Kurieg posted:

Waffleman_ posted:

Why wouldn't it be?

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

Why bother using Kromore for that?

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/produ...filters=0_0_0_0

Kavak posted:

Does she get praised as a super-duper warship but participate in almost nothing but losing battles, fire her guns at another ship exactly once, then get sunk as Japan is losing the war having accomplished nothing of note?

Hyper Crab Tank posted:

It actually isn't - but you're right that that's where the ducks are from. Yes, aside from the system, the one thing they decided was worth cribbing was the goddamn ducks.

They are consistently drawn as Donald Duck, too.

FMguru posted:

Seriously: lava eleves

LornMarkus posted:

You won't have to work hard for it, as it's my understanding their most recent world book for it was "Native American Stereotype land," and people were not happy about this.

theironjef posted:

Yeah, I'd say the failing of the book is that it presents itself as a cartoon with real consequences for the foes but not the heroes. If they had genuinely adapted to the cartoon level, you could turn your classmates into frogs all day, because they pop back into being a human while the scene changes. If they had adapted it as a moral swamp, you could kill the bullies you encounter on the street, but then you're going to magic prison and poo poo, so don't. Instead, it's this weird middle ground where it's implied they just wander around killing people on a whim and no one says anything or does anything. It's especially notable since you're supposed to be playing people that are currently learning magic, which means there's experts out there way better than you, and the book is so adamant about not addressing adults that it doesn't even take a brief digression to say "Hey, your principal will straight up strip your magic powers if you use them wrong" or anything.

Honestly it's closer to Harry Potter than it wants to admit. Potter had a structure of laws and rules and poo poo, but it was all conveniently ignorable about 75% of the time, leading to students just trying constantly to kill each other, and teachers teaching them how, generally with no more serious repercussions than some bullshit house points.

Forums Terrorist posted:

So basically I should run a game set in the Harry Potter books using Dark Heresy.

Doresh posted:

Mmh, how do I delete posts? Stupid dodgy internet connection <_<

Lurks With Wolves posted:

Well, or you can get your poo poo together and stop being obsessed with a show that's been cancelled for five years. You won't be a videomancer any more, but at least you can act like more of a human.

theironjef posted:

I'd say most of the time the best stories you ever hear about gaming would still be great stories if the system had been the DM flipping a coin. It's exceedingly rare to hear a story that captures how the rules of the game were super awesome one time. And most of the time when you do, it's just some random chance thing that could have occurred anywhere. You'll see "D&D is the best! I was playing this campaign and I rolled two natural 20s!" Occasionally you see a story by a group of people that are gleefully breaking the bad stuff about a system and having a great time like "Well because the high end of this chart wasn't well thought out, my space marine threw the rest of the party and then himself to the base on the moon!"

theironjef posted:

If it helps Changing Breeds is currently being discussed again, for bad RPGs are a flat circle.

Green Intern posted:

It really sounds like the Torg writers didn't want the players to win.

Evil Mastermind posted:

And yes, there are Torg-ian rules for martial arts styles.

Drakyn posted:

Living Land because dinosaurs and also mocking the bizarre inability of people to produce anything interesting with dinosaurs.
And since it's apparently so tiny you'll probably be done pretty quickly and won't have to worry about getting bogged down in ninety pages of IngenNet pablum

Evil Mastermind posted:

I'm actually getting very interested to see how people will react to the actual book given what everyone seems to be building it up to be.

Evil Mastermind posted:

Technically no, because even though Nippon Tech has a tech level that allows for things like flying cars, laser rifles, and cloning, the computer tech is ridiculously underwhelming.

Sneak preview!


Tech predictions will never not be funny.

Cythereal posted:

Also, it's a recurring theme that mortals simply can't understand the mad super-science of the Inspired. Their stuff simply doesn't work by the rules of the normal world and shouldn't work at all. It's the power of Mania and Inspiration that makes these impossible wonders work - that tesla gun, that super-suit, that cybernetic rig... so yeah it's magic for all intents and purposes but dressed up as science.

Cythereal posted:

No, that triggers Havoc. You want to keep mortals as far away from Inspiration as possible. Mortals who get access to Wonders will quite reasonably point out all the ways it simply cannot work according to the laws of science, which in turn tends to make the Wonder explode or fall apart.

Tulul posted:

It's stupider then that, because literally touching a wonder causes ParadoxHavoc. If a Genius' robot attacks you, just punch it and it might go haywire.

Mors Rattus posted:

The closest nWoD has to an Illuminati is the God-Machine, which is basically just an infinitely old weird poo poo generator that does strange and terrible things for no reason anyone can fathom.

Nessus posted:

To play Girl Genius: Modern.

Kai Tave posted:

In Feng Shui's case the problem with the Buro juncture was less a case of metaplot-armored NPCs stomping on the PCs' faces forever and more that the Buro juncture was kind of a dull place to visit in general.

Carrasco posted:

If I remember correctly, there are, but if you don't do it just right then everyone within range of them just dies.

Evil Mastermind posted:

And that brings us back around to the idea someone had upthread of making Baruk Kahh the insane crossbreeding guy who's growing super-dinos and grafting other dinosaurs to them

Cythereal posted:

Uh, if you're talking about Genius with regards to axioms, there's no real difference between organic and non-organic wonders. Making life is the preserve of Automata, which can make robots or living creatures as you prefer. Making godzilla/zerg/kryptonians is entirely doable with Automata. With anything else, you're free to say you're making a wonder with genetically engineered plants or are chopping up stray dogs for parts to make your wonder.

Evil Mastermind posted:

Tharkold is actually pretty well done, but has so amazing poo poo that I can't wait to talk about because it's gonna make the whole thread uncomfortable. It's squared.

FMguru posted:

Most of the Torg cosms are "like escapist genre X, but with a twist". The pulp world was mixed with ancient Egypt, the cyberpunk world was mixed with corrupt medieval papacy, the other cyberpunk world was full of Hellraiser demons, the sci-fi world uses giant tree-ships to travel between stars, and so on. The fantasy world stood out for how generic it was, compared to the others.

Cythereal posted:

And yes, geniuses are for all intents and purposes mages. The book even points out that it's very, very difficult to tell the difference between the two and posits a genius/mage liaison group that exists to take care of newly awakening mages and geniuses mistaken for the other.

Evil Mastermind posted:

There's also the factor that magic in games like UA, 13th Age, Mage, Dungeon World, and so on isn't an auto-success. In those games casters have chances of failure and/or consequences for screwing up a spell.

D&D magic isn't just an "I Win" button, it's an "I Win" button with no downsides or risks.

Evil Mastermind posted:

Did anyone ever actually have casters track somatic components?

Kavak posted:

On that note, what was the inspiration for the spellcaster supremacy besides nerd wish fulfillment? Gandalf casts very little actual magic in LOTR, Elric's main weapon is a super sword, Conan slaughters wizards and sorcerors, etc.

Night10194 posted:

I read a lot of it was that the playtesters played their wizards like 2e Wizards, using them as blaster artillery instead of trying out Save or Suck spells, and they never really caught on to how powerful those were until people who hadn't played 2e got their hands on them and realized you could effectively one-shot people with them with good odds.

RandallODim posted:

One day I'm going to make a fighter focused on grappling who gives out atomic wedgies and power noogies. His dream is to one day deliver a cosmic swirlie to Boccob.

FMguru posted:

There are actually three different sets of stories in Dying Earth, with different magic systems. The original stories gave us classic "Vancian" magic, where people could memorize up to 4-6 spells which they would forget when they cast them, and they'd all have very precise and repeatable effects (it was implied that this magic was essentially a remnants of a long-lost branch of mathematics). Because you could only carry a handful of one-shot spells in your head at once, the magician-protagonist characters in those stories were loaded up with magic items and armor and were also very handy with swords, completely unlike D&D's "98-pound weakling in his bathrobe" conception of a wizard.

quote:

Vance's final series of DE stories involved a conclave of archmages who spent all their time scheming against each other (and inviting themselves to dinner) when they weren't flying their magic palaces to other galaxies or suchlike. They did very little actual magic - instead they bound these powerful djinni-like creatures (called Sandestins) to their service and forced them to do incredibly powerful things for them (like stop time, or fly my magic palace to a distant galaxy, or similar). The Sandestins would get back at their captors by scrupulously obeying their instructions to the letter while trying to subvert their spirit.

Cythereal posted:

I remember the quite thorough reviews of the setting being enjoyable, but also a player going "So, uh, what are we supposed to do with this high seas swashbuckling pirate stuff when there's no Caribbean, no search for gold, etc?" and Wick going "You're supposed to emulate Chinese river piracy, duh."

The Lone Badger posted:

Would Dr. Dinosaur be a good example of an Unmada? He spouts crazy bullshit that is obviously nonsense but... somehow isn't, and makes elaborate nonsense machines that can do anything if it involves crystals.

Covok posted:

Just because your simple mammalian brain cannot contemplate the superior machinations of his reptilian genius does not mean you can make slanderous propaganda like this!

Do you forget when his

Covok posted:

Fallout: Equestria? Really? Really!?

...Why? Just, why?

Xand_Man posted:

What happens if the GM ignores THAT rule?

oriongates posted:

Now, there's one big limit on Tilts: every element you use can only be used once and never again. Speak your name aloud to represent yourself in the ritual? Well, that won't work again for any Tilt ritual you ever perform. Similar elements can work (for instance using a nick name, writing your name instead of speaking it, using your first name and last name separately, etc) but you can never re-use the exact elements for any Tilt ritual.

Count Chocula posted:

Can you be Danny the Street?