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I actually think Night's Black Agents could be a solid foundation for a Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1/2 game. Just add a Hamon skill and stats for Pillar Men and you're most of the way there.
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Feb 11, 2016 20:51
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Nessus posted:M&M is the game I have most experience with, regarding superheroes. It works, but it's kind of complicated, and that's where my crack about tons of dexterity-modifying feats came in. I also felt it tended to make powers feel very same-y (even if, yes, it did let you model a poo poo ton of them). The latter is to some extent inevitable in any RPG, because there is little to no effective difference between "I shoot a beam of fire/force/purple light/tiny baby frogs" at the target other than ancillary side effects. That's more than enough detail for this genre, unless you also mix Pokemon into it for some reason. quote:Depending on how you wanted to go I'd use either an *World hack (yes, yes, you can do that for everything, but magical girls are often open ended), FATE or a Savage Worlds mod, depending on how crunchy you want it to be. Like Pretty Cures tend to involve a fair amount of karate fighting and tactical conflict so Savage Worlds would work better for that, while something like Utena would suit *World given the weird abstract surrealism that pops up a lot, such as fighting kangaroos and thinking you laid an egg. Never considered Savage Worlds. Got some readin' to do...
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Feb 11, 2016 21:25
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In Nomine Game Master's Guide The GM's guide starts out with talking about power levels. 9 Forces is the standard starting point for celestials. Few angels exceed this in Heaven. In Hell, demons start at 7 Forces, and the ones above that are lucky and strong. 9 Forces is a powerful character, but still just starting on Earth duty. Older and more experienced celestials, like Seneschals, those with Distinctions or Wordbound, are often much more potent. A weaker starting PC might be one who was damaged or Force-stripped...or you can lower all celestias to start at 7 or fewer Forces. This will narrow the gap with humans, and Saints an undead are nearly equal to the celestials in that case. Truly potent celestials are rarer and more influential. You can make PCs start out more powerful by just tossing some extra Forces on them - 12 Forces is basically mythic scale in every way. They can easily defeat pretty much any human, and any human PCs will be overshadowed. It is also recommended that, unless you're running a really political game or really like powergaming, don't allow PCs to start with Distinctions or Words and don't allow them to gain them quickly. You also need to decide if all celestials are more potent and godlike, or just the PCs.  Most human PCs will be Soldiers, who get 6 Forces by default. With GM permission, however, you could play undead, sorcerers or Saints, covered in the Corporeal Player's Guide. Weaker humans are not really viable, but you might play 5-Force mundanes stumbling into the war...though be careful, as one celestial can basically wipe the floor with an entire team of mundanes. Soldiers might be a better adversary, especially if the PCs become Soldiers during play. More Forces will level the field a bit, but it makes the PCs far, far more powerful than most humans. 7-Force humans are rare, and 8+ are legendary. Undead and Saints are a bit more potent, but even so, they're rarely as powerful as a startin celestial. The game then talks about handing XP/character points as advancement, both 'native' CP earned just by playing, and extra CP earned from successfully achieving Superior missions., as well as just having Superiors award things directly, rather than as bonus CP. They have a system for figuring out how much a Superior might hand out but let's be frank, it's super boring, as is most talk of punishment.   We get some talk about dissonance. Dissonance hurts. It comes from behaving in a way that is unnatural and unpleasant. Your dissonance conditions aren't tripwires - they're things you're supposed to dislike doing. Seraphim are truthful because they hate lies, not because it's inconvenient. Demons usually suffer dissonance from being reminded that the universe is greater than their own reality, in the form of trying to impose their symphony on others via resonance and failing. Likewise, Word-dissonance isn't because your Superior is constantly watching you. Rather, their Word is part of your nature, and acting against it is as unpleasant and painful as going against the nature of your Choir. Lesser Words don't technically have extra dissonance conditions, but anything the GM deems to be acting against your Word is potentially dissonant.  Any action out of tune with your nature is potentially dissonant - it's spirit, not letter. Celestials who skirt the edge of their dissonance conditions are messing with bad mojo. Seraphim that 'bend the truth' but don't technically lie, Elohim who rationalize too much, Impudites that walk off when they know a human was going to die but avoid being present for it...well, you get a sense in your gut that tells you you're doing wrong. It's up the GM if that's actually dissonance, but it doesn't feel good. It's said that only Superiors can create a vessel, but that's not quite so. Anyone can learn to do it, as long as they have enough Essence and corporeal matter to animate. The trick is, you can't use any old clay, and it takes a lot of Essence. 15 points per level, multiplied by the total Forces of the prospective inhabitant - so it's 405 Essence to make a level 3 vessel for a 9-Force angel. The really hard part, though, is to breath life into the vessel. That's what turns it from a clay construct into a living vessel, and only Superiors know how to do that. It's rumored to be a secret Song of some kind, and only a Superior can attach a vessel to a celestial. However, there are ways around this. Ethereals can create vessels via a sort of 'Essence cache' which isn't fully described in this book. Celestials in Limbo can also do this, described in another book. It even costs slightly less Essence - 15 points per level, multipled by the typical Forces that type of being would have, so a rat vessel at level 1 costs 15, and a human at 2 costs 120. Liber Reliquarum also has a substance, Primordial Clay, which is said to be able to make vessels. This is kind of the 'buy other books' part of this book. Normally, a vessel does not age or get sick or tired, and it needs no food or water. Vessels are infertile and, unless you eat or drink, they don't have to excrete. They do, however, need to breathe. All vessels are assumed to be able to pass for whatever they seem to be even under thorough medical examination, despite the fact that in reality, advanced medical technology could probably detect their special traits. Vessels also don't need to be human - they can be whatever shape the Superior that makes them wants, even inanimate objects. Animal vessels get all the natural abilities of that animal, but not its instincts and skills. However, the GM might assign a bonus to certain activities, like tracking in a wolf vessel. All vessels can talk, but otherwise suffer all limitations of their form. You can also get vessels made with unusual or monstrous features, but they're rare.  If you lose your vessel in the course of ensuring a mission succeeds, your boss will almost certainly replace it free...but if you just hosed up, you probably have to pay for it. Unless youre a Malakite. Malakim get a lot more leeway about dying, as long as they don't die for no good reason. If your boss thinks the loss of a vessel was avoidable, they might charge CP but not that total cost of replacement, or they might just shove a Corporeal Discord on you as a punishment. Now, Words. A Word isn't a literal word, but a concept. It's something that exists. Human words just approximate what can only be truly expressed in celestial languages. Thus, while a word can be ambiguous, a Word is note. The Angel of Coke, a minor angel of David, oversees the petroleum byproduct of coal. He does not oversee cocaine nor Coca-Cola. Semantics do not change a Word's scope - it's an idea, not an English word. This doesn't mean Words are static, however. Semantic changes don't matter, but physical or conceptual changes do. A Word can change if it's tied to a concrete object or place - the object is the Word's manifestation, most often in the form of a Tether with a Wordbound Seneschal. If the place expands, so does the Word. If the object or location is destroyed, the Word becomes meaningless and the celestial tied to it will probably die. Words also represent concepts that humans can interpret in different ways, and humanity plays a critical role in the strength and manifestation of a Word. Novalis is literally the Archangel of blooming plant life, but also all metaphors linked to flowers. Thus, she embodies peace, beauty, joy and so on. If flowers symbolized violence, she would be a militant Archangel instead. Wordbound can sometimes expand their nature and scope by attuning to new interpreations, and sometimes they get forced to in ways they don't like.  Words are...everything. Types of people, professions, ethnic groups, activities, places (generally but not always Tethers), phenomena, ideas, virtues, vices. The power of a Word is less about what type of Word it is and more its influence on the Symphony. The Deadly Sins are potent Words, and the Demon of Stiffing Waitresses is a very minor servant of Greed. Mosto f the power of a Word is also tied into how it's wielded. There's nothing that can't be represented by Words, though incredibly specific or obscure Words are rare because they're simply not need by anyone. Broad and extremely powerful Words, however, can sometimes only be handled by those with Superior potential. A Word is a distinct chord in the Symphony, which a celestial is attuned to by either the Seraphim Council or Lucifer. Words do not define the Symphony - the Symphony defines Words. Not everything that could be a Word is assigned as one, however - Heaven and Hell prefer to only assign strategically useful Words. There's no Angel or Demon of Apple Juice, for example, as no one has sen any use in it. Even if a Word is important, though, someone suitable has to be there to represent it, someone who can be completely devoted to that Word. Celestials must be an expert on a Word before they get considered for it, and there's plenty of useful Words out htere that just don't have eligible candidates. The more important the Word, the harder it is to find the right celestial, which is why abandoned Superior Words usually remain unclaimed. Words can exist and even thrive without a Wordbound - Gluttony, for example, long predates Haagenti, and wile Oannes is dead, water still exists. If a Word grows or shrinks, any celestial bound to it will, also, but the reverse is not so - a Word does not weaken if the celestial holding it dies, nor does gaining a celestial make the Word stronger. It can seem to, because it's the job of a Wordbound to increase the presence and influence of their Word. Without Andrealphus, Lust will still exist, but it's questionable as to whether Western society would be so sex-obsessed as it currently is. Raphael's death did not end Knowledge, but many angels credit her for beginning the trends that led to the Renaissance and Enlightenment, and believe that humanity's increasing materialism is because there is no Archangel promoting the higher ideals of Knowledge. Most Words can be taken as either Heavenly or Hellish, and important Words are rarely left to one side - any Word with major impact will be countered, though not always with a shared Word. Instead, a related Word might be assigned to oppose the neemy. Many believe that the reason the media's so terrible is that Heaven has yet to effectively find a counter to Nybbas. Next time: Big Words
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Feb 11, 2016 21:29
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unseenlibrarian posted:I just love the idea that the Hammer Dracula movies were made to cover up the attempt to re-activate actual Dracula as an asset in the seventies. At least I assume that's what Agent Cushing is a reference to. Which means that Christopher Lee may have been one of Dracula's handlers. Given the nature of Lee's WWII service that isn't even particularly implausible
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Feb 11, 2016 21:43
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And this is why the Game Master's Guide is one of my favorite books. It does a good job explaining Words and how you can change things up for your game, and better understand the setting by answering a lot of obvious mechanical questions and ideas.
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Feb 11, 2016 21:46
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I am quite in love with the idea of Christopher Lee, Vampire Handler. Shutting down Dracula when he tries to step out of line.
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Feb 11, 2016 21:52
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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNSLaYJboPE Part 3: Geography Thanks to the nature of the Mists, it's impossible to get an accurate idea of Ravenloft's size. in fact, none of the maps included in the game have a scale. The biggest continent is commonly know as "The Core", but even then there are a theoretically limitless number of Domains out there in the Mists. Still, the known territory is smaller than most other campaign settings, some might call it claustrophobic. The Core is the focus of most of the setting, and is the oldest and largest cluster. It seems to be at the heart of the Realm of Dread, with Barovia at it's center. In the North, the continent is dominated by Darkon, a large country where nonhumans are surprisingly frequent and magic is tolerated. Elsewhere, nonhumans are rarer and feared, much like magic. Two of Darkon's neighbor, Falkovnia and Tepest, are particularly hostile to nonhumans, with one treating them as slaves and the other targeting them in their Inquisition against the fey. A large bottomless crevice, known only as the Shadow Rift, separates the Core into two. In the Northwest, shipping, free trade and military alliances have led to something of an age of enlightenment, with high cultural and scientific levels. In the south, things are still quite rustic, with large forests, isolated villages, superstitious peasants and monsters stalking the night. Sithicus is the only major nonhuman realm in the Core, as it is predominantly elvish (it's the Dragonlance Domain). In the Southwest, byzantine politics and oppression of the lower classes abounds in Nova Vaasa and Hazlan. Finally, the Sea of Sorrows is filled with storms and hard to navigate, leading to much fewer ships strolling it's seas.  There are a few notables Clusters outside of the Core. The Amber Wastes are a harsh desert land full of empty tombs, sandworms and the like. The Frozen Reaches are large land of perpetual winter. The Shadowlands are slowly encroached by a phantasmal forest. The Verdurous Lands contain an immense jungle and the equally dangerous Sargasso sea. Zherisia is made up of a large city and it's seemingly infinite underworld of tunnels and sewers. There are also Islands of Terrors, single Domains isolated in the Mists. Bluestpur is a scorched landscape where nothing humans can survive and only monsters dwell. G'Henna is an arid land where the population is slowly starved to death by the cult of an evil god. Odiare is a small city where only children live. Rokushima Taiyoo is a beautiful archipelago being torn apart by four brothers fighting for control of the land. Souragne is a swampland where the dead are forced to till the fields by the Lord of the Dead. Cultural Levels is how Ravenloft deals with different Domains having different technological advancements. CL determines what is available to buy in these realms, as well as giving and idea of what society is like. It goes from 0 to 9. CL 0 is Savage, pure untamed wilderness. CL 1 is Stone Age, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes or hunter-gatherers struggling to survive. Stone weapons are much more fragile and have a -1 penalty to hit and damage. CL 2 is Bronze Age, this is the beginning of society, with agriculture and early writing and giant stone monuments. Rulers are often clerics, sorcerers are the first spellcasters and the first magic items start to appear. Bronze Age weapons are more fragile (though no as much as Stone Age weapons) and take a -1 penalty to damage. CL 3 is Iron Age, with the discovery of more advanced metal-working, aqueducts, etc. CL 4 is Classical, with most advances being in the realms of mathematics and medicine. CL 5 is Dark Age, based on the (now outdated) view of how things were after the fall of the Roman Empire. Still advance sin agriculture continue, as well as warfare (crossbows, etc.) CL 6 is Early Medieval, with the first merchant guilds and Gothic architecture. CL 7 is Late Medieval, and is mentioned to be the default setting of 3E D&D. CL 8 is Chivalric, with the advent of the first awkward Gunpowder weapons. Finally, CL 9 is Renaissance, with more advanced firearms and the printing press and other scientific discoveries. Armor and large unwieldy weapons become less popular. Then we close Chapter 1 with a lexicon: Lexicon posted:ancient dead: Also called "ancients"; a broader term for the undead creatures often called mummies. Next, we'll start Chapter 2 and delve right into all the rules change they made.
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Feb 11, 2016 21:58
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In Nomine Game Master's Guide: Woooooords M<ost Words are subsets of larger Words - Choking on Chicken Bones, ofr example, is a subset of Choking, which falls under Death. The most potent Words encompass broad themes, as with the Superiors. Because they have such a broad scope, many Words could theoretically serve multiple Superiors. The Demon of Choking on Chicken Bones could as easily serve Kobal as Saminga, and your Superior is going to determine how you interpret your Word. As Dark Humor, the Demon of Choking on Chicken Bones is going to focus on causing humorous choking incidentas. As Death, they're goign to just be trying to choke as many humans to death on chicken bones as possible. There is often competition over powerful Words...and in Hell, for unimportant ones. Saminga may never have actually wanted the Word of Choking on Chicken Bones, for example, until he learned that one of Kobal's demons was seeking it. How these conflicts are resolved depends on the Superiors' relationships. Sometimes they'll make a deal or play politics, and often there will be a contest to prove worthiness for the Word. It is forbidden for Superiors to intefere in these contests and it's considered bad form to destroy a celestial just to free up their Word - but even so, it can be hazardous to hold a Word that a Demon Prince wants. They'veb een known to cheat, or engineer the downfall of rival Wordbound. Wise celestials ensure their Superior fully backs them or else try to make deals with rival Superiors before going for a contested Word. In extreme cases, a Wordbound might even switch masters, before or after getting the Word. (Usually before.) Wordbound are each unique, and no two Words provide the same benefits, but their power can be quantified as Word-Forces. These are an abstraction of the power the Word brings. For game purposes, a Word has a certain number of Forces based on its strength, and as the Word grows or shrinks, the holder can gain or lose Word-Forces. Word-Forces are added to your total Forces, but only for the amount of Essence you can store and the amount of Disturbance you make when entering or leaving Earth or changing vessels. However, in celestial combat, you may choose to lose a Word-Force rather than one of your own Forces, representing weakening connection to your Word. Word-Forces do not grant any additional stats or CP or add to any rolls. The number of Word-Forces indicates the strength of the Word, but celestials can only estimate it. Only the Word-holder knows exactly the number of Word-Forces they have. It's rare for a Word's Forces to vary outside certain ranges, however, unelss the Word suddenly surges or drops in power. The GM is the one that assigns a Word's strength, of course. New Wordbound start, normally, with the lowest number of Word-Forces for a Word of their strength - if that. Even with a thriving Word, it takes time to align yourself with its potential and interpretations. Trivial Words have 1-3 Word-Forces. They're nearly superfluous, and unless they're assigned for special reasons or to indulge an obsessed servant, they're rarely seen. Hell has more than Heaven, as per its quantity-over-quality strategy. Examples include Choking on Chicken Bones, Goth Wannabes, Hot Sauce, Nightmares About Rabid Dogs, Stale Bong Water, Unexpectedly Short Fuses and very small and weak Tethers. A minor Word grants 4-6 Forces, and it's usualyl something that most people have heard of but which is unlikely to impact their lives very much. Often these Words are stepping stones to higher and more responsible Words. Examples include Barbie Dolls, Falcons, Lies Told To Spouses, Nannies, Outdoor Sex, Pipe Bombs, Writers' Block and small Tethers. Significant Words, with 7-10 Word-Forces, are those that are widespread, though still probably not with daily impact on most people. If the Word disappeared form the world, there would be quite noticeable effects, and under the right condition they can be very powerful. Examples include Air Disasters, Birds of Prey, Bombs, Highways, Police, Serial Killers, Ships and the average Tether. Important Words have 11-15 Word-Forces. They are common throughout the world. Not everyone encounters them all the time, but almost every human will be touched by them at least indirectly, and many lives can be devoted or destroyed by them. Examples include Artists, Birds, Haggling, Kings, Nuclear Warheads, Poison, Repentance, Suicide and strong Tethers. Major Words are those with 16-20 Word-Forces. They're always present on Earth, either part of nature or part of humanity. A world without one of these Words would be drastically different, and celestials bound to them could approach Superiors just in raw power, and might theoretically become Superiors, though most will not. Examples include Blame, Cities, Courage, Earthquakes, Enlightenemnt, Final Judgment, Music, Wisdom and the most powerful Tethers. Superior-grade Words are those with over 20 Word-Forces. However, getting that many doesn't make you a Superior - that's a leap in power that requires the aid of Lucifer or the Seraphim Council. However, a Word of this power must be critical in the War, intrinsic to the Symphony or inseparable from humanity. Angels of this level of power will be considered for Archangel status, while demons will either be made Princes or destroyed.  Words also grant powers to their holders, which should be personalized for each Wordbound but will fall into several general categories, which the game uses as suggestions fo the GM and players. Every Wordbound should gain at least one special ability related to their Word, with power proportionate to it. For example, the Demon of Hot Sauce might be able to increase the spiciness of any hot sauce they see at will, while an important Word would give more useful powers, on the level of a servitor attunement. For example, the Angel of Courage might be able to let anyone ignore fear at a touch. As a general rule, you should have around one ability per 5 Word-Forces or fraction thereof, with stronger Words getting more potent abilities. Some of the more powerful Wordbound can grant actual attunements to others - the Demon of Sorcery, for example, can give her Infernal Pact attunement to other demons, allowing them to gift Sorcery to humans. This sort of ability requires at least 10 Word-Forces. The Essence cost of giving an attunement is equal to the target's total Forces. A Wordbound can retract any granted attunement with a touch and the same cost in Essence as granting it. Every time an attunement is used, ti draws on the power of the Word. Uses that support the Word have neutral effect, but those that diminish the Word can weaken the Word substantially. For example, Dominic's Incarnate Law attunement, used to find loopholes and break the law, will weaken Judgment and anger Dominic. It would take many such abuses to have any notable impact on a Superior's Word, but minor Wordbound are under more severe threat. Someone who uses Infernal Pact to create 'white sorcerers,' who use their powers to achieve destinies instead of fates, could cause loss of Word-Forces to the Demon of Secrets with each such sorcerer. Thus, Wordbound are rarely generous with their attunements. Every Wordbound also receives at least one Rite they can use to gain Essence from their Word. Powerful Words may have several ways. In general, one Rite per 5 Word-Forces or fraction thereof is appropriate, but the Wordbound must learn how to do them - they don't come automatically just because the Word gains Forces. Likewise, a clever celestial might find many ways to milk Essence even from a minor Word. The GM may allow multiple Rites, if the characters spends time researching them. It's recommended that for PCs, each should cost 3 CP after exploration and study. A Word never has more Rites than it has Word-Forces, and rarely has Rites that give more than 1 Essence. These would count as multiple Rites. Wordbound can gift their Rites to others, but again, every performance of the Rite generates power to strengthen, weaken or alter the Word. Normally, a Wordbound's Rites draw on their Superior's Essence, but those who have lost favor and been Cast Out will instead fuel Rites with their own personal Essence pool. As the strength of a Word grows and shrinks, so does the wielder's power. This applies to every Word. If a Word no longer exists, its holder almost always dies. Some Words are strong enough to maintain themselves with little maintenance, but few Wordbound will ignore their Words, even if the Word is stable. Heaven and Hell are always trying to degrade each others' Words, after all. IT's one of the most common tools of the War. A Wordbound who doesn't pay attention might be suddenly weakened or twisted. The Demon of Pipe Bombs, for example, spends a lot of time of the internet, posting instructions on the care and handling of explosives, to ensure he notices when divine agents bring down the sites and email lists where this information can be found. Outside the Internet, others might attack his Word by making pipe bombs seem less cool to angry teenagers or tightening legislation to make them harder to make. The more potent a Word is, the more it takes to strengthen or weaken it. A trivial Word can gain a Force with one highly public event - when a really famous person dies choking on a chicken bone, for example. More potent Words take more - the Demon of Suicide gets a small boost when a celebrity kills themselves, but rarely a full Force, even temporarily. Highly publicized mass suicides like Jonestown or Heaven's Gate might give a temporary Word-Force, but only a steady increase in the occurence and acceptance of suicide will give a reliable increase in power. Superior Words never change noticeably from any single incident, and rarely fluctuate over the course of less than a year.  The GM decides when a Word gains Forces. Word-Forces can't be gained by CP expenditure - they're rewards for good roleplaying at the end of adventures that significantly advance your Word, or long periods of diligent Word-promotion. The more potent a Word gets, the higher the GM's standards should be. Gaining enough Word-Forces to move to the next category only happens if the Word's importance in the War reaches that level. Minor Words need relentless promotion and increased presence to become significant, and to become important would require some sort of social, technological or ideological revolution. When a Word loses Forces, it is either by becoming less influential or by being twisted from the holder's interpretation. Belial seeks to weaken Gabriel by making Fire a symbol of only destruction, obliterating its inspirational aspects, that he might gain power from the Word and deny it to Gabriel. Likewise, both the angel and the demon of Cities gained Word-Forces as cities became more common and larger, and would lose Word-Forces if they were abandoned in alrge numbers. However, the Angel of Cities can gain Forces while weakening her rival if cities become cleaner, more civilized and did more to promote divine lifestyles, while the demon would gain more at her expense if cities got more polluted, crime-ridden and corrupt. It's up to the GM to decide when this happens, but any celestial that doesn't promote their Word will suffer a decline at some point, especially if the opposition is trying to weaken the Word. A disastrous failure can also cause lasting decline, though only a truly serious decline in influence can permanently drop a Word to a lower level of strength. Losing Word-Forces can rmeove your special powers and even your Rites, so many celestials struggling to preserve a Word will sacrifice themselves to save the Word. Just as you can choose to lose Word-Forces in celestial combat, you can also choose, when you would lose Word-Forces, to give up one of your Forces randomly instead. You cannot gain personal Forces instead of Word-Forces, however. And yes, any loss of personal Forces to prevent a temporary loss of Word-Forces is still permanent. Loss of Word-Forces in celestial combat can result in loss of Word-based powers, but doesn't diminish the Word itself - just your connection to it. It's slightly easier to recover from such a loss, as Word-Force gains that would be temporary become permanent until you return to your normal Word-Force level. However, any loss of Word-Forces threatens to strip your Forces. Whenver a Wordbound would lose Word-Forces, except by voluntarily losing them in celestial combat, they must make a roll at TN of their total normal Forces. Essence can be spent, but the maximum TN is 12 - no automatic success here. Failure means you lose a personal Force and a Word-Force. If your Word-Forces exceed your normal Forces, then even on a success, your CD must exceed the difference between them after the loss of the Word-Force, or you still lose a normal Force. If a Word falls to 1 Word-Force, every subsequent loss of Word-Forces automatically strips a personal Force instead. Usually, you can only lose a Word by dying. You can't give it up even if you want to, save by Falling or Redeeming, and a Superior can't remove a Word even from their own servant. The Seraphim Council can strip a Word from an angel in their presence, and Lucifer can do the same to a demon, though it's unknown if either could strip a Superior's Word. Neither do it often. OCcasionally, a Superior will beg them to remove a dying Word, especially a destroyed Tether, and will keep the Wordbound alive with donated Forces to replace the ones being lost until the Word can be stripped. Even so, these unfortunates are never the same. They were once intimately tied to the Symphony, and now they feel a profound sense of lost and failure. Often, it would be more merciful to let them die...which is why some Princes don't. Next time: Small Words
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Feb 11, 2016 22:47
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jadarx posted:Hey kid, do you like 90's metaplot characters? Stone is basically the Saint Of Killers written less well and sicced on the players for far lesser reasons.
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Feb 11, 2016 23:07
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How does 'you can never give up a Word, ever' interact with the 4-6 Word-Forces' comment that 'Often these Words are stepping stones to higher and more responsible Words.'? Did they just forget about that? Can you have a littler word and a greater word that encompasses it simultaneously? Or does that just require the Seraphim Council/Lucifer to get involved? (I assumed at first reading that the fact that what they do is decribed as stripping Words that it was a punishment.
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Feb 11, 2016 23:18
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Prism posted:How does 'you can never give up a Word, ever' interact with the 4-6 Word-Forces' comment that 'Often these Words are stepping stones to higher and more responsible Words.'? Did they just forget about that? Can you have a littler word and a greater word that encompasses it simultaneously? Or does that just require the Seraphim Council/Lucifer to get involved? (I assumed at first reading that the fact that what they do is decribed as stripping Words that it was a punishment.
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Feb 11, 2016 23:22
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Nessus posted:My ballpark guess is that you can move up in the world, but like Stale Bong Water -> Bongs -> Marijuana (or perhaps -> Water Pipes, encompassing both Lucifer's lettuce and harmless tobacco) -- you get into Words which encompass your old ones. Essentially this, yeah. You can push a Word so hard you expand it out into a bigger Word.
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Feb 11, 2016 23:28
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What they said, yeah. In Hell, it's practically the norm. You're expected to try to stab your way up in Word granularity, and many Demon Princes fear their most powerful Wordbound as a threat. Which is why Belial killed Demogorgon, the Calabite of Fire and Demon of Destruction. Something for context as well; minor Words can still become Superiors. That is to say, you don't NEED a 20-Force Word to become an Archangel/Prince, but it takes tremendously more power for the Council or Lucifer to do it. You could have a Demon Prince of Stale Bong Water, it'd just be tactically useless in the War. This leads to one adventure idea, which is that Lucifer is promoting more less powerful Princes lately to try to experiment with Word expansion as a reward at the Superior level, to encourage younger demons more under his control to take the place of the Old Guard. Alaemon could easily slip into Asmodeus' spot, under the right conditions, for example. Anyways that's all tangent.
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Feb 11, 2016 23:37
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ProfessorProf posted:I actually think Night's Black Agents could be a solid foundation for a Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1/2 game. Just add a Hamon skill and stats for Pillar Men and you're most of the way there. My god I never thought of that. That would be amazing! So who's running it  !
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Feb 12, 2016 00:48
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JesterOfAmerica posted:My god I never thought of that. That would be amazing! So who's running it I started writing a Night's Black Agents game that focused in Egypt and Mesoamerica based on this FATAL & Friends, basing off those ancient stone vampires with some revisions about their focus on blood and the "stone men" being unearthed by Nazis in the desert as well as Napoleon and all these shards of the stone vamprie stones being tied to artifacts of power and I quickly realized I was accidentally creating something between Battle Tendency and Assassin's Creed.
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Feb 12, 2016 00:50
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Tricky Dick Nixon posted:I started writing a Night's Black Agents game that focused in Egypt and Mesoamerica based on this FATAL & Friends, basing off those ancient stone vampires with some revisions about their focus on blood and the "stone men" being unearthed by Nazis in the desert as well as Napoleon and all these shards of the stone vamprie stones being tied to artifacts of power and I quickly realized I was accidentally creating something between Battle Tendency and Assassin's Creed. So when are you going to finish it?
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Feb 12, 2016 01:15
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Count Chocula posted:She actually seems human
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Feb 12, 2016 02:27
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Zereth posted:Ah, but she's a Cherub. She shouldn't seem human. Being very human is weirdly out of character for her Choir. Except for Seraphs, the game almost never presents angels as particularly inhuman. Heck, it's on the back of the book: "they are very much like us."
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Feb 12, 2016 02:30
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The Night's Black Agents writeup has given me some ideas for my conspiratorical, paranoid Delta Green-with-some-Vampire: the Masquerade campaign. Human trafficking of cult-and-vampire victims through Eastern Europe, using the conspyramid as a tool, and that thing someone suggested of
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Feb 12, 2016 03:05
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unseenlibrarian posted:Which means that Christopher Lee may have been one of Dracula's handlers. Checks out.
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Feb 12, 2016 04:12
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:Given the nature of Lee's WWII service that isn't even particularly implausible Yeah, it was on the tip of my tongue when Cushing was mentioned. NBA choose the wrong Hammer actor.
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Feb 12, 2016 05:20
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Young Freud posted:Yeah, it was on the tip of my tongue when Cushing was mentioned. NBA choose the wrong Hammer actor. Each of the three codenames are based on actors that have portrayed Van Helsing. Van Sloan from the Bela Lugosi Universal, Cushing from the Hammer Horrors, and Hopkins from the Coppola version.
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Feb 12, 2016 05:39
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I can barely afford toe at, but that bundle of Night's Black Agents + Dracula Dossier is soooo tempting. I'm gonna do the responsible thing and wait until I can afford it, but goddamit it, it's frustrating.
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Feb 12, 2016 06:47
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Doresh posted:That's more than enough detail for this genre, unless you also mix Pokemon into it for some reason. Necessary Evil is a fun Savage Worlds Campaign book.
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Feb 12, 2016 06:49
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 DEFAULTS AND ASSUMPTIONS, PART 2 Legacies The actual list will come later, but the word 'Legacies' here refers to characters who are either characters from the original novel, or characters descended from or otherwise attached to characters from the original novel. These should be used, but be careful with them - too many will muddy the waters, and it's easy to run the risk of them overshadowing the party. Number of Legacies Rule of thumb: Don't include more than three. If you have one Legacy, make them anything you want - Edom asset, Dracula minion, third party ally. If you have two, put them on opposite ends of the spectrum. If you have two, put them on opposite ends - Lucy Blythe working with Edom, Thad Morris as part of the conspiracy. If you have three, don't have any two of them together - one Edom, one vampire, one third-party - and the actions of the players should determine which ones live and which die. If you really want to have more, then a fourth or fifth can show up dead or only mentioned in passing. If the players are focusing on the Legacies and still having fun hunting them down, then go ahead and keep them coming as long as the party enjoys the reveals, and keep tying them back into the Dossier hooks to keep the game moving. Pacing and Legacies Don't introduce all the Legacies at once. Spread them over the course of the game, and give each one their own agenda and narrative hooks to keep them fresh and interesting. Consider hooking each one to a specific Conspyramid level:
Summing Up Have a vague idea of what might happen next, but don't overplan. React to the players to keep the pacing intact. If the agents are rushing towards Castle Dracula, hit them with an Edom tangent. If they're feeling trapped, bring in a Legacy to help them open up the story. When leads start to dry up, suggest another dive into the Dossier. There are lots of ways the game can pan out, but here's two examples. Dracula Death Race This is a faster, more streamlined Dossier game, a series of rapid-fire escalating confrontations leading to a guns-blazing Dracula showdown.
Dracula Downfall A longer, more fleshed-out campaign, but still climbing the Conspyramid in a similar way. Level 0: Enter Freely
Level 1: First Blood
Level 2: The Dead Past
Level 3: The Mist Thickens
Level 4: Defense of the Realm
Level 5: The Heart of Edom
Level 6: Dracula Must Die
Next: How your campaign is different from the defaults.
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Feb 12, 2016 15:26
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In Nomine Game Master's Guide:  On top of their normal Word and Choir dissonance conditions, Wordbound can become dissonant by acting against their own personal Word. This is at the GM's discretion - lesser Words do not have specific conditions like Superior Words. However, the GM can also rule that acting against the Word causes loss of a Word-Force, instead. Servants of the Wordbound are not, however, constrained by this. Only Superiors impose dissonance conditions on their servants.  For most Wordbound, changing their Word is unthinkable - it's what you are, after all. It's all you can think about it. Theoretically, a Wordbound could be stripped of one Word and granted another, but neither the Seraphim Council nor Lucifer would be likely to grant such a request, and few Wordbound would ever ask. Lucifer is known to have changed Words occasionally for his own reasons, however. There are, however, two common situations in which a Word can be changed, and a third less common and less positive one. The first situation is Word-promotion. Most Words are part of a hierarchy - Falcons serves Birds of Prey serves Birds serves Animals, for example. Getting a greater Word that contains your old one is not changing your Word, just broadening it, and that's often how important Words gt filled. The Demon of Hot Sauce, were he not such a terrible demon, might eventually have become the Demon of Sauces and aspired to be the Demon of Condiments, for example. The Seraphim Council or Lucifer are both still required to promote a Word, but this is more routine than granting a Word - if a Superior says that the Word shoudl be upgraded, they usually get it. The exception is if the candidate is controversial or there's someone else who might want the same new Word - the Demon of Air Disasters might seek to become the Demon of Vehicular Accidents, but Vapula might contest Saminga for the Word. The second situation is reinterpretation. Sure, semantics can't alter a Word, but perception can. If the Demon of Buggy Whips had been more creative before his death, he might have shifted from Technology to try and push the word towards Lust by focusing on sexual uses of buggy whips. Reinterpretation of a Word is not easy, and it depends a lot on your being clever and a adaptable. Demons tend to be better at it, especially Balseraphs. For example, the Demon of Forged Signatures once only encompassed handwriting, but is now growing in power due to his taking an interest in applications of digital media and encryption, and is considering if he might be better off under Vapula than Valefor. If he were less forward thinking or computer literate, he'd never have been able to take advantage. The third situation is Word-shift. Angels and demons regularly try to undermine each other, but it's subtler to attack a Word by changing how the human race interprets it - it's basically an involuntary form of reinterpretation. Theoretically you could also change how a Word physically manifests, but turning every flower on Earth poisonous, while it would alter Novalis in major ways, would be highly impractical. If a demon were to launch a campaign to make Flowers a metaphor for apathy and anti-illectualism and succeeded, Novalis would be forced to either embrace these new aspects or lose power by rejecting them and contracting her Word. Corrupting a Superior Word this way is quite difficult thanks to conceptual inertia and their many servants to help counteract that sort of thing, but lesser Words are much easier to target, which is why even a very strong Word needs maintenance against the enemy. Only God (rarely) or the Seraphim Council (more often) can give angels Words, and only Lucifer can give them to demons. Not every possible or desired Word will be given - a Superior might not sponsor you, or Lucifer or the Council might not grant the Word. Besides, few celestials are competent and trustworthy enough to become Wordbound. Every Superior has more Words they'd like than servants worthy of them. Frivolous Words are a waste of a celestial. Jordi, thus, does not assign every species as a Word, even if extinctions din't promise a regular loss of them. However, Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and other families are huge portions of his Word, and he'd rather leave them vacant then have them held by angels that will weaken them. Assuming a Superior will sponsor you, though, there's still some requirements. Angelic Words strengthen the Symphony and Heaven's cause. Usually they are benevolent, if not necessarily fitting human ideas of morality. (Abortion, Vengeance and Teenage Death are all angelic Words.) The process of seeking a divine Word is covered in more detail in the Angelic Player's Guide, but essentially: you get chosen by your Archangel, then defend yourself before the Seraphim Council against anyone that would challenge your candidacy or compete with you, and then probably go on a quest to prove yourself. Succeed, you get the Word. Before you can be considere,d though, you probably need to meet some qualifications. Every Archangel has their own requirements, which can be more or less rigid, but there are certain standards. You need to be strong enough t support your Word, and angels are expected to have as many Forces as their Word's Word-Forces at the least, and few angels under 12 Forces ever get Words. Further, you will need to be absolutely loyal and devoted to your Archangel, and most of the time, you'll need a Distinction. You must not have any dissonance or Discord.  Infernal words are selfish. They may not be evil, and some can even be interpreted benevolently, but they must in some way serve Hell's cause, even if only in an obscure manner. Most Words are sponsored by a Prince, and a prospective Wordbound must first campaign to get their support. Princes only sponsor loyal demons, but as demons are more expendable than angels, weaker Words can often be granted to weaker demons, though significant ones are rarely given to any demon under 12 Forces. If you survive and grow, all to the good. If not, you can be replaced. Princes rarely sponsor demons for Words they don't want - it's a really bad punishment, as Wordbound can cause problems far out of proportion to their actual power. Likewise, Lucifer doesn't grant Words to demons not fit for them. When you hold a Word, you become that Word, and so sharing it is like sharing the same identity. There's two ways to share a Word, and both have problems. First, diametric opposites. Angels and demons are diametric opposites, and so they can hold the same Word in subtly different directions. The Angel of Cities can 'feel' the presence of the Demon of Cities as a warped manifestation of her Word, and vice versa. It is possible for them to coexist and even cooperate at times to promite the Word, but each owuld be happier and more powerful if the other didn't exist. The clearest case of this Word-friction is between Gabriel and Belial. Gabriel has gone mad in part by the constant usurpation of Fire, while Belial can never forget that Gabriel embodies everything he is and more. Thus, Heaven and Hell are very careful about assignign Words that hte other side already has. It's a great burden, especially for someone outmatched by the other side, and certainly neither side will ever pit a mere servant against a Superior - the Word-friction would drive them mad in short order.  The other situation has happened exactly once: a Word being shared by two celestials of the same side. Daniel and Hutriel, the Angels of Final Judgment that stand at the gates of Hell, are nearly as potent as an Archangel when combining their strength, and their Word-Forces are a common pool both can draw on and use. This requires complete and total trust and reliance on each other. Lucifer could probably do the same thing, if he could find two demons able to selflessly share a Word, but also serve it well. This is exceptionally unlikely. The next section is about campaigns and the various knobs you can fiddle with. First up: Mood. People bring assumptions to a game, and the mood you set will determne what kind of game you get. The three major factors in mood are Contrast, Brightness and Humor. Contrast is about good vs evil. Heaven paints the War that way, while Hell says it's about individuality vs tyranny. Usually, angels are the forces of light and demons are darkness, but neither side has to be monochrome. Angels can be vicious assholes, demons can by sympathetic. Both sides can question if they're right. Contrast is about the real or apparent differences between Heaven and Hell. At one extreme, it's black and white, the line of good and evil clearly drawn, and angels or demons never cross it but to switch sides...though that need not mean Heaven's the good guys. They might, in fact, be the ruthless authoritarian regime crushing free will and thought. Either way, angels are always angelic, demons always demonic, whatever that means for your game. The other extreme is solid gray - an angel or demon could be nice or nasty, with no bias either way. Heaven and Hell are just two different points of view, possibly differing only in scenery. It's more of a political party deal than a moral one, and both sides span good and evil widely. Sympathies with the other side are much more likely. The sharper the contrast, the harder it is to play a mixed game. The blurrier the lines, the more angels and demons have in common and the more often they'll get along. Brightness is probabl the most important mood setting, since it determines how optimistic the world is. Bright need not mean angelic - that depends on contrast and your portrayal of Heaven and Hell. If demons are freedom fighters against angelic automata, then a bright setting has demons confounding Heaven and liberating humanity from slavish obedience, and a dark one is one in which angels ruthlessly purge free will and independent thought. Brightness is a measure of if humanity is winning or losing, not either side. In a very dark setting, the world is miserable. Either the 'good' side is losing badly, or all Superiors are cruel tyrants and there's few good options. A very dark campaign features the worst aspects of Earthly life, and are likely to be very depressing. At the other extreme is a very bright setting. Humanity is either benefiting or not affected by the War. If angels are good, they're kicking rear end. If they're bad, they're ineffectual idiots. If the contrast is low, celestials on both sides conspire to keep the extremists from taking over.  The final knob is Humor. In Nomine can be serious, campy or satirical, regardless of brightness or contrast. If you want angels and demons taken seriously, you have to treat them that way. For deep exploration of theological issues and mythic archetypes, you ahve to work hard to keep parody out, which can be hard - In Nomine is by its nature not totally serious. You'll probably want to alter some of the more jokey Songs and attunements, and change or eliminate some Superiors. A serious campaign need not mean characters have no sense of humor, though - just that the War must be played straight. Putting humor in is easy - just leave it all as is and play it with a straight face. The subtlest humor is just acceptance of the utterly absurd premises some Superiors operate on. The characters take themselves seriously, but the situations are insane. For satire or campy parody, take the gags to the extreme. The Superiors take themselves deadly seriously, but the street level angels and demons know it's all absurd. You might introduce even jokier powers or Superiors. Once mood is determined, you have to figure out setting. Most commonly, this will be local - a city or even a single country. The smaller the locale, the easier it is to fill in details. Most angels and demons are assigned to a small area they're expected to get familiar with and strengthen their Superior's Word in. Some get missions, others just left to do it as they see fit. The most important part of a local setting is Tethers. They are the decisive factor in whic Superiors are most locally influential and how many celestials are around. A city with many Tethers is a hotbed of activity, but one with few or none is either a backwater or a battleground for claiming territory. If you have a friendly Tether in the area, the PCs have direct support of many kinds, even the ability to work off dissonance. Same if the enemy has them. Small cities tend to average one Tether on each side, while cities with over a million people might have several. This is just averages, though - a city might have between 0 and a dozen, depending on the needs of the game. Every Tether should have a history, even if it isn't famous, though, and you should know how strong it is and what resources the Seneschal has. You will also want to set up local personalities - prominent politicians, businessmen and celebrities, plus any other interesting characters you like. You may be able to use real people for some stuff, but you'll need to make up others for various roles anyway. The most important people are those that can affect the PCs, especially if they're involved in the War. Some might be Soldiers or celestials with a Role, but make sure the War doesn't take over the mundane setting - not every influential person works for Heaven or Hell. You will also want to decide who the local celestial powerhouses are besides the PCs, especially if they have Words or Distinctions. Celestial politics may not play a large part in your game, but they'll often shape corporeal settings. Few areas are evenly balanced by Heaven and Hell, and usually one side has advantage to varying degrees. Likewise, most Superiors are not balanced in even the largest cities. You need to pick which Words are most active in an area, and how strong their positions are, to determine how much help the PCs have available and what enemies they'll run into. The overall politics can also be altered on small scale. Austin, for example, has a sorto f truce between Heaven and Hell, while in demon-run LA, angels are more cooperative out of necessity. Who the local powerhouses befriend can also alter politics - if the local Baron of Fate is friends with a Captain of Dark Humor, their servants probably get on better even though Kobal and Kronos hate each other. Next time: Global games.
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Feb 12, 2016 16:56
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Necessary Evil is a fun Savage Worlds Campaign book. That's the setting where the villains have to protect the Earth after all the super heroes are gone? Not exactly magical girl material, but I can see it work with a couple original villains (because no magical girl campaign would be complete without an otakumancer that chibifies everyone and will be really pissed once all the cute girls are gone). Doresh fucked around with this message at 18:22 on Feb 12, 2016 |
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Feb 12, 2016 18:17
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yfwKWNDpSY Part 4: Races Chapter 2 is all about the Player rules, covering the usual D&D fantasy races, classes, etc. First up are the races, with how the old ones are in Ravenlfot and a couple new ones. Each races gets an Homeland, Recommended Feats and a base OR. What's OR? It stands for Outcast Rating, a base penalty to social rolls because everyone in Ravenloft is somewhat xenophobic (you never know when the stranger visiting you is actually a monstrous doppelganger there to steal your soul). The base languages are also different: Common doesn't exist in Ravenloft. Instead you get a dozen pastiche of real-world languages, and if their French (my first language, with English being the only other one I know) they're all L5R level of terrible. The more widespread ones are Balok (the not-Romanian of Barovia), Darkonese (the not-Latin of Darkon), Mordentish (not-french, despite Mordent being not-England), Vaasi (not-Swedish from Nova Vaasa) and Draconis (the language of magic, with almost no dragons actually living in Ravenloft). Strangely enough, Mordentish has both a High-version for nobles and a Low-version for commoners, with Low Mordentish kinda sounding flemish, so there's some Belgium influence there too.  Humans are their usual generic self. Their prevalence in Ravenloft might be due to their great capacity for Good or Evil, recognized by the Dark Powers. Their Homeland can be anywhere with settlements, their Recommended Feats will vary by Domains and they have a base OR of Zero. Non-humans are a lot rarer than humans, and face mroe discrimination as a result, with many thinking them related to the Fey or vectors of Lycanthropy or other superstitions. Some (human) scholars have theorized that non-humans are facets of humanity, placed there by gods to reflect against humanity's light. Most non-humans scoff at this, as they know their cultural traits are not iron-clad and they possess free will too. Calibans Replacing the Half-Orcs (Ravenloft has neither Orcs nor Dragons), Calibans are humans who were exposed to dangeorus magic or cursed before their birth, ending up deformed and ugly. The inspiration here is clearly Caliban from Shakespeare's The Tempest, son of the witch Sycorax. While all Calibans are different, they do tend to be big and brutish. They have the same stats as the Half-Orcs from the Player's Handbook. Homeland: Calibans can come from anywher,e although they are more frequent in Domains with more magic, such as Darkon, Hazlan and Tepest. Recommended Feats: Alertness, Endurance, Great Fortitude, Jaded, Lunatic, Run, Skill Focus (Intimidate, Wilderness Lore), Voice of Wrath. Base OR: 5, quite the penalty. Dwarves Dwarves are pretty much how you expect them to be, a stout hard-working race dedicated to forge and family and feeling a deep kinship with the earth. Some humans have distorted this, believing that dwarves are actually elemental spirits. Many human folktales speak of dwarves who require a diet of gold and gems or who turn to stone if touched by sunlight. Homelands: The center of dwarven culture is the town of Tempe Falls in Darkon, though nearby Corvia also hosts a sizeable dwarven population. Smaller dwarven communities have also spread south along the Balinoks and to other mountainous regions, such as the Sleeping Beast of Lamordia. In recent years, dwarven explorers have also been making inroads into the forsaken region of the Mountains of Misery once known as Arak. There they have been laboring to reopen the abandoned mines and a long-neglected trade route that once connected Tempe Falls to Liara in Nova Vaasa. Recommended Feats: Back to the Wall, Courage, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Endurance, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Jaded, Skill Focus (Craft [armorsmithing, blacksmithing, stonemasonry, weaponsmithing]). Base OR: 3, not as bad as the Caliban. Elves There are two distinct "tribe" of Elves in Ravenloft: the Elves of Darkon who tend to have dark hair and the Elves of Sithicus who all have silver hair and amber eyes. Elves are close to nature and live long lives, to the point where in Domains wher ethey are less frequent they are thought to be either nature spirits taking human form or Fey creatures. More than one elf has had their "immortality" tested by the Inquisitors of Tepest. Homelands: There are three major Elvish cities in Darkon (Neblus, Nevuchar Springs and Sidnar) and Elves are the only non-humans races to have their own Domain, Sithicus. Some elves move in to human Domains and there are tales of Elves serving as advisers to entire Human Dynasties. Recommended Feats: Alertness, Ethereal Empathy, Scribe Scroll, Skill Focus (Wilderness Lore), Track, any metamagic or item creation feat. Base OR: 3, same as the Dwarves. Gnomes Humans are less afraid of the tiny Gnomes, but are still wary of their eccentric personality. Not quite Tinker Gnomes, they still are a curious race fond of puzzles and mechanisms. They also apparently have a pretty macabre sense of humor. Homelands: The largest Gnome settlement is the town of Mayvin in Darkon. Due to their specific skillset, most Domains have a small Gnome community of almost a 100, with Nova Vaasa having the largest due to the popularity of having a Gnome court jester. Recommended Feats: Alertness, Craft Wand, Craft Wondrous Item, Dodge, Open Mind, Scribe Scroll, Skill Focus (Bluff, Craft [alchemy, clockmaking, gunsmithing, locksmithing]). Base OR: 2. Half-Elves (fey-born) Half-Elves are rare, and outsiders pretty much everywhere. Some consider them cursed by their heritage, outliving their human friends but dying of old age before their elvish ones. Many channel their feelings into the arts, where being an outsider is pretty normal. A few even reject their given names, adopting dramatic titles like the Wind Haunter or the Deathseeker (Player Characters if I ever heard of one). Homelands: Half-elves don't have an actual community, but are more frequent in areas neighboring Elf settlements (Sithicus or Darkon). Recommended Feats: Alertness, Iron Will, Jaded, Redhead, Run, Track, Skill Focus (Diplomacy, Disguise, Perform). Base OR: Almost, but not-quite, human. Halflings Halflings often look like human children, and as such are feared by no one and welcome in most places. Some human bards claim that halflings were created when a powerful hag tried to purify a human as an experiment, driving all the evil from his body. The experiment was a success, but the victim was reduced to half his former size, the "evil half vanishing to none-knows-where. Halflings pay this legend very little mind. Homelands: Most halflings are nomadic, wandering from Domain to Domain in clans. They stay a few years before moving on, to experience all it has to offer before moving on. There are two permanent halfling communities, both in Darkon: the Haflings of Rivalis raise goats, produce cheese and take pride in their flower gardens, while the inhabitants of Delagia mostly subsist through fishing. For those who hate Kenders: quote:Tales are told of a village of halflings hidden somewhere in the forests of Sithicus. These halflings were hideously tortured by the black knight who previously ruled that land, however. They are now said to be insane, feral creatures. Base OR: 1, like Half-Elves. New "Race": Half-Vistani  Yeah, apparently being half magic Gypsie is a thing. They're the result of a "torrid love affair" between a Vistani and a non-Vistani, and can be raise dby either parent but will never really fit in They've got different racial traits than other humans, despite being completely human. They get +2 to Wisdom and -2 to Charisma. They're Medium-sized. Their Base Speed is 30 feet. They have a +2 to Wilderness Lore, +4 if it's to start a fire (what the poo poo what kind of bad bonus is that?) Moon Madness: A giogoto suffers from the lunatio during the full moon each month, her mind clouded by restlessness and anxiety. She cannot prepare spells or heal naturally during this period. On each of the three nights of the full moon, she must succeed at a Will save (DC 15) or run wild under the night sky. (What the gently caress!!?) Base OR: 2, but can be lowered by a successful Disguise Check (holy poo poo, humans with Gypsy blood have bigger penalties than Half-Elves and Halflings) Base Languages are like any other humans, except they can learn the Vistnai patterna. Recommended Feats: Alertness, Ethereal Empathy, Lunatic, Track, Voice of Wrath. Tribal Heritage: The Vistani tribe of the parent determines favored class and an additional bonus. quote:Canjar: +2 racial bonus on Spellcraft checks. This bonus rises to +4 when attempting to learn new spells. Favored Class: Wizard.  Wow. This is way worse than I remember. Setting aside the racism of making Half-Gypsy a loving race option, it's a terrible one mechanically! None of those tiny bonuses are worth giving up the bonus feat and skill points of being human! Even the one that gives a bonus to Initiative is super random and can actually give you a negative one! Erm, anyway. Next time, we'll cover the changes made to the Character Classes.
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Feb 12, 2016 18:30
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MonsieurChoc posted:Wow. This is way worse than I remember. Setting aside the racism of making Half-Gypsy a loving race option, it's a terrible one mechanically! None of those tiny bonuses are worth giving up the bonus feat and skill points of being human! Even the one that gives a bonus to Initiative is super random and can actually give you a negative one! Also, Disguise checks use Charisma as the base modifier, don't they? So not only is their OR worse than half-elves, their mitigation of it is hamstrung inherently?
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Feb 12, 2016 18:40
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Half a dozen subraces of Vistani? This is edging toward WoD: Gypsies territory.
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Feb 12, 2016 18:55
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I had forgotten that the Vistani are so special that you can't play one.
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Feb 12, 2016 19:00
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Bieeardo posted:Half a dozen subraces of Vistani? This is edging toward WoD: Gypsies territory. Man, I hope the pure Vistani don't have bs Kender traits when it comes to the property of non-Vistani. It doesn't seem that way, seeing how their half-bloods don't get bonuses to pick-pocketing. Alien Rope Burn posted:I had forgotten that the Vistani are so special that you can't play one. And this is edging toward Deliria territory.
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Feb 12, 2016 19:01
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Goddammit White Wolf, why must you make me liking you so terrible?  Edit: Although, thinking about it, they're just updating stuff from the previous editions there, so I can instead blame TSR. I mean, this D&D, everybody got magic. Why couldn't the Vistani just be a Roma-inspired cultural group of humans? Why the need to go full WoD: Gypsies? MonsieurChoc fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Feb 12, 2016 |
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Feb 12, 2016 19:01
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Yeah, that's the big thing I do not like about Ravenloft is how they handle the not-Roma - while the mysterious traveling people are a staple of gothic and romantic literature, that is something they really should've left in their source material.
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Feb 12, 2016 20:26
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Incidentally Dracula's Dossier has its own mysterious traveling people who are also probably worshippers of Dracula and maybe werewolves, yet it works a lot better because it treats the whole issue of the Roma with a lot more breadth, and doesn't literally make them not even human.
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Feb 12, 2016 20:53
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Oh, I remember reading about WoD and its uhhhhhh, unfortunate gypsy fascination.
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Feb 12, 2016 21:04
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DEFAULTS AND ASSUMPTIONS, PART 3 By now you've got a grasp on the defaults, but next it's time to decide how your settings varies from those defaults! There are a lot of questions to consider: How do the agents acquire the Dossier? For a game starting cold with this module, this can be basically anything. Find it covered in blood in a safe house, get it from a dying informant, beat a rival group to an unknown prize. There's an adventure compilation called The Edom Files that will include a default entry scenario, but it's not out as of this writing. If you've got an ongoing campaign going and want to transition into this storyline, you have another easy in - take one of the party's Network contacts in British intelligence and have her turn out to be Hopkins. Does Edom have a vampire? More vampires = more fun. Edom may have any number of vampire prisoners on the Prosperine, but the big question is: Does Edom have a tame vampire they can send on missions? If so, the question that comes up is why they're still after Dracula. Maybe Dracula has a doomsday switch set up to reveal all of Edom's crimes if he turns up dead. Maybe he has some kind of superweapon set up pointed at London. Maybe Edom's vampire is born of Dracula's blood, so if Dracula dies, Edom loses both assets. Edom keeps Dracula alive out of greed or necessity. Do other agencies know about vampires? The Dossier doesn't say that anyone else knows about vampires, but it also doesn't say that they don't. The simplest answer is that other agencies don't know about vampires, but a few individuals do. The fun answer is to throw another organization into the mix - maybe the CIA have their own vampire program, maybe the Germans had one during the world wars that's still operating in the shadows, maybe GRU has their own vampire. Each could have their own agenda, and add a new layer of complexity over the game. Does Dracula have any more vampires? He almost definitely has at least basic minions, but what about more independent lieutenants? In the novel, he focuses on vampirizing women, so immediate subordinates are more likely to be women than men. They also might not see eye-to-eye with Dracula - maybe Orlok resents not being the head honcho. There's a short story Dracula's Guest which was inserted into Dracula Unredacted as a chapter, which implies that some of Dracula's agents may have been acting without his approval. Do vampires work the way Van Helsing thought they did? Stoker's vampires are Damned, with touches of Supernatural, but he also gives some more scientific explanations of some of Dracula's abilities through geology, chemistry, electricity and volcanology. So, what's the actual nature of vampires? Some options:
You can even mix and match the two sides of Dracula's possible nature. Dracula's satanic origins are what gives him his telluric attunements. Orlok is a pure scientific vampire, Dracula being the real deal. How thoroughly has Dracula penetrated Britain? Dracula's network probably survived the 1977 mole hunt, and if it didn't, he's probably rebuilt it since. Does Dracula control Edom? Does Dracula control MI6? Does Dracula control the entire military-industrial complex? Does Dracula control the entire island? You don't even need to figure out how deep this goes right off the bat. Then again, if Dracula controls all of Romania and Britain, that gives him so many resources that stopping him may really be impossible. Is Jack the Ripper involved somehow? The Icelandic edition of Dracula opens with a reference to the Whitechapel killings, so it's not unprecedented. You could go almost anywhere with this - Renfield, Seward, Edom experimentation, war-traumatized homicidal George Stoker. This isn't really necessary, but it can add a fun element of Victorian monster mashup to the game.  Which historical figure was Dracula? This will probably come up when the agents start looking for Dracula's castle. Here are some possibilities:
Who blew the first Operation Edom in 1894? Why did the original plan go south so badly? Was Dracula really that cunning, or was there a traitor in the old group? Again, no need to figure this out ahead of time. What was Edom's actual plan in 1977? Maybe a Dracula agent set up the mole hunt to instigate a coup, and now runs Edom. Maybe it was cover to attempt to recruit Dracula against the Soviets. 1977's events are blurry and unclear, leaving lots of room to fit in your own ideas and plot twists. Using Campaign Modes All four of NBA's mods can be used for this game, depending on how you play it:
Playing an Edom Agent If the party wants it, let one (1) player be an Edom double agent. Their handler is one of the Dukes, although they may not actually know which one. Lead with one of two questions:
New Abilities The Dracula Dossier adds two new abilities characters can buy: Geology A new Investigative Ability. Analyze soil samples, match rocks to locality of origin, navigate cave formations, operate geo-sensing equipment. Hypnosis An optional new General Ability. Hypnosis - medical, not psychic - plays a big role in Stoker's novel, and is one of the only ways to reliably spot vampiric command. Pre-requisite is 8+ in Shrink or Medic. Using Hypnosis requires a willing subject and a test against a difficulty number that varies quite a bit:
Next: The 1894 Network.
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Feb 12, 2016 21:31
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Tricky Dick Nixon posted:Incidentally Dracula's Dossier has its own mysterious traveling people who are also probably worshippers of Dracula and maybe werewolves, yet it works a lot better because it treats the whole issue of the Roma with a lot more breadth, and doesn't literally make them not even human.
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Feb 12, 2016 21:54
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Nessus posted:I never thought the szgany were supposed to be like, monsters or whatever, though arguably their strong association with Big Vlad D. is not a sign of community moral fiber. Or is this a riff on WoD's Gypsy: The Exoticization? Oh I just meant that the szgany in DD work as a group of evil clannish gypsies because they are a single corrupted element no more different than the use of the Iron Guard or the other elements at play, though one of the sidebar examples of how to use them is to take their name literally and make them werewolves. It's just a nice contrast that you can use the Gothic elements without painting it with the brush that the Vestani do, where they are literally a whole other race with their own special powers, as opposed to actually just a group of people that, like many others, have been corrupted by the touch of Satan/telluric forces.
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Feb 12, 2016 22:11
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The book mentions multiple times that the Vistani are humans. They just have entirely different rules from humans because *reasons*.
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Feb 12, 2016 22:18
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