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KaoliniteMilkshake posted:They actually made this book. I'm considering doing it, I'm just rereading it to prep for the writeup. ![]()
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# ¿ Feb 7, 2025 06:11 |
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citybeatnik posted:That's the infernal/nephrandi one, right? The one with the rote that has you slowly flay someone and use the skin as scrolls? Calde posted:I have a strange relationship with old Mage nowadays. As a kid that stuff all made sense to me, the whole "Tradtions are good, Technocracy are evil" angle... but looking back I just cannot find the Traditions sympathetic. The Virtual Adepts still own, though. Then again, in oWoD they'd be responsible for bitcoins. Damnit. ![]()
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Autumn People is one of those books that I got, all excited about "oh boy a new character type!" Then I started getting the "I paid money for this?" feeling the more of it I read, followed by shamefully putting it on the shelf forever when I was done. Of course, my favorite part of oWoD Changeling is the Redcaps (the "literally hunger+violence made flesh" splat), so I'm not really the target audience for most of what they did. Redcaps had a good kithbook, though!
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I kind of liked Land of Eight Million Dreams, but it had the problems of being terribly edited (count how many times the book presents two conflicting systems for the same thing, I dare you), missing vital information (some of which later showed up in a KotE book I think), and having gently caress-all to do with Changeling (which I think we can agree isn't exactly a bad thing). Of course, if you want a real "interesting idea, unplayable execution" you should check out Denizens of the Dreaming. Hoo boy.
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I've been getting the urge to do another review, and after looking through my collection I think I've found something sufficiently obscure/weird to write up. Ladies and gentlemen, might I interest you in Fairy Meat?![]() The origin of the game (as best as I can remember, this was nearly 15 years ago*) comes from a Knights of the Dinner Table comic - yes, the guys that would go on to make Hackmaster. One of the storylines in the strip involved a GM deciding to mess with one of the players in his group who, like everyone in the strip, was "that guy" - in this case, "that guy" being the one who only ever runs female pixie-fairy PCs in a hack-&-slash game who contribute nothing to the party. The GM decides to run an adventure around "Fairy Meet", when all the fairies in the campaign world meet up to blah blah the whole thing was actually just a set-up by wild elves to concentrate all of the campaign world's fairie-kind into one place and then feast upon their magically-delicious flesh. For whatever reason, the idea stuck, and they ended up making an actual game out of "Fairy Meat", the 1:1 scale minis game of cannibal fairies. Each of the 5 books covers one of the different groups/factions, with the core rules covering the savage and meat-crazy Wild Fairies. The writing across the line was always firmly conversational, with numerous asides about not being creepy or sperging out because hey you're playing a minis game about cannibal fairies. It's a weird little game, and trying to get people to play it was always nearly impossible. Next post: setting fluff and backstory! *holy poo poo, I'm old AmiYumi fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Jan 26, 2014 |
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![]() Fairy Meat: Let Me Tell You About Fairies, No Wait Where Are You Going The book starts off with an anatomy/society chapter, telling us what fairies were, are, and have become. They are "approximately 23mm high" ( ![]() Fairy Meat posted:To describe the loathsome details of what lurks within that warm, wet, wretched place would require dissection on the part of the author, as there are no medical resources pertaining to such things. The author thinks dissection is icky and smelly. The author was intentionally absent from biology classes on several occasions as a youth. You're a sick, naughty little badger for even wanting to know what a fairy's slimy bloody gully-wuts are like. Boys are so gross. Ick. After anatomy, the book goes into how fairies started in on the whole "anarchy and cannibalism" thing. Basically, a fairy named Merryzot was hungry one day, stumbled upon a dying mouse, and learned that meat is delicious. The practice spread, expanded, and then - thanks to fairy ADD and lack of ethics - turned into cannibalism once it was discovered how magically-delicious fairie flesh was. Unfortunately, it turns out fairy meat is both magically empowered and fatally addictive, and new fairies are born in a state of withdrawl (and an instinctual knowledge that cannibalism is the way to make the pain go away). All in all, cannibalism has led to the total collapse of anything you could call "fairy society" in favor of Circles and warbands that come together for strength of numbers, hunt, share food, and then collapse into anarchy again when some of them get bored and try to eat each other. Introduction After society and anatomy, we get the introduction page, which is your typical "what is a game?" section gone a little loopy. See, Fairy Meat is a very accurate representation of fairy warfare: it takes place on a 1:1 scale, and since hunting for meat leads fairies out of the forest and into our world you're encouraged to just sort of play wherever, incorporating anything laying around as terrain. The book actually has a list of suggestions: Some Rather Nice Places to Play Fairy Meat posted:A local forest preserve Some Very Bad Places to Play Fairy Meat posted:Darkened movie theaters There's a "what you'll need" section, which calls out that the game uses a deck of cards (rather than dice), minis*, and a ruler or measuring tape, marked in inches - "the Metric system is forbidden, as it makes too much sense". Next post: I guess I start on the rules? Miniatures were eventually made for Fairy Meat, but at the time of first printing the designers clearly weren't expecting much; the middle section of the book (the one with all the cards and counters and such) has a page of paper paper minis along with a page of paper fairy wings to tape to those Warhammer minis you have laying around, to make them feel pretty.
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JohnnyCanuck posted:Are there any rules for using gummis as minis? That would seem to be thematically appropriate. There are rules later on for edible terrain (like getting zonked on mushrooms), as well as for animals both rabid and magically-enthralled. There's an aside about raiding the dollar store for animal lawn ornaments, then painting over their eyes with swirlies and adding flecks of blood to their teeth. But yeah, if I can convince anyone else to play this soon I'm definitely going with a "gumdrop forest/kitchen in the middle of Easter decoration" theme.
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Went back and edited the cover to Fairy Meat into my first post on the game, because why didn't I do that in the first place. I'll make a rules post later today, but instead of using the examples in the book, how about a little audience participation? Give me a couple of names and general ideas (along the lines of "Sparklepuff is the leader and likes to wrestle", "Jiggletwink is pretty and likes magic", or "Razzlewing is creepy and talks to spiders" - feel free to use the Fairy Name Generator for ideas) and I'll use those instead!
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![]() Fairy Meat: General Task Resolution! Okey-doke, let's just get right into this. As I said before, Fairy Meat uses a regular deck of playing cards as a randomizer/task-resoluter/fate-determiner instead of boring ol' dice like most games. Jokers stay in (and generally live up to their name), and suits usually don't matter except for magic and the dreaded Ace of Spades. The deck gets reshuffled every round. Most actions are resolved by having each side draw a hand from the deck, with size determined by their stats, weapons, circumstance modifiers, spells, etc.; these modifiers can definitely reduce hand size to zero. Each player chooses a card (which is easy to do if you only draw one!), and highest value card wins. For the purposes of the Fairy Deck, "number" cards count as the number on the card (2-10), while "trump cards" (Jack/Queen/King/Ace) work as support: every trump card placed behind/under a number card counts as +1. Thus, placing down a Royal Flush would count as a 14 (10+1+1+1+1) and would have been much better to draw in a card game that wasn't about cannibal fairies. Wild Trumps are what happens when a fairy uses a trump card as their "main card", either by choice or because their hand didn't have a number card. In that case, start drawing from the Fairy Deck and putting cards down on top of the wild trump until a number card is drawn (or a Joker*), at which point the number card counts as the "main card" with the wild trump and any others drawn each adding +1 as usual. Special Cards: The two cards that have special effects - most of the time - are Jokers and the Ace of Spades. What that effect is varies based on what the cards are being drawn for, but generally speaking Jokers are a "critical miss" of sorts that negates an action and/or makes things awkward, while the Ace of Spades is evil and nasty and results in bad things happening. *I think; the rules aren't very clear on this point, but I believe drawing a Joker as part of a wild trump stops the draw and has the Joker take effect. Rounds/Turns/Timing Each round starts with the Fairy Deck being reshuffled and an "Order Card" getting dealt to each Fairy. Each fairy then takes a turn (one each of Move/Attack/Twinkle in whatever order the players feels like) according to their Order Card, at which point the current round ends and the next round begins. Order Cards don't do the number/trump divide; turn order is determined by a count down (Kings->Aces), followed by a count up (Aces->Kings). Players can choose to have their fairy take its turn on the count down, or wait until the count up. Ties are either resolved with a tiebreaker draw (higher card wins), or by suit (if you've house-ruled a suit order). A fairy with multiple Order Cards (which can happen from certain spells or by Thinking) still only gets one turn, but gets to choose which of their Order Cards they want to act on. Special Order Cards: Having a Joker for an Order Card counts as an interrupt; that fairy can act whenever the player reveals the Joker and shouts an obscenity. The Ace of Spades was addressed in the FAQ/Errata on the website (and in the back of WAR); that fairy's eyes change color, and then she acts when the count-down gets to "Ace". Thinking: A fairy can spend Twinkle points (described later) to engage in the most unfairylike behavior of "thinking", with each Twinkle point gaining them an extra Order Card. Fairy Cards Each Fairy gets its own Fairy Card, which has a space for their name and armaments and is divided into "Life" and "Meat" sections. Fairies start with a number of Live, Kill, and Twinkle counters in the "Life" section based on their fairy type (and point cost); as they take damage, Live & Kill Points start to end up in the "Meat" section. A fairy with all its Live & Kill counters in "Meat" is exactly that, and can be nibbled on by any other fairies on the battlefield (including former teammates; meat's meat). Kill Points are the little skull counters, and count for offensive actions. A fairy without Kill Points can only attack if they go into a Kill Frenzy**. Live Points are the little heart counters, and count for defense. Simple as that. Armor Points aren't described in the Fairy Meat core book, but show up in every other book for the line. They're the little shield counters, and they function as a sort of "virtual Live Point". Each point of Armor gives an extra card for Live draws, and Armor Points are only damaged by magical attacks or Jokers (which chew through Armor Points first). Armor Points don't count for keeping you alive, of course: a fairy without Live or Kill points is still dead no matter how much Armor they have. Twinkle Points aren't used the same way as Kill/Live/Armor, instead being used as a pool of "spell points" to spend. They're the little star tokens that aren't in the counter image above, but are in this example card. **I'll get into it later, but a Kill Frenzy is basically a death-spiral that converts all a fairy's Live points into Kill points permanently, including points healed or cannibalized in the future To summarize with an example, let's say our orange-headed friend Danderind is a Wild Fairy ("She's eaten before and she's jonesin' for more"). She has 3 Kill points, 3 Live points, and 1 Twinkle. Before any other modifiers come into play, Danderind draws a three-card hand to attack, a three-card hand to defend, and has one Twinkle Point to spend on magic or Thinking. If/when she starts to take damage (or eats other fairies!), her hand size will change according to her Kill/Live totals. Going to post this now and follow up with some of the more advanced rules in a few minutes; my wifi is seriously acting up and I'm going to swap to a cabled connection.
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Continuing from where I left off!![]() Actions/Movement On its turn, each fairy gets one each of Move, Attack, and Twinkle. These can be done in any order the player wants, but can't be combined (no attacks during a move, etc.). Movement is one of four options: Pose ("The fairy sits still and looks pretty"; only able to pivot in place, but +1 card to attack draws), Pounce (can clear any terrain up to 12" high but only moves 3"; can be used to initiate Wrestling* and puts the defender at a pretty large disadvantage if successful), Frolic (can clear 6" and move 6"), or Flutter (clear 3", move 12"; -1 card to attack draws; can be turned into a Rush and/or used as a way to start Wrestling). Note that all measuring in Fairy Meat is only done after declaring/deciding actions; pre-measurements would be granting fairies far too much credit. Meat As described before, damaged Kill & Live points end up in the "Meat" section of the Fairy Card until the fairy runs out of points in the "Life" section and dies, becoming a magically-delicious snack for other fairies to munch on. ![]() I almost posted the picture from the meat section in the book, but decided I should probably link it instead and used a pic from later in the book. Dead fairies remain on the field, preferably tipped over onto their side, so that other fairies (including former teammates) can munch on them. Any fairy in direct contact with the corpse (base-to-base, if you will) can use a Move or Attack action (or both!), as well as give up their opportunity to cast a Twinkle spell, to take a bite. Each bite transfers one of the deceased fairy's Kill or Live points - eater's choice - from the corpse's "Meat" section to the fairy gourmand's "Life" section. All fairies have a maximum of 12 points (Kill+Live) in the "Life" section, but can have a theoretically infinite number of points in their "Meat" section as long as they keep taking damage and eating. Fairies at 12 points in "Life" can still eat, it just doesn't have any beneficial effect (other than denying other fairies meat). Audience Participation: The Gooniest Fairyband: I don't want to get into the complicated combat bits without some examples to use, so let's get on that! The book suggests a 100-point warband, so let's see where we end up... Tasoth posted:Danderind: Has a head like an orange. Robindaybird posted:Dazzledew is inattentive and likes finding novel uses for plants GimpInBlack posted:Perkykiss is tired. So goddamn tired. She just wants this damned war to end, to let the agonized screams be swallowed up by cool, balming night, to-- Tasoth posted:Robin Rook: Will cut, will cut you so bad. Baofu posted:Cherrybells is a fussbudget who is always fashionable. This took a bit longer than I thought, so I'll have to cut it here and save what to do with this mess of a warband until next update. *I was sure until JUST NOW that the game called it "Wrasslin'", to the point I had to triple-check myself.
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GimpInBlack posted:By the way, looking at the TechNoir book, it looks like the first post of my review will cover character creation. So if anybody has a concept for a hard-boiled cyberpunk private eye or an avenging street samurai wandering the Sprawl with her deadly Hanzo steel, go ahead and post it now and I'll do up some example characters. Pics would be even better--TechNoir is even lighter on artwork than Aletheia was.
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Kate used to be a good woman, but a half-dozen dead partners later she's just another badge with a gun. She's starting to realize just how far she's fallen, and worried how little she cares.
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Wow, TechNoir actually looks really cool. And the rules seem simple enough to make it an easy sell. Shame the creator went MIA.
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Lynx Winters posted:
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It is baffling how much more accurate to the mythology Shin Megami Tensei interpretations of these deities are than the Rifts versions.
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Ettin posted:First: I'm gonna try and do more of this poo poo, but I don't know what. There are two books left, take your votes: ![]() Ettin posted:Burning Horizon: The 2013 release, a metaplot sourcebook for 2087. As in, sequel to Damnation View. There's no rape furries in this one, but if hearing about ridiculous metaplot that makes no loving sense if you think about it for two seconds and way better new Tagers is your thing, this book is absolutely for you. Ettin posted:Second: People keep asking me about my previous posts, but the original thread fell into the archives before it got goldmined, so a lot of them can't be read right now. I was thinking of just copying and dumping all my posts into a single CthulhuTech thread for the ages, but there are problems with that, so I'm not sure. Who's got ideas?
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unseenlibrarian posted:The sad thing is, the Tager-upgrade thing could have been a neat idea- it's essentially an Achievement based advancement system. Except it's the bad sort of achievement, where you have to do thousands of lovely repetitive tasks and -then- pay in-game resources to get your prize which may or may not actually be worthwhile. doesn't help that I came back to C-tech right after reading some L5R books, which had things like Rosoku's Challenges (the epitome of "STARS ABOOOOOVE" GM-ing).
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Mors Rattus posted:excellent execution of a very bad idea.
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I made a Master of Shadow once, as a way to sneak playing as a Pokémon Trainer past my GM. The class abilities tied up my actions buffing my shadow, so I spent battles on the sidelines yelling "HAUNTER, USE ICE PUNCH!" ![]()
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Nthing the request for the Skins review.
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ZeeToo posted:"[F]antasy races (such as ogres and orcs) don't have a role in a Testament game unless the GM is choosing to transpose races of[sic] various nationalities".
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Oh lord, I never finished this, did I?![]() Let's try and breeze through the rest of the first book; once you get past the central "cannibal fairy action" conceit, it's still a wargame corebook (a.k.a. kind of boring). Nasty Hits: If the attacking fairy's card (trumps included) is 4+ greater than the defender's, it counts as a Nasty Hit and deals two points of damage. If it's 8+ higher, it deals three points of damage (which is a hell of a lot in this system, remember). IIRC, Nasty Hits feature prominently in the campaign rules in a later supplement. Special Cards: Jokers and The Infamous Ace of Spades follow their own special rules. Jokers in ranged combat either hit miss the target or hit anything else in the attacker's line of sight (defending player's choice), while Jokers in hand-to-hand either deal one damage to the attacker or heal one point of damage from the defender's Meat (choice up to whoever played the Joker). The Infamous Ace of Spades automatically counts as a three-damage Nasty Hit when used in combat, no matter who plays it, and also inflicts a debilitating wound that lasts until healed. I believe there are rules for other debilitating wounds somewhere else in the line, but the corebook version is a simple "all movement cut in half, including flight." Weapons: Weapons add cards to the attacker's hand, subtract cards from the defender's hand, and/or let the attacker split their hand and make multiple attacks. Some of them also have special qualities, like Riot (can be used while ![]() A fairy that gets in a successful rush (flutter or pounce, as appropriate) can start Each fairy gets a +1 card bonus to attack on their turn, and can choose to deal damage as usual or escape (and move, including making a pounce right back onto the other fairy to start Outside Interference: Other fairies can attack Alternately, other fairies can join into a tussle already in progress by moving up to it and declaring "I WANNA WRASSLE*!" The next bit I just need to quote Fairy Meat posted:If either player uses a Joker in wrestling, the fairies make eye contact and experience one of those awkward moments (you know how that is). No damage is dealt by either fairy, as they pause for a moment to evaluate the nature of their relationship. ![]() Next Time: Frenzy ![]() ![]() ![]() *THERE IT IS, no wonder I thought it was called "Wrasslin'"
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Alien Rope Burn posted:You see it in one of the last Bayushi Kachiko cards, the one that has "Uikku suku diku" written in kanji on the doorframe. Alien Rope Burn posted:Then there's removing knowledge of hit points, which he credits to Jonathan Tweet or Danny Beech, where the GM rolls all the hit dice, keeps players' HP totals secret, and keeps all damage secret. You get a description of the damage and that's all. Alien Rope Burn posted:The next suggestion follows the last, which is to give people bonuses for being descriptive in fights, but also have particular damage thresholds of PCs' hit points to describe particular wounds. Golden Bee posted:If Wicked wanted to "blindfold me for authenticity", I'd do it, then swing a PHB as hard as possible at his head. As I stomped and stomped, aiming for his disgusting facial hair, I'd ask if that was a critical hit, how many hit points he had left!? ![]() ![]()
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jadarx posted:uikku wa asu o kamu
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FMguru posted:And on and on. So the only way to succeed in his games is to take his crap and take it and take it and take it until he gets tired (or he senses a full table revolt is in the offing) and lets you win and hooray look at all the adversity you passed through, that's what makes a real hero who has EARNED it! That's it. That's all it took to make me realize that GM sadism-tripping was getting in the way of everyone else having fun. Man, Reverse Dungeon was a trip. It's somewhere down the list of "if I ever break my legs or something and have a bunch of downtime" books I want to review. It even classified the PC monsters by how useful their abilities were to PCs, rather than by raw stats - 3e/3.5 barely remembered to do that!
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Evil Mastermind posted:I think this may be the first time something like this has been asked in F&F history, but... ![]() El Spamo posted:Anyway, on bait & switch games, I've had good successful games doing that kind of thing. The reason they were successful was because I told the players that it's going to be a bait & switch game. They knew what was going on, they didn't know what the turn was going to be, but I wasn't pulling the carpet out from under them with no warning. I see it more like going to a magic show. You know you're going to be tricked, and part of the fun is finding out how.
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That, uh, sure was a lot of emphasis on how UNDERAGE and PERKY that girl was, and how much pleasure he got out of taking control of her character and then making her curl up into her hoodie no seriously someone call the loving police
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Siivola posted:"Out of high school" sort of implies that she's 18 or above. Man writes like a loving bully, going by ARB's choice quotes, but let's not crucify him for pedophilia while we're at it, good grief. ![]() I mean, honestly, can you blame me for taking that one extra mental step?
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oriongates posted:It is great...although I have absolutely no idea why it would be involved in an aquatic-themed book.
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Gazetteer posted:sexy teenage phantom of the opera ![]() (Really digging these Skins writeups, btw. Haven't run/played Monsterhearts, but I'm getting a solid grasp on how not to.)
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Haven't listened to the podcast yet, but did you guys address the Nun-Approved File?Hyper Crab Tank posted:The Crocodile is almost certainly a reference to Pochi from He Is My Master, a gag/fanservice comic/cartoon about maids. In fact, that comic is probably one of the big inspirations for this thing. LuiCypher posted:Long live Dolph Gundam, infamous protagonist from WTF, D&D?!'s Maid playthrough!
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I'm sorry, but there's something genius about the Doctor Who bullshit playbook using Aren't I clever as the name of a move that fucks up the game for everyone else. I'd call it a piss-take on their customer base, if I thought it was intentional.
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Sorry, but this picture has made the entire setting to me. Hell, you could've just shown me that and named the book, and I'd be sold.
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theironjef posted:
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The first edition of the Warcraft RPG is an indefensible goddamn mess, but I actually like a lot of what they did for the WoW RPG. ![]() Night10194 posted:Is this actual Metzen art? Is he really as bad at drawing as he is at writing?
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Eh, the 1e WarCraft stuff is not good, but IMO it's a little unfair to talk about without covering the 2nd edition as well. I vote Changing Breeds. (If you're sticking with Warcraft, go chronological. Pretty sure M&M references AHC stuff, and also AHC is a hot mess. My favorite being the troll race, with jungle trolls in fluff/the PC games being frail skirmish/ranged attackers who happen to heal up quickly, and in AHC being 9' tall regenerating musclebeasts who put Tauren to shame.)
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Kurieg posted:This book was created before WoW was even in closed beta. What information they had was information given to them by Blizzard Thinking about all of this now has reminded me that Alliance/Horde Compendium is basically Warcraft 3: The Tabletop: The Expansion Set: The Book. Kurieg posted:The WoW RPG is a closer translation of WoW To the tabletop and I'll get there eventually.
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theironjef posted:
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Doresh posted:
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# ¿ Feb 7, 2025 06:11 |
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theironjef posted:Last one I promise: ![]() Speaking of terrible affronts to Man and God, I looked into getting you guys a copy of the Dragon Ball Z: The Anime Adventure Game, but it's just monetarily infeasible unless I sent you guys my personal copy, which I don't want to do.
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