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Joe Slowboat posted:Do you have to permakill the immortal to get the Harvest? If so, Mummies might indeed give the jackpot, but first you would have to figure out how to stop them coming back ever again.
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Jul 2, 2017 21:25
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:In the game 'The End', the only two creatures that weren't made inimical to the meek after the Day of Judgement were cows because they were so dumb...and dogs because they're dogs and are all good boys and girls. Yes hi hello I would like to know more of this game and all games with good dog representation.
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Jul 3, 2017 00:34
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Ninja Crusade 2nd Edition: Ninja Creation Myths So, since we just got the one ninja, the blind dog ninja with seeing eye ninja dog, we'll make a second ninja entirely randomly. There is a random roll generation in this game, and it's exceptionally well-balanced, though it may not produce the most obvious or sensical story at first - the parts need to be massaged a bit. Chargen has seven steps. Each step provides a number of skill bonuses, a Gift and a Trigger, and occasionally a bonus point of Ki. Step 1: Ocean.This is where we determine the character's element and basic personality. For our blind ninja, I go with Quiet. Tsuki Yoshiro, we will call him, and he doesn't like to draw attention to himself. Quiet is a Metal personality. Metal gives us: Skills: Deception 1, Discipline 1, Might 1, Speed 1 Ki: Yin 1 Quiet itself also gives us a Gift and a Trigger. Gift: +1 Stealth when trying to go unnoticed in a crowd. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when the ninja passes on saying something that could change the course of terrible events. Meanwhile, our other ninja will be Shiba Sakura. We roll a d10 to determine her element. I roll a 6, which is also Metal. Her personality, however, is a 3: Authoritative. Skills: Deception 1, Discipline 1, Might 1, Speed 1 Ki: Yin 1 Gift: +1 Intimidation when issuing commands. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when others follow the ninja's order, but it was obviously the wrong call. This brings us to Step 2: Village. Here, we determine what kind of profession our ninja learned growing up. Tsuki Yoshiro is a rural man, a Farmer of some variety. We'll say he was a Herder, using his ninja dog to help him keep the sheep safe. This gives us more Skills, and a new Gift and Trigger. Skills: Athletics 1, Deception 1, Discipline 1, Marksman 1, Might 2, Speed 1, Survival 1 Gift: +1 Stealth when hiding in forests and fields. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when the ninja sticks out like a sore thumb in an urban environment. Shiba Sakura rolls a 3: Entertainer. Another roll gives us a 1, an Actor. Skills: Deception 1, Discipline 1, Empathy 1, Fortitude 1, Perform 1, Might 1, Speed 1, Stealth 1 Gift: +1 Deception when faking a personality, emotion or identity. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when the ninja's insincerity about their thoughts or feelings causes contention. Step 3: River. This tells us what the character's Tragedy is - what terrible life experience they had which taught them a great lesson and helps determine their Ki. For Yoshiro, this is easy. He has Ravaged Body: Impaired Sense. Skills: Athletics 2, Deception 1, Discipline 1, Fighting 1, Intimidation 1, Marksman 1, Might 3, Speed 1, Survival 1 Ki: Yin 1, Yang 1 Gift: +1 Perception when using any sense but sight. (We could choose any sense to be imapired, but this guy is blind.) Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma if the diminished sense causes the ninja to mishear an order, mistake a target or attacker, or otherwise cause problems. Shiba Sakura rolls a 7: Unending Stigma. From there, she rolls 2: Enemy. Someone hates her. Skills: Deception 2, Discipline 1, Empathy 1, Fortitude 1, Holistics 1, Intuition 1, Perform 1, Persuade 1, Might 1, Speed 1, Stealth 1 Ki: Yin 2 Gift: +1 Persuade when seeking time-sensitive information from Contacts. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when the efforts of the enemy impede the ninja or the party. Step 4: Forge. The war has touched everyone, and this determines how. Tsuki Yoshiro took to ambushing and attacking Imperial forces from the darkness, using his dog to isolate foes so he could defeat them more easily. He was a Striker - specifically, a Gladiator. Skills: Athletics 2, Deception 1, Discipline 1, Fighting 1, Intimidation 1, Marksman 2, Might 4, Speed 1, Stealth 1, Survival 2 Ki: Yin 1, Yang 1 Gift: +1 Fighting when in a one-on-one battle. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when the ninja's skeptical disposition causes conflict. Sakura, on the other hand, was...8: also a Striker. She was...2, an Assassin. Skills: Deception 2, Discipline 1, Empathy 1, Fortitude 1, Holistics 1, Intuition 1, Marskman 1, Might 1, Perform 1, Persuade 1, Might 1, Speed 1, Stealth 2, Survival 1 Ki: Yin 2 Gift: +1 Speed when making a surprise attack. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when a survivor of one the ninja's assassination attempts becomes an obstacle for the group. Step 5: Mountain. This is where we pick clan. Tsuki Yoshiro is easy - he's Pack of the Black Moon. We also select two Contacts off the clan list. One is an Ally. Allies give +2 to their associated skill when they help you out, and can also give you information or leads. They'll want you to do them a favor in the future, however. The other is a Rival. Rivals give -2 to their associated skill when you use it against them or in their presence, and make it harder to get information in their area...but can help you out if you do them a favor first. If you ask an Ally for help before you pay off a favor you owe, they become a Rival. If you make a Rival help you without paying them off, they'll do it...but then they'll never be your Contact again. However, if you do a favor for a Rival when you don't owe them anything, they become an Ally. You can also spend XP to do that, if you don't feel like going through the effort. Anyway! Clan. Skills: Athletics 3, Deception 1, Discipline 1, Fighting 1, Fortitude 1, Intimidation 1, Marksman 2, Might 5, Speed 1, Stealth 1, Survival 3 Ki: Yin 1, Yang 2 Gift: +1 on any check where the dog can be an active participant. Also, the dog is a Smaller Animal with +1 Health and +1 Psyche, and you can spend 1 ki to extend any jutsu to your dog automatically. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when the ninja disregards etiquette and tradition to the detriment of the group. Ally: Iwao Akiyama (Stealth) Rival: Ichiyusai Moeko (Travel) As for Sakura...she rolls a 5: Living Chronicle. We'll decide her free Knowledge specialty is History. Skills: Crafts 1, Deception 2, Discipline 1, Empathy 1, Fortitude 1, Holistics 1, Intuition 1, Knowledge 1 (History), Marskman 1, Might 1, Perception 1, Perform 1, Persuade 1, Might 1, Speed 1, Stealth 2, Survival 1, Travel 1 Ki: Yin 3 Gift: +(Knowledge) to all checks to remain calm or overcome fear, capped by Rank. (So 1, right now.) Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when the ninja risks their lives or the group to obtain a document or historical tome. Ally: Oishi Toshie (Knowledge) Rival: Kurokawa Iwa (Marksman) We would also use this stage to select our Bonds. You can use the three from your clan, or you can rewrite them as you wish - but one should be positive, one relatively neutral and one somewhat negative. At this point, we hit step six: Temple. We get 10 skill points to spend on our character, and two Specialties (which give +1 to the roll when they apply). The 5th point of any skill costs 2, and 5 is the skill cap. Yoshiro got pretty lucky - the succession of lifepath steps he got made him Might 5 for free. He is the strongest blind man. A brief skills overview: We have Athletics (running, jumping, showing physical prowess), Crafts (making literally anything), Deception (lying, disguises and detecting lies), Discipline (patience, meditation and willpower), Empathy (understanding the emotions of others, detecting lies and consoling those who have suffered mental harm), Fighting (hitting people in melee), Fortitude (physical endurance, resistance to disease and poison), Holistics (medicine and poisons), Intimidation (creating and using fear), Intuition (instinct, investigation and luck), Knowledge (history, learning and general knowledge), Marksman (ranged combat), Might (physical strength and grappling), Perception (noticing details, nuances and hidden things), Perform (putting on a show), Persuade (convincing others to listen to you), Speed (quickness, reflexes, chases), Stealth (hiding yourself or objects), Survival (living in the wilderness, finding food), Travel (planning and taking long journeys). When we're done, Yoshiro's skills look like this: Skills: Athletics 3, Deception 1, Discipline 1, Fighting 3, Fortitude 1 (Staying Awake), Intimidation 3, Intuition 1, Marksman 2, Might 5, Perception 2, Speed 1, Stealth 3 (Shadowing), Survival 4 And Sakura's looks like this: Skills: Crafts 1 (Sabotage), Deception 3, Discipline 2, Empathy 1, Fighting 2, Fortitude 1, Holistics 2, Intuition 1, Knowledge 3 (History), Marskman 3 (Archery), Might 1, Perception 1, Perform 1, Persuade 1, Might 1, Speed 2, Stealth 2, Survival 1, Travel 1 Now, each gets two points in Fighting Styles. There are a number of different styles, each with three subdivisions within them. First, there's the 10 animal Styles, which apply at all times, even unarmed. Each clan has access to two of these at chargen. There are also the Weapon Styles. Any character can take any weapon style, but each only gives its bonuses when using a weapon with the appropriate quality. All weapons have a number of qualities. At least two will be positive, but after that, every additional positive quality also requires a negative one. Finally, there are the 99 Styles, which are martial forms that do not specifically line up to actual martial arts - stuff like combat alchemy, summoning celestial beasts or having a pack of assassins. Yoshiro's two animal Styles available are Dragon and Horse, while Sakura's are Crane and Mantis. Dragon is big on dodging around and being tricky, while Horse is about powerful kicks and high speed. Crane is a defensive pressure point style, while Mantis is big on grabs and avoiding knockdown. Yoshiro will be taking one Dragon technique and one Horse technique. Fighting Styles: Dragon (Dragon Whips Tail 1), Horse (Horse Kick 1). Every technique has a level from 1 to 3, getting better as you focus on it more. Dragon Whips Tail allows Yoshiro to make an area attack against everyone nearby by sweeping his legs around. Anyone who fails to dodge is knocked down. Horse Kick, on the other hand, lets him do a double kick at one enemy for +1 damage, and if it hits, it also sends them stumbling backwards. This lets him set people up for his dog pretty easily. Sakura goes with...Sharp, Technique #3, and Ranged, Technique #1, both weapon styles. She must like arrows. Fighting Styles: Sharp (Splitting Arrows 1), Ranged (Blackout the Sun 1) The former allows her to parry arrows and thrown weapons as if parrying a melee weapon. The latter lets her, once per round, make a second Ranged attack when she gets a Boost (beats a success target by 3 or more). She can also fire at up to (Speed) additional targets at once with the second attack. Them, each of these two would select six points worth of jutsu. But we'll hold off on that and just look at what they look like before jutsu. Tsuki Yoshiro of the Black Moon: Skills: Athletics 3, Deception 1, Discipline 1, Fighting 3, Fortitude 1 (Staying Awake), Intimidation 3, Intuition 1, Marksman 2, Might 5, Perception 2, Speed 1, Stealth 3 (Shadowing), Survival 4 Fighting Styles: Dragon (Dragon Whips Tail 1), Horse (Horse Kick 1) Ki: Yin 1, Yang 2 Gift: +1 Stealth when trying to go unnoticed in a crowd. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when the ninja passes on saying something that could change the course of terrible events. Gift: +1 Stealth when hiding in forests and fields. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when the ninja sticks out like a sore thumb in an urban environment. Gift: +1 Perception when using any sense but sight. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma if the diminished sense causes the ninja to mishear an order, mistake a target or attacker, or otherwise cause problems. Gift: +1 Fighting when in a one-on-one battle. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when the ninja's skeptical disposition causes conflict. Gift: +1 on any check where the dog can be an active participant. Also, the dog is a Smaller Animal with +1 Health and +1 Psyche, and you can spend 1 ki to extend any jutsu to your dog automatically. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when the ninja disregards etiquette and tradition to the detriment of the group. Ally: Iwao Akiyama (Stealth) Rival: Ichiyusai Moeko (Travel) Tsuki Yoshiro is a family man. He's been blind since birth, but all of his senses have grown to accomodate him. He and his ninja dog happily raised sheep in the hills, and he married young to a lovely woman named Kokona. When the war came to his secluded ranch, he and his dog, Susano-o, went out to fight. They would pick off the enemy one by one, distracting them in the hills and woods and fighting them in single combat. This earned them the recognition of the leaders of the Pack of the Black Moon, and Yoshiro was made a full ninja after a few years, sent off to Danketsu with his wife and their infant daughter. He's quick to question braggarts, but otherwise doesn't talk a lot or handle city life very well. Still, he's learning. He is good friends with the craftsman Iwao Akiyama, who grew up in the same village. He met the pirate warrior Ichiyusai Moeko during the war, and the two seem to be unable to avoid getting into heated competitions whenever they meet, no matter how stupid they are. Shiba Sakura of the Living Chronicle: Skills: Crafts 1 (Sabotage), Deception 3, Discipline 2, Empathy 1, Fighting 2, Fortitude 1, Holistics 2, Intuition 1, Knowledge 3 (History), Marskman 3 (Archery), Might 1, Perception 1, Perform 1, Persuade 1, Might 1, Speed 2, Stealth 2, Survival 1, Travel 1 Fighting Styles: Sharp (Splitting Arrows 1), Ranged (Blackout the Sun 1) Ki: Yin 3 Gift: +1 Intimidation when issuing commands. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when others follow the ninja's order, but it was obviously the wrong call. Gift: +1 Deception when faking a personality, emotion or identity. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when the ninja's insincerity about their thoughts or feelings causes contention. Gift: +1 Persuade when seeking time-sensitive information from Contacts. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when the efforts of the enemy impede the ninja or the party. Gift: +1 Speed when making a surprise attack. Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when a survivor of one the ninja's assassination attempts becomes an obstacle for the group. Gift: +(Knowledge) to all checks to remain calm or overcome fear, capped by Rank. (So 1, right now.) Trigger: The party gains 1 Karma when the ninja risks their lives or the group to obtain a document or historical tome. Ally: Oishi Toshie (Knowledge) Rival: Kurokawa Iwa (Marksman) Shiba Sakura grew up as a traveling actor. Her parents led the acting troupe, and she knew she was destined to follow them...at least, until the troupe was destroyed by bandits. Sakura, twelve at the time, enabled her father to escape by taking a burning torch and using it to put out the eye of the bandit leader, a woman named Jun the Tiger. When Jun swore eternal vengeance, Sakura's father packed her off to a monastery run by the Living Chronicle for protection. She soon displayed an aptitude for ki manipulation, though, and rather than safe, she became a ninja trainee. She proved adept at taking the fight to the enemy and slipping away again, challenging fate over and over in her efforts to be at the center of the history she was recording. She has often found herself at odds with her childhood friend, Kurokawa Iwa, whose archery skills are superior but who often becomes jealous of Sakura's jutsus. Still, she is the favored student of Oishi Toshie, and with her recent graduation to full ninja and her deployment to Danketsu, many eyes are on her to see if she'll live up to his reputation. Next time: Skills and Fighting Styles.
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Jul 3, 2017 01:15
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FATAL & FRIENDS: I am Afraid Your Clean Hitler has Metastasized! My take away from harvester was that their scythe delivers a final death, regardless of what the normal rules would be for how that creature dies. A conundrum how that interacts with stuff that kind of just come back on their own by their nature. marshmallow creep fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Jul 3, 2017 |
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Jul 3, 2017 02:13
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If it didn't cause final death you'd get situations like a harvester teaming up with a reborn to come and euthanize him every hundred years or so. wait, how does harvesting even work with reborn? do the years the reborn spends unaware of their abilities count? what about the time between incarnations?
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Jul 3, 2017 05:05
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In all honestly it feels like the Harvesters are introduced on top of all of the established Rules with the express purpose of "hi, we break your rules and that's what makes us the biggest threat". Like death by a Harvester's scythe is a specific subclause under the hypothetical immortality contract and there are some rules not everyone is aware of because they can't read the book like I can. "I will only truly die if my reincarnated self dies before they are unable to recall all of their past memories*. *Null and void in the case of death via scythe wielded by Harvester with malicious intent" Also it's never expressly stated but I'm pretty sure a Reborn is just instantly reincarnated Wherever the moment there's a baby at the time of their death.
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Jul 3, 2017 05:13
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Cassa posted:Yes hi hello I would like to know more of this game and all games with good dog representation. It's kind of poo poo, IIRC. System is hilariously awful. This is from an old character generation write up. I call the system a bit odd, but in retrospect it's more a case of WTF. The core dice mechanic The system is a bit odd, in that a skill check requires two dice rolls. First, you roll your Potential vs. your skill rating. E.g. if Joe above was trying to fish he’d roll 3 dice (Knowledge – I’ve decided that success in fishing is down to knowing how to do it.) vs. a rating of 2. I roll 8,4 and 1, giving 1 success die. The success dice are then rolled against a difficulty number set by the GM. Any that roll equal to or below the difficulty are counted at their full value, any that roll above count as a one. In our fishing example we’ll say that it’s a fairly good patch of water, so it’s not difficult to get a bite, and set the difficulty at 7. Rolling our one successful trial die results in a 5. As this is below 7 it counts as a 5 point success. Good fishing for Joe.
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Jul 3, 2017 05:40
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Hostile V posted:HARVESTERS I'm not up to date on Vampire combat statistics, but wouldn't a 600 year old vampire be able to basically kill even a group of normies with +2 glocks of wounding by basically just blinking really quickly in their direction?
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Jul 3, 2017 07:10
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Metallia posted:I'm not up to date on Vampire combat statistics, but wouldn't a 600 year old vampire be able to basically kill even a group of normies with +2 glocks of wounding by basically just blinking really quickly in their direction? I mean don't get me wrong, a vampire that deals with a bunch of armed immortality junkies by deciding to dodge all of their bullets is thinking small. Dominate them and turn them against each other, turn invisible, escape in swarm of roaches form, compel them to turn around and walk away, make them see their greatest fears and paralyze them, the vampire will generally have options. The Harvesters just have the edge of being able to throw free saving throws at the vampire and being able to stop the fight with one lucky strike if it turns to combat. Doesn't matter if your Resilience means you can shrug off bullets if a successful tag paralyzes you.
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Jul 3, 2017 07:25
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Stunlock Dracula and steal his life force sounds cool , but the mechanics don't seem as good as the premise.
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Jul 3, 2017 08:11
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Angrymog posted:It's kind of poo poo, IIRC. System is hilariously awful. This is from an old character generation write up. I call the system a bit odd, but in retrospect it's more a case of WTF. Well crap Horrible Lurkbeast posted:sounds cool , but the mechanics don't seem as good as the premise. New thread title.
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Jul 3, 2017 08:32
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Maybe: 'Premise: cool, Mechanics: lukewarm' ?
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Jul 3, 2017 10:15
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Premises are ultimately pretty easy. It's why 'ideas man' is such a derided term, ideas aren't hard, literally everyone has them. Getting mechanics right on the other hand is loving complicated and needs repeated playtesting and long grinding hours of unfun effort people typically don't want to put into their passion project.
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Jul 3, 2017 10:22
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Cassa posted:Well crap As a followup, a starting character can't have a skill of greater than 6 and having that is going to leave you with a scattershot selection of really bad skills, as you have to have a minimum of 15 skills and have 40 points to spend.
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Jul 3, 2017 10:34
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Horrible Lurkbeast posted:Maybe: 'Premise: cool, Mechanics: lukewarm' ? The Premise is willing but the Mechanics are weak.
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Jul 3, 2017 15:06
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Kurieg posted:The Premise is willing but the Mechanics are weak. .....wait, why are you guys talking of CthulhuTech?
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Jul 3, 2017 15:18
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Warhammer Fantasy Night's Dark Masters When you live forever, going crazy is a big deal. Insanity is a big deal for vampires, though it isn't likely to be important unless playing as one as a PC. Vampires live forever, their souls never go to any of the realms that souls rest in, and they can be returned to life with magical rituals; when you cannot actually 'die' at any point madness becomes one of your greatest threats in life. Vamps have a few additional ways to go mad. A vampire should not drink too much; while in the wider fluff overdrinking regularly will cause a vampire to degenerate into a massive, mutated beast called a Varghulf, here taking more than 12 drinks in a single day (as defined by draining d10 Strength from someone) will necessitate a WP test. If failed, the vamp gains 1 Insanity Point. If succeeded, any further drinking that day will cause an additional check at -10% cumulative. On the other hand, a vampire who is trying to resist and go without feeding for too long gains an Insanity point if they frenzy from failing the 'resist drinking blood' WP by 30% or more. Receiving the Blood Kiss can have a newly made vampire start with an extra Insanity Point if they fail a WP test; the experience is incredibly painful if you're conscious for it. Unlike humans, vampires don't suffer Insanity for suffering critical hits. They DO suffer Insanity for suffering Critical Hits from something they're actually vulnerable to, like silver or a holy weapon. Vamps also go crazy just from being alive too long. Every century causes a WP test and failure brings one Insanity Point. Success means next century's test will be at a cumulative -10, until one is failed. Time spent dead or in torpor does not build up insanity. A vampire no longer feels the normal human revulsion at scenes of violence and bloodletting, and they cannot gain Insanity from events revolving around killing and brutality. They also won't gain Insanity if they fail a Terror test, unlike a human. This is both critical to why vampires aren't all batshit crazy, and a pretty important point for roleplaying one: You might be hacking up Chaos Warriors instead of peasants, but a vamp has a hard time understanding directly why other humans might find it disquieting that they just cut someone in two. Vampires also take longer to go crazy than humans; they only test for gaining actual, measurable disorders per 10 Insanity points instead of 6 like a mortal. Insanity is bad enough in adventurers. Remember that vampires are, by their very nature, already ridiculously overdramatic and prone to megalomaniac ambition. A normal vampire will already believe themselves one of the greatest creatures in the Old World. Now imagine what a crazy one gets up to. A vampire who has gone insane is superhumanly strong, may be wealthy enough to have minions who will tolerate their eccentricities, and likely has a passing knowledge of the black arts; the damage they can do is considerable. When a human suffers the insanity of Lost Heart, for instance, they think someone is their earnest beloved, sending them secret messages of affection and begging in coded actions and strange signs for their paramour. Now imagine that happens to a vampire, and in their usual penchant for drama and aiming high, they think their true soulmate is, say, the High Priestess of Shallya. These are the sorts of things that start setting-spanning wars or can serve as the bedrock of a campaign's main villain. Vampires also have a couple insanities of their own, beyond being able to suffer the normal human ones like 'Totally Not PTSD' or 'Probably Schizophrenia'. Combined with the inability to empathize on a gut level with pain and blood, some vampires fall into an insane cenobite-like sadomasochism with Exquisite Agonies. They have to hurt people, as surely as they have to take blood, and if they cannot find anyone else to harm, they will engage in self-harm in order to combat the sort of numbness eternity brings on them. They try to cause extremes of pain in order to remember what normal pain and feeling were like. Godly Conviction is what happens when a vampire's normal sense of superiority becomes even more problematic than usual: They begin needing a WP-30 test to ever even contemplate defeat or consider escaping from a challenge. This is the one that leads you to challenge the sun to a duel. The Heart of Melancholy is a truly terrible affliction of nihilistic depression that afflicts a vampire who spends too much time focusing on eternity. They desert their plans, their followers, and their castles, and cannot even rouse themselves to go and drink without a WP test, because what is the point of it all against the grand scale of geological time? This affliction is so terrible that many will prod themselves into another form of madness specifically to escape it, because this death of the spirit is the true death for a vampire. Pursued Perfection is a sort of obsessive-compulsive state common among Blood Dragons: The vampire invents greater and greater challenges and immense projects that they will never acknowledge as done. A vampire with this affliction who wishes to slay a greater demon, say, will manage to do so and then immediately dismiss it (It was just a Slaaneshi! Those aren't even warriors!) and return to their pursuit. Finally, some are Steeped in Death. Addicted to killing and the flow of blood, they must seek out battle on a weekly basis, and whenever they find a fight, they will join in. They don't care what they fight for, or who they fight against, only that blood continues to flow and lives continue to end. Also rather common among Dragons. Next: The Black Arts of Necromancy. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Aug 4, 2017 |
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Jul 3, 2017 16:21
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I like the random rolling for Ninja Crusade, but how likely is it to absolutely gently caress you over?
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Jul 3, 2017 16:25
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Angrymog posted:It's kind of poo poo, IIRC. System is hilariously awful. This is from an old character generation write up. I call the system a bit odd, but in retrospect it's more a case of WTF. I have the both the 1st edition and the d20 version and it is a situation where the d20 version is so much better in terms of mechanics. The setting is the only reason to get 'The End' to be honest. It's a fascinating post-apocalypse where the Beast and the Four Horsemen are running around basically bored and wrecking poo poo because now that Judgement Day is over they have no reason to exist and since God is gone, there is nothing to stop them or give them orders.
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Jul 3, 2017 16:32
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Leraika posted:I like the random rolling for Ninja Crusade, but how likely is it to absolutely gently caress you over? You might end up with a broad selection of low skills, but the 10 points of customization allow you to fill in the ones you want to be really good at, and having a broad base is not terrible. Because you only have two fighting styles, it actually can't gently caress you out of being able to use either, since all weapons have two tags free, so you can always pick a weapon that has both the tags you need if you get two weapon styles. It could leave you with only 99 Styles and no fighting styles, but those are actually combat-viable as well. Basically, your worst risk is that you're going to end up with a lot of relatively small dicepools, since all pools are one skill plus another skill.
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Jul 3, 2017 16:44
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Ninja Crusades and that Atlantis game has some pretty neat random rolling results,
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Jul 3, 2017 17:34
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Yeah it seems to be remarkably comprehensive and robust. I really like how you keep accumulating experience tics so you've got multiple options.
Vox Valentine fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Jul 3, 2017 |
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Jul 3, 2017 17:45
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One of the really nice things about Ninja Crusade 2e is how much of an improvement it is over the first edition, which was a hot mess system-wise that had some interesting but half-formed ideas. I was a fan of it even then, though I'd never have tried to play it, and I was really glad that the second edition ditched the old system entirely and came up with a pretty nice new one that is a lot simpler and a lot more conducive to actual use at a table.
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Jul 3, 2017 17:50
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Mors Rattus posted:You might end up with a broad selection of low skills, but the 10 points of customization allow you to fill in the ones you want to be really good at, and having a broad base is not terrible. Because you only have two fighting styles, it actually can't gently caress you out of being able to use either, since all weapons have two tags free, so you can always pick a weapon that has both the tags you need if you get two weapon styles. It could leave you with only 99 Styles and no fighting styles, but those are actually combat-viable as well. Basically, your worst risk is that you're going to end up with a lot of relatively small dicepools, since all pools are one skill plus another skill. So, same issue as using the random-roll chargen in Reign, then. Not so bad, and easily fixed.
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Jul 3, 2017 18:59
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Ninja Crusade 2nd Edition: My Kung Fu Is Superior Fighting Styles! Fighting Styles, again, come in three types. There's the 10 Animal Styles. You can always use these no matter what, and often they can boost your unarmed abilities, but each clan only has access to two at chargen. Ronin get access to one, but it can be any of them. Then you have the 5 Weapon Styles which can only be used if you're wielding a weapon with the associated weapon tag. And then you have the 99 Styles, which do weird things. Animal and Weapon styles each have three techniques, which each have three stacking levels. We don't know what these combat terms mean yet, though. Organization! Bear: Endurance fighting, relying on strong attacks and powerful defense, especially crushing grapples and chokes. Angry Mother Protects the Young 1. +1 Armor against physical damage per level, but only when acting as a human shield for someone else. 2. +2 Intimidation during battle. 3. When you get hit, you deal +1 damage to the attacker next time you attack them. Inescapable Embrace 1. +1 per level to Initiative Grab actions. 2. +1 damage to Inflict Harm during a Grab. 3. If you keep a foe held for three rounds in a row, they get the Knockout 2 condition and fall unconscious, or die at GM discretion if they're weak. Thick Skin +1 Armor per level, which at GM discretion can apply against mental attacks, too. Crane: Elegant, defensive combat and combat medicine. Healing of the Mother +1 Holistics per level to heal Conditions. Patience As Reward 1. You may choose not to attack in a round to get +1 per level to Defense checks that round. 2. The bonus becomes +2 per level. 3. You get +3 dice from Dynamic Actions spent to Enhance Defense, rather than 2. Pushing On Crane Wings 1. You may make a Block at -1. If you succeed, the attacker is knocked beck (level*10) feet. This can be used only once per round. 2. The attacker is also knocked down now, and you can use this twice per round. 3. Knockback distance is doubled and you can use this three times per round. Dragon: Highly developed mental and physical fortitude, constant motion and indirect attacks. Dragon Whips Tail 1. You can make a melee attack at +1 against everyone in Near range. Everyone gets a chance to Dodge; anyone that fails is knocked down (but takes no damage). 2. The attack is now at +2, and victims in Close range take 1 damage. 3. Damage increases to 2, and victims that take a Quick Action to stand get -2 instead of the normal -1 penalty for doing so. Flailing Body Any attempt to trap or grab you gets -1 per level, and you get +1 per level to escape bindings or chains. Master of Surroundings During and after the second Round of every fight, you get 1 die per level that you may spend to add to any Defense check. Also, at level 3, Improvised Weapons you use do not have the Fragile Quality. Eagle: Hit pressure points, hit fast, keep moving, don't get hit or wear armor. Beating My Wings 1. You may throw two projectiles or fire two arrows at a single target, attacking at -2. The target makes only one Defense check, and the damage of both attacks are added together. 2. The penalty is now -1, and you may throw or fire three seperate attacks at up to two different targets. 3. There is no penalty, and you can throw or fire four seperate attacks at up to four different targets. Flying Into Battle 1. After you successfully Dodge, you can make a full Movement for free, which does not trigger Retreating Attacks. 2. You can spend 2 Dynamic Actions to leap up to your Movement, attack, then move up to your Movement. 3. Level 2 now costs only 1 Dynamic Action. Raptor Needs to Feed You may spend an additional Dynamic Action per level on Deeper Cuts for a single attack. Horse: Run, jump, kick, run, jump, kick. Cannot Be Tamed 1. Once per Battle, you can make a barrage of kicks at everyone in Close Range, attacking all of them. After, you get -2 to all checks until your next Turn. 2. The penalty is now -1, and your attack deals +1 damage. 3. You no longer suffer a penalty and can use the barrage twice per Battle. Horse Kick You can kick a single opponent with both feet at once, dealing +1 damage per level and knocking them back (Level*5) feet. At level 3, you also cause knockdown. To Run Free 1. +4 Movement per level. 2. Your jumping Movement increases by (Might*3) feet horizontally, and half that vertically. 3. You get 2 bonus Dynamic Dice per Battle that you may add to any Round. Mantis: Brutal two-finger strikes, harsh grips and quick defenses. Catching Prey 1. You may choose to trap an attack when you Block. This has no penalty against unarmed attacks but only -1 against weapons if you have a cloth or rope in hand. If you succeed, you and the attacker are now in a Grab. 2. When you trap a limb, it goes numb for (Might) Rounds, causing a noncumulative -2 penalty to use it. If you get a Boost, you instead make an Injured 2 condition. 3. Instead of numbing the limb, you may harm it, either dealing 2 damage or shattering the enemy's weapon. On a Boost, you can even destroy magical or master-crafted weapons. Mantis Feasts Well 1. Your unarmed attacks do +1 damage. 2. You can ignore 1 level of Armor. 3. You can ignore 3 levels of Armor. Mantis Stands Steadfast 1. When you resist being knocked down, thrown or tripped in Battle, you may double your highest rolled skill for the check. 2. If you fail a check to remain standing, you get one reroll. 3. If you succeed a check to resist being knocked down, thrown or tripped, you can instead force someone in Close range to fall or be thrown without a check. Monkey: Tumble around, dodge a lot, counter punch, piss people off. Baby Monkey Has A Fit 1. +1 Fighting per level when facing a considerably larger foe. 2. You may stand as a free action and take no penalties for falling prone. 3. Your Interruptions cost 1 Dynamic Action instead of 2. Rolling Attack/Retreat 1. You can either tumble (Movement/2) and then attack, or attack and tumble (Movement/2). If you do, the attack is at -1, but the opponent cannot use a Retreat Attack. 2. You take no penalty and the attack does +1 damage. 3. Now you can tumble in, attack and tumble out, all in the same action. Vanishing Anyone chasing you gets -1 per level to detect you if there are trees, undergrowth, refuse or other low obstacles to hide among. At level 3, you also get +2 to attack from stealth. Snake: Subtle movements and pressure point targeting, plus poisons. Coil and Strike You may concentrate for 1 full round and take no actions but defending to focus on a target. On your Turn in the next Round, you may attack with bonus dice equal to twice the number of Actions you did not use, Standard and Dynamic, capping at (Level*3) dice. The attack also deals +1 damage. (It might be Level*2; the example is level 2 getting 4 dice.) Poison Striking 1. On a Boost, you may give your opponent a Poison condition equal to (Level). 2. You get +2 to Holistics when making or handling poisons. 3. You may use Speed as the second skill on any combat check in Battle, no matter what you're doing. Immunity to Poison You get +1 per level to Fortitude to resist poison. Even if you fail, the effects are cut by 25% at level 1, 50% at level 2 and 75% at level 3. Tiger: Savage attacks for heavy damage after gathering strength. Never Forget a Taste 1. Once you have fought and drawn blood from someone, you may target them to get +1 to Survival to hunt them and +1 Initiative and +1 to Fighting against them. You can have only one target at a time. 2. All bonuses rise to +2. 3. You can have to (Intuition) targets at once. Tasting Your Own Blood When you roll a Boost in Battle, you may reduce any Pain condition by 1. For each point you ignore this way, you get +1 Initiative and +1 to Fighting checks for the rest of the Battle, stacking up to (Level) times. Tiger Claws 1. Your unarmed attacks, on top of their normal damage, cause a Pain 1 condition (though you can't stack that on any existing conditions and it's not cumulative). 2. Your unarmed attacks ignore 2 levels of Armor. 3. Your unarmed attacks cannot be Blocked without taking at least 1 point of damage, regardless of how good the Block roll is. Wildcat: Overwhelm the foe with jumping attacks and flurries. Flurry of Blows On any attack where you get a Boost, you may give up the normal bonus you'd get to instead make another attack. You may do this no more than (Level) times per Round. Lands on Feet 1. Whenever you would fall for any reason, you can make a free difficulty 2 Athletics+Speed check to land safely on your feet. 2. The difficulty drops to 1 and if you succeed you get +1 to your next combat check. 3. You don't even have to make a check. Anyone trying to trip you triggers your level 2 bonus and gives you a bonus Dynamic Action for the Round automatically. Pounce 1. If you act first in the Round, you get +2 to Fighting and +1 damage on your first attack of the Round. 2. You get +5 Movement. 3. When spending Dynamic Actions to affect Initiative, each gives a +3 or -3 shift, rather than 2. Next time: Weapon Styles. Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Jul 3, 2017 |
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Jul 3, 2017 22:47
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"The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The House of the Dead, 1862 "The devil is real. I know, I built his cage." -Jonathan Ishii, Doom 3, 2004 "DEAL WITH IT" -En Sabah Nur, The Making of a Prophet LP, 2010  INTRODUCTION RPGObjects is a game company that really got its start providing OGL content for d20 Modern and a few mapping tools. The game you would know them for, if you knew them for anything, was their game Darwin's World. To paraphrase the Wikipedia page, it started in 2001 as a hack for 3rd edition D&D to provide post-apocalyptic roleplaying in a ravaged world. Wikipedia on Darwin's World posted:Unlike many existing post-apocalyptic role-playing games, Darwin's World is often described as a darker and more "realistic" game system. In specific, its use of real-life deformities and genetic diseases to portray character defects, as well as issues like slavery, racism, and drug use give it a grittier quality than most post-apocalyptic RPGs, which often have a fantastic or "comic book" feel that requires a broader willingness to suspend disbelief." Delightful. There's nobody I trust more than d20 content creators to tackle that. If I was here to talk about Darwin's World, I would be doing that. Instead I'm back at it again with my own brand of bullshit, which is focusing on the sister games that got much less show time that have been forgotten. Which brings us to Abandon All Hope, a game released in 2010 as a new addition to the RPGObjects catalogue. AAH has its own dice system and has many of the trappings of what you'd expect would be there for d20 content creators making their own system. And that (mixed with the actual content of the game and how it is...let's drat it with faint praise, "unique") is why I'm doing the deep dive into dirty waters. So let's start with the beginning. I hear it's a great place to start.  CHAPTER ONE: HISTORY Let's get one thing on paper right now: this game's calendar is nonsense because the writers don't seem to understand that the 25th century is actually the 2400s. The dates of the backstory aren't entirely relevant but yeesh it's bugging me how this doesn't really give me a good grasp of the timeline. Anyway, the 24th century was a century of horrific war for mankind. We had left Earth to form colonies and invent amazing new technologies, but chaos and greed and decay permeated the Imperial government and lead to a century of war between nations of Earth and the colonies. Millions were killed by starvation and warfare, countries were left crippled by destroyed infrastructure and every war was fought with either nuclear, biological or chemical weapons (sometimes all three). By the time the year 2400 rolls around, some countries are absolutely sick of constant war and the armistices that accomplish nothing before collapsing. This lead to the creation of the Unification Movement. The Unification Movement was an idealistic utopian coalition of nations and people who decided that this all just had to stop. The war had ended for good at the turn of the 2400s and the members of the Unification Movement wanted change. They had enough activists and radical agitators to influence the highest levels of government and in the end they got what they wanted. The pan-Terran "New Regime", as it was called at the time, took power and with this power the armies, navies and aerospace forces were disbanded permanently. All that remained was a token police force to enforce the law and protect the populace. It's particularly hard to tell if the New Regime was corrupt from the word go or if it was subverted by fascists and people hungry for power and control. Perhaps it was a mix of both. The game never addresses this as such, this is all me reading into it. What the game does say is that after the New Regime took control, they decided that disarmament wasn't enough. The people who were involved in the wars, grunts and politicians alike, were removed from the office and the public eye and sent to re-education camps. The idea was that without their influence on the world the next generation would be able to grow up in peace, untainted by old ideas of war and combat held by the people in charge. "Extremist liberal policies" and radical legislation got passed by the Regime's government and funding was put in place to understand the psychology of crime. They also squished all religion so everyone could be the same but that just gets a passing mention. Shame the thing that came out of it was hacky pseudo-science. Using an adaptation of an old drug-aversion therapy called "The Ludovico Technique" (the authors would like you folks at home to know that they have in fact heard of A Clockwork Orange) the scientists came to the conclusion that genetic predisposition and predilection for crime could be amounted to three factors: Despair, Guilt and Insanity and how they applied to history, genetics, background, etc. The Ludovico Gauges could measure a person's DGI and predict whether or not they would ever be a criminal threat. So by all unanimously agreeing that Minority Report was a good movie, the scientists worked together with the Regime to create a database of offenders. Some of the offenders were in fact criminals. Some of them were involved in the wars, some of them were profiled due to possible mental health issues, some of them were bureaucratic errors and some of them were people the government wanted to go away. Just gonna copy this verbatim from the book:  So after creating this database, the New Regime decided it was time to take action. First they changed their name to The Pan-Terran Meritocracy. Then they started enforcing laws harder than before with the help of their police forces. Dissidents were rounded up and imprisoned along with the members of the database. While this was happening, the PTM started adapting a past project for new purposes. See, the colonies were either space stations or kind of minor and far flung. They existed, but they weren't particularly big. During the war one of the colonization projects was being developed and after the war the PTM dug it up and decided "yeah, this will work". This was PROJECT GEHENNA. Project Gehenna was a plan to build a supermassive colony ship that could contain millions of people. It was a slow ship, but it was stocked with plenty of facilities to allow for upkeep and survival on the ship. It wouldn't be the greatest place to live, but it would do the job well enough to allow for a mass colonization project. The PTM turned the Gehenna into a prison colony ship. Every single prisoner, almost 10 million of them, were loaded onto the Gehenna and launched off into the great unknown. On Earth, the public statement was that the PTM could not be truly free of crime and war and sin if it still had prisoners. In private, the plan was to allow them a shot at living somewhere else. If the Gehenna found somewhere to land, fine, great, welcome to Space Australia Pop: 10 million. If they all died, fine, great. Either way they didn't have to deal with them anymore.  So the book describes 25th century scholars as coining the term "Unification Movement". The wars last for a century. And this map is for 2657. What year is it? gently caress you, that's what year it is. The Gehenna  Built after eight years of construction, the Gehenna is 5 miles long and powered by eight nuclear thrusters on the back of the ship. Why nuclear thrusters? Disarmament. All nuclear materials used for weapons were loaded up onto the ship as fuel because the technology was now forbidden under the PTM. The back third of the ship is all fusion and nuclear power facilities, kept downwind from the rest of the vessel to protect the occupants as best as they could. Between the middle section and the thrusters is the central terminus for the ship's Custodians. The Custodians are the all-robotic staff of the Gehenna, completely free of human guards (well, kinda) and under the control of the AI called The Warden. The segment between them is where the Custodians are made and repaired and stored. It's also home to repair facilities, foundries and manufactory centers to help keep the ship in good shape. The middle of the ship is the prison proper. Three miles long and 500 stories deep, the prison is full of cells, cafeterias, gyms, medical facilities and more. This is where prisoners live and die. This is also where all of the escape pods are in case the Gehenna does find a place suitable for colonization. The rest of the ship is home to the solar sails (to supplement the nuclear thrusters) and the Warden's facilities. Everything Gets Worse The Gehenna was pointed in the direction of the Pleiades Cluster and let loose. For the first five years, everything was as normal as it gets for a prison transport colony ship launched by a fascist police state. When it passed the Pleiades, everything got strange. The other side of the cluster was devoid of light and contained nothing but icy rock. When it passed through, the Gehenna quietly lost communication with Earth who wrote it off as an acceptable loss. It went mostly unmonitored for a while longer until everything went to Hell. Literally. Somewhere in the black expanse beyond the cluster was a spatial anomaly. It might have been a black hole or a wormhole or a simple crack in reality, it's hard to say. But one moment the Gehenna was in the universe and in the next it wasn't. And it wasn't a nice happy pass-through either. The effects of traveling into this bizarre new dimension/plane of existence was horrific and catastrophic, causing electrical malfunctions and heavy damage to the sturdy bulkheads from strange pressures. What followed was catastrophic life support failures in chunks of the ship as cell blocks were consumed by fire, electricity or the cold exposed void. In all, more than 5 million of the prisoners were killed instantly by the event that the prisoners call Perdition. The other side wasn't much better. Described as "an indescribable place", the other side of Perdition is not empty. Hell/The Other Side/The Nether is full of strange beings who immediately started swarming the Gehenna like sharks smelling blood, able to pass through the hull of the ship and focus on the prisoners inside. The natives are hostile and predatory, greedily gorging themselves on the anger, fear and madness of the prisoners, often with fatal results. To make things worse, the Warden didn't really have a lot of problems before Perdition but it does now. The Warden is incapable of understanding the threat that the demons pose and won't really do much to handle them. All the Warden understands is that the ship is heavily damaged and that the surviving prisoners are all loose on the ship. Its Custodians are armored and capable of dealing with the prisoners but their weapons and tools aren't great when it comes to horrors from beyond the universe. No matter how you shake it, things aren't great for the prisoners. They're trapped five years from Earth in another dimension full of monsters that want to devour them and robots that want to put them back in their cells. And, of course, there are the other prisoners who are an active threat to the survivors. It's a compelling enough premise on paper. Shame it doesn't live up to the ideas it's built on, but isn't that always how it goes? NEXT TIME: Chapter Two. The core book is 130 pages long and divided into 8 chapters. Chapter 2 is all about character creation and if anyone wants to suggest a few prisoners to represent Goons In Space I'd be happy to stat them out. Just give me a name, general personality and crime and I can do the rest. Also just going forward, I want to do a general content warning. This is a game set on a prison which has been sent to Hell. It is not a particularly tasteful game. There are aspects of sexual assault, violence, gore and abuse through this entire shebang. I will edit and alter tone where I can and if I find something to be particularly repugnant, I will probably put it in spoiler text if it's necessary to be included. There are also a lot of badly drawn titties that I will have to censor. That cover art? Pretty much the highlight of the art. Vox Valentine fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Jul 4, 2017 |
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Jul 3, 2017 23:45
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MollyMetroid posted:One of the really nice things about Ninja Crusade 2e is how much of an improvement it is over the first edition, which was a hot mess system-wise that had some interesting but half-formed ideas. I was a fan of it even then, though I'd never have tried to play it, and I was really glad that the second edition ditched the old system entirely and came up with a pretty nice new one that is a lot simpler and a lot more conducive to actual use at a table. I 100% agree. Ninja Crusade went from a really bad d20 mess to a pretty legit game in one edition, mostly by cutting his loses on the d20 system. Probably also helps that his affinity for "Skill+Skill" works a hell a lot better in a dice roll system than in a die+modifier system. As an aside on the "actually playing part", I'll say I have tried to run 2nd edition (twice) but fell into the forever problem of "no one wants to play it at all." 
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Jul 3, 2017 23:57
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Hostile V posted:"Deal with it." -En Sabah Nur, The Making of a Prophet LP, 2010 I think you mean   But yeah, having seen you discuss this ahead of time, I look forward to seeing the thread's reaction to where this poo poo goes.
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Jul 4, 2017 00:12
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So does that ship travel in FTL speeds or what because looking it up the Pleiades Cluster is 444 light years away from earth. I find it hard to believe that they managed to pass that in five years.  Also found it amusing how specific it was that exactly 5 million prisoners died once everything went Doom on the ship. Cooked Auto fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Jul 4, 2017 |
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Jul 4, 2017 01:10
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I too enjoyed Event Horizon. But seriously, I was digging on the concept of a figuratively hellish generation ship populated by criminals and innocent people convicted without trial until it became literally hellish. Thankfully Durance exists if I want a game about Space Australia.
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Jul 4, 2017 01:19
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The prison/colonist ship going off base made me think of Analogue: A Hate Story and Hate Plus, but like LongDarkNight it lost me when it went literal hell.
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Jul 4, 2017 01:26
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Covok posted:
This is part of why I convinced Mors to grab it at Origins  I figured getting people aware of it would help and if not I could at least recruit Mors himself.
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Jul 4, 2017 01:34
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Cooked Auto posted:So does that ship travel in FTL speeds or what because looking it up the Pleiades Cluster is 444 light years away from earth. As for if the ship is FTL, poo poo I dunno. They'll tell you that the hull is made of beryllium because of how resistant to the environment and wear/tear it is and explain that the thrusters and rockets are all based on updated Project Orion tech but I guess they can't be assed to decide if FTL exists or not.
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Jul 4, 2017 01:35
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"Aren't we a terrifying police state? Why are we launching them into space? Can't we just shoot them? Space is expensive." "Well, we are shooting them! Into space." "Well, I mean, we could shoot them with guns, and just order qualified people who we could trust with a space mission, in space." "Who would volunteer for that?" "We don't need volunteers, we can just order them! We order them to be shot into-" "We're not shooting our own citizens!" "... fine, let's go ahead with your plan, I'm sick of this."
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Jul 4, 2017 01:44
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I cannot think of a project more bone-headed than trying to make anything actually scary or 'realistic' in d20.
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Jul 4, 2017 01:58
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Hostile V posted:It's not really an exact thing so much as it's just "yeah more than half of the prisoners died but not everyone died so it's like...y'know, more than half". They can't nail down a consistent ballpark number like they can't nail down a consistent year. Fair enough. Although I do think the Project Orion things were all sub-light speed so I guess the reactors are powered by unobtanium as well.
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Jul 4, 2017 01:58
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Night10194 posted:I cannot think of a project more bone-headed than trying to make anything actually scary or 'realistic' in d20. What I'm saying is, there are projects more bone-headed than that.
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Jul 4, 2017 02:08
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Ninja Crusade 2nd Edition: NINJA SWORD Weapon Styles, again, each require a different Quality, but if your weapon has two Qualities you can use both styles if you have them. If you aren't wielding an appropriate weapon, you can't use any of that style's techniques. Blunt Bonecrusher 1. +1 damage with Blunt weapons. On a Boost, you also create a Pain 2 condition rather than the normal Pain 1. 2. On a Boost, on top of the Pain 2 condition, you also cause either Broken 1 or Injury 1, whichever fits the situation best. 3. On a Boost, the Broken or Injury condition is 2 instead of 1. Force of Nature 1. On a Boost when attacking, any opponent within Close range must make a difficulty 2 Athletics+Speed check or fall over. 2. The difficulty of the check is now 3, and the fall also deals +1 damage. 3. You may use your weapon to vault (Movement*2) as a Quick Action once per round. On a Boost, you may act again immediately without penalty. Shatter Weapons 1. If someone uses a wooden weapon against your attack, you may shatter it on a Boost. 2. Now metal weapons are also effected. 3. On a Boost when striking a wooden or metal object, you partially or entirely shatter it depending on its size. Chain Chain Dance 1. +1 Fighting per level with Chain weapons. 2. Any attempt to catch or trap your weapon is at -2. 3. You may use an Action to clear the area around you. Anyone in Close range chooses - either move to Near range or take 2 damage. Chain Lightning 1. You get +1 Initiative per level. 2. On a Boost, you may reflect light off your chain to blind your target. They must make a difficulty 2 Fortitude check or get a Sensory Loss 1 condition. 3. On a successful Disarm, you may grab the target's weapon with your chain and make an attack with it at -2, using the Qualities of both your weapon and the grabbed one. Flying Chains 1. You can throw Chain weapons at Near range with no penalty. 2. On a Boost, reduce your opponent's Initiative by 2. If you get another Boost in them in the same Battle, they get the Slow 1 condition. 3. You can throw Chain weapons at Far range without penalty, and if one of your thrown attacks misses, your weapon returns to your hand. Paired Absolute Defense 1. Choose a Quality. You get 1 Armor per level against weapons with that Quality. 2. You pick a second Quality. 3. You pick a third Quality, and you may also now Block ranged attacks without penalty. Unstoppable Attack 1. You may attack twice in one Action, but both attacks are at -2 and are defended against separately. 2. Penalties for both attacks are now -1. 3. You get no penalty any more. Also, +2 Initiative. Yin and Yang 1. Once per round, you may sacrifice up to (Level) dice from an Attack to add to your next Defense or vice versa. 2. You may spend a Dynamic Action when struck by an attack to cause the attacker to get a non-cumulative Pain 2 condition. 3. Any weapon you wield gets the Paired quality, but if you're only using one weapon you get -2 to checks with it. Ranged Blackout the Sun 1. On a Boost on a ranged attack, you may make a second Ranged attack. This can only be used once per round, but you may use the attack to fire at up to (Speed) additional targets. 2. You may use the technique twice per Round. 3. You never run out of ammunition to fire or throw, and you may use the technique three times per Round. Firing Blind 1. You use your ki to see, ignoring all penalties to ranged attacks at night. 2. You also ignore all penalties to firing into smoky, foggy or pitch black areas. 3. You ignore all penalties when firing ranged attacks, even if blinded. Living Missiles 1. Reduce all range penalties by 1. 2. You can ignore +1 level of Armor. 3. Any weapon you wield is Ranged until you let go of it. Sharp Armor of Blades 1. Attackers in Close or Near range get -1 to attack you. If you get a Boost on Defense, you get +1 Fighting on your next attack. 2. Anyone trying to Grab you takes 2 damage if they hit. The penalty to attack you is now -2. 3. Ranged weapons also get a -2 penalty to hit you. Blade Storm 1. When in a dusty, snowy or leafy area, you may use your blade to whip stuff into enemy eyes. When you attack in these areas, up to (Intuition) foes in Close range must make a difficulty 2 Fortitude+Speed check or suffer a Sensory Loss (Blind) 1 condition for each level. Opponents can only be affected once by this at any given time. 2. You now can also use this on Defense checks, and the difficulty to resist is now 3. 3. On a Boost when attacking, you may throw your weapon at a second foe within Far range at no penalty. Splitting Arrows 1. You may now knock down arrows or thrown weapons as if Parrying a melee weapon. 2. On a Boost, you automatically Parry the next (Speed) projectiles, but get -1 per deflected projectile to all normal attacks for the Round. 3. You may now deflect firearm attacks at a -2 penalty. Now, the 99 Styles. This is where things get weird. These are martial techniques that do not rely on direct kung fu. They can be very useful, but they're rather oblique. Alchemy: The technique of creating or restoring imbalances in the body to change one's place in the universe. Alchemy has only one technique tree, but many areas of study. Some concoctions also require a certain level of mastery to be created. Making potions is, at base, a difficulty 1 Crafts+Holistics check, and up to (Knowledge) additional effects after the first can be put in a potion, but each adds +1 to the difficulty. You can also modify the delivery method from 'needs to be drunk' to 'inhaled as a gas' or 'can be used intravenously' at extra difficulty, and can make a potion addictive for extra difficulty. Potions are resisted with a Fortitude check, and how the potion is delivered determines the difficulty, primarily. Anyone with Holistics skill can attempt to create an antidote, but the difficulty is much easier if they also have Alchemy. 1. You get one Area of Study. 2. You get two more Areas of Study. 3. You get two more Areas of Study. Alertness Awake: A potion that causes Dosed (Awake) 2. While dosed, the target gets +2 Perception but -1 Discipline. This also counteracts Sloth and reduces As The Dead's condition by 1. As the Dead (Level 2+): One minute after exposure, the target convulses and becomes paralyzed and corpselike but remains totally aware, getting a Dosed (As the Dead) 2 condition. Sloth: A potion that causes Dosed (Sloth) 1 for 2 scenes, making the victim lethargic and slow. They suffer -2 Perception, -2 Fighting and -2 Speed, and Movement is halved. This counteracts Awake. Special Wine: A strong but sweet alcohol that causes Dosed (Special Wine) 1 for -1 Perception, -1 Discipline and -1 Fighting. Dreams Dreamless Sleep: A potion that causes Dosed (Dreamless Sleep) 1, which can be raised by increasing the crafting difficulty. This sends the target into a dreamless sleep from which they can't wake until it wears off. Lucidity: The target gets Dosed (Lucidity) 2. During this, they may interact with and vividly recall their dreams. This counteracts Nightmares. Nightmares (Level 2+): The target gets Dosed (Nightmares) 2. During this, they suffer terrifying and realistic nightmares from which they cannot wake, but suffer no outward physical signs of such. This counteracts Lucidity. Truth-Telling: The target gets Dosed (Truth-Telling) 1 for -3 Deception. A failed check also means the targe blurts out the truth if asked a question. This counteracts Influential, but is not often used medicinally. Healing Elixir (Level 3): The target is completely healed and loses all conditions. This effect cannot be added to any other potion. Miasma: The target gets Dosed (Miasma) 1: -1 to all skills and Movement is halved. This potion is inhalable by default at no extra cost if this is the only effect, and making it a liquid by adding it to another potion that is liquid is at +1 Difficulty. Poison: This deals 2 damage per application, and can be applied up to 5 times at +1 Difficulty each, for 10 damage. Anyone that takes damage also gets the Poison 1 condition. This is instantaneous, but can be made slower-acting at extra difficulty. Restore: This heals 2 damage per application, and can be applied up to 5 times at +1 difficulty each. Each application either heals an additional 2 damage or reduces a condition by 1. This can affect only one condition per potion. Mind Amnesia (Level 2+): The victim gets Dosed (Amnesia) 2. For the duration, they cannot remember details of their identity at all. At extra difficulty, specific aspects of information can be made permanently lost. Enthrall (Level 3): The victim gets Dosed (Entrhall) 1. For the duration, anyone using Persuade, Deception ot Intimidation against them gets +2. If under someone's Influential effect, the target is completely under the Influential user's control. This counts as 2 effects for difficulty. Forgetfulness: The target gets Dosed (Forgetfulness) 1 for 2 scenes, becoming unabl to remember basic details, such as the names of friends or hometowns, or messages meant to be delivered. Recollection (Level 2+): This causes Dosed (Recollection) 1, giving +2 to two skills but -2 to two others, chosen at the time of creation. The target can also remember very minute details related to the enhanced skills. If combined with another effect that gives bonuses, all penalties are doubled. This also counteracts both Forgetfulness and Amnesia. Sight Blind (Level 2+): The target gets Dosed (Blind) 2, causing total blindness. This becomes Sensory Loss 1 once it fades. Dark Sight: The target gets Dosed (Dark Sight) 1, causing a -1 penalty to all checks in bright light but clear vision even in total darkness, with no penalties. This counteracts Blind. Irritation: This causes Dosed (Irritation) 1, causing -2 to all checks. This is an inhaled potion at no extra cost if this is the only effect, identical to Miasma. Soul Sight (Level 3): This causes Dosed (Soul Sight) 1, causing +2 Perception and Survival. Also, the target can see ki patterns through walls, doors and objects, even allowing recognition of specific people or things by their ki patterns. Voice Crowing Bird: This causes Dosed (Crowing Bird) 1 for 2 scenes, during which the target cannot speak any quieter than a high-pitched yell. This counteracts Mute. Influential (Level 2+): The target suffers Dosed (Influential) 1, causing +2 Persuade and Intimidation. Anyone listening that is under Enthrall is completely controlled by the user. Mockingbird (Level 2+): The target suffers Dosed (Mockingbird) 1, causing +2 Deception and Perform. Mute: The target suffers Dosed (Mute) 2, causing hoarseness and -1 Stealth but +1 Intimidation. This counteracts Crowing Bird. Master of Spies: Controlling various spy networks. Each network is also an Ally, and treated as such - whenever you ask them to do things, you owe them a favor and must fulfill it before you call on them again. Assassins 1. When you ask them to kill a single, specific person, they roll Persuasion+Speed. After (10-successes) days, the kill is complete. Only normal, regular people without public notoriety may be targeted this way. If you use a Gatherers network to get info on the target first, it only takes (5-successes) days. 2. You may assign them to guard you for a scene. If you are attacked, five assassins instantly jump in to interrupt the attack, and remain as a squad for the rest of the Battle. 3. You may now have them assassinate any target, public figure or not. However, the GM will decide if they take the job, as they do not like suicide missions - for example, the Emperor will never get assassinated this way. Killing someone this way takes (15-successes) days, or (10-successes) with Gatherer help. Gatherers 1. You can ask them to get information on one target per level at any given time via a Persuasion+Knowledge check. Valuable information takes (10-successes) days, minimum 1 per target. This is usually info on known associates, financials and family. You get +1 on all social checks against the target for the foreseeable future. You may make an investigated target into an Ally for 5 XP rather than 10. 2. Information now only takes (7-successes) days. Further, the bonus on social checks is now +2, and you deal +1 mental damage against investigated targets. 3. You get +1 to all social situations where blackmail might be handy, and gathering specific information takes only (5-successes) days. The bonus to social checks is now +3 and the mental damage is now +2. Thieves 1. You can ask the thieves to steal or kidnap just about anything. They always roll 4 dice to plan, then execute, then get away. Each stage takes at least a day, and the difficulty of the check is chosen by the GM based on how hard the crime is. All three checks are at the same difficulty, and any failure means there's trouble. You may make a Persuasion+Stealth roll when making the request. Each success gives the thieves a bonus die to add to any of the three checks. 2. The thieves' dicepool is now 5. 3. The thieves' dicepool is now 6, and you may pick one stage of the heist that is always successful automatically. Portents: You can foretell the future or sense supernatural things. There is only one technique tree for this. 1. You get the Sense Ki ability and either Dream Reading or Divination. Also, you get +1 per level to Knowledge checks about omens or superstitions. 2. Yu get the Read Ki ability and the ability you didn't pick at level 1. 3. You get either the Ancestral Guidance ability or the Dream Walker ability. Ancestral Guidance: The GM will occasionally give you flashes of the future from the spiritual realm. You know the most likely result of your choice, but do not know any events between what you saw and now. Any actions that are taken to directly make the vision happen get +2. Divination: You may act a direct question about the future and make an Empathy+Intuition check to get the answer, with difficulty based on the specificity and detail of the answer. You get +1 to any checks related to the answer, including other Portents abilities. Dream Reading: You can interpret dreams, though it's not easy for people to remember their dreams. Interpreting them is an Empathy+Intuition check, with imagery usually representing people, clans, places and actions. The GM will use this as part of the narrative, but the advice you give based on the interpretation gives the subect +1 to related checks for (Level) days. Dream Walker: You can enter the dreams of others while sleeping. They are not aware of you unless you talk to them, but you can talk to them as if standing next to them. You get +1 to future social checks against the target for (Level) days, and reduce the difficulty of any dream interpretation checks for them by 2. You may also attack them in the dream, fighting them normally but getting +1 Fighting and Marksman in the dream and +1 Health and +2 Psyche. All damage to the dreamer is mental damage. Read Ki: You can sense and recognize ki out to (Rank) miles away. You know how much and what type of ki people or objects have, and you can track specific people with a Discipline+Empathy check. Sense Ki: You can sense ki disturbances, such as traps, lost objects, supernatural events or hidden things. You are immune to ambush and get +1 to detect and avoid traps. If you actively look for a disruption you can make an Empathy+Knowledge check to determine if something is a coincidence or a sign of something bigger. Summoning: You can make pacts with and call on the magical Celestial Animals. This requires mutual respect and reverence, joining you to the animal family of your choice and allowing the chosen Animal to travel to the human world. The Animals do not need to obey you, but usually will do what you want if you're respectful. There is only one technique tree, and it's Rank-locked. Level 1 can be taken at Rank 1, and gets more effects at Rank 2. Level 2 needs Rank 3 and gets more effects at Rank 4. Level 3 needs Rank 5. You can always summon your Minor Animals without any check, though they can refuse to show up. You can spend 1 ki to force them to show up but they dislike this a lot. You must take 1 physical and 1 mental damage, then make a Difficulty 2 Empathy+Persuade check to summon a Major Animal, which will remain for one scene or until one task is completed, though you get +1 to the check if the animal family shares your Element. Greater Animals require 2 of either type of damage, then a difficulty 3 check. If they refuse, you can try again by taking a Dazed 1 condition and a difficulty 5 check. Either way, they stay for (Rank) minutes, and you can take 1 physical and 1 mental damage to extend that to a Battle or Scene. If an Animal's Health drops to 0, you get -2 to future summoning checks for that family until you make amends. More on Celestial Animal families will come later. 1. At Rank 1, you bond to a single animal family and may summon a Minor Animal of that family. It can fight with you and gives +1 to the animal family's associated skill while in its presence, but you also suffer their unique Trigger while in its presence. At Rank 2, ou may summon a specific Major Animal from the chosen family, naming it as an Ally. However, it can ask you for favors, like any Ally. 2. At Rank 3, you may form a bond with a second animal family, which treats you as if you had -1 Rank. At Rank 4, you may summon a Greater Animal, naming it as a Rival. You may only ever have a single Greater Animal as a Contact, period. 3. At Rank 5, you may spend 2 Yin and 2 Yang to instantly teleport to the Celestial Realm of your primary animal family. (It is unclear if you can bring anyone with you.) You also bond with a third animal family, which treats you as if you had -1 Rank. Trap Master: You can make traps. This is a CRafts+Knowledge check to build, harder if you lack materials and/or time, and a Stealth+Knowledge check to hide. Once triggered, it's an Athletics+Speed check to avoid the trap's effect. There is only one technique tree. 1. You can build traps, hide them and disarm them. Pick two trap types. The difficulty to make those is at -1 for you. 2. Pick two more trap types. The difficulty for those is at -1, and this can stack with the level 1 effect. You get one automatic success when hiding traps. 3. All trap types get -1 difficulty, on top of the last two levels. You get 2 automatic successes to hide traps now, not 1, and you can make Ki traps. Trap types: Attack Traps: These deal between 1 and 5 damage depending on the complexity and the type of weapons you install. Capture Traps: Victims are caught in a cage, pit or other trap, and also suffer a Confused 1 condition. Explosion traps: You blow poo poo up. The victim takes 5 damage, is knocked down and gets Burned 1. Immobilize traps: You release sleep gas or bindings. The victim sufffers Slowed 1 and must either make a check against the alchemical concoction you used or a Might+Survivalcheck to break free of bindings. Ki Traps (Level 3): You may place a jutsu into a trap. You spend an amount of ki to make the trap, which is dormant for days equal to ki spent or until a specific condition is met. If added to another trap type, the creation difficulty goes up by 1. The GM has discretion to disallow anything other than an attack-type jutsu as unsuitable. Knockdown Traps: You swing logs or snares or whatever to knock people down. They are knocked down, knocked back (Crafts+Intuition)*5 feet, take 3 damage and get either Broken 1, Bruised 1 or Dazed 1. Next time: Skill combos. Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Jul 4, 2017 |
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Jul 4, 2017 02:33
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quote:3. Any weapon you wield is Ranged until you let go of it. That sounds...disruptive. Do they give range stats for brass knuckles and swords and such?
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Jul 4, 2017 02:50
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Subjunctive posted:That sounds...disruptive. Do they give range stats for brass knuckles and swords and such? I think it means Ranged by way of using your other Ranged Style Techniques with a weapon, but on the other hand your sword hitting that motherfucker all the way over there is the kind of ninja bullshit that a style capstone should probably give you?
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Jul 4, 2017 03:10
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