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Dedman Walkin
Dec 20, 2006



Evil Mastermind posted:

Which realm would y'all like to hear about next?
  • The Nile Empire, where they replace Nazis with Ancient Egyptians!
  • Aysle, which is like Greyhawk but more generic!
  • Orrorsh, where Torg tries to do super-deadly horror!
  • The Living Land, a.k.a. The Land The Game Line Forgot!
  • Nippon Tech, where 90's corporate culture lives on!

Let's talk about one of the cosms not covered in the old F&F review - I'll vote Orrosh.

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Libertad!
Oct 30, 2013

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


Since the supplement's free and only 4 pages long, I decided to review this one as well. It's a rather bare-bones expansion, with 8 new Underling races (4 of which are Elemental types, 2 of which are Werewolves and Wererats, and 2 of which are Aasimars and Tieflings). The Elemental Underlings are pretty badass, with decent skill selection (Perception plus one or two movement-related ones), whereas the Planetouched and Lycanthropes are typical combatants with some special spell-like ability and some defensive features.

The 2 new Underling Universal Rules included Improved AC and Improved HP, which treat the Underling as being 1 CR higher for the aforementioned values.

But we have new feats and spells, yeah!

quote:

Minion Cleave
You can slice through multiple underlings with ease.
Prerequisite: Power Attack, Str 13.
Benefit: Whenever you kill an underling with a melee attack, either by dealing damage in excess of its Kill Threshold or Wound Threshold (if it was already wounded), you can apply any excess damage to another underling of the same type that is adjacent to you. You can continue to apply damage in this way as long as damage remains, you continue to kill an underling, and there is another underling of the same type adjacent to you.

Stand Aside
You can easily move past lesser foes.
Prerequisite: Dodge.
Benefit: You do not provoke attacks of opportunity from underlings due to movement, as long as that movement does not take you through a square occupied by an underling.

Undead Lord
You can easily create and control undead underlings.
Prerequisite: Spell Focus (necromancy).
Benefit: Whenever you calculate the total number of undead creatures you control, every four undead underlings of the same type count as one creature (using their group CR as the creature’s Hit Dice). Any remaining undead underlings of the same type also count as a single creature. For example, 7 skeleton underlings would count as two creatures. In addition, whenever you create undead using animate dead, you can create underlings, counting four underlings as one creature in terms of the total number of Hit Dice you can create and the cost of casting the spell. You must possess a number of bodies equal to the number of underlings created.

Minion Cleave is a bad-rear end yet situational feat, and its usefulness is dependent on how much the GM loves to throw minions at the party. Unless the character's using a reach weapon or has Great Cleave, they probably won't drop many minions unless they're all clustered together. It's good in that the excess damage is carried over automatically without the need for re-rolls, unlike regular Cleave.

Stand Aside...well, underlings don't hit very hard, and since they'll be dealing half damage with AoOs it's not really worth it in my view.

Undead Lord is excellent, in part because of its potential action economy abuse. It is quite thematic, in that every necromancer villain worth their salt is commanding a horde of undead minions to defend their master.

The nine new spells are Summon Underling I-VIII, with SU I a 2nd level Bard/Cleric/Sorcerer/Wizard spell, SU II 3rd level, and so on and so forth. Basically these spells function as Summon Monster, except that they summon 4 Underlings who must be outsiders selected from the following list: angel, archon, azata, demon, devil, or elemental (any). The Group CR of said Underlings is CR 1/2 for SU I, CR 1 for SU II, CR 2 for SU III, and 2 additional points for every spell increment level thereafter to a maximum of CR 12 at SU VIII.

I feel that Summon Underling is a rather weak spell in comparison to Summon Monster counterparts, in part due to the lack of endurance and special abilities, but being able to summon 4 monsters at a time can be useful under the right circumstances. It did not specify whether or not monsters utilizing Underling Templates could be summoned or not. If your GM allows this, then the spell's versatility goes way up in no small part due to the Mage and Priest templates.


And that's it for the Bonus package. I really like the touch of the Summoning spells, Elemental Underlings, and Undead Lord feat. The rest was alright, but at 4 pages for free I'm not complaining.

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.
Genius Addendum

I'll edit this into the intro post, but next in the pdf after the introduction is a glossary filled with terms that haven't been explained yet. I'll note the important ones here, but I'll explain the rest as I reach the appropriate sections.

Axiom: Genuises do everything through constructs called wonders, and building wonders goes through a variety of disciplines called axioms. The axioms are Apokalypsi, Automata, Epikrato, Exelixi, Katastrophi, Metaptropi, Prostasia, and Skafoi.

Wonders: The magic artifacts mad science devices Geniuses build to channel their powers and do stuff.

Catalyst: A race/subtype style division, all Geniuses belong to one of five Catalysts that has a substantial impact on their motivations and what kind of mad scientist they are: Grimm (rage), Hoffnung (hope), Klagen (sorrow), Neid (rejection), or Staunen (curiosity). From a fluff perspective, your Catalyst is the emotion driving your descent into madness.

The Peerage: The good guy mad scientists, and the PCs are probably members. Divided into Foundations that grant benefits while focusing on a particular type of mad science. Each PC probably belongs to one.

Lemuria: The evil mad scientists, basically the Illuminati. The Peerage know they're all insane. Lemurians think they're right. Divided into Baramins based on how they approach the world through the lens of their [mad] science.

Inspiration: In crunch, it's the power stat. In fluff, it's the alien force of creativity that makes Geniuses what they are.

Mania: The energy of Inspiration. It's your blood points, mana, what-have-you.

Havoc: Yeah, it's Paradox. Backlash from mortals interacting with Genius stuff or Genius stuff going wrong.

Obligation: Morality stat.

Illuminated: What happens when Obligation reaches 0. Complete monsters and whatnot.

Beholden: Ghouls, now in lab assistant flavor.

Collaborative: Group of Geniuses that work together (the PCs are probably this).

Bardos/Manes: Supernatural entities, basically, spawned from ideas that have been scientifically proven not to exist. You can play as one.

Hypocrisy
Oct 4, 2006
Lord of Sarcasm

Dedman Walkin posted:

Let's talk about one of the cosms not covered in the old F&F review - I'll vote Orrosh.

I vote the same.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Between both attempts at Torg, I've actually only reviewed Nile Empire and the Cyberpapacy. On the plus side, those are also the only two two-book realms. Everything else is pretty much self-contained in one book so hopefully that'll reduce the slog-based burnout.

It's also kind of depressing how much I've written about Torg and have only managed to cover the core and two of the realms.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

Thanks for the review. Much like Death to Alignment and Nice Things for Fighters, I might never get to play 3.5/PF, but the ideas are very cool.

Libertad!
Oct 30, 2013

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

gradenko_2000 posted:

Thanks for the review. Much like Death to Alignment and Nice Things for Fighters, I might never get to play 3.5/PF, but the ideas are very cool.

You're welcome. I'm thinking of doing Path of Shadows next, a rather new product by Ascension Games. It's their first published work, but the production values are pretty high and the concept is very neat: a bunch of different kinds of shadow-themed magic and a new stealth-gish core class, the Nightblade.

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:

Chapter 2: Character Creation
The character creation chapter opens up with all the basic nWoD stuff, right up until the "apply supernatural template" step. Ferals gain Shapeshifting, accelerated healing, Berserk and "The Fury", a weakness to silver, and the Delusion. They all have Nahuals and Accords, All of this is stuff we've gone over before. Then we get into the new stuff.

Favors are just things that animals have. Extra limbs, being huge, the ability to fly. But the game then helpfully points out that "These favors aren't always balanced in game terms, no more than a mouse and lion are 'balanced' in real life. Even so, the human element provides a certain balance among beasts; a shapechanging hare, for example, is much more clever and magical than a normal bunny." So yes, there's the central conceit of the new world of darkness thrown right out the window. Vampires, Werewolves, Mages, etc are all sort of balanced, or at least meant to be. This, however, is a game with were-elephants with the mass of a large dump truck.

Aspects are anything you get that isn't a part of your breed favors, anything that's distinctly supernatural. Some species get discounts on different aspects. The thing that makes this insane is that any Favors that are not a part of your breed count as Aspects. Yes this does mean that you can create an 8 armed were-bear with 13 legs and an elephants trunk if you have enough experience.

Ferals also get Essence, because werewolves get Essence. There's basically no explanation beyond "It's a measure of spiritual power." Feral Heart is your power stat, and it's basically Primal Urge by a different name. Their Morality stat is Harmony, again, like werewolves. But because they wanted to be confusing, it's something incredibly different under the same name.

They also saw fit to bring along one of my least favorite parts of Forsaken, Renown, in the term of Respect. They'll get into it later but trust me when I say it's very dumb.

Finally we get into the actual descriptions of the different Accords.

All of these pictures are full bleed artwork that goes under the text at points, so I'm going into my PDF copy directly and assembling the page images like a jigsaw puzzle. It's more effort than it really deserves but this art is terrible enough that you need to see it.


Den-Warder: Sean Connery The Keeper
"Place your feet carefully if you walk along the edge."

The archetypical protector. "He's the bulwark against chaos, whose strength safeguards the weak. Both provider and protector, he feeds others with his labor and wards their future with his life. Honor is his birthright in both human and bestial forms. If a Warder offers you his word, he may die to keep that oath". of course this is immediately followed by "but they're human so they're fallible". All warders have made an "oath" to protect something, even if it's only to themselves. Be it their herd, or the kids in a neighborhood.

Their human archetype is a Knight, they "Bear an Armored Burden" and said burden "Weighs heavy on their back" causing them to sometimes be snappish or tyrannical, "'Am I good enough?' is a constant question with such a person, and sometimes the answer sounds like 'No'."

Their appearances tend towards "Conservatism" which apparently means that they always dress like Cowboys or blue collar workers, despite the fact that one of the sample careers is "Idealistic Lawyer". They're often bulky and strong and bigger than everyone else in their band.

Their Musical Tone is "harmonious", their skill specialties are empathy medicine and survival, and they take a -1 dice penalty on degeneration rolls because they hold themselves to a higher standard.

And of course, because this is a white wolf game, there are stereotypes of the other Accords. And of course, they're antagonistic, which seems doubly bizarre because your Accord seems like something you don't really have control over, seeing as how it's literally an agreement your souls are forced to make with each other. This is basically getting mad at someone for being good at math.

quote:

Heart-Rippers: Their bones are good for games of catch and not much else.

Root-Weavers: Strong minds and strong backs build solid dens for both.

Sun-Chasers: Bullshit served on a gold tray doesn't become caviar.

Wind-Dancers: Fine - you read the stars and I'll watch the shadows. Guess which one of us sees something first?


Heart Ripper: The Predator
"Life's a thorn thicket. You move, you bleed.

The ultimate predator, "The Ripper is Cruel, but not always Evil." The ripper is also, uhh..

quote:

Despite her bloody reputation, the Ripper doesn't always kill literally. She couldn't survive long in man's world if she did. Her specialties are fear, pain, and challenge, and her hunting grounds are everywhere. From boardrooms to bedrooms to distant jungles and island depths, her shadow falls on the beak. She mocks, blocks, frustrates and enslaves - and often makes folks love her for it. The beast dares people alike to be strong or be prey. If they can't stand up to her, they're not worth her respect.
Yes this is the dominatrix splat apparently.

quote:

Given trust, this Ripper betrays it; given love, she exploits it and then demands more. She's a sweet killer, the walking heartbreak whose scars burn on the inside but leave the outside clean. There are many ways to rip one's heart and this beast knows them all.
Why tolerate such a creature? Because Nature isn't kind. There are times when it's good to have a demon at your back, and the Ripper is an honest demon. She's not without love or compassion, though she has odd ways of showing them. Deep down, she might even know remorse. Don't expect that from her, however - expect defiance. This accord lives to challenge you. To survive her, companions must get touch or die.
Yes, he somehow managed to take the worst parts of the Ahroun and the Ragabash and combine them into a completely insufferable psychopath prom queen.

Since they are "imposing monsters" they dress to make a statement, biker leathers, fetish gear, rock star flash with a mohawk, etc. Others prefer a subtle buttoned-down look because you'd never expect it.

Their musical tone is "Sharp or Ominous" and their specialties are brawl intimidation and subterfuge. They also get an additional die on degeneration checks so they're better able to rationalize their behavior.

quote:

Den-Warders: Oaks crack loudest when the storm blows in.

Root-Weavers: Industrious little buggers. Their toys break almost as easily as their hearts.

Sun-Chasers: Fun to run in circles. They depend on the kindness of strangers and I just don't have much to offer.

Wind-Dancers: Be careful with these folks. They're as apt to blow you over as drift away.


Root-Weaver: The Builder
"The Artistry of Nature is the purest proof of god."

That quote seems odd considering that people beleiving in god is what pissed off Nature enough to make murderbeasts.

Their description is also hilariously weak. It's basically "BEES! SPIDERS! BEAVERS! BIRDS! ANIMALS BUILD! BUILDING GOOD! WHOOPS I ACCIDENTALLY MADE A BOMB!"

Their musical tone is "Fugues and complex harmonic patterns", their skill specialties are Academics Crafts and science. They don't have any special degeneratoin thing.

quote:

Den-Warders: The foundation of any tribe lies in the strength of parents and protectors.

Heart-Rippers: Entropy walking with a smile on its face.

Sun-Chasers: Did somebody miss that whole "Ant and Grashopper" thing?

Wind-Dancers: Each city begins with a vision. These folks see forests that once were, and cities that have yet to be.


Sun-Chaser: The Rebel
"Nature did not birth us to weep."

quote:

There's a feather on your bed in the morning. Your best jewelry's gone, along with the stranger who charmed his way home last night. On the bathroom mirror is one word, written in toothpaste: Sorry. He's off the(sic) chase the sun again. That's his way - and your regret
Yeah, so all the bits of the Ragabash that the Heart-Ripper didn't take congealed into the Sun-Chaser. They're silver tounged tricksters who exist to take chances and steal.

Their musical tone is "Light and airy, or low and seductive"(????????) and their skill specialties are Athletics Expression and Socialize. They get One more dice for degeneration rolls because they're assholes.

quote:

Den-Warders: Loosen up before your bones crack, dude!

Heart-Rippers: All that beautiful passion, all those ugly wounds.

Root-Weavers: Cool! Can I take it for a spin when you're done?

Wind-Dancers: Real wisdom dances at the crossroads at dusk.


Wind-Dancer: The Seer
"To know man's future, ask a beast.

The wind dancers are the eternal wanderers and seers. Which means they're like The Sun-Chasers except they're seers this time. They are beset by otherworldly visions and insights that they do not want. The slight problem with all of that is there is no mechanical benefit of wind-dancer that makes you any better at those things than a member of any other accord. Since the powers you get discounts on are determined by your breed, not your accord. The favored skills are Investigation, Occult, and Stealth so they get a higher investigation for cheaper, but that's it. Their musical tone is "Low and Lonesome" and they have the same chance at degeneration as anyone else

quote:

Den-Warders: Fine walls, fine doors, but still a trap when life is burning.

Heart-Rippers: Harsh winds full of sand and fire

Root-Weavers: Pretty bars still form a cage.

Sun-Chaser: All the grace of a bee with one wing missing.

Advantages
AKA: the rules stuff that isn't covered in the WoD core book.

Feral Heart
Feral Heart is your 'power stat', the higher this is, the more powerful a Feral you are. it is the "Cry of Nature in a character's soul". Everyone starts at 1, but can buy more with your starting bonus dots. Feral heart determines how long you can stay in your war form. which is Human Stamina+Feral Heart rounds. You can also focus to add your feral heart rating to any wits+composure rolls to perceive something, which 'brings out the beast' for [Feral Heart] minutes. Meaning you start acting a bit more like an animal. Higher ratings of Feral Heart also allow you to exceed the human maximums in attributes and skills, and store more essence/spend more essence in a turn.

Animals also excel at manipulating people, by focusing you can add your rating in feral heart to any social dice pool to represent your "Animal Magnetism". This lasts for [Feral Heart] Turns.

There are some downsides, because it's a World of Darkness game. Mainly that the higher your feral heart is, you start taking penalties acting with normal humans in social situations because you're acting like a beast, or you smell like a beast. The thing is, this penalty is always lower than your "animal magnetism" bonus, so it might as well not exist. And depending on how you read the rules, using "animal magnetism" makes it so the penalty doesn't apply anyway so you just use the full bonus.

Essence
"Nature's power surges through her werebeasts. Called Essence, this power helps them bend those polite suggestions that Man calls 'Physics'." Shut up phil.

You can spend a point of essence to change form automatically as a reflexive action, you can spend a point of essence to regenerate a lethal wound as a reflexive action, you can spend a point of essence to activate your respect(which is explained later) and you can use essence to enter the spirit world or activate gifts if you've somehow bludgeoned your Storyteller with enough blunt objects to make him think that crossing over with werewolf is a good idea.

Essence is recovered in a couple of different ways. Meditating in a natural area lets you roll your harmony dots and regain the successes as essence, which takes 1 minute per point. There's no limit on the number of times you can do this so you could theoretically just sit there and regen to your hearts content. "Going wild" can also regenerate essence, which means resting and running in your breeds preferred wilderness. Two days gains you one essence, five days restores three, and a month gives you back all of your essence. Saving nature from man or man from nature restores some essence as you "Rebalance your animal and human souls". Buuut so does turning cannibal and eating a human or your beast blooded animal.
Whoops.

Harmony
And here is our morality stat, ostensibly it's meant to represent the degree to which your human and animal halves are in balance. In practice, not so much. Whenever you commit a harmony sin, you roll a certain number of dice based on that sin's level, success means you just feel bad but haven't slipped down the scale, failure means you lose a point of Harmony. Lower levels of harmony make it easier to sin, but harder to resist sliding down for doing the truly monstrous poo poo you do. It also makes it easier to go berserk or fall to The Fury. Also falling down the Harmony scale makes your Aiaetha visible to others for some reason.

THE SINS!
10 Accidental disregard for property or wilderness Yes, this is the "You broke a vase" level of petty morality
9 Not Shapeshifting for more than a week; disrespect towards people You didn't hold a door open for john, roll 5 dice for your sins.
8 Gross misbehavior; carelessness resulting in harm to man, beast, or nature And here's where things start to get hilariously bad

quote:

The feral who shits in a corner, accidentally breaks a person's arm or runs over a raccoon feels genuine regret. If that harm is serious (major injury, dead raccoon babies, brush fire started by a cigarette) that guilt may feel more like killing(Sin level 5 or 6)
So yes, making GBS threads in a corner is as grave a sin as breaking someone's arm, and breaking someone's arm isn't a 'major injury'. Also killing a raccoon is well within human morality but accidentally killing raccoon babies is worse than murder.
7 Intentional theft or injury; disrespect towards Nature; eating your own animal species this is the 'makes normal people feel bad' level of sin. and 'disrespect towards nature' is here because 'that makes you as bad as a human' uuggghh
6 Killing "important" living things if you're a hunter This basically means that eventually a heart ripper is going to slide down to morality 5 no matter what they do. This is stupid. "important" is defined as "a mammal if you're not a reptile or insectoid breed, if you are then those things and also mammals"
5 Killing "important" living things if you're *not* a hunter Except for everyone else, you are a giant gently caress-off murderbeast, killing things is ostensibly what you are meant to do. the text for this is just "THIS FEELS BAD"
4 Killing your own kind; using silver against other shapechangers so yeah you can eat your breed species all day long at morality 6 as long as you weren't the one who killed it. Sure.
3 Torture; intentionally killing your own kind Oh and it had to be an accident.
2 Betraying man to beast or beast to man "Selling out your own kind to hunters of another species feels treacherous... and it is." How the gently caress do you betray man to beast? Leading some rube into the wilderness and leaving them there?
1 Sadistic murder; cannibalism of your own kind But.. eating them is a level 7 sin? is this "eating them while they're alive"? sure, whatever


I don't know what the gently caress species those are meant to be, they look like baboon/dog/lions


They then go on to describe how a feral might act at the various levels of harmony, which is more or less what you'd expect. Harmony 10 is better than jesus. Harmony 3 doesn't care about a little blood on the ground when nature is on the line. Two and One are where they decide to introduce new poo poo randomly in the text that you probably decided to skip over after Morality 6 preached at you for making omelets because that meant you were torturing chickens.

At harmony two your beast and man halves start to grow apart, and you drift further towards one or the other. You're either proudly human or a ravening beast, and shifting between forms at all costs one essence. At harmony one you're brutish and sadistic regardless of which side you have chosen, and it costs one willpower to shift forms at all. At harmony zero you are either locked in human or beast form, you lose the changing gift entirely and pass into the storyteller's control because you are now a monster.

And this is where things go from "Huh maybe I should think about the choices that I've made" to "Wait, Brucato, what?" Because each time you downslide, you roll your new morality stat as a dice pool. If you succeed, you never have to roll at that level again, if you fail, any time you are at that level of morality or lower you have a derangement.

And Brucato's derangements are loving ridiculous. First the "too much beast" ones.

quote:

Cage Shock (mild): Similar to a caged beast, your feral grows distressed. Pacing back and forth, he whines or snarls. Enclosed spaces feel constricting; clothes feel too tight. Anything less than open sky seems like a cage, and if forced to remain indoors, clothed, or otherwise confined,
your beast gets restless.
Effect: On a failed Resolve + Composure roll, your character acts out and complains loudly about his “imprisonment.” He may strip or bang around his “cage.” For the rest of that scene, all that character’s Social rolls suffer a –3 penalty from his extremely annoying behavior.

Feral Frenzy (severe): It’s all a trap. The beast must be free. Tearing at any barrier between himself and freedom, this werebeast acts . . . well, feral. Pissing and making GBS threads, he abandons human speech and restraint. Anyone who sees him will assume he’s insane, and they’re not really wrong.
Effect: On a failed Resolve + Composure roll, your werebeast goes utterly wild. Until he escapes “confinement,” he’ll act like a trapped and wounded animal. You can spend a point of Willpower to bring him out of it, but until then he’s dangerous to himself and anyone who comes too close.

First of all, these are really bad derangements. They don't have anything that would trigger the roll, and the failure on the roll basically means that you can no longer contribute to the game until you stop. Also if you fail on the severe derangement you poo poo yourself.

quote:

Neoprimitivism (mild): The modern age is bullshit to your character. She affects tribal fashions, sports tattoos, goes barefoot everywhere and yammers about “the Pure Ones” — ancient people who supposedly lived in perfect harmony with Nature.
Effect: This feral misses no opportunity to criticize everything about the modern world and people in general. Unless she stays cool (a Resolve + Composure roll), objections to her attitude may drive her to say the wrong thing to the wrong person, inciting a loud and potentially violent confrontation.

Feral Antics (severe): Like a wild animal, your feral bites, scratches, shits on the floor and generally behaves in counter-civilized fashion. She sheds as much clothing as her companions will tolerate, and speaks as little human speech as possible.
Effect: Isn’t it obvious? Unless she controls herself (the usual roll), this character will be utterly unable to deal with most people.

Yes that is apparently the more 'severe' version of the same derangement. You go from an annoying hippie to making GBS threads on peoples rugs while maintaining eye contact to establish dominance.

quote:

One with the Bears (mild): He’s not half-animal — he’s all animal. Trouble is, this feral’s view of animals is extremely idealistic. He talks with them as if they’re fellow humans, yet holds real humans in contempt. He might be a furry or therian with elaborate garb and mythic history; or he’s renounced the human world and lives sort of a New Age dream in the deep wilderness. Either way, he’s disconnected from the truth of his situation.
Effect: Aside from neurotic and often unsociable behavior, this feral can function in Man’s world. He hates Man’s world, though, and prefers to spend time in the wild . . . where he may or may not know what he’s doing. In bad situations, the player might need to make a Composure + Survival roll; failure means he’s in over his head and may not be able to get back out without help.

Hate of Man (severe): People suck. All of ’em. Overwhelmed by the stench and disregard of modern Man, the feral avoids people as much as possible. When forced to confront human company, he shivers with hate, spews insults and might even attack for little or no apparent reason.
Effect: In human company (including, perhaps, his friends), this feral trembles with loathing. He trusts no one who’s not a beast at heart. His Social rolls suffer a –3 penalty from his undisguised hatred, and he could get violent if provoked. A spent Willpower point might keep him in check, but his disgust for humanity is clear. Unless circumstances demand, he remains in Primal form. Odds are good that he’ll soon lose the ability to change back . . . ever.

Who thought these were worthwhile in a group game? "Welp, talk to you later guys, I'm off to go live in the forest. I might be back later once I've somehow become a more moral person by making GBS threads everywhere and not wearing pants.

Anyways now we're into the "Too much human" side of things.

quote:

Beast Fears (mild): This person’s afraid of animals, including the one in the mirror. Around beasts or fellow shapechangers, he seems agitated; if one confronts him, he may panic. This derangement is common among “little animal” ferals such as foxes or hares. It’s workable, but highly inconvenient.
Effect: Essentially, this is a phobia of animals — see the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 97. Without a reflexive Resolve + Composure roll, the character trembles fearfully around other beasts, even sometimes himself.

Obsessive Humanity (severe):b Conflicted about his own nature, this werebeast dresses expensively, uses big words and refuses to look in the mirror except to groom his perfect hair. It’d be funny if he wasn’t so obsessed about his humanity. Even the slightest challenge to it makes him sick with nerves.
Effect: Your character is obsessive compulsive (see the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 98), “managing” his conflicted nature by controlling his environment as much as he can and freaking out when he cannot.
"You are now afraid of the entire party and also yourself, just keep rolling resolve+composure until you fail, I can wait."

quote:

Filthy Brutes! (mild): Your character doesn’t fear animals — she hates ’em. Lashing out subconsciously at the beast within herself, she teases and torments animals whenever possible. Flicking cigarettes at zoo beasts, kicking dogs and throwing water at kitties is normal fun for her. Naturally, this slides her further down the scale of sins.
Effect: Unless the player makes a Resolve + Composure roll when given an opportunity to abuse a helpless animal, she’ll inflict some probably non-fatal punishment on it. Even though she’ll often be excused because “they’re just dumb animals,” the fallout from this sort of thing can get really messy . . .

Hunter King (severe): The worst hunter of all is the one who’s killing her own reflection. This shapechanger murders animals with extreme cruelty. Only rarely does she assume beast-form to do it. Proud of her bloodlust, she becomes a warped reflection of Man the Conqueror. She kills because she can, and may be highly acclaimed among humans who don’t know her true nature.
Effect: This character is a serial killer of animals. Given a chance, she’ll hunt, torture and murder as many animals as she can manage. She’ll often take a career that requires her to kill often and messily — a seal-clubber, vivisectionist or big-game hunter whose appetites astonish even her human companions. Yes Storyteller, this type makes an excellent villain for a changing breeds chronicle.
Yes, storyteller, it does, it makes a terrible PC though. This is literally puppy kicking evil. Who would willingly choose any of these terrible loving derangement for a character that they're wanting to play.

quote:

I’m No Animal (mild): In a constant state of denial, this shapechanger refuses to . . . well, change shape. Unless extremely stressed, he won’t assume an animal form — and if he does, he immediately regrets it. In human form, he does everything he can to distance himself from his true nature. All traces of his double life are hidden with obsessive zeal.
Effect: In addition to compulsive behavior with regard to his animal self, your character resists all but the most extreme motivations to change shape. To force himself to assume that hated form, he must make a Resolve + Composure roll; failure means he’ll face his death like a man.

Banish the Beast (severe): He won’t Change. At all. Obsessive to the point of insanity about his role as a man, goddammit, your shapechanger utterly forsakes his true nature. Suggestions that he embrace his wild self make him violent; he smashes or withdraws from every trace of his feral life, including the people he once held dear.
Effect: This character won’t change unless forced to do so; even then, he must make the usual roll and spend a Willpower point to assume beast-form. Anyone who tries to remind him of what he is will probably be attacked — first non-fatally, possibly with lethal intent if that doesn’t shut them up.

If you get either of these derangements then why the gently caress are you playing a changing breeds game. Congratulations, you can no longer shapeshift, ever. please hand in your tail and ears at the door.

Respect

Respect is... it's a thing.

quote:

The Respect Advantage isn’t a measure of fame, although fame can figure into it. Rather, Respect is a combination
of rumors, bearing and the impression a werebeast projects. A Clever beast, for example, comes across smart and devious, while a Ferocious one is scary even when he’s calm. Rightly or wrongly, other characters judge a feral character by that impression, which may be helpful in some situations and devastating in others. To understand Respect, think of the wily coyote, loyal hound or sagacious old bear. The animal might not actually be any of those things, but those impressions count.

Respect comes across in certain cues: the look in a feral’s eye, the way he stands, the scars on his body or the tone of his voice. A high-Respect werebeast seems formidable. He radiates supremacy. Imagine the sleek young cub, then contrast him with the grizzled veteran. A high-Respect character has lived, and that experience is apparent whether anyone knows him or not.
Respect is supernatural except it isn't except it is. A high respect character literally throws a larger shadow and the wind whispers their name. Those with keen senses can literally smell their ferocity or passion.
It's also almost completely pointless.

In certain circumstances, your Highest respect will either add or subtract to various dice pools. You can try to play up a different respect than your highest one but your roleplaying is supposed to support it. Or, you could spend time focusing yourself and just apply your Feral Heart instead, because the rules for feral heart say they supersede the rules for Respect if they're higher. It also helps when dealing with werewolves or spirits since Respect is sort of like renown except not.

Respect is also sort of determined by your Accord, you get a free dot in whichever respect your Accord has and two dots that float until you make an impression that would give you a place to put them. "For the storyteller, Respect reflect the things other charcters believe about the beast. Whether or not they are true doesn't matter - people will trust those impressions unless they're given a good reason not to. Respect also provides a social meter for the feral's accomplishments. That meter might not be accurate but it offers clues about their personality and experience." Read: gently caress we have no way of actually enforcing social pecking order and we've got two weeks till we're supposed to ship. Buying up your Respect actively harms you, I cannot think of a situation where you would want to buy it up unless you're dealing with werewolves and spirits a lot. Just use your Feral Heart instead, it has almost no downside.

Cleverness is associated with root-weavers, it gives a bonus when you're trying to impress others with your intellect or awareness and a penalty when you're trying to gain their trust. Ferocity is associated with Heart-Rippers, It gives a bonus to indimidation rolls and subtracts from any attempt to make someone feel likeable or safe. It can also give a bonus or penalty to seduction rolls because gently caress you Brucato. Insight is associated with Wind-Dancers, and gives you a bonus when you offer advice, wisdom, or just "cut through the crap" and becomes a penalty when people nearby "do not want to hear the truth". I know Bruc wants these guys to seem like wizened seers but he has to actually give them the tools to do that, not just a "you seem like a wizened seer" stat. Loyalty is associated with Den-Warders. It is a bonus when you're trying to get folks to trust you or playing on your loyalty to convince someone of something, and a penalty if you're trying to seem streetwise or cool because you just aren't with it man. Passion: is associated with the sun-chasers. and gives you a bonus to attempts to seduce, entice, or inspire people. But a penalty to seem sober, level headed, or wise. Because how can such a volatile creature be taken seriously? Right?

Shapeshifting
This uses the werewolf system word for word except substituting "Feral Heart" for "Primal Urge" you roll human stamina+Survival+Feral Heart, success means you shapeshift as an instant action, exceptional success makes it reflexive, failure imposes a -1 cumulative penalty on future attempts until you succeed, dramatic failure deals you 3 bashing damage as you shapeshift into a pile of limbs and flesh and remain so until you succeed at a shapeshifting check. Fantastic.

The Man Guise
You look like a human, you can walk, talk, and have hands, next.

The War Beast

The form for killing poo poo. The game tries to imply that the Changing breed's war-beast form is "A promise of holy terror walking" where as the Uratha Gauru form is "One long scream for blood", the issue is that the rules don't really support this distinction, or any distinction.
Herbivorous ferals apparently tend towards rampages of raw distruction, whereas more timid creatures "Invert their usual natures to become trap-and-torture killers". Scavengers "Play mind-games, taunting prey fromt he shadows, herding them into traps and striking from ambushes tot ear their prey apart." Except this is literally impossible. While they are in their war form they must spend their turn attacking something be it the environment, or a person, unless they succeed on a Resolve+Composure roll. So you can hide, I guess, but if you fail your roll you've just punched a hole in the tree you were hiding behind as a 9 foot tall rabbit man. Also, whenever you assume the war-beast form for any reason you must roll to see if you enter a Tiger-Storm Berserk frenzy. So yes, using the war beast for any reason risks going going into a killing frenzy. Also, you can only remain in your War-Beast form for a number of turns equal to your human stamina + Feral Heart. Why would you waste precious turns hiding when you are in a "Kill everything that isn't you" form. Once your turns run out you cannot shapeshift back for the rest of the scene unless something else prompts you to go into a berserk frenzy. Regardless as long as you're in War-Form you ignore all wound penalties until you reach your last two boxes of health.

Primal Beast
You're an animal. Congratulations.

Hybrid Forms
There's an aspect you can buy that allows you to assume the Hybrid Forms, not everyone gets it, but it's available to everyone.

The Throwback
The throwback is a slightly less effective war beast. You're only supposed to look sorta-animal-ish, but you invoke the delusion on people. Small breed creatures get +1 strength and stamina, -2 manipulation, +1 health, +2 speed, +2 to perception rolls, and can deal lethal damage. Large-breed creatures get +2 strength, +2 stamina, -3 manipulation, +1 size, +3 health, +3 speed, +1 to perception rolls, and access to their fang and claw favors.

The Dire Beast
The dire beast is your animal form just with a little more umph, adding +1 strength, +1 stamina, +1 size, +2 health, and +2 speed to your base animal form. it doesn't involve the delusion as hard as the other two forms, giving the viewer a +2 bonus to their dice pool.. Unless you're a rat, bug, or "Creepy" animal, in which case they take a -2 penalty. Meaning your "Slightly larger than average bat" is just as horrifying as your human-bat hybrid form.

The Delusion
When seeing a werebeast shift a witness must roll resolve+composure - your feral heart score. If they witness your War-Beast form, they subtract an additional 2. Dramatic failure reduces them to a catatonic mess that takes a -5 penalty to all actions and will do their best to mentally resolve the issue. Failure means they take a -3 penalty to actions and will do their best to get the gently caress away. Success means they can act normally with a -2 penalty but will still rationalize it away. An exceptional success means they can act without penalty and remember with perfect clarity. The Throwback form gives them their entire resolve+composure pool, not accounting for your feral heart dots. If their worldview allows for the existence of werebeasts, then they get an extra dice, if they're literally scully from the X-Files they lose one more dice.


Regeneration
Ferals regenerate one point of bashing every other turn unless they have a merit that lets them go every turn. They regenerate one point of lethal every 15 minutes, and they can spend a point of essence to heal lethal immediately. They heal Aggravated damage normally. A feral who is knocked unconscious or killed reverts to human form immediately, a severed limb reverts to human as per usual. You are also immune to all conventional diseases and parasites.

The Berserk
Finally we get the rules for this. When faced with a threat you cannot pacify you are force to either flee or run.

The Rabbit Run
The "Get the gently caress out of here" berserk, and more often than not the default one. When confronted with a serious threat most ferals would rather run than fight, they revert to their primal beast form and gtfo. If something prevents them from fleeing however

The Tiger Storm
It's Murdering Time. Everything is a valid target, friend, foe, innocent, anything that gets in their way will be destroyed. If things get really bad the Feral will shift to the War-Beast form. In Tiger Storm a feral is immune to all wound penalties. Until they take a point of health damage in their last three health boxes then they will shift back to their fastest form and try to run away. The game is also quick to point out that this fear is not rational, if their fastest form is their man-guise they will shift into that and probably die from all the bashing damage upgrading to lethal or aggravated. If they do choose to assume the War-beast form, it will last for twice as long as normal, but if the War-Beast turns run out they will fall unconscious, which means human form, which means you're probably dead.

Resisting the Urge

When confronted by a trigger according to your Harmony, you need to roll Resolve+Composure, Failure means you either need to spend a willpower point or begin raging. At Harmony 10 it's things like "Love one slain, tortured, or betrayed; betrayed by a loved one" but at harmony 1 its "Taunts or insults; perceived disrespect; startling movement, loud sounds, or bright lights"

The Rage lasts until the beast escapes, all your threats are dead or gone, someone else uses calming magic on you, you run out of energy and fall unconscious, or you die.

The Fury
And we finally get to The Fury, AKA the only thing about the game that actually imposes any sort of meaningful conflict between nature and man. Mainly, if you ever witness a human doing something mean to nature, you are filled with an unshakable compulsion to do something. Roll your Resolve+Composure and subtract your Feral Heart dots. Yes, the more powerful you get the more likely you are to unleash THE FURY.

quote:

Animals aren't shy. When they send a message, they use direct methods: biting, scratching, spraying musk or defecating where someone will see it Humans find such behavior revolting. Beast-folk understand both sides. When annoyed, they use an animal's instinctive behavior to offend human sensibilities in return.
The Fury's response is as immediate as the feral can make it. That response might demand cunning, but it comes from the gut, not the head. Most often the "message" arrives without words, threat, or context. The feral simply responds as an animal might... if that animal could rake paint from a Lexus
Animals defecate out of fear, or because they're marking territory. They don't poo poo on someone elses territory because they're mad at them, they poo poo on someone else's territory because they're claiming it as their own.

quote:

Minor Offenses: Arrogant or careless behavior; tossing cigarette; reckless driving; dumping trash in wilderness; teasing helpless animal
Minor Responses: Sudden snap or snarl; leaving claw marks, scat or urine; “liberating” pets; loud cries in middle of the night
Significant Offenses: Deliberate insult; starting small fire; hitting animals with car; dumping dangerous trash (broken glass, sharp metal, nail-studded junk, rotting biomass); abusing helpless animal
Significant Responses: “Returning” trash to “owner”; inflicting major property damage with claws or bodily waste; chasing offender in beast form
Intolerable Offenses: Slaughter-hunt; burning woodlands; deliberate attacks with car; toxic waste spill; animal cruelty or blood sport
Severe Responses: Mauling offender in beast form; extensive fouling of property; long-term “beast-siege” on offender’s home; chasing offender into hazards; wounding or killing offender’s loved one(s)

This creates a situation where you can save someone from a raging lion because you're a harmony 10 saint, then immediately poo poo on their shoes because they lit up a cigarette in celebration of their not-dying-at-the-hands-of-a-lion and degenerate down to harmony 9. The storyteller can just kind of go "oh and you saw a car accident earlier, so what kind of premeditated murder are you going to be enacting and when do you want to make the degeneration roll?" This is not fun or interactive, this is the storyteller going "You are going to do this now, because nature demands it". Given that just being around humanity fills you with an overwhelming need to literally poo poo on them, I can see why most ferals would flee to the woodlands. And you know what? There is absolutely nothing in the harmony hierarchy that compels you to interact with humans. It just dictates how you should act if you decide to do so.

The game as printed actively wants you not to interact with it in any meaningful way.

:sigh:

Let's start on actual mechanical stuff now.

Favors
Favors are the stuff you're born with... unless you buy them with experience points later. Buying a new favor that's in your breed costs "New Dots X 5", buying one that's not in your breed costs "New Dots X 7". Since there are a ton of favors that are just "at" a certain number of dots, this means that you'd need to pay 7+14+21+28+35 XP for a new 5 dot favor that's out of breed.

Aquatic: ** to ***
Your character is naturally aquatic in beast form for the 2 dot favor, you're aquatic in human form as well for the 3 dot favor. Though if your Nahual is naturally aquatic you can dive deeper than animals who aren't who buy this favor.

Bioluminescence *
Uhm... sure? It lets you see in darkness for a scene, but then you have to 'recharge' for 10 minutes. "It makes an excelent prank for trickster ferals to employ" somehow. and I can't really think of a way that isn't completely ludicrous or kinky.

Darksight *
I'm not sure if he actually understands how animals that can see in the dark see. Because you take no penalties for operating in darkness, or "in visually-adverse conditions, such as dense fog, smoke, or a heavy downpour." You also gain a +2 bonus to stealth rolls in these conditions because?????

Echolocation * or ***
This functions more or less how you expect for the one dot version... The three dot version somehow means that you can no longer be surprised while asleep and you gain a permanent +1 bonus to your defense because you can hear attacks coming.

Extra Limbs * for the first limb, * per set of two afterwards
No you don't always get an odd set of limbs, it's just that your 'first' extra limb only works like an extra hand and you can't really attack with it or do fine manipulation. However for each pair after that you gain one extra action a turn that can only use that set of limbs. But, still, you are getting extra actions *FOR FREE*. The only thing that is stopping you from turning into a hecatonchier is your storyteller, and gently caress the guy who actually decided to try running this game.

Fang and Claw * to *****
This is the "Deal lethal damage" favor. if your breed gets it for free it gives you +1 dice for claws and teeth +2 dice for horns and antlers. One dot will give you an extra dice on all your attacks if you already get it, or give you damage at all for those who don't get it for free OR allow you to use your claws in man guise. Those who don't get it for free can buy it again to get the extra damage dice. for two dots you can sheathe your claws even if your animal species can't normally do so... which ..okay? and three dots lets you sheathe your claws in human form and gives you an additional +1 damage die. Which makes little sense. If you buy the 1 dot favor does that mean your claws are *always* out in human form unless you then go on to buy the three dot version?

Limbless -*
You're a snake, fish, or some other limbless creature, sucks to be you!

Many Legged ****
Extra limbs, except only for walking. You increase your speed by 4 on top of your normal speed increase. You can also walk on water(???) Also your hybrid form subtracts two dice from someones pool when resisting the delirium.

Musk ***
This is skunk-stink. Anyone within 300 feet of you when you use this must roll composure or suffer from dizziness and nausea immediately. You can choose to hose people down with it by rolling Dex+Feral Heart, each success allows you to hit a character inside of a 15X15 foot square, anyone hit takes a -3 penalty to the composure roll. Anyone who fails their roll takes a -3 penalty to their dice pools(!), and take a -1 penalty to defense, speed, and initiative. Using this ability costs one essence. The serious effects last one scene but the stench lasts for days.

Natural Armor * to *****
Everyone gets a non-rated 1/1 non-bulletproof armor for free. * is bulletproof. *** is 2/1 bulletproof, **** is 3/2 bulletproof, and ***** is 4/3 bulletproof. Yes, that is absolutely loving ludicrous.
Even more insane is that you can choose to have this apply to your human form as well, but it looks like you've got very rough skin. Giving you a -2 penalty on any social roll where having a pleasant appearance might help.

Needleteeth ***
You have strong sharp teeth that can ignore 2 points of durability when you're biting through objects, though this doesn't deal any extra damage to living creatures. Because sure.

Quills ** to *****
The free version (E.G. you are a porcupine, hedgehog, or whatever else) means that anyone who hits you with a hand to hand attack(or gets hit by a hand to hand attack) needs to roll stamina against the ferals Dex+Feral Heart with any extra successes being reduced by the attackers armor. If the feral wins the extra successes are dealt as bonus bashing damage that can't heal until the quills are removed. Removing quills takes a minute per quill and deals an extra point of lethal on top of the bashing. So basically this is the "gently caress you any other creature with regeneratoin" favor. The Two dot version gives you the free version and also lets you fire quills up to 15 feet with a Dex+Feral Heart roll. each additional dot gives you an additional dice to this pool. And if you have the "Venomous Favor" aspect then these quills are now poisonous.
And then at the end they state that "As a weapon these spines have no effect whatsoever on opponents who feel no pain, wear thick or solid armor or have skin that cannot be pierced by thin sharp objects". Which is ludicrously open ended, and also means that a werewolf can heal this damage until they shift out of Gauru form in which case he takes the damage but doesn't and the system implodes.

Razorskin *** or ****
The "I'm a shark" favor. Anyone who attacks you with brawl, or is grabbed and pressed against your skin, automatically takes 1 point of lethal. Any weapon that is used to attack you takes 2 points of damage to it's structure. The three dot favor costs a point of essence to turn on for a scene, the four dot favor is always on. This gift works in all forms except the man guise.

Pictured: the gift working in the man guise.

Size ****
This is 'always' free. Meaning that you always get your beasts base size, you can pay four dots to increase your beast forms base size by one. It then includes a size chart which tops out at "African Elephant/Orca" at 15 size. The favor only increases the size of your war-beast and primal forms, to increase your human form you need a completely different favor from the core WOD book which just seems like nitpicking.

Speed
Isn't a favor that you can buy! I don't know why it's here other than to make the fairly obvious claim of "your animal speed differs from your human speed"

Water Breath *
"The character can hold her breath or breathe underwater for as many hours as she has feral heart dots. This power costs one point of willpower to use."
That's not how anything works. Either you can breathe underwater or you can't. You can't will yourself to breathe underwater.

Webbing ****

You basically need to be a spider to have this. It doesn't even talk about any other species that could concievably have this. And since it's essentially "Grapling rules in a roleplaying game" the rules for how it works are complex. A web has durability 3, no matter what. You roll Dex+Crafts+Feral Heart to determine how much structure the web has. Anyone wrapped in your webs gets two chances to escape with strength/dex+athletics, if they fail then they're trapped. Anyone who's trapped needs to deal double the structure of the web in damage to escape. Anyone who's not trapped only needs to deal structure rating in damage. Bizarrely, blunt weapons seem to work if you're trapped but not if you aren't. sure.

Wings ****
It's loving wings, what did you expect?
If you're in your primal beast form you always succeed at flying. War beast form must succeed on a Dex+athletics check every turn. Human form can't fly at all but has "hollow bones" which let you jump twice as far as a normal person. Sure.

Now let's move onto Aspects

:stare:
I mean.
Next Time: Holy poo poo there are a lot of Aspects

Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


I feel so sorry for the artists who were commissioned to do stuff for this dreck. Not the ones who drew furry dicks, though.

Like Brian LeBlanc, who drew the literal moose knuckle? Don't Google him at work. Kurieg, do Bird Tits and Smudged Not-Werewolf Dick have signatures? I feel like hurting myself.

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!

Goddammit Brucatto.

What's the longest page gap between references to making GBS threads/pissing/spraying musk on something? I get the feeling it's like half a page, tops.

Zereth
Jul 8, 2003



Evil Mastermind posted:

And yes, there are Torg-ian rules for martial arts styles.
Oh jesus I have to see this. Strap in for Nippon Tech I guess.

Drakyn posted:

Living Land because dinosaurs and also mocking the bizarre inability of people to produce anything interesting with dinosaurs.
And since it's apparently so tiny you'll probably be done pretty quickly and won't have to worry about getting bogged down in ninety pages of IngenNet pablum :v:
No no we should save the worst for last.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

I'm actually kind of surprised that Nippon Tech is taking the lead here.

Nippon Tech: ****
Nile Empire: *
Living Land: **
Orrorsh: **

e: Not to sway people's votes, but NT not only has Torg martial arts, but also has some pretty hilarious predictive 90's slightly-higher-tech.

That Old Tree
Jun 23, 2012

nah


I remember when Genius was at or near its genesis. I thought it was probably some dumb bullshit, but I peeked into the thread on RPGnet and there were some cool ideas being tossed around. It's too bad they went completely hog-wild and outdid the cruft of normal WoD books, which are already overstuffed with long-winded, irrelevant setting wank.

Kurieg posted:

Sun-Chasers: Bullshit served on a gold tray doesn't become caviar.

Literally rolled my eyes and muttered "Jesus Christ" at this.

quote:

Wind-Dancers: Fine - you read the stars and I'll watch the shadows. Guess which one of us sees something first?

Jesus Christ.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

The obviously made-up "typical quotes" that are nothing even remotely like a thing anyone would ever say ever are some of my favorite parts of WoD games.

That Old Tree
Jun 23, 2012

nah


Evil Mastermind posted:

The obviously made-up "typical quotes" that are nothing even remotely like a thing anyone would ever say ever are some of my favorite parts of WoD games.

Most of them are boring-dumb, but there're enough of them that there are quite a few, uh, "gems" in nearly every book with splats.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Evil Mastermind posted:

The obviously made-up "typical quotes" that are nothing even remotely like a thing anyone would ever say ever are some of my favorite parts of WoD games.

Bang bang bang! Freeze police!

That Old Tree
Jun 23, 2012

nah


theironjef posted:

Bang bang bang! Freeze police!

We don't go to RavenholmHaven…City of Violence. It's full of headcrabsfreeze police.

Mr. Maltose
Feb 16, 2011

The Guffless Girlverine

Zereth posted:

No no we should save the worst for last.

That's why there's no votes for Aysle. If we don't cap off with Evil Mastermind trying to make a spell we're just robbing the climax. Nippontech because I'm in a particularly vicious mood about stupid poo poo involving Japan from the late 80s and 90s.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Mr. Maltose posted:

That's why there's no votes for Aysle. If we don't cap off with Evil Mastermind trying to make a spell we're just robbing the climax. Nippontech because I'm in a particularly vicious mood about stupid poo poo involving Japan from the late 80s and 90s.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

I'm actually getting very interested to see how people will react to the actual book given what everyone seems to be building it up to be.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007

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


Mr. Maltose posted:

Nippontech because I'm in a particularly vicious mood about stupid poo poo involving Japan from the late 80s and 90s.

:bandwagon:

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Well, given that Nippon Tech is now ahead by five votes and I'm still waiting on a deployment that should have happened on Friday, safe to say it looks like we're heading to Japan!

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
Everything I know about 80s Japan I learned from RoboCop 3

Another vote for Nippon Tech.

That Old Tree
Jun 23, 2012

nah


I grew up with "Japan will BUY US ALL", so yes, NipponTech.

RocknRollaAyatollah
Nov 26, 2008

Lipstick Apathy

Evil Mastermind posted:

I'm actually kind of surprised that Nippon Tech is taking the lead here.

Nippon Tech: ****
Nile Empire: *
Living Land: **
Orrorsh: **

e: Not to sway people's votes, but NT not only has Torg martial arts, but also has some pretty hilarious predictive 90's slightly-higher-tech.

Is it this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXGsvlnn1Cs

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:

Kavak posted:

I feel so sorry for the artists who were commissioned to do stuff for this dreck. Not the ones who drew furry dicks, though.

Like Brian LeBlanc, who drew the literal moose knuckle? Don't Google him at work. Kurieg, do Bird Tits and Smudged Not-Werewolf Dick have signatures? I feel like hurting myself.
They're this guy, as are the future canidick pictures. Judging by his blog he focuses a lot on figure drawing, and his human stuff is pretty good (even if he does like drawing shirtless women). And the versions of the changing breeds stuff he did post is just as obscured as the published stuff. Sounds to me like what happens when you don't have an art bible (Ron Spencer is nowhere to be found in this book, and they suffer for it) and specifically ask for naked wolf-men from a guy who has no experience drawing them.

It also probably hurts that changing breeds specifically lack a "Rite of Pants" meaning that they always have to be naked. Precluding fantastic artwork like this

Monte Cook's world of darkness may have had some very bad parts, but it's art direction had some gems


PurpleXVI posted:

Goddammit Brucatto.

What's the longest page gap between references to making GBS threads/pissing/spraying musk on something? I get the feeling it's like half a page, tops.

It's actually a very wide margin, the entirety of the Features, Aspects, and Merits are between character creation and the explanation of derangements and the fury. I just moved them up earlier in the chapter because that makes more sense in layout.

The issue is that when the making GBS threads/pissing actually comes up, it's a compulsory action completely outside of the players control. The game is saying "No, you are going to poo poo on his lawn because he angered nature", which is completely ridiculous. The game is also at odds with itself in so many ways, not only does it contradict itself from one page to the next, the 'too much man' derangements don't actually excuse you from the fury. So you've got this man in a 3 piece business suit with perfectly groomed hair that is compelled to piss on someone's leg while screaming "I AM NOT AN ANIMAL" the entire time.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008


Technically no, because even though Nippon Tech has a tech level that allows for things like flying cars, laser rifles, and cloning, the computer tech is ridiculously underwhelming.

Sneak preview!

quote:

Zarnftech Monolith: The RISC17-based Monolith computer features a single chip containing the 64 bit video co-processor, floating point co-processor, and voice recognition processor. Comes bundled with touchpad, 32Mb memory, multiple output option module, including both color and tactile compatibilities and a 1Gb optical drive. Memory can be increased to 256 Mb and up to seven additional optical drives can be daisy-chained to the primary drive.

Omi Video Transfer: This unit combines the convenience of FAX technology with the precision of real-time video. VHS or optical laser format video images may now be FAXed over phone lines to any other video transfer machine and output as a VHS cartridge or optical disc.

Misaki XE Laptop Computer: The hottest selling portable in Marketplace and Nippon, this unit features a fast RISC15 processor - a single chip containing the 16 bit video co-processor, floating point co-processor, and voice recognition processor. Comes with 16 Mb memory, 100 Mb storage, and weighs less than four pounds.

Tech predictions will never not be funny.

Babe Magnet
Jun 1, 2008

lmao at the Omi Video Transfer

Zereth
Jul 8, 2003



Evil Mastermind posted:

I'm actually getting very interested to see how people will react to the actual book given what everyone seems to be building it up to be.
I really want to see how TORG mishandles martial arts, so I'm not really building poo poo up here.


Evil Mastermind posted:

Technically no, because even though Nippon Tech has a tech level that allows for things like flying cars, laser rifles, and cloning, the computer tech is ridiculously underwhelming.

Sneak preview!


Tech predictions will never not be funny.
Oh man a floating-point co-processor. Man that's so impressive.

RocknRollaAyatollah
Nov 26, 2008

Lipstick Apathy
Oh God, it's like the tech breakdown of the computers in the novel version of Jurassic Park.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Just to put those computers into further perspective: in 1990, 1 GB of storage would have cost around $10k.

LatwPIAT
Jun 6, 2011

Babe Magnet posted:

lmao at the Omi Video Transfer

I'm reminded of a French comic strip I read once, where the author speculated about the 80/90's equivalent of steampunk (only with less "Imperialism and being rich is awesome!"), where the main character is shown to have downloaded the latest episode of Game of Thrones, via modem, from a videotex-based Netflix, onto a VHS tape he then puts into his VHS player.

LatwPIAT fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Apr 7, 2015

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.



Hey so if anyone wants that Duckman RPG, we just wrote the game (based mostly on a few notes and then our improvised "review"), added a few fixes based on you folks, and then put it on our website along with our newest Afterthought episode. It's exactly as ludicrously overcomplicated as a 90s licensed game should be and we don't recommend playing, reading, or directly handling it.

That Old Tree
Jun 23, 2012

nah


^^^ Far more and far better work than goes into a lot of "real" RPG projects. :v:

Evil Mastermind posted:

Tech predictions will never not be funny.

"RISC15"? Wow. It's like one of two fundamental ways of building computer chips, but fifteen-er.

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Apr 7, 2015

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Plague of Hats posted:

^^^ Far more and far better work than goes into a lot of "real" RPG projects. :v:


"RISC15"? Wow. It's like one of two fundamental ways of building computer chips, but fifteen-er.

Right? And up to seven drives can be daisy-chained! I remember daisy chains! Oh, the memories.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

theironjef posted:



Hey so if anyone wants that Duckman RPG, we just wrote the game (based mostly on a few notes and then our improvised "review"), added a few fixes based on you folks, and then put it on our website along with our newest Afterthought episode. It's exactly as ludicrously overcomplicated as a 90s licensed game should be and we don't recommend playing, reading, or directly handling it.

:aaa: That's a hell of a lot of work for an April Fool's gag. Kudos!

Kellsterik
Mar 30, 2012

quote:

Misaki XE Laptop Computer: The hottest selling portable in Marketplace and Nippon, this unit features a fast RISC15 processor - a single chip containing the 16 bit video co-processor, floating point co-processor, and voice recognition processor. Comes with 16 Mb memory, 100 Mb storage, and weighs less than four pounds.

Think of the recipes you could put on that thing :eyepop:

LatwPIAT
Jun 6, 2011

Evil Mastermind posted:

Just to put those computers into further perspective: in 1990, 1 GB of storage would have cost around $10k.

I slightly curious as to why it seems that "nobody" who wrote about fictional future computers seemed to have heard of, or considered, just applying Moore's Law. Was is just that unknown back then?

LatwPIAT fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Apr 7, 2015

Maxwell Lord
Dec 12, 2008

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

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.


:smith:

Grimey Drawer

Kurieg posted:

The War Beast


Okay I'll give them some credit for this. Bipedal war-moose is pretty cool, outside of any context.

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gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

LatwPIAT posted:

I slightly curious as to why it seems that nobody who wrote about fictional future computers seemed to have heard of, or considered, just applying Moore's Law. Was is just that unknown back then?

My dad was teaching me about Moore's Law in 1996. Perhaps the authors just weren't that plugged into technology?

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