|
Yawgmoth posted:this is the most Utena thing I have ever heard in a game. Completely intentionally! Utena is incredible.
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2020 15:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 11:26 |
|
|
Lazy like a Fox posted:That game has spawned a lot of great stories, but I don't lie when I say that one is somehow my favorite. I enjoyed this! We once had a three-quarters orc who, ashamed of the bloodthirsty nature of his progeniture, become a monk in an order dedicated to self-discipline and rationality in a somewhat Vulcan-esque way. However, he had one level in barbarian so, in specific situations, he would go batshit and punch everything to death in a blind rage. The character arc was him realising that, sometimes, acting out of control is a necessary evil (or good, depending).
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2020 16:15
|
|
|
Bieeanshee posted:As someone with some of those symptoms, your DM is a loving rear end in a top hat. Just wanted to say that. He totally was, the cat piss was coming from behind the screen in that story. Sorry if anyone thought I was implying otherwise.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2020 20:27
|
|
|
Super Waffle posted:He totally was, the cat piss was coming from behind the screen in that story. Sorry if anyone thought I was implying otherwise. No, you're fine. I think I'm just annoyed because I recognized a number of those symptoms in myself, and I worry about getting that kind of treatment.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2020 01:24
|
|
|
EPISODE THREE - ARMY OF BARKNESS We're off into the woods to fight a giant, sentient demonic tree and its harrowing archdemon rider. We set up this elaborate ambush with cut-down trees for barricades and narrowed sightlines and stuff for when the big tree crosses a river. And then stumbleduck goes on an hourlong adventure to nowhere that ends with him riding a hawk over to the tree-monster and turning traitor, telling the horned demon riding it what we are up to and that we'd brought one imperial fuckton of werewolves. So the big tree, the Blight, stops in the middle of the river, silently calling us out. Sov calls a tactical withdrawal. We pull back deeper into the forest and set up a less-prepared ambush (basically we just stood behind trees and waited). After a few minutes he Blight wades after us but then we noticed, that the demon was no longer on it. Suddenly, an unholy singing rings throughout the forest and all of the trees we're using for cover come to life These things hit HARD. After getting our asses kicked by the now-animated trees, the sorcerer throws a fireball at the Blight and the demon counterspells it before it hits, revealing his position - in the middle of the forest and quite near a platoon of twenty werewolves led by the only named werewolf who Sovereign had decided was her second in command. Interesting bit of trivia, werewolves are not resistant to nonmagical bashing damage. They're immune. Basically how it winds up was fifty werewolves crowding around the base of the one inanimate tree left in the forest, Devanka (the named one) scaling it to battle the demon in the branches and the rest of the party getting hammered by the animated trees. Chazzzzz keeps laying into the Blight with his pyromancy - while it kills twenty or so of Sov's doggos with its magical scythe branches like it's mowing the lawn. The demon tries to teleport away but the sorcerer counterspells him in quite a moment of kismet, then Sov cast Command, which lets her issue a one-word command to an enemy. She orders the demon to Grovel, which caused him to on his turn drop prone and then end his turn. He failed to resist it. Cue fifty werewolves readying attacks... He belly-flops out of the tree into a sea of werewolves, most of whom miss him but enough hit to rip him up pretty bad. The rest of the party is barely managing to stay alive at this point and their named NPC allies are going down around them. Sov strolls up to the prone demon, and in Celestial tells him "This is why you don't gently caress with angels." Smites him once, twice, second hit is charged with a Thunderous Smite - which has an added knockback effect which sends him through the thickest concentration of werewolves and they just straight up mulch him as he passes through their readied attacks. The rest of the Never Sunny gang finishes off the tree, except the cleric who is just running away from trees and healing himself the entire fight. Cedric's corpse gets pulled from the tree (Ducky had been playing a long game to try and get him out) and his dad shows up, his dad who is it turns out an ancient Elven trickster god, who had been posing as a flamboyant bard NPC that followed us around for a while. Followed, of course, by the vampire demigod who runs the whole place, golf-clapping at our little victory. Sov, battered and blood-soaked, says, "Are you having fun? 'Cause I had fun." Then slaps his hand away from the relic he tries to steal from the demon's corpse and claims it for his own. As it turns out he had good reason to try and snatch this little curio away from us: it's the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, which the demon was holding onto as an insurance policy. He reiterates an earlier offer to take us to his castle. Ducky, Cedric, his dad and Ectar (who has a curse on him by the hags where if he doesn't plant an enchanted eyeball somewhere in the castle in an unspecified amount of time he turns into a snake) take him up on it, but Sov, the sorcerer, the named NPCs and of course the werewolves decline. Sov asks Strahd to send back the former second in command of the werewolf pack (who had disappeared into his castle after being run off by the previous alpha) in exchange for taking half her crew and he says, "She doesn't want to come back." "Well, tell her the pack's under new management." He tentatively agrees, and we take our dwindled crew and head back to the city of Krezk. Along the way, Chazzzzz asked Sovereign what their next move is. "I'm thinkin' we take over. You in?" "gently caress yeah." The twin terrors are in total agreement, with an army of angry wolves behind them. What could go wrong? NEXT TIME: All of it goes wrong
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2020 03:56
|
|
|
quote:NEXT TIME: All of it goes wrong  Also, if it doesn't go completely rear end-over-teakettle, can you really say you were even playing a game at all?
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2020 13:36
|
|
|
Loaded to the gills with guns. Where we last left off our merry band of would be heroes they had just beaten off a unit of Czerka security droids and their carrier. Now, standing at the foot of the Czerka base they were faced with a problem. How would they get inside? As a safety measure the place stood raised several meters above the ground and partially built into a large rocky formation. After discussing between each other the plan goes from making a grappling hook from one of the recently destroyed droids to recovering the crashed droid carrier and use it as lift. Fiddling with the droid carrier for a few moments Tieron manages to make the thing work and the vulture lifts off the ground. But it's not completely successful, the droid brain manages to get reset in the process. It works regardless, but is unable to do any complex tasks. It does however also possess controls for a rider and Kyrae steps up to the task. Meanwhile Ross ties one end of the rope they're going to use to climb up on the droid. But things do not go exactly as planned. Instead of grabbing what she thinks is the steering column she instead manages to first hit the gas pedal, followed the the breaks a split second after. The others bare witness to the Sith pureblood suddenly being launched off the back of the droid as it launches itself into the sky. Only for it to slam into one of the base struts which sends its crashing back into the sand. At the same time the rope rapidly unspools and manages to get snagged around her foot. A split second later Kyrae is yanked into the air and soon finds herself dangling from her foot, halfway up the cliffside. What happened is that Kyrae's player only rolled one success and the GM decided to flip a destiny point. So the team has their grapple and line installed but now one of their members are dangling upside down halfway up the rope. Ross is the first one to act and climbs up to help her. By grabbing her ankle and throwing up to the top. Which the burly trandoshan manages quite handily and the pureblood lands safely up to the hangar above them. Joined by the other the team finds the hangar floor a complete mess of spare parts lying everywhere. As if someone has gone through several projects but stopped midway through. But more importantly, there's no one around. But as they look around they find signs that they aren't alone here. There's signs that someone that isn't a droid lives at the base. They even come across living quarters that shows obvious signs that it's inhabited and not abandoned. But who that might be they have no idea as they're nowhere in sight. Even if Kyrae and Ross hears the sound of a grate falling somewhere. Their attention is drawn towards a door that suddenly slams shut on the second floor. The team huddles up next to the door. quote:Ross'ti Lan slinks over to the Maintenance door, putting on his best "Trandoshan bounty hunter" voice, which involves a fair bit more growling and hissing than usual. He speaks loudly to the doorway. But despite Ross less than impressive threats nothing happens. Even if the others can hear a whirring sound coming from the other side of the door. Kyrae gives the door an exploratory kick to force it open. It budges slightly, but that's when they discover that it's a swing-out door. And suddenly swings out, right into their faces. With such a force it's almost thrown off its hinges. Out from the doorway strides a tall lanky droid that is taller than the trandoshan (Essentially K2-SO from Rogue One) and in one movement smacks Tieron off the walkway they were standing on and down to the hangar floor beneath. Luckily the cathars fall is buffeted by a bunch of empty crates then it pulls out a vibro sword from one arm. The battle that follows isn't easy, with Ross taking a whole bunch of damage and not able to do much in return due to not having any way to do piercing damage. Kyrae and Sirra don't have much luck in damaging it either. On the other hand it seemed as if Tieron had inherited his mother's accuracy and manages to crit the droid twice. First shooting off the vibroblade arm and then manages to take out its backup weapon, a shock glove, as well. In the midst of the fight the team suddenly hears the sound of beeping buttons and... oninking. quote:Yem Gudetu:"Hrrr. Hold them off just a little more ! Hrr. hrrr !" At one point Kyrae gets off a lucky shot that manages to strike the droid in the neck. But instead of destroying it the shot has the effect of jolting it back to its senses as it looks around confused for a few moments before toppling over the railing and down onto the hangar floor. With the fight finally over the team meets the main resident of the base. Darth Malgus, or Yem Gudetu, is a complete and utter coward. The ugnaught mechanic offering not much in terms of resistance as the PC's catch him trying to scuttle back into the vents to hide.He readily hands over the access card to the base's main console and letting Tieron go to work with turning off the huge pylons that are drilling into the spawning sites of the local crabs. He also notices another ship in the system, CZArms FX-042 White Claw. Disabling the repulsor generators that kept the crabs at bay is done without any issues. Their job of saving the crabs is complete. But their celebration is cut short as they notice the cruiser has begun descending into Coral's atmosphere. Realizing that it's high time to leave they grab the Sith Security droid and a bunch of spare parts and junk with them and loading it onto the recovered vulture. Just as they think they're in the clear, everything goes to hell. With a thunderous KRAK-A-DOOOOOOOOOW the cruiser they saw before breaks into the lower atmosphere of the planet and executes an orbital drop. The sonic boom of its entrance nearly throws them all down to the ground and ground and sky shakes violently at its entrance. But what really throws them down is the sudden activation of the ships massive repulsor engines as it violently breaks its descent, flattening both the forest underneath it as well as pushing away the water near the coastline. Pulverising corals at they get exposed. For a moment the hull of the ship glows like a small sun from the friction heat as it hangs still in the air. The team barely has time to recover before the guns come out. Suddenly the lower decks of the cruiser opens and hundreds upon hundreds of blaster batteries, turbolasers and rocket artillery pops out of holes in the hull and holes on the gun themselves. In an instant they target the outpost they had just been to and unleashes a torrent of pure death and destruction upon it. The volume of fire obliterating the archipelago that it was located on. And it just keeps on firing, and firing, and firing. And hour later it the ship stops shooting. Having turned the base and the surrounding area to rapidly cooling slag. Now it hangs silently above their heads and another problem arises, with that thing in the sky they're unable to leave Coral. With their mission done and realizing they don't have that many options they decide to stop by Dr. Sphyrnide first to deliver the good news. Only to find the courtyard of the Gree ruins slash museum completely overrun with crabs. Every nook and cranny, inch and centimeter is covered in Qylubs of all shapes, colours and sizes. With more coming in. But to their surprise the crabs don't do anything except looking at them as they enter. One even extending a claw out in what appears to be a wave. With the crabs letting them pass they move back down to the underground lake and are surprised to see both doctors in the same place. The two seemingly having made peace while they were dealing with the outpost. In the discussion that followed it turned out that the sudden bombardment managed to unearth fissures containing weird crystals that somehow manages to disable electronics. Before long a plan is hatched to use the vulture carrier to get them onboard and use a sufficient amount of those crystals to disable the ship hanging above them to allow them to leave the planet without running the risk of being atomised in the process. Next time: Boarding actions.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2020 22:24
|
|
|
I learned a word today that made me think of just about every gaming session I’ve run or participated in:quote:Apophenia : “the tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated or random things (such as objects or ideas)” All my clues point one way, but an off the cuff comment about that thing over there derails everything. That random, throwaway NPC at the bar? Now is central to the entire plot.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2020 03:22
|
|
|
So it was a fake Sith, then?
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2020 05:16
|
|
|
Oh yeah, the ugnaught was definitely not a sith lord and it was just the Enforcer droid being strange. We haven't woken it up again to figure things out yet. The actual sith lord with that name might still be alive in the campaign, or they died in the interim years between the two seasons. Can't remember on the top of my head. Not OSHA compliant. The team spends a while preparing for their next task of boarding the massive cruiser. Experimenting with the weird crystals shows that they sap the energy from any powered device they're placed nearby before releasing electromagnetic pulses. As for getting up there Tieron manages to bolt on a couple of seats onto the vulture droid. It works but it's nowhere near comfortable for more than a few minutes. But either way the droid retains its mobility so it's good enough for what they need to do. With transportation sorted through, and lacking any more equipment to bring with them, they launch into the night sky towards the ship. With the trandoshan still recovering from his wounds the task falls upon the other three to disable the cruiser. (Ross' player had internet issues in this case and couldn't attend.) The ride up there isn't pleasant, the damaged and overloaded vulture droid crawling itself upwards and randomly veers left and right as its engines sputter. Without any means of gaining entry through the ships airlocks they're forced to go through the main entrance, the hangar bay. They land in a mostly empty hangar bay. The entire room spotless and clean with the exception of a series of racks mounted in the roof. All of them holding thirty large metal pods. The markings on all the pods say the same thing: Jaeger Extermination Droid. Before the team has time to consider why Republic combat droids are on a Czerka ship they're interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming closer. They're in a bit of at tight spot as the hangar is so immaculately clean that there isn't that many places to hide from the patrol coming closer. The only two places being either climbing up and hiding behind one of the pods, or a small maintenance hatch. Sirra manages to scramble her way up behind one of them, meanwhile Tieron and Kyrae fail to do the same and bolt for the maintenance hatch that reveals a small room barely big enough for the two of them. They manage to squeeze inside and close the door behind them just as four battle droids enter the hangar. An argument ensues between the droids as to why there's a Vulture droid onboard all of a sudden before they turn around to go report to the captain. CZ-1 Battle Droids posted:"We should ask the captain then, he'll prove you all wrong" The team emerges from their hiding spaces with Tieron managing to rip his shirt off as it catches the side of a panel. quote:Sirra Iscandar:"What were you two doing in there?" But now the team knows it's only a matter of time before their presence onboard is known and they quickly set off in the direction of the ships engine room. After a short walk through some maintenance corridors, its walls lined with battle droid racks, they reach a set of mechanics airlocks leading to what they assume is the engine room on the other side. They stop briefly to help themselves to the tools inside one of them. Sirra managing to fiddle around with one of the tool lockers and getting it open. Rooting through some paperwork they discover that the ship acts like a taxi of sorts, picking up and dropping off mechanics or engineers at various Czerka outposts. One of the names listed being Yem Gudetu, the ugnaught they talked to earlier. Currently all of them being at their outposts, leaving the ship mostly empty aside from its crew. It's when they head into the engine room they realize they have a problem. The ships repurposing involved gutting the entire lower decks and turning it all into weapon arrays. Including the support structure for them. But the bigger problem is the reactor itself. Located in the center it's a gargantuan six barreled reactor that is held in place by struts bolted directly to the inner hold. The whole modification is completely insane and suicidal, but it has the advantage of being able to run it at near meltdown levels at all times. If they had any geiger counters on them they would most likely be screaming loudly at them. They pause for a moment, realizing that they're kind of out of their depth with this. There are hazmat suits, but they're all Ugnaught sized and nowhere suited for any of the party members. This is also when they discover that the ships engineering deck is located right above the reactor as well. Which complicates things further. They discuss things between each other at how to proceed. That's when the alarms go off and Battle droids come to life on their racks. Their presence is known. Realizing that any attempts at sneaking around is now futile they pull out their blasters and start shooting at the incoming droids. What follows is an intense firefight as three people hold their ground against increasing numbers of battle droids. It's when the JEX droid shows up that things turn badly for them. It's heavy blaster almost managing to cut Tieron in half as it unloads on them. The two others being saved by being behind cover. But they're hanging by a thread. In a blind fury Kyrae charges the massive droid and leaps on its back in an effort to take it out. What follows is a scene of carnage as the JEX droid is still firing its weapons as it tries to throw the clinging pureblood off its shoulders and takes out all the surrounding smaller battle droids. She manages to disconnect the ammo feed for its blasters before she is thrown back into the air lock again. quote:Almost mischievously the droid raises its weapons, aiming it at you, the barrel spooling. They manage to slam the airlock door shut, only to see it dent inwards from a punch from the droid fully intent on killing them all. A second one nearly splits the door in half. After getting Tieron up on his feet they only have one option but retreating into the reactor room and to the engineering room. As Tieron works on spooling down the reactor the JEX has managed to punch its way through the first door, the slamming of its fist against the second one adding ominous undertones and only highlighting their urgency. They quickly discuss their options but they quickly realize that they don't have that many options. Attempting to power down the reactor from where they were would take far too long. Not to mention the action could be countermanded from the still active bridge. There's only really one way, the crystals. But that also means getting very close to an unshielded reactor. In the end Tieron volunteers himself, grabbing a handful of crystals from his backpack and making his way down to the reactor. Descending into the radioactive haze he quickly deposits a crystal in each of the cores. When the Cathar comes back to the others his body is smoking, large red spots appearing on his chest from the massive dose of radiation he's been exposed to. But any worries about that is forgotten when the second airlock door is suddenly ripped in half. GM posted:The airlock door splits in half, the droid stepping through with grim resolve. In one hand it drags the remains of one of the battle droids, planning to use it as a club perhaps. The droid spends no time going around the gantry, coiling on it's hydraulic legs and leaping through the air to slam inside the room you stand in, metal struts and glass shattering as it rolls inside the room. The droid doesn't' stop his movement, rolling and recovering in a full sprint as it charges toward you, its head blurting murderous binary chatter. Everyone begins running back towards the hangar as hell breaks out around them for real. The rest ships droid contingent coming to life now. With blaster bolts trailing behind them they manage to make it back to the ride and with the throttle pushed to the max they launch themselves out of the hangar bay. Followed by even more blaster fire as the rest of the JEX droids in the hangar comes to life as well. As they zoom away they can see the weapon pods underneath the cruiser coming to life and aiming towards them. Their descent back down towards the relative safety of the ground is trailed by blaster bolts exploding around them or hitting the forest canopy. But more and more weapons begin to unfurl from the otherside, preparing to obliterate everything in sight. It's then the EMP wave finally hits. The guns suddenly go limp and the ship slowly begins to descend as its repulsors give out. And that's when Coral retaliates. Suddenly the air shakes and a loud roar reverberates as the three riders stare wide eyed as they can see the whole island begin to move.  Out from the sea an absolutely gargantuan crab emerges. A claw, easily the size of two spaceships, crashes down on the cruiser and nearly splits it in half. The Crab-Island beginning to drag the dying ship back into the depths of the sea. Everywhere they look they can see other Qylubs holding their claws into the air, snapping in tune with the titans monstrous roar. They find the two doctors looking awestruck as the titan crab they're standing on slowly sinks back into the sea again and a sense of stillness returns to Coral. They've done it, they've saved both the crabs and taken care of the Czerka ship as well. All it took was one of the party members being exposed to near lethal doses of radiation. By now Tieron is in a sorry state, his body slowly giving away to radiation poisoning. His eyes bloodshot and large sores covering his body. It's only thanks to the help of the Gree engine located on the planet and its slightly regenerative qualities is his is saved. But only barely, giving him somewhere between 2 to 3 months left to live unless he can find proper genetic therapy to undo the damage done to him. The two doctors, alongside Ross, manages to come up with a way to halt the cellular decay in his body. At the expense of... "Unforeseen side effects" and possibly radically altering the cathar's genome. Either way he still needs proper treatment to survive. His only chance of survival lies finding help in the one civilized place in the Rishi Maze, a station called "The Ring". With Dr. Sphyrnide telling them to talk to a corsair they know named Malek Zok'yss that might be able to help them find a doctor, or someone that can help them at least. Next time: The Ring
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2020 14:52
|
|
|
Cooked Auto posted:Out from the sea an absolutely gargantuan crab emerges. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2020 23:00
|
|
|
Yawgmoth posted:One might even say that crab is part leviathan. I should say I used that art because that's what the GM used for reference in OOC chat. Knew it was MtG art but didn't take a closer look at the card itself. Also the GM mentioned afterwards that the end goal for the whole adventure was to have it end with a giant crab.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 01:34
|
|
|
The Star Wars stories in this thread are all notable for their lack of Jedi players. It seems that Star Wars games are really awesome until you have a jedi involved, at which it becomes the cat-piss. Are Jedi somehow broken, or is it that players shy away from playing Jedi for some other reason?
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 02:49
|
|
|
Agrikk posted:The Star Wars stories in this thread are all notable for their lack of Jedi players. Jedi tend to be broken. I forget the mechanics, but there are ways to limit their use/abuse of force powers.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 03:21
|
|
|
Pretty sure Jedi's were broke in the older Star Wars RPGs but as others have mentioned not so much in the FFG one. Otherwise I tend to view them a bit like Paladins in that their presence tends to dictate how a party should act. Or how a campaign should play. Can't really have a morally dubious campaign when there's a champion of justice right next to you that might not really agree. And if they do they're suddenly going to get penalized with dark side points. Not to mention a jedi amongst a bunch of scoundrel is going to tip things a bit weirdly as well before long. In our campaign we've had some Jedi adjacent things. In the first campaign two of the characters in the party thought they were force sensitive, and one of them being a massive Jedi fan as well.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 03:36
|
|
|
I also think Jedi tend to have a lot of narrative power due to their powers, when you have force suggestion, super energy swords and inhuman reflexes it means you don't need to be as creative with your solutions as more mundane characters. Not having Jedi in your Star Wars games means you might consider a whole lot of options and narratives that would otherwise come up. If you play their code of conduct like the movies portray they're also pretty boring to play with as mentioned, although a lot of expanded fiction and stories make that a lot more flexible.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 11:31
|
|
|
In the one game I've played in the new Star Wars system, we only had one force user in the party, but he wasn't a Jedi so we avoided the problem of the Jedi's code governing the whole group's actions. I didn't find the force user to be mechanically broken, though. I played a protocol droid who malfunctioned to begin thinking he was a secret agent. He wore a tuxedo over his gold body. He had a Walther PPK-shaped blaster that would shoot out of his forearm and into his hand. He drank coolant fluid out of a martini glass. His designation was 60-ND. That's my Star Wars story.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 13:59
|
|
|
Played in our 5E Undermountain campaign last night. We found a hidden key, avoided an acid trap, and beat a big monster to get the box that goes with the key. When it was opened, my Bard spent a few minutes to ritual-cast Identify on its contents. The whole time, our Warlock is pacing around and asking for the item himself. He's trepanned himself to give the...thing that he communes with better access to his brain. He supposedly doesn't sleep either, but that's clearly an exaggeration. Whatever his patron is, it is hungry for magic items, and the Warlock is something of an arcane investigator. He and my Bard actually work great as a team, as my she is something of an amateur investigator herself and curious about spooky lore. Inside the box is a desiccated heart. The DM tells me in secret that whoever activates the heart will die, having their heart replaced with the desiccated one. My Bard goes ashen for a moment, and closes the box. "What's in the box," asks the Warlock. "Nothing. Well, nothing we need right now. It's dangerous, and better left alone," I say honestly. I close and lock the box. The Warlock's patron begins speaking to him, saying, "We need that box, Felix. The musician...she doesn't understand. She isn't privvy to The Secrets as I have made you. You need to take it from her." I make a successful Insight check to tell that the Warlock is looking at me with some kind of Kubrick Face. "What do you want, Felix? I told you it's dangerous. All it will do is kill you." I try to use Sleight of Hand to quickly hide the key on my person, but I roll terribly and he sees me clearly slip it into my corset. After a pause, with perfect comic timing, the Warlock's player suddenly and awkwardly interrupts the Paladin trying to move on. "HEY GANG. LET'S TAKE A QUICK NAP," he says. We just took a short rest a couple encounters ago. No one buys it, and we move on. So now I need to find a way to not get mugged by our own party member while sleep. Fuckin' Warlocks, man. Fuckin' Warlocks.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 17:53
|
|
|
The Jedi talk makes me sad because that is what I would play in a Star Wars tabeltop RPG. I just like swords/"gish" characters in general, and I like the idea of playing a diplomatic, calm party face who really wants to avoid violence.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 18:42
|
|
|
Jedi are dumb as poo poo and deserved Order 66.  If I were joining a Star Wars game I would play a force adept or a sith, because strong emotions are what make life worth living. Also because I play a spellcaster of whatever type is available in the system I am in.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 18:58
|
|
|
Yawgmoth posted:Jedi are dumb as poo poo and deserved Order 66. I got big opinions on this matter but basically the Sith are trash. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzk78aItaUQ
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 19:21
|
|
|
Reclaimer posted:I got big opinions on this matter but basically the Sith are trash. This is great. She's got some good insights as well as a funny delivery. "Er, um. Just put him in the van, I guess." Best line
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 19:32
|
|
|
Recovered lore The journey back to Thalos was fairly uneventful, though we kept our watch on both our existing crew and the new batch of passengers from the crew of the Secret Hand, whom I believe were considering taking the Golden Venture for their own. Nevertheless we make it back to Thalos intact and cut the Golden Venture loose. Despite the urgency of heading to Kongen-Thulnir, we decide to take a couple of days to rest, recuperate and reoutfit: Ospar heads to the Temple of Hextor with updates of Darl Quethos and the Hand of Vecna, apparently praying and fasting for wisdom and clarity of purpose. Severance heads out into the City and learns that the undead are multiplying from forces unknown, while the Overlord’s Keep has been sealed tight against multiple assaults by the Archmages. Also, Lashonna has left town and her manor has been sealed up. When pressed, Severance is told by her guards, "Lashonna will contact you when she can, but you should continue on your mission." Snakeeyes and I head to the Sage’s Guild to meet with Allustan and with his help we begin exploring the library. To his surprise and delight our targeted search does reveal lore previously forgotten but now revealed due to our discovery of the Library of Last Resort. We very quickly locate a treatise describing the history of Kongen-Thulnir and how the Order of the Storm, weakened from ages of constant battle, left the caretaking of the citadel to an allied tribe of stone giants. Over the centuries the tribe of giants responsible for the protection of the Citadel has changed many times, but the stewardship of the Citadel has remained vigilant and unbroken. Snakeeyes researches the Drune Lords and how they were imprisoned in Runed Sadonyx, and learns more about van Neuman and his consort Marja. He remains mute on the subject, but I suspect that he is waiting for the opportune moment to reunite his mother’s body with her spirit. Inspired by the lore behind the Rod of Law shattering as it pierced Miska’s side, I study and learn how to construct my own Staff of Law, disappearing into my lab to study the enchanting of my staff as a weapon and shield against forces of Chaos. The first night back as I am bent over books of lore in my lab, there is a familiar padding of footsteps on my windowsill and Laenaya climbs lightly through the window. “Welcome back,” I say without looking up. “You are looking haggard and gaunt as ever,” she retorts. “Did you get what you seek? And, more importantly, did you avenge me?” “I did, and I did, and how did you manage to not be killed?” A dismissive shrug. “I cannot be killed, only rendered non-corporeal. In that state I dared not attempt to leave the island, so during the day I hid in the ground, and during the night I waited to see if you would complete the tasks. When the storm faded away, I seized the opportunity to pass over the water and made my way back to my haunt to reform.” I stand up to stretch my stuff back and pull out the Demonomicon, thumbing through pages as she spoke. “Rhaakhamvreesvasvaa,” I say adding a touch of my spirit into the word. “What?” “Khishiikligamiin,” I say with a bit of concentration and spirit, and Laenaya gasps and, if it were possible for a vampire to grow pale, grows pale. “You bastard. You have my truename." For a moment I see real fear play across her face. Quickly replaced with studied indifference. "What are you planning on doing with it?” “Giving it to you, of course. You’ve always behaved properly with us so there is no need to threaten each other, but there’s no need to go into what could happen if something were to happen to one of us mysteriously.” Laenaya looks at me without expression, her black eyes like wells of night in her porcelain face. “I’m not sure which I prefer, no one but Graz’zt knowing my truename, or me knowing it and knowing that you now know it as well.” “It’s not your name I’m after. Importantly, I have reduced the possibilities down to two. Sadly, I can’t think of a way besides trial and error to determine what name belongs to Drelzna and which belongs to Fatien.” In addition to the truenames of Natasha’s three daughters, the Demonomicon now includes a very interesting passage about a Wind Duke raid to attack Pazuzu and kidnap or destroy Fatien. Apparently the Army of Chaos’ march to Pesh wasn’t just a war of conquest, it was a rescue mission that went bad: during the battle, three of Miska’s captains were captured and imprisoned. “Details are sparse but I think it is safe to say that there are three arch-demons imprisoned with your sister.” Agrikk fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Nov 15, 2020 |
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 19:38
|
|
|
Reclaimer posted:I got big opinions on this matter but basically the Sith are trash.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 19:41
|
|
|
Reclaimer posted:I got big opinions on this matter but basically the Sith are trash. I agree with this, and with the statement that the Jedi are also trash. It's as though George Lucas didn't give any of it enough thought and the whole thing is a philosophical house of cards that collapses under the slightest pressure, let alone the deep dives that nerds have been subjecting it to for forty years. If not for Return of the Jedi and the prequels, I would say that people give it too much thought, but the movies themselves are increasingly self-serious since Jedi, so they get exactly what they deserve when the Jedi or Sith gets dunked on for being completely idiotic.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 19:44
|
|
|
The Jedi were an organized religion that did charitable works (like building advanced hospitals and agricultural infrastructure on underserved planets), parallel to any number of real-world religions. Say what you will about their philosophy but you are always free to walk out the door and live your life with them. The Sith were Jonestown spliced with the Manson Family, and it's extremely blood in blood out with them. They're not the same. That's all I'm gonna say about that and I'll shut up and play a David Blaine-style street magician now. Reclaimer fucked around with this message at 20:26 on Nov 15, 2020 |
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 20:08
|
|
|
Reclaimer posted:The Jedi were an organized religion that did charitable works, parallel to any number of real-world religions. Say what you will about their philosophy but you are always free to walk out the door and live your life with them. I don't think they're the same. I think they're both poorly conceived, if for different reasons. I'll grant you that the Sith are probably stupider, though. The Jedi organization makes some kind of sense, but their philosophy makes almost no sense. The Sith make no sense on any level beyond "emotions aren't bad you guys."
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 20:21
|
|
|
Reclaimer posted:The Jedi were an organized religion that did charitable works  charitable works like "have an extended debate over whether or not to allow a former slave child to be allowed entry to their temple, a debate that required a man's dying wish to be answered correctly."Jedi and Sith are two sides of the dumbest & shittiest coin in the galaxy and Railing Kill has the right of it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 20:21
|
|
|
Yawgmoth posted:
The weirdest part was the implied notion that the galaxy would be safe if Anakin wasn't to be trained. "If he goes away, everything will be okay guys." Rather than "A jilted and ignored force-guy waders around untrained, stirring up poo poo in frustration until he gets scooped up by a crime lord or a Sith." Sadly, my question about why Jedi are broken in an RPG has led to this discussion which now has me poking a very specific hole in my enjoyment of the series, a specific hole that augments the massive hole brought on by the Red Letter Media folks. e: lest people get the wrong opinion, I'm enjoying this Jedi/Sith derail. My enjoyment of the series began to fade when the Ewoks came aboard, and pretty much ended with the death of Darth Maul. I haven't even seen episodes 8 or 9 but thought Rogue One was goddamn awesome. Amazing what can happen when you break from fanboy expectations and allow creativity to roam free in what is ultimately a pretty amazing world. Agrikk fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Nov 16, 2020 |
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2020 20:36
|
|
|
"Anakin needs to have reasons to turn to the dark side- lets have the trauma of losing his mother on multiple levels and a forbidden romance." "Right side of George's brain, can we think about the implications of these plot points for the larger universe of your films at all?" "No." EDIT: The midichlorians were the same- there needed to be a reason why Anakin would be considered for training at his age, so Lucas came up with them. He failed or refused to see any other implications or problems with them- there was just their narrow role in the story and that was it. Kavak fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Nov 16, 2020 |
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2020 06:51
|
|
|
Agrikk posted:The Star Wars stories in this thread are all notable for their lack of Jedi players. Having only some players playing Jedi gives a magic user/muggle split, which is never a good thing, but more importantly the the Jedi Code is a great vortex of RP suck; "There is no emotion, there is peace." and "There is no passion there is serenity." are both guidance to de-escalate things and make them more boring. The core problem with the Jedi as PCs can be summed up in a single sentence of Yoda's. “Adventure. Heh! Excitement. Heh! A Jedi craves not these things.” Because trying to follow that advice is going to lead to interesting games. But that's far from the worst advice both for RP and for living that comes from Yoda, making Jedi suck even harder. “Fear is the path to the dark side…fear leads to anger…anger leads to hate…hate leads to suffering.” This doesn't say to face and overcome your fear - it says to suppress it and no-sell anything that would make you afraid. Which unless it's done extremely well (which George Lucas notably didn't) and focuses on trying to pretend you're fine again sucks tension out of scenes and is not a healthy way of dealing with things. Even worse is the "anger leads to hate" section cutting off yet another realm of the Jedi's emotions and thus RP. Jedi are not allowed to get angry, even at injustice. Even that is great advice compared to the permanence of "If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will". In other words get angry and you permanently turn evil. There's no room for making mistakes and growing from your mistakes, again shredding the roleplaying potential. (At this point I'm going to recommend [url=https://twitter.com/i/events/918567234896789504?lang=en]UrsulaV's Paladin Rant[/font]) So by the advice you can't play a bad Jedi who struggles with their emotions - one slip and it's over, as demonstrated by Anakin's heel turn causing him to massacre children. The best possible Jedi is Luke Skywalker because he's both a good person and the worst possible Jedi to the point the entire philosophy is there to challenge him and was based on teachings he personally needed to hear because he did the opposite. The second best possible Jedi is Obi Wan in films two and three, who's pretty clearly decided to entirely ignore any stupid rules about not seeking adventure and is there to have a blast. If you have actual Jedi trying to follow the Jedi code as your characters then you end up with The Phantom Menace with three leads who dare not let their emotions show (or they might fall - or in Amidala's case let the responsibility overwhelm her) going through the movie not reacting very much and not doing anything impulsive. The core problem of the Phantom Menace isn't Jar-Jar Binks. It's that two of the human leads are Jedi trying to be good Jedi and the third might as well be a Jedi except she doesn't get a laser sword. This means that every single time you remember a sympathetic character reacting to anything at all (and thus giving it emotional weight) it's Jar-Jar. Most of the flaws of The Phantom Menace are therefore associated with Jar-Jar because he's the only character trying to carry the emotional load. The Sith, by contrast, are just moustache twirling villains who are basically Evil For The Sake Of Being Evil. So even before we get to the inanity of things like midichlorians and the behaviour of actual Jedi in the series everything the Jedi code and rules tell you to do makes for less interesting and less fun roleplaying. Never play a character that can say and actually mean “Adventure. Heh! Excitement. Heh! [One of us] craves not these things.” unless the entire point is that they are lying to themselves or the game is a very unusual one and probably horror.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2020 11:58
|
|
|
It's a lot like playing the LG Paladin. If it's done right, it can be fun and help to make a good and fun story. If it's done badly, hoo boy is it bad, and probably ends up being a catpiss story for this thread. And it's a whole lot easier to do it badly.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2020 12:28
|
|
|
I'm personally not invested in this argument, but I am very fond of the game Jedi Academy and I always remembered how Force powers work in that game. I always begin the game by maxing out Healing, because obviously, but then I work on Force Lightning because it gives me an alternate offence apart from the sabre. There is no mechanical drawback, but the player gets chastised by his sensei if he has more Dark Side power points than light. That always irked me a bit. In the end, the Dark Side/Light Side choice comes down to whether or not you kill your annoying rival from the Academy. It's been some years, though, and I don't remember this bit as well.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2020 16:00
|
|
|
I think that's a problem with the kind of Jedi the players are playing. Yoda exists to be the stuffy superior to Luke who puts tension between him and the action, not the main character; a player wanting to be Yoda and not Luke is like playing D&D and wanting to be the merchant who sends the players off on their quest. E: though admittedly, that's not just a problem with the players but also with any RPG system that punishes, not rewards, players who disobey the Jedi code and go have adventures anyway.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2020 16:09
|
|
|
The Jedi code is "no fun allowed", the Sith code is "my fun is the only thing that matters", and as it turns out both are poo poo codes for poo poo people, just opposite ends of a septic spectrum.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2020 18:58
|
|
|
Personally when I run/play Star Wars I just stick to non-force users in my games. Imho the Star Wars setting is most fun when you use Jedi/Sith as antagonists to the players rather than player options, or even just noodle around with the rest of the cool stuff going on in the galaxy. So far my players have all been onboard, and we've had a blast playing Edge of the Empire without force powers. A high point in one of the games I've run was when they were hired by Black Sun to kidnap a Hutt from a Cloud City Sabaac tournament. They played their way through a few rounds to build up a stake and buy into the high rollers suite, where the translation droid character posed as a comped droid translator for the Hutt and fed the smuggler card info to use to cheat. When they had fleeced the Hutt of enough of his stake, he went to his cloud car to get more credits, whereupon our Trandoshan with a Jetpack and Wookie Berserker jumped him. A chase ensued through the towers of Cloud City, where the Trandoshan eventually managed to land on his car, rip off the top and destroy the controls. On that roll, the player managed a net triumph, despair and one success, and the session closed on him barely managing to stay in the air as the Hutt dangled from his foot above a drop straight into the core of Bespin. They made eye contact, the Trandoshan aimed his gun down, and the Hutt, considering his options, let them take him prisoner on their ship as it arrived and the hatch lowered down. Edge of the Empire rules Strange Cares fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Nov 16, 2020 |
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2020 18:59
|
|
|
I remember seeing someone's homebrew about sith, where the central premise was "90% of actual 'sith' are people with force powers who learned about jedi on which is a much better premise for a character Tunicate fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Nov 16, 2020 |
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2020 19:10
|
|
|
Yawgmoth posted:The Jedi code is "no fun allowed", the Sith code is "my fun is the only thing that matters"
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2020 19:37
|
|
|
Drakyn posted:God, Vader really was a poo poo Sith wasn't he. The closest he could come to having fun was snide dad jokes. Tunicate posted:I remember seeing someone's homebrew about sith, where the central premise was "90% of actual 'sith' are people with force powers who learned about jedi on
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2020 20:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 11:26 |
|
|
one of the things I unironically loved about the awful The Glove of Darth Vader novels series is that the remaining Imperials had no loving clue what the force was. 'Oh, The Emperor could shoot lightning out of his hands? Mystical rubbish, he must have been some kind of cyborg, give me the surgery so I can claim to be his kid'.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2020 20:35
|
|