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The orb seems especially inconvenient when it seems like you carry a ton of them at once. And of course the drat table has the price for eating nothing but sweets all day, just for extra whimsy.
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Sep 10, 2019 05:06
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I am very sorry to inklesspen for loving up the part numbers in my x-risks posts. I didn't realise you did the archiving manually I thought you had a bot or something that jsut did them in sequential order. I will do it properly next time and remember to keep track.
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Sep 10, 2019 05:07
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Could have had orbs be "produced" by capturing them on film, ghost hunter style, but that would have been a concrete tie back to the real world which might have created some adventures organically so I guess not. Hats off to Inklesspen for doing such good work!
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Sep 10, 2019 05:14
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The black cube of bad ideas.Night10194 posted:The orb seems especially inconvenient when it seems like you carry a ton of them at once. They know their audience. super sweet best pal fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Sep 10, 2019 |
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Sep 10, 2019 05:35
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Monte Cook kept a little diary and every time he had a thought about wizards he would write it in the diary. This happened very frequently because Monte Cook thinks about wizards pretty much constantly. Then he put that diary in a box with a weird hand statue and sold it for 350 bucks.
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Sep 10, 2019 05:40
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And people talk poo poo about necromancers. At least a necromancer just kills you and uses your body to carry luggage.
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Sep 10, 2019 05:45
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Nooo I was trying to finish this one up before the old thread closed, now this is gonna look silly.  Kobolds Ate My Baby!: Part X - Mayor's Section & Wrap-Up  To be totally honest, I probably should have just made the last post a little longer and wrapped up the review there; while there is a solid chunk of book left, most of it is just charts and tables. Being the Mayor There is a GM advice section, which boils down to "if there is a chance of failure, assign a difficulty and a stat and start handing out KHDCs liberally if your players get sassy about it". Following that is a nice little section for making a town your kobolds will be causing a ruckus in, complete with lots of charts for a random town name, such as... 6, 3, 5 posted:New Smallshire 4, 6, 6 posted:South Crackerham  Finishing out the book, we have the "monster manual" - which is just stats for various townsfolk and animals, as well as the VP for defeating them. Notably, the shitfarmer mentioned much earlier in-thread as being about on-par with the strongest possible starting kobold is worth 2 VP, which is the same as most townies or a chicken. Sheep and Baby are tied for lowest at 0 VP, as neither of them take any kind of offensive action. Blacksmith and Soldier are tied for highest at 6 VP; while the Soldier has Duel! (but obviously doesn't take KHDCs, what with not being a kobold), special attention should be drawn to the Blacksmith's 4 DAM hammer and 12 Brawn that can combine to easily paste a tiny dog-person. Also of note, the 4 VP dolphin, which is on these charts for some reason. Horrible Kobold Deaths The last section of the book covers the results of all those KHDCs that have been piling up; it begins by repeating the rules for KHDC checks, as well as the myriad ways to accumulate them. Following are five/six themed charts based on where your kobold was and what it was doing, as well as two Baby Horrible Death charts that apply to the "Baby Negligence" house rule mentioned last post. Not all of the Kobold Horrible Deaths actually result in guaranteed death; a number of them only inflict -Bogeys on the kobold who triggered it, bring an adversarial creature or group of creatures into play, or do technically-survivable amounts of damage. Surviving a Kobold Horrible Death doesn't wipe the KHDCs from the kobold's character sheet, of course - they just got lucky, this time.  So, How Does KAMB: In Color!!! Stack Up? All in all, I'd say In Color!!! is the "best" version of the game, but not by a whole lot. In production value, for sure - the Kovalic art and color-coded charts make everything look a lot nicer (which is part of why I've been putting so many pictures into these reviews). In game mechanics? Eh, more of a lateral move. The Outfits have been improved for sure (although the new ones don't stack up, going right back to 1e territory for whatever reason) and the spells have been tightened up (and had their names modernized). The changes to the equipment charts to incorporate skills and Dangerous! charts have added more options to gameplay, but have definitely made character creation into a more complicated process. Which, when horrible deaths are a feature rather than a bug, is far from ideal - you want kobold creation to be like people who never played it imagine OD&D character creation was like, rolling down the line and having a new character in 90 seconds tops. Which brings us to the end of our review. I started this due to my rekindled appreciation for this silly "beer & pretzels" game, and I've come out the other side a bit more cynical after looking critically, but also a bit more appreciative of In Color!!!'s general cleanup and modernization in a couple places - enough that I ordered a couple pads of character sheets and plan to run it again, for the first time in a decade or so. Next Time: Another book! There are two "major" supplements or the In Color!!! edition I'd like to put a spotlight on, and after that I was thinking of taking a bit of a retrospective tour through the line, covering the highlights (and much more frequent lowlights) of past editions. Which is mostly adventures, which are mostly bad parodies that you're expected to subject your gaming group to for some reason.
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Sep 10, 2019 06:00
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Hostile V posted:So wizard money is minted by Bitcoin-mining child slaves. People paid $300 and up for this. Actual real-life money that could have gone anywhere else. I'm sad now. 
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Sep 10, 2019 06:11
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What I like is that they abandon the whole "orbs are ideas" concept kinda halfway through. These orbs are mundane ideas (produced by child slaves for some reason, like, people should just be having them all the time- also, you don't want to produce too many, inflation, right?), these are more advanced ideas, these other orbs are... uhhh... special.
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Sep 10, 2019 06:36
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AmiYumi posted:Okay, are we sure Monte Cook's Magical Realm isn't "subjecting people to ideas so terrible they have an aneurysm"? quote:Pledge $5,912 or more
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Sep 10, 2019 06:59
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Five. Thousand. Nine Hundred. Dollars. "sun-based secret" Well, it's a nice grift if you have the nerd name recognition, I guess. Like Star Citizen, or Shroud of the Avatar. Actually, it's better value for money than those two! You actually get a finished product!
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Sep 10, 2019 07:10
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Ooooooooooooooorb. The cube continues to amaze. Night10194 posted:Also, yes, thanks Inklesspen!
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Sep 10, 2019 11:29
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Xiahou Dun posted:How do the assassins then pay for their own stuff though? Is it like those coins in John Wick or something? What does the assassin do with the cursed lovely money that only other assassins want? How does an assassin like buy a sandwich or whatever? it's something normal people would value, and the Continental probably offers a money exchange if you need to go buy poo poo outside their system like a pizza or something nobody else even wants the lovely curse money it's not money it's bling it's the newbie assassin wearing a big skull ring, except the skull ring can kill you although, that might not be as insane as it seems, since: Wapole Languray posted:No explanation in the currency description. Note that the concept of assassins is stupid too, because death... isn't a state of being. It's a place. Like, one of the Suns, the whole multiverse thing that the game hasn't really addressed but is 90% of the setting? It's literally just the afterlife. When you die you just go to Death Town. You become a ghost, yes, but... you are still, like. Able to exist and interact with people. Your friends can pack up and go to Death Town and meet up with you. This game seems to assume death is like in D&D, but you play super wizards and you can have holidays in the Underworld. catch a Goofy Magic Train With A Silly Trait That Would Make It Annoying To Use and go from Death Town back to where you live and then get a Cab But It Only Lets You Pay With Teeth Or Something to your house? Like, is dying just "poo poo, now I need to get a ride home"
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Sep 10, 2019 11:30
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Making orb money seems to take a bunch of effort and time, hence the child slaves so it doesn't seem like something the average person would bother to do. As a wizard you probably have more marketable skills than just low level toiling. Holy poo poo though, what the hell.
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Sep 10, 2019 11:33
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Lord_Hambrose posted:Making orb money seems to take a bunch of effort and time, hence the child slaves so it doesn't seem like something the average person would bother to do. As a wizard you probably have more marketable skills than just low level toiling. like, can you just think a recipe into an orb and then go buy a Wacky Magic Burger That Tries To Eat The Fries Or Something with it and have change, as Joe Schmoe
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Sep 10, 2019 12:02
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When you take enough terrible ideas and try to commodify them they turn into a black cube and you use the cube to grift people on kickstarter.
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Sep 10, 2019 12:38
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Zereth posted:the child laborers aren't wizards, though Most people in Cubeland are wizards though right? If actually making a memory into an orb is a time consuming process the average person wouldn't bother. Working at Wacky Burger obviously pays more,as someone is doing it. Edit: God drat the plastic hand is the perfect gift, just remembered that.
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Sep 10, 2019 12:54
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Kurieg posted:
The whole idea of "setting secrets" that you have to pay for is so regressive and ludicrous. The setting isn't real! It's all made up! Secrets can make for drama in a story, but in an RPG if they're not told to anyone then they just don't exist. I'd love to hear from someone who actually got some of the pure unbridled big Monte energy to know how satisfying these secrets turned out to be. My guess is "as satisfying as a 9th grade English writing prompt."
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Sep 10, 2019 14:12
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Plus the whole point of making a setting element vague or open ended is to leave room to either write about it yourself or to not bother with it. Take the Syndics in Myriad Song: Trying to figure out where they went and why is a campaign hook for a sci-fi epic, but since they've been gone 100 years and there aren't too many hints (just theories by people in-setting) it's perfectly fine to play games that have nothing to do with them and everything to do with what people have done without their alien Gods. A big 'Setting Secret' of 'what happened to the Syndics' would defeat the purpose of the Syndics as a piece of RPG writing. Which was to let you develop your own stories about why they left and/or to ignore them to focus on the stories of what they left behind and the game's stated theme of rejuvenation, rebirth, and exploration. While I'd certainly be interested in hearing what the original setting authors think would be cool explanations for what happened to them, I wouldn't pay hundreds of dollars for it because it isn't important to playing the game. And might even actively detract from it if it was a big official metaploty thing.
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Sep 10, 2019 14:20
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I'm reminded of Eberron, where there are several setting mysteries that Baker straight up did not come up with an answer for because they're more interesting that way.
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Sep 10, 2019 14:26
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Zereth posted:the child laborers aren't wizards, though Can I buy the burger and then turn the memory of eating that burger into an orb?
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Sep 10, 2019 14:26
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Are there wizard adult video stores where you can illicitly trade your boring recipe thought orbs for other orbs containing sexy ideas thought up by minor celebrities?
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Sep 10, 2019 14:35
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megane posted:Are there wizard adult video stores where you can illicitly trade your boring recipe thought orbs for other orbs containing sexy ideas thought up by minor celebrities? poo poo we're making an interesting setting out of a Monte Cook book aren't we
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Sep 10, 2019 14:55
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Monte Cook's Wizard Memory Gig Economy.
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Sep 10, 2019 14:58
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Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:Better yet, is there the wizard equivalent of cameo where you can trade orbs to someone who will then get the wizard celebrity of your choice to make up a memory involving you in some way? Like the memory of Wizard Pauly Shore telling everyone in line at Wizard Del Taco, "you know who was a cool dude to party with? <Borb Cameo Donor #44>" That's because this is exactly the kind of scheme a trashy van wizard would get up to to scrounge up some extra cash.
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Sep 10, 2019 14:59
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Kurieg posted:I'm reminded of Eberron, where there are several setting mysteries that Baker straight up did not come up with an answer for because they're more interesting that way. Yeah. Like an example cited was even Baker doesn't know the secret behind the Mournlands, and doesn't want to make one up.
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Sep 10, 2019 15:06
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Zereth posted:catch a Goofy Magic Train With A Silly Trait That Would Make It Annoying To Use and go from Death Town back to where you live and then get a Cab But It Only Lets You Pay With Teeth Or Something to your house? Like, is dying just "poo poo, now I need to get a ride home"  monte cook presents: Todd.
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Sep 10, 2019 15:07
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Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you that the Euros are at it again: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dracostudios/eldritchcenturycorebook/description    It's like they took a look at the more... colorful choices in world-building in Infinity and Degenesis, and said "hold my cerveza"
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Sep 10, 2019 15:09
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"The currency is based on the idle thoughts and dreams of people. More private, unique, and important thoughts are worth more to trade. The entire economy depends on a vast network of depressing orphanages." Yo can I play a game that properly explores that idea instead?
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Sep 10, 2019 15:11
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JcDent posted:Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you that the Euros are at it again:  Monte Cook is leaking, apparently.
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Sep 10, 2019 15:15
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Faction 1: Two different sets of Communists unite to form a dual monarchy of...checks notes...the people they or their predecessors dethroned in the first place, aided by the scientific prowess of the daughter of...checks notes again...a lifelong volcel who loved pigeons and was terrified by human hair. Faction 2: The discovery of a mythical city of South American gold allows a Dune reference and a poorly named Italian group in reference to Da Vinci to create bioweaponry. They name themselves after either Nietzsche or a poor translation of the chief prophet of the Zoroastrian faith. Faction 3: What if Shogunate Japan but they have fossil fuel engines and magic ghosts? I kind of like the decreasing amount of explanation the stupidity requires. Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Sep 10, 2019 |
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Sep 10, 2019 15:15
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ah yes, the famous concept of a communist monarchy
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Sep 10, 2019 15:18
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Mors Rattus posted:Faction 1: Two different sets of Communists unite to form a dual monarchy of...checks notes...the people they or their predecessors dethroned in the first place, aided by the scientific prowess of...checks notes again...a lifelong volcel who loved pigeons and was terrified by human hair. It was so crazy that you omitted Trotsky of all people from faction 1. This feels like something generated by machine learning.
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Sep 10, 2019 15:19
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God, yeah, the Trotsky bit flew right over my head because I was too distracted by his communists reinstating both the Czar and the Emperor of China e: and the idea of Tesla having sex, which I actually find even less likely
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Sep 10, 2019 15:20
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:It was so crazy that you omitted Trotsky of all people from faction 1. This feels like something generated by machine learning.
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Sep 10, 2019 15:21
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Maybe they have learned the deep truths of Juche as being the true nature of communism.
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Sep 10, 2019 15:35
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Kurieg posted:
This is how you produce orbs, I think. Just fill out these forms. Forever.
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Sep 10, 2019 15:43
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Get an angsty high school dropout and get him to design a post USSR communist empire in a sci-fantasy world and it won't necessarily be any more coherent but it would probably be cooler. Also ORBS are what Monty calls his anal beads.
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Sep 10, 2019 15:48
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The thing about the Orbs that strikes me is it's this weird idea that could have interesting implications, like trying to find that one person with a dream that's worth a lot of $$$. But is it right to steal that dream for profit? Maybe you think preserving it is more valuable than the possibility of its fruition though that person's actions? Like, could you sell your own ambitions? Etc. But Monte seemingly has no interest in that, it's just a curious form of currency. Weirdly still, because of the D&D mindset that A) money is an in-game reward and B) in-game rewards are only granted through adventure, PCs are deliberately shoved out of the space. "Uhhh you can only make this in factories involving a million billion children having their dreams stolen, don't try and do it yourselves!" Weirder still, this excuse raises more questions I'm not sure are answered, like "Wouldn't anybody with a basic ethical structure want to stop this? Wouldn't it be towards the top of your wizard societal reform platform?" The thing about Invisible Sun's weirdness is that it just seems shallow, a prop rather than anything to engage seriously with. It's just a standard RPG with a bunch of non-sequiturs tied on to try and intrigue you. "This buxom woman has a book for a face?! Isn't that interesting?" "Oh, can she only see words or maybe her thoughts are on the page or-" "Oh no she can see and talk normally she just has a book for face which means something maybe what does it meeeean?"
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Sep 10, 2019 16:01
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Serf posted:ah yes, the famous concept of a communist monarchy
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Sep 10, 2019 16:03
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