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By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007

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


How much is a ship for comparison? Most people I know would prefer buying an armada.

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Ettin
Oct 2, 2010


Ancient Enemies: Tager May I

Just remembered that ten years ago, when I'd just started writing these, I made two sample Tager characters and one of them was a compulsive masturbator. Those were some pretty weird posts, Ettin.

The next section, Becoming, is about how potential Tagers train their bodies and minds to perform the Rite of Sacred Union. Here's the short version: It takes six months, but it can be crammed into three in emergencies. It includes 6-10 hours a day of meditation, emotional manipulation, and torture with extreme climates/pain to train endurance and willpower. They even get weapons training—at minimum, in hand-to-hand combat, handguns, and bow and arrow, in case there's a Dhohanoid outbreak at the Renaissance fair. On top of all that, there's 6 hours a day of education in occult secrets, the Society's history, the Children of Chaos, and various illegal tomes. Understandably, some candidates decide to stay as mortal agents of the Eldritch Society partway through.

This is all nice and flavourful, but oof. So, everyone's secret double life as a Tager begins with them ghosting friends, family, work, and Twitter for half a year of getting clowned on? I am choosing to believe this setting works like HHGttG, and they can just phone their boss afterwards to say they'd gone mad.

Once they're ready, the candidate spends a few days ritualistically cleansing themselves and fasting. The Rite itself lasts another three days (oofa doofa); both the candidate and the lead sorcerer (who must maintain the ritual the entire time) are going to be hosed up by the end. Day one is mostly just meditating while some sorcerers chant. On day two the candidate gets indescribable visions "across space and time to the place where the symbionts dwell", and the symbiont that chose them starts to hang out and just kind of vibe invisibly while they try to center themselves. In the Ritual's finale they merge together in a timeless moment of agonizing pain (again: oof), and the recipient has to hold on as the symbiont's power threatens to overwhelm them. If they don't die to such amateur-hour horseshit as absorbing too much power and exploding, they emerge a Tager.

The next section is titled "Tagers", which feels like a weird subheader to have this far into the Tager chapter, but alright. It's about how it feels to be a Tager, and a lot of it is just what we've heard before in more detail: you're a loving jacked combat monster, the symbiont alters your personality, etc. Tagers still have human needs but you heal fast, don't get sick. and you need to drink twice as much to get hammered. You can sense whether someone is a Dhohanoid by studying them for a full minute, but there's no way to detect a Tager unless they physically shift in front of you. Dhohanoids, psychic powers, magic, blood tests, even other Tagers can't tell you're a Tager (unless you're shifted and close enough for telepathy).

Here's some loving worldbuilding, son:

quote:

Among Tagers, about 80% are common manifestations, such as the Mirage or the Phantom. About 17% are specialized manifestations, such as the Echo, the Shadow, the Spectre, or the Whisper; around 2% are exceptional symbionts, such as the Nightmare or the Vampire; and fnally about 1% are rare symbionts, such as the Efreet or the Widow.

To illustrate potential Tager populations, let’s take a look at a hypothetical case. In a city of four million people, approximately 0.08% of the population is a Tager, or up to 3200 of them. Of those, about 2560 are Mirages or Phantoms – about 1280 of each, if evenly split. Continuing on, about 544 of these Tagers is a specialized manifestation – about 136 each of Echoes, Shadows, Spectres, and Vampires, if evenly split. Of the remaining, about 64 are Nightmares or Vampires and about 32 are Efreets or Widows.

drat, those are some pretty exclusive group chats at the end. So this means a bunch of NPC Tager packs are just Mirages and Phantoms, right?

There's a whole paragraph about how those ten types of Tagers are probably all there ever will be, which is code or "the devs are not writing any more Tagers". (And years later, I guess they didn't!) There's another two about how the children of Tagers are mere mortals, while Dhohanoids can give birth to Dhohanoids. That's right: Dhohanoids gently caress.

quote:

In general, Tager numbers are nowhere near as easy to replenish. The Rite of Sacred Union requires special conditions, gifted sorcerers, and a fully prepared and trained potential Tager. The Chrysalis Corporation can kick out new Dhohanoids a couple times a month and they can be created from anyone with a pulse. Furthermore, they can make more the old-fashioned way and have breeding programs to support that. There will always be more Dhohanoids than Tagers, a fact that the symbiotic beings take very seriously. As such, each Tager is a precious commodity.

Oh no, there's a weird type of gently caress. Moving on!

Tagers can live to 200 and stay youthful longer, though they're probably wasting it in battle. The symbiont pulls on their sanity over time (this is where meditation comes in) and feeds on their cosmic energies, which is code for "don't be a Tager wizard". Then there's this sidebar:

quote:

There are those who would like to play Tager Characters that are somehow part of the New Earth Government Armed Forces. Here are a few reasons why that doesn’t work.

Being a part of the Eldritch Society is a full-time gig. It isn’t just something in which people participate when they feel like it. Being a part of the military is likewise a full-time job and soldiers are on-call pretty much all the time. The two duties conflict.

Some might come up with a reason why a Tager might go undercover within the Armed Forces. That doesn’t happen. The Eldritch Society is dedicated to fighting the corruption of the Chrysalis Corporation and the Children of Chaos. The Armed Forces are committed to fighting the Migou, the Disciples of the Rapine Storm, and the Esoteric Order of Dagon – all the threats the New Earth Government already knows about. There is no reason the Eldritch Society would want to spread their already thin resources to help fight the overt danger, which is already heavily focused upon. Sending a Tager into the military is a complete waste of a scarce and valuable tool.

Furthermore, the chances of a Tager being caught as something other than mortal within the Armed Forces is almost 100%. They regenerate, even in mortal form. All it takes is for the Tager to be hurt in the line of duty and he’d have to face the powers that be wondering why he healed weeks or months too fast and doesn’t even have scars. Then, it’s off to a lab with him.

So while playing a Tager mech pilot may sound like a good idea, it really isn’t a viable option within the restrictions of the setting.

I can understand the dev's need to stake out exactly what is and isn't canon here, though I didn't expect it to be so blunt. As far as I can tell, this is at least partly a response to people posting about wanting to play Tager mech pilots on the CthulhuTech forums. Though this sidebar doesn't spell it out, another thread also points out that a Tager mecha pilot would need more Duty drawbacks than the rules allow—the max of 4 is supposed to represent all the time a character has, and Tagers/military folk have 3/2 respectively.) Personally I can understand wanting to stake out exactly how your game is meant to be played, and I'm not going to tone police forum posts from 2009, but man. This is the problem with putting multiple types of play with different power levels in the same book!

One more spread: Packs. There's a lot here about how Tager groups (and by extension, PC groups) operate, which is useful if you're going to play CthulhuTech and get into the roleplay. Again, some of it is repeating bits of previous books (or previous pages). I'm going to stick to the highlights:
  • Tagers call packs "murders", because they are irony-poisoned. If you're a Tager and you call it something else they will make fun of you.
  • Induction ceremonies can be anything from a physical trial to just getting blackout drunk together (the Australian Method).
  • Every Tager has a second name, like: Agony, Anguish, Blood, Bone, Corrosion, Crimson, Delerium, DeviantArt, Edge (lol), Eviscerate, Fever, Flatline, Gasp, Ghostrunner, Hush, Incubus, Kestrel, Malice, Null, Overkill, Ravage, Ripper, Slaughter, Sledge, Spook, Stitch, Suicide, Thresh, Vendetta, Vertigo, Wight, or Wither. They don't have to be dark, so names like Heavenly Light, Orchid, Preacher, or Winter are also fine. Names are agreed upon by the group, but it doesn't say you can't be Pregnant Seinfeld or Wife Guy or something.
  • Non-Tagers get less hardcore induction ceremonies and less edgy names (e.g. a firestarter named Ash). One of the other examples is an Outsider Tainted character with "discrete tentacles" named Squid. Remember when I'd just started writing these posts and I created a guy with a tentacle dick? Those were some pretty weird posts, Ettin.
  • Sometimes Tagers in a pack hook up. Casual sex is fine, but some packs have rules against office romance. Dating in the same murder can get weird!
  • If a Tager in your pack kicks the bucket, "his pack" are expected to retrieve the body so the authorities don't find it, and return it to their family (unless, you know, that would make things weird). Tager packs also have their own funeral rituals.
  • A sidebar suggests that the GM decide who "leads" the pack. It ends with this:

quote:

As always, your game is your own and you know your players best. This is only a suggestion. Do whatever works best for you and your players.

Oh, so now people can do things differently if they want to, huh? To be fair, I agree that nobody should join the armed forces.

Everyone
Sep 6, 2019

by sebmojo

Night10194 posted:

Master of carriage driving and hideous ailments, well protected by wig.

He's a Nurgle cultist.

The Wig of STD Prevention really does need to be a fantasy magic item.

Unless it's just, y'know, a really ugly wig that prevents STDs by preventing S.

PurpleXVI posted:

Is it actually viable to start with enough money to buy your own English town? :v: Like maybe if you're a son of the king and he bites it and you roll super high on your inheritance?

Because it would be pretty funny to have the game start with "Alright lads, we're buying a town, putting to shore, resigning our commissions. Let's be politicians, I bet we have better combat stats than anyone in parliament."

Probably not. Figure they want to keep "make rear end-loads of bank robbing/sinking enemy ships and exploiting brown people" as a motive for adventure.

Plus if you're the eldest son of the king and he kicks it, don't you kind of inherit the entire country?

By popular demand posted:

How much is a ship for comparison? Most people I know would prefer buying an armada.

Buy a town and then build an armada, then use it to conquer Spain. Yeah, we remember 1588 and payback's a bitch, motherfuckers.

Ablative
Nov 9, 2012

Someone is getting this as an avatar. I don't know who, but it's gonna happen.

Everyone posted:

Plus if you're the eldest son of the king and he kicks it, don't you kind of inherit the entire country?

Not if you've got loving gavelkind :argh:

DalaranJ
Apr 15, 2008

Yosuke will now die for you.
I guess I wasn’t expecting the 18th century British naval combat game to contain rules for “Notice me, Senpai.”

Tulul
Oct 23, 2013

THAT SOUND WILL FOLLOW ME TO HELL.

PurpleXVI posted:

Is it actually viable to start with enough money to buy your own English town? :v: Like maybe if you're a son of the king and he bites it and you roll super high on your inheritance?

Because it would be pretty funny to have the game start with "Alright lads, we're buying a town, putting to shore, resigning our commissions. Let's be politicians, I bet we have better combat stats than anyone in parliament."

Yes, actually.



If you're on the top tier, you get enough to afford two boroughs!

Although it's worth noting that the boroughs in question are only legally towns; the whole issue at the times was that the geographical boundaries of the boroughs weren't being updated, so you had these barely-populated areas that were entitled to representation, because they were a thriving market town back in the 1300s (and conversely, some highly populated areas went without any representation). This meant that you, you being a rich fucker, could buy up all the land and housing in one of these mostly empty areas, and force all of your tenants to vote for whoever you wanted. Ballots weren't secret until well after the time of this game, so nothing prevented you from evicting anyone who didn't vote the way you wanted. :capitalism:

The Reform Act of 1832 would put a stop to it, but thankfully for unscrupulous PCs, that's outside the timeline of this game.

By popular demand posted:

How much is a ship for comparison? Most people I know would prefer buying an armada.

Oddly enough, there aren't any actual rules for how much it costs to purchase or order a ship. The closest thing is the prize money rate for ships you capture:



This is explicitly less than it would cost to pay for a new ship, though, as you're basically selling it used. I'd assume it's not that much more - according to Wikipedia, the famous HMS Victory (a first-rate ship of the line ordered in 1758) cost 63,176 pounds (and 3 shillings), which is pretty close to the 60k in prize money the game lists.

Although then you've gotta pay for the 100+ guns and all of the other supplies you need to outfit it, plus the nearly 1000 people you need to crew it, which is going to cost you (and the game does have rules for that).

Tibalt
May 14, 2017

What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

DalaranJ posted:

I guess I wasn’t expecting the 18th century British naval combat game to contain rules for “Notice me, Senpai.”
It was very much a case of "It's not what you know, it's who you know" when it came to promotions. I believe at this point the British hadn't outlawed the selling of commissions and honors, although I think that was more of an Army thing.

Loxbourne
Apr 6, 2011

Tomorrow, doom!
But now, tea.

Tibalt posted:

It was very much a case of "It's not what you know, it's who you know" when it came to promotions. I believe at this point the British hadn't outlawed the selling of commissions and honors, although I think that was more of an Army thing.

The Navy didn't sell commissions, but a donation "helped" get your child taken on as a midshipman and could be downright critical for an enlisted man looking for a berth. Officers also had to pay for their own equipment and uniforms, and buy their own books to study for the exams, so the costs stacked up there too.

I imagine we'll see the seniority system and the Navy List come up soon. For all they were horribly static and hidebound, they were genuinely an attempt to cut down on corruption and require proven experience before you got promoted into a command position. I'll be curious to see if there is a way to model corruption or unofficial sources of income; quartermasters have been on the take since the dawn of standing armies.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 8 hours!


Ronwayne posted:



No matter how hard I rage I am still just a cat that's a mage


Magic, Part 2: Spells and Rituals


This update covers all the spells for Street Magic and Ritual Magic. Magic that creates enchanted items will be covered in the next update.

Spells in Nightlife work very similarly to spells in Dungeons & Dragons. You don’t have to roll any Skill to cast a spell; if it’s a combat spell, the target makes an Escape Roll (saving throw) to resist. So are spells as badly-balanced as they usually are in D&D? Yes. You can tell that the writers played D&D and are trying to avoid some obvious pitfalls, but there are plenty of “save-or-die” spells which I’ll be marking out for special attention.

Escape Rolls for spells are usually made with a Basic Ability, not with any Skill. Remember, raising your base stats is really hard in this game. So most Kin will have, at best, a 20-40% chance to resist a spell. I’ll also note that spells continue the trend of Basic Abilities being badly balanced: most Escape Rolls are with FIT or WILL, sometimes DEX.

Another problem that stuck out to me is duration. Many spells last your MA in combat turns, minutes, or hours! Including spells that inflict debuffs, continuous damage, or really bad conditions like mind control! The average MA of a Sorcerer PC is 27.

This leads to a question I want to discuss before getting into the weeds of the spell list: Are Sorcerers balanced against other PC types? I haven’t played the game, but I don’t think so. The thing you gotta understand is that Sorcerers are on a different progression track from other Kin.

Sorcerers lose Max Humanity when they acquire spells, but they don't spend Humanity to cast them. Spells don't have percentage values like Skills and Edges, so they don't spend Humanity to improve them, either. They're also a type of Kin that doesn't need to feed to live, so it's easy for Sorcerers to rack up Humanity and keep it high. Hell, if you want to be good at Black Magic, you’ll probably have to do evil poo poo for its own sake just to keep your Humanity down.

At the same time, Sorcerers won’t have much to do with their high Humanity. They have to buy spells with cold hard cash, and money is a fussy thing in Nightlife. There are hard and fast rules for how much money you can make just by practicing your Skills, and the rules expect you to track the cost of rent, food, and purple velour trenchcoats in exact dollar amounts. If the City Planner wants to manage the power level of Sorcerers, they can do it most effectively by managing the PCs' schemes to secure piles of cash.

What about the power level of spells themselves? Edges have percentage scores like Skills, and most Edges--the ones that don’t work like melee weapon attacks--suffer a -50 penalty when used against other Kin. This is to balance the fact that a lot of Edges can one-shot an enemy with huge damage or incapacitating effects. Unless I’m missing something, spells don’t have that limitation, and a lot of them have the same save-or-suck potential. (As always, forums user Humbug Schoolbus is more than welcome to weigh in on this.)





So about Ritual Magic. Black and White Magic spells have to be prepared with lengthy rituals. (Spellcasters pay the SP cost of the spell at the end of the ritual, saving you from having to expend it in combat.) Every Ritual spell has a level from I to V, with higher levels requiring more involved rituals that take hours to complete. Having a Familiar cuts 2 hours off the prep time for Ritual IV and V.

Conducting rituals requires the kind of tools you’d expect--candles, incense, herbs, oils, and other mystical gewgaws. What do you do with them? Why, the same thing ordinary people do with them--self-care!

Ritual I requires you to light candles, burn incense, and chant toward each cardinal direction. The whole thing takes about an hour.

Ritual II is similar to Ritual I, but you also need to use some magical tool to gather energy. The ritual takes 2 hours.

Ritual III involves meditation, followed by a relaxing bath with herbs and oils. Then you have to do the chanting and pointing stuff. It takes 4 hours.

Ritual IV requires the herbal bath, followed by meditation and a few hours of sleep. When you wake up, you do the chanting again. A total of 8 hours.

Ritual V involves a bath in mud and oils, followed by chanting and meditation. Then you do the chanting, which opens an actual mystic portal through which you draw magical energy. This takes 8+1d10 hours, and it doesn’t say when you can wash the mud off.



Hope you slept well, ‘cause it’s time to die.


A brief note on magic circles: Sorcerers use circles of silver when dealing with Demons, which is part of high-level Black Magic. The circle needs to be made of silver. Demons take FIT damage if they enter the circle.





Now for the spells. Fortunately, there’s a helpful chart in the back of the book with the hard-and-fast stats for all of them. Did I mention that Nightlife has absurdly good layout for an indie game published in 1990? It really does.






I’m going to go through these just as they’re listed in the book, so we start with Street Magic.


Blackout creates a hemisphere of darkness and silence anywhere within 50 feet. Kin with Nocturnal Vision or Sense Acuity can roll a Test to see or hear normally.

Bloat expands the gases in a victim’s body. Make the save and take 3d10, or your body splits into pieces. Costly, but a nasty save-or-die.

Brakes causes the wheels of any vehicle to lock up so that it can’t move.

:derp: Breakdance is complicated. It forces the victim to jerk around uncontrollably for 3 turns. On the first turn they take a -10 penalty to actions, on the second turn they take 1d10 damage, on the 3rd turn they take 2d10 damage. A successful Escape Roll on any of these turns ends the spell. Not lethal or instantaneous, but very cheap to cast!

Compel is straight up mind control with few conditions. It lasts your MA in minutes! The target gets another Escape Roll if you force them to harm themselves or do something “against their nature.”

Crank It Up amplifies the target’s senses until every stimulus causes agony. If you fail to resist, you take a -30 penalty to all actions and have to make a WILL test to do anything. It lasts MA in minutes, and even most D&D save-or-sucks don’t last that long!

Deflection gives you 10 points of Armor. You can cast it multiple times, but each additional casting just gives you 2 more points of Armor.

Escape instantly releases you from chains, handcuffs, someone grappling you, or any other restraints.

Explosive Decompression instantly kills the target if they fail their Escape. But it costs their FIT score in SP, so it’s actually not overpowered compared to, say, Bloat.

Fire Hydrant creates a blast of water with the force of a fire hose, knocking the target down. This doesn’t count as running water for Vampyres.

Fireworks surrounds the target with, well, fireworks going off. It deals 1 fire damage per round and they have to test WILL to do anything. If they move, the effect moves with them. It lasts MA turns and a successful Escape only halves the duration. This can easily kill Kin who are vulnerable to fire, though not quickly.

Flight lets you fly, at triple your MA in miles per hour. There’s no limit on altitude, but beware of cold and lack of oxygen.

:byewhore: Goodbye is a mind control effect that forces a person to go away. They won’t want to see you for your MA in hours, and they won’t realize they’ve been bewitched. The target gets a +30 bonus to Escape if they were actively looking for you.





Grabber is a doozy. It summons a binding field of energy (usually a spectral hand). It does no damage if they don’t struggle, but if they do, it inflicts your MA in damage each turn! It takes two successful STR Escapes to get out, so this is easily a save-or-die.

Graffiti does exactly that. You can make it so that only an intended recipient can see the message you leave.

Granite turns the target to stone. It’s not a save-or-die, since it wears off in MA turns and the target becomes almost impossible to damage.

Heavyweight immobilizes the target by making them incredibly heavy. They gain MA times 100 pounds, possibly making them heavy enough to fall through a floor.

Hotwire makes a vehicle start and run. It will run for the duration of the spell, even if it has no gas.

Lighter causes flammable materials to catch fire.

Limo summons a loving limousine, manned by a demonic chauffeur with a shadowed face and crimson light shining from his eyes and mouth. The limo travels 1000 ft. per BT until you reach your destination, so you won’t have time to kick back and relax.

Meathooks is the spell from the cover image! Metal hooks shoot out of the ground and dig into the target’s flesh, restraining them and doing 1 damage per BT. They have to make a Fear check or pass out.

Paralysis forces a whole crowd of people--as many as your MA--to fall to the ground and not move a muscle. A successful Escape means they can move around at half normal DEX. This affects people in a radius around the caster, so it’s likely to hit your friends. Still, it’s a very powerful spell; there aren’t a lot of area affect powers in Nightlife.

Preemptive Strike lets you boost your effective initiative score in combat by +10 for every SP spent. But the short duration means you’re not likely to use it unless you’re already in a fight or about to start one.

Rack inflicts incapacitating pain, applying your MA as a penalty to all actions. It’s also useful for extracting confessions: the target has to make a WILL roll not to answer questions truthfully.

SDI fires a laser that does your MA in damage.

Shadowpaths lets you teleport between shadows for its duration.





Shooting Star reverses the effect of gravity on its target. If you fail your Escape, you can still avoid the effect if you can grab onto something (like the ledge of a building). A Flight spell or Edge can also counter the effect. Otherwise, the target probably dies the True Death as they’re propelled out of Earth’s orbit. Targets who manage to fight the effect for a few minutes will “just” crash land at terminal velocity and die the old fashioned way. It’s expensive, but poo poo, you can permanently kill Kin with it. No one will mess with you if you send WO Babylon to the loving moon.

Shrapnel causes “all breakable objects” within a 20’ radius to explode outward from you, inflicting 2d10 damage to everyone in the area. Targets with any amount of Armour Edge or the Deflection spell aren’t affected.

Sweat causes the target to sweat profusely, inflicting a -20 penalty to actions on the first round, 2d10 damage on the second round, and then death, if they keep failing saves. Kin resurrect normally, but I assume this would inflict the True Death on water elementals and similar Kin.

:supaburn: Torch sets the target on fire, inflicting 5 damage per turn. They can put the fire out through normal means, including making a DEX Escape to stop, drop, and roll.

Toxic Cloud summons a 10’ burst of toxic gas around the target, inflicting 5 damage until they leave the area.


And now for that ol’ Black Magic.


The first one is Animation, and it’s a doozy. You can create Flesh Animates, which requires a Surgery skill of 90 and fresh body parts. Homunculi are created with the Replicate spell. Inorganic Animates can be crafted out of whatever material, but it doubles the SP cost of the final ritual. Bringing the Animate to life requires a Ritual V and spending SP equal to the Animate’s total Basic Abilities. You can’t interrupt the ritual for Draining or healing, which is why creating Animates is so rare.

Binding binds a Demon to perform one “Deed” for you. The Deed is an actual written contract, which you have to keep on your person until the task is done. This only works on actual Demons from the Twisted Dees. That’s right, Twisted Dees! We’re calling them that now. No big Dee.

Bleeding causes the target to bleed from every orifice, inflicting 1 FIT damage per hour.

Boneyard imprisons the target in a cage of sharp-edged bones. Attacking the cage inflicts the same damage you cause to the cage, and it can take 100 damage before shattering.

Brainburn causes a seizure, effectively stunning the target for its duration.

Chernobyl creates an arcing blast of hard radiation, inflicting radiation sickness which causes FIT loss and 1/5th your damage in permanent FIT loss! This usually kills humans.

Chopper summons a bitchin’ motorcycle, doubling your movement speed and giving you a +20 bonus to melee attacks.

Circle of Imprisonment imprisons demons. Smart spellcasters don’t deal with Demons without summoning them directly into such a circle.

Con-Ed blasts a 5’ by 5’ area with electricity. This inflicts 5 damage for every SP spent. Wet targets don’t get an Escape Roll, and damage is doubled if the caster is touching a source of electricity, so you can pull the Catwoman trick from Batman Returns.

Creeping Crud afflicts the target with a green slime which quickly spreads over their whole body, draining a point of STR and FIT each day. This can be quickly healed by Draining or using healing spells, but it can inflict the True Death on Kin who don’t get help in time.

Dead Air makes the air around you smell like rotting flesh, forcing anyone nearby to make an Escape Roll or fall to the ground retching. It doesn’t work on Ghosts or Wyghts.

Deportation forces Demons to return to the Twisted Dimensions.

Drowning causes the target’s lungs to fill up with liquid, causing FIT loss and inflicting a -20 penalty to all actions as they cough and hack. Habitual smokers take double damage.


No one:

Nightlife:




Evil Eye inflicts a -10 penalty to all actions. You only get to save against it once per day, and it has unlimited duration until you do.

:eyepoop: Exploding Orbs makes the target’s eyes loving explode. Oh, and this affects everyone in a 10’ radius around you. The actual damage is only 2 SP, but it inflicts permanent blindness on mortals and Kin have to drain their PER in SP and wait an hour for their eyeballs to heal. Everyone affected has to make a Fear roll, too.





Flaming Skull summons a flaming loving skull, containing the mind of the last person you killed with the Flaming Skull spell. You sicc the skull on a target and it flies around them, setting them on fire and probably cackling and poo poo. It rules. It inflicts damage equal to the skull’s WILL+5. Not a lot of games let you attack your enemies with the dead souls of your other enemies in the form of a flaming skull.

Glasnost causes the target to be open and honest about any questions asked of them. They get an Escape Roll for each question.

Heat Wave increases the ambient temperature by 100 degrees Fahrenheit in a 20 by 20’ area, inflicting 1 damage for every 10 degrees above 150F.

Hit Man creates a Zuvemba, one of the Other Kin listed in the corebook. The Zuvemba will seek out a chosen target, kill it, then die itself. If the caster dies first, the Zuvemba is free.

Kiss of Death puts magic poison on your lips, so that you can kill a victim with a kiss.

Omerta puts a mental block on the caster’s own mind so that they can’t discuss the secrets of an organization specified in the ritual. If compelled to reveal information, they get an Escape Roll to resist, and if they fail, the spell kills them rather than let them reveal their secrets.

Open is your classic knock spell. It also works knots, buttons, brassiere fasteners, etc.

Puppet possesses a victim so that you can operate their body remotely. They have to make PER rolls to be aware of what’s going on, and in any case they won’t remember being possessed after the spell ends.

Rags to Riches changes the clothing, hairstyle, grooming, etc. of the target. Despite the name, it can make the target look like anything from a Wall Street banker to a gutter punk.

Reanimate Dead creates Zombies, as described in the corebook. You can control up to half your MA in Zombies. Zombies can be freed by feeding them spicy or salty food.

Replicate creates a clone from the cells of a living creature. You can use it to create a homunculus, and you can also use it to create a corpse to fake someone’s death. The body can also serve as the home for a possessing Demon.

Resurrect Kin allows a not-Truly-Dead kin to resurrect immediately, instead of taking the normal amount of time. (I’m not sure how this applies to Vampyres and Ghosts, who discorporate and return to their grave earth/Relic immediately.)

Rot causes the victim’s body to rot away, slowly and painfully, over the course of a month. Kin can halt and heal the process by draining 100 SP.

Scars afflicts the target with painful rashes, boils, and sores, which lasts a couple weeks. This is an annoyance to Kin, but mortals will be left permanently scarred.

Secret binds the target so that if they talk to anyone about the caster, they die of a stroke if they fail their Escape Roll.

Summoning is how you summon a Demon from the Twisted Dimensions. Most are not happy to be summoned. You roll 1d10 and consult a little table to consult the species of Demon summoned. They all get detailed later in the book! You can also use this spell to bring back a Ghost who was banished to the Twisted Dees.





Swarm attacks the target with a swarm of insects, doing 1 damage per BT, forcing a WILL roll to do anything, and inflicting a -10 penalty to all actions. Water, fire, smoke, and freezing temperatures hold the swarm at bay, and full-body armor or the Armor Edge negates the effect.

Wither inflicts 1 point of FIT damage on the target every day until they die, inflicting the True Death. The effect ends if the victim makes a successful FIT save three days in a row.


Now for White Magic spells.


Bodybuilder increases the target’s STR by 5 for every 2 SP spent. Honestly not that great for a modest boost to your HTH skills and damage.

Bonding is the spell used to bind a Familiar.

Boombox turns any ordinary object into a radio receiver, mentally controlled by the caster. It’s fun at parties, and you can use it to listen in on police transmissions and cool spy poo poo like that.

Speaking of spy poo poo, Bug allows you to eavesdrop on the target, hearing everything that they hear.

Chill Out drops the ambient temperature to 0 degrees Fahrenheit in a 20’ by 20’ area. It cancels out Heat Wave.

Cutting Torch turns a small spot on any ordinary object into a powerful cutting torch which can even carve through metal.

Dispel Magic halts the effect of any spell. It won’t immediately undo the effects of a persistent effect (like Rot) but it will stop it from getting worse.

Dispossession forces a Demon out of a possessed body. If you have time to prepare, you can force the Demon out and into a Magic Circle or other method of imprisoning the Demon.

EMT heals damage equal to your MA. It can even heal FIT damage! A very, very handy rank I ritual spell.

Exorcism can banish a Ghost to the Twisted Dees, or a Manitou to their Power Source. To do this to a Ghost, you need to find their Relic and cast the spell on it. An interesting setting note: Before the development of Black Magic, no one knew for sure where exorcised Ghosts went.

Fade grants a sort-of invisibility to a group of people up to your MA. You’re not physically invisible, but people will reflexively ignore you and avoid you.

Featherweight decreases the weight of an object by 100 pounds per SP spent. It doesn’t levitate, but can make things light as a feather.

Flashlight creates a hovering, directional beam of light that can be controlled at will.

Friendship makes the target predisposed to like you. It’s not mind control, but it increases your ATT by your MA when dealing with them.

Gas Mask protects you from toxic environments and provides you with an air supply, so it protects you from poison gas and allows you to breathe underwater.

Keyhole creates a small magical “hole” in an object that you can look or hear through (but not both at once). It doesn’t work if the wall is more than a foot thick.

Magic Bubble creates a forcefield that resists magic. Those in the bubble get a +10 bonus to resist spells, but any spell cast in the bubble costs an extra SP.

Magic Sight lets you see magical phenomena with a successful PER roll.

Nine Eleven is a potent healing spell which restores 5d10 SP, starting with any FIT damage you’ve accrued! It can also regenerate lost limbs and injuries that mortals can’t normally heal.

Pacify is an area-effect spell that causes the targets to stop fighting and lose any urge to be violent. The spell is broken if they’re attacked.

Porcupine covers the target in quills that will shoot out and impale anyone who attacks the target. The target loses this benefit if they make attacks on others.

Resurrect Human does what it says on the tin, but has strict limitations. It’s very expensive in SP, and also costs an MA point! It also can’t revive someone who’s been dead more than your MA in hours.

Retard Decay is used to prevent dead matter from decomposing, often in preparation

Shag It triples the caster’s running speed. It only costs 3 SP and dating yourself to when my dad was in high school.

Soup Kitchen creates a nourishing, but bland meal for one person. It says nothing about what form the food takes. Probably Hamdingers.

Switch Off forces any electrical device to turn off. It doesn’t do any permanent damage.

Vibes is the psychometry spell, allowing you to “feel the emotional residue” left on an object or area.

:bang: Ward shields an area with a force field that repels Kin. If they fail their Escape Roll, they can’t try to enter again for 24 hours, while if they succeed, they can enter and act normally. The force-field is three-dimensional; the caster can define the exact boundaries of the warded area and can spend extra SP to make it harder to enter.


Next update: Magic Items. And Demons because gently caress it, why not? Yes, the elephant monster is one of them.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry
There was an errata for Magic! that stated that the -50% against Kin did apply, so we did use that rule.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 8 hours!
poo poo, that changes everything. If your chance to resist a save-or-die jumps from 22% to 72%, if anything a lot of spells are underpowered. I'd rather see a lot more "Save for half-damage" so the Sorcerer isn't flinging spells until one hits and drops the enemy.

megane
Jun 20, 2008



Ah yes, the eldritch secrets of Hot Yoga.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

Halloween Jack posted:

poo poo, that changes everything. If your chance to resist a save-or-die jumps from 22% to 72%, if anything a lot of spells are underpowered. I'd rather see a lot more "Save for half-damage" so the Sorcerer isn't flinging spells until one hits and drops the enemy.

What it did was make the sorcerer in the party a lot more careful in spell use against Kin. Human antagonists were still screwed though.

Tulul
Oct 23, 2013

THAT SOUND WILL FOLLOW ME TO HELL.

Halloween Jack posted:

Nine Eleven is a potent healing spell which restores 5d10 SP, starting with any FIT damage you’ve accrued! It can also regenerate lost limbs and injuries that mortals can’t normally heal.

Wowzers, that's a slightly unfortunate name for a spell in a game that is strongly presented as being set in NYC (:911:). At least it's not a fireball spell or something.

Was that actual slang back in the day?

Hostile V
May 31, 2013

Solving all of life's problems through enhanced casting of Occam's Razor. Reward yourself with an imaginary chalice.

Tulul posted:

Wowzers, that's a slightly unfortunate name for a spell in a game that is strongly presented as being set in NYC (:911:). At least it's not a fireball spell or something.

Was that actual slang back in the day?
Unless actually written in text as 9/11 it's probably supposed to be either 911 or 9-1-1 considering how that's the number for emergencies or an ambulance and that's a pretty potent healing spell you'd want in an emergency.

PoontifexMacksimus
Feb 14, 2012

Ettin posted:

To illustrate potential Tager populations, let’s take a look at a hypothetical case. In a city of four million people, approximately 0.08% of the population is a Tager, or up to 3200 of them.

Oh man, this is even worse than Vampire demographics... This super secret conspiracy really has thousands of superpowered mutants running around in every decent sized metropolitan area??

Like, this means Minneapolis/St Paul could set up an entire literal regiment of tagers by itself

megane
Jun 20, 2008



There are more Tagers in the US (264k) than US Marines (202k).

Pvt.Scott
Feb 16, 2007

What God wants, God gets, God help us all

megane posted:

There are more Tagers in the US (264k) than US Marines (202k).

At least we know for sure that none of those Tagers are Marines.

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

It's a genius way to prevent infiltration. Just give your people so many duty hours they don't have time to attend secret-society meetings and get kicked out.

Bar Crow
Oct 10, 2012

The Lone Badger posted:

It's a genius way to prevent infiltration. Just give your people so many duty hours they don't have time to attend secret-society meetings and get kicked out.

Sounds like a way companies prevent employees from unionizing.

Tulul
Oct 23, 2013

THAT SOUND WILL FOLLOW ME TO HELL.

Hostile V posted:

Unless actually written in text as 9/11 it's probably supposed to be either 911 or 9-1-1 considering how that's the number for emergencies or an ambulance and that's a pretty potent healing spell you'd want in an emergency.

I was assuming that's where it came from (admittedly, it took me until I was typing out 911 emote to twig to it), I was just wondering if the writers were being cute or if they got it from somewhere else.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 8 hours!
I genuinely don't understand the desire to play Tager mech pilots, since a Tager is already a super ninja that can fight vehicles.

Notwithstanding the creators responded in the silliest way possible.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

Halloween Jack posted:

I genuinely don't understand the desire to play Tager mech pilots, since a Tager is already a super ninja that can fight vehicles.

Notwithstanding the creators responded in the silliest way possible.

I suspect mostly because the authors angrily insist it cannot be done and then have NPCs that do it.

Fivemarks
Feb 21, 2015

Halloween Jack posted:

I genuinely don't understand the desire to play Tager mech pilots, since a Tager is already a super ninja that can fight vehicles.

Notwithstanding the creators responded in the silliest way possible.

Because you don't want the hell campaign, where everyone is some different splat that can't interact.

AmiYumi
Oct 10, 2005

I FORGOT TO HAIL KING TORG

Mors Rattus posted:

I suspect mostly because the authors angrily insist it cannot be done and then have NPCs that do it.
In the very first adventure in the core book, right?

Fivemarks
Feb 21, 2015
A problem with Cthulhutech is that, despite being inspired by anime where individual characters can be heroic and do make a difference, It leans too hard into "Bad Popular Lovecraft", which is "nothing matters you suck you lose gently caress you".

Like, it's majorly inspired by Robotech/the Super Dimensional anime, and in all of those anime, individuals making efforts to be better people manage to solve the problems through communication and the indomitable human spirit. I'm just going to say, I don't think Macross/Robotech's "We got the aliens to understand us and work with us through culture as expressed by music" gels at all with Lovecraftian anything.

Fivemarks fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Nov 16, 2021

Ettin
Oct 2, 2010

Halloween Jack posted:

I genuinely don't understand the desire to play Tager mech pilots, since a Tager is already a super ninja that can fight vehicles.

Notwithstanding the creators responded in the silliest way possible.

CthulhuTech is anime inspired and if there's one thing anime fans love it's childrcombining cool concepts.

PoontifexMacksimus posted:

Oh man, this is even worse than Vampire demographics... This super secret conspiracy really has thousands of superpowered mutants running around in every decent sized metropolitan area??

Like, this means Minneapolis/St Paul could set up an entire literal regiment of tagers by itself

I have some more thoughts on this but I'm saving them for the Dhohanoid breakdown :getin:

Ettin fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Nov 16, 2021

AmiYumi
Oct 10, 2005

I FORGOT TO HAIL KING TORG

Ettin posted:

CthulhuTech is anime inspired and if there's one thing anime fans love it's childrcombining cool concepts.
I really have missed you talking CthulhuTech :allears:

Maxwell Lord
Dec 12, 2008

I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.


:smith:

Grimey Drawer

Fivemarks posted:

A problem with Cthulhutech is that, despite being inspired by anime where individual characters can be heroic and do make a difference, It leans too hard into "Bad Popular Lovecraft", which is "nothing matters you suck you lose gently caress you".

Like, it's majorly inspired by Robotech/the Super Dimensional anime, and in all of those anime, individuals making efforts to be better people manage to solve the problems through communication and the indomitable human spirit. I'm just going to say, I don't think Macross/Robotech's "We got the aliens to understand us and work with us through culture as expressed by music" gels at all with Lovecraftian anything.

That's what interested me in the setting, the idea that the Old Gods are returning but humanity is going to fight them and it's not a foregone conclusion. Pity about the execution.

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!

Maxwell Lord posted:

That's what interested me in the setting, the idea that the Old Gods are returning but humanity is going to fight them and it's not a foregone conclusion. Pity about the execution.

Two things originally interested me about the concept of ROBOTS vs CTHULHU.

#1: "eat poo poo old gods, I've got a robot that can shoot its fist/500 micromissiles right into your titanic eyeball that gazes balefully upon the Earth"

#2: "Hey, maybe everyone will realize that sapient species have more in common with each other than with the psychopaths who really want to see Horriblebadothep consume all existence. Maybe we're going to see some cool multi-cultural/species team-up of Mi-Go, Shoggoths, Yithians, Ulthar Cats, Ghouls and whatever vs the universe's horrors, right? :)"

Instead I got: "rape rape rape rape RAPE with extra rape also your robot probably gets raped too and canonically everyone dies and loses and everything is poop. all the aliens are evil unknowables and/or rapists and your only allies are sexy space drow. PS: even the system sucks dogshit so you can't even pry that off for something better."

Covermeinsunshine
Sep 15, 2021

They could have go for "Humanity needs to embrace the eldrith to become on par with other races, but it will likely lose itself in the process". I mean, I can play tentacled transhuman punching space fungus. What I can't enjoy when someone tells me to participate in rape-on-rails adventure and read bad metaplot.

Warden
Jan 16, 2020

Covermeinsunshine posted:

What I can't enjoy when someone tells me to participate in rape-on-rails adventure and read bad metaplot.

But enough about Degenesis.

Covermeinsunshine
Sep 15, 2021

We laugh but Degenesis irks me even more. "Huh cool art and post-apo set and focused on Europe - lets read it......." :dogstare:

PoontifexMacksimus
Feb 14, 2012

Fivemarks posted:

A problem with Cthulhutech is that, despite being inspired by anime where individual characters can be heroic and do make a difference, It leans too hard into "Bad Popular Lovecraft", which is "nothing matters you suck you lose gently caress you".

Like, it's majorly inspired by Robotech/the Super Dimensional anime, and in all of those anime, individuals making efforts to be better people manage to solve the problems through communication and the indomitable human spirit. I'm just going to say, I don't think Macross/Robotech's "We got the aliens to understand us and work with us through culture as expressed by music" gels at all with Lovecraftian anything.

Maybe it's a trite comparison, but I read it as more thematically inspired by Evangelion (Wow cool hopeless apocalypse/cool hosed up robots/cool psychosexual hangups)

sasha_d3ath
Jun 3, 2016

Ban-thing the man-things.
...the concept of CthulhuTech would be a great Cortex game.

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!

Covermeinsunshine posted:

They could have go for "Humanity needs to embrace the eldrith to become on par with other races, but it will likely lose itself in the process". I mean, I can play tentacled transhuman punching space fungus. What I can't enjoy when someone tells me to participate in rape-on-rails adventure and read bad metaplot.

See, this would be an interesting take, too. Eldritch transhumanism/weaponry, musing on the sacrifices(personal and societal) needed to embrace them, whether they're necessary at all, etc.

Glagha
Oct 13, 2008

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAaaAAAaaAAaAA
AAAAAAAaAAAAAaaAAA
AAAA
AaAAaaA
AAaaAAAAaaaAAAAAAA
AaaAaaAAAaaaaaAA

It did seem silly how the Migou who apparently also do not like the idea of old gods returning on Earth, are still hellbent on fighting humans. They apparently find the idea of humans roaming free across space just as horrifying though.

Covermeinsunshine
Sep 15, 2021

Glagha posted:

It did seem silly how the Migou who apparently also do not like the idea of old gods returning on Earth, are still hellbent on fighting humans. They apparently find the idea of humans roaming free across space just as horrifying though.

You could spin it as ancient alien migou being just a bunch of grumpy old people who can't deal with the idea of uppity monkeys being space power so will keep trying to own the libs I mean humans even as climate change I mean chtulhu is going to eat everyone

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 8 hours!

Fivemarks posted:

Because you don't want the hell campaign, where everyone is some different splat that can't interact.
Cthulhutech does a pretty bad job of conveying that it's actually 3 games in the same setting: the occult investigation game, the Tager game, and the mech/Engel game. I can definitely see wanting a Tager/Mech game so that you can do all three.

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PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!

Glagha posted:

It did seem silly how the Migou who apparently also do not like the idea of old gods returning on Earth, are still hellbent on fighting humans. They apparently find the idea of humans roaming free across space just as horrifying though.

Which still seems odd to me as the Mi-Go are apparently a merchant empire, they should love having new customers.

Or maybe, gasp, give the Mi-Go internal politics, factions and disparate cultures, too. Maybe you've got racist Mi-Go who're willing go down burning and screaming rather than cooperating with humanity, Mi-Go who see humanity as fellow sapients worth safeguarding, Mi-Go who grudgingly cooperate with humanity because it would suck if Cthulhu ate them, too, after humans woke him up, Mi-Go who happily trade arms, minerals and information across all parties, just looking for a quick profit and then being prepared to bail for deep space the moment someone does something really stupid like waking up Tulzscha.

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