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LatwPIAT posted:There's always Phoenix Command! Which part of the rules does that show up in? I figured it would have it because of course, but I don't think I read that independently. LatwPIAT posted:There's also the Vietnam RPG PATROL, which has a pretty abstracted combat system where suppressive fire are attacks that increase the difficulty of the opponent's attack rolls. I really need to get this to the playing table some time.
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Jul 31, 2017 14:35
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Night10194 posted:I guess it got missed by the archiving. Yeah I've been skipping over them because they're not very distinguishable from regular posts. I mentioned this before, I think. Please consider adding a banner, or a linebreak after the book title, or something.
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Jul 31, 2017 15:04
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 System Mastery - Dungeons and Dragons: 3rd Edition. Our 100th System Mastery. We've been doing this far too long. Also, the episode is far too long. A perfect storm of overthinking and injokes. Enjoy!
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Jul 31, 2017 16:31
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inklesspen posted:Yeah I've been skipping over them because they're not very distinguishable from regular posts. I mentioned this before, I think. Please consider adding a banner, or a linebreak after the book title, or something. Sorry, I thought the bolding at the top would be enough. E: I am not good with graphics but I'll try to find a way to do a header or cover shot once I have a better connection. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Jul 31, 2017 |
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Jul 31, 2017 17:04
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Night10194 posted:Sorry, I thought the bolding at the top would be enough. Just open up a picture of it in paint and copy the title, you can then paste that directly into imgur and it'll upload it for you. You don't need to save it as a separate file or anything.
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Jul 31, 2017 18:02
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theironjef posted:
Well, I guess reading out the Murphy thread highlights is one way to create content. Nice discussion!
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Jul 31, 2017 18:40
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theironjef posted:
The worst edition of D&D judged solely by the cover.
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Jul 31, 2017 18:53
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Night10194 posted:Sorry, I thought the bolding at the top would be enough. You don't need a header image necessarily. But consider these two posts: Night10194 posted: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, in Warhammer Fantasy: Knights of the Grail Night10194 posted:Warhammer Fantasy: Knights of the Grail The second approach has a standardized and standout title/subtitle block. This makes it really easy for me to spot and extract your post (and copy-paste whatever subtitle you want for that particular post.) That's basically how ARB does it, minus the graphical header: Alien Rope Burn posted:Rifts World Book 15: Spirit West, Part 11: "All Man-Monsters, regardless of their totem or appearance, are the embodiment of evil, depravity, and insanity — abominations who loathe and destroy goodness, innocence and life." (Numbered parts are also cool, provided you don't mess up the numbering; helps me be sure I didn't miss a post.)
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Jul 31, 2017 19:10
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Alien Rope Burn posted:The worst edition of D&D judged solely by the cover. Nope. I'll die on this hill because I love the 3.0 covers. Granted I was eleven or twelve when I first owned them but those covers drew me in. The little latches printed on the illustration and the sorta "I Spy" look of them said to pre-teen me: "There are secrets and wonders in here that no one else knows."
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Jul 31, 2017 19:38
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Yeah, I totally love the 3e covers.
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Jul 31, 2017 19:39
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Yeah, gotta give the 3.X covers some credit.
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Jul 31, 2017 19:42
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Their 2e competition wasn't much, either - black with a big display of art from inside the book on the front. The older stuff tends to be more out there and weird.
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Jul 31, 2017 19:42
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inklesspen posted:You don't need a header image necessarily. But consider these two posts: Sure, when I'm on an internet connection that's a bit better (around Thursday or so) I'll go back and do that for my old posts. Thanks again for running the archives, sorry I wasn't making it easier on you.
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Jul 31, 2017 20:02
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Mors Rattus posted:Their 2e competition wasn't much, either - black with a big display of art from inside the book on the front. The older stuff tends to be more out there and weird. pft sputter  I can't believe this is the best quality picture I can find, but this is way better than the 3E books. 3E books just looks like some sort of uninspiring faux-tome, here you've got a fighter smashing a door down with his swoleness so hard it explodes, while an ancient wizard prepares to throw a fireball and a rogue is wondering how much of the loot he can steal under his allies' noses without getting them all killed. It tells you what this show is gonna be all about.
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Jul 31, 2017 20:49
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I am thinking specific of the Monster Manual which was basically a bunch of monsters wandering around a void.
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Jul 31, 2017 21:11
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This is still my favourite D&D cover.
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Jul 31, 2017 21:19
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Bieeardo posted:This is still my favourite D&D cover.
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Jul 31, 2017 21:21
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FMguru posted:I like the fact that the monster they call out in the back cover blurb is a motherfucking quasit and not, you know, a dragon or a giant or something cool that people might have heard of.
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Jul 31, 2017 21:27
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PurpleXVI posted:pft sputter 2e will always and only ever be this cover: 
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Jul 31, 2017 21:37
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FMguru posted:I like the fact that the monster they call out in the back cover blurb is a motherfucking quasit and not, you know, a dragon or a giant or something cool that people might have heard of. We actually have this book at my parents place, apparently my sister was briefly, but intensely, into D&D due to her boyfriend at the time.
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Jul 31, 2017 22:16
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I spotted the 3e cover from a distance and was super intrigued and then i found out all the greebles and bits were just pictures so I instantly felt let down and that experience basically summarizes my feelings towards the system.
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Jul 31, 2017 22:48
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Bieeardo posted:This is still my favourite D&D cover. I recently sold all of my D&D books except this one. Not least because my copy is full of someone's marginalia, including at least one crayon drawing.
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Jul 31, 2017 23:01
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I do enjoy the 2E picture of a dude busting a door down by flexing at it but i remind everyone that one of his hands is fuckin backwards.
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Jul 31, 2017 23:19
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slap me and kiss me posted:2e will always and only ever be this cover: Hell yeah.
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Jul 31, 2017 23:19
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Glagha posted:I do enjoy the 2E picture of a dude busting a door down by flexing at it but i remind everyone that one of his hands is fuckin backwards. 18 strength 6 charisma right there.
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Aug 1, 2017 00:43
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Glagha posted:I do enjoy the 2E picture of a dude busting a door down by flexing at it but i remind everyone that one of his hands is fuckin backwards. That way he doesn't take offhand penalties, see.
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Aug 1, 2017 01:00
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 Rifts World Book 15: Spirit West, Part 12: "Players familiar with Palladium Books' Ninjas & Superspies™ may recognize the similarities of this attack and its effects to that of a Negative Chi attack combined with Dim Mak!"  "Nitpickers said I look more like a croc crossed with a chicken, so I ate them." Plumed Serpents These are near-dragons that look like oversized flying dinos, and are highly territorial. They often drive "invaders" out or charge tolls, depending on their mood, but rarely actually attack those that are polite and cooperative. "Native Americans are viewed with neutrality" and aren't harassed because, as established, they're the magical exceptions in this setting. Unlike a lot of monsters here, they're optional PCs but get a noted reduction in toughness and damage when they do. Then right after it says that, it brings up that sometimes they'll just ambush people without warning. Sure, we just established that they don't, but I guess GMs might need a license to make them into wandering damage? Stat-wise, they're exceptional overall except for beauty, and get a pretty solid M.D.C. count that's better than hatching but nowhere near an adult dragon. PCs get even less, making them little better than armored humans for the sake of "balance". They get some wilderness skills, regeneration, bonus against prowl checks (sharp senses), flight, breath lightning (solid damage unless you're a PC, then it's crap), turn invisible for short-term, and minor psionics, can learn (but not start with) spells, and can turn into a human form but are stuck that way for a full day when they do. They're not bad, but their M.D.C. is low enough that you may as well play a proper dragon instead - their long-term ability to take on human form is the only thing that really stands out. As far as I can tell these are based on depictions of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god that had depictions as far North as the American Southwest. And by "based" I mean "are also feathered serpents".  The teeth don't ungrit. Stone Giant So, these are eeevil big people with stone skin that like hunting and eating, and aren't particular as to whether or not their prey is sentient. They're big and reasonably tough without being immensely so, but have some weird abilities. They can breathe on their hand and then make people sick on contact or attack, but their big ridiculous ability, taking over a half-page of text, is their Death Ghost Attack, where they barf up ghosts from their teeth that attack people. They get to keep attacking for two to five melee rounds as if the ghost swarm was its own character, but there's no actual number of attacks per round listed for them, so you'll just have to make up a number.  And no, you can't kill the ghost swarm. What happens if the ghost hits you? Well, you lose PPE. If you lose all your PPE, you get a spirit disease that keeps you recovering PPE or healing. Also you get cumulative penalties and exhaustion. This is supposed to be like the "Dim Mak" attack from Ninjas & Superspies in that it's a near-incurable death curse, and one you're likely to be hit by (given that they'll get at least 4-10 chances to hit you with it). The only cures are to can either get the stone giant to cancel the curse, get healed in a major ritual at a medicine lodge, or restoration magic (which is a massive ritual). But if you have an armor fetish active, you're completely immune to it.It's a massive gently caress-you attack and there's not much way around it other than... being Native American and having special magical protection, or by running your rear end off as soon as it attacks (since it's got a limited range). And no, you can't play one of these, because they're generically evil. Culture Notes: Stone giants aren't exactly rare in myth - I found Seneca and Iriquois myths, amongst others. I couldn't find any that barf ghosts on people, though.  "What, no, I'm totally a scary monster! Everybody's gotta judge." Teepowka These are armored, carnivorous, death bison. They have a "lust to hunt and kill" and have low but apparently cunning intelligence. Mind, given it's 20'+ feet long and weighs 8+ tons, I don't think we'll get any "clever girl" moments. It's pretty drat tough and can deal a lot of damage with a ram or trample. Randomly, it can blend into the background like a chameleon. Apparently Native Americans hunt this thing for food when they can, and it's delicious. Killing an animal about as smart as an ape is no doubt balanced ethically out by its generic bloodthirst.  Fingertip jewelry is all the rage in his home dimension. Two-Face Star-People "Man-eaters" that can shapeshift their appearance to hide amongst normal people, this was an otherdimensional race that apparently somehow came onto Earth over a millennium ago, but the fading of magic apparently locked them into human-looking forms. Apparently they laid low, hating the Cheyenne people for some undefined reason, and when the magic returned regained both their shapeshifting powers and "thirst for human blood". Apparently they're aliens from a planet in the Three Galaxies (in the Phase World setting) where the Cosmo Knights busted up their empire and tried to genocide them. You remember Cosmo Knights, those folks cosmically empowered by a force of good (and benevolent genocide, apparently)? Yeah, they're pissed at the Cheyenne instead of those guys for some reason. Anyway-  So they're still just S.D.C. beings, but are superior to humans in most ways except for their looks. They can do surface-level shapeshifting but perfectly mimic human and D-Bee DNA by eating them and get their powers (but nothing learned or granted). They have psionic powers mainly just to defend themselves from psychic attacks, and that's most of that. Nope, can't play one, because evil.  "What do you think of the new arms? More scary? Less scary?" Ukt Water Serpents Werewolf: the Apocalypse players will recognize these, which are basically just evil lake sea serpents / "lesser dragons" that evil schemers that visit evil upon everybody because... look, most everything's just boring and evil in this section. They like torturing people because everybody's gotta have a hobby, right? Apparently they work for the Splugorth sometimes or their eeevil god Uktena, but the seemingly good thunderbirds hunt and eat them because eating sentients is okay if they're evil enough. They also fight the Coalition because the Coalition doesn't cotton to big evil magic snakes. They're apparently 60'-100' long but only "stand" up to around 12'. They actually dust off the entangling rules to grapple people with, have a venomous bite, have all low-level water elemental spells, and get a selection of psychic powers. Oh and I guess they're modestly tough I'm so bored with this you don't even know, it's just a parade of evil creatures that do evil because that's what's in their alignment block. These seem to be more based on the Sioux Unhcegila, varied water monsters that were wiped out by the Thunderbirds. However, there's a lot of back and forth and Uktena and the Unhcegila can be synonymous or not depending on what story or translation you're reading.  Wait, Dr. Zaius? I thought you were an ape of science! Wendigo So this is an evil cannibal monster what does evil because once again psych, no, it isn't, it's actually just a benevolent bigfoot, not sure why they call them wendigo. It turns out this is a sapient race native to Earth (!) that has hidden away from humanity and is allied with Native Americans. This is because the wendigo can recognize what side of the bread the author is buttering up. They get to be about the only character type that isn't Native American that can take on some of the special Warrior and Shaman Classes in this book. Much like their D&D counterparts, they can teleport short distances, and get generic animal senses, a variety of minor wilderness spells, and may or may not have psionics just as humans do. Oh, and they're better at humans at everything except intelligence and prowess (even their beauty is 0.5 points better on average). They're minor MDC creatures, too. Mostly it's just a relief to have a playable race that isn't a huge bag of rotten buttmeats but they're just kind of generically peaceful Native Americans + more magic + bonus fur. Next: It's the '90s, time for your mandated dose of RPG animism. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Aug 1, 2017 |
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Aug 1, 2017 01:12
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gradenko_2000 posted:Which part of the rules does that show up in? I figured it would have it because of course, but I don't think I read that independently. Small Arms Combat System 3e, p. 49, section 5.6 Morale. When a bullet misses by less than 1-6 EAL (depending on Knockout Value), the target has to roll less than or equal to their Knockout Value. If they fail, they have to take cover or enter the Low Prone stance. Then the target has to roll less than or equal to 3 x Knockout Value; if they fail, they have to stay in cover and can't fight until they've been rallied. If they succeed, they can fight again immediately. Each time a character is rallied, they can attempt this roll again. To rally another character, you need to enter their hex and spend 0-160 actions (depending on your own Knockout Value) trying to rally them. gradenko_2000 posted:I really need to get this to the playing table some time. Yes! And I not saying that just because I'm working on the Bush War expansion for it! e: theironjef posted:System Mastery - Dungeons and Dragons: 3rd Edition. Our 100th System Mastery. We've been doing this far too long. Also, the episode is far too long. A perfect storm of overthinking and injokes. Enjoy! ...I suspect Phoenix Command's grappling rules are actually less complex than D&D 3.X's. LatwPIAT fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Aug 1, 2017 |
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Aug 1, 2017 01:17
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theironjef posted:
I have to say it is a bold claim that any system can be fun with a good group/dm considering that fatal exists.
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Aug 1, 2017 04:38
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You can have fun with 3e I suppose; but the thing is, if you don't really care what edition of D&D you play, why not play a much simpler one?Comrade Gorbash posted:As a graphic designer, this book is 100% what happens when you let a couple graphic designers loose with no constraints.
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Aug 1, 2017 05:02
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Glagha posted:I do enjoy the 2E picture of a dude busting a door down by flexing at it but i remind everyone that one of his hands is fuckin backwards. Look, just because he had a Rakshasa (I probably misspelled that) somewhere in his family tree is no reason to discriminate.
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Aug 1, 2017 05:12
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Hunt11 posted:I have to say it is a bold claim that any system can be fun with a good group/dm considering that fatal exists. It's just a matter of excising. With FATAL you end up playing "Let's get some Mike's hard limeade and watch Bake-Off" which is rad as hell with a good gaming group.
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Aug 1, 2017 05:49
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 CHAPTER ONE: SANITARIUM (WEST) Or Werewolves, Wicker Men, Whatever Sanitarium W-893 is one of the many facilities for patients with mental health issues and it’s one of the many facilities ravaged by Perdition. When the Gehenna ended up in the Nether, destruction and power outages resulted in the patients getting loose and succeeded in overthrowing the Custodians and Trustees. In the mayhem, one of the patients ended up being overlooked: a teenage boy who was intentionally placed in the adult population due to his past history. The boy was contacted by the Demons of the Nether and he made a pact with a Reality Cancer, accelerating his psychic powers to godlike levels. Now there is a king of W-893: Daniel. Somewhere In Between is all about the protagonists of Abandon All Hope delving into the depths of an abandoned sanitarium to punch a child in the face. The patients are all under the thrall of Daniel, terrified and reverent of his power and ability to warp space and time and kill people with his mind. There are some adventure hooks the game puts forth:  And we’re going to go with option #2. G-Unit has stumbled across W-893 while in the process of moving on from Sanctuary, unsure exactly what’s going on but tipped off from that one weird guy in Sanctuary that something was going down here. Plus, hey, maybe there’s Cardiolax to obtain.      Speaking of G-Unit, there's been some upgrades to the crew. Everyone now has 10 more health because they qualify for Extra Health. BETH has been working on getting more tanky and using numbers to her advantage, DOC can now heal in combat and will go first alongside Beth, PINCUSHION wasted his points by taking a useless psychic power that just increases his Psi Strength, TAMA can now build Junker Robots and is in fact working on one to compensate for her lacking fighting abilities and SOAPBOX...has invested in something very fun. Not Commando Fighting (though Beth and Doc have started teaching her about how to fight that way). Soapbox has selected Criminal Mastermind, which means she has another prisoner built just like the rest of them that her (hypothetical) player also controls. This means that G-Unit has now officially grown to 6 members with the addition of: #999490, "ICE QUEEN" CONVICTION: DISSIDENT TIME SERVED: 5 YEARS GOAL: SURVIVAL  April "Ice Queen" Bancroft is barely an adult and terrified out of her mind. The fourth child of an influential politician, April was raised comfortably in an upper-class lifestyle in a life that never knew anything but the PTM. Being a middle child meant that April was generally left alone, able to explore her own interests when she wasn't following the lessons of her tutors. It's not really known if there was a plan for her at all, seeing as how she was far enough down the line that her older siblings could move into various positions of power. Whatever chances she had were cut short when some maneuvering between her parents and their opponents ended with her behind bars on bullshit charges and her parents unable (unwilling?) to get her out. Stuffed directly into the Gehenna with the juvie population, her time on the ship has seen her join general population and retreat into herself as a result. Her nickname stems from the defense mechanism that's kept safe for years: a cold unwavering gaze that makes people think twice about trying to do anything with her. What she brings to G-Unit is the hands-down highest Intimidation score and the ability to be a scarily competent fighter as long as she can keep her Despair in check. Every part of her competence stems from her natural intelligence or ability to just put on a brave face when danger is ahead of her. Unfortunately she has a lot to lose if she's unable to keep the image of stability and power going. G-Unit found her in the aftermath of Sanctuary and Soapbox has been helping her keep it all together, trying to teach her how to survive.   The entrance of the sanitarium wasn’t used particularly often but hey, every adventure has to start somewhere. Also just a side note, the game later says that the inmates will probably react badly to a bunch of heavily armed prisoners running around and it’s possible for the players to dress up as mental patients and keep them calm. I won’t be doing that.   Inspecting the scene reveals that the patients are playing with a severed head, oh no! Despair check. Asking about the fact that they’re playing with a head gets you nowhere due to the fact that their words are generally unintelligible and they’re not in any state of mind to speak clearly. Approaching the sanitarium proper makes one of them yell a warning at you: “He’s watching you! Right now he is, he is! From his tower in the Fortress of Impossibility!”  Whenever the players are directly threatened by the mental patients, they use these stats. They’re…pushovers, they’re in no condition to fight anyone or do anything dangerous to the party.   Despair check! The people here died due to a stampede during Perdition. There’s no real danger here, but you can go poke at the people making music to find:  The conductor is willing to speak to the party, but it takes some effort. The gist of everything is that Daniel is the Boy King and he demands that all visitors make a trip to see him directly. To see Daniel, they have to see the Bishop and probably sacrifice someone to the Wicker Man. In turn the conductor will demand that they listen to his performance he’s planning to play for Daniel. Refusing means the conductor attacks while the violin player just sits there, docile. Pretty much nobody wants to do this but Doc’s past training as an orderly gets leaned on and she has them all listen to the music.  Just some graffiti and hint at a metaplot, nothing special.  It’s a small security station meant for a Monitor or a Trustee: a stool, monitors, equipment locker. The screens of the monitors have been smashed and a letter has been painted on each, spelling out “NO PEEKING!”. The inmates tried breaking the locker open and it’s battered, but 20 more points of damage will break it open to reveal a single riot helmet and a baton.  The armory is locked and would require Access or hacking to get open. However, the main reason nobody has managed to get it open is because the access reader has no power. Because there are no rules for, like, jury-rigging batteries to power things, the only way in is to deliver 100 pounds of damage to the door. Breaking it open reveals the corpses of four dead orderlies who retreated here to load up to deal with the riot and lay low. Unfortunately, the power loss means they all suffocated quite a bit ago. Despair check! The armory contains five batons, two cattle prods, two hydrogen cells, one mace canister and an irritant thrower with two shots left.  The break room has two pinball machines, a cigarette machine, dartboard, pool table and a TV with a movie player. The area is in disarray but it's empty here. It pretty much exists just for scavenging: the discs for the movies will turn up a collection of adult movie actress Helga Kolbenbumsen's "most controversial scenes" that can be sold for smokes, the pinball machines can be scavenged for components and the smoke dispenser can be hacked to pump out its full stockpile. The name Helga Kolbenbumsen is oddly specific because she'll be showing up in another module. Sidenote: her name is apparently a pun. "Kolben" is piston, "bumsen" is a slang term for loving, put them together and you get "butt loving". Helga Buttfucking. Delightful. Things certainly do sound better in another tongue sometimes.  The pipes burst in Perdition and as a result there's a standing layer of cold water on the flood mingling with sewage and detritus. Hiding in one of the stalls is #6763092, an orderly who hid to avoid the rampage and has been terrified of getting caught so he hasn't left. Which doesn't really make a lot of sense but then again time is meaningless and he wouldn't have starved to death or anything. He can be pumped for information and will even draw a map of the area (though some of it is wrong due to time and space being squeezed by a god-child). Daniel lead the inmate revolt who was able to twist reality (he can't explain how due to witnessing it being a maddening experience) and asking why Daniel retreated to the Eastern half of the Sanctuary only agitates the orderly. Ultimately, it's possible to get him to join, but only if the squad seems competent to protect him and he'll only stick around until he can get to safety (trying to convince someone else to join because he doesn't want to go alone).   It's a single-floor facility; the point of the elevator was just to connect with the next floor. There's no getting up the shaft. Digging around in the rubble only reveals the rotting corpse of a woman who was murdered and hidden by an inmate who stole her clothes.  The laundry needs Access 1 to get in. The room is unoccupied and in a pretty good state, all things considered. This is the best place to dress up as patients to hide better. Enterprising players can scavenge Chemicals from the cleaning surprise while someone searching the pants can find a crumpled-up note.   The dining room is empty. It was intentionally made to look nice to help make the patients feel more comfortable and relaxed. Whenever mealtime rolls around, patients will return to eat whatever is on the table (which happens to be rotting human meat; realizing the cannibalism of the inmates forces a Despair check).  Opening the platter will reveal a patient with dwarfism that is lying on a bed of herbs with an apple in his mouth. He's tied up and trying to free him will lead to him throwing a tantrum about how it's his turn followed by running off screaming. Do you get it? Do you get that poo poo is scary and hosed up and weird?  Access 1 is needed to get into the pantry which is still cooled and climate-controlled, the majority of the food undisturbed by Perdition. Inspecting it will reveal that it's real food, tinned and canned but real food they haven't seen in years like tuna, cheese, condensed milk and meat. The intention was to use real food to help keep the patients calm, but the food can't easily be removed from the pantry "because it'll spoil because it's unprepared". Bullshit. Either way, once they deal with this Daniel kid, G-Unit is gonna come back here, loot the place and figure out a new zone to lay low in with their new supplies. The only way they function like a ration pack is if they're eaten immediately.  It's a loading dock. Nothing of interest is here besides the maglev tunnel that supplies were ferried in from.  When the sanitarium was functioning, the day room was where the patients would engage in hobbies and relax. They're still doing that despite the chaos, compelled to go to a place that makes them feel calm. There sure are a lot of NPCs who don't have a lot of anything to do with anything.  Big Mammy is a weird addition and is also the one responsible for killing the woman in the elevator shaft.  The trio are convinced that they're crippling the eyes and ears of the Observers by destroying Narcs. You can talk to them and they'll remain calm while working, admitting they don't really know who the Observers are but they're totally spying on them. When they're done breaking the Narc, you can loot the remains.  The cells are all unlocked. They're regular cells like the ones G-Unit knew, but they're nicer cells for the comfort of the patients. The majority of the cells are empty and every five cells you get a random roll on the random find table (ignore weapon results). A few of the cells are still occupied and you can roll below (forcing a Despair check results 4-6).  This is indeed a d6 chart that reads d8 on the header.  This man is responsible for the art back in 4. He's not a threat, just focused on painting on the walls. If asked, he doesn't really know who the Observers are or what they do, just that they see everything and hear everything and live behind the walls in secret passages.  The black king is Daniel, the black bishop is Bishop and there are as many pawns as there are PCs. It is a metaphor, you see.  There is unrest in the forest; there is trouble with the trees. The indoor forest was meant to be a refuge for the inmates to relax and enjoy nature and was tended by special gardening Custodians. Since Perdition, the Custodians are unable to tend to it and the background radiation of the Nether has influenced the plants. Fortunately, the mutations are mostly cosmetic. Weird but cosmetic and harmless. Due to how thick and wild the foliage is growing, you can't see further than 10 feet off the path looking into the forest.   Seven patients are playing “croquet” while a bunch of Scuttling Impossibilities watch them, making random noises as they run around. The Scuttling Impossibilities force Insanity and Despair checks but won’t attack the players. However, attacking them makes them flee and when they run away the patients panic and attack the players. Just ignore this area.  The village is made out of crap in the style of what people think a medieval village would look like. This is where Bishop (#3203071) resides.   An ex-priest who never gave up his faith, the PTM sentenced him to Gehenna as a Dissident and forced him to have a lobotomy. When you give a lobotomy to a zealous 70 year old man and lock him up in a psych ward, things get worse for him. He was one of the first witnesses of Daniel’s powers and he venerates him as a god, manipulating the inmates into forming a cult around him. The main thing is that the inmates kind of just view this as a game they’re all playing and they’re pretty easily manipulated by him. Underneath Bishop’s control, the village is locked in a shtick where they look for witches, capture “witches” and then take them to be sacrificed. The other main reason is that every time they make a sacrifice to Daniel, he rewards them with medicine and food. The latest witch hunt is focused on the fear that there’s a werewolf murdering villagers who have been out picking mushrooms and didn’t return. A local girl by the name of Angelique (9136432) is the latest accused, the people claiming that she used her witchcraft to turn someone into a werewolf to torment the faithful.   Angelique is a young woman who has been pretending to be insane and has been hiding out among the patients after she escaped from her block. Initially sentenced for repeated theft, she’s not comfy in the village and some of the patients have tried to assault her. Her attempts to escape that lead to her witnessing the truth of Area 28 and trying to tell the other inmates the truth (along with refusal to believe that Daniel is a god) has gotten her labeled as a witch. If you manage to save her, she'll join the party but really only passively for her own protection. Bishop’s got his miter on and when G-Unit shows up they interrupt her being hauled off to be placed in a Wicker Man for sacrifice to Daniel. While the crowd is baying for her blood, Soapbox manages to manipulate the townspeople into holding back on the sacrifice (with Doc’s advice). They ultimately come to an accord: G-Unit is not in league with the witches and if they find the werewolf they’ll let Angelique go.  The shrooms here are edible but mildly psychotropic and hallucinogenic. Someone with Candy Man can sink the points into making Kaleidoscope or Redline out of the patch.  There’s no wolfsbane in the forest at all but that hasn’t stopped the patients from trying to find what they assume to be wolfsbane to deal with the werewolf. The mold in this patch is unique to the rest of the ship and the energies means it can’t grow anywhere else. If handled with bare flesh, the spores infest the victim and transform them into moldy, rubbery monsters (not like they’re worth handling; proper harvesting makes a tincture that causes homicidal mania). Since these two folks are not trained professionals, they’re mutants who take half damage from melee weapons and firearms. Fortunately Doc has a flamethrower, though she feels incredibly bad about putting them out of their misery.     #7990012 is homicidally insane and borderline mute. His escape during Perdition leads him to basically kill and eat his way through everyone in his path, fully nude and covered in gore. He’s the one who has been killing and eating the people of the village and immediately attacks the squad. Fortunately, G-Unit is armed with both mace and rope and there are also six of them. Subduing the Werewolf also gets them access to his stash of stuff he has no use for: a first aid kit, two ration packs and an antique fob watch that still functions just fine.  The six patients are looking to catch and subdue someone to be used as a sacrifice, turning it into a game. To quote the book: "“Catch the laddie” is an ancient game in which a mob chases after an individual whom they plan to use as a sacrifice to dispel a hex or appease an angry spirit." I really don’t know if this is a real thing because I got no useful info trying to look it up. Anyway, if the players run afoul of the group, they’ll try to isolate one and beat them into submission to be sacrificed. Generally avoid this area.  This is the Wicker Man, a construct made out of scrap metal and plant matter from the forest. Anyone who is captured by the roving mob of patients or has pissed off the Bishop ends up in the Wicker Man, where the entire village will gather to light it on fire and sing nonsense songs. Being in the Wicker Man forces a Despair check with a chance to gain +2 Despair. Once the Wicker Man is on fire, Bishop will lead the village back home and anyone in the construct has to make Prowess checks with a penalty or pass out. But nobody is at any risk of dying. Once the patients are gone, a squad of Monitors will emerge from the gate at Area 28, put the fire out and extract the victim to bring them back through 28. How this ended up shaking out was that G-Unit brought the Werewolf back to the village, where they dejectedly grabbed the bound werewolf and dragged him to the Wicker Man. They open it up, shove the Werewolf in...and then shut the Wicker Man again and set it on fire as the Bishop taunts Soapbox about how he broke his promise and then leads the villagers in a weird nonsense song. After beating the poo poo out of Bishop and scaring the villagers back to their homes, they attempt to put out the fire only to see the Monitors approach, put out the fire and drag a passed-out Angelique and Werewolf into Area 28.  The East Wing doors are kept locked at all times unless the Monitors are going out. This is where Angelique saw the Monitors bringing goodies to the patients as a reward for their sacrifices, but because this is a Forbidden Place she was ignored for telling the truth and punished. The game is pushing hard that the only way in is for someone to be "sacrificed" and for the rest of the gang to sneak in through the doors while the sacrifice is being rescued. Alternately you could just break down the door, requiring 100 damage to bust it open. Kind of bullshit that there are no ways to scale the walls, but brute-forcing it is too stupid and easy and that's why Angelique and the Werewolf still got wicker'd. THOUGHTS Ugh. Alright. So. Let's just gloss over the fact that this all takes place in an abandoned insane asylum and how that's crap, it's incredibly rare if anyone does something good with that and it's a such an obvious choice to say something against that. Really my main complaint is that in addition to me eating a club sandwich topped with clam juice, sprinkles, chocolate shell and Cheetos, I have decided to add another layer of a frozen waffle and uncooked ramen brick complete with flavor pack. There is just so much density to this setting that it's just a nonsensical string of words. "A medieval village made by mental patients who escaped from an asylum on a prison spaceship that has ended up in a dimension that is like Hell". All I have to do is throwing in crafting and zombies and rogue-like elements wait hold on a second. And, again, The Wicker Man is completely the wrong type of horror movie to get hung up on to make a tone-deaf homage/stolen plot from. I could absolutely believe if this creepy child got obsessed with Hellraiser or Nightmare on Elm Street or the later Halloween movies or they just went for the lowest of low hanging fruit and he got obsessed with torture porn. They're the types of horror that's conducive to the environment this game is trying to make (hell it's already ripping off Event Horizon so much). Like it's still a child from the 27th century falling in love with this six centuries old work like if a kid today was like "I'm Beowulf! I wanna be Beowulf!" but the movies are at least appropriate. The Wicker Man is a mystery horror film that has a focus on social horror, a protagonist that's out of place and had the deck stacked against them the whole time, slowly realizing that the noose is drawing tighter only when it's too late. Half of the horror is the fact that you're watching him put the pieces together and then oh no Sgt. Howie! It would be like if I decided to replicate the plot of Get Out in Exalted. It's like I'm on a loving date with these creators and they're like trying to whip out their cinema geek erections when I say I like horror films, just showing off how loving smart and cultural they are by choosing something like The Wicker Man, like they're going to scoff and be like "how droll, you've only heard of the version with Nicolas Coppola. Oh, I'm sorry, you might know him by the name of Nic Cage. You see-" Ugh. Uggggggh. Yeah. You get my point. I don't have to belabor this any longer. I've been good and didn't say anything about how this game would be better if it took more cues from the 2006 remake. Have a palate cleanser, I'll see you NEXT TIME when G-Unit journeys into the mouth of madness and knocks on the gates of the Fortress of Impossibility. 
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Aug 1, 2017 09:41
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What an odd choice of things to be inspired by, like you're on a space ship with demons, why are they making a town to have fake witch trials in. God this game is boring. God King Daniel better step it up in the next section.
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Aug 1, 2017 12:18
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This depiction of insanity is also deeply insulting, but you knew that.
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Aug 1, 2017 12:40
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Mors Rattus posted:This depiction of insanity is also deeply insulting, but you knew that. For me, it manages to be so incredibly uninspired that the insulting bits fail to land. I mean, it's just generic horror movie insane asylum product. It's not shockingly insulting, it's just thoughtlessly insulting.
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Aug 1, 2017 13:04
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If all these patients are just sooooooo crazy, why aren't there more insanity demons around? The insanity stats for all these patients don't even make sense. The "werewolf" is apparently not insane enough to summon a demon, despite being a homicidal psychopathic cannibal. Green Intern fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Aug 1, 2017 |
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Aug 1, 2017 13:44
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It would seriously be better to have even a d100 chart of mental conditions then those unhelpful and insulting descriptions.
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Aug 1, 2017 13:53
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It is pretty much the laziest and shallowest depiction of mental health.
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Aug 1, 2017 13:57
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Obligatum VII posted:Look, just because he had a Rakshasa (I probably misspelled that) somewhere in his family tree is no reason to discriminate. Is that how that works? If you're half Rakshasa half your hands are backwards?
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Aug 1, 2017 14:01
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