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AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

AmiYumi posted:

I don't remember too much about the book, but I do recall it heavily leaning on the position the good WW writers took: Supernaturals don't "cause" major events in history, they just claim they did after-the-fact; the ones with the power to cause real change are too terrified of change or playing N-dimensional chess with their rivals or just generally have their heads up their rear end too much to see the potential in doing anything other than being parasites.

Which is a good way to handle things I think. Inhuman supernatural beings actively trying to ruin mankind aren't scary, they're Justice League villains.

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AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?
I'd like to compare Ven to its successor Blood & Honor and say that Wick is getting better, but I've reviewed Eldritch High so I know drat well that that's a lie.

EDIT:
gently caress it, I might as well make the kind of Ven "protagonist" that Wick would love to play.


D'io Bu'land'o: From birth this guy has done everything in his power to ruin the life of anyone and everyone around him on the off chance that it'll make it easier to kill and rob them later and has zero scruples about anything, just like a good (read Evil) Ven should. He prefers to lie, cheat, and torment his opponents into submission behind their backs to keep himself unassailable, but isn't afraid to simply beat his opponents into a bloody pulp if necessary. Shamefully, he isn't actually a born nobleman and has actually bribed and blackmailed his way in through Ven high society. That won't be a major problem though because in the end he is willing to go so far as to reject his humanity venanity if it means becoming all powerful.

His flavor of manchildness is being such a self absorbed prat that he loves to do self congratulatory things like referring to himself in the third person and giving out villainous monologues.

AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Oct 24, 2013

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?
I was so disappointed with 7th Sea. I got it because I was told that players could ride cannonballs in to battle Munchhausen (which is technically true with the way death rules work) and assumed that it was the gonzo "Pirate of the Caribbean on crack" game I had always wanted. After a dozen attempts to make an interesting character who wasn't either ridiculously specialized or hopelessly mediocre (or both in most cases) and several :doh: at some of the rules glitches I decided to just use the setting as inspiration for d20 Modern games with the d20 Past expansion.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

FMguru posted:

You could have used the official D20 7TH SEA supplements, which make the Wick-designed system look like Go in terms of its elegance and harmonic balance.

There was a d20 7th Sea? How did I not know that? Someone should do a write-up of it.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Mr. Maltose posted:

To be fair, looking at 7th Sea and deciding d20 Modern is a better choice points to a healthy disregard for things like balance.


EDIT: pretty sure Mors did mention it on the last thread. poo poo was dire even for the era of square hole 20 sided peg design.

I'll need to look it up then because that sounds like a goldmine. And yeah, I usually prioritize character creation over in play balance and I knew d20 Modern well enough to work around its flaws. 7th Sea had no such luxury. I also think I had an early copy of 7th Sea with zero errata so there were some really :psyduck: rules.

Redeye Flight posted:

I can't help but think that Feng Shui would be an excellent system to operate this kind of thing in. The whole game is about madcap stunts and abilities that border on superpowers. There's swordfighting, gunfighting, AND magic rules, none of which is necessarily more powerful than the other, there's flash, there's substance, and the system is explicitly designed to keep things moving constantly. There is also, of course, the expectation that all the heroes are going to die horribly coated in glory eventually, but they'll all take a lot of killing first and they'll look damned cool while doing it.

Why the hell not? Either that or a FATE system a la Spirit of the Century.

Has anyone ever told you that you're a genius?

AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Oct 25, 2013

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Traveller posted:

Houses of the Blooded

...

Fun fact: these two might as well be dead. Guess who is the most hosed?

I love how Dio turned out. :allears: I'm guessing that he's the most hosed though for daring to try to upstage Wick's jailbait in :smug:ness.

FourmyleCircus posted:

Oh dear lord, it took me two days and several re-readings for me to realize you meant that you, the fan of Dan, wanted me to read it. And not that you wanted me to read it because you were a fan of him. I'm going to blame this on my bleaching my hair for Halloween. That said, I had no idea that that was supposed to be The Spider in your Av. Actually a fan, but I'm more used to him looking like this:


And sorry for the blank stare on the name. I know I'd get the same treatment from most people if I mentioned Warren Murphy or Lester Dent. Just... yeah. I've apparently only seen one of his works in my life, aside from your Av, and that was the cover of Hellbilly Deluxe.

Don't sweat it man, I'm used to being a total hipster. As for character, I vote for Joseph Joestar, kung fu monster hunter and lighthearted trickster with the psychic ability to predict his opponent's one-liners because I wanna know how psychic powers work and we need something to balance out Dio and the other Jojos that fought him aren't as funny.

The next thing you're going to say is, "You really like Jojo, don't you?"

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Payndz posted:

I've honestly never understood the appeal of this kind of "If you want to play in our world, you can't ever mess with our precious Mary Sues vital-to-the-setting characters no matter how hard you try" metaplotting. It's in 7S, it's in Five Rings, Rifts, the White Wolf titles... funnily enough, a lot of games that have featured prominently in F&F. It's just a slightly less overtly obnoxious form of railroading.

I think it's the "Hand of God" GM tool gone horribly wrong. Hands of God like Captain Reis from 7th Sea (the guy who is unkillable and can one-shot anyone in melee) are good for slapping down problem players and really good ones can even be used to save players who are in over their heads, but far too many times (especially in the 90's) RPG writers like to think that they're running the campaign instead of the GMs and stick in a bunch of metaplot Hands of God to prevent customers from going out of bounds getting stuck in the skybox.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Well, it's really the 90s issue of building so much predetermined story into a game that PCs are like pachinko balls in its mighty plot workings if you carry it to its logical end. The problem with 7th Sea is that it already has a predetermined tale to tell, and doesn't necessarily need the players to tell it. Other Alderac settings, like Legend of the Five Rings or Shadowforce Archer, have similar issues. That's not to say they're not fun games, but if I were to run them, I'd be inclined to wipe the NPC slate clean and do my own thing.

The added issue is when they go so far as to prioritize preserving the setting over player enjoyment, and so you get characters like Reis or Deadlands' Stone whose main purpose is to murder players who get too big for their britches. Say what you want about Swashbuckling Adventures, it at least had Reis dead and gone and even provided mechanics for any player who wanted to take his place.

That's pretty much my thoughts exactly. Characters like Reis and Stone should be there to prevent players from pissing too hard on the GM and his plans and need to be used judiciously. But as you've said, 90s metaplots are pretty much the designers thinking of themselves as the GMs (and pushy "DM of the Rings" ones at that).

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?
Personally, I always felt that the way Wealth was intended to work in d20 Modern was a REALLY good system for having "fuzzy" resources instead of D&D's drat bean counting method. Unfortunately, it was too chaotic to really work out as intended as was even harder to keep level appropriate than D&D gold.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Ratoslov posted:

Last I recall from the time Wick spoke about it on RPG.net, you're supposed to emulate 13th century Chinese river piracy. Seriously, that's what he said.

But... It's the Age of Sail... with galleons... and swashbuckling... and Europe... rivers?

...

And so, as I pray, Unlimited Psyduck Works!

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Mr. Maltose posted:

As hilarious as it is or is not, keep the drat psyduck in your own reviews. C'mon son.

I'm sorry, I just couldn't hold back after waking up to... that. I guess we can add "before coffee" to the list of occasions when I shouldn't be posting.



Seriously, loving riverboats?

AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Oct 26, 2013

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Traveller posted:

You can lie on your rolls. You can LIE ON YOUR ROLLS.

I had to drink an extra cup of coffee to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Seriously Wick, WHY?

On a less :psyduck: note, I'm so glad that Dio was chosen as a sample character because he is so much fun to hate. And I'm still waiting on pins and needles to find out exactly why both sample characters are so hosed.

AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Oct 26, 2013

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Kavak posted:

So let me get this straight- as part of Wick's stupid adversarial GMing philosophy, the players and Game Master are supposed to just roll whatever they feel like, within certain limits, and hope they don't get caught? Blame the same lack of coffee AccidetalHipster was suffering from if I'm being dense.

I just dug up my copy of Ven and apparently the answer is yes. See why I thought I was hallucinating?

Amechra posted:

With that last post, I've finally realized how you are supposed to run Houses of the Blooded.

Run it like Paranoia. I mean, if you look at it from that perspective, a lot of it makes sense (actually, a lot of what Wick writes makes sense if you pretend that he intends you to play the games like Paranoia.)

Except his basic "Roll for narrative control, not success" (which I just realized he apparently stole from Donjon of all loving things) mechanic demands cooperation to prevent the game from turning sour and cooperative RPing is pretty much the opposite of antagonistic RPing. So it still makes no sense.

AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Oct 26, 2013

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Mr. Maltose posted:

I don't really see how unless you have someone at the table that doesn't buy into it.

The idea if a game of doomed jerk wads with a stratified culture of back biting and deception being a game where antagonism and cooperation exist in the same mechanics might actually be, dare I say it? Sensical.

I know, Wick Delanda Est, but it might just be that he's not a literal drooling incompetent. Just maybe.

Maybe, but games about treachery and backbiting tend to make tempers flare and that usually means people start abusing the rules to get back at each other. Paranoia gets away with it because it's rife with black humor and gives you a bunch of clones to work with, but Houses of the Blooded is oWoD Romanticism wank little in the way of second chances. Roleplaying like you're in a round of Diplomacy or Werewolf could work out great, but Houses courts disaster too much for my tastes.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Mr. Maltose posted:

The problem I'm seeing here can be solved simply by going into the game with everyone on the same page, acting like adults playing a game. I know for our hobby that can be difficult, but you can't blame Wick for that.

Fair enough, but I still don't like the idea of RPing manchildren in a system that cannot survive the players being manchildren.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Mr. Maltose posted:

No system really survives players being manchildren, though. A shitlord will ruin any game.

True, but I still hold that Houses of the Blooded's premise and mechanics is more likely to cause unnecessary drama in a group than other storygames and I'm standing by that. I think at this point we're just going to have to agree that manchildism in real life sucks and leave it at that.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Majuju posted:

d20 Modern Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook - Part 4



Chapter 1 - CHARACTERS Continued


Like any good d20 system, the core classes are definitely tiered in power. Fast is at the top because it gets +2 to Defense over other combat ready classes and has Evasion to deal with the fact that people can easily buy, bake, or requisition tons of explosives. I'd say that unlike D&D 3.5, every class has SOME use and the fact that multiclassing is encouraged instead of punished softens the class tiers blow further. I plan on discussing this again when I do my write-up of the d20 Naruto book which I WILL be starting soon(ish) now that Majuju has gotten a decent head start with his d20 Modern write-up.

As a side note, my main beef with the Wealth system is that it's super chaotic and that licenses for things are super vague and expensive. Also, the three "mental" iconics have screwy art. Troy keeps changing ethnicity, Lily can't seem to find sensible shoes to save her life, and Brandon has a constant Pixar :smug: face.

AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Oct 27, 2013

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?
The only d20 system I know of that used Allegiance that wasn't a d20 Modern spin-off was Mutants & Masterminds which presented it as an optional rule in 2nd Edition. Allegiance honestly isn't that useful unless the GM makes the game about idea wars but at least it has a point beyond alignment hitting spells (which are dumb and could just be set to only hurt enemies) and alignment class requirements (which are very dumb for several reasons).

AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Oct 27, 2013

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Traveller posted:

You can also add Aspects to scenes with two Style points and an appropriate action (like setting a room on fire, then declaring the room is On Fire), and the first one to tag it can do so without using a Style. Or you can add Aspects to other people: specifically, by Insulting them. This is essentially the Ven Dozens: contested Beauty risk where people use wagers to ice burn the other guy. Once someone runs out of wagers or has had enough, they declare "Enough!" and the dice are rolled. The loser gets an appropriate Insult Aspect with a rank equal to the winner's wagers, that can be tagged by others if appropriate to gain bonus dice equivalent to its rank. It's also easier to Insult someone if you're of higher noble rank than them. Dolt is an Insult! :v: The burns fade away, however, and the Insult loses one rank per Season until it's gone.

Next: swimming Foxes, and Dio stabs someone in the face.

And having Dio as a sample character just gets better and better. :allears: Also, is it wrong that I originally thought that this line-

Traveller posted:

The Aspects chapter opens with a long tirade about how Wick found out about Fate, and how he thought Aspects were the poo poo

-said that he thought Aspects were poo poo, and not the poo poo and didn't bat an eyelash at the cognitive dissonance?

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

FourmyleCircus posted:

God... Play Dirty. Someone actually asked me to run my game according to his advice. Actually, they wanted me to choose between Play Dirty, Play Unsafe, and Robin's Laws. Just, as an experiment. I think the group voted for Play Dirty, but the game never... Happened. Thankfully. I did read all the way through it, multiple times though... Some of his advice was good. Just... only the stuff of about "Run with whatever the players say" and "Let them define NPCs for you."

Sorry for being slow with Shatterzone, came down with some Lung Rot and spent the last few days watching GI Joe and Leverage. Content soon, I've got Mary half statted up.

I hope you feel better soon. I was hoping you'd go with my suggestion, but I'm not about to start complaining about free entertainment and Shatterzone sounds like it's complex.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

FMguru posted:

Yay! The Everlasting! Written by White Wolf veterans who decided that the only problems with the classic World of Darkness were that it didn't take itself seriously enough and that there just weren't enough different types of supernatural creatures and factions knocking around.

And that mention of "dream control methods" isn't just for show, kiddies - the games actually includes rules for incorporating lucid dreaming into your campaign.

Reminds me of Vampire: Undeath, which (unfortunately) is not expunged from the net by a C&D from White Wolf as I previously thought. Yet.

Also, incorporating lucid dreams is such an :gonk: idea.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Ratoslov posted:

That's incredibly stupid, even for oWoD. How did it even get published?

Same way Changing Breeds got published. White Wolf doesn't care about their game lines enough to watch out for this kind of poo poo and just let their writers and freelancers run wild.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?
I'm on the cusp of actually posting Part 1 of my Naruto d20 write-up, but I've hit a few hitches. It should be up once I figure out how to upload images from my computer to the forum. I have a Platinum upgrade so I know I can.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Red Metal posted:

Just host them on imgur or something and use image tags.

Thanks for the tip. I kinda wish imgur didn't mutilate the quality, but I guess you get what you pay for.

AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Oct 29, 2013

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?
Seeing as I've finally learned how to format, I think it's time for



PART 1: HOW TO NINJA 101

Make sure you have your Traffic Cone "Kill Me" Orange jumpsuits on to get the full experience.

What the crap is Naruto d20?

Naruto d20 is one of many fan projects to convert something the creator loves into a d20 game back during the OGL craze. Unlike most d20 3rd party "I wanna RP in [insert favorite show here]" projects, this one is not only still being maintained, it's actually pretty fun! Relatively speaking of course. Personally, I attribute this to it being based off of not just a show that's still both airing and popular, but also on a d20 Modern which expected you to multiclass and progress in atypical ways rather than D&D which expected you to fit very specific molds. Ever since its start way back in 2004, it has grown to be over 1000 pages and 5 supplements, all written by one guy. If you want to see Frankto's handwork, try it out here for free.

http://www.narutod20.com/

There's even an in progress SRD here.

http://www.narutod20srd.com/

I don't watch Japanese Animes, what's a Naruto?

I don't think I need to go in to detail over the characters or plot (just wikipedia it, or read the series), but I'll give a (relatively) quick primer on the setting Kishimoto (the manga writer) has it take place in as well as my thoughts on it. Basically, there are 5 nations, each tied to one of the 5 elements (earth, wind, water, fire and lightning) and each one is at roughly modern tech levels except militarily. Instead of men with guns, they have Hidden Villages that train people to be superpowered child soldiers called ninja. The intro to the d20 Modern game actually praises the Naruto setting for making ninja fallible human beings who can specialize in things other than sneaking around in black pajamas, but I wouldn't give Kishimoto too much credit because orginization-wise, Naruto ninja are pretty much what you'd expect from a "train superpowered kids to fight evil" group like Professor X's mutant school from X-Men, except that they start kicking rear end really young (you start training as early as 8 and are considered a full fledged Ninja by the age of 12) and that killing your enemies is pretty much expected.

Most of Naruto takes place in the Fire Country's village called the Leaf Village and the Leaf village MO is to have academy graduates (the aforementioned 12 year olds) train under an elite ninja in a 3 man cell until they're ready to rise in the ranks with most cells sticking together for missions even after promotion, at least until they get assigned their own 3 man squad of rookies to babysit. This is actually a really good set up for small groups because it means that there's a drat good reason to go adventuring together and you start with a level 12-15 GMPC with explicit orders to only get involved if things are going to complete poo poo (as in, the GM needs to either save luckless PCs or slap down rear end in a top hat ones). The fact that everyone most likely grew up in the same village makes interlocking backgrounds and pre-established relationships easy to do. But I've rambled on for 2 paragraphs at this point, so let's move on to

Chakra

Chakra is the "how you do awesome poo poo" of this setting and is defined through a characters Chakra Pools (how much juice they have) and Chakra Skills (how good they are at using it a certain way). The skills are
  • Chakra Control: This one is your basic "use mana better" skill. It covers pretty much all of your "mess with your Chakra Pools" actions as well as a fair number of utility abilities like Spidermanning up walls and leaping tall building in a single bound. The book claims that there are very few offensive or defensive options based purely off of Chakra Control, but Jutsu bloat means that there are still a fair number of "wild/concentrated release of chakra" moves that fit the bill. Best for ninjas with a large Chakra Pool. Wisdom based.
  • Fuinjutsu: Magical ninja marks. Most of them are drawn on enemies to lock down certain abilities or on to allies and scrolls to store things like weapons and chakra for later use but it has other uses included crafting certain magic items. Because this is a 1000+ page document pretty much done by one guy, this skills isn't mentioned in Basic Mechanics but is included as a Chakra Skill in other parts of the book. Best for ninjas who love setting up Batman "gently caress you" situations. Intelligence based.
  • Genjutsu: Illusions with a few Enchantment effects thrown in. Comes complete with Jedi Mind Tricks, Your Mind Makes It Real fireballs, and duels to the death with yourself that happen in seconds of realtime. My personal favorite because not only is it crippling if used right, you can trick enemies in to doing stupid poo poo just by letting them think that they're still in an illusion. Best for ninjas who like mind games and Save-or-Lose. Charisma based.
  • Ninjutsu: A catch all for pretty much everything that isn't covered by another skill. Elemental blasts, healing, duplicates of yourself, the whole shebang. Everyone will want to invest at least a little in this. Intelligence based.
  • Taijutsu: Ninja kung fu. If it's something that anime claim you can do purely through mundane training, it's this. Has the advantage of costing practically no chakra and having lots of long lasting self buffs. Best for ninjas who have high combat stats. Strength based.

And yes, these are all new Skills added to the already bloated d20 skill system. The book also mentions Perform Checks, which are the skill check you make to do a jutsu you know and Skill Thresholds which is the point for every jutsu where your bonus is considered so high that you no longer need a Perform Check. These will be very important later.

For the other half of this equation, we have the Chakra Pools. Your primary Chakra Pool is equal to 2 plus your Constitution Modifier at each level with an additional +2 at level 1. Or 2+([Constitution Modifier+2]*Level) You also have a Reserve Pool equal to twice your level that you can't use without making a Chakra Control check. Chakra is spent on using Jutsus and returns to full after a good night's rest.

Chakra isn't just free though. If your Reserve ever dips below 50% you become Fatigued after the fight until you recover your reserves, if it ever drops below 25% then the fatigue hits instantly, and if it ever hits 0 ever run dry you suffer Chakra Depletion. Chakra Depletion makes you Exhausted until your reserve reaches 50% and makes chakra recover at 25% maximum per night of rest instead of 100%. Running out of normal chakra is no picnic either because that drops your Reserve to 0 (causing instant depletion), to reset your regular pool to 1. So basically, don't throw that poo poo around like candy. Unless you have the power of bad writing on your side of course *coughSasukeVersusDeidaracough*

Chakra can be damaged as well by certain attacks. Regular Chakra Damage hits a character's Chakra Pool instead of their Hit Points, but once a character hits 0 Chakra leftover damage is doubled and goes to HP. Chakra Coil Damage is an advanced form of Chakra Damage that heals at a rate of 1 per week of full rest. :goddamn: There's no special name for reducing the maximum on a character's Chakra Pool, but it sucks to happen and rolls over to Constitution if it ever drops your Pool to 0. :gibs:

The last tidbit on Chakra is that everyone has an Element that their Chakra is aligned to. You gain a bonus to Learn Checks for Jutsus of your starting affinity equal to +1 at 1st level and an additional +1 every 5 levels there after (6th, 11th, 16th, etc.). You also gain Energy Resistance 5 to your starting affinity equal to 5 at level 10 and an additional +5 every 5 levels there after (15th, 20th, etc.). Lastly, you can only learn Jutsus of an Element you have an affinity for, but you gain a secondary affinity at 11th level and an additional affinity every 5 levels blah blah blah (you get the drill). Affinities are important because Elements have a Rock-Paper-Scissors cycle that gives you a +/-2 modifier to your saving throws depending on whether your starting affinity is on the winning or losing side of that cycle when an elemental attack hits you. The cycle is Earth beats Water beats Fire beats Wind beats Lightning beats Earth. Yes, Lightning beats Earth. I don't think Kishimoto ever played Pokemon. There are 2 special Elements that don't belong in the cycle (Ice and Wood) but they're technically 2 elements mixed together (Water and Wind for Ice, Earth and Water for Wood) and require you to take a feat at 1st level to represent having the necessary bloodline to use them.

Other New Mechanics

Firstly, there are some new types of energy damage to represent jutsu elements. They are Wind and Wood (which deal normal damage to objects), Earth and Water (which deal quarter damage to objects) and Holy (which deals no damage to objects). And no, just throwing a rock or shooting someone with super soaker don't count as Energy damage now, this is just for Jutsu.

Next up is Learning Jutsu. You see, you can't just roll Genjutsu to trap someone in an illusion, you need to take the time to Learn the appropriate Jutsu. A Learn Check is 1d20+Character Level+Relevant Ability Modifier (i.e. Charisma for Genjutsu). Characters start with 1d4+1 Jutsus of their choice (that they are eligible to Learn) and the game suggests starting with Bunshin (create illusory duplicates), Henge (disguise yourself instantly) and Kawarimi (the ninja log trick). The actual Learning process is described in Chapter 10, so we'll get to it later.

There's a lot of stuff repeated from d20 Modern that I'll skip but I will say that Action Points can now be spent to gain 1d6 Chakra for 1 minute that can exceed normal maximum.

There are special Ninja abilities that you get from things like Jutsu and Feats that are described in this section as well. The first is Detect Emotions which is just like a Detect Thoughts effect but with a Sense Motive check against the target's Will Save (minimum 20) and limited to creatures you know about and only emotions. Next is See Chakra which let's you use Spot instead of Genjutsu to detect Genjutsu, tell how much Chakra someone has, and make a Spot Check to Detect Magic Chakra Auras. See Through Chakra is an advanced version of See Chakra that gives a +4 to Detect Auras, a +2 to resist Genjutsu, and let's you tell when someone is using a Bloodline ability or is actually made of chakra instead of flesh. Sense Chakra let's you make a Wisdom Check to tell if Chakra is around like you were using the Scent ability. Suppress Chakra let's you hide from chakra based sense. Lastly, Seal Tenketsu let's you do pressure point attacks that hinder chakra use. It's chart based so I'll just copy the info from the book.

quote:

Tenketsu Damage: This entry relates to the amount of tenketsu damage taken by the character. The penalties are not cumulative.

Chakra Control DC: The difficulty of the chakra control check the character must succeed to perform a technique of a rank impeded by tenketsu damage (see below).

Technique Rank: The rank of techniques impeded by tenketsu damage, for which the character must succeed a Chakra Control check in addition to a perform check. If the performed technique's rank is equal to or lower than this entry, it is impeded.

Check and Threshold Penalty: The penalty to the character's effective skill threshold and perform checks in Chakra Control, Genjutsu and Ninjutsu suffered from tenketsu damage. This penalty does not apply to the chakra control check made to tap one's reserves, but it does apply to Chakra Control checks made to perform a Chakra Control technique (assuming the check was a success or the technique is not affected by tenketsu damage).



If you're a Hyuuga, print this info out. Otherwise, ignore it.

This section wraps up with Speed Ranks and Strength Ranks which let spend Chakra to boost how fast or strong you are. The higher the Rank, the more Chakra per turn spent. Speed Ranks give you bonuses to Jump and Hide checks, a buff to Defense and Reflex Saves, a bigger Base Land Speed, and at higher Ranks even bonus attacks and Kawarimi Defense. As an aside, Kawarimi Defense is something that only comes up with Speed Ranks and certain jutsu. It means that unless you have a number of Speed Ranks active equal or higher than an attack's Kawarimi Defense, you can't ninja log away from it. Anyway, Strength Ranks give you a bonus to Strength based checks, combat manuevers other than feint, attacks rolls, damage rolls, multiplies carrying capacity, and let's you penetrate object Hardness and at higher Ranks grant you Damage Reduction. In order to gain access to them, you need to learn the appropriate Jutsu Training, but I'll save that for chapter 10.

Varient Rules

There are a lot of optional rules but I'll only cover Power Units and True Ninja. Power Units are ways of representing more badass characters without having them be higher level, but that's kind of irrelevant since every 2 PU is grants +1 Level Adjustment. Power Units grant:

  • +0.5 dodge bonus to Defense (rounded down)
  • +0.5 hit points per level (rounded down)
  • +1 to his Learn checks
  • +2 bonus to Chakra Pool
  • +1 bonus to attack rolls
  • +1 bonus to saving throws
  • +2 bonus to Balance, Climb, Hide, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, Swim and Tumble checks
  • +2 bonus to Initiative
  • +2 feet movement increase (rounded to the nearest 5-feet unit)

True Ninja is a variant of Character Creation for stronger characters. Quite rationally, it's expected that either all PCs will be True Ninja or no PCs will be True Ninja. If you're a True Ninja, then you:

  • are built using 40-point buy or 5d6, taking the three best, rerolling ones.
  • have at least 1 power unit
  • are able to learn techniques with only half the normal time
  • are able to move at up to 5 times his normal speed.
  • count as armed and deal lethal damage with unarmed strikes even without the Combat Martial Arts feat
  • begin play with the three basic techniques, Bunshin, Henge and Kawarimi, as well as 2d4 +1 jutsu per level
  • have Balance, Chakra Control, Climb, Disguise, Genjutsu, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Ninjutsu, Search, Spot, Survival and Taijutsu as permanent class skills
  • are able to recover Chakra loss twice as fast.

So that's Chapter 1 of Naruto d20. And as you probably already tell it has a bloat problem. The upcoming chapters have much less new content so I should be able to breeze through them much quicker. But until next time, just remember that Sasuke is a dirty cheater.

Next time: New Races! New Talents! New Jobs!

EDIT: As a side note, if you guys really want me to make characters with this system, please say so. If the thread really pushes for it, I'll take suggestions for rookie nin now (and maybe again after my next update) but don't count on it. As much as I like this system, it's still a 1000+ page d20 supplement.

AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Nov 2, 2013

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Traveller posted:

Naruto d20 sounds like a :stare: of bloat.

Just wait until Chapter 10! :suicide:

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?
Why in the name of Ormagoden's red hot tailpipe did Wick think that these rules would be a good idea for adapting into a grimderp Harry Potter game? And make it have pretty much zero player input when he did so?

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Kevin after reading one of my reviews-



- if he ever read my reviews.

It's hard to tell if he's shaking his fist in impotent fury or fist pumping in triumph.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Traveller posted:

Houses of the Blooded

Break out the party hats

So I'm guessing Dio is the most boned due to the stupid Wisdom cap on Aspects. Speaking of Dio, I didn't see him "kick the puppy factory" like you said he would.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Traveller posted:

It was a long post! And he made a Za Warudo sculpture, what do you want from me?

Also, the exact reason why Dio is boned is in the next chapter. It's the Wickest loving thing.

Kicked puppies of course! But the reason behind the boning will suffice if it's super . If it's not too big of a spoiler, if stripping all forms of player contribution from the Ven Romnance rules and then shoving them in to a magical high school drama like Eldritch High equals 1 , how many would you say this boning is?

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Count Chocula posted:

I just think 'every artifact carries power but also a terrible curse' is a perfect fit for a certain kind of story, and its one HOTB is trying to tell. You don't fill a setting with bloody operas, doomed romance and revenge if you want people wielding +3 Swords with no consequence. Epics work partly because of the doomed ending.

They also work because all of the curses have a sense of both weight and logic to them and never simply go "haha gently caress you". The DOOMED mechanic is utterly retarded for so many reasons. It encourages the GM to be a prick in an already adversarial game, the "curse" element is impossible to integrate interestingly into the narrative, and it completely ignores the fact that there are already tools of tragic downfall (namely Aspect Tags and Compels) built into the system that it could just use instead. Top it all of with the fact that Blood Swords (something you're all but required to have) give you doom and will be used infrequently means that they are pretty much never anything but a hindrance.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Amechra posted:

Dammit Wick!

Still, you can fix the DOOM easily; let players invoke not only the DOOM of their opponents, but their own DOOM as well.

To prevent "oh no i fail at going to the toilet oh woe is me", set a minimum for how intense the stakes can be before you can invoke DOOM.

Or just make it a purely negative Aspect with unique brands of doomedness just like the curses. But that would be coherent and we can't have that in a Wick game.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

Traveller posted:

That's... uh, I don't think that's humility, Mr. Wick.

It's the closest that John Wick the Ven will ever get to humility seeing as they're a bunch of unlikable manchildren who refuse to admit to weaknesses or mistakes. I however, fully admit that I completely forgot about Perform Checks and Skill Threshold in my Naruto d20 write-up! :downs: For those who don't want to go back to Part 1, Perform Checks are the skill check you make to do a jutsu you know and Skill Thresholds is the point for every jutsu where your bonus is considered so high that you no longer need a Perform Check. Yes, that is defined in Chapter 1 despite it not being very relevant until Chapter 10, but it'll help you understand the Talents in Chapter 3.

AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Nov 2, 2013

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?
Well, nobody has offered any rookie nin for me to make, so I'll just move right along with



PART 2: ZIPPING THROUGH CHAPTERS AT NINJA SPEED

Today I will covering 3 chapters in a single post. And it'll still probably be shorter than the previous one.

New Races

Chapter 2 covers new races and it explains that since Naruto is a world pretty much exclusively populated by humans, these races should be considered the results of body altering upbringings/heritages like coming from a long line of genius ninja or being a test tube baby. Everyone gets Simple Weapons Proficiency as a Racial Feat (but so does every Base Class so :shrug:), but only 100% bog standard humans get the benefits of increased skill ranks and a 2nd feat at 1st level.

There are 5 different "elemental" humans that represent someone who is exceptionally tied to their homeland's element. They each receive +2 to one attribute, +1 to saves against their element, a +2 skill bonus, and a racial power that can be used once per day, plus an additional time per 10 levels they posses. In exchange, they get a -2 to another attribute and must have their starting element match their country's.

The first are Earth humans who get a +2 Con, -2 Wis, +2 to Climb and have the Racial power of gaining 30 ft Tremorsense out to 30 ft for 1 minute as a Swift action. In the series, Earth ninjas are pretty much the "rear end in a top hat" nation and hold a grudge against the Fire ninjas for whupping them in the last big world war.

Next are Fire humans who get a +2 Cha, -2 Str, and have the Racial power of granting all allies within 30 ft a +1 morale bonus to attack rolls, saves and skill checks, and a +4 morale bonus to saves against fear effects for 1 minute as a Swift action. They're an odd duck skill-wise because they get a +1 to Diplomacy and Gather Information instead of a +2 to one skill. In the series, Fire ninjas are the "hero" nation who believe in the Power of Friendship Will of Fire.

After that are the Lightning humans who get a +2 Dex, -2 Wis, +2 to Tumble and have the Racial power of making a single electric attack deal half damage to them before Resistance. In the series, Lightning ninjas are gangsta rap badasses who love pro-wrestling. It is the most stupid/awesome outside interpretation of American black culture ever. :whatup:

Anyway, next are the Water humans who get a +2 Str, -2 Cha, and +2 to Swim. Instead of a daily Racial power, they get a 20 ft Swim Speed and can hold their breaths twice as long. In the series, Water ninjas are shark toothed psychos who go through revolutions like popcorn.

Finally, there are the Wind humans who get a +2 Dex, -2 Wis, and have the Racial power of effectively having Evasion against a single wind attack against them. Like the Fire humas, their skill bonus is split (+1 to Balance and Tumble) instead of a single +2. In the series, Wind ninjas are desert dwelling bros of the Fire ninja and are way too caucasian to be living in the desert.

There are 4 other races that aren't tied to any nation or element in particular. The Gigantics (big people), the Monstrous (freaky people), the Smallfolk (midgets), and the Trueblooded (ninja uebermensch). Gigantics are pretty swole, getting a+8 to Str and a +4 to Con for only -2 Dex, as well as +2 Natural Armor and are Large sized, but they get +2 LA for all of their toys. Monstrous are similarly beefy at +4 to Str and +2 Con for -2 to Dex and Cha as well as counting as Monstrous Humanoids instead of Humanoids, picking 2 special passive abilities from a "deformities" list (like a Natural Weapon or Darkvision), and they can trade their Simple Weapons Proficiency for Archaic Weapons Proficiency. This all comes at the same LA as the Gigantics of course. Smallfolk are straightforward getting +2 Dex and Small size for no LA. Lastly are the Trueblooded who get a nice +2 to Str, Con, and Cha, Low-Light Vision, Darkvision, and can trade Simple WP for Archaic just like the Monstrous. This all docks them a +1 LA.

Base Classes

Chapter 3 is about classes and is largely a reprint of the d20 Modern material. Not much new has been added to the base classes except for some new skills and a new ninja-y Talent tree for each that let's you pick up Sense Chakra and Suppress Chakra as Talents once you pick up the first Talent from the tree.

Strong Heroes are martial artists and swordsmen who excel at melee combat. Their new skills are Genjutsu and Taijutsu, and their new Talent Tree is (confusingly named) Taijutsu which gives a +1 to Unarmed Attack Rolls and Taijutsu skill checks per level in it and a +2 to Learn checks to learn Taijutsu at the final level. Nothing groundbreaking, but fitting with the short range focus.

Fast Heroes are acrobats and burglars who mix it up with both long and short range combat. Their new skills are Genjutsu and Taijutsu, and their new Talent Tree is Deflection which gives a +1 Deflection bonus to Defense against ranged attacks per level in it. As always, Fast heroes are the hardest to kill through sheer avoidance.

Tough Heroes are brawlers and guardians who draw on their huge Chakra Pools to win the day. Their new skills are Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, and their new Talent Tree is Stamina which gives a +5 to your Chakra Pool per level in it and a +2 to saving throws against chakra exhaustion and chakra drain at the final level. They also add the new Elements (except Holy) to their list of Resistances they can gain through the Energy Resistance tree. Tough Heroes really get a good boost thanks to the lack of guns and the Chakra system making their specialty (victory through endurance) a real possibility, but that might not be a good thing if you don't like drawn out combat.

Smart Heroes are tacticians and jutsu specialist who fight smarter instead of harder. Their new skills are Chakra Control and Ninjutsu, and their new Talent Tree is (again, confusingly named) Ninjutsu which gives a +1 to perform Ninjutsu, +2 to identify jutsu, and +2 to Reserve Chakra per level in it and a +2 to Learn checks to learn Ninjutsu and +1 to Skill Threshold with Ninjutsu at the final level. Smart Heroes are one of the most buffed classes thanks to the new jutsu system letting them easily work around their pathetic combat stats and you'll see why when we get to Chapter 10.

Dedicated Heroes are medics and scouts who make the most of their intuition. Their new skills are Chakra Control and Ninjutsu, and their new Talent Tree is (still confusingly named) Chakra Control which gives a +2 to perform Chakra Control and +2 to Reserve Chakra per level in it (although it start at +1 making it +1/+3/+5 instead of +2/+4/+6) and a +2 to Learn checks to learn Chakra Control and +1 to Skill Threshold with Chakra Control at the final level. Dedicated Heroes are similarly buffed by Jutsu but they specialize in a much less combat oriented skill and don't have awful combat stats.

Charismatic Heroes are spies and dashing rogues who rely on wit and style to pull through. Their new skills are Chakra Control and Genjutsu, and their new Talent Tree is (confusingly- you get the idea) Genjutsu which is just the Ninjutsu tree but for Genjutsu. Charismatic Heroes are reliant on Jutsu just like Smart Heroes, but they are much more Save-or-Lose about it.

Starting Occupations

Chapter 4 covers the new ninja Occupations which smart players will be taking in favor of the Modern Occupations because they hand out Chakra Skills and jutsu related Feats very liberally. There are 6 regular ninja occupations but Academy Student (you're a vanilla rookie nin) and Mentored (you got special treatment) are the best because they provide 3 Skills, a Feat, and a huge list to choose from for both. Mentored gets a slightly smaller Skill list, but a bigger Feat list and a Reputation bonus. Ninja Law Enforcement (you were raised for black ops) is similar but grants only 2 Skills in exchange for a +2 Wealth instead of a +1, Wandering Ninja (you're an Old West style drifter) does the same but gets a +2 to Rep instead of a Wealth boost, Seal Expert (Fuinjutsu expert) is extremely limited, and Ninja Technician (forgotten jutsu expert) has Skill and Feat prereqs and gives you nothing but a bonus to learning Lost jutsu.

The Clans are where things get interesting because they are Occupations that mark you as a member of a prestigious clan with Bloodline powers. I'll talk more about Bloodlines in Chapter 11, but suffice to say, they are power suites that are exclusive to certain lineages and are bought with your 1st level feat. Clan Occupations grant you bonuses to learning Clan Jutsu and let you pick up the Clan's Bloodline instead of an Occupation feat which leaves your 1st level choices wide open. The listed clans are the Fire country's Aburame (bug loving weirdos), Hyuuga (arrogant chakra damage experts) and Uchiha (copy-cat ninjas), the Earth country's Ishimaru (brutal brawlers) and Yachoumaru (defensive Earth Jutsu experts), the Lightning country's Dattoumaru (zippy taijutsu experts), the Water Country's Kaguya (berserker psychos), and the unaffiliated Fujiwara (jutsu reverse engineering experts), Kagetsuki (medical drug experts with frequent chakra disorders), and Mibu (the bad guys from Samurai Deeper Kyo). Note that the Mibu are listed as optional and that canonically the Kaguya are dead and the Uchiha are down to 2 members (both of which are named villains) but the only time canon really matters in a pre-built setting is when the GM needs to slap down munchkins.

So that was Chapters 2, 3, and 4 and by now you should see why I'm doing this on Majuju's heels. The when the next part happens will be dependent on him, and I'm sorry if I'm putting you on the spot there pal. I'm still willing to write up characters if anyone in the thread wants me to, but only if people are insistent (or bribe me). But until next time, just remember that Killa Bee is the funkiest ninja ever.

Next time: Why I don't allow d20 Flaws

AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Nov 2, 2013

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?
Alright, I get it. It was an off-hand joke anyway. Can we please focus on the write-ups?

AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Nov 2, 2013

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

AmiYumi posted:

AccidentalHipster, how impossible/boned would an attempt to create an actual/historical ninja be in Naruto d20? You know, relies on stealth and poison and distraction, and any "mystical juju" is just sleight-of-hand.

Actually, not that hard. Since this is a supplement, you could just limit the "mystical" material used to to make the character. It would be time inefficient to use mundane solutions instead of jutsu, but it would let you dodge a lot of jutsu detection moves. You can accomplish a lot with good subterfuge. This all assumes that he only handles traditionally ninja duties because he would be dead, dead, dead in a straight up fight. This a setting where the Badass Normal who uses Taijutsu exclusively can break the speed of sound.

AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Nov 2, 2013

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

scissorman posted:

How effective are poison and traps in Naruto D20?
In the manga at least e.g. the suna puppeteers can be quite deadly; combine that with tactics like Shikamaru and you should be able to take down most opponents.
Of course the S rank ninja serving as major antagonists are an exception to this, but in my opinion those break the rules anyway; to defeat them you either need to target their gimmick's weakness or come up with a more ridiculous superpower.

They're deadly as hell just like in the manga, but expensive. You need to be about level 5 and decently specialized to be able to start semi-reliably making the really good poisons, but there are ones that deal d4's of Con damage and are inhaled. Explosives (the most common trap) are much harder to make but can deal fat fistfuls of d6's with just one bomb tag and they can be stack into bundles.

AccidentalHipster fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Nov 3, 2013

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

LornMarkus posted:

Since you're in a giving mood, I'll drop my own question: do they still have that original Bloodline trait, Red Eye and True Red Eye I think they were? That was my favorite non-canon thing they had back when I read a release of the system a few years ago just because it was equal parts really nifty and insane.

Yup. The Mibu Occupation even lets you pick up either the Red Eyes or the Satori.

AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?

FourmyleCircus posted:

Always good to find another devote of the immortal vampire who ages backwards. Joseph's also the Joestar with the most screen time. His own series, a primary role in Jotaro's, and he gets several chapters of appearances(felt like half the arc, to me) of Josuke's. Actually, unless you count his influence during the Stone Ocean arc, Joseph appeared more than Dio did. Obviously, not counting New!Dio of Steel Ball Run as Dio.

Anyway, Young Joseph is... The Psi-Rat
Growing up without parents is never easy, but it's worse still when you're a second generation Psionic. If they know, no one trusts you; if they don't you have to be careful not to let the cat out of the bag. You grew up hard, on the streets and in labs. Your rich "uncle" was little more than a researcher trying to find out more about you, to use you as a weapon. Your 'kindly teacher' is prepping you to use as a war machine against Xenos unseen by the rest of the galaxy. The only person you can depend on is yourself. The only weapons you need are your fists and your mind.
And the occasional bottle of Neo Coke Classic.

Joseph really is the best Jojo. And I'm surprised that this character concept worked out so well! If it's not too much of a spoiler, can The Psi-Rat actually do Joseph's "The next thing you're going to say is" trick and if so, how?

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AccidentalHipster
Jul 5, 2013

Whadda ya MEAN ya never heard of Dan Brereton?
Despite my open hatred of The Wick, I actually used to hold him with a measure of awe. I loved the Scorpion clan so much, I heard so much good about Ven, and Blood & Honor was so fresh and well put together to me that I actually thought that his only flaw was his tone of writing. Then I bought Eldritch High and I saw the game fall apart at the seams before I even got through character creation. After that, I started wondering how things could have gone so wrong. I started reading his more controversial work and his essays on game design and very quickly those :10bux: i spent on Eldritch High felt more and more galling. At this point, I think John-boy might be his own worst enemy.

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