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senrath posted:The Pathfinder Beginner Box doesn't even include the full rules of Pathfinder, right? Of course not! Midjack posted:Force and Destiny, we already have Mouse Guard and I think Pathfinder got done too. Well, yes, Pathfinder and Mouse Guard (1st edition though) did get written up. But I think it would be interesting to see what's in the boxed sets too. Anyway, I'm planning on poking at all of them; the only question is what order.
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Dec 31, 2015 04:32
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Josef bugman posted:I would love to see Glorantha get even slightly into the mainstream. It'd be wonderful if KoDP became the next 5 nights at Freddie's and more people became interested in it. Out of fun I just whipped this together, but it's not exactly an answer to your request. I couldn't find a clean map to work off of, it's only the Continent of Genertela, and I'm not anything close to an expert on Glorantha (I only started reading about it a year ago) so my captions are probably not too accurate: 
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Dec 31, 2015 04:35
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I keep hearing that the Pathfinder Beginner Box is a decent, if not good, product as far as giving you a complete set of materials with which to play an RPG with, and instructions as to how that's actually accomplished (the specific ruleset aside). I'd like to see if that holds up.
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Dec 31, 2015 05:38
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Hostile V posted:How in the gently caress do people end up with the same name as their ancestors, is it just random chance when they pick the letters out of a bag of Scrabble tiles? That is...one hell of a language. In fairness, actual Madlander names are much shorter, more along the lines of John than Johnathan Sedgewick Darrington-Brunel III, Esq. Actual names given in the book include Agexa, Pa Upet, Bapex Bowev, and the longest I could find, Akik Takivodd. It's your fault you gave me long names  .JackMann posted:To be fair, you're writing it out in a fairly informal, easy-to-read manner. From what you were saying, the book is considerably denser.  Also, you're right. Let me give you an example. That update I just put up? The one that weighs in at 6 pages long in 12-point font, single-spaced, not counting pictures? It covers 20 pages in the book. inklesspen posted:[*] Force and Destiny is the latest in Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars line. Learn how to use a lightsaber, if you can figure out their crazy dicepool system. (May feature a bonus appearance from ProfessorCirno to tell us about dice probabilities.) Oh sweet fancy Athe, tell us about Force and Destiny. I had no idea it was out and if I knew I would've blown my hanukkah  on it.I have a little more experience (I backed the Complete Guide on Kickstarter), and the stuff you have seems right. The only things I'd add would be to change "Roman" to "Greek" and mention the incredible racism involved in Kralorela (seriously, that section broke me when I read the guide).
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Dec 31, 2015 05:42
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Alright, fair enough. No time for longer names, Vug, we gotta go tie a man to a tree and yell at a fisherman.
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Dec 31, 2015 05:53
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I went through the Age of Rebellion box set and was pleasantly thrilled. I'm really interested to see if Force and Destiny keeps the same "no seriously, don't read anything, no not even the GM, just start playing guys, it'll be fine" attitude because that ruled.  Besides it was just Jedi Christmas, c'mon.
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Dec 31, 2015 06:19
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Somebody's already given Golarion the same treatment, unsurprisingly. Blame all typos on the original creator. 
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Dec 31, 2015 07:31
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One thing that's kind of bizarrely impressive about Pathfinder is that they crammed so much random poo poo into it. Robots? Sure. Aliens? From which planet, we have several. Sentient Plant People specifically designed to be ridiculously delicious by their creator? Wizards shouldn't be trusted with nice things. That's not even getting into the officially published adventure where you take a portal to 1920's-ish Russia in search of Baba Yaga and end up killing Rasputin. Kurieg fucked around with this message at 07:48 on Dec 31, 2015 |
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Dec 31, 2015 07:46
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Kurieg posted:One thing that's kind of bizarrely impressive about Pathfinder is that they crammed so much random poo poo into it. Robots? Sure. Aliens? From which planet, we have several. Sentient Plant People specifically designed to be ridiculously delicious by their creator? Wizards shouldn't be trusted with nice things. Someone really liked Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. And is there a link to that adventure or a review of it, it sounds hilarious. Falconier111 posted:Madlander translations I didn't think you'd actually do all of them, that's pretty good.
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Dec 31, 2015 10:08
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Kurieg posted:1920's-ish Russia in search of Baba Yaga and end up killing Rasputin. Fun fact: He was allegedly assassinated 99 years ago yesterday. 
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Dec 31, 2015 11:37
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So, I was skimming the Statosphere supplement and considering whether or not I should give it the same treatment as Postmodern Magick. I was a little doubtful since (on a cursory glance) a lot of the Avatars weren't amazingly interesting to talk about. But then I came to the Outsider and noticed their third Channel and I knew that there were things that must be shared. So, here we go...  The first part of the book opens with info we've mostly already covered (the nature of archetypes, avatars, etc), so we'll skip right into the meat of things with the Avatar entries. The Chronicler The Chronicler is caught somewhere in between the Scholar (detailed later) and the Messenger Archetype. The Chronicler Archetype is all about making history, not merely knowing it and the closest analogue in modern life is a journalist, reporter or blogger. However, unlike the Messenger the Chronicler is not overly concerned with literal truth and authors and poets are just as valid as Avatars of the Chronicler, so long as their work speaks to time and culture they live in. Whatever form their art takes the Chronicler seeks to capture a snapshot of "life" as they see it and the current cultural zeitgeist. Taboo: The Chronicler must be observers. They can take part in the events they are observing but they should never be the ones taking charge or the ones that the story is "about". An undercover reporter writing about the conditions in a sweatshop would be fine, but if he starts to encourage the workers to strike or unionize he'd break taboo. Second, the Chronicler must spread their observations. Any time they take part in an event that is important to themselves or their world then they must record or express it in some way and do everything they can to spread it to the public. Needless to say, this can be dangerous for those involved in the twisted business of the Occult Underground. Better use a pen-name. Suspected Avatars Just about any historical artist or writer whose work was a commentary on their time could qualify: Shakespeare, Dickens, etc. Many well-known reporters or investigators might also be Chroniclers. Channels 1-50% By making a successful Avatar roll you can flip-flop the next roll you make to gain information about a situation or person. This is pretty broad and could include investigating a crime scene, interrogations, hacking a computer, etc. The Avatar check is penalized or improved based on how much you know about what you're looking for already...it's no good to just roll it up every day to have a hanging flip-flop available, you need to have some idea of what you're after. 51-70% You gain an intuitive sense for important events. So long as you have a relatively specific idea of what you're after ("Where is the next big crime story going to happen?" is too vague, but "Where will the next big break in the Tongue-Tier murder case occur?" is fine). Chroniclers would make terrific detectives or investigators...if it weren't for their non-interference taboo. Your intuition can only function a few days ahead of time and can only reveal the "when" and the "where", not what will occur. 71-90%: This channel is a little vague. Basically you have your finger on the "pulse" of the world and simply learn of happenings elsewhere with a successful Avatar roll. The success of the roll is influenced by how much of what you already know of the situation you want information on...and that seems to be the only guidelines. So as far as I can tell a good roll lets you find or spy on anyone you want...kind of makes a lot of the other channels a bit obsolete. 91+% With an Avatar roll and an hour of in-person observation (significantly less time if you can physically interact with the subject) you can "read" their past and present, giving you an idea of their stats, stimuli, madness meters, skills, work, hobbies, etc. Each piece of info requires a separate roll. This gives the subject a -20% penalty to all attempts to deceive you. You can even "read" the future if your roll is under 30, but this is limited to vague information, letting you know if they'll be involved in an important event of interest to you. You can even perform the "read" on a dead body, but it won't go any further back than the time of their death. Remember, this power reveals general facts about the target, not specific info (so you can learn a corpse was a former cartel drug trafficker, but won't tell you the time of his death or who killed him). The Confessor  NOPE. Nope, nope, nope. The Confessor is the mental and spiritual counterpart to the more physically-oriented Healer. The Confessor combines elements of psychoanalysis, priest and interrogator. They heal the mental wounds of others by revealing the source of these injuries and peeling away lies and self-delusion. Taboo: The Confessor must hear a "patient's" whole story. They cannot interrupt or stop them (no "our time is up") and in fact the text even states that they cannot allow the confessee to pause...which has disturbing implications but may simply be poor wording. The confessor can offer honest advice, comfort or suggestions but they cannot force the victim along a particular path unless they honestly believe it would be the best for the confessee. The second taboo is that the confessor must record the confessions they hear, writing everything down in a journal or a log so the secrets and stories they hear are not forgotten. Honestly, this feels a little out of place and it seems like the writers may not have been able to come up with a better taboo that has any meaning. It seems like a better taboo would be compelling the confessor to keep the secrets they hear and not act upon such information. Suspected Avatars Sigmund Freud is the iconic modern Confessor but other suspected Avatars include inquisitors and lawyers. Channels: 1-50%: With a successful Avatar roll you can diagnose someone's mental state, reading their Madness Meters, Obsessions and Passions. You can do this a number of times per day equal to the 10's digit on your Avatar skill. 51-70% You can be a Sin-Eater by encouraging the subject to reveal secrets and in return they can remove Failed or Hardened notches. The importance of the secret determines the amount of notches removed. Minor secrets remove one, Significant secrets remove two, Major secrets remove three and Mortal secrets (a secret capable of utterly destroying the subject if revealed) removes all. This can be done twice per day and requires a successful Avatar roll. An important note...this does not require the target to be willing and the Confessor gets to choose which notches are removed. This makes it an extremely powerful interrogation tool or tool for weakening an opponent with a powerful mind by convincing them to reveal secrets and removing Hardened notches to make them more vulnerable to a Stress of your choice. Imagine a torturer who can keep their victim from building up Hardened notches in Violence and Helplessness. 71-90% Once per day with a successful Avatar roll you can convince the victim to reveal a secret to you. This can be just about any secret and even better the target believes it was their choice and does not feel like the Confessor forced it from them. Even better, better it combines with the Sin-Eating channel. If you want a powerful Adept/Avatar combo think of what a high level Confessor/Eastern Cryptomancer could do. Remember that Avatar channels don't violate the Law of Transaction. 91+%: You can ease the spiritual wounds of ghosts and demons. With a successful roll you can get a revenant or demon to speak with you and reveal what binds them to this side of the Veil. The result is a sense of relief and positive feelings towards the Confessor, allowing them to interact peacefully with the demon and leaves them receptive to your suggestions. If you get a matched success or if your roll beats the demon's Soul stat then the spirit is freed of its obsession and it passes to the afterlife. A failure normally just results in the demon behaving as it was already, but a matched failure may inspire it to attack or attempt to possess you. The Healer Not a very difficult to explain Archetype. The Healer is exactly what it says on the tin. The one note is that the Healer Archetype doesn't strictly follow the Hippocratic Oath...sometimes euthanasia is on the table and sometimes treating many patients might require a few to die (such as killing plague carriers to ensure an epidemic doesn't spread). Taboo: The Taboo of the Healer is to refuse to give aid when they can. This doesn't mean they have to seek out patients or waste their time in hopeless cases but if they find someone they can help then they must. Suspected Avatars: Florence Nightengale, Jonas Salk, Mother Theresa and of course Hippocrates. Generally, the Healer is best represented by those who were "hands-on" with their craft (sorry Alexander Fleming). Channels: 1-50%: If you fail a medical roll that ends up less than your Healer skill you can reroll. This covers first aid, surgery and any medically related fields such as pharmacology or toxicology (although it won't give you a default in the skill if you've got nothing to begin with). 51-70% Jeez, only the second channel and we're already at the mercy-killing? With an Avatar skill roll and a few minutes and comforting words you can painlessly kill a willing patient. Although it's not bad from a purely "fluff" perspective, this really seems like a bit of a waste of a channel. Admittedly, it makes you great at killing willing subjects and helps avoid problems like cleaning up blood or worrying about autopsy results...but how many times are you going to be in a situation where this ability is relevant, let alone important (remember, at 50% the merchant could just buy all the person's Wound Points in exchange for a nice dream...plus all the other poo poo they can do. The Flying Woman can fly and the Pilgrim can cross continents). 71-90% Now we get to actual magical healing. It's a little hard to say how it works since I don't believe the healing rules between 1st and 2nd edition are exactly the same, but I'd guess it counts as treatment within the "golden hour" and a successful Avatar roll recovers damage equal to the roll result. This cannot be repeated until the subject is injured again. 91+%: With an Avatar roll you can heal diseases and permanent injuries. Penalties are applied based on how severe the disease is (up to -50% for terminal conditions like AIDs or cancer). Crippling or permanent injuries are penalized based on how long the victim has suffered from it. However, it's notable that there are no restrictions mentioned on trying again... One notable point that is not clearly addressed is whether or not a Healer's powers work on themselves...because if they do the Freak missed a trick by picking the Mystic Hermaphrodite Archetype rather than the Healer. An Epideromancer who can heal permanent injuries is a terrifying thought. That's all for now. Next will be the Hunter, The Judge and the Martyr.
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Dec 31, 2015 13:09
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Kavak posted:Someone really liked Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Yeah 1920's ish, yes they explain it, and Yes there is, apparently it, like the rest of the reign of winter, is pretty good.
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Dec 31, 2015 15:43
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inklesspen posted:My archive is now caught up to page 203; that's only a hundred and twenty pages behind. Force and Destiny first, please. Kurieg posted:One thing that's kind of bizarrely impressive about Pathfinder is that they crammed so much random poo poo into it. Robots? Sure. Aliens? From which planet, we have several. Sentient Plant People specifically designed to be ridiculously delicious by their creator? Wizards shouldn't be trusted with nice things. And yet at least the beginning stuff ingored all this crazy stuff and instead presented a very bland medieval fantasy setting with Gremlins as goblins and lots of edge. Double Cross - Advanced Rulebook  Exhausted Loises Loises are what keeps an Overed going. They're his desire to stay human. A Gjaum however has other desires, based on its Impulse and insanity. To help it fulfill its desires, some Gjaums develop Exhausted Loises or E-Loises, which is basically a result of them becoming so batshit crazy that their Renegade virus starts to mess around with reality itself. E-Loises are essentially super-sized versions of the enemy-exclusive Powers found in the corebook. They let a Gjaum pull of powerful effects or do crazy stuff that the GM can base whole Scenarios around. E-Loises also continue the trend of DX defining cases of GM fudging as actual, clearly-defined in-game abilities. A lot of them are therefore about bending or screwing with the rules, and the GM is free to come up with conditions to break an E-Lois' effect. Luckily for the players, each E-Lois can only be ues once per Scenario. Aside from making a Gjaum more powerful and/or annoying to fight, E-Loises also have a positive effect: As they highlight the absolute worst that the Renegade can turn you into, Overeds will react in disgust and vow to not end up like this. At the end of each Scenario, E-Loises of defeated enemies are turned into bonus dice to reduce the Encroachment Rate further, which offsets the penalty of a T-Lois and allows those without T-Loises to be more spam-happy. Some E-Loises are considered so potent that they count as multiple E-Loises, granting more bonus dice. E-Loises and T-Loises (which any enemy can have, be it Gjaum or just a normal Overed) can also grant bonus XP if the GM feels like they had enough of an impact. General E-Loises
Now for E-Loises that are exclusive to an Impulse, of which there are two per Impulse. Release Ultimate Existence is a variation on Undying Delusions that makes the Gjaum completely invulnerable, forcing the PCs to figure out a way to nullify this E-Lois. The Fool's Contract is a wish spell (with lots of bad consequences because its being used by an insane monster), letting the Gjaum play Mephisto. Bloodsucking These are all about being a monstrous vampire: Bloodlust let's the Gjaum slurp up HP from everyone around him, while Blood Bride makes loyal Gjaum minions out of corpses. Hunger Lots of creepy stuff here. Starving Soul lets the Gjaum steal a single Power from anyone it kills (and probably also includes eating the victim), while Depths of Hunger lets it straight-up absorb someone else for a nice buff. The absorbed will also most likely be important to at least one PC, so they better find a way to make the Gjaum vomit her/him back up. Slaughter For especially gruesome Gjaums. Impulsive Slaughter makes it so that everyone dies unless they are healed in the same round they are KOed, while Circle of Tragedy merely grants bonus actions with which the Gjaum can do nothing but finishing off characters. Destruction The first E-Lois Shattered Bonds is very subtle and metaphysical for this Impulse, as it "destroys" the bonds between people aka Loises. You have a very dear childhood friend? Well, now you no longer remember her. Manifestation of the Destroyer is a lot less subtle and just has the Gjaum destroy "one of anything in the universe", be it a single building or the whole moon. Useful for fights that have a time limit or just have to be won. Important characters still have plot armor against this, but blowing up the Earth or Sun. Torture For Gjaums who want to be major dicks, there is Festival of Torture which makes it so that the target will just blow up if it gets KOed, or Absolute Shackles which is like the Geas spell except that it kills the oathbreaker instantly. Distaste Fated Malice is good for clingy boyfriend Gjaums, for it deals heavy damage to anyone who turns a Lois with you into a Titus. Wall of Denial on the other hand is for loners who don't care about other humans, and it allows the Gjaum to just nullify Titus bonuses. Battle Lust In true "Blood for the Blood Good!" fashion, Decree of Death can make everyone in the Scene go berserk, while World of Battle lets the Gjam shrug off Bad Statuses and fatal hits. Delusions These are fun: Crumbling Reality lets the Gjaum reject reality and substitute his own, while Delusional Appearance gives it a makeover that also grants access to a Power outside of the Gjaum's Syndrome. Self-Multilation Gjaums with this Impulse turn pain into power with Dark Joys, which grants them a cumulative bonus to everything each time they take damage (which thankfully only lasts for one Scene). Blade of Mortification is a tricky one in that the Gjaum's desire for Self-Mutilation becomes so strong that it makes the surrounding people try to off it themselves. Not ideal for your typical bad guy, but useful for more tragic Scenarios, or if the Gjaum has teamed up with someone else and just wants to act as a meat shield. Fear These two are in some way all about sharing fear with others: The Look of Fear makes people go berserk as they get a glimpse of the Gjaum's mind, while Utter Rejection is another "Awaken people as Overeds or turn them into Gjaums" that also increases the Encroachment Rate. Hatred Hate is the name of the game here: Strike of Undying Hatred reflects damage back at the attacker, while Wedge of Hatred makes people hate their loved ones, turning on of their Loises into a Titus. Enemy Data Included here are several new enemy writeups, be it various kinds of criminals like Yakuza, members of the military Overed groups Strangers and Tempest, a few Renegade beings and even a security robot. The biggest junk of these writeups consist of EX Gjaums, which largely consist of monster rage animals, but also include a sand golem and zombies. Provided are also three different boss enemies: Fenrir, a Chimaera Gjaum that has taken on the form of the mythical wolf, Boulder, a Morpheus/Balor EX Gjaum that is literally a boulder (that can also turn itself into a black hole), and Serial Killer, an Orcus/Solaris/Black Dog Renegade born from the urban legend of a serial killer who now tries to understand humans by killing them. Next Time: Scenarios - Happy Tree Overeds.
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Dec 31, 2015 19:01
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Kurieg posted:Yeah 1920's ish, yes they explain it, and Yes there is, apparently it, like the rest of the reign of winter, is pretty good. Ugh. The basic concept seems good, but then it falls into the Pathfinder trap of throwing a crazy grab-bag of crap at you with no coherence. "Your party arrives in 1920's Russia and RASPUTIN'S there and BABA YAGA is his mom and ANASTASIA is there and Prince Alexi's a THREE-HEADED DRAGON and you're just constantly FIGHTING AND BLOWING poo poo UP!!!" It's like a game written by an over-caffeinated 12-year old, and with the PF rule set you know the whole thing is going to be a tedious exercise. Pathfinder is truly the new RIFTS.
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Dec 31, 2015 19:02
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 Chapter 5: Optional Rules This chapter details rules so detailed that they're not even used in the Advanced rules. There's not much meat to get into here, since there are many small rules that do very little all in all. There are:
The rest of the book is tables and gun stats. I'll go into detail about some of these though. First, Phoenix Command is one of few RPGs that actually care about which direction characters are facing. This, together with the spotting rules, makes for a game where identifying where an enemy is becomes an important part of combat. This adds a fairly novel and realistic aspect to a firefight, but at the same time the rules are very time-consuming. Counters used on the map must have distinguishable facings, and both Referee and players need to keep track of who can see what. The book seem to imply a kind of hive-mind approach where both sides can see anything seen by anyone on their side, which is convenient, but a kind of giant, gaping hole in the realism. At the same time, like many games, there are rules for spotting enemies, but not any rules for losing sight of enemies. It can be handled by the judgement of the Referee, but it means that this game with its detailed rules for spotting enemies and player facing does not itself have structured rules for hiding and setting up quick ambushes. That said, I feel the need to applaud the game for at least trying. I had some fun playing through Rainbow Six: 3 this holiday, and from my own research into room clearing and military operations, reconnaissance and spotting enemies before they spot you is extremely important, yet most games gloss over it entirely. There are practical reasons for this - Phoenix Command demonstrates that it can be a laborious process - but the failure of many games to even try is at times grating. (On that note, Phoenix Command is almost perfect as a tabletop Rainbow Six game.) The rules for hearing enemies are very realistic - everything is basically rated in dB, and you compare the volume of the sound you make against the background to determine whether you can hear it. Fairly simple, and I've run a short game using these rules; they add a tactical dimension where you can know where enemies are if they make too much noise, and sneak around and set up ambushes by carefully managing the sound you make yourself. That scene in Enemy at the Gates where Zaitsev masks his shots with artillery fire? This game has rules that let you do that. It's not always clear what kind of sound masks other sounds though, which is a let-down with these rules. There are rules for planning your actions in this game, adding the realistic delay that comes in having to think about something. I can understand why these rules are optional, since they add a whole lot of overhead (you need to keep track of what you're planning, when you started planning, how many 'actions' your plan requires, etc.) and complexity. I've been told from more seasoned PCCS veterans that these rules completely change the way the game plays and in some ways are preferable, because of the lulls in combat they create. I should note that "taking cover" and "returning fire" never use these rules, which is explicitly noted. Instead, it's for things like "moving out of cover, advancing down a corridor, opening the door, throwing a grenade in, ..." etc. A bit like the spotting rules, these are an attempt at realism that gets incredibly complex and time-consuming, yet at the same time it's interesting to see how that kind of realism actually affects a game, both from the realism-side and the game-side of things. The game has morale-rules. Morale is, again, an often forgotten element of combat in RPGs, at best relegated to a specific niche attack, whereas in the real world all attacks on an enemy wear at their morale and willingness to fight. That said, the rules in Phoenix Command aren't very good and basically never allow characters to recover morale and get back into a fight. Their realism is more guesswork than the game's usual detailed physical models. (I know this because I happen to have read several research papers by the US Army on suppressive fire, and the models the US Army produced look nothing like PCCS' rules.) The rules for knock-down add a third (fourth if you include the Morale rules) for getting enemies to stop shooting. There's killing enemies, incapaciting enemies, scaring enemies, and now simple knocking them flat on their back with the sheer momentum of being hit by a bullet. I think that last one is a bit overkill, and further not very realistic. Yes, people sometimes fall down when shot, but that has less to do with the momentum of the bullet and more to do with mental shock inducing a vasovagal syncope, or organ disruption causing momentary unconsciousness - which is already modelled by the incapacitation rules. PCCS has 8-second long combat turns (almost never used) divided into 2-second combat phases, which are divided into 0.5-second impulses, which themselves are divided into 0.1-second Master Phasing Counts. The MPCs are not particularly egregious; they're provided as a tool to resolve what happens when two multiple things happen in the same Impulse and you need to know, truly, what happened first. For example, bullets have a Time of Flight (TOF) value that tell you how long they take to reach their target, in MPCs. If you get hit by a bullet the same MCP you fire a weapon, you take either a -10 or -20 penalty, depending on whether you make your Knockout roll. However, at short ranges many guns have TOF 0, just raising once more the question of what happens when two characters shoot each other at the same time. Additionally, there are no rules explaining what happens if the TOF is so large a target can move back into cover before it hits - does the bullet curve after them? So, Phoenix Command. A revolutionary and unique game full of novel ideas that even 30 years later still haven't been copied. It is a complex game, make no mistake, but at the same time a lot of its reputation comes more from being poorly laid out and edited than actual complexity. It has lots of flaws, but at the same time I think its unique ideas and willingness to take the extra step to be a realistic game is admirable. There's a lot to be learned here, both good and bad. Table Count: 36 (+10) 80's Action Film Dialogue Count: 29 (+4) "My loyal troop! You came back to save me!" - Captain Stora "Actually sir, we came back for your gun..." Gill the Treacherous
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Dec 31, 2015 19:34
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So, Hc Svnt Dracones had its first expansion officially launched today. Is everyone tired of it or does anyone want to hear what 200 pages and 14 dollars gets you? It's got more options! More lore! Apparently also robot dogs and squidcats! 
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Dec 31, 2015 19:51
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I had actually forgotten I wrote up Pathfinder. It's true!
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Dec 31, 2015 19:51
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PurpleXVI posted:So, Hc Svnt Dracones had its first expansion officially launched today. Is everyone tired of it or does anyone want to hear what 200 pages and 14 dollars gets you? How did that game get an expansion. I mean, I was surprised when Albedo did, too, but at least Albedo was an interestingly weird game.
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Dec 31, 2015 19:54
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PurpleXVI posted:So, Hc Svnt Dracones had its first expansion officially launched today. Is everyone tired of it or does anyone want to hear what 200 pages and 14 dollars gets you? I actually just re-read your old review yesterday. Please subject us to this insanity Also LOL at the raccoon holding a sniper rifle too big for him to actually wield in any way.
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Dec 31, 2015 20:00
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LatwPIAT posted:So, Phoenix Command. A revolutionary and unique game full of novel ideas that even 30 years later still haven't been copied. It is a complex game, make no mistake, but at the same time a lot of its reputation comes more from being poorly laid out and edited than actual complexity. It has lots of flaws, but at the same time I think its unique ideas and willingness to take the extra step to be a realistic game is admirable. There's a lot to be learned here, both good and bad. I wonder how things would've went if it was released in modern day, when writers have figured how to edit and properly convey their system. I'm just dying to hear the story behind squidcat. And whether or not it involves anime jokes. Night10194 posted:How did that game get an expansion. It appears that "furry capitalists" is a lucrative niche market.
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Dec 31, 2015 20:01
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Kurieg posted:I actually just re-read your old review yesterday. Please subject us to this insanity Guardians of the Galaxy strikes again. I'm sure Rifle Raccoon's gun is preventing our exposure to the terrible joke on his t-shirt that says something about "drones".
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Dec 31, 2015 20:11
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Doresh posted:I wonder how things would've went if it was released in modern day, when writers have figured how to edit and properly convey their system. Not to toot my own horn too much but... I'm working on a retroclone. If I'm lucky I might be able to tell you the answer to that within a year or two. : D
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Dec 31, 2015 20:52
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PurpleXVI posted:So, Hc Svnt Dracones had its first expansion officially launched today. Is everyone tired of it or does anyone want to hear what 200 pages and 14 dollars gets you? I think the answer is always yes.
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Dec 31, 2015 21:18
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 Ursara: Be Still! A Mountain Passes By quote:Denny cursed as he felt his legs go out from under him, pitching his body into the 12-foot-deep pit trap he’d set up early last evening. He landed hard on his rear end, the wind knocked out of him but not much the worse for wear — other than a seriously turned ankle. He’d have to have Marva fix him up a soak when he got home after checking all his bear traps. Hooray for having the Writer who wrote the Pack chapter back. Sadly she'll be going away after this, enjoy it while you can. Behold the Beast: The Bearkin have both aided and hindered man in their time upon this earth. They watched from afar as Man fought their way from cave to castle, but they push back when they see their Ursine kin displaced by man's advancement. Legends of the Bear-Folk stretch back into ancient times, when man first moved into caves to find shelter. There they fought bears, or came to terms. Shaman burned fires and cast ancient rituals to appease the beasts inside. To face a Bear and Live marked you as divine. And the ancient Nords wore the bear shirts into battle, filled with a primal fury and insanity that drove them to the brink of madness. Few blessings are as powerful, or dangerous, as bears. Bear is a powerful totem in almost every culture it appears in. Only Lion, Wolf, Tiger, and Raven can match his hold on Man's imagination. But bear is as much a totem of lonesome solitude as he is one of rampaging might. And having man's respect is not the same thing as having his devotion. Also they don't explicitly mention bestiality. So  The bears tend not to stray far from their native lands, though some do travel. They see more value in staying home and fighting tooth and claw (literally) for the land lost by their endangered kin. Bears can fight a mountain lion and live. But pollution, deforestation, and climate change are not things with a throat you can rip out, so the bears must use other means. In their human shape, the Ursara tend to tower over normal humans. Even those kin to Black Bears make up in mass and presence what they lack in height. They're exceptionally strong and deliberate in their movements. They tend towards deep voices. Men growl, and women "speak with the vocal range of a coloratura soprano and the carrying power of an Amtrak." They tend to make supporting and nurturing mates and parents. Excellent teachers and doctors. But even the kindest bear has an edge, a limit that you do not want to push it past. Thematically Bears have often been associated with Death and Rebirth, through their process of Hibernation. Even the most spiritually tonedeaf Ursara tends to attract spirits, and they're second only to the Uratha Werewolves in their faculty for spirit magic. Ursara prefer to live alone, except when raising their children. Once a Mountain Claw reaches self sufficiency they tend to move out on their own. This is normal for Bears but not so much for their Human kin. Though they do still visit their human relations, there's always a certain edge to such visits that means that while their presence is welcome, their leaving is moreso. Bears tend to accept the presence of the Ursara, provided they don't overstay their welcome or eat all the game. The exception to this rule is, of course, Polar Bears, which tend to live in groups anyway. What culture they have of their own is one of solitude and isolation, but they're not idiots. They know the internet exists, and will use technology to stay in touch and call for help if necessary. They do not gather unless necessary, but when they do it is a celebration with feasts, storytelling, gossip, gift-giving, and ritual dances. If they do need a leader, it is almost always the eldest amongst them. But if there is a challenge for dominance it is almost always to the death. When the need for leadership passes the Alpha steps down and the Bears go back to their homes. quote:Stereotypes  Yonah: The Dead Daughter The unfortunate end result when you drop a Dragon in downtown Japan. Wait no.  Cosby: The Black Neighbors You're pretty sure the dad is a rapist. .....drat it.  Yonah: The Black Neighbors The Black Bear kin are the most even tempered of the Ursara. And sometimes choose to live in the fast paced world of man if need arises. Otherwise they prefer their rustic cabins, or to live with their Native American kin. As youths they have an uncanny sense of wonder and play, almost as if they know they need to cram their childhoods full of as much youthful joy as possible before they need to take on their adult responsibilities. With their first change the weight of the world falls on their shoulder, and they begin to find their purpose in life. Some choose to look after their Bear-kin specifically, ensuring their survival and cracking down on those that over-hunt or exploit them. Others plunge into environmental issues and (groan)"Inconvenient Truths". And... quote:Others, less civic-minded, retreat to the wilderness to reclaim the name of Bear from such over-coddled ninnies.  Anyways, they prefer to keep their claws clean but they will, when forced, remind people that Nature does still have claws at it's command. Appearance: Their human appearance depicts their rural pedigree. Native American stock with a little bit of european settler mixed in. They prefer cloting made from natural fibers and I guess you would too if the alternative was running around naked. Their primal form is a regular black bear. And their War-Form is a huge bipedal man-bear 7 feet tall at the shoulder and weighing in at nearly half a ton with 5 inch claws. So don't cuddle the teddy bear unless you're damned sure it's not going to eat you. Background:The Yonah are more personable than most, even their Bear-kin are more accepting of them than the would be of the other Ursara. To a native family that has a Yonah born amongst them constitutes a great honor, but they always recognize that the child does not belong only to them. In such families their first change is a bittersweet celebration. But outside of such upbringings they can turn into bitter loners after their family casts them out. Breed Favors: Fang Bite 3(L) and Claw 2(L), Natural Armor 2/1, Size 6 Breed Bonus: One free social skill specialty! Common Aspects:Beast Surge, Birth Blessing, Culling the Weak, Durga’s Blessing, Earthbond, Hound’s Honor, Magnificence, Mother’s Fury, Sexual Dimorphism, Shadow Bond, Spirit Animal, Spirit Gift, Spirit Secrets, Spook the Herd, Tell (Powerful Frame), Territory Bond, Twisted Tongue, War Heart, Warrior’s Restoration, Weatherskin Form Adjustments: War-Beast: Str+4, Sta+4, Size 7, Health+6, Speed +7, +1 to Perception Rolls Primal Beast: Str+2, sta+2, Size 6, Health +3, +2 to Perception Rolls. They actually got the Health Calculations right! And the breed as written isn't terrible! Huzzah! Though having access to a 3(L) attack seems a bit much, all the bear folk get it so I'm not going to hold it against them specifically. They are a bit more powerful than Uratha but they're not the strongest thing in this writeup by a large margin.  Nanuq: The Icy Hearts As the biggest bear this side of the Grizzly, the Ursara that share Polar Bear blood are Apex-Predators. But their "Icy Hearts" name describes more their love of cold climates than their temperaments. They love traveling in groups and they never lose the sense of "play" that they have as children. Unfortunately their preferred prey don't exactly survive "playtime". Their harsh living conditions have turned the Polar Bear almost entirely carnivorous to get the large concentrations of meat and fat it needs to survive the winters. And..uhh.. "Nanuq aren't shy about adding humans to their diet of seals and walrus. Given recent events, humans may, in fact, be the first items on a Nanuq's menu." I'm not sure if the person who wrote this chapter was consulted when they wrote the Hierarchy of sins for Harmony. Despite the popular apeal of Polar Bears, the Nanuq are exceedingly rare. Born almost exclusively to Inuit or Yupik people, the "gift" of a white pelt seems reserved for those who have lived on the ice for ages. But a smattering of "White-White Bears" have been born in recent years, and they face scorn from their "pure-blood" cousins. Seen as interlopers at best, and spiritual opponents at worst, the European bear-folk find themselves chased southward or killed as harbingers of the final age of the Ghost Bears. Appearance: As mentioned, they tend to be of Native blood. Short and stocky they prefer the clothes of their tribal past rather than modern gear. Oilskin clothing, parkas and windbreakers made from sealskin and dog fur. They are consummate artists and excellent survivors, smiling easily but holding resentment deep when it is justified. Their beast form is a polar bear, so they're huge, over 1300 pounds and from 7-10 feet in height. Their War-Beast form is even bigger, 10 feet in height, doubling their weight, and turning their rage up to 11. Background: After their first change, the Nanuq are 'adopted' by a Mated Pair of Icy Hearts and perhaps one or two other "Foster Children". THey spend the next several years traveling and learning the lore of the Nanuq and their human tribes. Unfortunately they also learn that the ice caps are melting and their ancestral cultures are being lured away by "technology" and deceptively easy living. If there is ever a war between the Ursara and Man, the Nanuq will be the ones leading the charge. Breed Favors: Fang Bite 3(L) and Claw 1(L), Natural Armor 2/1, Size 7 Breed Bonus: One free survival specialty in arctic surroundings Common Aspects:Aww!!!, Beast Surge, Birth Blessing, Blend In, Culling the Weak, Durga’s Blessing, Earthbond, Keen Senses, Magnificence, Mother’s Fury, Sexual Dimorphism, Shadow Bond, Spirit Gift, Spirit Secrets, Tell (Silver-white Hair), Territory Bond, Twisted Tongue, Unspeakable, War Heart, Warrior’s Restoration, Weatherskin Form Adjustments: War-Beast: Str+5, Sta+5, Size 8, Health+8, Speed +6, +1 to Perception Rolls Primal Beast: Str+4, Sta+4, Size 7, Health +6, +1 to Perception Rolls. At first I thought "wow this is kind of racist" but it does seem that's somewhat the point. They're basically a slightly better written Wendigo from W:TA. And using the metric of "Everything else written in this book", "resents the encroachment of the white man on their native lands" is well written. Other Species:  Storm Bears: The Howling Heart These guys are basically were-dire-bears, or Ursus Spelaeus. It doesn't really matter. 10 feet tall in Primal Beast and 15 feet tall in the War-Form. If while they may be a loving parent, and a good friend, if they get pissed off your best chance is to point them at someone you hate and run Breed Favors: Fang Bite 3(L) and Claw 2(L), Natural Armor 3/2, Size 8 Breed Bonus: ...  No he does not. Common Aspects:Beast Surge, Culling the Weak, Durga’s Blessing, Earthbond, Keen Senses, Magnificence, Mother’s Fury, Needleteeth, Nine Lives, Sexual Dimorphism, Shadow Bond, Spirit Secrets, Spook the Herd, Tell (Burly and Surly), Territory Bond, Tiger Heart, Unnerving Cry, Unspeakable, War Heart, Warrior’s Restoration, Weatherskin Form Adjustments: War-Beast: Str+6, Sta+5, Size 8, Health+8, Speed +6, +1 to Perception Rolls Primal Beast: Str+4, Sta+4, Size 7, Health +6, +2 to Perception Rolls. These guys are a collection of stats masquerading around as a breed. And to their credit they didn't try to mock up some fake justification. They're just angry super-bears that are probably there to kill people. Up Next: Deerhoof Antlerdude's Beercan Penis
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Dec 31, 2015 23:08
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Simian_Prime posted:Ugh. The basic concept seems good, but then it falls into the Pathfinder trap of throwing a crazy grab-bag of crap at you with no coherence. Eh it all hung together pretty well, and actually implemented a rule for vastly simplifying large battles, namely the troop enemy type to represent dozens of others individually weak dudes. Naturally this rule was abandoned and never followed up on because this is a Paizo product.
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Dec 31, 2015 23:31
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Fairly accurate actually.
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Dec 31, 2015 23:41
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LatwPIAT posted:Not to toot my own horn too much but... I'm working on a retroclone. If I'm lucky I might be able to tell you the answer to that within a year or two. : D Excellent. Finally a system for my magical girl / tokusatsu parody setting. Or as an addition to Stars Without Number. One is certainly more likely than the other. Double Cross - Advanced Rulebook Let's see if I can finish this supplement in this 2015 thread. Scenarios Scenario design is an interesting beast in Double Cross. The game's very keen on self-contained Scenarios that take around 3-4 hours to complete (preferrably in a single session I assume) and roughly cover a typical anime episode's worth of plot. The biggest chunk of each Scenario focuses on character relations and investigations, with only two actual combat scenes per Scenario (which is just right for the system because combat makes your Encroachment Rates rise like you wouldn't believe). Whenever any PC runs into some thugs or other cannon fodder outside of these scenes, they're usually just Extras the PC can defeat by just saying so (hopefully with a little description). Most Example Scenarios in DX sadly come across as a bit railroady, and aside from that one Scenario in the corebook where the PCs had to fight their way through enemy hordes to destroy missiles before they fly too high, battle setups generally default to "There's a group of bad guys 5 meters away from you, and maybe a second group of bad guys 5 meters behind them." Most of these Example Scenarios also tend to feature roughly the same type of character, allowing the GM to string them together into a campaign with only a few modificatioins. So, let's cover the archetypical PCs:
With that out of the way, let's tackle the Scenarios. The Advanced Rulebook has 2 complete ones and 5 Scenarios Starters: Memorial Blossom  The big focus of this one is City N's Central Park and its iconic Lord of the Cherry Blossoms, an ancient tree that rarely blossoms anymore. The last time was 3 years ago, when PC1 had to say goodbye to his childhood friend Mika Minashiro who was leaving the City with her parents. Fast forward to the present, and Mika is back in town, and some weird stuff is going on: Warding fields appear randomly around the park, and there's been a big influx in Gjaum activity. And PC2 just so happens to be chasing a False Hearts agent named Rainbow Snake who turns out to be Mika. Unbeknown to most, the Lord is actually an EX Renegade that is slowly starting to awaken. Finding out about this, False Hearts as sent their agent Kazuya "Shadow Night" Kageyama (a Hanuman/Orcus Overed) and Mika to City N. Both are busy pumping the Lord full of Alpha-Trance, a Renegade stimulant. Once the tree turns Gjaum, Mika is to use her Exile/Hanumann powers to fuse with the Lord and spread Renegade-infused pollen over the entire city (a more subtle application of the "Manifestation of the Destroyer" E-Lois). Why Mika's doing all of this? Well, she only became an Overed a year ago, and she's still pretty scared and confused about her new life, not to mention the old life she can no longer have. But let's hear it from herself: Mika posted:"The color of the flowers we saw three years ago was beautiful. But I can never go back to those days." Deep. Anyhow, after figuring everything out, beating up Shadow Night and a bunch of Gjaums that keep popping up as the Lord gets crazier, it's finally time to confront Mika, who has fused with the Lord, adding her own powers to its own Orcus/Solaris set. Also, the fusion apparently makes her naked.  Classy. Depending on how the relationship between Mika and PC1 develop, the Lord with either sacrifice his own life to save Mika (leading into her getting her act together and eventually becoming an UGN Illegal), or they both turn into Gjaum and get die together. This Scenario is also where DX starts having "Test-Play Reports", which are summaries of who the Scenario went for test players. Apparently everything went fine for these groups, except for a case where Mika died and PC1 went Gjaum. Dual Calamity  If the title and picture makes you think that this Scenario is about trying to help a school girl with a split personality, you're right, though the whole story is a bit crazier. It all started when Remi "Prospector" Ogata (Neumann/Balor/Angel Halo), UGN researcher and developer of battle personalities, goes a bit crazy scientist and develops Dual Calamity, a battle personality that can take over multiple people with nano-machines. When the UGN tried to stop her from unleashing Dual Calamity, she defected to False Hearts and is now hunted by PC2, which the Scenario heavily recommends to have the "Dual Personality" T-Lois, adding the backstory of PC2 having gotten his battle personality from Remi back in her sane days. While this is going on, PC1 is tasked to monitor his schoolmate Yuu Takahara. The UGN had her diagnosed with a case of Morpheus/Salamandray Syndrome (do they take secret urine or blood tests?), but she has yet to actually awaken. In order to monitor her, PC1 has to enlist into the Astronomy club, which appears to be some kind of alibi club because Yuu has so far been the only active member. Before PC1 arrives, she was all alone  Since you is incredible shy, the two-person club meeting will mostly consist of them sitting awkwardly in a room and reading astronomy books. When PC1 finally talks to her, she keeps stammering about stars and even asks PC1 whether he likes stars. Yuu posted:(Say you like them) "R-really?" She finally gets around telling PC1 that she bought a new telescope and would like for them to watch the stars together, but then she becomes too embarassed and uses the bell ringing as a n excuse to GTFO. In the hallway, she overhears two girls talking about the Silver Rain, a rain falling on a clear night sky that can supposedly change your personality. I think you can guess where this is going. Unsurprisingly, the next day PC1 encounters Yuu with a new hairstyle, a much more cheerful personality and a getup I can't believe the school lets her get away with. To make this even more confusing, she suddenly reverts back to her old self mid-sentence and runs away in panic and confusion. As it turns out, the Silver Rain was actually Dual Calamity, which PC4 (in this Scenario an UGN Agent who has fought him on multiple occasion) can confirm because Dual Calamity likes to say "happy" a lot. While PC1 has to deal with a Yuu that appears to switch over to the Dual Calamity personality more and more often, Dual Calamity finds out that PC1 has a Renegade Crystal (another T-Lios recommendation from the Scenario) while trying to literally backstab him. He wants the crystal for himself, and Yuu is just the right bait for this job. And he has no trouble using her unawakened powers. While this is going on, the PCs have to track down Remi, deal with other Dual Calamity "bodies" and hopefully find and destroy Dual Calamity's server that keeps the nanites flowing. The last one is the main factor that determines whether Dual Calamity can be destroyed for good and whether or not Yuu dies in the process. The final confrontation features both Dual Calamity and Remi duking it out with the PCs on a hill at night, with Dual Calamity eager for PC1's Renegade Crystal because it would allow him to spread over the entire world. quote:"Hey... PC1" The Test-Play Report tells us that PC2 used the whole battle personality focus to flesh out his own, and that spamming Dual Calamity's favorite word "happy" made it easy to figure out when Yuu was being possessed. And they got curbstomped in the final battle. Scenario Starters Just a few short adventure ideas, so here goes:
And with that, my content for this year ends. I find the first Scenario a bit so-so, but the second one and these Starters are just crazy. Next Time: Public Enemy - forget the satanic panic, lets be terrorists! Doresh fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Jan 1, 2016 |
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Dec 31, 2015 23:48
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Simian_Prime posted:Ugh. The basic concept seems good, but then it falls into the Pathfinder trap of throwing a crazy grab-bag of crap at you with no coherence. Kurieg posted:One thing that's kind of bizarrely impressive about Pathfinder is that they crammed so much random poo poo into it. Robots? Sure. Aliens? From which planet, we have several. Sentient Plant People specifically designed to be ridiculously delicious by their creator? Wizards shouldn't be trusted with nice things. MadScientistWorking fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Jan 1, 2016 |
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Jan 1, 2016 00:55
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MadScientistWorking posted:Nope. Its an exact duplicate of D&D. Nothing more nothing less. Even 4th edition had a weird as all hell reference to what that Adventure Path references though I've never exactly been bothered to figure out who was the original person to equate Baba Yaga comes from our earth. Just from a quick google, Baba Yaga is a figure from Slavic folklore as a witch/crone figure. It got involved in D&D because early D&D was a pastiche of whatever random mythology Gygax wanted to pull out of his rear end and throw into the game, and specifically it seems like Gygax homed in on the fact that the hut she lives in is described as being raised on chicken-leg stilts, and that the dimensions of the inside of the hut seem to defy explanation. He translated this into the hut's leg-stilts being literally large 12-foot long chicken legs that can run really fast over terrain and smack around adventurers with ease, while Baba Yaga herself is a powerful magic-user that's going to hurl all manner of destructive spells at adventurers as she uses the hut to travel across multiple dimensional planes. The insides of the hut are then some sort of labyrinthine construction that's many times larger than what it looks like from the outside.
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Jan 1, 2016 01:36
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gradenko_2000 posted:Just from a quick google, Baba Yaga is a figure from Slavic folklore as a witch/crone figure.
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Jan 1, 2016 01:41
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gradenko_2000 posted:Just from a quick google, Baba Yaga is a figure from Slavic folklore as a witch/crone figure. Which is awesome as hell, and one of the best parts of Gygaxian GMing. The man gave no fucks.
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Jan 1, 2016 03:23
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 WEG WotC FFG If you are reading this on the Internet (as opposed to from a yellowed printout you found in a data cache while seeking a respite from your post-apocalyptic hellscape), very likely you know what Star Wars is, so I won't bother regurgitating it here. There have been three major groups of Star Wars RPGs published over the last few decades. From 1987 to 1999, West End Games published the first one, which later became the D6 System. From 2000 to 2012, Wizards of the Coast published a RPG based on their d20 System; the "Saga Edition" released in 2007 brought the game a little closer to D&D 4e's simplicity. But we don't care about any of that. In 2012, Fantasy Flight Games released a beta version of Edge of the Empire, the first game in their Star Wars line. This line includes three games which all use the same system (with one unique stat per game); characters from one game's rules can join a campaign running under another ruleset very easily.
Each of the games provides a core book, a GM's guide and screen, a variety of supplements, and a "Beginner Game" which retails for US$30. We're going to take a look at the Beginner Game for Force and Destiny, though I'm told the basic structure of the beginner games is the same for all three.  The front of the box shows two of the pregenerated characters, while the sides show Yoda, Obi-Wan, Vader, and Palpatine (none of whom feature in the game). The box itself is made of really flimsy cardstock; it will probably not hold up to repeated opening and closing.  Most of the interior volume is actually wasted. The game materials take up a third of the box volume; the rest is a cardboard spacer.  The box includes a "Read This First" flyer, a 32-page "Adventure Book" labeled "Read This Second", and a 48-page rulebook labeled "Read This Last". It also has a dual-sided map and a bunch of cardboard creature (and Destiny pool) tokens, four pregenerated character booklets, a set of the special dice FFG invented for their game line, and a booklet showing FFG's many other fine products which are available for purchase. There's also extra resources for free on their website: a 40-page followup adventure and two more pregenerated character booklets. The "Read This First" flyer is your basic "what is a roleplaying game" and "here is a transcript of some people playing". The transcript doesn't go into detail about mechanics; it just talks about making skill checks and using Force powers without giving any numbers. On the reverse is a classic "opening scroll" showing the adventure hook:  Next time, I'll discuss the pregenerated character booklets and the first few scenes of the Adventure Book.
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Jan 1, 2016 04:24
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MadScientistWorking posted:I meant why is she does she also have a connection to earth. In 4th edition you actually come across a Soviet Tank while exploring her hut. Like the only other character in all of D&D that I know of which can travel to earth is Elminster. That's a callback to the original "Dancing Hut" module printed in Dragon #85, the one that actually used a tesseract to map out the inside. One room in the hut is a museum that includes a Soviet JS-1 tank -- the module says Baba Yaga picked it up while visiting Earth during World War II. (The module is also careful to note that it cannot be made operable, even with a wish.)
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Jan 1, 2016 04:45
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They named the polar bear splat... polar bear. Bra-loving-vo. From what I've heard of the Pathfinder Alien wank from a friend, it strikes me as a callback to things like Blackmoor, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and even Metamorphosis: Alpha. Or, if you were around for the bleating about 3E being like Diablo, the Might and Magic games.
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Jan 1, 2016 07:08
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MadScientistWorking posted:Like the only other character in all of D&D that I know of which can travel to earth is Elminster. Specifically to hang out with Ed Greenwood and tell Ed what a great guy he is.
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Jan 1, 2016 11:32
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EDIT: Wrong thread
Simian_Prime fucked around with this message at 12:27 on Jan 1, 2016 |
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Jan 1, 2016 12:17
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Bieeardo posted:They named the polar bear splat... polar bear. Bra-loving-vo.
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Jan 1, 2016 17:35
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Kurieg posted:Yeah 1920's ish, yes they explain it, and Yes there is, apparently it, like the rest of the reign of winter, is pretty good. Is this guy really bad at selling the adventure? Because a near-constant march from fight to fight, sideways swarm mechanics that somehow reduce the number of rolls even though all the individual soldiers act on their own initiative, and a final fight vs an 18th-level full caster that you have to kill three times doesn't sound very fun This is ignoring the SHOCKING TWISTS like Anastasia Romanov being the secret daughter of Rasputin granddaughter to Baba Yaga, and also heir to some Golarion throne, which sounds dumb no matter what
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Jan 1, 2016 20:24
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Nuns with Guns posted:Is this guy really bad at selling the adventure? Because a near-constant march from fight to fight, sideways swarm mechanics that somehow reduce the number of rolls even though all the individual soldiers act on their own initiative, and a final fight vs an 18th-level full caster that you have to kill three times doesn't sound very fun Welcome to Pathfinder, enjoy your stay.
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Jan 1, 2016 20:27
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Nuns with Guns posted:Is this guy really bad at selling the adventure? Because a near-constant march from fight to fight, sideways swarm mechanics that somehow reduce the number of rolls even though all the individual soldiers act on their own initiative, and a final fight vs an 18th-level full caster that you have to kill three times doesn't sound very fun He's kinda bad at selling it, but you probably wouldn't like it anyway since it's mostly just a bunch of fights (although there's certainly room to throw other things in there). I'm also not sure how you got what you did about troop rules from his summary, though. Instead of, say, 20 soldiers all with their own initiative and attacks, they're lumped into one Troop that has only a couple of (AoE) attacks it can use. If you have more than one Troop they each get their own initiative, not each soldier. As for the throne thing, the Queen of Irrisen is always a daughter of Baba Yaga, or one of their descendants. Since the point of Reign of Winter is to get rid of the current one for trying to take over the world
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Jan 1, 2016 20:31
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