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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Plundered Vaults I think this guy was on the cover So our heroes kick in the door to Ondurin's study, ready to get to work. He turns around and decides to start a villain monologue. He won't start the fight until you do; you're free to attack at any moment. He's crazy and genuinely thinks he's incredibly persuasive, and thinks if he just talks to the heroes they'll actually listen and understand that what he's doing is more important than their lives. He starts into how everyone has grubby little souls and pointless lives, and he's figured out he can make like, five legged undead deer and this is absolutely the cure for the underlying issues plaguing all of the Old World if they'll just list-and Vendrick shoots him. So there's an entire fight here, potentially, but it's our old friend the Unsupported Wizard Treated Like a Boss fight. I rolled this one out behind the scenes and it was too loving funny not to post in full, so Vendrick takes the aimed shot (having won Init) and hits Ondurin in the chest. He rolls a 10 on damage. A 3 on his confirmation roll. A 9 on his second damage roll. Ondurin has 15 Wounds, a TB of 3, and like every Wizard Who Hasn't Had Time To Put Armor Up Yet, no actual armor. This is 22-3=19 Damage. Critical 4. Rolls a 21 for effect. He dead. He very dead. There's supposed to be a whole thing where he drags Sanne out of the next room to use as a human shield while he summons undead and flings spells around. His summoning spell takes 1 round to call 2 skeletons, or 2 full rounds to summon 2d10. If he managed that, Ondurin would be very dangerous. If he'd done that before the fight, he would've been, too. I was even going to do a bit about 'man it sure is good the heroes have a character whose ENTIRE THING is taking people down non-lethally' once the human shield bit started. I don't need to. He just gets loving murdered by an elf mid-rant. This is the second Unsupported Wizard Treated As A Boss Fight to get merced by an elf before they even cast a spell in two campaigns. People, support your wizards. Put some minions between them and the pointy, pointy elves. Elves are sharp and have high ballistic skill. Do not put down a wizard who needs to spend 2 combat rounds with his rear end out in the wind with no armor, nothing around him causing Fear to slow the PCs down, and no protection or minions in front of a party and expect them to be a problem. Yes, Vendrick got super lucky. You won't normally normally instant-fury the wizard and just shoot them in the heart. Is he going to be insufferably proud about this deed? You bet. If Ondurin had had a couple zombies and skeletons pre-summoned, which he could have used Call of Vanhel to give extra actions or used as cover, he could have avoided this fate. Vendrick actually would've missed if he'd had cover. Wizards, don't be like Ondurin. Beware of elves. They're out there. So Sanne sees they've shot her husband right in the heart and brought him down instantly, and she's started screaming. Meanwhile, all through the manor and the woods, his undead are crumbling. In a single arrow, Vendrick has begun and ended the only actual combat encounter the heroes face in this version of the dungeon. Or so he thinks. To be fair the Guardian Beast you have to fight on the Wilhelmina route isn't that tough, either. Maybe I'm just used to bonkers crazy combats from stuff like Thousand Thrones or Knightfight, but the combats in Plundered Vaults are mostly pretty easy. They just kinda grab Sanne, who obviously isn't in her right mind, and gently lead her out after Elena steals Ondurin's fancy pens (they're worth 25 GC!). They decide against searching much of the estate full of crumbling undead and just get out of here. Straight into an encounter they're meant to have if they 'haven't had too much difficulty yet'. Anya's brother Sothelin arrives on a giant loving undead eagle, dressed in full black knight plate, with a huge lance. He yells at them for transgressing 'the laws' of his family by not simply dying when his dad wanted them to and tries to make cool poses to be an intimidating black knight. Sothelin is reasonably dangerous, since he has full plate, 2 attacks, etc but he's a midway-through-1st-tier Squire like Ulrike. However, Gilbert sees an actual loving black knight and immediately lowers his lance and challenges him to an actual joust. It's time to show off the jousting subsystem! There is one, and c'mon, Gilbert should get to tilt at at least one motherfucker and here's an honest to god poseur of a Black Knight. Our 16 year old Errant is having a really good time right now. Sothelin normally has a bunch of behaviors depending on what he's told, who is with the PCs (if nothing interrupts him, he'll go right for Anya as 'a traitor', while if they tell him they killed his dad he freaks out so much he throws away his lance, leaps off his birb, and tries to strangle the PC who said it), etc. But he recognizes the knightly challenge and the two ride at one another at full speed. Sothelin wins init, so he gets Advantage in the Joust, making a Charge at +20% WS. He nails Gilbert in the chest. With Impact and a Lance, this hurts; even in plate Gilbert takes 7 Wounds in one blow. Both make their Str test, so neither is unhorsed, and they make another pass, this time with Gilbert making the attack. Gilbert nails Sothelin in the head. Doesn't do as much damage (4 Wounds), but Sothelin gets a 100 on his Str test to stay on his birb and goes flying, doing a full somersault after the lance caught him in the helmet. Gilbert salutes (trying to pretend he didn't just break two ribs) and tells the other knight to surrender and Sothelin gets to his feet and screams at him, trying to strangle him. The entire party joins in. Soethlin has a bad time. Also, what the hell kind of name is 'Sothelin', anyway. Sothelin can be left for later if your party was (somehow) badly wounded from getting into lots of other optional fights during the escape. As it is, our heroes accidentally followed the perfect path, though they missed out on a major good deed to do if you encounter the tombs. They ride off for the nearest town, getting Sanne to a Shallyan sanitarium to try to get her help, and offering to let Anya settle in the nearest large town (still Carroburg). She asks if she can accompany them instead; she's always dreamed of adventure, and she has her books and her letters, at least. The team is happy to have another member, though they'll need to equip her, and for now, they head to an inn to celebrate killing an evil wizard and making a new friend. It'll be a wonderful evening to relax at the Three Feathers! (oh no). One nice note: The book specifically notes that whether she joins the team or not, after dropping Anya off she'll still recover from her trauma at the hands of her father and live a happy life as a potential contact and ally for the PCs. Alternately, she can join up and become an adventurer herself like she always dreamed of. That's what she's doing here. Welcome to the team, Anya Vonreuter! quote:Name: Anya Vonreuter Anya's had a rough life up to this point. She always thought her father hated her because she wouldn't learn necromancy and dreamed of leaving the dreary hell-castle, but the real reason was because he couldn't stand that his daughter was too strong to buckle under and break to his will. Now she's fallen into the company of sellswords, vagabonds, and romantic heroes she always dreamed of running across; they even have a cute Shallyan priest who seems to have been all over the Empire and beyond already! She'll find some way to make her way, even though she struggles to wield a sword or make it through a melee; a party needs an educated lady who knows things, too! And maybe she can remember some of the basic principals her departed father taught her...it might help! Anya starts a Noble, and her stats are pretty hopeless for being a combat character. So many of the routes out of Noble are out. She can become an excellent scholar by going into Student after Noble, or a social powerhouse with Courtier or Politician (and later, Noble Lord), but they don't have a wizard and she's got perfect stats to 200 into Apprentice Mage, too. She could also have gotten there by doing Noble to Dilettante or Student to Mage, but it would've been a long path and a very long time before she had any magic, so she's jumped the rails with 200ing. She'll be becoming a Heavens wizard; a nice mixture of scholasticism and a little ability to throw lightning bolts. She's been raised to the same EXP level as her new friends; it makes keeping track of everything a lot easier for me. Still, you're actually supposed to recruit this abused woman and bring her along to help her become a hero, so here she is! Next Time: The Roads Not Taken in Schloss Vonreuter
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Apr 27, 2020 05:30
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Oh yeah they also stole all of Sothelin's expensive poo poo. This party's gear/money situation is a little out of control and a good example of why you don't throw a relatively easy foe with Plate at them or pay them 750 crowns in one whack early on. You gotta work up to all your characters having the best mundane gear. Just do that by paying them 50-60 crowns a mission, not by skipping all their bills.
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Apr 27, 2020 05:47
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Not gonna lie I'm actually shocked 2E has a jousting system and I'm giddy you actually found a chance to use such a niche thing especially with a wandering Bretonnian knight challenging a "Black Knight"
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Apr 27, 2020 07:25
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Great write-up! I'm curious, what is the good deed in the tombs?
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Apr 27, 2020 07:31
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 Clarification on Shadow Dragons: Several people helpfully pointed out that such a creature is indeed in the core Monster Manual, but in the “d” section for dragon rather than “s.” This is most likely how I missed said entry. Thank you all for the spot! Now that we completed the main section, all we have left are the appendices! And boy do we have a lot: 163 pages’ worth between 11 appendices, to be precise. Fortunately we already covered 4 of said appendices and 39 of those pages in the first posts of this review. A good portion of this post will be dedicated to the bestiary. Appendix A thru C, I These appendices cover the PC-facing generic setting info, races, class archetypes, spells, and the one-page document on how to become a god which I covered as part of the Theogenesis spell. Appendix D: Dramatis Personae  This section includes stats for important figures and recurring characters in the adventure path along with some minor characters. The more minor entries are NPCs we’ve covered before and are nothing special, and I covered the capabilities of most of the enemies such as Sydon in the proper chapters. Sohe people we’ll focus on here are the Five Gods barring Kyrah who I talked about in Chapter 1. Mytros predictably has no stat block, as she’s with all of the other true gods in the higher planes. Most of the Five Gods are more in line with capable high-level mortals than the mighty Titans or some older dragons. Their main universal abilities are having a 30 in at least one ability score, the ability to return to life at the Temple of the Five in Mytros should they ‘die,’ True Sight, and Legendary Resistance. Volkan, the God of Forges has 30 Intelligence but his only real offensive capabilities are a warhammer and the ability to light any number of weapons on fire as a concentration effect to deal bonus fire damage. Pythor has a 30 Strength and can attack 3 times with a mithral greataxe, but his alcoholism imposes a rather server debuff in the form of disadvantage on attacks and saves, loss of True Sight and multiattack, and has a chance of mistaking a friend as a foe in battle. Vallus, Goddess of Wisdom is basically a high-level cleric who can cast a variety of spells up to 9th level but oddly has no divination spells for this purpose. She has 30 in Wisdom and Charisma. Versi the Oracle also has stats. She’s pretty much a naiad nymph, but with innate magic optimized for divination including a 1/day foresight. She bears the Robe of Stars, a magic item which lets her throw magical stars at enemies. Appendix E: Monsters  This appendix is a thing of beauty: 43 new monster stat blocks, 9 new generic NPC types, and 28 pieces of full-page artwork. Odyssey has some great art, but this section is an anomaly by the sheer number and size of them. It’s a shame that I cannot show them all, otherwise this section would be a little too image-heavy. Before we get to the new monsters proper, the book has suggestions on how not all monsters are necessarily appropriate to the feel of Thylea and gives a sample list of what monsters a GM should restrict themselves when running an “authentic” campaign. Fortunately Greek mythology has plenty of monsters, although even then the list feels a bit restrictive to me. The new monsters are grouped by theme rather than in alphabetical order, which can be a bit confusing. Automatons are artificial creations powered by elemental fire and lightning. Most were created by Volkan as a means to substitute soldiers in warfare so as to reduce the death rate from battles, but instead these constructs were repurposed by the rich and powerful for their own interests. Gee, who could have seen that coming? Bronze Automatons are common low-powered golems equipped with glaives, while a Colossus is a gigantic being carved in the likeness of a god to protect a city and thus are powered by rare magical devices often passed down as royal heirlooms. Marble Golems are guardians for libraries, temples, and other places of wealth and beauty where a more typical golem may be too gauche-looking; they can opt to lose a limb and continue (awkwardly) fighting with renewed HP whenever they’d be ordinarily destroyed. Finally, Keledones can only be created by gods and are designed as winged beautiful constructs with mesmerizing singing voices that can bestow restful sleep or biting pain. The Behemoth was covered in Chapter 12 already. The fluff explains that they were designed as a last resort to “destroy everything” and will continue to do so until the very foundations of the world are gone. At which point it may enter the closest thing to “rest” as it drifts through space until it lands on another world to destroy; great plot hook for a Chrono Trigger style of campaign. Centaurs have 3 new stat blocks to represent the varied members of their race on Thylea. Druids have limited wildshape where they can take the forms of giant dangerous animals and have up to 5th level spells. Centaur Heroes are more powerful versions of the basic one with more weapons, while a Centaur Lord has Legendary Resistance 1/day and can call upon the gods to grant themselves and the rest of their nearby allied kind the Bless spell. Cyclops were once a proud race of artisans, but due to unknown reasons they fell far from their lofty origins. There are a few who bear this legacy, known as Jancan who are capable of minor magical spells where they can conjure magical floating hands for both labor and in combat. The Blemys is a headless being with a single eye and mouth in the torso area. They are spiteful isolationists who even hate others of their kind, and gain something of a Barbarian rage in combat where they gain more boons the longer combat goes on: advantage on attacks, resistance to bludgeoning/piercing/slashing, etc. Gygans are the low-powered “ogre equivalent” in Thylea, being smaller than normal cyclops and Chaotic Neutral instead of evil, but their six arms allow them to gain bonus opportunity attacks and advantage on grapple checks. Gygan Heroes are stronger varieties. Due to their genocide at the hands of Estor Arkelander’s forces they have small isolated family units at best, many of which speak Giant dialects unintelligible to other giants and others of their race.  Empyreans are mortals who are either the direct children of the gods or who have been elevated to one step below true godhood. They have two stat blocks: Young Empyreans are still coming into their power, while Elder Empyreans are stronger in just about every way. Empyreans are Huge-sized celestials whose innate spells are derived from an appropriate Cleric domain, and they can shoot elemental blasts as a ranged attack, change size, and any weapon weapons they wield can be varied to look like whatever the empyrean desires and deal appropriate damage. Gigantes are malformed giants, unfinished creations of the Titan Hergeron whose work was interrupted by Sydon. Now Gigantes seek only war and destruction, and their communities are led by infernal witches who claim to derive power from their sleeping creator. Medusa, Euryale are medusa who evolved into a more powerful form over millennia. Thanks to pacts with fiends, they get...a sneak attack, a stronger petrifying gaze, and a snake-like lower half that can constrict opponents. Was kinda expecting more “fiendish magic.” Kinda underwhelming for a 2,000 year long wait. Minotaurs are mostly Chaotic Neutral in Thylea rather than Chaotic Evil, and Heroes among their number are stronger than the base Monster Manual kind. Berserkers can shapechange into a bull while fighting, gaining appropriate natural attacks. Myrmekes are copyright-friendly Formians, down to the Lawful Neutral Magical Ants. Their society is split up into castes, each with their own stat block. Workers are barely a threat save in numbers, although their hive mind telepathy combined with their hive learning allow them to learn a wide variety of things instantaneously: quote:Hive Mind: The myrmekes is in constant telepathic communication with all myrmekes witinin a mile. Everything a myrmekes learns, all myrmekes in telepathic range learn as well. The myrmekes has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if another myrmekes is within 5 feet of the creature and the myrmekes isn't incapacitated. This is a monster which can get more dangerous mid-combat and in future encounters! I like. As myrmekes themselves are humanoids, they can teach what they learned to each other. Myrmkes Advanced is a sample stat block for myrmekes of higher Hit Die who have a variety of minor spellcasting and rogue class features. Only the Myrmekes Queen, who is mostly an immobile creature, lacks this rapid learning but can act as a long-range telepathy hub network Mythic Beasts are tougher versions of mundane animals, often with some kind of minor magical ability. They are as rare as their name suggests, and highly prized as sacrifices to the gods for this very reason. They all have Legendary Resistance. A Great Boar can afflict opponents with confusion, the White Stag has a variety of innate spells to make it elusive but can grant Wish once a year to those who capture it, the Golden Lion is just...a really powerful lion whose mane can be used to craft magic items in the Mithral Forge, and finally the Golden Ram’s fleece is so bright it can blind onlookers (and can also serve as a crafting component). Nymphs get a stat block for each subrace, reflecting those NPC varieties who are too unbalanced to let into the hands of PCs. They are in touch with nature and have Lair Actions where they can see into the future to gain advantage on d20 rolls for 1 round and merge with their surroundings to travel between them via Dimension Door. And of course they all have your typical “so beautiful they can blind you” power. Aurae can sing songs with a variety of indirect and directly dangerous effects; Naiad can stun onlookers in lieu of blinding them along with some minor spellcasting; Nereids are more martial, wield tridents, and their songs stir one’s fighting spirit to grant a listener advantage on their next action (combat or no); Oceanids can use ambient illusion magic to defend themselves which grants Charisma bonus to their AC, and can move up to 60 feet as a bonus action knocking prone and damaging anyone they pass on a failed Strength save; Oreads can charm humanois into regarding them as trusted friends, and mark targets to grant said charmed victims advantage on checks made against those the oread so marked.  Sea Monsters are a common threat in the seafaring culture of Thylea. Cetus are giant intelligent sharks of Chaotic Evil disposition who can live for thousands of years. Ichthys are centaur-like half-crab half-humanoid people who were cursed into their current forms by the gods. Their anatomy is not ideal for supporting such a form, so they’re in constant pain which they relieve by inflicting on others. Scylla came from the Island of Typhon, once said to be a beautiful nymph imprisoned there who turned into said legendary monster over time. Sea Serpents are gigantic sinewy beings often mistaken for dragons; they’re not, but they are as powerful as all but the eldest fire-breathing lizard. In spite of their power they used to be the rulers of the sea before Sydon made an example of their number. They now fear said titan, and are vulnerable to lightning damage. Servants of Death is a catch-all category for the custodians of the plane of Hades and Lutheria’s mortal and immortal minions. Cerberus (there’s more than one) are powerful giant three-headed dogs raised and tortured by hags to be guardians of the underworld, and they have advantage on most Perception checks. They also have both lair and legendary actions, the former allowing them some battlefield control via erupting volcanoes forming on a nearby spot of choice within 1 round. Dread Beasts are undead variants of normal animals created by Lutheria to spread death and plague. Dread Boars have powerful stenches which can poison those within 30 feet, and Dread Wolves can instill fright with their mere gaze. Both beasts’ natural attacks deal bonus necrotic damage. Goatlings are Thylea’s goblin equivalents. They are small-sized creatures which prefer skirmish assaults over fair fights. They’re infamous mockers, whose taunts can drive people into a frenzy, imposing disadvantage on their attacks while allowing those attacking the taunted advantage. But automatic critical hits should the mocked target hit the goatling, which means that said monsters are frequently hoisted on their own petard. Goatling Tricksters are an advanced variety who learned a few illusory spells. Sample Goatling Taunts posted:• “When was the last time you scrubbed your louse-infested I dunno about you, but being called “fart-face” is the kind of thing that would make me burst into laughter rather than rage due to the sheer childish uncreativity of said insult. Maenads, on the other hand, are the “orc/bandit” equivalent, albeit sitting at a higher Challenge Rating 3. They can enter into frenzies which can grant them advantage in melee but cause enemies to have advantage on their attack rolls. They have a rechargeable Wild Dance which can force onlookers to enter a frenzied dance with confusion-like effects. Nuckles are Lutheria’s elite hunters, creatures which look like horses with a mount that live in saltwater. They are capable of forcing creatures to ride it via the ‘human half’ grappling them, often to their drowning deaths. Nuckles are extremely weak to immersion in freshwater, taking 40 damage per round when ending its turn in it, and they go into a mindless rage at the scent of burning seaweed. Sphinxes in Thylea are different than in other settings, for they have an innate connection to time itself. Criosphinxes and Hierocosphinxes are known as “lesser sphinxes” due to serving the “greater” kinds and have no lair actions. However, they have unique time-based attacks: the Criosphinx can “mark” a point in time as a legendary action, and summon that duplicate along with all of its current effects 1/day for one round to simultaneously coexist alongside the “original.” The Hierocosphinx can see several seconds into the future which grants advantage on d20 rolls, can reroll initiative once per turn if it so desires, and can “mark” a creature as a legendary action and force it to “replay” its own actions last round, even moving to its original location but causing a different result. The book suggests making a spellcaster hit their own allies with an AoE spell as such an example use. NPCs includes the various “human” characters of Thylea who are too culturally unique to be replicated with existing NPC stats. Amazon Warriors are martial women who can enter barbarian-style rages. Barbarian Paragons represent the strongest champions among primitive tribes and are CR 5 NPCs with Barbarian abilities. Warrior Monks and Martial Masters are typically Aresians and are unarmed, unarmored fighters. Satyr Minstrels are satyrs with multiattack and can charm or force to sleep targets with a musical instrument. Soldiers and Soldier-Captains represent hoplites trained in phalanx fighting: they do bonus damage when fighting adjacent to an ally and can knock prone or push back 5 feet targets they hit with a shield bash. Troglodyte Brutes are troglodytes with better stats, while wild druids represent isolated people who are fond of staying in animal form as long as possible. The final NPC is not an NPC at all, but stats for Kentimane’s hands when encountered away from the main body. They are big tough grapple-focused monsters which can withdraw into the ground as an action and “teleport” to a nearby location on the ground. Appendix F: Encounters  Far shorter than the Monster appendix, these are random encounters the PCs can come upon during their travels. There’s one table for land, another for sea, and between them a total of 32 unique encounters. There’s a mixture of some typical “monster appears, you fight it” faire, so I’ll cover a few I think stand out from the rest. Kentimane’s Arms can be encountered as giant stone formations. If the PCs killed Sydon or Lutheria then they will come to life and attack the party. A female Cyclops figures that the PCs would make a worthy sacrifice to Sydon. If the battle goes too easily in her favor then she’ll figure that such weaklings are not worth it and spare them if they beg for their lives. A blemyes who befriended a human merchant had a nice life until said monster lost his temper and killed his smaller companion. The PCs will find him weeping over the corpse, and unless they have a means of resurrecting the body he will attack the party in the belief that they’ll try to kill him for being “just a stupid monster.” Zephyrus and Euria are their own encounters, but themed similarly in that they are both fey beings who are actually one of the Four Winds. They stole the Instruments of the Muse, divine instruments whose music has magical effects, from the Temple of the Five Gods. The PCs can gain said instruments back after related short sidequests. Zephyrus will set the party to sleep (no saving throws allowed) and tie them to a shambling mound which will start strangling them once awakened, and the Zephyr Flute is in his possession. For Euria, she will ask if a PC wants to experience “paradise” which involves taking them to her tower to have sex with her. During which time she puts a no-saving throw-allowed Geas to find the Boreal Harp. She’ll give a Euros Lyre in exchange for this instrument, as she’s bored with the current one. Railroading sidequests via no-save spells. Now that’s a new one (for this book, at least)! A Falling Star spotted at sea has a valuable orb of star metal which can be used to craft some powerful items at the Mithral Forge. But it will sink fast and the party must be quick in extracting it unless they have the means of surviving in the darkest depths of the ocean. Gargantuan Waves are a rather harmless encounter in spite of the name, as said waves lift up the Ultros to get a glimpse of Kentimane patrolling the oceans of Thylea. Said titan’s mere steps are causing said waves in the first place. An Island Turtle is a zaratan with a trading post of marid and sea elves operating on its back. The creature is capable of extraplanar travel, and all dragon turtles are its children. The traders sell a variety of potions, and one of the visiting dragon turtles has a shrine on its back with a Trident of Fish Command free for the taking if the PCs can reach it before it dives beneath the waves. A Shallow Sea is home to a coral reef and merfolk village. The PCs can learn that the tribe of merfolk are enemies of the Titans, and will give them edible coral which allows them to breathe underwater for short periods as gifts. The daughter of the village leader will wish to accompany the PCs on their quest against her father’s wishes, even going so far as to stowaway on their ship. The PCs will earn the enmity of her father should she die on their quest. She’s a druid and not just a regular merfolk and can shapeshift into a human or dolphin at will, so she’s not exactly dead weight. PCs can encounter the legendary Kraken in 2 different encounters. The first is when said monster entangles the Ultros but does not crush the ship out of curiosity; he’ll ask why they’re trespassing, but if he learns the party are enemies of Sydon (a mutual foe of his) he will grant them free passage. Otherwise they have to give a proper sacrifice worth 1,000 gp or more. The second encounter involves the Kraken fighting against one of Sydon’s empyrean children. Said empyrean will disengage from combat if the PCs get involved to report back to his father, and the Kraken will attack the party for 1 round before retreating into the deep. He does this not out of hard feelings, but just to show how powerful he is in order to boost his ego. Appendix G: Treasures  This section covers new magic items, but also discusses in detail how PCs can craft their own. There’s a big table of item recipes that can be made with the Mithral Forge, with cost in days, gold pieces, and primary and secondary ingredients. Said ingredients include various treasures and monster parts the PCs can come across during the adventure path. Dragon Scales can be used to make Dragon Scale Mail, Golden Fleece can be made into Winged Boots or Boots of Levitation, and so on. Appropriate NPCs such as Volkan and Steros can speed up the crafting process, while the Fates’ Loom can craft 3 Epic Path wish list magic items whose cost, ingredients, and days are more or less the same. An Orb of Star Metal is perhaps the rarest ingredient: it can be found in only 3 places in the adventure path, and can be used to craft 3 specific magic items. One of which is a potential Demigod’s Wish List magic item upgraded from an existing magical sword or mace. Given that 1 of the Orbs is a random encounter and the other is gained only after killing Kentimane, this may mean that said Epic Path’s conclusion may be delayed by quite a bit if used too soon! But overall, I love this concept. It’s versatile enough to allow for real planning and options while giving a use for the more ‘priceless’ treasure found in Odyssey. But it is also simple and straightforward enough of a mini-game to be easily understood on a casual read.  Trope Alert: Crafting Minigame: The Mithral Forge, the Fates’ Looms, and the various limited-supply items used for crafting are all reminiscent of recent video game RPGs where the best items are not bought, they’re forged from unique treasure. The use of Pythor’s Hammer to forge existing items into better ones is similar to how said crafting minigames allow one to ‘upgrade’ equipment.What about the new magic items? Well there’s 40 of them here, but I already summarized a few of them earlier in the adventure path so I’m going to cover the more novel and interesting ones. Bula and Lunulia Talismans grant advantage on saving throws vs magical effects of certain monster types if the wearer is good-aligned. Axe of Xander is a sentient +1 greataxe which communicates by sending emotional vibes to its wielder. It deals 3d6 bonus force damage to giants and titans, allowing the user to heal 1d6 damage whenever they kill such a monster. The similarly-themed Breastplate of Mytros grants +1 AC and Charisma on top of its existing AC bonus, and giants and titans have disadvantage on attacks against the wearer. Balm of Invulnerability is made by crushing herbs growing where titan’s blood has been spilled. It grants resistance to all non-magical forms of damage for 1 day if a person applies the balm to their whole body. Greatclub of the Cyclops can impose the prone and stunned conditions on a struck target, but only when you get a critical hit and said target fails a Strength saving throw. This limits the usability of its iconic feature. Crown of the Dragonlords allows the wearer to cast Bond of the Dragonlords (and Dirge of the Dragonlords if they’re a spellcaster) once each per long rest. Glaive of Sydon is a +2 glaive which can do 4d6 bonus lightning damage to a struck target once per turn. Golden Shield of Volkan can let the user cast Thunderwave 3 times per day as the lion motif roars. Said lion can also hold the severed head of a creature of appropriate size in its ‘mouth,’ and can grant a one-term use of the beheaded’s unique traits for 5 rounds to the wielder. Although the head disintegrates after its use, I can see some clever and potentially broken uses for this item! Mithral Weapons are invariably magical, with at least a +1 enhancement bonus. Making non-magical mithral is seen as a waste by the talented artisans of the Mithral Forge. Certain campaign-specific weapons (Chakram, Xiphos) made of mithral have unique features, such as not suffering disadvantage when thrown adjacent to an enemy, ignoring an enemy’s shield bonus to AC, etc. Instruments of the Muse are various magical instruments forged by Volkan for his daughter Kyrah. Anyone proficient in said instrument can play it to cast a number of magical spells once per day. Every instrument can cast Jump, Invisibility, and Levitate, but specific ones have 2 more spells. For instance, the Boreal Harp can cast Control Weather and Conjure Animals, while the Euros Lyre can cast Sleep and Counterspell as 4th and 3rd level slots respectively. Potion of Aging can rapidly age the drinker. Even a mere drop of it upon the tongue ages the drinker by one physical year. It’s typically used as punishment, but in the case of creatures such as dragons can be used to grant them the power of their elders (albeit without the wisdom and life experience). Pythor’s Hammer is pretty much in the wrong mythology: it is a hammer which can teleport directly into the wielder’s grip 1/day a la Thor’s signature weapon. It can also be used to forge the Demigod’s Wish List Magic Items. Scythe of Lutheria can impose a save or die on a creature with 100 or fewer hit points struck by a critical hit. Using the scythe in such a way can change the wielder’s alignment to evil on a failed Charisma save, reversible only via the Wish spell. Shortbow of Cupidity is exactly what you think it is. An arrow fired can charm a struck target 1/day on a successful hit on your part and a failed saving throw on the target’s part. The dryad Demetria had it in her possession, which implies some more rather unsavoury things regarding her cult of lovestruck teens beyond the whole maenad creation plot. The Promethean Fire is a moldable orb of blue fire which can take the form of any simple or martial weapon the wielder desires. It can also be used to cast various growth and creation-based spells by expending charges: Awaken, Fabricate, Plant Growth, and Stone Shape. Titansbane, Blade of Titans deals bonus 2d6 damage to celestials and giants. It is sentient and will try to urge the wielder into finding its creator Talieus, for it is the only force in the world that can cut through his sewn eyes and mouth. Toga Praetexta makes you super-suave. Beyond granting proficiency in Charisma saving throws, it allows you to reroll a failed charisma check 1/day by flourishing the toga provided you’re addressing a crowd. Just for that, this is my favorite magical item in this book. Wheel of Fortune is similar to the Deck of Many Things save that it’s a spinning bronze wheel whose effect is determined by the image upon which it stops spinning. There are 20 images, and their effects range from becoming Tiny size, gaining a metallic dragon companion, being hunted by a Gygan or Centaur Hero, or the chance of summoning a nightmare-formed monster whenever you take a long rest. Most of the effects are either short-term, ranging from 8 to 24 hours in duration or stops once the creature hunting you is slain. Appendix H: Dragonlords  Given that 2 of the Epic Paths and the new Paladin archetype revolve around the legacy of the Dragonlords, it’s only proper that we have information on this order. We get a rundown on how to properly care for each variety of dragon egg, the specifics of the Oath of the Dragonlord (said in Draconic by both dragon and Dragonlord to bind themselves to each other) and how said Dragonlord is thereafter considered to be kin to all metallic dragons. There’s some general RP information on raising dragons from birth; basically they’re fast growers and incredibly intelligent despite their technical age category, have a strong moral compass and will abandon cruel companions, and they can travel 10 miles per hour or 80 miles a day with people riding their back (the bigger the size the more people they can carry). Additionally, a PC with the proper Epic Path or aforementioned Paladin archetype can create a new Order of Dragonlords. Likely after the Battle of Mytros timewise. It is very bare-bones, functioning similar to the Fame rules in additional income and grants said PC the ability to call upon NPC followers of a more martial bent. Sadly we have no information on dragon NPCs and where to find them. It makes sense given that said species all but vanished, but you’d imagine that the party would certainly want to fly into battle with followers on dragonback rather than just the Battle of Mytros. Appendix J: Secrets & Myths  You might have noticed that even in the DM’s section the history of the world is often fragmented and biased, where what is told to the PCs and even earlier in the appendices are different than what is found out later on in the plot. Appendix J gives us the skinny of Thylea’s true history. As quite a bit of it repeats earlier information in this Let’s Read, I’m going to summarize the big reveals. Thylea was part of a long-forgotten pantheon of gods, but grew tired of the fighting and with her husband Kentimane carved out their own corner of the ocean to find peace. Thylea turned into a continent, and Kentimane accidentally created the Titan children by hurting his hands on pomegranate seeds from the fruit he ate. Sydon and Lutheria were born from the same seed at once, and each Titan reflected some virtue. Lutheria was charged with overseeing the dead and to act as a guardian of all of Thylea, and the eons’ worth of vigils drove her murderously insane. Various native races were made by Talieus. Sydon and Lutheria grew jealous of their existence, and tricked Talieus into creating a “master race” that were the myrmekes who ended up trying to conquer everyone else before being trapped on a single island. Kentimane enslaved and depowered Taleius for this, and Sydon gave him as a gift to Lutheria* where she made him pull her eternal barge with his eyes and mouth sewn shut. *who he now married even though they’re brother and sister. The other Titans became really creeped out by what the twins did to Talieus, so they ended up trying to kill them. They failed and suffered a variety of terrible fates. Sydon and Lutheria were the only beings of authority on Thylea after the titan’s war concluded. That is, until refugees from the outside world washed up on Thylea’s shores. They were initially ignored by the titans but were treated as second class citizens by the native fey. The Dragonlords came astride the dragons that would later become gods, and they managed to give the settler races proper towns and cities by helping them win against fey incursions. But war brought out the worst sides of everyone, and Estor Arkelander and his brother Telamok became “settler supremacists” who wanted to enslave the fey races as punishment for past misdeeds. He grew in power and support, eventually going to war against the gygan empire which resulted in the genocide of said race. Kyrah, Estor’s mount, finally left Estor’s side after she realized her attempts at minimizing his wrath were in vain. It was from the destruction of the gygans that Lutheria realized the settler races were growing into a genuine threat, so she tricked Estor into offering him immortality via dream-sex to betray and kill the rest of his crew. Said immortality was in fact a curse, for he and his crew became undead ghosts. The silver dragon Balmytria, who would later become the goddess Mytros, managed to end the First War by challenging Sydon to the Game of Twenty Squares: the titans staked a portion of their divinity, the dragon her life as their wagers. Sydon’s impatience proved his undoing during the first six rolls, although Lutheria found a way to cheat by apportioning some of her own divine power to deliver him final victory. During the close of the final game Balmytria committed suicide with a giant-sized dagger, her blood falling over the magical board game, mixing with Lutheria’s cheating essence and in turn allowing the dragons to steal their divine sparks and become the Five Gods. The Oath of Peace was sealed after both sides faced irreversible losses and the threat of annihilation, and most of the Dragonlords perished in battle. The Titans and Five Gods signed the Oath with their blood, underneath the great tree from which Thylea herself stood as silent witness on the Island of the Golden Heart. And the rest is history. Appendix K: Handouts Not much here to say. This includes in-game documents, letters, and descriptions of divine visions to give or read out to players at certain points in the adventure path. We also have a convenient “Thylea World Primer” for players which summarizes key aspects of the setting all on one page:  Final Thoughts: Odyssey of the Dragonlords is a great book with lots to love in it. The adventure path is more open-ended than others of its kind without going full sandbox, and the setting is thematic enough to feel fresh and novel amid other D&D settings. That it accomplished this with well-known Ancient Greek tropes is all the more impressive. The sidequests, mobile base of operations, and detailed crafting mechanics are nice touches as well, and the diversity of locales and dungeons does a good job of making the campaign’s various chapters feel fresh. The PC-friendly options are not too overpowered or useless to the point that I can see many players not struggling between maintaining an “authentic” race such as a centaur vs more traditional Player’s Handbook choices. The artwork is beautiful, and the various cities and islands feel like they have more than enough to occupy parties who want to depart from the beaten path of the main quest. Even so, I also have my criticisms. Odyssey has quite a few instances of rape and similar sexual themes, both onscreen and offscreen, that can be triggering or uncomfortable to many gaming groups. It’s hard to tell how much of it is the authors trying to be edgy or ‘authentic’ to the Greek myths, and how much is their sexual fantasies spilling out onto the pages. The setting’s third act past the Battle of Mytros is a weak end, and some of the Epic Paths are not created equal. The legacy of the Dragonlords is surprisingly underplayed as a plot element despite being part of the book’s name: whether it be Acastus’ failed attempt or the PCs reforming the legacy, said organizations have a bit part overall. I was kind of hoping for a moment where the Gifted One had to use the Fortress of the Dragonlords to serve as a mobile base of operations in the third act similar to the Ultros, recruiting dragonriders to battle Lutheria’s second rise. But such things will need to be homebrewed by the Dungeon Master. But overall, I’m glad that I purchased this book and read it in full. It can use some polish, but the tools within can be used to make a truly great long-running campaign. I look forward to seeing what other plans, if any, James Ohlen and Jesse Sky have in the tabletop industry. This was a long review for me. My next project will be a smaller one in reviewing 3rd party class and archetype splatbooks for 5th Edition. After that’s done, who knows where my reviewing fancy shall take me. See you in the next Let’s Read! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Apr 28, 2020 |
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Apr 27, 2020 09:10
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It feels like if you take the "good" solution to the Von Reuter mansion, Wilhelmina just sort of vanishes. It feels like the game is lacking a note that: "With all of her dad's weird undead gone, but a full mansion of research supplies and usable corpses at her disposable, Wilhemina takes up her dad's mantle in a slightly less unstable way, and may return as a Necromantic villain at some point OR if the party burns down the mansion without warning her, she escapes, though scarred and injured from the fire, and will nurse a grudge against the players which may take the form of her bespoke undead coming after them at undesirable times." Etc. etc. she seems like a good potential future hook that the adventure seems to forget about a bit.
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Apr 27, 2020 09:59
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Libertad! posted:Appendix G: Treasures Oh, the game of twenty squares is just The Royal Game of Ur but with the layout goofed up a bit and its magic.
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Apr 27, 2020 10:00
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Libertad! posted:Nuckles are Lutheria’s elite hunters, creatures which look like horses with a mount that live in saltwater. They are capable of forcing creatures to ride it via the ‘human half’ grappling them, often to their drowning deaths. Nuckles are extremely weak to immersion in freshwater, taking 40 damage per round when ending its turn in it, and they go into a mindless rage at the scent of burning seaweed. Okay, what the heck? The "nuckle" is clearly the nuckelavee, which is a creature from Scottish folklore. More specifically, from the Orkney Islands, which means it probably comes from a mixing of Celtic and Norse traditions, but that still leaves the question of what in the world it's doing in a setting that's supposedly themed around Greek mythology. I mean, okay, I guess it's from the right continent, but that's about the best that can be said for it. The inclusion of this monster here is... really weird.
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Apr 27, 2020 10:02
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PurpleXVI posted:It feels like if you take the "good" solution to the Von Reuter mansion, Wilhelmina just sort of vanishes. It feels like the game is lacking a note that: "With all of her dad's weird undead gone, but a full mansion of research supplies and usable corpses at her disposable, Wilhemina takes up her dad's mantle in a slightly less unstable way, and may return as a Necromantic villain at some point OR if the party burns down the mansion without warning her, she escapes, though scarred and injured from the fire, and will nurse a grudge against the players which may take the form of her bespoke undead coming after them at undesirable times." They actually do suggest doing just this if you want to make the Vonreuters and their legacy a recurring villain (similar with not using Sothelin now and having him come back as a villain later), I was just going to bring it up in the 'stuff they didn't do' post after this one. The good deed they missed is that you can rebury the bones of the family that once lived in this estate before Ondurin in actual holy ground so their spirits can rest better. There's no reward for it (a dead man has no treasure to give, the book says) but the adventure says 'they can at least rest well knowing they had done something good in the face of evil.'
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Apr 27, 2020 11:57
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Libertad! posted:This appendix is a thing of beauty: 43 new monster stat blocks, 9 new generic NPC types, and 28 pieces of full-page artwork. Odyssey has some great art, but this section is an anomaly by the sheer number and size of them. It’s a shame that I cannot show them all, otherwise this section would be a little too image-heavy. A note of potential interest: the chapter header illustrations were cropped from publicly available classic art of the 19th century. For example, you should be able to recognize Thomas Cole's The Course of Empire: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Course_of_Empire_(paintings) (I think all five paintings in the cycle were used?)
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Apr 27, 2020 12:39
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Plundered Vaults Route B, C and D! So our heroes had a pretty short adventure in Schloss Vonreuter. Also, it really bugs me a bit that it's Vonreuter and not Von Reuter, but eh. The 'good' path is surprisingly short, and I'd actually say that's one of the weaknesses of the adventure. There's actually a lot of content to the adventure, but with multiple paths each path is a little too short. Taking Wilhelmina's route leads you into Ondurin's actual laboratory, which is full of hellish monsters in cages, too many for the party to easily fight off. She'll lead them through the cages, unperturbed by all the two-headed undead dogs and hosed up zombies. She doesn't know her dad has a larger, meaner guard-beast that isn't locked up in the cages and is roaming around to kill any intruders. It can potentially take her out, like it can any other party member, but it's not really that mean. WS 35, 2 Attacks, SB 4, TB 4, 0 armor. A party should kill it pretty easily; the main risk is it's Terrifying. Which is worse than Fear. If you fail a Terror test you don't just freeze up, you run away until you succeed. You also gain 1 Insanity if you're using Insanity. So it might split a party up significantly with Terror, which is its main danger. Pure combat stats-wise, a solid 1st tier with some armor can solo it. But this is generally a thing in Plundered Vaults: If a combat is mandatory, it won't be that difficult. Almost every mandatory combat in this book also has advice for giving the players ways to even the odds or events you can throw in if the players are struggling hard with it. In general, only combats you blunder into (like trying to fight Dieter with his skull backup) are particularly difficult. This is probably for the best, because combat in WHFRP is more about tone or using it as a risky solution rather than an engaging tactical simulation. Similarly, you can't even guarantee the PCs will have one full combatant, let alone two or three like our team here, during their 1st careers. So you have to keep it possible for the team to win a mandatory fight if you've just got a Peasant, a Servant, a Rat Catcher (and their small, but vicious dog) and a Student with hand weapons. Chances are you'll have at least one actual fighter, but you've got to account for the chance they don't. Plus, having fights where 'actual fighter' can really strut being kind of a badass at the end of all the investigating and talking isn't bad, either. If you went with Elena and missed the multiple clues she's undead, she opens every cage down here and goes laughing and singing through the carnage as the heroes have to fight their way back to the door and escape the lab, then find another way out, probably by going back and getting Anya. Being swarmed by undead is a bad time, because low level characters are very vulnerable to Fear. You're fairly likely to lose someone, but you get a lot of indications that Elena is a trap. If you get Jonah from the attic, he immediately starts throwing lanterns at the wall. You can stop the spreading fire and tackle him if you work quick, but otherwise, he lights up all of the Vonreuter estate, and it turns into a crazy dash with undead running everywhere in the fire, the family's giant semi-undead manservant frantically trying to fight the PCs and put it out, Vonreuters scrambling for the exits, and PCs fighting through the smoke and flames and swarms of confused dead to escape the burning estate. Which honestly sounds like a pretty cool scene. It's dangerous as hell (you get a fair bit of warning Jonah is crazy) but who doesn't want to fight through a flaming estate full of necromantic horror to escape? If you try to leggit at the beginning, you'll likely find yourself in the tombs. Here, you can meet the ghosts of the family that lived here before the Vonreuters. They came to a bad end, though not due to the Vonreuters; their downfall was the death of their very young daughter, to a simple fever. Neither husband nor wife ever truly recovered from her loss. I find it interesting how often that kind of thing comes up in these adventures; you had similar stuff with Karitamen in Lure of the Liche Lord, and how the deaths of his children to misadventure, sickness, and a failed assassination attempt warped his character. You can promise the ghost of the father you'll take his wife and daughter away from this evil place, and let them rest. There's no reward, it's merely a decent thing to do. You can also find Gustav's actual corpse, and if you take his amulet away, you weaken his father's hold on his spirit, letting him give the party a ton of extra hints (and a direct warning that Jonah will set the estate on fire). Another fun note is almost everything unusual or shiney in the castle has a listed GC value because they expect you to loot like it was going out of style. If the evil bastards are going to lock you up in their evil house, you're going to steal their silver candlesticks, two-headed beaver taxidermy, and ornate scalpel sets, goddamnit. Clearly anticipates the behavior of player characters. The Aftermath section suggests that Ondurin's work can be found by other wizards, or used by any surviving children who might one day seek revenge on the heroes for destroying him. It's also entirely possible to escape without killing Ondurin, if you went the Wilhelmina route; she leads you to a secret passage that will get you beyond the ring of hell-dogs in the woods. If this is the case, he's probably pissed at the people who murdered one daughter and 'kidnapped' the other, and who may have killed Sothelin, too. Pissed off evil wizard with a hell-house makes a good recurring villain. Similar, leaving Wilhelmina alive might mean she takes up her father's work. Or heck, maybe she sells it to the Lahmians to become a Sister or something; not a suggestion in the book but if you want a good reason for a young vampire who hates the PCs, there you go. You could have Sothelin not attack, or he could have yielded when Gilbert kicked his rear end and then come back later to get his revenge. All kinds of possibilities for an eccentric family of evil necromancers and black knights. I like Carrion Call's atmosphere and I enjoy Hams trying to do more classic 'gothic' horror. It's a nice break from Chaos and tentacles at every turn, and the undead, necromancers, and vampires make great villains. The adventure can be a little sparse because it's trying to have so many routes, but I also appreciate the dedication to giving players multiple solutions and actual choices in what they do. There's a lot of space to add more spooky corridors and shambling encounters if you want, too. I also really like the bit that Anya will recover and do fine on her own, even if she doesn't join the PCs, or the bit about reburying the bones actually helping the spirits rest. There's a surprising amount of space to actually do good deeds and help people in this dark castle. Or be a depraved rear end in a top hat and go with Wilhelmina, which kind of feels like a Bioware Evil Option when you think about it. "Quickly escalate to murdering the innocent to get the alternate party member" is kind of that style. Wilhelmina is a social/roguish powerhouse who lacks her sister's brains (though she's not stupid) and bravery (though she's not a coward) in return for huge Fel and Agi. Still useless in a fight, and she'll betray the party unless they're sociopaths like she is, but if they went on her route they probably are. She is very much her father's daughter. Still, it's a fun adventure with multiple routes, the combats are (outside of Ondurin being significantly easier than the fluff treats him being) fairly well balanced, the atmosphere is on point, and it's a lovely break from Chaos. I like Carrion Call quite a bit. Next Time: A Scripted British Comedy
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Apr 27, 2020 13:20
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My personal inclination for Anya, for what it's worth, would be for her to become a priestess of Morr. Even if she's not cut out to become a Black Guard, Carrion Call feels like a great introductory adventure for a campaign oriented around fighting vampires with its relatively low stakes and good introduction to necromantic horror and craziness before actual vamps get involved.
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Apr 27, 2020 13:56
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Yeah, it's more they kind of need a mage. I was considering Death Mage, but Death is probably the second weakest magic set and I wanted something less combat focused as this team is combat heavy already. Though a Heavens Mage casting the 'clear the weather' spell after a Carstein thinks they're safe with their summoned thunderstorm is always a good time. E: Basically, it's a party balance thing. Otherwise I'd agree her becoming a Morrite would fit great. Or going Student to Agent of the Shroud and becoming a wandering Van Hellsing spy/investigator. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Apr 27, 2020 |
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Apr 27, 2020 13:59
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PurpleXVI posted:Thing is, false dichotomies like this is a place where fascism thrives: by insisting that reasoned, non-rear end in a top hat choices don't exist and all you can do is make a HARD CHOICE and be a HARD MAN. Like either you TORTURE THESE PUPPIES and make a LIBERAL LAWYER CRY or THE TERRORISTS WIN. From my perspective, reasoned, non-rear end in a top hat choices do exist in that situation. Support the Empire then overthrow it and replace it with something better. Support the Imperium to throw back the Orks, Dark Elder, Chaos, etc., and then work to overthrow it and replace it with something not run by psychotic, facist fanatics. Be loving proactive and agenda driven. If the game universe gives you three, awful choices, create choice number four.
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Apr 27, 2020 15:27
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If the fiction presented terrorists fighting against the imperium as the protagonists this wouldn't be as much of an issue my dude.
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Apr 27, 2020 15:35
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Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing 4th Edition Starter Set Our Party of Pre-made Punks Quality: 3 Guidance: 2 The starter kit comes with 6 premade adventurers, with a ‘cover sheet’ that gives you a bit of backstory, some personality, and a few bullet points on why’d you play them. On the character sheet themselves, you’re given a choice of Motivations (which refresh your resolve points), a couple of ways to tie your character to the rest of the party, and five Secrets. You have to take at least one secret, but each additional secret will earn you 1d10 extra shillings. Minor spoilers ahead, by the way. My biggest issue from a Quality standpoint is that they’re kind of… uninspired. The Amethyst Wizard (who uses death magic) is dour and sarcastic. The Dwarf Slayer feels he has lost his honor, but acts in a very honorable manner. A Halfling Thief you say? Don’t want to break too far out of the mold, there! Again, I understand that it’s an introductory adventurer, but it feels a bit like being given a character sheet for a Human Male Fighter whose parents were killed by the Evil Wizard. It’s fine, but… well, a 3 out of 5 is fine too. As for Guidance, I have some really serious problems with these characters. First, I will say this - letting the players choose the motivation and secrets is a great way to let them customize the character and make it their own. But these characters (and their secrets) model some very problematic behaviors, and characters receive an extra 1d10 shillings for each additional secret, so players are incentivized to take all of them. There are a few examples, but the worst is Molrella “Molli” Brandysnap the Halfling Thief, who is described as follows: quote:Who is Molli? Raised in a single-room with her large extended family, Molli’s happy, gregarious, fun to be around, and utterly confused by Human morality and concepts of ownership. This lands her in a lot of trouble. Frequently. ‘But me winnin’ smile will see me through!’ Caught by Salundra trying to steal her horse four years ago (it was a long story), Molli has been hanging around the young soldier ever since. Molli and Sali are very close. But, then, Molli is close to everybody. A few of the secrets also provide seeds for inter-party conflict, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but not something I’d want to encourage for new players. On top of that, a lot of characters have a secret that is some variation on “You’re actually an evil bastard. +3 Corruption”. Evil characters are a bit tricky to handle, especially for new players. Also, Corruption is specifically called out in the core rules as something that new players won’t be familiar with, and they might be unable to accurately gauge the danger. ”Be Very Careful, Pg. 184” posted:Used sparingly, Corruption Points are great fun as Faustian deals are made for rerolls and traded back for memorable roleplaying moments as minor betrayals spread, but if you’re playing with a group that doesn’t readily understand the Old World, the points can accrue very quickly, sending characters into a spiral of mutation and madness. This should probably be avoided. Mutation is effectively a death sentence if discovered, so it’s important new players are cautioned when their actions may lead to corruption. Just like every child in the Empire is warned of the dangers posed by the Ruinous Powers, players should be warned that Warpstone should not be touched or even approached, that tainted artefacts are dangerous, and the Cultists of Chaos should be avoided at all costs. Of course, the circumstances of the adventure at hand may force your group into the most horrendous situations with corruption around every corner, but that’s WFRP. My final issue with these characters is that they each start with 2200 XP. The starter kit describes this "as if" they had played 20 sessions, because they wanted to give you a "a group of characters with already developed bonds." I’ll save most of this discussion for when (if) I review the core rulebook, so I’ll keep this complaint as short as possible. As far as I can tell, neither the Starter Kit nor the core rule book provide guidance on what to do if a character dies. Based on how you interpret a few other rules, the core rules seem to imply that your new character starts over fresh with 0 XP. I’ll create an example character starting from nothing, to show how much weaker your character (and your party) will be if this happens. Alternatively, based on the other interpretation of the rules, your new character starts with 2200 XP. It took me a bit over an hour to create the 2200 XP version of the character Felix Panke. I timed myself to check. You could probably add on another 20 or 30 minutes on top of that if the player isn’t familiar with the 4e rules, gets confused about something and did it wrong, or needed to ask questions. Of course, that assumes I did the character correctly - it’s entirely possible I messed up something along the way. That's a pretty long break in the action if a character dies, or if somebody has their own concept that they really want to play. Now, is it a bad thing that the characters are experienced enough to be competent, well-equipped, and dangerous? Of course not. Is it the fault of the starter kit that creating a mid-tier character takes some time? Again, of course not. A lot of my frustration here is actually directed at the core rules and the lack of advice on starting a game with more experienced characters or what to do if a character dies. It also feels… misleading to introduce new GMs and players to the ‘fun part’ if the intended play is supposed to be “Yeah, you’re a beggar now, but you’ve got A Destiny and you’ll become the crime boss” or whatever. It would be like a D&D introductory adventure started you at level 4, but the PHB seemed to imply that you're cheating yourself if you do this. It's also an issue if someone wants to bring their own character, but I don't hold that against the Starter Kit. Okay, enough, I said I’d keep this short. Lets meet our cast of characters! I've most of my thoughts already, so these are just truncated stat blocks and a few additional comments, in case you don't care about those sort of things. Felix Panke, Human Road Warden, 120 XP pre:WS 31 Athletics 36 BS 40 Charm 45 S 39 Charm Animal 30 T 40 Climb 39 I 35 Cool 35 Ag 36 Consume Alcohol 45 Dex 26 Dodge 36 Int 30 Endurance 40 WP 30 Haggle 47 Fel 42 Intimidate 39 Intuition 35 Fate 2 Leadership 42 Fortune 2 Lore(Reikland) 33 Resili. 4 Navigation 35 Resolve 4 OutdoorSurival 30 Wounds 14 Perception 42 Ride 36 Stealth 36 Talents Lightning Reflexes - +5 to Agi Marksman - +5 to BS Sharp - +5 to I Suave - +5 to Fel Very Resilient - +5 to T Weapon Skill Damage Qualities Crossbow 45 +9 Reload 1 Dagger 41 +5 But despite being incredibly lucky on his rolls, this version of the character is going to struggle to keep up with the rest of the party. The 2200 XP version would do much better, but wouldn’t be as illustrative. Note that despite being a career that's pretty combat focused, he's going to lack the armor, weapons, and skills to really fight besides Gunnar and Salundra and is barely better than Holli (a distinctly non-combat character) at being on the back line. If Felix isn't challenged by an adventure, nobody else in the party is going to be either. Here are the premade characters, with the reasons why you should play them that the starter kit provides. ”Salundra von Drakenburg, Human Soldier” posted:Salundra is the natural leader of the party, and has several significant advantages, including: pre:WS 49 Athletics 43 BS 35 Charm 28 S 36 Charm Animal 46 T 43 Climb 46 I 32 Cool 56 Ag 33 Consume Alcohol 48 Dex 28 Dodge 43 Int 37 Endurance 53 WP 46 Haggle 28 Fel 28 Intimidate 41 Intuition 32 Fate 3 Leadership 55 Fortune 4 Lore(Reikland) 55 Resili. 3 Navigation 32 Resolve 3 OutdoorSurival 37 Wounds 15 Perception 32 Ride 33 Stealth 33 Talents Luck - +1 Fortune Point Noble Blood - Are noble, which can help Read/Write - Can read AND write Savvy - +5 Intelligence Warrior Born - +5 Weapon Skill Weapon Skill Damage Sword 62 +7 Dagger 62 +5 ”Gunnar Hrolfsson, Dwarf Slayer” posted:Gunnar is strong, tough, resilient, and quite fearless, as he is desperate to find an enemy worthy of him. pre:WS 45 Athletics 23 BS 26 Charm 18 S 38 Charm Animal 52 T 51 Climb 38 I 34 Cool 67 Ag 23 Consume Alcohol 63 Dex 38 Dodge 33 Int 28 Endurance 63 WP 52 Haggle 18 Fel 18 Intimidate 43 Intuition 34 Fate 1 Leadership 18 Fortune 1 Artisan(Jewler) 48 Resili. 3 Navigation 34 Resolve 3 OutdoorSurival 28 Wounds 18 Perception 34 Ride 23 Stealth 23 Talents Fearless - +20 Cool to resist Fear Nightvision - See up to 20 yards in the dark Read/Write - Can Read and write Resolute - Cause +1 Damage when you Charge Weapon Skill Damage Qualities Axe 60 +7 Dagger 60 +5 ”Molrella Brandysnap, Halfling Thief” posted:Molli is just lovely, a ray of golden sunshine in an otherwise grim and perilous world. Play her because: pre:WS 23 Athletics 47 BS 39 Charm 50 S 20 Charm Animal 48 T 32 Climb 35 I 43 Cool 58 Ag 44 Consume Alcohol 32 Dex 46 Dodge 54 Int 26 Endurance 42 WP 48 Haggle 50 Fel 50 Intimidate 20 Intuition 53 Fate 2 Leadership 50 Fortune 3 Pick Lock 51 Resili. 3 Navigation 43 Resolve 3 OutdoorSurival 26 Wounds 10 Perception 53 Ride 44 Stealth 54 Talents Resistance(Chaos) - Auto-pass first test to resist Chaos Nightvision - See up to 20 yards in the dark Acute Sense(Taste) - Taste things imperceptible to others Orientation - Always know where north is Weapon Skill Damage Qualities Short Sword 23 +5 Dagger 23 +4 Sling 49 +6 Pummelling ”Ferdinand Gruber” posted:Ferdinand is a wizard, which means most citizens if the Empire fears him. Play him because: pre:WS 42 Athletics 31 BS 24 Charm 23 S 25 Charm Animal 43 T 28 Climb 25 I 32 Cool 63 Ag 32 Consume Alcohol 35 Dex 27 Dodge 31 Int 48 Endurance 42 WP 43 Haggle 23 Fel 23 Intimidate 25 Intuition 43 Fate 3 Leadership 33 Fortune 3 Heal 32 Resili. 3 Navigation 32 Resolve 3 OutdoorSurival 48 Wounds 10 Perception 32 Ride 31 Stealth 31 Language(Magic) 61 Talents Petty Magic - Cast cast simple spells Read/Write - Can read and write Savvy - +5 to Int Coolheaded - +5 to WP Weapon Skill Damage Qualities Scythe 47 +8 Spell Skill Effect Dart 61 Cause 0+SL damage hit Light 61 Create a purplish light Shock 61 Inflicts a Stunned condition ”Amris Emberfell, High Elf Merchant” posted:Amris is an Elf with a sharp mind and a mysterious past. Play him if: pre:WS 48 Athletics 48 BS 42 Charm 51 S 28 Charm Animal 53 T 28 Climb 28 I 56 Cool 48 Ag 48 Consume Alcohol 38 Dex 47 Dodge 48 Int 60 Endurance 28 WP 53 Haggle 48 Fel 41 Intimidate 28 Intuition 56 Fate 1 Leadership 46 Fortune 1 Animal Care 60 Resili. 1 Navigation 61 Resolve 1 OutdoorSurival 60 Wounds 10 Perception 61 Ride 48 Stealth 48 Talents Acute Sense(Vision) - See things other do not Sixth Sense - Ignore Surprise with Intuition test Night Vision - Can see 40 yards in the dark Read/Write - can read and write Weapon Skill Damage Qualities Sword 53 +6 Dagger 53 +4 ”Else Sigloben, Human Witch Hunter” posted:Else shoots her way out of most problems, bellowing to Sigmar, god of the Empire, as she does so. pre:WS 42 Athletics 28 BS 48 Charm 31 S 32 Charm Animal 48 T 45 Climb 32 I 29 Cool 55 Ag 28 Consume Alcohol 35 Dex 24 Dodge 28 Int 33 Endurance 45 WP 48 Haggle 31 Fel 26 Intimidate 45 Intuition 34 Fate 2 Leadership 34 Fortune 2 Stealth 28 Resili. 4 Navigation 29 Resolve 4 OutdoorSurival 38 Wounds 15 Perception 28 Ride 48 Talents Resolute - +1 Damage when Charging Night Vision - Can see 20 yards into darkness Coolheaded - +4 WP Read/Write - Can read and write Weapon Skill Damage Qualities Pistol (x2) 56 +8 Damaging, Impaling, Penetrating, Pistol, Reload 1 Dagger 42 +5 Sword 42 +4 Next Time: Instead a boring tavern, start your adventure with an exciting shopping trip
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Apr 27, 2020 16:12
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I saw some of the 'halflings are now Kender' type stuff in the extra article their team posted on halflings, and I can't say that's the direction I'd go with them. Or anything. And yes, telling the player who is new to take 'the quiet guy' is a bad idea. The Elf CIA is always good, though. Always use an Elf CIA.
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Apr 27, 2020 16:26
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Don't forget willpower bonus for spell damage.
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Apr 27, 2020 16:31
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Night10194 posted:I saw some of the 'halflings are now Kender' type stuff in the extra article their team posted on halflings, and I can't say that's the direction I'd go with them. I can kind of see the good intentions, they're looking for some kind of real narrative hook for halflings that's immediate and obvious, but what RPG player has ever liked kender and fishmalks?
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Apr 27, 2020 16:37
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wiegieman posted:Don't forget willpower bonus for spell damage. I guess my other complaint about starting at 2200 xp is that it obscures everyone's origins a bit. Molly started as a Pauper (beggar tier 1), Gunner was originally an Apprentice Artisan (artisan tier 1) before he switched to Slayer, and Sali was originally a Scion (noble tier 1). It would have been nice to work that progression into your starter kit, Cubicle 7!
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Apr 27, 2020 17:40
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Night10194 posted:The Elf CIA is always good, though. Always use an Elf CIA. Don't you mean ElfBI?
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Apr 27, 2020 18:27
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Everyone posted:From my perspective, reasoned, non-rear end in a top hat choices do exist in that situation. Support the Empire then overthrow it and replace it with something better. Support the Imperium to throw back the Orks, Dark Elder, Chaos, etc., and then work to overthrow it and replace it with something not run by psychotic, facist fanatics. Be loving proactive and agenda driven. If the game universe gives you three, awful choices, create choice number four. Or we could realize that this setting deserves about as much respectful consideration as heavy metal van art and treat it that way. People trying to make it nice and palatable is how we got in this situation in the first place and digging deeper isn't going to make it better. There's a time and a place for liking heavy metal van art and we can just leave it as that. Night10194 posted:I saw some of the 'halflings are now Kender' type stuff in the extra article their team posted on halflings, and I can't say that's the direction I'd go with them. I always sort of got the vibe of kender-mafiaoso from them since I started playing WHFRP. By which I mean, they're very upbeat about feeding you to feral hogs when you default on your loan, but that could've just been the way my group used them.
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Apr 27, 2020 18:28
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I figure that much like the Dwarves there's never a better friend nor a worse enemy, Dwarves are loyal and hold grudges and Hobbits party hard and will never regret feeding you to an Ogre if you cross them.
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Apr 27, 2020 18:37
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The Halfling Mafia is a major plot element in Ubersreik in a Season 2 of The Wire sort of way, if the GM chooses to use those scenarios and focus on those elements. The Kender version of WF halflings isn't really supported by the core rulebook or the rest of the adventure, either.
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Apr 27, 2020 18:47
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Everyone posted:From my perspective, reasoned, non-rear end in a top hat choices do exist in that situation. Support the Empire then overthrow it and replace it with something better. Support the Imperium to throw back the Orks, Dark Elder, Chaos, etc., and then work to overthrow it and replace it with something not run by psychotic, facist fanatics. Be loving proactive and agenda driven. If the game universe gives you three, awful choices, create choice number four. The fiction creates a context where 'helping the Nazis win, then after that trying to make them less terrible' is the most reasonable choice. Taking that seriously, any attempt to undermine the fascists right now literally reproduces the fascist myth of the 'stab in the back' against a worse foe, and so you've put yourself into the context of fascist mythmaking. Plus, just, as a general rule, helping fascists conquer the universe then after that attempting to overthrow them... that's not a good scenario. That's not even a morally acceptable scenario. By that point so many genocides would have been completed that even if the Catholic Space Nazis are overthrown, they've done the damage over and over again. "Help Nazis win so as to later overthrow them" makes you a patsy with big dreams, not a hero. (This is ignoring that the text itself is really uncertain whether Space Marines are mass-produced fascist supersoldiers with almost no individuality or Arthurian orders of knights in a space-fantasy setting that just happen to be directly connected to a fascist mega-empire due to branding on the part of the toy company).
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Apr 27, 2020 18:54
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Plundered Vaults A slow night Rough Night at Three Feathers is a dearly beloved adventure and has been since it was first penned in 1987. It has been, to my knowledge, translated into every edition of WHFRP (I'm not as certain about 3e, since I know so little about it). It is considered deeply important to the lineage of WHFRP. It's also kind of a bad adventure. Well, that's being a little unkind. It's reasonably profitable, doesn't gently caress the PCs, and is basically intended to be a short comedic episode in among a campaign, wherein the players go to an inn to spend the night and get caught up in a highly scripted farce of multiple murders, blackmail attempts, a bounty collection, and maybe getting recruited to fight a judicial duel. I suppose for me the problem is it isn't very funny. It's trying to be! But it isn't. It's hard to construct a tightly scripted farcical comedy when 3-6 of the major characters can't be planned for in any way. It doesn't lean into that, either; most of the adventure is a minute-by-minute scripting of who is where and what's happening, only occasionally involving the PCs and not leaving much room for them to alter it. There are multiple moments when they can spot some malefactor who automatically gets away in the dark, or they can convince someone they didn't do a crime only to get dragooned into the next bit as if they'd failed to do so. To be quite honest, this adventure's sheer reputation is baffling to me. I mean, it's not terrible like something like Thousand Thrones, and it's completely harmless and inoffensive. It won't derail a campaign or gently caress the characters, it's pretty light-hearted and low stakes, it just seems like a modestly dull and unfunny farce without much room for the players to actually play rather than get led along by seven unrelated plotlines and then potentially get paid a lot. So our heroes arrive at the Three Feathers Inn and their friend the rainstorm is telling them they really don't want to camp outside. Besides, they've been camping in the rough for two days to get away from Schloss Vonreuter and Anya's not getting a great introduction to the adventuring life (or rather, she's getting an entirely too honest one), so they stop at the first real inn they see. The inn is busy as heck because a large retinue following the Gravin Marie-Ulrike von Leibowitz (a beloved niece of Countess Emanuelle) is staying here on their way to go fight a judicial duel for her honor. Her champion will be contesting a charge that she, by improper behavior, caused an older gentleman to lose consciousness and drown in a punch bowl at her aunt's big party awhile back. She and her party are the crux of most of the PC-involving elements of the adventure. Still, they're able to get a table and a room, and pay for some actual hot food instead of what few rations they have left, and who cares if service is slow and the inn is busy as hell? In fact, for the 'official' stuff, we'll just focus on the things the protagonists actually see. Then I'll go through in the next post and tell you everything that happened that they missed, because most of it was only for the GM. I think it will nicely illustrate my issues with this adventure. They see people coming and going (though they don't care much, they have no idea they're having an adventure and are just getting to know their new companion and having a drink for the first time in a couple days). They see a big, burly champion having arm wrestling contests until the Gravin herself comes down to tell him to go to bed and stop risking injury, making a bit of a scene. Some passengers from a boat along the Reik arrive and head upstairs, a young man and woman who seem to be enjoying a holiday together. Anya is busily trying to get Karl to say what he was doing in Kislev and what Praag was like when a bunch of Morrites arrive with a body, asking to stay overnight. They note the Morrites pay the innkeeper a bit of extra not to object to this. At about 9:50 (they arrived at 9:00) a rough looking bounty huntress arrives, gets into a random fight to prove she's tough (She will 'use all her unarmed abilities', on a PC if they treat her disrespectfully. She has no especial unarmed abilities aside from Strike to Stun like Elena.), and gets to scoping out the inn. The Champion Bruno comes back down around 10:10, making sure the Gravin's party are all abed before ordering more to drink and getting back to arm-wrestling. The tough bounty hunter (named Ursula Kopfgeld) gets into it with him and narrowly loses, but he's impressed. Then by GM fiat, one of the protagonists gets a mug of ale intended for Bruno, and Karl drinks it. It's poisoned with a sleeping draught, designed to make him miss his duel tomorrow. Karl makes the Tough test not to be affected, though (using a Fortune in the process), and Vendrick makes a Per to notice one of the servants looks worried when Bruno doesn't collapse and Karl almost does. They chase after him, thinking (correctly) he tried to poison their friend, but he GM fiat gets away because he's going to murder Bruno later. One of the Morrites comes down to talk to the Landlord while the PCs are sitting back down and making sure Karl's okay. The bounty huntress is interested, and pays the landlord a little to repeat what the Morrite said. Elena perks up slightly. This might mean a bounty's in progress. But it's not really her problem and unless she's got a wanted poster to work with or something she's not going to tramp on another Hunter's territory without enough info to get into it. A servant comes down and orders Bruno to bed. He goes, sheepishly. A well-dressed lawyer comes down in a nightshirt and one of three individuals who came in earlier goes up to follow him. Just so they get involved at all, Karl has gone up to the room with Anya with him to rest a moment and try to shake off the poisoning, so he hears someone in the lawyer's room threatening him. Then the voice cutting off. He and Anya see the lawyer surreptitiously take the body out of his room and hide it, having murdered the man blackmailing him. Our first of many murders tonight. Downstairs, one of the young couple offers Elena 10 crowns to bring a message to a servant. She does, and Karl and Anya hear another murder moments later. This place is awfully murdery. They go down to tell their friends about the two separate, unrelated murders that have occurred (for the same reasons, even, but they don't know that) just in time to see a servant of the Gravin telling the other heroes the lawyer would like to talk to them. They go along to find out what the deal is with all this murder, and the lawyer explains these people are members of a 'secret society' that is blackmailing him (actually a Chaos Cult, but he doesn't actually know that; he got out before he got to the Chaosy bits). He offers a whopping 250 crowns to the PCs to protect him and deal with the blackmailers. They're not quite so hot on secret murder, but Elena points out this is a lot of money. Like, a lot. And hey, these guys are blackmailers from a 'secret society'. They're probably like...evil cultists or something. They are! She's totally right, even if she mostly just wants 250 crowns! The heroes find the cultists' room unlocked (they're waiting for their already-murdered companion) and storm in, and they have 3 rounds to dispose of two evil cultists before anyone notices the fighting. Our heroes are not wearing their full armor, but even then, this is an easy murder. For the sake of narrative, they find a pendent of Slaanesh on one of the dead cultists. Elena declares 'score!' and does a fist-pump because she was totally right. Anya is not yet used to seeing people get killed, and Karl is a little upset they went right to murder instead of knocking them out or something, but this is the Three Feathers; it's just kind of a murdery place. They hide the bodies and get paid. They assume their part in things is done, though Anya mentions there seemed to be another murder. Despite murdering the person who recognized him, the husband of Herr Schmidt's companion finds the inn for completely unrelated reasons and kicks up a fuss. He starts a brawl with his bully-boys, trying to force his way up so he can have 'Schmidt' horsewhipped and make his wife watch. The heroes are trying to keep a low profile until Herr Pramhandler gets upstairs and is actively having a naked man beaten while a crying woman is forced to watch. Both Gilbert and Ulrike are not going to let that poo poo stand, and Ulrike grabs the thug with the whip's hand while Gilbert lectures the one holding the woman on the proper treatment of a lady, adultery or no. The drunken noble tells Ulrike to stay out of his marriage business, Ulrike replies there might be a reason his wife isn't loving him anymore, and really, she's getting way better at being an Ulrican as this degenerates into a general brawl. During the fistfight, our heroes lose a dagger from Anya's belt. This is another Important GM Fiat moment. Our heroes have had a very annoying night and are about to go to bed. They also don't know it, but they saved the lawyer's life; the cultists would have murdered him horribly if they didn't stop them. So good on them. There's a banging from the Initiates of Morr's room, but our heroes have had enough bullshit and leave it to the Landlord. 20 minutes later, just as they got to sleep, they're awakened by the Gravin screaming. Bruno has been shanked in the back. Naturally, it's been done with Anya's stolen dagger. At this point, people start noticing the generally murdery atmosphere as bodies are found hidden throughout the inn. Our heroes are accused of killing Bruno, and the Gravin will (whether they convince people they didn't do it with a Charm-20 or not) demand that Ulrike be her champion in his place as her legal punishment for the murder. The team's weapons and gear are taken from them and they're locked up. The Gravin comes in after to tell them she knows they didn't do it, but is using them as bait for the real murderer, leaving them their knives so they can wait for the murderer to come try to murder Ulrike. They all have to test WP to stay awake, and most make it. Eventually, they hear the murderer slip into their room, unperturbed by there being 6 of them, and they jump him. Elena punches the servant out, and they turn the murderer over to the Gravin to be handed to the Roadwardens. At 4:30, they notice the bounty huntress is gone, the Morrites have all been crossbowed in the face and neck, and the 'body' they were transporting has lost its head. The Gravin offers to let Ulrike actually be her champion (promising 250 crowns if she can win a first blood duel against some random pit-fighter nobody) and pays the team 50 crowns. They have nothing better to do and want to get the hell away from the murderiest Inn outside of Naggarond, so they agree to another treasureful sidequest in Kemperbad. Ulrike gets into the judicial fight and wins on round one, winning init and inflicting 3 Wounds on her target with a blow of her axe. That means the Gravin is innocent, and that the team gets another 250 crowns and 'she'll buy them anything they wish for the day'. Ulrike just asks for wine and a feast, to make up for how lovely their night was back at the Three Feathers. So what was going on with all the plot points they didn't see? A fair bit! Still, it was just kind of an inexplicable and annoying night where none of them got any sleep, but they did make a lot of money, so it balances out. Seriously, these guys have made like 3 times what Brute Squad or the Thousand Crowns made all campaign and they're only 4 out of 6 adventures in. That done, they decide to check out some odd rumors at a nearby townhouse that's been abandoned for ages in Kemperbad, not aware they're about to walk right back into The World of Survival Horror. It's just kind of...dull. A highly scripted adventure full of stabbing and without much input from the PCs. I really don't understand the sheer love this adventure gets. There's worse, yes. Much worse. But there's much better, too, and it wouldn't be hard to come up with a better 'things go crazy in an inn' adventure than this, actually tailored to your group. It's popularity for 32 years eludes me. Next Time: The GM's Perspective
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Apr 27, 2020 18:58
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I saw that Tigtone reference in there. I'm mostly curious what would have happened if the party decided to go check out the noise in the Morrites' room.
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Apr 27, 2020 19:35
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PurpleXVI posted:I saw that Tigtone reference in there. Nothing, really. The entire Morrite plotline is completely without player input. Believe it or not, while I do adore some Tigtone, there was no intentional Tigtone reference here. Though Vendrick would probably agree he loves Wizard Hunt. E: Oh wait, gently caress, it was Treasureful Sidequest. That's just been part of my normal lexicon since Begun of Tigtone. I forgot that entirely, I use it without thinking! Night10194 fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Apr 27, 2020 |
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Apr 27, 2020 19:37
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Joe Slowboat posted:The fiction creates a context where 'helping the Nazis win, then after that trying to make them less terrible' is the most reasonable choice. Taking that seriously, any attempt to undermine the fascists right now literally reproduces the fascist myth of the 'stab in the back' against a worse foe, and so you've put yourself into the context of fascist mythmaking.
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Apr 27, 2020 19:39
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Froghammer posted:By far the best thing GW has done with the lore in the past 10 years is have Guilliman wake up and be absolutely ripshit over all the fascism ruining the empire he helped build Then do nothing about it and actively perpetuate it.
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Apr 27, 2020 19:42
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Come to think of it, missing that the Morrites are actually smugglers trying to get an Agitator out of Riekland (they have him subdued with a sleeping potion to help with the charade) but were late to the boat and had to stay in the inn for the night. Nothing you do to investigate will reveal this or make it matter in any way, until they all get arrowed by Ursula and she beheads their 'corpse' and takes it back to get her bounty. Rough Night is just...dull. It's not bad, I just don't get the rep its got. Also, only gives about 100 EXP. At least the team was never really in danger. So probably won't bother with the cleanup update. Cythereal posted:Then do nothing about it and actively perpetuate it. It's not like Empy's Empire wasn't a fascist authoritarian state, it was just one that didn't like churches, either. What an improvement. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Apr 27, 2020 |
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Apr 27, 2020 19:48
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I can see the potential, but it needs more avenues for player input - but Clue and Murder by Death esque farces are very very difficult to pull off.
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Apr 27, 2020 21:03
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I have only played in the 4h ed version, but in there the agitator wakes up around midnight and if you join the landlord in entering the room you could spot that there are now 4 morrians in there. Was that not in the 2nd ed version?
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Apr 27, 2020 21:15
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I feel like all the murder attempts being hosed up by one another in a fit of dark humor is exactly what this adventure needs to really be interested, just have a bunch of crossing over points PC's can intervene and alter how it goes so players feel like they actively have some input on what going on and try to figure what the hell is actually going on and be entirely off mark with how crazy stuff is. E: Basically like the Exploding Wine adventure that is in the Sorcery book is a good example of how to do something like this. ChaseSP fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Apr 27, 2020 |
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Apr 27, 2020 21:17
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If your multiple plotlines colliding in one place adventure is indistinguishable for the players from a night of randomly rolled events then you're doing writing wrong. And GM fiat failure gets old the moment it materialises, if you find that you added one then you should reconsider if you wouldn't prefer traditional prose over collaborative storytelling.
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Apr 27, 2020 21:52
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Robotic Folksinger posted:I have only played in the 4h ed version, but in there the agitator wakes up around midnight and if you join the landlord in entering the room you could spot that there are now 4 morrians in there. Was that not in the 2nd ed version? It is, but it doesn't actually lead anywhere. If you spot it, it just gets brushed off a moment later. E: Yeah, what it's doing is not an easy thing to do, and it isn't like an outright terrible adventure, I'm just baffled at how deeply loved it is.
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Apr 27, 2020 23:04
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Yeah as an adventure itself it's incredibly on rails and kind of just "well what are we supposed to do". RPPR's cover of Rough Night at Three Feathers (in Zweihander, sadly) is pretty good mostly because the PCs are just bumbling around raucously and one of the players (who is of the "GIVE ME THE PLOT OR I'LL DO WHAT I WANT UNTIL PLOT PRESENTS ITSELF" bent) sets up a doctor's office at the bar and just stays there for a good chunk of the adventure doing his best to cure various complaints. Also he's an Ogre named Herr Doctor Buttman. Herr Doctor is in.
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Apr 27, 2020 23:45
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Ithle01 posted:Or we could realize that this setting deserves about as much respectful consideration as heavy metal van art and treat it that way. People trying to make it nice and palatable is how we got in this situation in the first place and digging deeper isn't going to make it better. There's a time and a place for liking heavy metal van art and we can just leave it as that. I'm giving my take as though I were playing a character in 40K. If my GM said, "Okay, we're gonna do 40K," the characters I played would be revolutionaries-in-waiting. But I don't play it because what little I do know about it has left me utterly uninterested in it. Between 40K and that stupid Nazi Pony game up-thread, I'd rather play a Nazi Pony because at least then I wouldn't have to even pretend to take that bullshit seriously.
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Apr 28, 2020 00:52
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Dawgstar posted:Don't you mean ElfBI? No, CIA, this is foreign. Princess Janiel of Lothern, the overweight (she looks like a perfectly ordinary and healthy human, and keeps the weight so she can disguise herself as one easily) cake-loving elven spymistress is one of my favorite recurring NPCs across our games. She got their elf deserter to do a dirty hit to evade stolen valor charges! But she also paid them for it and gave him an official record that he'd been a Sea Guard (he was not a Sea Guard) as a favor after he did it. So it balanced out. Also the guy they killed was a Caledor noble and a total rear end in a top hat (one of those 'the only problem with Malekith is he says the quiet part too loud' types) so they weren't too sad to axe the dude in the face. Some day, some day I'm gonna get around to Shadowrun But It's In Ulthuan as a campaign. Some day. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Apr 28, 2020 |
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Apr 28, 2020 00:58
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Night10194 posted:Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Plundered Vaults I don't know if they have any official lists for it, but it would make a certain amount of sense to give Anna Petty Magic (Necromancy) instead of Petty Magic (Arcane). Let her pick up Petty Magic (Arcane) later in her career, but the idea that she knows a little about the inner workings of Necromancy could be... interesting. There might well be a couple of effects that would let Anna surprise the gently caress out of some undead types who think she's just a normal College Wizard.
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Apr 28, 2020 01:06
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