creation, this is just if you want to start with one. As a general rule, a Weakness will inflict a flat -3 penalty to certain rolls, though as with Strengths some have different effects as well. List of Weaknesses
And that wraps up Weaknesses! And this post! It’s getting a bit long, so we’ll wrap up Chapter 2 next time with Experience, Stamina, Talents and Secret Skills, Prestige, Equipment, and Playing Children!
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Jul 24, 2017 02:21
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Ninja Crusade 2e - The Firebrands: Mechanics Time We get some new chargen options - for example, new Temperaments include Child of the Wu Ji Theater, a Dancer-only temperament for having been raised in the clan, or Kakou Born, a general one that is for being raised in Kakou and learning to survive on the streets but not be trusted by anyone. Some new Professions - you can be a Bellows if you're a DAncer and want to be a famous performing star, say. We also get some new Afflictions, such as being unable to feel joy easily or having skin that appears too smooth and unscarred and so makes you look like you never work or help fight. And of course new Wartime Role stuff, such as an Ink-only rebel hero one or a Dancer-only one for being one of the Hands. We also get some new Animal Styles! Well, sort of. The first one, Artist's Eye, is obviously not an animal style per se, but it functions identically - it has no weapon associated with it. It can only be taken by the Virtuous Body Gardeners, and is a third style option at chargen, to go with the two Animal Styles they have access to. Battle Is Beauty Level 1: On a Boost while attacking, you may immediately make a second attack on a different target in Close range. Level 2: You can do this out to Near range now, and you get +2 to the followup attack. Level 3: You get a bonus to all attacks equal to the number of Conditions the target currently has. (Their value doesn't matter - just how many they've got.) Impossible Target Level 1: Opponents attacking you get -1 to their attacks per level of Armor they are wearing (capped by your level in this). Level 2: Opponents attempting to initiate a Grapple with you do so at -2. Level 3: If you get a Boost on Defense, you may redirect the attack to another target in Close range, who may make their own Defense against the original attack roll. Suspension Expert Level 1: Reduce all Pain penalties by 1. You also get +1 Discipline per level while suspended from hooks. Level 2: If you spend at least one hour in meditation, for one day afterwards you may mold 2 Ki with a single Mold Ki action, without need to spend any Dynamic Actions. Level 3: Reduce all Pain penalties by 2 instead of 1. You get +1 Health. Fox Style is all about messing with enemy expectations, taking them down fast and not getting hit. However, it can't easily deal with ranged attacks. Back to One Level 1: When an opponent makes a Prepare action (generally to, say, draw a weapon), you may reflexively attempt to stop it by rolling Speed+Fighting against their Might+Speed, canceling out what they are doing somehow. If you succeed, the target cannot use their weapon for that Action. They may take a different Action, but get -1 to it. Level 2: You get +2 when using the level 1 technique. Level 3: The target's penalty after you use the level 1 technique increases to -2. Advantageous Strike Level 1-3: When an attacker rolls any 1s when attacking you, even if they hit, you get +1 per rolled 1 to your next attack on them, capped at (Level*2). Gracious Exit Level 1: While in a Grapple, you may perform a special clinging technique in which you climb over the opponent, then jump off their back. If your attack hits, you and the opponent end up a full Movement action apart, facing away from each other. The target takes +1 damage per level and must make an Athletics+Speed check to not fall over. Level 2: Even if your attack misses, you and the foe are searated and no longer considered in Close range. Level 3: The difficulty for the target to avoid falling over goes up. Scorpion Style is about using rope weapons and distance combat mixed in with close range unarmed attacks, moving constantly and using stealth to help take foes down. However, it has little in the way of defenses. Blood Strike Level 1: You may sacrifice up to (Level) Health to increase damage 1-for-1. You must do this before you roll for the attack. Level 2: Now, you may use this after you make the attack roll. You get +1 to the attack if you use it before the roll. Level 3: If you sacrifice 3 Health, you add +4 damage instead of the normal 1-for-1 trade. If you get a Boost on a Blood Strike attack, you may regain 1 Health. Scorpion Kick Level 1: You do a handstand and kick from above, like a scorpion's tail. You get -2 to the attack, but do +1 damage and cause the target to lose their Standard ACtion for the Round if you hit. If the target has already acted, they instead get -4 Initiative next Round. Level 2: Your attack penalty is reduced to -1, and the damage goes up to +2. Level 3: The target also loses 1 Dynamic Action. If the target has already acted and has no Dynamic Actions to lose, they automatically go last in all Rounds for the rest of the Battle. Wrap and Launch Level 1: You must be using a Chain weapon. During Battle, you wrap your weapon around yourself to allow you to use all of your muscle with it. Every third attack you make gets +2 to hit and +1 damage. Level 2: It's now +3 to hit and +2 damage. Level 3: The bonus is applied every other attack instead of every third. We get some new example weapons, like the rope dart or katar, and some new 99 Styles. First up is Horimono. It's exclusive to the Inks, infusing ki into tattoos to do magic. However, it's limited by rank, much like summoning. Level 1: You get a tattoo of an important part of your life, increasing the bonus from a single Gift of your choice by 1, ignoring the limits for doing so with XP. Also, you get +1 to al jutsu activation checks per Horimono level. At rank 2, You get a second tattoo that shows a time when two parts of your life crossed paths. You select two Gifts and increase their bonuses by 1, ignoring the limits from doing so with XP. Level 2: You must be Rank 3. You get a third tattoo to remind you of your worst failure, increasing the Karma gained from a single Trigger of your choice by 1, ignoring the limits for doing so with XP. At Rank 4, you get a tattoo to commemorate your greatest achievement. You automatically succeed against fear or Intimidation checks and get one free level in a single Fighting or Weapon Style you possess. Level 3: You must be Rank 5. Your final horimono is a mutable one that depicts the possible future. By spending 1 Yin, you may reroll a check up to (Intuition) times, taking the best result. By spending 1 Yang, you may get +2 to any roll. Finally, we get Performing Troupe, which is actually a new technique for Master of Spies, usable only by the Blazing Dancers. You get a performing troupe as an Ally. Level 1: Whenever you perform with your troupe, you get +1 Performance per level. If you push the troupe to their limits, you may mark off their Ally box to raise this bonus to +2 per level. Level 2: You may send the troupe to an area to distract people for a Scene. No one will notice you slipping away to do something else if you do. Level 3: You can call on your troupe to get you an invtitation into anywhere - high-security forts, palaces, whatever. It takes a PErsuasion+Performance roll to plead your case and several days, with difficulty based on how secure the area is and how likely they'd let a bunch of guys in to put on a show. Next time: New jutsus Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 13:51 on Jul 24, 2017 |
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Jul 24, 2017 13:08
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 Part 4: "Whoopi Goldberg's character in the movie Ghost is a good example"  Chapter 2: Characters As with chapter 1, chapter 2 and all future chapters have a page or so of introductory fiction. We’ll be skipping over those unless there’s something particularly amusing in them, which there isn’t in this case. This is our chapter for actual game rules, so the summarizing will be more concise and we won’t be having three posts to get through the meat of a chapter. It is here that we get the label "heroic dark fantasy" for the setting, an interesting choice given that this is around the time that the term urban fantasy started getting some real running legs. We also get to see the wide scope of power levels you can play as. These are 100 points (you're just some slightly above-average schmuck, usually having just learned of the Shadow War), 150 to 200 points (First to Third Level Initiates; more on levels of Initiation in a bit), 250 to 300 points (Fourth and Fifth Level Initiates, as well as lower tier ghosts and In-Betweeners), and 400 to 500 points (powerful magicians and playable supernatural beings).  Character Types Created a few years before GURPS started using the concept of occupation templates to expedite character creation, GURPS Voodoo’s segment on character archetypes are a general suggestion on why that type of character would get involved with the Shadow War coupled with a smattering of suggested traits and skills. Since most of these are pretty self-explanatory, I won’t spend much time on any particular one.
 Advantages Five new advantages for GURPS Third Edition are presented in this section, some of which even made their way into the next edition. Ghost means you are an incorporeal spirit that has to play by the rules laid out for ghosts in a later chapter, Initiation is briefly stated to exist here but gets its own section in this very same chapter, Karmic Ties gives you a positive or negative link that continues on from a past life (two lovers inseparable even by reincarnation, eternal enemies, etc.), Rank (Lodges) is your degree in a Lodge, and Reawakened means you had your memories from a previous life wake back up. I should also note that it's here we learn the names of the different degrees the Lodges have, and bottom tier members are called either Mundane, Layman, or Ignoramus. Good to see that the Lodges have the sensibility of an elementary school student. Disadvantages Only one thing added here, and it’s Voices. You hear poo poo in your head, be it hallucinatory or very real spiritual presence. This disadvantage has the rather odd note that electroshock therapy might in fact drive away spirits. Skills Turns out that GURPS Voodoo was apparently the origin of the infamous Erotic Art skill GURPS has. Huh. You learn something new every day. There are also three explicitly supernatural new skills provided as well. Ritual Magic is the skill you roll to make magic do magic things, Vever Drawing lets you create a traditional Voodoo ritual icon to beef up your magic (knowing Ritual Magic already lets you do Vever Drawing at a -4 penalty without paying for the separate skill), and Shapeshifting lets you...well...shapeshift.  Initiation Initiation is a deep enough advantage that it gets its own whole section of the chapter. Not only is it the advantage that holds the power of magic, it also irrevocably changes the life of the Initiate. Levels of Initiation go from First to Tenth, and we even get statistics on around how many post-First Level Initiates exist in the 1995 world population. There are 666,666 Second Levels, 200,000 Third Levels, 100,000 Fourth Levels, 50,000 Fifth Levels, 10,000 Sixth Levels, 1,000 Seventh Levels, 500 Eighth Levels, "None? 20? Who knows?" Ninth Levels, and "Who knows?" Tenth Levels. I don’t actually mind this too much, as it is just some oddly specific flavor and isn’t used as a bludgeon against the players. Carella even notes that the whole like-attracts-like rule for Initiation means that a whole adventuring party of Initiates is the most likely scenario to happen. Of course, this still leaves the question of what different Levels even mean. Lucky for you, there’s no wait to find out. A First Level Initiate has access to Ritual Magic, obviously, and also gets a Spidey Sense towards the supernatural that manifests as a tingle, “gut feeling”, etc. They can also learn how to channel their powers into self-induced trances or being better at tasks through preparatory visualization of performing the task. Second Level Initiates get a stronger spiritual aura that causes individuals with the same spiritual beliefs to be attracted to them and individuals who are atheistic, members of an antagonistic belief system to yours, or have "fragile egos" have a distaste of you. This is also when you can learn how to channel spirits, so genuine mediums are at least Second Level. Other special abilities a Second Level Initiate can learn are Mystic Symbol, which lets the Initiate channel magic and resist supernatural forces better when they are holding a holy symbol of their belief system, and Spirit Advisor, which lets the Initiate have a non-combatant spirit that can be consulted on various matters. Moving up yet again, Third Level Initiates no longer have to make an IQ roll to get their sixth sense going and are able to communicate with and command spirits without needing a mystical conduit to do so. They can also optionally learn to put themselves into a state of torpor or buy a minor combat-capable spirit buddy. Moving further up the ladder, Fourth Level Initiates can always see and hear spirits, even if they might not be in the mood for it at the time, and if not properly cautious may be misdiagnosed as schizophrenic and locked away in an insane asylum. Whoops! The biggest thing about getting to Fourth Level, however, is the ability to buy the advantage Spirit Warrior. Gods and spirits, including the loa, are known to "ride" hosts (known as Horses or Mounts during the riding) via possession. If you have Spirit Warrior, however, you are both able to exert your will enough to stay mostly yourself as a Horse and channel some of the riding spirit's powers that don't get transmitted to just any old person they possess. After Fourth Level, things start changing somewhat less drastically each time for a bit. Fifth Level Initiates are instinctively drawn to situations that offer them an opportunity to use their powers in a way that both challenges and rewards them and can optionally gain the powers of faith healing or astral projection, Sixth Level Initiates can optionally buy the ability to no longer age, Seventh Level Initiates get a bunch of spirit hangers on as an innate rather than optionally-bought trait, and Eighth Level Initiates can now just make a Will vs. Will contest to damage spirits through sheer force of personality, permanently killing spirits that are dealt with in this manner. This, of course, only leaves the two big top tiers left. A Ninth Level Initiate has more or less become a force of nature unto themselves. They have to make a Will save at -6 to not reflexively hex someone who has offended them or bless someone that has pleased them, non-Initiate humans are at a -6 to all attack and defense rolls against them, and all but the strongest hostile spirits flee from their presence. Finally, upon reaching Tenth Level, the Initiate effectively becomes a racial template unto themselves. They have Charisma 6, Strong Will 5, and a number of spirit allies equall to their IQ stat times two. Mere uninitiated humans have to make a Will roll at -5 to even think about hurting the Initiate, and even if they succeed only critical hits do damage. The only thing that is a true threat to a Tenth Level Initiate is a supernatural being or another Initiate. As a big hook for your big heroes to do big things, it’s suggested that of the unknown number of these centuries- or even millennia-old superbeings, at least one is a Corruptor servant, and that Tenth Level Initiate in particular may be the Jenga block that breaks the tower of evil if pulled out of the equation. Sample Characters In the final segment of chapter 2, there are three sample characters, each from a differing power level of the campaign. Sheila Brown, Initiate of the Servants of Hecate (100 Points): Sheila Brown, Second Level Initiate of the Servants of Hecate, was Initiated into the Servants of Hecate by her aunt Ingrid after Sheila's lawyer father got their family nearly killed by unwittingly thwarting the plans of a corrupted Lodge Initiate and getting a load of curses cast on them. After she and Ingrid counterspelled the corrupted Lodgeman to death, she left her family behind and became a full time member of her aunt's Lodge. Perhaps unsurprisingly given that background, Sheila's magic spells are almost entirely focused on protection, healing, and luck manipulation. Nothing else really stands out about her, though, being an Attractive-advantaged young woman with archetypical Irish features, below-average Strength, and a high IQ score. Joshua Carson, Spirit Warrior (300 Points): Joshua's a Fourth Level Initiate of the Loa Lords who is a gentle giant in his mid 20s who got his powers at the young age of 13. Back then, he was tortured by a gang, during which the loa Ogun came down to him and offered to save his life in exchange for a lifetime of serving Ogun as a bare-fisted poo poo-kicker against evil. Unsurprisingly, he took the offer. Joshua has no magic rituals whatsoever, instead using his Spirit Warrior powers and direct tie to Ogun to Hulk out and fist fight his way through drug dealers and In-Betweeners. Orion, Wild Hunt Initiate (450 Points): Born Arthur Hawthorn, this former yuppie and son of a prominent Enlightened Lodge member was traumatized by seeing firsthand the results of human sacrifice to an In-Betweener. Now he's a Wild Hunt member in biker leathers who mercilessly uses his powers of spirit magic and projection-based possession to puppeteer those he sees as deserving targets into being pawns in his war against the Corruptors. He's also a Spirit Warrior like Joshua, calling upon his personal genius (that's genius as in the Greek name for spirits of places and things) to further augment his physical prowess. Next Time: Yer a Ritual Wizard, Harry.
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Jul 24, 2017 13:45
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Warhammer Fantasy: Knights of the Grail The spirit, the letter, and the differences between the two in Bretonnian law Family is important to Bretonnians of both social classes. Nobles have to be careful about who they marry; the rule that your ancestors on both sides must be nobles to make your children noble means that marrying low-born for wealth or property are much rarer in Bretonnia than in the Empire. Bretonnia practices strict primogenitor, inheritance by the eldest son. While an eldest son will still have to do his errantry tour and prove himself as a knight, he is guaranteed the family's fiefs and titles if he succeeds. Daughters try to marry the eldest sons of other families to ensure a link to other fiefs' properties. Younger sons wander off to seek a Lord to household with, or strive to excel in their errantry tour and earn a fief from a higher lord. The book specifically notes that younger sons and daughters (disguised) of the nobility make great player characters, since they can move freely but also have plenty of incentive to adventure since they've no lands or properties guaranteed to them. The eldest daughter of a dead noble with no sons will inherit his fiefs, but is not permitted to act as Lord; this is left to her husband. Marrying an heiress is the dream of many a landless knight. Marriages between landless daughters and sons are still politically important, being a strong expression of alliance between those families. Besides, an eldest daughter whose brothers all happen to die on their errantry tours becomes the heir. Something their husband might try to help along. A noble can grant parts of their lands to anyone with noble blood, binding them to him as vassal. While all nobles who hold land can grant property titles to other nobles and subinfeudate them, the same noble cannot easily take those lands back. Only the King can freely strip a vassal of their fiefs. This means nobles are usually very careful about dividing and granting their fiefs. At the same time, a noble who holds land at the pleasure of a higher noble is expected to fulfill their duties to their new master, because if they don't, their Lord may petition the King to remove those lands. Further, reputation matters in Bretonnia. A vassal with a reputation as a faithful and honorable servant will be more likely to be granted more lands, possibly by other nobles. Many Lords and Knights owe their allegiance to multiple lords (and back to the King, eventually). This can cause problems when a noble's superiors quarrel. A court forms around a powerful noble, generally during winter or other breaks from the campaigning season. At court, nobles politic and petition in hopes of securing their fiefs and learning more about their Lord's upcoming plans. A court generally consists of a Lord's landed vassals, who hold land at oath to him, his household knights, and the younger family members of both. Landed vassals are usually secure enough in their position to ignore court if they wish, but it's seemly to attend to your Lord and helpful to try to figure out what might be happening next year. Landless household Knights are a Lord's direct warrior-subordinates, patrolling his land and fighting his enemies, and may use their position at court to try to petition to be granted fiefs. The most vicious courtiers are the younger family members of the landless knights and landed vassals; they don't have a direct function for their Lord and only attend court at his pleasure. They bicker and fight endlessly to either be granted positions as household knights, or maybe to be raised to an enfiefed position themselves. Adventurers get caught up in the schemes of these petty politicians with irritating frequency. The King's Court is a particularly important court in Bretonnia, and very important to one of its themes. King Louen's court meets exclusively in winter, as he prefers his vassals to return to their fiefs to patrol and defend them (or prepare for larger wars) during the summer campaigning season. Louen's personal servants are all Barons, who are powerful because they have constant access to the King and his implicit trust during the winter court. Louen is unusual in having declared that he wishes his people to bring him word of any and all injustices committed by the nobility, because they are his vassals and his responsibility. While the King doesn't speak to peasants directly, if they can petition a noble to speak to him at court on their behalf, Louen will do all he can to correct any injustice he hears of. There are far more abuses than the King has time, though he always rules justly and well. He corrects as much as he can, whenever he hears of it (a good adventure would be getting word of a corrupt noble to the King's court!) and yet things are still a mess. I've always thought making Louen a true knight and the best possible king is one of the best parts of Bretonnia as a setting. There's usually an undercurrent of 'the nobles are all corrupt and evil, and that's why this doesn't work as a system of government'. Here, that's often true, a fair number of the nobles are corrupt. But plenty aren't. Plenty are genuine heroes, even. The highest noble in the land is earnest, just, brave, and wise. He works as hard as he can to make everything work out, and it still doesn't. This puts the focus on the system of peasant and noble, the unequal classes and the arbitrary distinctions, rather than a specific evil king. It also makes a lot of the knights much more sympathetic characters; plenty of them are honest and good warriors. When the Knight's Vow ends in 'Rejoice, for a Knight of Bretonnia provides your shield!', many of them are doing everything they can to be that shield for their people. Bretonnia is a land where plenty of people are doing their best in a messy state that doesn't follow its own rules because its rules are too simplistic and absolute to ever be followed. The King's Court is a great representation of the sort of rigamarole the focus on appearance and distinction brings about : The King wants to hear the pleas of the common people so he can correct their suffering. But it's not proper for a King to have audience with a peasant, so instead the peasants (who might be PCs) have to beg a noble (probably a PC!) who will have to navigate court to get the plea to the ear of the King, who then needs to have time and space to fix things even though he earnestly desires to do so. And his method of fixing things might just be empowering the party to go back and stand up to an evil lord with his blessing. The whole mess is fascinating, complicated, and more importantly, it's full of great opportunities for adventures. A Bretonnian party is likely to have half or more of its number not be who they say they are, the peasant PCs running around rubbing shoulders with nobles they aren't supposed to be talking to, everyone getting up to adventures they 'should' never go on, while everyone pretends that all is as it should be. And, of course, the irony of a PC Knight who is a paragon of valor, justice, and compassion having been a peasant or a woman wearing the armor and living up to the ideals all along, possibly while fighting male nobles who are exactly what they appear to be and who have fallen far from what a Knight is meant to be. Next: The Army, and Money. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Aug 4, 2017 |
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Jul 24, 2017 15:33
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Yeah, the only reason that Bretonnia even begins to function is that a lot of the people in charge care far more about the spirit of the rules than the actual letter of the rules.
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Jul 24, 2017 16:02
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And there are enough who don't to keep things nice and interesting, and provide plenty of nuance in between. I like that it's just as easy to play Bretonnia as villains in a story as it is to cast them as heroes.
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Jul 24, 2017 16:31
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The fact that all the nations of the Old World are heavy metal stand-ins for various real world nations--but at different periods of history--makes for some fascinating politics. For example, the Empire is the Holy Roman Empire* roundabout the late 18th century. At that time, Britain was more industrialized than Germany or France...but Bretonnia is France and the British Isles melded together, and in something like the 14th century. Apropos of nothing I'm going to plug the Age of Napoleon podcast. *Not actually holy.** **Nor Roman.*** ***Nor an empire. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 16:45 on Jul 24, 2017 |
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Jul 24, 2017 16:41
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So does that make Kislev Russia during the Mongol invasion?
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Jul 24, 2017 16:45
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Halloween Jack posted:***Nor an empire.[/sub] Come on, it totally was. Its lands extended beyond the core German area, holding onto significant area dominated by other cultures.
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Jul 24, 2017 16:51
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Halloween Jack posted:The fact that all the nations of the Old World are heavy metal stand-ins for various real world nations--but at different periods of history--makes for some fascinating politics. One of my favorite in-setting anecdotes is the explanation for Bretonnia's outlawing gunpowder weapons. So, a while back, there was a great Bretonnian champion and duelist. He claimed no one could best him with any weapon, and he ended up accepting a challenge from a guy in Nuln, the center of gunpowder and advanced weapons in the Empire. The duel lasted about five seconds when the Nuln guy shot the Bretonnian duelist in the face. Bretonnia promptly deemed the use of guns cheating, the duelist a hero, and outlawed gunpowder.
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Jul 24, 2017 16:53
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It was led-ish by a Kaiser. That's an empire.
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Jul 24, 2017 16:54
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Meanwhile, the nations in Age of Sigmar are *faaaaaaaaaaart*
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Jul 24, 2017 16:57
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Another little point that's really good about the Bret Book: In every fluff block, there are little asides of 'Hey, doesn't this sound like it would make for a good adventure?' or 'This is a great place where you can insert PCs to use this.' It's a great setting book, but it also knows it's an RPG book and so has plenty of little nudges about plot hooks. Also, the Empire's much more 1600s than 1700s. It's the Thirty Years War but they resolved their equivalent a couple centuries back and so when the heavy metal vikings showed up again there were a shitload of angry landschneckts and muskets pointed at them. Also the canon explanation for why they use halberds instead of pike squares is literally 'it's way more metal and halberds are awesome', and I can respect that.
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Jul 24, 2017 16:58
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Night10194 posted:Another little point that's really good about the Bret Book: In every fluff block, there are little asides of 'Hey, doesn't this sound like it would make for a good adventure?' or 'This is a great place where you can insert PCs to use this.' It's a great setting book, but it also knows it's an RPG book and so has plenty of little nudges about plot hooks. All of wfrp2e is like this, it's part of what makes it a great product. It's a book that's actually fun to read.
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Jul 24, 2017 17:00
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WHFRP2e is basically 'Yes this is a shitfarmer game except your shitfarmers turn out to be really important and have agency within the setting.'
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Jul 24, 2017 17:00
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JcDent posted:Meanwhile, the nations in Age of Sigmar are *faaaaaaaaaaart* There are nations? I got the sense that it was an endless Super Smash Bros battle set in a series of unrelated subdimensions.
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Jul 24, 2017 17:02
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Every single human group in Warhams can be the good guy or bad guy. It's a weird place where 'we need a logical excuse for every one of these armies to fight every other one of these armies' as a fluff point ended up producing a much more interesting setting.
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Jul 24, 2017 17:06
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Mors Rattus posted:There are nations? I got the sense that it was an endless Super Smash Bros battle set in a series of unrelated subdimensions. Being some form of Hell, they had to have victims to torture, so most of the cool Old World factions got unceremoniously plopped in there with ridiculous, embarrassing rules to discourage actually using them. Except I think Wood Elves? Because gently caress Wood Elves I guess?
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Jul 24, 2017 17:07
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Age of Sigmar takes place on Eternia where the Light Hemisphere has the capitol of Eternos and the Dark Hemisphere has the capitol of Snake Mountain. Castle Greyskull is also there along with innumerable kingdoms of animal people.
Vox Valentine fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Jul 24, 2017 |
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Jul 24, 2017 17:08
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Night10194 posted:Every single human group in Warhams can be the good guy or bad guy. It's a weird place where 'we need a logical excuse for every one of these armies to fight every other one of these armies' as a fluff point ended up producing a much more interesting setting. Well... hard to play the skaven, Chaos, or dark elves as good guys. Chaos can be seemingly good, if you're not at the Warrior level yet, but once the iconic dudes in the full plate show up you're dealing with Bad Guys.
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Jul 24, 2017 17:12
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Human group. Chaos aren't people. I'm gonna have a lot of words about Chaos when I get to Tome of Corruption.
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Jul 24, 2017 17:15
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You deffo have to be a bad guy to become a Chaos Warrior. Though you're kinda missing the point if you're a Tzeenchian Warrior, since you want to mind bullets people, not stab them.
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Jul 24, 2017 17:16
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Tzeentch is basically the god of siddling up to suckers (his worshippers) and going 'Man, you're really clever, wannabe an incomparable trickster? Everyone else is suckers, but you, man? You're too smart to be tricked. You and me, we're gonna do some stuff.'
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Jul 24, 2017 17:18
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Oh, missed the human group part. The one WHFRP game I played in did toy with the idea of redeeming low-level Chaos cults, at least. We convinced the head of a Nurgle cult to throw herself on Shallya's mercy and devote her life to undoing the damage she had caused.
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Jul 24, 2017 17:19
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The Chaos gods are written really unevenly. There has almost never been a good Slaanesh take, Tzeentch isn't that far ahead of him, and then Khorne and Nurgle are like three miles away, partying.
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Jul 24, 2017 17:19
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Mors Rattus posted:The Chaos gods are written really unevenly. There has almost never been a good Slaanesh take, Tzeentch isn't that far ahead of him, and then Khorne and Nurgle are like three miles away, partying. Khorne? Really? I'm legitimately curious to hear what the good Khorne take in anything official has been. E: Nurgle is great, though. He even represents something that's actually loving terrifying to an early modern society. Not to mention the whole 'Nurglites actually know Germ Theory and think of the little infection vectors as beautiful living things that their papa loves' angle is great.
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Jul 24, 2017 17:23
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