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Soulbound Our God Is A Corpse With A Spigot In theory, the Daughters of Khaine worship the Aelven god Khaine, Lord of Battle and Blood. Blood is their holy water, murder their sacrament. There's just one problem: Khaine's dead. Khaine's been dead for the entire timeline of Age of Sigmar. Morathi, the High Oracle of Khaine, is a legendary sorceress that, yes, is the exact same Morathi as Warhammer Fantasy. When Slaanesh backstabbed her and her son turned on her, she managed to, somehow, survive the jump through space to the Mortal Realms. She set herself up in Ulgu's Shadowlands, hiding Khaine's god-corpse somewhere in the dark and tapping into it for her own followers. She is, for all intents and purposes, Khaine. Not that anyone else is officially aware of this. The Khainite cult is the second-largest religion in the Mortal Realms, only surpassed by Sigmar, because...well, it gets results. There is literally no one that hates the Dark Gods more than Morathi, because for Morathi it's personal. She is personally dedicated to murdering Slaanesh and bathing in his blood for what was done to her, and would be happy to take the rest of the Dark Gods with him. This means that the Daughters of Khaine are some of the foremost warriors against Chaos in the Mortal Realms, and their temples are filled with supplicants hoping they'll be protected by the bloodshed of the dark priestesses. Despite this, the rest of Order is not particularly trusting. The bloodthirst of the Witch Aelves and their motivations are both good reasons to watch them with suspicion, and while they'd never say so openly, most scholars and priests of other gods are pretty sure Khaine's long dead, and that Morathi is hiding strange, serpentine monsters in her greatest temples. (That's true, by the way. Morathi's most loyal servants are the Scathborn, Aelven souls she has forced to incarnate into twisted, monstrous forms. Morathi herself is actually one of them, horrifically mutated and monstrous. She kind of hates herself now, but not nearly as much as she hates the Dark Gods.) Just about every Daughter that becomes Soulbound does so because Morathi either wanted them to or at least was willing to allow it. She has learned in her long life that Soulbound Daughters are essentially impossible for her to control, and therefore she only allows the "honor" to be granted to her followers that she thinks are too dangerous or useful to kill but can be lost to her direct command. All Soulbound Daughters of Khaine are forever removed from the hierarchy of Morathi's countless sects and subsects. Some of them were too ambitious, others too desirous of freedom, others heretics or doubters of Khaine. Morathi tries to maintain good relations with the Aelves she offers up to the Soulbound, because she does at least understand that they are powerful and useful if she can get them to be...well, at least neutral towards their old boss, and they can serve as "proof" of her good intentions to everyone else. Other Daughters tend to look at those who join the Soulbound with fear and caution. They're dangerous, but no longer direct political rivals, and Morathi seems to like at least some of them. However, they are deeply connected to outsiders who can't be allowed to know the deepest secrets of Khaine. Thus, the average cult sister is going to approach a Soulbound Daughter with respect but suspicion.  The Hag Priestess is a hand-picked leader of the Cult of Khaine. Most of them are chosen for bloodthirst or zealous belief in the Murder God, but Morathi's elevated plenty of Aelves for reasons of her own to do with temple politics. All of them, however, must survive the trials of becoming a Hag, hardening them and gifting them with the power of Khaine's magic. Their blood rites and holy chants can call down his wrath and tap into his miracles, and each is a poisoner of immense skill, typically with at least one poisoned blade on their person at all times. Their witchbrews and mystic potions are able to bring forth immense power or weakness in others, and each Hag also knows the secrets of the rebirth ritual, allowing them to live for thousands of years in perfect youth and beauty. The greatest of them hope to become Hag Queens, but given their near-immortal status, there's not a ton of chances for advancement unless you murder your way up or your boss pisses off Morathi. It's an environment that teaches patience. Those who become Soulbound find a new route to power, but not an easy one. Their immortality is strengthened, their blood rituals no longer needed. They become free to pursue their own agendas without worrying about Morathi's political webs. However, they are now alone, without their order to back them, only their new allies. Morathi may speak of glory and noble burdens, but each Soulbound Hag Priestess is stripped of all formal rank in the many cults of Khaine, never to be trusted fully again. And for good reason - those ties to the souls of others and the new connection to the Mortal Realms of the Soulbinding inevitably change the Hags and their loyalties. Hag Priestesses start with Body 2, Mind 2, Soul 4, and must be both Aelf and Khainite. Their Core Skill is Devotion, and their Core Talent is Blessed (Khaine). Besides that, they get 3 of Backstab (which lets you ignore armor and deal double damage if you attack an unaware foe with a Subtle weapon), Fearless, Forbidden Knowledge, Night Vision (you ignore penalties from low light or darkness) and any Miracles of Khaine beyond their free one. They start with ceremonial armor (light armor), a sacrificial dagger, a bloodstained ritual chalice (which is a holy symbol), a whetstone, manacles, a pestle and mortar, and 280D of Aqua Ghyranis.  The Witch Aelf is a warrior of the Cult of Khaine, a soldier-monk of the Murder God. The shedding of blood is, for them, an act of ecstatic worship, and they approach battle as a sacred art. They are blade-dancers that move across the field in a crimson performance of death. Many find their ways disturbing, but their endless battles against Chaos make them welcome, if not trusted. Most cities have at least one temple to Khaine, often more, and the greatest temples dominate cities like Hagg Nar, Khelt Narr or Draichi Ganeth. There are countless smaller sects, each dedicated to a favorite method of worshipping Khaine. All eventually report to Morathi, but they can be quite heterodox - gladiatorial combat, for example, is sometimes their favored form of worship, or monster hunting. The hierarchies are always strict, though, and always eventually lead back to Morathi herself. Becoming Soulbound sets a Witch Aelf free, and many embrace that freedom as a chance to pursue their own path of bloody owrship. Morathi rarely explains to her soldiers that she has often seen them lose their faith. The Soulbinding often makes Witch Aelves feel new, foreign emotions thanks to their deep ties to their comrades in arms. This is one of the biggest reasons Morathi releases every Soulbound from their place in her temples and sets them free to pursue faith in their own way - even, or perhaps especially, if it means they will die heroically and not influence the loyal sisters. Witch Aelves start with Body 3, Mind 1, Soul 3, and must be both Aelf and Khainite. Their Core Skill is Weapon Skill, and their Core Talent is Blood Frenzy, which increases their combat abilities temporarily as long as they keep striking their foes without missing (and those foes have blood to shed; it doesn't work on bloodless foes). They also get 4 of Ambidextrous, Backstab, Combat Ready (you get a bonus to Initiative and are immune to Surprise in combat), Contortionist (you get a bonus to escape grabs or grapples and can fit into unusually small or cramped locations), Graceful Landing (when you fall, you can make an Athletics check to reduce fall damage), Relentless Assault or Vanish. They start with leather armor (light armor), two sacrifical daggers, three phials of basic poison, a bottle of acid and 220D of Aqua Ghyranis. Next time: The Fyreslayers
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May 8, 2020 21:36
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Night10194 posted:So, Barony of the Damned is probably the strongest WHFRP adventure book I've reviewed. I don't think there's much that really needs changing; about the only thing I'd really switch up is giving actual stats for Mallobaude (you gave all his minions stats so they can be in a fight some time, why not the big guy? Though I can fix that easily if I ever run a Mousillon game) I forgot to comment on this earlier, but I think this is pretty obviously because Mallobaude's deal is a Mystery and giving him stats would narrow the possible solutions. Did he actually meet the Lady and learn some horrible truth? Did he drink from the Grail, or the Bloody Grail, or a rusty cup full of swamp water? Is he a patsy, getting played by or working for the Lady/vampires/Elves/Tzeentch/Gray Men/Skaven/Black Pig? You'd cut out of possibilities for games if you gave him canon stats.
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May 8, 2020 22:05
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Tulul posted:I forgot to comment on this earlier, but I think this is pretty obviously because Mallobaude's deal is a Mystery and giving him stats would narrow the possible solutions. Did he actually meet the Lady and learn some horrible truth? Did he drink from the Grail, or the Bloody Grail, or a rusty cup full of swamp water? Is he a patsy, getting played by or working for the Lady/vampires/Elves/Tzeentch/Gray Men/Skaven/Black Pig? You'd cut out of possibilities for games if you gave him canon stats. True, and a very good point.
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May 8, 2020 22:05
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 This Is Normal Now is the fourth book in the YKRPG set. It is different from the other books in that it's set in the perfectly ordinary modern world, and the PCs are average people. There was no Continental War, and the United States was never ruled by a Castaigne emperor. But the Yellow King's influence is still present in subtler ways. If you played Paris, the events of your campaign there also happened in This Is Normal Now, even though The Wars and Aftermath didn't (or did they?). Essentially, it's an alternate time line. Some of the Paris PCs may still be remembered as famous artists. As with the other YKRPG books, characters are created by choosing investigative kits. If you played Aftermath, then the PCs are alternate-universe versions of the Aftermath PCs – same names and appearances, but different jobs/kits. The player who took the Government Lethal Technician kit is now a small-time Hipster Drug Dealer (or Weed Dispensary Owner, if it's legal where you live). The Journalist has become a Technical Writer, the Waiter is a Barista, the Doctor is now a CPR Instructor, and the Photographer is a Graphic Designer. The Security Guard and the Marketing Coordinator keep the same jobs, though. As you might guess from these job options, the PCs in This Is Normal Now are intended to be random, average people – not soldiers, not freedom fighters, not even artists. General abilities are chosen by assigning 36 (Horror) or 40 (Occult Adventures) points to the following abilities: Athletics, Composure, Driving, Fighting, First Aid, Health, Mechanics, Preparedness, Sense Trouble, and Sneaking. As with the other YKRPG books, players choose a Drive and a Freaking Weird Moment to explain their character's interest in the supernatural. If you played Aftermath, players should also choose a Familiar Face – a NPC from Aftermath who is also present in this timeline, and what they do here. The group's patron in the People's Congress might now be head of the local HOA, for example. This Is Normal Now adds only two new investigative abilities to reflect how modern technology has advanced beyond Aftermath – Computers and Electronic Surveillance. As usual, there is also a new Challenge Table, reflecting the fact that most average people in the modern world are unsuited to combat – tolls are higher, and the difficulty to kill opponents is much stiffer. And again, there is a new table of Hazards, including While In Danger, You Discover You Have No Data or WiFi; You Get Swatted; and You Hear a Pop Tune As Something Terrible Happens. But this isn't quite the normal, modern world. At some point between Paris and This Is Normal Now, there was an “inbreak” between this world and Carcosa. Possibly it could be caused by the actions of the Paris PCs, or it could be the result of an alternate-universe version of events from The Wars or Aftermath. A This Is Normal Now campaign is usually about discovering what caused the inbreak, and how it can be stopped. The most visible effect of the inbreak is the fact that Carcosan monsters, known as rampagers, kill approximately 15 people per 100,000 every year, or about 50,000 people in the US alone. Except it's not all that visible, because almost nobody is paying attention. Most people are vaguely aware of rampager deaths, but it doesn't really mean anything to them – it's just a statistic. To help keep things fuzzy, rampager attacks are referred to as “safety-related incidents” (SRIs) in news broadcasts and government reports. Like so: “Two people were killed in a safety-related incident near the Wheaton Mall today. Police responded quickly to prevent further loss of life, and police sources say this was an isolated occurrence. Now here's Bob with the weather...” As Laws notes, this is totally not an analogy for anything. (And just a reminder, this was written two years ago.) So why don't people notice? An entire industry has sprung up around “reintegration” – helping people disturbed by encounters with rampagers and other Carcosan influences to recover and return to their normal lives. People can learn to repress horrifying memories through reintegration techniques, sometimes self-guided and sometimes with the assistance of doctors, psychologists, and/or drugs (legal and otherwise). Forcing someone to discuss things they've erased through reintegration causes them extreme discomfort and is considered rude – the phrase “respect my reintegration” is a warning to back off. Actually breaking reintegration to the point where someone re-accesses their repressed memories can cause them major psychological trauma, possibly even seizures or strokes. When the rampagers first arrived, the government tried to exterminate them – but this only caused an increase in rampager attacks, aimed at police, military, and other first responders. Rampagers are not particularly intelligent, but they instinctively retaliate against humans who harm their kind. Authorities quickly learned that the harder they fought against the rampagers, the more people the rampagers killed, and when they pulled back, the number of deaths decreased. At some point, it just became easier to accept a baseline number of deaths. Because of the psychological stresses of cleaning up after, and hiding the evidence of, SRIs, most cops, medical examiners, EMTs, and similar functionaries have become passively indifferent. (This is a solution to the frequent horror-game question of “Why don't the PCs just get the police?” Here, the police will shrug, give you a form to fill out, and do nothing.) SRIs usually happen only during night or overcast days, since rampagers won't go out in bright sunlight. Like wild animals, rampagers generally won't attack humans unless provoked – but you never know what might provoke them, and sometimes people are just stupid. The government attempts to manage rampager killings by establishing “feeding stations” in out-of-the-way places where animal carcasses are piled up, in hopes that rampagers will be drawn to easy food rather than hunting people.
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May 8, 2020 22:18
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Yellow King sounds really interesting, thanks for reviewing this one. Also GimpInBlack thank you for the Night's Black Agents review.
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May 8, 2020 23:02
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Night10194 posted:It's a good work that engages well with the material and themes that already exist in Bretonnia. I think it's overall the best of the WHFRP published adventures, and I wish more of them were about you like it is. I wouldn't call it an investigation-based adventure as much as an adventure capable of being investigated, but it seems like a very good published adventure that respects what the PCs can do.
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May 9, 2020 01:13
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Night10194 posted:Tyl Ratger and his Tuberats (modified, improve-improved Clanrats with claws, come out of tubes) i appreciated this
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May 9, 2020 02:29
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:i appreciated this I like warframe. Imagine Skaven with Grakatas. They'd be unstoppable.
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May 9, 2020 02:49
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Night10194 posted:I like warframe. Grineer and Skaven have extremely similar energy in general
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May 9, 2020 02:53
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Skaven would absolutely build a pistol that is a rocket launcher that explodes in cluster grenades that bounce back onto you and kill you.
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May 9, 2020 02:54
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Lenz is what happens when you mix warpstone and an elfbow.
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May 9, 2020 03:11
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Night10194 posted:Though I did add a few additional named rats. Tyl Ratger and his Tuberats (modified, improve-improved Clanrats with claws, come out of tubes). Oh that's good, does he have Manic Gutter Runners?
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May 9, 2020 04:58
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Also, the choice of promotions for the heroes will considerably affect the timeskip and their personalities. Questing Gilbert is a guy who thinks if he's strong enough and good enough he can fix everything, protect everyone, and make it all right in the world, Noble Lord Gilbert is earnestly trying to become a wise ruler to stop being the same kind of heroic furious dumbass, etc. Inner Circle Ulrike is comfortable in court and politicking, Crusader Ulrike is full of wanderlust and a sense of constant adventure and travel, etc. Anointed Karl is contemplative and meditative, Surgeon Karl more inquisitive and scientific. All of them will grow up some before Karak Azgal, just in different ways. Might as well lean into the character development the last adventure did a good job of providing. E: Also for a preview of what's coming in Karak Azgal: The Skaven have gotten into bioengineering Squigs and crossed them with rats. Rat-Squigs. Also a Slayer Wight who is incredibly pissed off because 'bloody hell I FOUND MY BLOODY MIGHTY DOOM YOU ASSHOLES I DON'T WANT TO BE BACK', as well as dwarfs digging too greedily and too deep, crazy elf revengeance, and the PCs actually seeing an orc in WHFRP. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 05:37 on May 9, 2020 |
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May 9, 2020 05:15
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An alternative reality where Orks are brushed off as a conspiracy even as a big squad of football hooligans siege and burn towns down.
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May 9, 2020 05:49
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Night10194 posted:Skaven would absolutely build a pistol that is a rocket launcher that explodes in cluster grenades that bounce back onto you and kill you. The Corpus radiation shotgun is pretty much also a warpstone weapon.
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May 9, 2020 09:51
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Night10194 posted:The Ghouls show you the same thing all over again (with their Baron executing LeBeau out of fear of dangerous ideas coming to the peasants, even) and asking you: Are you only this bothered by it this time because they're ghouls? Yes, they're even worse, but it's a nice third degree of parallel. Ordinarily I'd consider being handed LeBeau's head to be a bit of a copout, but this is actually a darn good setpiece because it's something that would fit right into Arthurian myth itself. A damned parody of the world above that nevertheless points out just how hosed up the world above is when you look at it in the same light, a horror that cannot simply be slain and demands the questing knight demonstrate character development to deal with, and sufficient opportunity for hijinks and shenanigans to allow the PCs to prevail and bring a little light to the situation if they wish. And heck, maybe they CAN come back with an army (of hydraulic engineers) and start cleaning the place up, if they want to. That's more than I'd expect of anything but the best RPGs (ironically I'd include Pendragon itself in that). My opinion of GW's settings tends to be very, very low because I only ever encountered stuff like Thousand Thrones and its 40K equivalents, but I'll give the authors credit here. Maybe if I'd read this stuff first I wouldn't regard the company so askance.
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May 9, 2020 12:34
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PurpleXVI posted:The Corpus radiation shotgun
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May 9, 2020 13:03
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Loxbourne posted:Ordinarily I'd consider being handed LeBeau's head to be a bit of a copout, but this is actually a darn good setpiece because it's something that would fit right into Arthurian myth itself. A damned parody of the world above that nevertheless points out just how hosed up the world above is when you look at it in the same light, a horror that cannot simply be slain and demands the questing knight demonstrate character development to deal with, and sufficient opportunity for hijinks and shenanigans to allow the PCs to prevail and bring a little light to the situation if they wish. And heck, maybe they CAN come back with an army (of hydraulic engineers) and start cleaning the place up, if they want to. Ben Counter's work on Carrion Call was good, too. And he had David Chart as cowriter on this (since Chart wrote the Bretonnia book) and Chart was line developer for Ars Magica, so Chart had plenty of experience with crazy medieval and romantic fantasy fiction. Like the fact that I love Chart's work on WHFRP so much is one reason I want to give Ars Magica a shot some day. Well, that, and I'd like to run a game about grumpy medieval academics who are also wizards.
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May 9, 2020 13:36
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Just an aside, my EP Firewall F&F
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May 9, 2020 13:44
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Soulbound Our God Is A Corpse And We Wear His Bones The Fyreslayers see themselves as the inheritors of Grimnir, the dead Slayer God. They are famously mercenary, willing to fight just about anyone if paid in gold - but they never break an oath or vow, so once a contract is signed, it is inviolate. They don't wear armor because this is a faction of They just have the Slayer aesthetic, for the most part, rather than all being literal Slayers - they aren't all deathseekers, just some. They're slow to trust anyone outside their lodge, which is why so few of them become Soulbound - the idea of binding their souls to others, who may not even be Duardin, is entirely foreign to most Fyreslayers. All of the ones that do it are, in some way, strange for their society. Many are what are called grimnyn, Fyreslayers who have failed their lodge vows or lost their lodge through no fault of their own, and who have sworn an oath to seek battle until they find a new cause to live for or they die. Others are merely estranged from their lodge or have had it destroyed without swearing the grimnyn oath. A Fyreslayer would almost always die before breaking an oath, though, and that means they don't swear lightly - especially the oath of the Soulbound. The ambitious ones often won't do it because it removes the ability to have children, which means never being able to be a Runefather. They at least do not fear the death that awaits the Soulbound, however - your soul exploding to merge with the Mortal Realms is, in some sense, what Grimnir himself did, and therefore it can't be that awful. Fyreslayers rarely understand how to treat one of their own turned Soulbound. Yes, it's a mighty honor. Yes, they pursue battles of immense glory, and the oath is a good one...but any Fyreslayer that serves a god not Grimnir is at least a little suspicious, and the fact that many Soulbound Fyreslayers end up working for free is scandalous. Soulbound Fyreslayers know how their people view working without pay, and typically try to make it clear both to their divine patrons and their comrades that they will want at least some kind of token payment to keep up appearances as best they can. Even better if they can get help in finding ur-gold, or just get paid in big fuckin' trunks of the stuff, but...well, that's not always doable.  The Auric Runesmiter is a war-priest of dead god. While Grimnir is fallen, his power remains, channeled by the Runesmiters to command the fires of the earth. They can melt stone, call fire down on their foes or destroy a weapon in an enemy's hand. They also are the ones who forge the ur-gold runes into the flesh of Fyreslayers, awakening the divine fire of Grimnir within them. Each is strongly tied to the Shattered God and to the fires of Aqshy, for the death of Grimnir bound his people as well to the monster he died killing, the Salamandar Queen Vulcatrix. In the tongue of the Duardin, they are Zharrgrim, and while every Fyreslayer can to some extent sense the presence of nearby ur-gold, they are able to spot it even when it is only a tiny amount, surrounded by base, mundane gold. They are the living avatars of the fallen god, and they release the power of ur-gold in battle to honor Grimnir and Vulcatrix, who truly lived in their final moments. While some may espire to become a Runefather, most are too addicted to combat for such goals. Not, mind that many of them are drawn to be Soulbound. It's not easy to convince a Runesmiter to abandon their temple and lodge, as they are so deeply part of Fyreslayer society. However, the Necroquake and other great events have changed things, and the Fyreslayers have questions about what the chaos will mean for them and their quest for Grimnir's bones. All lodges need an answer, and some Runesmiters have chosen to become Soulbound in order to gain those answers for their entire culture. They are happy to take responsibility for protecting the Mortal Realms, though Aqshy generally comes first among those for them. As long as their comrades help them get more ur-gold every so often, they tend to be quite happy and loyal to their bond, considering it as equal a family as their lodge-brethren, if they still have any. Runesmiters start with Body 3, Mind 2, Soul 3, and must be Fyreslayer Duardin. Their Core Skill is Devotion, and their Core Talents are Blessed (Grimnir), Sense Ur-Gold, which lets them make a pretty easy Awareness check to detect ur-gold nearby and where it is, and Zharrgrim, which allows them to try and forge ur-gold runes during downtime. They also get two of Diplomat, Fearless, Guts (you get extra Toughness from Fortitude Training) or any Miracles of Grimnir. They begin play with any three ur-gold runes of their choice, a runic iron and handaxe or a latch-axe (which is functionally a Greataxe), a Forge Key (which is their holy symbol), enough spare ur-gold to forge a single ur-gold rune, and 15D of Aqua Ghyranis.  The Battlesmith is part sage and historian, part master craftsman and part bard and entertainer. Their duty is to memorize the often immense history of their ledge, down to every last oath, battle, debt and deed of any Runefather of the Lodge. They memorize their lodge's debts, grudges and traditions, and they also serve to entertain their people with drinking songs and heroic sagas. Their greatest duty, however, is the forging of the effigies of Grimnir, whose many aspects are all very subtly different and must be represented correctly. They are the greatest blacksmiths in the world. As a result, few ever become Soulbound - yes, it's an honor, but they tend to feel their place is within their lodge. The rare few who join the Soulbound are deeply respected by their comrades - their histories of the Age of Chaos are some of the most accurate and useful that exist, priceless knowledge to those looking for lost lore, treasure or dangers. Most Battlesmiths that join require that they be given permission to chronicle the deeds they witness, recover and verify the history any Duardin treasures they find, and to have the right to drag everyone along to mediate disputes between traveling members of their lodge near any adventures they get into. Often, they get this given to them without hesitation in order to secure their talents. Battlesmiths begin with Body 2, Mind 2, Soul 3, and must be Fyreslayer Duardin. Their Core Skill is Entertain, and their Core Talent is Legendary Saga, which lets them make an Entertain check and belt out a saga to debuff enemy spellcasters or buff allies in combat. They also get four of Blessed (Grimnir), Bulwark (you get a Defence bonus when multiple foes are close to you), Eidetic Memory (you can remember just about anything, though it may take a roll to remember tiny details), Forbidden Knowledge, Guts, Observant (You get a bonus to spot hidden foes, a bonus to Natural Awareness and get no Defence penalty when attacked by a hidden foe) or Scholar. They begin with a Rune of Iron Skin, a Rune of Relentless Zeal, any one ur-gold rune of their choice, an ancestral battleaxe, a handaxe, an icon of Grimnir, a palm-sized nugget of ur-gold, and 95D of Aqua Gyranis.  The Doomseeker is a Slayer. Straight up, these are the Slayer Slayers, the guys who look like Slayers and actually are Slayers. They never speak of what made them swear the barazakdum, the doom-oath that removed them from their Lodge. Other Duardin say that this oath is usually made by warriors disgradced in battle, final survivors whose kin are all dead or criminals seeking atonement, while others say that some are those that sought to become Runefathers and failed, but refused to accept their brother taking the lodge in their place. Whatever the reason, they want to find a worthy death and will accept nothing less. They fear only dishonor and disgrace, and so they never back down without a very good reason for it. Those that become Soulbound do not abandon their death oath - rather, they seek a greater death in a worthy cause. Doomseekers are the most frequent Fyreslayer Soulbound - the bond gives them protection from the glimmerlust. All Fyreslayers are wary of this, a spiritual condition that drives them to hoard ur-gold and seek ever greater power from the runes of Grimnir without cease or thought. A lodge's priests can help hold it back, but Doomseekers have no lodge, and often fear the glimmerlust disgracing them - or worse, turning them into Doomvarags, who hunt other Fyreslayers to flense the runes from their flesh. Soulbound Fyreslayers can much more easily resist the gold-hunger, for they are protected by the souls of their comrades and the energy of the Mortal Realms. Doomseekers begin with Body 4, Mind 1, Soul 2, and must be Fyreslayer Duardin. Their Core Skill is Weapon Skill, and their Core Talent is Barazakdum, the Doom-Oath, which doubles their damage after armor as long as they have 0 Toughness left. They also get three of Battle Rage (you can choose to trade a Defence penalty for a Melee bonus), Guts, Hard to Kill (you basically get to ignore your first failed Death Test each combat), Intimidating Manner, Iron Stomach (you double Training bonuses on Fortitude checks to resist poison and disease, and also can really hold your liquor), or Underdog (you get a Melee bonus when multiple foes are close to you). They get a Rune of Iron Skin, any one ur-gold rune of their choice, any Common two-handed melee weapon or any two Common one-handed melee weapons, a memento of their home, a bedroll, a few shavings of ur-gold and 110D of Aqua Ghyranis. Next time: The Idoneth Deepkin Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 14:56 on May 9, 2020 |
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May 9, 2020 14:46
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and now that post has the correct info in it, rather than the blanks i left in to fill out once i'd checked the talents
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May 9, 2020 14:57
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The dwarfs are right to stand against working for exposure, just look at how it worked out for the Paths of the Damned team.
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May 9, 2020 14:59
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That Age of Sigmar setting seems like something a lot of people would like, it was still incredibly stupid to end WHFRP instead of building it separately.
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May 9, 2020 15:07
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Night10194 posted:The dwarfs are right to stand against working for exposure, just look at how it worked out for the Paths of the Damned team. It's actually extremely common for Soulbound to demand concessions from the gods as payment for becoming Soulbound. The Fyreslayers are just the most direct about 'give me gold, motherfucker.'
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May 9, 2020 15:13
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 Actually playing the game So far we've talked about Arms Law and RoleMaster's combat system, and while I didn't quite go into things like how initiative is resolved, you can probably guess that you can take turns between players and opponents, rolling attacks in sequence. And then we've talked about Spell Law and the spellcasting system, so you can also take a reasonable guess at how that can slot-in to a combat. What about everything else? RoleMaster has something called a Maneuver roll. This is a d100 roll (that can explode, per RM's general rules), modified by an appropriate stat modifier, and the results are compared against this chart:  The roll selects the row, the difficulty of the act (as determined by the GM) selects the column, and the result is cross-referenced. If it's a number, that represents partial success: 100 means 100%, or having accomplished the act on-time and successfully, but something like 80% means you didn't fail, but you're still a little short. That might mean that on the next try/on the next round, you only need a 20 to succeed. Another way to explain it is that this section of book talks about Maneuvers in terms of movement. Each character has a Base Movement Rate as determined by their size, and they also have a Pace, whether walking, jogging, sprinting, and so on. The pace is a multiplier on the Base Movement Rate, and higher Paces can cause fatigue over time. If a character is in danger or under stress or under pressure, and they wish to move, the GM may want them to make a Maneuver roll - a Pace such as Walk is so easy as to not need a roll at all, but of course a Walk only goes so far. Instead, a player might want to Sprint, which is three times their Base Movement Rate, and on that chart would merit a difficulty of Light. So let's say they make a Maneuver Roll, and it comes up with a final total of 138. Comparing that to the Light difficulty column gives us a result of 120 (%). The GM might rule that to mean the character goes 20% farther than even their regular/normal Sprint movement rate, or that might mean that the character arrives at their intended location and still has ~17% of their turn left. Any further actions done with that remaining turn/time would merit a Maneuver Roll with a -83 modifier (unless it's also such a quick action that the GM chooses not to ask for a roll), but it's still a little something to work with. ___ There's also something called a Static Maneuver, which is not nearly so fine-grained and is intended for things like "tracking, picking locks, disarming traps, reading runes, using items, perception, influencing other characters, and any other complex orunusual activity not involving significant movement". With Static Maneuvers, the player makes a d100 roll, modified by an appropriate stat, and the GM can apply a bonus or a penalty to the roll to modify the relative difficulty up and down. If the result is a 100 or more, the action succeeds. The GM might require that certain complex actions take more than one round to complete, or that deciding to split the action over multiple rounds can reduce the difficulty. ___ At this point, I'm going to digress a bit into Skills. You see, in baseline RoleMaster, there's a fairly short list of skills: * Four "Maneuvering In Armor" skills, one each for Soft Leather, Rigid Leather, Chain, and Plate. A character will usually just learn one of these, and not even if a character is a cloth-wearing spellcaster * Seven weapons skills - one-handed edged weapons, one-handed crushing weapons, two-handed weapons, bows, thrown weapons, pole-arms, and martial arts * Body Development - used to increase a character's total Concussion Hits; yes, you have to invest in this for your "HP" to increase after a level-up, otherwise it doesn't * Climbing * Swimming * Riding * Disarm Trap * Pick Locks * Stalk & Hide * Perception * Ambush * Linguistics - every different language is supposed to be a separate skill * Runes - used for learning spells from scrolls and books * Spell Lists - every different spell list is supposed to be a separate skill * Staves & Wands - used for casting spells "stored" in magical staves and wands * Directed Spells - used as the Offensive Bonus equivalent to a weapons skill when casting a Bolt-type spell * Adrenal Moves * Adrenal Defense - this and Adrenal Moves pertain to the ability to become supernaturally strong and supernaturally fast, and are generally exclusive for the Monk, since it lets them deal hefty damage with their fists (along with Martial Arts), and allows them to increase their DB over time (because they're not going to be wearing) ___ If one were to make a Fighter-type character, they might be interested in one armor skill, two weapons skills, and Body Development, at the very least. That might take up a little over half of a character's skill points during a level-up, and they'd have enough left over for Climbing and Swimming. What I'm trying to get at, and maybe I've taken the long way around to getting to my point, is that RoleMaster leaves out a lot of things that could be skills, and puts it all in the hands of the Static Maneuver mechanic to sort it out. That's by design. Even some of these other skills like Riding and Linguistics and Ambush might seem extraneous, were it not for trying to create niches for Rogue-type characters or putting stress on spellcasters to not have enough skills to be able to climb effectively as they pour everything in spell lists. Over time, supplements would add skills like Forgery, Surgery, Cartography, Herding, and Midwifery, and players would be tempted to invest into these skills, but since the number of skill points a character gets is based on their stats and can be relatively static, this just results in characters putting their character customization into basketweaving and not enough into relevant combat, dungeoneering and spell-casting skills! RoleMaster would then try to walk this back by introducing rules for "secondary skills" so that you can invest into basketweaving with a separate set of points that aren't competing with your sword skill, and later editions of the game would go so far as to develop elaborate rules for skill groups so that getting good at swords also brings up your skill with daggers so that there's more of a baseline level of competency across all skills, but ultimately, the point is that you shouldn't be adding all these skills in the first place! If anything, you can even already cut out Adrenal Moves and Adrenal Defense as things that you don't even mention to players if nobody's in the mood to play a D&D-type Monk, or you can cut out Linguistics entirely because nobody really wants to be dicking around with the practical effects of half the party being illiterate and/or speaking a different language when you're all narrating your adventures in English (or what-have-you) around a table anyway. This post turned out to be a little more of a polemic than I'd have liked, but as someone who's read quite a bit of RM, it's one of my bugaboos because understanding the need to keep the skill list compressed and trusting in Static Maneuvers is a critical part of being able to grasp the game and looking past the game's reputation as being an overly complicated mess. ___ Up Next: more on skills
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May 9, 2020 15:13
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Any idea why there's such a big emphasis on the soulbond not being able to have children? It reads to me like going WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE THESE ARE FANTASY SPACE MARINES but gently caress if I know enough about warhammer to actually make that call; it just seems a little weird.
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May 9, 2020 15:13
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Leraika posted:Any idea why there's such a big emphasis on the soulbond not being able to have children? Honestly? Probably just to explain why the Fyreslayers don't all join up en masse.
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May 9, 2020 15:14
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I picked up Soulbound and skipped ahead to the rules (the little overview they give at the start of the book really doesn't explain much about the system), and I'm pretty impressed so far. It'll be interesting when you get to magic and miracles, Mors, since the distinction in how they work is one of the areas that I'm least sold on, balance-wise.
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May 9, 2020 15:32
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Night10194 posted:The dwarfs are right to stand against working for exposure, just look at how it worked out for the Paths of the Damned team. Once you finish Karak Asgal, maybe you should have some weird Chaos time-thing happen and drop Karl and the others into the Soulbound thing. Do a conversion. Let Karl actually meet Sigmar - assuming that's a possible thing here. Karl: So, uh, yeah, when I was a kid this Crusade set me up as the second... you. Sigmar: Ah, don't stress about it. Even today fanboys are a pain in my rear end.
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May 9, 2020 15:44
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Everyone posted:Once you finish Karak Asgal, maybe you should have some weird Chaos time-thing happen and drop Karl and the others into the Soulbound thing. Wait, wouldn't that technically turn Gilbert into a deranged ghoul? Leraika posted:Any idea why there's such a big emphasis on the soulbond not being able to have children? I assume its to showcase its a heroic choice with tragic consequences and the Soulbound are forever bound to be heroes and never be able to settle down and establish a family and go back to a sense of normalcy once they're done. By popular demand posted:That Age of Sigmar setting seems like something a lot of people would like, it was still incredibly stupid to end WHFRP instead of building it separately. Yeah, the whole decision to off the Old World like that is probably the biggest smear on Kirby era GW. Which already had a lot incredibly questionable choices done throughout the years. I can understand why it happened because WHFB was a very stagnant game where people didn't buy as many models because armies tended to be large even at a low points level so obviously they wanted something that could sell better. From what I remember, Fantasy never ever sold as much as 40k did so suits seeing that obviously realized they needed to do something. And then just botched it hard. It actually sold pretty well even early on and got a lot more people into the hobby than Fantasy did but even then it's they hosed up hard and left a lot of people embittered. Although I think WHFRPG had been dormant for a long time before that whole End Times and switch happened since 2nd Ed is end of Storm of Chaos and that campaign happened mid to late 2000's as I remember it. It was very close to the old 13th Black Crusade event as I remember it.
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May 9, 2020 15:58
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I remember reading about the whole "End Times" horseshit. I couldn't believe the sheer contempt for everyone involved in it.
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May 9, 2020 16:02
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They could have just retired WHFB gracefully. "It's been a good, thirty year run, but we won't be producing new content for the wargame, and here's our alternate take on the setting." would have done an awful lot better. I'm not interested in stuff like AoS, but these days it's more 'the reason I like Fantasy is the intersection of the mundane/ordinary and the fantastical and that just isn't going to be a thing here' rather than 'what the hell is this'. Cooked Auto posted:Wait, wouldn't that technically turn Gilbert into a deranged ghoul? Not to mention they're in the timeline where the Storm happened how it happened in the campaign; it's like 2537 when the timeskip ends and was 2532 when they started. Different world and the Storm's been done for 15 years by now. But yeah, the RPG was dormant a long time. And even 4e basically moves the timeline backwards and just cuts the Storm out entirely.
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May 9, 2020 16:04
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Night10194 posted:They could have just retired WHFB gracefully. "It's been a good, thirty year run, but we won't be producing new content for the wargame, and here's our alternate take on the setting." would have done an awful lot better. It would've yes but this is also the time at GW where the boss talked about the models as "Jewel-like objects of wonder" and just wanted to push products so doing it gracefully was probably never on the table. Josef bugman posted:I remember reading about the whole "End Times" horseshit. I couldn't believe the sheer contempt for everyone involved in it. Based on an interview with one of the writers involved with End Times and AoS early that got posted on Goonhammer a while ago that was upper management meddling. https://www.goonhammer.com/the-goonhammer-interview-with-james-hewitt-part-1-age-of-sigmar-and-40k/ WHFB 2nd sorta sputtered and died from what I can tell, probably due to lacklustre sales and GW management at the time. Then the license went over to FFG who did the weird card based 3rd edition for some reason. Which is weird considering Dark Heresy was using the same 2nd ed system, to its detriment franky. But we can blame that on them wanting to use something they assumed players would be familiar with and then just kept the corpse alive after Black Industries got shuttered and it got shoveled over to FFG. Cooked Auto fucked around with this message at 16:18 on May 9, 2020 |
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May 9, 2020 16:16
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Everyone posted:Once you finish Karak Asgal, maybe you should have some weird Chaos time-thing happen and drop Karl and the others into the Soulbound thing. Do a conversion. Let Karl actually meet Sigmar - assuming that's a possible thing here. You can absolutely meet Sigmar. He’s a decent guy who’s doing his best, and also needs to never be allowed to name things.
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May 9, 2020 16:18
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2e was actually pretty successful (for a non-D&D RPG) but was mostly a victim of GW in general getting out of the direct publishing of RPGs and shuttering Black Industries. RPGs are generally just not a huge seller and they wanted to mostly focus on the wargame. DH got published via a third party (FFG) because it was basically done (and had been in pre-order) when BI was closed down, and was successful enough to spawn more books and more work, primarily on its setting writing and excellent production values rather than its rules. Art and writing will almost always sell more books than good mechanics. The End Times always felt like a bunch of people being given a mandate from above that they could settle every fluff grudge they had and go nuts. There always felt like a lot of spite in the whole thing. Like I said, the new management recognizing it was a bad idea is enough for me. Also, AoS doesn't seem like it has the unfortunate legacies 40k does. It just seems kind of inoffensively good natured, which is for the better. I know GW's current management is not into the 'man fascism rocks' stuff on purpose like some of the older people were, but it's a hard thing to pull out of 40k entirely just on the setting's aesthetics and history even if they want to (and I do believe they want to, now).
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May 9, 2020 16:22
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It's been fascinating watching AoS take off around here in the last couple of years after however long of nobody wanting to touch it. People have 40K armies because there's nearly always somebody to play it, but they're genuinely excited to play Age of Sigmar.
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May 9, 2020 16:42
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AoS is strictly heroic fantasy from start to finish. Which is good because it's not something you see covered in tabletop wargames that often. Otherwise they tend to stick to high fantasy like WHFB or something grimmer like Warmachine. Current GW management is also keen on bringing back a lot of black humor for 40k considering the Regimental Standard, which is wholly an ad fluff piece but it also kinda funny in its absurdity a lot of the time.
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May 9, 2020 16:47
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Soulbound Atheist Fish Elves The Idoneth Deepkin are the broken, flawed result of Teclis' first attempt to recreate the High Elves. He rescued Aelf souls from Slaanesh's throat and built bodies for them, but they were broken by the experience, their souls unable to stand Teclis' light. They fled from their creator, cursing him for the pain he caused them, and settled in the darkest place they could find: the ocean floor. They used their magic to tap into the Ethersea and survive down there, but ran into one problem: Teclis had hosed up harder than they knew. Their souls were broken and twisted, with only one Idoneth Aelf per hundred born with a strong enough soul to actually survive birth and childhood. To sustain themselves, they became raiders, capturing the souls of other mortals to bolster their own. They formed a caste system based on soul strength, with full-souled Idoneth ranking over weaker ones. The Idoneth are recluses that fear the pain of strong sensations and avoid surface culture as much as they can, spending most of their lives underwater. They will even use magic to wipe memories of their existence from mortal minds in some cases, because their whole society is built on stealing souls from coastal communities. They hate and fear Teclis, and other gods don't fare much better in their eyes. You might ask why the Idoneth ever become Soulbound, then. It's simple: all Idoneth feel a deep ache in their soul, from the lowest Namarti caste to even the nominally full-souled castes like the Akhelian and Isharann. The pain Slaanesh left in them has never gone away, and they avoid sensation of any kind because pain always precedes it - Slaanesh's "gift" to them, a gift they desperately fear will corrupt their souls or have them stolen again by the Dark Gods. A Soulbound Idoneth doesn't ever have to fear that. The soul linkage of the binding and its ties to the Mortal Realms themselves means that a Soulbound Idoneth is complete in a way no other Idoneth Aelf is. The pain that haunts other Idoneth fades, a shadow and memory and nothing more. The gods of Order don't require worship from the Soulbound - they just want them to do the job. That price is often enough, in exchange for the power and solace that the binding grants. Further, many Soulbound Idoneth are able to bargain for the right to collect the souls of any enemies they kill or even allies that fall in battle near them. However, they often do also posit in the bargain that they will never be required to directly serve Teclis the Illuminator. The paranoid and mistrustful Idoneth often look at these Soulbound with confusion and pity - the idea of binding themselves to non-Aelves or leaving isolation is a mark of madness, for many Idoneth. Still, some Idoneth leaders recognize that the world has changed, and that to survive, they will need ambassadors to the surface peoples. Thus, they tend to give official blessing to those Idoneth that want to become Soulbound, even if they think those Aelves are insane in private.  The Akhelian Emissary is one of the Akhelian warrior caste of the Idoneth. Their souls are examined for war talent at a young age to assign their caste, and they are then raised from childhood in the asydrazor, schools focused on military skills, leadership and weapons training. While most Akhelian prefer to remain in the depths, leading their people politically, many Akhelians have reconsidered the use of diplomacy in the wake of the necroquake and the reawakening of Slaanesh. The Emissaries are their chosen diplomats, granted use of valuable ethersea cloaks to ensure their giant eel steeds can function on land. Depending on the enclave, an Emissary might be chosen to get rid of a political nuisance or to be a paragon of the Idoneth virtues abroad, but in all cases, they are master warriors and trained diplomats, brave enough to go into battle on top of powerful sea monsters bound by magic and blinding helms. The Emissaries are the most frequent Idoneth Soulbound, though that doesn't mean there's a lot of them. They usually see little chance of their soul being returned home to their enclave in death, so having it explode and thus be unable to be captured by Slaanesh is a good deal in exchange for service. Emissaries begin with Body 4, Mind 2, Soul 1, and must be Idoneth Aelf. Their Core Skill is Beast Handling, and their Core Talent is Loyal Companion (Fangmora), which gives them a giant death eel mount. They also get four of Combat Ready, Diplomat, Fearless, Intimidating Manner, Mounted Combatant (you get a bonus to Melee while mounted), Night Vision and Opportunist. They start with an Akhelian chestplate (medium armor), a helsabre (counts as a Sword) and shield or a voltspear (counts as a Pike), an ethersea cloak, a necklace with a shard of seashell from their enclave, and 40D of Aqua Ghyranis.  The Isharann Soulscryer wields the power of the Ethersea, using it to track souls and see by their light. They serve as the navigators for Idoneth enclaves, finding passage through the waters and watching for the light of souls that marks a good raiding target. Many go into battle alongside the Idoneth soldiers, identifying the strongest souls to seize, while others specialize in reading the nature of a soul to identify Idoneth castes and mortal thoughts, or in tearing the soul out of the body in combat. Few Soulscryers leave their enclaves except for battle, but some enclaves, particularly the more diplomatic ones like Ionrach Enclave, see benefit in maintaining alliances. A Soulscryer is often a useful ambassador or aide to one, given their ability to divine souls and maintain a connection to their home. As Soulbound, their ability to track individual souls no matter where they go is extremely valuable, and while few Soulscryers become Soulbound, the ones that do can essentially name their price. Soulscryers begin with Body 1, Mind 2, Soul 4, and must be Idoneth Aelf. Their Core Skill is Devotion, and their Core Talent is Blessed (The Ethersea), plus 4 of Eidetic Memory, Local Companion (Scryfish) (read: a murderous piranha that lives in your magical water cloak), Night Vision, Orientation (you always know which way is coreward, which is edgeward, because the Realms are a wheel, and you can't become lost except by divine intervention or powerful magic), Witch-Sight, or any Miracles of the Ethersea. They also begin with a mantle and robes (light armor), finger claws, a dowerchime staff (which counts as a Quarterstaff), an ethersea cloak, a cylar compass (that functions as their "holy" symbol), a waterskin full of seawater and 230D of Aqua Ghyranis.  The Isharann Tidecaster is the reason the Idoneth enclaves can survive. Tidecasters wield the magic that allows air and sea to mix into the medium known as the Ethersea, which allows the sea beasts of the Idoneth to function on land and air-breathers to function beneath the waves. Their spells enable the wars and travel that the Idoneth do, moving them massive distances across the ocean or through rivers. Most Tidecasters specialise in some aspect of the ocean's nature, but all of them draw on the bitterness and spite that the Idoneth bear for the world that has so harmed them. They can wield this feeling as a weapon, tearing into minds or wiping memories. Their power means that they are often the only ones sent when the Free Cities call for aid from the Idoneth - and that is often enough, given their cunning use of the sea itself as a weapon. Soulbound Tidecasters are greatly vlaued for their ability to speed travel and their unique magic, which no other people can wield. They are often able to earn quite a lot in exchange for joining the Soulbound, getting access to lore, lost artifacts or souls in payment to their enclave. Tidecasters begin with Body 1, Mind 4, Soul 2, and must be Idoneth Aelf. Their Core Skill is Channelling, and their Core Talents are Spellcasting (The Deeps) and Unbind. They also get three of Arcane Discipline (you can exempt some folks from your area-targeting spells), Iron Will, Loyal Companion (Spirit Guardian) (they get a ghost, often a ghost fish, that protects them), Scholar, Unbreakable Spells, or Witch-Sight. They start with azure scales (light armor), a pelagic staff (which counts as a Quarterstaff), an ethersea cloak, a carved Aelven rune for water, two watertight scroll cases, and 200D of Aqua Ghyranis. Next time: The Kharadron Overlords
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May 9, 2020 18:01
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By popular demand posted:That Age of Sigmar setting seems like something a lot of people would like, it was still incredibly stupid to end WHFRP instead of building it separately. That would be why it is coming back.
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May 9, 2020 18:26
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I know it's just hard to take GW getting wise to what people want. More unbelievable than most chaos plots.
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May 9, 2020 18:31
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