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 Cyberpunk RED, Part 5: Raw Power So, skills and general gameplay resolution. The chapter begins by laying out the basics of movement and time, with time in particular being divided into three-second turns. Characters can move MOVE x 2 meters per turn, and initiative is determined by rolling 1d10 + REF. Characters get a move action and a regular action each turn. Why is this in the skill resolution chapter and not in the combat chapter? Good question! Actions themselves are divided into a bunch of discrete categories listed in a short, handy chart, covering things like Attack, Get into a Vehicle, Stabilize, Use an Object, and Use a Skill.  I really wanted an excuse to post this pic, I just love it.  As for skill checks themselves, it's simple. Opposed skill checks are stat + skill + 1d10 vs. the same, while unopposed checks are stat + skill + 1d10 vs. a difficulty value. Standard DVs range from Simple (9) to Legendary (29). A natural 10 on the d10 is a critical success, and allows you to add a second d10 to the roll (which does not explode on a 10). A natural 1, on the other hand, is a critical failure, meaning you roll a second d10 and subtract that from your total (again, no exploding on the second d10). If a GM feels you have additional skills that could complement the roll, they can give you a single +1 to the roll (having more than one complementary skill doesn't improve the bonus, nor does the level of the complementary skill(s) have an effect, either). GMs can also allow characters to take extra time for a +1 bonus, and if you don't have a skill at all you can attempt it with a straight stat + 1d10 roll. As mentioned earlier in this review, characters can spend LUCK points on any rolls they make, treating their LUCK stat as a pool that refreshes each session and can be spent at a rate of 1 point per +1 to a roll. The skill list itself is shorter in RED than in previous editions, but still fairly substantial. I won't list them all, and I think the sample characters from the character creation review I did give a pretty good idea as to what the skills are like. Instead, let's take a look at this edition's role abilities. For starters, every character begins with a 4 in their role's role ability. Period. You can't raise this during character creation. Secondly, unlike previous editions, you can learn the abilities of other roles. If you have a 4 or more in the ability of your current role, you can spend IP to by the first tank in a role ability of your choice. You can freely spend IP to raise either role ability, but you can't buy the first rank in another role ability until all of your role abilites are 4 or higher. Rockerboys get Charismatic Impact, which can be used to influence other people, but only if they're "fans," which is up to the GM to determine. It also determines the size of the venues the Rockerboy can perform in. Charismatic Impact can range from allowing you to play in small local clubs and convince fans to buy you drinks or ask for autographs, to allowing you to play in huge stadiums and convince mobs of fans to literally sacrifice themselves for you...as long as you can beat a Charismatic Impact + 1d10 roll. All in all, pretty similar to previous editions, just with more explicit details and ratings. Solos get Combat Awareness, which gives them a pool of points equal to their rating that can be spent on specific abilities and effects. The point allocation can be freely changed outside of combat, or while in combat if they spend an action on it. Abilities include things like straight up damage reduction for the first hit the Solo takes each round, to initiative bonuses, to straight up damage increases for the first attack the Solo makes each round, and so on. It's a lot more flexible and interesting than how Solos worked in previous editions, and still pretty powerful, too. Netrunners, as usual, get Interface, which basically just lets them do poo poo while Netrunning. It gives them access to a set of specific abilities used in Netrunning (which I'll cover in the Netrunning chapter), and also determines the number of NET actions they get each turn. Nothing much to say here, really. Techs get Maker, which allows them to raise two different sub-abilities by 1 for each level they take in Maker. The sub-abilities are Field Expertise, Upgrade Expertise, Fabrication Expertise, and Invention Expertise. FE just adds its rating to all tech skill checks made and allows the Tech to jury-rig damaged devices in the field. UE allows the Tech to upgrade items, applying a single upgrade chosen from a list of options (as long as they succeed at a check, of course.) FE allows Techs to build items with a check, and lastly, IE allows you to design entirely new devices with the GM's permission; it's suggested that any new design should just be an existing item with a single upgrade already bundled into it as its baseline. Of course, you still have to actually build the device after you've invented it, which requires Fabrication Expertise. Maker is definitely better than the Tech's old role ability, Jury-Rig. It does, however, come at a cost to the existing skill system. In previous editions, the various tech skills (Cybertech, Weaponstech, etc.) allowed characters to build, upgrade, repair, maintain, etc. the appropriate tech. RED improved Techs basically by just taking away the old functionality of the tech skills and giving most of it exclusively to Techs...as long as they also have the relevant tech skills, too, of course. Medtechs get Medicine; similar to Maker, Medtechs get a single point for each level in Medicine that can be spent on one of three sub-abilities: Surgery, Medical Tech [Pharmaceuticals], and Medical Tech [Cryosystem Operation]. Each point in Surgery counts as two levels in the skill, and each point in Medical Tech [Whatever] gives a single point in Medical Tech and also an additional benefit, being either the ability to synthesize a specific medical drug (for Pharmaceuticals) or a piece of cryo equipment (for the other one). Surgery just allows you to perform surgery, allowing you to treat the worst critical injuries, perform bodysculpting, provide psychotherapy, and both implant and harvest cyberware. Unlike in previous editions, the Medical Tech skill is required to use even basic drugs like speedheal and rapidetox. Not a whole lot to say about Medicine vs. the old Medtech skill of Medical Tech. R. Talsorian seems to have approached the old problem of Medtechs being useless in most campaigns by trying to make them essential by restricting the use of medical drugs exclusively to people with the Medicine skill, basically turning Medtechs into low-rent clerics. Not really a fan of this move, to be honest. Medias, like before, get Credibility, which allows them to pick up rumors from their information networks, and to publish their stories. Rumors are governed by a chart listing rumors of different levels of explicitness that the Media can roll against to pick up, while Publishing is a little more like a Rockerboy's Charismatic Impact; the Media's sources, audience, believability, and impact are determined by their level in Credibility, ranging from a 20% chance to convince your neighbourhood of something that might spook a local gang, to a 70% chance to convince the world of something that could topple major governments. This is just the weirdest ability in the book, easily. It feels like R. Talsorian really wanted an excuse to keep Medias around as a role, and tried to ape the design of Rockerboys in doing so...and ended up giving us this. Execs get Teamwork, which is a pretty big change from their old ability, Resources. Each rank in Teamwork gives the Exec various bonuses, like free clothes, a free apartment, free Trauma Team coverage, and so on, improving at higher ranks, and also gives access to the most interesting part of the ability, team members. Every few ranks, an Exec basically gets a follower of their choice, including things like bodyguards, netrunners, technicians, drivers, and so on, with their own stats, gear, and cyberware. The team members have a loyalty stat that's checked whenever an Exec asks them to do something, and the stat fluctuates over time based on how the Exec treats them. At 0, the team member quits. Execs don't have to pay for their team members, but replacing a team member that quits or dies costs a token fee that gets paid to the Exec's HR department. I actually kinda like Teamwork, and personally I like it more than I did Resources, but Execs are still a role that would have a hard time fitting into a lot of campaigns, even with their new ability. Lawmen get Backup, allowing them to...call for backup. Their rank determines how quickly backup shows up, how many of them there are, and how good they are. That's it, nothing else. Honestly, kind of a boring ability, but one that fits probably the least popular role in any Cyberpunk edition. Fixers get Operator, which is basically like their old ability, Streetdeal. Your rank in Operator determines the sorts of clients and contacts you have, your reach, how well you can deal with cultures and groups, and also gives a bonus when haggling. Nothing all that exciting, but it's highly effective, and more detailed than Streetdeal ever was, which used to be "Streetwise, but...better?"  Lastly, Nomads. They get Moto, which both applies itself as a flat bonus to all vehicle piloting checks, and also gives the Nomad access to free vehicles, and vehicle upgrades. Your rank in Moto determines what sorts of vehicles you can borrow from your family (ranging from compact cars and bikes to AVs and yachts). Each time you raise your rank, you can either add a new vehicle to the pool of stuff you get to borrow, or you can apply an upgrade of your choice to one of the existing vehicles. These upgrades are free, and would otherwise cost a lot of money, in addition to being really hard to come by. They include weapons, armour, comms, housing capacity, and more. Overall, it's a lot flashier than the old Nomad ability, Family, and will definitely appeal to more players than that ever did, but I can't help but feel like this both shoehorns Nomad characters into specific roles more than they already were, and also sacrifices some of the flavour Nomads had. Next time: Combat
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Dec 3, 2020 23:17
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I know I'm a child but I've looked at this like 10 times and I just imagine him screaming, "I'MMA CUP YOUR BALLS!" It's the only thing I hear when I look at that picture.
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Dec 3, 2020 23:22
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 never apologise 
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Dec 3, 2020 23:28
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I think Mike Pondsmith is against turning his game into a version of itself that doesn't include the bits from Bubblegum Crisis where gangers randomly hulk out into giant borg monsters and rampage down Main Street murdering passerbies and entire police battalions sent to stop them. It's pretty clear that BGC is one of his favorite influences. (I've found a solution to this, but it involves asserting that in a future where people can buy laser eyes and chainsaw hands, the dude who shoots up a college campus because his girlfriend broke up with him does it with laser eyes and chainsaw hands instead of an assault rifle... but then you have to acknowledge it as a depressing political statement instead of a wicked-cool cyberfuture setting gimmick. AD Police vs. the Incel Shooter Rampage is less appealing to the target audience than AD Police vs. the Cyberpsycho.) Stephenls fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Dec 4, 2020 |
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Dec 4, 2020 02:30
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Red Markets: A Game of Economic Horror Part 1: Introduction  Well, “economic horror” doesn’t sound much like “zombies” - what’s with that? Well, let’s see what game designer & lead author Caleb Stokes has to say: quote:Furthermore, Red Markets is basically a poverty simulator that uses zombies to keep its theme from getting too real. Red Markets is a zombie game set in the ruined western United States, abandoned in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. The players are Takers, mercenaries that travel the surviving enclaves to earn a living through good old adventurer stuff; stealing valuables from the ruins, clearing the ever-present threat of zombies, scamming the poo poo out of anyone that falls for it, the works. Red Markets calls it the “carrion economy”, which we’ll come back to in a bit. Every Taker’s fate follows two paths: break the cycle of poverty and buy your way into one of the “safe zones” in the east, or fall into debt, into conflict, and eventually into a grave. Assuming the casualties don’t get you first. Any good zombie fiction isn’t about the zombies. Zombies are an external pressure, an environmental hazard; humanity is under the lens, in the ways they react to the new world. Red Markets is no different. It’s a game about downtrodden, normal people breaking their bodies, their hearts, and their minds to survive poverty and exploitation. You play Red Markets, you’re exploring what you’ll sacrifice to earn back the bits of humanity that the American collapse took from your characters, what you’ll lose to support and protect the people your characters love. (All of this is mechanically supported, too!) In short, it is 100% my poo poo. It isn’t perfect and the flaws are glaring sometimes, but Red Markets has a place on my short-list of “RPGs that needed to be made”. Credits page note, before we get into the actual text: Red Markets is CC-BY-NC-SA licensed. I’m trying to think of another studio that’s gone full Creative Commons with their books, besides Posthuman Studios with Eclipse Phase, and I can’t think of any. It’s appreciated. Stokes is pretty fervently anti-capitalist and pro-freedom of information, and this will come through constantly in the book; one of those “flaws” I mentioned is that the book gets soapboxy. A lot. --- Table of contents. We have six sections, five if you don’t count the appendix: the Introduction, the “History of the Crash” setting background and “The Loss” setting guide (a combined 160 pages), “Playing the Market” for players, and “Running the Market” as a GM guide (a combined 214 pages). With additional material from the appendix/introduction counted in, RM clocks in as a 500-page book; it’s surprisingly not as hefty as the page count implies, but from experience this is a bit of a doozy to get people to read, especially with the depressing subject matter. You get a lot thrown at you in long blocks, and it only comes together at the very end of them. The system, thankfully, is easier to grok.  Not all of Red Markets’ art is great (and we’ll get to some of it that’s not), but the chapter head pieces are pretty evocative. The short Introduction chapter starts off with “What is Red Markets?”, which I summarized up above. Here, it's a solid two-paragraph summary that puts themes front and center. The obligatory “What is an RPG?” section exists, but refreshingly Stokes just says to Google it; odds are good this isn't someone's first RPG, and if it is, there are some solid resources provided. There’s a list of a few of the playtest podcasts (RPPR, One-Shot, Technical Difficulties) and some social media mentions, plus an added note at the end: quote:We understand that books are products, products are meant to be sold, and this maybe isn’t the best way to do that. But the purpose of consuming this particular product is to create a unique story-telling experience with your friends; an experience that can’t be commoditized, co-opted, or cheapened. Creating something that special is going to require some work out of you. It starts here. The rest of the introduction is an overview of the other sections of the book, as well as two separate glossaries; one for game system terminology, one for in-setting terminology. The game terminology could probably have waited until the start of the game mechanics chapter instead of 160 pages earlier; on the other hand, the setting glossary before dumping you into the lore is helpful, and keeping both glossaries together, I assume, was the design intent. Everything in the glossaries is explained in-text pretty well, but a reference never hurt anyone. The intro does a solid job of selling the game and setting up for what's to come, though it definitely misallocates some of the word count. It's also quite short compared to the rest of the book, and there's much deeper dives to come. Next time, History of the Crash, pt. 1, or: 20 pages of “we live in a society”. A quick author’s note that can be redacted from the archive entry: I haven’t written a long-form review like this before. Stick with me, I’ll get it eventually; I'm still working out depth of detail vs odds of actually finishing.
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Dec 4, 2020 04:16
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Mors Rattus posted:If you take the statement as true you're saying some really nasty stuff about people with pacemakers, insulin pumps, artificial limbs and a whole lot of other stuff. Presumably all of that would be defined as "medical grade" cyberware. And figure a lot of the body modification stuff we can do now would fall under "fashion." There's still a difference between that and "I am really loving sick of people cutting me off in traffic. Say, can you sever my arms and legs and replace them with cybernetics so the next time happens I can just jump out of my moving car, chase the other vehicle down and flip it over on its back?"
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Dec 4, 2020 04:39
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INCOMING TRANSMISSION INCOMING TRANSMISSION From: Friend Computer Subject: Treasonous Materials And You [CLEARANCE BLUE AND ABOVE] / Lesson 1 of 7 Hello, new Blue citizen, and welcome to Treasonous Materials And You, an organizational seminar intended to get newly-recruited Blue citizens on the same page as the rest of their compatriots. This is the same training undergone by some of Internal Security's top agents and will include an overview of propaganda, deceitful messaging, and other tricks and tactics made by traitors too uninformed or treasonous to dupe an intelligent, insightful, and aware member of Alpha Complex's elite classes. While the lies and bigotry on display in this seminar may be enough to deceive a lesser-ranked citizen into acts of treason and malfeasance, we trust that you have showed sufficient loyalty to experience these materials without compromising the values and beliefs of Alpha Complex. However, it is a sad truth universally acknowledged that sometimes human error results in materials such as this to profligate among lesser-ranked citizens, including giving citizens of GREEN Security Clearance and below access to emails and seminars such as this one. While we value any attempts to further investigation, this email is CLEARLY for citizens of BLUE security clearance or higher. Therefore, we will be deploying a memetic kill agent at this time:  If you are of a security clearance of GREEN or lower, congratulations! You are now dead. If you are of security clearance BLUE or Higher and you have been killed by the memetic kill agent, please report IMMEDIATELY for a mindwipe and genetic reassignment therapy to scrub any last remaining vestiges of the memetic kill agent's imprint on your mental and genetic structure. This organizational seminar will cover an obscure but essential piece of the history of treason in Alpha Complex: A disseminated propaganda comic from the Old Reckoning (circa 1991 to 1992) known as PARANOIA.  As you are well aware by now, comic book releases not authorized and approved by Internal Security are a severely decadent form of treason, punishable by disintegration. This particularly treasonous tome was released by ancient comics manufacturers Malibu Comics, under their Adventure Comics imprint. The history of the series is [DELETED FOR SECURITY REASON]. This piece of Old Reckoning ephemera is still a potent and dangerous tool used by Communists, Mutants, and Traitors today to disseminate and spread false information and terrorist thoughts and actions now in the year 214. Among its many crimes are inaccuracy to the truths of Alpha Complex, a dour and melancholy tone that stands at odds with the fun and whimsy experienced every day by citizens of Alpha Complex, a strangely definitive ending in which terrible calamity befalls the entire Complex, and most of all being less entertaining that Internal Security-approved alternatives such as the Teela-O Comedy Special #5 [ANY REFERENCES TO PRIOR OR FUTURE ISSUES ARE PUNISHABLE BY TERMINATION] and Ram-B-EAU Action Comix [Intentionally misspelling approved by Internal Security for fun and whimsy purposes - any citizens caught misspelling "comics" without proper authorization will be subject to re-education]. This basic introduction concludes our first lesson, a generalized introduction to the deadly and treasonous world of Old Reckoning comics and communist propaganda. Our next lesson will cover Paranoia #1 and will go over the contents and provide detailed commentary on [DELETED FOR SECURITY REASONS]. That is all for this daycycle. You are excused. And remember: The Computer Is Your Friend. 
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Dec 4, 2020 04:49
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Mors Rattus posted:My point is more to the definition of “normal” and excluding people with medically necessary implants from it. Those people are normal. It is entirely normal to require this kind of aid. Yeah, but you're unlikely to be getting an insulin pump for your diabetes, and just swapping insulin for Frenzone one morning. And we're talking about more drastic stuff, like "this perfectly good arm that I have - what if I chopped it off and replaced it with a hydraulic sledgehammer?" Young Freud posted:It's a thin line between medical necessity and augmentation. For instance, I could easily screw on some brass knuckles onto a prosthetic arm or a procedure that alleviates lower spinal paralysis by "rerouting" nerve impulses through fiber optics or wirelessly could be modded to provide superhuman reflexes and performed on a healthy specimen. Now this gets to a good point against my theory: if you already have a medical augmentic due to a freak Being A Cyberpunk incident, you shouldn't get CUHRAYZEE just because you decided to upgrade it one day.
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Dec 4, 2020 05:54
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JcDent posted:Yeah, but you're unlikely to be getting an insulin pump for your diabetes, and just swapping insulin for Frenzone one morning. Well, as far as I can tell, you don't. With some kind of mild upgrade you presumably lose just a little Humanity and most people can handle that fine. It's really only when you get into "Let's chop off our arms and replace them with hydraulic sledgehammers" that you lose enough such that CUHRAYZEE becomes more likely. In some ways I like the way that TORG: Eternity handles it - in that game Cybernetics are treated as a Perk that you buy with XP. And the more Perks you already have the more the next ones cost. No cyberpsychosis or glitches. The limiting factor is instead "How much of your limited amount of XP do you as a player want to put toward this particular type of Perk?"
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Dec 4, 2020 06:42
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The Smoking Ruin Part 6: Let’s Play Act 1 It is a beautiful day in early Sea Season and the lower market of Clearwine is bustling with activity. Not only are merchants hawking wares but workers everywhere are putting up decorations in preparation for the upcoming holy day of Ernalda, which is only a week and a half away. Shufrin Manybreasted is perusing the market’s wares and haggling over prices, having handed off her two sons to Oraneva. Oraneva is yanking on Gore and Gash’s leashes, trying to keep them from eating anything too valuable. Meanwhile, Zarlangar is listening to the town crier announce that Queen Leika has just returned to town having won a victory, forcing the remaining Lunar soldiers out of Sartar. The crowd begins to whoop and cheer, and the local bard Treya of Ezel jumps upon the crier’s stage, announcing that in order to commemorate the victory she will act out the founding of Clearwine by King Korol Kandoros (Yes, he also founded Clearwine. Guy gets around). She begins to pluck her lyre and sing to the assembled people, but halfway through her performance she stops, scans the crowd, and announces that her accompaniment is late. Zarlangar rolls a crit on listening to the crowd and manages to overhear some gossip- her partner was spotted last night with Sora Goodseller and it seemed like both of them were going to be tired today. At this point Treya has attracted a bit of a crowd, and she asks for volunteers from the crowd to help her finish her performance. Doaivu is feeling a bit inspired after hearing about the great hero Korol Kandoros, so he takes the stage and attempts to sing the male part… only for his singing to come out as mostly howls. His style of singing sounds great to other Telmori, but sadly the Orlanthi here just can’t appreciate it. Gore and Gash are agitated by the howling and excited at the idea of volunteering, and manage to drag Oraneva onstage with them when she fails a strength roll. Treya assigns the rambunctious trollkin the part of the dragon spirits that Korol must drive out of Clearwine, and Shufrin takes out her drum and beats the rhythm so that her children can follow it easily. Oraneva dances along and, unsurprisingly for a Gorite, acquits herself well. Zarlangar continues scoping out the crowd, and spots Ereneva Chan, the High Priestess of Ernalda dancing a little dirty with the Storm Voice of Orlanth. Zarlangar sighs, but considers that he’s at least lucky enough to be out of Esrolia, where they have no decency whatsoever. Back on stage Treya thanks everyone for helping with the performance, even Doiavu, and invites them all to a nearby tavern to celebrate. Over drinks, Treya is very eager to hear everyone’s tales of adventuring. She explains that her grandmother Thinala was a very famous warrior- Doaivu nods as he’s heard of her - and Treya has always wanted to follow in her footsteps and be an adventurer too. She’s been plotting this for a while, and has finally found her first big adventure. While studying Korol Kandoros’ life for her songs, she’s come to believe that the Smoking Ruins in the Grazelands are the site of King Kandoros’ long lost settlement of Korolstead. She’s even figured out a way to get paid to explore them- the local Deputy Priestess of Ernalda is on the hunt for old Ernaldan artifacts for the Holy Day celebration, and Treya has read that there was a great Ernaldan temple constructed at Korolstead. She says that they should be able to find something for the priestess underneath all the burning “tuskers.” Zarlangar buts in and corrects her - First of all, Tuskers are the mounts, the people are Tusk Riders, and second of all he’s from the Grazelands and the people there all know that the bodies are Trolls, not Tusk Riders, and he’s about to go on to describe what a bad idea all this is when he’s interrupted by a great bellow from Shufrin that silences the whole establishment. They party has to work to calm her down and they’re slowly able to understand from her that fire is the worst weapon in troll culture and for troll bodies to be eternally burning is not only the worst torment imaginable but also the greatest insult possible to the troll dead. Shufrin wants nothing more than to charge up to the ruins right now and get things sorted out. Oraneva too wants to go, as she learns that the spirits of the trolls must be suffering and it’s her duty to put them to rest. Doiavu, like Treya, wants to go on an adventure. Zarlangar sighs, and says that they should first go see the Deputy Priestess, as getting paid is always preferable to not getting paid. Heading to the Ernalda temple, Daravala Chan’s office is open to petitioners with business concerning the Holy Day. Daravala is in the process of kicking out some sort of architect, throwing his model out the door after him after he threatens to “go to Ereneva about this.” Shufrin enters on his heels, smiles, and compliments Daravala on being the first Sartarite she’s seen who knows how to keep the men in their place. Daravala holds her angry countenance for a second, then breaks out into laughter before asking why they’ve all come. After having the details of the expedition explained to her, Daravala is interested, but not entirely on board. She offers to pay them 10L each (a large amount for a day’s work) if they spend tomorrow digging up info on the Ruins. If they bring her back a good lead on the Ernalda temple, she’d be willing to fund an expedition, though she warns them all that the Smoking Ruin is a dangerous place before they leave, and tells them not to mention anything to High Priestess Ereneva. The next day the gang splits up and looks for clues. Doiavu goes to the home of Hastur- the local Lawspeaker- and asks if he has anything on the Smoking Ruins. Hastur recalls purchasing a map of the place from a trader who claimed he bought it from a centaur, which Hastur found curious as he has never met a centaur who could read or write. Doaivu spends the day searching through Hastur’s massive stacks of parchments and papers but eventually succeeds in locating the map, noting that in the outer gardens of the settlement the centaur has placed an Earth rune. Zarlangar heads to Sora Goodseller’s to get the group outfitted and provisioned for travel. While there he strikes up a conversation with Sora, who is a Yelmalian, so Zarlangar perceives her as trustworthy and honest. She asks him what he plans on doing with all the supplies, and after failing an insight roll he has no problem telling her all about Treya’s expedition to the Smoking Ruins. After Zarlangar leaves, Sora closes shop and rushes off to tattle to Leika. Oraneva starts asking around about the ruins and winds up running into High Priestess Ereneva, who compliments her on her dance and asks her what she’s doing. Breaking into a cold sweat, Oraneva fumbles her truth rune and gains a massive 6 points in Illusion as she lies and says she’s not doing anything at the moment. Bad luck for her- the Daravala/Ereneva feud is entirely one sided. Ereneva would actually intercede with Leika to let the expedition continue on if she knew about it, as Ereneva is a very nice woman who wants her sister to succeed. Shufrin tries asking around as well with little luck, maybe her tradetalk just isn’t good enough, or maybe people don’t like it when a troll demands a bunch of answers from them. The party meets up at the Earth temple in the late afternoon and compares notes. At this point they’ve put together as good of a picture as they can of the Smoking Ruin- they know where it is, they know it’s got eternally burning troll corpses, and Oraneva even managed to hear a rumor that the dragonewts are somehow involved. Showing Daravala the map with the Earth rune is enough to convince her to sponsor the expedition. Tomorrow they’ll be able to take a rented canoe down to Duck Point and travel overland from there. Unbeknownst to them, shortly after their departure Queen Leika dispatches a group of riders to stop them. Next: A lot more pointing than ducks tbh Nanomashoes fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Dec 4, 2020 |
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Dec 4, 2020 10:09
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Stephenls posted:(I've found a solution to this, but it involves asserting that in a future where people can buy laser eyes and chainsaw hands, the dude who shoots up a college campus because his girlfriend broke up with him does it with laser eyes and chainsaw hands instead of an assault rifle... but then you have to acknowledge it as a depressing political statement instead of a wicked-cool cyberfuture setting gimmick. AD Police vs. the Incel Shooter Rampage is less appealing to the target audience than AD Police vs. the Cyberpsycho.) Of course, those being critiqued would probably be flattered at being cruel cyber-killers.
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Dec 4, 2020 10:27
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Also, cybernetics are about as well-supported as modern day appliances are. Reminded of that Teen Titans episode in the bad future with Cyborg; he's been unable to keep his almost entirely bionic body upgraded with modern technology, resulting in basically becoming obsolete; his power cells burnt out long ago and he has to lug a generator around with him everywhere, leaving him effectively confined to the mostly abandoned (and stripped) Titans Tower.
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Dec 4, 2020 11:11
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Also, cybernetics are about as well-supported as modern day appliances are. Bold choice to make your character the HBO Max Doom Patrol deconstruction of themselves.
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Dec 4, 2020 11:14
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The original Teen Titans cartoon really doesn't get enough credit for what it did with the characters that absolutely no one cared about in the comics, to the point where they were popular with people only vaguely aware of their connection to the DC universe. That absolutely ties in with Cyborg's arc in the show, where he's worried about his machine nature overriding his human one, and that he used to be an athlete who loved testing his body's limits but is now all too aware of exactly what his limits are. The Doom Patrol also shows up in the show, and Cyborg even says Robotman is basically his predecessor and prototype.
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Dec 4, 2020 11:33
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I appreciate just how fantastic the world of Runequest is, even today some 40 years after this hobby started almost every single fantasy adventuring group is composed of "human, human, human with pointy ears, short stocky human and maybe a single lizardperson or something". D&D started this hobby and almost ended actual deep fantasy.
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Dec 4, 2020 11:58
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TK_Nyarlathotep posted:INCOMING TRANSMISSION Have I ever told you that you're a good writer? Because you're a good writer.
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Dec 4, 2020 12:36
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You know how this subforum argues endlessly about games with Intent? Capital I-Intent? Games that model nothing more or less than what they set out to do? Red Markets is best in class, right there with Apocalypse World and Fiasco. I ran a two season, thirty session campaign, and I have to say, never have I experienced such joy as watching players get depressed about their child support IMMEDIATELY after their most successful zombie murder-heist ever. Red Markets is sublime.
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Dec 4, 2020 13:21
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PurpleXVI posted:Have I ever told you that you're a good writer? Because you're a good writer. Oh my god, I'm touched.  Thank you!!Next part should be going up either today or tomorrow. I'm re-reading the issues before I post but uh...whew. They're a slog.
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Dec 4, 2020 13:55
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tokenbrownguy posted:You know how this subforum argues endlessly about games with Intent? Capital I-Intent? Games that model nothing more or less than what they set out to do? It's fantastic that way. Not every mechanic in the game is necessarily good, but it's one of the few games where I can pull any random rule and go "okay, so that's how it's reinforcing the core themes" and understand immediately why it's there.
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Dec 4, 2020 14:19
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Stephenls posted:I think Mike Pondsmith is against turning his game into a version of itself that doesn't include the bits from Bubblegum Crisis where gangers randomly hulk out into giant borg monsters and rampage down Main Street murdering passerbies and entire police battalions sent to stop them. It's pretty clear that BGC is one of his favorite influences.
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Dec 4, 2020 14:43
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Zereth posted:Or you could go full Bubblegum Crisis and have it be AD Police vs the malfunctioning robot that's not a human To be fair, R. Talsorian Games already did the Bubblegum Crisis RPG. (It was Fuzion system which... I don't know, I don't think is very good, certainly not for high-octane anime action.)
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Dec 4, 2020 15:27
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Nessus posted:What is limiting if obviously baked into their assumptions is the idea that these emotional/psychological stress injuries would necessarily all go down a royal road towards being an rear end in a top hat and eventually a Boomer. What would make more sense is that heavily augmented people are specifically targeted by law enforcement if not heavily shielded by some other form of privilege. Cybernetics, presumably powered by leaded gas, is like buying a house or like buying a luxury pickup truck and saying you're working class, it's just the first step. Before you know it you'll be stockpiling guns and more cybernetics and you'll vote Republican and then you get Q-pilled and then you start chainsawing people in the street for saying "Okay, Boomer."
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Dec 4, 2020 16:31
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By popular demand posted:I appreciate just how fantastic the world of Runequest is, even today some 40 years after this hobby started almost every single fantasy adventuring group is composed of "human, human, human with pointy ears, short stocky human and maybe a single lizardperson or something". Well, the party is troll (two trolls if half trolls count as one), human, human, human. Thing is, you don't have to have wildly different species to do deep fantasy - unless you're making a different point. Rockopolis posted:I know you are referring to Bubblegum Crisis, but it being the other kind of Boomer also works. GO BACK TO CHINA IF YOU LOVE COMMUNISM screams the lady hard-wired into her GMC MAX PATRIOTISM SUV.
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Dec 4, 2020 18:10
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Zereth posted:Or you could go full Bubblegum Crisis and have it be AD Police vs the malfunctioning robot that's not a human Why does the BGC setting have a plague of expensive corporate-produced androids that are prone to going berserk and hulking out into tank-destroying monsters just kinda hanging out as gang members wearing leather and swinging chains around, anyway?
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Dec 4, 2020 18:35
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Stephenls posted:Why does the BGC setting have a plague of expensive corporate-produced androids that are prone to going berserk and hulking out into tank-destroying monsters just kinda hanging out as gang members wearing leather and swinging chains around, anyway? Capitalism.
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Dec 4, 2020 18:37
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Stephenls posted:Why does the BGC setting have a plague of expensive corporate-produced androids that are prone to going berserk and hulking out into tank-destroying monsters just kinda hanging out as gang members wearing leather and swinging chains around, anyway? If you can think of a cheaper way to irresponsibly dispose of my death robots than tossing them out the back and letting them run with gangs until an expensive anti-robot police force has to be founded to kill them, please let me know. We are having death robot problems. (Note, I have never seen Bubblegum Crisis, but I just sort of assume the robots are the fault of someone being wildly irresponsible to 'save money' and neither saving money nor disposing of the robots because that's how things work)
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Dec 4, 2020 18:39
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Night10194 posted:If you can think of a cheaper way to irresponsibly dispose of my death robots than tossing them out the back and letting them run with gangs until an expensive anti-robot police force has to be founded to kill them, please let me know. Most of the time, "faulty robot rampage" is the cover story of the big bad corporation GENOM 'accidentally' assassinating some undercover journalist or creating a diversion for some corporate espionage, with the AD Police and Knight Sabers destroying the evidence stopping the rampage.
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Dec 4, 2020 18:57
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SkyeAuroline posted:[b]Red Markets: A Game of Economic Horror I was revolted by the idea of Red Markets when it came out, because I completely misread the intent. Now I'm horrified, but in a good way. Thank you for this review!
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Dec 4, 2020 19:21
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Age of Sigmar Lore Chat: Hedonites of Slaanesh The Sexy Goat  The Keepers of Secrets are Greater Daemons, some of the most potent servants of Slaanesh. They are at once hideous and beautiful, inspiring awe and terror in all that look at them. They bear the power of their god as a cloak, wreathing themselves in illusion, glamour and enchantment such that few have actually seen their true forms. The typicaly image of a muscular, beautiful figure with cloven hoves that towers over everything hides their vicious claws, and they deck themselves out further with gems imbued with stolen souls and brightly colored decorations. Each of them is a genius, whose honeyed words and casual demeanor disguise their horrific strength. Most mortals that look at them feel a powerful urge to submit to their will and beg them for gifts and power - things which the Keepers are happy to offer. As enemies, the Keepers of Secrets are only slightly less corruptive, as their mere presence embeds itself in the mind, causing victims to obsess fearfully over them and see them in every shadow. To have seen them and survived is a secret in itself, one that changes the survivors and makes them paranoid and afraid. Besides this mastery of others' minds, their own are a powerful defense. As the closest beings to Slaanesh, their conceptions of pain and pleasure are inexorably linked and flow into each other, meaning each one takes great joy in combat because even being struck brings them physical pleasure. They don't fight often, though - armed conflict is only a small part of most Slaaneshi strategy, and a Keeper having to fight personally typically means things have gone horribly wrong. They go out to battle when overwhelming force is the only tool left that will work, and then deliver it with their trademark excess. In battle, Keepers are graceful in their movements and vicious as hell. They take sadistic joy in murder and torture of others, and masochistic joy in being harmed. The act of killing is an artform to be perfected, just as any other, and they see beauty in the mixture of physical impact, bright gore and horrific emotion. Their reaction speed is superhuman, and their ability to process information matches it, allowing them to admire the beauty of a kill and all of the emotions around it without being distracted in battle. They may seem to move in slow, leisurely pace at first, anticipating what is to come, but as the fight commences they accelerate until they are moving just on the edge of visibility. Their many arms all strike simultaneously, disemboweling or crippling foes around them. The daemons then feed on the emotions they inflict, inspiring themselves to even more horrific acts. On top of speed and power, a Keeper of Secrets is also a skilled wizard. They excel at the invasion of minds and senses, taking over the thoughts of their foes and sending them distracting and controlling visions. Their mere presence heightens emotions magically, encouraging passions to break out with violent fervor. A mere gesture is often enough for them to overwhelm the enemy and force them to reveal a weakness thanks to their enchanting magic. They draw foes in with beguiling spells, then tear them apart - or better yet, corrupt them to the ways of Slaanesh. Beyond this, however, the Keepers are quite variable. Each is made from the essence of Slaanesh and focuses on a different aspect of the Dark Prince's desires. Thus they can be found in all three major factions of the Hedonites. Their main shared trait is ambition and desire, but how those manifest could be anything. Often, their actions will push Slaanash's plans forward without them even thinking about it, as each is innately tied to his will. It is possible for mortal Hedonites to summon a Keeper of Secrets to lead them by creating a space of intense depravity. This may be done by feasting, orgies or mass death, but once it is achieved, reality can then tear and unleash the daemon in all its majesty. At that point, the Keeper of Secrets likely takes a moment to assess the situation, enjoy the smell of whatever summoned it and then wade in to get its hands dirty. Those hands are deadly weapons in and of themselves, able to tear hearts out with casual ease. They like to eat still-beating hearts as snacks, in fact. Two of their four arms instead end in elegant, crablike pincers, each able to tear through armor like it was paper. Usually, the daemons wield weapons in their hands, always of great beauty. These can be gigantic greatblades, semisentient whips or any other weapon the daemon likes. Their most potent tool, though, is their voice, which bears the magical power to enthrall mortals with a promise and a whisper...as long as you're willing to offer up your soul, that is. Perhaps the most famous of the Keepers is Shalaxi Helbane, Slaanesh's hunter. When someone manages to be irritating enough that Slaanesh himself is mad at them personally, his rage flowers into Shalaxi, who feels a sudden compulsion to act. Shalaxi then begins a quest that will end only in the death of the prey, a quest to find them and kill them no matter what it takes. Shalaxi has greater senses than any other Keeper of Secrets due to 'horns' of antennae that rise from their brow like a crown. They are able to see fear as a cloud, smell magic as it is cast and hear the moment of death. By mixing their senses, Shalaxi can track their quarry even if they take to the air or cross realms, making them nearly inescapable. The only place they have any real trouble with are these regions at the bottom of the seas where no stimuli at all are found, and so it has most trouble hunting the Idoneth. Not others, though - Shalaxi has slaughtered kings, dragons, other daemons and more. Often they act alone, without followers, as even the Daemonettes struggle to match their pace. At other times they travel with a pack of Fiends. When they finally reach their prey, however, they do not strike from ambush. They stride forth boldly, having developed a challenge during the hunt that they know their prey cannot refuse, a challenge tailored perfectly to the prey's personality. The Hedonites that try to follow Slaanesh do so in hopes of witnessing these confrontations, which are always performed with a deep aesthetic sense. They whisper that some day, Shalaxi may even slay a godbeast before them, proving the total supremacy of Chaos. Shalaxi's entire fighting style is designed to counter the ultimate prey for which Slaanesh created them: Khornates. Slaanesh hates Khorne and sees efforts to beat Khorne at martial matters to be the ultimate way of winning the rivalry, as beating Khorne at his own game would be unforgettable. Thus, Shalaxi has studied and trained above all to be able to defeat Bloodthirsters in single combat. Their favored weapon is the longspear for its reach and strength, and Shalaxi wields it with a speed and grace few can match. Even with that, beating Bloodthirsters in close combat is not easy. To get around their intense skill, Shalaxi uses a living whip, an unbreakable and sentient weapon that winds around foes of its own accord. Over the centuries, it has grown numerous additional pseudopods to assist with this. Shalaxi has gotten especially good at fighting other daemons, largely through experience. They have slain numerous Lords of Change, Great Unclean Ones and Bloodthirsters in all kinds of situations. There's one, however, that they have never managed to kill: Skarbrand, who once tried to rival Khorne himself. The two have fought to a standstill twice, but neither daemon was able to kill the other. In Rantula Sigmaris, Shalaxi impaled Skarbrand's neck with their spear, but lost an arm in doing so, and the damage kept both from acting long enough that a Stormcast assault forced them apart. At Vostargi Mont, Shalaxi disarmed Skarbrand, but Skarbrand evaded a killing blow by diving into a lava flow and hurling it at Shalaxi, who lacked his resistance to heat and flame. The two are looking forward to their next duel. Next time: The Daemonic Heralds
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Dec 4, 2020 19:27
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JcDent posted:Well, the party is troll (two trolls if half trolls count as one), human, human, human. Thing is, you don't have to have wildly different species to do deep fantasy - unless you're making a different point. You at least got to have wildly different cultural outlooks- Tolkien was good at it, fantasy world #56 featuring elves and dorfs and poo poo probably isn't. I can't play monocultural European nations anymore and I'm glad that Runequest made it for this long.
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Dec 4, 2020 19:32
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Bieeanshee posted:I was revolted by the idea of Red Markets when it came out, because I completely misread the intent. What intent did you think it had coming in? I'm mostly curious because RM wears its message/intent on its sleeve (excessively so at times, which I'll be covering in the next post).
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Dec 4, 2020 19:38
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Young Freud posted:Most of the time, "faulty robot rampage" is the cover story of the big bad corporation GENOM 'accidentally' assassinating some undercover journalist or creating a diversion for some corporate espionage, with the AD Police and Knight Sabers destroying the evidence stopping the rampage. If I recall correctly, that's about right. The first episode has a gang with the classic "Fist of the North Star mooks in leather jackets with the sleeves ripped off, carrying chains and knives and maybe baseball bats or something" character design who turns out to be killer robots who go berserk but then it turns out they were a corporate op, and then later the show has lots of other gangers with the exact same character designs but they're not robots, and the killer robots in later episodes are either, like, malfunctioning construction droids or just minions of the show's corporate supervillain. Except for the one episode where they're the replicant cast of Blade Runner except lady vampires who've escaped the offworld colonies and are just trying to survive on earth (but they need human blood to keep their robot bodies running). Pondsmith seems to have been more inspired by the visuals and aesthetics of the show, which is not surprising considering that he probably watched it initially out of order on third-generation pirated fansub VHS tapes, so the Cyberpunk setting doesn't have killer robots but needs the visual of "80s gangers exploding into robot rampage" to be a setting staple. And absent killer robots, you need a reason for human gangers to explode into berserk terminators, hence cyberpsychosis.
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Dec 4, 2020 19:41
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Stephenls posted:Except for the one episode where they're the replicant cast of Blade Runner except lady vampires who've escaped the offworld colonies and are just trying to survive on earth (but they need human blood to keep their robot bodies running). This is a hell of a sentence.
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Dec 4, 2020 19:45
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Xiahou Dun posted:This is a hell of a sentence. BGC is a hell of an anime.
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Dec 4, 2020 19:52
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I never got around to watching it, but that being the summary of just a single episode sure is an elevator pitch.
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Dec 4, 2020 19:56
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SkyeAuroline posted:What intent did you think it had coming in? I'm mostly curious because RM wears its message/intent on its sleeve (excessively so at times, which I'll be covering in the next post). My brain recoiled at 'zombies', flew right up my rear end, and decided it was a Libertarian hellscape and not the kind of hellscape it really is.
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Dec 4, 2020 19:58
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Bieeanshee posted:My brain recoiled at 'zombies', flew right up my rear end, and decided it was a Libertarian hellscape and not the kind of hellscape it really is. Ah, yeah. This isn't ancap paradise. It's, uh... Extremely dedicated to dismantling any sort of libertarian or ancap positivity about the setting. But I totally see where that would come from without digging into the book itself. Thanks, undead gig economy.
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Dec 4, 2020 20:00
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No, no, I definitely see that now. I'm glad to be disabused of that notion.
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Dec 4, 2020 20:03
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Xiahou Dun posted:I never got around to watching it, but that being the summary of just a single episode sure is an elevator pitch. So... I think the thing about Mike Pondsmith's R.Talsorian's Cyberpunk 2017/2020/RED or whatever is that you are going to misunderstand its creative goals if you go into it thinking it is trying to be a cyberpunk game that emulates non-trashy cyberpunk. It's not trying to be Neuromancer. It's trying to be Robocop and any number of other trashy 80s cyberpunk B-movies and also gonzo 80s cyberpunk anime, and especially "Bubblegum Crisis, as misunderstood by someone who watched it out of order on third-generation bootleg fansub VHSs in a world where the only available Internet was mailing lists and USENET." There are any number of reasons why cyberpsychosis is in poor taste or ableist. All those criticisms are valid. It should be fixed. But it very much exists as it does for a reason related directly to the writers' creative goals.
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Dec 4, 2020 20:07
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By popular demand posted:I appreciate just how fantastic the world of Runequest is, even today some 40 years after this hobby started almost every single fantasy adventuring group is composed of "human, human, human with pointy ears, short stocky human and maybe a single lizardperson or something". Honestly I would disagree, the human cultures in Runequest have tons of material all fleshing out their histories, mythologies, and unique perspectives on the world while the inhuman ones seriously lack that kind of depth. Only the Uz/Trolls, who have had multiple books dedicated to them, are on par with the Orlanthi or the Lunars. The Mostali/Dwarfs are particularly infamous for this, Greg Stafford publicly stated that he hated them and didn't like writing anything about them. I tend to like RPing as a base human far more in Runequest because being a human in Glorantha isn't boring. It's not like being a nonhuman in D&D is all that interesting either, I've played in games of D&D where the party is all sorts of wacky fantasy races and it winds up being way less dynamic or fantastical than a game of Runequest because D&D mostly treats the racial differences as +2 to one stat and a generic personality trait that your character has. The difference is that D&D is more of a wargame and dungeon crawler, so +2 to a stat and a personality trait is all you really need to make the games run well. Rune/Heroquest on the other hand, are games about taking part in a mythic tradition and experiencing culture clashes, so knowing your character's entire family history and perspective on the cosmos is something that is necessary to play them correctly. In D&D you have to know how many potions of healing you have, in Runequest you have to know how many souls your character believes they have (and how many they might actually have).
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Dec 4, 2020 20:27
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