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Der Waffle Mous posted:Like I know its Scion but this is still really goddamn weird to see. Good or bad weird?
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Mar 25, 2018 20:52
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Mors Rattus posted:Good or bad weird? Basically seeing my culture's myths used in an RPG like this should be something that I hate but what's there actually seems really well researched so I'm honestly more impressed than annoyed. edit: contrast with, like, this 
Der Waffle Mous fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Mar 25, 2018 |
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Mar 25, 2018 21:11
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Der Waffle Mous posted:Basically seeing my culture's myths used in an RPG like this should be something that I hate but what's there actually seems really well researched so I'm honestly more impressed than annoyed. Scion has been going out of it’s way to hire writers from the culture or who have serious research chops and then getting beta readers from the culture involved, whenever possible.
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Mar 25, 2018 21:17
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Mors Rattus posted:Scion has been going out of it’s way to hire writers from the culture or who have serious research chops and then getting beta readers from the culture involved, whenever possible. Oh, jeez. I didn't realize that was from the new stuff, in which case I'm a bit less surprised since this isn't the first time I've seen material in an OP book that's been weirdly knowledgeable about Iroquois culture.
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Mar 25, 2018 21:37
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Der Waffle Mous posted:Oh, jeez. I didn't realize that was from the new stuff, in which case I'm a bit less surprised since this isn't the first time I've seen material in an OP book that's been weirdly knowledgeable about Iroquois culture.
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Mar 25, 2018 21:44
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Yeah the original Scion was significantly less respectful to the cultures involved.
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Mar 25, 2018 21:59
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Mors Rattus posted:Scion has been going out of it’s way to hire writers from the culture or who have serious research chops and then getting beta readers from the culture involved, whenever possible. Yeah, I remember Kali specifically got called at out as somebody whose write-up that needed to change during the dev process.
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Mar 25, 2018 22:47
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Dawgstar posted:Yeah, I remember Kali specifically got called at out as somebody whose write-up that needed to change during the dev process. Not really a surprise given her rep in pop culture vs the shitkicking demon slayer of actual myth.
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Mar 25, 2018 23:48
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Feinne posted:Not really a surprise given her rep in pop culture vs the shitkicking demon slayer of actual myth. Yeah, if you mention the Thuggees you're probably doing it wrong. (Note: Can't remember or care to be bothered to look up if they were mentioned in her 1E description, but would not be shocked.)
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Mar 26, 2018 00:00
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Dawgstar posted:Yeah, if you mention the Thuggees you're probably doing it wrong. (Note: Can't remember or care to be bothered to look up if they were mentioned in her 1E description, but would not be shocked.)
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Mar 26, 2018 00:05
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Mors Rattus posted:Scion has been going out of it’s way to hire writers from the culture or who have serious research chops and then getting beta readers from the culture involved, whenever possible. Gods trolling each other on the internet, and one of them being in effect the patron god of dumbass vloggers and being distilled 'just a prank bro' is hella inspired and I love it.
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Mar 26, 2018 00:35
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hectorgrey posted:How do you even make an unfunny parody of VtM? I mean, there's so much good material there... I'm not sure I've ever seen a funny parody of V:tM. I think the trouble is that as a parody, the richest mine is the combination of both adolescent power fantasy and amorality the classic White Wolf games lean towards, and I'm not sure I've ever seen somebody attack that. If you're going to do a parody, you need to find something to say about it, and instead most just go for low-hanging fruit like "hey the names in this game are dumb" or "goths sure are pretentious, huh?" In any case, unfunny parodies aren't hard to find.
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Mar 26, 2018 00:40
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I still think the best parody of VtM was Bloodlines. It always read as something that's poking fun at itself while simultaneously earnestly revelling in it.
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Mar 26, 2018 01:46
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http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/146955/Katanas--Trenchcoats-Episode-1-Welcome-to-Darkest-Vancouver Come on guys.
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Mar 26, 2018 01:48
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Scion: Hero Stop Calling Them Medicine Men Midewiwin is the religion of the Manitou, and its practitioners are Midew. Male practitioners are Mediwinini and female are Midewikwe. It's more a state of being than a role, though, and roughly means 'the state of being in midewi'. Outsiders use the term 'medicine men' to refer to all this; they are incorrect. Medicine men ('doctors') would be Mashkikiwin. Midewi doesn't actually have an English equivalent, but the closest is probably sacred, or perhaps spiritual or mysterious. This midewi state is required to connect to the Manitou and receive visions or favor. Most practitioners live on reservations, preferring to avoid outside influence, but there are some who are trying to popularize the practices in Anishinaabe social groups in more urban areas. In general, there's also a belief in dodaem, called totems most of the time these days. Dodaem is the idea that there is a personal Manitou that oversees the needs of every person. People are born into one of the tribal clans, which also have a family dodaem. The major clan dodaem are bear, bird, fish, catfish, crane, deer, loon and marten. Within a clan there's also going to be several sub-dodaem of the same type. These can be connected to by anyone, but they favor those of their clans. They're basically a Manitou you're related to. In addition to them, people will seek out the Manitou that is their personal guardian, which could be any non-human animal or even a plant. People can have multiple dodaem in life, and your dodaem can be convinced to lend its atttributes to you and help you solve problems or learn skills. Many ceremonies are devoted to acknowledging potent Manitou and their effects on things. These include, but are hardly limited to, the Midwinter Ceremony, the Feast of the Dead, the Raven Festival, the Painted Pole Festival, seasonal feasts and major rites of passage - your birth, naming, first kill, puberty, dream seeking, marriage and death. Creatures or Guides for a Manitou Scion might include Animals, of the same type as your clan dodaem or your personal one. They tend to be larger and tougher than standard animals of their type, with notable qualities or attributes that stand out. Then there's Animikii, thunderbirds - tribes of giant, magical eagle-like things that serve Muzzu-Kumik-Quae, and can control wind, rain and lightning. They can turn into a human form but prefer to stay among their own. They are similar to but distinct from the Wakinyan-Tanka, the thunderbird of the Lakota, who is god itself and has Scions. Animikii are sometimes believed to be distant relatives, but if so, they're so distant as to be something else entirely. They grant no tie to or protection from Wakinyan. Then you have Bagwajiwinnini, also called Pukwudgie - tiny, hairy wildmen that are friendly but mischevious. They tend to make themselves at home in your house or ride around in your bag, and are especially fond of Nana'b'oozoo's kids, who make them laugh. Then there's the Nibiinaabe, merfolk-like water spirits found around rivers and docks, who will befriend those who spend a lot of time in or on the water. Or you might have your Clan, human relatives that share your dodaem or something connected to it, many of whom will be activists seeking to gain authority via your power. Relics might include the Club of Maudjee-Kawiss, an immense club wielded by that Manitou when he stole the Wampum from the bear people, which let him beat nearly anyone in a single blow. Then there's Spirit Rifles - see, bows are fine and all, but younger Scions tend to prefer the more modern rifle. Sure, they need to get charged by a war dance and have their bullets blessed in blood, but once you do that they don't miss and their shots burn titanspawn flesh. Winonah's Jingle Dress is an ornate medicine dress made from buckskin and coated in tin cones. Its sound frightens weaker titanspawn and confuses stronger ones, preventing them from focusing. And, of course, there's the Hill Striding Moccasins, which are beaded with symbols of clouds and birds and lightning and give super speed. So, the Manitou know something: the wendigo are everywhere. Modern folks believe they're dying out, but the giants are just adapting. They're blending into the crowds of people, slowly feeding and gathering forces. In the night, they descend on the ghettoes and slums and feed while no one notices. The growth of man into places once only for Manitou is also weaking strange new Manitou, who may be even worse. In response, the Manitou have been sending their Scions and followers into the dark places in the human world, killing these awakening titanspawn as they can. They remember when armies of wendigo would descend and wipe out entire villages. Geezhigo-Quae fears that another flood is coming, if the Manitou cannot find a way to stop it. Of the other pantheons, the Manitou largely relate best to the Kami and Orisha, who understand the fact that there's innumerable spirits out there, and that even more powerful ones must respect the smaller ones. The Kami are quick to see the Manitou as Kami, and the Orisha see them as Orisha. Since that's how the Manitou also approach others, you can get some interesting back and forth there. They haven't really met most of the Western Pantheons before the colonization of the Americas - just the Tuatha and Aesir, and then briefly. There's some respect, but they also see the others as rivals fairly often. Maudjee-Kawiss likes the warrior and hunter gods more than his brothers, though, going so far as to invite some to his wendigo hunts. Nana'b'oozoo doesn't like that - he feels left out and thinks that everyone's been far too accepting of the strangers when they won't accept him. Geezhigo-Quae and Winonah are both happy to foster Scions from other pantheons, though, and so is Nana'b'oozoo if we're honest - he'll take anyone that'll hang with him. The Manitou know the Teotl see them as backwards barbarians, but they don't really care. They'd prefer to just avoid those guys, as they see the sotuerners as quite obsessed, too uptight and scarily intense. The great weakness of the Manitou is tradition. See, they're providing more dreams to more and more people, leading them to reclaim their culture and language...but for this to be done, new traditions and songs have to be made, and some of the old must go. Convincing their people to embrace new songs and stories is really hard. Nana'b'oozoo may have the solution, in the way he is so enthralling to the young, making them dig more into spiritual tradition and adapt it to modern ways...but that's bringing about a lot of generational strife, too. The Virtues of the Manitou are Pride and Dream. The Manitou are prideful to a fault. It comes from their father, and it defines them all. They aren't hierarchical, quite, but they like to be acknowledged for what they do, for their power, and they constantly jockey for position. Many Manitou fly into rages or become vindictive when slighted, and some have short fuses. It's one of the reasons even their own people rarely invite the Manitou to be among them for very long. They're Heroes, sure, but not champions. Their pride can be what drives to solve a problem, but it can also drive to fury and make things worse. However, the Manitou are not static. Each has a purpose given them in a dream, and they give dreams to others. That purpose keeps them always moving. It's rare for them to even want to stay in place for long, as the desire to physically act on their dream drives them constantly. They can't escape that, and it can make them easy to manipulate. The signature Purview of the Manitou is Dodaem. This, in this case, refers to action, heart and fulfillment. There is a Manitou for all things, which oversees and cares for them. Before anything is done, you should acknowledge and respect that dodaem. Additionally, you can invoke and seek your personal dodaem, to help accomplish your goals or intervene with other Manitou on your behalf. Tobacco seems to resonate with them - physical or burnt offerings of it will allow communication and show respect, alongside proper prayer, which often includes songs, chants or dances. Once in connection, if the Manitou agree with you, then you can do miracles. Next time: The Netjer, Lords of the Dead
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Mar 26, 2018 01:51
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Nessus posted:I dimly recall that, wasn't that on the order of hit men praying to a particular saint or something, rather than some kind of actual formalized devotion? What's funny is from nosing around a little bit it seems that most of the Thuggees that were caught were actually Muslim. One figures they may just have used Kali because 'children of the goddess of destruction' sounded cool, not unlike the Hells Angels today.
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Mar 26, 2018 01:59
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D&D 3rd Edition - The Core Books Part 6: Adventuring Our adventuring rules begin with the encumbrance rules. Everything you carry has weight, and your Strength score determines how much you can carry. An average person can carry up to 38 lb without being encumbered, while a person with Strength 13 (average for a soldier) can carry up to 50lb without being encumbered. Medium encumbrance gives you a maximum Dexterity bonus to AC of +3 and an armour check penalty of -3 - these do not stack with your armour, you take whichever is worse. Heavy encumbrance gives a maximum Dexterity bonus to AC of +1 and an armour check penalty of -6 - which is roughly the same as wearing heavy armour anyway. They also affect your movement speed the same way armour does. Since they don't stack with armour, it is often worth carrying a load of up to whatever penalties your armour would give you - after all, if you're wearing full plate, you're getting the same penalties from that as you would from carrying over a hundred pounds of gear at Strength 13. Your maximum load is also the most you can lift over your head without needing to start making rolls. You can lift double that off the ground, but can only stagger around with it - your speed is reduced to 5 feet, and you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC. You can push or drag something up to five times your maximum load most of the time; good circumstances such as smooth ground or a grease spell might double this, while bad circumstances like rough terrain might half it. There are three general kinds of movement; walking is three miles per hour for an unencumbered human, and is represented by moving up to your speed in a combat round. Hustling is roughly six miles per hour, and is represented by moving up to double your speed in a combat round (a full action that doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity). A mile and a half at this pace will take roughly 13 minutes. Running is usually quadruple your walking pace, or triple if you are wearing heavy armour or are heavily encumbered. An average, unencumbered human runs at twelve miles per hour; the Run feat brings that to 15 mph. A level 20 Monk with the Run feat can run up to 45 mph. On bad ground, movement speed may be reduced. It is brought to three quarters for moderate obstruction or half for thick undergrowth, half for a steep slope or muddy surface, a quarter for deep snow, and half for poor visibility. A character can walk for eight hours per day. For each hour after those eight, you must make a Constitution check of Dc 10 +1 per extra hour. If this fails, you take a d6 of subdual damage. This cannot be recovered normally until you halt and rest for at least four hours. You can fall unconscious from this. A character can hustle for one hour per day without any problems. The second hour spent at a hustle causes one point of subdual damage, and each hour after that causes double the previous hour's damage. A character can run for a number of rounds equal to their Constitution score without needing to make checks - for an average human with Constitution 10, this is a minute. For every round after that, they must make a Constitution check of DC 10 + the number of Constitution checks they've made already to keep going - a 14 Constitution runner could keep going for nearly two minutes, and could run a little under half a mile in that time. With the Run and Endurance feats, said runner could keep going for nearly two thirds of a mile at nearly a dead run. You cannot maintain these speeds for upwards of an hour - swapping between running and walking would even out to a hustle. As such, a character with Constitution 10 could run a mile and a half in roughly 12 minutes, assuming they paced themselves for the first 11 minutes and then ran flat out for the remaining minute. Interestingly enough, this is actually around the time you'd want to get if you were doing a fitness test prior to joining the military. Likewise, they could run a marathon in a bit over four hours - which is pretty close to the average time. Having said that, they would take 7 points of subdual damage doing it, meaning that on average, a level 2 Commoner (an NPC class, which will be discussed when I get to the DMG) would require a constitution of 12 to still be conscious at the end (and even then, only just). A level 20 monk could run a marathon in about an hour and a half. When it comes to mounts, light horses can move faster than heavy ones, but aren't as strong. A cart or wagon travels more slowly than a person walking, but can naturally carry significantly more stuff. A light horse can carry up to 450lb and still move at 4 mph (or 32 miles per day), but can go half again as quickly if carrying less than 150lb - note that this includes the rider. A horse that is made to canter for more than one hour per day takes normal damage instead of subdual; same as if it's made to walk for more than eight hours in a single day (and it automatically fails the constitution save). An average horse has 19 hit points; if you make one move at a canter, it'll drop dead from exhaustion if it canters for five hours in a single day (even with breaks). My partner, who used to ride horses, tells me that this is reasonably true to life. Ships, meanwhile, travel much slower than horses, but don't need to stop and therefore can often be a much quicker method of travel in the long run (especially if they don't need to make too much of a detour). After the stuff about vehicles and mounts, the chapter moves onto exploration. Under preparation, it suggests that the characters should get whatever supplies they are going to nee (ammunition, food, water, torches, bedrolls or whatever else is going to be needed), as well as various tools. It also suggests that they should all bring ranged weapons (in case they come across enemies they either don't want to or can't engage in melee), horses for overland travel (since they can carry more stuff) and pack mules for exploring ruins and dungeons. We also get a table of light sources. A candle gives off light in a five foot radius and lasts for an hour, meaning that it's a good source of light for reading or going about the house in the middle of the night, but it's not quite so good for exploring underground. The fact that it lasts an hour, however, makes it a useful means of keeping track of time when such things are important. It's not accurate to the minute, but if you know you need to wait roughly half an hour, then waiting for half the candle to burn isn't a bad option. Torches likewise last an hour, but they provide 20 feet of illumination, making them a good source of light - provided there's somewhere safe for all the smoke to go. These things are made with pitch, which when burned gives off thick, black smoke similar to burning rubber - using one underground is an excellent way of dying from carbon monoxide poisoning (this isn't mentioned in the PHB, but it's a detail I often like to include in my games because so long as the players know about it in advance, it's just a little extra flavour. The spell Continual Flame, however, can create a torch that burns smokelessly and never goes out, allowing you to still have all those abandoned underground complexes with lit torches all over the place in spite of the fact that there's nobody to light them, and they should have gone out from lack of oxygen decades ago, without needing to worry about such petty details. The Dancing Lights spell creates four mobile points of light which each give off as much illumination as a torch, but they only last for one minute. An oil lamp provides 15 feet of illumination, and remains lit for six hours per pint of oil. Whether there is sufficient room in the lamp for a whole pint of oil largely depends on the lamp. An oil lamp is generally a pot filled with oil, which has a wick at the top which can be lit like a candle. It generates very little smoke, making it a semi-decent option for underground exploration. Lanterns likewise use oil, and have the same benefits. A bullseye lantern basically has the benefit of a modern flashlight, using mirrors to amplify the light in one direction, providing a cone 60 feet long and 20 feet wide at the end. A hooded lantern, on the other hand, provides light for 30 feet in all directions. Both types of lanterns have shutters which can be used to obscure the light if you should wish to avoid being given away by it. Sunrods are minor magical items which basically provide as much light as a hooded lantern and last for six hours. They cannot be turned off, but they can be hidden to obscure the light given off. The Light spell gives off roughly as much light as a torch, but only lasts for ten minutes - there is never a point at which it is wise to rely on this as your primary source of light, for reasons we will get into when I start describing magic. The Daylight spell provides a 60' radius of illumination, and lasts for half an hour. It also harms certain kinds of undead, such as vampires. It is worth noting that characters with low light vision can double these distances, and that characters with dark vision see into dark places up to their range - so a dwarf at the centre of a Daylight spell would see no more than the human stood next to them, but the elf to their other side would see twice as far. After lighting, the book talks about marching order. It gives advice that to us would seem fairly obvious - stick the folks in heavy armour at the front and back, and the squishies in the middle. It also points out the tradeoff between being closer together to better protect each other, but not being so close together as to all be caught in the same fireball. There is a sidebar here that also talks about ways that players can help the game run more smoothly. Suggestions include having someone in the party keep a map of places you explore so that they can easily find their way back to places, having someone keep notes on names of NPCs, secrets learned, treasure found and so on. The DM will also want to keep track of such things, of course, but if a player keeps track of them then that's one less thing to bother the DM about. The final suggestion it makes is keeping track of things like hit points, spells per day and other such stuff on a separate bit of paper, and only transferring the changes over to the character sheet at the end of the session - not a bad bit of advice, since after a few levels you still might find yourself rubbing holes into your character sheet... Then, we come to experience and levels. Levelling up is quite simple - first, you pick the class you're gaining a level in. This will often be a class you already have levels in, given that excessive multi-classing is punished mechanically (as a reminder, going for a one level dip in a class may result in XP penalties). You then modify your BAB and base saves, buy ranks in skills with your skill points for the level, improve an ability score if appropriate, pick a feat if appropriate, pick new spells if appropriate, roll your hit die for increased hit points (they increase by a minimum of 1, even if your Constitution is low enough that your roll brought your new hp to 0 or lower), and note down any new class features. Regarding treasure, the advice is to split treasure evenly, since that tends to avoid arguments. In the case of special items, it suggests it should go to whoever wants them, in exchange for a portion of their share. If more than one person wants the same item, it suggests bidding portions of their share of the loot - and possibly even money they had prior to the adventure. It suggests that costs related to the adventure should be paid for out of the loot before splitting it, and that a party fund might be useful for picking up stuff that would benefit the whole party (like healing potions). Finally, this chapter mentions that other rewards might be forthcoming from adventures, including reputation, followers, land or even noble titles. Well, this was a relatively short chapter, with not much of note. This chapter is often ignored by GMs, for a number of reasons. Many dislike encumbrance, and so choose to ignore it. They often prefer to montage travel, and so ignore things like getting supplies together, or how the speed and distance a group can travel is limited by how much crap they're carrying and whether they have pack animals. Personally though, I like the detail in this chapter. It provides limits on the party; you can't have a 15 minute adventuring day if doing so requires spending days - and resources - in a dungeon. The party can't just leave town if they can't buy (or forage) sufficient food and water to make the trip. The fact that a severe injury from a fight might mean that the pace needs to be slowed, and that the party might not have enough food for the trip, is a thing that might affect a party's decision of whether or not to attack potential enemies seen on the road. Next up is magic - this will probably be the final update for the PHB, since the chapter on casting spells is only 12 pages long, and the spell list is the last chapter in the book. Since a couple of people have asked me to go straight into the DMG, I will do so once the PHB is finished.
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Mar 26, 2018 03:27
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As a very ignorant white person, I really hope there is pronunciation guide for all of those Iroquois names and terms.
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Mar 26, 2018 04:06
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Terratina posted:As a very ignorant white person, I really hope there is pronunciation guide for all of those Iroquois names and terms.
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Mar 26, 2018 04:18
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Actually now that you mention it I didn't even realize that the Ojibwe names are romanized while the Iroquois ones are more based on the modern orthography. The twins names aren't quite the versions I'm familiar with so I'm not sure if they're from one of the other dialects or if they're meant to be pronouncable versions. But Tekawerahkwa is how I'm used to seeing it and thus absolutely unpronounceable to non-speakers. (T's sound like Ds, Ks sound like Gs, unless there's a H in which case it's a hard sound like normal, also roll your Rs a little. This isn't getting into punctuation.)
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Mar 26, 2018 05:54
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Der Waffle Mous posted:Actually now that you mention it I didn't even realize that the Ojibwe names are romanized while the Iroquois ones are more based on the modern orthography.
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Mar 26, 2018 06:10
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Can't really speak for the anishinaabe stuff since they tend to use syllabics but with the Iroquois stuff it's more that there are at least five main dialects where pronunciation is sometimes drastically different. Writing-wise Mohawk/Kanien'keha has its own sorta recent orthography with a condensed version of the alphabet, I don't really know about the other nations other than that the Seneca have their own system that uses umlauts and stuff.
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Mar 26, 2018 06:28
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Looks like this edition of Scion is my favourite kind of game; where even if you never get around to playing the game, just reading the books is fun and educational. Also seems like the devs rightly realised that Scion is the kind of game where the more research you do and the more accuracy you strive for (while trying to remain both respectful and playable) the more interesting it is and the more options you have.
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Mar 26, 2018 08:32
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Inescapable Duck posted:Looks like this edition of Scion is my favourite kind of game; where even if you never get around to playing the game, just reading the books is fun and educational.
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Mar 26, 2018 08:44
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The Book of Iron Might, by Mike Mearls The book contains three sections of feats. The first section is for Arcane Battle feats. These are feats that are intended to create the feeling of being a "fighter-mage", without going through the clumsy multi-class / prestige class rules and trying to leverage the actual spellcasting system. The first feat in this section is Arcane Battle Mastery. It requires BAB +1 and Intelligence 13. It gives you Concentration, Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft as class skills, and is the prerequisite for every other feat for this section. Arcane Weapon (requires BAB +1) makes your weapon into a magical one: If your BAB is +1 to +4, it becomes a +1 weapon. If your BAB is +5 to +8, it becomes a +2 weapon, and so on until a +5 weapon at +17 BAB. The duration is a number of rounds equal to [your BAB / 3 + 1]. quote:As a general rule, all Arcane Battle feats require a Move action to activate This actually makes Arcane Weapon a fairly useful "inherent bonus" type of feat since it means you'll always have the right +weapon you need, though the short duration can hurt mobility. Force Armor (BAB +1) is similar, except it's for armor, and the bonus is "deflection" instead of enhancement, which means it can stack with the bonus of your actual +armor if you had any. Fleet-Footed Charge (BAB +1) is a temporary, limited-use feat that lets you add +10 feet to your movement speed. quote:A lot of these feats have a duration based on your BAB, such as Arcane Weapon, and they have a limited number of uses per day, such as Fleet-Footed Charge only being usable a number of times equal to your [BAB / 3 + 1]. When I say "temporary" and "limited-use", I mean that, and for readability I'll shorten it to that Serpent-Eyed Strike (BAB +1, Charisma 13) is a limited-use feat that lets spend a Standard Action to force a target to make a Will save or lose their Dex bonus to AC for 1d6 rounds. It feels like the duration should instead be 1d6+1 so you can't roll low and get screwed out of being able to use it. quote:As a general rule, any of these feats that need a saving throw will have a DC based on DC + half your BAB + Intelligence modifier, which scales well enough assuming you can afford to keep the Int high. Summon Spectral Squire (BAB +1, Quick Draw) is a temporary, limited-use feat to let you summon an illusory NPC that will pick up stuff for you as a free action. As far as I can tell, the practical use of this thing would be to help you against disarms and draw weapons and equipment from your pack. Augment Physical Prowess (BAB +3) is a limited-use feat that lets you increase your Strength, or Dexterity, or Constitution by +2. quote:The book presents these feats in alphabetical order, but I'm doing them in order of the minimum BAB required in order to convey a sense of the progression Knockback Strike (BAB +3, Arcane Weapon, Power Attack) is a limited-use feat that you lets you attack an enemy, and they they'll have to make a Fort save or be knocked back 1 foot per 1 damage taken. This feat may well break physics in your 3rd Edition game because suddenly the target isn't occupying a 5-foot-square-intersection anymore. Energy Sheath (BAB +4, Arcane Weapon) is a limited-use, temporary feat that lets you add acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic damage to your attacks. It starts off with +1d4 damage at +4 BAB, +1d6 damage at +9 BAB, and +1d8 damage at +15 BAB. Thousand Blade Strike (BAB +4) is a temporary, limited-use feat that forces your target to make a Will save or be flanked (because you have illusory attackers flanking them for you) Vertical Step (BAB +4, Fleet-Footed Charge) is a temporary, limited-use feat that lets you walk vertically up surfaces. Rhino's Charge (BAB +5, Fleet-Footed Charge) is a limited-use feat that lets you add +2d8 damage to a successful charge hit, and forces the target to make a Reflex save or be knocked prone. Summon Spectral Shield Bearer (BAB +5) is a temporary, limited-use feat to let you summon an illusory NPC that gives you an AC bonus from attacks against an enemy that you designate. Bounding Step (BAB +8, Vertical Step) is a temporary, limited-use feat that lets you walk on air Energy Shield (BAB +8, Energy Sheath) is a temporary, limited-use feat that grants you an escalating amount of elemental resistance. One problem I have with this feat is that the energy type matches whatever type you picked for Energy Sheath's damage, which seems to be really awkward since your defensive and offensive choice would be the same. Flattening Strike (BAB +8, Arcane Weapon, Knockback Strike, Power Attack) is a limited-use feat that lets you force your target to make a Fort save or be knocked prone. Mind Strike (BAB +8, Charisma 13, Serpent-Eyed Strike) is a temporary, limited-use feat that lets you force your target to make a Will save or take 1 damage to Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. Storm of Arrows (BAB +8, Point-Blank Shot) is a limited-use feat that lets you turn your ranged attacks into a 30-foot-radius AOE. Targets caught in it must make a Reflex save or take half damage. Wave of Mutilation (BAB +8, Power Attack) is a limited-use feat that lets you turn your melee attacks into a 30-foot-cone AOE. Targets in it must make a Reflex save or take half damage Hellfire Charge (BAB +10, Fleet-Footed Charge, Rhino's Charge) is a limited-use feat that makes your charges be considered as flight, adds an additional +5d8 damage, and forces your target to make a Fort save or be blinded for 2d4 rounds. Animate Weapon (BAB +12, Summon Spectral Squire) is a temporary, limited-use feat that lets you turn one of your weapons into ... an animated weapon that will attack things independent of you, with your full attack and damage bonuses. Aspect of Battle (BAB +12, Charisma 13, Mind Strike) is a temporary, limited-use feat that gives you a 60-foot-radius aura conferring a -2 morale penalty to attacks, skill checks, and saves to your enemies. Energy Burst (BAB +12, Energy Shield) is a limited-use feat that lets you explode yourself for 6d6 damage in a 30-foot radius, scaling up to 8d6 at BAB +16 and 10d6 at BAB +20. This is still the same energy type as Energy Sheath and Energy Shield. Dance of a Feather's Step (BAB+16, Bounding Step) lets you become passively immune to gravity. You cannot fall unless you choose to. Death Strike (BAB +16, Arcane Weapon) is a limited-use feat that adds 2d6 negative energy to an attack and forces your enemy to make a Fort save or take 1d6 damage to Strength and Constitution. If used against undead creatures, a failed save destroys the creature. Energy Web (BAB +16, Energy Burst) is a temporary, limited-use feat that creates an energy web that deals 6d6 damage per turn to whomever it is wrapped-around, and you transfer it to targets by hitting them. This is still the same energy type as the earlier energy feats. Launching Strike (BAB +16, Flattening Strike) is a limited-use feat that lets you force your target to make a Fort save when you hit them. If they fail, they get thrown into the air a number of feet equal to twice your damage dealt, and then will fall and take falling damage as a result. Impressions There's a lot going-on in this section: * The book actually manages to create a system of "battle-magic" that's convincingly powerful (if a little too stingy on uses). * It even hits on multiple themes, since you've got a charge feat chain, a mental feat chain, an illusion feat chain, and so on. * It even (unwittingly?) stumbles upon the good-and-correct design model that if you strongly gate abilities behind level-based prerequisites, you can have an escalating level of power. * Further, and perhaps more importantly, you can see that if the power of ability is limited to so many uses per day, then you can actually make the abilities individually powerful per use. * ... but of course, the book has convinced itself that it can only do this because "it's magic". * ... and these abilities still aren't as powerful what a full 3rd Edition spellcaster could do ... * ... but if you squint hard enough, there's a reasonable framework for what a martial character SHOULD be capable of in the first place. Walk on air by level 8! To be able to use this material would require a LOT of elbow-grease, but I kind of like it if only because of how ambitious it is. Up Next: Battlemind Feats
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Mar 26, 2018 12:06
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Most of that is pretty dry, but this: quote:The tusks last as long as the Animator thinks they are funny, and tend to disappear when they are most needed. Got a snort out of me.
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Mar 26, 2018 13:44
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Nessus posted:Oh hey, "Redacted!" I, too, read the SCP pages! Evil Mastermind posted:Nah, that's an old Paranoia bit that they've always done. Often on forms the players were expected to fill out.
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Mar 26, 2018 13:58
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Scion: Hero Seven Thousand Years of Grandeur For the Netjer, the origin of the world is multiple choice. Some claim that eight Primordials, or possible eight Titans, called the Ogdoad rose from the primeal water of Nu, creating the World by raising the earth from the water and making space that Re might be made in. Others say that the Primordial Atum, the peerless divinity, created the Ennead Titans, who gave birth to the gods. Ptah has claimed sometimes to have made the world, though he's demonstrably quite young...but he's got plenty of evidence on his side. Both the Ogdoad and Ennead exist, and there's evidence for all origin stories. The thing is, the Netjer are over 7000 years old. In the oldest days, the remet, the people, worshipped one or two patron gods of their cities, and these cults did not, at the time, understand the full nature of the Netjer. As people traveled, the influence of these gods spread, bringing some conflict to them, as they were used to undivided attention. Some gods had always been loved by all of the people, under different names, of course. None of them could truly say when it began, but the pharaohs of Upper Egypt claimed to hjave the divine right to rule all, and the gods backed them. Soon, the land was united, as were the Netjer, and they have endured many changes since. The Netjer have fought the Yazata, the Theoi, even the gods of Canaan at times, but today, they have no real enemies except for those that they have faced every day since the start. They focus on the concept of ma'at, of living a just and true life, which can be achieved by balance, order, the seeking of justice and leading others via just acts. They are always fighting with the Titans that are their ancient foes, who seek to disrupt order and spread injustice. Once, they had millions of worshippers, but now only hundreds of thousands. Their followers are no longer limited just to Egypt, but are across the world. However, Egypt is always in their ib, their hearts. Even if isn't the superpower it was at one time, they are never far from its sands. The Netjer roster changes. Gods come and go, sometimes the same god under new names, sometimes an old god fading and a new one taking over their job. The gods don't disappear, though - they end up with small roles in an intensely political pantheon. There's no room at the bottom for the ambitious, and even the kind and balanced Heru was devious and ruthless in claiming kingship. This means that there are thousands of lesser Netjer and Titans that'd love to take over the jobs of the main gods, but only a few have ever held both the mortal interest and the will of the pantheon for more than a few centures, and few have the strength or willingness to sacrifice their virtue and climb to the top. At times, the Pesedjet, a collection of nine gods and Primordials, were worshipped, but the modern Netjer are slightly different. While most of the book uses the Greek names of the Netjer, this section uses their Kemetic names. Anpu, Weigher of the Heart, is also called Anubis, Anapa, Yinepu and Upauaut. He has the head of a jackal and he weights the hearts of the dead in Duat, to determine if they are worthy of the afterlife. Those who are not he tosses to Ammut, who eats them. For a short time, this duty was shared with Wesir, but he isusually the main judge of the dead. He took to guiding the dead through Duat to the scales and presiding over funerals, because ultimately, ma'at decides who has been just and true, and he's never really cared about if he's the one to read the scales or not. He is one of the oldest gods of the Netjer, a child of Re but unclear on who his mother is. Bast says she is his mother, but Set sometimes claims Anpu's entire parentage is a lie, for the sake of drama. Anpu doesn't especially care - he has important work to do. Today, he appears either as a talking golden wolf, or an older man with extremely dark skin and a bald head. He always wears black, and it is always business attire or even more formal. He prefers to hang out in funeral homes and graveyards, but sometimes he is a doctor in a nursing home or critical care ward. He is usually calm and collected, but he also has the passion of the jackal. He can be loyal or he can turn on you in a fit of rage. Some say he is fickle, but rather, he is impassioned and unafraid to show it when it matters. Scions of Anpu are also passionate. They are loyal, devoted people who wrok to ensure people do not die before their time, and that the dying are eased into death gently. Some of them have trouble controlling their passions, and tend to focus on Justice over Balance. Anpu's Callings are Guardian, Judge and Liminal. His Purviews are Beasts (Jackal), Darkness, Death and Order. Bast is the Goddess of War and Prophecy. She is also called Sekhmet. She began life as the patron of war, lions and cats, and she took it seriously. She fought the Titan Apep, who sought to overthrow Re, and she is his bodyguard as well as his child. The more she stood at his side, however, the more jobs she took on for him, even doing some time as the sun while he went on what she assumed was a lazy vacation. Many of the gods have tried to take advantage of her warrior skill, and she been pulled in too many directions. Besides cats, she is the goddess of prophets and has the gift of prophecy, though it isn't pleasant. It did give her something better to do than fight for everyone else, but it is draining and nearly drove her mad. It certainly drives her to drink. Bast wars with her own nature, even now. When she is calm, she calls herself Bast, the prophet and guide. When the future's visions are too much, her old warrior self surfaces. She appears as a woman with long black hair, light brown skin and bright green eyes. Talking to her takes some patience and bravery, as it's never really clear which side of her is in charge unless you can smell the alcohol on her breath. Bast's children are also warriors. Sometimes, they gain her prophetic powers, but it's rarely as bad for them as it is for her. She's a pretty hands-on deity, guiding her Scions through their problems and leaving them surprisingly well-adjusted despite her alcoholism. Her Callings are Hunter, Guardian and Warrior. Her Purviews are Artistry (Dance, Music), Beasts (Cats, Lions), Epic Dexterity, Fertility, Fortune, Health, Moon, Sun and War. As a side not, Bast and Sekhmet are no longer quite the same deity. Het-Heru once wore the mantle of Sekhmet, as Bast's twin sister. Sometimes Bast takes the Mantle now, sometimes Het-Heru does, and sometimes all through appear in one place. When Incarnated, Sekhmet drinks to forget her visions and fights anyone that angers her. She could be Bast's twin, but rougher in disposition. She is found in bars, pubs, wineries, boxing rings and sports matches - anywhere she can drink and fight. She has Bast's purviews, but also Epic Strength and Wild. As for [i]Bastet[/b], she's ane entirely different goddess. She may have once been one of Bast's Mantles, but the current one was probably a Scion of Bast, and they have grown apart. Bastet is associated with cats, fertility, prophecy and guardianship. Her children can be hard to tell from Bast's at times, but you really don't want to get them confused when talking to them. Het-Heru, Mother of the Netjer, is also called Hathor, Bat and Sekhmet. She is the goddess of the sky, love, fertility and birth. She is one of the eldest Netjer, perhaps even born of the Primordials. Re claims he made her, but some say she gave birth to him. Certainly, she is the sky, and so she gives birth to the sun each morning and takes it to bed each night, as Re's mother and lover. She and Sobek also had an affair, earning her the title Mother of hte Nile, which then led to an affair with Khnum. She spends her evening with Djehuty while Re is in the underworld, though Djehuty has his own wife. She also spends time with Wesir, sometimes with the duty of leading people to the Underworld. Re is, fortunately, not a jealous husband. She often goes back to Heru, though, and that is why she is called Het-Heru, the House of Heru. Besides having a lot of sex, she also is the embodiment of motherhood to all the gods. When Aset wanted to become pregnant, she went to Het-Heru to help make a magic golden phallus, though neither will speak of it. When Heru lost his eye to Set, Het-Heru took a piece of the moon, with Djehuty's help, and sewed it into the socket. When someone threatens the gods, Het-Heru protects them. She has more than once been Sekhmet, driven to a bloodthirsty fury against the enemies of the Netjer until Re gives her alcohol and talks her down. Het-Heru always appears as the most attractive and most matronly woman anyone could imagine, simultaneously. She takes on roles that let her be both sexual and nurturing - the madam of an escort service, the movie star that adopts many children. Her Scions are always compassionate, helpful and charismatic, and often sher her ability to heal and create. Like her, the only relationship problems they ever face are because they have too many at once. Het-Heru's Callings are Creator, Lover and Healer, and her Purviews are Artistry (Music, Dance), Beasts (Cow), Beauty, Fertility, Fortune, Passion (Love) and Sky. Heru is the Lord of the Black Soil. He is also called Horus and Nekheny. He is the god of skies and kings, the king of EGypt, and the child of Aset and Wesir. Set carved Wesir to pieces and lost his penis in the process, but Aset put him back together and used a magic golden penis to impregnate herself. Some say Heru is Nut's child, born during a fifth day given to her by Djehuty. Aset claims he is her son, but refuses to speak about the golden phallus. When Heru was born, his uncle, Set, had the throne. Through birth, it belonged to Heru, but Set wouldn't give it up. This led to years of dispute and battle, in which the other Netjer occasionally played both sides. Re once gave Heru the sun to be his eyes, that he might better rule. Set used a golden spear to gouge one it, but only one, and Heru replaced it with part of the moon, given him by Djehuty. Through the fighting, Set and Heru eventually reconciled, splitting Egypt between them after a sexual encounter in which Set gained a golden crown. Heru spends his time protecting kings and rulers from trouble, but also protecting the people from unwise rule. He is a tactician, warrior and leader who deliberates quite a bit before acting. Most of the Netjer love him, as do their people. In the modern era, he appears as an athletic young man with light brown skin and tones muscles, but a missing left eye. He often has roles that people look up to - political leaders, sports heroes, judges or firefighters. He is dedicated and even obsessive in pursuit of his goals, and his Scions are equally driven. They focus on justice, but often have trouble with balance, as they resert to vengeance and use more force than is strictly necessary. They prefer roles that let them express their leadership and often work in law enforcement (often IA or in jobs that let them punish abuse) or as reformer CEOs. Heru's Callings are Leader, Guardian and Warrior. His Purviews are Beasts (Falcon), Moon, Order, Sky, Sun and War. Aset is the Goddess of Magic and Rebirth. She is also called Isis. She is sister-wife to Wesir, born from Nut, the Primordial of the heavens. Her older brother, Set, cut Wesir to pieces to become king, and Aset grew enraged, stalking the world and collecting the pieces to restore Wesir. Unfortunately, Set had run off with Wesir's penis, so Aset could not fully restore her husband, and Anpu forbade Wesir from leaving Duat, so he could not retake his throne. Thus, Aset decided to get pregnant with Wesir's heir before she left Duat, to displace Set. Re, already deeply involved in all this, was angry at Aset for bring Wesir back. However, rather than be bullied, Aset tricked a titanspawn serpent of Apep into biting Re, giving him eternal poison. Re agreed to give Aset one secret of her choice for the antidote, and she asked his name, the mystery he held against all Netjer and the one thing that'd give her full power over him when she needed it. Re gave Aset his name, and so was weakened to the level of the rest of the gods. Aset is probably one of the most powerful of the Netjer, given her magical expertise and her political skills. She is cunning, brave and never backs down, no matter what. She never breaks a deal once made, but won't make one that does not get her what she wants. Today, she appears as a beautiful woman with thick black hair and dark skin. She wears many roles, but always powerful, choosing her place to fit her plans. She loves her children to the point of doting, but they always know she can, will and has done anything to ensure they are safe. Her Scions are protectors, and like their mother, they do not back down. Oftne, they are doctors, particularly of reproductive medicine, teachers or family protectors. Aset takes a deep interest in them and tries to meddle often, as she feels she knows what's best. She is also responsible for the creation of Wesir's Scions, and while she tells him he's solely responsible for caring for them, she can't really help mothering them, too. Aset's Callings are Guardian, Healer and Trickster, and her Purviews are Beasts (Kite, Serpent), Death, Deception, Fertility, Fortune, Health and Stars. Khnum is the God of Artistry. He is also called Khnemu and Atum. He is the ram-headed god of the Nile, pottery, rebirth and the evening sun. He is one of the eldest Netjer, and it was he who crafted you out of clay and put you in your mother's womb. The first humans were made by Re's falling tears, but the rest? All Khnum. Khnum creates art constantly, then moves on to new things and leaves the old behind. He's not careless - he just loves creating. His first works were pottery, but after Anpu brought him alabaster, he became fascinated by stone nad metal. His love of art also extends to song and dance, too. He inspired Ptah to create architecture, and his influence still shapes Ptah's ways. Today, Khnum appears as a lithe, brown-skinned man with a dancer's moves, or as a nimble ram. He prefers to take on Incarnations that let him pursue art - dance instructors, street artists, opera or Broadway stars, art teachers. His Scions share his love of art, and are often performers or artists. They are always creative, in any field they pursue, and come up with unexpected solutions. They are all very intelligent, and the seek balance as the height of artistry. Khnum's Callings are Creator, Healer and Sage, and his Purviews are Artistry (Dance, Pottery), Beasts (Ram), Earth, Health and Water. Next time: Wesir, Ptah, Re, Set, Sobek, Djehuty.
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Mar 26, 2018 14:25
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Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Deathwatch and Rites of Battle: Part 6 Mechanical but not thematic progression Deathwatch works a lot like the advancement system in Dark Heresy, but with a few tweaks. I didn't cover the (many) add-on books for Dark Heresy, so we didn't get into one of the worst ideas in the line: Replacement Ranks. Replacement Ranks came about because the authors wanted to add variance to Careers, but didn't want to make any new Careers which, having written a Career once I totally understand. It is a goddamn nightmare to try to make sure you pace out, price, and include everything at logical points in advancement. The idea for most of Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy was you could instead take, say 'Gunslinger' as a replacement for Rank 1 Scum, or 'Edgy Cop' for Rank 6 Arbitrator. The problem with this is that was awkward to make sure the character could still advance properly when they got back on their 'normal' career track, eventually solved by saying they could buy anything from the rank they missed at a higher price. Deathwatch tried to fix this awkwardness by instead having a character's advancement options be composing of a mix of four different advance tables at base, plus in Rites of Battle you can buy access to Advanced Career ranks, which don't replace anything in your progression but instead give you some base abilities and access to another advance table. A normal character can buy rank-limited advances from the Deathwatch table (Representing the sort of covert and knowledge-based training every Deathwatch Marine has access to as they advance in the ranks and gain experience in the organization, regardless of their specialization), their Chapter table (Which is not limited by Rank; you have access to your full Chapter Table. This is stuff like Ultramarines being able to max out Command really early, or how our Star Dragons can all learn crazy two-gun acrobatic fighting at any level), a general rank-limited Space Marine table (For stuff any Marine might manage to learn by being a Marine) and then finally your actual Specialization table (Which is small but tends to contain the most powerful talents and skills, or contain powerful talents earlier in your progression than if you had to buy them from your General table). Overall, it can be a little overwhelming and confusing, but it works with the basic idea of the game to have a big baseline of competence that anyone can buy from and then make your class describe what you're Really Good At instead of being quite so restrictive. One of the problems comes in something that annoyed the hell out of me in both Deathwatch and Rogue Trader. In normal DH, your first 4 ranks are costed so that you'll gain new ranks quickly early in a campaign and then settle in on Rank 5 for a long time. This isn't the case in either of the other games in the line that use the Career system. Ranks 1-3 take 4000 EXP in Deathwatch, then Ranks 4-8 take 5000. Also, as part of their 'EXP totals should balance cross line characters' all the EXP costs for everything are much higher in Deathwatch for some reason. At a suggested 500 EXP per session, you'll be Rank 1 for 8 sessions. Assuming the average group meets once a week, this is expecting each Rank of advancement to take 2 months of play. Anything on your advance table that is in the 4+ ranks is going to be beyond you for a long, long time if you go at the recommended pace and start at rank 1. Other than that, I especially like the implementation of Chapter as an advance table. You don't get many direct bonus skills for your Chapter, but your Chapter skills tend to allow you to buy them to their max level, do it cheaply, and do it from the very start of the game. For instance, an average Blood Angel can take all kinds of acrobatic vampire fighting stuff right off the bat, no matter their career. Some could be balanced a little better (The Space Wolves get really good skills with drinking, while others get stuff like the Ultramarine being exceptional at diplomacy and building political connections, and one of those seems more useful than the other) but the concept is very sound. The low costs give an incentive to be good at your Chapter abilities, but you can decide for yourself the degree to which you're a product of your Chapter and you have a lot of useful stuff to spend your EXP on. In general, it is nearly impossible to make a 'weak' Deathwatch character, and everyone is going to be designed to be able to contribute to the main activity of the game, which is combat. The first actual Specialization is our good Sepheran's Apothecary. Apothecaries are the Marines charged with keeping other Marines alive, and if they die, harvesting their Geneseed. This is an actual mechanic; if your Geneseed is successfully harvested and brought back safely after you lose a PC, you get mechanical bonuses for your next PC. Apothecaries serve as field scientists and xenologists, biological warfare experts, and rifle infantry when deployed with the squad, and are surprisingly good at basic close combat. Since you're a Marine, you're going to be great at killing things anyway, and with their special equipment, their choice of removing Corruption, adding biological warfare abilities to the squad, or hyper-healing people, they're really good at their specialty, too. Not having an Apothecary around makes it really hard to get anyone with Medicae onto the team, and speaking from having played in a game without one where we were often forced into battle wounded or using our Fate points to heal because of this, you *really* notice not having one in your squad. Their being intelligent and especially good at studying exotic new aliens to figure out how to kill them is fun, too. The second is the Assault Marine. They get a jet-pack for extremely quick movement, though every Marine can use one of those if they buy one. They are absolutely the best at melee, having good WS, Str, Agi, and Per. They are also terrible with guns (relatively), having Bad BS, Int, and WP. They also start with Swift Attack, meaning they can melee attack twice right at the start, while most classes won't get it until Rank 4. Their special abilities either let them add a significant +20 meters to their charges with their jet pack with a successful Pilot test (and make it explode more mook enemies when they land, presumably by crushing them under their feet) in Solo Mode or let them butcher tons of mooks on any Charge, jetpack assisted or not, against weak foes in Squad Mode. They focus entirely on melee and speed advances, quickly getting their third attack by rank 2 and getting all kinds of dueling and active-defense abilities. If you want someone to leap in and challenge an enemy champion, the Assault Marine can handle it. They're less great against swarms of weak enemies, but that's a function of the swarm fighting rules and of how much better automatic/explosive weapons are at doing it rather than a deficiency in their melee abilities. If you want to blend Elites and fly around with a jetpack and a chainsaw, be an Assault Marine. The Devastator is really good, but also feels a bit like the odd man out when every single class can use heavy weapons anyway. It isn't that they aren't good at their thing (they are very good at their thing) so much as you only have 3-5 PCs, usually, and most PCs can fill in their role well enough. They do get a free Heavy Bolter, which is already reason enough to play one as the DW Heavy Bolter is an ungodly death cannon, and their specials are pretty good. Either they get +10 BS and Sturdy (hard to move or shake) while behind cover in Solo Mode, or they do +1 dead enemy per hit against mooks (or +d5 per Blast or template hit) in Squad Mode. Both of those are fantastic for big guy with big gun. They're good at Ballistic Skill, Strength, and Perception and bad at Intelligence, Weapon Skill, and Agility (ouch). They're experts at being tough, shooting people, and using automatic weapons, flame weapons, and explosives. They're one of the premier horde-killers in the game, gaining lots of talents that will help them kill whole platoons of soldiers in a single round. The Librarian is broken. Like, absolutely the single most powerful class in the game. Stack all the advantages of a Space Marine onto the most forgiving (and one of the most powerful) psy-systems in the line up to the point that DW had been released, give them a Force Weapon (A magic sword that gains +Psy damage and pen base, but that can also cast a massive damage boost on hit), make them excellent at melee (they're only a little behind the Assault Marine) and you've got an insane murder-jedi wreathed in magic armor and wielding one of the best melee weapons in the line. They are good at Weapon Skill, Willpower, Intelligence and Perception, and bad at Ballistic Skill, Agility, and Fellowship. There isn't a lot more to say about them; they don't get a 'pick one' special ability because theirs is just their initial power selection, but for instance, their very basic psy power at level 1 will deal 3d10 Pen3 with an AoE, and that isn't even their best trick. They can also massively buff themselves and others, they get specific powers based on their Chapter (Use the Chapter you succeeded if using a custom Chapter), and are generally insanely good. Good old Tactical Marine. I played one of these myself and have fond memories of them. The Tactical Marine is the Cleric of Deathwatch. They're Good at Willpower and Fellowship and aren't bad at anything. They focus a lot on leadership and command, and they can gain skills to fill in wherever the party needs them, but they're especially good with a basic boltgun. You have the choice as a TacMarine between getting a +10 to-hit and +2 to-damage with every Bolt weapon in the game while in Solo mode (this includes our friend Heavy Bolter, and later on you will see why this rules), or a TacMarine can use their special Chapter squad abilities for the rest of the squad, even if the squadmates aren't from their chapter when in Squad Mode (God we'll get to all this in time). They get lots of free specialist ammo that they can use to customize what their bolt weapons do, turning them into AoE chaff-mulching weapons, powerful anti-monster guns, general purpose armor penetrators, or later, space marine killers.They're solid leaders and rifle masters and that's surprisingly fun to play as. It would be more fun if Squad/Solo mode wasn't so clunky, but again, we'll get to that. Finally, we have the Techmarine. These are Techpriest Marines. You may have thought I was joking when I said as the line goes Techpriests would be upgraded from 'cool and unique tech powers' to 'Actually God'. I was not. The Techmarine starts with a powerful servo-arm sticking out of their spine that can punch like a power fist and can be used as a bonus attack every round if they give up their Dodge for it, or just used for their melee attacks. They can spend a turn to improve a squad's cover, giving it +Intelligence Bonus in Armor. They get great Strength, Toughness, and Intelligence at the cost of poor Willpower, Fellowship, and Agility. They also get a unique trait, The Flesh Is Weak, that grants them points of Machine armor. This extra armor from their cybernetics stacks with their power armor (they can also buy a suit of upgraded, AV 12 armor at rank 4) and counts against being on fire, which means you can easily make a Techmarine who is immune to being on fire. They have tons of special gear and can eventually absorb fire like they were an actual armored vehicle. They can eventually get a massive +10 Str and Toughness 'machinator array' implant that counts for Unnatural stats and allows them to implant themselves with extra guns or blades that they can use as a free action. Techmarines are crazy. One of the problems with Advancement in Deathwatch that I want to talk about is how you never really feel like you change up what you're doing or what level you operate at. A Deathwatch PC with 20,000 earned EXP is mechanically infinitely more powerful than one with 1,000, but they don't really feel 'different' in relation to their enemies. You'll still be doing the same things you did at the beginning of the campaign, the same enemies will be a threat or a non-issue for the most part, and a lot of this is down to enemy design and gear. Serious enemies are very powerful and damage is very high. Your level will change some of the details, but the best strategy is and always will be 'shoot fire with the biggest gun possible' because your squad has a decent chance of one-rounding even the nastiest foes. As you advance, much of your upgrading will be in terms of what gear you're permitted to use, as much as any character abilities. You'll always be a power-armored behemoth action hero, no matter how early or late you get in a campaign. It's still fun to gain new powers and honors, but you start at the apex of the system's combat power and only go up from there. Next Time: A cursory look at any minor changes to Skills and Talents, which mostly work the same as in DH.
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Mar 26, 2018 15:31
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Huh, I thought Chaplains were in the base book, too, but apparently not.
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Mar 26, 2018 17:20
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Cythereal posted:Huh, I thought Chaplains were in the base book, too, but apparently not. They're a Rites of Battle Advanced Class. I'll be going over to Rites of Battle some more in the next update because Skills and Talents are functionally exactly like DH and Rites of Battle has a *ton* of character creation/advancement material.
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Mar 26, 2018 17:53
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gradenko_2000 posted:The Book of Iron Might, by Mike Mearls Huh, there's a lot of cool stuff there. If those feats could be taken as Fighter bonus feats, that might actually convince me to play a Fighter at high levels. The thing is, I don't particularly care if the Fighter isn't as powerful as the Wizard at high levels; I'm fine with playing the Fighter anyway. What matters to me is the lack of interesting options that the 3.5 Fighter gets - I mean, you can get whirlwind attack at level 6, meaning that your options basically boil down to move and make one attack, stand still and make a 2-4 attacks with gradually increasing penalties, or stand still and make up to eight attacks at no penalty, but they must all be against separate targets. This stuff actually gives the Fighter cool poo poo they can do at higher levels.
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Mar 26, 2018 18:08
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hectorgrey posted:Huh, there's a lot of cool stuff there. If those feats could be taken as Fighter bonus feats, They can be, yes
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Mar 26, 2018 18:50
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Scion: Hero Lords of Death Wesir, the King of Death and Resurrection, is also called Osiris, Sepa and Serapis. He was born of the Primordial Nut of the heavens as she lay across her husband, the Primordial Geb of the earth. (They had sex constantly.) As Nut grew pregnant, Re became jealous and forbade her to give birth on any day of the year, so Nut asked Djehuty for help. He brokered a deal for enough moonlight to last four more days, and Nut gave birth to four children - one each day. The first of these, Wesir, became the king of Egypt. Set grew jealous of his brother, cutting him to pieces and scattering his body. Wesir's sister-wife, Aset, found most of the pieces, begging Ma'at and Djehuty to help restore him. They came together in Duat, wherE Anpu was measuring Wesir's ib in the scales. Anpu, who believed Wesir had died before his time, allowed Aset to take the heart before he weighed it, and Djehuty and Ma'at gave her the spell and the power to bring him back. However, Anpu forbade Wesir to leave Duat, for his body was uncomplete. Wesir agreed to stay, but only if he could rule part of Duat, as Set had taken his place as king. Anpu agreed. Modern Wesir is a businessmen, though not as profitable as some due to his perfectly fair and just nature. He's made his kingdom in Duat a place of comfort and luxury for the dead. Wesir has power over resurrection, as well, and will grant it sometimes, but always at a high price. He spends most of his time brokering deals and gaining power over those people who would cheat death. Wesir's Scions are not born as other gods' are, and instead, he must rely on Aset to help create them. His children cannot fully encompass all of his aspects, but he does get to pick and choose what they get. Yes, physical sex isn't the only way to make a Scion, but Wesir can't adopt either, and his attempts to make Chosen are idiosyncratic when they work at all. Aset needs to help. She loves her husband and won't deny him, but is not above making him do something for it if she needs to. Wesir has few Scions as a result, but he treasures, honors and carefully judges all of them. His Callings are Creator, Judge and Leader, and his Purviews are Beasts (Ram, Centipede), Death, Earth, Fertility and Order. Ptah is the God of Craftsmen. He is also called Petah, and by Netjer standards, he's new. (This means he's still thousands of years old.) Ptah is an ascended Scion of Re due to his acts in life. He was one of Re's favored children, and he claimed one of Re's old Mantles, or perhaps a rival's, his name now meaning breath of life. He also assumed a marriage to Sekhmet while doing it. He worked to build and engineer the city Ineb-Hedg, now called Memphis, and before he left, he'd laid out its architectural groundwork, inspiring others to make a city so great it became the seat of Egypt's kingdom. In ascension, Ptah distinguished himself from his father, but still retained much of Re's aspects, and for a time, Ineb-Hedg worshipped him as the sun god, giving up Re entirely. Re was angry at this, though he still loved his son, and so he took the sun away for three days, exiling Ptah to Ineb-Hedg to solve the problem. In that time, Ptah taught the people to build fire for light and to make ever greater buildings, leading him to be worshipped instead as a god of builders. Now, he is a master craftsman, designing and creating buildings, projects and complex machines that are also works of art. He enjoys complex jobs and often works in architectural firms. He also appears at times as an engineer, programmer, carpenter or toymaker. Anything he makes tends to be simple in design but with complex actions or mechanisms. Ptah creates games and puzzles, and he especially enjoys making brain teasers, which even he has problems solving sometimes. His children are likewise naturally inclined to design and challenge, both in crafting and puzzle solving. They tend ot be logical, rational people with a knack for seeing the underlying mechanisms of anything. They aren't rash, but their passions can get in the way sometimes. They see justice over balance, in the belief that their logic will prevent bias. Ptah's Callings are Creator, Liminal and Sage, and his Purviews are Beasts (Bull), Fire, Forge and Prosperity. Re, Between Two Horizons, is also called Atum, Atum-Re, Khepri, Ptah-Re, Ra, and Tem-Ra. Re is the creator of all, the god of sun, earth and underworld. He is the god of many names and the god of no name, whose presence creates order and justice. Re is the father of many Netjer, and some say he even made himself. He is eldest of the Netjer but for Khnum, and his history is hard to follow, given how many names he's had. If he had any other rivals, he has destroyed them. Only naming him removes his power over others, and only Aset knows his true name, which is what has reduced him to a mere god rather than a Primordial. Re has three faces - morning sun, afternoon sun and evening sun. In the morning, he is bright and welcoming, impulsive and enthusiastic. In the afternoon, he is terrible, demanding and vengeful. In the evening, he is thoughtful and rational, but tired and lazy. He ventures into the Underworld in this time, where the pantheon (well, mostly Set) defends him from Apep. In the modern day, Re appears as a tall man with dark skin and impeccable fashion sense. He changes persona based on his mood - sometimes, he is a bright, cheerful gardener or dance instructor, sometimes a gruff military commander or laborer, sometimes a tired leader of the community or retired teacher. His children tend to adopt one of the three personas, but can shift as they grow. Generally, these Scions are more mellow than their father no matter what, and are strict followers of ma'at. Re's Callings are Creator, Judge and Leader, and his Purviews are Beasts (Falcon, Scarab, Ram), Death, Journeys, Fire, Order, Epic Stamina and Sun. Set, Lord of the Red Desert, is also called Seth or Sutekh. He is the god of the desert, of disorder and of violence. Despite his bad reputation, he is a loyal Netjer, though often impetuous. He did kill his own brother, but he's saved Re from Apep countless times, and does so every night. The one time he took a night off, the World was swallowed by Apep, until Set slit open theb east and drew it out again. He is the protector of desert tavelers, and he believes strongly in lessons - people can hardly follow ma'at until they know, truly, what justice is. His lessons sometimes come from nowhere and seem like pranks more than anything, though. Despite the views of Wesir and Heru, Set has no animosity towards any other god. Today, he appears as a nondescript young man with dark skin and a notably large nose. He is mercurial, but likes roles where he can teach hard lessons - drill sergeant, parole officer, crime boss, director of a camp for troubled youths. He's never around by night, of course. Whenever he appears, he is remembered not by his looks, but his temper - he is always jovial, but has a mean streak. Set's Scions are driven to teach and guard others as well, but often take it too far. They are fiercely loyal, and will do anything demanded of them, but often at a price. They are good spies, of course, given their ability to hide their emotions. Set's Callings are Guardian, Leader and Trickster, and his Purviews are Beasts (Salawa, Fish), Chaos, Earth, Epic Strength, Journeys, Sky and War. (A salawa is Set's animal, which does not exist in nature the real world, but may be derived from a fennec fox. It is also called the sha.) Sobek is the God of Fertility and Protection. He is also called Suchos. He is the crocodile, a fierce protector, who fights alongside Bast. Where Bast is the guardian of Re and those that request her aid, Sobek is the monster that protects the common folk. He is the son of Neith and Set, and he was given charge of the Nile to protect people from its dangers. Its fertile nature infected him, so he spent a lot of time just having sex with crocodiles. When the Netjer finally called him back, he had nearly lost himself, becoming very aggressive. He is still a shameless, wild and destructive creature, but his protective nature wins out in the end. Sobek always protects children, no matter who they are, and he guards the deep waters, where Re and Wasir fuse each night. He pulls the fish of chaos, who are spawn of Apep, out of the Underworld and devours them. He guards Heru, catching and returning that god's hands when they are cut off. He gives fertility blessings to those who ask, hoping that his effect on their children will make them better than their parents. Today, he rarely manifests except as a crocodile. If he does spend time as a human, he is a large, muscular black man, most often found in orphanages caring for the children or as a district attorney representing abused children. Sobek has more Scions than any other Netjer god, due to his extreme promiscuity. His children are vicious and passionate, like he is, and often end up as cops or criminals. He is a deeply invested parent and takes great care in providing for them. Sobek's Callings are Guardian, Hunter and Lover, and his Purviews are Beasts (Crocodile), Epic Stamina, Fertility, Passion (Lust) and Water. Djehuty is the God of Knowledge. He is also called A, A'an, Asten, Thoth, Hab, Kenti, Mehi or Sheps. He is the ibis-headed god, who knows all things, who cares for language, writing, math and ritual. He is also the moon god, spending his time in the night sky watching as people tell stories and pass on knowledge, or assisting in weighing hearts with Anpu. Djehuty is married to the primordial Ma'at, representing balance to her justice. He cares deeply about balance, getting involved in the various spats of the Netjer when one side gains unfair advantage over the other. He does have a sense of justice, and in balancing sides he sometimes takes one down rather than boosting the other. Many of the gods respect Djehuty and ask for his aid, but that doesn't mean they especially like him. Today, he appears most often in scientific and technological fields, keeping track of them. Sometimes he is a professor, a student, a computer expert on the bleeding edge, or the technical director for a magician. He is a short man with dusky brown skin and close, silky black hair. He always wears glasses, not out of need, but because he believes they make him look smarter. He is expert in practically every field, and if asked will spend far too much time chatting about his latest interest. Any request for advice needs patience, as he's liable to give out far more information than can be easily processed. Scions of Djehuty are subtle, and tend to obsess over some specific interest or topic. They can come off as nerdy, though they're expert at gathering and processing information, and they tend to be just as concerned as their father about balance. Djehuty's Callings are Guardian, Liminal and Sage, and his Purviews are Beasts (Baboon, Ibis), Deception, Health, Fortune, Moon and Order. Netjer Cosmology in the Overworld focuses on two Terra Incognitae - Nu and Pet. Nu is part of the Titanic, or perhaps Primordial ocean and is not safe to visit. The path between the World (or Duat) and Pet is difficult, arduous and requires climbing physical and metaphysical ladders. Few bother, save in times of need, such as when Aset went to ask for assistance in resurrecting Wesir, or Wesir went to give thanks. Nu is a vast and boundless ocean, feeding all the rivers of Heaven, the World and the Underworld, even creating the deepest part of Duat, the Sixth Hour of Night, where there is a pool of water in which Re is reborn each night. Nu is chaos, and its waters dissolve the damned souls that wash out of Duat. Pet, on the other hand, is a wide plain held by Shu in the center and by four pillars - the gods called the Heh - at the corners. It has four directions and four gates, on the horizons and zenith. The plain itself is an immense swamp through which the Sun Barque sails each day, and the east and west are solid banks. The only other solid ground is the Beaten Path of Stars, the Milky WAy. Pet is a place of passage - nothing dwells there, save for some of the stars. It is home to the eastern bank of Heaven, where the Field of Reeds and the Field of Offerings lay. The morning sun Re is born here from the lap of Nut, cleansed in Reeds, fed in Offerings and then sent off on his daily journey. The real home of most Netjer is in their Underworld, Duat, or the Duat. Many of the gods live there, Set defends it each evening, and others visit at certain times of day or year. It is split into the main body, Duat, and a paraise known as A'aru. The river Iteru runs through Duat, connecting it to the mortal realm via the sky. Re floats along this river each day, and through the Underworld each night. He is guarded by Bast and sometimes Djehuty, and sometimes Khnum is with him. A'aru is seperated from the rest of Duat by a bunch of gates leading from the Hall of Two Truths. The only souls which are not in Duat are those which weighed more than Ma'at's feather. These are fed to the crocodile-headed monster Ammut and are destroyed. Duat is divided into the 12 Hours, the time it takes the sun barque to make it through the place. Each night, these become a battleground against Apep. Wesir and Re merge, becoming one, and the sun is eventually reborn. The dead are judged nightly, and if a Scion of the Netjer dies, they must be rescued from the Underworld before their judgment in the Sixth Hour if they are to be resurrected. The Hall of Two Truths is home to Ma'at's scales, which are used to weigh the hearts of the dead. Wesir sits here, before the gates of A'aru, while Djehuty and Anpu serve to weigh the ibs of the dead. Anpu also lives her, but travels often, and Ma'at is said to be the scales herself. Mesektet is the name of Re's boat, the sun barque. It is here and along the Iteru's banks that many gods live. Hundreds of Netjer live on the boat besides Re, and each night it becomes a fortress to protect him. It is practically a floating city, and Re will occasionally grant the souls of chosen people, usually political leaders, access to it instead of A'aru. They live lavishly in return for doing odd jobs for Re, and have the ability to return to the World to visit loved ones, so the dead all value this prize. A'aru, the reed field, is where the souls who have led just lives and followed ma'at excellently spend eternity. The river feeds lush islands of earth and gentle sun, and the people live at ease, with no need or care. Het-Heru provides milk and meat for them, and Wesir gives them any luxuries they may need. This is a paradise, but reserved only for the worthy - even the gods cannot live here. Ma'at is Primordial Truth - she is Truth itself, expressed through her nature. She sometimes walks the banks of Pet, appeared and speaking to Netjer Scions about important things. When she manifests, it is as an androgynous person with brown skin and short black hair. She enjoys speaking in riddles and cloaking herself in mystery, but if presented with a real problem, she often gives up this facade. Other Primordials probably include the Ogdoad, eight gods worshipped by Egypt in ancient times. They represent the unknowable - day and night, sky and sun, the joy of action and the pull of inaction. They could not change with their worshippers, however, and were left behind. Sometimes, the Netjer come to them for aid or advice. Some of them embody things that would oppose ma'at, but each is intrinsically tied to its equal and opposite, which upholds ma'at, as well. This constant balance does make many Netjer pause and think twice about seeking or giving aid to the Ogdoad, but thankfully, they're mostly content to reside in the place beyond the world where they live. Next time: Kemeticism.
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Mar 26, 2018 20:28
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Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Deathwatch and Rites of Battle: Part 7 This isn't skills and talents! This isn't skills and talents at all! Right, so, looking at things I don't need to cover Chapter 4 or 5 at all because they're nearly completely copy-pasted from the original system, we know how the basic resolution system works, and I'm not going into enough detail to actually list out the new Talents. Instead we're going to hop on over to Rites of Battle and check out some other new character creation and advancement options; these and the Chapter Creation system are why I wanted to cover both books at once. First is a new First Founding Chapter, the Imperial Fists. The Imperial Fists are sullen folk who are mostly kind of boring and depressed. We get the usual stream of hyperbole about how they're the best at everything, but they've never shaken the shame of their Primarch, Rogal Dorn, being unable to reach his father in time to aid him during his duel with Horus. They had been the palace guard during the siege of Terra, and they consider the Emperor's wounds their fault. Dorn had also opposed Guilleman's Codex Astartes, arguing that the Legions should remain intact in order to continue the Crusade and try to put the Imperium back together. He lost that fight, then stumbled into another losing war against a traitor Primarch where he let himself be led into a massive trap that killed many, many Imperial Fists, because he couldn't believe that the master of constructing fortifications (the Demon Primarch Peturbo) might be able to build something he couldn't take. He was literally taunted into a stupid attack by his opponent saying 'Hey I bet your guys, known for their expertise at taking fortifications, can't beat my entire planet full of fortifications and traps'. One gets the impression Dorn was not a smart man. They claim victory for being 'willing to die for their cause' but the truth is they were so savaged that they had to be rescued by the Ultramarines, who then pointedly forced them to accept the new Codex system. Dorn then later randomly died in a boarding action while busily losing another war. As you might guess, the Imperial Fist hat is bad luck. They get a +10 to Willpower, they're good at attacking in sieges, and their demeanor as Sons of Dorn is about being dour, focused, and extremely stubborn. They try to portray their desire to fight on and refuse to admit defeat even when they are only bashing their heads against a brick wall as heroic rather than stupid, but...look at the above. When they lose, they tend to lose hard, because they hate admitting they lost. They also really enjoy wearing 'pain gloves' designed to inflict agony on themselves as penitents, and carving little memorials out of the bones of their dead comrades. They're, uh, kind of morbid. We also get rules for a bunch of successor chapters, who are mostly fairly bland, most of them just being 'base chapter but with a minor extra skill or talent and a minor drawback'. We also get a bit on 'joint operations', or how to bring Deathwatch PCs into the other games. The simple answer is 'don't.' Deathwatch has a very different focus than the other games in the line. The game suggests here that bringing in a female Inquisitor or a Canoness is a good way to solve the gender issue if you have a player who wants to play as a woman, but again: A Marine has a ton of intrinsic advantages in combat, and a primarily Deathwatch game is going to feature a ton of combat. It is a much simpler solution to just say 'gently caress GW' and do what you want. There are various adventure seeds explaining why Marines might show up in the other settings, or why the other settings might tag along with Marines, but the games are different enough that I wouldn't advise it. Not only that, but the games all have different subsystems that don't interact so well with each other; no character from another line interacts with Solo/Squad and Cohesion rules, for instance. It's better to just let the Marines have their story and let everyone else do their thing without the hulking posthumans coming in and exploding everything most of the time. They also have to address that Psy has fundamentally changed between games, and that no other game uses the old 'roll Xd10+WP Bonus+Bonuses vs. Casting Number' WHFRP2e-esque system. As if to further illustrate why all this isn't a good idea. Finally, we get to one of the important new add-ons: Deeds. You buy a Deed with beginning EXP, and you can only have one. This is something impressive or important that you did before you entered the Deathwatch, and some of them are chapter/character class locked. They tend to cost 100-500 EXP and they can alter your base stats, give you talents or equipment, all kinds of things. One of the most notable ones is for Dark Angels or Space Wolves: For 100 EXP, they can have fought in the ritual duel between units of Wolves and Angels. You roll a d5 to see how you did, ranging from a shameful display that only has penalties on a 1, to winning so handily that the rival chapter hates you now but you get Swift Attack (melee attack twice) on a 5, or to a draw that marked an auspicious time for both Chapters on a 3, giving you *+1 Fate*. You can also spend 300 EXP to just choose the result you want, if you aren't stupid. You can be an expert on defensive or offensive maneuvers, letting you use your Chapter Squad abilities for allies from other Chapters and reducing the costs of Squad actions. You can be a master duelist, a great hand-to-hand fighter, or even just come with your own expensive power sword or meltagun. They're all designed to be little hooks for your character that also give you a little, fun mechanical benefit and they're a fun extra option to have. In addition to Deeds, you also get Distinctions. These are meant to be earned in play, and represent big, crowning moments that grant the character special abilities. You have to earn the GM's permission to buy these super-talents, usually at the end of a significant campaign arc. These do things like letting you grant your rifle special rules it shouldn't have, or giving you massive social bonuses with the people of a world you saved, etc. Most cost about 500-1000 EXP. They tend to be quite powerful, like letting you use Intelligence in place of Agility or Strength if it's higher, or making your Marine go into hyper-mode and gain huge bonuses when near death. Like Deeds, they're another attempt to give you ways to mark out your power-armored behemoth from all the other power-armored behemoths. Finally, we get to Advanced Specialties. I alluded to this earlier, but you unlock an Advanced Specialty by just buying it for the listed EXP cost after you meet the requirements. Once you do, you gain the passive abilities of the Specialty and any wargear it comes with, and you also add its advance table to the advance tables you can buy from. This works a lot better than Replacement Ranks. The first Specialty is Black Shield. You are a black knight, from an unknown chapter (and possibly a redeemed Chaos Marine or something similar), and you can take this one at Rank 1 for free during character creation. Black Shields are driven warriors, given to take and volunteer for any task if it furthers the cause of their redemption, and they will never again leave their vigil with the Deathwatch. They lose their Chapter Solo Mode ability, but gain the ability to pick and choose which Chapters they have Squad abilities from. They replace their Chapter Advance Table with the Black Shield table. They also get extra bonuses on Fate Point usage; they can spend Fate to double movement and give +10% to hit for one turn, spend it to ignore a Critical injury for the rest of a fight, or spend it to automatically pass a WP test against a Psy power or other attempt to control them. They're a fun extra hook for a Marine. The Champion is an insane badass. You have to be Rank 4 or higher, have earned plenty of Renown (Renown is a subsystem that mostly limits what gear you can use, earned by success and glory), and need a 50+ Weapon Skill. They gain a buckler with a minor force-field save and a fine power sword on becoming a Champion, and it costs 4000 EXP. In return, if you get a Fury against an alien enemy, they have to roll a Toughness save or die instantly if they had remaining Wounds equal to or less than your maximum, that limiter basically making the ability mostly pointless. More useful, all your melee attacks against alien enemies gain Toxic (Toughness save or take d10 un-reducable wounds), and this works even if the alien is immune to toxins, since it represents telling blows and masterful strokes rather than poison. Their advance table also lets them learn nearly every melee talent, which is very useful if you weren't originally an Assault Marine, albeit at higher prices. They also gain the ability to use the Intimidate skill to draw fire directly to their position and away from allies. The Chaplain is a Marine who watches over a chapter cult. A Marine priest. We get a lot of hyperbole about how they're perfect officers and agents of zeal, despite (again) the fact that most Chapters will also quietly say they don't believe all this "Emperor as God" nonsense so they can stay cool and aloof. Chaplain is unavailable to Space Wolves, Librarians, or Techmarines and requires Rank 4+, 45+ Willpower, and 40+ Fellowship, plus 3000 EXP. They get a sanctified power stick for holding up dramatically and beating people to death. Also a skull hat and a force field generator. They make exceptional leaders for a squad and remove many of the possible cohesion penalties from fear and gunfire, and can spend fate to give their squad all kinds of bonuses. They also get access to a bunch of command, social, and historical skills. The one everyone's been waiting for: Dreadnought. If your PC has 60+ Renown and 0 Fate Points left, you can spend 5000 EXP to say the last fate-burn was you being dearly wounded and entombed in a giant walking funerary mecha. You gain access to a ton of combat talents relating to automatic weapons, flamethrowers, and smashing people with giant robot fists. Your new robot-shaped body is now capable of wielding the biggest flamethrowers, automatic weapons, and man-smashing fists. You have a lot of armor. You become forgetful and sad. You can no longer type or use Stealth. You are big, stompy, and probably angry about nearly being exploded. Also covered in purity seals, even more than usual. Epistolary is just an upgrade to a Librarian and is mostly unexciting. They just require you to be Rank 5+ and a Librarian, and for 2000 EXP you get a Psychic Hood (protects you from Perils) and you pierce aliens' WP saves more easily, plus you gain some new knowledge skills and a few anti-alien powers. There's nothing exciting about these guys. Forge Master is like Epistolary but for Techmarines, and being a Techpriest class, is equipped with godlike gear tinkering abilities. Rank 4+, Techmarine, and since it comes with a Servo Harness, Power Axe, and Artificer Armor (the Av 12 Armor Techmarines can buy at, uh, Rank 4 for 1000 EXP) it's pretty much a no-brainer. You gain the ability to add a positive special trait or remove a negative from one of your weapons or an ally's every mission, and you take no penalties when firing or using captured alien gear, which means a Forge Master can pick up a Tau Railgun and go to town on people. They also get Machinator Array *early* and there is absolutely no reason for any Techmarine not to slam the Forgemaster button as hard as they can once they hit Rank 4. I don't know where FFG's massive hard-on for the Mechanicus started but it's hilarious and in every game from Rogue Trader onward. A Deathwatch Keeper is a guardian of weird secret stuff on the Watch Fortress, with their own biometric key and a power halberd. They require Rank 5+, 40+ Fellowship, and 50+ Renown, plus 3000 EXP. They get +30 WP against attempts to read their minds, automatically succeed opposed Fellowship or WP tests with aliens by at least 1 DoS, and get better NPC reactions for being an officer. They also spend 1 Fate to automatically convince local forces to commit assistance, as a visible representative of the Deathwatch and their Chapter. They gain a bunch of knowledge and officer skills. The Kill-Marine is interesting. They're trained for diplomacy and solo operations, being covert advisors and assistants sent to monitor people like Rogue Traders or Inquisitors by offering them a Marine as a bodyguard or aide. They only require Rank 1 and 40+ Fellowship, and cannot be a Techmarine or Apothecary. Also only cost 1000 EXP. They can use Squad abilities while alone if need be, get a bunch of covert skills and diplomacy, and eventually build a web of good contacts and reputation that grant them persistent Fellowship bonuses. The Captain is exactly what you'd expect. They require the Command+20 skill specialization, Rank 5+, 60+ Renown, and 3000 EXP, plus must have 'distinguished themselves in play'. They get a chainsword (lol) and an Iron Halo forcefield (less lol). They get a bunch of abilities that they can swap mission to mission, ranging from extra supplies for the squad to instantly granting a ton of temporary Cohesion to letting the unit enter Squad Mode without spending actions multiple times per mission. They also gain the ability to use Strength in place of Fellowship if it's higher and to never take more than -20 total on Fellowship tests, plus tons of lore and Command talents. The First Company Veteran is just a very experienced soldier. They can be any class and just require Rank 4+ and 2000 EXP. They get abilities based on their experience, picking one per battle, like rerolling damage against a specific alien type, a pool of attack-roll rerolls, and the ability to once-per-session remove any penalties from a single test. They don't actually directly gain Terminator armor, but it's suggested this class should be able to access it often. When we get to Gear I'll explain why that isn't necessarily a good idea. Next Time: Oh boy, time for gear.
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Mar 26, 2018 21:03
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SenZar Freaks, Karma and Codes(Somehow we're still on chargen) So as mentioned, I skipped three classes last time because I was getting tired of scanning stuff, and also because those three classes are in a subchapter of their own, entitled FREAKS. This is because while the rest of the classes are, supposedly, balanced, and more or less run on the same systems, functioning more as starting setups than anything else, the Freaks are unabashedly overpowered. The Freaks also run on unusual subsystems of their own, technically any base class can eventually learn anything that any other base class can learn, even if it'd probably be prohibitively expensive in terms of training time, the Freaks have actual unique traits. SenZar posted:Even then, we strongly suggest that only the most skilled Players be allowed to take on the challenge of playing such warped lunatics. Shapeshifters are first up, and they more or less get to collect forms like pokemon. The only limit is that your Power score limits how weirdly you can shift, and you can only gank shapes from anyone with a Power score lower than your own. But since you steal their physical stats when you assume their form, just invest everything into your Power score and mental stats and laugh all day as you turn into dragons and houseplants. Also at their top tier they can turn into a sword the size of a moon and cut planets in half(literally, it states that the only real limit is "no turning into other Immortals" and "size must be less than Earth's moon"). This is less "Exalted Lunars" and more "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann." The Talisman, meanwhile, is more or less a magical null. With the ability to eventually either perfectly absorb or perfectly reflect any spell, drain power points from any item or living creature that has them, and more or less can spend his own soul to incinerate people in the most direct way imaginable. Not really as potentially abusable and hilarious as the Shapeshifter, but probably something you could use as a villain(NPC's are encouraged to be generated exactly like PC's). And lastly the Voidspawn, which are just big mountains of huge stats, more or less. Kind of disinteresting otherwise and really feel like they were made to be NPC's seeing as how once they become Immortals, the GM(or one of the setting ubergods, but really, the GM, you know it's the GM) gets to set them a mission that they cannot disobey, like, "kill other Immortals" or "become a really evil Immortal to balance out all of the good Immortals hanging around," etc. Karmas & Codes Anyway, with the Freaks out of the way, we get to Karma. Karma is.... uhhhhhhhh... at a glance it's a horrible attempt at making a better alignment system. Basically they're eight personality traits which start at 0, which is the best they can possibly be, but at chargen you can raise them, giving you a shittier personality, essentially, in exchange for more points to chargen with. Some things apparently make us roll against our karmas if they're not perfect(at zero), which make them sound like, ugh, Exalted's Virtues. Additionally, if one of our Karmas is bad enough, we get cursed with a "Manifestation," i.e. a mental illness based on it, more or less. The eight Karmas are Attitude(negative manifestations are Antisocial, Bad Attitude, Grim, Free Spirit, Liner, Smartass, Snob, Trickster), Confidence(Alpha Behavior, Beta Behavior, Megalomania, Overconfident), Discipline(Absentminded, Addiction, Bloodlust, Curious, Total Stupidity, Wanderlust), Fear(...Fear, that's the only possible manifestation. Which is supposed to more or less cover every possible Phobia), Greedy(Greedy, Hoard!!!, Lechery), Harmony(Bloodthirsty, Liar, Hatred, Nightmares, Insomnia), Luck(Bad Luck), Sanity(Depressive, Manic, Manic/Depressive, Klepto, Multiple Personalities, Obsessive/Compulsive, Paranoid, Pyromania). The game also lets you have multiple lovely karmas of the same kind, which can give you multiple Manifestations from the same category. Later, we can also buy off our poor personalities and mental illnesses with the same Fate Points we use to upgrade our character. For anyone who's ever played a White Wolf game, I think it's pretty obvious that this is leading to some sort of interesting way to break the game in half. Because these are roleplaying quirks, more or less, that we get character creation points for. Meaning that we can be a shouty, ill-mannered jackass(Alpha Behavior) in exchange for being able to blow people up with our brain better at chargen. Or what if we're Bloodthirsty, Curious and Greedy? Congratulations, we just made half of all PC's in existence, except we're being rewarded for it. A Grim character has the terrible disadvantage of being unable to laugh without rolling a save against his karma. Oh the humanity. Some of their definitions are a bit unusual to me, though, for instance, I had expected the "Lechery" flaw to be all about being a pervert. But instead it's actually pretty controlled and simply goes: "Characters with Lechery are totally self-indulgent pigs who won't think twice about how they look, or what people think about them, as long as they satisfy their baser appetites." I appreciate that as much as they're a bunch of goons who made a classic game design flaw, compounding by making it basically, "the GM tells you when you have to play your flaw, roll to save against being a dumbass," at least the SenZar guys aren't creeps. Codes work more or less like Karmas except in a more alignment-esque way. It compels you to act according to one of two "good" or two "evil" worldviews(or to invest in both good and both evil worldviews), with the primary danger being that beyond a certain point of devotion to it, you're marked as a public follower of that cause and those hostile to it might start to take pot shots at you. Our choices are The Cause(you want to kill evil, you want to kill it SUPER HARD, and if you break your oath, supergod himself, the Dragon, will ruin your day), The Good Earth(you're generically good and would like to keep things alive), The Anti-Life(everyone else must die or become your slave) or The Dark Earth("might makes right, also we worship a really bad dude called Cthon"). The Codes aren't very interesting, but if you were going to kill evil things and take their poo poo anyway, you might as well invest in The Cause or The Good Earth for more chargen points. Powers, Skills and The next subchapter is more or less just a list of what all the classes' various abilities can do, both special powers and plain skills. Mainly the interesting thing here is that for the highly expensive cost of a 10 in one of our Karmas(or Codes, or hell, we could just pay it our of our starting Fate Point pool), we can be immortal. Now, sure, it says we need GM permission for it, but come on, surely they wouldn't have put Immortality(or True Regeneration, as they call it, which lets us regenerate even if we're damaged below the point where we're dead, and it doesn't say there's a lower limit beyond which we can't regenerate), on the powers list if they didn't want us to buy it. After learning that we can take the first step to godhood even before we're halfway out of chargen, there's then the monumental skill list, which goes from Astrology to Wrestling. Interestingly enough, you're stuck with your starting class package at chargen. You can't actually pay Fate Points to learn out-of-class skills during chargen, or even during the game. In fact, the only way to learn new skills is to find a trainer and either convince him to train you, or to pay up to learn from someone, and then spend some time actually doing it(which can eat up to a quarter of a year, so it's not just an idle investment). Amusingly enough the default cost for learning the "Party On!" skill is how much the drinks will cost. I also have to give the creators props for not turning social rolls into mind control, and actually pointing out that just being sufficiently suave will not get people to abandon their sternly held beliefs at the drop of a hat. We're also learning the system piecemeal, chapter by chapter, I'll point out. Using your skills is just a straight roll against your stat, more or less, trying to beat a TN on a D20 that's (Stat-21) in almost all cases, but if it's actually related to a skill, you can re-train your skill up to five times, each time giving yourself a +1 to add to the roll(or to add to the stat when calculating the TN, whichever you prefer). After that, we get to become anime in the Martial Arts chapter, which stops one Destructo Disc short of being Dragon Ball Z. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it does let us punch people without being near them and move so fast we leave distracting, blurred afterimages of ourselves. Black Wyrm Martial Artists even get a sweet DEATH TOUCH ability where they more or less punch your soul in half so you die. Meanwhile, Shy'R martial artists get to dance their enemies to death, and also to have ridiculous ability names like "THE SWEET PAIN OF WARHAWK," which more or less translates to "do the Fist of the North Star Thing, except instead of exploding, the guy whose fragile nerve centers you just punched keels over and poops himself while crying." Which is at once way worse and much, much better. Also no I'm not making up the part where the guy you just punched to paralysis shits himself, that's literally in the book. I'm sure that something here, possibly everything, is ridiculous. But do you know why it's hard to point anything out? Besides the fact that "turn into a moon-sized sword and chop the planet in half" just kind of erased my sense of scale, there's also the fact that the game still hasn't introduced us to the combat system. So welcome to having no idea if an ability is a one-shot-death-punch or something that lets you mildly tickle a dude. So for now I'm just looking at what sounds goofy until we get to the Combat chapter. Probably we'll reach that next time, along with the deepest lore chapter.
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Mar 26, 2018 21:34
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Ah, roleplaying disadvantages for mechanical power, my old foe.
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Mar 26, 2018 21:40
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It's a bit late, but I love the description of Bast as the pantheon's (for lack of a better term) dogsbody.
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Mar 26, 2018 21:50
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Scion: Hero Desert Snake Monsters The primary Titanic foes of the Netjer are embodiments of things that are antithetical to ma'at. Sometimes they work together and sometimes not. Apep is a giant snake that spreads chaos. He tries to eat Re every night and is constantly fighting the gods in Duat, using whatever weapons he can. Some of the gods fear what would happen if Apep somehow got his hands on nukes, which contain Re's fire, and Apep and his cults are the focus of most of the pantheon's attention. They cause a lot of radicalized problems. Apep's Purview is Chaos. Isfet, on the other hand, is the embodiment of untruth, and therefore evil. She is the counterpart of Ma'at, working to destabilize culture and spread lies. Her cults work to suppress truth and harm journalism, and she is very happy to work with other pantheons in order to promote narratives that diminish the Netjer and their people. Her Purview is Deception. And then there's Aten. See, for a while, Egypt was monotheistic. Amenhotep IV took the name Akehenaten and decreed that all gods of the sun were a single expression of a single god: Aten. This...well, this was a Titan cult. Aten is a solipsist, refusing the divinity and legitimacy of all other gods and calling them pretenders, unworthy of worship. Aten appears as a powerful, bearded man shining with sunlight, and his light corrutps all it touches and fills men with zealous certainty. His cults borrow a lot from both Kemeticism and more modern monotheism, using white robes and dried cakes in their communions. They bind entire communities to the will of Aten when they can, filling the people with fear and anger and powerful guns. His Purview is Sun. Kemeticism is the religion of the Netjer, derived from Kemet, the ancient name of Egypt. Kemeticists worship the gods in total, but most place more importance on a life in accordance with ma'at than any individual god. The current faith is broken down into highly individualistic cults split among multiple cities, each following the gods whose Purviews match their needs. They do rituals and use magic granted by the gods, serving as loyal cult followers under orders from their city priests. Any Netjer can call on any cult, but using a cult not directly devoted to you is likely to end with miscommunication and problems. No matter what, however, each cult tries to follow ma'at and, as long as directions are given in those terms, they form a strong resource for the pantheon. Creatures of the Netjer include the Sha, the mythical creature made by Set to embody himself, which has the body of a dog, the head of a giraffe and the tail of a donkey. Then you've got the Spawn of Ammut. See, Ammut lives in the Hall of Two Truths and is a mix of crocodile, line and hippo. Her spawn are titanspawn, technically, but they are mostly domesticated as small pets for Scions, used to track sinful hearts. Spiritual Animals are also common - each Netjer is associated with a specific one, and the spiritual animals are the first and greatest of their kind, uplifted to serve their gods. Each shares some properties with their master. You can also get mummies as followers - animated corpses that populate both the World and Duat. Also Wadjet, rare beings that offer protection to Egypt and anyone else the Netjer asks. Their symbol is the stylized eye, known as the Eye of Heru or Eye of Ra. You can also get ghosts as a guide - well, technically ghosts. They're souls from Duat that are allowed out to be Anpu's messengers and guides to Scions. Also scarab beetles, who roll up the sun each night and let it out in the day. They're imbued with power and wisdom by Re. Relics of the Netjer include Amulets of Resurrection, made by Wesir, which can renimate corpses for a time, the Book of Going Forth by Day, which contains instructions on how to get to Duat and how to do a resurrection by breaking a soul out before it is judged, the Feather of Ma'at (or a replica, anyway), which contains a fragment of Ma'at's justice and soul, and the Sekhem Scepter, wielded by Wesir as a sign of his rule, which contains power and the vital essence of life. Of all pantheons, the Netjer are closest with the Theoi, who live in a similar region. Many Netjer followers and Theoi followers mingled, bringing them into contact early on. Not that they're all friendly - some are, like Djehuty and Hermes, but then you have Re, who is often jealous and angry at them...which means Wesir spends time with them whenever he can. The Theoi also have spent time in Pet and Duat after a brief exile from Olympus, which the Netjer never let them forget, especially once Egypt became a client of Rome. Things have mostly settled down the last few centuries, at least. The Netjer and Teotl also get along well, with many commonalities and appreciation of the sun, as well as hard work each day to keep the World going. Set and Loki have a friendly rivalry of sorts, which usually means unreasonable amounts of competition, but the Netjer otherwise have little contact with the Aesir. Everyone else is pretty neutral on them - the Netjer don't really make enemies. The great weakness of the Netjer is delegation. Pretty much everything important has, at some point, been attributed to one or another of them, to the point that about half of them have been named responsible for the sun at some time. They aren't especially good at leaving each other alone about this stuff, and their infighting gets really intense when they aren't busy with their Titans. This general lack of seperation of duties can get nasty, and more than a few gods have fallen from favor out of politics. Scions are often dragged into these conflicts by their parents, and that can be a problem when the conflicts are based on grudges thousands of years old based on ideals of justice no one even understands any more. The virtues of the Netjer are Balance and Justice. They believe that balance must be pursued in all things to live a just life. Ma'at often translates as truth or justice, and most Netjer focus on justice in some form, but whether that means vengeance or mercy is hard to say except case by case. Balance is meant to be order, harmony and so on. However, the world must function and proceed in a true way, because lying is the worst thing. Truth may not be literal, but it is the proper way to proceed and is evenhanded to all. Justice, on the other hand, is about repayment. Justice isn't just punishing wrong, but also appropriate consequences for all things. Justice can be a reward. Ma'at holds that you should live justly and do justice to the deserving, whatever that means. This can become an obsession, which makes you forget Balance. On the other hand, all things demand accounting. Focusing too much on balance and equality over fairness can allow injustice. The signature Purview of the Netjer is Heku. The Netjer care about the state of the soul over all else. The soul is made from many parts - the Ren, or name, the Ib, or heart, the Sheut, or shadow, the Ba, or personality, the Ka, or vital essence, and the Ha, which is all of them together. These make up the soul, intentions, personality, intelligence and life of a peerson. Heku draws on the magical energy contained in those, drawing it off the life and death of the people. Next time: The Orisha, who gave themselves up to help the people.
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Mar 26, 2018 22:14
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Also, I didn't have space to go into it enough in the actual post, but the reason 'Just make a Sister of Battle or Inquisitor!' doesn't work for Deathwatch is coming next chapter: On average, every Marine weapon deals +d10 damage compared to human ones. The enemies Marines are expected to fight, especially the Horde rules, are designed around getting enemies with the ability to blow through 10-8 AV and an average of 8 Toughness. Similarly, bosses have DR based around those hyper-powered Marine weapons. Even in the 'toned down' errata, for instance, a Marine bolter still deals d10+9 Pen5 base, compared to d10+5 Pen4 for a human one, while being full automatic and having a huge range of utility ammos that do everything from 'gives +3 pen' to 'blows through any Natural Armor, no questions asked, and Furies on a 9+'. And that's the basic rifle. A basic rifle that a human character explicitly cannot use. A Sister sent into combat with her Godwyn-pattern Bolter and Sister Power Armor and 3-4 TB is going to get blown away the first time she takes a serious hit, because all the serious hits are designed to hurt or one-shot Space Marines. And she won't be able to contribute against the enemy much, because all her gear is gimped next to the mighty Space Marines and their hyper-equipment. An Inquisitor using Psy will probably fare better, but they're still next to the Marine Librarian who is sitting here in his power armor with his magic sword and immense buffing abilities. In essence, it's saying 'if you really insist on playing as a woman, you can be a different archetype of space paladin except you'll be poo poo next to the real stars'. I give FFG a lot of slack on this because GW is incredibly protective of their darling Marines and god knows you can't change space nazi canon, but this is still a poo poo thing to have in an RPG published in 2010. E: Basically, I know there's jack all FFG could've done about it, especially with GW breathing down their necks on all the fluff in this game especially as is, it's just still annoying as hell. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Mar 26, 2018 |
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Mar 26, 2018 22:17
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