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I'm getting a sense that the writers for BtMoM were really fascinated with what they were writing, in a good way, but hard trouble separating the "this is cool and neat if you're interested in Antarctica"-stuff from the "this is cool and neat if you want to run the BtMoM and otherwise don't give a poo poo about Antarctica"-stuff. 
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Feb 19, 2018 01:22
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PurpleXVI posted:I'm getting a sense that the writers for BtMoM were really fascinated with what they were writing, in a good way, but hard trouble separating the "this is cool and neat if you're interested in Antarctica"-stuff from the "this is cool and neat if you want to run the BtMoM and otherwise don't give a poo poo about Antarctica"-stuff.
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Feb 19, 2018 01:27
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I hereby submit Bolt van der Hütj, Dutch heavyweight champion boxer, to the Mountains of Madness, if only because Crunch Buttsteak, the actual best name from that skit, is a bit hard to justify. Daeren fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Feb 19, 2018 |
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Feb 19, 2018 02:02
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"We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese": Starkweather And Moore Announce New Expedition Leader.
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Feb 19, 2018 02:17
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One thing that often gets skipped about Mega-Damage was that it was part of Rifts' early success. For the most part, games at the time, even things like superhero games, were really cagey about limiting a player's destructive capacity. Putting aside that Mega-Damage almost instantly became so ubiquitous in the setting as to completely remove normal damage as a viable option (unless you were small game hunting or something), it felt like a tremendous exciting thing to realize your character was a walking tank. It seemed pretty edgy and exciting when most games shook their finger at you for focusing on combat (despite the fact that most of those games had 80% or so of their ruleset dedicated to adjudicating combat). Of course, the problem is the net effect, ironically, is to make characters more vulnerable since once your armor runs out of protection, about nine times out of ten, you're dead from the excess Mega-Damage. At least when you took severe, life-threatening damage in earlier Palladium games, there was a chance your party could sweep you off to a hospital or healer and you'd roll some percentage dice and maybe you'd have a twitch or a crippled limb but you could potentially at least not die. But unless somebody actually knows and interfaces with the grapple rules or uses one of the rare nonlethal weapons in Rifts, every combat becomes kill-or-be-killed. This isn't helped by the fact that there's no real rules for fixing your armor in the field, so unless you're a regenerating dragon or a spellcaster with defensive spells, it's just a downward spiral throughout an adventure against enemies that generally have similar weapons, stats, and durability to you. Rifts Ultimate Edition - the second edition of Rifts in all but name, because Palladium is terrified of implying a break in compatibility - will add the rule that when your armor is depleted, none of the Mega-Damage continues through to the wearer. This is a big improvement, since it at least gives you a chance to try and escape or surrender when you're in a bad spot. But it also has unintended Looney Tunes-like results, where you can leap on a grenade and then survive, albeit ashen and naked as you look over to the camera for a goofy reaction shot. But at least that's more entertaining than going through the laborious process of rolling a new Palladium character.
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Feb 19, 2018 02:26
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I've said it before and I'll say it again, Palladium is still the only game to make me just give up in character creation. I thought it would be fun to randomly roll up a Nightbane character, but good God, the layout is the worst I've ever seen.
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Feb 19, 2018 02:37
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David Harbour, American Actor famous for playing a small town chief of police with an amazing right hook. Since, you know, he's actually going there .https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/02/david-harbour-antarctica-trip-greenpeace-penguins
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Feb 19, 2018 02:57
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Hugh Watson, Scottish military veteran who served in the Duke of Albany's Seaforth Highlanders during the Great War. Ardent player of the bagpipes. Often mistaken for a penguin.Mr.Misfit posted:Also, with about 310k words, it's really a mountain of text in the space you´d assume some sort of novel would fit. How maddening.
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Feb 19, 2018 03:48
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Rifts Ultimate Edition - the second edition of Rifts in all but name, because Palladium is terrified of implying a break in compatibility - will add the rule that when your armor is depleted, none of the Mega-Damage continues through to the wearer. This is a big improvement, since it at least gives you a chance to try and escape or surrender when you're in a bad spot. But it also has unintended Looney Tunes-like results, where you can leap on a grenade and then survive, albeit ashen and naked as you look over to the camera for a goofy reaction shot. But at least that's more entertaining than going through the laborious process of rolling a new Palladium character. EDIT: I mean, I am assuming all of these exist, but I feel fairly confident they do.
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Feb 19, 2018 03:59
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Kevin Simbieda, american author looking for inspiration.
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Feb 19, 2018 04:13
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Zereth posted:Is this per piece of armor, or per all your MDC armor collectively? Can you ensure you'll survive at least three hits by putting on an MDC skintight bodysuit, some sealed armor, and then an MDC trenchcoat on top of the armor? It's not really clear from the wording, it could go either way. Mega-Damage trenchcoats do exist (as of New West), but just increase the value of the armor you're wearing - they're not treated as a separate layer. And since I just had to open up the book again, I'm reminded there are also optional rules in Ultimate Edition for humans potentially surviving a Mega-Damage hit (operating on the notion that it'll just blow right through you and thusly be unable to apply its full force) at the cost of being severely crippled; phrases like "1d4 internal organs will have to be replaced" come up. Both these rulings are, of course, only the slightest concession, and the underlying issue of high lethality remains. Siembieda talks about it being a "thinking man's game" (his words) where you're supposed to choose or overcome your fights cleverly, but that's impossible to take too seriously with the content of most supplements pointing players in the exact opposite direction, which almost all adventures boiling down to a big climactic fight or enemy base crawl at the end.
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Feb 19, 2018 04:35
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Zereth posted:Is this per piece of armor, or per all your MDC armor collectively? Can you ensure you'll survive at least three hits by putting on an MDC skintight bodysuit, some sealed armor, and then an MDC trenchcoat on top of the armor? Yes and no. You really could only wear one armor at a time, but several characters like the Glitter Boy had a pilot suit, in addition to the "Reinforced Pilot Compartment" and the Main Body, all of which are MDC. And stuff like Triax, RIFTS Merc Ops, and Chaos Earth had outfits, plate carriers and vests, which had MDC but also an Armor Rating (think THAC0, where anything I under the AR hits the armor instead of you, which in RIFTS means you can get kill shot if you surpass the AR).
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Feb 19, 2018 04:36
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unseenlibrarian posted:David Harbour, American Actor famous for playing a small town chief of police with an amazing right hook. Are we sure this isn´t just a Tide ad? Also, I hereby declare character applications for BtMoM closed. We´ve got an eclectic collection of zany individuals, which makes up both our base and our backup roster. Who the lucky people are to go mad in Antarctica? Well, you´ll just have to wait for the update to find out. In any case, I´m off to work, update follows tonight once I get back from slaving for the overlords...
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Feb 19, 2018 06:48
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 Rifts Sourcebook 4: Coalition Navy, Part 3: "However, such salty, independent, self-reliant and boldly adventurous characters can make for wonderful player characters." CS Navy O.C.C.s We get a list of naval ranks for both enlisted crew and officers. It notes that Psi-Stalkers aren't barred from service, but rarely join due to the "confined, tedious life" and their general role as eyeshadowed edgelords. Then, we get into skills and the traditional skill bloat, most of which are copied from Rifts World Book Seven: Underseas, so if you missed Sea Holistic Medicine, Ocean Geographic Surveying, or Pilot Water Scooters the first time, here we go again! on our own   "The Merchant and the Moff", coming up next on CSTV. And then we get new classes to take your skulls for a splash. The % by each class is your chance to roll one up as a human, not that you'd be rolling most of them up as anything else.
  Infantry and commando action figures sold separately. CSN Equipment ... is mostly identical to the Army. However, we get a number of aquatic armor suits usable underwater and while swimming, like the Standard CS "shark" Navy Armor (has vibro-blade "fins"), the CA-7 Nautical Commando Armor (used by the special forces with gadgets), the CSN-1 Lightning Strike SCUBA Armor (a lighter suit for SCUBA divers and dog boys), and the CNA-2 "Barracuda" Commando Armor (the lightest suit, designed for stealth). There's a jet back and an "underwater" jet pack (really more like propulsive. Lastly, new weapons include the CSN-20 Speargun (with a variety of spear loads + laser), CSN-T30 Torpedo-Grenade Launcher, Limpet Mines, and CS Naval Mines (the more powerful ones can actually do really major damage).   Shark and barracuda armors. CSN Nuclear Arsenal Yep. The Coalition apparently has old-school nuclear weapons now, unlike those used in the existing missile rules. Apparently they found the weapons and designs in old military facilities, and have been reproducing a "small" arsenal since (50 per year). These are distinguished from the nuclear weapons already in use in the game, which are apparently relatively "clean" and small-yield tactical nukes, while these are full-fledged city-destroyers with minimal fallout due to advances in nuclear weapon technology. Apparently the chief intent in developing these is to sink Atlantean vessels, and they've devised complicated security measures before anybody is allowed to unleash one. We get a lot of  about what nuclear detonations involve, including rules for the heat wave, pressure wave, radiation, and EMP effect. Short version: nukes will annihilate most low-durability M.D.C. creatures for about three miles outside the immediate detonation; six miles is fairly survivable outside of the actual explosion. However, the EMP will almost always fry non-hardened electronics, but what counts as "hardened" is consistently vague like it has been with similar effects in the past. Is a power armor hardened? A tank? A spaceship? Who knows!We get two main weapons: the CSN Mk108 Firefly Air-To-Sea Torpedo (blast radius 1000', 2d4 x 100 mega-damage) and the BGM-109 Tomahawk Cruise Missle - CSN Version (blast radius 1000', 3d4 x 100 mega-damage). The former is for targeting ships, while the second are submarine-based weapons essentially ready to strike most almost any of their major enemies, from Atlantis to Lazlo. So you may wonder, "Why doesn't the Coalition just nuke enemies like Tolkeen and call it a day?" Rifts Sourcebook 4: Coalition Navy posted:The CS government, despite their heinous reputation, would never, under normal circumstances, consider using nuclear weapons against rival kingdoms, not even against the likes of Tolkeen. To use nukes against such a foe would be a cowardly act, causing the indiscriminate killing of non-combatant humans, an act the Emperor would never condone. Also, the use of nukes against rival states such as Tolkeen would cause undue devastation of territory the Coalition intends to occupy. I have a hard time buying it, given their rhetoric and characterization up to this point. When we get into the actual Tolkeen conflict, it'll hold even less water. Also, with the amount of unclaimed land, nuking one city is almost of little actual consequence, given they probably don't have interest in the magical infrastructure of a city like Tolkeen. Nonetheless, we're told they'll only use it if a rival nation was on the verge of annihilating them, which is presently unlikely (apparently only Atlantis qualifies, and they have no invasion plans). They might target the Gargoyle Empire with nukes to assist the New German Republic, however, and if they start expanding too far, alien-dominated locales like the Arkhon Freehold are likely targets. So, yeah. The Coalition get a ridiculous increase in power here. It'll be almost entirely ignored from here on out, however, so just try and forget about all this when Coalition Wars rolls around. Next: SeAMAS.
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Feb 19, 2018 10:30
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Well, at least one part of the triad is up and running! By the by, how do The Savage Rifts interface with the original Rifts books?
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Feb 19, 2018 11:04
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Kavak posted:
I had to look this up myself and wow COC d20s conversion rules posted:Take the character's highest rating in a combat skill (such as Handgun, Fist/Punch, Rifle, Shotgun, or Machine Gun), subtract the base skill rating (for instance, 25% for Handgun), and divide the result by 5. This is the character's base attack bonus; use Table 1-8 or Table 1-9 (page 10) to determine the character's starting level. According to COC 6th Edition, the Education stat is obtained by rolling 3d6+3 (I got 14). The next step is to multiply that number by 20 (resulting in 280) and that gives you the number of points you can distribute among your percentile skills, capping at 99%. If I take those 280 points and put 89 of them into Headbutt, I now have 99% Headbutt (base 10%). Using the conversion method, (89 / 5) comes out to 17.8, rounded down to 17. Cross-referencing this to COC d20's Table 1-8, the highest available BAB is +10 for a level 20 "Defense" character. Meanwhile, Table 1-9 offers +15 as the highest available BAB for a level 20 "Offense" character. If you tried to do this with 99% Shotgun, you'd have a base of 30%, which reduces the skill-point portion to 69, which results in a BAB of 13.8, rounded down to 13. That would give you a level 17 Offense character in COC d20. So it's not quite correct that Headbutt McHeadbuttface is going to become a level 17 combat monster, but rather that she gets a BAB of 17, and that puts her beyond the charts of what the game even covers.
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Feb 19, 2018 12:08
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Madison was actually an example character to show how loving broken the Basic RPG-d20 conversion method was. A starting investigator turned into a Level 17 monstrosity because of a high headbutt skill translating into a giant Base Attack Bonus.
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JcDent posted:Well, at least one part of the triad is up and running! There's a free conversion PDF that basically tells you "for the love of God, don't try direct conversions, here's the bounds to assign numbers within" for gear and is a bit less solid for classes.
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Feb 19, 2018 16:47
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Words that have never been spoken in the history of RPGs: "Oh, I have a great idea for a character that's a Sensors Operator!" Depends on the sensors. Fear the Astropaths.
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Feb 19, 2018 20:46
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Words that have never been spoken in the history of RPGs: "Oh, I have a great idea for a character that's a Sensors Operator!" The one time I played Shadowrun I actually did ran a former helicopter pilot radar operator turned Rigger. It was mostly flavour, but going all-in on sensors and the skill to use them is one way to feel really useful during investigations, negate a lot of effects (e.g. smoke grenades), and always spot ambushes.
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Feb 19, 2018 21:03
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 Part 2 - Reading this entry forces a hard SAN roll (1/1d2) That was fast! Let's see how this´ll work out, as we come to the first interviews. The book opens the paragraph as follows...  ”Beyond the Mountains of Madness” posted:Starkweather paced the floor, his tall, lean frame radiating barely suppressed energy. “Have you seen the papers, Moore? Have you seen them, by God!” One large hand swept out in an extravagant gesture toward the table, covered in newspapers. Starkweather grinned, eyes feverish with excitement. “By the time I´ve finished they´ll have forgotten there ever was a Miskatonic Expedition!” Sitting across the room, Moore pushed his glasses further up on his nose, his expression quietly bland. “We have three more to speak to this morning.” The words were subdued. “One of them is a woman.” Moore paused to search through a huge stack of papers on his lap. “Ah, yes.” He drew out a sheet to gaze at it. “A botanist, of some reputation - Miss Charlene Whitston.” Starkweather stood utterly still. “A woman? This trip is no place for a woman?!” His eyes narrowed, suddenly, thoughtful. “drat the botany, Moore! Has she got any money?” The prologue concerns itself with some general information, to be disseminated among the players, and prepare them for the interviews. The expedition leave in September, and plans to return the following June to July. They are privately funded (Though the books doesn't tell us how, which can be weird when the investigators ask, so we´ll just have to assume that Moore and Starkweather are really frakkin wealth. I´d also accept stonkin´ rich.) and plan to revisit most of the Miskatonic Expeditions sites to open up what they have found. ]   [BtMoM Starkweather and Moore 1999] As a chapter, the prologue also serves to introduce two main NPCs of the campaign, James Starkweather and William Moore. Together, they are the heart and brain of the expedition. This is also a problem. You see, the campaign really, really wants Starkweather to be the great leader that wins the hearts of the players, the gentleman everyone will follow to hell and beyond, while Moore is more of the mousy academic who feels guilt as he was unable to go with the previous expedition and wants to uncover the truth of what happened there. Also for your viewing pleasure, compare those images. The ones up there are from the original campaign of 1999, the ones below are from the rewritten version from 2010. Huge difference in quality, even though Starkweather´s missing the necessary mighty ´stache.   [BtMoM Starkweather and Moore 2010] But, and this is a big spoiler, as the campaign goes on, the players will, without a doubt, recognize that Starkweather is a buffoon. A blind, blundering idiot of colossal proportions, a man living and acting well beyond his true ability, who endangers himself and everyone around him with his decisions. The campaign as written even forces the players to recognize this fact, yet still treats him as if he's the best guy to have around. This contrasts sharply with Moore, who is an analytical mind full of details about the impending journey, but with little to fill his character, whom the campaign, at times, will even forget about because Starkweather here, Starkweather there. And these are two of the NPCs players will spend most of the campaign with. But I´m rambling, and we´ll get to this later on again…. The prologue also offers up an overview of what professions are most likely to be taken along on the expedition. Scientists, researchers of the ice, pilots, technicians and polar guides, photographers and journalists, dog handlers etc. If you haven't gotten one of those, you may always buy your way into the expedition with 1000+ $ cash. Unless you´re a woman. Oh boy. Because this is Cthulhu 1930s, Starkweather is a honest-to-god misogynist and that is socially acceptable in these times. As most groups I've encountered are settled firmly in a modern mindsets, this leads to some “unwillingness” and throws another shade of dickishness on Starkweather as a character for the group. So much for the designated hero. The book offers up having a woman pay simply more (2000+ $, basically amounts to about 29.000$ nowadays, a huge sum for many), or offer her the position if no male experts are available, which is weird, because the expedition has most of the people it needs. Finally, there's an opportunity to bring aboard a woman due to story contrivances, but that's neither here nor there. I used it, but I talked with the player beforehand and she said it was ok, but it's not really a good thing. Maybe that's just me. Maybe it's not. What's more interesting in this, is how the chapter tells us of possible professions the player characters can and should have to be taken along, but spares no thought of whether the players should actually replace anyone already planned in the campaign. And there's a reason for that, but it's really stupid. You see, the campaign relies on its structure as a railroady drive towards the titular Mountains of Madness by using a lot of novel-like structuring. And then Mr.Bryce said that... and so on and forth. And if Mr.Bryce isn´t in there, the text doesn't work. I know that, as keeper, you can just substitute your players for other characters, and replace people in texts or just free-form them entirely, but it's a growing nitpick. So, as a good keeper, if someone wants to be a dog handler, just say yes and replace one of the NPC dog handlers with him/her. Trust me, it's much easier, especially as you´ll get swamped with NPCs anyway.  [Many questions are being asked in the interview...] On to the interviews. It's May-July 1933. The city of New York, currently simmering under a wave of heavy, wet heat, is making everyone uncomfortable, and not even the indoors deliver any kind of relief. Which makes Starkweather's suite at the Amherst Hotel on the 5th floor on 44th Street, Manhattan, quite the luxurious place to be at.  After Moore answers the door and offers the newcomers a seat at the table, he introduces himself and Starkweather, and the questions begin. ”Interview with a man...” posted:Well well well. Antarctica! Last great piece of white on the map! We´ll uncover new vistas, explore strange places and discover uncharted territory. Are you up for it? ”Interview with a Woman” posted:When did you graduate? What does your husband think of this? No dice, tell me woman, do you really fancy changing your linens every day in a room with thirty unwashed men? Oh, and if a woman offers up any sort of money, Starkweather will ask for 5000$ first. Because, you know, who's willing to pay 72.000$ for the chance to go to Antarctica, right? If she's an actual scientific wunderkind however, she´s asked to wait outside, and with a successful LISTEN check can hear a heated argument between Moore and Starkweather, which leads to her being invited by Moore, while Starkweather pouts. Neato, but I suppose it’s a seldomly used option. Anyway, greet our brave troop of explorers!    [From Left to Right] Ernst Carl Winkler, brave german linguist from Darmstadt. Yukon Cornelius, canadian miner turned survivalist and general daring-do´er Juan Peron, argentinian ski instructor on leave from the army Naturally no woman was “well-off” enough to take part in the expedition, but rumours say that Ms. Claremont is currently working as a dyke bouncer in some sort of underground NY fight club, while Mrs.Bergen has retreated to pout in a nearby library, and Ms.Lefevre introduced herself to the NY high society, drinking away the shame of rejection.  [The press!] The same chapter also includes an explanation of how the press interacts with the expedition and its members, as the public will grow increasingly interested in the weirdos that want to flee from society to the coldest place on earth, and includes some suggestions on how to put screws on like scorps trying for a scope, running after characters, injecting themselves for special interviews, basically anything dirty you can imagine journalists doing, these guys will do. It's a nice detail, but it won't really come up that often, if you´re expediting the journey. But we´ll get to the most dreadful part of New York in time. After the interview, a time jump is in order, unless you prefer spending several months between May-July to September playing something, I mean, it's not like the campaign isn't long enough already but hey... Right, the book then presents an overview of some of the other members of the Lake Expedition and what happened to them in the meantime, like Pabodie, McTighe, Dyer and Danforth, the latter two being unavailable, while players may investigate and talk to Pabodie and McTighe, who won´t say much, remain cryptic and tell you “Yeah, Madness, lovely place, rather crazy, don´t want to spoil too much, also Danforth went cuckoo, please leave now.”.  [Pabodie and McTighe. You know, Pabodie looks kinda Cosa Nostra 70s style for a 50 year old drill engineer] The chapter concludes with an overview of “The Summary Report” by Dyer, which basically summarizes the Lovecraft novella in an ingame document and represents a more sciency version of that same story, a copy of which can be bought at the Miskatonic student bookstore for 5$. Trust me, you don't want anything spoiling expectations, so just ignore it or say “The report was lost”. Finally you get an overview of two other, historical expeditions also going to Antarctica around this time, Ellsworth-Balchen and the Richard E.Byrd one (quite famous, I believe) but it's more of a footnote. And that´s the prologue. 26 pages done, only 413 left.
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Feb 19, 2018 22:23
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To tell the truth, I never actually expected my submission (Ernst Winkler) to be one of the main explorers. This was a very pleasant surprise.
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Feb 19, 2018 22:47
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We're off to a smashing good start.
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Feb 19, 2018 23:11
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I have a hard time buying it, given their rhetoric and characterization up to this point. When we get into the actual Tolkeen conflict, it'll hold even less water. Also, with the amount of unclaimed land, nuking one city is almost of little actual consequence, given they probably don't have interest in the magical infrastructure of a city like Tolkeen. Nonetheless, we're told they'll only use it if a rival nation was on the verge of annihilating them, which is presently unlikely (apparently only Atlantis qualifies, and they have no invasion plans). They might target the Gargoyle Empire with nukes to assist the New German Republic, however, and if they start expanding too far, alien-dominated locales like the Arkhon Freehold are likely targets. Somebody should do the Siege of Tolkeen and try to chart the exact moment Bill Coffin threw up his hands and yelled, "Nope! I'm out!" (For those who don't know, Bill understandably didn't want to write a book or books where the post-apoc fascists were written in even a semi-positive light and it was the straw broke the camel's back.)
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Feb 20, 2018 00:16
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MightyMatilda posted:To tell the truth, I never actually expected my submission (Ernst Winkler) to be one of the main explorers. This was a very pleasant surprise. Spoilers for the campaign, but There's a good reason to have a German on the team or at least someone fluent in it
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Feb 20, 2018 00:18
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Ah, NPC the players are expected to love, always a dangerous gambit.
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Feb 20, 2018 01:56
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Rule of thumb: the more the writers expects an NPC to be loved or love to hate by the players, the more likely the players will plot how to messily kill them first chance.
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Feb 20, 2018 02:09
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JcDent posted:Well, at least one part of the triad is up and running! They pretty much restat everything from scratch, there's no real "interface". If you want to bring something over, you have to do at least some basic conversion work. Most stuff isn't too hard unless you're adapting new classes or magic types, which are a real potential headache to balance because even Savage Rifts balance is all over the place. They obviously worked hard on it, but there are classes like the Glitter Boy Pilot and Dragon where they clearly throw up their hands and are like "eh, close enough". LatwPIAT posted:It was mostly flavour, but going all-in on sensors and the skill to use them is one way to feel really useful during investigations, negate a lot of effects (e.g. smoke grenades), and always spot ambushes. Fair enough! In Rifts how often Read Sensor Equipment comes up is pretty much entirely up to the GM. It could be constantly important or never get rolled at all, since there are no guidelines for skill usage, much less how it interacts with equipment. Dawgstar posted:Somebody should do the Siege of Tolkeen and try to chart the exact moment Bill Coffin threw up his hands and yelled, "Nope! I'm out!" (For those who don't know, Bill understandably didn't want to write a book or books where the post-apoc fascists were written in even a semi-positive light and it was the straw broke the camel's back.) I'd love to get to it, right now my goal is just to get to the year 2000, which would definitely put me in firing range for Coalition Wars.
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Feb 20, 2018 02:46
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Alien Rope Burn posted:They pretty much restat everything from scratch, there's no real "interface". If you want to bring something over, you have to do at least some basic conversion work. Most stuff isn't too hard unless you're adapting new classes or magic types, which are a real potential headache to balance because even Savage Rifts balance is all over the place. They obviously worked hard on it, but there are classes like the Glitter Boy Pilot and Dragon where they clearly throw up their hands and are like "eh, close enough". Yeah, saying "it's amazing they got it as close to as balanced as they did" is about right. As someone who's played in a long-ish campaign with a Dragon, their at least somewhat mitigating weakness is the -2 to hit from size penalty combined with low skill points and no boosted agility causing them to basically go miss miss miss OH GOD THEY JUST CUT A TANK IN HALF miss until higher XP tiers (and even then they're a bit behind in that department)...
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Feb 20, 2018 03:01
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Night10194 posted:Ah, NPC the players are expected to love, always a dangerous gambit. I'm getting a serious "Kilimanjaro Expedition" sketch from Starkweather. Like this is the prologue to one of those "ill-fated" expeditions where the leader thought English Grit was an acceptable replacement for proper planning and sufficient supplies. Being told that I'm expected to respect this guy, even in character...
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Feb 20, 2018 04:29
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Tibalt posted:I'm getting a serious "Kilimanjaro Expedition" sketch from Starkweather. And now he is played by John Cleese in my mind, excellent.
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Feb 20, 2018 04:32
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 quote:HeroQuest Glorantha is a roleplaying rules engine designed for play in the world of Glorantha. quote:Version History Glorantha Glorantha is quite possibly the oldest RPG setting in existence, as it definitively predates Dungeons and Dragons in conception with games merely being a preferred method to express the universe. Glorantha is the creation of Greg Stafford, founder of Chaosium Inc (Call of Cthulhu, Runequest, BRPG), game designer, Arthurian scholar (Pendragon) and practicing Shaman. Glorantha is very different from many traditional fantasy settings. It is firmly Bronze Age not the more traditional Medieval/Renaissance influenced setting. Large emphasis is placed on religion, culture, and mythology as major forces in the world over vague abstracted “faith”. Conflict is more motivated by clashing ideals than simple Good vs. Evil, or by morality and social standards alien to us but infinitely practical to those who follow them. There are no “counterpart cultures” in Glorantha; while there may be influences from many there is no obvious fantasy counterpart of any Earthly peoples. Tools, Not Rules HeroQuest Glorantha is not designed to be an all-encompassing reality emulation engine. For simulationist play, Chaosium is releasing RuneQuest Glorantha, which is currently available for early playtest. Instead this game is designed to provide a set of flexible easy to use tools to allow GM’s and players to easily express whatever they desire within play. HQ:G is explicitly a terrible choice for groups that can be at odds, desire different play experiences, or cannot work together to establish the game. It is best suited for friendly collaborative play based upon mutual trust and cooperation to craft an exciting story for everyone. Thinking in Story Terms Instead of acting as a simulationist system that attempts to recreate reality in abstract form, HeroQuest Glorantha is best suited to a style of play that emulates fictional and mythic storytelling with a heavy focus on creating a flowing narrative over a perfectly immersive simulation. An example is provided: Our brave hero must leap from the top of a ruined building onto the back of a racing horse in order to cut down the foul villain escaping upon its back. In a traditional RPG like D&D, Runequest, Pathfinder, etc. the difficulty and risks of this action would be based upon the physical nature of the situation. How high is the building? How far is the jump? How fast is the horse running? Are there special rules for jumping or similar acrobatics? If he misses, how much damage will it do based upon how far he falls? Things of that nature, attempting to craft a grounded “reality” for the challenge to adhere to. In HQG this is not the case. Instead you ask a very different series of questions: Would it be more or less fun for him to succeed? If he misses would it ruin the story? If he succeeds would it? Has he been having a rough time and could really use a Big Heroic Moment right now? Or is it time to give the Hero a failure to drive him further and create drama? Is your story the type where leaping onto speeding horses from rooftop something that is reasonable and works, or a stupid dangerous risk? The physical description is there to justify the narrative needs of the scene not to constrain it. This may sound backwards but it makes sense if you remember all the games you’ve played where a big impressive moment was ruined by chance. How many epic villains where crushed in an instant because of a failed save? How many cool moments missed because someone rolled a 1 and fell down on his face for no reason? In short:  quote:Maximum Game Fun
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Feb 20, 2018 04:36
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I mean, players often will really latch onto Boasty McBoastFace and try to make all his mad fantasies come true. Just, maybe not in Call of Cthulhu.
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Feb 20, 2018 04:49
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Glazius posted:I mean, players often will really latch onto Boasty McBoastFace and try to make all his mad fantasies come true. Charmingly delusional idiots with dreams of glory tend to get adopted as player pets far more often when they are relatively harmless, friendly, and/or easily manipulated. When the NPC has authority over them, is likely to be actively hostile to somebody in the group for bigoted reasons, and repeatedly puts the party in awful situations via their authority, the general PC response is going to look a lot more like a bunch of squaddies figuring out how to frag their CO.
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Feb 20, 2018 05:19
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From here on out I'm trying to pinpoint the precise point that Starkweather 'accidentally' falls on his own ice axe. Incidentally, the reason to bring a nutritionist along: Scurvy.
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Feb 20, 2018 05:26
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The nice thing about murdering Starkweather and deciding to Mutiny on the Bounty this poo poo and reroute the entire expedition to go gently caress off on some tropical island paradise is that the GM now has the potential to re-railroad by including some Shub or Nyarly cult in the jungles all the natives are a part of and the PCs are all lazy from partying to detect any issues. That and penguins can be found in South America so why not more weird penguinbominations except these ones know how to surf.
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Feb 20, 2018 05:28
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And here I thought the Surf's Up movies were weird enough with the WWE tie-in.
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Feb 20, 2018 06:13
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Daeren posted:Charmingly delusional idiots with dreams of glory tend to get adopted as player pets far more often when they are relatively harmless, friendly, and/or easily manipulated. When the NPC has authority over them, is likely to be actively hostile to somebody in the group for bigoted reasons, and repeatedly puts the party in awful situations via their authority, the general PC response is going to look a lot more like a bunch of squaddies figuring out how to frag their CO. yeah, there's a vast difference between a Corporal Klinger or even a Charles Winchester versus a Frank Burns while Blake or Potter's on R&R. PCs love charming idiots, but do not suffer fools gladly.
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Feb 20, 2018 06:16
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When you put it like this, I almost think there's a reason why they do this with Starkweather... As for that, I think this expedition is being funded by Miskatonic, which I think is supposed to be a B-tier Ivy League school. There's also another character with some dough who hasn't shown up yet.
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Feb 20, 2018 08:39
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Robindaybird posted:Rule of thumb: the more the writers expects an NPC to be loved or love to hate by the players, the more likely the players will plot how to messily kill them first chance. 'The Elminster Effect'
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Feb 20, 2018 10:45
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Rifts Sourcebook 4: Coalition Navy, Part 4: "Type V Anti-Vampire Gunboat: Two water cannons, a C-40R2 AA rail gun and two C-50R Enforcer rail guns loaded with silver or wooden ammunition." Time for the longest section of the book: vehicles. A lot of this gets into dull details about boat models, however, so there'll be some skips. Believe me, this is a tremendous favor to both me and you. But first... Naval Mechanized Units By which they mean "power armor and robot vehicles".   The Sea SAMAS and Trident designs are pretty cool and toyetic. I'm not sure the fish is buying it, though.
 I don't remember Asylum Films putting out Robo-Spider vs. Spike Sharks, but yet, here the evidence is. Combat Vessels of the Coalition Navy Boats.    skuuullllbraaaaa
 Just imagine four pictures more like this and you should be good, I'm not going to sweat posting them all. CSN Guided Missile and Escort Vessels It turns out that was less than 1/3 of our boat total! This is where my eyes glaze over and we start going extra-abbreviated, because most of these are just "modern or near-modern boat with mega-damage + skull painted on the side". Most of them aren't visually interesting - well, no more interesting than your average warship, anyway. They aren't giant skulls with hulls, and more's the pity. Another weird issue that crops up here is that even though the apocalypse happened about a century from when this book was printed, frequently we see war machines presented from the time of the apocalypse that are indistinguishable from weapons of the 1960s to 1990s. I mean, let's take our first vessel, the Improved IHA Sea King, which is a Sea King vessel (from Mercenaries) with a "Mark XII Aegis Radar System" which might be confusing the real-life Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System with its built-in radar system? It's not clear. Oh, and each of these upgraded Sea Kings carries ten nukes.  "Did we just put skull logos on a box? Man, being part of the Coalition used to mean something. Like, at least have a box shaped like a skull." Most of these vehicles are beyond the scope of most PC interaction, but often their statblocks can get weird. The Revenge-Class destroyers are 8,300 ton vessels with less M.D.C. than a Glitter Boy (520 vs. 770), but multiple cannons and rail guns and missiles on par with a Glitter Boy. Maybe it's a typo and it's supposed to be 5,200? The Wasp-Class Amphibious landing ships are 40,500 tons and 8,000 M.D.C. So maybe it's by weight to some extent?... but then you have the literally-named Supply-Class transports that are 42,000 tons and 420 M.D.C.  It's loving baffling how these numbers might be determined. Maybe they have a dart board?  "It belongs in a museum!" Ballistic Missile Attack Submarines So, there's a lot of about how submarines revolutionized naval warfare, their role, and how to detect them (good friggin' luck). But how did the Coalition get subs? See, before the Rifts, things were so peaceful that the US retired its nuclear submarine fleet. If that wasn't enough of a fairy tale, they did keep some stored away despite the expense in maintenance, but weren't able to get them all operational before the rifts hit. So the Coalition was able to salvage two subs that had been hidden away - the real-life SSBN-737 Kentucky and SSBN-739 Nebraska - and rebuild them as the mega-damage and nuclear-armed Coalition subs CSS Defiance and CSS Reprisal, their "Defiance-class" subs.Subs that were clearly a century old at the time of the rifts, meaning they spent four centuries of storage "under water". Yeah, sure.    The traditional skull imagery of the orca and stingray. They've also rebuilt more "modern" (that is, three centuries old instead of four) subs as the Shark-class, also nuke-armed. There's the Orca-class, an all-new nuclear-armed design that's much tougher with a more Coalition-style skull prow. Finally, there's the Stingray mini-sub which is largely used in lakes and larger rivers. I can't just post all the boats at once. We've still got a few more boats, and- Next: We'll fly so low, we'll scare the chickens and cows.
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Feb 20, 2018 13:28
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