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I love how even after Tolkeen loses everything and the Coalition turned out to be exactly as genocidal as predicted (up to and including no poo poo death camps that they entirely liquidated) people who try to run resistance against them and help refugees still get denigrated as 'manipulative'. gently caress you, Kev. gently caress you and your pet nazis. The skull blimps and aesthetic aren't even cool looking.
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Jun 17, 2019 13:58
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potatocubed posted:I had the same experience playing it. Against a handful of equally-competent enemies combat was about normal speed for a crunchy game, but against one powerful opponent it slowed to a crawl as he just picked up a gigantic stack of ripples that never resolved. It doesn't help that the die resolution mechanic is, shall we say, extremely unintuitive when you're trying to figure out what an average roll is. I think that my players and myself were trying to build giant ripple stacks without realizing that you really don't get much from going up from around 9 dice to 15 dice. It's been a long time though I might be confusing things in my memory because trying to recall specific rpg experiences from six (?) years ago isn't exactly reliable for me. The background system and the xp system for LotW was cool though. Really, almost everything was, it's just that combat was too confusing for half the group and took too long to resolve for those of us who were able to sort of get what was going on with the dice system.
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Jun 17, 2019 14:14
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I'm shocked. Three whole female NPCs on the council and not one thing about them 'using their stunning attractiveness to their best advantage.'
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Jun 17, 2019 15:03
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Dawgstar posted:I'm shocked. Three whole female NPCs on the council and not one thing about them 'using their stunning attractiveness to their best advantage.' and only one of them is an old lady, the other rifts go to.
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Jun 17, 2019 15:05
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It's amazing how many of these Rifts NPC writeups act like the war with the Coalition was totally a war of choice on Tolkeen's side. If you just read the Tolkien writeups I bet you'd come away with the impression that they pretty much started it. Which is very gross.
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Jun 17, 2019 15:12
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Weapons of the Gods basically amounts to "we got this license to build our kung-fu game around because it was a very cheap way to fill our book with Tony Wong's art." It may actually be the only good business decision Eos ever made.
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Jun 17, 2019 15:23
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Rereading federation of magic (and Alien Rope Burn's article on it) it also strikes me as interesting how much we seem to be reading kind of... the version of the setting in Seimbeda's head, rather than the version of the setting that is actually written on the page. Like, as mentioned earlier, it seems pretty strange that the other factions of the Federation of Magic don't intervene. Dweomer is the third largest magical city in North America, and seems unlikely to have Lazlo's (already unrealistic) qualms. Nor does Dunscon have any real power over them. Sure, they want to avoid conflict with the Coalition, but it seems pretty obvious that the Coalition will eventually come for them and all other magic users. So once the Coalition is looking weak, why not pounce? A lot of the criticism of appeasement as a policy is actually quite ahistorical because it doesn't realize the bad state of the French and British economies, and how much they didn't want to wreck them by rearming. Hitler kept pushing for an early war because he'd managed to steal a march on them and rearm, and they kept appeasing him to catch up (which they only partly did.) But I've never before seen avoiding war with the genocidal fascists as not only the wise choice, but the only moral one. The only one that the real heroes can make.
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Jun 17, 2019 15:31
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You have to remember a big part of Kev's writing on the Coalition is that no-one can ever morally fight them, they are both too powerful and if they are ever defeated it will harm 'stability' so much that it will be terrible for everyone. Also if you do fight them REVENGE happens. Which is also your fault, apparently. Seriously, gently caress Kevin.
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Jun 17, 2019 15:41
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The whole Tolkeen things reads like Kevin cargo culting pacifism into a one-size-fits-all doctrine. It's not really that uncommon of an attitude among the older-guard left, as I understand it. I suppose that this is what it looks like when taken to its extremes by a lazy centrist.
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Jun 17, 2019 15:54
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As the reviews have gone on, I've gone from thinking RIFTS is hilarious and poorly made, to thinking that Kevin Siembieda is an awful person who I can't think about to long without angrying up the ol' blood. Also not that anyone is waiting on it but I do plan to return to Half-Damned. Life has been... not amazing to me lately.
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Jun 17, 2019 15:54
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Night10194 posted:You have to remember a big part of Kev's writing on the Coalition is that no-one can ever morally fight them, they are both too powerful and if they are ever defeated it will harm 'stability' so much that it will be terrible for everyone. I find the attitude to the CS very strange. He obviously wants us to think they're evil, but like, trying to stop them is more evil? I don't think he's a cryptofascist, but that just leaves me more confused.
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Jun 17, 2019 15:54
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FBH991 posted:I find the attitude to the CS very strange. He obviously wants us to think they're evil, but like, trying to stop them is more evil? I think it's one of those things where an idiot tries to do moral complexity and uses contrarianism to bamboozle himself into 'actually Nazis are the good guys' because he's dumb as all hell. Which still makes him a contemptible person. E: Basically if someone's ignorance gets to the point of both-sidsing a conflict with no-poo poo death camps like this, they've crossed the Idiot Rubicon into the place where it doesn't matter if it's stupidity or not, it's still malice. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Jun 17, 2019 |
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Jun 17, 2019 15:57
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That, and a pretty literal case of not of not wanting to murder his darlings. Kevin's darling, in this case, being Nazi aesthetics.
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Jun 17, 2019 16:01
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FBH991 posted:I find the attitude to the CS very strange. He obviously wants us to think they're evil, but like, trying to stop them is more evil? RIFTS is basically pulp garbage: the pnp so the author believing in unexamined wehraboo nonsense is honestly true to the roots of a genre that unironically believed the nazis had superscience.
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Jun 17, 2019 16:31
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FBH991 posted:Edit: It's especially hard not to despise people like Lazlo, who seem like they have at least the war-making potential of Tolkeen, who refuse to help out against the genocidal fascists kicking down Tolkeen's door even when the Coalition is super on the back foot, or give even token aid when the Coalition is about to move in and kill everyone. It's particularly weird when, like, we just had Xiticix Invasion get published. Like, there's the perfect reason to have Lazlo be preoccupied fighting bugs! And it just gets ignored - and with no explanation, either. I guess you're have to rethink the Holmes plot thread if that's ongoing, but that whole thing needed to be scrapped and rewritten anyway.
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Jun 17, 2019 17:23
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If the choice is a death camp or the nebulous possibility of demons getting loose without fascists spawn camping them, crank the Ardor and Zeal: Devil is fine.
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Jun 17, 2019 17:48
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I honestly think KS just fell in love with his darlings in the 90's and didn't realize how loathsome his writing got until after the fact. It even looks worse nowadays, but i think he's trying to be edgy (aka judge dredd as an army) but if I'm going to associate with a plot shielded antagonist, still going with A.R.C.H.I.E.-3 thank you very much. When he accidentally unleashes a genocidal monster, he does something about it.
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Jun 17, 2019 18:03
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shades of eternity posted:I honestly think KS just fell in love with his darlings in the 90's and didn't realize how loathsome his writing got until after the fact. The Coalition States: Heroes of Humanity came out in 2016. He's still wanking off his Nazi expys. Whether it's intentional or just stupidity is, as others have said, immaterial.
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Jun 17, 2019 18:34
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I think part of it was just organic that the Coalition got a large fanbase (mostly on account of Long's cool designs and partly because of Siembieda's hand-wringing justifications) and that led into a self-feeding bit where that fandom is catered to. And right now they're being really catered to by Siembieda with Heroes of Humanity, The Disavowed, and Heroes of Humanity Arsenal (if the latter two books ever come out). It actually took awhile for the line to really acknowledge people wanting to play them, it wasn't until they started doing adventures you started to see begrudging acknowledgement of it and it just kind of snowballed from there. I mean, there was acknowledgement you could play them early on, but usually as a rogue soldier or frontier operative who's willing to ignore the party line, and it wasn't until the later that the idea of having an all-Coalition party came out.
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Jun 17, 2019 18:45
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Alien Rope Burn posted:It's particularly weird when, like, we just had Xiticix Invasion get published. Like, there's the perfect reason to have Lazlo be preoccupied fighting bugs! And it just gets ignored - and with no explanation, either. The whole Holmes plot thread is enormously dumb, so it works as something to dump. I mean, I don't really understand why you'd even want to have the CS win. Given that even at the time there was a lot of CS fans, it'd be a great way to rebalance the setting to make them less villains and more PC friendly: Have them lose, have the government get overthrown because they lose and put a reformist in charge. They still hate aliens and mages but they're less willing to do extermination missions now that they got beat like a drum. I think part of the reason that CS only parties are a thing is also because magic doesn't seem all that useful.
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Jun 17, 2019 18:52
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SirPhoebos posted:The Coalition States: Heroes of Humanity came out in 2016. And doing that now instead of just being an idiot in the 90s is especially loathsome.
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Jun 17, 2019 18:53
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SirPhoebos posted:The Coalition States: Heroes of Humanity came out in 2016. Is... is it actually called that? Like, he really went there?
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Jun 17, 2019 19:20
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Prism posted:Is... is it actually called that? Like, he really went there? Oh, yeah. It's not pluck and daring do that will save the Megaverse, but skull aesthetics, racial purity, and an author-fiat amount of war materiel.
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Jun 17, 2019 19:36
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Some day I want to see something with fictional fascists that acknowledges that what they do makes you run out of stuff. And that all these racial purity programs take soldiers, supplies, and resources away from actually fighting the wars.
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Jun 17, 2019 19:49
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Night10194 posted:Some day I want to see something with fictional fascists that acknowledges that what they do makes you run out of stuff. And that all these racial purity programs take soldiers, supplies, and resources away from actually fighting the wars.
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Jun 17, 2019 19:59
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Fangs at the Gate: SNAKE CHAIN The Hundred Rings of Hadam-Ul is a moonsilver dire chain, 3 dots. Its creation is due to an immense serpent that swam the oceans of Creation and the Wyld, belonging to neither and terrorizing both. It was a thing of uncertainty, its size shifting almost randomly. Sometimes it was enough to blot out the sun, other times small enough to fit any crack. No net could catch it nor harpoon could pierce its flesh, and even names could not pin it down. The beast was and is without name as result. At last, the Lunar Hadam-Ul, a patient if not particularly famed warrior, tracked the behemoth for a hundred days and nights, testing its power and observing its ways. Every day, he dove into the depths, grappled with the beast and tied a single knot in its body before it escaped. With the hundredth knot, Hadam-Ul tied its head to its tail, for the one thing the beast could not escape was itself. He respected his prey, knowing it was suffering eternally and unable to die, and so he forged the serpent into a dire chain, transforming each knot into a ring of moonsilver. The spirit of the serpent resides in the Hundred Rings now, eager for the chance to hunt again. It has two hearthstone slots. Attunement to the Hundred Rings gives its first Evocation free. Serpent Ornament Embrace lets you change the rings to any smaller size you want, allowing it to be hidden as a necklace or girdle, and then restorre it to full size reflexively. Scathing Torment Coils lets the rings extend razor spines into folks you grapple, allowing for a nasty counterattack when your grappled victim attacks anyone. Prey-Seizing Span lets the chain stretch out, grappling foes up to Medium range and making it easier to drag them around or allowing the chain to do useful stuff that a thirty-foot chain could do. Silver Python Spiral makes your throws do extra damage and hurl people further due to the chain's momentum. Sun-Swallowing Maw can only be learned if resonant, and it lets the chain expand and grow massively, giving a huge bonus to grapple and letting you grapple Legendary Size foes. Living Moonsilver Vice can also only be learned if resonant, and it awakens the serpent in the chain, allowing you to release it into battle as another character that fights for you, grappling foes on its own and able to use the chain's Evocations through its own attacks if you pay for the charm costs yourself. Nightbane is a 3-dot moonsilver powerbow. When the slave Copper Turtle Exalted, Luna came to him in the form of one of the plague-stricken victims his physician master had left for dead. She told him where he could find a cure for the pestilence of the land and freedom from slavery. That night, he killed his master, and a week later, he returned in the shape of a jackal to tear his master's spine free of the corpse. He fashioned the bow from moonsilver and his master's bones, creating a tool of purification that slew all manner of evil, driving plague and slavers from the land. When the Contagion struck, Copper Turtle had become an esteemed shahan-ya, and he gave Nightbane to his finest student, to travel south while he went east to fight the disease. Neither survived. The Pact was too late to retrieve the bow, which was looted by a scavenger prince along with lots of other valuables. Over the centuries, the bow has finally ended up with the Guild, despite the Pact's best efforts to get it back. It now sits in the Guild's headquarters in Nexus, wielded by an Exigent champion as a tool to cure the diseases of ranking Guildsmen. It has a single hearthstone slot. The wielder of Nightbane gets a bonus to all diagnosis rolls and to Craft and Survival rolls to create or gather medicinal substances. Argent Panacea Arrow can be used to shoot someone without harming them as a gambit that weakens a disease or poison within the target. Hundred Devils Purgation gives a damage bonus against fae and creatures of darkness, and permanently causes the bow to also give a bonus to Awareness rolls to detect fae or creatures of darkness and Survival rolls to track them. Fallen Moonbeam Judgment lets you get the Hundred Devils Purgation bonuses against anyone you witness acting against one of your Defining Principles. Nightmare's End Arrow lets you shoot someone's soul as a gambit, targeting one of their negative Ties or a Principle contrary to one of your own. If you succeed, you get rid of that Intimacy entirely because you shot it. If resonant, this can alternatively be used to reduce the effects of Derangements. Curse-Breaking Quarrel can only be learned if resonant. It lerts you shoot someone as a gambit to break a curse or shaping effect on your target. Divine Huntress Curse can only be learned if resonant, and it lets you make a special attack against fae, creatures of darkness or people you witness acting against your Defining Principles. It gets a damage bonus, and if you take the foe out or do a lot of damage, you permanently turn them into an animal of your choice that isn't Legendary or Miniscule Size. Night's Sweet Whisper is aset of 3-dot moonsilver panpipes. Allia the Songbird was an independent Lunar through the Shogunate who worked to protect the people of her small, isolated village rather than take part in the Silver Pact's war. Queen Nabira of Many Hands made the panpipe from moonsilver and the bones of angyalka demons for the shaman in the hopes of earning her gratitude, but while she succeeded, Allia still refused to join the Pact. When the Fair Folk came during the Contagion, Allia's village was one of the few places spared. For seven days and nights she played Night's Sweet Whisper without stopping, and the song was so beautiful that no Wyld creature would dare harm her or her birthplace. The fae passed, but Allia was not happy just to save her people. She left for the edge of Creation, doing anything she could to stop the fae. She helped the Silver Pact, Dragon-Bloods, Sidereals and mortals without prejudice. For all of her effort, she only managed to save the tiniest fraction of lives compared to those the Fair Folk slew. She survived, but despair claimed her, and she returned to her village to live out her time in seclusion with her kin. She left the panpipes with Nabira's apprentice, Snow Devil, for her friend had died to the raksha forces. Since then, shamans and artists of the Pact have taken up the song - as have some outsiders, for it would not honor Allia's independence to forbid its use by those Lunars. The panpipes are an exceptional instrument that give a Resolve penalty when used to make influence checks with Performance against fae, and when used by a Silver-Voiced Nightingale stylist, they can be used to deal Agg to fae. Moonlit Serenity Paean gives a bonus when using Performance to persuade someone not to harm you or someone you have a positive Tie to, with a bigger bonus if they are fae. Nightmare-Soothing Melody boosts the Lunar Charm Crossroads Walker Entreaty, preventing fae from attacking ot trying to harm you as long as you play the pipes and take no other non-reflexive actions, even if they paid the Willpower cost to start hostilities. Refrain of the Gentle Moon lets you use Performance to inspire peace with a bonus, and also drain your targets' Initiative for as long as you play. Cold Iron Cadence boosts the Lunar Charm Battle Anthem of the Lunar Exalted, increasing allies' soak while you play and bolstering positive Ties to groups that allies fight for as well as rage-based Intimacies, and further boosting damage against fae. Beast-Heart Harmony gives a bonus to rolls made with the Lunar Charms Wild Fury Awakening and Pack-Calling Cry, and the natural weapons of animals called by those Charms count as iron against fae. Edge-of-Chaos Hymn improves the Lunar Charm Harmony-With-Reality Technique, letting you roll Performance instead of the normal roll and letting you use it outside your territories if it would benefit a group you have a positive Defining Tie towards. It also lets you lose Limit by stabilizing the Wyld for communities you have a Major or Defining positive Tie to. Lullaby for the Damned lets you make a special Performance-based gambit against a fae in Long range, turning it into a harmless shape for a year and a day. It retains its intellect, Essence and Charms, but its memories of anything before the transformation are hazy dreams. It gains a Defining Principle of belief that it's always been what you turned it into, and a Defining Principle of nonviolence, with any incompatible Intimacies suppressed for the duration. Weak fae or those that prefer this life may be transformed permanently. Next time: Phaessa and Deinon, the Ichneumon Blades, Seven Furies Caged
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Jun 17, 2019 20:14
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SirPhoebos posted:The Coalition States: Heroes of Humanity came out in 2016. I am very glad I didn't know about this until now.
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Jun 17, 2019 20:22
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Night10194 posted:Some day I want to see something with fictional fascists that acknowledges that what they do makes you run out of stuff. And that all these racial purity programs take soldiers, supplies, and resources away from actually fighting the wars. To be fair and balanced... Heroes of Humanity actually does present the Coalition as overtaxed and scrambling for resources so badly by that point that they're salvaging every piece of wreckage they can get their hands on. It's still not perhaps as dire as it actually would be, but the lower and middle classes in the Coalition States are struggling with food and material rationing as the military pulls away whatever they can get. There are still a lot of exceptional issues with the Coalition conceptually, but you do have a page and a half acknowledging that. It's ironically more thoughtful than the Coalition Wars series, but that's small comfort. After all, Heroes of Humanity is still the title and it wants to eat its cake and have it afterwards with how super-elite and badass Coalition soldiers are, like literally better than any other military force. (But still illiterate, I guess...?) It's worth noting that, given it's part of Minion Wars plot, it was never part of the rollout of books originally planned for the plot (which were two books on hells, then three books for different settings presenting the event: Phase World, Heroes Unlimited, and Rifts). It was Kevin Siembieda that decided to add three books on the Coalition chronicling their part in the crossover, and none regarding any other world power. Maybe he thought doing that would sell event books, maybe he just wanted to write more about skull soldiers (SS for short). Ultimately it feels like Siembieda saying "Whenever Prosek's not on screen, all the other characters should be asking 'Where's Prosek?'"
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Jun 17, 2019 20:46
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Night10194 posted:Some day I want to see something with fictional fascists that acknowledges that what they do makes you run out of stuff. And that all these racial purity programs take soldiers, supplies, and resources away from actually fighting the wars. Hell, 40k does this, but most people still miss the drat point.
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Jun 17, 2019 21:25
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I showed this image to my father, who is a writer and sometime editor, and he said "what the hell is that hideous gutter bullshit doing down the middle of the page? there's no excuse"
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Jun 17, 2019 22:51
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Ithle01 posted:Hell, 40k does this, but most people still miss the drat point. Well, that's because 40K wrings its hands about it occasionally, but then gives the Imperium infinite giant tanks it can pull out of thin air for free and billions of expendable troops and no supply problems or rebellions etc. that actually impact anything ever. If something goes wrong it's solely so that the next sentence can have the word "exterminatus" in it and then it's fixed forever with no real cost.
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Jun 17, 2019 22:53
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Alien Rope Burn posted:It's ironically more thoughtful than the Coalition Wars series, but that's small comfort. After all, Heroes of Humanity is still the title and it wants to eat its cake and have it afterwards with how super-elite and badass Coalition soldiers are, like literally better than any other military force. (But still illiterate, I guess...?) It's worth noting that, given it's part of Minion Wars plot, it was never part of the rollout of books originally planned for the plot (which were two books on hells, then three books for different settings presenting the event: Phase World, Heroes Unlimited, and Rifts). It was Kevin Siembieda that decided to add three books on the Coalition chronicling their part in the crossover, and none regarding any other world power. Maybe he thought doing that would sell event books, maybe he just wanted to write more about skull soldiers (SS for short). Ultimately it feels like Siembieda saying "Whenever Prosek's not on screen, all the other characters should be asking 'Where's Prosek?'" How likely is it Prosek's Military Genius will be the thing that wins it?
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Jun 18, 2019 00:55
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Dawgstar posted:How likely is it Prosek's Military Genius will be the thing that wins it? Extremely high? Wehraboos love nothing more than to jerk to Heer generals' memoirs.
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Jun 18, 2019 01:36
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Alien Rope Burn posted:It's ironically more thoughtful than the Coalition Wars series, but that's small comfort. After all, Heroes of Humanity is still the title and it wants to eat its cake and have it afterwards with how super-elite and badass Coalition soldiers are, like literally better than any other military force. I mean, it's possible just because they're well resourced and not suffering from the kind of constant attrition NGR armies are, but it seems like, even if you reject all of the stuff Carrella wrote, that it'd be Japan, who are much richer and have access to full pre-rifts technology, who'd be the best.
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Jun 18, 2019 02:24
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Dawgstar posted:How likely is it Prosek's Military Genius will be the thing that wins it? Thankfully, perhaps having learned a thing from the Coalition Wars, the Minion War doesn't have a fixed ending. While the Coalition is presented as the foremost force opposing the demonic invasion, it's fairly clear that the Coalition isn't going to win on their own. It's emphasized that it's going to have to be a number of united factions - and almost certainly some rear end-pull by PCs - that saves the day. That is, if it's saved at all - the book also devotes a bit of space to what happens if the demons or deevils win or just establish a smaller foothold on Earth.
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Jun 18, 2019 03:39
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SirPhoebos posted:The Coalition States: Heroes of Humanity came out in 2016. Ahahaha haha no loving way OH MY GOD IT REALLY HAPPENED
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Jun 18, 2019 04:07
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Thankfully, perhaps having learned a thing from the Coalition Wars, the Minion War doesn't have a fixed ending. While the Coalition is presented as the foremost force opposing the demonic invasion, it's fairly clear that the Coalition isn't going to win on their own. It's emphasized that it's going to have to be a number of united factions - and almost certainly some rear end-pull by PCs - that saves the day. That is, if it's saved at all - the book also devotes a bit of space to what happens if the demons or deevils win or just establish a smaller foothold on Earth. I have to say, teaming up with Post-Apocalyptic Nazis to fight demons isn't as appealing as Kevin Sembieda thinks it is.
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Jun 18, 2019 04:12
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Nessus posted:Hell I’d settle for a Mussolini or IJA instead of yet more reheated Hitler piss. Giant stylized face of the leader of the faction with "YES YES YES YES YES YES YES" in the background plastered on a building
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Jun 18, 2019 04:14
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Libertad! posted:I have to say, teaming up with Post-Apocalyptic Nazis to fight demons isn't as appealing as Kevin Sembieda thinks it is. Well, the Coalition aren't team players in that regard, save in regards to their existing allies; they just develop a "I can't be bothered to genocide things that aren't devils" attitude for awhile. Lazlo tries to warn the Coalition of what's coming and they blow them off, with the predictable consequences of the Coalition getting this asses handed to them early on. (It's important to note that Siembieda actually isn't the author on most of the crossover, instead being largely written by Carl Gleba.)
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Jun 18, 2019 04:28
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Zereth posted:I feel like stealing Mussolini's aesthetics would be better at making readers/players go "what the gently caress" If I ever ran a Golden Age Superheroes campaign, I'd totally turn this into a supervillain lair: 
Libertad! fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Jun 18, 2019 |
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Jun 18, 2019 04:44
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