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Everyone posted:Figure basically if Cyberware is basically equipment/stuff than Wealth is the ultimate advantage if there's no downside to piling it on. "Yeah, I'm maxing my money so I can turn myself into the T-1000 from the Terminator franchise." I mean it allows wealthy people to be boss monsters which seems very Cyberpunk, really. Also, as mentioned, sure, you can afford to turn yourself into the T-1000, but do you have access to the licensed technologies? Even if you have access, does turning yourself into a murder-machine make it very hard for you to be inconspicious and perhaps get you on some sort of government/corporate pinkerton watchlist that makes stealth more difficult for oyu in general? Plus then there's the issue of getting access to that money, like you don't just go down to the bank and request a million Space Dollars, you gotta do stuff for it(or do stuff to people for it). And then you've got maintenance issues. One simple response would be that once you're cybered up enough, medical technologies don't work on you, you need a guy with a wrench instead, and nothing that's happened to you heals "naturally," because it's almost all machinery, so if you don't get to your wrenchbuddy, that arm ain't gonna start working again by itself. The second would be that the more cybernetic you are, the bigger a chunk of your income the various maintenances, lubricants, licenses, firmware updates, etc. require. Don't make it a flat number or whatever, just say: "alright, at this stage of CYBERIZATION, 25% of your paycheck for any given job goes to maintenance." That's another way of soft-capping it.
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Dec 6, 2020 20:43
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Age of Sigmar Lore Chat: Hedonites of Slaanesh Sadism Robots We get a quick note that the sacred number of Slaanesh is six. His Realm is divided into six circles, he has six favored seductions, and when his legions march to war, they usually do so in multiples of six, with each force specializing in its own form of torment and torture. Slaanesh's plans are almost exclusively sixfold in nature, playing out over six phases. Even mortal Hedonites unconsciously perceive the number six as the most beautiful number and often adorn themselves in scars or bodily mortification in patterns of six. The cults of Slaanesh hold that there are six hundred and sixty-six forms of pleasure and pain, and many believe all of them must be experienced to truly achieve oneness with the Dark Prince.  The Daemonettes are the most numerous of all of Slaanesh's servants, and they are also called the Bringers of Joyous Degradation and the Maidens of Excess. They are sadistic creatures created from the echoes and dreams of mortal desires reshaped to match Slaanesh's own hunger for conquest. They serve as the courtiers, torturers and soldiers of the Dark Prince, and even with him gone, his realm is full of them. They lounge about, toy with the mortal souls they have captured and compete with each other to come up with the most inventive ways to inflict pain on bodies, minds and souls. They especially love to collect lurid or shameful secrets from mortals, which they then share with other Daemonettes. Those who collect the most interesting and perverse knowledge rise in the eyes of the others and, ideally, earn the favor of their master. Daemonettes serve simultaneously as warriors and messengers for their god, and packs of them form the core of most Slaaneshi armies. They are, like most daemons of Slaanesh, prone to extremes of emotion, with very little middle ground. When they feel joy, it is overpowering. When they feel hunger, it drives them to vicious lengths. When they feel hate, it consumes them entirely. Hate and anger especially are infectious among them, and groups of Daemonettes are quick to form up in order to attack that which they consider crude or distasteful. They see art in destruction and murder, and they especially despise organized societies, chaste mortals and disciplined forces. When they get the chance to, they love to fight these people, tearing into them without mercy or hestitation. They especially enjoy attacking those from Hysh, for that realm of intellectual pleasure and enlightenment is anathema to most Daemonettes. Daemonettes hoard truths and secrets over gold and jewels, in most cases. They especially love dying declarations and secrets extracted by torture. Secrets of this kind are a sort of currency among the daemons of Slaanesh, and the Keepers of Secrets especially value those who can bring them things they did not already know, and are generous with their favor for those who can bring them mortals that know many secrets. In battle, Daemonettes tend to attack as an uncoordinated mass that only becomes more dangerous as more of them father. They dance across the field, singing songs of praise to Slaanesh as they slaughter in his name. Each is fast, dextrous being that inflicts as much pain as possible when attacking, mixing in vicious attacks and pointless but painful caresses of key body parts. They fight with a savage joy that even orruks have trouble matching, as they adore the raw emotions they can feel from their foes. They will never pass up a chance to inflict a final moment of pain on a dying victim, and they love to play with their mortal prey, torturing them as much as possible in the time they have. They love to disfigure and degrade mortals for the entertainment of their fellow daemons, who outwardly heap praise on them while inwardly vowing to find a way to outdo it. The most proficient at these tasks are known as Allurers, the ranking leaders of the Daemonette hordes. Daemonettes take the form of simultaneously beautiful and disgusting humanoid figures, slender and pale with androgynous beauty and a constant musk of beguiling and intoxicating perfume. This scent and the magic that makes up their forms draws forth unnatural emotion in onlookers, causing feelings of shame, lust and adoration. This mixture of shame and desire is key - no one looks at a Daemonettes and sees only beauty. Each also inspires disgust and self-loathing, especially when the true shape of the daemon is visible, with horrific claws and all. It's not always - daemonettes can cloak themselves in glamour, appearing to be perfectly beautiful humanoids if they desire. These shapes reflect desire in those who view them, and Daemonettes are at home appearing as any kind of species, gender or whatever - they care only about inflaming the desires of their victims. Their true form only appears in battle or as they prepare to kill. Each is disfigured by horrible fangs, vicious barbed claws and other strange and sickening mutations. They revel in their own monstrosity and the disgust their true form causes along side the lust. The Daemonettes are often found riding artful, elegant chariots into battle. These machines are lightweight to allow high speeds and daring acrobatics, but strong enough to smash through enemy ranks in a shower of guts. The daemonic beasts that haul them are innately reckless and sadistic creatures with darting tongues that taste blood in the air and smell out victims. These, the Steeds of Slaanesh, steer the chariots into the thickest parts of the enemy, for they and their drivers seek out an end to boredom, and self-preservation is not a factor in their minds. The fastest of these machines are the Seeker Chariots. The Steeds pull these engines up to full speed, causing the blades on the wheels and body to blur with movement and become streaks of shining color. The shrieking of the axles causes a deliberate disharmony meant to evoke the sound of tortured souls as it mixes with the high cries of the Daemonettes and the hoots of the Steeds. The Daemonttes driving the chariot dance across it, lashing out at everything nearby as the Seeker Chariot slams into the enemy. They wield long, hooked whips in each hand, which they use to slash through flesh, tear out threats and rip eyes out. This would be difficult at best for any mortal, but the Daemonettes have supernatural skill with their weapons. They also use them to grab nearby foes and pull them into the chariot's path, tearing them to bits in the scythes and swords that form the wheels of each Seeker Chariot. The ultimate show of skill is to grab two victims and pull them into the wheels at once. Hellflayers take the basic principle of the Seeker Chariot and push it to its limits. It is nowhere near as sleek, slim and long as the older style. Instead, it is a broad machine, and its Steeds are not bound to it by yokes. Instead, they are ridden by the Daemonette drivers, and they run at either end of a gigantic axle made of bladed wheels. Each wheel is shaped like a star, with curving prongs meant to impale anything the Hellflayer runs over. The Steeds run not ahead but alongside it, pushing it as much as pulling. Any mortal slain by the magical blades of a Hellfalyer has their soul transformed into incense that is then breathed in by the Allurer that stands atop the platform over the wheels. Originally, the Hellflayer was literally designed to be a lawnmower for the gardens of Slaanesh. In those gardens, he planted the souls of those whom he felt had wronged him, buried halfway into the ground. These souls were cursed to never die, but eternally regrow their body parts in immense pain. The Hellflayers were driven over the fields of limbs, tearing them to bits over and over again and letting them regrow each night. The first to ride them to war were rebels, who did so without permission, and they were turned into statues to punish them...but Slaanesh did see that the Hellflayers proved so effective that he permitted their use in battle from then on. The last great war machine of the Hedonites is the Exalted Chariot, a machine reserved only for very high status daemons. Their job is to drive directly into the mass of the enemy to allow their drivers privileged choice of victim and a great vantage from which to watch the carnage. They are preferred by Allurers, who generally wish to be admired as much as they wish to do murders. Essentially, an Exalted Chariot takes the basic frame of a Seeker Chariot, then attaches a Hellflayer to the back as a trailer. Anything that gets trampled by the chariot or drawn into its train is going to get turned into a fine red mist. Well, the body, anyway. The soul becomes trapped inside the chariot, caught on enchanted hooks that inflict the pain of their death over and over again. The least numerous of the Slaaneshi forces are the shock troopers. First among them are the Seekers, Daemonettes that ride into battle on the Steeds of Slaanesh. These creatures are large bipedal things, very similar to a serpent with two giant muscular legs. Their skin shifts between soft and pastel shades of blue, purple and brown, and their heads are very narrow, essentially just giant snouts with eyes on. The tongue of a Steed is several feet long and darts in and out of their snout at speed, tasting the desires of those around them. Their head is mostly sensorium, and it is capable of tasting fear, joy and lust out to a mile away. These Steeds normally live in large herds in the pastures of the Realm of Slaanesh. Sometimes, a Daemonette or a very reckless mortal Hedonite will break into the pastures to capture one. Capturing and taming a Steed is no easy feat - they are able to run essentially indefinitely and so can outpace nearly anyone, plus they can sense your desire for them. To actually capture one requires exploiting its innate curiosity. A Steed is still a Slaaneshi daemon, even if it is basically an animal, and it craves experiences as much as any other. It will generally investigate anything that seems new or different, and so can be drawn in by shiny gifts, exotic alcohols or scented oils. It can then be bound with a chain of finely made gold or silver. This is still risky - the Steeds are vicious fighters with clawed feet and whiplike tongues. Once chained, however, they can be subdued and broken by a skilled rider. The Seekers ride them to war at the vanguard of the armies of Slaanesh and also serve as hunters of Slaanesh's marked foes. Some carry long horns to blow as they ride, spurring the rest of the pack onwards in the hunt. They rely on the abilities of their Steeds to track foes, and most have trained their Steeds to even be able to track across realms. They prolong their hunts most of the time, breaking off to let the victim gain false hope so that the terror of the kill will be all the greater. Mortals that ride the Steeds are known as Hellstriders, and they...honestly, they're very similar to the Daemonettes by the time they manage to catch one. Some fight with blades that have long since merged with their flash, while others wield semisentient barbed whips that seek out enemy flesh to tear and blood to drink. Slaanesh's favorite mortals are those who are desperate, those who strive to be great but lack the natural strength or wit to achieve it on their own. These he offers power...if they will pay the price. He will gift them a Steed to carry them to victory, in exchange for the souls of those whom they kill. Few who get the offer can resist it, seeing themselves as leaders among the Hedonite hosts. The real price is not told to them: once they mount their Steed, they can never get off it. They may have a position of glory in battle, but they have become slaves to Slaanesh. They rarely realize, for each kill fills them with intoxicating vigor as a reward from their god. This vigor fades quickly, and addiction sets in nearly immediately. By the end of battle, their hunger for the next kill already begins to consume them. Even their dreams of power fall to the wayside as they seek once more the rush of Slaanesh's favor.  Fiends are rare daemons, chimerical creatures built from the dreams of mortals tainted by Chaos and given shape by Slaanesh's will. Their lower limbs are vaguely human, with one pair of legs facing front and other facing back, and their arms end in vicious pincers. Each has a long, barbed tail that can it whip out with enough force to smash through steel plate, and the stinger on the end is full of agonizing venom. Their head is sleek, resembling a more draconic version of the Steeds of Slaanesh, with many horns, insectile spines or brightly colored hair growing from it. While naturally repulsive, they keep prey from fleeing by emitting a musk that encourages fatigue and immobility. It is a natural narcotic that grants pleasurable hallucinations. The strongest musk is those of the Fiends known as Blissbringers, who can send even hardened warlords into dreamland. This keeps their victims from defending themselves, causing a state of euphoria as the Fiends draw close neough to tear the enemy apart. Resisting the power of the fiends requires an immense force of will, and the memory of the promised joys of dream lingers even then. Little of the experience itself is recalled, for the dreams themselves would drive victims insane if they could remember, but there are lasting impressions of strange limbs and tongues, inhuman delights and pains, and a scent that causes self-destructive ideation. These survivors are rare enough - the Fiends move with an unnatural speed despite their strange legs, and they target those that resist their call first. They sing out a strange, haunting song as they fight, melodic with throbbing bass, which resonates across the aether all the way back to Slaanesh's realm. To daemons of Slaanesh, the sound is quite pleasant. For mortals, it is much less so. The rapid shifts in scale and pitch are actually physically damaging, causing eyes to leak, noses to bleed and eardrums to burst. The End! Next up, choose: Chaos (Beasts of Chaos, Blades of Khorne, Disciples of Tzeentch, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Skaven, Slaves to Darkness) Death (Flesh-Eater Courts, Nighthaunt) Destruction (Ogor Mawtribes, Orruk Warclans, Sons of Behemat) Order (Daughters of Khaine, Fyreslayers, Idoneth Deepkin, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Sylvaneth)
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Dec 6, 2020 23:24
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MinistryofLard posted:Also I don't know if this is canon, a big Spoiler in some fiction, or just 1d4chan level fanon but isn't the source of the loss of personality in Stormcast on reforging because Nagash literally swipes at their souls on their way out of Shyish and claws bits out of them in jealous fury because he's entitled incel Skeletor? was that a real thing? I cannot remember this being a thing at all, the lore is pretty consistent on it being caused by flaws in the Reforging process related to it being rolled out early and before Sigmar fully understood it. Nagash is consistently portrayed as super mad that he doesn't even get to see most of the souls, which are projected directly back to Azyr without a stopover in Shyish at all.
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Dec 6, 2020 23:26
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Maxwell Lord posted:I've been having thoughts both on the cyberpsychosis thing and CoC's Sanity rules, and I wonder if in both cases the answer isn't a system where you don't go "crazy", your brain just... changes. You are adjusted to a different reality. With Cyberpunk in specific I'm thinking of something like in some of David Cronenberg's movies, where changing your body inevitably changes the way you think- there's no inherent split between the brain and the rest of you, you change one part it causes changes elsewhere. The Fly's a good example, Seth Brundle can't help but start thinking like an insect. (And losing sanity in Cthulhu could just be an issue of perceiving the reality that we are food for strange gods, that everything we know is wrong, physics and mathematics are a lie, etc. You start thinking like an eldritch horror.) I don't think it's a very good mechanism for cyberpunk in these situations. Depending on what you're trying to do, you are probably either trying to make a statement about alienation or dehumanization, or potentially something about transhumanism. (I think if you are going for strict class warfare you do not need a Humanity mechanic, although some sort of 'there is a practical limit on how much cyberware you can pack in just because after this you cannot effectively control it' system might have value.)
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Dec 7, 2020 00:07
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Beasts of Chaos
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Dec 7, 2020 00:08
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Skaven
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Dec 7, 2020 00:09
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Beasts of Chaos
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Dec 7, 2020 00:22
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Beasts of Chaos because two others have voted for it and I absolutely want to save the Nazi Shithouse Rats for last or near last.
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Dec 7, 2020 00:34
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 Cyberpunk RED, Part 9: Days of Thunder The world of 2045 is the mess it is because of a whole chain of dominos falling. As early as the mid-90s, homelessness in the US skyrocketed as the economy collapsed due to both economic warfare from the European Community and the destruction of downtown Manhattan by a suitcase nuke. The economic crash of 1994 led to the rapid decay and collapse of American urban areas, and the simultaneous rise of combat zones in most American cities, where law enforcement and public order completely broke down and a state of open warfare existed between gangs. This also hastened the exodus of now-homeless families out of the cities and into suburban and then rural areas, where a lot of them ended up joining with rural homeless populations that had been created by the new dustbowl and its consequences, eventually forming what are now known as the Nomad families. The dustbowl itself was caused by rampant pollution, acid rain, and poor land management. This led to serious food insecurity issues that were only alleviated by the creation of kibble and various soy, algae, and kelp based food products, while the land itself got bought up by massive agricorps, leaving farmers and their families to join the homeless population. All of this was happening alongside, and in many cases because of, the hijacking of the American government by what was called the Gang of Four; a conspiracy between the NSA, CIA, DEA, and FBI that manipulated US government and foreign policy along imperialist lines, starting wars, manipulating stock markets, and more (because god knows the US would never get involved in anything like this without a sinister deep state conspiracy!) This led to a ramped up drug war that ended with the release of a biological weapon in Asia and Latin America designed to destroy opium and coca plants, and after this ended up pissing off the cartels the US wound up putting boots on the ground in a series of Central American Wars. If that wasn't enough, the US was caught manipulating European stock markets in order to undermine the EC, leading to open economic warfare between the Euros and the Americans. This also led to geopolitical realignment, as the Soviet Union sided with the EC and Japan sided with the US. In the midst of this ongoing collapse and corruption, the states of California, Texas, Oregon, Washington, and both Dakotas effectively seceded, becoming "Free States." The US was in no position to contest any of this in the face of widespread economic and societal collapse, and the hopeless wars in Latin America, and a brief US-Soviet skirmish in high orbit that ended with the Euros dropping a massive rock on Colorado Springs. By this point the Gang of Four had been exposed and uprooted, but it was too late for American prestige, power, and stability. Adding to the American malaise was the outbreak of the Wasting Plague in 1999 (which disrupted the body's ability to draw nutrients from food) and the much briefer and smaller outbreak of the Carbon Plague in 2020 (which left the bodies of its victimes as piles of carbon nanotubes).  Now before we get to the 4th Corporate War, we should probably first cover the first three Corporate Wars. The first one was a two year conflict between EBM and Orbital Air over the remains of TWA, and mostly fought in orbit and the NET. The third was similarly limited, lasting less than a year and just manifesting as a series of conflicts and terrorist incidents on the NET as Merrill, Asukaga & Finch duked it out with the Rothstein Fund over a scam the former had been running. But it was the second war that presaged the fourth most of all; for two years, SovOil and Petrochem fought extended naval battles in the South China Sea and later all across the Pacific, causing tremendous economic and environmental damage before throwing in the towel. The 4th Corporate War began in 2021 as the Euro nautitech corp CINO tried to buy out a bankrupt Euro rival, IHAG. An American aquacorp called OTEC intervened, and the two began squabbling over the remains of IHAG, all the while secretly being egged on by EuroBank, which had been IHAG's creditor and wanted to drive up the value of IHAG's stocks and assets. As the CINO-OTEC conflict heated up, they began looking to outside contractors to handle their respective security and military concerns. CINO hired the Japanese security corp, Arasaka, while OTEC hired the American defense corp, Militech. Initially the two were simply responsible for providing training, advising, and eventually personnell for CINO and OTEC, but as things continued to escalate, Arasaka and Militech increasingly found themselves fighting one another directly. Unfortunately for everyone, Arasaka and Militech had long been rivals of one another, and by 2022 the conflict between CINO and OTEC had taken a backstage to direct and open warfare between Arasaka and Militech. Cities around the world turned into warzones, international shipping was completely disrupted, the NET was rife with cyber attacks...only Earth orbit was spared fighting between the two, as the Highriders (the shared culture that had developed between space workers) launched an attack on the various groundside space agencies using salvaged deltas and mass drivers. The Seven Hour War ended with the US and Japan recognizing the independence of the Highriders, and while the EC and Soviets disputed this, eventually they, too, had to grudgingly recognize it. The final major incident of the war was a raid on Arasaka Towers in Night City (led by Morgan Blackhand and Johnny Silverhand) that ended with a nuke being detonated, wiping out downtown Night City and plunging the city into chaos. The US government (weak as it is) finally had enough and stepped in, reactivating the commission of Militech's CEO, Donald Lundee, and effectively nationalizing Militech and forcing it to stand down. The combined Militech and US military forces then stepped in to restore order in the US. As military forces across the world did the same and tried to restore order within their borders, the situation on the NET continued to go from bad to worse. Earlier in the 4th Corporate War, an Arasaka hit squad had taken out famous netrunner Rache Bartmoss. Following his death, a deadman switch Bartmoss had programmed back in 2013 was activated, unleashing a plague of autonomous AIs called RABIDs (previously mentioned by me in my netrunning overview) that killed any humans and trashed any data they came across. Between the RABIDs, Arasaka's rampant use of the Soulkiller program during the war (which had spawned countless AI ghosts all by itself), and widespread damage to and destruction of physical infrastructure, the NET effectively went down by 2023. From here on out came a period of rebuilding around the world as people tried to pick up the pieces and recover. Local VPNs (called CitiNets) replaced the NET of old, the Nomads established new trade and communication networks across the globe, new corps were born (and old ones rebuilt as best they could), and cities were slowly rebuilt.  As of 2045, the US is effecitvely a dictatorship, with martial law having been implemented by President Elizabeth Kress back during the 4th Corporate War, and still ongoing. The federal government's grip is weak for the moment, but slowly regaining strength, while for the time being most of the country is fairly decentralized. The European Community has managed to rebuild despite the painful loss of its vital orbital assets, and its economy is now stable outside of the PIGS and the UK, which (while having restored democracy and the monarchy in 2021 after a decade of military rule) is a violent, lawless mess like the US. The Neo-Sov is now Soviet in name only, its ruling Neo-Soviet Party having given rise to a class of oligarchs that lord over Russian society and live it up like megacorps do elsewhere in the world. The Middle East is still a quiet, irradiated wasteland following the Mid-East Meltdown of the 90s, with only Egypt, Syria, and Israel still standing. Africa is booming, with its various nations having escaped most of the ravages of the war and having strong, vital ties to the Highriders (most of whom were from Africa). Central and South America are also going strong, having taken control of the Organization of American States and now forging strong ties with the Highriders themselves. Asia is also rebuilding, though Unified Korea has again broken in two, and Japan is only finding its feet again after its near-collapse in the war. Offshore, ships of refugees, floating shantytowns, and abandoned corporate oil rigs and floating cities have banded together to form Drift Nations that form crucial linchpins of global trade, while the cities on the ocean floor (the Deepdown) have fallen silent out of lingering fear of corporate reprisals like those they faced during the naval battles of the war. Finally, Earth orbit has become home to the Highrider Confederation, as the Highriders have strengthened their position in space in the years after the Seven Hour War. Next time: Night City and the Corps
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Dec 7, 2020 01:19
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Voting for Flesh-Eater Courts again.
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Dec 7, 2020 01:24
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Maxwell Lord posted:I've been having thoughts both on the cyberpsychosis thing and CoC's Sanity rules, and I wonder if in both cases the answer isn't a system where you don't go "crazy", your brain just... changes. You are adjusted to a different reality. With Cyberpunk in specific I'm thinking of something like in some of David Cronenberg's movies, where changing your body inevitably changes the way you think- there's no inherent split between the brain and the rest of you, you change one part it causes changes elsewhere. The Fly's a good example, Seth Brundle can't help but start thinking like an insect. (And losing sanity in Cthulhu could just be an issue of perceiving the reality that we are food for strange gods, that everything we know is wrong, physics and mathematics are a lie, etc. You start thinking like an eldritch horror.) The Madness Meter system in Unknown Armies 2e had an interesting duality to it where a SAN-loss-type situation could result in two different things: either you picked up Stress, which was mostly a roleplaying thing but was bad for you in the moment because you have a panicked fight/flight reaction, or you picked of Hardening, which made you immune to a source but if you had too much you were so removed from the standard human condition that you couldn't use certain magical powers or draw on your Passions. The version used in NEMESIS instead had different kinds of SAN-loss-type situations result in different effects on the high end of Hardening: if you were too inured to violence you had limited effect with Empathy rolls, for example. It might be possible to have something like that: replacing your arm with a chainsaw that fires bullets homing in on baby-skulls, and if you get into the mindset of thinking that's normal, it strains some of your abilities to relate to people who don't go around thinking chainsaw-hands that fire baby-skull-homing bullets. It might possibly work the best if you wanted to write a game with some kind of theme about a divide of understanding between humans and posthumans. Or if you wanted to be really crass about it, implement that mechanism, but for money: if you have lots of it, you're probably not going to understand the poor, or something.
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Dec 7, 2020 01:35
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Cythereal posted:Voting for Flesh-Eater Courts again.
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Dec 7, 2020 02:17
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Cythereal posted:Voting for Flesh-Eater Courts again.
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Dec 7, 2020 02:35
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PurpleXVI posted:I mean it allows wealthy people to be boss monsters which seems very Cyberpunk, really. Also, as mentioned, sure, you can afford to turn yourself into the T-1000, but do you have access to the licensed technologies? Even if you have access, does turning yourself into a murder-machine make it very hard for you to be inconspicious and perhaps get you on some sort of government/corporate pinkerton watchlist that makes stealth more difficult for oyu in general? You know you just described Hard Wired Island's Burden stat, right?
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Dec 7, 2020 03:28
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LatwPIAT posted:Or if you wanted to be really crass about it, implement that mechanism, but for money: if you have lots of it, you're probably not going to understand the poor, or something. But... But... that's just crazy?! As a (completely hypothetical) rich person I fully understand the poor because I read (a Tweet about) Hillbilly elegy.
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Dec 7, 2020 04:29
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I'd be down to see the Flesh Eater Courts Also, I really like the casual description of what daemonettes get up to when they're not on the tabletop. AoS presents the realms of Chaos as places that you could go to and the chaos entities as beings with some kind of existence other than as a rampaging thought-form. I think easing the forces of Chaos back from "unbeatable cosmic forces" toward "four big dudes whose little dudes follow a theme" helps make the setting feel less overwhelming despite its size.
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Dec 7, 2020 05:02
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Give me The Hungry Flesh Lads Also, Paranoia updates are slow because this comic is a loving slog. It's not even fun. Writing in-character as Friend Computer is the fun part. Reading is ABSOLUTELY NOT.
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Dec 7, 2020 05:26
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Everyone posted:But... But... that's just crazy?! As a (completely hypothetical) rich person I fully understand the poor because I read (a Tweet about) Hillbilly elegy. I try to avoid that kind of mechanism because I find the twee political messaging a bit tacky, but the last year has really worn me down and, hey, write for your audience. 
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Dec 7, 2020 06:01
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Pussy Cartel posted:In Cyberpunk RED, all forms of psychological trauma and stress will cost you humanity, whether it's torture, kidnapping, imprisonment, deprivation, living in a stressful situation, or witnessing a violent death. Yes, all of that apparently saps your humanity and puts you a step closer to cyberpsychosis. Got waterboarded and dick stapled on my last run, I feel like I'm gonna flip out like a cyberdude even though I have no cyber parts!!1! quote:you can always get therapy from anyone with the Medical Tech skill. Luckily for me, the dick staple removing doctor provides quality psych therapy!!
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Dec 7, 2020 06:38
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JcDent posted:Luckily for me, the dick staple removing doctor provides quality psych therapy!! He made wise electives choices in cyber medical school.
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Dec 7, 2020 06:46
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Carbon 2185, Part 2 Background Generation The 1st Paragraph of the Chapter posted:Education is mandatory in 2185. Until the age of 18, everybody attends at least some form of education at one of the facilities assigned to them. Failure to attend is a capital offense. Because the specific rules are important to the discussion, and because I believe it's covered under Fair Use, I'm going to include the first two pages of the section instead of reproducing them completely. The rest of this post is just me discussing these rules in detail and is honestly probably pretty boring.   Please read these before continuing I'm going to skip over the details around universal education and contract terms for now, and discuss the Injury rules first. Immediately Carbon 2185 makes several major mistakes. Let's start with the roll used, 2d6. Dungeon and Dragons, especially in 5th edition, isn't really codified or consistent in how it uses different die sizes. I'm sure you could find examples where 2d6 (or other dice combinations) are used in a similar way. But as a general rule, D&D uses a d20 for the core resolution mechanic, and uses a 2d6 for outcomes - damage, HP healed, number of demons summoned, and so on. The reason this is important is because the outcomes and distribution are very different.  Notice the peak versus the straight line A d20 isn't inherently 'better' than a 2d6 for this purpose. In fact, I can see several significant advantages to using a 2d6 here. But the major issue is that it's inconsistent with the rest of the system. Or, to put that statement a different way, 2d6 versus DC6 doesn't 'feel' like D&D. Everything about this contradicts what the player knows about the system. When I first saw the DC numbers, my reaction was 'wow, those are incredibly low, why did you even bother instead of letting the player decide how long their career was before they retired.' DC 5 is, as the OGL puts it, a 'Very easy task' and a player is going to be primed to see that number as '>75% to occur, practically guaranteed'. The only resolution mechanic that would be more out-of-place in a D&D-based system would be a dice pool like Storyteller or One Roll Engine.  Proof that I’m not lying So let's take a look at the second part of the Injury roll, 'Half the Int Modifier'. Again, the way D&D treats Ability Modifiers isn't consistent and you can find counter-examples. But as a general rule, D&D 5e does not have derived scores from ability modifiers, which is exactly what Int/2 is. So you've already had that issue, but there's two more problems. First, the effect of the modifier is inconsistent, both due to the derived score and the 2d6 dice roll. You have breakpoints at INT Score 12/16/20, and the value of those INT Scores are going to be very different compared to DC 4, 6, or 8. Again, it contradicts the rest of the system and it's not going to 'feel' like D&D. Second, INT as the universal 'Avoid Injury' attribute has a laundry list of problems. I would point out that the missing WIS stat makes more sense in this roll as the 'awareness and intuition' attribute, much better than INT. But setting that aside, this also biases the Background Generation system towards 'brainy' characters. Without even digging into the implications of 'dumber characters are more likely to get injured on the job', anything that favors a fairly specific archetype in a D&D-like system isn't great design. Considering that INT is already a fairly important attribute, especially for giving you mechanical levers to affect the game, it's a bad idea to make it even MORE important.  I love these Simpsons safety posters Altogether, this section contributes to my feelings that Carbon 2185 doesn't have a lot of care and effort put into its game design. You could certainly argue for it as-is, but I feel confident in saying that there is a better way to do this. I would suggest three improvements: First, rename the 'Injury' to 'Termination' - why are locking in your players like that? Let them figure out why they become cyberpunks for themselves. Second, the 2d6 does not contribute enough to justify breaking with the larger OGL system, so get rid of it. Use a d20 and standard DCs instead. Third, give each Career three attributes that could be used for the DC check. With 6 attributes and 10 career paths, you can evenly distribute them across both. For example, the Corporate Drone career would have a DC 12 Termination check, using either INT, TEC, or CHA. The Military career would have a DC 14 Termination Check, using STR, DEX, or CON. Rebalance the wages around the assumption that a character is going to have a +3 modifier to this roll. End result? The Background Generation system is consistent with the OGL rules, supports all character archetypes, and doesn't lock in a bit of the character's backstory for no drat reason. Turning back to that part about education and contract terms... oof. Remember, this is a setting where 'Mad Max-style irradiated War Boys who canonically will die earlier due to cancer' are one of the player races. The idea that every single character had to finish high school on punishment of death is... bizarre. Also, completely unnecessary. Not to be hard on Marriner-Dodd, but this was the sort of amateur mistake I made in high school. The answer to 'what if my player wants to start as a teenager?' should be 'Sure, why not?' - you don't need to create a world where a quarter of the Breakfast Club is going to be hunted down and shot. Similarly, the idea that everyone - corporate drone, military, criminal - is signing up for a five year contract and getting paid out at the end feels like an unnecessarily complicated in-world solution to a nonexistent system problem. Why does my character advance in 5 year increments? Because that's how the system works. Why doesn't my character get any extra money for the 1 to 4 years before they were terminated? Because losing your job unexpectedly is financially messy and that missing money is why you decided to become a Granted, I've been told that inconsistent wages and contracts that pay out only at the end are not uncommon in China, and Robert Marriner-Dodd did live in Hong Kong for some time. However, there's a difference between 'not uncommon' and 'universal', and if Marriner-Dodd is trying to convey some sort of message here... he failed, badly. I still think it's a fix to what he perceived to be a problem with his system. But there's been an elephant in the room that I pointedly haven't addressed. What does this subsystem contribute? Because more than anything else, that should always be the question you're asking yourself, whether the rules (or setting information, or character options, or...) are contributing to the game and making it better.  Here’s more Simpsons to break up these words As I've said before, I'm a big fan of Cyberpunk 2020 and to a lesser extent Traveler. But what I feel for the Lifepath system is less admiration and more nostalgia. Lifepath systems have some benefits to them - they act as little mini-games you get to play by yourself, which is fun if you're a certain kind of person. They create characters that are firmly rooted in the setting, with past flames and old enemies. And they give both players and GMs a lot of hooks to work with. Overall, Lifepaths have mostly gone the way of the dodo, and games have turned to bonds as a more efficient way to create those deep histories between characters. Still, as PC showed in their post, the Cyberpunk Lifepaths do produce a lot of connections and history for a character. The Background Generation system in Carbon 2185 does not. After all the rolling, this is what you get at the end of it all: What career did you choose? How long did you work before you became a Cyberpunk? What skills did you learn from your career? What is your budget for starting gear? It's an incredibly boring system with only two choices: what career do you want, and do you want to sign up for another five years? There's no real consequences for pressing your luck either, so the result is not fun at all as a mini-game. It doesn't root the character into the setting either, as it doesn't create any connections between the character and NPCs or other players. What's the point? I could honestly turn this entire subsystem into a single table, and produce basically the same result with a single roll. Pick a career, roll for how long you stayed in that career, and see how many wonlongs and proficiencies you start with. Because that's the other issue with this system: it produces mechanically uneven characters. If you're lucky and spend 25 years in a career, you retire with 5 extra skill proficiencies and a much larger budget. Unless your character is lucky enough to survive multiple missions (and you're lucky enough that the campaign doesn't end early), the fact that your character starts the game at age 43 really isn't going to matter. It certainly won't matter at the beginning, when your character has better gear and more skills compared to the player to your left. They got drummed out during their first contract and start the game with the clothes on their back and a vibro-knife - that's not an exaggeration. This is where Marriner-Dodd really, truly stumbles. Uneven character ability is dangerous, and some designers would say an inexcusable mistake. Personally, I wouldn't quite go that far - anything is permitted if it works. But I would say you need to be 100% certain that whatever you're doing is worth it, and that's just not the case here. It's a boring system that isn't fun, and it produces characters that just plain better than others for no real reason. I'm not trying to say that I'm a wizened master of game design. I'm terrible at actually finishing things, and I've gotten some pretty harsh criticism about my work. But I do want to convey that this, all I wrote here about fitting into the OGL system and killing your babies and learning from your mistakes, is important. You need to think about everything, and be honest with yourself, and figure out how it could be better. Game design is a craft, and it really deserves more respect than a lot of people give it in this industry. Also it's really not as hard to do as you'd think. The End
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Dec 7, 2020 06:55
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PurpleXVI posted:I mean it allows wealthy people to be boss monsters which seems very Cyberpunk, really. Also, as mentioned, sure, you can afford to turn yourself into the T-1000, but do you have access to the licensed technologies? Even if you have access, does turning yourself into a murder-machine make it very hard for you to be inconspicious and perhaps get you on some sort of government/corporate pinkerton watchlist that makes stealth more difficult for oyu in general? There's also the previously-discussed question of why you're turning yourself into a murder-machine. Given all the money we've just established that you have you're clearly not being forced by neccessity. Are you just hosed in the brainmeats? Psychosis as cause of being a robotic killing machine, rather than the result.
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Dec 7, 2020 07:08
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Education is mandatory avoiding this is a 'capital offence'... I heard this term before, what does a capital offence entail? *one search later*  The death penalty?! even the worst totalitarian nightmare states didn't go this far, that early in life and for such a minor thing.also for AOS I vote for Ogres
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Dec 7, 2020 09:23
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Pussy Cartel posted:Carbon Plague in 2020 (which left the bodies of its victimes as piles of carbon nanotubes). This feels like a major plot point disease, it's like dropping a plague that turns people to mithril in a fantasy setting and not expecting every wizard and two bit villain to create a plague mithril mine out of peasants. Tibalt posted:Marriner-Dodd Just the worst Exsurger strain
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Dec 7, 2020 10:01
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Young Freud posted:You know you just described Hard Wired Island's Burden stat, right? Considering that I don't even know what Hard Wired Island is, nope! The Lone Badger posted:There's also the previously-discussed question of why you're turning yourself into a murder-machine. Given all the money we've just established that you have you're clearly not being forced by neccessity. Are you just hosed in the brainmeats? Psychosis as cause of being a robotic killing machine, rather than the result. I think part of the problem of that angle, though, is that it's hard to get through in roleplay for the PC's sometimes. Like, say you replace your skin with hardened BattleSkin from FightCorp which lets you shrug off a hail of bullets, at the cost of having deadened sensation across your entire body. Like, the person who would make this exchange is probably not in a healthy place, mentally(either they feel they need to make the sacrifice to survive, or more killosity is more important to them than the wide variety of non-murderous sensations they're going to lose), but I feel like it would require an exceptionally good GM and an exceptionally good player to get this across without just boiling it down to a Cybercrazy stat.
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Dec 7, 2020 12:49
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Well, the sensation deadening should be freaky by itself, but it should also make it harder to wind down stress via Intimate Contact With Significant Other as well as Just Sex, Really. It may also rise your Hubris score - which measures how likely you are to see regular humans as just weak targets, which ties into social stats, motivations, and Benny regen... So, in the end, the only good way to balance cybernetics is to have a social system no less expansive than the combat one!
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Dec 7, 2020 13:00
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Balance is the bugbear of little mimes and all that. It's far better to focus on fun and engagement. Also Killosity is my new favourite word.
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Dec 7, 2020 14:04
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JcDent posted:This feels like a major plot point disease, it's like dropping a plague that turns people to mithril in a fantasy setting and not expecting every wizard and two bit villain to create a plague mithril mine out of peasants. Carbon Plague was major plot point of Cybergeneration. It's what gave kids their superpowers, while all the adults that contracted it died. It's there probably for the sake of continuity, Cybergen was 2027, than something that would actually be affect anything, unless you feel the PCs need to tangle with Cyberpunk equivalent to the X-Men. Besides, most of the Cybergeneration kids would be something in their 30s or 40s if they managed to avoid getting caught or killed.
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Dec 7, 2020 14:05
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Young Freud posted:Carbon Plague was major plot point of Cybergeneration. It's what gave kids their superpowers, while all the adults that contracted it died. It's there probably for the sake of continuity, Cybergen was 2027, than something that would actually be affect anything, unless you feel the PCs need to tangle with Cyberpunk equivalent to the X-Men. Besides, most of the Cybergeneration kids would be something in their 30s or 40s if they managed to avoid getting caught or killed. There was some rumbling at one point that there'd be rules in the new Cyberpunk edition for playing Cybergeneration kids what survived and grew up, but I have no idea if that is still a thing.
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Dec 7, 2020 15:11
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Young Freud posted:Carbon Plague was major plot point of Cybergeneration. It's what gave kids their superpowers, while all the adults that contracted it died. It's there probably for the sake of continuity, Cybergen was 2027, than something that would actually be affect anything, unless you feel the PCs need to tangle with Cyberpunk equivalent to the X-Men. Besides, most of the Cybergeneration kids would be something in their 30s or 40s if they managed to avoid getting caught or killed. Great, now you're giving the Corps another reason to have it in underground farms!
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Dec 7, 2020 15:46
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Age of Sigmar Lore Chat: Flesh-Eater Courts The Flesh-Eater Courts were originally designed to let you use your old ghoul and weird monstrous vampire models. They haven't gotten new sculpts - which is really sad, as their old sculpts really do not bring out their new fluff. Which I quite like. That guy on the cover? You can't get a model that by default is wearing the armor scraps he is, or decaying noble clothes, or so on. But that's not what we're here to talk about. Let's talk about the Flesh-Eaters themselves. The Flesh-Eaters are the ruins of once great kingdoms, monsters that gorge themselves on human flesh and are ruled over by raving, insane vampires. They spew forth armies of ghouls, the blood and gore of old meals staining their fangs and their bodies, to tear into whatever mortals they can find. Where they gather, the air stinks of rotting meat and the lands become coated in filth and gore. Even so, none of the ghouls and monsters see themselves for what they are. In their minds, they are noble knights and soldiers, clad in full armor and marching out to destroy evil and quest for goodness. This delusion is enforced by the magic that curses the abhorrants that rule these undead courts, and it cannot be broken even as the victims bite flesh from living bodies mid-battle. The Flesh-Eater Courts aren't limited to a single realm. Legends of their horrors and cruelties can be found everywhere. Everyone has stories of lands that, in times of famine, turned in their desperation to cannibalism to survive. Typically, the cults that begin and form around these activities retreat into the ruins of their old societies in shame. They devolve into parodies of their old societies, surviving on flesh and bone and attempting a facade of normalcy. These people are not yet ghouls - but they are on the path. It is only once an abhorrant king offers them his feast that they truly become the creatures known variously as ghouls and mordants. These kings are delusional vampires, their blood cursed to render them entirely of the belief that they are mortal rulers. When they find the famine-stricken ruins that most often breed cannibal cults, what they see is not hunger and desperation, but bright-faced peasants eager for the rule of a noble lord. Because of their curse, their delusions are contagious. The weak-minded among the cannibals are quickly turned, and eventually, even those of strong will are broken by the curse. The shame and revulsion they felt at their own activities fades, and the false reality of the Abhorrant King's delusions replaces their world, allowing them to easily join the feasts of the court. The abhorrants inevitably rule over the Flesh-Eater Courts, as the source of their delusion. They send out their subjects to gather up corpses and living victims for their feasts, and favored mordants are permitted to drink of "royal wine" - that is, the blood of their king, though they do not perceive it as such. This transforms the drinkers, remaking them into devoted, twisted horrors that are slavishly obedient to their master. While a mortal mordant could, in theory, be cured of their delusion by time and distance from their king, the transformed horrors cannot. They are physically empowered by their madness, their bodies expand massively, and in time, they may themselves become vampires that rise to form their own courts. The Flesh-Eater curse is widespread in the ruins of lost kingdoms. The mordants that serve the kings spread and build up their realms, expanding outwards as real nations might. They have thrived for centuries in the forgotten corners of the Mortal Realms, and ghouls have migrated through realmgates throughout the Age of Chaos and early Age of Sigmar, seeding new courts not only in the ancient Splinterbridge cities of Shyish but in places like the Dreaming Tombs of Hysh, the Quicksilver Vales of Chamon, the Themacarn Wastes of Aqshy and even places like the rotting fleets that sail across the Penumbral Seas of Ulgu. Only Azyr is spared from their touch. Many courts end up built around Realmgates, as they find these places are frequent sites of treasure and battle, and thefore excellent sources of food. Invaders tend to discover this only when they enter the ruins and discover them crawling with murderous ghouls. Thanks to these court realmgates, some Flesh-Eater kings have managed to forge complex alliances with each other, dividing up their lands between them and getting deeply involved in noble politics that exist solely within their own minds. Some of these confederations of monsters even cross realms, such as the Wargspine Citadel Grand Court, which is centered on the Wargspine ruins that sprawl across multiple realms, each of which is controlled by one or more different Courts. No force has ever proven able to reclaim the strategically valuable Wargspine citadels despite their best efforts. For the abhorrants, all other species are invaders, usurpers trying to seize the lands they love. They are barbarians that would slaughter all of the innocent subjects of the kings, and thus must be wiped out as part of the duties of a good king. They even extend this view to Nagash's forces, though Nagash doesn't particularly mind. He has plans for the mordants, who are neither fully living nor fully dead. He has fought the vampire kings for centuries in an effort to claim total control over the ghouls they rule, and several Abhorrant Kings have ended these wars by kneeling and swearing loyalty to Nagash as their overlord. Most do not, and instead actively distance themselves from the God of Death, seeing him only as an enemy. Next time: Ushoran, the Carrion King
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Dec 7, 2020 18:51
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Mors Rattus posted:Age of Sigmar Lore Chat: Flesh-Eater Courts Actually you can. They have gotten one new sculpt which is the guy on the cover. 
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Dec 7, 2020 20:05
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When things go famine and fubar and everyone chooses to believe in a delusion perpetrated by a charismatic cannibal lord I don't see too many bystanders actively trying to resist. "I just don't wanna know anymore" is a legit thing deeply traumatised people feel.
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Dec 7, 2020 20:17
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They get to believe they're farmers bringing in the harvest from sun-dappled fields, not monsters gathering corpses.
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Dec 7, 2020 20:23
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Exactly, If I looked around and saw the results of grim cannibal community survival I'd probably go right ahead with the strangely happy folk who have this pastoral utopia in their head simply because I cannot fathom accepting the active hell that the real world has become.
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Dec 7, 2020 20:28
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MonsterEnvy posted:Actually you can. They have gotten one new sculpt which is the guy on the cover. I stand corrected. I wish they did more sculpts like this because seriously I want creepy monster undead dressing up.
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Dec 7, 2020 20:51
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Here is a fun little short story at the Flesh Eater's perspective.quote:‘Let the feast begin!’
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Dec 7, 2020 21:18
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By popular demand posted:Exactly, If I looked around and saw the results of grim cannibal community survival I'd probably go right ahead with the strangely happy folk who have this pastoral utopia in their head simply because I cannot fathom accepting the active hell that the real world has become. Except here mental illness is a literally contagious magical disease.
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Dec 7, 2020 21:23
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Yeah, it's one of those fantasy curses where the authors forget that the curse should be torturous to the one cursed. Flesh eaters go from a potential of life endless shame for eating fellow man and the indelible horror of seeing loved ones waste away and die to an idealized version of Arthurian mythos. They don't suffer, everyone else does - which doesn't feel like a curse. I'm sure there's plenty of those in DnD "What's this?" "A skeleton knight - it's an undead skeleton of a fallen paladin, cursed to wander the lands and fight the forces of good." "Oh wow, does the fallen paladin suffer from this, does his soul cry out for freedom, does he curse his skill and magic of the curse for making it hard for him to fall in battle?" "No, he pretty much does the same what he was alive, but he's a magical skeleton now."
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Dec 7, 2020 21:42
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Tibalt posted:I'm going to skip over the details around universal education and contract terms for now, and discuss the Injury rules first. Immediately Carbon 2185 makes several major mistakes. Let's start with the roll used, 2d6. Dungeon and Dragons, especially in 5th edition, isn't really codified or consistent in how it uses different die sizes. I'm sure you could find examples where 2d6 (or other dice combinations) are used in a similar way. But as a general rule, D&D uses a d20 for the core resolution mechanic, and uses a 2d6 for outcomes - damage, HP healed, number of demons summoned, and so on. The reason this is important is because the outcomes and distribution are very different. They're using 2D6 here because they're being just as lazy here as they are with the rest of the game, except in this part, they're copying straight from Traveller instead of slightly tweaking 5E D&D.
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Dec 7, 2020 22:32
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