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Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

Halloween Jack posted:

Apropos of nothing: It's been awhile since I saw a skill system as badly balanced as Cyberpunk's. And they kept it up for 3 editions, too!

How's it work?

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Wrestlepig
Feb 25, 2011

my mum says im cool

Toilet Rascal

Halloween Jack posted:

Apropos of nothing: It's been awhile since I saw a skill system as badly balanced as Cyberpunk's. And they kept it up for 3 editions, too!

Even ignoring all the pointless skills it has such a bad spread of them over categories. Intelligence has way too much tied to it. Hiding is an INT skill for fucks sake

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!

Night10194 posted:

A Master Mutator gives a full on marketing pitch for the wonderful Bio-Organic Weapon that is the Rat Ogre, BUY TODAY, the cheapest models are only a hundred Warpstone tokens! He calls them the very foundation of Clan Moulder, and he's not wrong, as we went over in Children of the Horned Rat. Still, the whole thing with Rogers is just 'big, dumb as hell, real fast, kinda clumsy, strong'. Only so much you can say about the big bastards.

Albert Whisker the Master Mutator, and his fabulous M-Virus(M for Moulder).

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

PurpleXVI posted:

Albert Whisker the Master Mutator, and his fabulous M-Virus(M for Moulder).

Look, I can't not call them BOWs. The RE2 Remake is really good and fun, and Moulder is already Umbrella if they were a competent business. The T-Virus even works like Warpstone anyway: Inject this poo poo with some delicious, glowing, magical science and see what kind of boss fight comes out the other end.

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you
Glad Rat Ogres are decently dangerous in 4e.

Thinking of Moulder, I was reminded of when Thanquol wanted to get a new Rat Ogre, and the Moulder Shopkeeper offered him his most vicious one in the fight pit. After hearing the price Thanquol had his Stormvermin bodyguards dangle the rat over the pit just out of the Rogre's reach until he named a price Thanquol was ok with.

MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Feb 12, 2019

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

Eh, it's TT accurate for them to be kind of a disappointment against any sort of serious fighter. It's fine for them to be easy enough to kill if you know what you're doing.

Which I imagine they are in 4e, too, because looking at it they didn't fix their main problem, their dogshit (for how tough they're supposed to be) WS. Especially as every time they miss a skilled PC in 4e, that PC gets stronger due to Advantage. Whiffing is the thing that really kills Roger.

E: They do get the advantage that being big can actually matter more in 4e, but it's balanced by how they can't swing more than once, unlike their 3 attacks in 2e. Which can kinda make up for their sub-40 WS. Especially if they get lucky. This is going to be a theme for almost all giant monsters when we get to mechanics; they're very hit or miss.

Night10194 fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Feb 12, 2019

megane
Jun 20, 2008



Building planned obsolescence into your horrible giant monster is pretty funny anyway. "Sorry, bud, the elbow tendons on this model only really last a few months before you've gotta put in a new set. Now, the boys and I can do elbows here in the shop, but I'm gonna have to get them replacement tendons ordered in from the manufacturer and, hoo boy, hope yer ready to spend some warpstone!"

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 12 hours!

Night10194 posted:

How's it work?
In 2020: All the combat and piloting skills are based on Reflexes. Intelligence is used for lots of skills, but besides the investigation/tracking skills, it's mostly background knowledge like Botany. Most practical knowledge skills fall under Tech. The social skills are split between three different stats: Cool, Empathy, and Attractiveness, with the last covering only 2 skills of questionable use. The Body stat only covers Endurance, Strength Feat, and Swimming.

In 3.0: Reflexes has been split into Reflexes and Dexterity (good), but the latter just gets Dodge and the melee skills (dumb). The social stats have been pared down to Cool and Will (good), but Cool gets almost everything (dumb). One faction uses Will instead of Reflexes to control their drones, which is a disadvantage! Intelligence and Tech are pretty much the same. Body has been split up into Strength and Constitution (dumb) which each only get one skill (dumber).

megane posted:

Building planned obsolescence into your horrible giant monster is pretty funny anyway. "Sorry, bud, the elbow tendons on this model only really last a few months before you've gotta put in a new set. Now, the boys and I can do elbows here in the shop, but I'm gonna have to get them replacement tendons ordered in from the manufacturer and, hoo boy, hope yer ready to spend some warpstone!"
And if they'd just used a stainless steel washer instead of a rubber seal here, this kaiju would last for 20 years!

punishedkissinger
Sep 20, 2017

Night10194 posted:

Eh, it's TT accurate for them to be kind of a disappointment against any sort of serious fighter. It's fine for them to be easy enough to kill if you know what you're doing.

Which I imagine they are in 4e, too, because looking at it they didn't fix their main problem, their dogshit (for how tough they're supposed to be) WS. Especially as every time they miss a skilled PC in 4e, that PC gets stronger due to Advantage. Whiffing is the thing that really kills Roger.

E: They do get the advantage that being big can actually matter more in 4e, but it's balanced by how they can't swing more than once, unlike their 3 attacks in 2e. Which can kinda make up for their sub-40 WS. Especially if they get lucky. This is going to be a theme for almost all giant monsters when we get to mechanics; they're very hit or miss.

Yeah I just ran an session where the armored Ogre got absolutely murder killed because the spellcaster kept sniping him with Dart, preventing him from ever building up any advantage, while the players just maxed out their combo bar and laid waste to everything.

I expect this will be even easier with Rogers since their compatriots are going to be even lower-tier chaffe that the players can get their combo going on.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

megane posted:

Building planned obsolescence into your horrible giant monster is pretty funny anyway. "Sorry, bud, the elbow tendons on this model only really last a few months before you've gotta put in a new set. Now, the boys and I can do elbows here in the shop, but I'm gonna have to get them replacement tendons ordered in from the manufacturer and, hoo boy, hope yer ready to spend some warpstone!"

I love that the excitable little rat actually builds a 'how much are you looking to spend-spend!?' into his pitch on the Rogers in OWB.

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


Skaven have independently invented plaid clothing and suspenders to hook their little rodent thumbs under, without really understanding why.

Hostile V
May 31, 2013

Solving all of life's problems through enhanced casting of Occam's Razor. Reward yourself with an imaginary chalice.

Sell fine-fine leather jerkins, yis.

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you

kidkissinger posted:

Yeah I just ran an session where the armored Ogre got absolutely murder killed because the spellcaster kept sniping him with Dart, preventing him from ever building up any advantage, while the players just maxed out their combo bar and laid waste to everything.

I expect this will be even easier with Rogers since their compatriots are going to be even lower-tier chaffe that the players can get their combo going on.

Though Skaven have the advantage of normally outnumbering their enemies.

Night10194 posted:


E: They do get the advantage that being big can actually matter more in 4e, but it's balanced by how they can't swing more than once, unlike their 3 attacks in 2e. Which can kinda make up for their sub-40 WS. Especially if they get lucky. This is going to be a theme for almost all giant monsters when we get to mechanics; they're very hit or miss.

If they have advantage they can spend a point to attack with their tail as well. So they have 2 attacks in 4e.

MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Feb 12, 2019

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

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



Mors Rattus posted:

I mean, you can still play an Asrai Wood Elf in 4e. If your party can handle a survivalist hillbilly ninja with an internalized terror/anger at all non-elves.
So you're basically the Elfabomber?

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you

megane posted:

Building planned obsolescence into your horrible giant monster is pretty funny anyway. "Sorry, bud, the elbow tendons on this model only really last a few months before you've gotta put in a new set. Now, the boys and I can do elbows here in the shop, but I'm gonna have to get them replacement tendons ordered in from the manufacturer and, hoo boy, hope yer ready to spend some warpstone!"

I remember some Moulder guys in Skaven Slayer. They created a breed of rats that could eat something like 50 times its body weight in a day, would eat pretty much anything, was born pregnant, gave birth in a day, grew to full size in hours, and would die in about three days. The rats would also be born sterile after a month, so after Moulder used them to conquer the city as planned the Rats would all die and not trouble them.

Moulder really likes to build planned issues into their creations. The reason Moulder did not make smarter Rat Ogres is that that smarter ones lost some of the killiness that made them so sought after.

Tibalt
May 14, 2017

What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

MonsterEnvy posted:

Moulder really likes to build planned issues into their creations. The reason Moulder did not make smarter Rat Ogres is that that smarter ones lost some of the killiness that made them so sought after.
Or alternatively it had extra kill, but mostly directed at the guy with the whip.

Makes it hard to sell rat ogre as service-service!

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

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

Nessus posted:

So you're basically the Elfabomber?

Honestly? Yes.

Young Freud
Nov 26, 2006

Halloween Jack posted:

In 2020: All the combat and piloting skills are based on Reflexes. Intelligence is used for lots of skills, but besides the investigation/tracking skills, it's mostly background knowledge like Botany. Most practical knowledge skills fall under Tech. The social skills are split between three different stats: Cool, Empathy, and Attractiveness, with the last covering only 2 skills of questionable use. The Body stat only covers Endurance, Strength Feat, and Swimming.

In 3.0: Reflexes has been split into Reflexes and Dexterity (good), but the latter just gets Dodge and the melee skills (dumb). The social stats have been pared down to Cool and Will (good), but Cool gets almost everything (dumb). One faction uses Will instead of Reflexes to control their drones, which is a disadvantage! Intelligence and Tech are pretty much the same. Body has been split up into Strength and Constitution (dumb) which each only get one skill (dumber).

Why is splitting Strength and Constitution considered bad?

I've been developing an Open D6 cyberpunk game for awhile and I split them to avoid the Chewbacca problem that Star Wars D6 had. Also, I'm using one stat for Dexterity/Agility/Reflexes, but moved many of the driving/piloting/gunnery skills to Perception, with the caveat if you aren't physically controlling a vehicle or gun emplacement with your hands or body (like a bike or a pintle-mounted gun, opposed to a wheel or a joystick), it uses that attribute instead of Dex/Agi/Ref. The only reason i haven't split them is because I want to keep stats under 7 attributes.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

thatbastardken posted:

also you keep saying succession instead of secession.

Whups. Fixed, thanks. Well, one post was fixed, need to check the rest.

Dawgstar posted:

Shouldn't Free Quebec's air force be really bad if they've never done anything much with it and be a vector for the CS to dominate? No? Okay. Vive les bateaux fascistes!

No doubt they have practiced hard by dogfighting pixies, pegasi, and bluebirds of happiness.

Impermanent posted:

i don't know but it is perhaps the most boring fantasy cliche in a sea of boring fantasy cliches at this point.

It makes more sense when you realize all elves are basically Old Folks.

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!

Young Freud posted:

Why is splitting Strength and Constitution considered bad?

Well, generally Constitution is more or less always a loser stat because it only gives you a passive bonus to not getting murdered in 99% of all games, and never really impacts any skills you use for murdering other things or solving problems. Slapping it together with Strength A) makes Strength more gooder and thus leaves Dex less as the only meaningful godstat and B) removes a classic utter dump stat from the consideration entirely.

Separating them is, fundamentally, not a huge crime, but there are very few systems that are not improved by combining them into one, especially if they are skill-based rather than class-based.

Lynx Winters
May 1, 2003

Borderlawns: The Treehouse of Pandora
It's also just kind of weird if you're trying to make stats be any flavor of realistic (lmao) because someone who works out a lot is going to be both able to apply more force and be more resilient.

Zereth
Jul 9, 2003



Barudak posted:

I had a thought like that once and then a friend revealed to me someone wrote a, if memory serves, 80 page total conversion of basic dnd into a combat loving game and well now my face looks like the Nazis from Raiders of the Lost Ark
... Somebody made a dungeon-crawl focused game into a combat-focused game? Why is that horrifying?

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

I think 'loving' may have been meant literally, rather than as an intensifier.

Young Freud
Nov 26, 2006

PurpleXVI posted:

Well, generally Constitution is more or less always a loser stat because it only gives you a passive bonus to not getting murdered in 99% of all games, and never really impacts any skills you use for murdering other things or solving problems. Slapping it together with Strength A) makes Strength more gooder and thus leaves Dex less as the only meaningful godstat and B) removes a classic utter dump stat from the consideration entirely.

Separating them is, fundamentally, not a huge crime, but there are very few systems that are not improved by combining them into one, especially if they are skill-based rather than class-based.

Well, in Open D6, "constitution" is damage resistance, so, the aforementioned Chewbacca problem comes about when you have a superhuman strength character in which he can dismember almost anything barehanded but can only be stopped with powerful and/or heavy weapons, meaning to counter the wookie player means bringing in stuff to be threat to them will absolutely murder the rest of the party. Separating the two into Strength and Constitution/Resilience/Toughness at least let's you have viable melee mongers without needing to take out a heavy machinegun to achieve parity with such a character.

Lynx Winters posted:

It's also just kind of weird if you're trying to make stats be any flavor of realistic (lmao) because someone who works out a lot is going to be both able to apply more force and be more resilient.

True, but you also have real life examples of bodybuilders unable to run marathons or Foreman vs. Ali. Strength doesn't always equal endurance.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Zereth posted:

... Somebody made a dungeon-crawl focused game into a combat-focused game? Why is that horrifying?


The Lone Badger posted:

I think 'loving' may have been meant literally, rather than as an intensifier.

The loving is intensely literal. Like others said its sort of funny for like one to two pages and then around the point where you realize theyve statted up half the beastiary and have pages of rules including optional ones and it sinks in just how much time someone invested in this all thats left is an uneasy sense of horror.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 12 hours!

Young Freud posted:

Why is splitting Strength and Constitution considered bad?
Ability scores, and the way they're differentiated, is in 90% of games an artifact of how D&D did it, even games that were very consciously trying to not be D&D.

In early D&D, Strength and Constitution as separate abilities makes sense. Strength is important for melee combat and breaking down doors, which are key components of a game set entirely in a dungeon. Constitution helps you be not dead.

In most other games, most characters don't need to give a poo poo about Strength. In real life, functional strength is important to many tasks, but in most games, the Strength attribute gives you nothing but a passive bonus to melee damage and the ability to lift heavy weights. How often does that come up? Constitution likewise just gives you resistance to damage and is rarely rolled to actively accomplish anything. This is how you get dozens and dozens of games where being a strong tough dude just doesn't work and combat is always dodge-monkeys playing rocket tag.

Young Freud posted:

True, but you also have real life examples of bodybuilders unable to run marathons or Foreman vs. Ali. Strength doesn't always equal endurance.
You might protest that combining Strength and Constitution isn't realistic, but neither is combining gross motor coordination, fine motor coordination, flexibility, reaction time, and fast-twitch muscle fibers into Dexterity.

Rolling all this poo poo into Dexterity is also an artifact of early D&D, where being dextrous just nets you like a +1 to attack with missile weapons. In most other games it's the attribute used to attack, dodge, be stealthy, pick locks, or do anything physical that matters. And a low Strength, high Dexterity character never has problems doing backflips while firing a Desert Eagles in each hand.

Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 05:54 on Feb 13, 2019

LatwPIAT
Jun 6, 2011

Halloween Jack posted:

You might protest that combining Strength and Constitution isn't realistic, but neither is combining gross motor coordination, fine motor coordination, flexibility, reaction time, and fast-twitch muscle fibers into Dexterity.

I think it's worth emphasizing here that it's really difficult to do these kind of "moving fast" actions without also being decently strong. The decision to strip perhaps the most fundamental part of being strong out of Strength in a lot of games makes for a very anemic "Strength" attribute.

Ratoslov
Feb 15, 2012

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

Intelligence and Dexterity are two of the dumbest legacies of D&D. So many systems have been utterly destroyed simply by copying the idea that these things exist uncritically.

Zereth
Jul 9, 2003



Barudak posted:

The loving is intensely literal. Like others said its sort of funny for like one to two pages and then around the point where you realize theyve statted up half the beastiary and have pages of rules including optional ones and it sinks in just how much time someone invested in this all thats left is an uneasy sense of horror.
... Oh.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!


Rifts World Book 22, Part 5: "Note: These professional 'soldiers' have different training than the 'independent' or "freelance" Glitter Boy O.C.C. presented in the Rifts® RPG, even though half of those are also 'descended' from generations of GB pilots (such 'Descended Independents' get the following bonuses: +1 on initiative, +1 to strike, +2 to pull punch, +3 to save vs Horror Factor, +20 S.D.C., and +1 additional melee attack when using a GB, but these bonuses only apply to those with a long family tradition, not those who have recently acquired a GB)."


The Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Glitter Boys are cool, but they just aren't powerful enough." I kid, of course; nobody has ever thought that, save for, perhaps, these authors.

New O.C.C.s

As always, the % is your chance to qualify for these with a human character; mind, all of the people with these classes will likely be human anyway.


"Your butt checks out and is ready to go, ma'am."

  • The "Descended" Glitter Boy Pilot O.C.C. (46%): These are Quebecois Glitter Boy pilots that are better Glitter Boy pilots than other Glitter Boy pilots because they're descended from the original 288 Glitter Boy pilots who defended Quebec in its early years. Call the "noble fallacy", that occupation somehow runs in the blood. In any case, they get better bonuses than the original Glitter Boy pilot, including additional attacks, initiative, and bonuses against Horror Factor. They also make allowances for the original Glitter Boy Pilot O.C.C. getting some new bonuses, but only if they have a family history of boom guns, since we've got some royal fallacy going on or something- non-Quebecois "Descended" bonuses are weaker over time but front-loaded at level 1.
  • Glitter Girl Pilot O.C.C. (19%): These are the pilots of the new "Glitter Girl" suit which... we'll get to. Ironically, they're almost roundly better pilots than the "Descended" Glitter Boy because they get improved attacks per round and initiative, though they have a slightly lower bonus against Horror Factor because girls, I guess. Maybe this is to make up for the fact that the Glitter Girl is a weaker suit, but if a Glitter Girl Pilot can get into a Glitter Boy, they're actually the superior choice at certain levels. Other than that, their training tends more towards espionage and scouting than pure soldiering because girls, I guess.


Not invulnerable while he's blastin'.

  • Side Kick RPA O.C.C. (39%): Yes, it's easier to qualify for the elite and rare Glitter Boy than it is for their support armor, even though the pilots for the latter are supposedly far more plentiful. This is basically just a reprint of the Coalition Elite RPA Pilot O.C.C. from the corebook, which means they get no combat bonuses like the preceding classes (or even the following class- Reload Team members are better combatants!). They get more skills, but generally speaking, they stink, because they're a near copy-paste from the original book before power creep snuck in.
  • Reload Team O.C.C. (4%): These are the guys that reload and repair Glitter Boys on the battlefield; they're your pit crew. And that 4% is no typo - you'll only have a 1 in 25 chance to qualify for them. They get bonus actions to repair and reload while in combat, and a number of other minor combat bonuses. "How many actions does it take to repair a thing?" We just don't know, since it's measured in time, not actions. They're competent repair guys, but there are no particular rules for mechanical or repair actions, much less in-combat ones. It's hardly the worst class, but has anybody ever wanted to play these guys? Ever? In the history of roleplaying? Even if you qualified for it?*
* Since I've said that, feel free to post "I played a reloader for a Glitter Boy and it was awesome", I feel that it's probably inevitable whenever I say a thing like that..


Action-packed inaction.

"Wow, they must really need those reload guys for them to be so elite!", you may say, but your average Boom Gun - the rail gun of the Glitter Boy - holds 100 rounds. A highly experienced Glitter Boy pilot can fire a shot about every 2.14 seconds, so it can take about three and a half minutes to run out of ammo if they're just firing continuously and doing nothing else (like dodging). If they only hit half the time, that's over 5,000 total mega-damage. If whatever you're firing at isn't dead at that point, you've got bigger problems. Even an experienced crew takes about 45-50 seconds to reload the gun, which means your Glitter Boy will be sitting out for 3-4 rounds of combat (or about 15 to 28 actions depending on your level) if you actually need this done, at which point you're probably out of the combat... and out for most of the game night.


Worst gun.

Weapons & Equipment of the Quebec Military

I don't know why they chose a Tales From the Crypt-style font for this. Maybe they're spooky guns. In any case, most of this just references Coalition weapons from the corebook and some Triax weapons from Rifts World Book 5: Triax & the NGR. We also have a computerized Mini-HUD System helmet interface that combines the typical swath of visual enhancements that Palladium thinks every future soldier will have, much like the Predator had from Predator. It also gives a bonus to hit with "long-range weapons".


Best gun.

Unsurprisingly, we get new Quebecois guns. The Q1-01 Laser Pistol, Q1-02 "Stopper" Ion Pistol, and Q2-10 Laser Pulse Rifle are all notably better than their Coalition equivalents, with higher damage values. However, the Q2-20 LLG "Infantry Standard" Light Laser & Grenade Launcher may as well be a carbon copy of the current Coalition main assault rifle, save for a crappy optional Vibro-Bayonet. The Q2-30 Rapid-Fire Heavy Laser is questionably broken, able to dump its clip for inaccurate more-than-Boom-Gun-damage, though it requires high strength to use. The Q4-40 "Mule" Assault Rifle has a high strength requirement and doesn't do any more damage than any of the other rifles, so why bother ever touching it? (The answer is "you're fighting Glitter Boys"- Quebec isn't.) The Q4-44 "Drummer" Double-Barreled Shotgun is hilariously trash, doing a mere 2d6 mega-damage on a double-barreled blast. Ditto for the Q5-50 Light Rail Gun, which somehow does less damage than even the "Mule". The QN-Laser Harpoon Gun is a near-copy of the existing Coalition speargun from Rifts Sourcebook 4: Coalition Navy.


For all you underwater Hawkeyes.

The Free Quebec Body Armor (80 M.D.C.) is roughly equivalent to the old Coalition Heavy Body Armor from the corebook, but with more features and replacing the skull with spikes. Similarly, the TX-J50 Juicer EBA (90 M.D.C. is a solid suit that reduces is penalties for Juicers, and comes with art cut right out of Rifts World Book 20: Canada. Apparently Quebec still has old Coalition suits they only use for covert ops (because redoing the equipment for your entire military in 5 years is necessary to phase out the last wave of the toy line, or something) and sometimes the police use widely-produced armor.

Also, in an object lesson on how to waste valuable printing space, here's an excerpt of one of the Free Quebec Body Armor's features.

Rifts World Book 22: Free Quebec posted:

2. Video camera and long-range transmitter. This is a tube-like appendage that is most notable from the back of the armor. When in storage mode, it is locked down against the back and looks like nothing more than an air vent, or meaningless bit of tubing. When activated the tube slides up, and flips to the right or left shoulder in a horizontal position, jutting over the shoulder from behind the neck collar. In this position it is now ready to film and record or transmit pictures and sound.

Recordings are made on one of three, self-loading video discs with nine hours of available footage. If desired, the video disc can be recorded over again, although usually only after it has been viewed by the soldier's superiors and wiped clean to avoid confusing past events with current ones.

The images and sounds can also be transmitted to a communications or Mission Command Post, which can be a fixed outpost or base, or a mobile command or platoon center located in a vehicle such as an APC, Death's Head Transport, giant robot or aircraft. Standard range is ten miles (16 km), although field operations in the wilderness, away from cities, mountains and other types of interference have been successful up to 25 miles (40 km) away. Bouncing the digital transmission from relay stations (mobile or stationary) can increase the transmission to hundreds of miles, although typically about 50 miles (80 km) from station to station.

The camera is most commonly used as a means of communications, monitoring and recording troop operations, and intelligence by small units (squads and platoons). This enables officers at a main or mobile base, other teams, and rescue units to remain in unbroken contact with their teammates and constantly monitor the situation.

So many words to say: "It has a recording camera that can transmit wirelessly." Then again, not every section is quite that long.

Rifts World Book 22: Free Quebec posted:

3. Protective Neck and Shoulder Collar: This raised, padded and armored collar helps to protect the neck and shoulders.

Obvious from the illustration, irrelevant in text.

Next: All skullbots big and small.

Zereth
Jul 9, 2003



Alien Rope Burn posted:

The Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman.
i understood that reference dot gif

Dawgstar
Jul 15, 2017

In my twilight years, I find I am greatly amused by the action figure nature of the RIFTS arms race. In Coalition War Campaign all the new CS wonder weapons are better than anything EVER ("This one robot can FIGHT A DRAGON and make the dragon RESPECT IT so much it was like WHOA HONORED FOE I LET YOU GO!") and now they're all doing the job.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 12 hours!

LatwPIAT posted:

I think it's worth emphasizing here that it's really difficult to do these kind of "moving fast" actions without also being decently strong. The decision to strip perhaps the most fundamental part of being strong out of Strength in a lot of games makes for a very anemic "Strength" attribute.
It's like RPG designers got their ideas of STR vs. DEX from fighting games where the tiny teenage girl does the most damage with her kicks.

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


Consider how long it took Shadowrun to merge Body and Strength, and even then they did it in SR Anarchy instead of the main line.

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!

Ratoslov posted:

Intelligence and Dexterity are two of the dumbest legacies of D&D. So many systems have been utterly destroyed simply by copying the idea that these things exist uncritically.

Sad thing is, in D&D it actually kind of works, since Intelligence doesn't reign over all the important skills, and Dexterity isn't the "how to hit a dude"-stat for every single mode of attack. Constitution is still one of your least important investments, at least in modern D&D(not so in 1st ed, 2nd ed, where hit points were at MUCH more of a premium), but it's not quite as bad as in, well, just about any other system.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 12 hours!
The main problem in D&D as of 4th edition is that STR is completely and totally dump-worthy for the vast majority of classes, even a whole slew of classes devoted to melee combat. It only has one skill tied to it, and if you were just looking to boost your Fortitude defense, CON gives you HP. CON also has only one skill tied to it, though.

SirPhoebos
Dec 10, 2007

WELL THAT JUST HAPPENED!

I would really love for someone to review Cyberpunk 2020.

I would do it if I wasn't spending all my free time playing Dark Souls had the time.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007

IT *BZZT* WASP ME--
IT WASP ME ALL *BZZT* ALONG!


Just think about your potential review as a bigass armoured ogre with an oversized weapon you have to "Get good" at.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Old World Bestiary

Do you think they have hockey

It's interesting that Dark Elf pirates and raiders get a bestiary entry. PCs are expected to gently caress up some Druchii, because much like the Norse, they attack coastal villages in hit and run raids that are designed to take slaves before the Imperial Regiments can arrive and drive them off. The perfect sort of smaller scale battle and defensive operation to involve a PC party in. The Common View on them is all about how they steal the entire population of smaller villages without so much as being detected, as well as a dwarf spitting on them for being a bunch of murderous cowards.

Our first Scholar's View on them comes from an actual Ulthuani High Elf Ambassador who deigned to talk about his 'cousins' for a bit. He describes them pretty accurately, as a bunch of murderers following a rebel prince who refused to accept that he wasn't made king and who have run off to wildly embrace Chaos (while thinking they're firmly in control of it) and made Khaine (the lord of Murder) their chief God in his name. His emphasis in his description is on their spite and inability to ever move past the great Sundering of the elves. The other is a description of a ship chase where a dwarven engineer eventually chose to leave his ship in a fireboat and use it to draw off the pursuing Dark Elves, blowing several of their ships to pieces by igniting his powder when they got close. Not sure how that's a scholarly opinion, but I suppose it at least comes from a sailor who actually saw them.

Rikkit'Tik suggests using New World Black Lotus for the irony.

The real meat of this section comes from the Druchii themselves. They're all too happy to talk about their work and gloat about what they do. A simple Corsair is happy to describe his berth on a Black Arc, the enormous floating castles the Druchii use as motherships for their raids. He basically gives a recruiting pitch, about how he gets to keep a full tenth of what he steals and how it's a great honor to be a crewman on what's essentially a magical aircraft carrier. He also, of course, killed a couple other Druchii to get the posting; Druchii kill one another so often that I'm not sure how they have a population. They must have kids an awful lot faster than Asur, Eonir, or Asrai. The next is a Druchii Slaver, who whines about how weak and decadent the Asur of Ulthuan are, and how they let their great Empire and control of the seas slip away and blah blah standard fascist rear end in a top hat line. He also goes on and on about how it's an honor for the 'lesser races' to be enslaved and put to their proper place by the true elven Master Race. He's very excited about his Great King Malekith and refers to non-elves as animals.

Other elves might look down on you. Asrai might skin you for being in their forest because they're crazy. But it's really only the Druchii that take it all to its extreme conclusion of 'elves should rule over everything' and then go even further into 'also a couple elves who are the most edgy and awful have THE STRENGTH to rule the other elves!!!'

Harpies are a weird throwaway monster that the Druchii field alongside their armies. In fact, up to the Hydra, everything in the next few entries is something your PCs might encounter backing up the Dark Elves; they love using tamed monsters. There's an old elven story among the Common View on them that the original harpies come from an elf priestess who committed a dread BIRD MURDER. By which I mean when the man she loved married another elf lady, she wished them well, then secretly fed her blood to birds and cast spells on them, so that when she invited the couple to have a cliffside party the now-magic birds ripped them both apart. Then, horrified by BIRD MURDER she jumped off a cliff and was not allowed to die, being turned into an angry bird-lady beast that hates sailors. That's supposedly where they come from.

Harpies are not really a big deal, BIRD MURDER aside. The Dark Elves use them as trained monsters, and are fond of them because they get along with Witch Elves (Khainite priestesses) and like to torture prey to death. That's about all there is to say about the products of BIRD MURDER.

Manticores are a nasty beast. Manticores are surprise predators who try to use terror and flight to scatter their prey, as evidenced by the story of a White Wolf company fighting one. As soon as it realized they weren't frightened by it killing one of their number in its original charge, it tried to flee. These being White Wolves and thus some of the best Knights in the Empire, they managed to kill it before it could take wing. The other Common View description of them supposes them to be some kind of Chaotic reflection of the noble Griffon Catbird, which is a beloved monster in the Empire. It consists of a scribe denouncing the many sins of the Manticore, comparing them unfavorably to the noble Catbird, who is described as fierce and independent, while the Manticore is just a savage killer. This is because Magnus loved his riding Catbird and made them a symbol of the Empire, while Manticores are A: Way more Chaos mutated and B: Dicks.

The Scholar's Eye tells us they are sometimes mounted on Druchii pirate ships to be used as carrier aircraft, and that they can speak Beast Tongue. This also means you can run into them with Beastmen. Further, the Druchii confirm that they tame and breed Manticores as mounts and combat creatures. They really love the whole beastmaster thing, and Manticores are probably just intelligent enough that 'Hey if you do what we say you get food and things to kill' is enough to keep them working with the Dark Elves.

Hydras are absolute bastards. Giant snakes that breath fire, have a bunch of heads, and regenerate. The Common View tells you Hydras are extremely hard to kill. They're not that hard to wound; you can drive one off. They're actually ambush predators in their natural swamp environments, and prefer to get into fights they're sure they'll win, strike quick, and then leave. If they're getting hurt, they'll run off to regenerate. The thing is, if you get ambushed successfully by a Hydra, as the mercenary in one of the stories does, chances are it's going to have time to eat a couple of your soldiers and run off before you can regain your wits and try to injure the thing. All those heads act in coordination with one another, which leads us to the Scholar's Eye speculating that the brain of a Hydra is actually contained in the torso, behind its thickest plate and bone. A cannon shot to that exact spot should kill one, same for a heavy lance charge or a greatsword. Attacking the heads is mostly useless.

Hydras don't die of old age, and they keep getting bigger as they get older. They eat whatever they can, when they can, and this has actually destroyed their species. They're so voracious that they have huge territories, and smaller territory won't sustain an older, larger Hydra; they'll eventually destroy the ecosystem and need to move on. They're actually nearly extinct in the Old World because their huge range draws a large number of foes to cooperate to eventually bring the terror down. They're plentiful in the Chaos Wastes, though, where normal laws of ecology don't apply. And worse, the Druchii breed them in Naggaroth, and send tamed Hydras raised from birth into battle as living battering rams. We get an account from a Bretonnian Knight that if you ever face one with Druchii handlers, kill the handlers first. The Hydras are so accustomed to getting orders that they'll be confused and unsure what to do, giving an opportunity to kill the thing.

Next Time: A random assortment of critters, but most importantly, Ogres

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Young Freud
Nov 26, 2006

SirPhoebos posted:

I would really love for someone to review Cyberpunk 2020.

I would do it if I wasn't spending all my free time playing Dark Souls had the time.

TBF, where would you begin? CP2013, CP2020, or V3.0? Better yet, where would you end?

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