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I just learned about the American Indian ghost dance. Doesn’t Deadlands turn that into something gameable? That’s loving horrifying jfc.
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May 27, 2021 00:05
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Arivia posted:I just learned about the American Indian ghost dance. Doesn’t Deadlands turn that into something gameable? That’s loving horrifying jfc. Maybe, but it's much more of a plot point in Shadowrun and how the Native Americans get their own nations because they do it right when magic comes back.
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May 27, 2021 00:11
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So what's so remarkable about A Wizard, anyway?
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May 27, 2021 00:24
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Imagined posted:I've always enjoyed dungeons that have an in-universe explanation for why such a place would ever exist, ala the kaers (and Parlainth) in Earthdawn, or the Stone Thief in 13th Age. It's just easier for me to get into the spirit of the thing if there's a logical reason a huge labyrinth filled with traps and treasure would exist other than 'I dunno, wizards be crazy, yo'. In the case of the former, it's that people built bunkers to survive the magical apocalypse and set booby traps to keep out the monsters (kaers) or tried to protect their city by turning it into the magical Event Horizon by trying to hide it in another dimension and make everyone forget it existed (Parlainth), or the dungeon is literally a huge sentient sandworm that rolls around gobbling up random magical places, and you're exploring his guts trying to get to his brain (Stone Thief). If you want a whole game setting that is a living dungeon take a look at Belly of the Beast https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/192736/Belly-of-the-Beast-RPG?language=de quote:A tabletop RPG about callous survivors scavenging the abyssal guts of the world-eating Beast that consumed their home.
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May 27, 2021 00:34
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Stone Thief?
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May 27, 2021 00:36
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Arivia posted:I just learned about the American Indian ghost dance. Doesn’t Deadlands turn that into something gameable? That’s loving horrifying jfc. There was an entire adventure path about it that I did an F&F for here. It's kind of written in that clueless white guy but also "the Civil War wasn't really about slavery, wink wink" way. The adventure centers around helping the Sioux Nations gain permanent autonomy and peace from war with the Union via said movement, but the adventure goes out of its way to posit Raven (one of the BBEGs) and his cult as the main villain and going out of its way to have the US be a hostile force. The adventure's actually quite novel for Deadlands in that it acknowledges that even in their own setting systemic racism is a thing and doesn't shy away from it, but it also presumes that the entire party is all-white via having a scene where "one of your peoples' most honored ancestors" shows up as the ghost of Robert E. Lee to help fight the literal manifestation of the Horseman of War. They also turn Sitting Bull into a villain working for Raven, and is more than willing to destroy all that his people built for revenge against white colonialism. Which is a pretty big butchering of what the man himself stood for IRL; he was definitely a Native leader willing to fight the US Army, but he did genuinely care for his people and was motivated by something more than base revenge. In terms of game stats the Ghost Dance Movement is basically folded into the Old Ways magic system of the setting, and it involves a grand summoning of spirits to extent an anti-technology field over the Sioux Nations' borders that also expels all the ghost rock too. It makes use of Thunderbirds as the creators of said field, which is problematic as the tribes who revere thunderbirds aren't fond of outsiders making use of them in fiction for various reasons (mostly due to lack of understanding and getting things about their culture wrong).
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May 27, 2021 02:22
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Subjunctive posted:Stone Thief? I think Meikyu Kingdom had a similar setting too?
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May 27, 2021 02:44
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Hard Wired Island kicking off Saturday. Hesitantly excited at this point. Excited because everyone (including myself) except one player worked up multiple character options and is real passionate and excited... hesitant because only one other person seems to understand the setting at all, and there's enough misunderstanding of the system that out of 4 locked in characters, two are the combat centric archetypes and one is an Influencer bent for fighting, in a game that heavily punishes fighting and has a mini version of Unknown Armies' "six ways to stop a fight" appended. So I'm more than a little worried what direction this will go in, especially with the GM deferring so hard to player choice while having a fixed start in mind they won't even slightly hint at for us to be prepared for. At this point I just need an RPG win, I think. Just a genuinely good and memorable time. Last one GMing was clear back in ~2016 and it's tainted by a) me having no memory of my life let alone running the game, b) the campaign run being the product of SA's least favorite Chick-fil-A enthusiast. Last win as a player was even longer. Since then it's been scattershot two or three sessions of a system, everyone gives up on it, move to another system, start the cycle over, no one wants to revisit anything. It's not a lack of genre fit or variety either - between three groups just in the last 2 years or so there's at least 15-20 games. Everything from Cyberpunk Red to Beyond the Wall, Tribe 8 to Band of Blades, Never Going Home (our latest failed trial) to Legacy, Eclipse Phase to Monster of the Week... Variety of reasons every time, sometimes overlapping, but the only common factor to every collapse has been me and at some point that feels like it's reflecting on me.  hell, my solo projects that I just finally figured out over this past week already have brick walls they're hitting.I really, really hope this game works out and we finally land on something that's good and lasts. Sorry for venting.
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May 27, 2021 04:46
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I know the feeling. Best of luck with it.
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May 27, 2021 05:27
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Gort posted:So what's so remarkable about A Wizard, anyway? The wizard is just that. He wears a pointed hat.
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May 27, 2021 06:57
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I hear the Wizard is the hat itself, and the body it rests on just a helpless host.
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May 27, 2021 07:16
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super sweet best pal posted:The wizard is just that. He wears a pointed hat. He has an average number of limbs.
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May 27, 2021 07:52
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May 27, 2021 08:12
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Gort posted:So what's so remarkable about A Wizard, anyway? It's a module that takes a very standard trope of high fantasy -- the smiling, benevolent wizard -- and turns it into Cronenbergian horror. Which is to say, it's really not remarkable as a piece of literature at all because "beloved icon but body horror" is a concept that was played out sixteen years ago when Nancy kept turning into Zalgo. It probably is the first time someone's done it where the icon is an RPG trope I guess? (I'm probably being too harsh. It is solidly written and the horror works well, it's just .. eeh, read one OSR module full of wall-to-wall grim awfulness, read 'em all.)
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May 27, 2021 08:26
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SkyeAuroline posted:Hard Wired Island kicking off Saturday. Hesitantly excited at this point. Excited because everyone (including myself) except one player worked up multiple character options and is real passionate and excited... hesitant because only one other person seems to understand the setting at all, and there's enough misunderstanding of the system that out of 4 locked in characters, two are the combat centric archetypes and one is an Influencer bent for fighting, in a game that heavily punishes fighting and has a mini version of Unknown Armies' "six ways to stop a fight" appended. So I'm more than a little worried what direction this will go in, especially with the GM deferring so hard to player choice while having a fixed start in mind they won't even slightly hint at for us to be prepared for. One thing I noticed while writing HWI was that a lot of people have a very specific idea of what a cyberpunk game is—the PCs are cyborg mercs in a dystopia full of gonzo sci-fi tech who hang out in dive bars when they're not working for corporations or gunning down mostly-Asian gangsters—and will assume all cyberpunk games are like that. Hard Wired Island has some combat-scenario options (e.g. the Dreamer stuff) but if it turns out your group treats it as Shadowrun Again and you figure out why I'd be interested to know in the HWI thread 
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May 27, 2021 10:15
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Ettin posted:One thing I noticed while writing HWI was that a lot of people have a very specific idea of what a cyberpunk game is—the PCs are cyborg mercs in a dystopia full of gonzo sci-fi tech who hang out in dive bars when they're not working for corporations or gunning down mostly-Asian gangsters—and will assume all cyberpunk games are like that. Hard Wired Island has some combat-scenario options (e.g. the Dreamer stuff) but if it turns out your group treats it as Shadowrun Again and you figure out why I'd be interested to know in the HWI thread
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May 27, 2021 10:30
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Coolness Averted posted:He has an average number of limbs. Less than four then? Helical Nightmares posted:Symbaroum Going to second that the setting is absolutely the main draw of Symbaroum. So much so that I would even argue it is worth the slightly subpar system if you don't want to take the time to make a conversion of it. The issue of player characters becoming too strong too fast is only really an issue if there are wildly varying power levels within the group itself since anything that challenges the more powerful members of the party will absolutely shred more squishy folks. But that is pretty much a possible issue in every system I have been in. I also learned that I really like a player facing system where I almost never roll as the GM. Symbaroum, being routed in a lot of scandinavian folklore, has a fascinating take on a lot of otherwise stale fantasy tropes. Apart from the aforementioned Elves, Goblins and Ogres are just interesting. The player handbook only tells you that Goblins have an average life expectancy of a couple of dozen years with elderly Goblins simply wandering of into the darkness of the forest to die when they feel their life drawing to a close and that Ogres just stumble out of the forest one day fully formed without any memories or identity. What actually happens is that the Goblins, similar to the Elves' lifecycle, wander deep into the forest of Davokar to form a sort of pupae and metamorphize into something else. Ogres in turn are the failed tragic byproduct of this process. There is also a compelling corruption motif that basically permeates all layers of the setting from dark and brooding Davokar itself and the constant threat of blight beasts and abominations masquerading as members of society to the magic and belief system itself where everything comes at a cost.
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May 27, 2021 11:01
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Galaga Galaxian posted:I hear the Wizard is the hat itself, and the body it rests on just a helpless host. The Ice King? 
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May 27, 2021 12:15
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So, I'm an admin for a local Facebook RPG group. A member just recently made a post looking to recruit players for a 5E D&D game. The post made a weird left turn halfway through. Spoilered, as it's not really safe for work. thefakenews fucked around with this message at 12:53 on May 27, 2021 |
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May 27, 2021 12:46
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thefakenews posted:So, I'm an admin for a local Facebook RPG group. A member just recently made a post looking to recruit players for a 5E D&D game. The post made a weird left turn halfway through. Uh Would not play that game.
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May 27, 2021 12:48
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I bet those house rules are terrible.
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May 27, 2021 12:53
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90s Cringe Rock posted:I bet those house rules are terrible. I haven't checked out the latest 5E supplments, but I assume the specifically mentioned rule is a house rule. So the one house rule we have evidence for seems to support your conclusion.
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May 27, 2021 12:55
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thefakenews posted:I haven't checked out the latest 5E supplments, but I assume the specifically mentioned rule is a house rule. So the one house rule we have evidence for seems to support your conclusion.
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May 27, 2021 12:56
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Ettin posted:One thing I noticed while writing HWI was that a lot of people have a very specific idea of what a cyberpunk game is—the PCs are cyborg mercs in a dystopia full of gonzo sci-fi tech who hang out in dive bars when they're not working for corporations or gunning down mostly-Asian gangsters—and will assume all cyberpunk games are like that. Hard Wired Island has some combat-scenario options (e.g. the Dreamer stuff) but if it turns out your group treats it as Shadowrun Again and you figure out why I'd be interested to know in the HWI thread The only thing our GM has told us of any plans is Dreamers, so... yeah. Ready for my unarmed fixer to get her face smashed in trying to exist alongside the other three. e: the group we ended up with is
SkyeAuroline fucked around with this message at 13:50 on May 27, 2021 |
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May 27, 2021 13:30
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Ettin posted:in the HWI thread The what now
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May 27, 2021 14:08
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CitizenKeen posted:The what now The HWI thread.
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May 27, 2021 14:11
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Danke
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May 27, 2021 14:13
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To be fair if you are selling the game with references to Gits, Cowboy Bebop and Bubblegum Crisis. It's not really surprising that people want to do combat. Sure Bubblegum Crisis' core cast is a singer, a police desk jockey, a fitness instructor and a lingerie saleswoman, but they also decide to put on their power armour and straight up murder the evil executive ruining the city by the third episode.
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May 27, 2021 15:56
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Nessus posted:I think for a lot of people, Shadowrun basically informed their fundamental understanding of 'the genre, at least in tabletop, and probably in general' and it is genuinely a shame because it's like we get to deal with D&D's bullshit all over again! Shadowrun and CP2020 definitely codified cyberpunk for a lot of people, but it's not like the genre didn't feature tons of violence and gear-porn prior to those games. That said, I really appreciate Ettin's work in HWI to bring other aspects of the genre into the foreground.
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May 27, 2021 17:29
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SkyeAuroline posted:combat centric archetypes ... in a game that heavily punishes fighting 
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May 27, 2021 17:32
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Hey, I didn't write the book. From what I interpreted of it while deciding on characters, the Soldier is meant to protect and boost teammates while being very effective in a fight, and the Street Fighter is... just really effective in a fight in "guns are heavily controlled and licensed, except the illegal ones" Grand Cross. (Literally everything but Personal Trainer that ths SF gets is fighting oriented.)
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May 27, 2021 17:39
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Hel posted:To be fair if you are selling the game with references to Gits, Cowboy Bebop and Bubblegum Crisis. GitS is an introspective conspiracy thriller, Innocence even more so, and SAC is mostly a melancholy police procedural with a lot of horror elements. They have occasional fights, but they're really not the point. The other two are more action-focused but Cowboy Bebop is also a show about poor people trying to make ends meet in a run-down future, which is the part that HWI explicitly says it's cribbing. "People want fights" isn't the point - the point is people thinking that all cyberpunk roleplaying forever is Shadowrun's "D&D but with cyber-arms and arcologies instead of magic swords and dungeons" take on things when it's really not true. Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 17:45 on May 27, 2021 |
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May 27, 2021 17:42
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PeterWeller posted:Shadowrun and CP2020 definitely codified cyberpunk for a lot of people, but it's not like the genre didn't feature tons of violence and gear-porn prior to those games. That said, I really appreciate Ettin's work in HWI to bring other aspects of the genre into the foreground. Honestly those are probably the most interesting parts of the genre for most people, there's a reason those tend to be the focus of anything new in the genre that's done in a more visual and/or interactive medium than books
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May 27, 2021 22:02
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Lemon-Lime posted:
That's true, but Cowboy Bebop also has a ton of action and mystery solving.
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May 28, 2021 02:51
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Charlz Guybon posted:That's true, but Cowboy Bebop also has a ton of action and mystery solving. Of its 4 human protagonists, 3 are competent killers and 1 is a savant hacker, so one can be forgiven for thinking a Cowboy Bebop influenced cyberpunk RPG calls for the same sorts of PCs as Shadowrun and CP2020.
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May 28, 2021 19:14
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And the "poor people trying to make ends meet in a run-down future" are 'making ends meet' as bounty hunters bringing in hyper-dangerous interstellar criminals through the judicious use of guns and kung fu. Spike, the arguable main protagonist (or at least, poster child), is a Bruce Lee-level martial artist and former Yakuza so high ranking his nemesis throughout is his former rival for leadership of their syndicate. Honestly, 'Cowboy Bebop isn't about solving problems with fighting' is one of the most interesting takes I've read on these forums. How many episodes aren't resolved by Spike shooting, exploding and/or kicking someone while Jet alternately complains and bails him out?
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May 28, 2021 19:52
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PeterWeller posted:3 are competent Did we watch the same Cowboy Bebop?
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May 28, 2021 20:37
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GitS may not be primarily about violence, but I think it's wrong to say it doesn't feature prominently in the film.
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May 28, 2021 20:49
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GitS is full of characters who are defined by their ability to do violence even (or especially) when they aren't actually doing it, which is kind of awkward to translate to a game. You're stuck between making it important enough that you aren't simply asserting something narratively that isn't backed up by mechanics, while also making sure those mechanics aren't the entire game. It's not an insoluble problem by any means but it's one which cuts against both of the prevailing design schools in TTRPGs, which means a lazy copy-and-paste attempt at it is almost guaranteed to get it wrong. Tuxedo Catfish fucked around with this message at 21:00 on May 28, 2021 |
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May 28, 2021 20:57
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There’s that one page rpg, NICE MARINES, about space marines trying to help normal people but their bodies are built for war. But yeah without a comedy feeling it would be exceptionally hard to convey that.
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May 28, 2021 21:11
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