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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!

KROMORE



Humans of Kromore

So, I was mildly wrong, there are 17 human nations, six of which are restricted by era, and the remaining 11 of which have existed, apparently, for the entirety of humanity's existence on Kromore. Obviously humans are not from Kromore since only the Zatilok are natives.

quote:

The disparity of Kromorian Humans are as vast and as their Earth ancestors. Though they share a historical bond, Human’s of Kromore distinguish themselves by the Kromorian nation they hail from.

All humans share an ancestry to Earth with the exception of Daeadrin who have an unknown alien origin. A merging of Daeadrin and Humans becomes the future Kromorian races. Though both Daeadrin and Kromorian Humanoids are identical at first glance, the Daeadrin are immortal.

Hmmm, yes, I'm sure that it's entirely reasonable to simply list an "immortal" race alongside the human races. Certainly immortality would result in exactly the same culture and statistics! It actually does, and Daeadrin don't even have the highest skill bonus total or anything. I guess they spend a lot of their immortal lives doing nothing productive that they can learn from. In general the human nations are described haphazardly, sometimes we learn what wiped them out, sometimes we don't, sometimes their government style is mentioned, sometimes it's not, the only constants are average weights and heights, and what their diet largely consists of. Not sure why the latter's so important unless the book contains a detailed section on gluten and nut allergies later on.

This section also reveals that when Earth was threatened by an alien species wanting to suck it dry of resources, humanity just relocated en masse to the rest of the galaxy. Considering that humanity had the ability to just do this, apparently before this insurmountable alien foe destroyed them or enslaved them, you have to wonder why humanity hadn't spread to the rest of the galaxy before then. Earth refugee humans are also for some reason far less restrained by their culture than the other nations, just getting a pool of free skill points to assign however they want, rather than having four to six culturally pre-assigned skill points.



Also note how every single non-human species live in exactly one location, with one culture, while humans have spread everywhere. Lazy loving writing. Also note how there's an "Outlander Human" nation, even though they're specifically described as the "humans without nations or borders." I also skipped over dozens of terrible wordings because you guys have the gist of the bad writing by now.

Professions

Note that even though the game prides itself, in its sales pitch, on not having "pre-determined classes," instead it has pre-determined professions, which are basically treated like 3.x/5e classes, you gain a new "level" every time you level up, and you can use that to continue a profession you already have, or straight up just grab a tier of a new one. The text in the book here even admits that professions "resemble the concept of 'classes'."


I do legitimately like some of the art, though. This is really well done.

Military Professions

Soldier posted:

The one in the heavy armor carrying a two handed weapon in one hand while killing you with the other. That's a Soldier.

Soldier: Continuing in the proud tradition of lovely fantasy RPG's everywhere, by and large all the soldier gets is increasing numerical bonuses to shooting/stabbing things, or using things that shoot things. It turns out that "Operate," at least by the description here(yes, we still have no skill descriptions, so while making our character we have to guess at what half these things actually benefit), is about "operating" vehicles, meaning that's yet another huge part of the lifepath chargen that only really works with post-fantasy/post-medieval stuff and... hey, wait a minute, that also kind of means Soldiers don't fit into that stuff for poo poo either. So much for being setting-agnostic. About the only hilarious ability Soldiers get is "Weapon Redirect." Any time an enemy within reach of the soldier fails any action, including some attacks(specifically grapples and charges), the soldier just gets to pick them up and throw them away. It doesn't even have to target the soldier, and seems to completely ignore the target's weight and size. In fact, it specifically just says "attacker," so potentially a charging tank attempting to run someone over would count, or a giant robot just trying to move past and failing some check.

In general, though, even 3.x Fighters get more options than these poor goons(well, after a couple of feats, anyway).


SOME of the art, I don't like all of it.

Medic posted:

When everything begins to spin and the room grows dark a Medic is hopefully closing in. Lofting the wounded onto their shoulders and carrying them to safety, the Medic will slap a bandage on wounds before the target can realize they are pushing them back into the fray of combat. After all, who else are they going to hide behind as the bullets come flying past.

Medic: gently caress all not-wizards, I guess. In the same way Soldiers just get +attack, all Medics get is +heal and the special ability to carry allies a very, very short distance. So unless your friend collapsed just on the other side of some handy cover, this is loving useless.

Pilot posted:

As the rush of air blows hair wildly into the open sky and a smile breaks across their face, it's evident the Pilot is having that dream where they are flying again.

Pilot: The pilot is yet another one-trick monkey, in this case "fly better, fly better, fly better." Their few abilities that breaks the monotony is that above a certain level, they basically get a Red Baron-ish renown and get to intimidate enemy pilots just by telling them that they're in the air and loving poo poo up, and that they get to "Cloud Fall." I.e., if they pass their skill checks they can drop from 100' with little to no damage, of course, if they gently caress up their skill checks they probably die instantly, so you can't even really rely on it. And how often are you 100' off the ground in an RPG without your friends being so as well? I guess this might save YOU, but the rest of the party is still hosed. Good luck playing a Pilot unless the entire party does or it's a solo game.

quote:

Instinctive Foresight: Shady characters are found on refueling pads, in space stations, and within and environment vehicles are brought for repairs and construction. When the pilot is first to act in a fights initiative against enemies they gain a bonus 1d4 to their first attack in their rounds turn. Any time the pilot has a better initiative than their target they gain this bonus.

I also don't know why associating with shady characters somehow gives you an attack bonus?


Banned from DeviantArt for being too poo poo

Officer posted:

The Officer excels at controlling a large force of men and women on the battlefield. Their leadership abilities are unmatched by any other profession. Negotiating or blasting their way through conflict, the Officer is always prepared for any battle. An Officer is available through the background origin or by Story Teller approval.

Officer: I hope you like sitting at the back of the battle with a megaphone and giving everyone boosts in combat, because that's literally all this class gets to do

Knight Agent: Finally there's the option to be a "Knight Agent," if you have high enough stats, totally not a prestige class, honest, which basically means you're a member of the Kromorian CIA. Interestingly enough, unlike the four preceding classes, they acknowledge that Knight Agents will function differently in different eras... which they accomplish by changing the gear, and not the skills. They have the ability to interrogate enemies... except they don't use it to interrogate, apparently they use it to yell at enemies in combat and scare them into lowering their defenses? Why is this ability called "interrogate" at all? They also get the ability to PASS JUDGMENT which... again has nothing to do with passing judgment in a legal sense, instead it just means that the agent now gets a huge bonus to fighting them.

With this level of fighter oppression, I can't wait to see what options wizards get.

Civilian Professions

Aristocrat: Interestingly, even though we have to beg storyteller permission to become an officer if we don't get it during lifepath chargen, nothing stops us from just declaring at level-up that Bob the Officer is now in fact Bob von Schnauzer, Officer and also heir to the Schnauzer mercantile empire. Despite being described as negotiators, diplomats and fast-talkers, almost every Aristocrat skill is somehow using their charisma to better beat up people in combat by distracting them. In fact, almost EVERY loving ability so far, for all the classes, have been for combat. I think the only exception being that Officers get a military agent network that gives them a bonus on knowledge checks. Oh and I guess Aristocrats also get a monthly allowance depending on how charismatic they are.

Dark Blade: Half these guys' skills are prefaced with the word "Dark." Dark Sneak, Dark Survival, Dark Blade Veil, etc. which is no surprise to anyone. It also takes seven levels before this EPIC ASSASSIN CLASS actually gets any special ability making them better at sneaking. All their other abilities up till that point are just combat tricks. Did I mention that this game is REALLY FOCUSING ON THE COMBAT yet?


HELLO I AM A SUBTLE ASSASSIN, PAY ME NO MIND

Shadow: The first class to get almost as many non-combat boosts/skills as combat boosts/skills, generally related to stealth and traps, and avoiding being blown up by traps. A momentous day! They also have the ability to "trick" enemies in an undefined way to remove their actions in combat, at higher levels. They can steal "two actions" from an enemy, and as I understand it, PC's and NPC's only have three actions per round. Judging by the lovely wording, they can do this once per enemy adjacent to them... but nothing seems to require them to target different enemies, and it only costs them one action... so two Shadows working together could basically stunlock up to three enemies completely, as long as they're in relatively close quarters. Resisting being "tricked" is possible, but takes a "legendary" resistance check.

Inventor: Holy poo poo, this class only has one ability directly focused on combat. And it only took us nine classes to get there! Their one ability focused on combat is dealing double damage to artificial enemies, an ability that is, puzzlingly, named "Bad Breath." It's also, again, one of the few classes that acknowledge different eras. For instance, apparently even in eras without electrical devices, they're able to make short-distance, radio-wave remote controls that can set off, as per the book's example, trebuchets.

quote:

In tech level settings that do not allow for electronically machinery the device works as a short wave frequency radio or trigger device that can operate a trebuchet or device to be set off.

Christ, there's another 13 classes to go, including the "Combat" class category. Yes, Combat and Military classes are, inexplicably, separate from each other. At least the final category will be the various wizard professions, Sci-Magi, Adept, Sci-Priest and Demon Hunter. They, at least, have to be able to do some poo poo that not everyone loving else can do. In fact, I think it's almost entirely guaranteed, by this point, that having access to magic will mean that they get a huge swathe of things they can do while fighters and thieves can eat poo poo.

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Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

PurpleXVI posted:

Also note how every single non-human species live in exactly one location, with one culture, while humans have spread everywhere. Lazy loving writing. Also note how there's an "Outlander Human" nation, even though they're specifically described as the "humans without nations or borders." I also skipped over dozens of terrible wordings because you guys have the gist of the bad writing by now.

I hate it when games do this. Bonus negative points if non-humans sorta do have different cultures that are actually sub-races. I'll never get why say ancient, low fertility races like elves who have barely changed in aeons managed to diversify into 40+ different races - as opposed to the short-lifed humans who reproduce several orders of magnitude faster and can be found everywhere, but are still just one race.

quote:

Professions

Note that even though the game prides itself, in its sales pitch, on not having "pre-determined classes," instead it has pre-determined professions, which are basically treated like 3.x/5e classes, you gain a new "level" every time you level up, and you can use that to continue a profession you already have, or straight up just grab a tier of a new one. The text in the book here even admits that professions "resemble the concept of 'classes'."

This was a Kickstarter project, right? Man, if I were one of the backers, I'd feel legitimately scammed right now. This bs is dangerously close to "My original Sonic character is not a ripoff of Sonic the Hedgehog because he has a darker shade of blue and wears pants!" territory of self-delusion.

"This game doesn't have classes and levels. It has jobs and tiers. And our stat generation is not randomized, but decided by fate. That's totally different!"

Doresh fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Mar 1, 2015

Green Intern
Dec 29, 2008

Loon, Crazy and Laughable


I like how the map is denoted with "Human" and "Alien" even though the Humans are the alien species on Kromore.

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!

Christ, for once I'm reading ahead for an update and this stupid poo poo.

There's a class that, if it successfully "Negotiates" with enemies in combat, can basically take any of their stuff without checks as long as they're within reach. Literally says ANYTHING, and up to three items per round(you get three actions per round, a given thing only takes more than one action to do if it specifically says so). So armor, weapon, pants, or their left shoe or something. There's also a skill that massively magnifies your ability to Negotiate as long as you've fed someone food you've made, and it doesn't say they have to eat it WILLINGLY, so you can just jam it in their mouth.

You can dual-wield cakes into combat in Kromore and steal people's weapons right out of their hands.

This loving game.

I also leave you a teaser of ~art~ for the next update.

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.
My god, Revolver Ocelot, what happened to you!?

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

PurpleXVI posted:

You can dual-wield cakes into combat in Kromore and steal people's weapons right out of their hands.

If this was intentional and not janky rules I'd be sorta impressed.

Hyper Crab Tank
Feb 10, 2014

The 16-bit retro-future of crustacean-based transportation
I can't even tell what race that's supposed to be. It's clearly not a human or a dwarf, too blue to be a ferrian or gyxan, and too lacking in cat ears to be a zatilok. Is it supposed to be a metal man? It doesn't look metal...

wdarkk
Oct 26, 2007

Friends: Protected
World: Saved
Crablettes: Eaten
Are the white bits around him bad copy-pasting on your part or the game's?

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

PurpleXVI posted:

There's a class that, if it successfully "Negotiates" with enemies in combat, can basically take any of their stuff without checks as long as they're within reach. Literally says ANYTHING, and up to three items per round(you get three actions per round, a given thing only takes more than one action to do if it specifically says so). So armor, weapon, pants, or their left shoe or something. There's also a skill that massively magnifies your ability to Negotiate as long as you've fed someone food you've made, and it doesn't say they have to eat it WILLINGLY, so you can just jam it in their mouth.

You can dual-wield cakes into combat in Kromore and steal people's weapons right out of their hands.

Seeing how strangely everything is worded in this book, could the RAW of this ability be interpreted so that "ANYTHING" includes "inner organs"? Then you could trade those delicious cakes for hearts.

Young Freud
Nov 25, 2006

wdarkk posted:

Are the white bits around him bad copy-pasting on your part or the game's?

It's probably an image pulled from a PDF through Adobe Acrobat. I've had that white outline appear on image elements I yanked out of Eclipse Phase stuff. You don't notice them largely because they're normally transparent or part of a mask inside Acrobat.

wdarkk
Oct 26, 2007

Friends: Protected
World: Saved
Crablettes: Eaten

Doresh posted:

Seeing how strangely everything is worded in this book, could the RAW of this ability be interpreted so that "ANYTHING" includes "inner organs"? Then you could trade those delicious cakes for hearts.

Use breath mints so you can deliver them into their mouths via blowgun.

Bendigeidfran
Dec 17, 2013

Wait a minute...

PurpleXVI posted:

You can dual-wield cakes into combat in Kromore and steal people's weapons right out of their hands.


:allears: That is beautiful. Combined with the 'LITERALLY ANYTHING' rule you can basically Chef of Legend this poo poo and steal someone's evil, their remaining lifespan, or all of their memories through the all-powerful art of home-cooking.

Fossilized Rappy
Dec 26, 2012

Young Freud posted:

It's probably an image pulled from a PDF through Adobe Acrobat. I've had that white outline appear on image elements I yanked out of Eclipse Phase stuff. You don't notice them largely because they're normally transparent or part of a mask inside Acrobat.
I can confirm that this is likely. The PDFs of Exodus have horrible artifacting around any of the not-VaultBoy images.

Speaking of which, I'm still working on the first post for the Exodus Southwest Wasteland Guide, but I've just been repeatledly mulling over wondering whether or not I should tone down going extremely specific on what game mechanics are involved when I go into these projects. Rather than doing my traditional writing like this:

Old School posted:

Cultist, Children of the Apocalypse: As I stated way back when we were starting the Exodus Survivor's Guide, the Cultist background in that book was basically pointless given that it was split into multiple backgrounds in this GM's guide. I wasn't lying, of course, as you can see here. Each of the cults is given a quote from a real world source, which isn't a thing for any other background, occupation, class, or what have you. The Children of the Apocalypse have the opening quote of Mein Kampf as their quote. If you couldn't guess, they're really fond of genocide, which makes it more awkward that they are an explicitly Arab-themed group.

The background grants Archaic Weapons Proficiency, Heavy Weapons PRoficiency, Personal Firearms Proficiency, and Armor Proficiency (light) as extra starting proficiencies, and extra class skills of Bluff, Craft (Structural), Diplomacy, Knowledge (Occult, Street, and Theology/Philosophy), Perform (Oratory), Search, Sense Motive, and Survival. In other words, you get all the tools you need to be a diplomancing survivalist, which is one of the two kinds of character Exodus attempts to encourage the most. This would be a great occupation to take if it wasn't for, you know, the fact that they're a death cult that literally have a Hitler quote to sum them up.

I could try a new, less mechanics-dense form like this:

New School posted:

Cultist, Children of the Apocalypse: As I stated way back when we were starting the Exodus Survivor's Guide, the Cultist background in that book was basically pointless given that it was split into multiple backgrounds in this GM's guide. I wasn't lying, of course, as you can see here. Each of the cults is given a quote from a real world source, which isn't a thing for any other background, occupation, class, or what have you. The Children of the Apocalypse have the opening quote of Mein Kampf as their quote. If you couldn't guess, they're really fond of genocide, which makes it more awkward that they are an explicitly Arab-themed group.

On top of getting proficiency with light armor, personal firearms, heavy weapons, and archaic weapons, taking Children of Apocalypse Cultist as a background grants a load of bonus class skills that let you put heavy focus on social interaction, religious knowledge, and wilderness survival. In other words, you get all the tools you need to be a diplomancing survivalist, which is one of the two kinds of character Exodus attempts to encourage the most. This would be a great occupation to take if it wasn't for, you know, the fact that they're a death cult that literally have a Hitler quote to sum them up.

Any thoughts?

Fossilized Rappy fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Mar 2, 2015

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!

KROMORE



More Classes Professions

"Outland Professions" are basically described as adventurers, characters who travel the globe getting into fights and stealing stuff. They consist of the Privateer, Mercenary, Duelist, Grifter and "Ferrian Vanquisher." Most of them are relatively unremarkable, aside from the Grifter and the usual bizarre wording and logic that pops up in some of the abilities.

quote:

Outland Trickster: The privateer is often stuck off grid from the rest of society. The privateer learns to combat the forces of mad men, wild beast, and thieves with the power of quick thinking. As 1 action and a hardsurvival skill check they can render a target prone until their next turn. The privateer uses their survival skill to find a weakness in terrain, environment, or enemy gear.

Because yes, I absolutely translate "often out in the wilderness" to "knows how to trip people up." Also note that despite this being related to fighting the forces of "mad men, wild beasts and thieves," nothing prevents you from knocking over a robot or a cop with this. It also simply specifies "target," so unless something is specifically unable to be knocked prone, you can flip over tanks, giant mecha and just about anything else with it. There's also no specified range, and the fluff on how it works is delightfully vague, so potentially you can do it from across a room as long as you can come up with an excuse? Or from even farther away? I mean, the fact that you can use a "weakness in the terrain or enemy gear" that, presumably, the player gets to invent himself opens it up to just about anyone, anywhere, in any situation, as long as you know they're there.

The real star, as mentioned, is the Grifter.

quote:

Grifter Charm: A grifter makes a negotiate check in combat as 1 action and gains up to 1 point of their charm attribute as a bonus to attack that chosen target until it flees or is defeated.

...

The Grift: A grifter can steal anything from a target they have declared their grifter charm on as long as the grifter is within reaching distance of the object. The grifter is not required a sneak roll to steal the object nor is the target allowed an awareness check as long as the grifter has initiated combat and succeeded their grifter charm.

So yes, we can literally steal ANYTHING from an enemy as long as we're within reaching distance and manage to "grifter charm" someone. If you wanted to be very technical, you could presumably steal someone's eyeballs or, if you rule that "distance" only considers how far you can theoretically reach, and not what's in the way, also internal organs. Also again, even without wording it to instakills, remember that we have three actions in a given round, and unless specified otherwise, anything we do seems to default to requiring one action. So even if we need to use one action to close up to stealing range, we can still steal a dude's weapon and armor. By the level where we get THE GRIFT, our Grifter Charm has also been upgraded to apply to three targets at once. So we can literally disarm an entire squad of dudes in one round if we can get into melee range.

The CAKE BATTLE ability is a bit later on, in another chapter, where any class is allowed to spend points to get a "Civilian Vocation." The first rank of the Chef vocation provides:

quote:

Cooking Persuasion: A chef gains the ability to cook amazing meals that can persuade targets by allowing the Chef to make a negotiate check against their target after feeding them a meal. The negotiate gains them x2 their normal bonus to negotiation against that target.

Also note that there's no limit on how long after eating a meal that they'll be easily persuaded by you. At the most aggressive you could rule that "feeding" means you have to at least serve it to them, so you can't be the owner of a candy shop or kebab booth that eventually makes an entire city vulnerable to his Negotiate attempts. So if you use your presumably sky high, if you're going for this, Negotiate abilities to charm your way into taking over an army's field kitchen or something, moments after dinner time you can declare you're starting combat and start liberating everyone of their gear.

It also notice that it just says a meal, not even necessarily a meal that the cook himself made. The RAW for Kromore is hilariously dire.

Weirdly enough this also seems to make the Grifter a far more potent thief in combat than out of combat and in any stealth situation, and looking up the rules for Negotiation, it's basically ROLL FOR MIND CONTROL. If you get 16 or more than the target number(determined by their Charisma), you can literally convince them of anything, and there appears to be no upper limit on how high skill bonuses can go.

Duellists and Mercenaries are both dull, except that mercenaries get the weird ability to make makeshift bombs out of "a simple fuel and a hard object. (Ex. Rocks, Tin can, Battery, etc.)," and can, at higher levels, and with a decent intelligence score, guarantee that they can make makeshift bombs so fast that they can make and throw them in the same round, and still have an action to spare. A quick glance ahead in the book reveals that these bombs made out of tin cans and batteries do more damage than "plasma sniper rifles," at least by just looking at the value on the tables and without involving any skills or other modifiers. By the point he gets to do this, the Mercenary also has three NPC companions, so he could just spend all three of his turns making bombs, passing them to his companions, and having them throw them. This seems to add up to way more damage than he could ever do by actually giving them or himself weapons, and cheaper, too.

Ferrian Vanquishers are only notable for the fact that their weapon is their hair, and telling us that apparently it requires "diamond blades" to cut Ferrian hair. Why no one captures Ferrians to shave them bald and weave an impenetrable set of clothes/armor out of their hair, I don't know.

Next up are the "combat professions," listing the Battler, Warrior, Combat Artist and Brawler. Including them, we now have the: Soldier, Duellist, Mercenary, Battler, Warrior, Combat Artist and Brawler, to list the ones that are just a fighter by any other name, and that's being very generous and leaving out some. In any loving sane RPG they'd just be the same base class/profession but with different fluff and specializations chosen by the player after first level. And there's literally no interesting fluff or detail to any of them, they're all just a tiresome blur of combat modifiers. The Battler can go berserk and the Brawler is a 3rd ed D&D Monk, that's about it. The art does seem to try to outdo itself by being loving awful in new and exciting ways, though!



And now it's time for wizard supremacy. Sci-Magi, who are chalk wizards. Adepts, who are sorcerers. Sci-Priests, who are "soulful combat fighters." And Demon Hunters, who are dark, brooding characters that no one trusts.

Sci-Magi

In addition to getting skill boosts and abilities of their own, some of them quite rad and even, dare I say it, kinda cool, Sci-Magi also have an additional column in their level up spreadsheet that no other class does, that grants them free abilities. Any class can buy into magic abilities, but these guys, in addition to getting as much poo poo as everyone else, gets them for free.

quote:

Chalk: A Sci-Magi can procure 1 piece of chalk every action without the use of an action to draw the chalk, but the chalk is required carried.

...

The Sci-Magi can also create chalk as 1 action and a basic focus check out of thin air if they need to. This created chalk disappears if the caster drops it and is only useable in a spell. Often casters use both created and drawn chalk for spells.

Chalk? Well, sure. CHALK, but what can a wizard do with CHALK? Well, for starters, a Sci-Magi can crush a piece of chalk, specifically, nothing else, to have it function as a flashbang that he's immune to. Chalk is also the item needed for most sci-magi abilities, drawing sigils, etc. and since he can just make more out of thin air, he can never really be disarmed of those abilities unless he's tied up. He can also find anything non-living(easily circumvented, just tell it to find the guy's shirt instead), without needing a check, as long as he has a "crystal" to imbue with a desire to find it, then he has a magical compass for finding it.

Chalk posted:

Doorway: A Sci-Magi can use chalk to draw doorways to the other side of a wall or structure.

...

Realm Fire: As 1 action the Sci-Magi can use a medium focus check to transform a piece of chalk into a blue fire like ball of energy.

...

Invisibility Spell: Using a hard focus check and 2 actions, the Sci-Magi can turn invisible with a crushed piece of chalk in both hands. ... Attackers make epic awareness checks to discern the location of the Magi.

An "epic awareness check" requiring that someone get over 24 as a result of d4's+skill modifiers. And no, it doesn't require any check to turn invisible, just chalk, chalk that you have an infinite loving supply of. Without chalk, the sci-magi still has telekinesis and the ability to turn any reflective surface into a portal gateway. The text specifically calls out "the surface of the ocean on a still day," and specifies that it counts as one continuous surface, which happily negates the limits on how far two surfaces can be from each other. So, you know, have fun teleporting from one continent to another as long as the weather permits.

And this isn't even getting into the fact that anyone with Realm Magic can make an infinite army of ghosts. Yes, you heard me right, we'll get to that in the Abilities chapter.

Adept

Adepts don't get as much overpowered poo poo as sci-magi, presumably because they're not proper wizards and hence don't deserve proper supremacy. Instead they get to make inferior lesser classes like rogues feel irrelevant.

quote:

The adept can produce basic elemental items. The items are not completely stable and deteriorate into air after a number of mins equaling the adepts SOUL attribute. Often times the adept will create a key or something they are searching for without realizing it, but then the object vanishes again in a few hours. The items created are elemental in nature and fit into the hand of the adept as a solid item with no moving parts. Example: chalk, flint, wood, soft rock, metal, coal.

Suck it, lockpickers. Also if you want to break the game, point out that there's clearly permission for organic chemistry since coal is mentioned, and that there are plenty of toxic and corrosive substances that could do notable damage even if you didn't produce more than the weight/volume of a key, and they certainly have no moving parts. This stuff also takes up only one action and with an "easy focus" check to pull off, we can do it pretty much at will.

quote:

Homeopathic Touch: The adept can identify the status of a persons thirst, hunger, core temperature, sleep, salt hunger, and LP by touching skin to skin.

Though what the gently caress is a salt hunger? Like is that a term in another language that means something, but has no meaning when translated literally to English? Please. Help. But aside from making rogues irrelevant and checking if someone's cold or hungry, basically they can throw fireballs and heal themselves, that's it.

Sci-Priest

quote:

The Priest is a soulful combat fighter

The jazziest of professions, but it's hard to judge whether they suck poo poo or completely break the game until we get to the crafting rules, because that's literally all these guys get a bonus to: Crafting and being able to melt non-living matter with their hands. Of course since this is expressed in hit points' worth of damage to stuff rather than in some sort of narrative term or a volume of decayed matter, it's impossible to tell how much it actually matters. I tried searching the entire book and nowhere does it seem to actually list what, say, an average door has in terms of hit points, making this ability entirely pointless.

Demon Hunter

Despite being in the wizard section, this one is actually a trap choice for fools who think fighters are relevant! That is to say, literally half their abilities don't work unless the storyteller is merciful and let them fight demons on a regular basis, as said abilities require demon blood, souls, etc. to craft items from. And of course their only actual cool ability, being able to trap demon souls in equipment for bonuses, is sequestered at the very top of their levels.

Tune in next time when we check out magic and abilities and how they let us become an evil overlord as long as we've got time to waste. And of course as long as we're a wizard, we don't get to break the game if we're not a wizard.

Pop quiz: Which of these three is it possible to do with/to a zombie: Negotiation? Intimidation? Or logical debate?

PurpleXVI fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Mar 3, 2015

That Old Tree
Jun 23, 2012

nah


Please scale down your images.

Tasoth
Dec 12, 2011
It better be zombie Aristotle.

Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


Salt hunger is a real thing, but I have absolutely no idea why it's being brought up here. How much was this kickstarted for again?

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.



Hey look it's Stormbringer! Has anyone read any Moorcock stuff? We sure haven't and now absolutely never will for sure!

That Old Tree
Jun 23, 2012

nah


theironjef posted:



Hey look it's Stormbringer! Has anyone read any Moorcock stuff? We sure haven't and now absolutely never will for sure!

I'm not familiar with the RPGs and I haven't listened to the podcast yet, but the Eternal Champion series is not a bad set of pulp.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Plague of Hats posted:

I'm not familiar with the RPGs and I haven't listened to the podcast yet, but the Eternal Champion series is not a bad set of pulp.

Well then don't get too mad at us, because we keep saying "Maybe this works in the books, but I hate this as is."

That Old Tree
Jun 23, 2012

nah


theironjef posted:

Well then don't get too mad at us, because we keep saying "Maybe this works in the books, but I hate this as is."

You can keep my dollarsthis time.

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!

Kavak posted:

Salt hunger is a real thing, but I have absolutely no idea why it's being brought up here. How much was this kickstarted for again?

About 25k.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/raexgames/kromore

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 4, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Plague of Hats posted:

I'm not familiar with the RPGs and I haven't listened to the podcast yet, but the Eternal Champion series is not a bad set of pulp.

It's great to read for the 1970s surrealism, the far-out ideas, and the massive influence it had on the RPG industry, but I think Elric is actually massively repulsive as a character. Yes, I know he isn't meant to be likeable, but he really is a ridiculous doomed manchild of his own making. I find reading a book with him in it is like listening to a train with its brakes on all the time forever.

That Old Tree
Jun 23, 2012

nah


Alien Rope Burn posted:

It's great to read for the 1970s surrealism, the far-out ideas, and the massive influence it had on the RPG industry, but I think Elric is actually massively repulsive as a character. Yes, I know he isn't meant to be likeable, but he really is a ridiculous doomed manchild of his own making. I find reading a book with him in it is like listening to a train with its brakes on all the time forever.

That's fair. When it comes to "classic" or iconic bits of nerdery, I've really only had that problem with Thomas Covenant. I'm never going to pretend my tastes are anything but a distant cousin-by-marriage of normal good taste.

Tasoth
Dec 12, 2011
So bundle of holding is now doing the rest of the Torg books as a bundle. Figured I'd drop that here.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Ugh, I need to get back to the Torg reviews once I'm done with writing convention game PCs.

ZorajitZorajit
Sep 15, 2013

No static at all...

theironjef posted:



Hey look it's Stormbringer! Has anyone read any Moorcock stuff? We sure haven't and now absolutely never will for sure!

I've been big fan of your series for a while because I absolutely love the insanity that comes out in bad RPGs. Just wanted to let you know I really dug this episode (being a little loopy with a cold meds might have helped). I'm throwing in on your Patreon (my first) to help keep the servers on fire. It's what Chaotic Neutral Jesus would do.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

ZorajitZorajit posted:

I've been big fan of your series for a while because I absolutely love the insanity that comes out in bad RPGs. Just wanted to let you know I really dug this episode (being a little loopy with a cold meds might have helped). I'm throwing in on your Patreon (my first) to help keep the servers on fire. It's what Chaotic Neutral Jesus would do.

Thanks! I think we were a little loopy for this one too. Mostly via hate though, it was a rare dry cast for us.

Hyper Crab Tank
Feb 10, 2014

The 16-bit retro-future of crustacean-based transportation

theironjef posted:



Hey look it's Stormbringer! Has anyone read any Moorcock stuff? We sure haven't and now absolutely never will for sure!

Well, that sounds like rear end. Wait a second. SIZ stat? Percentile dice? Roll-under skill checks? This is a BRP game, isn't it? That reminds me of the first RPG I ever played, which used a variant of that system (d20 instead of d100, experience points, a bunch of other stuff) and I think (thankfully) only ever came out in my native language. It had this as the illustration for the Player Characters section in the rulebook.

Zereth
Jul 8, 2003



Ah, that must be in Glorantha.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

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

Zereth posted:

Ah, that must be in Glorantha.

You can tell by the duck.

Hyper Crab Tank
Feb 10, 2014

The 16-bit retro-future of crustacean-based transportation

Zereth posted:

Ah, that must be in Glorantha.

It actually isn't - but you're right that that's where the ducks are from. Yes, aside from the system, the one thing they decided was worth cribbing was the goddamn ducks.

They are consistently drawn as Donald Duck, too.

Otherkinsey Scale
Jul 17, 2012

Just a little bit of sunshine!

Hyper Crab Tank posted:

Well, that sounds like rear end. Wait a second. SIZ stat? Percentile dice? Roll-under skill checks? This is a BRP game, isn't it? That reminds me of the first RPG I ever played, which used a variant of that system (d20 instead of d100, experience points, a bunch of other stuff) and I think (thankfully) only ever came out in my native language. It had this as the illustration for the Player Characters section in the rulebook.



Is this Kingdom Hearts?

Zereth
Jul 8, 2003



Hyper Crab Tank posted:

It actually isn't - but you're right that that's where the ducks are from. Yes, aside from the system, the one thing they decided was worth cribbing was the goddamn ducks.

They are consistently drawn as Donald Duck, too.
Oh wait yeah, I think I remember hearing about this game before.

I don't remember its name or anything about it other than "Donald Duck Style Ducks", though.

unseenlibrarian
Jun 4, 2012

There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drakar_och_Demoner, maybe? I know it started as a Runequest derivative and kept the ducks.

Hyper Crab Tank
Feb 10, 2014

The 16-bit retro-future of crustacean-based transportation

unseenlibrarian posted:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drakar_och_Demoner, maybe? I know it started as a Runequest derivative and kept the ducks.

It sure is. Note how the cover is the same goddamn picture of Elric of Melniboné as Stormbringer used.

E: That's also probably the only good art in the book. Most of it looks like this. What is this guy even doing?


Hyper Crab Tank fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Mar 3, 2015

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

where are his legs? I see his feet, but not his legs

Lemniscate Blue
Apr 21, 2006

Here we go again.
To hell with his legs, what's going on with that freaky hand?

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 4, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

theironjef posted:



Hey look it's Stormbringer! Has anyone read any Moorcock stuff? We sure haven't and now absolutely never will for sure!

Some things that bear mentioning.

The whole Law / Chaos aspect of D&D's alignment grid is straight outta Moorcock. Gygax was hugely influenced by Moorcock, right now to the copyright-violating statblocks from Deities & Demigods.

Exalted was also hugely influenced by Moorcock, particularly in regards to elements like the Yozi or Lintha. Of course, that was bound to come up sooner or later, since White Wolf itself is named after Elric.

A joke an old gaming group I was in was Stormbringer had two classes: sorcerers and cannon fodder. If you manage to roll a Melnibonéan sorcerer, you're an actual character, while everybody else gets to the aforementioned poo poo farmers of the review (because sorcerers get the better spells and summoning and all). But at least in putting wizards first, it's an honest reflection of the source material. Also kind of surprised you folks didn't mention the whole thing where PCs could be slaves or slave owners, though not sure how much that's emphasized in that old book, or the various horrible things the Melnibonéans do to their slaves. (Being a slave generally still beats being a poo poo farmer, tho.)

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Hyper Crab Tank
Feb 10, 2014

The 16-bit retro-future of crustacean-based transportation
He's doing some weird squatting motion, I think? It doesn't explain what the hell is going on with his hand, though.

Also there's this gryphon that convinces me the artist has never seen a lion or an eagle in his life.

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