grognards.txt

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Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

So, 4e is ~~WoW~~ WHFRP?

# ¿ May 12, 2011 20:11

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 21:40

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

quote:

4e=Halo Pathfinder=Team Fortress.

What's funny is that he's got this pretty much backwards. In Team Fortress, each available character is distinct in design and personality, each one capable of working alright solo, but are intended to all support and compliment each other as an actual team, and the game's at its best when that happens.

In Halo, every character is the loving same and teamwork isn't as rewarded; everyone can run around just firing their rifles with no teamwork and still win.

# ¿ May 13, 2011 00:31

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Coolness Averted posted:

Making it even more apt, no not everyones the same in halo, the weapons you pick up (you can only use 2 at a time, so you have to choose) have different stats and some are more useful than others, and when you die you start back at level 1 with the lovely gun/sidearm.

So what you're saying is: in ~~3.xPathfinder~~ Halo you're dependent on your gear to determine what you can do but are otherwise the same as everyone else, and in 4e TF2 the abilities are built into the character itself thus making each class different?

Wow. The analogy just keeps getting better and better.

# ¿ May 13, 2011 02:34

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Fuego Fish posted:

Where do the hats fit in?

Themes.

# ¿ May 13, 2011 03:36

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

cool story bro

quote:

exalted-:I kept seven people from buying the 2E exalted corebook.

Them: WE're thinking of buyhing the book.

Me: Don't. It's a piece of poo poo. You need about 160 pages of errata to make the loving thing work. Here, borrow mine and look.

Them, A few days later: Holy poo poo. Thanks man.

I know the ink monkeys are working hard, but it's like someone working really hard to fix a car, only they're not allowed to touch the engine and the engine has a cracked block. Do what you want, it's still going to be utterly clunky. I can run it, but only because I have a bunch of typed up sheets of what i'm using, what i'm not using and when I'm just going to yell, "grab a d20, high wins!"

Which is a shame, since it's a wonderful, wonderful setting but one utterly crippled by bad mechanics. But honestly, when someone asks if they should buy the 20+ dollar rule book, I have to tell 'em, save your money.

# ¿ May 13, 2011 18:12

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

I'm not saying he's not, but you gotta love the guy who tells someone not to buy something they might not enjoy because he doesn't like it, then posts about it on the internet.

# ¿ May 13, 2011 18:45

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Halloween Jack posted:

Bear in mind, Exalted is the game for which White Wolf had a "Send us your D&D 3rd corebook and we'll replace it with a copy of our game for real grown-up roleplayers" promotion.

Geez, I forgot all about that. They also did the same with 4e, didn't they?

Between giving away their flagship game for free and last year's GenCon, I'm amazed they're even in business anymore.

# ¿ May 13, 2011 18:57

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

ProfessorCirno posted:

If D&D has had one major flaw it is in the thought that "only magic can be extraordinary." Rather then characterize hitting the weak spot as a critical hit (thus mandating that wizards can call the extraordinary on command, while fighters have to be real life lucky), fighters should've had the ability to spot weak spots or knowing how to throw off an evil spell. And, just to clarify, I don't mean that fighters should have a "know what the baddie isn't resistant to" ability, but to outright give that resistance.

Play Legends of Anglerre, perform maneuvers, get paid.

# ¿ May 14, 2011 04:47

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Does ENWorld's layout and color scheme hurt anyone else's eyes, or is it just me?

# ¿ May 14, 2011 15:27

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

FMguru posted:

What gets me is that the LOTFP guy is angry at Holkins because he regards the OSR as a fascinating glimpse back at the hobby as it was thirty-five years ago and noting how much has changed (and not changed) in the interim. I guess his great crime was regarding an OD&D clone as a nostalgia piece and not the pinnacle of RPG game design and a vital, modern gaming movement. The truth hurts.

My favorite thing about the "Old School Revolution" games is that, not to long ago, they would have been mocked mercilessly for being "fantasy heartbreakers".

# ¿ May 16, 2011 16:00

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

quote:

This is the best idea I've had in ages.

That's hilarious and depressing at the same time.

Hilaressing.

Seriously, though; what purpose does that whole system serve? It's just arbitrary numbers and damage for the sake of arbitrary numbers and damage. The party's just going to spend time healing up when they get to where ever it is they're going, so why draw things out so much in such a complicated way?

# ¿ May 16, 2011 16:52

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Glazius posted:

Because this way when he puts a stranded caravan in the middle of the mountain pass he can expect his players to think "wait a minute they should be suffering 30 points of damage a day how are they healing?" so they should have been able to work out that they were all just disguised Type VI demons.

"Wait a second; by my calculations we should be taking 5 damage per round from this rainstorm, but we're only taking 3 damage! This must not be real rain!"

# ¿ May 16, 2011 17:34

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

quote:

In the old days I had a lich attack a group with hasted rust monsters and the players got a good laugh out of how fast their armor and weapons were (permanently) destroyed. These days I'd probably get my tires slashed.

loving players standing up for themselves. :argh:

# ¿ May 16, 2011 19:57

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Yeah, go back to your Magical Tea Party, fun haver.

quote:

You are indeed confused. MTP isn't a slight against games that are actually MTP, since those are free and often fun. It's a slight against games or subsystems that obfuscate the fact that they basically boil down to "make poo poo up" and then expect you to pay money for them. Or are even worse than "make poo poo up" and expect you to pay money for them. The latter could be better described as "default to MTP", since the common practice is to junk the subsystem and replace it with Magic Tea Party.

It's true that not every bad game is an MTP - they have to be so bad that you're better off tossing the rules outright and playing make-believe. Their value as a ruleset has to be actually negative for their intended purpose.

# ¿ May 17, 2011 02:41

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Pretty much. I should point out that the definition comes from The Gaming Den; where, as we all know, RPGs are not about "making poo poo up".

# ¿ May 17, 2011 02:55

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

"You stabbed yourself in the dick lol" is funny when you're 14 or 15, and of course a lot of grogs still maintain that mindset.

# ¿ May 17, 2011 04:18

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

quote:

I read a great post from Uncle Bear about going to run 4e but �roleplay style� at a con and the confused players ran off in confused disgust. �He isn�t using a battlemat! And he tried to get me to think like some real medieval wizard! Back to WoW!�

I always love these stories. They're the equivalent of the guy posting how he broke a guy's cell phone in a movie theater and everyone applauded him.

# ¿ May 17, 2011 16:07

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Brother Entropy posted:

I wonder what real medieval wizards think like that differs them from fake medieval wizards.

The fakes have "WIZZARD" embroidered on their hat.

# ¿ May 17, 2011 16:08

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Angry Diplomat posted:

whoa son, don't go hatin' on rincewind

I hate on nothing Discworld related. Rincewind is both the best and worst wizzard ever.

# ¿ May 17, 2011 16:25

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Rincewind is an Avenger of The Lady who just never makes attacks.

# ¿ May 17, 2011 17:16

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Doc Hawkins posted:

There's got to be a better way to incorporate time-traveller paradox-duels into a game, one that doesn't require an entire manilla folder worth of records and fiddly crap, but damned if I know what it is.

e: Actually, I think one of Continuum's problems is how it switches back and forth between "do it like this, because that's playable and fun" and "do it like that, because that's what real imaginary time travel is like, dammit".

I don't own it, but I hear that Time & Temp has mechanics for using paradoxes and time loops to your benefit (like the Bill-and-Ted style "I'll come back after we break out of the jail cell and leave the keys under the mattress for myself...and here the keys are now!" trick), but exploiting the loops too much can gently caress things up all around.

# ¿ May 18, 2011 02:17

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Synnr posted:

Once older gamers, established ex gamers, and talented media producers in other fields can go into their physical or virtual bookstores and see 'their' favorite edition of D&D 'in print', and on the shelf � it will be an endorsement of 'all editions' being cool and merely different, rather than better or worse than the other. This can lead to a renaissance of interest that will be only good for D&D.

I hate you so much WotC! :argh:

Please validate my existence. :ohdear:

# ¿ May 18, 2011 02:25

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

quote:

Have you ever looked at a particularly alluring female monster your party was facing and thought:

"Man, I'd like to roll d20 to hit that!"

Well, now you can! MILFs are the monsters you would most like to have a random encounter with.

This set of full-color paper miniatures is designed to be compatible with other 25/30mm figures and contains nine different creatures, all scaled to be approximately man-sized. Furthermore, four of these have also been scaled for use as giant-sized creatures.

Miniatures in this set include:

* One alluring Satyress

* One two-headed, quadruple-D babe that has also been scaled for use as an Ettin

* One sexy Snake Demoness scaled at both human and giant sizes

* One eye-catching ...

I'm not brave enough to follow the link to RPGNow to read the rest of the description (especially at work), but here it is for those of you with nothing left to lose: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=91674

Fair warning: this is part of a bundle that include the "Sex Cult of Cthulu".

# ¿ May 18, 2011 15:13

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Halloween Jack posted:

Why are people even trying to create a division between "storygames" and not-storygames? Is this debate happening at RPGnet or on any other forums? Wasn't the whole concept of "storygames" as distinct from RPGs conjured up by a Uruguayan tobacco hipster to satisfy his incoherent pretensions?

I've honestly never seen the argument anywhere outside of Pundit's blog or RPGSite.

From what I understand, it has to do with stuff people have said at the Forge and Story Games forums about how the goals of a "story game" were different or something, then for some reason Pundit got his tobacco in a twist over it. It's hard to say if those guys every really tried to make a divide, because Pundit never directly points to "Edwards/Andy K/whoever said this" by way of proof of his conspiracy theories. He just says "google it" or assumes you're faking ignorance to "get" him.

Besides, Pundit's proof that he's right is the fact that he is RPGPundit.

# ¿ May 18, 2011 20:54

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

FMguru posted:

It's all so weird because D&D is, at heart, a game about killing monsters and taking their treasure. If you want to play a fantasy RPG where combat is de-emphasized, D&D is a bad choice. And if you want to role-play in a D&D game, just...role play. Speak in silly accents, write up dozens of pages of character backstory, re-skin your abilities to match your character concept. What kind of mechanical support are they looking for? Something like MY LIFE WITH MASTER where you have pools of Self-Loathing and Cruelty and Hope points that you shuffle resources between? What version of D&D has ever given any mechanical support to roleplaying?

When they say "mechanical support for role-playing" they mean things like a baking skill or playing a fighter with 6 Str.

# ¿ May 19, 2011 12:10

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Halloween Jack posted:

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Freehand + Hearth & Home's Beverwyck

So, he's saying that it's a bad thing that people are more interested in actually playing their characters long-term than just making characters to throw into a meat grinder?

I can only imagine what his games are actually like before they get "edited" for actual play reports.

# ¿ May 24, 2011 23:33

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

This is Astral Seal:

code:

Astral Seal
You outline your enemy with the silver glow of the Astral Sea, and its healing light bathes your friend.
At-Will        Divine, Healing, Implement
Standard Action      Ranged 5
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom +2 vs. Reflex
Hit: Until the end of your next turn, the target takes a �2 penalty to all defenses. The next ally who hits it before the end of your next turn regains hit points equal to 2 + your Charisma modifier.

This is Frank Trollman talking about Astral Seal:

quote:

This is the core point where people are talking past each other. Hitting on 12 numbers rather than 10 numbers is a 20% increase in damage, and it means that you'll be in combat for 5 turns instead of 6. Or let's be honest here because this is 4e: 10 turns instead of 12.

But that's a bad analysis to use on Astral Seal, because it doesn't last for 10 rounds or even 5. It lasts one round. So the analysis to use is the amount of damage Astral Seal does (none) plus the chance of it converting a miss into a hit times the damage the converted attack would do; and compare that against the damage you would have done with an attack that actually did some damage. So really it isn't adding 20% to the damage, it's inflicting 10% of the damage of a damaging attack.

If four other players take a swing at the target, that's four 10% chances of converting a miss to a hit, which adds up to 40% of the average of what the other players are bringing to the table (less than that if they do damage on a miss). In most cases that's less than half of what a real damaging attack engenders on a hit.

There are circumstances where it is awesome. If all the other players are going to cash in whupass to triple they potential output against the target this round, your 40% is suddenly looking like 120% of a normal attack. But of course, in such a circumstance you probably are going to want to use something bigger that can be either counted upon or which provides a larger penalty to defenses than that.

In general, Astral Seal is very poor at doing actual damage. Even when it hits there is only a 40% chance that it does any damage. And even then only when the entire team is fire focusing. The fact that it does no-surge healing makes it broken unless the DM makes sure it isn't used to top off all the players once the battle becomes a cake walk. And if he's doing that, it's basically worthless post errata.

-Frank

# ¿ May 24, 2011 23:37

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Impermanent posted:

Is he imagining some sort of scenario in which the PCs capture the last remaining orc from a bloody battle, chain it to the floor, and astral seal and then stab the thing over and over again?

It's The Gaming Den. So yes.

# ¿ May 25, 2011 00:20

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Locus Cosecant posted:

The idea of surgeless healing for hitting dudes is kind of lame, though. I don't like being yelled at for finishing off a weakened foe because my party members want to keep it around to leech healing out of it, which has actually happened. His math might be wrong, but he's right there is a problem

But Astral Seal only gives the heal to the first person to hit the target; why not just have everyone hold off until the person who needs the heal hits the monster?

# ¿ May 25, 2011 01:15

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Locus Cosecant posted:

because that's dumb and gamey

I mean, you can say "they shouldn't do this" and I mean they shouldn't, and I didn't hold back. But the rules shouldn't mechanically encourage that sort of thing.

That's true, but if people are going to be gamey they're going to be gamey. Changing the way the power works won't stop them.

No, I'm not sure what my point is. (although I'm not advocating "everyone stop and let Bill hit this guy so he can get some hp's)

# ¿ May 25, 2011 01:54

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

It's well established at this point that Frank has no loving idea how game design works. He thinks that "game design" is just "slap a bunch of die notations together" with no consideration to things like balance or how things interact.

# ¿ May 25, 2011 03:18

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Ferrinus posted:

Yeah "enemy" can only workably mean "anyone you choose to see as your enemy", which is why that one errata to the sorcerer lightning thing is really stupid.

What was the errata on the sorcerer lightening?

# ¿ May 25, 2011 12:27

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

'Cause it worked so well the last time...

quote:

DCC RPG Open Playtest

Coming In Time for Free RPG Day!

Timed with the FREE release of the first printed DCC RPG adventure on June 18 for Free RPG Day, Goodman Games will also launch the DCC RPG open playtest! Visit https://www.goodman-games.com on Free RPG Day to download the DCC RPG beta rules, and help playtest with several thousand of your closest friends! The beta rules are a complete rules set covering all classes, combat, and magic required to run a low-level game. We want feedback on the mechanics, the feel, and the fun! Please take part by downloading the beta rules right after you visit your local game store on Free RPG Day!

# ¿ May 25, 2011 12:51

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Just wanted to say that "Consistency is the Handmaiden of Immersion and Versimilitude." is my new favorite grog-phrase.

e: I cannot imagine what people do in a campaign that's been going on for 26 years. I also wonder what happens to the poor sods who suggest maybe playing something else.

# ¿ May 25, 2011 20:07

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Really Pants posted:

IT'S FREE SO YOU CAN'T COMPLAIN.

I love how this jackass simply can't wrap his head around how people could possible want negative feedback on their work.

It's always amazing how the worse someone is at their art form the less they listen to dissenting voices, while the better the artist the more they want both good and bad feedback.

Of course, that requires being mature enough to separate criticisms like "I think you need to focus a bit more on learning proportions" from the sea of "YOU SUCK!".

# ¿ May 27, 2011 14:15

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

That's even worse. That's how you end up with all these terrible writers and artists online; they have a protective bubble of fans that screech at anyone who dares suggest that just maybe the guy needs to improve a little bit and the fact that it's free somehow makes it above criticism or reproach.

This is known as the "Ctrl-Alt-Delete Factor".

# ¿ May 27, 2011 15:50

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

quote:

Are you there, D&D? It's me, Margaret.
This is something like a phone call to a sick uncle who I haven't talked to in years.

How is D&D doing? I played 4e when it came out, and didn't like it. My players who were former D&D loyals have lost interest. Maybe we're just getting older. The guys don't want to research spell-combos and gear like they did when we were 19.

Seems like the switch from 3.5 to 4 cost the game some players. I don't know how many people WotC lost to Pathfinder, but it seems like more than a few.

Did D&D ever cut into the MMO people like they hoped? Did they ever release that online dungeon thing they promised? Is the game still a loss leader to sell minis?

I just saw a D&D grinder on x-box. No bueno. Played like Torchlight, but not as good. They used to make a lot of D&D videogames, some were pretty good. Haven't seen one besides this in a while. Does that mean anything? Is it significant that the license hasn't been used by pc/console game developers? Or have they, and I just didn't notice?

Most of the games I hear so much chatter about are the indies. Games made by people with other jobs who do this stuff on the side because they love it. Doesn't seem like there's really much money to be made publishing games anymore. Seems like it's all about Savage Worlds and FATE.

My information on this stuff is pretty insulated. I read the blogs I read and have the gamer friends I have, so outisde of that, I'm pretty ignorant.

Does the D&D empire persist, or is it the sick man of gaming? If it's a deadman walking, do you mourn it or do you say good riddance?

# ¿ May 27, 2011 17:46

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Frank Trollman posted this today on RPGNet.

Frank Trollman posted:

After Sundown - a $0.99 price point
After Sundown is a modern horror game where players take the role of monsters. The basic conceit will be familiar to anyone who has played a World of Darkness game, but even more familiar to people who have played Nightlife. There are differences in focus (After Sundown has the social interaction chapter before the combat mechanics and has core cities on several continents), and differences in mechanics (After Sundown runs entirely on d6s and playing cards), but the most crucial difference is one of philosophy. After Sundown is concepted as a cooperative storytelling game, which means that while it doesn't completely forsake the DM role, it does dispense with referring to anyone as a master, storyteller, or director. For reference, every RPG has a few paragraphs to explain what Roleplaying is, and that understanding colors how the authors create their rules. So it seems appropriate to post those paragraphs from After Sundown to show where it is coming from:

Originally Posted by After Sundown

quote:
After Sundown is a cooperative storytelling game that tells stories in the realm of horror. Players take on the roles of monsters out of horror movies or the humans who oppose them, while one of the players takes on the role of the MC � a combination referee, narrator, and roleplayer of last resort for antagonists and minor characters in the story.

Cooperative storytelling can be done without any products at all, as with collaborative writing or Cops and Robbers. After Sundown provides structure and conflict resolution in the form of an established world and story, as well as with a set of mechanics to determine the results of actions with the help of six sided dice. In this way, players of After Sundown can bypass many of the hangups of both collaborative fiction and Cops and Robbers: most notably the �I shot you/ No you did not� problem. It is hoped that the backstory and established characters of After Sundown will be sufficiently evocative as to give players of protagonists and MCs ample launching points for stories of their own.

So here's the plug part. After Sundown is 225 pages long and a complete game that real people have played in the real world. Also, it can be purchased as a pdf for 99 cents. It's being put up on various servers as an ebook, and the first one that is up and running is Payloadz, which is Here. It's supposed to be up on the Kindle store at Amazon shortly, but it isn't yet so I don't have a link. Beyond that, After Sundown can also be torrented for free. Because I honestly don't expect people to pay even a dollar for a product they don't like, the entire pdf can be acquired and traded and printed without sending me a single dime. The pirate bay link is Here. If you like it, you can send me money later. Or not, either way.

It is important to note that the 99 cent price point is not because I am a dirty hippie, or because I am trying to undermine capitalism or destroy the RPG industry. The free release isn't part of that either. The 99 cent price point is because a number of books have done well selling at 99 cents, and the free release is because books rarely seem to do worse when they are available in libraries. There is a whole set of arguments on what the "proper" price point for an ebook is, and I happen to be on the 99 centers.

-Frank

Downloading now, trip report depending on if I survive.

e: the first line after the main title is "I hope you like nightmare worlds!" Pray for me.

# ¿ May 30, 2011 04:32

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Good lord, I'm only ten pages skim into this and this is loving terrible. Frank owes me 99 cents for reading this loving thing.

Frank did the layout himself, and it shows. Two-column layout, barely any art (and it's mostly scenery), and the pdf doesn't have wide enough margins to put a decent bind on a printout.

Editing and playtesting by a whopping 5 people, one of whom is Frank himself.

He does the oWoD "quote/saying after every header" thing. It's clear that he made these quotes up himself. He also didn't center the quote correctly in the column.

Oh good lord page 4 has this monstrosity:

quote:

So we�re paring things down. A lot. We don�t have, need, or even want a bajillion clans of vampires, or fifteen tribes of werewolves. There should be few enough flavors of things that all the players can remember what the differences between them are. Ideally, people should be able to play whatever supernatural guys they want, sort of like the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; but in practice you have to put explicit limitations on what is part of the story or things get all weird. Like with Martian invasions and stuff, what was up with that? A story that doesn�t have specific exclusions does not truly have any specific inclusions. It�s not really a story at all at that point, it�s a mess.

The system is d6 based, but aparently uses playing (or Tarot) cards for advancement.

There are three world in addition to our own; each of which is shamelessly and admitedly (by Frank) based on horror movies.

Here's two section quotea from page 7, in reference to Maya: The Dreamlands (which is based on well-know horror movies Jumanji and Where The Wild Things Are:

quote:

�Everybody�s got to dream, young girl. If you don�t dream, ya go crazy.�
�Go crazy? Don�t mind if I do!�

Here's the first sentence describing ~~Silent Hill~~Limbo: The Dark Reflection.

quote:

A long time ago, some people hosed up really bad and parts of the human world started to fall into the fires of The Dark Reflection

The third realm is Mictlan: The Gloom, which he admits to lifting wholesale from Night Watch.

Page 11 has a header at the bottom of the second column. Very professional.

# ¿ May 30, 2011 04:56

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 21:40

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

I'm at the monster types now, and god drat I don't think there's an original idea in this thing so far. All the realms are ripped off from other sources, and the monsters are from "Frank rewrites WoD" thing I actually posted a while back. In fact, it's the exact same text.

Frank Trollman posted:

The Playable Types

The Universal Monsters have a lot of stuff in there which is not really appropriate. Sure, Lon Chaney is full of awesome and I have no problem watching his movies, but neither the Phantom of the Opera nor the Hunchback of Notre Dame is especially supernatural. They are both just really creepy guys. On the other end of the spectrum, the existence of space aliens really harms the whole eldritch intrigue thing. So while This Island Earth is a good movie and part of the official pantheon, the Metalunans and Zagons are not going to be part of this. At all.

Which leaves Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, Gillman, the Mummy, and the Wolfman � who all appear in the classic The Monster Squad, and the Evil Wizard, the Invisible Man, and the Mole Man � who don't. It is of note however that Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolfman, and the Invisible Man all appear in the equally mandatory movie Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and there is of course Evil Wizard and Mummy in the substantially less mandatory Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy. It seems clear that life would go on without Mole Men; but what the heck?

Vampires
An eternity of melancholy and betrayal is, after all, an eternity.
The Vampire is a rockstar of the living dead. They drink blood, live forever, and look great in black. Vampires are emotionally attenuated individuals who have to consume metaphorical life in the form of actual human blood. They are parasites whose very existence is a powerful metaphor for the consumptive and conflict-torn nature of the world.
Exemplars: Dracula. Did we mention Dracula? I mean sure, we can talk about the vampires from Blade or Buffy, and we will even. But all Vampire mythos in the modern world always comes back to Dracula, because he is that awesome. Also-ran to the beast from Nosferatu, because he is also awesome.

Prometheans
Once created, a work has a life of its own.
A Promethean is an artificial person. Created by unwise science, magic, or both, each Promethean is a race of one. They have no peers and no possibility of children. Every Promethean is created knowing that their entire people dies with them. It is a lonely and frightening existence. The Promethean story is classically one that exists to explore the tragedy of dysfunctional human relationships � whether it be a child scorned by their parents, a lover scorned by the object of their affection, or simply a working person cast aside by those they worked for. The book Frankenstein explores much the same themes as a Bruce Springsteen album.
Exemplars: Frankenstein's Monster, Rotwang's Robot, Loew's Golem

Lycanthropes
Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night...
may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright
A Lycanthrope is someone who is cursed to transform into a rampaging beast when the moon is full or they get excited. There is plenty of mythological basis for shapeshifters who are born with the ability to turn into animals or who have attained the magic powers to do so to protect mankind, but they aren't normally figures from horror stories, and have no place in the World of Darkness. Being a Lycanthrope means that you are a danger to people you love and the furniture around you. You can unleash the beast to rip things to pieces, but lycanthropy is a curse and it is not generally very fun.
Exemplars: John Talbot, Irena Dubrovna, Yuki Sohma

Witches
Bubble Bubble.
Witches are people who have learned Magic. In a horror setting, magic is in almost all cases bad. The genre is pretty light on Glinda the Goods and Merlins. Magicians are generally vindictive cackling gypsies, satanic sorcerers, mysterious strangers, and a myriad of other titles both hackneyed and terrifying. They spend a lot more time sacrificing people to gods ancient and evil and a lot less time preparing good children to go to the ball than magicians in other genres.

Magic that humans can use comes from three sources in the World of Darkness. There is the magic of Death, which is evil. There is Devil magic, which is evil. And finally there is the twisted sorceries of Nightmares, and that's evil as well. It's not that you can't do good as a magician, you totally can. It's just that the magic itself is evil and using it is dangerous even if you are the virtuous Chandu. The horror movies of the 30s didn't distinguish particularly between people from India and China (both were in �The East�), and we hearken to that slightly by leaving all traditions of magic as variations of the basic three. While a character may well be a voodoo death magician or an Aztec or Egyptian death magician, the magical set is all the same. Death magic is death magic whether you call upon bones with Chinese runes or African chants.

An important thing to realize is that The Mummy is actually a Witch. That's just how they do immortality. Sometimes it's an immortality where you do evil magic and you look like a normal person (see the 1933 or 1999 The Mummy) and sometimes you look like a crazy corpse in special bandages (like in Bubba Hotep). It really depends. Either way, if you want to be a leftover from Egypt or Aztlan you are a Witch (or a Vampire of course). However, and this is important, the Mummies from the middle Mummy movies such as The Mummy's Ghost and... sigh... The Mummy's Curse where the Mummy lurches around and smashes things � that Mummy is a Promethean instead, so pick a schtick and go with it.
Exemplars: Imhotep, Roxor, Hjalmar Poelzig, Chandu

Transhuman
Just a scientific experiment. To do something no other man in the world had done.
Humans do not, in general, have supernatural powers. However, in the horror genre there are a number of people who experience an event which changes them irrevocably into something different. Something more. These people generally go stark raving mad, and in not very long. The certainty that they are no longer human causes them to lose sight of human priorities, human morality. While they have become something more, they are also something less.

The transformational event can be scientific or magical. Or a bit of both. A Transhuman always has an �origin story� which is to some degree unique. The Invisible Man took scientific chemicals. Anck Su Namun simply woke up one day and realized that she is the reincarnation of an Egyptian princess. Ayesha stepped into the mystical flame of life and stepped out an inhuman thing. Whatever the event was, it was the last thing that he or she did as a human, and the reality of that fact is as destructive to the self as the subsequent revelations of the magical world and the horrors which inhabit it.
Exemplars: The Invisible Man, Mr. Hyde, Anck Su Namun, Ayesha

Leviathan
His face was fish-like.
Supposedly in pre-Sumerian times there was a great mother of monsters. Her name was Tiamat. Or Vritra. It's not really that important what her name was, because she was killed by a powerful human sorcerer about 4000 BCE. And most of her monstrous brood is gone as well, but not all of it. Some of them interbred with humans and hid their lineage in the darkest corners of the world. They hid from the world of men for millennia, some lurking in darkness and plotting revenge and others merely living their own lives � the ancient conflict long forgotten.

But that's not really possible now. Things are modern, and there is nowhere to hide. Those who carry the taint of Tiamat's spawn in their ancestry or are cursed with the taint during their lives are both hunted and feared. They are destructive, and eating their flesh can make you live forever. Of course, eating their flesh makes you like them, and puts you into the same danger. But hey, immortality.

In the World of Darkness these creatures often hang out at the edges of society � places which while nominally explored aren't actually watched very carefully.
Exemplars: The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Mole Man, Robert Olmstead, Moth Man

Once again, the unplayable monster types are are zombies, fey, demons, ghosts, giant animals, and evil plants.

# ¿ May 30, 2011 05:08

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