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ZeusJupitar posted:This is clarified in, and I believe only in, the original setting gazetteer in the Fantasy Battle 3rd edition core book. When the Old Ones found the world, it was a lush jungle planet in the process of spiralling away from its sun. The Old Ones stopped the drift and pushed it back in to the optimum orbit. All subsequent telling of the story mention them warming the planet and that the original races were all reptiles, but miss the key point. Huh, that's interesting to know. Thanks.
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Feb 19, 2019 21:42
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Man, half the comedy and entertainment of Warhammer Fantasy is the interactions between the species. It feels like it'd benefit from being more cosmopolitan and less fighty. If Greenskins, Skaven, Dwarves, Elves, Giants, Giant Eagles, Ogres, Hobbits, etc. were all interacting with each other in non-violent ways regularly, you'd have a much more comical setting. Probably Bloodbowl, really. As it is, having a bunch of the species being in kill-on-sight mode with each other kind of makes it hard to use some of them as anything but random battles.
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Feb 19, 2019 22:07
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A dragon was fairly important the plot of a 4e Fantasy game I ran for a while. The villain was a Chaos Sorcerer Lord who wanted to use a ritual to corrupt and bind a sleeping ancient wyrm he found. His plan was pretty simple, burn some empire towns and cities with it to show his power and get a bunch of chaos followers to rally behind him. Then fly north back to the Chaos Wastes and challenge Archaon with the Dragon to take his place. Given that that players woke up the dragon before he finished, his charred corpse shows how well his plan went.
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Feb 19, 2019 22:10
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PurpleXVI posted:Man, half the comedy and entertainment of Warhammer Fantasy is the interactions between the species. It feels like it'd benefit from being more cosmopolitan and less fighty. If Greenskins, Skaven, Dwarves, Elves, Giants, Giant Eagles, Ogres, Hobbits, etc. were all interacting with each other in non-violent ways regularly, you'd have a much more comical setting. One of the legacies of starting out as wargaming fluff, I suppose. Though the RPG material goes a long way to suggesting it's more possible to interact non-violently with a wider array of critters and peoples than the wargame, at least. E: Also, 'all these weirdos get together to solve things with footballrugby' is the entire appeal of Blood Bowl, besides the hilariously spiteful mechanics, and it's great for it. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Feb 19, 2019 |
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Feb 19, 2019 22:10
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PurpleXVI posted:Man, half the comedy and entertainment of Warhammer Fantasy is the interactions between the species. It feels like it'd benefit from being more cosmopolitan and less fighty. If Greenskins, Skaven, Dwarves, Elves, Giants, Giant Eagles, Ogres, Hobbits, etc. were all interacting with each other in non-violent ways regularly, you'd have a much more comical setting. Fixed that for you.
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Feb 20, 2019 00:08
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 Dark Revelation is a d20 system RPG by Chris Constantin and Jason Cable Hall and edited by Joe Amon and published in 2014. Set in a twice post-apocalyptic world, it asks players to make their way in this hostile but still rebuilding landscape. It is available for free along with a host of expansion material and the developers blog Part 2: I Got Two Apocalypses and I Ain’t Ashamed Ok with all of that preamble out of the way, let’s actually start talking about Dark Revelations. The game kicks off with something I appreciate, a checklist for what is new versus the standard d20 rules as well as a commitment by the game designers, which they’ve done, to continuously update this product based on player feedback. This is great for a reader familiar with d20 looking for what this brings to the, ahem, table but its very dry and lacking the cohesive pitch on what exactly this game is about and what these rules help accomplish. This lack of set tone and goal for the game is going to be an ongoing problem. From there, we go into the games setting, starting with the section “Before Revelations”*. It’s written theoretically in universe by a Teacher's Assistant which is an odd profession for your lore master and doesn’t read like anything any professional would write and instead is mostly just overwrought but completely vague prose. In addition to the main text, there is a sidebar that consists of someone very vaguely interviewing the author of the section that has no real connection to the details the main section is talking about. It also highlights another problem that is ongoing in this book; the games tone is all over the place. The main text talks of horrific end of the world and how traumatizing it is while the sidebar is goofy and consequence-free. From our author, we learn in that in the past of when the author is writing, humans lived in a technologically advanced consumer society. It’s downfall began with the splitting of the atom and the 20th Century American government reaction to foreign powers attempting to surpass it with a massive technology and weapons program. If you think that the games past is occuring in our 1950s sorry you lose, the games past it is describing is actually happening in an alternate universe future timeline of 2040. In Dark Revelations, nuclear power however splits more than just atoms and is capable of splitting open the fabric of reality. The United States, not realizing that perhaps this is not a great side effect, decides to go whole hog and causes the apocalypse which unleashes all our collective unconscious into reality. Or maybe it lets things which were real and just hidden manifest to humans clearly, the book says both things nearly back to back and struggles to ever clarify which is which when talking about anything going forward. Dark Revelations, to its detriment, can’t commit and ends up having both to be true simultaneously. Not only does this raise a lot of questions later when say religious figures get involved, it makes a lot of sections hard to parsel. For example, this is 50% of all writing on the first Apocalypse that occurs in the game: “The skies opened as much that had been imagination had now been brought into reality. Abominations created by the media and fiction came to life bringing their terror to the Earth. Additionally, many things from other places in time and space were dragged to Earth and left there. It was hard to tell what was real or not, which only increased the hysteria” First, that is verbatim so that bizarre first sentence is exactly what the book says. Second, you might note that the first sentence of the paragraph says “had now been brought into reality” while two sentences later it says “it was hard to tell what was real or not”. It’s all real, you literally just said so! Third, the other half of the apocalypse is just a hand wavy “new things existing caused all of society to collapse” with absolutely no detail as to why or what or how. In fact, the only source explaining why the first apocalypse causes the world to end is tucked away in the timeline for this setting at the end of the chapter. After the first vague but bad apocalypse, human civilization begins to rebuild within a framework of new, undefined “neighbors” as the book calls them. This period of rebuilding lasts for a confusing amount of time before the second apocalypse. I mean it when I say confusing because this book has a timeline and I still can’t figure out how long this period the book refers to is. You see, the timeline in the book uses two different measures of time, the first uses our current system and goes from 2040 to 2150. The other is called Post Revelation Times and goes from 1-6. Now, you might think that the PRT follows immediately after 2150, but the first timeline has a period of time in 2060 to 2061 labeled as “Time of Revelations” so shouldn’t the PRT calendar be from 2062-2068? Even ignoring that and assuming the first calendar transitions to the second calendar, the first one ends by saying, quote, “The era of the “first peace” lasts half a century” but the time on the calendar for that time period is from 2112 to 2150. Does the first peace actually last to 2168 and then the new calendar starts or does it cut off at 2150 and the “lasts half a century” bit just completely wrong? Even worse the first date on the PRT calendar starts with “After what seems like an endless era of conflict [...]” so maybe it doesn’t start at 2150 because the previous thing was an era of peace. Whenever and however long this period is ends when the armies of the dead lead by “The Fallen Lords” rise up and try to conquer the lands of the rebuilding sentient species. This is the second apocalypse which the game names this time as the “Necromantic Wars.” This world shattering conflict gets very little description here, honestly its about the length of this paragraph, doesn’t include any details on why it happens or what the goals of the Fallen Lords are, and ends with a coalition of living countries defeating the undead with magic. The dead rising and leading armies against the living gets exactly as much buildup and detail as I just gave above, so don’t think I skipped or skimmed something to get here. Don’t worry, though, that timeline I mentioned before which appears 20 pages later from this section has a lot more details about it. For instance, it makes it very clear the Fallen Lords were the cause of why the first Apocalypse was so bad and destroyed huge swaths of the United States. You might think that having a recurring antagonist group that have basically ended the world twice might be worth mentioning the first time they show up and end the world, but Dark Revelations disagrees. Following this second Apocalypse, the remaining survivors now have strong alliances with each other and “know there is a world much larger out there”. Wouldn’t they know that already what with the previous apocalypse happening a scant 90 years before and introducing dimensional hopping aliens and fairies to earth and a group of undead hell-bent on killing all living beings? The apocalypse which, in the timeline 20 pages later but not in the section describing it, had massive battles between the undead and humans who mastered the art of witchcraft? Or the fact that the survivors have functioning tv stations and broadcasters who do live specials on relics of the past from the apocalypse to their viewers at home? Remember when I said the game has an issue with establishing its tone and goals? This whole section of the setting lore is the exact stuff I’m talking about. The game has a copyright term for its setting, “Hodgepocalypse”, but at this point the game still hasn’t defined what that means and all the lore we’ve seen so far is extremely light on any details beyond “there are necromancers”. The game feels a bit like a unstuffed teddy bear, you see what it’s trying to be and how much work went into the details of the cloth but it hasn’t got enough fluff to give it the proper shape. Next Time: TV stations require populations of more than a thousand subsistence farmers to operate *Humans literally invent their own demise and this game has nothing to do with the Christian Holy Texts, so Revelations just seems like such a weird choice of term to me.
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Feb 20, 2019 01:03
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 Rifts World Book 22: Free Quebec, Part 11: "Readers might think of it as a combination of 'Dodge City' from the old American West, World War II's Casablanca and the Star Wars cantina." Old Bones The ruins of old Quebec By Kevin Siembieda Built on the original site of the city of Quebec, this has been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times- - this is where a Futurama clip of New York getting blown up would go if Fox weren't huge jerks. Nowadays, it's a lawless trade-and-crime 'burg allowed its independence by New Quebec. It's essentially a wild-and-wooly Wild West sort of place where people are flying through bar windows all the time, when they aren't drinking, gambling, or shooting their six-laser-guns in the air. It's one of the few places where D-Bees aren't openly prosecuted, but they have a tendency to vanish if they cause a fuss or "trouble". The Northern part of town is more settled, as the locals self-police the area for their own benefit, and keep the wilder part of the town segregated. The reason Free Quebec turns a blind eye to Old Bones is because... they don't, actually. It turns out they maintain a quiet influence over the whole thing as an information honeypot, so they can keep an eye on illicit affairs and undesirable folk in their borders. Most of the local politicians are, as a result, entirely in Free Quebec's pocket. Which raises the question of when and how they took it over - after all, it's been around for centuries. Has it been this way for centuries? Decades? We just don't know. In any case, many of the established criminal groups at least suspect or know this, they're willing to play along as the whole arrangement still largely benefits them. Sometimes government agents will capture those they find overly dangerous - which includes any mage and many D-Bees. The whole situation often casts doubt on who is or isn't an agent of the government or a criminal organization, and there is a local tradition of trade in rumors and conspiracy theories.  RoboMediEvil. As such, this is one of the few places in Quebec you can trade in illicit goods or include in illegal vices. However, outsiders have a tendency to dissapear, fall victim to "accidents", commit suicide with somebody else's gun from thirty feet away, etc. Locals who have established themselves are generally free from scrutiny, but both local criminal groups and government agents can be the cause of such vanishings. Sometimes Free Quebec does crackdowns with SAMAS or Glitter Boy units. Most locals are aware that if Free Quebec wanted Old Bones gone, they could easily wipe them out. The Northtown District and New Town are where the local government, police, and many of the residents are settled. The local police are no-nonsense and brutal, particularly towards outsiders, and fairly corrupt, effectively robbing those they arrest. As such, they're generally looking for an excuse. The Southside Factory District is a industrial shithole with low-income workers just trying to make it by. Eastruins is the worst area, essentially a shanty down of wrecked buildings, squatters, and gangs. There are some attractions for outsiders here, though, like bloodsports, "disease-ridden brothels", ask-no-questions pawnshops, etc. The kind of thing that really brings in the tourism crowd. Most of the attention here is on the Trade Center District, which gives us a 23-entry chart along with an associated map of boxes. It's apparently iwhere the grand majority of crime and disappearances occur, but we'll just cover some of the businesses. Some of them have rumors associated with them, some accurate, some not, but it's an ongoing gimmick of this section.
 "Now you face El Cráneo de la Vaca!"
 Guns on glasses may be going too far.
 At least Siembieda doesn't think the Coalition are gonna be on his side! (Yes, that is supposed to be him on the right.) Old Bones Rumor Mill Conspiracy Theory Generator By Bill Coffin Bill Coffin! A name that will live in Palladium infamy for his rpg.net rants against the company following him being fired. He's been working on other game lines at this point in time, and this is the first time seeing him write something for Rifts. As a regular Palladium writer at this point, he's being brought onto the Rifts line at his chagrin- Coffin was largely a fan of Palladium Fantasy, and will be writing on a number of upcoming books despite his ambivalence on the line. Kevin saw him as a best-ish bud at the time. The generator is actually a neat little toy, offering basically a random plot hook generator for GMs. It notes that sometimes GMs may have to modify the rumor to be a little more coherent, but that they need not be entirely sensible- they are conspiracy theories, after all. In general, you're supposed to roll a few and then try and figure out how they tie together. They consist of rolling for who is involved, what is involved, where it's happening, when it's going on, why it's happening, and how it's occurring. There's also a "accuracy" roll you can make to determine how many elements are true. So let's try it out!
... not perfect, but it's at least a neat way to set up plot hooks for PCs.  mmmmm yessss very gooood yessss Next: A day that will live in metaplot.
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Feb 20, 2019 01:23
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:And he was going by Andrew Bates at that time. Alien, were you in the DMA? I was from 78-85, then 88-92 then 2001 until it disappeared. I... think? I remember there were two campus clubs I pinballed between , one was the main gaming club at the start of the nineties and the other was ROOSAP. I might actually still have a card with that information somewhere. Buried. I wasn't anywhere near college-age at the time, that's pretty much where I learned to "seriously" roleplay, chiefly in a long-running Cyberpunk 2020 game for two years that was disrupted largely by our GM joining the Navy. I tended to jump in on any game I found interesting and had a spot, the other longer-run game I remember being in was a homebrew fantasy game called "RPG III". Most everything else was pretty short term, games had a tendency to implode pretty fast in my experience (or stunk so bad I bailed on them pretty quick).
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Feb 20, 2019 01:39
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Oh, young Bill. We have so much to warn you about and yet sadly, we cannot.
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Feb 20, 2019 04:23
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 Part 3: Call me Cyber-Ishmael  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laiY1Utifig This is probably my favorite bit in CP2020 in retrospect. Section 3 is titled “Tales from the Street” and it is a full suite of tables to generate a background for your PC, give a picture of where they came from, what sort of plot hooks they have to resolve, and what might motivate them. Childhood, friends and relatives, motivations, early life events, and even your sense of style are quickly rolled up. My only complaint is that some die results provide mechanical bonuses or penalties - if I ran CP2020 today I’d houserule that these effects are baked into your starting stats rather than added or subtracted afterward. Rather than go over every table entry, I’m going to create a sample character. But before I begin, I need to draw attention to an in-universe quote that I feel is in questionable taste: Johnny Silverhand posted:"I remember she told me she was born In Miami, about 2004 or so ... She was pretty sure, because she could still remember what It'd been like when the Euros rocked Washington and the near miss took out Tampa ... With that out of the way, let’s roll up a lifepath. Our hypothetical player (let’s name him Rick) is making a character for Cyberpunk 2020, but is coming up blank on defining this character. All he knows is that the character is a Solo. Luckily the Lifepath Tables have him covered. The only thing it doesn’t tell him is this character’s name. Rick shrugs and names the Solo Jamie because he’s been listening to Aerosmith a lot. Rick’s first role for Jamie is her style and appearance - the kind of clothes she wears, her hairstyle, and what affections. Rick roles a 3, 1, and 5. So she wears Corporate Suits, a Mohawk, and has a nose ring. Well, I guess that’s how Jamie rolls. The next role is ethnic origin, which requires a bit of a deeper dive. The world of Cyberpunk 2020 is multicultural, and the table here makes a good effort to reflect that. You’re no more likely to be Anglo American than to be from the Pacific Islands There are some deficiencies. One, there is no option for mixed race. Second, this selection also determines your native language, which you speak at skill level 8. So if your ethnicity is 2: Japanese/Korean, then you speak either Japanese or Korean. The possibility that you speak English because you grew up in an integrated American household (or because you had no parents, which we’ll get to) doesn’t seem to be considered. There’s also probably an issue of what ethnic groups are paired together, but I’m not an expert. I’ll just share the table and let the thread be the judge. All I will say is that if you roll Black-American, one of your language options is “Blackfolk”  (CP2020 does have a Common-equivalent known as “Streetslang,” so I’ll give credit for not just defaulting to everyone speaking english). Back to our example, Rick rolls 8. Jamie is Hispanic. We pick Spanish as her native language, but Rick makes a note to invest some pick-up points into English. (there’s also a sidebar here where we have some examples of Streetslang. Half of these are made up terms, but the other half is stuff that became common parlance within a few years anyway.) We come to our first series of tables, Family Background. This will tell us what Jamie’s childhood was like. The first roll is Family Ranking. Rick rolls a 5 and get...Pirate Fleet?  Jamie’s parents were pirates. Why not? His next roll is to see if they’re alive. He get a 2, and his hopes of playing Sea Batman are dashed. The next roll is Family Status. Rick gets a 6: there’s been a Family Tragedy. A roll of 7 tells him what that tragedy is: The family is involved in a long-term conspiracy! Rick knows what Jamie’s parents are up to, but nothing about how Jamie actually grew up. For that he rolls on Childhood Environment. He gets a 1: Spent on the street with no adult supervision. Lastly, Rick checks if Jamie has any siblings and what her relationship is with them. Unfortunately he gets an 8. An 8-0 on the initial role means only child. Now that we have some idea of Jamie’s early history, Rick goes to the next set of tables: Motivation. For Personality Trait, Rick rolls a 9, meaning that Jamie is intellectual and detached. The next table is Person You Value Most, and for this Rick rolls a 7, which is a Teacher or Mentor. The next roll determines What Do You Value Most, and Rick gets a 3: Your Word. Rick then rolls on the How Do You Feel About Most People table, and gets 9: “Wipe ‘em all out and give the place to the cockroaches”  And finally, he rolls to find out what is Jamie’s most prized possession, and he get 7: Musical Instrument.The last set of tables is the characters Life Events, what he or she did as an adult before. The first thing Rick does is determine Jamie’s age, which is 2d6+16. He gets a 9, so Jamie is 25. Rick rolls a d10 nine times, and gets these life events for Jamie: -17: Big Problems, Big Wins (1-3) -18: Big Problems, Big Wins -19: Friends & Enemies (4-6) -20: Big Problems, Big Wins -21: Nothing Happened (9-0) -22: -23: Nothing Happened -24: Nothing Happened -25: Friends & Enemies Rick makes his first roll on the Big Problems, Big Wins. The first is to determine if it’s a problem (odds) or a win (evens). He rolls a 3, Illness or addiction! Jamie loses 1 Reflex permanently. At this point, Rick gives the referee (Dave) a look. Dave, being For Jamie’s Friends & Enemies, the first roll is to see whether the person is an enemy (1-5) or a friend (6-10). For the sake of example, we’ll do one of each. The enemy example is more involved. First Rick determines who the enemy is. He roll a 3: Relative. Next Rick checks the Cause, and gets 2: Caused the death of a friend, lover or relative. The next roll is to see who is pissed, and it looks like this relative hates Jamie. The next roll is Whatcha Gonna Do About It to see what the aggrieved relative will do if (roll for sex) she runs into Jamie, and the result is 0: Rip into her verbally. Finally Rick checks to see who has this relative’s back, and gets a 3: Just herself (alternatively, a roll of 10 would have given our relative an entire government agency to shittalk about us). Determining the nature of Jamie’s friend only involves one roll (two if you count determining gender), and for that Rick gets a 2, “Like a kid brother to me”. As for more details of what these two are like, the table directs us back to the Style and Motivations table but we’ll skip that for this example. One last possible life event is Romantic Involvement. First I should comment on the orientation presumption. There is no explicit or implicit statement that only hetero relationships are assumed (even if the art presumes this). I even went ahead and checked the Seduction skill and it passes the Jef Test (as seen on System Mastery). With that out of the way, let’s make some rolls. First Rick sees what sort of relationship Jamie had. The result is 7: Love Affair with Problems. Other possibilities are Happy Love Affair (boring), Tragic Love Affair, and Fast Affairs and Hot Dates. But what sort of problems did Jamie’s fling have: Rick rolls a 7: Jamie’s romantic partner is also a professional rival! So where does that leave the two of them? The result is a 1: They still love you (Jamie doesn’t necessarily love or hate her ex, which are both possible rolls.)  And that is a glimpse at Lifepaths. What began as just a reference to a song now has more than enough info to craft an interesting background. Some pieces will take some imagination to fit together, while others practically write themselves. As for Jamie, she’s going to be our example character as we explore the rules (either played by Jenette Goldstein or Cynthia Rothrock). So stay tuned as Jamie gets stats, skills, gear, and cyberwear. And a gun. ‘Cause hoy boy, does Jamie got a gun. Next time: Skills, or: Why do they keep mentioning Hitler? EDIT: Young Freud posted:I honestly probably would give this a pass, largely because Pondsmith being an African-American and growing up in Oakland. He's clearly talking about AAVE as if it's another language. Including this quote just so no one gets the wrong impression in the archives. SirPhoebos fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Feb 21, 2019 |
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Feb 20, 2019 06:04
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Lifepaths are the best thing. Put lifepaths into your games 2020
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Feb 20, 2019 07:01
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SirPhoebos posted:The next role is ethnic origin, which requires a bit of a deeper dive. The world of Cyberpunk 2020 is multicultural, and the table here makes a good effort to reflect that. You’re no more likely to be Anglo American than to be from the Pacific Islands There are some deficiencies. One, there is no option for mixed race. Second, this selection also determines your native language, which you speak at skill level 8. So if your ethnicity is 2: Japanese/Korean, then you speak either Japanese or Korean. The possibility that you speak English because you grew up in an integrated American household (or because you had no parents, which we’ll get to) doesn’t seem to be considered. There’s also probably an issue of what ethnic groups are paired together, but I’m not an expert. I’ll just share the table and let the thread be the judge. All I will say is that if you roll Black-American, one of your language options is “Blackfolk” I honestly probably would give this a pass, largely because Pondsmith being an African-American and growing up in Oakland. He's clearly talking about AAVE as if it's another language.
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Feb 20, 2019 07:34
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Okay, but what happened to India and the Middle East?
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Feb 20, 2019 08:05
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Xiahou Dun posted:Okay, but what happened to India and the Middle East? They're on a farm upstate in Cyberpunk: Canada.
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Feb 20, 2019 08:19
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Cults: Scrappers, pt. 4 Degenesis Rebirth Primal Punk Chapter 3: Cults SCRAPPERS RANKS SCRAPPERS  1. Mouse Mice are kids. You tie a bit of rope around them and shove them into some hole you can't fit into. Apparently, not all Mice are treated well, especially if they were bought from an Apocalyptic Stork (Apocalyptics continue their uninterrupted streak of being the worst). 2. Badger Once a kid gets too fat (really) or too proud to go into holes, they become a Badger, which is fancy way of saying it's the first real level of being a Scrapper. 3a. Fox While a Badger is described as a novice scrambling over the ruins in search for poo poo, the Fox is someone who already knows the area as the back of his hand and only needs to return to civilization to sell loot to Chroniclers. A bit of a jump in competence, isn't it? Also, what's the use of knowing some ruins that well if you're collecting non-renevable resources instead of being some sort of ruin forrager who would know where the best moss grows? 4a. Lone Wolf This guy somehow knows where the artifacts are and how to recover them – and how much that would cost. He also has a gun that “tears holes much bigger than any rock can make” - it's a reference to people no longer throwing stones at them. 5a. Cave Bear You become a Cave Bear when you get so well known and adapted to delving into the ruins that people actually turn around and go away once they find your rune telling them to do so. You may also have an actual bear companion. 3b. Mechanist Tired of just looking for crap or having an animal related name? Become a Mechanist. Somehow, as a snot-nosed Badger you learned enough about mechanics to become a crafter. That's why you look at salvaged stuff not as goods, but as materials. 4b. Manufacturer You know a lot about mechanical stuff and can probably clone a rifle well enough to make any Khyber Pass smith jealous. You likely have a secure workshop somewhere, possibly at Tech Central. quote:Around his neck, he wears a chain from which keys the length of half a man’s arm dangle. Every one of them opens the workshop of another manufacturer. Every settlement would be proud to have a man like him amongst its ranks. Also, your neck is broken. 3c. Scavenger Scavengers are those with the gear and knowledge to salvage really big stuff. They have enough tractor combos and pneumatic tin snips to take apart a Surge Tank. Also, unlike the regular antisocial Euro-Scrapper, they never go around alone and actually value community (of people with industrial looting gear). 4c. Alpha Wolf Not to be confused with Lone Wolf. He's basically a leader of Scavengers who hasn't hosed them over too often and knows how to sell poo poo to Chroniclers without getting the Cartel involved. 5b. Legend So, A (animal name), B (crafting) and C (having friends) branches can all go to become Legend. And that's what you are: a well known Scrapper who has done some legendary poo poo. 3d. Cartel Thug So, Cartel camps Chronicles outposts, taking one fifth of each Scrappers proceeds in exchange for advice and not beating them up. You can avoid this by joining the Cartel as a Thug. You only pay 10% and get some small-time missions like beating up a guy or reconing some unknown ruin. 4d. Cartel Appraiser They're the guys who, in exchange for 20%, advise Scrappers on how not to get hosed by Chroniclers, even accompanying them on the trades. They know their artifacts and tricks. Cartel members only pay 10%, however. 5d. Officer Appraisers answer – and pay – to them. So that's that.  Stereotypes posted:ANABAPTISTS: Anabaptists are armed farmers. They don’t even get their cross-and-water crap themselves. The only thing that matters to them is tilling fields, drinking, and killing Aberrants. By the way, the Orgiasts’ baptisms are not that bad. That’s not water in their barrels. LOBO  Culture: Purgare Concept: The Disciple Cult: Scrappers (Legend) Lobo's a white guy who managed to lie his way into Bedain. He is charismatic enough to get along with Scourgers. Lobo sells stuff Neolybians have already picked clean of anything useful to Europeans. However, sometimes the pile contains a thing or two that should have went to the Africans... HESTA  Culture: Hybrispania Concept: The Visionary Cult: Scrappers (Lone wolf) quote:Digging in the dirt may appeal to some Scrappers as a lifestyle, but for Hesta, it is not enough. She has gotten wind of something big, has collected maps and Pathfinder way markers, has studied ancient books, and has compared printouts of city skylines with the silhouettes of seas of debris and come to her own conclusions. “More than a strike”, she says, her jaws tight. THE HEAD COLLECTOR  Culture: ? Concept: The Destroyer Cult: ? ( presumably Scrappers ) Apparently this is some dude who has already beheaded 29 (possibly female) Scrappers in Justitian and Judges still can't find him. Maybe someone is protecting him? Who knows! In conclusion: Scrappers are probably the flimsiest excuse for a cult, seeing how it's basically looter lifestyle the class. The fact that African Scrappers are very different from Europeans doesn't help. But if your Cult defines your class and you already entrusted the high tech stuff to Next time: DINAR DINAR DINAAAR JcDent fucked around with this message at 08:40 on Feb 20, 2019 |
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Feb 20, 2019 08:34
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You'd think that it's not actually that hard these days to get somebody to do RPG illustrations, given there's an entire cottage industry of artists on the internet begging for money and drawing pornography. I suppose you'd want some more paperwork for doing illustrations for something you publish rather than pictures of various fictional characters and your own OCs doing stuff I don't need to elaborate on, mind, but there's probably plenty of models for that.
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Feb 20, 2019 08:53
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I mean it costs money is the issue. Like Ill never begrudge a self published book or whatever for having public domain photos and art in it as long as theres a sense of art direction to the proceedings. And dont forget big publishers in this industry arent that big either and paying for art can start eating margins up at a blistering pace when selling 10,000 copies of something would be phenomenal for a lot of publishers.
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Feb 20, 2019 09:49
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Ghost Leviathan posted:You'd think that it's not actually that hard these days to get somebody to do RPG illustrations, given there's an entire cottage industry of artists on the internet begging for money and drawing pornography. I suppose you'd want some more paperwork for doing illustrations for something you publish rather than pictures of various fictional characters and your own OCs doing stuff I don't need to elaborate on, mind, but there's probably plenty of models for that. How fast an artist draws something depends a lot on their skill, but let's for the sake of argument say you want a detailed, full-colour, shaded, full-body character drawing for one of the sample characters in your book. You want things to be on spec and you have a sense of art direction, so there's some back and forth adjusting things for the final product. Let's be generous and say ten hours for drafting and finalizing, at a... decent but not terribly high wage of 15 USD/hour, because we're an ethical company. No royalties or fees for using the final product. Total comes to 150 USD. (You can find artists who'll work for less than this, say... 60 USD? They should be paid more though.) Five sample characters comes to 750 USD. Then comes other illustrations, say, a 200 USD each because they're probably full-character, full-colour, with background, sometimes involving multiple characters in dynamic poses. One illustration every five pages, 250 page book: 10,000 USD. Let's get a nice cover with lots of characters on it, say, another 1,250 USD because I like round numbers and we're paying our artists a decent hourly wage. Total comes to 12,000 USD. Which is not unreasonable, but it's a lot of money to take out of your personal account for what's probably a hobby project.
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Feb 20, 2019 12:46
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Also just bear in mind that getting art for personal commissions and art for business use are two entirely different fields in terms of pricing and complications.
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Feb 20, 2019 13:32
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Wrestlepig posted:Lifepaths are the best thing. Put lifepaths into your games 2020 God yes.
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Feb 20, 2019 13:33
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Wrestlepig posted:Lifepaths are the best thing. Put lifepaths into your games 2020 That whole thing was the 'good' kind of randomization, I think. I have several players who love a bit of randomization in character generation because they like improv creative writing like that, and I bet they'd love that kind of system.
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Feb 20, 2019 13:55
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Alien Rope Burn posted:So, Coffin steps in to give us a full-length adventure where the PCs are approached by a group of anti-Coalition activists called the "Free Thinkers". It Jesus loving Christ do I hate these "teehee, the villains can never be defeated" villains/factions. In 40K, you have that with Orks (in 7e, at least) and Genestealer Cults - sure, you might shoot everyone last of them that you see dead, but more will be on the way/regrowing as mushrooms, etc! Way to rob any victory of meaning, GW. And Kevin's obsession with players never achieving anything AND running into reoccurring enemies is fukken baffling. I hate him and RIFTS need to be taken out of his hands.
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Feb 20, 2019 14:26
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I think the issue is, as a writer, you often get attached to your own characters and you don't write the PCs. So you get very invested in your villains and your heroes and this that and the other thing and lose sight of the fact the actual heroes and their adventures are going to be written by a team of other people who probably won't fully understand all the rules you've written in the rule book much less have the same vision for your characters as you do. Also I feel like it'd be really easy to convince people there was a RIFTS Saturday morning cartoon and they just forgot all about it.
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Feb 20, 2019 14:37
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Emerald Empire: The Oldest Shrine In Clear Water Village, the largest Crab port city and trade center, lies one of the most ancient shrines in the entire Empire: the Shrine of the Willow-Healing Kami. The shrine sits on a rocky outcropping just beyond the docks, and consists mainly of a stone lantern set at the foot of an old willow tree, easy to miss. Without the spirit enshrined within, however, the city wouldn’t even exist. While now far larger than any village, Clear Water Village was once nothing but a tiny fishing settlement on the mouth of the River of Gold, right on Earthquake Fish Bay. Despite its small size, it was vital to the Yasuki family, providing them the fish that fed them. It is not clear, historically, how the locals managed to offend Ekibyogami, the Fortune of Pestilence, in the 2nd Century, but they very clearly did. A terrible plague swept through the area, causing fever, pus-filled bumps on the skin, pains, weakness and, eventually, death. Even the fish were stricken, and the priests gave daily offerings to beg the Fortune’s mercy. All would be last, were it not for the actions of a single kodama, the spirit of a local willow. When the kodama’s daily visitor, a young and playful girl who loved the tree, got sick and near to death, the kodama approached Ekibyogami alone, bargaining for the village’s lives. It is unknown what the spirit traded for the mercy of the Fortune, but the disease miraculously vanished, and the tree’s once-strong boughs sagged, its bark turning soft and grey, its leaves pale white. It has remained so ever since. The shrine sits on an outcropping that splits off a busy dock, so the only real way to approach it is the water. A blessed kobune ship, covered in paper streamers and bearing a torii arch, is maintained for the purpose of letting people get to the shrine, and most consider the boat part of the shrine itself. On the far side of the island, the shrine sits in the form of a knee-high lantern at the foot of the willow tree, which is itself about seven feet tall. The tree is constantly in bloom, with splotchy pink flowers and white leaves that gently fall into the sea. A thick shimenawa rope circles the trunk to designate it as the shintai. Few visit the shrine, however. There’s not a lot of reason to come out to see the Willow-Healing Kami, and the spirit hasn’t manifested in a long, long time. Some still leave regular offerings, though, usually incense and sake in thanks to the kodama and to ask for its continued protection. Willow-Healing Kami Rumors posted:
Kuni Kayo, the Willow Gardener, is one of our NPCs; the Willow Kodama is the other. Kayo is descended from the original shrine keeper, and he is the lone caretaker of the shrine, as was his father, his grandmother, and so on before him. Fortunately, the kodama keeps him company. The kodama speaks to him fondly, and their endless conversations often make many stare at him and think him strange. Kuni Kayo is a determined, smart and only slightly offputting (by Kuni standards) shugenja who secretly yearns for greater things, but could never abandon his duty – or his kodama friend. Kayo is unmarried and has no children, and while he wishes for betrothal, his poor luck and obscure duty keep it from happening. He has no idea what to do, and the kodama seems unconcerned about it, even jealous, if marriage is brought up around it. It almost seems as if it doesn’t want Kayo to marry, for fear of losing his attentions. Kayo is able to summon the kodama, though he has never done so, and the spirit has in fact not manifested physically in generations. When it does take on a physical form, the kodama appears as a hunched figure with long, white hair, gray skin that is gnarled and made of bark, and kind eyes. Not all shrines are good, just as not all follow the orthodox Shintao faith. Cults exist that worship Onnotangu, Lord Moon, who despises all mortals. They hope to empower him, that he may judge the world and wipe it clean. Others, the Bloodspeakers, use forbidden blood magic in order to unbind and resurrect Iuchiban. Still others bargain with oni for power or wield terrible curses for self-aggrandizement. And, well, some spirits are just assholes. Oni spread the evil of Jigoku in Ningen-do, of course. Some spirits are afflicted by the perils of imbalance, like the cursed dragon P’an Ku, who became trapped within Ningen-do. And others, like Ekibyogami, the Fortune of Pestilence, merely have terrible duties to perform. Those latter are feared but still revered, as any other. The Clans maintain shrines to them alongside the benevolent spirits, and offerings are still made to them. These shrines are even common; the Doji have more shrines to Ekibyogami than any other, and sacrifice a portion of every crop to the terrifying Fortune, that he might not claim it personally. The Agasha, in Dragon lands, maintain shrines to the spirits of Gaki-do and Toshigoku, to maintain balance with the shrines that honor the more benevolent spirits of Meido and Tengoku. Some wonder why anyone would maintain such cursed shrines, but these forces can’t be defeated – they must only be appeased, that their wrath does not roam free. While all Fortunes have mercy and wrath, the darker Fortunes favor the side of wrath. They are the ones that villages try to avoid drawing the attention of, who receive offerings to appease them or hurry them on rather than gain their blessing. These include: Ekibyogami, Fortune of Pestilence, who spitefully spreads disease and blight. Ekibyogami is servant to Jurojin, the Fortune of Longevity, maintaining the balance so that life never completely overwhelms death. Hofukushu, Fortune of Vengeance, who is said to be older than the Fortune of Justice. He is prayed to by those who have been desperately wronged…and by those who are desperately guilty, to keep him away. Kamashi-Okara, Fortune of Sorrow, whose duty is to ensure mortals remain aware that their time in Ningen-do is limited. She makes sure they do not waste what little time they have. Kirako, Fortune of Torture, was in life Suzume Kirako, who protested the torture of a samurai under the Steel Chrysanthemum. As her punishment, he had her tortured to death and then elevated as the Fortune of Torture, that she would forever embody and witness that which she most despised. Onnotangu, Lord Moon, is the father of the Kami and husband to Amaterasu, but he believes himself betrayed by his family, and all know that he despises Ningen-do above all else. Other shrines are considerably less useful. These are secret shrines, dark shrines that honor the enemies of the Celestial Order and, indeed, all life. These shrines are maintained by heretical cults; some are nihilistic cults, others devoted to corrupt philosophies, and yet others just desperate and disillusioned with the Fortunes. These shrines are utterly disruptive to natural harmony and the spiritual health of the Empire, and must be destroyed wherever they are found. When a normal shrine falls into disrepair, its enshrined spirit may flee or a blight may be invited into it. This causes a formerly good shrine to become corrupted. This can also happen when Gaki-do and Toshigoku flow into a shrine, superseding the normal rules of Ningen-do. When this happens, malicious spirits can take the place of the enshrined spirit or even warp it into an evil entity. Corrupted shrines are very hard to spot – to anyone who cannot sense spiritual corruption, they look entirely normal. However, the air is stale, the waters tepid, and no matter how much sweeping is done, the shrine is never truly clean. The grounds resist efforts to consecrate them, for the Fortunes and ancestors abandon the land. Bound kami are not able to do so, however, and they often grow angry at the state of the shrine…or even transform into kansen, the Jigoku-Tainted evil kami. While a shrine can fall into disrepair if not cared for, that’s almost never enough to corrupt it. Corruption comes from outside, sometimes by accident (as when a person bypasses the torii arch and enters the shrine unpurified) but more often it is due to evil forces, such as maho magic. The corruption of a shrine can be reversed if you’re wary and catch it before it’s complete, but once a shrine has fallen completely, it is far, far harder to cleanse. If the Shadowlands become involved…well, that shrine’s probably just hosed forever. Another issue you might run into is a haunted shrine. Technically, every shrine is at least a little haunted, but usually by friendly or at least benevolent ghosts. When people talk about haunted shrines, they mean haunted by angry spirits that drive out the living. This can be caused by a few things – botched funerals, angry ancestors, the escape of a spirit the shrine was meant to imprison, that kind of thing. No matter what, a haunting causes the shrine to become infested by ghosts that prevent consecrations and drive out the proper enshrined spirit. This makes the shrine completely useless, which has wide-ranging consequences on harvests, festivals and so on. The Fortunes value their shrines, and will often try to reclaim them if they become haunted. They’ll send earthquakes, floods or storms to try to drive out the ghosts, and these attempts invariably cause collateral damage to nearby settlements even when they work. Therefore, it is the best interest of any shugenja to exorcise haunted shrines, thus sparing innocent lives and probably winning a Fortune’s favor. Not that exorcisms are easy – few ghosts can be directly punched, and many must be appeased before they’ll go away. The most vile shrines are the profane shrines of the Shadowlands, erected by maho-tsukai to the oni or kansen. These shrines are always far from civilized lands, hidden that they might continue to empower the forces of Jigoku by creating places where kansen are strong and oni may manifest themselves. The corruption of the Shadowlands is palpable, and those that worship at these shrines always leave Tainted. Corruption and filth are the goal, so dirty things such as blood or bone may be incorporated into the architecture. Living beings may be sealed in the foundations, their torture raising otherworldly guardians in service to the dark forces enshrined within. The purpose of any Shadowlands shrine is to provide a power base for a maho-tsukai, where they may perform their dark rituals and vile experiments undetected. Enshrined oni may be lobbied for audience safely, bargained with for power, even offered a supplicant’s name in exchange for a fragment of its dark ability. Libraries of forbidden knowledge can often be found in these shrines, as well as cursed objects. The Kuni Witch Hunters, Phoenix Inquisitors and Scorpion Black Watch seek out these dark shrines. When they find them, they destroy them utterly, salting the land they stood upon. It may take decades for the land to be usable for anything again, generations before it can be consecrated – if even then – but a spiritually dead place is far preferable to the vile corruption of a Shadowlands shrine. Certain religious practices have also been declared by the Emperor to be heretical. Engaging in them is treason and a great offense to the Celestial Order, shaming your family and your very existence. Performing any of the following heresies is cause for being killed on sight, erased from clan records and deliberately forgotten. However, some will risk them – generally in the name of vengeance, which is always a very good motivator. Curses are…well, any reoccurring problem caused by supernatural stuff. Curses might be caused by spirits following a cursed person around and being jerks, or they might be tied to your karma and manifest based on specific behaviors. Really powerful curses can last generations and hit entire bloodlines. Because most methods of cursing people are based on folklore and superstition, they typically have little to do with shugenja and their studies and are officially outside of sanctioned Rokugani religious practice. Folk tales tell of all kinds of ways to curse people – drive nails into a tree that you’ve drawn the target’s picture on during the Hour of the Ox, leave ashes of the hearth on their doorsteps for several nights in a row, or make a deal with a trickster spirit or ancestor. Curses laid by shugenja are the most feared, as they can directly bargain with spirits. Their curses often affect the victim’s karma and last multiple lifetimes – possibly forever, as in the case of the Yogo family curse, laid by Fu Leng because Yogo thwarted him. Now, the Yogo family must always betray those they love most, and they never know when the curse will manifest itself, nor how small or large the betrayal will be. The curse has lasted a thousand years and shows no signs of abating or skipping any Yogo. Back in the 8th century, the Grand Master of the Elements found the Kakita Palace gates closed to him, so he laid a curse on them – any child born within the palace while the gates were closed would doom the Kakita family if they ever drew steel. To avoid the curse, the family has ordered the gates be left open in perpetuity. Despite this, a few unfortunate souls have been born while the gates were closed for one reason or other, and these Kakita are never taught the ways of the family or even allowed to touch a blade. The worst and most profane heretical practice, however, is maho, blood magic. Maho is explicitly forbidden, unlike curses, which are just outside official religion and forbidden by logical extension. Maho involves calling on the kansen, Tainted kami, and wielding the forces of Jigoku itself. Using it, a sorcerer can raise the dead, summon demons, curse people or gain favor from evil spirits. Whenever maho is used, it draws in the forces of Jigoku and invites them into Ningen-do. You don’t even need to be a shugenja to use it. Just say the right prayer to Fu Leng and offer up fresh blood – your own or another’s. Blood is unclean and filthy, but for Jigoku, it is the supreme offering, bearing the essence of life. By giving their own blood, the maho-tsukai compel the kansen to profane acts, and by blood rituals, they embrace the vile power of the Shadowlands. Like an animal that has tasted human blood, the maho-tsukai crave the use of their power. It is a terrible, dangerous power that comes at the cost of addiction, Taint and service to Fu Leng. However, blood is not the only gift humans can give to Jigoku. Names have power. Oni, you see, are born formless and shapeless, without identity. They come from the most profane of places and bear no names of their own. Instead, they take the names of mortals. Gaining a name massively increases an oni’s power. Some people are willing to trade their names for access to an oni’s power. A samurai’s name belongs to their ancestors, so giving it up is a betrayal of their entire line, forever darkening and tainting the name such that even writing it out invites bad luck and filth. In exchange for the giver’s name, the oni becomes linked to them, allowing them to use the oni’s powers and to summon it whenever they like. The two can hear each other’s thoughts, and they cannot disobey each other. Nothing can break this bond, save for the banishment of the oni or the death of the name-giver…if they’re lucky. Next time: Monks
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Feb 20, 2019 15:43
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Rifts World Book 22: Free Quebec, Part 12: "At that point, suicide might be a good option if some way can't be found of battling their way through." War! By Kevin Siembieda The metaplot is all primed, and it's time for the main event: the Coalition vs. Free Quebec war. You may ask: "which are the good guys?", but let's be frank: neither are the good guys. Even though this book goes on about the bravery and skill of the Glitter Boys, trying to paint Quebec as relative moderates, using all sorts of positive adjectives, they're still genocidal fascists. Though the Coalition can easily be demonized as invaders, Quebec is willing to do things like use D-Bee villages as speedbumps to distract the Coalition. There aren't good guys here. But they clearly want us to think of Quebec as the lesser of two evils, even though they're actually more ruthless and kill-happy when it comes to D-Bees. Chi-Town grudgingly allows D-Bees on its doorstep.  "We have the superior technology! We have the superior skulls!" In any case, the war starts when the pro-Coalition town of Riverbend, is attacked by Quebecois troops. They'll later turn out to be a rogue unit, but we'll get to that. When Coalition troops move in to defend the civilians, it turns out to be a trap and they're gunned down by V-SAMS and Glitter Boys firing right through the local town and buildings, slaughtering the civilians along with the troops. Enraged, the Coalition mobilizes, and attacks the nearby Quebecois city of New Pembroke with overwhelming force. However, New Pembroke is curiously unprepared, and easily defeated. The Coalition would drive out the surviving civilians out of the city with a message to Quebec that it was time for war. At first, Quebec leadership believed the Riverbend attack to be just Coalition propaganda, but soon enough a Quebec terrorist group announced themselves via a pirate video signal. Calling themselves the Children of Freedom, they were made up of rogue, extremist Quebois soldiers who justified the slaughter of Riverbend as due punishment for Coalition loyalists. In addition, they claimed that it was necessary due to the lack of action from Quebecois leadership that a firm statement be made against the Coalition. Though Quebec did not want to enter the war on behalf of terrorists, the Coalition would give them no choice.  Inspiring leadership. Of course, the narrative reason for this is to give any Coalition or Quebecois PCs a scapegoat for the war, so it's "nobody's fault" save a small group of nuts, diverting attention from the brinkmanship of Lorne and Prosek that has brought things to this point. Either way, we get details on the The Children of Freedom, formerly known as Viper Delta Squad... or Platoon, depending on the paragraph... who are run by Captain Elaine Jeunet. Rifts World Book 22: Free Quebec posted:The leader of Viper Delta Squad is Captain Elaine Jeunet, a strong-willed misanthrope diagnosed as a mild sociopath with psychotic and paranoid tendencies. Ironically, these traits made her a ruthless and outstanding Special Operations Commando. I'm not sure that's how commando qualification or mental illness works, Palladium.  "I'm alive, my heart's big! It's got hot blood, going through it fast. I like to fight too!" The power-behind-the-beret is Robert Carlye, a former professor and "radical dissident", who is a... even more extreme nationalist than the existing Quebec leadership. What that entails or how he actually differs from them is unclear to me - he just seems to be ambiguously more evil, but doesn't actually seem to have any views that are even vaguely different from the Quebecois mainstream. Jeunet used to be his student and was enticed into his radical agenda of being vaguely more evil than the evil Quebec leadership. He wants to overthrow the current government and replace it with his own leadership, which... well, I guess he's a generic megalomaniac that doesn't need any particular ethos, that might threaten to make this group interesting! CHARMWATCH: Elaine Jeunet has a merely above-average Mental Affinity and Physical Beauty of 14. Robert Carlye has a Mental Affinity of 20. This has been CHARMWATCH. Rifts World Book 22: Free Quebec posted:The problem is nobody knows where any of these individuals might be, or where their secret headquarters may be located. If Viper Delta doesn't want to be found, they won't be. Yes, player characters, don't bother looking them up in the phone book. Only the GM can say when you get to fight the bad guys!They'll be focusing on trying to spur the war through propaganda actions, instigating conflicts, etc., as they try and run membership drives to have enough thugs for PCs to gun down. CS vs Quebec Military As mentioned before numerous times, it's clear how this will turn out if there aren't any twists: the Coalition will win based on numbers. (We'll have twists.) As such, Quebec is focusing on guerrilla tactics and trying to avoid major battles. The Coalition apparently doesn't want to just annihilate Quebec (presumably, this is why they aren't just dropping nukes, but it doesn't mention those), but preserve its infrastructure for their own use. As such, the Coalition is stuck trying to engage Quebec on the Canuckopf's terms, which is making the war potentially years or decades long. Similarly, Quebecois are content to try and attack the Coalition's supplies and equipment rather than slaughter the invaders. While this is working well for now, eventually the Coalition will be able to lay siege to Quebec City itself.  Rad. Situation Critical By Bill Coffin Based on suggestions by Kevin Siembieda Additional text and ideas by Kevin Siembieda Coffin walks into the room, sets down the coffee. "Thanks!", Marciniszyn says, "I'm glad you made the coffee." Coffin shrugs. "Oh, it was nothing-" "Actually it was my coffee maker!", Siembieda busts in with, "And I brought the cream. So it's really like I made it, when you think about it." So first, we deal with The Privateers of Montreal, based out of the Island Kingdom of Montreal (from Rifts World Book 20: Canada). They're being hired and supplied by the Coalition to harass and raid Coalition vessels, which is a tremendous opportunity for them - when they survive. Surprisingly, their experience lets them do better than the actual Coalition Navy, which so far seems to have come across as a pack of incompetent boobs. Next, we get some adventure hooks. These are put in the "Hook, Line, Sinker" format beloved by Palladium, but we'll just sum them up quickly when we get to them, because we'll have a lot of them. Unlike previous adventure books, a lot of these are... perfectly decent hooks? Strange, but true.
Then, it turns out Coalition is concerned that Triax may be shipping arms to Free Quebec. They aren't, as we know, but the Coalition doesn't, and they're obsessed with finding a link between Triax and Free Quebec militarily - or perhaps self-convinced that it's really a thing. As such, they've been making a big intelligence push on this front. Quebec doesn't know that they're on a wild goose chase- they just know there are enough spies to make them worry.
 Sometimes I just have to include a piece just because of how hard it was to extract. Open Season Once again, we're reminded of how the Quebecois are using guerrilla tactics to tie up and sabotage the Coalition, which uh... yeah, we know that by now, but we're told again, at length. Coalition troops are starting to get PTSD from Quebecois' sudden attacks, and it's concerning the Coalition that they may not have the will for this long war. It's like Vietnam do you get that?... except also Germany vs. Russia a la World War II, I suppose.
Rifts World Book 22: Free Quebec posted:More likely than not, the player characters are adventurers who get embroiled in this because they dislike the CS and nobly try to help the Free Quebec soldiers on the run. This has two bad results; primarily it gets them permanently branded as members of Les Jureaux Rouge, something members of Eager Brigade will NEVER forget, and marks them for death. Even if they should abandon their efforts to help the fleeing soldiers, they will be hunted down by Eager Brigade and killed! If they escape, members of Eager Brigade will try to kill them if they are ever encountered again!
By Kevin Siembieda & Francois DesRochers Maybe there are other things going on like opportunists and a lot of vague stuff! Imagination! Note the sudden and bizarre drop in adventure hook quality!  "This is mega-damage armor, you dinguses!"
Rifts World Book 22: Free Quebec posted:All are masters of surprise and guerrilla warfare, making them difficult to track down and capture or kill. All are deranged and beyond rehabilitation. They must be destroyed. Good luck, 'cuz killing even one will bring the wrath of the entire group on the perpetrators' heads.
Rifts World Book 22: Free Quebec posted:Please help us, please  Rifts World Book 22: Free Quebec posted:D-Bee Warpath  https://i.imgur.com/dyC1O2h.mp4 The Exciting Conclusion I kid. There is no conclusion. That's right. The Coalition States / Free Quebec war is not resolved here. That's in later books. And like, it's not that isn't an interesting idea. It in theory would present some interesting choices to make, and give PCs an opportunity to maybe save refugees, encounter various schemes from all the myriad factions, change things, etc. Thank goodness Coffin was around to make some lemonade out of it, because for all I pick on him, I could take any of the adventure hooks written by the other authors and blow my nose with them. Free Quebec also just isn't... well-defined. We have no idea how they deal with supernatural threats, as previously noted, and they just come across as the Coalition Lite. Which is too bad, because they could have some clear ideological difference other than Quebec saying "we like our Glitter Boys and trading with Germany, and hate dogs". The main difference is that they're more isolationist, and that makes them less "bad" in the eyes of the book because they're defenders rather than offenders, but it feels to me like the difference is a bit academic when you're dealing with genetic supremacist fascists. They're rivals, not opposites in any sense, and it just boils down to who gets to run Quebec. Sure, Free Quebec is better to its own citizens and isn't as expansionistic. But, ironically, the Coalition is actually more tolerant and is only sometimes genocidal and allows some mutants. The Glitter Boy forces are described in roundly glowing terms, as if we're supposed to be in mild awe of these brave and stalwart soldiers, but then it talks about Quebec gunning down a village because it's within their borders and the people there have bumpy heads. Ultimately, the differences between the two is hair-splitting and they're both collective monsters when it comes to innocent broccoli people. I have a lot more to say about how the Coalition is represented in general, but we'll get to that in the Coalition Wars. In that, we'll finally see an end to this war. Look forward to it!... actually, no, don't look forward to it. I know how it ends. Don't worry about it. It'll end. Don't get your hopes up, though. LA FINIT. FREE QUEBEC WILL RETURN IN THE COALITION WARS. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Feb 20, 2019 |
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Feb 20, 2019 17:24
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Adventure hook: Join the D-Bees and butcher every Quebecois fascist you see until you are the answer to "Je Me Souviens"
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Feb 20, 2019 17:28
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Emerald Empire: Who Am Shinsei We’re now into the monk and Shinseist chapter. Shinsei, also called the Little Teacher, revolutionized Rokugani thought. He was a prophet that explained the cycle of life, death, the elements and society. However, his cosmological teachings were only the background for his great lesson on judgment and choice. Humans, he said, were not pawns in some great war of good and evil. They were responsible for their own lives and improvement, and for the improvement of society, via compassion and thought. Enlightenment, he said, was greater than any kami, Fortune or demon. Everyone knows that Shinsei was a philosopher and teacher who traveled the Empire to share his truths. His most famous sermon is, of course, the conversation he had with Hantei, recorded by Shiba in the Tao of Shinsei. It began with an explanation of the five elements and their cycle, then went on to speak on how people could improve themselves and society, ending with an explanation of karma and reincarnation and their effects on the soul, although Shinsei was always clear that focusing yourself on bettering your reincarnations was a counterproductive waste of time. Shinsei and Shiba also had private conversation as they left the palace, but they never shared the details. Many apocryphal documents claim to reveal them. After this meeting, Shinsei gathered the Seven Thunders to face Fu Leng on the Day of Thunder. At the end, when the battle was won, he wept. That is all anyone can actually say about Shinsei’s life. A common saying is ‘Everyone who has ever told you who Shinsei is has lied to you.’ Another, rather more cynical one is ‘Everyone who has ever explained Shinsei has murdered Shinsei.’ These both refer to the difficulty in understanding Shinsei’s teachings and the years upon years of commentaries, interpretations and explanations offered by various monks, emperors and scholars, despite Shinsei’s preference for brief statements. And now, interpretations of Shinsei. This is, incidentally, the first time any version of L5R has actually explained what Shinseism is actually, y’know, like. The conservative interpretation of who Shinsei was and what he believed is called Shinsei the Philosopher, which is closest to the text of the Tao, is that Shinsei was a logician who spoke about human existence out of compassion. This view’s adherents believe the heart of Shinseist practice are Shinsei’s ethical lessons, and that he was merely a philosopher. This doctrine holds, most firmly, that all phenomena have a cause. This is known as the ‘doctrine of dependent origination.’ Each of the four manifest elements (Air, Earth, Fire, Water) is born from another element, and all elements find origin in Void, while the Void that will come when all ends is born from the four elements. However, the division of elements is illusory, as is all of Ningen-do. All comes from and returns to Void, and therefore Void is all. Thus, all existence is linked, and all distinctions are an illusion. The cycle of rebirth, which requires suffering, is born of the accumulation of karma on the soul. Karma is born of fear, regret and desire. The view of Shinsei the Philosopher maintains that the solution to all problems therefore lies in discovering the source of the problem and eliminating it. The path of Enlightenment is in realizing that life is an illusion, that suffering is born of desire and that there is, in truth, nothing to desire, for all is born of and returns to Void. Take the example of a daimyo who loves alcohol, which affects her health and judgment. A weak and clumsy interpretation of Shinsei the Philosopher would say that a loyal samurai should perhaps remove the source of the problem – the alcohol. And so, the samurai run themselves ragged ridding the daimyo’s castle of shochu and sake. The daimyo then obsesses over alcohol and hiding her consumption. Greater understanding realizes that the source is not the alcohol, but the mind. Why does the daimyo need to drink? Why six cups over three – it can’t be that much more satisfying, can it? Is it a coping mechanism for depression, or tied to a bad habit the daimyo wishes to break? Is she being pressured by a friend? The classic answer of the Shinseist is that the answer isn’t about drinking or not drinking, but about finding the middle way, reaching a place where the need to drink or not drink no longer holds an effect on one’s judgment. Adherents of the interpretation of Shinsei the Philosopher tend to be thoughtful, introspective sorts, either via common sense or academic learning. They meditate on the truths of his teachings, debate or talk about them with likeminded people and attempt to emulate the thoughtful exchanges of ideas between the Emperor and Shinsei. This, they believe, allows their souls to thrive and find escape regardless of their reincarnation. Thinking too hard about reincarnation, after all, just builds up karma and makes your next one worse. This interpretation is most beneficial for samurai, rich merchants, monks in monasteries and others who have the resources, free time and literacy to actually get the most out of it. Their authority tends to also mean they face ethical dilemmas that test their logic and philosophy. The interpretation of Shinsei the Philosopher enjoys the strongest following, for samurai, among the Crab and Scorpion, who appreciate its contemplative and no-nonsense approach. Adherents sometimes perform meditations based on repetitive artistic or martial practice, and in recent years, meditative archery has become quite popular with samurai and monks alike, which has led to this interpretation of Shinseism being associated with the bow, as well as associating the weapon with quiet, demanding and uncompromising thought. One of the more popular interpretations of Shinsei is Shinsei the Hero, which derives from the widespread document known as Dialogue with the Thunder Goddess of the Perfect Center, more commonly called the Thunder Dialogue. While it is significantly less read than the Tao itself and was written significantly after Shinsei’s life, it purports to show the events that led to the Day of Thunder. It says that Shinsei climbed Kite Mountain to speak of the Way to a goddess of thunder and a congregation of listeners. The Dialogue is extremely hyperbolic – the sermon takes longer than the entire recorded history of Rokugan, and all listeners achieve Enlightenment. The listeners include not only the goddess, but also every known Fortune, plus a number of monks, priests and teachers exceeding the current population of Rokugan. It has proven entirely impossible to figure out when the Thunder Dialogue is set, historically, and any connection between the Thunder Goddess and the Day of Thunder also remains entirely unclear. She has never appeared in any documentation since. This version of Shinsei is not the soft-spoken man of the Tao. He claims that while the Tao is adequate for Enlightenment, it is inferior to what he will now describe. Rather than focusing on freedom from the wheel of reincarnation, his new method focuses on a life of right action and compassion for others. He speaks of wandering the land, doing miracles to help the oppressed. Monks that follow Shinsei the Hero tend to emulate this, wandering the land to help others, especially the poor and weak, rather than hide away in a monastery. Monastic orders devoted to this philosophy are usually more involved in politics and war than others, intervening directly when they feel it is for the good of the people. Shinsei the Hero is much more popular with the common folk of Rokugan than Shinsei the Philosopher (despite that interpretation’s greater historicity), as well as with certain samurai. Statues, plays and other art depict the Thunder Dialogue’s Shinsei channeling the elements, radiating divine light and facing down demons representating fear, regret or desire by hurling lightning at them. For many, the message of compassion and civic duty actually takes precedence over the Tao’s orthodoxy, as even illiterate farmers can understand the value of helping others, and the philosophy also rewards teamwork and group commitment. The framing of the Thunder Dialogue also brings Fortunism into Shinseism. Because the Fortunes are present for the sermon, they are implied to be important, but primarily as successful Shinseists. This claim about their true significance was an important backing for Hantei Genji’s reasoning in asserting that Fortunism and Shinseism were in fact a single faith. The common folk, of course, barely noticed – they were already practicing different faiths without seeing much contradiction. Shinsei the Hero is popular among the Crane, who vocally and loudly promote the philosophy and donate generously to Heroic Shinseist temples and monasteries. They have created a large corpus of literature on how to conform Crane ideals with the teachings of Shinsei the Hero. The symbolic weapon of Shinsei the Hero is the naginata, due to its association with large groups of low-ranking people. Heroic Shinseists also favor the bisento (literally ‘brow blade’ for its edge’s resemblance to an eyebrow). The final major interpretation is Shinsei the God. While long considered heretical, it is easily the fastest-growing version of Shinseism currently. Many popular interpretations attribute superhuman understanding of the universe to Shinsei, for he foresaw the Day of Thunder and helped lead the fight on Fu Leng. He showed mystic powers on Kite Mountain if, as many do, you take the Thunder Dialogue literally. Therefore, many claim that Shinsei was in truth a living shintai for the Fortune Kongoten, who they claim transcended the distinction between man and god via Enlightenment. Enlightenment, they say, reveals the destined divinity of the soul, and by following Shinsei, all can be gods. This claim aligns with the heretical Perfect Land Sect, a populist movement which teaches that Shinsei watches over humanity from a “Perfect Land” within Tengoku, where loyal followers can join him by chanting the mantra ‘Shoshi ni kie’ often and sincerely enough. Not all Perfect Land Shinseists are comfortable calling Shinsei a god, but many are. The strict dogma of the sect merely claims he is an immortal that guides and blesses humanity from Tengoku rather than Yomi, which is not incompatible with him being a god, after all. Shinsei the God is a popular interpretation with the Unicorn, and in private, Shinjo Altansarnai herself has spoken about how Kongoten may refer to a prominent sky and storm god from the lands her name came from. Many young Lion also like the philosophy of Shinsei the God as a dynamic counterpoint to their clan’s firmly entrenched traditions. Many samurai currently scandalized by the Perfect Land heresy would push for its outright eradication if they were to learn of the sect leadership’s vision of a commonwealth government run by populist preachers and peasant elders. The warrior-monks in service to the sect are not monks in the traditional sense of the word, and while they wear the white headscarf and uniform of a novice monk, most are illiterate and poorly educated in theology and philosophy, even of their own religion. They care only about wielding the spear, naginata or kongosho in service to their vision of Shinsei and defense of what they view as the first province of the Perfect Land in Rokugan. Their unshakable faith in this cause leads to acts of extreme bravery, for they know that any death in its service will lead to a higher reincarnation. The main thing that unites all Shinseist interpretations is the understanding that any perceived differences between the Five Elements is merely illusion. All is born of and returns to Void. By embracing the unity of elements and seeing through illusory divisions, one begins the path to Enlightenment. Shinsei introduced a number of important concepts to the Rokugani understanding of reality, even for the Kami. He taught that, as ki comes from and returns to Void, the human soul does not linger forever in the underworld, but exists in a cycle of rebirth. Only by Enlightenment can anyone escape this cycle and the suffering it entails. Next time: Becoming a monk.
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Feb 20, 2019 18:48
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Reading the CP2020 write-up made me want to share one of my own favorite experiences from it - Robert from Compliance, aka Bobby the Intern. The set-up is that we're playing as the black ops team for some mid-level corporation, going around solving problems with a mixture of social skills and tremendous violence. We were a mixture of solos and hackers, and my character the Corporate who had been pitched as the official representative who was supposed to be nominally responsible for the team. We had all talked this out before hand, and had negotiated how this social dynamic was supposed to work like a good gaming group. I'd be the straight man and occasional Face, and try to not get myself killed when things (inevitably) became violent. This goes great until we start rolling up our characters... and I roll up an 18 year old, suit-and-tie-wearing, idyllic-childhood-having Corporate whose had no major life experiences. If we had been watching 30 Rock at the time, I'm pretty sure Robert from Compliance would have been named Kenneth instead. Everyone, myself include, think the juxtaposition of a fresh-faced new hire in a suit being in charge of a former cartel hit man, rebellious punk hacker prodigy, and a grizzled vet of the Corporate Wars is hilarious. So I lean into it - my father is some big-name executive, so I'm a nepotism hire put in charge of the Corporate Asset Recovery team in the Compliance department because there was an opening and they didn't realize what the CAR team actually did. You know... the murders and break-ins. The team immediately nicknames their new boss Bobby the Intern. The way it works out is that everyone on the team knows that my character is way over my head and out of my depth. But outsiders don't get to see that, and my COOL is high enough to fake it, so my character is fast tracked onto his new career as a budding Mr. Johnson with an accelerated education into how the World Really Works. Of course, the group fizzled out after like three sessions, but man was that fun.
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Feb 20, 2019 19:35
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A Young Bill Coffin: "What I'm really interested exploring are things in Palladium Fantasy, there's a lot of stuff only hinted at that I thing could be amazing when explored... in... detail..." *Trails off as Kevin is staring at him, eyes wide* Kevin: *Reaches over to make Bill's mouth form the words* "Heroic fascism! Great! I knew you'd be right for the job! Now, your first gig is adventure hooks for the one future Nazi group attacking the other future Nazi group!" Bill: *Stunned* "What... what's the difference!" Kevin: "One's not as expansionist! Now get crackin' champ!"
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Feb 20, 2019 19:39
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Emerald Empire: The Other Priesthood In theory, the Tao and Fortunism are united as the Shintao. In practice, most holy people focus on one or the other, with priests and shugenja doing kami no michi – the worship of gods and spirits – while monks focus on Shinseism. The monks form the Brotherhood of Shinsei, which is kind of a religion within the greater religion. The Brotherhood welcomes all genders, not just men, and is made of many holy orders. A holy order is typically devoted to some specific perspective on or aspect of Shinseism. Academic orders write, debate and teach wealthy people, martial orders study combat and tactics to defend vulnerable or pacifist Shinseists, medicinal orders maintain public infirmaries, and exorcist orders hunt demons and evil spirits. Some monks work outwardly, rather like priests, to minister to the lay flocks, lead festivals and funerals, counsel people, and maintain public temples. Others focus inward, sequestering themselves away in monasteries to devote their lives to contemplation of Shinsei’s lessons, copy texts, or otherwise meditate and improve themselves. Most monks occupy a space between these two poles, working both to further their own understanding and to spread knowledge to others. Any person can become a monk at any point in their life – especially samurai, whose wealth offers them the luxury of choice. Monks-to-be must swear vows of nonviolence, poverty, chastity, honesty, temperance and austerity, though individual orders may add or remove specific vows. They must shave their heads, wear white, brown or saffron, and dedicate themselves to study under a teacher. Monastic vows are usually permanent but don’t have to be, and monks that find the life disagreeable can depart without any stigma and may even try to return later in life…in theory, anyway. The monks don’t mind. However, bushido is less flexible, and samurai who become monks and then decide to leave often have no choice but become ronin, unable to return to their old lives. In theory, only faith in Shinseism should motivate a choice to become a monk. In practice, there are any number of reasons, not all of them selfless. Samurai may be fleeing bad family situations or bad marriages to join a respected order of holy people, or may wish to gain the respect of a specific Shinseist group, or might just be tired of politics and seeking to avoid them entirely. However, these last would do well to research the monastery they’re joining; many prominent priests and monks are major players in Rokugani politics. The role of Shinseism in politics is furiously debated – on the one hand, Shinsei spoke at length on the link between personal conduct and social good via compassion, and humans are inherently social beings, such that their practice affects those around them. Many of Shinsei’s parables discuss, at least on the surface level, ethical interaction with feudal authority, or concepts such as whether just war is possible or the proper response to a rebellious or unruly populace with valid grievances. Thus, it is traditional that Shinseists at least advise rulers, as the Tao does. On the other hand, many Shinseists believe these parables and discussions are meant as allegories about what truly matters – your individual path to Enlightenment. They point to the errors of monks that get involved in politics or business and get drawn into violence or treachery as proof. While the vast majority of monastic orders are extremely similar except for what specific activity they focus on, a few are more notable and distinctive than ‘these are the monks that brew sake/shoot bows/paint screens/raise dogs’. Bishamon Monks are the embodiment of the contradictions of the Shintao. Their patron is Bishamon, Fortune of Strength, so they are Fortunist monks, embracing the duality and unity of the Shintao to its fullest by focusing on two interrelated duties. First, they must study, meditate and create art, in the tradition of Shinseist monks in general. Second, they must uphold and conduct the traditional rites of the Fortunes, including shrine maintenance. Their headquarters is based out of Bishamon’s Divine Library, in the highlands near Otosan Uchi. The Bishamon Monks are particularly notable for their habit of protesting political decisions they don’t approve of. If the Emperor appoints a widely disliked priest or abbot to some position of authority, the monks will remove Bishamon’s shintai from the library, put it into a traveling housing to carry on the shoulders of several muscular monks, and then march out of their monasteries en masse, chanting slogans or sutras and waving weapons and rosaries. They will crowd the local towns and cities around wherever the thing they don’t like happened, drawing in huge crowds of commoners. There, the loudest and maddest monks will shout at length about the sins involved in the decision, the doubtless horrific consequences of it on the Empire’s future, and the inevitability of the offending authority’s reincarnation as a flatworm or other repugnant creature. Intimidating them into leaving is very difficult indeed, since even warriors that could stomach beating up monks are unlikely to want to offend Bishamon by marching at his shintai, especially in full view of the common folk they depend on for food. Typically, local lords and even Emperors have been known to send enterprising, charismatic young samurai to find solutions to Bishamon protests instead. The Order of the Seven Thunders maintain the Shrine of the Seven Thunders, with their monastic practice being based on the image, personalities, stories and meanings of each Thunder. The Thunders and their relationships with each other, as well as popular thoughts about them, are studied and written about extensively. These are the nerds that hang out wondering what it really means to emulate Matsu or Mirumoto. While the monks of the Seven Thunders have a huge academic interest in the Thunders, it is even more important to them to make religious art to honor the Thunders and their relationship with Shinsei. They are style-setters for art of all forms, emulated by many samurai artisans across the Empire. Their art, studies and tendency to wander around have secret significance, however. They are preparing for a day that they are certain will come, though they do not tell outsiders: a second Day of Thunder, when the Seven Thunders reborn will need to face Fu Leng again. This could be the end of the world or beginning of a new one, and they don’t know which. Therefore, their study is also practical – they want to spread knowledge of the Thunders as much as possible, as evocaticely as possible, to influence those who will, they hope, be destined to become the next Thunders. The Monks of Osano-wo follow the traditions of Osano-wo, son of Hida, who would become the Fortune of Fire and Thunder. Late in his mortal life, he founded a school of martial arts to pass on his great knowledge, making a fine dojo using timber he cut personally – simple for a man so large and strong. He lined its walls with his favorite arms and armor, then waited for students. The first to arrive was a tiny old monk, a woman with no prior combat training whatsoever but who traveled frequently and wanted to be able to defend herself. At first, he offered a two-handed weapon to make up for her poor reach and power without overtaxing her muscles, but it proved awkward for her short build. Then he gave her two swords, but their weight was too great. Finally, he suggested boxing. This proved an excellent choice. While Osano-wo was fast, the old monk was so tiny that she could easily duck around him, flanking him no matter how he moved. He had to adapt his techniques, designed for huge, burly soldiers, to her size and shape. He taught her to use the hard parts of her body to strike at the soft parts of others, to damage small bones, soft tissue and muscles by careful aim. She had to be extremely precise to make it work, but she practiced endlessly until she was able to do so. Eventually, she was able to learn to use the larger and heavier weapons, but her favorites were always small knives or concealed weights in her clothing or hands – perfect to even the odds against the overconfident. Legend has it this monk, Tamadora, was the second headmaster of Osano-wo’s school after his death. It is said she expanded the school into a full monastery, not to be confused with Osano-wo’s temple in the Mantis islands, in honor of his memory. Newcomers to the school, attracted by Osano-wo’s reputation, are often frustrated by the intense precision the style requires, requiring even the biggest and strongest of brawlers to fight as if they were small and weak, and which cannot be learned except by endless repetition and practice. Most who come to study quit, learning to fight equally well from styles more suited to their strengths. Tamadora-ryu, however, allows more physically limited fighters to keep up with those who are bigger and stronge, if they are willing to put in more work than anyone else. It may not be invincible, but it is a chance they would not have otherwise, and forms an excellent foundation for further study. The ethical lessons of the monastery parallel its physical ones. As Osano-wo learned to figure out how to help someone that lacked his physical advantages, so do the monks of Osano-wo study the compassion of Shinsei and the might of Osano-wo by helping the strong uplift the weak, the clever educate the foolish and the small defeat the large. Next time: Temples and monasteries in the Empire as they are spoke.
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Feb 20, 2019 23:08
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Take a shot every time Rifts tries to make the PCs feel bad about opposing someone evil or punishes them for doing something good. Two shots when the twist is "but what if some enemies attack!!???????!?" e: Siembieda's games must be a barrel of laughs to play in. You stopped a squad of insane, jack-booted thugs who were trying to burn down an orphanage? Well, their comrades declare forever war and will hunt you forever and you can't escape them or reason with them because they are all highly-trained special operatives! Also the children in the orphanage are actually cultists and the fascists were right all along! Haha, what about that, PCs, huh?? megane fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Feb 21, 2019 |
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Feb 21, 2019 02:17
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I mean, the fascists coming right to your party should be considered a bonus. Saves you the trouble of hunting them.
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Feb 21, 2019 02:24
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My Liver and I are good friends, I will not do this to them. And yeah, not only do the fascists come straight to you, thanks to RIFTS obsession with providing detailed force numbers you know exactly how many fascists there are to kill before you liberate the area.
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Feb 21, 2019 02:28
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megane posted:e: Siembieda's games must be a barrel of laughs to play in. You stopped a squad of insane, jack-booted thugs who were trying to burn down an orphanage? Well, their comrades declare forever war and will hunt you forever and you can't escape them or reason with them because they are all highly-trained special operatives! Also the children in the orphanage are actually cultists and the fascists were right all along! Haha, what about that, PCs, huh??
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Feb 21, 2019 03:14
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Halloween Jack posted:I'd love to play a squad of renegade Coalition soldiers assassinating their own former officers. (Dibs on the Psi-Stalker.) Not in Palladium's system, of course. I dunno those mechs from like 10 books back that launched hundreds of micromissles each doing chunks of megadamage would feel real good as you just remotely obliterate the fascist war machine like a fireworks show*. *Im running this theoretical RIFTS game like, Siembeda: actual rules need not apply.
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Feb 21, 2019 04:08
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Halloween Jack posted:I'd love to play a squad of renegade Coalition soldiers assassinating their own former officers. (Dibs on the Psi-Stalker.) Not in Palladium's system, of course. I was thinking what would improve RIFTS by making it less fascist and more based off the inspiration of the game, i.e. Heavy Metal, science-fantasy, '80s post-apocalypse movies, and '80s anime like Grey: Digital Target (which trust me, Siembedia ripped off wholesale in many places). The big one: break up the Coalition States. The Coalition can run around in Chi-Town, but let's say Karl Prosek finally dies, followed by Joseph II for some reason, leaving the Coalition in incompetent hands, let's call him Eric Prosek. Quickly, governors in individual fortress cities feel like they can do a better job running the C.S. than Chi-Town. In addition, populist and democratic elements begin to coalesce in the power vacuum into full-fledged uprisings, removing Coalition government from them and taking control of all levels within fortress cities. In the place of the C.S. are the Fortress States, warring against one another for resources. Chi-Town remains the sole power of the base Coalition fighting it's neighboring fortress rival Chi-2 (Waukegan), inhabited by liberal elements; Free Quebec continues to be its own thing; Lone Star breaks completely away, with Director Bradford and turns it into an unregulated nightmare of genetic engineering and scientific research, intent on dominating the Earth as a new God of biomechanics, akin to Darwin in the first Wasteland CRPG. The fortress states would be similar in design, equipment, etc. (like use Dead-Boy armor, SAMAS, etc, the fortress arcology is similarly layed out) but different in theme, population, etc. allowing GMs to reskin them to see fit (like more tolerant to DBees, fortresses gone to complete anarchy with a ruling class of City Rats, anything you're imagination). The chaos would shakeup the wilderness, with remnants attempting to keep Coalition order and trying to secure lines to Chi-Town, C.S. freebooters abandoning posts or turning their outposts into bandit towns to raid neighboring kingdoms, deserters going native or becoming mercenaries. Give a reason for all this stuff to be fighting instead of sitting around looking cool. And you have guys like Northern Gun, Manistique Imperium, and Triax supplying them or sending raiding parties for choice C.S. tech that can now be grabbed or bought.
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Feb 21, 2019 08:15
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Young Freud posted:The chaos would shakeup the wilderness, with remnants attempting to keep Coalition order and trying to secure lines to Chi-Town, C.S. freebooters abandoning posts or turning their outposts into bandit towns to raid neighboring kingdoms, deserters going native or becoming mercenaries. Give a reason for all this stuff to be fighting instead of sitting around looking cool. And you have guys like Northern Gun, Manistique Imperium, and Triax supplying them or sending raiding parties for choice C.S. tech that can now be grabbed or bought. "Put more thought into it than the devs.txt"
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Feb 21, 2019 08:47
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Cults: Neolibyans Degenesis Rebirth Primal Punk Chapter 3: Cults  NEOLIBYANS Concessions As usual, we start with a bit of story to set us up the the mood. Tripoli! The place where heat and the smell of rotting algae can be quickly replaced by tropical rains. Today is the day when Neolibyans gather in front of Neolibyan Bank of Commerce. Beggars and other poors gather around to look at them, as if a reminder that a good capitalist is dead capitalist, even if he's supposed to be a pan-African benefactor. quote:A large entourage pushes through the crowd; at its center is a palanquin of mother-of-pearl silk stretched between poles carried by white slaves. Their mistress walks in shadows. Every step makes her chest jewelry of chaste silver plates jingle. A bald white man approaches her with bowed head; she grouches something and points ahead. The slave scuttles away. A Neolibyan comes carrying The door to the bank is opened by meticulously shaved Balkhani (that's how they're domesticated – via beard removal) and all of the fancy merchants basically stampede inside. quote:The Neolibyans outside step back at first and then push each other into the cool twilight of the Bank of Commerce. They tear at each other, push and shove until they are able to get some space and enter the vast lobby. They don’t spare a glance for the meter-high tapestries with their traditional patterns. Bare feet pad across the marble, sandals clatter. Saber scabbards and rifles collide, and it sounds like battle din. Is this supposed to evoke something? I'm willing to chalk this up to to racism, when even the supposed elites are nearly trampling each other to get into the Bank. They all crowd into the map room. As far as I understand, the Neolibyans are on a second-floor balustrade. The map is on the first floor and it's just a bigger version of a conspiracy-guy's chart. The map of Europe and Africa is set with nails that mark settlements. Threads go from nail to nail, representing trade routes. Small flags mark names of Neolibyans. Auctioneer Thabul and chartists make everyone calm down. People are here for the auction of trade licenses or route concessions. It starts from with some low level stuff, with the betting eventually reaching the routes that connect Tripoli to other places. quote:Thabul dances around on the thread-covered mosaic, pointing to various countries, calling out the trade volumes and praising the advantages of this city or that sea route like a barker. The chartists at his side unerringly grab the flags, pull them out, and replace them with new ones. Thabul doesn’t give the bidders a minute’s rest, harrying the merchants from concession to concession. When the crowd is tired and wants to take a break, he offers profitable roads, thus adding fuel to the fire. It’s a game, and the world is his game board. You'd think this kind of stuff would make it hard to maintain a solid logistics network and keep stable routes, well, stable, but I'm not an RPG writer, so what do I know. Outside, people crowd near the bank since “only those at the very front will get a chance to spend the night with slaves, wine, and delicacies from all over the known world” as the winning merchants throw a party.  They look cooler than they sound To The Top “The Neolibyans are merchants whose goals are profit, influence, and wealth,” goes literally the first line here, as if to tell us that Neolibyans are different from those other kinds of merchants who are interested in charity, petting cats and exploring the internal struggle of the post-Eschaton man.  Apparently, they're such hyperfocused capitalist caricatures that they don't even care about recording their own history, since it's not profitable. However, enough can pieced together from ledgers and treaties at the Bank that it's functionally the same as having a recorded history. 50 years after the African coast was devastated, a merchant known as the Libyan developed his own massive trade network built on catering to the needs of survivors. This is supposedly special and not what any regular merchant would do. Anyways, the biggest of this outposts to turn into a city was Tripol, established on the ruins of Tripoli, where he grew up. The book mentions that the network was soon too big for the Libyan alone to control and that there are list of packers, helping hands and scribes he employer. Eeither the book thinks those are management positions, or that the authors are secret comrades. quote:Other cost items indicate that some of the profit went to the populace. The Libyan paid for the construction of meeting halls and had workers create fields or fortified canals. Africa’s decline had been stopped. Now, its inhabitants prepared to storm a mountain of inherited cultural waste, clan enmities, and desolate structures.  The Foundation quote:The Libyan hated every word that did not directly lead to a profit measured in Dinars. He didn’t talk about his family, about the weather, and especially not about his competitors. You'd think you'd need to discuss your competitors from time to time to run a business. But who knows, maybe such things are otiose in a niche. However, sometimes, the Libyan would get sentimental, serve tea and give a TED talk. quote:He looked around, nodded, and described the events that had led up to this point. He said everything wasbased on three things: exploration, diplomacy, and trade. 200 years after the Libyan's death, his followers named themselves Neolibyans. Exploration Basically, any new, unexplored spot can grant you profit in Dinars or in cultural achievements (I thought Neolibyans only cared about money?). So go out there and make like an European explorer in 17th century! Diplomacy TL;DR shooting people makes them mad; saying nice things helps you do business without sicking Scourgers on everyone. quote:Without diplomacy, culture can neither create nor build bridges, cross borders, or gain new perspectives. Again with this culture poo poo! Where are my Dinars at? Trade After a Neolibyans conquistador explores a new area and strikes a deal with the locals to not shoot Africans, he conducts market research. He then sells the new trade route to Tripoli and gets paid two years of expected trade worth in Dinars (that's... generous). The trade route is the sold on the auction. Next, we get a bit of Thomas Friedman-type bullshit about how trade generates stability and how no two clans with a ScrapDonalds have ever gone to war, etc.. Peace is also profitable for the Neolibyans, because of course it is. Next time: I would have liked Neonlibbys more!
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Feb 21, 2019 08:58
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When Papa John still ran the business he would throw people out of the building if they referenced competitors, even when in meetings about the market landscape so its not impossible to operate a successful business with this attitude. Not that a single other part of Neolibya seems teneble down to its name.
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Feb 21, 2019 09:05
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 14:11 |
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It's nice to see that whatever Bethesda is dragging the Fallout franchise through it only gets bland and not edgy reverse racism mess like this. oddly comforting.
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Feb 21, 2019 10:15
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