|
Presenting a planned and coherent product to the prospective GM is sooooooo passe. BRB imma craft a wild nonsense on a paper napkin and charge 50 bux for it.
|
#
?
May 11, 2022 12:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 15:27 |
|
|
By popular demand posted:Presenting a planned and coherent product to the prospective GM is sooooooo passe. Add a sculpt of a hand and charge 200
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2022 12:55
|
|
|
By popular demand posted:Presenting a planned and coherent product to the prospective GM is sooooooo passe. I mean, books of random tables that the GM has to weld into a coherent narrative sell just fine and have done for ages. I'm even writing one at the moment. (Although it'll be closer to 10bux than 50.)
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2022 14:01
|
|
|
Once again I would like to ban non-Jewish writers from stealing names from Kabbalah.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2022 17:42
|
|
|
  KinRise, Part 5: A Skeleton Approaches! Commune? Like other Nightlife books, KinRise ends somewhat abruptly. The last chapter is devoted to new monsters, encounter tables, and a couple random things. We’ll start with the monsters.  Atomic Zombies are the remains of people who were killed by radiation, their souls trapped in their bodies by a mixture of atomic and supernatural forces. They wander about aimlessly, attacking any humans they see. Atomic Zombies aren’t particularly dangerous to Kin–they have no offensive Edges and attack with their bare hands or crude weapons. The danger comes from the radiation still coursing through their bodies; any successful attack on a Herd inflicts 1 radiation exposure. For this reason, Kin consider them a menace and try to destroy these creatures wherever they find them.  Hellrats are rats mutated by living in the Wormholes. Their bites are basically harmless and they only have 8 SP, but they’re fearless pack attackers. Oh, and they can breathe fire. The thought of calculating 3d10 rats attacking with Fiery Breath 30% makes me wish this game had rules for swarms. Ver-Men are ratlike humanoids who live deep in the Wormholes and rarely come to the surface. They hate all other races and will definitely try to kill you. Ver-Men can control normal rats, and use swarms of them to distract their enemies while they close in for the kill. Fortunately, they’re rather weak and armed only with crude wooden clubs.  Crawlies are a race of Kin who live in the Wormholes and are just now exploring the surface. They’re not such a bad lot, but they don’t quite seem to understand the difference between life and death. Unable to communicate with the living, they’ve been known to murder people so that they can talk to them with their Necropathy Edge. More often, they’ll dig up graves so that they can talk to corpses, then put everything back like they found it, nice and neat. Human survivors just try to keep their distance. Crawlies carry beautifully crafted knives and cudgels made of human bone. Otherwise, they’re not particularly dangerous foes.  Fungoids are fungal zombies that attack anything in sight. They look like shambling human or animal corpses with fibrous clumps and tendrils sticking out of them. Outside a host body, Fungoids are slimy clumps of toadstools that spew a cloud of spores at any creature that gets too close. Infected creatures transform into Fungoids in 24 hours, and even Kin can be Infected by Fungoids. Fortunately, healing magic or mundane medical skills can halt the Infection. Different types of Fungoids use the base stats of whatever creature was infected, with a hefty bonus to STR and FIT, so a Kin Fungoid can be rather potent. But besides their raw strength, they’re not clever or skillful attackers and have no special abilities. Though Fungoids reproduce through Infection, it’s clear that they’re not Kin. They’ve only appeared in the past few months, so most people assume that they’re some kind of bioweapon that got loose.  Nuclear Larvae were created by the first wave of the nuclear assault. They don’t know that they’re dead, and seek to possess living bodies–preferably Kin. A Larvae looks like a tiny human infant, covered in sores and wailing in pain, with an eel-like tail instead of legs. They fly, and they can breathe fire, but their sole aim is to use their Possession Edge to wriggle their way into a living body. They gather in packs of 5-20, and up to 5 Larvae can possess a person at once. Larvae dump a massive amount of radiation into anyone they possess, so human victims wear out in a few days at most–that’s why they prefer Kin victims, kinda like Skinthieves. It doesn’t say what they actually do with a body once they’ve got it. The best approach to Nuclear Larvae is to leave them the hell alone–they take damage every day they don’t have a body to possess.  Skeletons are revenants whose sheer will to live has brought them back from the dead. But because they have no flesh, existence is nothing but agony. Skeletons Drain their victims by skinning them and pasting the ragged strips onto their own bony frames. Skeletons attack with Claws. They’re unnerving opponents, silent and relentless. Their biggest weakness is blunt wooden weapons, which can smash them to bits.  Wraiths are incorporeal creatures from the Twisted Dimensions which look like dust devils. When corporeal, they appear as hazy human outlines. They’re very curious about humans, but their hunger for life force eventually overwhelms them and prompts them to attack. They prefer to take corporeal form and feed on sleeping humans. Their only weakness is silver, which is common knowledge among the Kin.  Finally, Roachboys are a revolting hybrid of human and roach. Kin assume they were created by some accidental combination of atomic and supernatural energies, but no one knows. The human parts appear atrophied, but they’re just as strong as the rest of the Roachboy’s body. The human eyes are fixed in a blank stare of rage and agony. They’re dumb as Trolles and ten times as violent, attempting to kill (and usually eat) anything and anyone in sight. I don’t get into monster statblocks very often, but there’s a reason I saved these things for last: Roachboys are the baddest asses in Nightlife. They’re stronger than any of the Demon races from Magic, stronger than almost any NPC that you’d consider a “boss battle.” They have the Armor Edge at 30 and the Claws Edge at 150. Their Claws do 46 points of damage. And thanks to their multiple limbs, they get 3 attacks per turn! (Breaking the action economy is a very rare thing in Nightlife.) On top of that, they can release a cloud of stinging gas that stuns everyone in a 20’ diameter who fails a FIT Test. There’s also a 20% chance that any given Roachboy has a gun and knows how to use it…but why bother? It can one-shot three starting-level PCs in a single turn. As for Flaws, they take triple damage from fire and they have a Compulsion to kill everything they see. Hope you have a Daemon or Sorcerer in your cell. Even Golgotha would probably turn to mist and run away from a fight with one of these things. Being eaten by a Roachboy inflicts the True Death, unless someone kills the Roachboy and yanks your corpse out of its guts before it finishes digesting you. The only saving grace with Roachboys is that they’re solitary. So the strongest enemy in the whole game is a mindless killing machine with no backstory that you can meet in a random encounter. The art is killer, though! It looks like a giant roach hatched out of a human and just kept dragging the body along like a chick stuck to its eggshell. So those are the new monsters. What follows is about a page on economics in the Badlands. Simply put, money has ceased to exist and everything runs on a barter system. There’s no widespread understanding that some goods are more valuable than others, besides the priceless equipment you need to get a hydroponic farm going. One settlement might be well-stocked with food, but lack weapons to defend itself. Another might be flush with guns with running low on ammo. On the outskirts of cities where the scavvy gangs roam, everyone’s armed to the teeth but starving. They tell you outright that you shouldn’t shaft the PCs. Strive for consistency by noting what each settlement has and what they need, and let the PCs play off of that. The Gypsy traders, by the way, are the X-factor in all of this. Roughly half of all settlements are along one of their trade routes, and they come by an average of once a month. They can crush a community by refusing to trade with them, and the goods they bring gives the CP an excuse to change the balance of trade. There’s also a list of slang terms. Big Mama: Mother Earth. Burning Out, Burnout: Terms for people dying of radiation sickness. Clean Meat: Herd who are radiation-free and safe to Drain. Genny: Buck Rogers PCs. No, sorry, it’s a generator. Glow, Glowing: The aura of radiation. Guard Dog, Watchdog: Complex term for Kin who protect human communities. Hot Blooded: Contaminated with radiation. KinBin: A settlement that’s mostly Kin. Mama’s Boys: The Brotherhood. Meat Locker: Commune term for the Complex’s Keeps. Nature Boys: Sidhe. Roachmeat: Dead bodies left in the open. Samantha: A Witch living among normal humans. Sheep: Human slaves in a Keep. Shell: Soldier of the Army of New America. The name comes from their full-face helmets. Soyfood, Soymeat, FakeFood: Hydroponically-grown soy and algae food. Sucking Rads: Feeding on irradiated Herd.  The last thing to cover is the Encounter Tables. There are some simple rules that apply to all encounters–starting with the game’s philosophy on how to use them. Nightlife doesn’t carefully track logistics, and it knows it. There are no “dungeon turns” and encounters aren’t a mechanistic system for putting time pressure on the PCs. Instead they’re meant to fill out a game session and maybe pick up a plot that’s dragging. If the PCs are going into an irradiated city to get vital supplies, you want them to fight some monsters, don’t you? They flat-out tell you not to use encounter tables if the PCs are already doing something interesting. As for the actual rules, you start by rolling a d10 to determine the cardinal direction of the encounter. Ambush is possible, but not likely–every PC and NPC gets a PER roll to notice the other side, so the rules slightly favour the PCs encountering a lone NPC. Successful rolls mean the character sees (or hears or smells) the other side before they get close, so they can choose to run, hide, approach, charge, whatever. The encounters themselves are divided into City and Badlands tables, starting with the City Encounters. 01-30: Nothing. The CP is advised to heighten the tension with a mixture of eerie silence and unsettling sounds–echoing footsteps, rats, anything. 31-40: A Herd dying of radiation sickness approaches the PCs, following them and raving deliriously. This is an opportunity to share real or false info with the PCs. The Herd is too far gone to be saved, and the ruckus will attract more dangerous critters sooner or later. 41-50: The PCs are the victims of a cave-in: falling rubble or the ground collapsing under their feet. Those trapped under rubble will have to be dug out, and falling into the sewers is dangerous. 51-55: A group of Brotherhood Advocates (up to 2 per PC) are here, armed to the teeth. They’re probably looking for the same stuff as the PCs, and will gladly steal any tech they’ve already recovered. 56-60: A Complex Seeker patrol. They’re well-armed and outnumber the PCs 2-to-1, but they’re wounded. 61-65: A pack of rogue Kin, roughly resembling the PCs, decides to rough them up. They may be talked out of fighting, but might try to ambush them later. 66-70: A few Sidhe approach the party and ask them for help with some confusing task. Helping them can net the PCs some Cleansing Seeds. If they refuse, they can look forward to being hexed and vexed. 71-75: Fungoids! There are 2 per PC, usually the remains of humans and dogs. 76-80: Hellrats, up to 5 per PC. Not only are they aggressive, there’s a 10% chance that some of them carry Nerve Rot! 81-85: A larger group of Advocates, up to 3 per PC. But they’re looking for an escaped mutant experiment, and would rather not fight the PCs. 86-90: A group of Complex goons, equal to the PCs, has just found a cache of weapons. No ammo, though, so they can’t immediately turn them on the PCs. They’ll attack from cover. If the PCs defeat them, they can help themselves to some knives, crossbows, shotguns, and SMGs. 91: Three Trolles, armed with shotguns, have claimed this neighbourhood as their turf. They’re not happy to see the PCs, but they can be appeased by paying a “toll,” preferably a good weapon. 92: A group of bodiless Nuclear Larvae swarms nearby. These things are extremely dangerous to Kin, have no loot, and are best avoided. 93: Skinthieves! A group equal to the PCs will attack, with another group waiting in the wings after the first one falls. 94: A group of 2d10 Gypsies in environmental suits. They don’t want trouble; in fact, they’re eager to do some trading. They have good weapons and some techno-swag, and they’re especially eager to get magic items. They’ll always share some information for free. 95: A Target Alpha “Reclamation Team.” They’ll give you the same choice they would have before the war: Join us or die. These Herd are tough and well-armed, with body armour and M-16s loaded with anti-Kin rounds. There are always 2 teams of 1d10 agents lurking around. There’s a 30% chance this is an ambush, with the second team well-positioned in cover. Otherwise the other team is some ways off and will take some time to follow the din of battle. 96: Zipperheads, one-and-a-half per PC. Like with the Skinthieves, running or fighting is the only way out. 97: Suckers! Two per PC, or 3 if they’re underground. Nasty. 98: Tapefaces. Three per PC, and no way out besides fighting. 99: A Roachboy. It will immediately try to close the distance, attack a PC, and eat them. It will use its gas attack and flee if it’s losing the fight. 00: Examiners. They’re bioverted to the max and carrying Seeds. So there’s some really nasty poo poo in the cities. How about the Badlands? 01-30: Nothing. Take some time to enjoy the dust devils and electrical storms. 31-40: A group of 1d10 Skeletons. If you have any flesh left after your encounter with the Skinthieves, these folks would like to borrow the rest. 41-45: A pack of 1d10+4 Atomic Zombies. Like Skeletons, they have no grasp of tactics and attack mindlessly. 46-50: A raiding party of 1d10 Goblynnes. They have guns and knives, but avoid a straight fight. The Goblynnes will probably just harass and irritate the PCs; if they make the mistake of chasing them, they’re like to run into the Goblynnes’ new friends, a party of Guteaters. 51-60: A Gypsy band. There’s a 10-30% chance they have whatever the PCs are looking for, depending on how rare it is and if finding it right now would screw up the CP’s plans. 61-65: A team of scavvy gang scouts, two per PC, who think they’re much tougher than they are. They’ll taunt the PCs and aren’t afraid of a fight, but they’ll break and run after losing half their number. 66-70: A Sidhe Seeding Party. Rather than ask them to complete some bizarre task, they’ll ask the PCs to spend an hour helping them spread Seeds of Cleansing. 71-75: group of Kikulaluits. Remember those guys? With the transparent green skin? They’re looking for food to help some Herd they’re taking care of. Not exactly aggressive, but desperate. If the PCs have food and won’t hand it over, they’ll fight for it. They’ve got crowbars (which are cold iron) and a leader with a shotgun. 76-80: What’s that whistling sound? A pack of Nakani. Instead of fighting they’ll try to sneak up on the PCs, use the Dominate Edge on one of them, and make them attack Herd. Nakani are just sadistic like that. 81-85: Toxxixx, two per PC. They’re aggressive but not stupid, and will try to approach the PCs as friends to catch them off guard. They’ll even travel with them for days before attacking, assuming the PCs like hanging around these guys. 86-91: Crawlies, three per PC, decide to wipe the party out. (They’re describes as “mutants that feel it’s their duty to the remnants of society” to kill the PCs, so I guess there was some confusion regarding the Crawlies’ background.) 92: Small dust devils appear in the distance. These are Wraiths, of course, and they’ll attack the PCs when their hunger overcomes their curiosity. They’ll follow the PCs for hours and wait until they’re resting. 93: Withered Men, two per PC, attack the PCs looking for weapons and Herd prey. 94: A gang of Magadons, armed with baseball bats and revolvers, are itching for a fight with the PCs. They can be redirected towards easier pickings, or even join the PCs with the promise of a big fight against a bigger target. They just want to fight–and argue over the spoils. 95-96: A ragged group of survivors who are new Recruits to the Brotherhood. There are 3d10, some armed with knives and shotguns. The PCs can join them, if they’re willing to listen to hours of droning about Mother Earth’s doctrine. There’s a 10% chance per day that they’ll meet up with Masters or Examines, who will probably be able to spot Kin. Still, the recruits are Clean Meat. 97: A group of 2d10 Herd who’ve been exiled from every nearby community. They’re hungry, filthy, crazy, and infected with Nerve Rot. Best to steer clear. 98: A team of Target Alpha Reconstructionists. They’ll be just as hostile as a team encountered in the city. 99: Three, that’s right, three Roachboys. I thought these things were solitary and territorial? Oh, but these are immature Roachboys, so they only get two attacks per round. No problem, then. 00: A Complex Stalker gang. As many as the CP needs to make the fight interesting. And that’s it for KinRise. This update was a long time coming because I was going to include a review of the book and a retrospective on the whole franchise. That will come in a final, final update.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2022 17:51
|
|
|
Oh I did miss monsters written as low to mid tier encounters and statted as an endboss.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2022 18:21
|
|
|
Weird how they let Junji Ito design only a single monster for the game
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2022 19:20
|
|
|
By popular demand posted:Oh I did miss monsters written as low to mid tier encounters and statted as an endboss. The Roachboy as is I think works as playing into the idea that the old world is gone and these stranger, stronger things are coming. As an encounter in a game, I think the write-up would need better advice on how to use them - they would probably work best as something you tease out, let the party learn they are not to be hosed with, then either have a Roachboy guarding a macguffin or throw them in as a complicating in 'oh poo poo, things are even worse that we though' moment. Just throwing one in as a random encounter and not advising to give the party an off-ramp if they aren't smart enough to run for it is lame.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2022 20:48
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:
See, with these guys I'd just have one running around as a unique entity. Maybe switch out the weaknesses to Pesticides (Dam x4) and Addiction: Marijuana. Also, I'd give him some kind of Reincarnation Edge (really hard to permanently kill him). While I am having fun with the "roach" concept, mostly I'm trying to turn this being into something that won't necessarily be a TPK for all but the most powerful PC groups by giving other ways to deal with it. If you encounter Roachboy and have no pot, he'll try to get something from you that he might be able to trade for pot (though he won't strip a group bare of things they need to live unless the group attacks him first). If you have pot and give some (at least a pound or two) it to him, he not only leaves you alone, he'll help you to some degree (pointing out a safe path through an area, helping you if you get attacked, etc.). If you have pot and try to keep it from him, he tries to get it from through negotiation/threats, theft or just gassing you and/or beating the poo poo out of you (even then he'll leave you alive because you might bring more pot). Only if the party genuinely pushes the issue to "kill-or-be-killed" will Roachboy try to permanently destroy a group.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2022 21:27
|
|
|
Memnaelar posted:I'm finding it hard to motivate when world building a modern setting involving screwed up pols when the world is already so demoralizing. It's not exactly escapism when you're rping the positive change in the world that FEELS like you need superpowers to actually enable.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2022 23:25
|
|
|
Bouquet posted:I've pretty much given up at this point on my long-desired "Shadowrun but magic events start five years into the future instead of decades ago" setting. Extrapolating into the future is massively depressing in the year of our lord 2022. Maybe someday if I can figure out some reason why magic wouldn't be instantly co-opted by capitalism it would be fun again. Bingo. Hard time finding escape in any setting based in Planet Earth right now. That said, for whatever reason, reading about just how poo poo Kult is still affords some wry chuckles, so this thread's nice in that regard.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2022 23:36
|
|
|
I adore the Crawlies. "Why d'ya kill him?" "I just wanted to talk."
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2022 11:04
|
|
|
"get this, they say we shouldn't have killed them" - "'Killed'?" " it turns out that when they are up and about and moving that they aren't dead and they don't like it when we kill them" - "oh dear, we really put our foot in it this time. Terrence will be just miffed with us, I tell you what."
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2022 11:20
|
|
|
Pakxos posted:The Roachboy as is I think works as playing into the idea that the old world is gone and these stranger, stronger things are coming. As an encounter in a game, I think the write-up would need better advice on how to use them - they would probably work best as something you tease out, let the party learn they are not to be hosed with, then either have a Roachboy guarding a macguffin or throw them in as a complicating in 'oh poo poo, things are even worse that we though' moment. Edit: This still leaves the question of what to do about a Roachboy when you encounter one, since its DEX 40 means that you almost certainly can't outrun it and its STR 80 means it can easily jump around obstacles. At least its PER 20 means that the party will probably see it before it sees them, and can get the gently caress away. Really makes you want to invest in an Edge that makes it easy to run away, like Mistform, Travel, or Speed. LOL, at this point I might as well have just posted the statblock. Everyone posted:See, with these guys I'd just have one running around as a unique entity. Maybe switch out the weaknesses to Pesticides (Dam x4) and Addiction: Marijuana. Also, I'd give him some kind of Reincarnation Edge (really hard to permanently kill him). This reminds me of something else, though: I'm not 100% sure on what creatures count as Kin and get the +50% bonus to resist the "save or die" Edges like Body Control. I'm quite certain that the "non-Kin Kin" like Zipperheads and Skinthieves get it, but what about Wormhole monsters and radioactive mutants? If not, a Daemon with Fiery Breath could gently caress up a Roachboy pretty quick, unless they get sliced to ribbons in the first round of combat. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 17:08 on May 12, 2022 |
|
#
?
May 12, 2022 15:10
|
|
|
Are RPGs a thing in this game and how susceptible to them would a Roachboy be?
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2022 20:51
|
|
|
Memnaelar posted:Really want to play Voidheart Symphony, the excelle t rpg by Minerva McJanda that is essentially a Persona 5 but actually honed in on representation and community change themes but I'm finding it hard to motivate when world building a modern setting involving screwed up pols when the world is already so demoralizing. It's not exactly escapism when you're rping the positive change in the world that FEELS like you need superpowers to actually enable. Thank you for reminding me about this, I've been meaning to F&F VhS in order to brush up on the current version of the rules. Hopefully once I'm done with marking, I'll have a bit more time. I definitely feel a similar way re: the Castle that we all live in; I've got a few ideas for getting round it, but still, it's tough as an issue.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2022 21:08
|
|
|
JcDent posted:Are RPGs a thing in this game and how susceptible to them would a Roachboy be? Now that you mention it, In The Musical Vein gave a price list for new weapons including hand grenades, grenade launchers, LAWs, claymores, and C-4. But there are no stats for most of these things! In the corebook, a frag grenade does 100 damage, which would leave a Roachboy with 10 SP thanks to their Armor Edge. Safe to assume that an anti-tank weapon or high explosives would do the job.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2022 21:29
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:I'm sure there are plenty of player's handbooks lying around, but Idunno how you'd get a Roachboy to play with you. Maybe if you found a copy of this game?
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2022 18:56
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:I'm sure there are plenty of player's handbooks lying around, but Idunno how you'd get a Roachboy to play with you. Beer and Pizza.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2022 18:57
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:I'm sure there are plenty of player's handbooks lying around, but Idunno how you'd get a Roachboy to play with you. "Have you ever considered what it might be like to not be an indestructible killing machine who hates everything that lives?" *slides copy of Golden Sky Stories across the irradiated floor*
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2022 19:08
|
|
|
I've always wondered what devs are thinking when they give a random monster ridiculous final boss god stats for no apparent reason
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2022 19:34
|
|
|
More Duneposting to fill space before the next phase of the review: The treachery.online dev released some statistics he collected. All finished Dune games run on the site with more human than bot players over the last 11 months. Faction win percentages  Guild and Hark have the highest winrates of the base game factions. CHOAM and Richese are probably outliers due to the small number of games played. As that goes up I expect them to drift toward the other faction winrates. Leader stats  Thufir has a notably higher pickrate than Jessica, but Jessica has a notably higher winrate, despite them both being from the same faction and having the same stats. Feyd, Stilgar and Dr Yueh are the most killed leaders in the game. 262 deaths were not enough for Yueh! Stilgar is the most likely to be a traitor, which makes sense since he's the most powerful leader in the game and therefore the most obvious pick. The expansion two leaders probably don't have enough observations to compare to the rest, but I'll highlight a couple amusing details
 Unsurprisingly, the top uses are negation of a faction power in combat. Bonus: top accepted deals  Send word to Geidi Prime to begin selling our spice reserves. But slowly, we don't want the price to fall. You have no idea how much it cost me to bring such a force to bear here. Now I only have one requirement: CUM!
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2022 19:38
|
|
|
I'm pretty impressed (?!?) by the 24 people who went with "in conclusion your mom gae" or the 4 people going with "suck sum toes". Actually, I take it back, that whole chart is just perplexing gold. Every entry makes you conjure up a very weird story to explain how that happened multiple times.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2022 20:42
|
|
|
potatocubed posted:"Have you ever considered what it might be like to not be an indestructible killing machine who hates everything that lives?" One sec, going to recommend roaches to Ewen for GSS.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2022 21:05
|
|
|
Xiahou Dun posted:I'm pretty impressed (?!?) by the 24 people who went with "in conclusion your mom gae" or the 4 people going with "suck sum toes". It still slays me that 4PM Pegging is more popular than Share Spice Deck Prescience.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2022 21:09
|
|
|
"I'll give you one (1) spice if you never fight me again" is a big mood.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2022 21:13
|
|
|
Leraika posted:"I'll give you one (1) spice if you never fight me again" is a big mood. Like the time at my afterschool camp I tried to bribe a kid with a quarter to leave me alone in Risk and the counsellors made me take it back.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2022 21:22
|
|
|
mellonbread posted:The default setup for a custom deal in the interface is that it lasts for a single phase and is open to everyone at the table. So if you set up a meme deal with a cost of 0 Spice, there's nothing stopping the whole table from just "accepting" it every round. 12 people were like "gently caress yeah, I'd love a useless offer," but 20 people can, in fact, "suck deez nuts". I'm assuming most of these are just silly table-side jokes that are given hilarious surrealness by no context, and then some people are using them as jokey code. Still god drat great to look through.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2022 22:12
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:I like the pesticides thing in particular. And sure, make Roachboys those annoying elite stoners who can only get a good buzz if they gravity-bong a block of pure THC. Are roachboys more roach or more boy? This is important because insects don’t have cannabinoid receptors. If they got high from weed they should be, I dunno, arachnidboys.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2022 23:11
|
|
|
You're a roachboy And you've gone too far Cuz you know it don't matter anyway
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2022 14:42
|
|
|
Nigmaetcetera posted:Are roachboys more roach or more boy? This is important because insects don’t have cannabinoid receptors. If they got high from weed they should be, I dunno, arachnidboys. They get the cannabis receptors from their "boy" aspects, I guess. Now I want Jay and Silent Bob Roachboys.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2022 06:26
|
|
|
Chronic Roach Boys.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2022 06:31
|
|
|
By popular demand posted:Chronic Roach Boys. BluntRoach and ChronicRoach?
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2022 15:04
|
|
|
“Holy gently caress, is that monkey waving at us? Oh, poo poo, It understood us! Maybe it’s some kind of supermonkey. What if there are more supermonkeys up at that lab?” Is a sentence I'd like more bad guys to shout at confused murderhobos.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2022 15:23
|
|
|
"IT'S GOT A GUN"
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2022 19:12
|
|
|
 Hello everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve done a review, and that’s for several reasons. Beyond just IRL stuff, I have found out that writing the larger sourcebooks as I am wont to do takes a lot out of me and requires me to commit to a schedule I cannot always have. So for a while I figured that doing reviews of smaller and more manageable sourcebooks will be helpful in testing the waters, with an emphasis on more obscure titles given that publicity for them matters exponentially more than doing ones for more popular products. I may still review a well-known book here or there, but it’s more a set of priorities than set in stone. The good news is that I found a rather interesting 36 page adventure for 5th Edition D&D. Keep of the Kobold Queen is a throwback to the classic era of RPGs. Not the 70s, but rather the late 80s and early 90s of console JRPGs and with pixel art to go with it! The author calls out Final Fantasy, Bravely Default, and Octopath Traveler as specific influences, and also recommends using soundtracks from those games for a more retro feel. Keep of the Kobold Queen is optimized for 2nd level PCs* and is ostensibly setting neutral, but it has a campaign-altering background story where a solar eclipse last year caused a dramatic uprise in monster attacks across the world. Militaries are overwhelmed, forcing wealthy people to hire adventuring groups to deal with smaller problems. And wouldn’t you know it, our PCs are being hired by a priest of the god of trade to look into kobold attacks disrupting a nearby trade route. But these aren’t just any kobolds, but kobolds rumored to possess a variety of magical powers! *Doesn’t say the number but presumed 4-5. The adventure begins proper with the PCs traveling to the town of Coneria, running across a wagon under assault by five highwaymen. The criminals have been driven out of their stomping grounds by the kobolds and if captured alive can direct the party to the lair if promised to be released. The besieged travelers were headed to Coneria as well, and will gratefully reward the party with information and to pay for their food and lodging. PCs can also gain a new magic item from the bandit’s possession, a Crystallia, which is part of a new sub-system introduced in this book. The gist of it is that they are crystals which can be set into special items with the Crystalkeep property, bestowing a different power depending on whether the item it’s set in is a weapon, armor, or accessory.  Coneria is a small walled village where the PCs can gather information about the kobolds as well as the overall region. There’s a potion shop which sells potions at vastly cheap prices albeit with the drawback that they expire within 1d6+1 days; a restaurant whose unique dishes grant 24-hour duration benefits to those who consume them (gain resistance to fire damage, gain temporary hit points if you haven’t taken damage for 10 minutes, and advantage on initiative checks), and a Red Wings smithy who can bestow the Crystalkeep property on nonmagical equipment for 500 gp and will initially do so free of charge for up to 3 such items for the PCs.  The Keep of the Kobold Queen is located within the ruins of Cerulia, an old city-state famed for creating a form of magic that allows people to gain the abilities of monsters. The Keep is an 8 room dungeon with a minimalist map but neat-looking sprite art for the monsters within. Five of the rooms have enemies and 2 have a falling stone trap and pit trap respectively. Of the combat rooms, the entrance has a manageable six kobolds, although one of the more difficult rooms is a lab presided over by a kobold and kobold alchemist, who in a fight are quickly joined by 2 boomers. Boomers are mechanical constructs who are basically Bob-Ombs who gain resistance to all damage at low HP and deal damage equal to 1d6 + their remaining hit points when they self-destruct. With a maximum of 16 HP, this encounter can be pretty deadly, although the boomer’s stats give some outs, like advantage on the save if the boomer is at half HP and they only explode on the start of their next turn. There’s also the fire resistance-granting stew back in town to ease the burden. PCs who defeat the monsters in the lab room can gain access to Crystalkeep items in a treasure vault, which is opened via special coins with monster emblems (found in the same room) based on a puzzle saying “when breathing fire alone isn’t enough, mimic a key and self-destruct.” The combination is a dragon, mimic, and boomer coin placed into a slot for the vault in that order. The other major optional find in this dungeon is the skeleton of Pakhangba, a gold dragon whose soul lives on as a shadow of her former self who attacks the party. The dragon ghost is a CR 3 foe and pretty tough, including a radiant damage breath weapon and a wing flap that damages all nearby enemies. PCs reduced to 0 HP don’t die but gain the benefits of having finished a long rest if the rest of the party also drops or flees the room. But if the party overcomes the dragon ghost, she will surrender and explain that the kobolds killed her via an explosive cave-in and stole her egg. If the party promises to kill the kobold leader and ensure the safety of her unhatched progeny, she will offer herself as a summonable monster to the party. Yes, this too is a new sub-system, albeit more barebones than the other post-adventure content. The second to last room includes 3 kobolds, one of which is a Draketamer, and two gold pseudodrakes. The pseudodrakes are CR 1 monsters with a pounce attack that can knock enemies prone on a hit with their claw, while the Kobold Draketamer can deal bludgeoning damage by throwing food at enemies, which in turn grants one pseudodrake advantage on the first attack made against that target. The final room’s the throne room, inhabited by Yas the Kobold Queen and three normal kobolds. Yas tries to parley with the PCs, offering any loot they found in the lair so far if she cannot intimidate them, but refuses to part with the dragon egg for it’s her prized possession. Yas is the boss of the module, possessing a host of abilities including gaining temporary hit points for every kobold killed within 30 feet of her, a variety of Cerulean magic spells (detailed later), and Legendary Actions which can let her attack or cast a spell. The spells she has can grant her the ability to attack twice instead of once, grow in size and gain advantage on Strength checks and saves, the ability to “split” and divide remaining hit points between herself and a duplicate, the ability to be reduced to 1 HP on a killing blow if she succeeds a CON save, a breath weapon which imposes disadvantage on Strength attacks/saves/checks, and even gaining a flight speed. Barring the Split spell, none of her Cerulean spells have concentration, which means that with judicious use of Legendary Actions she can continually buff herself through combat. The dragon egg is thankfully undamaged, and skill checks can determine both its safety and that it will hatch in about another year. Among the Kobold Queen’s treasure is a treatise on Cerulean magic written in Draconic, and those who read it can gain access to the Cerulean Sage class for multiclassing. Post-adventure the PCs will be paid for taking care of the problem, and back in Coneria one of the smithy workers reveals herself to be a Dragonsworn Knight and offers to train the party in her organization’s martial arts if they managed to save the dragon egg.  Interestingly the adventure proper only covers a third of the book’s page count, with the remaining pages appendices for new content. Appendix A covers stat blocks for six New Monsters complete with sprite art for 5 of them (the pseudodrake is a printable paper mini in back). I already did the skinny on most of them, although I will mention that the kobold alchemist here is weaker than the monster of the more popular Tome of Beasts. This one’s a CR ½ monster who can deliver a random alchemical effect via sling which is determined via a 1d6 roll. The possibilities range from energy damage to conditions such as blinded, random movement, disadvantage on attack rolls, or halved speed. Appendix B introduces New Magic Items, all of which can be obtained in the adventure proper save for the Rare and Very Rare Crystalkeep equivalents. Crystallia are magic gemstones which are naturally occurring and more likely to grow within monster lairs. They do nothing on their own, but their properties awake when embedded in specially-prepared magical objects, and the specific abilities differ depending on whether the object is a weapon, armor, or accessory. Only Crystalkeep items can do this, and while Crystallia don’t require attunement, the Crystalkeep items which they are embedded in do. Such items can hold anywhere from one to three Crystallia depending on their rarity, and Accessories by default don’t do anything on their own (armor and weapons are self-explanatory). We have four sample Crystallia to start things off: Faded Aurea Draconic which grants dragon-related abilities (breath weapon, flight, energy resistance, bonus energy damage for weapon, all fire), a Knave Crystallia which grants roguish abilities (improved speed, bonus action Dash, 1d6 sneak attack), Kobenholt which grants kobold-like qualities (Enlarge/Reduce but reduce only plus darkvision, Disengage as bonus action, and the equivalent of Pack Tactics but must spend a reaction to do so), and Patet Gelat which grants ghostly features (Increased size plus greater invisibility, +1 AC, or bonus acid damage on weapon attacks). A few of the more powerful abilities, such as spell equivalents, can only be used once or twice per day. Appendix C provides 2 new Advanced Classes, the Cerulean Sage and Dragonsworn Knight. Advanced Classes differ from their core counterparts in that they cannot be gained at 1st level and must be multiclassed into after unlocking special story rewards. As such, they only go up to 10th and 5th level respectively, and the only proficiencies they grant when multiclassing into them are weapon and armor proficiencies. The Cerulean Sage is a D&D version of the Blue Mage and were once part of a grand city-state that housed a zoo where its mages could study and learn magic from various creatures. But after their civilization’s fall the survivors need to travel the world to improve their abilities. They are a bit sturdier than your average mage, being closer to clerics with d8 Hit Die and proficient in longswords, medium armor, and shields. But their spellcasting only goes up to 5th level spells, all of which are new class-specific spells, and they use their Constitution score as their spellcasting ability modifier. At 1st level the Sage can place an Azure Eye upon a creature which allows them to learn an appropriate spell from a monster if it possesses an ability of the same name, and at higher levels they deal bonus damage whenever they hit the monster with a weapon. At higher levels the Sage can choose a limited number of creature types every so often, gaining advantage on Insight and knowledge-related checks to ascertain information about such monsters when encountered, can recover a limited number of spell slots once per day on a short rest, and can understand and be understood by creatures they have advantage on knowledge/Insight against. There’s 26 new spells unique to the Cerulean Sage. They begin play with the Self-Destruct spell and two 1st-level class spells of their choice, with the former reducing them to 0 HP once cast but deals fire damage equal to the HP they lost plus 1d6 per slot level expended. The other 25 can only be learned from monsters in play, and include features from the broad to the specific: they include such features as blindsight 60 feet when not deafened, burrow/fly speeds, Multiattack, the ability to transform into a similar-sized nonmagical object, spores that inflict the Stunned condition, an Eye Ray roulette like that of a Beholder’s but randomly determined, a healing touch that can restore hit points and end the effects of poison and diseases, and the ability to use Legendary Resistance and a limited set of Legendary Actions via a reaction (and the appropriate 5th level spell slot). And only four of them require concentration duration, meaning that the Cerulean Sage is a very useful class for buffing/debuffing purposes. The Cerulean Sage’s power is rather controllable, given that the spells learned are pretty dependent on what the DM deigns to throw at you, although they can learn one new spell they are capable of casting per level meaning that it’s not entirely up to chance. However, there is a way to cheese the system via RAW. For clarity’s sake, I will copy-paste the Azure Eye’s ability below: quote:Also starting at 1st level, you can use a bonus action on your turn to open your azure eye and fixate it upon a chosen creature you can see within 120 feet. When you do, an iconic blue eye appears on your forehead. If the chosen creature is reduced to 0 hit points within the next minute and it has a trait, action, or other quality that serves as the prerequisite for a cerulean spell, and the spell is of a level for which you have spell slots, you learn the cerulean spell. This effect ends early on the creature if you use this ability again. If your party includes a character who can summon or transform into an appropriate monster, the party can wail on their allies to gain the appropriate spells, or gain it when the party’s polymorphing wizard/wildshaping druid gets KO’d in battle. It’s likely that this may go against the spirit of the rules, but I would like to point out that such a tactic is possible in the actual Final Fantasy games. Notably, Strago (blue mage) can learn magic by watching Gau (who has a Wild Shape equivalent) take on the forms of monsters rather than having to actually fight those monsters in combat. It also raises the thorny question of torture and animal cruelty in the case of nonintelligent and summoned monsters. So of course, this rules loophole is something you should clear by the DM first or be aware of if you’re the DM. The other Advanced Class is the Dragonsworn Knight, who are divided into two groups based upon their oaths: to either defend dragons from harm or eliminate the threat they pose to humanoids. Naturally the two sides don’t see eye to eye. They are a 5-level class with more Fighteresque features such as a d10 hit die and are proficient in heavy armor, shields, and various polearm weapons. At first level they learn Draconic if they didn’t already know it and gain double proficiency to Intimidate checks. They can also treat every polearm-style weapon as having the reach property, triple the throwing distance with them, and crit with them on a 19-20. Their signature feature is the High Jump, where they can not only leap much greater distances based upon their level, they can deal additional damage with a single weapon attack at the conclusion of the jump. At higher levels they gain a draconic breath weapon that deals a certain type of energy damage chosen upon gaining it, negate a certain amount of falling damage based on their level, can gain short-term resistance to the same energy type as their breath weapon, deliver an AoE roar that imposes the Frightened condition, and become immune to the Frightened condition as their 5th level capstone ability. The Dragonsworn Knight is cool in concept, although its execution has some weak points. For one, it’s a martial class that doesn’t have Extra Attack, which really reduces its offensive capability. There’s also the fact that by RAW jumping still deducts from your movement, meaning that the Dragonsworn Knight may not be able to jump as high as they can and make a regular attack unless they can Dash as a bonus action or have at least 50 foot speed. While the ability to leap several stories at will with no check necessary is pretty cool, it is quickly eclipsed by outright flight once the PCs gain such abilities by spell or by mount…or by race if your DM is very accepting of tieflings and bird-people in your party.  Not technically an appendix, we have 5 pregenerated 2nd-level characters, with each statblock contained within a fancy-looking 90s era Status Menu page. I did notice that there’s a few mistakes in the stat blocks: the artificer’s spell save DC is 14 when it should be 12 (8 + 2 proficiency bonus + 2 INT modifier), the Fighter’s Intimidation is keyed off of Wisdom rather than Charisma (should be +3, not +1), and the Sorcerer’s Intelligence and Wisdom saving throws are misplaced (8 INT and 10 WIS should be -1 and 0 respectively, not 0 and -1). In two cases the pregens are using rules that aren’t in the default core rules, such as Nalsa who is of the grimalkin race, or Moccus of Morchroioch who uses the Pugilist class. While the bulk of the stat blocks are more or less correct, it could use a second editing pass. I do like how some of the stat blocks have an easter egg reference for the card games of Final Fantasy 8 and 9 via a “triple tetra gaming set.” Triple Triad was the card game of the former, Tetra Master the card game of the latter. While it was tucked away as a sidebar in the adventure proper, there were blueprints for a Summoning System via calling upon the aid of Pakhangba the gold dragon ghost. Basically, the party as a group gains the ability, and any one of them can summon her as an action. Pakhangba has 1 charge when initially gained, and gains a new charge every day at sunrise to a maximum of 5. When summoned she appears in an unoccupied space within 60 feet of the summoner’s choosing, exhaling a breath weapon cone dealing 2d8 radiant damage per charge and imposing the Frightened condition on a failed Dexterity save. Pakhangba has no stats and the attack is immediate, meaning that she can’t be summoned and choose to hold her ability until a more opportune time. Once summoned Pakhangba loses all charges. As you can tell, summoning is a bit of a long term planning thing. At its base it’s little more than a moderately-powerful spell, but PCs that are patient can have a very powerful tactic to deploy as a nova ability. In cases of dungeon crawls and typical “multiple encounters between long rests” scenarios, summons aren’t a thing you can deploy regularly. But for overland travel and downtime, summons can really shine. I can guarantee you that at the start of new adventure players will be asking if 3-5 days have passed so they can deploy a damaging AoE effect…at 2nd-3rd level, no less! Our book ends with paper minis for every enemy as well as cutout handouts for the Crystallia items and Pakhangba as a summonable monster. Overall Thoughts: Although I haven’t properly playtested it, Keep of the Kobold Queen is an adventure brimming with imagination not often seen in 3rd party publishing. Its ode to retro-era JRPGs is a charming touch, and the Crystallia system for magic items is pretty cool and also encourages a measure of creative mix-and-matching for thematic abilities. The pixel artwork is detailed enough to be aesthetically pleasing and feel sleek and shiny without sacrificing the old-school feel. The Kobold Queen looks like she’d make a satisfying boss monster just from a read of her stat block. The book does have 22 playtesters listed for what it’s worth, so I’m sure this isn’t just white-room theorizing on my part. Personally speaking I’m a bit mixed on the Advanced Classes and the pregens. I definitely get what the author’s going for in regards to the former, although personally I’d have liked to see them as base classes on their own. In several Final Fantasy games there are characters who start out as Blue Mages or Dragoons right off the bat,* although I know that designing 20-level classes is an order of labor larger than a single short adventure. They both have some weaknesses/loopholes that I highlighted above which I’d revise if they were to see actual play. *Kain from Final Fantasy 4 and Kimahri from Final Fantasy 10 being two notable examples. In the DM’s Guild comments the author mentioned that they planned to make Keep of the Kobold Queen the first of a series of JRPG-inspired adventures with new classes, Crystallia, summons, and monsters provided that there’s ongoing interest. It’s been about 2 years since this adventure was released, and it’s sitting at a mere Silver seller on the DM’s Guild.* So such a project may be on the backburner for now or not economically viable, which makes me a little sad, as I would’ve loved to see more adventures like this. *For the non-publishers out there, a Copper seller is at least 50 sales, Silver at least 100, and further metals are exponentially higher. Overall, I’d recommend Keep of the Kobold Queen as a purchase for an interesting one-off or as the seeds for a JRPG-inspired campaign. It is a bit pricey for the page count, but there’s quite a bit of content within those pages that can be extended beyond the adventure itself.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2022 00:00
|
|
|
Must say that’s a very cute little adventure. Have been playing the older Final Fantasies so it’s fun to see the little nods.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2022 09:38
|
|
|
Not my thing but it seems like a well built product. I love that it comes with minis.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2022 09:48
|
|
|
Thanks for bringing attention to it! It's a no brainer that I adore it. I'm just wondering if there's any more systems outside, of course, the Final Fantasy RPG that seek to emulate 90s era JRPG goodness.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2022 11:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 15:27 |
|
|
Libertad! posted:Keep of the Kobold Queen A solid adventure and I love the pixel art. Looks like genuine effort and forethought went into it. The names are a bit of an eyeroll though ("Queen Yas" ? Really?).
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2022 13:04
|
|
