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Gantolandon posted:I find it funny that just when 'X-Risks' are described, it turned out that Werewolf came up with its own exsurgent virus. The whole reason the Exsurgent Virus and its implementation is so annoying is because that exact kind of thing is all too common in games that try to use save or dies to generate a horror atmosphere. It's everywhere.
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Sep 5, 2019 20:24
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Honestly, werewolf is more remarkable for Legion being the first time this has really come up so far.
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Sep 5, 2019 20:26
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"It's horror because you have an 80% chance to die." is a clumsy mechanical attempt at mood that is easy to do and extremely frustrating in practice. The fact that it's easy to do means it will come up at least once in almost every horror property if it goes on long enough.
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Sep 5, 2019 20:28
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Mors Rattus posted:Yeah, but Quattuor is a really killer GM and doesn't do "plot." He plays to win. Who says he gets to be the GM?
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Sep 5, 2019 20:41
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Just try to play a round of Arkham Horror with Quattuor. Either you lock it in an eternal reset-cycle as you both realize over and over that you've not been playing one rule correctly and have to start over the game 'to keep it fair,' or you buy everyone else at least a day to come up with a solution while you play the only fully-rules-abiding session ever executed.
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Sep 5, 2019 20:44
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Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:Just try to play a round of Arkham Horror with Quattuor. Either you lock it in an eternal reset-cycle as you both realize over and over that you've not been playing one rule correctly and have to start over the game 'to keep it fair,' or you buy everyone else at least a day to come up with a solution while you play the only fully-rules-abiding session ever executed. Break out the Campaign for North Africa if all you want to do is buy time
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Sep 5, 2019 20:53
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I like the potential gotcha of someone thinking that the geryo has to win in order to survive, so they choose something like tic-tac-toe so they can always force a draw. Then the game is over and Quattuor just eats their head. I'd probably have a smug NPC try this just to demonstrate what kind of opportunities the ban actually provides if my players weren't seeing it themselves.
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Sep 5, 2019 20:59
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It's a a question of skill, isn't it? So it can't just be random, it has to satisfy the Geryo's idea of what a skill is. Presumably a number of board games wouldn't count, but hmmm.
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Sep 5, 2019 21:18
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Convince Quattuor that capitalism is a meritocratic system of wealth distribution where wealth comes through skill and that whoever has the most stuff when they die wins, and set it loose on Wall Street. Good guy Quattuor.
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Sep 5, 2019 21:19
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Does it play to win, or will it throw games to get out of the challenge? Because there could be a game with a "must win by X points" rule you could theoretically keep going indefinitely
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Sep 5, 2019 21:19
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Kaza42 posted:Does it play to win, or will it throw games to get out of the challenge? Because there could be a game with a "must win by X points" rule you could theoretically keep going indefinitely Similarly, a game of skill can be really unbalanced - but also only end when one party achieves their goal. Like, for a really dumb example, hide and seek with Quattor where your first move is to get on an airplane and have your packmates track it remotely.
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Sep 5, 2019 21:22
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Joe Slowboat posted:Similarly, a game of skill can be really unbalanced - but also only end when one party achieves their goal. Like, for a really dumb example, hide and seek with Quattor where your first move is to get on an airplane and have your packmates track it remotely. Wait, what if Quattor is the hider? Hide and Seek, entire world is the "in" zone, no base.
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Sep 5, 2019 21:24
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Kaza42 posted:Wait, what if Quattor is the hider? Hide and Seek, entire world is the "in" zone, no base.
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Sep 5, 2019 21:26
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This is why Quattuor is my favorite. Well, that and he's a four-headed bugwolf monster thing that really just wants to talk to you about what you think the nature of death is and if the purpose he was made for exists because the job needs to be done, or if the job needs to be done because he was made for it.
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Sep 5, 2019 21:48
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Mors Rattus posted:This is why Quattuor is my favorite. He also seems like the Geryo that's most useful outside of being an outright opponent. He's a VAST library of unknown secrets, and it sounds like he's only specifically aggressive against someone who's fated to die before passing it on. So you could presumably track him down and bargain with him for knowledge,
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Sep 5, 2019 22:07
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Anyone familiar with Chuck Tingle? 'Cause he got an RPG now. This may or may not be relevant to this thread.
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Sep 5, 2019 22:31
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Night10194 posted:The main thing that helps WHFRP's combat in its current state is that turns are fast and combat is simple. Combat in WHFRP2e is mostly numberslam, but it's reasonably well balanced numberslam that goes fairly fast (though that might just be that I have a ton of experience both running and playing it, so it moves fast for me). The other difficulty it faces is that the system as it is is designed around the idea that you have multiple possible chances to deflect or mitigate incoming damage; part of why WH40KRP got so out of hand is that it kept the PC Wound levels from WHFRP but it didn't do anything to address how loving insane damage vs. DR got. 40kRP would have been fine even with its numbers if PCs could get huge numbers of Wounds, too. I think if I ever get the urge to run some 40k again, I'd use something like the BASH rpg and reskin the Marines and major threats as superheroes and everyone else is a minion.
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Sep 5, 2019 22:35
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Deptfordx posted:I think if I ever get the urge to run some 40k again, I'd use something like the BASH rpg and reskin the Marines and major threats as superheroes and everyone else is a minion. I will never in all my years understand why as 40k got more 'high power' they made it harder and harder to actually buy hit points. I get that they wanted high power and that giant lists of super powerful weapons sell sourcebooks (and 40k is full of stuff people feel 'should' loving murder you). I get they didn't want a significant chance you land a shot and do very little against the enemy. But for God's sake, if you're recognizing you have to give basic enemies 30-40 Wounds to keep them from evaporating instantly (they still evaporate instantly) why make it so drat hard for players to have more than 25? They kept treating a single Wound like it was a significant characteristic advance through all of 40kRP. A Wound is a significant advance in Fantasy 2e as it's currently balanced. A sort of unexciting one, but useful. Going from 12 to 20 when 'maxed out' is significant since you also increase your effective durability such that each Wound goes further. 40k kept saying 'you can spend 200 EXP on a single Wound when you take 30 in one turn if you get hit and you had 15 to start with, or you could spend the 200 EXP on going first, killing the enemy, or dodging the attack entirely', and of course you spend on the latter.
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Sep 5, 2019 22:49
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  ECLIPSE PHASE - X-RISKS - I REGRET DOING THIS BOOK AND NOT NUMENERA BESTIARY 2 this time round we've got some bullshit. I've spent a lot of time trying to find interesting stuff to write about 'its an alien dog', but there just isn't anything, so if it's an alien dog i'm going to say so and leave it at that. Stalker  get out of here stalker Threat level - Ultraviolet According to the text this is basically meant to be a TITAN praying mantis robot, but luckily the artist decided to do something more interesting. Beyond the obvious spiky limbs, they have inbuilt plasma weaponry, an infrasonic emitter that gives you a lovely debuff that makes you nauseous, and deployable chain-tentacles that they whip around like 50s greaser gangs. They also have a bunch of stealth poo poo because they are the secret assassin robots. The little chat bubble says that these things were responsible for killing the british and saudi royal families during the Fall, so who says the TITANs never did anything good? Stinger Hound  Threat level - Orange Evil alien yoshi. Their tongue has a stinger on the end, and they gang together and inject you with space novocaine till you're paralysed. Humans, by pure coincidence, emit the exact same pheromones as the hounds' favourite prey animals, so that is the excuse for them to attack you all the time instead of behaving like real predatory animals. I still don't know why nobody in eclipse phase wears armoured space suits. It's gotta be tiring getting stung by different aliens in your tit-window. Switchwing  Threat level - Yellow Meter-long alien flying scorpion who attacks you all the time for no reason. Its got claws, mandibles, and a stinger. Its got one set of wings for speed and another for maneuverability, hence the name. Think Tank  johnny five is alive! Threat level - Ultraviolet It's a big tank robot that the TITANs made and it's also really smart and has the biggest guns in the world. It has a deflector field which is totally hard sci fi because they said 'electromagnetic' and 'capacitor' in the description. There is nothing else interesting about it, it just exists for the pun. Veiled Leech  did i already say 'get out of here stalker'? Threat level - Yellow This is literally just the bloodsucker monster from STALKER, down to having cthulhu face, feeding on blood, and going invisible. The only difference is this one is smaller, weaker, and has gliding wings. It's also an alien, which makes everything worse. It's got a specific diet of blood, but apparently any type of blood will do, even blood from a completely different planet with a different biochemical makeup. This would make a lot more sense as an exsurgent, but then it would be even more of a ripoff of the bloodsucker, because the bloodsucker is already a mutated human. Void Crawler  Threat level - Yellow Controversially I actually like the void crawlers. They are little geneticaly engineered boys designed to live in microgravity environments. Genetically engineered... BY ALIENS dun dun duuuuun! The weakest part of the entry is it doesn't actually tell you where they live, apart from 'in beehive warrens carved out by unknown aliens'. Carved out of what? I'm guessing big asteroids, but it doesn't say. There's not really anywhere else that is low gravity and carveable apart from asteroids. They can also make their own tunnels in open areas, using their hardened doo-doo. They eat fungus (which is probably also bioengineered) and can survive in low-oxygen environments indefinitely, and even vacuum for a few hours. I don't know where they get the oxygen in space, but just roll with it. Their radially symmetrical bodies let them scamper through tunnels really fast, and they have two powerful tails to hold themselves in place. Bizarrely they are infected with the Watts-MacLeod psychic virus, but they only use it to link minds with their friends, trick intruders into leaving, and learning how to operate complex devices. They live in big packs and are capable of tool use, but it doesn't say how sapient they are. They like to collect odd things, and sometimes use their psi powers to get humans to do strange things, but it doesn't say what kind of strange things. I like these little peaceful space boys. They are speculated to be a pet species that outlived their creator, and has evolved since their creators race died. They're like a combo of a pack animal, a hive insect, and magpies, which is very charming. I hope they do well. Vydra  Threat level - Red Vydra, the hydra from space! The artist gave it a pussy! I don't know why! It's just a big animal from space that attacks you, it doesn't have any type of head growing back gimmick. It's an ocotopus that decided to lie upside down and get ideas above its station. Get outta here, vydra. Warbot  warbot, the bot who wars Threat level - Red I like the art on this one, I think it's fun, but the entry is very boring. It's an evil AT-ST from star wars, made by the TITANs, who has tentacles as well as guns. Statistically it is just the Think Tank from like 3 entries ago, but with the numbers reduced a little bit. The writers even knew it was boring, because this one comes with a huge chat bubble telling a story about how Sicko TITANs used to chain civilians to the warbots as living armour so people wouldn't want to fire at them, and how it was super traumatizing. It also shows how basically useless the threat levels are, because this robot with reactive armour, rocket launchers, laser beams, and full auto railguns is rated as being the same threat level as the 'several lively snakes tied together' Vydra from the entry above. THAT'S IT FOR NOW! NEXT TIME ON X-RISKS - THE FINAL CHAPTER: LOTS OF TENTACLES, A HAPPY BOY, AND A RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS SONG juggalo baby coffin fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Sep 9, 2019 |
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Sep 6, 2019 00:13
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More things should be called Warbots, though. It's simple. It tells you this is a robot. Who is for war.
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Sep 6, 2019 00:18
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Night10194 posted:More things should be called Warbots, though. It's simple. It tells you this is a robot. Who is for war. warbot could have been a category like 'leftover special' and then half the titan things in this book could have been sub-entries under it, because none of them were interesting or different enough to warrant their own entry.
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Sep 6, 2019 00:32
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Night10194 posted:More things should be called Warbots, though. It's simple. It tells you this is a robot. Who is for war.
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Sep 6, 2019 01:17
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Just Dan Again posted:I like the potential gotcha of someone thinking that the geryo has to win in order to survive, so they choose something like tic-tac-toe so they can always force a draw. Then the game is over and Quattuor just eats their head. I'd probably have a smug NPC try this just to demonstrate what kind of opportunities the ban actually provides if my players weren't seeing it themselves.
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Sep 6, 2019 02:18
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Zereth posted:Can you challenge it to another game while a game is currently in progress? "I challenge you to another game of Campaign for North Africa as soon as this one is completed!" One game per person.
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Sep 6, 2019 02:25
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Gun Jam posted:Anyone familiar with Chuck Tingle? Does that mean you're going to cover it or you want someone else to?
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Sep 6, 2019 03:17
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It's apparently mostly a D&D comedy reskin.
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Sep 6, 2019 03:18
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Nessus posted:Between Warbots and the Killer Spambots, I'm thinking Ziv Zulander decided to stop loving around when the TITANs acted up. now THAT is a deep cut
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Sep 6, 2019 03:21
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juggalo baby coffin posted:now THAT is a deep cut a laser (time) deep cut
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Sep 6, 2019 03:55
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The way to deal with Legion is to sick it on some Hosts (they're always doing a conspiracy) while you cash in all the chips that you have with other nWoD monsters. They can then kick it to death while you root from the sidelines.
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Sep 6, 2019 04:58
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Playing Strangers on a Train with WoD splats is normally a really terrible idea, but Geryo don't really form networks that will respond to a cross-splat hit by going to war. So, yeah, that seems like a good call, especially since Legion possession doesn't include any of the cool Woof powers.
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Sep 6, 2019 05:08
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Zereth posted:Can you challenge it to another game while a game is currently in progress? "I challenge you to another game of Campaign for North Africa as soon as this one is completed!" Maybe that's the play- lure it to an arcade game tournament and set up some minor spirits in the area that make sure the line of quarters on its machine never runs out.
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Sep 6, 2019 05:29
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Just Dan Again posted:Maybe that's the play- lure it to an arcade game tournament and set up some minor spirits in the area that make sure the line of quarters on its machine never runs out. Get it on a Legacy game so it wants to open all the envelopes.
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Sep 6, 2019 05:52
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Mors Rattus posted:It's apparently mostly a D&D comedy reskin. It has Vancian "cool moves." You have to decide which cool moves by level to prepare each day. Shame, because a bestiary of reverse twins and vampire night buses definitely has promise.
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Sep 6, 2019 06:05
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pounded in the butt by my outdated dice mechanic
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Sep 6, 2019 06:25
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Precambrian posted:The one idigam who can't disobey an order from anyone wearing a mission patch for the moon landing it hopped a ride on is my favorite ban. It's just so bizarrely specific that there's no way you'd ever know that (I guess there are spirits who would have some kind of ineffable knowledge? Maybe Luna would know?), but the image of a pack of werewolves furiously bidding on a NASA patch and trying to expedite shipping before the crazy gribbly monster devours Western Pennsylvania is just aces. moon's haunted
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Sep 6, 2019 06:48
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the chuck tingle game shoulda been an apocalypse world hack or something
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Sep 6, 2019 07:03
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juggalo baby coffin posted:the chuck tingle game shoulda been an apocalypse world hack or something When you are pounded in the butt, state what's pounding you, and roll+Lube. On a 10+, both you and the pounder have a great time. On a 7-9, you both get off, but pick 1: - You're not sure how you feel about it afterwards - You notice something bizarre about whatever was pounding you - Your partner walks in at precisely the wrong time. On a 6-, you didn't use enough lube. Take 1 b-harm, and choose 1 from the 7-9 results.
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Sep 6, 2019 10:31
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Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon Neither Holy Nor Roman Nor An Empire  He's not even that old. Ianuspater, aka Father Janus, is the head of a Rome-fetishizing cult known as New Beginning. The Romans worshipped the god Janus as a god of death (well, sort of), passages and new beginnings, and many festivals couldn't begin until Janus was invoked by the priests, even offerings to other gods. Wars could not begin without the opening of his gates. The New Beginning says the last gates of Janus' final shrine were torn down while still open, thus allowing the endless wars that destroyed the Roman Empire. They work to collect relics to attempt construction of a new temple to Janus, so they can make offerings to him and ensure peace exists when the gates of their new shrine close. Most who know of them consider them eccentric weirdos but harmless. Their goal of world peace is admirable, their methods stupid, and few give any credence to their beliefs. Those within it believe the cult to be pursuing the most noble possible goal, so much so that it justifies their less-than-legal means of collecting offerings. They steal statues, ornaments and sometimes even live animals or, very rarely, people that they think resonate with their reincarnate god. Each piece must be ritually prepared and sacrificed to build the gates which will close and bring world peace. The cult believes Ianuspater is the reincarnated Janus. They are wrong. Father Janus is no god - he's one of the Distorted, and he just showed up at the nonexistent gates of their just-begun construction site one day, in pain and confused by his disease. The revelation of his powers and two-faced form was taken by the cult as proof of their mission. When his mind's clarity returned, Ianuspater took advantage of the poor dupes, reinforcing their efforts to collect relics of power for the temple. The two-faced werewolf says that Janus is aware of their efforts and sent him to guide them. His existence is no secret among the cult, but they refer to him in highly mythological terms and tell very fanciful stories of his abilities. They describe him as if he had two appearances - one an old man with white hair and beard, the other a young, clean-shaven man with brown hair. No one not already in the cult believes a drat thing they say, and most outsiders believe Father Janus is just a charismatic leader taking advantage of the gullible. They're not entirely wrong. In truth, Father Janus is Jack Thompson, a Hunter in Darkness who got mortally wounded and left for dead by a monster while hunting with his pack in Pure territory. He sensed that something was wrong early, for it was too quiet and stank of blood. The pack followed the scent of blood to the beast devouring the Pure, and while they attacked, the fight was swift and brutal - and a losing one. Even their Gauru rage could not defeat the beast. After the death rage descended, Jack has no memory. He survived somehow, awakening in darkness with his flesh and mind both on fire with pain. The stench of rotting meat filled the air, and Jack dragged himself from a pile of corpses, fleeing before the beast could return. He stumbled, unable to use his limbs properly, and was startled when he heard a voice near him scream in pain and confusion as he slumped against a tree. He soon panicked as he realized it came from the back of his head, immediately attempting to shapeshift. His joints reversed, his muscles restructuring in the opposite direction, and his feet and hands twisted. He found himself facing his own back. The other face was Rohan Masterson, one of the Ivory Claws the beast had been trying to eat, and they soon realized they were sharing a body. The Geryo strain had melted their bodies together as their regeneration tried to heal their dying bodies, rebuilding them as one werewolf with two faces and two minds. It destroyed their minds entirely, thanks to the trauma of hated foes suddenly being one being. They stumbled into New Beginning, their shapeshifting powers nearly gone except for their struggle to control their shared body. Early and brutal efforts had shown they couldn't kill each other without killing themselves, and each time they tore at their own flesh, the strain grew stronger in repairing it. Self preservation pushed them away from their territories and kept them from seeking other survivors, and neither wanted to go to the other's territory, either. Their unwillingness to compromise was killing them and eroding their sense of identity, and it was sheer luck that they stumbled onto the cult's rural compound. This rather contrived coincidenc saved their lives. Father Janus has come along way since his rebirth. Rohan and Jack have made a sort of peace, agreeing to work together in order to find a way to undo what was done to them. If they are ever seperated, they will definitely try to kill each other, though. They wear a purple toga almost all the time, decorated with gold embroidery. They also wear a golden circlet; Jack finds it embarrassing, but Rohan insists that maintaining the impression of divinity and control of the cult requires it. Whichever face is in front indicates which controls the body at the time. Rohan, the older one, does most of the talking to the cult, being a persuasive sort with a talent for oratory. Jack, the younger, is brash, angry and has very little patience for the cult's rituals but plenty of interest in their relics. Ianuspater's problem is a bit more than a head on the back of the head. Whoever is in control has the rest of the body orient to match their face, reversing the entire body from its prior controller. These transformations are brief, disgusting to watch and very painful for the pair. Further, their body is mismatched due to being grown from parts of both of them. Their skin tone does not match and forms mottled patterns, the left arm is slighty longer than the right and the fingers don't really match up right. They also can no longer access their warform or dire wolf form and can't properly enter the death rage. Instead, they are prone to fits of rage, shouting and breaking things while in the near-man form, which only frustrates both of them. Cultists that witness these fits are still prone to Lunacy, which they attribute to divine awe and fear at Father Janus' literal god-nature. The New Beginning cultists are weirdos, but they're truthful weirdos whenever possible. They seek converts and they seek them by telling what truth they can, in the belief that a convert gained from lies will never hold true faith in their heart. They've always been open about their worship of Janus and, after Ianuspater showed up, they've been open about him being the god's prophet-avatar. They've even begun attracting lares, the so-called household gods of Rome. In truth, these are minor spirits that the werewolves have bribed or convinced to serve in exchange for Essence and favors. They're not powerful, but they bolster the cult's faith for now. It won't last - Jack and Rohan need something bigger to get the cult to do what they need done. Jack's unhappy about it, but Rohan has convinced him that they should bind a Pure spirit-ally named Bhal as their shared totem. Bhal would normally never lower itself to serve a pack of only two, but it finds the dual nature of Ianuspater fascinating. The cult's raiding of treasures serves largely as tribute to it - they collect and destroy objects of value for Bhal, believing that in doing so they release the power of the items into Janus' gates. Bhal has no special knowledge of how to cure the pair, but it hasn't told them that. It plans to use them until it's gotten all it wants out of the deal or gets bored. It will, if the other Pure spirits demand it, try to kill both werewolves and the entire cult when it leaves. Ianuspater has restructured the cult as their pack, and that means knowing who belongs, who doesn't, and who's on the territory. They're also preparing the formerly pacifist cult for conflict, since the pair know that sooner or later, someone's going to discover they're stealing antiques and relics. So the cult is arming up and getting really shirty with trespassers, which is making the cultists themselves nervous and wary. The werewolves have convinced most of them that, in this case, the ends justify the means, but not all. A few of the most vocal critics remain holdouts, and the werewolves have no idea what to do with them yet. They're still part of the pack, after all...and less kindly, they can't be allowed to leave with what they know about the cult's activities, but if they disappear, Father Janus is going to have to answer a lot of really uncomfortable questions from the other cultists. Jack and Rohan share physical attributes, but have different social and mental ones, different skills, different merits and different Renown and Gift access. Rohan is the smarter and more charismatic of the pair by far, but Jack is more cunning and strong-willed. Physically, they're fairly normal for werewolves but for their missing forms hampering them in combat. Jack knows more about spirits and the occult and is the better fighter by a significant margin, while Rohan is more educated and better at talking to people. They're pretty on-par for a pair of mid-power werewolves, and between them they have a fairly wide array of Gifts that give them a wide array of tools both socially and in combat...but, well, they're still a single healthbar, meaning in a fight with the PCs, they'll go down pretty fast even when Jack's driving. The cult means they won't be alone, though. Next time: The Prima Donna
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Sep 6, 2019 13:00
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Seatox posted:KNEEL BEFORE I remember using the Epic Spell rules to simulate Piccolo blowing up the moon. Seatox posted:DRUID: AS POLYMORPH SELF We did play at Epic level for a while and our Druid got a lot of mileage out of Wildshaping in the Slaads from the ELH. Very unpleasant.
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Sep 6, 2019 13:01
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EPIC SPELLS. Non-fullcasters need not apply. All of Chapter 2 is devoted to this subsystem, because of course it is.
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quote:telling a story about how Sicko TITANs used to chain civilians to the warbots as living armour so people wouldn't want to fire at them, and how it was super traumatizing Between this and the fact they tried obsolete manned ones against the TITANs, I think the devs played Star and Earthsiege as well, PurpleXVI... pity they didn't learn much.
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Sep 6, 2019 13:34
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