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Nessus posted:It's "little" in the sense that it's one stellar system, it's "unimaginably vast" in the sense that the surface area of the Ringworld is completely stupid and huge.
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Nov 14, 2017 05:12
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Comrade Gorbash posted:Just to make a note here, the Ringworld has the equivalent surface area of three million Earths. It's noted that several different continental world maps are duplicated on the Ringworld surface, including an entire "Map of Mars" that is areoformed rather than terraformed.  I think the game encourages you to use a single "hex" of this sort as your site for adventures, but that's based on a quick skim of some of the crunchier later stuff.
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Nov 14, 2017 05:37
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I wouldn't say that all sci-fi settings have to have humans be Special in some way or another. Oddly enough Transformers comes to mind as a setting where humanity are massively, hopelessly outmatched by nearly everything else in the universe, especially the giant shapeshifting living robots, who only have anything to do with humans because of their own devastating million-year war and because some of them are very nice people. And Hitchhiker's Guide gets a lot of humour out of how insignificant Earth is, while Lovecraft plays it for horror. And that tends to kinda illustrate why humanity has some special gimmick in sci-fi; because unless you're playing it for humour or horror, people start wondering why the story even bothers focusing on the insignificant, whiny, boring, usually underage humans and not the aliens who are actually doing interesting things.
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Nov 14, 2017 05:49
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Inescapable Duck posted:I wouldn't say that all sci-fi settings have to have humans be Special in some way or another. Oddly enough Transformers comes to mind as a setting where humanity are massively, hopelessly outmatched by nearly everything else in the universe, especially the giant shapeshifting living robots, who only have anything to do with humans because of their own devastating million-year war and because some of them are very nice people. And Hitchhiker's Guide gets a lot of humour out of how insignificant Earth is, while Lovecraft plays it for horror.
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Nov 14, 2017 05:53
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Nessus posted:Penn Jilette wrote a story where humanity tried to justify its unique existence to aliens on these grounds and eventually it came down to (depending on how you look at it) "sleight of hand magic tricks" or "deep investment in complicated forms of inconsequential deceit" as humanity's unique justification for existence.
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Nov 14, 2017 06:27
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Now there would be a fun short story. Humanity earns its place among the stars by virtue of our superior cooking. An entire arm of the Solar System Government is devoted to making sure no alien ever visits Middle America or England.
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Nov 14, 2017 06:31
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The Transformers comics take place in (and therefore, Earth is located in) the least-desired, poorest, most backward section of the galaxy, because the civilized aliens and their UN equivalent recognize that the species equivalent to a living military-industrial complex whose defining feature is a titanic civil war best measured on a geological scale should be kept away from everyone else.
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Nov 14, 2017 06:34
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 Part Three: The Rest of Character Creation, or, Wrestling Thermodynamics Now there’s one special category of Assets and Flaws to talk about : Good and Bad Reputations. These are only open to Experienced Wrestlers at Character Creation (though one could assume Managers and maybe some Personalities could have them as well)- otherwise you get them through play, as a reflection of decisions that character makes. Good Reputations are things like being a good Company Man, being Easy to Work With, the company’s Golden Child, or just Trustworthy- there’s even a catch all one that’s just “Good Reputation” and means you’ve stayed out of trouble. Locker Room Leader is one worth describing too, since that can be an important thing in wrestling- wrestlers can be a very ornery bunch sometimes and there needs to be an adult in the room to get everyone organized and ready to go. (This is reportedly why Roman Reigns has such strong backing.) Bad Reputations may be that your character is unsafe, refuses to job, is injury prone, etc. Some of these Reps don’t actually have mechanical effects, other raise or lower Clout, Work Rate, affect crowd Heat, etc. Okay, Heat. It can go up or down based on your characters’ on air performance. Interviews, Promos, and Skits all will call upon your character making a Mic Skills role. If the role succeeds, you increase your Heat by 1 for every 6 that you rolled. If you fail, however, your Heat goes down 1 for every 1 you roll. Meaning you can fail a promo and lose no Heat, which is good. Matches are a bit more complicated. Each Match will end with a certain amount of Heat, and you compare that to the existing Heat of the wrestlers involved. If it’s higher than your existing Heat, you gain some Heat- if it’s lower, you lose some. This is where Nostalgia Heat can hurt you- it means people expect more of you, and they’re disappointed if you don’t live up to their memories. By contrast, Phantom Heat isn’t counted here because it reflects what the promotion thinks of you. How much Heat you get is also influenced by what kind of match it is. If it’s just a normal match on a regular show, you gain/lose 10% of the difference; if it’s a main event of a TV show, it’s 30%; if it’s a PPV match, 50%; finally if it’s the main event of a PPV, you gain or lose the entire difference. All fractions are rounded up. It’s hard to judge all this without figuring how much Heat an average match is gonna generate, so we’ll come back to this later. There are, of course, Squash matches. While in theory the virtue of pro wrestling is you can book every fight to be an exciting back and forth, it’s a long tradition to throw in a few matches where one wrestler just dominates the other- the idea is the winner is someone you’re trying to make look like a big threat, and the loser is not someone the audience is likely to even remember. In a squash match, the winner gains an additional point of Heat over any awarded, while the loser cannot gain Heat- however, both the winner and loser can lose Heat if the Match Heat is lower than theirs. A Wrestler can also choose to “Put Someone Over”, that is, give up 50% of their Heat which is instantly transferred to another Wrestler. This is usually played out as losing to them in a match (or having a big even fight if they’re much lower on the pole than you), but it can also be done via a promo. It’s rare, but it happens, especially when a wrestler is close to retirement. Finally Commentary can help give Heat to a wrestler if it’s specifically targeted (this is explained later), and at any point the Booker can look at the behavior of a given wrestler and say it warrants a change- maybe they do something positive and public like backing a charity, maybe they do something really stupid and no-show an event or get arrested. Traits, meanwhile, are improved not by spending Heat or any other resource, but by making use of one of the Promotion’s own Traits, Facilities/Staff. To train, you roll the Facilities/Staff Trait minus the rating of the Trait you’re trying to improve- a successful roll means the Trait increases by 1. This does presumably mean that if you’re at or above the Facilities/Staff rating you really can’t get much better, but ideally the promotion is growing too. It is kinda weird that Clout is a part of this- why would a promotion actively help you to get better at manipulating it?- but I can think of some ways to explain that away. And finally- well, strictly speaking, before listing the Reputations- the book explains that after each Show, the Booker can decide to add or remove Assets, Flaws, or Reputations based on what’s happened. You’ll notice already, this is a system that gives a LOT of power to the GM- it’s not necessarily a bad thing if everyone’s on the same page, but that’s always the concern. Next Time: We begin the process of looking at how this game is actually played, with The Booking Committee.
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Nov 14, 2017 06:36
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Frankly, I have a much easier understanding how and why Kayfabe does what it does than I did with https://www. WWW uses stat names that don't always correspond to what you're doing.
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Nov 14, 2017 06:38
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Comrade Gorbash posted:Now there would be a fun short story. Humanity earns its place among the stars by virtue of our superior cooking. Humans are omnivorous and have many nuanced local cultures. (It is a shame much sci-fi doesn't give aliens greater apparent cultural diversity.)
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Nov 14, 2017 06:40
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Comrade Gorbash posted:Now there would be a fun short story. Humanity earns its place among the stars by virtue of our superior cooking. This was also the case in Myriad Song. Humans are the best chefs in the galaxy.
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Nov 14, 2017 06:50
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 Starfinger Alien Archive Part 04: "Sentient robots are extremely wary of assembly oozes, as their entire bodies could be targeted for processing into raw resources." Time for creatures that start with A. Today's menu includes the:
 Aeon Guard (CR 3) and Aeon Guard Specialist (CR 7) These are the fascist human stormtroopers of the Azlanti Star Empire, but unlike stormtroopers, they're rather dangerous to low-level characters. Also, instead of space Nazi stylings, they have a much more generic green armor with red highlights, which makes me want to hang Christmas ornaments off of them. These are supposed to be the elite, and we get no details on what the grunts are like. You'd think grunts would be the first thing to mention, but here in Paizotown, we jump right up to the elites, right here in the first entry. It notes they have special armor augmented by "legendary aeon stones" - those are the rocks that float around your head from the magic item section, FYI - but here they're plugged directly into their armor. They get level-appropriate custom gear for PCs to nab, as well as some higher-level gear listed that neither of the statblocks here actually use. Presumably GMs would have to make higher-level Aeon Guards on their own to use them. About the only notable thing about them is that they get special slots for aeon stones to plug into, but most aeon stones aren't that hot. The most utilitarian one in that regard is added in this very section - a "purple sphere aeon stone" which grants a mid-level force field. Aeon Guard Specialists are supposed to be their loner special forces who are send out to do generically badass stuff before no doubt getting their poo poo kicked in by PCs when they're outnumbered at least fourfold.   AHAV (CR 12) These are "Autonomous Heavy Assault Vehicles", a term for generic robot war machines. We're told they're immensely expensive and only can be fielded by nations or large mercenary teams, which combined with the lack of a price tag, is certainly one way of saying "Not you, PCs!" And so, they each come with a "MODEL", an immensely forced acronym for "MissiOn DEpendent Loadout." It can only choose one MODEL to modify its statblock: Advanced Maneuverability (fly speed and Spring Attack), Autoloader (bonus attack), Camouflage Plating (+20 bonus to Stealth?!... that's some fuckin' camo), Harrying Arms (can do Harrying Fire against everybody in 60 feet automatically), and Ram (as advertised). They're supposed to be long-lasting, so A GM can have the old robot set to guard something or murder somebody long after its owners passed away with no questions about what keeps it powered. Of course, they're hard to reason with so you can have a big robot fight. But if you can confuse their robot brains, you can get them to shut down entirely (no guidelines for this, so expect your GM to make some noodle arms and then have it shoot you anyway). It gets a machinegun and a flamethrower and no melee attacks unless it's built to ram. Strangely for a robot, it has fast healing with no explanation; it also has hardness 15 (i.e. damage reduction with no weaknesses) so it can tank damage pretty well for its level. This is feelin' generic, Starfinger. Also it's gotta suck for any Engineer who runs into these and is told "Oh, no, your robot companion will never be as badass as this, sorry!"   Anacite Laborer (CR 7) and Anacite Wingbot (CR 0.5) More robots?! Well, at least these are alien robots. This is the robotic race native to Aballon, which you may remember as the not-Mercury from the corebook. Despite being a dominant race there, they're disappointingly not playable, but only can show up as NPCs. It notes they vary widely, and we get a reiteration of a lot of the information we already had on them from the corebook. However, what's new is now we know that they're solar-powered (and thus become sickened in the dark), and each gets a "shortwave radio" that gives them telepathy with others of their kind. The wingbot can fly and has a bite and laser, and can "trill" to sicken in a radius around them. They might be rough customers given their flight and ranged attacks, but have low damage and DCs that keep them from being too nasty. The laborer gets a plasma current for melee (where it's stronger) or shoot lightning bolts at range. In addition, they get a choice of 2 built-in abilities it can exchange out given an hour, including: increased speed, blindsight, increased reach, an alternate move type (like burrowing or flight), energy resistance (one type only), or bonus armor. If these are "laborers" at CR 7, I can only wonder what the actual soldiers are like... And we also get some player-facing material tangentially related to the anacites, because apparently they sell them (exclusively?). There an "Antitoxin Membrane" of nanobots that gives a save bonus against poisons and diseases, as "Shortwave Receiver-Transmitter" that lets you communicate with anacites or other technological constructs, and a "Voice Amplifier" that gives a dime bonus on Intimidate checks and makes you easier to hear. Bizarrely, being modestly more resistant to poison is a level 5 augmentation, and having a shortwave radio in your head is level 7. The range? 100 feet. For gently caress's sake, Paizo.  Angel, Barachius (CR 7) So, we only get room for one angel, it seems. The barachius is an angel whose role is to prevent the misuse of technology by eeevil people and to "quash technologically advanced cultures that present an explicit threat to all good creatures". Given the presence of the Azlanti above, it seems like they not doing the best job of it. It's said they stop evil inventions from coming about, but it's the classic "so PCs don't have to worry about that sort of thing, then...?" sort of dilemma. Granted, sometimes they seem to take action against dangerous technology and sometimes not because they have mysterious ways to handwave away any inconsistency. It's implied they have some ability to see how technology might be used in the future. So PCs don't have to worry about that sort of thing, then...? In any case, they can fly around and have a wide variety of elemental immunities and resistances, spell resistance, a longsword and a laser rifle, can teleport between worlds or do chain lightning once a day, and make nanotech spell attacks. Their more unique abilities include "summoning a wall of digitally empowered divine fury" which damages evil creatures and evil technological creatures more, an aura that gives defensive bonuses against evil, and the ability to give a short-term nickel bonus to a technological weapon or armor. Lastly, in an attempt to give player-facing material, barachiuses have special magic helmets that "never can be taken from it by force". Really? Not even if you lop off their head? Well, the how of that isn't explained, but sometimes they give one of their helmets as a boon. Good luck finding a matching outfit, tho. Those with a "barachius helm" can detect evil and detect evil technology (like an unholy shotgun or whatever). Also, once per day you can use their "firewall" ability. Get it? Firewall?    Apari (CR 7) and Apari Constituent (CR 2) A large beetle-like creature that doubles as a hive of "constituents", this is a bug found on multiple worlds and why exactly is a mystery, despite several theories given. Due to being cooperatively territorial, they can be very hard to root out, as a fallen apari will have its hive constituents retreat to another apari so they can rebuild. However, their grubs are apparently considered delicious. As large bugs, they can see in the dark, claw, and shoot spikes. Their main unique abilities are to ignore critical hits, redistribute ability damage, and spawn "constituents" by spending HP as a move action. Constituents are flying bugs than can claw (and change what type of kinetic damage their claw does by mutating), but require a full-fledged apari to survive more than an hour. They can rejoin the main apari and add their HP back into its total, and aren't considered worth XP on their own unless encountered separately - usually they're considered to be folded into the apari's challenge rating. Kind of a neat idea, though its role as a pure damage-dealing predator makes it a little dull. The problem is that splitting doesn't significantly alter its tactics - if the constituents had different sorts of attacks or some team tactic, it'd be more interesting. But it isn't, since all they can do is claw or shoot claws.   Assembly Ooze (CR 1) These are basically oozes full of nanobots, probably created as a means of consuming raw materials and spitting out some device. However, they have "sloppy programing" meaning they often go wild and just consume whatever to produce whatever, or produce copies of themselves. While they're still used legally on Bretheda and its moons, they're highly regulated. In essence, they're the rust monsters of the setting, existing mainly to consume equipment. They only really present a direct danger to technologically-based races (like androids), and only attack with their bashing psuedopods if threatened. As CR 1 creatures, they're not that threatening, and we get a random chart of items they might randomly create. Their low rating means they aren't that much of a threat, and it feels like they're mostly more gimmick creatures in case you want to have the PC find a bunch of shotguns lying around or whatever rather than just having a usual Dungeons & Dragons dustup. There are rumors of having them constructing more elaborate machinery or spaceships, either out of some communal intelligence or being controlled. Kind of the rust monsters of the game, really. But their challenge rating is so low that by the time PCs have equipment worth worrying about losing, they're not longer a threat. A neat idea, but kind of makes you wonder why it's statted up as a monster at all.   Asteray (CR 12) So, these are supposed to be space sirens that fy around in space and make fake distress signals or interfere with spaceship sensors to run ships into dangerous spaces or objects. They like stripping wrecked ships clean, and though not directly predatory, represent a definite danger to ships and the like due to their fey callousness. It's possible to communicate and deal with them if you can find some way to amuse them. Apparently the came from "magic rich-star systems where the First World naturally overlapped with the void", which is a fancy way to say they came from faerie stars. In any case, they're chaotic neutral lulz-ers that can shoot lightning- wait-  Doesn't electricity require a medium to pass through? Wouldn't that mean it wouldn't work in space? Well, they're magical, I suppose. They get a variety of sabotage-worthy spells like confusion, overload systems, holographic image, etc. Their main unique abilities other than space lightning consist of being able create false sensor readings and remora-latch onto ships, hanging onto them even though the Drift. Though seemingly supposed to be like space mermaids, they're mostly just seemingly useful for bait-and-switch encounters where the PC's benevolence or greed is turned against them, but rarely with any worthwhile return other than "faeries gently caress with you because". Meh. Next: B is for Gasbags.
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Nov 14, 2017 07:13
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Both are probably inspired by Animorphs, which also paints humans in some pretty interesting light, by making them TOTALLY unique among all species. Human food is THE BEST, because no other race actually... eats. Yeerks basically photosynthesize, Andalites are evolved from grazing ungulate-like creatures and eat grass through their feet, Hork-Bajir eat tree-bark... Humans are the only omnivorous beings who bothered to evolve complex taste senses and so Earth becomes a major hub for galactic Gourmets. Other than that humans main advantage is just sheer numbers. Humans outnumber every other species by a factor of 100s, which is why the aliens go with a secret invasion style plot. There just aren't enough of them to actually control humanity without a major infiltration effort first. Also, I'm amazed there isn't an Animorphs setting for anything. The series was pretty popular back in the day, and the plot generally lends itself to RPG style antics without issue.
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Nov 14, 2017 07:20
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Would've been easy for White Wolf to get in on, since I think they were already publishing shapeshifter RPGs a plenty.
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Nov 14, 2017 07:29
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Here's a better idea for Barachius: They're all overworked hacker angels, keeping evil technology at bay through subterfuge and shenanigans. Generally, PCs never meet them- or if they do, they're busy doing other things and are kind of the angels in the background tapping on keyboards furiously trying to bypass the infernal trace on their connection or whatever- but when they meet one alone, it's because they've decided that they need outside help on this mission. Of course, they're willing to put themselves in the line of fire, too. They're no REMFs, they're the best of the host. They're heaven's super-spy hackers, Mr. Johnsons, and mission payloads.
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Nov 14, 2017 08:02
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Nessus posted:Isn't this why Transformers comics, at least, tend to have only token human characters, whereas the cartoons tend to have a more focused appeal to the audience stand-in character? Mostly because the comics are generally written by fans of the shows who grew up getting bored and annoyed by the cartoon audience stand-ins. And a well-recieved few incarnations of the franchise (namely Beast Wars and the War For Cybertron and Fall Of Cybertron games) don't feature them at all. Transformers Animated is a bit funny given it has some human characters the audience actually likes (though the human supervillains are maybe a little too goofy), though one turns out to be not so human after all. Wapole Languray posted:Both are probably inspired by Animorphs, which also paints humans in some pretty interesting light, by making them TOTALLY unique among all species. The rub there is that it takes a lot of creativity to make a number of believable alien aliens. It does come up that humans are the perfect host species for Yeerks, with their versatility and fast reproduction. And to be vaguely on topic; it makes RPG balance nearly impossible. While I'm at it, I vaguely recall about the Kzinti having had access to genetic engineering technology in their equivalent of a Bronze Age culture, which resulted in them altering their women into non-sentient domestic slaves and men into 'heroes' mostly good at leaping and yelling, which seemed to be the start of a cultural bottleneck that came back to bite them a long time later when intelligence is the most important trait a species can have. Incidentally, the Human-Kzin Wars make me think a bit of basically Pearl Harbour, or WW2 in general; when it comes to total war, the side that has the biggest manufacturing base is generally the one that's going to win. Ghost Leviathan fucked around with this message at 09:27 on Nov 14, 2017 |
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Nov 14, 2017 09:25
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It is entirely possible to generate an electric arc through a vacuum, though of course directing said arc is magic and science fiction without an attached charged particle emitter to excite a target surface, and you need quite a strong electric field. In fact, one of the fundamental constants (fittingly called vacuum permittivity, the permittivity of free space, or simply the electric constant) describes how difficult it is to generate an electric field in a vacuum. The vacuum tube gets its name from using thermionic emission to overcome the permittivity of free space, thereby acting as a huge, primitive transistor. This is not strictly a vacuum arc, since you're exiting your element to get the ions off, but it's close enough. Note that the electric arc would not actually be visible, since the visibility of an electric arc depends on the medium it excites.
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Nov 14, 2017 09:44
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Inescapable Duck posted:The rub there is that it takes a lot of creativity to make a number of believable alien aliens. It does come up that humans are the perfect host species for Yeerks, with their versatility and fast reproduction. And to be vaguely on topic; it makes RPG balance nearly impossible. I'm not sure what the official story is with the kzinti origins. One theory is that they were themselves conquered and used as mercenaries and proceeded to usurp and eat their former masters, but that seems like it would have colored their perspective somewhat. They would perhaps have still been conquerers, but the tone would have been different. Another is genetic engineering technology which did as you say: Let them make themselves into their actual cultural ideal of "Heroes." The thing about the first Man-Kzin war is that the Kzin were winning until We Made It started rolling around like some big swag players. Earth and the Belt were basically just able to stall for time with adapted infrastructure. The ARM had made the UN so peaceful that the guy who shot the first Kzin ship was medically insane.
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Nov 14, 2017 10:11
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Ratoslov posted:Here's a better idea for Barachius: They're all overworked hacker angels, keeping evil technology at bay through subterfuge and shenanigans. Generally, PCs never meet them- or if they do, they're busy doing other things and are kind of the angels in the background tapping on keyboards furiously trying to bypass the infernal trace on their connection or whatever- but when they meet one alone, it's because they've decided that they need outside help on this mission. Of course, they're willing to put themselves in the line of fire, too. They're no REMFs, they're the best of the host. They're heaven's super-spy hackers, Mr. Johnsons, and mission payloads. Aaaaand just like that, a poster on a dead gay forum comes up with a better idea than well-paid, somewhat experienced setting writers.
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Nov 14, 2017 10:11
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JcDent posted:Aaaaand just like that, a poster on a dead gay forum comes up with a better idea than well-paid, somewhat experienced setting writers. But then you couldn't kill them and steal their stuff/use them for summoning fodder with no moral issues!
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Nov 14, 2017 10:36
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Leraika posted:But then you couldn't kill them and steal their stuff/use them for summoning fodder with no moral issues! Well, the problem there exists in the link between the chair and the character sheet.
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Nov 14, 2017 10:39
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JcDent posted:Well, the problem there exists in the link between the chair and the character sheet. I'm saying that the writers didn't bother to do something cool with them because they're there to be killed and have their poo poo taken/summoned to fight for you, because Pathfinder/Starfinger doesn't really do cool setting concepts.
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Nov 14, 2017 10:46
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What douches. When I read DH/DW books, I don't see NPC entries as loot pinnatas. I guess it must be a DnD remnant where you had loot charts and XP for every enemy you killed.
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Nov 14, 2017 11:24
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JcDent posted:What douches. When I read DH/DW books, I don't see NPC entries as loot pinnatas. I guess it must be a DnD remnant where you had loot charts and XP for every enemy you killed. so you've never heard of pathfinder I take it
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Nov 14, 2017 14:24
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You must save at -2 or tremble in instinctual fear and awe at the sight of The Deck of Encounters Set One Part 27: The Deck of Dopplegangers, Dragons, Elementals, and Ettercaps 159: The Dead Walk Again “This encounter requires that the PCs have killed some humans or demihumans recently.” I dunno, man, sounds like a stretch to me. Those individuals the PCs killed were actually dopplegangers who “had held those forms for so long, they did not immediately revert to their original forms.” Well, that certainly is bullshit. Anyway, these people were key to some doppleganger plan, so other dopplegangers have replaced them and carried on their lives. If the PCs interrogate them, they claim that they were replaced by dopplegangers trying to “ruin their good names.” If the PCs seem suspicious, the dopplegangers will try to murder them later. Hmm, I don’t know. It makes me tired to have to come up with a reason why dopplegangers needed whatever random NPCs the PCs killed enough to copy them twice. And mysteries like this don’t tend to hold up in the face of magic and PC bull-headedness. And the encounter relies on ignoring a commonly-understood rule about how dopplegangers work. Actually, I do know. Pass. 160: False Friend A doppleganger has been hired by an enemy to kill the PCs. When they separate in the city, it tails a PC (they might notice if they have the Alertness proficiency… that was a proficiency?), waits for a good opportunity, and tries to murder them. It doesn’t seem incredibly dangerous - it’s a medium-danger encounter, so the PCs will be a decent level, and a single doppleganger in melee isn’t much. But it could be fun to ambush a wizard and watch them scramble, and this could motivate the PCs to go on the offensive against some of their enemies. Keep. 161: Double Image In a town where the PCs have become a visible presence, a doppleganger has been imitating one of them. They’re running up bar tabs, picking up commissioned items on their behalf, etc. It’s not hard to solve the mystery, since the doppleganger hasn’t exactly been subtle. It’ll try to skip town when the PCs return and are on to it. This is a pretty uncreative, by-the-book doppleganger situation, but I suppose there’s a little value having card to randomly determine when it happens? Keep? 162: A Chilling Experience The PCs are on an open arctic plain dotted with hillocks (not hills, hillocks), one of which is a young adult white dragon looking to gain gold and glory by killing adventurers. It breaks free of its cover of snow when they get near, which actually is like a reverse surprise round because it needs a round to shake the snow off itself. Then it breathes on them and takes flight. “It fights to the death, for it cannot bear the thought of the shame it would feel if it was routed by mere humans.” I... suppose that’s as good a reason as any? And it’s got no hoard in its lair, since it was just trying to start one. It more or less hangs together conceptually, but when I rephrase it as “a dragon attacks you out of nowhere, never flees, and has no treasure” it just sounds like DM fuckery. Pass. 163: Lost Child In a classy, fountain-filled city, the PCs hear crying from a fountain. It's a baby water elemental "conjured by mistake by an inept mage who set the fountain's everflowing spell. It talks like a child, and can be vindictive or clingy depending on how the PCs react. The best idea, claims the card, is to get it to a large ocean or inland sea, where there might be other elementals. Or, you know, since this is the sort of magical ren-faire city where every fountain is the equivalent of a decanter of endless water, maybe they can find some way to safely abjure it? Seems a lot more direct of a solution. Either way, it's not super interesting. But it's conceivable that it could play out in fun ways. Keep. 164: Silken Strands So the PCs are in a thick forest, and as they go along they “may notice strands of a fine silvery, thread-like material “occasionally wound between and over the trees.” But wait, it doesn’t matter whether they do or not, because “even if the PCs notice the strands, before they can react,” there’s a big web net over them. It was thrown by an ettercap. Its strategy is to poison any trapped characters, then run off and wait for them to die. Yeah, save-or-die poison can be pretty brutal. BUT WAIT, that doesn’t matter either, because “due to the extreme toxicity of the ettercap’s poison, the DM may wish to have a druid or a ranger ‘on hand’ to save a bitten PC if the party has no method of healing the wounded character.” Sigh. At least that’s a “may wish to,” and not a directive. All that aside, this is mostly just a reworded version of the ettercap description in the Monstrous Manual. Pass. Dallbun fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Nov 14, 2017 |
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Nov 14, 2017 15:04
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Dallbun posted:(they might notice if they have the Alertness proficiency… that was a proficiency?) hoo boy, you do not want to go down the rabbit hole that was AD&D non-weapon proficiency lists. there were multiple proficiencies that covered the same conceptual space, and sometimes they even had the exact same Name but were arbitrarily available to mutually exclusive class lists. motherfucking Future History was a non-weapon proficiency. you know, because you need to be able to predict the future to a point beyond the information you're actually looking for, so that when you predict the future the info you want is already a part of the historical record and thus easier to acquire. edit: and since one of the most infamous D&D-ism is "anything we don't explicitly say that you can do, you likely cannot do" the non-weapon proficiency skill lists created some pretty bizarre RAW assumptions about how life actually worked. weird stuff, like only psions could Breathe or only rogues could Whistle or other inane poo poo. I mean, if Breathe is an NWP and your class can't take it, doesn't that mean that they literally can't breathe? Freaking Crumbum fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Nov 14, 2017 |
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Nov 14, 2017 15:49
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Ratoslov posted:They're heaven's super-spy hackers, Mr. Johnsons, and mission payloads. Yeah, that would have been better. The written ones have a Santa Claus issue where they're written as omniscient so if they "screw up" it must be for some greater good or something. I mean, given their seeming ability to predict technological developments, even if something would be beyond their capabilities now, presumably it wouldn't have been when they could have strangled it around the point of invention.
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Nov 14, 2017 16:12
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Wapole Languray posted:Both are probably inspired by Animorphs, which also paints humans in some pretty interesting light, by making them TOTALLY unique among all species.
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Nov 14, 2017 20:18
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Strange Matter posted:I know that the Adventure! podcast on the One-Shot Network ran an Animorphs game using Masks, but I figured that Eclipse Phase is a more natural direction to go on a strictly mechanical level. Nah, Animorphs doesn't really work if you go strict simulation with the mechanics. The books have a wolf, bear and gorilla all about on par as fighting forms, and a gold eagle and osprey are basically the same for travel. I like a Fate hack for Animorphs, I'm fond of an Approaches system like from Accelerated, but either really works. Just have morphs be some basic modifiers and don't worry about tracking the lifting capability of a vole vs weasel.
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Nov 14, 2017 20:36
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Nessus posted:I'm not sure what the official story is with the kzinti origins. One theory is that they were themselves conquered and used as mercenaries and proceeded to usurp and eat their former masters, but that seems like it would have colored their perspective somewhat. They would perhaps have still been conquerers, but the tone would have been different. Another is genetic engineering technology which did as you say: Let them make themselves into their actual cultural ideal of "Heroes." On of the short stories is actually about this: the Jotok (the eel guys) contacted them during their feudal period to use them as mercenaries. It didn't end well, since the Jotok are now slaves and occasionally meals. The Ritt (Kzinti royal family) motto is "from mercenary to master."
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Nov 14, 2017 21:03
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wiegieman posted:On of the short stories is actually about this: the Jotok (the eel guys) contacted them during their feudal period to use them as mercenaries. It didn't end well, since the Jotok are now slaves and occasionally meals. The Ritt (Kzinti royal family) motto is "from mercenary to master." It presents an ethical complication if the kzin are still allowed to own (and eat!) slaves under the hairy foot of the Human. That said, the stories have pretty clearly presented Kzin space as including several planets that are on the "other side" of Kzin space - Human forces have gotten close enough to threat Kzin proper but there was a whole back porch humans never got to. e: If I were running Ringworld I'd probably say the Kzin were compelled to manumit their slaves after Man Kzin War III: The Search for Spock. There may be lingering holdouts in isolated estates. Nessus fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Nov 14, 2017 |
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Nov 14, 2017 21:44
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Starfinger Alien Archive Part 05: "Though not many in the Pact Worlds have heard of this field, it occasionally appears in news vidfeeds, such as when an expert is committed to a psychiatric hospital after splashing acid in his eyes and raving about 'the impending refraction.'" And now, the B-list of creatures. (That's not an insult, they start with B.) Today's feature films are:
  Barathu (CR 5) and Early Stage Barathu (CR 2) Gas-bag jellyfish from Barathu are flying aberrations that can punch with their tentacles and who communicate telepathically. They're also able to mutate their bodies somewhat to add an single "adaptation" to their statblock, including: bonus AC, ground speed, damage resistance, a ranged attack of... undetailed bludgeoning damage, energy resistance, or improved reach. They can also combine into a larger creature with more HP, larger sizes, and added adaptations. PC barathu (the "early stage" version) are flying aberrations with telepathy as well, a nickel bonus to Fortitude saves, and a lesser version of the adapation ability above (lesser bonuses, and can't choose Damage Resistance). They're notably odd and alien compared to the corebook races, and I find them more interesting even with their limitations. Their ability to fly and adapt makes them distinct in ways other core races aren't. However, their monster version, while it makes an interesting NPC, isn't a particularly interesting challenge, given all it can do is punch and try and maximize its extra bonuses.  Bloodbrother Twin alien mercenaries that first appeared working for Thanos, and defeated by Drax and Iron Man, the blood brothers gain strength depending on their proximity to each othe- oh, whups. Not those guys. Okay, these are naga-like bug monsters from the "dark side" of Verces (the tidally-locked planet), they have a jaw-like ribcage they use to capture prey in. Well, okay, it's really just a mouth, but it's lined with suckers that attach to a creature and then use it as a "auxiliary heart". Apparently it somehow keeps its captive alive for months in this fashion to help it "heat and feed itself". How it keeps a presumably starving creature alive is not clear; it doesn't have an obvious secondary bite attack to feed itself otherwise, nor is any secondary diet described. Due to the tendency for locals to avoid or hunt them. They're "intelligent as the average human" but "don't care to speak". Oookay. They're basically devourers from D&D 3.5 with a larger diet. They're huge creatures that can climb and slither, have a heavy slam attack that lets them grab if they hit by a large margin, do extra cold damage on attacks and grapples, and as a grapple maneuver they can put you in their tummy. They can attempt to drain the blood of their prisoner to heal themselves, though the victims get a saving throw. Other than that fancy attack, there's not much to them, their whole tactic is taking a PC or NPC out of the game until they're sufficiently shot. An effective tactic, but not very fun for the person trapped. Though we're told their pelts are useless and their meat is nasty, there is a serum you can make from them that gives some short-term cold resistance and fast healing. There, a thing for players! Are you mollified yet, non-GMs?! This creature isn't much of a bro, in any case.  Bryvath (CR 15) Aberrations from Aucturn, these are cosmic horror-ish creatures that manipulate light into an "impossible spectrum". Note to editors- if they're doing it, it ain't impossible. That's the wrong word. In any case, they can absorb and feed on light, and and some say it's a clawed, multi-limbed humanoid with "eight" or "infinite" limbs and apparently moves in a rubbery, jointless fashion at - sigh - impossible angles. The art shows us it's just a naked vampire with strategically-placed shadows and rainbow claws, though. The text goes on at how maddening the once-again impossible colors are and that it causes horrific dreams of alien cities and suns that "[blaze] with hues no eye has ever seen". Or sometimes witnesses go color-blind. Okay, I get it, you thought The Color Out of Space was clever, and it was pretty clever for its time, but this is just flogging it. If that wasn't enough, we get more text on how it many exist in multiple dimensions and that some people theorize at the colors are just an aspect of its "other facets" whatever and sometimes trained physicists have studied this and gone mad. Anyway they're about 6', 250 lbs., and have no described habits or behavior other than gathering near bright light. I guess they might attack people for their lamps? I mean, you've got this whole CR 15 stat block, so I suppose they must, but it's... not... for gently caress's sake, if you could have just described what this creature does, it would have been better than going on for a goddamn half-page about how spooky they are. So, they do a lot of slashing damage with their claws and get a variety of spell-like abilities, like mind control, confusion, invisibility, or some sensory spells. Their main ability is an aura that forces a Will saving throw of nearby onlookers to avoid being nauseated and does Intelligence and Wisdom damage. They also can drain light fron light-emitting objects and tear open spaces in reality that persist and can cause confusion and dazzle witnesses. It's kind of a neat design for an enemy block, but I do wish the description wasn't so up its own rear end. There are also some "aura goggles" attached to the spellblock that were developed to counter the creature, that give a bonus against visually-based effects and let you use arcane sight once a day. Next: C is for Leeches.
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Nov 14, 2017 21:51
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Modeling all the physical differences between character types using Eclipse Phase's system is enervating, whether you're talking about using it to play Animorphs or just using it to play Eclipse Phase. At the other end of the spectrum: I recently reread the F&F of dead inside, and that's a good example of a setting with a system that is too light for what it wants to do. Everything revolves around Qualities, which function as your skills, damage track, and sometimes experience points, and Soul Points, which function as your magic fuel, action points, experience points, and sometimes hit points.
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Nov 14, 2017 21:58
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Halloween Jack posted:Modeling all the physical differences between character types using Eclipse Phase's system is enervating, whether you're talking about using it to play Animorphs or just using it to play Eclipse Phase. I know you're framing it as too much work, but I actually think the real problem is partly the opposite. The different bodies you can inhabit in Eclipse Phase suffer a lot from how mechanically simple they are, which makes them uninteresting. The vast majority of them can be summarized as a very short list of stat modifiers, which is not a form of mechanical difference that can really drive roleplaying in any particular direction. If you sleeve into a Menton to smart smarter, the only real consequence is that you can smart smarter. They're like the overly lengthy gun lists in a lot of RPGs; which gun you pick isn't going to mean anything to the story, and you'll probably just pick the one with the biggest numbers anyway. (I realize this is ironic coming from someone who really likes Phoenix Command.)
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Nov 14, 2017 22:19
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Dallbun posted:
That's either a trivial encounter or a massive dick move with very little wiggle room between, because even allowing that a young adult white dragon is pretty weak on the grand scale of dragons any party that's not going to be able to kill the thing during the baffling free turn followed by 'for some reason this thing is breathing from the ground instead of flying up and then strafing you' is going to get hosed once it DOES take off. EDIT: I did some research and gently caress's sake I was really underestimating that dragon, Young Adult for a white means it's in the 60-70 foot range (with tail obv), is a 12 HD monster, causes fear, and just in general is not something a party wants to see as a goddamn surprise. Feinne fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Nov 15, 2017 |
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Nov 15, 2017 00:02
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It also shows a terminal lack of imagination. A young dragon just starting out and trying to decide what to hoard, looking for available lair space, trying to predict which local royal dynasties might have female children in a few decades etc is a brilliant PC patron.
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Nov 15, 2017 00:11
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Loxbourne posted:It also shows a terminal lack of imagination. A young dragon just starting out and trying to decide what to hoard- It ambushes the PC party to start its hoard, because it knows adventurers collect loot. Not being a crazy killer, though, it decides that it'll let them go if they just give it their most valuable items. The PC's are smarter than it and decide to offer it their CCG's/boots/other pointless items, then explain to the puzzled dragon that truly, this is the most valuable thing they own. Doesn't it know that these are COLLECTIBLES? Soon, the dragon starts attacking con games with its overpowered decks rather than its breath weapon, or raiding cobblers rather than treasuries.
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Nov 15, 2017 03:18
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PurpleXVI posted:It ambushes the PC party to start its hoard, because it knows adventurers collect loot. Not being a crazy killer, though, it decides that it'll let them go if they just give it their most valuable items. Also because a dragon's horde is invested with magic through the value people place on it (given they can use priceless art and stuff for it) this actually works and guarantees the dragon a long, successful, unorthodox life.
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Nov 15, 2017 03:21
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Now I'm envisioning a Dragon taking over a country and working his hardest to instill a sense of national pride and sense of self worth because his citizenry is his hoard.
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Nov 15, 2017 03:31
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Kurieg posted:Now I'm envisioning a Dragon taking over a country and working his hardest to instill a sense of national pride and sense of self worth because his citizenry is his hoard. Dragon artificially inflates the value of his stock buys so that he can ascend to be a Great Wyrm before the bubble bursts.
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Nov 15, 2017 03:41
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