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RocknRollaAyatollah
Nov 26, 2008

Lipstick Apathy

Alien Rope Burn posted:

That's real weird given that he's unequivocally called BRP Call of Cthulhu the perfect system, which is certainly an opinion one can have.

Robin Laws created GUMSHOE, Ken Hite just shoehorned CoC into it.

I think it was more of a situation of him making a Cthulhu game using an investigative system his friend and coworker made and less CoC is broken and has to be replaced. The last part just sounds like people tinging their views with edition/system wars they're a part of.

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Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Halloween Jack posted:

Was CoC D20 all that bad on the whole, though? It had good art, and it seemed like it was about as good as a straight D20 conversion was going to get.

I remember someone at WotC made a point of how they ran a playtest of a bunch of D&D characters against Cthulhu, like one of those legendary mega-raids against an unkillable boss in a MMO, and it took like 20 epic level characters just to successfully banish him.


In Chambers' stories, the play has no apparent supernatural power but fractures your sanity, "merely" by being so well-written that you can't stop envisioning its imagery. It's noted as neither offending nor advocating any specific ideology, yet being condemned by everyone from clergymen to anarchists.

But in the context of the 1890s, "Yellow" was associated with the degeneracy and hedonism of the Decadent movement and the Demi-Monde (e.g. The Yellow Book). It's still relevant to a 1920s CoC setting, but that specific context is outmoded today. It was also associated with the syphilis epidemic that, among other things, gave the lie to Victorian morality.


Ramon Casas, Young Decadent


Ramon Casas, Syphilis

As with werewolves and vampires and a lot of other horror stories, modern interpretations of the KiY mythos tend to drift away from "profane lust that threatens bourgeois propriety" and "fear of the Other" toward the concept of order dissolving into chaos. In Trail of Cthulhu, Hastur is potentially the embodiment of entropy and/or a memetic virus that destroys reason. True Detective actually struck a balance where the Yellow King represents liminal spaces where evil is perpetuated and then covered up, and the nihilism of mindless repetition. ("Time is a flat circle," and the protagonists repeating the same patterns as their lives collapse.)

Yeah it should be noted that only in one of the stories in The King in Yellow does someone actually end up in Carcosa, and even then they might just have gone crazy and are unable to tell the difference between here and there anymore.

Any enthusiasts of the genre who haven't gotten a chance to read any Chambers should definitely at least read The Repairer of Reputations from TKIY.

Echo Cian
Jun 16, 2011

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Presented without comment.



I dare them to point to what was inspired by the Broken Earth series.

(...because a game that actually used those themes would be loving awesome.)

I wonder if any of them even read it.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 4, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Evil Mastermind posted:

Jesus, generic RPGs have a tighter focus than that. At that point your inspiration list might as well just be "every piece of media ever."

Other notes:

Both Macross and Robotech are cited.

The version of the Guardians of the Galaxy cited is the immemorable 1989 Jim Valentino run and not the well-known 2008 version of the team with that raccoon the lead developer loves so much.

There's a certain RPG missing, the biggest influence of them all on Starfinger. Yes, one of its settings is mentioned, but... can you guess what it is? (You can totally guess what it is).

Freaking Crumbum
Apr 17, 2003

Too fuck to drunk


FMguru posted:

IIRC someone involved with the project (maybe Dancey himself) flat-out said that it was intended to prove that you could use the D20 system to do anything. I was mostly amused by the number of people who were furious that someone would even think of trying to build a Lovecraftian RPG on top of a base system that was originally designed for heroic fantasy...despite CoC itself being just that (an modified version of RuneQuest/Stormbringer).

And the thought of Ken Hite looking down on CoC is just...mindblowing. He never passes up a chance to demonstrate his affection for and devotion to that game system.

I think d20 Modern came out after d20 CoC (at least, that's the order in which I bought them) and I remember thinking that you could vastly improve the gameplay experience of d20 CoC if you just allowed the players to utilize the d20 Modern classes/feats/gear/etc. for their characters and then back-filled all of the CoC monsters and spells that were already statted up in d20 CoC. you could still arbitrarily restrict the players from having a bunch of magic items if you wanted, but at least they'd be playing (somewhat) functional character classes, instead of Expert or Warrior from the 3.0 DMG.

all of the CoC conversation in this thread has been enlightening. I'm pretty sure now that the team that created the d20 CoC conversion had not actually read and/or comprehended any of the CoC adventure modules from prior editions, because they leaned hard into the "humans are microscopic bugs compared to the Great Old Ones and the players should have about as much agency and utility" angle and while that definitely evokes a very specific type of mood for your game, but it's not a particularly fun game.

edit: forgot, the d20 CoC core book was explicit that the DM should never ever ever let the players know how much HP damage they were actually taking from a monster or from combat, and should instead just creatively narrate increasingly bloody descriptions of how badly you were getting injured. this went over about as well as a lead balloon with my high school gaming group, who had come directly to d20 CoC from 3.0 D&D and the idea that you wouldn't be able to know, with mathematical certainty, every single facet of your character at any given time was the source of much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Freaking Crumbum fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Oct 24, 2017

Young Freud
Nov 25, 2006

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Other notes:

Both Macross and Robotech are cited.

The version of the Guardians of the Galaxy cited is the immemorable 1989 Jim Valentino run and not the well-known 2008 version of the team with that raccoon the lead developer loves so much.

There's a certain RPG missing, the biggest influence of them all on Starfinger. Yes, one of its settings is mentioned, but... can you guess what it is? (You can totally guess what it is).

D&D? I saw Expedition To The Barrier Peaks adventure module but was wondering why no mention of the actual game.

Also, since it got brought up in the discussion (and I've since started playing it again), no Anarchy Online? Shadowlands would be wholly appropriate but even the core game is very science fantasy. It's definitely more relevant to "future science fantasy" than goddamn EVE Online.

Pitch Black, but no Chronicles Of Riddick, you know, the one about the space empire of space technozombies lead by a guy who went to space Hell and got eldritch powers.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 4, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Young Freud posted:

D&D? I saw Expedition To The Barrier Peaks adventure module but was wondering why no mention of the actual game.

I'm pretty sure Paizo thinks if they mention D&D that hordes of winged lawyers will descend from Mt. Hasbro to carry them off to the Abyss. It's kind of amazing to see the gyrations they'll go through to both try and credit their game as D&D without ever... mentioning it by name. "The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is an evolution of the 3.5 rules set of the world's oldest fantasy roleplaying game..."

also I'm not sure evolution is the right term

Halloween Jack
Sep 11, 2003

La morte non ha sesso

Feinne posted:

Yeah it should be noted that only in one of the stories in The King in Yellow does someone actually end up in Carcosa, and even then they might just have gone crazy and are unable to tell the difference between here and there anymore.

Any enthusiasts of the genre who haven't gotten a chance to read any Chambers should definitely at least read The Repairer of Reputations from TKIY.
One of the things that makes the KiY mthos so baroque and open to interpretation is that the original book isn't even fully committed to its theme; most are not even weird fiction, and a couple are the kind of sentimentalist stories about bohemian students that were Chambers' signature gimmick. It's very odd to read a short story collection that starts with a tale of delusional psychosis and ends with a couple of art school students in Paris declaring their undying love.

Nessus posted:

bourgeoise... DECADENCE??
Ah, but you repeat yourself.

RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

Robin Laws created GUMSHOE, Ken Hite just shoehorned CoC into it.

I think it was more of a situation of him making a Cthulhu game using an investigative system his friend and coworker made and less CoC is broken and has to be replaced. The last part just sounds like people tinging their views with edition/system wars they're a part of.
Indeed, if I understand Ken & Robin on their podcast, Robin came up with the system first and Ken decided that the CoC subgenre would be a good fit. The forum outrage I've seen from time to time is entirely people's knee-jerk reactions.

Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Oct 25, 2017

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Other notes:

Both Macross and Robotech are cited.

The version of the Guardians of the Galaxy cited is the immemorable 1989 Jim Valentino run and not the well-known 2008 version of the team with that raccoon the lead developer loves so much.

There's a certain RPG missing, the biggest influence of them all on Starfinger. Yes, one of its settings is mentioned, but... can you guess what it is? (You can totally guess what it is).

I just noticed that they cited loving Lords of Creation, a game where you murderhobo your way around the multiverse to get enough XP to become powerful enough to make your own pocket reality.

Also "Part-Time Gods", which has NOTHING to do with science fiction. At all.

MightyMatilda
Sep 2, 2015

Alien Rope Burn posted:

also I'm not sure evolution is the right term

Evolution does not mean "improvement". Stop thinking like a Star Trek writer.

On the plus side, it seems I was correct that The Gap (not something to keep in mind) was a rip-off of the backstory in The Big O.

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!



MightyMatilda posted:

Evolution does not mean "improvement". Stop thinking like a Star Trek writer.

On the plus side, it seems I was correct that The Gap (not something to keep in mind) was a rip-off of the backstory in The Big O.
What class is the sarcastic robot girl?

Dareon
Apr 6, 2009

by vyelkin

MightyMatilda posted:

"Diversity", yet discouraging the use of a large demographic.

What?

The humans are from a desert planet. Peoples that developed in hot climates have a higher amount of melanin in their skin. More melanin = darker skin. I honestly wouldn't expect any white people in the setting at all, but they're there. I mean hey, look at the woman in power armor that this discussion was about. They are not, however, a large demographic.

And yes, Nessus is correct. My wording was inexact and I realized a while after posting that it was. The actual wording includes "You will be told to alter your art call if it is all white people or all males." The setting does not discriminate based on skin color, biological sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation, and they want to make sure the art and writing reflects this. It does, however, discriminate because that dude's a robot, and that one's a literal communist plant.

unseenlibrarian
Jun 4, 2012

There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.
My memory of skimming "Part Time Gods" is basically "What if we took the same vague American Gods inspiration as Scion but the PCs are explicitly not part of existing pantheons and instead get recruited by vague philosophical splats like 'The guys who think we obviously have to be angels or something, not actual gods"

Why this is a listed inspiration for Starfinder is a -complete loving mystery-

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 4, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

MightyMatilda posted:

Evolution does not mean "improvement". Stop thinking like a Star Trek writer.

Nowhere did I say that it did, but you go ahead and find whatever assumptions that make you happy.

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!



Dareon posted:

And yes, Nessus is correct.
Ah, the five most beautiful words in the English language. Which game was this for again, Starfinger?

Thinking back, I can't recall many ethnic signifiers in Dune. I think the Atreides were supposed to be Greek? But "Greek" is a pretty wide range. And the eyes of Ibad, but that would be true of anyone who gets a little too into the spice.

MightyMatilda
Sep 2, 2015

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Nowhere did I say that it did, but you go ahead and find whatever assumptions that make you happy.

I couldn't think of any other way to interpret what you said.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 4, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

MightyMatilda posted:

I couldn't think of any other way to interpret what you said.

Evolution implies change.

Young Freud
Nov 25, 2006

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Evolution implies change.

Sorry spud, but Paizo is devo.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

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

Alien Rope Burn posted:


Presented without comment.





Star Frontiers is still a legit good game (as long as you use Zebulon) and is freely available. Play Star Frontiers instead!

Halloween Jack
Sep 11, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
Zebulon? Like, that Zebulon's Guide supplement changes the whole game significantly?

Dareon
Apr 6, 2009

by vyelkin

Nessus posted:

Ah, the five most beautiful words in the English language. Which game was this for again, Starfinger?

Aethera, which is just base Pathfinder with tweaks. And I may be a bit biased, but I'd rather play Aethera.

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.
You’d think with Macross as an inspiration they’d have made the Envoy a good class.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Halloween Jack posted:

One of the things that makes the KiY mthos so baroque and open to interpretation is that the original book isn't even fully committed to its theme; most are not even weird fiction, and a couple are the kind of sentimentalist stories about bohemian students that were Chambers' signature gimmick. It's very odd to read a short story collection that starts with a tale of delusional psychosis and ends with a couple of art school students in Paris declaring their undying love.

Yeah it's cool because the real point is that being exposed to The King in Yellow is basically sure to provoke a significant change in your life and it's not always for the negative if you recognize how unhealthy it is to obsess about the play to the exclusion of reality (for example). Especially since that is potentially the very action that attracts the attention of Hastur.

It should be noted that while reading The King in Yellow is very dangerous, seeing a performance of it or heaven forfend actually BEING in a performance of it is even worse. And playing the King himself would be an absolutely great way to get some negative attention.

Feinne fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Oct 25, 2017

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!



My favorite CoC performing art trick is the gross-rear end opera that requires you to make modified instruments to actually do it right. And if you do stage it right, you summon Azathoth during the third act!

senrath
Nov 3, 2009

Look Professor, a destruct switch!


gradenko_2000 posted:

Regarding Starfinder's conversion notes for Pathfinder:

* it designates Wisdom as the intended Key Ability Score for Monks, which is just a load of bullshit because you're only reinforcing the MAD-ness of the class

* I have to raise my eyebrows as well to Paladins getting Charisma and Barbarians getting Constitution

These make perfect sense to me, though, because each of those classes use that stat to fuel their class powers in Pathfinder (Ki Points, pretty much every ability a Paladin has, rounds of Rage, etc.). Whether or not that's a good reason to use those stats in Starfinder is not something I'm gonna touch on.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Nessus posted:

My favorite CoC performing art trick is the gross-rear end opera that requires you to make modified instruments to actually do it right. And if you do stage it right, you summon Azathoth during the third act!

Ah, the Requiem di Massa Per Shuggay.

It's a shame Azathoth, Shub-Niggurath, and Yog-Sothoth don't really get used properly in something like Starfinger, because philosophically they're just the embodied forces of destruction, creation, and the time and space that happens in (respectively).

Barudak
May 7, 2007



Last Exodus the Interactive Story Arc of the Third and Last Dance is a roleplaying game from Synister Creative Systems published in 2001 and designed Sean and Joshua Jaffe. It’s a metaplot heavy, playing card deck using, religious themed urban grunge game. Unless I am otherwise notified it appears to be completely out of print with no digital versions available. Should this be incorrect I will update to include where it can be bought to give the original developers income.

Part 5: Honestly, Here Could be Dragons

Welcome to the “World” section of the book. It gives us details about the various realms of Eden, their associated Millenium Religions, where on Earth they overlap with for travel purposes, and what their economies are based on. Why they need a functioning market economy with export goods is never really explained, especially in light of it turning out that they have literal limitless clean energy.

There is no discussion of the state of Earth in this section despite being called “World” and Eden soon explained to explicitly not be a world, so TLETISAOTTALD. There are two pages at the end of the previous section that have a whole thirteen* paragraphs describing the status of the entire Earth. Don’t worry though, since the “Upcming Products” don’t actually contain a single book describing Earth in any more detail so whatever you make up off the cuff is just as valid as what the game developers intended. Overall, there’s really nothing interesting about this world map other than a) North America is the most spiritually active place on the globe b) Australia is home base to the Nazis and c) they waste one of the thirteen paragraphs describing Earth on a single sentence saying there is nothing in Antarctica.


I’m sorry there’s no joke here because seriously just read that caption
Art by: Frank B. Fallon

Now in the “World” section proper, we finally, 52 pages into this book, get told the most important thing the game has to convey to us, and I quote,

Only then did I look down at my body. “These are not my boobs.” I said.

After that masterclass in writing we learn that a Messiah (or Scion, the book keeps changing the word at random) is special because they can shift freely between Eden and Earth. We then immediately learn this isn’t true and they need a ritual to do it, described later in the character creation process with each Millenium Religion having its own unique process. Also, the game will then try to declare its metaphysics and have it be like a jar of different grades of sand mixed in a jar, all matter overlapping and comingles between Eden and Earth, but the actual rules of the game really, really strongly disagree with this notion.


You’re looking awfully smug for someone wrong about both how Eden and Earth overlaps and their own boobs
Art by: Ross Rosenberg

The next thing we get is an overview of just how Earth is crappier than Eden. It turns out that crimes still occur on Eden they’re just more rare, and in something that game hilariously calls positive, Eden is so rife with advertising in its major hubs that every hub appears like a tokyo/hong kong night market. That’s the game’s own description, so way to go Ahura Mazda, doing a real bang-up job. Instead, what makes Earth so much crappier than Eden is that GODHEAD actively tries to piss off all humans on Earth with little annoyances like making lines to checkout groceries really long or making you lose your glasses and keys in the hopes that things like this will cause humans to snap and kill each other, or in the games owns words “gently caress a child”. I don’t think you could write a more revealing example of unexamined privilege if you tried.

Lastly, we get introduced to a concept that in seven paragraphs blows up chunks of the game’s setting and character progression system. See between Eden and Earth, there is a raging storm called Limbo. The only way traditionally to travel from Earth to Eden is to die, no fancy messiah rituals here, and in the metaplot the only way to travel from Eden to Earth is to have Ahura Mazda incarnate you into a human body personally, something he does for only one character in the entire metaplot. Except, in true TLE fashion, it turns out that no, actually, if you jump off any point of Eden into the Limbo storm after about a day you wake up on Earth. Further stupefying anyone reading this, you actually retain all your memories, and in fact the game calls out the only thing you can’t remember is your time in the Limbo storm. Congratulations TLE, you’ve undermined one of the core setting rules of your game and the singular reason why PCs are special.

To make this dumber, there is an optional chart included in here to make the fall to Earth punishing but it doesn’t work. Using its list of punishments, realistically you only have about a 1/14 chance of something bad happening you can’t deal with alone while having a 1/27 chance of gaining a massive chunk of powerful magic that otherwise is painfully slow to build with XP and or off limits to you. Since killing yourself or being killed transits you back to Eden and neither Ahura Mazda nor GODHEAD care about team kills or suicides, and being in Eden heals you fully of any physical ailments you had, the best way to get powerful in TLE if you use this chart is to have players take turns continuously suiciding themselves on Earth and then jumping into an eternal roiling storm in Eden to get flung back to Earth where they kill themselves again.


Pictured, power-leveling a pair of pants
Art by: Dennis Calero

After that uncomfortable bit of emergent gameplay, we get introduced even more to Eden. We’re now finally told after 54 pages told that it isn’t a single world, connected piece of terrain. Rather it’s a series of floating continent realms above the clouds of the Limbo storm, and none connect to each other. Not only do they not connect, they can’t be reached by flight or other powers even if you can see another realm of Eden, because geography and reality are strange here with colors changing at will, multiple suns appearing, and other oddities. Except of course, this incomprehensible dreamscape follows a rigid 24 hour day night cycle and has a currency and banking system, and recently thanks to Dexter the Apostle’s religion, internet connection between the realms (internet is Ahura Mazda Eden exclusive).

Hells**, its then explained, are realms of Eden that the GODHEAD has tainted. These tainted islands fall down into the clouds to encounter a severe writing error. Either the game forgot that Hell singular means Earth not these pieces of Eden or somehow parts of Eden itself can fall and be forced to manifest in our world but be completely undetectable and never again referenced by the game so pick your favorite option. Further, it’s not clear if GODHEAD’s “annoy all humans with minor inconveniences to have them kill each other” plan also operates here which you would think would be an important thing to mention because otherwise going to Hells might be an improvement in some people’s lives.

With that, let’s for no sensible reason talk about money in this game because the game does so now. In Eden, money is a natural energized byproduct of your soul and you get one soul-dollar every day meaning there is undiscussed endless inflationary cycle of 100% every single day in Eden. This money can also be converted into power for anything in Eden, but it doesn’t seem to get used up; the example is one soul-dollar powering a massive project for eternity. It also used to be you carried your money in a halo around your head that radiated to the world how wealthy you are, but everyone now uses basically angelic credit cards. Now that you’ve mastered the fundamentals of the games money-system, I feel like it’s a good time to reveal to you there is only one thing in the entire game with a given price, and it is done in $USD. TLETISAOTTALD.


I hope your masquerade’s got some money to pay for that if you break it
Art by: Joel B. Telacko

The game’s rules go in order of Ahura Mazda parts of Eden then the GODHEAD parts of Eden. Each realm is given a name, where on Earth it overlaps with, when it was made if its a Hell, geography, culture, trade, and predominant religious sects. The places it overlaps with Earth will be very useless almost immediately because the author’s don’t know how to explain things with well defined borders so lots and lots of territories overlap. The religious sects is even less helpful because it never references real religions nor does it usually reference the Millenium Religions that are in the game. No, these are all new appearing for one sentence religions like Anshardim***

We’re not going to follow the books order because the Realms of Eden are getting their own update because one of them undermines the premise of the game so fully that the rule book should be considered the 10 paragraphs dedicated to just that section. Since that part is so destructive to the game as, well, a game I’ll need some space to get appropriately mad at it.

Phew, let’s get back to when things made sense and we were reviewing Gnosticism 101 half-remembered by a C student. It’s time now, to talk about the various realms of Hells**. Interestingly, the Hells have a functioning non-cash, trust based economy just like Eden and have something Eden doesn’t have. Anywhere in any of the Hell realms you have full cellular phone service, a feature not present in Eden since at the time of this book’s publishing VOIP, like smartphones, didn’t really exist. Not only is there phone service in the Hells, that service actually works in Eden, but can’t call any other Eden realm, just the Hells, because I Ahura Mazda refused to allow that cross Eden relay tower to be built. See, it turns out Franklin Talbot is so goddamn good at being a businessman he got Eden and the Hells on a single voice communication protocol and operates and introduced fully functioning trust-based cash-less economics to the Hells despite having been able to visit them for about one year.


I hope your next move isn’t knocking all my poo poo off my desk with your wings again, Kenneth
Art by: Edward F. Jewell

Realms of Hell (not Earth, the Other Kind)
  • Abbadon - Overlaps with Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia through Macedonia. It was made during the crusades but didn’t become a powerful hell until it got a huge boost during the Bosnian War. The game describes it as what most people think of hell looking like so it’s the second most phoned in realm of the Hells.
  • Gehenna - It’s a realm stretching from Poland to Austria, so I double dog dare you to guess what this one is based on and how non-tastefully this is handled. Sampler: “Occasionally some enterprising clerical worker gets the idea of making something out of the skin, hair, or bones of the Souls”
  • Kailichi - Amritsar to Cambodia, with a detour in Thailand, this realm was made by the Khmer Rouge. It’ll be a running theme in this section that almost all the Hells are from 20th Century conflicts which is almost disappointing when you have all of history to look for atrocities. This realm specializes in, no joke, being very dirty and spreading disease. You’ll start noticing a very unpleasant undercurrent especially when we get to the Ahura Mazda Eden realms
  • Pandemonium - It’s the Congo to Somalia, so its huge and it also reveals the authors didn’t bother to look up a single African religion to get a concept of Hell to name this after. This realm has GODHEADS biggest mining operation in the ever shifting land of madness and senselessness. Do want to mention they have an actually funny cult in here, The Weakest Children of Silence, monks dedicated to the pursuit of complete uselessness who the game notes “Its unclear how successful they are”.
  • Tartarus - Russia, they dance around it, but it’s Russia. Created by Stalin, this realm is mostly about ratting out other souls for perceived to have betrayed the GODHEAD to the point where the game states trust can not exist in this realm as though it had rules for trust. Also, WHY IS THIS A GREEK WORD
  • Ultima Thule - Arctic circle, and wait holy poo poo, is this an actual plot hook??? Remember those Snake Men? They actually show up here and the game’s index didn’t realize it. Turns out nobody has any record of any great calamity here so why it’s a Hell** is unknown. The book then posits that if the Snake Men were to return, this is probably where they would show up so Eden and GODHEAD are taking interest in monitoring this area more closely
  • Xibalba - Look, TLE, I’m glad you finally used a culturally relevant word for a realm created by Cortez killing the natives, but maybe it should include parts of Mexico? How about even just Mexico City? I’m just spitballing.
With Hell** out of the way, next time we dig deep and erase from our minds ten paragraphs.

Next Time: What Does God Need With a Compiler?

*I counted. I count all these paragraph numbers I quote in this review because I want you to understand I am not exaggerating at all
**Hell is Earth except when it is plural and refers to these places, also called fallen realms also called GODHEADS provinces in Eden also called Hells. Sometimes though Hell singular is these places. GMS’s fantastic editing strikes again.
***I believe they venerate actress Ann Sheridan

Barudak fucked around with this message at 06:04 on Oct 25, 2017

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

Freaking Crumbum posted:

the monster section was also pretty rough, because 3.0 monster math is inconsistent at best and is largely based on the notion that the players will have some sort of magic item treadmill that keeps them at rough parity with what monsters can do. but WHOOPS d20 CoC PC classes were functionally playing NPC classes from the 3.0 DMG, and of course magic items are supposed to be extraordinarily rare and also malicious in CoC, so having monsters with even basic traits like "incorporeal" meant that investigators had no real means of overcoming the encounter. i mean, i guess having the investigators realize they're in over their head and have to beat a hasty retreat is thematically appropriate, but then the published adventures just assumed the players would pursue combat like you would in 3.0 D&D and the monster encounters were loving hilariously fatal.

You have a similar thing happening in Iron Heroes where the monster conversion notes are about :

* separating AC into Defense and Damage Reduction
* telling the DM to probably not use petrification effects and the likes because the players won't have any magic with which to remove those
* ... and that's it

You're supposed to be able to use any of the standard d20 system monsters, except without any of the standard d20 system magic items, players are going to be hit way too often, will fail too many saves, and won't be able to hit as often.

The smallest concession that they make is that a full-BAB IH class goes up to +25 BAB by level 20, to simulate getting the +5 to-hit from a weapon, but that means you're still missing the +5 damage, the AC from magic armor, the AC from a Ring of Protection, the AC from an Amulet of Natural Armor, the saving throw bonus from a Cloak of Resistance, and the +6 or so to stats from things like a Belt of Giant Strength or a Crown of Intellect.

All in a setting where you're not supposed to have these things because it's a gritty, low-magic setting.

FMguru posted:

CoC itself being just that (an modified version of RuneQuest/Stormbringer).

Did the Stormbringer line ever go anywhere? What's the "latest" version of it?

Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


Barudak posted:

TLETISAOTTALD

This game's been seeming kind of familiar for a while:

- Other world full of humans, divided into distinct sections ruled over by a tyrannical, powerful government.
- Unclearly defined conflict with diabolical forces.
- More Proper Nouns than anyone should ever need
- Creator has no idea of how anything works in their game and in real life and is more than a little racist.

Oh no...

SBF Suffer Through Omikron the Nomad Soul. I tried my hardest but I couldn't find the animated video with the floating David Cage head.

Joe Slowboat
Nov 9, 2016

Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements



Kavak posted:

Omikron the Nomad Soul

Bowie no

Leraika
Jun 14, 2015

Luckily, I *did* save your old avatar. Fucked around and found out indeed.
Is it really that bad?

Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


Omikron? It's atrocious. Their LP is lengthy, but you'll be mesmerized by the badness right away.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

I do not to this day understand how David Cage parlayed "Wrote the music for Time Cop for the SNES" into a lead development gig but he did and Omikron is the first step on his journey of somehow falling upward.

If memory serves it manages to contain pretty much all the standard David Cage-isms like plots that fall apart, body swapping, bad female characters, bad minority characters and terrible puzzles. You know what, its just really, really bad. To the point where I owned it on the original DC and could not bring myself to play for more than the extremely confusing first 15 minutes.

Angrymog
Jan 29, 2012

Really Madcats

Echo Cian posted:

I dare them to point to what was inspired by the Broken Earth series.

(...because a game that actually used those themes would be loving awesome.)

I wonder if any of them even read it.

They've probably got an unstable planet, or some mages that are bred/created deliberately or something. Or some stone people. That's close enough, right?

Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


Barudak posted:

I do not to this day understand how David Cage parlayed "Wrote the music for Time Cop for the SNES" into a lead development gig but he did and Omikron is the first step on his journey of somehow falling upward.

If memory serves it manages to contain pretty much all the standard David Cage-isms like plots that fall apart, body swapping, bad female characters, bad minority characters and terrible puzzles. You know what, its just really, really bad. To the point where I owned it on the original DC and could not bring myself to play for more than the extremely confusing first 15 minutes.

I will never understand how he got another game after Omikron, but Indigo Prophecy was a unique experience and really against the video game grain in 2004 (plus things only fell apart at about the halfway point), so I can see how that took off, and then Heavy Rain had actual quality parts and none of his supernatural nonsense tropes. Ironically, he even took out a "psychic link" plot thread and created a gaping hole in the story.

Then Beyond: Two Souls happened, and honest to God I think working with Cage might've been part of what drove Ellen Page into coming out. He created an -album full of her baby pictures- when researching her for the part, which she did not learn of until after the contract was signed.

FMguru
Sep 10, 2003

peed on;
sexually

REIGNING YOSPOS COSTCO KING

gradenko_2000 posted:

Did the Stormbringer line ever go anywhere? What's the "latest" version of it?
Chaosium published about six editions of it, including one namechange (to Elric! which looked like Eric! on the shelves) and a hilariously misbegotten early D20 conversion) and a number of supplements. The system was more-or-less compatible all the way through, except that around the time of the Eric! edition, the magic system changed from one where you summoned and bound demons to perform powerful magical acts to a Vancian thing where you carried around a set of pre-learned unimpressive spells. There was a Hawkmoon spinoff game and even a third-party Corum worldbook. Relations between Moorcock and Chaosium broke down after a while and the license passed to Mongoose who published setting books and scenarios for for their first two versions of RuneQuest (with typical Mongoose levels of playtesting and editing and layout and graphics and quality control). Mongoose must've lost the license a while back; there hasn't been any new Moorcock RPG material in quite a while (since 2011, AFAICT). Across all editions, it managed about 45 products in 30 years, which is pretty darn respectable IMHO.

The basic system (stripped of the Moorcock IP) became the basis for Chasoium's BRP Magic World game and supplements.

I have a soft spot for the game in all its editions (well, not the D20). The writers for most of the books were fans and really tried to do right by the properly (and mostly succeeded), the scenarios tried very hard to evoke the weird brooding dreamlike fantasy aesthetic that the source material had, and the early version is a clunky but interesting take on a not-D&D fantasy game and an early (1981) take on a licensed product.

If you have an interest in the source material and don't actively dislike the Chaosium RQ/BRP D100 system, it's definitely worth picking up (but not paying collector prices for). The rights situation is enough of a mess that they're unlikely to see an official PDF release, which is a shame. Given Moorcock's fading into obscurity, I don't see much hope for a revival, either.

There's a labor-of-love fan site with lots of details and product listings and drafts of unreleased products and such: http://www.stormbringerrpg.com

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Beyond: Two Souls is like someone transported 1950s social attitudes towards women and minorities and was so utterly clueless they didn't even try to hide or update their clichés. Then you throw on the whole "I have a habit of making female characters get naked and gently caress inappropriately*" combined with his scrap book shrine of Ellen Page and I swear to you the man must have a pact with Moloch to be able to still get work, much less story driven work where he claims there is no deeper metaphors to a game where you play a cop hunting slave robots that look like people.

*Farenheit/Indigo Prophecy has a playable female character gently caress a zombie, for example

Wapole Languray
Jul 4, 2012

I'm amazed there's no mention of Lord of Light for Starfinder. Heck that it's not a bigger thing in RPGs period! You'd figure the concept of posthuman psychics using advanced technology to mimic mythology would be a big thing.

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


Wapole Languray posted:

I'm amazed there's no mention of Lord of Light for Starfinder. Heck that it's not a bigger thing in RPGs period! You'd figure the concept of posthuman psychics using advanced technology to mimic mythology would be a big thing.

Dude, it took blades in the loving dark to make a Jhereg game, no good literature gets into gaming.

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Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


Barudak posted:

Beyond: Two Souls is like someone transported 1950s social attitudes towards women and minorities and was so utterly clueless they didn't even try to hide or update their clichés. Then you throw on the whole "I have a habit of making female characters get naked and gently caress inappropriately*" combined with his scrap book shrine of Ellen Page and I swear to you the man must have a pact with Moloch to be able to still get work, much less story driven work where he claims there is no deeper metaphors to a game where you play a cop hunting slave robots that look like people.

*Farenheit/Indigo Prophecy has a playable female character gently caress a zombie, for example

Beyond was a critical failure but it still sold over a million copies in its quarter, and Heavy Rain sold something like twice that and was widely praised so I can see why a producer would still trust him with another project. However, during Sony's E3 show they kept his name completely off their video of Detroit, so I think consumer opinion has started to turn.

Back on topic, how egregious is The Last Exodus with women compared to White Wolf et. al.?

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