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Zereth
Jul 9, 2003



Dawgstar posted:

You know, the talk of Beast got me to re-read the review and given they were developed by the same person, I'd love to know why Beasts have such a hate-boner for Demons.
Desperate attempt to make them seem less "When Poochie's not on screen, all the other characters should be asking 'Where's Poochie?'" maybe?

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JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!
Demons are better and are a cool thing people would want while Beast is a rapists tribute to edgelords?

*extremely devianart voice*:
"Me teaching you a lesson by hurting you is good and any "Heroes" that oppose me are delusional"

Tuxedo Catfish
Mar 17, 2007

You've got guts! Come to my village, I'll buy you lunch.

Dawgstar posted:

You know, the talk of Beast got me to re-read the review and given they were developed by the same person, I'd love to know why Beasts have such a hate-boner for Demons.

Zereth posted:

Desperate attempt to make them seem less "When Poochie's not on screen, all the other characters should be asking 'Where's Poochie?'" maybe?

Demons are canonically immune to the Poochy effect. :v:

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.
There might be a seed of a good idea in Beast but to carry that metaphor on it's the sort of tree where fire is involved in its reproductive cycle.

Like I can even articulate a starting point, they're creatures of Awe and Terror that arise because mankind has lost Respect for the world and each other. They exist just as much to remind people that there are things in this world that are good and unspoiled and should remain that way as they do to remind people that they still have things to fear. Remove the kinship stuff entirely probably. Their inherent flaw is Contempt and as it builds they find it harder and harder not to just show these awful insects around them where they really stand in the world.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

There's no seed of a good idea in Beast that isn't in an already-existing line.

MightyMatilda
Sep 2, 2015

Inescapable Duck posted:

There's been kind of a pattern of seemingly everyone who'd describe themselves as a 'woke ally' turning out to be a rapist or sex pest to some degree.

I dunno where the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' part comes into it though.

I did notice that, though more specifically with men who talk about how terrible men generally are or how women have to be constantly paranoid around men.

Granted, it does make sense: if you do something horrible, one way of living with yourself is to tell yourself that most other people are just as horrible; or that you did what you did due to your gender's inherent nature, rather than your own moral decisions.

hyphz
Aug 5, 2003

Number 1 Nerd Tear Farmer 2022.

Keep it up, champ.

Also you're a skeleton warrior now. Kree.
Unlockable Ben
Betrayal at House of The Hill, Part 11

I haven't forgotten that there are still more haunts to deal with that don't come with maps oh wait..

Ring of King Solomon
Trigger: Find the Ring in the Abandoned Room, Furnace Room, or Servants' Quarters.

Hey, let's make another portal to Hell in the house! There's no way anyone will remember The Abyss Gazes Back, right? The traitor, who is the person with the highest knowledge who didn't find the Ring, has been tormented by nightmares telling them how to prepare for the arrival of Hell upon Earth. And, well, it's just happened. They pick an Omen room 4 squares away from any hero where a Demon Lord and a number of demons equal to the number of heroes spawn.

The four potential demons all have different stats - essentially they all have 8 points divided between Speed and Might in some degree, and Sanity equal to Might. The demon lord has Speed 2 and Might and Sanity 7. All of them are forced to move full speed towards the nearest hero and attack them. They can also steal the Ring by giving up their damage on an attack; a hero can steal the Ring back again by defeating the demon by 2 points. The rules confusingly do not state whether or not the Demon Lord counts as a Demon for these purposes, because if he does, it's going to take a lot of work to beat a 9 in order to steal the ring back from them.

The heroes? Well, they want to kill the demons, of course, and they actually get to find out why the Haunt has that name. King Solomon's Ring lets the wearer control demons. Ah-ha. Only the hero with the Ring can finally defeat Demons or the Demon Lord. If they beat the Demon Lord twice (including the Demon Lord losing on an attack it initiated), the heroes win. If they defeat a Demon, that demon joins the heroes until it's either killed or the traitor (or presumably a demon, although it doesn't state this) gets hold of the Ring, which frees all the demons.

I really like the idea here, but I'm not sure how it'd work in practice. Having the Demon Lord try to steal the ring is pretty powerful but risky, as it could end the Haunt rather quickly. Also, yet again, this is a haunt which gives the actual traitor PC nothing particular to do other than wander around trying to attack the heroes, although it does give them some niche - they're the only one who can attack turned demons. Also, the "heroes win" text says that the hero looks at the ring and thinks, hey, I got rid of those demons but if I can command them, maybe I'm not done with them yet. That's pretty cool. Why wasn't that the start of the Haunt?

Frankenstein's Legacy
Trigger: Find the Book in the Gymnasium, Master Bedroom or Servant's Quarters.

This is probably the simplest Haunt in the game, as it's just another "big monster" one like Here There Be Dragons, except the monster doesn't have any powers. Whoever found the book? It's Frankenstein's Notebook. It's so fascinating you want to carry on his experiments, using the bodies of your friends who came into the house with you (and not, you know, any of the umpteen more sensible ways there might be of getting hold of corpses for medical science). Also, there's a Monster already in the house. It's in one of the two Laboratories, whichever has been placed. It's Speed 3 and Might 8 and must always move to and attack the nearest hero with a +2 on its roll when attacking. This wil lhurt.

Well, that's what the traitor gets told, anyway. The heroes get told that the traitor has commanded the monster to attack them in order to test its strength. Which seems a bit weird given that the traitor is meant to be attacking them too.

The heroes, of course, want to kill the monster. There are only two ways to do this: burn it or push it into a pit. To burn it, they must go to one of the fire-themed rooms (Charred Room, Furnace Room, Pentagram Room or Kitchen) and collect a torch, then throw the torch at the Monster as a speed attack. Once it's been hit by a number of torches equal to the #players, it's dead. Alternatively, if the Monster ends up in the Tower or Chasm, a hero in that room can make a Might 6+ room to push the monster off and kill it.

So, this one has a new dimension: I've actually played this one in the first edition. The only difference I can see between the 2e and the 1e version is that the 2e version tells the traitor that the heroes will use fire against the monster, but the 1e one didn't; it still doesn't tell them the actual rules for torches, though. It also doesn't tell them about the "push it off the tower" thing, and since the traitor has no choices when moving the monster, this is one of those lovely cases people complain about where "actually it says in this specific circumstance I can do this and so I win". If I recall, though, what actually happened is that it mostly broke into arguments about whether the monster would repeatedly fall down into the basement while trying to reach a hero ("The heroes book say the monster isn't bright and must always move towards the nearest hero!" "Yes, but falling into the basement doesn't get them nearer you so it doesn't count as towards!") and whether they could lob torches down the hole leading to the basement. Not surprisingly they killed the monster.

Also at least three people said the "Frankenstein was the creator not the monster" thing until the traitor player got annoyed and loudly declared that they were naming their Frankenstein's Monster "Frankenstein" in order to make the argument moot.

Tomb of Dracula
Trigger: Find the Girl in the Charred Room, Furnace Room, or Servants' Quarters.

Hey, we've just done Frankenstein, how can we have forgotten this? It does get some extra points for really good integration with the Trigger, though. See, the Girl you just found? She's the Bride of Dracula who they unsuccessfully tried to burn, and/or is, um, hanging out in the servants' quarters for some reason. And she's bitten you. You get 1 to all your traits, the Bride of Dracula spawns in your room, and Dracula himself turns up in either the Crypt or the Graveyard. And, well, you're a vampire. Blood. Go.

Dracula has Speed 5 Might 8 Sanity 6, but he's still waking up and can only come online in turn 2. The Bride has all stats 4. But there's a snag: the sun is coming up...

And the traitor/vampire player doesn't get to know anything about the sun coming up other than that it's happening and "the heroes will tell you how sunlight affects the vampires". Here's how it happens: every traitor turn, a hero rolls dice equal to the number of players, and if it comes up lower than the number of turns since the haunt started, the sun starts coming up. After that, every vampire loses 1 point from every trait every turn, and bursts into flames if any trait is driven to 0. The hero rulebook actually tells the heroes to tell the traitor to go get a piece of paper to track Dracula and the Bride's stats in the middle of the game. Thanks.

Also, vampires have a ton of special rules divided between the two books. If any Vampire is defeated with the Spear, it's staked and instantly killed. If someone defeats a Vampire while holding the Holy Symbol, they can also push it a number of squares equal to the damage they did. If a Vampire tries to enter the Chapel or any room with someone holding a Holy Symbol, they must check Sanity 6 or fail to enter the room. And finally, Vampires can make "domination" attacks using Sanity and inflicting Speed damage at a single room's range - but only against heroes of the opposite sex, which is why the author remembered to have both the Bride and Dracula in the game. If a hero's Speed is dropped to 0 by a domination attack, they join the Vampires and recover all their Speed, and win together with the traitor (alarm bells start to ring..) provided they have killed another hero (well, ok, but a bit awkward). And finally, the heroes only have to kill Dracula and his Bride to win the game - the traitor and any turned vampires don't count, and the traitor doesn't get to know that which could easily end up with a rather miserable ending to the game!

So, this seems a reasonable enough scenario but the information division is really ridiculous. Having the traitor not know about sunrise or the Spear or the heroes not know about domination seems really inviting a "oh, I win because of a rule you didn't know" ending to the Haunt, and everyone who's played this agrees on how awful they are. And looking at the text above, does knowing all of that really seem to make this Haunt worse or unplayable? Not as far as I can tell.

That Old Tree
Jun 24, 2012

nah


As I mention every single time it comes up, "you can't even turn into a dragon*, your soul just feels like a dragon" demonstrates Beast failing at the elevator pitch stage. Which in a way is impressive, like a spectacular car wreck.

* Except under pretty restrictive specific, limited circumstances.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Feinne posted:

There might be a seed of a good idea in Beast but to carry that metaphor on it's the sort of tree where fire is involved in its reproductive cycle.

Like I can even articulate a starting point, they're creatures of Awe and Terror that arise because mankind has lost Respect for the world and each other. They exist just as much to remind people that there are things in this world that are good and unspoiled and should remain that way as they do to remind people that they still have things to fear. Remove the kinship stuff entirely probably. Their inherent flaw is Contempt and as it builds they find it harder and harder not to just show these awful insects around them where they really stand in the world.

There's been numerous attempts to fix Beast during the review, and basically it end up falling to 'just play a different line' or 'completely unsalvageable'

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!
"Your honor, everything I did was because I was really stupid and dense. As evidence, I present every action I carried out before I was 25..."

But yeah, gently caress Beast with a rake, it's an unappealing game even without woke ally or rapist angles.

Dawgstar
Jul 15, 2017

That Old Tree posted:

As I mention every single time it comes up, "you can't even turn into a dragon*, your soul just feels like a dragon" demonstrates Beast failing at the elevator pitch stage. Which in a way is impressive, like a spectacular car wreck.

* Except under pretty restrictive specific, limited circumstances.

That's what killed it for me, really. Before anything else. I saw there was an aquatic-based brood or whatever and was like, "Oh, huh, can I play Godzilla? That'd be fun!" And was told totally, yes, you could play Godzilla. So I asked how the game ran being able to turn into a giant radioactive rage-lizard and was met with 'oh, my, no, you can't actually turn INTO Gojira he's just like your spirit animal." Pfft. Bush league.

If I want monsters with a job to do, I've got Forsaken. Sure, it's playing supernatural park ranger, but it's still something with legs.

RocknRollaAyatollah
Nov 26, 2008

Lipstick Apathy

That's one of those, X person was totally a X entries in a Clan/Tradition/Tribe book. All the books are from the perspective of an unreliable narrator so they really have no idea what they're talking about if it's someone from outside their lifetime. That's why Mata Hari and Rasputin are all over the place.

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:

RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

That's one of those, X person was totally a X entries in a Clan/Tradition/Tribe book. All the books are from the perspective of an unreliable narrator so they really have no idea what they're talking about if it's someone from outside their lifetime. That's why Mata Hari and Rasputin are all over the place.

CoG:R claims that every major peacemaker in history was either CoG, a CoG Kinfolk, or had a Cog/Kinfolk behind them telling them what to do. Including Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. 75% of the names they drop in the history section came up on a wikipedia search.

Dawgstar
Jul 15, 2017

RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

That's one of those, X person was totally a X entries in a Clan/Tradition/Tribe book. All the books are from the perspective of an unreliable narrator so they really have no idea what they're talking about if it's someone from outside their lifetime. That's why Mata Hari and Rasputin are all over the place.

My favorite is still Jim Morrison being a Cultist of Ecstasy.

SirPhoebos
Dec 10, 2007

WELL THAT JUST HAPPENED!

Kurieg posted:

CoG:R claims that every major peacemaker in history was either CoG, a CoG Kinfolk, or had a Cog/Kinfolk behind them telling them what to do. Including Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. 75% of the names they drop in the history section came up on a wikipedia search.

Except Hitler. Don't want to be offensive now, do we? :rolleyes:

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:

SirPhoebos posted:

Except Hitler. Don't want to be offensive now, do we? :rolleyes:

I'm going to assume you just skimmed what I said and you aren't claiming that Hitler was a historical peacemaker.

SirPhoebos
Dec 10, 2007

WELL THAT JUST HAPPENED!

Kurieg posted:

I'm going to assume you just skimmed what I said and you aren't claiming that Hitler was a historical peacemaker.


*rereads your post*

Oh. Yeah, bad reading on my part.

Ratoslov
Feb 15, 2012

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

Kurieg posted:

I'm going to assume you just skimmed what I said and you aren't claiming that Hitler was a historical peacemaker.

Technically he was. He killed Hitler.

Josef bugman
Nov 17, 2011

Pictured: Poster prepares to celebrate Holy Communion (probablY)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund

Ratoslov posted:

Technically he was. He killed Hitler.

Not if me and my time machine get there first!

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
I mean, that's part of why Beast doesn't really work as a World/Chronicle of Darkness line. World of Darkness is all about how you have these mysterious things happening in the shadows that most people don't know about. That doesn't really work with dragons or godzillas. Like, you can imagine a society of vampires working behind the scenes, or werewolves out in the country. Mummies have their cults to do the daylight work. Prometheans and Demons at least seem human enough at first glance. But a dragon or a godzilla is right there in your face, destroying downtown. It doesn't work in the setting. They have to cram it into the framework of the setting by making it a spirit animal thing, and what you're left with is just too similar to what other splats do.

I think there are some individual ideas you could work with that wouldn't be retreads of other splats, but you'd have to change things up so much it wouldn't really be recognizable as the same game. Either you'd completely lose the giant monster thing or have to go to a completely different setting that doesn't care about the masquerade.

Tuxedo Catfish
Mar 17, 2007

You've got guts! Come to my village, I'll buy you lunch.

JackMann posted:

I mean, that's part of why Beast doesn't really work as a World/Chronicle of Darkness line. World of Darkness is all about how you have these mysterious things happening in the shadows that most people don't know about. That doesn't really work with dragons or godzillas. Like, you can imagine a society of vampires working behind the scenes, or werewolves out in the country. Mummies have their cults to do the daylight work. Prometheans and Demons at least seem human enough at first glance. But a dragon or a godzilla is right there in your face, destroying downtown. It doesn't work in the setting. They have to cram it into the framework of the setting by making it a spirit animal thing, and what you're left with is just too similar to what other splats do.

I think there are some individual ideas you could work with that wouldn't be retreads of other splats, but you'd have to change things up so much it wouldn't really be recognizable as the same game. Either you'd completely lose the giant monster thing or have to go to a completely different setting that doesn't care about the masquerade.

I mean, sort of, but there are a lots of things you could do to get around this.

You could greatly emphasize the importance of the Astral plane and have the players literally be their giant monster selves there, and have a kind of dual narrative where e.g. you're a great a terrible dragon who haunts people's dreams on one side and a weedy suburbanite on the other.

Like picture a game that throws out everything actual Beast is about thematically, for a start. What do dragons and other giant monsters mean? Dragons are possessive; dragons and krakens and other monstrosities are a symbol of the unknown, but they're also associated with empire and civilization, so there's kind of an interesting contradiction / dichotomy there. They're even more closely tied to humanity than vampires or werewolves are, because Heroes are a manifestation of humanity's will to conquer the darkness and control their own destiny.

Promethean is a game about wanting to become human. This is wildly contradictory to traditional RPG "progress and gain power!" logic, but it works because Promethean commits 100% mechanically and flavorfully. So make Beast the reverse of that -- instead of a game about hope, it's a about tragedy on a grand and epic scale. Beasts are people who are so desperate to escape from their lives that they're willing to become monsters, avatars of the very forces that made their own lives miserable. Maybe it's a one-time snap decision, to allow for the possibility of regret or attempts to minimize harm, kind of like Vampire. Steal a page from Wraith and have each player also play the Hero of the player to their left -- a Hero who will inevitably destroy them, even if takes many attempts or even reincarnations.

Instead of feeding on abuse, Beasts feed on festering systemic issues in communities. Dragons feed on greed, wealth, and the fear of losing it; their ideal lair is a gated community. Krakens feed on suppressed anxiety and fear of the unknown; their ideal lair is suburbia. Minotaurs feed on violence and the fear of being trapped; their ideal lair is a slum. And so on, tweaking these as necessary. Beasts don't necessarily create these issues but they amplify them, while at the same time creating an environment where the human will to overcome spontaneously transforms people into a kind of narrative antibody -- Heroes who in real life are reformers, public servants, exemplary citizens, and in their dreams are powerful forces who can go toe to toe with Beasts.

So now you have choices. Do you lean into monstrosity and let things get worse and worse until eventually you're destroyed by those that have risen up to resist you? Or do you isolate yourself (like Medusa!) and try to live on the bare minimum until finally you're hunted to serve some purpose that barely has anything to do with you? Do you choose to die, when the consequences of your own survival are too horrifying even to you?

Tuxedo Catfish fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Jan 21, 2018

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Robindaybird posted:

There's been numerous attempts to fix Beast during the review, and basically it end up falling to 'just play a different line' or 'completely unsalvageable'

Oh yeah for sure I don't think anything past maybe the barest idea is salvageable and I don't think it fits in WoD particularly at all.

Like step one of it would be that ever single creature should be encompassed under it, they're all intrusions of a primal idea onto reality spawned by mankind's actions.

Feinne fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Jan 21, 2018

Tuxedo Catfish
Mar 17, 2007

You've got guts! Come to my village, I'll buy you lunch.
Or alternatively if that's too depressing, make their morality stat a measure of where they fall on a spectrum from "basically otherkin Freddie Krueger" to "wise old oracle that the Hero seeks out for guidance." Make defeating heroes or helping them equally valid ways of progressing their power stat, which measures their progress into becoming purely Astral beings -- of achieving their escape. This also sets up fantastic opportunities for Beast vs. Beast gameplay because what part of "magical dreamworld Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, with the soul of Pleasantville at stake" doesn't sound like fun? Maybe go for a more Arthurian flavor than Greek if you do it this way.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

The issue now with either of those is 'how does it work in a group game' as the pitches seem more tailor-maded to solo adventures, which isn't unheard of, but not the norm.

Tuxedo Catfish
Mar 17, 2007

You've got guts! Come to my village, I'll buy you lunch.

Robindaybird posted:

The issue now with either of those is 'how does it work in a group game' as the pitches seem more tailor-maded to solo adventures, which isn't unheard of, but not the norm.

This is true, but at least it's a common problem in nWoD games. :v:

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Tuxedo Catfish posted:

This is true, but at least it's a common problem in nWoD games. :v:

yea, Promethean definitely got that issue too - especially with the Disquiet mechanics

Dawgstar
Jul 15, 2017

Tuxedo Catfish posted:

Or alternatively if that's too depressing, make their morality stat a measure of where they fall on a spectrum from "basically otherkin Freddie Krueger" to "wise old oracle that the Hero seeks out for guidance." Make defeating heroes or helping them equally valid ways of progressing their power stat, which measures their progress into becoming purely Astral beings -- of achieving their escape. This also sets up fantastic opportunities for Beast vs. Beast gameplay because what part of "magical dreamworld Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, with the soul of Pleasantville at stake" doesn't sound like fun? Maybe go for a more Arthurian flavor than Greek if you do it this way.

So the end goal is to become the dragon in Dragonheart. Done!

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Robindaybird posted:

The issue now with either of those is 'how does it work in a group game' as the pitches seem more tailor-maded to solo adventures, which isn't unheard of, but not the norm.

The world has a narrative that is important, and Heroes and Beasts get together to LARP the great stories of old in order to maintain that narrative, then Beowulf and the Dragon get a beer afterwards and sometimes team up with a Phoenix and Herakles to punch the forces of primal Kaos.

DAD LOST MY IPOD
Feb 3, 2012

Fats Dominar is on the case


my criticism of beast has always been that beasts being explicitly coded as LGBT sends the unfortunate message that prejudice against those groups is justified, given the terrible things Beasts do.

it’s as if one of the splats was an AIDS patient who had the power to deliberately infect strangers with his blood, or a transfeminine person who got a bonus to infiltrate women’s spaces and beat off

Ratoslov
Feb 15, 2012

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

Feinne posted:

The world has a narrative that is important, and Heroes and Beasts get together to LARP the great stories of old in order to maintain that narrative, then Beowulf and the Dragon get a beer afterwards and sometimes team up with a Phoenix and Herakles to punch the forces of primal Kaos.

I like this idea. Also, occasionally they end up involving humans in their mythological puppet show LARP and the Heroes and Beasts have to team up to make sure the human wins and vanquishes the Darkness and Learns a Lesson. No, like a real lesson, that helps them become a better person. It's like professional wrestling, except occasionally audience members pop up and try their hand against The Undertaker.

Also, occasionally they help Herc deal with getting a new job because he's bad at money.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

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

What I hate most about Beast the game at this point is that this discussion happens every time it gets brought up and it takes forever.

Down With People
Oct 31, 2012

The child delights in violence.


BLUE TRAIN, BLACK NIGHT – PART ONE

Wherein the investigators take the west-bound Orient Express in pursuit of Mehmet Makryat, and thereby find themselves aboard the Express to Hell, sans stopovers.

Background

Now that Mehmet Makryat wears the Simulacrum, he's heading all the way back to England on the Orient Express to put his master plan in motion. The Simulacrum gives him a huge bump to POW, 10 points of permanent armour versus sources of kinetic damage, the ability to cast Call the Skinless One/Avatar of the Skinless One without any prerequisite sacrifices and – most importantly – the ability to don someone else's skin and perfectly impersonate them. This isn't like the clumsy skin grafts the rest of the Brotherhood uses; there's no visible difference between the old person and Mehmet wearing them. The only downside is having to perform the Ritual of Cleansing every 100 hours.

He intends to use this to replace the Duke of York, which is…not a good plan at all, actually. The Duke of York is fated to become King of England within the years but Mehmet has no way of knowing that. How much power and influence could he really get from stealing that particular identity? I mean, if you want temporal power in the real world, Mehmet my man, have you heard of this Ataturk guy? You could be president of a whole new country in a few months! Whatever, man. Mehmet's travelling with the Simulacrum and the Scrolls, disguised as a member of the SOE staff. The Simulacrum is actually in an iron box welded to the underside of one of the carriages – he plans to retrieve them when he gets to France, then boat over to London and get the Ritual of Cleansing, which he sent to his shop in advance.

The investigators have 100 hours to find out which person on the train is Mehmet, kill him before he can change skins and get to his shop in time to use the Ritual of Cleansing on themselves. While Mehmet is now in sync with the statue and doesn't suffer Baleful Influence (for the first 100 hours at least), the investigators suffer it much worse than before. Every morning they must roll CON or suffer mutations caused by the Simulacrum – these range from noxious odours to unsightly growths to something moving around under their skin.

This is where some tables might have problems. The whole scenario operates under the assumption that the investigators will be willing to quietly sleuth out Mehmet even under the time constraint, whereas more gung-ho players might be tempted to – for example – get their guns, seize control of the Express and start forcing people off the back of the moving train until they think they've killed Mehmet. I imagine he's the one who bounces a little when he hits the track instead of just splattering. For at least the first day or so, you want to encourage the players to take the subtle approach. After all, they don't want the train to be forced to make an emergency stop, as even an hour's delay could have disastrous consequences.

The book also acknowledges that players might be totally unwilling to go on the train at all. Having seen the 'luxuries' of the Orient Express, they might want to just fly back to England and be done with it. If they absolutely won't budge on this, the book has rough guidelines on how to accommodate flying investigators, including plot hooks and obstacles to throw at them – my personal favourite is the cockpit and cabin filling up with black feathers as they fly over Belgrade, forcing them to make an emergency stop near the woods. Flying part or all of the journey gives the team a lead of a day or more over Mehmet.

The pace of this scenario is frantic, the trip from Constantinople to Calais taking three terrifying days with a rigorous timeline of events. It's possible, even expected, for smart players to figure out who Mehmet's hiding in and empty their shotguns into his face ahead of time. If they pull that off, the book says let them, even if that means missing out on some of the later set-pieces of the scenario. They earned it.



Mehmet Must Die

When the investigators get to Sirkeci station, they're informed that due to the volume of passengers on the through-coach to Calais, every berth in the first-class compartment has already got at least one passenger – the group will have to split up and share double-berths with strangers. This is a key part of the set-up for this scenario and if necessary, those are the only available berths on the entire train.

This is the most challenging part of the scenario. There are no less than 16 NPC passengers that the keeper will have to keep track of throughout the scenario, more than in any of the other mystery scenarios. It'll probably be necessary to do some work ahead of time to create markers and the like that can be placed on the train map. Also, the passengers presented assume a predominately male team of investigators; they'll need to be changed up ahead of time if that's not the case for your group. The Strangers on the Train book has a huge selection of passengers that could easily be swapped in or added if necessary.



At least initially, none of the passengers presented are Mehmet. Mehmet is currently disguised as Emile Soucard, conductor for the Calais coach and someone who the investigators might have already met. Soucard is a powerfully-built Corsican who makes up for his intimidating appearance with impeccable manners, which Mehmet can't quite pull off. If the keeper wants to make things easier, they might allow a Hard Spot Hidden roll to notice that little detail. He salutes each passenger as they board and is friendly with the investigators; that's pretty admirable under the circumstances, since I would probably have a full-blown panic attack if I saw my deceased arch-nemeses amble up to me like that.

Once they're aboard, it's time for the investigators to mingle.

Next time: meet the victims!

Lynx Winters
May 1, 2003

Borderlawns: The Treehouse of Pandora

Mors Rattus posted:

What I hate most about Beast the game at this point is that this discussion happens every time it gets brought up and it takes forever.

:yeah:

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.
Mehmet's plan is really poo poo but I feel like maybe that's fine. I mean never mind who he wants to replace, he's planning on calling the Skinless One itself and imagines that he's like going to say jump and a masque of Nyarlathotep is going to ask how high. Like even if the Skinless One can't directly gently caress with him while he's got the Simulacrum everything the Crawling Chaos does is tainted by its overwhelming malice.

Feinne fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jan 21, 2018

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
Wasn't there something a little... awry with the Ritual of Cleansing?

Wrestlepig
Feb 25, 2011

my mum says im cool

Toilet Rascal
I really like how versatile Call of Cthulu is to be able to support 'investigate train passengers' and 'Massive battle between interdimensional beings and your allies, including a lot of very wise cats'

Down With People
Oct 31, 2012

The child delights in violence.

Feinne posted:

Mehmet's plan is really poo poo but I feel like maybe that's fine. I mean never mind who he wants to replace, he's planning on calling the Skinless One itself and imagines that he's like going to say jump and a masque of Nyarlathotep is going to ask how high. Like even if the Skinless One can't directly gently caress with him while he's got the Simulacrum everything the Crawling Chaos does is tainted by its overwhelming malice.

Putting aside some of the stupider Bond Villain poo poo I really do like Mehmet as a character, this extremely non-religious cultist who's big ambition is to use his magic to become the king of England rather than like, bring about the end of the world.

Bieeardo posted:

Wasn't there something a little... awry with the Ritual of Cleansing?

Nope, the ritual written in the Left Hand Scroll works exactly as it's described.

Otherkinsey Scale
Jul 17, 2012

Just a little bit of sunshine!

Kurieg posted:


Part 3: Maneuvers and Stances

I read these posts last night and had a dream where I was Wonder Woman as a Crusader, and now I want to make that character.

ToB was easily my favorite book in 3.5. All the games I joined that incorporated it folded before I got to do much of anything, sadly. In particular, I never got to exploit the hilarious out-of-combat potential of being able to break everything with Stone Dragon.

Hunt11
Jul 24, 2013

Grimey Drawer

Otherkinsey Scale posted:

I read these posts last night and had a dream where I was Wonder Woman as a Crusader, and now I want to make that character.

ToB was easily my favorite book in 3.5. All the games I joined that incorporated it folded before I got to do much of anything, sadly. In particular, I never got to exploit the hilarious out-of-combat potential of being able to break everything with Stone Dragon.

It is amazing just how much hate the book got for allowing Fighters and such to actually do interesting things in combat.

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Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Down With People posted:

Putting aside some of the stupider Bond Villain poo poo I really do like Mehmet as a character, this extremely non-religious cultist who's big ambition is to use his magic to become the king of England rather than like, bring about the end of the world.


Nope, the ritual written in the Left Hand Scroll works exactly as it's described.

Oh yeah he's actually pretty great because him being a secular cultist both makes him very interesting and ALSO lets the GM spite him whenever they feel it's appropriate by having him get a bit too uppity with the Skinless One, at which point the Crawling Chaos shows him the almighty power of the Outer Gods.

And again Nyarlathotep doesn't even need to do anything super direct, for example just help the PCs along enough to put Mehmet in a situation of asking The Skinless One to help him escape, at which point he sticks him on a Shantak and whoops looks like it's flying back home to Azathoth bad luck friend!

Feinne fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Jan 22, 2018

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