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In 3rd and 4th you're hardly an Artificer without your own lovingly customised crossbow, though.
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Aug 8, 2018 14:35
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At one point I developed an irrational hatred of hand crossbows because my friends all saw Equilibrium and one of them just had to do Gunkata in every fantasy game. Welp, that's my story.
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Aug 8, 2018 15:06
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PurpleXVI posted:I think that polearm table is just straight copied from 2e AD&D. I was under the impression that For Gold & Glory was intended to be a straight clone of 2e.
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Aug 8, 2018 15:35
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7th Sea 2: The Crescent Empire - Vacation Town Kadifekale was originally founded long ago as a fortress-city by a Vaticine Castillian fanatic named Don Guillermo de Terciopelo, but it was quickly overrun by the Sultan's forces at the time, converted into a town to be used to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. Today, it is one of the most beloved cities of Anatol Ayh. It overlooks an inlet of the Numanari Approach and is the center of Anatoli cultural efforts. The land's beauty seems to call forth poetry, its warm seas, deep forests and high mountains all easily accessible from the city. It is surrounded by fertile land, irrigated by a lazy and prosperous river, leaving the locals in no economic worry and free to pursue their passions. After the sack of the fortress, the Anatoli forces discovered Numanari urban ruins and rebuilt the modern city according to the plan of its Numanari predecessor. At the city heart is the agora, an ancient market and administrative center, which is still used for both functions. Several Numanari buildings have been restored, and Numanari architectural elements are widespread. The cultural elite live in the outskirts of the city, scattered around the foothills of the east - close enough to the city to have an artistic community, yet far enough away to work in solitude. The House of Learning is the result of an ancient Numanari library uncovered by Terciopelo during his construction of his fortress. The texts within were preserved by the cool, dry air of the mountains, and among the works were histories of the Katabic kingdoms, the Persic shahs and a number of Numanari texts on cosmology and math. When Sultan Hamid II took the city, he ordered the construction of a madrassa, a school, now known as the House of Learning, in which to house the various texts, most of which have now been translated into Katabic. The library is easily one of the most complete guides to pre-Crescent history in the nation, and have proven a vital tool for those who search for ancient Katabic ruins. The Pool of Sorrow, according to Numanari legend, is the prison of an ancient Numanari king for deceiving the gods. The pool is deep and black, and a nearby rock formation resembles a recumbent woman's figure, said to be his daughter. A spring bubbles up from the 'head' and feeds the lake. Folklore claims that any who swim in the dark waters will become trapped by impossible desires, growing withdrawn and eventually starving to death. City authorities put no real stock in the legend, but every summer a few folks do go missing after taking a dip in the pool to escape the heat. Batik Sehir, the Sunken City, has existed for a long time. Historically, war was common in Anatol Ayh, and Batik Sehir was always there to take in refugees. The earliest written records of the nation mention its ruins, and the upper levels contain graffiti and carvings of the names of people who sought refuge within, exotic names such as Naram-Sin the Defeated or Esarhaddon the Blighted. Those that visit the ruins today are more likely to find a fugitive from Istani's soldiers or unconventional schismatics from Ashur. Outside of times of war, most avoid the ruins, beliving them cursed with bad luck. No one is sure quite how far the ruins extend. The Magaralar are accessible via single entrance built into a ridge, and are clearly human-made. They are windowless caves with small hearths, well-ventilated by shafts sunk from the surface. Cisterns are dug into low-lying parts of the ridge, channeling rainwater into culverts in the floor to provide a kind of running water. Refugees quickly found that waste dropped in the strange metal shafts in the floor quickly vanished entirely, so plumbing was no issue. More puzzling are the metallic statues of strange, fantastic beasts found in the caves. They are known as Canavarlar, and they seem to be multifarous hybrids of human and beast. Winged oxen with human heads, horned snakes with many hands, scorpions with the upper bodies of men and women. No one knows why, and the figures appear to move around the caves at random, occasionally speaking phrases in lost tongues which sound something like religious invocations. On the rare occasion that overcrowding drives people further into Batik Sehir than the upper levels, they descend into the Hapishane. They usually report hearing a strange noise, just on the edge of hearing, that disappears if concentrated on. The architecture becomes more alien, less human, with more angles and fewer curves. Chambers in this area are unbricked and have no hearths, and the rock is unmarked by sledge or chisel. A few go even deeper, making wild claims of tunnels that connect Batik Sehir to settlements miles away, or of strange machinery made of unknown metals, or of flickering lights in deep chasms. They speak of monstrous beasts that defy description, imprisoned deep in the Hapishane. However, these accounts are typically dismissed as nothing but hearsay, for those who go so deep are typically shunned even by friends and family, as they are seen as touched by evil luck. The last pilgrim known to have gone so deep, Muharrem ibn Evrad, left a single poem behind before committing suicide: 'T'was too deep to go; fleeing evil above, I found evil below.' Current Relations posted:Ashur: Since granting Ashur's independence in the aftermath of the Fetret Devri, Anatol Ayh has viewed the breakaway province with frustration and scorn. Possessed of natural wealth, and between the unruly populace and an unknown number of religiously motivated murderers, Ashur is costly to conquer and difficult to rule. Nevertheless, some within the sultana's court believe it would have been better if Aisha's decree had never been spoken. And last, people! Ibrahim ibn Hayreddin is captain of the privateer ship Turgut, and a highly modern leader. He believes the Empire must embrace the best of all of the world, and after years of study, he speaks every Thean language and makes a big point of treating captives he takes kindly even as he presses them for details on tactics, scientific innovations and works of cultural importance. Once his curiosity is satisfied, he sets these captives free a few days out from a friendly port, with enough food and water to get there. His crew is extremely diverse and fiercely loyal to him, and he is loyal to them. He may have the largest assemblage of people of different nations on his crew of any ship in the world, and he believes that the Turgut is a microcosm of what the Empire could be if it were to truly dedicate itself to reform. He hopes his military successes inspire others to follow his example. Safiye, Sultan of Anatol Ayh and Padishah of the Crescent Empire, bears a huge burden. She left the empire as a young woman to see the world, visting every Thean nation and learning what she could from their customs. She enjoyed Theah and was content, and when she heard Istani had taken the throne, she was happy to stay away and let him have it, to spare him the horror of having to kill her; she remembered her brother as a kind young boy. However, as she traveled, she heard worrying tales of her brother's new laws, which went against the peaceful teachings of Dinist scripture. She refused to believe these rumors until, one day, a band of brigands attempted to assassinate her, sent by her brother. She returned home, meeting up with her best friend, Princess Batya of Sarmion, and together with her and a squad of elite Chavra, Safiye took over the empire. After three years of rule, she still feels torn between her responsibilities - ruling well, overseeing the reforms, leading her family and being the supreme eminence of al-Din. She wants to turn the Empire into a place that can benefit from all faiths and all peoples. She suspects her Grand Vizier knows the location of her brother, but hasn't got any proof so she can't act against him yet. Ezgi kizi Mehmet, Sultana of Scholars, Padishah of Poets, is a middle-aged woman who is renowned for her mastery of the poetic word. She is welcome wherever she goes, and she travels the length and breadth of the empire, speaking poems about the woes of the world and the desire for spiritual perfection. She is a yol budan kisi of poetry as a path to al-Musawwir, and she lives an ascetic lifestyle, with many devotees drawn both to her poetry and her mysticism. Besides being an immensely skilled poet, however, she is also a spy for the Shah of Persis. Her qasa'id couplets often highlight the fallibility of Anatoli leaders and the inability of any one person to fully devote themselves both to temporal and spiritual issues. Because Ezgi is welcome in any home, she is able to gather vast amounts of information for the Shah and has won the allegiance of many malcontents. She is Strength 7, Influence 7. Davud ibn Ihsan, Bolukbasi of the 1st Company of the Janissary Corps, is a paragon of the Way of Anatol Ayh. He is the son of a prominent qadi, studied Dinist theology and law under his father, is fluent in all regional languages of the empire, and can also speak several Ifrian and Thean ones. He rose meteorically through the Janissary ranks, fueled by his potent intellect, and he now holds the most prestigious field command of the corps, often assigned to handle intractable problems. Davud is fanatically loyal to the Empire, for it has given him all he could ever ask for...and therefore he will do anything to preserve it. He uses his impeccable manners and knowledge of the law, theology and customs of the Empire to justify any action he wants to take, regardless of morality. He values the continued strength of the Empire and its stability over anything else, followed by his own pleasure and enrichment. He will remove any threat to either with no regard for procedural or ethical issues, and under Istani, he butchered thousands without any concerns. He is Strength 10, Influence 5. Next time: Ashur
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Aug 8, 2018 15:57
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Halloween Jack posted:At one point I developed an irrational hatred of hand crossbows because my friends all saw Equilibrium and one of them just had to do Gunkata in every fantasy game. Welp, that's my story. sounds like your friend owns
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Aug 8, 2018 16:01
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Serf posted:sounds like your friend owns It was one of those things that was the dual-scimitars of the 00s, I think.
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Aug 8, 2018 16:03
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The Deleter posted:Randomly generated cat names might be the best part of all of those scenarios honestly. I'll kill for Barnaby Cuddles. Well, here you go, then. Roll on each: First name: Dorothy, J Johnny, Mittens, Precious, Barnaby. Second name: Buttons, Cuddles, Mittens, Tubbsman Esq, Fuzzy-Fuzz. Atmospheric!
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Aug 8, 2018 16:03
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A drat short list for rolling catte names and the second names aren't fancy enough.
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Aug 8, 2018 16:20
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Crossbows and how warrior archetypes are treated have become my two litmus tests for fantasy games. If crossbows suck for no reason and being a fighter boils down to "roll to hit, roll damage, wait for your turn to come back around while magic is resolved" then I know the game was built on some goofy principles.
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Aug 8, 2018 16:21
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Are you really complaining about a goofy cat name table?
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Aug 8, 2018 16:21
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The only problem is those lists are as half as long as they should be. 
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Aug 8, 2018 16:25
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Crossbows are better than Bows in that they can hit through plate (this is why Nobles hate them) and don't require much training, but in turn they're slower to use and don't have the long bow's range. They're ranged weapons with different uses in battle and different targets.
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Aug 8, 2018 16:28
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Robindaybird posted:Crossbows are better than Bows in that they can hit through plate (this is why Nobles hate them) and don't require much training, but in turn they're slower to use and don't have the long bow's range. Long bows are far more common in fantasy games than they were in reality. The trees that you need to make good long bows from were considered a vital and limited strategic resource in medieval England.
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Aug 8, 2018 16:57
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I asked in the Ancient History thread why Romans weren't so hot on archery, and was carried away by a tidal wave of information on how hard it is to develop, manufacture, care for, and actually use a good laminated bow.
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Aug 8, 2018 17:07
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Robindaybird posted:Crossbows are better than Bows in that they can hit through plate (this is why Nobles hate them) and don't require much training, but in turn they're slower to use and don't have the long bows range. The kind of crossbows that you see in DnD are infact not the kind capable of piercing in plate. They tend to be weaker hand crossbows that can be easily reloaded in hand, not 500+ draw weight monstrosities that require complicated methods to draw the cord back involving gearboxes and other things. What I'm saying is give me a loving crossbow my superhumanely strong dude can draw back unaided and impale a dude for massive damage.
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Aug 8, 2018 17:14
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I think 4e and possibly some 3e supplements had heavy crossbows of some description, as superior/exotic weapons. As well as repeater crossbows.
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Aug 8, 2018 17:15
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ChaseSP posted:The kind of crossbows that you see in DnD are infact not the kind capable of piercing in plate. They tend to be weaker hand crossbows that can be easily reloaded in hand, not 500+ draw weight monstrosities that require complicated methods to draw the cord back involving gearboxes and other things. "To reload the windlass crossbow, you must roll a combined 40 strength check. Multiple rolls over multiple actions are cumulative. For example, if the player rolls 10 on their first check, and 14 on their second, they only need to roll a 16 to complete the reloading procedure on their third action. Using the included windlass pulley reduces the combined check to 20, but you must spend an action to affix the pulley before it may be used."
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Aug 8, 2018 17:33
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ChaseSP posted:The kind of crossbows that you see in DnD are infact not the kind capable of piercing in plate. They tend to be weaker hand crossbows that can be easily reloaded in hand, not 500+ draw weight monstrosities that require complicated methods to draw the cord back involving gearboxes and other things. In 2E and 3/.5E, that's supposed to be the difference between the light crossbow and heavy crossbow - the heavy crossbow is supposed to have some kind of crank or other system to help you reload. In 3.5E, the system I'm most familiar with, you can reload and shoot a light crossbow every round for 1d8 damage, same as a longsword or battle axe or most other standard weapons, the same as a longbow, and more than a shortbow - the catch being that you sacrifice being able to move or do other things in a round besides attacking if you want to reload. The 3.5E light crossbow is also uniquely considered a Simple weapon, so in 3.5E it's the signature weapon of low-level clerics, wizards, rogues, and other sorts who want a ranged weapon. The heavy crossbow on the other hand deals 1d10 damage, same as a halberd (but less than a greatsword) and better than a longbow (1d8), but it takes you out of action for a full round to reload. Light crossbows in 3.5E are pretty common backup weapons for adventurers. Anyone can use one, they're cheap, and they do good damage. The heavy crossbow, though, is virtually unheard of in PC hands because firing a 1d10 damage shot (that might miss) every other round and takes an entire round to reload is never worth it. The repeating crossbows require you to spend a feat to learn to use (either one, learned individually) and both have a magazine of five bolts. Reloading shots is a free action, but reloading the magazine is a full-round action. They're about as rarely seen as the regular heavy crossbow, because you have to spend a feat for what's a rather marginal benefit in practice. The crossbows just get worse when compared to regular bows once composite bows in the hands of someone with 14 or better strength enters the picture. In the hands of someone with 14 strength, a shortbow deals as much damage as a light crossbow, and a longbow as much as a heavy. Someone stronger than that, the regular bows straight up do more damage than crossbows because crossbows can never benefit from the user's strength score. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Aug 8, 2018 |
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Aug 8, 2018 17:49
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I know this is isn't the theorycrafting thread, but is there a good basic approach to including bows, crossbows, and guns in the same D&D(alike) game and keeping them balanced? I'm toying with the idea of reviving my old homebrew campaign setting and including guns, but the idea is that decent guns for a sharpshooter (i.e. PC) would only be rare, advanced handcrafted items. I haven't taken a thorough look at how Shadow of the Demon Lord does it yet...Cythereal posted:you have to spend a feat for what's a rather marginal benefit in practice
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Aug 8, 2018 17:56
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Part of the problem with it all is that doing d10 instead of d8 damage is pretty negligible in a system where most of your damage ends up coming from proficiency modifiers, magic modifiers, and stat modifiers. Also crossbows can't get that strength modifier an hit fewer times, applying less damage. 2 points of potential damage don't matter in the least. Even in 2e, which generally had smaller damage totals, d8 vs. d10 doesn't really matter.
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Aug 8, 2018 17:58
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Feel like firearms in D&D's vaguely High Middle Ages setting might work as basically Encounter powers, being long before you could reliably reload weapons in combat without someone watching your back so you pull them out at the start of combat or whenever you think you have a good opportunity. (Bloodborne-style pistol counters would be rad) Usually the answer in things like Pathfinger is to severely pre-nerf them and require total specialisation.
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Aug 8, 2018 18:20
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7th Sea 2: The Crescent Empire - What If Jesus Batman Ashur is a tiny but independent city-state in the midst of the Crescent Empire. This is possible, in large part, due to the Assassins and the Elohim. The terrifying Assassins have kept enemy forces out, while the Elohim planted the magic fruit that keeps it fed when the Empire has tried to starve their imports. The problem is the infrastructure that has long enabled both of these feats is quickly failing. For 800 years, the Assassins have fought at the command of the Guardian of the First Garden, an immortal who, rumor has it, has the power to see all possible futures. But now, he is dying of an infected wound, and simultaneously, Yesu's tree, the tree which the Orthodox say all bounty comes from, is failing to bloom. As the tree withers, so do Ashur's crops, and while food is stored, it won't be long before the famine comes. Within the Empire, Ashur is known as Fanatic Country, held by Orthodox zealots and Anashid heretics who live side by side, surviving because they trust each other far more than outsiders. Ashur is approximately 50% Orthodox, 40% Dinist (of which almost all are Anashid) and 10% anything else. It is said that Ashur did not exist before Yesu's followers found it. This sounds unlikely, but the Numanari certainly never found the place, and they really should have. It was the kind of land they loved - hidden in a mountain fastness, eminently defensible, cool and misty at all times, with lush vegetation and legendarily fertile soil. And yet, when the followers of Yesu came upon the valleys, they were utterly untouched. When they planted figs, a thousand gardens grew. In 620, Khalil ibn Mustafa al-Thaji came to Ashur, carrying his dying daughter, Irshad. He brought her to the highest peak, and he left the mountain without her. Before then, the Green Mountains had never been climbed, and so the Orthodox were quite impressed. Many, they say, wanted to convert immediately, but the Prophet told them to wait. For 80 years, nothing happened...and then the Anatoli invaded. The Orthodox were technologically primitive and largely pacifist, so they were easily conquered. When the Orthodox refused to help them exploit the rich forests, they were forced to flee or were enslaved on plantations. By the time the Vodacce invaded the area, Ashur was firmly under Anatoli rule, and when the Empire formed, Ashur provided it much wealth. They became cynical, praying for independence but often disillusioned with pacifism and passive resistance. That is when, in 800, Irshad bint Jamila, daughter of the Prophet, came down from the highest mountain. Her first act was to lead a resistance movement. Her followers fled the plantations, hiding in outposts and hollowing out the Imperial government from within, replacing oppressors with puppets. In 803, with Ashur still fighting a guerrilla war, Irshad declared that Iskandar needed her and left, but not before leading a blind boy up the Green Mountain. She told him to watch over the nation, announcing to her followers that she was daughter of Khalil and, as he had been, a Prophet. Some of the Orthodox who had followed her felt betrayed by her claim, but many more converted and became the first Anashid. In 807, a tribe of disillusioned Orthodox cut out the tongues of an Anashid family, nearly starting a war. However, the blind boy on the mountain had many magics and was not a subtle child. He trapped the belligerents of both sides in a nightmare until they agreed to end hostilities. In 819, the Empire fell into the Fetret Devri, the civil war between two empresses, the twins Aisha and Melike. Melika had the larger army, so it was something of a shock when Aisha won the war, toasting the Guardian of the First Garden and declaring Ashur independent. It was only then that the rumors began spreading, that Ashur had terrifying Assassins that answered only to the blind boy atop the mountain. The boy, now known as the Guardian of the First Garden, was firmly in control of Ashur, and he allowed former Anatoli bureaucrats to stay there if they wished to become Ashurites, creating the Pleroma. The Pleroma was the infrastructure needed to remain independent, a governing body for Ashur. They kept it shrouded in the long religious tradition of Ashur, modeling the Pleroma after a monastic order, with stone halls, acolytes, councils and so on. However, the Ashurites despised the Pleroma, despite it ruling under the Guardian's grace...at least until it became clear that without them, Ashur would not actually function. Many have tried to take Ashur. They have always failed, now. The Empire has tried and failed. The Khazari have tried and failed. Die Kreuzritter have tried and failed. No invasion ever lasts very long, faced with the Assassins and the Elohim. In 911, the Imperial army attempted a conquest, only for Emperor Mehmet V to awaken with a dagger on his pillow, a note saying 'We have you in our power' and all the army's food and wine supplies poisoned. The army retreated the next day. In 1120, a platoon of Rzeplitan and Curonian knights broke off from squad of what would become die Kreuzritter, moving to raid Ashur. They are never seen again. In 1230, the Iron Khan makes it to the cliffs on Ashur's southern border. He meets with the blind boy under flag of truce, and the blind boy signals for an Assassin to leap off the cliff to her death. He explains to the Khan that he can afford to waste even such loyal followers, and signals to the next Assassin to do the same. A third prepares to jump, and the Khan decides to leave. In 1388, Empress Seyma sent a team of saboteurs to Ashur. Six months later, they all awoke to find daggers on their pillows. Half fled or defected immediately. The other half asphyxiated in a steam bath, and their boiled bodies were sent back to the Empress. In 1658, Grand Vizier Mehmed Ali Pasha suggests to Emperor Istani that they might invade. That night, he finds a knife on his pillow and a bottle of poison pills in his son's room. He rescinds the suggestion. Ashur has three laws that apply to everyone. First: Murder is abhorrent. No one may kill, except Assassins. Second: Respect the desires of peoples not your own. Third: It is forbidden to cut down trees. These laws were made in 831, carved in stone by the Pleroma and posted in every outpost, Cathedral and urban center. They are all compromises. After all, the two most important creeds of the nation, that of the Elohim and that of the Assassins, are in direct conflict on the question of murder. Elohim hate it, but the Assassins have a holy man that tells them to kill. The first law is therefore a compromise. Ashur will never allow legal duels, will never raise an army, but it will allow the Assassins to do what they must. Neither side is thrilled, but it is required, as otherwise Ashur would easily be conquered. The second law is also a compromise. Nearly every Ashurite deeply dislikes at least one other sect present in Ashur and believes the world would be better without them. However, the Pleroma saw that this would apply to all. Everyone finds certain lifestyles disgusting, and outside of chaos and tyranny, the only method this can be handled is to live and let live. The third and final law was a peace offer to the Elohim who found the first two laws upsetting. It is, more than anything, a relic of the colonial trauma of Crescent rule, for they abused the rich forests of Ashur. Currently, villagers may apply to the Pleroma for permission to get around the law when absolutely necessary, but even that remains controversial. Other than these three laws, all governance is local. Assassins obey the Guardian, Orthodox obey scripture, and villages govern themselves. The Pleroma organize by locality, often using bastardized versions of Alwarithli law to ensure the place functions, but usually cutting away bureaucracy to make sure they work on a local level. Every district is led by a Metropolitan, which is like a mayor, who meets with their underlings once a month at least and the other Metropolitans once a year at least, typically in Bit Habubati, on the summer solstice. The Metropolitan of Bit Habubati presides over the Pleroma council and breaks any ties. Ashur attempts religious pluralism, as they believe infighting will only lead to the Empire invading while they are weakened. They have no clear majority faith, in any case. However, regardless of what faith someone is, the Ashurites are all deeply devout about it, and the pluralism can feel quite strained at times. The two majority religions, the Orthodoxy and Anashid Dinism, have not gone to war, but there have been several close calls over the centuries, and the tension between the Elohim Orthodox and the Assassins has never truly gone away. Those who are not of those two faiths often feel marginalized. The Three Laws were specifically made for the purposes of the Orthodox and the Anashid, and no one else was really considered. Mainstream Dinists, used to being the Empire's majority, often feel especially annoyed by the loss of privilege, and Ashurites tend to believe most mainstream Dinists are Imperial spies. Yachidi tend to have it easier. Outside Sarmion, they are used to being a minority, and those in Ashur tend to be immigrant healers, with the largest Yachidi community in the nation dating back to a century before the Anatoli invaded. Yasnavans and Vaticines are rare, and tend not to have a good time. Ashurites believe the Assassins slew the Third Prophet for good reason, and while most are not so rude as to say so openly to a Vaticine, it's not unknown. Most Ashurites also believe Yasnavan theology is infantile and barely a religion. Many outsiders assume the Elohim and the Assassins get along perfectly, but this is far from the case. After the murder of Empress Seyma's saboteurs in 1388, the Assassins went through a very dark period of increasingly brutal tactics to keep Ashur safe, which sparked a lot of Elohim pushback, as they could not condone the actions taken. While things have gotten better since then and the Assassins have largely abandoned such dark tactics, it seems unlikely the divide will ever be truly mended. In theory, the social classes of Ashur are not actually enshrined in any law and anyone can choose to be any class at any time. In practice, changing class is difficult, costly and not done lightly. Assassins are a class that, in theory, anyone may join by climbing the Green Mountain and asking to be one. Few do so. The Guardian accepts all, so misfits and criminals often make the climb - typically those drawn to death in a nation of pacifists. If they reach the top, the Guardian always accepts them...and then the training begins. The Anashid say that if you wish to be morally prepared to kill, you must know how to die. The Guardian is clairvoyant, prophetic, almost omniscient. He is, to the Anashid, not a person so much as a phenomenon. He is a holy man who inherited the legacy of Irshad. However, not all Assassins are Anashid, despite what many Theans who know of them believe. While Anashid may become Assassins, most prefer a life of peace. Those who do not...well, the Guardian has the power, of a sort, to resurrect the dead. Those who swear to him, he kills, trapping them in dreams, killing them again and again. The Assassin hallucinates the lives of every person the Guardian has slain. They live and die, again and again, thousands of times. Each time they wake up after dying, the Guardian offers a choice: leave the mountain and return home, never to be an Assassin, or die again. Many leave after only ten or twenty deaths. They return changed - not Assassins, but wiser, sadder. Those that stay continue to die and to change, until the question they are asked changes: will you go home, go down the mountain, never be an Assassin...or will you kill for me? Ashurites say that only an Assassin may kill, for only they know what it is to die. They are given lavish gifts, but rarely interacted with closely. Long ago, after years of immortality, the Guardian became bored with the Assassins. He trained them, yes, he killed them again and again, but the years of doing so wore on him. His orders grew more bloody and ruthless, determined to send a message to Ashur's foes no matter the cost, that he might not need to give so many orders. A schism formed among the Assassins, with many becoming bloodthirsty mercenaries, killing for vast sums of money, for they saw that the Guardian seemed to want violence. Others sought to prevent this cruelty, forming the Alnniqabat Lilnnusr, an organization to protect the noble goals of the Assassins and monitor them from within, weeding out the corrupt. Recently, the Guardian went down from the mountain for the first time in centuries, to fight off a shadowy figure that threatened Yesu's Tree, and in doing so, he received a mortal wound. He had believed that nothing could kill him, and so the banality of immortality corrupted his thoughts. Now, faced with death for the first time in centuries, he realized what his Assassins had become, and realized that he and they needed to change. With what little time remains to him, the Guardian now works with the heroes among the Assassins to ferret out any corruption that remains, so he may earn back the respect of Ashur. Not all Assassins climb the Mountain. Whenever an Assassin makes the commitment to kill for the Guardian, he ties a piece of leather around their neck. Each is an elaborate work of art, with each knot upon the leather representing a death, and each choker is unique. Only the wearer may untie it, and only once they have killed the target assigned to them. They may then make a choice - keep the collar, or give it to someone else. If they wish to give their collar, they must un-knot it and then re-tie it around the throat of another person. It can take hours, and while it happens, the person being given the collar experiences every death the Assassin has ever known - those they suffered on the Mountain, and those they have caused since. It is a very difficult, painful experience, and most cannot bear it, begging the Assassin to stop. However, if they succeed, they are given permission to kill, for they have died. Some climb the Mountain and become full Assassins. Others do not, and are called Hatapu, sacrifices. They bear the burden of death. The collars worn by Hatapu are considered retired, pass down by ritual to a worthy Ashurite. Giving a collar to a Hatapu is favored by those Assassins who cannot find someone to go up the mountain and replace them, because it means that their legacy and mystic power at least lives on. And there is power in the collar, though those that receive it rarely consider it a gift. Every collar grants its wearer the ability to perform Nawaru, the Sorcery of the Assassins, which can manipulate light. Theans often refer to the Guardian as "the Old Man on the Mountain," which typically perplexes most Ashurites and Crescents, as the Guardian is...well, a child, physically. This is because the first Thean to meet the Guardian was a Castillian woman named Euria Jimenez, who came seeking answers after her faith was damaged by the loss of her son. She had been told that Ashur, if anywhere, could give her the wisdom of Theus. She sought the First Garden in hopes of learning what kind of god would take a child before a parent. When she got to the mountain summit, she met a boy, who was the spitting image of her dead son. Her question fled as she sat and spoke to the boy, spending years with him and, it is said, seeing him grow to a man, than an old man, until at least she watched him die. The now quite old woman returned to Castille, and just before her own death, she spoke her final words, which cemented the name in the Thean consciousness forever: "I have seen my son and he wears a shroud of death. He is the old man on the mountain and I am at peace." Next time: The other social classes.
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Aug 8, 2018 18:55
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If you're into crossbows, Tod Todeschini is your dude. He makes replicas of medieval crossbows and makes informative videos on Youtube about them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMoL_SBD6gw Edit: It occurs to me that in FG&G it would be entirely appropriate to simply hire a dude to reload and pass crossbows for you. Siivola fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Aug 8, 2018 |
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Aug 8, 2018 18:56
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I'm sure if they'd make guns one use but powerful they'd do dumb poo poo like a 20dc check to grab a gun from the brace of pistols people would wear in DnD at least.
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Aug 8, 2018 19:35
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Feel like firearms in D&D's vaguely High Middle Ages setting might work as basically Encounter powers, being long before you could reliably reload weapons in combat without someone watching your back so you pull them out at the start of combat or whenever you think you have a good opportunity. (Bloodborne-style pistol counters would be rad) I honesty don't mind the idea of 'gunpowder weapons are still rare and dangerous, so being 'Guy With Gun' is an entire archetype' in a fantasy setting. Pathfinder doesn't do it great because it's based on 3.5 and therefor all non casters are mediocre at best, but I think the basic idea is fine.
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Aug 8, 2018 19:40
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Be honest, you know how this goes. Fighters etc. can spend a feat to learn how to use a gun, which has steep penalties that you can mostly - but only mostly - negate by taking like half a dozen other feats. You can't move on the same turn you fire, and firing provokes an attack. You need two hands to reload the gun and if it jams you need a DC 20 check to fix it. Wizards can summon a magic gun as a level 2 spell that they are automatically proficient in, and which does more damage, can be your choice of a number of rarely-resisted types, has no penalties, fires and reloads itself while leaving you free to cast and move, never jams, and gets a bonus to accuracy based on your caster level. But it only lasts [caster level]x10 minutes per cast!
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Aug 8, 2018 20:00
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I was thinking like firearms are still at the arquebus level and not widely implemented, plate armour is still a thing, castles are fading thanks to the rise of artillery...but your PC could eventually be toting late 19th century weapons.
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Aug 8, 2018 20:01
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megane posted:Be honest, you know how this goes. Fighters etc. can spend a feat to learn how to use a gun, which has steep penalties that you can mostly - but only mostly - negate by taking like half a dozen other feats. You can't move on the same turn you fire, and firing provokes an attack. You need two hands to reload the gun and if it jams you need a DC 20 check to fix it. Yeah exactly. Instead, the firearms character should basically be THE striker. They either use a brace of pistols to rapid fire burst down an enemy, and then have to play defensively for a round or two while they reload, or be a super sniper.
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Aug 8, 2018 20:10
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I've always kinda wanted to do an F&F of the Iron Kingdoms Character Guide because it's simultaneously a dope setting and it's it's filled cover-to-cover with dumbass rules exactly like that. You have no idea how close to IK's gun rules you are right now. But man, it's a huge-rear end book and I'm no Mors.
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Aug 8, 2018 20:22
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Siivola posted:
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Aug 8, 2018 20:28
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Halloween Jack posted:I was thinking like firearms are still at the arquebus level and not widely implemented, plate armour is still a thing, castles are fading thanks to the rise of artillery...but your PC could eventually be toting late 19th century weapons. By late 19th century weapons, do you mean something like a repeating carbine (e.g. a Spencer), a single shot memetically damaging rifle (e.g. a Martini-Henry) or a bunch of hirelings toting around an early machine gun (e.g a Gatling gun) or quick-firing artillery (e.g., a soixante-quinze)? There are many ways that statement could be interpreted, each with very different gameplay results.
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Aug 8, 2018 20:31
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I was just thinking like breech-loading revolvers and a bolt-action or lever-action rifle.
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Aug 8, 2018 20:33
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Davin Valkri posted:By late 19th century weapons, do you mean something like a repeating carbine (e.g. a Spencer), a single shot memetically damaging rifle (e.g. a Martini-Henry) or a bunch of hirelings toting around an early machine gun (e.g a Gatling gun) or quick-firing artillery (e.g., a soixante-quinze)? There are many ways that statement could be interpreted, each with very different gameplay results. ...Yes.
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Aug 8, 2018 20:37
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Night10194 posted:Part of the problem with it all is that doing d10 instead of d8 damage is pretty negligible in a system where most of your damage ends up coming from proficiency modifiers, magic modifiers, and stat modifiers. And the nail in the coffin is the action economy. A weapon that can only attack every other turn needs to be drat impressive to justify having a drawback that severe, and in particular it needs to be guaranteed or nearly so to actually hit because a missed shot in the middle of combat is not one but three entire turns spent doing nothing.
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Aug 8, 2018 21:02
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ChaseSP posted:The kind of crossbows that you see in DnD are infact not the kind capable of piercing in plate. They tend to be weaker hand crossbows that can be easily reloaded in hand, not 500+ draw weight monstrosities that require complicated methods to draw the cord back involving gearboxes and other things.
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Aug 8, 2018 21:11
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Set your fantasy in the 1600s. Fighters are musketeers, proficient with musket, bayonet, and sword.
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Aug 8, 2018 21:12
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Siivola posted:I've always kinda wanted to do an F&F of the Iron Kingdoms Character Guide because it's simultaneously a dope setting and it's it's filled cover-to-cover with dumbass rules exactly like that. You have no idea how close to IK's gun rules you are right now. It is a pretty fascinating setting and I feel it gets things mostly "right" in the sense that it is thick and crunchy and yet to my knowledge it commits no war crimes. I think there's one cannibal cook dude but he's in a gang of evil mercenary pirates and even there it's more "they kinda wonder what was in the stew pot after that battlefield" than "Baby: it's the other, OTHER white meat."
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Aug 8, 2018 21:13
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LatwPIAT posted:Set your fantasy in the 1600s. Fighters are musketeers, proficient with musket, bayonet, and sword. Hello, Warhams. Incidentally, Warhams fighters are also badasses. Though guns in 2e need a little more pep once you're past low levels. They work great early, and a pair of pistols can save your life at all levels, but it's hard to play an outright musketeer the same way you can play a longbowman later on when the bow is getting 3 attacks at 70+ % to-hit with Damage 4 and 2 points of AP. The Damage 4 Impact on the gun (Damage 5, AP 1, Impact in the hands of a skilled user) stops being as helpful eventually. So you just get a repeater. Or a long-rifle, which has a much longer range than even an Elf Bow, even if you have to reload for a turn after each shot. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Aug 8, 2018 |
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Aug 8, 2018 21:15
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7th Sea 2: The Crescent Empire - The Lorax Elohim are the class of Orthodox tree farmers. They live a life of service to others, and thus have an honored place in Ashur. They are deeply respected for their sacrifices in order to live as Yesu did, and they are the providers of the rich harvest. They plant trees that bear all manner of fruit, seeds and bulbs. In spring, each tribe of Elohim plants their patch of ground, then travel to the lands another tribe has planted, tending to the plants there until fall, when they move to a third patch and harvest it. They do this because they believe individual ownership of property is inherently corrupting. Everything belongs to everyone, and insisting otherwise separates you from Elohah. The Elohim are strict pacifists, vegetarians, and collectivists, and they will neither handle money nor cut down trees. They believe the best thing any Disciple can do is to live in imitation of Yesu, who was a slave and orchard-keeper. Elohim do not construct buildings, but they do grow Cathedrals. In an act mimicking the First Cathedral, Elohim spend years moving trees, roots and bushes into amazing, living structures, many stories high and with flower-wreathed windows. These shelter from the rain, serve as places of worship and are works of art and prayer. They are also a method for the Elohim tribes to communicate, for each Cathedral has a carillon, one of the only things within that is not grown. Every tribe that uses a Cathedral is obligated to see to its maintenance and to beautify it, which keeps the Cathedrals in peak condition. The Pleroma are the class of bureaucrats that, in theory, lead the nation. They recruit heavily from Orthodox tribes and small Anashid villages, typically from among those members who feel stifled in their community. New recruits are 'apprenticed' to older Pleroma, coordinating their projects and helping to broker compromises and wrangle the various groups of fanatics that have compatible needs and incompatible beliefs. Between work, they live and sleep in the Halls, dorms modeled after Ussuran monasteries. They are sparsely furnished and built from dark, dry stone. One of the most prominent Pleroma, Moonif Benu Pleroma, is busy campaigning to try and bring the disparate villages of Ashur into a cohesive whole. He believes that by all the villages coming together, they can modernize Ashur. Most recently, Moonif has introduced the concept of a national guard, hoping that a neutral group made from Ashur of all walks of life will help soothe the tension between Elohim and Assassins. Moonif is deeply respected, but recently he's been pushing social boundaries in the name of progress. Most controversionally, he has invited Princess Batya of Sarmion to tour Ashur, in the hopes of gaining her favor for an eventual alliance with Sarmion and, perhaps, even Anatol Ayh. If he could get the Sultana on his side, he might be able to stop 8th Sea raids on the outlying Ashurite villages. Villagers make up the rest of the nation, and both Orthodox and Anashid villages tend to be eccentric, thanks to the influences of the Enclavest tradition. Most aim to be paradises for the residents, though this less than feasible in practice - one person's paradise is often another's terrifying cult, and the most terrifying ones are the ones people outside Ashur tend to hear about. For example, nearly everyone in the Empire has heard of Ennoia Village, whose inhabitants regularly engage in torture, vivisection and self-cannibalism, on the theory that one can reach Heaven only by loving the world completely, which they ensure by learning to experience and love even the worst of it. Not all villages are so painful nor so all-consuming in their bent. Pigmentist villages worship Elohah with color, vocalist villages do so by communicating only in song, intellectual villages dedicate themselves to the painstaking reconstruction of lost holy texts, and so on. Even these, however, are the minority. The majority of villagers live in relatively normal villages, though these places have lower status than the weird ones in Ashur. Social rank in Ashur is drawn primarily from the fanaticism of one's beliefs rather than birth or money. The more inconveniently consistent your faith is, and the more privations you are willing to suffer for it, the more you are respected. Assassins undergo horrific training to earn the right to kill, so they are respected. Elohah live in voluntary poverty to follow their faith, and they are respected. The Pleroma devote themselves to a job no one thanks them for in a state that doesn't want to be run, so they are respected. Villagers...well, how dedicated is your village? Ashurites love conversation, but theirs tend to be intense. They believe questions signify engagement and interest, and insightful ones also show wit. There is no taboo against prying questions, and so foreigners often feel interrogated. Religion is a near-constant of their discourse, and followers of foreign creeds often find their beliefs being dissected by questions, which the Ashurites see as mere good sense. Arguments do happen in public, but public debate is considered vulgar. The point of public debate in the Empire is to convince the audience, which Ashurites say leads to tricky rhetorical tactics, bad rhetoric and demagogues. Rather, they say, the point of debate should be convincing the opponent, which is done much differently. The most quintessentially Ashurite form of debate is called arahu, 'conversation.' It involves two people sitting down in private, drinking tea and, for the first portion, engaging in exercises to encourage openness and reduce defensiveness around each other. Only when this is done do the debaters begin to discuss and dissect each others' beliefs, meeting every fortnight for a year and a day. This was originally intended as a conversion technique, but is now accepted as a form of debate on any matter of importance. Most of Ashur's food is made by the Elohim, and so they are at the center of Ashur's trade. Because they refuse to handle money, however, they barter instead. They trade for tools, clothing, services, art and craftwork to beautify their Cathedrals, the service of teachers, entertainers and more. They do not ever trade for baubles or money, and rarely for anything they cannot share with their tribe. As nomads, they also rarely trade for anything they can't carry. Among the other classes, trade is less restricted, because they still use the lyra of the Empire. However, the prohibition on cutting trees can make some economies difficult. Books are rare and mostly imported, with native text generally either muacat ('temporary') and made from chalk or wax on a slate, or daimon ('permanent') and etched with vinegar or carved on walls. Memorization is a huge deal for Ashurites, especially intellectuals, and thus poetry and songs are highly valued as mnemonics. Deadwood is not common enough for use as fuel, but Ashur has oil pits and oil springs - so many that some have just been set on fire and allowed to be centuries-old bonfires. Others are refined into wax and lamp oil, most notably a clear and clean-burning paraffin known as naft abyad, and the coke found around the oil seeps is also usable as a slow-burning fuel for heating things. Ashur has loads of kaffeehouses, typically serving it strong and black with sweet cakes. Round cakes with a fig in the center are a delicacy, often served on a fig leaf, and traditionally baked to celebrate the nation's founding and the burial of Yesu. Ashur is also known for its large appetizer platters before meals, called mezze, which typically have olives, rice-and-herb-stuffed grape leaves, spicy garlic sausage, goat cheese and other savories. Ashurite clothing tends to the long and flowing, with slitted sides and angular sleeves. They use heavy embroidery on the necklines, typically of geometric patterns and plants, and wear rope belts - usually black. They wear dark coats embroidered in bright colors, and typically cover their entire head, including all hair and sometimes even the face, depending on the village. Most Ashurites own at least a simple shawl or other head covering for worship. Elohim dress in sturdy kaftans and usually wear only sandals on their feet, or even go barefoot. Pleroma wear shoes and simple gray robes. Assassins wear no special outfit besides their knotted leather color, typically with thousands of tiny knots in it. It's hard to miss, if the Assassin isn't actively hiding. Locations! Bit Habubti is the only city in Ashur, and it's only a city by some definitions. It was built only a century ago, and is a cluster of villages that share space in an enormous natural cave system. The villages each have their own customs and laws. Travelers know which village they are in by colors and stencils in chalk and wax along the walls, ceilings and floors. The Enclavest villages are usually quite lovely as a point of pride, and locals are often artists, using their art and creations to trade for food with outside villages. The Anashid villages are likewise unique, with poetry often painted on the walls and prayers heard in echo five times each day. Intersections where several villages meet are known as 'collaborations,' and are usually the site of literal collaborative efforts between multiple villages, of any kind - libraries, brothels, stages, whatever. The central markets are coordinated by the Pleroma in high caverns whose walls are hung with glass and painted in rainbows, and both barter and coin are accepted there. There is no accurate city map because the villages move almost constantly, as their communities split, reform, merge, schism and absorb each other. Villagers rarely treat their surroundings very carefully, and safety is unfortunately often something of a secondary concern to appearance. Menial tasks, such as hanging rope bridges and ladders, making pipes, removing sewage and so on, are typically done by the Abnegants, of whom nearly a thousand are sworn to the city. Abbunatu is the city's neutral ground, much-needed for this experiment in Ashurite urban life. It is a kaffeeshop located at a major intersection and it serves as a social hub, where people of various villages can come, chat, eat and socialize. The owners are two gigantic men who may or may not be former warriors of some kind. The cafe is used for many small ritual social activities - meet-and-greets, barter contracts, dispute resolution before getting the Pleroma involved. It has actually reached the point where the few villages that forbid their members from going to Abbunatu as somewhat sketchy. The proprietors both speak fluent Katabic and Dibre, and often help foreigners who come visit the city. The largest Pleroma hall, known as the Great Hall, is built in the style of a Vaticine cathedral, full of annexes and flying buttresses. It was made only five years ago and is now the center of Bit Habibti's government - and by extension Ashur's, because there's only the one city. The Mauve Chamber within is home to the meetings of the Metropolitan council, and the place has enough dorms to house all Pleroma in the nation and feed them for a year, if it has to. The public is unaware of its many hidden passages, which lead out of the cave system in some cases and provide concealed entry to various villages in others. The hall is designed surprisingly like a fortress, in fact. It is run and was designed by Tarek Benu Pleroma, whose voice carries the most weight on the Metropolitan council. Many young Pleroma worry that Tarek has gained too much favor recently and that his antiquated ideas of what Ashur should be stifle progress. Tarek collects secrets as part of his influence, and he hates change, pushing for Ashur to remain constant, even stagnant. Most recently, he has begun a political battle with Athro Benu Nairu, a woman who is trying to introduce reed paper to Ashur - it is cheap and complies with all Ashurite law, but it's still an uphill battle, as Tarek believes that paper is untraditional and therefore bad. Next time: The Green Mountain
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Aug 8, 2018 21:35
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 03:51 |
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LatwPIAT posted:Set your fantasy in the 1600s. Fighters are musketeers, proficient with musket, bayonet, and sword. 
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Aug 8, 2018 21:42
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