|
BinaryDoubts posted:The game uses a basic geometric sequence for levelling: you need 2k XP, then 4k, then 8k, then 16k, and so on. I never use XP, and I’m not even sure how it’s supposed to work here without a focus on treasure collection or direct combat. 
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2020 17:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 20:56 |
|
|
Not that I saw, I'll look again. e: Nope, he doesn't. ee: Well, he uses it as an option in Stars Without Number, you have to spend a certain amount of cash on riotous living that cannot mechanical benefit your character, meant to get a pirate game in the right mood. Make a good score and level up twice! sleepy.eyes fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Jul 11, 2020 |
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2020 17:25
|
|
|
Manual of the Planes: 3.5E Mount Celestia (Lawful Good) Planar Traits: Normal Gravity, Normal Time, Infinite Size, Mildly Law-Aligned, Mildly Good-Aligned Divinely Morphic, Normal Magic Many Celestian petitioners become lantern archons per the Monster Manual. Those that don't are immune to electricity and petrification, and have the Improved Initiative feat. Mount Celestia is the pinnacle of good and enlightenment, the final leg of every pilgrimage and the final obstacle between mortal souls and perfection. Mount Celestia is a curiously inward-looking plane, for a plane so dedicated to law, as no two souls ever share precisely the same quest for enlightenment and a higher state of being. Mount Celestia is a journey, not a destination, and even permanent residents of the plane hold themselves as guides and custodians of what is only a gateway to a higher realm. Mount Celestia is a layered mountain of unfathomable height and size, each terrace and range of slopes a separate layer, all lit by the impossible brilliance of the plane's peak. Roads and trails spiral up the mountain, dotted by cities and waystations, but the paths have a way of twisting back on themselves and the geography here is inconstant. The journey up the mountain is a spiritual one more than a physical one, and only by passing some trial of the soul and spirit or discovering some fundamental revelation can a visitor proceed upwards - though gods and the ruling archons of the mountains can provide shortcuts, if they believe a soul worthy and their cause just. Petitioners on Mount Celestia come in two forms. Many appear much as they did in life, the souls of heroes even if they were common folk and peasants when they were alive. The lower on the mountain you are, the more closely petitioners resemble their former selves, but as you proceed up the mountain petitioners typically show physical traces of their journey, such as eyes made of gemstones, hair of silver or gold, simpler and humbler clothing, even wings or blue skin or other more exotic manifestations of the soul's purification and becoming closer to the peak. Others directly become lantern archons, the lowest rank of the lawful angels of Mount Celestia, and typically appear as glowing balls of light. Other archons tend to regard lantern archons as children or perhaps puppies, brimming with enthusiasm and courage and a desire to help but lacking in sense and experience until they've proven worthy to become a higher form of archon. These transcended lantern archons often do retain some memory of their mortal life, but it tends to be confused and vague. There isn't really a unified society to speak of on Mount Celestia. The quest for enlightenment and higher meaning keeps many residents on the move, and while waystations, fortresses, and even entire cities dot the endless slopes of the mountain, most of their inhabitants move on sooner or later, typically handing off their responsibilities to another soul on their way up. The cosmic quest is what unifies the people of Mount Celestia, and truly permanent souls are almost always the faithful of gods who maintain divine realms on the plane or have taken a role comparable to bodhisattvas (I think that's the name?), guiding other souls on their trials. This grand quest does mean that peaceful cooperation between travelers is the norm, however, and none on Celestia would refuse to help another. In environment, what all layers of Mount Celestia feature is a slope of some kind and the eternal spiraling trails, The slope may be gentle or harsh, but even surfaces in Celestia are only found where sentient hands have worked them. Day and night pass normally on the plane, though daylight emanates from the peak of the mountain rather than a sun.  Lunia, the Silver Heaven, is a sandy beach rising out of a sea of holy water where celestial sea life of all kinds live - and rumor has it that the mountain descends just as deeply below, for petitioners from aquatic races. The great River Oceanus also merges with the Silver Sea in places, and Lunia sees most of Mount Celestia's trade with other planes. The locals in Lunia are very welcoming of strangers, and traders from across the plane can be found in bustling trading ports not entirely unlike those on the Material Plane. One famous meeting place is the Castle Malhevik, home to a fearsomely powerful chaotic evil archmage (or perhaps a lich) who is sincerely committed to learning about Mount Celestia's path to enlightenment even if he finds it all genuinely baffling. Malhevik's castle is a popular shelter for visitors of all alignments to the plane, though it is watched closely by the archons. Mercuria, the Golden Heaven, is a layer of steep slopes and rushing rivers. To reach here, most visitors need to have passed their first trial of some kind on the plane, and the going here tends to be much rougher than on Lunia. Mercuria is dotted with tombs, memorials, and mausoleums for fallen archons and legendary heroes, though their souls often linger here to test petitioners. The Platinum Dragon, Bahamut, god of all good dragons, likes to keep his palace here, though at his whim the entire palace can be born aloft in a magic whirlwind to any layer short of the seventh. The entire palace is built from fantastical treasures of all kinds - all Bahamut's hoard... and much of the floor are the bones of a million failed thieves, which Bahamut considers just as much his property. Bahamut is kind and wise, but any attempt to abuse his hospitality will meet with immediate and severe consequences. Venya, the Pearly Heaven, is cold and quiet, with gentle slopes and heavily worn stone. This is a layer of quiet contemplation, and ferocious (though never seriously dangerous) blizzards often brew up without warning, typically heralding some kind of trial as the visitor seeks shelter. Rumors abound of a crystal lake with no bottom that speaks prophecy if someone casts an object of true value into the depths, but no one's sure if this tale is true or merely metaphorical. Should a visitor suddenly find a break in the snowy slopes and find herself surrounded by lush green fields however, she need not be troubled. She's not in Elysium - that's two planes over - but the Green Fields, the divine realm of Yondalla, grandmother and goddess of the halflings (and if you're in a setting with multiple halfling gods, like the Forgotten Realms, the rest of the family is here, too). Visitors to the divine realm of the halflings can always count on good food, a soft bed, and some friendly advice from the halfling goddess and her servants, though if the visitor expects to stay for a while they'll likely be asked to help with chores. In its way, the Green Fields are another trial for petitioners: the realm of the halflings is so hospitable and comfortable that some petitioners decide to stay and become after-the-fact worshipers of Yondalla rather than leaving the comforts of the Green Fields and pressing on. Solania, the Crystal Heaven, is a rugged layer of harsh secondary peaks and glaciers where shelter, food, and water can be difficult to find. The austere conditions have lead to the creation of a number of monasteries (home to both Eastern kung fu monks and Western contemplative monks) where petitioners and archons ponder the great questions of the cosmos and hone their bodies and minds for the trials ahead. The most famous site in Solania, however, is the Soul Forge. This is the home of Moradin, father and god of the dwarves (and most of the dwarven pantheon, though at least Clangeddin Silverbeard keeps a separate home over in Arcadia), and the vast city of Erackinor lies above. Moradin's realm is home to one of the great armies of the Upper Planes, and his followers make much of the weapons and armor used by celestials across the Upper Planes. Moradin himself is typically far too busy to have time for visitors, but his servants are brusque and efficient in the classical dwarven way, and typically demand services or a quest of some kind from visitors in exchange for information or the fruits of the forges rather than material payment. Mertion, the Platinum Heaven, is warm and verdant in pleasant comparison to the previous two layers. The ground here tends to be almost flat, and vast armies of archons, martial petitioners, and other celestials drill endlessly here, though they are rarely called upon. Discipline and self-control tend to be the themes of Mertion, and many petitioners serve for a time in Mertion's army during their journey. Heironeous, Greyhawk's god of valor, keeps his fortress-palace on Mertion, and most paths up from Solania typically emerge in the shadow of the god's walls. Not all endeavors here are martial, however, the city of Empyrea is a sprawling city of holy water that flows through canals, pools, and fountains. Much of the holy water in Empyrea has additional healing properties, and there is no greater center for healing - of the body, mind, and soul - in the Great Wheel, or so they say. Rumor has it, in fact, that visitors desperate for healing can sneak into Empyrea directly from Lunia via a complex maze of aquifers that link the city directly to the Silver Sea so many layers below. Jovar, the Glittering Heaven, is the final layer of which anyone in the planes has any knowledge. The roads here are literally paved with gold, the dirt and pebbles are gemstones of incalculable value and even the leaves of trees are made of shining, living emerald. Despite the beauty of the layer, most petitioners on Jovar are quiet, somber sorts: this is the final hurdle before the peak, and memories have a way of slipping away from their owner and taking on a life of their own on this layer to present their own trials. There is only one path to the peak, and it lies through the great terraced city of Yetsira, an immense, terraced fortress-city home to archons beyond counting. Here are the great courts of the archons, where archons are judged and rewarded or chastised, and where lower forms of archons are remade into higher forms. The great arsenal of Yetsira is larger than a continent on the Material Plane, and many vaults made of pearl are sealed by gods with glyphs only their maker can open, or are inscribed with prophecies dictating when the vault will open and to whom the contents should be given. At the peak of Yetsira is the Bridge of al-Sihal, a pathway into the brilliant light of Chronias, the Illuminated Heaven and the peak of Mount Celestia. None who have crossed the bridge have ever been seen again, and there is no power or magic in all the planes that can reveal anything of Chronias or what happens to those who cross the bridge. The DM is strongly encouraged to keep Chronias a mystery, as explaining it is not the philosophical point here. Next time, Bytopia!
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2020 18:18
|
|
|
Ithle01 posted:This is also how I feel about a lot of Crawford's work outside of Godbound. It's mechanically well done, but his fluff is a little dull at times and the generic label definitely applies. On the other hand, he almost always makes sure the game works and that there's very little bullshit in them so kudos to Crawford for that. Kevin Crawford is the best designer for an unpleasant system.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2020 18:57
|
|
|
 Chapter 1: A Dangerous Galaxy (the Vilani Imperium) First, a brief introduction covering mostly what I talked about last time. We learn that SJG continued a lot of old Traveller traditions (including their magazine, the Travellers’ Aid Society), and that one of this book’s authors was Loren Wiseman, GDW’s cofounder. Neat! Anyway, the book proper. Chapter 1 opens with a brief short story covering a Terran ship captain and his Vilani copilot lifting off Nusku, and we’ll cover what that means in the course of the chapter. Essentially, chapter 1 covers the two major players in this era; competing space going empires called the Terran Confederation and the Vilani Imperium. The book presents them in that order, but I think it’s probably best to cover the second first. The Vilani Imperium is old. Old old old. Its earliest written records date back a solid 20,000 years; it reached the height of its expansion before the Pyramids went up and settled into a controlled stasis before the city of Rome was founded. That controlled stasis defines Vilani life to this day. The people who set up the imperium consciously designed it to be as stable as possible, something they did exceptionally well. While there’s room in the Imperium for ambitious people to challenge the status quo, they almost always find their efforts channeled into working within the system instead of changing it. In the Traveller universe, FTL travel works off jump drives that jump across one parsec at a time for most engines and two at a time for the most powerful ones (in this period), and each jump takes a week. No faster-than-light communication here, either: information can only travel by ship. The Imperium stretches about 220 parsecs in one direction and 160 crosswise. With how sparse stars can be in those areas and how limited their jump drives are, it can take years for a message to travel from one end of the Imperium to the other. Instead of trying to govern the Empire from a central location (which would be impossible), the Imperium instead farmed out administration to three major organizations that span the line between corporations and government bureaus called Shangarim (get ready for a lot of Sumerian names, since that’s the language the setting draws upon for Vilani). While in theory each shangarim specializes in a specific area of commerce and ordinary life, within their areas of influence they control just about everything. The big one near Earth is named Sharushid and in theory it mostly handles interstellar trade and travel, but its subsidiaries oversee the vast majority of Vilani life in its territory.  Get ready for a lot of pictures of spaceships. The book describes Vilani government with the term “Corporate Feudalism”. Positions tend to be hereditary and dominated by local dynasties, but instead of basing their influence of military prowess or religious standing, these dynasties pride themselves on their administrative skills. Bureaucrats are expected to balance their pursuit of power with skill in administration, a balance a wide variety of social factors usually keep in check; ambitious ones (of which there are many) fight over positions and influence within the bureaucratic structure by maximizing productivity or playing political game instead of expanding the Empire or developing new markets. In general, these cultural pressures assured Vilani society remained locked indefinitely in a cycle of internal competition and backstabbing without threatening its stability. But the Imperium’s founders recognized that the monolithic culture they wanted to establish would be vulnerable to disruption or social drift, so they deliberately designed it with some flexibility built in. As such, Vilani society has three rough castes; High Vilani, Low Vilani, and Khagarii. High Vilani are high nobility, full stop. They live sumptuously and engage in as much backstabbing as administrating. They are hardly incompetent, mind; they really do do their jobs more often than not. But they suffer from the same issues of corruption, harmful competition, and unfit heirs that drag down all aristocracies, plus a habit of smacking down anyone so competent they threaten those above them. This is by design; that mixture of baseline competency and discouraged excellence keeps the system stable. The bulk of the population are Low Vilani, including the wide variety of aliens and minor human races (the galaxy is chock-full of other human species, by the by) who have fully assimilated the Lonnie culture. They rarely leave the world of their birth, fill both middle manager and blue-collar positions, and produce a lot of very boring art. They’re just…people. Lamon hault-Devereaux, "Vilaniani Sculpture: A History" posted:One peculiar tradition among Vilani artists concerns the lost wax-process. While used extensively in industry and jewelry-making, the process is never applied to fine-art sculptures. As with the vast majority of Vilani customs, there is no rhyme or reason behind them, beyond the mere fact that “it is tradition.” Khagarii, or Dissidents, belong to social groups or subcultures that reject elements of mainstream Vilani society. While a few are descended from Vilani offshoots (such as settlers of dubiously legal colonization efforts, common near Earth), most are from minor human races or nonhuman species who refused to or couldn’t assimilate into the Vilani mainstream (though they almost always share the basic set of Vilani values with their neighbors). They live in ghettos or on out-of-the-way planets as second-class citizens; they only work in low-prestige jobs, usually can’t live near assimilated Vilani, can’t work on or with spaceships in any capacity (which effectively restricts them to their home planets without forbidding interstellar travel), and are systematically discriminated against whenever they try to work with the bureaus. Still, Dissidents make up maybe 10% of the Imperium’s population, especially near its rims – where Earth is located. The book defines Vilani culture by three core virtues: tradition, pragmatism, and community. Between omnipresent social pressure and thousands of years of case studies, Vilani usually make decisions based on applying precedents to situations instead of coming up with new solutions. Innovation attracts negative attention and excessive innovation ends up treated as criminal behavior. Vilani technology, literature, music, and engineering have not significantly changed in over 2000 years; even the arts tend to ape earlier styles. However, for all their adherence to tradition, the Vilani have always been deeply pragmatic. Very few of those ancient precedents and tools and social structures aren’t extremely functional and efficient; their prominence comes from centuries of refinement and stress-testing instead of some nebulous sense of tradition. People use them because they work, and innovators are regarded as dangerous as much because they engage in risky and inefficient behavior as because they go against precedent. But all of their behavior, all of their culture, boils down to an extremely powerful community focus. Vilani define themselves by their families, homes, and professions far more than by their own achievements. While you can do your own thing and make your own way to some extent (the Imperium is riddled with secret societies and informal subcultures), society expects you to put the community around you above your personal needs at all points. Vilani work very long hours (in part because work forms the bulk of their social activity), use a highly refined set of social cues to communicate exactly what they mean to others, and make important decisions by building consensus with their peers. Even the Emperor is just the chairman of a ruling council on the Vilani home world, Vland. It takes a lot to knock Vilani society out of balance if everyone’s on the same page like that.  So far, so good. But for me, the section raises two major questions. First off, as part of the whole “corporate feudalism” thing, apparently Vilani middle managers are expected to turn a profit as well as manage their purview responsibly. They really do run their territory like businesses. Issue is, where does that profit come from? You can only improve a static economy so much before you need to look for new markets or revenue sources, and the Imperium hasn’t opened any in at least 1000 years. Are they supposed to just steal their coworkers’ business? Innovate while pretending to follow precedent? The book provides no answers, and I don’t think this was something they intended readers to examine. However, the second issue is definitely intentional. You may have realized the system only functions as long as there isn’t an outside force poses new threats old methods can’t handle. The Imperium’s founders were well aware of this, and the reason the Empire covers all of that territory is because they systematically sought out and conquered every possible threat they could find. But as farsighted as they were, they failed to anticipate what might happen if a spacefaring civilization arose outside the Imperium’s borders and built up enough momentum to challenge it. And that’s just what happened with the Terran Confederation, the subject of the next post. Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Jul 11, 2020 |
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2020 20:33
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:Bunch of little wiseguys riding foxes, threatening to burn down your garden? Unless they''re Krynn Gnomes, in which case they're riding a (malfunctioning) clockwork fox whose flamethrower exhaust is actually burning down your garden.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2020 22:21
|
|
|
hyphz posted:The problems get very tricky very fast. First of all, there’s very little about regular activities here. Suppose for example that I’m a Vance who wants to find out who smacked my friend Paloma in the head with a flat-iron and required her to have it magically replaced with a book. So I blow out my mind to cast Jauro’s Fictive Form and pick Sherlock Holmes. Which of these abilities covers being a really good detective? Um, maybe “+2 dice on a significant action once?” And does that mean once in the entire casting of Fictive Form or does it mean that’s one effect but I can create as many of those as I want? A level 6 ability is “+1 die on a significant action, ongoing” although how’s it ongoing if it’s just one action? “Divine the answer to one question” is a mere level 5 effect, so it should be easy enough, except that Sherlock Holmes didn’t divine anything, and I might actually need mundane evidence. So is it equivalent, or not? As someone with the misfortune to be playing Invisible Sun (we actually ditched the rules for nWoD but kept the setting) I thought I'd answer that. And trust me, this comes from the file that should be marked "things that are in the system but aren't explained". Detective work is in general relatively insignificant, alas. It's not a matter of life or death and can be bypassed or superceded by magic. +1 die is the signifier of magic in specific and in Invisible Sun Magic Is Needed To Beat Magic; if you're dealing with purely magical stuff it's the lower of your two dice that counts and if you only have one dice too bad. So if you want a super-normal Sherlock Holmes it's +2 to to a relatively insignificant action, ongoing. If you want one able to deal with mages it's got to be +1 dice. And it needs to be ongoing rather than one-shot for obvious reasons. And then I'm playing a Maker. I'm not sure whether it's a bug or a feature that producing unreliable items and making tools are both encouraged. quote:It’s probably best to just do an example. Let’s suppose that we would like to make a magic taser that deals 2 damage when we use it. Dealing 2 damage is a level 2 effect. We would like to make the object burn out only if a 0-1 is rolled on a d10 when it used, so that is a +2 level modifier, so we are making a level 4 item. We are going to make it out of wood, and conveniently enough we picked up some Woodworking skill while we were in shadow, so we have +2 on actions related to Woodworking. We've started with one of those traps. Making an item that doesn't ever burn out when used sounds like a really good idea - but Monte Cook can't do maths. Unless we're using no depletion at all (which can change the uses) it is pretty much never going to be better to increase the level of the item so it burns out less than on a 0-4 on a d10. quote:First of all, we need to buy a material of the level of the item. There are three materials listed in the book for level 4: emerald, diamond, and ice. None of these are wood, so it would seem our ability isn’t going to help with this. So we decide to make them item slightly better, level 5 - burning out on 0 only - so that we can make it out of hastric wood, a level 5 ingredient, which costs 100 crystal orbs or about $1000 by the conversion suggested in The Key. This will also mean that 5 of our Sorcery points are locked out during the making process. On the other hand if we went for a level 2 item we'd start with a level 2 material like some elderflower stems or a rat tail, costing 50 glass orbs or about $5 by the conversion suggested in The Key. It will also lock just 2 of our sorcery points out during the making process. Our biggest expense is the power source that costs 4 crystal orbs or $40. So the ingredients all-in cost us less than $50 - for an item for which the only difference from the zapper in the example is that it depletes on a 0-4 after rolling rather than on a 0. But it costs a fraction of the amount to make. Monte Cook still hasn't learned not to include trap options. quote:Now, we have to engage in a series of two-day steps in which we attempt a series of challenges with levels from 1 up to the level of the object that we want to make. First is level 1. It’s woodworking, so we can add +2. We could also spend an Intellect bene to help us - but only once, since we don’t have the ability that lets us spend more. And now we need to talk about math, compound odds, and Invisible Sun. But first we're going to talk about timings. You spend two days for each level of the item plus a day for each failed roll - but you can speed it up at the cost of +1 difficulty to all rolls by shortening the time by a day. Which means that if we drop our base time from four days to one day to make our cheap zapper to a day the rolls are as difficult as they are for the almost reliable version. But there are perverse incentives here. A mishap when creating an item will give you Despair - the hardest form of XP to find in Invisible Sun. (If you make a mistake on any of the rolls just ditch the whole thing - it's only $50, not worth trying to stabilise for a worse version at the cost of another day). The other thing is just how bad the compound math is. To create an item of a certain level requires passing rolls up to and including the level of the item+1 - but there is no automatic failure rule. If you want a 6 or higher on a d10 roll (0s counting as 0) and have a +6 you automatically succeed. But if you have three rolls to make, one needing a 1 or better, one on a 2 or better, and one on a 3 or better you're somewhere around a 50% chance of having a failure. With those sorts of odds maxing out your bonus to your roll is critical. Any character should be able to reach +4 (+3 from skill and a further +1 by spending a point). An extra +1 from arranging your workspace and adding magical help (L1 item for +1 to a significant action once - depletes) is more or less free. Getting higher is challenging - +2 is relatively easy but for higher levels you need to cheese and they matter a lot more when they run out. But this leads to the other problem than that the economy is utterly broken with a maker in play. The pitch is that Makers make permanent things. The reality is that a lot of Maker items average two uses, but are ready precisely when you need them. The pitch is that you should be preparing permanent equipment to turn you into Tony Stark. The reality is you prepare Bat Shark-Repellant. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing - just not at all the pitch.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 01:06
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:stuff about Mount Celestia I actually really like this. While it's not the sort of thing that D&D is great at exploring, I think this is a very well conceived idea that would work better if D&D Good wasn't... D&D Good, where it feels less like a spiritual thing and more like a sports team. e: also Castle Malhevik is just such a fantastic concept of this evil entity trying to understand an enlightenment that is based on a completely alien mindset to him OvermanXAN fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Jul 12, 2020 |
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 02:09
|
|
|
Falconier111 posted:So far, so good. But for me, the section raises two major questions. First off, as part of the whole “corporate feudalism” thing, apparently Vilani middle managers are expected to turn a profit as well as manage their purview responsibly. They really do run their territory like businesses. Issue is, where does that profit come from? You can only improve a static economy so much before you need to look for new markets or revenue sources, and the Imperium hasn’t opened any in at least 1000 years. Are they supposed to just steal their coworkers’ business? Innovate while pretending to follow precedent? The book provides no answers, and I don’t think this was something they intended readers to examine. There is a spectre haunting Vilani territory...
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 02:31
|
|
|
So we're told the Vilani Empire is "static" but then goes out of it's way to say there's no way it would be static without revolution. And as soon as it encounters an out of context problem, it's going to collapse immediately....unless that's the point? Our hero's are going to be leading it, or trying (and failing) to hold it together?
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 09:52
|
|
|
OvermanXAN posted:I actually really like this. While it's not the sort of thing that D&D is great at exploring, I think this is a very well conceived idea that would work better if D&D Good wasn't... D&D Good, where it feels less like a spiritual thing and more like a sports team. From my skim through the book, Mount Celestia is the only Outer Plane that feels like it has something to say about spirituality. All the other Upper Planes are different flavors of heaven to suit your needs, Mechanus and Limbo are weird, and all the Lower Planes feel to me like adventure locales with hostile environments and locals. Mount Celestia is different, and stands out to me as unique in that regard. There's a lot of sidebars I haven't been covering, but one of them notes that of all the Upper Planes, Mount Celestia is the least likely to get involved in any sort of planar conflict or politics. Individual archons and petitioners might, but by default the plane and its inhabitants are quite content to keep to themselves and their inward quests for enlightenment and transcendence. If Mount Celestia at large is getting involved, you're either in a truly apocalyptic planar scenario or someone's trying to invade the plane.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 13:15
|
|
|
The only thing that AD&D players hate more than kender is The Deck of Encounters Set Two Part 4: The Deck of More Thief Kits 21: Picking Fences The PCs are pickpocketed in a busy bazaar, but when they pursue and catch the “clumsy” thief, he’s already passed a valuable item to an accomplice. They can use intimidation to get the partner’s name, but once they track that person (a rug merchant) down, they’ve already sold the stolen item to a fence. When they track down the fence, he’s not easily intimidated because he has “plenty of bodyguards,” but will offer to sell the item back to the PCs at close to twice its original value. I doubt the players are going to let this go. It would require a lot of prep work for me to figure out the bodyguards’ stats, the layout of the store and possibly the fence’s home when the PCs decide to raid it, etc. So I dunno. Maybe pass. KIT CORNER: Fence (PHBR 2: The Complete Thief’s Handbook) Fences sell stolen goods. It’s a weird choice for a thief kit because there’s no particular reason they need to have any D&D thief skills, though the book makes a valiant effort to justify it by suggesting that they may get very good at opening and disarming chests that other thieves will bring to them, rather than risk opening them themselves. A fence needs to take Appraising and Gather Intelligence as NWPs. They get a +3 bonus to reaction rolls from NPC thieves who recognize their profession. And under an optional rule, they get +5% Open Locks, Find/Remove Traps, and Read Languages, and -5% Move Silently, Climb Walls, and Hide in Shadows. On the downside, the fence is relatively prominent in the underworld, and may be harassed by authorities, especially if they’re not a major force. Also, they’re kind of bound to their home city and business and can’t necessarily leave for long. “The DM may wish to keep PCs from being active Fences because of this; the Fence's life is much more business than adventure.” Maybe we should take a step back and wonder whether this is a useful kit to present to players at all? 22: Spy’s Disguise The PCs have recently done something laudable and are invited to a party in the governor’s castle (the governor has a castle?). They might notice one of the guards disappear upstairs regularly. He’s a spy who’s trying various keys on the lock in the governor’s study. Eventually he’ll give up and pick it, then “rifle through the governor’s military secrets” for maps and battle strategies. If attacked, he’s got a poison blade. Thwart the spy and be rewarded with honors and “permanent luxurious living quarters.” Now that’s a classy reward for little work! Not sure I understand the political role of the “governor” here, but whatever. Replace it with a “warlord” or “baron” or “daimyo.” Also, finding that spy seems... a little bit too easy? But it opens up some plot options for getting involved in higher-level politicking and stuff, which is cool. Keep. KIT CORNER: Spy (PHBR 2: The Complete Thief’s Handbook) A spy steals secrets. And possibly sometimes hearts. They need an Intelligence of 11, and must take the NWPs Disguise, Observation, and Information Gathering. In return, they get to write “Spy” on their character sheet. No bonuses. No penalties. Nothing. Unlike the Burglar, they don’t even have any adjustments to their thief skills under the optional rules. Don’t ask me, okay? I don’t write this stuff, I just ramble on about it. 23: Vengeance and Lace In a tavern, the PCs witness a cutscene where a “flamboyantly dressed woman” is “being hassled by a pair of half-orcs,” then iajutsu-s out a pair of short swords and stone cold kills them both dead. Then she cleans her weapons, tosses some coins on the bar, comes over, introduces herself as Lace, and offers her services to the party (for pay, obviously). She’s a level 4 swashbuckler-kit thief, which could be a great addition to a low-level party. Her friendship-unlockable backstory is that she was born to a wealthy family but was denied any inheritance due to the “laws of primogeniture,” meaning her brother got everything and she intends to go challenge him to a mortal duel some day to reclaim it. There’s some usual D&D racist undertones in that introduction - like, it’s okay that she killed those assholes, they’re just half-orcs. I might rethink that part, but otherwise keep. KIT CORNER: Swashbuckler (PHBR 2: The Complete Thief’s Handbook) “He is a sophisticated city-dweller, the epitome of charm and grace.” Which is why you need 13 Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, AND Charisma to take this kit. Yeesh! You need to take Etiquette and Tumbling as NWPs. You get an extra weapon proficiency in stiletto, main-gauche, rapier, or sabre, though you need to use half your proficiency slots on those weapons as you gain levels until you’re proficient with all four. This is very odd, especially because you get to use the Fighter THAC0 table for your initial weapon of choice! So if I choose sabre, I’m sure as heck not gonna use a main-gauche if I can help it! Swashbucklers also get a special “disarm” technique that others don’t, which gives you -4 to hit and a +1 initiative penalty, but if you hit, you send your opponent’s one-handed weapon (or wand, etc.) flying 2d6 feet in a random direction. I imagine that just how powerful this is depends on how much the DM wants to push back against it, but it seems pretty good. You also get a +2 reaction adjustment with “members of the opposite sex,” because I guess we’re in the realm of fantasy where everybeing is straight. NO EXCEPTIONS. The nominal disadvantage is that “trouble seeks out the Swashbuckler” - like someone finding them to challenge them to a duel at an inopportune time, or the PC getting drawn into a winsome sexual interest’s troubles. It says the DM should throw more ”good-natured bad luck” at this character. Yeah, seems like a real downside - I was playing AD&D because I wanted to lie low and not have adventures.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 17:01
|
|
|
The Swashbuckler's disadvantage is hilarious because, as you say. Who isn't here to have wild poo poo happen to them? But that gets at one of the things about 'disadvantage' systems that are nebulous 'adventures happen' or 'you get spotlight time'. Who the heck doesn't want those?
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 17:08
|
|
|
You could enjoy playing a Bilbo Baggins type reluctant hero for a bit before the campaign gets really going. But that should probably be resolved within about three sessions or so.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 17:09
|
|
|
By popular demand posted:You could enjoy playing a Bilbo Baggins type reluctant hero for a bit before the campaign gets really going. Also, the character not wanting trouble and plot is not the same as the player. Bilbo's player wants the plot to happen so he can have fun complaining about it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 17:14
|
|
|
Huh, I had that version of MotP and didn't remember it interpreted Mount Celestia like that. That's really cool, though desperately belongs in a good cosmology. I really dug Planescape as a concept as a youth, but like so many D&D things, I think the kitchen sink nature of the overall setting does it no favors and would mean I'd want to heavily reinterpret it in order to actually have it make much sense. Neither the petitioner aspect nor the "shaped by philosophy" aspect works particularly well with the world as it exists, nor do they work well with each other, and both make it unclear why much of anyone in the know would be "evil." The desire to have the lower planes be recognizably hellish just means almost everyone who lives or afterlives there is miserable, making it so that pretty much everyone who's evil and informed is just being tremendously stupid. Which, there are certainly people who are willing to embrace evil to the ruin of the world, but generally they are themselves benefiting from it. But you can just pop in and check on what afterlife is waiting for you, and there's magic that can verify, and so forth. Ditto the Planescape philosophies. You could certainly do a sort of interesting real-world parody with damaging ideologies and wilful ignorance and stuff, but a) the game doesn't seem interested in that and b) I personally think in this case making it more obvious would make it dumb parody rather than interesting parody, at least in terms of somewhere to play an actual game. Not to mention that the pretty clear motivation for the lower planes being hells is Christianity, but like so many things that keep that Christian trapping but remove God, it just doesn't make much sense. If the universe itself punishes evil, that just creates lots of weird questions. Then you combine it with things like "always evil" Orcs and it gets really messed up. It'd be so much more interesting if the divine realms of deities were consistent with the things that drew people to worship those gods, and the non-divine parts of the Outer Planes were actually responsive to the philosophies of the inhabitants, creating a lot of monkey paw situations. But of course that wouldn't mix well with the desire to have your adventuring party go on a dungeon delve into actual Hell, or whatever. (Though of course you could do an interesting interpretation/deconstruction of hell and delve in that, but that's not very "True D&D" or whatever.)
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 17:32
|
|
|
Ultiville posted:Not to mention that the pretty clear motivation for the lower planes being hells is Christianity, but like so many things that keep that Christian trapping but remove God, it just doesn't make much sense. If the universe itself punishes evil, that just creates lots of weird questions. Then you combine it with things like "always evil" Orcs and it gets really messed up. As we'll see when we get to the Lower Planes, most of them in the 3.5E Manual have a promise that if you're smart and skilled and strong, you'll work your way up the ranks and become a serious demon prince or archdevil yourself. Of course, 99.99% of petitioners on the Lower Planes are cannon fodder or worse for the demons, but there's that promise that you could be the one to end up the king.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 17:41
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:As we'll see when we get to the Lower Planes, most of them in the 3.5E Manual have a promise that if you're smart and skilled and strong, you'll work your way up the ranks and become a serious demon prince or archdevil yourself. Of course, 99.99% of petitioners on the Lower Planes are cannon fodder or worse for the demons, but there's that promise that you could be the one to end up the king. Sure, and sadly all of us living in 2020 America basically understand that way too many people will bite on "someday the boot on the face could be yours (but it won't)." But I was more talking about the actual physical environments of those places, which are just nasty and miserable for no apparent reason. It'd be different if they were polluted and ruined by selfish and unwise stewardship, but I don't remember that being how the book portrays it. But hey, maybe I've just forgotten or misread and the Lower Planes will be better about that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 17:48
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:The Swashbuckler's disadvantage is hilarious because, as you say. Who isn't here to have wild poo poo happen to them? But that gets at one of the things about 'disadvantage' systems that are nebulous 'adventures happen' or 'you get spotlight time'. Who the heck doesn't want those? Presumably these wild things happen while the SB is trying to do other poo poo. Like he (or she) is supposed to be sweet-talking the plans for the dark priests' lair out of the Builders' Guild when suddenly... like that. Otherwise, gently caress yeah, this is totally an advantage, because gently caress, yes, wild, wacky poo poo is why you play a swashbuckler in the first place.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 18:33
|
|
|
Ultiville posted:Sure, and sadly all of us living in 2020 America basically understand that way too many people will bite on "someday the boot on the face could be yours (but it won't)." But I was more talking about the actual physical environments of those places, which are just nasty and miserable for no apparent reason. It'd be different if they were polluted and ruined by selfish and unwise stewardship, but I don't remember that being how the book portrays it. I mean, it comes back to Milton's Paradise Lost...."Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven"? A place like Bytopia or the Mt. Celestia or something might be physically nicer than Baator, but what's the point? In Mt. Celestia, you start out as this little ball of light, a lantern archon, and then after you complete this difficult path of sacrifice an self denial, you....become another type of archon better able to protect and help the other inhabitants of the plane? In Bytopia, you spend your time shearing sheep with hard working gnomes. If you're the type of person who just wants power for its own sake or doesn't see a reason to control your behavior because it hurts other people, you won't be happy in places like that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 18:51
|
|
|
The fact that the Lower Planes exist to corral all those people together is probably a good thing.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 18:56
|
|
|
If the Lower Planes weren't constantly spilling over to attack or destroy everywhere else, you mean. Can't swing a dead cat without hitting a Demon or Devil out cruising for more fodder for their endless hell war on the Prime or in Sigil.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 19:10
|
|
|
Manual of the Planes: 3.5E Bytopia (Lawful Good) Planar Traits: Objective Directional Gravity, Normal Time, Infinite Size, Mildly Good-Aligned, Divinely Morphic, Normal Magic Bytopian petitioners are immune to fire and cold, resistant to electricity, and can cast Magic Circle Against Evil as a spell-like ability at will. Bytopia is where the pursuit of personal excellence meets interdependence with others, where a harmonious whole is created by a society of individuals each seeking personal happiness and excellence in all that they do. Bytopia is a plane of personal achievement without selfishness, where there's plenty of elbow room but neighbors are always around to help when you need it. Bytopia is a quiet plane, but it is by no means peaceful: plenty of challenges await for those whose personal pursuits demand risk and challenge. Bytopia consists of two layers facing each other across a vast expanse of air, at night for the plane, the 'stars' dotting the night sky for one layer are the lights of civilization on the other layer. The plane is much more wild than Arcadia or Mount Celestia, filled with celestial animals and monsters, and civilization here tends towards the rural.  Of all the Upper Planes, Bytopia changes its petitioners the least. They tend to appear exactly as they did in life, which can disorient visitors from other planes to find towns and villages full of petitioners from different races, eras, and levels of technology, all unchanged since their arrival. Most had some passionate hobby, lifestyle, or career in life, and they almost always pursue it in the afterlife. Few have lost any of their skills (at the DM's discretion, Bytopian petitioners may retain class levels, skill points, or other features from their previous life). People here don't judge, and even evil characters will often be left alone as long as they don't hurt anyone or piss people off. Society on Bytopia defaults to the small town. Everyone pursuing their passion as part of an interlocking network of assistance and interdependence is the theme of this plane, and formal government is rare on Bytopia - 'free men of the land' is a common notion, and even manufactories and other large-scale enterprises, where they exist, are typically owned by the workers. If anywhere in the Great Wheel practices what someone from the Material Plane might call socialism or even communism, it's Bytopia. Leadership on Bytopia typically consists of a mayor everyone respects, or a council of elders (insofar as age means anything here). Every town and village, though, is on good terms with the next town over and can call on them in times of need, and many people make comfortable livings as traveling peddlers and bards linking the semi-independent communities of the plane together. Dothion, the first layer, plays the pastoral idyll to the hilt. The hills here are gentle and always green, flocks of sheep with golden wool are herded by petitioners on gold-maned horses, and privately owned workshops and mills turn out all the necessities. Many visitors find Dothion excruciatingly boring, but this quiet, happy life of peace and plenty attracts plenty of petitioners. Dothion is also home to most of Bytopia's portals to other planes, most often found in hillside caves marked with runic glyphs indicating the destination. A rare few of these portals lead to the Elemental Plane of Fire - Bytopian petitioners are immune to fire, so some trade does occur between the planes and fiery elementals and outsiders escaping and running amok are an occasional disruption to the general quiet of the layer. At the DM's discretion, there may be portals directly to the Green Fields, the halfling goddess Yondalla's divine realm on Mount Celestia, and the area surrounding these portals is always home to settlements of halfling petitioners who find living directly in Yondalla's realm a bit too much even for them. The most notable place on Dothion is the Golden Hills. This is the divine realm of Garl Glittergold, god of the gnomes, and any other gnome deities that might exist in your setting, and consists of a sprawling landscape of hills (home to extensive burrows and mine shafts, some of which lead to the Elemental Plane of Earth) and farms. In fact, to many planeswalkers Bytopia is synonymous with the gnomes, and the Golden Hills see a fair mount of traffic from planar visitors seeking some of the best craftsmanship on the planes from people easier to deal with than the dwarf gods and their followers tend to be. Shurrock, the other layer of Bytopia, is far more dangerous. This is the place for those who still crave excitement and danger in their lives. The ethos is the same as on Dothion, but the context is very different. Shurrock is a layer of rugged terrain, ferocious beasts (still celestial, but much more aggressive and ill-tempered than the norm in the Upper Planes), harsh weather, and punishing seasons. If you're the kind of soul who thrives on always being unsure if the village will have enough food for the harsh winter ahead but somehow everyone always pulls together and makes it through if just barely, or enjoy hunting bears the size of semi trucks to feed your family, or riding through blizzards and dodging celestial wyverns if not outright dragons to bring the news and the mail to the next village over, this is the place for you. Villages and towns on Shurrock are smaller and much fewer in number than on Dothion, and always walled and manned by a veteran militia. The expanse between Dothion and Shurrock is open air, and it's easy enough to fly between them, or climb rare mountains that link in the middle, but the gravity switch as you cross between layers can be extremely disorienting if you're not prepared for it. Next time, Elysium!
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 19:20
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:Shurrock, the other layer of Bytopia, is far more dangerous. This is the place for those who still crave excitement and danger in their lives. The ethos is the same as on Dothion, but the context is very different. Shurrock is a layer of rugged terrain, ferocious beasts (still celestial, but much more aggressive and ill-tempered than the norm in the Upper Planes), harsh weather, and punishing seasons. If you're the kind of soul who thrives on always being unsure if the village will have enough food for the harsh winter ahead but somehow everyone always pulls together and makes it through if just barely, or enjoy hunting bears the size of semi trucks to feed your family, or riding through blizzards and dodging celestial wyverns if not outright dragons to bring the news and the mail to the next village over, this is the place for you. Villages and towns on Shurrock are smaller and much fewer in number than on Dothion, and always walled and manned by a veteran militia. I'm imagining that this is to some extent kayfabe but most of the petitioners aren't in on it, so every couple of weeks all the wild animals, dragons, wyverns, etc. meet up to plan the current "season" of Exciting Shurrock Life to keep the adrenaline pumping but make sure no one actually gets hurt in a way that isn't just dramatic and memorable rather than outright fatal.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 20:47
|
|
|
Chapter 1: A Dangerous Galaxy (the Terran Confederation) Comstar posted:So we're told the Vilani Empire is "static" but then goes out of it's way to say there's no way it would be static without revolution. And as soon as it encounters an out of context problem, it's going to collapse immediately....unless that's the point? Our hero's are going to be leading it, or trying (and failing) to hold it together? Yep. See, this book covers the period from 2114 to 2302 (though the default date is 2170 and most of the book treats that as the current year, there’s plenty of material for playing anywhere in it). It covers the time between the first military clash between the Vilani and the nascent Terran Confederation to the former’s ultimate conquest by the latter. The thing to understand about the Terran Confederation is that it’s the product of a series of crises only solved by collaboration – everybody contributes, everyone survives (though some benefit more than others). The Confederation’s roots lie in a series of ecological and political disasters in the early part of the 21st century. Not our 21st century, by the way; this timeline diverged from ours sometime in the mid-70s (because thats when travellers first books came out lol) – the US built the first settlement on the moon in 2013, and I sure don’t remember that. That half-century was defined by clashes between nationalist regimes and the rest of the global community. The UN ended up reformed by its important members into a sort of super-country with its own military, one designed to focus on regime change and rebuilding damaged areas – simultaneously a relief organization and standing army. By 2100 the UN functioned as a global federal government with the right to intervene in its members’ internal affairs but not dictate actions on a regular basis. Before the end of the century, though, Earth had made contact with the Vilani, and in 2114 war broke out and devastated Earth’s various new spacefleets – all of which belonged to nation-states and all of which shat the bed in a tragic fecal chorus when they tried to work together in combat. Between that crisis and the two wars that followed, the UN ended up dissolved and replaced by a formal world government, the Terran Confederation, with an internal structure, governing apparatus, and military redesigned from the ground up instead of being cobbled together from almost 2 centuries of improvisation like the UN was.  To get real deep into Terran politics I’d have to go into the struggle between globalism and nationalism and given the political situation right now  . Suffice to say that between of the trauma of the 21st century and the Vilani threat in the 22nd, nationalism is a bit dead in the water. You can find nationalists everywhere, but it’s very much a fringe position. The only place it survives in any meaningful way is among the dominant nations in the Confederation (the US, the EU (at this point effectively a nation-state), Russia, India, China and Japan), which between them control the successor to the UN Security Council. Most of them tried to leave it at some point decades ago, and China even pulled it off for a decade before coming back, but they always return. They get rights to self-determination within their borders as long as they don’t cross any major lines. Everybody else kind of does what they want unless some awful regime comes to power or things break down into violence, at which point the blue helmets step in and solve the issue. But the thing that makes the Confederation work instead of dissolving into a new form of imperialism or collapsing? It actually works to live up to the ideals of the old UN. Everywhere within its territory (which by 2170 includes all of Earth, its colonies, and even some former Vilani territories) lives about as comfortably as early 21st century Westerners, if not a little higher. Everyone has access to free education and tons of information, which, unlike in our world, resulted in a highly egalitarian and cosmopolitan society. Most people have friends in other countries and speak at least two languages, not because they have to, but because they want to. Tribalism hasn’t gone anywhere, even if nationalism has; wildly different political views can be found in every corner of the Confederation and the government even encourages it, and while a global superculture has already formed and regional cultures are in decline, you can find people clinging to the past everywhere. But a mixture of the Vilani threat and the relatively light touch of the Confederation military (they intervene when regimes threaten lives or the world’s economy or ecology, not when controversial governments come in to power) keeps the world taking. That mixture of crises has forced the central governments to actually rule competently, since the threat of conquest or extinction hangs over their heads. Especially since a few years ago a Vilani fleet nuked several major cities to cap off its victory. There’s a reason that even in peace time the Confederation’s budget sets aside a solid 7% of the planets GDP for military expenditures. And in times of war, it can rapidly more than double.Technology defines Terran life. In 2170, Earth’s GDP clocks in at about 30 times as much as it was in 2000. Fusion power is omnipresent, communications technologies have dominated personal life for over a century, and they’ve even worked out how to manipulate gravity somehow. Not to truly insane, planet-shattering degrees, but that technology reduced the cost of getting material into space by two orders of magnitude once it came into general effect; it’s the reason why they can build anything in space at all. And no, we don’t learn how in this section, but there’s another much larger section later that covers tech. So we’ll see. Interstellar travel is, while not cheap, within the means of most people. In fact, the standard campaign the book sets up assumes your characters will be Terrans (and/or partially assimilated Vilani or people from the Vilani sphere) doing trading runs between Earth and different parts of the Imperium. The poo poo Free Traders get up to later deserves a post in its own right. Bryce Kendall, British humorist (2105) posted:History is full of ironies. We finally learn to stop shooting at each other, at least most of the time, and what happens? We meet someone much bigger and stronger, and they start shooting at us. Speaking of which, the Confederation has an extensive off world presence. See, Sol sits in a group of star systems with only one way out with jump-1 or jump-2 drives; there are accessible resources there, but there isn’t much as far as prime real estate. The one point the pocket opens at is at the exact furthest border of the Vilani Imperium. The various systems within the pocket of all been colonized and usually host substantial populations (and Confederation outposts), but most colonists head to the few Vilani worlds they’ve already conquered, primarily a garden world called Nusku (which by now stands as a member nation of the Confederation in its own right). Terran immigration to Vilani worlds, while it could result in various flavors of imperialism, instead usually shakes out pretty well for everyone involved; the Confederation leverages its long experience in peaceably assimilating the reluctant Earth cultures to keep society from melting down. While some Terran immigrants form their own insular communities, the vast majority immediately form ties with important local families and partly assimilate, forming a nascent and increasingly important hybrid culture everywhere they set up shop (Terran cosmopolitanism at work). It ain’t perfect; given their connections and reputations, even completely incompetent Terran immigrants tend to sideline more skillful Vilani from lower on the social ladder, and they sure don’t solve the social and economic disruption coming from the whole “Interstellar Wars” thing. But a mixture of clever politicking, economic dominance, and – ironically – cultural precedent and social pressure keep everything under control. Immigrants more interested in independence than prosperity – and there are plenty – had instead to colonies outside of the former Vilani sphere. Speaking of independence, like with the Vilani, the book defines Terran society by three core virtues: independence, innovation, and militarism. Confederation policy on internal dissent among its members is very much live and let live unless they start causing serious trouble. The Confederation teems with citizens who may not oppose it but would much rather chart their own path. These folks form the bulk of the Confederation’s colonists and traders, and you can safely assume any Terran characters you play come from their ranks. That doesn’t mean they won’t favor the Confederation in any conflict or crisis, just that they don’t want it in their everyday life. Terrans also generraly value innovation and adaptation; no Terran alive can remember a time when constant technological development wasn’t an established part of everyone’s lives, and between contrasting Vilani conservatism and the traumas of the 20th century and the Interstellar Wars, Terran citizens like to think of themselves as bold explorers, survivors, and people who shake up the status quo. Naturally, embodiments of that virtue might also end up player characters. But the third virtue, probably the one most alien to us, is just how militaristic Terran society is. Despite how peaceful Earth has become, at least a couple times a decade the government sends in the troops to attack some hostile group on the homeworld – to general approval. While the universal draft (which is actually popular) just dictates all citizens spend a couple years working for the state in some capacity, military service is not only common but considered praiseworthy. Unless you have something exceptional about you, you won’t get a position on a starship or administering to the colonies unless you spent time in the military. This doesn’t mean Terrans are all rabid imperialists; very few want to obliterate the Vilani, even in the wake of millions of deaths after a nuclear bombardment. But the military is a popular, respectable, and highly visible institution trusted by the Confederation at large. In time, that military will metastasize, growing into an institution functioning separately from the Confederation government as it conquers the broader Imperium in a tidal wave until a particularly well-respected admiral pulls a Caesar and reinstitutes the Imperium, a Second Imperium, with himself at its head.  But that’s far in the future. The book doesn’t even touch on the birth of the Second Imperium beyond profiling the future emperor in its spate of biographies halfway through, just slyly hinting at his future a couple times. And that brings up my next question. I need to poll the thread: the next chapter covers the entire chronology of the Interstellar Wars, plus background for both its major players. The biography chapter I mentioned can’t really stand on its own in a review and if I want to discuss it at all I’ll probably have to work the biographies in with that at various points. So how in-depth should I go? Each particular Interstellar War has its own characteristics that would make it interesting to talk about, but there’s nine and a half of the bastards on top of extensive peaceful periods and social developments on both sides. If you leave it up to me I’ll just go through it in detail and work in the biographies as I go, but I can probably cut it down by half or more if the thread feels they’d like that better. For context, the next section covers Terran society in far more depth, so if I cut it down will be getting to that sooner.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 21:18
|
|
|
PurpleXVI posted:I'm imagining that this is to some extent kayfabe but most of the petitioners aren't in on it, so every couple of weeks all the wild animals, dragons, wyverns, etc. meet up to plan the current "season" of Exciting Shurrock Life to keep the adrenaline pumping but make sure no one actually gets hurt in a way that isn't just dramatic and memorable rather than outright fatal. You just sold me on Bytopia. Or, uh, half-sold me.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 21:45
|
|
|
I enjoy the idea of a Paradise you still need to put work in some degree over and attain joy in compared to the usual stuff of it being literally so perfect it's very unnerving.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 21:51
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:If the Lower Planes weren't constantly spilling over to attack or destroy everywhere else, you mean. Can't swing a dead cat without hitting a Demon or Devil out cruising for more fodder for their endless hell war on the Prime or in Sigil.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 22:00
|
|
|
ChaseSP posted:I enjoy the idea of a Paradise you still need to put work in some degree over and attain joy in compared to the usual stuff of it being literally so perfect it's very unnerving. It's part of the appeal, a reason I liked the area as well.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2020 23:14
|
|
|
Soulbound Monstrosity Monster and NPC statblocks are...honestly, pretty similar to a PC one, because both are fairly simple. They get a size (which outside the two largest categories is purely cosmetic), a type, a subfaction, a role, their relevant combat stats (speed, Defence, Accuracy, Melee, Toughness, etc.), any skills they happen to have, any special traits they might have, prewritten blocks for any attacks they can make, and their three attributes. Creature types are basically keywords you can use to determine if powers can affect them - a lot of things only work on Beasts, say, while Sigmar's Judgement only works on Daemons or servants of Chaos. (Servants of Chaos are not a type, but a subtype of Mortal. Subtypes typically define Species, factional allegiance or similar.) The available types are: Automaton: Constructs, possibly intelligent or possibly not. They may be actual clockwork robots, or they might be magically animated servitors, but they're always artificial. Beasts: The native creatures of the Mortal Realms that are, essentially, not people. Almost none of them have more than rudimentary intellect or ability to speak. Daemons: Unnatural beings that inhabit the Realm of Chaos; most are also devoted to a specific Chaos God. Mortals: The native peoples of the Mortal Realms, such as humans, aelves, orruks and so on. Spirits: Magical beings or other strange creatures. Most are naturally incorporeal, though some can take on corporeal form. Some are created by magic to serve spellcasters. They are natural beings, and explicitly do not include ghosts. Undead: Unnatural monsters granted a false life by necromantic magic. Ghosts are an incorporeal form of undead, and thus not Spirits. Creatures also have Roles, which broadly speaking are threat levels. Minions are the weakest enemies, such as grots, clanrats or small animals. All Minions have 1 Toughness and no Wounds, so they die on any hit. Swarms are actually groups of certain Minions. Minions with the appropriate trait become a Swarm when at least three of them occupy the same Zone. A Swarm has Toughness equal to its total number of members, and every point of damage kills one member. Swarms get a bonus to attacks based on how many of them are still alive, and they take double damage from AOE attacks. This is the main way Minions generally get dangerous - by ganging up on you. Warriors are average combatants, capable and tougher than any Minion, though they may not be melee fighters - a spellcaster or archer is also a Warrior if they're meant to be more than a pushover. Warriors have Toughness the same way PCs do, but still have no Wounds, so they die once their Toughness hits zero. Champions are typically found leading groups of Warriors. They are slightly better - a Champion is exactly like a Warrior, but has a Mettle score and thus can use Mettle in combat like PCs can. Chosen are your top tier enemies. They are essentially equivalent in all ways to PCs, but generally more powerful than any single PC. They have Toughness and Mettle like a Champion, and Wounds on top of that so they can survive longer. The creature stats are divided up thematically. First we have the People of the Cities of Sigmar - statblocks for, y'know, average people, meant to be starting points for your mortal NPCs. Cogsmiths are Mortal (Duardin) Warriors, the combat engineers of the Ironweld Arsenal. While their chief skill is mechanical engineering, they are also capable fighters. They're decently tough and have good Crafting and Lore, plus they can repair damaged Armor as an action in combat. Their melee attack (a Cog Axe) is average at best, both accuracy and damage-wise, but they're armed with Grudge-rakers, which are powerful shotguns that do good damage. Freeguild Guards are Mortal (Human) Warriors, the standing army and law enforcement of the Cities of Sigmar. They're pretty frequently seen. They're no good with ranged attacks, but they have a sword for close fighting and a halberd to try and damage armor. Plus, they're disciplined fighters, getting a bonus to Melee if three or more of them are in the same Zone. Wanderers are Mortal (Aelf) Warriors, aelves displaced from their woodland homes in the Age of Chaos, now seeking to rekindle the ley lines that linked their old homelands. They want to erase Chaos taint and heal the land. They're good at Survival and while their aelven blades are only average, they're very accurate with their ranger bows. They also get a bonus to Melee and Accuracy when fighting Daemons or servants of Chaos. Our next section is Pets and Mounts, for the all the animals you might recruit or otherwise keep around in normal conditions. These range from entirely mundane animals to mystical spirits and aetheric beasts that form symbiotic partnerships. Bittergrubs are Small Beast Minions, large, grub-like insects about the size of a large dog. They are always hungry and have nasty mandibles as well as bad tempers, though they're not actually very good at fighting (though their jaws are powerful enough to destroy armor in the rare instances they manage to land a hit). They are most often found with Sylvaneth Branchwyches, coiled around their shoulders or weapons and snapping at anything that gets too close. Once fed sufficient flesh, bittergrubs will create an impenetrable cocoon around themselves. Several days later, they will emerge in a cloud of shimmering pollen that purifies soil of any taint that might be upon it and encourages massive plant growth. Basically, if you let your Bittergrub eat a corpse, it'll go into its emerald cocoon for 1d6 days, and once it comes out, it affects the Zone around it as if it had cast the Lifebloom spell. Cats are...cats, Tiny Beast Minions. They appear in all of the Mortal Realms, and they vary wildly in appearance. The cats of Aqshy are streamlined and hairless creatures, designed to hunt in the burning heat, while the cats of Ghur tend to be muscular, bulky and camouflauge-patterned. However, all cats naturally possess the Witch-Sight, allowing them to detect ethereal beings and magical energies. Thus, many mortals survive ghostly ambushes thanks to the warning hiss of a pet cat. Cats are not good at fighting, but they're fast, have good Awareness and can even use their Awareness to detect things hidden by magic on top of their natural Witch-Sight. Dappled Efreets are Tiny Beast Minions, and they look a lot like fish with weird patterns. However, they're from Aqshy, a land without much water, and so they developed gangly, twitchy legs. Dappled efreets are typically considered vermin in Aqshy, but have the strange trait of spontaneously combusting if eaten unless prepared very specifically. Thus, they are also a delicacy, and while the animals aren't rare, expert chefs that can prepare them are. They're awful fighters and not good at much, but you can have a pet landfish. Why would you want one? Well, they will, if allowed to go where they want, quickly beeline for the nearest source of water or shade, which can be quite useful in the Aqshian wilderness. And of course if you make one incorrectly, you have created a meal that bursts into flame when consumed, dealing 5 damage per round for 1d6 rounds, ignoring armor. I'm sure you can find something useful to do with that. Drillbills are Tiny Automaton Minions. They're extremely sophisticated aethermatic constructs made by the Kharadron Overlords, taking the form of tiny robotic birds with eyes like gems. They are often assumed to be purely decorative or ceremonial, but on top of being very pretty and proofs of skilled craft, they are also good and practical pets for the Kharadron. They're not good attackers themselves, but their shining eyes are designed to detect weak spots in armor and flesh, identifying them, and their bills function as tiny drills in a pinch. They can spend an action to detect weaknesses in an enemy, and once they do, as long as they keep circling that enemy, all allies get a bonus to Melee and Accuracy against the target. Fangmora Eels are Large Beast Warriors, the favored mounts of the Idoneth. They are immense, serpentine eels that crackle with biovoltaic energy and bristle with fangs. The best riders even learn to channel the electricity of the eels into their own attacks, as well riding them through ethersea to battle. Fangmora eels are notoriously vicious and stubborn, though, so taming them is very difficult. A fangmora eel is pretty fragile, but a good attacker...as long as it has water or ethersea to breathe. Their biovoltaic power can be harnessed when they Charge once each combat, causing the damage dealt in that Charge by eel and rider to ignore Armor and stun the target for a round. They only get one blast per fight, though, because their body needs to recharge after. Gryph-Hounds are Small Beast Warriors, loyal and intelligent companions to the Stormcast. They are basically dog-sized, wingless griffons, and they excel at spotting foes, Chaos corruption and hidden threats. They're decent fighters if fragile, and they are quite literally impossible to sneak up on. A Gryph-hound and any allies are immune to surprise. Gryph-Chargers are Large Beast Warriors, wingless hippogriffs that are prized as mounts for the Stormcast. They are noble creatures, and each must bond with its rider before it will deign to carry them. The Gryph-chargers bond only with those of great strength who display humility and respect towards them, often after a battle or hunt. Once bonded, however, they will never abandon their master, and they can move impossibly fast by transforming into aetheric lightning briefly. They're fragile but good attackers, and when they and their rider Charge, they can continue moving after they attack, transmuting into lightning and riding the aetheric winds into an adjacent Zone. Great for hit and run fighting. Mustori are Tiny Beast Minions, ferrets that exist naturally in the voids between worlds. They are very valuable for travellers due to their natural attunement to the void of space. Whenever a Mustori enters a new realm, their fur shifts in color to match with perfect accuracy the night sky of that realm, turning them into living star charts that are also adorable ferrets. Getting a pet Mustori is challenging, because they have a natural talent for escaping capture and vanishing. They tend to be playful, mischief-loving animals that respond well to food and kindness, at least. They're no good at fighting, but as long as you have one, you always know which way is coreward, which is edgeward, and you can't become lost except due to powerful magic or direct divine intervention. Also, you have cute dark blue ferret. What more do you want? Horses are Large Beast Warriors. They're horses. You can have either a riding horse, which is bred for speed and so is Fast and mobile in battle, or a warhorse, which is slightly less fragile, actually brave and good at fighting, and comes with barding to protect it against attack. Unlike cats, horses aren't magical. (They also literally forgot to include a description with the statblock, presumably because you know what a horse is and they're way more interested in telling you about your chance to own a pet piranha swarm.) Quiverlings are Tiny Beast Minions, basically loyal pet beetles that hang around the Kurnoth, especially those that like to do archery. Quiverlings enjoy carrying stuff around, especially arrows, which they usually keep in a hollow log or stump they place on their backs. Quiverlings are poor fighters at best, though loyal and willing to attack foes. Their real talent is that they're very mobile and have an effectively infinite supply of arrows for the party, plus hiding space for anything relatively small that you don't want people to find. Scryfish are Tiny Beast Swarms. They're basically mobs of vicious piranhas that the Idoneth have...not quite tamed, but restrained. The average swarm has nine fish, and while an individual scryfish is a small annoyance in battle, a schoal of them is a very tenacious threat. They will happily attempt to devour anyone their Idoneth masters allow them to attack, though fortunately for everyone else, they require ethersea or water to breath. Spirit Guardians are Small Spirit Minions, sorcerous entities that are drawn to powerful spellcasters. They are especially common among the Idoneth, and those usually take the form of ethereal fish-creatures, but a Spirit Guardian can match its form to basically any master it takes and can change appearance easily. It's not clear why they decide to protect their masters or what they get out of it, but they are loyal and genuinely caring spirits. While outside battle they are eerily calm and usually friendly, they are more than willing to hurl themselves into the path of danger to protect their master. They have a telepathic link to their bonded master, they're ethereal (and so take only half damage from non-magic attacks and can pass through solid objects), they fly, and whenever they're in Close range of their master, their master gets a Defence bonus. They're absolutely awful fighters, though, so mostly they tend to just use their protective power. Star-Eagles are Small Beast Minions, but as smart as any person. They are celestial eagles that live in the heights of Azyr and bond with the Stormcast Knight-Venators. Each one has lived for centuries, and serves both as advisor and hunting companion to their bonded ally, whom they communicate with telepathically. They are said to be able to see through illusion and lies, to strike at their foes' very souls. They are extremely fragile but excellent fighters able to penetrate armor with their beaks and talons, which are considered magical weapons. Further, when they Charge, they transform into Azyrite energy, causing them to ignore armor and deal extra damage. Their biggest weakness is, well, one hit and they're down for the count. (Fortunately, Loyal Companions don't really die. Or, rather, they do, but the next time you're in a town, you can get a new one, so you can easily say they didn't really die, they just needed to recuperate.) Next time: Monstrous Beasts Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Jul 13, 2020 |
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2020 00:12
|
|
|
Manual of the Planes: 3.5E Elysium (Neutral Good) Planar Traits: Normal, Normal Time, Infinite Size, Strongly Good-Aligned, Minor Positive-Dominant, Divinely Morphic, Normal Magic, Entrapping Entrapping is a non-standard trait. Being on Elysium is like an addictive drug that makes one happy and peaceful, and after spending a week on the plane a visitor must make a Will check if they want to leave. The check repeats every week at increasing penalties until the visitor either leaves or fails. Failure turns the visitor into a petitioner of Elysium. Elysian petitioners are immune to electricity and cold, resistant to fire, and as a rule (rather than as a special exception) retain the class levels they had in life. Elysium is the ultimate expression of goodness and the headwaters of the River Oceanus. Elysium is the purest manifestation of selflessness and the will to make the world better. Elysium is an idyllic paradise, the final reward for a life well lived, and the center of the Upper Planes. Visiting Elysium is to experience a riot of color, sights and smells and sounds of a degree unimaginable on the Material Plane, another manifestation of the plane's minor positive-dominant trait, and much of the plane across all the layers is a 24/7 vacation paradise. Visitors to Elysium often remark that time seems to flow strangely here (it doesn't, but it can feel that way), and often find their memories of the place muddled and dull, like the memory of a euphoric haze. The three layers of Elysium are not connected directly, and instead one must use portals or sail the great River Oceanus. Visitors will find themselves deluged by locals eager to help with whatever they need (if a rather pointed enthusiasm in the case of neutral and especially evil-aligned visitors), though with non-good visitors, any help (or simply being shuffled along to the nearest portal) tends to be accompanied by a gentle but long lecture. Even good-aligned visitors may find the enthusiastic but lackadaisical attitude of Elysians tedious, if they're trying to move fast to avoid being trapped here. The River Oceanus can be found on all of the Upper Planes, but its headwaters are in Elysium and the river dominates every layer of the plane. This great river of holy water winds and flows like a river, even though it can be vaster than any ocean on the Material Plane, and on Elysium sailing the river is the main way of getting around. Watercraft of all descriptions, mundane and fantastical, ply the waters of the Oceanus, and finding safe passage is rarely a problem for visitors. Though the bulk of the Oceanus lies on Elysium, tributaries and offshoots flow into other planes to become rivers of holy water in Arcadia, Bytopia, Ysgard, and the Beastlands, merge with the Silver Sea on Mount Celestia, and return to Elysium before the celestial river finally empties into the plane of Arborea (where vortices feed the Oceanus back into itself on Elsyium). Celestial marine life teems in the depths of the Oceanus, and should a visitor fall in, friendly celestial dolphins or whales or sea turtles are likely to aid them.  Petitioners on Elysium typically resemble their former selves (and I promise, this won't be true in the next plane!), but hale and hearty, appearing in the prime of their lives, and oftentimes healthier than they ever actually were. Many display some manifestation of their new nature, such as the metallic skin or hair, unearthly eyes, or so on and so forth typical of celestial beings. On Elysium, the default rather than the exception is that Elysian petitioners retain a full and complete memory of their mortal lives, and keep all skills and class levels they enjoyed in life. Most petitioners are here to relax and take it easy. Society on Elysium is informal, ranging from villages to resorts to cloistered outposts, though fully fledged cities are rare. The guiding principle of life and society on Elysium is 'be chill.' Petitioners often congregate based on shared interests and passions, or on a common geographic/planar origin. Petitioners who were great leaders in life - be they monarchs or generals or archmages or what have you - tend to be so in death here, and it's common for history's greats from some particular Material Plane world to get together and play games or discuss the issues of the day. These petitioners are often the objective of visitors to Elysium, seeking the wisdom of long-dead heroes. Guardinals, the angels of Elysium, often rub shoulders with petitioners and take part in their society. They do tend to stand out, being half-humanoid and half-animal in appearance. Amoria is the first layer of Elysium, and the most heavily inhabited. This is the eternal tropical vacation paradise that most people think of when they consider the plane, where the summers are never too hot, the winters never too cold, rain is always followed by an epidemic of rainbows, and any misfortune or accident that happens only seems to accent the primal goodness of the plane and its inhabitants as everyone rushes to help. It's a tranquil, idyllic existence of joy and relaxation, and most visitors find it so very tempting to stay. Being so happy here, most Elysians tend to forget about the plane's tendency to trap visitors here forever. Eronia is the second layer, and is similar to Shurrock in Bytopia: this is a layer in an otherwise idyllic plane that's filled with harsh terrain, ferocious beasts, and everything else that demands a soul work for a living, for the people not content with an eternal vacation in paradise. Eronia is rugged, and the Oceanus is present as vast but swift-flowing rivers often filled with rapids. For a layer of Elysium, Eronia is remarkably dangerous and doesn't just hand everything a soul needs to the petitioner - which is exactly how the locals like it. Villages and towns dot the mountains and forests of Eronia, walled and well defended, and petitioners with class levels put those levels to use far more often than the petitioners of other layers. Belierin is by far the least inhabited of Elysium's planes, as the layer is an immense marsh of holy water - all derived from the Oceanus, though tracking the real river's course through the layer is difficult for non-natives. Life exists in superabundance on Belierin, especially reptiles and amphibians, and most petitioners who live in Belierin do so because they were fed up with the permanent tropical vacation attitude of the other layers. Towns in Belierin are fortified like those on Eronia, and typically center on a lighthouse that serves as a guide to travelers. Genuine, non-celestial monsters are sighted rarely but regularly here, and it is believed that Belierin is in fact a prison for some evil being - what, no two stories agree on. Thalasia is the fourth and final layer to Elysium, and here the River Oceanus is the default rather than land. This is the celestial wellspring from which the river emerges, and land here is in the form of small islands. The most powerful and strong of mortal sounds tend to wind up here, living many to nickname the layer the Isles of the Blessed, and some speculate that petitioners here are in training to become guardinals. The most famous of the islands in Thalasia is the Fortress of the Sun, the divine realm of Pelor the Radiant, Greyhawk's god of the sun. So brilliant is the radiance of Pelor's home that night simply does not exist within a hundred miles of his realm, and the god himself is typically found here deep in council with solars and planetars that advise him. Next time, the Beastlands!
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2020 00:29
|
|
|
In Planescape, Belierin was the prison of an evil being...an immortal legendary hydra, who was the ancestor of all the other hydra. The guardinals couldn't defeat it, so they teleported it to Belerin, and pretty much closed off all of the ways in or out, except by the ocean, which the Hyrdra can't touch because of the holy water, until they figured out a more permanent solution. They haven't yet, so they basically just warn people to stay out of Belerin.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2020 00:48
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:A Wizard Catching up from behind, I don't think I saw it mentioned, what exactly is the Abyss in the adventure? A portal to DnD hell between floors?
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2020 01:55
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:They get a size (which outside the two largest categories is purely cosmetic) Except in the case of some talents. The Bigger They Fall only works on creatures larger then you for example.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2020 01:59
|
|
|
PoontifexMacksimus posted:Catching up from behind, I don't think I saw it mentioned, what exactly is the Abyss in the adventure? A portal to DnD hell between floors? Basically. It's portal is mainly a portal on floor 4, which I cut entirely because the only thing on Floor 4 was the Abyss room. You go into another weird dungeon full of cosmic beings and roll random odd encounters until you get home or die.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2020 02:07
|
|
|
Some of the Abyss encounters are beneficial or at least can be, but most will flat out kill you
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2020 03:39
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:Basically. It's portal is mainly a portal on floor 4, which I cut entirely because the only thing on Floor 4 was the Abyss room. You go into another weird dungeon full of cosmic beings and roll random odd encounters until you get home or die. There was mention of A Wizard in CoC and the interesting thing is that the A Wizard module kind of is CoC. The Wizard is at least within spitting distance of cosmic horror. The Abyss is kind of Dreamlands, a surreal space filled with weird, not-necessarily hostile gods, demons, etc. Still, the best part of A Wizard is that the Wizard is still only within spitting distance of cosmic horror. Because the Wizard is petty and cruel in ways that the Great Old Ones kind of aren't. Cthulhu might swat you like a fly, but he's not going to waste his time pulling your arms and legs off to torture you so he can feel superior to you. The Wizard will. I guess that was the thing that stuck with me, those "victory conditions." Most of them were obvious. Get killed/taken by the Wizard, Die in the Abyss, Escape from the tower, Kill the Wizard (but not the eggs) and Kill the Wizard and the eggs. Still the most complete victory requires killing the wizard and the egg and also recovering the blacksmith lady's son's heirloom (if not the son himself) to allow her to move through her grief. And the Wizard, spiteful, pointy-hatted gently caress that he is, roots against that and claims a measure of victory if it's not done. And that victory isn't, I'll come back. There's no indication that the blacksmith lady is another more than just a normal, non-adventuring person. But the Wizard takes pleasure in loving her life anyway. You can almost imagine meeting Nylarathotep or Hastur in the Abyss and getting ready to die or worse when they realize that A Wizard is involved. And they help the party out simply because they despise A Wizard for being a petty gently caress. Everyone fucked around with this message at 03:40 on Jul 14, 2020 |
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2020 04:00
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:Our next section is Pets and Mounts, for the all the animals you might recruit or otherwise keep around in normal conditions. These range from entirely mundane animals to mystical spirits and aetheric beasts that form symbiotic partnerships. Think you are using an old version of the PDF. Errata has come (And it's on Drivethru) and the Sylvaneth companions like the Bittergrub and Quiverling are classified as Spirit (Spite) now. As they are Spites which are fey bug spirits native to Ghyran. Horses have a entry as well. Just below the Gryph-Charger quote:Wherever mortal footprints fall the hooves of horses soon follow. The most common beasts of burden across the Mortal Realms, horses vary wildly in appearance and temperament. From the shimmering manes of Aelven purebreds, to the flesh-eating reptilian hybrids of Caldera, no two horses are alike, with new breeds emerging and vanishing as fast as the mortals that tend to them. On the one hit for minions. Don't forget that Loyal Companion allows you to increase your Companions toughness by a value equal to your soul. Also if your nice you can always say they are mortally wounded and saveable instead of dead when reduced to toughness 0. Lastly for fun some of the art of these critters.  
MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Jul 13, 2020 |
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2020 04:24
|
|
|
Falconier111 posted:So how in-depth should I go? Each particular Interstellar War has its own characteristics that would make it interesting to talk about, but there’s nine and a half of the bastards on top of extensive peaceful periods and social developments on both sides. If you leave it up to me I’ll just go through it in detail and work in the biographies as I go, but I can probably cut it down by half or more if the thread feels they’d like that better. For context, the next section covers Terran society in far more depth, so if I cut it down will be getting to that sooner. I don't care about as much about the peace as I want to hear about the intersteller wars. And what happens when the an intersteller space empire meets an...out of context problem.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2020 06:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 20:56 |
|
|
Everyone posted:There was mention of A Wizard in CoC and the interesting thing is that the A Wizard module kind of is CoC. The Wizard is at least within spitting distance of cosmic horror. The Abyss is kind of Dreamlands, a surreal space filled with weird, not-necessarily hostile gods, demons, etc. The Wizard has some strange desire to fit in, despite not really understanding things. From deciding to be a Wizard in order to fit herself into the milieu, to insisting that she has a perfectly ordinary number of limbs.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2020 07:12
|
|
