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Count Chocula posted:Rahl Dahl's kinda the opposite, where 90% of his stuff people just kinda pretend isn't full of stuff that would give Clive Barker nightmares even when people are getting morphed into grotesque forms and eaten. yea normally it's extremely lazy and never as good as the writer thinks it is, but for Dahl...yea that guy was a hosed up weirdo who wrote a morality story that involves children being tortured, you can work with that. You can't make poo poo like My Little Pony into some dark and twisted story but you can really easily make 'I'm a weird recluse with a factory of strange slaves that will taunt and mock you for your failings as your body is deformed and hosed up forever' into something in horror.
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Feb 4, 2017 04:53
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I think with Dahl it's even more trite since it's such low-hanging fruit.
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Feb 4, 2017 04:56
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low hangin fruit makes a smoothie just as well as lofty fruit
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Feb 4, 2017 04:59
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Carados posted:I live in San Deigo, I better get to pet that thing once. The pig is at some outlandish stupid number, I forget if it's 2 or 3 thousand. We'll never get there in a million years and if we do everyone is invited to visit and pet the pig, who we will name Raven "Cool Swine" McCracken.
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Feb 4, 2017 05:16
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On a completely different note, does anybody have the bit about a cyberpunk adware infecting a person's thoughts with penis enlargement and great deals? It was from a very early f&f or grogs.txt and I always think about it when people start talking about AR and cybernetics.
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Feb 4, 2017 05:18
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I mostly cringe when I see it because no pig remains small.
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Feb 4, 2017 05:25
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I mostly cringe when I see it because no pig remains small. Yeah I really don't think we'll ever get there. If we get closer we'll have to really research ethical pig ownership, maybe look into like "owning" a pig that's kept by some 4H club or something.
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Feb 4, 2017 05:37
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I mostly cringe when I see it because no pig remains small. By that time mankind will have mastered genetic engineering and humane micropigs will be all the rage. This is right before some kid in Milwaukee unleashes a super virus on the world that he accidentally created in his organic life replicator. theironjef posted:Yeah I really don't think we'll ever get there. If we get closer we'll have to really research ethical pig ownership, maybe look into like "owning" a pig that's kept by some 4H club or something. You could sponsor a pig at a no kill shelter farm too.
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Feb 4, 2017 05:43
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Pot bellies get up to medum-large dog size, but they're so loving fat they look bigger, outdoor pet for most people. You could also look into teacup pigs, which nine times out of ten is actually just a baby regular-rear end pig (don't actually do this)
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Feb 4, 2017 05:49
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Yeah, mostly all a "mini" pig means is "about the weight of an adult human". Won't fit in your shopping bag for very long. But yeah, there are a number of rescue organizations for pigs because of all the misconceptions around pet pigs, you could look into seeing if you could sponsor or the like if it ever comes to that.
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Feb 4, 2017 05:59
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RentACop posted:Pot bellies get up to medum-large dog size, but they're so loving fat they look bigger, outdoor pet for most people. You could also look into teacup pigs, which nine times out of ten is actually just a baby regular-rear end pig (don't actually do this) I think you mean ten times out of ten.
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Feb 4, 2017 06:29
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Christ, that chocolate adventure. I thought Dungeonland and its sequel were terrible, punishing piles of crap, but that takes the wafer.
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Feb 4, 2017 06:43
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senrath posted:I think you mean ten times out of ten. There is an actual breed of pig that only gets 50-150 lbs (instead of 300-500 lbs), but yeah, you'll never get a pig that's going to stay small pet size.
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Feb 4, 2017 07:10
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Reinventing children's books as modern horror is usually really, really trite as far as premises go, I feel. Even having done it myself, it's just not clever or edgy as one might think it is. In fact, it becomes parody at that point instead of some sort of serious deconstruction of the work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We5a2mA7IAU
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Feb 4, 2017 07:20
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JackMann posted:There is an actual breed of pig that only gets 50-150 lbs (instead of 300-500 lbs), but yeah, you'll never get a pig that's going to stay small pet size. Well, yes, but those are called kunekune. Anyone who is selling a "micro" or "teacup" or "mini" pig is preying on ignorance.
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Feb 4, 2017 08:25
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senrath posted:Well, yes, but those are called kunekune. Anyone who is selling a "micro" or "teacup" or "mini" pig is preying on ignorance. Well, no. There are a few other breeds as well. The Gottingen, for example, averages around 80 lbs and is occasionally seen in the pet trade (though it's mostly sold to laboratories). There's also a variant of the Chinese pig in the US (EDIT: also mostly sold to laboratories) that averages around a hundred, and they're variously called mini or micro pigs. It's just that they're a lot less common in the pet trade than someone who wants to sell a regular piglet and claim it's a micro or mini pig (and then pretend they don't get over thirty pounds, which just ain't gonna happen with pigs).
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Feb 4, 2017 09:28
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Wait, did y'all just point out the connections between the three deadland settings without pointing out that there is also a portal through the hunting grounds to WEREWOLF THE APOCALYPSE and that the adventure trilogy detailing that has a conversion sheet for bringing your Garou to the weird west, or your harrowed to the, uh, significantly less weird west?
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Feb 4, 2017 12:10
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There's also a connection through the Hunting Grounds to the (presumably 1930s) Call of the Cthulhu setting in the adventure Adios A-Mi-Go! by F&F favorite John Wick.Adios A-Mi-Go! posted:The shrine is located at the northern end of the chamber. Anyone who comes within five feet of the shrine feels his whole body, down to his bones, begin to vibrate. If he does not immediately retreat, he explodes. Period. No damage roll. No dodge roll. Just blown up character. Yep, that's a John Wick adventure, all right.
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Feb 4, 2017 12:54
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Rifts World Book 8: Japan Part 6: Magic Katana Section Go  Greater and Greatest Daisho Rune Swords: Here we go, magic katanas. Perfect for hanging on the wall where guests can see them, just like the katanas of yore. Of course, how the Japanese swordsmiths learned rune magic is an exercise left to the reader. Seriously, it’s not explained. For as much as the line has made a huge deal out of anybody having rune magic, this is kind of a serious omission. I think Carella is just using 'rune swords' here as Rifts-speak for 'very powerful magical item' but that's lazy, and in a system that was happy to make up a whole new system of magic about building pyramids I feel like they could cobble together a new poorly-translated term.  meeeesteeelious There’s a few different kinds of these. We start with the Daisho of the Relentless Warrior. These swords have white scabbards and handles with a dragon pattern inlaid in gold and jade for the dragon’s eyes. It was forged in the 16th century by a legendary swordsmith. I need a ‘teeth grind’ emoji but  will have to do. Supposedly it only appears to be wielded by the greatest champions of Japan and was last seen about ten years ago. What does it do?
That is a pretty strong set of weapons, leaving aside the noble-Japanese-savage origins of the thing. Having it appear to a worthy champion is an obvious hook. The damage is comparable to a regular railgun and since they're indestructible they can parry MDC attacks. The strength and healing aspects are really minor, honestly, though a physically-trained human will have a reasonable amount of SDC, and having that as MDC even briefly could be a lifesaver. Two minutes is eight agonizing rounds of Palladium combat after all. Daisho of the Storm: Ten sets of these were made. They were dedicated to the terrifying weather events that have plagued Japan throughout its history. They didn’t become magic until the rifts arrived in this case, making them at least make sense in what few ways Rifts cosmology ever does. The whereabouts of three of the sets are known, two belonging to direct descendants of the swords’ original owners in the New Empire. Okay, that is immensely unlikely. The third belongs to a shifty ronin. The rest are currently lost. What do they do?
So that’s fairly nice too. The wind and rain powers are pretty immense actually, coupled with the swords’ decent damage to supernatural enemies. Ghostly Katana of Soul Slaying: Specifically katana, no wakizashi were made. They were created by a “Hideo the Mad,” a legendary sorcerer, swordsman and sword-maker. Not historical as far as I can tell. Supposedly he rolled with demons in his youth, but straightened up to become a good guy later in life. The katanas themselves are made with “Soulstuff,” a new and especially ~mystical~ alloy distilled from the life force of living beings. Hideo made all four swords basically simultaneously and then at the end seemed pulled in four directions into the blades themselves. Okay, that’s cool. This is when the book specifically mentions this is magical technology from Wormwood.  All of this occurred pre-Rifts of course. Anyway the swords look normal until they’re used in a fight, then they go all transparent and spooky. They pierce armor, strike supernatural and devastate the undead, so much so that vampires have supposedly hidden two of them. Somewhere in Mexico I guess? It’s also possible that antique dealers bought one or two of the swords and took them specifically to Chicago. How that came to be recorded is unclear. They can also hit insubstantial beings including alien intelligences in energy form. [list] [*]1D4x10 to supernatural, 2D4x10 to vampires, 6D6 SDC to beings that contain so little blood. [*]Ghost blade: This blade ignores all armor, including power armor, force fields, and other barriers to inflict damage directly to the body of the wearer. It says it does not pierce robots or vehicles, so I am not sure if it just plinks off those or what. [*]Sense Evil: Presence sense, sense magic and sense evil within 30 ft per level. Piercing armor is pretty amazing, though 6D6 SDC damage is less than one thinks against an optimized character. And Wormwood? Mostly with all of these supermagic swords they have tried to tie them into Japan’s super magical history because, you know, Europe never had any magic swords. Rifts has always struggled with grabbing onto entirely arbitrary bits of the past and holding onto them but it gets a bit extreme here. The swords themselves are neat in terms of their effects, though of course they are super-double mega Yu-Gi-Oh rare so melee characters should not hope to get one and do damage comparable to a small railgun. We finish with swords and go on to more “Magical Items" that somehow couldn't have been in the other section of magical items before the sword section. First is the Bottomless Purse (kanebukoro): These are magic purses meant to supply worthy travelers with basic necessities, but the greedy who might exploit such a thing are always foiled by their magics. Three varieties exist, producing one or a few items: Money, which gives old-school silver coins worth 2d6 credits each, ten times a day. Rice cakes and similar bland but nourishing foods four times a day, for one person. The last is the purse of wishes, which can grant any small ordinary object wished for, from food and drink to a “grappling hook or a sword.” It only works three times a day, and can produce food, 1D6x100 credits (worth more than food), and small mundane items that are specifically not bullets. Well, it doesn’t say ‘not bullets’, it does say no energy weapons or magic weapons or alien tech, so probably not mini-missiles anyway, but railgun ammo might be okay. In addition to the daily use limits, anything not used by the end of the day disappears. Trying to get around the limitations of the purse supposedly leads to curses, with a note to GMs to screw over players who try to pull a fast one with their rice cake purse. The purses only work for those they’re given to--they can be freely passed on, but if stolen they won’t work. Fan of the Forest Wind: A fan that when waved about creates breezes and floating leaves, kind of scenic and cool until you do it for a full round at which point there are so many drat leaves that the wielder and others in the area are -5 to hit. Also makes a mess. 50K credits. Hat of Invisibility (kakuregasa): I’m including Palladium’s supplied Japanese names for items since they included them, I'm not generally checking them for accuracy. Anyway this looks like a straw hat, sometimes the conical sort, others the face-basket sorts of things that monks sometimes wear. Six times per day the hat makes the wearer invisible for up to an hour. No listing on limitations about attacking, or how hard it is to hit this particular kind of invisibility since they all get their own rules. 30 to 100K. Heavenly Speaking Flute (ame-no-nori-goto): A mundane looking flute which can play three special tunes, three times a day, for up to an hour each. I hope your lips are strong. Song of Heavenly Senses: Can see all manner of invisible jerks including energy creatures and presumably even those 4th dimensional assholes. Can sense ley lines and such within 5 miles, and sense evil to 60 ft. Song of Spiritual Comfort: This is a song that pleases good spirits and pains bad ones. Good thing we have alignment so we know which is which. 50-50 effect for ‘selfish’. Good spirits will often reward characters in some way for an hour of music. Bad ones must save or flee (14 or higher) and even if they remain they’re at half everything within 300 ft or hearing range. Song of Summoning or Banishing: Makes an attempt to summon or banish an entity of choice, the entity gets to save versus 16 or higher. Other exorcisms performed while the music plays get +20%. There is no mention of being able to control a summoned entity so ah, use with care? These only work for good-aligned characters, though ‘unprincipled and aberrant characters who have vowed to fight demons have a 50% chance to ever use a flute’. The item itself is fairly neat--specific focus, limited effects, and useful against some of the nastier annoyances in the game. Of course, it does require someone to be the flute guy while everyone else does stuff. 50-100K Holy Incense Burner: A special incense burner that uses specially treated anti-spirit incenses. It creates a 30ft cloud that requires a save against 16 or higher for the targeted type. Those that do enter take 1D6 damage per round and are at -2. 30 ft is not a very wide radius against spell-casting fire-breathing gun-toting supernaturals, but it’s something. These target specific ‘families’ of beings like Oni and Demons, Ghosts and Spirits, etc. Trying to buy one is a real bitch too, being ‘at least’ 200,000 credits and the incense packets are 1200-1800 each. I’d give it a pass probably. Lantern of Protection: Can be lit for 24 hours total usage. Evil supernaturals must save vs. Psionics (no DC listed) to approach within 20 ft and they’re at half of all things if they do approach. Also +3 to save vs. supernatural to all non-targets within 20ft. The big limitation on these is that they have 12 SDC, being paper lanterns, and they wear out. 50-200 credits though, so worth keeping a few around. Living Kami Statues (kiagan-kuyo): These are masterwork statues that they can be animated by the god or spirit represented for a short period of time. Hundreds of these were built up over Japan’s history, and enough of them survived that they are now fairly common guardians, especially of temples. Their stats range from 1D4x10 MDC with 1D4 MD damage (death kitten) to big ole war buddhas with 1D4x100 MDC and supernatural PS damage + 2D6 with a weapon. A recommended method for trying to discover these in a ruin is to try and shatter any statue with a hammer since these are all MDC and normal statues are not. Archeology Jeebus will cry though. 50K to 500K by size, and they’re basically golems that will deactivate if asked to do evil.  Mirror of True-Seeing: Small hand mirrors. Six times per day it can be tilted to show an image of a person. The reflection will show their true nature, including shapeshiftedness, possession, but also alignment (check them renegade scars), disease and mental health. 200K - 400K because mental health funding is very poor in Rifts Earth. Powder of the Heavenly Winds: We’re skipping the part where it tries to discuss the history of the word ‘kamikaze’ here. A bunch of air elemental charms are written on scrolls which are ground into powder. When some of this powder is tossed in the air, the tosser can control winds of up to 200mph for 1D6+2 minutes. This will knock down most characters under 15 tons, no save apparently. Once per round they can shoot a cutting blast that does 3D6 MDC or 4D6 SDC per minute to such vulnerable things. This is extremely destructive to weak materials, fortunately it’s rare and one-use; 200-400K. And lastly, Tattoos of Strength: Yakuza magic tattoos. Not the same as Tattoo Magic (proper noun) but a similar sort of idea. Three times per day, they can be activated, making the tattoo glow greenishly and granting PEx3 MDC (cumulative with other sources apparently) and +6 to PS which becomes supernatural. There’s no listed duration, so assuming the wearer doesn’t outright die from exhausting their little MDC boost, it’s a three shot force field. They count as a supernatural being though, so take extra from basically every weapon in this section plus special twigs. 60K for a suit and probably better be part of a gang. That was a longer section than I anticipated. A longer section of just magic items than we’ve seen in almost every other book it feels like. A lot of them have kind of interesting effects, though they’re saddled with Rifts’ completely insane concept of pricing. How dare PCs want a magical weapon or a flute that dispels ghosts. They’re also often a continuity disaster, but w’ev at this point. I honestly wish Rifts had more interesting magical weapons and equipment--what's presented is often very weak and sterile, and always impossibly expensive.
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Feb 4, 2017 14:31
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Sorry for writing long post while tired. Just spotted a bunch of bad writing above. Also just noticed that the PCs could meet Lucia in the very first room and since there is no combat enhancing treasure in the adventure, might as well fight her there. Also the GM could roll Irresistable Smell for one of the two kids in the prison in which case your entire PC group gets to save or eat a child NPC..
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Feb 4, 2017 14:36
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hyphz posted:Edit: Holy poo poo the author is actually publishing an RPG supplement called Vaginas are Magic Man, I should seriously write a supplement about the Otakumancer class. His spell list includes Flesh to Hug Pillow and Super-deformed Polymorph. Or how about the Tomb of Tarantino, a feet-themed dungeon full of feet-themed traps and feet monsters? Doresh fucked around with this message at 15:04 on Feb 4, 2017 |
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Feb 4, 2017 15:01
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Doresh posted:Man, I should seriously write a supplement about the Otakumancer class. Bigby's Fapping Hand
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Feb 4, 2017 15:04
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hyphz posted:Edit: Holy poo poo the author is actually publishing an RPG supplement called Vaginas are Magic Pretty sure that's LotFP's free RPG day offering this year, because of course James Raggi's latest effluence is the *perfect* thing to get people into RPGs and promote your game store...
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Feb 4, 2017 15:05
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LotFP sounds like one of those games that goes 'It's old school, and grindhouse!' to excuse why it has nothing of value.
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Feb 4, 2017 15:07
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Flavivirus posted:Pretty sure that's LotFP's free RPG day offering this year, because of course James Raggi's latest effluence is the *perfect* thing to get people into RPGs and promote your game store... Yes, I just checked that. They are actually expecting FLGS's to hand out free copies of a book called Vaginas Are Magic. That contains "nihilist feminist reality destroying spells for LotFP".
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Feb 4, 2017 15:09
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Comrade Koba posted:Bigby's Fapping Hand Lecherous Tentacle Tenser's Floating Duel Disk Magic Macross Missile Summon Catgirl Nosebleed Gust of Pantyshot
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Feb 4, 2017 15:09
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Yeah, Rifts really has the old-school issue where it has lists of magical weapons but doesn't have any particular assumptions about when or how PCs might get magic items as rewards (save by shooting down their owners), at least when it isn't wagging the finger and warning GMs against letting PCs have anything.
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Feb 4, 2017 15:09
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hyphz posted:Yes, I just checked that. They are actually expecting FLGS's to hand out free copies of a book called Vaginas Are Magic. That contains "nihilist feminist reality destroying spells for LotFP".  I mean on one hand the guy lives in Finland and there actually was a time when Finns thought vaginas really were magic... But on the other hand it's Raggi.
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Feb 4, 2017 15:24
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Free V.A.G. day? ... I'll see myself out.
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Feb 4, 2017 15:41
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Doresh posted:Lecherous Tentacle Tenser's Floating Duel Disk and Magic Macross Missile sound really very good, though.
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Feb 4, 2017 16:13
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Night10194 posted:LotFP sounds like one of those games that goes 'It's old school, and grindhouse!' to excuse why it has nothing of value. The frustrating thing is that Raggi pays decently (for tabletop RPGs) and on time, so occasionally something great gets made. Qelong is fantastic, and I think Scenic Dunnsmouth does some great things with the module form (as well as being just a beautiful little book). But then you have Blood in the Chocolate, or Raggi's own Monolith From Beyond Time and Space (which isn't the same sort of Magical Realm bullshit, but is drat near unplayable/designed to torpedo a campaign).
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Feb 4, 2017 16:15
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Night10194 posted:LotFP sounds like one of those games that goes 'It's old school, and grindhouse!' to excuse why it has nothing of value. "Sounds like" nothing, that's pretty much the whole point.
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Feb 4, 2017 17:03
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Siivola posted:
My little Vagina, My little Vagina, AhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Also: Why the Austin powers font? Seriously why the Austin power's font?
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Feb 4, 2017 17:14
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I'm guessing it's a throwback to sixties hippy culture and meant to invoke the sexual liberation of the time. No, I'm serious. (It's just a guess tho.)
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Feb 4, 2017 17:28
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I'm reading through Shadow of the Demon Lord now thanks to Serf's review and at least of the stuff I've read it never goes for cheap use of rape despite having a lot of gross-out body horror stuff. Which is honestly refreshing when so much of the rest of the field is, well, Blood in the Chocolate or the entire Carcosa spell list.
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Feb 4, 2017 18:02
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unseenlibrarian posted:I'm reading through Shadow of the Demon Lord now thanks to Serf's review and at least of the stuff I've read it never goes for cheap use of rape despite having a lot of gross-out body horror stuff. Which is honestly refreshing when so much of the rest of the field is, well, Blood in the Chocolate or the entire Carcosa spell list. Yeah, I really like that SoDL treats the body horror/gore elements as horror instead of a Beavis and Butthead "oh man, isn't this cool?"
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Feb 4, 2017 18:13
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One can definitely see the Warhammer Fantasy and Dark Souls influences.Draxion posted:Tenser's Floating Duel Disk and Magic Macross Missile sound really very good, though. Not everyone can be a winner. You gotta fill the pages somehow. (And I bet you'll also love Card of Traps, Summon Exodia and Finger of Shine)
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Feb 4, 2017 18:25
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Bigby's Dextrous Digits and Bigby's Feeling Fingers are both canonical spells. Actually kind of useful, but those names...
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Feb 4, 2017 18:30
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Bieeardo posted:Christ, that chocolate adventure. I thought Dungeonland and its sequel were terrible, punishing piles of crap, but that takes the wafer. Did anyone ever do a readthrough of Dungeonland?
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Feb 4, 2017 18:33
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So I've never looked at LotFP, why would you run it instead of D&D 2E or whatever?
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Feb 4, 2017 18:36
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