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MadScientistWorking posted:And the love dolls that the English Kickstarter made an overt effort completely scrub out of the setting. No, it didn't. If there were references to them being created for sex, that isn't apparent in the translated version (it can be seen as implied, but it's hardly overt from what I can recall), but it seems to treat them more as created companions / servants than sex dolls. If it's that way in the original, yuck.
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Mar 27, 2014 20:53
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MadScientistWorking posted:I'll have to actually check on this because it might have been scrubbed from the translation but someone who did work on the Kickstarter said that fluff wise they were dolls that were primarily women who would sleep with their masters. It's creepy even in the English version, mind, but the whole thing is supposed to be tragic and cruel. Like many things in Tenra, really.
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Mar 27, 2014 21:32
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MadScientistWorking posted:That isn't really a defense as you can write most of the problematic elements in a way that doesn't reads like someone who was shut in wrote it. It wasn't intended as a defense, just context. I don't know how far the Japanese version goes. I'm giving the benefit of the doubt for the moment, but I don't know. Character creation is hella flippy, in any case.
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Mar 28, 2014 05:46
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theironjef posted:poo poo I love that. All instead of throwing rocks off a quaint little wooden bridge they just plant their little bear feet on the stormtrooper and wrench his arm off at the shoulder. Well, Endor was originally supposed to be the homeworld of the Wookies, which would certainly facilitate stormtrooper disarmament. WEG Star Wars is certainly a testament to "how RPGs gently caress up licenses". It's not nearly as bad as some, but if you were expecting to be big space heroes stopping Sith and Death Stars, back the gently caress off. You're space trucking.
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Mar 30, 2014 15:02
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TombsGrave posted:I've always wanted to see somebody actually dig into Phoenix Command and its ilk. The hit location rules are amazing. The spergthirst is unquenchable.
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Mar 31, 2014 14:55
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Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse: Part One: "We proudly present untraditional "Palladium" versions of mythological beings you only thought you knew about.”Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse posted:Warning! Huh? Yes please, I’ll have some.  Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse posted:This book may be inappropriate for young readers. Typos are reproduced faithfully, as ever. Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse posted:Alex "Editing God" Marciniszyn I think Alex's only talent as an editor is making sure "Marciniszyn" is spelled right. Also, being Siembieda's close friend and resident brown-noser. In any case, let's look at the cover.  Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse posted:The cover painting is John Zelenik's vision of one possible Thor in the world of Rifts; complete with bionic augmentation and mystic hammer aglow with energy. Remember, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Translation from Siembiedaese: that rad Thor on in the cover? Not in the book. Why not? Undoubtedly some spergy Riftsian nonsense about gods not having cybernetic bits and bobs. However, we won't have an overdose of Siembieda in this particular tome, since this is the Palladium debut of... Carlos J. Martijena-Carella ... better known as CJ Carella. Now, this isn't CJ's first RPG book; at the time this was published, he had done work for Steve Jackson Games' GURPS, namely GURPS Imperial Rome and GURPS Martial Arts. What's more, during the three years he works for Palladium, he will become their most prolific writer, writing or contributing to eleven books in three years for Palladium, nine of which would be for the Rifts line. During his employment with Palladium, CJ will be the biggest influence on the Rifts line until the release of his last Rifts book, World Book 10: Juicer Uprising. CJ Carella isn't the only newcomer; Vince Martin also makes his debut doing some of the Greek Gods. Otherwise, this book is a cross-section of Rifts artists at the time. Some Words From the Author In any case, CJ Carella points out that mythology is the basis for a lot of nerdy things - RPGs included - and so he sees a book like this as full circle. He also points out that it's intended to work with all Palladium games, not just Rifts... but all the setting assumptions are steeped in Rifts, so YMMV. The "twist" is that they're going to offer several different versions of some pantheons or gods, so players won't know if the gods they run into are good, bad, or fake. He also emphasizes that the gods are different takes than classical mythology, and that he's interpreted them as interacting with each other (crossover mythfic), and tried to make them fresh rather than worry about being too traditional. This is troublingly reasonable. Where's the other shoe? Comment from Siembieda *clunk* Oh, there it is. Siembieda reminds us that these gods aren't "the same old rehash of dusty old gods", but advises us not just to limit ourselves to the gods in this book, but to read mythology and come up with our own. He goes on about how great it's gonna be in typical Siembieda-does-Stan-Lee fashion. Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse posted:I can also assure you that we have C.J. chained in a dimensional time hole working on a bunch of other books to be released this year (boy, is this guy creative!).  Edit: Now that I’m done writing this thing, I’m just going to say up front, this may not be the worst Rifts book I’ve done so far (Rifts World Book Four: Africa is still stiff competition), but it definitively been the worst to write up, and taken occamsnailfile and I about four months to see from start to finish, because it was pure unrelenting misery to trudge through. Siembieda will not save this book. Carella will not save this book. In fact, it will not be saved. Next: What does God need with a sourcebook? Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 18:23 on Mar 31, 2014 |
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Mar 31, 2014 18:17
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It's amazing that godlings get so much hate given some of the other classes in this book. Are godlings overpowered? Well, yeah. Are they the most overpowered class in this book? The fact that I'm asking that question at all should be a clear hint as to what the answer might be.
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Mar 31, 2014 18:33
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It seems a damned if you do-or-don't kind of scenario, because either you have the xenomorphs, and just replay some variation of Aliens. Alternately, you don't, and you end up with the Colonial Marines RPG, which I'm not sure that's something anybody wants? I don't know, maybe there are people that really just wanted to play their very own Wierzbowski.
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Mar 31, 2014 19:19
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Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse: Part Two: "... the beautiful may be evil incarnate and the monstrous may possess the soul of an angel." Defining Gods What Are Deities? There are vagaries here, but not much actual definition. Humanity once tried to explain mysteries by saying a god did them! But what if they were superhuman aliens from other dimensions?! What then, Einstein?! What then, Brainiac?!  This Thor and the Thor on the cover look nothing like the Thor shown later. Too many Thors! Some General Types of Gods It turns out there's more than one kind of god! As in gods! Plural!
Gods have minions. They can be way powerful or completely unpowerful. They can be evil or good. They can be pretty or ugly. Nothing meaningful is said here. The Pantheons of Light & Darkness One is good! One is bad! I'll let you work out which is which. Apparently nearly every pantheon breaks down into goodies and baddies, though there are still some grey areas like honorable evil warriors and apathetic nice folk. Someday there will be a huge apocalypse though and everybody will have to choose a side, just like with abortion. Alien Intelligences These are malevolent, inhuman bad things filled with tentacles and eyes. We've already seen a number of them in Rifts, like the vampire intelligences from Rifts World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms, or the spluggies from Rifts World Book Two: Atlantis. Which always throws me for a loop, because the splugorth always seem to have pretty down-to-Earth (for tremendous tentacle monsters) and understandable motivations, so they aren't quite Lovecraftian. In any case, sometimes they get mistaken for gods, or fake their way into the god biz. Others There have been a lot of godly fakers, of which dragons are the most notable, but some are big deals and some are big bluffs. In any case, there are a number of imitation pantheons, and we'll get to see some of them later. Gods in Your Campaign It notes gods are big deals, and shouldn't be used lightly! We get some ideas on how to use gods!
Battles Between Gods Gods usually don't rumble with each other, because it's too risky and leaves them too weak. It also makes a lot of enemies who seek revenge. "G.M. Note: Revenge can be a great springboard for adventures and villains. Use it." Because we wouldn’t want to have the PCs get away with the temerity of defeating villains, amirite? Also when gods fight it weakens reality, and we get some percentage chances of rifts busting open when deities duel. Choosing Pantheons This notes that some of the gods have several different writeups, so GMs can:
It notes that many gods have plot hooks, but only to focus on a few that fit your campaign, or that can be used as subplots or the like. Some Other Observations About Gods & Role-Playing Quite the section header, that. Quickie Mega-Damage Conversions to S.D.C. It notes that if you decide to use these in other Palladium games other than Rifts, then you might need to just convert the M.D.C. of gods to S.D.C. on a one for one basis, or if you're playing Palladium Fantasy, discard S.D.C. and just use their hit points. It's a simplified version of the conversion from the original Rifts Conversion Book, save for the fact that Conversion Book would actually reduce it by around 50%. Consistency is for other games, perfectionists! Notes on Gods & Magic It notes that gods can break the rules and have multiple styles of magic, or bigger bonuses than their skills and level would provide. It doesn’t mention that gods also often have classes that don’t exist in the game or at levels that aren’t detailed in the game. They can also regulate their magic to have weaker effects than their level would indicate, in case they don't want to just toast mortals entirely. Magic Items & Treasure It notes that gods may have way bigger stashes than their equipment indicates, depending on their personality. Some may bestow items on mortals, but generally in return for service and favors. Or maybe they'll grant it after a quest. Or they might send mortals to get items for them. And if you bug a god for too much, maybe they're just kill you, since apparently they give no fucks. It reiterates that if you bug gods, they may choose to make your entrails into a jump rope. Fiiine we get the point. Show us on the miniature where the players harassed you, Siembieda.  Using Pantheons in Other Palladium Games Like:
Next: Play a pawn of the gods or a god of pawns! It's a Megaverse of choice! Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Apr 1, 2014 |
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Apr 1, 2014 12:47
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theironjef posted:Man oh man, one of our earliest podcast reviews was Cinematic Unisystem junk, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG. And Buffy had CJ Carella doing a good deal of the writing, who of course was also the main writer of Pantheons of the Megaverse. Because RPGs are one big ouroboros of fandom, as it turns out.
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Apr 1, 2014 17:37
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theironjef posted:We talk about that, but I was mostly outing him as the author of Rifts: Underseas and Rifts: South America, since those go off the rails in some extremely crazy ways. South America and South America 2 are my favorites of the early books. They're so unapologetically crazy and actually more mechanically refined at the same time than earlier Rifts books. The only other book I think I enjoyed as much was Madhaven, which I doubt I'll ever get around to. Halloween Jack posted:From what I hear, Carella was also consistent and prolific enough to allow Palladium to put out product at a steady pace. It all fell apart without him. This is absolutely true. When Carella was writing a book, it barely would slip by a month or two at most, and this is with Palladium, which routinely has scheduled books delayed by years, decades, or vanish entirely. Bieeardo posted:And then he left Palladium and KS squeezed the Coalition War Campaign out, and I stopped collecting the books. Coalition War Campaign has an awful lot of bile waiting for it if we get that far. Evil Mastermind posted:The worst merits/flaws in pretty much any game FMguru posted:No, the worst are the ones that make the plot Any flaw / drawback / disadvantage systems are the worst. Having played a lot of Legend of the Five Rings 4e lately, the fact that "pranked once a month by an imp" is the same as "tainted by hell and under a potential death sentence to the entire empire" is just dumb. The only ones that really work to me are narrative ones like Mutants & Masterminds or FATE, where you just grant you narrative currency (instead of character points or XP) when they come up, which self-solves the issue of flaws that never actually inconvenience you (given a good GM, anyway). Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Apr 1, 2014 |
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Apr 1, 2014 19:27
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theironjef posted:Don't know if they changed it in future editions, but my favorite thing in L5Rs merit/flaw was that Scorpions got a 1 point reduction in cost for "Dirt on Someone" and the cost for "Dirt on Someone" was 1 per point of Honor. Which meant if you played a Scorpion, it was in your best interest to have dirt on every lower-class person in the Empire/World. I noted this in my Way of the Scorpion review, since some of the Scorpion courtier techniques let you do ridiculous poo poo with Blackmail and disadvantages, and it gets even worse when they're involved. theironjef posted:Bad Benefits: You have a mentor who's too busy to see you, a kingdom that's constantly getting invaded, or a legend that only draws assassins. Otherwise known as "Just take 4 dots" thanks to this being a key feature to how dumb 1e Exalted was. I'm reminded of L5R's Chosen by the Oracles, which usually did offer a solid benefit that you paid for, but then you have the side effect of "oh, the dragons select you as an Oracle, your character ascends and becomes an NPC, congratulations!" Which, of course, is contrary to the CCG narrative where you have some Oracles like Isawa Kaede or theironjef posted:Loved 'em, just quietly removed the Mutant Cat civilization. I get enough drat mutant animals in every other book ever produced by Palladium. Still amazed he didn't try to shoehorn them into Robotech. I didn't mind so much because it's so over the top as to pass into farce. Werecats! Mutant flying cats! Psychic mutant cats who are on fire! And you haven't read Robotech II: The Sentinels, I suppose.
Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Apr 1, 2014 |
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Apr 1, 2014 20:50
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Yeah, I was aware of red-box D&D, AD&D, and Traveller at the time, but the first RPG I bought was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness. Palladium Books were cheap, complete, and often done-in-one, so they were aimed at a kid's price range, with supplements only running $7. They also didn't require maps or boxed components, so they were easily lugged around inside a backpack. You could also combine them (badly) which was a big part of their appeal. By the time Rifts came out I had essentially been imprinted to embrace it. I was hosed.
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Apr 1, 2014 21:23
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I remember nothing about Masterbook save for trying to read it several times and not quite getting it, and developing a visceral distaste for the system that remains with me to this day.
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Apr 1, 2014 21:58
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Halloween Jack posted:Was Paranoia 5th Masterbook? MiB was D6; I own a copy. Masterbook has some peculiar merits, but I wouldn't use it for Paranoia. No, I'm just getting confused and being dumb because they were released soon after Masterbook was given the axe. Carry on.
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Apr 1, 2014 22:10
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Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse: Part Three: "Demigods are more human since they are frequently part human and usually have been raised within human (or D-Bee) society as a normal human." The Rifts Priest An Optional O.C.C.  I know it’s in the class depiction, but you can’t start with a Sword of Atlantis. Sorry! So, priests are godly go-betweens, and usually just worship one god, though they tend to respect the whole pantheon they serve under. And they have special godly rules to follow! It notes that mostly "the designer" (i.e. Siembieda) has deliberately left religion vague. It points out that most people of Lazlo, the Coalition States, and the New German Republic are effectively deists; they believe in an all-powerful, non-interventionist god. It notes that the Coalition States also have a lot of atheists... that certainly believe in "gods", but as malevolent supernatural entities instead of targets of worship. On the flip side, wilderness communities and the 'burbs are often breeding grounds for cults (often for false gods), witch hunts (with real priests as the targets), and general paranoia. Clerical Knowledge & Abilities Priests cast spells like a mystic, which is to say they can't learn or purchase spells, but get them as they level up from their god. They also get special powers from their god, but if they don't, they can get several or all of the abilities below:
The big issue is that the Priest is hapless at low levels - often only having 7% - 21% chance of success on a lot of powers, but by 10th or 11th level, they bust the game, their Prayer of Intervention allows them to cast any spell their patron (or patrons, depending on how you interpret the rules) can cast for free. For example, an 11th level Priest of Enki can cast any spell of any level, including spells of legend, or any water warlock spell... at 97% accuracy and with a zero P.P.E. cost. The errata does a lot of handwringing about how the god will punish them for throwing around too much magic, but never defines how much is too much. Balance by pass-agg GM nonsense, essentially. This book was frequently criticized for giving us the godling class, but the priest is potentially far more abusive at mid to high levels, only held in check by NPC finger-wagging. But to wrap this up - priests are also super-good at dancing, languages, and math, and get at average spread of skills otherwise. Their equipment list is pretty sparse compared to most other classes, but there's nothing really missing. Also it says they avoid cybernetic implants, but I'm not sure why - if your powers come from a god and not yourself, why not stick a railgun in your butt? Gods as Player Characters So we're coming around to the demigod and godling classes, but not before a lot of handwringing and cautionary words first. It points out these are weaker than your usual gods, so it shouldn't be a big issue... but... it also suggests the possibility of an all-god game, where everybody plays gods or demigods. Wait, Rifts is actually suggesting a campaign structure? Unpossible! Still, here's all the suggestions given to dork with players who dare to play with gods:
On to the gods!  Worst part of being a god: the traditional pantheonic hairstyles. The Godling R.C.C. An Optional Player Character It notes that godlings will be flavored by their pantheons, and will have big egos. They're also likely to be self-supremacists and consider most beings beneath them. Congratulations: you've chosen the Divine Jerk O.C.C.! They get bonuses to all attributes, most notably strength, endurance, beauty, and speed. For those dreaming of having the thousands of M.D.C. possessed by NPC gods, well, gently caress you. Godlings start with an average of 200 M.D.C. (less than most dragon hatchlings) and ramp up to an average of around 675 M.D.C. by 15th level. At most, they'd have around 900 M.D.C., but that's an extreme one in twenty billion chance. That's not an exaggeration; I did the math. What else do you get? Well, you get a crappy Horror Factor, for one. A godling can also see the invisible, takes half effect from poisons and drugs, nightvision, bonuses against magic and fear, and slow regeneration (about 1 M.D.C. every 4 seconds). They also get three of the following powers:
call lightning? What use is Super-Speed when you can cast superhuman speed or teleport? Otherwise, gods are really good at math and weapons, and get an average spread of other skills. They also get a suit of armor with random M.D.C. (30-120), a lesser rune weapon (which sounds nice but isn’t really going to impress). You can also be between 5' and 20' tall, depending on how hard a time you want shopping for clothes. Overall, the godling is either comparable to most other supernatural characters (like dragons or gargoyles), unless they're a dedicated spellcaster, in which case they rule all spellcasting forever and really do turn out to be overpowered! If you want to be a warrior god, well, sucks to be you, unless you war with magic. The Demigod R.C.C. An Optional Player Character Demigods are like gods, only more human! Thanks, Rifts. Thanks. It also notes that demigods usually have one extra power similar to that of their godly parent. It's not entirely clear, but it's implied that power is chosen from the godling list. Demigod attributes are mainly high for affinity, strength, beauty, and speed. Their M.D.C. is around 50-90 or so, with 7 extra per level, and they get some bonus P.P.E. and I.S.P. Their horror factor is one less than a godling, they take less damage from fire or cold, have the same regeneration, and minor bonuses against magic, psionics, fear, and comas. They get to choose one of the godling powers, and the choice ones to take are either full spellcasting or super psionics, in about that order. You can easily be a temporal wizard / shifter, glitter boy / techno-wizard, priest / ley line walker, etc. The big deal of playing a demigod is that you can still choose an O.C.C. as long as it isn't one of the human augmentation ones - no borg, juicer, crazy, or robot demigods. Why? Well, none of that stuff works on them. But they can still be Glitter Boy pilots or Priests, so it’s not like it’s for balance’s sake. It also restricts some Heroes Unlimited classes, so no deal if you want to play a demigod aardvark or demigod robot. Now that I mention it, that’s rather disappointing. The big deal, for people wanting to break the game, is that it explicitly allows most of the Heroes Unlimited character types. So you can be a demigod mutant superhero that is also a wizard, or a demigod experimental superhero that is , and basically get super awesome powers that punch balance in the face and throw it off a cliff. Then those powers leap off the cliff and buttslam balance in the face! I don’t have time to explain the Heroes Unlimited conversions and how they work out, save to say that they don’t work out in the slightest.It ends by noting they can become partial borgs, contradicting the paragraph just above it, but says they don't go in for surgery because they're suspicious of it!... because people want their godly juices, apparently? It also notes that normal mortals can be uplifted to become demigods or godlings, but how does this happen?  Oh, and godlings don't even take the most XP to level of the classes in this book - that goes to "Supernatural Minions", apparently to be detailed later. The Godling and Demigod classes make up the most controversial portion of this book, but it’s a bit of a red herring, since there are a few really powerful classes later on, but tucked away in the portions of the book less likely to earn notice. Next: Lousy excuses for blood sacrifice. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Apr 2, 2014 |
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Apr 2, 2014 16:47
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theironjef posted:I assume this is because we had a first printing, since I don't think I've ever seen that list of Godling powers before. It's in my first printing copy. BerkerkLurk posted:Good instincts: off of the top of my head Air Warlocks from the Conversion Book get the Breath Of Life spell. You can always bank on Rifts not keeping track of past mechanics. Or mechanics in general, really.
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Apr 2, 2014 19:46
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Yeah, I would "bank" on it. but you won't always win that bet if Siembieda isn't involved. Also, I just looked and the Priest O.C.C. is mainly just a text-trimmed version of the Palladium Role-Playing Game class by the same name, which explains all the lovely percentile mechanics it's loaded with.
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Apr 3, 2014 03:44
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Zereth posted:Are elemental and temporal spells not part of "all spells"? That sure sounds like he knows every spell from every spellcasting discipline anywhere. Generally it seems to be implied - due to it being explicit about certain characters getting Fire spells or Temporal spells - that "spells" just refers to the corebook magic unless it says otherwise. You could argue that point but I think the intent is clear, even if it isn't outright stated. And also, yes, let's give credit for Hitler to an Aztec god, super-classy. Maybe that makes him the godfather the Coalition? I imagine him popping onto Earth, seeing the Coalition, being like "Huh. My work here is already done! Carry on!" and then leaving forever.
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Apr 6, 2014 04:46
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Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse: Part Seven: "A heroic mortal, especially a being of magic like a tattooed man, or a powerhouse like a juicer, might catch her fancy (having an Physical Beauty of 16 + helps)." The Pantheon of Sumer Being some of the most ancientest gods, it details that the Sumerian gods were birthed from evil "Gods of Darkness" akin to the Old Ones (those guys again). Ancient supernatural evils created them as assistants, but they rebelled and defeated them (note to potential gods - don’t create personal servants ever, it never works out). Humanity was super happy that the Gods of Darkness were gone, and were happy to worship the "Gods of Light". The original rebels were Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Marduk. It notes that they were worshipped by the Babylonians and Macedonians, but then were eventually overtaken by Persian and Muslim faiths. Then we get the political standing of the Babylonian pantheon!
Anu The Sky God  The blobfather. Anu was the original leader of the Sumerian gods, and oversees the seasons, stars, and the sky. He's "closer to an alien intelligence" and didn't participate directly in the rebellion, and as a result, Marduk took over when he wouldn't fight. He's bummed out about not being in charge, but is resigned to his fate, or may just be  . He doesn't take humans seriously, though he does respect Atlanteans, dragons, and immortals of various sorts. Unlike most gods, he doesn't need worshippers to manifest in a given plane, but seems to be weaker without them.He seems to be the missing link between alien intelligences and the gods in this book. Usually, he's a mammoth "fleshy mound" with tentacles that all have glowing eyes on the ends. He can take on a humanoid form, but weighs 25 tons (despite being 6' tall), has grey skin and stars for eyes, and is really bad at pretending to be human. Despite his "Unprincipled" alignment, has no trouble with murdering somebody for being annoying. He has a frankly ridiculous amount of M.D.C. 70K, half that on Earth, though it doesn't say where he has to be to get his full M.D.C. Mostly he's superhumanly tough, strong-willed, and just plain strong. He can see just about anything, including invisible creatures and "creatures from the fourth dimension", regenerates about 7 M.D.C. a second, can turn udnead, teleport or dimensionally travel, and can fragment himself into "1d4" essences that can possess mortals (but apparently doesn't do it much anymore). So, does he roll that 1d4 every time he uses the power...? Oh, and he can summon and control air elementals, cast any normal spell, has all the sensitive and super psi-powers, and has all the abilities of a ley line walker or shifter. Oh, and he can generate a psi-sword on each one of his tentacles. After my review of the Egyptian gods, I have to note he makes them look like a bunch of sissies. Of course, in the actual mythology, he isn't a supernatural intelligence, was a sort of god of Justice who created the stars as soldiers to punish evil  , and has more personal connections with other gods in the pantheon rather than the aloof megaooze we see here.Enlil, The Wind God  ”Behold… the gourdsword!” Enlil was the creation of Anu, who took a fragment of his essence, a greater air elemental, a human's mind, and mixed them up In any case, he really hates alien intelligences, and often sneaks into Atlantis to just murder the gently caress out of Splynncryth's minions, and hopes one day he gets to lead an attack against Atlantis. That being said, he's moody and fickle and sometimes helps mortals and sometimes throws disasters on them for being too noisy. (No, really.) Let's see... he has a potential M.D.C. of 63K (though only 12K on Rifts Earth, with about a 4/sec regeneration rate), he can control weather, summon lesser air elementals, fly around, is resistant to energy attacks, teleport, dimensional dancin', and he can pick pockets at 98%. "An elder god took my wallet?" He can cast any air warlock spell, and a number of low and mid-level normal spells. He has all the sensitive psionic powers, plus some super mental powers and hydrokinesis. Apparently he can get together an army of air elementals, but only with his pantheon's permission. Oh, and he has the "Sword of the Sky", which is an ancient (but good) rune weapon that can cast various water elemental spells, shoot lightning bolts, and does double damage against supernatural intelligences, which sounds impressive until you realize it still only does the damage of a Boom Gun. The mythical Enlil was actually created from the exhausted breaths of the gods An and Ki (not part of this writeup) after they hosed. In mythology, he raped a goddess named Ninlil, and they were both sent to the underworld as punishment. After she had his baby, Enlil was then further "punished" by having to gently caress Ninlil until she birthed three more babies, thusly creating the deities of the underworld. And that's why it's okay sometimes for games to have a little bit of inaccuracy in their mythology. Also he invented the mattock, which is a thing. Enki God of Magic  ”C’mon, shake my smokin’ hand." The god of water, magic, and civilization, Enki seems like a pretty vital god. In any case, of the first human-ish gods created, he was the most human-ish, and liked humans and had a super-conscience. So he was one of the active rebel gods, and cast the insanely big spell that put Apsu to sleep, and then threw him into another dimension. Apparently he has a wife named Damkina who is never detailed or statted. So he's visited Tolkeen and Lazlo in disguise, and is really fond of them and excited about techno-wizardry. He's inclined to protect them from the Coalition, but only secretly, because he's worried the Gods of Darkness will target them if they know he's partial to those places. He's got an nonspecific kind of "father aura", like Optimus Prime, though he often disguises himself as a powerful wizard. In Lazlo, he's only shared the fact that he's a god with Erin Tarn  , though Plato suspects his true nature. I wonder if this will all come into play when the Coalition finally does attack Tolkeen in the metaplot? No.So! Numbers! 74K M.D.C. / 14K on Earth, regens 4/sec, can turn invisible, "swim with the speed and agility of a dolphin" (no numbers mind, just that description), teleport, travel between dimensions, can heal with a touch or create a special super-strength anti-magic cloud. He knows how to pilot any boat... and hovercraft... and can cast any normal spell, spell of legend, or water warlock spell. Oh, and he has all of the sensitive and physical psionic powers. He doesn't use any gear, no doubt with a smug expression, and can turn into "a creature with the front parts of a goat and the tail of a fish". In the original myths, he's kind of an almighty creator god (apparently his dominion over water also extends to semen, seriously), and he really does put Abzu (Apsu in this book) to sleep to keep him from killing all the younger gods. Oh, and his symbols were the goat and fish, so being a fishgoat is loosely tied to the original mythology, where he became the basis for Capricorn. Oh and he fucks his daughter (Ninsar, goddess of plants) to father Ninkurra (goddess of pastures). He also fucks Ninkurra, and she gives birth to the spider-god Uttu. Apparently at that point he stops loving his own descendants. For whatever reason, Carella declined to include this in his writeup. Marduk Lord of the Gods  Headcap, half-shirt, skirt… that’s deific style. So Marduk is the big deal rebel god who’s top of the pantheon. He fought Tiamat in one-on-one combat, using his magic net to hold her down, then "forced her jaws open with powerful winds and telekinesis" (this is not something you can do with those powers) and shot arrows down her gullet, after which they threw her in godly space/time prison. After the battle he claimed his loot - the Tablets of Destiny, which increase his power and let him see the future. Also, he's a god of cities and order. He's big friends with a bunch of dragons, but Tiamat has tried to spread a nasty rumor that he slays dragons instead, even though he flubbed slaying Tiamat herself. After Earth got its magic back on, Marduk has paid attention to it, and is worried about the Splugorth, who are "distant cousins" of Apsu and Tiamat. He's gathering a strike team of godlings and dragons to sabotage Atlantis, looking to soften them up for an eventual invasion in several centuries. He knows all about the Mechanoids, Four Horsemen, and Zazshan, thanks to the Tablets of Destiny. Not that he's seemingly doing anything about the above... and he has 50 secret names so good luck using his true name against him... wait, what magic requires true names in Rifts...? Numbers! He has 80K M.D.C., 16K on Earth, though he loses about 25% of that if the doesn't have the Tablets of Destiny. He has a lot of the standard powers, is insanely strong, teleport, dimensions, regenerates, invisible, turn dead, healing touch, and can shoot special wind blasts that do 66% of the damage a boom gun does. He knows kung fu and how to gut and scale a fish. He can cast any air or water spell, all normal spells and spells of legend, and has all sensitive psionic powers. Oh, and he has underlings including godlings, Scorpion people, elementals, spirits of light, and plain old worshippers. He has a magic rod that can summon weather and cause ley line storms, a spear that can summon lightning or return after being thrown, a magic net that causes penaliies and makes it much harder to teleport, a magic bow, and the Tablets of Destiny. In mythology, he's the chief god of Babylon, but didn't do much loving of note. Oh, and he saw to the creation of humanity so they could bear the burdens of the world so the gods could live in leisure. Whatta guy! Ishtar Goddess of Love & War  Physical Beauty 27 Ishtar's in charge of fertility, love, war, and bloodshed. Just FYI. She's cheery and peppy despite all that, but is rash, impulsive, lecherous, and apparently spiteful. And, unlike some other gods, she's given an alignment to fit - Anarchist. She mainly fights the evil gods more out of spite than any goodly qualities. So Ishtar married Tammuz, but just sleeps around all the time, because goddess of love, I guess? Then one point Ishtar kicked Lilith out of a temple to take it over, and then decided - I guess - to become queen of the underworld, but Ishtar was ambushed by Lilith's patron god, Ereshkigal, the actual queen of the underworld who captured and tortured Ishtar. Eventually Ishtar was allowed to leave, but only if she could find another god to make her place in the torture zone. So she finds her husband celebrating her death with a party, is like oh gently caress no, and throws Tammuz into the underworld. Eventually she felt bad about it and rescued Tammuz. Apparently she flirts with muscle men and magic men all the time, and when spurned, she'll punish them, but often feels bad about her temper and goes to tries to make up. Fickle women never know what they want, amirite? When she has an affair, she usually gives a bunch of aid to her beau, but eventually gets bored and moves on. She has had affairs with dozens of major gods, and if people knew just how many gods she's hosed, there would be scandals. So! M.D.C. is 43K (8K on Earth), about 2/sec regen, is ridiculously beautiful, teleport, healing touch, can cook super-well, has a bunch of mind-bending psychic powers, mid-range spellcasting. She has a "Sword of Victory" that does extra damage to vampires, dragons, demons, and Splugorth, a "Spear of Vengeance" that returns after being thrown (presumably a lesser-known Spear of Vengeance), and 1K M.D.C. magic armor. For a goddess of war, she's a remarkably weak combatant for a god, not that the writeup emphasizes much other than her bedroom habits. Oh, and the original Ishtar seduced beasts, and that's how we have domesticated animals.  Tammuz did blow off her death, but when he's being dragged off, his sister (Geshtinanna) begs to and goes in in place instead for half the year each year, and that's why we have the seasons. Oh, and she hosed a tiny bird, why not?Tammuz of the Soil  Physical Beauty 25 A god of fertility and prosperity, Tammuz is also the handsomest deity. If he decided to, he could probably get millions of Earthly followers... exactly why isn't clear. Presumably because he's so dashing and gets all the unisex boners. He's a friendly party guy, but is kind of a doormat for the other gods and seeks praise. Anyway, he and Ishtar had a big romance and got married, but she got bored with him and started having affairs. He was pretty pissed, but Ishtar was way more powerful and he also didn't want to piss off her "dad", Anu. After his big underworld torture adventure, they opted to just have an open marriage, and both of them gently caress whoever they like, and sometimes each other. Anu and Marduk apparently find the whole thing scandalous. For Marduk that makes enough sense - being a god of order - but Anu? Anu's a big tentacley blobby thing who doesn't really understand the two-legged folks very well. Not sure why he cares. He's actually slim on powers other than the usual teleportation, and has a special aura where he can make crops grow super-good. He also is a "8th level dryad". I think they meant "druid". He can cast all water warlock spell and "dryad magic". I think they mean herbalism, since it refers to Rifts England. Shockingly, he has no psionics, and his M.D.C. is 30K / 6K on Earth. In mythology, Tammuz is kind of a death-rebirth deity that symbolizes the seasons, but not too much to add that hasn't been detailed under Ishtar. Etc. Compared to my previous review of the Egyptian Gods in Rifts World Book Four: Africa, the Babylonian pantheon is much closer to their original depictions. Though the details have been adjusted, and they hew closely to the existing mechanics for gods, none are as unrecognizable as some of Siembieda's previous depictions. Carella at least clearly did his research, and it shows. However, this is a profound simplification of the mythology, as most RPG depictions of old pantheons tend to be. That being said, I'm content in that it has 100% less tiny bird loving. You still have the problem that any godly duel is going to take an eternity at the table. It's funny that they developed M.D.C. to scale up for giant robots and not run into this very issue, and then... run into the same issue again. Maybe it would be better if gods had Mega-Mega Damage? As it is, they're still insane to run on a practical level; each god has literally dozens to hundreds of powers, far too many for any GM to keep track of, and turning fights between them into Calvinball contests. Next: Evil gods who are evil because they are evil.
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Apr 6, 2014 17:12
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Cardiovorax posted:Accurate to the myth, for once. Mythological Ishtar was notorious for her many lovers and how they always seemed to come to bad ends. She famously tried to murder Gilgamesh with the Bull of Heaven when she came on to him and he turned her down, citing how being loved by her was usually detrimental to your health. Yes. The thing is, when you go through toe pantheons there's a.... let's say a dearth of respectable female deities even amongst the "good" pantheons. And you can point to myth, but Pantheons of the Megaverse isn't shy about changing what it wants to change, so it gets a wearying when you've gone through the whole book. Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse: Part Eight: "When angry or upset, she tends to forget herself and takes a bite of anything around her." Babylonian Gods of Darkness Apsu, Of The Abyss  The most sinister laundry stain. It turns out that Apsu isn't a real deity, as we know by now, but an alien intelligence. At this point, the difference seems academic, but there you have it. He's powerful enough to spank a Splugorth, and had tortured entire dimensions in the past. After all, how else is a multidimensional force of pure malevolence going to pass the time? Apsu tried to work slowly on Earth in ancient times, opting to create god-slaves to build a civilization so he could eventually take on (old-timey) Atlantis. Apsu's advisor, Mummu, advised him to kill off his godly creations when they started to get mouthy, but took too long trying to weed out the rebels from the loyalists, and that gave the rebellion enough time to get their poo poo together. Enki cast the biggest sleep spell ever, even though legends would later say Enki killed Apsu (which, it turns out, he couldn't manage), but instead threw him in godly San Quentin. Some demon lords have tried to get him out, but with no luck; most creatures with the power to release him are sensible enough to realize that's a bad idea. He's likely to go on a tear across entire dimensions if and when he wakes up and wreck several existences. Not exactly a “morning god”. Still, he's somewhat aware of events on Earth through dreams, and the conflict is starting to wake him up. Once he's up, he'll be able to send a fragment to Earth to try find a way to free himself. In any case, he's evil, evil, evil, and basically has no other personality traits other than being evil. Numbers: 250K M.D.C. (95K on first awakening), regen 4/sec, is a 40' darkness blob, is probably the strongest thing I've seen at Physical Strength 70, invisibility, teleports, takes 1/10 damage from physical attacks, and 1/4 from energy attacks; only magic and psionics do normal damage. Oh, and he can't be killed unless you bring him down to -1000 M.D.C. He has a special engulf attack that digests people and hinders teleports, can cast any normal spell, spell of legend, or temporal spell, and also knows about bio-wizardry, but not how to make rune weapons. He also has all sensitive psionic powers and some mental super-psionic powers. In mythology, he's just a primal god of freshwater (the proper name is 'Abzu") who gets chumped by Enki, who takes much of its power. So this is probably the biggest divergence from mythology so far, though Abzu is such a vague entity in real myth that giving it an actual role is going to change it no matter what. Tiamat  Snaketopus vs. Megascorpion. Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse posted:Evil Apsu had a powerful partner, a giant serpent who called herself Tiamat. Of course. She argued with Apsu against turning on the lesser god, because she felt they could still be manipulated. However, when Enlil defeated Apsu, Tiamat went on the war path, only to get beaten by Marduk. She had to retreat and heal for centuries afterward, in contradiction to her actual states. Now, she's working to get her revenge, quietly sending agents to Earth and trying to find another evil force to win support from. Anyway, she likes to eat flesh and emotions! How she does the former is obvious, how she does the latter is puzzling. Though she gets along with Ahriman, the both of them are too egotistical to truly ally. So, 60K or 30K M.D.C., you know the deal by now, teleport, can raise the dead or turn the dead, has a healing touch (healing nuzzle? she ain't got no arms...), a weakening poison stinger, and has a killing breath that weakens, but wind powers like Marduk's will reflect her attack back on her. She also has tentacles that sprout out of her head. It's notable to list she can't shapeshift at all - she's always a 300' serpent. Oh, and she can sumon gallu bulls, galla demons (whatever those are?), or scorpion people to aid her. In mythology she as the primal god of saltwater, and created a bunch of evil monsters to challenge the gods after Apsu's defeat that aren't in the game. Her dead body became rivers and stars and stuff like that. Mummu, The Maker  Did not make that suit of armor, ironic. Man, it's going to hard to take this guy seriously as an antagonist; that name is just rather unfortunate in this day and age. Anyway, he's the god of craftmanship, and mostly just sided with Darkness because it seemed to be the winning team. When they lost, he surrendered to Enki, but has held a grudge since. When Tiamat contacted him about becoming a double agent, he agreed to spy on the Pantheon of Sumer. He's started learned more about Earth's technology to aid Tiamat, and also has started making contact with Lord Splynncryth's minions, and may become a spy for or against them; he's innately selfish and will basically be looking for the better deal either way. Digits are go- 35K M.D.C. (6K on Earth), 2k/sec regen, can teleport around or turn invisible, super-good at all technological skills, knows all stone magic, but is a mid-range spellcaster otherwise. No psionics. He has a crew of builders, including techno-wizards. He has a special red SAMAS armor which he has enchanted with techno-wizard enchantments, which is now wanted by the Coalition for copyright infringement. He's pretty true to what little mythology he has, though he's sometimes supposed to be a primal representation of the mind and abstract ideas instead of a two-legged nerdgod. In the original myth, though, he's locked away rather than coopted. Kingu, The Chosen  Hoping to pose hard enough to end up on a Clanbook cover. So Kingu was a demon who served Tiamat, and was originally given the Tablets of Destiny. When they were defeated, Tiamat took Kingu's corpse, and merged it with a vampire intelligence, because why not reinvest in a proven failure? In any case, he’s outlooking for revenge on Marduk. Also, he's a demon-vampire, which is a thing. He's looking to try and take over the Yucatan and enslave the vampire intelligences there, and maybe team up with Camatotz (from wayyy back in Rifts World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms. Anyway, he's monstrous and tries to act all cool but often will just murder or torture things on the slightest pretense. Since he's not a god proper, he just has 9K M.D.C. wherever, can smell blood or shapechange like a vampire, and has most of the vampire weaknesses. Sunlight weakens him rather than kills him, however, and he can only create secondary vampires through his biting. He's generally a low-level spellcaster, but he gets all the vampire psionics. In mythology, he wasn't much different, a thug-god who served Tiamat and was given the Tablets to defeat Marduk. He didn't, and that was the end of his story. No vampire angle, of course. Ereshkigal Goddess of the Underworld  Horror Factor 17 Another creation of Apsu, she was "in charge of the souls of the dead". Now, that sort of thing makes her position curious, since Rifts never properly discusses what happens to people after they die, or even if there's an afterlife at all. That being said, even though she tortured Ishtar and Tammuz, she hasn't seen any retribution because... um... reasons? In any case, she pretends to be neutral but is really working against the Patheon of Sumer in exchange for payoffs from Tiamat. She's pretty much just a megalomanical sadist who wants more people to "imprison in her hellish dimension", and wants to expand into (across?) Hades. Her dimension is one big trap, and is easy to travel to, but blocks dimensional rifts and interferes with teleportation. Apparently it also weakens gods, but it doesn't say how much. Anyway, 40K M.D.C., 8K on Earth, 7/sec regen, can animate and turn undead, teleport around, heal with her touch, and has a bunch of spy and knowledge skills. Mostly she knows all necromantic magic, minor normal spells, and has all healing psionics ("but uses them for torture"). She has scorpion people and "galla" as servants, whoever those are. In mythology, she's more of a proto-Hades than the S&M queen we see here, but she mostly figures into the myths of other gods rather than being a central character on her own. Nergal, Prince of Discord  Childhood nickname: “Piggsley”. He's a god of violence, plague, and destruction, and the desert sun. Nobody really likes him, but he's married to Erishkigal and got pardoned from serving Apsu on account of her. Then he went on to serve Tiamat, and has followed her to Rifts Earth. However, he's thinks Earth needs more wars, and so has been sending agents to try and spark a conflict between the Coalition States and nearby magic kingdoms, or to aid the Gargoyles and Brodkil against the NGR. Oh, and he's a big sadist who likes bullying others, to the point where he'll toy with foes instead of killing them, which allows them to get away. Oh, and when evenly matched, he'll immediately flee. He's basically the 80s cartoon villain of the Babylonian set. Run awayyyyy! Number counting: 18K / 3K M.D.C., regens 1 per 2 secs, teleports, can animate the dead, and is a wilderness scout kinda guy. He only has basic spellcasting, mostly tending towards mind control, and no psionics. He apparently carries a bunch of fancy weapons and has 1000 M.D.C. armor. Wikipedia posted:According to the rabbins, his emblem was a cock and Nergal means a "dunghill cock". Rooster, that is. He's similar to (but before) Ares, though he's less of a cartoon character than this writeup in the myths. Lilith - Bringer of Misery  Evil Seductress Archetype #14,352 Once, she was a Dar'ota, but was turned by Apsu and Tiamat into a powerful demon. After they lost the war, she has traveled around basically causing death, because why not, I guess. She often seeks to cause war, because why not, I guess. And once she caused a nuclear war that destroyed a whole world, because why not, I guess. (Dar'ota are one of those species that love causing suffering because, even though it's not like they feed off psychic misery waves or anything; they're just blood-drinkers.) In any case, she's very mercenary, and has a rivalry with Jahi where they compete to seduce and murder the same guy. (Which makes sense, because they’re essentially the same lame character in different pantheons.) Oh, and she'll probably help out Nergal, because yay war and suffering, why not, I guess. About 2K M.D.C., invisible, slow regen, crappy teleports, shape shift into "any humanoid female form", has roguish skills, crappy illusion magic and sensitive psionic powers. Apparently when she loses her temper she goes from pretty (relative, given the illustration to fanged uglyface. The mythology of Lilith is more problematic, since most sources come to the conclusion that "Lilitu" wasn't really a part of Mesopatamian mythology, but was inserted by later writers and historians. As such, having her in a Bablyonian pantheon makes the authors here the victims of fakelore, but it probably wasn't apparent at the time this book was written. Either way, the interpretation of Lilith is immensely dull compared to the Hebrew mythology, where she's just an evil thing that does evil because she is evil, etc. Etc. Wow. This section was a lot worse than the Gods of Light. I'm willing to accept one boring sadist out of a pantheon, but Mummu's the only real exception to the "evil for evil's sake" crowd here, and is vastly more interesting as a result. Mummu taking the wrong side and then blaming others for the consequences is a very human motivation, whereas most of the others are just villainous caricatures that are less nuanced than a Silver Age comic book villain. Ugggh let's wrap this pantheon up. Next: Brokings forever. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Apr 7, 2014 |
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Apr 7, 2014 14:38
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Cardiovorax posted:I know, I just think it's a cool myth and I wanted to tell people about it. Babylonian Myth is pretty cool, not that you'd really know it from this book. 
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Apr 7, 2014 16:32
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Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse: Part 9: "5th level priest of the Pantheon of Sumer (lapsed; cannot perform any clerical miracles anymore)." Lesser Creatures of Babylon Gilgamesh - The Demigod  Horror Factor 11. Apparently, Gilgamesh was a demigod, but no word on his parentage. He was an accomplished adventurer but a lousy tyrant of a king. People prayed for salvation against him, and the gods sent the man-beast Endiku against him, but they became the best of bros after fighting. When Ishtar tried to romance Gilgamesh, he blew her off, and so she had a monster sent to punish him. When Gilgamesh and Endiku killed that monster, the gods were super-offended and called Endiku back to their service. However, Gilgamesh thought his best bud was dead, and wasn't eager to join him in the afterlife. So Gilgamesh had a big quest for immortality, but failed. But then he decided to travel the Megaverse and find it after all! And he maybe became immortal, or not, who can say? (The writers, of course, but we’ll follow up on this plot thread under the New Immortals.) Also he's super-confident and charismatic, like some shonen comics hero, only he has a beard.Oh, and he also gets to be a "Demigod variant", which means he gets to be wayyy more powerful than any PC demigod! And somehow he beat Herakles in a wrestling match with his "wits", even though Herakles has about thirty times the M.D.C. and 20 more points of Strength. That's a lot of wits! 1k M.D.C., regenerates, super-strong and is really good at being sneaky and wilderness stuff. Oh, he's also a mid-level ley line walker, gets to multiclass (ha ha, gently caress you PC demigods) into warrior, and also has levels in priest (but doesn't have the powers anymore). He also has some minor mentalism psionics. Oh, and he has a magic greatest rune weapon (remember those?) that can teleport him around and make holes into other dimensions. Oh, and it does double damage against dragons, but when you pay attention to math double crap is still crap. Oh, and he has a 1K M.D.C. suit of armor that he pulled out of his rear end, I guess. gently caress getting Triax armor or whatever, PCs need to find out where gods do their tailoring. Ultimately Gilgamesh is much like his mythical counterpart, at least until he goes planewalking. Oh, and he's originally the son of Ninsun, a goddess mainly just famous for being Gilgamesh's mom. So it goes. Endiku  ”But what would Hulk be like without pants?” This guy was made by Apsu and Tiamat out of a man and a bull! And I imagine that wasn’t as impressive as it might sound to ancient folk, so they gave him a bunch of magic power too. He was a dumb thug for them, and when Marduk took over, he became a dumb thug for Marduk. Then he was sent to fight Gilgamesh, and became a dumb thug for Gilgamesh. But they were mega-bros, so it was okay. When he got called back to the gods, he was different, and was at least a mouthy, free-willed thug. This bugged a lot of his gods, but Marduk liked the cut of his jib, and made him into a minor god. Rifts Conversion Book Two: Pantheons of the Megaverse posted:People making fun of him or other gentle monsters should stay beyond the reach of his arms. "He's gentle and kind unless you're mean to him, and then he'll gently and kindly tear your head off." He wants to find Gilgamesh again, but he's likely to punch anybody he thinks is an imposter into paste. Gently, no doubt. Anyway, he's even stronger than Gilgamesh, has 2k M.D.C., regenerates, is a wild man as far as skills go. No magic or psionics, he's all meat. He's pretty close to his mythical version, except for the part where he doesn't die. In the myth he just dies. And then a maggot falls out of his nose. Galla (Demonic Minion)  Originates from a 10’ x 10’ dimension. These are generic devil muscle that serve Apsu, Tiamat, and Ereshkigal. They're strong, tough, immune to fire, and are roughly akin to gargoyles in power level. They're decent hunters, and there's not much else to say. They're not supposed to be playable due to being "supernatural demons", in defiance of all the supernatural demons you are allowed to play. Go figure. The Scorpion People (Optional R.C.C.)  Victim of at least three self-stings each day. These are products of some bio-wizard experiment from another dimension, and are part scorpion, part people, all soldier. They've been used by both sides of the Babylonian pantheon as warriors, and most of them on Earth are here in that capacity. However, they've started looking to obtain technology, and some of them are willing to sell their own people as slaves to obtain it, notably to the Splugorth. They're super-strong and fast, and have low M.D.C. ratings with regeneration. They can automatically grapple people, but that just gives minor penalties to defense. They can also climb on walls and have a paralytic poison stinger that gives combat penalties. THey can take just about any class, but apparently never take bionics or cybernetics, which is puzzling, because they don't have any magic powers to inhibit. Generally speaking, they're painfully generic, though if you want a scorpion butt, here's your chance. At last, scorpion booty can be yours. Next: The Dark Council (true) and the New Immortals (false)
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Apr 8, 2014 14:56
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Barudak posted:Does Rifts write it as Endiku? Its driving me crazy not seeing Enkidu. Pretty sure. I've just got my review draft here, I'd have to check my copy when I get home to be 100% sure. occamsnailfile posted:But I don't think I ever encountered a reference to the scorpion people--I may have to look that one up. Apparently they're not in all versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh, but here's one with them: The Epic of Gilgamesh posted:The Scorpion-Beings
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Apr 8, 2014 17:08
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Barudak posted:Does Rifts write it as Endiku? Its driving me crazy not seeing Enkidu. Confirmed now that I'm looking at the book, I can't believe I missed that, myself. It does it for the entry we're about to see, too. I missed some perfectly good dick joke, too. Maybe I can fit that in there, if you know what I mean. Thank the Editing God, I suppose. theironjef posted:Here you go, goons. Episode 16 - Scion: Hero. So, in your educated opinion, which is least worser, Pantheons or Scion? Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse: Part 10: "Eventually, he had found the answer from a mysterious man who called himself the Cyber-Mancer." The Dark Council "Well, we just decided for truth in advertising." This is a trio of power-hungry mercenaries that are trying to find a way to artificially become gods. They conquer lands and then try and find ways to sap the P.P.E. of worshippers, and have become as powerful as demigods. Wait, you can do that?  They bid you dark greetings. Ea - (Altered Sowki) A Sowki (from Rifts Conversion Book), he was once a witchly servant of Apsu, and had the Gift of Union, but never traded away his mind. Which seems like an oversight on Apsu’s part, but… he formed his own cult, and was able to gather enough energy from worship to snap his link to Apsu, but kept all the power (thingspcswouldneverbeallowedtodo.txt). When Apsu got put to sleep, it was a fantastic turn of events for him. Since then, he's looking to become a full-on god. He's also teamed up with a dragon called Tiamat who impersonates the goddess, and convinced a warlock to take up the name of Enlil. Ea has come to Earth, hoping the myriad mixing of dimensions can give him a way to catapult himself to godhood. Of course, he's already the most powerful Sowki in any universe. In general he has all the trickster magic Sowki powers from the conversion book, only he has 1K M.D.C., is immune to mind control, can summon lesser demons, and animate and control dead. He's a top-level spellcaster and a mid-level temporal wizard, and he carries a generic magic sword. He usually disguises himself as a 7' tall Sumerian human, however. Not that very many people know what Sumer was anymore. Enlil The Bio-Borg Warlock A D-Bee human, Enlil is actually Krellon, a powerful air / water warlock who took over his homeworld. Then one day a god, Verrikon, showed up, beat him stupid, and took over his world. Krellon fled the world. He went and studied magic, and paid for bio-wizardry to make himself more physically powerful. Armed to the teeth and with a band of mercs, he went home to get revenge... only to find that Verrikon had already been killed by Tiamat and Ea, why it doesn't say. Anyway, he also wanted to become a god, and decided to team up with them on their deification project. He doesn't like them very much, and is a decent guy as far as horrible tyrants go, but figures they can help him with godhood. He's the more academic, thoughtful type. So, he's got about 500 M.D.C., is a top-level warlock and a mid-level ley line walker. He also has levels in bio-wizard, which is not a class. He also has a chest amalagmate from Rifts World Book Two: Atlantis, and often uses other microbes and symbiotes, but has been made into an ugly bug-thing, and has to use shapeshifting magic to pass as human. He also has Sunaj armor to disguise himself, a lesser rune sword, and a talisman that stores a poo poo-ton of P.P.E. Tiamat The Younger Mistress of Dragons When she was young, Tiamat ran across some terrified mortals that mistook her for the goddess, and she's run with the deception ever since. The real Tiamat learned about her, but figured the false Tiamat went around spreading terror in her name, and that was cool. (Evil's too big to let one's ego get in the way, I guess.) So she marched up to join the Pantheon of Dragonwright (from Rifts World Book Two: Atlantis), and the Styphon the Black clawed her to ribbons. Well. Living ribbons. And after that, she decided to become a real god and show that Styphon what-for. Great horned dragon, 6K M.D.C., teleport, change shape, invisibility, wilderness skills, fire breath, high level spellcasting, all basic psionics, and psychic swords, you know, just because. Also apparently she's something of a poser; she dresses like an Egyptian, because she doesn't know the difference between that and Babylon (wait, wasn't she present for the latter?), and Ea doesn't care to correct her. Troops of the Dark Council They have a poo poo-ton of thugs, including:
They have have a small pocket dimension, with a palace that's tough to bust into (1,000 M.D. to bust your way in, so about seven nukes), but trusted servants have a ritual key. Dimensionally teleporting in sets off an alarm and blah blah blah. They're kind of overblown for what they are, and though they have a slightly more interesting motivation than plain old evil, it's not really clear what they'd be doing to achieve their goal; there's just no clear way to godify oneself in the setting, so the onus is entirely on the GM to actually cook up their plans. The New Immortals They're Gilgamesh and Endiku! Again! Endiku is clearly a faker, but Gilgamesh is...? Gilgamesh the Wanderer  M’laaaadies. He's a "dimension spanning paladin", by which they mean he wanders around being a knightly superhero guy, since this game doesn’t have paladins. Sometimes, it forgets it isn’t Gilgamesh did the ritual six times, killing his clone again and again, telling himself he was just killing extensions of himself, not true beings. But he started to have guilty thoughts, and had a choice: kill the 7th or finally die. There, the journal ended. The amnesiac man did believe he was Gilgamesh, isn't sure if he's the clone or not. And so he's started searching for his identity. Unlike the Gilgamesh who wrote the journal, he's much more upstanding and is fairly horrified at what the journal discusses. But is he real or a clone or somebody else entirely unrelated? Well, that's left to the GM. If he's an imposter, he's a drat good one, and has much the same abilities, but no magical knowledge. He also has sensitive psionics and a strong mental defense. He also has a sword that's on fire, a sword that's on... psire? Psionic blasty fire? And 1500 M.D.C. scale mail, because apparently that poo poo is draped over every goddamn god. Endiku Longhair  Always measures the wind for the correct direction to face. An Atlantean undead slayer named Marcus Meleagrus, Endiku was nearly killed fighting a metzla (from Rifts World Book Two: Atlantis), but Gilgamesh (the Wanderer) teamed up with him out of nowhere and they killed it. And then Gilgamesh was like "are you Endiku?" and Marcus was like "sure, why the gently caress not?" So they became good friends and go around fighting monsters, and the Olympus Club. He’s cool with being called a dick… well, Endiku, instead of the correct spelling, Enkidu. Editing god, indeed. He's a mere 10th level undead slayer (seriously, a character that would take years of play to achieve is the weakest dude so far), has a poo poo-ton of magic tattoos and all the standard True Atlantean jazz. He doesn't really care of Gilgamesh is really the true demigod, he just knows he's his super bro and that's fine with him. Etc. The Gilgamesh twisty clone bit is the most interesting bit here for me, since it's such an obvious hook to play with. The only issue is either Gilgamesh is on such a level as to readily outshine PCs, so adventuring with him seems problematic. The Dark Council isn't badly done, but as mentioned, it's not really clear how they're going to achieve their lofty goal. That, and Ea's the leader, but also the most the boring one of the group, and doesn't really have a hook other than generic powerlust. Next: A Greek Tragedy (of stats).
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Apr 9, 2014 20:23
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ThisIsNoZaku posted:I want to see a game world or something that has gods that don't have the whole post-modernist "powered by belief" thing going on. What's old is new again. I have to wonder where that originates from. Was that an AD&D-ism? Hmmm. 
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Apr 11, 2014 20:34
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Bieeardo posted:Hm. That'd be a cute schtick: reskin the math on divine blessings and such, so that instead of getting a boost from a god, he's just getting off your back a bit while continuing to rain poo poo on everyone else. Great Ork Gods is an example of a system based solely around that notion, where the players play orcs and the attribute system is based entirely around how much the orc gods hate that orc in a given moment. (They only hate; there is no love.) Presuming you still had a Rifts or Forgotten Realms-like plethora of gods, it'd probably still boil down to a bonus, since nobody wants to keep track of the 47 gods cursing them instead of the one god giving them a pass, unless you only have the attention of a certain number of gods at a given time.
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Apr 11, 2014 22:21
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Doing this writeup actually taught me a poo poo-ton about Hinduism (Sanatana-Dharma is the cooler name, tho) and I feel like I still only poked it with my toe. There's so much interesting stuff I didn't know about... ... that is generally not included in this book. When I was younger I would get up in arms about stuff like Disney's Hercules not being true to the myths, but the more I actually read myths the more I realize how wrong I was. The original mythological authors were constantly loving with their own myths. They were the "original fanfic authors", as occams put it, and so it's okay to mess around with mythology and make it your own. Certainly, you don't need to be bound by the profound sexism, racism, and just about every other terrible thing that permeates the fiction of our forefathers. The problem I still have, though, is when writers discard interesting mythology to just write pablum. The Egyptian pantheon in Rifts World Book Four: Africa is really strong example of this, turning a complex and deep mythology into a something that seems fit more for a child-pandering toy line. Set, for example, is a loving jerk, no doubt, but is also loyal to his pantheon and willing to sacrifice himself to save them, despite his wicked ways. In Africa, he's cartoonishly evil to the point that he makes Skeletor look nuanced by comparison. And it's so loving boring. Pantheons is somewhere in the middle. I actually really like the idea that all the pantheons coexisted or that they're multiversal or that there might be multiple versions of them. It's just it often fumbles on the execution, and is trapped in the notion from Africa that all pantheons must be divided into Autogods and Divinicons, which really hobbles a lot of interesting notions, especially when making the "evil" gods not just evil, but eeeevil, as Stolze puts it.
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Apr 15, 2014 05:00
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BerkerkLurk posted:The Herminator TW Rail Gun got a chuckle out of me at the time, so that makes it the funniest moment in Rifts. It's oddly humorless for a setting as insane as it is. Carella definitely writes some more self-aware or referential stuff. All I can think of for Siembieda humor was a central NPC in Rifts Sourcebook being named "James T."
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Apr 15, 2014 17:35
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Yeah, Egypt has a throwaway suggestion that you could run a campaign where the players play Gods of Light against the Four Horsemen, which sounds interesting until you realize that the MDC values of gods make any "balanced" fight pure loving misery, because either gods are chipping away at each other for eternity, using soul-drinking weapons to auto-kill each other on the first failed save, or throwing hordes of peons at gods at which point the GM is rolling dice until they die of old age. The MDC values mostly seem to be there as stonewalls to block PCs from killing all but the lowliest peon gods, without any thought to how god-v-god combat might function at all. Of course, creative and immensely resourceful PCs can come up with ways mortals might assassinate a god (probably involving a squadron of shifters and missile-swarm firing robots), but mostly it seems designed for the GM to sit there smugly and hiss "you fire your biggest weapons and you manage to merely nick his trousers".
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Apr 15, 2014 22:03
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occamsnailfile posted:Cupid (Terlin) Wow, I had never spotted that he's a Terlin. gently caress. For those not familiar: Villains Unlimited, a supplement for Heroes Unlimited, had the "Dread Micro-Wizards of Chaos". These were Terlins, devised by Steve Sheiring (the "Treacher" in "Crisis of Treachery"). They were supernatural creatures from who the gently caress cares wherever which are... gremliny things that take the form of small children, could shrink down to tiny size, animate toys, or use magic spells. They aren't really played for laughs like might be expected (it notes that they do torture and kill people), and superheroes are supposed to of course get trapped in being seen beating a child down to stop them. Whee. So Cupid is not only telling people to rape, he looks like a child. Oh, and for some reason the writeup in Villains Unlimited uses the phrase "natural seductiveness". I'm sure it doesn't mean anything, but just in case, I'm going to go wash my keyboard down with bleach.
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Apr 18, 2014 04:57
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ProfessorProf posted:So, how about those Onmyouji? I'm surprised, in retrospect, that this isn't associated with the Kuze-Shu.
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Apr 18, 2014 05:51
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Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse: Part 18: "She is spoiled, even for a goddess." Gods of India So, we start with a disclaimer that points out these gods are part of an living religion, and that these are fictionalized versions, and they're not trying to describe Hinduism, everyone! Of course, with the inclusion of a living religion, I have to wonder why larger, monotheistic religions aren't included. The reasons are obvious, but ultimately were I Christian I think I'd find it more offensive. Sure, what is statted can be killed, as they say, but ultimately the takehome is that Jehovah doesn't matter. Balder, Isis, and friggin' Camatotz all get to make their impact on the world, but Ol' Allah is just a lousy thumbsitter, if he even exists at all. Personally, I'm not really bothered by it myself other than the obvious double standard, one maintained since the original Deities & Demigods - polytheists are fair game, but you never gently caress with monotheists. So, first you had the Vedic Pantheon, but then the Brahmanic Pantheon busted in on their territory, and the gods went to war. The Brahmanic were able to trounce the Vedics badly enough to take over for the most part, so the Vedics were merged into their own pantheon. There's also the Indian Gods of Evil (subtle name, there) who are made up of evil gods from both pantheons, now teamed up forever, I suppose. Then we also have the Asuras, who are demon lords, and the Immortals, which is a group of monsters that fakes godhood. Then we get politics!
These were originally the Aryan gods! But then they fought the Brahmanic gods and lost a lot of their power in the following compromise. As such, evil forces have sometimes been able to manipulate the Vedas' resentment to their own advantage. Varuna Guardian of the Universe  Beetle on his back. A god of the skies, Varuna oversaw things like rain and justice, but since their surrender, he was demoted to being a god of the seas. He secretly fumes about the whole thing and has been looking for a way to destroy the Brahma, and has allied with demons to seek a means to do so. He helped get the Splugorth to invade their world, and had tried to set himself up to be the big hero that defeated the invasion. He failed, and it didn't work out. He feels really guilty now, and is terrified of others finding out. He used to be a "Cosmic Guardian", whatever that is, and knows alot about other dimensions and rivals to the power of gods. He's Brahma's main advisor on Earthly affairs, because Brahma can't be bothered to look for snakes in the grass. And I guess he’s more “Benedict Arnold of the Universe” than “Guardian of the Universe”, but I’m just being picky. God number 40k/8k, can manipulate all warlock elements (mainly air and water, but fire and earth to a lesser extent), regen, teleport, healing, dim-sum, summons elementals, can make a boat out of a log, is a psionic sensitive and has mental attacks and defenses. Also he has a magical lasso that automatically snares on a hit. This is, of course, a drastic simplification of a multi-faceted and complex god, but I just have one thing to say - where's Makara? Where's his riding crocodile? Seriously, this is Rifts, and they couldn't fit in a giant crocodile mount? Bah! Indra God of Storms & Warriors - Demon Slayer  Prayer carpet… of DOOM! With a title like that, what can I really add? Well, Indra was the second-in-command of the pantheon, but for all practical purposes used to be in charge. He was given a potion to fight Siva during the war, but the potion unexpectedly wore off and Siva beat his potionless butt in a berserker raaage. He's pretty pissed about the situation, and considers Vishnu to be a lousy capitulator, but knows he doesn't have a chance against the leaders of the pantheon. He sees himself as the savior of mankind, but is really an arrogant dick who really does it out of ego instead of benevolence. In actual mythology, he was pretty arrogant and impetuous, but not quite the outright assholiness we have on display here. 53k mdc 10k on Earth +2k when he's hopped up on soma he has a thunderbolt spear that controls the weather can throw lightning bolts has two kris daggers that drink souls (which I guess fits with his anarchist alignment) a soma potion that pumps him up he has a plasma rifle for some goddamn reason and a flying disc that goes at Mach 8 silently (gently caress sonic booms I suppose) and a white elephant with 3k MDC that goes 60 MPH which must just look totally fuckin silly invisibility regen teleport can make sound effects like BOOM or KRAKADADOOM and shoot lightning and do air and water magic and middling regular magic and electrohydrokinesis and ESP and gently caress it I'm out Tvashtri God of Magic No art. So he's the Vedic smith, but he's rivals with Indra, on account of Indra killing his son. When the Brahmanics came make war, Tvashtri stood by and also sabotaged Indra's soma to it's wear off so Siva could kick Indra's junkie rear end. Yeah, it turns out Indra is a total soma junkie, and often Tvashtri will withhold it or spike it with hosed-up poo poo to torment Indra. Also, he loves humanity, but basically gives no fucks and is always being snarky towards greater gods. Anyway, regen, teleport, can cancel out any magic (!) with a successful roll, is a high-level sorcerer, knows all circle, ward, rune, and herb magic, and keeps the secret of making soma. Oh, and he's a telepath with a shapeshifting weapon that can copy five different weapons from Rifts World Book Two: Atlantis. In mythology, he made the thunderbolt Indra used to kill Vritra, a monster. In other mythology, he made Vritra to get revenge on Indra. Think about that the next time you see a character written differently for no good reason. Ancient myth was written by the original hack writers. Agni God of Fire  Traded in legs for bonus arms. This a fire god apparently related to fire elementals, but is more human-ish. I wonder how that happens, given elementals are entirely human forces? Is he a inhuman fanboy of humans? I don't get it. In any case, he used to be a rival for Indra, but Parvati kicked his rear end in the war and he's settled down and become a more humble, nice personification of fire. He really likes humans, for whatever reason. 30K/6K MDC, 15' tall and only 400 lbs., regens but super-regens when in fire, is super-good at fire magic but not so great at other magic, healing psychic powers and pyrokinesis, can summon elementals and can shoot a holy flame that does big damage to evil supernatural creatures, but he's vulnerable to water and cold attacks. Agni is a big deal in Hindu mythology because he's the one who picks up sacrifices from the flames. Also, India named its first strategic nuclear missile for him. These facts feel troublingly related. Soma God of the Moon  No don’t scratch your chin nooooo Unshockingly, Soma is the god of soma, as well, as well as the moon and madness and druuugs. The Brahmanic gods don't care for his druuugs and have kicked him out a few times because of it, but Indra is good friends with him. (I don't understand why Indra needs to turn to Tvashtri for his fix, then? No idea.) He also is, of course, pals with Dionysus, and they get so loving drunk together like you would not believe. He's also interested in the Millennium Trees (presumably for smoking) and Juicer technology (for making his own hopped-up drug warriors). He's also super-moody, and there is a random roll to see if he's:
Wikipedia posted:In Hindu art, the god Soma was depicted as a bull or bird, and sometimes as an embryo, but rarely as an adult human. Man, did they miss out on having a hideous embryo drug god. Talk about your bad trips! He's also obviously a mashup the Vedic gods Soma (god of that drug) and Chandra (god of the moon). Oh, and though there have been attempts to find a real "Soma" plant, but scholars have been unable to pin down a root for the legend, figurative or otherwise. Surya God of the Sun Artless A god of the sun and weather, Surya is basically a super-paladin sorts of god that hates demons and vampires, not necessarily in that order. He basically turned his back on the other Vedic gods, recognizing Indra and Varuna for the tremendous assholes that they happen to be in this particular fictional continuity. He's big on law and order and is the cop god protecting humanity, and is by the book and has no sense of humor to speak of. Oh, and he used to be symbolized by the swastika, but thanks to Nazis he's totally sick of it and inclined to just smite anybody using it. He's also putting together a group of godling spies to discover more about about eeevil forces on Earth. So! 50k MDC, 10K when on Earth, regeneration, he's laserproof, can teleport, turn dead, heal people, use fire or air magic, has all sensitive and physical psionic powers, plus all the kinesises, can summon seraphs (fire angels), and cast light that heals most creatures and hurts the undead and alien intelligences, as well as frightens those with evil alignments. "Oh no, my wounds are healing! I'm afraid!" He also has a "Sun Staff" that can cast light and fire spells, as if he needs it. Not much to say about the real Surya other than he's a big-deal real god. In legend, he was such a big deal even some demons and rakshasas followed him as part of his entourage, because following him got them to overcome their evil ways. Ratri Goddess of Shadows  Cosmic jazz hands. A goddess of the night, Ratri is basically the the late show counterpart to Surya, and protects people from the shadows. Apparently this really freaks out evil folks, because the Shadow Knows, or whatever. (Ah, cartoon villainy.) Vampires in particular are afraid of her, and she's backdropped many vampire intelligences (well, not really, but she has beaten them). Like Surya, she basically walked away from the Vedic pantheon as a form of pass-agg protest. She's kind and caring, but conversely ruthless. Numerics! 20k / 4k MDC, super-nightvision (sees through magic darkness, or things that meld with shadows), can sense vampires and supernatural evil, teleport, fly, "impervious to vampires" (whatever that means), regens (faster in shadow), can summon shadow beasts (from a spell in the corebook), middling magic, sensitive psionics, create shadows, talk to shadows and find out what they're hiding, and recognize "creatures of darkness". Creatures of darkness include vampires, dybbuks, dar'ota, werebeasts (?), djinns (?), undead, gods of night/death/shadows, and "all true creatures of the night", even through all disguises. Oh, and she has "The Shadowblade" that can negate magic and murder "creatures of the night" well enough. Of course, it says something for Rifts combat rules that a god wielding "The Shadowblade", specifically made for vamp-killing, will require two swipes to kill many vampires. In actual mythology she's apparently the counterpart to Usha, a goddess of the dawn not included in this book. Also she's apparently "gloomy and infertile" and "brings barrenness". Thanks, internet. Sarasvati Water Goddess  Too lazy to even pose, I guess. A goddess of rivers, lakes, arts, and science. Apparently she's a pushy, spoiled god and was married to both Vishnu and Brahma, and Vishnu divorced her while Brahma took on a second wife. Brahma and her are still pretty close. In any case, she loves artists and scientists, and also hates pollution and is likely to smite polluters. To mortals, she's kind and generous, but to other gods she tends to be petty and short-tempered. 20k/4k MDC, regens, turns dead, teleport, has a healing touch, has high-level water spells, low-level normal spells, has all basic psionic powers plus hydrokinesis and other crap, and can grant the "gift of inspiration" that gives other people a bonus on certain skills. Also, she has a magical M.D.C. peacock, but it tragically has no magic peacock M.D.C. attacks. In actual mythology she's part of a feminine triad with Lakshmi (not in this book) and Parvati (detailed later). Oh, and all books are a manifestation of her power, so there's that. Next: It's time for Brahmania!
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Apr 19, 2014 23:39
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Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse: Part 19: "He is the Rambo of the gods, preferring action to words and with no patience for arguements, small talk or delays." The Pantheon of Brahma Apparently these gods were driven out of their original dimension by demons and "evil gods", and as such have become big foes of the "powers of Darkness". They asked for refuge in India, and Varuna was willing to hear them out, but Indra was like fuckemletsfight (no doubt while high as a kite on soma). They had a big fight, but Vishnu basically turncoated over to Brahma's side and that was the big event that halted their godwar. When the magic went away, they retreated to another dimension, but the Splugorth came along to kick them out again. It notes that it's up to the GM if they've come back to Earth or not, but this section seems a bit pointless if they haven't. I suppose you could do more if you have a world-hopping campaign, but there really isn't support in Rifts for that at this point beyond Wormwood... which explicitly doesn't have any gods. Brahma the Wise  Finds shaving and haircuts… complicated. The head of the Indian gods, Brahma is one of the biggest gods on this or any other world. As such, his concerns are above that of mortals, and generally other gods as well. He is one of the few charged with making sure the "Unnameable Beings" don't awaken - basically, various universe-busting beings, like the Old Ones from the Palladium RPG. He basically invests a lot of magic visiting them in limbo and keeping them quiescent. He does this every two months or so, and is weakened for several weeks afterward. As such, most of the actual leadership of the pantheon is handled by Vishnu and Siva. He blows off mortals for the most part. One annoying thing is that Brahma is presented as one of the chief triad of gods with Vishnu and Siva. To be fair, Vishnu and Siva are widely worshipped in the real world, and deserve their place there, but Brahma is more respected and acknowledged within the religion than worshipped. The goddess that should be there as part of the triad is probably Lakshimi, the goddess of wealth and another extremely important god to the religion that doesn't even show up here. 120K/24K MDC, can "see all spectrums of light and radiation", turn invisible, super-regens, immune to heat and cold but not fire whaaaat, turns dead, teleports, can always sense rifts, cast all normal and temporal magic, has all basic psychic powers, plus a lot of superkinetic powers, know people's alignments, and know their true nature. Oh, and he can shoot eyebeams from all four of his heads to create a radius that does damage to all evil beings, and crazy damage to all supernatural evil beings, and is extra hard to dodge. Oh, and he can summon up to 50,000 spirits of light. He has special bow that can fire energy arrows, cursed arrows, or anti-vampire arrows. He also has beads of power that he can draw upon for extra power, throw as explosives, to cancel magic, and a magic book that lets him cast any spell he does not innately know except for rune magic or bio-wizardry. Rifts Conversion Book Two: Pantheons of the Megaverse posted:Brahma NEVER lets the book out of his sight! The mythological figure is, if anything, more standoffish, but not much amusing or embarrassing to add. Vishnu the Preserver  Chinhorns. Perfect. Originally part of the Vedic pantheon of as a god of light, Vishnu saw Indra for the tremendous jerk that he is, joined up with Brahma. After their victory, Brahma brought Vishnu on as a an equal to become part of the Divine Triad with Brahma and Siva (presumably it was just a Divine Duo before?). Siva is less thrilled with this, and there's a rivalry between the two of them. What's more, Varuna has given him the cold shoulder for millennia as a result. More recently, Vishnu got crippled by the Splugorth and has been sending out "Avatars" in his place while he recovers. Powers: 75K/15K MDC, regenerates, turns read, teleports, healing others, all normal and fire spells, all physical and sensitive psionics, telekinetics, and has a special power where he can meditate and radiate light that gives combat penalties to evil and combat bonuses to good figures. He also has a power given to him by Brahma to fragment his power to be born into a mortal form as a godling. One, Krishna, is described later in this section. It notes others like Kalki might show up in later books, but I don't believe they do. Oh, and he has "Sudarsana the Discus", which does big damage against evil and disrupts teleport attempts, a magic shell called Panchajanya that can make a force field, "Kaunodaki the Mace" which is good at pummeling evil and great against pummeling vampires, as well as creating TIME HOLES, and Sarnga the magic bow which is pretty much just a magic bow. Vishnu is a wayyy bigger deal than presented here in actual Hinduism, as a practically all-powerful god who sends avatars to battle evil. For whatever reason, Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and his consort and an important part of the feminine triad in the actual mythology, is not here. Krishna The Avatar  More like Bish-na, amirite? And Krishna is one of Vishnu's most powerful avatars, and was targeted by a number of gods and demons, including Indra, and he whupped them all by being clever. He's Vishnu's Superman Red and is all cocky and dashing. He has 14k/3k MDC; apparently Avatars have a flat 3d6 x 1000 (ha ha, gently caress you godlings) MDC. Regen, invisible, turn dead, teleport, healing touch, knows kung fu, mid-range magic, all sensitive and physical psionics, plus auto mind blockin'. Oh, and he gets to borrow Kaunodaki every so often. In mythology, Vishnu "mentally transmitted" his essence into Krishna's mom, making him his own dad. Also an awfully big deal with real people. Siva the Destroyer  Yes, you can say it: mecha-Siva. The bad cop of the Divine Triad, Siva is a fierce god of stabbing evil. And women that try to seduce him, apparently, because he's so pious. So he's all about stabbing evil and anybody who threatens to sex him. Also, he's about healing in medicine! And slaying devils. Also, enslaving devils. He's a very confused god. He also makes fun of Indra for being a soma addict constantly, because he's not what you'd call a graceful winner. Siva and Brahma basically put up with his poo poo because he's good at demon-stabs, but that may not last forever. Also sometimes he pretends to be a ghost to gently caress with mortals. 70k/14k MDC, invisibility, resistant to all energy attacks, regens, turns dead, teleports, healing touches, all normal spells and all psychic powers, and has a third eye that lets him go a all wave motion cannon about ten times a day or so and does 2d6 x 100 M.D.C. damage. He has Pinaka, a trident that casts air or water spells, Ajagawa, a magic bow, Khatwanga, a magic mace, an Impaler sword, and magic cobras that bite with a weakening poison. Despite his power armor-wearing appearance above, none of that is reflected in his statblock. The petty, warhungry Siva (Shiva, actually) we see here is pretty well completely at odds with the mythical Shiva, who is indeed destructive, but is also conversely peaceful, and destroys in the sense that all things must end. Also, in the mythology he nearly killed the other god with fire from his third eye, actually. But Parvati saved her. Which helps make the whole thing make a lot more sense - she was trying to seduce a married god. Parvati  Shops at the same hattery Galactus frequents. Parvati is... another god of destroying demons and order. 'Kay. Apparently she's Siva's wife, so she's also the god of being Siva's wife. She beat up Agni during the war, but there's they respect each other instead of Agni resenting it at all. In fact, she nearly got killed fighting the Splugoth, but Agni rescued her. Siva's worried that Parvati is in love with Agni now, and it turns out he's right. Maybe Siva shouldn't be so anti-loving if he wants to keep a wife, but... 40K/8K invisible regen teleport healing TOUCH, knows all domestic skills of course she does has middling spellcasting senstive psionics, psi-sword psi-shield MIND BOLT, Sashonu, a magic sword that does magic damage can can be replicated for each of her ten arms but does less damage but doesn't give more attacks so why the gently caress is that useful Parvati is a sort of ur-goddess that has absorbed the mythology and aspects of many, many other female deities over the years, and in some less orthodox versions of Hinduism, she fills the role of head god in Shiva's place. Skanda God of War  Played by Schwartznegger in the film. Ares!!!... waitno This is the son of Siva and Parvati, and he's a hot-blooded warrior for good. He's been taught by Brahma and is one of the few gods that knows about his trips to the "Nether Worlds", whatever those are, but will never talk about it, so why does it matter? Hm. Anyway, he's got no time for love, only for war. He's also been organizing sneak attacks against the Splugorth on their home world, and now he's disappeared. It's said that if the Splugorth capture him, he'll be forced to fight in gladitorial battles which never backfires except that it does. Also he is the Rambo of the gods. invis regen teleport 12 ATTACKS oh night 25K/5K MDC (wait it says he's a better warrior than Siva but Siva could clearly whup him like a red-bandanna'd stepchild, whups), and he has a Sword of Atlantis, a Giant Plasma Sword, Plasma Cannon, and a Techno-Wizard War Helmet. All his nonmagical equipment is crrrraaaaapppp Skanda is actually more popularly known as Murugan, and is often called the god of the Tamil people. Also, he rides a war peacock, which is sadly missing here. Ganesa The Elephant God  Suddenly, anthro. Not actually a god of elephants, but a god that is an elephant, but not really, he just has a head of an elephant! Phew! He's the "remover of obstacles" and the "provider of widsom", and he is super-smart and learned. He even foresaw the return of magic, but was... off by a few centuries, and didn't predict that nuclear war would cause it. So his foresight is pretty blurry, I suppose. Wait, nuclear war caused the Rifts? It's been implied, but never that explicitly stated, as far as I can recall. Also Indra is an rear end in a top hat to him for being a tubby, what a shock. Oh, and he's uncovered another world filled with mutant animals that blah blah blah it's the After the Bomb setting! It turns out he's a patron of furries and other animal-people hybrids. 20K/4K, regen turn ded telepor fly around healying PREHENSILE TRUNK AND SUPER-SMELL weak magic sensitive psi super-skilled magic club magic discus GIANT RIDING RAT THAT GOES 60 MPH! Oh, and he'll hate Merlin or the Angel of Death... if he ever learns about them. Ganesa is a proper variant of the god more widely know as Ganesha. Though he's not a dominant god in terms of heirarchy, he wins a lot of popularity contests. He's often more generally the lord of obstacles, period, placing them and removing them, which seems like a pretty good deific scam to me. Also, myths can't decide if he's the son of Shiva and Parvati, or just spontaneously pregnated inside Parvati, or found by Parvati Garuda The Bird God  Caw!] He's... another punisher of devils, but also fights serpents and dragons! He hates dragons a bunch, because, I dunno, maybe they ate his eggs, whatever. Indra made fun of him once, so Garuda beat him up, and as you may expect by now, Indra holds a grudge. (Who doesn't Indra hold a grudge against, at this point?) Anyway, he's a big ally of Vishnu and sometimes carries him around, and also likes furries and featheries and scalies and the like. 40k/8k MDC, can change size from 30' to birdie, regen, teleport, turn dead, healing poke, weak magic, sensitive and healing psionics, not much else. Apparently when the mythical Garuda was first born, he appeared as a cosmic fire that would destroy the universe, but the gods asked him to cool it, and he did. So he's a pretty easygoing god, I guess. Also, once he beat up all the gods and flew through a set of whirling blades on an adventure, so I guess he isn't afraid of anything. Hanuman The Monkey King  Wielding the double battle phallus. He's had all the adventures of myth ever and so he's been given a lot of power and is just below the Divine Triad. Like all the others he fights evil... yeah, yeah.... and anyway he's been missing for awhile as he's gone off adventuring, but it turns out he's trying to find out about Brahma's secret trips to the Nether World! Dun dun dun! You want to know where this book has gotten me? Hanuman is rad. Hanuman is slick. And yet, looking at this statblock, all I can do is hate Hanuman. 20K MDC normally! 60K as a giant! 4K MDC normally on Earth! 12K MDC on Earth as a giant! Ugh. Invisibel regens teleport turn dead "natural climber" super-smell PREHENSILE TAIL AND FEET alter size damaging roar wimpy magic no psionics NO EQUIPMENT. The myths have it so he once tried to eat the sun because he thought it was a fruit. Also once people doubted his religousity, so he tore his chest open to show that the gods were literally embodied in his heart. So there's that. Next: Kali, or: how to misunderstand other people's religions.
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Apr 20, 2014 18:20
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Tasoth posted:They really messed up on the trimurti/tridevi. From what I know of Hinduism, while the three masculine gods are responsible for carrying out acts under their domains, they are actually powerless. The font of their power is their wives, from which what they can do flows. Not having Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati with Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva is wrong. They really just were just ignorant of it or completely ignored it. When I was doing this F&F I soon realized I was over my head as far as looking at Hinduism, and had to do some research about it to get some bearing. Even just calling it "Hinduism" seems wrong to me at this point, since it's really a grouping of closely related religions, rather than some monolithic faith. It's not like Christianity where most of the varying faiths hold a lot of the same basic tenets while differing heavily on interpretation, while the faiths in Hinduism are instead radically different, and to me feel like closely related but genuinely separate religions. Trying to slot them into the classic Greek / Norse polytheistic standard is a mess, and mostly just speaks to the ignorance of the RPG authors that have tried.
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Apr 20, 2014 21:58
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Midjack posted:I thought they flat out said it in one of the earlier books you reviewed, but I can't find the citation either. On further review, I did miss that the corebook mentions a "nuclear holocaust". That's because it's mentioned in the introduction, but not the history or setting information, so I missed it when double-checking for this review. Whups!
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Apr 21, 2014 00:54
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Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse: Part 20: "It always relates to killing or murdering somebody, 'Strike him down now!' or 'Kill her,' or 'He deserves to die! Kill!'" Indian Gods of Evil Gods that rank higher on the jerk scale. Kali Goddess of Death  eeevil… hasss tooo… accesssorrizzzze So, Parvati used to turn into Kali, which was her mega battle form, but when she drank a demon's blood, and then I guess barfed up Kali as her own demon / god hybrid. Anyway, Siva took her as an additional wife, but Parvati was upset. Brahma let her exist because she liked killing (demons) but she got a bunch of awesome magic weapons and learned time magic and founded the thugees and guess what she betrayed the gods to the Splugorth. And now she's working with the Splugorth and Raksashas to destroy the Indian pantheon because that's what evil do. Apparently she is a "psychopathic being with the heart of a rabid dog and the mind of a serial killer", "She is a torturer, a cannibal and a vampire." Apparently she creeps out even evil people, but considering just how evil character gets in these books, I'm not sure simple torture or eating people gets you to that point. I think for the Splugorth those are activities that go with noontime tea, for example. 72K / 14K em dee cee, regens super fast, half damage from fire, has a special power to telepathically compel people to murder, high-level regular and temporal magic, teleportin'. ESP, and hypno-eyes. She has a magic sword that we are told has 10K M.D.C. and regens 1d4 x 100 M.D.C. a minute which will never matter, does impressive damage to good-aligned foes, and can shoot fire. She also has a magic demon's head that can throw status effects or a fireball, or tell lies to make you do evil stuff, or bite you and hang on. Seriously, there are rules for having a demon head stuck on you. Oh, and she has 10,000 evil demons known as Dakini. This is, of course, a really simplified and literally demonized version of Kali common in western literature. In mythology she is a destroyer, yes, but as an embodiment of that cosmic principle, not because she's a bloodthirsty maniac. Of all the Indian gods, this is the most disappointing writeup, having no nuance or depth, just a monster with far more M.D.C. than nearly any assemblage of PCs can inflict. Kubera God of Greed  Some of these hats must make doorways difficult. He's the god of wealth... well, greed, mostly, as it turns out. Apparently he was once the a king of "all demons", but when Brahma took over, Kubera infiltrated the pantheon by saying that Indra had unfairly cast him in with the demons. So he took over caretaking all of the pantheon's treasures and wealth. Then when the Splugorth invaded, he fled with as much as he could carry on his back and "rejoined the forces of evil". You know, because he's obviously super-trustworthy. 20K/4K mega-damage capacity, bleh regen, teleport, super thief, has all the earth magic, all the ESP, and a "dozen greatest rune weapons", not that they're detailed. Not too far off from the actual mythology, except for the generic evil; he doesn't really need to steal so much, on account of being one of the wealthiest beings ever in the first place. Yama King of the Dead  Gun… ponytail… bone pauldrons… welcome to the 90s! He once was a benevolent death god who guided the dead but then he turned evil. Why? He thought about teaming up with the Four Horsemen, but he didn't. How exciting! Once he thought about doing something, but he didn't. Exciting, exciting stuff. Anyway he likes torture and murder, you know the drill by now. Boring! He's also looking to team up with Mictla (from the original Conversion Book) to take control of Hades from Modeus (also, the Conversion Book), and if they manage that, he'll make war on everything. But that won't happen for at least centuries, so gently caress it. Boring! MDC 30,000 (6,000 on Earth), 10 feet tall, 400 pounds, runs 30 MPH, invisibleteleportraisedeadregenetc, knows all normal and necromantic spells, has all healing and physical psionics plus mind powers and shooting electricity. He has a magic mace, a magic bull, and a magic noose. In mythology, Yama is said to be the first guy who died, and so he became king of the dead. Nice deal, calling first like that. He also judges people's karma and decides if they become kings or snails. He's basically the lord of justice and order and isn't really evil at all, making the writeup above super, super lazy. Vritra The Obstructor  T. Rex pokey-arms complete the horror. A "dragon-god" but, it later calls him a "Demon Lord", because it can't make up its mind here. He caused a drought in a "fit of jealousy" (jealousy of what? of who? doesn't say!), so Indra killed him. But his followers resurrected him, somehow, and he's looking for revenge. He's apparently envious of the gods because they're "better than he". This is because (no reason given). 20k/10k, keen senses, invisibility, weak regen, raise zombies, teleports, all water spells, all basic psionics, and can create a magic drought that kills plants in 300 feet, and he's a pretty good brawler. In mythology, he's just a big snake Indra punked once, though later he became a demon created by Tvashtri to avenge his son's murder at the hands of Indra. Indra punked that version too, though. Next: Asura's Wrath
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Apr 21, 2014 12:17
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Young Freud posted:RIFTS: Chaos Earth brings it down to a minor nuclear war between a thinly-veiled Colombia and Venezuela. Yeah. Of course, bear in mind Chaos Earth was something of a retcon, given originally it was supposed to be an alternate continuity / game, but was popular enough that it was folded into Rifts canon. It makes more sense, though, given that Rifts doesn't have much discussion of radiation or cratered cities or the kind of things you'd expect to find after a massive nuclear exchange. It's certainly no Fallout. quantumavenger posted:Some of the designs for the Indian gods remind me of the concept art Kirby did for Zelazny's Lord of Light. I wonder if whoever did these took inspiration from that. Could be! Knowing Siembieda, I wouldn't be surprised to see that kind of marching orders, given that he's a huge comic collector. What's weird is that you have these odd designs and yet the gods don't really have their power armor or flying chairs statted at all, they just have the same design blocks as any other god. It's probably the biggest art / writing disconnect in the book.
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Apr 21, 2014 16:01
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TombsGrave posted:Rob Liefeld has a toolkit that entirely compensates for his drawing inabilities (e.g. pauldrons to avoid drawing shoulders, one glowing eye so they don't have to match up, etc.) and keeps hitting the same three notes over and over again. Well, there's an upcoming Rifts review I have waiting that has... an art style very reminiscent of Liefeld's "style". It's possibly some of the ugliest art to make it into a Rifts book. You will know it by the gritting of teeth.
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Apr 22, 2014 03:59
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Young Freud posted:Let me guess, Rifts Mercenaries? I remember it having some egregious Liefeld/Image Comics ripoff art. 
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Apr 22, 2014 04:29
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