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Are you ready for some DEMONS? And DEVILS? And an undead thingy? CONTENT WARNING: misogyny, dead children, torture DEMIMONDAINE The Teratic Tome posted:The demimondaine, in the form of a pale green light, descends upon the body of an unavenged female murder victim, typically a prostitute or courtesan. The undead spirit animates the corpse and sends it lurching after the murderer. Yup, that's the OSR alright. Anyway, it's an 8-HD undead which kills people "start[ing] with [their] feet", starting with the murderer and moving on to anyone who was ever mean to the victim. Its alignment is neutral! The Teratic Tome posted:A murderous undead entity, the demimondaine appears as the rotting corpse of a woman. Its eyes have been gouged out, and foul black liquid seeps from its mouth and nostrils. The legs have been transformed into huge grey claws. Naturally, its tits are perfect. DEMON A selection of demons, mostly unique named entities. Abyzou Queen of the succubi. She's got that whole 'beautiful woman with monstrous parts' thing going on which is supposed to be a blend of sexy and dangerous and which only ever comes off as puerile. Naturally, she has perfect tits. Beleth A unique locust-demon who loves to play games and gamble. He rolls large and has no self-control, so if you can beat him you can win ridiculous cash, but a) he cheats and b) he's a chaotic evil demon so why would he honour any wins? Not a bad concept, though. Gusion Now we're cooking. Gusion is theoretically the demon queen of torture, but since everything in this book is all about the torture what she actually is the demon queen of spreadsheets. See, she rotates prisoners between torture devices according to a strict system of charts and lists, 'so that they don't get used to the pain', which is at least blackly hilarious. Joking aside, 'raid hell, wreck Gusion's Anguish Engine (which eats pain and spits out demons), save some folks, and fight off the demigod demon queen of torture and Excel formulas while you're doing all that' would make a pretty boss endgame for a high-level D&D campaign. Gusion is also one of about three female monsters in this book not depicted as attractive or sexualised (all by the same artist, incidentally). Phenex A traditional fiery demon lord. He's an rear end in a top hat who eats people. Kind of ho-hum, really-- The Teratic Tome posted:He is typically surrounded by 3-18 ghouls (all horribly-scarred children who died from ghoul attacks), 2-12 ghosts (all unborn fetuses aborted while in the womb), and 3-18 greater demons. Ah, there's that hit of real OSR flavour. He really has nothing else. It's mutilated children for servants and loving descriptions of how he likes his meals prepared and nothing interesting or actionable. Procurer Demon Not a unique demon, these ones find newbie adventurers and offer them whatever they want. No strings attached at first... then eventually it's like 'do evil poo poo for me or I'm going to pull everything I've given you then haul you off to hell'. Which I think isn't a bad hook for a demon. As an 8-HD monster with powerful weapon immunity the procurer demon is also actually threatening to level 6-or-so heroes, even if it has been helping them out the whole time. But just in case you were thinking this was a pretty good entry, in the list of sample "heinous deeds" it might ask you to do: The Teratic Tome posted:slaughtering pregnant women who may be carrying future saviors Wouldn't be OSR without that misogyny/child-killing combo! And the rest are pretty much EEEEVIL on the same sort of scale. Escorting a caravan of human sacrifices, that sort of thing. See, the problem with this poo poo is that it cranks the EVIL dial to 11 without ever passing through the intermediate options. Any group of players worth gaming with will immediately give the demon the finger and fight it, neatly robbing the whole enterprise of any tension or actual interesting moral questions. A better start would be "Hey, want to keep that fancy magic sword? Take this puppy and drop-kick it across the town square. In public." Something that promotes the agenda of evil in the game world, and that a warped enough PC might actually do if the sword was fancy enough. Then you escalate. DEVIL A selection of devils. Two interesting, three really dull. Ahriman Big red fiery guy. Entirely uninteresting in every way. Atrabilious A low-level (3-HD) fiend which looks like a skeleton surrounded by insects. It sets traps in remote areas then dares adventurers to go and get the treasure there, which is at least a neat hook for a tempter-type devil. It enjoys watching people getting hurt by its traps too, so it's always got an excuse to be hanging around when the PCs finally twig to what's going on and turn on it. Good for low-level adventures! Sanguine A powerful non-unique kind of devil which just murders everything all of the time. They eat the teeth of children, because of course they do. Verrine A unique spider-devil who's supposed to be leading the war against the demons but also wants to murder his rival Xolotl, the spreadsheet-loving demon Gusion, and seize the throne of hell from The Most Boring Satan. He's got way too many schemes, way too much going on, and these are great hooks for a party looking for a devil patron or who need the favour of a duke of hell and don't want to murder paladins. Xolotl He's very green. He eats puppies. He is the chief advisor to Ahriman and only slightly more interesting. Next Time: Dragons! Some of the best and worst parts of the book, all in one place. STATS SO FAR Monsters: 31 Female Monsters: 5 (I'm deliberately skipping unique female NPCs for this count) Female Monsters With Their Tits Out: 5 (I'm including unique female NPCs in this one though.) Anti-Theist Monsters: 1 Worm Monsters: 2 potatocubed fucked around with this message at 10:29 on Apr 9, 2018 |
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Apr 9, 2018 10:26
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 Pathfinder Unchained Wound Thresholds These rules are designed to change the current model of characters always being 100% fighting-fit right up until they're knocked-out/dead, as a means of driving tension, increasing the strategic value of healing (beyond just keeping a character above 0 HP) and as a sop to realism. If you're below 75% of your maximum health (Grazed), you take a -1 penalty to attack rolls, skill checks, saving throws, AC, and caster level. If you're below 50% of your maximum health (Wounded), you take a -2 penalty. If you're below 25% of your maximum health (Critical), you take a -3 penalty. The game then even recommends a "Gritty Mode" where the penalties are doubled, as well as recommending that the GM only use the Wounded state to avoid monsters from becoming too complicated to run. To its credit, the book correctly warns the reader about the possibility of this rule turning fights into "death spirals": where the side that's already behind only ever falls behind even more, and falls faster, and can't ever recover or snap back, because being hurt already makes you worse. The main problem with this rule is that it is at its most significant at low levels: a Fighter with the -2 Wounded penalty is losing something like a third of their total attack bonus at level 1, but they're only losing maybe 15 to 20% of their attack bonus by level 5. But the lowest levels of the game are already the ones that are the most difficult and dangerous. It also doesn't really solve the issue of healing having being less important than it otherwise might be. Without getting into a broader discussion of game design, the causes for that are much more deep-seated.
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Apr 9, 2018 12:28
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Scion: Hero Would You Believe We Have Less than 70 Pages Left? Cheval/Gun is the Signature Purview of the Orisha and Loa. The Orisha use the word Gun, a Yoruba word, while the Loa prefer Cheval. It is the power that allows them to possess their mortal worshippers via use of sacred drumming and dance to enter a receptive trance. The Innate Power is that you can tell whether any mortal you see is possessed by a spirit or god, and can identify the nature of the possessing entity. You can also make a Clash of Wills to drive them out. Boons Dance with The Divine: You call down a god or ancestor spirit of your pantheon to share your body at the end of a scene-long ritual. You select one of their Purviews, in the case of a god, and gain access to its marvels and Innate Power. For an ancestor spirit, called egun or ghede, you get them as a Guide. In exchange, the god or spirit can experience what you do, though not control your body. You cannot end this Boon until the spirit is ready to leave you. They won't overstay out of malice, but may press for just one more meal or cigarette. Typically, the best way to get them out is to go off somewhere quiet with a priest or bandmate, who can then politely ask them to leave. (As a side note, once you hit God level, you get to be the other side of this - you lend out a Purview in exchange for at-will sense-sharing.) Mounting the Horse: You send a part of your spirit into the body of a willing mortal. You can tap into their senses, control their actions and use Boons and knacks through them. They remain completely aware and may communicate with you mentally. You still control your own body during this as well, and may act through both at once via mixed actions. If the target is one of your Fatebound or a member of your cult and spends a scene in a ritual to invite you, you may use this at infinite range, even across realms of existence. Dodaem is the Signature Purview of the Manitou. It allows for communication with the totemic manitou of all things. Everything has one. You can commune with your own dodaem manitou to gain insightful dreams or to have it be your intermediary with other manitou, or you may use this to converse with the World and ask the manitou for favors in exchange for offerings or oaths. The Innate Power is that once per scene, you may ask a manitou for favor as a simple action. It gives Enhancement 3 to relevant rolls for the scene - a bear manitou might let you hunt a bear or a forest manitour might let you pass through a forest safely, for example. In exchange, it will either ask you for a favor, such as finding it a new charge since you killed its bear, or impose a restriction on you, such as forbidding you from harming any living thing in its forest. You lose the Enhancement if you break the bargain, and the manitou may bless your foes until you make amends. Boons Dream Quest: As you sleep, your dodaem manitou will show you meaningful visions. You can ask the ST one of:
Sacred Medicine: You can appeal to someone's dodaem manitou over a scene-long ritual to tend to their physical, mental or spiritual health. This can resolve any single Condition they have, including Injury Conditions. However, in exchange, the manitou will request a favor or impose a restriction on either you or the other character. (For other PCs, it's always on them.) Failure to fulfill the bargain means that whatever the manitou healed comes back in full force or is replaced by another condition representing the manitou's anger. Heku is the Signature Purview of the Netjer. It is an ancient Egyptian magical practice, used both by the gods and their mortals. It has control over rebirth, the afterlife, the lifeforce of sekhem, and the many parts of the soul in Egyptian cosmology. The Innate Power is that you have power over anyone whose ren you know - their true name. For most mortals that's their full given name, but the ren of mythic creatures, cautious sorcerers or gods will require more extensive research or sneaking to discover. Knowing someone's ren gives you Enhancement 2 on all rolls to gain knowledge or understanding of them. Boons Ren Harvest: You gain power from the speaking of your name in mortal thoughts. Once per session, when you hear someone talk about you by name and describe your exploits, you gain 1 Legend. Reading a published written description of your deeds that attributes them to you by name in a newspaper, blog or similar also works. However, the speaker or writer must be praising you from genuine awe or admiration - you can't coerce or trick it out of someone. Sekhem Blaze: You manifest the power of your soul as a shining light in your eyes that declares your rule over all you see. Your target must either flee or be cowed into submission and end all hostilities - your choice, not theirs. If you know their ren, you treat their Attitude as 2 higher for the scene. Tianming is the Signature Purview of the Shen. See, the Jade Emperor rules over heaven, hell and the World, and from him all power flows: Tianming, the Mandate of Heaven. Thus, this Purview commands the heavenly hierarchy of the Shen in all its positions and titles, and also all mortal bureaucracies, which are but Worldly extensions of the heavenly model. The Innate Power is that you ignore all Complications from bureaucratic delay, corruption, missing paperwork, long lines or similar obstacles to the proper functioning of bureaucratic and official institutions. This sounds crappy until you remember that this includes pretty much literally everything the Shen do as part of running their cosmology. Boons Celestial Promotion: You name yourself or another with a title that is imbued with Heaven's power - 'Protector of Dogs', say, or 'That One God No One Likes'. The title is a Condition. Anyone meeting the target can intuit their title automatically, and people that need aid related to the title will tend to come to them for help. The title gives Enhancement 2 on rolls to influence others or form plans whenever it would be relevant, but gives +2 Complication when dealing with anyone that'd dislike them for their title - cats, for example, for the Protector of Dogs, or literally anyone for That One God No One Likes. If someone doesn't want their title, they can resolve the condition by performing a dramatic action with significant potential consequences in service of the title's duties, which releases them for its obligations. (The example is someone named the King of Poorly Endowed Assholes could resolve it by gathering a gang of fellow assholes and establishing authority over them definitively.) The title also goes away when you reclaim the Legend, if that comes first. Vermillion Tape: You curse a bureaucracy or similar organization, either by targeting its leader or its headquarters. Anyone in the organization that attempts to conduct official business gets +4 Complication that, if not bought off, causes the task to either take far longer than it should, to the point that it is narratively 'too late', or causes it to be misunderstood, resulting in an end product or accomplishment that is not what was intended. You may choose to specify a behavior, such as wearing fancy suits or doing weekly prayer rituals, that lets people ignore the Complication. Nextlahualli is the Signature Purview of the Teotl. It literally means debt repayment, as it focuses on the cycle of sacrifice and service, drawing power from sacrifice and wielding that power on behalf of worshippers. The Innate Power is that whenever you gain Legend by performing a sacrifice, you also gain 1 Momentum, and whenever helping mortals that have sacrificed to you or the Teotl in general causes you narrative difficulties, you gain 1 Momentum. Boons Flesh of the World: Once per session, when you receive Legend from performing a major sacrifice, you may resolve a single Condition affecting you. Additionally, you may survive on sacrifice alone - in any session where you receive at least 1 Legend from sacrifice, you are immune to harm or Complication from starvation, dehydration or suffocation. Repay the Debt: Whenever a mortal sacrifices to you or one of the Teotl within an area around you based on your Legend, or at one of your Sanctums (which are not detailed in this book), you sense their identity and their reason for offering. You may answer their request with a Boon or marvel, extending its range to the location of the sacrifice. Once per session, you may also reduce the cost of a Boon or marvel used in response to a sacrifice by 1 Legend. Metamorphosis is the Signature Purview of the Theoi. They are extremely skilled at transforming themselves and others into all kinds of things - animals, other people, weather, abstract concepts. The Innate Power is that whenever you conceal your identity by any means, trivial targets automatically cannot see through it. When you make a roll to disguise yourself or present yourself as someone else, you ignore any Complications from changing your height, size, race, sex or species. Boons Change Shape: You take on a form symbolically associated with one of your other Purviews, such as a bird or a thunderous bull for Sky. This transformation is perfect and undetectable by any nonmagical means, but changes none of your stats. However, you do gain access to any special forms of movement or natural attacks it has, +1 Scale on all actions with a single Physical attribute of your choice (if the ST agrees the form would provide that), and any miscellaneous abilities the ST agrees it would have, like a cloud being able to rain. You cannot become invulnerable this way - if you become a cloud, you can still be attacked normally, the Injury conditions are just likely to be weirder until you turn back. (That said, the ST might grant you increased durability based on your form.) Transfigure: You turn someone else into an animal or similarly animate form. It cannot prevent them from acting or be a death sentence, so no stone or fish-on-dry-land. This is free to use on trivial targets, however, and can completely incapacitate them as you desire. Transformed characters retain their stats, but face Complication if attempting tasks their form is unsuited to, ranging from +1 to +4. However, they get Enhancement ranging from 1 to 3 on actions that their new form is especially suited for, such as tracking for a dog. When this ends, any Scions or other characters that have Legend instantly revert to normal. Mortals instead gain the Transfigured condition, which must be resolved by magic to return them to normal. Trivial targets are stuck that way permanently. Geasa is the Signature Purview of the Tuatha De Danann. Geasa set rules and prohibitions on actions by calling on Fate. The Tuatha are bound by geasa, but can also lay them on others, influence the behavior of those under a geis, or grant the power to uphold geasa or tempt others into breaking them. It also covers the bardic and druidic magic the Tuatha are famous for. Being under a geis is a Condition that gives 1 Momentum whenever obeying your geis causes problems. Breaking the geis resolves it, but causes you to lose all points of Legend, including any imbued in Boons or marvels. Mortals that break one are instead shoved into a life-or-death situation by Fate. The Innate Power is that...well, you have a geis. If you break it or otherwise resolve the condition, the ST will find another for you to fall under, either sworn or laid on you by another Scion, a god, a sidhe, a poet or just circumstance. Demigods get a second geis and Gods get a third. Boons Lay Geis: You may place a geis on another character, speaking to them to explain the rule they must now obey. Your only limit is that they must be capable of obeying it at the time you place the geis. You can't forbid someone wearing a red shirt from wearing red, but could if they weren't wearing any red at the time. You regain Legend when the geis is broken. (It's spent, not imbued, so I guess you just get a bonus point of Legend when that happens.) Tongue of the Bard: You may select a character you see and ask the ST one of the following:
Next time: ST Advice
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Apr 9, 2018 12:56
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potatocubed posted:. "Why are we climbing down this ravine, again? I don't trust these footholds to support our weight." "It'll be fine! Besides, that guy we passed by down the path said we could keep his sword he dropped down there" "... That was a corpse covered in ants." "Yeah! That guy!"
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Apr 9, 2018 13:18
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Yeah, the atrabilious apparently appears in different guises to different people, but it has no magical disguise ability at all. "Isn't that the guy who said his sword was down here?" "Who, that skeleton covered in ants?" "Yeah, him." "No way! That one's got a hat on!"
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Apr 9, 2018 13:29
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 yarr I be captain rattle'me'bones and I bet you can't find my skeleton treasure. 'allo I'm fitzbane the lich and I bet you can't find the magical amulet. hehehe you gaze upon the form of pinchus the cruel, can you survive my terrible dungeon and get to the ring of ages?
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Apr 9, 2018 13:35
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Let's be fair, talking skeletons that point to magical treasure are like the least surprising thing to a D&D adventurer.
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Apr 9, 2018 13:43
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Bonus points if the treasure is real and the PCs start to really like the increasingly frustrated tricksy skeleton and regard him as a great source of income and puzzle dungeons.
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Apr 9, 2018 13:47
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To be fair, just changing clothes is a pretty good disguise for a skeleton. (If the heros are willing to take advice/quests from a skeleton in the first place)
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Apr 9, 2018 14:02
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I'm coming back around on this one. Framing device for an adventure path, anyone?
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Apr 9, 2018 14:48
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This book seems like a terrible source of horrifying monsters, but a pretty good source of monsters who try to be evil in overly convoluted and subtle ways and therefore fail comically.
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Apr 9, 2018 15:06
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 Howdy folks I'm Dr. Wyatt Bones and I'm the sheriff 'round these yeah yeah just point us to the treasure skelly you guys I have this whole thing I've been working on  oh don't don't cry, c'mon.. . ahm Howdy Marshall!Sheriff!
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Apr 9, 2018 15:13
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Or the skeleton gradually gets to like the party so the poorly-disguised quest givers go from “I hear there’s a treasure in this dungeon” to complicated “ancient” maps showing all the traps and encounters. In the last one you just let the players read the module.
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Apr 9, 2018 16:17
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"I guess the treasure is the friendship we've built up over time." OOC: "How much XP is this guy worth?"
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Apr 9, 2018 16:37
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Bieeanshee posted:OOC: "How much XP is this guy worth?" Arguably you get more from leaving him alive
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Apr 9, 2018 16:52
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Speleothing posted:Arguably you get more from leaving him alive If your GM doesn’t give XP for befriending monsters find another GM imo
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Apr 9, 2018 17:05
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Ultiville posted:If your GM doesn’t give XP for befriending monsters find another GM imo "You have been granted XP for befriending a giant magical spider."
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Apr 9, 2018 17:47
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Cythereal posted:"You have been granted XP for befriending a giant magical spider." Hell yeah, especially if it's big enough to ride.
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Apr 9, 2018 17:49
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Midjack posted:Hell yeah, especially if it's big enough to ride. That's an actual message you can get in Neverwinter Nights 2 if you, well, befriend a giant magical spider. 
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Apr 9, 2018 17:50
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I would like stats on how many of these monsters have a specific ecological niche that revolves around loving with adventurers on quests.
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Apr 9, 2018 18:03
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Cythereal posted:That's an actual message you can get in Neverwinter Nights 2 if you, well, befriend a giant magical spider. it's NWN1 where you can abduct a baby from it's mother only to later find a suspiciously baby shaped depression in a computer console later in the module which spits out a friendly drider. Right?
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Apr 9, 2018 18:41
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Cythereal posted:That's an actual message you can get in Neverwinter Nights 2 if you, well, befriend a giant magical spider. Later she weaves you a cloak!
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Apr 9, 2018 19:37
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Urban Jungle: Part 1 Alright, FnF. This is my first write-up for a game, and I've decided to do one that I happen to really enjoy, Urban Jungle. This is one of the latest offerings from Sanguine Games, the same guys who gave you Ironclaw and Albedo, and it follows in both of those games' footsteps, providing a great system for people who enjoy some crunch without being overly complicated and difficult to run. This post will provide a simple overview of the game's setting and themes. My posts will probably be spaced out a bit, since I have some other work to attend to, so feel free to give me any sort of criticism and suggestions between them.  If you knew of Sanguine Games or Ironclaw before this, you would have probably seen this coming. That's right, Urban Jungle is another furry-themed RPG. However, much like the other Sanguine productions, it handles things much better than the fetish libertarian utopia of Hc Svnt Dracones. You won't be playing as multi-dicked purple sparklewolves, so if you're looking for that in your RPG, you're out of luck here. Anyways, with that caveat out of the way, we can dig into the setting of Urban Jungle. It's set in early 20th century America (from WWI to WWII), opting to use a real country as opposed to Ironclaw, which opted for a fantasy setting heavily based in 17th century Europe. They still insist on fictionalizing the city names and the names of historical figures, which is one of the issues I have with the setting, since it doesn't really make that much sense to copy the environment and history of a city almost directly without just copying over the name, especially when they didn't do it for the country it's set in. It's not really a major issue, just something that bugs me a bit. Each city gets a short description, a historical timeline, and some notable locations and landmarks in the back of the book, and most of them get a unique piece of art. I'll be posting the art that each city has and the city it's an expy of, since everything else sticks pretty close to the real-world counterpart.  Bellegarde: New Orleans San Dorado: Los Angeles, no art for this one  Shaysen City: New York City Sunshine City: Miami, no art for this one either.  Tricogha: Chicago You could pretty easily just use the real-world names for these, since anything they change the name of is pretty obvious with regard to what it's supposed to be. You could also pretty easily adapt the game to work in later time periods if you feel like playing as 1980s Miami buddy-cop furries. From here on out, I'll be following the book's order of discussing rules and such, since this book thankfully explains the basic rules before explaining character creation. Next Time: Basic Mechanics!
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Apr 9, 2018 19:41
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Awwwww hell yeah I've been really curious about this game. I didn't know it was actually out.
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Apr 9, 2018 19:52
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Scion: Hero Story Structure This chapter focuses on the traditional features of myth and legend, and how they can be adapted to your gaming table. It discusses how in ancient times, logic and myth were not easily divided, and both contained truth and lies - and that's the goal for Scion, too. We get some discussion of how a lot of myths are kind of formulaic, and using more complex story structures can help. First it goes into traditional Western story structures. First, you've got stories of loss, danger and foreshadowing. They begin with a loss, something that compels the hero to act, often by removing personal connections or introducing danger to them or the self. The Hero must cope with the loss and grow from it, to better prevent loss and danger in the future, often by drawing on lessons from similar losses in the past. Often, the hero is forced to break an important rule or is asked for help by someone in need, to spur them to action. They overcome obstacles and either triumph or succumb to tragedy. Either is acceptable. Then it talks about the Japanese kishotenketsu stories. These divide a plot into four parts: the initial situation, an elaboration of that situation which reveals more, a twist that changes how you understand the first two parts, and a final reconciliation of the three. These, the game says, are often well-suited to groups rather than singular heroes, so they're worth looking at for structure. Then you have the eze, or king, stories of the Igbo, which take two forms. In one form, the initial situation is an oppressive one, due to abuse of power. This causes rebellion by a hero or heroes who use their power and wit to use the king's status against them, and they restore the traditional power of the people. In the second form, it is reversed - a good authority figure is challenged by something that undermines their authority and threatens to remove it, and this is defeated by the king finding a solution via the virtues that made them respected in the first place. We get some discussion of the mythic value of natural settings and set pieces, and how to incorporate various mythic cycles or traditional rules into games, and how to use them on several levels - the legendary, which is the myths as they are, the heroic, in which legendary images are repeated on a mortal level but magnified by the power involved, and the human, in which everyday life reflects the myths. Then there's the parodic or demonic level, in which the myth is twisted to be familiar and yet wrong, warped and strange reflections of the heroic drive. It's a pretty interesting and useful chapter and you should preorder the book on Backerkit and read it. There's also an excellent FAQ on cultural sensitivity, approaching the problems of playing characters of cultures very different from yours, and how to handle it if you gently caress up. then we get the new tier of Antagonist archetypes. Foes are the first. They would be a tough fight...for a mortal. But against a Scion, they're nowhere near ready. These are Tier 2 Mooks, basically - you can still beat them in one hit, but they tend to have a Quality or two and hit harder. The Rival is the equivalent of a Tier 2 Professional - they're actually a challenge, and stand on the same rough level as a Scion, but aren't equals, quite. The Nemesis is a more equal foe, one who will be a real challenge. They might be a Scion or even a raw Demigod. Titanspawn are the Monster equivalent at this tier - a beast so terrible, so furious, that it can take on the entire party and be a big threat. They tend to use Size scale or multiple segments. We get some new and upgraded Antagonist qualities for use in Tier 2, like the ability to punch fireballs or to cause fights with impossible beauty, and new Flairs, like laying curses or controlling the weather or going super saiyan. We get some examples: The Basilisk is a species of mythic snake with a feathered crest, and it is deadly as gently caress. It is toxic to the touch, has terrible venom, and it can petrify and paralyze with its very gaze. You can track it by the path of dead foliage in its wake and the die-offs around its nest. They grow continuously through their lives, and the largest recorded basilisk was 30 feet long, discovered in 1948. Its gaze had so much range that it had to be destroyed by concentrated artillery bombardment. The remains are kept under guard at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Daitengu are bird-people of Japan, half bird and half person. They often are portrayed with human faces but comically large noses, though some say that is merely a mask over their true face. They are quite powerful, able to control wind with the beating of their wings and strong enough to carry off a human easily, to possess them or kill them as they please. Some stories portray the tengu as protectors of natural places rather than murderers, at least. The weaker kind are called Kotengu or Karasu-Tengu, lacking the wisdom and more human shape of their superiors. They are far more numerous, and rather less likely to be safe or pleasant, as they are hoarders and tricksters, like the crows they resemble. Hydras are typically remembered for the Lernean Hydra, but it was not the only one of its kind. They are amphibious and found throughout the Aegean - or, at this point, any large body of water. The carcass of a hydra washed ashore in Nova Scotia in 1877, and it contaminated the beach for years. Their bodily fluids are so venomous that even their breath is poison, let alone their blood or saliva, and they regenerate so well that they grow two heads for each head severed. Fortunately, they are largely solitary and breed quite rarely, with never more than a single pup, which the mother will raise for several years before leaving it. Young hydras are born with just one head, but their mothers typically decapitate them at least a few times once they're strong enough to survive it - typically, a few months after birth. Jotnar are the giants of Jotunheim, and they come in all kinds. some are beautiful, while others are hideous or monstrous. They're all huge, though, ranging from around 12 feet to several stories tall, or even larger, though none have yet equalled the mass of Ymir, whose body was made into the World. Not all jotnar are enemies, either - more than one of the Aesir is descended from them, and Loki is a full-blood jotun. Those jotnar that dwell in Muspellheim serve Surtr, and will raise up and set the World on fire come Ragnarok. Kerberos Hounds are the children of the ever-loyal, three-headed Kerberos. The line was apparently originally fathered in the brief period when Herakles dragged the dog out of the Underworld for one of his labors. The breed now resemble oversize mastiffs, and even when they lack the additional heads they're most known for, they are broad and intelligent dogs, always loyal. They are very trainable, but aren't recommended for the faint of heart - they're not easy to housebreak in the slightest. Because of their wolfish nature, few breeders are familiar with them, and fewer try to keep the line going. Scions typically don't have a hard time adopting one, though - Persephone and Hades keep litters around. They are very fond of the dogs and do not take kindly to those that mistreat them. Nemeans are...well, most famously lions, but hardly always. The Nemean Lion was slain by Herakles, and it was immune to most weapons and had claws that tore through most armor. Ever since its death, apparently invulnerable animals are known as Nemeans. Bears, tigers, crocodiles and, just once, a hippo have been spotted. (Everyone hopes that there is never another Nemean Hippo.) Any animal of sufficient aggression, territoriality and danger can produce a Nemean variant. One of the more famous is Hogzilla, a Nemean Pig infused with Titanic power and let loose in Georgia. Despite being a sow, she has half-meter tusks and weighs almost a ton. She has no mate, but goes into virginal estrus once a year and produces a piglet of incredible size. The hunter that killed the first one was lucky - another few weeks and it'd be bulletproof. Nemeans used to be able to destroy entire economies when they appeared, but the invention of gunpowder and cannons made them easier for people to handle. Modern guns can occasionally hurt them, especially if you get a lucky shot off and hit them in the eye or mouth, but only the highest-powered rifles can do so with any regularity. Not all Nemeans are killed on sight any more, though - environmentalists like to see them captured and relocated or placed in captivity. The Sacramento Zoo famously has a very photogenic Nemean Jaguar. Next time: Enemies and Allies
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Apr 9, 2018 19:56
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Night10194 posted:Awwwww hell yeah I've been really curious about this game. I didn't know it was actually out. It came out in September 2016, if I recall correctly. I wasn't a backer, so I only got it this year. The occult horror expansion is also in early access for backers now, and a few more are in the works.
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Apr 9, 2018 19:57
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Mors Rattus posted:Then you have the eze, or king, stories of the Igbo, which take two forms. In one form, the initial situation is an oppressive one, due to abuse of power. This causes rebellion by a hero or heroes who use their power and wit to use the king's status against them, and they restore the traditional power of the people. In the second form, it is reversed - a good authority figure is challenged by something that undermines their authority and threatens to remove it, and this is defeated by the king finding a solution via the virtues that made them respected in the first place. 
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Apr 9, 2018 20:16
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Did they get the person who does Lackadaisy to do the cover? It looks incredibly nice. Also I love noir and the 1920s, so this'll be fun.
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Apr 9, 2018 20:22
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Leraika posted:Did they get the person who does Lackadaisy to do the cover? It looks incredibly nice. Yes! The Lackadaisy artist is one of the many who worked on the art in the book. The art really varies in style/quality, much like Ironclaw, but the more cartoony stuff fits in more considering the 1920s were the time period when funny animals and comic strips started gaining in popularity. I'll get more into the art in later posts.
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Apr 9, 2018 20:28
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ScolopaxMinor posted:Yes! The Lackadaisy artist is one of the many who worked on the art in the book. This is hilarious if you remember they commissioned her to do terrible Slayers-esque furry art for the cover of their first game and now, finally, they have a game where they just let her do what she's amazing at.
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Apr 9, 2018 20:30
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Night10194 posted:This is hilarious if you remember they commissioned her to do terrible Slayers-esque furry art for the cover of their first game and now, finally, they have a game where they just let her do what she's amazing at. Hey, like it or not, that lovely cover moved units!
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Apr 9, 2018 20:41
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Nessus posted:Man, Black Panther suddenly made a lot more sense. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was deliberate. The director and producers of Black Panther did their homework on African cultures when making the movie - the language the Wakandans speak is a real world African language.
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Apr 9, 2018 20:49
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Cythereal posted:I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was deliberate. The director and producers of Black Panther did their homework on African cultures when making the movie - the language the Wakandans speak is a real world African language. More specifically, it's the ancient language of the Igbo.
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Apr 9, 2018 20:51
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Mors Rattus posted:More specifically, it's the ancient language of the Igbo. Oh neat, I didn't know that particular detail.
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Apr 9, 2018 20:53
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isiXhosa is a living language, that's like calling French the ancient language of the Normans.
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Apr 9, 2018 21:13
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Joe Slowboat posted:isiXhosa is a living language, that's like calling French the ancient language of the Normans. To be fair, I might do that. Fair cop, tho.
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Apr 9, 2018 21:45
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The secret language of the wily yet noble French.
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Apr 9, 2018 21:52
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Urban Jungle: Part 2 Alright, last post we looked at the setting, now we're going to be examining the basic mechanics of Urban Jungle. Much like many of Sanguine's other games, it uses a dice pool system, with possible dice ranging from d4 to d12. The book starts with the standard "What is a role-playing game?" introduction, but after that and the credits it gets right into the base mechanics. Every chapter starts with a nice set of definitions for each term, which I think more RPGs should do. It's a great tool to jog your memory if you forget one of the more specific rules. This chapter also starts with a comic from the artist who brought us Laugh Out Loud Cats, which I have never read, and if the writing here is any indication, I don't care to.  Honestly, the art isn't bad (in fact, I like the little comic strip format, it fits in with the whole 20th century vibe), but for god's sake this book came out in 2016 and is set in the early 20th century. Can't they have at least not made it lolcat speak circa-2008? The disparity in detail between a lot of the art can also be a bit jarring.  Seriously, it's hard to top something like this. Anyways, the first part of this lays out stuff that's pretty obvious to anyone who's ever played a tabletop RPG. How to introduce your characters, the role of the players and GM (referred to as the "Game Host" here), dice shorthand, etc. It then goes over each of your traits, split into two categories. Basic traits are the core traits that every character has, and they should look pretty familiar to Ironclaw players. The traits are Body (physical prowess and health), Speed (speed, agility, and coordination), Mind (intelligence and clarity of thought), and Will (strength of personality, willpower, and confidence). Two of the three unique traits will also be familiar to Ironclaw players, the ones representing your character's species and career. One is new to Urban Jungle, however, type, which we'll get into more with character creation. It explains that you will have a die assigned to each of these (again, further explained in character creation) and that each of your skills will also have a unique dice pool. It gives you an example roll for Mind and Academics (a skill, which are listed a bit later, which is fine since the specifics aren't too relevant to the example), and then tells you not to add the results up, but to compare them individually to some target, which is either an opposed roll or 3. The game uses 3 for any skill checks that aren't opposed, instead opting to count the number of successes for difficulty, with one success being something anyone could do with some effort, two being something a professional could do, three being something a master could do, and four being something that a well-trained team could do. If all your dice come up as 1s, you botch the task, and they carry some heavier result than simple failure. Having just one d4 in a skill quarters your chance of botching, making having even low dice worth it in the long run. In the event of a tie, where you have no dice higher than the target score, it's essentially up to the GM and players. Maybe the players makes something up to tip the odds in their favor, or maybe they only get a partial success, like scaling the cliff but dropping their bag in the process. It allows for just the right amount of freeform creativity to appease the side of me that hates rules, though some people may prefer more concrete tie rules. The game also has rules for long-term progress. Basically, you set a difficulty, set how long it takes for each attempt, and set how much progress each success makes. The example the book gives is cracking a safe, where the difficulty is set to three successes, each attempt takes 5 minutes, and each success is worth 10% progress. If you roll two 4s, a 2, and a 1, you fail and make no progress. However, if you roll three 4s and a 2, you succeed and make 30% progress (three successes, with 10% per success). Characters can also do actions by rote. In events where it would be a waste of time to roll, characters can opt to take a number of success on an action equal to half the number of dice they would need to roll. If you would roll 4 dice to do something that only requires one success, for instance, you can just choose to take two rote successes and automatically pass. You can't use rotes on contests, and the book emphasizes that it's up to the GM's discretion to ensure that players make actual roles when the outcome is uncertain and might lead to interesting results. I really like mechanics like this that streamline rolling, and I wish more games would include them, since I always just house-rule something like them anyways. The rules for contests are pretty simple. Try to roll higher than your opponent. Every die that comes up higher than your opponent's highest counts as a success. In the event of a tie, you both will gain and lose a little, and if it really matters each tie can count as a success to break the tie. If an opponent botches, it counts as one extra success, and if you both botch it's up to the GM to come up with a spectacular failure for both of you. Some things can also give you favor, which lets you re-roll one 1. If you have any dice in a skill, you can declare a favorite use (another holdover from Ironclaw) that automatically gives you favor on a roll if you use it for that specific favorite use. There's also something new to me, that I've never really seen in another RPG, called Dwindle Dice. These are basically a die where, each time it rolls a 1, it decreases one size (d12-->d10-->d8-->d6-->d4). If your d4 rolls a 1, it dwindles to nothing. Common uses for these include ammo, where when your dice dwindle to zero you need to reload, and in judging a character's opinion of you, where if your dice dwindle to zero (if you push them too hard for info, for instance) their opinion sours and you have some penalty to any further rolls until their opinion of you is made better. Speaking of penalties, the book goes over those (and bonuses!) immediately after. Bonuses are basically just extra dice that you can claim if you're under favorable conditions. Maybe you've caught an opponent off-guard, or maybe the streets are particularly clear of other cars. You don't have to declare that you're using a bonus before rolling, so if you forget or just don't like your results, you can claim your bonus after rolling, but before the GM resolves the action. Even if you botch, you can still choose to roll your bonus die after and possibly prevent the botch. Characters can also assist others, providing a bonus d8 (or d12, if they have a certain gift) to the task at hand. Each character will roll for the same skill and trait that the person doing the task is vs 3, and each succeeding player gives the bonus (note: it's only per-player, not per-success. Even if a player rolls all their dice above 3, they can only give one bonus die). The GM decides how many players can assist, and assisting in combat works differently. Is something requires every player to succeed and you roll more successes than you need, you can opt to burn one success and give a bonus die to the person who needs it. You can also assist yourself by making a relevant roll to plan out that action, then rolling that success over as a d8 bonus. You can also botch an assist role, completely loving up the task at hand and probably making your fellow players upset with you, so make sure you don't have a high chance to botch the role. Penalties are basically the same as bonuses, but for situations in which you're disadvantaged. If you have a penalty die in a contest, it acts as a bonus for your opponent, and in other situations, the GM will roll whatever penalty dice you may have had and set the success score from 3 to whatever number they rolled, if it's above 3. Finally, this chapter goes over how abilities can be recharged. Some abilities are instant, and will always work when they're applicable. Others may need to be recharged, which can happen in various ways, notated as X/Y, where X is a number and Y is how often it can be recharged. So an ability that's 1/episode can only be used once per session, and is recharged at the start of the next session. Abilities can also be recharged after rests (8 hours and a square meal), scenes (chunks of game-time dictated by the GM), as an action during combat (combat is explained more later), and in a whole lot of other ways. Whew, that was a lot of  . Next post we'll get into the fun stuff!Next time: Character Creation! RatEarth fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Apr 9, 2018 |
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Apr 9, 2018 22:22
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It doesn't specify whether the Nemean Jaguar was captured by a Steve Irwin esque Scion, so we are forced to conclude that it was.
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Apr 9, 2018 23:16
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Not a jaguar, but close enough: a nemean white tiger in its native habitat. https://i.imgur.com/ibJCAz5.mp4
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Apr 9, 2018 23:19
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