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Well, as most Goons will have found out by now, Casey Kasem died today. Given that he was most famous to most of our generation as the voice of Shaggy, I thought it'd be fitting if I did a rundown of a little-known game called... Part 1: Introduction & Character Creation This was a little slice of genre emulation from our good friends at Pandahead Productions, the people who gave us XCrawl! This was written in 2004 by Allyson Brooks, and was aimed at getting younger people into tabletop roleplaying games, which is certainly something that hasn't been tried very often (I'm struggling to think of any that tried it before Pandahead - this book is 10 years old). This is reflected in a disclaimer just beneath the acknowledgments. Meddling Kids posted:PLEASE, do not go and solve mysteries on your own! This is a game, and if you play it as a game, then you will have fun. Real mysteries are solved by the police. If you want to be a police officer when you're older, that's great! But until then, just practice safe at home, okay? Taking the law into your own hands is like if you french-fry when you need to pizza - you're gonna have a bad time! Going into the introduction itself, it starts off not with the usual rundown of what a roleplaying game is, but a brief history of animation. And I do mean "brief" - a paragraph on Charles-Emile Reynaud, one line chiding him for giving up on his dream, then another paragraph on how Saturday morning cartoons were a thing in the 60's, and how Fred Silverman came up with the idea came up with Scooby-Doo. Okay, now we get onto what a RPG is; according to Brooks, it's pretty much the "Let's Pretend" games we all played as kids, only with settings and statistics and stuff like that. Oh yeah, and there are roleplaying computer games, but those are way more restrictive creatively and not nearly as social as pen & paper rpgs. Honestly, this is probably the most honest "What Is A RPG?" section I've ever read.  It also mentions LARPing; no actual hitting, you need permission to do it on somebody's property and it's kind of like being in the school play, only without a script - just make it up as you go along, and have fun doing it!  The art in Meddling Kids lurches between "pretty good" to "clip art". As for Meddling Kids itself, it doesn't need fancy costumes or the most expensive ccg deck; just paper, pencils, dice, friends and imagination. And the book. It's sort of like the rpgs your parents or older sibllings might've played, but it's not about rescuing princesses or slaying dragons, just having adventures in a world pretty much like this one. There are rules, but don't worry - they're not hard to figure out. Besides, without rules the game would be booooriiiing, because limitations make us work together, just like in real life. Of course, you can just change a few rules, if you don't like them. You'll also need a GM. A GM must be fair, and not bossy or strict; their job is to make sure everybody's having fun and that the players are following the framework that's been set before them. The GM also plays the Wild Card, who will be explained in the GM Section. It's suggested that the GM be somebody older and/or the most experienced with this game. Now, onto character creation!  This kid has put more effort into his character concept than half the people I've gamed with. As you'd expect, it's pretty straightforward in a gentle sort of way - think of your character's background first; hobbies, personality, whether or not they're the new kid, etc. Nothing huge, just a paragraph (your character is going to grow over the course of the campaign anyway). Also, it's okay to just play a character who's basically a carbon copy of you, if that's what you're comfortable with. Of course, playing as somebody completely different can be fun too! There's also a big box on playing a character of the opposite gender. If you want to, go ahead. If other people don't like that, then who cares? If they're going to be huffy about it, they're not the sort of people you want to play with anyway. It's your character, not theirs. Of course, it's okay to want to play somebody who's the same gender as you. After all, it's just a game. Now we come to Archetypes! It's all pretty self-explanatory: The Jock: As I said, self-explanatory. The Fluff: Basically, Daphne. The Brain: Velma, I guess. The Goof: Shaggy. The Temper: The lone wolf who doesn't play by your rules, bub! The Sidekick: You can always count on them. The Innocent: You see the good in everyone.  These guys and gals are sample PCs, showcasing all 7 Archetypes, that can be found at the back of the book. The Jock is "Clutch" Sellers, and we go through his chargen throughout this section of the book - I only skipped it because I want go into chargen more deeply later on. These Archetypes all come with a different skill that you get for free, but we'll get to that in a later post. You can only be one Archetype, even if your concept fits into two. Of course, by that logic Fred and Shaggy wouldn't be allowed (technically, Fred's a Jock and a Brain, whilst Shaggy's a Goof and a Sidekick) but it's just too game-breaking to let anybody be more than one Archetype. Party balance is ideal (a party is referred to as a "Clique" in this game), but if two people want to be the same Archetype, then you should ask the GM's permission first. Just because there are two Archetypes the same doesn't mean there should be two completely identical characters (think of Rocky and Apollo Creed - they're both Jocks, but they're different people). Stats are unambiguous, but that's nothing new here; Strength (no explanation necessary), Moves (Dex and Speed, not how well you can boogie), Smarts (Wis and Int), Health (HP).You have 24 points to use up, and yes you could just put 6 into everything, but that'd be boring. Abilities are covered later on in the book, but for now all you need to know is you have 26 points to spend on all them, not counting the one your Archetype gets for free. If you have any left over then that's too bad, because you can't hoard those points for later - you either use them now, or they're gone forever. Next time: The GM's Guide! Eldad Assarach fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Jun 18, 2014 |
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Jun 16, 2014 00:46
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Well, I guess I'm committed! Part 2: The Game Master's Guide Yes, the GM's Guide is smack-dab in the middle of the book, before we get to As for the GM Guide itself, it starts off by asking if you're the kind of person who is a natural leader and can get everyone organised, or who just comes out with cool ideas a lot. If yes, you're probably the right one to be the GM. Meddling Kids posted:The Game Master creates a living story, and weaves that tale around the player characters. The Game Master holds the power to make decisions about the fate of the characters, almost making him or her King Of The Universe! As you'd expect with a game that bills itself as an introductory game, the GM advice is on the level... in a mellow kind of way; prepare beforehand (we'll come back to that in a bit), be familiar with the rules (the book suggests you skip ahead to the next chapter and read the mechanics until you get the overall gist of them) but don't stress over them, and don't be afraid to wing it if you're not sure. And if it looks like a player might not overcome something very difficult... just fudge things to make them easier for your players, but don't do it too often. Meddling Kids posted:As GM, you are King of Your Domain. But, as King, if you mistreat your subjects, no one will want to play in your domain, and you’ll be King of the Big, Fat Nothing. As leader, a GM is expected to be patient, responsive, flexible, and respectful towards the players and their respective characters. After all, games are supposed to be fun! No power trips allowed! Give your players some agency; guide, don't shove. Don't interrupt somebody roleplaying, unless the monster is nearby and wants to attack. Don't let your best friend take all the glory and solve the mystery on their own - after all, there's no "i" in "team". Above all, make sure everybody's having fun. Give the Clique realistic goals they can achieve in-game, and just make things so nice that your players will come back for more!  I love the art in this book, but I'm rationing myself on it so I don't just include everything and make this post twice as long. Remember when I mentioned doing prep before a game? Well, the best way to begin is ask The Big Six Questions: Who is involved with the story? Teachers, parents, celebrities? What is happening? Is something being stolen or haunted? Both? When is this taking place? Summer camp, school trip? Where is the story set? Creepy old abandoned house, creepy old abandoned amusement park? Why is this happening? Is the "monster" scaring people away, or does it want to steal something How are the Clique involved? Is somebody's relative in trouble, or do they just want to avoid getting detention? Don't be afraid to crib from books or TV shows - maybe a PC was given a ring by an elderly relative, and somebody else wants the ring for the cryptic message written on the inside of it. Can't think of any? Ask your parents or a teacher for recommendations! Either that, or just crib from real life! If the story takes place in a real location, then do some research on its local history and customs to add some colour. But don't add too much colour, because the players will add some of their own to proceedings. If they're getting off-track, just roll with it - it might make the story even better! The final piece of advice the book gives you is pretty simple; keep a notebook with you. If you're the GM, odds are you'll get a lot of different ideas floating through your head, so it's best to jot them all down so you don't forget. Out of all the advice given, this is probably the most important. That's enough of basic-yet-helpful GM advice, let's move onto the Wild Cards!  I love how even the pirate monkey isn't sure what's going on here. What are Wild Cards? They're the shark who has a thing for bratty percussionists, the 18th-century ghost who talks like Bert Lahr, the green dog who turns invisible when he's scared (except for that stupid bobble hat he always wears for some reason). More importantly, they're a way for the GM to play the game as well. The Wild Card may be a weirdo, but they always point the Clique in the right direction. Don't ever use a Wild Card to give the Clique a red herring, because that's just cheap and everyone will (rightly) hate you for it. They get 24 points for Stats and 26 for Abilities, same as the PCs, but a Wild Card has their own special list of Abilities (they can get the same Abilities as a PC, but it'll cost an extre point per Ability). Another unique thing they get is a Quirk; it doesn't provide any in-game advantage, it's more to give an extra dimension to the Wild Card, and maybe make the players smile every so often. Let's take a look at a sample Wild Card given in the book - Cap'n Bingo!  Yes, ladies - he's single. Cap'n Bingo posted:Strength 9 I will let you guy know what all those Abilities mean soon, I just want to highlight the frustrating way Pandahead messed up - we're about a third into the book, and we still don't know the rules yet!  Anyway, as for running a game, the book makes a number of suggestions; at home on a rainy day, at a sleepover, in... a car on a long journey?  Meddling Kids posted:Special Pandahead Note to All: don’t play at school during class time — give your teachers some respect, and don’t get you and your friends in trouble! You could even ask your Friendly Local Gaming Shop for help - they'll be more than happy to help out! As for the game itself, try and make sure everyone's doing something. Ask the more extroverted players to help bring the shy players out of their shell, let the players develop their own roleplaying styles, etc. There's a cute example where one player gets really into the concept of non-existent ice cream, which is pretty rad. Meddling Kids posted:Being a GM takes a bit of effort, but once you get the hang of it, your game play and story will flow easily. Just be flexible and have  Next time: The rules!
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Jun 17, 2014 02:12
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I would've posted yesterday, but my body just crashed for some reason. Part 3: Rules Well, it's only taken about a third of the book, but we're finally learning how to play the game!  Roll 3d6, add the relevant Stat and any modifiers from your Abilities, see if you get the Target Number or higher. The TN ranges from 4 to 34; the higher the number, the more difficult the task. 17 is the halfway point if you want something reasonably difficult, but the GM is advised to wing it and not stress too much about it. Conflict Resolution e.g. running away from a monster, then the player and GM choose the relevant Stat and adding Ability mods for PC and monster respectively and roll. Whoever's highest wins, check the Stats for both on a tie. If the numbers are identical, just reroll until somebody gets a higher. Meddling Kids posted:Ever watch a chase scene in a cartoon that seems to go on so long that you notice that the background keeps repeating itself? That’s what’s happening in the game! Just as it can be funny in a cartoon, you’ll find that this kind of situation can be very, very funny in a game. Not sure I'd describe having to reroll for the same thing a few times "funny", but kudos to them for trying to keep things thematic. The game then talks about getting Bonked. See, if a character is hit for more damage than they have HP then you're knocked out, or Bonked, for as many minutes as the damage went over your HP i.e. If your Sidekick was hit for 7 damage, and you had a 4 in Health, then the Sidekick is Bonked for 3 minutes. Meddling Kids posted:The GM can decide whether those minutes are real time or game time.  Every 10 feet of falling is equal to 1d6 worth of damage, so I guess a particularly unsubtle GM can throw 20ft cliffs to railroad his players. To hit somebody with, say, a smelly fish (hey, that's the example given) then the hitter and one about to get the fear of cod beaten into them both roll Moves. Whoever gets the highest roll wins; if the guy weaponising the fish wins, then he batters the other guy for his Strength+1d6. There's no weapon list, but the book does say that you can house rule any rule you like.  I really love the art in this book. The artist here is Brian LaFramboise, who sadly appears to have retired. The game discourages you from just smacking everything that looks at you funny. For one thing, violence isn't always the best answer. For another, it's not like Mystery Inc went around kneecapping the likes of Miner Forty-Niner or The Spooky Space Kook. There's one thing they did do: set traps! That's right, we're going old-school!  A trap's Target Number is the sum of a monster's Health and Strength (the book mentions a werewolf, who has 8 in both) which I guess is given to the players so they at least know what they're aiming for - the book isn't clear on this. A trap can be as elegant or as complicated as the players want, but it has to have several steps to it - each step adds 1 to your roll. However, the steps a PC can have to their trap is only equal to their Smarts. The Clique can work together to make the trap, which means that you can take the PC with the highest Smarts (let's say it's 10), and add 1 - that's the number of steps you can have in your trap. But that doesn't mean you can just say that your trap has 11 steps, the trap has to actually make sense at every stage. Realistically, that means that your trap probably won't have the maximum amount of steps. Either way, you roll 2d6 and add the result to the number of steps in your trap. There's even an example of play! Meddling Kids posted:Clutch and Andrea have come up with a trap that has Clutch finding the Werewolf and getting him to chase him (step one), leading to a  If your trap succeeds, it's time to call the police and see just who's really behind all this. If your trap doesn't work, you'll just have to use a completely different trap - the monster won't fall for the same trick twice. Now, for Optional Rules! Kid Points: At the start of the game, the GM rolls 2d6 - the result determines how many Kid Points you'll have (I think you have to do this at the start of every session, the game isn't clear on this). You can add Kid Points onto a roll, with one Kid Point per actual point. However, you can't use them for your own rolls, and you can't even hint that you want another player to give you Kid Points. The idea is that everyone is paying attention to what everyone else is doing and working together. Of course, you have to actually tell the GM you're using a Kid Point - when they're gone, they're gone. Chase Scenes: When players see a monster, make them roll for their Smarts (lower the TN the more they see it). If they flub the roll, the chase is on! Now players can use their Abilities (we will be getting to them, I promise) to outsmart the monster; think of all the times Shaggy and Scooby gave the monster a facial or something similar. The player trying to do this rolls to beat the TN of 10 + the monster's Smarts. If they succeed, then they get away scot-free! Then the book goes into some things to bear in mind:
 This is just cute. Experience points goes from 1-4 points, with 1 being "You sort of helped" and 4 being "Wow, I didn't see that one coming!", and the number given is for every player - nobody has to play catch-up. Abilities cost the same levelling up as they do in chargen, except you can hoard them for the good stuff now, but upgrading Stats costs more; 5 times the current Stat level (so getting from 4 Heart to 5 costs 20, and going from 5 to 6 costs 25). Wild Cards get half the experience points The Clique got, rounded up. Next time: The Dragon's Eye! In the meantime, would anybody like to think of a trap to catch Ziagnork the alien? His Strength is 3 and his Health is 5, meaning the TN for his trap is 8.
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Jun 19, 2014 01:20
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I won't be updating on Meddling Kids today, as real life's just too drat busy right now. How's everybody been finding my write-up?JohnnyCanuck posted:A while ago, I threatened to show off Stuporpowers!, the beeriest and pretzelliest super-RPG ever made. I'm running scans of my physical copy right now, but it's a pain in the rear end. I might just pick up the .pdf and save us all the trouble.   I love Stuporpowers! so drat much; doesn't hurt that I was introduced to it at a con with the most adorably insane GM running it...
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Jun 19, 2014 12:30
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hectorgrey posted:Been enjoying it so far. Makes for an interesting kids first RPG, at least. Certainly is, and it turns out I was wrong to call it the first RPG specifically aimed at kids; Phil Masters made a free RPG based on the "St Trinians" and "Molesworth" books way in 1994. It's not even the first commercially sold RPG aimed at kids - that honour, as far as I can tell, falls to The Pokémon Jr Adventure Game which predates Meddling Kids by 4 years. Bieeardo posted:I'm liking Meddling Kids. Fairly simple, without being condescending, and that Rube Goldberg trap system is really clever. It does ensure creativity from the players. I can come up with about three or four steps for a trap on my own, but I imagine it'd double with help from somebody else. ZorajitZorajit posted:Did the artist ever do any of those "How to Draw..." books? His name and style look familiar (even if it's a deliberately simple style.) I'm not much of a Scooby Doo fan, but Meddling Kids looks like something that would be fun to run for kids. Then add in more Dark Heresy until the lines blur and Daphne becomes a psyker. There isn't a lot I can find about Laframboise. He appears to have inked some indie comics, and apparently tried selling some prints through Zazzle, but gave that up when there was no money in it and retired. The other artists are Peter Delgado and Marcio Fiorito, who I think are now a graphic designer and comic book artist repsectively (there really isn't a lot to go on, even for Google).
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Jun 20, 2014 00:45
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I like your style, Green Intern! Anywho, I might as well carry on... Part Four: The Dragon's Eye, or The Origin of Cap'n Bingo Pretty much every corebook has a sample adventure, and Meddling Kids is no exception. It mentions that there are character sheets available on their website, but you should ask permission before going online (if that doesn't date this book, I don't know what does – do kids even ask permission for stuff like that these days?). It also mentions that people who've already played RPGs will know not to read a sample adventure if they're not running the game, because metagaming is for buttfaces. That said, if the GM is going to make his own setting and adventures, then go right ahead. It then lists everything you'll need; dice, notebooks, character sheets, etc. Before the session begins, the GM must write the word "HOPE" on a small piece of paper and fold it up twice.  The adventure takes place in Port Juliet, a quaint (if kinda touristy) little town along the coast of Rhode Island, surrounded by islands and inlets. Its main attractions are the lighthouse on the far side of town, and the statue of the town's founder Juliet... at least, that's what the local legend says. To be more precise, the adventure mostly takes place at Port Juliet Museum, where the Clique are going for a field trip (they're all sophomores at Patrick Henry High, the local high school, so they know most of the locals already). The GM is supposed to read some flavour text: Meddling Kids posted:“The Port Juliet museum is a small, one-story building, built with a red brick exterior and tall columns. A real iron anchor is mounted in the middle of the walkway on a sturdy pedestal in front of the building. A great bronze seal of Rhode Island, which is an anchor with the word “Hope” floating above it on a banner, is above the grand entrance.” Hey, we're learning stuff about Rhode Island!  When the Clique go inside, more flavour text abounds:Meddling Kids posted:“The museum’s atrium is well-lit from the three skylights above. To your left is a permanent display of the pre-history of Port Juliet, Wait, I thought Rachel was just some local fakelore or something?  After all the  the GM shows the players the map of the museum (which I'm not posting because it's not that interesting) noting where all the olde-timey stuff is with a pencil. The Clique are allowed to go where they want (their teacher Mr. Kepner is a pretty cool guy, so he's giving them an hour before they all have to meet up at the entrance) but they've already seen all this stuff a bazillion times, so it's total snoresville. Good job there's a new diamond exhibit in the main exhibition hall!The Clique won't be allowed into the new exhibit without a stamped ticket (there's a guard outside the door, making sure nobody sneaks in) but they can get one from the ticket booth. The booth is staffed by Holly Bennett, the museum intern who's fresh out of college, who'll stamp all their tickets. She'll be cheery at first, but her boss Professor Dorchester (who she refers to "Professor Dorkster") is around, so she can't slack off and talk to kids. After explaining this to the Clique, she will then ignore them and concentrate on paperwork. Rude! Hey, who wants some more flavour text? Meddling Kids posted:“Once you have your ticket stamped, the guard will let you into the main exhibit hall. As you step in, you are momentarily blinded by bright, dazzling light. As your eyes adjust, you notice that around the room are ten big, glittering diamonds that have a spotlight aimed directly on them. Each has a plaque next to it explaining its history. Also, a few interactive kiosks are interspersed between the diamonds; they show the different uses of diamonds, how diamonds are mined, and other interesting things about gemstones. In the center of the room in a glass case is a huge, pale pink diamond resting on red velvet. Two armed guards stand on either side of the diamond, and a plaque is attached to the front of the case. This is the Dragon’s Eye Diamond.” According to the plaque, The Dragon's Eye was recovered from an old wreck just off the coast by divers, who donated it to the Museum. Experts say it was probably owned by the King of Korea, who had kept it safe in the Temple of Yong Wang, Dragon King of the Seas, until pirates stole it. The other parts of the exhibit aren't covered in the book, and it's suggested that the GM just make something up, or do some research on diamonds.  Some art to break up the walls of text. Already in the exhibit hall are Mr. Kepner, who is talking to Professor Dorchester, who they all know already, and a woman they've never seen before. If somebody goes up to Mr. Kepner, he'll introduce the lady as Nora Cochran, the Touring Exhibits Specialist to the MegaCity Museum. All the players will then have to roll Smarts; if anyone gets over 14, they'll notice Nora's badge doesn't have the official MegaCity Museum seal on it. If they point that out to her, then she'll immediately go look for it - it must've fallen off somewhere! If they stick around and haven't asked the question already, Mr. Kepner asks Dorchester if a diamond this valuable is safe in such a small building. Dorchester laughs, saying he's had high-tech security installed, and only he knows how to work it. If a player beats a TN 17 on a Smarts roll, they can overhear him whispering to Kepner that only he knows when it switches itself on every night, patting his jacket. Wanna take a closer look at The Dragon's Eye? You get surprised by Crazy Walt, the weird janitor! Fortunately for you, you know Walt well, so you're almost inured to him sneaking up on you. Almost. He'll start ramblng on about how the diamond has a curse put on it by one of the temple priests - "May your life never be the same". That's why the divers gave it to the museum. If you question him further, he'll mutter something about "nosy kids" and slope off. Yeah, Walt's an rear end in a top hat. He's also Holly's uncle. He's worked at the museum for 20 years and knows more about the museum and its contents than anyone else, and was offered directorship of the museum... but he prefers "informing" visitors in his own inimitable style. Holly wishes he'd accepted; suffice to say, she's kinda peeved about the whole situation. If some PCs want to have a look round and make a TN 15 Smarts roll, they'll spot a shady guy talking into his shoulder. If they want to eavesdrop, they have to make a TN 22 Moves roll to sneak up on him, then another TN 15 Smarts roll to not get caught. If they make it, they'll hear him mutter in a French accent "Yes, yes, everything is going as planned. Meet me in the back at 10:30 tonight". It's then that he spots them, mutters something about "nosy children" and stalks off like he just smelt an ungodly fart. If you try and tell an adult about this, then they'll laugh it off and tell you that you have an overactive imagination.  (l-r) Dorchester, Cochran and shady French guy Remember that note I mentioned earlier? The Clique have to roll Smarts, and whoever gets the highest roll "finds" the note in-game. They then decide whether or not they show the note to the other players. Whether they do or they don't, the field trip is over and everybody has to get back on the bus - Mr. Kepner's going to take everyone for lunch at Super Clucker's! The scene then shifts to early evening, at Gigi's, the pizza place just opposite the museum where the Clique go to hang out every Friday night. Joining them for the evening is Bingo, an old ex-lab chimp whom Andrea (the pre-genned Brain found at the back of the book) rescued from her parents, who work as animal behaviourists. He's stronger than he looks, but he's very gentle and pretty smart; he knows a few words of ASL (No, the other kind). He's there because Andrea's parents told her that she has to take Bingo with her when she goes out with her friends. If Andrea isn't being played, then a PC is taking care of Bingo as a favour to Andrea. The Clique has to make a TN 19 Smarts roll. If they make it, they see the suspicious French guy sneaking round to behind the museum. If they try to tell anybody, even the police, the grownups will laugh it off and tell you that you have an overactive imagination. Any PC with the Nosey Ability will want to investigate, no roll needed. Whether they go to the front or back doors, every door will be open and the keypad next to the door will have a red LED readout saying "Auto Activate at 10:00 cancelled" and there's a green light on the keypad lit up. Inside, the museum is dark, but not impenetrably so, and there doesn't appear to be anybody around. If everybody decides to sneak in, then the entire Clique has to make a TN 21 Moves roll to not tread on a squeaky floorboard. If somebody doesn't make it, then the entire building becomes quiet and a huge white dragon with an orange crest bursts out of the main exhibit hall and yells "Who dares approach Yong Wang, the Dragon King of the Seas?”. If they do make the roll, then they manage to sneak into the main exhibit hall and interrupt Yong Wang, who turns around and asks them the same question as if they'd flubbed the roll.  This art was at the very start of the adventure, but I really needed to break up the text. Everybody now has to roll TN 28 Smarts to avoid fleeing in terror. If they don't, then it's time for a Chase Scene! When that's over, the Clique and Yong Wang are all trapped inside the museum. The Clique now have to set a trap for Yong Wang. If it works, then the dragon will laugh, gesticulate wildly and say: Yong Wang posted:“Foolish little humans! I am the Dragon King of the Seas, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave now, before I have you for dinner! I am here to get what is rightfully mine - The Dragon’s Eye Diamond. It was stolen from me, and now I shall take it back!” Everybody now has to roll Smarts and beat TN 24 - if they manage it, they'll notice that as Yong Wang is waving his arms around, there's a small hole under his armpit, like when a rip in a t-shirt... Whether the trap worked or not, Bingo will now launch himself at Yong Wang, knocking the dragon into the displays. This makes the diamond roll onto the floor, distracting Bingo. When he picks it up, The Dragon's Eye will glow red and give off a big flare of light. When the light fades away, Bingo will be dressed like a 17th century pirate, and will also ask the Clique "What be ye starin' at?". As for "Yong Wang", it's very obvious that the "dragon" is just somebody in an elaborate costume. The head's still jammed on, though, so nobody can tell who it really is. Just then, the doors open... Next time: The conclusion of The Dragon's Eye, and we finally get to Abilities! In the meantime, who do you think Yong Wang really is? Also, pitch ideas for Wild Cards, and I'll have a go at making them in future posts.
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Jun 21, 2014 01:03
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Part Five: Conclusion to The Dragon's Eye, and Abilities ... and in rushes the police, along with a worried Professor Dorchester and the shady French guy, who warns the police not to arrest the Clique. Instead, they cuff Yong Wang, who is revealed to be none other than Nora Cochran... or rather, international jewel theif Georgianna Fortuna! Her dragon costume is made of white silk, orange feathers and glow sticks, and the big booming voice was thanks to her jacking into the p/a system with a special microphone.  Professor Cochran is pretty embarassed at having been taken in by such a world-renowned criminal, not to mention having his pocket picked and getting his note stolen (the word "HOPE" on the note refers to the security passcode; 4673, the numbers which the letters H-O-P-E correspond to on a standard keypad. If a PC returns the note, that PC will receive one extra experience point for being so honest). The shady French guy is in fact Detective Joseph Vendredi of Interpol. He apologises to the kids for being so rude, but he was simply trying to catch Fortuna in the act – she hates the Association of Gemologists (she was their Director, but was fired for being greedy) and a valuable diamond with hints of having an extraordinary history was too much to resist. Just then, Bingo walks up to Georgianna and gives her what for: Cap'n Bingo posted:“Missy, ye ain’t no dragon, an’ ye certainly ain’t no pirate! Yer a common, thievin’ wench, an’ iffn ye were on my ship, I’d make ye walk the plank!” Vendredi sees a cute chimp poking Fortuna on the nose, and will joke about her stealing Bingo's banana. If any of the Clique points out that Bingo's wearing a pirate outfit and can talk, both Dorchester and Vendredi will tell you that you have an overactive imagination. Georgianna is the only grown-up who sees Bingo for who he truly is, as she was also present when The Dragon's Eye worked its magic. However, she's not saying anything because holy poo poo a talking chimp dressed up like a pirate what the hell. When Georgianna's been taken away, the Clique can ask Bingo any questions they want. He's been possessed by the last owner of The Dragon's Eye; a privateer from the American Revolutionary Navy, who was captain of Juliet the Beautiful (named after a woman who he had a major crush on... but didn't even know who he was) until the ship crashed off the coast of Massachusetts - now Rhode Island - and that's all he remembers. As he can't even remember his name, he suggests on henceforth being called Cap'n Bingo. Meddling Kids posted:Now, after such a harrowing adventure, Cap’n Bingo suggests that they go out to find a tavern where he can get a big banana split! The book concludes the adventure with a brief section explaining that the adventure doesn't have to end there. After all, real life involves new adventures and seeing new places, so why shouldn't the game? Alright, now we can get to Abilities . I'd have skipped ahead to them earlier, but I wanted to point out the only real flaw of Meddling Kids - the downright weird layout that makes you flip back and forth for no reason. It's bad enough with a rulebook like Savage Worlds', but this isn't even 100 pages long!Animal Friend 3 points, Sma+2: You can befriend any animal, even the meanest junkyard dog or the wildest coyote. Best Friend 6 points (Sidekick gets it for free), Hea+1d6: Anybody you meet will like you. Bookworm 7 points (Brain gets it for free), Sma+1d6: You can remember something you read a while back, or you happen to find that one vital clue when doing research in the library. This doesn't apply when you Google something. Bottomless Stomach 1 point, Hea+1: Name says it all - you can stuff your face and not get ill. Bug-Free 2 points, Hea+4: Sadly, this doesn't allow you to produce an anti-insect forcefield - it just means you don't catch that cold that's been going round.  Clown 5 points (Goof gets it for free), Hea+2: You're so funny, you can even make monsters laugh. Computer Guru 8 points, Sma+4: You're as good with computers as everyone's parents assume thir child is. Connected 1 point, Sma+2: You can always find out information from somebody. That doesn't necessarily mean it's true, though. Diplomat 3 points, Sma+3: You can stop people bickering over pointless poo poo. Disguise 4 points, Hea+4: You can resemble somebody visually - clothes and face. ⤷Actor 8 points, Hea+1d6: It's not just looks, now you can imitate somebody's voice and mannerisms. Dodge 5 points, Mov+1d6: You can dodge stuff whe it's thrown at you. Double-Jointed 5 points, Mov+3: Again, clue's in the name. Drive 6 points, Mov+4: You can drive anything from a semi truck to a forklift. Fast Talk 8 points, Hea+1d6: You become the Micro Machines guy and make everyone go Fearless 6 points, Sma+1d6: If you're feeling scared, then this Ability will let you shake it off and carry on. Flirt 2 points (Fluff gets it for free), hea+1: You can get the attention of somebody who's the opposite gender. ⤷Ultra Cute 6 points, Hea+4: Pour on the charm, and you can get somebody of the opposite gender to do whatever you ask of them. ⤷Total Hottie 11 points, Hea+1d6: Pour on even more charm, and you can make your intended target forget what they were doing, or just stop entirely. And yes, I know this Ability subset is kinda weird, but given that this game is aimed at children, it's pretty innocuous. Geek 4 points, Sma+2: Sort of like Bookworm, only with specifics fandoms and fiction genres. Good Eats 2 points, Sma+3: You can cook well. Gross-Out 1 point, Hea+1: You can make somebody grossed out just by doing something.. well, gross. Hard-Headed 5 points, no roll required: When you're Bonked, half the time you'd normally be Bonked. Hip 3 points, Sma+2: You're always up-to-date with the newest trends. Immovable 5 points, Hea+3: NOTHING MOVES THE BLOB! No, really, you can't get knocked down if somebody charges at you. Intimidate 7 points, Str+3: Roll high enough, and even a monster will think twice about messing with you. Intuition 8 points, Sma+1d6: This pretty much gives you Spidey-Sense. Leadership 5 points, Hea+3: You can inspire other people to follow your lead. Level-headed 3 points (cannot be taken by The Temper), Hea+3: You never go  Lucky 15 points, +1d6 to the stat of your choice: Botched a roll? You can reroll and add 1d6, even if you had other d6's, thanks to other Abilities. Just one catch – you can only do this once per session, so tough poo poo if you rolled bad again. Magician 2 points, Mov+2: You can do little sleight-of-hand tricks. I guess it'd be useful for palming clues without grown-ups noticing. Mechanic 6 points, Sma+6: You can fix up or build any gadget or doohickey. ⤷Jury-Rig 8 points, +1d6 to your Trap Roll: You can cobble together something that could be part of a Trap. Monster Mind 6 points, Sma+3: No, it doesn't make you the bad guy in Jayce & The Wheeled Warriors – it just means you're familiar enough with a monster's habits that you know what it'll do next. Musician 4 points, Sma+1d6: You can play any instrument you like. Nature Buff 3 points, Sma+3: Like Bookworm, but for flora and fauna. Nimble 3 points, Mov+2: If somebody's trying to bull rush you, you can get out of the way. Nosey 2 points, Sma+2: It's basically a Will save to see if you actually want to continue with the investigation. I have no idea why this would be in an investigation-based RPG. Outdoorsman 4 points, Sma+3: You're good at camping. Pack Rat 5 spoints, Sma+1: You can bring out any object you like out of your purse/handbag... provided it's small enough to fit in there – no Mary Poppins shenanigans for PCs. Perfect 1 point, Hea+2: You never get your clothes dirty, even if you step in a muddy puddle. Popular 8 points, Hea+2: Everybody in town and your school likes you, and may give you a lead on account of you being so great. ⤷Famous 13 points, Hea+5: You're a national star (athlete, pop star, etc.) and you get recognised in the street. Rich 7 points, Hea+3: You can buy that cool new bike ⤷Really Rich 10 points, Hea+6: You can buy that cool new electric moped. ⤷Rich Beyond Belief 14 points, no roll needed: You can buy anything... or anyone. Singer 4 points, Hea+1d6: Ablilities That Pretty Much Explain Themselves In The Name - 3 Slam 3 points, Sma+1: You always have a snappy reply to anybody being a jerk to you. ⤷Super-Slam 7 points, Sma+3: Your reply is so snappy, it makes the would-be jerk shut their stupid mouth. Sleuth 4 points, Sma+3: Ablilities That Pretty Much Explain Themselves In The Name - 4 Sneak 4 points, Mov+3: Ablilities That Pretty Much Explain Themselves In The Name - 5 Sprint 4 points, Mov+4: Ablilities That Pretty Much Explain Themselves In The Name - 6 Sporty 4 points (Jock gets it for free), Str+3: You can be an all-round sportsperson. ⤷Super-Sporty 1 point, Str+6: This gives you a specific skill, like riding a horse or swimming in rough water. And yes, I'm pretty sure the point cost for this skill is a typo. Stir The Pot 6 points (Temper gets it for free), Sma+3: If you think one person is misleading somebody else, then you can make the second person believe that. Steel Memory 3 points, Sma+3: if this was called Photographic Memory, my ATPMETITN counter would be at 7. Strong-Willed 7 points, Hea+5: It's pretty much a Will save to see if you cave in to a bully. If you pass, you can either laugh it off or act like you don't know what they meant. Suspicion 6 points, Sma+4: It's pretty much this system's answer to Sense Motive. The Whiz 4 points, Sma+3: You know in D&D you could put "Knowledge (____)"? Well, this is pretty much the same thing, only for school subjects. ⤷Mega Whiz 9 points, Sma+1d6: You're so good at this subject, you're in an Honors Program. Wallflower 2 points, Hea+2: You can slip into your surroundings unnoticed – the bigger the crowd, the better. Webworm 7 points, Sma+1d6: Like Bookworm, only for online searches. Weirdness Magnet 3 points, no roll needed: ATPMETITN – 7. The book suggests somebody with this Ability would make good bait for your Trap. Winning Smile 1 point, Hea+1: When you smile, you put somebody at ease. I'm pretty sure this is the crappiest Ability. Xtreme Sporty 5 points, Mov+3: You're great at using a skateboard, BMX bike or snow/surfboard. Well, that's all the PC Abilities done.  Let's move onto Wild Card Abilities!Bag O' Tricks 4 points, Mov+4: Remember how Captain Caveman could pull anything he wanted out of his hair? Well, it's sort of like that, only the Wild Card can pull items out of anything you want. Of course, if you don't meet the TN, then you just pull something useless out. Brawler 7 points, Str+6: ATPMETITN - 8. It does mention that you can literally fight tooth and claw, if you want to. ⤷Martial Artist 9 points, Str/Mov(whichever's highest)+8: ATPMETITN - 9. This only counts for one particular school of martial arts. Call To All 2 points, Hea+2: This pretty much lets you go "To me, my X-Men!". Fade 5 points, Hea+3: You can slowly disappear from sight. Fish Out Of Water 5 points, Hea+1d6: You can adapt to any situation, even if you're, say, a mermaid on dry land. Fly 4 points, Mov+3: ATPMETITN - 10. You do need a special object to fly, like a magic carpet or a jet pack. Ken 2 poins, no roll needed: The Clique can understand you... but nobody else can. Mechanized 16 points, Str/Sma/Hea+1d6: The extra dice is added to any of the stats... although the book doesn't say if you can swap it around. It also states you can be a robot or a cyborg! Melee 7 points, Str+6: You gain proficiency with a certain type of weapon i.e. swords or knives. You have to buy this several times for each weapon type. Perfect Direction 3 points, Sma+3: You never get lost Skit 6 points, Sma+5: You remember those chase scenes where Scooby and Shaggy would pretend to be barbers and give the moster a haircut? Well, this Ability lets you do that... but you have to say what the Skit is. Speak 2 points, no roll needed: Everyone can understand you. Not sure why this has the same cost as Ken, but whatever. Spectre 16 points, no roll needed: You're a ghost, able to detect and converse with your fellow spirits. You also get Super Fly, Transform and Fade for free. Strong 5 points, Str+4: You can lift your own weight. ⤷Super Strong 9 points, Str+8: You can lift more than twice your own weight. Super Fast 8 points, Mov+7: You can move quicker than the human eye. ⤷Exit Stage Left 9 points, Mov+10: You can grab a PC and hightail it out of there before anybody can figure out what just happened. Super Fly 8 points, Mov+5: You can fly by yourself. Telekinetic 8 points, Sma/Str+7 (add to whatever's highest): ATPMETITN - 11. Telepathy 6 points, Sma+6: ATPMETITN - 12. The only catch is you can only be telepathic with one character you pick at the start. Transform Object 8 points, Sma+4: You can turn something into anything else, as long as it's the same size. Transform Self 8 points, Mov+6: You can turn yourself into anything else, as long as it's the same size. Wild Whiz 6 points, Sma+6: Like Whiz, only you can pick any subject you like. I'm not even sure why this exists, when Geek is already an ability. And that's all the Abilities; sorry for the lack of art, but there wasn't much and I didn't want to make this post even longer. I'll finish things up tomorrow with the statblocks for all the sample PCs and an overview of my thoughts on the game and what could've happened with it. In the meantime, why not throw a few idea for Wild Cards at me, and I'll see if I can make them! Eldad Assarach fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Jun 29, 2014 |
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Jun 28, 2014 23:59
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Part Six: Sample PCs, Wild Card chargen and summing up Remember those kids way back in Part 1? Well, I said I'd go into them a little more deeply, so here we go! Weldon "Clutch" Sellers, Jock 
Abilities: Sporty, Immovable, Nosey, Fearless, Outdoorsman, Intuition, Bottomless Stomach Clutch is the school football team's nose tackle, and a Nature Scout (the uniform's always too small for him). His parents are loving (even if they did name him Weldon); his mother's a housewife and his dad is a college football hero turned used-car dealer. He rescued Andrea (more on her in a bit) from bullies back in 6th grade, and he still crushes on her pretty hard. He's a pretty easy-going guy, especially to people Andrea is friends with, but don't make him angry. You won't like him when he's angry. Andrea Davis, Brain 
Abilities: Bookworm, Dodge, Leadership, Steel Memory, Wallflower, Whiz - Math, Whiz -Science, Level-Headed Andrea's your typical shy nerd; her parents love her, but they're usually too focused on their work (researchers for AmeriGen Labs) so Cap'n Bingo is usually her only companion. She was picked on a lot before Clutch scared the little shits away, but she socialises well in her own little circles - Math Club, Science Club, the school library - and she's willing to help people with their homework (usually Clutch, that's only because Smarts is his dump stat). Sadly, she seems to be oblivious to Clutch's true feelings towards her, crushing hard on... Brian "Thrasher" Carson, Goof  I'm not a violent man, but I want to smack this kid in the face.
Abilities: Clown, Bottomless Stomach, Computer Guru, Gross Out, Mechanic, Weirdness Magnet, Xtreme Sporty Thrasher's not as douchey as he looks - he's a pretty chill guy who cares a lot about the environment and loves skating, figuring out how stuff works (his mother really wishes he'd stop taking the kitchen appliances apart) and video games. Speaking of his mother, she's the only parent in his life - he doesn't know who his dad is, and his mother works day shifts at Super Clucker's and goes to night school to get a hair stylist's license. He goes to Science Club (but thinks everyone except Andrea is an uptight lamewad) and loves Drama Club... when he remembers to show up. He's trying to turn Cap'n Bingo into the next Captain Dan which Cap'n Bingo finds... interesting, to say the least. Oh, and he's always hungry. Always. Roshandra Ngyen, Fluff 
Abilities: Flirt, Fast-Talker, Hip, Singer, Rich, Perfect, Nimble Roshandra's kind of a brat - she's head of the Drama Club, is the school paper's Fashion Editor and has several boys fawning over her at any one time. However, it's all for show; her parents (Dad's an investment broker for a Korean bank and Mom's a civil rights activist trying to get into politics) are never around so they shower her with money and gifts, which makes her very envious of Clutch's family. She just wants to be liked - not that she'd ever admit it - and always wants to give everyone a makeover (except Cap'n Bingo - she digs the pirate look). Siddhartha "Sid" Johnson, Innocent 
Abilities: Strong-Willed, Best Friend, Bug-Free, Double-Jointed, Good Eats, Nature Buff, Musician - Strings, Weirdness Magnet His family (Dad and Grandma) moved to Rhode Island from San Fran to open a health food store called It's All Good; Sid's a vegan, but he's not a dick about it because hey, it's a free country. Sid loves Mother Nature so much he's started a school recycling program, and he's always trying to get Roshandra and Thrasher to start a band. Grown-ups tend to think he's a moron, but his friends know better and usually ask his advice on any problems they've got. Daniel "Spike" Spikelson, Temper 
Abilities: Stir The Pot, Slam, Drive, Geek, Intimidate, Monster Mind Like Thrasher, Spike isn't as douchey as you'd think; he just doesn't suffer fools gladly, and will prank them in order to teach them a lesson. Thrasher is Spike's best friend in The Clique (he lets Thrasher monkey around with his car) but he likes them all and will stick up for them no matter what... usually in a way that could lead to a ruckus. This attitude of his leads to some of The Clique getting annoyed with him (Cap'n Bingo loves his shirt, for obvious reasons). He's got a job at the local punk boutique (yes, really) and he keeps Roshandra up to date on the latest fashions, because he's got a crush on her. Jeff Younger, Sidekick 
Abilities: Best Friend, Animal Friend, Level-Headed, Lucky, Wallflower, Winning Smile, Magician Even the book admits Jeff is pretty boring, but that's mostly because he wants everyone to get along. He and Clutch are second cousins (Jeff's mom is Clutch's dad's secretary). He hikes, reads mystery novels, watches David Blaine and collects... coins. The book was right - he is boring. Okay, let's get onto something more interesting - statting up Wild Cards! Robindaybird posted:An super-smart Archaeopteryx that someone created out of amber-extracted DNA as a fad pet - it can talk like a parrot and likes tricking people. Archie T. Ryx
Abilities: Call To All, Speak, Skit, Super Fly, Nosey, Nimble Quirk: Loves pulling pranks. Mr. Maltose posted:A Harlem Globetrotter but for Euro-Football instead of Basketball. Lian S. Mann
Abilities: Clown, Skit, Nimble, Sporty, Speak Quirk: Must play keepy uppy with anything round. Kellsterik posted:A very special guest appearance from Mister Guy Fieri. Guy Ferry
Abilities: Bottomless Stomach, Good Eats, Speak, Famous, Geek - Cookery Quirk: Brings an element of rowdy, mass-market culture to American food television. Selachian posted:A super-spy and master of disguise who doesn't actually accompany the players but is always hiding somewhere nearby when they need help. Agent 003.14
Abilities: Connected, Actor, Sleuth, Sneak, Speak Quirk: Never seen in full. pkfan2004 posted:Your older cousin Tim who's kind of a gruff jerk to the others and makes extra pocket money selling home-made cherry bombs and firecrackers but when push comes to shove he'll stand up for you and your buddies. He likes to pretend he doesn't believe in ghosts because it's dumb kid stuff, but he scares easily. He also drives you guys around because you're not old enough to drive yet. Tim
Abilities: Drive, Sprint, Stong-Willed, Speak, Steel Memory Quirk: Kind of a douchebag. theironjef posted:10 ducks operating a trenchcoat in tandem to look convincingly like a guy. Quack Quaaaaaack
Abilities: Actor, Nature Buff, Super Fast Quirk: Voice sounds a lot like... quacking. Mr. Maltose posted:A perfectly normal father of one of your friends who certainly isn't an octopus at all. Octodad
Abilities: Ken, Actor, Mechanic, Magician Quirk: Walks funny. Tasoth posted:Vincent loving Price. Vincent Leonard Price, Jr
Abilities: Speak, Actor, Good Eats, Singer, Bottomless Stomach Quirk: Creepy laugh. PoptartsNinja posted:The fusion of Vincent Price and Don Knotts after a freak teleporter accident. Doncent Knoice
Abilities: Speak, Actor, Good Eats, Singer, Bottomless Stomach Quirk: Godless abomination. Green Intern posted:A talking car, no wait, a talking shark, agh, poo poo. A goofy American Revolution-era ghost! drat it! Speed Buggy
Abilities: Speak, Strong, Mechanized Quirk: Weird speech impediment. Jabberjaw
Abilities: Musician - Percussion, Exit Stage Left, Speak Quirk: Has a thing for bratty tambourine players way outside his league/species. Jonathan Wellington "Mudsy" Muddlemore
Abilities: Spectre, Speak, Super Fast Quirk: Talks like Snagglepuss. As you can see, choosing some specific Abilities can really take a chunk out of your starting Character Points, especially if you're following a particular concept. It doesn't help that Wild Cards have to buy regular PC Abilities at a point higher than a PC, with an extra +1 to the roll to balance things out. Well, that's Meddling Kids. It certainly isn't a bad game, just a badly-edited one (the editor is Brett Brooks, husband of Allyson Brooks... the writer of Meddling Kids) and it has a lot of fun ideas. That, and it's about six bucks on DTRPG, which seems a pretty good price to me. Sadly, this was the only book in the series; I believe two supplements were planned, but something happened to make the idea no more than that. Pandahead Productions are now devoted more to graphic design and commercial photography. All I've got left to say for this post is this: keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars. Eldad Assarach fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Jun 30, 2014 |
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Jun 30, 2014 01:14
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Ah, After The Bomb... certainly one of the more unique post-apocalyptic RPGs. I was thinking of tackling that next, maybe following it up with the rest of Palladium's TMNT/ATB books. Obviously, I'll try to avoid going over the same ground as you guys... just as soon as I listen to it.
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Jul 3, 2014 21:48
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theironjef posted:By all means, we have covered stuff done in the thread a few times, we don't presume to stake claims. I think we stuck to the crappy Palladium skill system and the fact that mutant animals are so SO SOOO much better than furries for the most part. Fair enough - I was going to stick more to the fluff and adventures, because these threads have poked and prodded the Megaversal system to death. I'll put in a few statblocks, if people want them, but I doubt they will. Also, I'll be using the original book - 50 pages of tables and art that's not as cool as 2nd Edition. Eldad Assarach fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Jul 4, 2014 |
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Jul 4, 2014 20:46
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This latest episode made me drag out my old copy of First Edition d6 Star Wars, and I don't know what happened between 1st and 2nd Ed, because 1st Ed d6 Star Wars is pretty drat fun. The GM advice for 1st Ed is genuinely some of the best I've read. Players are made to feel that even if they're not starting out as cool as Leia or Han, but they'll probably get there. GMs are told to not be a dickbag to players, but not to be a doormat either. Jedi PCs can get Dark Side Points, but only through using The Force for personal gain, using it out of anger, or using it to hurt/kill. There were still layout issues - the Player Section takes up about 20 pages of a book that's about 150 pages long, most of the rules are in the GM section, and most of the actual GM stuff (GM advice, adventure seeds, etc.) are in the Adventure Section. But there is a genuine love of the source material that radiates from the pages; the "ads" for The Imperial Navy, Galaxy Tours, X-Wings and R2 units are a delight to read. In short, West End Games dropped the ball so hard over the space of 9 years, they never picked it up again. I love WEG's stuff, even their Ghostbusters RPG, but I'm tempted to say that they deserved to lose the Star Wars license.
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Jul 16, 2014 23:32
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Remember when I said I'd cover After The Bomb? Ah, those were the days...  In the beginning was The Megaversal System, and it was bloated crap. And Kevin saw The Megaversal System, and convinced himself it was good. Thus, Kevin begat Palladium Fantasy, which begat Heroes Unlimited and Beyond The Supernatural, as well as some other poo poo nobody cares about. Then Kevin did befriend the founders of Mirage Comics, and they gave him the license out of friendship, as well as a desire to make even more money from their potential cashcow. And so Kevin (but mostly Eric Wujcik) did begat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, which begat After The Bomb. Here endeth the first lesson. Part 1: Introduction I'm mostly going off of the very first After The Bomb book, which we'll call 1st Edition for the sake of convenience. 2nd Edition was something published in 2001, about two years after Mirage and Palladium parted ways, so they just crammed everything from TMNT&OS, ATB splatbooks and a few Rifts book that he could get away with, got some other artists to draw mutant animals (all the art for 1st Ed ATB was by Eastman & Laird) and called it a day. As it's more or less just a hodgepodge of other Palladium books with a few new bells and whistles thrown in, I'll be mostly referring to 1st Edition, and only refer to 2nd Ed every now and again, just to show how things changed.  I'll also be including art from both editions, and the '01 version has some drat nice stuff. Also, a "Seriously, we're not Satanists" boilerplate, just because. As for After The Bomb itself, it started out as just another adventure for the TMNT&OS corebook, but those boys at Palladium grew more and more in love with the concept of a world where mutant animals are the norm, so they decided to spin it out into a whole supplement. This book only covers the Eastern Seaboard; Wujcik claims this is to give creative GMs something to work with... but hey, if you want more books covering other areas, go ahead and let everyone at Palladium know! And yes, this is a Wujcik book. Whilst that may automatically induce eye-rolling for some of you, I'll just come out and say that I kinda like Wujcik's writing style. Yes, most of his GMing advice stinks, but you have to admire the gumption of any man whose idea of a good introductory adventure is "Save children being held hostage by terrorists (also, the terrorists are barnyard animals)". You may be interested to know that ATB was Palladium's first (but by no means last) post-apocalyptic RPG. And hey, at least he's not Siembieda. The introduction in ATB 2nd Edition is a lot longer, and starts off with Wujcik discussing how society has always had fascinations with anthropomorphic animals, and even mentions the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in passing. He then goes on to say that whilst ATB sounded a little silly back in the mid-80's, science is (allegedly) catching up with the world he created. He then goes on to cite an article from an old issue of New Scientist about an artificial virus made from a scorpion gene, and the advances made in mapping DNA. Erick Wujcik posted:When I first wrote After the Bomb, the idea of a mutant sentient dog was closer to fantasy than science fiction. Looking at it in 2001, it seems like we'll be talking to genetically modified canines in the not-too-distant future. Then he apologises for not putting every single animal in existence in character creation, but we'll get to that later. As this is a TMNT supplement, it gives you guidelines on how to convert your characters from that setting into this one. Nothing too strenuous, just one little table. Well, it's little by Palladium's standards – it only takes up most of one page. Basically, you replace the Cause of Mutation table from TMNT&OS' character generation, and replace it with the Mutation Background table in this book. As the name suggests, it's not so much how you mutated as what kind of community you were raised in. They are: Technicians: Raised in an actual city, you got a good education (+15% Scholastic Bonus with 5 High School skills, 10 College skills and a dozen Secondary skills) so you tend to think of most other mutants as being a little slow. You hate the Empire of Humanity (who they?) but you're no anthrophobe. 2d6x$1000 for your starting cash. Militia: You had a more agricultural background, but frequent raiding from the Empire of Humanity "and their New Kennel allies" (who they?) meant your society made military training compulsory; you don't get much in the way of educational skills (+5% Scholastic Bonus, 8 High School skills), but you do know how to fight (3 Military skills) and you get the Agricultural and First Aid skills for free. Because of your minimal contact with humans, you instinctively see them all as enemies. Your starting cash is 2d6x$100 Elite Militia: Less farmy, more shooty. You were raised in a self-sufficient military compound whilst your parents were between skirmishes. As a result, you're less smart than somebody from a regular militia (no Scholastic Bonus and 4 High School skills) but you're twice as deadly in a fight (6 Military skills). You're probably going to treat a human "with professional cool". You only start off with $100, but you also get a pistol, a rifle (sniper, shotgun, submachine, etc.) and "a complete set of military equipment". I have no idea what that would entail.  2nd Ed art again, but it fits very nicely. There's a lot more art in 2nd Edition, so get used to it. Guerrillas: You're from a small community "far removed from the protection of Cardania" (is that a bad thing? Who knows!) so you've had to fend off the Empire and "mutant renegades" and learn how to avoid traps and minefields. As such, you ain't got much fancy book learning (no Scholastic Bonus, 2 High School skills) but you're good at Tracking (75%), Basic Survival (50%) Prowl and Basic Explosives (both 40%). You most likely hate humans, but you've learnt how to keep your feeling towards them well-hidden. You get 1d6x$100. Scouts: Where you lived was so far off the grid, you saw a stranger about once a year... which for some reason makes you perfect for being hired as a scout. Once again, no Scholastic Bonus, but you get a poo poo-ton of skills and bonuses which, whilst thematic, verge on broken.  Generally speaking, you don't care if somebody's human or mutant, you're just friendly to everyone. All you get to start off with are the clothes on your back, an old weapon and "a gunny sack of cooking tools and useful scavenged items". Feral Scouts: When the Empire raided, you got cut off from everyone and you had to make it on your own. You guessed it, you don't get any Scholastic Bonus, and your skill package makes a regular Scout's look downright anaemic.  You're antisocial to everyone, mutant or human. You'll have scrounged up $200 worth of "government-supplied" stuff – weapons, supplies, etc. Free Slaves: You were just another piece of property for the Empire, but you made a bid for freedom! You get 6 Secondary Skills, 2 Military, Escape Artist 50%, Basic Survival 30%, 25% to your Structural Damage Capacity and 5% to your Physical Strength. Scholastic Bonus isn't even mentioned - I presume Kevin just forgot about it. Due to your treatment by the Empire, your body and mind are both scarred, and you long to destroy every single human. You also managed to... scrounge up $200 worth of... "government-supplied"... drat it Kevin, did you just copy-paste the exact same thing? Scientists: You were an exceptionally bright child, inducted into a special training program mostly run by human geniuses. Not sure how that'd work in a post-apocalyptic scenario, but okay! As a result, you get a poo poo load of skills (6 High School, 12 College and 15 Secondary) and... why, it's our old friend Scholastic Bonus! What's that, Scholastic Bonus? You're +20% for Scientists? How nice for you! Oh yeah, and you're perfectly fine being around humans and mutants alike. You have $3000 in equipment, supplies and weapons.  Professor Teeny finds your hypothesis intriguing, if a little far-fetched. Ninja: Well, of course there were going to be Ninjas. Adopted by ninjas, yadda yadda, you know how this goes. Quite a few skills (5 High School, 2 College, 3 Military & 6 Secondary) and you get Hand-to-Hand Ninja for free, along with proficiency in one of three ancient or ninja weapons. You tend to err on the side of caution when dealing with other mutants. You get $250 spending money to start out with, but your teachers will provide your main weapon. 2nd Edition goes for the slightly more interesting notion of rolling for where you were raised; freed slave, raised by bandits, raised in a town, raised on the outskirts of civilisation, part of the Academic Underground, etc. This gives little bonuses and can let you take Apprenticeships (I'll be covering those later, but not in great detail because they're really boring). All in all, a nice tweak. There's also a brief section on how to run the After The Bomb setting with the Heroes Unlimited ruleset; it basically boils down to swapping out the Revised Random Power Table from TMNT&OS with a much smaller Revised Random Power Table from ATB. And that's it for tables... for now. Next time, we actually learn something about the setting! Eldad Assarach fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Nov 10, 2014 |
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Nov 10, 2014 02:12
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Bear in mind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness predates the major licensing of the turtles (notably, the cartoon) by about two years. It wasn't a "cash cow" at this point, but was a surprising cult success in comic stores, at least. Hence my referring to it as a potential cashcow. I was genuinely amazed at how quickly Palladium grabbed the franchise - only a month before the fifth issue of the original series! Alien Rope Burn posted:I recently found out Kevin Siembieda originally tasked an unknown freelancer with writing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness, and wasn't happy with the result (a pattern we'll find repeats itself throughout Palladium's history). So he asks his friend Erick to do it... in four weeks. He wrote in five weeks. It's a lot more impressive now that I know that, particularly with the fact that TMNT is a lot more innovative than most Palladium games (which isn't saying much, but still). It's depressing how unsurprised I am by that anecdote. Erick really was Kevin's workhorse, bless him. Alien Rope Burn posted:It's noted that After the Bomb 2e was also born of the need for Palladium to be able to sell backstock of old After the Bomb supplements after they lost the license for the corebook that powered them. That's not to say no passion went into it, but it was very much a product of necessity. It's also worth noting that the AtB art is strictly Peter Laird - Eastman isn't involved, as far as I can tell. You should post more of the Laird art, tho, it's rad, and he did a crazy amount considering how little art he actually did for the turtles comic as time went on. He was never prolific, so it's surprising to see. There's an in-house ad at the back of 2nd Edition ATB for all the supplements that's basically "Hey, we've still got some copies, if you want them! Please want them.", so you certainly can't accuse of being disingenuous. I will be covering the rest of Palladium's TMNT/ATB books, knock on wood. As for Laird's art (you're quite right, Eastman didn't do anything for this book), I will definitely be including it throughout the review, along with a few choice selections from 2nd Ed - System Mastery was right, the art in that book is an embarassment of riches.
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Nov 10, 2014 23:32
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 Part 2: Setting Background We finally get to the setting itself, and it's interesting to see a divergence between 1st and 2nd edition right off the bat. It's the late 21st Century, and "a brutal catastrophe of war, plague and nuclear winter" known as "The Big Death" has hosed America's poo poo up. This is where we see the biggest divergence between editions; in 2nd Edition the reason for the end of modern civilisation was basically an escalating prank war gone wrong. Okay, that requires a little more explanation. In the near future science will be so advanced that all disease will either be completely eradicated, so easily cured that kids infecting their entire classroom in order to get out of finals will become just another way for kids to use technology to be complete douchebags. This will eventually lead to kids using the internet to come up with better and better designer viruses, until one day a virus is made that rewrites human cells into a disease. This leads to about three quarters of humanity dying, and that wasn't the end of it. See, another result of science becoming so advanced was the rise of genetic engineering in animals, resulting in the Embryonic Genome Generator, or EGG®, which made the average person capable of making animals that little bit better... and smarter. Turns out meddling in God's domain made animals so smart, they could be classified as not just sentient, but sapient too. As a result, when "The Crash" left its mark, it made some animals mutate, instead of simply dying. Why no, I don't believe anybody at Palladium has any qualifications in any of the sciences. Why do you ask? As if this wasn't bad enough, the fact that so many people died from what looked like a deliberate biological attack made the people who could push The Button kinda jumpy, so they decided to push it just in case, resulting in – you guessed it - "The Big Death".  Some creepy (possibly recycled) art to break up the wall of text. Regardless of how it happened, the end result is the same; humanity is no longer the dominant species. From the wake of disaster have arisen thousands of mutant animals, most of whom have set up their own societies; divisions between societies are based far more on territory than by species – most PCs will probably be from Cardania, even though we have no idea what it's like. Humans inhabit some of the mutant-centric societies, helping to build infrastructures. However, there is also The Empire of Humanity, an autocracy hell-bent on destroying every mutant. So, it's not so much Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth, more Battle For The Planet of The Apes. We then go on to money, and it's actually pretty interesting. Barter is the most accepted form of payment, and pre-Big Death currency is worthless; the only physical money that anyone south of New Kennel takes is the Cardanian Buck and Bit, with 4 Bits making up a Buck (A Buck is the same as a US Dollar). It then gives a list of various amenities, and how much they're worth now (One night in an inn is worth 2 Bucks, a flashlight is worth 50 Bucks, etc.). Manufactured items cost three times as much as they do, but only if they're new – old stuff costs the same as it did before, but only if it works. This method of pricing doesn't apply to New Kennel or The Empire – their currency, the Empire Credit, is electronic-only and everyone pays with credit cards. The Empire still has the same prices that were around pre-Big Death, and again a Credit converts exactly to a Dollar, but New Kennel has a huge problem with inflation (prices keep being "adjusted", much to the dismay of New Kennel's financial district), which keeps them subservient to The Empire. Both regions have a black market, and they only take Bucks. 2nd Edition bumped up the equipment list to about 6 pages, which is pretty restrained for Palladium (Yes, at least half of the pages are about weapons).  I needed something else to break up the text, so have a badass Laird rodent. Offspring! Don't worry, it's just a short paragraph about how inter-species relationships and marriages are common, but will never produce children; two dogs could be fertile, but a dog and a wolf couldn't. Preeeeetty sure this is bullshit, Wujcik. A mutant and a human can't produce a child either, which sounds comparatively less stupid. In all fairness, when 2nd Edition came out (and understanding of interbreeding was more widely-known), this was commuted to "most species can't interbreed, and some mutations make you infertile". Doesn't say which, but it sure makes a big deal about it! Certain Psionic powers can detect whether somebody is fertile or not (shtupping the wrong mutant can make you infertile – again, doesn't say what criteria there is), and the GM Guide suggests that The Empire of Humanity has little to no children... no pure human children, that is. See, quite a few people in The Empire had adopted a lot of mutant children that looked exactly like a human. Remember when in TMNT&OS where a mutant's looks ranged from None to Partial to Full? Well, now you have Perfect; it makes you look exactly like a human and it only costs 15 BIO-E, so the "purity" of what remains of humanity has been inadvertently diluted. While I don't see the point of adding even more to character creation, I actually do like the idea of showing how certain ideologies don't really work when you put actual people into the equation. Next time: We actually get to learn what The Empire of Humanity is, and who's running it!
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Nov 12, 2014 15:38
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As somebody with Asperger's Syndrome, I am ineffably pissed off with Palladium for even considering that this was a good idea.
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Nov 12, 2014 22:16
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 Part 3: The Empire of Humanity As Wujcik points out, a RPG wouldn't be much fun without bad guys, so he created The Empire of Humanity, an autocracy with... vast amounts of technology and... hate everyone else... but they like dogs... Yeah, we've seen this before. Again, I should point out that After The Bomb predates Rifts by a good 4½ years, so ATB is the one being ripped off here. The More You Know! The Empire is miles ahead of every other territory, technologically speaking, thanks to their manufacturing being done entirely by mutant slaves, although they're being phased out for robots. They have an absurd amount of weaponry, which I'll get to in a bit, and the only working fusion reactor in the world. It's not all good news, though; anti-government protests often break out, ending in exactly what you'd expect from a totalitarian dictatorship. Emperor Daniel Christian  "SFII: The Movie" M. Bison is tricky to pull off for even the most experienced cosplayer. His alignment is Diabolic, which means he's pretty much your garden-variety tin-pot dictator – charismatic, talks a big game and is always happy to make you the scapegoat if things turn out bad. Also, he can turn his entire body into stone! Yes, the mutophobic zealot has a mutant power of his own (to be fair, about 12% of his army have some kind of mutant ability, and it's not like he enjoys showing it to anybody). When he does use it, his Physical Strength gets a +8 and his S.D.C. goes from 66 to 600; he becomes invulnerable to pretty much everything, and explosions (including nuclear blasts!) do half damage. This power has slowed his ageing process down considerably – he looks about 40, but he's actually 96. This had led to speculations that he has his own private "Fountain of Youth". Just after The Big Death, he was part of a "renegade militia unit" that discovered the fusion reactor, which was being maintained by a peaceful scientific community. He quickly realised the potential, put all the scientists into separate labs, and used the reactor to found Technoville, capital city of The Empire of Humanity (It's also where Newburgh used to be... I think. There's a map that I'll post in the next update, so). He rules with an iron fist, but people still talk poo poo about him... just not for very long. Professor William Sybek  That sandwich doesn't look very appetising. He's Christian's second-in-command, and his alignment is Miscreant, which means he only looks out for himself. He certainly meets expectations; he's not a particularly brilliant scientist, but he's very good at motivating his "team", which mostly consists of scientists held prisoner by The Empire... turns out productivity soars if you threaten to kill somebody's family. He doesn't normally carry a gun, but if cornered he might whip out a death ray or something... just don't expect him to bother aiming it properly. He also has trouble accepting that mutant animals are sapient as well as sentient; he's killed a lot of brilliant scientists, simply because they were mutants. General Mike Ulster  I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M HOLDING BUT I loving HATE IT ARRRRGH Mike is the leader of The Empire's armed forces, and a Scrupulous character, which makes him... Good? Yes, we have our token "has noble intentions, but is surrounded by evil assholes" character! Good lord, this really is like a Saturday morning cartoon. Anyway, Ulster is more pro-human than anti-mutant; he doesn't have a problem with mutants - he feels the death of each soldier keenly, whether they're human or mutant - he just doesn't want humans to be wiped off the face of the planet. He's also a genius on the battlefield, with an extensive knowledge of military history. Luckily for The Empire's enemies, everyone else in the army is a moron that fucks up all the time. As a result, Ulster is always on edge, and can't really "switch off"... which is probably a good thing for The Empire, given that he's the only one who can stop everything from going tits up. The other noticeable thing about Mike is that he's a motherfucking cyborg. Most of the left side of his body is full of gadgets; he has an eye that has infrared, zoom and targetting (+1 to hit), his left hand has a Physical Strength of 28, built-in bioscan and computer and a mini-ion blaster in his left arm (he likes to save that for emergencies). On the downside, his hearts, lungs and kidneys are all bionic. Speaking of Empire technology... Empire Robot Armour Remember that fight scene on the cover? Well, the humans in the goofy armour are G-9 troops (so called for the G-9 rifle that comes with an Empire soldier's basic kit) wearing Type 2xd Robotic Armour, which we'll get to in a bit. The Type-1 Robot Armour (the ED-209 ripoff on the cover) has a lot of cute little gadgets – dual mini-lasers, targeting scope, retractable blasters, etc. - and has 1200 S.D.C. Not surprising, given that it weighs 1.4 tonnes. Whilst the Type 2dx Armour hasn't got as many tricks as the Type 1 (loudspeaker, targeting sight, radio com-link, a computer and ion blasters that do 5d6 damage, but can only be fired once every five minutes) and only give 240 S.D.C., the 2dx has a few advantages over Type 1 suits; they're a lot cheaper to make and pilots only need 3 weeks training, as opposed to the two months the type 1 suits require.  Fairgrounds got a lot weirder after the apocalypse. Ulster has his own custom suit of "full bionic armour" that he wears into battle. It gives him 900 S.D.C., and it only works for him. The Empire has a few other little toys; VTOL jet fighters that can reach Mach 3.5, tanks with laser cannons and helicopters that can do 300mph (interestingly, a few attack copters can manage just a little over that nowadays) but it's all window dressing to make the Empire look cool.   Here's what the suits look like in 2nd Ed. In 2nd Edition, everything gets an upgrade; Type-1 suits now weigh 2 tonnes and the Type 2xd get an energy pistol and a helmet with a sweet HUD and gas mask. Strangely, their LC-12 attack helicopters now only manage 250mph. There are also the Type 3 Security bots, but they're as stupid as they are deadly – they get fooled by mutants with Full and Perfect Looks, have no concept of "taking cover" and often kill humans at random. Other than that, they work fine! They look like rejected concept art for the Battlestar Galactica reboot. New Kennel Dogs are pretty much the only species that gets along with The Empire on the whole, because MAN'S BEST FRIEND AMIRITE. They were fully integrated into The Empire a decade ago, but after certain factions within the dogs started making a ruckus, so now they all live where New Jersey used to be. According to 2nd Edition, their trade is almost entirely agricultural, thanks to The Empire constantly making GBS threads on them, with only a few manufacturing plants allowed. Technologically speaking, they're turn of the century... the 19th Century, that is. New Kennel's run by Yaster and Yasbal, greyhound twins who are puppet rulers chosen by Christian. They help spread pro-Empire propaganda, and keep the citizens under The Empire's rule. Interestingly, the twins (gently caress you, I'm not typing out those stupid names again) really do believe that Christian will give dogs full citizenship, provided they prove that they're all loyal. They'd better go on thinking that; Christian's bugged their offices, and he's perfectly fine with removing them if they show signs of becoming more independent. Also, they have 80% Ventriloquism, because Palladium. v  v Who's a good soldier? You are! Yes, you are! Military-wise, they're entirely dependent on Empire tech. They've got almost three dozen tanks, and 6,500 Empire soldiers stationed within New Kennel, but those troops don't answer to any dogs. New Kennel's "Air Force" does little more than ferry its politicians around, which isn't surprising considering it's made up of 15 helicopters and 23 transport planes. In terms of local manpower, there's a National Guard that's made up of about 15% of the population, most of which keep their crappy old rifles at home. There's also the NAI (National Army of the Interior), but they're just the Service d'ordre Légionnaire to New Kennel's Vichy France. Moira Alpland is the owner of a nice little clothing store. She's a lovely, cheery soul... who also happens to moonlight as The Spider, head of the New Kennel resistance movement – currently about 20-30 dogs who take part in weekly raids in Empire territory or New Kennel. Huge rewards have been posted by officials from The Empire and New Kennel, but no NAI operative has come close to capturing her (they don't even know The Spider is a woman, and neither does the resistance – it's safer for her that way). This is partly because she's a master of disguise; she's even passed for a human, even though she's actually a coyote. Another interesting little bit from 2nd Edition; an attempt to breed genetically pure humans kind of hit the fan when it turned out most of the results turned out to be half-pig. Not the kind of people to throw a terrible idea away, they decided to clone two dozen "perfect" children a whole bunch, billing them as "The Future of The Empire". This was fine right up until they turned seven, when they tried to destroy The Empire with their terrifying psychic powers in a bid to cull the "impure" humans i.e. everybody else. They were only stopped by outside help, in the form of The Three-Eyed Elephants of Ganesh, India's theocracy (we'll get to them later, I promise) which only rubbed salt into the wounds. Needless to say, The Empire isn't as hopeful for the future as it once was. Next time: All the other places! Eldad Assarach fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Nov 17, 2014 |
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Nov 17, 2014 03:13
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Alien Rope Burn posted:If these guys sound familiar - a pro-human, technologically advanced country led by a tinpot dictator with mutated dog flunkies - that's because they'd be given a skull-intensive makeover for a certain later Palladium game. I actually find Christian more interesting than his successor in Rifts, Prosek, because he has that edge of hypocrisy inventive PCs can use against him, being a mutant railing against other mutants. He has a grand total of two notes, as opposed to Prosek's one note. I quite like the concept behind General Ulster as "reasonable guy who doesn't want everything to get hosed up", simply because he seems to be a kind of metaplotty way for somebody reasonable to be put in charge of The Empire if Christian got offed in some way.
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Nov 17, 2014 17:52
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You'd better answer the call of nature first, cause this is a long one! Part 4: The other territories  Here's a pretty nice map. All the goons on the west coast, have fun figuring out how the downfall of civilisation has messed with state borders! Cardania Cardania's a pretty nice place to live, all in all. The hydro-electric drat means the economy's good, there's no tension between species (even humans are accepted!) and it's an honest-to-God democracy. If you had to pick a flaw with it, it'd be the constant attacks from their technologically superior neighbours, The Empire of Humanity. That, and it's where Delaware and Virginia used to be.  Cardania is outgunned by The Empire to such a degree that it's not even funny. Cardania's Navy is mostly staffed by assholes who are more interested in playing pirates, their Air force is a joke and their ground troops have a noticeable lack of robot death-suits.  Their leader, President Thana Foxline, is pro-human... but even she knows that the only way her people can be safe is if The Empire is destroyed.The Plains of Free Cattle As the name suggests, they're mostly buffalo, deer, cows, horses, etc. Their exact boundary lines are a bit fuzzy – they claim to span as far as "the other ocean" – but it's more or less where Tennessee used to be, along with a bit of North Carolina and I think some of Georgia. They're a lot less centralised than the other territories, and one of the most anti-human. That's mostly down to their leader Weschek the Wise, a horse who's sometimes a little esoteric and hard to understand, but is "good-natured"... except when he's preaching for the destruction of the "evil humans". On the other hand, he was gelded by humans before The Big Death, and often uses this as a visual demonstration whenever he's questioned on his beliefs. No, I'm not making this up. The Rodent Cartel of Filly Yes, this is Philadelphia; apparently this city was ravaged by chemical weapons, as opposed to nuclear bombs like everywhere else was. It's pretty much this setting's Bartertown, only instead of Tina Turner it's run by The Rodent Cartel. Unlike Bartertown, though, there are some rules – the Cartel realise that they're the only truly neutral place (they even trade to The Empire, albeit through New Kennel), so they have well-armed mercenaries patrolling the city at all times to keep everything relatively quiet. The Cartel also give out permits to archaeologists so they can explore "The Wild Philly", a lawless shithole that's also filled with artefacts of pre-Big Death culture. N'Yak Go on, guess where this used to be. It's pretty much Fist of The North Star: Furry Edition here – crumbling masonry, sadistic gangs, the whole works (although most gangs don't have guns, and the ones that do only hang onto them until their ammo runs out). The only reason any outsiders go there is for pre-Big Death stuff; it's assumed that that's where the really valuable artefacts are. Bird Island It's where Long Island was, and while it's not as bad as N'Yak, it's not great either. It's now a bird supremacist autocracy run by Isaac Crow, who loves clipping the wings of criminals, fermenting anti-human and anti-bat sentiments, and executing traitors and "invaders" (basically, anybody who had the bad luck to wind up on Bird Island). He also dreams of invading the mainland some day, which is probably why he's busy keeping his munitions factories a secret.  I'd use some 1st Edition art to break up this wall of text, but to be honest there's not that much. Besides, gun-toting parrot. Contested Lands The Plains of Free Cattle and New Kennel have shitfits over this every now and again, with Cardania trying to make sure neither group gets what they want whilst staying directly out of things. We're not told why, but it's presumably something to do about expanding Empire territory or some bullcrap. The North As you'd expect, it's a harsh place, inhabited with Wolf Barbarians (there are also dogs and coyotes, but marketing's important for these guys). There are also rumours of a Northern Free State, and these weird things known as "glaciers"... The South There are a bunch of free states and towns there, but what with The Free Cattle inbetween them and Cardania, they tend to keep to themselves. There's also a huge swing in technological ability from town to town - one place can be almost up to pre-Big Death technology, and another just a few hours walk could be some shithole straight out of the 17th century. Gatorland It's pretty much one big marshy swamp... or a swampy marsh, it depends where you live. It's actually a pretty chill place to live, thanks to The Gang of Four; they're a ninja clan, of sorts, who live according to the tenets of Eastern philosophy, and made Gatorland into a prosperous nation. They send ninja operatives throughout the East Coast, mostly in Cardania and Filly.  Yeah, this guy isn't familiar in any way... That's 1st Ed - nothing too exhaustive, but it's not trying to be. 2nd Edition is, as you'd expect, a little more in-depth. It gives a brief rundown of the continents, which I'll try and condense as best I can. The Arctic and Antarctic All the ice from Antarctica vanished and ended up in The Arctic, turning the former into one big ice palace and the latter into the “New Eden of the South”. To be fair, the book does acknowledge that there's no way that could've happened... but it did, and that's the scary part. The scarier part is that The Arctic has people living there, who are apparently into some crazy mystic poo poo – it got the nickname “The Mountains of Madness” for a reason. Europe To put it bluntly, pretty much everything's gone to poo poo. There were a few “human empires”, but most of them have crumbled; the only one left standing is in Skandia (formerly Northern Denmark – it's not as bad as The Empire of Humanity, but it still won't give mutants citizenship or the vote) and even that's getting worse by the day.  Calais, now called Societie A Eliminer les Creations Sauvages et Nuisibles or SAECSEN for short, seceded from France and focused on the genocide of all mutants. France, which is now New France, a coalition of three groups (mostly mutated French purebred animals) dedicated to kicking SAECSEN's merde in, and it looks like they might do it pretty soon.  The Netherlands, or Lakenveld as it's now known, has decided to say out of all this poo poo and everyone lets them because Lakenveld is the only country in Europe that's got their poo poo together (100% literacy among all its citizens, mutant and human alike, and their economy's booming – even Skandia use Lakenveld Guilders as legal tender). Oh, and it looks like Böhlen, a small town in Germany, has been hiding mutants with some really hosed-up powers; energy blasters, shape-shifters, even half-mutant/half-machine. Also, Palladium still have Africa The northern and central parts of Africa are one giant shithole of warring factions. Yeah. Southern Africa, meanwhile, has three countries of interest (Four if you count Fortress South Africa, a small “human-dominated” country, but it's government is very isolationist so they don't really come into the equation that much). Zambiziland is at the forefront of cutting-edge technology e.g. microchips and supercomputers, but is beset from all sides by its warring neighbours. Basically, it's ATB's version of Wakanda. It's also home to the Donta Elephants, bipedal warrior-poets who have opened their gates to refugees from all over the globe, but don't take anybody's poo poo. Also, 97% of the Donta have Low-Frequency Wave Detection as an Animal Power, allowing them to detect imminent earthquakes... provided they have Padded Feet as a Power as well, something this section of the book neglects to mention. Oh, and their ears make great air conditioning. Thanks for that, Erick.  At first, imgur had some issues uploading this. I choose to believe it couldn't handle the awesome. Inkuruland, on the other hand, is a loose collection of clans (mostly purebred cattle), tribes and villages who are a little behind their neighbours technologically, but they make up for it by making lots of weapons. They sound lovely! Meanwhile, Talichiland is... pretty vague. It popped up three years ago (and I do mean “popped up” - it was founded by naked mole rats) and from what people can tell from airborne reconnaissance it's a war-torn dust bowl. The really worrying thing is that nobody seems to know what the mole rats are up to; they seem to have their eye on expanding their borders, but given that their borders include Inkuruland that seems like a bad idea.  India Yes, the book covers The Middle East as well, but only to mention that it's mostly an irradiated wasteland, thanks to all the nukes. Yeah. Anyway, India! It's very much in charge of what's left of its neighbours, and has renamed itself Ganesh to pay homage to the Ganeshi. Who are the Ganeshi? They're mutant elephants, apparently the result of chimera experimentation by the Indian government before The Big Death happened, which explains why they all have a third eye. They rule over Ganesh as living gods, telepathically communicating with their subjects every morning, noon and night; their telepathic powers are beyond anything any other mutant has, with astral projection, teleportation and mind control all being part of their repertoire. There are also the Hyderabad, purebred Baboons who are subservient to the Ganeshi, and are highly skilled at building pretty much anything. This is probably the most depressing part of the book, as Erick promises that the Ganeshi will be covered in “future sourcebooks”, but given that he died about 6½ years later... Let's move on, shall we? Asia What's happening on the world's largest continent? Nobody really knows!  Some people claim there are dragon chimeras! People around the Pacific Rim are using Hong Kong Dollars, which seem to be indestructible!   Don Pollastro isn't angry, he's disappointed... and that's somehow worse. Oceania Guys, Palladium have still got copies of Mutants Down Under! You should  You should get Mutants Down Under if you want more details on Jakarta! I'm not kidding, this is how they're selling it! Also, Tasmania (or Tazzieland, or Tazzie, or TazzietazziebobazziebananafanafofazziefeefifomazzieTAZZIE) is now a constitutional monarchy modelled after the “pre-Prang” British government, and they've recently rediscovered plastics. Good for them!  Central & South America Cuba were planning on making a bunch of real-life Jurassic Parks! What are they up to now? Who knows! What about the rest of the fourth-largest continent in the world? Buy Mutants of The Yucatan!  West Coast America Buy Road Hogs for more information! Yes, that really is all we get! Next time: Spider-goats and poo poo!
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Nov 20, 2014 00:30
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Part 5: New Mutant Animals & other crunch We going to move away from 1st Edition ATB for today and take a look at changes to character creation and other little things in the game. I'd have covered it sooner, but frankly I thought that the setting was far more interesting. You may have noticed I've been focusing far more on the fluff of ATB than the crunch, and that's because I personally find the Megaversal system dry than a hundredweight of crackers. It doesn't help that everything from ATB 2nd Ed was shamelessly cribbed from previous Palladium books. That being the case, I'll only focus on the First of all, the Mutant Animal tables have been expanded. There's the regular table, which is virtually unchanged since the days of TMNT&OS, but but there's also a sub-table on "Purebreds". Apparently a town of mutant Chester-breed pigs would act kinda snooty to, say, a mutant Arkansas Razorback. Then again, mutant purebred dogs, horses and chickens are way less snobby, so that's okay! You can also be a throwback (long-extinct animal brought back via dicking around with recessive genes) or a chimera (ungodly meld of creatures that should not be the same thing). This table is honestly pretty boring, except for... Allosauroid  Well, they can't all be winners. It's a dinosaur! Well, sort of. This is actually what happens when geneticists have too much spare time on their hands, and decide to screw around with a chicken's DNA to bring back the dinosaurs. This is the only Throwback I'm including on this list, because the rest are so booooring. If you think I'm kidding, the rest are as follows; Okefenokee Hog, Passenger Pigeon and Egyptian Cat. Hell, the only reason I included this one was because it's technically a dinosaur. Human Mutants Yes, you can play as a mutated human (According to the book, they make up about 15% of the human population). You can even have animal powers! I'd go into more detail, but this is all covered in a TMNT&OS sourcebook that I hope to cover at some point, so I'll just say that I really don't see the point of this! Pleasure Bunny  Yes, this is really the official art. No, I'm not kidding. Oh, this loving thing. And yes, "loving" is a completely appropriate word to use. This is what happens when geneticists have too much spare time on their hands, and decide to turn rabbits into sex slaves. And these aren't "rabbits, only sexy furries  " they're just "people who look sexy, and might have a fluffy rabbit tail if their PC is a minmaxer". See, there's one new wrinkle to ATB chargen; Vestigial Disadvantages, which are animalistic traits you can buy in character creation for a little extra BIO-E. They're mostly boring (musk glands! You can only eat meat/plants!) except for Reptile Brain, which makes your Alligator PC more likely to flip out and beat the poo poo out of smaller characters, which can be worse if your GM includes the optional rules for Horror Factor. Yes, they included the Horror Factor from Beyond The Supernatural. No, I don't know why either.Back to the Pleasure Bunnies - their Mutant Animal Powers are... well, do you remember that one Cthulhutech adventure? Well, they're a bit like that, just comparatively less rapetacular; their pheremones are designed more to get you in the mood than to make you a mindless vegetable with a boner. Then again, they can also produce pheremones to bind an individual to gently caress only them, so swings and roundabouts. They can also control their weight, body fat and muscle, to tailor their appearance to whoever they want to Spider-Goat  According to the rules, this particular Spider-Goat has too many pairs of legs.  Yeah, you knew this was coming. See, Wujcik had read an article about transgenic goats and automatically assumed that meant goats would soon have spider-powers, because that's just what Erick was like. Name says it all, you can be a mutant goat that's also Spider-Man. Web shooters, spinnerets, ability to walk on walls... you can even get extra limbs if you want to recreate that. Spider-goats are usually found in heavily-wooded communities, and are easy-going, helpful people with a good sense of humour (they tend to rib anybody caught in their webs, but in a nice way). Chameleon Mouse  There's no art for a Shifter Mouse, so have this kickass mouse instead. Again, Wujcik read a thing and assumed that real-world science had finally caught up with Silver Age comic books. Not only can these mice change their eye colour, they can emit light (ultraviolet and infrared are available), become a strobe light, change skin colour (no bright colours, only earth tones), turn nearly invisible (more Predator than Memoirs of An Invisible Man) and be super stealthy, even when running. Shifter Mouse  5 will get you 10 that this is recycled from some other Palladium book. I can't find the specific study Erick is misinterpreting, but apparently after scientists experimented with injecting mice with a gene that could triggered hormonally, they decided to go the whole hog and inject mice with all sorts of genes. The end result was the Shifter Mice, who can change their physical appearance to resemble another animal after ingesting said animal's blood into a small hole under its tongue. It's not all great news; if the Shifter turns into a brain-damaged animal then they'll stay that way, and all their children are 1d6 Shifter Mice, which can lead to awkward situations in bigoted communities. Porkopolis Flying Swine  Hardy-har-har. Yes, these are pigs with wings from Cincinnati. They still live there, and they get wings for free in chargen, which is nice. Then there's the "optional" table, which is much larger. Most of it's stuff cribbed from ATB and TMNT&OS sourcebooks... in fact, the only way to get stats and BIO-E count for most of the animals is to buy the sourcebooks. There's a table for what kind of fur/scale/skin pattern/colour combination you have (boring), what side effects you get from injuries (somewhat useful) and Apprenticeship Programs. After the Big Death, formal education took a backseat to the whole "not dying" thing at the time, so everybody went back to making sure the next generation learnt a trade by making them become somebody's apprentice. In-game, this is basically just a bunch of skill packages you get that will rarely come up, unless you took the Healer Apprenticeship, or maybe the Armorer Apprenticeship. I doubt your time spent learning how to be a farrier will make much difference in-game. Psionics got expanded a lot from the list in TMNT&OS, most of them to do with sensing stuff (Cell Reader, Psychic Diagnosis, Sense Nemesis, Sense Tectonics) or techie stuff (Natural Mechanical Genius, Techno-Mind). There's also Prosthetic Psionics, which can let you walk with no legs, or pick stuff up when you've got no hands – the only problem is that you can't use any other psionics while you're using that stuff. I've no idea if this is cribbed from Heroes Unlimited or not, but Chimeras have to buy Animal Control for both of their original species, which is neat. Next time: The Gun Bunnies!
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Nov 25, 2014 02:14
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Part 6: Gun Bunnies & Zombies This is the first adventure for the book, and the most notorious (we'll get to that later on). This is all the work of Matthew Balent, who wrote a few weapon books for Palladium. It's billed as an "Introductory" adventure, but we're warned that it'll take several session to complete, and any party under 3rd level will need some NPC hirelings if they don't want to die. You are a group of Cardanian scouts hired by Commander Yeats, a rat renowned for his infiltration of The Rodent Cartel, to investigate claims from members of a captured criminal gang. They say that the town of Benny, just north of Empire territory, has a treasure trove of pre-Big Death technology and weapons. The downside is, Benny is also said to be overrun by "psycho-zombies" (mutant animals being mind-controlled to become brainless brutes) controlled by a mad scientist. The party's main objective is to check out the town and put a stop to the psycho-zombies before The Empire decides to use the technology on a larger scale (it's assumed to be an Empire experiment because, let's face it, who else would think this is a good idea?). The PCs will be accompanied by a guide; Ozzie Bleu, former member of an all-otter recon unit a decade or so ago. He's good at his job and knows the area well, but he's not comfortable giving orders. HOPE YOU LIKE lovely RABBIT PUNS  Here's something to break up the walls of text. It'll take a week to get there - Ozzie will take the party along The Hudson River) and, naturally, there's a bunch of encounters along the way to pep things up, if you have time; in 1st Edition, they're just a list for you to slot whenever you feel like, but 2nd Ed they're a 1d6 table of random encounters. They're mostly uninteresting in and of themselves – Empire patrols, Wolf Barbarians, or just "roll on the monster table" if you're using 2nd Edition – but there are two that definitely add to the atmosphere. The first one involves the group coming across the remnants of a fire, with corpses littering the ground (already looted, of course) – they're victims of The Empire in 1st Ed, but 2nd Edition leaves it open to GM interpretation. The other interesting one is Samuel (or Samuela if you're using 2nd Ed); she's a grouse (bird, not just somebody who complains) who's the sole survivor of a sneak attack by The Gun Bunnies. She didn't get away scot-free though, and there's pretty much no chance of her surviving unless you get her to a hospital right away. Before she dies, she tells the group not to trust The Gun Bunnies, as they betrayed her group. As for Benny itself, it's Albany; there's a statue of a pig in the old Tobin Packing Company, as a monument to the dead. And yes, the "psycho-zombies" are definitely real. They're the ongoing experiment run by William "Brother Bill" Delsier, a mad scientist who escaped from The Empire after faking a mental breakdown and got a slight case of the JESUS after living with an old monk for a year, before the monk died. Apparently he didn't teach Bill much about brotherly love, because Delsier decided to use electronic brain implants to create psycho-zombies, or "Gloons" as he calls them, because ONE stupid name for these things just wasn't enough. The Empire doesn't really know much about all this, but when they do they'll make sure to get the technology for themselves. That doesn't mean the technology's fool-proof; a few devices have shorted out, and a few Gloons have wandered off, leaving only 26 out of the original 200 Gloons are still wandering Benny, occasionally causing a ruckus. Also, Delsier was made a dog in 2nd Edition. Why? Who cares! Benny isn't completely inhabited by Bill and his Gloons – there are a few small gangs who roam around the place, trying not to be turned into something with a stupid name. They're all cowardly assholes who'll try and act tough if the odds are in their favour, but are more likely to trade information. No idea what they want to trade it for, because neither edition tells us! The "information" is just a bunch of rumours, most of which are bullshit.  But enough of this , let's get to the Gun Bunnies! Here are the Gun Bunnies, according to Peter Laird...  ... and here they are, as drawn by Apollo Okamura. The Gun Bunnies are the surviving descendants of the pets of a pre-Big Death survivalist, a "good old boy" by the name of Zeke Tater. There's about 150 of them, but most of them are holed up in "The Warren", 50 miles away (or 15, depending which book you read). The only ones you'll give a poo poo about are Bug, Bomb, Bullet and Beach. Bug Bunny The leader by default; he's old enough to remember Zeke, and he's the only one in the group that's not a hot-headed rear end in a top hat. 1St Ed gives him the Animal Powers of Advanced Smell & Hearing and Leaping, and Sixth Sense for Psionics. 2Nd Edition upgrades his power set to include Advanced Vision for Powers, and swaps Sixth Sense for Sense Nemesis, Mind Block and Danger Sense. Bomb Bunny The de facto second-in-command, on account of his smooth tongue and the fact that he's Bug's best pal. He's a little obsessed with fashion, and very obsessed with explosives – he has his own demolition lab in The Warren (sealed off from the rest of the base, of course). In 1st Ed, he only had Advanced Hearing for an Animal Power, but 2nd Edition bumped it up to Extra Speed and Extra Physical Prowess, just in case the PCs thought this might be a fair fight. He also knows how to play the harmonica. Nope, me neither. Bullet Bunny Simply put, he's an rear end in a top hat. He's dressed like a punk, because this was first written in the 80's, and he's a hot-headed rebel who doesn't play by your rules, man! He's also in charge of The Warren's armoury, and is a drat good field commander. His Animal Powers of Advanced Smell & Hearing got beefed up with Brute Strength in 2nd Edition, because shut up. Beach Bunny Did we really need to know that she has a shitload of makeup and hair dyes back at The Warren? Or that she likes skin-tight clothing? Or that she's The Gun Bunnies themselves will introduce themselves in And... that's about it. Well, Delsier's holed up in the Monastery of The Immaculate Conception, so presumably you're meant to go there and kick his poo poo in, hopefully without getting your poo poo kicked in by the fluffy-tailed dickweeds listed above. Palladium has never been big on having well-defined story arcs for their adventures, preferring the "Here you go, deal with this poo poo" school of thought. Next time: A Journey to Boar's Town! Eldad Assarach fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Nov 30, 2014 |
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Nov 30, 2014 22:20
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Sorry, things have gotten hectic what with Christmas and all, but I'm determined to finish this before New Year's! Part 7: A Journey to Boar's Town This is the second Introductory adventure (there's a third... sort of – we'll get to it later) and it's... well, it's about as "Introductory" as The Gun Bunnies. Boston, or Boar's Town as it's now called, has not had any contact with anyone to its south for years. That's what makes the radio broadcast from there so surprising; a burst of static, then six hours later there's a broadcast from a pretty scatterbrained scientist calling himself Doctor Vincent (His first name is either Lance or Wilbur, he can't seem to remember which... as I said, he's pretty scatterbrained). Inbetween his crochety ramblings and arguments with some kind of AI, he claims to have found a solution to all those pesky animal mutations, right before his broadcast cuts out. Naturally, this grabs everyone's attention. And yes, everyone knows. The scuttlebutt mostly agrees this is a trick by either The Empire (unlikely, as it's too far north for them) or Wolf Barbarians (more likely, because everyone knows how brutal and evil those assholes are). Either way, Cardania can't just ignore the message, which is where the party comes in. The book suggests either the PCs investigate this on their own initiative, or they get ordered to by Cardania. CRAZY OLD MAN WILBUR WANTS YOU DARN KIDS TO GET OFF HIS LAWN His real name is Dr Wilbur Vincent, and he really has figured out a way to reverse mutations – all it would take is a few artificial viruses and every mutant would be wiped out. However he doesn't really want to destroy all mutant life; he's completely pacifistic, and he only made that radio broadcast so people would know about his breakthrough, that's all. Yes, that is a really stupid reason, but the book states outright that he's "a bit schizophrenic". In all fairness, he is 136 (he looks about 60 years younger) and has been on his own for a while (he prefers his own company, but will discuss anything with the PCs if they ask, and talk to them as equals) so it's only natural that he's ended up a bit... odd. He won't share his findings with The Empire, but it's unlikely that they'll ask politely.  Add a couple hundred pounds, and you've got every goon in a decade or two. Oh, and the AI he was arguing with... you remember Inspector Gadget? You remember that computer that looked like a book? Well, that's pretty much what Wilbur was talking to. It's actually a bit more than "just" a computer; it's a full AI with a somewhat prickly personality, and is more inclined to listen to Wilbur, but will communicate to anyone else (obeying their commands is another matter entirely). The book wasn't made by Wilbur, it's just some experimental pre-Big Death tech that he found one day. It has the blueprints for the viruses in its system, but any attempt to hack it will activate a failsafe to delete the files. Speaking of The Empire, they'll be horning in of course, and they'll be doing it in Another group to worry about will be the Wolf Barbarians living in Boar's Town. Well, “living in” isn't quite right... more “ruling with an iron fist over the surrounding area”. However, once they know The Empire is on their way to wreck their poo poo, however inadvertently, they'll side with the party, although their leader (a lynx named Kristopher) has no experience fighting anything close to what The Empire has in store.  They seem a nice bunch. There's also The Cult Bears; as they name suggests, they're bears living a lifestyle that's a cross between your average monk (they wear hooded robes) and the Amish (they're really anti-technology, to the point where they don't believe radios can even exist) who worship “Saint Hugh of Conner, a figure credited with martyrdom in the defense of the bears of the north”. This is probably a reference to something, but I honestly don't know what. They love Wilbur, but only know him as “The Book Man”, and will try to protect from any possible threat, no matter what they claim their intentions to be. If you can convince that “The Book Man” is in danger, then they'll send somebody to warn Wilbur, and will help fend off The Empire and their “evil demons”... although they won't be armed with anything more advanced than a staff, due to their technophobia.  I've heard of sameface, but samewaist? You thought The Empire was bad enough? Wait till you meet One-Year, a fanatical Free Cattle spy who's been charged by his elders with killing Wilbur, no matter what. He'll try and snipe the lovable old fellow with a crossbow, and woe betide anybody who even thinks of getting in his way. There are specific instructions for the GM to scare the PCs with some arrows flying out of nowhere and hitting the scenery before they actually meet One-Year.  I could see Playmates turning this into a decent action figure. Again, there's no real resolution beyond “People show up and start poo poo, try not to get a TPK”. Next time: Clem's Big Adventure & Aerial Supremacy! Eldad Assarach fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Dec 8, 2014 |
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Dec 8, 2014 20:30
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Again, Christmas keeps getting in the way, but I'm nearly done... Part 8: ATB Adventure Double-Header! The next two adventures aren't particularly lengthy, especially when condensed by a taciturn weenie like me, so we're saving time and space by shoving them together. Clem's Big Adventure This adventure is described as “moderately difficult”... which is slightly worrying, given that the introductory adventures involve fighting hordes of zombies and giant tanks. During a routine patrol in the woods, the party will hear somebody cussing and muttering. Investigating the sounds, they'll come across a hound dog riding atop a giant beetle. The hound is called Clem, and is described in the book as “Sort of a “larger, more aggressive Beverly Hillbillies' Jethro Bodine, complete with the 'aw shucks'”. The beetle is named Betsy, and is more interested in eating the leaves off a tree than obeying Clem's orders. Clem greets the PCs (nearly breaking their hands by shaking them) and begins telling them about how he met some “humins” working on “some old-time machines” to dig up the earth. When he introduced himself, they tried to kill him and he fled on Betsy (She can outrun pretty much anything). He'll ask the party if they can help him stop the “humins”, as he's worried they might hurt some friends of his.  Clem, as drawn by Peter Laird... S.D.C., THAT IS. SET A SPELL, TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF. The book says that the “humins” are about 6-10 days journey away, giving the GM plenty of time to inflict this NPC's hilarious yokel ways on the party, because if you didn't want your players to hate you, you wouldn't be running a Palladium game. This will be broken up when they get into a scuffle with some Free Plains mutants (the trail takes them right through their territory) who become less hospitable when they realise a mutant is riding another mutant (Betsy isn't sapient and is completely loyal to Clem, but it's the principle of the thing). When they finally get there, they find that there is indeed The Empire doing evil poo poo, because that's their thing.  ... and here he is, once again reimagined by Apollo Okamura. This particular evil plot is masterminded by Captain Xavier Diega, whose ambitions led to him being reassigned in the middle of nowhere. This appears to have backfired a little, as Diega's found a colony of giant mutant ants (these are the friends Clem mentioned) and subduing them by killing most of them (there'll be just enough to and putting their queen in a drug-induced coma, so she can pump out more loyal servants(she's currently up to 1,200 eggs in various stages of development) Then, he's going to go back to Technoville and overthrow Christian.  Again, I could see Playmates turning this into one of those action figures they churned out in the 90's. Security at the base is a mixed bag; the dozen soldiers at the base are all draftees, but Diega's also got six genetically modified Size Level 15 soldier ants to do his bidding. Unfortunately for Diega, the ants would be more than happy to tell him to piss off if their Queen (or “Queenie”, as she's known) is rescued, which is where the PCs come in. And that's how you stop Diega (hopefully without killing any ants – Clem will be upset if you even kill the soldier ants, because “they ain't bad boys, just misguided”). For anybody wondering, 2nd Edtion adds precious little to this adventure, aside from some nice Nokomura art and a plug for Mutants in Orbit. Aerial Supremacy This one's for “intermediate and experienced players”, although any group of less than six players need to have a few scout hirelings to bump themselves up to eight characters. You get sent into a conference room where you're greeted by Irma Prider, a badger who you know works closely with President Thana. She's followed by Dwayne Thatchwing, a grubby little douchebag who Irma clearly hates. It seems Dwayne and his group of “freelance explorers” found a pre-Big Death artifact so powerful that he's not trusting anybody with exact information, so he's taking the party along to help bring it back; it's his way or the highway. Cardania is humouring him on the assumption that it might turn out to be genuine. That said, they're not pushing the boat out for this one, hence the PCs being hired instead of regular scouts/soldiers. Also, you can't requisition anything for this trip – it's payment on delivery only.  Here's Dwayne. Only a mother could love that face. THE FURTHER ON THE EDGE, THE HIGHER THE M.D.C. Dwayne will take the party a camp near some pre-Big Death ruins of what was once a top-secret aircraft factory, to meet the rest of his gang; Cosgrave, a psychic horned toad who enjoys dishing out insults (but can't take it, of course); Usub, an alligator who's not too bright and will kill anybody who makes fun of him if the opportunity arises (including Cosgrave, of course); and finally Tab, a tiger who really wants a mate (but is too much of a  Here's Cosgrave. Usub's character art was used earlier on in 1st Edition, and (mercifully, for anybody worrying about furbait) Tab wasn't drawn by Laird. They have something quite large under a tarp, which they keep looking under (Without letting anybody else take a peek). What's under the tarp? A bashed-up ATM. See, what they actually found was an AI called GEOS-8, who is currently inside Usub's backpack (He's been told by Dwayne to guard it with his life, so good luck getting that). What is GEOS-8? It's the control unit for the Shadowfade 502, a super-special-awesome jet fighter made out of Magic-Metal. Yes, really. It's hidden in the ruins amongst a load of junk, because the Magic-Metal has formed itself to look like junk, because it's just that advanced. Fortunately for the PCs, Dwayne and his crew hasn't found it yet. Even more fortunately, the Empire expedition hasn't found it either.  The most advanced fighter plane in the world, apparently. Yes, The Empire's horning in, as per usual, hence why Dwayne and his group haven't stripped the ruins to the bone. They've even brought their robot suits, as well as a chain gang of mutant slaves. If anybody with Psionics contacts the slaves, they'll be more than willing to lead a slave revolt; attacking The Empire is of course a stupid move, owing to the aforementioned robot suits, and the fact that the scientists in the expedition will just radio for backup if need be. The trick will be getting GEOS-8 off Usub without dying in the process, finding the Shadowfade without getting killed by Dwayne's crew or The Empire, slotting GEOS-8 in (it'll be happy to give instructions - it just wants to do its job) and speeding off into the sunset. If any of Dwayne's crew insert GEOS-8, they'll screw it up somehow, but if The Empire's scientists install GEOS-8 then everyone's screwed.  Another Okamura illustration. Looks like he's better with portraits and action pieces than landscapes. Interestingly, this is the only TMNT adventure (aside from the last two modules, but that's for another time) I've seen which has an actual ending. Admittedly, it's just "If the party gets the plane to Cardania, they get 2 million bucks to share amongst them" which is kinda lovely if they had to have NPC hirelings, but it's something. Frankly, this whole adventure feels a bit half-arsed. Next time: I might actually finish this thing!
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Dec 15, 2014 02:12
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2014's almost done, so let's finish this thing! Part 9: The End The Power of Ali Komani This is a difficult adventure, five players minimum, at least one feline PC (Reasons why will become apparent). You're called into a meeting with Eathan Openwater, a "thin, hyper-mutant alligator" and Cardania's Under-Secretary for Foreign Relations. The town of Wet Rat is now a smoking crater and Ian Wholehog has recently been decapitated. Why does this concern the party? Ian was Cardania's Ambassador to Yehcat, a territory that's been recently expanding its borders and has a secret weapon, which was demonstrated on Wet Rat; he'd been sent to smooth things over with a diplomatic party, and his head was the only thing sent back. Cardania's got enough problems with The Empire, so the PCs are being sent in undercover to find whatever the hell it was that destroyed a farming community of 1,350. IT'S ISTANBULLDOG, NOT CONSTANTINOPOLECAT! There are three ways to get to Yehcat; Gatorland (safest option, if you don't mind quicksand and the occasionally unfriendly native), Free Cattle Plains (local patrol will corner them and demand what the hell you're doing there) or sea (Empire fighter jets are patrolling the area, so probably not a good idea). Whichever way they go, they'll pass through a town full of the nicest mutants you'd ever meet. They don't know anything about Yehcat, but there were some douchebag felines demanding their surrender. They got laughed out of town, of course... which is why the aforementioned town gets turned to ash when the PCs get 15 miles away. There'll be no explosion, just a wave of heat.  Komani, by Laird... See, Ali Komani was a petty warlord (Yehcat is less a nation, more a walled city mostly populated with farmers) until he stumbled across the controls to a solar power satellite which he soon had weaponised (Whoever was responsible is now buried just outside Yehcat). As a result, the people of Yehcat live in fear of Komani's Feline Guards and the threat of their village/friends being burnt to a cinder. Finding the controls isn't difficult, per se; it's on the third floor Komani's "palace" (an abandoned post office), so you just have to get past Komani's guards and harem (Komani only has one regular girl, but he has delusions of grandeur; his real name is Rex Wondacat). The controls themselves are much easier (remember, Komani's no genius) - a monitor showing the location, a joystick to position the beam, and a dial to adjust the intensity. Naturally, it wouldn't take much for anyone to duplicate this technology, which is why it's important to have the decoder to plug into the controls - a briefcase-shaped device that will explode if you try to open it (12d6 damage - in all fairness, there is a huge "SERIOUSLY, DON'T FIDDLE ABOUT WITH THIS poo poo" label on it).  ... and by Okamura. I think I prefer Laird's interpretation, to be honest. As with most Palladium adventures, there's no real ending... but it's heavily suggested that you hijack the satellite, aim it at The Empire then get the gently caress out of Dodge before they send the jets in to "turn Yehcat into pavement". Yes, that is a direct quote. The Rodent Plague After The Bomb posted:Note: This is a difficult adventure, but recommended for first-time players. Any number and level of players could attempt it. God loving drat it, Palladium.Bad news: The Empire's unleashed a new man-made virus to kill all the mutant rodents. Good news: they've got a cure. Worse news: it's safely locked up in their laboratory compound. IT'S LIKE DISCO FEVER, ONLY WITH LESS BOOGYING AND MORE VOMITING The party gets dropped off near The Empire's borders, where they meet up with a black market from The Rodent Cartel named Smuggler. As expected, he's kind of a douchebag, but nobody knows the secret tunnels into Empire territory like he does. The plan to get into the vault involves knocking out power in that district, which works... but it also sends some security robots on a rampage to find the saboteurs... which to their circuits means "everybody we can find". If the party manages to not die and get into the vault, they can find some schlub Rodney cowering in fear. He claims he's the only one still alive who can make the cure, and given that The Empire is sending troops in exo-suits to contain the area soon, you'll have to take him at his word. There'll be Canine Patrols waiting for the party as they leave, but there'll be 1,200 Cardanian Militia to hold them off for you. Smuggler. Nice-looking fellow, isn't he? It's suggested that at least some of the PCs be infected with the Plague, for added drama. There are three stages of infection, but none of them are nice. Encounter Tables It wouldn't be 80's Palladium with some stupid random generation tables. A Rodent Cartel Caravan, guarded by SL 13 Rats with every Animal Power. Sounds like a group that no PC would ever want to mess with, making them useless for use in any adventure!And that's After The Bomb. Palladium's first ever post-apocalyptic game, and now a sneaky way for them to keep the BIO-E system. Rough round the edges, but that's Palladium for you.  
Eldad Assarach fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Jan 1, 2015 |
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Dec 31, 2014 23:57
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