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This is the sort of stuff I come to the thread for, terrible games and tearing into them if at all possible. But if you're having difficulty no reason to force it.
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Oct 14, 2020 22:58
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Wapole Languray posted:No I don't get the frog and leech thing. Everything else is like... twisted church or Satan-y, but the frogs and leeches I don't get besides generic "evil creature" stuff. The OSR contingent is weirdly obsessed with frogs in general for reasons unknown.
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Oct 14, 2020 23:20
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Gatto Grigio posted:The OSR contingent is weirdly obsessed with frogs in general for reasons unknown.
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Oct 14, 2020 23:23
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  While the previous chapter had magic items, they more or less existed for the creation of spells and other magic items rather than being objects that could achieve effects on their own. The vast majority of this chapter are tables for various types of supernatural equipment as well as new rules for magical prosthetics. Price lists are very simple, being universal for the table type as opposed to having prices for each individual item. Minor Magic Items and Magic Potions can cost anywhere from a few silver to a few gold depending on the Tempo,* while Magic Weapons can cost anywhere from 4 to 15 gold if Minor, or 30 to 100 if regular. Prosthetics are a different matter, whose cost is based on whether it merely replaces or enhances the lost body part and if it is “sensible” for the patient’s body type. Prices for magical prosthetics can be anywhere from 30 to 250 gold and stay the same regardless of Tempo. *the higher the Tempo the cheaper. 1d100 Minor Magic Items is separated into 5 d20 smaller tables grouped by subject: tools, personal, entertainment, food & drink, and the dubiously legal. Most of them have minor tricks and gimmicks of limited duration, such as Pocket Scales that make a shrill noise if counterfeit coins are placed upon them, an Autoscribe quill that can transcribe speech into any language when activated, a toy Wooden Fish that can swim around in water, a primitive Iconograph camera, or a Cousin M rubber orb which if tossed inflates into a decoy copy of the thrower. Potions have a demand for those who need a single-use effect of limited durability, and as such are favored by people on a budget. The d20 table includes some predictable results (reduce damage from a certain enemy type, heal damage, grant invisibility) although some of the more inventive ones include teleporting the drinker a short distance, granting a +8 bonus to the next d20 roll but suffer -8 on a future one assigned by the GM, transforming the drinker into a rat, or one that can turn the drinker into intangible smoke. Minor Magic Weapons are so called because they are offensive in use but either of limited duration or are indirectly lethal. The d20 table includes various grenades and handheld pistols and tubes which can perform some kind of ranged attack. Some of the more interesting results include a Toad Grenade which turns creatures in the AoE into a toad for 1 round, a wooden spyglass which can change the personal gravity of a nearby target by 90 degrees, a Badgerbanger tin can that unleashes an angry illusory badger, and a hand cranked Calliope Saw which can unleash a cone of sharp lashing wires. Magic Weapons are more variable in that the d100 table lists specific enhancements to apply to the properties of an existing non-magical weapon type. There’s an awful lot of results, some conventional and others more novel. Some of the interesting results include Namefinding that causes the weapon to shout the true name of a struck target, Gambler’s Aid which can summon the weapon to the wielder’s hand in exchange for swapping places with a coin on the wielder’s person, Fertile where the weapon can produce silver seeds which grow into swords if planted in soil, and Momentous which can change the weapon of a weight mid-swing to deal 1d6 bonus damage provided that the wielder accepts acting last in the initiative order after the result of the attack. Speaking of which, firearms both magical and mundane exist in Endon, although most of them are 17th century at best: you’re getting muskets, blunderbusses, and fowling pieces rather than revolvers and bolt-action rifles.  Prosthetics both magical and mundane are available for sale in Endon. Prevailing theory claims that the soul of a person is roughly the same shape as their body, thus explaining why those who lost limbs have phantom sensations in the removed area. Thus magical prosthetics attune themselves to the donor by trapping the bodiless part of the soul in them. Non-magical prosthetics for various body parts have various rules but have minor penalties: for example, prosthetic legs have reduced movements but may be hollow enough to hold small objects. Magical prosthetics are good enough to alleviate any shortcomings and perform as well as their organic counterparts. Some prosthetics can go even further: a Ghost Limb can be treated as ethereal and invisible, plate armour can be installed as skin grafts, Powderkeg Legs can let the user jump up to 30 feet in the air, and so on and so forth.  Every GM at some point needs to make up an NPC on the spot, or needs some additional inspiration in creating one ahead of time. This chapter provides a little bit of both. We start out with d100 NPCs and Rumours, split into 2 categories of “Who Knows?” and “What Do they Know?” to provide potential adventuring hooks or just interesting goings-on. 1d100 Wizards or Nobles has one table each for personal names, family names, notable physical features, and eccentric personality traits. Useful NPCs are 20 predone characters meant to be used as potential contacts and recurring characters. They are separated by social class and have no game statistics, but provide information on their talents, personalities, and what kinds of PCs are the most likely to interact with them. We then move on to characters with specific stat blocks, aka ones PCs are likely to end up fighting. The Mob is an all-purpose stat block for a group of angry and violent people, who are Unarmoured and move slowly, but can automatically outflank individuals, have a variable number of Hit Die based on their size, gain additional attacks and actions based on said size, and can grow larger and replenish their numbers based upon various conditions. People do not riot for no reason, and every Mob has a Cause which determines their overall goals and actions. Thieves & Urchins are innumerable. Thieves tend to be involved in gangs but are rather averse to violence, while Urchins are child noncombatants who are highly mobile: they have AC equivalent to chainmail when moving, and can move at base speed through tight spaces and in encumbering environmental conditions. Both NPC types have their own tables, determining the overall theme of the criminal group for Thieves (flamboyant highwaymen, masters of disguise, sex workers who moonlight as burglars, etc) or some interesting personality trait or talent for Urchins (is somehow immune to magic, is a musical prodigy, Hides in the Catacombs*, etc). *a dungeon that will be detailed in a future chapter. Eventually PCs will earn the enmity of big-time villains one step above nameless rogues. Scoundrels are made via d20 tables of various traits for a notable villain, ranging from their favored Schemes to social Tools and assets to their Lair. Not all results are crime lord types. You can very easily roll up a tattooed necromancer dying of consumption who makes money by industrial espionage, or a woman dressed in funeral attire with a bandolier of high-powered magic wands plotting to kidnap a prominent Minister. And for those GMs who want a predone antagonist right now, Rivals & Villains presents 8 such characters. Most are relatively low-powered yet still a cut above the common cloth, ranging from 2 to 7 Hit Die and more likely than not to be a spellcaster. My favorite villains include a crime lord cursed into the form of a gorilla, a pair of pistoleer twins who are actually one soul sharing two bodies, and a eugenicist nobleman whose charitable soup kitchens and workhouses are filled with sterility-causing food as part of a plot to rid Endon of “undesirables.” Our chapter ends with a 1d50 Wrongs & Injustices table to come up with hooks for how your arch-villain may have wronged (or will wrong) a PC. They are broad in nature, such as addicting a relative to drugs, stole something from the character, or was a childhood bully or workplace dick from their past.  This chapter is the bestiary of Magical Industrial Revolution. There’s but a mere 10 entries, but 4 of them come with tables full of customizable options which greatly expands their utility. Quite a few monsters have their numbers per encounter increase with the Tempo. Elsewhere Creatures are a catch-all term for the strange, alien beings that come from other dimensions as a result of teleportation circle malfunctions. Their Hit Die, appearance, special abilities, and attacks are randomly generated and include such things as spitting balls of stunning electricity, having a 2-dimensional form which is invisible at an angle, and communicating with what sounds like thousands of scissors cutting through silk. We also have Elsewhere Rifts for generating portals to other planes, including atmosphere, gravity, weather, and common hazards and loot. The planar environments are appropriately trippy, such as stacked ceramic bowls the size of counties with mercury-filled lakes, lightless depressions filled with smooth sliding spheres, or a dark void of blue-white stars. This is easily my favorite entry in the Menagerie. Exotic & Nightmarish Creatures is a 1d50 table for generating polymorphed monsters drawn from the imaginations of transmuters. We have two columns, one for “Exotic Creatures” which include mundane animals and giant versions of said animals, and Nightmarish Creatures which include stone-eating giant earthworms, goblins that can split into 16 new versions every full moon, and half-human half-carrot were-vegetables. There are no sample Hit Dice, AC, or other game stats provided, so the GM has to do a bit more work here. Gel Knights are specially-bred oozes poured into a suit of armor and then taught to pilot it. Wizards are fond of using the things as guards. They are 4 HD monsters with AC equal to that of a plate and shield and can attack twice per round with a sword, but are of animal intelligence. Mild Dogs Are specially-bred dogs that exude an aura of happiness, calm, and other positive emotions in a 10 foot radius. Those who fail a saving throw find themselves unable to do anything violent, selfish, or rude in their presence and thus many owners use them to guard against evildoers and to ward against violence. The Ghost Whale of Endon is a unique creature that originated as a polymorphed stray dog. Although the creature died, its soul lives on and will soon take to haunting Endon’s streets as the Tempo increases. It has an AoE howl that can cause damage and Save or Die if it howls for 2 rounds. Those who are indoors are immune to the latter effect. The Ghost Whale has 7 HD, is incorporeal, and can fly. Skeletons are nothing new, although for some reason there are species of living beings that appear just like skeletons and are “false undead.” We have a table of 1d100 Skeleton Variants to reflect this diversity, the first 50 being true undead and the latter 50 skeleton-like beings. Speaking Rat Society is an organization of intelligent rats that gained sapience from Endon’s magic-soaked environment. Their Society views humans, cats, and dogs as an existential threat and thus seek to bring about their destruction. Other than this, they wish to seize as much food, fabrics, and shiny objects as possible. They have no special abilities besides human-like intelligence and the ability to speak actual words provided they’re gathered in a swarm. And even then, each individual word is spoken by a different rat in the swarm. Stray Spells are a rare phenomenon when a magic item breaks and the spell powering it is released, a spell is miscast, or some other accident happens that frees a spell from its limited trappings. They become more common as the Tempo increases. Stray Spells are 2 HD monsters which reduce all non-magical damage to 1 point, can fly, and have a 1d20 table to determine its special ability/form. Examples include a cloud that can put people to sleep, a swarm of silver-green darts that can untie ropes and open locks, harmless motes of light, and a flying newspaper that explodes when read. Thaumovoric Eels are a mutant species of fish that live in the River Burl. The ambient magical pollution being poured into this body of water caused said species of eel to evolve and live off of magical energy. They can also fly and drain charges and spell slots from a spellcaster or item via a successful bite attack. Those who cook and eat said eels reduce all damage of a magical origin by 1 point for 1 hour. Tunnel Trolls are mutated trolls living in the Catacombs of Endon. Their base stats are close to OSR trolls (claws and bite attacks, have 7 HD), but they cannot regenerate damage and can squeeze through spaces normally too large for their size. Arcane experiments of all kinds are the origin for innumerable strains, reflected in a d10 table of variant traits. The table includes a variety of results, such as being able to vomit an AoE line of acid, being able to reshape itself into a caricature of a hated foe via reading a target’s mind, and exploding after 1d6 rounds if set on fire. Thoughts So Far: I’m quite fond of the variant magical items and how many are geared towards applications not of immediate use to adventuring types yet can still be useful in said adventurers’ hands with some creativity. While stats for non-magical versions are not given out, I’m a bit happy that the author didn’t try to avoid the inclusion of firearms and instead treated them as yet another potential piece of technology that can be invented or adapted as a result of Endon’s high-magic society. New NPCs are a bit hit or miss: the sample generic stat blocks and random NPC generation are material I’ve seen in plenty of other GM-friendly OSR material, although I do like the Scoundrel table for generating arch-enemies with appropriately Penny Dreadful vibes. The new monsters are cool, and aside from skeletons each has an explicit inbuilt purpose within the setting. Join us next time as we wrap up this book with Dungeons, Appendices, and Pamphlets!
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Oct 14, 2020 23:26
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Gotta admit, I'm down for the Angry Badger In A Can. I'd happily save the civilisation that created that. It has added significantly to the sum total of human experience.
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Oct 14, 2020 23:37
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Wapole Languray posted:Do people want me to continue this? Stop here? Or just give a super annotated cliff's note version of the rest? Whatever you think is best. I would be up for seeing how deep a hole Beneath digs for itself, however you decide to get that across, but if you can't stomach any more of it the let it die. That's on the book, not you.
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Oct 15, 2020 00:01
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Loxbourne posted:Gotta admit, I'm down for the Angry Badger In A Can. I'd happily save the civilisation that created that. It has added significantly to the sum total of human experience. Apparently it's only an illusion of a badger. I demand real badgers!
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Oct 15, 2020 00:02
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Gatto Grigio posted:The OSR contingent is weirdly obsessed with frogs in general for reasons unknown.
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Oct 15, 2020 00:18
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Mild dogs also own.
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Oct 15, 2020 00:34
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The Lone Badger posted:Apparently it's only an illusion of a badger. I demand real badgers! How about a Decanter of Endless Badgers?
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Oct 15, 2020 00:47
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Gatto Grigio posted:The OSR contingent is weirdly obsessed with frogs in general for reasons unknown. Because frogs are cute and you should feel bad for hurting them
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Oct 15, 2020 01:10
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Gatto Grigio posted:The OSR contingent is weirdly obsessed with frogs in general for reasons unknown. One of the early OSRists had "grog" autocorrected into "frog" and everyone's just gone along with it ever since.
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Oct 15, 2020 01:17
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Ithle01 posted:How about a Decanter of Endless Badgers? Yes! It's extremely useful, and the ultimate disaster is already built-in.
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Oct 15, 2020 01:20
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PurpleXVI posted:I leave that up to your own SAN score. I'm kind of morbidly curious about how much worse this can get, but if it's not interesting or you're just tired of dealing with it, give us the Cliff's Notes. I'd vote for Cliffs Notes with the art. Some of the art is cool and interesting but all of the words in this are awful. Speleothing posted:Because frogs are cute and you should feel bad for hurting them Spoken like somebody who's never read Stephen King's "Rainy Season." Or had their cool 1st Level Halfling Thief eaten by a Giant Toad in T1: The Village of Hommlet. First loving combat of the adventure and poor Wilgo Sackins gets snarfed on a natural 20. Everyone fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Oct 15, 2020 |
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Oct 15, 2020 01:41
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The Gel Knights are rad, I'm sad that they're not sapient.
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Oct 15, 2020 01:47
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Wapole Languray posted:Do people want me to continue this? Stop here? Or just give a super annotated cliff's note version of the rest?
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Oct 15, 2020 02:16
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Omnicrom posted:The thing that still sticks in my craw is the opening narration text. It is ASTOUNDINGLY disgusting and hypocritical that the book should go tut-tut at people for being gross and porny when the book ITSELF is someone's fetish writ large about being gross and porny. How much of the edgelord corner of the OSR is this, anyway? A lot, I'd bet. RPGs in general (particularly Monster Manuals) have a thing for sex-shaming through their antagonists, whether it's succubi or just baddies dressed up in BDSM themed-gear (looking at you, Black Spiral Dancer... Mooks?), so it's nothing new, but it reaches a fever pitch in stuff like this. Who's the artist, anyway? They deserve better work. Wapole Languray posted:Do people want me to continue this? Stop here? Or just give a super annotated cliff's note version of the rest? Had I peeked in earlier I might have suggested using more in the way of spoiler tags, particularly for the larger table images, but that ship has already sailed for the most part.
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Oct 15, 2020 02:47
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If the mirrors are the internet, shouldn't there be waaaaaay more cats involved?
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Oct 15, 2020 02:52
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Omnicrom posted:The thing that still sticks in my craw is the opening narration text. It is ASTOUNDINGLY disgusting and hypocritical that the book should go tut-tut at people for being gross and porny when the book ITSELF is someone's fetish writ large about being gross and porny. All those lines in the opening about how it is DEEP and MEANINGFUL satire and you shouldn't sexualize these characters but oh woe it is a pity about how those silly foolish people who will miss the message and only notice the sex stuff makes me really want to hit the author upside the head with combine harvester. Yeah, no poo poo the people likely to play it are going to miss the point, whose fault is it though that they can't see the forest for the pee? Fucker, before you start talking about splinters in potential players pull that beam out of your eye I can hit you with.
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Oct 15, 2020 02:57
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Terrible Opinions posted:I'm pretty sure the opening bit is meant as a tongue in cheek joke for the sort of people who would like the module in the first place. I'm not, but let's look at it again:  No, to me this is author is saying: "This is Serious and Important. So, you as a GM should absolutely inflict this on your players so you can also be Serious and Important. Also, not for nothing, but the rear end in a top hat flatly states that the protagonists in this adventure are NPCs Hannah and Emily (whoever that is) and not, you know, the actual PCs.
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Oct 15, 2020 03:14
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No the bold is telling you that "in no way" is supposed to be pronounced in a mocking faux serious tone. It's a joke. A joke that only works if you think tittering about sexually exploiting characters is funny, but definitely a protesting too much joke. Like this is by the same people whose key joke is "well the okay symbol/pepe/whatever isn't really a nazi symbol therefore I'm owning the libs by pretending it is"
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Oct 15, 2020 03:18
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Re: Beneath I'm personally all for more vileness, but your mental wellness comes first. Also gently caress that 'lol just writing horrible poo poo are you triggered' boilerplate text.
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Oct 15, 2020 03:26
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Terrible Opinions posted:No the bold is telling you that "in no way" is supposed to be pronounced in a mocking faux serious tone. It's a joke. A joke that only works if you think tittering about sexually exploiting characters is funny, but definitely a protesting too much joke. The thing is I'm not totally sure you're right about this, but even if you are? The fact that we are now in the realm of Schrodinger's douchebag is not an improvement.
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Oct 15, 2020 03:36
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i hate to go back to Crossed but when i wrote my articles about it the biggest response i got was basically 'lol triggered'. i'd spent a fair amount of time articulating that i wasn't just offended or grossed out, but that the product itself was absolute dogshit. i'm a long time death metal and horror movie fan, i've seen lots and lots of over the top, gross stuff. but you can still make a distinction between something that is gross and has artistic or even just entertainment value, and something that is just greasy exploitation. i think with horror, like with comedy, there is kind of a punching up/punching down dichotomy. like what is happening to who, and is it being presented as horrific or funny. and i think this module in its portrayal of sexual violence (which i really don't like to see in anything at all) is definitely doing it for some combination of voyeuristic pleasure for some, and to intentionally cause discomfort to players. it's bad, and not just because it's 'offensive' but because it's designed for a GM to commit psychological battery on their players with
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Oct 15, 2020 04:29
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We interrupt the Sex-Keep on the Bonerlands talk to bring you... Chapter 8: Bazaar, pt. 7  Degenesis Rebirth Katharsys Chapter 8: Bazaar JEHAMMEDANS Scimitar Swords, ranging from lovely Ismali pieces to the master-crafted weapons of the Isaaki. Jehammedans know branding. Explosive bottles Made with Petro and bitumen to get an incendiary weapon that gets the flames to stick to a person - you know, a cocktail, of the Molotov kind.  Deals one less damage each turn. If you try to put it out with dirt or sand for a round, it decreases by one more.  This game has an Orgiastic class, make your own joke about Riding Hoe Icons An item blessed via an Iconide's bargaining with God. quote:Icons are always tied to a deed or mission. If the wearer is confronted with the respective situation, he gets +2D to all Actions until the deed is done. The Icon is considered holy now and is brought back into the bosom of the community. So, ugh, if your mission is, say, to free the Earth from Psychonauts, does every action that's tangentially related to it get +2D?  Ram Staff Given to the Isaaki leading troops in battle, has the “Standard” quality (gives Jehammedans within 20-pace(?) radius +1D to attack rolls). Jehammed's Teachings The holy scrolls gives +2D to social interactions with other Jehammedans. JEHAMMED’S WILL /ARIES’S BLESSING The true will of Jehammed, written behind close doors and encrypted. Handed down from Prophet to Prophet. Nobody knows what they say. Arianoi have a different name for them and claim they were opened to all humanity. ...same effect as Jehammed's Teachings.  Seal Stone quote:Small burnt clay discs imprinted with the word “Jehammed” keep popping up. According to legend, the prophet himself imprinted them, though they are probably forgeries. Still, the seal stones cater to the need for closeness to the divine and are held in high regard in spite of all doubts. Probably the the easiest thing for even a pre-bronze civilization to manufacture, they nevertheless give you +1 Authority. Jehammed's Star A piece of gold sheet on braided cord, this is the medal a Saraeli gets for birthing an Isaaki. This Congrats On The Probable Incest award nets you +2 Renown. Blood of Aries Served in ram skulls or carried in field flasks when out of community. Drinking it lets Arianoi heal 1 Flesh Wound per Hour while The Blood of Aries (yes, the rank is named the as the item  ) heals 1 per 10 minutes. But if someone high on Aries' supply goes a day without drinking it, their Ego point maximum drops by 1 per day. Once it reaches zero, they get it all back, and the addiction – and regeneration - ends. Or you can drink more, and immediately get your Ego as well as regeneration back. Horn Weird pure white and serrated sword for high-ranking Arianoi.  Ram Helmet Probably the only armor Arianoi wear? quote:The sight of the ram skull on a human body shocks those who are weaker in will or of faith (“Terrifying” quality). Psychonauts? AMSUMOs? Space anomalies? Nothing compared to a dude with a spooky helmet (same in Degenesis as it is in 40K). Black Fleece quote:The fleece is liquid, darkest night, and its ram locks flutter as if they were in a storm—even if there is no wind at all. The Spitalians know this phenomenon; they have watched it in the Festering: a nanite swarm. How it clings to the fleece and why it doesn’t turn everything it touches to carbon corals they cannot explain, though. ...it's just Terrifying.  ANABAPTISTS Long Weapons The rakes, hoes, and pitchforks that Anabaptis use in battle and agriculture. Inspiring, as it has the “Talisman” quality. Bidenhander quote:While a hoe in the fist might conjure up the spirit of Rebus and warm the soul, the Orgiastics rather rely on 7 feet of forged and sharpened steel. An Impact (2T) weapon. If you don't get the 2 Triggers that you need to be able to use the weapon next turn, you can take a dagger out of the hilt and fight with it from the next turn. No word on whether Impact weapons inconvenience the person they're stuck in in any way.  Makes as much sense as the Democratic nominee it was named after Spitfire quote:The Ascetics baptize the dry soil with water; the Orgiastics baptize their enemies with fire. The reason to play a WHFB State Trooper Who Fucks. Specialty: the tank can explode just like with the exoskeleton, but you get 1D turns (the GM is told to roll in secret) to take it off and run away. Force 14 explosion. Anabaptists are already looking p. chad when compared to virgin Hellvetian exo.  Elysian Oils Named after the four rivers of paradise that nurtured the earth, they are made according to ancient processes (though the book says that blends exist). Acheron and Styx are additional two varieties named after the rivers of the dead – that's because they're mixed with Burn. Specialty: all oils come in level from 1-3, but for Acheron and Styx, you roll for quality when you use it. >Perat: the most common, taken by Orgiastics and Ascetics. Gives +1D to PSY+Faith/Willpower and INS+Perception per level for 4 hours. Seems kinda powerful! >Hiddekel: the Furror go-juice. Per level, +1D to INS+Primal (and, specifically, not Focus), and +1D to PSY+Reaction (the way the book writes it out, only the Primal effect stacks?) for 4 hours. >Gehon: this keeps you going, by giving +1 to INS+Focus, and Trauma penalties are reduced by 1 per level. Again, works for 4 hours. >Pischon: rare and basically only made and consumed by Elysian elders. +1D per level to CHA+Expression and PSY+Faith for 4 hours. May or may not turn you into a rock-and-roll clown of some sort. >Styx: allows you to take one less damage per level per round. So if you get stabbed by an Apocalyptic for 3 damage and shot by a Scrapper for 4, you only take 6 damage if using a level 1 oil. Only works half and hour, and then gives Trauma damage equal to the level of the oil. Does not seem worth it. >Acheron: Puts “Retribution” in “Blacklight: Retribution” and allows you to see Psychonauts, Leperos and other freaks even through solid stuff. However, they can see you as well. The range is 10 paces at level 1, 100 paces at level 2, and 300 at level 3. Works for half an hour and gives you spore infestation equal to the level of the oil. Next time: Behold a Paler host JcDent fucked around with this message at 11:15 on Oct 15, 2020 |
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Oct 15, 2020 05:26
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Wapole Languray posted:Do people want me to continue this? Stop here? Or just give a super annotated cliff's note version of the rest? I think someone a few pages ago made a good point: Loxbourne posted:This does actually raise a difficult question, This module is the real deal in terms of repugnant, repulsive Magical Realm bullshit and people are understandably freaked out. How do you comment on this? Taking something to a logical and absurd extreme is a staple of geeky humour. What can you actually say to a module that amounts to sexual abuse of its own playerbase when it is presented to you? Cliff notes version might be the best way to go, because I don't think there's actually that much to talk about here.
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Oct 15, 2020 08:08
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I for one vote for full immersion. Give me my mads.
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Oct 15, 2020 08:56
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I think the difference between something like Beneath and the Chris Fields stuff is that when you sit down to a Black Tokyo game the assumption is that everyone knows they're playing D&D by way of 80s tentacle-demon anime; there's no fooling the players involved. (Not saying they have any redeeming features apart from that)
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Oct 15, 2020 09:21
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The Inverted Church is rather obscure as far as tabletop publicity goes. The only other reviews I can find of it are on RPGnet (negative): https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/17/17197.phtml And this YouTuber, UndeadViking, who really dances around the fact that it's a porny dungeon, even going so far as to claim that the adventure doesn't "trivialize sexual assault" and "treats it with respect." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8pPIbD69Mo Wapole's review is sort of a public service in that it's already being talked about, albeit not to the same extent as say Black Tokyo. But there's not really any in-depth critical reads out there. Even the negative RPGnet review sounds like it's downplaying some stuff, albeit still with a critical eye. Or maybe Wapole's just covering the worst of the worst and the majority of this doorstopper is dreadfully boring as opposed to outright offensive.
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Oct 15, 2020 09:50
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JCDent: Speaking of SPACE ANOMALIES in Degenesis, do we ever get any rules for them or overview of them? It feels mostly like they've been dropped in as flavour text at a lot of points but never really mechanically anchored in anything except possibly as a "idunno, make some poo poo up" for the GM.
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Oct 15, 2020 10:27
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I did a quick check, and no. I think all the possible environmental hazards have already been covered in the gameplay chapter. Maybe they hope to detail them in future splats for Hybrispania, Purgare, and Balkhan?
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Oct 15, 2020 11:12
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Honestly, I’m still stuck on the fact that the evil villain plan is to fight bigotry in the most torn-from-CHUD-fever-dreams way possible, and the heroic act is to ensure bigotry continues.
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Oct 15, 2020 13:11
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I know I keep hammering on the 'bad artist' angle, but I think that's another example of it here. In my opinion, the writer is doing a 'both sides' thing where the PCs destroy the Inverted Church only to leave behind a lovely world filled with small-minded prejudice. It's the sort "nothing good can happen" ending that I sort of expect from an obviously antagonistic DM. Your attempt at heroism has failed and the world continues to suck. But I could be wrong.
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Oct 15, 2020 15:04
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Ithle01 posted:I know I keep hammering on the 'bad artist' angle, but I think that's another example of it here. In my opinion, the writer is doing a 'both sides' thing where the PCs destroy the Inverted Church only to leave behind a lovely world filled with small-minded prejudice. It's the sort "nothing good can happen" ending that I sort of expect from an obviously antagonistic DM. Your attempt at heroism has failed and the world continues to suck. But I could be wrong. See, my opinion is the authors are just CHUDs, based on the rest of the content and the consistency of it.
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Oct 15, 2020 15:07
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Mors Rattus posted:See, my opinion is the authors are just CHUDs, based on the rest of the content and the consistency of it. I'm pretty sure the only people who want to run this are CHUDs, no doubt,
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Oct 15, 2020 15:14
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I'm all about the Speaking Rat Society. Parliament of rats, now in session! First order of business, pizza collection.
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Oct 15, 2020 17:00
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 Two sample dungeons, two Make Your Own Dungeons, and a list of sample residential dwellings by income level comprise this chapter. Our first entry, the Catacombs, is an expansive underground network of tunnels beneath Endon. Extending beyond the sewer system, it is possible to enter through basements, storm drains, the Old Endon Cemetery, and even the Auld Grey Cathedral. There’s a variety of tables for determining entrances, atmospheric details, potentially hazardous complications, and random encounters which can also be a treasure hoard of coins and/or magic items. We also have 15 mini-map locations laid out in grid patterns, ranging from Crypts to Ladder Shafts to Sunken Pools and even Stone Circles brimming with magical energy. The Bells of St. Bristow is a 7-room dungeon crawl where a priest pays the PCs to track down the theft of three bronze bells. The bells in fact have been stolen by a giant hermit crab which lairs beneath a small church as part of a larger infestation. The Biggest Aspidistra in the World is actually a mere residential home...lifted up hundreds of feet into the air courtesy of a magical plant that grew rapidly overnight. Several of the “rooms” are in fact portions of the stalk and plant leaves home to various insectoid monsters; the PCs can encounter a stranded balloonist who tried to rescue the home’s family before the party got around to doing the same thing, and said family is dysfunctional and practically at their wit’s end due to the stress of the situation. Generic Dwellings are a set of 4 maps with accompanying 1d10 and 1d20 tables for determining “eccentricities” notable in their construction and/or residents. There’s also a 1d10 “Guards, Guards!” table for determining a house’s security. Said security can range from mere civilians armed with improvised weapons to trained magical creatures or even a maid with a Minor Magic Weapon. Finally, the Wonder-Mansion Generator is a pair of 1d20 tables for populating the domains of nobles and well-to-do wizards. The Contents table showcases weird art projects and rare items worth a pretty gold piece, while Complications determines traps, enemies, and other opposition which stands in the way of the PCs who might try to steal them.  This is full of material that does not easily fit anywhere else in the book. We first start off with Reasons to Visit Endon that include generic ones (selling/buying magic items, profitable ventures, cosmopolitan resources) as well as ones separated by character class (instill religious morality, tracking down enemies of your order, etc). Interestingly the classes adhere to 5th Edition terminology barring some mention of OSR renames (Thieves/Rogues/Assassins), and there’s reasons given for Sorcerers and Warlocks, classes which didn’t exist in TSR-era D&D. Afterwards we have three 1d20 tables for Generic Plot Hooks, Lectures at Loxdon College, and Plays & Operas. The Plot Hooks are one-sentence summaries of potential events in Endon ranging from the mundane (military coup, someone unjustly committed to an asylum) to the more fantastical (a serial killer rises from the dead to continue his bloody work, mad scientist threatens to zap Endon with a death ray unless given lots of money). Lectures at Loxdon College cover the types of things one would expect from a magical Victorian setting, such as The Language of Whales or Life and Commerce on the Moon. Plays and Operas include titles, authors, and descriptions along with a second table for determining one-sentence blurbs from acerbic reviewers, many of which are quite witty (“the music is better than it sounds”). Finally we have an Index, a Bibliography, Inspirational Media, an oddly-placed 1d100 I Search the Body table with d20 results separated by social class (last d20 is “Unusual”), and a Pre-Session Checklist for keeping track of Innovation Progression, Tempo, and a brief list of GMing tips. And our very last page is a Solve My Problems Sheet which has answers to some common questions of likely interest to PCs and their shenanigans. For example “I’ve done something illegal” gives a brief description and page references to Copper stat blocks and the criminal justice system. Pamphlets  These are not part of the book itself, but separate 1-2 page PDFs that come with the eBook purchase of MIR. As I do not own the physical copy I don’t know if they’re physical handouts or just bonus pages. Cumberworld’s Handbook of Magical Industry is an abridged version of the most pertinent aspects of the Magical Industry Chapter in handout form for PCs. Dreadful Life is a collection of in-character newspaper advertisements and a short news article on the trials of individual criminals of Endon. The Secret Key, or a Visitor’s Guide to Endon is an in-character handout of a map of the city and its 25 major locations, more in-character advertisements, mention of tourist attractions, and a portrait of the Monarch with a brief explanation of who he is in very flattering terms. Thoughts So Far: The dungeons are a nice touch, and I particularly appreciate the maps for residences and underground urban areas. The bronze bell dungeon crawl feels a bit out of place in a setting largely bereft of religion, but the house stuck at the top of a giant plant is cool and novel. The appendices are a nice touch, as are the handout pamphlets. Final Thoughts: I haven’t really perused the work of Skerples before this, but after reading Magical Industrial Revolution I can understand the popularity of his content. Magical Industrial Revolution gives us a setting that is novel in multiple ways: besides being set in a Fantasy Victorian culture ill-explored by D&D, it does a great job of threading the needle between the complications of magic changing society while also presenting plausible changes and turmoil that can come with progress. Like Eberron it discusses how various spells and magical items can revolutionize day to day life. But unlike Eberron, domestic and “industrial” spells and items are more easily attainable by PCs without becoming overly cost-prohibitive, and there are rules for the party setting up their own Magic Item Mart (albeit at a smaller, more individual scale). All in all, Magical Industrial Revolution is a definite recommendation, whether or not you’re a purveyor of OSR games. The material within is easily minable for other systems, although some care may have to be taken if transitioning it to games that use a Wealth-by-Level mechanic or ones where the cheapening of scrolls, wands, and other such fare can cause a massive power imbalance. I do get that this is the point of the setting, but it’s still something to look out for nonetheless. I have plans on reviewing another book, although I cannot predict which book in particular that will be or when I’ll start. For now, I thank everyone who read this far. See you all on the next Let’s Read! Author’s Comments So while hanging out in an OSR Discord, the author of this book commented on some choices in regards to design. With his permission I’m quoting them here: Skerples responding to a reader comment posted:"I found just with experimenting, that one phenomenon would increase at a constant rate while the other 7 stalled. Just a quirk of the math." Also Skerples posted:Enjoying the readthrough + comments on various sites. I might put together a blog post answering some questions at the end (instead of creating several accounts).
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Oct 15, 2020 21:46
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OH BOY HERE WE GO Recite The Litany Of Stealth To Avoid Being Heard; or, Someone Who Hates Warhammer 40k F&F's The New Warhammer 40k Comic  Hey cats. Name's Sasha and I'm here to be a big bitch to Warhammer 40k. My history with the franchise is late-2000s teenage megafan to radicalized 2014 adult who realized how fashy the whole enterprise was and tries to avoid talking about it now because it just makes me mad. Now 40k is once again available in my preferred medium that isn't movies (it's comics), and like flies to poo poo, I cannot resist. I am going into this blind but predisposed towards disliking it, so if someone dunking on 40k doesn't sound like your idea of fun, you might want to skip this. Or I might fall in love all over again. Wouldn't that be nice! I'm trying to keep an open mind, because Kieron Gillen is usually pretty good, but I don't have high hopes for a comic where this  Is what passes for a protagonist. Issue one came out literally yesterday, so it's all I'm gonna read because it's all that exists. I might continue this if it hooks me AT ALL, but don't like...expect this to be super regular. REGARDLESS, EVER THUS DO WE BEGIN, IN THE SHITBLACKNESS OF GRIMDARKIA 40,000,000,000 Okay, so the first page pornographically describes a giantbig bullet being fired out of a gun and killing a heretic. It knows what you're here for and I'm positive at least one 40k creep got kind of aroused by it. Yeesh.  [homsar voice] dyaaaaahhhhh i'm a big spacemaaaaaan The next page is the credits and title, as if this book had earned a cold open. Plus an abbreviated version of the "IN THE GRIM DARKNESS THERE IS ONLY WAAAAAAR" spiel that conveniently leaves out the parts where the thing Calgar is fighting to uphold is rotten and corrupt. "40k doesn't portray the Imperium as good guys, it's just satire, everyone is bad guys, hrbrhbthrbrhgbrlblvblbghthggl" https://imgur.com/qT5ZisJ "Did I leave the cyber-domitus-patria-in-nomine-stove on?" Evidently ol' Calgary Jake is busy thinking about war things and is too distracted to let the boring robot man talk to him. So Calgar talks about how the planet he's on is all messed up from recent battles but that's okay because it's been messed up before and we should really get to repairing all this when suddenly some more space marines show up to tell him there's been an attack and the time for more pages of Space Marines effortlessly slaughtering mooks is now. A few stray notes: I do not like the art in this book. He looks like somebody's golf-obsessed boomer dad, and for some reason his hand is all gnarled and strange in that panel. Also the stupid virgin robot nerd tries to talk about rebuilding things instead of shooting things, and that's dumb nerd poo poo, so Marneus Calgar slaps that little pussy down with some MCU-quality bants. I assume before the big battle started, he dumped the cyber-dork's books too. The next TWO PAGES are an IMMENSE and highly compressed map of THE ENTIRE loving 40K GALAXY and I have never cared less about a map in a fantasy thing. It stops to highlight Macragge to tell us some more poo poo I don't care about. DYING IN YOUR THIRTIES IS GRIMDAAAAAAAAAAARK.  This panel is insanely funny to me. We need more poo poo like this in 40k. "Dirt-farmers supplying hay to an aeons-old techno-fortress" completely kicks rear end. Anyway this tech-priest is apparently twitchy because Calgar knows who he is (which is corny but, in fairness, I'd be pretty excited if, like, Obama knew who I was or something). Calgar basically talks like your platonic ideal of a Good Guy Space Marine and this is actually starting to be boring. Then some stuff that the real 40kids in the audience are here to see happens. Why do these Chaos boys wear uniforms? It's weird, isn't it? "Chaos in uniforms"? Then Calgar broods on a hilltop over such devastation to his home, then when the tech-priest asks if it's his home, Calgar says some badass poo poo about how it's not his home. Okay? The next page is half-flashback start, half-infodump about his not-homeworld apparently, and I am literally not even going to bother reading it. So in the flashback we meet a kid with cybernetic parts who exhibits excitement, which another despises and commands his bratty fellow who dares to be a child to not "distract your betters". Very manful, this not-having-emotions business. Two child soldiers practice until one nicks the other with the knife and it's super badass and awesome, don't you wish you had a childhood like this. Turns out one of the kids is Baby Calgar and he's quoting the Codex Astartes and being a good smart little child soldier who's also badass and cool and nice too. Yawn. Then this other kid is like "BEING NICE IS FOR SQUARES!" and frankly I'm still not sure why I'm supposed to feel anything for any of these characters?? Besides brand recognition I guess. We meet a gruff teacher guy and these kids are gonna either become space marines or die in The Test and I have never been more bored reading about child-soldiers about to be murdered in the name of a psychotic religion. (Could be worse - I could be reading US Army pamphlets, ha cha cha). So the kids get dropped off on the moon and then a giant murder monster shows up and then we go back to the present-future of the grimdarkness of 40,000 years ago in the future. Apparently heretics attacking is mysterious and strange and Calgary Jack must Know Their Goals and then we get ANOTHER PAGE OF loving PLANETARY INFODUMP. PLEASE TELL A STORY INSTEAD OF GIVING US FUN FACTS SPRINKLED BETWEEN ACTION SCENES.  I...I don't know... Anyway, it goes to the moon and some tech-priests on the moon where murderbeast was Get Got but left alive by Chaos Space Marines who, I STRAIGHT UP SWEAR, say this Saturday Morning Cartoon poo poo:  And then that's it. I know this is only issue one of an ongoing and it hasn't had time to develop its themes and yadda yadda yadda, but if this is the standard of quality from written 40k works lately (and Chaos help the comic division if this is the best art they can get), it does nothing to dissuade me from my conclusion. CONCLUSION: 40k is still pretty much exactly like it was back in the 2000s and 2010s, stuff about big beefmen having feelings and being sad that they do genocide (but not stopping the genocide or questioning the things that make them do genocide). Overall I give it Absolutely Normal 40k Thing out of 5.
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Oct 15, 2020 22:58
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Libertad! posted:The Bells of St. Bristow is a 7-room dungeon crawl where a priest pays the PCs to track down the theft of three bronze bells. The bells in fact have been stolen by a giant hermit crab which lairs beneath a small church as part of a larger infestation. In sorry, but I just love the idea of a giant hermit crab that lives in church bells, because of course it would.
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Oct 16, 2020 00:39
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Magical Industrial Revolution seems like a tighter and more focused version of Electric Bastionland, with less evocative artwork but much more table-ready content. Good series, thanks for posting.
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Oct 16, 2020 01:33
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