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This RPGnet review is pretty damning: https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/classic/rev_8019.phtml
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Nov 23, 2017 04:58
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Fast Forward Entertainment was known for its garbage quality, even by the low standards of D20 shovelware publishing. Like, worse than Mongoose or Avalanche Press and its cheesecake covers. Bad production values, no editing, obviously not playtested, utterly broken D20 mechanics, tons of bad fluff - and really high prices. They roped in a bunch of old OD&D guys to give them a little bit of sizzle (that book is James "Drawmij" Ward). Avoid.
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Nov 23, 2017 05:07
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RPG.net posted:The most notable thing, and quite possibly most annoying, is that Clerics get screwed. There's no real other way to say it. Essentially, for each month in the place, they lose one level of cleric. This is pretty much permanent, even when they leave the place. They can regain the levels, but only by advancing as a cleric - they get one lost level back for each they level up. And this is an official product?
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Nov 23, 2017 05:16
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 Starfinger Alien Archive Part 20: "A void hag in a coven (see below) who somehow loses her robes is forcefully driven out, even though it strips the coven of all power." V will put an end to this!
  Verthani Aether Pilot (CR 2) and Verthani Pure One (CR 9) The main inhabitants of Verces (that's the tidally locked world), Verthani can change the pigment of their skin at will for complex patterns, not that any of that is obvious from the art. There are three factions amongst them: the augmented, who modify their bodies literally, the pure ones, who only augment slightly if at all and become leaders, and god-vessels who are priests who engage in self-branding. (As in horrible burns, not marketing.) They're peaceful democrats who have a utopian one-world government that apparently inspired the Pact World setup. The aether pilot - kind of weird to have a third "pilot" writeup in this book, given that they would seemingly be encountered more often in their unstatted ships - is an operative that can use their skinchanging ability for camouflage if they're nearly naked. The statblock is not nearly naked, wearing armor, and thus cannot use this ability. The pure one is a psychic-themed mystic with the same camouflage ability. Lastly, there's a PC version, and they get an additional slot for cybernetics, low-light vision, an extra skill point, and that camouflage ability that sucks for PCs, too, given any notable armor will negate it, since nearly all armor in Starfinger is environmental armor.  Void Hag (CR 10) Ah, yes, the supernatural horror born of women getting old and / or clever continues even in space. Terrifying. Mind, the art doesn't look so elderly even with the craterface. These are evil old ladies that can live in vacuum and seek to rule over other life forms, like everybody does in the later years. They have special In any case, they have a variety of immunities including damage resistance, daggers and pistols, a variety of affliction spells, and their fancy schmancy robes that can "release the cosmos stored within". This cosmos does force damage in a burst and negates most concealment effects on a failed save. Covens of void hags are immune to the effects of each other's robes, and they can put together a "stellar cauldron" that lets them perform far more powerful spells. Man, being old in space sounds cooler than I expected. This is one of the moments where I suspect a PC might be like "Wait, how do I get cosmic power as part of my retirement?" Well, mine might be like that, anyway. Next: W is for Magic Missile Munchers. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Nov 23, 2017 |
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Nov 23, 2017 05:29
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gradenko_2000 posted:I was looking through Amazon when I found this thing: I bought a copy of that when it was new and I can confirm it was spectacularly bad. When the buzz started coming up about actual Dungeon World a few years ago I was very confused, because I thought I already knew what Dungeon World was.
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Nov 23, 2017 05:30
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What is even the point of basically making Clerics useless?
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Nov 23, 2017 06:48
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Nessus posted:The Ilwrath were ahead of their time, because they're disgustingly brutal and grimdark and would totally be played seriously in some kind of modern FPS environment, but they are obviously chumps whose ships can be easily defeated once you learn the trick, and they are far from the actual primary antagonist. The fun part is that according to the Pkunk, they seem to have suffered the Civ 1 Ghandi bug on a cultural scale, where they were so peaceful and enlightened they had a stack overflow error into genocidal grimdark supervillains. Hence why the Pkunk have childish insults as a weapon, they want to avoid being TOO nice. Also, another thought on the Ferengi is that the show doesn't shy away from exploring the flaws of their society; even if they do cutthroat capitalism in a relatively fair way, for one, it's meant that the rest of the galaxy doesn't trust them in the slightest anymore and it turns out trust is important to run a successful business, and two, it means that Ferengi with skills outside of business sense often find their skills devalued by society, and end up with brain drain as they emigrate to a society that does, as demonstrated with Rom and Nog. Ghost Leviathan fucked around with this message at 09:07 on Nov 23, 2017 |
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Nov 23, 2017 07:19
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I think from the entire Starfinder review, literally the only interesting PC race option I saw was "lazy crystal slug." 
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Nov 23, 2017 09:25
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MightyMatilda posted:And this is an official product? Third Edition had an open license. As long as you respected it's terms you could publish whatever third party stuff you wanted. It led to a vast metastasis of independant companies publishing sourcebooks, 99% of which weren't very good. Hence 'D20 shovelware' as quoted earlier becoming a thing.
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Nov 23, 2017 10:43
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The most interesting AA concept was that one goon's take on cyber angel. And oh my God, just because it's future space fantasy, you don't have to give literal angel a laser gun and stupid sc-fi armor. gently caress Paizo.
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Nov 23, 2017 14:49
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That's pretty much their design spec, though. Take an existing D&D monster, glue some sci-fi bits onto it at random, job's done. Hence we've got ancient w- TECH wizards, who use dark, uh, technology... to become immortal by storing their souls in a phyl- I mean, an... electro... tangram... circuit. Yeah.
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Nov 23, 2017 15:45
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Prism posted:
I actually like the old art better so I'm only quoting that. I mean it's not super-evocative but the fifth ed one just looks lumpy. Really though the Leucrotta seems to be the inspiration for like half of Siembieda's monster ideas across all Palladium games--"This monster is a complete rear end in a top hat and likes to hurt and torture people and has a picture we drew by mashing together several reference photos." Also they're pretty dangerous to low-level PCs in Nethack, as noted, enough that some folks consider them a genocide candidate if you find an early scroll. Meanwhile, seconding the endorsement of the Urog as kind of fun actually. I mean you're perfectly able to use them as more XP fodder for PCs but the fact that they're just lazyass irritable crystal sloth-slugs makes them cool. Also they don't split into multiple parts or 'something something nanotech'. The writeup doesn't make them sound super-friendly either but I feel like a Void Hag could be a cool PC Patron--you take your marching orders from an angry space grandma with a strict dress code. occamsnailfile fucked around with this message at 16:05 on Nov 23, 2017 |
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Nov 23, 2017 15:59
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You can extract 1d10x100 gp worth of pure diamonds from the hide of The Deck of Encounters Set One Part 36: The Deck of Minor Annoyances, Mitzvahs, Manticores, Medusas, and Misandry 214: Down the Hole While camping or marching in a cold climate, a PC drops a small valuable item like a ring or dagger down a hole. All the players roll their eyes at the DM decreeing this annoyance. If someone puts their hand down the whole, they find that a wolverine lives down there and nips them: “it may even bite off a finger.” Then it emerges to drive them off. (This is for low-level folks, obviously.) If they use fire, the wolverine will retreat deeper in, but the permafrost will melt, make the ground muddy, and make the item harder to fish around for (20% chance of finding it per round; the wolverine will return in 1d6 rounds. Very fiddly mechanics for what it is.) This would be petty adversarial bullshit unless we’re using Skills and Powers and a PC has taken Clumsy or, especially, Unlucky as a disadvantage. If that’s the case, this should totally happen to them randomly some time, and I’ll Keep it in the deck. 215: Divine Intervention A “dour little mountain town” is full of suspicious, close-mouthed folk. They’re “impersonal and suspicious, keeping their mouths shut unless are spoken to. When someone speaks to them, they answer in curt, clipped tones, revealing no more than they have to.“ They all wear the same religious emblem on necklaces. Apparently they beseeched their Lawful Good deity to bless the town and “make their lives more as he would wish them”, and the god did. Whenever anyone does something not Lawful Good, something goes awry. The example given is if a PC tells a “little white lie,” a window breaks, and the owner will be angry at them for breaking it. “The DM is encouraged to be inventive; however, no PC should be stricken dead without using an NPC as an example first.” I’m down with the idea of a cursed (blessed?) town where bad luck strikes whenever people take immoral or unethical actions. However, as soon as visitors enter, wouldn’t the townies be eager to explain the rules to them? For one thing, isn’t that essential to their safety? And what’s Lawful Good about not giving people warning or welcoming them to the local customs? Why wouldn’t they eagerly praise the benevolence of their god in ensuring their Lawful Good lifestyles? Freaking alignments, man. I’ll pass on using this as a card - it won’t be interesting unless the PCs have some specific reason to be there, rather than just stumbling across it as a random encounter. But I might place something like this on the map, maybe near a megadungeon entrance. Seems like it could survive very well further from civilization - nothing intelligent enough to make choices about right and wrong would be able to attack them easily, assuming at least some of the bad luck targets the sinner. 216: Flyn's Fear An arrogant hunter recruits the PCs to hunt a manticore, offering a share of the bounty and profits on the sale of its body parts to wizards. (Since intact manticore hides are worth 10,000 gp, this could be motivating.) They find the manticore hunting, with its mate nearby. If they get in combat, the hunter will flee, terrified, back to town (manticores are scarier than bears), and claim he never met the PCs. Eh, it’s extremely close to #70: Trophy, with the big arctic owlbear. I suppose it’s OK in this case, though. They’re for different PC power levels, and if I’d used one previously, I would just throw back the other if I drew it. Keep. 217: Ungrateful Steed Takes place "near the domain of an evil knight or lord." An unfortunate knight or lord, because the PCs find a manticore feeding on their remains; said knight tried to train it as a steed and it didn't work out. The manticore dropped the knight to his death and "is flipping him around on some rocks, trying to crack open his armor to get at the raw meat inside." Nice. The manticore is still pretty pissed at its master, so it won't immediately attack the PCs. It "can't be driven off," so the card seems to think that killing it is the only option to get rid of it... but wouldn't the best thing to do is back off, wait for the manticore to leave, and then loot the remains? In any case, the body had +1 plate mail (utterly ripped to shreds), a +1 long sword, and several pages of notes about "the habitat and behavior of manticores." Ugh, +1 weapon proliferation is the worst, but other than that I like the setup, and the implication that there's now a power vacuum in a nearby domain. I'll keep it. Also, please note: the evil knight "fell 30 feet to the ground, to his death." Dude. That's 3d6 damage. Maybe try training a manticore when you're higher than 2nd level. 218: Circus Trouble A circus owner, who usually just straps horns on a horse or whatever for his sideshow, came across a torpid manticore in the forest and managed to capture it. Then he brought it into the city marketplace because he’s a goddamned moron, after which the manticore woke up, broke its cage, ate the circus owner, and is running amok. If the PCs do a good job, the ruler of the city will thank them, the city folk will be very grateful, etc. Okay. Keep. 219: Mad Maid There’s a ruined villa not far outside of a town, and in the basement lives a medusa. She tries to lure men in and take them as lovers, hiding her face with a veil. Her excuse is that she wants people to love her for her brain, not her looks (though the card makes a point of noting her “well-formed” body). And why are there all these statues around that are clearly petrified people? They were witch hunters, and she, a (good) witch, stoned them out of self-defense. Her witchness is also why she’s living in ruins. She wants her lovers to stay with her, but she’ll turn them to stone to keep them with her forever if they find out what she is and try to flee. (Or, occasionally, by accident.) Well, this falls squarely into D&D sexism, where generally a monster will only be female if they’re trying to seduce human men. And obviously the PCs are going to see right through her excuses. However, I like that her motivation isn’t entirely malicious. She’ll petrify you out of abandonment issues, or potentially out of fear that you’d reveal and endanger her, but she doesn’t just attack the party. I give it fifty-fifty odds that one of the PCs ends up in a committed relationship with this medusa, and I’m all for it. Keep. P.S. She has no name. That’s a pretty weird omission for a social encounter. 220: Sculpture Garden The PCs are in some rich person’s castle or mansion. The master of the house used to be an explorer or merchant, but at one point all of his companions were turned to stone by a medusa. He pleaded for his life and they worked out a deal where she moved into his garden. He brings in victims for her to feed on occasionally. The master explains the life-like statues as having been made by a mad sculptor. Wait, stoning and feeding are totally different things, aren’t they? Maedar explicitly un-stone victims so they and their mate can eat, but there’s no particular reason the medusa here needs to turn people to stone, right? You could just cook her a ham roast. Anyway, I’m passing - there’s no real hook and the motivations seem a little off. Besides, we already had the same broad scenario with a basilisk back in 148-149: Looks Can Kill. 221: Sadieville As the PCs enter a small town far from civilization, they notice that the farmers in the fields aren’t as burly as elsewhere, and that the carts are driven by women. In fact the whole down is “dominated” by women. “The men are in subservient positions, tending to the nursing and care of children, sewing, doing the housework, and in general staying at home and maintaining the quality of life for the women.” Some burly (female) toughs will come to insult and probably rough up any (male) PCs. The (female) sheriff will break it up if she thinks anyone is going to be killed. ...It’s not clever, it’s not subversive, it’s not even speculative. All the laziest western gender tropes are on display, but flipped! I’ll pass. Dallbun fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Nov 25, 2017 |
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Nov 23, 2017 16:14
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Still loving your one liners above the logo for these, Dallbun.
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Nov 23, 2017 17:18
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My spellcasting clothes look like they were traced from fetish porn too.
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Nov 23, 2017 17:23
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occamsnailfile posted:I actually like the old art better so I'm only quoting that. I mean it's not super-evocative but the fifth ed one just looks lumpy. I don't like the new art at all for leucrottas (though some of the fifth edition art is a decided upgrade) and I'm definitely with you on that.
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Nov 23, 2017 17:28
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occamsnailfile posted:I actually like the old art better so I'm only quoting that. I mean it's not super-evocative but the fifth ed one just looks lumpy. To be fair, it's fairly faithful to the original myth. Leucrocottas were a mix of a bunch of different animals (primarily hyenas), could imitate human voices, and lure them so they could tear them into pieces. A related creature, the Crocotta, was more specifically hyena-like, and even nastier, luring men and dogs so it could destroy them, and digging up corpses to eat.
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Nov 23, 2017 17:40
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Prism posted:I don't like the new art at all for leucrottas (though some of the fifth edition art is a decided upgrade) and I'm definitely with you on that. Yeah, the Badger-Deer has a more classical folklore look and has a way better outline, new one looks like it could be a tiger with a squashed head and terrible mange
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Nov 23, 2017 17:47
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Starfinger Alien Archive Part 21: "Why the witchwyrds seeded Kasath and Akiton with intelligent life modeled after themselves remains a mystery, as does the number of other as-yet-undiscovered planets similarly affected." W!
 Witchwyrd (CR 6) Another... ... mysterious race, this a race of wandering merchants and wizards that created the kasatha and shobhad because... Look, I've given up expecting answers from this book on stuff. I mean, they have these two page writeups for everything, you'd think they have the room to do more than shrug at the reader, but it's like they're terrified of pinning anything down. In any case, they like robes and conical hats and probably would like Mœbius' comic art. They mainly absorb magic for food, but they also breathe and eat and drink as well. They're very long lived, but how long is a... ... mystery. They can be found anywhere but are most common amongst the kasatha and the Idari worldship. Their leadership is a... ... mystery, but may be a oligarchy. They often hire groups of loyal ...a... ... well, you can guess by now. They have damage resistance and variable energy resistance, and can multiattack with 4 punches... or a staff for some reason, even though it'll do less damage than quadpunch in most circumstances. In addition, they can case a number of spells, including having tongues on all the time. Magic missiles that are fired at them get absorbed, and they can fire them back. There's a PC version, and I'm pretty sure at this point we could have an entire party just of races no player or GM has enough information to adequately play without just spinning their own fanon. The PC statblock can absorb magic missiles and fire them back, gets four arms, darkvision, and a dime bonus on bluff and haggle. To demonstrate the usefulness of their absorption power, do you know how many antagonist writeups in this book use magic missile? None, unless you count the witchwyrd itself, and even only they can fire those they've stored up. There's also a special transport writeup they use, called the Tetrad Caravel (tier 6), but they don't sell it because it has a special drive that lets them travel between planes. This special feature doesn't get a point value, so forget about it, players!   Wrikreechee (CR 3) So, these are are crab people who are filter-feeders. They're from the previously unmentioned watery world of Akchios, and were introduced to the greater universe by explorers. They're known for their medicines and biotech, and have had to do biological enhancements to themselves to have voices they can use with other races. Their own language is gesticulation and chirps. They're vulnerable to cold because they come from a region with deep-sea vents. A decent little alien race if you need something aquatic. As a PC race, they're amphibious, get a bonus on rolls to aid another or perform harrying fire, get bonuses when using cover, and get a decent bonus to grapple. Alternately, they can make two grapple attempts at a sizable penalty. They're a little slower on land, but fast in water. Despite the description mentioning them as weak against cold, there's no mention of it any of their stats. The NPC version has some envoy abilities, and that's that. And that's the last creature in this book. But we've I've got a few last conclusions left to make. Next: T is for Denouement.
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Nov 23, 2017 17:51
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Mr.Misfit posted:"Brethesda" makes me think of Bethesda and Skyrim. But it´s neither that nor Fallout, is it? It was a typo, fixed. Should have been "Bretheda", the largest gas giant in the system with a wide variety of moons. Jupiter? Never heard of it!
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Nov 23, 2017 18:04
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JcDent posted:WE HAVE SUBSUMED YOUR CULTURE According to our calculations, anime is good? *The borg hive mind self-destructs*
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Nov 23, 2017 18:21
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Dallbun posted:219: Mad Maid Fifty-fifty odds is lowballing it, I'd say. This one seems pretty interesting, something that could be spun into a longer plotline if it's in an area the PC's regularly visit, either, as mentioned, a PC-NPC relationship, or just because the players find a non-violent way to resolve the encounter, but that doesn't stop witch hunters and angry peasant mobs from trying to chase the medusa out of her lair even though she mostly just wants to be left alone. Alternately she could start missing some of the only (still-living) people who treated her as a person and not a monster, and go looking for them, and cause all sorts of trouble along the way that'd end up embroiling the PC's. I might actually even steal parts of this one at some point...
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Nov 23, 2017 20:52
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DalaranJ posted:According to our calculations, WE ARE THE BORG PLEASE NOTICE US JANEWAY SEMPAI
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Nov 23, 2017 21:19
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By the way, are medusas ugly in DnD, or do they petrify people because magic? As for eeevil female encounters, it's probably a cultural thing borne out from the fact aside from Gygax and other old fart game designers, DnD was played by mostly straight virgins up until the year 2000. So, a lusty maid is either wish fulfilment or danger. Hell, at some point, I was suspicious of people acting nice to me! Besides, how often will a GM give you a legit sidequest opportunity for a relationship?
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Nov 23, 2017 21:30
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DnD medusas are typically illustrated as scaley supermodels, and their petrification ability is supernatural. As for this one with the missing name, I'd use Zola in a pinch.
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Nov 23, 2017 21:35
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Look, just keep some potions of mirrored eyes around and a stone to flesh scroll in case of accidents.
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Nov 23, 2017 21:37
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Dark Matter: The Killing Jar Act One, Scene Two: Last time the PCs recovered a stolen car and got jumped by a creepy land jellyfish thing. Now they’ll follow the kind of flimsy clues provided to learn the fate of the car thief. The body’s in Charleston, and some quick research there lets them determine the detective on the case and that there’s been no information released. The next step then is to try and get information from him, which is reasonably easy if the PCs can come up with a plausible excuse for why they want it or have some kind of credentials. The body was bloated and leaking weird jelly, so he called the CDC. While a good cop, the detective isn’t so bright because he totally bought that a guy calling himself “Jon Smithy” was in fact a legit CDC agent (it’s actually the secret agent mentioned in the previous update, Andrew Balance). Anyway the fake CDC agent bullshitted him that it was just severe pneumonia, and now the body is in the local forensics lab. Still, this guy is actually on the level and if they can convince him something weird is up he’ll team up with them for the duration of their stay in the city (which is pretty important given they need access to the lab). The guy who runs the lab, Dr. Kline, is not nearly so honest and has been paid off by Balance to lose the corpse, any record of its presence, and anyone who comes snooping around for it. This is their second ‘in’ if they didn’t manage to get the detective on their side, the doctor is willing to let them come in after hours to earn the bonus he’ll get for disposing of them. With or without the detective you’re going to get told he’s just too busy to see you until then, which is pretty much what you’d expect from some power-tripping rear end in a top hat running a lab so I’ll give it a pass for railroading that at least makes sense. I’ll lay out the doctor’s planned ambush now. He tries to lure them into the dimly lit adjoining hallway in the pretense of showing them something (though he gets a bit antsy if there’s more than three people there). At this point the janitor comes in with a garbage cart, and asks for the elevator to be held. When he gets close he pulls out some gardening shears and attacks, while the doctor tries to inject the nearest player with anesthetic. They get a free surprise round unless the players have actively stated that they’re on-guard, which given the situation is super sketchy and it would be reasonable for players to do just that I’ll let go. There’s a third element to this that isn’t part of the planned ambush, Agent Balance also sent along one of his subordinates to make sure Kline stayed in line and he’ll jump in as well if things turn south.    Doctor Kline is pretty much useless past that initial chance of knocking someone out of the fight so this ambush isn’t really so bad, especially so if you teamed up with the detective. Kline will gently caress off and hide if it looks like things are going poorly, which I’d generally note as whenever the bullets start flying. The doctor will give up some information if they can get ahold of him, and searching his poo poo lets them figure out he’s not yet deleted the records on the body. He’s got a business card with an email address on it, which I’m pretty sure you could actually email and get some auto-replies back in the day.  The Specimen X file is basically his Ross Ulbricht mycrimes.txt where he lays out how he totally took money to dispose of this body and also sells black market body parts because I guess that’s a thing you do when you’re a corrupt medical examiner. Ironically he still actually did his job with respect to examining the body rather than just incinerating it, and discovered the active C. cnidirae in it. There’s a bit of information on what he discovered about the infection, where the body’s personal effects are stored, and ominous mentions of a ‘sample’ that’ll matter later. The car thief’s effects mostly exist to lead them to the next area, motherfucking Point Pleasant, West Virginia (if you noticed a brief mention of mothmen in one of the images last time this might not have been a big surprise). It also provides the name of the person she was trying to contact there. There’s a calculator in her lab coat with another bug if they evaded the first one, more good fun. If they look in the basement for the sample in Kline’s notes, they’ll find another Tertiary Cnidocyte in a barrel down there (formerly the lady’s head). Unlike the first one, this Cnidocyte actually leaves a body which could have awkward results if the PCs decide to take it with them given it’ll reanimate in about ten days if not burned. The scene ends on giving the GM some suggestions to keep them interested if the players decide this is officially not their problem. Oh, and the tow truck guy from the first scene is murdered (which they hear about if they keep up with the news). Next time we’ll hit up scene three and encounter the motherfucking mothman.
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Nov 23, 2017 21:40
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I have a sneaky feeling the reason she doesn't have a name is because they expect most players to kill her.
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Nov 23, 2017 21:57
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JcDent posted:By the way, are medusas ugly in DnD, or do they petrify people because magic? In a couple of the groups I've been in the answer is "very frequently."
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Nov 23, 2017 22:05
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Robindaybird posted:I have a sneaky feeling the reason she doesn't have a name is because they expect most players to kill her. Of course, the real solution is therapy for the abandonment issues and a bunch of stone to flesh scrolls to undo the damage done. I would enjoy playing a wandering fantasy therapist.
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Nov 23, 2017 22:55
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Night10194 posted:Of course, the real solution is therapy for the abandonment issues and a bunch of stone to flesh scrolls to undo the damage done. My friend has an idea for a kind of positive-reinforcement adventure; like, the rogue leaves little notes that remind the goons he's duped that they are still okay people despite not catching him, or the bard charming a roomful of baddies into sitting down for the clerics warm milk and apple pie. Just finding the good in every goblin and gnoll and make the world a better place without hurting anyone.
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Nov 23, 2017 23:31
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I'd play the heck out of that, although I would be tempted to reach for the Animaniacs and roll up a Dr Scratchnsniff-style character.
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Nov 23, 2017 23:44
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I mean think of how much epic fantasy war could be averted by robust, compassionate, and available mental healthcare.
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Nov 23, 2017 23:48
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I like to think the Wrikrerchee are French. Look at those berets!
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Nov 24, 2017 00:36
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JcDent posted:DnD was played by mostly straight virgins up until the year 2000. So, a lusty maid is either wish fulfilment or danger. Hell, at some point, I was suspicious of people acting nice to me! Don't insist your table was the whole of the hobby.
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Nov 24, 2017 00:39
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marshmallow creep posted:My friend has an idea for a kind of positive-reinforcement adventure; like, the rogue leaves little notes that remind the goons he's duped that they are still okay people despite not catching him, or the bard charming a roomful of baddies into sitting down for the clerics warm milk and apple pie. Just finding the good in every goblin and gnoll and make the world a better place without hurting anyone. Could borrow a lot from Undertale's approach to it. Violence is always an option, but you can also just wear out your enemy's anger, figure out what their deal is, and befriend them.
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Nov 24, 2017 01:32
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JcDent posted:By the way, are medusas ugly in DnD, or do they petrify people because magic? 3rd Edition:  quote:Petrifying Gaze (Su): Turn to stone permanently, 30 feet, Fortitude DC 15 negates. The save DC is Charisma-based. It's a "Supernatural" ability, which is defined as: quote:Supernatural abilities are magical and go away in an antimagic field but are not subject to spell resistance, counterspells, or to being dispelled by dispel magic. Using a supernatural ability is a standard action unless noted otherwise. Supernatural abilities may have a use limit or be usable at will, just like spell-like abilities. However, supernatural abilities do not provoke attacks of opportunity and never require Concentration checks. Unless otherwise noted, a supernatural ability has an effective caster level equal to the creature’s Hit Dice AD&D 2nd Edition:  quote:The medusa tries to get close to a victim before it reveals its true nature. It will use its attractive body to lure males nearer while staying in the shadows. Once the medusa is within 30 feet, it strikes, trying to get its victim to look into its eyes. Any creature within 30 feet must make a saving throw versus petrification or turn instantly to lifeless stone. If an opponent averts his eyes, the medusa rushes up so that its serpentine growths can attack. The range of such attacks is only 1 foot, but the victim must save versus poison or die. AD&D 1st Edition:  quote:The gaze of a medusa’s eyes will turn creatures within 3” to stone unless they make their saving throw versus petrifaction. If an opponent averts his eyes, the medusa rushes up so that its asp-like head growth can bite at the victim. The range of such attacks is but 1’, and the victim bitten must save versus poison or die. If the medusa’s gaze is reflected back, the creature will turn itself to stone! (beyond this I'll stop copying the descriptions, as it's mostly the same: the player is allowed a saving throw, and the Medusa can still be looked at with a mirror, and reflecting the Medusa's own reflection back to her will subject her to her own save-or-stone effect) Rules Cyclopedia 1991 mentions that Medusa are spellcasters. This version also adds on the limitation that only one petrification is allowed per round. Basic Set 1983 mentions that the Medusa are of a "magical nature", and as a result get a +2 bonus to all saving throws. Basic Set 1981:  Basic Set 1977 has no art for the Medusa and has nothing else mentionable Original D&D's Book 2 Monsters & Treasure has no art for the Medusa, and doesn't even say that a saving throw versus petrification is allowed - only that anyone who looks at her eyes will turn to stone.
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Nov 24, 2017 04:12
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Night10194 posted:Of course, the real solution is therapy for the abandonment issues and a bunch of stone to flesh scrolls to undo the damage done.
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Nov 24, 2017 04:34
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Starfinger Alien Archive Part 22: "However you play, Paizo has products to help you streamline your game and immerse yourself in a universe full of weird worlds and unique aliens." I was worn out when I got through the Core Rules. Now? I'm totally exhausted. Doing reviews is exciting at first, but at the end it's always work. The amount of time it takes for that early rush to settle into the work is usually a sign of how engaging a book is. These two books were work from sometime around the start, only to become an absolute slog once I hit the equipment section of the Starfinger book and my brain revolted. Now, I imagine there must be somebody out there who opened up the equipment section and saw a wealth of equipping possibilities and wondered at the numbers... and adjectives... and choices... but I'm definitely not that person. Starfinger is at times inoffensive, sometimes workmanlike, occasionally totally misconceived, but I very rarely found it interesting.  When I got to the Alien Archive, I expected that to change. It's mostly new monsters, unlike doing the Pathfinder Bestiary, and I toughed my way through that. It's not even that long, I said. It's under half the length of the Bestiary. Easy, right? It was work around the point I hit the letter C. So let's go over what they got right first. They made making monsters simpler. Most of the monster statblocks are simpler, too, compared to earlier versions of d20. Summons are now a lot more balanced against each other, at least. And I did like some of the monsters. Let's see if I can pick a top five. Contemplative, nihili, skittermander, urog, and wrikreechee. There, bam. A lot of the art is good! Or at least just fine? Positive! I can be kind of positive. What they got wrong... um... well, where to start? Every creature gets two pages. This makes sense from a layout perspective, obviously. You can leave the book open to a creature writeup and that creature is laid out all before you with no page-flipping. Except... not every creature needs two pages and that's why we get a whole paragraph on the aging and decomposition process of the mountain eel. No, really. There's a ton of information that isn't likely to see use in a game, and isn't interesting or evocative enough to serve any particular purpose. Alternately, some creatures need much more than two pages, so we get a literal single sentence on each of the elemental types and that's that. Two pages per creature makes sense from a layout perspective. In terms of a writing perspective, usually they're padding poo poo so thick it gets an armor class. The short, simple creature writeups are a neat idea, but most of them are simple to the point of dullness. Many just do damage, meaning they're mild variations on a theme of rock 'em sock 'em combat. Because everybody in Starfinger has guns, most have both a ranged and melee attack. Generally, creatures only have one or two unique abilities. And if those aren't a special attack or defense, it means they fight mostly the same as most other creatures of their CR. A lot of games have come up with ways to vary monsters or give them snappy, unique abilities. This is isn't one of them. Furthermore, some ideas (monsters that carry other monsters, various humanoid variants, blobs that repair stuff) get repeated more often than they should be. There are two four-legged apex predators with a face full of tentacles that unleash sub-creatures that attach to you! With only half the space of their previous monster books and an expanded size for monster writeups, they needed more variety. Trying to offer player information in a book like this is a mess. The idea isn't totally unsound, but the problem is it's all organized for gamemasters, not players. Each new race, piece of equipment, etc., is all separated by what monster it's thematically associated with, when it really just needs its own section. If you're going to have new weapons, we don't need more than one weapon chart. Starfinger has no less than 6, not even counting new weapon traits and fusions. What's more, the conservatism of the race design in the Core Rules gives them very little room to offer robust or creative traits for the new races in this book. They're stuck having to cut down nearly every NPC writeup to have it fit the tiny PC blocks - when they aren't completely facefaulting and pretending abilities claws are a useful racial traits. To be fair, though, maybe one of the designers wasn't told that the game had lasers in it.  Making sure to leave space for GMs to wax creatively is a fine idea, and one of the ways you can do that is to leave things undiscovered or mysterious. However, it is possible to do that to a fault, and Alien Archive loves to declare that things are unknown, mysterious, or undiscovered. And while that's good to an extent, this is a spacefaring society with advanced science and magic beyond our own. They should be able to work out mysteries. And what's more, mysteries should be important. Sure, a caypin's ability to communicate with the leeches it spawns could be important, but unless you develop a very specific conceit for it, nobody's going to care. It's at the worst with races like the grays, which have so little in terms of hooks other than their behavior that there's nothing to them. Appropriately enough, most of their writeup might as well be a field of gray. And that's a lot of why it falls flat - creatures are often ciphers, and even when they're not, they often have little more than a single gimmick to pin on, plus a secondary note that tries to naturalize or humanize them, and that's that. What's more, because of the interstellar setting, there's no connective tissue to most of it. Even when creatures are from the same planet or moon, they often don't reference each other. The expanded space has encouraged the writers to write extra words even when they don't have anything to say. Really, to understand why Alien Archive felt off, I grabbed a monster book I did enjoy off my shelf for comparison. I open this other book up and the descriptions of monsters are extremely pithy in comparison - unless the writers thought additional text was relevant. It has discussions of how to build encounters with them, as well as explicit adventure hooks. There are discussions of how to fit them in with the various factions - but only when they think it's necessary. A key point I notice is that no two monster writeups are the same, and the information provided is often unique to the creature. But since they're shorter than the normal d20 format they can also pack many more variations on a single creatures. And so the authors focus on that they think is important. They break from in-world discussions and give direct advice to GMs. Sometimes a single statblock gets four pages of discussion, sometimes seven statblocks are packed into three pages. It's a relief to be reminded how it can be done engagingly, and I have to put it down before it distracts me.  Alien Archive isn't necessarily a bad book. But it's not a good book, either. It is, in my opinion, an excessively bland book, somehow shorter than it needs to be in aggregate but simultaneously with writeups that drag on far too long. It's padded with oft-unnecessary information or crunch too often, and fears to break from formula. There's almost no advice on how to use the creatures or structure encounters, and it's written almost entirely in a descriptive manner. Creatures often may as well be disconnected and removed from the game itself, often not being connected to any real faction or setting. Many are just given arbitrary mysteries but no actual hook to explore these unknowns. Twenty-two races are introduced with no player-facing descriptions, and some may as well barely have a description at all. That being said, there's probably something you'd like to use or play in here. It makes making creatures easy, if not balanced. And skittermanders are deliberately adorable. Caypins are kind of creepy. Maybe it was rushed, much like the Core Rules feel. But ultimately, it feels too much like a preview, deliberately cut back to leave room for monsters to be drip-fed through future books. Compare it to any of the Pathfinder Bestiaries and you'll realize it's one-half the size of its forebears with one-third the number of monsters. And while numbers aren't the be-all end-all of a book's quality, in Alien Archive's case, they're very telling. Well, that's more than enough out of this book. I had hoped Starfinger would let Paizo break free creatively, to do more interesting things, to fix the problems in their long-running game, but mostly I feel like I've sat through a marketing experiment coupled with bizarrely slipshod design. There are kernels of interesting ideas - I might borrow a few creatures or ideas for planets - but mostly I feel like I've been eating extruded game product for over two months now and am damned sick of it. Hope you enjoyed the review, and if you play Starfinger, that's okay. I might even give it a whirl, someday, because I know well enough to have some interesting ideas for characters pot out. But watch out for all the faults I showed you. Ignore the Envoy not matter how tempting it is, don't get in a vehicle, make sure you throw your spaceship away after 10th level and just fly coach instead, play a gray and just riff off movies and be silly, play a Mystic to be the best friend a group could ever have, just pick the highest damage weapon you can get, summon a skittermander just to give it demeaning headpats, and blast off for admittedly flawed adventures.  Wait, if Pathfinder is named for their Adventure Paths, shouldn't Starfinger have Adventure Stars instead?  Well, at least they didn't name it Starfinder. That would've been really silly. No More Nexts: Y, I think we're done here. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Nov 24, 2017 |
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Nov 24, 2017 04:40
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gradenko_2000 posted:Medusa Talk I don't really have anything to add to this, except once I played what was basically a half-giant fighter with brass knuckles. When we encountered a medusa, I closed my eyes, grappled it, and kept hitting it in the face until I felt my fist hit the ground. Alien Rope Burn posted:Really, to understand why Alien Archive felt off, I grabbed a monster book I did enjoy off my shelf for comparison. I open this other book up and the descriptions of monsters are extremely pithy in comparison - unless the writers thought additional text was relevant. It has discussions of how to build encounters with them, as well as explicit adventure hooks. There are discussions of how to fit them in with the various factions - but only when they think it's necessary. A key point I notice is that no two monster writeups are the same, and the information provided is often unique to the creature. But since they're shorter than the normal d20 format they can also pack many more variations on a single creatures. And so the authors focus on that they think is important. They break from in-world discussions and give direct advice to GMs. Sometimes a single statblock gets four pages of discussion, sometimes seven statblocks are packed into three pages. It's a relief to be reminded how it can be done engagingly, and I have to put it down before it distracts me. What was the monster book you enjoyed, out of curiosity? JackMann fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Nov 24, 2017 |
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Nov 24, 2017 04:58
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