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SirPhoebos posted:It feels that there's a strain of thought from the authors that WFRPG is a poo poo-farm simulator, that failure is the only option, and getting paid for work is not grim-dark enough. That this premise would make multi-part campaigns highly unlikely never gets examined because why would you? It's a weird disconnect between the mechanics, the sourcebooks, and the adventure books. Mechanically, this party will take down a hydra fairly easily. The 'sanity shattering' final boss of this upcoming adventure has pretty good odds to go down in a single round of combat. Pierre is an amazing detective, Liniel is silver-tongued and great with people in addition to being a fantastic shot, Solveig is huge, Otto is a solid fighter with both gun and blade, and Katiya is a heavy, strong melee combatant and cavalrywoman; they're really not the shitfarmers they started at (and they were reasonably competent even there). Much of the adventure work for WHFRP, and much of the culture surrounding the game, is all about the tier 1, starting character experience. Very little of it seems to talk much about the part where you're a 3rd tier character, despite the fact that those characters become no poo poo huge heroes, experts at many things, or mighty wizards. Forges certainly won't be acknowledging that the party is some pretty scary people outside of leveling up the Beastmen to match, then forgetting to do that with future enemies. I suspect this is part of why 4e added in the 'lose all your money between missions' thing, to try to enforce the 'being poor and scraping by' feel (and to value the characters who can earn gold in their off hours far more) while actually letting you get paid and spend it between adventures. E: Also, there's just the fact of the three different authors. The original book uses Liebnitz not paying you as the first sign you weren't supposed to complete that mission at all and that he's the villain. Book 2...well, Chart tends to have a more light-hearted view of things and thinks of the PCs as heroes. Plus I think he's assuming a GM will insert some way for the party to get reward out of all the higher ups they deal with, since he talks about making allies and such so often. Book 3, though, while I'm sure Shadow of the Demon Lord is mechanically sound from what I've read of it, let's just say Schwalb is very fond of the idea of the world as a hell-pit of decay and darkness. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 17:38 on May 22, 2019 |
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May 22, 2019 17:18
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Night10194 posted:Chaos Dwarfs use guns. A lot. They're heavily implied to be inventing new weapons, too, just the plot always seems to forget the Chorfs. Well yes, chaos dwarves which... as you say, seem to often be completely forgotten. Also I want to imagine that the Hellcannons are like those used for the "human bullet" sorta things, where they just literally strap a guy in and send him soaring into the enemy lines wearing only a goofy helmet.
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May 22, 2019 17:38
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PurpleXVI posted:Well yes, chaos dwarves which... as you say, seem to often be completely forgotten. Also I want to imagine that the Hellcannons are like those used for the "human bullet" sorta things, where they just literally strap a guy in and send him soaring into the enemy lines wearing only a goofy helmet. I believe you’re confusing them with goblin artillery there.
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May 22, 2019 18:08
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Fangs at the Gate: Nomad Power The Eskari are camel-riding nomads from the savannas of the Burning Sands, known for their herding of goats, camels and yeddim. However, they have only become nomads in the last few centuries; before, they lived in the city-state Eskaridam, a major trade center and place of learning. Eskaridam resisted the Realm’s diplomats, uniting the local cities and clans into a military coalition, but when the Realm broke the alliance in the field, they burned Eskaridam to the ground in a show of force. This convinced most of the others, including the last independent Varangian city-states, to submit as satrapies. Only a handful of Eskari families escaped the purge, using spirit gifts and thaumaturgy to survive in the deserts. As nomads, they became herders and gained renown as camel masters. They learned how to live with the sands, moving from water to water. Today, a single Eskari community is made of a few interwoven families and their herds, with about 500 people and three times that many camels. That’s about the maximum number still able to pick up and move quickly, allowing them to not deplete the resources they depend on. The Eskari are matrilineal, focusing heavily on the family. This usually centers on one mother and her one or two husbands. When two Eskari of the same sex marry, one takes on the matron role and the other takes on the lesser role of husband, with their families negotiating heavily over which will be which. Mothers, or mamas as the Eskari call them, organize the household duties and serve as primary decision-makers. They arrange their sons’ marriages, prioritizing wealthy connections and prestigious families. Men are expected to herd, raid and tend the camels, with two-husband households alternating which tends camels and which takes care of the home. If a mama dies, her eldest daughter takes up the role. If no daughter is available, a sister does it, absorbing the family into her own. Extended families, made of the families of female descendants of common ancestry, are overseen by the eldest woman in the family and her husbands. The heart of Eskari culture remains the flight from Eskaridam. Fear of the Realm’s persecution runs deep, making them fearful of settling down in one place. Even those clans that don’t wander can’t really escape the fear that the Realm will destroy them, and Varonikh settlements tend to be heavily fortified, while the Vevyehn exclusively settle in riverside towns so they can be ready to flee at a moment’s notice. The idea of finding “a new Eskaridam” is often spoken of, though it is not agreed on what such a paradise would be like. The Dzhenifa believe it can only be found by augury, while the Vevyehn believe their territory is it, and the Tezelyke believe the clans must reclaim old Eskaridam. For many, the quest for a new Eskaridam is a religion, and founding it a sacred duty, while opposing the Realm is a holy crusade. Herding is central to Eskari life. Unmarried youths and married husbands weave camel and goat hair into fabric for clothes and trade, and when a woman marries a second time, the first husband passes this duty on to the second. Camel, goat and yeddim milk is drunk and used to make butter, yogurt and kashk. The meat of all three animals is a delicacy, but they are only slaughtered for celebrations or specific seasons. Yeddim meat is heavily spiced to avoid the gamy scent. Flour and both purchased and wild plants are used to supplement this diet. Storytelling is their primary art form, with each clan having favored genres and topics. Historical stories about Eskaridam are part of all of them, though enough time has passed to cause significant variations. Also popular are the “Zamisha stories,” cautionary tales casting the Lunar Zamisha as a folkloric devil whose torments can only be avoided by the clan’s customs and taboos, often based on embellished but true events. Physical art is primarily jewelry, ornate mantles and pottery, as these can be easily transported, though the less nomadic clans also sculpt stone and weave tapestries to depict oral history. Modern Eskari religion has changed a lot since leaving Eskaridam. Each clan claims patronage of a specific tutelary deity, venerating them with secret rituals and receiving unique divine gifts. Some of these gods came with them from Eskaridam, like Damet, the cat-headed god of granaries, the well-goddess Nyozun or the many-handed market god Loksha. These have taken on new roles in the new Eskari, with Nyozun now blessing efforts to find oases and Damet overseeing the herds. Others were encountered after leaving, such as the fierce wind god Glass Razor. Each clan worships the tutelary gods of the others, for the most part, as patrons of the Eskari as a whole. Each clan also offers propitiation to Smiling Zamisha in an effort to ward off her evil, but none claim her as patron. Smiling Zamisha is a Lunar, a Changing Moon trickster and member of the Silver Pact. She found the Eskari only after they’d gotten used to herding. She was born in a Realm satrapy, Exalting during an insurgent raid she was leading against the satrap. She fought fiercely, but her newfound power was no match for the Wyld Hunt that was sent to put her down. She barely escaped alive, thanks to a Silver Pact envoy that showed up just in the nick of time, and she wept to learn of the mass crucifixions of the members of her failed uprising. That made her a strong supporter of the Pact’s cause, and she will do anything to destroy the Realm. She came to the Eskari in the guise of a cruel desert spirit, becoming a part of their folklore and cautionary tales. They claim she takes wicked children as well as dishonest and cowardly people, slaughters livestock and drains springs. She sends dreams and visions to the Eskari mystics and thaumaturgists, and she uses stolen shapes to speak to the clan leaders. All of this deception and malice is to turn the Eskari into a weapon, moving them from simple herders to deadly raiders that could cut off Southern trade with the Realm. She has pushed their resentment of the Realm and militarized their culture, allowing more martial leaders to take over from the traditional rule of clan elders. While Zamisha often leaves the Burning Sands for other Pact duties, she always returns to bedevil the Eskari and maintain her myth. She has successfully turned them into a raiding culture that hates the Realm, and now she seeks to unify the clans as a conquering horde that will flow out of the desert and cleanse the South of the Realm. Seven clans comprise the Eskari, each overseen by a matriarch. They serve as a loose confederation headed by a gyula, an elected leader from among the clan matriarchs. The gyula directs Eskari military campaigns, passes judgment over clan disagreements that can’t be reconciled normally, declares laws and may overturn matriarchal decisions if they are deemed against Eskari interests as a whole. In theory, the gyula holds the job for life. Most, however, abdicate if they feel too old to lead battle, and unpopular gyulas can be pressured to resign by the matriarchs. The gyula’s court travels with her between the various clans, along with her family and entourage. When the gyula is elected, the clan matriarchs arrange political marriages between her and a husband or wife of each clan matriarch. These spouses, called kundus, remain married both to their matriarch and the gyula, binding their interests. Gyulas traditionally prize shamans and priests as kundus, using their wisdom and skill as emissaries to the gods of the clans. Sorcerers and thaumaturgists are also highly prized. Kundus wield great political power, and some abuse their access to Eskari leaders to serve their own agendas. Smiling Zamisha likes the kundus as a concept, seeing them as easily manipulated. She often visits them with visions or prophecies to deliver to the gyula, and occasionally takes the form of respected young women in Eskari communities. This has sometimes caused a younger-than-normal gyula to be chosen because they manifest the mark of Zamisha somewhere on their body, like a birthmark that looks like a cat’s eye. In older times, the gyula was a temporary position chosen during wartime, and the kundus were a council separate from her that met with the matriarchs to discuss matters of import to the people. When resources were low, the gyula and her husbands would assemble war bands to raid. Generations ago, when Zamisha first began to subvert the Eskari to her service, a gathering was called and a gyula chosen to lead war on the Realm merchants and their escorts. There has always been a gyula since that day. Every so often, the Eskari discuss returning to the old council system, but there is little real desire to do so. The Dzhenifa clan are superstitious and wary of bad luck and witchcraft, so they put a lot of faith in their augurs. Their children are named based on the omens around their births, with additional names gained based on other omens during their lives. Pursuing work in line with these omens is traditional, and opposing them is dangerous but not forbidden, unless your bad luck hurts your neighbors. These traditions trace back to ancient intermarriage with the Varangians, but today’s Dzhenifa refuse to acknowledge any kinship with these hated foes. Their matriarch is Dzhenifa Olanka, who has long argued that only their augurs can name the site of a new Eskaridam, whether that means building it or seizing it, and the other clans must unify around this decision. She has convinced most of her clansfolk, though the augurs have yet to reach any consensus on where a new Eskaridam should be. She aggressively lobbies Gyula Zita via their shared husband, Dzhenifa Magan, but if she can’t convince the gyula, she is willing to go to war with the Leila clan to replace her. The tutelary god of the Dzhenifa is the wind god Glass Razor, who blasts the land with dry, dusty wind unless propitiated, and who wields his winds against the foes of the Dzhenifa. They acknowledge the power of other spirits, and they are quick to worship or propitiate any local gods whose domains they get involved with. The Leila were the first clan to attack the Realm after fleeing Eskaridam, and even now they struggle to make up for the losses this caused them. They are few in number, and they prize martial skill and hatred of the Realm above all else, believing any Eskari that lacks either trait to be honorless. On the rare cases that they capture Realm holdings, they raze them to the ground and move on rather than attempting conquest and having to deal with counterattacks. They are one of the most nomadic clans, heading northwest in the summer to take slaves and cattle until they piss off Varang enough to be forced to flee southeast again to avoid retaliation. Young warriors attempt to use the raids to make a name for themselves, often by counting coup on Varangian warriors or stealing cattle in broad daylight, even if it kills them. They prioritize glory over survival, after all. The raids occasionally push Realm expeditionary forces into going after them, often through Varoniikh territory. Gyula Zita is of the Leila, a young warrior trained by Zamisha herself. She has led the Eskari in increasing aggression against the Varangians, and she speaks of building Eskaridam on razed Varangian land. She is eloquent and powerful in battle, and most of the Eskari support her, especially the Leila, who believe she will lead a resurgence of their clan. The Leila matriarch, Leila Kamila, wants to see her replaced, though. Not with herself – she’s too old. She wants her daughter Borbala to become gyula, scheming to humiliate or kill Zita. The tutelary god of the clan is First Flint, a lesser murder god of the group known as the Bloody Hands. Once a minor spirit in Eskaridam, he is now the Leila god of war and revenge. He encourages brutal terror tactics against the Realm’s satrapries, such as killing civilians. Other clans consider him even worse than Smiling Zamisha and avoid his priests. The Razhiin are the least insular of the clans, encouraging their women to marry non-Eskari in order to bond with their neighbors. A few small foreign clans have actually been swallowed up by them entirely. Most notable of their related peoples are the snake-handling Echidis, whose growing war with the Varangian city-state Urim threatens to drag the Razhiin in as a whole. The intermarriage practice has caused all kinds of chaos as traditions grow and conflict, and sometimes the foreign influences win. After marrying with the Blue Ashak, who consider goats unclean, the Razhiin have ceased to herd goats, trading them to the other Eskari for camels and yeddim. The Kazhur princess Gift-of-Water convinced her wife, a former matriarch, to start worshipping the goddess Sundog Woman. Other clans, with the exception of the Vevyehn, tend to see the Razhiin as less and less Eskari and listen to them less and less. The matriarch, Razhiin Logare, has become wealthy from dealing with the Guild and contracting her warriors out to protect their caravans against both bandits and other Eskari. Her kundu husband, Razhiin Agostan, is a skilled spirit-negotiator who specializes in getting goof weather and arguing against Zita’s aggression. He has few allies among the kundus, except for Vevyehn Janos, whom he has started an affair with. The tutelary god of the Razhiin is Olomu, who joined the clan during their wanderings. She encourages openness to other people, but discourages worship of their gods. She does not have a good relationship with Sundog Woman of the Kazhur, as you might guess. Szonia is a clan that has little contact with other Eskari due to their far southeastern home. They are self-sufficient and aggressive, seeing their fellow clans as having diverged from the path of true Eskari. For them, the Realm is a distant memory, and its place in their culture has been taken by the “Eastern Realm,” as they call Prasad. They both fear and hate it, raiding its westernmost tributaries and merchants. They also raid a number of other peoples of the area, including the Kazhur, which has caused problems with the Razhiin. The matriarch, Szonia Idoska, is more of a diplomat than a fighter, and she’s been negotiating with the Prasadi tributary Seven Wells, offering to end the raids in exchange for them ending all aggression against the Eskari. The clan doesn’t really want to, but the counterattacks from Seven Wells have been growing too damaging. The god of the Szonia is Nyozun, the Eskaridam god of wells. Today, she blesses Szonia’s efforts to find oases in the sands and the foothills of the Summer Mountains. The clan is not fond of Zamisha and finds the widespread propitiation of her by other clans rather worrying. The Tezelyke are the lorekeeper clan, preserving crafts and skills that would otherwise be lost to time and the new ways. Mothers teach their daughters how to make bricks in kilns, how to make beer, how to tend fields – skills they have little use for as nomads, but which must be preserved for the new Eskaridam. The priests of the Tezelyke say prayers to the dead gods of the old city and the artists seek to make elaborate sand paintings of the city at its height. For the growing Tezelyke revanchist group, however, the true purpose of the clan is not just memory but reclamation of Eskaridam from Varang and the Realm. Their war parties gather under charismatic leaders to raid the Varangian settlements alongside the Leila. Tezelyke Morikhaad, the matriarch, is a strong traditionalist, refusing to listen to any dissent against the gyula and suppressing the revanchists, whose fixation with the old city goes against Vita’s ambitions of a new one. However, her rule has been challenged by Tezelyke Eszter, a young but charismatic Eskari woman who speaks of reclaiming the old city with the aid of its city father, Falcon’s Dream, who she says is sending her visions. She is making up her stories, but she does have a divine patron – the mirage god Hafatun, whose cult was destroyed by the Immaculates and who desires vengeance enough that he sacrificed himself to turn Eszter into his Exigent. The god of the Tezelyke is Vilyat of the Agate Eye, the Eskaridam god of courtrooms and tombs. The revanchists reject him, though, in favor of Falcon’s Dream, which has caused much internal strife. Falcon’s Dream is a fabrication of Eszter, which is why Vilyat has been unable to find the god at all. The Varoniikh are only seminomadic, living in the hills and mountains. They are militant isolationists, and their settlements are equally town and war camp, barely hospitable even to other Eskari. They often raid the merchants using Bluecoal Pass. Their lands are dangerously near to Varang, so their camps are often attacked when the Varangian astrologers say it’s a good time for war. Southern merchants have started bribing the astrologers to arrange for more raids in order to clear out the Varoniikh. The matriarch, Varoniikh Sebest, is devoted to fighting Varang and the Realm soldiers that help them, even if it means reckless action. She overcommits her forces often, even as the clan takes losses it can’t afford, and while her aggression makes her popular, some of the clan, even in her own household, speak of desperate measures to save the clan from her. Damet, the cat-headed granary god, is the tutelary deity of the Varoniikh. His blessing prevents herd parasites and sets wildcats to hunting the vermin of the clan’s storehouses, as well as sending them to aid the raiders. The Vevyehn are the least nomadic Eskari, living in riverside towns year-round and relying on agriculture and fishing while their kin travel with the herds. Unlike the Varoniikh, they welcome both other Eskari and outsiders alike to their vibrant markets, which deal in many goods but especially iron. The rivers are rich in iron sands, which supply their renowned blacksmiths. They consider the gathered ore their birthright, and their warriors are more and more often clashing with the iron harvesters of nearby Jasper or Guild expeditions. They say their lands are the new Eskaridam, encouraging the other clans to live there and share the bounty. Their wealth makes their towns excellent targets for bandits, though, and raids by rival peoples like the Paliq, who burned the towns Puraval and Old Nezhek a generation ago. Other Eskari also sometimes dislike them for cultural or religious reasons, such as their sedentary nature. Matriarch Vevyehn Ruz has little power by Eskari standards, as political authority in the clan belongs largely to town leaders, and she mostly arbitrates disputes between the towns and represents the clan to the gyula. She opposes the gyula’s militarism as a threat to prosperity, and most of the Vevyehn towns agree with her, but the other clans do not. The god of the Vevyehn is Loksha, the many-handed god of markets. Since Puraval was burned, the god has relocated to the town Nezhek-of-the-Lapwings, where many Razhiin also live. The Razhiin refuse to worship Loksha, though, which has caused a lot of tensions between the clans. The Varangian city-state Haqad was an ally of Eskaridam against the Realm, but betrayed them when the astrologers predicted defeat, choosing to become a satrapy. They have been enriched by land that belonged to Eskaridam, and so they are the most prominent symbol of the Realm to the Eskari and other local peoples. The clans hate Haqad, but their military power and the local Imperial garrison have proven to be nearly impossible to beat. The Kazhur frequently raid and steal from the Eskari herds, but they’re seen as trading partners more often than enemies. Their customs demand repayment for stolen property if the owner confronts them, and the Eskari have found doing so to be less dangerous and more profitable than fighting off the raiders. The Razhiin are heavily intermarried with the Kazhur, but they’re not the only ones to marry them due to this unusual trade arrangement. When the Kazhur raid during lean periods, however, or against herdsmen that don’t know their customs, violence is still very possible. Dying Eskari often volunteer to have their ashes scattered on the edges of the Sands Where No Man Walks, in the hopes that their ghosts will help contain the monsters within. Angry ghosts lure in the unwary with illusory oases, and swirling ash-storms formed from mass deaths by fire aim to kill the living. Vulture-headed phantoms devour ghosts too weak to flee them. All of these spill of the ancient shadowland at the center of the Sands, where a great tree of smoke rises, its branches said to house the palaces of dead gyulas. In the rare times when an Eskari shaman dreams of a relative’s ghost caught by the predatory spectres of the Sands, their friends and family may mount a quest to brave the Sands to free them. Next time: The Bronze Tide
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May 22, 2019 20:42
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 Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge part 7, "Unbeknownst to us, we were Rifted to a parallel world where the enemy captured the Emperor." Adventure Outline Emperor Prosek lost behind enemy lines! "Adventure Outline" actually just feels like it means "Unfinished Adventure", doesn't it? In any case, a Death's Head Transport was downed by a group of Shadow Dragons (we'll see them in the backmatter) and flying Juggernauts, falling behind enemy lines. The rumor is That Prosek was on the skullplane, though Chi-Town denies this. Though Emperor Karl hasn't been seen after the crash, the Coalition claims that he's been secreted away for safety after an attempt on his life. However, the player characters (somehow) intercept a radio transmission from the Black Skull Down claiming to have the Emperor and that they're trying to escape to meet up with Coalition troops. Meanwhile, Coalition troops are battling to meet up with the survivors of the transport while bounty hunters start to swarm the area. Conveniently, all the SAMAS armors on the transport were all destroyed or no longer flyable, so if Emperor Karl is there, he's not flying away. The radio message mentions this so the PCs don't jump to that conclusion. Thanks for giving that away on an open channel, skullbros! The adventure presumes that Tolkeen-sympathetic PCs (somehow) run across the escaping Coalition troops. Even with heavy losses, though, the Coalition troops are too numerous to easily attack, with over a hundred soldiers, some with power armor or giant robots. They'll have to observe, locate the apparent Emperor Prosek, and then sneak in to find him. Mind, it's going to require "the cunning and teamwork of the players, the discretion of the Game Master and a bit of luck" because outside of invisibility and similar powers, using the Prowl skill is extremely dicey with a group involved. Of course, once they get the Emperor, the Coalition troops will be out for revenge and the PCs will be on the run. Other bounty hunters and mercs may bedevil him to grab the reward and prestige of bagging Prosek. Similarly, Karl will do everything he can to try and escape. Note that it assumes that they try and capture Emperor Karl- the notion of just sniping him from afar and calling it a day isn't really an option it addresses. It does momentarily address that you could be Coalition soldiers who find them and aid Prosek's return, but it seems to forget Emperor Karl has a company of troops with him and any combat with Tolkeen forces will require some serious handwaving. Of course, if you haven't guessed by now, Emperor Prosek isn't the real deal. He's a fake - an Auto-G assassin brainwashed to get close enough to a Tolkeen leader to kill and replace one of them, and then try to eliminate as many of the others as possible. Why the Prosek ruse? Well, presumably that'll get them close enough, but one would think they'd be extremely cautious regarding Prosek. It feels like it'd be harder to break free as Prosek than to say, have the Auto-G infiltrate normally like any assassin and not go through this bizarrely elaborate ruse that is costing them at least thousands of troops for the sake of the illusion. Moreover, most of the Tolkeen leadership are powerful mages and the idea of an Auto-G assassin taking them down with Prosek's hamburger hands seems relatively laughable. It notes that the the assassin could change the course of the war if successful, but has no real details on how that would actually fork from the existing plot even if the shapeshifter could manage it.  None of this happens in the adventure. Oh, and if the Tolkeen-allied PCs succeed and presuming the Auto-G fails: Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:Even if the assassin is unsuccessful in hurting anybody, Tolkeen's leadership will realize they have been tricked, and those who played a roll in the deception will be demoted, any rewards taken away, they will become laughingstocks (earning themselves historical infamy rather than fame and glory), and probably forced to undergo interrogation to make certain they are not Coalition spies or traitors. Yep. You can only "win" the adventure by "losing" it. What a twist!  But don't worry, if Coalition-allied PCs succeed, they... "succeed", and the assassin is never delivered into Tolkeen's hands. If they fail, though, we get a full page of overwrought glee about how they might feel bad or think they're insane, since their leadership will tell them Prosek was never there and has been in hiding the whole time. It explores the possibilities of them going rogue to prove their beliefs. Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:If the player characters insist they "know" they had the Emperor and that he's fallen into the clutches of the enemy, the officers they appeal to are likely to see them as crazy or bewitched. This may lead to their being arrested and placed under guard for their own good. In either case, they are obviously suffering from some type of psychological breakdown and the entire group will be rotated out of the Tolkeen theater of conflict within 1D6 days. Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:As a result, authorities are likely to try to convince the player characters that if there really was a "real" person, that it was some sort of "enemy plot," and they should be glad it was foiled. If the player characters don't seem to buy this explanation, they may be committed to an asylum for the rest of their lives! Siembieda is super jazzed by the idea of Coalition soldier PCs losing their minds over this, including 12 different possible insanities they could be inflicted with by the idea of being responsible for the loss of the totally awesome and important Emperor Karl Prosek. Thankfully, we're reassured: Rifts Coalition Wars 3: Sorcerers' Revenge posted:Remember, not all characters will go crazy over this. Many will be able to accept that they will never know what happened or who was responsible. They are able to put it behind them and move forward. They may always wonder about it, and may even distrust or dislike those they suspect were responsible, but for the most part, they are okay and live normal, productive lives. This means it should be the individual players who decide if their fictional character suffers from emotional and mental trauma, not the G.M. That's downright gentlemanly of you, Siembieda.  Next: Give him a whiff of his own B.O.* * Blitzkrieg Offensive
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May 23, 2019 06:09
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What happens if somebody who's already Exalted completes a Lunar's obstacle course?
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May 23, 2019 12:15
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Kevin really didn't think that some PCs might just want to kill Hitler, huh?
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May 23, 2019 12:41
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The Lone Badger posted:What happens if somebody who's already Exalted completes a Lunar's obstacle course? Nothing - the trials only work on mortals. If an Exalt wants to become a beastman they need to get a Lunar's direct blessing to transform them via a different Charm.
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May 23, 2019 12:54
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Using a shape-shifting D-Bee for assassination!? What ingenuity! What treachery! This sort of thing NEVER happens in RIFTS ever!
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May 23, 2019 13:35
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Dawgstar posted:Using a shape-shifting D-Bee for assassination!? What ingenuity! What treachery! This sort of thing NEVER happens in RIFTS ever! edit: a shapeshifting assassins.
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May 23, 2019 14:16
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Fangs at the Gate: Murloc Noises In the far Southwest, the Cinder Isles are a vast expanse populated by many maritime nations. In the easternmost, however, they share one great fear: the Bronze Tide. Many diverse peoples once lived on the Gray-Eye Peninsula, in the eastern Cinder Isles. The wine-loving Mygdons, the Issyks with their complex dancing reels, the gold-adoring Yensei and more lived there, trading or hiring themselves out as mercenaries for the islands, or raiding them. Nations rose and fell, fortunes came and went. 50 years ago, however, the trade and mercenary work essentially ended for the mainlanders, and their coastal city-states swelled as inlanders sought refuge. Not all came asking aid, either – some came to conquer. So close to the Wyld, the mainlanders often dealt with Wyld incursions. Sometimes, strange beings would come to trade, sometimes to destroy. However, when Spear-Empress Bhadri returned with a cloak of green, twelve dread companions and a near-infinite army, all the old defenses failed. They were mightier than any Wyld force since the Contagion itself, and they came to conquer, subduing, infiltrating or suborning all in their path. The Spear-Empress never bargained, and even the Exalted were unable to stop her soul-devouring legions. Her territory spreads from the world’s edge, getting closer to the coast each year. The enslaved peoples work the land and harvest Wyld-tainted crops, though the raksha prefer to feed on the humans themselves. The seas seem like they will prove no problem for Bhadri, whose forces have impossible crafts captained by the Fair Folk. However, the coasts still remain largely unconquered, and some of the cities of the interior have managed to hold her off, either by clever strategy or terrifying bargains made with Bhadri’s companions. Rather than be conquered, many nations have ceded their lands to the Spear-Empress’ horde and headed north, towards the coast. Some of these left their gods behind them, confident they could find new ones. Many spirits and ancestors followed their people, while others fled to Heaven or the Underworld, or died defending their lands from the Wyld – or worse, got mutated beyond recognition. Initially, the mainlanders fought each other as the first targets of Bhadri sought to conquer other lands to replace their lost ones. When the Fair Folk showed no sign of slowing, however, they reached a tentative peace, uniting to sweep over the islanders as the Bronze Tide, a massive war-fleet that devours cities and leaves only ruins in its relentless surge away from the Spear-Empress. In the chaos, the warrior Lukha Palash has rallied his people, vowing to lead them to safety on the islands by conquest if necessary. His speeches pleased Luna, and so he Exalted as the great god appeared before him as an omen, a great cormorant with bloody talons. Now, the Changing Moon is both a war-chief and god-king to the Bronze Tide, leading every battle. He is young, eager and vicious in battle, but he is no fool. He has surrounded himself with the leaders of the peoples of the Tide, seeking their wisdom. His enemies fear the bright blue plumage that marks him, for they know he has no mercy. The peoples that comprise the Bronze Tide have been loosely related to each other for centuries, and after the Contagion, most were slaves to the Empire of the Forty-Fourth Immortal, whose collapse has still not been recovered from. Therefore, while they are separate peoples, they have many similarities. They tend to wear elaborately patterned clothes, with varying caps by the people, from the wolf-ear hats of the Mygdons to the raiton-feather caps of the Issyk. They use heavily detailed metalwork, often with iconography of mythic heroes and great beasts. Traditionally, they have been pastoral shepherds and cattle-herders, with war-slaves working the farms to grow barley, wheat, tubers and other crops, which were supplemented by raids on each other and the Cinder Isles peoples for goods and food. The herds have largely been abandoned for the fleet, and owning cattle or horses is now a gigantic mark of status. The different peoples have always been prone to fighting each other, with personal or family vendettas spiraling out of control to become full-on wars. Powerful and charismatic leaders can unite them for a time, but their persistent resentment of foreign rule, dating back to the Forty-Fourth Immortal, ensures that these alliances rarely last. Even now, while Lukha Palash is important to the Tide, the mainland chiefs are ready to splinter off or jockey for power if he dies. Rivalries and feuds are in abeyance for now, but they still sometimes flare up, and Palash must carefully rein in the various factions and separatists. The Tide have left very little standing in their wake. Most of the city-states they raid now lie in ruins, burned and broken. The Bronze Tide warriors are practiced at psychological warfare, and as they approach each port, they stream out onto the decks, brandishing their weapons and being as loud as possible to unnerve defenders and civilians. Damaged ships and injuries are costly, and while they don’t fear a fight, they prefer the enemy to break as quickly as possible. Defenders are mercilessly slaughtered and the leaders of resisting city-states killed, but civilians are often enslaved, especially crafters and shipbuilders. Those that are not taken as slaves are allowed to flee. The city is then burned, to reinforce the cost of resistance and leave no place for the survivors to linger. The refugees that head for nearby territories are a message: you may be next. Only a few city-states have had the power and skill to withstand the Tide. Some have used pure combat might to do so, while others dug in and were able to wait out a siege until the Tide moved on. It's easier, after all, to find a softer target. In these cases, the Tide flows around the city and ignores it. Resisting nations have not been conquered, at least, but if the Tide doesn’t come back for another go, it will only be a matter of time before Spear-Empress Bhadri arrives. While the Bronze Tide’s power spreads through the Cinder Isles, most of their people still live on the mainland coast. Outsiders see them as a conglomerate, but it’s really more like a hundred different nations loosely held together by common need and a shared foe. Leaders emerge in battle, but when they die, there’s always another to take their place, which only enhances their reputation for ruthlessness. There are hundreds of cultures within the Tide, and communication between them can be slow and unreliable, so each tends to govern itself individually. They’ve had to reconcile old conflict of law to prevent infighting, which Tide leaders work hard to stop, as many were old foes. Now, they focus their aggression on other nations and the Fair Folk. They celebrate their individual cultures, with none standing over the others, in part due to the careful influence of Lukha Palash and his advisors. While Lukha is a Mygdon, he chooses to acknowledge all traditions and participates in any rituals he is invited to, not just the Mygdons’ own. The past 20 years have seen increasing unity and syncretization of some customs. The Issyk practice of bringing offerings of milk, wine, honey and water to sacred places is now widespread as a way of approaching new gods, especially since so many cultures had to leave theirs behind. The gods of the Bronze Tide see the expansion as a chance to increase their power, driving out the gods of conquered lands and usurping their cults. Sometimes, they will take on the name of a defeated deity to make this easier, and other times they will try to get the conquered people to switch to their traditional worship. Gods that cannot subdue the local deities may negotiate a truce and merging of cults. The storytellers and artists of the Tide work not only to keep the memories of their homelands alive, but also to remember the places they have been and the peoples they have conquered. The ballads of defeated foes are part history, part boast, and some artists even integrate the styles of their defeated foes into their pieces, though the elders don’t agree on if this is good or not. Some say it celebrates their triumph, but others argue that it is foolishly celebrating an aspect of a culture they burned to ash. The Mygdons have been driven from their wealthy city-states, and their martial traditions are growing in importance. Old rivalries between Mygdon cities have fallen to the wayside before the threat of the Fair Folk, but they simmer below the surface, and some former princes resent Lukha for usurping their authority. The Issyk claim to have dwelt in the valleys of Mount Ulim since the First Age, worshipping the strange wild gods. Their diaspora has caused large social upheaval, as their homes are now lost and their gods fallen before the Spear-Empress. They now live at sea, despite having no seafaring traditions, and their shamans have made pacts with many minor gods forced from their homes by the Fair Folk, starting a new pantheon. The Pelith are famous as poets and equestrians, and their clans are stubbornly independent, never before uniting. They fear Lukha Palash, as in ancient times, they were driven from their homes by swan-headed nobles, and their hatred of the beastfolk runs deep…but their fear of Bhadri is greater, and they will work with a devil today to escape her annihilation. Tomorrow, who knows? The Yensei are merchants and metalworkers, renowned for gold embroidery, filigree and ornamentation. They do not much like the Mygdons, who have long been their rivals, but they have accepted Lukha’s command from necessity. They often complain, though, that it just had to be a Mygdon, didn’t it. Lukha’s council is hand-picked to keep him aware of what’s happening with the fleet and its people, to advocate for them and to advise him on strategy and the movements of the Spear-Empress’ forces. Currently, ith as six members, but the composition shifts as advisors gain or lose favor or must tend to other responsibilities. The storyteller Jural Three-Trees is a great scholar who was sent to recruit Lukha to the Pact by his shahan-ya, Skathra Venomchild. Lukha took the offer but refused to abandon the Tide, and Jural was won over by this dedication. He mentors Lukha on the Fair Folk and Pact politics as well as strategy, and is also Lukha’s lover now. Jural has his own plans for Bhadri, as Skathra takes pleasure and gains power from eating fae alive, and so Jural has full plans to drag Bhadri to the Caul in iron chains…though having witnessed her strength firsthand, he’s unsure he is actually able to do so. Leja is an outcaste Dragon-Blood of the Mygdons, a shipwright and admiral who oversees the fleet’s logistics and repair. While her service is deeply important to the Tide, she’s also a problem on the council. Bhadri defeated her years ago, and even more than the physical scars, she is still wounded by the loss of her husband and children in that battle. She is surly and erratic, an alcoholic and can’t remember the last time she got a good night’s sleep. Even when the Tide stays in one place for a time, she remains aboard her ship, Kiara’s Bane, to keep watch for Bhadri. In her dreams, she sees her eldest son as a changeling warrior leading the Fair Folk legion, thirsting for her blood. Sufek is a bard of the Issyk whom Lukha relies on to use his perfect memory for affairs of state. Sufek sees himself not only as an Issyk historian but the historian of the Tide as a whole. He is a clever politician who has often written vicious, anonymous poems to undermine his rivals or those that question the Lunar’s authority and decrees. The hot-blooded nature of both Lukha and Sufek is counterbalanced by Parav, a Yensei strategist who serves as the council’s voice of caution. She is not a coward by any means, just smart. She is near seventy, and before the Fair Folk came, she was an active raider who had more war trophies than any other. Her tactics have been key to several victories, but beyond her battle skill, she also has many valuable contacts among the nations of the Bronze Tide, making her very influential. The city-state Argidos of the great lighthouses and statuary, is directly in the Tide’s path. Its ruler has sent messages begging aid from its neighbors, but so far there has been no response. Fifty years ago, the Argidosians warred on the neighboring isles, hiring a fleet of Mygdon mercenaries to siege ports for them. The Cinders have long memories, and most of their neighbors are more than happy to let Argidos fall to buy time for their own defense. The islands Melanthes and Ipera have long been at peace, joined by a narrow sandbar during low tide. They are lush, wealthy islands with great resources, having long traded with the Mygdon to supply them with lumber for ships, and even intermarried with them. As the Bronze Tide nears the islands, some Mygdons argue that conquering them is wrong, for they are blood kin. Tenai is one of the few cities to defeat the Bronze Tide. Their high walls and many temples remain whole, though the slaughter of the battle has opened a small shadowland in the fields. Tenai took heavy casualties in the defense, which lasted three days, but in the end they turned back the ships. They’ve spent the last year picking up the pieces, watching for the Tide’s return. Unfortunately, they’re looking in the wrong direction – it is Bhadri they should fear. Sayfar is a city-state that has, for the past century, ruled a petty empire that, in its height, controlled nearly a quarter of the Cinder Isles. It overlooks a broad cove full of triremes and its promontory is nearly impossible to attack. The locals claim descent from ancestors beneath the sea, and their oracles can gaze through time as they dance to exhaustion. When their navy stopped the Tide in early battles, some of their subjects used the battles as a chance to break free, only to find the Tide waiting to overwhelm them. Only a bare handful of Sayfar tributaries remain loyal, hoping their combined fleets will have a better chance than going it alone. Spear-Empress Bhadri is a terrifying raksha queen, calculating and ruthless. She cannot end her pursuit of the Tide, for it is not in her nature to end a hunt that is not yet complete. She is a terrible monster, calling forth hobgoblin armies from the earth itself and sending her enemies into mad panic. A shrike always perches on her shoulder, tearing apart the souls of those she kills. When she throws her dread ash-wood spear, bladed with sapphire, those in its wake shrivel and crumple like leaves. Bhadri has twelve companions, and the book presents two of them as examples. Prince Zalak of the Wave-Cutter Chariot is a warrior-admiral, dreaded by the Bronze Tide. She rides a mare made of living fog which can run on land and sea alike, and her three-bladed ivory-and-pearl daiklave calls forth monsters from the deep. She is capricious and fickle, but her loyalty to Bhadri is unbreakable, for Bhadri defeated her in a duel and forced from her an oath of service. If not her for her occasional wanderlust drawing her from her ships, she might be even more terrifying than the Spear-Empress. Prince Gelyb, the Song of Fire, is a poet-blacksmith that exists only to burn that which is ugly and impure from this world. He is controlled by envy and vainglory, and his miraculous skill in crafting is amazing. When his fellow hunters rest, he sings into existence pavilions and fortress of cold flame and sweet smoke, which last a night and a day. When he attacks the Tide, he calls crimson flame around his fists, burning their ships to ash. Next time: Sunken Luthe
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May 23, 2019 15:29
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Dawgstar posted:Using a shape-shifting D-Bee for assassination!? What ingenuity! What treachery! This sort of thing NEVER happens in RIFTS ever! The best twist would be that the Auto-G replaced Prosek during brainwashing and reversed things so that the real Prosek is killed, making everyone think they killed an imposter until his son and closest advisors die mysteriously.
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May 23, 2019 15:30
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Dawgstar posted:Using a shape-shifting D-Bee for assassination!? What ingenuity! What treachery! This sort of thing NEVER happens in RIFTS ever! It's especially funny since this is Tolkeen, which has the highest per-capita of people who can shape-shift, turn invisible, or psychically explode people's brains. The Tolkeen High Command has got to have responses to all of this because if they didn't there wouldn't be a Tolkeen High Command.
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May 23, 2019 15:44
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Warhammer Fantasy: Paths of the Damned Part 3: Forges of Nuln The Greatest City In The World Nuln likes to claim it's the real capital of the Empire, and this has been true as often as it hasn't. Nuln is actually the oldest continual human settlement in the Old World, having been inhabited for ages after it was settled by proto-Tilean traders who found an underground river passage through the mountains to establish a city on the bones of an old Elven colony in what would become modern Wissenland. Nuln sits on the Reik, only a few days' sailing up-river from Altdorf, and while it was originally established as a trading site, its proximity to Black Fire Pass and the great mountains south and west of Wissenland meant it was constantly under threat by orcs. Nuln itself became a bastion for refugees when the orc problem became worse and worse, settling both humans and dwarfs fleeing the rampaging mobs while Sigmar was off uniting the tribes. It's odd that this description of Sigmar speaks of him forging an empire 'by strength of will and sword' alone, while every other description emphasizes that he convinced most tribes to join him rather than conquering them. I note this word choice because it's going to come up later with this book's description of Magnus the Pious, too, and it feels a bit off. Anyway, Siggy showed up with an actual army and relieved the city of Nuln, then recruited whoever could hold a sword or axe from among the refugees and citizens. The Battle of Black Fire Pass is well known at this point, so there was the founding of the Empire. With the Empire founded, Nuln was a trading post, still, sending goods between the southern realms in what would be modern Tilea and Estalia and the new Empire. Sigmar patronized and supported Nuln, and decided to make it another hub of internal trade and communication, ordering the construction of great roads between Middenheim, Altdorf, and Nuln. Since merchants from outside of the new Empire could enter it through Nuln, Nuln being connected by patrolled and protected routes to both Altdorf (river and road both) and Middenheim let it leverage its central location to become one of the Empire's primary commercial hubs. Nuln has been vastly rich ever since, quite possibly the wealthiest city in all of the Empire. The presence of dwarf refugees among the population of Nuln actually gave it a head-start over places like Altdorf in establishing Imperial engineering. By welcoming those who had fled danger, the city gained a core of excellent architects, builders, and workers. Nuln was the first city in all of the Empire to construct a dwarf-engineered sewer system, and has a reputation for maintaining it very well, which only aided the population growth of the city by greatly improving its sanitation even in ancient times. Wissenland's first counts are described as men who welcomed people from all over the world into their new city and profited greatly by doing so. 25 years after Sigmar vanished, a man of Nuln appeared. A man named Johan Helstrum, who would change the character of Sigmar's Empire forever. You remember Helstrum from Tome of Salvation; he's the guy who first began to preach that Sigmar had gone off to become a God. Nuln has always been a city eager to embrace new and exciting things, and Sigmar had supported the city immensely and helped it build up from a trading post and fortified refugee camp to one of the burgeoning great cities of the world in his 50 year reign. The aristocracy of the city was happy to accept the idea of a new God who wasn't Ulric, especially when Helstrum went into why they had the divine right to wealth and privilege (that part isn't in this particular description, but I feel it's important to keep in mind). In 100 IC, Emperor Fulk showed support for the cult of Sigmar and its first Grand Theoganist, Johan Helstrum, by moving the capital from Altdorf to Nuln to reflect that he wished the office to be inherently Sigmarite. Ulrican partisans departed for Talabecland and Middenland, and Sigmarism's dominance over the southern regions of the Empire became assured. Fulk then ordered the old elf ruins the city had been built into torn down and repurposed, trying to build the city to be explicitly Sigmarite in honor of the new religion. By the time the Empire was fully established 400 years later, Nuln was the first city to begin building great public libraries and establishing universities. The University of Nuln is the first actual University established in all the Empire and has remained an important center of Imperial academics ever since. Nuln was considered a vanguard city in all areas, the city of progress that was always pushing the Empire forward. Then, during the reign of Emperor Boris 'Goldgather' Hoenbach, the Sigmarite faith was rocked with a much worse scandal than the normal corruption. In 1110, the High Priest of Nuln was not just revealed as corrupt (everyone knew he was, everyone in a high office in the Goldgather days was), but an actual direct agent of Slaanesh. Slaaneshi had completely infiltrated and seized the major hierarchy of the Sigmarite church, not just Nuln; he was just the first of many to be revealed. It's always interesting to me; if you pay attention to Hams history, Slaanesh is probably the single most successful Chaos God at actually infiltrating the Empire. Tzeentch gives it a try, but they just lack for the sheer number of Slaanesh cults. At the same time, most Slaanesh cults don't actually seem all that interested in destroying the Empire; they often seem to aim for getting to some high place, hiding there, and just enjoying the power and privilege that comes with it. The Imperial Court left Nuln, and people began to abandon the faith of Sigmar after the revelations about its high up priests. Add to that the Black Plague, the Skaven war, and the general insane misery of the next generation and the death of roughly half the Imperial population, and you can see why people were a little less into Siggy for awhile. The Empire wouldn't fall until 200 years later, though, when the Count of Stirland was elected Emperor in Nuln with the heavy support of the Sigmarites and immediately responded by declaring ruinous taxes on all Ulrican orders and shrines. That led Countess Ottilia of Talabecland to declare the election illegitimate, and the Empire would become several states for roughly the next thousand years. During this time, Sigmarism had come back into vogue in Nuln, almost to the point of monodominism. People took the plague as an act of divine wrath, rather than a biological weapon spread by evil rat nazis. Sigmar's church was happy to go on the offensive and embrace this wave of religious conservativism, because of course they were. Politicians turned to Sigmar to bless and justify brutal edicts and unjust laws, claiming the war with the 'heretical' other two Emperors justified these abuses. This in turn once again destroyed the legitimacy of Sigmarism with the Nulner population, and saw them turning away from his worship. Even with Magnus the Pious, Sigmarism has never fully recovered in Nuln. The modern city has a reputation for venerating Verena above him, though they naturally still pay homage to the state religion of the Empire. As for Magnus, the description of him in this book is...odd. And kind of conflicts with some of the others. This book calls him a 'genius fanatic' with 'new ideas about Nationalism and the divinity of Sigmar' who was sent to Nuln's secular university to try to temper his fanaticism. There's no mention of his stepping out of the seminary to lead and rally the defenders of the city against an actual demonic rebellion in the streets, as there is in other books; instead he's portrayed as a zealot who went around making fiery speeches and whipped up bands of fellow zealots, took over the city, and then went to Middenheim, stepped into the flame, led an army against Kul, and became 'Strong Emperor' who would return the Empire's 'golden age'. Uh...that phrasing sets off a couple alarms for me. And like I said, the contours of the story conflict with what I know of Magnus the Pious from other sources within WHFRP2e. I also like them talking about how they had to spin up wartime production in Nuln and the merchants and forges of the city made millions of crowns when they 'finally' defeated Archaon. This is funny to me, because the war lasted less than a year. There was hardly time for any of that to happen. Hell, the 'siege' of Middenheim is written as like 15 days long. The entire Imperial part of the war lasted only a couple months. Which is completely insane and impossible, but you know. Hams war. Nuln in 2522 is a wealthy, powerful city that is completely central to the Empire's military education and production. It still considers itself the Empire's most important city, no matter how much Altdorf contests the role. Like everywhere in the Empire, the gap between the wealthy and the common is huge, and the city is built on the contrast between the stately universities and glittering arts districts and the black smoke pouring from the forges and factories as they forge munition plate and cannon barrels. Nuln will always be an exciting and important place for the Empire. It's a shame the adventure set in it is going to suck so much. Next Time: People of Nuln
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May 23, 2019 17:27
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Tibalt posted:I like how the chauvinist human faction in RIFTS still has dog-human hybrids, psychics, and androids. The dog mutants are a borrow from Wujcik's After the Bomb, in which the fascistic, pro-human Empire of Humanity had a client state of anthropomorphic dogs.
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May 23, 2019 18:56
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Hey guys guess what I've decided from now on I'll only review good ga- Oh no, oh wait, this isn't a good game at all, but at least the art won't be weird and creepy this t-  It's coming.
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May 23, 2019 19:47
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  drat you all to hell!
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May 23, 2019 19:49
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oh no
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May 23, 2019 19:50
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in honor of sharktits leggap, my next Lunars post will intensively discuss underwater furries
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May 23, 2019 19:53
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Oh gods. 
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May 23, 2019 19:54
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megane posted:oh no 
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May 23, 2019 19:56
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How is there more!?
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May 23, 2019 19:57
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Joe Slowboat posted:How is there more!? There was a successful kickstarter last year.
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May 23, 2019 19:58
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Start kicking my head
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May 23, 2019 20:00
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Joe Slowboat posted:How is there more!?  
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May 23, 2019 20:03
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People threw their money at this? In a Kickstarter? WHY? How much could it have possibly gotten?
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May 23, 2019 20:03
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kommy5 posted:People threw their money at this? In a Kickstarter? WHY? How much could it have possibly gotten? oh sweet child assholes have infinite cash and will throw endless piles of it at literally anything or anyone that tells them being an rear end in a top hat is okay
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May 23, 2019 20:08
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Libertarians are not known for being careful with their money.
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May 23, 2019 20:09
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I'm sure this time they have new and creative ways to offend anyone who basically isn't Shmorky .
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May 23, 2019 20:10
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Count Chocula posted:Is Daeren or someone else going to finish the Powerchords review? It sounds horrible and problematic, but I still believe in the mystical, trancendent power of rock and roll. I’ve been trying to turn it into RPG form for 15 years (anyone want my notes on a Hold Steady/Unknown Armies game or my Springsteen/Gaslight Anthem/Mountain Goats/THS/Ezra Furman/Tom Waits/Nick Cave Monster of the Week settings. Time of Mysteries has two rock and roll style adventures), based on things like Scott Pilgrim and Wild Zero and Phonogram. I have a whole idea for heroic rock and rollers fighting dance music cyborgs. There’s Starchildren:Velvet Generation, a glam rock RPG reviewed here, and someone was working on a mythical blues based WOD game (I played a blues musician in Mage). I fell off that review because I felt profoundly, greasily, deeply unclean when my research found out Brucato extremely definitely had a thing for barefooted underaged redheads and happened to make one the main character of his original work. It sorta threw off the ability to be funny about things, or even write a critical review to dissect it that didnt just go back to scream about that every few sentences. I might go back and look it over again and see if I can finish it but there's no promises there.
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May 23, 2019 20:12
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Night10194 posted:Libertarians are not known for being careful with their money. It was honestly probably less libertarians and more furries. Furries will pay a lot for art, which I believe was one of the things on offer.
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May 23, 2019 20:13
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megane posted:oh sweet child I suppose that does explain the Exalted Kickstarter which also mystified me.
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May 23, 2019 20:13
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Mors Rattus posted:It was honestly probably less libertarians and more furries. Furries will pay a lot for art, which I believe was one of the things on offer. How the hell do furries have so much money I have trouble buying car parts
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May 23, 2019 20:27
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It's more the fury community has really dedicated rich people who will pay everyone and anything money for art.
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May 23, 2019 20:33
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kommy5 posted:I suppose that does explain the Exalted Kickstarter which also mystified me. That's really not what Exalted is at all? Even the late 2e version of Exalted was never a libertarian fantasy setting.
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May 23, 2019 20:34
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In my experience, there are a significant number of furries who 1) have tech jobs, 2) live with roommates, and 3) don't have/aren't planning to raise a family. Result: lots of spare money to spend on their hobby.
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May 23, 2019 20:37
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yeah the furry thing is also true HSD sits in the accursed intersection of the World's Worst Venn Diagram
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May 23, 2019 20:46
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When I got to MAGfest every year, I see expensive sports cars with like, touhou plushies in the windows and "HENTAI" license plates. Last year there was at least two itasha running around. You also have the folks that bring / volunteer arcade games for the con, which can require trucking around $100,000+ worth of Jubeat machines. Granted, there are rich nerds that make a business (of whatever profitability, I dunno) of getting fancy Japanese arcade machines and then essentially renting them to cons, but in this case it's volunteering (with perks, of course). Basically there are big nerds in the 1% and you can't underestimate the power of that. Also, people with relatively niche fetishes or tastes will often do quite a bit to fund it because they're generally underserved compared to more mainstream wank wants.
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May 23, 2019 20:47
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Joe Slowboat posted:That's really not what Exalted is at all? Even the late 2e version of Exalted was never a libertarian fantasy setting. Well, that's not entirely true, given Grabowski's being a diehard libertarian.
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May 23, 2019 20:52
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Yeah, Holden and Morke being so proud to get Grabowski to write for the line again is why the corebook has a rant about fiat currency.
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May 23, 2019 20:56
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