Inescapable Duck posted:

The basic lasgun joke is 'A lasgun does diddly, but 40 lasguns firing full auto is a shitload of diddly'. Naturally, it's a weapon that looks good on a macro scale and terrible on a personal scale.

Kurieg posted:

Doesn't 40k have a weapon that's basically a laser that converts matter to energy and keeps going in a straight line until it runs out of matter?

Inescapable Duck posted:

The basic lasgun joke is 'A lasgun does diddly, but 40 lasguns firing full auto is a shitload of diddly'. Naturally, it's a weapon that looks good on a macro scale and terrible on a personal scale.

Surprised there isn't a writeup on Heracles, though I imagine Prometheus will come later? Also, still amused that Aten is basically one of the Egyptian gods' rogues gallery.

quote:

An Outsider projects a sense of wrongness wherever he
goes. He may look like he does not belong at all, flouting common
dress or custom with little concern about the perception
of rudeness. He may look like a respectable member of
the community and avoid attracting undue attention
to himself, but no one immediately knows who he is
or where he comes from. An Inguma could live in an
abandoned shack just outside of town or the house next
door. He can easily drive a Prius or a van with no windows.
All the same, mothers hide their children and grown men
lock their doors, glaring through the windows at his
passing. Deep down, they know that because he is
here, something terrible is about to happen.

quote:

Dreamers encounter the Inguma in as many ways as they can
imagine outsiders who make them feel the slightest bit of unease.
A dreamer could find herself pursued by a textbook example of
the most terrifying terrorist group of the day, trapped directly
in harm’s way when the terrorist creates maximum carnage. He
could come home to find a stranger present and receive an earful
from his family for not recognizing his favorite cousin, who then
turns his whole family against him. The Outsider could be the
lover of an unfaithful husband, showing the dreamer just how
inadequate she is as a wife, unable to compete with the woman
draining her husband’s life away with every tryst.
In these dreams, the dreamer almost immediately notices
the Outsider is not who she seems. He could a flash of some
decidedly inhuman trait, like a patch of scale, blackened eyes,
or needle teeth. The Inguma could also not appear monstrous
in body at all, but the dreamer witnesses the Outsider committing
some sort of heinous act that no one believes her
to be capable of doing. The dreamer can never convince his
loved ones of the Outsider’s threat, even if he is absolutely
right about her nature.

quote:

Stereotypes
Vampire: So you really do think that Carly Simon song was about you? You must be honored. What was she like back then, anyway?
Werewolf: For all their strength and bluster, without their pack they are nothing, and I never let them forget it.
Mage: With great power comes great paranoia.
Promethean: Nothing I could ever do could come close to their plight.
Changeling: No matter how hard they try to blend in, they must always run. Clearly, they need me to intervene, if only to show them how to use their gifts to their advantage.
Mummy: They’re almost older than I am. Almost.
Demon: I have never spotted one, and yet I hear stories of glass and clockwork and intrigues beyond mere fleshy design. They are entirely too good at hiding, but they cannot evade me forever.

quote:

The Begotten do not always fully understand each other, but they understand the Talassii least of all. Reclusive by nature, the Captors have borne the sting of a single Hero’s curse for millennia, branding them as kidnappers at best and rapists at worst. The Talassii may kidnap, but they truly excel as jailers.
The Talassii’s current name stems from Talassius, who led the raptio, or forced abduction of women, against the Sabines in early Roman legends. In that context, the cry “Talassio!” meant “for Talassius,” identifying who a particular abductee was intended for. While the Sabine women were not sexually violated, they were seduced into marrying their captors with promises made by Romulus himself. Still, by the time an imprudent brood of Captors indulged their Horrors and re-enacted the rape of the Sabine women on a band of Heroes, the word “rape” meant sexual violation as well as forced abduction.

quote:

He cries again, sobbing and reaching out from his car seat while they’re stuck in traffic. He holds out the book his mother has read for him thousands of times before. He wants her to read it again. “Not now, baby,” she says, but he doesn’t understand yet. He can’t hear the strain in her voice, only her telling him no. He screams, and she cringes. Reading the story book will make everything better. She wants him to be happy, doesn’t she? Doesn’t Mommy love him? He just doesn’t understand why she would say no. He just wants her to read to him. That’s all.

quote:

Stereotypes
Vampire: They keep hooks and chains in their blood that latch onto their thralls like nearly nothing else.
Werewolf: They are not pets, no matter how nice you make the collar.
Mage: One of my Kin is an Awakened escape artist. I cannot appropriately quantify how much pure, unmitigated glee this challenge has given me.
Promethean: They likely won’t understand what they’re giving up until they’ve walked into that cell, locked the door, and thrown away the key.
Changeling: At least they understand the inherent lie to their freedom.
Sin Eater: They call themselves the Bound. They have no idea what they’re talking about.
Mummy: You know, I wish they would get out more. I could learn so much from them.
Demon: I wonder how long I could keep one in my basement...

quote:

The Shackle Dragon lurks beneath the shadow of your sins.
Know its passage by the scraping of its chain-link tail. Know its
purpose by the locks that clang against your door. Shut your
mouth if you hear the rattling — it loves to eat loose tongues.
The Shackle Dragon doesn’t quite remember what it is to be
human anymore, but its lizard brain knows that knowledge is
power. Mortals will do anything to hide their secrets, and those
the dragon chains are harbingers of its Legend, at least until
they find it better victims.

quote:

Molosh has a key. The man behind its lock wants out. Molosh cages him against his will, or so the man claims to people the Beast invites to view his cell. But, says Molosh, he’s dangerous. A psycho killer. His empathy is an illusion to lure in bleeding hearts...and on that note he offers them the key. A few find the choice comes easy, or decry it as a trick, but many agonize. The actual choice makes little difference to Molosh. He set himself free a long time ago.

quote:

Horror
To dreamers, the Talassii represent the lack of freedom they are accustomed to in their own lives. This could manifest as hostage situations where the Captor demands too much for the dreamer’s loved ones to set him free. The Captor could act as jailer in an actual prison, preventing any means of escape and forcing her to face hard truths. The dreamers could find themselves sealed in a vacuum bed, frozen in place, or otherwise bound. The Captor could taunt the dreamer with the sole key to his freedom or enforce the idea that the dreamer will never be free, giving even an Anakim pause with the display of absolute control.

Additional torments the dreamer suffers during their captivity depend on what terrifies the dreamer most. Even with all the inspirational quotes lauding pain as the best teacher, they never understand until the pain of their captivity yields insight in the waking world. In active defiance of the stigma of their Family name, the Talassii avoid using rape in their lessons, but they cannot deny that their Horrors express particular relish in haunting the dreams of those who treat consent carelessly. Some Captors steer clear of the dreams of rapists, if only to maintain their own control.

quote:

The Lost make excellent Kin for Talassii, thought the changeling may not have the same rosy outlook on the relationship. The trauma from the changeling’s imprisonment in Arcadia never fully goes away, and it draws in Captors like the smell of fresh-baked cookies. Those Captors who know of the Lost and their experiences frame it as a relationship of protection, where they keep the Gentry and the Huntsmen at bay. That close tie to the terror Talassii represent even attracts them to fetches from time to time.

Feinne posted:

Because scale on weird alien poo poo is hard to gauge if you haven't really compared the minis, it should be noted that Tyranid Gaunts (Termagants, Hormagaunts, and Gargoyles along with some even more esoteric things) are way larger than you might envision them when you are thinking 'these are the line troops of an alien swarm'. Termagants are comparable in height to a human and as quadrupeds are substantially longer than they are tall. Hormagaunts and Gargoyles are similar in scale, though laid out a bit differently obviously.

A Tyranid Warrior is like 12-15 feet tall, and a Hive Tyrant generally around twice that (it varies from mini to mini, some are taller and some are a bit more squat and robust). Your squad is there because Imperial Guardsmen rightly just have to see these things to seriously consider whether the Commissar is less scary.

I'd assume Genestealers would be something that'd be more like an Elite option for a Genestealer Cult, because if a horde of Hormagaunts is dangerous under the DW rules then Horde-numbers 'stealers would pretty much be a full party wipe every time.

Inescapable Duck posted:

The basic lasgun joke is 'A lasgun does diddly, but 40 lasguns firing full auto is a shitload of diddly'. Naturally, it's a weapon that looks good on a macro scale and terrible on a personal scale.

Surprised there isn't a writeup on Heracles, though I imagine Prometheus will come later? Also, still amused that Aten is basically one of the Egyptian gods' rogues gallery.

Libertad! posted:

Cythereal posted:

The way I've always described hormagaunts to players is calling them velociraptors with six limbs. And then that these are the second-smallest Tyranid bioform.

I'm guessing rippers (and by extension sky-slashers) are considered beneath a Marine's notice.

Feinne posted:

Nightmare machines that do recon... and enjoy long walks in the jungle and eating you brain to steal your secrets.

Hostile V posted:

So thanks to the fear of other people/fear of people of color/fear of being cuckolded and fear of rape and imprisonment I have to wonder just how in the gently caress did this entire thing manage to lose the plot so hard that they resorted to fascist dogwhistles and having stuff done to you.

Alien Rope Burn posted:

So, Onyx Path is still selling Beast, huh? After everything that went down with Matt? That's still a thing they're doing?

Okay.

Sure.

Fine.

Kurieg posted:

Inguma: Nightmares of the Other
Yup, they're the nightmares of scary brown people.

Technically they're the fear of anyone who doesn't belong, of the "outsiders", but you cannot have straight up literal "Fear of the Other" in TYOOL 2018 without espousing images of black people and muslims.

Feinne posted:

Where do Lictors fall in their scheme of things?

Cassa posted:

When I stopped playing, they had all the important tyranid weaknesses of multiple wounds, but vulnerable to krak missiles equivalents or better, easily ignored saves, and no real way of getting across the board.

quote:

In a role playing game, or a simulation exercise, you create a structural framework of skills, attributes, hindrances and philosophical facets that you can control in order to best interact with and overcome the formal axioms of the rules construct in order to simulate the workings of a fantasy universe. Your second-order attributes (wealth, level) increase over time giving you greater and greater ability to interact with those axioms in a meaningful way. There is no ultimate goal to this, though your structural framework (or character) may have goals associated with it that you can complete.

quote:

It would be foolish to entrust defense of the kingdom to random vagabonds, therefore the contrivance of other simulation exercises of the adventuring party is not found here, out of respect for verisimilitude.

quote:

The party has acquired a large supply of blood turnips, and must decide whether it will profit them better transport them to Noriskil or to Candleburg.

The town guard believe the players have been engaged in smuggling. They must clear their names or convince the king that the tariffs are unjust.

A fug troll has been spotted near a township. The players must reroute their journey to avoid it until the proper authorities can deal with it.

Feinne posted:

Oh yeah in tabletop they're 100% useless, the question is what about Deathwatch.

JackMann posted:

the "primary" arm of a spiral galaxy located fifty thousand light years from our own world (or well within the Milky Way; I don't think astronomy was Moffett's strong suit).

Literally; he has art for each king, but they're all the same picture with different facial hair drawn on.

JackMann posted:

That Old Tree posted:

This is already my favorite F&F of 2018.

Evil Mastermind posted:

Do we have a "kisses fingers" emote? Because that's the only way I can express my feeling about this so far.

Evil Mastermind posted:

Do we have a "kisses fingers" emote? Because that's the only way I can express my feeling about this so far.

JackMann posted:

To be able to play one of the "advanced" classes, you have to petition your GM, who "should give weight to such factors as maturity, ability to role-play (as opposed to roll-play), tactical acumen, and contributions to the group (purchases of food for the GM, as well as supplements for Ballads of Eldoru, soon to be available from Elmstar Games)."

You will note that that makes eight ability scores. The ninth is called Kalah, the "Life stat." It doesn't actually determine your HP, but determines your "basic life force" and ability to learn and grow. It dictates how much XP you can earn in a session.

To get your Kalah, you have to subtract points from your other stats, starting with your highest. It cannot go above twenty, and you cannot take a stat below 14 this way. This means, of course, that you can end up with a character with 0 Kalah, and thus be unable to ever gain experience. As Moffett put it, "Some people never learn."

kæblar (elves) trikinians (green-skinned amazon women with three... assets).

This can result in your level one dirt-farmer being trained in Firearms (Laser Pistols). They also get a +1 Kalah.

Next you take your skills. You get training in skills based on your class. You can only start with about fifteen skills. This is a problem, because there are over two hundred. More, you cannot attempt a skill unless you're trained in it.

Did I mention that spot, listen, jump, and climb are all skills? You cannot spot something if you aren't trained specifically in the art of spotting things. Marvelous.

Finally, you're required to draw a picture of your character, with the GM encouraged to give bonus XP for "representative icons showing artistic merit."

JackMann posted:

That's character creation. Does anyone have a suggestion for a character to build?

That Old Tree posted:

Well, there's

BinaryDoubts posted:

Wait.

kæblar.

kæbler.

keebler.

oh son of a

JackMann posted:

I'll have to see if I can find Moffett's old usenet rant about elves. He thought they were "silly" and "childish." He couldn't leave them out of his game, of course (it's fantasy, you've gotta have elves), but he's got a lot of passive-aggressive digs on them in the book.

Kurieg posted:

Silly and childish says the man who has three tittied space amazons(please tell me they're an all female race who abducts men to breed) and has a warning label on the cover about how he his game may be too much for d20 players?

Kurieg posted:

Silly and childish says the man who has three tittied space amazons(please tell me they're an all female race who abducts men to breed) and has a warning label on the cover about how he his game may be too much for d20 players?

JackMann posted:

All-female, yes, though he doesn't mention anything about abducting men to breed. The two races of catgirls are not explicitly all-female, but he never really mentions the males either.

Hostile V posted:

If memory serves he used to brag that he was responsible for the creation of Half Elves because he claimed he played with Gygax and was like "LOTR rules but Elves suck, what if we made them better and less elven" and people would keep dragging out the receipts like "no Half Elves have absolutely existed separate of D&D" and he kept moving the goal posts every time.