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Firstborn posted:Bret is my absolute favorite fluff in a game full of great lore. You could pluck anything out of warhammer fantasy and transplant it into another similar setting, and it'd be the best thing. In Warhammer it's just 1 little piece of world building silliness. I also adore this Bret stuff, but I like Bretonnia specifically as antagonists. Bretonnia to me is a horrifying place to live, but it's complex enough that Brets don't need to be outright villains and there's a lot of nuance to presenting Bretonnia and Bretonnians in an adversarial role.
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Jul 27, 2017 04:27
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Night10194 posted:Yeah, but you can't break that one RAW. What if she's a trans woman? How do grail pilgrims feed themselves? Looting everything they pass by? ('living off the land')
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Jul 27, 2017 04:43
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The Lone Badger posted:How do grail pilgrims feed themselves? Looting everything they pass by? ('living off the land') It's a mixture of looting and poaching, but also donations. When a pilgrim band passes through following a knight, they run around telling all the people of the village all of his heroic deeds, which is actually a really valued form of entertainment in Bretonnia. Also, the knight is a noble, even if he's a wandering paladin sort of noble, and as he accepts responsibility for the pilgrims he'll usually try to pay their way from his own fortune. The delicate, awkward dance of 'try not to encourage these lunatics' and 'I feel like if I don't do something they'll all just die' and 'Once they get some experience they're actually kind of badass and helpful' is the best part of the Knight-Pilgrim relationship.
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Jul 27, 2017 05:15
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 CHAPTER TWO: SURVEYING Or Trying to Find the Railroad Platform When the PCs have gotten used to Sanctuary and gotten their hooks into repairing the infrastructure, Johnson will call on them for an important mission. Bradley will offer them cigars and brandy as Johnson lays out the gist of their next job: scouting the sector around Sanctuary. He wants the hazards and dangers mapped out around the town and is willing to equip the PCs with supplies for this job. There are two big bullet points he wants addressed as well. First, find out where the Daughters of Slaughter are holed up because they're the biggest threat to Sanctuary. Second, find out who has been ambushing and killing refugees that were trying to come from the west because hey, more people. They have three days to complete the mapping before Johnson will write them off as dead or AWOL. Equipment is provided by JD: two hand torches with a full battery each, two light rods, six ration packs per PC, two first aid kids. Not too shabby. The map below is basically the entirety of the chapter and there are 11 big locations in mind for the PCs to find. If the GM wants to throw other stuff into the mix, sure whatever, just make sure these 11 are in there. The mission is complete when the PCs figure out where the DOS are and who has been killing the refugees (surprisingly, they're not connected!).  #2 is Sanctuary just for reference.  1 is the turrets the PCs passed on the way in where a handful of Giants are attempting to fix them up. If the PCs have the proper materials (basic tools and two conductors), the targeting computer is repaired and the turrets come back online to defend the southern entrance. Tama successfully completes the repair and the Giants head back to home base, knowing that the activation of the turrets will alert them to trespassers and function as a warning system.  Wits check with a +2 penalty! Fail and this area is just a dead end. Succeed and you hear weak tapping from behind a pile of rubble. It takes 4 hours and a combined Prowess of 30 (which fortunately G-Unit meets with flying colors) to clear the debris and find a collapsed cell block. The prisoners have been trapped inside in darkness for an indeterminate amount of time, the oxygen slowly running out and leaving them slowly suffocating. Fortunately, G-Unit's efforts have returned the air and all ten prisoners have survived. They're under the impression that what happened was a meteor strike because despite them all being trapped in a cave-in nobody had a panic attack and summoned a Demon I guess. So it's tricky to persuade them about what happened, but regardless of if you do or not the survivors can be recruited to Sanctuary or escorted back. Leaving the survivors here after freeing them causes a Guilt check because you're probably leaving these folks to a gruesome fate.  The cryo facilities were pretty rare in The Gehenna, nominally used for prisoner overflow by taking a shitload of people and keeping them in frozen bottles in the dark. Someone with the Education Trait can figure that out. What isn't known to anyone outside of the PTM is that about half of the cryo vaults were actually long-term storage of people who could become the leaders of the penal colony if The Gehenna ever successfully found a place to dock. The PCs would not be from one of those blocks if their introduction was just "woke up frozen". Anyway, this block has no power anymore due to the Warden computer having to randomly reroute power to different parts of the ship to deal with the Demons (in whatever means it's trying to do that). This means that all of the life support is offline so the majority of the people on ice are just plain dead. All except for one who can be saved with a Hacking roll with a +2 penalty: #9999821.   Fournines (gently caress typing that whole CIN out) doesn't have a nickname so guess what it's Fournines now. He's an amnesiac thanks to being a popsicle, but in reality Fournines is a PTM administrator who wanted to prove himself for the government and accepted being a part of the penal government with the hopes of becoming a member of the ruling elite. He is completely unprepared for what has happened to the ship but as time goes on, he'll remember more of who he really is and become more of a selfish bastard. Once he fully regains his memories, he'll attempt to abandon the party because he remembers a top-secret vault deep within The Gehenna that he has the codes to, a meeting place where the governors were supposed to get to when they woke up. He's supposed to be a "wild card" and yet there is literally no advice or structure for what to do with him outside of him having a scared and passive mode and an active and dickish mode. Save him if you want the extra people for Sanctuary, pass otherwise. G-Unit does end up freeing him, mostly because of the challenge of hacking a cryo tube and the ability to brag that they did it.  8113745, "Shel", was originally the daughter of an interplanetary mining industrialist. Then she got kidnapped and became Patty Hearst and daddy decided to disown her when she joined her paramilitary captors in violent destruction of her dad's property, robbery and terrorism. She's been holed up with four prisoners in the tunnels around Sanctuary trying to get by, treating them like they're her lackeys and acting as bait. She cries, someone answers, the four prisoners kill them and rob them to survive.    Shel will immediately don her breath mask if she can go first and the goons will break out mace cans to subdue and kill the party. If she's injured, she'll flee. If two of the attackers go down, the rest will flee and Shel will curse the PCs for making her lose her gang (and then she'll end up joining the DOS). Either way, this fight is required to end the chapter because Shel's crew is responsible for attacking people on the way to Sanctuary. G-Unit is triumphant in battle (because good lord 3/5ths of the party is just so much better at attacking than the thugs) and that's one item crossed off the Quest HUD. If the PCs manage to capture any of the attackers, they can be intimidated into revealing the knowledge of their secret stash in...  The door isn't locked but it is booby trapped. Opening the door without inspecting it (or if the fighter you captured is feeling uncooperative and didn't warn you) will set off a Cell Block Special that has been rigged to use the door as a trigger. In a side room (protected from the explosion) is the goodie pile accumulated from robbing people:  Not a bad haul. There's also the possibility of a good haul from rolling well on that d99 random item monstrosity.  Whoops a sewage flood. This river of poo poo and trash is literally impassible; attempting to cross the river immediately sweeps the brave idiot downstream away from the group "and is at the very least absent for the rest of the adventure; at worst, she is never heard from again." Wonderful. The main reason it hasn't flooded the main tunnel along Sanctuary is a dam of debris clogging the path. Now, on paper one could explode the dam and use it offensively and I would applaud you for that line of thinking. However, AAH immediately slaps that idea out of your hands by being like "NOPE. Too many trenches and corridors along the path will cause the wave to weaken and taper off to a piddly little flood". The main reason why the game says this is because if this was actually usable as an offensive tool, the PCs could derail the module and we don't want that happening. Also for giggles you can stand around and try to look at what's in the river. Don't do this. This is pointless at best and actively harmful at worst.   Ten members of the Furies are hiding out in this abandoned block, doing their best to get by despite losing contact with the majority of the gang (since its leader Ilona went missing). They were originally attempting to secure as many female convicts as they could to watch each other's backs (and keep them out of the hands of the DOS). Unfortunately a Demon attack scattered them and now the ten have hunkered down. They know about Sanctuary and they're the ones who sent a spy to see if it's safe for them to travel there; they know and trust Johnson well enough from the pre-Perdition days but they want to know the town is actually safe. If the PCs find them, the Furies will react defensively but will be willing to talk. Which G-Unit is more than willing to do in turn, showing that they're not in any other gang and that they're with Sanctuary. They'll pick the party's brains but keep their own cards close. The best you can do with them is make a Social check to convince them to trade (they willing to trade first aid kids for ammo for their guns and weapons).   Three female prisoners are trapped here, having escaped Perdition and accidentally having fell afoul of a malfunctioning Monitor. The Monitor was severed from the Warden's main commands and it's fallen back on its old programming of "secure prisoners". As a result, the three women are locked in cells as the Monitor waits for further orders. One of them is wounded and the other two are rather scared, assuming that they'll die of starvation or another collapse. Anyway the PCs have found them which means that the Monitor will emerge from the shadows and attack the party. Now, fortunately there are five members to G-Unit and Monitors only have-  Oh wait gently caress you there's a new statblock for this specific Monitor. gently caress.  Yeah uh. We have a slight issue. When designing this book the developers seemed to have just used a standard statblock template that they shortened and didn't...fix. So while this Monitor is supposed to be an ungodly 50 HP robot for the prisoners to fight, it...isn't, on paper at least. Which is a good thing; if the PCs lose the fight (and they loving will against a 50 HP armor-plated robot), they'll be subdued and shoved into cells where they'll starve to death eventually, full-stop. That's it, game over, gently caress you. Which is awful! Originally when I wrote this review I just said "but because I have Writer Fiat, G-Unit wins this fight, hooray". But that's just bad writing, isn't it? Instead of G-Unit managing to overcome this horribly dangerous foe by me saying "because I said so", the Monitor sees them, rushes to attack and then immediately keels over and dies because it has 0 HP in an activated fight. Then a big puff of psychic vapor floats slowly out of the dead Monitor's screen because all of its HP was instead literal brain power. So if/when the PCs beat the Monitor, they can break the cells open and free the women inside. While Soapbox, Beth and Doc are doing this, Tama is disassembling a piece of the Monitor's chassis at Pincushion's request so he can wear it as a hat in an attempt to amplify his power. One of the prisoners, a woman named Katherine, will be willing to open up with a Social roll and if they tend to her wounded friend.   I legitimately like Katherine (and Soapbox would too for obvious reasons). She's one of the few good characters in this entire series and fortunately this isn't the last we have to see of her.  An Enforcer is a rough fight, even if the PCs are kitted out for it (they probably aren't). This one has been given authority to kill to protect what's behind the door. And unfortunately for G-Unit, they took some lumps brawling with the highwaymen of section 5 and might still be on the sore side. However, let's take a little look back at the core stats for an Enforcer.  And here's what this book's Enforcer is statted out as:  Yup. Still has the same typo. The Enforcer hovers over menacingly, then the thrusters turn off and it falls to the ground with a clang before falling over, defeated. Either Soapbox's hacking or Fournine's Access will open the door to the armory while Tama works on getting another hat for Pincushion due to his insistence that this one was more powerful and he requires a new hat. Inside is an automated factory that the Warden has been rerouting the local power to, a mess of assembly lines where filled molds of liquid metal are being used to build weapons and armor. However the Warden will turn the power off 5 minutes after the factory is breached because it doesn't want the prisoners using the factory for their own means. There is still enough metal and material here for everyone in Sanctuary to get Makeshift Armor and a Riot Shield (along with everyone in G-Unit) and it's the mother lode of supplies if Johnson finds out about it. He'll send teams of scavengers to loot the place then torch it to keep it out of enemy hands and this will in fact help near the end of the module.   Welcome to the home of the DOS. Fournine is the one who blunders into the trap (it was going to be Pincushion but who am I to ignore the rules as written?) and disappears as the Daughters come out of the woodwork to face G-Unit. Fun fact: this is where we find out what their fetish uniforms are made out of!   Ew, upholstery and human skin. Well shame on me for being curious I guess. The intention is for the fight to be one where the PCs run and are herded by the DOS attacking them. They're intended to choke the players and provide gaps in the lines where they'll retreat to. However. The PCs can absolutely attack, and for every dead DOS they actually lose an attacker for the end of the module (that you're told to show the players that you're crossing off a future bit of book-keeping). It's downright impossible for the players to fight so hard they deplete all of the attackers and derail the module but whittling down three or four isn't unreasonable so let's say G-Unit puts up a fight before retreating. If the DOS are in sufficient danger (they're really just fighting to goad the party into going where they want them to), they'll break out the Cell Block Specials and G-Unit can't survive repeated explosions (50's limit is, famously, 3 explosions to the face). The retreat is full of DOS blocking off side paths and light traps meant to harass and harangue the party until they reach the pit. The DOS will fight the party up until the edge of the pit. There are three options and only one of them is a "good" option.
 G-Unit will decide to reluctantly surrender and will then be escorted into the heart of their territory to play what they call The Game. "Hey Beth, Do the Thing With the Knife!"  After some verbal abuse and ignoring what the players want to talk about, they're forced over to an artificial waterfall that has a scaffold set up in front of it that has an old gameshow wheel attached to it (cannibalized from some rec game). Strapped to the wheel is Fournine, who is a NPC and so I wouldn't bother making them make the Despair check where they might gain 2 Despair. Their host (who isn't the head of the DOS, FYI) will explain the rules of the game.
 First let's check out what each segment does:
 Then the GM rolls 1d8 to determine the position of the wheel when it comes to a stop, which segment will be at the top where the prisoner's head is in the diagram. The idea is that the player is aiming at where the stopper for the wheel is. So that's a 3 in 8 chance to get the inner circles, then 1 in 8 chance to get the release segment. The probability of this happening is 14.0625%, taking into account three knives and a probability of hitting any segment with a 4.6875% chance. Not good odds! But fortunately, Beth is strong and has been getting good at knifing people which adjusts the odds quite a bit.  This is what I meant by Shenanigans; if you hit an orange space, the double throw means you can only move the knives one space and a blindfold means you can't move them any further. So thanks to Beth being both a strong, fit woman and proficient in knife use, she can move thrown knives two spaces. This means she's got a 3 in 8 chance of hitting the inner ring but now has a 3 in 8 chance of hitting the free space, meaning her probability jumps to 14.0625% by default and 42.1875% chance of succeeding over three throws. Which is still rough, don't get me wrong; your main strategy here is to game the system by repeatedly regaining knives until it just eventually happens. When I used a dice roller to figure out how this went, it took me 13 throws to free Fournine and this was after he actually got hit once with a knife. All of the other throws were orange or blue hits. So once the game ends and the victim is either freed or dies, the party is taken to meet Lucretia, leader of the Daughters of Slaughter. My spell check doesn't recognize her name so this is gonna be fun.    Lucretia doesn't get stats because you're not intended to kill her here. Womp womp. She's been telepathically contacted by the Demons to serve them and she's turned her gang of nihilists into a thrill-kill cult, having joined the Psychos and Embracers in an alliance. The trio are planning to destroy Sanctuary because Sanctuary offers people hope and the Demons hate hope (despite a literal third of them being immune to hope to begin with). And Lucretia will straight-up tell everyone this information, gleefully regaling them with their plans to attack and destroy Sanctuary. Once she's sure they've got the info, the players will be released and escorted to the exit so they can scurry off and warn Johnson because there's nothing they can do to stop the attack. However in an optional scene, anyone with the Damnation (or maybe Power) goal will be approached by Lucretia before they leave (she uses her one known Trait to pick them out). Well, not literally approached. She'll glance at them repeatedly during her bragging and deliver a psychic monologue to the target asking them to help her by betraying Sanctuary.  Seeing as how nobody is dumb enough to pick Damnation in G-Unit, that leaves Tama and Pincushion as prime targets. However, Tama's obsession with antique Japanese fiction is too strong of a force for her to ever be swayed to the forces of darkness, drowning out the offer by focusing on centuries-old anime intros. As for Pincushion...well, his castration has paid off, ironically enough. Back when it still worked, this would have been a done deal and he would've betrayed G-Unit ASAP. Now, though, he's already sacrificed enough to gain his Real Ultimate Power that he's achieved already, convinced that was he has pales in comparison to what was being offered to him. His pride and delusions are enough to shield him from the offer and for once in his life he doesn't do something stupid to gain power. FYI this entire scene has art but it's, like, pretty NSFW due to being suggestive. Like it's not that I have to cover genitals up this time, it's just ladies in erotic poses and bad art.  And with that, G-Unit is freed back into the corridors, their mission complete. They rush back to deliver the news of what the DOS are up to and who was killing travelers. But NEXT TIME in Chapter 3, G-Unit has to deal with the most dangerous foe that Perdition has to offer: THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS IN ACTION.
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Jul 27, 2017 08:03
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The authors do know that tanning is a lengthy and involved process, right, even for human flesh? Like it takes days at the minimum for you to get leather skins unless you're using industrial chemicals. And there's still the process might be completely unknown to them, since it's one of those skills that doesn't get much use today, let alone in the future, as well as required apprenticeship to even learn back in the day. Not to mention stitching things together. Also, I like how the Game is all about chance and not about skill. Oh, having Knife-Fighter trait does improve the odds, but you can't be a circus performer whose an expert knife thrower who could probably get that poo poo in one throw. In addition, how is Fournine's career supposed to work out since it's his motivation of being on the ship? Putting yourself on a spaceship with a million convicts on an one-way trip to the other side of the galaxy sounds like the stupidest way to get ahead. It would have been better if he was a disgraced PTM politician who was given the choice of preferential treatment as this colony ship's governor or get tossed into gen pop.
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Jul 27, 2017 10:11
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Arguably this is worse than Chris fields' stuff, this isn't even entertainingly bad just bland bad.
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Jul 27, 2017 11:06
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Ninja Crusade 2e - Truth and Lies: Clan Ties Our new insttructor is Chuushin Naomi. She is a woman in her early 30s, very intelligent and extremely powerful. She wields an immense tetsubo and is ruthless in her enforcement of law. Even the rest of the clan is afraid of her, and she has no patience for weakness of resolve or compromise. She especially hates those who betray their honor out of convienience. She explains to our student her backstory - her father was Chuushin Namon, a ranking Warden of Equilibrium, and she was raised to study balance, duality and being a good Chuushin girl. She might have become as soft as her family, had the clan not betrayed her father. He was accused of being a traitor because he gave more food than he was meant to to local peasant villages, out of a belief that the weak should be strengthened and the strong weakened - Chuushin dogma. However, this meant that a Recoiling Serpent was unable to divert some of that food to feed his own villages. The Serpents murdered Naomi's parents, and when she went to get the clan to take vengeance, they told her the matter was settled by a small fee and the promise of no more assassinations ofr ten years, declaring that the death served the clan. Naomi was, of course, enraged. She fled the clan, seeking out the Will of Iron. It took her a while - the clan has never really advertised its presence, because a criminal who is stopped solely by being watched is not taught anything. The Will always work better as enforcement than deterrent. Naomi resolved to get their attention by camping out in an Iron Province village. She was propositioned and nearly killed the guy who did it, except that a Will of Iron ninja showed up, beat the man down for his sexual predation, and then killed him. He then fled, but Noami chased him across the city and forced him to listen as she introduced herself and explained she wanted to join the clan. And...well, she did, eventually. She has kept her name because she is not afraid to hide her origins, even though she is truly loyal to the Hagane entirely. Now, Naomi explains to our student what it means to be Will of Iron. She explains that you must serve a cause greater than yourself. It is more than something you do for the strength to get by - the law is bigger. She tells a story of a village she went to once, which was basically anarchist libertarians - the only law was you were free to do anything you want. She then explains why that's bullshit - it meant someone strong could beat up someone else just for feeling like it, but that doesn't entitle them to do whatever they want without regard for consequences. That's just ridiculous. That is why the Will must exist - to be the reminder that there is someone to stop you, if you do the crime but are not caught. They enforce order in order to preserve peace and protect the common good, doing what no one else should need to do so that no one else has to be a victim. However, there is no absolute, in fallible law. Even the Tao of Steel must be broken on occasion, whatever Justice's Blade may say - and he knows it, having done it. All aspects of a crime and its situation must be considered. If a man sells weapons to criminals, he might argue that he is not a criminal himself - he doesn't do anything with the tools himself. And what about his agents of transport, or those who make the weapons? Are they guilty? There isn't an easy answer. Some Will even lock themselves away to try and understand the true meaning of guilt. However, these are situations you run into in real life, and you have to be ready to decide. Naomi says that when she ran into this, she stopped the weapons convoy and let the servants choose to flee or fight her and die, and did not pursue any who fled. She convinced the smiths to turn their skills to other, more honorable uses...by threatening them and burning down the weapons forges. She executed the merchant, who was beyond redemption and was the cause of the entire prblem. To enforce justice, sometimes the clan must act dishonorably. This is their burden, taken so others need not do so. Some believe it arrogant of them, but it requires great fortitude - they knowingly tarnish their own souls to bring peace and good. If anyone could do it better, they'd have stepped up by now. The clan does not profit from its work (ideally) and does not use it to extend their borders. They serve an ideal greater than themselves. They choose to be hated, despised, mocked, even killed for serving the greater good. And they do it knowingly and willingly, without hesitation. Naomi then begins teaching the student how to fight, and how to fight in ways that are not predictable. She also mentions not being a fan of Justice's Blade, whom she believes is a coward these days that refuses to go out and do things besides teach, even if he was once respectable. Anyway. She says that to be Will of Iron is to train all aspects of the mind and body, to be both a fighter and an academic. By day, they train their bodies to fight and be strong, while by night they study ancient texts of law and scholarship. This is not a reprieve - failure in one's studies is as bad if not worse than failure in one's physical training. Those that enforce law must not be stupid. From there, initiates are trained in small groups on how to spot the signs of guilt and crime. The clan loves its initiates - and so it is very hard on them. Students are expects to be able to defend their beliefs on how law must be implemented, and be willing to fight their fellows over disagreements. This produces less infighting than one might expect - it teaches combat skill and allows them to work out their aggressions safely, as well as teaching them to be willing to fight for what they believe in. The Sentaka are a group within the clan who specialize in hunting down the worst, most vicious and most dangerous criminals - often other ninja. They are the elite warriors of the clan, driven by total determination. They do not ever rest when on a mission, are utterly fearless, and would go into the hells to catch their quarry. They are the greatest warriors of the clan, but often cited as a problem by other ninja clans. After all, they have been used to capture ninja in the past, regardless of how those ninjas' own clans viewed their crimes. The Sentaka are not loved by any outside the Will of Iron. The clan's elders are their great champions. They are able to recite entire legal volumes from memory, and know much about the criminal underworld. Their jutsu is strong, their minds sharp. The main responsibility of an elder in the Will of Iron, beyond running trials and organizing the clan, is training the next generation. Each elder is unique in experience, and being trained by an elder tends to form a deep bond between mentor and student, as well as, often, between fellow students of the same elder. The greatest elder, the leader of the clan, is the Justice. The Justice manages all disputes that cannot be solved within the clan, and those who bear the title often take on a secondary part of the name to mark themselves as unique. Justice's Blade is the current Justice, having followed Justice's Scales, who followed Justice's Measure. Justice's Blade is a great warrior...though he rarely fights these days. The Justice is more than just a speaker of law - they are the law. When they speak, it is after great contemplation, because any ruling they make might have effects on thousands. Their rulings apply across the entire clan, and they are precise as a result. Even though Naomi dislikes Justice's Blade, she acknowledges that he is the wisest of the clan. As for other clans...ell, the Bamboo Herballists are excellent healers and fighters. However, their strength comes from unnatural chemicals rather than their own natural abilities, which the clan does not really approve of. The Blazing Dancers are extremely passionate and very good fighters, but they are very rebellious and often challenge the need for order solely to get a thrill. They'd be better allies if they could be as intense about the law as they are about fun. The Grasping Shadows and the Will of Iron fundamentally conflict. The Shadows believe they know what is best for all, but are innately self-serving and treacherous, while the Will of Iron serve order and society. The Hidden Strands are interesting, because if the world had been different, they might have been what the Will became. They are manipulators without peer, able to run extremely long-term plans...and if the Will had chosen to manipulate society to bring order, well, it would not be just. Law is enforced where needed, but society must not be twisted to serve law. Law exists to benefit society. Still, the Will work well with the Strands. They disagree on a hell of a lot, but they agree on the need for order, and the Strands are not nearly as weak as they can seem. The Living Chronicle don't realy make sense to many Will of Iron. They are altruists in recording history fort the future...but that goal is not essential to the fight with the Izou. They need to fight as well as record. The Pack of the Black Moon are almost beautifully simple, with a primal sense of law. They have an uncomplicated, admirable life...but they need to embrace modernity before their children starve for lack of game. However, they are worthy. The Recoiling Serpents...well, they are dangerous. Very dangerous. Warriors with skill but no conscience, willing to do anything for revenge - often revenge fifteenfold. The Virtuous Body Gardeners are admirable in the lengths they go to for self-improvement, and they have great passion. However, they do not share their abilities, and they have a deep contempt for the law, which keeps them from being excellent allies, even though the Will believe in freedom as strongly as the Gardeners do. The Wardens of Equilibrium are excellent manipulators and debaters, but their actual goals are nearly incomprehensible. They claim to support balance, but live in extravagant wealth while others are in poverty, and so many other things they do are similarly uneven. As for the Empire? Well...arguably, the Empire is the enemy. And arguably, the Empire is the clan's beloved but sadly fallen child, which must be made strong once more. And both are true. Much has been lost about the time when the clan served the Empire. Now? The Izou fight without honor or kindness. Perhaps the great empire Justice's Blade once served is long dead, and only its corpse still moves. But the mission is the mission. Serve order, serve peace, serve the world. And the Coalition? For all its faults, it must be made to work. It brings together many people with many interests, all trying to come together for the same goal. No wonder there are arguments - people can barely agree on anything, let alone things as important as governance. But it can achieve truly great things when it is working as intended. Teamwork has kept the clans alive now. And so, we end with Naomi taking the student on a mission to go hunt down a vicious murderer. Next time: One Strand
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Jul 27, 2017 13:00
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How long has Demon Times been going at this point, because people seem to have covered themselves in cultic images and human skin armor awfully quickly. Is this all the equivalent of 'We got stuck in an elevator for an hour and resorted to cannibalism a little early?' Also, something I just noticed in Bretonnia: One of the Exits for a Grail Knight who somehow finishes that career without a campaign ending is Faceless. That means the occasional Grail Knight goes 'No, gently caress this, everything is broken.' and disguises himself to run off into the woods and lead Robin Hoods, which is awesome. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 13:52 on Jul 27, 2017 |
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Jul 27, 2017 13:49
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The artwork for the encounter with Lucretia doesn't even show her with tattoos.
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Jul 27, 2017 14:01
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Night10194 posted:How long has Demon Times been going at this point, because people seem to have covered themselves in cultic images and human skin armor awfully quickly. Even 40K  CORRUPTION doesn't work that fast......with a compatant GM
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Jul 27, 2017 14:53
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I kinda feel like AAH would be better if it leaned into 'You were exiled by a dystopian regime that hates free thought or suggestions of Beforetimes' a lot more, and thus most of the prisoners were actually decent people put in a terrible situation rather than a random smattering of baby murderers and people who respond to Satan by going 'MAN IT IS CULT O CLOCK.' right away. Could even make that a theme: You were put into prison unjustly, then you're thrust into the cosmic prison that is Hell unjustly, and now you've got to cope or break. Similarly, instead of robits, have actual guards who are pissed off about being assigned to such an awful job. Low level regime flunkies and toadies. A bit like how Edward Diego the Space 80s businessman instantly sells everyone out and tries to make a deal with SHODAN in System Shock, you could have pissed off, bitter COs willing to cut a deal with the forces of Hell to have a little bit of the power they think they deserve. Game could use more G-Unit, Katherine, and less Lucretia, is what I'm sayin'.
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Jul 27, 2017 15:02
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There sure are a lot of slutty goth babes on the Libtard Demon Prison Spaceship. And as in most RPGs, they're slutty goth babes written by people who don't know any slutty goth babes.
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Jul 27, 2017 15:06
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I'm completely agreeing with you but "OH MAN ITS CULT O'CLOCK" would be an awesome standalone as a break between the normal campaigns. E: kinda like Paranoia's 'Zap' mode
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Jul 27, 2017 15:06
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It's Reform School Girls in Outer Space, whee.
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Jul 27, 2017 15:21
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Bieeardo posted:It's SPIKEY CANNIBAL Reform School Girls in Outer Space, whee. 
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Jul 27, 2017 15:25
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 Rifts World Book 15: Spirit West, Part 8: "Regardless, the Mystic and Shaman should remain distinct and separate, so the full range of shamanistic magic is only available to Native American Shamans." Shamanistic Magic By Wayne Breaux Jr. & Kevin Siembieda So, first off this book points out the shaman rules are supposed to be an expansion of the Mystic O.C.C. from the corebook, even though they're drastically different from many ways. It says that kind GMs might let the Mystic do a little cultural appropriation and take a few shaman spells, but that the Mystic shouldn't be allowed to too much and they have to have similar beliefs to the Native American stereotype / hodgepodge on display here. It insists despite all the advantages and boost shamans get, Mystics still can A) use whatever technology they want and B) I guess not having to be Native American is an advantage? I dunno, it's not the best argument, but tech is a decent advantage, so there's that. Shamans apparently have to undergo a vision quest every time they get a new spell, which sounds like an utter pain in the rear end for classes that get free spells as they level up. However, it's at least nice enough to say it occurs in a dream, and the GM can choose to play it out each time or handwave it with a brief description. It highlights these can be used to give foreshadowing for an upcoming adventure or the like, as well. It brings up that the spirits, though they can't rescind their gifts, will inflict "Bad Medicine" on those who misuse them. What qualifies as misuse? Well, it's extremely vague, but examples are:
Shamans also get a specific and long-winded mechanic where they can burn their Structural Damage Capability and Hit Points if they run out of Potential Psychic Energy. This comes with all sorts of fingerwagging that it should be a last resort only and with extra special wound penalty rules and inability to heal magically if you do so. I guess that's there because this is a Mega-Damage game, so who cares if you burn your Hit Points down? There's also a mechanic where you can sacrifice your life for magic (no special benny other than getting that extra 1 Hit Point that separates life and death), and have to make a coma/death roll at penalty or you die and resurrection magic and the GM can arbitrarily rule you don't have the willpower to go through with it (no saving through). We also get some reminders that magic that enhances S.D.C. weapons or creatures won't enhance M.D.C. items or people in the same way. Basically, you can't make something Mega-Mega Damage (look to Synnibarr for that sort of mechanic, or The Rifter 9 1/2). It also handwaves that some S.D.C. weapons have their damage reduced before becoming M.D.C. weapons but there are very few guidelines for that other that anything that can inflict M.D.C. (no matter how little) can't be enhanced. Yes, this means an enhanced bow (2d6 S.D.C. = 2d6 M.D.C.) will do more than an enhanced rocket launcher (1d10 M.D.C. = 1d10 M.D.C.). The spirits are fickle and hate cheap rocket noobs, I suppose. Shaman Spells Yep, now it's time for a laundry list of Shaman spells by category (spirit, animal, plant, and paradox). It also reminds us temporal spells can be found in the England world book, while elemental spells are found in the Conversion Book. Don't got a copy of those? Well, you can't use the Paradox and Elemental Shaman classes! Also, later on in a small note you're likely to miss (and not listed under the actual class...) Plant Shamans can use Biomancer spells from South America. Pay up, kids!  "Time to summon the mighty buffalo!" "You mean bison." "THAT TOO." Spirit Magic usually covers contacting totem spirits and animals, with some spells having a fingerwagging that you better call them for an important thing or they can just gently caress off. On the other hand, you can summon a mega-damage mole if that's your totem. Create Arrow lets you create a barrelful of arrows, or a handful that do pathetic single mega-damage if you're interested in annoying your mega-damage foes without running the risk of actually defeating them. There's Spirit Paint that gives infinitesimal bonuses on combat. Spirit Quest is practically an essential spell, as it lets you do Spirit Quests for new spells without having to go physically seek out a "sacred spirit cave" (whatever that entails) to perform a Spirit Quest.  +2 to initiative, strike, pull punch, roll with impact, and save vs horror factor Animal Spells includes summoning animal friends and chattening with them and turning into a animal, most of the things you expect. You can even become a "Totem" mega-damage version of an animal, so gently caress off, Totem Warrior, who needs you? Spirit's Blessing can make any animal temporarily a mega-damage creature (I suggest importing a rhino), and Ears of the Wolf and Nose of the Wolf give their respective super-senses. No Eyes of the Wolf, Paws of the Wolf, or Tongue of the Wolf, though. Sorry, furries.  Slightly uncomfortable Disney song optional. Plants Spells  of course, let you animate or call plant monsters because plants are way less useful unless they can do the things that animals do. (Not many spells in an RPGdom to make an animal drop seeds, though.) This also lets you make mega-damage weapons out of wooden weapons, dowse, make plants grow better, teleport through trees, and teleport to the realm of the gods through a tree. Basically, plant magic rules because it just has random bullshit while animal magic has an actual theme, those poor animal shamans.Paradox / Temporal Spells can apparently be learned by Temporal Raiders and their byblows in addition to Paradox Shamans, in a throwaway note. This has weird stuff like Absolute Darkness which is what it says on the tin (but what does that have to do with time?). There's Little Force which is a Glitter Boy buster because it automatically reflects any physical blow back at the attack with no defense and double damage (but what does that have to do with time?). There's Will of the Earth that lets you reduce or increase gravity on an area (but what does that have to time?). Sphere of Negation negates all attacks / damage in its area (but what does that have to do with time?). And Universal Balance lets you convert a creature from M.D.C. to S.D.C., and before you get too excited, that's a literal conversion, so a 1000 M.D.C. Dragon becomes an 100,000 S.D.C. dragon, so all it means is you can use a machinegun against it (which can be harmful, but you have specifically set up the combo and hope they don't save against the magic - and what does it have to do with time?!). Next: Exploring fetishes. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Jul 27, 2017 |
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Jul 27, 2017 15:33
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Oh, right, the /tg/ cut.
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Jul 27, 2017 15:33
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Horrible Lurkbeast posted:I'm completely agreeing with you but "OH MAN ITS CULT O'CLOCK" would be an awesome standalone as a break between the normal campaigns. "We spent weeks wedging pieces of broken glass into bars of soap to fight the demons. Instead we were condemned to the goth oil massage gently caress pit."
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Jul 27, 2017 15:40
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What I have in mind goes more like: "All right that wraps up the fantasy diplomats campaign, how about a palate cleanser?" *One marauding event horizon run later* "Let's get this lovecraftian archeology cyberpunk campaign running" E: of course AAH system or content will not be anywhere in use. By popular demand fucked around with this message at 16:02 on Jul 27, 2017 |
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Jul 27, 2017 15:59
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Warhammer Fantasy: Knights of the Grail L'Anguille: Ports, merchants, and the co-opting of revolution L'Anguille is famous for its port, because the actual city of L'Anguille is one of the most populous and wealthy in all of Bretonnia. Nestled in the one safe bay among craggy cliffs and rough seas, this city used to be an old High Elf trading port before they fatally angered the entirety of dwarfkind due to King Calador II being a massive idiot thousands of years ago. When the elves abandoned their colonies, they didn't take down the buildings, and the ancient Bretoni used them for shelter. Over the centuries, the city has built up and out, but the elven core remains; high elves might be dicks but you apparently build to last when you usually live for a millennia. The mighty River Sannez empties into the bay, and much of Bretonnia's trade flows through the river and out the port. This makes L'Anguille one of the wealthiest dukedoms in the country. The inland areas of the province are fertile, arable, and pleasant. While the coastal weather is rough, something about the high cliffs and coast seems to take the edge off the storms, leading to mild weather and good agriculture. There are beastman problems in the woods, but where aren't there beastman problems in the woods? The duchy is mostly free of major threats, since most of the coast is too harsh for Dark Elf or Norse raiders to land and the port is defended by some of the only cannons in Bretonnia. The people of the urban area are wealthier than usual and L'Anguille sports an actual burgher class, almost like an Imperial city, while the people of the countryside are about the same as they are all over Bretonnia (albeit a bit richer and more secure). Duke Taubert of L'Anguille used to be a famed explorer and sea captain, but one day fifteen years back, he returned from a voyage, would speak nothing of it, and left his castle in the city for good. He has since re-settled himself in a former hunting lodge, which he has fortified and turned into his new seat of power, and will not go near the city or the ocean. To the people of the city, this is a tremendous blessing. With the Duke out holding court elsewhere and staying out of their business, the merchant clubs have essentially taken over the city, and even plot the idea of turning it into an independent republic (with them in charge) like Marienburg near the Empire. To that end, they import more cannons and guns, to 'defend the port', and try to figure out how they can do this without causing the entirety of Bretonnia's upper class to come at them. Meanwhile, Taubert spends his days personally riding to the rescue of the people in the countryside whenever there is a Beastman attack; he's become a hero to the common people for his tireless efforts against these threats, and his efforts to find things to do that take him away from the sea have made him a conscientious and just ruler to the rural peasantry. They would be unlikely to support an attempt to overthrow him. The example NPC for L'Anguille is interesting: An up and coming young merchant who is, for now, honest despite his ambitions. He is presented as 'The rarest and most precious of PC resources: A man with money and reason to hire them who is, for now, exactly what he appears to be.' The plot thread for Marperic d'Abene is that if his business fails or he gets in legal trouble, he might get tricked by a Chaos cult posing as a merchant club that can help him. A patron who actually pays on time and gives reasonable missions is a patron worth defending, so if that happens the PCs will have to defeat the cult and keep their merchant buddy on the straight and narrow. Even if he remains a normal merchant, he joins the most prominent clubs and potentially gets caught up in the push for independence, which gives the PCs a foot in the door with someone who is rich, in on the ground floor of what could be a major campaign plot line, and able to choose what they do with that. I like Marperic as a plot thread; there's a bunch of ways to use him and really, a guy who has the money to pay and does it without complaint *is* a pretty big asset that PCs might defend. Next: Aquitaine, Eleanor Not Included. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Aug 4, 2017 |
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Jul 27, 2017 16:05
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Horrible Lurkbeast posted:Arguably this is worse than Chris fields' stuff, this isn't even entertainingly bad just bland bad. What books reviewed were Chris Fields' stuff? I see a few of the entries in the F&F site have his name, but others don't.
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Jul 27, 2017 16:58
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Black Tokyo was one. E: Otherverse america. E2: Chris fields' self portrait posted:
Now to close incognito mode and wash my hands thoroughly.  By popular demand fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Jul 27, 2017 |
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Jul 27, 2017 17:00
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Anguille is Eel.
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Jul 27, 2017 17:07
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I see a very easy conversion to Not-New Orleans by changing it to L'Andouille.
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Jul 27, 2017 17:31
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Warhammer Fantasy: Knights of the Grail Aquitaine: Missing its Eleanor, fighting over it Aquitaine is a boring province in western Bretonnia. That's actually a distinguishing feature. It's got pleasant coastline, but nowhere sufficient to put a large scale port. It's got hills, but no mountains. It's got the occasional forest, but nothing deep or dark enough to have proper monsters or bandits. This all amounts to a province where the nobility is dangerously bored. The nobles of Aquitaine love to invent any reason to fight one another, and the feuds and battles drive the noble Duke Armand nuts. Armand is, himself, an honest and decent knight who Quested in total secret and never expected to inherit the dukedom, content to wander about and do heroic things without asking much reward and while trying to stay out of politics. He was the younger brother of the prior Duke, who ended up dying in battle with no heirs and the renowned Armand was given the dukedom by royal decree, since he'd served well as Standard Bearer for the royal army. This was not a position he wanted, and his honest and straightforward method of trying to stop the troublemakers means his personal army is constantly intervening in the pointless fights while more feuds spring up outside his reach. Aquitaine is also known for its castles and abandoned towns. Lacking notable features that would merit a strategic position, castles are just sort of built haphazardly all over the place. Owing to the constant competition, nobles tend to try to build the 'latest' and 'most amazing' castle, then run out of money and end up with an overbuilt mess. Similarly, nobles keep trying to jump-start larger urban development around their castles to pay for the extravagant things, but when the money runs out there's still no special resources besides decent farming and no real reason for people to live in the artificial towns they set up, so the buildings end up abandoned. This has turned into a big problem, as recently a weird kind of ghost has started popping up in these abandoned buildings. Dereliches take over old buildings and falling down castles, and they use their ghost powers to make the place look inviting and livable. Firstly, ghost powers don't actually repair holes in the floor or crumbling roofs, just make them look like they're repaired, and so falling out of buildings or being crushed by masonry are a real danger anywhere they've infested. Secondly, they also show up as multiple 'bodies' and just straight up murder 'guests' in their sleep. Dereliches are dicks. Weirdly, they seem to be neither undead nor creatures of Chaos. Whatever they are, they have Ethereal, so actually dealing with the damned things comes mostly by burning their house down, since you need magic or magic weapons to just hit them with a sword and both are pretty rare in Bretonnia. Aquitaine isn't the most interesting place, but it does have one nice plot hook: It's the site of the first successful peasant rebellion in ages. A group of peasants discovered their Lord was worshiping Nurgle and was to blame for local outbreaks and sicknesses. They managed to expose and kill him, and of course his neighbors didn't show up to help immediately because he was a Chaos worshiper. Now, normally, at this point, the local lords would pour in and solve the problem and maybe claim they'd defeated the Chaos worshiper and not the peasants. But they were distracted by their pointless feuding and figured the problem could wait. In the meantime, the peasants of Derrivine made contact with a competent Faceless and his heroic Herrimaults, and managed to fortify the village against attack. When the knights made their initial assault, twelve of them died and they were driven off in disorder. The village has been free for six months and has declared itself the start of a Bretonnian republic. They hope to attract enough skilled guerillas, deserters, and adventurers to be able to take a couple other villages and build up their power base such that they can negotiate with the Duke to be left alone. The Faceless, Carmolax, is a brave and able man who turned to the outlaw life after his brother was hung for smiling at a noble's daughter, and his mother beaten to the point of being crippled for crying at the execution; he kidnapped his lord's daughter for revenge, ran into the woods, and found he couldn't hurt a young woman who didn't actually kill his brother. After letting her go safely, he was approached by the Merry Men as an exemplary recruit and became an idealistic republican (in the sense of wanting to establish republics) rebel. He'd be very eager to hire the kind of able and unusual people you can get from PCs to further the dream of a free Bretonnia, where all men have a say (specifically men, one issue at a time). Next: Artois, Which Is Good Pig Country, But Not Like You'd Expect. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Aug 4, 2017 |
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Jul 27, 2017 17:33
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The sausage?
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Jul 27, 2017 17:34
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Gonna gamble it all on guessing Pig Knights.
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Jul 27, 2017 17:41
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Warhammer Fantasy: Knights of the Grail Artois: It's pig country because it's infested with wild boars, and also with wild boars that walk on two legs and fight alongside the goatmen Artois is a dangerous and heavily forested Dukedom in central Bretonnia. It has almost no access to major rivers, save its southern border, and most of the province is covered by the deep, dark Forest of Arden. The narrow strip of good land in the northwest of the province holds most of the population, and the only large town, Larret. It's easy to get a fief in Artois; you just round up enough serfs and ask for one, and you can get permission to establish a fortress and try to carve out land within the forest from the Duke or King quite simply. The problem is most of these settlements fail. The forest is thick and full of Beastmen, more so than any other place in Bretonnia. The wood just seems to breed the worst sorts of monsters and mighty beasts. Most people would much rather live in Larret, which is a prosperous and pleasant town, rather than risk the life of a forester in the worst parts of the wood. There are even rumors that the Beastmen must have some kind of actual city hidden deep within the wood, some blasphemous source of the monsters. They're wrong, of course. By their very nature, Beastmen would never build a city. What happened instead is that the survivors of a poisoned, failed settlement succumbed to mutation after Skaven spiked their water supply with warpstone. The Skaven thought they could kill the people and their lord easily while they were busy mutating, but the local lord and his soldiers were too determined to be distracted by little things like growing claws or second heads and drove them off. Now the village of Usein is still full of mutants, but mutants who still think like humans and still want to have a society. They try to attract other relatively sane mutants and continue to build and defend their community, free of Chaos despite the horrific physical changes. Their village is actually prospering pretty well, even if it accepts it's cut off from all Bretonnian society and constantly battling dark forces. The actual duke of Artois, Duke Chilforey, is a massive bear of a man who only wants to spend his time in battle and great beast hunts. He intentionally rules unjustly when disputes are brought to him, so that people will stop bringing disputes, a strategy that has worked well enough for him so far. He instead spends all his time leading his knights against the beastmen of the wood, killing boars, eating boars, and fighting bigger monsters for the sport of it. He's kind of a dick. The other leading noble is the Earl of Larret, a cultured and cosmopolitan man who runs the town as best he can and constantly plots to find an excuse to have Chilforey killed and take over. Larret maintains its prosperity by ruthlessly purging the poorest of its citizens and other criminals via exile. It's a nice place to live, as long as you don't fall on hard times. Larret plots to become Duke because he believes if he can advance that far, his beloved son will eventually have a shot at succeeding Louen in a couple decades after inheriting the Dukedom. Larret believes himself a better sort of man, one who actively tolerates minstrels, scholars, and even satires of himself, while again, purging the poorest of his people so as to keep his town 'prosperous'. He is also kind of a dick, but the kind of dick that players might work for for awhile before they realize it. He also genuinely loves his son Fredemund, and would do anything to ensure his son becomes a proper Grail Knight. Meanwhile, dotted throughout the forest are all kinds of lost villages and failed settlements, which players could come across in their adventures. Who knows what sorts of divergent cultures and interesting, weird stuff they could find in the depths of the monster-haunted forest? Next: Bastonne, Home of the Hellpit. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Aug 4, 2017 |
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Jul 27, 2017 17:56
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So like I'm just imagining Usein as the home of the Knights of Wundagore. I realize they're probably not mutants that look like beastmen, but still the idea of noble, heraldic knight-beastmen trying to go 'no we are still human' is hilarious.
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Jul 27, 2017 17:59
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Mors Rattus posted:So like It's especially great when you remember something that Tome of Corruption brings up: Chaos uses physical mutation as a hook. Physical mutation actually does nothing to your mind, except that pain or infirmity might stress someone the hell out. But everyone takes physical mutation as a sign of corruption, so mutated people are generally cast out or killed, despite still usually being sane. That isolation quickly makes them no longer sane, and who else do they have to turn to? In a case like Usein, they have each other, and the mutants they rescue and incorporate into the community have the community, which helps them resist the lure of Chaos. So they really ARE still human, even if no-one would believe them. E: That's actually something I really like in-setting: For the most part, the way people treat mutants is understandable but genuinely wrong and genuinely counter-productive. Seeing and treating them as victims or people with an illness would actually hurt Chaos real bad and take away one of its best recruiting methods. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Jul 27, 2017 |
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Jul 27, 2017 18:04
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Night10194 posted:How long has Demon Times been going at this point, because people seem to have covered themselves in cultic images and human skin armor awfully quickly. A: I have no loving clue if the developers or the DOS know how preparing human skin as leather works but I would err on the side of "no but maybe someone there worked with leather like how a piercing fetishist is the smith for Sanctuary so maybe they're using some cleaning chemicals to tan skin". B: Fournine is just supposed to really be an opportunistic guy (because the PTM is full of bureaucratic bastards) who thought "hey, signing up to be King poo poo of Prisoner Planet would be a great career move for me! I don't have to backstab my way up the political ladder if I'm building the government!" There actually are a lot of the prisoners who are disgraced politicians and people who know how government works who were privately approached before The Gehenna launched and said "alright so we imprisoned you but if you play ball we'll give you max Trustee status to keep you safe and you'll have a place in the penal government", the popsicles are a backup in case the prisoners get killed. And most importantly, C: I legitimately have no idea how long the timeline of this whole affair is. Like back in the core book, I was confused by how everything became the PTM because the writers don't seem to understand how centuries are counted. And from here out, it's just absolutely nebulous how long it's been, it's just full-bore dream/we didn't really think about this logic. The only time it makes a modicum of sense is Seeds of Rage which takes place over the span of an awful day. And then the PCs run away from the Psychos and go hunting for Sanctuary and when they find Sanctuary is when time and space become meaningless. There's no way Sanctuary could have been built in less than a month, it's just flat-out impossible considering the construction of all of its facilities and it being necessary to knock down plastisteel cell walls to connect them and poo poo. And that logic seems to still hold for the DOS growing in power and getting more drunk on demonic influence and drug abuse, or Shel and her thugs attacking travelers. But then you have stuff like the prisoners trapped behind the debris, who would have starved to death long before they would have managed to run out of oxygen. Like if you really analyze it, the entire scenario really might well be set like a day or two after Perdition where people immediately decided that it's Cult O'Clock, time to wear leather and gently caress corpses. But the logistics of it (like the spreading fungus) just demand that it be over a longer span of time, and then there's the fact that we really don't know how far away Sanctuary is from the segment of D-Block where Rage takes place. So yeah it's just a big hard shrug with an underlying current of "do you really care and does it matter?" and yeah I think it kinda does quite a bit. There wasn't even a cop-out statement of "oh well this is a weird hell dimension and time is all hosed up" like you'd find in 40K's The Warp, they just can't even be assed to bother pretending to explain it.
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Jul 27, 2017 18:43
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Given the emphasis on making sure you have food, supplies, etc you'd think a proper sense of time would be really important, too. Further, without a sense of how long this has all been, there's no sense of degeneration and decay, which is what you usually want to convey in a story about the total breakdown of order.
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Jul 27, 2017 18:45
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Mors Rattus posted:The sausage? Yup
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Jul 27, 2017 20:36
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Night10194 posted:It's especially great when you remember something that Tome of Corruption brings up: Chaos uses physical mutation as a hook. Physical mutation actually does nothing to your mind, except that pain or infirmity might stress someone the hell out. But everyone takes physical mutation as a sign of corruption, so mutated people are generally cast out or killed, despite still usually being sane. That isolation quickly makes them no longer sane, and who else do they have to turn to? On the other hand, a plot hook that immediately suggests itself to me is a knight turning up from Usein - a genuine knight for one reason or another, who's on the Grail quest. Perhaps his mutation is visible, perhaps not. Similarly, a visibly mutated Damsel from Usein one day turns up. How would Bretonnian society respond to that?
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Jul 27, 2017 20:49
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Wapole Languray posted:[*]The Child Weakness is the only weakness child characters start with by default. Child gives y ou a -3 to all Strength tests and Damage (to a minimum of 1), has fewer default Stamina (16 for Long Man, 20 for Bear Man), and a -2 penalty to all Knowledge tests.
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Jul 27, 2017 21:05
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Also having Strengths but also Strength is slightly confusing.
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Jul 27, 2017 21:14
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CHAPTER THREE: DEMOCRACY IN ACTION Or "I Hate the Public. The Public is Stupid." So G-Unit returns to Sanctuary to find general uproar and calls for a general election. See, while they were gone exploring, some stuff happened. First, a bunch of refugees showed up to join Sanctuary with unhappy news. While they were making their way to the town, they witnessed a large force of prisoners being lead by the Psychos that were making their way to near Sanctuary. The force in question is a war band being lead by the Psychos and consisting of the Psychos and other factions who have teamed up with them. And one of the factions is bringing some real bad poo poo with them. Smaller and number but substantially powerful, the Embracers have sent cultists to join the war band, dressing them in ragged robes made out of asylum clothing and jumpsuits. The refugees claimed that the Embracers (who they don't know are Embracers) were chanting in a strange tongue, their chants causing reality to shift around them as it enraged and pumped up the war band. So while Johnson, Bradley and Needles want to know more about their expedition, they'll first have to explain that the Psychos are more than likely coming and they're coming for war. The news Lucretia told the players won't reassure the trio any because of the other problem: the people of Sanctuary are getting restless. See, some people aren't that much of a fan of Johnson for whatever reason. Some people don't like his ideas for defenses, some people have grudges against the Giants for past deeds, some people don't like that he wears sunglasses all the drat time (not in the book). As a result, the public has been hooting and hollering angrily. Bradley, being an actual-rear end politician, has said in public that Sanctuary should put leadership to a vote. No. Bad. Bad Bradley. Now isn't really the time. But the idea has taken root and enough of Sanctuary has decided "yeah, we should put this to a vote!". But before that happens, a Demon attacks. While Bradley and Johnson are working out the logistics for holding the election and the PCs are cooling their heels after returning, a Nightmare Weaver that has silently slipped into Sanctuary the day the PCs left has been skittering around. The fear of attack has been a beacon for it and the turmoil has been a bountiful feast for the invisible Demon, using its power to subtly haunt the guards and put them on edge. The only person who has any knowledge of this is Needles and that's because he's been working on understanding how the Demons operate. While he was a fan of Sanctuary, Needles has lost some faith in the idea. His observations of how the Demons hunt and appear has lead him to (rightfully) believe that Sanctuary is a good idea on paper but a death trap if they all stay there. One bad tantrum spiral will wipe everyone out because too many people panicking in one place will summon the worst possible Demons. He hasn't voiced this idea because this will definitely lead to Sanctuary breaking apart, so instead he's been staying up to try and find the Nightmare Weaver and continue studying it.  A Nightmare Weaver is a pretty dangerous opponent, even for a group of five. Because the sentry didn't see it coming, the PCs have to hurry to warn them or else they'll probably be immediately killed. So as a refresher, here are the stats for a Nightmare Weaver:  Except...this book has reprinted the stats as well.  G-Unit rushes in to warn the sentry and the Night Weaver immediately falls over, dead. Needles attempts to take the body for study but it quickly rots away into shadow. Bradley and Johnson show up and Bradley immediately accuses Needles of being in league with Demons before Johnson gives him a chance to speak. Not doing himself any favors, Needles decides to hold back the truth and explains that he saw movement in the shadows. An opposed Wits check will let the player know he's lying but Needles will never change his story. Ultimately nobody can prove that Needles was working with the Demon but now Johnson will be permanently suspicious of the doctor. He doesn't really care if they don't trust him; he's planning on running for Leader of Sanctuary and believes that if he wins, he'll be vindicated. ABANDON ALL VOTES YE WHO CAMPAIGN HERE The next day is the day everyone makes their campaign speeches. Johnson has ultimately come around to the idea of letting the elections happen; he doesn't want to look like a tyrant and new ideas will be appreciated for the defense of Sanctuary. However the moment that the idea of an election is legitimized, a shitload of prisoners want to run for leader because they want power and to boss people around. So after some deliberation and weeding out the idiots and the jerks, the pool of candidates is reduced to five: Johnson, Bradley, Needles, a new guy by the name of Sly...and any PCs that want to run. And you just know I'm gonna pick a PC to run for leader so I can engage in Maximum Mechanical Shenanigans. Soapbox decides to step up to the plate and run for leader after the rest of G-Unit floats the idea to her. She wasn't really considering it, but there's only one other candidate with a political history and she knew men like Bradley way back on Terra. She decides to run if only to make sure a Terran politician doesn't end up in charge of this doomed bastion of safety. If anyone can do it, it's her. Now's the chance for stump speeches. The event should be RPed with actual debating and dialogue and crowd reactions but the GM can also just state their positions and platforms. If a PC runs, they should absolutely play it out. Now, let's interrupt our review to jump to our special election correspondents live from the floor of Sanctuary. You Are Now Watching W-FNF on Channel 471, Your Home For Weird RPG Nonsense and Silly Gimmicks  "And welcome back to Election Watch 2657! If you're just joining us now, I'm Marilyn Wakeman." "And I'm Darius Broderick." "How's joining the Embracers working out for you, Darius?" "It's been going marvelously, thanks for asking." "And our third correspondent is with us live from Skype, former prisoner and assistant to the prophet Muhammad En Sabah Nur, better known as Apocalypse." "My presence here is unnecessary." "Let's take a look at our first candidate."#1360881, "JOHNSON"   "Known for being a short man with knife scars all over his arms, Johnson's height made him a prime target for harassment in prison. The only way to get the respect he deserved was to fight for it." "My kind of man." "People know him by his sunglasses, his favorite butterfly knife and the fact that he speaks softly and decisively." "What's he got in the way of a platform?" "His platform is that he's a reasonable man who formed Sanctuary. He's fair and balanced and his ideas have brought them this far." "Not the most enticing platform is it?" "Unfortunately, Johnson's oratory skills fall short of his ability to fight and survive. His speech is Average." "Actions speak louder than words, Darius." "They certainly do. If Johnson wins the election, everything continues as it normally does. He's presumed to win the election. You two have any further thoughts?" "Nothing I can say on air, Marilyn. We'll be knocking at his gates soon enough and rending the flesh from his bones." "I empathize much with Johnson's position in life and wish a swift death to his enemies."#3586661, "DR. NEEDLES"   "I'm lead to believe this candidate makes you uncomfortable, Marilyn?" "I'll say. On the one hand you have the fact that he carries himself with an air of suave sophistication. He's well-mannered, calm and polite from his well-kept silver-streaked hair down to his carefully cleaned shoes. But let's not forget that he's a serial killer who specifically targeted female patients to feel alive again." "Problematic to say the least. I absolutely agree with his platform, though: survival of the fittest. He'll save lives and heal the sick and wounded but if you can't pull your weight and calm your emotions, you have to go." "That's a bit harsh, don't you think Darius?" "Absolutely. His platform is all about explaining how Sanctuary is doomed to fail based on his knowledge of Demons and that it should disband to save everyone's lives. However, here's one thing I totally agree with: the war band is at the gates and if they disband now everyone will be picked off and killed. His current platform is to expel the weak and useless and have the hardy fight against the invaders to survive, to which I say good luck." "Surprisingly, the crowd is reacting positively to this." "Don't forget this is an audience of prisoners who've spent life behind bars taking what they need to survive. He speaks to a deep, primal familiarity they all have been immersed in." "True enough. Fortunately for Needles, his theories and logic are sound and the way he carries himself gives him a Good speech. However, electing Needles results in a reduction of defenders at the end of the module, +1 Guilt for everyone who remains in Sanctuary due to being complicit in the purge and one of the scenes in the defense of Sanctuary doesn't happen. Do you consider this to be a worthwhile result, Darius?" "Well of course, it gives us some appetizers before we feast proper." "You disgust me."#9798431, "SENATOR BRADLEY"   "Some of our viewers may remember Bradley here from the New Regime movement and how he was imprisoned for being a critic of it. He may not be guilty of anything but that sure as hell doesn't mean he's a good person." "I can think of a few people in the crowd who'd love nothing more than to tear his throat out, Marilyn." "And how! He's alienated from the prison community as a result, but he's a charismatic man who knows the political machine. Which leads us to his platform." "Heavily reminiscent of the spiel given to Tama and Pincushion, it looks like he's going for an angle of appeasement. If you want it, he'll get it for you. His big message is that there must be a way off the ship and he'll guarantee that every last member of Sanctuary will find a way off." "I wish to hold him by his ankles and shake him until candy comes out." "I don't disagree with you there, En Sabah Nur. The main reason nobody sees his platform for what it is seems to be because of his political history." "Yes, despite having no real substance his speech is Excellent. Electing Bradley is not without its flaws, however. He will make a deal with the Daughters of Slaughter and let them in during a crucial moment during the defense of Sanctuary. There are no further effects. As much as I would love for this man to be elected for that fact alone, this will happen regardless of whether or not he wins and as such I cannot support this candidate." "Well I think we're both in agreement, Darius." "Hopefully he chokes on the rewards gained from his dishonorable betrayal."#2561107, "SLY"   "I've never heard of this man. Marilyn?" "Hmm, me neither. En Sabah Nur?" "You are lucky I come prepared. Sly is a lunatic who used to be a handsome showman but most likely sustained brain damage from repeated fights that knocked out most of his teeth and ruined his nose. Those are not yellow teeth but gold replacements he has somehow managed to hold onto." "Oh, a classic crazy man turned politician? Delightful!" "I have a feeling he doesn't have much of a platform then.":dealwithit: "You are correct. He claims that he lost his memory after Perdition and can't remember why he came to Sanctuary to begin with. The only reason people bother to listen to him is because his psychological detachment leads to a friendly air because he does not believe the danger to be real. His platform is solely 'we can survive this because there is a lot of us'." :j: "Ah, so he's just appealing to ignorance and strength in numbers." :cenobite: "Well I can imagine his election going delightfully for us." :dealwithit: "I wouldn't count on it. His speech is Poor due to the fact that it's full of rambling lies and strange promises. If he is somehow elected, the defenses of Sanctuary suffer due to the defenders believing that there's no real danger. The moment the war band makes its presence known within the walls, Sly will flee with a handful of followers and abandon the town." :cenobite: "What a shame he can't win." :j: "How he managed to get past the vetting process is amazing to me." #3752447, "SOAPBOX"   :j: "Glad to see a little diversity with a female candidate." :cenobite: "Ah yes, Genevieve "Soapbox" Angstrom, one of the player characters." :dealwithit: "Oh good, nice to see one of these in play." :j: "A famous peace activist and political speaker, Soapbox was a supporter of the PTM until it started to abuse the rights of the populace and the movement disavowed her. Undeterred, she functioned as a public critic and organizer of resistance rallies and social movements until she was imprisoned." :cenobite: "Willing to admit she was wrong? Admirable." :j: "She has since spent her long imprisonment acting as a public figure and den mother for the women's wings, helping them find the strength they need to survive in prison." :cenobite: "Her platform isn't too dissimilar from Johnson's platform. Her time in prison means she understands the best way to speak to her fellow inmates and get across how the defenses can be improved. She's also got shades of Needles platform, but really only in the sense that Sanctuary may be destroyed from within due to fear and how there should be emergency retreat plans in place." :dealwithit: "A solid position, all things considered." :j: "Looks like the crowd is responding warmly to her and she seems to be bringing out her big guns in response to Bradley, look at the face he's making." :cenobite: "Really making him squirm. I'd call that an Excellent speech. How do you two feel?" :dealwithit: "I'm inclined to agree, she's doing a good job of speaking truth to power and the crowd is responding favorably." :j: "And I second that. Any downsides to her being elected?" :cenobite: "I would say things generally would proceed as if Johnson was elected with things depending on how she handles the power of leading. There'll be a big opportunity to change some of how the rest of the module plays out." :dealwithit: "I would say that she has a reasonable chance of success." :cenobite: "Agreed." :j: "Well that covers the debates. Thanks for joining us tonight. I'm Marilyn Wakefield." :cenobite: "I'm Darius Broderick. And thanks to our special guest En Sabah Nur." :dealwithit: "I did not dislike being here tonight." :j: "Glad to hear it, thanks for your input and for covering our blind spot. Up next at the top of the hour is our channel's continuing documentary on moving past the d20 paradigm. Thanks for joining us." The Outcome For starters, the players can choose to campaign. Considering everything G-Unit has done for Sanctuary, their voices have some additional weight and will help sway the election.
 Now let's figure out where Soapbox stands.
 Wow, close race all things considered. For real, I rolled these out and didn't fudge the numbers. Congratulations Soapbox! Johnson winning means the status quo is maintained. Needles winning means he'll immediately start thinning out the weak. Bradley will stabilize the infighting with false promises and lies. Sly will attempt to do as Bradley does and will it all poorly and incoherently. But hey, the PC is in charge! God help us all. I joke but hey there are rules for the PC winning the election. If she was a Power-focused character, this would be a major milestone for her character. She'll still bask, just without the megalomania. Anyway there are consequences below.  Really hate how this whole section is written with a constant smirk to the camera about what's to come. At any rate, Soapbox decides to make the Rear most important, the Reserves second and she holds back on the Front Lines mostly due to the fact that they got the turrets loaded with shotgun rounds working. The next few days are spent getting Sanctuary into shape, training and preparing for danger as she does her best to soothe the worries of the people while Doc, Beth, Tama and Pincushion do the heavy lifting of implementing strategy and getting everyone equipped. I don't have anything funny or pithy to say about NEXT TIME besides that chapter four is when the barbarians are at the gate and Sanctuary falls no matter what. Vox Valentine fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Jul 27, 2017 |
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Jul 27, 2017 21:15
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Warhammer Fantasy, Knights of the Grail Bastonne: Home of Giles d'Breton and site of many chapels, as well as a lovely hellpit Bastonne is special, because Giles d' Breton was Duke of Baston before he united Bretonnia. It is also in roughly the center of the country, bordered by rivers and with the Massif Orcal mountains spilling over the border from the eastern border with Quenelles. It's mostly a pretty nice place, excepting the hell pit. Where the duchy meets the Massif Orcal, there's a massive 200m rend in the earth, so deep that people think it might be bottomless, and out of it comes terrible fogs that can kill a man with extreme cold at the height of summer. It also spawns weird, giant frog monsters that wander the country and devour livestock. No, I don't know what the deal with Bastonnian hellpit is, but anything called the Black Chasm is usually bad news. The creatures have stats; they're actually really nasty for a low level party to face, since they've got 6 Strength Bonus, 5 Toughness Bonus, and 3 AV from their scaley skin, plus a whopping 32 Wounds. With only a single attack a round and a 40% Weapon Skill, a starting party *might* be able to take one, but they'd be best left for more experienced characters. Scholars suspect these aren't actually Chaos spawn, since they never have additional mutations and they're always the same (giant frog, likes to eat horses), but given how dangerous the Black Chasm is no-one has ever observed them closely enough to find out more. The other problem for Bastonne is the Forest of Chalons, which is somehow even more dangerous and sparsely populated than the Forest of Arden in Artois. It is completely infested with undead, beastmen, and where the two meet and the beastmen inevitably lose a battle, undead beastmen. The Red Duke has been known to haunt the place from time to time, though he might currently be in Mousillon or anywhere else; he certainly isn't dead at the moment. But really, outside of the hellpit and the haunted death forest it's a nice duchy, believe me. Bastonnians are some of the most nationalistic people in Bretonnia, and it is only in this duchy that you'll regularly encounter people who have something of an idea that there should be single Bretonnian state, rather than 13 great duchies (and Mousillon) swearing fealty to a King. The worship of the Lady is everywhere, and very strong; even the peasants get into it in Bastonne, and it's one of the country's best sources of Grail Pilgrims. Of all Bretonnians, Bastonnians are the most likely to believe there is simply something better about the way Bretons do things compared to the rest of the world, and they're happy to adventure abroad to prove it. This was embodied when Duke Bohemond of Baston volunteered to personally join the King's errantry host and go to aid the Empire in the Storm of Chaos. He did so as much to ensure Bretonnian arms would be represented and respected in the ultimate victory of good as to fulfill any military obligation. Bohemond is one of the Grail Knight dukes, famous for his sense of honor and desire for challenges. This drives the man to fight greater and greater monsters, and he's known to never kill an opponent he considers genuinely inferior. The man isn't interested in killing, just in fighting. He is a direct descendant of Giles d' Breton, and some believe he should be king. One of them is not, Duke Bohemond. He is completely loyal to his king, and prefers to spend his time practicing his skills at war. To that end, he leaves the running of his Duchy to subordinates, and is a notoriously poor judge of character; many of them are corrupt and wicked. Bastonne is also the site of one of the oldest Grail chapels, over a millennia old and built and maintained entirely by the peasantry. It is a great cathedral, rather than a small chapel like most. Legend has it that the Lady appeared before a peasant ages ago, praising his loyalty to his lord, and allowed him to touch (though not drink from) the grail. He built the cathedral on that spot. Nobles will deny this story as mere peasant superstition out of hand; everyone knows the Lady is only the Goddess of the nobility. Despite the fact that the Grail Knights shun the 'Humble Chapel', it is one of the few places where Damsels and Prophetesses will come to speak to the peasantry, breaking their normal disdain for reasons no-one can fathom. Next: Bordeleaux, Land Of So Much Goddamn Wine. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Aug 4, 2017 |
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Jul 27, 2017 21:31
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Night10194 posted:No, I don't know what the deal with Bastonnian hellpit is, but anything called the Black Chasm is usually bad news. Sounds like a lizardmen spawning pool to me, just one not currently spawning saurus.
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Jul 27, 2017 21:40
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Cythereal posted:Sounds like a lizardmen spawning pool to me, just one not currently spawning saurus. That was my thought as well. That they're bigass mindless frogs suggests something that was supposed to make Slaan that's gone really, really wrong.
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Jul 27, 2017 21:45
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