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They read Emma Bull's War for the Oaks and decided that being elves who listened to the Replacements sounded fun. Or decided that elves were the perfect group of stuffy assholes to rebel against. Or figured if most elves looked and acted like 70s Bowie, somebody needed to be Iggy Pop or Lou Reed. I played an orc singer in a music themed con game. I decided he was crashing on his Elven girlfriend's house, because of course a few elves would slum it. If you want a good movie about Berlin's punk scene, watch Wings of Desire. Count Chocula fucked around with this message at 08:36 on Feb 17, 2017 |
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Feb 17, 2017 08:33
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Nessus posted:So how did they manage that exactly? I mean what happened to the non-elf Irish? For that matter, how would all the elves know to go for historically misty, tree-infested locales instead of forming a social substrate like many other diaspora-ish cultures? So, part of the backstory of Shadowrun is that it's the Sixth World, the sixth time the natural mana cycle has gone to the high point. It's a little early this time, maybe because we had a few world wars and all that death helped, but the fourth world was the setting for another game called Earthdawn. Whenever the mana cycle goes high enough, the Horrors that normally live in the Deep Astral can enter our world without dying and immediately start wrecking poo poo up. When they did that to the fourth world, the inhabitants dug massive underground cities that they hid in until the mana cycle went back down to something a little more livable. Some of the elves from that world were powerful enough to be immortal, and they cheated, lied, backstabbed, and stole their way into enough magic to stay immortal through the fifth world until the lion's share of their power came back. These guys are big movers and shakers, since they have a ton of magic and had a very long time to build power bases, and they went right to work establishing their own "pointy ears only" clubs in Ireland, Washington, and some other places during all the chaos (mostly through committing and/or sponsoring lots of magical terrorism that the nations of the world couldn't withstand, since they didn't have their own magical options yet.) They're not quite as powerful as the megacorps, but they're powerful enough not to recognize the various rights they have elsewhere, like extraterritoriality -- it's a bad idea to pick a fight with Tír na nÓg (formerly Ireland). One of the things these guys did was make sure a lot of their culture was preserved, like the elvish language Sperethiel, and they made sure people thought well of elves thanks to all the Tolkiens of the world.
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Feb 17, 2017 08:56
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Young Freud posted:I hope you do cover some of this because I actually found those bits like when the war started and what exactly the Free Nations are (that ties in with the first part) and other background stuff like the fact the Free Nations have mandatory cremation due to vulnerability to nano-infected zombies. quote:Yeah, IIRC, their creation mythos is basically the "Progenitor" raping the universe.  But yeah, it's mentioned in passing but that's the Tharkoldu creation myth.
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Feb 17, 2017 14:43
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gently caress, now I don't know if I want the elves in my homebrew to be rednecks or crustpunks.
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Feb 17, 2017 15:43
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Halloween Jack posted:gently caress, now I don't know if I want the elves in my homebrew to be rednecks or crustpunks. My favorite homebrew elves were a geriantocracy suffering a terrible brain drain as the young elves moved out to human lands to get jobs that didn't demand 200 years of experience to get past bowing to their superiors and making coffee.
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Feb 17, 2017 15:47
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Night10194 posted:My favorite homebrew elves were a geriantocracy suffering a terrible brain drain as the young elves moved out to human lands to get jobs that didn't demand 200 years of experience to get past bowing to their superiors and making coffee. My favorite elves in a tabletop setting are the Valenar. Arabian vikings with the world's best cavalry (and mind, they live next to a place where the locals ride dinosaurs) and a thing for double-bladed scimitars.
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Feb 17, 2017 16:01
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Kaltorans from Fragged Empire are a nice source of Redneck elf pictures if you discount the extra set of ears.
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Feb 17, 2017 16:31
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Whatever happened to the Slayers D20 review? I remember looking forward to seeing it get picked apart.
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Feb 17, 2017 21:00
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I also was enjoying Fragged Empire and Shadow of the Demon Lord.
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Feb 17, 2017 23:17
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 Rifts World Book 8: Japan Part 19: “The creation of a good floral arrangement is a matter of honor to those who practice ikebana; a bad job will be scorned even if done by the most heroic of warriors.” Japanese Skills of Note Is this the part where we take every dog-damned niche Japanese art form and make it into a skill like every other '90s RPG touching on Asia? I think it is! True to form, we get skills for Bonsai, Calligraphy, Floral Arrangement, Go, Haiku... and at least you can use your existing Gardening skill for Zen gardens now. Man, let's quote some real horseshit: Rifts World Book 8: Japan posted:In many cases one's skill at Go is seen as much more important than ability in the fighting arts. A victory at the intelligent game of Go easily outweighs any ten wins in single combat.  No shogi, hanafuda, mahjong, or pachinko skills, for better or worse. I can already see the descriptions, though. "A skilled player of pachinko can become richer than a thousand daimyos!" We get a variety of new military skills, many of which from other books, and of course Japanese Mythology gets its own special skill. And now there's a whip proficiency, so you can use... all those... useful... whips? And chains? That exist in all these books?  For some reason there is a picture of alligators. Hand to Hand Combat Of course because we're in Japan, we get new martial arts, because they have better punches than Americans (it's explained that martial arts didn't survive the cataclysm in America but did in Japan, because...)  So, then we get a complete revision of the hand-to-hand system! Dog help me.  We get mechanics for defensive throws ("Automatic Body Flip / Throw"), special backflip and cartwheel defenses and attacks (not referenced by any attack or martial art here, so why...?), body flips (a reliable way to stunlock people), break fall (like rolling with impact, but straight up halves or eliminates damage, but nothing adds to it), notes that mega-damage creatures doing death blows against other MDC critters prevents them from regeneration, drop kicks that let you simultaneously dodge and attack (but with no bonuses), the damage of different hand-to-hand techniques (do nothing but jump kicks for max damage or sweeps to eat up their attacks, FYI), clarifications on disarms, putting holds on characters (reliant on Prowess, not Strength, so Dodgy Baby can wrestle Slowy Giant any day), leap attacks (take up all your actions for a round but... provide no significant advantage, weird), and paired weapons where you give up your ability to parry to do two attacks. I just made that a whole run-on sentence and it's probably clearer than the actual rules.  Be my samurai. So, we get new hand-to-hand styles, which now give bonuses to physical attributes (and mental endurance, in some cases) in case you want to stack your strength to bench-press cottages. This includes:
 ”And BEHOLD, a HAND! Mystic Martial Art Powers Of course, it's not enough for Japan to be objectively better at punching. Their punches are magical, too. Of course, despite this being Japan, technique names go between Japanese and... some Chinese language. I don't know clearly enough. Arts of Invisibility Only two classes get these - naturally, the mystic ninja gets a bunch, while the bishamon fighting monk gets to pick a measly one. They are:[*]Art of Stealth: You automatically get to succeed on stealth checks unless somebody's searching, at which point you get a measly 40~60% chance of success. You also get a 50~75% chance to use "Jung Hua", the art of using stealth in water. Swimming skill sold separately.
The Bishamon Fighting Monk, Sohei Warrior Monk, Yamabushi Mountain Priest, and Demon Queller classes get these abilities. The main ability that's a big deal with these is being able to convert your S.D.C. into M.D.C. temporarily by expending P.P.E., which allows you to perform shenanigans with anything that radically improves S.D.C. While you're not likely to become invincible this way, it's possible to get as tough as a suit of power armor this way- through the power of mystic Asian-ness!
 In Europe, the pointy wizard hat. In Japan, the bamboo wizard hat. Zenjoriki Powers These are martial arts powers that may as well be magic spells, but they’re not, because they’re… martial arts powers. In fact, they even have P.P.E. costs and are “one aspect of Japanese magic”, but you can still only learn them by punches and meditation. In real life, joriki refers to the meditative aspect of concentration, which has “zen” slammed onto it as an ungainly appendage. “Zen joriki” might make some sense, but not for what they’re talking about.
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Feb 17, 2017 23:21
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I can only guess they cut and pasted the style from something else. I mean, the text implies they know what Kendo is, but man, the rules most certainly do not.
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Zenjoriki Powers What's really funny is we have this entire section for two classes that get one (1) of these powers at level 14. Look forward to that, Bishamon dudes!
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Feb 18, 2017 01:22
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marshmallow creep posted:I also was enjoying Fragged Empire and Shadow of the Demon Lord.
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Feb 18, 2017 02:39
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JackMann posted:My great, great, great grandfather, Sheriff Evelyn Belzar Armstrong (I am not making that name up), was partly responsible for Harry Longabaugh, the Sundance Kid, becoming an outlaw. He and his deputy, James Swisher, went to arrest a friend of Longabaugh's, Buck Hanby. Hanby reached for his gun and was shot. Swisher was afraid of retaliation from Longabaugh and swore out a complaint. Longabaugh was apparently arrested, but escaped, becoming an outlaw. That's pretty amazing. occamsnailfile posted:What's really funny is we have this entire section for two classes that get one (1) of these powers at level 14. Look forward to that, Bishamon dudes! Well, at least some of the new dragons get them at 1st or 2nd level, at least? 
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Feb 18, 2017 03:23
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marshmallow creep posted:I also was enjoying Fragged Empire
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Feb 18, 2017 03:27
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 Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes - Insatiables part 1  The intro fiction for this chapter involves a Beast walking down the street when he feels something wrong with his lair. So he finds the nearest entry point and pops in for a look. He finds a stranger sitting at a table, someone who doesn't belong except for the fact that he does. He seems right, perfect for this place, in fact the Lair seems to be warping around him to suit the stranger's needs. Then the stranger cocks his head, turns into that thing on the above image and screams "I'VE COME HOME!" Yup. quote:The Lamashtu. The Obscene Ones. The Nightmares of Beasts. No matter their true name, the Beasts know them by one name in particular that best describes who and what they are: the Insatiable. They are not just creatures whose Hunger cannot be sated, but entities that forcefully intrude into the world and disrupt the ebb and flow of the Primordial Dream with their actions. They are creatures made of concepts alien to how humanity thinks. They are the nightmare that is the Hunger left unchecked and given horrific form, and they feed not just upon the dreams of man but on the fears of the Beasts themselves. They are monsters whose hunger cannot be reined in, and it is from this lust to fill the emptiness inside of them that they gain their powers. quote:As he struggles to reconcile the strange environments he sees in his mind, he eventually crosses a threshold and appears in the Moment that inspires his Insatiable. This alien concept then devours his spirit, replacing it with the Insatiable. He is his old self and something new, existing simultaneously and tumultuously. The newly-orphaned creature sees the world with new eyes for the first time, and the Hunger grows inside of him. The Hunger always grows. Soon, the Insatiable takes over his reasoning, and he feels compelled to do nothing else but find ways to feed — specifically, to find Beasts to prey on. Some Beasts believe that the Insatiables are some failed creation of the Dark Mother, an early attempt to harness the hunger that defines her. Others think that they're byproducts of an age before mankind's fears touched the dream, abandoned now that Horrors fill it's depths. The Insatiables find Beasts fascinating, both as prey and fellow predators. They are kin, but Insatiables don't feel the pull of family. Each one sees other Insatiables as kin, but also as competition for food and territory, because their  their "Schism" will interfere with any surrounding Insatiables. They're particularly obsessed with Lairs, because they can't build any of their own. But they can steal them from Beasts, corrupting them to their own purposes.There are other similarities, they have nightmares and atavisms. And they can reveal their monstrous forms to humanity, but they don't resemble any earthly horrors. Oh no, they're much stupider (again, we'll get to that later). quote:Insatiable are horrors from a time of primordial struggle and hunger, and as such feel that to survive they must feed as often as possible. An Insatiable is not the subtle predator that the Beasts try to be and, worst of all, they do not release fears back into the Primordial Dream. When they devour their victims, they devour their fears completely, and starve the Primordial Dreams of the stories that sustain it. Born with a ravenous hunger that goes beyond the hunger pains that Beasts feel, the Insatiable are driven not just by satiating their appetites but the constant pursuit of them. They are gluttons starved of any ability to keep their own Hunger in check, and though they have not become mindless predators who seek to do nothing but feed, their Hunger is always on their mind. This hunger drives them to not only seek out humans for a meal, but also other Beasts and supernatural creatures. Distant Relations For their part Insatiables do not believe they are descended from the Dark Mother, at least not alone. They claim that before the dawn of Man there were other creatures like the Dark Mother that roamed the Primordial Dream, and one of them was the Primogenitor. It fell in love with the Dark Mother and... yeah it hosed the dark mother and now we have Insatiables. Beasts think that this story is a pile of poo poo, since neither the Dark Mother or the Primordial Dream give them any answers about what the Primogenitor is. Regardless, they still have Atavisms and Nightmares, so the Beasts can't completely dismiss their claims of kinship.  The Unsated Hunger God this is edgy as hell time for more quoting. quote:Whether the Dark Mother intended for the Insatiable to be the ones that keep the Beasts in check or they were an accident of cosmic circumstance, the Insatiable pursue and prey upon Beasts as a superior predator would. They view the Beasts as a resource like any other. Beasts either feed their desires and their hungers, or are destroyed, and if the Insatiable inflicts pain and suffering on the world in the process, they do not care. They owe the world nothing, and the world deserves the pain generated from the Insatiable’s Moment. The Moments Insatiables don't have families, since they don't have horrors. Instead they are memories of a time when the environment was scarier than the beasts who lived in it. A Makara might have a horror of a great sea beast, an Insatiable will have the soul of a hurricane. Yup. Insatiables have souls of natural disasters, sort of, it's very loving confusing and they don't really explain it well at all. quote:The Moments do not always manifest as primordial eras, and some are inspired by modern times. An Insatiable of the Molten Earth may project the feelings of violence and hatred for fellow human beings, while a Freezing Hell may cause the people in the area where he makes his home to become obsessed with hoarding their food and possessions in preparation for an upcoming calamity. An Insatiable of the Void causes her victims to believe that the world is coming to an end, so they must get rid of all their possessions and ignore laws because it will all end, and a Primordial Seas may turn an upper-class neighborhood into a bloodthirsty cult that serves her whims by delivering her food and culling the middle class in order to keep them in their place. Clashing Faults Just to give you an example of how poorly explained this poo poo is. quote:The Clashing Faults are a world of towering mountains crumbling before the shaking earth. They are the caves that lure in those seeking shelter from the elements and then cave in on themselves, crushing those seeking a safe place to sleep under their stone grip. They are the lands that split apart into massive canyons and seas that drain in from the ocean, drowning all in their path. The Insatiable from this Moment lack compassion or empathy, and remember their founder as the one who cradled the Dark Mother as she slept and whose form held up the world. Freezing Hell Insatiables with the Moment of Freezing Hell are perpetually cold, but they are also "The animals that starved for warm blood and fresh food in an age when the world was barren and cold." So the are animals now? They're more patient than their kin and are prone to eating fat and drinking blood of their prey. They keep their dens in cold places and walk in freezers, keeping their prey on ice until they need to feed. Their Horrible Form(Yes, another proper noun) appears like snow drifts that flow like water or vortexes of wind and snow. Molten Earth Remember when the earth was a ball of molten rock and sulfer? That's where these guys come from. They want to see the world cast down and made anew, but they see it like burning away old growth to make room for new trees. They are quick to anger and prone to destructive tendancies, they prefer to cook their prey as they devour it, alive. Their dens are in burnt buildings and coal mines, storing their prey inside piles of kindling. Primordial Seas Oh did you think that the freezing hells were the water moment? No they're Air. They think that the Primogenitor is a "Great jellyfish that roamed the seas", and embody the fear of "Killing to live and sacrifice so others may live." I... don't even know. They apparently feel the pull of their hungers even more acutely than their siblings, and give into their violent instincts while feeding. Their dens are like animal nests, thrown together out of whatever's avaliable, and their horrible forms are composed of the bodyparts of animals in strange fusions of flesh and bone... i guess? Void By your powers combined I am THE CRIPPLING FEAR OF INEVITABILITY. They do not represent the night's sky but the "Unknown darkness that makes up the space between the stars. They are the cold shadow that blankets the earth and gives cover to predators seeking to hunt in the dark. When the first fires cooled and the light of volcanos and meteor strikes did not light the sky, the world was held in a dark grip." They are the fear of the unknown. Of Infinity. Of basically everything else that the game can't properly define. They don't conform to anything, even each other. They aren't aliens, they're gamma ray bursts, they're nebulae, they're plants from planets with atmospheres so alien that it defies belief. Their dens are equally confusing, made to fit whatever suits the Insatiable at that moment. Unknowable Fears We finally get a good explanation about why the way Insatiables feed is bad, Beasts represent primordial, but knowable fears. A child that burns their hand on an oven knows that ovens are hot. An insatiable instead convinces the child that turning on the oven will turn the kitchen into a volcano and that they will die in a sea of lava. Their manner of feeding damages the primordial dream and begins to twist the area around them, neighborhoods give way to mob rule as they burn their neighbor's homes to get rid of the impostors that live there. Students are suddenly afraid of leaving their dorms because the quad is a literal sea of monsters. Fears of man are pushed out of the Dream and replaced with pure irrationality. The Dens Since insatiables don't have Lairs, they instead create physical dens. They have no mystical defenses to protect them, and appear clearly to anyone who discovers them. Instead Insatiables use dens as a public statement to the world of their might and glory, as well as a place to rest after a good meal. Dens are full of trophies, in one form or another, and their locations are often important. They're also disconcerting places to be, as they are full of rotting flesh and effluvia, anyone other that the Insatiable that created it suffers the Sick tilt until they leave. I'd continue on but it's late, and I'm mentally exhausted from general RPG news that's occurred in the last two days, so "character" creation will have to wait. Next Time: More loving Proper Nouns
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Feb 18, 2017 08:51
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Fight! - Challengers Power Level 2 Fighters don't stay in PL1 for very long. When they level up, they can get themselves more defensive options and can start to really customize their base capabilities. Akiko Sakai  A new challenger appears for Sakura. Fighting Style: No formal martial arts training. She's just really good at football/soccer. Win Quote: "Hey, you're pretty good! Who do you play for?" Ms. Fanservice Tomboy over here hails from Osaka. She's the star player of her school's football/soccer team (the Ijima Firebirds), which is actually a boys team but hey, you gotta make exception for the student that can kick a ball at Mach 1+. Why would someone like her join any sort of fighting game tournament? Well, her coach was blackmailed into kicking her out, and now it's payback time before her team gets curbstomped. Akiko's entry is packed with lots of little fighting game quirks: One of her opening poses? She kicks a ball into the air, proclaims she'll defeat you before it lands, and the ball will fall onto her defeated opponent when she wins. The ball also comes back on a taunt, only to be kicked back up. Wnat some different kind of fanservice? Her alternate costume is her team's uniform, with occasional glimpses at her sports bra. And since her father owns a Chinese restaurant, you can of course "unlock" her skimpy Chinese dress costume. Costume 3 posted:Unlockable only by clearing Story Mode with no continues used, no rounds lost, and every round won using Crescent Dive, which unlocks her hidden ending where she is seen wearing this costume. Statswise, she's a glass cannon: Her Strength of 2 makes her hit like a truck but she can't really take a beating with her Stamina of -1. This is the kind of stats you'd give to the playable version of a boss character. It comes to no surprise that she's big into running and kicking. She's basically a more specialized Guy in that regard: Her Field Dash lets her quickly move around the arena, and all of her other Moves are in a Move Sub-Set, meaning they can only be used after a Field Dash. This makes her tactics a bit predictable, but at least she has four follow-ups from the dash. Strike Slicer and Grass Splitter are basically Guy's leaping and slide kick, with the difference being that both knock down. Skyrocket Kick launches the opponent into the air for mad juggles, and the above-mentioned Crescent Drive has her kick the opponent's head so hard he slides across the "screen". Cannon McCabe  That shirt's tight, man. Fighting Style: Sky Raptor Karate Win Quote: "Your heart is as important as your fists" Cannon is basically another Karate Kid reboot: Having to grow up as an African-American in Japan thanks to his father working there wasn't exactly easy. Luckily the bullying stopped after he met his sensei, and nowadays he does Ryu's shtick of fighting to become better and stop evil guys. He's honorable, very famous in the martial arts tournament world, and an overall swell guy. There isn't really much to say about his moves since he's basically Ryu, right down to the shoulder throw and the beefed-up Hadoken form the Alpha games. His Hurricane-Kick-equivalent may be a leaping axe kick, and his Shoryuken-equivalent may hit multiple times like Sakura, but they're effectively the same. (Though I admit his shoto moves have some cool names: (Blue) Overdrive Burst for the Hadokens, Eagle Axe Kick for the Hurricane Kick, and Ascendant Agression for the Shoryuken) Hoss  "Do you know of any evil dictator types who are looking for boxers?" Fighting Style: Boxing Win Quote: "Yeah! That's why I'm the best!" Bare-knuckle Balrog here is actually named Harry Daniels. A talented boxer with a bright future ahead of him, he has been in a downward spiral ever since his mentor and uncle died. He's playing the debt collector for a crime syndicate, though he doesn't do more than his conscience allows. He's actually looking for a way back into proper boxing, and what better way to earn a second chance than a fighting game tournament? Hoss is from the King of the City setting, which is your typical crime-ridden city you see in stuff like Final Fight or Fatal Fury. Though unlike in those games, Hoss is a 3D Fighter with Attack Strings. His combo potential is a bit low thanks to him dumping Speed to become very tanky, though, so he's focusing on hitting hard. His Move inputs are a bit unorthodox for a 3D Fighter apart from the Bull Rush (a shoulder bash): The Ol' Lefty (his most powerful punch with extra knockback) is a charge-back Move, and the Golden Gloves is a button-mash Move like the Hundred Hand Slap and the Vulcan Punch. On top of that, he is both big and tall, which makes him even tankier and makes it easier for him to hit people at long range with his Basic Moves. His hit box is a bit large, though. (Oh, did I mention that every Move in the book comes with button inputs? 'Cause that's totally a thing.) Kaida Carson  Those are some fancy jeans. Fighting Style: Typhon Seraph and Lightning Devil Styles Win Quote: "You lost. I'm not surprised." The former star of her school's martial arts club, she quit fighting after getting utterly annihilated - and wounded - by an opponent using an unkown fighting style. Luckily, her grandfather and mentor got er back into the ring after unveiling the Lightning Devil Style, which he teached her on top of the Typhoon Seraph Style she grew up with. Now she's out of school (and unlike Sakura didn't keep her school uniform) and joining all sorts of tournaments. Aside from the typical "I want to become better and prove that I'm the best" motivation, she's also following rumors about her old rival also popping up in tournaments, and she keeps finding hints about her two styles being ancient in origin. I'd be surprised if she didn't run into actual angels and devils at one point. Kaida is an offensive character with a nasty Accuracy bonus, and she unsurprisingly has two styles like Gen. This grants her slightly stronger Moves at the cost of having to use dedicated style switchers to hop back and forth between her two move sets. Her original Typhoon Seraph Style is all about playing with distance and positioning: Crash Zephyr is a non-damaging knockback attack, Slipstream Drill is a powerful jab to the head that comes out after she sidesteps behind her opponent, and the Blue Streak Blast has her dash past the opponent and kick him in the back. The Lightning Devil Style is all about preparing the opponent for combos. Damnation Nexus is a quick slap to the face that staggers, and Doom Herald is a spinning kick that sometimes causes a knockdown. Her style switcher is interesting in that it involves a dash (surprise style change!) and can be used to get back on her feet after a knockdown. Killer Queen  Think Rachel Alucard meets Alice in Wonderland. Fighting Style: Whimsy cartoon stuff Win Quote: "You don't seem to have an eye for fashion; maybe I could give you a tip or two." In what probably has to rank rather high on the list of crazy fighting game character backstories, Killer Queen is the Queen of Spades from Wonderland (as in Alice in Wonderland) who somehow ended up in the real world (probably thanks to that pesky Queen of Hearts). She's now fighting in tournaments because she figured that beating up the strongest being in this world could help her get back home. Killer Queen is sexy, arrogant, and especially eccentric - if not downright crazy - like most Wonderland folks. She is obsessed with good looks, and she wears a different dress in each fight. Try implementing that in a fighting game. She's a more extreme Rachel Alucard in that none of her "animations" look like she's actually fighting: she lays on a sofa instead of crouching, gets carried by servants if she has to do anything more athletic than a walk, and she summons cards and stuff to do the attacking and blocking for her. The opponent also doesn't actually hurt her on a hit as much as he messes up her dress and makeup. She's from the Lord of Battle campaign, an "all genres allowed" kind of tournament. Her defenses are a bit lacking, and her Moves are all over the place: Wonder Step makes her teleport like Faust with a card theme, Dangerous Makeup heals her and damages the opponent, and Blow Your Mind is a AoE explosion. Her ranged attack is the Jack of Spades, which has her throw a handkerchief into the air to summon one of her loyal cards to attack. Puppet Theater is a command throw that has her turn the opponent into a small puppet to get beaten up by spades, and she can follow this up with The Big Hug that causes the spades to stick around and choke the opponent. Mateo de Córdoba (Rawrak Rumimaki)  Smoking is bad for your health. Fighting Style: No name given, but something along the line of "Burning Stone-Hand" should do the trick. Win Quote: "Don't forget to follow the spirit and the path of your ancestors." Another unconventional historical character. He's a half-blood from early 17th century Córdoba, raised by his Spanish father (a smith) and his Native American mother who called him Rawrak Rumimaki ("Burning Stone-Hand", a very fitting name in hindsight). Mateo made for a very good apprentice smith, until things went crazy: natives attacked the town and kidnapped his newborn brother. He led a rescue party that ended up getting ambushed, leaving him the only survivor. This wasn't the tribe he was after, but at least the local shaman realized his potential and trained him to harness the power of Mother Earth, granting him control over magma and earth. After 10 years of beating people up, he finally found the kidnappers, and he and his brother thankfully instantly recognized each other. A full family reunion sadly didn't happen because it turns out that he and his brother were presumed dead, and his parents are either dead or have left Cordóba out of fear from a mysterious person that has it out for the whole family. Naturally, he wants to protect his brother, find out what happened to his parents, and figure out who this shadowy person is. He's overall a pretty balanced Fighter, aside from sucking at dodging. All his Moves are in Spanish, but come with a translation. He also has quite a bit of Command (aka L2) Moves, which can lead to dangerous Combos if he ramped up his Combo Skill some more. Said Command Moves are Magma Repentino (Sudden Magma), a Vulcan Punch with auto block, Avalancha Imparable (Unstoppable Avalanche), a dash punch and Corazón de Piedra (Heart of Stone), a shockwave with such a slow startup it's downright useless outside of Combos. His "proper" Special Moves are Gancho Ardiente (Burning Uppercut), which is surprisingly not a Shoryuken but a juggle starter, Erupción (Eruption), which is a more suped up Gancho Ardiente he can only uses a few times per fight, and Agarre de la Pachamama (Pachamama's Grasp), which causes the earth to rise and trap the opponent in place. Skyrina Wourlde  A bit too colorful to be a goth, but the skin tone is spot on. Fighting Style: Transanguinary Hair Magick Win Quote: "Never will this blood be enough!" (that's her hair speaking) Skyrina also comes from Lord of Battle and has a lovingly WoD-esque origin: Running away from her absusive parents at age 15, she stumbled upon a tome of black magic and ended up getting cursed by a demon. Now she can shapeshift her hair into all sorts of shapes and weapons like Milia Rage, but it's also vampiric and needs to drink the blood of her defeated opponents if she doesn't want to lose her powers. She's now looking for a way to get rid of the vampiric trait so she can focus on helping others with a similar depressing upbringing. If you want her to be more like Bayonetta and Witchblade, there's her alternate outfit: A body suit (with shifting levels of skin exposure) that can sprout blades and covers less and less as she gets hit. Skyrina is a fragile speedster that has to make use of her mobility and long range to get the upper hand. Feast of the Blood Rose and the faster Blossom of One Million Edges has her make use of her hair's long reach to poke at the opponent and start combos. Summon Dragon's Jaws is a sort of homing projectile, and Rain of Bloody Petals is a hard to evade aerial attack. And of course she has a hair-based throw with Revenge of the Abused. Therese Rush  She kicks rear end for the Lord. Fighting Style: Ninjutsu and Aikido Win Quote: "Virtue triumphs again. Thanks be to God." Therese always wanted to become a nun, and she would've probably spend the rest of her life as one if it wasn't for... quote:She found joy in the quiet contemplation of her new life, until the convent was invaded by evil men. Brutal men. Therese escape with her life, but no her innocence, and she was still more fortunate than the rest of the women.  After what I hope isn't a full on Beast Hero backstory, she went through a training montage or two to become a martial artist and start her journey of righteous revenge. Her most straightforward Moves are Kiss of Death (a sweep) and Phoenix Revenge (a mid-air overhead attack). Her ninja training is represented by Shadow Memory, which has her teleport to her opponent for a surprise punch. Her other Moves are either pretty basic or have a short range, but they make up with that by having lots of Accuracy: Justice Spear is a flurry of blows, Chain Breaker is a throw that staggers the opponent, and Vengeance Rising is a dashing command throw like something Geese Howard would use. Oppnents should better keep their distance. Next Time: Power Level 3. Time to go super. Doresh fucked around with this message at 09:58 on Feb 18, 2017 |
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Feb 18, 2017 09:56
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Beast sucks. That being said. A Hunter monster that is basically the radiation pulses of a dying star that sealed itself in a person who has been turned into a flesh-lined containment unit that is slowly leaking and decaying as the radiation gets stronger so they have to basically burn off energy spikes by flash-atomizing people every so often. That'd be a great "what the gently caress is this" enemy that's a little too tough for the PCs without help or planning.
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Feb 18, 2017 15:39
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Hostile V posted:That being said. A Hunter monster that is basically the radiation pulses of a dying star that sealed itself in a person who has been turned into a flesh-lined containment unit that is slowly leaking and decaying as the radiation gets stronger so they have to basically burn off energy spikes by flash-atomizing people every so often. That'd be a great "what the gently caress is this" enemy that's a little too tough for the PCs without help or planning. It's called a Zeka, fyi, from Promethean.
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Feb 18, 2017 15:42
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Cythereal posted:It's called a Zeka, fyi, from Promethean. I do like Zeky in general but good lord they were never meant to be playable. They make great tragic/monstrous antagonists but their Disquiet footprint is too unsustainable and too dangerous, plus actually becoming human means they get lethal amounts of radiation poisoning and then shortly die. They'd work much better if there was the acknowledgement that they were a dead-end Lineage like the Husks raging against the inevitably of becoming inert and lifeless thanks to half life decay.
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Feb 18, 2017 15:48
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Beast: Still the lesser Promethean. And really anything I read about this splat makes me want to write a fansplat that goes the extra mile to destroy and twist everythin Matt holds dear in his little vanity project.
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Feb 18, 2017 18:11
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Doresh posted:Beast: Still the lesser Promethean. This never actually leads to anything good and is never really worth doing, in my experience.
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Feb 18, 2017 18:17
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I know. I must keep my Willpower high, and resist the temptations of the Dark Side. (It'll probably help if I go for nonsense parody. I mean, what could go wrong with say a catgirl splat whose Humanity-equivalent determines how many verbal tics they have to use?) Doresh fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Feb 18, 2017 |
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Feb 18, 2017 18:22
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Hate-writing rarely goes well. Except in criticism, of course. 
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Feb 18, 2017 19:04
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Hate-writing rarely goes well. FATAL: The Friends. A roleplaying game about modern horror and double standards.
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Feb 18, 2017 19:06
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It's true, the only way you can really counter the effects of Bad Games is to Make A Good Game. The best revenge is living well.
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Feb 18, 2017 19:59
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Doresh posted:Beast: Still the lesser Promethean. Salieri was the bad guy.
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Feb 18, 2017 20:13
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Kurieg posted:Insatiables have souls of natural disasters, sort of, it's very loving confusing and they don't really explain it well at all. So is one of the Insatiable going to be Hurricane Katrina or am I actually creating something more tasteless in my anticipation?
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Feb 18, 2017 20:42
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theironjef posted:Salieri was the bad guy. I'm not that angry. RandallODim posted:So is one of the Insatiable going to be Hurricane Katrina or am I actually creating something more tasteless in my anticipation? I'm sad they already had a Beast that sunk the Titanic. Having her sink because Not-Jack turned into the iceberg would've made my day. Doresh fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Feb 18, 2017 |
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Feb 18, 2017 21:09
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Hostile V posted:Beast sucks. That being said. A Hunter monster that is basically the radiation pulses of a dying star that sealed itself in a person who has been turned into a flesh-lined containment unit that is slowly leaking and decaying as the radiation gets stronger so they have to basically burn off energy spikes by flash-atomizing people every so often. That'd be a great "what the gently caress is this" enemy that's a little too tough for the PCs without help or planning. I am enjoying the fact that we've now got a Pithy "Carthago delenda est" to add to the beginning and end of each post about Beast. "Pecus delenda est" maybe. The idea to that sounds a little bit like the judgements from Echo Bazaar, which is kind of awesome.
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Feb 18, 2017 22:07
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Rifts World Book 8: Japan Part 20: “Frequently, an oni will be identified by its appearance, ‘the three-armed oni,’ ‘lion head oni,’ ‘fire oni’; or by its disposition, such as, ‘wicked and mocking;’ and/or by its activities, ‘a demon most foul,’ ‘child-stealing goblin,’ ‘the angry oni,’ ‘destroyer of temples,’ or ‘fiend of the wind.’” Monsters of Japan  ”Hulk not have extra arm, that just cowardly oni saying ‘hello’!” Oni One Hundred Demons So, the concept of oni here for whatever reason doesn’t represent the “classical” oni - that is, horn or horns, fangs, garishly colored skin, loincloth, and club. It can, but Rifts Japan instead makes them random monsters, taking the varying depictions of oni and using that to serve random tables to design random monsters with instead. They come from a dimension “linked to Japan” and are largely just treated as low-end extradimensional demons. Dumb, sadistic, and thuggish, they organize into tribes and fight amongst each other as much as fighting humanity, or just casually betray each other because what else did the frog expect of the scorpion or something. They only steal simple technology and sometimes bow down before more powerful supernatural entities, so they can serve as generic thugs. Rifts World Book 8: Japan posted:They are also notorious for kidnapping children and women as slaves and for diabolical purposes, such as blood sacrifices, torture, terrible pleasures and for food, like cattle. Those condemned to hard labor and frequent beatings consider themselves lucky. Veiled rape reference, ahoy. They also have a weakness for alcohol, and can be bribed or tricked with it. So, you know. They’re mostly just orcs with random rolls for features. A lot of the nuanced modern notions of oni in real-life mythology, with them being protectors or at least more neutral beings, is missing. Oh, and they’re only about 4 to 6 feet tall.  ”I wish I could wear a hat…” Numbers-wise, they’re pretty tough but nowhere near gargoyle territory, and are dumb and ugly but are strong, agile, and tough. They regenerate slowly and can do decent damage in hand-to-hand, and get a random selection of spells they can cast, leaning generally towards curse-type magic but not really having any consistent theme. Of course, since they come in average groups of 20+, any fight with PCs is going to be a damned slog, given they don’t do a ton of damage to seal the deal but have a lot of spells like blind or luck curse. Add in the fact that in addition to the normal attribute random rolls Rifts expects the average GM to make for every random thug, there are nine additional random tables for traits, so that’s like 180+ rolls to throw for the average group. Practical! So let’s roll three up at random to see what we get.
 ”It’s only pareidolia that makes you think I have a skull on my chest.” Oni Master This is the rare 1 in 10 oni that is smarter and tougher than its fellows, though no more charming or pretty. They’re more daring and brave in their murderous way, and get a much wider variety of spells the can cast. You’re not allowed to play one, even though they aren’t that strong compared to the supernatural R.C.C.s already out there. They roll on the same tables, but are slightly taller at 5-6’ feet tall.  ”Not a spell, guys! Hands on fire!” Oni Mystic And these are the 1 in 50 rare-er oni that have three eyes and much greater intelligence, are much tougher, get psionic powers, a much wider array of spells, and martial arts powers and martial arts as if that wasn’t enough powers to keep track of. They’re even taller at 6-8 feet tall, meaning oni essentially go by Irken ranking standards, and they get the most actual skills. They’re supposed to be the scheming boss-types, and as such, are pulled away from potential PC status.  Sea monkey. Sura-Kappa No idea where the “Sura-” comes from in this version. The big difference between this and their mythical kin is that these kappa usually live in the sea for some reason, whereas the traditional kappa is explicitly a river monster. They maintain the myth of having a bowl of water on their head that needs to remain filled for them to have strength while on land, becoming weak S.D.C. creatures if it’s emptied. Conversely to the oni, the kappa are presented as more neutral than malicious, sometimes helping people or sometimes siding with evil. Stat-wise they’re weak M.D.C. creatures with aquatic capabilities, and are average or garbage in most stats, with endurance and strength being their highest traits. They get ocean magic, which you better have a copy of Rifts World Book 7: Underseas to understand, and crap for skills. It doesn’t bother to say whether or not you can play one - I don’t honestly see why not other than the fact they’re kinda crap. But it doesn’t say either way. Goblin This is copy-pasted from the Rifts Conversion Book with a few extra sentences on how they sometimes serve oni and other supernatural evils. I’m not sure what goblins add to the mix, given most aren’t going to threaten PCs on their own and it’s not like the oni are going to bother sharing the best mega-damage loot with them.  ”I’m terrifying, I know.” Goblin Spider So, these are spiders with goblin heads that are racially sadistic. Rifts World Book 8: Japan posted:The hideous spider-things actually get a perverse pleasure in torturing and killing other beings. A pleasure akin to the warm buzz a junkie gets when he's high — an intoxicating and palpable delight.  You can just use the word “fetish” at that point, Siembieda. Anyway they took over their homeworld and enslaved the people there as torture stock until a group of True Atlanteans, along with some godly allies, murdered most of them and banished the rest. The banished ones wandered the multiverse and assisted the Sunaj (the evil True Atlanteans) in murdering some True Atlanteans as revenge. They followed the Sunaj to Earth, but instead of being with the Sunaj in Atlantis, they’re over in China and Japan because they like it there more. Why do they like it? So, they’re supposed to be sneaky infiltrators and masterminds, and can transform to look like a goblin, hobgoblin, imp, or oni. They also like to put on ninja garb as a hobgoblin and try to fake being a human ninja sometimes. They insist that there’s no relation between them and goblins and that the resemblance is coincidental. It’s a bit odd, then, that the only name they seem to go by is “goblin spiders”. Is that why the goblins are around? So the spiders have somebody to disguise themselves as? If so, that’s awfully roundabout. Stat-wise they’re actually M.D.C. tanks, and have all-around great stats (except for beauty). They have venom that’ll insta-kill normal humans and might do a lot of damage even to mega-damage beings (it’s not stated that the damage interval is, though). Biting them or drinking their blood will have the same effect. They have webbing, mental psionics, and high-level spell magic or temporal magic. They’re pretty strong and explicitly NPCs, though their one-note characterization keeps them fairly ho-hum.  A pinup piece (for oni). Japanese Imps I can’t tell you how bored I am to write up another “here’s a sadistic monster that works as a lackey for bigger monsters because this one is tiny!” Well, these are 3’ tall creatures that otherwise look like classical oni, and are low-level M.D.C. creatures with above-average prowess and endurance, but low beauty. They’re weak against silver and can’t swim, but get some martial arts “arts of invisibility”. They have a bunch of sneaky skills but no particular psionic or magical powers. Siembieda seems to think every major evil supernatural force needs mini-mes so I guess they can spy on the PCs at every moment but it’s already a bit cliched.  She cleans up real nice, though? Hannya Demon Named after the Noh mask worn to represent a “demonic” woman (sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively), this demon seems to be modeled after a few stories about a demon who takes on the form of a beautiful woman and preys on travelers, but actually looks like a demonic han. Of course, because Rifts, she just wants to eat people for their P.P.E. So there’s that. Rifts World Book 8: Japan posted:The malignant demon also preys on priests and monks, pretending to be a grieving widow or victim of molestation. While not particularly bright, she’s strong-willed, super-strong and fast, and beautiful / ugly depending on her form. She’s relatively durable, can fly and turn invisible, and can regenerate limbs but has to stick them back on, and freaks out if their limbs are stolen. (Some of you might be able to guess the Japanese myth already based on that.) It gets a handful of spells and that’s that. Also, it lives ten millennia, in case your campaign covers ten millennia. [u]Japanese Dragons[/i] Yes, even though we already had an asian-style dragons with the “serpent of the wind” in Conversion Book, and the chiang-ku in England, why not add some more? Why not go mad?  Sinister asian dragon, sinister asian mustache. Shikome Kido-Mi Rifts World Book 8: Japan posted:The words shikome kido mean "hideous sorcery" and mi "serpent,”... I can’t find any source for the former, all I can find is shikome as “homely woman” and kido as “wicker gate”. Mi does mean “serpent” but specifically as in “astrological sign of the serpent” not as a general term for serpents. Sooo… this is… an evil creature… that likes to torment and manipulate… zzz … eh, what? Oh, there’s more. They can’t use martial arts powers but can teach them to people, and some people think ninja learned their tricks from a shikome kido-mi. They don’t generally work with other evil creatures as equals because they’ve got ego drama going down. Similarly, demon quellers have put these dragons on their “okay to kill” list. Unlike other dragons, they don’t have a breath weapon, and they can’t even fly, but the get the usual invisibility, teleportation, and regeneration. They can adjust their size, but don’t get shapeshifting. Instead, they’re high-end spellcasters with an emphasis on dimensional travel and minor psionics. Some get temporal magic (it seems to be going around), and a tiny 1% get access to tattoo magic, and about half can make certain magic weapons (mainly just to bribe other people with). Similarly, they can teach any martial arts power, even though tye can’t use them. They’re playable as dragon hatchlings, but this still has the same issue as Conversion Book where it doesn’t give proper hatchling stats, so technically hatchlings get all the same stats as adults, including things like 500 P.P.E. Powergamer alert: there’s nothing saying hatchlings can’t teach their fellow party members every martial art power in the book, so be sure to kit out your buddies with magic and kung fu for free! Rifts - the RPG that did not think this through. Again.  Their dragons are different! Kumo-Mi Rifts World Book 8: Japan posted:Kumo-Mi means "cloud serpent" or "cloud dragon." That’s… close! There’s the issues with “mi”, as mentioned before, but kumo at least can mean cloud. Or spider. It can also mean “spider sign of the serpent”. Nitpicks aside, this is probably the closest to the typical asian dragon archetype, moreso than the conniving serpent of the wind. They’re pretty flexible and can be allies or baddies, and examples are given of each. They have the usual invisibility and teleportation, but not shapechanging. They can also fly through the air and get spell magic with air / illusion / dimension themes, or alternately get air warlock spells from the Conversion Book, along with the usual smattering of psionics. They also get one art of invisibility power and one zenjoriki power: I suggest getting the one where you hide behind somebody’s back for maximum comedy. They also get all technical skills with a bonus, and are supposed to be scholars, giving PCs an excuse to seek them out for lore. Once again, you can play them as hatchlings, but no proper hatchling stats are given, so you get things like starting hatchlings getting all air warlock spells from every level. I don’t believe this issue is ever fixed for these particular dragons, either.  When a unicorn really loves a dragon... Asama-Tatsu Rifts World Book 8: Japan posted:The name asama-tatsu translates into "volcano dragon." Well, actually asama refers to one specific volcano. Tatsu, once again, refers to the astrological sign of the dragon. And sometimes Mt. Asama is associated with the idea of a sleeping dragon, so I can see how they somehow ended up with what they have here, but it’s still a misunderstanding of the language. So, this is a golden dragon unicorn immune to fires that sometimes lives in volcanoes because, gently caress, who’s going to evict you? Rifts doesn’t have lava men… yet, anyway. They can be good or bad (but not neutral, if you’ll recall), but often hang out with mountain monks to teach them a thing or two. They can turn invisible, regenerate, or teleport, and can adjust their size. However, they don’t have shapeshifting and get a vulnerability to cold attacks. Most get ley line walker magic, while a few are diabolists (magic circles and wards) or techno-wizards, and a rare few NPC-only dragons are “alchemists” (not an actual casting class) that get the nebulous ability to make magic weapons (except for rune weapons). They get zenjoriki martial arts powers as well as some middling psionics, and are accomplished scholars much like the kumo-mi. I don’t know how they learn much, though, hanging around with molten rock and a few monks. Next: We bow out the way we came in.
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Feb 18, 2017 22:43
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Doresh posted:Beast: Still the lesser Promethean. Do you want Genius: The Transgression? 'Cause that poo poo's how you get Genius: The Transgression.
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Feb 18, 2017 23:07
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I kinda dig the monster designs. To think that Rifts made better spider goblins than Games Workshop...Dave Brookshaw posted:Do you want Genius: The Transgression? 'Cause that poo poo's how you get Genius: The Transgression. How many dots do you need for Gurren Lagann? Doesn't necessarily have to be the really big one.
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Feb 18, 2017 23:15
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Doresh posted:How many dots do you need for Gurren Lagann? Doesn't necessarily have to be the really big one. Of course not. We need the really, really big one. 
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Feb 18, 2017 23:27
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I have a feeling this could break WoD's size stat just a little bit.
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Feb 19, 2017 00:15
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Dave Brookshaw posted:Do you want Genius: The Transgression? 'Cause that poo poo's how you get Genius: The Transgression. Kinda? It's a bad WOD game, but Mad Scientist is an underrepresented class. E: actually there's a guy in my star wars game who's playing a Slug-obsessed scientist, and frequently mutters about transfusing slug blood. Might want to be cautious about a whole game for that. Wrestlepig fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Feb 19, 2017 |
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Feb 19, 2017 01:20
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rumble in the bunghole posted:Kinda? It's a bad WOD game, but Mad Scientist is an underrepresented class. Careful, if you say that too loudly you'll summon Skeloric to rant about he Sons of Ether until you pray for a death that will not come (because the Sons of Ether have cured death).
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Feb 19, 2017 01:30
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Genius seems like an OK idea that's held down by a lot of baggage from the oWoD.
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Feb 19, 2017 01:33
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wdarkk posted:Genius seems like an OK idea that's held down by a lot of baggage from the oWoD. Genius is a Bad Game. Princess is a Bad Game. I cannot think of a completed WoD fan project that has not turned out to be a Bad Game.
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Feb 19, 2017 01:51
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Leviathan was a Mediocre Game, in my personal opinion.
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Feb 19, 2017 02:02
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rumble in the bunghole posted:Kinda? It's a bad WOD game, but Mad Scientist is an underrepresented class.
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Feb 19, 2017 02:03
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