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LatwPIAT
Jun 6, 2011

Just Dan Again posted:


Spoilered for butt

Room 1: The False Chanterelle
This is the first room that players will enter, stepping through the painting under the light of the full moon to enter the Maze. As illustrated, it's home to a naked lady in chains named Ashen Chanterelle. She's described as "evil, abusive, deceptive and smart," and she wants to convince the PCs that she's an innocent captive chained up here for no reason. She'll say that freeing her will open the further door, when really you just have to tug on her chains to open it.

This is the single most Bad Hair Man thing to put in the literal first room of an adventure. Like wow. Nude women, provocative sex acts, and misogyny, all in one? In the first room, unavoidable?

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neonchameleon
Nov 14, 2012



Nessus posted:

To some extent this is "Age of Sigmar is less than five years old" (I think?) and "WFRP is old enough to run for the US Congress."

This isn't much of an excuse to be honest. Warhammer Fantasy Battle 1e came out in 1983. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay came out in 1986 - or about three years after Warhammer Fantasy Battle was created and what distinguished it from similar settings and similar systems (notably Greyhawk) was how gritty and focusing on the underclass it was. The last parts of the legendary Enemy Within campaign, still one of the best adventure paths ever came out in 1989. By comparison Age of Sigmar came out in 2015 - so is six years old or twice as old as Warhammer was when WFRP came out and about as old as Warhammer was when the Enemy Within was complete. And what distinguished Age of Sigmar from other settings starts with the comparisons with the setting it replaced and how its iconic faction was supposed to be the Sigmarines - who have fortunately gained more depth but were noted initially for being untouchable and lacking emotions.

SkyeAuroline
Nov 12, 2020

Play experience, from early notes (not quite enough time to review every single line):

Just Dan Again posted:

Room 1: The False Chanterelle
Matteo immediately twigged on to Ashen lying to them, unsurprisingly, so Alaric just... smashed the door down. "I knew a man once that said a hammer is just a heavy set of lockpicks." Weird entry bit. The players ended up breaking the chains from the ceiling but kept her under guard to try and guide them. Made it about as far as Starlit Stones before she got loose and ran like hell.
Room 2: Lady Crucem Capilli
Wow, cool dragon lady! I did opt to play up the questgiver side of things but don't remember if they really ever came back and delivered anything.
Room 3: Starlit Stones
Ashen took the "fall into a hole" hit. And of course... this is where the Oku showed up at for the first time, adding extra layers of fun. It's okay as a trap, I guess? Didn't land well for me.
Room 4: Escher Stairs
No memory of running this, no obvious keywords in the log.
Room 6: Sanguifluus
Matteo's player on description: "i feel like we just walked into a Tool music video". Room 3's Oku ended up clustering around here, with Sanguifluus sorta in the background, and the players got the first dose of Chronia background between the two. Players went through into R5, saw the armrests, and promptly decided to get some swords. The Thanes put up a good fight for the first two swords, then they managed to get the drop on the third so to speak. On reviewing, this is where the aforementioned "Oku promoted to friend by saving lives" happened. Thanes are a neat encounter and the whole "oh christ, incorporeal enemies" is tempered by the "vulnerable when they solidify".
Room 5: The Three Thrones
Opened the doors and hence skipped 7 and 8.
Room 7: Cyanoxantha
Room 8: Subfoetens & The Shell
Room 9: Rope Bridges
They're just rope bridges. At least on the first pass,nothing interesting really happened.
Room 10: Gibba Gognata
The chess pieces tried to force a murder, thankfully unsuccessfully. Mostly left Gibba alone once it became obvious how much attempted-murder would be happening here I think.

Hipster Occultist
Aug 16, 2008

He's an ancient, obscure god. You probably haven't heard of him.


Night10194 posted:

So how much of all this 'rich idiots think they're reshaping mankind into the Imperium' nonsense actually comes up for PCs in play normally, because I'm guessing 0.

Some it does, but a lot is just stuff that the gm is exposed to it the loosest sense. SkyeAuroline is not kidding when it says its mainly for GM's who pore over every page and talk obsessively with the Devs on their discord. I stole most of this from a google doc someone had put together.

In game, some of this will come out as the PCs race to stop Helios, but most of the info is either a total secret or is privileged information kept mostly by very high-ranking Chroniclers and Spitalians.

PoontifexMacksimus posted:

Holy smokes that's a lot of metaplot the players will never interact with or even have a way to learn about. Meta-meta-plot. I don't actually mind at all when a setting has tons of history and deepest lore that you can use or ignore at your leisure, but the degree to which this bunch of immortal assholes are still running things behind the scenes really is a 1:1 rehash of old Vampire

Thanks a lot for the summary, it gave me a much better picture of all the shenanigans


I mean, I can't absolutely confirm this to be true, but VTM was huge in Europe during the 90's and these guys are of that age to have been right smack dab in the middle of everything. Like many of their contemporaries, they haven't really moved on from the design ethos that were prevalent in that time.

Robindaybird posted:

And we're suppose to not let Aries have his will back? Frankly, most PCs if they get even an inch of this 'Rich assholes dooms world because he's a stupid fascist moron' backstory I feel like a lot of them will be full on board with "Let the AI nuke him"

But I get the feeling with everything else, it's going to be "His methods were too extreme but he was right!"

Why Aries wants it back is unclear, save that its lack seems to impede his function as an AI possibly? We're never told why he really wants it. Argyre is the one who wants it to blow GG out of the sky, and yeah I've seen support for folks just giving to to him to watch him do it. Their respective agents start killing each other (and the PCs possibly) as they both try to lay claim to it during the adventure.

Also, if you want to get real uncomfortable, there's people that agree with Getrell on that discord.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Well, there's always people who believe in the bullshit cycle of civilization and decadence, despite it not being real. It sounds real! And for fascist shitheads, it's just gotta sound and feel hard and real.

SkyeAuroline
Nov 12, 2020

Hipster Occultist posted:

Some it does, but a lot is just stuff that the gm is exposed to it the loosest sense. SkyeAuroline is not kidding when it says its mainly for GM's who pore over every page and talk obsessively with the Devs on their discord. I stole most of this from a google doc someone had put together.

In game, some of this will come out as the PCs race to stop Helios, but most of the info is either a total secret or is privileged information kept mostly by very high-ranking Chroniclers and Spitalians.



I mean, I can't absolutely confirm this to be true, but VTM was huge in Europe during the 90's and these guys are of that age to have been right smack dab in the middle of everything. Like many of their contemporaries, they haven't really moved on from the design ethos that were prevalent in that time.


Why Aries wants it back is unclear, save that its lack seems to impede his function as an AI possibly? We're never told why he really wants it. Argyre is the one who wants it to blow GG out of the sky, and yeah I've seen support for folks just giving to to him to watch him do it. Their respective agents start killing each other (and the PCs possibly) as they both try to lay claim to it during the adventure.

Also, if you want to get real uncomfortable, there's people that agree with Getrell on that discord.

Do you happen to have that doc on hand? I know the discord had it but asking about That Scene from BA ended badly for me. There's some bits in that writeup that I'm not familiar with and that might complicate the "things that can be salvaged from Degenesis" list (for better and for worse).
I appreciate you going into depth on the adventures way more than I would ever find it ethical to ask of someone.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

and funniest thing is the kind of people that love that poo poo... really aren't the sort of people who rough it longer than a weekend let alone handle the "Hard times" they wish for.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007

IT *BZZT* WASP ME--
IT WASP ME ALL *BZZT* ALONG!


Ashen Chanterelle?

Just Dan Again
Dec 16, 2012

Adventure!

SkyeAuroline posted:

Play experience, from early notes (not quite enough time to review every single line):

Did your group twig to Sanguifluus and Gibba being Chronia's and Psytharella's kids (respectively) at all? That still seems like one of the weirdest things to write in and then never do anything with.

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!

quote:

Teclis' divinations suggest that one day, they will be key to changing Hysh's fate forever.

*stares Anakin Skywalkerishly*

SkyeAuroline
Nov 12, 2020

Just Dan Again posted:

Did your group twig to Sanguifluus and Gibba being Chronia's and Psytharella's kids (respectively) at all? That still seems like one of the weirdest things to write in and then never do anything with.

Gibba slightly, I believe I gave some hints there. Sangui less so. A little dead before they had enough context for any of it to matter, and they hadn't asked him much of anything before "let's take the swords" became a plan. But yeah, there's not really anything done with the idea at all...

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

LatwPIAT posted:

This is the single most Bad Hair Man thing to put in the literal first room of an adventure. Like wow. Nude women, provocative sex acts, and misogyny, all in one? In the first room, unavoidable?

Really sets a tone, doesn't it?

Loxbourne
Apr 6, 2011

Tomorrow, doom!
But now, tea.

Josef bugman posted:

I'm a big fan of "someone else collating someones notes with marginalia pointing out problems/ differences" alongside "Collection of different accounts and trying to work out which one is the most accurate"

Isn't this basically how Shadowrun gear porn books worked?

(And also the excellent GURPS Steamtech book, which was better than most in terms of making sure every entry had a use in an actual game).

SkyeAuroline
Nov 12, 2020

Loxbourne posted:

Isn't this basically how Shadowrun gear porn books worked?

(And also the excellent GURPS Steamtech book, which was better than most in terms of making sure every entry had a use in an actual game).

Yes, Shadowrun in general has been "one character writes up extended sections, plus JackPoint comments on each section" for a long time. If the SR characters were at all tolerable this would likely work out better in practice.

Gynovore
Jun 17, 2009

Forget your RoboCoX or your StickyCoX or your EvilCoX, MY CoX has Blinking Bewbs!

WHY IS THIS GAME DEAD?!

Loxbourne posted:

Isn't this basically how Shadowrun gear porn books worked?

Yes, except in Shadowrun the gear was all the same, only the commentary was different.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.
Thirsty Sword Lesbians

We’ll start here with the Basic Moves, which all playbooks have access to.

Danger Moves:

Fight: The move for doing Violence on someone. Roll +Daring or +Grace. Take a -2 if you’re Frightened. We get a set of options here:

+ Flirt with or provoke your opponent and gain a String on them
+ Through violence or cutting words inflict a Condition
+ Create an opportunity for an ally
+ Take an object from your opponent or seize a superior position

On a 10+ you choose three (no repeats) and the opponent chooses one in response. On a 7-9 you choose two and the opponent one. This is intentionally set up so that resorting to violence is always going to take some kind of toll on you.

So one key thing they bring up here is that there are other Moves that might be more appropriate even if you’re in principle in a fight. Think about what you’re actually trying to do before you decide what Move to roll. They also note that ‘taking something’ isn’t abstract or philosophical, it’s a thingy. And it’s equally never a PC’s sword unless there’s a GM move involved or they’re Defeated, because that’s just rude (that’s literally the reasoning given). They remind you to keep in mind what all the options actually are here and use that to make things more interesting than just rolling Fight a few times to slug it out with an enemy.

At this point they bring up PvP (it’s been mentioned before as a thing that might happen but we get some more detail here) and make it clear that if PCs are going to be using this Move on each other you need to be careful both to ensure one of them isn’t trying to kill the other’s character, that another Move might not be more appropriate, and that this isn’t something where the players are taking an out of game dispute into the game where maybe this needs to be resolved by them talking it out. With how the rules work it’s not at all unlikely both PCs will be Defeated by the same Fight action since you both get to resolve your choices even if one of you would be Defeated.

They also mention here that there’s optional expanded Fight Move rules, I’ll cover the optional rules much later but the essence is to give every stat a Fight Move so as to make everyone a bit better at it.

The book also gives lots of examples of play which are all darling and you should buy it for them.

Defy Disaster: The move for doing crazy things not covered by some other move or to avert imminent danger. You start by saying what you’re willing to sacrifice and then pick an approach, which determines which of the five stats you add. If you have the Hopeless Condition, you then subtract 2. On a 10+, you succeed with style. The GM can decide to give you some new information, a new opportunity, or a String. On a 7-9, you’re offered a hard choice or success with sacrifice.

This is intended as a catchall move for situations where there’s a lot of tension and everyone decides a dice roll should actually happen. A lot of the text of the description of this is actually pointing out that part of the point of the game is that the PCs are pretty badass and mostly don’t need to roll dice to do cool poo poo. This isn’t a Move for swinging on a chandelier as part of your cool description or racing your horses to stop a wedding, that poo poo just happens because it’s BORING if you fail at the stuff that links the fun parts together. But if you’re swinging across that chandelier over a fire pit to get away from archers? Now we’re talking.

When choosing the stat to use for this use some sense, GM gets a veto if it’s a bit too bullshit. You can Defy Disaster for someone else but only between Moves, you can’t use it to bail someone out of a bad roll until the direct results of that roll have happened. They note for the GM as much as players here that the existence of this move means the GM can announce looming disaster, so as to give players the chance to Defy it by rolling this.

They give some guidance on what to do on a mixed beat, noting that you should obviously start with the inspiration of what they were willing to sacrifice but equally reminding that 7-9 is a success so at some level the sacrifice should be lesser than the danger that was averted. Having an NPC who sucks get a String on them is one option presented.

They also suggest that if there’s a specific sort of Disaster that you expect players might have to Defy on a repeated basis in your campaign that’s the sort of thing you might want to make a custom move to represent, so as to give it a bit more of a clear mechanic you can consistently apply.

Stagger (Reactive Move): This Move triggers when you suffer a staggering physical or emotional blow. Depending on how many Conditions you have marked, you choose from one of two lists.

4-5 Conditions:
+ You’re rendered helpless for the scene.
+ You’re utterly humiliated and the news will spread.
+ Choose 2 from the 0-3 Conditions list.

0-3 Conditions:
+ You lash out at someone whose regard matters to you: provoke them to do something foolish or harmful and take advantage of a String on them if you have one
+ You hesitate or stumble and the opposition gains an opportunity
+ You grin and bear the blow, mark two Conditions

While this is a player-facing Move, it’s generally going to be triggered by a GM move. It doesn’t have to be, though, if you think something would seriously shake your character’s well-being you can invoke this yourself.

Heartstring Moves:

Entice: When you appeal to someone’s physical or emotional sensibilities, roll +Heart. Subtract 2 if you’re Insecure. On a 10+, you gain a String on them and they have to choose from the list below, on a 7-9 they either give you a String or choose one.

+ Get flustered and awkward
+ Promise something they think you want
+ Give in to desire

This is the easiest way to get Strings on characters. They note that it’s totally within scope for someone else at the table to suggest you roll this whether you intended to Entice them or not because their character would react that way to what you just described. I refer you to a thesis on this, I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On.

Equally if you’re actively trying to Entice someone and what you described doesn’t work for the other party, they give a few options. One is to talk through what would work and rewind, another is to just abandon the move and do something else, and the third is to let the move’s core mechanic work but essentially out of awkwardness or embarrassment. It’s also noted that the fact that choices are always in the hands of the enticee acts as a safety tool here.

They also note that while this is the primary move for gaining Strings and influencing people, there are others as well that might be more appropriate depending on the situation so keep them in mind. In fact let’s get to one of those.

Figure Out a Person: When you try to understand a person, roll +Wit. You can spend a String on them to add 3, and you subtract 2 if you’re Angry. Consult the following list of questions:

+ What are your feelings towards x?
+ What do you hope to get from x?
+ How could I get you to x?
+ What do you love most?
+ How would you feel if I x?

On a 10+ you get to ask 2 of these at some point during the scene. One a 7-9 you still get to ask the two questions, but they get one back at you. This can trigger from talking with or observing someone, and doesn’t necessarily involve your character literally just asking this poo poo. If you can’t come up with a good reason you could observe or ask the question, just assume it’s intuition. Again, your characters are kinda badass like that.

There are special rules for using this in a fight. If you do, you gain access to two additional choices depending on your playbook. You get to automatically ask one of them for free no matter what you roll, and you can spend one of your other choices on the second. We’ll cover those when we get to the playbooks.

Influence With a String: At any time you can spend a String on someone to do one of the following:

+ Offer them an XP to do something. The String is only spent if they do it.
+ Find out what it will take to get them to do what you want (and for an NPC this is potentially essentially enough)
+ Add 1 to a roll against them, after rolling
+ Add or subtract 1 from a roll they make (after rolling)

You can only spend one String per roll. Here’s the primary way Strings come into play. So one thing they note here is that Strings are kind of always emotionally manipulative if you’re spending them, and you should keep that in mind.

They contrast using a String to influence an NPC vs Figuring Them Out as being a question of whether you’re cashing in some leverage on them vs determining what they actually value and want.

Smitten: This is another special move, not tied to dice or anything. Choose to become Smitten with someone, say why, give them a String on you, then answer a question connected to your playbook (again I’ll go over these playbook by playbook but it’s things like ‘Why would your romance never last?’ and always speaks to the emotional core of the book).

The purpose as noted is both to signal to the table that this is something important to what your character is feeling while also describing what would make the romance fraught and interesting. There’s absolutely no mechanical trigger to this and you can declare you’re no longer Smitten at any time. While you can also declare it at any time, if a scene has action you wait until the end of the scene to actually apply the mechanics.

Finally Kiss, in a Dangerous Situation: When people finally kiss after a period of tension, each takes +1 ongoing to get to safety and protect the other for the scene. This can apply to more than just two people but everyone has to be consenting. Simple and pretty perfect for the sort of stories this game is about.

Recovery Moves:

Emotional Support: When you offer someone support in a way that could be meaningful to them, roll +Heart or +Spirit. Add 3 if you spend a String on them, and subtract 2 if you’re Guilty. So here’s the possible benefits:

+ Clear a Condition
+ Mark XP
+ +1 Forward
+ Gain insight from the GM about an obstacle facing one of you

On a 10+, if they open up to you they choose 1 and then you either choose 1 or take a String on them. On a 7-9 they choose 1, again if they open up to you. If they’re Smitten with you, they get to choose an additional option. But, if you’re Smitten with them and they won’t open up to you, you have to mark a Condition. This is your primary way of helping other players recover from Conditions and it’s pretty cool. It does also work on NPCs, who will generally open up if they have a Condition as long as you aren’t to blame for it.

Special Moves:

Call on a Toxic Power: When you parley with a Toxic Power, ask your question and roll + Spirit. On a 10+ you get your answer and can take +1 forward to act on it. On a 7-9 you get your answer, but the GM chooses one:

+ It takes something from you.
+ You mark a Condition.
+ It gains a String on you.

Toxic Powers are things like evil gods, corporations, the Space Pope, whatever. They’ll generally be something that you come up with as a group when envisioning your setting. It’s very in-flavor for the sort of stories that this game tells to have high-risk options like this.

End of Session: At the end of every session, each player marks XP if:

+ Any PC confessed their love.
+ Any PC struck a blow against oppression or de-escalated a violent situation.
+ Any PC leapt into danger with daring and panache.
+ Any player used a safety practice.

Each PC marks for each condition met, so all PCs mark the same amount. They suggest you interpret this broadly rather than try to be a stickler just to deny the XP.

So let’s look at these in comparison to their corresponding Monsterhearts Moves, and equally look at what Moves don’t exist at all in one of the games. Note that I’m using Monsterhearts Second Edition, because that is what I have in front of me.

Turn Someone On and Entice are essentially the same Move. They both have the same outcomes, and the same caveats. Shut Someone Down, on the other hand, has no equivalent in Thirsty Sword Lesbians. There’s no generic Move here for being a jerk and clearing Strings, and Conditions are much more codified here so inflicting generic ones would add confusion. Keep Your Cool is also not directly equivalent to any Move here. It and Gaze Into the Abyss both have similar systems to Call on a Toxic Power, though neither is quite the same in tone. Lash Out Physically is quite different than Fight. Fight always has some kind of negative outcome for the player but Lash Out Physically can get really ugly really fast if you roll 7-9 in ways Fight really can’t. Both fit pretty well with the tone of their games in how they fill the role of ‘Move for fighting’. Run Away is somewhat equivalent to Defy Disaster in how it works, just a more heroic reskin of it. The options you can get from spending Strings are also a bit different to match the changes in core rules. Healing is a bit more systematized with Emotional Support vs the simple Healing Move. Skirting Death isn’t really transmissible to TSL. Similarly, there’s no real equivalent for Stagger, Figure Out a Person, or Finally Kissing. As for Smitten, that’s getting more into the specific playbook rules but it’s mostly unique to TSL.

Next time we’ll start on the Playbooks after some brief character creation stuff. So stay tuned for The Beast and The Chosen!

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!



Loxbourne posted:

Does he carry the evil fates in the sense of "is prophesied to come to a bad end" or in a little bag, threatening to throw them at people?
Why not both, little buddy?

Libertad!
Oct 30, 2013

You can have the last word, but I'll have the last laugh!


Chapter 8: Notable People

One may think that this section includes all the notable figures of the setting, but oddly enough the “NPC sections” of Supers & Sorcery are split into two. This chapter provides antagonists whose stat blocks are derived from existing monsters/NPCs but with new and/or altered abilities here and there. Appendix A: Villains & Monsters is further back in the book and provides entirely new stat blocks for even more characters, some of who are oddly enough good-aligned and be on the PCs’ side. I’m going to break with convention and detail both of these sections in the same post if only because together they give a good and consistent flavor for the setting. There’s nearly 40 characters combined between the two, so I won’t detail them all; just the ones I find most interesting.

The villains of Chapter 8 all have adventure hooks sorted by Tier; in some cases this isn’t ideal, as there are no proposed changes to their power level by default meaning that the PCs will easily outclass them at higher levels. There’s also sample lairs (complete with lair actions) and minions, along with Legendary Villainy detailing legendary actions added to specific characters’ stat blocks. A few NPCs also have proper Lairs acting as mini-dungeons, although those are detailed in Appendix B which I’ll cover as part of the final entry of the book.

Beefcake is a flesh golem made out of animated steaks. A failed experiment of XX the Sciencelich, it gained sapience from ambient magical energies in a museum. The creature is more misunderstood than malicious, often reacting with great strength to frightening situations it doesn’t understand. Unlike other flesh golems it is weak to and fearful of cold, and regenerates from fire.



Count Abramovich is the leader of the Court of Empty Night. He is very much an undead crime lord and uses the vampire stat block, save that his spells are different (more blasty and energy stuff) and wields the Scorched Sun, a shortsword that can deal radiant damage and negates his vulnerability to sunlight. His minions include the Slayer, a vampire hunter who is now a broken thrall, whose Blade of Unmatched Sorrow is a finessable greatsword that grants him a 1/day “powered up” form when he drops to 0 hit points. Isn’t it odd that I find the henchman cooler than the supervillain?

Doors came like so many others to Ghaistala through a portal, but ended up stranded in another plane of existence when the arkwaves hit. Coming back nearly 3 centuries to a radically-different world, the person who would come to be known as Doors raged against the “lost lifetime” and set about finding ways to return Ghaistala to a simpler time...by cutting off contact with all other worlds and becoming the sole arbiter of extraplanar travel to and from the plane. Statwise he’s an Assassin with a host of teleportation themed spells and an attack that can forcefully plane shift targets.

The Edgecutioner is a solar angel who sees fit to be Ghaistala’s ultimate arbiter of the Law. His gynosphinx sidekick, the Prosecutor of the Law, spends all day in her floating citadel scrying hundreds of locations across the world. When the solar witnesses a crime, no matter how minor, he teleports to the area, informs the wrongdoer of their sins, and asks how they plead. The punishment depends on their pleading: guilty causes him to draw a fusillade of floating weapons to kill them, and if they plead innocent he subjects them to trial by combat. The scale of the crime does not matter, and the Edgecutioner never acts to stop a crime in planning or in progress; he only acts after the deed is done.

”Ed” Jorino is a kobold crime lord in charge of the Green Dragons gang and is pretty much your stereotypical comic book mob boss. He uses a modified bandit captain stat block but with more skills, scores a critical on an 18-20, and has a kobold’s pack tactics. His second-in-command Fax Jorino is an animated suit of armor.

Idyllia is a good-aligned aboleth who came from an oceanic utopia bereft of strife. Although said society is long gone now, she still prizes it as an ideal and thus seeks to build a similar society in Ghaistala. She uses her innate psychic powers to instill sensations of serene confidence in others, making them believe that they can achieve their greatest dreams. She has additional powers reflecting this, such as granting temporary hit points to those influenced by her powers, can cast Guidance at will, and can project an illusory humanoid version of herself which also as a double-purpose scrying sensor. Idyllia has already set up the Trieye Co-Op in Lowcity, which has encouraged people there to improve their own lives and find productive means of resolution. The only major drawback is that they can no longer drink water sources not produced, unable to gain sustenance from sources not treated with Idyllia’s magic (they’ll vomit up any other nourishment).



Sideswipe is a mimic enamored with superhero culture. As such it sought to imitate its role models by polymorphing into rather comical facsimiles. Although well-intentioned, the creature lacks the proper training and tends to get in the way as an unwanted sidekick. Statwise Sideswipe’s a mimic save that its bite attack can deal any form of energy damage provided it witnesses an attack of that damage type being used, can mimic the forms and abilities of superpowered creatures, and can speak any language that it has heard.

The Sizzler is your stereotypical “didn’t get superpowers and was resentful” type of guy, and by the time he did get superpowers he was too far gone to bother with being a superhero. After many desperate attempts and ruining his own social ties he went on a rampage after the second arkwave emanation in his life gave him the ability to create and control fire. He uses the mage stat block save that he has a variety of fire-based spells, can use Metamagic like a Sorcerer, and radiates a burning aura that damages people in melee range.

Tomas Nailtanhe isn’t so much a supervillain as he is more of a bit character who can still cause trouble that the PCs have to clean up. Empowered by the arkwaves, this otherwise ordinary halfling can temporarily alter the appearance and composition of metal objects. He turned such powers to con artistry, using them to sell fake goods and jewelry at prices far beyond their actual worth, taking pains to make himself scarce before angry customers come back for refunds.

The major difference is that his get-rich-quick schemes have finally caught up to him; Tomas is already a wanted man in every major settlement of note, and at higher tiers he ends up conning someone he shouldn’t con and the PCs have to save him from a vindictive crime lord.



XX, the Sciencelich is one of Beacon’s most dangerous threats. He was originally a famed arcanist who made breakthroughs in the study of portals along with other magitech inventions that are now omnipresent features of the city. XX’s true name is unknown, for he went to great pains in erasing all traces of his old life. Now he’s obsessed with uplifting society to an elevated state of being via fusing the best features of life and undeath. Many terrible monsters that have menaced Beacon have come from his labs, and he cares little for the misery he spreads as he insists on “looking at the big picture.”

Statwise XX is a lich, but he can turn his Paralyzing Touch into a ranged Freeze Ray and knows Chill Touch and Shocking Grasp. His Lair Actions involve various mad science lab effects, from various energy rays to needle-tipped tethers that transfer hit points from a target to XX.

Appendix A: Villains & Monsters

This Appendix has 18 named NPCs and 3 generic NPC types. There’s an inconsistent amount of fluff text in the entries. Some major characters have proper write-ups on their backstories, others are entirely stat blocks and nothing else. In some cases this is fine, as they’re NPCs in an adventure or mentioned elsewhere in the book, but other times this Appendix is the only time that they appear (like Circe).



Amelia Kassram is an ordinary high school girl who wants to be an engineer and was empowered with telekinetic strength from the last arkwave emanation. She’s still learning to control her abilities, and the shockwaves from her attacks often cause collateral damage. Statwise she is a CR 7 human with Resistance against nonmagical bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage, deals a bonus die of damage with weapon attacks, and when she scores a critical hit on an unarmed strike she deals 1d10 bonus force damage to everything surrounding her in a 5 foot radius. She’s actually a superhero, being of Chaotic Good alignment, which threw me off when I first read the appendix.

Circe, Master of Magi-Tech is a CR 16 supervillain who relies upon an array of gadgets rather than spells proper. Her tools have flavorful names, such as the Gorgeous Goggles of All-Seeing which grant her Truesight, or the Raygun of Amazing Transformations which can impart debilitating conditions from animal polymorphing to unwanted etherealness as part of its damaging effects.

Hagard Thornheart is an SPND member tasked with assassinating superheroes in order to bring about the return of Nul. He’s a CR 11 innate spellcaster, with magic specializing in illusion and misdirection along with Rogue-like abilities. He wields a Paragite Dagger which can ignore the Resistance of any creature it strikes.

Heroes Interfector is a demon and perhaps the most powerful member of the Court of Empty Night. As a CR 22 fiend it has a host of powerful abilities, ranging from multiattack natural weapons, a poisonous stinger, has a constantly active antimagic field, and has innate spellcasting of various ‘black magic’ spells from eldritch blast to blight and animate dead...wonder if it can voluntarily lower said antimagic field in order to cast such things, the text doesn’t say. Heroes Interfector also has legendary actions to make additional attacks, cast an additional spell, or summon up magical darkness.

The Marquis is the leader of the Shattered Sons who possesses a mysterious power known as the Retaliation which manifests as literal fires of wrath. He’s a CR 11 Chaotic Good human who casts spells like a warlock, specializing in heat-based magic (as well as a self-only fly spell). His signature ability is the Aura of Vengeance, which damages targets in melee range with magical flames, and said aura’s radius, damage, and the Marquis’ own AC increases the lower his hit points get.



Poppet is an antihero who can take control of other people by establishing a magical link to them and one of her dolls. She was born on the Ethereal Plane to a mage who plane shifted there and couldn’t get back, which instilled in her the desire to interact with a world that was literally untouchable. She managed to return to the Material Plane, but her stereotypical Chaotic Neutralness means that she’s more concerned with self-fulfillment than more heroic ideals. She’s a CR 7 wizard with a diverse array of spells, can open a portal between the Ethereal and Material Planes once per day, can use Dominate Person at will provided she is holding a doll, and can force an attacker to waste an intended offensive action on a failed Wisdom save as a reaction.

Sinister Void is a sage who studied antimatter and a mysterious “dark universe.” An accident during one of his science experiments infused him with antimatter, turning him Chaotic Evil with a desire to further his research through destructive displays of entropy. He’s a CR 21 wizard with a healthy assortment of spells, and he wields an antimatter greataxe that does a lot of normal as well as necrotic damage. His legendary actions grant him bonus attacks and cantrip casting, as well as a gaze attack that imposes the frightened condition and an AoE antimatter blast that harms only living creatures.



Spectacle is a superhero who derives his powers from self-confidence as well as positive emotions from others. He is a CR 4 warlock who also has innate spellcasting, and he gains bonuses to AC, attack rolls, and damage rolls based on how many friendly creatures he can see and hear. Furthermore, he grants friendly creatures within 30 feet the ability to spend a reaction to impart words of encouragement which can heal him. There’s no limit to the amount of people Spectacle can impact this on, but every individual creature can heal him in such a way only once every 24 hours.



Zephon Othaenya is a half-aasimar, half-tiefling paladin whose dual heritage came from the unlikely marriage of a half-angel and a reformed procubus (nonbinary succubus/incubus). Their son Zephon inherited unique powers, where he shapechanges into a more angelic aspect during the day and a more demonic one at night. Innate magic prevents any onlookers from realizing that the two are the same person unless Zephon discloses such information to them. Zephon naturally used this to his advantage, taking on the identity of two different superheroes: during the day he is the frightening instrument of heavenly power, Darkday, and at night he is Nightlight, the surprisingly good-hearted demon who is a light of hope in darkest night.

Zephon is a CR 11 paladin who has a variety of melee and ranged weapons, and as Darkday he has a healing touch much like a paladin but as Nightlight he can effortlessly travel between the Ethereal and Material Planes.



So we covered a bunch of interesting named characters, so how about the generic types? Well we have the rather underwhelming Ground and Flying Assistants, CR 0 constructs who I suppose represent background workers for magitech stuff and have no interesting traits to speak of. But the far more interesting entry is for Underlings! Representing mooks of all kinds, they are a base CR 1/8th stat block with 1 Hit Point, 11 AC, and 12 in every ability score save Constitution. They take no damage on a successful save vs a damaging effect, even if it would still do half damage.

But beyond this rather underwhelming stat block, there’s a list of suggestions and templates to make them more unique. For example, Magic Underlings get Darkvision, immunity to cold and fire damage, and can cast the Fire Bolt and Ray of Frost cantrips. Melee Underlings get 16 AC and a shortsword, while Undeadlings are immune to necrotic damage and can absorb all damage the first time they get hurt (effectively requiring 2 attacks to put down) unless they take radiant damage which can 1-shot them normally. There are even entries for Superpowered templates, such as gaining a 30 foot fly speed, super-speed which increases their speed by 30 feet, limited teleportation, and various Recharge-based attacks.

I have to say that I really like the Underlings. Albeit not as all-encompassing as 4th Edition’s Minion template, it provides a nice degree of variety for hordes of lesser foes for parties to mow down.

Thoughts So Far: Overall I like this chapter and appendix. The characters are quite flavorful and have quite a bit of support in using them in adventures. I’m rather fond of Sideswipe, Spectacle, and XX the Sciencelich from Chapter 8, and Spectacle from Appendix A.

There’s a larger than usual number of fellow superheroes with stats, which is a bit of an odd choice, but one that I can appreciate both for world-building and potential “team-up” scenarios. The 5th Edition system of Lair and Legendary Actions work very well with the concept of supervillains and masterminds, and the Underling stat block and templates help reinforce a comic book feel. Easily my favorite chapter in this book.

Join us next time as we dive into a host of superpowered plots in Part 3: Adventure Time!

Libertad!
Oct 30, 2013

You can have the last word, but I'll have the last laugh!

Evil Mastermind posted:

1. Unless I missed something, there's only one "super" type per class, right? Like if you want to play a monk your only option is the cyberarm; you can't just be Iron Fist or do a Black Canary "I'm a strong martial artist with one actual power as a back-up".

2. Oh neither would I, but if I was going to I at least know enough to separate the power stuff from the class stuff as much as possible.

So far this all seems very backwards-thinking; instead of taking a fantasy world and apply superhero tropes and abilities to it, they're taking superhero tropes and abilities and shoehorning them into D&D.

1. Correct, I didn't excise content in the first post. The only times I really cut down on stuff was during the NPC chapters which have over 40 characters and/or stat blocks and we'd be here all day.

2. Based on what Night's reviewing, Blue Rose 5e tries to do this given that the prior AGE/True20 systems just had Warrior/Rogue/Mage classes. Spellcasters in general are Adepts and their 'class' merely reflects what kind of magic they have a knack for as opposed to how they got their magic in the first place. Well the warlock's an exception, who ends up defying the rules as someone who isn't born with arcane talent. I actually kind of like this idea, although I sort of feel that every system that has been attached to Blue Rose has been a poor fit for various reasons.

By popular demand posted:

Just wanted to praise this wonderfully expressive piece of character art, you could show that to your players and everyone could grab a character to start play with no words being exchanged.

Yeah the art can rock at times, but can also be a bit "ehhhh." This rather sums up my feelings on S&S in general.

Epicurius posted:

If you just try to take the ruleset of D&D unchanged, you're doomed, but Mutants and Masterminds is built off the D20 OGL, and it's a functional game system, if kind of clunky.

Even M&M began to depart further from its D20 roots over time, like replacing HP with Toughness saves. There's also the fact that the system has been strenuously number-crunched, playtested, and had its mechanical skeleton stripped and analyzed to tell readers exactly how things work for over a decade. Compare this to 5e which hinged hugely on "does it feel like D&D?"

Libertad! fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Apr 11, 2021

megane
Jun 20, 2008



Feinne posted:

Run Away is somewhat equivalent to Defy Disaster in how it works, just a more heroic reskin of it.

I'm leery of Defy Danger and its ilk at the best of times, and "choose your stat!" is a serious red flag. Run Away uses one specific stat and is clearly for fleeing from a problem, not overcoming it. That's a critical difference in my mind, because the core problem with Defy Danger is that it has no clear boundaries or limits - pretty much any action can be phrased as "defying" some sort of "danger" if you're willing to stretch the definitions of "defy" and "danger" enough, so it's a game of Mother May I every time you use it. Mother may I defy the danger of being embarrassed at this party by my lack of knowledge of elven etiquette? Oh, and I'm doing it by, uhhhhh showing off my muscles to all the elves so I get to roll Strength right

I dunno, maybe this is some inherent flaw of the PbtA system; the short list of cleanly-defined moves that Do This and Nothing Else leaves people itching for generic Do Other Stuff moves to cover dodging a cannonball or whatever, situations that seem to call for dice but aren't on the list. Scratching that itch doesn't fell like a great solution to me, though.

megane fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Apr 11, 2021

Dawgstar
Jul 15, 2017

SkyeAuroline posted:

Yes, Shadowrun in general has been "one character writes up extended sections, plus JackPoint comments on each section" for a long time. If the SR characters were at all tolerable this would likely work out better in practice.

Yes, Kane is terrible and it's baffling why he endured as a fixture in the SR books for so long past what appeared to be his initial goal of 'this is what a runner shouldn't be.'

Cooked Auto
Aug 4, 2007

If you will not serve in combat, you will serve on the firing line!




Writer's sweetheart. I recall the same being the case for Slamm-o and one of the major female runners in 4th edition. Kane has just oddly endured through everything as the SR edgelord.

Joe Slowboat
Nov 9, 2016

Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements



megane posted:

I'm leery of Defy Danger and its ilk at the best of times, and "choose your stat!" is a serious red flag. Run Away uses one specific stat and is clearly for fleeing from a problem, not overcoming it. That's a critical difference in my mind, because the core problem with Defy Danger is that it has no clear boundaries or limits - pretty much any action can be phrased as "defying" some sort of "danger" if you're willing to stretch the definitions of "defy" and "danger" enough, so it's a game of Mother May I every time you use it. Mother may I defy the danger of being embarrassed at this party by my lack of knowledge of elven etiquette? Oh, and I'm doing it by, uhhhhh showing off my muscles to all the elves so I get to roll Strength right

I dunno, maybe this is some inherent flaw of the PbtA system; the short list of cleanly-defined moves that Do This and Nothing Else leaves people itching for generic Do Other Stuff moves to cover dodging a cannonball or whatever, situations that seem to call for dice but aren't on the list. Scratching that itch doesn't fell like a great solution to me, though.

Yeah, personally I would just say 'no, you can't roll dice if it's not one of the Moves, the GM decides whether that works' - encouraging players to pursue genre-appropriate courses of action, because the strength of PBTA is precisely in the constraints of Moves.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

megane posted:

I'm leery of Defy Danger and its ilk at the best of times, and "choose your stat!" is a serious red flag. Run Away uses one specific stat and is clearly for fleeing from a problem, not overcoming it. That's a critical difference in my mind, because the core problem with Defy Danger is that it has no clear boundaries or limits - pretty much any action can be phrased as "defying" some sort of "danger" if you're willing to stretch the definitions of "defy" and "danger" enough, so it's a game of Mother May I every time you use it. Mother may I defy the danger of being embarrassed at this party by my lack of knowledge of elven etiquette? Oh, and I'm doing it by, uhhhhh showing off my muscles to all the elves so I get to roll Strength right

I dunno, maybe this is some inherent flaw of the PbtA system; the short list of cleanly-defined moves that Do This and Nothing Else leaves people itching for generic Do Other Stuff moves to cover dodging a cannonball or whatever, situations that seem to call for dice but aren't on the list. Scratching that itch doesn't fell like a great solution to me, though.

Yeah I think the best way the game squares the circle is by being up front in the default answer to the question 'what do I roll for this?' is 'you don't need to roll to do that' (I don't know if I really captured that in the Defy Disaster description) and to legit only roll Defy Disaster when that descriptor sounds right for what you're doing and it's not the sort of thing you'd expect very competent characters to just be able to do.

I will say that the game actually gives specific but slightly wordy descriptions of when each stat could apply that I left out because I was lazy, here they are:

+Might, endurance, or courage +Daring
+Swiftness or elegance +Grace
+Charm or social insight +Heart
+Cleverness or knowledge +Wit
+Willpower or metaphysical skill +Spirit

It's still not perfect of course and can feel a bit GM May I? but the game's instructions to the GM lean very heavily to try and get them on board with letting the players loving live a little (like many of the playbooks basically don't even work if the GM's going to just be a weird funhating dipshit). This is extremely not a game for GMs who want to show you their Magical Realm.

Also honestly I might not even make you roll to flex your way out of an awkward party situation that's amazing.

Feinne fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Apr 11, 2021

Joe Slowboat
Nov 9, 2016

Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements



The issue for me is less 'GM May I' but rather that a PBTA game lives or dies by its genre structure, and so actually it requires the GM to be more restrictive or authoritative and say 'no, you can't Defy Danger like that' whenever it would inflect out of the genre framework.

If you don't have that, the game becomes tepid - Thirsty Sword Lesbians has a very strong sense of its genre, and then gives players a genre-ambivalent method of resolving problems, and that's a problem to my eyes.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Joe Slowboat posted:

The issue for me is less 'GM May I' but rather that a PBTA game lives or dies by its genre structure, and so actually it requires the GM to be more restrictive or authoritative and say 'no, you can't Defy Danger like that' whenever it would inflect out of the genre framework.

If you don't have that, the game becomes tepid - Thirsty Sword Lesbians has a very strong sense of its genre, and then gives players a genre-ambivalent method of resolving problems, and that's a problem to my eyes.

So one of the reasons for that I think is that the game is designed to accommodate a lot of different settings. There's a bit more expectation than might be normal in a PBtA game to make your own Moves if there's something players are going to be doing a lot that needs well-defined expectations rather than rely on Defy Disaster and there's a fair number of such in the provided example settings.

I'll agree it's probably just an inherent weakness to the system that sometimes people are going to want to do something and it's hard to fit it exactly into what any Move does but you all agree a dice roll is appropriate.

EDIT: So the play example actually emphasizes another element of Defy Disaster I wasn't really sure how to even explain, one of the key ways they intend it to be used is to increase your future options to use Moves in situations where you would otherwise be limited. In the play example someone's encountering a former friend who's there for a fight, and in order to get to the point of being able to use a Move other than Fight they need to Defy Disaster first.

I think also Defy Disaster is something where the game's emphasis on the fact that a Down Beat doesn't necessarily mean you failed to do the action earlier comes into play, in the example they roll a six but still get the outcome they desired at the cost of getting an appropriate Condition. A Down Beat here is much more that you lose the option of backing out when you see what it'll cost to move forward with your choice.

Feinne fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Apr 12, 2021

AmiYumi
Oct 10, 2005

I FORGOT TO HAIL KING TORG

Libertad! posted:

The Edgecutioner
There has got to be a better way to get across, both in spelling and description, the idea of a educator + executioner.

Now I’m inspired to create some kind of Lawful Neutral Ms. Frizzle, stalking the multiverse with a bloody greataxe

Libertad!
Oct 30, 2013

You can have the last word, but I'll have the last laugh!

AmiYumi posted:

There has got to be a better way to get across, both in spelling and description, the idea of a educator + executioner.

Now I’m inspired to create some kind of Lawful Neutral Ms. Frizzle, stalking the multiverse with a bloody greataxe

And here I thought it was meant to be an edgy executioner.

Hipster Occultist
Aug 16, 2008

He's an ancient, obscure god. You probably haven't heard of him.


SkyeAuroline posted:

Do you happen to have that doc on hand? I know the discord had it but asking about That Scene from BA ended badly for me. There's some bits in that writeup that I'm not familiar with and that might complicate the "things that can be salvaged from Degenesis" list (for better and for worse).
I appreciate you going into depth on the adventures way more than I would ever find it ethical to ask of someone.

It's very incomplete but I took a bunch of stuff from it still.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16_gzuUAPi5UUTTXwqTeFmnxTuLDV5Dq5USquMOzfFHw/edit#heading=h.pbfn0mjdum97

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!



AmiYumi posted:

There has got to be a better way to get across, both in spelling and description, the idea of a educator + executioner.

Now I’m inspired to create some kind of Lawful Neutral Ms. Frizzle, stalking the multiverse with a bloody greataxe
That's obviously the Educutioner.

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!

neonchameleon posted:

This isn't much of an excuse to be honest. Warhammer Fantasy Battle 1e came out in 1983. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay came out in 1986 - or about three years after Warhammer Fantasy Battle was created and what distinguished it from similar settings and similar systems (notably Greyhawk) was how gritty and focusing on the underclass it was. The last parts of the legendary Enemy Within campaign, still one of the best adventure paths ever came out in 1989. By comparison Age of Sigmar came out in 2015 - so is six years old or twice as old as

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think AoS lost some time due to being released under the rule of Tom Kirby, Capitalist Caricature Come to Life, so there was some early blockage preventing it from being good.

And it wasn't just reality ball and Sigmarine nonsense, it was also poo poo like "no points for unit costs, just take whatever," "distances are measured from miniature bodies, not bases," and "whacky rules like requiring you to shout 'for the lady' to activate unit abilities."

By popular demand posted:

Ashen Chanterelle?


Yeah, I was gonna say, that's a weird-rear end name.

Love the baby that makes you insane unless you kill another PC, just unleaded bad shock value writing without any rhyme or reason.


Libertad! posted:

And here I thought it was meant to be an edgy executioner.

I mean, he summons swords for the execution, seem p. much cut and dry.

But now, for the real meat: boy, that Degenesis metaplot suuuucks. It's a small world like in AoS/40K where a handful of important dudes are behind everything, but the dudes in this case are all extremely boring, and just suck all the mystery out of the world.

What's Argyre's/Vulture's domain? Oh, just memetics controlled by an RG shareholder.

Chernobog and his horde? Nope, just an RG shareholder and possibly some memetics.

Was Jehammed a real prophet? Nope, memetics and RG shareholder. Also applies to the Arianoi.

Apocalyptics? Memetics controlled by RG shareholder.

Three kids in a trenchcoat? Memetics contro-

Truly, Gettrel is the puppitmaster.

Marko read some comic book about weaponized memetics and it just blew his drat mind, it's the solution for everything.

Also, isn't the timeline a bit hosed? As far as I remember, HIVE only struck after the Eschaton. And how were Apocalyptic terrorists were a thing before you had memetics on hand?

And what's the point of Primer being the source of life on Earth? Ugh.

E:

JcDent fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Apr 12, 2021

SkyeAuroline
Nov 12, 2020

HIV-E was pre-Eshaton and one of the inciting events behind the tensions in Africa. Very very public and Europe simply was not giving a gently caress about their neighbor. Apocalyptics were also not pre-memetics, they're another pre Eshaton program on Getrell's part. Same as the memetics sold/given to Jehammed to build his cult.

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!

SkyeAuroline posted:

HIV-E was pre-Eshaton and one of the inciting events behind the tensions in Africa. Very very public and Europe simply was not giving a gently caress about their neighbor. Apocalyptics were also not pre-memetics, they're another pre Eshaton program on Getrell's part. Same as the memetics sold/given to Jehammed to build his cult.

Right, must have gotten confused after all these years.

SkyeAuroline
Nov 12, 2020

All good. Apocalyptics are one of the setting elements that stick out to me so I remember their details a bit better. Cut back on Romani stereotypes and they'd actually make for an interesting faction in another setting. (So would Hellvetics pretty much out of the box... I planned on running knockoff Hellvetics as a Riders of the Apocalypse family in Legacy, but that game didn't get off the ground.)

Hipster Occultist
Aug 16, 2008

He's an ancient, obscure god. You probably haven't heard of him.


JcDent posted:

.

And what's the point of Primer being the source of life on Earth? Ugh.

I think mostly so they can do a weird ancient humans-type plot. That's the reason Africa is a monoculture and why they all speak some pre-modern language, the presence of the Crown Chakra (Psychovores) that spawned humanity links them back to this ancient lineage.

It has nothing to do with casual lazy racism, no siree.

Hellvetics are neat though, a properly min-maxed one can shoot their way through most of the encounters in these adventures quite easily. Its kinda hard to believe that they just straight up give the faction with the best gun said gun at rank 1, and they also get some of the best armor by default as well.

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.

Robindaybird posted:

Faux-Guides are not a rare genre, I'm eyeing one that's basically Grey's Anatomy for mythical creature.

They're popular children's stuff, I remember one in the school library that was basically about the North Pole and the Santa mythos. I liked the bit where Santa's got a vacation home by an Antarctic volcano.

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!

Hipster Occultist posted:

I think mostly so they can do a weird ancient humans-type plot. That's the reason Africa is a monoculture and why they all speak some pre-modern language, the presence of the Crown Chakra (Psychovores) that spawned humanity links them back to this ancient lineage.

It has nothing to do with casual lazy racism, no siree.

Hellvetics are neat though, a properly min-maxed one can shoot their way through most of the encounters in these adventures quite easily. Its kinda hard to believe that they just straight up give the faction with the best gun said gun at rank 1, and they also get some of the best armor by default as well.

They bAlaNcE it by giving you almost no ammo. At best, you get +5 rounds/month at the starting level, then +10 at Corporal (oh, and ONE FREE UPGRADE TO THE TRAILBLAZER), and +20 if you (can) go Grenadier (ALSO A LEVEL 2 UPGRADE FOR TRAILBLAZER, whatever that means).

E: I think Verena is only Rank 2 and she has Resources 2, which gives her the starting funds of 200 CD. Now, I don't remember if ammo is bought round-by-round or in batches, but Trailblazer fodder costs 80 per.

JcDent fucked around with this message at 07:42 on Apr 12, 2021

senrath
Nov 4, 2009

Look Professor, a destruct switch!


JcDent posted:

Love the baby that makes you insane unless you kill another PC, just unleaded bad shock value writing without any rhyme or reason.

Even better, it makes you insane unless you kill another PC or just walk away, but you're only told about the former option. So it's not just going for "hah, you have to do something stupid and drastic!" it's going for "that stupid and drastic thing we convinced you to do was utterly pointless!"

90s Cringe Rock
Nov 29, 2006
:gay:

senrath posted:

Even better, it makes you insane unless you kill another PC or just walk away, but you're only told about the former option. So it's not just going for "hah, you have to do something stupid and drastic!" it's going for "that stupid and drastic thing we convinced you to do was utterly pointless!"
https://twitter.com/dasharez0ne/status/979810839749210112 relevant again

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The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

JcDent posted:

They bAlaNcE it by giving you almost no ammo. At best, you get +5 rounds/month at the starting level, then +10 at Corporal (oh, and ONE FREE UPGRADE TO THE TRAILBLAZER), and +20 if you (can) go Grenadier (ALSO A LEVEL 2 UPGRADE FOR TRAILBLAZER, whatever that means).

Can't you buy bullets from the libyans?

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