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theironjef posted:This isn't in the game but just so you know, there's no crude oil on this world because there were no dinosaurs. 65 million years ago there were just elves and dwarves all over the place, and naturally when they die they aren't converted to crude oil over time, but natural gas, leading to a rise in helium availability and pressurized gas as a fuel source. What I'm picturing here are regular dinosaurs, but some of them have beards and some of them have pointy ears. Tyrannodwarfus Rex. Trifairytops. Elfocoraptor.
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Aug 27, 2015 21:00
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JackMann posted:What I'm picturing here are regular dinosaurs, but some of them have beards and some of them have pointy ears. Tyrannodwarfus Rex. Trifairytops. Elfocoraptor. Exactly, also Drowthiomimus and Azerobator.
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Aug 27, 2015 21:05
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gradenko_2000 posted:I'm not really sure that that's the case - the RC weapon mastery rules are pretty much always beneficial as you get better at your weapon, but these and their AD&D representation are both bonuses and reductions to your attack roll depending on your weapon versus the target's AC, so it's really more just verisimilitude rules rather than Fighter buffs to make them really really good at killing stuff. True, RC's weapon mastery always makes you better at killing stuff, but some weapons are better against monsters or other weapon-wielders. You still get better at killing the other kind of enemy, just not quite as good. Halloween Jack posted:The most important thing is that it must have: 3. A class system calling itself something different, like "profession" or "career". 4. The wizard careers/professions will of course be able to do anything the others can, only better. 5. A contrived metaplot 6. Invincible NPCs dominating said metaplot 7. Page backgrounds that make it really hard to actually read the book. 8. No index
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Aug 27, 2015 22:01
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9. Poorly drawn cross-hatched art of big-boob elves, preferably with gears on their hats for no reason
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Aug 27, 2015 22:09
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Drawing and guessing Zener cards to activate psychic powers is the only non-lovely part of Conspiracy X's mechanics.
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Aug 27, 2015 22:12
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PantsOptional posted:9. Poorly drawn cross-hatched art of big-boob elves, preferably with gears on their hats for no reason Naw, the art should all be shittily-filtered photoshopped pictures of the authors and their friends.
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Aug 27, 2015 22:49
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PurpleXVI posted:Naw, the art should all be shittily-filtered photoshopped pictures of the authors and their friends. Go Far West with it: shittily-filtered photoshopped pictures of stolen art, copyrighted movie stills, and pictures of Legos.
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Aug 27, 2015 23:18
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Halloween Jack posted:This has been cathartic. I've been reading Conspiracy X, and I'm glad I'm not reviewing it, because it would definitely drive me to drink just like Dune's did. The second Edition revamp to Unisystem fixes oh so much of the crap. Just like what happened between Armageddon First and Second Edition.
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Aug 27, 2015 23:19
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Doresh posted:3. A class system calling itself something different, like "profession" or "career". 3a: Classes only determine the point cost/rank of skills, and their max ranks by level 3b: Meaning, every class has a table that lists every single skill 3c: Lots of typos and "design decisions" that are indistinguishable from typos 4a: Every spell is its own skill 4b: Combat is also handled via skills, but every class has the same cap on attack/defense skills so going Fighter is a dead-end 4c: Wizards get more skill points "because they have spells", but no restrictions on how they spend those points Ugh, I'm not even sure which system(s) I'm making fun of anymore. This hurts.
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Aug 28, 2015 00:02
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:The second Edition revamp to Unisystem fixes oh so much of the crap. Just like what happened between Armageddon First and Second Edition. But the skill system is loving horrible. There are like 65 skills, about 25 of which are macro-skills that require you to specialize. Overspecialized, unbalanced skill systems are probably my most hated thing in RPGs by a wide margin. There's also a Merits/Flaws system with too many "here's some free points for having a personality trait" options, but it's nowhere near as bad as the overabundance of skills. Eldritch Skies has some of these same problems, but to a much, much lesser degree.
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Aug 28, 2015 00:13
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Halloween Jack posted:I've actually only read the 2nd edition. Unisystem is a pretty good system overall. In fact, the martial arts subsystem in CX2.0 and Enter the Zombie is one of the best I've ever seen. Yeah, Eldritch Skies was based on Cineuni, for a start, which drastically cuts down on the skill list. By like 2/3rds.
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Aug 28, 2015 00:18
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theironjef posted:Man you guys are like well fertilized soil. I'm just gonna come by here later and steal all these ideas. Yup. We're all full of bullshit.
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Aug 28, 2015 00:20
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Halloween Jack posted:This has been cathartic. I've been reading Conspiracy X, and I'm glad I'm not reviewing it, because it would definitely drive me to drink just like Dune's did. Wow, how did that one slip under my radar? The Dark Eye also has more than one throwing skill! AmiYumi posted:Hey now, if we're trying to be truly awful here, the route to go is: 4d: skill "points" don't actually increasy skills, but are rather spend to grant the player an attempt at raising the skill, which involves failing on a roll with that skill 4e: There is a spell that allows you to reroll any roll, and another that lets you tweak the result. Neither makes it very clear whether they actually apply to 4d or not (To keep foreshadowing The Dark Eye, 4a and b are true for that system - except the skill cap doesn't depend on class, and wizards actually have restrictions to live with)
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Aug 28, 2015 17:35
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Well, it had to happen eventually. We're at the part of every d20 derived game that I consider the absolute doldrums, where excitement goes to die among a list of dumb fiddly bullshit. If any of you have been enjoying this review so far then please be sure to thank gradenko_2000 because if it wasn't for his willingness to do the stuff like this himself then this is probably where things would go on indefinite hiatus. Let it not be said, however, that we aren't committed to bringing you the entire unvarnished, and sometimes highly derivative, truth about Blue Rose. Help I'm Trapped In a d20 Feat Factory In Blue Rose, heroes start with 1 feat and gain another feat every level. There are 4 feat categories: General, which is available to every role, and one per role which only members of that role can take. Additionally, certain races and backgrounds have Favored Feats, or feats that they can always take regardless of their role. A hero of the Night People will always be able to take Cleave even if they're an Expert or an Adept.  So, y'know, if you really want to make a caster character using a race that gets penalties to Intelligence AND Charisma and then take Cleave instead of anything useful to the casting of spells while you're there, Blue Rose has you covered.A lot of these are bog-standard 3rd Edition feats, but I’ll try to throw in some color commentary on anything that sticks out. If things aren’t in alphabetical order, it’s because I’m rearranging them to demonstrate the prerequisite and chaining paths. Also, if some of my reactions are way more enthusiastic than they should be, chalk that up to me never actually having read through the entire 3rd Edition feat list. You lucky motherfucker.Warrior Feats Cleave - if you knock out or kill an enemy with a melee attack, you get an extra melee attack against another target in reach. Needs Power Attack (General Feat). Great Cleave - lets your successful Cleave killing blows re-trigger Cleave until you miss, until your attack doesn’t kill anyone anymore, or until you have no one else to cleave to. Needs Cleave. Diehard - when your status is changed to Dying, you automatically succeed on the Constitution check to stabilize. Rage - as a free action, fly into a berserk rage, granting you +2 Strength, +2 to Fort and Will saves, and -2 to Defense. You can’t use skills that need concentration or patience, and you can’t take 10 or 20 on checks. The rage lasts for 5 rounds, and you become Fatigued afterwards for 5 rounds. You can use Rage once a day, plus an additional use every 4th level. If you take this feat multiple times, you either gain an additional +1 to Strength and Fort and Will saves (the penalties stay the same) or extend the duration by an extra 5 rounds (and the Fatigue lasts correspondingly longer) They turned the Barbarian’s gimmick into a learnable feat! This is the sort of thing that Feats could have been doing from the get-go. One cool thing that results from Blue Rose’s modification of the attribute bonus and HP/damage system is that Rage is no longer a pain in the rear end to track. Favored Foe - pick a Narrator-approved broad category of enemies: you get a +2 bonus on Bluff, Intimidate, Notice, Sense Motive and Survival checks against them, and +2 damage when attacking them. You can take the feat multiple times, either to cover more enemy types or to boost the bonus to up to +6. They turned the Ranger’s gimmick into a learnable feat! Smite Foe - when you melee attack a target covered by your Favored Foe, you can choose to Smite, which lets you add your Charisma to the attack roll and half your total level to the damage roll. You can Smite once a day, plus an additional use every 4th level. Need Favored Foe. They turned the Paladin’s gimmick into a learnable feat! Certainly it’s interesting the way that they have “generic” classes and then turn them into more recognizable specific classes with the insertion of specific mechanics via feats. Another thing I'd like to point out is that by tying Smite to Favored Foe, it's effectively alignment-agnostic, except if you decide to make your Favored Foe to be "evil creatures"! Finishing Blow - you can perform a Coup de Grace, which is outright killing/executing a downed/unconscious/dying enemy as a standard action instead of as a full-round action. I’ve seen multiple incarnations of this feat across however many d20 versions, but never once have I really read or heard of a game where it was necessary since I imagine most tables consider 0 HP NPCs to be good-as-dead without playing out their dying “process”. Weapon Focus - choose a weapon type: you can a +1 bonus to attack rolls while using that weapon. You can take this feat multiple times to cover multiple weapon types. It’s annoying to have “Greater Weapon Focus” as the first feat to be listed ahead of “Weapon Focus”. Weapon Specialization - if you already have Weapon Focus for a weapon type, you can take this feat to gain +2 to damage rolls for that same weapon type. Needs Weapon Focus. Greater Weapon Focus - if you already have Weapon Focus for a weapon type, you can take this feat to increase the attack roll bonus to +2 for that same weapon type. Needs Weapon Focus. I get that Blue Rose characters get a lot more feats, but +1 to attack rolls? Really? Greater Weapon Specialization - if you already have Greater Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization for a weapon type, you can take this feat to gain +2 to damage rolls for that same weapon type. Needs Greater Weapon Focus. So two feats for +1 to attack rolls each, and another two for +2 to damage rolls each. Great. I feel like they could have compressed this into a single feat that you take multiple times. Woo, yeah, welcome to featsville baby! It's like it's 2005 all over again!So you've no doubt surmised by now that I think pretty poorly of d20 feats in general and stuff like this is why. I admit it's theoretically possible for someone to make feats interesting and not boring but they almost never actually do that. Instead we gets lists of titchy poo poo like Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization, and even beyond being about as exciting as filing my taxes in this particular case I feel like bog-standard D&D-derived d20 fantasy mechanics complete with comprehensive feat lists don't really do much to sell you on Blue Rose being a different sort of fantasy game when it looks, feels, and plays almost exactly like the most generic fantasy game on the market. It's not that I think Blue Rose needs to be some artsy-fartsy storygame for swine, but when I think "romantic fantasy" my first thought isn't "okay but how can I really maximize my DPS here?" Stunning Attack - when you make an unarmed attack, you can choose to forego the damage in exchange for having the target make a Fortitude save, DC 10+unarmed damage bonus. If the target fails, it’s Dazed (can take no action, but defends normally) for 1 round. If it fails by 5, it’s Stunned (can take no action, -2 Defense, no Dodge bonus to Defense) for 1 round. If it fails by 10, it becomes Unconscious. They turned the Monk’s gimmick into a learnable feat! Expert Feats Surprise Attack - gain a +2 to damage rolls when you make a Surprise Attack. You can take this feat multiple times, increasing the damage bonus by another +2 each time to a maximum of +10. The description of a Surprise Attack is when the target does not/cannot benefit from the Dodge bonus to Defense. They turned the Rogue’s Sneak Attack into a learnable feat! Unfortunately this version still carries with it the ugly 3rd Edition legacy of Surprise Attack not working against targets that are immune to it for one verisimilitudinous reason or another. Crippling Strike - when you Surprise Attack a target, they take a -1 Strength penalty. Requires Surprise Attack. And this continues ugly 3rd Edition legacies of the -1 Strength only actually making a difference to NPCs if the Narrator goes through the motions of statting them up. Deflect Arrows - once per round, you can use a free hand to deflect a ranged attack that would otherwise have hit you. You have to be aware of the attack and not flat-footed. Massive ranged weapons and ranged attacks created by arcana cannot be deflected. They took the Monk’s gimmick and turned it into a learnable feat! Evasion - effects that would be reduced to half damage on a successful Reflex save instead deal no damage. Improved Evasion - effects that would be reduced to half damage on a successful Reflex save instead deal half damage on a failed save (and no damage on a successful save). Needs Evasion. More porting over of gimmicks, this time for the Monk / Rogue. Fascinate - choose an interaction skill: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate or Perform. If your skill check succeeds against a target’s Sense Motive or Will save, you captivate them and hold their attention. Potential threats will cause additional opposed checks, while outright hostile acts will break the fascination. The fascination is maintained by standard actions and lasts for up to 5 rounds. This feat can be taken multiple times, once for each different interaction skill. Needs the character to be trained in the associated skill. Apparently this is a Bard gimmick, except in this version they let you use it with different social skills instead of just Perform. Suggest - you can use the social skill associated with the Fascinate feat you have to plant a suggestion in the fascinated target’s mind with a successful Will save. If you take this feat a second time, you can Mass Suggest, or make the same suggestion across any number of fascinated targets. Needs Fascinate. This marks the first time I run into the phrase “as the spell Fascinate”, except with Arcanum instead of spell. Improvised Tools - you can ignore the -4 penalty for using a tool-dependent skill without tools. Inspire - learning this feat lets you create different effects: Awe will Daze targets, Competence will grant a +2 skill check bonus to allies, Complacency will cause a -5 penalty to Notice and Sense Motive checks for targets, Courage will grant a +1 bonus to fear saves, attack rolls and damage to allies, Fear will cause a -2 penalty to attack rolls, skill checks and saves for targets, and Fury allows allies to Rage as if they had the talent. Needs +1 Charisma or higher. Porting over the Bard! Jack of All Trades - you can use any skill untrained, even skills that are normally defined as cannot be used untrained. Master Plan - if you have some time to prepare for a set-piece encounter, you can make a DC 10 Intelligence check. If you pass it, you get a +1 bonus to all skill checks and attack rolls during the encounter you planned for. The bonus can increase to +2 or even +3 if the result of the check is even higher. This feat will not work and you cannot take the Intelligence check for it if you are dealing with an immediate and/or unexpected situation. This is a very cool feat, one that I couldn’t find an equivalent of in the 3rd Edition PHB. It seems to be some sort of mechanical representation of the heist movie’s planning montage, with the most brainy character narrating the various steps to the job while a “hypothetical flash forward” shows them doing it. It’s probably not as good as it sounds on paper, but the sentiment is nice. This feat is, much like Conviction points, more or less a direct port from an identical feat in Green Ronin's own d20 supers game Mutants & Masterminds. I agree with the idea that it sounds better on paper than it turns out to be in practice because what it boils down to is "yet another floating +X bonus to keep track of, yay."Skill Mastery - choose 5 skills you know. You can now take 10 on skill checks for those even while you’re under pressure or distracted. This does not allow you take 10 on skill checks that completely disallow it. More skill-monkey Rogue-related shenanigans. Slow Fall - any height you fall is treated as 10 feet less for every two character levels. Needs Jump rank 5 or higher. Stunning Attack - same as the Stunning Attack feat for Warriors, but also available to Experts for Monk-like characters. Trapfinding - without this feat, your Search checks cannot find traps with a Search DC higher than 20. With this feat, your Search checks can. Without this feat, your Disable Device checks cannot disarm arcane traps. With this feat, your Disable Device checks can. This is where I wince a bit. Rogues already have this right out of the bat, but since Experts are supposed to be generic skillmonkeys, they then had to turn the ability to find traps into a feat you now have to learn and take, although at least you can have it right out the gate at level 1 with your free feats. All right, so with that out of the way let's talk some more about something that gradenko picked up on when he started this which is that Blue Rose takes a lot of 3.X class features and turns them into feats...raging, favored enemies, stunning blows, snatching arrows out of the sky, inspiring performances, etc.This sounds really rad, doesn't it? Like this is what feats should have been from the beginning. It also sounds way more flexible in terms of making the sort of character you want to make, right? The problem with this is that, if you'll recall, feats are categorized into General, Martial, Expert, and Arcane categories, and you can only take feats from the General category and the category permitted to your role...Martial for Warriors, Expert for Experts, and Arcane for Adepts. And guess what? All those awesome class-abilities-as-feats feats? Are gated away within those categories. Which means you can't make a Warrior who snatches arrows out of the air or an Adept who knows how to backstab, or a worldly bard who knows everything there is to know about defeating a particular sort of enemy. Oh, you can still pick things like that up though...through multiclassing, of course. So in PRACTICAL terms the system that Blue Rose presents isn't much more diverse or interesting than regular d20 D&D. I guess it's kinda cool maybe that you can make a martial character who rages AND smites or a bardy rogue with some monk for flavor, but in general it just comes across as a slightly more obfuscated method of arriving at the same set of conclusions as before. If you want to build a character that breaks out of the (slightly more genericized) mold then you're back to messing with multiclassing as per usual. Ultimately I feel like this was something of a missed opportunity to make a "generic d20 system" that True20 was eventually marketed under more interesting and flexible. Then again I'm not sure the best way to handle class-based RPG systems is by reducing things to a smaller number of ostensibly broader classes in the first place. There's some fiction here too but it's honestly not that interesting, there's a storm at sea and a guy is tossed overboard and thinks he's gonna drown but some sea-folk rescue him and his other crew who fell into the sea. Go sea-folk. Next Time: More feats. There’s still the Adept-specific feats and 77 other general feats.
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Aug 29, 2015 05:47
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I remember Master Plan was also a choosable class feature for Intelligence Classes back in D20 Modern, but I can't recall if that predated the Mutants &Masterminds version.
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Aug 29, 2015 05:59
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Kai Tave posted:The description of a Surprise Attack is when the target does not/cannot benefit from the Dodge bonus to Defense. They turned the Rogue’s Sneak Attack into a learnable feat! Unfortunately this version still carries with it the ugly 3rd Edition legacy of Surprise Attack not working against targets that are immune to it for one verisimilitudinous reason or another. In their defence, Blue Rose presumably doesn't assume a million billion non-organic monsters immune to ...Except for the Lich BBEG and his undead hordes. Nevermind.
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Aug 29, 2015 13:07
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Unknown Armies: Postmodern Magick Adept Rundown, part 2 Over two weeks since my last F&F entry, I'll try and get back on track after this. Now, we're into the Adepts. Since these are the adepts that didn't quite make the cut for the 2nd edition you can expect them to be a little weirder than the Adepts you've seen so far. Some were probably just cut to save page count but it's also easy to see that some just were a little bit off to begin with. Amoramancy It's the Power of Love! Amoramancy is the Byronic seducer to Pornomancy's sweaty orgy. The two schools share a fair amount in common..both are relatively subtle and strongly focused on emotional manipulation and both are ultimately about denying yourself the thing that the school seems to superficially represent. Pornomancy is all about sex with the pleasure, spontaneity and passion taken out of the equation and Amoramancy is all about making other people fall in love with you without every allowing yourself to fall in love. Amoramancy is all about romance, especially cliched storybook (or soap opera) style romance. You could think of it as the Unknown Armies equivalent of the Mortal skin from Monsterhearts: being an Amoramancer means you're motivated to get as many people as possible "hooked" on you and to string them along to draw more and more charges. Of course, although the word "love" is used, the school is really more focused on shallow crushes, infatuation and obsession. There's nothing pure and healthy here. Charging Rituals To get a minor charge you must successfully flirt with someone. Successful, in this case, means that you get a positive response from the "target"...it doesn't have to go anywhere, it just has to be positively received. If that were all there was to it then an attractive Amoramancer would probably have the "best" charging option out of all adepts when it comes to the intersection of "safe" and "easy"...unfortunately there's some conditions that (depending on your GM) can really throw a kink in the process. You see, it's not enough to get a positive response it must be based on emotional or intellectual attraction...it's not enough for a hot adept to go up to a target and get them to buy him/her a drink...you've got to actually engage them on a deeper level than purely physical attraction. Depending on the GM this may still be extremely easy (if say you've got a Soul based skill like "Intriguingly Mysterious" or something) or it could be very annoying. Also, no getting more than one minor charge per month from the same person. A Significant charge requires you to get someone infatuated with you. Basically, get them to agree to go on a date with you (or get them attracted enough that they would, even if you never actually go out). Downside...you can't get more than one significant charge per 3 months from the same person and, again, it can't be a purely "lust" based attraction. A Major charge requires you to get someone to actually fall in love with you. Basically, get them willing to marry you. Needless to say, you can't get more than one major charge off the same person. This is relatively easy (in comparison to other major charging rules) but the downside comes with the adept's taboo...if you're going to work someone for that Major charge then you've got to cultivate your relationship with them while, at the same time, at least flirting with others on a regular basis. Although the knee-jerk reaction might be to assume that female Amoramancers have an easier time of things the opposite is actually true. It's probably quite a pain being a female Amoramancer because you've got to make sure that you're only "fishing" for emotional connections while filtering out all the guys who just want to get in your pants (and are thus useless for charging). A PUA is probably the "best" Amoramancer, assuming any of their BS holds any water at all, rather than someone who is more conventionally "sexy". Amoramancers have a bit of an annoying time with Minor charges...it's safe but charging still requires a lot of effort and GM "permission". They really shine with the Significant charges though...a skilled Amoramancer can probably harvest a generous bounty of significant charges per month and they rarely have a problem keeping them long-term. The only real risk is if they decide they want to go for a Major charge...and even that is orders of magnitude easier than most other Adepts (excepting the Epideromancer). Taboo The Amoramancer's taboo is love and monogamy. Actually falling in love is, of course, a no-no and will violate your taboo. Of course, falling in love is a bit hard to represent mechanically so there's a simpler side to it...you can't be exclusive with one person (either romantically or purely for charging purposes) for more than one month. You have to at least harvest minor charges from others. Obviously, the amoramancy taboo is pretty darn easy to follow so long as you aren't gunning for that Major charge and you can basically harvest Minor and Significant charges with impunity without worrying about breaking taboo so long as you make sure not to "hook" anyone too dangerous or powerful. Speed dating and singles nights are your greatest weapons. Amoramancy Spells Amoramancy focuses on emotion-based magick: obsession, love, hate, etc and as a result also includes communication and passion in more abstract ways (stirring speeches, getting ignored in the right circumstances, etc). Check Me Out (minor) Everyone stares at you for 30 seconds. Violence or similar intensely important events can break the spell but otherwise all eyes are on you. I'm The One (minor) If someone is looking for someone they've never met before then this spell will cause them to believe that you are that person. The deception lasts until the true person arrives or until you reveal that you aren't the person they want. If you know that a place is expecting a delivery, repairman, etc then this spell gives you a great "in". Instant Wallflower (minor) The polar opposite of the Check Me Out spell, causing everyone to overlook you. This isn't invisibility (or even a true SEP field-effect)...for instance a guard will still stop you from going into a restricted area without proper ID...but they won't notice if you're hanging around at the door filming the place or taking notes on anyone walking in. Even if you draw attention (say be initiating violence) this spell ensures that no one will be able to remember details about your appearance later on. Can I Borrow That (minor) Probably my favorite Minor spell (and frankly it should probably be Significant), this spell lets you convince just about anyone to let you borrow just about anything. You need an excuse for why you're borrowing it (but it doesn't need to be a good one) and it'll let you convince a stranger to lend you their car, or even their driver's license or credit cards. However, there is an assumption that the item will be returned so naturally they'll want some of your information as well (name, phone number, address) but that is all easily faked. The only real limit is that it won't work for extremely important or secure items (police won't let you borrow the key to a jail cell for instance) or anything that the target is currently using (you can't just flag someone down in the middle of the road and talk them out of their car). Love Hurts (Significant) The Amoramancy blast. There's no Minor version, instead the significant blast only inflicts Minor damage (sum of the two dice). The Blast inflicts a minor "heart attack" and triggers deep emotions in the target forcing them to either flee from your presence or take a -20% to physical actions for 5 rounds. If you have already used the victim to get a charge then the blast inflicts full significant damage (equal to the skill roll). Amoramancers make good "black widows", obviously. Who's That (significant) Everyone who interacts with you for the next hour sees you as fascinating and charismatic. Everyone is willing to talk to you and, with a good story or excuse, will probably go out of their way to help you with any reasonable favors. You're My Obsession (significant) The target of the spell becomes totally obsessed with you, turning them into an instant stalker. They are desperate to meet with you face to face (the obsession isn't specifically sexual or even romantic...they need to see and speak with you but the actual context is irrelevant). If you inflict the obession and prevent them from having any chance of meeting you then the spell inflicts a Rank-5 Self check. The spell lasts a month or until the subject manages to meet with you. Please Protect Me (significant) The "white knight" spell. The subject will protect you from any threat. They aren't under your control...you can't command them to do anything in particular or turn on their allies but they will defend you...reacting aggressively to threats or insults and with deadly force to actual assault. The spell lasts 30 minutes but requires skin contact to initiate. Amoramancy Major Effects Change how everyone feels about a single person (including public figures). You can turn anyone into an instant celebrity or totally destroy someone's reputation or standing Make one request of anyone. Create true love (or break it). Turn anyone into a willing slave. Honestly, given how easy it is to get Major charges for Amoramancers, they've got some drat powerful Major effects.  Hi, I forgot your name/Whatever/My point is/Hi, your head's on fire Annihilomancy Annihilomancy is all about breaking things down and destroying them. It's a bit more philosophical than it sounds...the goal is the destruction of "baggage" whether it be physical, emotional or personal. Think of it as a kind of...aggressive quasi-Buddhism. Or reverse Buddhism. Rather than seeking the destruction of the "self" they seek to understand the "self" by destroying anything in their life (or your life for that matter) that is "other". The net result is an adept who's probably on the fastest route to self destruction of any school out there...even the Entropomancer isn't likely to burn their life to shreds at the same rate as an Annihilomancer. It's also one of the toughest to justify as a PC...when your entire character is built on the concept of destroying all connections, possessions and relationships you tend to not play well with others. The paradox of annihilomancy is that their entire philosophy is focused on the worthlessness of connections and emotional attachment to objects but those same emotional connections are the source of their power. An annihilomancer who has successfully turned their life to ash has nothing left to power their magick. Charging Ritual To get a minor charge you have to destroy an object of minor emotional significance: cutting up a shirt you like or burning a photo of someone you care about. You can also sever a minor emotional connection such as ending a casual friendship. It doesn't matter how harsh the ending is, but it has to be complete and the friend must clearly understand that they aren't a part of your life anymore. Like the entropomancer these acts must be done for the sake of charging up: if you leave behind your favorite pair of shoes when running from a burning building or a relationship ends because you're a lovely friend then it doesn't count. For a significant charge you have to wreck something of great emotional value: your favorite book, every copy of the screenplay you've been writing, your wedding ring. This can also include items which, although they might not have a direct emotional connection, are likely to cause an intense feeling of loss or dramatically affect your life, such as destroying your car (assuming you aren't rich enough to casually replace it). Wrecking major relationships also counts: breaking up with a girlfriend, spouse or life-long friend or becoming completely alienated from a family member. Wrecking a career or future works as well. Even better, you aren't limited to your own things either! Needless to say, an Annihilomancer who doesn't care about being caught can rack up a truly ungodly amount of charges with even a small amount of arson. A wise GM would probably rule that you have to knowingly destroy a specific object to gain a charge: you can burn down someone's house for a significant charge but you won't get the several dozen significant charges from destroying the victim's possessions unless you know exactly what is in his home and what is valued. The Major charge is for the utter destruction of every part of your life: no possessions, no friendships, new town, new name. The works. This can also be inflicted on others: cut them off from everyone and everything they ever knew and get a major charge. Killing someone doesn't count. Interestingly enough an Annihilomancer who smuggles immigrants or assists people in changing identities might actually get paid to harvest a Major charge from someone, so long as the process is complete enough. Taboo The Annihilomancer cannot work to stop entropy. If your house catches fire you can't put it out. If your computer gets infected with a virus you can't clean it. No oil changes or repairs for your car. no cleaning your gun. etc. The upside is that this only applies to objects: you can help patch up a friend or get your appendix removed without busting taboo. Annihilomancy Spells Obviously Annhilomancy is about tearing stuff down...but specifically its about destruction for the sake of purification or revelation. Clutter Buster (minor) Anything "worthless" (ie with no emotional value at all) bursts into bright flame and is then extinguished. This affects everything within 20 feet of the adept, including their own possessions. The text is unclear on whether or not the fire actually inflicts damage or is capable of spreading beyond the objects to be affected. The Facts Laid Bare (minor) By performing a simple divining ritual (the example given is writing a question on a piece of paper and then burning it to allow the ashes to form the answer) you can get a one-word answer to a single question. This is one of those spells that seems minor at first glance but a little thought reveals this spell is waaay overpowered. Any player with good sense can cut through tons of mysteries and problems with just a few castings of this spell. Lesser Cleansing (minor) The Annihilomancer minor Blast. This spell can't be targeted, instead it causes all objects of emotional significance within 10 feet (+5 feet per additional minor charge) to catch fire and burn. The actual description is unfortunately vague on how much damage this actually inflicts (simply stating it varies depending on what catches fire) but in many circumstances this is a pretty solid death sentence. Unfortunately the adept's possessions are also affected, so make sure you don't have anything on you that you care about. Feed The Fire (significant) This spell is intentionally vague, but is described as "escalating" any acts of destruction or chaos. A minor argument becomes a fist fight, a broken glass sprays shards into someone's eye, a flat tire turns into a pile-up. Although its understandable why this would be vague it really seems like it should have at least some guidelines for the effect it might have on combat...it's hard not to see it being dramatic but no guidelines are given. Purification (significant) This significant Blast spell is actually...almost identical to the minor blast. The range is doubled (20 ft +10 ft/sig charge) but the damage is still "varies depending on what inanimate objects flame up next to them or on them". Guidelines would be nice. Weight of the World (significant) This spell is a bit goofy. Anything of zero emotional value becomes magnetically attracted to the target. No duration or exact effect is given, but it's noted that it could be quite dangerous in a junkyard or near a large amount of trash or generic consumer goods. Pants on Fire (significant) For one day the target is unable to conceal anything from the person that trusts them the most. The target can tell lies, and everyone other than the trusted individual will hear what they're saying but the one that trusts them will hear whatever the truth is. Annihilomancy Major Effects Level an area the size of a city block. The only other example would be starting a cult related to the tenents of annihilomancy which seems...counter to the school's theme. Creating something, even something dedicated to destruction, doesn't seem to fit well. Those are the only examples given. All in all, it doesn't seem like enough work went into Annihilomancy's spells if you ask me. Anyway, next time we'll cover Cryptomancy and Iconomancy. Both are pretty lengthy so I'll try and fit them into one update but no guarantees.
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Aug 29, 2015 14:22
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occamsnailfile posted:Rifts Dimension Book 3: Phase World Sourcebook Part 6: The flag of this space nation is best represented by airbrushing on the side of a van It really is, the UWW is like "generic space guys, only with pointed ears and maybe one casting fireball instead of having a gun". So basically Shadowrun, but in space.  Yeah, I've mentioned it before, but the UWW sourcebook they were supposed to get is one of those hilariously lost books of the Rifts line, where to the point it's been given a place in the order of books (it's Dimension Book 9) but never came out, so years later, they're up to Dimension Book 14 and the series just skips from 8 to 10. One would think it would be easier to just slot an upcoming book as 9 and call it a day, but I guess that would break whatever numerological ritual Palladium is working out.
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Aug 29, 2015 15:39
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So with every adventure in Age of Worms, the writer trades off. So... yeah, things are going to vary pretty strongly from one update to another. While The Whispering Cairn had a very structured, if insane, plot and site-based obstacles, this next one is a bit more open and has a lot more contingencies, which make trying to run it without making a lot more notes about what's going on difficult. Oh, and one last thing before I launch the review proper: a correction. Balabar Smenk is not the mine owner, he just wanted the necromancer he was buddies with to go check out Dourstone Mine. Age of Worms, Three Faces of Evil  So, as the party finally recovers from their journey to the Whispering Cairn, Dom skims the background information silently for a few minutes, then calls for a Knowledge (religion) check. Thanks to some miracle, the party puts out a 30 result, and are informed of the following things about the Ebon Triad cult:
So... we know out of the gate that this cult can't do what their goal is. Yay. There's a DC35 result, too, but this is an adventure for level TWO PCs. You have to do some serious optimization work to get a 35 at level 2. As Dom finally finishes reading three pages of unknowable backstory and begins play, the party aren't particularly sure of what to do. One guy around town leaving a note to a buddy that they murdered somehow didn't provide them enough incentive to go break into a fairly miserable mine. Upon prompting, the party goes back to the necromancer's tower, grab a jar with a green worm in it, and take it back to Wally's mentor. Allustan, a level 8 wizard, fails to actually act much on this, instead merely telling them that the worm is connected to weird undead and a temple buried underneath the Dourstone Mine and asking them to do something about it. Plans to do this derail when Roger meets up with Tirra, the elven rogue of the rival adventuring team that I totally didn't just dismiss as "Love Interest" before. Why, the whole team is so relevant that I'm not sure if they're ever actually mentioned again beyond "you should totally make them your own!" again until the fifth adventure (out of twelve total, recall). We'll see. Anyway, roleplaying ensues, a week passes, and Smenk gets annoyed that the PCs are ignoring his plotline, so he has a subordinate sneak into Wally's house and kidnap the Then Allustan tells the PCs that there's an elevator in the mine, and that's the fastest way to the Temple. Actually, that's presumably part of the initial appeal to them, but this is the order it was written in the magazine. So. Kidnapped familiar. Meet with Smenk. Roger suggests they might ask Tirra and her friends to help. Everyone looks at him blankly. He suggests maybe Allustan could help, then? ... ... Actually, maybe it should just be the three of us.  The heroes arrive to see Smenk. Smenk gives back Wally's self-propelled class feature, telling the PCs that he's terrified of the Ebon Triad. They murdered his right-hand man and snuck the guy's head into Smenk's bed. His bluster serves to suggest he's mildly more noble than this omnicidal cult, and the PCs should go investigate their temple and put a stop it it. Finally, the heroes get the idea. At least this adventure realized it needed more reason to draw PCs in than the last one, and took the time to give several possibilities. I appreciate that. Anyway, it's time to go to Dourstone Mine. Dom is slighly at a loss for the next scene, as it's meant to be "relatively free-form". The heroes need to figure out how to get past (small, infrequent, easily-bribed) patrols, avoid having the (pathetically poor and largely indifferent) miners turn them in and get to the elevator in the mine. Today, the PCs are in a fairly noble mood, so for less than the price of that partially-charged wand of unseen servant I didn't even feel like explicitly mentioning last adventure, they reach the elevator.  The elevator has a lot of rules about how it moves for... no real reason I can see. After the heroes work out the math to see how quickly they can ride down, they find a pair of bored tiefling guards who assumed there wasn't going to be any trouble and who have +0 will and 1 HD. The party chops them down. For some reason, the adventure includes tactical plans of the tieflings, but... they're probably the second- or third-easiest fight in the entire campaign. Now they look around and see they're in a cavern with exits N, W, E. There is a pool of water here. No, hold on, this isn't a text adventure. Even if the heroes didn't have an everburning lantern looted from the Whispering Cairn (in a fetching shade of green), they are not going to be eaten by a grue. The adventure opens up again here. Technically. The three exits lead to the three component temples of the Ebon Triad, and we're totally not sitting in a boss room right now. Miraculously, the PCs (at Cleo's suggestion) end up taking the temples in the order given in the magazine. They crack open the Temple of Hextor first, without using the secret knock. And here... Dom's brow furrows very deeply. This is area 2, but thanks to a typo, it says that the cultists in area 2 arrive in area 2 in 1d4 rounds, but no cultists are in area 2. They probably mean area 3, as there are cultists there. That's not the only problem. The "cultists" arrive, but also missing is the count of how many cultists there are beyond "a large group". Literally the only way I can find to figure out how many there should be is to work backwards from the total encounter level for the area. So there's probably six. Or possibly nine, given how CR is often eyeballed in this magazine. Two more tieflings back them up, if either one can swing a DC 9 Listen check. So that's sixteen-ish foes and not a lot that can be done to minimize that unless the PCs know the secret knock. We haven't seen where to maybe get a secret knock yet. Spoilers: I have no idea where you could even potentially learn that, so I don't know why it was mentioned. At least they fight stupidly, since the cultists intentionally do things like "jump on PC swords to provoke an attack of opportunity so another cultist can grapple them" or the tieflings throwing a total of two coins with Darkness cast on them at a party that has three everburning lanterns to cancel them out. Thanks to this display of military competence, the party wipes out the foemen by standing in the ten-foot-wide corridor and probably just casting burning hands and/or sleep. If any of the humans or tieflings escape, they'd let out the dire boar that's all set up to do a Bloodborne impression towards the PCs, but let's be serious for a minute. Dom is getting increasingly puzzled by the location-based instructions here, as each one mentions its contained threat, then says the PCs are unlikely to meet them there, because they would already be doing something further, and the editing does not help. For instance, area 7 says it's a barracks for the guards in area 5. Area 5 only contains the dire boar. Cripes. Pressing on, the PCs kill a married couple of clerics, then the zombies that the wife called before being killed herself. Roger manages to flub another DC 26 trap and get himself blasted in the face again a room further. At least he swings the DC 20 Open Lock check to get into the boss room. The boss, a 5th level cleric named Theldrick, accuses the party of breaking and entering and also wanton murder. The adventure points out he's right. He's not doing anything illegal! The point of this was to give his followers a chance to set up their defenses, but that was all predicated on them not employing excessively bad tactics and getting themselves killed right away like the tactics section leaves them prone to, so he's the only one left and eventually he evils out and they can get to the killing. He's probably the nastiest fight the party has yet faced, but is eminently a reasonable challenge. Once he's dispatched, they get into his notes. Dom calls for the DC 40 Decipher Script check to read them. The party glares at him. Perhaps they can find a code book somewhere else, Cleo suggests. The last room in this temple is a big ol' arena where the Hextorites would try to trap the PCs before crossbowing them from safety. But it's at least as easy to sidestep it and go through the order I presented it all in.  Well, that's one temple down! On to the next, so we can meet the Gorons... er, sorry. Erythnul's temple. The main foes here are grimlocks who try to knock out the party's light sources. They have an everburning lantern apiece. The only other threat of note is a fairly neat part that demands the PCs manage a climb while they might be pelted with arrows, unless they can work around it by going another route. The treasure is pretty much just money and the foes and challenges fairly straightforward. The PCs might wear down here, but otherwise this is just a selection of combat encounters to work through. Erythnul's cleric isn't going to be a problem if Theldrick wasn't. On to the most interesting of the three. Vecna's temple is a labyrinth filled with secret doors that Vecna worshippers can automatically detect and swing open/shut. The party gets to be ambushed and take the long way around, but in a fairly mappable, understandable, and sortable way. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I have nothing against this dungeon, especially since the DM is encouraged to keep his own map and track how the four enemy groups move through it. Eventually, the party will get to work through the Vecna acolytes and come face-to-face with the current big bad that... they couldn't possibly have heard of before.  As a 6th level wizard with lots of summon monster III, The Faceless One is a fairly hefty fight, and has the best loot of any of the temples, by a wide margin. Also, hey, he has a codebook that lets them read that scroll they couldn't before!  Also then it's time for a boss fight, as the Ebon Aspect, a lesser version of the impossible goal of the Ebon Triad, clambers out of the boss fight room's pool and throws down with the heroes as basically a berserker with large size. The only weird wrinkle of the fight is that if the heroes take too much time to get back to the boss fight room, it smashes the elevator up, which... seems to trap the heroes? Like, there's no other exit, and no one would ever check here, and the next adventure assumes you're out of the mine. Let's assume that doesn't happen, shall we? Instead, let's conclude with our writer's (auto?)biography: 
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Aug 29, 2015 16:51
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Does Age of Worms keep bringing up Kyuss? Because the soundtrack that conjures in my mind has a very different tone than the adventures.
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Aug 29, 2015 17:14
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Kai Tave posted:
The fact that this isn't tied to monk level and instead your damage bonus has turned this feat from 'Ancient kung-fu secrets' to 'a heightened tactical awareness of any and all opportunities to kick bad guys in the dick'.
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Aug 29, 2015 17:18
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RandallODim posted:Does Age of Worms keep bringing up Kyuss? Because the soundtrack that conjures in my mind has a very different tone than the adventures. Well, that band named themselves after an AD&D monster called the Son of Kyuss that's a zombie filled with writhing green worms, so you can probably guess where this is going.
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Aug 29, 2015 17:40
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RandallODim posted:Does Age of Worms keep bringing up Kyuss? Because the soundtrack that conjures in my mind has a very different tone than the adventures. Yes, we're going to hear about Kyuss a time or two more. I hadn't heard of the band, but... well, you're going to have the whole thing stuck in your head in a bit.
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Aug 29, 2015 17:47
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Lurks With Wolves posted:Well, that band named themselves after an AD&D monster called the Son of Kyuss that's a zombie filled with writhing green worms, so you can probably guess where this is going. I honestly didn't know that's where the name came from. Learn something new every day! Now, how much of this adventure path is now going to be 'hey there's another undead out there with a worm in it, go hunt 'em down and kill 'em before the wacko cultists can'? ZeeToo posted:Yes, we're going to hear about Kyuss a time or two more. I hadn't heard of the band, but... well, you're going to have the whole thing stuck in your head in a bit. If it means reading more of these adventure summaries, I'm entirely on board. I hope to see plenty more of Balabar Smenk, Portraited and Not Dead NPC.
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Aug 29, 2015 17:49
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Being sick continues to loving suck, but I'm keeping to my once a month posting schedule? The Pack: Loyalty asks no questions quote:Inside the abandoned warehouse, a babble of cheers and hisses competed with the snarling of dogs. Smoke hung heavy in the air, mixing with the air of man-sweat and dog-blood. It is worth noting that this chapter, unlike the ones we've had so far, wasn't written by Brucato, but instead Jackie Cassada, who's a fairly prolific main line White Wolf writer. Though her writing chops tend towards Mage nowadays than Werewolf. So the content's more well written but also still somewhat reprehensible cause, well, it's this book. Behold the Beast: The Canine-shifters, unsurprisingly, live in packs. "They embody the phrase 'to protect and to serve' with every fiber of their being, for frew enemies can stand up to these ferals' united strength." That's... no? I'm pretty sure the point of that motto is that a smaller force stands to protect a larger one, not everyone standing together. Did you mean "United we stand, divided we fall?" They, of course, resemble werewolves, but they "Bear no curse other than those they place on themselves" because gently caress werewolves, right? "The Canidae do not come to human commands, they do not fetch or sit or stay." except when the group explicitly devoted to protecting humans is described later in the chapter. quote:Whatever their origins, Pack ferals have kept track of their human and animal kin throughout the long centuries. Lately, though, these ferals have had cause for concern with the growing instability of Man. As environmental ruin shrinks the habitats of wolves and hyenas, draconian legislation seek to “neuter” the warrior blood in canine species by making certain “gladiator dogs” illegal even to breed. As always, Man seeks to remake the world in his image. And now, even his deepest companions wonder if the time has come for Man to fall. . . . "If Man’s so quick to spay and neuter his territorial competition, some ferals snarl, why can’t Man spay and neuter his own kind?" Ahh Eugenics, that old chestnut. quote:Stereotypes Here we have the accord descriptions, unsurprisingly the den-warden description is basically "COP COP COP COP COP COP COP COP COP" over and over again.  Maerans: The Faithful The most numerous of the Pack, Maerans have lived side by side with humans since man first domesticated a dog. They rarely reveal their true form to their non-shifter companions but people tend to notice something is different about them, and they usually possess an inner strength that catapults them into positions of leadership. They attach themselves to a person or a group and treat them like pack, whether or not they realize that they have the dog-blood's loyalty. The Maerans are incomplete without something to be loyal to. They detest being truly alone, and try to keep another person or animal around them at all times. Some will even struggle to keep a cat nearby, but even Bastet shy away from the dog-bloods. And yes, the "Dog-Blood" does appear to have a pedigree, if your grandfather was a bull mastiff you're probably going to turn into one too. Appropriately, most Maerans are 'old world' breeds, Elkhounds, Wolfhounds, Wild dogs, basenji. Though the occasional German Shepherd, pit bull, bulldog, saint bernard, or collie will show up. Either through their close spiritual association with humanity or "Rumored Bestial Couplings" hooray! Bestialty my old friend, I missed you after the entire chapter of loving insufferable assholes. "Chihuahuas, however, remain unknown among the changing breeds, which is probably for the best." Appearance: In human form, Maerans favor the breed of dog they will eventually become. A statuesque man with keen eyes and thick hair will become a wolfhound. A whipcord-thin dogblood with a sprinters build will become a grayhound. It also seems to follow ethnic lines as well(because racism) so German Shepherds look like a Nazi's dream, Irish people are always Wolfhounds, and "Bulldog ferals seem inescapably English" Their primal forms resemble their mortal stock in everything but size, even the smallest dog is large in this form, and something like a Tibetan mastiff would probably crush a man's windpipe with their paw. Their war-form is a werewolf.. except a dog. Background: Most Maerans pursue vocations that place them in the company of others, teachers, security guards, policeman, or soldiers. Some are hunters, bringing home food for the table. Others use their talent for leadership to form gangs or cults. Breed Favors: Fang and Claw (Bite) 2(L), Keen Senses, Speed 8 Breed Bonus: They gain a free Keen Sense aspect, and their primal forms are usually well accepted in man's world. Form Adjustments: War Beast: Str+2, Dex+1, Sta+1, Size 6, Health+2, Speed+3, +2 to Perception Rolls Primal Beast: Dex+1, Sta+1, Size 4, Speed+4, +4 to Perception Rolls, Lethal damage with bite attack Unsurprisingly, they're substantially weaker werewolves with no real upside. Also they're entirely devoted to humanity and seem to rarely run in packs of their own, going against everything written in the preceding blurbs!  Riantes: The Laughing Ones Hyenas, Yup. They're scavengers living off the scraps of society and rarely leaving their own social groups except to forage. They hide their bitterness in caustic laughter and bury their tears in scorn and disdain for that which they cannot have. Within their own bands they're gentle child rearers and protectors of their young. Most project a furtive hungry aura that keeps others away but some are passionate, charismatic and witty. As humans they live just above the poverty line or far below it. Some have proven successful and live in desert palaces rival those of human sheikhs. In Africa though, hyenas are treated with the same disdain that some European cultures hold for the black cat. Some older cults revered the Hyena, but nowadays most claims of Hyena blood are put to a swift and bloody test. Appearance: Wiry to the point of boniness, males are only slightly better than females. The females are lithe and graceful and sexually attractive to humans of both sexes (because of course they are). They're almost exclusively african or indian, and their hair varies from dark gold to rusty red. In western africa red hair is a often a sign of Hyena blood. Their primal form is a giant loving Hyena, no surprise. And their war beat form is, well, that thing up there. Background: Riantes tend to undergo their first change in late adolescence, though they may show signs far before that. A partial change for an instant, mocking laughter from a toddler. Some pariah families welcome these signs as a show that they have a new protector. Others try to drive the demons out of their children, or simply kill it themselves. Very occasionally they will bring their children to shamans or witches, offering to bind the hyena to them for bribes or services. Because of course there are shamans and witches in Africa. quote:Among African Riantes, males and females tend to deal with each other on equal footing. Homosexual pack-bonds are common among this breed. In India most Riante packs favor female leadership instead, and the Gift passes easily between mothers and daughters. In many cases Riantes arise from lower-class families; a few wealthy packs, however, exist in the Middle East and especially in India. (one up-and-coming oil dynasty is said to bear hyenas in its midst Breed Favors: Fang and Claw (bite) 2(L), Keen Senses, Speed 8 Breed Bonus: A free keen sense aspect, as per usual, and one free dot in crafts? Form Adjustments: War Beast: Str+3, Dex+1, Sta+3, Size 6, Health+4, Speed+3, +2 to Perception Primal Beast: Str+1, Dex+1, Sta+2, Size 4, Health +1, Speed+4, +3 to Perception Rolls Not much to say, they're werewolves with some of the numbers shuffled around. More importantly there's very little reason for them to ever interact with humanity to a level that would actually make for interesting storytelling beyond making GBS threads on their lawns because gaia demands it. Vargr: The Forgotten The Vargr.... exist. They're Were-wolves that aren't Werewolves. Their blurb is basically "They don't know where they came from, they have no claims to father wolf, most of them are lone hunters and almost all of them are Sun-Chasers". They're basically just here because you can't have a game with shapeshifting animal people without having wolves, but they're ridiculously redundant compared to the Uratha and decidedly so. Appearance: Because they don't get a war form or primal form, instead they only have a dire beast form. They can come from any nationality. Background: They have no common background! The first change can occur whenever it loving wants! They're all unique and loners! Breed Favors: Fang and Claw (Bite)2(L) (Claw)1(L), Keen Sense, Speed 8 Breed Bonus: They have a free keen sense aspect! Form Adjustment: Str+2, Dex+2, Sta+2, Size 5, Health+2, Speed+5, +4 to Perception Rolls. Seriously why are they here. Other Species: Warrigal: The Singing Ones A Dingo is my Baby! quote:Born in the Dreamtime, where forms shift and change, where human spirit and animal spirit meet and consume one another, the dog-headed children crept into the world from the shadow of the red rock. They sang, and their songs drew forth dog from human and human from dog. Seeing this as a sign from beyond, the people raised them as their own. They utterly shun society and never interact with it. Only going through their Aboriginal intermediaries. When breeding they have sex in all combinations of their avaliable forms to maximixe the chance of a Warrigal birth. And they probably kill the children that don't breed true. Breed Favors: Fang and Claw (bite)2(L), Keen Senses, Speed 8 Breed Bonus: A FREE KEEN SENSE ASPECT! WOWEE!, and one dot in survival. Form Adjustments: War Beast: Str+1, Dex+1, Sta+2, Size 5, Health+2, speed+3, +2 to Perception Rolls Primal Beast: Dex+1, Sta+1, size 3, Speed+4, +4 to Perception Rolls, Lethal bite The math here only makes sense if humans are size 4 for some reason. Also why the gently caress do these exist. Seriously most of the pack chapter is written from the point of view of "LOOK AT HOW TERRIBLE HUMANS ARE TO DOGS! DOGS SHOULD RISE UP AGAINST THEIR OPPRESSORS!" and then only 1 of the four breeds presented is dogs, and the dogs are fanatically loyal to humans. Of the other ones, two don't even interact with human society and the other one is a token hand-out to wolf otherkin. Up Next: Monkey shifters, and me asking even more why the gently caress does this exist.
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Aug 29, 2015 18:26
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quote:Stereotypes If there's anything dumb I'll put in my own game, it'll be the useless faux-badass "pithy" opinions that every race has about every other race thing White Wolf does.
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Aug 29, 2015 18:55
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Kurieg posted:And yes, the "Dog-Blood" does appear to have a pedigree, if your grandfather was a bull mastiff you're probably going to turn into one too. Appropriately, most Maerans are 'old world' breeds, Elkhounds, Wolfhounds, Wild dogs, basenji. Though the occasional German Shepherd, pit bull, bulldog, saint bernard, or collie will show up. Either through their close spiritual association with humanity or "Rumored Bestial Couplings" hooray! Bestialty my old friend, I missed you after the entire chapter of loving insufferable assholes. I actually kinda like this, except for the ethnic poo poo. The human form resulting in the dog breed, I mean. German Shepherds are a modern invention, thanks in part to Germans standardizing breeds to create a perfect working dog in the 1890s, so result of a eugenics campaign might kinda fit, although I'm sure that being bred to be a slave dog would appeal to Nazis. Also, Ireland is home to a whole bunch of dog breeds, so you'd think most Irish would end up being Irish Red & White Setters or Irish Lurchers.
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Aug 29, 2015 18:56
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Young Freud posted:I actually kinda like this, except for the ethnic poo poo. The human form resulting in the dog breed, I mean. You'd think that, but that's because you're putting WAY more thought into this than the authors did.
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Aug 29, 2015 22:50
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theironjef posted:If there's anything dumb I'll put in my own game, it'll be the useless faux-badass "pithy" opinions that every race has about every other race thing White Wolf does. Totally forgot about those. They definitely need to be in there. Any game can only benefit from them. Heck, I'd almost make a D&D hearbreaker whose only new additions are those opinions. Though I fear the non-spellcasters will have trouble being badass when the spellcasters can just go "Well, you're pretty sneaky/fightery and all, but I have a spell that does what you do, only better". If the heartbreaker leans towards AD&D, there's totally going to be opinions of the demi-humans dissing the humans because they're too dumb to multi-class. Gotta throw them some bone. And whenever a class is supposed to give their opinion about bards, no one will have anything to say because nobody has ever seen a bard. Doresh fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Aug 30, 2015 |
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Aug 30, 2015 00:20
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Punting posted:You'd think that, but that's because you're putting WAY more thought into this than the authors did. I always love it when someone says that, because I just read a Wikipedia article on German Shephards and did a Google search on dogs common to Ireland but not just Irish wolfhounds before coming up with that. Also, even with the racist breeds, I totally love the idea of some Pashtun dogblood transforming from grimy mujaheddin-looking dude into an Afghan hound with long flowing blonde hair.
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Aug 30, 2015 00:24
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The Vargr fake-wolves are the most interesting idea in this book so far and they're totally squandered by the author. What's it like to be a werewolf but know for a fact that there are other, better, actual werewolves out there that you're a cheap copy of?
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Aug 30, 2015 00:30
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Kellsterik posted:The Vargr fake-wolves are the most interesting idea in this book so far and they're totally squandered by the author. What's it like to be a werewolf but know for a fact that there are other, better, actual werewolves out there that you're a cheap copy of? And how does it feel to be part of Mother Nature's revenge against humanity when you're based on animals that were essentially "created" by humans?
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Aug 30, 2015 00:49
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Young Freud posted:I always love it when someone says that, because I just read a Wikipedia article on German Shephards and did a Google search on dogs common to Ireland but not just Irish wolfhounds before coming up with that. And you're still putting way more thought into it than the writer did.
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Aug 30, 2015 00:49
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Doresh posted:And how does it feel to be part of Mother Nature's revenge against humanity when you're based on animals that were essentially "created" by humans? I'm still reasonably certain that the rules for the fury were put in at the 11th hour because someone realized they had completely forgotten to include any kind of conflict generation mechanic, or indeed anything for the Shifters to do. They don't mesh well with anything else in the book and are fairly detrimental to play depending on how rigidly they're enforced. "Guys, I know we need to do this thing tonight. But some guy just did a doughnut in the parking lot in front of me so I have to go defile his wife and poo poo on his lawn." chiasaur11 posted:And you're still putting way more thought into it than the writer did. And this as well, when the Hyeaenids are included with the Canines but the Fox is not you know you've screwed up somewhere. When your Raccoons turn into giant bear-men, even though they're only barely more related to bears than they are to dogs..and in fact are more closely releated to weasels and loving seals then you need to rethink decisions that you have made.
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Aug 30, 2015 01:02
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Kurieg posted:and in fact are more closely releated to weasels and loving seals A dude with a Leopard Seal head is something I ain't fighting. Those things are serious business.
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Aug 30, 2015 01:27
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Kurieg posted:It is worth noting that this chapter, unlike the ones we've had so far, wasn't written by Brucato, but instead Jackie Cassada, who's a fairly prolific main line White Wolf writer. Though her writing chops tend towards Mage nowadays than Werewolf. So the content's more well written but also still somewhat reprehensible cause, well, it's this book. It's also worth noting that Cassada is one of the people who turned oChangeling into happy-dappy SCA fishmalk land.
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Aug 30, 2015 02:33
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wdarkk posted:A dude with a Leopard Seal head is something I ain't fighting. Those things are serious business. Leopard seal selkie is not something I would have guessed I needed to have in a game. Now I know I do. This thread is so educational.
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Aug 30, 2015 04:26
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JackMann posted:Leopard seal selkie is not something I would have guessed I needed to have in a game. Now I know I do. This thread is so educational. I hope you have it try to bite the head off a halfling or something.
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Aug 30, 2015 04:42
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I'm am saddened that the author went with hyenas being scavenging sadists. Hyenas pretty much kill everything they eat with very little scavenging. Lions, on the other hand, tend to just chase off hyenas and scavenge more.
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Aug 30, 2015 06:02
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Tasoth posted:I'm am saddened that the author went with hyenas being scavenging sadists. Hyenas pretty much kill everything they eat with very little scavenging. Lions, on the other hand, tend to just chase off hyenas and scavenge more. Sometimes the shifters represent the popular (Western) idea of an animal, and sometimes not. The reason both happen is flurp durp fart this book is loving dumb.
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Aug 30, 2015 06:16
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