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Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!



JcDent posted:

You get one Boy Scout in and he immediately gets his Fractal Forest badge, I tell ya.
The Sepsis and Fractal Forest are extensively covered in the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook.

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PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!

oriongates posted:

I would actually say that Ito does a better job at pure cosmic horror than most of lovecraft's works, giving the impression of a universe that works in fundamentally broken or incomprehensible ways.

Too bad the recent Junji Ito Collection was such a disappointment.

I think they, somewhat reasonably, focused on the less weird Junji Ito stories since they're simpler to animate and get across. I think some of his weirdest stuff really only functions on paper, or in some other non-animated medium.

I guess you could call it a bit disappointing that they went for the easier stories, but the ones they did go for, I wasn't exactly disappointed by. One of them, with the girl who's sure her family's spying on her, was particularly great. I also dug the one with the cursed, hole-causing idol.

Terrible Opinions
Oct 18, 2013



I'm more disappointed that the animation and scene composition was very bad than the fact that they focused on normaller stuff.

oriongates
Mar 14, 2013

Validate Me!


Yeah, overall I quite liked the stories they chose and I even appreciate the existence of the show just because it showed me some stories I wasn't aware of. I even consider some of them quite creepy on concept alone.

But this is because the concept and story alone were interesting and neat, the production of the show was shoddy at best. Even assuming they'd never be able to match Ito's ability to take advantage of his medium, it could have been done much much better than it was.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso

Nessus posted:

Strangely enough in light of recent times, he didn't seem to have much beef with Latin Americans.
Well he didn't much care for Spaniards...

Robindaybird posted:

There is one Lovecraft story with implied rape, but that one is an outlier and lesser known ("The Curse of Yig"), but it's kind of just not a thing with Lovecraft.
I doubt that Lavinia Whateley's consented to bear the spawn of Yog-Sothoth, but the telling is about as far from pornography as you can get.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Halloween Jack posted:

Well he didn't much care for Spaniards...

I doubt that Lavinia Whateley's consented to bear the spawn of Yog-Sothoth, but the telling is about as far from pornography as you can get.

I mean for the Dunwich Horror you're as much getting into 'can someone super crazy really consent to anything' more than 'did this unwillingly'.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

oriongates posted:

Yeah, overall I quite liked the stories they chose and I even appreciate the existence of the show just because it showed me some stories I wasn't aware of. I even consider some of them quite creepy on concept alone.

But this is because the concept and story alone were interesting and neat, the production of the show was shoddy at best. Even assuming they'd never be able to match Ito's ability to take advantage of his medium, it could have been done much much better than it was.

Yeah, they literally used the same image of the ugly woman staring through the window, and misaligned layers so there's a close up of a doll - that's cut off at the chest with a few inches of an invisible gap between it and the bottom of the screen - someone had accidentally placed that doll too high and no one noticed it at all during production, it was just so lazily done.

On that note, someone told me how they managed a movie adaptation of "Colour from Out of Space" of all things: The movie is black and white, except for the color - which is purple.

LazyAngel
Mar 17, 2009

Spire part 5

The next three classes... and another nine to go.



Bound

“Rope, secure me. Armour, shield me. Blade, bleed them dry.”

The Bound are vigilante-acrobats, worshipping and aided by the small gods bound into their armour, their ropes and their weapon. Coming from Perch, hanging off the side of the Spire, they are often the only source of justice for the common folk of that precarious district.

In game terms, they get bonus Blood and Shadow, and Refresh stress whenever they bring a criminal to justice. Very much a sneaky batman/assassin type, their advances revolve around gaining favour with the multitude of small gods bound into their gear - leather armour, ceremonial ropes and mask, climbing gear and a god-knife or god-axe (the knife is concealable, the axe hits harder, both are quite hungry).

Advances
Core Once a session, a Bound can insert themselves into a given situation where they're not present, as long as there's the faintest possibility of them being there. They also have the aforementioned Bound blade, used to channel their class abilities.

Low Augment the abilites of your armour, rope and blade, and cause fear in your enemies, and hide in any crowd.


Medium Teach your blade to drink the Blood of your enemies. Swap places with an ally wearing a mask. Use your rope as an animate weapon.


High Wounding a mortal will kill them. You're hidden from light itself. You can walk on any solid surface is if it was horizontal ground.



Carrion Priest

“Charnel feasts tonight, brothers! As do we.”

Priests of a the Gnoll Hyena-god of Death, followers of Charnel are an alternative to the orthodox Morticians of the Spire, believing that to reach the afterlife bodies should be consumed by the sacred hyenas of their god.

They are hunters and necromancers, with a bonded hyena companion, which lets them get extra tags in combat depending on the orders it's given. They've got bonuses to Blood and Reputation (they may be weird death worshippers, but they're pretty useful), and refresh stress whenever they complete a hunt and take their prey.

Advances
Core The hyena I mentioned before. In addition, whenever they enter a dangerous situation, their player can name three features or opportunities that their allies can take advantage of.

Low Further train your hyena. Mark a target as prey for you and your allies. Summon a murder of crows as a distraction.


Medium Talk to and physically interact with ghosts. Remove stress through cannibalism. Santify your weapon to Charnel, spreading damage around your enemies. Turn into a (larger than normal) crow until sunrise, or someone speaks your full name within earshot.

High Mark a target and you can step out of the shadows near them whenever you want. Summon a literal murder of crows. Merge with your hyena as a divine monstrosity.



Firebrand

“They can’t take us all on. Not all of us. Tonight, we show them who’s really
in charge.”


Not just a Minister of Our Hidden Mistress, but a true revolutionary, wielding the torch, the crowd and the barricade in pursuit of an ideal, and willing to pay the price.

High Reputation, and some Shadow resistance, they Refresh whenever they take something back from an oppressor. They work the crowd, and their abilities revolve around sacrifice and being the underdog. They also end up nearly impossible to kill.

Advances
Core Get Mastery on all actions when you've got high Shadow stress. Once per session draw a crowd to you in a matter of minutes.

Low Rile up the crowd. Bluff your way situations through sheer charisma and bravado. Gain the favour of Limye, Our Glorious Lady (i.e. take an advance from the Lajhan, the priests of the moon).


Medium Cause a riot when you need one, and attract a cadre of revolutionaries. Shift blame, terrify enemies, have allies take fallout for you (willingly or not).

High Turn any improvised item into a (frankly terrifying) weapon. Take any stress to Mind instead. Survive as the idea of revolution, reforming a week or so later.


Next: the Idol, the Knight, the Lahjan

Freaking Crumbum
Apr 17, 2003

Too fuck to drunk


LazyAngel posted:

Spire part 5

Bound

“Rope, secure me. Armour, shield me. Blade, bleed them dry.”


oh my god i never knew i wanted to play drow batman before but this is completely what i want to do. thank you for reviewing this!

edit: my favorite is "insert yourself into any situation if you can justify it even slightly". totally batman dropping from the rafters to swoop up some goon before he can hurt his victim

Freaking Crumbum fucked around with this message at 21:31 on May 8, 2018

LazyAngel
Mar 17, 2009

Freaking Crumbum posted:

oh my god i never knew i wanted to play drow batman before but this is completely what i want to do. thank you for reviewing this!

edit: my favorite is "insert yourself into any situation if you can justify it even slightly". totally batman dropping from the rafters to swoop up some goon before he can hurt his victim

Thanks! Was beginning to wonder if I was boring people :-P

The Bound are one of the classes that really help build up the setting - the Perch is the home of the dispossessed who can't even find room for a home inside the Spire so have to cling to the outside. And the Bound protect them with an arsenal of small gods bound into their blades, rope and clothing.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

LazyAngel posted:

Thanks! Was beginning to wonder if I was boring people :-P

The Bound are one of the classes that really help build up the setting - the Perch is the home of the dispossessed who can't even find room for a home inside the Spire so have to cling to the outside. And the Bound protect them with an arsenal of small gods bound into their blades, rope and clothing.

I haven't particularly said anything on it but this setting is super cool seeming so please keep it up.

Leraika
Jun 14, 2015

Luckily, I *did* save your old avatar. Fucked around and found out indeed.
I really like the idea of a setting where a priest of a god of corpse-eating hyenas is a pretty popular guy.

Ratoslov
Feb 15, 2012

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

LazyAngel posted:

Firebrand

“They can’t take us all on. Not all of us. Tonight, we show them who’s really
in charge.”

:rock: :black101: :rock:

Play a Firebrand if you would like to be a prog rock album all the time.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

So when you say they can make any improvised weapon terrifying, will a sledgehammer do.

LazyAngel
Mar 17, 2009

Leraika posted:

I really like the idea of a setting where a priest of a god of corpse-eating hyenas is a pretty popular guy.

Well, they're quite simple - they find/make the corpses, and Charnel eats them. It's a public service really. Although the Guild of Morticians, who are legally responsible for the dead in Spire certainly think otherwise, the priests of Charnel are certainly quicker at disposing of bodies (the Morticians rely on cremation or air-burials, and birds don't work at the same rate as hyenas).

Tsilkani
Jul 28, 2013

Freaking Crumbum posted:

oh my god i never knew i wanted to play drow batman before but this is completely what i want to do. thank you for reviewing this!

edit: my favorite is "insert yourself into any situation if you can justify it even slightly". totally batman dropping from the rafters to swoop up some goon before he can hurt his victim

The only reason the Bound aren't my favorite character class is that the Knight, coming up next, is amazing. But the Bound are very close.

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


You gotta get rid of those bodies somewhere.

Joe Slowboat
Nov 9, 2016

Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements



Night10194 posted:

So when you say they can make any improvised weapon terrifying, will a sledgehammer do.

When you're Reg Shoe, every weapon is a sledehammer if (what you consider to be) the will of the people is behind it.

LongDarkNight
Oct 25, 2010

It's like watching the collapse of Western civilization in fast forward.
Oven Wrangler
Are priests of the Hyena god super forbidden in the Spire since the High elfs are at war with the Gnolls?

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!
Man, that last post sold me on the game. I might not get how it works mechanically, but I would like to play as any of those classes.

Of course you gain reputation for being able to turn spoiled meat into food, who wouldn't love you for that.

Yes, I'd like to be the physical embodiment of the Revolution.

LazyAngel
Mar 17, 2009

Night10194 posted:

So when you say they can make any improvised weapon terrifying, will a sledgehammer do.

Easily. Hell, a rubber mallet would work.

LongDarkNight posted:

Are priests of the Hyena god super forbidden in the Spire since the High elfs are at war with the Gnolls?

Not 'forbidden' per se, although Gnolls themselves are (but some Aelfir make exceptions - they are excellent gardeners after all).

Tsilkani posted:

The only reason the Bound aren't my favorite character class is that the Knight, coming up next, is amazing. But the Bound are very close.

The Knights of the North Docks very much personify the tone of the setting - grimy, violent, dark, but inherently rather funny.

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!
Just because it's not a full thunderhammer, doesn't mean that a sledgehammer isn't a scary weapon.

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

A sledgehammer is a useless weapon.

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!
Cultures: Pollen, pt. 3



Degenesis: Rebirth
Primal Punk
Chapter 2: Cultures


We start off today with two side sections: because if Pollen is short on illustrations, it's wealthy in side-sections.



What does this tree have to do with anything?

Spider Rain

It rains spiders in Pollen. Unlike Stukov Scorpions, these are just spiders infected with Sepsis that are super into spinning webs. Entire cities are encased in webs! The gossamer hides dangers like ravines and such.

Also, some of your players might have arachnophobia and you would end up never visiting Pollen.



See if this matches the description that follows.

Pandora

This goes with the illustration. The Pandora crater has ridges 600 meters tall and covered in spore fields. Milky water pours out of the crater into the plane and carries weird stuff: crabs (which Spitaliers have identified as trilobites) and weird fractal stars.

Eternal Oases

The first Fractal Forest sprung up about six years ago to the northwest of Wroclaw and killed a spore field dead. However, Pollners have legends of oases of the more regular kind: patches of normal, natural vegetation and fertile soil. Supposedly these are the secret to the wealth of Pollen – or rather in Pollen, I guess – and are well hidden. The Piast of Wroclaw apparently has three, because “how else could Wroclaw have survived the dark years this well?”

I dunno, if they can still harvest and grow potatoes, who needs the drat oases.

Influx

Two Hellvetic passages open up into Pollen, since Pollen also encompasses Austria and some Germany. The western tunnels open up near Steyr and the overland route follows the west border of Praha Respublika (RIP).

Wind bring sulfurous clouds from Reaper's Blow, so travelers have to be careful. The Hellvetics had build bunkers along the route for travelers to hide, but many of them are used for Burn storage by the Apocalyptics.

Influx posted:

Other bunkers stink of gendos.

No idea what that means.

The western road then bisects, with one route going to Osman, the other following Praha border to Dresden. That's where the Corroded/Chernobog gathered his hordes, so the city's a ghost town, quite literally. The streets are littered with bloated corpses, ghosts presumably appear at night and slaughter any clanners they meet, leaving bloody banners in the morning.

Explanations of the spooky poo poo in Dresden range from surviving Praha archivists to ghosts to marauders, but everyone agrees that the city is best crossed during the day. The next destination on the road is Wroclaw.

The eastern road starts at Ternitz and goes to Brno. And that's all the description of that route!

Silk

This side section says that the Przadkas ("Spinners" in Polish. German Degenesis wiki suggests that it's a clan) of Eastern Pollen collect the spider silk and prepare it for use. The Neolybians trade it for African rifles and spices, as they plan to make a killing in Tripoli, because silk is silk. Meanwhile, the armories of Wroclaw use it to make armor for Druschinnik, the Piast's guard. The armor is light, near untearable and easily defeats knives and arrows – the next best thing to Kevlar, I guess.



Dude is not chill at all

Brno

Brno section is annoying because there are trees in the background of the page and a huge branch goes through the first two paragraphs of text.

When the Corroded/Chernobog destroyed Praha, he only stayed in the city for a few days. In Podlipanske massacre, he singlehandedly wiped out a clan that questioned his leadership. Then, he moved into Brno.

The clanners made him a throne from weapons and bones of the enemy, a throne he never sat upon (Clanners aren't very bright). The locals pleaded him to spare the city. Many fled to Spilberg fortress to hide with Hellvetics and Spitalians.

When Chernobog finally decided to move, many of the Clans moved with him. Those left behind struggle to succeed him as rulers of Brno, with sharpshooters shooting those that try to climb his throne. Stragglers from Praha try to pawn off books and artifacts to Chroniclers and Apocalyptics. Spitalians try to hash out a deal with clan leaders, but those change often (must be all the throne-climbing).

Brno posted:

Hellvetics install gun locations in the city and secure the passage road.
They call punitive actions in the inner city “combing lice from the pelt”.

Fractal Now

This side section basically states that Chroniclers suspect the Forests to be a giant computer.

Wroclaw

Wroclaw is ten days away from Brno and it's the hub of civilization. Neolybians are here and their Surge Tanks are too – for hunting. A vignette describes them using the turret to blast a Biokinetick five kilometers away. Guess those central European plains are really plain!

Wroclaw is a Safari destination for the Africans.

Wroclaw posted:

Pheromancers in Franka are good, Dushani in the Balkhan are a challenge, but to slay a Biokinetic, a marksman must put the lead right between their bone plates. Then he reloads, fires round after round into the attacking beast until it falls in a fountain of dirt. Target practice with the Surge Tanks only serves to entertain the Scourgers for the city’s benefit.

By the way, I found these images of a Surge tank on Degenesis Facebook and decided to spare us all the suffering of not knowing what it looks like.





Apocalyptics are hired as beaters, Scrappers take tourists to sunken cities, clans sell goat meat and vegetables – as well as offering some strange, be it Burn, men or women.

The Piast rules Wroclaw. Some believe him to be 500 years old, and that he won't die until Wroclaw reaches its prior glory. Others claim that this is just a position inherited by anonymous scions of a ruling clan. Some say that it's just five ducks in a Winged Hussar outfit. The palace of the Piast has all the amenities one could want, and can house thousands that would never need to interact with the rest of the city. Only the Druschinnik guards see the Piast and carry his orders to the masses, much like a Polish version of Custodes (Kuzhtodiesh?).

But that's not the only mystery of Wroclaw. The city is prosperous, despite nothing growing outside of its walls (so much for my potato comment). It's separated into twelve districts by high walls and gates, and nobody – not even well-meaning Spitaliers – are allowed to leave the merchant quarter.

My guess is that the Piast is a GOG server who has gained sentience and Druschinnik are genetically enhanced descendants of CD Projekt Red that guard him :v:

Next time: gently caress Apocalyptics with a sledgehammer

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
Slap a few skulls on that Surge Tank and it looks like some huge, boxy WH40k monstrosity.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

The Lone Badger posted:

A sledgehammer is a useless weapon.

It's a good mix of being too hard to actually use to be effective and not something you want to get hit by.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

The Lone Badger posted:

A sledgehammer is a useless weapon.

Not with the revolutionary will of all of mars the people behind it!

Carados
Jan 28, 2009

We're a couple, when our bodies double.
I'd read a book set in Degenesis but reading a world book with no answers seems like the worst way to take in this setting.

kaynorr
Dec 31, 2003

Carados posted:

I'd read a book set in Degenesis but reading a world book with no answers seems like the worst way to take in this setting.

I fully understand that mechanically it's kind of poo poo, but I'm finding the write-ups to be extremely evocative emotionally. It's a repugnant place, heavy on the body horror with an extra side of Cronenburg - and that comes across very effectively. I don't know exactly what my PC would actually do in a game of DeGenesis, but I know the kinds of things I'm meant to feel and take away and that's not nothing.

And in terms of poo poo not being explained, I'm filing away similar to a lot of core books for Chroncles of Darkness - the explanation isn't the point so much as "this is the kind of Weird poo poo you should be encountering, feel free to use this exact Weird poo poo or come up with your own along these (literal) veins". Whether or not that approach works for you would be more of a subjective thing.

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!
I feel like "kill the Primer, burn the Apacalyptic, purge the Psychonaut" is a good starting point.

Joe Slowboat
Nov 9, 2016

Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements



kaynorr posted:

And in terms of poo poo not being explained, I'm filing away similar to a lot of core books for Chroncles of Darkness - the explanation isn't the point so much as "this is the kind of Weird poo poo you should be encountering, feel free to use this exact Weird poo poo or come up with your own along these (literal) veins". Whether or not that approach works for you would be more of a subjective thing.

I think the difference is that for the most part, Chronicles of Darkness games are tightly wound and highly playable; the Weird poo poo is carefully framed within a setting which is mysterious but very gameable. There's a framework of order there that makes it possible to get a sense for the setting not just aesthetically but structurally. Of course, it helps that the Chronicles games take place in the background of a world like ours. That gives us a lot of useful orientation right off the bat.

AmiYumi
Oct 10, 2005

I FORGOT TO HAIL KING TORG
So wait, what era of technological advancement is this game setting?

kaynorr
Dec 31, 2003

Joe Slowboat posted:

I think the difference is that for the most part, Chronicles of Darkness games are tightly wound and highly playable; the Weird poo poo is carefully framed within a setting which is mysterious but very gameable. There's a framework of order there that makes it possible to get a sense for the setting not just aesthetically but structurally. Of course, it helps that the Chronicles games take place in the background of a world like ours. That gives us a lot of useful orientation right off the bat.

Very true - "our world except for X" does a lot of heavy lifting in CoD and things like it. Post-apocalyptic as a genre is pretty established where I think there is some truth to

JcDent posted:

I feel like "kill the Primer, burn the Apacalyptic, purge the Psychonaut" is a good starting point.

probably works as structural basis. "You are the most competent people in settlement X, try to keep it from burning down and falling into the sentient swamp" is probably the simplest post-apocalyptic frame that isn't just going full murderhobo. I like the Weird For Weird's Sake thing that DeGenesis has going for it, but I can see how it makes it difficult to latch on to. How do settlements even function with ten different biohazards trying to kill you on a daily basis? How does trade, or medicine, or anything hang together in any realistic or meaningful way.

My answer for this particular game is I Don't Give A gently caress, I'm here for the weird armadillowasps and the reptoid murdertoddlers. But that might not be for everone.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
For a weird post-apoc setting with weird biotech and such, I think I prefer Fragged Kingdom. But I understand that will be too much in the Dying Earth D&D mold for many people.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Black Crusade

Nurgle is, unfortunately, poo poo

Let's talk Nurgle a little before we get to the classes.

Nurgle is going to suffer in these games for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one has to do with his gifts, the opposed Alignment system, and a little thing hidden in the section on Infamy. Remember, you get the tens digit of your Infamy stat as Fate Points (confusingly called Infamy Points, though you aren't actually spending permanent Infamy when you use one) in this game. They also decided it would be flavorful to have the various Gods alter what you can do with Infamy. For instance, a Khornate can spend Infamy to automatically get a low-success hit on an attack (1 DoS), but recovers fewer HP when spending Infamy to regain HP. Nurglites regain max HP when spending Infamy to heal, but they cannot spend Infamy to reroll tests. Yes, that's right, the absolute CORE MECHANIC of Fate Points is denied to Nurglites.

Let's also talk another problem for Nurglites: Sound Constitution is reasonably priced for them at 200 EXP a wound, about on par with Dark Heresy 1e. This sounds good, right? Naw, you can only buy Wounds equal to your Toughness Bonus. Ever. Yes, your TB will increase as a Nurglite (You get a Good Toughness Advance, after all). This is going to especially gently caress over Human Nurglites. A Human Khornate can get by on all the crazy skill stuff humans do, but a Nurglite Human is going to have a much harder time hitting the level of durability necessary to make tanking actual matter in this game (until they're hit with a couple heavy weapons anyway) unless they play a Techpriest. Nurgle's gifts give 'massive' bonuses like making you Size 6 (Enormous, +20 to hit you) and unable to Run (so you can't move hardly at all in combat; 2xAgility Bonus movement is not going to help you much in a game with 400m weapon ranges) in return for a whole 5 Wounds. His other gifts can give you a total of +3 Unnatural Toughness and let you ignore critical effects that don't outright blow off a limb, but again, those would more way more helpful on a Marine who already started with Unnatural T 4 and who can now buy an appreciable number of Sound Cons. Alternately, Nurglites want to be friends with a Slaaneshi Flesh Crafter because everyone does because that Fleshmoulding rite is that brokenly powerful.

So yeah, Nurglites are meant to be massive meatwalls and buff tanks, in a game where dodge-tanking is usually king.

Strangely, Nurgle gets 3 character specials per PC race. Somehow Nurgle has more special classes than the others.

We start off with the Plague Marine. I'm sure everyone expected the Plague Marine, and they're exactly what you expected: A gross sack of poo poo stuffed into a suit of decaying power armor that gets -10 Agility (Unique in getting a penalty, and to one of the best stats in the game), +10 Toughness, +5 Willpower, and 18+d5 Wounds. They know how to use awful toxic knives and they're very good with their bolters, and they're good at scaring people. Their specials are simple: They're completely immune to all drugs, toxins, and diseases unless they choose to be affected. Instead of trying to Dodge or Parry, they can make a Toughness test at -10 to reduce incoming damage by their DoS, gaining a Fear rating if this causes the attack to cause no damage; this is extremely situational. In most cases, the only reason to use this ability is if you know you're likely to take 0 damage even if you gently caress up; the boost in damage mitigation won't stop 'serious' weapons. They can also expose their horrible toxic miasma to the world for an Infamy point, causing an aura of plague that does d10 Damage with no armor reduction (unless the armor is sealed) and Toxic (So if anyone is wounded by it they have to make a Toughness test or take d10 more damage) for d5+1 rounds that hits anyone within 10m. Friend or foe. So, you get a mostly not that useful tanking ability that still requires a difficult stat test you can't boost with skills, an actually useful Toxin immunity, and something likely to kill your partymates. Sounds like a fun class.

The Veteran of the Long War has nothing to do with Nurgle and is basically just an improved Chosen in every way. This is a Marine who fought in the Horus Heresy. Due to a mixture of warp-time fuckery and the gifts of Chaos, they're still around and still doing their thing. They get +5 WS or BS, +5 Willpower, and 15+d5 Wounds. They generally have an enormous number of Lore skills because they've been around, they come with a rep (Peer with some of the other forces of Chaos), and are generally pretty skilled soldiers. You don't kill people for 10,000 years without getting decent at it. They get to pick what Alignment they hold when they begin the game, then pick a special ability from any one other Chaos Marine class that matches that alignment. So they could take any of the core Marine ones, or if Unaligned, any of the Unaligned abilities (So you could have, say, the Alpha Legion tricky Marine power, or technically pick up the Sorcerer's Psyker ability, etc). Secondly, whenever they kill an enemy they have a Hatred talent for, they make an Infamy+10 roll. If they succeed, they gain Fear (2) against that kind of enemy and +1 Damage against that kind of enemy for the rest of the fight. This is actually a really powerful class, in that it's kind of 'choose your own, but also get some nice veteran abilities on top'.

Warpsmiths are a fusion of two powerful forces: The FFG Techpriest and the Space Marine. That's their selling point: You're a Chaos TechMarine. Remember how crazy TechMarines were before? Now take away the old Career system and let them buy whatevs when they want to. They get +5 Int, +5 WP, and 15+d5 Wounds. They are, as you imagine, good with technical skills and making and repairing weaponry. They also know how to use Mechadendrites (extra cybernetic tentacle limbs) and get 2 Good Craftsmanship cybernetics to start, like most Techpriests. They also get tremendous bonuses when building giant robots to power with hell demons, because that's a thing Chaos Techpriests do regularly. They make any robitic minions more loyal. And they can curse other peoples' technological devices. Honestly they didn't need a single Special Ability; 'You are a Techpriest but Also A Space Marine' is already going to be one of the most powerful classes possible in the same way 'You are a Techpriest but ALSO a Psyker' was in the Tzeentch stuff. They're Unaligned.

The Writhing World Sorcerer King is our first human, and you can tell they're's going to be good because they got King right in the name. They come from a horrible body-horror meat planet ruled by mighty Biomancer kings. They get +5 to Toughness, Intelligence, and Willpower, and 8+d5 Wounds. They start out aligned to Nurgle, and as Psy 3 Psykers who get a bonus of Nurglite and Biomancy powers to start off. They're reasonably good at kinging and sorcery, which makes sense for a sorcerer-king, and they get +1 Psy Rating when invoking Nurglite powers, which is quite handy. They can also summon their own hideous worm parasites out of their body into a minion swarm that kills people for them with a Willpower-10 Test and a Full Action. Other than that, they're kind of dull. They're just your standard wizard who is a little better at poo poo magic than other magic.

The Death Priest of Mire is a crazy berserker with a giant scythe who eats people. They need to eat other peoples' flesh in order to feed the many horrible parasites they've acquired and again: Nurgle not sounding like the best deal at the moment. They get +5 Strength, +5 Perception OR Weapon Skill, and +5 Toughness and 12+d5 Wounds, so they're good on building towards a melee powerhouse. They're good at stealth and dodging and parrying and surviving in a hell-realm, and they're also really, really good at Melee talents right off the bat. Their special abilities revolve around poisoning their weapons with a Survival+10 test and a full action, making their weapon either eat off enemy armor with Corrosive, do extra HP damage with Toxic, or cause Toughness damage with Irradiated. They may also spend a full round to eat a dead body and gain Unnatural Toughness (+d5) until the end of the current encounter. And any time they take a melee hit, they can spend an Infamy point to make their blood so vile it eats through and destroys the enemy's weapon. They're gross, but the Death Priest is kind of a badass who will put in some good work as a melee hero. They are obviously aligned to Nurgle.

The Plaguemeister is an evil biowarfare scientist. They represent Nurgle's mortal tallymen, the evil forces that love to catalogue how awful all of these various diseases get. Plaguemeisters are, surprisingly, amazing medics who get +10 Intelligence, +5 Toughness, and 10+d5 Wounds. They are excellent at Medicae and knowledge skills, and talented in a mishmash of tech affairs and melee. For specials, they get a total immunity to any Nurglite creatures' or daemons' fear ratings and an encyclopedic knowledge of plagues and lore related to their god. They can also choose to heal allies by +Int Bonus when using Medicae for an Infamy point, as well as instantly curing any Critical Effects. If they do, the target rolls Toughness. If they fail, they suffer a 'gift' of Nurgle ranging from harmless poxes to diseases to possession by a Nurglite demon to a permanent +d5-3 (min 0) Toughness to making them hyper-toxic for a few hours. I'm not sure why you'd want a Nurglite for your team doctor, but if you do, there they are. I suppose it's better than leaving it to the Slaaneshi?

So yes, those are all the classes at last. As you can see, the add-on book classes are simply more powerful than the base book ones, intended to be 'advanced' starts but with no real way to make up for the additional base stats and unique special abilities they get. The base classes are already crazy; then you introduce the dual-class Techpriests, the Flesh-Shaper, the crazy cannibal priest, and the trick-marines and go wild. Black Crusade is not a game for 'low power' adventures.

Next Time: The Armory of the Damned, since Skills and Talents are mostly already covered

LazyAngel
Mar 17, 2009

AmiYumi posted:

So wait, what era of technological advancement is this game setting?

Generally mid-Victorian; steam trains and industrial factories are the norm. Gnolls are more magic-based - making heavy use of bound demons - as are the Aelfir, with a bit of a high tech flavour. Humans are the engineers of the setting, although they tend to concentrate on steam, they churn out quite advanced weapons for example - think early 20th century.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
Reminds me of Bloodshadows, which is kinda steampunk, kinda 1950s, but mostly 1920s. And it's only possible through magic, because there's no government beyond the city-state.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib

LazyAngel posted:

Not 'forbidden' per se, although Gnolls themselves are (but some Aelfir make exceptions - they are excellent gardeners after all).

Gotta love a grassy gnoll.

LazyAngel
Mar 17, 2009

JackMann posted:

Gotta love a grassy gnoll.

In fact, to quote a later section of the book (as I don't have time to finish my next update until the morning);

"It is not uncommon to see a gnoll or two tending
to a spiral garden – in spite of the ongoing war
with their nation to the south. Gnolls possess a staggering
affinity for agriculture and cultivation of unusual
plants which has allowed them to survive, and
indeed prosper, in the harsh desert of their home.
The aelfir make exceptions to the laws against gnolls
in the hive for those of special skill, and have gone
to great lengths to ensure that they can snap up the
services of a particularly adept gardener – including,
but not limited to: murder, industrial espionage, border
skirmishes, running for Council, and commissioning
opera."

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Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
Grant is an amazingly funny writer. His Goblin Quest (which includes Sean Bean Quest among others) is a hysterical read.

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